The woman in the mirror (Harry Potter fanfic)

Chapter 2.3 (The missed train)

(Raffey Cassidy as Bibi Marie Matthews)

In the end, we only regret the chances we didn't take, relationships we are afraid to have, and the decisions we waited too long to make. -unknown

Flourish and Blotts bookshop
Diagon Alley, London
August 13 1992

Ron and Hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of Lockhart's books.

"Oh, it's you." Ron said looking at Draco as if he were something umpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "Bet you're surprised to see Harry here, eh?" He said and Artemis immediately remembered Dobby.

"Not as surprised as I am to see you in a shop, Weasley." Retorted Draco. "I suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those." Ron went as red as his sister. He dropped his books into the cauldron too and started towards Draco, but Harry and Hermione grabbed the back of his jacket.

"That's enough, Draco. You stepped over the line." Artemis said. Her calm and collected self was back. But although her voice was hardly any different from usual, Artemis had a way of making people flinch just by the tone of her voice. It was deadly.

And right now she was using her entire aura as a way to survey the message she wanted Draco to recieve. Her usually sweet, liquid silver eyes a stormy grey. One that predicted a true tornado of destructive wind coming your way.

Her rosy cheeks, freckled and soft, would usually make her look like a little angel but a menacing glow seemed to have taken hold of her sweet face.

It was what made Artemis, despite her age, one of the scariest witches at Hogwarts...her near perfect control of her emotions.

Although Draco had known, and grown up with her, for years, he still hadn't gotten used to the sheer force of Artemis's anger. As anyone else would have done, he looked down at his shoes, cowering away from her burning gaze.

"Ron!" Mr. Weasley said, struggling over with the twins and Jace. "What are you doing? It's too crowded in here, let's go outside."

"Well, well, well....Arthur Weasley." Artemis's uncle Lucius appeared.

Lucius placed his hand on Draco's shoulder, sneering in just the same way his son did.

"Lucius," Mr. Weasley said, nodding coldly.

"Busy time at the ministry, I hear, all those raids - I hope they're paying you overtime?" Lucius reached into Ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy Lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. "Obviously not." Lucius said and Artemis turned her blazing look to him instead, making Draco sigh softly in relief. "Dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't pay you well for it?"

"Lucius," Artemis said, calmly. He turned towards her. "Some families have different ideas of what disgraces the name of wizard, uncle."

"And you and your father don't share ours and look where it got you, your own mother left you." Lucius sneered.
Artemis flinched inwardly at the harsh truth in his words but on the oitside her impassive yet terrifying look didn't waver for a second.

"At least I know that family is more important then money and blood purity." Mr. Weasley said as Harry placed a hand on Artemis's shoulder. If anyone managed to calm her down when she was like this, it was Harry.

"Clearly," Lucius said, his pale eyes straying to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, who were watching apprehensively. "The company you keep, Weasley.... and I thought your family could sink no lower...."