"What is that?"

Sickleworth seemed to take Corey's question as an insult, sitting back on his haunches and huffing at him. Artemis rolled her eyes.

"He is a Niffler," she said, picking up Sickleworth and cradling him in her arms.

"I know that," replied Corey, sitting up straight. "I just don't know why you wanted me to see it."

"Let me show you."

Artemis stopped cradling Sickleworth, and instead held him up by his back legs. A few coins fell out from his pouch, and he reached out his paws in an attempt to catch them. Knowing fully well that the Niffler had stolen a lot more than that, she shook him gently, until at her feet she had a small mound of trinkets, money, and white feathers. Corey's mouth dropped open.

"We're pretty sure that Sickleworth is the one who stole everything from around the castle," Charlie told him, as Sickleworth snorted and tried to reach his collection. "It's what Nifflers do, it's in their nature to steal things."

Corey seemed to regain his composure somewhat. Artemis had assumed that he would be happy to have caught the thief, but if anything, he looked even more annoyed than usual.

"What now?" she asked, glaring at him.

"I was thinking that the thief might know who they'd stolen things from," Corey tutted. "Now I'm going to have to sort through all of this myself. This is going to take ages."

"You've got to be joking!" Artemis felt her temper start to rise. "We just found the bloody thief that you have been asking everyone to help you look for all term, and you're not even grateful! All you care about is how much work you've got to do."

"How about we help you?" offered Charlie, before Corey could say anything to make Artemis' anger grow. "We know the feathers belong to Flitwick and the gold pin with a Snitch on is Murphy McNully's."

Corey sighed heavily, as if Charlie were trying to make his job harder, rather than easier. It was only a shake of Charlie's head that stopped Artemis from snapping.

"Fine," she muttered. "I can take Flitwick's feathers and Murphy's badge back." Her eyes fell on a beaded item in the pile with yet another white feather on it, and she added, "That necklace, too. It's Talbott's."

Relieved to be free of Corey at last, Artemis took Sickleworth up to Ravenclaw tower to find Talbott Winger, and outside, bumped right into Victor Ketsueki who was wearing dark sunglasses, even in the hallway.

"Is Talbott in?" she asked him, and he turned his head slowly to look at her.

"What's it to you?"

"I'm trying to return this to him," Artemis said, holding up the white feather necklace. "We found the stolen stuff, I thought he might want it back."

"He will," Victor lowered his sunglasses and looked at Artemis over the top of them, holding out one hand. "I can take it to him." When Artemis didn't hand the necklace to him, he smirked at her. "You really don't trust me, do you?"

Artemis pursed her lips. "Not really, no."

"Even though you know now that I'm not the thief?"

"How did you-"

"I hear things," Victor gave a nonchalant shrug. It irritated Artemis. "Interesting that you thought of me, though. Why?"

"I dunno," Artemis frowned, eyeing him sceptically. "I just feel like you're hiding something, that's all."

"Fascinating."

"Not really."

Victor and Artemis held one another's stare stubbornly for a minute, until Victor scoffed, pushed his sunglasses back up his nose, and turned away from her to go up the stairs to Ravenclaw tower.

"Can you tell Talbott I'm looking for him?" Artemis called after him, and she heard him chuckle.

"I can," he said, not even looking back at her as he spoke. "Don't know if I will, though."

Artemis scowled and leant against the wall of the corridor with her arms crossed. A strand of her hair fell in front of her face and she blew on it angrily to get it out of her way. She wanted to leave so that she could get on and return Flitwick's feathers, but what if Victor had sent Talbott down to meet her? She had to at least wait a little while, just in case. Sickleworth did not seem to agree, as he chirped and tugged at her robes impatiently.

"What? You're bored? Tough," she told him. "You know, this is all your fault, Sickleworth. What did you have to go and steal all those things for? Why didn't you just go back to Gringotts? They've got loads of gold there."

Sickleworth chirped again, and climbed up Artemis' body to nuzzle her neck. She sighed.

"It's no use trying to be cute, Sickleworth. I'm still annoyed."

After another minute of waiting, Artemis sighed. Clearly, Victor had not gone to find Talbott for her after all. She stood up straight and made to leave. She could not waste her whole day waiting for Talbott, necklace or no necklace. But as she started to walk down the corridor, she heard someone calling her name behind her, and turned to see Talbott following her.

"Victor said you that you were looking for me," he said quietly as he approached. "He said that you had my... Do you have it?"

Artemis nodded, and handed him the feather necklace. "Here."

Talbott took the necklace from her, his eyes widening as he looked at it with a mingled expression of happiness, relief, and sorrow.

"I thought it might be lost for good," he murmured, his fingers tightening around the wooden beads and holding it against his chest. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Artemis smiled. "Um, Penny said that it used to belong to your mum."

"It did. The feather was one of hers, from when she was in her Animagus form. A swan. I know it's not anything fancy, but I don't have much left of her, except for memories, so..."

His voice tailed off, and his eyes closed. Artemis nodded.

"I get it," she whispered. "I'm glad you got it back, Talbott."

She left Talbott alone, and walked down to the Charms corridor, where she found Professor Flitwick in his classroom listening to classical music on his gramophone.

"Miss Hexley," he said, smiling at her. "What can I do for you his evening?"

"I have all your feathers," she told him, taking off her rucksack and handing it to him. "The ones that got stolen. We found the thief and got them back."

"Well done," Flitwick chuckled as he took the backpack from her, but his eyebrows remained furrowed. "I do find it strange that a thief would want to steal feathers. Did they tell you why?"

"No. I mean you can ask him, but I don't think he will say much."

"And why is that?"

Artemis stepped to the side, revealing Sickleworth at her feet. He sniffed the air and darted in the direction of the bag of feathers, but Artemis quickly grabbed him to stop him.

"No, Sickleworth, those aren't yours. I'm sorry, Professor."

"You don't need to apologise for your Niffler's behaviour, Miss Hexley," said Professor Flitwick, still frowning.

"He's not my Niffler," Artemis muttered darkly.

"Whose Niffler is he?"

"He was Professor Rakepick's. I dunno who he belongs to now."

In response to her comment, Sickleworth wrapped his furry forelegs around Artemis' arm and let out a noise like a soft purr.

"I think he's taken a shine to you," Flitwick giggled. "Although, talking of taking a shine, I wonder why he was stealing feathers. They do prefer shiny objects, don't they?"

"Yeah," Artemis shrugged. "I guess he's a really odd Niffler. Either that or he just enjoys being a menace to society."

"Either way, I'm glad that the culprit has been caught and the lost items found. My feathers were easily replaced, but some of the other items will have been sorely missed." Professor Flitwick emptied Artemis' rucksack of the feathers and handed it back to her, empty now. He giggled again. "It seems like it was a very long time ago that I first taught you to levitate one of these, doesn't it?"

Artemis gave him a half-hearted smile before bidding him goodbye. She had made it as far as the door before Professor Flitwick called back to her.

"Oh dear, Miss Hexley. I think one of your quills has been mixed in with these by mistake."

He held out a white feather to her, smaller than the others and more similar in appearance to the one on Talbott's necklace, with the end tapered into a quill point.

"That's not..." Artemis' voice tailed off as she realised exactly how familiar the white quill looked, and from where: it was identical to the quill she and Kingsley had found at the site of the Portkey that had been used to transport Shiratori. She took it and smiled. "Oh, yeah. How silly of me. Thanks, Professor."

As soon as she was around the corner and out of sight of the Charms classroom, Artemis took her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the quill.

"Reparifarge," she whispered, and the quill disappeared. In its place, a scroll of parchment remained in her palm, a series of symbols written on it in a language that she didn't understand but she recognised immediately as Japanese.

***

On the first day of the Christmas holidays, Artemis made her way down to Hogsmeade with her friends, who had decided to go shopping for last-minute gifts. It being their last Christmas at Hogwarts, the vast majority of the seventh years had decided to stay at the castle over the holidays, with the notable exceptions of Barnaby Lee, whose father had dictated that he must return home, and Victor Ketsueki, who seemed to have given everyone who had asked him a different answer as to where he was going.

"Well, I heard from Gloria Gall that he's going back to Transylvania to visit the vampire who bit him," said Penny, as they walked down the high street towards Honeydukes Sweet Shop. "But Clarissa Whittie said that he's going to the far north to make the most of the twenty four hours of darkness."

"Of course he is," Artemis rolled her eyes. "I wonder what he's really doing. Because I don't believe that he's actually a vampire, not for one minute."

"Oh, but he is, Artemis! He was in Honeydukes last Hogsmeade weekend buying blood lollipops. Andre saw him with his own eyes."

As they walked past the Three Broomsticks, Artemis let the rest of her dorm-mates go on without her, and instead went into the inn, where she went straight over to a table in the corner to sit next to a broad-shouldered wizard with dark skin and a sing gold hooped earring.

"Good morning, Tiny," Kingsley said, pushing a glass of mulled Firewhiskey across the table towards her. "Ros said you'd like this one. Now, what've you got for me?"

"Clues," Artemis told him. She placed her rucksack on the table and opened it to reveal both Sickleworth and the scroll of parchment that had previously been a white quill. "This is Madam Rakepick's old Niffler. He's been nicking things from all over the castle-"

"As Nifflers do."

"- but not just shiny things. He's been taking white feathers as well, including one that was a quill, just like the one of Shiratori's we found in the summer. I transfigured it and look. It's another message in Japanese."

"Excellent work," said Kingsley, his dark eyebrows raised. "I'll take it to Karasu later today, see if he can translate it."

"No need," Artemis grinned. "My friend Tulip is his daughter, and she already translated it for me. It's from Shiratori. He says that he has read through the details and that he will be ready to move as soon as he gets more instructions."

"Instructions from the cabal?"

"I presume so."

"And you say that the Niffler had taken this?" asked Kingsley, and Artemis nodded her head.

"Yes, he's been stealing all sorts from around the castle all term," she said, frowning at the look on Kingsley's face. "What?"

"Tiny, this letter is written from a dangerous criminal, and it was found on school grounds."

"You mean Shiratori was at the school?"

"Could be. Or perhaps, the person he sent the letter to. It may be that the Niffler took the letter from the person who received it," Kingsley reasoned. "Which, if the letter was intended to be read by a member of the Cabal..."

"Would mean that someone from R is here, at Hogwarts," Artemis' eyes widened.

"Or nearby, at least. I'll ask Rosmerta if she's noticed any new faces recently," said Kingsley, removing his notebook from his robes. "What about inside the castle itself?"

"I mean, we have a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. And there's Professor Sikander, he's covering for Professor Quirrell whilst he's on his sabbatical."

"I don't think I know anyone by the name of Sikander. What's he like?"

"Dunno, I don't take Muggle Studies. People like him, but I think that's because he's good looking, mainly."

Kingsley chuckled. "That's good to know. What about the people you do know? Anyone acting suspiciously?"

"Teachers or students?"

"Either. The Cabal haven't been against using students in the past. Just look at your brother and Duncan Ashe."

"Well," Artemis paused, frowning deeply, "I thought Merula was acting strangely earlier this term but that was just because she was trying to become an unregistered Animagus."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that."

"Don't worry, she didn't manage it," said Artemis, avoiding eye contact with Kingsley. "There is one boy in my year that's been acting weird, though. Everyone says he got turned into a vampire over the summer, but I don't believe it."

"Why not?"

"I just don't. I think there's something he's not telling people, but I'm just not sure what. Could it be that he's working for R?"

"It's a line of enquiry I wouldn't want to rule out," Kingsley nodded slowly, still writing in the notepad. "What is this boy's name?"

"Victor Ketsueki."

"Ketsueki?"

"Yeah, why?"

"That's a Japanese name," said Kingsley. He snapped his notebook shut. "Likely a coincidence, but I'll see if I can interview him. Is he still around the castle?"

"No, he's gone... Well, no one actually knows where he's gone for the holidays," Artemis raised her eyebrows. "Which I think is very suspicious."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, you should be careful."

"And remain courageous?"

"As if you'd need me to tell you to do that," Kingsley laughed. He reached into his robes and pulled out another item, wrapped in dark green paper. "Here, in case I don't see you before Christmas." He handed it to Artemis, who immediately began to slide her finger beneath the wrapping. Kingsley shook his head and asked, "What do you think you're doing, Tiny? That's for Christmas Day. You can't open it yet."

"Fine," Artemis sighed and reached into her own pocket. She pulled out a small bottle of Firewhiskey and handed it to Kingsley. "I haven't wrapped it but this one is for you. You aren't allowed to drink any before actual Christmas though."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

After finishing their drinks, Artemis and Kingsley parted ways, Kingsley returning to the Ministry and Artemis leaving to find her friends. Outside Hogsmeade station, the last of the Thestral-drawn carriages was still waiting to return to the castle, the tracks behind it belonging to both the wheels of the carriage and the hooves of the Thestral pulling it. The Thestral itself had a dusting of snowflakes over its black leathery skin, and was casting a very faint shadow of the snow beneath its feet. Artemis' heart gave a small squeeze as she remembered the first time she saw one of the creatures. Almost exactly a year had passed since then, and in that time she had come to appreciate the strange beauty of the beasts.

Beasts...

Artemis frowned and pulled out her camera. She was not certain that the Thestral would show up in a photograph, but its dark fur made an interesting contrast against the white backdrop of the snow-driven street, and its sombre, skeletal appearance an even more interesting one with the festive garlands adorning the building behind it. It was worth a try, at least.

She clicked the button, and the camera printed the photo. The Thestral could be seen in it, but it looked strangely shadowy, almost spectral, compared to how it looked in reality. The effect was unnerving, but she liked it.

Hopefully, she thought as she set off for the Owl Post Office, the photographers at the Daily Prophet would like it, too.

***

In the six years Artemis had been at Hogwarts, she had stayed at the castle for the Christmas holidays three times. Christmas at Hogwarts was truly magical, and this year was so far shaping up to be the best one yet.

With so many of her friends around, Artemis found that there was always something to do. At the castle itself, there were friendly Quidditch matches, wintry walks around the snow-covered school grounds, and ice skating on the Black Lake, which had completely frozen over. Further afield, there were carol singers in the main street of Hogsmeade, Madam Rosmerta had a seemingly endless supply of mulled wine at the Three Broomsticks, and in the nearest Muggle village, there was a Muggle cinema, which Artemis and her friends visited at Penny's suggestion, and enjoyed far more than she had expected.

She was enjoying all of it, in fact, but in spite of the fun she was having, Artemis couldn't help but feel a strange sense of something not being quite right, that something was amiss.

"I'm not surprised, love," said Madam Rosmerta, when Artemis caught up with her in the Three Broomsticks on Christmas Eve. "It's only been a year since you lost Rowan, and you weren't really ready to enjoy Christmas this time last year, were you?"

"I guess not," Artemis frowned. "I just feel a bit guilty, having so much fun without her."

"Rowan would want you to have a good time," Ros told her. "Think of it as a way of honouring her memory."

Artemis nodded. Rosmerta made a good point, and so when she returned back to the castle, she suggested to her friends that they go to Ros' New Year's Eve party at the end of the month. It would have been Rowan's birthday - technically, she supposed, it still was - and it would be nice to do something for it.

But there was a week to go before then, and in the meantime, there was Christmas Day itself. Artemis was excited to find a large pile of gifts at the foot of her bed on Christmas morning: a book about magical wildlife photography from Aunt Tina and Uncle Newt, a bottle of perfume from Madam Rosmerta, some Muggle music from Kingsley, a beaded bracelet from Bill Weasley, and some fudge and a knitted jumper from his parents.

At lunchtime, she and her friends exchanged their anonymous gifts, and as well as the set of hair accessories that she strongly suspected had been given by Penny, Artemis also received a pair of handmade woollen socks from Charlie.

"You seemed to like the ones I made for you last year," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, as beside him, Chiara opened a book about Astronomy, the pretty cover of which Artemis recognised immediately.

"Oh, that one's good," she said, nodding her head sagely. "I bought it for Rowan a couple of years ago, and she loved it."

The chatter at the table, which had been loud and spirited, seemed to dull slightly, with Penny falling silent immediately, Merula glaring at Artemis from the opposite end of the table, and Ben Copper lowering his gaze to look intently at the slice of Yule log on the plate in front of him.

"I'm sure it will be excellent, then," said Chiara, after a moment of hush. She smiled gently, and opened the pages of the book. "The illustrations are beautiful. Thank you, whoever bought this. I love it."

Further down the table, Jae Kim's face turned the same colour as the poinsettias decorating the table, and the chatter quickly resumed as if Artemis had not spoken. She took a deep breath, and tried not to show her disappointment. It was hard, trying to honour Rowan's memory, especially when no one seemed to want to talk about her. At least there would be plenty of time to remember Rowan on New Year's Eve.

But when the thirty-first finally arrived, Artemis found herself having doubts. It seemed like over the entire break, every time she had mentioned Rowan's name, people fell silent, as if they didn't know how to talk about her, or simply didn't want to. Probably it made them too sad to talk about Rowan at Christmas, when they wanted to be happy. It would probably make them too sad to talk about it at New Year too, but Artemis did not really want to go to a party on Rowan's birthday if she couldn't even talk about her with her friends.

That was why she ended up leaving the party almost as soon as she and the other Hufflepuffs had arrived, excusing herself by telling her girlfriends that she had forgotten to send a letter to her great-Aunt and needed to go back to the owlery. She did go back to the owlery, but rather than going in, stopped by a tree just outside.

Professor McGonagall had showed Artemis this same tree exactly a year before: a rowan tree that she had never even noticed before Rowan had died. She sat on one of the tree's roots and leant back against its trunk with her eyes closed, feeling the hard ridged bark pressing against her shoulders and breathing in the cool, quiet night air.

It was not quiet for long, however. The sound of footsteps approaching and a twig being snapped made Artemis open her eyes, and as she did, she saw that Corey Hayden was standing only feet away from her, a small parcel tucked under his arm.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, frowning deeply. Artemis scowled back at him.

"Is there a problem with me being here?"

"No."

"Then I'll be here if I want to be here. What are you doing here?" In response to her question, Corey held up his parcel, and Artemis jerked her head in the direction of the building behind her. "The owlery is over there."

But Corey did not walk away. Instead, he stepped closer to Artemis' tree.

"I'm not posting it," he told her. "It's for Rowan."

Artemis' eyes widened as she watched Corey reach over her head to put the parcel in the tree, tucking it between two branches. He stepped back, and continued looking at the parcel as he explained:

"I know it's sort of stupid, but I wanted to get her something. Because it would be her birthday, you know?"

"Of course I know that," Artemis snapped at him.

"Why are you annoyed? I just wanted to do something nice for Rowan," said Corey, frowning at Artemis. "You know, you're not the only one who misses her."

"It feels like I am."

She had said the words quietly, and had been speaking more to herself than to Corey, but Corey had definitely heard her, for his face grew forlorn and his own voice was small as he said:

"Well, you aren't. I miss her, too. I miss her a lot."

"You do?"

"Yes. Every day," Corey sat down under the tree, and Artemis shuffled over to make room for him. "I can see why you feel like other people don't miss her, though. It's how I felt, at first, when I recovered from the statue curse at the end of last year."

Artemis frowned for a moment before she realised what Corey meant; he had been turned into a statue as the result of a curse being released from the final Cursed Vault only a week or two before Rowan died.

"You... You missed all of it," she murmured, and Corey nodded his head.

"By the time I had come around and first found out about Rowan, everyone else had known for months. You'd had that memorial and all this time to move on. You had moved on, all of you, and it seemed like you'd all forgotten her."

"I haven't forgotten her," Artemis said, shaking her head defiantly. "I could never forget her, not ever."

"No, I know that. Now that I've had time to think about it, I've realised that the others haven't either. It's just that they don't miss her in the same way, because they weren't as close to her as you were. No one was."

"She was my best friend."

"You were hers. She really loved you."

"She did. I loved her, too. More than anyone. My family, even."

"I think you loved her even more than I did."

"You loved her?" Artemis tilted her head at Corey. "Like, loved loved her?"

"I..." Corey looked confused. "I think so? I don't know anymore. I don't know how much was me loving her then and how much is me missing her now. I know I liked her, really liked her." He started to smile as he continued, "I was so happy when she agreed to be my date to the ball that one time. And I used to look forward to studying with her, and I'd get so nervous every time that I would say something stupid, because she was so clever."

"She was. But she wouldn't have minded it if you said something stupid. I always say stupid things and she never minded one bit, because she was so kind."

"So kind. You know, when I was in the Hospital Wing under the statue curse, she used to visit and bring me revision notes and books."

Artemis tilted her head. "She did?"

"Yeah, and not just school stuff, either. Some were just things she thought I'd like, like one about the secret life of the dark witch Morgana, because she knew I've always loved history and mysteries."

"That sounds like Rowan. She was always so interested in everything, and loved learning and researching. Not like me. I would just turn up to things and wing it, and then she'd tut and roll her eyes and say something really funny."

"She was so funny, wasn't she?" Corey chuckled, and so did Artemis. He sighed. "And beautiful. Really beautiful."

"Yeah. She was." Artemis' smile faltered slightly, and she felt tears prick at her eyes. She took a deep breath, looked up at the parcel Corey had left in the tree, and whispered, "Thank you for bringing her a present."

"That's okay."

"And I'm sorry for being rude to you before. Not just now, I mean. In general, with all the prefect stuff."

"Oh. Well, I was giving you a tough time about the prefect stuff, so I'm sorry, too. It's just that being Head Boy is really hard work, and usually there would be two people to do it because of the Head Girl, but there isn't one this year. I'm glad about that, because it would be wrong for it to be someone who isn't Rowan, but even so..." Corey swallowed and shook his head. "Look. I don't want us to not like each other. I'd like us to be friends, if that's okay with you."

Artemis nodded her head. "Yeah. I think Rowan would have liked us to be friends."

"So do I."

"I should probably warn you, though," Artemis said, grimacing slightly. "Friends of mine do tend to get caught up in weird mysteries. I hope you don't mind that."

"Oh, no. I love mysteries!" Corey's eyes lit up. "Especially mystery novels. Actually, the present for Rowan is a mystery novel, I don't know if you've heard of the Detective Files of Conebush and Persimmons?"

Artemis had heard of the book, but she did not respond to Corey's question, because in that moment, she heard something else: footsteps. From the look on Corey's face, she could tell that he had heard them, too.

Both she and Corey turned to look in the direction of the footsteps, and saw that a cloaked figure was making their way across the grounds, towards the Whomping Willow, which started to stir as it was approached. But before they were within reach of the tree's violent branches, the person in the cloak stopped, and crouched down to the ground, releasing something small and dark, which ran along the ground and disappeared beneath the tree's roots. Artemis squinted, and as she saw the small creature emerge, her jaw dropped.

"Isn't that the Niffler who stole all the valuables from around the castle?" Corey whispered, as the creature - which did look suspiciously like Sickleworth - scampered back towards the cloaked figure. "Who is that with him?"

"I think that might be the person who's been passing messages to R - the Cabal who are after the Cursed Vaults," Artemis explained, also whispering. "I thought it might be Victor Ketsueki-"

"But he's not here at the moment!"

"Exactly. It must be someone else, then. Someone who's here for the holidays."

"But that means it's one of our friends," Corey frowned. "Wait. How do you know that someone is passing messages to this Cabal?"

Artemis looked carefully at the item Sickleworth was handing to the cloaked figure. They weren't close enough to know for certain, but it really did look like a white quill. She turned to Corey and raised one eyebrow as she whispered to him:

"So, exactly how much do you like mysteries?"