Chapter 5
The class rose for Hedda Schrempf in Jade's first Dark Arts class.
The courtesy did not seem to impress her; she sneered.
"Ah yes the customs of the so-polite English who are so polite they learn only DEFENCE against the Dark Arts because they fear that dabbling in the same might be rude."
"Not at all Fraulein Schrempf" said Jade "It is merely that the English, as a whole, prefer not to be an initial aggressor; but we English are always ready to finish any fight someone else starts."
"Ach, you milk-and-water looking thing, you have not the stomach to use the Dark Arts; to cast the cruciatus curse you have to mean it you know! You have not the will for this class; I do not wish to teach you" said Schrempf.
"Why then, if you are so ignorant as to suppose the crudities of the unforgivable curses to be the epitome and pinnacle of the Dark Arts, then I doubt there is anything so unsubtle and unskilled a person as yourself can teach me" said Jade.
Schrempf was spoiling for a fight; might as well have it now as later. And either she would have to kill this bitch or subdue her; or act cowed.
And if she acted cowed there would be no moving forward to steal werewolves.
And, predictably, the woman threw the cruciatus curse. Jade did not even bother to block it; she let the woman see it hit her, rose and walked forward, as Draco had done at that infamous duelling event: THEN blocked. She held out a finger and pointed at Schrempf.
The woman put up a shield charm; but Jade was not casting the cruciatus curse.
A cage appeared around Schrempf with glowing bars of purple force.
When asked later 'why purple' Jade had answered 'aesthetics' in a tone that made it plain that she thought it a stupid question.
Jade walked once around the cage and began a chant.
"Molahs mirevahc, molahs mirevahc, molahs, molahs
to-ar-tihel, to-ar-tihel molahs, molahs"
The cage dissipated; and Schrempf stood, arms slightly out, gazing in horror at nothing; and then she started screaming. Jade watched her, apparently impassively; nobody but she herself knew that she felt quite sickened doing this. But such a demonstration might yet fast track her into an organisation that would help her get to the higher echelon – and to the wolves.
She whistled a complex little tune and the woman collapsed in a heap, moaning.
"THAT is the Dark Arts" said Jade coldly "A curse which, if not cancelled, would leave you reliving your worst nightmare over and over and over until your heart gave out with the strain. I believe it takes between half an hour and two hours depending on the state of the health of the individual. So, Schrempf, can YOU do that?"
"N- no!" the woman was shocked, submissive.
"No WHAT?" said Jade implacable "I have mastered you easily; what then do you call me?"
"M-mistress" quavered Schrempf.
"Quite" said Jade coldly. "Kiss the hem of my robe."
Schrempf crept on her hands and knees to do so. Jade hid her revulsion. How could Voldemort have gloried in this? It was pathetic to reduce another to this level, even one such as Hedda Schrempf! Apparently she could have no urges as a megalomaniac; for neither did she enjoy this sort of thing, nor did she have any clue how to force home an advantage and use this to take any kind of control; nor, to be honest, any real desire. "You may continue to teach the inadequates in your own ineffectual way; I shall take my disciple Traudl and give her more comprehensive lessons than you are capable of doing" Jade added. Escaping from this class was the best thing to do; she really COULD teach Traudl more; even by teaching her defence against the Dark Arts.
Traudl followed her rather fearfully out of the room.
"Don't look at me like that PLEASE!" said Jade "I either had to do something to scare her witless or kill her; she was going to push and push until she had the excuse to throw the killing curse, I could see it in her eyes. I just got my retaliation in first."
"Am I supposed to call you mistress if you name me disciple?" said Traudl.
Jade laughed and said a short, scatological word.
"All that was so much window dressing my friend!" she said "For Schrempf, one is either one up; or one down. It is not enough to demonstrate either parity or to show superiority without demanding humiliating acknowledgement of that. I felt that this way was the only one to keep her from continually trying to pick on me to the point where one of us had to kill the other. She is a poor tool of her masters; she enjoys causing pain, like De Witt. Did you not see the arousal in her face as she cast the cruciatus curse? For her, and for him, the Dark Arts are about hurting people on a personal and physical level. They haven't got a clue how subtle, varied and insidious the Dark Arts can be. I HATE inefficiency!"
Traudl stared at her and laughed suddenly.
"You who are tender and gentle to the first year babes, relatively restrained in duels, now speaking of the Dark Arts as though the unforgivable curses were but minor throwaways and disliking Schrempf for not being better at employing them?"
Jade grinned.
"It does sound far fetched in a way; but if someone makes a commitment to do evil, it kind of seems rather wet to go at it inefficiently. What DOES she teach apart from the unforgivable curses?"
"Oh how to recognise and manipulate dark creatures, raising Dementors, creating inferii, making cursed items" said Traudl.
"Nursery twaddle!" said Jade in contempt. "You learn a patronus I presume to protect you from any Dementors you acquire?"
"We're supposed to learn that later this year."
"Right; I'll teach you that first. A corporeal patronus has heaps of uses besides dealing with dementors. I am NOT teaching you that chant by the way; that curse almost killed a friend of mine through a cursed item. I borrowed it."
"Suppose someone recalls it and uses it?"
"They won't get anywhere. A chant is more than just the words; it's the intent. Unless they know exactly what I was doing – I only gave the broadest of basics – they couldn't. Not unless they were clever enough to work out their own chant. The words don't always matter; so long as they are approximately appropriate and the symmetry of the Arithmancy is right and you speak them at the right speed and rhythm. If it were just a question of rattling off words, books of chants would have been published long since and people would use them with as little knowledge as they use incantations of simple spells. Some words have power of themselves; some words channel power. But more often than not the power is channelled by the feeling that the words are appropriate. Wait for my first chanting classes; then you'll see"
"All right. I say, can we get away with cutting class?"
"We will; she has bound herself to obey me. She has given tacit agreement that her superior does not attend her useless classes, nor the one I name. She is afraid, very afraid that the visions will come back. She will not sleep well for a very long while. I cannot say I feel a lot of remorse for that for I would not mind betting she uses the cruciatus curse freely even on the little ones."
"She does; and I shudder for my sister."
"I will forbid her to use it on her then; or, better, we shall teach the youngsters how to hold up a shield spell; and by increasing their stamina they will hold it longer than she can press home the spell."
"What do you intend by her?"
"Ah, now THAT is a good question" said Jade "I acted to stop a situation building, but I fear I have no idea what to do about the new situation. Well, what I plan to do NOW is get on with teaching you that patronus."
After drilling Traudl to the point that she managed to get something recognisably furry out of the pearlescent cloud from her wand, Jade pondered.
The likes of Schrempf were not exactly unusual in the ranks of Dark Wizards. The Carrows had been the same – only stupider – and many Deatheaters had enjoyed passing out pain. Jade did not count Bellatrix Black-Lestrange; Voldemort had done a job on her that had created her sado-masochistic urges. But that so many had sadistic urges seemed odd. And Voldemort had doubtless made them grovel because he despised them as much as she despised Schrempf; but why then had he not made more of his subtler lieutenants, Lucius and Dad and Yaxley, the master of the deeply implanted Imperious Curse?
Because, she answered herself, a dark wizard is driven by his ambitions as is any dictator; and so fears the ambitions of others and fears giving any concessions as signs of weakness. Yet Voldemort had liked having Dad around, his subtlest tool of all – as he had perceived him – because he was perceived as a near equal mind with whom to converse. And then later mum too, his just-ambitious-enough daughter; how well mum had portrayed that! The trouble was for herself, Jade thought, that she was trying to play two parts at once; the cold racist bitch who could take Schrempf apart and simultaneously to protect the little ones because to do anything else was unthinkable. Because here the acceptance that might maketh right, a breeding ground for dark wizards, took bullying into realms that were beyond what would even be believed at Hogwarts, beyond even what one might find in Victorian boys' school stories where Tom Brown was a tame story and Flashman a gentleman beside the likes of Nachtigall. And such raw misery in youth must, in all but the brightest and the best, sap imagination and leave the belief that raw power and the ability to work pain on others was all that counted.
But there were those of possible talent; largely due to Helmut Hesse who had been subtler, fortunately not subtle enough to influence further than he had, and fortunately not perhaps sufficiently appreciated in his subtleties by his superiors in ODESSA . HE had not been run by Von Frettchen, who seemed to have taken on Schrempf to keep her on a short leash. Jade grinned. She could get her pupils to dissect that chant from now until the end of time and not be able to duplicate its effects; Jade had picked it for its particular symmetry. To use a Jewish prayer for peace backwards against an effective Nazi seemed utterly appropriate to her at the time. It was a jolly good job Voldemort had never taken chanting particularly seriously. It was also a jolly good job he had never behaved fairly and with reciprocal loyalty to his closest and best lieutenants.
And it was scary to think that she probably knew a lot more than Voldemort about the more useful arts, dark and otherwise, and had a lot more power at her disposal.
Such things were not to be taken lightly.
And Jade explained to Traudl that the interest in the study of the Dark Arts was their very variability in their deepest and darkest forms; not to find extra and more exotic ways of causing harm but in the exploration of the darker side of the human psyche and to find an uncomfortable thrill in how much could actually appeal only too much when contemplating an enemy; and how there might be things that were sickening too to contemplate and yet horribly fascinating in the warped imagination that had made them, for the sheer ingenuity of those who wrought unfettered by conscience, moral sense or fear of consequences.
"We are part fey you and I" said Jade "And as such we have a touch of the odd fey moral code; which includes a whole load of wriggle out of the rules clauses in it. Or rather, wriggle AROUND the rules. The fey are capricious, mutable, fickle, wily, whimsical and have stern moral codes purely because it is the only way they can survive without destroying themselves. Even those who might be deemed dark creatures or who readily embrace darkness stick to those moral codes; because those laws are their continued existence. Any who abandon them are torn apart by their own kind to prevent humans turning on fey; or other groups of fey wiping out those who belong to a transgressor. They KNOW that rules of society are as necessary as air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat for their very capricious and mutable nature requires a society to sustain it, a society in which, in many cases, they hate each other cordially and work together only out of mutual need. But this is their nature; and the rules they abide by are as much their nature as their desire to work around them and ingenuity in so doing. The human who decides to tread the dark path has no such rules or safeguards, and unless he decides for himself – or herself – to impose rules on self and on followers, applying equally to all, he is doomed, ultimately, to failure. If the only rule is that of 'might makes right' he must always safeguard himself against a follower who thinks he can take him. This is the one main strength of ODESSA ; its rules and strict observance of the pecking order. It does not go far enough; for the rules pertain only to discipline. Even as Voldemort's only rule was that unthinking obedience to him was the only way. A good leader, whatever path he follows, listens to criticism from those whose opinion he trusts. A good leader gives loyalty before he can accept it; and he is careful of the welfare of even the least of his followers, for how else would he expect them to care for his welfare? And here is where the follower of the Dark Arts has a problem. Can you see it?"
Traudl shook her head.
"You make absolute sense" she said "And if you do plan to set yourself up as a dark lady and counter ODESSA , I have to say I'd rather follow someone who has protected my sister so well and who is prepared to share knowledge."
"Thank you; I do not share all knowledge however; yet. I do not think I plan to set myself up thus. I may call on you to follow me one day; and then I shall share more with you about my plans and myself than I am prepared to at this date. I will not ask that level of loyalty without honesty. Which leads to the problem for dark wizards. There is, you see, in a desire to lead that is so intense that it would use any and all methods to succeed – dark arts in other words – a selfishness, a megalomania, a drive of the ego. And selfishness has a problem in being able to GIVE loyalty; simply because the type who has such desires is so self-absorbed, so convinced that they are the right person for the job that they cannot, literally CANNOT conceive that anyone might disagree unless they are wilful fools. Those who deplore their methods they call weak, not realising that the shortcuts they often take are not necessarily the surest path. The dark arts offer a quick, seductive way to a goal; it is not always the BEST way. A man may be placed under the Imperious Curse and made to do all that is required of him; it is slower to win his friendship and willing compliance. But which ally would have most initiative and do the best?"
"The one willingly won…. I had never thought about it before. Nachtigall was beside himself about my defection; he could not believe I would be so stupid as to wish to leave his dubious protection and follow another."
"Lovely little would-be dictator in training….ready to be an officer in the ODESSA , and what a shock to him to have to take discipline from above; and can't we both see him handing out punishment randomly to inferiors who got in his way to take out his frustrations, punishing house elves because he can; which is so uncultured. One has a responsibility to one's elves; they are one's dependants."
Traudl stared.
"I had not thought of that, either" she said "My family has no elves; if we had, perhaps that is a lesson I would have learned earlier. But at school it is true for the school elves too, is it not?"
"It is" said Jade.
It was helpful that she perceived Jade as the paradigm of nobility and wanted to copy that and use the right manner to get on well in the world as well as starting to think for herself too. Traudl too was NOT fully human. And THAT would be a lever. She would win Traudl.
Jade went after tea to see Professor Rebet.
"I came to talk about chanting, sir" she said.
He looked pleased.
"You have not forgotten then?"
"No sir; but I have a proposal to make" she said.
"I do not put your grades up artificially for any favour" he said. Jade stared in amazement.
"No of course not; did I ever yet do anything to make you think I am a fool?"
He looked surprised.
"I suppose not" he said grudgingly. "What then is this proposal?"
His expression was forbidding; but Jade was used to that. Her father never went out of his way to look anything else in a situation in which he felt not entirely in control.
"It depends of course on you being a great enough man to get over pride" said Jade as though meditatively "Since there are others I have met who would like to learn chanting; if an evening class were run under your aegis there could be no objection, I think; and I would teach with your discipline available while you also learned."
He looked at her thoughtfully.
"You are a very dangerous young lady" he said "You know how to manipulate."
"You sir are one of a very small number capable of catching me out at it" said Jade and beamed at him.
It worked for the Belle Marauders.
He gave a reluctant bark of laughter.
"And who are these other would be students?"
"People like Rodica who was impressed with the way I was able to help her fag."
He looked sharply.
"The child with the heart defect?"
"Yes sir. It was rather out of the league of a normal medical transfiguration; needed a good hour's chanting to sort everything out."
"Is it possible that chanting could ease my lung problems?" he spoke sharply, trying not to let the yearning hope sound in his voice.
"I had wondered how to propose it without sounding cheeky, sir" said Jade with composure.
"Can you do it?"
"I don't see why not" said Jade calmly.
"Why has Snape never cured his own wounds?"
"I believe that a similar level of ritual saved his sight and feeling in his right hand sir; obviously I was not present, it was long before he took over at Prince Peak. He wears the scars as an awful warning that the rules about mucking in his stores are not there to inconvenience light fingered students. His daughter was authorised to spread the story last year when a girl decided to 'tidy up' for him: a tale of how some brat wanted alihotsy to make a rival look a fool; and she spilled powdered Chinese dragon heart blood. He put it out with his bare hands and saved the school; or so the story goes. Personally I do not doubt it. I can see it happening. Jade Snape is proud of him; I do admire him."
"Is it possible that his extraordinary openness to kobbolds stems from finding one who is a fine potioneer and he will not waste the talent?" demanded Rebet.
Jade regarded him.
"I concede that, knowing Professor Snape, there is a strong likelihood of truth in that" she said "The girl Senagra, Jade Snape's friend was I believe expected to get an 'O' grade."
"Then that is what it may be… Potioneers, top potioneers, are born not made. Rodica, Fraulein Nistor, does well enough she will have a creditable pass if she does not panic in the exam; but only Cacilia Von Freyer is GOOD. If she will join us also…."
"Cacilia had expressed an interest" said Jade.
He almost purred.
"When do you wish to chant over my lungs?" he asked.
"I shall need your date of birth and the date and time it happened to have a perfect result" said Jade "There is that of a nature of cursed wound status to such; whereas Wencelada's heart was fucked over by nature, please pardon my French."
"Your….. ah, an English expression for swearing. Do not do it again. I was born on the eighth of December…..nineteen fifty eight. The accident…. Ah that is etched in my memory, Valentine's day nineteen ninety. An illicit attempt by a fool girl to brew amortentia…. A girl who could not read my handwriting on the jars and guessed. She added Aconite by mistake for frozen Ashwinder eggs."
Jade winced.
"You're lucky to be alive sir….what a fool! Girls who fancy themselves in love can be the most destructive force in the universe; I think I'd rather deal with Dementors!"
"Ah, but have you ever seen dementors?" he sneered. Jade looked surprised.
"Of course, sir! ODESSA attacked Prince Peak during the Triwizard, you recall? Any of us who could produce corporeal patronuses were asked to volunteer and we got taught how to deal with them."
"Hmm, then you're not such a fool as you sound for saying that."
"I don't believe I'm a fool at all, sir. We can either wait over to February and use the anniversary or I can use a date that is not unlucky and do it tonight at two fourteen in the morning which has enough symmetry to satisfy my rather stringent requirements."
He gasped.
"So soon?"
"If that is a problem the next window would be some two weeks hence in the afternoon. See" she pushed her notes at him. He ran an eye over them; he was not an arithmancer of the calibre of Severus but he had studied it in relation to potioneering.
"That does seem in order" he said. "Though it seems improper…."
Jade grinned.
"I thought of doing it at the site of the crime, not coming to your room or anything" she said. It would mean she would not sleep with Wulf tonight probably; but it was the proper thing to do. "Would you like me to ask one of the others if they will chaperone me for your protection?"
He looked surprised again and gratified.
"Yes; yes please" he said.
Jade bobbed half a curtsey and took herself off.
Jade secured the good offices of Cacilia; and they both retired to bed early with an alarm charm to awaken them in good time. Both had done their homework for the day promptly and with despatch.
And at the appointed time they crept down to the dungeon.
"I feel like giggling like a middle schooler to be abroad illicitly" said Cacilia.
"It is rather fun in a way" said Jade. "Ah, the candles are lit; Professor Rebet is ready for us. Sir?"
"I am here" said he.
"Sir, I must be forward and use your first name for greater efficacy in the chant; I decided to use that of Finnish Name Magic to enhance the effect."
"If it works I don't care what you call me"
Jade giggled.
"I'd beware of that sir; some endearments I've heard used – which also constitute portions of full true names – can be a little embarrassing. Be glad you are not married to a woman who calls you 'bitsy pookums' for example."
"By Thor, you ARE a forward brat!" said Rebet.
"SIR! For NOT calling you Bitsy Pookums?" said Jade in mock hurt. She twinkled at him.
Pupils did NOT twinkle at him. Rebet found Nefrita Von Strang a most peculiar girl!
She was looking at her watch now, all levity gone from her face, counting down; and then she was facing him, chanting, a strange tongue issuing fluently from her lips, his name ringing out from within it – pronounced correctly as for HIS language, including the Ukrainian dialect of his home district he noted – and he felt a sharp tightness in his chest as though things were moving, changing. It was not painful; just THERE. And then the pain he was never free from was easing; so gradually he wondered if he imagined it at first. But it was more and more definite. And he could breathe in deeply without it catching on a wheeze, though she frowned and shook her head at him without pausing….perhaps it altered the conditions and made her chanting harder, like someone adding helpful and unnecessary stirs….
And then she was letting it die away with exquisite breath control; and her breath control was giving him breath control. And her voice disappeared on a sigh.
Jade grinned.
"Feel any better sir?"
"Yes, assuredly!" said Rebet breathing in gladly.
"It is like any muscle and can be hurt by overuse; and must be gently exercised" said Jade. "The very chanting classes will aid with that; you will all be learning how to breathe. Breathe correctly for a sustained chant that is. Without perfect breath control any chant over about ten minutes is painful; one that must needs last hours is impossible. This one has taken three quarters of an hour. It is three o'clock, and I am for my bed. Good night sir!"
"Good night. Thank you."
It went against the grain to be grateful to a pupil; but the relief! She was of exalted rank; there was little enough she could demand of him in return, and she had shown herself to be sensible enough not to want her grades changed.
Ihor Rebet slept the rest of that night deeply and comfortably for the first time in a very long time.
Jade did not.
She was just dropping off when she heard the name 'Nefrita Von Strang' in what sounded like Hedda Schrempf's voice, echoing hollowly in the back of her mind. She had set up the spell that evening and this was the first time she had heard it work. The tone suggested making a report, and Jade sighed and apparated directly to the marauding room in Hogwarts to look in the observing mirror.
"Hello Jade" said Cosmo's portrait. James's was dozing.
"Hello Cosmo" said Jade, heaving out the mirror.
Hedda was kneeling by the fire.
"I have never KNOWN anyone with such powers!" she said "She – she performed some dark ritual I do not know, with a chant….. I had the others write it out as best as they remembered it but I have been unable to find any reference to it…." She looked fearfully at the fire "I had to call her mistress; she made me kiss the hem of her robe."
"YOU Hedda? What ritual can make someone like you act so?"
"I was held suspended; the images! They were terrible! Everything I had ever in my life feared, even things I never knew before that I feared, all crowding into my mind! And more – I was LIVING in the fears, over and over; and when she cancelled it she said that it took between half an hour and two hours for the heart to fail and the victim to die…. She took the cruciatus curse, showed me she could FUNCTION whilst under it and only then blocked it; she is strong, Herzog Von Frettchen. Whatever it is the English do that make their children such formidable warriors has allied with her superior German heritance. If she could be persuaded to work for the greater good she would be the only one who could stand against the English; if not, she must be killed but I do not know how that might be achieved."
"She HAS rattled you Hedda" said Von Frettchen "Perhaps I had better come and meet her and make my own assessment."
"Yes; you had" said Hedda resentfully. "She calls my teaching ineffectual and all but the pupil she has taken as disciple inadequates."
"Your star pupil I suppose?"
"No; a pupil I should rather say was barely capable of passing the exam. She used to be one of Nachtigall's people; a little peripheral to his gang, but she has left him for Von Strang. I cannot see why she has taken that one, not a more able student."
"Hmmm" said Von Frettchen "Perhaps it is that she has picked one with a subtle mind and touch who scores but poorly under YOUR teaching methods; you can be rather crass at times Hedda. I never quite knew what it was that Hesse saw in you."
"I am strong" said Schrempf.
"But not, apparently, as strong as the Von Strang girl. Well I shall make a governor's visit and look her over for myself; not immediately, but soon. Try to avoid contact with her; it is not good if she can force you to bow down to her. How does she interact with Nachtigall? Are they allies?"
"Anything but; he is terrified of her. They duelled – that old fool Rebet officiated – in the Lodge and I have been unable to remove the word 'schweine' from his forehead. It is a curse too subtle and complex for me; and yet was thrown in the heat of a duel. He also still has a pig's tail. It appears that she defeated him and his six cohorts all at once alone but for some aid from a group of second years. Come soon; I fear her also."
Jade ginned to herself. That was the way she had intended it.
"I will. Now go get some rest" said Von Frettchen; and the interview was at an end.
Jade smiled at Cosmo.
"She doesn't like me" she said gaily and apparated back to bed.
She would need to draw on the blood group in the morning; but that was what they were for.