Chapter 16
Madam Pomfrey snatched back the note that the big German, Hertz, had grabbed from her hand after reading the one addressed to Karl.
"It may be a custom in YOUR country to read the mail of others – as you appear to read a note addressed to that child's brother but in OUR country we consider it ill-bred and low!" she snapped. "The child appears to have fled – and if your heavy handed approach is normal I can almost understand why. Now give me that boy's letter and we shall have him in Professor Dumbledore's office to read it and you shall see how civilised people behave!" she snatched Karl's note and put it in the capacious pocket of her apron and whisked off, grabbing the nearest junior to summon the German champion to Professor Dumbledore's office, and, as she described her, Madam Baksheesh too.
Karl read the note from his sister; and handed it directly to Dumbledore.
"She climbed out of the window you say?" he said in lively horror "Donner und Blitzen! But this Heinrich of whom she writes, he is a nasty bully…..but it is so cold! I beg you, Professor Dumbledore, have your people search for her continuously and find her!"
"We will send our own Politzei to find her" said Herz grimly.
"I BEG your pardon?" said Dumbledore "I thought – though I must have been mistaken – that you suggested sending foreign aurors in to seek down a little girl; and your tone was of that of a criminal!"
"She defects; she is a criminal" said Hertz.
"I do not understand you" said Dumbledore "She is ten years old, yes? A babe. A babe cannot be a criminal. She runs in terror from a bully in a … I presume an orphanage. Should you not be investigating the orphanage instead to find what is so terrible about it that a child prefers to be stranded in a foreign country than return to it? I assure you, I shall see that every effort is made to recover the child safely; but if any foreign politzei start interfering, I assure you they will find themselves in prison. Your methods are not welcome her, mein Herr. Let me see this child's escape route."
"I too would like to see the letter, Professor Dumbledore" said Madam Bacsó.
"Karl? Is it your wish that I pass it to your head?" asked Dumbledore "It was written to YOU after all."
Karl hesitated, wondering what would happen if he said 'no' and decided that discretion was the better part of valour; and nodded. Bacsó almost snatched it from Dumbledore.
"So" she sneered in German "Your sister is a coward."
"Hardly" said Dumbledore in the same language "If she is brave enough to escape in a strange land. The bravest may break under intolerable strain. If, for example, I placed the cruciatus curse on you every day to prove my supposed superiority I think you too might decide to flee; for a child there are methods of bullying that seem to another child as bad. Come!"
Dumbledore examined the makeshift rope.
"It has certainly been used" he said "See how the knots have pulled, and it has rubbed on the sill; we shall go downstairs now."
Dumbledore had a strong suspicion that members of David's friends had been responsible for this; and he had every expectation that all would be in order.
Under the dangling end of the rope were drop marks in the still snowy ground; a step or two; then the neat round footprints of a cat, running towards the forbidden forest.
"Ask Mr Fraser to come out here, and Professor Black" said Dumbledore to Madam Pomfrey who had come along.
David turned up, puzzled; and Sirius no less so.
"A small child – Karl Heinz' sister – has run away" said Dumbledore softly "She appears to have become a cat animagus; I fear for her safety. Will you use your unique abilities to follow?"
"Certainly Professor" said Sirius; and David nodded, heavy hearted. Had the child decided to escape on her own? But she knew to expect…..as he shrugged into dog form David smelled a familiar scent on the footsteps; and barked, wagging his tail.
The scent was more familiar even to Padfoot, who made an interrogative 'wuff?' of confusion to David. David bounded off in the direction of the tracks; and Padfoot followed. Out of sight they changed back.
"That's WILLOW's footsteps" said Padfoot.
"Laying a false trail…. Of course!" laughed David. "Karl wants to defect; he wanted Uschi safe too. Now we have to invent a story about how we lost her trail."
"Let's go down to Hagrid's for a butterbeer and come back after running through a bush or two in a few hours and declare dejectedly that the tracks went to a muggle road, and the scent ended where a car seemed to have pulled over" said Sirius "Muggles can be pretty sentimental over lost cats; we can assume she'll be well cared for as long as she stays in cat form; to trace her otherwise will take a bit of a while and the use of muggle resources that have to be handled very carefully…."
"You're a genius, Padfoot" said David.
"Where is she really?" asked Sirius.
"I neither know nor want to know" said David. "But not in the goblin room; Willow would never lead tracks in that direction if that's what they're using. For all I know she may just as well be in the kitchens with the house elves or at Malfoy Manor as in the other secret room. The New Marauders will probably move her around at that; in case the Germans think to use Karl's blood in ritual to find her."
"If they're that good at blood ritual" said Sirius. "Sev might know a ritual to prevent it at that, like making places unplottable – Merlin's teeth, it's easy, put her somewhere under a fidelius charm!"
"Of course" said David "Easy. I'll remind them – in case they've forgotten, which will appease their pride if they didn't think of it – that a fidelius charm covers ritual findings and sendings and includes house elves not attached by blood to the one hidden. Karl said she was in some kind of orphanage; if his family had any elves, she wouldn't need to be."
Two dogs limped back looking footsore and bedraggled with their story some hours later.
"Well at least we know she is safe and warm somewhere, Madam Bacsó" said Dumbledore heartily. "Ah, if we only knew the precise form of her cat we could post messages about a missing pet! It is one thing muggles are so sentimental about, it would bring her back easily!"
"Do YOU know boy?" Bacsó rounded on Karl.
"I had no idea she was an animagus!" said Karl with perfect truth.
"I suggest we rest until tomorrow" said Dumbledore "And I will utilise every power I have at my disposal to see that this child is safe and sound!"
David noted he did NOT say brought back.
Dumbledore knew when to know nothing and pick his words with care!
The Marauders were glad of a hint about using a fidelius charm; and proceeded to put one in place about the secret room, involving Sirius and Severus and Krait as well to make sure they had emergency access to it.
"Any of the Blood Group ought to be able to apparate to it anyway because it's a house elf type apparition" said Severus "Which counts as we're tied to each other; and once in we can walk out and find it again. But it WILL cover her from ritual findings. And it's not such a bad idea to have it covered like that anyway, so anyone else might find the passages but only marauders know of the marauding room, as one might call it. And it's more private than the Room of Requirements. That incidentally would also act to swallow any ritual finding; if that was what you required of it. And it is set up for your needs even if not clearly expressed. But a clever person can find their way around it if they suspect it's in use and have a good idea of the conditions set. Besides, others might need it in the time you have to hide this child; and the Room of Requirements only works on one thing at a time if it's occupied. People could go in and out while we hid the muggleborn in there; but it couldn't be used for anything else WHILE they were there. But we also found the place where things are hidden to search for Horcruces because we worked out the conditions set."
The marauders all nodded; having their own secret room was much better than using a room anyone might find.
The German authorities were worried. The fact that Uschi was only a little girl was immaterial; it was the fact that she had tried to escape – and the fact that she was their hold over their Triwizard champion.
Herr Herz went to the Ministry of Magic to DEMAND that aurors be sent to find the runaway.
The Ministry sent an Auror to Hogwarts; the Auror was Draco Malfoy. He listened to Herr Hertz, sent for Karl and asked to see the note the child had written.
"Hmm quite clear" he said. "Herr Herz, Frau Bacsó, I really fail to see why my time has been wasted. There has been no kidnapping; the child has run away voluntarily. No CRIME has been committed; therefore this affair is no business of any auror. A child is in potential danger; I will ask the minister of education to appoint a suitable person to look into this and oversee her welfare; Professor Dumbldore, I was planning on recommending you, if you will take on this additional duty?"
"Certainly, Mr Malfoy" said Dumbledore formally "I would be glad to; especially as the poor child has fled my protection, not realising that she had only to ask for asylum here to be given it."
"You will then be willing to give her asylum as she fears to return to her home?" said Draco.
"Most certainly" said Dumbledore. "She is, I believe, almost old enough to enter school in any case; I would place her under the wardship of one of my married staff."
Draco nodded.
"I do not think anyone would dispute that the guardianship of Hogwarts could be surpassed" he said. "I expect you Germans will be wishing to have your own authorities investigate this kinderhaus from which she is fleeing; that DOES sound like a matter for Aurors, or Geheimstadtpolizei* or whatever you call them. You will receive a bill from the ministry for wasting my time. Good day, your servant Professor Dumbledore."
With which Draco bowed to Dumbledore with the profound respect of a former Head Boy to his old Headmaster and strode off to a properly distant apparating zone, from which he apparated back within the castle to ask David what the hell was going on and to laugh over irritating Durmstrangers.
"They'll still try to find her of course" said Draco "Keep her secret – keep her safe."
"Who died and made you Gandalf?" said David amicably. "Yes, I'm alive to the possibility of them trying to kidnap her if they found where she was; and I am also aware that the place is going to crawl with agents. Poor Karl isn't going to be able to have a quiet shit in peace without them checking that he's not farting in code to contact his sister; but he's going to have to live with that. He knew that before he approached me to help her away. And I don't know where she is and I'm keeping it that way; I don't want to know. Then I can look their best legilimens in the eye and say 'dunno' with a pure unsullied conscience."
Draco grinned.
"Nice" he said. "well, love you and leave you; let me know if there are any suspicious characters hanging about the castle; you all have a duty of care to the little ones. Can't have suspect paedophiles mooching around, can we now!"
David laughed.
"Absolutely not!" he agreed.
And the Germans had no option but to return to their own country seething.
Somehow Lionel Dell and gang got word of something that was going on – David always suspected it was via Alice Trumball through Hagrid who had been pleased if surprised to spend a convivial evening with him and Sirius the evening they had supposedly been out sniffing out footprints. With the Germans complaining about the disappearance of young Uschi and the lax behaviour of the two top trackers it did not take a clever boy like Lionel long to put two and two together and make a conspiracy.
"And if she wanted to escape and Fraser's helping it behoves us to help HIM" he said to his bloodgroup "And I don't trust these Germans."
"If they run true to form they'll have all sorts of secret agents poking around looking for her" said Callum.
Dell grinned.
"So let's give them what they want" he said.
"Come again?" said Melody.
"Well, if you girls all try to look as much like the kid as possible, they'll stalk you; and we follow them and then we stupefy them and send frantic owls to the ministry that a bunch of perverts are out after our little girls…. You're too tall Melody; sorry. Cynner's all right; Alice is too tall; Freya's spot on. Mary-Anne, we could lighten your hair a bit with spells; Tamsin's hair is wrong. But that's three Uschi Heinzes to fool them with."
The others voted it a capital idea; because they could now make a blood call it was safer too!
"We stay weel inside the anti-apparation zone though" said Alice "So they cannae snatch someone and just go, we'll hae a chance to jump 'em. And we could get Hagrid involved too; he doesnae like people that bully children. He's real glad the kid he just adopted isnae in eastern Europe any more."
"Poor Hagrid, it's a shame about what was done to him" said Mary-Anne.
"D'you think we ought to invite him into our Blood group?" said Dell "He's kind and he's been badly treated and he may not be very bright but he's shrewd enough. And it'd give him more magic; and give us a grown up who isn't very.
"Let's get him used to us being around, work with us on things like this a few times, then tell him about it" said Callum. "He's a bit nervous of cousin Severus you know; and what HE might say."
"Anyone in their right mind is a bit nervous of your cousin Severus, even if he does lighten up considerable in the MSHG" said Lionel. "He's the sort of person you instinctively want to call 'sir'."
The scheme worked like a dream.
Fake Uschis were escorted out by other single little girls, surreptitiously and with much peering about and giggling.
Mary-Anne was the first to be grabbed; and she screamed piercingly as several other children leaped out and cast a selection of corridor jinxes on her assailant since they did not as yet know any worse ones; but the best agent in the world simultaneously dancing frantically with his knees on backwards with bats crawling out of his nose is going to be a little discommoded.
Being stunned by Hagrid's pink brolly – Hagrid being fetched by an artfully tearful Alice – was almost a relief.
He was dragged to the castle.
Draco turned up very promptly.
"And you say you've seen several suspicious persons, Miss Green?" he asked.
Mary-Anne took refuge in a hanky.
It was widely reputed that Draco was a legilimens.
"Well I had better stay here for a while and keep an eye open" said Draco.
Freya was the next Uschi to be grabbed; and she did her own stunning by dint of kicking him in the crotch and hitting him on the head with the book she had with her.
"Call yourself a witch?" said Cynner, absently booting the groggy German in the side of the head.
"And you can talk how?"
"Well it seemed to work so I kinda thought, if it ain't broke, don't fix it" said Cynner.
Dell was delighted to catch two with one bait when it was Cynner's turn; he, Tim and the Tuthills and Callum were on overwatch, and Tamsin was the second little girl. Two wizards converged, and addressed the girls in German.
"No hable englees" said Tamsin, just to confuse them.
Cynner cowered artistically and shouted,
"I English am!" with a fair copy of Karl's accent.
One went to grab her; the other levelled his wand.
It was Ross with his borrowed wand who managed expelliarmus! to disarm him; and then Lionel pulled out the performance of his life to cast the jelly leg jinx and tarantallegra simultaneously on the other, who promptly started flopping around in an obscene rag doll kind of dance. Callum covered the other in nettles and Tim reversed his knees.
Draco strolled out.
"Two for one bag; nice work kids. Is that the lot now?"
"I think so sir" said Dell, who knew when the time to dissemble and seem innocent was past. Draco knew exactly what they were up to. Draco looked at him thoughtfully.
"Well if you weren't a blood group I'd have torn you off a strip about undue risk – just because we were all up to that sort of thing at your age doesn't mean I'm supposed to sanction it – but as you are you've minimised risk. Run through your ritual with me."
Lionel did so.
Draco nodded.
"Seems good. Avoid having thirteen members unless you calculate it as arithmantically good for YOU; it is for some, my twin cousins swear by it as a good number for them. If in doubt, avoid it. Learn to block; you don't want the whole lot picking up when you're snogging someone. And tell Fraser to take that Tuthill boy to Diagon Alley. I'll take charge of these now…..nettles? up the nose? That's novel…. I think his airway's blocked with nettle rash you extravagant children. Still if he dies I shan't lose any sleep."
He removed the nettles with a shake of his wand; hoisted both agents in the air by the ankle with a murmured levicorpus and prepared to drag them along by wand.
He paused.
"The counter to levicorpus is liberacorpus; try to use it only on bullies if you please; or in duelling. So few people seem to be able to think straight head down. Especially" he murmured looking at his captives with distaste "when wearing only robes not trousers and with rather…. German …..underwear."
One had striped purple and gold shorts on his rather podgy lower torso; the other wore long-johns that might have been better for laundering.
The children giggled.
Draco walked away, using his wand to drag both by the ankle, holding it raised like a conductor's baton.
The German agents looked very silly.
These agents had not known what had happened to the others; now they found out.
They were taken to an interrogation room at the ministry and subjected to a haranguing interrogation along the lines of 'how long have you been a pervert, what age of little girls do you enjoy harming and how many are there in your loathsome paedophile ring that hangs around Hogwarts.'
Prepared to resist questioning about being agents this line of questioning so completely confused them that they were begging to confess to being secret agents in order not to be thought of as child-spoilers.
Draco thought it a masterpiece.
It had been his idea, after all.
They were sent to Azkaban for 'spying with intent to pervert the course of free competition and game fixing.'
Why else would German secret agents be around Hogwarts after all?
The German authorities were informed of course; and an official complaint was made by Hogwarts and Beauxbatons over this blatant gamesmanship.
The Germans had no choice but to accept this explanation and apologise for over zealous and out of order underlings.
The Marauders made Dell's group official marauding adjuncts; and showed them some of their passages, though not the goblin ones nor the chimney ones as yet.
Being approved of by the Marauders was, however, something to be proud of!
David duly took Ross – and Lionel – to Diagon Alley for kit, especially his own wand.
Willow had snorted and said
"Easy, willow with a dragon's heart core, twelve and a half inches."
Willow was rarely wrong; but with a willow wand, twelve and three eights inches with a dragon heartstring core, Ross was duly impressed.
They were all less impressed by the man who was selling a house elf child.
She was half goblin by the look of it; and was about four; and David did not like the look of one of the bidders.
"Langlock" he murmured under his breath as the man was about to speak again; and put in his own bid.
It would make a big hole in his account at Gringotts; but that was what it was for. He left Lionel in charge of the child – and seeing nothing happened to her – while he went for the money.
"I say, Fraser, I can get some from dad to help cover it" said Lionel "That was awfully well done; it's a CRIME to sell a house elf if you ask me; how can they trust their family if they get sold off?"
"The whole slavery business is a crime but unavoidable until elves see that too" said David. "being enslaved by race, colour of skin or unfortunate geographical location is one of the darker sides of human behaviour; only muggles have become too sophisticated for it."
Lionel's ears burned scarlet.
That was almost a criticism from his hero.
"Is – is it unsophisticated?"
"Any cruelty is unsophisticated" said David.
Lionel digested this.
"I'm going to learn to be sophisticated then" he said. "Should I free our family elf then? He's elderly and I don't think he'd like it."
"Then by no means do so" said David "But treat him with respect."
"How can I do anything else? He helped bring me up, he's spanked me for goodness sake!" said Lionel.
David grinned.
"Then he sounds more a family member than a slave; and that's all good. Now, little one, what is your name?"
"Neesa" said the child. "What did Neesa do wrong?"
"Nothing sweetheart" sighed David "Nothing at all. It was…other people. Ross, don't say a word; I doubt anyone of THAT person's calibre will have taken note of the ministry directive to tell them not to punish themselves…your dad did, Lionel?"
"Of course….Gresley said, why would he want to do something stupid like that that was counterproductive and wouldn't help his family any? So dad said, good, well just don't."
"Your Gresley sounds out of the ordinary sensible and reasoning" said David "I think Severus would be grateful to talk to him if he'd visit; Sev is trying to figure out how to lift the self punishing curse and it's proving hard. If he can see how Gresley got around it with casuistry, sophistry or logic he would be well pleased."
"Lumme, that was a collection of words worthy of Professor Snape himself – I CAN't think of him as Severus yet Fraser, let alone Sev!"
David laughed.
"Let's take this little mite along home, anyway; and see about finding her a mum and dad."
David did not expect to run into the squib Anastasius Smith in the Leaky Cauldron drinking with muggle actress Grace Sylvia.
"Oh what a poppet!" said Grace holding out her arms to Neesa "She's not pure elf, is she?"
"You can see that much?" David was surprised.
"Anastasius has filled me in on a lot… and I know several of you Hogwarts kids. He says I'm a sensitive. It's why I was picked out by a creep called Cassius Prince once" she said.
David froze.
"You knew Prince? He's related to my guardian and we're trying to bring together his various abandoned children."
"I had an abortion….which I always regretted" said Grace sadly "My baby would have been about her age I think…working on downsizing my estimate."
"She's about four and half goblin; a man sold her" said David.
Grace looked at Anastasius.
He nodded.
"Grace and I are getting wed" he said "We'll adopt the babe; give her more attention. Not that Madam Malfoy doesn't give plenty to her kids, and Madam Snape too but….you know."
David nodded, somewhat relieved.
"You'll be part of the wizarding world?"
"Yes, we're moving up to the Orme Court part of the world" said Grace "I have a good salary. And I'd like to reimburse you what you paid."
David flushed.
"Well… I am sponsoring some Romanian orphans stranded in the wizarding world" he said "I won't say no."
"Don't muggles have lots of paperwork and stuff?" asked Lionel.
"I'll see Arthur Weasley about it" said Anastasius. "Romanian orphans – that gives me an idea, she'll look small and slightly – foreign – to muggles; if we have Arthur make out documents that she's gypsy blood and with a growth hormone deficiency illness it'll explain her size. Can you ask someone to deal with any….compulsions?"
"Sev will do it" said David.
"That's a very good man" said Anastasius "And you're lucky to have him as your guardian."
"I know" said David "I couldn't have picked a better father next to my own."
Neesa was tired out after the tribulations of being sold; and Grace cuddled her until she fell asleep.
"Give me a few months and she'll be a naughty, noisy child and quite normal" she said firmly.
David believed it.
Grace Sylvia was a good friend; and a most excellent woman.
He said to Lionel as they went out,
"And THAT's an example of a most excellent muggle; far removed from your mother's paramour."
Lionel nodded soberly.
"It'll make life hard for her in the muggle world having what people will see as a handicapped child, won't it, as it will in the wizarding world rearing a – a poor little travesty like Neesa."
"Yes; and don't think she doesn't know that. She's rich, which will help; she has a televis – she acts on a kind of muggle wireless that sends pictures as well as sounds, like the films we have in the MSHG – and it pays well. The marauders sometimes act as extras – uh, if they need a scene with street kids. But she didn't hesitate. She's got a heart as big as London town."
"Like – like Professor Snape I guess" said Lionel. "I never knew he was your guardian."
"Didn't I mention it when I told you about the orphanage? I guess I was more interested in making you see about some things" said David. "He took me on without pausing either. I never wanted to be adopted; I love him like a father, but you see, there were my memories of mum and dad. And he's always respected that" he added softly.
"He is a great man, isn't he?" said Lionel. "He's Severin Prince, isn't he, as well as Severus Snape?"
"He is" said David "And you may share that only with your blood group – yes, Draco told me, you young limbs – because he's also a very shy and private man, however much he may be able to relax and open out in the MSHG. Lucius and the others in the know protect his identity; and I ask you to do so too."
Lionel and Ross nodded seriously.
"We shall" Lionel answered for both of them.
With regards to Ross's wand, David later asked Willow,
"When did you know what wand he should have?"
Willow looked surprised.
"When he was Sorted of course" she said. "I make it a hobby to guess and then see if I can find out how close I am. Wands are more than a science; they're an art too."
"Willow, you prune, don't you realise that if you can see what sort of wand someone should have it means you can see if they ought to have a wand at all?"
Willow looked surprised.
"You know, I think you're onto something there" she said "It never occurred….the hat accepted him. It may have been seeing the future that he'd get more talent but….no, he already found some effect and he could do potions….hmm. I'll work on that!"
David reflected that people with extraordinary talents did not always realise how extraordinary that they were or how useful the said talents might be!
oOOo
*Gestapo, a reference that probably passed the Germans by but amused Draco