Chapter 10

Pharamond was feeling quite buoyant. He had received an owl from his father, which as well as giving family news informed him that the now de-horneted Achille had gone haring off to Cairo. Pharamond knew that this involved a tiny clue on a fragment of a drinking cup in the Cairo museum, which referred to Prince Neferkheptah and the ways in which he hid the Book of Thoth. It was not tremendously helpful but should hint at other places to look. Achille was going to be tied up and frustrated for a while!

Even when Achille found the supposed tomb of Neferkheptah, he would need to hunt for the keys for the successive boxes in which the Book of Thoth was supposedly kept. Those who had studied enchantment and metalcrafting to high levels were involved in crafting those, and those skilled in hieroglyphs were decorating each box. Pharamond wished he could be more closely involved, but he would be playing his part in discussing translations in learned magazines in the holidays, in the hearing of Achille's spies.

Pharamond had been thinking hard, and had decided that the three Marauders in the Cinquième as well as those in the Quartième should be blooded, for their own protection. Madam Maxime would probably not like it; but then he did not intend to tell her. If Achille was feeling his oats, Pharamond wanted all the Marauders under the protection of the Blood Bond. He spoke to Jean-Luc, Abelard and Philomène about it.

"Go for it," said Jean-Luc. The other two nodded, soberly. Achille might be sidetracked, but his designs on Beauxbatons were very real.

oOo

France was to have its own Wizarding Wireless Vision broadcasts for the next task, and a brief piece on the Yule Ball; Lucius Malfoy had shared the secrets with Armand Duval, Pharamond's father, who had asked about purchasing shares; and Pharamond laughed over a letter from his father that Lucius was still chuckling that M. Duval had asked, and so far it had not occurred to the Herzog Von Frettchen in Germany to realise the full potential of the medium. Blood-joined as Pharamond was to Von Frettchen, he could feel the friendly rivalry between him and Lucius, and was aware that the Duke would be much chagrined when the full import of what he was missing occurred to him. He already had control of most of the newspapers in Germany and of the Wizarding Wireless, after all, and was, thought Pharamond, with affectionate contempt, like all Germans, inclined to live in the past. In this assessment he did misjudge Von Frettchen somewhat, since the duke was as forward-looking as anyone; he had just failed to consider this new medium as imperative as education. And perhaps until those who were watching the Triwizard at Durmstrang had left school, he might even be right to assume that there was no market as things in Germany stood.

Pharamond, however, was not acquainted with Von Frettchen beyond a peripheral bond, and was happy to gently despise the Germans as cultureless boors in time-honoured Gallic fashion. The three major European nations have ever thus dealt with their intense rivalries.

oOo

Homère Tisserand and Ithier were getting on like a cauldron on fire, which also pleased Pharamond. From a pact of mutual despite of their ex-lovers, they were finding a lot in common, and Homère was enjoying teaching the part goblin all about magic, with the hopes that he might one day sit the Examination Gagner Général or EGG. Ithier was a pleasant young man, who had managed to make friends with the rather crusty janitor, and who helped about the castle. Even Olympe Maxime admitted he seemed very pleasant, and if she might have wished to have Darryl back to legilimens him thoroughly, she sighed and kept her feelings to herself.

Then she swallowed her pride and sent for Pharamond.

Pharamond bowed beautifully, gave her a devastating smile,

"I am not responsible for the flesh-eating slugs in Mademoiselle Clairdelune's bath," he said, "But I have administered rough justice to those who were, and insisted that they remove them. It is out of proportion even for unfair marking."

"Oh, Pharamond, I know she is not fair, but at least she does not fall into silly attitudes very often to pronounce visions, and moreover she has never tried to frighten the children the way I have heard some Divination specialists do," said Olympe, diverted.

"She's not as dippy as some, but you might want to look for someone educated in Divination through Prince Peak," said Pharamond. "Viridian writes to me that their Divination teacher is very down to earth, and her major extra-curricular duties include working out days when there will be good weather for playing Quidditch. The English seem, on the whole, to have sensible ones."

"Madame Trelawney was not," said Olympe. "She told me that I was plainly a summer baby and that I should listen to the call of the salad of my birth time to ease myself from the imbalance that made me grow too big."

"Well, anyone can be afflicted by idiots, I suppose; and they got rid of her, didn't they?" said Pharamond. "Nothing to stop you asking Orlinda Schwalbe if she'll come back after a year or two out in the world; she's not so good a Diviner that she'll get a high flying job with it, but she's a half competent chanter, which never comes amiss, and she's a fairly decent sort. And she manages to keep Monsieur Étoilier sweet in Astronomy, as I understand, which is no easy task. I expect her parents expect her to make a brilliant marriage, but I also reckon that Orlinda has her own ideas about that."

"Well, there is that to consider," said Olympe. "Pharamond, I did not ask you here to discuss flesh-eating slugs and other Diviners, but to ask if you know legilimensy."

"Only if it doesn't get me into trouble," said Pharamond. "Darryl put me through a pretty stiff course in legilimensy and occlumensy over the summer holidays."

"Ah," said Olympe, in satisfaction. "I rather hoped he might leave me someone with that amount of training. What is your opinion of the man Ithier? Have you observed him, er, more closely?"

"You mean have I stuck my eyes down his brain, as the Snapes insist on putting it?" asked Pharamond.

"Such a clever family and yet such inelegant linguistic shortcuts!" said Olympe, with distaste. "Yes, I meant that."

"I did that before I even got Homère involved with him," said Pharamond, who had checked Ithier's motives almost as a matter of course. "I didn't want him hurt again, you know; I may not share his preferences, but I am fond of him."

Olympe nodded.

"You are a man who is at peace with himself, my Pharamond," she said, "that you are not uncomfortable with Homère's preferences. Thank you; I, too, do not want him hurt, but nor do I want the reputation of the school damaged in any way."

"Ithier is crazy to get an education," said Pharamond. "If you could persuade M. Cuilliere to permit him to use the potions dungeon and learn to brew, M. Tisserand is capable of bringing him to the EGG at least in all other subjects."

"I will make an offer to aid him, too," said Olympe. "It will tie this Ithier closer to the school and make him personally grateful to me. I want Homère settled; I am sure you can see why."

Pharamond laughed.

"Well, if I were not so comfortable with myself, I should have doubtless found his admiration of me a little oppressive. I am glad myself to have it redirected to another."

"Yes, it can be very trying," said Olympe. "When I was at school, one of the male professors liked to be dominated, and he looked upon me as one who might do so. You can't imagine the trouble it took to find a half troll female clever enough to train as a dominatrix."

"My goodness, I really can't imagine it," said Pharamond, who could easily enough picture his headmistress as a very jolly sort of dominatrix, but not a half troll woman.

One learned a lot about the staff when one was a senior.

oOo

Pharamond and his group had volunteered to run the Halloween celebrations, and that would include chanting to make sure that no mirrors operated for the duration of Samhain, since a warning had been received from Hogwarts that this might be a risk, and as Pharamond involved all the senior chanters prompted Orlinda to say,

"Oh, that makes clear the rather obscure reading I got from the cards. What a pity Mlle Clairdelune will not accept the readings of those from other schools as proof; there is no point at all in me writing it up."

"Write it up and I'll sign it," said Pharamond. "It may not affect your exams but it might affect a job application to teach in the future."

Orlinda shot him a look.

"What do you know that I don't?" she asked.

"Nothing really," said Pharamond, "I just happened to mention to someone that you wouldn't make a half bad Divination teacher if a post became vacant, because I don't see you settling down to marry some nice pure blood Junker with no brain."

Orlinda laughed.

"Thanks for that," she said. "The people coming out of Durmstrang are better these days, but I do want to prove I can hold a career before I consider marriage. I'll have to do the debutante thing though," she added, gloomily.

"And as well to be out of school for a while before going into teaching, I believe," said Pharamond. He did not add, 'especially in the same school.'

Halloween in France had never been lost in the wizarding community, as the Gallish Celtic celebration of Samhain was much the same as that in other Celtic communities, where food was put out to propitiate good spirits and masks worn to frighten away bad spirits. Naturally, commercialism had crept into the French celebration, as everywhere, and the ideas of muggles had seeped in. However, dressing as Vampires was probably less scary than dressing as the Fey who were probably the evil spirits initially propitiated and supposedly frightened. Pharamond personally suspected that the idea of the masks were to hide identities, since at the time of meeting of the quick and the dead, those who were grieving were easier to possess by great form spirits, knocking aside a soul which half longed to join loved ones anyway. More defences against the Fey existed in modern times, and pacts and treaties had been made.

Pharamond organised two parties; the first was for the youngest three classes together, which would include a competition to produce the best masks with whatever materials were to hand, and did not involve permanent damage to school property. That should prevent terrible things happening to things like pillowslips. The second party for the older ones appealed to the fashion conscious, being a competition for the best sparkly vampire costume in the best silly muggle tradition. Not that any of the children were aware that the glamorous profiles of Vampires had begun with muggles. Pharamond personally thought that Vampires were rather sad people, who were to be pitied for their affliction, but treated as dangerous. Unlike Werewolves there was no real hope of a cure, as the only cure for undeath was death. Pharamond paused to consider whether Philomène's facetious suggestion of a costume was suitable, or whether it would tip off Achille, as Philomène said she planned to come as the mummy of a female pharaoh.

"I suppose that it's another form of undeath, re-occupying the dead body with the Ka," said Pharamond, cautiously. "And we don't, I don't think, have any spies for Achille any more."

"No worse than one of the boys who has a German cousin coming as Abaris the lich, whom Durmstrang had to kill," said Philomène.

Pharamond relaxed.

"Oh, if others are doing different undead, it should be quite in order," he said. "But for your own comfort, I suggest you limit the amount of bandages."

"I was going to use a colour change charm and a prune-face curse," said Philomène, "and tie strategic bandages at places, and sew them between the skirt and the collar on a plain robe."

"Sounds good," said Pharamond. "You should look fairly ghastly; I don't know if the judges will think it stylish or horrible."

"I don't really care," said Philomène. "I'm only making an idiot of myself dressing up to set an example and help you thereby."

"You're the best," said Pharamond, kissing her firmly.

oOo

The parties went with a swing, and Pharamond had little doubt that those who volunteered to run the babes' party had more fun. The vampiric robes were, on the whole, very little different to the fashion models in magazines, so far as the participants could make them, with pale faces and enlarged canines. The robes were a little more daring than fashion usually dictated, and Pharamond tried hard not to roll his eyes. At least Erzuli appeared to have learned some common sense, coming in ordinary clothes with a dead white face and moving jerkily as a Voudon zombie. However, Pharamond reflected cynically, it was at least as likely to be because she was too lazy to think of anything more creative. The celebrants would have to rely on each other to take off any jinxes or makeup of course, as the mirrors went out of operation at sundown, but doubtless they would manage.

And after the whole business was over, and several silly creatures had been reassured that no evil spirits had eaten their mirrors, merely that a safety spell had suspended their usual function, the blooding ceremony might be prepared.

Notices had been sent to Chantelle, Amelie and Candide in the Troisième, Melusine and Armand in the Quartième, and now Auberon and Melisande and Emilien in the Cinquième. Auberon was the little brother of Amelie and Melusine, and as part fey was at risk from all kinds of things.

It was nice to see how the siblings realised how close they could be now!

oOoOo

May Shorg, Riker's next sister, had discovered that she was a year older than Lilith Snape, and had promptly settled down to work as hard as she could to make up some of what she felt as a deficiency; especially as her younger triplet sisters, Violet, Lilac and Iris, were often able to surprise her with their knowledge, because they collaborated to learn more, mostly for the purpose of jinxing older would-be bullies. The Free School kept the wands of its pupils in special lockers, and did not permit them to be taken home, so the three had worked hard on wandless magic practised on each other, in order to deal with detractors both of the school, and of their blood status. May had been disconcerted that they were able to easily dispose of a full blood goblin pimp who intimated that pretty girls could do better for themselves working for him than wasting their time at school, and Violet had said, "only if we go for jobs as bodyguards you git' and the three had left him bound, tickled, with bats pouring out of his nose and his rear end glowing like a muggle neon sign with uncontrollable and coloured farts. As there were no wands in the vicinity, it would register only as the sort of uncontrolled magic small children cast, and no investigation would be forthcoming. May was impressed and begged her little sisters to teach her how.

"It's in the will-power," said Iris.

"But if you join us you'll have to change your name," giggled Lilac.

"Why?" asked May.

"Because we're all the Purple People gang," said Violet.

"Mother never knew what she was letting herself in for when she named you lot," said May. "I have no idea what other flowers are named in purple so it's as well you're only triplets."

"Heliotrope," said Lilac.

"Lavender," said Iris.

"Pansy if you were pushing it," said Violet, "though Viola is closer, but it's also a bit close to me."

"If we had five, we could be the Purple People Pentacle," said Iris.

"If you wanted to stretch a point one could use Fuchsia, Orchid or Amaranth," said Lilac, who was a budding herbologist, "and it's because we see Amarantha as our patron because she inspired us because she taught herself to cast wandless and wordless. We hadn't got entirely to wordless yet."

"I'm impressed enough at wandless," said May. "Have you told Amarantha? I bet she'd be impressed too, and would be more than willing to sponsor you. And I really want to learn, but must I change my name?"

"Why not?" said Iris, the stroppy one. "We have daft-like names and May is almost ordinary."

May almost said that she liked ordinary but decided to hold her tongue.

"I'll think about it," she said. "And by the way, I have thought of another, not that I'd choose it, which is Prunella."

"Hmm, I suppose so," said Lilac. "Strictly Prunus covers cherries as well as almond and plums, and I guess you're thinking of plum-coloured. Morella, now…"

Iris and Violet poked her one on each side.

"At least she's trying," said Iris. "And by the way, Heather is another flower that implies the colour too. Or you wouldn't have heather-mixture as a colour of woollen cloth."

"Huh," said Lilac, "Prunella would be the best, actually, because May is also Blackthorn and that's Prunus spinosa."

"Oh all right," said May "so long as it's just between ourselves; can you imagine explaining to Mum and Dad, or worse to the Professors?"

"I bet the Professors would be all right about it," said Iris. "It sort of comes under those long words I can't remember that help you do transfigurations when you're older."

"Assimilative something," said May, glad to have remembered that much.

"We can ask Riker," said Violet.

oOo

Riker sometimes wished that he went to a large school, instead of being one of just a handful who were staying on to do NEWTs. At that, some of the NEWT class at that were students from previous years who had talked very fast to pay a nominal sum to take one or two NEWTs now that they needed to rise in their professions. That most of them were in jobs beyond the wildest dreams of their youth, earning five or six times what they might have expected as uneducated members of the wrong end of society, was neither here not there. Once ambition had been tasted the sweet taste of success could breed the desire for more. And Professor Longbottom had decreed that his pupils were always his pupils, and could return for more. It has to be said that most of those who were studying further were concentrating more on those aspects of the NEWT they were taking that would further their careers; though Madam Senagra Konal-Snape had waxed snippy in the Transfigurations class, regarding the application of the mind to all aspects of the work if anyone hoped to pass the exam; and that entry to the training of a Healer would not happen without that pass.

Riker was taking three NEWTs which was certainly not common; he had not felt himself equal to emulating Mortimer Bane who had taken five NEWTs at Hogwarts, nor even Storm and Zephyra, who were studying four. He preferred to do well in his exams than risk lower grades. Riker had chosen the two subjects for which he had a good feel, which was Transfigurations and Geomancy, the latter of which was a hobby class taught by Abraxus Malfoy to those who wanted to learn more than the basics. Riker was also taking Arithmancy, which was the basis of all serious magic, and fairly important for any Geomancer and came in handy for the point at which one took Transfiguration into the ritual level. Madam Konal-Snape could be relied on to be sidetracked onto more esoteric subjects if one asked the right questions. She had been at school when Deatheaters were still being rounded up, and was a part of the notorious group said to be able to bounce the Killing Curse. As indeed were most of the professors, some of whom had actually fought Voldemort!

Riker considered that those who came to the Free School were much privileged that such exalted persons gave time to teaching the lowest in society rather than being lionised in Society, and that it behoved anyone they taught to give their all. Which was why those who turned up wanting to learn just enough to progress in their careers irritated him somewhat. He was determined to get three 'O' grade passes, even though that took real work in Arithmancy. But Professor Kinat Konal was a good teacher, who made learning easy.

Riker felt a moment's guilt, and he went to see Professor Abraxus Malfoy.

"Sir, my sister suggested I should offer to teach Geomancy in Beauxbatons, and I thought it was a good idea, but it has occurred to me, you're not the regular teacher, you teach it as a hobby here, and to first years. Should I come back here to teach?"

"Lad, if you can get Madam Maxime to agree, it's far better to teach in a school you haven't attended," said Abraxus. "We welcomed back Bjorn Bjornsson to teach Care of Beasts but that's partly because he feels uncomfortable outside of his own environment, and making a Bearsark jumpy is never a good idea. And it's a more informal study, too. Besides, less people here are interested, you'd almost be wasting your time. I will certainly write you a reference if you, er, offer yourself to Madame Maxime," and he gave a filthy wink.

Riker flushed.

"Sir!" he said.

Abraxus chuckled.

"Well, you know what they say about the French," he said.

oOo

In Rowan House, Harry Crockford was rooting for his cousin, Riker, in the Free School, as was only natural; he was five sixteenths goblin and had manifested no magic, and was therefore logged as a squib. Vladimir Malfoy had acquired permission to make a special study of him, as no part-goblin squib had ever been recorded, and Vladimir was convinced that Harry was merely a late developer. He had also quickly pooh-poohed any superstitious ideas Harry had had regarding his parents tempting fate by naming him after Harry Potter!

The other squib in the class was Iphianira Hallow, who was keeping very quiet about rooting for the big sister she adored, who was so kind to her. The Russians were not popular and Iphianira wished her sister was not at the horrid school which Iphianira suspected left her bullied quite as much as she had been at Durmstrang, where Aglaia had been badly wand-burned in her early years. Iphianira was pleased to be a squib if it meant she went to a nice school with decent people; she had pleaded to go to school because she wanted to learn something, and was proving very good at Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes too, even if she found the other magical studies available to squibs boring. She could get nothing from a cauldron, but quite enjoyed Chemistry, and was delighted that her Chemistry Professor, William Pepper, had married her adored Arithmancy Professor, Fenella Fenwick.

Iphianira liked Harry; he took Arithmancy seriously too, unlike his friend, Aaron Jones, who had a brother at Hogwarts as well as a sister higher up Rowan House. And Harry stood by Iphianira when some of the kids wanted to tease her for having the same name as the Russian champion.

"It's an old name, like Malfoy; you gotta expect it to have spread about a bit," said Harry, absently nutting one of those who had pushed Iphianira.

"Thanks," said Iphianira, when he had helped her run them off. Iphianira had grabbed her hockey stick to defend herself, which had helped.

"You've been awfully down, Iphie, are you related to her?" asked Harry.

"She's my sister, and what she looks like on the Wizarding Wireless Vision isn't what she's like at home, and oh! I wish she wasn't at that horrid school, I'm sure they hurt her, like they used to at Durmstrang!" said Iphianira.

"Why was she sent to Durmstrang, for goodness sake?" asked Harry. "What's wrong with Hogwarts?"

"Hallows used to go to either Hellibore's, if they were boys, or Cackle's if they were girls," explained Iphianira. "But I think it's because when Professor Snape took over Cackle's, he brought in goblins. And Hogwarts already had them. And Madame Maxime is half giant, or so it's rumoured; so mummy and daddy wanted Aglaia to be with totally human fellow pupils and preferably as close to pure blood as possible."

Harry made a rude noise.

"That's the most awful tripe!" he said. "How come they don't mind you being with us lot?"

"I don't count; I'm a squib," said Iphianira. "I expect I shall be Aglaia's servant when I grow up, or possibly have to leave school when she's a debutant next year. And being educated I'm more useful."

"That's awful, how can she expect you to be her servant? Her own sister?" gasped Harry.

"Oh Aglaia will look after me," said Iphianira. "You see, when I was born, mummy was really very unwell, and so Aglaia looked out for me, and did lots for me. She didn't want it just left to Miffy – our house elf – who also had plenty to do nursing mummy. They didn't know, of course, I was a squib then. Aglaia was just starting to manifest magic then, and she practised to be able to do warming charms on my milk and things like that. And when she went to Durmstrang, she was horribly bullied for being English, so she's got a really strong shield charm, and she knows how to pretend she doesn't care, and she hates goblins because if they hadn't been in Prince Peak, she could have gone there."

Harry whistled.

"It's a cockeyed reason for hating goblins, but I almost kind of get it," he said. "Your parents must be nuts; there's no difference between us, humans, goblins or part bred."

"Well, I've found this out, but you see, my parents don't account my opinion for much, because I'm a squib, and they equate that with mentally subnormal and unable to understand what they call the realities of life," sighed Iphianira.

Harry gave her a hug; it was about all he could do. He gave a silent prayer of thanks to whatever Powers there might be that he had sensible and decent parents, who loved all their children equally, and encouraged him to tell them about the muggle lessons he was learning. Harry was actually a bit of a computer whizkid and hoped for a job hiding a school in obviousness, or working with the Aurors' office cross-correlating crimes in the muggle and wizarding world.

It had not occurred to him that the Ministry of Magic might have other uses for a computer geek; he despised the Ministry too much to think of it.

Iphianira was as computer literate as any of those who went through Rowan House, which was to say several steps up on most wizards and witches, but using it was her limit, and she was tremendously proud of her friend who tackled HTML with the aplomb her sister managed to brew a tricky potion. She only wished that her sister could appreciate the muggle skills to recognise that they took as much effort and learning! However, at least Aglaia listened to her, even if only with amused tolerance at the silly muggle subjects. And Iphianira was looking forward to Yule, when perhaps her sister would tell her why her letters were rather terse and uninformative. Iphianira was certain that Aglaia was not happy.

oOo

Aglaia was not happy, but she had no intention of showing that to anyone, any more than she had at Durmstrang. Her dissatisfaction with Dolokhov as a headmaster remained deeply concealed; and in truth she despised him. She knew that the Prince Peak children managed transfigurations beyond the ordinary – her own experiences of having rhubarb fingers having inspired her to work on her own time on a subject she found difficult - but Dolokhov reckoned himself to be skilled at ritual. If he was skilled at ritual, he should be able to undo the curses put on him by a bunch of schoolchildren, even if he needed the senior ritual students to add a chant to help him. Aglaia did not consider herself especially skilled at ritual, since it had been a new subject for her at the Russian school [and another point of resentment against Prince Peak, which seemed to teach it at an earlier age than the Russians] but she had put her back into learning what she could. And she was fairly certain that she could lay in a ritual of restoration in a knotwork circle embellished with fiery runes that if passed over Dolokhov's head would entirely negate the curses.

Aglaia considered doing it, just to see if she was right, and just to gain advantage with Dolokhov; but as the fool appeared to have no idea where to even start to extract himself from his predicament, and had not asked his seniors for help, she decided not to bother. Aglaia could be like that.

She wrote it up, however, and placed it under fidelius charm in her locker. She did not want anyone tampering with it, but on the other hand, it was there, just in case; and besides, she might be able to ask a ritual curse breaker one day. It might even be worth swallowing some pride and asking Snape.

Meanwhile, the term was to be endured, and then the foolish ball at Beauxbatons before Yule. Russia did not celebrate Halloween at all, so there was no holiday break to be had for that. The All Hallows Eve was very much an Orthodox Christian festival in Russia, and fun and games were frowned on amongst muggles. The Wizarding community had never had the same Celtic traditions as those countries that had once been a part of the Keltoi sphere. The only observance of any kind was Unity Day, on November 4th, celebrating an overthrow of the invading Polish, and the maintaining of a Russian identity. It having been before the statute of secrecy, Russian wizards had opposed Polish ones as well as muggles fighting. But it was a time of patriotic excess, not fun and games, and Aglaia had no patriotic zeal for Russia. It was another thing to be endured, and to keep her fingers crossed behind her back during the compulsory voluntary expressions of loyalty to Prince Aleksandr. She applied herself to her lessons, and brushed up the almost forgotten ability she had trained in herself as a small child to cast wandlessly, when she had been caring for Iphianira. After all, if she could cast warming spells and cleaning spells wandlessly, she could cast other spells. It would do no harm to learn to cast wordlessly too. It was possible, and she had seen it done. Aglaia had no very great expectation that Dolokhov would have any compunction about punishing her if she did not do well, and she intended to be ready for him.