Chapter 13

The representative of the Firebolt Broom Company was awaiting Lionel when he returned to the castle; and he introduced Ross Tuthill as his helpmate and added that he had also had aid with the metalwork from Professor Jorbal. Lionel was a great believer in giving credit where credit was due.

"It's a brilliant broom and I'm no end grateful to the kid that loaned it to me" he said "Malfoy-Tobak is the House Slytherin Seeker and really quite as good as his step brother Draco."

The Firebolt rep, a clean-cut young man, was plainly delighted that the Malfoy family chose the company's brooms; he seemed utterly indifferent to whether the Malfoy involved was a goblin or not. Lionel remembered him vaguely from a year or so above David.

"What gave you the idea?" asked the rep.

"Well, David Fraser initially" said Lionel "Or rather his concept of using muggle flying machines to fly concealed by obviousness. He understands a lot of muggle science – and Tuthill here has studied it too, more extensively than me, and his enchanted machines use enchantments that work alongside the muggle principles to enhance the performance. It seemed to me sensible to use such muggle principles as I might to go as fast as possible; I didn't know if anyone else might know enough geomancy to apparate, node shift or use ley lines. I never studied geomancy past basics" he added.

"I was at Hogwarts when Sirius Black first was cleared of wrongdoing and started teaching it as a hobby subject" said the Rep "And I didn't – fool that I was – see how handy it might be. I've been studying out of Arruntius Mapp's book, 'A geomancer's guide to Britain'."

"It's a nice easy one to consult" agreed Lionel "I use it to check ley lines; even if you don't know much, I think it makes some difference to use them. But it IS a new exam subject and I guess there are plenty of us who reckon faster brooms is the better option."

"You'd have outflown a Hungarian Horntail in mating frenzy on that without any trouble" said the Rep. "I always thought David Fraser such a swot too – who'd have thought he had ideas of such magnitude in that serious head of his!"

"David Fraser is a great man" said Lionel quietly "I have every reason to thank him. Without his help to find myself – WHILE he was tied up with the Triwizard himself at that – I should not be where I am today, succeeding past my wildest dreams."

"Well, I guess at that, Harry Potter was never much to look at" laughed the Rep "You'd pass him in the corridor without looking twice. It goes to show you never know I guess!" he went on "Obviously we have protective charms against wind buffet; you don't go from zero to a hundred and fifty miles an hour in ten seconds without falling off else! And we have of course the aerodyne arrangement of birch twigs on the tail."

"Yes; and it's the most aerodyne broom there is and the most responsive" said Lionel "But we did wind tunnel tests; and what slows it down is the rider. The charm mimics – in fact surpasses – the shape of the fairing I had on the front which does more than protect the rider, it slices cleanly through the air. Ross and I wish to patent the charm – we almost have it perfected – but we are prepared to consider making Firebolt the sole licensee to use it if you make us a realistic offer."

"Well that's very businesslike" said the rep rubbing his hands together. "May I see your experiments?"

"If you're prepared to make an undertaking to cough up handsome if you like our work" said Ross.

He laughed.

"I am; most definitely I am!"

"Then if you'd like to see our photos of the wind tests you'll see what we mean" said Lionel.

The shape of the protective charm was apparent; it combined a buffet zone and what was effectively a seat belt to hold the rider against sharp movements.

"Our patent is in the shape of the front part of the charm" said Lionel "See here the turbulence caused by the anti-buffet zone; it LOOKS aerodyne but especially at high speeds it sheds the turbulence to interact with the tail. A few changes, and a spoiler on the tail make all the difference."

The Rep was fascinated.

He asked intelligent questions; and Lionel and Ross answered them a little cagily. He smiled.

"I appreciate your caution" he said "But I do have a contract here that you might be interested in."

He produced it and wrote in a sum.

The boys read it carefully.

It offered them a thousand galleons a year for sole use of the charm.

The two looked at each other; and nodded.

"Fair deal" said Lionel "It should make you a sight more than that I would hope; we're satisfied." He and Ross signed their names and shook on the deal.

"The charm will be with you by the Easter holidays" said Lionel "It really is all but completed; we're delta testing. But there were one or two things in the tail part we weren't totally satisfied with; we couldn't get the Milly up over a hundred and ninety and I want to hit two hundred."

"It's a nice round number" said Ross.

The rep laughed.

"Well the 'Firebolt two hundred' will certainly be the next name then!" he said.

Lionel was very well pleased.

Ross could almost live on his share so long as his parents would give him a home; and it would enhance his income whatever job he took!

Between lessons Lionel and Ross put their hearts into finishing the charm; Ross because he felt they should give their hearts for so princely a sum and Lionel because he was a perfectionist and believed in giving value besides.

He had been half inclined to hold out for a percentage, riskier but potentially more; but this was guaranteed.

And possibly the start of further useful spell design in their spare time.

The only reason Lionel had not already studied enchanting to NEWT was simply finding the time; having the chance to do it alongside the Chanting NEWT was a bonus and he was using much of what he learned in the design of the charm. Ross had never studied enchanting at all; HIS expertise was in talking knowledgeably about drag and turbulence.

And it was finished ahead of time.

It had still to be patented however; and that was something to ask Lucius to sort out.

And to check that the Firebolt company, or some obscure relative of its owner had not filed a patent almost identical because the rep had seen enough to try to pull a fast one.

Lionel did not think it likely; not from a Gryffindor, as he recalled the boy to be; but it was to be born in mind. After all, Firebolt too could do wind tunnel experiments.

As it happened there was no other similar patent filed; and Lionel silently apologised for being suspicious.

The concept that the Belle Marauders had of a good charm or enchantment was a sight less useful and –to them at least – more entertaining.

Bella had been feeling slightly miffed –whilst appreciating and understanding the reasons – because Assim Khan had been keeping his distance from her since she had thrown herself into his arms squealing with delight over Lionel's performance and there had been a scary panicky wonderful moment when their eyes met and Bella was afraid and hopeful that he might kiss her. Instead he had firmly put her aside, with no more than a brush of her face with his hand that she could almost imagine being a velvet paw. She was having tiger withdrawal symptoms.

She had an idea to assuage this a little; and the Belle marauders, who were taking chanting lessons from Lydia, set up a doorframe to drop an enchantment – some might say a jinx – on anyone who came through it to give them black and orange stripes.

It was a charm of some considerable complexity and when Professor Flitwick was caught by it he was too delighted by the cleverness of it to be upset by the unexpected sartorial change to his robes and skin.

"Dear me!" he said "Quite remarkable….. Bella my dear, surely you children are not the authors of this?"

"Yes we are Professor Flitwick" said Bella "We weren't aiming to catch a professor though, we just wanted to improve the looks of people like Achille Villeneuve."

"Not that even having tiger stripes would make HIM be cool" opined Isabel.

"Well, well! Well, well!" said Flitwick. "And if you applied HALF the work to my class as you applied to your mischief you'd all be straight 'O' students…. Still, you've mastered the colour change charm, always the one that causes trouble at OWL… splendid! Quite splendid! I almost feel impolite in cancelling it!" he added, removing his own stripes with a negligent flick of his hand.

"Oh please, sir, have you cancelled the doorway too?" asked Bella.

"Now why would I do that before others have had the chance to appreciate your ingenuity my dear?" squeaked little Flitwick.

The doorway was designed to catch Ravenclaws; and it succeeded as they piled out of their commonroom.

There were cries of horror and consternation and a few giggles as suddenly everyone was orange and black striped.

"MUCH better" said Bella in satisfaction.

Achille Crouch-Villeneuve was always good to rise and now he was yammering in French and futilely attempting to pour spells into Bella who saw him as excellent DADA practice, which was as good a reason as any for getting his goat.

Mad and Chad were busy roaring with laughter, both over being striped and over Achille's futile fury; but when he shouted,

"Crucio!" their laughter stopped suddenly; and without a word spoken or a wand out Achille was suspended upside-down, disarmed and with a langlock on him.

Bella had fallen briefly to the floor in agony, not expecting to counter anything so powerful.

"THAT is not acceptable!" said Chad coldly. "Bella, you pest how long did you chant this door into existence for?" for Bella had got to her feet again.

"Well sort of permanently" said Bella.

Chad raised his eyes heavenwards and groaned.

"Well as part of your impot you lot can jolly well UNchant it" he said "And in addition you can do me three reps each of William Blake 'Tiger, Tiger burning bright; it ain't ideal but you shall suffer the slings and arrows of his silly imagery for making people who ought not to be into tigers."

"That's Shakespeare, the slings and arrows thing" said Maud who had written Hamlet's soliloquy for Fran Longbottom only the previous week for accidentally catching her in an experimental self-firing catapult jinx.

"Yes but he didn't write anything about tigers. Are you all right Bella?"

"Yes thank you Chad; I guess it was educational" said Bella viewing Achille with a thoughtfully menacing expression.

"You leave him to us, youngster" said Chad "Now get chanting my poppets; I want this door cleansed of all stripes before anyone else comes through it, gather round the rest of you I thing a finite incantatem should do it."

The spell-effect ending charm was sufficient to remove the stripes; to the collective relief of those senior Ravenclaws who had been caught. Being in the debt of Marauders was less palatable to some but there was no helping it. They were the only ones who could always remember without fail an appropriate incantation at the drop of a hat without the prompting of an exam question.

The Belle Marauders removed the enchantment with, it has to be said, some disappointment and went to find their required poetry.

"What total rubbish this is" said Bella by the time she had reached 'what the hand dare seize the fire' the second time round.

"The fellow is actually SCARED of tigers" said Drusillina in scorn.

"Actually for most muggles to be scared of tigers is probably reasonable" said Mimi "I think it's meant to be religious and kinda saying that if God made tigers it was one hell of a job."

Bella giggled.

"When I marry Assim I shall be making tigers in nine months after" she said.

Isabel and Maude who were closest poked her.

"I think she means 'invented', not 'made'" said Drusillina.

"Who could invent tigers? they sprang spontaneously from the word 'perfection'" said Bella loftily.

Isabel giggled.

"Well we all LIKE tigers but I guess the rest of us wouldn't go that far….and you wouldn't want us too or we'd ALL have to marry Stripes."

Bella considered that.

She wasn't JEALOUS exactly; and if she had to share him with anyone she would as soon it was one of her bloodsisters; but even so…..

"Well I guess you don't have to recognise the supremacy of tigers as much as I do" she conceded in a tone of much condescension.

They all poked her this time and their poetry acquired a few black stripes when the ink got knocked over in the scuffle; and they conferred as to whether it would be more work to start again or to add a few more deliberate stripes and turn the paper orange to look like it was meant to be.

They decided on the latter course because it would look nicer anyway.

Assim came roaring into the detention room to see how badly hurt Bella was; he had been teaching and as the pain had been short lived he had waited to finish his class. Bella was glad to be hugged but told him firmly that it had not been for long; and that they were nearly old enough to learn to take it in the MSHG anyway.

"That's as maybe" said Assim "But he had no right…. And for YOU with what your old self went through…. Yes, I do know a little and no I'm not going further…..but I will leave him to Dumbledore and not bite his head off."

From anyone else that might have been a cliché; and Bella purred and snuggled for a minute.

It was worth a moment's agony to have such lover-like anger to dwell on happily.

Chad and Mad meanwhile heaved Achille off to the broom sheds.

"Right you" said Mad "Will you accept peer punishment or will you prefer that we take you to the Head?"

"What are you going to do?" said Achille.

"Put the Cruciatus curse on YOU for a count of ten seconds" said Chad.

They had not even had to discuss it; Mad and Chad were closer than most twins even.

Achille paled.

"What – what do you think the head will do?" he asked.

"Do you really have to ask that?" said Mad in scorn "Because he is kindly I should think he might just expel you. By rights, since you are over seventeen you should be sent to Azkaban."

Achille swayed and almost passed out.

"You do not take him to the head then?" the voice was more a growl than a purr as Assim Khan came in.

"We offer him a choice, Stripes" said Mad "Ten seconds of the cruciatus curse or the head – and expulsion right before his NEWTs."

"I offer a third choice" said Assim "Stripes given by the tiger; less agony than the cruciatus curse but lasting much, much longer in pain."

He changed and ran out his claws.

This time Achille did pass out.

"Crumbs" said Chad "I swear he suffers far more for the fear of any choice than from actually taking his punishment like a man."

"A coward" said the thick treacly tiger-mouth voice of Assim "Will die a thousand deaths before anything he fears; and so suffers more than the brave man who gets on and does what he has to. Is it a fair alternative? I want to bite his head off but it might embarrass Albus"

Achille, who had come to, passed out again.

The Marauders grinned.

"It seems fair to me" said Chad "Me, I'd rather have the quickly-over cruciatus curse myself."

"Me too" said Mad "Achille you are a poor prune; have you chosen yet; because if you don't we'll just heave you off to the head and let him deal with you."

"I – I don't want the cruciatus curse!" squealed Achille.

"You are loathsome" said Mad in contempt "Happy to pass it out – but not to take it! What a little girl you are! Is it the head then, or Professor Khan's single swipe of the claws across your back, Aslan-fashion – not that a fool like you has ever read the Horse and his boy" he added scornfully.

"I don't want to be expelled" said Achille, sweating.

"Then you must take an unbreakable vow to accept this in lieu of reporting" said Chad. "I know you, Villeneuve; the moment you start any suffering you'd complain to your father that it was Professor Khan who attacked you without provocation. Give me your hands and swear that you accept this punishment and will not then go back on it to complain."

Achille was unwilling; but he had little choice. Mad got out his wand and as Achille swore in a trembling voice the thin tongues of flame shot from the end of it and bound Chad's and Achille's hands. And then it was sworn and sealed.

"Take off your sweater and shirt then" said Chad "No point him tearing good clothes."

Trembling, Achille disrobed and in terror turned his back to the great, quiescent tiger.

Assim did not make him wait; but quickly raked a fistful of razor sharp claws across the boy's back.

Achille screamed.

"It will heal naturally only" said Assim, changing back "It is enough cursed not to respond to episkayo. You choose to hurt; you shall know pain. It will take a week or so. It is not bad; you need not make such a fuss. Had I chosen I could have had all the flesh off your bones with such a pass. And remember; you CHOSE this."

"We'll see you get plenty to drink to help you to heal naturally and to prevent any fever" said Mad "But that's as far as we go. You are a fool; if you'd taken the Cruciatus curse you'd be just about picking yourself up by now and be no more than shaky and a little sick."

"Much YOU know about it!" said Achille.

"Much, actually, I DO know about it" said Mad "We practice taking it as part of the MSHG; Professors Lupin and Black have permission to use it to train those who willingly accept it. Same as examiners may; only we take it at least once without countering to know WHY it's an unforgivable curse. It helps concentrate our minds on dealing with the creeps who would use it who do NOT know."

"Bellatrix Black used to hand it out; why shouldn't she get a taste of own back?" said Achille sulkily.

"For one thing" said Chad in a low, intense voice "Bellatrix Black-Lestrange of whom you speak is NOT really the same person as little Bella Black; who has none of the memories of the monster that Voldemort created. For another, don't you EVER come sanctimonious at any Marauder when YOUR family skulked far away and safe during the Voldemort years. You don't need own back; YOU never suffered. Nor did my family; but the family of mine that is the Marauders did. I know what happened to Bella; though she does not and you do not even GO there you nasty little creep or I might just decide that you need the cruciatus curse as well as a well-striped back as a reminder. Now get back to school; I'll bring you a soothing balm if you keep mum without pissing me off further but start on our Bella and I shan't alleviate your sufferings one iota."

Achille fled sobbing.

"Git" said Mad.

"A singularly unsatisfactory character" said Assim.

"Stripes, mate, sometimes you're as guilty of litotes as Sev" said Chad.

It is doubtful that Achille actually ever realised just how merciful was the giving to him a choice of painful peer punishment rather than reporting him as a responsible prefect like Amadeo Lockhart should probably have done; but he was at least in some measure grateful to be spared the disgrace of expulsion so close to taking his NEWTs. Filius Flitwick had made it clear enough some years before that if the boy ever came to his attention again he would have him expelled; and if Achille did not really understand why it was frowned upon to inform a girl that he would have marriage to her arranged will she nil she he DID understand the enormity of casting the cruciatus curse on a little girl; even if he was not sure if he was entirely convinced that she was not in possession of the memories of the old Bellatrix Black.

He certainly did not even consider apologising to her; she had made him look stupid and in his mind this was as unforgivable as any unforgivable curse. As for Bella, she did not expect an apology; as she said to her own set, he hadn't the manners to do so and part of that was in the first part of the word in that he wasn't a man.

"There's almost a charade in that" said Drusillina

"So there is!" said Mimi "We could act it out by having someone dress as Lionel and saying 'it's NOT Achille Villeneuve but I don't know what we'd do for the second half."

"Have a load of undecided people going 'er' of course" giggled Bella "And then for the whole word stand for a staff member and have lots of 'please' and 'thank you' said and say Achille hasn't got any of these too."

They promptly went and acted it to their own set who thought it funny enough; especially the Ravenclaws. Nobody liked Achille Crouch-Villeneuve. Even Jack Murray laughed uproariously; he was having his corners knocked off. Amos Leroy smirked and then went and sneaked to Achille who was still feeling sore – in more ways than one – and got short shrift. Achille preferred to not know what things Bella Black was saying; so long as she wasn't ratting him up about using an unforgivable curse on her.

Being a feature in middle school charades was something he preferred not to know about, and young Leroy got a clip around the ear for his pains; and had he chosen to sneak about THAT Achille might have been in some trouble since even prefects were not supposed to lay a finger on their youngers, though a brief and gentle physical rebuke was blinked at, especially between groups of Marauders.

Amos retired with a red and stinging face sobbing; and however much the Belle Marauders might dislike him, they were ready to listen when Avice and Venilia in his own house dragged him to them and he was persuaded – rather sulkily – to disclose that Achille had been the author of the blow.

"Well that's not on" said Bella "It SHOWS; and I mean, Mad, Chad or Leo have cuffed me from time to time but not like THAT! Look here, Leroy, we were planning to GET Villeneuve; but now it's too late because you can't rag a man specifically in the run up to big exams; it just isn't done because it's unfair. But the moment the NEWTs are over, we'll add your account to his score and do him proper, okay?"

"Yeah" said Amos; who had enough grace in his self-opinionated and stuck up body to feel faintly guilty that he had got the war-wound from sneaking up the young Nemesis now offering him rough sympathy.

The Belle Marauders might be virtuously eschewing the ragging of Achille Crouch-Villeneuve for the present but that did not mean they were going to eschew discussing it.

"We can't repeat what we did to Jackman with the darkish mark" said Bella regretfully "Repeating's just not on."

"As he's no man we should make that clear" said Drusillina "How about making his hair grow all curly?"

"Making it clear he's no man I like" said Bella "But we can't do THAT; after all we're avenging Leroy as well and he looks a quiz like that and is well satisfied with it silly brat. We could change all his clothes to be female garb I guess."

Mimi giggled.

"Not ALL" she said "Just his underwear to be really silly frilly trifles. HE'll know but he'll be too embarrassed to ask for help uncursing it if he can't manage for himself."

"And if he doesn't get it uncursed before leaving on the train he really WILL be a traveller in ladies' underwear" giggled Maud.

They poked her on general principles.

"The babbling curse?" suggested Isabel.

"The babbling curse – with a twist to make it falsetto!" said Bella.

There were crows of delight.

"Well that'll do for starters anyhow" said Bella, satisfied "And if we come up with any splendiferous schemes, wizard wheezes or preposterously perfect plans in the meantime we can add to it."

With such things eminently arranged normal small pleasures might be resumed with what, to the Belle Marauders, passed as a clear conscience and the ordinary squabbles of how to arrange one's chocolate frog cards of famous wizards; Bella maintaining that they should be laid out according to date, and Mimi declaring that they should be laid out alphabetically which as she said with her latest card had a particular symmetry.

"For I've just got Azonax and I've been wanting him for AGES!" she said.

"Who on earth is Azonax?" demanded Isabel.

"He's the wizard who taught magic to Zoroaster; and I've got Zoroaster too so there's a nawful symmetry there having them arranged from Azonax to Zoroaster" said Mimi.

"I don't even know who Zoroaster was" said Maud.

"Crumbs didn't you ever listen in History of Magic?" demanded Drusillina.

"Not if I could avoid it" said Maud "I used to wish Weasley's Wizard Wheezes sold patent half hour daydreams for the under sixteens without the sloppy stuff about sex that I suppose they mush into the restricted ones; in history lessons I so could have done with a really nice daydream about mucking about doing nothing on a summer's afternoon. Who was this Zoro bloke anyway? I thought he was a muggle film character who did Robin Hood sort of things in Argentina."

"That's Zorro you prat" said Drusillina "Zoroaster was a king way back when, before the Trojan War and all; and some people say he invented magic but not if Azonax taught him about it he couldn't hardly of, but he was an astronomer anyway."

"That pretty much covers it" said Mimi "Scholars are undecided if he was one person or a series of people in a – a sort of mageocracy and it might have been a title not a name in that case or a hereditary name. Azonax, who's sometimes called Agonax, isn't much known about. Even in OUR writings; there's precious little more than the muggle writer Pliny says. I'm half inclined to wonder if he wasn't part fey; after all, dad reckons most magic comes from unions between humans and the fey, which is how we get to make bargains with them because of a blood tie time out of mind and them needing our blood too to keep them substantial. But mother Krait argues that it was the first expression of magic to summon ritually the spirits of nature as expressed by some types of fey and that was how unions first started and the fey found that with a solidity they could do more stuff and got greedy to spend more time in the material world and that's how it all started."

Bella laughed.

"Trust your step parents to argue about such esoteric and unprovable things! What's your mum think? As an elf she's fey after all."

Mimi shrugged.

"Mum says she doesn't see that it really matters because it's what's happening now that's the important thing; but I kinda take Mother Krait's point that we're living with the consequences of the historical interactions between the fey and humans and THAT has to be dealt with, and if we knew a bit more we might be better equipped to sort out problems and redress wrongs."

"Anyone's parents who did the eight hour chant to remove the Imperious Curse thing from inside elves are worthy of respect and ought to be listened to" pronounced Maud "All right, maybe history is kinda important; but it's kinda boring too."

Bella giggled.

"Well Draco says it's a sight more interesting than it was in his young day when it was taught by a ghost who'd died in the middle of droning on about the goblin wars and was so boring he never even noticed he was dead and kept right on droning" she said.

"Gosh!" said Maud "I guess that's heaps worse than Professor Lector; at least he TRIES to make it interesting. But I'm still glad I got to give it up when we picked electives."

"At least it's better than divination" said Isabel "Staring at tealeaves and wishing for a clue. I wasn't even any good at divining for chocolate Galleons. Oh boy, I wished I liked Arithmancy better though."

"It's no good bellyaching about it" said Bella sternly "Marauders HAVE to understand Arithmancy; it's the basis for all real serious sort of magic. Even if you let other people do the calculations you need to know why they're doing the calculations. I wouldn't let you decide when a ritual was to be held anyhow" she added meditatively "You'd manage to pick thirteen o'clock on Friday the Thirteenth when it fell on sometime like Samhain and end up being invaded by unwanted fey or something."

"OY!" Maud threw a cushion at her.

This degenerated into a general brawl with Mimi frantically collecting up her chocolate frog cards before they suffered from the brawling and was interrupted only by Fran Longbottom wondering why there was such a row in the prep room where they had met and setting the group ten reps each of 'her voice was ever gentle, low and sweet, an excellent thing in a woman' since Fran at least recalled having been set that herself by Madam Malfoy and hoped fondly that she had the quotation right.

It was however a relief to the Head Girl that the Belle Marauders were in noisy trouble; they had been altogether too quiet since the striped gate incident and she had been wondering what they were plotting.

And it has to be said too that Fran was more than relieved that the Mad Marauders had taken onto themselves the dealing with Achille; for she had been unable to see what else to do than report him, and though she disliked him it seemed a terrible time to be expelled. When Chad had suggested letting them give him the choice of rough justice instead she had been thoroughly relieved; for one could at least rely on the Marauders to undertake some rough justice that was truly JUST.

And they were more imaginative than she.