Chapter 4

Zoltan took advantage of Fraulein Professor Von Freyer's offer to visit her after school.

He showed her the letter.

"If you had a little boy would you write to him that you were hurt that he did not miss you and tick him off for so-called obvious lies about being happy?" he said.

"No I shouldn't" said Cacilia "I can only assume your mother misses you because she does NOT have the busy whirl of being at school to fill her life as you have and finds it hard to believe that you don't miss her as much as she misses you; forgetting that if you DID, then she would be a wicked woman to pack you off to boarding school. She seems rather incredulous that you should be getting on with your father as well as about you making friends; have you then previously found it hard to make friends?"

"I don't know, ma'am; mama has never let me play with anyone to find out" said Zoltan. "But it is WRONG of her to call me a liar when SHE's the one who's told blatant lies about Papa!"

"Or spoken as she sees it from a somewhat skewed point of view" said Cacilia who thought the letter a terrible thing to write to an eleven year old boy, more or less accusing him of being happy to spite her. "I do not want to encourage you to read into it what she may not mean."

"Are you sweet on papa?" asked Zoltan bluntly.

"I – yes I am" said Cacilia, blushing "So you must see, as a potential 'other woman' – I do NOT intend to be any short term lover – I must be even more tactful and careful; particularly as I don't even know how you and Sigismund would feel if I were your father's mistress."

"We discussed it when we sussed he was sweet on you and we think it's cool" said Zoltan "But I see you feel you have to be extra fair; like Papa would be more fair to anyone I had quarrel with than with me. But it ISN'T a nice letter, is it?"

"It isn't" sighed Cacilia. "I can see where all this has come from; if you will let me explain some things, even if it doesn't make you less angry now, it might help you to feel sorry for your mother in the future. You see, the sex act is really very intrusive for a woman; and if she doesn't want it can actually, I am told, be very painful. And your parents were part of an arranged marriage; I don't know if they even KNEW each other, or if so not very well; potentially she already did not like your father much. The idea of having so intimate an act with someone who is essentially a stranger is quite terrifying. It would scare me. And your father is a big, tall, muscular man; as you are much slighter of build I guess your mother is slight too; his size could add to a terror of him. Terror and pain can be soul destroying and resentment over the whole business easily becoming hate for him."

"Well I guess I acknowledge that; I didn't know about it being so scary; I didn't ever think about it" said Zoltan "But then why does she hate ME? She must do because she's done her best to make me scared of papa and of coming to school – she really succeeded too; I hated the thought of it until Sigismund talked to me. And why has she used ME to get at him?"

Cacilia sighed.

"Because I'm afraid she's rather a silly, shallow, selfish creature. I – I won't say she might not resent the baby that came out of the painful act; and birth itself is painful too. Especially if, in perversity, she would not permit your father near with spells that can ease birthing. I fear that it is mostly that she sees you as HER baby – and does not really see you as a person. Which is her loss; and you should try to pity her."

Cacilia could not pity the wretched woman; but it was wrong to spoil a child's relationship with one parent. She must go the extra mile for Zoltan's sake, in case he could forgive his foolish mother.

"I can't; I'm too angry" said Zoltan "I – I thought she loved me; and I loved her; and now I think I HATE her!"

"That's a very strong word" said Cacilia "And of course, love and hate are very close and easier to turn one into the other with something like a betrayal; as this appears to be. If I were you, I'd take a bludger and a beater and attack Gerhardt at the lakeside for a while until you're drained of all that hate. Hate is not good for you; it eats the soul and THAT is why your mother has forgotten that you are a person; she has let her hate for your father overcome her love for you, as a dark wizard is overcome by the dark arts he tries fruitlessly to control."

"All right; I'll do that; and when I've gotten it out then I'll write to her and ask her why she is angry with me for being a normal schoolboy" said Zoltan. "Why did Czerny say that being a Parselmouth meant I was a dark wizard?" he asked suddenly.

"Because there have been some notorious dark wizards who have been Parselmouths" said Cacilia "Because the families it runs in naturally tend to admire the snake and go for cold blooded logic that, if they err on the dark side can take them further into the dark arts before becoming dippy and so they do a better job of their dark wizardry and get remembered. Like Voldemort. We are Parselmouths because we are blooded to Harry Potter, who acquired part of Voldemort's soul when his mother's sacrifice bounced the killing curse; and to Krait Snape, who is Voldemort's daughter; and to Lindhard Natterzahn who just happens to be born with it naturally as was Voldemort. The idea that it indicates a dark wizard is superstition; and that you have to be born with it. Before he was a part of the Blood Group, I understand Professor Albus Dumbledore managed to teach himself Parseltongue; and nobody could accuse HIM of being a dark wizard! Czerny is a silly and nasty little boy; and if I were you I'd lie low and not retaliate too much because sooner or later he IS going to overreach himself and Agata is then going to remember how much she loathes the entire family. I've run out of biscuits now I'm afraid; if you want to attack Gerhardt while it's still light I'd hop along sharpish if I were you; but you can come to me at any time. Then you need not feel you're taking advantage of having a father here."

"Oh you DO understand!" Zoltan flung his arms around Cacilia; and she hugged him back, reflecting that she would like to shake Madam Nora Nagy until what few brains she might possess ran out of her silly nose.

oOoOo

The Second Durmstrang Marauders had been plotting to pull off a jape and decided on one that demonstrated their virtuosity as spell casters that was also utterly harmless and even a compliment to the persons japed.

The targets were the prefects – all of them, which meant a tricky piece of chanting to be sure and catch the Asimov twins – and had been based on the honky-tonk twingletoes hex; save that instead of music issuing from the feet of the jinxed, flowers grew and bloomed briefly wherever they walked, lasting some thirty seconds before gently dissipating.

It was carefully choreographed so that all the spells were cast as the prefects came to breakfast, that they did so treading their unconsciously flowery route to the senior table.

"Have the prefects noticed their exotic following at all?" asked Agata dryly using a sonorous spell to reach the flowered few.

Various prefects whipped round and stared at their embellished footsteps.

"Well it's quieter than adorning our feet with music" said Zhanargul, giving a rueful laugh. "RATHER pretentious however; so I hope our fans will forgive us for cancelling our flower strewn way" and she cast finite incantatem. The Asimov twins had to chant briefly to get rid of their flowers; and grinned ruefully that they had been treated with the due respect of having a more solid enchantment attached to them!

It had amused everyone and done no harm; but in no wise lessened the shock to Zhanargul as she opened the daily paper to read.

Blood drained from her face; and she rose.

"Frau Bacsó" she said "I must ask you to read the front page of the 'Ursprungen Sonn'."

Agata and the other members of staff quickly looked at the paper. The headline was

"Dark Wizard escapes from Nurmengard!"

The story covered the escape of Tulegen Nurtazin aided and abetted by an unknown witch and wizard who had raised enough dementors to terrify the guards and in the confusion had broken in and taken away the prisoner. They had used polyjuice potion to resemble two prominent muggles and as such could not be identified. The paper hinted at a muggle conspiracy before declaring that muggles could not raise dementors; but it was a nasty piece of poison.

Cacilia blinked and leaned over to Agata.

"Information from Jade" she said quietly "Suggesting that it has to be one of the unpleasant girls in the sixth last year who would be knowledgeable about us setting up wards. The previous Arithmancy professor being apparently too wet as well as not really knowing what was going on. She suggests Nachtigall also and his father; either that or cohorts from Kazakhstan, though if you ask me they'd not be likely to choose the guises of prominent German muggles."

"That makes sense" said Agata. "There's not a lot we can do except see that all is secure; Volodya, take the senior chanters and make sure the wards are secure."

"The blooded will discuss it" said Cacilia. "Attila; I think it is proper that you join us. You will be better able to protect your sons. Agata; do you prefer to hold out of it?"

"If Attila is to be there for Sigismund I will follow Albus Dumbledore's example and hold neutral while I am head of this school" said Agata. "Severus was already part of it when he took over Prince Peak."

She did not mention that too the thought of being blood-joined to many, including the compelling Severus Snape, actually frightened her.

oOoOo

The senior chanters – or rather the marauders among them – went directly to Zhanargul after breakfast and demanded exactly twenty three drops of blood.

"You will then find my uncle again?" asked Zhanargul.

"Natch; but I have the phial to do THAT with" said Zlatka "This is to put in place an engulfing charm to catch only your uncle and deposit him in the dungeon where we stuck the lich. The Belle Marauders in Hogwarts did it to a wicked uncle of some of the kids there; we aren't going to refine it so much as they did, using purely Malfoy Lines and excluding anyone of that lineage except the wicked uncle; but we ARE going to do it for anyone of your blood. Your parents aren't likely to visit and we'll build in a password that you'll have to chant as you come through it…. Or say 'open' in Parseltongue because you can. Easy as. And in case you forget have that as a way to open the dungeon door too."

"Heh, make it open a GATE through the dungeon door" said Xanthippe "Because if he's pursuing her she can run full tilt into the engulfing charm and then straight OUT of the dungeon as he blunders into it after her."

"A melodramatic scenario but it has its charm" said Zlatko "I like it."

"He's such a snide bastard" said Xanthe.

She did not seem to be treating that as a fault; Zlatko appeared to have collected a Eulenspiegel twin on each arm and seemed remarkably content with the situation.

oOoOo

Zlatko did the Arithmancy of where to drop each drop of blood and set a chanter at each point; there were twenty three blooded senior chanters counting Volodya and Zlatko called in Cacilia too in order that Volodya might set the blood ritually by each during the chanting and be the focus too.

The third marauders were put out to be left out of it; but accepted the explanation of the exigencies of Arithmancy and were happy to brew coffee instead for the chanters and feed them power. As Clovis fed power too; he was learning chanting but had not been involved from the first as most of the others had.

oOoOo

That evening saw a blooding ceremony to bring in Attila. Zoltan and Sigismund were wildly excited; and Cacilia was trying hard not to be wildly excited and not succeeding. Zoltan had taken her advice to try to ignore Czerny as well as having vented his anger on the violent stone snowman; and had written a reasoned enough letter that was, had he but known it, so cold in tone that it quite frightened his mother how much he actually understood what was going on.

But tonight he was so happy because his father's blood sang with his and he KNEW that the big man loved him, however inarticulate he might be over expressing his emotions.

Cacilia kept her own emotions well covered; this was a time for a father and his sons, not for her and Attila to be exploring their feelings for each other.

Attila said softly to Cacilia as the little ones headed for bed,

"I see what you mean now; of course you could not contemplate any kind of liaison with someone not blooded; and nor could you contemplate anything that might hurt one or another party within the blooded. I still do not know the extent of my feelings."

"We can find out; there's no hurry" said Cacilia. "Zoltan in particular is more important; that is one unhappy little boy over that silly cow of a mother of his; I want to turn her upside-down and shake her to see if her brains rattle."

"You too, huh?" said Attila.

"I suppose you, being too callow when you wed her, did not realise the poor silly creature was afraid of you and made some bluff and fatuous joke on your wedding night and wondered why she dissolved into tears?" said Cacilia.

"You were there?" Attila joked feebly.

"I can guess at the type from the letter" said Cacilia "She's a clinger; and there she was, bereft of support and probably genuinely frightened; and you make light of her fears – as she sees it. Did you demand your marital rights?"

"From a dripping cauldron? Thank you, no! The only time I ever insisted on my conjugal rights was when I was upset because Sigismund was going to have to be adopted and Nora would not let me have a divorce to marry my mistress; she didn't want me but she didn't want anyone else to have me either. Dog in the manger. So I said that if she did not expect me to have a mistress she should provide appropriate succour herself; and I raped her. I'm not proud of it. I tried to apologise later but she wouldn't have it; and when I tried to suggest, once she was clearly pregnant, that we should try to be civil for the sake of the child I could see this unholy light come into her eyes as she realised that I wanted a son and that she could use that to play me. She's sick" he added in disgust.

"I have to say she sounds it" said Cacilia "I could sympathise with a woman scared of you, had you NOT had the self control to eschew carnal relations with her."

"What do you think I am?" he snapped.

"I think you were a young man who was also resentful; it takes a strong minded and special young man NOT to think that as he has been forced into marriage, he might as well enjoy the physical aspects of it; and I suspect in many such situations, he too half blames the bride. You walked away when she showed her fear."

"How could I do anything else? She looked at me as though I was a dementor!"

"And you tried to get to know her and because you are bluff of manner she got more and more monosyllabic out of terror of your – as she perceived it – rough manners, especially if you were trying to jolly her with the sort of clumsy jokes embarrassed young men make. Picture Stiv Molotiv courting someone even as sensible yet oversensitive as Desolina Uccello. And she got weepy and you, who were doing your best, started shouting at her, convincing her that you were the violent ape she feared, because the wet moo had never actually known what real violence was."

"That more or less sums it up" he admitted "I take your point about Stiv and Desolina; though Desolina has ten times the spirit Nora ever had!"

"THAT's hard to swallow; don't forget being part of the ECC has boosted her no end, I should think if she had continued as Nachtigall's fag she'd be no end depressed. All right, so Nora was spiritless; and you, poor young fool, knew no better way to boost her spirit than to harangue her about it."

"Oh I fully admit I fuelled her hatred" said Attila. "It became a childish game of sniping at each other. Then when I landed the job in Durmstrang I was so relieved to get away from her I just upped and left."

"I wouldn't mind betting" said Cacilia "That your continued gentlemanly refusal to take your marital rights and then your leaving her joyously to teach other people's children actually fuelled her despite; perversely she felt you had disrespected her by not actually wanting to bed her; and besides it prevented her from having the chance to deny you her body and shout 'no' at you. And you were pleased to leave her; she felt slighted. She didn't want you but she wanted to be wanted anyway."

"That's totally perverse!"

"Women can be; haven't you learned that with your vast experience?"

"Who says I have a vast experience?"

"The cards you kept in your desk which sent love from any number of female names, and the odd photo in 'hochhexen' showing you with some minor celebrity on your arm" said Cacilia "Which, if it was a paper Nora took – and it's the sort of paper silly females tend to take – would make her more offended. We used to see if we could sniff you to see what flavour perfume you smelt of at the beginning of each term to see if you'd changed mistresses. When we were about thirteen and such things were of academic interest I hasten to add" she added.

"Great powers!" said Attila "I think I'm actually shocked that you children were so knowing! Surely YOU never took 'Hochhexen'?"

"No but it was a magazine that was in the school; and we had a normal teenage prurient interest in the peccadilloes of our elders" said Cacilia.

"Alas for my dignity that my peccadilloes were known to the woman I admire in her tender years!" cried Attila. Cacilia grinned.

"I'd rather know about them than have you keep me in the dark" she said "Anyway, you can tell me all about your lovers – as much as a gentleman may – that I may use them as a yardstick of such skills as I must acquire to attract and please you; and you can then grade me, for you ARE one of my one time teachers after all" and she twinkled at him. He gasped.

"You are a bad girl!" he said.

Cacilia chuckled.

"It seems to get your attention" she said.

"Girl you have my attention quite thoroughly already; I'm trying to ignore it" he said. "Though fury over Nora does help distract me over your charms I must say."

"And I shall resist the temptation to suggest kissing it better" said Cacilia "THAT route would soon be downhill in a hurry…. Save discussing the boys we should confine ourselves with discussing academic matters."

"I suspect that will lead to arguments as it did in class" said Attila.

"I am quite capable of holding up my end of an argument I think" said Cacilia "And we can count up all the arguments and then when we know each other well enough to get properly together we can then spend a lot of time making up over them."

"You are a thoroughgoing minx; and I shall count to three and if you aren't out of sight I AM going to kiss you" said Attila. Cacilia giggled and fled, firmly making herself leave and not invite the heady delight of his kiss.

oOoOo

The quidditch team could not afford to worry too much about dark wizards unless they had the bad manners to attack; for there were matches to play. That Saturday had a fixture, and there was another in a fortnight; and it had been decided to play the Hogwarts team in the middle of the week to fit it in, for the weather might close in as suddenly in Scotland as in Germany; and generally in a wetter and more miserable way. Playing quidditch on a fine cold day with a little snow on the ground was a far cry from playing in the interminable Scots Mist that had heavy rain in the fog.

There was in the meantime a certain amount of excitement.

Zahid Malik went to Attila Nagy to report that Zsombor Czerny had left the dormitory at some point during the night and had not returned and he was not in the bathroom and did Herr Nagy think he might be in trouble.

"He will be for breaking bounds when I find him" growled Attila who had watched Czerny try to bully his younger son and get angrier and angrier as Zoltan acted as though he could not see, hear or feel the other boy. And at one point Zoltan had shared the pain of a nasty attempted Chinese burn so he might look indifferent; and Attila ground his teeth. If only he could catch the boy at it! If he had tried to get at some older marauders and was stuffed bonelessly in a locker somewhere he must punish the marauders of course; but he could also punish Czerny for being out of his bed. He was so PROUD of the way Zoltan was handling it; and had managed to murmur as much to the boy. He asked Malik "Did you go to the hospital to see if he was taken ill in the night?"

Malik goggled.

"No sir, I had not thought of that" he said.

"It IS rather a place that should be eliminated" said Attila dryly and proceeded to go and look. Czerny had not reported sick; so that made mischief making even more likely.

He was not in the cloakrooms; or the broom sheds; nor in the library nor any of the boot lockers. Attila scratched his head and Malik was hopping up and down wondering if Czerny had been drowned in the lake.

"No such luck" growled Attila.

"Sir! Is he not then your favourite of the two Hungarian boys?" asked Malik.

"No he assuredly is not!" snapped Attila "And the only reason I show him any favour is that it is improper to show favour to my young relative who has too much pride to complain about your nasty friend's nasty tricks; that I am hoping he has tried on a senior and learned to his detriment is not wise. But the little fool is not anywhere one might expect him."

"Lost something, Attila?" Clovis Gierek came up to the transfigurationist.

"Yes, a nasty little boy who was out of his bed, doubtless up to no good" said Attila "And who is not in any of the places usually used to stow those jinxed into oblivion."

"This is his friend?" asked Clovis. Malik hesitated and nodded. "Run boy and bring me his hairbrush; I'll show you a neat trick, Attila, I learned from Draco and Harry" added Clovis.

With the hairbrush wiped onto a piece of paper, Clovis folded it as a flapping bird and released it with a finding charm on it. It fluttered off.

The two professors and one small boy followed it.

It led them to the music room where a terrified and blubbing Zsombor Czerny was depended from one ankle, pale green and covered in little tentacles. He was also nursing his arm and one foot looked much bruised and swollen; the poker from the room's fire irons lay on the floor by the cello and the boy's wand also lay on the floor smoking slightly.

Attila picked up the wand.

"Oh sir, RESCUE me!" cried Czerny "That rotten brat Zoltan Nagy has done this to me!"

Attila ignored him and cast priori incantatem on the wand. The image of the incinerating spell was clear to see.

"I see that the clever chanters in the music group have set up similar safeguards on their instruments as the senior among them set up on their brooms last year" said Attila conversationally to Clovis.

"Yes, clever work; two layers to counter both jinxes and physical attack – judging by the poker on the floor, the broken arm on the nasty little thief and the bruise on his foot" said Clovis.

"I'm NOT a THIEF!" cried Czerny.

"No?" Clovis' voice dripped with sarcasm "What else do you call it to destroy property and thereby deprive the use of it to their owners? Or to steal the time for which Professor Potishev is paid in being unable to carry out his duties for your actions? That is stealing from the Headmistress and the Governors. You failed to destroy one or more instruments and resorted to a quite powerful spell – it must have smarted when your wand got blown up with a spell powered by the strength of whatever you cast – because you are a thief."

"I only wanted to pay back that Nagy brat; he's a dark wizard and he's a Parselmouth and he ought to show more humility if he's descended from some scum that means you refuse to have anything to do with him sir! I'm trying to do what you surely want me to in putting him in his place!"

"Clovis, take that filthy little beast down and to the Headmistress before I rend him limb from limb for his incontinent drivel" said Attila "You may inform him why I ignore Zoltan as it seems likely to be the only way to stop the creeping little bastard from hurting him that he scorns to report. I'm going" and he walked out.

"Congratulations for telling a man that you want to hurt his son by destroying his cello and congratulations too for telling Professor Nagy what you think of his background" said Clovis. "Well he wanted to make sure his son was not bullied and called teacher's pet; you seem to have got the whole business so twisted that you bully him for NOT being related to Professor Nagy. He knows about the sly nips and pinches; we've all seen it and we respect our colleague's desire not to be overly protective of his son. You disgust us all mind you" he added. "And you never once asked for help over being the only one in the class who is so pathetic he seems to think jinxing and pinching other kids is the only way to make himself seem better. The lower sixth are of the opinion that your cousin is the unknown witch who helped get a prisoner out of Nurmengard and they are of the opinion that you should be attached to a pole and used as a shield if he and your cousin come calling here. THEY have noticed your tricks too, you know. Oh, by the way, if your spell had worked and the fire spread to the other instruments – as it would have done – how were you planning to pay for them? Especially Herr Potishev's viola that is an antique worth somewhere in the region of five thousand galleons? And what would you have done when you met his intemperate Russian temper that I could not really have blamed him for and he decided to get the worth from you in work and used the English magic he has studied to turn you into a house elf bound to him as a slave? Just as well from your point of view that the senior chanters DO protect their property from nasty little thieves and saboteurs. Come along, you clod; YOU are going to the headmistress."

Clovis had learned the prefect spell Audipunit and used it with a slight twist to drag the boy to the head's office by the ankle rather than the ear.

He explained to Agata why she had an upside-down boy in a nightshirt with sundry self inflicted injuries.

Agata righted Czerny and proceeded to tell him much the same things that he had already heard from Clovis but in a voice of cold anger rather then the sneeringly unconcerned tone Clovis had used, having picked that up from Draco.

It went in better perhaps for the way it had already been delivered by Clovis.

"But if Herr Nagy didn't want us to think he thought his son a pariah he should have shown him favour!" he cried.

"And have his son subjected to the fools who would suck up to a teacher or those who would attack him for dislike of his father? No reasonable parent does that; as I do not expose MY son to such!" said Agata coldly. "You and your cousin seem to expect favours from any Hungarian staff member and assume any but you do not; and I do not do favours for anyone and none of my staff do either. You are not so good a scholar that I should be sorry to let you go; and I shall have to decide whether to expel you or not. Go to the sick bay; you can have your wounds tended there and stay there out of the way of decent children while I decide what to do about you!"

"Did you know Ma'am that Nagy's a Parselmouth? And I expect his father is too; they're dark wizards plotting to take over the school from you!" tried Czerny.

Agata slapped him hard.

"You nasty minded little boy; you are a poison mouth not a Parselmouth. And Parseltongue is taught only to the brightest and the best so you need not hope to learn it. Go away; the longer I have to see you the more I think I might like to expel you!"

Czerny went; and then Agata had to deal with an angry school nurse and explain that the boy had inflicted his injuries on himself trying to destroy the possessions of the boy who he accused of breaking his arm and foot.

It made up Agata's mind; and she asked Volodya to remove the green shade and tentacles before the boy's father arrived to take him home.

oOoOo

The first knew nothing about anything that had happened and wondered – with good humour – what kept Czerny from class. Malik readily explained about what had happened in the music room and what spell had been shown on the boy's wand and Felicks had jumped up in horror to exclaim that this would surely have destroyed all the instruments including Herr Potishev's beautiful old Viola.

One of the Germans suggested beating up Zoltan for being another Hungarian; and Felicks told him to talk sense as it was Zoltan that Czerny was trying to get at.

Fortunately Clovis walked in at that moment – it was a dark arts class – in time to stop a riot and demanded the reason for the noise. Malik told him.

"Herr Steiner – again" said Clovis "You are a silly child. You might as well say that Fraulein Professor Nachtigall should be beaten up because her family was attacked and made into werewolves by members of Odessa and Odessa was led by a German; it has as much sense of logic. Or that I should pick on YOU because you come from the same home town as my mother who was cast off by her family and neighbours for marrying my Polish father. But actually, Herr Steiner, I don't blame you for being my first cousin once removed; you didn't ask to be my cousin's child. I know you kids are only eleven but don't you think some of you could manage to act as though you're older than six? It's really very boring to keep hearing that the first are having race riots like a bunch of medieval peasants with no more education then to believe that such things count. I DO hope you've grown out of it by next year; so embarrassing for you to have the new intake despising you as morons aspiring to idiocy. Now get out your textbooks and turn to page sixty four; we've wasted quite enough time and you shall have longer preparation to make up for it."

Freidrich Steiner was given a lot of hard looks for this.

Which had been, on Clovis' part, the general idea. He had some ability in leadership; leading the rasher fools into crusades of racial purity was the last thing they wanted!