Saturday, September 11th:

MENTE STRAE:

So far the school term had not been nice to Draco.

Where he once found solace, now became another cold home to which he so desperately wanted to escape.

He had no one else to blame but himself so he just kept digging more holes, that he couldn't climb out of.

Soon he would be in a grave, since feet under, trying to escape but his cowardice and pride will continue to drag him down.

He had heard that Pansy had been in the infirmary due to an injury she had somehow acquired whilst running into Artemis on Friday.

When the Parkinson witch had returned she showcased her sling that she wore with pride, bragging to him how she shared a similar injury.

He thought she was truly insane.

Daphne put an end to her boasting, presenting to everyone that she had been healed by the nurse, who had used Artemis' spell, just like Draco had been too.

The blonde witch couldn't stand their 'pairing', she knew it was nothing but a one-sided infatuation that Draco played into, just to spite Artemis.

She found it overbearing and wanted to put an end to it because she could see how much it was hurting her best friend, but Artemis had told her to leave it alone, as she didn't want to come across as controlling.

The Seramore witch didn't want to be hypocritical, so she let Draco carry on with his stupid revenge idea because he was only making things worse for himself.

He was doing the exact thing that Artemis told him to work on.

The exact thing she needed space from.

Idiot.

Artemis almost blamed herself for how he was behaving, perhaps if she didn't ride the bloody hippogriff in the first place their group would still be whole.

She and Draco might've been dating, or even had an understanding, something that their parents have been subtly pushing since their birth.

She often blamed herself for many things that were out of her control, including this situation.

Luckily she had time to spend with her best friend today.

Artemis and Daphne, we're walking towards Mente Strae, it was only around 7 pm and they had just finished their potions essay that Professor Snape had assigned.

The two witches felt exhausted and the school year had only started 2 weeks ago.

Once they had walked up the long flight of stairs which directed people to the astronomy room, Daphne peeked around the corner making sure no one made sure could see Artemis place her hand on the wall and mutter the password.

Once the door revealed itself, the two witches stepped back and entered the room quickly as they didn't want to get into trouble or be caught.

As they made their way into the room, they noticed that there was a potent smell in the air, which wafted into their faces.

Blaise and Theo stood by the tables that contained many plants, they kept their eyes glued to them, spraying them with bug repellent, and neither noticed the other presence in the room.

Well, that was until Artemis cleared her throat, The two wizards dropped their spray bottles of water as soon they cursed themselves for not locking the room.

"Merda." shit. Blaise cursed as he and Theo quickly stood in front of the table that the two witches walked toward with crossed arms.

Artemis raised her brow, "What are you guys doing?"

Daphne's jaw dropped when she caught a peek of the plant-filled table, "Is that..."

"Lilies." Theo blurted out, cringing when he realised his excuse wasn't as strong as he thought.

Blaise narrowed his eyes at the boy, "Lilies T? Really?"

"Fine, it's a natural herb."

"Weed." the witches deadpanned.

The stench was stronger than most plants that they had made contact with.

"A natural herb," Theo repeated, a smile tugged at his lips, as well as Blaise's.

Artemis looked at her cousin with wide eyes, "You're growing weed in here?"

"No it's in the great hall," he scoffed, "yes in here."

"Explain," the two witches said in unison and made their way towards the bean bags as they no longer wanted to stand up.

Luckily the bags were directly in front of the tables where the two wizards stood.

Theo and Blaise shared a look, before the latter began to speak, "First it was a joke that Theo suggested and then it turned into a great idea."

Theo shot him a glare, "Wow, so now you give me credit?"

Blaise hummed with a smug grin, "You're welcome." Theo scoffed and started to cut the drug from its roots.

Artemis tried to wrap her head around the entire situation, the table plants had seemed to have grown quickly, meaning the boys must've Done this before summer started, if not longer.

"So how long have you guys been planning this?" Daphne spoke up, her eyes stayed on her boyfriend, who felt guilty under her heated gaze.

"I've thought about it since we found the place." He answered honestly, almost a year ago, "And since Draco was being a wanker," he added, noticing the twitch in his cousin's eye at the mention of the Malfoy wizard.

"Snowbunny." Theo corrected, causing the girls to snicker.

Blaise nodded in agreement, "Yes since the snowbunny was and is still being a wanker, I told T about it, then we joked around and thought why not." He shrugged and leaned on one of the plant-filled tables.

Theo hummed, as he started packaging the drug, "Plus no one sells weed at this wizarding school."

Everyone was slightly aware that there was drug activity in Ilvermony, which was in North America and Uagadou in Uganda.

"They tried but failed and always get caught." The Zabini wizard said with a smirk, resulting in his girlfriend's heart fluttering.

"Alcohol and other random things are usually the only contraband you get at this school."

"We saw a gap in the market and obviously we wouldn't sell it normally because that would be way too obvious, so we thought that if we put it in food-"

Artemis gasped, a look of realisation spread across her face, "Wait, is this why you guys were talking to the Weasley twins?" She noticed that they had been having hushed conversations any time they entered the great hall, "And why did you guys keep baking random things during the summer?" She originally thought that her cousin and Theo wanted to brush up on their baking skills, but now she knew she was wrong.

Daphne looked at her boyfriend with an impressed expression, although she was slightly annoyed that he didn't tell her, she knew he had a good reason.

She also wanted to get out of the room before the stench attached itself to her attire if it hadn't already.

The boys nodded as they started labelling different bags that they had placed the plants into, "And Lee, yes, they agreed to help us sell." Blaise replied, "And we had to practice our baking skills and aunt Cissy helped, she thought I was baking a pie for mum and Aunty Celly's birthday." They all laughed.

Artemis shared an impressed look with Daphne before she slouched in the beanbag chair, "Damn."

"I know right." The blonde witch was surprised they managed to do this without getting caught or alerting too much attention to their scheming.

It also made sense that whenever Blaise snuck off with Theo last year, they had been planning this.

"I mean I never thought you guys would do this, but I guess it's smart." Artemis teased, the boys playfully scoffed and began counting the bags they had placed in front of them.

Daphne placed her elbows on her knees, as her eyes darted between the wizards, "You haven't smoked have you?"

"Not yet." The boys replied with a small chuckle, they had wanted to but didn't want to indulge in anything that could lead to an addiction.

Blaise sighed, "But what we need is the Hufflepuff's to start buying from us."

Artemis' eyes widened momentarily, "Wait, why?" She had only one Don meeting this term, it was only to briefly discuss Sirius Black, and if either of them had seen any sitings of the escaped prisoner.

Theo chuckled, "Because most of them are weed smokers, they just hide it well."

"I might be able to help with that," Artemis replied, keeping her eyes on her ring, feeling a tug at her heart when she started to wonder if Draco still wore his.

Daphne noticed that she was starting to get lost in her own mind, and gave her a reassuring smile, which she returned.

Blaise cocked his head to the side, "You have connections? Why am I not surprised."

She shrugged, "I can use them but not at least for a while..." she trailed off, not sure if she wanted to use her one favour from the Don's on this situation or something else.

"Understandable." The wizards replied in unison, that they were not in a rush, but they did want to make some money, their own money, despite the ethical problems that came with it.

But whoever became rich from being ethical?

When the boys finished their organising, they stood in front of the witches with a nervous look, "So....are you guys okay with this." Theo asked nervously.

The witches shared another look, both tilting their hands to the side, almost as if they were having a conversation, causing the boys to shift in their stance.

Daphne decided to speak up first, "As long as you don't get hurt, caught or addicted then we're fine."

"And don't sell to anyone in our year or below," Artemis added, because she knew about the snitches in their years there were too many of them, especially in their house as well as Gryffindor.

The wizards grinned, "Deal."

"Have you guys thought of the name of this little enterprise?" Artemis questioned.

Daphne also had many more questions, "How much you would sell them for?"

Theo grimaced, "No, to both of those questions, we were kinda hoping that you could figure those out now that you two know." He said with a weak smile and Blaise pouted, the girls giggled.

Artemis playfully rolled her eyes, "Lazy."

"Shut up." Blaise flipped the girls off, mainly his cousin, who returned the gesture, "But also please help."

"Please," Theo whined.

They all looked to Artemis in anticipation, "I also have another idea." she said with a smirk.

"We're Listening."

***

Monday, September 13th

LIBRARY:

Since the aftermath of the DADA lesson, many people have heard about the pureblood 5 break-up.

Well, Artemis wouldn't describe it as a breakup, more as a break, because that is what she told Draco she wanted, she didn't realise he would take it so badly.

She wanted to work on herself, and she couldn't have his controlling nature, restricting her from doing so.

She knew he was acting out more than usual to hurt her, or himself, but she couldn't decipher his true motives, because she wasn't completely focused on his character.

However, since he didn't defend his own godfather's name when Pansy tried to publicly embarrass her, she knew that there was no point in trying to defend his actions.

She simply didn't want to spend time with him anymore.

And that was clear to many people, including Cassius Warrington.

The 4th year wizard continuously tried to ask her out on dates, despite the many times she turned him down.

Marcus Flint saw his many attempts and threatened to take him off the team if he carried on with his harassment.

Artemis appreciated Marcus, not because he was her captain, but because he wasn't a creep like the majority of boys she had encountered.

Despite the hostility and spiteful words he spat during training, he was surprisingly a very caring boy.

She saw him as a big brother, which he of course knew so he wanted to try and protect her, without coming across as a controlling prick.

Speaking of unexpected and irritating things, Professor Snape had thought it was a great idea to have his top student help the 'chosen one' with his studies since he was so clearly failing his class.

Dumbledore thought that Harry needed guidance, and who better than a Seramore?

Snape also didn't want to show her too much favouritism so he enforced the headmaster's decision.

Artemis was not amused when she received the news especially since she was already dealing with many different things.

She had Don meetings.

Quidditch training.

Essays and other assignments.

And overall being a Seramore.

She told Harry as soon as they sat down, she told him that she will teach him the basics because it was clear he still couldn't figure out if aconite and wolfsbane, were the same plant.

The two had been getting on with the work quite well, well she thought she was, he occasionally stared at her for too long, losing his place in his textbook.

Many people looked at the two 3rd years in confusion, they couldn't comprehend why a Slytherin and Gryffindor student would get along, especially a Seramore.

Artemis was fine with being around Harry, he had never aggravated her too much...

Well, that was until he started pestering her with questions that had nothing to do with potions.

"Fine Harold, you get 3 minutes to ask your questions and then after that we work, is that clear?" she slammed her book shut startling him.

He nodded ecstatically, and moved his books and notes to the side, "Crystal," he exhaled sharply, "umm so, I wanted to ask you about your boggart." he began to play with his fingers, avoiding her hardened gaze.

He regretted his statement when he didn't hear her response.

He hadn't really been able to get her decaying father out of his mind, so he wanted to put his distress to rest.

She tensed at his words, not that he noticed, "What about it?" she sat back in her chair, suppressing a smirk, noticing how uncomfortable he was getting.

"I know that it was your father, so I guess my question is, do you know how he died?"
he blurted out and slowly looked at up her, trying to read her expression, but it still appeared to be stoic.

He knew that he was getting personal with his questioning, especially since they were clearly not friends, hardly even acquaintances, however, he was more interested in her than studying.

Ever since he had seen her boggart, he had felt nothing but pity for the Seramore girl, however, he tried to not look at her with those sympathetic eyes, knowing he also got irritated whenever someone did the same to him.

Yes, he thought it was odd to bond with someone over a loss, but he often thought back to their first interaction, in the robe store, back when they didn't know each other's names when they were nothing but two 11-year-olds.

How she defended him against Draco who was his usual insensitive self.

Whenever he would hear about the terrible accusations about her group, let alone her house, the words she spoke in his defence would warm his heart and spread a rosy-tinted glint to his cheeks.

Her heartbeat increased, as she thought back to the tragic memory, "He was tortured to death and left to decompose in the forest, by my house which was covered in snow because it was Christmas." she told him what she could remember feeling in her nightmares.

His shoulders slumped and he shot her a sad look, "Oh."

"Yeah." she nodded stiffly, she briefly looked around, noticing older students' heated stares at her, she scoffed and looked back at Harry.

The potter wizard shot them all a disgusted look and they all turned away.

He hoped that was not how he came across whenever he stared at Artemis for too long.

"How old were you when it happened?" he questioned.

"7 almost 8," she responded, her body shivered at the thought, she only had another 3 months before she had to relive the events all over again in her dreams.

"I'm sorry." he had no idea what else to say.

"Don't be I barely remember it," she lied.

"Umm," he looked at the clock, wondering how much time he had left, panicking when he only had less than a minute left, "where were you when it happened?"

"At home, with my mother, she was the one who found the body," she informed him, ignoring the ache in her chest as she spoke, "I just remember her screaming and then my aunt arrived along with my cousin and that was it," she concluded.

"That sounds awful, "He cringed at his chose of words, she shrugged in response, "luckily I was only a baby, so I don't remember much when my parents were murdered."

At the mention of his parents, he felt his scar throb, he winced but decided to ignore it.

He often tried to think of it as their last gift to him, instead of a curse from 'you-know-who'.

she sighed sadly, "Memories can be a blessing and a curse," he nodded slowly, "just like it's a blessing and curse that you can remove your own memories, as can someone else." she recited the words her mother used to say.

He frowned and leaned forward on the desk, "What do you mean by that?"

She looked down at her nails and started inspecting them, "Something my mother used to say to me, whenever I would get lost in my own mind." she clasped her hands together, "right, Potter you have run out of time." she grinned at his annoyed expression.

He tried stopping her from opening his textbook, "Just one more." he pleaded.

"Ugh." she looked at him in disgust.

"Just one more question please."

She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, "Fine."

"How did you know that was what he looked like if you didn't see him die?"

Before she could answer his absurd question, her cousin appeared behind Harry, slamming his hands on the younger wizard's chair, who was startled by his presence.

"You alright Potter? you look like you've seen a ghost." he laughed when he saw Harry place a hand on his chest.

"Zabini." the Potter boy drawled in irritation.

Blaise Chuckled, causing his cousin to smile, "That is my last name, well done," he clapped sarcastically, and then looked at Artemis, "Daph is getting bored and wants to know long you will be."

The Greengrass witch had been helping her sister with her homework, even though she didn't want to, but their parents blackmailed her into doing so.

"Like 15 minutes." she nodded towards the clock, noting the sullen expression on Harry's face.

He had actual leant quite a lot with Artemis' help.

Although he knew he would be teased for admitting it out loud, he liked spending time with her.

Blaise groaned and sat on the table, pushing their work towards to the side, ignoring the complaints from the 'chosen one', "that's basically an hour, I guess I'll wait."

The cousins began engaging in a conversation, Harry observed them as they slipped in a few Italian words.

He loved Artemis' accent, Blaise of course noticed this but decided to tease him on a later date.

Harry even managed to joke with them for a while.

He had never thought he would be laughing with anyone from Slytherin's house, but they reminded him that he could've been placed in their house, so he should wear that with pride and not embarrassment.

They stopped their discussion about other supernatural creatures when they heard an obnoxious and rather loud giggle.

They all turned to look at the source and noticed Pansy standing with Draco, who wore a scowl on his face when he saw Harry sitting by the cousins.

The pair had been standing in the library since Blaise arrived, however, no one seemed to notice.

Draco had been observing everything, he overheard Ron complaining that Harry had to spend time with Artemis, during breakfast.

He just had to see it for himself, because he knew better than to trust the words of a Weasley.

He couldn't believe that Blaise was also entertaining the 'chosen one'.

He felt betrayed.

He knew that Blaise didn't care for Harry, so he couldn't understand why he was in the boy's presence.

It didn't make any sense to him.

He must be punishing me, Draco concluded, feeling more hurt spreading through his body.

So he did something he never thought he would, he grabbed Pansy's face, intending to kiss her cheek, but at the last second, she placed her lips on his.

Gasps filled up the library at the sight.

Even the librarian was uncomfortable.

The room wasn't packed, but at least each table was almost filled up.

This would definitely spread around the school like a fire.

It took Draco three seconds before he realised what was happening, he abruptly pushed the Parkinson witch away, she stumbled and used a table to hold her up.

Pansy squealed with joy, whilst Draco wiped his lips in disgust.

He didn't mean for that to happen...he just had his first kiss.

A kiss he was saving for Artemis.

Harry's eyes widened, and a grimace appeared on his face before he looked toward the Seramore witch.

Artemis' lips parted in shock, She couldn't tear her eyes away from the two Slytherins.

It was as if, her heart stopped and time suspended above her.

She knew he was being vengeful by having Pansy in his company.

But their kiss meant, that all his letters, poems, presents and gestures, clearly didn't mean the same to him as they did to her.

Maybe she wasn't supposed to be the Wendy his Peter.

Artemis wasn't trying to make him jealous.

She would never intentionally hurt him.

She gulped harshly and blinked back the tears that pooled in her eyes.

She didn't want anyone to see her cry over a boy who wasn't worth her tears.

She couldn't.

She wasn't fragile like a flower, she was fragile like a bomb, that clearly everyone was desperate to set off.

So she hastily gathered her belongings and stormed out of the room, not sparing a look at the platinum-haired boy.

Draco panicked, his chest heaved up and down, he went to stop his Arty, but Pansy tried to hold him back, he easily escaped her grasp.

She whined when he made his way towards the exit.

But before he could leave the room, Blaise harshly grabbed his 'injured' arm, he winced at the contact.

"don't even think about going after her," the older wizard spoke in a low tone, shocking the room.

Blaise is scary when he's mad, but even scarier when he's calm and collected when he's angry.

Draco gulped and moved back, ignoring the eyes that were on them, he felt so small under his best friend's harsh gaze. "B, Let me say sor-"

"No." Blaise said sternly, "eat glass," he motioned between him and a grinning Pansy. "Both of you."

The Zabini wizard shot Harry a nod, the Potter wizard watched the encounter in anticipation, forgetting about his work completely.

He was surprised that Blaise even acknowledged him, perhaps it was just to get under Draco's skin, but he still appreciated it.

He watched as the Malfoy wizard look down in shame, as Blaise began to run after his cousin.

Draco quickly put on his cold facade, shook off Pansy and shot glares at everyone in the room, and then left, "Merda." shit. He muttered, "I'm an idiot."

***

END OF PART 1

a/n:

i am in no way condoning drugs or underage selling or smoking. it was just something I could see Theo and Blaise doing.

their little operation will impact the rest of the act and a couple more after that.

i wanted to have another hartemis moment, because they had not have had a scene alone, since act 1. harry has huge crush on her, she's aware of it. he doesn't realsie how manipulative and cunning she can be.

btw draco's first kiss was pansy, whether it was intentional or not.

guys I'm writing two books at once, this one as well as a stiles stilinski book. I wrote 5 chapters for the first part of this act, then I did 5 for the teen wolf book. Bare with me.

check that one out when I publish it on Monday.

I told you this act will piss you off, there are 15 more chapters left.

how do you feel?