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HARRY POTTER AND THE JADE DRAGON
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Chapter VIII
The Caretaker's Wife
She lives where
the forest ends,
The woodland folk her only friends
After
the first few days at Tian-Long, Harry and the others gradually
became
accustomed to their daily routine of hurrying to the Hall for
breakfast in the mornings,
followed by the day's lessons. Lady Han-Yin usually gave them
something amusing
to do during Potions, while Master Yang-Kang was still ranting
and raving about the
Devil's Curse. Divination classes were spent tossing coins and
then checking up on
the relevant Hexagrams using the Book of Changes, and trying to
interpret their meanings.
For Care of Magical Creatures, they had some respite from the
dragons, and had a
look at kylins, which were a type of Chinese unicorn; each had
a slender deer-like
body, and a tail that looked curiously like a cow's.
To Harry and the others' relief, Malfoy, after seeing what
Robert had done to Yu-Lin
that first evening, had ceased to annoy them and was keeping to
himself. He, Crabbe and
Goyle always sat at one side with Yu-Lin, away from the others,
and would disappear as
soon as the class was over. Harry sometimes saw him and Yu-Lin
looking at the rest of
them, whispering and smiling slyly, and wondered if they were
up to anything.
Most of their free time was spent catching up with their assignments,
which they either did
in the Green Dragon common room together with the other Green
Dragon students, or
out of doors if the weather was good. The days seemed to fly,
and they were so busy
that there was no time to feel homesick, although they were getting
rather tired of eating
Chinese food every day.
Even this was solved, when one day Yu-Lin and the Slytherins
did not turn up at the
Hall for breakfast.
"Good news for you!" said Fatty, coming back from
the teacher's table where he had
been talking to Lady Wen-Li, "Draco Malfoy has requested
that he and his friends be
given some western-style food for a change, and so Lady Wen-Li
has also appointed a
house-elf to us, who will prepare whatever food you wish to have."
Ron and Harry's faces brightened, but Hermione, on hearing
the word 'house-elf',
arranged her features into a disapproving frown.
"Slave labour," she muttered, pushing her bowl of
porridge away from her so that some
of it slopped out of her bowl, "Even here, miles from home,
we have - slave labour!"
"What's that?" said Shan, looking startled, and pushing her glasses up her nose.
Ron sniggered.
"Hermione strongly believes in protecting the rights of
house-elves," he said to Shan.
"Including giving them salaries, pensions and sick leave."
The Tian-Long students all looked surprised.
"You mean, you don't pay your house-elves?" said Pixie, giggling.
"House-elves here are paid," said Fatty, grimacing.
"They even expect a bonus at the end
of the year. Of course, it's not so bad here in China," he
added. "In Hong Kong, besides
the bonus, they want a paid vacation every year, even though we
bring them along whenever
we go on holiday."
Hermione looked astonished.
"Really?" she said, her eyes widening, "they're
- they're paid? With - with bonuses -
and everything?"
Fatty nodded glumly.
"They don't like doing the more menial tasks either, like
cleaning the toilets," he said. "My
father thought of employing some from England, because the English
ones are a lot more
docile, but the tax on foreign labour is so high that it wasn't
worth it. Plus, they don't
understand Cantonese."
Hermione was still looking astonished. Pixie, noticing this, giggled again.
"Don't forget, they are Chinese," she said, dimpling
at Hermione. "Chinese all know
how to make money."
They met their house-elf later that day, at lunchtime. Fatty
brought them to a small room
in Green Dragon Pagoda, one level below their dormitories. A table
with chairs arranged
around it was there, and a small bronze bell hung from a string
in a corner. Fatty shook
the string, and the bell produced a loud, jangling noise.
There was a loud Pop! and a small house-elf appeared, holding
a pile of menus. Her
eyes were small and slanted, and she had long, bat-like ears and
a nose shaped like a
small kumquat.
"Ting-Ting at your service," she squeaked, bowing
to them. Instead of the tea-towel
that the British house-elves wore, she was wearing a plain white
blouse together with
tiny black trousers.
She distributed the menus to them, and then stood ready, Chinese
brush and parchment
in hand, waiting to take their orders.
The others started flipping through the menus, but Hermione
couldn't seem to take her
eyes off Ting-Ting.
"Dodo you like working here, Ting-Ting?" she asked.
Ting-Ting's small eyes widened slightly, and then, looking at Hermione, nodded.
"Ting-Ting like, Madam," she squeaked, her head bobbing
up and down. "Ting-Ting is
best house-elf here in Tian-Long. Ting-Ting spend two months in
Chinese restaurant in
Engrand, Madam. Learn speak Engrish flom Engrish house-elves.
Ting-Ting's performance
bonus this year will be higher than other house-elves here."
Hermione seemed too astonished to ask anything further, so
the tiny creature hopped
around the table, taking their orders, and then came back to Hermione,
who, still looking
surprised, weakly ordered some lamb chops.
Ting-Ting disappeared with a Pop! and then reappeared almost
immediately, carrying
a stack of plates and cutlery. She rapidly set the table, and
then their food materialised
on the plates almost straight away. She stood, at attention, watching
them throughout
the meal. When they had finished, she cleared the plates and placed
a little wooden tray
on the table, and then looked expectantly at them.
Fatty and the other Tian-Long students started feeling around inside their pockets.
"She expects us to tip her," explained Shan, placing
a bronze coin on the tray, "because
this service is in addition to her normal work."
Hermione seemed speechless, but she mechanically added a bronze coin to the tray.
Ting-Ting beamed at them, and then bowing to them, took the
tray and disappeared
with a pop!
Shan grinned at Hermione, as they rose from the table.
"You can choose to eat here, or in the Hall of Dragons,
from now on," she told Harry
and the others. "Just jangle the bell and Ting-Ting will
come."
She gathered up her things, and together with Robert and the
others, made for her next
class. Hermione, leaving the room together with Harry and Ron,
was fast recovering from
her surprise. Harry, looking at her, could almost see her mind
clicking as she considered
all the new directives she could now add to her S.P.E.W. manifesto.
They had a free afternoon that day, and brought their assignments
to the grounds, sitting
near White Tiger Pagoda, and watching the Green Dragon students
practicing for an
Internal Magic test which they were going to take that day.
Shan had explained a bit about Internal Magic to them.
"We only learn very basic things at this level,"
she said. "To learn more advanced Magic,
you have to go to one of the Internal Magic schools. The skill
we work on most is Shielding;
that's something like projecting a force field from within yourself.
If you raise a strong enough
Shield, you can block out spells that your enemy is throwing at
you, even physically prevent
someone from coming near you."
They were watching the group of green-robed students who were
practising nearby. They
were working in groups of five, four students throwing balls at
the fifth one, who then tried
to deflect the balls without letting them touch him.
"I guess if nothing outside the Shield can penetrate it,
then nothing from inside can exit it,
either," said Hermione, watching in fascination.
Shan shook her head.
"That's the strange thing about Shields," she said.
"No matter how strong the Shield is,
anyone from within can always leave it. Anything that passes through
the Shield tends to
weaken it, though."
"Is it only the Chinese who have the ability to learn Internal Magic?" asked Harry.
Shan laughed, and shook her head again.
"Anyone can learn it. After all, you sometimes find yourself
spontaneously doing things
without a wand, don't you?"
Ron gave a snort of laughter.
"Harry blew his aunt up, once," he said.
Shan looked curious, but Hermione said sharply, "That
wasn't a good thing for him to do,
Ron - the Ministry could well have arrested him for that!"
Shan gave a small sigh, and got up.
"I have to practise," she said, and went over to join the group of green-robed students.
Chee Chong was sitting with them, rewriting an essay which
he must have accidentally spilt
ink on, for the original was all covered with black stains. He
was also watching the Green
Dragon students.
"We start with a small Shield, in first year," he
told Harry, "then by sixth year we should be
able to cleate a Shield big enough to shield our whole body."
Harry could see Shan's Shield, a faint glow surrounding her
body. Three of the balls hit it
and bounced off, but the fourth, thrown from the back, broke through
the Shield and hit her.
She gave a startled exclamation, and the Shield dissolved and
vanished.
"Shan's back Shield is always weak," said Chee Chong,
watching, "She must work on it
a bit more."
Master Kung, the Internal Magic master, had come out. He motioned
to the students to
queue up near a maze surrounded by a high hedge, just next to
White Tiger Pagoda.
Then he went into the Pagoda, and presently appeared on the balcony
of the third storey,
and signalled to the students to enter the maze, one by one.
"There are several tests inside the maze," explained
Chee Chong. "You will be given
marks, depending how well you pass each test."
Shrieks and yells could be heard from the students inside the
maze. After a while several
of them emerged, some covered with red and yellow chalk, some
rubbing bruises on their
arms. Shan was the fourth to appear. The front of her green robes
was soaking wet, while
the back was covered with chalk.
"There was a five-headed bird in there," she said.
"I had to conjure an apple for it to eat,
or it wouldn't let me pass. I weakened the Shield when I stuck
my hand through it to give
the apple to the bird, and someone threw a load of chalk dust
at me."
She signalled to Robert who had been sitting nearby all the
while, reading a comic book,
Vorg the Vampire.
"You'd better go in," she said. "Nearly everyone else has gone."
Robert put Vorg the Vampire down, and went off toward the maze.
Harry had noticed that Shan and Robert, unlike the other Chinese
students, often conversed
in English as well as Chinese, and seemed equally at home in either
language. Curiously
enough, Shan also hardly ever called Robert by his Chinese name.
Harry glanced at the
pile of books which were sticking out of Robert's bag. He must
have finished The Sorceress
of Alcandoro, because its wrapping had been removed, and it
looked rather dog-eared.
The rest of the books, including Sherlock Holmes and The
Snow Goose, were still in
their transparent wrappings.
Harry looked curiously at Shan.
"How come Robert reads Muggle books?" he asked.
Shan smiled, and shrugged.
"He picked it up from a Muggle neighbour, back in Singapore,"
she said. "But he only
likes detective and adventure stories." She glanced at The
Snow Goose. "I gave him
that for his fifteenth birthday, and he still hasn't read it.
He just carries it around in his
bag because he doesn't want to hurt my feelings, and he's always
telling me he's going
to read it next."
Hermione had been listening.
"You and Robert are pretty close, aren't you?" she said.
Shan nodded.
"Robert was sick for some time, so he started school late,
and we ended up in the
same class. He's almost nineteen."
Ron looked disbelieving.
"He doesn't even look thirteen," he said.
"Robert always did well in school, even though he started
late," said Shan mournfully.
"My parents are very ambitious. They're always nagging me
about trying to do better
than him. Before they found out I was a witch, they wanted me
to be a doctor or a
lawyer."
She sighed, and started brushing chalk off the back of her robes.
"But my schoolwork is just mediocre," she said, rather
sulkily. "The only thing I'm
good at is flying dragons."
"It doesn't matter," said Harry. "The only thing I'm good at is Quidditch."
Robert came strolling out of the maze, looking just as he had
before going in. He
picked Vorg the Vampire up, and stuffed it into his bag.
"I'm going to see Sang Nila," he said to Shan.
"Oh, let's go along," said Ron, throwing down his
parchment and quill. "I've had
all I can take, of History of Magic, today."
Hermione looked reluctant, but seeing that everyone else was
leaving, started
packing her things as well.
They made their way from White Tiger Pagoda toward the river.
It had rained the
night before, and the river was swollen. Chee Chong looked at
the swiftly-moving
water, then gave an exclamation, reached his hand out, and muttered
something in
Chinese. Something small and black shot out of the water, and
into his hand.
"What is it?" The rest of them crowded around to look.
It was a large black cricket. It lay in Chee Chong's hand,
half-drowned, feebly
waving its antennae at them.
"It is a clicket," Chee Chong said, looking pleased.
"He must have fallen in. I am
going to keep him as a pet." He looked at Hermione. "I
will give him an Engrish
name, since all of you are here. Prease help me think of one."
"Oh, er, let's see," said Hermione, looking slightly
flustered. "Well - how about
Chester?"
So the cricket was christened Chester, and Chee Chong started
back toward the
palace first, saying he must prepare a dry place for it to stay.
They continued on. The bamboo grove was now visible in the
distance, and Harry
saw a hut near the edge of it, which he hadn't noticed before.
A small, bent figure
had come out of the hut, and was making its way toward the river.
He was going to ask Shan who it was, when he heard someone
calling from
behind. Turning around, they saw that it was Jeanne.
Harry hadn't spoken with Jeanne much since they'd come to Tian-Long.
He saw
her in the Hall during meals, but they usually had to rush off
for classes after that.
She had a room in Green Dragon Pagoda, near their dormitory, but
she was
seldom there. She came toward them now, smiling, but there were
shadows
under her eyes, and she looked tired.
"Haven't seen you around, lately," remarked Ron, as she came up to them.
She sighed, and nodded.
"I've been busy with Master Kung," she said. "The
Internal Magic is proving
a lot more difficult than I thought."
"It's much harder to learn when you're starting late,"
said Shan, consolingly.
"Most of us consider it the most difficult subject in the
school."
Jeanne was about to reply, but then her eyes widened, looking
at something
behind them. She gave an exclamation, then swiftly transformed
herself into a
large eagle, and launched herself into the air.
They turned around, startled. Then, Harry saw why. Someone
was in the river.
It must have been the person who had come out of the hut just
now, he thought.
It had looked like an old woman. She must have slipped and fallen
in.
"She'll go over," exclaimed Shan, a hint of panic
in her voice. As one, they all
began running in the direction of the waterfall.
The eagle swooped down, low, and tried to pull the woman out
of the water
with its talons. The woman cried out in pain, and twisted away.
With a cry, the
eagle soared upward, then turned and plunged downward. Before
it hit the
water, it had changed into a sea-serpent.
Shan's eyes were large.
"How did she do that?" she asked.
"They've almost reached the waterfall," said Hermione, looking tense.
The serpent had reached the old woman. Throwing its coils around
her, it turned
and began pulling her back to shore.
"Jeanne is a shape-shifter," explained Harry to Shan.
"She can transform into
any animal."
The serpent clambered onto land, the woman still in its coils.
It then shrank and
changed shape, and Jeanne was there again.
The old woman was weeping hysterically and clinging to Jeanne.
Shan was
watching with a curious expression on her face. She dropped to
the rear, as
the rest of them hurried up to help. Robert had taken his wand
out, and was
conjuring a stretcher.
Jeanne was trying to calm the old woman, who was still weeping
and clinging
to her. She looked relieved to see the stretcher.
"She doesn't seem to be hurt, just frightened," she
said to them, over the
woman's sobs. "I think she stays at the hut; let's bring
her back there."
They helped the woman, still weeping, onto the stretcher. Robert
waved his
wand, and the stretcher rose into the air and started off in the
direction of the
hut, Jeanne beside it, the woman clutching her hand.
Harry turned to look for Shan, but she had fallen behind and
was pushing
LeafSong back into her pocket, so he turned to Robert and asked,
"who is she?"
Robert shifted his wand from one hand to the other, before replying.
"She's the wife of the wizard who used to be caretaker
of the grounds," he said.
"He died some years ago, but Lady Wen-Li allowed her to stay
on, because
she had nowhere to go. She stays alone in the hut; the only company
she has
are the wild animals around, which she feeds daily."
They had reached the hut. Harry was surprised to see several
deer in front of
it, and, a distance away, some wild-looking wolves. A few rabbits
hopped
away from them to the back of the hut, while a flock of sparrows
were busily
feeding at a bird-feeder placed under a tree.
The animals drew back when they came up, although several looked
at Jeanne
with interest. Shan took a liking to one of the deer, and hung
around outside
talking to it, while the rest went in.
The hut was sparsely furnished, with a crude fireplace at one
end and a bed at
the other. It had a simple mud floor. Jeanne began helping the
old woman into
dry clothing. Some of the animals had come inside the hut as well;
a squirrel
was by the fireplace, eating nuts, and two rabbits were next to
it, nibbling at
some turnips. Then one of the wolves came in, and they scurried
out.
"They don't really seem to be afraid of the wolves,"
said Hermione, watching
in fascination.
Ron shrugged.
"Guess they know the wolves aren't hungry," he said.
The wolf lay down by the fireplace, and looked at them. It
was a mountain
wolf, leaner and more sinister-looking than those Harry had seen
back home.
Jeanne was talking to the old woman, who, it seemed, could only speak Chinese.
"She says her name is Mrs Chen," she said to the
others. "She wants to thank
us for saving her."
Mrs Chen seemed to have recovered. She suddenly got up and
hobbled over
to a cabinet, and took a box out. She opened it, to reveal a number
of trinkets
inside. She took a pendant out, and offered it to Jeanne.
Jeanne looked embarrassed, and quickly declined. Mrs Chen turned,
and hobbled
over to Harry and the others. She smiled when she saw little Robert,
and caught
hold of him and kissed him on both cheeks.
Robert seemed quite unembarrassed, and submitted to the kissing
calmly.
Mrs Chen then turned to Hermione and held the box out to her,
indicating she
should choose one trinket.
Hermione blushed and shook her head. Mrs Chen, seeing this,
smiled, then seized
a jade flower and pressed it into Hermione's hand.
"Just take it," said Robert, quietly. "It's
not real jade anyway, and she'll be
offended if you refuse."
Hermione pocketed the flower and nodded her thanks. Harry and
Ron, fearing
to be kissed in the same way as Robert, quickly took a trinket
each and mumbled
their thanks. Then Mrs Chen went back to Jeanne, and began talking
earnestly to her.
Robert, seeing that Shan was outside, interpreted for them.
"She's thanking Jeanne for saving her," he said.
"She wants us to come and visit
her again. She wants to know whether Jeanne is married."
Mrs Chen was searching inside the box for something. She found
it, and took it out.
It was a pale pink jade brooch, in the shape of a pomegranate.
"She wants Jeanne to take the brooch," said Robert.
"She says it will bring her
good fortune."
Jeanne looked upset. She said something to Mrs Chen, and shook her head.
Mrs Chen looked at her and smiled, then suddenly pulled Jeanne
to her and
kissed her on both cheeks. She then fastened the brooch to the
front of
Jeanne's robes.
The wolf at the fireplace looked bored, and got up and slinked out of the hut.
Ron turned to follow. "Let's go outside, before she decides
to give us another
round of trinkets, or starts kissing us," he muttered to
Harry and Hermione.
Hermione followed him out, but Harry was still watching Jeanne.
Something
didn't seem quite right. He turned to Robert.
"Does it mean anything, when you give someone a pomegranate?" he whispered.
Robert was watching Jeanne, and hesitated before replying.
"It's a symbol of fertility," he said softly. "It's usually given during weddings."
Jeanne had come over to them. There was a rather set expression on her face.
"Mrs Chen says she's all right now," she said. "She wants to take a rest."
They left the hut, leaving Mrs Chen at the door, smiling and nodding at them.
"Shan went to visit the Pandas," said Hermione, when
they came out. "We can
catch up with her. You haven't met them yet, have you, Jeanne?"
Jeanne seemed rather distracted.
"No, not yet," she said, rather absently. She remained
silent a while, as they
made their way beneath the creaking bamboos. Then, she suddenly
stopped.
She looked at the others, who were in front, then turned to Harry
who was
next to her.
"You go ahead, Harry," she said. "I'll catch up in a while."
Harry nodded and went on. However, after a few steps, he turned
around
and looked back.
Jeanne had taken the brooch off and thrown it on the ground.
She took her
wand out, her face expressionless, and pointed it at the brooch.
A bright jet
of light shot out of it and smashed into the brooch, shattering
most of it into
fine powder.
Jeanne tucked her wand back inside her robes. She stood for
a while, looking
at the shattered brooch, then raised her head and calmly looked
at Harry.
She then turned, and without a backward glance, walked off in
the direction
of the river.
A gentle breeze blew, and the fine powder on the ground was
blown swiftly
away. Then the wind blew even more strongly, and caught up the
few larger
pieces of the brooch that were still left. They spun around, and
were whisked
away. In a twinkling, all traces that the brooch had been there
were gone.
Nothing was left, except grass, and pebbles, and sand.
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