Chapter 2

Lucius claimed that his children kept him young; but he was not expecting just how much younger sundry of his children were intending to make him.

Indeed he and Narcissa, Tanjela and Charlotte were positively dragged to the ballroom by Draco and Grace, where all those who had done any chanting – Gorbrin and Erica and their sundry friends and all the children who had already started at Hogwarts – encircled them.

"Do we get an opportunity for honourable surrender?" asked Lucius.

"Dad, we think that as Tom Riddle stole a large portion of yours and mum's life we want to give that back to you" said Draco "We've all discussed it; and we thought we'd sort of aim at making you both of an age with Charlotte, only sort of making Charlotte the age a witch should be at her age not a muggle because it's only fair; and remove the years of worry Tanjela had. So we're going to do a chant, which is Lydia's invention, and it's quite heavy so we're really going to have to concentrate; it uses muggle science you see."

"Why did I ever dislike muggles?" said Lucius.

"Traditionally bad upbringing" said Draco. "Right squad; off we go".

And off they went. The chant went through Draco, with various people feeding power to him to draw out the Malfoy lines from each in turn of the subjects of the chant, searching for the genetic damage of age. And the chant re-ravelled the ends of the chromosomes and tied them tight to prevent them from easily unravelling again; not taking them back to youth but to the mid thirties, shedding some two decades for Lucius and Narcissa, only a few years for Charlotte and Tanjela. Lucius and Narcissa had been starting to show the most minute signs of age – faint suggestions of crows feet, less supple skin – that muggles start to find at about thirty to thirty five years; the years serving the Dark Lord had made them older than their years in any case. The change wrought by the chanters was not so visibly discernable that anyone would seriously notice much change; but there was a profound difference in the way they felt, full of vitality and the knowledge that they had been given more time together, to make up for all the lost time, and to age with Charlotte. Tanjela and Finn. Finn of course was a half fey; and the rate of her aging was unknown. House elves could live at least as long as human wizards if not harried to death; some fey claimed to be immortal, though with how much truth in the claim nobody knew. Gorbrin for one rather suspected that when Lucius died so too would Finn; and possibly now they were blood joined, all five of his parents would die together. All but Finn were now essentially the same age, and they were made more beautiful by the love on their faces for their children and each other than even the rejuvenating chant could make them. And Finn ran to embrace her sister wives and husband when it was over and Draco was not alone to sink to the floor.

"The temperature has dropped noticeably" said Lucius.

"Well this is a hot room at this time of day; I thought I'd make use of that" said Draco. "I COULD have drawn on the group; but why do so if you don't have to? It's sloppy practice to rely on being part of a bloodgroup."

"Quite right" agreed Lucius. "Well my DEAR children I don't think any of us quite know what to say without getting embarrassingly mushy so why don't we all have a glass of the best vintage elf-made wine and toast each others' good health and then go out and have a barbeque to celebrate? And we can have up our muggleborn relatives from the village too" he added.

It was voted a good idea; Dad knew how to have a good time! The youngest preferred to toast health in butterbeer – they had unformed palates and found wine nasty, which was, as Narcissa said, a waste of good wine.

Burnt burgers and sausages – being Lucius they were venison sausages – went down well too. And Lucius gave thanks to any powers that might be listening for his marvellous family.

oOoOo

Lucius had three children to go up to Hogwarts this year; and he reflected with amazement that Varjak was Gorbrin's youngest full sibling, going up with Drogo and Penelope; and that it only seemed like yesterday that Drogo had rejoiced in having a new brother to build mud pies with, and that Penelope was a quiet withdrawn child who, separated by muggle social services from her brothers, did not even speak.

Well that had changed significantly, thought Lucius fondly watching Penelope and Lucasta in a shouting match about which horse they fancied in the yearly Lands' End to John O'Groats race. It was not one Lucius bothered with; he preferred the tough but shorter steeple chases. The prize money for the long race was considerable – Lucius contributed to it – and the winner was guaranteed stud fees for the rest of his mount's life; consequently it tended to be entered by those of limited means and a horse to keep up who dreamed of fame and fortune. Lucius had served as a judge and too as an official, checking that the disillusionment magic was secure; and Draco was serving in that capacity this year. He was taking a selection of the horsier children to the finish to watch the riders come in and warned Penny to be careful what she said to any man if there was an anvil anywhere nearby or she might end up married under Scottish law. Penny poked him; then demanded a history of the infamous smithy and how Scottish law only required – in times past – both parties to acknowledge being married for it to be so.

They would be back in time for the weddings and weevil fest; and Lucius grinned to himself that five children would bear the surname 'Malfoy' this year because his nieces Avice and Alienora were also starting. He was also sponsoring two of the young fey who had flocked to him after that long ago chant; they had just been infants then, brought by their mothers, who had grown up with enough civilised behaviour instilled by Dobby and Lala to be able to fit in sufficiently well. Glasbhinn* had taken the surname Green for her colouring, and Meadhb* had taken the name Brown for hers. They would know each other as well as Lucius' own children – with whom they played regularly, giving them yet more knowledge of the more civilised wizarding world – so they would not start feeling totally strange. Indeed their mothers had taken jobs at the Hall under the gentle bullying of Lala, and Lala with a sufficiency of personality that they never questioned that they, free fey, took orders from a technical slave.

Lala consistently refused to accept clothes; she knew her place and made sure that the Masters and Mistresses knew theirs as Narcissa ruefully put it. Well there would be those who stared at the fey girls; Glasbhinn was about the size of a goblin with human proportions but huge eyes and little pointy ears, and her green colouring the only real difference to any half elf child; Meadhb was a similar size, though her head was a little large in comparison to her body, and its features in proportion to the head, her ears no larger than any goblin's. Indeed it was likely that her brown colouring would be taken by most people as the sallowness generally associated with goblins. The girls were the most stable and resourceful of any young fey, ready to adapt; and that was why Lucius was sponsoring them. Salazar Slytherin would probably turn in his grave at the idea of pure bred fey entering the portals of Hogwarts after the trouble he went to making a Basilisk to keep them out; but times had changed and there were fey and then there were fey. And in Lucius' opinion the best way to deal with the unseelie fey was to outbreed them and to subliminate fey blood in the general population. It occurred to him with amusing irony that one day, if all magical communities interbred, the mark of a wizard would be to look much like a Malfoy, slight of build with the sharp features and almost pointed ears that denoted that fey blood from long ago; and there would be no racism because all would be as one. It would be a long time in the future however.

oOoOo

The three Lucius Malfoys and two fey knew already the twin Casimir Malfoys, Richard Snape and Rose Gaunt-Moody; and had, too, been introduced to the Black-Weasley triplets, the half-goblins Grinlock, Hazo and Mabelinn, siblings of Marauder Lavazka. They were also old friends of Theodore Lupin, known as Teddy to the family that was the Blood Group. He, Richard and Rose were already blooded and told the other two blooded that he rather thought that his dad half expected him to be a marauder.

"Well old boy, we'll have to think about that" said Richard.

"He's a bit snarky because he's feeling nervous about school and not wanting to let his dad down" said Rose, who was very close to all the Snapes and felt she had to explain Richard's snippiness to Teddy. Richard was, of all Severus' children, most like his father; inclined to be reserved and to use sarcasm as both armour and weapon. "I'm game; I'm not a cautious pursuer of constant vigilance like my brother and I'm happy to be in trouble. And so's Richard really you know."

"How nice, Aunty Rose, that you know my mind so well" said Richard.

Rose poked him.

"Stop being snippy" she said. "Who will we pick to Maraud with us?"

"Any one or several of a selection of Malfoys" said Teddy. "And I say ,I think we should get to know all the weevils at the fest anyway."

"Sensible" said Richard "We don't want to rush into picking the wrong ones. Though I have to say, I do count Drogo and Varjak close friends."

The core of the weevils were introduced also to Ramsey Corbin – Grace having invited him as her cousin – and the boy bubbled happily and asked questions about everything, including – when the subject was mentioned – Marauders. The Malfoys and Blooded took him firmly under their collective wings.

There were other weevils who arrived; and the core group muttered rather that some marauders had some pretty rum siblings; Wallace Waffling was more akin to his brother William than either of his sisters, being as Drogo put it a Ravenclaw's Ravenclaw and a self opinionated prig but he repeated himself. Lavazka's siblings seemed sufficient unto themselves; at least the boys did, and Mabelinn a prim child who preferred to watch than join in. Grinlock was inclined to be ready to be stroppy and defensive – being illegitimate and half bred he felt their position being dependant on the charity, as he would have put it, of the Septimus Black-Weasleys. Septimus himself considered it only proper that family should care for family since his nephew had behaved so abominably towards his mistress and children; and Septimus was one of the better off members of the family.

Stephen Templeton, muggleborn and brother of Peter, was soon put down as 'decent but tedious'; and likely to be a Huffer's Huffer. On David Fraser's request Lucius had also invited Daphne and Danae Fawcett, the younger pair of twins in the Fawcett family. Persis and Priscilla, about to enter the third, had been sufficiently immune to their sister's lead that it had been easy to forget that they were her siblings; indeed Persis, in Gryffindor, was able to carry on a quiet life out of her sister's house, and Priscilla kept herself much to the girls of her own year, who were a decent crowd. But Xanthia had been much more of trouble over the past year and David wanted to see her youngest sisters come under almost any influence but hers.

He did not need to worry; Danae was the outgoing one and happy to have the chance to make friends. She and Meadhb hit it off from the word go, and Daphne happy to be friendly with the fey girl too. It was Daphne's opinion that she was going to do as her sister Persis had done and ask to be in any house EXCEPT Ravenclaw to avoid Xanthia; and Danae declared this poor spirited because one should stand up to bullies and Xanthia could hardly do anything to them in school.

David had blown in to see the weevils; and he beckoned Danae over.

"Has your sister always been someone you feared and disliked?" he asked.

Danae nodded emphatically.

"She hated it that mummy and daddy had twins when she was four I think, that's Persis and Priscilla; so she's always been mean to them, Selly says; she's our elf. And then when we came along, Selly says Xanthia had a total screaming hissy fit unbecoming to a big girl of seven because mummy and daddy had done it again. She's always says she hates us so I can't see why she thinks we'd want to support her at school. It upsets mummy and daddy but she says she hates them too for conspiring against her. It's not WRONG to hate your own sister when she does that, is it sir?"

"I don't think so" said David "She – I think I'd try to be sorry for her if I were you, because she's missed the point of how love has a really special Arithmancy, that the more you divide it, the more it multiplies."

"Like rabbits" giggled Danae. "I love all my other sisters; we're the fruit-bowl."

"I missed the point of that one" said David.

"Oh, a pair of pairs; daddy says it's something called a homonym because it sounds like a pair of PEARS, hence a fruit-bowl."

"Ah of course; subtle" said David "I like that. A Fruit-bowl of Fawcetts; alliterative too. And poor Xanthia missing so much."

"Selly says mummy and daddy tried telling her that she was their BIG girl, and that she was special for that; but Xanthia reckons she's special enough that they didn't ought to have wanted any more" said Danae "Of course they were hoping for a boy to continue the name; but there ARE other branches so they gave up after us in case they had a litter of girls another time."

David reflected that it did not sound as though it was any fault in the parents that Xanthia was such a problem; one of those rare exceptions to Snape's Law that if there were no problem parents there would be no problem children. They sounded as though they had tried to do all the right things; and Xanthia was just born with a warped personality. Of course they might have spoiled her a little too much before Persis and Priscilla came along; but most four-year-olds got over being jealous of new babies. Well he would keep an eye on Miss Fawcett; and leave this year's weevils to keep an eye on Daphne and Danae.

oOoOo

There were others who were fairly well known playmates; Leonard Blake and Calley Tranter, half sibling half-elves and not such a dead loss as their immediate elders – in the opinion of the Snape-Malfoy core group – though Leonard was a trifle priggish by comparison to, say, his eldest brother Roger; Calley however was happy to be involved in anything that was going on, though she defended her brother Henry's wet blanket attitude as being because he had to work hard. Blanche Crawford was the youngest Crawford, and beyond being a little bit spoilt was a convivial companion with a ready wit and ready to strum a guitar and sing such perennial favourites as 'there's a zombie in my attic'. Toby Turpin was the brother of Mesmadora, a luminary of the MSHG and took on Richard in a debate about where totally vanished stuff might go – Richard had thrown out the comment to see how many people's eyes glazed over – and held up his end in debate. Richard declared him 'probably an all right sort'. It may be said that Teddy Lupin had thrown daisies at Richard and laughed at him; and Drogo made contentious comments from time to time to keep the debate hot.

And then Lilith Snape had come to see why her brother was in the thick of hot debate and told the group a few arithmantic things that they would never have wanted to know even if they could follow them. Richard was most inordinately proud of his clever sister and longed to be as knowledgeable as her one day; and was chuffed to follow at least some of her explanation.

Other younger siblings were Lysander Weasley, who was not bright but had a good sense of humour and was an all round good sport; and Lilac Wood, sister of Hazel, Tilia and Linden. And another sibling of blooded was Njorjala gan Jorg, sister of Zeljeela who was in the group with Rose's brother Salazar and Richard's adopted brothers Tarquin and Sevvy. Njorjala was quickly re-named Jala for convenience, and declared that if anyone was supporting marauders so was she. She was quickly friends with Glasbhinn. Somewhere along the line Drogo christened her Jar-Jar gan Binks, which was silly enough to stick. Drogo felt he had to uphold Draco's habit of quoting Star Wars in and out of context.

"And I say, Richard, Varjak and I are willing to blood" said Drogo to Richard "If you're picking people. You sort of represent YOUR dad, Teddy represents HIS dad, Rose represents her sister, your mum; and I want to represent Draco. I am the first brother he knew as a baby, after all, even though there's older ones. And I'm actually really dad's second child, like you are for yours."

Richard nodded.

"It IS a bit of symmetry" he said. "A pity we've no Blacks for Padfoot; I don't somehow think the Black-Weasley triplets count. They're not quite…."

"No" said Drogo. "I dunno about you but I shouldn't actually object to Jar-Jar and Glasbhinn; we haven't a bad bunch I guess on the whole."

"I wouldn't actually object to the Corbin boy" said Richard. "I thought about Toby, but he's an intellectual and only an intellectual; I approve on one level but he hasn't got the spark it takes to maraud. I guess, because I'm very much dad's son, I want to maraud because he never actually got to; only became an honorary one later."

"He sure made that up to dad though, brewing the wolfsbane potion and then getting a cure" said Teddy who had drifted over. "Drogo and Varjak then? Penny's not?"

"Penny goes her own route" said Varjak. "She'll back us to the hilt but she isn't a marauder; she said so before the fest. I WANT to Maraud; want to do what ought to be done in society."

"How much are we going to fight?" asked Richard of Drogo. Drogo shrugged.

"As much as cousins Hawke and Abraxus I expect; a constant bicker. We're enough alike for that and both strong personalities. Does it matter as long as we stand together when it matters? Our tongues are our most deadly weapons; think what we can do together. And if we get in a real strop at each other, Teddy will sort it out."

Teddy laughed.

"Oh I don't like my friends being at loggerheads" he said. "Or I might get Rose to spank you both."

"She would too" said Richard ruefully. "All right; you two Malfoys. I want to know Jar-Jar better and Glasbhinn too; we should sick Rose onto vetting them; girls are strange and alien beings. They'd bring us to seven which is lots but significant."

"We'll need lots when your dad moves to the next place for elf-freeing" said Drogo cheerfully.

"And new blood is always good" said Richard, nodding. "We'll see about that; but I don't say you're wrong. If you feel like a marauder you feel instinctively who else feels like a marauder. I'm just cautious."

"And it doesn't always go in families" said Varjak. "Gennar's the only one of my full siblings who actually marauds, though Gorbrin is blooded."

"Just as well" said Teddy "Or the world would be even more knee deep in Snape and Malfoy marauders than it already is."

"The way I calculate it, in two hundred years time, everyone in the wizarding world will be related to either the Malfoys or the Snapes" said Rose, joining them. "Are we having these reprobates? Oh well, I guess we can't get out of it, or Drogo would give us unutterably arrogant Draco looks and Varjak would mirror them. I was thinking about Glasbhiin and Jala myself."

"Well that saves us the trouble of asking you to vet them then" said Richard. "Be a good little girl and invite them over."

"Snide bastard" said Rose, switching his ears smoothly for the plumes on top of one of the white peacocks.

This necessitated a chase of the said peacock which, startled by the affront to its appendages, took off for the bushes, which it had been rather unwise to emerge from in the first place with so many children about, so that Richard could have his ears back.

Once the rumpus had settled down to only normal levels of mayhem, and Richard and the peacock were both restored to normal, Rose collected the two girls selected.

"Hold up your hands and repeat 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good and will uphold the tenets of the Marauders, beat up racists and bullies and uphold justice and be a true brother to all fellow marauders forever and ever" said Richard.

"We got picked to maraud? WIZARD!" said Jala.

"We MIGHT have the Corbin boy as well; we haven't decided" said Richard. "Now do swear for goodness sake and don't be all day about it in so girlie a way."

"He's not really a git, he only does a very good impression of it" said Rose. Richard glared at her.

"He's rather cute when he looks like that, isn't he?" said Glasbhinn. "We do so swear."

Richard insisted that Drogo, Varjak and the girls repeated the words verbatim; which was soon done.

"What Marauder name do we have?" asked Teddy.

"Well all of us bar you have some degree of fey or elf blood if that's anything to the count" said Drogo. "As goblins did descend from the fey."

"I'm only half Malfoy and that's then only three of you with real fey blood" said Richard. "Besides, I know you, you're winding up to be something high falutin' in Quenya because you read Tolkein. And I sort of object to being the Quendi Marauders or similar. As well be the wolf marauders for Ted's background."

"What's that please?" asked Jala.

"Oh his dad was one of the original marauders that protected him because he was a werewolf" said Richard.

"He used to be a werewolf but he's all right nooooooow!" Drogo and Varjak quipped in unison. Richard eyed them with disfavour.

"I can see we're going to have trouble with those two" he said.

"Don't be schoolmasterish" said Rose. "I love your dad very much but DO try not to look the same age as him."

Richard poked her; it was the best thing he could think of.

"Do we have to think of a name right off?" asked Glasbhinn "Because if not, I think we'd be fools to try to hurry it, and by the way, as Teddy seems to be a metamorphagus – his hair's changed colour three times since I've been watching – if the rest of us are any good at transfigurations maybe we could run with that as a basis."

"I am a metamorphagus" said Teddy "My mum is too; and dad took an animagus form as wolf, which IS my favourite form."

"The original marauders were all Animagi" said Richard, getting animated "I'm a Snake animagus as it happens, though I guess I'm not far off a metamorphagus. I think it would be cool if you lot could find forms too."

"If you help us" said Jala. "I like the idea."

Rose giggled.

"And none of us better try to be a basilisk just because my big sister can do basilisk form" she said.

"It's in the blood I guess" shrugged Richard. "You of all people ought to feel snake in there."

"Yes; but you see I might just decide to reject that because I reject HIM" said Rose.

"Stories?" said Jala.

Time was spent explaining backgrounds; true backgrounds as it was to other marauders. And by teatime they were a firmly melded group.

"Somehow I half expected Drogo and Varjak to be Marauders" said Lucius to Draco. Draco grinned.

"Well I HAVE been corrupting them to that end" he said.

"I might have guessed" said Lucius.

oOoOo

At a considerable distance from the mayhem of weevils and incipient weddings a tiger and a young girl lay companionably together in the long grass. Bella was reading a book on Finnish Naming Magic and Assim was washing his big paws.

Assim had agreed to let Bella sleep beside him two or three times a week during the holidays, on the proviso that they be very proper in term time; and so long as he was in tiger form. In fact he would retain man form to give her a thorough kissing first, his hands holding her wrists firmly to prevent too much exploring on either of their parts; and Bella writhed and moaned gently until he could bear it no longer and firmly changed to tiger form, his big pugs still holding her wrists. Bella was then permitted to take off her nightgown, whereupon she was thoroughly washed; and having brought her to happy squealing orgasm with the caresses of his rough tongue, Assim must needs wash and sort out such unruly parts of himself as needed it. And Bella loved to watch because there was nothing quite so adorably silly as a boss-eyed tiger washing his bits.

"Just think, it'll be our wedding being organised next year" said Bella. Assim swiped a big loving tongue across her face and Bella giggled. She always giggled when he did that; it was so tickly.

"You have no regrets about leaving England to teach in my county?" his rumbly, purry tiger voice was thick with the exigencies of being in tiger form.

"None" said Bella firmly "I haven't got a whole lot to stay in England for, even if I didn't feel that home is where you are anyway. I'm protected at school, but you know, there are still too many people who know what I was before I was me, when I was the old Bella. And they can't all of them seem to accept that I returned to childhood totally, losing the memories; and now I'm looking more like she did, I get people spitting on me in the street and making comments; it's why I did that interview for 'Witch Weekly'. In the hopes of actually explaining to the terminally dim. Which is most people who read either the 'Prophet' or 'Witch Weekly'. I also gave a photo shoot and interview to Kordach's new rag because it's going to be populist."

"That's the one he based on the German 'Hochhexen'?" asked Assim. Bella nodded, her lustrous black mane bouncing with a seeming life of its own. Assim purred.

"He's calling it 'Sparkle'" said Bella "To suggest stars of high society as well as from wands; the logo is a wand pouring out stars surrounding the name. Fairly puke-worthy but Kordach's even more of a cynic than Lucius and he knows what the lowest common denominator wants. Nobody ever lost money by underestimating the taste of the people. It's going to have stories about who split with whom, who's marrying whom, what high society babies have been born and so on, but it's mostly going to be pictures for those who don't read so well, and a bit of gossip."

"Hrrrrr" said Assim in distaste.

"I know" said Bella "But Kordach IS a friend of the family so he'll be moderately discreet. Besides, he's too nervous of upsetting Lucius not to be. And I WOULD like to have a less negative image as it's not my fault the previous me was a dyed-in-the-wool cow; and that wasn't even her fault totally poor moo. Only it's not very nice. And Kordach's covering the whole going to India to teach poor children which gives him the opportunity to have glossy Bollywood pictures and one or two of raging poverty, enough to raise sympathy but not enough to put Madam Braindrain from Finchley off her Krunchygiggle Kornflakes."

"Well maybe it might even bring some donations" said Assim "Though I'd not hold your breath."

"I wasn't planning to" said Bella. "Lie on your back; I need to do your tummy."

Assim sighed heavily but complied. Bella was just a little bit obsessed with his fluffy white tummy.

oOoOo

The day of the wedding dawned in a thunderstorm with hail.

"Do you think someone's making a racist comment?" quipped Gorbrin.

"Nope; it's just the heavens saying 'Hail to the conquering Hero'" replied Draco.

"I don't think I'm touching a straight line like that" said Gorbrin "It's perilously close to 'Carry on Cleo'."

"Beware the nuts in May?" said Draco. "Don't worry; it's still early. It's going to be brilliant sunshine for my favourite brother getting hitched; I put in an order for it personally."

"I hate to disappoint you old boy" said Gorbrin "But though Malfoys mostly have everything their own way, somehow I don't think the winds, waves and weather can be intimidated or bribed."

"A mere bagatelle!" Draco waved a hand. "Are you too nervous for a slap up breakfast?"

"What's to be nervous over?" said Gorbrin "I'm getting married, not going into battle against a troupe of dark wizards."

"Stern and manly stuff!" Draco congratulated. "Bridegrooms are traditionally supposed to be nervous and brides radiant. As I recall Grace and I were just impatient, me because I was hungry and she because she needed a pee."

"Trust my dear husband to bring the tone down" laughed Grace. "I don't recall a lot of the wedding day; it's the following night that's important."

"And she can STILL make me blush" chuckled Draco.

Gorbrin went with his brother to join the other victims of matrimony for a traditional Malfoy breakfast which involved anything that could be fried having been fried or a choice of scrambled eggs for those who could not face a sunny-side up fried egg at six o'clock in the morning. The MSHG luminaries were of course quite unmoved by early hours; but it was fortunate that Lucius had magical chafing dishes and a relay of cooking as some of his guests were a little more tender than this. As it was, Gorbrin considered himself up late since he, Ming Chang, Jardak gan Torlo, Jordan Christie and Sebastian Cantripp had held an informal stag party and drank each other's health in elf made wine and a bottle of vintage brandy that Gorbrin had dug out of Lucius' wine cellar. Being young men of healthy appetite they had rather assuaged the effects of the alcohol by breaking out some of the buffet eats that had been put away for the wedding, which had caused them much scolding from Lala and being chased off to bed at an hour that was indecently good for them, as Jordan put it.

oOoOo

Draco had been quite right about it clearing; but then, in general, the adage 'rain before seven, fine before eleven' tends to be a true aphorism; and works equally well for hail. At half past ten the day was brilliantly sunny and Narcissa heaved a sigh of relief.

The weddings might go ahead on schedule and without excessive hitches.

* Green Lady, pronounced Glasveen *pronounced Meev