Chapter 10

Jade had upper sixth Dark Arts in the afternoon; she was not looking forward to it. Essentially those who were taking the class – with the exception of Baard Tollkettil who was just interested – were the bullies of the year who resented not being picked as prefects because they had assumed that if they could force compliance that meant in their minds that they must be leaders.

There would be five in the class; in addition to Baard were Jaromir Frolik, whose sister Jade had briefly taught the year before and had been unable to reach through her rude obstinacy; and what Jade dubbed the unholy trinity of Claudette Reynoult, Calvina Lekkessel and Erzebet Czerny.

"You have suffered under the disadvantage of having the inadequate teaching of Hedda Schrempf for your first ZH year" said Jade "But you have a whole year to catch up; and since the previous year managed, on the whole, to get 'E' or 'O' grades save the two who decided that they could not be bothered to listen to my pearls of wisdom and effectively opted mentally out of the class, you should have no trouble." One of those two was Jaromir's sister.

"My sister was an idiot, Frau Von Luytens" said Jaromir.

"I'm afraid so, Herr Frolik; but I wasn't going to say it first" said Jade. He was potentially dangerous; a bully who did not lose his temper at all. If he listened at all to her talk about the inadequacies of dark wizards he might even be driven to think. He might be a bully because it was all he knew; in which case the class might help break the mould. She took a deep breath; and embarked on her discussion of what dark magic was; and wherein lay the manifold deficiencies of those who would embrace the dark arts as a short cut to grabbing power to themselves. She aimed it more at their age group than she had for the little ones, though she still used her father's description of the dark arts as many headed and mutable. Then she went on,

"Since the dark wizard is paranoid and voluntarily isolates himself he is vulnerable because even his most loyal followers – and he has probably made their loyalty less firm if he has acted suspiciously towards them – do not give their all to protect him; only as much as they can get away with. They are likely to be punished for failure whatever the circumstances; and so are likely, if they feel a task doomed to failure, to avoid taking risks because they will be punished, win or lose. We may draw a very personal parallel here; Hedda Schrempf used the cruciatus curse on any who returned an essay that did not satisfy her. As she was herself limited, good library work was often too esoteric for her and so she punished for what she did not understand; as well as for sloppy work. So it became essential to provide just enough for a pass without doing any thinking on your own time because that earned her ire as much as if you turned in nothing; so you are all in the habit of turning in sloppy work that is barely enough. I will not punish you for poor essays; I will comment on them and if they are poor enough I may require you to re-write them. I will merely point out that since the idea of doing essays is to show me the level of your understanding and allow me to improve that, then if you do not work you punish only yourself; and that will be reflected in poor marks, Fraulein Reynoult if you are pulling faces like a kindergarten child you are almost asking to have me see that you go to bed at eighteen o'clock for a week; or if you are ill, I suggest you find a toilet to be sick into. I do not have to give you time and pearls of wisdom; if you are too childish to recognise that I issue instructions and homework for YOUR benefit I may decide you are too childish to take the ZH and exclude you from my class; that goes for anyone who is too puerile to put in the time to benefit from my talents."

"You can't DO that!" said Czerny, shocked.

"Oh but I can, Fraulein Czerny; any professor has the right to exclude any pupil. You may appeal to the headmistress should I do so; but if I am able to demonstrate poor work she would uphold my decision. I will not exclude anyone for my personal feelings any more than I would mark anyone down for that. Despite the rude comments you have made variously, I do NOT permit my personal feelings to rule either my discipline or my teaching; and I would remind you that it was the Asimova girl to whom I gave an imposition for jinxing you not you; because as I understood the situation, Asimova had used the jinx to reprove you for attempted bullying. And were you not still saying that my partiality took the boy off you the affair should have been ended; but you are itching to have it out and so let us discuss it. You wanted him to fag; he chose another who was willing to take him. That should have ended the matter. It did not; and an incident occurred that I made mild punishment to a blatant transgressor who, nonetheless, had some justice on her side; hence it was a mild imposition. From the amount of whining you have done since you actually had the cheek and gall to demand that the head interfered; and she, properly, has stood aside from the whole matter. The boy does not like you; why should he fag for you? You EARN respect and EARN followers. And I fear you are an illustration of the kind of dark wizard who would force compliance; not win loyalty in any form. Such a fuss over a fag! This is the only school I know of that has fags; the English schools certainly do not, and you know, the English manage to do well enough to win triwizard competitions without being waited on hand and foot."

"YOU had heaps" complained Czerny.

"Mostly to protect them from other bullying sixth formers" said Jade. "And I don't recall sending them on many errands actually; most of the time they were in my study they were cadging help with understanding their Arithmancy. Now if you are determined to blame me for your own inadequacies in attracting a fag I suggest that you either keep it to yourself and treat me with outward respect or you decide that you cannot bear to be near me and take yourself off to study on your own; I shan't ban you the exam if you prefer to do it that way, but nor shall I mark your work."

"I think I shall do that" said Czerny "You make me angry because you side with the brat over someone who should have been a prefect."

"As a bully you are one of the LAST who should have been a prefect" said Jade "And that is why I protect the brat's rights – which is a different matter to siding with him. But you are too stupid and limited to understand, like Hedda Schrempf herself. I shan't say I'm sorry; being civil to you makes my hair bleed with the effort."

"Are you two coming?" Czerny turned to Calvina Lekkessel and Claudette Reynoult.

They looked away.

Both knew that she could not achieve a high grade without a led class; however much they might loath Jade.

"Good; let us get on" said Jade "I should like you to learn how to hold a corporeal patronus before we go any further."

"Why learn defensive magic? We learn the dark arts surely, not defence against it?" said Reynoult.

"Why Fraulein Reynoult, are you really so confident when you come to summon dementors that you will be able to control them without resorting to a patronus to hold them at bay?" said Jade "I had no idea you were so talented at summoning and control spells."

Claudette Reynoult flushed.

"Is that why we learn it?" she asked.

"That among other reasons" said Jade "Can anyone tell me the two main other uses of a patronus?"

Baard put up his hand and Jade nodded to him.

"It's the only thing to drive off a lethifold attack" he said.

"Good; I'm glad somebody reads the text books from other subjects" said Jade "An English one at that; Newt Scamander is, I believe, the only person to document that a patronus will defeat a lethifold. Having once driven it off you, any suggestions what to do with the wretched creature?"

"It's resistent to magic isn't it?" said Jaromir "I'd think driving it into somewhere where you might burn it would work."

"Good lateral thinking" said Jade "Incidentally a tactic that works well on Huorns too; they are resistant to magical fire but NOT to natural fire set around them. When attacked by Huorns, the pupils of Hogwarts filled a ditch with brushwood well soaked in petra oleum and fired it as the huorns tried to cross. They also sprayed them with petra oleum from flitguns lit by spell as they sprayed; flying on brooms to attack the huorns. I confess I'd see how resistant the damn lethifold was to assimilative correlation by association and try to turn it into a crochet blanket; but I have a warped sense of humour. Fire is good. We do not know if they can swim – it has been hypothesised that they can cross rivers – so drowning is out. Forcing it into a metal trunk with locks and starving it is a cruel thing to do but perhaps the only other alternative. The other use of a patronus, by the by, is to send messages or lead others to a place you designate; and there is no harm in considering the idea of sending the message 'help I'm about to be eaten by something nasty' as a defence if you have friends who will come to your aid. . A patronus can also interact physically; I have heard of a duel won when one contestant used his patronus to carry his opponent out of the piste, out of the castle and into the lake. It was Harry Potter incidentally; and the one who got a wetting was Hedda Schrempf when she was still a schoolgirl your age Now, on to patronuses; the way to form a patronus is to draw on good memories and everything in your life that is positive. Incidentally, your homework tonight I shall not mark because I want you to write out all the things in your life that ARE positive; this is purely for your own reference. When a dementor is close, or a lethifold is choking the life out of you, drawing up positive thoughts can be a little difficult, but if you have written down all that is good, it is sometimes easier to recall what you have written down. Like good revision. I will give you a moment or two to reflect on a good moment; a day out with your family, perhaps; a good snog; getting good grades in ZP exams, winning a quidditch match. These are the sorts of things that can fuel a patronus."

"What do you think about?" asked Jaromir.

Jade grinned.

"How good it was to have a healthy son once all the pain and pushing was over, despite the fact that he looked like a pickled plum" she said. "My wedding night. Getting my results. Wrestling a passage of Bactrian text into submission. Making Nachtigall make noises like a steam train. Not all my pleasures are necessarily virtuous you see."

"Was that a curse?" asked Jaromir.

"I accomplished it by chanting" said Jade "I could have cursed it by using Finnish naming magic to tie it in; as it is I understand he had to go to Prince Peak to get it undone by Herr Professor Snape. There don't seem to be many efficient curse breakers here on the continent; might it be something to do with learning how to curse people only without any idea of how to get out of the consequences of a really high level piece of duelling or jinxing I wonder!"

"Defences should be learned in concert with curses to be sure one may deal with anything thrown at one" nodded Jaromir. "It is quite in order then to recall the look on my sister's face when I transfigured her buttons into beetles in the middle of Prague when I was thirteen so her dress fell off?"

"If it was a moment of intense satisfaction it is a possible positive thought" said Jade "I can see Stepanka being irritating enough to make such an act almost irresistible. Did you get in trouble?"

"I was thrashed; it was worth it" shrugged Jaromir.

"Hmm" said Jade "Now when I have more children, if one is playing such tricks on the other I should be more concerned about what had made an enmity so great between them rather than merely punishing; and my husband would agree. But I suppose some parents have favourites and do not feel they have time to get to the bottom of transgressions."

He shot her a look.

"Stepanka is the darling" he said resentfully.

"And do you pass on your resentments to your little sister so that is why she fights all the world instead of protecting and making an ally of her?" said Jade.

He stared.

"She is a girl; surely she sides with Stepanka?" he said.

"Well you daft article, have you ever ASKED her if she'd ally with you or just assumed and pushed her about?" said Jade "I read in your eyes you just shove her about in misery as a means of passing on what Stepanka does."

"Well what should I do?" asked Jaromir.

"Go to her; tell her honestly why you push her about; ask her if you might start again and tell her you will look out for her interests in this year at school" said Jade. "It always amazes me how otherwise clever people can have their brains addled by ill treatment at home; and how many families there are that think that having favourites and beating on their kids is actually acceptable. Now, has everyone had a chance to think about a patronus? Most people put their patronus into the form of an animal that seems appropriate; my husband and I are both wolf animagi. He's a cured werewolf so it seemed appropriate; and so our patronuses are both wolves. My cousin Draco picks for his name a dragon. Baard might also play on his name if he has nothing else in mind and pick a jolly sort of troll."

"Is there anything against having a human form?" asked Baard

"Nothing but your own imagination; though I think some examiners get jumpy about it because theory says it's impossible. Seen it done though; which means it isn't impossible" said Jade.

"Then I would rather go with my first name and see if I can have an image of the bard or skald Egil Skallagrimsson" said Baard.

"Go for it; a bard is a powerful figure" said Jade. "A great symbol."

"You give me hope that I might find some aid against Stepanka; I will, if it does not displease you, use a wolf" said Jaromir.

"I am flattered to think that I have helped you enough to give that form a positive feeling" said Jade. "Claudette, will you go with your name and use fox?"

Claudette paled, recalling that Jade had once threatened to turn her into a fox.

"I – I can't think of anything else" she said.

"It is not positive if you recall my –as it happens – empty threat" said Jade "For what it's worth it is against my ethics to transfigure a being without leaving their brain intact; I spoke in haste and anger on that day. The fox is a powerful symbol too; in the east particularly where fox spirits are powerful shapeshifters. If there is another animal you find attractive, there is no set reason to use assimilative correlation."

"What is assimilative correlation?" asked Baard.

"You are not taking Transfiguration to ZH? It is merely the proper term for the theory you start to learn with cross species switches for using name or similarity to help with the transfiguration. I tend to use it in most fields because it can ease the way; chanting eight repetitions to break a curse on Serafina Payutina for example; her surname means Spiderweb and it would seem appropriate. For Herr Frolik I am afraid I should fall back on what his name sounds like to my English thoughts; to frolic is to caper and dance. So I should use a capering dance to break any curse. Sometimes the connection can be a little tenuous; but any connection, however tenuous, if it seems reasonable to you will give an advantage in the focusing of your will."

"So using my name Leckkessel as a starter and thinking of, say, Ashwinder because one uses Ashwinder eggs in potions is fine?" asked Calvina, interested despite herself.

"Eminently" said Jade "Or indeed salamanders for the salamander blood we use; it goes into a strengthening solution so as the patronus is protective there's a correlation in strengthening too."

Calvina brightened.

"Oh yes, I LIKE that; it feels right!" she said.

"If it feels right, it IS right" said Jade. "Fraulein Reynolt? Are you decided?"

"My father's name is Léon; I will use a lion" said Claudette.

"Excellent" said Jade. "Good; take out your wands and concentrate; and see if you can project a patronus. Focus hard on those happy thoughts; even a non corporeal patronus is of use against dementors but it cannot physically protect you. I'll drill you hard to get a corporeal patronus; I am of course teaching it from the fifth year but for them it is a side issue; not all children of fifteen or sixteen are expected to have a corporeal patronus under the English system but it's a bit of a sad state of affairs for anyone over seventeen not to have one."

"What about those who do not do Dark Arts?" asked Baard.

"I believe the rest of the class belong to the ECC; they learn such things there; and I am pleased with you that you asked. I shall put it to Madam Bacsó that it is a side class that all the sixth ought to study whatever ZHs they take; thank you for drawing that to my attention" said Jade. "Ready? Go!"

A slightly hazy but recognisable wolf burst from Jaromir's wand; Egil Skallagrimsson was rather tenuous. The salamander was fairly solid; the lion wavered and disappeared.

"Not at all bad for a first effort any of you" said Jade "Well done especially to Fraulein Leckkessel. Herr Trollkettil I suggest you research a bit more what your scald looks like; he was cycling between several vague ideas I think."

"There aren't any proper portraits" said Baard.

"Then pick a representation you like – it can be from a children's book if you like – and stick with that" said Jade. "Nicely done, Herr Frolik; that needs a little practice but you have the essentials. Fraulein Reynoult, I think like Herr Trollkettil you have a problem of visualisation; you're muddling images of your father with the lion that represents him. Like Herr Trollkettil, find pictures to help your visualisations. There should be pictures of lions somewhere in the library if only to help out would-be animagi; if there aren't, I'll get you a picture or two to work on, let me know if you haven't found one by end of school tomorrow."

"Er…. Thank you" said Claudette who HATED having to give any gratitude or courtesy to Jade. She hated more the idea of being helpless before a dementor however!

oOoOo

The hopeful first year marauders had meanwhile encountered both Arithmancy and transfiguration.

Fraulein Nachtigall made clear explanations of numerology and the class cheerfully worked out their names in terms of how lucky or unlucky they might be; though as Fraulein Nachtigall pointed out, one made one's one luck with the symmetry of one's own name, so that if turning up a score of eight, normally unlucky, an affinity for spiders might well offset that, or an interest in the far east where eight was considered the luckiest number of all; and which had a subtly different numerology that they would look at in passing and anyone with an interest was welcome to borrow her book on the subject.

Things seemed a little eerie when Corneliu, Sigismund and Lindhard found that they all added up to forty three to reduce to seven, symbolising thought and consciousness; Beryx added up to twenty nine, reducing through eleven to two, symbolising the individual and aggression; and Beremud's thirty two reduced to five, action and restlessness.

"Balanced though" said Corneliu "And five and two also add to seven; the two who are more impulsive are the ones who add together to balance the rest of us."

"Am I barking up the wrong tree or should we be taking into consideration for our ritual that Beryx's eleven might come in for deciding the hours for when we do it?" said Sigismund.

"It might be a factor; or for the eleventh month" said Corneliu "We haven't got any pointers to use the month we're in or October. I'd say it's pointing to seven minutes and seven seconds after seven o'clock on the fifth day of November."

"It's an awful long time to wait" grumbled Beremud.

"And if we get it wrong it's an awful long time to regret being dead in" said Corneliu.

"He has a point" said Beryx.

"I agree" said Sigismund "If it's worth doing, it's worth waiting on; rushing into it just for the sake of it would show us to be juvenile and not ready."

The others concurred. They did not want to make Frau Von Luytens disappointed in them!

They had managed to settle their excitement to pay due attention in transfigurations; which was just as well since Attila Nagy was ready to drop on his son for the slightest transgression. None of them shone here; though Beremud and Sigismund both performed creditably enough to be above average; Lindhard found it very hard. He was not the only one however; and the class star was Sonja Orn who had several matchsticks transfigured into a whole set of needles for different purposes by the time Herr Nagy got round to her; including a curved one from a slightly bent matchstick. It was a compensation for having found even adding up numbers hard; several of the Arithmancy class had to have a quick lesson on how to set down an addition sum because they could not manage to add up even as few as five or six numbers in their head. Alois had been heard to mutter how glad he was to only have a short name since even so he had needed to add up on his fingers.

He was no better nor any worse than most of the class at transfigurations which cheered him up anyway; and he was moved to tease the marauding group for still arguing numbers after they were released from transfiguration for lunch, known here as Mittagessen.

"If any of it mattered, our parents would choose names on numerology and some names would have fallen out of use entirely" Alois claimed.

"That is a point, actually" said Sigismund "But like Fraulein Nachtigall said, we can make our own luck around our names. Besides, to do a proper study one should check the surname as well."

"A name as long as Dunkelschwann? Are you KIDDING?" groaned Alois.

They went to eat laughing; and enjoyed the rest of the day with potions all afternoon, at which none of them shone but none at least called Herr Rebet's vituperation down on his head as both Pirkko Virta and Moxuda Gdglana did. Brewing to verbal instructions so Herr Rebet could watch cauldron action, Pirkko managed to stir the wrong way and Moxuda set fire to her cauldron.

Had they known it, Ihor was snippy for missing his bride, Taryn; and was feeling less than tolerant with stupidity beyond the normal. When it transpired that Pirkko had very little idea of which was left and which was right he calmed down and quickly brewed an ink to write the appropriate direction on her hands – in Finnish and German – that was, he explained, quite indelible and would come off when the top layer of skin wore off.

Pirkko was not sure whether to be grateful or resentful.

Moxuda was resentful as she was made to stay after school and repeat the lesson with a house elf to chaperone her; and Ihor had picked one of those who had had the self punishment compulsion broken early who was NOT averse to making comments on the little mistress's techniques.

The Marauders hastened to the library to get their impots done so they could take their borrowed book somewhere quiet where it would not be disturbed in order to read up if there was any special way to calculate when to do rituals.

There were not; the only instructions were that all groups were different and that any half competent arithmancer should be able to design a best fit time for their own ritual. But at the implied suggestion that this was at least as much to do with believing that it was the right time as anything else they brightened and took it as confirmation that they were on the right track.

They enjoyed the introduction in which Herr Professor Snape wrote rather waspishly that no virgins or unicorns had been harmed in the writing of the book and he bet that half of those who had read this far were disappointed. Though some of the concepts were difficult, they enjoyed the English professor's dry humorous approach and Sigismund wondered why Baard had found it so hard to understand.

"Unless we're so ignorant that we're missing the point entirely" he added.

"Herr Trollkettil is so boring he hardly needs defensive spells because he puts dark creatures to sleep talking at them" grinned Beryx "I should think he misses all the humour and – and irony in it."

"Can it be that simple?" wondered Sigismund.

"I think actually he's right" said Corneliu.

"Besides, there are several passages – the ones I commented on – that would make more sense in Parseltongue" said Lindhard "So I guess Professor Snape is a Parselmouth too."

"Cool!" agreed the others.

oOoOo

Ernst too had managed – with poor grace – to do both of Baard's sets of lines; and handed them in sulkily. Baard did not comment that these lines had arrived later than those of the others since there had been more to do.

Ernst had no intention of doing the lines for Jade; he had decided that she was utterly unfair and so he was not going to attend her class any more, so she would not require the lines. In this he was quite mistaken.

Jade was waiting in his bedroom on Friday night with her arms folded.

"You have forgotten both to hand in the lines you were to do for me, Herr Reinkessel; and to come to me with an apology" she said.

"I'm not coming to your class any more; so I don't need to do the lines" said Ernst.

"Oh? For one thing laddie you do NOT decide which classes you attend and which you do not; I choose whether or not I exclude you. For another thing, the lines and the attendant apology were set as a punishment for your intolerable rudeness to me in class; for a little boy to interrupt and contradict a professor is an offence that would have earned you, from the previous Dark Arts teacher the cruciatus curse at the very least; and from many professors you would have had a more rigorous punishment. I gave you a light punishment because I gave you the benefit of the doubt that you might have felt SOME concern that prompted you to speak up even though you did it in a rude and belligerent fashion. Incidentally I have also spoken to the school nurse; and as you did not report for a dose of glumbumble juice, I have brought you some now; that you will swallow down in front of me."

"You can't make me!" cried Ernst.

"Oh yes I can; I can do it the way one does with toddlers by nipping your nose and pouring it in when you open your mouth to breathe" said Jade cheerfully "Why you would want to be treated like a toddler I don't know; but as you speak and act like one perhaps you are retarded and need to be treated like one."

"I'm not retarded! It's so unfair when I act for the good of the school and get punished for it!" cried Ernst.

"I have yet to hear that you have acted in any way for the good of the school" said Jade "All I hear from your words and actions is that you are seeking ways to make yourself look a sanctimonious self righteous little sneak by finding things to declare improper – by YOUR criteria – in order to try to get your fellows into trouble. That's bullying my laddie-buck; and I despise bullies. And by the way, your fellows have shown you a remarkable degree of tolerance; a lot of eleven year old boys would scarcely resist jinxing you into a ball or beating you up."

"We couldn't do that" said Sigismund "Five on half a man isn't fair."

"Well I think that shows up which are the gentlemen in this argument" said Jade. "Now, first, you are going to drink this glass of glumbumble juice; then on Sunday afternoon you will come to the detention room and you will write the imposition I have already given you; and a further fifty repetitions of the first and last stanzas of Kipling's 'The law of the jungle'; which I shall quote now for you to contemplate on since you find obedience difficult. And by rules and laws of courtesy is society made; and without society we fight each other and most die, to paraphrase Lucius. Be thankful I do not – yet – make you write out the whole poem fifty times; this is your last chance. Do NOT make me fetch you to the detention room. Now listen;

"Now this is the law of the jungle – as old and as true as the sky

And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it shall die."

She paused briefly then resumed,

"Now these are the laws of the jungle, and many and mighty are they;

But the head and the hoof of the Law and the haunch and the hump is – obey."

"That's got an awfully good rhythm, may we copy the poem out in its entirety?" asked Sigismund.

"You may borrow my book on Saturday so long as you have it back for Herr Reinkessel on Sunday" said Jade "If you lot are intending to get into mischief it won't be long before you know whole chunks of Kipling's poems by heart; he usually has an apt poem to set for impots and learning poetry is as good a way to keep naughty spirits occupied as any. Besides, it comes in for chanting; Kipling was a Parseltongue and his symmetry is very compelling at times. Swig this down now young Reinkessel and then the lot of you hop to bed; busy day tomorrow for those of you with Saturday classes. And I shall discuss with the head whether you will have another chance in my class or whether you will be excluded; which if you are will necessarily mean informing your parents"

Ernst had little choice but to swallow down the disgusting stuff; realising in horror that his parents would be mightily shocked if he was excluded from a class.

"I did not mean to be rude Frau Von Luytens" he said "I meant to do the right thing!"

"Well for the apology I am inclined to be ready to let you rejoin the class" said Jade "But I do hope you realise that not only did you go about doing what you thought was right in so wrong a way but that taking it on yourself to dodge an imposition and try to cut a class requires your attendance in detention. You can be pleased at least that you have not to brood on the apology having managed to give me one that sounded fairly sincere. You look puzzled; you lot get into your pyjamas and I'll come back in ten minutes with an extension on your lights out to see if you can't ask me what puzzles you so."

It might be that he was as muddled about doing what was right as little Fred and Flo Visick who were now model children and as mischievous as any, all from a passing comment from their father.

oOoOo

"I don't understand why it's all right for them to have a secret society and want to commit acts of mischief and why scary stuff like blood magic is all right" said Ernst when Jade returned.

Jade sat on his bed.

"When I first came to Durmstrang" she said "There was precious little mischief; instead there was bullying. Bigger kids threw the cruciatus curse at will; stood juniors on tables to burn their legs with their wands; hit them about. The little kids were thoroughly cowed. This was because of the control Odessa had on the school; because Odessa as an organisation as an expression of dark wizardry could only really thrive in an atmosphere of bullying and fear. I introduced the concept of Marauders – imported from English schools – as a means of fighting back against the bullies. A couple of groups who had the guts to stand up together to fight against bullies and stand for what was right; those who wanted to oppose Odessa and all it stood for. To fight bullies and dark wizards they must practise skills of sneaking around to practise catching them out; and duelling; and learning, if necessary, to hide so as to fight another day if a battle is too hard to tackle. If the three girls in the upper sixth who like pushing kids around combined, this five might be able to stand up to them; but it would be a damned close run thing. If the rest of you juniors backed them, all well and good, but most kids who are NOT marauding types prefer to take the line of least resistance. When I catch them in the corridors at midnight I shall whack huge impots on them; screeds of poetry to learn or lines to write or toilets to scrub according to circumstance and my whimsy. Marauders do not choose to maraud; they are invited. These five must prove they will stand up to bullies. They have impressed me so far in being more tolerant to a sneak than most boys their age; you see there is a difference in reporting mischief that is dangerous – say they took it on themselves to scale the walls of the castle; that is a danger to themselves, especially if one of them was in a bit of a funk about it and did not wish to admit this; and through fear, fell. His injury or death would then be on the others; that would need to be stopped. If you fear blood magic you silly boy you should have come to me and spoken up first thing – rather than waiting for class and making a song and dance of your supposed virtue. That was not, from where I was sitting, the act of a boy really scared but a boy wanting to be known as one who holds the morals of his fellows in his hands; and by your flush that struck a chord. You'll win more notice and regard by working hard and not putting yourself forward to be made a fool of."

"But there are so MANY people here; I feel so anonymous!"

"Ah, now we have some meat; you feel almost in the position of the boy who wants to use dark magic because he feels alone and helpless. And you are using a form of dark magic you know; don't look so shocked. What else is the attempt to make others look worse so you may look better than a form of attempting mind control of the staff? You aren't using magic to do it; but as the definition of dark magic tells you, it is the intent that counts more than the actual spells used. The tickling charm is harmless; but suppose it is cast by an evil man on a small child to make her giggle helplessly so when a pervert who likes to have sex with little kids does what he will with her it appears that she enjoys it? That is dark. And I know an actual case so I know what I'm talking about" added Jade grimly. It had not been the tickling curse but actual tickling Jonathon Malfoy had used on her and Lydia; but the circumstance was the same. "Now as to blood magic; it is neither dark magic nor light magic. It is a form of ritual magic. It may be used in a dark way but it is not, if undertaken willingly, of itself dark. These kids are looking for a way to help a younger sibling of one of them; why and in what circumstances is none of your business. And blood magic – freely entered into and willing, and therefore not dark – is one of the things they are considering. I have advised them. They can take my advice or not; at the end of the day, so long as they do not do anything actually dangerous – which they are not – I have no business to interfere. They have read the only rational and literate book on the subject and if they understood half of it they should be better informed than the majority of feeble minded idiots that hear the words 'blood magic' and switch off their brains. Are you feeling better informed?"

"I think so Frau Von Luytens; th-thank you for taking the time" said Ernst.

"And please will you stop interfering with us?" said Sigismund "We shan't get YOU into trouble; if we're tracked back to the dorm we'll own up and tell anyone it wasn't you like we told Baard that Pyotr and Alois weren't talking."

"Well I guess if you want to spoil your sleep running about half the night it's none of my business" said Ernst not very graciously.

"At least I hope you see why the staff rejoices now Odessa is gone that little kids feel buoyant enough to be silly and have real fun" said Jade.

"Why did the head let Odessa let there be bullies? She must be weak" said Ernst.

"You haven't got a clue!" shouted Sigismund half getting out of bed.

"GET back down and pipe down or you'll be joining him in detention with some choice lines on hasty tempers" said Jade. "Ernst, grown ups can be bullied and threatened too; and Frau Bacsó had to take the choice of having partial control or having actual Odessa officers in her place after they killed her for making waves and all the children drilled to fight and die for Odessa. That was not a choice that was easy to make. Also she had been brought up in a Durmstrang where fearing every day until you were big enough to one of those who could throw their weight around was normal. I have been largely educated in England; where we do not do such things. Which is why we now have prefects; to help the staff and for pupils to go to that is NOT then sneaking to complain about bullying. Now! It is late! Good night!" and she left them to it.