"Alright, let's look at how we're doing this."

Charlie unfolded the map of the Forbidden Forest on the table in front of him, and the others - Artemis, Chiara, Talbott, Barnaby, and Liz - all leaned in to look.

"The Cursed Vault is near that clearing," said Artemis, and Charlie pointed to the location on the map. "You can fly there, as long as it's cloudy, which it should be tomorrow night."

"Cloudy enough, anyway," Charlie frowned. "Though six of us flying might be harder to hide."

"Why don't we walk?"

"It's more dangerous, especially if you don't know exactly where you're going."

"I know where I'm going," Chiara said. Five pairs of eyes turned to look at her, and she smiled sweetly at them. "The forest is full of healing herbs and plants, you know." Charlie pulled a doubtful face, but she told him, "I'm not a strong flier. I'll be safer on foot than broom."

"Alright, but you shouldn't go alone. And you should take the map," Charlie looked reluctant, but he pushed said map towards Chiara. "Artemis and I know the way to that clearing by air, we'll meet you there and send up red sparks if we think you're taking a while. Talbott, would you rather fly or walk?"

"I'll make my own way there."

Charlie shrugged and looked around the group. "Everyone happy with this plan?"

Everyone made noises of agreement, but the last, forgotten member of the group looked sceptical.

"What's the matter, Bill?"

"Are you sure you don't need me to come with you?" he asked, and Artemis looked sideways at Charlie before replying.

"We'll be fine," she said, and Bill raised his eyebrows. "We will. There's as many of us as there were last time."

"You mean the time you got bitten by the Acromantula and were unconscious for fortnight after? That last time?" he sighed deeply. "We thought that Boggarts would be the least harmful of the things guarding the Vaults, and look at what almost happened to Ismelda. We already know the Acromantula is dangerous, and now I just don't feel comfortable sending all of you in there without going with you to help. Especially after what almost happened to you two when you went to the Forest Vault before."

"That was three years ago, and we're adults now," said Charlie. His tone was conversational, but his jaw had tensed. "I appreciate that you want be protective and help, but it's really not necessary."

"It might be. I think I should come."

"For once, Bill, can you just let me have this?

At Charlie's words and short tone, the table fell silent, until Barnaby cleared his throat loudly.

"I am going to go and stand over there," he declared, before standing up and leaving. Liz Tuttle gnawed her bottom lip.

"I, um... I might leave too, actually. K-keep Barnaby company..."

"I need to go and make sure I have enough healing potions packed for later."

"I just don't want to be a part of this conversation."

As Talbott excused himself from the table, Artemis was left alone with the two oldest Weasley brothers. Charlie scratched his temple with his forefinger before telling her:

"Maybe you ought to go, too."

"But-"

"Artemis," Charlie looked at her with an earnest look in his eyes, and she nodded her head.

"Fine," she said, rising from her seat. "I should probably go and see Ben, anyway."

Artemis left the two brothers to talk alone and set off for the Hospital Wing, where Ben Copper was still being treated following his fight with the Ice Knight. She had not visited him as much as she perhaps should have done, but Chiara had been giving her regular updates on his condition.

According to her, Ben had spent the majority of the first few days of his hospitalisation either fast asleep or talking in riddles, but as the weeks had progressed he was becoming increasingly more salient. When Artemis arrived at the Hospital Wing, Ben seemed very much like his usual self.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him, perching on the end of his bed and examining his pale face.

"A little tired, but otherwise okay," Ben replied. "Anxious, but then I'm used to that."

He gave Artemis a thin smile, which she returned.

"What are you anxious about?"

"How I'm meant to be revising for my N.E.W.T.s at the moment, but instead I'm here. How everyone is facing these Cursed Vaults and R again, and how dangerous that is."

"We've got it under control," said Artemis. "Dumbledore's hired Bill to help us, so now Corey can use the Restricted Section for his research, we've broken the curse on the Vault of Fear already, and we're going to the forest to break the curse there this weekend."

"But the Cabal..."

"What about them?"

"They're..." Ben swallowed. "Artemis, in the Vault, when the Ice Knight struck me, I remembered what happened to me back in second year."

"You said. I mean, you weren't making much sense, but you did say."

"It didn't make sense to me, either. It's starting to now, though."

Artemis frowned. "You haven't forgotten again, then?"

"No. I think maybe a part of me never forgot really, because when we in the Sunken Vault, in that memory loop... Well, I saw some of it then. So, either the memory loop was able to show me it because I still remembered, deep down, or maybe the memory of what happened just got frozen in the ice, like I did."

"Maybe. What did happen, Ben?"

"It was back in second year," Ben said. "Just before Halloween. Merula Snyde had been picking on me again, so I was hiding in the Room of Lost Things, where I always used to go if I was scared, and someone came in. They were using the three-sided cabinet that Mr Borgin was talking about during Jacob's trial. I was hidden and I watched them, and they took out a piece of parchment, and then they put it back. I watched them leaving, but when I read the parchment, it was all just Runes inside. I wanted to ask Rowan to help translate, so I went out of the Room and bumped straight into him."

"Him," Artemis repeated. "Who do you mean by 'him'?"

"Topsy."

"What?"

"Professor Topsy, he taught us Defence Against the Dark Arts, remember?"

"Professor Topsy who always used to turn up for classes smelling of alcohol? The one who once threw up in the middle of a lesson? That Professor Topsy?"

"The very same. He's one of them, he's in R."

Incredulous, Artemis blinked. "Wow."

"Topsy asked me what I saw, I told him about the parchment but that I didn't know what it meant, and he said I didn't need to worry about it. But I did worry about it, obviously, I couldn't sleep all night for worrying about it. So, the next morning I got up early and went to his classroom before the lesson started to ask him about it, and that's when he cursed me. And he didn't just use any curse, it was the Imperius Curse.

"It's strange, being under the Imperius Curse. It feels like you're in a dream, like you're outside of your own body as well as inside it. I remember going into the Slytherin Common Room and taking a quill from there, and then going up to the ice corridor on the fifth floor with Topsy, all the way up to the entrance to the Cursed Vault. He tried to get me to help him fight the door, but we couldn't get through it. It fired ice at me, and I went unconscious. When I woke up, she was there with him."

Artemis didn't have to ask who 'she' was.

"Rakepick," she said through gritted teeth.

"She said that Topsy had really messed up, that he shouldn't have used me, just broken the Curse like he was told to do. If the school found out that I'd been up to the Vault and been under the Imperius Curse, then they'd know that R were active and trying to get involved in the curses. They needed a new plan," Ben shook his head. "It was her idea to remove my memories and get me frozen in the ice down on the corridor outside. A teacher could find me there, and then the school would be forced to act. Dumbledore would want to stop students from being hurt, he was bound to reach out to a professional like Rakepick to help."

"That's why you recognised her when she got to Hogwarts!"

"Exactly. Obviously, I didn't remember her, but I did recognise her. I didn't want to say anything at the time because I knew it would sound crazy, but I had dreamed about her."

"It wouldn't have sounded crazy," said Artemis, and Ben raised his eyebrows at her. "Yeah, okay. Maybe it would have sounded a bit crazy."

"Still, I should have told you. Maybe if I had, we'd have figured out that she was behind my memory loss sooner, and then Rowan would-"

"Don't."

"It's true, though."

"No, it isn't. Even if you had told us that you thought you'd seen Rakepick in a dream, we'd never have figured all that out. I mean, we'd never have suspected Professor Topsy of being in R."

"You wouldn't, would you? That's what's making me so anxious," Ben shuddered. "If drunk old Professor Topsy could be in the Cabal, anyone could. So, who can we trust?"

"Each other," said Artemis, simply. "We trust each other."

***

Artemis sent an owl to Kingsley as soon as she left the Hospital Wing, and the following day, met him at the Three Broomsticks. It was a Hogsmeade weekend, so the bar was relatively busy, but the last one before the start of the exam season, so less busy than usual. Not that it mattered to Artemis, who never had to queue for her drinks.

"I'm surprised you're not revising, love," said Madam Rosmerta, frowning at her as she poured her out two Butterbeers.

"The exams aren't until the start of June, Ros. I've still got a few weeks left."

The look in Rosmerta's eyes was a little concerned, but she did not nag. Artemis returned to the table Kingsley had picked out in the corner of the bar with not just two drinks, but a new quill as well.

"So," Kingsley said once Artemis had taken her seat, "what is this new piece of information?"

"A name."

Artemis lowered her voice as she told Kingsley about Ben's memories returning and how their old Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had been a member of the Cabal. Kingsley listened in silence, his bald head nodding slowly as she finished.

"I see," he said quietly.

"So, now you know he's in R, you can go and arrest him, right?"

But Kingsley, to Artemis' surprise, shook his head.

"Unfortunately not, Tiny."

"But we know he's in the Cabal!"

"We do, but we also know that someone in the Auror office has been passing information to the Cabal. And I can't arrest anyone without first submitting evidence that suggests that a crime has been committed, or having actually witnessed them commit a crime." Kingsley sighed. "If I submit your statement to the office, then our informant will tell Topsy, and he'll go missing, just like Madam Buckthorn did."

"And then we'll be back where we started," said Artemis, and Kingsley inclined his head. "So, what about if you see him commit another crime and arrest him for that? Then you could ask him about R at the same time."

"I could."

"But?"

Kingsley chuckled. "But the chances of him making a misstep in the small window of time I'd be able to spend watching him would not be high. Really we'd need surveillance around the clock, which would again involve getting others involved."

"Which would mean that whoever is sharing information with R would just tell Topsy not to do anything illegal."

"Precisely."

Artemis sighed heavily. Catching criminals was much harder than she had thought it would be. She leant back in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest and a sullen expression on her face, scanning the faces in the bar as she thought to herself. Surely, there had to be a way.

Across the other side of the bar, a pair of eyes made contact with her own. Artemis' scowl deepened as she recognised Victor Ketsueki, and she made an audible noise of disgust as he raised his eyebrows and smirked at her.

"Still not a friend of yours?" asked Kingsley, following her gaze.

"Absolutely not."

"Ah." Kingsley raised his glass at Victor in recognition before turning back to her. "I assumed that the two of you would have overcome your differences after you invited him to help translate Shiratori's interview."

"I didn't invite him, Merula did," Artemis rolled her eyes. "I can't stand him. He's really up himself, and everyone thinks he's so cool and mysterious just because he wears a leather jacket over his school uniform and sunglasses inside."

"That does sound pretty cool," Kingsley said sagely. "I'm joking, Tiny!" He laughed his deep, melodic laugh, and Artemis pulled a face at him. "I perhaps would not use the word mysterious, though."

"Well, the thing is no one really knows much about him. He got up to something last summer, and Merula found out what, which is why he agreed to help her write those letters, but no one else does because tells he always tells a different story to everyone who asks, so everyone hears something different and no one knows what is the real true story and what is a lie. He basically just let's people spread loads of different rumours about himself to make himself seem..." Artemis' voice tailed off, and she put her Butterbeer down on the table. "Kingsley."

"What, Tiny?"

"I've got an idea," she told him. "You say we can't catch Topsy because someone is feeding information to R, right?"

"Right."

"Well then, maybe we should try and catch the person who is passing them the information."

Artemis looked back across the bar at where two girls were whispering furtively to each other, their eyes fixed on the back of Victor Ketsueki's head, before turning to Kingsley with her eyes raised. Kingsley frowned before nodding his head.

"Disinformation," he said slowly, and - not knowing what the word meant - Artemis shrugged.

"If you tell a different person in the Auror office something different about Topsy, then each person will have a different piece of information they can pass onto him," she explained. "All you have to do is wait and see what piece of information he acts on."

Kingsley chuckled and shook his head.

"So, school does teach you something worth learning, after all," he murmured into his Butterbeer.

***

That night, after dark, Artemis went up to the stone bridge, ready to fly to the Forbidden Forest. When she arrived, Charlie was already there, and he was alone. Artemis frowned, remembering the discussion she had left him to have with his brother in private the day before.

"So, is Bill-"

"We'll see him tomorrow," Charlie answered Artemis' question before she had even finished asking it.

"Right," Artemis nodded. "And you're still friends?"

"Yeah, we are. We didn't argue, just talked. He told me how much he feels like he needs to be responsible for everyone, and I told him how I feel like I'm always having to live up to what he does, and... I mean, it was weird, but alright."

"Why was it weird?"

"I dunno, we just don't usually talk. Not like that. We talk about other stuff, obviously."

Artemis tilted her head to one side. "What other stuff?"

"Just stuff, y'know? Brother stuff," Charlie shrugged as if it were obvious what he meant, though Artemis was none the wiser. The bell of the Clock Tower rang through the night, and he smiled. "One last time?"

"One last time."

They mounted their brooms and lit their wands, and flew through the cloudy night sky to the forest, which was barely visible through the gloom. As Charlie dipped lower, Artemis knew that they must be approaching the tree line. She followed close to him, and it wasn't long before she heard his voice call out to her:

"Ready to dive?"

They made a deeper descent than they had back when they had first started flying to the forest, but Artemis found herself more than capable of the more difficult manoeuvre. They touched down to the ground in the clearing, which was quiet and empty aside from the pair of them. Artemis shone her wandlight at the watch on her wrist. When she looked up, she saw that Charlie was doing the same.

"We'll give them ten minutes," he said, frowning. "If they're not here by then, we send up the red sparks."

Five minutes passed, and there was still no sign of the others.

"They will have gone to the right clearing, won't they?" Artemis asked, and Charlie's eyebrows furrowed even deeper.

"I hope so. We don't want them getting too close to the centaur camp," he glanced at his watch once more before throwing his hand skywards. "Nah, I'm not waiting any longer. Vermillious!"

A jet of red lights fired from Charlie's wand above the treetops, and for good measure, Artemis sent up a second flurry of lights of her own making. A moment later, there was a rustle in the branches nearby, and Talbott Winger stepped out of the trees.

"They're not far away," he said, without so much as a greeting first. "I saw them on my way here, they should be less than five minutes."

Talbott's prediction was proved correct, for it was not long before Chiara, Barnaby, and Liz also appeared in the clearing.

"Okay, let's find this Vault."

"Wait. Here," said Chiara, handing each of them a small vial. "Everyone have one of these. It's Wiggenweld Potion. I have everything else we might need on me, but in case you're injured and I can't get to you quickly, at least you each have a dose of something."

Wiggenweld Potions distributed, the group made their way through the thick trees of the forest, until they stopped outside a small stone cave, covered with moss, ivy, and a mass of white spiderwebs.

"This is it, then?" asked Talbott, one eyebrow raised, and Artemis nodded. Beside her Barnaby gulped before squaring his shoulders.

"I'll go first," he said.

"Barnaby, you really don't have-"

"I said, I'll go first," he repeated, then frowned. "Sorry. Was that rude?"

"No, Barnaby," said Charlie. "Go on. Lead the way. We'll be right behind you."

Artemis stayed close to Barnaby as he made his way through the opening of the cave and down the cobweb-lined tunnel beyond, watching closely for any signs of movement in the darkness. There was none.

At the end of the tunnel, a glowing light was shining, and as they neared it, Artemis could see where the tunnel opened out into the Cursed Vault. She placed a hand on Barnaby's arm to stop him.

"When we get inside, we need to split up," she told the group. Though she spoke quietly, keeping her voice to a whisper, the sound seemed to echo down the tunnel. "The spider can throw webs, so the more spaced out we are, the less chance he has of hitting us before we can hit him. Got it?"

She turned back to face the Vault, but when she did, she could no longer see the light of the glowing column within. A large dark shadow had appeared at the end of the tunnel, blocking their path entirely. The shadow moved, the light of the column filtering through its many legs as it did. Artemis' heart skipped a beat. It was the Acromantula.

"What have we here?" asked the Acromantula, raising one of its eight legs to step into the tunnel. "My, my. You know, I haven't eaten since the last full moon. I was only just thinking how very hungry I was, and here you all are."

The Acromantula stepped forward again, but Barnaby raised his wand and pointed it directly at the spider, right in the middle of its eight eyes.

"Arania exumai!"

A jet of white light hit the Acromantula and sent it flying backwards into the Vault. It landed on it's feet and turned its eyes to the group.

"Good job I like to play with my food," it said, before throwing a thick strand of silk in Barnaby's direction.

Artemis pulled him out of the way just in time, shouting to the others as she did so.

"GET OUT!"

No one needed telling twice. The group of curse-breakers turned tail and ran back up the tunnel to the exit at full pelt, hearing the snapping pincers of the spider behind them. Outside the cave, they all dived into the undergrowth, and as Artemis threw herself behind a tree, she saw a coil of silk lash the at the air where she had been a split second earlier.

"You can't hide from me," she heard the spider say through clicking pincers, the leaves underfoot crunching and rustling beneath it as it crawled through the trees. "I will find you. All of you."

"He's right," said a soft voice from a nearby bush, and Artemis turned to see Liz Tuttle's eyes peering at her through her round spectacles. "We need to f-fight him."

Artemis nodded, and poked her head around her tree. The Acromantula was crawling through the forest nearby, snapping its pincers at a spruce. From her position, Artemis could see that Chiara was just on the other side of it. She took aim, and fired at the spider.

"Arania exumai!"

The spider was blown away from Chiara towards another tree, from behind which Charlie emerged and cast the spell again. A split second later, and the air was filled with curses being volleyed at the spider from all directions, as Artemis and her friends ran between the trees surrounding it.  High above them, Talbott was sitting high in the branches of one of the trees aiming down at the spider.

"Artemis!" he shouted to her. "The sooner you break that curse, the sooner we can stop this!"

Talbott was right, they couldn't do this all night. They either had to kill the spider or get away from it quickly, and before they could do the latter, she had to do what they had come here to do.

The dappled colours of the forest floor meant that she would be well camouflaged in her Animagus form, and so she ran cat-shaped back through the trees to the cave, dodging the Acromantula as one of her friends' curses sent it flying past her. She remained in her cat-form all the way down the tunnel, only returning to her usual girl-shaped body as she reached the Vault itself.

Not wanting to waste a single second, she plunged her hand into her pocket to grab the piece of amber Torvus the centaur had given her, and pushed it to the glowing column with such speed and force that she thought she might break the crystal. But the crystal did not so much as chip as the stone crashed against it; the sides of the column simply sprang open. Artemis didn't linger for a moment before dashing back out to join the fray.

In the forest outside, her friends were still battling the Acromantula. Talbott was still up high in the branches of his tree, firing curses down at the spider from above, and Barnaby and Charlie fighting from the ground, keeping it busy whilst Chiara applied a bandage to Liz's arm. Even from a brief look, Artemis could see that Charlie was starting to limp a little, and Barnaby looked tired. The Acromantula, however, just looked angry.

"It's done!" Artemis shouted to them. "Everyone, get back to the clearing!"

For the second time, the group retreated, throwing spells at the spider and dodging strands of silk as they ran back between the trees, trying their hardest not to trip on the uneven ground beneath their feet. Artemis was the first to reach the clearing other than Talbott, who half-passed, half-threw the broomsticks to her.

"We need to fly away," he told her, but as the others arrived, she shook her head.

"We've not got enough broomsticks. We can't leave one person to fight by themselves!" she shouted back, before realising that perhaps they could. As the others arrived in the clearing, she handed Charlie his broomstick and Barnaby hers. "Go. Two to a broom."

"But, Artemis-"

"I'll be fine. I'm in the prophecy, so nothing bad can happen to me. Go!"

The others stared at her as if she were mad, but before any of them could say as much, the Acromantula crashed through the trees and into the clearing with them, advancing on them with a look of hunger and fury in its eight eyes.

"We're not going anywhere," said Charlie, through gritted teeth. "Arania exumai!"

"Arania exumai!" shouted Barnaby, as if the spell itself were an agreement.

The six of them took turns to shoot a spell at the Acromantula, until it was forced back into the trees, leaving the clearing with an eery sort of calm.

"We did it," said Chiara breathlessly. "We managed it." She beckoned the others over to her, and they gathered close together by a fallen tree. "Are any of you hurt?"

Barnaby opened his mouth to answer, but his voice was drowned out by the sound of a deep, rumbling chuckle. Artemis turned around, only to see thick silk being thrown in her direction, too fast for her to move out of the way before it ensnared not only her, but all her friends, pinning them against the fallen tree behind them. All of them struggled against the thick, sticky silk in a desperate attempt to free themselves, but it was to no avail.

They were trapped, caught in the spider's web, and there was no escape.