Disclaimer 1: Most of this is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Chapter 6: Professor Pospischil
"1. Klasse" it said on the plaque next to the door, and below that in slightly smaller letters: "Klassenvorstand: Prof. Mag. Karl Pospischil".
"Klassenvorstand?" asked Sonja. "Shouldn't it be Klassenlehrer?"
"No," Rüdiger explained. "That's only the teacher in the Volkschule that teaches the class all the time. In secondary school where you have a different Fachlehrer or Professor for each subject, one of them has to be responsible for general stuff concerning the class. That one's called Klassenvorstand. I wonder what this Professor Pospischil is like."
Hadn't those boys on the bus mentioned him?
Surprisingly the walls of the classroom weren't white. Apparently they'd been painted pale green once, though they'd turned grey over time. On the ceiling above the first row of desks, however, there was a handprint that looked like it might be completely free of dust and showed what was probably the original colour. Rüdiger couldn't imagine how it had gotten there, though. Even if one were to climb onto a desk, he thought, one wouldn't be able to touch the ceiling.
In place of the usual teacher's desk there was a lectern next to a blackboard that was black instead of the usual dark green and didn't have wings to open for additional writing space. Next to it stood an old fashioned cupboard that looked a lot more ordinary.
That the washbasin he was used to from primary school was missing didn't surprise him as much as he remembered that Flo had said there weren't any in the classrooms at the Hauptschule either. One was supposed to go to the toilet to wash one's hands.
The students' desks looked strange. Except for a small bit facing the blackboard the surfaces were tilted. The flat bit had one long indentation for each student which was probably meant for one's penholders and to the right of it a round one for the ink bottle. Wouldn't their books and notebooks slide off?
"Let's sit by the window," Joachim suggested and led the way to a desk in the third row where the chairs were still standing precariously on the tilted desks.
"It isn't all that great," Margarete's friend, who'd reserved the second row window side desk told them. "It only shows empty blue sky, not even any clouds. I think there must be some spell on the windows so they can't distract you."
"At least it's well lit," Rüdiger said to hide his disappointment.
"I'm Hildegard," she introduced herself belatedly. "Hildegard Hellbach-Blau."
"Angenehm," Joachim said politely. "I'm Joachim von Raifburg, but you're welcome to call me Joachim. And …"
"Fanziska! Wait for meeeeeeeee!" an already familiar shout interrupted them.
"Oh no," Margarete moaned. "Here she comes again!"
"My things aren't here!" the princess complained loudly only moments after entering the classroom. "Where is that lazy Heinzelfrau? Wedel! Wedel!"
"The Heinzelmännchen were all at least two cabs behind us on the Seilbahn," Rüdiger reminded her. "She probably hasn't had time to find the classroom."
The princess glared at him as if it were his fault that her things were missing and Rüdiger glared back. He'd seen enough of her and the arrogant bitches she called friends to know that he wanted as little as possible to do with her. Nobles and princess or not, they could at least make the effort to be friendly. Margarete and Joachim were managing just fine after all.
"Py!" the princess made finally and turned her back on him to claim the first two desks in the front row for herself and her entourage.
"We were here first!" protested a brown haired girl with lots of freckles. "It's our desk!"
"No, it isn't," the princess declared haughtily. "The school belongs to my uncle, the emperor. As do all of you. And I as his heir and the future owner claim these two desks for myself."
"She not that fat," whispered Maxim who'd chosen the desk behind Joachim and Rüdiger.
The four unlucky children in the front row reluctantly made way and moved their possessions to the back of the classroom.
"But Franziska, you were supposed to sit with me!" Henriette protested when Franziska sat down next to the princess, but nobody paid her any mind.
For a while she stood helplessly in front of the princess' desk, but in the end Kunigunde and Augustina pushed her aside and told her to get lost so they could have an important 'adult' conversation.
Henriette sobbed and retreated towards the door, where she was almost immediately seized by the shoulders and pushed away again, this time more gently, though, as a man in perfectly nonmagical looking trousers, shirt and jumper entered and closed the door behind himself.
Most of the children fell silent and stared at him and his clothing in surprise.
"No, no, no," he announced. "How awfully ill-mannered. When a professor, or in fact any adult, enters the classroom, you're supposed to show him your respect by standing up. Come on, everybody, get up!"
Slightly confused they rose.
"No, no, no!" he continued to protest. "Push in the chairs properly and stand up straight behind them. Your posture shows your respect for your professors. We had to study hard for many years to reach our positions. And what are you still doing here?" he asked Henriette who had remained exactly where he'd pushed her. "Go stand at your place. You're holding everything up!"
Henriette sobbed once more. There were only two seats left unclaimed, one next to Maxim and the other next to a tall, fat boy at the door side of the last row. Rüdiger's primary school teacher would never have allowed the smallest child in class to sit that far in the back, but apparently at a Gymnasium nobody cared about such details. After a moment of hesitation Henriette slipped in beside the fat boy.
"That's better," said the professor. "Good morning, children. Sit down."
There was a lot of clattering and squeaking as more children than Rüdiger could remember ever seeing together in one classroom all pulled out their chairs and dropped into them at the same time.
"Stop!" shouted the professor. "Again, and quietly this time!"
Everybody had to get up and sit down again and again until the professor was finally satisfied.
"That's how it's done," he finally announced. "And now, to business. I'm Professor Pospischil, your Klassenvorstand and Sprache und Kultur professor. That's very lucky for all of us, as Sprache und Kultur is the most important subject for young wizards. Even more so in first class. Do you know what Sprache und Kultur is?"
A few children raised their hands, but apparently Professor Pospischil didn't want to know their answer after all as he just kept on talking.
"Sprache und Kultur is everything that your peers are learning in non magical schools. I am expected to teach you the basics of German and Mathematics as well as all the other knowledge and skills you need to get by in the non-magical world and, if you choose, to even have a non magical job. However that means that we have a single subject to cover everything non-magicals learn in the first class of the Hauptschule or the Gymnasium. Obviously that is impossible unless you manage to do a lot of work at home without me. You should spend at least an hour a day outside of the time that you require to do your homework studying Sprache und Kultur. And I don't mean just preparing for a lesson, if you have me the next day, or every school day, I really mean every day, including Sundays and holidays. Then you've got more time, after all, and can maybe even afford more than only one hour. You'd only be sitting around being bored anyway. And do remember not to include the time spent on your homework. I really mean one hour pure studying time. Without that minimum effort you aren't going to pass in my subject. Do you understand that?"
They looked at him in wide eyed silence. One hour a day? Rüdiger thought that he could manage that. His way home after school would take less time than expected now and obviously this subject was particularly important for those who like him would return to nonmagical life in four years.
"I know, you'll hear everywhere that we can't fail you, because there is no magical Hauptschule anymore, but don't feel too safe. It is only partially true. Every one of you can repeat twice without flunking out of the Gymnasium and once you have completed your Schulpflicht we can kick you out without a problem. If a student really is too stupid to keep up with the demands of the Gymnasium despite his best efforts it does happen now and then that, if he works really hard, we help him along a little the second time around so he does manage to reach fourth class. But there is the end of the line for all students that are too stupid or too lazy! Only those who actually deserve it get to reach fifth class, and a Faulpelz, that doesn't want to study, cannot expect any mercy before then either. Is that clear?"
Rüdiger gulped. Of course it wasn't that important what grades he had in doing magic, but leaving school before completing the fourth Hauptschul-class, meant not to have completed any form of education. For the first time in his school career he was afraid that he might not be intelligent enough.
"Sprache und Kultur is a Schularbeitsfach," Professor Pospischil continued. "As you most likely already know that means that the most important part of your final grade results from the grades you get on the six Schularbeiten we have every year. I will announce the dates for the three Schularbeiten of the first semester as soon as we have a permanent schedule. For this week we only have a provisional one, though, and it looks like this." He tapped the pointer, a long bamboo stick, against the blackboard and lines and letters appeared on it forming a colourful table. "Copy it, you will need it."
"But my Heinzelfrau has my schoolbag!" the princess protested while all those students who had come carrying their own things hastily dug out penholders, ink and notebooks or scraps of writing paper.
For a moment Rüdiger considered whether he wanted to offer to tear some pages out of his notebook and offer his spare penholders to two of the boys, but it turned out to be unnecessary. Professor Pospischil merely smiled at the complaint, walked to the door and opened it with an exaggerated bow to the Heinzelmännchen waiting outside and a sweeping hand gesture inviting them inside.
The Heinzelmännchen in turn each bowed or curtseyed to him as they filed in and delivered the schoolbags.
"The first lesson starts at 8 am," Professor Pospischil reminded them all. "In future, do make sure that you have all the equipment you require for it present by that time as school-foreign persons are not normally allowed into the classroom."
"Since when is a Heinzelmann a person?" protested one of the noble boys. "They're mere servants."
"Yes, whether you believe it or not, Heinzelmännchen count as people," Professor Pospischil sneered at the boy. "If you want to contest that fact, you'll need to see headmaster Paracelsus about it. Or maybe you'd like to discuss it with Professor Schnick first?"
The boy's Heinzelmann snorted then hastily covered it with a cough.
Rüdiger wanted to ask who Professor Schnick was, but he had bigger problems at the moment. Copying a schedule shouldn't have been hard, but it turned out that penholders and inkpots were a lot more difficult to handle than they looked. Rüdiger had tried them out at home, but the results hadn't been good then and with the unfamiliar slant of the desk it was even worse. Soon there were several ugly ink stains both on the desk and in the notebook.
At least he wasn't the only one having problems. About a quarter of the class seemed to never have used penholders before.
"While you're writing," Professor Pospischil announced ignoring all their dismayed exclamations and groans. "We'll go over the class list, emergency addresses, and seating plan."
He opened the Klassenbuch to the first page. If it was structured the same way as the one in primary school, that ought to be where the alphabetical list of students was, Rüdiger remembered from the occasional glances he'd gotten when his teacher had made her entries there.
"Thirty-one students," Professor Pospischil said in an almost awed tone. "One more and we'd have had two first classes for the first time in decades. Ah, but it would have been difficult to organise all those additional teaching hours, so I guess it's for the best. Which one of you is von Amselfeld, Nikolaus?"
Nikolaus raised his hand. All the noble boys were sitting in the second row, but over on the door side of the classroom so that Rüdiger didn't have a very good view of the boy. He thought he recognised him from when Margarete had pointed them out, though.
Professor Pospischil nodded, casually unscrewed the lid of his ink bottle with one hand, dipped his pen into it and wrote something further in the back of the Klassenbuch. That had to be where the seating plan was. Even though he didn't seem to pay any attention to it at all not a single drop of ink fell off his pen. How was he doing that?
"You're a protestant, Herr Nikolaus?" he asked.
"Yes, Herr Professor. Evangelisch A.B."
"And your home address is?"
"But Herr Professor, you know my address! You've been there yourself!"
"Not officially," stated Professor Pospischil and read the address out from a piece of paper.
Once Nikolaus had confirmed that the address was correct Professor Pospischil cautioned him that protestant students had no business being in the Religion lessons on the schedule.
"Protestant Religion is on Friday in the sixth lesson in the fifth class. Zu Hinterfels, Kaspar?"
The boy who didn't think Heinzelmännchen were people raised his hand and Rüdiger went back to his copying. His last name started with Z, so he would most likely be the last boy called on. There was a lot of time until then.
The lines of his table looked uneven and in the lower right corner they were smeared. A quick check of the bottom of his hand confirmed that it was black with ink. Well, at least the schedule was still readable ... as long as he was careful enough not to smear any more of it. He had to make sure that his hand didn't touch the paper anymore. Very carefully he began to fill in the time column: 8:00 – 8:50, 8:55 – 9:45 ...
He interrupted his work when "von Raifburg, Joachim" was called, surprised that they had reached the Rs this quickly.
"Did he say von Raifburg?" somebody whispered.
"What's he doing here?" it came from another corner. "I thought they'd all been banished?"
"Murderer!" a girl shouted.
"Silence!" Professor Pospischil snapped glaring at her. "Yes, the criminals were all banished. Their innocent relatives who happen to have the same last names remain and are sending their children to school like everybody else ... if you don't mind, Fräulein."
The girl – Rüdiger was almost sure that she wasn't a noble – blushed and lowered her eyes back to her schedule and Professor Pospischil returned his attention to Joachim.
"So, Herr Joachim, you are roman catholic and live in ..."
"Yes, Herr Professor," Joachim said without looking up from his almost finished schedule whenever he was supposed to answer. Apparently that was enough to satisfy Professor Pospischil.
"Von Schneckental, Anselm," was next.
When he was sure that the professor wasn't paying any attention to them anymore Rüdiger gently touched Joachim's arm. "What was that about?"
Joachim flinched. "Nothing," he hissed. "Just the ... I'll tell you later."
"But?"
"Later. It's a long story. The Pospischil might catch us."
The professor however didn't seem to mind all that much when students talked while he was going over the class list. Then again, maybe it was better not to risk making a bad impression on one's Klassenvorstand on the very first day of school.
He was just about to continue his work on his schedule when Professor Pospischil called out "Zu Dunklelbrunn, Margarete!"
Rüdiger started. They'd reached the girls already? But he was sure that he hadn't been called on! What had happened? What should he do, if he wasn't on the class list?
It seemed to take forever to read out Margarete's address and then came "Von Harrasch, Franziska" followed not very surprisingly by "Von Harrasch, Henriette!". The cousins had different addresses, Franziska somewhere in Styria and Henriette in Mondsee in Upper Austria.
Maybe he ought to raise his hand and say that he'd been skipped? Or would it be better to wait until they reached the end of the list? Surely Professor Pospischil had to notice that the seating plan was incomplete then.
"Von Lo ... Hang on!" Ah now he'd noticed that he'd skipped part of the list! "Fräulein Henriette?"
"Yes, Herr Professor?"
"You were born in December 1980?"
"Yes, Herr Professor."
"But then you shouldn't be here," Professor Pospischil stated. "This is birth year September 1979 to August 1980. You're too young."
"Only by a few months, Herr Professor. I'm almost ten."
"In four months," Joachim whispered. "And Maxim's already eleven."
"My parents are sending me a year early so I can be with my cousin."
Professor Pospischil cast a questioning glance at Franziska. The cousins could hardly have sat any further apart. "I see," he claimed anyway.
There was some more whispering when he called "Von Lothringen, Anna-Theresia!", but the home address of the princess wasn't read out.
Both "Von Schreckenstein, Kunigunde!" and "Von Schwanenfels, Augustina!" were a year late which, according to Professor Pospischil, explained why the class was so unusually large.
Rüdiger wished he knew why. Maxim had mentioned that he'd been put a grade below his age level when he'd first come to Austria, because he hadn't known any German yet, but Kunigunde and Augustina couldn't possibly be immigrants. Were they really both so stupid that they'd failed a year in primary school?
And then, all of a sudden, Professor Pospischil called "Berger, Dieter!"
They weren't done with the boys after all! But why had he called some of the girls early?
"Phew, I almost thought he'd forgotten the rest of the boys when he started calling on girls," he admitted.
"Nonsense," Hildegard laughed. "That was just the nobles. He's only starting with the commoners now."
And almost everybody else had finished copying the schedule. Rüdiger quickly returned to his work. The strange acronyms on the schedule meant nothing to him, but he copied them exactly each in the correct ink colour and hoped that Joachim or Margarete would be able to explain them.
"You are without confession?" Professor Pospischil asked just as Rüdiger was exchanging his red ink bottle for the green one. His desk was getting very colourful.
Confession? What was Fabian supposed to confess? He hadn't done anything to the stone angel anymore than Rüdiger had.
"Yes, Herr Professor," Fabian answered not the slightest bit nervously.
"Are you in Religion classes anyway?"
Surely whatever Fabian was supposed to have done couldn't have been that bad!
"No, Herr Professor," said Fabian.
"Well, one of you must be registered for roman catholic Religion lessons despite not being a roman catholic. We have ordered one more book than we have catholic students."
A blond girl raised her hand. "That must be me, Herr Professor. And actually, we are catholic, we just quit the church officially because of the church tax."
"Ah yes, then you, Fabian, have Religion lessons off, and you, girl, you have to be there," Professor Pospischil explained. "And don't you dare do it the other way around, or we're in big trouble."
Everybody laughed.
"What does without confession mean?" Rüdiger asked after all.
"That you no religion, no believe," Maxim explained.
"Novak, Günter!" Professor Pospischil called and since Rüdiger didn't know Günter at all he returned his attention to his schedule.
Despite all his caution some more drops of ink had fallen onto the paper and somehow Rüdiger had managed to put his hand in one of them. Now he was leaving both black and green smears on everything he touched. He wished there were somewhere he could wash his hands.
"Obertaler, Franz!" Professor Pospischil called a few minutes later.
"Hia, Professa!" shouted the fat boy next to Henriette. He had to be the Viennese that he'd heard insult Maxim on the bus!
"I hope you can write proper German," Professor Pospischil remarked. "I can't possibly tolerate that accent in a Schularbeit."
"Oba jo, Hea Professa," Franz assured him not very convincingly.
The professor looked slightly pained, but continued without further comment.
The next name on the list probably didn't improve his feelings: "Pawlow, Maxim!"
"I here," Maxim replied and the Professor winced.
"It's I am here, or Here I am." he corrected. "Please try to speak in complete sentences or you certainly won't pass my subject."
Rüdiger thought that was a little mean. After all Maxim hadn't been living in Austria nearly as long as Franzek who hadn't yet completely mastered German grammar either.
Maxim was without confession himself it turned out. That was how he'd known!
And then it was Rüdiger's own turn. "Zweigl, Rüdiger!"
Neither his name, though much more common in Germany, nor his accent seemed to draw any attention, but his address apeared to confuse the professor. Rüdiger didn't really understand why as the Raifburgs' castle didn't have a street number either.
"It's a solitary farm," he tried desperately to explain. "On a mountain, by a hiking path. There aren't any other houses, honestly. Joachim's crow doesn't have a problem finding it anyway."
Finally Professor Pospischil agreed to leave the address as it was and moved on to "Bauer, Jasmin!" and Rüdiger was allowed to finish his schedule.
By the time he looked up from his finished work it was Sonja's turn, but she was lucky enough to have a satisfactory street number.
Next came Hildegard, without confession and without Religion classes, and then two girls who would be attending Islamic Religion, Friday, sixth lesson, in seventh class. The first was Fadime from Vienna, but with a Turkish rather than Viennese accent and the second Nadja whose arrival on her family's flying carpet had caused such a stir earlier.
Then there were Ivonne Schuster, Sabine Untersbach – another protestant, but somehow a different version from Nikolaus – and finally the blond girl that was without confession, but catholic anyway. Her name was Sigrid Zeiler.
"Very good. Have you all copied your schedule? Then here are a few more things you will have to remember. As you no doubt saw on your way in there's Batschenpflicht in the school. Running is forbidden in all corridors and classrooms, being late isn't tolerated. All homework is to be done and handed in on time, repeated 'forgetting' will be punished. Your Turnsackerln have no business being in the gym area except during your Turnen lessons. You are to take them home afterwards and to let your mothers wash the sports clothes so they'll be nice and fresh for the next lesson. Doing magic without explicit permission from a professor is forbidden ... fire alert and assassin alert ..."
It was a lot more information than Rüdiger could remember all at once and only a minute after the professor had told them he'd forgotten how to tell the difference between a fire alert and an assassin alert and where to flee during which. Not that it worried him. They'd had fire drills every year in primary school and there'd never been a real fire and the idea that a wizard or magical creature should invade the school and run amok seemed even less likely. Surely no school had ever had an assassin alert. He wondered how anyone had thought of it in the first place.
While he was talking Professor Pospischil kept looking towards the door and finally, just as he was handing out the forms to sign up for school milk, there was a knock and a girl in a blue robe entered.
"The ... I mean ... Professor von Hintersbach said to tell you, you can come now, Professor Pospischil."
She was gone again before Professor Pospischil had said "Thank you."
"Alright," he ordered after a moment's pause. "Line up in Zweierreihe by the ... Stop! Everybody back to your seats! Sit down. And if you don't manage to do it slowly, quietly and orderly, I'll decide the pairs."
With the exception of a minor scuffle over which pair was to go first they managed. Professor Pospischil separated the contenders and to the horror of the princess and most of the other nobles picked two common girls to lead the class.
"That's just what the Pospischil's like," Nikolaus whispered. "He always favours the commoners."
"Unfair," Kaspar complained.
"It's not at all unfair," Rüdiger commented to Joachim. "And the Pospischil didn't favour anyone. Those two were simply particularly quiet."
"They're both from non-magical families, though," Joachim stated surprising Rüdiger who didn't even remember their names. "I do think that he did that on purpose."
For a while they stood there just whispering, but soon the sound level began to rise again and one boy was still kneeling next to his desk apparently hard at work, though Rüdiger couldn't see what he was doing.
"Aren't you done, yet!" Professor Popischil snapped at him finally.
"My ink bottle fell off the desk," The boy explained sitting up and now they could all see the ink-soaked tissue in his hand. "How are we supposed to keep them from sliding off on those stupid tilted desks anyway?"
"And what exactly did you think this was for?" Professor Pospischil demanded pointing at the round indentation in the boy's desk. Then he pulled out his wand, made a quick circling motion over the spilled ink and put it away again. "There. Now get in line. We're all waiting for you alone."
Before he let them through the door he went down the line to inspect whether they were all wearing house shoes, though. One unfortunate boy got told off for still wearing street shoes and started back to his desk.
"Stop!" Professor Pospischil shouted. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To put on my house shoes," the boy explained. "They're in my schoolbag."
"Your Batschensackerl belongs in the wardrobe," Professor Pospischil pointed out, but he wouldn't let him take it there.
"Not now, we've got better things to do than wait for you all day. You can put it there when we leave for Mass. And what about you? Where are your house shoes?"
"Er, I forgot to bring them," admitted Ottokar, who'd used the earlier incident to hastily take off his street shoes and duck back to his desk to hide them. "I'll have them tomorrow, promise!"
"Professor, I need to wash my hands!" the boy who'd spilled the ink shouted as soon as they finally started moving.
So Professor Pospischil led them to the nearest boys' toilet where they all waited patiently while the boy scrubbed his hands as clean as he could manage and the Professor informed them that the corridor their classroom was in led to the Brausaal, where Praktisches Brauen was taught to the higher grades and past it to the Turnsaal 1. Rüdiger used the occasion to quickly rinse off his hands as well, but most of the ink on them had dried by now.
"And at the end of this corridor," Professor Pospischil explained pointing at the opposite one when they'd finally started moving again and reached the stairs. "Are the Turnsaal 2 and the smokers' toilet."
But right now they went upstairs instead. "The second floor classrooms are no longer in use," the Professor continued. "And you aren't allowed up here unless you need to speak with a teacher. The old classrooms are all empty anyway, so there's nothing interesting to see."
The stairs led further upwards apparently onto a second floor, but they were closed off with a chain.
"What's up there, Professor?" Sigrid Zeiler asked.
"Oh, only a lot of dust and broken furniture, I imagine," Professor Pospischil answered. "It used to be the dorms long ago when this was still a boarding school for boys. They haven't been used since 1914. My grandfather told me the students went home for the summer holidays like any other year, nobody suspecting anything but that same month the war broke out and most of the boarders' parents decided to keep them home until the hostilities ceased and there just weren't enough to justify maintaining the staff for 24 hour supervision and a kitchen. So that part of the school was closed until after the war and the staff reduced to only the minimum required to cover every subject for the students that could still come. The old Gymnasien were closed entirely and the student numbers of the girls' Hauptschule dwindled so much that in the end the last handful of students joined us here as well. Even that was still considered a temporary measure at the time, but we lost all the far territories that made boarding necessary and kept our student numbers high enough to justify four magic schools and so the temporary measures have continued for ... Well, you're the fourth generation."
He walked on in silence after telling that story and Rüdiger just read the plaques on the doors for himself. The first one they passed said "Direktion, Direktor Karl-August Paracelsus" and across from that was another door where it said "Lehrmittelkammerl".
Next to the Direktion was the "Sekretariat, Fr. Edeltraut von Cerny".
Next to the Sekretariat was the Lehrerzimmer and next to the Lehrmittelkammerl it said "Schularztzimmer".
"There's an actual doctor here?" Rüdiger asked in surprise.
"Of course not," Joachim assured him. "My Papa told me all about it. The Schularzt comes once a year to examine everybody and besides that only, in case of medical emergencies. The room is just there to store the magicinal equipment."
The corridor ended at a large double-door. Professor Pospischil opened one side of it announcing "And this is our good old Festsaal ... and good, young Frau von Cerny the secretary."
It was a big room with an empty and forgotten looking stage flanked by black, moth-eaten curtains at one end. There were no chairs or benches lined up for an audience, though, only several rows of pushed together desks. It would have looked much like the arrangement in their classroom, except that these desks were the normal, flat kind and there were no chairs here to sit on. Most of them were just standing around uselessly and empty, only the last row had a row of neatly lined up stacks of books on them.
"First class," Frau von Cerny announced. "Your school books are the ones in this row." Well, if they had been in any other, they must have been invisible. "Just walk along and take a book off each stack."
"Except, be careful with the Religion books!" Professor Pospischil interrupted her.
"Ah yes," Frau von Cerny admitted. "There's a small problem with those. The money from the Schulbuchaktion didn't cover all the books you need this year, so we were unable to buy new bibles. You're getting old ones from the Schülerlade as loans for this year."
"Old school books?" the princess called out in shock.
"Ewww!" exclaimed Franziska.
"There still is a Schülerlade?" Dieter asked.
"Frau Professor?" Fadime raised her hand shyly even though everybody else was talking loudly without bothering.
"What?" made Frau von Cerny who was probably not used to being addressed by that title at all. "Oh no, dear, no need to worry. Your Koran is completely new. There was just enough money left for the two we needed."
"What!" screamed Kaspar. "What ... what ... infamy! Those common foreigners get their lying Koran new ..."
"But I only wanted to say that I've already got a Koran. I don't need a second." Fadime's explanation was drowned out by the general shouting.
"Come on," Joachim said. "Let's get our books before the big rush starts."
Rüdiger only nodded and followed him around the group of arguing students and the furious Professor Pospischil to the first desk.
"Say, do you know Kaspar, too?" he asked his friend as they started to collect their books. "Like you know the von Harraschs?"
"But of course," Joachim said. "The zu Hinterfels' never miss an event. His father is an Edler from Upper Austria. Papa says he loves to make himself more important than he actually is."
"Is he always like that?" Rüdiger asked. "I mean the way he complained about the Pospischil choosing commoners to go first and now he's attacking the Turks. Does he begrudge everybody everything?"
Joachim shrugged his right shoulder. His left arm was holding his stack of books which was beginning to get a little heavy. "Probably not. He does like causing a scene."
"He's doing it so everybody else will think he's awfully cool," somebody behind Rüdiger said. "Just like that Franziska. The nobles are such snobs!"
Rüdiger turned around and saw the girl that sat next to Sonja in class.
"Joachim isn't," he pointed out.
"And Margarete's been pretty nice to us, too," Sonja agreed. "That's my new friend Lieselotte," she added to Rüdiger and Joachim. "She's from a real, normal magical family."
"What's the matter with you Tratschtanten here?" Frau von Cerny's sharp voice snapped at them. "Are you Catholics?"
The secretary had taken position by the last desk and was supervising the distribution of the Religion books with a sharp tongue and stern eye. The book for roman-catholic Religion was red and rather thin, but the bibles ... well, they were all thick and heavy, but they had very different covers and sizes.
"Wasn't there a set of identical ones?" Sonja asked.
"Of course not!" Frau von Cerny snapped. "All the decent students keep their books of course. The Schülerlade only contains lost and abandoned books. That doesn't happen to an entire class."
"This one's full of ink stains," Joachim discovered. "I definitely don't want that."
"Well, people who take care of their things don't lose them. There aren't any better, so stop being fussy," Frau von Czerny scolded and slapped a bible onto each of their book stacks. The one Joachim had complained about wasn't among them, however. These did look halfway decent on the outside at least. "Now, go, go, go, make room for the others."
"Start a Zweierreihe by the door ... Rüdiger, right?" Professor Pospischil called out from the other end of the row of desks.
"Yes, right!" Rüdiger replied beaming. He could barely believe that the professor had already remembered his name despite the size of the class.
Of course Kaspar immediately complained that it was unfair that Rüdiger and Joachim were allowed to be first. The Pospischil said that he didn't care what Kaspar thought was or wasn't fair and made the whole class stand in an orderly Zweierreihe until everybody was silent.
His mood seemed to improve again after that, though and he resumed explaining the rooms they passed.
"This is the Lehrerzimmer," he told them. "It is of course off limits to you. If you want to talk with a professor, you wait outside the door until he comes out. If the matter is very urgent, you can politely ask a passing professor to ask him to come out, but there will be absolutely no opening the door, looking in, shouting or even knocking. The professors in there are on break and want to be left alone."
Frau von Cerny, too, was not to be bothered, as she was very busy, and most certainly not the Direktor. As far as Rüdiger was concerned that last bit could have gone without saying, though. The little village primary school hadn't rated a Lehrerzimmer or secretary, but every school did have a Direktor after all.
They stopped in front of the Lehrmittelkammerl, the Pospischil pulled out a large set of keys and unlocked the door. "Be careful, there isn't much room in there. Watch that you don't accidentally push something over."
"What if we do it on purpose?" someone whispered somewhere behind Rüdiger.
Probably Kaspar again, he assumed.
"He who does it on purpose, will get to enjoy paying for the damage," the Pospischil answered sharply. "Come on in."
The Lehrmittelkammerl wasn't just too small for a whole class, it was also stuffed full of things. The biggest part of the visible teaching materials were large pictures and charts meant to be hung on blackboards or walls. Right next to the door was a bucket full of bamboo pointing sticks, next to the first cupboard stood a stack of boxes full of chalks and against the back wall there were several stacks of large, black cauldrons.
The Pospischil waited until everybody had squeezed in and the last "Franziiiskaaa!" had been silenced.
"This place is off limits to you unless you are in the company of a professor," he then explained. "For example when you're supposed to help carry something or when you want to borrow a book from the school library. For that is in here." He patted an ancient looking cupboard with his hand. "I'm afraid I don't know who's in charge of the library this year and the Sprechstunden haven't been fixed yet either, but to get a book from the library you go to the professor in charge during the break before his Sprechstunde and ask him to unlock the cupboard for you so you can pick one out."
Then he unlocked it himself and showed them the shelves on which there were a number of very used looking books lined up on each side.
"The two top shelves are the Schülerlade. The shelf below that is suitable for your age group."
"But I can't see it!" Henriette shrilled.
"That's not surprising," Hildegard commented loudly. "There's nothing here to see. I've got more books in my bedroom than there are in this library. And mine are all suitable for me."
Their last detour on the way back to class led them to an unmarked, unremarkable door.
"This," the Pospischil explained. "Is the smokers' toilet. It is strictly off limits for anyone under sixteen. And you don't want to go in anyway, because it stinks god-awfully and it isn't so far from the next real toilet, that you can't make it no matter how urgently you have to go."
Back in the classroom he informed them that their homework was to write their names into all their books and count the pages to make sure there weren't any missing.
"Now we can still exchange a faulty book," he explained. "If you only notice it in two months, you'll have to buy the replacement."
Then he told them to pack their things and once again line up at the door in Zweierreihe.
"Didn't I tell you the schoolbags are too small?" Rüdiger told Joachim when they found that they couldn't fit all of their books in and had to carry some under their arms.
"It'll be fine," Margarete said with a laugh. "We only have to bring the ones for the subjects we actually have that day anyway."
"I'll lead you to the wardrobe where you will put on your shoes," Professor Pospischil explained before they left. "Then you will all line up again and we walk to the Seilbahn together. Those of you not going to Mass will be dismissed when I say so at the top station and no sooner. Understood?"
This time the corridor outside wasn't as empty and quiet as it had been when they'd gone up to get their books. There were other Zweierreihen of taller students making their way to the wardrobe as well, laughing and shouting.
"Aww, the tiny little first classlers, all cute and neat!" someone shouted and stuck out his tongue at them.
"I'll show you cute and neat!" Kaspar yelled, but Professor Pospischil who'd made sure that he walked close to him this time caught him by the arm and shoved him back into the line and the older students laughed even more. Their Klassenvorstand didn't seem to care.
Unfortunately the Professsor had had less foresight where Henriette was concerned and didn't notice when her books slid out of her hands and clattered to the floor. She shrieked and dropped to her knees to pick them up so hastily that she dropped her schoolbag in the process.
"Franziska! My books! You've got to help me!" But Franziska who'd been walking right in front of her didn't even glance back. "Franziiiiska! Wait for meeeee!"
"Be glad she going away," Rüdiger heard Maxim advise her under his breath as they picked their way past the accident site careful not to step on any of the books. "They just take books away, no help."
"But ... but I," Henriette sobbed. "I can't remember the way."
Joachim stopped. "Shouldn't we wait and lead her to the wardrobe? I know the way."
So did Rüdiger. He wasn't entirely sure he'd find the Lehrmittelkammerl, or Schularztzimmer again without looking at the plaques, but the wardrobe was easy enough.
"Then she stay with us," Maxim warned. "And others think we like her and be nasty. Is enough people here. She go with other Professor."
Besides they had their hands full of their own books and couldn't help her pick up hers. They walked on with the rest of the class ignoring Henriette's shrieks for help.
As it turned out there was no need to worry about her anyway. Ottokar had to go back for the shoes he'd so cleverly hidden in his desk earlier and the wardrobe was so full of people that the smaller students found it quite difficult to push through. Many of them had to wait until the higher classes began to clear out and Professor Pospischil conscientiously counted heads several times until he was sure he had all his students with him before he led them out of the school.
Two wizards were busily tapping their wands against the stone angel and when the head of the column reached the arch a stern looking wizardess stopped them. She talked to every child that passed her and pointed her wand at them. Rüdiger couldn't see exactly what she was doing, but some children took longer than others.
Only when they got close to her did he discover what she was asking: "Were you there when the stone angel started shrieking?" but the last few students between her and him all hadn't been.
"Yes, Professor," he admitted nervously when it was his turn.
"And where exactly were you?"
"Just walking through." Would she think it was his fault? He hadn't done anything!
"And did you see or hear anything suspicious?"
He shook his head. "It was much too loud to hear anything else," he added to show that he was making an effort to cooperate.
She pointed her wand, waved it about a little, then frowned.
"What's that around your neck?" she demanded.
Rüdiger touched his free hand to his throat and felt around, but he couldn't feel anything there. "Um ... what?"
The teacher's stern lips twitched. "No, not on your robe collar. You have a chain around your neck. An amulet?"
"Oh, my Schutzengel!" Rüdiger exclaimed relieved and pulled it out. "It's to protect me," he explained nervously. "A gift from my parents. Because they love me and want an angel to protect me. It's really just a symbol, but it ... well, it means they love me."
Some of the other children started to giggle and he finally realised he was babbling and shut up blushing.
The Professor however didn't seem to hear him. She was holding the little angel charm on her palm, pointing her wand at it and frowning as if in deep concentration.
"What is it, Patrizia?" An elderly wizard had interrupted his tapping and was coming towards them. "Have you found something."
But just then the wizardess let go of the Schutzengel. "No, Herr Direktor, nothing," she replied shaking her head. "Just an unusual protection amulet, interesting. Blood tied protection spells are related to blood recognition spells, but I don't see how this could react with the old line magic of the stone angel unless it were somehow tied into the same base frequency and that makes no sense for a personal protection amulet. ... At least, ... The amulet doesn't look new. It wasn't a starting magic school gift, was it?"
"Oh no," Rüdiger replied, thoroughly confused. "I've had it all my life. A Christening gift, I think."
"Then it can't have anything to do with the incident," the Professor assured him. "Don't worry about it."
She waved him past and turned to Joachim who was very thoroughly questioned and had to hand over both his wand and his pocket knife for examination, but finally the unknown Professor was satisfied that they were harmless as well and returned them.
"What was she talking about?" Rüdiger asked his friend as they walked through the arch to join their waiting classmates on the other side.
"I have no idea," Joachim admitted. "Probably some really advanced magic theory. At least that's what it sounded like to me."
"I think," said Hildegard, who'd been waved after Joachim pretty quickly due to not having witnessed the incident. "She's looking for some item whose magic could have broken the stone angel's magic. Some very strong magics can break little spells. Like the hiding magic around the palace broke my Papa's magical camera when we visited Vienna. But I thought the stone angel had really strong magic itself."
On the other side everybody was speculating about the reasons for the search and there were some truly spectacular rumours going around.
"Did the angel really explode when that princess-girl went through?" Franz asked them in his awful Viennese accent.
"No, it just started shrieking and wouldn't stop," Rüdiger told him hoping to get rid of him. He didn't want to retell the whole thing again.
But Franz didn't seem to get the hint, or maybe he was making a preventive attempt to shake off the image of 'the boy that sits next to Henriette'.
"Maybe it means she's a fake," he suggested excitedly. "Or that she's unfit to rule and will do something terrible to the country. Or maybe it's a warning that somebody's trying to kill her!"
"Yeah, right," sighed Sonja exasperatedly, but Margarete and Joachim exchanged some worried glances.
"She isn't supposed to rule at all," Joachim pointed out unexpectedly over a minute later. "Her husband will. And she isn't even engaged yet. It's much too early for anyone to be sure it won't be their candidate."
Rüdiger wasn't so sure of that. Who knew what magic could and couldn't predict? But then again Joachim had grown up in a magical family, so he probably did have a better idea of that than he or Sonja did.
When the whole class had been searched Professor Pospischil led them to the Seilbahn. "Those of you who are not going to Mass, remember to wait at the top until I release you." he ordered before he waved the first group inside.
Rüdiger and his friends made it into the second cabin, this time without the princess or Henriette which left Franz the least pleasant company and Rüdiger was honest enough with himself to admit that so far he had no good reason to dislike the boy. It wasn't fair to blame someone for speaking with an accent and Franz sat down in his seat peacefully enough and started looking at the book he was carrying in his hand, most likely because he too had been unable to fit everything into his schoolbag.
"Are your bibles as ugly as mine?" he asked once everybody had settled down and the cabin started to move. "It's written in such odd decorative letters that I can't read a word."
"Mine is completely normal," said Margarete holding out her hand. "Can I see?"
"Sure," Franz said and handed it over.
Margarete opened the bible and held it into the middle of the cabin so everybody could stick their heads together and see.
"I think it looks impressive," Rüdiger admitted once he got a good look at the writing. "It's like the really old gravestones in the village cemetery at home."
"And it's a hardcover, too," Joachim added encouragingly. "Probably from a time when they didn't even make soft covers yet. It might be the oldest bible in our class."
"So it's old junk," Franz complained in disgust.
Rüdiger however still thought the book was very pretty and probably full of history that he'd never know, but somehow still felt almost as if he could touch it if only he could hold the book.
"I guess it's annoying, if you can't read your book, but I like it and I think I'll manage. I can read those old gravestones in any case. I'll trade you."
Franz agreed readily and Rüdiger handed him his unremarkable used bible then bent and gently took the old one out of Margarete's hands. It felt warm and delicate, but of course there was no sudden rush of knowledge about its past history. It was only a book after all, but it was pleasant to own something so old and beautiful.
"Your amulet's still hanging out," Joachim told him. "If you meant to tuck it away again."
Indeed the Schutzengel was still dangling outside his robe and had grown icy cold to the touch despite the warm weather. Rüdiger quickly tucked it back under his clothes where it would be warm and protected. He didn't think that it had to be worn against the skin all the time, but it was probably safest there. Who knew, if it hung out it might catch on some twig or stick when he was working or playing and be torn off. He'd never find it again, if he lost it in the forest or among the hay and straw in the barn.
Then he sat back and examined the bible more closely. Its first owner had probably already checked its pages, so he wouldn't have to do that as part of his homework, but should he write his name inside or would that be defacing such a beautiful book?
He checked the first page right under the cover and discovered that there was already a name there. He'd have to cross it out.
Or should he? This child had valued the bible so little that he'd forgotten it in school, but on the other hand he seemed to have taken good care of it. It was completely clean and had no bent corners and the name had been written very neatly, though the old fashioned letters were impossible to identify.
His Schutzengel was still cold against his skin, reminding him that this child, too had probably had a Papa that had loved him just as much as Rüdiger was loved by his own Papa, and now the only reminder left of them both might be this name written in letters modern students could no longer read.
Or could they?
"F...ro ns – Fend ..." No. "Ferdinand! Franz-Ferdinand u ... von ... Franz-Ferdinand von ... S? or L?"
Joachim leaned in to see the old fashioned handwriting as well and gasped.
"Lothringen," he whispered excitedly. "Franz-Ferdinand von Lothringen. Your bible used to belong to a member of the imperial family!"
1. Klasse – "1st Class"
Klassenvorstand – The teacher organisationally in charge of a class. He deals with administrative things and anything else that isn't part of anyone' particular subject. (From the description I guess much like the American homeroom teacher, except that the Klassenvorstand doesn't get a special homeroom class for this, but has to somehow fit it into the time allotted to his normal subject instead.)
Klassenlehrer – "class-teacher" - The teacher teaching a class in (almost) all subjects in primary school.
Volkssschule – "folk-school" – in Austria: primary school
Fachlehrer – "subject teacher" – A teacher that teaches usually two specific subjects that he's been trained for at the Hauptschule. These teachers are not qualified to teach at the Gymnasium as they haven't been trained at university. They have more training in actual paedagogics and didactics than the Professors, though.
Professor – A teacher trained at university. (Including this here even though the use is much the same in Harry Potter because it is not used for secondary school teachers in Germany.)
Angenehm – "Pleasant" – Here: Pleased to make your acquaintance.
Heinzelfrau – a female Heinzelmännchen (a magical race, usually benign)
Heinzelmännchen - a magical race, usually benign
Seilbahn – "rope-train" – Um yeah, like this one: . .
Hauptschule – "main-school" – (high school) the form of secondary school open to everybody (grades 5-8)
Gymnasium – (grammar school) the form of secondary school for those aiming for higher education, has certain grade requirements to get in (grades 5-12)
Schulpflicht – "school-duty" – Time of mandatory education. (Nine years in Austria, years spent in preschool and repeating a failed grade count, so theoretically one of Rüdigers' classmates could complete it at the end of sixth grade.)
Faulpelz – "lazy-pelt" – Laze-about.
Sprache und Kultur – "Language and Culture" I tried to give each non-magical subject a magical replacement. This one is meant to be German's (= first language).
Schularbeitsfach – "Schularbeits-subject" – A subject in which there are Schularbeiten.
Schularbeiten – plural of Schularbeit
Schularbeit – "school-work" – an hour long written test very important for the final grade first introduced in 4th grade where you have 4 in Math and 4 in German (called Klassenarbeit in Germany), after that 6 per year in German, Math and English, plus other subjects added later depending on school form, can be two or three hours long and as few as four a year in 11th and 12th grade.
Klassenbuch – "class-book" – Register. A book containing the alphabetical student list, home addresses, Schularbeiten schedule, list of absent students and when written excuses from their parents were received, signature of the teacher and note of the content of every lesson ... The Klassenbuch is brought into the class from the Lehrerzimmer by the first teacher in the morning and remains there until the last lesson. If the class leaves its classroom for a lesson it is carried along by a student, but the students are not supposed to look inside.
Fräulein – Miss. (Sarcastic when not used addressing a noble girl.)
"Hia, Professa!" – Correct German: "Hier, Herr Professor!" – "Here, Professor!"
"Oba jo, Hea Professa," – Correct German: "Aber ja, Herr Professor." – "Sure, Professor,"
Gymnasien –plural of Gymnasium
Direktion – Headmaster's office.
Direktor – Headmaster
Lehrmittelkammerl – "teaching-materials-chamber" – Storage room for teaching materials.
Sekretariat – Secretary's office
Fr. – Mrs
Lehrerzimmer – Teachers' lounge
Schularztzimmer – "school-doctor-room" – Examination room of the school doctor.
Schularzt – School doctor. (I've never heard of an Austrian school that had a nurse.)
Festsaal – Fest-hall
Schulbuchaktion – "school-book-action" – Once upon a time in Austria before an election one party promised that, if they won, every student would get a new set of schoolbooks for free every year. They didn't expect to win, but they did ... and because this happened in a mystical time when parties still felt obliged to keep promises Austrian students still get their books (though they do have to pay a small percentage of the price nowadays. Not in Rüdigers time, yet, though.)
Schülerlade – "students' drawer" – A place where the school keeps used school books.
Edler – "noble one" – An actual rank of nobility when Austria still had a nobility.
Tratschtanten – "gossip-aunts"
Zweierreihe – two-by-two line
Sprechstunde – "speaking hour" – Time a teacher is available in case parents want to speak with them. (Few parents actually come as it's during their working time and students are supposed to be in class at the time, so they can't come themselves either.)
Schutzengel – guardian angel
Papa – Dad
