Precognition

3rd year chapter 7: an uncomfortable study session

Artemis and Ava were lounging around in the library, waiting for Emma to finish whatever she was working on. Ava decided to go check up on her friend since she was taking a while, leaving Artemis to her own devices.

Well- until she was rudely interrupted by a head of long black hair.
"What do you want Sirius?" Artemis slammed the book closed by the spine, running her fingernails down the side of the table as means of intimidation.

"Listen, what you saw the other night was-"
"I know what I saw."
Artemis' lips curled upwards into a menacing grin.
"Awooo" she imitated, darting out her tongue to lick at her bottom lip.

"What can I say to you Arty? I mean-"
"Don't call me that! Arty is dead to you."
Sirius looked sheepish.
"Artemis. What do you want, what's it gonna take for you to keep it secret? Do your friends know?"

Artemis looked at him, making him twitch momentarily.
"Emma has no idea."
Sirius sighed thankfully, however it was quickly ended when he realised what she has actually said.
"Does Weasley know?"
Artemis looked at him, unblinking.
"I told her what I think of werewolves."
Sirius' voice caught in his throat, horrified at the discovery.
"However, she couldn't disagree more, tell your wolf friend he still has a shot."

Sirius was confused- a shot for what?

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"Come on Artemis, whatever happened in the library you can forget about- it's time for cards!" Ava cheered excitedly.
Emma had suggested a game night for the three girls, something to take their minds off anytning that was getting to them.

"Yeah you're right- Emma you got the deck?"
Emma nodded, offering Artemis the old pack of cards.

"Poker?" Ava suggested
"That's fine, what are we betting?"
Emma pondered for a moment, coming to a sudden realisation.
"We all have some snacks on us right? Why don't we use them?"

The girls decided that would be the best solution.

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"Artemis what's that in your pocket?"
Emma inquired, pointing her finger at the lump in Artemis' right pocket.

"Oh I dont-"
"Pepper!" Ava shouted, utterly shocked at the sudden appearance of her niffler.
"What do you have Buddy?"
The Niffler purred, presenting Ava with a silver locket.
"Wait is this yours?"
Artemis paled, her eyes went wide and her mouth felt dry.
"Ava please don't open that."
Ava nodded, handed her the locked and decided that it would be a lot safer not to push her.

Inside the locket, as Ava would eventually come to learn, was a photograph of Artemis when she would a child, playing with her family. Her cousin.

Sirius
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Their final defence against the dark arts lesson was going swimmingly.
In fact, they were allowed to move onto the module for the start of fourth year.

Transforming creatures

Within this topic students would study creatures under the same umbrella as werewolves, animagi, maledacti and the rest.
It was proving to be a tough lesson for many people, transforming creatures were a difficult topic for many students considering they would have been told stories about at least one of them.

"Werewolves are the most infamous of the transforming creatures due to their aggressive and unpredictable nature. Most werewolves have at least one parent also afflicted with the curse, however a small portion of the population becomes infected. This is believed to occur via saliva entering an open wound."

A student ( whose name wasn't really all that relevant) shot his hand into the air.
"Yes Mars?" The professor expressed an exhausted sigh, already knowing the nature of his question.

"So if a werewolf were to be in human form right, and it bit someone in a fight or somat, would they get infected?"
The professor seemed to ponder this momentarily.

"Actually I'm not very sure about that, I suppose not because the wolf and the human are separated beings- although that would be interesting to research"

Remus wiggled uncomfortably in his seat, the answer to that question wasn't worth finding out the hard way.
He heard a soft snicker from his right side.
"Artemis? Why are you here, shouldn't you be sat with Av-" Artemis placed a finger on her lips in a shushing motion.

She moved her hand to rest on top of his, staring at him intently, a smile tugging at the sides of her lips.
Remus pulled his hand back suddenly, taking a glance it appeared as though she had branded him with a snake.

He directed his stare to her hand. On her ring finger, a silver ring, with a snake emblem embedded onto it.

"You'd know a lot about those bites now, wouldn't you Lupin" she hissed, making sure to keep her voice low enough so no one else could hear.

Remus' eyes grew wide.
If she was willing to speak to him about this in public, what else was she willing to say.