Chapter 10

The term was well under way and the Belle Marauders were idling on the beach in New Zealand discussing the newest layer of Marauders because that was what Saturdays were for; and Mimi was paying less than full attention.

"Wake up Mimiwobbles, I've asked you three times whether you didn't think this year's intake isn't about the best overall we've had barring a few aberrant ones" said Bella, poking her friend. "You aren't PREGNANT are you?"

"Not unless I've become prey to immaculate conception" said Mimi "Like you and Assim, Darryl and I are behaving ourselves though I wouldn't answer for all our confederates."

"Leo's too busy in the German school to get up to many high jinks" said Drusillina "though I think it's mostly on purpose so we don't go too far."

"Fabian is too much a gentleman" said Maud, mournfully.

"So Chad and I are the only ones going a bit further than quiet fumbling are we?" said Isabel brightly.

"Looks like" said Bella "Hope your potioneering is up to scratch."

"You know it isn't" said Isabel "Fortunately Chad's is."

"He's a satire and song writer; bohemian. You can't expect him to behave" said Bella indulgently. "And by the way WHY are you in a brown study, Mimi?"

"Because Darryl is listening intently to a racist who's wrapping up his filth in the clean linen of quidditch similes" said Mimi "I can't pick up details but Darryl does project most awfully well."

"It's from the time you took him apart and put him back together" said Bella nodding wisely "It's almost akin to the deep joining. I take it he's going to do something about it?"

"You bet" said Mimi "He's just discovered that France's own Gerhardt Grindelwald is none other than Achille Crouch-Villeneuve."

"What that nasty little swab? No!" said Bella.

"But yes" said Mimi. "And no big surprise really when you recall what he was like; he'd enjoy being a dictator."

"Him and whose bollocks to make him dare?" said Bella scornfully.

"I expect that he grew the semblance of balls when there were no scary English little girls around" said Drusillina.

"Miaow" said Maud.

"Not half true though" said Isabel.

"Darryl's answering the speaker" said Mimi "He's explaining what Achille was like at school; he has them laughing. And shocked; I think he just told them about the git casting the cruciatus curse on you, Bellabuttons."

"I suppose it's no worse than Mimiwobbles" said Isabel, irrelevantly of this new nickname.

"'cause it isn't Izzywiggles" said Drusillina.

"Lumme, and to think I used to dislike having so plain and short a name as Maud; at least you can't do anything to THAT" said Maud in satisfaction.

"Give us time" said Drusillina.

"Ah, the git has challenged Darryl to a duel; actually the bastard hit him but Darryl is being all the smarmy cad of an English gent in full sails akimbo" said Mimi.

"Mixed metaphors there but never mind" said Bella "when? Dawn or straight away?"

"After lunch; an Englishman never tackles a duel on an empty stomach" said Mimi.

"Well that's a load of cobblers" said Isabel.

"Yeah, but can't you just hear Darryl Zabini saying it with his best sneer?" said Drusillina.

They conceded the point and went in search of their own meal as thinking about it made them hungry early and the elves might be wheedled into providing a picnic.

oOoOo

The Belle Marauders finished their homework quietly and with some small qualms over Darryl's safety fighting one of the treacherous types that one might expect to consider Achille Crouch-Villeneuve to be all right.

"He'll be fine, Mimiwobbles" said Drusillina rather too brightly "He taught himself non-verbal and wandless casting after all."

"Of course he will; no question!" said Bella fiercely, putting an arm around her diminutive friend.

"I know that but I know it in the same trying-to-convince myself tone you to spoke in" said Mimi "Because he's all alone in a strange place surrounded by the French who are chocolate cauldrons most of them at the best of times."

"Well if we're aware we can bounce anything for him" said Bella stoutly.

Darryl was, they could all feel through Mimi, actually enjoying himself, playing for laughs and irritating his opponent.

"Oh I like that" said Mimi "He transfigured each lock of hair into a canary and had it fly away; the fellow is as bald as a coot."

"You wouldn't half need a big flock for Lucius" said Bella inconsequentially.

Darryl's insouciance was encouraging; though they all gasped when he took a wound to the face. He was half preoccupied with something.

"He's building the grid against the Killing curse" said Mimi " Because the creep called death duel; and completed in time, by Jove, here it hits!"

The diffused curse did little more than give Darryl a headache that they scarcely noted.

The duel lasted little longer; Mimi giggled.

"He's made a lightsabre; I say, he's just parried the killing curse with it; and it's reflected back to the fellow who cast it!"

"Lumme!" said Bella "I didn't know that was possible!"

"Nor did Darryl" said Mimi "He's reflecting how lucky it was that it didn't ricochet into the crowd; and he's awfully glad too that the creep effectively killed himself. So am I; I don't think Darryl was much looking forward to having to kill him, that was why he picked the lightsabre because it's then more a physical duel than with raw spell."

"Does it count?" asked Bella "Because you aren't supposed to have physical contact in a non-MSHG duel are you?"

"You aren't" said Mimi "But as it's a spell effect from the end of the wand you may obviously touch an opponent with a spell effect so it counts I think. Let's go and ask Flitters now Darryl is quite safe."

oOoOo

Professor Flitwick listened to the explanation and regarded the lightsabre Mimi made to demonstrate with delight.

"Remarkable idea, quite remarkable!" he said "Definitely a spell, definitely an effect of magic; summoning a sword would be against the rules if used conventionally, but this is definitely a spell effect and so quite within the rules; albeit a bit of a sophistry thereof. Still, there is technically nothing against summoning even something physical so long as there is no physical contact between the duellists; Dav….er, Professor Fraser's famous 'accio Dolmen' that he used at his Triwizard is not technically outside the rules either."

"Or summoning a Manticore" said Bella enthusiastically "Or an ambush of Tigers!" being Bella she knew the correct collective nouns for tigers.

"Er, technically no, nothing against that" said Flitwick "Bella my dear, sometimes I do think you have tigers on the brain."

"Only one tiger and not, strictly speaking, the brain" said Bella dreamily.

Her friends all poked her; it was obligatory.

"Time to work on our lightsabres then" said Bella "Bags me a red one to be a slightly grubby Jedi!"

"Goes with the stripes in your hair too" said Drusillina "Oh hell what have I said?" as Bella squealed and hugged her.

"A STRIPY lightsabre!" said Bella.

"Insane of course" said Mimi. "An ambush of tigers?"

"I like it better than the other one which is a streak of tigers" said Bella "Because it kind of makes me think of tigers in dirty macs without any fur on which is sort of gross."

"It's just that you have a warped mind darling" said Drusillina.

"It's taken you this long to notice?" said Maud "Bella's always had a warped mind."

"Which sort of gives rise to a new collective noun about an obsession of tigers" grinned Isabel.

"Rotten lot" said Bella equably.

Flitwick shook his head smiling indulgently; how unwarped Bella Black's mind was by comparison to the sad and nasty little girl she had been the first time she had grown up, with the influence of Tom Riddle in her life. She was a lovely child – young woman really, now – and he wished her all the best.

They wandered up to the common room singing 'tiger feet' and improvising dances to it.

"Is it too much to ask that the head girl actually maintain a small degree of decorum and dignity?" demanded Xanthia Fawcett.

"On a Saturday after having heard some rather disturbing news? Yes" said Bella "And our celebration that a friend has not been hurt by a bunch of French terrorists is harming you in what way?"

Fawcett regarded her with disfavour.

"And you had the cheek to tick ME off about being childish?" she said.

"The difference being that I'm being childish harmlessly amongst others of my own age who understand – or who ought to – the urges to let off steam; and YOU were being dangerously childish in public" said Bella coldly. "And if it had just been the 'childish' part do you think I'd have cared? It was the puerility of the way you didn't care who you jeopardised or whether you got arrested or no. Sometimes I actually wonder if you live in the same world as everyone else because you don't actually seem to have a clue about how to behave reasonably at all!"

"And snogging a teacher IS reasonable?"

"The one I'm betrothed to, yes" said Bella "Jilting him for McGonagall, no. But then I've never snogged McGonagall."

Fawcett made a noise of disgust and walked away; trying to talk to Bellatrix Black was like trying to wrestle with water!

"She reminds me of Lucius' peacocks" said Bella "Full of loud noises and vanity and pea-sized brains. Did you know – and not a lot of people know this – that the collective term for peacocks is an ostentation?"

"Well anything to do with Lucius is an ostentation especially posy pearlescent peacocks" said Drusillina "You have to admire Lucius Malfoy. It's compulsory."

Bella laughed, restored to good humour.

oOoOo

Sunday brought a visitor to the Headmaster in the person of a rather dried up little quaestor.

"I believe, Professor Fraser, you have a pupil named Ramsey Corbin in your school" he said.

"Yes I do; the child is in the first year" said David "What is the problem?"

"I fear I have some bad news to break to him" said the quaestor.

David paled.

"His mother? There is a problem?" he asked anxiously. Ramsey adored his brave little mother who did what she had to in order to keep the family house.

The quaestor blinked.

"Ah yes, of course, he must have a mother I suppose; he is the natural child of the late Peverel Corbin."

"Late? Peverel Corbin is dead?"

"I am afraid so" the quaestor came close to being unctuous.

"Oh well that's not such a problem for the child then" said David suddenly recalling that Lucius had suggested leaving this very matter in his hands "After all he scarcely knew Peverel; saw him once a year. Not such a shock as if anything had happened to his mother" he frowned at the quaestor "I trust he inherits the property in France? He won't be able to concentrate for worrying about the future of his mother if she is to be turned out of her family home."

The quaestor blinked.

"He is his father's sole heir" he said.

David nodded.

"So long as the poor child still has a home to go to" he said "And how did Peverel Corbin meet his end? Falling out of another man's wife?"

"Professor Fraser!" the quaestor was shocked "Mr Corbin fell tragically from his flying horse at a point-to-point yesterday! A terrible accident!"

"Oh? Well he always did embark on things with more ambition than skill" said David "It amazed me to learn that he had a child; I'd have thought he'd have needed a magnifying glass and a map to find the basic equipment. No sir, I did NOT like him; he could have caused the death of his little cousin who was a schoolchum of mine when we were at school together and I shall not pretend I regret his death. And equally I shall be circumspect before the boy."

"Er, quite" said the quaestor "I – er, speaking ill of the dead…"

"Being dead does not stop the man being an absolute cad" said David "Now are you about to say that Voldemort was a jolly good chap and thoroughly marvellous just because he's dead?"

"No of course not!" said the quaestor indignantly "It's hardly the same case!"

"Why not?" said David "The one thing that Voldemort had to distinguish him from Corbin was a modicum of brains and efficiency. Both were vain, self-seeking, cared nothing for anyone but themselves and were ready to exploit anyone for the furtherance of their own ambitions. Oh yes, and Voldemort also had enough charisma to attract the following that actually made him dangerous whereas Corbin always had about as much charisma and personality as a sewer rat. If he had been old enough I have no doubt that he would have become a death eater. He was expelled from Hogwarts you know, for experimenting with his rather turgid and inept concatenations of cacation on his younger cousin. I didn't miss him then and I don't miss him any more for his subsequent demise. And considering the bruises the lad had after being visited by his father I doubt he'll mourn much either" he added.

"Oh" said the quaestor. "Er, Mr Peverel Corbin's father is making arrangements to take the boy into his own household…."

"Excuse me?" said David "He wishes to uproot Ramsey and his mother from their family home where they have lived all the child's life without any input from the Corbins bar a yearly visit from Peverel?"

"Er…. There is no mention of the mother being taken into the Corbin house; though I expect arrangements might be made, if she is found to be an adequate housekeeper to maintain her in that position in the French property…" he quailed as David's eyes and scar blazed.

"Remove the child from his mother – who took the distasteful position as mistress to Peverel Corbin only to maintain a home in the family home she was forced to sell – and send him to strangers? Over a battle through the courts, neighbour! I SHALL apprise the child of his rights to demand protection of the school if that happens, and the school has rights then to appoint an appropriate guardian. And by the way, CORMAC Corbin has no say in whether Modestine LeBlanc is evicted or no since you have told me that the property belongs to Ramsey; perhaps it WOULD be better if he demands his rights to be the school's ward since then his House Head would be in charge of the administration of his property."

"Oh but surely Professor Flitwick will not wish…."

"Flitwick? Filius Flitwick is head of Ravenclaw; which is NOT Ramsey's house"

"Not – not Ravenclaw? But – but Corbins are ALWAYS in Ravenclaw."

"Grace was a Gryffindor with me actually" said David "And Ramsey is in Slytherin, under Madam Hardbroom; though I fancy it might be more appropriate to appoint her junior to being in charge of the boy; Professor Hawke Malfoy."

David felt a malicious pleasure in saying this; the man was plainly by his looks some kind of Corbin cousin.

The quaestor blinked several times.

"Dear me" he said mildly.

"Well, let me send for Ramsey" said David clicking his fingers for an elf.

oOoOo

"Ramsey, my boy" said David, putting an arm around the little boy "There is bad news about your father."

"My father? What has the creep done now?" demanded Ramsey "If he is hurting my mother again so help me I'll KILL him!"

"You're a little late" said David dryly "Fate intervened and he is dead of a fall from his horse."

"Oh good" said Ramsey "I say will that evil old father of his try to throw mummy and me out of the house? I met him once and he's NASTY!"

"You own the house" said David "And you are within your rights to demand the protection of the school as your legal guardian rather than go and live with Mr Cormac Corbin."

"I'd as soon drink erumpant urine through a straw then live with HIM!" said Ramsey, revolted.

"Do you choose to ask the school to be your guardian then and to administer your estate and permit, if you so will it, your mother to continue in residence since the administration can evict her if it wishes?" said David.

Ramsey regarded him levelly.

"I want it all in YOUR hands sir, so maman can continue in our house and I don't want my father's father to have anything to do with it or me" he said.

"You witness this statement of course" said David nodding to the quaestor "I will draw up the appropriate documents. Your father's quaestor here is now at your orders as I presume he is an executor of the estate?"

"I – yes" said the quaestor.

"Then you had better inform him of your wishes regarding the administration of any property other than the French house" said David "As he intimates that there is more. You may prefer not to know where the means to buy such came from."

"Was my father a crook then?" asked Ramsey, interested.

"Certainly not!" cried the quaestor.

"Let us say I find it hard to believe that a man who did not take any OWLs because he was expelled managed to become wealthy without a few shady deals" said David "And I DID hear rumours about black marketeering during the political upheaval that nobody could ever prove. However, you have inherited it cleanly enough."

"Well in that case, when I am grown up I shall find out about people who were harmed by black marketeering and give lots to them" said Ramsey. "Because I intend to do well at school so I shall be in a position to earn a clean living" and he looked scornfully at the quaestor.

"You are coming close to slander, Professor Fraser" said the quaestor.

"Funny" said David "I understood that in law you can't slander the dead. Besides, I repeat rumour; not state it as fact. DOES the lad have any more property bar his house in France?"

"Er, he owns a number of properties in England and er, in Germany" said the quaestor.

"Crumbs, did he cash in on the confusion over the overthrow of Odessa as well? WHAT a pill my father is – was!" said Ramsey "I say sir, if I place the administration in your hands, can you have it sorted out?" he looked appealingly at David.

"I can have it placed in the hands of a reputable Anwalt – a German quaestor – who acts for a friend of mine if you like" said David.

"And as executor of Mr Corbin's holdings may I ask who that friend might be?" asked the quaestor.

"Oh there's nothing to stop you ASKING old boy" said David "Whether I decide to answer so poisonously contumelious a question is another matter. But I shall tell Ramsey that the Frau Baronin Jade Von und Zu Strang und Luytens is the adopted daughter of Professor Snape of Prince Peak and an ex Slytherin like yourself. She's running a school in her old family home, for the impoverished in society so she has a well developed sense of social needs. I don't think you'll find her chosen Anwalt at all deficient in fulfilling both letter and spirit of your requirements."

"Excellent; I approve your choice sir" said Ramsey "Mr er, Corbin, pray see that all the proper documentation is delivered by elf courier to the address provided by my Guardian Professor Fraser."

"Of course Mr Corbin" said the man grinding his teeth "And my name is Blunt; it is my mother who is a Corbin."

"Ah, I see, Mr Blunt" said Ramsey. He did see and the quaestor, an effective poor relation, ground his teeth still further that Peverel Corbin had actually made a will in favour of this bastard brat and legitimised him with his name when he showed so little family feeling! And that sanctimonious bastard Fraser – what was wrong with profiting from upheaval? Anyone would think he held the Corbins in contempt!

As David DID hold the Corbins in contempt this was a very accurate thought.

oOoOo

The quaestor having left after passing – grudgingly – a list of properties to David, Ramsey said,

"I say sir, are ALL my father's family such ticks?"

David considered.

"No lad" he said "Mr Ransley Corbin is an upright, honest, and conscientious man; just as well as he is a governor of the school. And his younger two grandsons are decent enough; I never met their older brother that I recall, or if he was at school with me he left an indelible blank on my recollection."

Ramsey gurgled with mirth.

"So stuffy and pompous but mostly harmless?" he said.

"Just remember I never said so about a governor" said David. "We need to make sure that your mother is all right; if I was you I should write to her immediately in your own handwriting a notification of your father's death and your wishes as the owner of the property that she remain in residence in the French property – and name it fully – as its custodian under your name and as chatelaine in perpetuity for her lifetime. That protects her if Cormac is sending any type to try to evict her. I'll have an elf take it directly to her and I'll pick one that is capable of evicting anyone who might have got to her first" he added grimly. Ramsey gave him a startled look and wrote on the paper that David quickly passed him.

Tarri should see to this personally; she took no nonsense from anyone.

Including her supposed Master.

Ramsey skipped back to his classmates to inform them cheerfully that his rotter of a dad had managed to kill his stupid self falling off some nag and that he was now a ward of the school so sucks to his father's rotten family.

Drax Macnair, who knew all about rotten relatives, congratulated him and the whole of the Slytherin first bar Agatha and Deirdre, joined by substantial amounts of the Gryffindor first, sang 'for he's a jolly good fellow' and drank his health in butterbeer scrounged from the kitchen elves courtesy of Drogo who knew all the tricks of wheedling the Hogwarts castle elves.

oOoOo

"Y'know" said Lilith who was spending the Sunday on a moonlit beach in New Zealand, relieved that Jade's baby daughter had arrived safely during the week "As well as pearl shell there's oysters down there."

"So what? I don't like shellfish" said Sextus.

"Don't be so shellfish about shellfish" giggled Lilith "And actually I wasn't thinking about eating them; I thought we might dive down and confund them into opening and if there are any pearls inside whip 'em out; which won't hurt the oysters at all because when people normally fish for pearls they heave up any oysters they find and prize them open and thereby kill off a whole lot that don't have pearls in which is an awful waste. Especially when they usually don't eat them."

"It does sound a lot more efficient" said Sextus "What for do you need pearls, Halfpint? I thought you were rolling in money."

"Well that's not hardly the point, is it?" said Lilith "It's far more satisfying to have pearls won by the sweat of your own brow – does one sweat under water? – than only bought ones that someone else has been and gone and fished up and besides which they'll have done it in the killing of oysters manner. Pearls are an excrescence to oysters and acksherly they'll be glad to get rid of them so it's kind of something given willingly so I should think too they'd have a better chance of taking an enchantment too if we wanted to. You know!"

"It's a point" said Sextus.

"Could we persuade an oyster to have something mildly irritating put inside of it?" asked Kazrael "I mean, something that had been shaped to be significant in patterns to start off with, that when covered in pearl stuff to stop it irritating would be kind of more betterer for ritual?"

"It's something to consider if there was anything that made the pearl more significant than any other substance" said Lilith "But I suggest we just practise confunding them into letting us swipe pearls for now. It's worth bearing in mind though, and researching" she added.

"Heh, she just wants to dissolve them in vinegar like that Egyptian queen" said Venus.

"Cleopatra. And it's a myth" said Lilith.

"Yeah, 'cos pearls don't dissolve in vinegar" said Gennar.

"And I bet you've actually tried" said Jayashree.

"Yes of course I have" said Gennar "With the pearls of a house guest who was rude to my mum. It was damnably disappointing until dad saved the day."

"Lucius is always inventive" said Lilith "What happened?"

Gennar grinned.

"He said, 'dear me, the children appear to have been testing out that old story about dissolving pearls in vinegar as a snack Madam Montague; did you want to see if it tastes special?' and then he pulled out the string they were on and did something clever with magic to vanish the pearls somewhere else; and then she had hysterics because she DID believe in the story. And then he told her that they must have been fresh water pearls to dissolve so fast – dad spins a wonderful line – so he didn't have to compensate her so much and then he sold them for the marginalised women's fund. She left though which was the general idea" he added "And I think dad was quite pleased or he'd have docked my pocket money or grounded me or something. Ruddy woman foisted herself onto us by claiming distant relations in common and tried to take over mum Narcissa's running of the society, cheeky moo!"

"Rather" said Lilith "Some Females don't deserve any other way of describing them and with a capital Fe at that."

"Well when are we going to dive for pearls, Halfpint?" asked Sextus.

"Oh any old time" said Lilith "Isn't the moon gorgeous this afternoon? I like the full moon and it's almost like a big pearl itself hung in the velvet sky with diamond sparkles of stars. You only get really nice dark nights here in New Zealand because there's no light pollution; Hogwarts ain't bad but if you're unlucky you can still see the glow of Glasgow. Besides if you can't see Glasgow it's usually because there's heavy cloud."

"Huh, well, at least I get to be the one to give you pearls and there isn't going to be some other creep likening them to the moon and you to Diana the Huntress" said Sextus.

"Lumme, Sec, did YOU just liken me to Dianna aka Artemis?" said Lilith. "I didn't know you did the romantic stuff!"

Sextus burned.

"I don't" he said "And I didn't; it's just I can see some other clod trying to be romantic trying to do so. Which would be a damned fool thing to do because she was a bit of a cow."

"Yes she was, wasn't she?" said Lilith "Always killing people or turning them into animals or plants for really most awfully minor irritations so when she was really peeved over whichever dipstick it was who killed a doe that was really one of her ladies in waiting it didn't hardly show as any different to the one that accidentally caught sight of her bathing. And a goddess ought to have had better wards up if she didn't want to be seen in the altogether so it was her own fault" she added. "I don't think any of the Greek gods and goddesses were actually terribly savoury; most of them spent most of their er, eternity bed-hopping and doing unnatural things like getting people pregnant whilst in the form of a swan and swans are birds and birds have cloacas so I can't see how THAT answered."

"Acksherly, Half-Pint, male swans don't, they have retractable bits, and so do geese and some other big birds," said Sextus, "I looked it up because I always wondered how…" he burned.

"Well, you have to admit, getting it on with a human when you're a big smelly bird is a bit off," said Lilith, "and thanks, Sec, I didn't know that!"

"We don't often catch Lilith with something she doesn't know, I'm impressed, Sec," giggled Kazrael.

Sextus grinned ruefully.

"Prurient curiosity I suppose," he admitted. "Sex is all pretty silly, but some of the old Greek gods were sillier even than sixth formers."

"It does all sound rather icky" giggled Jayashree. "Hindi gods do silly things too so I reckon that the muggles who write about them just want their gods to be sort of fallible and so they're not unreachable."

"Pretty fair comment I reckon" said Lilith "Except some of their gods are probably based on witches and wizards and as we know them as like the adulation of others, even muggles, can be most awfully fallible. If you must decide at any time to use the classics our Sec, about the best is Circe who had a bad press because of the way the ancient Greeks viewed potioneers though she's still a bit of an equivocal character and I've always wondered whether the various sailors she turned into pigs ended up later on the menu as bacon which isn't very nice to think about."

"This is one reason I'm glad I never got lumbered with the classics" said Kazrael "Being ill educated has its uses; less to shock and worry you."

"Well there's just as much gruesome stuff in current religions" said Lilith "The Bible is just full of vice and murder and horrid things; like Jael who killed this fellow by banging a tent peg into him because he was an enemy general and she was pretending to be a collaborator. And it wouldn't have been a sharp metal skewer-like peg like we have nowadays, but a wooden one like the ones we have for the canvas tents for doing scouting stuff and I can't see how she killed him while he was asleep because y'know you put a bit of wood to his head and hammer and he wakes up and hollers because it's got to hurt."

"You worry too much about irrelevant crap Halfpint" said Sextus "I expect she got him paralytic first on fig wine and some potion to keep him well out."

"Well why didn't she just poison him then?" said Lilith.

"Terror tactics of course!" said Sextus "Y'know, poison might have been an accident and then the enemy just appoint another general; having a ruddy great tent peg in his head isn't going to be an accident and it's kind of demoralising."

"You're probably right" said Lilith.

"I preferred talking about pearls" said Jayashree "Less messy."

"Sorry Pusskin" said Lilith, kissing Jayashree fondly on the cheek. "Actually I think it's teatime so shall we go back to Hogwarts?"

This was voted a reasonable idea so they emerged into the junior cloakroom and dutifully signed out of New Zealand. After all they could go pearl fishing any time.