Chapter 13
Lucius Malfoy blew into the school in his usual urbane, elegant and studiously caddish way, as Darryl said to him. Lucius laughed.
"Well, I do try to please, you know. All OWLs this year?"
"Have a heart, Lucius; even I can't manage to bring on a group to NEWT in just a year, though I think some of them might have scraped a pass at it, even so."
"Indeed? Well I look forward to examining THEM," said Lucius.
"Some of those coming up through the school have fey blood and will be very glad to support the next chant we end up doing," said Darryl.
"What, you're not telling me you managed to get any to Maraud?" Lucius elevated a sculptured eyebrow.
"Lucius, you know fine well that kids are kids regardless of background; if given the opportunity to be so," said Darryl.
"Indeed; and these ones are only a bit precious, not downtrodden," said Lucius. "How many?"
"Only eleven taking the exam; and one of those is in the fourth. The Troisième, I mean," amended Darryl.
"I don't count in foreign," said Lucius, a piece of cheek that left Darryl gasping.
"For the world's pre-eminent ancient runes expert that's coming it a bit strong!" he said.
"Well, French isn't ancient, is it?" said Lucius. "Frankish now…." And with this piece of Malfoyesque casuistry he strolled on in.
"Piece of work, Lucius really is a piece of work," muttered Darryl, laughing.
oOoOo
Lucius hesitated briefly and divided up the chanters into two groups of eight and three: those from the two upper classes and Philomène, purely on the grounds of her bloodsong and because he thought she probably suited the older ones better; and because by including her, this was a group which covered the cardinal and ordinal points. The three in the lower exam year would work better together for being in the smaller group.
Neither Trudi Paganas nor Medé Fouconrouge made any protest about including Philomène; and it was in the spirit of enquiry that Salomé d'Haubois asked,
"Why then do we include the little girl?"
"Eight; better circle coverage," said Lucius, "one time when eight is arithmantically good, as you should realise, mademoiselle. To put her with three boys who are the younger chanters also is not conformable; and unfair on her."
"Oh, I see; thank you for explaining," said Salomé.
"You're welcome," murmured Lucius, who was used to people who just wanted to know.
The two groups chanted assiduously, and the circle they defined was definitely impervious to tree frogs. As Marc Guiscard also got creative, it was later discovered that it was also impervious to chocolate frogs, as was discovered when sundry people found their pockets emptying of sweeties when crossing the great hall.
This however was just one of those random events of the wizarding world, and beyond some initial surprise, those people with chocolate frogs learned to skirt the frog exclusion zone.
The written exam would be sat alongside the other exams, as Lucius had to flit around Europe like, as Darryl said rudely, the original blue tailed fly, since there was a scarcity of accredited examiners.
It took three days for Darryl to undo the complex little curse that left both his buttocks and his farts bright blue. Lucius was a very competent jinxer.
"That'll larn me to tease one of the premiment chanters" he said cheerfully to his oldest Marauders.
"Fancy him still liking to jinx people!" said Philomène.
"It's what helps Lucius deal with all the bad things he's seen; being able to be young at heart," said Darryl, tolerantly. "As you can feel, he's our brother; and he enjoys life to the full."
"I like Lucius," said Pharamond. "Oh, how much fun we are going to have watching Achille fall hook line and sinker for the Book of Thoth jape! I'm glad my dad is a competent occlumens, since you discovered the nasty creature has learned legilimensy; he carried off the matter of the ostraca when Achille came to ask about it with offhand disinterest. Achille got stroppy, and papa threatened to put it up for auction if he and Lucius were both going to try to demand that he sell; which had Achille getting monstrously upset because Lucius could buy FRANCE never mind Achille. So he asked to see it, and I bet he has a pensieve, because he stared hard at it, papa said, and then managed to drop it and stand on it. Papa told him that he was a clumsy peasant and threw him out. I had the letter this morning: hilarious!"
"I thought you were buoyant," said Darryl. "I was listening to the lot of you, and I think everyone did well, despite Marc getting creative there.
"Oh, well, Marc! You know…." said Jean-Luc; which was enough said.
Of the chanters, only Amyetis and Trudi Paganus in the Terminale, and the three boys in the Seconde had other exams, and if this was a matter of some concern to Trudi, none of the others had any real worries. Trudi was studying hard with a view to returning to her native Switzerland with a few unusual subjects to be able to teach. Like Amyetis she was taking Divination and Astronomy, and if her Divinational skills were not great, she would at least be able to recognise and bring on anyone who really was skilled. She admired Amyetis without an ounce of envy, and genuinely wished her luck. Trudi was also taking Defence Against the Dark Arts, a wise skill for any teacher to have, as Darryl had solemnly agreed when she had discussed with him how chanting could enhance that; and Care of Magical Beasts. Darryl knew better than to tease her that this would cover the dangerous care of any teenager; Trudi did not have a well developed sense of humour.
Amyetis was taking three ELFs, the third being potions; she preferred to do well on three than scrape a pass on four, though she regretted not being able to take her chanting further this year. She might do a NEWT alongside her demonology studies at Prince Peak. And she despised the three in the Terminale who had opted to learn to chant who had NOT chosen the accelerator class to enable them to get any kind of qualification in it, especially Marcellina Chaudron who could have been very good indeed.
The three boys in the Seconde were taking a – for Beauxbatons – fairly standard seven ELMs, and having an eighth in chanting was some kudos to them. And, said Stephan, would have been more use to Erzuli, had she joined the accelerator class, than trying to give house room to some grotty old spirit which couldn't even adequately curse a kid in the Troisième.
To be fair, the vessel through which Maitre Carrefour had been working had been very flawed; but it was felt to be a good point, even by Marc. The year in the ECC had left the rivals less full of rivalry, in working towards common goals; and Darryl hoped that by the next semester, when they were seniors and should be totally beyond childish spats, they should start to realise that they were very much alike in many ways. With luck it would degenerate into a friendly rivalry devoid of malice; even if Pharamond did not feel them suitable to bring in to be blooded.
Darryl had very little to do while the exams were on, save to continue in teaching the lessons of the youngest in the school. It made a nice change; and he grinned to himself at the amazed comments from the other staff members over the lack of hysterics.
The chanting written went well, and all reported that it had been straightforward; and Amyetis asked anxiously if they had missed anything. Darryl looked over the exam, and laughed.
"I think I took you all beyond this," he said. "I doubt any of you missed anything; the Cinquieme could have scraped through this."
"Good; I am glad not to have missed anything obvious," said Amyetis. "My exams are now over and I can relax."
Apart from a few more ELMs to go, most of the exams were over, and life was quiet.
It was too good to last.
The chant calmed people and prevented them from working themselves up into hysterics; but largely this was directed at the conscious mind. The subconscious mind was still subject to its own wanderings in sleep, and one of the girls in the Seconde who had not opted for chanting not only dreamed, but took to sleepwalking, alerting the staff – and everyone else – by waking up in the middle of the school garden shrieking in terror for having no idea how she came to be there.
Darryl got a glower from Amelie Duvall when he remarked cheerfully that unless a banshee had invaded, someone was trying to raise dark creatures like Katti Krächzen or Celestina Warbeck. Olympe gathered the sobbing girl up to soothe and demanded that Darryl legilimens her to find out what was wrong.
Darryl did so, and shrugged.
"Studying under the bedclothes, Olympe; and not something that is going to stop until you have prep at a reasonable time of day, like after lunch, and take the ban on schoolbooks in the dorms seriously. You aren't going to listen to me though, I don't suppose. I do wish you'd talk to Severus though on his rigidly enforced periods of relaxation," he spoke in English.
"Severus 'as periods of enforced relaxation? I thought 'e drive 'is pupils 'ard?" said Olympe.
"Not really; he encourages them to give their best, and makes them work hard in school and in prep periods, and he also makes them play and have hobbies, and bans schoolbooks anywhere but the prep rooms and classrooms," said Darryl. "The older classes may apply for permission to do private study outside. But he reckons that growing bodies need rest, work and play in equal measure, and that it was a failure to take that into account that led to exam hysteria. The kids at Prince Peak do NOT have exam hysteria."
Olympe finally looked thoughtful.
"I will speak then to Severus," she said.
Darryl's sigh of relief was not audible. It was about time the precious darlings got a chance to be precious only at times when it would actually help them more.
Perhaps one day, Marauders in Beauxbatons would even feel able to use their chanting to perform charms outside their normal ability to perpetrate outrageous pranks; but somehow he doubted that any of them would manage to cure people of not being tigers – though that really was a very Bellaish sort of preoccupation – or make people play silly songs with their feet. It would take a few layers of Marauders to cure the Beauxbatons crowd of being anything but… well, sedate. Even Pharamond needed to be gently pushed into considering imaginative mischief. It was almost enough to want to prank the school himself. However perhaps it wasn't such a good idea; it might set the staff against chanting too much.
Well, he might have the babes give a concert to the exam classes to cheer them up, using songs with colours in, allied with colour changing chants to cycle everyone in earshot through different colours.
Or maybe on the other hand, even that might be too much.
Darryl sighed.
Well, he'd made a start; and Marauding must either find its own momentum or die out in the French school. He had at least established some families who would oppose Achille; cured a child of being cursed; wrested another from the control of Achille; encouraged the wand-burned children to move forward after curing them; and made some people think.
It wasn't a bad start really; and apparently Desolina had learned when NOT to be gentle during the time Durmstrang was occupied by Russian supremacists. Pharamond, Jean-Luc and Abelard would help her, as would Philomène.
All he had to do was endure a couple more gentle Quidditch matches against old pupils and parents, both scratch matches and the sort of games that would be hilarious at Hogwarts but here somehow managed to be imbued with the spirit of tea at the Vicarage in nice improving books.
Darryl did consider passing on the idea to David though. The thought of the school team playing such earlier luminaries as Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, or against parents like Lucius and Severus made him chuckle. The kids would have real matches on their hands, and the older ones would, too, act the goat just for the fun of it.
Darryl laughed a little, and sighed a little.
Beauxbatons would take time; but it was no longer his bag.
Soon he would be leaving; and then he could marry Mimi, and wherever they ended up teaching was immaterial; because they would be together, surrounded by the most profound magic of all – love.