Chapter 2

The rooms of the smaller goblins DID remind Jade of Romanian orphans; where they were tied in cots in their own ordure, some older, depressed looking goblin girls trying to keep them clean.

"You do it like this" said Jade "And if you concentrate hard enough you do not need a wand. One spell is evanesco see that sweeps the piles away; the other is scourgify that then cleans. NOT to be used on delicate baby skin but it works on the bedlinen. Babies have still to be done by hand" she added.

Only one of the girls could manage the spells; she looked less downtrodden and could therefore focus her will a bit better.

"Well done! What is your name?" asked Jade.

"Please gracious witch I am Gauda gan Garit" said the girl shyly.

"You are not a Berliner" said Jade.

"No Gracious witch; this is the facility for all the north" said the girl.

"How old are you?" asked Jade.

"Sixteen, gracious witch" said Gauda.

"Hmm, old; but if you are prepared to work I can find a place for you in my school; will you work hard for a basic qualification?"

Gauda knelt and kissed her feet.

"I WISH people wouldn't do that" said Jade "I am owed a curtsey, no more! Now get up silly girl; there are other babies to clean!"

As she spoke she absently picked up a half breed child of about two and a half. The baby girl with dark red hair reached up to her.

"Mama?" she said.

Jade gasped and drew the baby to her, cuddling her close.

"We have a daughter Wulf" she sent the though to her beloved husband, with the brief outline of what had occurred.

"What you decide is good with me mein leibling" he replied. Wulf would not let her walk all over him, which was one of the things she loved him for so well; but he was happy to accept her judgement any time. And this little one appealed to her heart; and would be a playmate for their son Ralph too. She must be half a year older than him, no more.

"What is her name, Gauda?" asked Jade.

Gauda shrugged.

"Number four. The little ones who come in without siblings to tell their names or who are dumped just get given numbers. She was dumped off on the doorstep so I guess either she got too expensive to feed or her ma died and the other whores wouldn't keep her."

"You make assumption that her mother was a whore?"

Gauda shrugged.

"It's how you get half breeds isn't it, gracious witch? Everyone knows that."

"Then they know nothing" said Jade "What of the girl who is raped by her employer? This child who guides me was to go to a Herr Schiff; I have care of his last goblin maid whom he raped and the child who ensued. What of the human girl raped by a goblin? What of a mixed race couple who have an illicit affair because they truly love? In England they would just get married but then there is less civilised behaviour here because of the Odessa. One of my associates is quarter goblin; his parents and his grandparents were all married. As are the parents of the wife of the headmaster of Hogwarts who is half goblin. One of the nobles of England has a goblin wife and sundry half bred children. You cannot know the circumstances to thus judge, child."

Gauda curtseyed.

"I am sorry noble witch; this is all I know for what people always have said."

"It is true a girl who is raped and bears a mixed race child will often become a whore; this is because she is already condemned and so has no other option" said Jade. "If you will learn and listen you may go far."

"I will do my best, gracious Witch; the English must be very strange, humans here find us ugly."

"Not all of us" said Jade "And Tanjela is extraordinarily beautiful by anyone's standards. And you too can be a pretty girl when you are better fed and happier. You like working with the babies?"

"It is a better job than being a maid" said Gauda.

"You are deft; perhaps you might consider, if you turn out to be good with transfigurations and potions, being a children's nurse" said Jade "And perhaps go on to work at the school or the place to which I purpose to remove all these poor children. You will have to work on humans and goblins both; for I make no segregation or distinction."

"I will learn all I can, gracious witch" said Gauda.

"And I must name this little one" said Jade. "She shall be Lily Grace; after someone important to my family and after my oldest adopted sister. And she's just leaked; so let me make her comfy. And she should be potty trained by now; sheer meanness that you have not been properly trained how to care for these babies properly MOST improper that the oldest among you seems no older than you. IS there a proper nursery maid?"

Gauda curtseyed again.

"No noble witch; it is considered something an older girl should know by instinct."

Jade bit off a short, unpleasant word and resorted to Latin to swear.

Sorting out this place was LONG overdue and she would see the council was made aware of the inadequacies of it. The question was, would the human half be any better!

oOoOo

The only difference in the human half was that the small orphans worked on less risky projects and were at least given the dignity of names bestowed on abandoned infants or those orphaned without siblings old enough to know or care what their names were; and Jade laid out the big beefy woman who exclaimed in horror that Jade held an Abomination and promised to have Lily Grace taken away immediately.

Jade revived her.

"This babe that you call an abomination, my good woman, is now my adopted daughter; and when SHE is inspecting orphanages in twenty years time, you will grovel to her for bearing a name with 'von' in it; you're fired" she said.

WHAT a can of worms!

oOoOo

Jade decided that she would use the quick way to teach Lily to be potty trained; and at the same time blur her memories of sitting in her own filth. The child had not been an orphan more than a few months, fortunately; and her baby memories were of being a much loved baby with a human mother. What had happened she did not know; and the orphanage records told nothing but that she had been left on the doorstep of the orphanage by someone over night. Perhaps a diviner like cousin Callum might find out; perhaps it would remain ever a mystery.

Perhaps some poor girl had had her baby wrested from her and a promise that the baby would not be killed was the way they made her comply; which led one too to wonder what had become of the father. Jade intended to announce her adoption of the little girl to the media and invite a photo shoot and hope that if the baby's mother saw her she would at least be comforted that her daughter was to be well cared for; and maybe might get in touch. If she was still alive. Well, blow the World Cup; there was a baby girl and a small boy to settle into family life, and adopting Ulvik was probably on the cards when he got used to her and Wulf. And work to shift both human and goblin orphans; and she must arrange someone to care for them.

And that would be Helga and Stoyann as soon as they were married; which would fit in around the fecundity of Lucius' wives Tanjela and Finn both of whom were expecting.

She was glad to get back to Wulf and hug him fiercely and pass him his new daughter. Lily stuck out a dubious lower lip.

"Papa" said Jade, firmly. "Come Ralph, come and see your new sister we have brought you."

Ralph came up and dutifully kissed Lily; it was what he had seen his mama do with her sisters. Lily regarded him solemnly.

"She not say much" said Ralph.

"She hasn't been spoken to much" said Jade "You can help with that by telling her things."

Ralph considered.

"Come on Lily" he said.

She was learning the new name; Jade had got little idea of a name whilst using legilimensy, she being always 'babykins'; a singularly silly idea in Jade's opinion. She probably had some heavy German name anyway and Jade did not admire German girls' names on the whole. There was something wrong in a nation of people who felt that names like 'Irmtraut' 'Kunigunde' and 'Hedwig' were suitable for little girls. To Jade they sounded more like brand names of fishing bait, even though she did know the meanings through her knowledge of Ancient Runes. They were even worse than the muggle use of place names like 'Kimberley' – a boy's name anyway – 'Chelsea' and 'Erin'. Though at least they did not come close to the worst name in the world, an American one; 'Randy' or for a girl 'Randi'. WHAT a thing to saddle a child with; and the teenage jokes that would ensue! Still, Americans did not speak English very well; a nation of wankers that did not have a word for it.

Wulf talked to Jade and Ulvik both about the muggleborn girl he had contacted and Anett had visited.

"Anett had to make some demonstrations to the child's parents of course; though now a lot of what their daughter has done made sense" said Wulf "And Anett called me in to deal with their poltergeist. I thought him most unpleasant so I used what we have learned from Seagh about them being of the fey and made him both reveal himself to the muggles and then banished him. I don't want him following the child to school; it is not what I consider well ordered to have a poltergeist."

"Please, Herr Von Luytens, what is a poltergeist?" asked Ulvik

Wulf opened his mouth to explain that the 'von' came with Jade's false identity of Von Strang and shut it again; it had taken all day to break the boy of trying to call him noble wizard.

"A poltergeist is a fey or fairy creature – as, by a long and winding road are too elves and goblins – but more akin to such fey as have no true form nor solid bodies" said Wulf "They are spirits of chaos and malice and are drawn to teenage wizards and witches – and some muggles, those we think carry a magical potential – to feed on the upset of the family over their antics and on the turbulence of teenage emotion. The one at Prince Peak has sworn a watertight contract with the headmaster; the one at Hogwarts is said to have learned to be more amenable and – well, human, I suppose. I did not want to have to start training or making agreements with such; so I used a banishing spell that means it will be disoriented and unable to reform readily for a number of years. Time to lose the trail" he added.

"Nicely done, my dear" said Jade.

"I was quite pleased with my first foray into irritating the fey" said Wulf. "Anyway, she seems, this Liesel, to be keen, and quite laid back about the whole business; she's fourteen. I don't see why she should not catch up to study ZPs and then ZHs; she is hardly older than those who begin their electives after all; merely that we shall choose for her what electives she takes."

"Yes; for therein lies the difference" said Jade "Unless there is good reason to suppose that any child has a talent anywhere, the older starters will learn a complement of no more than seven subjects and will have more lessons in the core curriculum. The first years proper – that's you for one, young Ulvik – will get tasters in all the subjects we have yet mustered and that isn't as many as I'd like. The core curriculum is Charms, Transfigurations, Potions, Arithmancy and DADA; though I have had the ZAP formalised to the first three of those plus any other two, to cover those trained in Dame Schools and those who are dunces at Arithmancy or truly scared by dark arts. The older starters will, in addition, study care of domestic beasts and enchanting; that may give them jobs working with animals or with goblin artificers. They may drop to five subjects so long as the compulsory three are in them if they only want to gain a ZAP. And I'll negotiate with any who are dire at any one subject. The law states a goblin must be an accredited student – ie have proof they attend school – or have qualification to the minimum of the ZAP to bear wands; frankly I'm going to hold onto the wands of all our pupils over the holidays; the ministry may be laxer about under age magic than the English ministry, but it only takes one kid to act the goat, or for that matter one racist decide to do something to discredit our goblins and bang down the drain goes this whole project."

Wulf nodded soberly, and Ulvik listened with fascination that these amazing people could piece together how others would act!

"Once it's normal we'll have less trouble about letting them keep their wands" Wulf said "They keep them still in England's free school, don't they?"

"Yes, in special lockers; that too is because it is a day school and every evening having the kid down the road in your ear to see what you can do is an awful temptation" said Jade. "We have here boarders who will use their wands illicitly for corridor curses and when caught get a teacher-set punishment; a far cry from having the wand broken and a possible prison sentence. It is, however, a start to teaching wand etiquette; not that Germans have much etiquette" she added.

"Please Frau Professor Baronin, is not your husband German?" asked Ulvik.

"No; he's Austrian; big difference" said Jade "Austrians are very mannerly on the whole. The whole Odessa thing has made it that if anyone believes he can bully, then he ignores subtlety, etiquette, basic manners and good taste and tries to force his will on others by browbeating them. Like that ruddy Politzist" she added "I LOVE bullying them back. It was, however, rude to you; and I apologise for that. You are our ward so I am thinking of you as almost English."

Ulvik blushed and stammered something about it being no need to apologise and not to consider him and a thanks for being thought almost English.

"Ulvik, if we adopt you as our son, we will be harder on you in classes for the fact that you do not want to be teacher's pet" said Wulf.

Ulvik stared.

"But sir – I am but a goblin!" he said.

"You are a bright boy and you speak up" said Wulf "And you think. You have joined in learning to do things and have worked with a will; you need not accept and we will not be offended if you prefer to be our ward; but the offer is there. I know my wife well, and I know it crossed her mind from the first."

"I wanted you to settle and be confident before making such an offer" said Jade "AND to know us. For a babe like Lily it is different; she is too small to recall much."

"Would you expect me to change my name?" asked Ulvik.

"Not if you did not want to" said Jade "You can continue as gan Rorik; or as Gorbrin Malfoy-Tobak has done, legalise it along with Von Luytens. Or take your father's name as a middle name and use it as a family name with any sons you have, and set a tradition that it stays in the family."

"I – I meant actually, did you want to change Ulvik" said Ulvik "As you gave Lily a human name."

"I named her a name I like because she had NO name that anyone knew" said Jade "And her few baby memories showed a human mother. Nobody would reasonably expect a child to change their given name – unless they wanted to. It's a form of the Saxon Ulfric I think, wolf-ruler; and goes quite nicely with having a new dad called Wulf. If you want him and me as a dad and mum."

Ulvik frowned in thought.

"Do I have to decide straight away?" he asked.

"No of course not" said Wulf. "I was about to say that you should try to choose before term starts; but if you cannot decide, it is no big deal; your status from ward to son could always be altered at any point in the future. And then too you might wish to choose NOT to be taught by parents and to transfer to Prince Peak; but it would be unkind to send you away almost immediately, before you have really got to know us."

"Thank you sir, for – for thinking about my feelings" said Ulvik "I guess there aren't many humans who care about how a goblin feels."

"It is a growing number now we're educating them" said Jade. "Almost alll your teachers were nice conventional racists without a clue beyond what they had been told until I dragged them to help me cure Black Goblin Fever in Munich and they learned perforce by meeting goblins face to face. And, by the way, I have an adopted brother who keeps his own name; he's a cousin of dad's as it happens and there's a bit of complexity in it and it's to do with inheritance but he's my kid brother, whatever his surname is. And part of it would be down to your relationship with your dad."

"I got on really well with my dad" said Ulvik "Not that I saw a lot of him; he worked such long hours. And there was an accident on the railway and he was killed; and then ma found that she was pregnant. And of course there were always those who asked nasty questions about who had comforted her that she be pregnant, and was the baby really conceived before dad was killed – YOU know what people are like."

"Oh yes" said Jade "It's one of the things that is so telling about there being more similarities than differences between humans and goblins; that tattlemongers like to find something to put the worst possible construction on. And I bet there were those just looking to see if the baby looked like anyone but your father."

"Oh yes, they did; one old besom even said 'oh but she looks fully goblin' in such a tone of surprise and I told her that as my da was fully goblin that wasn't hardly surprising and she gave me a patronising and pitying look, the old cow! And I think she even told people when ma died that it was a judgement on her; isn't that the worst?"

"It is, son" said Jade "And hardly likely that any powers in the universe would be taking so personal an interest; otherwise serial adulterers like Gustav Schiff would have been struck dead long since. Nor any judgement on your baby sister; what was her name?"

"Rikara; to have a bit of da in her name" said Ulvik. "And I tried to take care of ma and Rikara but ma just got iller; and Rikara just faded away."

He burst into tears.

Jade and Wulf put an arm round him each side and he clung to Jade sobbing. Jade started singing gently as to a small child; and with soothing magic in her song she brought forth the grief and then soothed him into healing sleep. Wulf put him to bed. Poor little boy; tragedy on tragedy and then the fear of being placed in a place that seemed to look upon being orphaned as a reason to punish children with imprisonment with hard labour.

Whatever he decided, both Wulf and Jade knew that they would stand as parent figures for him; they could really do nothing else.

And if the other orphans had backgrounds as tragic, well, fate had brought this one to them, and Lily to the attention of Jade; and even Jade did not totally ignore fate.

Jade read out loud the letter she received at breakfast, Ulvik looking self conscious and embarrassed at his outburst of the previous night; which the adults were ignoring.

"Listen to this" said Jade "It's from Takeo Namudzu. You don't know him Ulvik; he was a boy I was teaching last year, had a rotten life, taken away from his mother because boys have to be toughened, and living from the age of about five in a boys' dormitory competing against each other and trying to bear more pain and endurance than each other. He was a bit strange until I got him to talk about it" she added "He wants to put things like that right in Japan, his own country. He says,'dear Sensei' – that's special teacher" she explained "' I have met a muggleborn girl who was changing the peonies blue in the park, without – obviously – a wand. I have spoken with her parents and shown them your castle from the outside and they are willing to pay for her to come to your school; I told them what the fees for Durmstrang are but I do not know in their money. I tried to make an analogy with what a professor earns. I told them you would write by muggle mail but if she can do that – and too she was performing switching spells, putting hydrangea heads on rose bushes – she needs education. I think she had had a bad day at school. She is fifteen already I am afraid, but if she can learn enough to teach some subjects with me I shall then have a female for any female students I take of goblin or muggleborn. I can bring her each term this term; will your castle elves be able to collect her thereafter? If I am at Prince Peak I would not return to Japan for that year but would work my keep I hope.' And he has signed it. Well, I must reply to him; it will make eleven in the upper first."

"It's a good prime number" said Wulf "You planned on around the dozen."

"I did; to take account of finding such as Gauda" said Jade. "Even as I left some room to manoeuvre with the first. I DID have my people find reasons not to take those who might be trouble; though on the whole the blood snobs, goblin and human alike have not wanted to mingle with THOSE types – whichever one of the THOSE they meant – so I didn't have to fudge it too much. From the tiny acorn the massive oak tree grows; and when Ralph's teaching I expect we'll have four houses and a quidditch team that plays international matches and possibly a triwizard or two under our belts."

Wulf laughed.

"Poor little sprog, he hasn't even got to school yet!" he said.

Ralph stopped spooning porridge into himself with some help from Thrytha.

"Ralph be a m'wauder one day" he declared.

"More than likely; marauding DOES run in the family" said Jade "THAT's a story for you, young Ulvik; and I doubt you'll despise it either, Thrytha" she added; and told them how marauders had started to protect the werewolf friend of a group of boys; and how now there were groups of marauders in Hogwarts, Prince Peak and Durmstrang to protect from bullies and from attackers.

"Do we have marauders?" asked Ulvik, his eyes bright and eager.

"Not yet" said Jade "We need volunteers who are inclined to protect who'll accept the danger, the extra studying and the detentions if caught practising their skills by looking for secret passages and getting up to mischief. If a marauder trashes over a bully, he may well get punished for it; both being likely to be punished for fighting. But he will have made a point that he – or she – can stand up to such."

"I guess I see" said Ulvik "They both get punished but he's done more to stiff the creep."

"Exactly" said Jade. "I always knew I'd get it in the neck if I got caught; having a dad as your house master can cramp the style if you don't decide just to take the detentions and accept it."

"YOU were a marauder?" Ulvik was impressed.

"That's why I started it when I did a year at Durmstrang" said Jade.

"And can I be a marauder?" asked Ulvik eagerly.

"If you can put together a team and prove to the older marauders that you are worthy to be invited in; yes" said Jade, making a quick decision. "That's sundry staff members; me and Professor Bane - the quarter goblin man you've seen around – and oh crumbs, that's all" said Jade. "I more or less set up marauders on my own at Durmstrang though; and I had to almost teach them how to maraud. Can you believe, one group had a secret passage out of their own common room and had never found it? They had never even LOOKED for secret passages!"

"May I look for secret passages here?" demanded Ulvik.

"You certainly may – even more for having decent grammar" said Jade.

"Ma used to be a ladies' maid and learned to talk properly and insisted I did" said Ulvik. "I kind of dropped it a bit on the street because it gets you beaten up; but with people who do talk properly it comes back."

"Well YOU'LL be an ornament to the school to show off to convince the brain dead" said Jade.

"And those outside the ministry who are merely imbecilic" murmured Wulf.

Jade laughed.

"Well I shall leave you to maraud, young Ulvik; if you want to involve Thrytha, who deserves a day off, as well as Irmi, who is not a Marauder but is an associate Marauder – one who is there if needed as backup with less mischief – and Eva who might grow up to be a marauder; and if Thrytha wants to go with you I'll have the babies while I write to both Takeo and this child – at least he's put in a piece of paper with her name and address – and then walk down to the village to check on my two who are coming from there" she said. Eva and her mother were staying at the castle as Jade already had care of Eva's half sister Mildryth for Franziska Schiff; and probably the older half sister, Johanna, would live here in the holidays when she had started school this coming term, spending time at the moment as Franziska's maid to give Franziska the chance to catch her up to her chronological age's knowledge.

"Ralph tan m'waud too" said Ralph.

"I think you might get a little tired running up and down stairs" said Jade

"If he and Lily come, if they fall asleep we can put cushions under them and leave them to it" said Ulvik.

"Of course we can" agreed Irmi "Ralph's a big boy and he will help his sister."

"Boys are supposed to help their sisters" agreed Ulvik.

"You ARE kind youngsters" said Jade. What a splendid big brother he would be! She hoped he felt like being their son; though if he was marauding he would also become kindred later in any case! Irmi was too big to enjoy hunting for passages as much – or so at least she pretended – but she would watch the small ones and give Thrytha the chance to be a little girl for once. Which since she was younger than Irmi, poor child, she should have the chance to be from time to time.

oOoOo

Jade took little Mildryth to play in her office; the toddler was not really old enough to have fun chasing around the castle, being a full year younger than Ralph. And Jade wrote encouragingly to Takeo, thanking him for finding her a suitable pupil to train up to help him and reminding him that he had only to pulse her if he needed her aid or to write if he wanted reassurance.

She then wrote a polite note of welcome to the girl Shizue and to Mr and Mrs Tsuda her parents with a conversion of her fees into Yen from Sterling. Like Prince Peak her fees would be lower than Durmstrang, where one paid too for the snob value; paying students at Schloss Adler would subsidise the rest, and the fees were on a sliding scale up to the full amount. She added that if there was a problem of finance, depending on how well their daughter performed in a series of tests meant that a partial scholarship might be available but as the school was really intended for German children the test would be stiff.

She need not have worried; having put an email address along with the address of the castle she received eager acceptance as soon as the letter reached Japan. The Tsudas could not tell their neighbours that their daughter was going to a school for shugenja, but they could boast that she was going to a private school in Europe with its great educational tradition.

And having discharged her duty, Jade indulged herself with a game of building bricks with Mildryth and acknowledged that she WAS getting broody and that it might be time to think about another baby soon. Once Lily had settled in and Ulvik too.

oOoOo

Jade intended attending the Symposium of professors her father had put together; it would be helpful to her and the other young teachers she had assembled to meet counterparts in other schools, including small English dame schools. Severus had talked Lucius into holding it at Malfoy Manor so there was no problem about taking the children and letting them get on with it with Lucius' numerous offspring. Apparently Finn had produced her daughter before the world cup but Tanjela was still waiting; and when she had birthed there would be the weddings. Jade would fly in for a few days and then get back to Germany so Ulvik and Lily did not feel neglected; and there were a million and one things to do anyhow!

It was nice to see Lydia and all the old crowd from Prince Peak – Ron firmly collecting children to play quidditch rather than be involved in anything too serious – and introduce her teachers around to the few who did not know them; which was to say, those not of the blood group. Except Helmut Hastläufer who did not know anyone. The young squib had learned enough to brew potions – more or less – and could get a result from a chant; which was all he really needed. Frankly, Volodya would be wasted on the new school's pupils and Jade was glad she had persuaded him to return to teach at Durmstrang, at least for the time being. Some of her protégés would do well from his efforts. Others of her teaching team who were not blooded – at least not to her – were Mischa and Vasilica, Ihor Rebet and Ulrich Grindler, one of the ex werewolves of Prince Peak. It should be a great few days; or week for those who were staying on.

Severus welcomed everyone.

"We've got a few talks planned" he said "But the general idea of this symposium is to get to know each other, swap ideas, and see how far our various pet subjects overlap. I have certainly found that the more you learn, the more there is to learn; and the more things tie together. I cite chanting that can only be truly powerful with understanding of ancient runes, Arithmancy and higher levels of theory of charms and transfiguration and a passing acquaintance with comparative magic doesn't come amiss."

There were murmurs of assent from those who were already converted and noises of disbelief from those who were not.

"But Severus, we 'ave no chanters in Beauxbatons, and we are pestered by ze French Quidditch Association to train some as 'ealers; what am I to do?" said Madam Maxime.

"Olympe, I have a French child in my school in the second year whose father is a healer; he's over at the back there somewhere because I invited him to attend" said Severus "And she has come specifically to learn chanting. And her father puts in what free time he has to learn also; and you will doubtless soon have a competent teacher of chanting. You can't have Hercule back though; he's too good an ancient runes teacher and a stalwart of the trains club" he added.

"I have a Dutch lad and an Italian girl just entering the sixth who have learned chanting under Jade Snape, Olympe" said Agata Bacsó "They will be likely to want a job in a couple of years; either one will fit in with your pupils I think. They are pleasant young people."

"Desolina would do well to have her confidence boosted though" said Jade laconically "She HAS got a poor self image; and she's so beautiful all the boys will get tonsillitis for leaving their tongues hanging out. Sigismundus is inclined to the abrasive and he doesn't suffer fools. Period. I like him; but I'm not a fool" she added, not mentioning that in her opinion too many of the French teachers were.

"Besides, he's one I have my eye on to start a Scandinavian School when you've trained replacements for us" said Bertel Elstrup.

"Poacher" said Jade without rancour. "Desolina then, Olympe? Perhaps you will write to her and ask if she is willing; to be wanted as a teacher before she even leaves school will be a real boost!"

"I agree" said Agata; and Olympe nodded.

"I shall do so" she said.

The first talk was Orlando Carcano on the subject of using Wizarding Wireless Vision as a supplement to lessons as well as to substitute for a lack of professors; and Mei Chang gave a supplemental talk as she was teaching in a school with limited resources and only a few professors; all this with technical help from Lucius in demonstration of the equipment. Orlando had enthusiastic support too from Hagrid – who Jade had hugged and kissed – in using the ability to show techniques over.

Jade took the opportunity later to grab Freya Tuthill,who was to teach comparative magic at Prince Peak with the loss of Ellie (who went with David to Hogwarts), and told her that in a year she would provide her with a Japanese boy who could tell her more about eastern customs. Freya was delighted!

Jade could not then resist strolling over to a huddle of Arithmancers – having been following their conversation as well as that in the group of Ancient Runes people and the chat she had been having with Attila Nagy about transfigurations – and asked an innocent sounding question on the nature of the various universes one passed through when apparating and the one to which rubbish was vanished. It was a pet topic for debate at Prince Peak but horrified almost all the other arithmancers present and Hermione threw a cushion at her, which Jade took as a victory.

It took Fenella Fenwick, teaching both Arithmancy and Mathematics at Rowan house to come up with an answer, added to by Hermione and with quick rounding off by Septima Vector.

Jade grinned. Keeping people thinking stopped them from getting staid and stale. And it was also fun to see the looks of horror on their faces; which was probably, if she were honest, the main reason for doing it. Once a marauder always a marauder; except perhaps Hermione who had only ever been a half hearted marauder at times.

It was a good way to round off her brief stay; and she kissed Tanjela and wished her a quick labour and an efficient husband and promised to be back for the weddings; and left with her little family.