Chapter 13

Lawrence Visick awoke screaming that the sky was black with attacking wizards and dragons with only two legs; and his fellow Marauders had needed to shake him to wake him properly. Motti Kalinka was no Marauder but he apparated off as he, being an elf, could do easily, to find Professor Snape.

Severus apparated straight into the dormitory and induced Lawrence to sob out that he had dreamed the school was under attack and that the wizards attacking had odd sorts of dragons with them, that had only two legs.

"They are called Zilant" squeaked Motti "A Russian dragon, smaller than the Ukrainian Ironbelly that is called Zmey in Russian."

"Ah, I believe they are related to both Occami and Naga as well as wyverns" said Severus "Though I can't say my knowledge of magical creatures is extensive. You do rather well in divination, don't you Law?"

"Yes sir" said Law "You mean I've seen what may be real?" he looked panicked.

"You may have been responsible for a vision that will make sure we can oppose these wizards and their half-baked half dragons" said Severus. "Permit me to look into your eyes; ah yes, the memory of the dream remains sharp enough. Well, this is not something unexpected, my boy; your confirmation is handy. If I bring you some Horlicks will you be able to sleep or would you like me to make you up a bed on the sofa in my office next to my own bedroom?"

"I think I shall be all right sir; sorry to make a row and wake everyone up and all" said Law.

"Oh if you've helped make life easier in defeating the baddies I expect your dorm mates will readily forgive you," said Severus. "I'm sorry it's happened to you but I AM pleased to have a little more knowledge of what to expect. It's because we used dragons against Odessa I suppose; they can't even manage to be original these Russian fools."

"It's the Russian supremacists then?" said Hiob "Because my sister and Motti's cousin made them look silly?"

"Exactly" said Severus. "You lot are excused MSHG tomorrow and if anyone needs to sleep in, I'll be lenient. I'll be back shortly with Horlicks all round unless anyone dislikes it? It's better to sleep on than cocoa."

Most had not tried the malted milk drink; and Severus left them sipping cautiously and wondering whether they were going to acquire the taste or not but obediently drinking up anyway because the head said it was good for them.

oOoOo

Severus found Madam Gimlet in his office, in a gaudy dressing gown over rather prosaic striped pyjamas.

"I had a feeling you wanted me, Severus" she said.

"Yes Carmenta; I did" said Severus "Though I was going to let it rest until tomorrow. I want you to borrow Prudence and use every means at your disposal to figure out as accurate as possible a timing on an attack. Law Visick had a vivid dream; and as the dream was set at night and on a waning moon, and it's only now full I know I don't need to worry about it being tonight."

"It's the beauty of those who can dream and don't have waking trances" said Carmenta "SO much more reliable in what they say. Though I fear I did NOT log what he said when he had a semi-trance; he said something about 'fire from the sky' but it was too obscure….. if you will tell me his dream I might be able to relate the two together."

Severus gave her a concise précis of Law's dream.

"Fire from the sky tallies with this Zilant" he said. "And I plan to both check out what I have in the library and contact Charlie Weasley for what he knows. Pru would be in a class with me tomorrow; I don't have any fears about her keeping up with potions, you may keep her all morning and I believe she has free study in the afternoon too; she can always have tutorials as and when with the staff to help us out with her excellent talent."

"Pru IS rather good" said Madam Gimlet. "I shall see if she has dreamed too; if so, she may as well write it up for her prophetic pieces as the new exam takes into account random experiences of foreseeing now; really a so much more sensible way to do things, as is the new format for the OWL to permit the finding of an object or person or the sensitivity concerning someone to be tested as an alternative to seeing the future. Not that I have any OWL students this year" she added sadly "But at least the new moves should stop the exam being quite so much of a joke and should then credit those children whose talents lie in other directions than pure seer powers."

Severus nodded; he had, himself, as Severin Prince, pioneered in council the changes to the OWL and NEWT exams, to permit greater emphasis to dowsers or other odd talents; and for the higher exam the chance to submit a folder of actual experiences of using divination, authenticated by a professor or reliable adult, as an addition to a viva voce in a medium of the candidate's choice. Though visions could NOT be produced to order, the stress of an exam could trigger visions; and had not Severus' own cousin Callum Prince had a vision in such an exam, the examiner would have been hard put to save the life of one of his –then – unborn children and perhaps his wife as well.

oOoOo

Pru Buffer was only too happy to explore further; she admitted to having dreams herself, and worked hard, with the aid of Severus and legilimensy, to write them out.

"I sort of thought I was having a nightmare about that scary first day you came here sir" she said "When we looked out on attacking wizards with the green flashes, and you on the turret chanting. But there were no dragons then. Have – have we got a chance of winning?"

"Oh certainly" said Severus "I don't see that we should lose. Zilanti are not as big as dragons, nor is their fire as fearsome. In the west we call them wyverns; and until Orlando Carcano of Durmstrang did some original research, they were thought to be extinct. Not, apparently, even close to being extinct in Russia. But we have, I think, time to chant up a few surprises, for those unfortunate beasts. Especially if I can get certain data about them. You worry about details of timing and numbers my dear; I'll worry about those little winged pests."

Pru grinned. She loved the professor's way with understatement!

oOoOo

Carmenta Gimlet applied the same methods she usually used to determine with accuracy when a blizzard might be expected in order to find a likely date for the attack; and she was tolerably sure that she was likely to be accurate. Pru used a variety of methods to see what days she might turn up bad luck for; and used lecanomancy, or bowl reading because the water drawn from the castle well was more nearly connected to the castle than using a crystal. It was nice, thought Pru, working with Madam Gimlet on a real project; and of course from next year they would be colleagues too, when Pru was teaching astronomy.

And Professor Snape ruthlessly questioned her on the arrangement of the heavens at the time Madam Gimlet thought that the attack would come; and disappeared into almanacs for his own research on times that may be thought to be arithmantically advantageous to the aggressors.

Ross Tuthill led his NEWT students in research on Zilanti; and rifle practise was stepped up.

"Dragons can be harmed by high velocity rifle fire; remember, David Fraser was grazed by a bullet when he was in dragon form" Severus told the sharpshooters. "Wyverns and their like are NOT so thick hided as dragons, though it wouldn't be noticeable if you were attacking with a normal goblin musket or with the sort of pocket knives most wizards think of as swords. Fire burst fire; about three rounds at one burst. And make each shot tell. I'm issuing Felix Felicis to the entire school for this one; because the prognosis of the diviners looks a little uncertain otherwise."

Carmenta had run, white faced to Severus' office earlier that day to declare that the cards spoke of death of friends. Severus had handed her a vial of Felix and told her to lay the cards again considering the effect of the vial upon them. Carmenta had returned after another session with the cards looking happier and declared that under such circumstances the chances of casualties had dropped perhaps to zero, though she would rather not commit herself.

Severus took out the seventeen best chanters, having determined from Vladimir Malfoy that dragons had eighteen pairs of chromosomes like most snakes and a large number of lizards, and that wyverns seemed likely to have the same since occapi certainly did. The chant they performed to encapsulate the entire castle was aimed at the genetics of dragons to produce a line at which all dragons were both bound and held hovering. The eighteen were Severus, Krait, Dione, Sirri, Hermione, Lydia, Ming, Erich, Byron, Freya, Godfrey, Elsie Blackwood, Takeo, Zhanargul, Fred Lowther, Fred and Flo Visick and Julian with backup from the other half dozen chanters in the lower sixth, the ten chanters of the fifth, Terence Goodchild and Lizena gan Otuel, which second layer accounted for the diploid number of chromosomes and reinforced the main eighteen. They would chant in Russian and archaic Russian at that. Severus asked Lydia to help him design the chant – his daughter was a better instinctive chanter even than her older sister Jade – and drilled the rest thoroughly in what the meaning was and where the emphasis should be to make sure that everyone knew exactly what they were doing and why. He listened to arguments for additions or counterpoints and gave permission where it seemed fit to add such. The chanters spent half a day in preparation and in a two-hour chant to repeat their chant eighteen times over with words of power incorporating the full body bind and levitation into the circle to affect all draconic creatures.

"And it's not as if any normal sort of person is going to visit us on dragonback" said Flo, sensibly.

"No my dear; and we must see that Tibbles the school Griffon is not permitted to put herself into danger and attack" said Severus "She's very young and rather kittenish in her enthusiasms."

"I'll confund her" said Ross "And leave her in the charge of Frieda, who isn't going to be in the defence of the castle and could be very well occupied petting Tibbles."

"And Stripy" said Flo, who was very fond of the school leopard.

"And Stripy" agreed Ross.

oOoOo

It was a few days later that Law rose at Kaffee und Kuchen and said in a harsh voice,

"The sons of purity leave to bring punishment on the impure ones, riding on terror and death to bring fire from the sky!" he sat down again, blinked and added in a normal voice "I say, did I just have one of those funny turns?"

"Yes my lad, and very useful it is too" said Severus, repeating what Law had said. "Heather?"

Heather Burns Tuthill beamed at him.

"Well, Severus, assuming they know how to use ley lines properly and by the time they've poked a load of wyverns onto the leyroads, I'd say about four hours twenty minutes."

Severus nodded.

"Well, those of the MSHG who are to fight may go and lie down for two hours; and that's not permission it's an order. You may read so long as it's light reading and I accept that there are those of you who count things like 'transfiguration today' in light reading. The staff will check the perimeters once more and will move to the guard rota. Please relax also during the time we wait. Frieda, you have the important job of petting Tibbles and Stripy so they don't try to join in when the mayhem starts. Muriel, you may help her. There will be no prep today and you are excused handing in work tomorrow, Hermione don't look at me like that, there is more in life than simultaneous equations and I am quite sure that the third will catch up adequately once this little business is over."

"If they can't handle simultaneous equations they might not know enough to survive such little businesses in the future" said Hermione.

"Oh quite; but for now they have us to handle all the Arithmancy and the incentive through watching us do it to place their noses to your grindstone later" said Severus.

"I had to make the point as a matter of form" said Hermione.

"Oh quite" said Severus.

The school relaxed; the staff were bickering in a joking sort of way. There was nothing to fear.

Severus smiled grimly to himself; he did not think any of the children realised that the adults of both blood groups had discussed it and decided to play it this way, purely not to frighten the children. There was a brain behind this attack, however much he had joked about a lack of originality; and the opposition would be the stiffest they had ever faced. And judging by backwashes he was getting from the Durmstrang group they too were anticipating trouble. A wise leader, recognising that Prince Peak and Durmstrang had worked together to show up the pure bloods of Dolokhov would make sure that one could not reinforce the other. Jade had sent no such thoughts; she had a boy who dreamed dreams so if he had failed to deliver….. Severus opened a link to Jade; and his self possessed daughter listened, and agreed to be extra vigilant and if her school were NOT attacked to feed power to Prince Peak and Durmstrang alike. She expressed the opinion that the purebloods did not account much to a school mostly for goblins; and would not dare split forces three ways. Severus agreed. From the ethos of the Russian supremacists it was a waste of effort and tactically unwise to split forces twice on what could not, in their view, be a serious threat. If they had read his book they might guess that Jade was linked to him since she bore the zig-zag scar; but then, they might only have seen pictures of her Nefrita Von Strang form and not realise what was an open, but not widely known, secret that Nefrita and Jade were the same person.

Agata Bacsó had sent a laconic message by owl that her seers had suggested an attack by stealth; and he had replied cheerfully that his had reported an attack in force so it should be a merry undertaking.

Sometimes it was nice to tweak Agata's strings.

Severus went to look at his Foe Glass next to check the shadowy figures of a large number of wizards and more dracoforms than he would have liked to have contemplate had not that chanted line been in place. He congratulated himself on the complex little charm he had added to the mirror when he had attuned it to himself so that a countdown ran continually in the bottom right hand corner of the glass once the mirror went active; Heather was not far off. It was a good way to double check so they might be ready in plenty of time without the younger warriors having to hang around waiting outside too long.

oOoOo

Darkness fell; and the MSHG collected Kalashnikovs and waited in the Great Hall chatting or playing cards until the time they were sent to take up their positions. It was bitterly cold outside; and some time was passed checking if all of them knew how

to cast warming charms. New kit included fine gloves with warming charms within them to control both triggers and wands with finesse; and wands were being taped onto the barrels of the guns with spellotape where they would be easy to reach to touch without removing finger from trigger. Ammunition was taped back to back similarly so when a clip was emptied it could be reversed quickly. The smallest members of the MSHG were in charge of running new clips to people if the four they each carried did not prove sufficient. Severus checked that all had loaded up with goblin steel tipped bullets enchanted to bring down wards; new from Lucius' factory and designed initially against thick hided magic resistant creatures like Graphorn and Trolls. It should work on dracoforms as well. The hollow point were all very well, but they had to penetrate to do their horrible explosive damage; and with dragon hide that was an issue. This was a test for an idea Gorbrin had suggested to his father; and Severus was glad the initial experimental bullets had reached him in time. Sometimes Lucius had an uncanny sense of timing, though he denied any seer ability; maybe it was the fey blood in the Malfoys that gave them insights without knowledge. Well, Lilith had written that she was able to get more out of divination than she had expected so maybe the Malfoy blood in her told too. And she was safe in Hogwarts school probably complaining that it wasn't fair that the continental schools got to play with supremacists, and doubtless would be leading an efficient little chant to feed him power when he needed it most. Lilith was like that, he thought, with a wave of deep affection for his complex little girl. Severus passed round Felix Felicis; and gave the order to drink.

oOoOo

And then he could almost feel them coming; the power surge of a lot of traffic on an activated ley line. It made his copper poles, set up to channel away excess electricity from fey disrupting spells, crackle faintly with the sheer power. He might have wished that Casimir Malfoy's taste in music had not infected his children since Lydia was singing softly to herself Iron Maiden's 'Fear of the Dark'; and then he realised that she was using it as a chant and that when she released it they would have all the light they wanted because she was holding that energy in the conducting poles and was about to release that as light. He used a sonorous spell.

"There will be a burst of daylight; I don't know how long we shall have it for. Summon snow goggles and put them on and fire at will when Lydia – er, Madam Krumm – releases it."

Several quiet 'accios' were murmured as snow goggles were summoned. Lydia beamed approval on her father; he caught on so quickly and thought of a way to give them an advantage. Her idea was to release the light directionally but the goggles WOULD prevent their own troops being so shocked. Lydia was heavily pregnant; at her due date almost, but she had no intention of being left out when she could do something practical to prevent her baby from being enslaved by the Russian forces. Viktor had agreed with her; though he had been pleased that she promised to stick to chanting unless she had to defend herself.

Hermione, hardly less pregnant than Lydia, was to support the younger woman with chanting; and she had taken the order to do so with unwonted meekness when Ron gave it. Severus grinned to himself when he recalled that it had been he who had suggested that a bit of masterful handling would not go awry with Hermione.

And then the wizards and their dragons were bursting off the ley line, slowing to an attack speed, coming in over the trees. Lydia sang,

"When I'm walking a dark road I am a man who walks alone…" and released the energy that was crackling through her.

The tops of the copper poles burst into incandescence, and there were cries from the attacking forces. Which cries of shock turned rapidly to cries of pain and fear as the voice of the offspring of Comrade Kalashnikov was heard in its chilling chatter. Most were on brooms; but some dozen were on dragonback, and they urged their steeds on, unafraid of any attack on their powerful beasts. And the Zilanti hit the line of chanting; which was just outside their fire range for the battlements; and froze in mid air, howling and flaming in terror.

"Fire at will" said Severus. The light had faded; but they were big enough targets in all conscience; and the sharpshooters whipped off their goggles

It was gruesome; the poor creatures had no chance. And the armour piercing bullets worked perfectly. They hung in mid air as the bullets of three or four sharp shooters dealt with each in turn, dead but still floating.

And then their riders and the second wave of broom riders were casting the killing curse, blindly through the haze of red that was the afterglow of the dazzling light. As if the castle chanters had been so foolish as to neglect to place up a permanent ward of the diffusion grid! The green light washed in a sickly fashion along the ward, dissipated and touched a few defenders with its last gasp and spread some headaches.

"I LOVE ritual" said Severus to nobody in particular.

oOoOo

"COME!" called one of the Russians "They must all be dead after that; we have taken casualties but now we shall have the source of their power at our command! Nobody can survive an hundred killing curses!"

Severus grinned to himself.

"That's what you think, laddie" he murmured. Those close enough to hear him chuckled. "Wait" Severus added, using his own twist of the sonorous charm to carry the word to his defenders and to nobody else. "Hold….hold…. go!"

He waited for the attackers to come to point blank range, certain of their victory.

They were very surprised; or at least one must assume they were very surprised on the other side of the veil. And then it was close combat with the survivors; and Severus called for the second line to fall back. Those younger than the fifth should not be mixing it with these invaders, however good they were with automatic rifles and the odd spell at a distance.

He knew the Bee Too Marauders were ignoring that order; he would chew them out for that later. Lydia had dropped back with Hermione and they were holding protective shields around the rest with their chanting, though Hermione preferred a chant of her own devising and Lydia was doing things to 'March of the Christian Knights' from Incubus Succubus. Chanting was a very individual thing; and Lydia was musical where Hermione was not.

The song Lydia was singing was martial and stirring and the young defenders were plainly heartened by it. She had added new lyrics on the fly to be more appropriate to the actual attackers and to add to the effect of the shield, with the chorus becoming,

"Alleluia, alleluia, we defend against your violence! Alleluia, alleluia, all your spells will fall in silence!"

Bless the girl if she wasn't dropping a silence spell on each of those casting spells too, robbing them of incantation. There seemed to be those capable of casting non verbally; but it took care of the less able. As she was also absently exploding wands on the heavy beat of the song the attackers were looking a little harassed.

Lydia was really rather good.

And Ming and Erica were cheerfully turning sundry attackers to stone, and Ming said 'Oops!' when one of his was found not to be on the castle walls securely enough and the sound of crashing and breaking rock was heard below.

There were a lot of them; and they were more flexible and able than the Odessa forces that they had repelled before. And without the diffusion grid and the Zilant-holding zone they might well have overrun the castle. Severus shuddered. He would never scoff at seers again; so long as dreams and visions might be backed up with more mundane divination. Poor Law! He disliked intensely having what he called a 'funny turn'; and confessed to having always had vivid and often prophetic dreams, probably a result of his sensitivity being increased through being so very ill as a child. Such things could trigger odd talents. Well, nobody made a great fuss of his talent, treating it as useful but not something to be awed over; and if it were treated as something normal for him, as being good at quidditch was normal for Arbrek, he should manage to lead a perfectly normal life and not get infected with what Severus called Sillyseeritis.

His vision had been timely; though they had expected an attack and Carmenta had suggested several windows of likelihood. This had meant that they could all be fresh to meet it, not tired from watching over the several days in which it might be anticipated from Arithmancy and general divination.

And finally it was all over. It had taken almost an hour and a half; as long as the battle for Hogwarts.

The staff might mop up now, and the children set to accio bullets. This was what David Fraser called 'caseless ammunition' so no need to collect cartridge cases; the bullets would have to be remoulded or whatever Lucius did to them.

And the bodies of the Zilanti needed to be lowered down and dealt with. Well, there were plenty of potioneering parts to be gained from them; and their hide might be cured; and the rest would make a rather extensive addition to the blood and bonemeal for the plants.

No great loss without some small gain; though there seemed to be no losses. He would have felt if any of the blooded had been hurt; and there were enough blooded that their shock would reverberate to him if any others were hurt. There were injuries of course, but on the whole they were minor. Takeo needed his hand put back; that was easy and Krait was on that. The boy was overenthusiastic, though his pupils would adore him for it when he had his own school. Several people sported nasty cuts; Fred Lowther would need to be rescued from the form of a six foot pixie and Sandalla's hair could be grown back rapidly and the singeing readily dealt with. It had been a good idea to take that Felix.

And he might as well interrogate the statues before the effects wore off.

It would have been nice to have had David Fraser; nobody ran an interrogation quite as well as David, asking quiet gentle questions that probed enough to help Severus in his legilimensy, posing as he always did as David's aide. Well, Viktor Krumm should depute for David; he understood the Slavic mindset and might therefore interpret nuances that Severus missed.

Severus put this to Viktor; who smiled.

"But of course, Severus; anything I may do. It is an honour to stand in the place of my friend David; and you are right that there are things someone who is not a Slav might miss. Our background has parallels with the German people but in many ways it is very different."

oOoOo

The first statue scowled as Severus, wearing a nondescript form with transfiguration, tipped mandragora onto its stone lips and it resumed a flesh-like appearance. They had chosen one who looked to have some authority. The Lowther twins stood at the door ready to take each prisoner in turn to a dungeon where it might be hoped that further intelligence may be gained if they spoke together. The first interviews however would go better for being in the throes of capture-shock; and the shock of being made into a statue.

"So; Krumm" said the Russian "I suppose none of these English speak a civilised language. You will not, however gain any information from any of we Sons of Zirnitra."

"Except we just did – a name" Severus murmured inside Viktor's mind, for they had linked for this as Severus was wont to do with David.

"You sever connections with Odessa then; I am not surprised" said Viktor.

The man snorted.

"THAT flabby lot of self-congratulatory half-baked idiots!" he said. "Their children shit in the stew while their wives wash their legs in it!"

"Colourful idea" murmured Viktor "How very Russian. Well, you Sons of Zimitra hope to do a better job do you? You haven't started very well, have you?"

"You may have captured me, but the majority of Snape's forces are dead; and if you question me I rejoice that Snape himself is amongst those who have died!"

"Why what a lot of assumptions you do make to be sure, Pyotr" said Viktor, using the name Severus found the man identified himself by. "You didn't really expect something as archaic as the killing curse to touch the English did you? We don't think much to it you know."

"MUDLO!" shouted Pyotr.

"Ti durak" said Viktor coldly "Have we finished a childish display of exchanging insults? Because you know I have every right to be an arrogant prick as you call me because I'm here on the winning side; you, however, prove yourself the very moron I call you since you are a loser. You will tell me what I need to know eventually; how many are in your organisation now, and specific centres of power. I don't of course count your regular re-occupation of the Pripet Marshes; we know about that endeavour of course."

Pyotr paled.

"I wish you wouldn't shock me with such bows drawn at venture – even if it does shock him more" said Severus, not a little waspishly.

"I KNOW these people; and I know that they dislike to lose a stronghold; and will always reoccupy when they can" replied Viktor.

"You will learn nothing from me!" Pyotr cried. Severus was busy passing to his wives specifics that had come to the forefront of his mind.

"Ask him about the castle Chernykameni" said Severus, dropping the information to Viktor about the ritual vanishing of the place to free its elves and because of the iniquitous kidnap of Sandalla and Svetlana.

"Of course we do wonder if you've bothered to rebuild the castle Chernykameni" said Viktor "It must have been a shock to the other Boyars that it disappeared so comprehensively; you I see are newly created Boyar; a move up from being a Mazil. One reason for having an army I suppose; to find military position to fulfil all the conditions of such a rank; land, appointment and serfs. And Prince Peak a place to practise on? To see if your military might is really up to it? You really think you are a bunch of bogatyri*, don't you? And if the duellists amongst the children were so much better than your pure bred offspring how did you actually hope to succeed against their elders?"

"They are abominations! They must be punished!" cried Pyotr.

"Funny way to punish them; all the kids were eager to be the ones chosen to have a chance to fight you" said Viktor. "The English and those they educate see such practise as a high day and holiday."

"They learned better seeing friends die and be horribly injured" sneered Pyotr.

Viktor laughed.

"You do speak a lot of rubbish" he said scornfully. He spoke in English; "Here, you two; I have had enough of this moron for now; place him in a holding cell. If he makes trouble return him to being stone."

"Yes professor" said Fred. They grabbed Pyotr by the arm. "I DO hope you don't enjoy being manhandled by mudbloods" Fred added. "Though you probably don't speak a civilised language to know what I say."

The attacking troops had learned English by the brute force magical means; and he had enough knowledge to understand; and looked furious.

oOoOo

"Well that was revealing" said Severus "So far as the castle is concerned, that it is a hole in the ground has filled them with superstitious awe and they do not go near the site. Otherwise; they are consider themselves aristocracy and that falls into three ranks; Boyars at the top who own land, serfs, and hold administrative or military position; Mazili are the second rank who have land and serfs; and räzesi who are only small landowners with neither serfs nor position. I saw in his thoughts both elf and goblin serfs; and that they have brought along a ritual sorcerer to implant compulsions in all the impure of Prince Peak to turn all here into obedient owned serfs, with which to reward the räzesi who have come along. They were most of the front rank who died; and our Pyotr was hoping to get more serfs himself, preferably pretty girls of good bloodline who had nevertheless forfeited their right to consideration for consorting with filth and animals. He planned to make them grateful by suggesting freeing and even legitimising any offspring they had with him."

"I think the English idiom sums that up; GIT" said Viktor.

"It is rather descriptive and appropriate" said Severus "And we were under felix in picking him; he has little strategic information himself, but he does know who does – and we appear to have captured their ritual wizard as well."

"Well I can't see why he didn't chant to protect his fellows" said Viktor, puzzled.

Severus grinned.

"Maybe he just isn't as good at ritual as I am" he said. "We'll have the girls standing by to watch him while we question him; and after him the leader of the mission. We lost the second in command; Ming dropped him on the mountainside."

"That's Ravenclaws for you; just a little careless at times" joked Viktor. "We shall get on?"

"Indeed" agreed Severus "I calculate that we should have time to interrogate both before the Felix wears off."

"Why do they not use Felix also?" asked Viktor.

"Because I AM the greatest potioneer on earth and can brew it perfectly without working up a sweat; and I have funds available to get the ingredients; and I rate potions as a better solution than brute force magic" said Severus. "The Germans merely despise it; and if I have your folk tales accurately, the Slavs look upon it with some suspicion."

"Yes; that is correct" admitted Viktor. "Wake, then, if you will, our ritual expert."

* heroes of legendary proportion