Holly Short

Holly is an elf in the LEP, the fairy police, and lives in the underground city of Haven. At 84 she's still young by fairy standards and wants to prove herself. She carries a weight too: her late father has been linked to the theft of the Aculos.

That's why she goes to the surface to investigate near Fowl Manor, even though it's the kind of mission where everything can go wrong.

On the surface, Holly walks into a trap. Artemis and Butler capture her and take her inside the manor. To Artemis, she's the missing piece he needs to reach the Aculos and save his father.

Outside, the LEP freezes time around the house, and Commander Root leads the siege. Holly ends up at the center of a standoff between a human boy and the fairy army.

Lieutenant Briar Cudgeon, secretly working for Opal Koboi, lets a troll loose inside the manor to wreck everything, and the creature jams the magic in the house. Butler fights the troll and is mortally wounded.

Holly could use the chaos to escape. Instead, she uses her own magic to heal the bodyguard of the man who kidnapped her.

In the end, Holly uses the Aculos to bring Artemis Fowl I back to the manor, and Koboi's attempt on his life is stopped. Artemis's father gives Holly a list of Koboi's accomplices, and she takes the Aculos back to Haven.

The final image is an alliance: Holly joins Artemis, Butler and Mulch to hunt down Koboi's allies.

Throughout the case, Holly answers to Commander Root, the 802-year-old head of the LEP, who runs the siege of Fowl Manor with no patience for humans. By siding with Artemis, Holly doesn't turn against Root: she becomes the bridge between the fairy police and the Fowl family.

That's why she's on the Fowl helicopter when the team sets off after Koboi's accomplices. A mission that began with her father's name ends with Holly leading a hunt of her own.

Lara McDonnell plays Holly in the movie. In the books, Holly has dark skin and short auburn hair, and the casting drew criticism for that. On the page, her bond with Artemis also takes longer to turn into friendship.