Chapter 22
Only Frieda, Pru and Marius were NOT taking DADA.
The written covered various protective spells, and it maybe said that the Marauders strayed into complexities like circles of protection from fey and wards major which were decidedly post NEWT in nature. As the Marauders in Hogwarts were writing similar essays, the examiners sighed and put up with it and wondered what made some students rather more knowledgeable than others and Madam Marchbanks said waspishly that at least it was the decent sorts that had the esoteric knowledge and if Tom Riddle had known as much about demonology and protection from summoned great form spirits he would probably have caused more trouble.
None of them had any trouble with the practical, though Leneli and Muriel had to fight to regain control from the Imperius curse. The marauders naturally used the signature spell of the marauders to turn the examiner into stone. Milos, who was feeling perverse, turned the top half of his examiner into a guinea fowl and the bottom half into a guinea pig, which as he was usually no great shakes at transfiguration was rather a victory. The examiner had to be rescued because Milos had no idea how to put him back. Mungo just turned him into a daffodil because he felt like it. The rest hoisted, bound, disarmed and langlocked the poor fellow.
oOoOo
Leneli was the sole candidate in the enchanting exam and wrote enthusiastically about choosing the right objects to take an enchantment and managed to remember the term assimilative correlation even though she was not studying transfiguration because someone had mentioned it with relation to enchantments. She cored a wand in the practical and enchanted a sieve to float on the nearest small lake and rowed it across with the examiner. It did not leak enough to sink but there was a sieve like pattern of wetness on their robes at the other side.
It was however a change from making a shopping trolley fly; and probably because, Rory suggested later, most muggle shops now chained up their trolleys and they had to be released with the insertion of a muggle coin that you got back only when you returned them and the exam board was too mean to crack out three or four sickles for each student.
Leneli agreed that this would probably account for it.
oOoOo
Nobody was taking Geomancy this year save the post graduate student Ernst Langweilig; and he seemed likely to do well enough without ever setting the world alight. He was not one of the group who chattered cheerfully being a pleasant enough man but aloof from younger ones. He completed his exam in some relief.
oOoOo
Only Rory was taking Herbology.
He went into the practical with a cheerful countenance and no real fears; because none of the plants in the wizarding world held any terrors for him.
The task was to collect yawning toadstools for their spores; a tricky task. The spores were soporific in the extreme and were used in various sleeping draughts and soothing draughts. The purple mushrooms gave warning that they were about to yawn and spread their spores by quivering slightly; and one had to be quick to enclose them in some way. Rory fell back on using the bubblehead charm, though not on himself; on the toadstools. That meant that the precious spores – guaranteed ripe at that – were caught as well as he added a twist to the spell to hold light weight objects. He collected all his bubbles as well as the fungi he picked and thrust well down into the magically ever-closed bag, that would only open to take anything out on command; and emptied them into the bag as well.
The examiner was much impressed.
"Excellent lateral thinking young man" she praised him. Rory grinned.
"Shame to waste them" he said.
The written covered manures and how to use them, soil types and how to nurture various difficult plants. Rory enjoyed it.
oOoOo
Both Milos and Marius were taking the German ZH in European History; Milos having elected to study that rather than English history as he too was European. There was a visiting examination invigilator who would take their papers with her; rather a hard faced woman who thawed under excellent coffee and the cakes Sirri made so well to local recipes.
They had every expectation of doing well in picking an essay to chart the rise of Gellert Grindelwald; this they had covered extensively and with much debate. Milos picked a question on how the Muggle wars affected the wizarding community; Marius covered statutes and accords that held the various co-prosperity spheres together. Milos also chose to write about the role of goblins in Revolutionary France and how that impacted on the role of goblins later in France because he saw it as a positive move. Marius wrote about the reasons leading to the statute of secrecy and both picked a question on the basis of modern European law on either the Roman model in the west and the gothic model in the east. It was another of Percy Weasley's favourite debating subjects. Percy was planning on asking if he might teach the European history as standard, at least to ZH level as no new NEWTs had yet been forthcoming. They were still in preparation – allegedly, as Percy had added, cynically, when discussing it with Severus. Percy wanted to see a general paper at OWL with a special paper on the lines of a specialisation and covering half the marks, which could be chosen from European History, Ancient and Medieval History and Modern History. These specialisations could then be taken to NEWT. And everyone said it was a good idea but the wheels of bureaucracy were still grinding rather slow.
Zhanargul was also taking this exam alongside her post graduate studies because knowing history was a good idea for a ruling princess; but as the History teacher at Durmstrang, until replaced last year by Lazlo Ijas, was about as good as poor Cuthbert Binns and, giggled Zhanargul when she heard about the ghostly teacher, three times as dead, at least from the neck up, she had not felt that she was learning anything at all. She enjoyed the exam too, picking like Marius mostly questions that related to statutes though feeling like the boys that charting the rise of dark wizards – in order to know how to prevent it – was a rather important subject too. Zhanargul had, after all, been responsible for bringing down her wicked uncle who wanted to overthrow her father.
Nobody was taking Muggle Studies or Metalwork, though Takeo Namudzu had been studying metalwork alongside many other things. Takeo was like that. He was also utterly uninterested in studying for exams so long as he achieved a sufficient level of competency in the eyes of the sensei of any particular subject; if he knew what he needed to know, it sufficed. He already had six ZHs at 'O'.
Terence Goodchild was to test the new music NEWT.
The written was stiffer, obviously, than the OWL; requiring the crafting of passages from scratch to perform different functions. Terence struggled here; he was not naturally gifted at writing music and had to rely on the arithmantic relationships. Adding counterpoints was easier and that he managed with aplomb. A brief essay on the use of music by the fey was easy enough – it ought to be with Seagh having held forth about it – and on the use of drum and gong in some cultures to create protective zones for duplicating exclusion lines against – usually – the fey. The essay 'how much have fey influenced music in magic throughout time' could, thought Terence, be answered with a single word – absolutely. He disciplined himself to expand on that with the demonstration that almost all music in magic had either come initially from the fey or was used to protect the wizarding world – and muggles for that matter – FROM the fey.
The practical involved playing a soporific song to last forty-eight hours and – when the examiner, Nils Tenor, wearing impenetrable earmuffs, had checked its effect on the chosen victim, a volunteer middle school child, Yrdl – playing a counter to the sleep charm to wake the victim up. Yrdl was then set dancing to the Elf King's dance by Nils, and Terence had to read the music for the dance and release her by playing it backwards. To do that from memory was post NEWT in scope and reading and playing from the wrong end of the score was considered sufficient.
"Crumbs Tel, just in time; I think my feet were about to drop off!" said Yrdl as she sank to the floor, rescued from the ever-dancing charm of the powerful music.
"Nacky little thing" said Terence.
"It is, isn't it?" said Nils "And Seagh dug it up with bribery, corruption, blackmail and all the other sorts of fey things he does so well JUST in time to set it for you."
"And I should be pleased why?" said Terence. "Thanks Nils."
"Y'welcome" said Nils.
oOoOo
Potions was not to be taken by everyone this year; Fred, Rory, Milos, Frieda, Muriel and Pru were taking it as well as the post graduate Nurse Lizena from the French hospital. They had handed in their prepared potions and had therefore only a truncated practical. They demonstrated how to prepare various ingredients and escaped thankfully to the written.
The written exam covered Golapott in great detail and the candidates unravelled what a potion might be and what, if anything, was missing by observing printed Malfoy lines; a blended poison's lines were also printed and they had to suggest ingredients for a counter, and a methodology in the brewing. It was nothing out of the ordinary; and as Rory said, anyone who had been taught by Professor Snape had no excuse for getting a low grade never mind failing. It may be said that even Lizena agreed with this though Frieda said timidly that she had not written as much as she thought was proper because she was still rather slow.
"But did you list the points in every question that you could then go back and turn into decent prose?" said Pru.
"Yes, like Professor Snape told me to" said Frieda.
"Then I don't see why you shouldn't pass; which, Rory, for Frieda is a victory."
"Sorry Frieda" said Rory "Bearing in mind you find it hard I guess a pass for you sort of equates an 'O' for the rest of us; I meant no disrespect."
Frieda smiled.
"You have all been very kind to me and helped me; if I pass you are as much to blame – no I do not mean that – it is down to you as much as Professor Snape or myself" she said.
"Nuts" said Rory "It's down to you my girl; Professor Snape makes it easy for us to not let it blow up in our faces – poor choice of simile with potions, but yet so apt – but unless we put in the sweat we waste his pearls of wisdom. You do NOT waste his pearls of wisdom and you done good. It'll be FINE!"
Frieda smiled. They were all so kind and she really had every hope of taking pass grades in two ZH level exams! And Professor Snape had arranged that she work in Belsornia with the wonderful flying horses too, whether she passed or failed!
oOoOo
The last NEWT was transfigurations, the province of Peter, Muriel, Mungo and Lizena. Muriel and Mungo wandered rather past NEWT level in their essay on the reasons for energy and matter being fundamentally identical but that matter was harder to summon than energy; they cited Gamp's Law and its exceptions, wrote about Assimilative Correlation and caused the examiners great relief by not becoming arithmantic.
The practical involved all of them summoning flowers – Muriel and Mungo making theirs pot plants and Mungo's with a permanency charm on it, which was a welcome drop in temperature on a hot day; and Mungo showed his manimagus form of dog too. Peter produced a fine red tabby from his fiddle, Lizena a fairly standard tabby cat, Muriel an Egyptian Mau to go with Stripy the school leopard, and Mungo, who had been chatting with Takeo a lot, produced a Japanese bob-tailed cat.
And then the NEWTs were over and they might, as Peter said lazily, point and giggle at the OWL students.
When he had undone himself from a selection of OWL level jinxes he decided to lay low for the time being!
oOoOo
Some of the lower sixth were to be involved in sundry OWLs too being greedy, as Yrdl laughingly said; the Visick twins and the Jorkins twins and George Ingate were taking metalworking to OWL and Fred and George were both sitting the new Quidditch exam too.
The Quidditch exam was first; and had four candidates since Reinulf and Arbrek were also taking it. The practical involved nothing more nor less than demonstrating broom control because really knowing if a candidate could jink, U-turn, broomover and sideslip more or less covered most aspects of flying; and extra marks were awarded for style and panache. It was the least part of the exam which was really about knowing the game.
Most of the questions were on the rules, some of them on how to deal with sport injuries – as it was an initial exam for coaches this became important – and how to check brooms for illegal charms or jinxes. Reinulf wrote seriously that in his opinion having a jinxed broom to check would be a better practical than the flying because if you could fly well you would be scouted anyway and if you could fly pretty well you would pass the practical part of an official's exam but a coach or official needed to tell if anything was amiss with the kit.
It may be noted that Reinulf's words were heeded by the examining board who considered it a wise comment. Broom care and kit checking was to be the order of the day for the practical in the future!
The four taking the exam enjoyed it; and agreed that it had been a reasonably stiff exam and probably stiff enough for the OWL; which was what anyone wanted to know from these initial testers of the exam.
oOoOo
There was only one candidate for the Art exam, which was Roseli, and Madam Charlotte Malfoy had taken her practical just after examining Randolph so she did not have to hang about. Roseli produced pretty scenes, but with more to them than chocolate-box prettiness because they all suggested a story. She had worked hard on her scene of a witch in a cornfield with opposed blues and golden yellows, and had decided after much thought to fill the witch's arms with poppies. She handed that over and her portfolio for examination and proceeded to grind and mix pigments and as a chosen demonstration of her skill painted a pattern on a cardboard frame for a mirror that automatically cast a grooming charm on anyone looking in it. All the Prince Peak artists were well versed in pattern magic.
She picked as her three essay questions in the written, 'describe the necessary ritual to produce a moving portrait through which one might access the personality of the dead'; 'consider the themes of sun symbols and how they may be used to enhance the status of the unscrupulous' – Charlotte was emphasising Achille's role here too – and 'consider the choice of pigments when painting a portrait'. She passed up the two more pattern oriented questions, considering the use of sun symbols to also move into icons which, with the problems with Russia, had been an art form she had noted and considered deeply.
oOoOo
Potions traditionally was an early, if not the first exam; and being compulsory, all the Fifth were taking it. This was a return to the confusing and befuddlement draught and a suitable counter to it. All the class cited Golapott's first law and the need to design an opposed potion – a NEWT level term that had absently slipped out when Severus was seduced into interesting debate on Golapott last term – and proceeded to blend the wit sharpening potion and the memory potion, recalling – and in the case of the Bee Marauders and Emil writing down – that assimilative correlation called for the use of Jobberknoll feathers to oppose the fwooper down. They were a rather able class, except Cecilia, who knew the theory but who became a little confused and unwrapped in the brewing of her antidote and let it burn.
The written called for the citing of Golapott's first two laws and completing the description of the ingredients and methodology of a number of potions and the suggestion of antidotes to a couple of poisons. They all considered it straightforward, even Cecilia who hoped now for a pass after the abysmal mess she had made of her practical.
Even Antti had managed to hold himself together and not be too slapdash; and Severus praised him.
oOoOo
Transfigurations was next; Antti was the only one here who was poor at the practical side but he had knuckled down to try to pick up marks on the written exam. They had an essay on Switching Charms which made the Finnish boy pull a face, but he wrote steadily and tried not to sigh too often. The others quite enjoyed it. There were short questions as well of course on a variety of subjects and in the questions on cross species switches the term Assimilative Correlation by nomenclature and association came out of the pens of a selection of candidates. It may be said that Batty's answers raised the eyebrow of the examiner when she blithely wrote that it was easier to turn a guinea pig into a guinea fowl than the other way around because one used assimilative correlation by awful pun and by PIGgery Jokery as all fowl were silly sorts of creatures and a bit of a joke.
The practical was standard in form; switching bottles, or their contents for the more able students, vanishing dirt from a bucket, summoning a handkerchief, changing a guinea pig into a guinea fowl and turning a death watch beetle into a watch. Even Antti performed creditably enough, though his silver pocket watch scuttled across the desk and its watch cover opened into two wing cases and it tried to fly away. He managed to switch his bottles and only dropped one; his hanky was plain and a little grubby; and his guinea fowl still had fur on its back. But on the whole he succeeded.
oOoOo
Charms followed, also compulsory.
This was as standard an exam as Transfigurations; and those who worried about it were BaHH, Antti and Cecilia.
"Though I cannot see why YOU have trouble Bellamy" grumbled Antti "When you put in so much time on charms that are jinxes or part of japes."
"Because I have a blind spot with locomotor charms, that's why" said BaHH. "Madam Malfoy says she was the same; looked always for a transfigurational solution and wanted to grow legs on things to get them moving. She got over it with studying high level theory, and if I'd only had the good sense to wail about it to her before instead of yesterday I might too have borrowed a NEWT level book and cured my problems with high level crap. But I didn't so I shall just have to study on my own time and become better with practice."
"Or you could ask Madam Parnassus nicely and explain and she'd probably make an exception and let you take it to NEWT even with a low grade" said Batty.
"I guess I could; but actually I already want to do too many NEWTs and I don't think it's worth my time. I'll study the theory as backup but I don't think I'll have time for the exam work" said BaHH "I already want to take six NEWTs and I'm not clever enough for any more."
"Well if I were you I'd talk to Madam Parnassus anyway" said Batty "Because she's likely to give you some remedial time for the furtherance of her art anyway."
"What was this over?" Dione Parnassus Snape joined her students. Batty explained before BaHH could wriggle out of it.
Dione smiled.
"Why, I'll certainly put aside some time for theory if you want, BaHH" she said "And explain and debate it with you; we'll make that a kaffee und kuchen sort of lesson if you like."
BaHH grinned.
"Thanks" he said.
"And those of you who are weaker, just do your best; your theory is good enough for a fair pass, just take the practical as it comes" said Dione "And if anyone wants to join BaHH in remedial chats for personal interest next year, I'm always happy to help out. I had a lot of help when I was behind in everything when I was a little younger than you lot; and I'll always go to any lengths to help out."
oOoOo
The written exam could, as BaHH said, have been much worse; he did not much enjoy describing incantations and wand movements but set to fairly solidly on an essay on water affecting charms and managed the theory in a long question on locomotor charms.
The practical saw BaHH, Antti and Cecilia battling with grim determination to stop each plate in turn from dancing – Antti broke one – levitating a glass of water with NO attempt to pour from it, to attain some size change in their dinner plate, jerking their eggcup in some semblance of cartwheels – Cecilia's rolled sullenly – and turning a rat blue. BaHH had no trouble with colour changing charms; he perceived them as more akin to transfigurations and that worked for him. His rat was a rich Madonna blue with delft blue nose and paws and silver whiskers just to show that there were some things he could manage well. Cecilia's rat was a rather muddy blue and Antti's rat glared at him so much he lost his nerve and turned it pink because the expression, he confessed, reminded him of that wretched girl Eve Cherrytree who was in the habit of wearing pink. BaHH retrieved his classmate by remarking loudly to his examiner – three of them were going at once – that Antti was trying to duplicate that most English of jokes by making his rat sky-blue pink.
"And thank you for that, Bellamy" said Antti "I do not know if it will help but at least the wretched beast changed colour."
"Oh your theory will dig you out of any hole anyway" said BaHH.
oOoOo
The last compulsory exam this year was DADA, as Severus had been revising what he most insisted upon now the first two years gave good tasters of all the subjects. He was considering coming into line with Hogwarts policy in teaching half a term each of the taster classes, though unlike Hogwarts he would probably do half a term at a time and see that the basics of all the classes were taught to a reasonable level in the first two years. It was either that or have a year of half and then a year of the other half of the electives; and that gave the children too much chance to forget each of the first year's subjects. If each succeeding year alternated what it was they were learning that would then too make timetable scheduling easier on the teachers. And they should learn Herbology, Care of Beasts, Chanting, History and Muggle Studies regardless for the first two years. Divination, metalwork, Astronomy, enchanting, Geomancy and Comparative Magic were the frills as it were; and those with special skills scheduled to their own special timetable. Fourteen subjects in a week would be quite sufficient. And actually, he might have the other tasters taught not for half a term but once a fortnight; yes, that could work.
The exam students were unaware of the changes their successors might face; and faced the Dark Arts instead themselves. They banished their boggarts, defended against curses and showed off corporeal Patronuses for bonus marks; and if Antti's Patronus was a little shaky it was more or less a Patronus. He, Roseli and Blaise dropped a few marks in their slowness of countering jinxes; but on the whole they felt it had not gone badly.
The written called for the definition of dark creatures, and specific description of a number that were listed, and any weakness they might have. Antti wrote scathingly that bribing Kappa with cucumber only encouraged them to behave badly, like paying up to kidnappers and one should trick them into bowing to unman them by emptying the water from their heads or use the Marauder spell to hoist them in the air to drain it out which would effectively stop them hurting anyone anyway because dark creatures like certain beaters on certain teams did not know when to stop. This answer could account for several beaters – not least the younger Broadmore brothers – and though the examiner did not know about the poor behaviour of the Berne Bears there was some amusement in the office of examination marking that the Finnish boy had the number of someone!
The question defining which sigils were dangerous was hailed as a little unfair by those NOT taking ancient runes; but Reinulf for one sighed and recalled that Professor Snape Von Strang HAD talked to them about sigils and had given them a handout with both protective sigils and those which might cause a problem for recognition. Reinulf's knowledge was shaky but he managed to accrue some extra marks by pointing out that the sigils printed on the exam paper were incomplete to avoid the risk some of them posed. And they all recognised the summoning sigil because Erich used it to set up the summoning of dementors for them to practise their patronuses against.
"I guess you really DO need to study every subject to be even a competent warlock" said BaHH, who was extremely pleased he studied both Runes and Comparative Magic.
Yrdl, who was also taking Ancient Runes, confessed to having written too much because the whole concept of sigils being given power was such an exciting one, and she had rambled into the realms of powering both offensive and defensive sigils with blood magic like Eric Skalagrimsson.
"But you're a straight 'O' student across the board so sucks" said BaHH cheerfully.
oOoOo
The electives were now upon them; and their year was the last year to take Arithmancy voluntarily. Only Reinulf, Roseli, Emil and Cecilia were NOT taking the subject however; and if BaHH and Batty took it in the grim determination that it was imperative for marauding and Blaise was not outstanding, the rest enjoyed the subject, including Antti for it was a subject in which he actually shone.
The paper carried no surprises; the use of numerology and the punning names of several witches to suggest using different bases; the calculation of energy to open a given region of wizarding space, the calculation of several factorial numbers and the completion of various number sequences, which included the Wenlock series, prime numbers and so on. The worst question was a bit of waffling logic over which of two paths to take where two guardians stood there, one which only told lies and one which only told truth. The class voted it a reasonable paper and BaHH threatened the tickling curse if anyone tried to hold post mortem on it.
oOoOo
Ancient Runes had Yrdl and Crow laughing out loud first of the group as they came to translate a section of cuneiform which was a Convolvumort speech; the second long passage was in Greek and was a diatribe about the iniquities of the government, which as Yrdl wrote meant that peoples of all eras had certain universal truths that might be held self evident. They chuckled again on the short passages when the Latin passage declared 'you know me, Asterix, I'm not a misogynist and I'm not xenophobic but I don't like that foreign woman!'
There were questions too on the importance of various runes and logograms such as the eye of Horus to the Egyptians and the N-rune to the Norse and the Eihwaz rune to the Germanic peoples and a second part to that question about how Voldemort had slipped up in not studying ancient runes. All knew that his wand had been of Yew and so the Eihwaz rune, signifying yew and protection might have given him greater power had he adopted that rather than the skull and seasick sea serpent, as most of Severus' disciples designated Morsmorde. Yrdl and Crow enjoyed the exam and wrote too much about the uses of the Eihwaz rune, including its confusing and weakening properties used in merkstave form. They strayed into NEWT level understanding. The rest of the class stayed on track but the two still had time to complete the paper.
oOoOo
The chanting written exam went smoothly enough; only Roseli and Antti were NOT taking this. Antti had no sense of rhythm at all and Roseli reckoned that as she was no good at either ancient runes or Arithmancy she would never be any great shakes with chanting and would do better to rely on her artistic talents and pattern magic. The rest bar Cecilia were taking one or the other; and Cecilia was just a talented chanter with a feel for what was needed and a love of poetry that stood her in better stead for her brand of chanting than Arithmancy. Where the others were working out careful notes for the various chants they had to prepare as part of the exam, Cecilia held forth happily on Iambic Pentameter, Alexandrines, Trochaic tetrameter and the use of spondaic feet and the molossus and dispondaic feet for various emphases. She added cheerful notes about using anapests for a rolling and galloping feel for chants to speed things up and enjoyed herself. Lucius, when marking it, resorted to a dictionary of poetry for a couple of her answers as Cecilia had added to the text of Severus' books on chanting by researching on her own time. Severus after all taught the Shakespearian model of the sonnet with mention of other forms; Cecilia got creative and quoted Percy Bysshe Shelley.
oOoOo
Care of domestic beasts was next and the province only of Crow, Blaise and Cecilia. The written was fairly straightforward; the descriptions of various types of magical horses, dogs and other pets and a brief section on common ailments. The practical involved the removal of chizpurfles from an owl, paring the hooves of a flying horse and trimming its flight feathers – where trimming meant checking that they were at the right angle, not clipping them – and giving a pill to a kneazle. None of them had any significant difficulties. Blaise had a little trouble with his kneazle, which hissed at him; so he barked at it, having heard a few stories about David from Mungo. The kneazle promptly bit both him and the examiner and stalked off in high dudgeon.
He had got the pill down however.
oOoOo
Most of them this year were taking Comparative Magic; only Emil and Antti were not. Freya was delighted and felt that Ellie had left her a very well prepared class to take to the level of OWL from the basics well instilled.
The three essays from which the candidates had to pick one were 'Discuss the impact of the fey on magical tradition; show at least three cultures'; 'compare and contrast literal numerology with Finnish naming magic'; and 'discuss the importance of knots and knotwork with reference to Russian protective phylacteries and Celtic protective patterns."
It may be noted that the majority leaped on this last question as a gift since they had pestered Freya to find out more about specific magical traditions of the Rus in order to better oppose the Sons of Zirnitra and they had learned that locks and knots had a great deal of significance in all Russian magic, from incantations mentioning locking for protection, through the symbolism where the mouth was a lock and the tongue the key; and how specifically tied knots were used as a ritual of protection as a form of pattern magic. They wrote too that some Russian wizards used the tying of knots as a centring or focussing of their power that for the most powerful took the place of wands when several wizards joined in ritual, the knotting literally knotting their powers together as one. They were knowledgeable too on Celtic knotwork; it was one of the things Roseli had studied too as part of her art and the whole class was proud of their artist and liked to take an interest in what she was doing. As for Roseli, she considered the whole thing a thoroughgoing gift!
Blaise and Arbrek had tackled the essay on Finnish magic since it seemed a waste to have a Finn in their class and not make use of that; and everyone was too heartily sick of the fey to actually want to write about them.
It may be said that their answers got copied out by Professor Khan when asked his opinion on some of the more esoteric Russian customs to add to his own notes; and Freya was much pleased with her class.
They made a good job of the short questions too being very well prepared over a wide subject base.