Chapter 1

David Fraser accompanied Albus Dumbledore.

"The first child we are to see is a boy called Sebastian Rice" he said "I have sent an owl already informing the child's parents that he is eligible for a place at Hogwarts school for witches and wizards; customarily I set a time in that initial letter at which I shall call and discuss the matter further. I give them two days to let this sink in and then arrive as scheduled. I usually call in the evenings to make sure of catching most parents home from work. It's nearly nine thirty; the time I suggested. I should like you to introduce the concept; I'll be your backup."

"Thank you Albus" said David "I feel like I'm about to take NEWTs all over again."

"And see how well you did with them, my boy!" said Albus.

The house was in a fairly mean street in York with terraced houses, the front doors opening directly onto the street. David knocked.

The door was opened by an attractive black woman in her early thirties who looked queryingly at them. David had compromised in his clothing, wearing a suit, with academic robes and a wizarding hat, that he doffed politely.

"Madam Rice?" he said.

"Miss" said Miss Rice giving him a funny look.

"My colleague, Professor Dumbledore sent a message by owl to apprise you of our visit" said David.

She stared.

"You – are you telling me this isn't a wind up of my son's? Even Sebastian couldn't talk adults into playing a practical joke…. Could he?" she seemed dumfounded.

"Might we come in?" asked David.

"Er… yes, please do…. I hope you don't mind coming into the kitchen, the front room has bits of half made fireworks spread around it…. Sebastian makes fireworks" she added defiantly.

David smiled.

"Well with a propensity for firework making and, you imply, practical jokes, he sounds much like two friends of my own schooldays, Fred and George Weasley; they run their own joke shop now."

Miss Rice sighed.

"THAT would be an ambition he'd go for…. Sebastian has manifested some strange, er, effects or I'd be phoning the funny farm over you right now."

"A young wizard – or witch – will manifest uncontrolled exhibitions of magic from somewhere around the age of seven, that need proper training and focussing" said David.

"COOL!" the little figure in blue striped pyjamas came into the kitchen "How do you do? Can I really be a wizard? What do wizards get to do and will I be able to get a job to support my mum?" he had brown skin, brown curly hair, big brown eyes and a wide grin with buck teeth in it.

"Sebastian, you don't need to worry about that!" protested his mother.

"Yes I do mums; after the way dad treated you, you need a man about the house" said Sebastian firmly, busily shaking hands with David and Albus.

"An excellent attitude, young man" said David gravely "There are many jobs in the wizarding world; all requiring different skills and talents, and dependant each on different qualifications such as you may attain at Hogwarts. We have two levels of exams approximately paralleling GCSE and 'A' levels. We call them OWLs – ordinary wizarding levels – and NEWTs – nasty, exhausting wizarding tests. Someone had a sense of humour" he added.

"Are they nasty and exhausting, sir?" asked Sebastian.

"They are stiff" said David.

"If I may interpose, here, to explain that Professor Fraser is probably the most academic Headmaster we have ever had at Hogwarts, having six NEWTs at grade 'O' – that's outstanding, the highest grade" said Albus.

"AM I. Albus?" David was taken aback.

"Oh yes my boy; I only have five and I was reckoned quite the most academic head ever" said Albus "I am retiring and I got to pick my successor. David Fraser is also the very first muggleborn headmaster – that is a child of two muggle, or non wizarding parents."

"So I'm muggleborn?" asked Sebastian.

"You are indeed lad" said David "And I shan't hide from you that the wizarding world has racism; not on colour but on the degree of wizarding blood in a family, or over the, er, sub species we come in; elves and goblins have been second class citizens for a long time. Things are changing but it will take a while."

"Might I have a demonstration of CONTROLLED magic?" asked Miss Rice, who had been making tea.

David smiled and flipped his wand towards the teapot, lifting it and pouring the tea into the mugs.

"Will that do?" he asked "The spell is wingardium leviosa and performing it wordlessly and tipping to pour demonstrates the highest level of control over it." He did not mention that the higher level of control did nor require use of a wand – indeed he did not need a wand for such simple magic – because he knew that the use of a wand would be a better demonstration to a muggle. He had himself been much impressed by Severus' laconic wand work when he was first introduced to the Wizarding World.

"All right; I am impressed" said Miss Rice. "So do you do stuff with cauldrons and brooms and things too?"

"Our major sport is played on flying brooms" said David "And we do potioneering; the most subtle of the magical arts."

"Eye of newt and that sort of thing?"

"Loosely; certain parts of magical animals as well as minerals and parts of magical and mundane plants are used in potioneering. There is more to it than the mix however; the direction and number of stirs for example. Only a wizard may make a potion, even if a muggle followed directions exactly it would not work," David explained.

"So you kind of stir in your own magic as like an extra ingredient?" said Sebastian.

"Precisely" said David "You may make a good potioneer with that sort of insight; it is a catalyst. And the ingredients give opportunity for all sorts of creative detentions if anyone gets CAUGHT at their practical jokes; gutting horned toads, for example, a slimy, smelly, unpleasant and yet necessary job."

"I'd better not get caught then sir, had I?" grinned Sebastian.

"There is however a small snag" Miss Rice grimaced "Seb's father."

"In what respect?" asked David.

"Well, he's been financially generous" said Miss Rice "And we tacitly do not mention that it's hush money; he'd hate his wife and daughter to find out he had had a mistress and an illegitimate son. I'm a lab technician at the hospital where he's a consultant; and when I got pregnant I asked if we were going to get married. He had told me that he loved me after all" she added bitterly "And that was when I found out that he has a wife whose personal fortune means he doesn't want to jeopardise the marriage. I was convenient. And he has set aside monies for Sebastian to go to a private secondary school – and has been inundating me with prospectuses – but he'd never buy into the idea of a school for wizards. He'd have Sebastian taken away from me to be reared by strangers and have me shut away!"

"There is no chance he could be convinced?" said David.

"He throws a hissy fit if Sebastian even plays practical jokes on him; I can't see him taking magic!" said Miss Rice.

"I have to see him once a month so he coughs up my keep; and he's never taken me to a football match or a fairground or even to the Jorvik centre" said Sebastian "We go to stuffy old art galleries and museums and he lectures me all the way round then tests me on the way out. If we get anything to eat its salad and tofu and such muck; never an ice cream or anything kids eat!"

"He does sound a trifle inadequate as a parent" said David. "However, you need have no fears; we hide in obviousness, and Hogwarts School appears on the internet as a private school with entrance by invitation only, by examination, and with all the proper appurtenances of a normal school."

"I could have told you that, mums" said Sebastian "'Cos I ran it through Google; and I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't anything special apart from being posh."

"And so it will continue to be – on Google" said David. "The scepticism is one thing; the naked fear and the violence that often follows that is another. There are some half a million wizarding beings in Britain as a top estimate. We are not about to risk ourselves by being open, even if it were not forbidden by our laws – the statute of secrecy in 1692 – to speak of our world to muggles. Spells hide magical creatures and disguise magical beings from non wizards."

"Are goblins the little fellows with long noses and long hands and feet?" asked Sebastian.

"Yes; even so. Most muggles see them as slight, but faintly foreign."

"Like my friend Bailey Zelbukek" said Sebastian "Will he be coming too if he's part of the wizarding world?"

David cleared his throat.

"We are still in the throes of convincing people that goblins may be clever enough to be educated" he said "And to date only the brightest and best goblins have gone to Hogwarts. And though there ARE some discretionary scholarships, few goblins are in a position to pay as they have always had low paid jobs. If your friend is talented, then would be the time to see about a scholarship."

"I'll get him to skank out of the window!" said Sebastian and was out of the back door with a futile protest dying on his mother's lips.

oOoOo

The goblin boy swore pungently when he realised who his friend's visitors were.

"Language, laddie!" said David "Apologise to Miss Rice for speaking so in her house!"

The boy's ears drooped.

"Sorry" he muttered.

"What is your name? Bailey?"

"It's the human name I use at school; I'm Balduk gan Zelbukek, sir, and they think my dad's name is Polish" said Balduk.

"Why didn't you tell me?" demanded Sebastian.

"Talk SENSE Seb! Dad'd skelp me if I told a muggle anything, how was I to know you was a wizard, think on? You never said and you never said I looked different!"

"Well why would I? You're my friend; what you look like don't matter, do it?" said Sebastian.

Albus and David exchanged looks.

"He'll do!" they said in unison. David added "I need you to perform a few tests, Mr gan Zelbukek; and then if the results are auspicious, I shall speak to your father."

"I got a big brother and a little sister too" said Balduk.

"Oh, if you are accepted your little sister comes as of right; and I stretch more points than otherwise for older siblings" said David.

Balduk used David's wand with a virtuosity that made the new headmaster blink, enlarging a stone more than most first years could, changing a twig into a cocktail stick, and, when David got out his prototype mini-potioneering kit, the shrinking cauldron and mutable tool kit the boys ears went up.

"That's goblin magic that is" he said.

"These pieces were each developed by students at Hogwarts school as part of the recently introduced metalworking exams; and the boys who made them combined to develop and market the travelling potioneer's kit" said David "It goes on sale in a month; only I managed to acquire a pre-production kit to test promising pupils. Mortimer Bane is part goblin but Ming Chang is human; he developed the knife that morphs into scales and stirrer. Ming will be teaching the subject in another school; Mortimer is also teaching but in another subject" said David. "He is teaching the goblins and muggleborn of Germany; he's a brave young man with all those supremacists about. Now, if I pour a half way potion out of my wand, since no magical solution can be summoned by wand, pray stir it clockwise three times and anticlockwise once."

The brownish liquid turned a rich violet colour.

"If you have a bottle to decant this into, Miss Rice, you may as well use it" said David "It is Pepperup Potion; works on the common cold, half a cupful in hot water, utterly efficacious on muggles. The steam that issues from the ears afterwards is a perfectly normal effect."

"I still don't see Bailey as anything but an ordinary if rather short little boy" said Miss Rice.

"Well, perhaps that's just as well" said David. "You have talent and to spare lad" he added, for the boy's performance had been quite remarkable. "Nip back next door and warn your parents that we'll be over in a few minutes; and then perhaps both families might shop together in Diagon Alley for your kit. We'll be in touch, Miss Rice" and they left.

Zelbukek and his wife were overwhelmed to have such famous visitors as the great Professor Dumbledore and the great David Fraser taking an interest in their offspring. Rudatz, the older boy, was not so talented as his brother though he confessed to being fair at metalworking – he was working in the holidays with a muggle human who made replica Viking pieces to sell to tourists – and to having good mathematics grades at the comprehensive school where he got at least some education even if a lot of it was not relevant. David pointed out that more than one wizard starting late had done better at potions for having knowledge of muggle chemistry. At a whispered suggestion from Albus, David offered to let the boy start in the second year, not the fourth where his chronological age should put him.

"That gives you the chance to try all the taster classes before choosing electives" he said "Except Divination, which is only taught for the first term to see who has talent or wants a soft option. If you're good at metalwork, you'd have chosen that after the first term. If you want then to work harder and pull up a year or even two, the staff will do their best to help you; if you are happy to stay with the classmates you have, nobody will think the worse of you. We try to be as accommodating as possible."

"That year already has six goblins and a half goblin" said Albus dryly "Though having two sets of twins from well established goblin families does boost that a little! My son is in the same year; he and his friends will help you catch up" he added kindly.

Rudatz stammered thanks.

They left.

"Sometimes things happen that you never expect" said Albus to David "It was by such interference by other children that Gorbrin came to Hogwarts; and indeed how he became a Malfoy. And what an asset to the school HE is! I shall be sorry in a way to miss his last year; but I shall keep an eye on the boy if you don't mind."

"Albus, I'd be delighted" said David. "Besides, then you're close by to run to when I find myself in a funk."

Albus laughed.

"Somehow the idea of you in a funk is one I find hard to believe!" he said.

oOoOo

The second child, Coral Sneden, lived in a large detached house; and her mother was a total muggle, but trusted her husband well enough to believe him when he admitted to seeing fairies.

It turned out that Mr Sneden had been approached to go to Hogwarts in his time; or rather his parents had received an owl, and he had never heard any more about it. He was a dropout from school and very proud of his clever auctioneer wife and both were bemused but pleased for their daughter as it was what she wanted. Mrs Sneden asked David to make some demonstrable proofs that could NOT be faked by legerdemain; as she pointed out, she was used to fake antiques and con tricks. And once satisfied, apologised politely and asked if odd and inexplicable junk and paintings of people in odd clothing might be of any interest.

At her auction house, the box of junk contained a painting of a sulking Eutropius Gaunt – from a period before the madness settled in, and wearing the Peverell ring – and a selection of wizarding kit including some spell books and a perilometer, that attuned to a particular person by brief ritual showed the degree of danger they were in like a barometer. David recalled seeing one for each auror hung on the wall of Alastor Moody's office. Draco's and Harry's seemed to be set permanently on 'doing just fine' with occasional forays into 'concentrating hard'. Some of the others reached 'at some risk' a few had stood in 'in danger'; and David knew that if any moved into 'in deadly peril' Moody would pull all his other available aurors off their current assignments to hit the ground running.

He promised the petulant Eutropius Gaunt that a descendant of his should buy his picture and his other goods. Krait would have fun rifling through a mixed box of magical junk and was hard enough not to have to worry if any of them were a little bit cursed. Mrs Sneden was quite overcome to see a painting moving and talking – he had kept very still for muggles – and was glad when David hastily made some commission bids on Krait's behalf to hold in reserve. And he happily went many times over the estimated value; Krait would value an ancestor, even a petulant one, in thousands if need be.

Then he spoke to Coral herself – who was wearing fairies in her hair and admitted casually to having concentrated on making the clothes she dressed them in invisible to ordinary people like fairies were; which as her wand and potion tests were not spectacular at all was a bit of a shock. Still, magic was about belief in yourself; and if the child was good at disillusion magic – and, it turned out, confundment magic since she seemed to think it easy to convince people who had seen her spontaneous displays of magic that there was a rational explanation – then she would always have a job even if her other results were poor. She was a self possessed child whose main desire to go to Hogwarts was that she would not then be thought of as a weirdo if everyone else there was as well.

David thought Mr Sneden should have a wand as well and promised him a crash course in the use of simple cleaning and self grooming spells; and Mrs Sneden said dryly that if he could clean the house in no time flat with spells it made sense for them to give notice to their rather lazy cleaning lady and for him to give up his job in pest control and take up woodwork more seriously than as a hobby as he had always wanted. Mr Sneden was rather keen; especially when David pointed out that a skilled woodworker was an asset in the wizarding world, especially when he learned to enchant items such as, for example, preserving cupboards and spectacle cases that shouted where they were on command.

Robert Sneden went on the internet straight away to order a garden shed.

oOoOo

While David Fraser and Albus Dumbledore interviewed prospective new muggleborns, Jingjie Chang had convened an emergency marauder meeting in Malfoy Manor's stables because they all knew how to find it, having invited the Pepperingye Marauders and, on due consideration, both Stripy Marauders and Weird Marauders. It was a bit of a squeeze.

"Look here" said Jingjie "I've been thinking."

"Do we get flags out and cheer?" asked Nathan laconically. Jingjie poked him.

"I'm trying to be serious" he said "Because it's a serious business."

"Sorry" said Nathan "It's only that Ravenclaws and thinking aren't always that synonymous – OW!" as sundry Ravenclaw marauders loosed off a number of hexes.

When Nathan was restored to his normal colour, had put his ears back on and had removed the exploding pustules, Jingjie went on.

"Last year my cousin Yulan started at Rowan House. She's a squib. Now she's been awfully good about it and philosophical and all, but I was sort of thinking…. I mean she IS my cousin."

"You mean you'd like to blood her and have her re-hatted" said Lilith.

"Yes" said Jingjie. "If the Weird Marauders will take her under their wing?"

"If she's a Chang she's bound to be trouble; we can't really turn THAT down!" laughed Chrys.

"As if we didn't manage to be enough trouble already!" said Purnima "Well I say go for it; and hope she wants to maraud too because then we shall be nine which is arithmantically way better than eight."

"Any bad luck of that is offset by the fact you're also a part of us in large" said Wanda "The Arithmancy is sort of shared out; but I shan't say it won't improve your chances of doing stuff in your own group."

"It's a bit unprecedented to have such large numbers" said Lilith "But there's been rather a lot of very good people over the last few years. AND some possibles next year; though I wonder if Tarquin and Sevvy might not prefer to just support like Gorbrin and co do. And to be honest I can't be certain even Salazar would MARAUD as such." She considered "There'll be three starting blooded; Candace, Tarquin and Sevvy. Mum and dad wanted Tarquin and Ismenia to decide when they were older, originally, but they got brought in last year because they reckoned they were older and had decided; and I guess Naomi counts as part blooded too" she added. "And we might bring her in properly because of that; Niobe, Isambard, you need to sound her out. Are we getting your cousin alone at the weevil fest, Jingjie? Asking Lucius to invite her?"

Jingjie considered.

"Yes" he said "Because then it'll be too public for our elders to tick us off too much and then it'll be a fait accompli. I'll go and have a chat with her about it; because she might hate the idea."

Interfering in family matters could be a stressful business; and Sextus and Lilith were being particularly tender of each other's feelings having had a big argument over Lilith interfering – albeit constructively – in Sextus' family. Lilith had figured that perhaps Sextus' muggle father was a bit anti the wizarding world because he only knew one representative of it, to whit Madam Scarpin. Who was distinctly, in Lilith's terminology, dippy. This she explained to Mr Pencastle; and looking as she did a perfectly normal little girl in jeans and a t-shirt, albeit designer clothes since she had dressed up for the occasion in black jeans and a t-shirt from The Spiral featuring an axe-playing skeleton on a motorbike, he actually listened. The upshot of this was a visit from Sextus to his dad – which was what the quarrel started over, his taking exception to Lilith having stuck her retrousse little nose into his business – with Lilith along because when they made up Sextus wanted her along as moral support in case it all went wrong and got even worse than it was before. They took Ashley Pencastle down Diagon Alley and went back for tea to his junk shop, and Sextus and Lilith proceeded to engage in a chant to open up an area of wizarding space in a ritual well beyond what most NEWT students could manage having persuaded Mr Pencastle to sell things like old hand and treadle cranked sewing machines and typewriters to the wizarding world. They then proceeded to put him in touch with Lilith's cousin Albertine Gregg, who was a quarter goblin and ran a junk stall in Obscura Alley and the children plotted hopefully over getting Sextus a stepmum who would keep his dad firmly in contact with the wizarding world. And if it didn't happen there was nothing lost and still a bit of business put the ways of both family connections.

"You have to be tactful when interfering" therefore said Lilith to Jingjie, recalling how cross Sextus had been.

"What, you can even SPELL the word tactful?" grinned Jingjie.

This led to a brief scuffle out of which both youngsters came relatively unharmed since Jingjie was one of the few people well able to resist Lilith's jinxes; and neither had more than a few pustules to remove.

oOoOo

Yulan listened to her big cousin explaining about the pact to help Harry Potter and how it had side effects of bringing out the magic inherent in squibs. Her eyes grew very wide.

"Mum and dad and little Jun are awfully GOOD about me being a squib" she whispered "but OH! Jingjie, how I should like to be a proper witch!"

"That's settled then" said Jingjie. "I dunno that it's a good idea to tell your parents."

Yulan stuck her chin forward.

"I shan't have secrets from mummy and daddy" she said "They're special people. I think they'd be willing – if you'll come and help me explain."

Jingjie sighed inwardly; but Yulan took him firmly by the hand to drag him off to talk to his uncle and aunt. If only girls weren't QUITE so managing!

He started again by explaining about Harry; and about Odessa following that; and how blood magic added to everyone in insights and, when spread widely, constituted no risk; and how Sephara Yaxley, born a squib had been awakened to magic enough to take four NEWTs.

Uncle Shen and Aunt Lucy listened.

Shen turned to Yulan.

"Well, little Jade Orchid, do you want to do this? If you want to see if it works, I have no objection to your lending yourself to something sanctioned by the great Harry Potter; and presumably with the knowledge of Professor Dumbledore – so long as you are aware that it binds you in duty to fighters against evil; which seems to me to be the price you pay."

"It is" said Jingjie "Not all who are blood group are marauders – the active fighters – though I am one of them. And Professor Dumbledore joined us because he's retiring; to save his son Seth, so his blood and ours could give him life. Seth is in Yulan's year; they have a large bunch of marauders, so they can afford to have the more cautious members too."

"If I had the magic to do so I should be ungrateful not to do my bit" said Yulan "I can get some success with potions in Rowan, but Madam Fenwick despairs of my Arithmancy; I guess that wouldn't change though" she added.

"Arithmancy's important but not everyone can hack it that well" said Jingjie "If you can get some potion result I reckon you should end up quite good with our blood in you. Well, if you're all right with it, sir, ma'am, we'll do her at Lucius' kids' party."

"We'd do anything to see that our little girl could join in with everyone else" said Aunt Lucy "And there's enough been written now that we know it's not dark magic. And if Mei and Ming are also part of it as you say, well, I see no harm at all."

"Hallelujah and hurrah for rational sensible grown ups!" said Jingjie.

"Know, Jingjie, that we are always happy to help out if you DO get involved with dark wizards" said Shen "I never was invited into the Order of the Phoenix – I think Dumbledore has a few prejudices against Ravenclaws and with some of the loonies around that's hardly surprising – but we DID hide muggleborn when Voldemort took over the ministry."

"Well good on you, Uncle Shen, Aunt Lucy!" said Jingjie. His Uncle owned a shop selling pet food and accessories and his aunt worked part-time in the Office of Misinformation; she had doubtless been close enough to the muggle liaison office to get word of those about to be arrested, and Uncle Shen had a big delivery carriage drawn by a pair of hippogryffs that doubtless he used to rescue people. He had not realised they were such good staunch types; and vowed to introduce them firmly to such as Severus and Lucius!

oOoOo

The weddings were to be towards the middle of August rather than early on because both Finn and Tanjela were heavily pregnant and were hoping to have birthed and be slender again to be caddishly Malfoy and stylish at the Wizarding world; and besides there was nothing so miserable as having to be polite to people when feeling hot AND heavy. There was besides the World Cup; and Lucius had promised to take all the children old enough to understand to be there for David Fraser, it being the first World Cup he had ever refereed. David had laughed and said that at least worrying about the World Cup took his mind off worrying about being a new Headmaster; and at least worrying about being a new Headmaster took his mind off refereeing the World Cup. The Match was to be between Poland and Portugal; and the Portuguese team had been lucky to escape alive from rioting crowds in Brazil, since the Brazilian team had lost their seeker La Mariposa to marriage and showed themselves in a rather poor light as a team without her. The Brazilian people resented the loss and decided to blame the visitors. The scenes were so bad that the International Quidditch Association banned Brazil from the World Cup for the next three Cups. The result for goblins in Brazil was at least one of some hope; as the goblins of Brazil protested that they had not been involved – very much – in the riots, the Portuguese Ministry raised a number of metaphorical fingers to Brazil by offering Portuguese passports to Brazilian goblins, providing Portugal with an increased cheap labour force whilst yet giving the goblins involved far more freedoms than they had previously enjoyed, since Portugal and Spain were in the French sphere of influence and gave the right to bear wands to educated goblins. True, schools taking goblins were few and far between, but things were improving and goblins were too given more respect in Western Europe then in Spanish America. And, truth to tell, in North America at that; though the Ministry of Magic in the United States was coming into line with England, since it was insupportable that the old country should possibly be seen to be more liberal than a country built on personal freedom, even so, the attitudes were still not good.

Finn produced her daughter just before Lucius was due to leave with sundry offspring in his executive helicopter – which resembled a luxury liner of the Art Deco period on the inside and was almost as spacious – and Lucius was delighted that she had managed such a neat piece of timing. The baby was pale blue, a shade between Finn's rich blue and the pale skin of the Malfoys, with bright blue eyes; and Lucius decreed that she should be Sapphira. Lala naturally was in charge of mother and baby as well as trying to keep Tanjela in order through the last stage of her pregnancy, which was, as Lucius said, so far as any of his wives were concerned, a triumph of hope over expectation.

Charlotte was staying with the girls and smaller babies; Narcissa was going to cuff, clean, patch up and generally supervise such older ones as were young enough to still require cuffing, cleaning, patching up and general supervision. This did not cover Bella, Gorbrin, Ian, Erica, Griselen and Genavka, or Zajala; but probably did cover Nathan, James, Gennar and all points younger, the named of whom should not have needed the above applications of discipline but apart, possibly, from James probably did. And, Narcissa said, she'd not even answer for Bella.

Bella, about to enter the lower sixth and an established prefect was affronted and said so. Her only foibles were, as she pointed out, a distinct partiality for tigers, well really a particular tiger, and as the Benares Bengals were not playing she was not likely to get in any respect carried away.

Lucius laughed, ruffled her hair – which to Narcissa's despair changed colour regularly along a somewhat tigery theme, and was this week black fading through red to orange with two white locks from the temples – and said that Assim might have something to say if she DID get carried away about any other tigers. He had accepted that Bella was in love and had been for some years; and that she would be moving away to India with her beloved once she left school to carry on the other self imposed task of Marauders to educate young witches and wizards there. Narcissa kept hoping that fascination with tigers in general and Assim Khan in particular was just a passing phase; but even she was beginning to bow to the inevitable.

Assim Khan was a nice enough fellow; and a clever man; and Narcissa was just going to have to get used to having him as a brother in law.

Lucius had laughed and said that he believed that Narcissa would not have turned a hair if Bella had picked a goblin to marry; and Narcissa said, no of course not; so long as he was a good British goblin. It was just, well, foreigners.

And Lucius pointed out that at least Indians played cricket, which was about as British as you could get and not to worry because Bella would thrive on the challenge of educating and civilising people in India.

Which as Bella was quite capable of making her mark in ways not necessarily desirable on the Society to Aid Marginalised Women when she left school if not found other occupation left Narcissa thoughtful and a stage further resigned to the idea.