Chapter 10

"So you like cutting people" said Severus softly "And you like casting spells to cause pain – and have lost all shame that you do that to a wandless witch who is SUPPOSED to be under your protection as a wife. Let us see how you actually enjoy all the pain you have put her through."

From being silent he began chanting, absently flicking aside any spells Von Stern cast. He used a variant on the secret fears curse, depositing instead into Von Stern's mind the collective memories of Amarantha's pain from his violence; one incident after another, after another replayed.

And then he sat down as Von Stern screamed and clutched futilely at various parts of his own body as he stood immobile screaming. He did not seem to much like giving birth though doubtless he would be one of the first to tell a woman not to create a fuss as it was a natural process. Severus reflected that Dumbledore would probably at this point have decided to give the man a clean death; but Dumbledore had not been close to Tom Marvolo Riddle and his ilk, had not seen how the enjoyment of the pain of others had been a part of their psyche; had not been at the receiving end time and again. This creature wanted to keep Odessa alive – and Severus had used legilimensy on the man as he planted the memories of Amarantha – and that was more than was to be tolerated. And about time he had a lesson in what he was happy to deal out.

Severus rose to his feet.

No he could not see it to its logical conclusion; he negated the spell.

"I am better than you; I do not need to see you die of the agonies you have inflicted on others" he said; and wordlessly cast his own cutting spell, sectum sempra. There was no point giving away the incantation if these people did not know it; which as this clod was using a species of the diffindo spell they likely did not. The man screamed again and blood spurted. Severus chanted absently to increase its flow. And then it was quickly over. He left the area of the piste.

"Honour is satisfied" said the Vehmgericht "What is your name, stranger?"

Severus looked him in the eye.

"I am Severus Snape" he said "And I object to those who wed my pupils only to gain information with the view to keeping some of Odessa going underground. I suggest you may wish to investigate this man's associate, Tadeusz Zwed. Perhaps you will direct any paperwork concerning the estate of the infant son of Von Stern to the child's mother Frau Amarantha Von Stern at Prince Peak Castle where she is recuperating from her ordeal as his wife in the care of my own good ladies."

"Thank you Herr Professor; I shall see that it is so" the Vehmgericht clicked his heels and inclined his head. "The tales about your ability do not lie; you are a mighty wizard. It is fortunate that you are careful to observe protocol."

"I believe in the rule of law" said Severus. "Any idiot with a little power can enforce that power on all and rule by might; I consider such to be beneath contempt. I would not have interfered here had I not been begged for aid. I protect those who look to me for the same."

The vehmgericht bowed again.

Severus had legilimensed him; the man had himself been disgusted by the way Von Stern threw his weight around for being of old and pure family. That he had got his comeuppance had NOT displeased the officer in the least. And to find the notorious Severus Snape a softly spoken man who did NOT act in indiscriminate violence as some said he did was a relief. Snape was a frightening man; the more because he did NOT raise his voice and nor did he make threats. And one had a feeling that there was more power there and to spare than what he used on Von Stern; after all, were not his counters as effortless as any grown man indulging a wandless moppet? The Vehmgericht shuddered. They had much to thank that Snape did NOT want to impose his will on all!

oOoOo

There had been some little excitement while the duel was going on with the same Tadeusz Zwed arriving and trying to interfere.

David had grinned at him.

"Remember me from the duelling contest Herr Zwed?" he said "I'm the mudblood who took third. Of course I was only a child then; just fifteen. If you want to duel another English mudblood I can happily oblige you. I hope you've learned enough in the meantime to make it a bit more interesting though. I have new tools at MY disposal; I thought I, like Hermione, might reduce you in size. But I'll transfigure you into a house elf. With all the built in compulsions. I was part of the team that did it to Von Frettchen's spy you know; interesting little chant."

Zwed had paled and had promptly apparated away.

Had he been on home territory he would have had little choice but to fight, to prove to his own adherents that he could take a mudblood; but those terrible English who bore the scar were not HUMAN! One had no shame in getting away from them!

oOoOo

Krait, Sirri and Dione had a distinct question about Severus' will when he got back.

"Severus, we know you're going to want to protect her; and that she's got a lot of high emotion running right now; but none of us want Amarantha Keil as the fourth Madam Snape" said Krait. "Sorry for her though we be."

"Thank goodness for that" said Severus "I don't want her as the fourth Madam Snape either. I imagine we'll be rearing the child, however; I saw within her that she loves him enough not to want anything bad to happen to him, and to avoid him being reared by racists; but maternal she isn't."

"We'd already come to THAT arrangement with her" said Dione "Small Alaric Von Stern is to be raised with our other wards. And she will visit him regularly; and take him on holidays with her as he gets older. But she wants to get back to England and back on the social circuit as soon as she's recovered. It's what she understands; and she wants the familiarity of what she understands. We'll have her for a few months here – the school is also what she understands and it is comforting for her – and then she's going home to her parents. Only we were concerned if the er, romance of you duelling on her behalf might turn her silly head while she's still vulnerable."

"It's rather a shock, isn't it, to find our hardboiled Amarantha being vulnerable?" said Severus "I can't see her even being able to spell romantic let alone finding the situation thus. If I went into society more – like Lucius – I could see her thinking being number four might have its advantages; but I shun society. I don't think we'll have any trouble."

oOoOo

Amarantha did weep on Severus' neck rather when she found that she was a widow; and thanked him over and over. And when the papers came through, she readily signed over Alaric to Professor Severus Snape as his guardian.

There was one more job to do.

The house elves were revived.

"Your former master is dead" said Amarantha "I want you to all go to England and then return."

They obeyed their master's widow; they had little choice.

And when they returned, Amarantha had an item of clothing each for them.

They gasped in horror.

"Please Mistress, we HAD to do what he told us!" squeaked Hildi, the first one "Please don't punish us!"

"It is not intended as a punishment" said Amarantha "I want to pay YOU Hildi to work for me; and the estate will pay the rest of you to remain and keep the castle clean for when your infant master is old enough to make use of it. You can then take orders from his new guardian, Professor Snape here. You can be as enslaved elves in all things save you have the choice to leave."

"Hildi will go with the mistress but please we does not want to be free!" squeaked Hildi.

Amarantha looked helplessly at Severus.

"You had better order them in that case to take orders from myself and my wives as from their little master" said Severus "They are not ready for freedom it seems; but at least they will feel no urge to self punish as they have been to England."

Amarantha issued the orders quickly; and the elves returned thankfully to their familiar castle.

And Amarantha settled in to do quiet reading and research, and had her wand at her side for having sent Hildi to find it; and Alaric was eased into the nursery with the other children.

oOoOo

This was the tenth anniversary year of the death of Voldemort – one reason Severus was so irritable over finding yet more racist supremacists still being an irritation – and as there were so many people on the staff who had been involved in that business, Severus bowed to the inevitable as the older ones pestered him for real stories; and the school was invited to a telling of the tale in its entirety.

It was to be told in the evening over a week; lessons ended half an hour earlier than usual to accommodate the tale. As Severus said, hopefully the children would learn more that was of practical value in the telling than they would lose in missed lesson and preparation time. It was a story that should be told truthfully; leaving out only the most secret parts and the most personal portions of the tale. And it was a tale of Harry Potter from birth to his temporary death; and Ron and Hermione to see it was told properly.

It was a tale told of a friend by friends; with interruptions, the odd do-you-remember, and arguments over what happened exactly when; and it captivated the listeners. This was not history; this was about real people. And the idea of Madam Granger being a little girl with the temerity to steal boomslang skin to make polyjuice potion when they suspected the great Draco Malfoy of skulduggery was quite horrifying.

"Of course it never occurred to us we were stealing" said Hermione "It was, as we thought, for the general good of the school and so the school supplies were fair to use. Sanctimonious little articles we were!"

"And Draco was a git back then, poor sod" said Ron "His dad was controlled by deep compulsions of course and acted cold to him; and of course he expected to get recruited as a deatheater, whatever he felt about it. It was our Krait who stole Draco."

"Oh Draco was always all right on the inside; he didn't take much stealing" said Krait. "I just adopted him as my brother and loved him firmly until he gave in. It usually works."

"That's our Krait for you" said Ron cheerfully "Bullying Harry and Sev into actually talking to each other, bullying Draco and Hermie into talking to each other and mothering us all indiscriminately even people like Sev and Padfoot who are way older than her."

It was all very exciting; and in places rather frightening; and intensely moving. The sober looks that came onto the faces of their professors as they recalled particularly frightening episodes was enough to make the youngsters think; they saw these professors of theirs as magnificent and invincible beings. Someone who could scare THEM had to be the very epitome of evil power and they shuddered!

It impressed Amarantha Keil too.

"That's why you hate racism, isn't it?" she said abruptly to Krait after they had cleared the room on the penltimate story evening "Because HE stood for the ultimate expression of it?"

"Yes I suppose so" said Krait. "I had never come across other races like goblins and elves before I went to Hogwarts; I was used to muggle racism based on skin colour and thought it silly; and thought to the fact that those of minorities were given preferential treatment to avoid charges of racism just as silly. It only causes resentment. It's why we've always tried to be absolutely even-handed. We expelled a kid last year for racism; he was a goblin. And there are laws preventing what muggles call positive discrimination. The goblin relations office and the elf relation office are under a new office, the discrimination prevention office; and if any employer is afraid of being accused of discrimination he can ask for independent arbitration. To prevent goblins especially being treated too tenderly. But it's partly as you say because of my loathsome father – and my knowledge that he was half muggle. And it's partly my innate sense of pragmatism; if someone can do a job, why avoid using their skill because of race? It's a waste of resources. It's a pragmatism I share with Uncle Lucius. Only he really IS as soft as butter where women are concerned and his four wives are wed for love not politics. I expect you missed a lot of his tarting around if you've been isolated and deprived of news; and I can't remember how many he had when you were last around."

"He had a goblin woman."

"Tanjela. Yes, her oldest son is in the lower sixth; eight OWLs grade 'O' across the board and Lucius justly proud of him. He's got another one, a half elf half fey woman who's about my height and bright blue; Narcissa has great fun dressing them all to tone beautifully. And if they're all happy, who cares?"

"Well you can't talk anyhow – Professor Snape having three of you!"

Krait grinned.

"Well that sort of happened because of various things; Sirri needed an intellectual equal and a father for her two elf-conceived children, and Mimi had to be rescued because she'd been sold when she was a baby. And Dione, having had That Man's baby just kind of joined the family too. You wouldn't fit with us Amarantha; even though we're rearing your baby, there are some people who just wouldn't suit us. Adversity has given you depth and more compassion I think – you've been kind to Hildi – but I don't think you're the natural nosy scholar that the rest of us are with our heads always in a book."

"No I'm not; and thanks all the same but I don't actually find him attractive" said Amarantha. "He's a person you CAN run to – I found that out – but not as a lover. How did Lucius Malfoy manage to avoid Morgana Fairchild's plans for him?"

Krait giggled.

"Turned her over to his women mostly! She was SO keen to get to be a part of his close set so the girls dragged her into all their social reform efforts; by the time she'd discovered that Lucius expects ALL his women to do things like help indigent women to give birth in their squalid apartments and to clean up after them, to kiss repellently grubby brats and inspect the apartments that he's buying out, lice, rats, mould and all she fled in terror when he started talking warmly to her and about drains."

Amarantha chuckled maliciously; it was the first time she had laughed since she had come back to the school and it did a lot to make her look more like her old self.

"I always did think Morgana was too ambitious for her own good" she said. "Drains! No flies on Lucius Malfoy!"

"I guess I might dispute that when he's been down drains…. Only the thing is, Lucius DOES believe in being hands on with his social programs and his wives support him fully. And Narcissa in an apartment with nine or ten filthy kids and a birthing woman who's been too ill to care for them properly and a drunken wretch of a husband has to be seen to be believed! Jinxes the violent bastard into a ball, has the place cleaned and freshened in a trice, the children fed, the baby birthed, a kid sent out for fresh flowers and as soon as the poor woman has recovered she has the husband either well threatened into good behaviour or the whole lot of the family bar him whisked off into a safe clean environment. She turns violent pimps into women; though I confess that was one I invented. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander after all. And now, my dear, you know it's not just a vice of the poor to be violent towards wives; just that poverty often exacerbates any problems there already are. And in that case often associated with drunkenness. It's a selfish way to deal with your problems; but a common one. And like any addiction is an illness that CAN be cured. The upper class addiction of choice is Felix Felicis. Sorry; I'm closely associated with Cissy and the girls in their society for marginalised females."

"I – I guess I'd like to join" blurted out Amarantha "To put the viewpoint of how it can happen to ANYONE and help those who want to leave violent upper class husbands and are afraid they won't be believed."

"That's about the biggest thing you've ever said" said Krait softly "And I honour you for that. Cissy will probably find you a paid post at that to poke around. You have the right family to have the entrée into high society; and you also now have the experience to know what signs to look for; the frightened look, the colourless tone, the downcast eyes, the choice of robe that is less revealing than this season decrees to cover bruises. Some of us wear robes that aren't revealing for other reasons; I have nasty scars on my back from my early life. But such things are a start. And then you gossip and prattle inconsequentially and above all listen. And sooner or later you pick up enough facts to approach the said woman. And nine times out of ten you'll be rebuffed at least the first time. Plenty of these creeps have their women convinced that if they don't cleave to THEM, no other man is going to want them because they've given her such a poor self image. Or she's afraid to do something different because at least she knows what to expect. Cowed people can't make decisions. That's why we're so impressed at how brave you were; to decide to escape AND to do something as hard as teach yourself wandless and wordless magic to do it. But you must, my dear, learn NOT to despise – not too much anyway, and never show it – those women with less guts than you. Which is most of them. Most of them will whine that they loooove him; or that he loooves them, and won't like to hear that you think he has a funny way of showing it. Most won't escape. Most won't dare. But you can be there for the few that only need a little encouraging to get away. Still think you can do it?"

"I don't know" said Amarantha honestly "But if I can do anything to show up such beasts and help even a few to get away I guess I have to try don't I?"

"Now THAT will impress Cissy" said Krait "And I'll write to her about you. And your boy will get to go to Lucius' parties too and meet his various brats; so he'll have decent English contacts. I mean, he would anyway; our sprouts always do. Word of advice; don't make a play for Lucius. If you and he make beautiful music together let Narcissa tell you about it. If you get pushy she will NOT keep you around the place."

"I rather think I'm off men in general actually" said Amarantha. "You know the only reason I might have felt tempted to make a play for Mr Malfoy would be to interest him more than Morgana; but I'm not about to piss off a potential benefactress in Narcissa Malfoy by making eyes at her husband. Even cocking a snoot at Morgana isn't worth that!"

Krait laughed.

"If you're working with Narcissa, Morgana might THINK you're boffing Lucius which would achieve the same snoot-cocking ability. Dozy little cow, Gorbrin poisoned her a little bit with a babbling potion in the holidays last year and let us know she had plans to get Lucius intoxicated with her beauty so he set aside Narcissa and made him keep his other political wives as pensioners in cottages in his grounds! She hasn't got a CLUE! Lucius dotes on all his women; and if he has a favourite I've yet to hear it. He doesn't do intoxicated with beauty of one over another."

"She always was daft" shrugged Amarantha "Being rude to Sirri when she's got the zig-zag scar; I admit I was horrified to treat an elf like an equal but I was scared enough of how hard she was! Only I couldn't then figure out that meant I had reason to respect her and treat her as more than an equal. I'm grateful to Sirri for saving Alaric."

"Well Amarantha, you always liked to stir; but at least you never were so lost to decency and common sense to try blackmail – like Morgana did. She also tried to get extra lessons by offering herself to Severus. I gave her the extra lessons; which she could have just for the asking without trying to use her assets. I fear Morgana is never going to be a luminary of the school. You however have learned some hard and painful lessons; but if you've learned them well we shall be very glad to claim you as an old girl."

"Thank you" said Amarantha.

oOoOo

The final story night was accompanied by cocoa and crumpets and was attended by Draco himself whom Severus had asked to drop in.

"I can't stay long" said Draco "Just to do my Convolvumort thing; there's a dark wizard on the loose somewhere near Hogwarts and I'm keeping a watching brief. Though I fancy the remaining Mad Marauders, the Belle Marauders and Lilith's lot have it in hand."

"Why am I not surprised?" Said Severus.

Draco laughed.

"Oh they danced up a Buckley Cooper engulfing charm all around the castle and made themselves an oubliette."

"They watch too much Labyrinth" said Severus.

"CAN you watch too much Labyrinth?" said Draco. "Anyway, when they've been playing hurley they're ALL princes of the land of stench."

Severus laughed. After all, Draco HAD named his younger son 'Jareth' because it was the sort of name a Malfoy ought to have in the family.

And Convolvumort went down very well; as did the idea that Draco should open himself to be attacked just to bring Voldemort and his cohorts to battle at the exact time and place the conspirators had arithmantically worked out as best for them! This made Arithmancy a suddenly more popular subject; and Hermione Granger-Weasley was heard to mutter that if being let off homework for a few nights improved the efforts this much it was well worth having her girlhood peccadilloes pulled over as well!

And the Prince Peak children felt very privileged to be at school with such illustrious fighters against evil and to know the real story. And it may be said that Evadne Horrocks had a lot of writing to do in her biographies of her famous wizards!

oOoOo

"And at that we've held a lot back" said Ron later to the other staff who were involved "Not that they have any need to know about such things as Albus and his sister, nor about Prongs and Scales in more than the loosest of ways."

Severus had mentioned that being fair to Harry had been hard because he had not got on well with Harry's father at school – though they HAD grown out of that – since hearty and well meaning types and swots did not always manage to mix as well as Emily Grant and Elsie Blackwood; who were the exception that proved the rule.

Emily had said loudly,

"And at that if she'd not been ill and we had to be careful of her, I guess I might not have been so sorry for her not being allowed to join in and got to know her because of that."

"Honest to a fault, Miss Grant" said Severus "Yes; you have that in you which is not unlike James; though I believe you have the self honesty even at your age to listen when the juniors got stroppy about unintentional bullying on your part. Well done to them AND to you by the way for working it out without needing adult intervention. James learned his objectivity later in life; it DID rather sour our relationship. But he is the man in the portrait behind my desk so you can see we have made up from across the veil. Quick homily here; try not to let such despites for schoolfellows interfere in your lives; get a bit more adult than we were encouraged to be in our time. Anyone still quarrelling in the sixth without really good cause should really be ashamed of themselves."

As the sixth were generally to be described as 'mostly harmless' outside those who were blooded, even the Tugwood twins being an exasperation rather than any trouble this was largely superfluous advice; but Severus hoped it would be remembered through the school.

oOoOo

And then they were returning to normal lessons as the end of term approached; and the only big excitement was a fixture against the Bigonville Bombers of Luxembourg.

The inclusion of a talented goblin seeker was known to the Luxembourg team; and they treated Arbrek with respect.

"Small and fast; perfect for a seeker" said their captain. "It will give our seeker much to think about; he will have to concentrate hard!"

The other team had come visiting as Severus did not want his exam classes too disrupted; but a Quidditch match was a good distraction for them.

And it was fun; and Luxemburg won without much difficulty. It was the only team in the tiny state of Luxemburg; and was perforce also the national team! The players were a good team and held their own in European championships, but to have a practise team ready to give them a game was also good.

The visitors won six hundred and ten to three hundred in the end, and their seeker took the snitch just as Arbrek got on its trail. But it had been a good match and good fun; and the players not in the least condescending. Indeed, they were talking about training up a goblin to replace their own seeker by checking out their own youngsters.

"Pick a few to sponsor and send them to school here then from an early age" said Severus "To have a good general education too; REALLY invest in the future. Those who aren't good enough to play might yet make referees or linesmen or coaches."

That went down well!

Having such good coaches at the school that they were ABLE to give a national team a reasonable practice match meant that such really would be an investment in the future of their team!

oOoOo

To those who were not playing quidditch, the game of choice was the board game 'Beat Voldemort' that had been the must-have gift for Christmas and Evadne was the first to have the clever thought of asking the teachers who had been there to autograph the inside of the lid.

Having said 'yes' to one child the staff could hardly refuse the rest; and tried not to sigh over the number of copies they were signing.

oOoOo

The exam classes were to be given intensive study periods into the first part of the Easter Holidays so that they might be permitted the second half of the holidays off to attend the celebrations of the tenth anniversary of the victory over Voldemort that were to be held at Hogwarts school; it was the English students on the whole who might wish to attend these, and the blood group ready in case Buckley Cooper had acquired any cohorts himself to attack his nieces and nephews. Severus was to attend the formal part as Severin Prince, the name by which he was known in council. And Tarquin was excited to be officially Severin Prince's son because someone had to be and he had retained the surname Prince from his real father whom he scarcely recalled. He and Sevvy would be starting Hogwarts next year and they would use this time to reaffirm such ties as they already had with others of the same age, such as Krait's little brother Salazar.

How many would-be weevils would be at the celebration could only be guessed at; but there would be so many people that really it was not likely that those who did NOT know each other would ever get together. It was a hellish piece of logistics and Krait was glad she was not in charge of it; though as head girl of Hogwarts, their daughter Lydia WAS in the thick of it!

And those of the Peak who WERE going to the celebrations thoughtfully packed the lid of their 'beat Voldemort' game to see how many more autographs they could collect on it.

oOoOo

The main protagonists arrived for their private celebration, with Severus grumbling that there was no need to drag the whole business up and Ron laughing and saying any excuse for a party was a good excuse.

"Your idea of a good party is one where you eat too much" said Krait amicably.

"There are other things to do at parties?" said Ron.

The Order of the Phoenix was there too of course; and junior Marauders in school were invited. Moody had brought his wife Abigail and her son Salazar, who was promptly collected by Lilith, along with Sevvy and Tarquin, by such of her set as were there. They went to see the display of Riddle's life including Salazar's own part in Wizarding Wireless Vision playing the part of his father. They also looked at the horcruces. The Peverell ring was to be Salazar's from that day too once it was released from the display cabinet it now rested in – under the gaze of two security trolls – with other horcruces.,

'Do-you-remembers' were doing the rounds of the feast, both Krait and Hermione laughing ruefully as Draco recalled how Krait had gone out of her way to shock people and Hermione's favourite phrase had been 'what ARE you like, Krait?'

Convolvumort had to give a speech at this juncture, joined by Grace as Leaky the house elf and David as Tuurd the troll; and a good time was had by all.

The younger members of the feast took themselves off to thoughtfully provided mattresses and sleeping bags as they felt the need so they need not leave the party entirely; they had screens to cut down the light if they wished to sleep, or might doze and get up for refreshments as they chose.

And Madam Minerva McGonagall proposed a toast to Harry and his disobedient friends whose failure to accept that children did not ought to be involved probably saved the day.

"Krait pointed out tae me that some must give up their childhoods so that others had the chance to have theirs; weel, it seemed harrd tae me, but she wis aye right" said Minerva "Though I cud hae wished is wisnae so. And I like tae think that with Odessa gone, yon wee marauders micht forbye hae a fine childhood wi'oot having tae tak' the responsibeelities o' ithers ontae their wee shoulders!"

"Oh I daresay we'll manage to flush out other dark wizards to play with, Minerva!" said Lilith cheekily.

"Wee sumpf" said Minerva without rancour.

oOoOo

The numbers of people who flooded in the next day were enough to drive Severus into the library after he had done his duty in his velvet mask as Severin Prince; and, shown by Lilith, into Tom Riddle's secret study that they had uncovered, where he was unlikely to be disturbed. Krait did Malfoy hauteur at anyone she wanted to get rid of; it generally worked. Krait thought it had the feel of a great medieval pilgrimage; those who just wanted to see where it had happened, hoping to catch a glimpse of someone with a zig-zag scar, especially Harry. Train, enchanted helicopter and portkey just kept bringing them in.

It was as well someone as efficient as Lydia WAS in charge of logistics, with able help from Beloc; it was a logistical nightmare. Most people were to sleep in tents, those that were not day trippers; and the sixth formers needed to act as ushers to see that the big marquee that held the display of the life and death of Tom Riddle was not overburdened. It was a well organised display and should satisfy the curiosity of those fascinated by Riddle without glamorising him.

The day ended successfully with a concert; in which the Broomstick Boys showed off how much they had improved under Severus' tuition and also pleased the youthful members by singing the Cauldron Monster Song and announcing that they had found a couple of new song writers in Chad Fenwick and Mad Lockhart its authors. Celestina Warbeck had a less auspicious greeting when sundry Marauders stuffed parsley in their ears.

"They read too much Asterix" said Severus dryly to Molly Weasley, who was most put out.

It was too much for Madam Warbeck that, during the interval she overheard Sevvy and Tarquin teaching their friends the Prince Peak version of her song, 'Cauldron full of hot strong prep' and she stormed out.

As Bella said to Molly, who was upset by this,

"If she's such a shallow little person that she can take a huff over little kids taking the piss, she's not worth knowing. Besides, Jocunda Sykes says she was a silly moo when she was at Hogwarts, and Jocunda Sykes was the first to fly the Atlantic on a broom which is way more memorable than doing banshee impressions with a hot strong wand up her backside, or however the Warbeck woman makes those horrible noises."

Molly was unsure whether to accept that taking a pet over small persons being rude was rather silly or to take exception to Bella's description of Celestina Warbeck's singing and merely said rather coolly that some people admired the singing witch's musical style.

"Yes and some people like crups too; so I suppose there's no accounting for taste" said Bella.

"You'd rather have her tactless and with foot in mouth syndrome than the sly piece HE made her into last time" said Severus smoothly to Molly.

"Well yes, Severus, I suppose I would" said Molly, truthfully. "And I suppose she IS very young still."

As the second half lacked Celestina Warbeck the sixth obliged with such pieces as 'My old man's a de-splincher' that went down very well with the younger members of the audience at least. And assorted Snapes did 'Walking in the air' whilst doing just that; Seagh being back from Russia to join in and having added mid-air Cossack dancing to his repertoire though not of course for this piece. Ransley Corbin tried to find out from Krait how it was done afterwards; and Krait, who detested him, smiled sweetly and became very technical to an arithmantic and transfigurational level beyond his comprehension. The which was made more irritating to him because he almost understood; and could comprehend enough to know that she was not making up any old rubbish as she went along.

It paid off a few scores over the man having been sanctimonious over Grace being a Corbin after Severus had taken her from her inadequate parents, and trying to use that to smarm around Lucius when Grace married Draco.

The cream of the evening for many Marauders was that they had caught Buckley Cooper in their engulfing charm; which meant that parents of current Marauders might be easy that they weren't about to go out catching dark wizards.

oOoOo

Next day was an exhibition match between Slytherin and Ravenclaw; it went on into the afternoon and Gorbrin cheerfully showing off by broomsurfing like any Malfoy show-off git, as Draco said on his way to collecting Buckley Cooper.

And when the end came it was unexpected; Gorbrin and Jack Murray were neck and neck; and there was a look passed between them and both reached for the snitch together, almost as much in accord as if they were blood joined. It was a wonderful end to an exhibition match!

The evening was rounded off by a dance; and Lucius and Draco equal to deal with the abortive attack on Tanjela, so Krait, Dione and Sirri just enjoyed dancing with their Severus at a dance NOT officiated over by them. It had been a reasonable two days and not as awful as Severus had pessimistically expected; with the public duly awe struck and respectful of those with the scar and not, on the whole, too pushy or importunate.