Chapter 10
Apart from thumping Jean-Paul Villeneuve, Lucius had not been idle.
On discovering that his page could enter the other space that the fey often used to travel, and spy and eavesdrop from it he had sent her around to check up on some of the people he considered dodgy; and had needed to comfort her when she came back crying because his sister Odila and her husband Gormund Yaxley were discussing punishing Lucius for making them look idiots both in taking away two daughters and letting the Squib one gain four NEWTs that she should never have been able to get, and in letting down the family by rutting – Odilia's word – with a goblin. The intent was to kidnap Tanjela and her children and use them in goblin coursing. Finn was very fond of all of Lucius' wives and was most upset.
The Gormund Yaxleys were already involved in this foul activity; with goblins in captivity, and Lucius had no hesitation in taking the matter directly to Alastor Moody.
The result of this was a flurry of other arrests and the whole was reported in lurid detail in the 'Daily Prophet' and restrained but accurate detail in the 'Wizarding Times'.
Sephara took time out from teaching to visit her sister – living with the other wards of the Snapes in the orphanage until she entered school next year, after which she would spend her holidays with Sephara and Neville – and found her moderately indifferent to the news. As Ludmilla said, she scarcely knew her parents; only to say good morning and good night to. Sephara was more her mother than anyone else.
The news was a scandal; but it broke the small and vicious ring of Goblin coursers right open and was a great relief to such goblins as felt themselves at risk from this wicked so-called sport.
As Kordach also had a most excellent sense of timing and handed over two fraudulent goblin bookies to the authorities within a couple of days of the first breaking news it was a time of good press for goblins.
A letter in the 'Times' from Professor Konal to the effect that greater educational opportunities would educate the more ignorant masses in the fact that there were more similarities than differences between the races and that the boundaries of suspicion planted by foolishness on both sides in the past and built upon by the whispers and lies of Voldemort and his followers over more recent times needed to be torn down and let both peoples see that the grass could grow as green under the feet of all so long as it was well tended and cared for, and the rank weeds of lies, prejudice and ignorance rooted out as soon as they began to form.
Kinat was well teased by his own set of course that it sounded as though he was the one teaching Herbology, rather than Myrtle; and Abraxus advised him to stick to Arithmancy.
Myrtle said it was a very nice analogy and poked her husband for being rude to Kinat.
The news affected very few people at Hogwarts; Kate Rosier had an uncle arrested and said 'good riddance' to him; Romneya Coulter's parents received an official warning and her sister's husband was arrested. The Coulters had blinked at what they knew was going on; and Romneya, who had goblin friends, pulled a face and commented that her mum and dad were only cowards because of Karlinna being involved and her husband was no loss. Several Crabbes went down, but not close relatives of those at school, and the Yaxleys had always dissociated themselves from Gormund in any case. Although a few from the old families with deatheater tendencies were involved, in the main it was those who had not received a Hogwarts education themselves and resented the only people they could look down on getting what they had not.
There were suddenly vacancies all over the country for clerks in positions that did not require qualifications; and goblins flocked to fill them, fulfilling the prophesies made by those who feared having their jobs taken by goblins; but as 'The Times' said rather snidely those who were now in Azkaban had made their own prophesies come true by showing that a sufficiency of unqualified humans could not be trusted in responsible positions, the very thing of which they had accused goblins. It was to be hoped that the new incumbents in these jobs would prove satisfactory and trustworthy.
The Yule Ball came; and passed without incident beyond Albert Jackman asking if Lionel Dell was deformed to be able to service three women at once and was that seemly behaviour for the Head Boy.
It was while Lionel was dressing in the dormitory.
"Dear Jackman" said Lionel "How wild it must make you that I can have a pick of girls and nobody will go with you! Is it true that you tried to brew a love potion and ended up with a foul concatenation that you threw down the loo and attracted the regard of a Grindylow from the lake?"
"Oh very witty Dell" said Jackman.
"I am; it's a part of my charm" said Lionel "As well as my good looks and all my other hidden charms. Unfortunately for you, if you have hidden charms it was done so well that you couldn't even find them with an accio spell. Do you need that to go for a pee as well, by the way, in order to find it?"
Jackman flung himself on Lionel at this point and consequently spent the ball in the shape of a rubber ball with tentacles and pustules thrust in the boot locker.
That was NOT seemly behaviour for the Head Boy; but the Head Boy was thoroughly sick of Jackman after six years sharing a dormitory with him.
The Free School had broken up the day before the Ball and the Marauders came to share enthusiastically how their first term of teaching had gone.
"It's tough" said Hawke "The kids are tough, half scared of coming in case anyone labels them sissies; some eager for learning and pretending they don't care to insulate themselves against failure, some there because their parents realise what it'll mean to their futures but the kids haven't realised yet and are a bit sullen; all of them expect more clouts than candy, two out of three can't even read and we had to read the riot act when they wanted to take their wands home to show their parents."
"What's wrong with that?" said Lionel who had come over to hear.
"Well if they could be trusted not to do underage wand work nothing; but they can't" said Kinat "They've no self discipline most of them. And it's unreasonable to expect it; they're dead chuffed to have wands and would obviously want to show off – especially if taunted to do so by neighbour's kids or siblings. As any Hogwarts kid would – if they went home to sleep every night. Come on, wandwork is forbidden in the corridors; and a certain class of hexes aren't called corridor curses for nothing. And the worst the kids here who break rules get is detention. Doing the same in the open street is a broken wand and probably the closure of the school for us not being able to enforce discipline. We had to explain that to them in words of one syllable. But they each have their own wand locker where they can remove their wand each morning, and we've tied the locker to a thumbprint so nobody else can open them; and they only close when there's a wand inside so we can see at a glance if anyone's not put their wand back. They need a lot more watching than the kids here; most of them have been left to run wild, poor little sods, while both parents work. Getting them to rise for a Professor was fun – not!"
"We got them to do it in the end by asking if they wanted to be taken for the muggle children in the schools most of them go to" grinned Hawke. "Maybe it is over the top, but if any transfer here it's something of a continuity to help them settle in; and no reason they shouldn't learn respect. So long as we give them respect too; and that we explained. Respect is to be earned but they rise, we said, to respect our earned education. If we failed to win their respect in other ways they would have to be creative in how to demonstrate that. Crumbs, and I thought I was a tough little bastard!"
"If it hadn't been for Hawke and his experience running with a gang of muggle kids we'd have been sunk" said Romulus.
"And hurrah for the holidays to give us strength for next term!" said Abraxus "Once they settle fully and we don't have to prove every day that we're harder than them it'll be a different story; but right now we've got a leader type in the fourth – classic Lionel Dell, cocky little sod, challenges us at every turn. If we'd not known how well you turned out Lionel we'd have despaired. When we have him he'll be a leader for the school – he IS a leader, wherein lies the source of all trouble because he's determined to undermine us."
"Kid has a drunken father who knocks him about and tells him he's bound to fail in this school, book learning isn't for their sort" said Hawke "I made some discreet enquiries. 'Course the reason he's acting up is to see if he is going to be rejected and slung out. I'd half like to send him to Hogwarts to get him away from his dad but Hogwarts couldn't cope with him yet. Colourful language is only the start; peeing out of the attic windows on passers by was only one of his exploits. Which I'm afraid was awfully funny as well as horrifying. Mortimer Bane – and he is a Bane right now I'm afraid – is one unhappy kid. Knowing where he's coming from, as I do, to at least some extent helps; but oh boy, it's hard work!"
"I have no doubt you will manage to help him to make you proud of him" said Dumbledore. "As I am proud of Lionel with all the progress he has made!"
"And I had less excuse to need to progress" said Lionel. "If he has a hero – Harry or David say – can you arrange a visit? I hero worshipped David so much! Still do for that matter; I always think what he might do when I'm disciplining small persons!"
"It's a thought" said Abraxus "But we intend to forget him for a week at least!"
The Malfoy twins had other things to consider when they got home to find that Mary-Anne Green and her dad were spending Christmas with them.
Their elder sister Morgan, a muggle, had met Jim Green at the hospital where she worked as a Nursing Sister and he had commented on the name of Nurse Malfoy.
There was a party to celebrate their engagement.
Mary-Anne squealed in joy and hugged her dad.
"I KNEW you'd find someone efficient to take care of you, and if Morgan is as efficient as her mum she'll keep you just FINE!" she said, beaming on Morgan.
Morgan had something difficult to say once the youngest ones had gone to bed.
"I want to say I'm sorry for always refusing to listen about magic and – and being anti and kinda ignoring Abraxus and – and our new brother Hawke" she said. "I should have told you why before; but once you don't talk about something it gets harder and harder. Mum, you were ill with carrying Abraxus, do you remember you let me walk home alone because the doctor told you to keep your feet up to prevent him coming too early? And – well, that was when Mr Smedley started interfering with me."
"WHAT? OLD BASTARD! WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" roared Casimir, startling everyone – not least himself – being a man who never raised his voice.
"Gracious dad, if I'd realised you were able to get stroppy like that I would have done!" said Morgan, looking on her father with new respect.
"Any man gets stroppy over a bastard who does that!" said Casimir grimly.
Hawke and Abraxus looked at each other.
"No age tag" said Hawke
"Severus' curse on Dione's mum's fancy man" said Abraxus.
"Are you two planning unpleasant magic on Smedley?" asked Morgan.
"Damn right we are" said Hawke "Our sister; not to mention protecting other people. You've been an ok big sister to me Morgan even though you did resent me a bit; you never took it out on me when you realised I pulled my weight with the chores too."
Morgan shrugged.
"No point being childish. I resented Abraxus because him being there made it happen. And by the way I hope you hex him or whatever you call it real painfully."
"Heh heh, we will" said Abraxus "And we'll tell you about what we're planning when dad isn't listening; he's too young. And mum might disapprove too."
"Whatever you do isn't bad enough for a man who's hurt my little girl" said Wendy "Morgan, my dear Morgan, I'm so sorry that I didn't realise! You were a bit withdrawn; I'm afraid I put it down to jealousy over the baby when you were a big girl of ten and nearly ready for secondary school with all the changes that meant too…."
"I was jealous too. That didn't help. And then I had to cope with him having a weird name that I had to explain at school as a family name and get teased about; then when he got bigger he could do things like electrocute bullies and I thought if only I could have done that to Smedley he wouldn't have hurt me and then he even went to a special school to learn more. Yes, I've been jealous of Abraxus and later Hawke. But – but I have Jim and he's a muggle like me and can cope with a talented child and his ex wife's a cow and only divorced him so she can marry her lover."
"And much joy may he have of living in her house full of rotting fish" said Mary-Anne dreamily.
"You said what?" said her father.
Mary- Anne beamed.
"Oh those of us who had problem parents swapped them around one holidays to play jokes on so we could all get alibis – all muggle jokes, no illegal wand work – and the Tuthills put dead herrings anywhere they could think to hide them in mother's place AND Mr Baddock's. . Alice and me we did Lionel Dell's mother and her boyfriend. We used polyjuice potion to look like them going home, 'cos there's no rules against brewing potions underage. And itching powder and things and we put chilli juice in his pants."
"Good grief!" said Jim.
Morgan laughed.
"Well I can't say I blame you; Jim's told me the way your mother treated you and him."
"That's almost enterprising enough to be marauders!" said Abraxus "I LIKE!"
Mary-Anne grinned.
"We liked it" she said. "Alice's mum and her fancy man didn't like barfing into a blocked loo on Christmas eve though. Plumber's stuff; Grigs knew about it. He and Lionel listened to the comments on sneakoscopes after and told us all about it."
"I don't think we really ought to know any more, Mary-Anne dear" said Wendy "we couldn't then deny all knowledge if anyone asked us. Morgan, my dear, we've failed you quite as much as these aberrant parents!"
"No Mum! Never!" said Morgan "You always tried; I just couldn't come out with it and tell you. And then it was a little canker locked away inside me and I couldn't let it out. Not until Jim broke his arm decorating and I – I found he was part of the world but still needed muggle medicine."
"I couldn't remember how to find St Mungo's" said Jim "And I'm glad I couldn't. It may have taken longer to heal but it gave me Morgan."
"And I cried all over him" said Morgan "And now I realise how silly I was to keep it to myself. I guess I regret there not being a place like Rowan House for me; but there will be for our children if they aren't magical as of course they may not be. And – and well, I want to be more a part of the family, and oh! Abraxus, I'm sorry I wouldn't come to your wedding!"
Abraxus flung himself on his sister and hugged her.
"Being my sis is worth heaps more than being at a ceremony!" he said. "Come on our sis; we're going to go and perform a brief ceremony on old Smelly Smedley RIGHT NOW and ruin his Christmas!"
Morgan gave a brief, fierce smile.
"I like that idea" she said.
"Isn't it muggle baiting doing it that way?" said Casimir mildly.
"We'll make plea that it's to protect other muggles as well as for revenge – if we're caught" said Hawke "Which we won't be. Wandless and with chanting; no wand, no evidence. Sorted!"
Smedley was not pleased to have several people arrive without warning in his bedroom.
They explained who they were and why they had come, and hoisted him out of bed with levicorpus in order to circle around chanting. That they were not as good as Severus did not really matter; Smedley was unlikely to know any curse breakers at all.
Then they explained it to him and left him shouting and swearing that they were insane that such a thing was impossible and that he'd have the law on them.
"What for, old boy?" said Hawke "Laws against witchcraft have been repealed. Only thing remaining is the fraudulent mediums act. No medical examination will show anything; only you will know in your most private moments. Unless you can bear the pain of wanking on video to show to them; well, all in the day's work for the medicos, like they say, just a little prick…. I don't think you've the fortitude for the thorns to be there long enough for them to see. You'll never hurt another little girl you bastard. Never should have hurt our sister. By the way, if you do call the fuzz, have fun explaining how we teleported in and teleported out. May the Force NOT be with you; have a bad day and Unhappy Christmas" and they left.
Morgan was crying and laughing and clung to her brothers.
At last it was a united family.
"And we should make Mary-Anne call us 'Auntie' said Hawke.
"Idiot" said Abraxus.
In the Lucius Malfoy household the five children up at Hogwarts got to meet Lucius' new page.
Finn bowed deeply.
"Here, you don't need to do that!" said Erica.
Finn grinned.
"But in public it's fun!" she said.
"That went by a little fast" said Bella.
"Well you see if Master Lucius has a free elf in livery who's more subservient than most people's slave elves it mak' them muckle sair!" said Finn, lapsing back into the idiom of the Unseelie court that she was trying to lose.
Bella considered this.
"That makes a lot of sense" she said "I say it's a shame you didn't want to go to Hogwarts; reckon they'd have invited you into the Marauders!"
"I didnae want the hassle" said Finn.
Gorbrin drew Finn aside as the others went to see their youngers.
"I met your mum at Hogwarts" he said "And I know you're a girl."
"What do you want of me?" Finn's eyes went flinty.
"Nothing! I just wanted to tell you so you knew you didn't have to pretend."
"Oh. Well in the Unseelie Court if someone takes you aside and tells you they know something then they usually want something" said Finn.
"We're not Unseelie" said Gorbrin. "Do you fancy my dad?"
Finn went a brownish colour that looked like a blush.
"Yes" she said in a little voice.
"Oh well, if my mothers are happy with the idea it'll sort out sooner or later" said Gorbrin.
"I love the mistresses so much,, they're all so kind and nice, and that awful woman wanting to kidnap Mistress Tanjela is so wicked!" said Finn "And snatch you and your sisters at the train station!"
Gorbrin's eyes went flat.
"I'm glad dad called in the aurors" he said "But I bet he had to fight with himself not to just cut them into little pieces!"
"I guess he got himself together while I cried all over him as I was that shocked!" said Finn.
"Reckon it's decent of you to care."
"Is my family now!" squeaked Finn indignantly.
"Yeah…. And whatever happens we'll always be your family" said Gorbrin. "I guess soon I'll be calling you mum"
"That's silly; I'm only about sixteen."
Gorbrin shrugged.
"Well maybe I'll stick to Finn then; unless you want to be Linny or whatever else you were for the Unseelies."
"It was Fionnghuala. Finn suits me braw well."
"Finula's pretty but if Finn you're happy with, Finn it shall be."
"He ca's me that wi' affection in his voice" she said blushing again.
Gorbrin nodded.
Lucius had preferred that he Gorbrin should call him 'Lucius' with affection then 'dad' uncomfortably; and how good it was to feel that his real dad would be happy calling so good a stepfather as Lucius 'dad' with ease.
Finn enjoyed the parties that they went to where she could make other people feel anywhere from uncomfortable to envious by total subservience to Lucius, kneeling at his feet and running errands. Arthur Weasley took Lucius to task for so using his elf; and her Master Lucius just laughed and said
"Watch Arthur and learn!"
As a rude wizard jogged Finn's arm as she carried a drink for Master Lucius and refused to apologise, Finn apparated all his clothes off and calmly got another drink.
The wizard in question howled, pulled on a robe and bore down purposefully on Lucius and Finn, kneeling to offer the goblet.
"Aren't you going to discipline your elf Malfoy?" he demanded. He had a French accent.
"What for? Taking action to display disapprobation of your rudeness? Hardly, Villeneuve. You are rude" said Lucius.
Villeneuve waited for Lucius to turn away then swung a vicious kick towards Finn.
And it never landed because his foot carried on moving as Lucius swung him by spell upside-down to dangle by the ankle in mid air, the hastily pulled on robe dangling over his shoulders revealing his nakedness beneath.
"Ugh, not a pretty sight" said Lucius. "And certainly not one fit for a child."
Villeneuve rotated right way up again and Lucius passed his goblet to Finn, planted a fist in the Frenchman's face and retrieved his goblet from the kneeling elf.
"You'd think he'd learn not to irritate me" he remarked to Arthur, brushing a careless hand across Finn's silver-gilt locks.
Arthur Weasley regarded Lucius for a moment and shook his head.
"Games; and you train a child to them?"
"Finn doesn't take any training at all Arthur; he has the perfect instincts. As good as any of my girls, just WATCH them play Pansy Parkinson."
"Any particular reason?" said Arthur mildly as he watched the pug faced young woman getting more and more angry as the Madams Malfoy made small-talk at her.
"Oh, having failed to wed Draco she thought she'd be suitable to be a fourth Madam Mafoy as my mistress" said Lucius "Coos at me – or is that barks at me – every opportunity she gets, wagging her tail, or at least her arse in my general direction. Mind you that has to be a better sight than her face I suppose."
Arthur happened to be glancing at Finn and saw the elf give a convulsive little jerk as Lucius mentioned Pansy Parkinson's ambitions. A surreptitious blue hand made a few motions.
Shortly thereafter a purple and green with orange stripes cloud of gas issued from the region of Miss Parkinson's backside.
Finn was smiling serenely.
Arthur looked again at the boy.
Boy?
He glanced at Lucius. Did he know or…..? damn Lucius! One could never be sure of anything about him; except that he was now largely one of the good guys and really he could be reprehensibly amusing!
Back home, Gorbrin and Lucius' girls drew Finn in to participate in a family Christmas; the girls were training her up.
They knew Lucius' weaknesses and loved him the more for them.
Finn learned to play wizarding whist.
"When Lucius is in council session he won't need a page; and then you can make up a foursome with us" said Narcissa "Grace does when she's around but she has her own life to lead!"
The rules were not hard; the difficulty lay in keeping your hand secret when the face cards would insist on giving you advice.
"All the suits have different personalities" said Charlotte "Terribly disconcerting at times! We think they correspond to the houses of Hogwarts; Diamonds will keep calculating odds for you and being snide about your play, they're Ravenclaw and it's notable the Queen is definitely in charge like Rowena Ravnclaw; as is the Queen of Hearts, as Helga Hufflepuff, they're very helpful and sweet but wrong as often as not. Clubs are Slytherin, they're fairly aggressive and the Jack likes trying to get you to cheat. Spades are Gryffindor, want to make aggressive but often ill considered plays. And occasionally they try to have a punch-up in your hand if you let two face cards of different suits be in reach of each other."
"So I see" said Finn, trying to extricate her jack of diamonds from the head lock the king of clubs had him in.
It was fun; and she soon lost her shyness and was using their first names as they asked her to do.
Abraxus and Hawke went to check on the school during the holidays; vandalism was always a possibility.
Seeing Mortimer Bane's sharp, part-goblin face in the alley was not something either relished; but the boy was obviously earning to eke out his father's rather irregular earnings as a carrier by lifting boxes for a shopkeeper. Young Bane put down the last box and ran over.
"Professors" he said "I wanted to say ta fer all you learned me but I won't be able ter come back nex' term."
"Why not?" asked Hawke.
The boy shrugged his thin shoulders.
"My dad fell of the cart an' killed his stupid self" he said. "Rent collector took the cart and donkey to pay fer rent we was be'ind wiv; I gorra work to 'ave somewhere ter live."
"Merlin's bedsocks boy, a child of your abilities shouldn't be in that position!" said Hawke "I have a job for you that'll allow you to stay on at school, and give you somewhere to live too. Do you know why we're down near the school?"
Mortimer Bane shook his head.
Hawke went on,
"Because those kids who are afraid to try are still envious of those who have the balls to go for learning; and some of them like to throw stones to break windows. We need to check the place over regularly and see there's no damage and maybe shout at young scoundrels. What we could do with is a lad who'd be prepared to live in overnight and in the holidays and keep an eye out; a caretaker if you like. I was thinking of looking for one; but as you need a job and somewhere to live that isn't usurious I'll give you first refusal."
"Are you insane? That's an invitation to him to destroy the inside!" said Abraxus in his brother's head.
"He won't; believe me he needs to be trusted" Hawke replied.
"That's it? Just live in?" said Bane "What's the catch and what's the pay?"
"The catch is you have to spend a majority of time in and not have regular times to go out that people could watch and calculate" said Hawke "The pay is your accommodation and your food, your clothes and books and a galleon a week pocket money."
"Cor! I'll bloody do it!" said Bane.
"We need to sort out where to put you to sleep" said Hawke smoothly "We were going to think about a small flat while we were here. I'm thinking that the transfigurations room is an awkward shape and larger than it needs to be; with a partition all you need in there is a bed and a small desk, you can work in the library any time or sit in the kitchen and, in the holidays, in the staffroom. There are bathrooms and toilets just across the landing and your room would have a window onto the street to look out. You may use the bath as often as you like as part of the perks of the job. At least it isn't haunted like the bathrooms at Hogwarts used to be; nothing much more disconcerting when you're running a bath and this insubstantial girl pops out of the tap."
Abraxus gave him a Look.
"Cuh!" said Bane. "Oh Professor Malfoy!" and then he burst, disconcertingly into tears and knelt in the slush at Hawke's feet.
"DON'T do that!" said Hawke unceremoniously heaving him up "Do you think Professor Snape has nothing better to do all winter than brew pepperup potion for idiots who catch cold through getting wet?" he hid a grin at the thought of Romulus being Professor Snape; it still seemed bizarre!
"Nossir, sorry sir" said Bane.
Hawke put an arm about him.
"Come on" he said "Let's go put a cauldron on for cocoa in the school. You're our ward now; we'll take care of you."
And the hardboiled little boy cried and cried and needed cuddles.
And Abraxus had to acknowledge that his brother had been quite right.
Mortimer Bane would be no more trouble; by the time they had helped him collect his meagre belongings and Abraxus had beaten up the mean, whining rent collector and demanded to see his accounting that permitted him to steal a donkey and cart he had his heroes and his heroes were the Malfoy twins.
And the cart was still in his possession on permanent loan to the school, and a mild suggestion that cleaned up with some seats in would make it a fine jalopy to collect smaller children for a kindergarten or go on school trips had Bane determining to get it spotless by the new term!
As for the small room they sorted out for him to Mortimer, used to sleeping in an apartment that was little more than a cupboard, it was paradise.