Chapter 3
Abraxus and Hawke were both to be prefects in their respective houses, Ellie being the other fifth form Gryffindor, and Willow the other Slytherin. Myrtle was delighted to be a prefect for Hufflepuff; and Romulus was quidditch captain for Slytherin and almost counted as a prefect leaving Kinat the only Marauder not honoured.
"And that'll be politics" said Kinat cheerfully "Can't expect a half goblin and a full goblin in the same year; besides, Ellie IS more responsible than me. And the school gets enough murmurs for having me; reckon if I was a prefect I might actually get assassination attempts. "
His friends thumped him on the shoulder. They knew he was disappointed deep down though it was as he said probably Dumbledore's way of protecting him.
"Everyone knows we hunt as a pack anyway" said Hawke.
The young marauders had been hunting as a pack in Obscura Alley acting under instructions from Lucius. The alley, and its continuation complex of streets off Umbrous lane were part of the wizarding world few of the 'nice' children of Hogwarts ever knew about, let alone saw; they were the more insalubrious end of the wizarding world in London and a high percentage of the population were goblins. Obscura Alley opened off Dalling Road, by walking through the wall of the railway bridge over the road and existed in wizarding space within the same area as the raised underground station of Ravenscourt Park. It had an artificial sky that approximately imitated that of the outside but somehow….dingier. It served as the main wizarding shopping mall for the neighbourhood, mostly to be found in a veritable warren of lanes off Umbrous lane that was entered by going through the railway wall on the other side of the Ravenscourt Road. Here one might find also Umbrous Place and Umbrous Place North, Twilight Lane, Shadow Court, Darkvale, Umbrous Alley, Crepuscular Crescent and Penumbrous Court, the latter the more upmarket part of the complex on this side. There was a high goblin population at the 'wrong' end of Diagon Alley – where Kinat and Ellie lived and few schoolchildren penetrated to – but they were generally employees at Gringott's and therefore well off. The goblins here looked far more downtrodden. The marauding four decided to take time being busy establishing themselves as known faces to pass as urchins by dressing down and loafing about in Obscura Alley initially until their faces were well enough known to be ignored.
Obscura Alley had more stalls than Diagon Alley, set up in a wide part of the street in the middle. The first narrow part was taken up with residential buildings, the far end with small, mean properties, some seeming to sell some services or goods but the majority of shops clustered around the wide central part, from which also opened up a court that led off it rejoicing in the name of Hagsraven Court. In the residential area was one building Lucius particularly wanted watching as it was an apartment block he owned.
There was a second outlet of Borgin and Burke's here next to a house which seemed to be no shop but to which people came and went.; another junk shop; the publishing house of 'Divination – Tomorrow!'; Splinter and Kreek, second hand brooms; a Goblin Watchmaker and more. The street vendors would not have been out of place in Portobello Road; a fishmonger, second hand robe sellers, which sold clothes at jumble sale prices and like quality; which was to say, very variable. And more. They were there to look not interact too much at first.
They had felt however that they had no choice but to interfere when the young witch had collapsed; and so they had gone to her aid as nobody else seemed inclined to do so. They dragged her quietly between two houses and sent for Beloc with a blood-call to have the young woman taken to Severus whom they trusted more than St Mungo's.
It transpired that Emmie Cauldron – which was the young woman's name – had been having an affair with a wealthy wizard who dropped her when she got pregnant. Terrified of being labelled a scarlet woman and losing her job she went to Number 68 Obscura Alley where abortion potions were sold. This was in the poorer end. As Severus pointed out dryly, off-the-shelf potions can be dodgy things to take; and he had needed to work quite hard to save Emmie's life and prevent her dying of blood loss, for in his estimation the dose she had taken had been almost twice what had been needed. She lost the baby, naturally.
Emmie was happy to return to work rather than have anything more to do with wealthy and scary people; she was grateful but she knew where she was in her lower class, uneducated environment.
"We need a day school there" said Severus grimly.
The Marauders returned and peered into the window of No. 68 which had a dirty sign declaring it to be the shop of Wido and Anchises Grubbe, procurers of equipment. A small and shadowy card in the window read;
"Virgins for dark rite available on request – enquire within. Kidnapping undertaken to order, reasonable rates. Abortion services."
It was a time for quiet legilimensy; in a magical neighbourhood where few people seemed to restrain their children from spell casting anyway nobody was going to notice a spot of underage casting.
What they found out was that the brothers Grubbe 'did favours' and 'acquired things' for people; and most of those from whom they got answers were hazy about what favours and things and preferred to remain in ignorance. The general view was that they had never been deatheaters because they were too low and insignificant for Voldemort to want, and that they were too cocksure to ever be able to call anyone 'Master' without laughing derisively, which would have proved rather fatal. The opinion was that they took on jobs Kordach and his people would not touch. They were accounted fair potioneers and sold in addition to their abortifacient, various cold cures and love potions, hate potions and boil-producing potions. They had never attended Hogwarts; so presumably their potions training had been a little….haphazard.
But at the wrong end of town, beggars could not be choosers; and not everyone trusted the apothecary at Number 47.
Lucius was right.
Obscura Alley and its environs would bear watching.
And unlike Hermione who dragged her friends into things willy nilly, the new Marauders were content to watch, wait and bide their time before getting into serious trouble.
New children were meanwhile convening in Diagon Alley to buy their school necessities. Jade Snape had been many times with other older children; now it was her own turn at last and she was excited! Seaghsron, her newest adopted brother, was there too, rather over-awed by the whole business and pretending to be cocky to cover it. They had little Harmony Bloom with them too for her first year, as the Snapes' ward, and her sister Melody of course was with the older ones for their new text books and supplies of consumables. Melody went off with Callum Prince and Cynner Strong of course; Jem and Erwin found their own friends; and the new marauders arrived late, collected Willow and went off in the sort of conspiratorial huddle that, as Severus said, no new prefects ever ought to be seen in by members of the lower school. Krait, feeling her pregnancy, had stayed at home with the little ones.
It was just a normal day for Diagon Alley; the three new muggleborn and their families rubbernecking, other families looking harassed, and ordinary wizarding folk trying to do their ordinary shopping without getting too involved with hoards of over-excited children. The red-haired Irish witch followed by singing leprechauns looked perhaps the most harassed of all.
Jade waved cheerfully to Lisa Field, Freya Tuthill and Gerald Purbeck. Lisa ignored her; Freya grinned, waved, and made frantic I-think-I-need-to-keep-my-parents-in-order signals; and Gerald patted his mother's arm, pointed, and came over.
"Hullo" he said "Weren't you the child of one of the teachers?"
"Of two, if we want to be picky" said Jade "But mummy's not teaching this term because she's expecting and it's been a fairly ghastly one"
"Oh" said Gerald "Yes babies don't always do things the same way, so they?"
He had four younger siblings, one still a babe in arms, or rather in a buggy, so he knew what he was talking about.
"If your mum and dad want to sit it out in the ice-cream shop with the younger ones, you can come round with us" said Jade "Have you changed your money?"
He nodded.
"I guess I wouldn't mind if we could join you but my parents are really enjoying this" he said "Caroline – my next sister – is really pleased for me, though I think Elaine is a bit upset because I'll be going away. Bethany's too small to really understand of course. Have you got any siblings between you and the baby?"
"Heaps" said Jade "Lydia's really my sister, she's a year younger than me, Seagh here's adopted, so's Mimi and Sevvy then there's Lilith, Richard and Iris and we look after Salazar and Rose who are mummy's half siblings, they're of an age with Lilith and Richard, about your Bethany's age down. Mum stayed at home with the little ones; she's not that much taller than me you see and she's EEEnormous even though she's not due for a couple of months. And there are three older ones, and Grace just got married, they're all adopted of course, and seven wards that we have to look after too. This is Harmony; she's one of dad's wards."
"Hi" said Gerald to Seagh and Harmony.
Harmony smiled shyly and Seagh grinned.
"I think" said Severus "That young Bethany here might like to play with my youngsters for the afternoon, and maybe young Elaine too if you've no objection, Mr Purbeck, Madam Purbeck?"
Gerald's parents looked at each other.
"Would you like that Bethy, Elaine?" asked their mother.
Bethany nodded vigorously. Elaine said,
"No!" and added "Thank you" when her mother looked at her sternly.
"Well, well, I expect you want to have as much of your brother as possible before he goes off to school" said Severus. "If he remains a good friend of my Jade, perhaps you'll all come and play in the holidays another time." This one, like the oldest, was untalented; and Severus felt for them more than he had felt for Petunia Evans now he had the adult perspective. He concentrated: and Sirri turned up.
"This is Sirri, Bethany" he said "She'll take you by magic to my house. She's an elf. You're too big to be scared, aren't you?"
Bethany nodded firmly and took Sirri's hand trustingly. The little elf clicked her fingers and disapparated.
"Where has she taken my sister to?" Elaine panicked.
"Why to my house, as I told your mother" said Severus "It's a funny old house, very tall and thin, in a place called Orme Court. It's not far from the statue of Peter Pan and often my children go to play in the park where the statue is."
"Don't worry Elaine" said her father "The Professor is not going to let Bethany come to any harm."
"Can we see how many more weevils we can find, dad?" asked Jade.
"NOT until we have your cauldrons and potioneering kit" said Severus "Whatever other classes you slack in, you are NOT slacking in mine."
Jade giggled.
"It's Neville's class for the first two years" she said cheekily.
"And you will remember he is Professor Longbottom you horrid child!" said Severus.
"Oh yes! And that Mummy is Professor Malfoy when she comes back to teaching" said Jade. "I'm so SORRY Professor Snape!" and she twinkled at him. Severus cuffed her gently with two fingers.
"Is yours this much trouble?" he asked Mr Purbeck.
"To be honest with you Professor, I'd love him to learn to be" said Mr Purbeck "St Mungo's has fixed the hole in his heart – after the medical profession had given up on him – and he's a different boy already, but still very quiet; it's habit you see. And now we don't have to keep telling him to keep quiet and not run around, he finds it difficult to learn to."
"Oh that'll soon change when they're all playing together" said Severus "Especially if he's attached to my daughter; she's a lively imp."
Jade grinned.
She was a Junior Marauder, but she would also have responsibilities within that of running a gang of her own age to protect them from any bullies!
She was pointing out the broom shop, and explaining that first years did not in general own their own brooms, when the accident-prone shop assistant tripped over his own feet and dropped the box containing six snitches which fluttered freely away to his howls of anguish.
"accio broom!" cried Jade, and one flew from the display for her to take a flying leap onto. And she was after them!
"I suppose I'd better help" said Severus, also summoning one of the brooms.
It was the most exhilarating flying Jade had ever done! The snitches were initially in a bit of a bunch, and she had no difficulty grabbing two quite quickly, and stuffed them down her sweater; then the chase was on in earnest! Severus, behind her, was pursuing the one that was heading for Knockturn Alley, and made a rolling catch that brought applause from the watching wizarding folk. Jade could see another; and daringly she got her feet onto the broom and stood up, as the new marauders had been teaching her; and made a leap, landing back on the broom by way of something akin to a Korbut flick that she had learned from Willow. She received her own applause as she shoved that one down her front before getting back on the broom properly.
"I saw your knickers!" shouted out a small boy.
Jade just stuck her tongue out at him. Such a comment was not worth dignifying with a reply.
The fourth was near the ground; and with a dive almost as sharp as a Wronski feint she was after it; and had it!
Severus meanwhile was in hot pursuit of the final snitch that had flown high up to the rooftops. It fluttered in and out of chimney stacks as though it was evading him on purpose; which in a way it was for such was its magical programming. Severus was in no mood to muck about; he flew upside-down over the chimneys and reached out with a swift hand sure and trained from precision potion making.
It was secured.
He joined his daughter, who held up four fingers.
He held up two and they returned to the shop.
"Gosh, thanks, sir, thanks miss!" said the shop assistant "That was some flying! Reckon you'll be house seeker for whatever house you're in!"
"Reckon I won't" said Jade, sadly "I'll probably be Slytherin, and my brother's Quidditch Captain and he won't want to be seen to show any partiality. So he won't."
"Then that'll be a shame" said the shopkeeper "Reckon anyone who's seen you fly would reckon you ought to be! And Professor – I had no idea you were so good!"
Severus gave a grim smile.
"I too was Seeker for Slytherin in my day" he said.
"I'm looking forward to flying you know" said Gerald to Jade "Isn't it a bit…you know, sore, sitting on a broom?"
"That's what cushioning charms are for" said Jade "And why doing acrobatics means you have to be really precise; 'cos you can't stand on the cushioned area without wobbling like mad. Otherwise it's just like skateboarding."
"Do wizards skateboard?"
"No not generally….just some of us" said Jade "My cousins and sibs and our friends. Do you skateboard or weren't you allowed to with a heart problem?"
"Wasn't allowed to" said Gerald. "No reason I can't now though!"
There were still things to purchase – the first years needed a plethora of books for one – and Severus whisked them onward firmly. Mr Smith had, with Krait's financial help, acquired new books in bulk and had neatly stacked and tied with string the first year books.
It was very helpful; and Severus said so.
Mr Smith beamed.
"Thank you Professor" he said "It seemed like a good idea, and for new parents too, it's the sort of service that might make us take enough of the custom to really make us viable rivals to Flourish and Blotts, at least with the more general books. For senior electives I think I'll mostly stick to second hand at least for now."
Flourish and Blotts were already really regretting the fact that one of the partners had been so rude to some of Krait's non human charges the year before!
They ran into Aurelia Yaxley and her mother in the bookshop; she too would be starting this year.
"Hello cousin Aurelia" said Jade "You got a new cousin since I saw you last, this is Seagh, we've adopted him."
"He looks pretty much Malfoy anyway" said Aurelia.
"Meh, he's half-fey so he might well be, somewhere in the mix" said Jade "Malfoys have fey blood in them I reckon. Victor Crabbe's starting this year too, isn't he?"
"Yes. I can't make him out; he's bad tempered, but then his little brother's such a spoilt mummy's darling I guess it's enough to make anyone bad tempered."
"Well away from him at school perhaps he'll settle down" said Jade.
"Bet Dympna Burke won't" said Aurelia gloomily " – you met her at the party too? She's very much in love with Dympna Burke you know."
"Oh well, perhaps being shaken down in a dorm with others will teach her the realities of life" said Jade tolerantly "If not we can fill her bed with crumbs, put jelly in her slippers and cast the fluorescent fart jinx on her."
Aurelia giggled.
"Now THAT sounds intriguing!" she said.
"Bet I know more curses, jinxes and hexes than any other weevil – first year – going!" Jade said.
"No bet!" said Aurelia. "Knocking around with reprobates like the Malfoy twins? I say, was that the jinx you meant that they put on Aunt Odilia? She was wild when she found out!"
Jade grinned.
"That, and one that made her tell the absolute truth….how many people did she fall out with in the end?"
"Oh all the ones she hadn't already" said Aurelia cheerfully. "I never knew weddings could be so much fun!"
One of the shops they stopped at that was not standard was the musical instrument shop. Jade had been learning both flute and harp, and Seagh also played the harp and the bagpipes. He had been using David Fraser's but Severus wanted to get him a set of his own. Jade's old flute was to stay in the family quarters for Lydia and she and Seagh would share a harp at school.
They were watched wistfully by a small boy of their own age, dragging his feet as his parents hurried him and his siblings past the shop. Jade knew the older children only slightly; the oldest two only because they were very musical. Twins Chloe and Terence Goodchild played violin and flute respectively and were in David's year in Ravenclaw. Jade thought them stuck up and priggish; typical Ravenclaws. Millicent Goodchild, also Ravenclaw, was a second year now and had tried to cover up her family's poverty by swanking – mendaciously – about all the pure blood families she was connected to. The MSHG had heard about her from one of only two Ravenclaw members, Francesca Longbottom, a cousin of Neville's. She had been good enough at potions that he had not needed to give her undue attention and was generally reckoned by the rest of the MSHG to be wasted as a Ravenclaw.
"Can't I have a second hand flute, Ma?" the boy asked wistfully.
"I've told you before, Godfrey, there isn't the money" snapped his mother "Your brother and sister are very talented, we can't waste money set aside for their tuition letting you muck about."
Jade was angry.
Even if he was not talented if he felt a need for music, denying him that was almost as bad as denying a magical child the chance to go to Hogwarts!
Godfrey was dragging his feet miserably as the family hurried on; and Jade whispered,
"PSsst, Godfrey! You can borrow my flute if you like and I'll teach you!"
The rather sullen face blazed in a beam of joy.
"Truly? Who are you?"
"Truly! Jade Snape, planning on Slytherin – see you on the train!" she said hastily as his mother looked round impatiently.
The next person they ran into was David Fraser, escorting little Zvetelina Krumm with Ellie's help. Viktor had not wanted to show her around himself – apart from not knowing Diagon Alley – because of his fame, and the fear that she and his brother would then be at risk from Odessa. David found her a sweetly serious little girl, a trifle overawed by the whole concept of going to a big school all for magic and utterly trusting of her new big brother's friend.
The child had very little English and David was relieved to see Severus to ask permission to teach her more with a magical transfer.
"You're so law abiding David" laughed Severus "In this place there's so much magic no-one would have noticed!"
"Maybe not sir; but what sort of example is that to set a first year?" said David.
Severus looked thoughtful.
"You're right of course" he said "We've been flouting laws – had to be flouting laws – too much, we should treat them with more respect now hopefully the rule of law is no longer the joke it once was. Though" he added dryly "I doubt any marauders will take much notice of that."
"What's marauders?" asked Gerald of Jade.
"It's a special club that does dangerous stuff for the school but accepts punishment if caught breaking the rules to do it" said Jade "And cultivates a reputation for playing tricks too. You have to be invited by the most senior marauders to set up a junior branch. They kinda do more than the Muggle Studies Hobbies Group; you'll want to join that. It teaches self defence, magical and mundane and we can talk about anything, home troubles, bullies and stuff all informally. Dad leads it and you have to agree not to call him Severus in school or expect him to be friendly to members."
"Sounds good" said Gerald
"We'll get that Goodchild boy in too" said Jade "I don't like his siblings any; but he seems all right. Pity they're traditionally Ravenclaw."
"What's wrong with that? It's one of the houses isn't it?"
"Yes, they're a snotty bunch of know-it-alls" said Jade cheerfully. "Gryffindors are brave to a fault and I choose my words with care 'cos some of them are a bit beef-brained; Slythers – Slytherin – are ambitious and good at finding lateral thinking and Hufflepuffs are hard workers and dutiful. Some Slythers can be sly and most bullies are in our house I'm afraid" she grinned "And here's me talking like I'm already Hatted and a Slytherin; but personal choice DOES have an effect."
"So I could think hard about being Slytherin to be with you and your brother and Harmony?" asked Gerald.
"Oh yes! Or you could just let the hat choose. I don't let house affiliation stop me having friends where I like" said Jade loftily "And one each of the Malfoy twins – my cousins – is in different houses, Hawke's a Slyther and Abrax is a Gryff. They and my brother Romulus and Kinat are the Marauders. And Rom's a Slyther and Kinat's a Gryff. And Abraxus' girlfriend is a Huffer."
"Oh, good" said Gerald seriously "Being what do you call it, muggleborn, it's nice to make friends when you don't know anyone in the community. You know everybody!"
"Only 'cos of dad being a Professor for years and mum knowing all the in-crowd that have just left" said Jade. "She's not really our mum you know; only to Lilith and Richard, because she's too young, but she's been there for Lydia and me for ever. She's only twenty now you see. But she's been all the mum Lydia and me had since I was nearly five and Lydie was three, when we were in an orphanage together. Dad adopted us and then he married her."
"That's nice" said Gerald "He seems a pretty fine dad; I'd not have guessed you were adopted!"
"He's the best" said Jade, then grinned "Though you'll disagree! Your dad seems nice!"
"He has time for us" said Gerald "He's a cabinet maker and he works from home, so mum can work part time for the times when dad doesn't have so much work coming in. She's pretty sick of her work though; she's an administrator in the National Health Service and she says the level of care isn't really National, they don't care about your Health and it's a pretty lousy Service. 'Course them writing me off did kinda make her more cynical."
"Hardly surprising" said Jade "Well a good cabinet maker's always in demand in the wizarding community; you need to have a hand made piece of furniture before you can put any enchantment on it you know; it doesn't stick so well on mass produced things. Well, not unless you're very skilled. And you can get greater results from an individual hand made piece too. Like my flute; it's been made by hand with a mind to enchantment so I could get it to play by itself. Any idiot can get any old flute to play something of course, but it needs a decent instrument and a half competent musician to make it sound really good though. You can do that to set up accompaniment you see. And that would just be a charm; making things permanent takes the skill of enchantment. Most charms will wear off in time, or are easily dispelled. It'd be inconvenient if someone cast a general spell-cancelling spell after a rather boisterous and thoroughly forbidden duel from broom back and all the brooms lost their charms. We talk about cushioning charms and flying charms, and they are charms, but they've been tied in with enchantment as well. Which can involve a bit of chanting as the name suggests, but there's more to chanting than that and….well you'll find out. Dad teaches chanting and ritual but only to seniors because it's fairly heavy magic. The bit we learn in enchanting to repeat and so tie spells in kinda prepares us for it a bit."
"There's such a lot to learn!" said Gerald.
"That's why we have taster classes of everything in the first and second, because you can't learn everything to a high level" said Jade "And then we have to choose our electives to go on to do as OWLs. They reckon we've discovered what we can do and what we can't, only some things are compulsory, like Charms, Transfigurations, Care of magical Beasts, Defence against the Dark Arts, and Potions, because they're the core subjects. The professors are pretty flexible though if you want to do two electives that clash, they'll fit you in somewhere or in the evening, or you can use a time turner if they trust you with one and do two classes at once by being in two places at once, only it's risky to the health so they only let the top students do it. Me, I'd rather study extra time. Time-turners can be a two-edged sword."
"Uh…right" said Gerald.
"I'd not mind" boasted Seagh.
"Yes you would" said Jade quickly "You're half-fey; using a time turner could make your grasp on substance more tenuous because you're splitting what you have into two times. You might never get to put yourself back together again and be fully solid again."
Seagh looked shocked.
"I didn't know that" he said, subdued.
"I read all about fey when we first adopted you" said Jade "Uncle Lucius has a massive library on the subject so I skanked books off of him."
At last they had everything!
Severus treated them all to ices and told them to go and play while he found out what had happened to his older charges.
Jade took her friends down the other end of Diagon Alley to Tangent Alley, Tangent Court and Lemuria Lane where several of her goblin friends lived. Senagra had finished her shopping and they collected up some street kids and a self-turning skipping rope to skip to the new version of a very old skipping rhyme that Jade had written. The rope swung back and forth as they jumped back and forth over it singing,
"Old Voldemort's dead and lies in his grave, lies in his grave, lies in his grave, old Voldemort's dead and lies in his grave, eevy-ivy-over!"
On the last line the rope swung right overhead and anyone who failed to jump it as it came round was out.
The subsequent lines ran:
-He died because he didn't behave
-He hid an old horcrux in a dark cave
-The horcrux was broke the world to save
-Mouldy old Voldy did rant and rave
-Harry Potter was so very brave
-With Gryffindor's sword Voldy's heart he did shave
Those who did not know the new words giggled half shocked; a lifetime of talking about You-Know-Who was not about to erode in the few short years since Voldemort had been safely dead!
And Gerald had to have the whole thing explained to him because of being muggleborn.
Voldemort was dead; and Jade hugged herself to think how he would have hated to be the subject of a little girls' skipping rhyme.
Some things that were very simple could be so very sweet too, even if 'horcrux' was only a word to the others, explained by Jade as something of dark magic, to skip to a rhyme ridiculing it helped to deal with the fear and horror of that dark time, and the frenetic searching the older ones had done to find and destroy all the horcruces Tom Riddle had made. Nobody could fear him ever again if all he had become was a skipping song.
A/N The skipping rhyme goes to the tune of Old Roger is dead/Oliver Cromwell is buried and dead [depending on what part of England your skipping rhyme comes from whether it refers to Roger Bigod or Noll Cromwell]
Obscura Alley and the Umbrous Lane complex are what I invented to account for a large wizarding population in London. It shows how old I am that I know Dalling Road from the time Games Workshop [yes the big multinational company] was one poky little shop there.