"It's..." Elora looked nervously at Penny in the seat opposite Artemis. "It's Beatrice."

Penny dropped her fork on the table, her face also growing rapidly concerned.

"What's wrong with Beatrice?" Penny asked. "Where is she?"

"Grand Staircase... She's... She's..."

"She's what? What happened?"

"I don't know," Elora was trembling. "She was there one minute, and the next she was there."

"What?"

"I can't explain it."

Artemis frowned. Poor Beatrice was looking terrified, and Penny was working herself into a state. Artemis held up both hands.

"Elora, maybe you don't have to explain," she said. "Could you show us, instead?"

Elora Dunn bit her bottom lip, and nodded.

"Follow me," she whispered.

Artemis and Penny followed Elora to the Grand Staircase. When they arrived, they found that the portraits on the walls were all in a fluster. Beside her, Artemis could feel Penny panicking.

"I'm sure nothing that bad has happened to her," she whispered to her friend, sounding much more confident than she felt.

Elora came to an abrupt halt halfway up the staircase. Beatrice was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" Penny demanded, her voice shrill. "Where's my sister?"

Silently, Elora raised one finger, and pointed at the wall next to her, where a gold frame held a portrait of a familiar looking young girl.

"Beatrice!"

Penny and Artemis ran to the portrait, and Penny placed both hands on the canvas.

"Beatrice, what happened? How did you..." her voice tailed off, and she started to pull desperately and ineffectively at the portrait frame. "I'm going to get you out of there!"

Artemis couldn't tell who looked more distressed: Beatrice, stuck inside the portrait, or Penny, frantically clawing at its gold frame.

"Elora, how did this happen?" Artemis asked the first year, who shook her head, her eyes wide.

"I... I don't know."

"Well, I think it's perfectly obvious how this happened," said a sharp, authoritative voice from behind them. All three girls turned to see the red hair and high cheekbones of Professor Rakepick, who paced towards them slowly. "I'm surprised you didn't realise straight away, Miss Hexley."

Artemis frowned.

"You mean... this might be another curse?"

"I'm almost certain that it is."

Penny turned to Professor Rakepick, tears streaming down her face.

"Please, Professor," she whimpered, "that's my little sister in there. How do we help her?"

Rakepick swiftly looked Penny up and down, her lips pursed.

"Not by crying, that's for sure," she said, shortly. Penny opened her mouth, but made no sound. "Save your tears, Miss Haywood. They won't save your sister. Tears have never saved anyone. Right now, we need action. Artemis."

"Yes, Professor?"

"I think it's time that you, Miss Snyde, Mr Weasley, and I had another meeting."

Rakepick gathered her three apprentices at lunchtime the following day. By then, the whole school had heard about how Penny Haywood's younger sister had become trapped inside a painting. On arrival in the Great Hall for breakfast, Artemis, Penny, Rowan, and Tonks had been greeted by hushed whispers and furtive glances, and in the corridors, Artemis' first years all looked incredibly anxious.

Of course, no one was as worried as Penny was. She looked as if she hadn't slept a wink, and she barely touched her breakfast, running off to see Beatrice with her cereal bowl and glass of pumpkin justice still half-full, not even stopping to give Bill Weasley a hug or kiss on the cheek.

Bill was also looking stressed, fine lines creasing in his forehead. When Artemis got to Rakepick's classroom, he and Merula were already there, engaged in a stilted conversation with the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Nice of you to join us, Miss Hexley," said Rakepick, through a forced smile. Artemis rolled her eyes. She wasn't that late. "We were just discussing misfortunate event that has befallen Miss Haywood."

Artemis tilted her head and wrinkled her nose.

"What's happened to Penny?" she asked.

"Nothing, dungbrain," Merula drawled, giving Artemis a scathing look. "She's talking about Haywood's sister, obviously. Honestly, Hexley, sometimes I wonder how you don't fall down more. Why they made you prefect is a mystery to me."

"Shut up, Merula. Have you even managed to sort out your horrible little first years yet?"

"When you two are finished," Rakepick said loudly, cutting into their conversation as Merula opened her mouth, presumably to shoot back another remark at Artemis, "we have work to do. I doubt this curse is going to break itself, and you know how I feel about your bickering."

Artemis and Merula glowered at each other for a moment more, before they both turned back to face Rakepick.

"So, how do we help break the curse?" Bill asked, frowning deeper than ever. "It's safe to assume that this is the next Cursed Vault, right?"

"Safe might not be the word I'd use to describe any curse, but I believe you're correct, Mr Weasley. As for what I want you to do to help, I'd suggest that in any situation, knowledge is power."

"I'll look in the library," said Bill, nodding his head.

"I have History of Magic next lesson. I can talk to Professor Binns about it. Maybe the Bloody Baron, too," Merula muttered. "The ghosts are bound to know if anything like this has happened before."

"Maybe my brother will know about the next vault."

"Your brother's missing, Hexley."

Artemis scowled at Merula before replying, "But his research is still in the Come-and-Go Room. I'll look in there."

Tasks assigned, the three apprentice Curse-Breakers set off for their afternoon lessons. Artemis would have liked to have searched Jacob's research room as soon as the days' classes ended, but as luck would have it, she had to go to detention.

In the kitchens, Jae Kim was already stirring a large pot, a salt shaker in hand and tea towel draped over his left shoulder, a small group of House-elves watching him season whatever he was cooking as they rushed around him, carrying serving dishes. Pitts handed Artemis a white cloth, and instructed her to polish the silverware, a task she carried out in sullen silence.

"Heard about Penny's sister," Jae said, plonking himself down next to Artemis and removing the tea towel from his shoulder and joining in with the cutlery polishing. "Weird, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Well, how does someone get stuck in a portrait?"

"That's what Rakepick wants us to find out."

"Rakepick?" Jae frowned. "So, it's a curse then?"

"It would seem so. She's got us all researching. Merula's going to ask Professor Binns and the Bloody Baron about it."

"Why would the Bloody Baron know anything about portraits?"

"Because he's been here a long time, I guess."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean he'll know anything about art," Jae shook his head. "If you ask me, you need to speak to an artist, not a ghost."

Artemis considered it. It wasn't a bad idea, actually.

"And where might I find an artist?" she asked.

"Easy. Try talking to Badeea Ali. If anyone's going to know about portraits, it's her."

Artemis had never interacted much with Badeea Ali, despite both of them being prefects. Normally, if she wanted to strike up a conversation with someone unfamiliar, she'd ask Penny for advice first, Penny being the most sociable and popular girl in their year. However, Penny was not in a suitable frame of mind, and Artemis was reluctant to bring up the curse in front of her while she was so distressed about her sister.

Luckily, Rowan was on very good terms with Badeea, both of them having attended the Ancient Runes club since the end of first year. Artemis, although not in the Ancient Runes club, had chosen the subject as one of her options for the O.W.L.s, and so the three girls all had the class together.

"If you like, Artemis," Rowan suggested, as they walked to their lesson the following day, "I can ask to swap partners with Badeea today. That way, you can talk to her while we do our translations, and I'll work with Corey."

"As long as you..." Artemis' voice tailed off, and she tilted her head and turned to Rowan. "Hang on, Corey as in Corey Hayden?"

"Yes."

"Corey Hayden who you went to the Celestial Ball with?"

"How many Corey Haydens are there?" Rowan asked. She didn't meet Artemis' eyes as she spoke. Artemis grinned.

"Only one," she said, and nudged Rowan playfully with her elbow. "The only one..."

"Oh, come off it, Artemis," Rowan tutted. "Corey and I are just friends."

"That's what they all say."

"Yes, it is. Including you."

Rowan looked at Artemis reproachfully and jerked her head slightly over one shoulder. Artemis turned around to see what she was pointing out, and saw that Barnaby Lee was sitting against one of the walls of the corridor, tying his shoelaces. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"That was a love potion, Rowan. And a badly made one at that."

"Who are you trying to convince?" Rowan muttered, the corners of her mouth twitching. Artemis poked her in the ribs, and the two girls giggled all the way to Ancient Runes.

Having swapped partners with Corey Hayden for the lesson, and exchanged pointed looks with Rowan as she took a seat next to him, Artemis sat down next to Badeea Ali.

Badeea, along with Penny Haywood, was widely considered to be one of the better looking girls in Artemis' year. She had good posture and was very fine-boned, with large brown eyes accentuated by the subtle coating of mascara on her long eyelashes, and - guessing from the colour of her neat, thick eyebrows - jet black hair that was completely covered by a blue headscarf. Everything about her gave off an air of being pristine and polished, and Artemis felt particularly small and scruffy sitting next to her.

"Badeea," she said, as she scribbled down the translations for the runes in front of them, "Jae said that you're an artist."

Badeea chuckled slightly, not looking up from her own perfectly neat handwriting.

"I wouldn't go that far," she said. "Although, I suppose we are all artists when it comes to the things we enjoy, aren't we?"

"Uh, I guess," Artemis frowned. "So, do you or do you not do art?"

"I dabble in art. Painting, mainly."

"What about portraits? Do you dabble in those?"

Badeea placed her quill on the table, and looked at Artemis curiously.

"This is about Penny's sister, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Professor Rakepick's asked a few of us to help look into stuff about portraits, and I thought maybe you'd be able to help."

"Why doesn't she look into it herself? She's a professional curse-breaker, isn't she?"

"She was, but she's a teacher now. She probably doesn't have as much free time as she used to."

"I suppose not. She's having to teach us quite a lot of the curriculum from scratch, after all. It's lucky for us that she is such a good teacher, we wouldn't stand a chance in our Dark Arts O.W.L. otherwise."

"Yeah, right," Artemis nodded. "So, about the portraits..."

"Like I said, I dabble in painting. I'm hardly an expert. But, the portraits themselves might know something. We can go and ask them after class, if you like."

"We?"

"Oh, yes. I'll come too. The portraits know me, I talk to them quite a lot."

Badeea wasn't lying. When she and Artemis made their way to the portrait hall after the lesson ended (with Artemis winking at Rowan as she waved goodbye to her and Corey, and Rowan rolling her eyes in response), several of the portraits greeted Badeea warmly, most of them knowing her by name as well as by face.

"And who have you brought with you today, milady?" asked one of the portraits: a wizard in a suit of armour riding on a fat pony, who was too busy eating grass to notice the newcomers. "Exactly who might this fair maiden be?"

"This is my friend Artemis, Sir Cadogan," Badeea told the wizard. "She's on a quest."

"A quest? A maiden on a quest?" Sir Cadogan turned to Artemis. "Have you no valiant knight to assist you?"

"No," said Artemis. "I don't need one."

"Young wizards these days. No notion of chivalry."

"Look, I just-"

"Do not fret, young Miss, Sir Cadogan is at your service!"

The Knight bowed to her from atop his pony, and his helmet fell off his head, landing on the ground below him with a loud clank. The fat pony startled at the noise, lifted its head from the grass, proceeded to attempt to buck the knight from his back. Artemis shook her head, exasperated.

"Oh, for the love of Merlin..."

"May I help you?" said a voice from behind her.

Artemis turned around to see who had spoken. In the frame opposite Sir Cadogan was a portrait of a tall, elderly wizard with a long white beard, even longer than Professor Dumbledore's.

"Maybe," she said. "Who are you?"

"Why, I'm Merlin, of course."

"Of course, why wouldn't you be?" Artemis sighed. "Perhaps you could help, actually. I'm looking to find out more about a curse."

"I dealt with several curses in my time."

"You and me both."

"And what kind of a curse might you be dealing with?"

"One that involves portraits, sir," said Badeea, smiling politely at the picture of Merlin. "That's why I've brought Artemis here, to see if any of you might have any kind of information."

"I see," Merlin nodded sagely. "Exactly how does this portrait curse work?"

"That's the problem," said Artemis. "We don't know. One minute, Beatrice was there, and the next, she's stuck in a painting. We think it's probably something to do with the Cursed Vaults."

Merlin smiled wryly.

"The Cursed Vaults. My, oh my..." he muttered.

"You've heard of the Cursed Vaults?" Artemis asked.

"Yes," said Merlin, "and no."

"What do you mean? Surely you either have or you haven't?"

"I have heard of the Vaults," Merlin chuckled. "But not by that name. Cursed Vaults, indeed."

"What name do you know them by?"

"In my day, we called them the Vaults of Truth."

Artemis wrinkled her nose.

"They definitely seemed more cursed than they did truthful to me," she told Merlin. "Why do you call them that?"

"Ah, you see, the Vaults were not always cursed," said Merlin. "At their creation, they were just Vaults. But, what was hidden within the final Vault was so powerful, so dangerous, the curses were added as a means of protection."

"Wait, you were there when the Vaults were created?"

"Oh, yes. I knew their maker personally."

"What was inside?"

"That I know not, I'm afraid," said Merlin, with a sigh. "No one has yet opened the Vaults of Truth. Perhaps, when they do, someone will be kind enough as to inform me."

"One more question, sir," said Badeea, her brown eyes filled with intrigue. "When you say that the curses were added for protection... Do you mean the curses were meant to protect the object inside the Vault, or to protect others from it?"

Merlin fixed Badeea with a quizzical look.

"My dear girl, why could it not be both?"

That weekend was the first Quidditch match of the season: Gryffindor vs Ravenclaw. Orion Amari, the Hufflepuff captain, had bade the Hufflepuff team meet him before the start of the game.

"As important as it is that we understand one another's strengths and weaknesses," he told the team as they gathered in the stands, "we must also familiarise ourselves with those of our rivals. We do not want to be caught by surprise when we meet them on the pitch."

Hufflepuff were set to be playing Slytherin in two weeks time. Watching the game that afternoon, Artemis couldn't truthfully say she was looking forward to it. The Gryffindor team were known to be good, but the Ravenclaws were very forceful, and the game was one of the most brutal Artemis had ever seen. Not only did the Gryffindor Keeper take a Bludger to the head five minutes after Madam Hooch released the Snitch, but one of their Chasers was also knocked off her broomstick after two Beaters advanced on her simultaneously.

"They fight pure dirty, these Ravenclaws," said Skye, shaking her head as Gryffindor were awarded another penalty shot after yet another foul. "It's that Rath, their Beater. She's a right one for fouls."

She pointed in the direction of one of the Ravenclaw Beaters, who was arguing with Madam Hooch over the previous foul. Still, despite the penalties, Gryffindor were lagging behind in the goals, thanks to their lack of Keeper.

"And another goal to Ravenclaw," Murphy McNully announced. "That takes the score to 160 to Ravenclaw, 30 to Gryffindor. Gryffindor are really going to have to work on their defence strategy if they are to stand any chance of-"

The rest of Murphy's sentence was drowned out by the sound of cheers and cries of delight from the Gryffindor stands, as a blur of scarlet sped across the pitch. Artemis couldn't see the player's face, but she would have known it was Charlie, even if he hadn't been recognisable by his red hair.

"He's seen the Snitch," Artemis said, and she followed the flight line Charlie was taking, and squinted into the distance. "Is that it? There."

Sure enough, at the outskirts of the pitch, a flash of gold was flickering.

"He'll never catch that," Skye said, shaking her head. "It's too close tae the edge of the pitch."

"Why does that matter?"

"If he's not within the pitch boundary when he catches the Snitch, it doesn't count," explained Skye's friend Lizzie.

"And the speed he's going, there's no way he'll be able tae brake in time."

"Yes, he will."

Artemis pursed her lips, and watched Charlie continue his path across the pitch. Now being tailed by the Ravenclaw Seeker, he was flying faster than ever, and the noise from the Gryffindor stands was growing louder by the second.

"Naw, that's a bad move, Weasley," muttered Skye, as Charlie neared the edge of the pitch, where the Snitch was still flitting gently from side to side, as if it were enjoying the spectacle. "This match is Ravenclaw's for sure."

"No, it isn't," said Artemis. "Look!"

She pointed, as Charlie swerved, metres away from the Snitch, the speed of his broom causing him to continue to drift in its direction. He reached out and grabbed it before accelerating once more, his new trajectory taking him back into the pitch, as the Ravenclaw Seeker ploughed into the canvas covering of the stands.

Skye appeared to be the only person watching the match to not be impressed.

"Och, that wee bawbag," she muttered, as next to her, Artemis and Lizzie joined in the applause, and in Murphy McNully's voice rang out from the commentary box, announcing Gryffindor's win.

Artemis went straight down to the changing tents to congratulate her friend. Waiting outside, was Charlie's brother Bill, Rowan, and Tonks. None of them seemed too happy see Artemis.

"What?" she asked, as they all frowned at her.

"Where's Penny?" Tonks asked.

"I thought she was with you."

"We all thought she was with you."

The four of them exchanged worried glances.

"It's not like Penny to miss Quidditch."

"Maybe she's gone to see Beatrice," said Rowan. "She's been doing that a lot recently."

That was true. As the week had drawn to a close, and Beatrice was still no closer to being rescued, Penny had been growing increasingly distraught. Despite the constant looming threat of the O.W.L.s, she was hardly revising at all, instead spending any free time she had standing in front of Bea's portrait, trying to talk to her.

"Either that or she's making some kind of wacky potion again," Tonks muttered darkly. "Remember last time?"

"Right," said Bill, decisively. "You two go to Beatrice's portrait, Artemis and I will go to the Potions classroom. After that, we can all try the library, the Room of Requirement, and your dormitory."

"Nice try, Bill, but I don't think you're allowed to be in our dormitory. I reckon that's an abuse of your Head Boy privileges," Tonks grinned. Bill didn't smile back. "What? Am I not allowed to try and lighten the mood?"

Inside the castle, Artemis and Bill separated from Rowan and Tonks, and they made their way down to the dungeons together.

"I'm really worried about Penny," Bill said to Artemis, his face tense.

"We'll find her, don't worry."

"I know that, Artemis. I'm more worried about her generally. She's been acting very strange ever since Bea got stuck in that painting."

"Well, yeah," Artemis frowned. "You would too, if it were Charlie or even Percy in there, wouldn't you?"

"I don't even want to imagine that," Bill shuddered. "But I don't think I'd be being as... I don't know. She's just not being very sensible about it. Missing meals, and not studying, and just... falling apart, I guess."

"She's upset, Bill."

"I know, and I want to help her, but it's not easy when she won't help herself."

"But you'll do it, right?" Artemis said, frowning. "Help her, I mean."

"Of course. I just don't know what to do, that's all."

"Just... be there, I suppose," replied Artemis. "And help break the curse."

When they arrived in the Potions classroom, Penny was already there, wand between her teeth, measuring out ingredients.

"Penny," said Artemis, hopping up into the seat next to her. "You missed Quidditch. It was a really good game."

"Oh," was Penny's only response.

"What potion are you making, Pen?" asked Bill, looking around at the ingredients on the workbench. "I don't think I know a potion that uses all these ingredients."

"That's because this is a new potion. I've invented it."

Bill and Artemis shared looks of concern.

"Is that... safe?" Bill asked.

Penny didn't answer him. Seeing the baffled and defeated expression in Bill's eyes, Artemis made an attempt at engaging Penny in conversation.

"That's really clever, Penny," she said brightly. "What is the potion going to do?"

"It's going to help me communicate with Bea."

"How?"

"It's a Legilimency potion," Penny said, her face stiff and determined. "It's going to let me read her mind, and that will help me find a way to free her."

"Wait, you aren't intending to drink that, are you?" Bill's eyes grew wide. Penny whipped her head around to face him, her own eyes glittering dangerously. "Penny, that's a bit risky, don't you think?"

"I don't care if it's risky! My sister is stuck in a painting, and I need to help her!"

"I know that, but-"

"No, Bill, you don't know! You don't understand what I'm going through, neither of you do."

Artemis blinked, unable to believe what Penny was saying.

"Um, Penny," she said, feeling more than a little annoyed by Penny's words. "I do actually understand exactly what you're-"

"That's different."

"Different how?"

Artemis could feel her temper rising, but before Penny could do or say anything to make matters better or worse, the three of them were disturbed by the sound of a throat being cleared behind them.

"As much as it pains me to say it," said Professor Snape, slowly walking across the classroom towards them, "Hexley makes a good point. You fail to see the similarities between your situations because you have been blinded by unbridled emotion."

Artemis frowned. She didn't think she had ever seen Snape criticise Penny before. She was by far his favourite student, the only one he seemed to genuinely like.

Snape continued, "Legilimency is not something that can be brewed. It takes patience, skill, and self-discipline. All of which you are currently failing to demonstrate, Miss Haywood."

With a wave of his wand, Penny's half-finished potion disappeared from her cauldron, and she turned to face him, her cheeks pink and eyes full of tears.

"But, Professor-"

"I'd like you all to remove yourselves from my classroom immediately, and for you to spend some time learning how to control your emotions."

The three of them nodded, and made to leave. As Artemis followed Bill and Penny out of the classroom, Snape addressed her once more.

"That's a lesson I'd recommend that you learn as well, Hexley. It may... serve you well."

"What do you mean?"

Artemis turned back, her eyebrows furrowing, but Snape swept away again without answering her question.