Chapter 8
Lilith surveyed the Bog of Very Long Lasting Stench critically.
"I don't think it's actually as smelly as it was" she said regretfully "It's still good and boggy though; tapping that underground spring was a masterpiece of yours, Sec."
Sextus grinned.
"I was rather pleased with it. I suppose some of the charms on the loos have run out; we never did it with total permanency in mind, and some of our crowd aren't actually as good at chanting as you are, Halfpint."
"I wonder if the stepping stones still work" said Lilith, launching herself at the nearest.
It depressed with a satisfyingly loud farting noise and a bubble of noxious gas.
"Looks like" said Sextus laconically. "What an incredible smell you've discovered your highness" he added, unable to resist the Star Wars quote.
"Listen, I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on I'm in charge" Lilith quoted back, accepting his proffered hand to scramble back to terra firma.
"And that's different to normal how?" asked Sextus, ruffling her effulgent curls.
Lilith hugged him.
They were accosted on the way back by Professor Flitwick who thrust a package at them.
"For you ingenious children of your Marauder group" he squeaked in his high voice "Best laugh I had for a long time, dismissing unsatisfactory candidates for teaching posts…..hrrm. Well, very ingenious set of charms I must say."
"You ARE a darling, Flitters" said Lilith, who was about the only person in the school who would actually use the Charms master's nickname to his face. "I'm glad you enjoyed the pompous being well and truly farted at. I bet Fido enjoyed it too."
"Between you and me my dear, we all but rolled around on the floor" said Flitwick "But I never told you that."
"Told us what, sir?" said Lilith with big innocent eyes. The little professor patted her fondly on the shoulder. She was taking the NEWT in his subject this year and he was certain she would have NO trouble!
oOoOo
The Stripy Marauders very much appreciated the big box of chocolate frogs and voted Filius Flitwick Wizard of the Month.
"Pity we can't solve his problems in house for him" said Lilith regretfully. "Like gluing Fawcett to the ceiling with a permanent sticking charm and her lips glued together too."
"It would be rather inappropriate" said Sextus regretfully.
"We can do our best to be really, REALLY good for Ravenclaw Prefects though" said Gennar "And just ignore Fawcett."
"What actually act as though she isn't there at all?" said Venus "A sending to Coventry and then some sort of thing?"
"Now THAT's an idea" said Lilith. "All in favour? Good, carried" as the hands of all the other Stripy marauders went up.
"The air turned fairly BLUE in the senior common room last night" said Sextus.
"How do you know? You ain't a senior" said Kazrael.
"I was eavesdropping with view-o-sneaks of course" said Sextus "I wanted to hear what Patil was going to say to Fawcett, but it was Venilia Cornfoot who really took the biscuit; reckon she's managed to catch Snapism or something. Started off by asking Fawcett what she was doing at a school for the academic achievers when it was plain she belonged in a pre-school nursery for sub-normal trolls, since she was an imbecile with delusions of clawing her way down to being moronic; and it went down hill from there."
"I wish I'd heard it" said Jayashree.
"You will; I took a leaf out of the book of the Jade Fag Marauders in Durmstrang and recorded it on omnioculars for you" said Sextus.
The other Stripy Marauders were awed by his brilliance and said so. The next half hour or so had them rolling about roaring with laughter over the verbal excoriation of Xanthia Fawcett by sundry of her peer group.
"And it's almost worth hiring out except that Sampta would find out and crush us thoroughly" said Lilith "And so you wouldn't be able to do it again. Sec, I adore you; that was wonderful."
Sextus reddened and looked very pleased. They had to run for their breakfast then, so as not to be late for school; and they all looked forward to their lessons and did not want to miss anything! Lilith wandered off to lower sixth divination, it being a free period for her while her classmates did Transfigurations; only Lavender and Rosemary Spikenard were taking Divination to NEWT so Madam Spikenard permitted Lilith to sit in and study at OWL level since Lilith was also keen to take Metalwork which really needed an ordered practical and which clashed.
Lilith was studying Sikidy at the moment, divination by tamarind seeds; and had been heard to mutter that Sikidy gave her the pip.
oOoOo
Bella and friends were meanwhile in Comparative Magic; this was Maud and Mimi, it not being one of the choices of Drusillina or Isabel. Bella found Comparative Magic quite fascinating; although not quite as fascinating as she found its professor and, when he was wearing tiger form, his fluffy white tummy.
The lesson was on the various uses of ritual sending by proxy; in other words the use of dolls named to represent an enemy, known to the Ancient Greeks as kolossoi who also used them to try to create a love between two people which was, as Professor Khan said dryly in his purry, growly voice, about as successful and true as any so-called love created by so-called love potions. The figures were commonly known today as voodoo-dolls which was, explained Professor Khan, something of a misnomer since the use of dolls in Voudon were only for sympathetic magic. The Medieval witch would have called such dolls 'poppets' which was a generic term for dolls but would do for modern nomenclature; and generally they were used for harm rather than more benign magic. The European idea that voodoo dolls were the same as poppets had come from the discovery of Nkondi, used in the Congo Basin, which were used to send retribution judicially to a criminal and were 'awakened' by driving a nail into them, recalling to the minds of the Europeans who saw them the old idea of witches running needles into wax poppets. Nkondi were specialised forms of Minkisi, sacred medicine which was used in the same area for a variety of sendings, from healing to harm and as love medicine too, much like the kolossoi of Ancient Greece. The interesting thing about Minkisi, said Professor Khan, was the use of Assimilative Correlation by nomenclature over what things were placed inside the clay vessels, figurines or animal models, such as the use of mushrooms, the word for them being 'tondo' which sounded enough like 'tondwa' meaning 'that it may be desired' in a love-figure.
"Sir" said Bella "Why don't more dark wizards ruthlessly use poppet magic to get at their enemies?"
"Hrrr now" said Assim, pleased "That is an excellent question and one that it is important to answer very fully. You see the difficulty in using poppet-magic – I like the description – is in the joining of the poppet to the intended recipient of the sending. It IS a form of sending, a ritual magic which is – I believe – most fortunately almost lost. The joining is a form of Protean Charm and as none of you but Griselen and Mimi are taking charms to NEWT I see you looking a bit blank."
"Library work" Mimi muttered to Bella.
"But sir – when we were third years we made a poppet of Achille Crouch-Villeneuve to turn him falsetto which was no more than stuffed tights and a face drawn for us by Erica Malfoy" said Bella. "And that worked quite perfectly! We used tights because we had no end of trouble trying to mold wax" she added.
"Ah, Bella, you have highlighted a number of interesting points" said Assim. "For one thing, the main difficulty in making a poppet is making it sufficiently similar to the original that the protean charm actually takes. The Minkisi made by true Banganya – healers – overcome that by using Assimilative Correlation by Sympathy in using SYMBOLS to represent the person involved because they live in a culture where symbology is important; in this culture it is not. I doubt there are many of you who were named by your parents for the meaning of the name and its effect upon your life; which is an important part of a culture stiff with symbology. Such that Bellatrix means 'female warrior' and is the name of the so-called 'amazon star' in the constellation of Orion. But because that means nothing to YOU, trying to make a connection with you by representing an amazon inside a hunter would fail. You had trouble with wax, you say; well you're not the first. Many witches made poppets so bad that any pain their victims had was more likely to be indigestion than needles in wax. You horrid brats however had the sense to utilise the unique skills of Erica Malfoy, who can unconsciously form a protean charm with her drawings; similar magic to the painting of portraits of the dead but NOT precisely the same. The precise affinity of that picture to your victim was enough to create the link and as I have NO doubt that you also chanted – which can circumvent a lot of difficulties – and with a whole heap of Finnish naming magic, the sending worked. Moreover the sending was of a corridor curse level of spell; a whole WORLD away from damage or death magic which takes a lot of energy in the severing of the soul."
"Sir" said Griselen "If that's so, then couldn't it get a new and nasty lease of life by people using photos in this modern age of precise facsimile?"
"Ah, another good point" purred Assim "The answer is no; anyone care to guess? Mimi?"
"Because it's not made by hand but an image is created by y'actual muggle physics even though magical chemicals can make it move?" said Mimi.
"Precisely" said Assim "IF the wizard making the simulacrum took and developed his own photographs he would have a better chance of making it work; otherwise the results would be diminished at best and inoperative at worst. UNLESS he was also one of those rare people, a diviner who can tell much about a person, their whereabouts and state of health and so on, from a photograph. Which a few have been said to have been able to do even with muggle photos. They then have the link. Diviners – true diviners – however are rarely dark wizards; they have too much knowledge of consequences. The painting of a magical portrait creates a link to the person painted; it will display much of their personality during their life and after their death may form a linkage through which one may contact them. Oddly enough the people of the Congo basin manage to succeed, in the case of their best Banganya, through Assimilative Correlation despite their belief that they are asking the spirits of the dead to undertake the task for them. It is a primitive and unscientific use of magic with accidental use of high level theory, or possibly it is left over from earlier, more advanced civilisations. Griselen, you're not taking Transfiguration, are you comfortable with terms like Assimilative Correlation?"
"Yes, I've heard it bandied about" said Griselen cheerfully "And we've studied Assimilative Locomotion by Precision which is kinda along the same lines."
"Quite so" said Assim. "Good; anyone who is NOT familiar with any extra-subject terms I use, do ask. I want a nine inch essay from you on the Minkisi of the Congo; you may research in your text book and in the book 'Magic of Africa' which is in the library. Don't forget to include their use of two headed figures to see into both physical and spiritual worlds and how that might actually affect positively the protean effect by having the figure represent sender and recipient."
The three Belle Marauders went off deeply fascinated, and determined to find out about Protean Charms as well. Bella was glad that the new standard text book had come out this year; Assim had written three levels of textbook as there was rather a paucity of general texts on comparative magic, and this now meant that 'Uses of Magic Around the World' in its three volume set might be substituted for a whole stack of books each covering minor aspects of the subject like Che Saturday's 'Voodoo; the Voudon tradition of Haiti' and Mika Holmstrom's 'In the Name of Finland' which might be used with Nemo Waffling's 'The Power of Names'. And that was just three! All were useful books, but really better for being available for supplemental library work. Comparative Magic was a large subject and certainly by NEWT level required a wide knowledge and was not for those who had skimped on basic subjects. As Bella said, the best way to understand Comparative Magic was to be studying it alongside at least a further nine subjects as it involved elements of charms, transfigurations, dark arts, runes, Arithmancy, geomancy, history, enchanting and chanting, to say nothing of needing a working knowledge of fantastic beasts, herbs, divination, art, music and so on. Which was why the subject tended only to be taken to NEWT level by those who had taken a wide range of OWLs, as Mimi pointed out. She and Bella had each taken ten; Maud, who had taken nine, just cribbed from their notes. She was, like Bella, taking five NEWTs, with DADA, Potions, Transfigurations and Chanting in addition to Comparative Magic; Mimi, being as Bella said a Snape was taking another three in addition, Charms, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Bella had scraped 'A' grade passes at OWL in those two subjects because they were important for Chanting and Comparative Magic and Potions and had thankfully decided that she knew enough to look up any more advanced principle without actually having to study the subjects.
oOoOo
"You know" said Mimi when all the Belle Marauders convened for lunch "I've been discussing things with my various siblings; and it's actually quite a good job that most people who choose to follow the dark arts do so as a bit of a short cut to power."
"I'll bite" said Bella.
"Well, those of us who actually put time into esoteric stuff like Comparative, and Runes and so on, especially those of us who can chant, have a whole load of power at our finger tips" said Mimi.
"What, more than the average Snape, Mimiwobbles?" said Drusillina. Mimi made a face at her and turned her eyebrows into cartoon hairy spiders that waved their legs frantically. Drusillina absently negated them – she was none too fond of spiders though they held no terrors for her – and grinned. Mimi went on with a severe frown as if uninterrupted,
"You see, Jade invented a curse the Ancient Egyptians used, not as a curse, but to raise a temporary ghost to chat to; the ka or double of the soul, which they saw as being in three parts. And she used it to kill that awful evil woman Hedda Schrempf, her that nearly killed little Elfi Mondschein, and Jade did it by jerking her ghost right out of her body. Well, that's a curse no ordinary practitioner of dark magic could manage without having picked up significant amounts of chanting, ritual, ancient runes WITH the ability to pronounce all those bloody awful variants on 'h' they used AND enough comparative magic to understand a bit about how the Egyptians thought. Hieroglyphs as you know are pretty hard to learn at the best of times just writing them down; can you imagine chanting it?"
"Not without enough cheese to give me significant nightmares" said Bella, shuddering. "Lina, Izzy and I passed that exam purely on the oghams in the short questions and a very good working knowledge of Ancient Greek and enough understanding of the Egyptian psyche to guess wildly at the Egyptian account of the nicking of the cat the Greeks didn't understand what the fuss was about."
"And I'm jolly glad I never took the subject at all" said Maud fervently. "All those owls and ibises and things would make me bats!"
"It's the weird and way-out ones like the 'heart and windpipe' logogram that stands for 'nefer' or 'perfect'" said Bella. "Hard to figure out the logic. Or a scarab beetle for 'kheper' meaning 'being' or 'form' rather than the sort of logical meaning being 'one who shovels shit' which is what scarabs do. And that, I'm glad to say, is about all I remember. Chanting in the damn language has to be harder than chanting in Gaelic; and that was bad enough. After all the only rule you have to remember about Irish is that if there's a consonant cluster with too many letters in it you probably pronounce it 'v'."
The others laughed; there was enough truth in that to make it funny.
"Well that's sort of my point" said Mimi "That you need a host of extra crap on top of just crafting curses to actually make your dark arts sort of really dangerous, which means that you need a dead hard, patient, brilliant and hard working type to be a really efficient dark wizard; and WHY do most dark wizards want to be dark wizards?"
"To take a short cut to the top of the social heap, and rise to the top like the really big turds in a cess pit without troubling to ask for any help from scarab beetles along the way" said Drusillina. "Because they want it all, they want it now, and feel the world owes them, so actually buckling down to learn enough to prove that actually they ARE better than anyone else is sort of a concept out of their ken because it means admitting in their inadequate youth that there's more stuff to know apart from the goodies that grown ups try not to let kids get their hands on in the restricted section."
"Exactly" said Mimi. "A wizard – or witch – who can acknowledge that there's more to learn, always more to learn, and sets out to learn it would be a really scary dark wizard if they were that way inclined and actually probably not barking mad like most of them get because they have the love of learning for its own sake to prevent that. Only they tend to be too interested in academe to actually do the boring conquering shit."
"And it's a jolly good job your dad never wanted to be a dark wizard, Mimi" said Maud "Because I reckon he'd be most awfully efficient at it."
Mimi laughed.
"Like Lucius; if, before he broke the compulsion, Riddle had let him have more autonomy and had given him friendship not slavery, he could have been fairly fearsome; and now he's had the love-suppressing curse removed, he'd go by Niccolo Machiavelli, and use the maxim that the best armour that a prince can have is the love of his people; and would manage to be both terrible and adored and everyone believing that they did the dreadful things they did for the greater good – I pick the aphorism with care – and would sorrowfully but implacably obey. Gerhardt almost had it; but he couldn't handle reverses. It's another of the weaknesses of so many megalomaniacs" she added.
"It's not just megalomaniacs, Snape, it's anyone who suffers from an ego problem" said Mafalda Prewett butting in. "And by the way, that's a pretty interesting debate. My parents want me to achieve what they did not, a sort of megalomania by proxy and they HATED having Professor Dumbledore put an unbreakable vow on them not to make me cram in the hols; they actually went to a curse breaker to see if it can be circumvented now there's a new headmaster. It can't" she added with satisfaction.
"How is home life?" asked Bella.
Mafalda shrugged.
"Not too bad; my parents and I stay out of each others' way because they won't accept even now that goblins and elves can achieve as well as humans; they're rather busy right now fighting a law suit against Lucius Malfoy AND the Ministry of Education for going around saying that as he's a governor he used bribery to get his goblin adoptive son given eight 'O' grade NEWTs. And I'm afraid I can't feel much sympathy for them because I've been trying to tell them for YEARS. It's a bit uncomfortable though; they ARE my parents. Still, I don't have Artemis Lovegood following on my heels all the time since Luna married Rolf Scamander; he's the grandson of Newt who wrote the fantastic beasts book and he seems to keep her fairly well down to earth."
"Good job somebody manages" said Bella. "Well I have to say your parents HAVE rather brought it on themselves; Lucius will squash them like bugs; he HAS to, because that sort of filthy rumour about the Prime Minister who's also a governor is just too damaging if it sticks. And it's awful for the exam board too! Hopefully they'll come out with their views that no elf or goblin can manage to learn in public and be quoted so anyone who isn't a hopeless racist will realise that they are. At least you're nearly seventeen so you don't have to worry about having to be someone's ward if they do end up in Azkaban; as they might well for slandering someone that much. And it's career-threatening slander, because it's effectively saying that Gorbrin ought not to have been accepted for his Auror training – as well as impugning all those on the board of examiners."
"Crumbs, I hadn't thought of that" said Mafalda "And a swingeing fine for that; and I can't help but be selfish and think what that'll mean to me – like not being able to afford my final year in school!"
"I'll write to Lucius; he'll see that any damages awarded to Gorbrin don't make YOU suffer" said Bella. "Selfish? Well I think it's your parents who are selfish not to think about the stigma they might shower on you for their dippy beliefs, let alone if they get convicted, and have to pay every last knut they own in fines. We'll rally round, old thing, whatever; and for Merlin's sake, DO think before you open your mouth if any newspapers try to get a story off you."
"I was planning on disclaiming any views my parents held as having had the opportunity to go to school with elves and goblins and so having a clearer idea than those who had not" said Mafalda "I wasn't sure whether to say that they were too busy having made up their minds to want to know the facts."
"I wouldn't put it that baldly" said Mimi "Smile and say that unfortunately your parents haven't realised that you got past about six and have your own views that might be worth listening to. More in sorrow than in anger, you know; you KNOW how rags like the 'Prophet' twist words and if they're at war with Lucius at the time they might make you look rather callous you know."
"I bow to your superior manipulation of the press" said Mafalda.
As Mimi had used the press ruthlessly after a foolish junior had caused a lot of negative things to be printed about Mimi's fiancé Darryl Zabini, this was fair comment.
"You ever felt the urge to megalomania, Mafalda?" asked Maud lazily.
"Not really; it's not what it's cracked up to be" said Mafalda. "I'm torn between going into research as an Unspeakable, doing research on my own, or going to teach at Corbin's higher academy for witches and quietly take it over because he's not actually that good. If my parents aren't bankrupted I'll take a year at Prince Peak first to see how it should be done."
"Heh, if you plan on undermining Corbin, dad will have you for free" said Mimi. "Remember, Grace Corbin as was, now Grace Snape Malfoy, is Branard Corbin's daughter, driven by trauma MUCH like the way your parents were driving you almost into being a squib; until dad adopted her. Gave her enough dislike of education to leave after OWLs; which is what could have happened to you if we hadn't interfered. Dad LOATHES Branard Corbin and if you can do him an ill turn he'll go out of his way to help you."
Mafalda brightened.
"I really am glad your dad is a grubby-round-the edges wizard and in no wise a goody-goody" she said.
oOoOo
The first years meanwhile had had their first lesson in flying and broom control, under the strict eye of Madam Hooch; and it was rapidly apparent that Gryffindor had a selection of very talented juniors on the whole, and those seniors who had free periods to overlook this first lesson were inclined to gloat – whichever house they were from save the Ravenclaws – that the Ravenclaw juniors were decidedly pedestrian.
Not all the Gryffindors were good however; whilst Harronione Coote was executing a beautiful figure of eight at speed under the watchful eye of Madam Hooch Lucy was in significant trouble and managed to crash.
"Oh it's the mudblood; what else would one expect" said Agatha Montague.
"And if she was muggleborn that's NO corollary" said Penny scornfully. "She's muggle-reared; which gives her an advantage over YOU, you lump of lard for understanding their world too; and YOUR broomwork is NO great shakes either. If she runs true to heritage she's SO going to make you look a fool – more of a fool – in the potions dungeon and in Arithmancy. You are SO ignorant!"
"Thank you Miss Malfoy, rather a diatribe if essentially accurate" said Madam Hooch "I suggest, Miss Montague that those in glass houses should not cast stones. Your broom work is VERY sloppy."
Lucy had meanwhile been picked up and dusted down by Glasbhinn, Jala and Rose, all of whom performed with a sufficient accuracy to not irritate Madam Hooch and no serious enthusiasm. Richard, Varjak and Drogo waited until Madam Hooch's attention was directed elsewhere – disentangling two young Hufflepuffs from each other – and flew in formation upside-down over Montague's head blowing raspberries at her.
After flying the first years dispersed in two different directions, Gryffindor and Slytherin to Metalwork and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to Divination. They were not to know that Professor Jorbal had requested this on purpose in order to start the year with the pairing of houses that was less likely to be dippy; which description he borrowed from the schoolchild idiom as being appropriate.
The Hunting Marauders, being all clustered within Gryffindor and Slytherin, were pleased not to be split for the taster classes; though of course they might end up being split over the next term depending on what each shone in. None of them were likely to shine in metalwork, though it was fascinating; and Varjak, though trying hard, was plainly a complete klutz with hot copper and hung on like grim death not to spill his end of the crucible. Richard relieved him of it.
"Mr Malfoy-Tobak, it would be unfair to bring up how good your brothers are at this, but if this is not an aberration I think you might wish to watch and stick to theory for the rest of the half term" said Jorbal.
"I'm sorry sir" said Varjak "I'd like to try one more practical if I may before you write me off; if I can't control myself I'll be condemned to do Divination instead which would be awful, and besides this is awfully INTERESTING."
"Well, well, it's a good attitude" said Jorbal, not displeased. "And you must remember, my boy, that Lionel Dell the Triwizard champion was appalling at Potions and yet took it to NEWT at 'E' grade purely by application. And Metalwork is in a similar vein, where being methodical can make up for a lot of lack of talent."
"Thanks sir; that's most AWFULLY encouraging" said Varjak, determined to work really hard for this professor!
It may be said that Lucy performed better than Agatha Montague in this class; though the class stars were Lysander Weasley and Ariadne Ollerton followed by Daniel Abercrombie, and the only other person apart from Varjak who made a poor showing was Darius Burke. And Drax MacNair was delighted to make a better than fair showing despite his huge hands! Indeed, Jorbal suggested to him that he might wish to concentrate on those aspects of metalworking where strength was an advantage, such as weaponsmithing.
After the break this set had Arithmancy; and here Lucy felt very comfortable. To be sure, the idea of numerology was startling, and something she had always thought a little whacky; but then, this was the wizarding world and one could not expect muggles to apply a wizarding science with any degree of hope of it working. To her surprise she was faster than Richard at solving the problems they were set; which after all that Drogo had said about Snapes and Arithmancy was surprising. Richard, it may be said, fought with his worse self and managed to give her a congratulatory smile; she WAS his cousin after all, and he was not as much a natural arithmancer as his sister Lilith. Lucy did have to correct Professor Vector when called 'Miss Snape' however.
"Please, Ma'am, it's Prince" said Lucy "Richard's my cousin not my brother."
"I do beg your pardon Miss Prince" said Madam Vector. "And a more fortuitous combination than Lucy Snape, which would reduce to eight, a very poor number by WESTERN calculation, though lucky to the Chinese."
Lucy had already worked out that her new surname worked down to three, a fortuitous number, and combined with lucky seven for Lucy to reduce to the singular one; and that her old surname Summerfield was eight to start off with and became six in combination with Lucy, which was no great shakes as a lucky number either and was extremely pleased to have discarded it; because her life had changed from the moment Mr Malfoy had assumed her to be a Snape or a Prince. Snape on its own was the singularity; which could define Uncle Severus really rather well.
She absently worked out that Severus worked down to the singularity too; that was something! And with both names that made him two, the balance, the ultimate receptor and union. That would explain perhaps why he managed to have three wives; his balance within himself. If it DID work.
They finished the morning with enchanting and Lucy found it easy enough to understand the concept that whereas a charm was a spell that might be limited by duration, or ease of removal, enchantment needed a further component of low level ritual to tie a charm to an item in such a way that it could not readily be removed or countered, nor would it be subject to temporal decay – she liked that phrase – unless tied in improperly.
After lunch the Gryffindors and Slytherin retired to Greenhouse One while the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs went down towards Hagrid's cottage for Care of Magical Beasts; and a few of the incipient herbologists muttered that it would not be such fun doing THAT in the poor weather of the second half of the term.
"Hagrid has a classroom indoors for inclement weather" said Richard "Besides there's nothing quite like seeing unicorns in the snow, when their coats are so achingly white they make fresh snow look grubby."
"You've seen this I suppose" said Pascoe Broadmoor.
"Yes" said Richard. "When my dad taught here, Hagrid often took us off to show us stuff; and some things you never forget."
Rose tucked an arm into his; Richard seemed so aloof and snide at times but here he was with the soul of a poet!
"I wish I remembered it" she said softly "I guess I was too young when mum was well enough to take Salazar and me."
Richard squeezed her arm with his. He was as fond of his little aunt as if she was his own sister; indeed for the first few years of her life she had been reared with him.
"Well, very touching, but it's Herbology we have today not unicorns" said Pascoe.
"Don't try to out-snide Richard old boy; you'll never manage" drawled Drogo.
They had to be silent then as Madam Sprout bustled in and explained how the greenhouses were set up. This was barely more than an introduction to what Herbology was and how to find the equipment, being only a single lesson; but Madam Sprout managed to bustle them through quite a lot and they found themselves with six-inch essays on self-motile plants to be researched in '1000 magical herbs and fungi' by Phillida Spore, their main text book. Then it was double potions and the entire class of fifty-five came together.
"Somehow I doubt I shall make potioneers of many of you" said Professor Hardbroom – another Prince cousin, Richard had told Lucy – "Because to appreciate the subtle simmering cauldron requires a degree of mental acuity and sapience rare in any schoolchild; and indeed I fear in the general populace. I shall be streaming you by ability after half term; but until that time there is an inordinately large number of you. Whether this will work in a practical subject of no little risk remains to be seen; I TRUST you will have the sense you were born with and treat the subject with respect and not fool about. Anyone who fools about is out of the class and will moreover lose their house fifty points. Professor Malfoy will be a classroom assistant until you are graded at the half term mark when he will take the second grade students."
Professor Hawke Malfoy was a typical Malfoy who was known to the majority of the marauders, as was his wife, Professor Lynx Weasley – properly Black-Weasley Malfoy but there was a limit to how long a name was practical – who was to have a similar junior post in Transfigurations. None of the Marauders intended to be in the lower stream for any of the four major subjects however; so smiled dutifully and applied themselves to the careful brewing of pepperup potion stir by stir as dictated by Madam Hardbroom to get them into the swing of the techniques used. Lucy enjoyed herself and really could not understand why some people looked a little stressed; it was so lovely and easy and you could tell it was right by the very feel of it!
"You DO have the Prince touch" murmured Richard, who had ignored Madam Hardbroom and just made his potion at his own pace. Lucy was pleased. Agatha Montague was one of those getting red in the face and struggling; though the main excitement of the lesson was when Blanche Crawford of Ravenclaw set fire to her cauldron in a blast of purple smoke.
"Dear me, Miss Crawford, how very careless of you" said Professor Hardbroom, putting out the conflagration with a flick of the hand and equally banishing the horrid tarry contents of the singed cauldron. "Next lesson Professor Malfoy will sit beside you and monitor your work to see if it is ineptitude, carelessness or sheer bad luck that has caused this accident; and Miss Black-Weasley will sit with you too on the other side to be monitored similarly" she added as Mabelinn Black-Weasley's cauldron exploded with a dull THUD. Mabelinn was embarrassed; but smiled ruefully at Hawke Malfoy, who was by way of being a spare uncle to her through his wife as Lynx's parents were supporting the half goblin family and their mother.
Connie Hardbroom reflected that if there were only two truly dire ones over so large a class, and the rest of the poor potioneers no worse than poor, with the gems in her young cousins Richard and Lucy, and some rather good ones besides like Hawke's little sister Avice – ignoring her brother pointedly – Penny and Drogo Malfoy, and Hilary Zeller and Daphne Fawcett in Hufflepuff then it should be rather a good year. Most of the class seemed remarkably average which was a definite improvement on some years! It was always a relief to get through the first class with weevil potioneers; and it had not been TOO eventful!
And their homework was to look up the definitions of a number of terms like 'widdershins' and 'diced' and to write out the properties of each of the component ingredients they had used in the potion.
And that was the first day gone; and Lucy was happy. Even Agatha's unpleasant comments could not eat into that; because she had wonderful friends and a really nice family in the Snapes, and even though she would have been horrified to be at Dour Hill Comprehensive School so early in September she was delighted to have as long as possible at so wonderful a school as Hogwarts!