Warning; child abuse uncovered in this chapter.
Chapter 13
David looked in vain in the 'Daily Prophet' for news of the stolen gryphon; there was not even a mention in passing.
"I wonder why they've not set an uproar in motion?" he said anxiously to Severus. Severus grinned rather wolfishly in glee.
"Because that means admitting that someone got into Gringotts's and made a theft; and THAT would do their business no good! As nothing else was stolen but their own property, they'd rather hush it up!"
Grutch came over with more news.
"The powers that be don't even realise that any agency removed the gryphon" he said "They checked the secure vaults; and as nothing had been stolen, they decided that a robbery could not have taken place, because there would be no point in breaking into the bank unless one intended to steal something valuable; and so to their minds, the creature slipped its own bonds and escaped and is in the tunnels somewhere. They've been discreetly advertising abroad for a magical beast handler to look for it, and hoping the ministry don't find out that there's an uncontrolled gryphon somewhere in the vaults. That was very cleverly done, David."
David grinned.
"I couldn't have done it without Severus and his potions" he said "Not that I used the invisibility potion in the end. Severus, is that what Krait gave Erich's siblings and stepmother? I always had the impression it was pretty certain, that one."
"It was a more efficient batch; and if I knew why the rest would be too" said Severus "I'm experimenting – when I have time – to improve it. Remember too that the light was going in the evening and the castle corridors dark at the best of times; like inside the bank tunnels. We have effective invisibility charms that bend the viewers' vision; but true invisibility is hard to achieve. It hasn't been as much a priority to me as working on freeing elves and brewing Remus his wolfbane."
"Oh quite" said David, nodding agreement.
Erich had volunteered to keep David company as they made sure all those children who were supposed to catch the train duly caught it. Some pupils would be returning a day or two late, as would Severus; he was going with Ross Tuthill to see the lad's chemistry master – described by the boy as 'a bit crusty on the outside like you sir but a seriously good type for real. Like you sir' – and Lionel Dell had asked to go too. As the application of a little chemistry had made a significant difference to the boy's potioneering, Severus had agreed. The idea was to steal – Krait's word – William Pepper to teach chemistry in the new school opening in September.
David also had two new students on his list; a sixth former who was transferring from Beauxbatons because his parents had moved and wanted him at school nearer their new job – his father as an Ambassador to the British Ministry of Magic – and a little girl entering the first with a scrawl in Dumbledore's handwriting by her name that she 'had [illegible] problems'.
David could sometimes wish that Albus Dumbledore would be a little less mysterious about things when knowing what problems she had.
Erich leaned over.
"Is that word 'furry'?" he asked.
David blinked.
"It could be" he said. "Has furry problems? Ah, I apologise to Albus…he makes all clear. As you might recall, James Potter referred to Remus Lupin's condition as his 'furry little problem'."
"Poor kid" said Erich. "We shall her life much easier make; the MSHG will to their hearts take her."
"Assuming she's not revelling in it and needs to be sat on before we can take her to our hearts" said David. "Ah good, Mary-Anne, you're nice and early."
Mary-Anne Green beamed.
"I had the happy idea of putting the clock on ten minutes so we'll never be late again so long as daddy never listens to the pips on radio four" she said. "And if he does, likely he'd forget to alter the clock anyway. I brought his old muggle chemistry books with me so we can start a chemistry club."
David groaned hollowly.
"More violent explosions for me to worry about? You make sure you clear that with Professor Snape you small horror, and ask him to let you use a corner of the dungeon at a time he or Professor Malfoy are doing some work in the office or storeroom next door."
Mary-Anne beamed.
"What an excellent idea! Thank you David!"
"Dad won't thank you so heartily I bet" grinned Erich.
"He'd thank me even less if I didn't curb their enthusiasm and they managed to make nitro-glycerine or something" growled David.
A small, neat youth with straight black hair, a foreign air about him and the slightest touch of epicanthic folds came up to the boys.
"Excuse…. I am Thierry Nguyen Le Fevre, and I come for the 'Ogwarts train?"
"Yes, this is the Hogwarts express" said David "Welcome to Hogwarts, Thierry; I'm David Fraser, Head boy, and this is Erich Snape, my friend; you'll be in our year I think. And may I say, your English is excellent."
"Thank you; I 'ave difficulty with the 'h' but I 'ave worked 'ard with the 'th' sound" said Thierry. "It will be exciting to be at the school where the Triwizard is held; and you are the English champion, no?"
"I am" said David "Though I have grave reservations about the effect the competition has on our schoolwork."
"Yes, I did not feel myself like entering because I know my limitations" said Thierry gravely. "I walk through the wall, no?"
"Walk firmly and decisively" said David.
The boy did just that. Erich and David exchanged a look.
"Hufflepuff" they both said with one voice.
David was not expecting to see Lee Nuffield again for a while; but smiled with pleasure as the boy came over, a small girl carting a cauldron by the hand. The child had golden hair and amber eyes but a rather forlorn air about her.
"I think this is one of yours, old boy" said Lee. "I found her on the train and asked them to hold it for me so I could bring her over."
"Thanks, Lee!" said David "I appreciate that! Now you must be Tala Ulwin; we're expecting you. I know about your problem, so you can come to me about help if you need it. Erich here knows too; he'll take you onto the train and look after you."
The child nodded, raising big scared eyes to look at Erich, who smiled kindly and took her cauldron for her, holding out a hand.
After a hesitation she took it and went with him.
That was sorted; Erich would manage to find out all that needed to be found out. Lee waved, and ran for his own train and David checked his list.
"Weasleys late AGAIN?" he demanded as Colin, Alice and Roger came pelting up the platform.
"My owl was sulking and didn't want to be caught!" said Colin.
"Rats are MUCH less trouble" said Alice smugly.
"Well hurry along; you're the last" said David.
And then they were on their way back for a new term!
Erich extracted from Tala that she was late because she had initially run away because she was afraid of what might happen to a werewolf at school. She had not yet transformed but was dreading the time when she might.
"Were you born of a werewolf parent or were you bitten?" asked Erich.
"Born….mummy didn't know that her boyfriend was a werewolf until she was already pregnant" said Tala "And then HE absconded."
"You are not the first werewolf to have attended Hogwarts" said Erich "My father is one of the world's pre-eminent potioneers; he can brew you wolfbane potion when you are old enough to need it; though it may not always work until you are….well have got through adolescence. If not, there are other ways to help; our DADA teacher was bitten when he was a child, and his friends at school became animagi so they could go out with him on full moon and look after him. David is an animagus; and you will be in the year my little sister is in and she will gladly be an animagus to help you. Come; I will introduce you to her and her friends. You do not have to tell them but I think it would help if you do."
"Oh please sir, will you tell them, if you think they won't mind?"
Erich smiled.
"I am 'Erich' not 'sir'; I'm only a prefect, not a professor, or you can call me 'Snape' if you wish to be more formal; but there are several of my siblings in the school so it may be better to stick to 'Erich'. Nobody calls the Weasleys by anything but their first name – except professors – because of the number of them. But if you wish me to tell them for you, then I shall."
Erich duly told Tala's story to Jade and friends – the junior Marauders and Mei Chang were with her too – and they made the little girl welcome.
"I'm going to be an animagus" said Lynx "Like cousin Sirius. Only I'm going to be a lynx like my name because dogs have really bad breath."
"We'll look out for you Tala and not let anyone do anything to hurt you" said Jade firmly.
Once the cavalcade was duly at the castle, Thierry was, to no-one's surprise who had met him, Hatted into Hufflepuff; and Tala was a Gryffindor.
Jade promptly sought out Freya Tuthill and told her Tala's story too so she would have a friend in her own dormitory since Roger Weasley was only a boy and probably snored anyway. Freya was more than happy to look out for the little girl; especially as she was already missing her brother for the couple of nights he would be away! Looking after Tala gave her something to do!
The juniors soon found something to do to keep them occupied in the inclement weather.
Odd socks were purchased from Argus Filch's lost property sale and turned into sock puppets; and David was the first to encounter the most ambitious project of all, courtesy of Jade and friends, Basil the Basilisk, which was animated on slinkies with a very lifelike face – Jade being an excellent embroideress – an Elvis hairstyle and shades, singing dolefully to abjure people not to tread on his blue suede tail.
He was rather an impressive creature and David was highly amused.
He rapidly acquired an increased repertoire in terms of 'Azkaban rock', 'Heartbreak Leaky Cauldron', 'Hound Sirius', 'stir me tender', 'mystery Hogwarts express', 'Viva Diagon Alley' and 'return to owl loft'.
Some of the renditions were better than others and some were obscured by too much giggling.
An impromptu concert got up by the middle school at the weekend, to which they condescendingly invited Basil, ended in something of a brawl when Basil was cheered far more than a Ravenclaw girl who was made much of as a singer by her housemates and who fancied herself in a big way. She had hysterics and her boyfriend shouted at Jade's gang, who promptly started hexing him. The audience thought that his flight across the impromptu stage yelping and pursued, if not by a bear, by several stinging hexes was all part of the entertainment and he retired hurt to howls of laughter.
The next performer, a third year Ravenclaw violinist, threw a temperament and refused to go on and Colin Weasley, whose brainchild the concert had been, sent Basil back to do an encore while he bullied the rest of his performers. Fortunately the second years – led by Lynx – were only too willing to do their comedy act, singing standing in cauldrons 'double double' – with somewhat adulterated words – with Ed Dinalt persuaded to be Professor Snape so they could all shout out 'IT'S PROFESSOR SNAPE' at the line 'something wicked this way comes'. Shakespeare might not have liked the changes to his prose but the audience rocked with laughter at references to horned toads and skinned weevils.
The fact that the backdrop then fell down because of the brawl going on behind scenes put an end to the concert; but not to the entertainment because the audience then joined in.
When the staff had subdued the combatants by spraying them with glumbumble juice Jade Snape volunteered that the whole thing had been in the spirit of living history since in Shakespeare's time brawls between players and audience had been quite common.
Her lines consisted of the speech beginning 'all the world's a stage'; which she took with relative philosophy, in addition to the lines the entire selection of miscreants were given, in copying out the school poem about inter-house co-operation.
"It was worth a try" she said.
David took his Gryphon outside over the weekend, once Severus had returned, and he and Severus explained to Hagrid what he had done.
"Yer aksherly robbed GRINGOTT'S?" said Hagrid "David, yer a loony!"
"A rather successful one though" said Severus.
"When I think of 'ow you uster go on at poor Harry fer doin' just such things…." Said Hagrid.
Severus shrugged.
"I put the past behind me and grew up; resentments about things that happened at school did not ought to influence one's whole life. Besides, David's a better planner than Harry; he might almost be a Slytherin."
"There's no need to be insulting, Domine!" quipped David.
"The point is, Hagrid, we need your help caring for this poor creature; will you give it?" asked Severus.
"Yer don't even have ter ask! O' course I will!" said Hagrid. "Pore little thing!"
Severus decided that pouring a growing potion over the stone gryphon first would leave it less frightened when it recovered from being petrified; as they would not be large scary creatures to it. Accordingly he poured until David nodded that it had reached its proper size.
"And Mandragora potion…drip some onto the beak, David, then pour it in as the beak becomes un-petrified; you may need to get your and back sharpish" said Severus.
"Here, I'll put me arms round its neck an' start strokin' it when it comes to" said Hagrid.
"Thanks" said David "You have such a way with animals."
"You don't do so bad yourself; I must say it's nice ter hev someone taking the class to NEWT level" said Hagrid "Krait an' you are the only two what ever seemed good enough" and he sighed.
Severus had not the heart to tell Hagrid that he put students off by his fascination with large and dangerous beasts and that doubtless many of them were afraid that NEWT level practicals might involve caring for dragons!
David gently dribbled the potion onto the stone beak; and it started to change, then moved and chattered briefly. He pulled it open and poured the rest in with a firmness he had learned in providing Buckbeak with medicine, and leaped back, bowing as to a hippogriff.
The rest was down to how much the gryphon liked being free.
The big golden beast stretched and shook its wings that were mending under the chanting Severus was doing; and then it looked up; and screamed!
It put its head down, looking frantically for somewhere to hide.
David acted instinctively and put his arms round the great head and its cruel beak and drew it to his chest, murmuring soft words of comfort. The big creature cowered against him.
"It's never seen the sky" said David, in horror "By Merlin I'd like to scrag someone….it's never seen the ruddy sky!"
"She" said Hagrid, looking.
"So much for our guesses it was male" said Severus. "I suppose a female is a better guardian…Hagrid, we need to get her under cover."
"We'll take her into the forest" said Hagrid "Less sky visible there. C'mon old girl!" he patted the Gryphon's flank.
She hissed at him and made pathetic noises at David.
"Come with me, Godrica" said David, putting one arm round her neck to lead her.
"Godrica?" murmured Severus.
"What else does one call a gryphon then?" asked David.
"Ar, that's a very nice name" said Hagrid, who would probably have said that about any name that made Severus Snape raise his eyebrows.
Godrica allowed herself to be led into the forest, and there she relaxed slightly. They had prepared meat; and now David offered it to her. She tore hungrily at it.
"Half starved too" said David, angrily, dashing tears from his eyes.
"I suppose they thought she'd be more dangerous to would-be thieves that way" said Severus dryly. "Hagrid, have you any more meat? She's disposed of what I prepared like it was nothing."
"Ar, I'll get some" he said "I can hunt fer more fer Buckbeak."
When Godrica was finally sated she settled down and started to preen.
"That's more like it" said Hagrid, satisfied. "She'll be fine now. Now don't you be disappointed, David-lad if she gets up at dawn and goes flying off; now she's free she can go where she wills."
David nodded.
"I know" he said "And that's what I want. I'd love it if she decided to stay in the Forbidden Forest and that I got to see her sometimes; but if she chooses to go, that's up to her."
"Ar, that's my boy" said Hagrid. "Wild beasts ain't supposed to be chained up. They oughta be free to choose."
David petted the big magical creature once more in case he never saw her again; and turned resolutely away to go inside.
oOoOo
She was still there the next day; and greeted him with a butt of the head that sent him flying, then she chittered with her beak until he got up whereupon she gave a squawk of satisfaction and came and laid her head gently on his shoulder. David scratched her poll and round her neck; and was startled that there was enough of the lion half of her to start purring loudly.
She followed him to the edge of the forest; but would not come out.
David told himself firmly that the moment of her departure was only delayed; once she lost her fear of the sky she would discover the joys of flying and would be gone. And his heart would truly fly with her then too.
But he still had to sniff hard.
Meanwhile David had a potions class first thing on Monday morning; and the staff toilet was blocked again.
"Dear me, I do miss Myrtle's useful skills" murmured Severus, casting several flow reversal spells to dislodge any blockage, whilst hovering several feet above the floor in case of noxious outpourings.
What emerged was, when held up by wand, a recognisable effigy of Severus.
"Dear me" said Severus mildly "If only the originator of this er, piece of art put only half that much effort into potioneering, I'm sure that he or she would feel too much flushed with success to feel such disregard for me to feel that I should be flushed, with success."
The NEWT class appreciated this piece of wit – without any long words in it either – and proceeded to repeat it as a huge joke against the idiot who had blocked the loo.
They soon had their own problems however, for next week Severus had set them a rather tricky piece of research on element-resisting potions. David had already done some research on this for his own use in the Triwizard but the rest of the class were soon complaining that Madam Pince was making life difficult about borrowing books just because one girl had been careless and got ink all over hers.
David and Erich reported this to Severus unofficially; and Severus went mostly officially on the warpath.
The culprit was, it seemed Elisa Mourne who sobbed out, as Severus interrupted her library detention dusting books, that she had NOT spilt ink on her library books and she did not know how it had got there.
Severus stared into her eyes; then nodded.
"Go to your common room, Miss Mourne and get on with your usual activities" he said "Madam Pince is sorry that she got the wrong culprit."
Elisa fled.
"With all due respect, Severus, that girl has to pay for her actions, spoiling books….."Madam Pince was almost frothing at the mouth.
"With all due respect, Irma, that girl has no right to pay for the actions of another; you're punishing the girl for having had a very nasty trick played on her, and that is unfair!" said Severus.
"The books were in HER care, SHE should have ensured they did not suffer!"
"Yes, you silly old bat, and I remember you punishing me after James Potter thought it funny to use a hovering charm to upend an inkpot over me and the book I was reading….why you ever thought I'd willingly pour ink over myself even if I was stupid enough to obscure what I wanted to read I don't know" said Severus in disgust. "You are impeding my sixth formers; I want the ban on borrowing books lifted."
"No!" they shan't harm my books!"
"They are NOT your books; they belong to the school and essentially to the students!"
"They shouldn't be let near them if I had my way students would never even come into the library!"
"Who do you think this library is for, Irma? You? Merlin's unwashed underpants, as Hermione would say, I do believe you do think it is yours…. Change your attitude NOW Irma, or I go to Albus."
Madam Pince left later that day on a rest cure; and the students were free to borrow such books as they required; and Madam Linda Ermin took her place, her six year old son Oliver moving under the care of Gran, Merope and the mother of his half brother Cassius, Hilary Arbuckle whom Krait employed as an infant teacher. Linda, being muggle born, a rarity for a Slytherin such as she had been, had no preconceptions about Hilary being a squib; and having been deceived by the same man they were soon firm friends. Linda was also another Malfoy from Abraxus the elder's get, being the half sister of Jonathon Malfoy, father of both Jade and Lydia and Lucius' adopted children Erica and Nathan. As she was an archivist which was near enough to being a librarian it made sense, as Krait said, to keep it in the family.
Severus was just glad to get his students a librarian who wasn't three parts barmy and the rest obsessive-compulsive as he described her to David!
It was not hard to uncover the author of the nasty tricks to Mourne; Dione Parnassus still had it in for her. And when Severus summoned her to his office and she started to see the washed and dried effigy – Severus had rather taken to his unfortunate surrogate - he knew the author of that minor outrage too.
"Miss Parnassus" he said "You have been in trouble almost from the moment you arrived at Hogwarts. Your failure to produce a worthwhile piece of work in my class I can accept; to have the subtle touch to be a potioneer is not the commonest of talents and I have long since resigned myself to the concept that nine out of ten of my classes will range from the mildly incompetent through the clueless to the downright moronic. You score just below clueless if you are interested. However, failure in lessons is no excuse for the sort of behaviour that you produce which is childish, malicious and frankly at times inconceivably incomprehensible. I have wondered at times if you might be part poltergeist with an uncontrollable urge to behave in such a way; and if you are in any respect part fey – which can produce similar effects – now is the time to come clean and tell me so we may address this self destructive urge of yours before it ends up getting you expelled; as may very well happen if you cannot learn to control it."
To his surprise – and some horror – Dione Parnassus, the hardboiled Slytherin bitch of the fifth, burst into tears.
Severus came round the desk, knelt down beside the chair and put an arm around her.
"Krait said you were an unhappy little girl" he said softly "I wasn't sure that she was right; but she's seldom wrong. Now, let's get all this rubbish that makes you behave so out into the open where maybe we can do something about it."
"Oh – oh – oh, nobody can!" wailed Dione.
Severus sent a mental summons for Krait. This was going to be a long job requiring an expert on cuddles; and nobody gave healing cuddles like Krait.
Besides, it was a little embarrassing for a male professor to have to cuddle a girl only just short of the age Krait had been when she had first seduced him.
With gentle arms each side and encouraging noises the whole story flowed out.
Dione's parents loathed each other; her mother was inclined to violence, her father as snide as Severus, and she was a weapon they used, threatening to withhold treats from the girl to get at the other parent, giving her gifts to outdo each other, threatening to withhold access to her. Dione and learned early – as Severus had done himself – that a 'don't care' attitude to both was the best armour. She lived some of the time with one, some with the other; each had retired to separate ends of their large house and ran them as two separate flats, with their own live-in lovers. Her father's girlfriend, Lindie, tried to buy her affection with clothes and jewellery to hurt her mother; her mother however insisted that her daughter call her 'Marianne' and had introduced her to HER boyfriend as her little sister. Kevin, her mother's boyfriend, had liked the idea of taking both sisters to bed and had been interfering with Dione for a year or more; and over the Yule holidays he had raped her and, wailed Dione, she had missed a period and was afraid she was pregnant.
Severus waved his wand.
"I'm afraid, my child, your worst fears are realised. You are almost two months gone; and there appears nothing wrong with the foetus likely to end in a spontaneous miscarriage. You must think what to do about this; because I can give you a potion to kill the foetus, and you will have no more than a bad period – physically at least; because such things can be mentally very painful, even when you do not want a baby. Or, you can decide to go ahead with this pregnancy. Whatever you decide, my wife and I will support you in every way and we will respect your decision; and under the circumstances if you did not want to take an abortion potion, you would not be expelled as you might otherwise be for an unexpected addition to the Hogwarts roster, but your baby could be in our nursery while you continued your studies, seeing to his or her needs as and when you have time, without missing out any care for him….er her" he waved a wand "Or for you."
Dione blinked.
"When it was an it I thought I was certain; but…it's a little girl?"
"It will be a little girl if left to develop, Dione" said Severus gently "It is still as yet an it; and I apologise if I have made your decision harder by unwarranted curiosity through my dislike of uncertainty over the indefinite article."
"He doesn't like the term 'it' to refer to something with a gender" translated Krait.
"You had a baby at school, were you raped?" demanded Dione "I thought they were all Professor Snape's."
"Severus and I were fighting Voldemort; we fully expected to die. We decided to take pleasure together and damn the consequences" said Krait "Professor Dumbledore was very understanding. And yes, I do mean pleasure Dione; because with the right person it is SUPPOSED to be pleasure. There is as much difference between what you have suffered and the real thing – more, much more indeed – than between the punishment sewing of sheets I set you and Elisa's discovery that embroidery was something that made her happy. The difference between a diet of bread and water and scoffing out on lemon meringue pies and chocolate cake."
"I might have known you'd get food in somewhere my dear" said Severus.
"Do I have to choose right away?" asked Dione.
"No of course not" said Severus.
"I would ask that you try to decide within the next four weeks" said Krait "Because by then, the it in your belly will have started to become human, with rudimentary thoughts; and you will start to feel movements. And from moral grounds of my ethics, I prefer to terminate before it is a person; and from YOUR point of view, terminating something that makes itself felt by moving will be harder and more emotionally painful; as well as physically more draining."
Dione nodded.
"I – will make up my mind sooner than that" she said. "Oh please, must I go and face the others?"
"No, child, you'll come and spend a day or two in our quarters and sleep in the nursery" said Krait. "And Severus is going to have a word with the head about your circumstances; and then he's going to go and kick hell out of your stupid mother's pathetically priapic paramour"
Dione's face blazed.
"Give him HELL, Professor!" she said.
"I was planning on so doing" said Severus; and Dione had been in trouble often enough to recognise his silkily dangerous tone of voice.
She gave a fierce grin; then burst into tears again.