Chapter 16
David Fraser raised an eyebrow to find Lilith Snape in his office, cross legged on the floor, embellishing the sorting hat.
Lilith scrambled to her feet to give him the obligatory curtsey.
"I ASKED first" she said "And he said he would be delighted to be refurbished and in the colours of all the houses. I'm adding the green and red of Rowan House as well as black and primrose for Hufflepuff, green and silver grey for Slytherin, red and golden yellow for Gryffindor and I managed to find a piece of satin that's magenta shot with blue for Ravenclaw for that not-blue and not-purple they have and I'm using tan instead of copper."
She came up for air.
"Very enterprising" said David, not quite sure what else to say. Lilith beamed at him.
"Has it ever struck you sir, that Hufflepuff is the only house not to have a metal as one of its colours?" she asked "Even if the colours for Ravenclaw clash rather horridly they still picked a metal…. It's almost insulting."
David smiled.
"A true Hufflepuff knows they have solid worth without needing the conceit of a metal in their colours" he said.
Lilith digested that thoughtfully.
"I suppose that ought to make Huffers better people than the rest of us; but I fear there are too many silly Huffers to actually recognise that a true Hufflepuff ought to feel like that. But of course most houses have prats that don't live up to the ideals of their house."
"Quite so, Lilith" said David. "And perhaps there are subtle reminders in such simple things as house colours."
One had to think on the feet with Lilith.
The sorting hat was certainly starting to look less decrepit with the addition of brightly coloured patches that Lilith had just finished tacking on.
"Had you thought through the implications to the magic?" asked David.
Lilith beamed.
"Oh yes!" she said "And Hat and I made up a song to sing as I sew them on – I shall herringbone of course – so that the patches become irrevocably part of the hat and a part of the magic."
David nodded. He might have expected Lilith to have it all well in hand; she was a very thorough little girl. And being reared by Krait with input from Jade that was really scarcely surprising.
oOoOo
While Lilith was engaged with the hat, she had firmly instructed the Stripy Marauders to join forces with the Pepperingye Marauders who, being banned by custom at their geriatric age as fifth formers from pranks, had time on their hands to do something useful.
"Did we WANT to do something useful, with Nathan's crowd or otherwise, Halfpint?" asked Sextus.
"Of course you do" said Lilith firmly. "It's about secret passages. There's one that starts on the fourth floor behind a mirror."
"I know; it's caved in" said Sextus.
"Well yes; and that's what you're going to do that's useful" said Lilith "Start unblocking it. I will be helping but as I have a job to do I thought you lot might like something to do to keep you out of trouble."
"Did we ever establish whether she gets her bossiness from her dad or her mum?" asked Kazrael.
"Both; she has it in double dose" grinned Gennar.
It may be said that Nathan, U-may, Isambard, Charis, Tobala, Jingjie and Wanda were rather pleased to have a marauding task that they might legitimately occupy themselves with in leisure periods; and Isembard pointed out with more casuistry than accuracy that the enchantments required to shore up the roof and remove debris would be good revision for their charms and enchantment classes too.
As most of the spells they were using came into the province of NEWT level this was not strictly accurate but his fellows accepted that suggestion with enthusiasm.
oOoOo
The excavations proceeded with due caution – the reason Lilith had suggested that Sextus, Kazrael, Venus, Jayashree and Gennar should join with their less giddy elders – and Lilith was able to join in the activities of the combined marauders when she had finished her sewing. Lilith was a fast and neat needlewoman and had soon completed all the seams to join the ten patchwork pieces with which she had covered the Hat. She had cut a brim shape for the underside of the brim in a plain dark grey, for the generic uniform, and had turned it under, neatly whipstitching it to the underside of the hat itself and ladder stitching to the gay upper layer of the brim. And if it were grey, she informed David, then the person wearing the hat would not be influenced by any of the house colours catching their eye.
David laughed and said that so long as the Sorting Hat approved that was the main thing.
And so Lilith joined the expedition while they were busy turning fallen blocks of stone carefully to dust and vanishing the dust piles.
"Trust you to join us when we're almost through and avoid the hard work" laughed Nathan.
Isambard collected Nathan's ears before they fluttered too far and Charis handed him back his eyebrows.
Nathan grinned. Lilith almost HAD to jinx him for a calumny like that; but he had been unable to resist it. And Lilith put her back into helping; and it had to be admitted that her skill in turning stone to dust and vanishing as it flowed out of a block was a pretty thing to watch. Especially as Lilith was also capable of stopping in mid transfiguration and making a stone flow up into a place where it would hold the roof and meld to the stonework next to it.
It was less satisfying that Lilith insisted that all loose blocks of stone were either consigned to places in the ceiling or vanished before she would permit anyone to go on, even though it was simple enough to get through.
"Right is right" said Lilith; and in the face of that firmly asseverated Snapish aphorism the others had to be content.
oOoOo
After a rather long section that needed clearing the remainder of the passageway was disappointingly short, turning sharply to the left, going up three steps and ending at a door similar to the inside of the one they had entered the passage by. Lilith ceded the honour of opening it to the Pepperingye Marauders, who were eager enough to take it, pausing only to jinx Jayashree for making the sepulchral comment that the elders ought to open it in case it came out anywhere scary like a basilisk lair, a room full of three-headed dogs or worse, Madam McGonagall's bedroom.
They were not prepared to find a room that appeared to be entirely unoccupied with the dust and cobwebs of ages; and the clear signs of battle with cracked and blackened stonework.
"And about time too!" said the portrait through which they had entered. Dust fell from the ceiling at the shrill voice. Lilith pointed her wand at the ceiling and muttered the revellaspell.
"Back in the passage people" she said crisply, adding to the portrait " Sorry ma'am; this is unstable. And if you ask me, and judging by what little I saw out of the window, this is that part of the castle that's locked up securely above the Hufflepuff common room" she went on as they withdrew hastily, stifling sneezes.
"And it's obviously locked up BECAUSE it's unstable…. I say, this is a case for the Headmaster" said Nathan.
"Yes I'm afraid it is" said Lilith. "Though I doubt he knows why it's locked off any more than anyone else does; I think before we trouble Fido we should go and pester Albus. The goblin passages have a way to his cottage."
"So they do!" said Nathan "And he'll be dead chuffed to get to poke his nose into school mysteries."
They placed a strong repelling ward on the secret passage so that innocent and less skilful passage-hunters did not accidentally find the unstable rooms in the meantime and, as Isambard put it, accidentally explode the castle a little bit for having sneezed at the dust.
oOoOo
Albus Dumbledore cheerfully entertained thirteen unexpected marauders to tea. Jayashree borrowed Phyllis to cuddle and Lilith claimed Percival who chuckled fatly at her.
They told their story.
Not for nothing had Albus Dumbledore been headmaster at Hogwarts for more than fifty years before he retired; he even followed the whole tale.
And he shook his head in disappointment.
"And I fear I can add nothing to the sum total of your knowledge" he said. "Well only a little; when I was at school the doors were locked against intrusion, and with wards strong enough that the normal unlocking spell alohamora is useless and further methods bring a modicum of danger."
"You mean the door handles bite" said Sextus. "We tried THAT in our first year, sir."
Albus was startled.
"You had the intrusion spell to your credit so young?" he asked.
"Library work" said Lilith. "Having found locked doors that wouldn't yield to the normal methods, not even a goblin-made lockpick."
"Well perhaps it is as well that the originators of those wards were so thorough" said Albus "I've seen the rooms from the same angle as you; when I was still teaching transfigurations…... I had every good reason to suppose that Tom Riddle was poking around looking for secrets in the castle and did my best to find all the ones I could to forestall him. It was when I taught myself Parseltongue, in the thoughts that some passages hidden by Salazar Slytherin might be accessed by his descendant… but as far as I know, the only descendant to do so, Lilith my dear, was you. However, to return to the point! I found the passage behind the mirror; discovered the extent of the damage to those rooms – and I only strayed out of the first into the second – I beg your pardon?"
"Sorry sir" said Nathan "Just a sound of alarm that you risked crossing that rather dodgy first one."
"I'm a Gryffindor" said Albus.
"So are some of us" said Charis, indicating Tobala and Venus "But we wouldn't have risked it especially after Lilith cast the revellaspell."
"We're girls" said Tobala "More prudence than boys."
Dumbledore grinned boyishly.
"Evidently" he said. "Anyway, I beat a hasty retreat; and on due consideration I brought down the ceiling of the secret passage to prevent anyone LESS prudent from causing damage. The place had been locked up for a good reason after all; and I considered it careless that the passage was left for anyone to circumvent all those wards."
"Oh well, we shall have to ask Fido if we can't talk to the portraits" said Kazrael. "Besides it sends Phineas Nigellus apoplectic to have to talk to goblins; it's hilarious."
Albus started to chortle and hastily changed it to a cough. Lilith gave him a jaundiced look.
"Nasty cough sir" she said "I'm sure I could duplicate dad's cough brew."
"Yes, I'm afraid you probably could" said Albus "I claim it a biscuit cough" he added firmly.
Lilith grinned at him; and as it reminded them all that there were some biscuits left they rectified this matter and went back to school with impatient curiosity.
oOoOo
David unravelled the excited tale and turned to the portraits.
"And can any former heads give us any idea to explain the state of the locked rooms?" he asked.
"Preposterous! Iniquitous! Poking their noses in where they were forbidden to go!" declared Phineas Nigellus.
"A habit which gave Marauders an edge fighting Voldemort if you recall" said David dryly.
"Oh please don't shut him up sir; he's so cute when he throws a hissy fit!" said Kazrael.
This was enough to drive Phineas Nigellus into complete huffy silence.
"According to what I've heard he was no angel at school" said the portrait of Dilys Derwent. "I've chatted with Quentin Trimble since he passed over and he reckons that Black used the unlocking charm with a very ingenious twist to pass the wards into the girls' dormitories."
"Well one learns something every day" said David.
"It's not exactly hard though" said Sextus "If one wants to chat to one of the girls. Most of us figured out how to pass the wards in Slytherin House almost as soon as we figured out how to break in….. shutting up."
"Digging yourself a hole old man" said Jingjie "Getting over the glissand spell in Ravenclaw and Gryffindor Towers is a little more challenging. Did you know about the reason for the closed rooms ma'am?"
"Yes indeed I do" said Dilys Derwent "It was very painful; a faction war broke out in my last few years as headmistress. It was why I resigned; I felt that if war and strife could not be kept out of a school a Healer had no business to be in charge. I see that nothing changed" she sighed.
"But generally WE have managed to keep OUR adversaries outside, ma'am" said David "Which proves that we've learned from previous lessons."
"Even though we don't know this particular one" said Gennar. He was poked by various people. Portraits could be huffy; and baiting Phineas Nigellus was one thing, but irritating a source of information was another.
Dilys Derwent went on,
"It was in the period leading up to the statute of secrecy – whilst that did not come about until 1792 debate had been raging for at least half a century beforehand about its necessity. Especially after Tarqin Malfoy went out of his way to annoy the then muggle prime minister Oliver Cromwell coming as close to muggle baiting as it was possible; I heard that when Cromwell died – that would have been 1658 the autumn after he left school – he arranged all the most outrageous female ghosts he could muster to dance at the fellow's death bed. And though we had some respite with the Restoration and less religious fanaticism it was painfully obvious that we had to consider hiding from muggles. And a bunch of fanatics who wanted to enslave muggles decided to hold the castle to ransom and battered their way in and took up residence in those rooms. The elves managed to get a message out to Aurors; and the battle was terrible. I had to co-ordinate the elves to apport all the children they were holding hostage out at the moment the aurors came to attack; and the rebels sold their lives dearly, causing damage to the very fabric of the magic of the castle itself. I chose to lock up the section of the castle and ward it because the ritual required to repair the damage was too much; and there were other near civil wars going on" she sighed "As if it wasn't enough to have dangers from the fauna and flora of our world, and from muggles, to go to war over something that should be debated rationally is so WRONG!"
"These humans are crazy" quoted Lilith quietly to her set. They all recognised the Asterix reference.
"Well then I guess the thing to do is for all the marauders in school to undertake the ritual to repair the rooms" said Nathan. "We'll have to go in two or three of us, the best ritual practitioners; that's Mimi, Lilith and Sec and me I think – and the rest chant as we're told."
"Splendid idea!" said David "With the school expanding again having a few more rooms available would be most useful. Take care when you do your checking; if in doubt apparate out."
"Yes sir" said Lilith nodding soberly. "THIS is another thing marauders are for; putting stuff right. Please, Madam Derwent, are we likely to find any bodies?"
"No child! No worries about that!" said Dilys Derwent "The bodies were all cleared away after the battle; to identify in order to keep an eye on their families if nothing else so far as the rebels were concerned; and in reverence by their comrades in the case of the aurors. Surely you children have not mustered the power to undertake so powerful a ritual?"
"Oh it shouldn't be hard" said Lilith "Probably about a four hour chant; the hard bit will be holding up that part of the castle with sheer will power while we insert magical props."
David nodded.
"And there are plenty of adults to call on too" he said "And I think it should include ex-marauders and marauding supporters."
Lilith nodded. There was no point in false pride; this was for the good of the school and who was involved was immaterial provided they could do their allotted task.
The abandoned rooms had an eeriness to them; and the surveying group were alert for sounds of creaking. Lilith greeted the portrait quietly and added,
"We need to whisper so as not to bring the roof in; I'm sorry you got left alone so long. Can't you visit the other portraits?"
"I'faith, not past the wards yonder wench Dilys put up!" grumped the witch.
"What was wrong with the secret passage and passing via the mirror?" asked Sextus. The portrait – an Elizabethan lady – scowled at him.
"Youth, hast any concept of the discomfort caused when passing through a mirror? The reversal! The indignity! I must swoon to even think of it!"
"Sorry ma'am I didn't know you were so sickly and feeble" said Sextus.
"FEEBLE? FEEBLE?" her voice started to rise.
There was the crash of a falling piece of masonry.
"NOW look what you've done just because you can't resist snide!" said Lilith in exasperation "Madam, I prithee shut up or verily I shall swipe out thy face with turpentine."
"Love the linguistic mix" said Sextus.
Nathan took off his sweater and threw it over the portrait where it dangled over the top half of her body. Her vituperations were at least now muffled.
They left her to it and explored, quietly. The rooms appeared to have been largely classrooms and a common room; there was a flight of stairs too which they decided were better using levitation to traverse than feet. Upstairs were bedrooms. All the décor was in faded midnight blue and bronze.
"The original Ravenclaw rooms" said Mimi. "And there's a doorway with the mark of where hinges used to be right before the locked doors of the warded bit; I reckon the door with the daft knocker was taken from there."
"DO you mind not insulting the House ward of my house?" said Sextus.
Mimi shrugged.
"Well every time our lot has broken into Ravenclaw Tower it's asked such childishly simple questions getting through was a cinch" she said.
"Because you are clever enough for Ravenclaw just awkward enough for Slytherin" said Sextus. "These rooms would be nice for Ravers; wide windows and plenty of pure north light for the artists. I say, what a great room complex for arts and crafts."
"Let's get them fixed first" said Lilith "Yes, bedrooms up here…. I suppose they just took over a school house. What cheek! I can't see Slytherin kids lying down for it….nor Gryffs."
"Well that was why they took the intellectuals, obviously" said Sextus "The ones with the imagination to be scared into good behaviour with vague threats and without the inherently vicious tendency you snaky types have."
Lilith decided to let that one go; Ravenclaw WAS his house after all and he was outnumbered. They took a full magical survey and made notes of measurements and returned quietly, Nathan retrieving his sweater from the Elizabethan lady as they went out.
oOoOo
"Piece of cake" Lilith reported back to David. She then became technical, with input from the rest; and David listened, nodding from time to time.
"I'll find out when it happened from Dilys" he said "To help us make a best time calculation to sort it out."
Lilith nodded; that WOULD help!
They found a passing mention in 'Hogwarts – a History' that mentioned only that Madam Derwent had resigned after Aurors had needed to deal with dissident members of society who caused something of a disturbance. Almost as a separate entry ran the comment that Ravenclaw house was moved to occupy the tower above their original quarters, and mentioned that Rowena Ravenclaw herself had maintained rooms in that tower which had housed Ravenclaw-educated members of staff hitherto. They wrote out the expanded version and stuck it into the school version with masking tape.
oOoOo
Madam Derwent fortunately remembered dates; and it turned out that the anniversary of the event would be in some three weeks time. The Marauders brightened and went to work with a will on the designing of a chant. Some would hover on brooms outside where the windows were – once they had taken down Madam Derwent's powerful disillusionment charms to hide the windows from outside.
She had not wanted intrepid students getting in that way!
oOoOo
The efforts of the Marauders were a trifle interrupted in the need to lend support to blood kindred in both Prince Peak and Durmstrang; apparently, as David found out, there was a group of Russians calling themselves the Sons of Zirnitra who wanted to punish both schools for having outperformed pure blood Russian youths in a duelling contest; where the team from Prince Peak had included goblin and elf members and the Durmstrang team had condoned this iniquity – As Severus put it laconically in answer to David's quick query. Prince Peak's needs were brief and intense with a large and spectacular battle and David grinned at the image he conjured in his own mind's eye of Severus likely up on the walls chanting like Merlin in the film 'Excalibur' or Saruman in 'The Fellowship of the Ring'. Durmstrang had a more sustained but lower key effort ridding themselves of supremacists, their marauders striking from cover rather after the fashion of Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood in 'Where Eagles Dare.'
oOoOo
The Pepperingye Marauders also had the task of finding out the object of desire who so won Genevieve Harris' heart so that they could uncurse him – if necessary – from the subtle revulsion curse. Detective work by Tobala and Charis uncovered however that Genevieve had her eye on a boy in the year above her; which meant that he had never been one of her original court. A few eyebrows were raised that she had fixated on Cassius Prince – which if it came to anything would make her an in-law of Severus Snape – but there was no denying that Cassius was a bit of a hop out o' kin being content to be an average student in Hufflepuff house.
"And actually she's picked one of the most decent boys there is" said Charis.
"What about us?" said Isambard.
"I shouldn't describe any of you oiks as 'Decent'" said Charis "You're not really supposed to be; it's a rare person who can do Marauding and the usual concept of decent."
"Boring you mean" said Nathan.
"N…no" said Charis "And,,,,,yes. Cassius isn't going to set the world alight; but he's someone who'll stand by a friend through thick and thin and isn't going to let anyone budge him in his loyalties. Genevieve's a bit flighty – should have been a Ravenclaw really, because she IS musical; and she wants a career as a performer. And someone as solidly decent and loyal as Cassius would be a perfect prop to someone who's going after that sort of emotionally strung out job. He may not be a great potioneer but he's good enough to earn a sufficiency brewing potions for sale to keep them going between famous performances… and he's shrewd enough to see any crap. I vote we promote the match."
"I vote we don't oppose the match" said Nathan. "I'm not about to play cupid thank you!"
Charis giggled.
"You'd look silly with little wings and dressed in a hanky with a little gold bow" she said.
Nathan transfigured her to have little wings so she transfigured him back and the whole of the Pepperingye Marauders decided to take on the forms of cupids – except U-may who became a flying snake because it was more dignified – and fire random rubber-tipped arrows at the sixth just for kicks and giggles and because Valentine's day was coming up.
The Sixth sighed and threatened them with being made into putty putti if they did not back off.
That assimilative correlation was alarming enough to make them do so.
"Besides it's not really in accordance with our dignity as fifth formers" said Jingjie. "It was funny though."
"You know it'll be confusing for any kids" said Wanda.
"What, having Genevieve as a mother?" said Tobala "I'll say."
"No you prune" said Wanda "Having two Uncle Olivers."
"That should be Uncles Oliver" said Jingjie.
"When I want a pedant I'll ask for one" said Wanda. "As I was saying before I was so evilly pedanted, there's Oliver Harris, Genevieve's brother, and Oliver Prince in Gryffindor in the same year as Cassius as his half brother."
"Well they'll have to call them Uncle Broom and Uncle Stirrer" said Nathan "And it's none of our business."
"True" said Charis. "Well apart from actually mentioning in Cassius' hearing that Genevieve admires him; he won't make the first move and being so thoroughly done over by us, I'm not sure she will either. It had a really chastening effect on her; she's so much nicer now she's trying to be friendly with girls not just trying to attract boys."
"Well she's your dorm mate; I wash my hands of it" said Nathan. "I really do NOT do love's sweet dream stuff."
oOoOo
It may be said that Charis decided to have a frank talk with Cassius because he was the sort of boy who actually responded better to the up-front approach. He listened to the tale of how Genevieve admired him but had been er, rather subdued when her court had er, abandoned her.
"You Marauders dropped some compulsion on them you mean because she was in danger of getting a bad reputation" he said.
"We promised the head not to talk about it" said Charis who felt that as he had guessed going that far would not harm. Cassius shrugged.
"Fair enough" he said "My brother said Gryffindor House was in a bit of a stink about her er court; and she admires me you say? Did she ask you to come to talk to me?"
"Not in the least" said Charis cheerfully "I'm butting in of my own accord because I think she's become a decent sort and so are you and she really does NOT want to get involved with any unstable type like a Raver in the mistaken belief that another musician would fuel her muse. It's a mistake, except in exceptional circumstances; and all you Prince types are musical enough without needing to be musicians. You'd appreciate her without feeling that you were in competition with each other."
Cassius considered.
"Well there's a lot of sense in that" he said "Look I don't really know her – I mean, I think she's pretty, and she's a fine performer but I've never talked to her – but I'll invite her to the Valentine's do we of the Sixth are running and see how it goes from there as I don't actually have a girlfriend. Fair enough?"
"More than; thanks" said Charis. She had found a sensitivity in Genevieve that was attractive below the girl's rather flamboyant exterior.
oOoOo
The sixth ran the Valentine's party on the beach in New Zealand again; as Bella said it was a waste not to do so. This year the challenge was to dress as characters from the Classics and there would be chocolate hearts for the best costumes so long as none of them were putti. After the antics of the Pepperingye Marauders, Cupid was banned.
U-may elected to be Echidna with a partial transfiguration to be snake from the waist down – a tricky business – with Nathan as Heracles and Charis, Isambard and Jingjie as their three children and Wanda and Tobala as attendant sea nymphs. Bella declared it cheating to use transfiguration but gave them marks for cheek.
There were a selection of gods and goddesses and nymphs and those boys who did come in costume mostly spent time poring over classical dictionaries to find someone who would have worn trousers so there were a preponderance of Goths, Vandals, Gauls and one ancient Briton – Ian Malfoy – with plaid trousers, a moustache manufactured from the hair combed from the blast-ended Pekes and painted in woad. Or rather Prussian Blue from a borrowed paintbox.
Sextus declared that HE had the legs and the cast iron ones to come in a short skirt and turned up as Leonidas the Spartan and the rest of the Stripy Marauders came as representatives of the three hundred. They made helmets out of cardboard and asked nicely for horsehair to apply as crests. And as they asked nicely, Arkott obliged them rather than pursuing them with a horsewhip as he did to Edward Kettleburn who tried to acquire some horsehair WITHOUT asking as a moustache for his Gaulish chieftan.
As the Stripy Marauders were all well versed in ancient runes they chanted Spartan war cries in ancient Greek and were booed for excessive over-acting by their fellow fourth years. Sextus gave them a pithy and sarcastic speech that Lilith declared was worthy of Leonidas himself if only the poor prunes he had aimed it at had been able to speak a civilised language.
The Belle Marauders had to step in here and declare that if people in the fourth weren't old enough to behave themselves in a civilised manner in front of juniors it was obviously past their bedtime; so Sextus bowed and made an apology – also in Ancient Greek – which Mimi had to translate since Bella had conveniently forgotten most of any Greek she had learned. It prevented, as Maud said, the collective fourth being jinxed into a ball since no forty odd kids were a match for their six contemporaries.
Minerva McGonagall murmured to David
"He's aye as awkward as wee Severus but losh! I cannae ken whether I'm glad or otherwise that the wee sumpf has learned tae be outgoing under wee Lilith's loving care."
"If you ask me he's a sight happier for it" said David "So I for one am glad. Little horrors! I swear the fourth get worse every year!"
"David, ye'll have the rrright tae say THAT when ye've been observing fourth years as long as I have" said Minerva. "Though I'll no' say that ye're wrong at that" she added.
"Were WE ever that bad?" demanded Lynx.
"You never had Lilith Snape to Snapify you" said Hawke "Mind you I DO recall a certain were-knarl….."
Lynx dissolved into helpless giggles and had to be rescued by her husband from the hiccups.
The party was voted a universal success outside of the shenanigans of the fourth with barbequed food and the obligatory heart shaped burgers.