Chapter 7
The first of September being a Friday, the school might have the weekend to get used to being back to school – or being there in the first place for the new ones.
Chanting was now a properly organised lesson and Quidditch practise and flying lessons – the first half of the term compulsory – took place on Saturday. It was soon apparent that Ravenclaw House was yet again to add to its depth; though first and second years did not, by custom, play in Ravenclaw's first team, it had enough good players to field a third team, almost. Gryffindor's captain, Sekunder Singh, cheered to have Zakala and Hadjan; and Lydia voluntarily moved to play beater to give the slight goblin children a better chance as chasers along with Sekunder's friend Oliver Harris. Sekunder was still seeker of course; and Damian Malfoy and Charis Rawlins completed the team.
The twins of the two new first teamers must be content with Ravenclaw's second team.
Meliandra only needed one more player for the Slytherin first team and picked the child Bryony Urquart who was happy to try as beater with Meliandra. Philip Burke explained dryly to the new girl that it was the Malfoy team since Gorbrin, Zajala and Nathan actually bore that surname and as Mel intended to wed Gorbrin that made her a Malfoy too. And Bryony grinned and said wasn't it just like Lucius Malfoy to marry a woman for her quidditch playing offspring. Gorbrin called her a brat with a friendly grin to accompany the insult.
Bryony felt no more concerns about not fitting in; she had been to one meeting of the MSHG and liked the kids she found there; and Gorbrin had been kind to her from the first. She played beater happily without thinking about her less pleasant relatives!
The Hufflepuffs had a fair if not brilliant first team needing no replacements; that Bethany Purbeck and Sebastian Diggory had some skill was handy for the second team, not out of any conviction that youngsters should be held back but because the team as it stood worked, albeit in a slightly pedestrian sort of way.
And after lunchtime on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was theirs to enjoy. The first years were shown where they might keep any hobby equipment in their respective common rooms, and most settled down to exchange information about their hobbies and to swap any collectors cards they might have.
This was not confined to Chocolate Frog cards of famous wizards this year; the Liquorice Bat company had brought out jellied dark creatures together with collectible cards of Dark Creatures and a rudimentary game attached to them by comparison of statistics. Lilith bit the head off a cola flavoured dementor and traded a Grindylow and a Pogrebin for a Kappa, a creature she had not yet got. She and her group had convened to the Hufflepuff common room because it was comfortable and the other Hufflepuffs did not complain the way Ravenclaws and Gryffindors did.
"Which is your favourite dark creature?" asked Sextus idly.
"What, as in real ones or in jellied ones?" asked Lilith, inspecting a raspberry flavoured pogrebin before munching on it.
"Sweeties, you prune; how can you have a FAVOURITE dark creature for real? The whole point of dark creatures is they're unlikeable" said Sextus.
"Well yes…. But one could have one who was a favourite to write about in exams, or was easy to deal with; like tickling pogrebin to make them stop exuding waves of depression. And after all I do rather have to like werewolves as I've go so many ex ones in the family."
"Which means they're not dark creatures, you baboon!" said Sextus.
"Well I think I like the sweetie werewolves most too… I kind of feel half guilty about eating them but they taste of Christmas cake and I do like Christmas cake" said Lilith. "What's your favourite?"
"I like kappa; it's really clever the way the fruit juice is kept in the depression in their head with magic so you can suck that out before you bite their heads off" said Sextus.
"I like the way erklings fizz" said Gennar.
"I like the way vampires are pale and pear flavoured on the outside and have strawberry sauce on the inside" said Kazrael "I like to suck them until it oozes out."
"I prefer to bite into them and then suck it out first and eat them er, desanguinated" said Jayashree.
"Yes, but you ARE a tiger" said Lilith.
"True, o best beloved" said Jayashree.
"I like banshees" said Venus "But then I like anything that's blackcurrant flavoured."
"They're a sight nicer than Bertie Bott's all flavour beans" said Sextus "You KNOW what flavour each one is going to be; no horrid surprises."
"Yes; I had a whisky flavoured one in the hols when Griselen passed them round, and spat it out in double quick time – YUK!" said Gennar "And the grown ups all said it was a waste of one of the few decent ones going to a kid who hadn't the palate to appreciate it; grown ups are weird. Give me dark creatures any time; and nicer than liquorice bats too."
"Oh I like liquorice bats" said Lilith "But I guess not everyone likes liquorice. I hope they extend the range of cards to dark and murkyish wizards."
"Why don't we write to them and send it by owl?" suggested Venus "The sweetie industry has to take notice of its customers which, I guess, is why they've branched out from liquorice. I say, what is the thing about every ten thousandth pack having a blueberry pixie in it and a voucher to exchange for goodies? Pixies aren't dark creatures are they?"
"Oh I know this one!" said Lilith "I reckon they have someone who was up with Harry Potter working for them; when they had Mad Lockhart's dad as DADA teacher he was a real drip and he couldn't even handle pixies, so it's a dig at him."
"What are the vouchers worth?" asked Sextus.
"They're a discount off a Foe Glass or if you collect five you get a free one" said Venus "Probably not a top of the range foe glass but I guess worth having."
"I guess they'd not be so hard to make" said Lilith "When I've learned a little more enchanting I should think I can make us one each if you really want one. A proper one is a full length mirror but I should think these are just hand mirrors."
"They are in the picture" said Venus "I gave my token to Eglantine; a madam makes a few enemies so I thought her need would be greater than mine."
"Jolly good idea" said Lilith. "You're right, it IS a cutthroat business; the Wizochip company have started giving away tokens with their mint choc chip and orange chock chip brooms and when you save up a thousand you can claim a free broom."
"I bet it won't be a Firebolt" said Sextus cynically.
"I think it's in association with the Nimbus company to help them combat the advertising of Firebolt's new racing broom and its association with Triwizard champions" said Lilith "You can't really miss the slogan for the company as a whole – 'four Triwizard champions can't be wrong, choose Firebolt as these discerning young people have done' because David may not have used his for the competiton but he DOES use a Milly for refereeing."
"I think for quidditch the Millenium Firebolt is superior to the Firebolt 200 anyway" said Sextus.
The talk turned to brooms and got occasionally heated.
oOoOo
Narcissa had been glad that Bella had been moderately docile about the choice of ball gown for this year – Bella had picked a silk that was graduated from wine red through to orange and had not so much as murmured about stripes – and Narcissa had hoped fervently that Bella was growing out of an obsession with things tigery.
She might have been less sanguine had she known that Bella had asked Dudley to take her up to town and show her the alternative shops; and that Bella's chosen apparel for the weekends was now decidedly alternative. And Narcissa would not have been much comforted to know that the styles Bella favoured would have raised eyebrows in the more conservative of the muggle community too.
Bella now possessed a large number of t-shirts – short and long sleeved – and hoodies featuring tigers, subsequently enchanted to move and purr or growl as appropriate. Bella particularly liked the enchantment she had come up with to make a tiger bite anyone – except Assim – who touched her more familiarly than she liked. She also had tiger striped tights, long orange and black striped socks, crop black jeans and short skirts and several t-shirts in tiger stripes designed to emphasise her full figure.
This Sunday she was wearing a sparkly tiger-striped t-shirt with short skirt, tiger tights and new rocks and wore her lustrous black hair in bunches like Abby on NCIS, a favourite program, converted to 16mm by the clever Casimir Malfoy for those of the MSHG who were keen to be aurors. The two fingered rebuke introduced by Severus for Krait and subsequent offspring was now becoming known as 'being Gibbs'd' and Jethro Gibbs was a favourite for his personality similarities to Severus.
Bella's group merely accepted the fashion statement as 'only Bella'. And Maud asked whether stripy socks came in other colours and where had she got the new rocks. Bella promised stripy socks for all her group for Christmas in the colours of their choices and went to wheedle Archie Trumball for the use of the internet.
Idling outside – it was too good an early autumnal day to waste indoors –they were vaguely discussing value judgements silly people made on appearance and Bella said this could be illustrated very easily, calling over Chrys Lockhart and Colin Makepiece.
"Observe these two weevils" said Bella "How would you choose between them?"
"You can't; they're both verminous by the nature of being weevils" said Drusillina.
"Chrys is tidier than Colin; is that what you mean?" asked Isabel.
"Observe, oh my best beloveds, the considerable size difference between them" said Bella loftily "Disregarding the shifty looks, beetling and animalistic brows and filthy mien common to any weevil."
"Oy, Black!" said Chrys.
"We might have to DO the fifth" said Colin.
"Quiet you" said Bella "Ah, I see I must needs explain."
"I know" said Mimi "We choose Colin."
"On what grounds specifically?" asked Maud.
"Because in size terms at least he's the lesser; and in any choice you should pick the lesser of two weevils" said Bella.
She was hit by a series of jinxes, including by the lesser and greater of two weevils and undid herself from tentacles, green skin and pustules giggling wildly.
"The rest of us apologise to the unfortunate weevils" said Drusillina dryly.
"Accepted" said Chrys, grinning.
oOoOo
The relatively peaceful Sunday afternoon was interrupted by a stream of foul-mouthed imprecations.
The smaller pupils were shocked as a large, ferret-like creature erupted from under a bush, shouting,
"Look at the lot of yer, idlin' about looking like sacks of shit tied up ugly, makin' the place look untidy! Dung, the lot o' yer, no-good stuck up hopeless little twits!"
"It's a Jarvey" said Veronica to Seth, who stared. "I expect he was looking for garden gnomes – they eat them – and we've frightened them all away by being out here so he's sore at us."
"What on earth is a jarvey?" demanded Seth.
"That is" said Veronica "They have foul mouths and worse dispositions; and whether it's because nobody even offered them the chance to be beings or not I have no idea; I don't even know if they're fully sentient."
"I say, I say, I say" said Lilith, also out with her group "What do you get if you transfigure a jarvey into a log cabin?"
"Oh Merlin, if it starts that way it's going to be some awful pun" said Walter.
"That's all right, we'll tickle her later" said Sextus Scarpin "Go on then Lil; what DO you get if you transfigure a Jarvey into a log cabin?"
"A rude hut!" declared Lilith, falling about laughing
There were collective groans.
"Actually funny as well as groanworthy" said Sextus. "Rather like the one when Salazar Slytherin released snakes onto the moor and told them to go forth and multiply; and they declared that they couldn't because they were only adders."
"Not as good as rude huts" said Jayashree.
"Wait up; I'm only half way through the joke" said Sextus "'Cos Slytherin was sorry for them, and made them rude furniture from trees he'd cut down to help build the castle here. And then when he came back a year later to the moor, he finds lots of baby adders; and he asks, confused, how come this occurred; and the big adder says, 'well now you have given us log tables"
The older ones groaned and fell about laughing and the weevils looked confused.
"Poor little innocents with no Arithmancy to their names" said Sextus with all the patronising scorn a second year might muster for the despised neophytes "You ALL bought books called 'Arithmantic Tables' to use in Arithmancy; using logarithms – log tables – means you can add up the log of two numbers and convert it back to see what the two numbers get multiplied to. With long numbers and such it's quicker than long multiplication."
"Oh, RIGHT!" said Seth. "Log tables – log-tables. Sorry."
"Don't be sorry; remember and learn" said Sextus.
"NOW who's a cad's cad?" said Lilith. They wandered off bickering gently leaving the jarvey shouting,
"Hey, what about me? Tellin' jokes instead o' taking abuse and criticism, it ain't right!" he got somewhat more abusive and then shouted "And you little rotters mmmphspplurrchchkeh!" and began foaming at the mouth as someone dropped a saponify spell on him.
Hagrid turned up at that moment to pick up the creature by the scruff of the neck and firmly eject it.
The would-be weird Marauders had meantime collected Colin Makepiece and Lavazka Black-Weasley.
"Although we're already six in number we thought we'd offer you two the chance to work to being marauders with us" said Seth "There's a really good bunch in our year – with a few pains by the look of it, like Flint and Chevallier and that Cooper girl – but we sort of liked you two."
"Thanks" said Colin "Annette and I were thinking actually of joining the SAS – the Society against Slavery – that Roger started; with Kreszi and Dionysia, so there's a junior branch. Not disrespecting your offer."
"Oh that's cool" said Seth "Because that's doing the same sort of thing; the SAS are sensible types and don't try to oppress the depressed like your sister Michelle does."
Colin pulled a face.
"I can't give my sister a bad name because I don't know any words rude enough and that jarvey got silenced before I got to learn any" he said.
"Heh, she's what McGonagall would call a sleekit wee sumpf, from what I've heard from Lynx and Leo" said Veronica.
"I like that" said Colin. "Hey, Lavazka, if you don't want to Maraud, we'll have you in our gang if you like."
"What IS marauding exactly?" asked Lavazka.
"It's interfering to right wrongs and stand up for justice; not just freeing people from slavery though that would come into it" explained Seth "It's about learning all you can to be as good as an auror even if you don't become an auror; and getting into mischief as a means to learn stealth and jinxing in a sort of real situation to practice for when you go against dark wizards; it's about knowing when to sort out a situation yourself and when to report it to older ones or grown ups; and it's about trying to be like Harry Potter and co. Like Lydia and her group and Bella and co and Nathan and Lilith and their lot."
"You really want me? Even though I'm a bastard?" said Lavazka.
"Look, if you're in, we'll tell you all about our backgrounds and some of them are pretty wild" said Veronica.
"I- thanks, Colin, but I think I would like to support the Marauders; it was Bella Black who said I should use my father's name; and Seth and Chrys who made friends with me first. So count me in" she said firmly.
"I'll blow then so you can tell her your secrets" said Colin.
"Oh I don't think any of us mind you knowing" said Walter.
"That's decent of you; but I guess I'd rather not have you feel maybe uncomfortable later" said Colin. "We'll all work together for er, the greater good, right?"
There was laughter; and agreement!
And then the group started to fill in Lavazka on their disparate backgrounds until Walter said
"SHHH!"
The others turned to where he was staring as Niobe Cooper was sidling closer.
She smiled at Chrys and made eyes at him.
"Oh Chrysogon Rufus, I AM glad to be at school with you!" she simpered "I hadn't realised before just exactly who you were; you look SO different in uniform; and you weren't dressed in the least bit artistically at the party at Malfoy Manor!"
"Well one doesn't wear stage costume for real life you know!" said Chrys uncomfortably. "I dress up to declaim Mum's poems on stage because people expect it, you know!"
"And you look SO wonderful!" sighed Niobe "Oh PLEEEASE may I join your gang?" and she sat down beside him.
Chrys stared in horror.
"We're trying to be marauders" he said bluntly "Somehow I don't think you'd like it."
"I'd like ANYTHING to be with you!" said Niobe.
"Oh let the kid join" said Veronica "I think she's pretty brave to join in with a club dedicated to learning how to operate under the cruciatus curse; we've arranged to have the fifth form marauders cast it on each of us in a little while so we can find out for ourselves what it's like."
Niobe gave a little screech.
"You horrid girl! You're making it up because you're jealous!"
"No, she isn't" said Purnima calmly, blood pulsing Bella and co. "Here they come; ready to test us. Hey, Bella, we appear to have eight of us ready to take the cruciatus curse!"
"Enterprising brats to have so many" said Bella, glancing at Niobe and taking in the situation "Though I fancy it'll be a while before you can run twenty miles and then fight a duel at the end of it, and of course we'll start you on pogrebin before we conjure dementors for you to deal with."
"Sure; we work up slowly" said Seth.
Niobe shrieked and burst into tears.
"You can't let them treat you like that, Chrysogon Rufus!" she squealed "Come away from these horrid rough brats, you and I can form our own gang!"
"Cooper, I joined Seth's gang because I want to fight evil so my mum's pretty poems can be read by the innocent who don't know what it is to be hurt" said Chrys, white of face "Because I believe in fighting dark wizards. Just because I'm quite handsome doesn't mean I'm a lily-livered funk nor a wimp. You don't really want to be a Marauder; you're the kind Marauders exist to protect."
"Idiot" hissed Walter as Niobe flung herself on Chrys with a cry of
"Oh my protector!"
"Oh do let go of him, you have no clue how to wrestle properly if you're trying to strangle him" said Drusillina "You do it like this" and she neatly jerked Chrys from Niobe's grasp to put him in a head lock.
"Well, are you ready for the cruciatus curse or not, Cooper?" said Bella, getting her wand out.
Niobe fled.
"We're actually not either yet really, you know" said Veronica "But we thought it would get rid of her."
"We generally have a brief taster in the third in the MSHG if we feel able to try" said Bella, putting her wand away. "Crumbs, Lockhart, how did you attract THAT?"
"She's one of my drippier fans I'm afraid" said Chrys. "Thanks for the timely rescue."
"Oh well, anything for would-be marauders" said Bella.
oOoOo
Niobe went to inform on Bella Black and her other horrid big bullies to Madam Hardbroom. Connie listened to the sobbing child. The fact that the little girl peeped occasionally through her tear-bestrewn lashes to see how her tears affected her house head rather put Connie Hardbroom off. She had met Niobe's like before.
"My dear child, you have misunderstood utterly" she said heartily "The Marauders have permission, as they get older, to fight using the cruciatus curse in duels in order to learn better to counter it as they are the self-appointed guardians of the school against dark wizards; I too found it shocking at first. Volunteers too learn what the cruciatus curse feels like. This is not general knowledge since Marauding tends to run in certain bloodlines who are accustomed to be in the thick of fights against the dark arts and there is no point scaring children of other bloodlines. If Chrysogon Rufus Lockhart is desirous of being a Marauder he is but following in the footsteps of others of his ilk; and I must say I am pleasantly surprised that he is not the useless spoilt puppy of a child one might imagine from some of his mother's rhymes. I hesitate to say poetry. I suggest you leave the would-be marauders in the class well alone unless you have a problem you need them to sort out. They are full of harmless mischief and their grimmer aspects not usually manifest until they are older; and those are nothing to do with those who are NOT Marauders. The institution is supported by the Headmaster; it was introduced by the likes of Harry Potter's father, and Harry himself continued with the tradition. Now stop that silly crying; as I understand nobody has actually cast the cruciatus curse on you!"
"Black threatened to!" said Niobe.
"Indeed? Then I will speak to her about that; and find out if you misunderstood such as well; perhaps you might search your memory and tell me exactly what she said" said Connie.
Niobe flushed.
"She asked if I was ready for the cruciatus curse or not and got her wand out and pointed it at me" said Niobe sulkily.
"Not quite the same as threatening you with it, is it?" said Connie. "Now, how come this actually came up?"
Niobe burst into tears again.
"STOP that or I'll give you glumbumble juice to calm you down; you'll make yourself ill with such a ridiculous display" said Connie crisply. Niobe glowered at her; grown ups were supposed to be susceptible to the tears of pretty little girls.
"I only wanted to join Chrysogon Rufus' gang" she whined "And then they told me that you had to take the cruciatus curse to join and that Bella Black was coming to cast it on them and then she DID come!"
"I see" said Connie grimly. "In other words they decided to pre-empt the usual customs of the marauders of waiting until the third or fourth year to practise countering it in order to get rid of you because you invited yourself in without waiting to be invited; an extremely rude attitude! I take it you did NOT get an invitation to join them?"
"They didn't say I couldn't" said Niobe sulkily "And that Crouch girl said I could join if I liked and SHE was the one who said I'd have to take the cruciatus curse to join and it's a forbidden curse and she and Black ought to be sent to Azkaban!"
"If everyone was sent to Azkaban for saying things they did not mean it would overflow rather" said Connie dryly. "What a silly little girl you are to be sure to make mountains out of molehills! It was not a very kind way to get rid of a child they did not want to play with, but children are not always kind. Ah, Mr Lockhart, can you throw any light on this subject?" as Chrys knocked and came into her office.
"Oh lumme, is it yowling at you, Madam Hardbroom?" said Chrys in disgust. "Cooper came up, sniffing in while we were having a perfectly private meeting and asking if she could join my gang – and it isn't my gang, if it's anyone's it's Seth's; though I guess really it's Harry Potter's. And she didn't even wait for us to tell her to get lost but sat down like a bump on a log next to me and while I was wondering how to tell her to get lost in short enough words for her to understand, 'cos Isambard says she's as thick as a brick and with erumpant hide, Veronica comes up with the idea of scaring her off with stuff marauders do and Purnima sent a thought at Bella to get her to come and Bella played up most magnificent and cottoned on real quick so we frightened her off; so she could see it wasn't just some silly baby gang she could hang onto because Veronica was quite right because she isn't the sort of kid you can just say 'no' to because she'd hang around whining because she's pretty retarded and can't understand her own language."
"You may write me forty repetitions of 'courtesy costs nothing' for a most rude way of putting that, Mr Lockhart" said Connie serenely, agreeing wholeheartedly with the sentiments and not being prepared to admit that.
"Yes Madam Hardbroom" said Chrys "And please tell Cooper that if she writes a pack of lies to her parents because Isambard says she's the world's biggest sneak and not always bound by total veracity we WILL sue for slander. And get aurors in to legilimens us. We wanted to get rid of her from interfering with us because she's a pain. Sorry she's troubling you."
"There are perhaps kinder ways of doing it than that" said Connie "Perhaps you could have set some tough initiation ritual that all your set could perform that you might assume her incapable of; a stiff run and performance of certain spells at the end of it say."
Chrys brightened.
"I SAY, what a jolly clever idea! THANKS Madam Hardbroom; I'll bear that in mind if there are any more drippy twerps who are in love with my golden ringlets."
"You do that" said Connie, deciding not to take him to task for referring to drippy twerps. "And Miss Cooper! You have been somewhat hazed; as retaliation for your own rudeness and making of assumptions. I strongly suggest that you chalk it up to experience that other children do NOT like pushy little girls who interfere with their games and learn to make more tactful overtures of friendship if you wish to be invited into the circles of others. Mr Lockhart is going to apologise to you on behalf of his group for being somewhat out of line; one cannot blame Bella for thinking that the group as a whole was rather above themselves and asking if they – including, as she no doubt thought YOU – really wanted to go so far as the cruciatus curse."
"Oh I'm sorry if you were REALLY frightened, Cooper" said Chrys "But as you didn't withdraw after Veronica first said it was what we do, I guess we assumed you weren't really troubled by the concept. After all if you hadn't been a coward we might well have accepted you as one of us, but I guess you've sort of blown that."
"Thank you Mr Lockhart; a slightly qualified apology but an apology none the less" said Connie. "And, Miss Cooper, I do hope I shan't be hearing from your parents that you have written a garbled version of the events to them so they assume more than schoolchild games?"
"That Black girl is nearly grown up; she should be punished!" said Cooper.
"Bella never had any serious intention of casting the curse" said Chrys scornfully "As any fool might guess; she got her wand out. Bella NEVER uses her wand for serious magic!"
"But you HAVE to have a wand to do magic!" said Niobe.
"Not if you're any good at it" said Chrys. "Only the incompetent and half rate still need wands by the fifth form."
Connie opened her mouth and shut it again. It WAS rather part of the creed of the marauders.
Niobe burst into tears again.
"Niobe, open wide" Connie reached behind her for a big bottle of glumbumble juice.
Niobe's tears turned off like a tap.
"I'm not hysterical" she said sulkily.
"Good" said Connie. "I will speak to Bella Black; Mr Lockhart you may ask her to come to me. I am certain she has not exceeded her authority nor done anything out of line; and I am equally sure that if she HAS been out of line she will tell me and apologise to you. Miss Black has considerable integrity."
oOoOo
Bella listened to Connie asking her for an account of the afternoon's events and laughed.
"Oh the looks of outrage on the faces of those baby would-be marauders at that brazen little interloper were just priceless!" she said. "I think it was Veronica who came up with the idea of saying they took the cruciatus curse; and we ARE licensed to cast it on other marauders; Draco signed us a pass this last hols for the purpose of extra curricular DADA practice. And I swear those other kids would have taken it just to scare her into going; I know implacable will when I see it and at least three of them know pain and would have taken it without a murmur! And I should have cast it on THEM – at least, on the two who are already blood group so I could feel what I was casting from them – if she hadn't blubbed and hoofed it. You haven't seen her in Diagon Alley every year, Auntie Connie; we HAVE" she added "She wraps her parents round her little finger by turning on the tears; and she was clinging to Chrys like she was drowning, the poor kid really needed rescuing; he's managed not to be an Amos Leroy though he's got as much adulation as the Caterwauling Crow ever had, if not more! He doesn't need silly ass kids who want to treat him like some overfed crup at a show and pet his ickle darling gowden cuwls poor brat"
"I WISH you wouldn't call me Auntie Connie in school" said Connie in exasperation "Especially when I have you on the carpet!"
"Oh, do you? I wasn't aware I'd done anything wrong" said Bella. "Was it then bullying to play along with the brats?"
"It was a little close" said Connie.
"Oh, I'm sorry then" said Bella "I s'pose I see more of the prima donna in her than in Chrys and kinda want to try to rub off her corners quick while we have time so she don't grow up like Amos Leroy. And sort of remind her that there's people who do more important things in life than run yowling to their mummy when the whole world doesn't kow tow."
"Your slang is excruciating" said Connie "And WHAT are you wearing?"
Bella pirouetted and posed.
"I LOVE muggle gear!" she said "ISN'T it tigery? And fetching?"
"It's almost indecent" said Connie "RATHER a lot of leg showing."
"Well it's covered with tights" said Bella. "It's not so short a skirt as some muggles wear and at least I didn't pick a top that shows my belly; and the shopkeeper laughed at me and called me a prude and suggested I should have my belly button pierced and put a ring in it. Yuk!"
"Well at least you aren't THAT shameful!" said Connie, shocked "WHAT are muggle mothers about, letting their daughters do things like that?"
Bella shrugged.
"Dunno. Reckon we're a bit too fuddy-duddy and muggles are a bit too permissive; but we can pick and choose what we like of their stuff without going so far, can't we? Do you want me to apologise to the brat?"
"I told her you were probably being heavy handed at a young group for getting above themselves and thinking they could take the cruciatus curse early" said Connie.
"A bit of a casuistry from YOU O best beloved?" said Bella.
"Don't you Kipling at me young lady" said Connie. "That's what I said; and if it was casuistry then it counteracts the fact that she's probably the sort who tells lies to her parents that she is convinced is truth from HER perceptions."
"Oh yes, Isambard says she's the world's biggest sneak and tells porkies" said Bella. "I'll be noxiously nice to her."
"Thank you" said Connie.
oOoOo
Bella swept in on Niobe.
"Oh Cooper!" she said "Sorry I made a mistake in thinking you were one of the stupidly brave ones like your brother – these things so often run in families you know, so you must forgive me for making assumptions! Isambard's waiting a year to resist the cruciatus curse but I know some kids like to outdo their older siblings. I wasn't actually going to cast it on anyone you know; I just wanted you lot to reflect the seriousness of what had been thoughtlessly suggested, and I assumed you were with them. I know how scary it can be; a big boy cast it on me when I was older than you because he didn't like a jape me and my friends pulled; only he did it to be nasty not out of a desire to strengthen fighting powers. Forgive?" and she held out her hand.
Niobe stared.
"If you don't shake I so am going to scrag you!" whispered Isambard "A big girl like that being so unbending – and telling you about her own experiences!"
Unwillingly Niobe shook.
"There's a decent kiddy" said Bella. "If you want to watch some of us big ones fighting no holds barred, you should come along to the MSHG; we let fly, some of us, there without constraint because we have auror- issued licences to do so. But NEVER on the unwilling; and usually only amongst the fifth and sixth. We teach you little ones the shield charm and how to counter jinxes and things; and we usually finish with cocoa before going in to breakfast."
"You do stuff before BREAKFAST?" Niobe was horrified "But there isn't time between the rising bell and going in to the Hall!"
"Oh we rise at five thirty to run and exercise and practise; it's very jolly!" said Bella heartily.
Niobe shuddered.
Bella stifled a sigh of relief that they were highly unlikely to be saddled with HER in the mornings; and yet nobody could say she had not been kind and helpful!
People like Niobe were awfully difficult to deal with; she was so wet!