Chapter 7
The Equestrian meet had been only a small one or Severus would not have considered it; Severus preferred not to involve his equestrian team in mid-term public gymkhanas like the big Halloween meet that generally took place somewhere in southern Germany or Austria. And one meet a term would normally be considered quite enough; but Engelbert Hellibore had contacted him just after they had returned from the local meet to explain that he was holding a small informal gymkhana for his pupils over Halloween, a few wizarding locals and a junior section for prospective pupils.
How like Engelbert to use such a way to persuade prospective pupils to choose his school! Of course he had not thought through the fact that if Prince Peak children were competing it was bound to come out that they were also permitted their own steeds and did riding as part of the extra curricular studies available; but that was very like Engelbert too. And frankly Severus did not want those children for whom having their pony available was the major deciding factor; such were better at a school for social climbers like Hellibore's Academy for Young Warlocks and Sorceresses. Even the name was posey. But turning out the sort of socially apt and otherwise not overly brilliant students was what Engelbert excelled at; and they had now a near friendship based on an acceptance that each had a school that had different aims. And Severus tried to pretend that he did not know that his own students referred to the place as 'Hellibore's Academy for Young Wankers and Slitches'.
It made sense actually for Hellibore to teach his rich dim kids to ride anyway; because equestrian meets were another of the ways to meet potential marital partners socially and really Hellibore was training his youngsters to make eligible marriages and buy their way into the effective aristocracy; for which however they needed all the right etiquette and skills to look good in public life. The boys and girls were separated, save in dancing classes, and sat on opposite sides of the room in basic skill classes. Girls did not, save by prior arrangement with their parents, play quidditch; nor did they learn to drive flying carriages. Girls learned fine needlework, deportment and organising dinner parties – how to order the elves properly, and oversee the fancy touches a wand could add to the décor and appearance of the food – and how to make the most of themselves. Cosmetic potions as well as those to keep a young family healthy were taught to those girls who did not feel able to take a full OWL in the subject. Severus faintly despised the whole concept; but then, for those young people of good family and no brains at least it equipped them to undertake their path in life, which for the girls was to be a good-looking womb for a family afraid of too much inbreeding if one were cynical about it. The boys were required to know more; but then most of them would end up working in the ministry where high qualifications were not a priority, where their wives need not be specific in which department they actually worked. There was, after all, very little cachet in the necessary job of dejinxing muggle toilets that were suffering from an excess of practical joking wizards or goblins.
Severus accepted the invitation and wrote too that he would bring along those of the juveniles in his nursery who were interested to give a wider range of competition for the prospective pupils. There would be Swiss children no doubt, and perhaps others from further afield in Europe – and very few French since Beauxbatons already fulfilled a similar function if not so aggressively snobbishly – and even perhaps the odd American. And it should prove fun for his pupils and give a chance to compete to such as Yelisaveta Koldunova who was shy about appearing in public, and who had eschewed the September meet.
And just to take the wind out of the eye of the Hellibore boys, he would enter HER in a carriage race since Veta was a fine driver as well as rider. It was cruel to mock Englebert but oh SO tempting!
oOoOo
Halloween itself fell on Friday; the gymkhana was to be on the Saturday, so the school had its traditional party and an afternoon off on Thursday too in order to make costumes, for which there would be prizes. This year they were to use a sheet and two pillowcases and there was to be NO cutting, and sewing must be able to be undone again afterwards. No more than a tenth of the costume was to comprise other introduced props but this year they might use their full imagination in what else to add; and colour charms might be used on the sheets and pillowcases.
Those of lower talent and imagination could fall back on pleating their sheets as classical dresses held up with brooches to be a variety of ancient Greek characters for the girls, such as Athena, or Circe or Medea; or folded as kilts to be Ancient Egyptian wizards for the boys to be Imhotep the Architect or draped as a chiton to be Herpo the foul. And for the truly unimaginative, a sheet might become a cloak for a vampire.
Severus had to say that of all the classical characters, the Visick twins did take the biscuit. They had acquired some muggle sweeties – jelly snakes – on which they had used the spell engorgio; and Fred as Herpo had used them to be the snakes the first recorded Parselmouth had attracted. Flo had been even cleverer, sticking HER snakes to one of the pillow cases that she had twisted to make into a cap, to give herself the snaky locks of Medusa. Severus had his own opinion about Medusa; that the snaky hair was a garbled folk memory of a woman who was actually a basilisk animagus, which would explain the ability to turn people into stone; but he had to give Flo full marks for the effect.
The effect might have been better had not young Lawrence Visick, known to his intimates as Law, absently nibbled on his sister's jelly hairdo.
The youngest Visick and friends had come as the team of infiltrators from the film of 'Where Eagles Dare' with the two girls as Mary and Heidi, their sheets gathered double round their waists as dirndle skirts with a gay line of colour at the bottom and the pillowcases around their waists and chests as bodices laced with ribbon sewn on to the ends; the boys wore their pillowcases as tabards over cricket whites and had their sheets as parachutes, held aloft with hovering charms. It stretched the rules but was extremely ingenious.
Of their fellows, Cleona Blackwood and Eva Schiff had come as Cleopatra and her murdered sister; Cleona as Cleopatra had borrowed one of the jelly snakes and Eva had the carefully constructed haft of a dagger stuck to the side of her neck with large quantities of strawberry jam flowing from the supposed wound. They had persuaded Claude le Batons to come as Mark Antony in a toga; and Motti Kalinka wore his pillowcases – being much smaller than the rest as an elf – pleated carefully and with a cardboard collar as Cleopatra's son Caesarion.
It may be said that not all the pupils rose to the occasion, but at least they made some attempt, even if Pru Buffer and her friend Friede were a little pedestrian wrapped in their sheets as ghosts, with well whitened faces and hair with talc; and the Lowther twins came as the laughing dementors with a horrid line in cackling.
The First Peak Marauders came as the Comedia del Arte; AHHa insisting on being Punchinello with a well-stuffed pillowcase as his hump and sewn into his striped and balloon-like trousers ingeniously contrived by wrapping his sheet around his waist and attaching the ends about his knees and then sewing up the back of them. Silvina was a gross Punchinella, Albert and Svetlana were Pierrot and Pierrette, Sandalla was Columbine and Granville and Julian worked Harlequin, who should be a fairy creature of shadow. They borrowed the ideas of the third who were so good with shadow puppets and used one of THEIR sheets as a screen to make a cardboard Harlequin dance behind it.
It was a remarkably clever way around the idea of Harlequin who needed really to have a skin tight costume of bright colours; the coloured cellophane they had lovingly applied to their puppet was very effective. The puppeteers of the third had been very helpful because they had offcuts from the puppets they were making for their Christmas panto, for which the music group was writing the music and the artists were designing scenery. They were doing mostly live action but had decided to increase the number of dancing devils by using shadow puppets behind their major efreeti characters. And it was looking good enough that Severus was considering inviting the Hellibore's youngsters as a return for their hospitality at the gymkhana and to rub in how much more talented his pupils were than the Swiss school's pupils.
The Ubiquitous marauders got together too; the six second years tied the sheets ruthlessly around themselves, filled the pillowcases with clothes and sewed them to various parts of themselves and proceeded to forward roll and tumble into the hall declaring that they were an avalanche.
As the staff were quite agreed that Wilhelm, Serrik, Alrik, Fyra, Bruno and Zhenga were as noisy and potentially as disruptive as any avalanche they were declared to be typecast.
The most colourful effort was the combined efforts of the Bee Marauders, now eight in number and including the Villeneuve twins and Arbrek in their design. The eleven children came as a circus. The four younger ones – Hette, Vava, Jo and Kizzy – had pooled their sheets to be a marquee, appropriately charmed to be striped cherry red and yellow, and the rest were clowns, their sheets pleated in the middle to pass behind their necks, tied at the waist and then made into balloon-like trousers in a similar fashion to AHHa's, and charmed into bright colours in randomly shaped wand-defined patches. A variety of weird and wonderful hats fashioned from the pillowcases completed the ensemble and slightly sticky face paint, brewed up – with permission – in the dungeon. BaHH had used two of the spare pillowcases stiffened with card to make outsize shoes, and as a clown it did not much matter that he kept falling over them. The Marquee danced wildly too and clowned about engulfing the clowns as they fled from it.
This was the largest joint effort; there were plenty of those who worked in pairs and a number of single efforts and the cleverness of the stiffening charms allied with clever origami type folding that saw Liriope Hallow and Cerellia Yaxley come as lilies brought much applause.
oOoOo
There were chocolate frogs all round for the efforts of the most ingenious; and then it was time to strip off the costumes for the feast. Sirri and the castle elves gathered up the discarded bedlinen, sighing slightly over the efforts that would be required to get it pristine again and wondering which of the children had enjoyed the most getting it into such a mess, the pupils or the staff.
The feast was all that could be desired; the traditional hog roast and all the trimmings, and then games and a dance to end the evening. And most of the equestrians skipped the dance for their beauty sleep; it would be an early start, even using ley lines to travel along under the guidance of little Professor Burns, to give their ponies a chance to rest before the gymkhana.
oOoOo
Of the juniors going it was only Sevnev who was in the least bit interested; he rode because the family did, and enjoyed the thought of quiddpolo; and he had an excellent seat and a good pair of hands. He would probably be competing against children a year older than himself – if as seemed likely Hellibore stuck to those due to enter in the following September – and would have nothing therefore to lose. Sevnev was out to enjoy himself.
Marius, George, Cecilia, Svetlana, Sandalla, Yelisaveta, Pru, Muriel, Leneli and Vya would ride in a senior class; Lucy, Cerellia, Sarah, Jo, Henik, Liriope and Siegfried represented the middle school; and Paul, Wilhelm, Serrik Bruno and Law represented the juniors. Law was no great horseman, but he performed better than any of the others in the first, two of whom actively disliked all things horsy and was elected by his fellows to represent them. If they were broken into classes Law would be the sole first year; even as Siegfried would be the sole third year, a year rather better known for its quidditch luminaries. And Siegfried at least got the lowdown on the Hellibore boys his own age from William Weasley who was MUCH happier at Prince Peak where it was not only not encouraged, but was actively DIScouraged to compare wealth and belongings. He had little knowledge of the girls his own age in Hellibore's since the two sexes were not encouraged to mix; but he said he though that the ones that were not prigs were bitches.
This tallied fairly well with the slightly loose talk that the adults were inclined to indulge in around their offspring and wards in the holidays concerning the girls of Cackle's when Severus had taken it over; so Siegfried was inclined to believe.
The seniors had no anticipation of coming into contact with anyone who might have been withdrawn over Severus' more determined co-educational policies; the only girl withdrawn for such reasons from the then first year, now the upper sixth, was Adelisa Jefferson whom Pru declared highly unlikely to have wanted to go on for NEWTs in any case.
Severus told the older ones dryly, when he found them discussing it, that the only girls in Hellibore's were those of the fourth year and below; and only really in accountable numbers in the first and second as yet.
"I bet, sir, that it gradually changes, though, to be a ladies' academy" said Pru nodding wisely "Because there are those daft families out there who don't believe in educating girls much. And it doesn't offer much for boys, does it?"
"Ah Pru, my dear, you may not think of yourself as very academic, but you have to recall that in taking four NEWTs you soar way above the national average even for Hogwarts" said Severus "You are lifted by my policy of hard work. There are plenty of boys who COULD not, even if they wanted to, aspire to your standards. It is they, the rich idiots who don't NEED a career but who like to have the cachet of a prestigious school, who will make up the majority of the male pupils there; and the rest, those who can scrape one NEWT to get a job in the ministry, which is respectable work for a young man; and who get to make, whilst at school, contacts who are only one step removed from the great and the good. I take your point and can see there being more girls than boys one day – for the reasons you mention – but there will always be room for the er, wankers as well as the slitches."
Pru giggled.
"Sir, you are AWFUL!" she said.
"So long as nobody repeats the unofficial name in the hearing of our esteemed counterparts in Switzerland, nobody need find out that I know the name the First Peak Marauders dubbed them with" said Severus austerely.
oOoOo
It may be said that Engelbert Hellibore, who had been teaching riding longer than Prince Peak, was shocked to discover that the team that Severus had brought was twice the size of his own school team.
"We ARE a bigger school" said Severus mildly when Hellibore betrayed his surprise with a yelp of 'WHAT?' when Severus informed him that he had brought twenty one contestants.
"That is true of course" said Hellibore, permitting himself to be mollified. His school was not much smaller than Prince Peak, as it happened; though those who went on to take NEWTs were somewhat lower in number. He had just four in his upper sixth class and eight in the lower sixth; as compared with eleven and sixteen. "You have more seniors as well as slightly higher numbers of course."
Severus nodded.
"I only have two who wish to enter the carriage driving races though" he said "One senior and one in the middle school."
"I too have only two entrants; but I only have two racing gigs" said Hellibore. "I think we should combine the age groups though as one race; perhaps one of yours against one of mine in two heats and the two fastest to race for first and second, the others for third and fourth, the races having been timed?"
"I can't offhand think of a better way to do it" said Severus "It's informal anyway; so long as the children have fun, nothing else really matters so long as there's fairness."
"I thought we might combine the sixth for their events" said Hellibore "You have more in the fourth and fifth, if we combine them and have second and third and the first and preschool together? I see you have only one lad in the first, I have none."
"I'll ask Law if he wants to go in with his elders or the younger ones" said Severus "I suspect he'd rather do badly in the older age group than feel that little ones might consider it unfair to have a schoolboy competing against them."
Hellibore nodded.
"If he doesn't mind, then, Severus" he said "We've a few local children competing; the team from a small school in Berne, which has about twenty pupils in total, and some preschool kids from the neighbourhood. I've the younger sister of two of my boys in the preschool section and a couple of American lads who are to start next year."
"Excellent" said Severus "I've only my son who takes any interest in horses in the preschool section."
oOoOo
It did not take long for the mother of one of the American boys to fall foul of the Prince Peak team.
The overdressed witch grabbed Vya by the arm and said,
"Here, elf, I'm thirsty, go and get me a drink."
"Madam, I don't like your tone" said Vya "I'm not your slave; I suggest if you want a drink you stir your lazy legs and get it yourself."
She apparated out of the way as the woman went to slap her and in consequence the American witch fell over.
She started screeching.
Severus was over in a trice.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"She wanted to order me about" squeaked Vya "Seemed to think that English schoolchildren should wait on her."
"Is this your elf? I gave her an order and she was rude to me!" said the woman.
"The child is in my charge" said Severus "WERE you rude, Vya?"
Vya considered.
"I might have been" she said "But she was rude first, grabbing me tightly enough to hurt and demanding a favour. I suggested if she want a drink she should stir her lazy legs and get it herself."
"You see? She admits it!" cried the woman.
"Well, I suggest if you want a drink so badly you stir your lazy legs and get it yourself" said Severus pleasantly.
The woman's husband joined in.
"How dare you! Have you any idea who I am? I demand you punish your elf"
"You're an ill-bred, lazy and inutile fool who has no idea of the realities of life" said Severus "And also unobservant since my PUPIL is plainly wearing school uniform. Here in Europe we are hoping to phase out the barbaric practise of slavery. And you begin to irritate me. And the last time I got irritated was with Odessa and before that it was Voldemort. I am Severus Snape; and if you really WANT satisfaction you'd better arrange a coffin and flowers for the removal of your body back to whatever jumped up colonial hole you crawled out of."
The scar blazed; and even Americans had heard of those with the zig-zag scar.
The Americans dropped back. They did not, however, apologise to Vya.
"I DO beg y'pardon for mah countrymen" said another wizard with an American drawl. "And Ah'm beginning t'wonder if Ah want m'boy to go to a school with the offspring of that tub of lard."
"Well if you want an English education for him you are welcome to enter him for the Prince Peak entrance exam" said Severus. "We teach three languages and have a curriculum of some sixteen subjects plus of course quidditch and flying; we have a quiddpolo team as well. But I only take those with exceptional talent or of high academic ability."
"Waall now! If you have flying too….mad on his horses is Ambrose. I think he's clever, but Ah'm biased; and as a family we're involved in rights for those of at least some human blood still held as slaves for a modicum of elf blood."
Severus brightened.
"Then for those ideals, if I have to give the child remedial lessons I'll take him; we have a child in the fourth who's a quarter elf, who was won in a card game by a friend of mine from her half brother who was planning on breeding her…..himself. My friend was disgusted."
"Waal, I can see why, Professor; and rightly so in mah opinion; and if you English are behind supporting the likes of mah group, Ah'll surely like to see mah boy with you! Daggerton's the name" he held out a hand. "And ef y'all take elves and part elves, then such as Ah free that are juveniles may as well sit your exam too."
"THAT disposes me even better towards you; permit me to introduce your lad to Law – Lawrence Visick – who's a part of the youngest group of active fighters for justice in the school, and to my son Severus Neville, who's a year younger than your lad" said Severus; and proceeded to take the lad – who had been nodding vigorously in agreement with his father – to meet the youngest boys.
They were soon getting on like a cauldron on fire and Ambrose was learning what Marauders were.
oOoOo
"Poaching Severus?" said Hellibore.
"Not intentionally" said Severus "The rather vile parent of one of your brats to be was rude to one of my pupils; and Mr Daggerton mentioned he preferred not to have his son go to school with their offspring. He's a fighter against slavery; you know my priorities."
Hellibore nodded.
"I don't really want rabble rousers in my school anyway, if the boy is likely to be vocal" he said "It upsets those who can't be bothered to think and disturbs those who don't have anything to think with."
"Something for everyone then" said Severus.
oOoOo
The youngest went first; there were three small girls from local wizarding communities, one of whom took the blue ribbon in the dressage; which upset Cecil Hickenbaum, the son of the unpleasant witch, because he was certain that his pony, a showy Pegasan, HAD to be more expensive than some local peasant girl's and he ought to have got more points.
"Isn't he a baby?" remarked Sevnev to Ambrose "You'd hardly think he was a great boy of ten, a whole year older than me and Fraulein Elodie here" he indicated the sister of the winner. "And his parents are so ill bred, and incapable of behaving in decent company. As though money counted for anything! I DO hope an English education is able to teach him some modicum of manners; though of course he'll never manage BREEDING; that sort never do. My Uncle Lucius has had terrible trouble with visiting Americans showing no respect at all to his elves; only real guttersnipes fail to use the amenities such as please and thank you even to those still preferring a state of slavery."
"Waal we ain't all like that" said Ambrose.
"But then your family demonstrates that you are gentlemen" said Sevnev "And although blood status is unimportant I suspect it is because you descend from an old line and have acquired the manner from generations. But a man may be poverty stricken and of no line at all and still be more of a gentleman than such as this boy because of his manners. I've known a more gentlemanly troll than him."
Cecil tried to hit Sevnev; which was a mistake because Sevnev was quite adept at kung fu and gave him a slap down.
"My BABY!" cried his mother "You horrid rough boy!" she drew her wand.
"Madam" said Ambrose "Your brat attacked a little boy a year younger than him and half his size; and if y'all even try t'hurt the kid Ah'll sure testify at your trial!"
"He'll do" muttered Severus. Sevnev was quite capable of standing up for himself.
Indeed Sevnev glanced at her wand, flicked a finger to cast the disarming charm, and transfigured it into a bunch of roses in mid air.
"Don't do that" he said.
The woman gasped.
"Waal you surely are talented!" said Ambrose, much impressed.
Sevnev shrugged.
"I'm a Snape" he said "We and our Malfoy cousins do seem to pick things up easily."
The mention of Malfoy cousins has as much effect on the Americans as his magical talents!
oOoOo
The junior obstacle course followed; and it was won by Ambrose, who took a wildly risky course, with Sevnev right on his tail. The boys laughed and shook hands; Sevnev quite content to do as well as that, stimulated by the older boy.
Law had chosen to go with the second group; and he was content just to be there for the fun of it. There was a boy from the Berne school, two boys from Hellibore's, and the other three from Prince Peak, Siegfried, Wilhelm and Bruno.
There were some comments that Bruno was half goblin and that Serrik was a full goblin. Bruno was Swiss with a Swiss name; none of the locals made much comment.
"I say, you don't find any trouble having goblins at school then?" the older of the two Hellibore boys asked Siegfried and Wilhelm.
Siegfried thought him asking in the spirit of enquiry; but Wilhelm thrust out his chin.
"Are you making anything of it?" he demanded.
"No; just asking" said the boy "I don't want to spout an opinion until I've heard all sides."
"Oh" said Wilhelm "That's all right then. They're my friends; and we don't actually notice what race people are."
The American woman was making a fuss again.
Severus spoke to her husband.
"If you REALLY want me to pass on your wife's comments to Serrik's guardian I shall" he said "But if I were you I'd tell her to keep her nasty ill-bred screeching to herself."
"Why should I care what his guardian thinks?" demanded the man.
"Because your child can suffer an awful lot of harassment crossing Europe if Herzog Von Frettchen – Herzog means Duke if you are too ignorant to know that – if he feels that his ward or any other friend of his young brother-in-law is being verbally abused" said Severus. "Eduard Von Frettchen can be quite vindictive."
The man paled again. Dukes were important men; and the name Von Frettchen was not unknown in international politics. These Snapes had powerful friends in England AND continental Europe!
"Ah'll suggest the little woman keep her views to herself" he said hastily.
"Wise move" said Severus. "I know you transatlantic types haven't had a country long enough to gain a culture but it's not wise to advertise just how uncultured you are, even before the relatively borderline English society you might find here."
"But Ah understood this school represented the cream of society!" said Hickebaum.
"No" said Severus "You do not find Malfoys, Snapes, Potters, Weasleys, Blacks, Longbottoms, MacMillans, Corbins, Diggorys, Gringotts, Kordachs, or Konals here. There may be the odd Hallow, Hellibore or Langstaffe who are aristocratic enough; but I fear you'd be disappointed if you hoped to meet the cream of society. However, you're not really the sort that the cream of society would want to meet so that's quite all right. I doubt your brat would be welcome in Hogwarts; Engelbert is very good however in accepting the sort of riff-raff who only have money and not breeding."
Hickenbaum flushed angrily; HOW he would like to draw wand on that insolently smiling face! But he did not dare!
Meanwhile the dressage was under way; and the prize was taken – by a hair – by Hervey Luffkin, the inquisitive Hellibore boy. Wilhelm took the second with Serrik third.
The obstacle race was another matter; and Serrik's skill with animals showed here, and he romped home well ahead of Wilhelm and Bruno who came in neck and neck.
oOoOo
The third group featured three Hellibore students – again all boys – and the large group of seven Prince Peak children and two from the Berne school. Again the Swiss children did not turn a hair that one of the Prince Peak team was a goblin, Henik; indeed one of them was about a quarter goblin herself, a pretty and gamine girl with flaxen plaits that bounced as she rode. Henik was the only boy in the girl-strong contingent from Prince Peak and laughingly told the three Hellibore boys that though he was no great horseman it had behoved him to add some leaven to the lump of so many girls, which earned him a gentle poking from Cerellia and Liriope.
The Hellibore boys seemed not to regard his race and the boy called Thorvald Keil, a cousin of Amarantha Keil who had left some years before and had called on Severus to rescue her from an abusive marriage, ventured to tease Henik about his harem. Which teasing Henik took in good part and disclaimed ownership as all of them were scary girls. This earned him another poking. The Hellibore boys reflected that they all seemed to be good friends.
The dressage was won by Norman Tugwood of Hellibore's, who had a dignified manner and a dignified horse too; the steeplechase was all down to personality, for the Tugwood boy rode well and he, Cerellia, Sarah and Johanna were all excellent riders and as likely one as another to do well.
Sarah was too gentle a person to take the riskier paths; Cerellia and Jo however were ready to take all the risks in the book, and soon overtook Norman who was a good solid rider without any spark of excitement to his performance. In the end it was Cerellia, who might not have been as good on paper as Jo, but who was, when all was said and done, a Malfoy.
Which was more or less what Jo said as they finished, Cerellia a nose ahead, and all but fell off their ponies.
"You showy Malfoy git, Cerry!" said Jo.
"Ain't I just!" grinned Cerellia.
They embraced, then hugged the rest of their team as they variously got in.
Hellibore watched in some wonder. His own pupils might embrace for show; but not this spontaneous congratulation and commiseration. Even in individual efforts, somehow Severus managed to produce an actual TEAM. He sighed. It was the price for taking the rich snobs. The financial partnership with Severus to enable him to do so however was starting to pay off; because he was getting a lot of interest from wealthy European wizards, especially those with money but without a pure pedigree, who were ready to consider paying high fees for a small and much less rough school than Durmstrang but who did not wish their offspring to associate with the goblins, part goblins and poor humans that Jade took; and who could not hope to pass the stringent exam to Prince Peak. The Americans too who wanted an European education added to his income; though by the arrangement he had with Severus, if the Daggerton boy could hack the level of attainment Severus expected, he was welcome to him. He had already accepted a girl called Ortensia Lollini who had been expelled by Severus – he could see why, she was a selfish brat – who was to start in the fifth next year to complete her OWLs. She had been studying with a home tutor; but the fame of his academy was spreading to permit her parents to feel that a year at school with NICE children might be good for her. Engelbert considered that a good spanking would probably do her more good; but then, his job was to turn out snobs with as many qualifications he could cram into them as possible. Their personalities were not really his business so long as they did not disrupt the other students.
oOoOo
Lunch was served before any further competition and Engelbert Hellibore made sure that the Prince Peak team were seated as far as possible from the Hickenbaums. The Prince Peak team were, as it happened, happy to chat to the visitors from the school in Berne and local children, happily adapting to the local patois from German or French as needed, being trilingual.
The children of Hellibore's school stared at that too.
"I say sir, are we actually going to bother with the Triwizard next year?" asked one of the senior riders, one Caspar Jefferson "They take almost twice as many subjects as we do; they manage to produce decent kids who aren't more concerned with their daddy's income than with working together and they gabble away in foreign as if they were born to it."
"We are going to compete even if we come last because we are going to make sure this school remains on the map" said Hellibore "And besides there are three new schools in the running; the free school for goblins and poor humans in London, a school for pure bred wizards and witches in Russia and the free school for goblins and poor humans in Germany. We should be able to beat any one of them. And it's not impossible to beat Beauxbatons."
"Well, as the school in Germany is allegedly run by Jade Snape I'd beg to differ, sir" said Caspar.
Hellibore grunted.
"Well we ought to be able to beat a bunch of Russians who want to out-Durmstrang Durmstrang; and as most of the best of the sixth formers from the London school go to Hogwarts I can't see that they'll provide much competition."
Caspar shrugged.
"Well we shall see. It'll be Ulysses Hobday who's bound to be our champion anyway; he's the best all rounder" he said without enthusiasm. Caspar did NOT like Ulysses.
"You're in with a shout for being flexible my boy" said Hellibore. "And we SHALL be permitted lower sixth too remember."
"Norman Tugwood a possibility then, or Gerry Kettle" said Caspar. "Thorvald Keil even might be in there. And all of us mugging up geomantic symbols this time and making sure our Arithmancy is up to scratch."
"Yes; and I shall be suggesting to you of the lower sixth this year and the fifth that will be in the lower sixth that those who want a reasonable chance of doing well should seriously consider reading widely over your holidays" said Hellibore.
This interesting conversation was relayed to the rest of the Prince Peak team by Sandalla, who was happy to place her lip reading ability at the disposal of her fellows; and who had made a rod for her own back since the Ubiquitous Marauders, represented by Wilhelm, Bruno and Serrik, were all interested to learn.
And after lunch – or Mittagessen as the Prince Peak contingent firmly called it to confuse the Hellibore children – the seniors would compete and the carriage races would take place.