A Piece of Mind

Chapter [11]

Artemis woke up well before the sun (judging from the pitch-black water outside his window, which was more void than lake today). He dressed and gathered his things quietly before trekking up the stairs to the common room. He found a comfortable chair and a table where he sat, drawing a few sheets of stationery from home and a pen from the bottom of his bag. Writing with a quill and ink was so impractical, he considered telling his teachers that Castlebruxo had switched to paper and pens in the late 1800s, just to have an excuse not to deal with it.

He started with a letter to Butler, detailing all the staff that he knew of, known exit points from his classrooms, backup safety measures he had readily available in case of an emergency, and spells he could use to protect himself. He even included the few people here he had had friendly interactions with, in case he needed immediate help and Butler could not be reached fast enough. He then briefly described his classes and experience with meals and his roommates. He also made it clear that he had Draco handled and that Butler did not need to book a flight to Scotland just to protect him from a school bully.

Umbridge took another four paragraphs of explaining, including speculation and plans to rid of her. Of course, Hermione's help would be appreciated but it was not necessary. Regardless, gaining the trust of all three Gryffindors would move things along much quicker than the dusty old textbooks he's been working with. Artemis already had a plan, he just needed to make sure it would work, and Butler was one of the best strategists Artemis knew - besides himself of course.

He wrote a similar letter to Holly, Foaly, and Commander Vinyáya, including a paragraph about difficulty with getting the fairy communicator to work within Hogwarts, also of the magical ward around the castle that seemed to disable any electronic devices. He briefly mentioned Grace, Julia, and Harry who Artemis was sure he could gather more information from with some more time.

Artemis complained slightly about the apparent lack of modern technology, due to the absence of electricity, replaced with older methods such as candles and the quill and parchment paper.

Given both of these letters were written in Gnomish (in precaution of the letters being tampered with), Artemis tagged a pleading note in English to the bottom asking for help with his first Ancient Runes homework assignment that he received yesterday.

He also sent a rather brief letter to his parents explaining that his school prohibited the use of technology and put an electronic distributor on campus which made it was physically impossible to use electronics of any kind, hence the reason he was sending them a letter instead of an email. But he reassured them he was working on a solution and would call them as soon as he bypassed the firewall cutting them off the connection.

He asked his mother to tell the twins about a legend he'd read about in one of his classes (not entirely a lie). He attached a duplicate of his own sketch of a Bowtruckle with a description of the creature written in Latin next to it, which he was sure Myles would have fun translating for himself and Beckett.

He signed and sealed each letter using a fancy, silvery wax he had found in Diagon Alley. He tucked the three letters beside his books and made his way to the owlery. Despite thorough directions from Julia, he only found the tower after many flights of stairs and wrong turns. Once, he saw a cat stalking past him in a dark corridor, as if judging him silently.

Nearing the tower, he passed under a marble bust of a man with a frilly collar. Always alert, he ducked out of the way just in time as the bust fell directly where he had been walking. He looked up, heart beating from the adrenaline, and saw a cackling man floating horizontally above the alcove. He wasn't like the other ghosts Artemis had glimpsed floating around. He was a little man with wickedly slanted orange eyes, dressed in loud, outlandish clothes including a bell-covered hat and an orange bow tie.