Chapter 16

The run up to Easter saw one more quidditch match against the Pazardzhik Phoenixes from Bulgaria because Viktor's old team were curious to play his protégés. It was a tough match; but too many stars had been lost by the Phoenixes and they had not yet, as Ron put it, risen from the ashes. The school won after a close fought scoring match with the Bulgarians coming out slightly on top; but Arbrek was on form and the snitch went to the school team. It took all day and the score was two hundred and eighty to two hundred and ten; which proved, as the new Phoenix Captain said, that both defences were very good. There was much good natured teasing towards Viktor and his young wife; and Lydia gave as good as she got.

And then the holidays were upon them; which meant revision – carefully regulated –for the fifth and upper sixth; and Severus and family decamped to England because his cousin Albertine Gregg had asked him to give her away for her wedding.

Lilith was to be the bridesmaid and her friend Sextus a page as it was Sextus' father, Ashley Pencastle, to whom Albertine was getting married. And the young supporters were as smug as if they had arranged the whole thing.

Severus managed not to groan as he realised that they probably HAD arranged the whole thing; since they had certainly engineered a meeting between Albertine and Ashley to arrange that they pool resources of Albertine's junk stall and Ashley's curio shop that was not really upmarket enough to be an antique shop.

It was a small family wedding though Lucius had loaned Malfoy Manor and at least one reporter got in to take a photo before being escorted firmly out; Ernestine was there to see her daughter married respectably, something the Madam had never dared hope for; and she wept copiously. The bridesmaid and page behaved impeccably, which was worrying; though without unwanted guests there was no call for them not to. Severus wondered what bribery had got Sextus to be a page in sage green satin and black velvet to match Lilith in sage green satin with black trim; until he heard Sextus holding forth about how his mother had almost prevented him from coming at all. The acceptance of the costume was doubtless his contrary nature asserting itself. It would, besides, with only a little alteration, do for a ball gown for next Yule and Severus turned and raised an eyebrow to Krait who nodded. They needed no words; he and Krait always knew exactly what the other was thinking. It was why Severus always felt a little mean towards his other wives, Sirri and Dione, whom he loved dearly; but who were not his soul mates in the way Krait was. Unlike Lucius who plainly adored all his wives equally.

Well, that was the way it was; and Sirri and Dione were happy with the arrangement and reckoned that to be loved by him was a million times better than to be the only wife of someone they did not love so well; and if they were happy that was good enough. He only hoped that Albertine would be happy; she deserved some happiness in her life. She had never had any magical training, so being married to a muggle mattered less and would cause less tensions than with someone who took magic as a matter of course in all things. They were plainly, too, enough in love to surmount any minor difficulties.

"Am I going to have any siblings?" demanded Sextus.

Albertine blushed.

"We would like children; assuming that doesn't offend you" she said.

"I think it would be cool" said Sextus.

"Well young man, we were going to use some of Albertine's brother Pete's excellent potions for a while to actually enjoy being married before we started a family" said his father "we thought we'd give ourselves the year round before trying for a baby."

Sextus grinned.

"Sounds okay to me" he said "Reckon babies COULD be a bit of a distraction."

"Meh" said Lilith "reckon if they get too irritating you can stick 'em on the stall" and she winked.

Severus cuffed her; she WAS his responsibility after all.

"I do like babies" said Albertine "But I didn't want to rear a baby without a husband; I know how hard ma had it. And I never actually hoped to find anyone who was as good as Ashley, who doesn't mind me being part goblin and illegitimate."

"Anyone who minded should have their block knocked off" said Ashley.

"I am in complete agreement with you, my dear fellow" said Severus. "My cousin is a lovely woman; and though it's a quiet family wedding, it's not everyone who gets married out of Malfoy Manor so there's the seal of approval of society on the wedding. Well the society who counts" he added. That Narcissa loved arranging weddings and social events did help!

Sextus returned with the Snapes for tea and to shed his page boy costume because he said he would probably take wandlash from his mother over it. Severus sincerely pitied Sextus; the boy loved his mother despite her rather scatty ways and singleminded dislike of his father. Severus wondered why she had got pregnant in the first place if she disliked Ashley so much; and too wondered why she should dislike him so much. He seemed inoffensive enough; and apart from being dippy enough to want to shake, Madam Scarpin was harmless enough too. He wondered whether her dippiness HAD caused Ashley to be violent towards her; but she displayed no fear, only dislike and scorn.

Severus wondered whether, as a sensitive, Ashley had wandered somewhere in wizarding space or failed to be repelled by a muggle repelling spell and Madam Scarpin had fancied him and had not actually found out that he was a muggle until she was pregnant. It would be like someone as haphazard as Lucretia Scarpin to sleep with someone because she felt like it and ask his name afterwards. She was sufficiently younger than Severus that their paths had never crossed at school; not did he recall teaching her, so she must have been born somewhere between 1967 and 1971; making her between twenty three and twenty seven when Sextus was conceived, so no babe to be seduced by an older man but old enough to know what she was doing since Ashley was plainly not the sort of serial seducer that Crassus Prince was, for example. Not that it was any of Severus' business; save that it was his business that his daughter's best friend suffered from his mother's sulks. Ravenclaw of course. Young Sextus at least knew his own mind and was ready to stand up for his right to see both parents; but Lucretia was going the right way about having the lad decide to move in with his father; and as his father was married, the law would almost certainly come down on his side, muggle or no, as his wife was of the wizarding world. And socially well connected.

And Severus had managed to persuade Albertine to accept as a wedding present a trust fund to send their children to school and too to provide extras if she wished for her stepson Sextus. Albertine was a proud woman; but she would accept help for her children from wealthy Cousin Severus.

Severus had also used word of mouth to send people to the junk shop – or curio shop as Ashley preferred to call it – to the section Lilith and Sextus had opened in wizarding space which had been a ridiculously high level piece of ritual for two young children. Ashley was concentrating on such things as manual typewriters, sewing machines, gramophones and so on in there that wizarding families could use without contravening any laws about inappropriate use of muggle items. Lydia's goblin steel morphing foot had been approved by the ministry for manufacture and distribution as it did no more than muggle artefacts, being merely combined all in one with the use of the coefficient of magical expansion and mutability to change form. Lydia was making Ashley sole distributor for a year as HER wedding present. And Ashley had also taken out an advertisement for his shop with several papers; and whilst the ad for Pencastle Curios nestled discreetly alongside one for the Travelling Cauldron Kit in the 'Times', it was rather outflanked in the 'Prophet' by one that read

"Witches! Are YOUR children coming home infested with chizpurfles? Try the NEW Chiz-awayTM dedicated wand. You'll NEVER be troubled with chizpurfles again!"

The ads in the 'Prophet' were all like that; making extravagant and almost fraudulent claims. Lucius was always threatening to use their less than adequate small print for a law suit if the 'Prophet' annoyed him in a way that was not easily open to lawsuit directly; but had not yet got around to it. Perhaps Gorbrin would make it a hobby to hunt down some of the advertisers when he was an auror; one did – or at least the intelligent and informed reader did, that is discounting most of those who took the 'Prophet' – rather boggle at

"Are YOUR curtains full of Doxies? Try AGENT TANGERINETM the NEW IMPROVED doxy toxin and kill those doxies dead!

Especially as the small print, virtually unreadable on the poor quality paper and with poor quality ink read:

"Not suitable for use near children or animals; always read the instruction on packet" as a rather poor disclaimer.

The 'Times' ad and word of mouth would do more for Ashley than a line in a rag like the 'Prophet' any day.

oOoOo

Severus did receive a letter from a quaestor representing Mr Cherrytree citing assault; and Severus wrote back calmly asking the quaestor to put it to his client that, in defending himself, he, Severus, would bring a counter suit of attempted bribery, and that the poison pen letters written by the daughter of Mr Cherrytree would be entered as evidence over why such bribery was likely to make the calmest man angry.

There was no more said.

The quaestor would doubtless have advised his client that whatever the outcome of any suit against Professor Snape, the production in a public courtroom of poison pen letters opened his daughter to prosecution; he would have been a poor sort of quaestor had he not made the realities of the case clear.

Severus wondered cynically whether it was his daughter's wellbeing that moved Cherrytree or his own good name. There would be NO problem children if there were no problem parents; though at times it would be a good idea if children came with small print warnings like Agent TangerineTM.

This last thought was in response to Sextus and Lilith buying a packet of condoms – why they could not stick to balloons like normal children he did not know – inflating them, drawing smiley faces on them, transfiguring the air inside into helium and releasing them to sail across the countryside before Sextus returned home to his mother.

oOoOo

Severus returned to Austria after some time with his family in England; most of them came with him. Lydia and Viktor had been holding the fort; the staff took it in turns to be there over all the holiday period, since there were resident children apart from the exam students. Severus was wondering whether to actually dispense with the custom held long at Hogwarts whereby the exam classes remained in school to revise, and insist instead on his exam students actually taking a holiday. Still, under his eye he could firmly insist on time off from revision; some children would ruin their health over working at home without strict discipline; and alas some parents would encourage or even force them to work too hard just because they thought it for the best. He had heard about the unfortunate Mafalda Prewett from Mimi, whose parents had to be threatened with a suit for child abuse and whom Albus had tied with an unbreakable vow not to make their daughter study five hours a day every day every holiday. Poor kid! Whilst his own children might just do that for fun – one thought immediately of Lilith – it was NOT the idea of fun of everyone; and making something compulsory only took the joy of it away. It was why he had never had formal music lessons for any of the kids save when they asked to know more. Music was a joy and should not be made into a chore; and if some considered academic studies in the same light, well they were a minority as Severus accepted. And even Lilith liked to take a day to do things outside and put her books away; and even Lilith read works of fiction not excluding comics as well as the likes of 'Transactions of the Learned Society of Potioneers'.

Severus accordingly limited the revision periods to two hour-and-a-half sessions a day, and shooed the children outside for the rest, making sure to confiscate any books not of the most frivolous kind. He counted Jane Austen in this category; Lydia was fond of the author and had introduced Elsie Blackwood to them, and to Georgette Heyer, and Elsie was to be readily seduced from study for fiction, which was just as well. Severus thought she could have scraped grades in all eight of her NEWTs last year; she was perfectly well prepared. And Elsie WAS delicate, though being of the blooded had helped that no end, and Severus had no doubt that by the end of the year she would be as robust as her friend Emily Grant. Whose light reading was books about quidditch; but that was Emily. And Severus had too promised the Blackwoods that he would not permit Elsie to overdo it; and as she was his kindred he could now feel when she WAS overdoing it.

oOoOo

As part of the enforced relaxation, Severus arranged day trips; a day out to Vienna sightseeing and shopping was much enjoyed; the children were permitted to break up into groups of three or four and do their own thing and the sixth might go in pairs.

Here Emily and Elsie came close to quarrelling; Elsie had no intention of wasting an afternoon in a culture rich city going to find the headquarters of the Vienna Vampires quidditch team however historic it might be; and Emily declared that looking at art and architecture made her hair ache. It brought home how much the two girls WERE likely to grow apart, one of Elsie's reasons for embracing the blood group. Emily talked fast to be permitted to go as a pair with her sister Kate; and Elsie paired up with Randolph, who might not have been an exam student but who preferred to stay in school anyway. He took her to see the Wiener Werkstatte building, and architecture by Otto Wagner as well as visiting the Ringstrasse. Irmi and Sebastian went looking for a park with secluded benches for snogging discreetly between culture; and Adrian, Evangeline and Yukya bought a guide book of important wizarding landmarks and determinedly followed it.

Darryl had his Mimi with him and they went to a muggle dance hall where Strauss was the order of the day.

It may be said that most of the fifth went for ice cream and the three musical among them went in search of free music on bandstands. The Jorkins twins reckoned they had the best time because they found a visiting circus and snuck in free because they could not work out the muggle money that was required.

oOoOo

Another day trip was a stiff day's walk up one of the local mountains; and only Adrian made comments to the effect that as they lived on top of one mountain, climbing another seemed a little superfluous. Severus taught them how to bend the knees to make walking easier; he had done rather a lot of Alpine walking. The views were superb; as Severus pointed out, sometimes living right at the top of a mountain made one forget the glories of nature lower down. Randolph made a lot of sketches; and too took photographs. Callum had said that though copying from photos made for a flatness in the painting, there was no harm using a photo as an aide memoire allied with sketches.

He had probably not been thinking of a digital camera however.

Randolph had no interest in tinkering around with chemicals; Potioneering was NOT his thing. And one might do so much with digital pictures; and only print out the ones required. Dudley Dursley had let him set up a corner of HIS computer to use, so Randolph had blown some of his fees on the new Canon EOS 400 SLR and a couple of extra lenses. It was true that his camera would not record magical animals, and nor would the images move – unless he used it in video mode – but that was not what Randolph was after.

He had every intention of making his name as a photographer in the muggle world too; because with apportation he could go anywhere in the world without any fuss or bother. And he was a more than capable arithmancer to be able to work out where he was going even without knowing much geomancy.

The other young people were fascinated by the way Randolph could show them the picture he had just taken on the screen on the back of the camera; and Randolph was induced to take snaps of the two classes for posterity, though he did warn them that waving did no good because it would only make a blur as these pictures would NOT move. And yes, he liked them better that way because it made it easier to work from them when painting.

Most of the young witches and wizards secretly thought muggles must be a little boring to like their pictures unmoving all the time; until Julian pointed out that muggles HAD invented film which was a whole lot more than gently jiggling pictures and that Wizarding Wireless Vision was only just beginning to catch up from copying it; which meant static photos were perhaps considered a restful alternative.

It was an interesting debate; but by the time it had arisen, the hill was steep enough that breath was better used for walking than debating.

Food had been packed into a Bottomless BagTM, which Severus considered one of the more useful inventions of the wizarding twentieth century; the inside of the bag was a portion of wizarding space and an inordinate amount of food could be packed without it becoming heavy. Severus had also bought one with a cooling and preserving charm on it especially for campers; it held enough for a family of five to camp for a week, or as Severus said unkindly a single decent sized snack for a couple of dozen teenagers.

He was given a few injured looks at this snide aside.

oOoOo

None of children of the exam classes made any difficulties on the strictures over time away from study; on the whole they were a sensible bunch. Even the Visick twins who tended to take life fairly seriously took equally seriously the lectures Severus gave on balanced needs for a healthy mind and body.

And the last treat Severus took them too was an equestrian meet near Innsbruck. Those who were interested might enter; which of those left in the castle was just the three Ingate children. Sandalla, Svetlana, Yelisaveta and Vya preferred to just watch – certainly this time. And Veta preferred not to draw attention to herself at all.

They met up with sundry of Jade's pupils; her second adoptive son Rainer on Toffee, who introduced his friend Falk Kesselring, who was hoping to come to Prince Peak with him when he was old enough, Rainer explaining that Falk was not posey to have a Pegasan Pony but had acquired it from someone who had treated it badly. The two younger boys seemed largely in company with a selection of Lucius' offspring; Penny and Lucasta of whom were competing. In Paul's age group was a boy called Berthold who admitted to being a marauder; and there was a big girl called Magda.

The two younger ones entered the obstacle races; George went for the point-to-point on his own horse – Severus had decided that if all his wards were good at riding they should have their own mounts not school ones, and George was tall enough for a real horse – and Paul too had his own mount that he rode in direct competition against Berthold. Berthold pipped him to third place; partly because he knew what was expected. Paul thought he might JUST be a better rider than Berthold; it would be fun to see how that developed. He ignored the loud and voluble French of the girl who was in fifth place, complaining that it was INSUPPORTABLE that the wretched boy should beat her again AND his horrid friend. Berthold pulled a face.

"Bad loser" he said "I'm a bit of a diviner; I KNOW things. You're a better rider than me but it should stay close with MY edge."

"Friendly rivalry over our school days then?" Paul asked. "I may not be a marauder but I do respect marauding; and I know what it means. Severus Snape is my guardian."

Berthold grinned.

"Friendly rivalry it is" he said. "It's good to let off steam; I ran away to school after Yule so I've had a lot of catching up to do; and thanks to my fellow marauders I have done and more. And I developed a skill with riding; and my parents are dead chuffed because though I have to rub shoulders with goblins I also rub shoulders with the rich and famous. Which might be pointed out includes Malfoy goblins. My parents are a bit limited."

"Parents can be" said Paul "I don't remember it, but my real father didn't want us to rub shoulders with wizarding types; my biggest brother ran away to school too, only for him it was kind of accidental. And Severus got wardship of us. I'm glad you're independent minded; we just had a girl expelled because she wrote nasty letters to the juniormost marauders, because most of them are goblins or part goblin. It was all very unpleasant and I gather she got it from her parents."

"Sometimes you have to accept that the old folk just live in a past that doesn't exist any more and move on without hurting them too much if you can manage that" said Berthold.

oOoOo

Lucy was, paradoxically, the least able of the siblings; and was glad to have come fifth in the age class above that of her brother; and George, competing against Magda and a couple of very experienced and very snotty youngsters, raised her game and his both by the friendly rivalry of associated schools and took first and second, Magda just drawing ahead on the last obstacle with George on her tail.

Into third place was another girl on a showy pegasan pony, all white and gleaming; and she scowled at George.

"I suppose you're another of these nameless bastards and orphans from the free school" she hissed "DARING to beat me!"

George blinked.

"I say" he said in his best Draco manner "Do they actually permit vulgar types like you to compete in these races? I must ask my guardian to complain. I really DO wonder what gutter you dragged your manners out of. Fraulein Schmitt, permit me to take you away from this extraordinary female before your ears are further sullied."

Magda was trying not to giggle as George took her elbow politely.

"She was all condescension first time I rode until she discovered that I was one of the Frau Baronin's orphans" she said "Though last meet, they were wondering if I was related to the Ann Schmitt who married Herzog Von Frettchen."

"Heh, he'd probably think it a laugh to encourage that rumour; the Ferret has as warped a sense of humour as Lucius. Lucius Malfoy that is; I'm afraid we knock around with his kids and treat him as a spare uncle. Have you met him?"

"Yes; he was kind enough to invite me to Malfoy Manor with my friend Biirta in the long holidays. Will – will you be there?"

"It's possible; I DO have a girlfriend already though; otherwise I should be telling you that I'd make it my business to be there" said George. "Only Flo and me have been an item since before we were old enough to realise that we were. You'll enjoy yourself; Lucius and his wives love entertaining."

"I say! Did you just turn a flirting compliment without sounding smarmy?" said Magda.

"Well it was meant as a compliment; you're a beautiful girl with a lot of talent" said George "And I certainly HOPE it didn't sound smarmy; because it was sincere."

"It's nice to get compliments that aren't the sort that end 'so lay down and open your legs'" said Magda.

"Well if you ask me, you've met some rum sort of blokes" said George.

"I'm a penniless orphan; what sort of blokes do you THINK I've met?" asked Magda.

"Evidently the sort I'd expect any orphanage director to knock the block off of" said George.

"HE was one of them" said Magda "And – and I couldn't stop him doing it."

"Have you told Jade – Frau Von Luytens?" asked George "She's a sort of big sister to me; but she'd be so sympathetic!"

"I – I hadn't; only told her that I didn't want to be used" said Magda.

"Well you jolly well tell her; and she'll arrange something unpleasant to happen to him so he can't do it to any other girls" said George firmly.

He took her over to Jade and left her to it.

Well that had been a successful day; a fun time had by all and sorting out a girl's need to speak out. He went in search of Flo, who had been cheering him on, and who was pretending not to be anxious and jealous of him chatting to the beautiful German equestrienne.

George slipped an arm around her.

"There's my girl" he said.

"The other girl's prettier than me" said Flo.

"Maybe; but YOU'RE my girl" said George. "And she poor kid has no parents and has been raped by a slimy git who was supposedly her guardian, whenever he wanted; would you REALLY change anything for that?"

"Poor girl!" said Flo "No I wouldn't; I hope she finds someone nice. But not you."

"She needs to learn she can be the one who takes control" said George. "You come from a nice balanced family background; and you already know that. This riding malarkey is something that's all hers; it'll give her a bit of confidence. Come on; let's find Fred and Vya and see what there is to eat."

oOoOo

Fred did ask Severus,

"I say sir, with all this gadding about have we actually done enough revision?"

"Yes Fred; you have. Because if you didn't learn it as you went along you can't learn it properly by cramming facts into your heads" said Severus "Each break gives your brain time to rest, consolidate, and make sense of what you've been revising. And I'm actually going to prove it to you all; because we're going to have a couple of quiz games, NEWT and OWL; and play for chocolate frogs. We'll divide your forms up by choosing stones from a bag, in the case of your class eight black and eight white; four each for the upper sixth. We'll play it after the fashion of a quiz called 'University Challenge' on muggle wireless vision; a question posed and the first team to buzz gets to answer it; and then the whole team get to confer on three other questions related to the starter question. You'll be amazed how much you know!"

The OWL quiz went first; the youngsters thoroughly and randomly mixed by the time honoured method of drawing lots. And Silvina giggled that when she had been a small child and read about drawing lots she had thought it meant drawing a lot of pictures and the best ones won.

"A not unreasonable assumption really" said Julian. He and Silvina were on the same team; the Visick twins and the Jorkins twins had been split but both Sandalla and Svetlana ended up together; and Flo was glad to be with George and Vya disappointed not to be with Fred. The marauders were split four-three; as even as it might get.

And they had magical wands prepared by Severus that lit up and made a noise when tapped on their desks; and if any buzzed and did NOT know the answer the other team was offered the question and any one might buzz there without having to be so fast off the mark.

The questions were widely varied; including a few that were pictures that had to be identified that Severus brought up in Wizarding Wireless Vision globes; George rapidly identified the breed of flying horse as a Granian; and his team might then have a second point if they could name the three other major breeds.

George quickly got Aethonan – the breed of his own horse – and everyone in the team knew Abraxans; and then George recalled living in Hogwarts and said 'thestrals' and they took the extra point.

Silvina buzzed in time to say that the antidote to Alihotsy was Glumbumble juice; and the team, who were solid potioneers if not brilliant managed to get the other three antidote questions.

Those taking Ancient Runes were split equally between the teams; and the two questions that were posed on this subject were to read a short sentence displayed in the globes in runes of some kind and answer when the contestants knew what they said. Honours were evenly divided; both were buzzed for first by AHHa; but one he got wrong by virtue of assuming the start of a quote was finished in the same way as the original quote and the other team by slower methodology got there more accurately. AHHa did NOT make the same mistake the second time.

Sometimes the buzzers were too fast off the mark as AHHa had been; or a buzzer was fired when the contestant failed to return an answer, having either had a nervous twitch and buzzed without meaning to, or the contestant experienced one of those awful moments when the answer trickles out of the brain as the contestant opened his or her mouth. But it was good fun; and they DID know rather a lot more than they realised!

Then it was the turn of the NEWT students; who had been the audience for the OWL children; and good revision for them too, as Severus had pointed out to his staff.

The questions were commensurably harder; and there were a few groans as names like Waffling, Golapott and Gamp were bandied around. Irmi had ended up on the opposite team to Sebastian; and actually it had ended up a bit unfairly as Severus pointed out since Sebastian, Elsie and Darryl all ended up on the same team, being the ones who had the widest knowledge base for taking the most NEWTs.

"That's all right sir, the rest of us can spectate" quipped Irmi, who knew that in any other school, even Hogwarts, the five NEWTs she was taking would mark her as a high flyer.

Indeed only the three top students COULD answer some of the questions since they were the only ones taking Arithmancy; and Elsie and Darryl the only two taking Ancient Runes. Still it was all a good laugh and Irmi mentioned afterwards that it was actually quite amazing what you DID pick up because she had actually known more starter questions than she had realised outside her own five subjects just by earwigging on other people's prep.

And afterwards the teams were presented with as many chocolate frogs as they had won to share out; and a list of subjects they needed to revise better, Krait having sat listening with a list of each contestant to make a note of who needed more of what.

They had the last two days of the holidays and the few weeks running up to the exams; and Krait pointed out that if any of them wanted to study a lesson over with the appropriate teacher, now was probably a good time to book such revision.

There were murmurs of appreciation.

"We certainly DID know more than we expected" said Flo "But I have to say, how useful too to know what we DON'T know; sir, I hope you'll do this every year; it's a grand way to figure out what we need."

"Yes Flo, I think I shall" said Severus. "I hoped it might help we of the staff to find out your deficiencies; and it has, as well as showing you that you can be confident about your strengths. One of the things I recall from teaching at Hogwarts was that every year at least one girl would be carted off to the san with hysterics; sometimes girls and boys both; and often people would be ill with migraine and headache for working too hard. I find that totally wrong; and I believe that Professor Fraser has also been taking steps to ensure healthy minds and bodies by drawing on the practises he has learned here, of limiting prep time; and too by limiting revision time. There is never any point making yourselves ill to cram in a few more hours study; because lessons learned by rapid cramming equally rapidly get forgotten, so any exam such might help to pass is a false result because it does not reflect your knowledge, only what facts you can remember short term. And I believe that too much studying can too make you tired enough to miss obvious points and actually be detrimental to getting a good result. And believe me, I was a swot's swot at school, with my head permanently in a book. Except that I studied for fun too; my hobby was potions as well as my best subject. Which is why I never stop any of you reading learned magazines in the common room; as it is hobby reading. And if I were you, out of the notes you have on weaknesses if you feel a need to prioritise, you'll use Golapott more often than you'll use Herpo the Foul."

"Yes sir" said Flo. "There's not really enough of Herpo's writings to make him much use to anyone; it's a curiosity more than a written language."

"Oh it has been extrapolated by other Parselmouths" said Severus "But to all intents and purposes, yes; Herpo is as useful as a cheese cauldron."

Flo grinned.

"Or a self-stirring one" she dared to tease him, knowing his prejudices

"Even so" agreed Severus. "Better simile yet; an interesting curiosity that is used purely to show that it can be and serving no real useful purpose."

Flo chuckled. The headmaster was so very droll when he was on one of his pet hobby horses!