Chapter 15
Jade was glad to get the new term under way; the holidays had been rather busy and the work would be a comparative rest!
She was kissed on both cheeks by Señor Carcano, who had been to see Lucius in the holidays; and Lucius had, on Jade's request, told Carcano the truth. Lucius had contacted Jade to tell her that he and Orlando Carcano had a mutually beneficial contract and that both stood to gain from it and Carcaono's fame was assured.
Jade hugged the Care of Beasts teacher back with genuine affection; his enthusiasm had given new meaning to his subject for her.
"Why did you not confide your secret in me? I would have kept it!" Said Señor Carcano. He was slightly hurt.
"I would have done; but I did not want to risk your safety" said Jade "And I would not tell anyone until the head knew. Herr Rebet guessed; but he had seen me brewing potions and recognised my style. If the Triwizard had involved hippogriffs YOU would have recognised my style; they're the only magical beasts I've had a lot to do with really." She grinned "Now, however, I have managed to subvert a senior man in ODESSA , things are safer that I can speak freely – to some. I should prefer that you did not discuss it however; there are those staff I should not like to know."
That it was her concern for his safety and that he was one of a selected few to know the truth mollified Professor Carcano somewhat. Also that Rebet had guessed. Rebet had, Jade knew, been suspicious; she had settled his suspicions with the explanation of being trained by the same person but he had not been particularly surprised to learn who she was. Jade did not think that she had been wrong to suppose he had guessed.
"Who does know? I should hate to betray you accidentally" Carcano rumbled.
"Madam Bacsó, Herr Rebet and Frau Schreiber" said Jade "I would wish to tell Herr Nagy but I am not sure how."
"You should let Madam Bacsó handle him, Fraulein; he is her countryman" said Carcano.
Jade brightened.
"But how clever of you, Señor!" she said "An excellent idea! I shall approach her with that suggestion!" she looked serious again "Did Lucius tell you about the need for unicorn horns also?"
He nodded.
"We shall be taking a trip in the hopes of seeing unicorns; I know where they congregate in the forest" he said "And we shall look then for shed horns. I can say quite readily that I have been asked to search by English counterparts for the English potion exam, since we have a different examination board. Professor Fraser is a most excellent young man, by the way; I was glad to meet him. Professor Hagrid also has much enthusiasm and knowledge but I wonder how good a teacher he really is."
"Very, if you're enthusiastic enough not to mind his outsize pets" said Jade "Hagrid's a sweetie – no-one calls him professor, it really doesn't suit him – and terribly knowledgeable and you can learn more just by watching him than by attending his lectures. David Fraser learned from him you know; so he must have done something right. But you have given me an enthusiasm for the subject that I never thought to have; you really are the best, and it's a shame you have such a small class."
"I shall be putting to the examination board the English idea of training for the care of domestic beasts" said Señor Carcano "Though I love to see magical animals in the wild, naturalists are never going to be common; it would suit the needs
of more to be trained to handle their own flying horses. Even if it were only a specialisation to ZH level and not, as the English have it at the lower exam, it would be something."
"Yes; for even if you had to teach that in the main slot, those of us who wanted to learn about wild animals would be happy to do so as a voluntary weekend class I should think; and those keen to do both exams could" said Jade "My cousin Hadrian plans to take both; and though there are two teachers at Hogwarts, he would happily take weekend lessons with Hagrid while Madam Grubbly-Planck taught the main class. He probably will be fitting in his Care of Big Scary Beasts around his other timetable; it IS a minority subject, especially as Hagrid is probably going to try to arrange a field trip to Belsornia or Romania to see dragons up close."
"Lucius says he can probably arrange for us to visit Belsornia" said Carcano, eagerly "Where they also have a distinct breed of flying horses!"
Jade hesitated and then decided.
"They are sentient" she said "It is why they are kept so secret and protected; it is said there is unicorn blood in their heritance too. But to a true scholar, I think the Belsornians would be tolerant."
"Ah! Magnificent!" he breathed in wonder. "Yes; they must not be pestered. I would no doubt not be allowed to record them on omnioculars; but that condition I would gladly take to have the chance to see them!"
"Such an attitude is like to give you the chance to get close to them" said Jade "I will write to Prince Consort Franz; he is a cousin of mine and he is the guardian and representative of the flying horses."
"I would take it as a great favour, Fraulein – I still call you Nefrita Von Strang?"
"Please" said Jade.
She liked Orlando Carcano.
She liked Attila Nagy too, if not as much; and went to ask Agata to break the news to him. Herr Nagy was inclined to be touchy and not a little paranoid at times – as any non German teaching in Durmstrang might well be – and Agata would know how to handle him.
Agata did.
She put it to him in a way that Attila Nagy understood that Jade had come to see to greater freedoms for non Germans in Durmstrang – which was one of the issues Jade WAS interested in – and to throw off the yoke of ODESSA from other countries. Which pleased Professor Nagy well enough. He had an innate sense of justice that accepted that Jade could scarcely come in under her own name; and when she next studied Transfiguration with him he gave her a nod, a smile and a look that told her that he now knew.
Jade was glad; she hated deception of people she liked. And Attila Nagy may have been rather arrogant but he was glad enough to debate issues on a level that was more interesting than school transfiguration!
Jade enjoyed her herbology lesson too; Madam Kluba gave a lecture on Mandrake – which was no news to Jade – and turned the class to removing mandrakes from their pots to be used for potions. She had prepared the class by explaining the two main methods of removing mandrake from pots, by stunning them with a hard bang before pulling them out, and by easing the earth away gently before using a stupefy spell on them and quickly cutting away the greenery. The second method, she pointed out, made better potion ingredients.
Jade stuck to the method pioneered by Dione, using a spell to create a deep subsonic hum that both stunned the mandrake and shook the earth off it. Severus had determined that this method was better than stupefying it in terms of making potion ingredients; and Jade was a perfectionist about things like that. She also dropped a reverse muffliatus spell over herself in case anyone else had less skill; they were all wearing earmuffs of course, but the scream could still cause unconsciousness even muffled.
Jade absently wondered it dropping a muffliatus on the mandrake and just pulling would have any effect on it as a potion ingredient; and decided that the trauma to the plant would not improve it.
She was working on a table with Rodica, who was the class star; and the protective spell covered her friend as well, which was just as well, since Xia Xuang managed to let her mandrake scream – or so Jade deduced – since the Chinese girl was the first to go down still holding it, and was rapidly followed by the rest.
Jade cast diffindo on the top of Xia's plant to kill it quickly and moved out to check over the rest, who included Cacilia, Traudl and Bertel. Clovis Gierek, who had been a crony of Nachtigall, she felt less compunction over leaving to last.
Madam Kluba had superior ear muffs and moved to help.
"My dears! How come you were not affected?" she asked.
Jade shrugged "A spell to keep out noise; muffliato externum" she said.
"Remarkable! An excellent sounding spell! Well, they'll wake up with headaches in a couple of hours; not a lot to be done about that, the scream sets off all sorts of things in the head!"
"Excuse me, Madam Kluba, but I should like to try a chant; it is a form of curse after all and curses can be broken by chanting; Rodi, you're the poet, the thing had eight leaves, bring me up something about plants in octameters and I'll add counterpoint in ancient Greek."
Rodica nodded and extemporised starting,
"wretched leafy mandrake horror
causing lots of pain and sorrow"
It was a forced rhyme but good enough for the spur of the moment; and Jade wove her counterpoint of chant drawing forth the restorative properties of the mandrake from the root that had done the damage, that began to shrink as the unconscious young people moaned and started to move.
"Incredible!" said Madam Kluba "Of course it renders that root useless."
"It would have been poor enough quality anyhow" said Jade. "Do you have a quota to prepare for Herr Rebet?"
Madam Kluba looked faintly shifty.
"Not for Herr Rebet, no…. But I would like to prepare enough to….. the pay of a professor is not high" she added defensively.
"And, I understand, on a different scale if one is not a German national" said Jade dryly "Rodi and I will help you fulfil your quota, Madam Kluba."
The herbology teacher beamed.
"Oh if you would I should be most delighted!" she said.
"Show me your spell that got it out so easily please!" said Rodica.
"It is a subsonic hum; you set it up from the palms and direct it" said Jade "The incantation is mani subsonici and it shakes loose the earth too."
"TWO useful spells in one day!" gloated Madam Kluba "The English schools are very inventive!"
"We are rather encouraged to experiment" said Jade "The external muffling spell is my own twist on an anti-eavesdropping spell. The other has been at use in English schools for a while I think; Professor Snape brought it to Prince Peak."
Rodica was a quick neat worker in any case, and she and Jade soon had finished all the mandrakes that Madam Kluba wanted; and the other class members were up and about.
"And I heard you had a filthy headache after Mandrake screams!" said Cacilia. "I feel fine!"
"Oh that's Nefrita's chanting" said Rodica "You should have been out for a couple of hours too; but you see it is only twenty minutes or so and you are back to normal!"
Madam Kluba asked Jade to demonstrate her subsonic spell for the rest of the class once they were ready to take it in; and Jade readily did so.
Spells, after all, that had useful functions, were to be used for the benefit of all.
"I bet it'd make a mess of someone's brains if you did it each side of a head" said Clovis Gierek. Jade was horrified! Such a use had never occurred to her!
"I don't know" she said "I should think that it would either have no effect; or leave you open to a charge of murder because if it had any effect it would destroy the brain utterly. I could try on you if you like" she added.
"I don't think so" said Gierek. Jade managed to catch his eyes and did a quick bit of memory manipulation. Gierek promptly forgot the idea and when Cacilia opened her mouth, Jade shook her head. Cacilia looked at Gierek looking faintly puzzled as though he had lost something, and nodded.
It took a bully to come up with a harmful way of using a useful spell!
The quarrel in the staff room following this was audible across half the castle. Rodica happened to be in on the first part of it as she had packaged up the mandrakes and took them to Madam Kluba to send off; whereupon Hedda Schrempf had sneered, regardless of there being a student in the staff room and said,
"Ah, slave labour from your pupils Kunigunde to get such a supplement to your income!"
Kunigunde Kluba had flushed and said,
"At least I can give them something in return since I am an adequate teacher and know my subject well enough not to be below the abilities of my own pupils!"
Schrempf had started screeching at her at this point and Rodica had quickly erected a shield charm and started to mutter the chant Jade had been teaching them to make a diffusion grid to defeat the Killing Curse; and as Schrempf had thrown the Cruciatus Curse she had been glad to have been holding the shield charm for Madam Kluba who stared in horrified surprise like a frightened rabbit at the word crucio and looked amazed that it had not done anything. Rodica confessed to being angry on behalf of Madam Kluba, who was a gardener, not a duellist; and it had given her the strength she had secretly doubted possessing to stand up to Hedda Schrempf. Orlando Carcano had lifted Schrempf up by the arms from behind and carried her bodily to her own study and advised her to stay there until she calmed down and Kunigunde Kluba fell to weeping.
Rodica had then escaped.
It was a matter of public knowledge that Hedda Schrempf had been sent for by the head and that the shrieking match that ensued – at least on Schrempf's side – had been likened to drunken dementors fighting over souls. Schrempf had forgotten one vital point however; that Agata Bacsó had been a duelling champion herself in her time and was enough of a legilimens in battle to drop silencio and expelliarmus on her as she tried to pronounce the killing curse and to tell her coldly – as relayed by a gleeful elf to Jade's group as the little creature served them at the evening meal – that her services would no longer be needed from the end of the school year.
"Heh, you've been to England" said Jade.
"I have carried messages for Herr Carcano" said the elf.
"Good; and if you find out who has NOT been to England, let me know and I'll find messages for them" said Jade.
The elf stared; his ears went up; and he kissed her feet.
"Now then! No need for that!" said Jade.
"What please is the significance of going to England?" asked Cacilia.
"There is a magic circle in place that breaks the compulsion to self punish" said Jade "Hell of a chant; eight hours non stop and Lucius sacrificed living heart's blood."
"Elf, we will all find errands if it is needed" said Cacilia. "So long as you don't kiss our feet" she added hastily.
Jade was in Ancient Runes next morning when she received confirmation that Schrempf was still in a towering rage; in the part of her mind that held the egophonic magic she heard little Elfleda's voice 'Nefrita Von Strang will not let you hurt me so!' and Hedda Schrempf's voice 'Nefrita Von Strang is not here!'.
"Excuse me" said Jade, standing; and apparated smoothly to where Elfleda was.
"But she cannot do that!" said Thom Billkvam "It is a non apparating zone in the school!"
"Perhaps you have not noticed this, but Fraulein Von Strang is somewhat more powerful than the founders who put that ritual in place" said Madam Schreiber, who had seen horror in Jade's face and suspected that the girl was more powerful than she herself could ever guess. If it was a matter of opposing ODESSA that had dragged the girl off, Agallisse Schreiber had no quarrel with that; Nefrita Von Strang, or Jade Snape, was more than capable of catching up. Besides, she did not like Billkvam or any of the satellites of Nachtigall; though now Traudl Mondschein was with Nefrita she was a much nicer girl.
Jade arrived in the Dark Arts classroom as Schrempf was casting a spell similar to sectum sempra and Elfleda screamed in agony and terror as wounds opened up all over her body. Jade went to her, holding her own impenetrable shield up.
Schrempf shouted,
"Avada Kedavra!" and the flash of green light washed Jade.
Jade felt the scar burst through onto Nefrita's forehead and absently dropped a full body bind on Schrempf as she was quickly coming to the conclusion that pouring healing and power into Elfleda was not enough. She did not even need to voice diffindo to slit her own palm and she laid the open wound onto the one nearest the child's feebly beating heart, synchronising her own heartbeat and using its own strength to make sure Elfleda's kept beating.
"Sofie, run to Herr Rebet and ask for a blood replenishing potion with my apologies for disturbing him, Kjell, go and tell the headmistress what has happened, Leva, Herwald, Arkadi, keep your wands on that woman in case she escapes the full body bind, if she does get creative" Jade rapped out. "Vöglein, are you feeling a bit better?"
"Oh yes!" said Elfleda "I can feel….."
"H'ssh" said Jade "I'll explain about it later. Sit quietly; I have to do something about Schrempf. And it's time I did something permanent."
She rose; cancelled the full body bind and started to walk around Schrempf chanting in the harsh accents of Ancient Egyptian, drawing hieroglyphs in the air with her wand. Schrempf tried to move and found that she was able to move any muscle save that she was rooted to the spot. She lifted her wand and Jade contemptuously flipped a finger that sent it flying, without interrupting her chant. That scared Schrempf badly; not just wordless wandless magic, but such done as a by the by!
"M – mistress?" she said.
In her head, Jade's voice echoed,
"Too late for that, you cow" and the chant went on.
Jade made a pulling movement with one hand; and the terrified first years heard a despairing wail from Schrempf that somehow became very thin as her ghost remained standing, screaming; and her body fell away with awful slowness. The headmistress came unnoticed into the room as Jade reached a hand into the insubstantial and said,
"Burn". The ghost burst into pearlescent white flames and started screaming louder. "Now run" said Jade, transfiguring into a huge, jade-green wolf that was part fey and able to interact with the insubstantial world of the ghostly; and Hedda Schrempf's ghost ran, ran clear out of the window, still screaming, with Jade's wolf form running after her, unconcerned about running in mid air. Jade mused that Krait had probably only managed the initial transfiguration to insubstantial to hug Myrtle because of being part fey; but then, Krait would probably have managed it without being a Malfoy. Her mum was like that.
There was a scramble to the window to watch Schrempf be run off, still burning, into the forest; then the Jade Wolf leaped back through the window and there was an equal scramble to avoid being near it. Jade resumed her form; saw the head; and curteyed.
"On your feet and show respect for the head you malodorous infants!" she barked.
The first years complied; save Sofie who was feeding blood replenishing potions to Elfleda.
"Nefrita…. Kjell tells me that Madam Schrempf was hurting Elfleda for no real reason and that you appeared and she said 'Avada Kedavra' and there was a green flash; is this accurate?" asked Agata.
"It is, Madam Bacsó" said Jade "I take steps to protect my fags and Elfleda was in great pain; I believe that Schrempf was sore at being in trouble over taunting Frau Kluba and decided to take it out on Elfleda whose elder sister slipped her control to join with me. Elfleda was dying when I got here" she added "And while I was taking steps to reverse that situation, Schrempf threw the killing curse. They don't hand these out like lollipops" she added dryly pointing to the new zig-zag scar, dripping blood down her face. "I lost my cool a little bit and decided to do something permanent."
"I – I'm not quite sure what you did dear" said Agata, going over to Schrempf's body, where she gasped. "Why – she's still breathing! But – but I saw her ghost!"
"Were you there so early? I apologise for my rudeness then" said Jade "in not acknowledging your presence; I was a little preoccupied. Still alive? I suppose it's what you get for taking Egyptian texts too literally" she added "I used an old spell to jerk the ka out of the body; it was normally used to call forth a ghost-form of one already dead but I kinda adapted it; only the Egyptians also have two other parts of the human life force, the bai and the khou. I guess the bai or spirit was with the ka but the heart or life force, the khou has remained to keep her body alive. This thing here has about as much consciousness as mould on the wall."
"Still, it is politically good" said Agata "You were attacked with deadly force; but you have used spells that have left her alive – technically. She can go to a hospital to be cared for physically. There is no death to cause scandal or rebound on you, my dear."
"You're awfully good" said Jade in admiration "Will you have me take the ZB and ZH class to the end of the year?"
"I – yes, please my dear; there's nobody else so well qualified" said Agata "You had better take this child to the hospital wing."
"With your permission I had rather take her to my study; could you have her sister sent to her too, please? As for you brats, take your textbooks and read the section on jinxes and curses and write a six inch essay on one to three jinxes of your choice and their counters if you please; to be on Madam Bacsó's desk by noon tomorrow."
The first years blinked and meekly got out their text books to undertake the first piece of real work in the Dark Arts they had ever covered.
Jade apported to her study with Elfleda; and when Traudl came in presently she was cuddling the little girl with small Fyra at her side holding Elfleda's hand.
"They said she was hurt; what happened?" asked Traudl.
"She's all right now; but I had to take a measure I'd normally be cautious over without much preparation; I had to use blood magic to save her" said Jade.
Traudl paled.
"BLOOD magic? Isn't that dark magic?" she cried.
"Not a bit of it; UNWILLING sacrifices are dark magic; I made willing sacrifice" said Jade "It's what we used to help Harry Potter; it means now Elfleda can bounce the killing curse – as I had to from dear Hedda" quickly she told Traudl what had happened; and Traudl gasped.
"You are the greatest witch in the world!" she said awed.
Jade laughed.
"Oh, I'm half competent" she said "You wait until my kid sister grows up a bit; she's in the same year as Elfleda though she's two years younger; SHE's competent! And my mum surpasses me by far; it's just a question of mixing and matching skills creatively. And calling on my part fey blood. Elfleda now understands all that intimately; because she attached to me by bloodsong and to the other er, hundred and umpty people. And, Traudl, you must talk to the other big ones; I had wondered about setting up a bloodgroup here, those who were worthy and ready to fight for justice; but I didn't want to rush things. This has rushed things. And I need to know who would be ready to be part of it."
"I should think anyone you dubbed worthy would be eager to be a part of you" said Traudl, hoping desperately that Jade would find her worthy.
Jade smiled.
"I think I'd be happy to be a sister to you any day, Traudl; and with any of our special friends. But it may be that some find the idea unpleasant, or not for them. That does not make them less loyal friends or less worthy to fight for justice. You gain much – knowing that you are never alone, knowing that there are those who will always love and support you – but for some the idea of having brothers and sisters who are elves and goblins may be too much; or who fear for their own independence and privacy. You LEARN to block – nobody wants to share their deepest sexual experiences with their parents for example – and we block the ones who are born of it from pain. Though I suspect my son now sports a zig-zag scar" she added thoughtfully. "Yes; I have opened to Wulf; he is shouting at me for being at risk."
"He loves you so MUCH!" gasped Elfleda.
"Oy, stop eavesdropping, Vöglein!" said Jade. "Also, Traudl, we shall have to discuss what to tell the smaller ones; we have a custom – not always adhered to – of not blooding those under thirteen save for emergency; but I am half inclined to ask the babes in too; to protect them. Even if we bring ODESSA down quickly, there will be some trouble from the ones who will not lie down and play dead; and other factions rising when the threat of ODESSA is out of the way. Will you talk to Cacilia and co?"
Traudl nodded. "You look like you could do with a nap; you and Elfleda both" she said "Fyra will watch you."
"Yes; and I'm not sure we ought not to include Fyra and Alrik too" said Jade.
"Well I'll ask opinions; and that ought to test how far people do believe your ideals" said Traudl "Ritter will either back out muttering excuses or be all in; Volodya might think it nasty; Rodica might be scared of it. We shall see. Did – did you use this connection to win the Triwizard?"
"Certainly not!" said Jade "THAT would have been cheating! I am just good! If I had used the power of the group I should have been certain to stun a graphorn with spells; and to have cleared Wulf's blood of poison by a glance and focusing my blood on his to clear it through. We place our power at the disposal of whoever must be a focus; it's been Harry and it's been dad. But we are individuals with backup; and that's largely defensive."
"I'm glad" said Traudl.
Jade was confronted after tea by her friends in the sixth and by the three fourth year fags. Elfleda was there too and the two goblin children.
"We discussed it; and we're all in" said Cacilia.
"This is something that is necessary to give us an advantage in the fight against wrong-doing" said Ritter pompously. "It is too right to protect our underlings if this may do so."
"I did not realise I was strong enough to fight until I shielded Madam Kluba" said Rodica "We CAN; so we ought to."
"I do not want to fight but if I can give of my power for you I should be pleased and proud to do so" said Volodya "I can hope as well my music will stop others being quite so tone deaf. It will not diminish me?" he asked anxiously.
"No; no-one is diminished. Any may reach and draw on the knowledge of another; their instinctive knowledge" said Jade "It's how we apparate in non-apparation zones; elf blood."
"And elves have put themselves forward to fight and bleed for others and share the killing curse? That is loyalty" said Ritter. "One should always reward loyalty."
"Elves joined to you will be your siblings, Ritter" said Jade, quietly. "And goblins. We are one and equal in the group. Those with more experience lead; and when such give orders we all hit the ground running. Bertel? Lazlo?"
"It is our duty and our pleasure to back you" said Bertel.
"And it should be a good lark too" said Lazlo whose face said more than the flippant words.
"I would know, please" said Gisela Schutzmann "If Annet Breuer would approve before I agree."
"Annet? She blooded in last year" said Jade "She and her protégé; little Yrdl, whom she sponsors at Prince Peak; as we will sponsor Fyra and Alrik in due course. I take it the Asimov twins need no such assurance?"
"We once found a book on blood magic" said Zlatko "It was a bit muddled but it seemed to suggest that the darkness of the magic was determined only by the intentions of those who used it; though I must say, I'd be wary of someone who used the life force of one person with intention to heal another."
"If the one whose blood and life is being used is unwilling, then the intent is still murky because there's as much callousness to them as there is compassion to another" said Jade "And it wouldn't be a true sharing. It couldn't be; otherwise the life of the one that's ebbing away would cause the immediate death of the one being supposedly saved. It's why blood magic has often caused tragedy; too few people so death trauma is not shared round enough. With more people too, the chance of saving a life is greater; though not natural death of old age or an accident that causes immediate death – getting crushed in a sudden avalanche say or being sat on by a dragon. We can contact each other – individually or collectively – and pass a degree of information. Often that depends how close you are to someone; I'm particularly close to two of my sisters, Lydia and Lilith. You twins might end up with true telepathy such as can only normally be acquired with the deep joining; but the deep joining is a serious business not to be embarked on lightly and is marriage deeper than marriage. Not all the couples in the group have done it even; usually those of us where we have difficult or dangerous tasks, like being fagged for by half a dozen fags" she winked at Elfleda. "You are agreed to leave the young ones out?"
"It seems unfair to involve them – yet at least" said Cacilia.
"I am not sure all are suitable" said Bertel "My fag Yorick for example; and Lazlo's Adolph."
"I was minded" said Jade "To suggest the Eulenspiegels, even if not their cronies. As Marauders."
She had then to explain the Marauders; and how they chose groups each from the younger ones.
"You also do not want to be unfair to Sofie and Leva" said Elfleda "And I think Kjell would be good; but not so much Arkadi and Herwald."
"Out of the mouths of babes" said Jade "I think the Eulenspiegels go around with their cronies because they need SOMEONE; any objection to inviting them and the three Elfleda suggests?"
"I too would add in the second Zyrillis, Wencelada and Axel" said Traudl "Axel gives us another nobleman."
"My fag Grishilde is not the strongest" said Ritter "But she has the quality of loyalty and a desire to care for younger ones; she has agreed to take my half siblings as fags as they enter the school."
"Loyalty and compassion are great qualities" said Jade "Cacilia, I think Diliana is too conventional?"
"Yes" said Cacilia "Nice girl, devoted to me, but it would upset her."
"Then we are agreed; each of you to tell your own fags and we shall make a meeting…..let me see, we break up a day after Hogwarts and Prince Peak; before school on the last day of term" said Jade. "Fyra; Alrik; if we bring you in it will give you much protection; but it means too that you will then be pledged to dedicate your lives to helping others; regardless of race."
"Please lady, if you have helped us, we should help pass that on" said Alrik. "This I have been taught."
"Daddy says that if more people looked out for each other the world would be a nicer place" said Fyra.
"Hmm, maybe we'll have to consider bringing in your dads too" said Jade. "That's a date then; I'll let people know. Dad and co will sort out the necessary ritual items."
"What's that? You didn't use any with me" said Elfleda.
Jade winked at her.
"The cauldron full of hot chocolate and the crumpets to eat afterwards" she said.