Chapter 16 – Parents Day

"So what do you think?" Godric asked with a bright smile at the others. "It'll be our first parents evening."

"You want to invite all the parents here?" Salazar asked. "Why?"

"So that we can speak with them about how their children are doing and assure them that their little darlings are in safe hands."

"Do they need assuring?" Rowena asked.

"Are they in safe hands?" Salazar added.

"Since we opened we've had more than two dozen complaints from parents whose children have written home," Godric informed them.

"What have they got to complain about?" Helga asked. "I thought things were going quite well."

"Well there have been several complaints about the food, apparently quite a number of our students don't like pumpkin juice. Also two of the students who had a dunking in the lake on the way here wrote home about that. Unfortunately one of them also mentioned the giant squid being a resident in the lake which caused his mother to have a bit of a panic attack. There are also more than a dozen parents wanting to know if the school is safe since it's now known to be the residence of a poltergeist." Godric rifled through the correspondence in front of him, mentioning now and then something of interest, until he reached the last of them.

"The students wrote home with all of those complaints?" Salazar asked. "Pity they don't spend as much time working on their essays."

"Nevertheless, they have written home complaining about anything and everything and their parents are wanting some answers."

"Why not just write back," Rowena asked. "Some of these were written back in September, they should have been answered ages ago."

"Apparently we didn't take into account the amount of correspondence opening a school would entail," Godric admitted. "We've fallen a little behind."

"I suppose it would be easier to deal with all the complaints at once," Helga said. "But do we have to invite all the parents? Where will we put them all?"

"We'll manage," Godric assured her with an airy wave of his hand.

"What about the muggles?" Salazar asked. "How are you suggesting they get here with all our muggle-repelling spells on the place?"

"We'll remove them for the day," said Godric, clearly not worried about that particular problem. "We're well out of the way here, it's not likely any muggles will be wandering this way on that exact day. I've not seen one anywhere near us since we opened."

"I believe that would be because of the spells," Salazar pointed out.

"We'll manage," Godric repeated. "Since I've already invited them, we'll have to."

"You've already invited them?" Rowena asked.

"Yes," Godric nodded. "They'll be here on Saturday."

"But that's only two days away!" Rowena exclaimed.

"Which brings me nicely to my next point," Godric continued. "Rowena, you really must make an effort to learn the names of all the students, not just those in Ravenclaw. You have two days to learn them so I suggest you start now."

"I know some of them," Rowena muttered. "The troublemakers at least."

"Well we all know the troublemakers," Helga pointed out. "The rest of us knew the names of the troublemakers within a week."

"Well your job between now and Saturday is to learn the rest of them," Godric ordered. "Salazar, you need to find a way of keeping that ruddy poltergeist from upsetting the parents."

"Me?" exclaimed Salazar indignantly. "Why can't you concentrate on the creature? Isn't that your department?"

"I don't really think poltergeists come under the category of magical creatures," Godric said, neatly palming the problem off onto Salazar. "Besides, I think he likes you."

"What makes you think that?" Salazar asked. "He's been plaguing me all week!"

"Exactly. We'll leave you to sort out Peeves."

"Peeves?" Helga asked.

"It's what the students have named him," Godric explained. "Helga, you keep an eye on our cooks and the house elves and make sure that we can feed the parents adequately."

"I'll also make sure that pumpkin juice isn't served to them," Helga added. "We've plenty of nettle wine that will do instead."

"There's nothing wrong with pumpkin juice," Godric muttered.

"Nothing right about it either," Salazar replied. "And what are you going to do while we're all slaving away to get things ready?"

"I'll be supervising," Godric answered with a smug smile.

The first of the parents arrived shortly after dawn.

"I thought Godric called it a parents evening?" Rowena whispered to Salazar who was trying to casually stifle a yawn.

"Well what do you expect from Godric," Salazar whispered back. "When has any plan of his run like clockwork?"

"Good point," Rowena replied, forcing a bright smile onto her face as she stepped forward to greet the Harbutts.

"Be nice!" Salazar whispered behind her. She turned round quickly and stuck out her tongue.

Godric was soon in his element, giving parents a tour of the castle and explaining the functions of each of the rooms. Salazar after the initial greetings disappeared in order to keep Peeves out of the way by engaging him in battle in one of the empty classrooms in the dungeon.

Helga and Rowena escaped to the kitchens as soon as they could, though Helga was quite adamant that Rowena stay well away from the ovens and the food. Of course this resulted in Rowena doing very little other than licking the spoons, scraping out the bowls and sampling the goodies that were being prepared. Helga would have stopped her from this but quickly found that when Rowena wasn't nibbling at the food she was complaining about several of their visitors.

"I thought we'd only invited the parents?" Rowena asked between bites of a pumpkin pasty. "What was Rosalyn's little brother doing here? He looks like he's going to be trouble."

"Probably," Helga replied as she turned down the oven. "I think he's come to see what the school is like since he'll be joining us next year."

"And what about that aunt of…?" Rowena's voice trailed off and she frowned in concentration.

"Of one students you can't remember the name of?" Helga asked wickedly. "Did you even try to learn the names of the rest of them?"

"Yes," Rowena said with a sniff. "But there's so many of them! Anyway, did you see her?"

"Who?"

"That second year's aunt," Rowena said. "Long blonde hair with little stars twinkling in it. Where does she think she is? A Yule Ball? And velvet robes! I mean who wears velvet robes these days, it's practically summer!"

"It's the end of November," Helga pointed out reasonably.

"That's not the point. She doesn't need to wear them indoors. And did you see how much kohl she was wearing?"

"Can't say that I did."

"She looked like a panda," Rowena said. "And did you see the way she was fawning all over Salazar?"

"Ah yes, now I know who you mean," Helga said as comprehension finally dawned. "She did seem quite pleased to see him."

"Pleased?" Rowena squealed. "She practically threw herself at him. I don't care how they greet people on the continent, she was practically checking out his tonsils with her tongue."

Helga gave an unladylike snort of laughter. "I must have missed that, are you sure you're not exaggerating?"

"Of course not. You didn't see her when he held the door to the Great Hall open for her either. Pretending to fall over so he'd catch her."

"Wasn't she wearing rather high heels?" Helga asked.

"Yes!" Rowena exclaimed. "Totally unsuitable for the area."

"I meant, she might have simply tripped because of them."

"Rubbish!" Rowena replied with a snort of her own. "She knows how to walk properly, though she might be in difficulties if she doesn't keep her claws out of Salazar."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're unreasonably jealous?" Helga asked. "Has Salazar ever given you cause to doubt him?"

"No," Rowena muttered. "I trust him. I just don't trust that little tart upstairs."

"Well how about you take your mind off of that tart and concentrate on these tarts here?" Helga asked as she levitated a tray of strawberry tarts onto the table.

"Oooh," Rowena exclaimed as she reached for one.

"I didn't mean eat them?" Helga sighed as Rowena stuffed the first one into her mouth whilst reaching for a second.

"I think it's going rather well," Godric said to Rowena after he'd encouraged their guests to start eating.

"Is it?" she muttered back, her appetite not quite as it usually was, partially because of her earlier snacking in the kitchens and partly because of the woman who had somehow managed to acquire the seat at the other side of Salazar.

"Your father sends his regards," Cordelia said in a voice that most people would describe as mysteriously husky, although Rowena privately thought she sounded like she'd just run a marathon.

"Does he?" replied Salazar in his politest tone.

"I'm surprised he isn't here himself," Cordelia continued, looking around the room and giving every impression that she thought he might suddenly appear. "He said there might be an opening for myself next year."

"An opening?" Rowena asked. "To teach you mean?"

"Yes," Cordelia replied, leaning unnecessarily across Salazar to speak. "I've been reading Ancient Runes since before I could talk. He thought your school might like to engage my services."

"Were you always so backwards?" Helga asked from the other side of Cordelia. "Most children can talk before they start to read."

Cordelia glared at Helga with utter venom whilst Rowena stifled a smile. She caught a quick wink from Helga as Cordelia turned back to her.

"I teach Ancient Runes," Rowena informed her with an icy smile. "I assure you I'm quite proficient in the subject."

"Are you?" Cordelia sounded surprised. "Tabitha said that they were still concentrating on things she'd translated when she was practically a babe."

"Not all students have been lucky enough to receive an education in Ancient Runes before attending Hogwarts," Salazar pointed out tactfully. "I'm sure that Rowena has simply been ensuring that all the class are able to follow the lessons." He squeezed Rowena's hand in support and gave her an encouraging smile.

"That's another thing," Cordelia said as she pointed to their hands with her knife. "Do you really think that this sort of thing is appropriate in a school?"

Godric coughed politely from Rowena's other side. She glared at him before turning her furious expression on Cordelia.

"Your father said that you were an honourable gentleman," Cordelia continued. "But that you kept some questionable company." Salazar's grip on Rowena's hand tightened; she was starting to lose circulation in her fingers.

"My father doesn't know the meaning of the word honour," Salazar hissed. Rowena kicked him under the table as his grip on her hand became intolerable. He let her hand go and silently mouthed an apology.

Cordelia looked a little taken aback at the venom but recovered herself quickly. "You will need to look for an Ancient Runes professor at some point though?"

"At some point," Rowena said through gritted teeth.

"Well I hope you'll consider my application when the time comes," Cordelia said with a bright smile that seemed rather forced.

"Oh we'll give it all the consideration it deserves," Rowena replied with a false smile of her own.

"Well I think that all went rather well," said Godric later that evening, after the last of the visitors had departed.

"It rather depends on your definition of 'well'," Salazar replied as he poured them each a glass of wine.

"Well none of the parents insisted on taking their children home," Helga said.

"And Peeves only appeared once and didn't do much more than call out a few mild insults," Rowena added.

"He called Cordelia a 'audacious tart'," Salazar pointed out. "I wonder where he might have picked up that particular expression."

"Wouldn't know," Rowena replied innocently, although she couldn't stop her smile as she recalled Cordelia's face at that precise moment.

"No one's shutting us down and no one's taking their children out of the school," Godric said. "All in all I think it's been quite a success."

"Sure Godric," Salazar commented. "You keep telling yourself that."