Chapter 15

Bella's was not the only wedding out of Malfoy Manor; but the other wedding was a quiet affair by the request of the bride and groom both. Lucius' half sister Alcippe – or Pippa to the family – whom he had rescued firmly from being a rather ill-treated kept woman in the dubious care of Lester Macmillan, who had also sired her daughter Cerellia, had met, and fallen in love with Lucius' cousin Orme who had divorced his wife when he discovered she was involved in goblin coursing. Orme's son Jocelyn, who was in Bella's year at school, considered Cerellia a great kid to have as a sister; though he conceded that as he only had this one more year at school it would be foolish for her to transfer to Hogwarts when she had friends at Prince Peak. They had reached the point of friendship wherein they bickered cheerfully and jinxed each other surreptitiously at the wedding so were like any other siblings as Lucius said cheerfully. Cerellia adored her mother and wanted her to be happy; and Jocelyn felt much the same about his father and wished only to preserve him from the designs of the more predatory females after a Malfoy scalp; so as Jocelyn said, having his dad married safely to a decent type like Pippa meant that his dad was now safe from the Pansy Parkinsons and Morgana Fairchilds of life. And Cerellia said that an academic type like Orme was not hardly likely to be a user and actually she really liked him so she knew he'd take care of her mum. They were each fonder of their new step parent that such lukewarm statements might lead one to believe; but as both young people were reserved about deeper feelings they both knew what the other meant.

oOoOo

Bella and Assim had discussed names for any cubs they had; and had come to the compromise that they should be named after stars like the Black family but in Hindi, with names like Dhruva, the Pole star, Vishakha, some of the stars in Libra which was sacred to tigers and Chitra, Spica, known as the bright one and also associated with tigers for a girl. Rohini for a girl was associated with snakes and so suitable for a Slytherin; it was the Hindi name for Aldebaran. Ardra and Aslesha were other female names, Ardra being Betelgeuse and Aslesha having serpentine connections too; being the constellation known as Hydra. Further names for boys might be Magha, the great one, the Hindi for Regulus; or Svati, the sword or independence, being Arcturus. For Bella there was a comfort in taking a family tradition into her new life. And four names each of boys and girls was far enough into the future to plan; Bella did not intend to wear herself out with child bearing though she did want a nice big family. It was not, after all, as though she and Assim could not afford it!

Bella was dragged from thoughts of her own prospective cubs by Lucius to deal with a new boy who would be joining Hogwarts after the holidays.

Lucius had invited his prospective fifth wife for the holidays – as though he were the Indian potentate forsooth, as Bella teased him – together with her kid brother and little sister. Little Heloise settled in with Pieris, the only other girl her age, as though she had always lived with them; Petrus was a child who whined and, Lucius explained to Bella, had always been inclined to hang on his sister. Their mother had died soon after Heloise was born and their father, unable to cope, had committed suicide, leaving eleven-year-old Biirta in charge. The orphanage they had fetched up in had been dire but Biirta did all she could to protect her siblings. And perhaps in Petrus' case it had been too much; since the boy had a streak of weakness and selfishness to his character like their father. As Head Girl, Lucius asked Bella to keep half an eye open for the boy, not to insulate him but to try to explain WHY any actions he took might land him in trouble. Away from a sister to batten off, and so long as he was unaware that Bella WAS looking out for him, Lucius felt the boy would have little choice but to stand on his own feet which would be good for him as well as relieving Biirta's mind no end. Bella agreed; she was not sure what she would do, as she admitted freely, if any of her own nieces and nephews wanted to hang whining around her or expect her – as apparently Petrus had done – to do their homework for them! The description of him as a scabby little git, Bella's initial reaction, was tempered with sympathy when Lucius pointed out that he had probably initially fallen into an apathy of medical depression that the orphanage had not addressed; and that he had been feeding him surreptitious potions to counteract it, stepping down the dose as term time grew closer. Reedy would apparate to Hogwarts to feed him the lowest dose in his pumpkin juice for a couple of weeks and then he should be sorted out.

Bella approved. She was surprised it had not occurred to Jade; but then Lucius was more tolerant than Jade who probably did not see why it should be the younger and protected child who suffered from depression if Biirta did not. Sometimes Jade had her prejudices.

Assim's nieces and nephews – who had stayed with them for the wedding, as had Mohini Malik as his term-time ward – were raring to tell everyone all about the wedding, and there was a difference of opinion on the way that made Jark stop the Rolls and threaten to make Mohini and Jayashree walk to London for the train if they could not behave like little ladies. Jayashree had passed the comment that she liked the way people did weddings in England, quick and quiet; and Mohini declared that she was not going to be done out of her three days of wedding preparations and display and if she was Bella she would not feel properly married. Jayashree had told her not to be a silly clunch and not to even suggest such a thing because it was almost slander and high words ran quickly. Jark pulled over when wands started to emerge; though Bella quickly disarmed them and confiscated the wands for the rest of the trip.

"And what's more" said Bella "You can write me a prefect impot; two reps each of Kipling's 'The Female of the Species is more Deadly than the Male' to remind yourselves that high words might get either of you in trouble with me for slandering me and saying I'm not properly married – which I am – or for letting down marauders by going for wands; and that I am most deadly of all either on a silly little girl who cares for nothing but display or a marauder who ought to be old enough to know better. I've made notes on all your name-calling and arguments and if you don't behave from now on I'll have the Malfoy-Tobak twins read it out in silly voices to the whole school to show how childish some fourth years can get."

They flushed and subsided; and Jayashree, almost in tears, begged Bella's pardon for letting marauders down.

oOoOo

Petrus had found the fight intimidating and had scringed up in the corner and hoped not to get noticed while Drogo and Varjak were making smug noises.

"Take no notice of the elderly types Petrus" said Penny "OR of my brothers. We nicely behaved types shan't have to walk if we only extend our smugness to looks."

"Quite right Miss Penny" said Jark "Put a lid on it you boys, AND Mr Hasibul too and anyone else who happens to think I might be joking."

Those who were making smug noises subsided instantly.

oOoOo

Petrus also found Platform nine-and-three-quarters rather intimidating; but Drogo manhandled him through the wall with cheerful despatch and hailed another boy with relief.

"Bones! Just the fellow!" said Drogo "This here is Petrus Hess; he's from Germany; thinks he might like to be in Hufflepuff. Our loss on the quidditch pitch; he's a demon player. Alexander Bones is a pretty good player himself, Hess; he can give you a lowdown on Hufflepuff House from the inside to see if you still like the idea."

"Thanks er Malfoy" said Petrus adapting to being referred to by his surname.

"Petrus? We don't go for the caddish surname crap the way those stuck up Slythers do" said Alexander "And I can tease Drogo because he's one that takes it in the right spirit….. House rivalry should not be taken too seriously."

"And that" murmured Varjak to Drogo "Is why Huffers so rarely win the Quidditch Shield; they don't know how to differentiate inter-house co-operation and a proper level of rivalry."

"Well that's Huffers for you" said Drogo. "Nice kids on the whole. Heads full of suet."

Alexander introduced Petrus to his own set, all of whom Petrus found quiet and unthreatening, especially beside the loud Malfoy family. The Malfoys were awfully kind, and the kids plainly got on, whatever their race – which had astounded Petrus – but they were rather challenging to be with. His desire to be in Hufflepuff increased.

oOoOo

The train journey was not entirely uneventful; the train came to a sudden halt in a tunnel. Bella sighed and ran up to the front to find out what was wrong, as behoved the Head Girl; Kevin Slugworthy as train prefect accompanied her.

"'Tain't my fault" said the driver "There's a muggle train accident on the line we shares with them; they're getting it cleared but we'll have to wait. At least it means THEY'LL reschedule stuff too so we shan't be caught up with by any other muggle train. I figured sitting tight in the tunnel – which is in OUR world – until it was sorted was the best thing to do."

"Oh absolutely" said Bella. "I'll go and reassure the kids."

The kids – substantial portions of them – were singing 'Where was Moses when the lights went out'; except the Stripy marauders who were managing four part harmony on Iron Maiden's 'Fear of the Dark'.

The Stripy Marauders were at least melodious so Bella let it go.

She told the trainfull, using sonorous, that it was a good opportunity to practice their light spells and for any first years who had forgotten the word was 'lux' and when all was sorted it could be cancelled with 'nox'. She added sententiously that older classes might practice varying the brightness.

It was a spell most of the small Malfoys were casting on fingers not wands at about the age of five but one had to recall that not all families taught such broad skills.

She then went to confiscate the fireworks that Seb Rice and Balduk gan Zelbukek were setting off on the grounds, she said sternly, that they could not see where they were aiming them and too as they were not designed for enclosed spaces the stink of cordite was a little excessive.

Glowing and insubstantial guitar tabs wafting out of the compartment of the Stripy Marauders were at least non harmful. And Bella liked the music of Iron Maiden anyway.

Then they were on their way and the Stripy Marauders were involved in a high level arithmantic discussion leading form another 'Maiden' hit, 'Number of the Beast' about why there was very little in this supposedly demonic number. Sextus maintained that six-six-one was more powerful because of being a prime number and Lilith argued that six-six-seven, the neighbour of the beast, as you might say, had the power of being divisible by twenty-three.

They seemed happily occupied with post NEWT discussion which was way over Bella's head. Really, the easiest thing to do about the Stripy Marauders was just to leave them to it.

oOoOo

The school duly arrived safely and the first thing to happen was the hatting of Petrus. He had been duly warned about the sorting hat, and so approached it with less trepidation than he might have otherwise done.

Needless to say he ended up in Hufflepuff, and flushed, pleased, to the rousing cheers, unaware that Drogo had thoughtfully spread the word that he was a real talent at quidditch to help ease the boy in. Petrus might, argued Drogo, be a better type if he had support and popularity as WELL as being expected to buckle down and work. And such was the responsibility of marauders. The Hufflepuffs he had spoken to knew that any Malfoy knew their quidditch – and Drogo himself was a force to be reckoned with on the Slytherin team – and took him seriously. It would add to the generally friendly nature of the house.

oOoOo

"Y'know" said Lilith to Kazrael "The hat really does look decrepit; I'm going to skank it out of David's office at some point and ask if it wouldn't like a bit of a refurbishment."

Kazrael looked dubious.

"CAN it be refurbished? And won't it spoil the enchantment?"

"I was thinking of adding an outside layer…. Or maybe, adding random patches with herringbone stitch in crazy patchwork, perhaps in the colours of all the houses for a bit of symbolism that should enhance it's abilities; especially if I sing while I sew."

"Well ask it first" said Kazrael "The poor thing might not like to be suddenly gaudy."

Lilith beamed.

"Well anything that can sing songs that are so much doggerel as the hat manages has to be quite as much a wandering minstrel as Nanki-Poo and his rags and patches."

"Leave Gilbert and Sullivan out of this" interposed Nathan. "Just ask!"

"I'm GOING to!" said Lilith.

oOoOo

After the obligatory feast, David Fraser rose. The school fell silent.

"Welcome back to a new term" said David "And no excuses for the winter blues, with New Zealand to visit. I want to put a proposal to – well, mostly the upper school, though it will ultimately affect some of you younger ones too. Unless there is a lot of protest, this is a plan I mean to implement from the next year – that there should be a class called the Special Sixth. This will cater to those people who wish to study a subject not usually covered by NEWTs to give a better chance of a career in a chosen field. I am speaking about such subjects as music for the performer rather than music in magic; or gardening, rather than the stressful Herbology NEWT. I have spoken to the examinations board and the concept of vocational subjects taught to a higher standard than the practical level of OWL and yet without the theory of NEWT level work has been welcomed; and we hope that this will mean that some of you who are nervous of tackling NEWTs will still feel able to stay on for further qualifications and learning. Also those who have a particular talent – like musical performance, or accountancy – which does not fit in with the currently available exams. The studies you choose would include actual experience in a real job training alongside professionals; and the ability to specialise. Studies I have been listing besides gardening, music and accounting include nursing, office skills, horse handling, management, sewing, printmaking, cabinet making and driving muggle cars with car maintenance. It may be that other subjects are added; the list is to remain loose and indeed a specialist study might be negotiated. This qualification is to be called the HIVE, the Higher Instruction of Vocational Endeavour. Some of you taking this course may take a NEWT or two alongside it as well; the level of instruction on a practical basis will make each course worth about one and a half NEWTs; and a lot of the grade will be obtained in credits given for coursework. This is a qualification that suits the hard worker I heard that Mr Scrimgeour and the comment does you no credit; your own grades are not such as to make you likely to be an ornament to your house in terms of the number of NEWTs YOU may leave with."

Ingram Scrimgeour burned; for a lower sixth to be pulled up by the Head was embarrassing. But then, as Wendy Waffling said, serve him right for making patronising comments about it being suited for Huffer-duffers.

Sampta rose.

"And some of us might look upon the opportunity to study gardening as an adjunct to Potioneering who would not consider Herbology I should think" she said "If there is the opportunity too to take a couple of NEWTs; we aren't all as academic as the Belle Marauders after all."

"Hey, most of us are only taking five NEWTs" said Bella.

"That IS academic" said Norman Whytely. "Yes, Scrimgeour, we do all acknowledge that there tends to be a higher dropout in the sixth of us Huffers. There's also a high level of Ravenclaw hysterics and expulsion; which if the individual talents in say musical expression could be channelled and addressed might relieve the highly strung of their stresses that can lead to unfortunate behaviour patterns."

"Nicely put, Norman" said David. "Though Hufflepuff House takes hard workers, it is also open minded enough and generous enough to take those who find academe difficult; which should be praiseworthy and not a cause for derision. I would rather deride those who are sharp enough to cut themselves. And other houses do too have dropout; for one reason or another. And there are those people who are not INTERESTED in academe; and those who have a vocation – like nursing – wherein such a practical qualification would be ideal and would be a step towards converting it for subsequent healer training. There are plenty of people across all houses who have been unable to fulfil an urge to heal for the failure to be accepted onto a transfiguration NEWT course. This gives such people a chance of fulfilling a dream."

He was given an ovation.

And the idea certainly appealed to Genevieve Harris of Gryffindor who was musical but not especially academic; and the idea of studying performance through music alongside a single Chanting NEWT was attractive to her, for one; and the idea of studying nursing without having to wrestle with the theory of Assimilative Correlation in Transfigurations appealed to Heloise Pomfrey in Hufflepuff.

And to Joshua Jones in the same house, whose squib father was caretaker at Rowan House; to whom the idea of learning to drive and service muggle cars seemed a fine idea, since magic did not flow easily for him! He had intended leaving school; but now he planned to ask his sponsor, Sirius Black, if he might attempt this new HIVE!

The idea that more people might stay on at school for some kind of qualification was what had motivated David, who felt that the training on the job prevalent in the wizarding world was rather hit and miss. And he was pleased that it seemed to have stimulated such eager responses. NONE of the fifth in Hufflepuff House, next year's lower sixth, were at all academic, save perhaps Carol Best – who was going out, after all, with a Ravenclaw in the person of Cyprian Ogren – and David had half expected to lose the lot.

That this meant extra schoolfees helped too; though they would also go towards the hiring of tutors to come in to help with the special sixth training.

And David did intend to use his junior teachers of the core curriculum in teaching such subjects as they might within the vocational studies.

"Are people from that house – Ravenclaw – always rude about Hufflepuffs?" asked Petrus of Alexander.

Alexander shrugged.

"The other houses tease us generally a bit; but yes, Ravers fancy themselves as academic high flyers" he said "And often they come a cropper – er, are shown up" he added as Petrus looked puzzled "By doing something outrageously stupid through trying to be clever. Usually because Marauders jape them to make them look silly, IF they pick up the bait. I don't know much; but I did hear that some of them followed up a clue to find and decipher a book supposed to be written by Voldemort, which would have been dead risky if it really had been; only it wasn't it was Lilith Snape and friends. Professor Flitwick is said to have been extremely irritable over it" he added. "At the ones who got caught; not the japesters. And I don't think it's the first time."

"Is that what the head meant about people who were so sharp they might cut themselves?" asked Petrus.

"Yes I think so" said Alexander. "And the Ravers had a row last year because one of our oiks out-jinxed one of theirs and it caused no end of problems; and they actually had a split in their quidditch team over it. Our types just laid low" he added. "It's the best policy."

Petrus nodded; which, had Drogo been a party to that conversation would have convinced him that Petrus was born to be a Huffer.

oOoOo

Bella meanwhile was besieged by those girls who had not managed to talk to her on the train – and Bella had largely avoided talking on the train – with what seemed like an endless supply of silly and fatuous questions.

Most common was 'what's it like being married?' which was, as Bella said scathingly, a damned silly question.

"How would you like a muggle to ask 'what's it like doing magic?'" she said crossly "It isn't a question you can answer without some point of reference."

"Well do your best" said Miriam Moonshine.

Bella sighed.

"Well, it's a cross between being utterly aware that you are safe, and loved and protected and the best sex you've ever had in your life" she said.

"That's not much help; none of us have ever had sex" said Miriam Moonshine.

"Well that's too bad that you don't have the point of reference to understand" said Bella blandly.

"Did YOU have sex before you were married?" asked Miriam.

"Not with Assim" said Bella "And not to my recollection with anyone; but strictly speaking, in the life I don't remember yes; with Voldemort and with my first husband. I don't think it counts though. I, the person I am now, wouldn't pick to go within spitting distance of either of them."

"APART from the sex, what's the best thing?" asked Persephone Plunkett.

"His fluffy white tummy" said Bella firmly.

And not another word would any of them get out of her save a recommendation that if they were so interested in marriage they should get hitched and find out for themselves.

oOoOo

The other unwanted side effect was that Bella found herself suddenly regarded as an oracle on relationship problems; as Genevieve Harris said, Bella must have the secret to getting it right or she wouldn't have caught a live one and tied him firmly down.

"The trouble with YOU, Genevieve" said Bella sternly "Is that you made a prize ass of yourself flirting and carrying on and dangling half a dozen boys and more on strings; and so you have a reputation as a flirt and not to be taken seriously. If you have your eye on a particular boy you just so are going to have to work hard to convince him that you're not playing with him; and if I were you, I'd go for friendship first and see if anything grows out of it when he trusts you as a person."

"Oh THANK you Bella!" said Genevieve. Bella went and had a word with the Pepperingye Marauders who had so successfully broken up Genevieve's court the year before. They had implanted a subtle compulsion in her erstwhile swains to find her sexually unappetising.

"And if there's the chance of a real relationship between the dippy moo and one of the boys she's actually starting to see as a person not a plaything or prize, you need to keep an eye on it and reverse your compulsion" said Bella.

"Tobala and me will see if she'll talk in the dorm" said Charis. "And then we'll reverse it; I don't see it should be hard."

"The original document we embedded the compulsion in is in the Marauding Room pasted into the book of all wickedness" said Nathan "Easy to write a reverse compulsion and plant for just one boy; after all we're a whole year more sophisticated now and can do it without needing Lilith to tell us how to."

"Lilith certainly gets around" grinned Bella "Is she up to anything this year?"

"What apart from designing hieroglyphs to drive Achille Crouch-Villeneuve frantic with power lust? I don't actually think so" said Nathan "Our snaky little cousin was actually more shook up by being vanished than I think she cares to admit. Besides, she's planning on going in for the Triwizard next year so she's doing library work with that in mind."

Bella laughed.

"How like Lilith! Well, I should think any of your lot should be in with a shout."

"Lilith is going to confund the goblet to make her an extra so Nathan and Zakala and other contenders have a chance" said U-May. "Are you sorry you'll be too elderly?"

"No not really" said Bella, ignoring the aspersions on her age "I have a greater prize than any silly competition; my Assim."

"Now THAT" said U-may "Is how married people are supposed to feel. I'm still not going to call you mum, and nor is Purnima."

"So I should damn well hope; and if you try, I'll have you in detention" said Bella. U-may laughed and hugged her; she adored her adoptive father's wife, who had rescued her from a life of effective slavery.

oOoOo

Lilith was, indeed, thoroughly occupied with hieroglyphs; she had spoken to Lucius over the holidays as well as going to meet some of Darryl's French team of blooded; and was gleefully inventing wild clues to enable Achille to search for the successive keys to the nesting boxes in which the Book of Thoth was supposed to lie. She had enlisted the fertile and tortuous brain of Mafalda Prewett to come up with cryptic references; and Mafalda, though she had no desire to be a Marauder, was flattered to be asked to help in Marauder business. As Lilith said, you had to have a certain type of brain to set crossword puzzles and the like, at least the cryptic ones. And Lilith said that anyone who could come up with Mafalda's last offering to the Wizarding Times with a clue like 'a pain in the leg, less one hundred, for moving upward' had to be sick enough to be involved.

Lilith was the only one of her classmates to get 'Ramp' out of that and had explained impatiently that a pain in the leg was a cramp and C was one hundred in Roman numerals and you used a ramp to go up.

Mafalda considered Lilith one of her better test subjects for clues because the little girl was widely enough read to pick up literary references, and to have a wide enough vocabulary to work out awful puns too.

Even Mafalda drew the line at doing crosswords in hieroglyphs when Lilith suggested it as a great way to revise ancient runes. The rest of her cronies protested hard enough that Lilith had to spend half an hour looking for her eyebrows and ears to re-attach.

oOoOo

It may be said that U-may, Purnima, Jayashree and Hasibul decided to celebrate Assim and Bella's wedding by putting on an impromptu Bollywood-style blockbuster for the rest of the school with Indian music and dancing and flashy sword play from Hasibul. They involved Mohini too and entertained – and occasionally mystified – the rest of the school with their colourful antics. Hasibul insisted that the lights be dimmed when he, the prince, was due to kiss Purnima, the princess, because he wasn't going to kiss any dippy girl even his adoptive cousin, indeed especially his adoptive cousin.

The prince fled the stage pursed by the princess demonstrating her own flashy sword play; which was NOT in the script.

The audience enjoyed it anyway.

oOoOo

"Are they actually insane at all?" Petrus asked Alexander.

"Not more than any Marauders are" said Alexander. "You had Marauders at your old school, didn't you?"

"Yes I did" said Petrus "They – I think they are supposed to interfere to help people out but they could be a bit pushy" he tried to be fair; he had learned a lot about Marauders.

"Oh some of them are more tactful than others I guess" said Alexander "But my cousins Martha and Sapphira reckon them to be the works; very good for the school" he added a translation. It was very awkward that foreigners had trouble with slang!

Petrus was working on understanding the slang; he wanted to fit in with these Hufflepuff boys who were decent to him and with whom he actually felt fairly comfortable. He did NOT look forward to having to knuckle down to work hard, but Mr Malfoy had explained to him very kindly that hard work helped to deal with bad memories and that he was sure the boy would make him proud to be his sponsor. When you had an important sponsor like Mr Malfoy it did not do to muck him about by NOT working.

And when he started lessons he found that the grounding he had received in Schloss Adler had prepared him well enough; he had to work hard to keep up, but at least there was no catching up to do.

In a class of workaholics who were so overjoyed to have the opportunity to have any education there was a tendency to rush further ahead than in a school where those who attended had done so by right for generations. And Petrus was overjoyed to actually find himself – after extensive tests in some of the classes – in the A stream in Transfigurations and Defence against the Dark Arts and given provisional A-stream status in Charms and Potions.

"It's not a disgrace if you find it too hard to be moved into the B-stream" explained Professor Flitwick "Because it just means you need extra remedial help. But if you can keep up with the A-stream we shall all be very pleased with you."

Petrus was overjoyed.

He could write something really positive to both Mr Malfoy AND his sister!

oOoOo

Petrus was delighted to get warm letters from both Mr Malfoy and from Biirta; Biirta told him how pleased she was that he found himself so well able to keep up and more important in many ways amongst a group of convivial friends, where he need not feel oppressed by having his big sister being the head girl. She wrote that a big school was said to be very jolly and hoped that he was enjoying the opportunity to practice quidditch skills, if the weather was any good.

Since most of the quidditch teams practised on the beach in New Zealand, Petrus was getting in plenty of quidditch and was delighted to find himself popular for his skill! He actually resolved to put in time to practice and become really good – the first time in his life when he had felt it worth putting effort into anything!

And as it was made quite clear that reasonable grades were required not to incur detentions during quidditch practice, Petrus had an incentive beyond pleasing Mr Malfoy to work hard!

It may be said that New Zealand fascinated him, and he looked in awe upon the Stripy Marauders who had opened the gate while they were still juniors hardly any older than himself; and was much impressed.

He was also keen to learn to swim when he found out that there were oysters with pearls in; and his days were packed and happy.

True he was gently teased about his accent; but none of his year in his house were in any wise unkind about it; and Agatha Montague, of Slytherin, who tried to make an issue of a German boy in the class spent an uncomfortable half an hour involuntarily twitching her hand into and out of a Nazi salute, courtesy of the incipient Hunting Marauders who believed on sitting on bullies before they got thoroughly going.

Besides, as Drogo said, he might consider Petrus to be a bit of a tick, but he was a tick who was kind of under his protection.