Chapter 3
Walter Crabbe had been a little suspicious that he had been invited to this children's party by Lucius; but had gone anyway. As his parents said it WAS an honour to be invited to Malfoy Manor.
Lucius had greeted him kindly.
"I am sure you'll meet with kindness and understanding at school" he said "My son Nathan is glad he was right that your apparent bad behaviour wasn't your fault. And thanks to Severus Snape and your brother Victor, St Mungo's were able to help."
"I don't understand sir" said Walter.
"Oh, weren't you told? Sev Snape found a book similar to the one that harmed you, poking around Borgin and Burke's to see what needed destroying; and Victor volunteered to read it to see if it was in any way similar to the one you had. And he was young enough that it started whispering to him too" he added grimly "Severus reckoned he must have a really strong will power to TALK about it to him; and then he had to do a quick burst of curse breaking. Victor wanted you to have a whole new start at Prince Peak, you know; away from any kids who knew you, in case any were nasty to you. And where he could look out for you. But your parents were adamant that Crabbes went to Hogwarts."
Tears swam into Walter's eyes.
"After how rotten I was to him, Victor cares?"
"You have quite a brother, my lad" said Lucius "He's here incidentally."
Victor and Walter had a long reunion; the brief visits to St Mungos could never be satisfactory, for there were always nurses, and often their own parents too, making Victor feel unwelcome.
"I wish I was going to Prince Peak with you" said Walter "I – I don't know what to say to people!"
"I'd let them make the first move" said Victor "The decent ones will either say hello deliberately or treat you like nothing's happened; and if any say anything nasty, stare at them fishily like a Malfoy and say something like 'that was in a previous life; I don't recall much about being cursed' so they're put in the wrong."
"Thanks" said Walter. "I say, what do YOU think of having goblins and elves at school?"
"I think people who are clever enough ought to have the opportunity to learn all they can" said Victor "And there are humans who are more sub human than ruddy trolls; and elves and goblins noble enough to bleed for Harry Potter. Y'know, people are people; take them as you find them."
"All right; I'll do my best" said Walter seriously. "I want to live that first term down. And – and the hurting of that beggar kid because I could. They've helped a lot in St Mungo's; Victor, why does dad say that I shouldn't worry about that?"
"Because, laddie, our father was brought up badly in the Voldemort years believing firmly that might makes right" said Victor "And, you know, I do wonder if mum and dad read that book to you; and any rubbed off a bit on them even though they're grown ups. Look, you enjoy school; and if they make you uncomfortable, arrange with Professor Dumbledore – or Professor Fraser when Albus retires – to take you into care and assign you me as your guardian. I'll take care of you."
"Professor Dumbledore's retiring?"
"Not 'til next year; but it's a bit of a secret yet" said Victor "You'll like the new head though; David Fraser is a Triwizard champion, one time head boy of Hogwarts and a fine man. He's also an international Quidditch referee!"
Walter loved quidditch so that got him interested!
oOoOo
After speaking with Victor, Walter was approached by Nathan Malfoy, U-may Naga, the girl he had tried to bully, and Isambard Cooper who had seen his torturing of the child in Diagon Alley. There were a selection of others with them, Walter tried not to look scared. Nathan thrust out a hand.
"Glad you're back and cured old man" he said "We'd like to start over; and if you have any trouble, you come to us, see? We're Marauders now us six and so we'll sort out any shit you get into if anyone makes any trouble."
"Thanks Malfoy" said Walter. "I say, can I ask something?"
"Sure" said Nathan.
"Do you REALLY like having more than one mum and not mind?" asked Walter.
Nathan laughed.
"It's tedious if I'm trying to sneak past them hiding the fact that I'm unnecessarily wet and muddy from some er, excursion" he said "Though I'm MORE likely to be caught by an elf like Lala – she was nurse to dad and all of us and she even scolds him at times – but if I've caught a cold from such exploits, it's nice to be pampered with lots of mums to see if I want anything. And there's quite a lot of us you know to spread them over! Because there's Ian and his siblings who are our cousins by rights who are adopted, and Gorbrin's long family with two sets of twins, and Malfoys seem good at getting twins too! I like having loads of brothers and sisters and I love all my mums. Full enough answer?"
"Reckon you're lucky then" said Walter "Because I don't think I know my parents very well."
"Hey, that could just be because you've been in hospital so long – and you've changed by getting well" said Nathan "Give it time; they must love you, right? And that's all that matters!"
Walter nodded dubiously.
He hoped it was.
oOoOo
The other weevils duly arrived; Walter having discovered he had been invited a little early; and five new kids, two girls and three boys approached him.
"Hello; Walter?" said a girl with red hair.
"That's me" said Walter cautiously.
"We know about the book and we are here to give you support" said a dark skinned girl "And to help you work hard to move up a year or two if that is what you want. Y'know, it's what this sort of party is for; to make friends and influenza people. So that's what we're here for; because we've all got shit in OUR pasts that is unpalatable so we know that living with it is not comfortable."
"Actually I have got nothing but luxury and soft living in my past but I have talked a jolly lot to those who have bad pasts" said Hasibul. "And my family has enough enemies that I might have ended up with such a book, goodness me yes!"
Purnima kicked him.
"Stop doing the comic story Indian, Haz" she said "Your English is impeccable."
"But not when overcome by emotion and thought of what it might be like" said Hasibul.
"My honoured cousin has an overactive imagination" said Purnima.
"I – I think it's decent of you to care to imagine it" said Walter. "You think you're normal, you know; and that everyone else is not important, for one thing; and when they make reasonable suggestions of how to behave, you know they're wrong because they are lesser beings. It's like living in a world where half-wits who should be guided and ruled and punished by you are trying to be insolent and take away your own powerful princely rights. And – and when you wake out of it because the curse is broken, it – it's like you realise that the princely things you thought you were doing actually make you the sub human one and you feel sick and ashamed and horrified and there's nothing to be done to put right wrongs; and you have to live with it forever that you've been awful!"
Two little girls put their arms around him.
"And I feel like that about what was done to me" said Purnima "Even though, like you, I know it wasn't my fault. One day I'll tell you."
"Would you like to do something towards putting it right, Walter?" said Chrys.
"Merlin, YES!" said Walter.
"Then join with us; we're hoping to be Marauders if we can get chosen" said Chrys "And we swear to protect and serve and to get into mischief and use what we learn from that to fight dark wizards; and I guess going after the sort of people who wrote that book constitute dark wizards all right!" Purnima had explained to the others what had happened to Walter so they were prepared.
"Nathan Malfoy and his friends – they're Marauders" said Walter "He said so."
"Yes; my foster sister is part of that group, U-May Naga" said Purnima.
"She turned into a snake and bit me" said Walter. "When I was last at Hogwarts."
"She's a snake animagus" said Purnima "How cool is that? I think I want to be a tiger animagus because my foster father is a Rakshasa like Hasibul here."
They all repeated their life stories and Walter stared.
"I guess that all makes my story seem pretty tame, and me full of self pity a bit of a drip" he said.
"Not hardly" scoffed Purnima "I've felt dirty because of what happened to me; but I guess you've had your mind – no, your SOUL raped. It's much the same. We need to stick together us, even if we never get chosen to maraud; because we should right wrongs not just brood on the wrongs done to us. It's up to us to use the bad things as a means to know how to help others, to take our anger and make it constructive."
"Yes; I see that" said Walter "I – I want to share that I am angry with my parents for not noticing that I was a monster. Or pretending that it didn't matter; I don't know which. My brother thinks they had the wrong upbringing; but I can't help blaming them a little that I got so old before it was found out. The doctors in St Mungos said it should have been sorted years ago" he added.
"Some of us are lucky to have great parents" said Chrys "Me and Haz; and as foster parents now, the rest of them. I guess if you're one of us, I heard another Marauder say that all Marauders hold property in common. I guess that means we'll share our parents with you; and if you can't settle, take turns to have you for part at least of each holiday."
"Would you? That is awfully decent of you" said Walter. "I'd like to Maraud. I want to GET creeps that set up such traps for little kids."
"Well as we've all had weird stuff happen, when we choose a Marauder group name, let's be the weird marauders" said Seth.
It was voted a great idea!
oOoOo
The would-be weird marauders went to check out the other weevils.
Some of them already knew the Malfoy-Tobak twins who were to be starting this year and introduced them to Seth, Walter and Chrys; together with Odiza gan Torlo, a sister of Gorbrin's friend Jardak and best friend of Zakala Malfoy-Tobak. They had also gathered up Annette Blake, the half elf sister of others already in the school and loudly ready to stand up for elven rights without making a pratt of herself like her half sister Michelle Makepeace. Her half brother Colin Makepeace was also there shrugging over what they had heard of Michelle's bad attitude and declaring that nothing became sisters so much as the ignoring of them. They had also been introduced to Dionysia Bulstrode, a cousin of Gorbrin's girlfriend Meliandra. Dionysia was a typical Bulstrode to look at, stocky and dark haired with sallow skin and a square, pugnacious face. William Waffling, brother of Wanda and Wendy had been deposited on them; and he stood around trying to look Byronesque and succeeding – so Veronica giggled to the marauding ones – in looking constipated.
"It's called Emo" said another weevil. "My name's Bethany Purbeck; I'm muggleborn, my brother's just left Hogwarts; our other siblings went to Rowan but I have high hopes because I managed to turn a ruler into a stick of toffee last term at school when a teacher was going to slap a boy on the hand with it – which is against the rules in any case but she's an old besom – so I guess I'm doing something right. Emos are people who haven't quite got what it takes to be Goth but want to hang about being interesting and depressive." She indicated another boy "This is Sebastian Diggory; his brother's the same age as Gerald, but went to Rowan 'cos he's a squib. But they know each other a bit."
Sebastian gave a rather shy smile.
Everyone was avoiding Niobe Cooper, sister of second year Marauder Isambard and with two other older siblings already in the school, Ashleigh in the upper sixth and Rowland in the fourth. Niobe had a whining sort of voice and seemed to use tears as a weapon to get her own way which, as Purnima said, was going to get her no further with the staff than it already had with Lucius who asked what a crèche-aged brat was doing at his weevil fest.
There were a lot of goblins this year; as one of the brides in Lionel's unconventional set up, Arjelan had brought her twin brothers, Hadjan and Alrak who had promptly attached themselves to the group surrounding the Malfoy-Tobak twins. Kreszi Kordach was also there, Kordach's second legitimate child and so half sister of Stacey; and ready to offer to Lucius the opinion that she was glad HER mum wasn't such an idiot as Stacey's and did he need her to make a diversion. She and her older full sister were solidly behind Stacey, and Lucius thought it very nice; and said so.
That made six goblins and two half elves; the highest number of non humans ever. However, numbers overall in the school were picking up after two generations of depleted numbers, through the deaths caused by the deatheaters and through the refusal of some people to send their children to a high profile school that had been targeted by Voldemort. Lucius had no doubt that the numbers would soon be returning to a reasonable number, and might have to be split so that two houses at a time only attended any one class. Which with the extra lessons would make scheduling them all very tight; but that would be David Fraser's problem.
Of the other weevils at the party, one was there by courtesy to the Black family, being one of the Hitchens cousins; George was the youngest of three brothers who had proved luminaries of Ravenclaw house without being involved in either trouble or mischief. Another Ravenclaw relative was Sibilla Crawford, third of four sisters; and the two older ones were enthusiastic members of the MSHG. They hung together from sibling association; and George declared every intention of belonging to the MSHG like his oldest brother Leonard, now left with a respectable array of NEWTs. They had sort of collected William Waffling by default and were too kind to shed him.
The would-be marauders had no such qualms. Veronica took William firmly by the arm.
"Here, William, come and meet Niobe Cooper" she said "She understands Emo; never a dry eye in the house" and dumped him on Niobe.
The new weevils met another older pupil's younger brother when Gorbrin whistled up the new Weevils for a knockabout quidditch match, discovering that Bayard Chevallier, brother of second year Alcippe, considered himself likely to be better than anyone else.
He was doomed to disappointment and retired in a fit of the sulks to have rings flown round him by Zakala Malfoy-Tobak and by Alrak and Hadjan gan Nork who were all extremely good; and also out performed by Bethany Purbeck, Walter Crabbe and Chrys Lockhart. Bayard was not naturally racist as a matter of course but it did rankle that goblins and mudbloods should be better than him, a pure blood wizard; Chrys and Walter being the only ones he acknowledged as having any RIGHT to be better players!
"And serve you right for boasting" said his sister Alcippe. "And when you've had your corners knocked off you by being at school you'll be a nicer brother to have. Now dry up and stop being a fool; you will not win friends acting the goat."
Bayard scowled. He was not sure he wanted such friends as these anyway; he could do fine on his own!
oOoOo
What did not help with those who despised goblins, thought Alrak disapprovingly, was the way his twin Hadjan clowned about and acted in an exaggeratedly vulgar way to get cheap laughs; emphasising the Birmingham accent and making crass jokes. And if it weren't bad enough that such must antagonise young witches and wizards, it must surely too put off even such goblins as had class and a place in society like the Malfoy girls and Kreszi Kordach, whose father was a very important man!
"I apologise for my twin, Malfoy" he said stiffly to Zelinn "He is lowering us both with such behaviour."
Zelinn shot him a look; Alrak was acutely uncomfortable.
Zelinn's own twin, Zakala, was laughing.
"Look here, Gan Nork" said Zelinn "I think this is the way your brother deals with shyness about being in a new social situation; and actually, two of my brothers are clowns, Draco and Gorbrin. Draco did the Convolvumort stuff on Wizarding Wireless; so it's sort of almost what we're used to at home anyhow. We're all goblins who've made it by going to Hogwarts; and I bet your twin is as proud of that as you are, and proud of your big sister too. I'd resent a human making goblin jokes I think; but we're sort of entitled. I – I don't think you should let it upset you; I reckon we all have different ways of dealing with how scary it is to go away to school for the first time, even those of us who do have twins. Do you mean to be in the same house as your twin?"
"I don't know; it isn't up to us is it?" asked Alrak.
"Well; no – and yes" said Zelinn. "You see, if you really, really DON'T want to be in a particular house, the sorting hat takes note of your wishes; and if you really DO want to be in a house and you're suitable it will take that into account. I was planning on being the first Malfoy and the first Goblin in Ravenclaw – if I'm clever enough. And I think I am. I think Zakala's hoping to end up in Gryffindor. All our full siblings have been in Slytherin to date; though some of dad's other kids have been Gryffs and one of our cousins was the first Malfoy in Gryffindor. He was Head Boy too; like Draco was" she added proudly.
"You ARE well integrated – that you think first of being the first MALFOY into Ravenclaw, and goblin comes second" said Alrak.
"Being a Malfoy is a bit of a state of mind" said Zelinn. "Dad adopted us when twin and me were about six or seven; and really, we've gone out of our way to forget what happened before because it wasn't very nice at all. And dad makes no difference between any of us – apart from the fact that he tries not to show that Gorbrin's a bit of a favourite of his – and nor do the mums; so really, I guess we are more Malfoy than goblin. And isn't that the way it should be? Pride in one's family rather than riding a hobby-horse about WHAT we are? Blake and Makepeace's sister Michelle made a pratt of herself last year insisting that everyone who disagreed with her was racist and out to put elves and half elves down."
"What's the story there? Why do they have different names?" asked Alrak.
"Oh, this man owned an elf and wanted more than stud fees so he kidnapped three muggle women and made them get pregnant lots to sell the half elf children; Draco nicked him and it opened all sorts of cans of flobberworms because the law is unclear about the status of half elves conceived into slavery; only he was done under the laws against enslaving muggles, and the law that a child born to a free woman is free, so they were free in that the women were not legally slaves. And Draco got the women to give their kids clothing quickly too. Annette and Colin are all right. Roger's going to be a Quaestor – he's the oldest – and Michelle is a silly moo. But she got conned royally by the head girl who asked her if she should be treated differently to humans, and of course Michelle said no, and got the same massive impot any other pratt would get for stirring up trouble and slandering a boy."
"Sounds complex" said Alrak.
"It is, fairly" said Zelinn. "Draco revels in sorting out complex legal tangles though so I'm sure he enjoyed finding how many ways he could throw the book at the creep who tried THAT trick."
oOoOo
A recurrence of the rain drove the youngsters indoors and Gorbrin organised a game of 'animal, vegetable, mineral or enchanted' and kicked off with the relatively simple 'vegetable and animal' which was a Dryad and then let it take its own momentum to the extent of 'mineral and enchanted with animal and vegetable connections' which was the paint on a portrait of Armando Dippet with a geranium.
Veronica kept them guessing for a long time and was finally given up on over 'enchanted with animal connections' which was the ghost of the Hogwarts History Professor; and called shame on Seth for not getting THAT.
Seth retorted that he wasn't used to the game with the extra category of 'enchanted' in it and that she hadn't played fair to the question 'what colour is it?' by declaring it colourless when he would have said that ghosts were filmy white with blueish tinges in full daylight.
"Well that would have given in right away!" said Veronica "And white is an absence of colour anyway!"
"No it isn't" said Seth "It's all the colours which is how come you can break up white daylight into a spectrum and how rainbows happen and I can prove it to you if there's any crayons here and something I can make a spinning top out of."
A spinning top was borrowed from the nursery and Erica loaned her coloured pencils and Seth coloured in a piece of paper to go onto the top and spun it.
"It isn't really WHITE" said William Waffling.
"Well the colours aren't totally accurate er, spectral colours" said Seth "If they were and it spun fast enough it would be totally white."
Erica, who had come to see her pencils came to no harm promptly charmed the segments to be pure spectral colours and to blend perfectly one into another and set the top spinning faster that it was designed to do.
"See?" said Seth "THANK you Malfoy."
"That's extraordinary!" said William "Are you sure it's not done by the big girl with magic?"
Seth kicked the top so it stopped suddenly and the colours reappeared as it spun down.
"It's science" said Seth "And with cardboard and dowel you can make them 'cos we did at school."
Gorbrin and Erica acquired cardboard and shaped sticks to Seth's direction and the weevils were kept occupied for the rest of the afternoon making their own spinning tops.
Anything for a quiet life on a wet afternoon at a weevil fest.
Gorbrin wanted a quiet life; he had his own projects to get on with before term started. He was using the skills he had gained in metalworking – that he did not feel he could really take to NEWT as he was already taking eight other subjects – to make a device to help him with his chanting. It was based on the concept of a metronome and could be set to a number of rhythms and the speed set with infinite variability up to a maximum. He had had to endure several jokes from younger siblings and Bella who, when he likened it to a metronome and Gennar asked what that was had replied,
"It's like a garden gnome but it rides on the underground trains."
Gorbrin had cuffed her.
Bella grinned, said it actually sounded really useful but how did he think she could pass up a straight line like that? And since Gorbrin rarely passed up a straight line he laughed, kissed her and explained a bit more fully to Gennar.
Gorbrin felt that chanting was his weak subject as he had only gained 'E' in it at OWL, that and care of domestic beasts being his only 'E' grades in a raft of 'O's. Chanting however was important; and if he planned to be an auror, having such to undo curses would be invaluable. Draco used chanting a lot in his work as an auror.
oOoOo
It was the would-be Weird Marauders who were out first thing in the morning barefoot and pyjama'd in the wet grass to scrump early apples before the rest were up, waiting for the MSHG contingent here to convene; excitement had kept them from sleeping long.
So it seemed had it for others.
The Marauders were practising sneaking and so made little noise and heard quite clearly a child's voice,
"It IS too early you dipstick."
"Well SOMETIMES I seen the Malfoys get up early; and when they do they do sometimes play that broomstick game and you said you wanted to see more."
"I do; but it's still perishing cold and I'm hungry" said the first voice.
"You can share our apples if you like" said Veronica "Are you muggles from the village?"
There was a rather surprised rustle and two small boys emerged from the hedge.
"We ain't trespassing – well not quite" said the second voice.
"That's all right; we're inviting you to join us for a snack" said Veronica, tossing an apple each. "What are your names and how old are you? I'm Veronica, this is Purnima, Haz, Chrys, Walter, and Seth,"
"Well you ain't got such weird names as some I've heard" said the second boy "I'm Charles Tippet and this is me cousin Tim. I'm from the village but I don't know what you mean by muggle; my dad's a driving instructor. I started coming up here to see Mr Malfoy's swell classic cars. I'm eleven; Tim's ten."
Charles had blonde hair and enough of a look of the Malfoys to have some heritance from the family; Tim was a brown haired boy with pale skin and a birth mark across his face. He turned to hide it.
"Did you want to get rid of the mark?" asked Veronica.
Tim snorted.
"'Course I do! I get bullied enough at the school I'm at; when I go up to secondary school it'll be worse!" he said.
"Do we actually know enough about chanting?" said Purnima "I mean, being forbidden wands out of school….."
"Like anyone will actually NOTICE in Malfoy Manor?" snorted Hasibul. "It's a bit beyond us but ERICA could do it easy as pie! And they'll all be out soon."
The boys looked nervous.
"Look, we – uh, we don't want to be in any trouble" said Charles "I've seen some of the things that happen to people who piss off Mr Malfoy; like that old besom who got followed by a thunderstorm AWESOME!"
"Can you see what makes some of his kids different?" asked Seth.
"Y'mean the ones that look like something out of Labyrinth with the long hands and feet?" said Charles.
"Yes. Excuse me, I am not threatening you" said Seth and got his wand out. "This is called Scarpin's revellaspell and it ought to tell us if you're muggles – non wizards – who are sensitive and can see stuff or if you're actually magical."
"If he's actually magical he'd have been at the weevil fest with the rest of us because he'd have been invited to school" objected Veronica.
"Well, yes, but the big people say it kinda comes in degrees" said Seth. He laid out the lines. "It – I think it's them ones there" he said "Six means either pure bred or a fortuitous combination; four is the usual limit. They both have three, but Charles has longer ones."
"You mean I might be able to do magic and fly on brooms in that wild game?" said Charles.
"WHAT are you horrors up to and if you're up why aren't you dressed?"
Lucius appeared round a shrub. The small muggles cowered and various children grabbed them and explained at the tops of their voices.
Lucius listened, and unravelled.
"Hmm" he said "Well Charles, YOU at least are plainly related to me; and it seems to me that if you take an interest in magic the pair of you should go to Rowan House school where you will learn more about our world; and to use such of it as you may. Alongside your er GCSE exams" he waved his own wand "And if you have the determination, Charles you MIGHT get to Hogwarts, the school for witches and wizards; I'd have said that you were borderline. And THAT means it would be down to you and your determination and belief in yourself. If you were in the same year I imagine you'd prefer to stick by Tim; but it will be what you decide to make of yourself. It's in London; a boarding school."
"My dad couldn't afford it; though thank you sir for the suggestion" said Charles "Tim's parents might manage; if they can stop scrapping long enough to care about him. But my parents are arranging his education right now anyway because his are going through a messy divorce at long distance 'cos his dad's a captain on a tanker. It brings the oil to make your cars go" as Lucius looked faintly puzzled.
"As you're kin of mine I'll pay; whichever school you end up in" said Lucius. "And I'll come see your parents."
"PLEASE Mr Malfoy, can YOU sort out Tim's face?" demanded Purnima.
"We didn't think we knew enough yet" said Chrys.
"Though we want to learn chanting" said Walter. "Professor Snape undid some of the things St Mungo's couldn't with a chant and it didn't half upset the consultant healer!"
Lucius chuckled.
"I bet" he said "Severus enjoys rattling the chains of the pompous with limited understanding and a belief that anything out of their understanding can't happen…. Yes, you boys, we wizards have limited fools and half wits too and most of them are in the equivalent of your civil service. It seems easy enough; I don't even need a chant for that, a medical transfiguration; a little more ticklish as it's progressive. Grown over the last few years, has it lad?"
"Yes sir; and it's getting hard and horny in places. I – I looked it up on the internet and I – I'm scared of becoming like the Elephant Man."
"It isn't quite that bad but chances are it will sprout hair and go horny" said Lucius. "So I need to change that in you which makes it do so…. This will feel a little hot" he added, waving his wand over the ugly red mark.
Tim gasped and put his hand to his face.
Charles stared.
"It's GONE!" he said, awed.
"Oh SIR!" said Tim.
"You're welcome" said Lucius "Now go back to breakfast; and ask your parents to come and see me at a reasonable hour of day; you may come with them and play with the brats I have here until I am thankfully relieved of them by their parents at tea time."
"We love you too Uncle Lucius" said Veronica. He ruffled her reddish curls laughing.
Charles had limited ability; but he was no less able than some of the near squibs Hogwarts had seen. The hat would decide if he came to Hogwarts or went to Rowan; and if he cared to get up early to watch wizardry in action, he deserved the chance to learn more about it.
oOoOo
Lucius had little trouble with Charles' parents. His father had also watched the things small Draco had got up to; being some ten years older than Draco, he had seen the boy's earliest manifestations of magical ability and how that had been praised. He could also see elves. And his wife was a local girl who looked Malfoy enough to confirm Lucius' suspicions that most of the boy's talent came from her. She too had wondered all her life about the people of Malfoy Manor; being a wizarding family made it, as she said, suddenly all fall into place.
They had two younger sons, Peter and Luke; who had more talent than Charles, Lucius thought, especially seven year old Luke.
"I'd not be surprised to see the younger two exhibiting magical talent" said Lucius "Especially Luke; they're at an age where it shows up naturally if it's strong. Charles is borderline; an infortuitous combination of genes. But hard work can bring him further if he wants" he smiled "And I strongly suggest that your younger boys should play with my daughter Lucasta and my chauffeur's son Harry; I have twin girls a year younger than Luke too and my eldest grandson. It will help them develop their knowledge and give them a working knowledge too of the wizarding world. I expect Dudley – Harry's father – will drop in to chat; he's a muggle and has adapted very well to the wizarding world; his cousin is something of a legend amongst wizards, and Dudley is well known in the wizarding community, which proves that being a muggle will not preclude Tim from having a part in our society, especially if he is er, computer savvy; something we lack. And few wizards actually learn to drive well; a good chauffeur is more than a driver, he's a man who understands how to deal with any magical threats as well as the normal hazards of the road. And if you teach driving, I shall be able to send to you those who want to learn properly, with someone who will take the lack of understanding of the muggle world most wizards have into account."
"I told my brother he was a fool to marry some posh totty he picked up in London" said Mr Tippet "See where it got him that his son has less talent! She's an auctioneer and she expects him to give up his job to care for poor Tim because she's just got lucrative contracts travelling Europe. Well he can scarcely come haring home from the Gulf, can he? And shipping is all he knows anyway! And now the cow is divorcing him because she's found a richer model."
"It would be nice if there was a happy medium between the muggle habit of divorcing as readily as changing shoes and the wizard habit of hiding all the misery and anger because it is shameful and only letting it hurt the children" sighed Lucius. "Well it seems she's happy to park the poor lad on you; and if you'll let me sponsor him to Rowan House I think he'll have greater options."
"I think we are fortunate to have so generous and kind a distant relative" said Mrs Tippet "And for the children we won't turn it down; there's no such thing as pride where our kids are concerned."
"Madam Tippet; cousin Caroline; you are an excellent mother" said Lucius.
