Chapter 2

Zoltan enjoyed the trip in the flying carriages to the grim castle of Durmstrang; and reflected that without the sure and certain love of his brother and the knowledge that his father DID care about him, it would actually be rather scary.

"Bit of a pile, isn't it?" said Sigismund "It's brighter on the inside, Frau Von Luytens got it tricked out with hangings and paintings and talked the head into having a mural painter in to do a few frescos. I'm looking forward to seeing them; they've been done over the holidays" he looked round quickly to see nobody was listening and added "Mother Agata says they are very good, mostly woodland scenes with unicorns and deer and if you know where to look there's a place you can peer through the trees and see a troll spanking Heinrich Nachtigall because the artist knew him; he was a big bully and nothing like his cousin, Fraulein Professor Nachtigall who teaches Arithmancy. You'll like her; she's very good. Our previous Arithmancy teacher was useless, though I'm glad to say she left before I had any lessons with her."

"I'm looking forward to all of it" declared Zoltan; and he was!

oOoOo

The Headmistress welcomed back all her pupils.

"The result of the vote for a head of school returned Zhanargul Nurtazin as head girl" she announced. "Zhanargul has shown herself to be a leader over the last couple of years through a period of adversity and I can truly say I could not have made a better choice myself; showing me to be quite right to believe my prefects ready to take the responsibility to elect a leader from amongst themselves. The choice was virtually unanimous; well done for placing the good of the school first. Stiv Molotov is to be captain of the quidditch team which I understand is virtually unchanged save that, all things being equal and so long as trials go well, Harald Trollkettil is named to fill Jaromir Frolik's shoes as Keeper. This becomes more important when I tell you that we have received a challenge from Hogwarts School in England and an invitation from them to meet their whole school team later in this term" and she paused to allow for cheers and whoops before going on. "As you know, Frau Professor Von Luytens was with us only for a year as a stopgap; she has opened her own school, together with her husband and sundry other staff, many of them ex pupils of Durmstrang or Hogwarts, teaching those ineligible for Durmstrang for their blood status, and such goblins as will become the new educated class of goblins. We honour Frau Von Luytens for her dedication and welcome in her place Herr Professor Gierek whom the older among you may remember. Herr Gierek has been spending a year working with an English Auror, which is what they call Vehmgerichten" and she smiled at Clovis. He rose.

"I have indeed had the enviable honour to work alongside not only Draco Malfoy but his friend Harry Potter; in understanding the many headed and mutable nature of the dark arts I could really have no better practical mentors" he said. "I shall continue in the tradition that Professor Von Luytens has set in teaching counters to the dark arts with equal emphasis to the dark arts themselves; and in hoping to show you that those who rely solely on the dark arts are but poor creatures. With exposure to English techniques I hope to make you as strong in this subject as the English themselves are."

He sat down.

Fans of Jade cheered wildly.

Agata Bacsó stood once more.

"Thank you Professor Gierek; it will be good to know that Durmstrang WILL defend with the same implacable strength we have seen from both Hogwarts and Prince Peak" she said. "We have two other new members of staff; one because we have lost Professor Rebet who, through his recent marriage, finds it more convenient to transfer to Professor Luytens' new school; you may be sure I spoke to her severely about poaching!" she said, smiling to show she joked "But she made suggestion of an excellent alternative Potions Professor, indeed, Fraulein Professor Von Freyer was in Professor Luytens' mind for her own school. Again, some of you older ones may recall Professor Von Freyer."

Cacilia rose.

"I heard that nasty and rude comment about Professor Rebet, Kunegunde Sternkessel" she said "And you may do me thirty lines of 'many times when I have spoken I have regretted doing so but when I have remained silent I have never regretted it' in the hopes that it may teach you continence of speech. Professor Rebet has married a potioneer who works for Frau Baronin Nefrita Von Strang und Luytens as a medical potioneer in poverty stricken areas; not that it is the business of the school at all. She was NOT eligible for Durmstrang nor is her daughter; who is in any case capable of passing the very stiff exam to get into Prince Peak. Which YOU are not; so any suggestions about trolls are more likely to apply to YOUR grading my fine lady because I HAVE looked over all the end of year exams for all the students so I know exactly what to expect from each of you. I warn you all now, that although I am not so hasty of temper as Professor Rebet can be, I shall be quite as exacting in what I expect from you; do not expect a soft ride merely because I am younger and less experienced. Nor will I tolerate rudeness any more than Professor Rebet and certainly not ABOUT Professor Rebet who is a potioneer I revere for his skill. The pupils of Schloss Adler are fortunate to have acquired his services; and I shall attempt to live up to his standards, would you care to repeat that Fraulein Sternkessel?"

"I – I didn't say any Fraulein Professor!" squeaked Kunegunde Sternkessel..

"Funny, I could have sworn someone at the table of the third said 'you could scarcely drop lower' which is a massive piece of cheek. Well then, the third collectively shall produce me one hundred lines of 'manners maketh man' and I shall rely on the fair minds of the third to see that the appropriate culprit manages to produce them since I shall not ask for sneaking. Do not assume that with Professor Von Luytens and her lynx like ears out of the way that you will get away with the sort of rudeness that was common before the overthrow of Odessa: Frau Professor Bacsó will not permit it and Professors Gierek and Potishev and I were both, let me remind you, close friends of Nefrita Von Luytens and learned much from her. I hope that we will too be able to bring all that we learned from her to your collective edification and guide you through the path of learning. Thank you for your indulgence, Madam Bacsó, my apologies that a simple address had to be interrupted by disciplinary matters."

"Thank you for handling the discipline for me, Professor Von Freyer" said Agata "And may I remind the school that I have also learned much from the creative discipline of the English schools; as have all the staff, as indeed we have exchanged ideas and learned much about other ways to approach teaching in an all school symposium over the holidays in England, where teachers of many European nations got together to exchange ideas. I am considering expanding the curriculum in the future; and some of the youngest in the school may well benefit from that. Which leads me to the introduction of our third new member of staff, introducing as a timetabled subject for the first time, chanting; Professor Potishev will also teach the musically talented or keen on Saturdays."

Volodya rose.

"I reserve the right to exclude from chanting any pupil who has no sense of rhythm" he said "On grounds that it disrupts the whole class and may prevent them learning potentially life saving chants. I will tell you now that those of you who observe the English system of early rising to run will find my class less physically arduous. As to the musically talented or keen I surely hope the keen have some ability because I refuse to listen to horrible noises and will exclude any who make them. Chanting is not a soft option; you will need physical fitness and a great deal of Arithmancy to be any good at it. Mucking about in my class gets you turned into a caterpillar. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He sat down again.

"Blunt and to the point" murmured Cacilia.

"What more does it need?" said Volodya "Shut up do, I have a tune in my head that wants to come out."

oOoOo

Zoltan had firmly – with some help from Felicks – put together a dormitory. He had picked Melior Gdylan from Uzbekistan, Ionut Anghel from Romania, the Austrian boy Leopold Pessl, a Polish boy called Waldemar Junda, the Greek boy, whose name was Periklis Theodrakis and a merry eyed German boy called Herman Langstab who preferred to be with jolly looking youths than stick – as so many Germans did – to all German dormitories. Of non Germans this then left Zsombor Czerny and a boy all the way from Pakistan. Zoltan did NOT want to have anything to do with Czerny; and the Pakistani boy seemed to use aggression as a tactic to overcome being in a minority. Zoltan did NOT like aggression; and though he hesitated in case being in an ethnically mixed dormitory might help him, decided that the good peace of his other dormitory mates was more important to him and chose Herman instead. Herman was glad to be asked and disappointed that the other jolly boys Zoltan had been talking to were second years.

"So how come you hang about with second years?" he asked.

"Because Sigismund is related to me; we are closer than brothers" said Zoltan. Which was true. "And his friends are my friends; and they are all, besides, musical. It is another bond."

This satisfied even the nosy Herman who liked to know things; and he and Felicks proved their worth as intelligencers between them by getting Periklis to admit to an ear disorder that he feared made him miss out on Quidditch sometimes, which he loved. Zoltan promptly marched the Greek boy off to find Takeo, who put together a chanting group to sort out the boy's ears; and that meant that Volodya was going to have one dormitory full of convinced chanters who would make no trouble! Especially when Leopold shared too with the others about his scar and how he now had fingers that worked and would not need to rub his body with cream twice a day as he had always had to do!

"I am going to write to my parents and tell them!" he said happily "Because it is so wonderful; and a skill that should be taught to all healers! I AM glad I came to this school."

"It started in the English schools" said Zoltan "If you'd stayed closer to home at Prince Peak you would have had it done there too you know."

"My parents did not put me in for Prince Peak; I'm not a squib but I know I'm not much more" said Leopold sadly "It may have been the shock or it may just be that I'm not very good; but I do try hard."

"I think" said Zoltan "They take on pupils with special needs too; so if you are unhappy here, and don't get on I guess it won't do any harm for your parents to ask about it. I thought I'd like to go there but now I have made friends here, I guess I'm glad I didn't. And we will of course do all we can to help you; dormitory mates are supposed to stick together and help each other out" he added firmly.

"I'm sure you'll do just fine" said Waldemar Junda with a fatuous smile of mindless optimism. "I am glad to be with a group of convivial boys, because I was very scared coming here."

"What we need to do" said Zoltan "Is to sick Herman and Felicks onto anyone they can get anything on so if anyone tries to throw their weight around we can threaten them a little bit with blackmail."

"It isn't very nice" said Melior.

"No, but nor is a junior whose life is made a misery by a bullying senior" said Zoltan "THAT's what I meant."

"You mean find out all about big people? THAT's a challenge" said Felicks.

"One I'm sure you and Herman will rise to" said Zoltan. Being a Marauder really gave him confidence to organise all this! His Dorm mates might not be marauder material but as a marauder it was his bounden duty to weld them together as a sort of gang to at least face out any bullies!

oOoOo

The choice of dorm mates – and indeed the dormitory – made some unpleasantness.

Sigismund, who was popular with the castle elves, had managed to arrange that his brother and cronies have the best first year dormitory, which had wide windows overlooking the lake and the warmth from the main kitchen chimney through it; and this was resented by those who thought they deserved it more.

This came in the form of two resentments; the first being those ethnic Germans who were outraged when they discovered that a bunch of foreigners had the best room, a problem that had not emerged so forcefully over the Five since there had been a lower number of German boys in their year, certainly not enough prepared to make an issue of their ethnicity with a large number of Slavic youths to dispute it.

A boy called Friedrich Steiner decided to do something about it and marched off to see the professor he thought likely to do the most good for him. And that was Cacilia Von Freyer.

"Fraulein Professor, rather than trouble the head, I though I should come to you as a pure bred German witch of impeccable lineage" he said.

Cacilia frowned.

"Somehow I fail to see what my lineage or blood status might possibly have to do with you" she said coolly.

"But Frau Professor Von Freyer, I too am pure blood and though I am not of noble blood, I am of excellent family as are many of we German youths" said Steiner eagerly "And that is why I thought you, who are of the same sort of background as we would understand and sympathise that we are done out of our rights; because the best dormitory has been occupied by a bunch of foreigners, even some filthy creature from the civilisationless eastern Steppes! It is not to be born, and please, we would like you to throw them out so that good German boys might thus occupy the best dormitory!"

Cacilia stared at him in well simulated surprise. She was not surprised; thus had Heinrich Nachtigall acted.

"Why you silly little boy!" she said "Whatever does nationality have to do with the dormitory that is occupied? If those boys bagged that dormitory first, then that is the way it is; and I suspect if there IS a better dormitory, the ones housed in it were doubtless the ones who showed themselves to be TRUE gentlemen by courtesy to the castle elves; I have seen amongst some of you who think yourselves well enough born a distressing lack of the instincts of gentlemen in peremptory manners towards the servants. The elves know how to reward those who behave with due courtesy. And, may I say, I consider it also the epitome of rudeness for you to presume upon sharing a nationality with me to try to get your own way; and to expect me to behave in a heavy handed, unfair and bullying fashion on your say so. You are very much out of line Mein Kleine Herr; contumelious and above yourself. I suggest you get out of my sight before I find you an imposition to write for your impudence!"

"But I don't understand!" whined Steiner "We Germans should be keeping the foreign animals in their places!"

"Understand THIS" said Cacilia, hoisting him into the air as a four foot woodlouse "That sort of racist comment is what led to Odessa and to Germany becoming the laughing stock of Europe such that in England, anyone with vulgar manner or bad manners is called 'a little bit German' and I HATE that! And I hate it because people like you make it truth! You are a pupil at Durmstrang; as are all the others. There is no difference between the lot of you; even the one princess we have in the school. SHE accepts equality with all others! No ethnic background has any prominence; any more than the head gives way to those who happen to be Hungarian as she is. And by the way, I AM glad to hear how much you respect the head girl, I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear that her ancient culture that is in descent of the first wizarding culture outside China should be described as 'civilisationless'. Just remember that if you take your incivility to the extent of cheeking the head girl, the staff WILL back her; and if I were you I should be very careful. As a ZH candidate, too much bad behaviour towards her might be construed as interfering with her exams; an expulsion offence. Now leave the other pupils alone and stop whining that you want it fairer for you than for anyone else and just get a life."

She turned him back with a wave of the hand.

The shocked Steiner scuttled off almost as fast as if he still had the excess legs of a woodlouse.

oOoOo

The other source of complaint came from Zsombor Czerny who came up to Zoltan and pinched his arm hard.

"You are Hungarian; it pleases me to speak Hungarian in the dormitory. You will either leave your dormitory and sleep in mine or you will get rid of one of those in yours for me to move in" said Czerny.

"Who died and made YOU Grindelwald?" said Zoltan, firmly speaking German. "I'll do nothing of the sort; I don't like you and I don't want to share a dormitory with you. Get lost."

"You! You have no say; you are a nobody, you came to the school with the brat in the second whereas I was brought by Professor Nagy because my family is more prominent than whatever yours is, even if you do have the same surname as the professor! You are nothing but a sissy because you play a sissy music instrument and if you don't do what I want, I will smash it up!"

"If you did, I have no doubt that you'd find out that being a caterpillar for Herr Professor Potishev would be the least of your worries" said Zoltan, feeling sick "Because he'd want to know what happened to it; and Professors take a dim view of the work of their pupils being sabotaged."

"Huh, you overestimate your worth!" said Czerny, pinching him again.

Zoltan took a deep breath, touched his wand for reassurance and switched Czerny's hands and ears.

"Don't do that again" he said; and walked away.

Czerny was howling in horror.

Zoltan went in search of Sigismund to find out if there was any way he could safeguard his cello, explaining what had happened.

"JUST like his cousin" said Sigismund. "No appreciation of consequences; it MUST be a heritable sickness that they cannot SEE that any but themselves are in any way relevant. I know just the job but we need a bit of help from senior marauders; the Asimov twins in fact."

oOoOo

Once the Asimov twins had had the matter explained they readily took the seven junior marauders down to the music room and involved them in a chant that would backfire curses on anyone who attempted to jinx any of the instruments; and added a layer of chanting that was a physical barrier shield such that any touch other than the normal, in other words, as Zlatko said, a blow, kick, whack or poke would impact upon the barrier as though it were steel so that any foot or hand or even a hand holding a weapon should get a nasty jar.

"Nice work" said the voice of the Russian music professor from the door "I heard the door open to this room and came to see if there was skulduggery afoot; you protect the juniors' instruments you twins?"

Zoltan thrilled to feel that this Professor who would teach him music was also of the Blood!

"Yes Vol – uh sir" said Zlatko. "It's based on one we came up with last year to protect our brooms; the electricity spell powered by the force of any jinx involved directed through the wand. Blew up a girl's wand totally over our brooms. It's a tricky twist grounding it through the wand AND adding a generic curse to drop the avocado jellied furnunculous curse on the bearer too. We tied that one into the barrier against physical attack also" he added cheerfully.

"Hmmm. Any specific reason to suspect this might be needed?"

"Zoltan was threatened" said Zlatka "We can't of course say by whom."

"No, quite" said Volodya "I will watch over the instruments of all my little brothers and sister as over my own also. Excuse" he wandered around the instruments singing melodiously in Russian.

"Neat" said Zlatko.

"I didn't follow it all" said Zlatka.

"I added the levicorpus hex to the avocado jellied furnunculous" said Volodya "So any culprit will be dangling from one ankle to be collected. You children know the hex?"

"No sir!" chorused the Third Marauders. It was no surprise that the Asimov twins DID know it.

Volodya taught the younger ones; AND the counter.

"Learn to cast wordlessly so nobody can steal your best curses" said he laconically.

"Should there not be music patterns so we can whistle them?" asked Corneliu.

"Ah! Excellent; lateral thinking. It is on your curriculum" said Volodya "Now be about your business!"

oOoOo

Zoltan found that an elf was looking for him to summon him to Attila Nagy's office; and duly went. Zsombar Czerny was in there.

His ears and hands were back in their rightful places.

"Herr Nagy, did you switch Herr Czerny's hands and ears?" asked Attila.

"Yes sir; I did" said Zoltan "It seemed a fair retaliation."

"Ah, retaliation" said Attila "THAT was something you left out, Herr Czerny."

"Sir, this nobody lies! I had done nothing!" said Czerny. He spoke in Hungarian.

"Herr Czerny the official language of the school is German" said Attila "Herr Nagy, do you care to explain?"

"I have no intention of sneaking, sir, about any attacks or threats made; let it suffice that I felt Herr Czerny's hands less irritating if moved" said Zoltan.

"How the devil did you learn to do a switching spell that smooth?" asked Attila.

"Oh I watched Bronislava stick Beryx' ears onto Felicks' French Horn" said Zoltan "And she told me it was a switching spell and handy to have in one's repertoire of jinxes."

Attila beamed.

"It is a spell many a third year has trouble with; it is tested in the ZP! It was smoothly and neatly done; you should do well in transfigurations!"

"Aren't you going to PUNISH him sir?" demanded Czerny.

Attila gazed at him.

"It was for you to tell me who to punish WHY?" he asked. "You are unharmed; the spell was well executed. And I am still wondering why it was ….retaliation. Well, as you must have been fighting both of you are due punishment for that; pray bend over my desk the both of you."

"But I'm not at fault! He used dangerous spells on me!" said Czerny in Hungarian.

"German Herr Czerny; you may blub in your own language if you like when I have enacted sentence" said Attila. "It was a spell; but not dangerous. And I know your family well enough to be quite well aware that you almost certainly started it as I had already suspected. So I will punish you both; and Herr Nagy has the satisfaction of having made you run crying like a girl to be rescued from his superior spell craft. If I were you I should not try to throw your weight around; your cousin got expelled for it. Will you bend over of your own accord or must I make you?"

Czerny sulkily bent.

"I'll get you" he whispered to Zoltan.

The blow of the ruler was sharp; but singular and not as hard as Zoltan had expected. He gasped. Beside him Czerny yelped.

"You are both dismissed; such is the punishment for fighting" said Attila.

They left his office feeling warmer than was comfortable.

"If you DO try to get me, next time I shan't refuse to sneak you up" said Zoltan "Because following the code of silence is one thing, letting you try to be a bully as a matter of course is something else. Personally I think it's worth the punishment but if you attack me or my possessions again, next time I'll drop so many jinxes on you it'll REALLY be worth the whacking; because I shall really go to town and enjoy myself. Maybe I'll make your nose into a carrot and your eyes into pickled onions. Leave me alone Czerny; I'm not harmless."

"I'll fix you somehow; you OUGHT to defer to me, my family has always gone to Durmstrang; you may think you can play on being called Nagy but it's as common as Schmitt in Germany. And it's plain that the Professor does not want anyone to think he is any relation of yours or he would be less formal with you; he despises you BECAUSE you bear the same name and he wants everyone to know that you are nothing to do with him!"

Had Zoltan not had the talk with Sigismund and later with his father he might well have wondered if this was the case, in the light of his mother's careful poison; but he just laughed.

"Go play with your little wand" he said.

oOoOo

Naturally, Czerny was not about to leave it there.

He fully intended to carry out his threat of breaking Zoltan's dearest possession, his cello; but he also wanted to be in Zoltan's dormitory, as its head, and make Zoltan crawl. He had teamed up with Zahid Malik, telling the Pakistani boy that it was necessary for the foreign students to band together against the German ones. Zahid did not see a great deal of difference between Hungary and Germany; but then, Pakistan and India were not exactly friendly so he went along with Czerny in principle. Bullying other non Germans to make them join them seemed a slightly odd way to go about it but presumably it was the European way.

Trying to persuade Leopold, Melior, Periklis, Ionut and Waldemar, whilst Zoltan was talking with Sigismund, to set upon Felicks and Herman for what the five could see as no good reason was not going to happen, whatever Czerny wanted; especially when Ionut pointed out that he and his crony had not even dared suggest it to Zoltan who would be incensed that any should want to turn his friends against each other. There were high words and a selection of jinxes and Felicks and Herman joined in. And then the German contingent decided to set on all the non Germans and the two blood traitors; at which point Zoltan returned and blood pulsed Zhanargul while he started hoisting assailants in the air. He started with Czerny on general principles.

Zhanargul arrived, took in the situation and dropped full body binds on everyone not dangling from one ankle, including Zoltan.

"WHAT is the meaning of this unseemly brawl?" she said "Are you caged rats that you must fight so? Who will give me an explanation?"

"We defend our rights as Germans of good blood against ALL foreigners!" said Steiner imprudently.

"Then your rights should hold concomitant responsibilities which is what those who squeal about rights tend to forget" said Zhanargul "And this foreigner is now setting YOU twenty lines of 'my concept of German appears to be spelled r-u-d-e' by tomorrow night and they had better be done or you'll be on a Head's report. And she's not German either" she added. "Can anyone give me a more lucid account?"

"I wasn't in on the beginning, Zhanargul; sorry" said Zoltan

"Can we tell you sort of not so officially?" said Ionut "Because otherwise it's kind of sneaking."

"I'll listen unofficially and then decide if I need to tell the head girl; will that do?" said Zhanargul with a straight face. This confused some of them but Ionut grinned.

"It began because Czerny – who is a pig – and his crony there whose name I never caught, the bad tempered one from India"

"PAKISTAN!" cried Malik

"Whatever" said Ionut "The one from the Pakistan then, they started threatening our dorm except the two who are German that we ought to do over the German boys and make them leave and I don't know why because their reasons were awful obscure because it don't matter where you're from, do it?"

"It does not" said Zhanargul "Obviously more happened."

"They got nasty tongued and we started yelling and Felicks and Herman joined us and we were jinxing them to let them know we weren't having it; I know it was seven on two but Czerny got his wand out first AND was threatening stuff like sabotaging our beds and schoolwork so we sort of lost our cool. Only up til then it was a private sort of war and then all the other oiks attacked us and the two gits alike and then Zoltan came in and I guess it was him hoisting people because it stopped them fighting, mostly, and then you came. So I dunno what the general war was about either" said Ionut.

"Well!" said Zhanargul. "I'm afraid I shall have to report you to the head girl within. As Herr Nagy sent a message to me that he could hear carnage in the common room – that sounds like the title of a spoof Vehmgerichten tale – and tried to incapacitate combatants harmlessly I think I shall let HIM off; the rest of you have behaved disgracefully and made an infernal mess so you will all give up your leisure time working together to clear up WITHOUT wands; and you will moreover write me ten lines apiece in your best handwriting, 'Birds in their little nests agree' which is as much truth as that children will agree; but you are SUPPOSED to be learning civilised behaviour in school. And a good job the girls aren't in here for having been invited to learn sewing by Fraulein Von Freyer; the only thing worse then fighting boys is fighting girls. This seems to be a storm in a cauldron started by a couple of nasty little would-be bullies; you were picked on back so I shall do no more for the time being but I am watching you both."

oOoOo

Czerny was going to bide his time; but he was furious at getting yet MORE trouble; and Zoltan was GOING to suffer, of that he was determined! But let him sweat first; let him not know when misery would fall, thought the nasty little boy.

Zoltan was not sweating; his beloved Cello was safe; Czerny was utterly unable to hurt those he loved best in the world; and his Dormitory had sworn an oath to support each other against outside agency whether it was Czerny and any cronies he mustered or whether it was the German supremacists. He settled down to enjoy his lessons – which all seemed to come easily, especially transfigurations – and the ECC, and his music.

And after a week Attila had to remind his son that it WOULD be a good idea to write to his mother. Zoltan had almost forgotten home in the busy golden days of learning; and his conscience was pricked.

He duly wrote to tell his mother that he was having a marvellous time and had made a lot of marvellous friends and they had a music group and that was marvellous too. Like all small boys he was lazy about adjectives, especially in written work but the general effect was that he was marvellously happy!