Chapter 10

Severus organised everyone into their groups; a primary chanter, a secondary chanter, an elf and an apparating aide just in case; someone competent enough to deal too with any interruptions from irritable fey or wandering muggles or overly curious wizards. Or even stray animals. Some of the places they were to be chanting might easily be in the middle of, say, Graphorn ranges. Or even dragon ranges.

"And if we have a manticore, just copy David and drop a rock on it" laughed Ellie.

"It worked" said David with all the dignity he could muster.

"It was a brilliant piece of lateral thinking" said Severus "Like Ron dropping that ruddy troll's club on its own head."

"Crumbs, Sev mate, did you actually just call me brilliant?" said Ron.

Severus grinned.

"Must have been a temporary aberration on my part" he said.

Those in the Sahara had tents with moisturising and cooling charms on them; those in the extreme north had tents with warming charms on them; and every chanter had a motorman's friend – Hermione looked relieved – and a piece of muggle kit in the form of an intravenous fluid drip with saline, just to prevent dehydration. All those who were acting as aides and the elves had been given instructions in their use; and Severus ran through it one last time. A mistake could cause a fatal embolism; so nobody made any facetious jokes about paranoia. Then they all apparated in their foursomes – or in two cases fivesomes since Harry also had Dudley Dursley along, determined to do all he could to support, and Elsie and Mortimer made up a double team as secondaries. And Mardo and George Monk from Hogwarts were along as spares since it seemed unfair not to involve Mardo as the only upper sixth chanter from Hogwarts who would otherwise not be invited, and what one brother did so did the other.

Then Severus ruffled the hair of his new grandsons Ulvik and Rainer, the two oldest of the four children Jade and Wulf had taken on; and took them with those youngsters of the blood group still left in the castle, Alrik and Fyra – their fathers were to be general helpers – Zhenga, whose father was a secondary chanter, the Breuer marauders and Johanna Schiff, whose sister had volunteered as a supporter. There were also his own younger children and Jade's three infants. It was a good job that blooding imparted an instinctive knowledge of elf style apportation; he would never be able to side-along so many with only Sirri to help. Randolph was part of the central group too; he was no chanter but he was handy to have around in case of a scrap and he would too orient his painted cloths for the best effect.

Clovis Gierek and his little elven wife Tildi would be with them too; and her son Vissy; and some of the castle elves just there to help care for babies.

And then they were arriving smoothly in Durmstrang castle, greeted by Agata Bacsó; and the Durmstrang contingent of chanters directed to their stations.

The various junior layers of marauders went off to get to know each other, including the Durmstrang contingent, which was three boys and a girl; and Severus helped Randolph lay out the patterns.

"You aren't actually needed immediately so you may as well relax as much as possible" said Severus in his harsh voice to the Giereks; they would rest first and no reason they should not have such of the night as there was together. Clovis was not required, after all, before midday.

It was late at night; the chanters should sleep a few hours, and the responsibility of the helpers to wake each starting chanter in good time, and see that they were given breakfast; and insert the drip. They all already had the needle taped in place; all that was necessary was connecting the bag of fluid.

Severus was a poor sleeper at the best of times; so he read instead until he dozed off; relaxing with the gentle humour of 'Gurdap in the ministry' a satire in which a troll is cursed into human form and finds himself working in the ministry, and how frustrated he is by how stupid most of the staff there seem to be.

And then Torik was waking him with breakfast – and they did breakfast well here at Durmstrang, thought Severus, tucking into mixed grill – and then he would have time to relieve himself and then start.

He had a clock checked to the second; and he watched it, counting down; and then pulsed the starting chanters, synchronised heartbeat to get the timing, and began the Gaelic chant,

"A casadh orainn do'n chead uair, d'fhiaf-raigh me di a-n scaioi-l- feadh glas ar bith gra….."*

"Turning on the first hour I seek for a spell to unlock the spell laid in the heart…."

And after every repetition he beat the complex ruffle on that powerful Bodhran; and he felt its magic thrill though his bones, and saw any elf in the hall shiver as it reached into them too. It was a relief to be able to alternate chant and beat; either one would have been nearly impossible to keep up for the whole twelve hours. But this he could do; and small people fed him power as he flagged to keep him going.

It was as though he had chanted and drummed forever; there was nothing in life but chanting and drumming, drumming and chanting; and yet he must too keep half an eye on the time, ready for the sacrifice.

Slowly passed the hours; more slowly yet, no doubt, for Clovis and Tildi. And now they had come into the hall, ready to take their place in the circle, ready for Tildi to begin the sacrifice. Several small people had crept in too, as supporters, bless them; and now Severus was watching the clock in earnest. And as he made chant held up three, two, one fingers for Tildi; and he felt Clovis' pain as she cut into him with the severing spell, readying the silver knife to pierce his heart; and the pain was being reduced by others, brought down.

Severus changed the beat on the bodhran; it had not been planned but he KNEW it was right to beat the tune of a heartbeat; Lub-DUP, lub DUP, Lub-DUP as he synchronised his own heart to it and felt the shock of two hundred hearts synchronising with him. Twelve times he beat that heart beat; once for every spurting drop of blood. And then he was picking up the chant again, and Tildi and Sirri were healing Clovis; and Sirri was away to distribute the blood a drop at a time drawing the freeing rune on the heads of those at the twelve cardinal points.

And the chanting and the drumming alternated; and again Severus was in that strange limbo where there was no other activity, where his body did not belong to him, where only chanting and drumming existed and he was somehow simultaneously distant from that and separated from it; and yet intimately a part of it with no sense of self but the ritual. His legs did not belong to him; his fingers that held the beater did not belong to him. He was the chant and there was no other being.

And then finally, after an incalculable time, Sirri was signalling to him that the time was drawing on; ten minutes no more. And Severus drew strength from that, summoned his last reserves; and was able to draw the ritual to a close with a triumphant lift of the voice, a defiant ruffle of the drum. And he was blood pulsing the rest and sinking to weary knees on a body that finally belonged to him again and was bone tired; and Sirri kissed him fiercely, took the needle out of his arm, and handed him a good mug of throat soothing potion tasting of honey and lemon and cardamom.

oOoOo

Then everyone was apparating in, in a greater or lesser state of exhaustion; Elsie looking relatively fresh, but then she had been a starting chanter on the Shetland Isles and could have slept any time in the last eight hours; and probably did. Lilith was dropping, and Severus swept her up to kiss her and praise her.

"She is SUCH a little trooper!" said Crys Bass in admiration, Lilith's chosen secondary.

And Agata's school elves had laid on a sumptuous feast; which was very welcome. Less welcome was the insistence by all the elves on kissing the feet of anyone they could, especially Clovis; and Lucius warned Clovis that he'd be knee deep in free fey and elves before long.

"We have a fey exclusion line" said Clovis "Damn, I'd better find a way to let them know to go to you or something."

"Oh NO my boy!" laughed Lucius "I already had that little problem; we'll twist your exclusion line to cover only fey with hostile or unfriendly intent."

"And I love you too Lucius" said Clovis.

The youngsters who had been feeding power seemed to recover for a good meal, and Severus was glad; Lilith fell asleep at the table. And then they were all dropping onto mattresses the elves brought to sleep without any thought of whether it was proper to be mixed men and women; nobody would have had the energy for anything bar sleeping in any case. And a good night's sleep made all the difference; and they rose to be fed again by the Durmstrang elves before going their various ways. It was done; and they had not had any trouble from the fey, thanks, no doubt, to Jade's fey exclusion line; but Severus was much relieved that none of the chanters had seemed to experience any trouble either.

There would be howls of anguish across Europe as suddenly elves became less servile, able to think what thoughts they might about their masters. They were still bound to slavery; but at least they were not bound to slavery of the soul, and nor would their offspring, nor their generations ever be so bound again.

It had been well done.

oOoOo

Von Frettchen blew in on Christmas Eve.

"Are you supposed to involve small people of eleven in blood magic?" he asked mildly.

"I only ever involve volunteers" said Severus "If they would be marauders as Harry Potter was, why, he had no choice but to be involved. None of the other supporters are any the worse; did Wilhelm or Serrik have any problems?" he asked sharply.

"Oh no; none at all, though we were a bit concerned when both lads were listless all day" said Von Frettchen. "Then all the elves got very quiet, and turned and looked at them; and they grinned and told me they'd just been involved in this ritual of yours. If some people find out they'll never forgive you."

Severus shrugged.

"Such people aren't actually likely to be on my Christmas card list anyway" he said "I've lived with far more uncomfortable enemies than a few fat grafs and grafins, and self opinionated land owners. And I must say, the thought of the discomfort of such types fills me with joy; you Germans have a word for it – schardenfreude."

Von Frettchen laughed.

"For mine, that I have said to them that I support this move it has but increased their loyalty; so I have no problem at all. I had ever ordered my elves not to self punish in any case; the direct order supersedes the urge, mostly. It is an abrogation of responsibility to leave your servants to punish themselves in any case. I beg you though, do not try to free them; few even of my elves are ready for freedom."

"Yes, I know" said Severus "I lived through the teenage years of one of Harry's friends – she teaches with me now – trying to leave hats around for elves to find, and the offended silences and bad cooking rebounded on everyone. It took my second lady Sirri to explain matters to her before Hermione finally stopped trying to forcibly free elves, and instead turned her attentions to teaching those that would listen how to want to be free, and supporting those freed as punishment of through line death. She took the lesson; especially after, as Head Girl at Hogwarts, she met a child with equally thick skinned determination to do good for people whether they wanted it or not. Why not free and livery all those of your elves as wish it? They can be paid a relatively token amount – they worry about what to do with money – and flaunt their livery at visiting elves and nobility. And if you free all juveniles and send them to school here or with Jade, with jobs promised when they leave if they do not want to go out into the world, you will take the business of civilising the wizarding world a step further on; since slavery is barbaric."

Von Frettchen nodded.

"I never questioned it; I accepted that elves were slaves and one had a duty of care towards them" he said. "I did not know about a ritual to embed a version of the Imperious Curse until the boys told me."

"I dare say Jade felt she had too much on her plate getting some fairness for goblins in Germany without tackling an essentially impossible task of freeing all the slaves" said Severus. "Especially as you already treat your elves well. Are you staying to eat with us?"

"No, I'd like to get back; just wanted to check out that you knew those two imps were involved."

"We couldn't afford NOT to involve them" said Severus. "When we did it for England it dropped us in our tracks for several days; and with the possibility of fey retribution I did not feel we could afford that. Oh your charges will not be at risk; they'd not pick out their patterns as mere power sources. It's me and the Sacrifice, Clovis Gierek they'll go after and HE'S in a fey exclusion line at Durmstrang. Interesting times, old boy; interesting times."

"Do you practise being as offensive as Lucius Malfoy or does it come naturally?" laughed von Frettchen.

"It comes quite naturally" said Severus, smiling austerely.

oOoOo

It was fun to have a family Christmas and see the joy on the faces of the two new members of the family old enough to appreciate it; they had made a quick last minute dash to get nice things for the children, and Jade had twisted Lucius' arm to find a flying pony, a steppe pony crossed with the non flying Przewalski horse for Rainer, who had taken to riding. Ulvik had a broom for his main present; and they had got such amusements as Weasley's Wizard Wheezes had on offer. Ulvik had worked hard to make gifts for his new parents; and had discovered an ability to use the colour changing charm through stencils to make a mock peacock feather on a goose feather quill, that Jade and Wulf rightly praised for its ingenuity.

And it was nice for the boy to have cousins – even if Sevvy teased Ulvik that he should call him 'uncle'- who were of an age with him.

It was a jolly Christmas and the games and family fun so obviously new to both little boys; and the babes between two and three years old just laughed for joy because everyone else was happy, and played with their toys. Ralph was very clearly the one who considered himself in charge, though the goblin child Roderick, known as Rory, was older; and Lily a contented child happy to receive cuddles. And Severus took the child to see James and Lily in their portrait.

"Jade adopted this child; who was known only by a number. She's called her Lily Grace for family reasons" he said "I expect the dark red hair was in her mind too; not so bright a shade as yours, Lily; that's more mirrored in an imp called Zhenga in the first."

"Part goblin?" James peered. "She'll have some troubles in Germany."

"But less for being Lily Grace VON Luytens" said Severus dryly. "The fully goblin boys might have more trouble; but I only had one set of arms and I wanted to show you small Lily."

"Thanks, Scales mate" said James.

"I wish her every happiness" said Lily. "I'm sure Ralph will be a protective brother to her."

"Oh he will; and to small Rory, scarcely any older" said Severus. "Another layer of marauders just in themselves almost! Rory's the same age as my Merope, and the other two the same age as David Fraser's Lucy and just a year older then than Vissy Gierek. Not that being blooded always follows that they WILL be marauders; Sevvy, Tarquin and their lot have decided to support without marauding."

"Well it takes support to do the big things I guess" said James "I never reckoned, when we started the Marauders that it would become something so big, so far reaching; and so able to do good. I guess you've taken the spirit of marauding further than we would ever have dreamed of, Scales; because without your vision, I reckon even Sirius wouldn't have gone so far."

Severus flushed.

"It wasn't me; it was the fact of marauding" he said softly "It just grew naturally out of love; the greatest magic in the world. Even if it DID take me a while to believe Albus on that one!"

oOoOo

Jade and Wulf had returned to Schloss Adler when the fey turned up. Seagh, Krait and Severus had chanted up a warning line and a barrier in fey space which limited their options and also excluded any not invited; and the line of copper poles just within that line were there for a purpose too.

There was the usual jeering, hooting, name calling.

"You Snape-creature, you have stolen our slaves!" screeched on high fey with cow's hooves and a long tail.

"We will punish you for taking our prey!" howled a demon.

"Och sich a muckle load o' havers frae the crabbit wee sumpfs" remarked Seagh.

Severus had begun a chant; and clouds roiled overhead.

"Am I the only one to think of Saruman on Orthanc when the Fellowship battled Caradhras?" murmured Victor.

"No; and a sight more appropriate than just excluding the wee de'ils by doing Gandalf with a 'you shall not pass!' thing" said Seagh. "The ones as would protest are not the ones we really want to invite for tea and cucumber sandwiches the noo are they?"

"I wonder what Kappa would make of cucumber in sandwiches" murmured Victor irrelevantly.

"We will find a way to reach you and destroy you; you cannot hide behind your line of protection forever!" called a creature of flame and shadow.

"Now THAT's a balrog" said Victor.

"Near enough; it's an efreet" said Seagh. "Tolkein drew on folklore; folklore includes the forms the fey have either made for themselves or have been forced into by demonologists who have their own ideas. Excuse" he shouted something of his own in the language that was not quite Gaelic and not quite Celtic that the fey used. There was a roar of anger. "While they're in a naughty temper over my description of their descent they'll not be thinking so straight" he added to Victor "Are you ready to pick up the chant from him?"

Victor nodded; and the rest of the chanters in the school smoothly picked up the repetitions of the complex chant Severus had been making, feeling the weight of the thunderstorm on their shoulders; and Victor gasping anew at the sheer mental strength of his guardian.

Severus grinned evilly.

"If you want to cross the line – do so; if you want me come and get me!"

They did of course.

And Severus picked up the counterpoint, took back the weight of the storm; and released it.

And lightening raged, leaping from the copper lightening conductors in long jagged scars of light up to the clouds; and the fey screamed a long thin scream that might almost have come from a single throat as they were disrupted; and destroyed.

"Doesn't it break the rules of hospitality that you invited them in? And won't that cause trouble in the future?" asked Dione.

Severus shook his head.

"No; it was an invitation and challenge. They were invited in to fight me. They lost" he said. "Seagh and I discussed it long; and to make invitation to challenge is covered by different rules. I fancy we shouldn't have any more trouble; that constituted the greater part of the most unpleasant fey in Europe I'd be bound to guess. How many were there, Seagh?"

"Including the lesser forms? Around six hundred" shrugged Seagh "Enough to be a trouble forbye if not well fried. If any escaped they'll no' be comin' back here nae mair."

"That was the general idea" said Severus. "Ah well; how to make enemies and influence people."

"You may not have noticed, my dear" said Krait "But most people like to make friends and influence people."

Severus grinned wolfishly.

"I always like to be different" he said.

oOoOo

"You lead an exciting life up here" said Herr Müller, whose daughter had come from Schloss Adler to spend Christmas on the Horn with her family.

"It's not always quite that exciting" said Victor "We had a touch of trouble with the fey last year but nothing serious. Severus doesn't go out of his way to avoid making enemies if the people he's making enemies of are not so nice. It keeps us on our toes. Don't worry; when you're teaching with Jade I have no doubt she'll manage to make enough enemies to make life less dull than it is without them."

"This chanting is fantastique, when eet ees done by ze master" said Arsène le Fèvre who had not bothered to go home for Christmas, hearing rumours of a big chant. He had missed the big chant and assumed this was it. He was learning chanting; that with his iron will would make him a useful ally another time, as Hermione had said, when for example they tackled Asia.

Severus had just cuffed her for that.

Hermione was not there to, as Severus put it rudely, keep Arsène on a short leash, because the Weasleys had gone off for their own outsize family Christmas; so Victor grinned at him.

"Only a Jedi Master is capable of such things" he said unanswerably.

"Might I say" said Herr Müller mildly "That I was not necessarily looking on excitement as a POSITIVE thing."

"It is though" said Victor "It's awfully easy to get stale and in a rut without the odd bit of excitement; and to start taking things for granted. Complacence leads to a lack of being able to cope when there IS a crisis; like when Voldemort was a little bit dead for ten years and the ministry promptly jumped back into their comfortable rut, cast the la-la-la I'm not listening spell on their ears and pretended not to need to respond because he'd been quiescent long enough that they'd forgotten how to. Though by all accounts they weren't that good at it first time. A low level of excitement means good preparation."

"Perhaps" said Müller cautiously "But for a schoolmaster?"

"I suppose I take that as natural" shrugged Victor "In the Voldemort years, the only people who actually did a lot that was positive to oppose him were sundry schoolchildren, Harry Potter among them, and some of their teachers. And here in Austria it seemed that Prince Peak was the only force that opposed Gerhardt Grindelwald and Odessa. It too sorts out amongst those children old enough to be permitted to help out which are those who will volunteer, the future Aurors – Vehmgerichten you call them – from those who need to be protected. Those of us who have fought naturally turn our thoughts to teaching because we know we shall be able to protect our children; Gerhardt attacked schools in order to have young minds to mould and brainwash and turn to his ends. Not all need fight; so long as some are prepared to. Jade will not expect you to stand forward, Herr Müller, if it is not in your nature so to do, she has plenty of staff who can and will. And yes she DOES expect excitement; from those who hold it abhorrent to teach goblins and mudbloods – you count in their eyes as a mudblood – and she WILL protect her pupils from such blood snobs and racist scum. And she will need gentler people too to lead the children to the safest parts of the castle and keep them calm while the martial fight. We have dared to challenge convention and stand against blood snobbery; and you and your children to be the gainers from that. But if one stands up for an ideal it's pretty poor to say 'yes I believe in education for all these children, but if you turn up in force I will meekly hand them over for you to rape the pretty older girls to death and flog the rest to death as a punishment for their insolence' isn't it?"

Müller paled.

"Surely they would not do that?"

"Herr Müller, you have not associated with Odessa types as I have; yes they would. As a lesson lest any other impurities and animals – as they describe those of less than the required purity of blood and goblins – get the idea that they are as good as these racists. They are weaklings, I grant you, to be so insecure that they need to do this; and it proves that deep down they KNOW that even the muggleborn and goblins too CAN perform as well as they, and that scares them; because then, wherein lies the advantage of pure blood? What is its advantage? But it is weaklings who bully, Herr Müller. I've been there; I've bullied to try to give myself an advantage in my feelings of weakness. I got over it – thanks in great part to Professor Severus Snape who would rather cure such mental sickness than kill. You have chosen the path of education for yourself and your daughter and later son. Do not be surprised to meet nasty comments at best and attempts to humiliate or even kill your family at worst. If you want to pull out and stop your extra education, I imagine that Severus can arrange you an apartment back in your home town and a job somewhere in the wizarding world and you may withdraw your daughter from school."

"I did not realise the realities" said Herr Müller. "No I will NOT back out; I WILL fight for my right to education and my children's rights to a full place in the wizarding world. I do not know that I can fight physically; but I can stand up for what is right. Such people are abominations; and I will oppose them with all my strength."

"Good for you sir" said Victor, clapping him on the shoulder.

oOoOo

"It was well done" said Severus quietly to Victor later "I fear the truth was a shock but better told him now than that he find out the hard way. Jade is moving the parents of the muggleborn friend of his daughter to teach muggle studies too to protect them; after all, one cannot trust Germans to take any account of laws against mugglebaiting."

"Or muggle murder" said Victor. "Especially if the victims are poor and the muggle authorities not so likely to make a fuss."

oOoOo

Horst Müller was enjoying his studies. He found Heather a stimulating and good teacher and had no problem about joining in with the only upper sixth taking Geomancy to NEWT, which was to say Sebastian. Sebastian was a serious student and in no wise like to make game of an older man in his class once Heather had brought Horst on to the required level. His studies during the holidays had given him an idea of what he was lacking; Severus had set him to read through all the geomancy text books and make note of what he had covered and what he had not; and to read all he had covered to check he had covered it thoroughly and in all parts. And Horst had found himself sadly lacking in many basics yet advanced in other fields; and had determinedly worked through all the exercises in the early books to check he had brought himself up at least to a level just below OWL. Heather had gone through the rest of the OWL work over the first half of the term with Horst also working on doggedly; and then he fitted in to do the lesson with Sebastian, which also gave the boy someone else to discuss the work with, and did two extra hours a week with Heather to cover the work Sebastian had done the year before. He also worked with Hermione to improve his Arithmancy; not so much for the exam but just to cover enough to use in advanced Geomancy. Being a hard worker, Hermione said that if he carried on as well as he had, he may as well sit the NEWT, since though he might not get a grade that reflected the work he had put in, a NEWT was a NEWT and two were better than one.

And Valerie, who loathed Arithmancy and found it impossible to fathom, admired her papa very much indeed!

oOoOo

Arsène's main field of study was chanting; and he too was progressing well. And Severus could not say why it was that he left him out of the twelve hour chant; but though Arsène might oppose dark wizards something told him that he might have blind spots about evils that were traditional like elf slavery. He might be doing him an injustice; but if not, then Arsène had the capacity to disrupt the whole thing.

"I like him well enough but I always trust your feelings, Domine" Hermione had said. Severus could be suspicious and prickly; but he had learned enough body language outside of legilimensy that his feelings were usually more than some kind of intuition. And the only time he had been totally wrong had been about Harry; which, with the emotional baggage surrounding James, had been hardly surprising.

Arsène however was benefiting from the lessons and was considering retiring from his career as a duellist while he was still at its pinnacle to teach chanting at Beauxbatons; and nobody mentioned that a year's study, however intensive, would never cover all the complexities needed to teach well.

As Krait said rudely, which of the French was likely to notice anyway – saving, perhaps, for Solange's father.

Healer Lebaton, Solange's father, came when he could for chanting lessons and read all he might on the subject – which was the two books Severus had written and a few obscure tomes. He asked if he might send full time a goblin nurse next year, with whom he was consolidating his learning and who seemed to pick it up well; and Severus was more than happy to agree, and too to give the said nurse more formal training in medical transfiguration. Healer Lebaton was delighted.

Severus only wished that the same attitude might be found in St Mungo's; where the chants that has been performed by him or those he had taught were viewed with wonder by the nurses and deep suspicion by many of the healers – Healer Visick being an exception – and no approach had been made to him to teach chanting to any of the healers there. Severus was strongly considering asking Healer Visick to head an institute associated with the school – giving the reason that delicate children were given priority in the school – to further train and issue qualifications to the likes of Angelica and to Taryn Rebet and to be an official base for roving healers so there was a good well established organisation behind them. And he reflected with grim humour that perhaps they should call such a base St Bernard's, as a nod to the monks and their dogs who saved lives in the Alps; and because they would dog the footsteps of the terminally conservative. The dogs of Prince Peak to match the wolves of Prince Peak.

oOoOo

The two adults there for the music were also getting a lot out of it; Anselm Amsel was overjoyed to learn how to use tunes of enchantment; and Terence Goodchild was amazed to find out how many bad habits he had and to have Godfrey correct them without crowing. After all, as Terence said, he had to believe that Godfrey knew what he was talking about as he was the one who made money out of his music and he Terence did not – at least, not a great deal. It had already made a considerable difference to Terence's ability to perform, and though Godfrey was more talented, the difference between them was not quite so painful. And Terence really enjoyed playing as accompanist to his younger brother and forging deep ties of love and friendship. And he too was taking up chanting, since Godfrey rated it; and when Victor spoke of starting another school asked if he worked hard whether he might then teach music and at least starting chanting.

And Victor spoke to Severus and asked if he would subsidise Terence in an extra year to that end; which Severus agreed to do, and Terence was thrilled!

The adult students at least were looking forward to the start of a new term!

* or phonetically, 'Cassoo doran don ced waar, jeefri may dee on sceeloo bi gloss air bi graw