Mid-October 1993:

TROPHY ROOM:

Iziah and Zacharias Jones.

The names of the two wizards that stood in front of Artemis in the trophy room of the school.

It was an odd location for the three of them to meet, but the boys suggested it.

Artemis didn't have a problem with the room she had spotted a couple of medals that had her name engraved on them as well as some of her relatives.

Whether they were for her astounding discovery or even recent spell development, she adored the way she was presented on the rewards, but of course, she had to act humble.

it was around 10 o'clock and of course Flinch had already made his rounds and luckily for the three students, they didn't get caught.

Sneaking in and out of places was Artemis' speciality.

The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them, illuminating each engraved syllable. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked at each other, revelling in its glory, standing tall at each person that walked by.

It shone the silver and gold that coated the materials, despite it being dark, they were recognisable. It must be why the room was always unlocked, always welcome and always proud.

Awards, trophies, cups, plates, shields, statues, and medals were kept in crystal glass displays in this room, protected from the clumsy and light-fingered.

The list of previous and current Head Boys and Head Girls was prominently displayed along with the Hogwarts Awards for Services to the School, with known recipients being Tom Riddle and a variety of students.

Artemis felt as if she recognised the name when she saw it, but she couldn't place the wizard, so she shrugged off the odd feeling.

"So what have we done to be blessed with your company Princess?" Iziah spoke up first; the younger of the two brothers.

His hair contained more curls, whilst his skin was tanned, some might say. It complimented his brown eyes and pearly white teeth that he commonly showed off.

Artemis thought had was similar to Blaise and Theo; cheeky and flirty, but just slightly older.

Zacharias smiled warmly and nodded, "Yeah, what does a pure-blood want with us?"

The older brother was naturally sweet and laid back, his skin was on the lighter side, almost fair, small moles decorated his skin like a constellation that wanted to be formed but couldn't.

His hazel eyes moved when she did, but never in a creepy way, but only protective.

Zacharias was only 3 inches shorter than his younger brother, standing at 5"8, but they were both drastically taller than the Seramore witch.

"I assumed Alana already told you." Artemis shrugged, her eyes darted between the two.

She noticed the matching amber coloured bracelets that encircled their wrists. Small 'H's' decorated the material.

The two boys had athletic builds, however, Zacharias was on the Quidditch team with Cedric, whereas his brother was not.

He was a chaser, very skilled in his position, despite getting injured alot, he was glad when he heard about the new healing spell, which reduced the pain he felt after each training section.

"She did but we want to hear it from you." the younger 'twin' teased with a cheeky grin spreading across his face.

His eyes didn't leave the witch, he obviously thought she was beautiful and due to rumours, he knew she was devious and cunning, playing into the Slytherin stereotype.

She cocked her head to the side, "Why is that?"

"I like the sound of your voice."

She scoffed, a ghost of a smile tugged at her lips, "Most people do." the boys chuckled, "My cousin and close friend want to start a business and Alana thought you two could help." she hoped that her one favour from the Dons wouldn't come back to bite her in the arse.

Artemis somewhat trusted the Dons, therefore she had to trust their discussions and recommendations as well.

"And that business is?" Iziah asked innocently, he shared a cheeky smile with his brother.

She clicked her tongue, "A certain natural herb."

He clasped his hands behind his back, "Ahhh the princess wants that kind of help."

"Merlin's beard," she muttered.

"We could help you..." he trailed off.

"But?" she asked calmly, trying to not seem impatient.

"How do we know you want to scam us?" Zacharias spoke up, his bother nodded in agreement.

"Because I don't steal." blaise does. But I don't. She thought, "And why would I need to make an enemy out of you two?" she pointed between them.

Iziah hummed, "That's what we would like to find out."

His brother scoffed and playfully nudged him, "It isn't, he's just bored." he chuckled and Artemis smiled.

"Zach shut up." Iziah rolled his eyes and nudged his brother.

"What it's true." Zacharias shrugged, he knew how his brother acted, he often entertained it, "I'll be glad to help you, Zay is just annoying."

"I can see that." Artemis quipped, ignoring the frown that appeared on the younger jones brother's face.

"Hey," Iziah exclaimed, looking between the two of them, wearing an unamused expression.

His brother shrugged, "It's true." he said honestly, getting a small laugh out of the Seramore witch.

She found the two wizards to be entertaining, she wondered if this is how it looked whenever people were around her and her cousin.

"Your dad's genes are strong," she commented, noticing the similarities between them.

Even if they were not brothers, it was clear that they were related.

They grinned at her words, Zacharias slung his arm around his brother, "Yep he also gave me this little one."

Iziah fake gagged and moved out of his hold, "You are literally older by 12 minutes calm down Zach."

"Best 12 minutes of my life."

"Shut up Zach."

"Artemis carry on before my brother has a nervous breakdown," Zacharias said, knowing that if they continued squabbling they would get nowhere.

Artemis crossed her arms and leaned against a wall she stood in front of, "The Weasley twins and Lee will also be in on this." she informed, both of the boy's brows ross out of curiosity.

"Gryffindors?" they asked in unison, before staring at each other in disgust, they loathed when they spoke at the same time, but judging from the smirk on the witch's face, she enjoyed it.

"We're friends with those three." the younger brother told her.

They had gotten along since they had started Hogwarts, the wizards often hung out together in the public eye, but it attracted a lot of heat from the teachers, because they always got up to no good, resulting in many detentions.

"That doesn't surprise me." she mused.

"Why?"

"Because you seem like you cause trouble," she replied instantly, making them smile.

"And from what I heard about you, you like to get your hands dirty." Iziah's eyes shone with a mischievous glint.

"It's how I get things done." she shrugged.

"Intriguing."

Zacharias nodded along, "What does your boyfriend say about you talking to Hufflepuffs?" his question made her cringe.

"I don't have one," she said bluntly.

It was obvious to her, to who Zacharias was referring.

Draco.

She didn't want to think about him, knowing it would only result in someone getting cursed.

Her heart clenched at the thought of him, so she attempted to shake off the disheartened feeling, something that the brothers caught on to.

"Snowflake seems like he's your gatekeeper." Iziah quipped absentmindedly, his brother nudged him to stop speaking, noting how her demeanour changed.

"Not anymore." she drawled, squinting her eyes.

"Lucky for the dozens of students who have a crush on you." he joked.

She sighed tiredly, "Good thing I'm not looking at any of them."

"Why is that?" he pressed before he was whacked on the back of his head, making him hiss out in pain.

Artemis chuckled at Zacharias' action, making her favour the boy over his brother.

She also noticed that he talked less and observed more, something that Iziah did the opposite.

"Can we stick to the subject?" the older brother asked rashly.

She went to respond but was cut off by Iziah, "No," he ignored his brother's glare and turned back to the girl, "so you're single brown eyes?."

"brown eyes?" she eyed him, growing tiresome of his flirting.

"What? You have pretty eyes." he shrugged, brown eyes are superior.

"You never tell me that," Zacharias whined dramatically, wanting to aggravate his brother, whilst simultaneously making the witch laugh, he succeeded at both.

"Shut up Zach."

"Arsehole." they both pushed one another, narrowingly avoiding the trophy cases, once they finished their little fight, they turned back to the grinning witch, "but now seriously I don't want to get caught and I have snacks waiting for me, so we kind of need to wrap this up Artemis." Zacharias pleaded, she nodded along.

Iziah narrowed his eyes at the two, before his gaze settled on the girl, "Dont listen to him, he just had a feast in our room."

"Well, I want another one."

Artemis cut off their dispute, "You remind me of Theo." she said, looking directly at the older brother.

"I'll take that as a compliment."Zacharias' face lit up, "especially since he's fit."

"You should and he is." she agreed, thinking that they would make a good pair.

"Okay, back to you." he chuckled, "how will this operation be managed?"

Artemis' eyes darted between them, "You two will have to discuss those matters with my cousin." she didn't want to dedicate all her time to the operation that Blaise and Theo started.

She wanted to help, but she had many other things she had to do.

"Blaise is fit too." Zacharias quipped innocently, his brother smirked and shook his head, as did Artemis.

"He's taken Zach," she informed him, he smiled warmly at the name she used to address him.

Only his friends called him 'Zach', initially he thought she would be stuck up and rude, but he tried not to stereotype based on houses.

He thought she was a brilliant witch, despite her age, it also helped that she was pretty to look at.

"I can still look." he shrugged.

Iziah nodded in agreement, "Hmm same." his eyes locked onto hers, she grew flustered under his gaze.

Zacharias scoffed, "Idiot."

The witch cleared her throat, "Anyways, I'll let Alana know any more details, then we'll be in business." she made her way towards the door, brushing past the two wizards.

Iziah grinned as he watched her leave, "It was a pleasure Brown eyes."

"Bye boys." she waved them goodbye, hastily leaving the room, walking softly away and shutting the door.

It was as if she disappeared into thin air, the door barely closed, shocking the boys.

"I didn't even see her leave, bloody hell." Zacharias commented, it was like he blinked and she was gone, "She's pretty and nice." he was stilled stunned by her quiet departure.

"Scary and beautiful more like." his brother commented, turning back to where she once stood.

"Do you like her?" Zacharias could tell whenever he had a crush, especially because subtlety was not one of his traits.

Iziah's tongue poked the side of his mouth, "Come on brother, you know I don't mix business and pleasure."

"Such a liar." they both started to laugh.

"What? I don't." the younger jones witch shrugged innocently.

"Rumour has it you do."

"Oh shut up."

***

Mid-October 1993

MENTE STRAE:

It had a been a couple of days since Artemis' meeting with the Jones 'twins', she had then informed her cousin as well as Theo about the wizards.

The Nott boy was apprehensive about meeting Hufflepuff's so he let Blaise talk to them instead.

Theo wasn't comfortable with people outside of his house, his discomfort was evident every time he walked around the school grounds.

Blaise didn't mind the Jones Boys, Zacharias had flirted with him, whilst he had swapped quips with Iziah.

He could tell by the way Iziah's eyes lit up at the mention of his cousin, that he had some sort of affection towards the witch.

Blaise of course didn't care about the crush, but he made sure to threaten the 4th year student about the consequences of hurting his cousin. Iziah was taken back by the threat, but he took it seriously due to the calm tone that Blaise used.

The group of Slytherins, Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors had settled on the name 'Divine Dream' because according to certain buyers, many people had believed they felt nothing but bliss when they entered a drug-induced state, especially because Daphne had suggested using the tranquillity charm.

The charm had relaxed the body and allowed their peers to work efficiently.

It was truly heaven.

So the 'Divinity group' was finally official, but obviously, they kept the whole business to themselves.

Blaise and Artemis were cooped up in their family room, she sat at one of the vacant tables, catching up on some new tactics that Marcus had advised her to use during the next training session. Quidditch had allowed her to use her anger in efficient ways, her position had allowed her to easily avoid Draco due to her agility.

The Malfoy wizard still tried to get her attention as did other members of the team, especially Warrington. But she remained focused and didn't let any of them get to her.

Blaise sat in front of her studying her tense demeanour, the cousins hadn't spoken a lot recently, not intentionally, they had both been busy.

He cleared his throat, making her snap her head towards him, "So I know you know about you know..." he trailed off.

"You and Daph?" He nodded, "yeah it was obvious." she scoffed and turned a page in her Quidditch book.

He settled his elbows on the table and leaned over slightly, "Are you mad?"

"Why does everyone I would've been mad?" She snapped. She was tired of the assumptions, she just wanted honesty, well from people she has love for.

"Because of that," he joked but stopped smiling when he saw the glare on her face, he sighed as he sat back in his chair, "fine, I thought you wouldn't like the idea of me and Daph being together."

She squinted her eyes at her cousin, "But why?"

"Change."

Her face scrunched up in confusion, "What?"

"You can't handle change." he shrugged as his fingers fiddled with the ring that fit perfectly around his finger.

He sometimes forgot about its placement, almost as if the piece of jewellery was a part of him, just like his wand, well, whenever he and Artemis hadn't accidentally swapped their wands, luckily it only happened twice this term.

She rolled her eyes and sat back in her chair, mirroring his body language, "I can." her studying was long forgotten.

Their eyes locked onto each other, "You can't but you act like you can and then keep all your feelings to yourself." he blurted out, her breath hitched at his words.

He knew he wasn't wrong, it was a trait that most of his family held, even though he was guilty of it.

But he wouldn't let his emotions get to him, he worked with and not against them.

She felt her throat go dry, "I..."

He cocked his head to the side, "You do that, don't think I don't notice." he huffed out a laugh, "I didn't want my relationship with your best friend to impact you negatively, it was dumb and I'm sorry for assuming the worst, but I always have your best interest at heart." he said softly.

"I know." she turned away from his gaze.

"Do you?"

"Yes," she spoke uncertainly.

She knew he would never intentionally hurt her, she appreciated that, but it still irked her that he thought she would react badly.

He swallowed harshly, "Then why does it feel like you never tell me your real feelings anymore?"

She snapped her gaze to his and scoffed, "And you do?"

"If you ask I will." he turned his hands out. After all, he wasn't an overly emotional person, only if he wanted to get laughs out of people, but he was not opposed to expressing how he felt.

He thought it was his duty as the oldest in their group to be well measured and as much as his cousin seemed to do the same, he knew it wasn't the case for her. From his point of view, his cousin was very deceiving to the point she even believe the persona she played.

"Okay, How do you feel about Draco?" she asked with an exacerbated sigh.

She didn't want to mention him or anyone else, she knew that was selfish for her to ask, especially since he wasn't just her best friend, but her cousin's as well.

Especially since they've been together since they were born.

Blaise pondered for a moment, "He hurt me." he exhaled deeply, she was taken back by his honesty, "He's hurting me and I feel like I've lost a brother." he bowed his head as he continued to speak, "And there was nothing I could do to stop it."

He felt defeated as if the world weighed on his shoulders and all his attempts to defuse the tension and restore his internal balance were futile.

Of course, he didn't present his disheartened feelings to everyone, but he knew his closest friends spotted the increase of the frowns that grazed his face.

Artemis reached over and placed her hand over his, their rings trailed over each over, "I'm sorry."

You could've stopped this, she couldn't escape those words.  She honestly wished she asked more about how her cousin felt about the situation, instead she threw herself back into busying herself. She knew blaming herself wouldn't help anyone, let alone her, but those four words played over like a loop in her mind.

Blaise placed his other hand over hers, clutching onto it, warmth spread his body, "Don't be, his pride will be the death of him," he let out a breathy laugh, "you know he doesn't even say good morning to me and Theo anymore?" he shook his head as if he were denying that it wasn't true.

"B..."

"Theo told me he didn't care but I know he does, the room just feels cold."

Everyone knew that whenever Theo felt stressed or upset, he would either binge on food or he would just avoid it as a whole, Blaise had to make sure that his close friend eat each meal just to be safe.

Their dormitory's atmosphere wasn't the same anymore, even the transfigured stars that clung to their ceiling didn't wink down at them anymore.

Almost like the constellations matched their mood.

"Does he even look at you?" Artemis asked cautiously.

"Rarely," he struggled to reply, "I thought he would get out of his little mood after a week or two but no."

The only thing that stopped Blaise from losing his mind was the fact that Draco continued to wear his b.a.d ring, almost like he refused to take it off. Good, Blaise was glad that it still clung to his finger, it was a subtle way that told him to still have hope.

He had also found out that Draco had been ranting about trying to get the Hippogriff killed, Blaise thought it was absurd but chose to mind his business.

"I'm-"

"Don't even apologise, it's not your fault that he's a prick." he quickly shut her down, knowing that she feels responsible for all the terrible events this year.

"Feels like it is," she muttered, she felt him squeeze her hand.

"Girls are responsible for the actions of boys." he recited the words that his mother drilled into him, "Society is a bitch and loves to tell us that but it's wrong." therefore he ignored most of the norms that were laid out for most of them.

She nodded stiffly, "He hates me."

Blaise rolled his shoulders back and clenched his jaw at the mere thought, "He doesn't, he would never, he acts like it's your fault or even my fault, he will act like that for other reasons that have nothing to do with us."

Male pride is a powerful thing.

"I don't understand him anymore," she exclaimed, she didn't realise that her leg was shaking. Was Draco acting out because he's hurt or was it just motiveless malignity? She couldn't figure it out.

Part of her didn't want to because the more she thought about it, the more she knew his recent behaviour was reality and not some nightmare she had conjured up.

"He's just like you, he's stuck in his mind."

Her eyes widened, "Really?"

"Yes, but we should stop making excuses, he doesn't even defend us, so why should we do the same."

Artemis could see the pain that flashed across his eyes.

"Because he's family." she reasoned.

He let out an exacerbated sigh, "Just because he's family, doesn't give him the right to hurt you or me."

Just because blood is thicker than water, doesn't mean the pain would hurt less, in fact, it only caused more emotional scars.

The two sat back and let the silence bask over them.

You don't get to choose your family, but you do get to choose how they are allowed to treat you.

Artemis knew that the reason why she felt so strong was because of the people that were around her.

The heart knows when it's given too many chances, perhaps Draco had used his last one.

"When did you get so wise B?" she asked after a while.

"It only happens around certain people," he teased, "feels weird though." he dramatically shivered, making her laugh.

"It suits you." she jokingly quipped.

He lunged across the table and playfully shoved her back, "Take that back."

"Never."

"Ugh, so annoying." he joined in the laughter.

It was rare for the two of them to find time to just spend it in only the others company. Neither knew much the other had missed moments like this. The sad thing is, they didn't know when the next time they would have something like this... just the two of them.

Luckily they were going to spend the summer together in New Orleans with their mothers.

Theo had been offered to come along as did Daphne, but the blonde witch had prior engagements with her family, whereas the Nott wizard was unsure if he even wanted to go home.

"Can I ask you something?" her voice snapped him out of the moment of glee.

He raised his brows in amusement, "Since when do you ask for anything?" they chuckled, "shoot." he motioned for her to continue.

"What do you think about our future?" she subconsciously dwindled her fingers.

"You're wondering if 'we'll fly too close to the sun'?" he joked but she heard the anxiousness in his tone.

She felt her chest tighten, "That stupid prophecy." she spat out. Although she hadn't given much thought to the words spoken in their divination lesson, it still worried her. "Do you think it's true?" she hesitantly looked into his eyes, seeing a flash of panic overwhelm his iris'.

He licked his lips, before nodding, "Parts of it," they both cringed, "but we still have time to rewrite our fate." he said optimistically.

She blinked slowly, "Do we?"

"I believe we do," he spoke softly, he rose from his chair and walked around the table, "I won't let you get hurt Arty." she mirrored his actions.

"I know." she sniffled, "I won't let you get hurt B." he quickly wrapped his arms around her shoulders and brought her into a warm embrace.

He towered over his baby cousin, they both liked it that way.  He felt her arms encircled around his waist, he smiled adoringly into her hair.

"I know." his words were muffled by her hair, "ti amo," I love you.

She squeezed his side three times, making his heart swell.

The slowly pulled away, not before he pressed a kiss to her forehead, she jokingly wiped it away, making them both laugh.

He gasped as he remembered something, she looked at him in confusion as he went to the back of the room, he leaned down and uncovered a medium-sized box that was hidden amongst books.

He quickly pulled it out and paced back to her, "I also find one of Septrim's old boxes," the Seramore crest was engraved on the lid.

"How did you manage to find this?" she asked as he carefully placed the box on the table.

"Have you ever heard of boredom?" she rolled her eyes at his sarcasm.

"Looks pretty." her fingers traced the serpent consuming a brain, she glanced at her cousin, "Have you opened it, you know you can right."

Even though Blaise's last name wasn't Seramore, he could still have access to anything with their name on the cover, as the blood of their ancestor Adriel coursed through his viens.

"Yeah I know but I feel like you should."

He loved Septrim and he knew that Septrim loved him, but he didn't want to overstep his boundaries... for once.

The last time he did, he managed to find out that Septrim loathed celebrating his birthdays because apparently someone important to him was murdered on his 20th in 1947.

Nova Shafiq.

Blaise was interested to find out more, but before he could, Septrim told him to go to sleep. He didn't question the man about it again.

She gasped dramatically and placed a hand over her heart, "Dear god B, you have self-control?" he rolled his eyes.

"Only when it comes to certain things."

"Sure."

"Shut up," he flicked his forehead, she hissed and then moved away from his next attempts, "I'm going back to my room to make sure that Theo does kill the snow bunny," he exclaimed and then walked over to the door.

"Bye B," she called out, as he exited the room.

"Bye Arty."

When she glanced back at the box, she quickly analysed it, she wondered why it was hidden in the first place and not particularly well.

But then again, Blaise could find anything he wanted to.

She bit the side of her mouth as she slowly opened the box, a shiver went down her spine as a glint of emerald slithered out and revealed pages of parchments.

She was taken back by her findings as well as being intrigued. Artemis looked over the notes that were written.

She went to take them out of the box, but when she made contact with the parchment, she felt as if something walked through her.

Wisps, whispers and hisses surrounded her as she lifted the dozens of notes, the sounds didn't scare her, but what she found written on the parchments slightly did.

Scribbles, scratches and slanted writing filled up the dated paper.

The sounds that echoed off the page sounded oddly familiar, even before she heard Harry speak it during the duelling club last year.

This can't be what parseltongue looks like, is it? She wondered and lowered herself into her chair.

Her eyes scanned over what she could manage to decipher, which is hardly anything.

But she didn't want to give up, she set herself a challenge, and she was determined to understand the words that she assumed her grandfather had written down.

So Artemis decided to do what she did best...

learn.

***

a/n:

INTRODUCING THE JONES "TWINS"...

dylan o'brien as 𝘇𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀
logan lerman as 𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗮𝗵 𝗷𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀

just to reiterate, they are half brothers, born on the same day, which explains their different cultural backgrounds. and in the future if you see people refer to them as twins, don't be shocked, they aren't they just around.

they are 14-year-old hufflepuff halfblood's.

Brief callback to  "anagrams" "duelling club" and "the good old days"

Why does the language look familiar to artemis?

how did you like artemis and Blaise's convo? I felt like they haven't spoken one on one for a while. And since blaise is the oldest in the group I let him have his wise moments, he knows artemis better than she knows herself.

what do you guys think of the new characters? the last of my oc's that I made up.

flashback chapter is coming up.