Chapter 10
Professor Dumbledore had a happy announcement to make at breakfast.
"Those of you know Madam Malfoy will be happy to hear that she gave birth overnight to a small son who apparently bids fair to be as red as a Weasley, as loud as Black and as obstreperous as a Prince, by what she has written to me" he said,, pausing for the cheers to subside. "The new addition to her family is to be named Severus Neville, and Madam Malfoy wished you to know that she wishes to" he glanced down at the letter "'honour Professor Longbottom for his incredible bravery above and beyond fighting Voldemort in taking on my maleficent and malodorous weevils and warts' as she puts it. She also writes that she is hoping to visit – with offspring – before the end of term to make the acquaintance of the first years before she begins teaching them. I'm sure we all look forward to it."
The first years were not so sure; being referred to as weevils seemed common enough but to be called maleficent and malodorous – and only a handful knew what either word meant – seemed a little unkind. However, they noticed that the second, equally castigated under that description, clapped heartily and so did Jade Snape and her coterie. The other first years clapped politely and wondered a lot.
Mei Chang approached Jem Ingate, one of the more friendly of the second years who did not mind chatting with weevils, to ask him.
"Oh Madam Malfoy is the sweetest!" said Jem "I'm a ward of hers, though, so I guess I'm biased; but she is the kindest person you could imagine, she'll go out of her way to help anyone who's in trouble. I mean, Professor Longbottom's really nice too, but…well, she can be like a mum when you need one, and she's a better teacher than him too. She knows so much! Only you better not muck about in her class, that's all because her tongue is quite as sharp as Professor Snape's to transgressors and any bloodsnob comments…phhhwwtt, woodlouse!"
"Like they say Fraser did to those Durmstrang racists?" said Mei, awed.
"She started the custom" said Jem proudly "Like she and Draco got the custom going to rise for Professors since we weren't going to let the French outdo us in courtesy. That was when Harry Potter was doing the Triwizard. I get to hear stories you see" he said smugly.
"Cool!" said Mei.
David meanwhile had got an official school website going – with help from the talented Ross Tuthill who at not yet twelve years old produced a web page design with the aplomb of a professional – to add to the illusion of normality. They ran it from a computer in Archie Trumball's police house, and Archie agreed to check the emails from time to time, delete spam and let David know if there was anything he needed to deal with.
Having a web page brought its own problems.
The Muggle post arrived occasionally now at the castle, mostly bearing requests for prospectuses from hopeful parents, begging letters from charities and glossy advertising from companies who wanted to sell expensive holidays ski-ing or yachting to rich kids. It all helped Argus Filch keep the boiler going. Some letters came to pupils from their muggle parents; previously any letters for Hogwarts had been summoned from sorting offices by ministry officials and sent on by owl, now it was another small but tedious job that did not have to be done by the ministry. It added to the load of the muggle postie of course; but Archie Trumball was sure to see he had a wee drachm 'tae keep oot the cowd on that long tramp ower the moor' to help keep him sweet; and in very poor weather, an arrangement was made that the school would pick up mail from the policehouse in Camburnath.
A letter arrived for David.
He did not know the handwriting and opened it warily.
It said,
"Dear Fraser,
I got your name from the official school web page, and I believe we met very briefly when you returned some of our errant students at the train station.
I was hoping that, as your website states you have started hockey as your main winter sport, you might like to play a friendly to end the term, to give your chaps a chance to play outsiders.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Button, Head of Games, St Jodoc's."
David sat and laughed weakly.
This on top of everything else!
At least he had put that Hockey was new to them, so the St Jodoc's crowd would not expect any tough match; and actually it was rather decent of this Mike Button to write to what he thought of as a new school without much experience in inter-school matches; some games heads only liked the kudos of playing well known and tough opposition. David remembered the boy; a cheerful and earnest lad with freckles, to whom he had taken a liking.
He wrote back without qualms and shouted for Willow to put together a team.
"What do you mean, put together a team?" demanded Willow.
"For an away fixure" said David.
"For an….David Fraser, are you telling me we're playing a muggle school?"
"Yes" said David.
"We'll be creamed" said Willow.
"Doesn't matter; we're establishing bona fides as a school" said David. "We're establishing bona fides on the academic side by confunding examiners and passing out kids with an equivalent number of 'O' levels to OWLs, and Arthur Weasley says the work forging that is so much easier than covering for all the muggle kids and those that live almost in the muggle world. It's hard to forge fixture lists though when the schools we're supposed to play we haven't. Once this St Jodoc's has us regularly to play, and we have them a few times, we'll be well away."
"You have a point" said Willow "I'm not sure we're ready but I guess we'll have to rise to a challenge. I'll put you on right defence, you're dependable. It is a whole school thing I take it, every house?"
"We have Ravenclaws?"
"Well I hardly count them – except that group of Mei Chang's little horrors – as school, because Ravenclaws are interested in the honour of Ravenclaw House not the honour of the school."
"You sound like a character out of the Chalet School" teased David.
"I'll take THAT as a compliment" said Willow loftily.
David wrote back a friendly letter to Mike Button, thanking him for his kindness in being prepared to play what was still a very rough first eleven, and hoped that Mike was aware that Hogwarts was a mixed school and would be able to provide separate accommodation for the girls on the team.
"If not, perhaps you can put up some rough screens in a dorm; the girls are very eager to play and say they don't mind roughing it with us male oiks if they have to" he wrote.
He got a telegram by return.
"OOPS didn't realise girls arranging things"
Willow hustled to put together a team, which had to include those prepared to play muggles; some balked, not out of prejudice but more from a fear of giving themselves away. Most however were prepared to rise to the challenge and looked upon the experience as good fun. Of the upper sixth were Gryffindors Kelvin Strelland, who was Willow's deputy of muggle games, a handsome black boy whose twin sister Kate played cricket but could raise no enthusiasm for hockey; and Ian Kell, an erratic player but brilliant when on form. Willow put him in right midfield where his erratic play could even be an advantage at times; he could come forward to score if he was having a brilliant moment and Kelvin, on right attack, would back him. Another upper sixth, Slytherin Geoff Falkner, was to be goalie; he was a dependable goalie as he had been a dependable soldier under David with a Kalashnikov. Geoff had been part of the Lana Porteous gang until he had let out a boggart at Sirius Black, and Severus had taken the boy surreptitiously to Azkaban and made him spend five minutes in Sirius' cell to appreciate what he had done. Geoff had apologised unreservedly and had been a great follower of Sirius from that moment.
Willow herself was planning on playing centre midfield, the most challenging position in many ways, since she was a good all rounder and could defend or attack as need be. The other midfielder, on the left would be Charlie Trout, another fifth year, a Hufflepuff, who was small, fast and versatile. Two other lower sixth apart from David were to play, Hugh Hullit, Gryffindor, who as the other defensive player should complement his friend David very well; and Elizabeth Searle, another Hufflepuff on the wing. On the other wing was Jamie White, another Hufflepuff in the fifth to whom Charlie fed balls very well; Kelvin's opposite number in attack was to be Hawke Malfoy whose play could best be described as aggressive, rather like Kelvin's; and for the centre, Willow chose with only brief hesitation Elisa Mourne. Elisa had not been a member of the MSHG for as long as most of the others; but she had embraced its tenets well, and she had been playing hockey no less time than the rest, and showed real talent.
Abraxus would be the reserve.
There were others more talented than Abraxus; but none who could fit in to any position with relative ease, nor get on so well with the various personalities on the team as well. Once she took David the team list, he telegrammed to Mike Button that the final team included three girls including the team captain Willow Prince plus also their coach who was willing to bunk down with the other girls.
After all, Willow should be given credit for training them.
Madam Jones was to go with the team as their coach; whilst cricket was her main love, she had played hockey at her own school and had been willing to help Willow get the team together; she was looking forward to it no end, especially on the good feeling of having got through a term teaching without mishap, and the promise that over the holidays a team would be heading for Berlin to avenge her sister.
The hockey team was to go to play and return for the Yule Ball, which the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang contingent would also attend. David did not much like this idea, though it did give him a chance to see more of Karl and make sure he was holding together about defecting.
David was delighted to find that other schools also had their problems, maybe not quite as unique as those at Hogwarts but in their way equally embarrassing. They were met off the train by Mike Button and Games Master Brian Yelland, who explained that Offstead had arrived unexpectedly to inspect the school
"And a thunderingly inconvenient time it is too" he growled "With a match on and rather scratch accommodation for your young ladies and now one of my team has gone down with measles – AFTER you'd have got on the train. I shan't blame you if you want to cancel."
"Only if it's inconveniencing you to have us, sir" said David "We've all had measles I believe?" he looked around and everyone obediently nodded.
Not all of them knew what measles were, but they knew to follow David's cue!
"Thank goodness!" sighed Mr Yelland "No, we're happy to have YOU it's those blasted officials, pardon my French."
"They can be a little trying" said David "A seriously disturbed girl tried to make trouble by writing to them about 'unnatural practices' in the fifth; we had them crawling all over us until they were satisfied it was just a spite campaign against this girl's cousin and her friends. Very distressing."
"Yes, I think your head is brave to have girls too" said Yelland with a total lack of tact.
"Oh mostly they're no trouble" said David grinning at the girls. They all made faces at him, to Mike Button's amusement.
When they got to the school they were introduced to the rest of the first eleven; one of whom had a fine crop of spots.
"Not you too, Dave?" groaned Yelland.
"It's NOT measles sir!" said the boy Dave "It was that wretched seaweed we were cutting up in biology; I'm allergic to it."
"Thank goodness that's all!" said his master. The boy was heard to mutter,
"Fuck fucus"
The girls had been put into a ward in the sanatorium for the duration of their stay, and professed themselves quite happy with this arrangement, separated from the measled boy by screens round his bed. The Offstead officials were dubious but Miss Jones fixed them with a steely eye and told them that her 'gels' were quite prepared to be flexible in the light of an unforeseen outbreak of illness and that she was quite sure that the Matron of St Jodoc's was more than equal to keeping an eye on them and that as she would be sharing a room with Matron, so too would she.
The Offstead officials quailed before the beautifully rounded tones of a public school schoolmarm.
They would stay overnight and play on the morrow; and Mike Button caught hold of David last thing and said,
"Look here old man, I've heard a nasty rumour that the juniors are planning to spike your breakfast with exlax….tell your chaps not to have any chocolate spread or chocolate cereal, okay?"
"Will do" said David "Juniors! They're all the same!"
"Rather nasty though" said Mike "Of course they haven't thought about it being cheating; I'm going to collar hold of them first thing though and see if I can stop it, and explain how dishonourable it is."
David nodded.
"At that age most naughtiness is more a lack of thought of consequences; don't feel bad about it!"
"Thanks; I'd hate you to think on our first fixture that we rear nasty little cheats!" said Mike.
"That you feel that way about it tells me that you don't" said David.
They slept well, mixed in amongst other dormitories of St Jodoc's boys, and as none but the upper sixth were old enough to use wands in the holidays had no trouble adapting to combing hair and washing in the morning without resorting to grooming spells. Mike disappeared off to see the juniors; and came back laughing.
"Panic over; the brats were highly indignant that anyone should think for a moment that they would target a visiting team. It was the Offstead officials they surreptitiously poisoned at tea last night" he said. "Dear me, and it's a long train journey to anywhere….one shouldn't laugh…"
David grinned.
"But the thought of disrupting officious officials is really too much not to laugh over" he chuckled "So long of course as one keeps a straight and stern face in front of the juniors!"
"Oh absolutely….ow, it hurts!" laughed Mike.
It was further confirmation that there was no big difference between magical and muggle children!
The Hogwarts contingent were glad that Krait had bullied them into the habit of standing for staff.
They would have felt humiliated by the nice manners of the St Jodoc's boys otherwise. As it was they rose for the staff as politely as the Cornish boys as they entered; and also while they left. The sung grace was not a total surprise, as David had warned them it was likely; and that they did not know the Latin words was easily explained by other customs. They remained standing in polite silence for it; then fell to on breakfast with alacrity like the others, before going to change
The juniors might have proven to be mostly harmless; but there had been some nasty tricks played, however.
A boy called Travis Michaels pulled out his kit to find it cut to shreds.
He looked fit to cry.
"Hey, Travis, don't worry, some of us have spare kit" said Mike, quietly.
"Is your stick all right?" asked David "We have a spare if anyone's trashed that…"
"I think….yes, it seems to be" said Travis. David wordlessly, wandlessly cast the mending charm just in case. It could do no harm.
"I assure you none of my team would do this" he said.
"No; and I've a shrewd idea who might have done it too" said Mike. "Travis is our second reserve; one of our team was…asked to resign from it over a matter. D'you think your reserve would watch Travis' kit for him on the bench?"
"Course I will Mike" said Abraxus "This is something all men of honour need to stand together on."
.
The St Jodoc's team was good; even with two reserves in, and Willow's team were struggling to hold their own. Abraxus shouted for them of course, as did Madam Jones.
"Another time when there's more time to arrange things perhaps you'll be able to bring a crowd of enthusiasts to cheer you on" said Brian Yelland, smiling warmly at Madam Jones.
"That would be pleasant" said Leticia, smiling austerely back and moving slightly so his hand was no longer brushing hers. Yelland was plainly quite pleased with himself and had put on enough aftershave to be looked at quite suspiciously by his own team until they caught him looking at Madam Jones and sniggered. Leticia had no intention of permitting him to consider her a conquest for one minute
A St Jodoc's boy came to sit beside Abraxus.
"Hello old boy, name's Russel Kent… that your twin out there?"
"Yes" said Abraxus "Abraxus Malfoy; my brother's Hawke. He's picked up the game really well; Willow's no end chuffed with how well we all picked it up, she's the only one who's ever played at all before this term."
"Your chaps play well then! Aren't you at all resentful you're the reserve and your brother is on the team?"
"No, why should I be?" said Abraxus "He's the better player; and the school deserves the best, you know!"
"Huh, they don't take that attitude here!" said Kent.
"Oh?" said Abraxus, mildly.
"No; they exclude a fellow from the team for a bit of fun" he said.
Abraxus was not perhaps quite so skilled a legilimens as his twin; but he was more skilled than most adult wizards. And the resentment boiling in this boy's mind over being thrown off the team for running a poker school in the boiler room was a dirty, unpleasant thing.
"Perhaps what some chaps call fun others might think dishonourable" he said, mildly.
"Oh that's just so much pap!" said Kent scornfully. "Well, well, nice talking to you."
He had been holding a bottle of drink he had put down; and now picked up Travis Michael's drink instead from next to it. Abraxus narrowed his eyes; a switching spell without a wand was going to be tricky to do without words; so he switched to Parseltongue, which could be passed off as tuneless whistling.
He saw the St Jodoc's goalie's eyes swivel to him in shock and knew that the boy saw the bottles swap over.
He looked at the boy thoughtfully; but there was no time for any more, as the Hogwarts' team was in possession and the goalie was thoroughly busy for a while.
At half time the goalie was at the bench fast.
"Why did you switch that bottle?" he demanded.
"Because the other boy already switched it with sleight of hand and I didn't trust him" said Abraxus calmly "His name is Russel Kent. Mean anything to you?"
The goalie whistled.
"He was kicked off the team; we weren't told why" he said "But it must have been something pretty bad."
"What he called 'a bit of fun'" said Abraxus.
"Gambling again? I thought he'd had enough of a wigging about that in the fourth!" said the Goalie "- Lee Nuffield, by the way."
"Abraxus Malfoy, the quiet one of the Malfoy twins" said Abraxus "Which our professors reckon isn't saying a lot."
The others had come over.
"I - what you did…" said Lee.
"Look, Lee, I think you ought to talk to David; he's got more experience about how to talk about…such things" said Abraxus. "And then you'll understand more."
The game resumed; and the team were undisturbed by the sudden illness of Russel Kent who was taken away sweating and vomiting.
Presumably he had hoped to play if his noxious solution had achieved the same effect on the innocent Travis Michaels. Abraxus had no sympathy for him whatsoever.
It was, unsurprisingly, a victory for St Jodoc's; and Willow was pleased to hold them to eleven goals to eight. The teams shook hands most convivially.
"For a new team, you've an awful lot of promise" said Mike "And most of your players are quite young too for a first team; I'm sure the younger members of our team will expect to have to really play up next year!"
"Oh I hope so" said Willow "I've another three years in school myself so I shall bully them well into shape!"
Mike laughed, for her tone was light hearted, and he could see her team respected her!
Lee, as suggested by Abraxus, approached David.
"Fraser, I'm Nuffield; I don't suppose you got all our names! I was talking to the kid with the weird name, Abraxus…"
"It's a family name" said David "Old family from Wiltshire, weirder names and more family secrets than any other in England I think"
Lee Nuffield laughed.
"And will you think me barmy if I ask if one of their family secrets is using the language snakes talk?"
David was all ears.
"So" he said "You are a Parselmouth."
"What?"
"It's what we call those of us who speak it…SSSSwe be of one blood, ye and I SSSS" he added.
"Kipling too?"
"Why not? My guardian has hypothesised that Kipling may have been a Parselmouth himself, and a sensitive into the bargain."
"A sensitive?"
"One who sees….things."
"Like Abraxus muttering something that sounded like a spell and two bottles swapping places?"
"A switching charm…he's underage, he shouldn't cast in front of…you people."
"He did it for the sake of our team…Kent tried to poison Michaels, and drank what he'd prepared himself thanks to Abraxus. That's sportsmanship, especially if it gets him into trouble."
"Fortunately some of the team are over age and we have an adult witch with us; the ministry of Magic knows we're here and will assume any magic is to cover our unusual talents."
"Ministry of…this is going by way fast."
"You're a Parselmouth; I'm not about to pass up knowing someone with that talent and we have limited time."
"Is that how you learned to play so well so fast? Magic?"
"Hell, no!" David was outraged "That would be cheating…it's all the sweat of our brows and Willow shouting!"
"I'm glad of that….so your whole school…."
"Is Hogwarts school of wizards and witches, the only British wizarding school; hiding with magic is getting harder so we hide through obviousness. You can't believe how taken aback I was to get a fixture offer!" said David.
Lee grinned.
"I'll bet! What do wizards normally play then?"
"Quidditch; it's kind of a cross between basketball, tennis and attempts to cause grievous bodily harm whilst flying on brooms. I'll take you to a match" said David, adding suddenly "I say…Nuffield….do you have a small relative called Bryony?"
"My kid cousin. Why?"
"She'll be coming to Hogwarts, she's more than a sensitive, she has talent; she escaped from her parents and got into – well, a magical place – last year" said David "She's a Parselmouth too; you can help prepare her if you will."
"All right. I say, can I write to you?"
"I'd really like that; and in the hols I'll see about showing you some wizarding places. Not these Hols; I'll be a bit tied up with other commitments" he added, thinking of the trip to Berlin "But at Easter perhaps. And maybe we'll be playing you at cricket too! Willow's been harrying us into that since last summer so we're not quite such duffers as we still are at hockey!"
Lee grinned.
"I look forward to it!" he declared sincerely. "Do you need to be a Parselmouth to er, cast spells?"
"Oh no; it's rare, even in the wizarding world. We sort of half kidnapped a kid called Crispin who's a distant cousin of yours – D'Aubrey his surname is – because of it, when he came to get on the wrong train. The sensitives get attracted, you see and, er, sometimes we keep them. Like you got one less chap back last September because we kept one!"
"Cheeky!"
"Yup!" agreed David cheerfully. "Anyway, you asked about casting; a lot of it's based on Latin. Abraxus had to get creative I guess to keep cover; casting without a wand is pretty challenging, lots of adults can't do it, and wordlessly too with something as subtle as a switching charm would have been tough. But Parseltongue is a magical language and will stand in for Latin."
"I'm good at Latin."
"Good; keep it up and maybe we'll get you somewhere. There's a whole range of ability, we recently discovered between magical and muggle – non magical; and you might even be a late developer, that the Book takes no account of. But even as a sensitive, there's a job waiting for you teaching the non magical relatives in a new school we'll be starting next September"
"Well, after university."
"We don't have university; if you're reckoned good enough by the head, you're good enough. Anyway, got to go; keep in touch!"
There was a whole genetic legacy of the Gaunts, Peverells and Slytherin out there in the depths of the fens it seemed.
Back in school everyone who knew her was delighted when Madam Malfoy whirled in covered in children. She visited the first in their potions class, shoved the newborn with his tuft of red hair into Jade Snape's arms – as though haphazardly, but of course to give Jade a chance to hold her new brother – dumped Richard and a bag of toys in one of the big cauldrons and pointed Lilith to a stool where the little girl obediently scrambled up with her crayons and book and stuck out her tongue in thought – fortunately not partially transfigured – as she read
"Emma is a witch. See Emma brew. Stir the brew Emma; stir, Emma stir. See Emma's brew" before she came to a page of printed cauldrons and the words
"Emma's brew is:" – and a different colour written under each cauldron for her to colour in. Krait was pioneering new reading and work books for young wizarding folk and this was one of them. Lilith enjoyed her work books, though she was ready to move on to something a bit more complex now she was a big girl of four with TWO baby brothers.
Krait flitted around the class, nodding at well prepared potions, wincing at poor ones, asking names where she did not know them.
"Mr Weasley!" she said – the boy could only be a Weasley – and Roger looked up startled, having heard many a story of his relatives and disasters in the potion dungeon "Mr Weasley, well done; if your work is usually of this standard, you surpass many of your relatives. Indeed by your tidy layout I'd say you have the talent that is so miss-spent by Fred and George with a carefulness that could make you a really decent potioneer. I am very pleased!"
"Thank you Ma'am" managed Roger.
"I have to say, Professor Longbottom" said Krait "You appear to have a class that is virtually devoid of dunderheads; almost a first I should say, unless it is your excellent methods of teaching,"
"No, just sheer luck" said Neville "But then, there's only one who shines, though Mr Weasley is not alone in being promising, Miss Tuthill and Miss Bloom and Miss Barnett are by no means despicable; and Mr Tuthill manages to get more out of his cauldron than anyone expected."
"Congratulations, Mr Tuthill; that in a way is a greater achievement than to be talented from within the wizarding world" said Krait quietly. "I'm also told that your lessons in chemistry to Mr Dell have improved his er, unholy concatenations into something recognisably of some potential value as potions. That's Snape talk for he's improved" she added.
Ross grinned.
"Dell had a few blind spots" he said "I've been glad to help where I can."
"And for that if not for your sake I'm glad Mr Fraser argued fast to let you stay" said Krait. "If learning some muggle chemistry is what it takes to improve our potioneers, Mr Tuthill, I can see you teaching it as a remedial subject here one day where your experience of brewing potions too will be invaluable. You are keeping up your chemistry studies?"
"Yes Professor Malfoy; and when the lab is completed at Rowan House I can go there to do practicals, Professor Snape said."
"Excellent!" approved Krait "Has that child leaked, Miss Snape? Here, I'll sort him out…" which she proceeded to do.
The first were favourably impressed!