Chapter 3
David frowned to himself.
He hoped there would be no problems this year with the new kids since he had responsibilities as a prefect to elect a new head girl – or boy, he supposed. David never had any doubts over who should be head, Ginny Weasley was the obvious choice to his mind, even allowing for his partisan nature as a Gryffindor.
He'd have the support of two Slytherin prefects, he thought, Abigail and Emmeline Greengrasse, who had cause to trust any of the Bloodgroup; and Ginny was the only one of her age group to be in the Bloodgroup anyway, and therefore bore the lightning scar. Most people, even most of the MSHG did not know exactly how it had come about that some of them, even some quite young children, bore the lightning scar; but they did know that it meant that those people had resisted the Killing Curse and so were to be treated with respect as being part of the team that killed Voldemort. David was gazed it in awe and not a little fear by new children, as he had been last year; though the vicissitudes of making sure Mary-Anne Green arrived safely had taken his mind off that. She had been early this year – by a full hour; her father had altered the clocks on the wrong weekend, but had altered them the wrong way, which was just as well since otherwise she would have been late by an hour. David rang Mr Green to explain all this to him and hoped that the little girl's pleasant but extremely dreamy parent would get it right.
He was also beamed at by Cleonie Puckeridge, another Hufflepuff child, who he had rescued from kidnap by her muggle father to send to a muggle school. Cleonie was wont to follow David around a bit like a puppy, and congratulated him enthusiastically on his appointment as prefect.
She had a bit of a crush on him; but it was a child's crush, for she admired Ellie too, and it was harmless. And if her efforts to help him could end in near disaster – usually when she dropped things she was carrying for him – well, that was life and she was a nice child and it was difficult to be cross with one so eager!
The young man and group of five boys milling around were a bit of an irritation; David never liked muggles getting too close while wizarding children went through the wall onto the platform. One of the boys, who had charge of a trolley with luggage, was following the Weasley children. The muggle child with bright red hair, as bright as it could get and still be natural, followed straight on behind Mr Perceval Weasley with Colin and Alice; and one of his class mates followed him.
The young man and his other three charges stared in disbelief. As well they might. David, forbidden wand work, silently called for help from Severus, and nipped through the barrier himself to accost the unexpected muggles.
"What do you boys want here?" said David severely "Your train leaves from platform five!"
"Sure, and didn't I only want tu follow the strange lookin' fella and his kids" explained the child with the trolley "And wasn't it the strangest t'see them disappear and I'm thinkin', either they're ghosteses or the little people or there's somethin' even funnier goin' on. So I follered them so I did."
"And didn't I foller him follerin' them?" said the other lad.
"Well you aren't supposed to be here" said David.
"Are ye sure I can't stay?" asked the trolley pusher hopefully "It's only bein' got rid of t' school that I am by me uncle, so he can fiddle the accounts and steal me inheritance, and it's av no moment t'him what school I'm at and sure, I might as well be at an interestin' one f'sure."
"Well I'm thinkin m'father wouldn't want me at a school f'weirdos, so now I've looked I'll be leavin' if it's all the same t'you" said the other boy, a little nervous of a wand duel going on between the Malfoy twins.
"What a good idea" said David. "Here, you, if you're staying, grab your trunk; and you, push the trolley out, be decisive mind as you walk at the wall."
The second boy being removed, and a quick hiss of Parseltongue to tell Severus that they had acquired someone who was at least a sensitive, he left the Potions Master to confund the young schoolmaster and his charges into forgetting what they had seen or that there had been five boys along.
Severus went to see the other.
"So you're an orphan and you can see magical things" he said grimly.
"Sure, and don't I chat to the little folk in the meadow?" said the boy. "I'm in the wind, as y' might say sir; not wantin' ter be away but if I must, I'd like t'learn magic if I may t'take back what is mine when me uncle's finished stealin' av it."
"And your name is?"
"Teague O'Toole av Ballyconny" said the boy "And strictly it's Lord Teague, but ut seems a bit o' baggage ter take tu school, so it does."
"It is indeed" said Severus "But I'm glad you told me because I shall need to verify who you are; and if your uncle is stealing; and if so, take appropriate measures on your behalf."
"Sure, and will ye ensorcel him tu go through loife with his feet on backwards and his ears like an ass?" said Teague with enthusiastic approval.
Severus laughed.
"Tempting though that may be, I shall be more likely either to have him locked away by the muggle – non wizarding – authorities; or borrow several boggarts, poltergeists and ghosts to frighten him off your property so hard he never comes back. I'm not allowed to attack muggles using magic; it's against our laws. I can hit him hard, but then I get done for common assault under muggle law. But you can invite any ghosts and such to spend time in your home; such is your right."
Teague grinned.
"Sure and doesn't the thought of him fleein' through the night with his belly jigglin' over the top av his stripey pyjamas do me heart the world o' good!" he said.
Severus dumped the boy on his own set of charges and went to supervise the prefects getting together to vote.
David had boarded the train; everyone had come through the barrier as they were supposed to with the one addition in the person of Teague.
And Colin Weasley still nearly missed the train, being too busy gassing to cousins still too young to join him and Persis and Alice that he had to run for it and jump, being dragged bodily onboard by his robes by Jasper Crouch Jones.
Alice made much of having been on board properly; and Colin threatened to show her what happened to overly smug weevils of first years.
The term 'weevil' for a first year was deemed so appropriate to others listening that it stuck; and would enter the school's own slang.
Teague was soon as thick as thieves with Jem, Erwin, Senagra, Alice Weasley, a girl called Salvia Pippin who was another grandaughter of Madame Spikenard and hence a cousin of Jasmine, the 'hagglings' as Senagra dubbed Annis and Beth, Lynx and her friends Fabian, Gabriel and Rupert.
"More than enough for one house" said Erwin seriously "Though there's sometimes as many as a dozen in one year; normally it's about nine or ten to each house."
"It's an old hand ye are then?" asked Teague.
"My half brother's in the fifth" said Erwin "And my guardian's a professor there, the one that accepted you in fact. I live in the school building without joining in meals but you find things out. Jem is also Professor Snape's ward. He has a number; my half-brother is his adopted son but our mother is also still alive, so my sister and I we are but wards."
"Will we be likely to be in the same house then for being friends?" asked Annis timidly.
"Not necessarily" said Jem seriously "The Sorting Hat chooses what house you are in, though they do say your own choice can make a difference. Madam Malfoy was said to be clever enough for Ravenclaw, brave enough for Gryffindor, hard working enough for Hufflepuff and ambitious enough for Slytherin; but she was Professor Snape's ward too at the time and she chose his house 'cos he's head of Slytherin."
"Are you choosing Slytherin then if you have the choice?" asked Lynx.
"No I don't think so" said Jem "I think I'm more Gryffish; ready to get into trouble and a bit impulsive. Reckon you're a bit Gryffish too, Teague."
"I want to be a Slytherin with Hawke Malfoy because he's cute" said Lynx.
"So's Rom Snape but I think I'm more of a Gryff like my brother" said Senagra. "It doesn't matter; my brother and Abrax Malfoy are Gryffs and the other Marauders are Slythers so you can have good cross house friendships."
She then had to explain all about the Marauders.
"How do we get to be one?" demanded Lynx.
"I think we wait to get invited to be the next generation after impressing them" said Senagra. "You game to try?"
"Am I not! Anyone else?"
Annis said,
"I don't want to be a wet blanket, but as I got a scholarship I guess I really ought to concentrate on not letting Professor Snape down – and that goes for my sister too" she added firmly.
Beth nodded.
"I don't think I'm a Marauder type anyway" she said "It sounds a little scary and uncomfortable."
"And sure, I suppose I ought to work too – at the first at least – fer bein' given the chance tu come" said Teague "But it's interested I'll be in yer doings and a willin' conspirator!"
"My Grandmother will know if I'm up to anything" said Salvia "Which is the downside of having seers in the family. But I think I'm not really the type."
"Nor me, not really" said Gabriel.
"Well, I'll think about it" said Alice "It's sort of a Weasley thing to do, my cousin Ron was in the generation before of Marauders with Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and later Draco Malfoy. I got told some of the stories."
"And you must tell us" said Lynx "But Erwin, Jem, Rupert, Fabian, you haven't spoken!"
"No, I do not like the foolish risks to take" said Erwin.
"Nor I" said Rupert "I don't mind bucking authority if it needs bucking but not just for shits and giggles you know; and my dad would be so disappointed if I got expelled. Unless it was for something worthwhile like standing up to someone like Voldemort."
"I wouldn't mind" said Jem "Though I don't want to let Professor Snape down….and I'm the oldest so I've responsibilities to the little ones….but I'm definitely interested."
"Me too I guess" said Fabian "I say, do you have to go into a house your parents were in?"
"Not hardly" said Jem "Why Professor Black was a Gryffindor and all his family had always been Slythers; and Grace Snape is a Gryff though her dad's a Slyther and the Malfoy twins are in different houses."
"Good" said Fabian seriously "'Cos my mum was a Hufflepuff and my dad was a Ravenclaw and I know I'm not clever enough to be a Ravenclaw and I don't feel much like a Huffer."
Lynx giggled.
"You can be in Slytherin like I mean to be" she said "Never been a Weasley in Slytherin before; that'll be a gas!"
"Cuh, that'll go down like a ton of dragon dung!" said Alice Weasley cheerfully.
They were interrupted by a couple of bigger girls who decided it would be about the right time to rag the younger ones, and gleefully took in the fact that there were two hags and a goblin and started making ugly jokes. Romneya Coulter was along laughing sycophantically and making her own comments about goblins and hags too.
Alice did a little bit of surreptitious wand work while the others started shouting.
"Reckon you want to look in a mirror before you call other people ugly!" Alice piped.
The older girls laughed – briefly – then looked at each other. And looked again in horror.
Alice had covered them in warts and festering pustules.
"Cousin Ginny has some excellent hexes" she said complacently "Now, get lost or I'll let loose the bat bogey hex!"
The would-be bullies fled.
Ginny's bat bogey hex was justly notorious; and neither Parnassus nor Mourne wanted it cast on them if her young cousin was even half as talented!
Jem, Senagra, Erwin, Salvia, Alice, Annis and Teague all ended up in Gryffindor.
Lynx, Fabian and Gabriel were in Slytherin, as was the child Romneya Coulter whose mother Krait had annoyed in the ice cream parlour.
Rupert and Beth were Hufflepuffs and perfectly satisfied to be so.
The ghosts attended the arrival and Hatting of course; and the Bloody Baron went into a serious huff when Lynx stuck out her tongue at him. It made him even rougher with Peeves than usual, walking through the poltergeist without warning when he was pulling faces.
The new head girl was announced; and Ginny Weasley had been chosen almost as overwhelmingly as Draco had been two years before. Ginny would only serve a year, but it was generally reckoned that she was a sufficiently class act to follow one of the best head boys the school had ever had.
Not everyone was delighted by new choices of prefect.
Pritchard and Baddock, two Slytherin of David's year who had always disliked him for his friendships with three other Slytherin of their year who were in the MSHG, decided to catch him out in a deadfall of well-rotted dragon dung to bring him down a peg or two. They hid to watch the results; but David, on his way up to Gryffindor Tower was waylaid by Cleonie Puckeridge with a plaintive request to look at her owl that seemed unwell. Having stopped long enough to assure her that her pet was merely moulting, David arrived just in time to see Sirius Black caught in the deadfall.
"YOU TWO!" he roared.
"We seen who did it!" said Baddock hastily "It was that new kid" he pointed at Alice Weasley.
"Oy!" said Alice.
Sirius crooked a finger to her and stared into her eyes.
"Very well, hop it to bed little'un" he said "You two…."
"We never!" said Pritchard
"And the lie written large upon your faces? Now clear it up - no wands – and be thankful I do not make you use your tongues….and you will report for detention every night for a week for the house elves to show you how to wash clothes manually. It may teach you the value of cleanliness" said Sirius.
"But… If we don't use wands we shall smell!" said Pritchard.
"EXACTLY" said Sirius "I smell; I don't see why you shouldn't too. And be thankful too to have been caught by a professor; if you'd caught out Mad dog Fraser I wager he'd have been far less gentle, not being bound by the same rules a professor is over duty of care to you. Right, Fraser?"
David gave a grim smile.
"I guess I could've called in a favour from Charlie Weasley to let them help him collect fresh dragon dung from a brooding female" he said. "He's got a Hungarian Horntail with a clutch right now."
The bullies were horrified.
"See?" said Sirius "Now go and get cloths – no, open the windows first, this corridor smells like Voldemort's old socks!"
There were a few departures from the usual rituals at the beginning of term.
When Professor Dumbledore read out Argus Filch's proscribed list – it now contained all of Garjala's inventions – he added that though Mr Filch would be confiscating in the usual fashion any items left lying about, he would permit those who had lost their kit to purchase it back at an initial rate of one sickle for five items; and after half term one sickle each. At the end of the school year, any unclaimed lost property would be sold off if the offender had not bothered to collect it. The fines and sale fees, the Headmaster explained, was to go to a worthy cause, that of educating squibs to the limit of their ability, and he felt sure that everyone would appreciate the excellence of the cause.
Some did; some did not.
It did mean that at least lost property could be retrieved!
As everyone seemed to think that Professor Snape was the real thing, it was to him that Lynx took Romneya Coulter when she found the girl howling on her bed having missed half her classes and with her face a mass of peeling patches.
Lynx had extracted from the girl that she had a skin condition that had been fine for several years but the pressures had made it break out again. The reason – apart from her family's casual racism – that Romneya so hated hags and goblins was because a friend of her mother had passed the remark that the child should be kept out of sight in case anyone thought she was a hag or even a goblin. Her older sister Karlinna poked constant fun, and she and her friend Lana Porteous had been teasing Romneya to be sure and not get mistaken for one of the hags.
"Oh THEM" said Severus. "I have some ointment that will soothe it and make it better; I brew it for Wido Mordaunt who has a similar condition. To my mind there is only one kind of being that is inferior in any fashion, Miss Coulter."
"Wh-what's that sir?"
"The racist" he said. "If I were you I should ignore all the things your mother and her friends have said about hags and goblins and look at them with your own eyes. Hags are of the fey and their looks therefore, unless they use magic to disguise themselves, reflect their nature to some extent. They tend to haggard faces and large noses but the expressions on those faces may be revealing. Hags require a certain amount of raw meat to live; some, through having been marginalised by the wizarding world target children to eat as a revenge. Others do not. They are not pretty by human standards; but a happy and contented hag is a sight better looking than a sneering discontented bitch whatever the fortuitous arrangement of her features. As to goblins, they are just different. One cannot say they are ugly; or beautiful in the main, though there are ugly goblins and attractive ones. Senagra I would rather describe as 'cute' but if you ever tell her so I'll have you gutting horned toads for a week….she doesn't lack self confidence and I'd hate to boost her over into cheeky. You have a new start at school; you must needs ignore your sister and the gang she runs with, they are negligible; even Voldemort didn't want them. Come to the MSHG in the mornings and learn strategies for standing up for yourself. Miss Weasley here…"
"It's BLACK Weasley sir" interrupted Lynx.
Severus glared.
"It's Weasley" he said "I have better ways to waste my time than struggling over unnecessary double barrelled names; and you're more Weasley than Black to my mind. And as I was saying, you and your little gang will watch out for Miss Coulter I'm sure; you already made acquaintance with the Marauders and they are enemies of old of Miss Porteous and her gang, which is why Miss Porteous keeps her distance from them. Far be it for me to recommend such forbidden items as Self-exploding bed-Spreads or even the old fashioned but effective jelly in the slippers of course; but bullies usually stop bullying once the level of retaliation exceeds their level of enjoyment. Now use this night and morning for at least a week and then if your skin feels dry or irritated. And for your cheek, Miss Weasley, you are to go to the library with this note from me and copy out at least ten hexes and counter jinxes."
Lynx beamed at him.
"Yes sir!" she said happily.
She somehow doubted if she and Romneya Coulter were ever going to be good friends but at least they might get on now. And she would put up with partnering the girl in some lessons for that too.
Severus sighed.
Somehow he had the feeling that Lynx Black Weasley was going to be one of these ubiquitous children like Harry and the Malfoy Twins who were simultaneously good at being where it was needed for them to be and yet always where they shouldn't be.
He had a strongly foreboding feeling he was seeing the nascence of another Marauder.
Well, if there were a constant supply if foes such as Odessa and the Daone Sidhe, it was perhaps as well if Hogwarts could produce a constant stream of marauders.
And he was already pretending not to know that the New Marauders – the senior Marauders, he suddenly realised now Harry and co had left – were prancing around on the rooftops looking for secret stairways or some such.
Whether they found any or not, it would keep them out of more serious mischief anyway. Like deciding to visit Durmstrang using the mirror as a visualisation to use the bloodgroup elven apparating skills.
He shuddered at the thought.
Besides, Abrax needed something to keep his mind off the forthcoming ritual with Myrtle.
The boy had visited her parents – and bless him, had paid respects at the stone angel set to her memory in the graveyard – and had persuaded them he was not mad and asked them to visit Myrtle and take part in the ceremony, where at least they could say goodbye if she was sucked through the veil. Myrtle had apparently visited them as a ghost before she was bound for haunting Olive Hornby so drastically to the toilet where she had died; and her parents had always resented the Ministry of Magic for that edict.
Abraxus was able to describe how his cousin Krait helped by him and his brother and friends, were haunting Olive Hornby all over with muggle tricks that she did not understand.
All the muggle repellent spells on Madame Hornby's house could not turn away young witches and wizards; but they could still use ordinary lockpicks and muggle methods without being punished for underage magic. The witch, no more pleasant now than she had been when she was picking on Myrtle, and indeed a one time supporter of Dolores Umbridge, had been dumbfounded by such simple tricks as blackface soap, glue on the toilet seat, dead fish inserted in her bed springs, chilli juice in her underwear and great burdock juice in her face creams.
Dumbledore had received a visit from the Spectre Inspector to check that Myrtle was still confined since Olive Hornby could not perceive any way the tricks could have been played save by ghostly magic as no wand magic could be detected.
That it was no magic at all had not crossed her mind; and she had not yet even found the fish that Krait had left one holiday some years previously.
Abrax had renewed them since, in case they were getting too benign.
And dead fish do not cease smelling however expensive the goblin curse breaker called in may be.
Mr and Mrs Carmichael, Myrtle's parents, were less interested in the haunting of Olive Hornby than the fact that someone cared enough to do it. They laughed and wept and took Abrax to their hearts.
Severus hoped it would work.
He did not see why it should not; they would work under conditions far more favourable than those when restoring Voldemort.
It was only the length of time she had been insubstantial that concerned him.
But her parents still lived, both of them; and there was in that enough magic, for children did not ought to die before their parents, therefore it was 'natural' that she should still be alive and demonstrably so in her own mind. And it was Myrtle's mind that was important in her own ability to re-adapt to solidity. To be able to hug her mother was probably psychologically more than to be able to hug a boyfriend. To her time did not pass as it did for the living; it was all much of an endless round. Watching Harry and his friends grow up, and with them treating her kindly had been a first step, being in touch with the passage of years through her friendship with them, and perhaps awakening a deeply hidden desire to grow up with them. Her friendship with the other bloodgroupers and active participation against Voldemort had also helped her to associate herself more with them than with the other ghosts. Her romantic attachment to Abraxus, now almost exactly her own age at death was most important of all; and Krait had decided to time the ceremony to the second when Abrax was the same age Myrtle had been when she died.
It might be argued that on the anniversary of her death was better; but Krait felt that the sacrifice would take better if the age were taken into account.
Krait had a feel for ceremony as he had a feel for chanting. She was rarely wrong. She had argued Professor Vector into changing the closing of the accidental gate to Basingstoke station by seven and a half minutes.
That had gone perfectly.
She had used the train that had taken bits of poor old Binnsey away almost like that muggle device, a zip fastener.
Her reasoning was sometimes obscure; but it worked.
Severus suddenly wanted to take his wife to bed.
He decided that there was no other call upon his time; and proceeded, to Krait's delight, to do just that.