Chapter 3
"Hi Ross, any idea who the house heads are?" asked Gorbrin as the Malfoy contingent converged on Platform nine-and-three-quarters.
"Yes. Good grief, Gorbrin, are you telling me that the head decided to fly with the triumph of hope over experience and make yet another Malfoy a prefect?" said Ross.
"Idiot" said Gorbrin equably. "All right let me rephrase MY question; who are the house heads?"
"Ah, that's a different matter!" grinned Ross. "M'sister in Gryff; Heather Burns in Slyther; Shona Moorcroft for the Huffers and Mei Chang for Ravenclaw. It's a no brainer who we elect of course."
"Two years running of Ravenclaw Head Girls? Will their house survive without a large dose of stuck-upitis?" said Gorbrin.
Ross shugged.
"That's a risk to take; but Freya, dearly as I love my sister, is too much of a micro-manager to survive being Head Girl without the junior school rising in a body to form a political coup; Heather is a resourceful girl and second choice in my book, as well she might be, as she's my girlfriend; but she's as happy to be led as to lead; and Shona is a bit likely to ignore the school burning down if she has any kind of potion to brew. Mei Chang heads up the oldest Marauders. Who else should be head of school?"
"Oh I concur with all your comments" said Gorbrin "I like Shona and she's a dedicated potioneer but at the expense, sometimes, of being an approachable person. And your people really are a little headless without Lionel; he was much more a leader than anyone of any one group of Marauders."
"Oh well, see you in the prefects meeting then" said Ross "And try to keep your unholy siblings from starting world war three while we're voting."
"That's why I'm glad it's likely to be quick and quiet politics" said Gorbrin "We have a potential new layer of marauders along; and may the Powers have mercy upon our souls!"
Ross was still chuckling when two second year Gryffindor boys might be seen approaching, each barging the other with his trolley, and acrimonious words flying.
One of them started to go for his wand.
"YOU WARTS!" bellowed Ross "STOP that immediately! What do you think this is, a school for underprivileged retarded baboons? Because that's what you two are acting like! Names?"
"I'm Orlando Ogden" said one
"My name is Edward Kettleburn and it's outrageous the way he…"
"No tales! What I'm seeing is that you're BOTH at fault! Kettleburn, you're first in the alphabet; go and get on the train. Ogden, five minutes to cool down IF you please.
"What go in first and let him tell tales? I don't…." Said Kettleburn.
"Mr Kettleburn; you do. I don't want to hear the loathsome apology of excuses from repellent excrescences on the body of the school from either party; hoppit or you'll be in prefect deten" said Ross, doing his best Lionel impressions.
Kettleburn hopped.
"And I'm glad to see him out of the way!" said Ogden "Officious little twerp!"
"I believe I said I was uninterested in the cacaceous effluvium of your juvenile maunderings" said Ross. "You may go in; try to pick a different compartment from Kettleburn."
"But if he sits with Genevieve Harris, what am I to do?" wailed Ogden "He'll monopolise her!"
"Then utilise the time to write her a love letter instead that she can keep; use what few wits haven't dribbled out of your nose" said Ross unkindly. "Hoppit!"
Ogden too hopped.
Love interest? At twelve years old? Oh dear!
On the train Lilith was busy collecting her group of prospective Marauders and their satellites and was delighted to learn from Gennar that he had met Sextus.
Lilith firmly introduced the boy she had decided to look after to Kazrael and Venus.
"And we can spend the journey swapping what corridor curses we know!" she said happily.
"And playing this new game my dad's having published" said Gennar "It was proposed to him by a couple of youngsters in Umbrous Lane, only they didn't have the inside knowledge to make it totally good; it's called 'Beat Voldemort' and without going into the squishier aspects of some of the dark magic – that I don't know about and dad won't tell me – you get to collect dark items to destroy. There's a personality card each that you pick at random – Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Sirius Black and others who were involved and you go around the board collecting knowledge cards and item cards and some are clues to work out how to get some of what you want; you have to be half good at arithmancy or hold Hermione Granger who does some of the calculations for you and random events happen too, like Voldemort turns up and you have to beat him temporarily if you haven't got the seven dark sources; and you can pool resources at any time or play a lone hand 'cos the enchantment in the board opposes you as Voldemort and dad programmed a lot of that 'cos of knowing him; and he's toned it down lots too. But if Voldemort's on the board, some of the cursed items can acksherly cast stinging hexes at you if you don't treat them with care. Nathan and Bella each have a copy and we have to make notes on how it plays and if there's any problems with it before dad publishes it for real."
"Sounds cool!" said Lilith "Let's swap curses first then have a go; can we choose who we are?"
"I guess" said Gennar "If so, bags I be Lucius Malfoy!"
Lilith giggled.
"Sec should be Severus Snape; he's a potioneer and QUITE as sarcastic as daddy! And if mum isn't in the pack I'll be Hermione Granger if nobody minds, though I bet I can do my own Arithmancy!"
"Who else is there?" asked Venus.
"Oh, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Neville Longbottom, Madam McGonagall – her card always advises against pooling resources with juveniles – Kingsley Shacklebolt, Krait Snape – you get Arithmancy advantages off both Snapes by the way, and Ancient Runes off Dad and different things off different people – Ginny Weasley and David Fraser. Low on girls I'm afraid but a reasonable selection."
"I'll have Lilith's mum if she's settled on having Hermione Granger" said Kazrael.
"I'll let you have mum as she is in the pack and not hold out for my baggsing" said Lilith, equably "I'd like to play her sometime but I guess you know her and you don't know Hermione."
It was only a game after all.
"And me for Ginny Weasley please" said Venus.
"Interesting" drawled Sextus " – for I'm more than happy to play Professor Snape – that nobody picked Harry Potter."
"Oh Harry's all right" said Lilith "But after all, who would really WANT to be 'the chosen one'?"
Meanwhile Ross was being approached by a smart looking witch with a little girl of about fourteen. He had a name on a list of a new middle schooler so he smiled.
"Wendy Manning?" he asked "I'm Ross Tuthill; train prefect."
"Gee, you were actually expecting me?" said Wendy, impressed. Her accent was transatlantic.
"Professor Dumbledore lets me have a list of all who are expecting to be on the train" said Ross "Not that we hold it for those who are egregiously late! But it helps me welcome new people and check up on those who aren't generally late but who are scatty or have scatty parents; like my friend Mary-Anne Green who took two years to arrive on the right day let alone the right time; her dad's the nicest but he lives in a world of his own!"
"Waal, I guess my parents are pretty wanded up" said Wendy "So I sure hope I will not cause you any headaches!"
"What year are you going into? Fourth?" asked Ross.
"Yes; and I have a ball gown for your English custom of Yule Balls" said Wendy "And I cannAT get over how old all the buildings are here!"
"Wait 'til you see Hogwarts!" grinned Ross "It's as ancient a pile as any in its basis I think; and pretty impressive when you first see it, even though the outside's only about fourteenth century!"
"Gee,he says ONLY!" said Wendy.
"Well the oldest parts date back to the times of the founders of course" said Ross "And that's seventh century if I recall correctly; ask Genavka Malfoy Tobak; she's the history buff in your year."
"Gee, so it is true, goblins throughout the school and nobody turns a hair?"
"Goblins; and elves; and the odd hag" said Ross "No, I tell a lie, we've only had two hags to date and they left in July; but the principle's the same. And there are penalties for racist remarks so I hope you aren't going to make any!"
"Aw, you get me wrong!" said Wendy "I just never met any goblins you see; my parents are in England to make notes about how the radical move to equality is working, and gee, I guess if I'm at school that's mixed race, I'll do my bit to let them know how it works!"
"It works very well; as you'll find out" said Ross "We've a handful of racists but most people don't take a lot of notice of them save to jinx them into a ball if they try any bullying. Hold on, here's my girlfriend; Heather, will you take Wendy Manning and wish her onto Bella and co? they'll look after her."
"My pleasure" said Heather "Come on through, young Manning; let's get you settled."
"Oh gee! How English to use surnames! That's just WONDERFUL!" said Wendy, impressed.
Heather only hoped the Belle Marauders were not going to giggle at her too much.
Fortunately Wendy was too interested in being told EVERYTHING when introduced to the Belle Marauders that they were able to talk non stop; and got used to her before her fascination with all things ancient and English made them giggle. They and the Malfoy-Tobak twins and sundry other luminaries of the fourth were also playing 'Beat Voldemort' and cut Wendy in straightaway as they were still quarrelling over who was going to be who, there not being enough female characters. This led to the decision that nineteen people couldn't all play on the same board and it was fortunate that Lucius had dished out a copy to selected of his children; and they split into two groups and Wendy did not have time to wonder at several goblins and an elf being part of those she was playing with. And in the end they drew characters at random rather than waste more time squabbling and Wendy found herself playing the dour Madam McGonagall and had great fun being led by the Scots transfigurationist in disbelieving Severus Snape – a giggling Isabel Nightshade – and trying to prevent Harry Potter – Bella – from getting into trouble; which Jack Clements, playing Dumbledore, said was about as realistic as anyone stopping Bella Black, played by Bella Black getting into trouble, which comment caused a brief interlude of an exchange of jinxes.
Wendy was terrified; she had never seen anything like the level of jinxes being exchanged and Jack, green with purple blotches – a combination of Avocado Kedavra and Aubergine Kedavra combined in unholy harmony – boneless and with spider legs growing out of his face playing honky tonk music called 'pax' and returned to normal with a negligent wave of Bella's wand.
"Well I blocked the bat bogey hex and the jellied furnunculus curse" said Jack.
"Yes; and that was neatly done wordless" said Bella.
"Was – was that just in FUN?" said Wendy as they picked up their cards as though nothing had happened.
"Of course!" said Bella "Ya think I'd be playing cards with someone I seriously wanted to hurt? Jack wants to be an auror; it's up to the rest of us to challenge him so he's hard enough when the time comes."
"I don't think any of my parents' schoolfriends did that" said Wendy, doubtfully "They're both aurors."
"Oh top marks for cool parents then" said Bella "Maybe you don't have quite the level of dark wizardry in America we're used to here; what with Tom Riddle – that's Voldemort's real name – and then Odessa interfering from Germany."
"Yes; I heard my parents discussing this Odessa that they'd been told about; they thought I was asleep" said Wendy. "IS it true they attack SCHOOLS?"
"I'll say! We've fought off heaps of attacks!" said Bella "Well not us personally, not all of them, I've helped fight stormwizards – we knocked them off brooms with jets of water and people like Gorbrin froze them into ice statues – but we were reckoned too young to help against the Erklings when they came. I guess that the grown ups DID have a point" she conceded "But we've not had a crack at dementors yet, the big ones, fifth years and above did that. You will join the MSHG won't you, and learn to fight dark wizards? 'cos there's an awful lot of Germans in America, isn't there, that might get Odessa established there!"
"Gee, I'd never thought of that!" said Wendy looking scared and thoughtful. "What a quaint name for the group!"
"Oh it was started by my nephew Draco and his friends; most of whom we have here as cards!" laughed Bella "It was to disguise it from the children of deatheaters and their sympathisers and so on you see!"
"I guess there's a lot I don't know about the reality of what we're playing; and gee whizz, it really brings it home that you lot just KNOW some of the people involved!"
"We happen to be related to some of them" said Mimi "And THAT means we know a lot more than is in this game; like Bella and me know the REAL nature of the loosely named Dark Items we're so blithely collecting here. The things that could have killed the mighty Professor Dumbledore if my dad – I'm the adopted daughter of Professor Severus Snape – hadn't been such a great chanter; and other ritual shit they all did that we just don't talk about. So if we're cagey, Wendy, it's 'cos there are some things those of us who were kids at the time and living at the castle don't LIKE remembering; and others we've been told to not talk about. And Lucius has done a good job of playing some of them down whilst making a good game out of it; but I can't say I enjoy this as much as a kid might who didn't remember all this for real. So we'll tell you what we may; but no more. Okay?"
"Sure thing!" said Wendy looking on Mimi with considerable respect if a little shock over her language, being as yet unaware that what was considered inappropriate language varied from one side of the Atlantic to the other. Her little knowledge of elves was of the subservient ones who referred to themselves in the third person; and who would never have this quiet dignity over something that sobered at least three other children, Bella and Jack and Alex Yaxley.
Ross had got onto the train long since after receiving a rather garbled message from a house elf from St Mungo's to the effect that one of the first years was to be late to school; Monica Wintringham was with her mother in St Mungo's, that unfortunate woman having had a severe reaction to a doxy bite and being in some peril of her life.
"Crumbs, tell them to poke a bezoar down her neck then!" said Ross automatically.
The elf's ears went up.
"Bezoar!" he said "Young Master is very wise! We hasn't used bezoars for a long time; Dessy knows where they are stored though!"
Ross thought it fairly obvious; that it would at least counteract the poison.
Whether it would counter any allergic reaction he was not sure; but surely as bezoars cured all known poison, it ought to work!
He looked back down the line by some strange instinct as the train pulled out, to see a big black dire-wolf like dog burst onto the platform and try to chase the train. It picked up speed too quickly however; and Ross was not displeased.
"Well some dogs chase cars; maybe wizarding dogs chase trains" said Heather, standing beside him.
"Or maybe not" said Ross "We'll pass this on to the Marauders as well as to our own group I think; that way if it DOES mean trouble, we can be prepared. Anyway, I'm off to vote."
"Have fun; I think Mei's best but obviously I shan't shirk responsibility if anyone wants me" said Heather "Any more than Freya will."
Ross thought she was tactful not to say anything about Shona who was a better scholar than Hufflepuff usually had with a high degree of initiative, a charismatic girl and practical enough most of the time. Until she got buried in an academic problem.
Shona was taking four NEWTs, more than most in Hufflepuff ever did; Potions, Herbology, Arithmancy and Ancient Runes; and if she was tipped for no more than a pass in Ancient Runes she was expected to take an 'O' in potions and an 'E' at least in the other two. As she was the first Huffer ever to take Arithmancy to NEWT level – even Myrtle Carmichael had stopped short at OWL – she was her house star; and somehow it seemed unfair to take her attention from her academic achievement, and though Shona would doubtless have accepted the mantle of Head Girl, she might just have resented it a little. And, reflected Ross, how nice it was to know that any one of the four house heads WOULD have accepted the responsibility and tried to live up to it; for he had heard from Lionel how, when he was head of Slytherin and ultimately elected Head Boy, all the other house heads were wriggling over why the responsibility was too much!
The assorted prefects were fairly unanimous; even if Lydia Snape, one of Mei's closest friends and fellow Marauder giggled and said that it would doubtless make the staff relieved to know that enough things would tie Mei down if she were head girl that she'd be less likely to be in trouble herself.
"Laugh it up, Lydia" said Gorbin laconically "Reckon I'll be voting for you next year; 'cos one of the alternatives is likely to be Mad, Chad or Leo."
He was poked by several Marauders.
The train duly arrived having been a long enough journey for Voldemort to have been beaten on several boards and a spirited discussion to have taken place over what was good and what could be improved and what minor glitches there might be; and for Sextus to have forgotten to be totally suave and sarcastic – outside of the concept of being Severus Snape, in any case – and to start to make tentative friends with the other would be Marauders in the first.
"Are you trying for Slytherin?" asked Lilith casually.
"No; Ravenclaw. My mother was a Ravenclaw and I guess it's the family house" said Sextus.
Lilith shrugged.
"Well house don't matter; and I guess they could do with some decent juniors from what I've heard" she said. "Though there's supposed to be a few decent ones, my cousin Nathan hangs out with a couple."
Sextus nodded, casually; a bit too casually.
Still, if house didn't matter he could please his mum and not offend Lilith.
Lilith remembered that she was NOT to hug Hagrid, and contented herself with beaming at him. She had seen the castle from this angle a number of times of course; but now she was to be a pupil; and that made it different and special. Sort of even SOLEMN.
Most of the other new ones were subdued by the grandeur of the castle – and the size of Hagrid – and got into the boats with a minimum of fuss. The Rakshasa, Mohini and Jayashree, pulled faces at water travel; but tigers will swim if they have to and boats were an improvement on swimming.
Wendy went in the carriages and was to go first in the hatting; as Bella explained to her kindly and asked if she could see the thestrals that pulled the carriages.
"Thestrals? Aren't they unlucky?" demanded Wendy "I don't see anything pulling the carriages."
"Oh, you've never seen death then" said Bella "Lots of people haven't even by as old as fourteen; some people have really sheltered lives I guess. Don't worry about it! And they're not unlucky, it's a myth, we always use thestrals to pull the carriages to school."
Wendy got into a carriage nervously and hoped Bella was right – and wondered that children as young as fourteen HAD seen death!
The hat gave its usual homilies; and Wendy was sent into Slytherin House, partly, it has to be said, because she reckoned that the majority of the children who had been decent to her were in Slytherin so it seemed a good house to be in.
As the fourth in Slytherin were actually all friendly, and got on well with each other – even, mostly, Mafalda Prewett now Dumbledore had stopped her parents trying to cram her into a nervous breakdown – she was not far out.
The girls' dormitory would be a little cramped; but with people prepared to compromise that mattered less than in a year with personality problems! Nine girls and six boys made that year one of the largest years of any house; but Bella, Mimi and Drusillina intended to solve the problem and it may be noted that later they chanted with aplomb and skill and introduced a wide alcove in wizarding space in which to accommodate their fellows more comfortably, for even eight had been a little tight, and the fifth year was fairly full as well and nobody wanted to sleep in with 'a bunch of kids' in the third!
Slytherin house of the first received such expected members as James Pender Malfoy and Gennar; Paris Bullivant and Heath Barbary; and had also Michelle Makepiece – Lilith made a face – and Maia Pleiades, determined to be in her sponsor's house! Gareth Rookwood was the name of the boy with the father whose farts Lilith had jinxed; it was an old name associated with Deatheaters and Lilith resolved to keep an eye on the boy.
When it was her turn Lilith greeted the hat silently and cheerfully. There was no question what Lilith wanted; and the hat did not bother to argue that she would be an asset to Ravenclaw. Lilith too was in Slytherin, whence she was followed by Kazrael.
Sextus was in Ravenclaw already as he had decided; and Lilith wondered if she should have let the hat talk her into Ravenclaw. Still, she could slip in to see him any time, either with elf-style apparation – Lilith had not bothered to tell anyone she could apparate, she thought it such a simple and obvious skill it had not occurred to her that people found it difficult – or talk her way through the knocker that asked, as Bella declared, obvious and silly riddles.
Venus ended up in Gryffindor; and that meant a cross school mix that was, Lilith thought, very useful. Lycidice and Alcippe were Gryffs too; and was good backing for Venus.
Lilith did wonder if Assim Khan's niece might just end up as a marauder too; which as she went with Mohini into Hufflepuff would give them a marauder in every house. It was early days yet however; and best to let the young Rakshasas settle down together first.
And then the head announced the new Head of School; and though it was no surprise that the prefects had chosen Mei Chang she still got a hearty roar of approval, though the Head did point out that he would have been happy once again with any of the House Heads and that although he felt the best had been chosen he was very pleased with all his seniors. And if Freya Tuthill was a little disappointed she was generous enough to congratulate Mei and accept that she was probably the best choice.
Zvetelina Krumm, whilst not head of Hufflepuff House, was a practical girl and more aware through Lydia than Shona Moorcroft of the potential pitfalls of having weretigers in the house drew the first year girls off to their dorm and prepared to make one or two things quite clear.
"You girls all look quite sensible" she said "But there is a need to get a little bit ahead of teaching you receive in the class Comparative Magic. About certain different kinds of shapeshifters."
"Do you mean we have a werewolf that needs us to be kind of understanding every month?" asked one girl.
Zvetalina smiled.
"Not quite; moderately close though – Drusilla Macmillan, isn't it? You've Malfoy connections."
Drusilla nodded a sandy head.
"Yes, er, I don't know your name, prefect, I'm sorry."
"I am Zvetelina Krumm; and I am always happy to try to solve any problems; including what we laughingly call here furry little problems" she said "Werewolves are the result of disease; a disease that can be passed down in families too. It is also curable as most sane werewolves desire, for in wolf form they lose their personality and intellect. Not all shapeshifters do. One such is the Rakshasa, mistakenly called the Indian weretiger" the eyes of the three English girls flicked to the two Indian ones. Zvetelina went on, "In tiger form the rakshasa is perfectly lucid, reasonable and unlikely to eat people; indeed they are able to speak words, as I understand. But they must spend eight hours of every day as tigers. It makes sense that they should then do their sleeping in tiger form; but it is also understood that those people who are NOT tigers might, without due warning, get a shock to find a dorm mate being black and orange with a er, fluffy white tummy."
"You've been talking to Bella Black" said Jayashree.
"Bella IS rather loud about how cool tigers are" said Zvetelina dryly. "And I imagine most put out not to have any in Slytherin House; which as Slytherins are supposed to be all snaky is hardly surprising. However! I am hoping that those of you who are not tigers will be accepting and not be silly about those who are."
"Please, Zvetelina, we'll try!" said another child, Phylloxera* Sprout, Zvetelina recalled her name, presumably some relative of the house head. "Are they relatives of Professor Khan? Great Aunt Pomona said he has a tiger form."
That answered Zvetelina's curiosity about Phylloxera's relationships.
"He's my uncle" said Jayashree "And Mohini was supposed to marry him but he wants to pick his own wife not leave it to my grandmother which is awfully brave of him 'cos I'd be scared to tell her I didn't want to do what she'd arranged!"
"He said I can come to school instead and find someone suitable for myself!" said Mohini "And it does sound jolly, but I don't want to Maraud."
The other little girls looked completely mystified.
"Marauding isn't for everyone" said Zvetelina "I didn't want to be a Marauder either; it's not very Hufflepuffish, though if anyone gets invited I don't say it's wrong if you want to."
"It'd be silly to get uptight about something if the headmaster knows all about it and thinks it's all right" said the third child, Sapphira Bones. "Is it tough having to be tigers?"
"We always have been" said Jayashree "So I guess we don't think about it. Uncle Assim says we're more like animagi than were-anything."
"What happens if you don't spend eight hours a day as tigers?" asked Phylloxera.
"We start getting ill" said Jayashree "And can't concentrate and have headaches; and they SAY, though I don't know of anyone it's happened to, that either you just fade away and die, or you turn into a tiger without having any say in it but you might never be human again; and I don't know if that's a tiger that can think or – or just a tiger, but I jolly well don't want it to happen to me."
"May we see?" asked Sapphira.
Mohini and Jayashree exchanged looks; and became tigers.
Three little girls gasped; tiger cubs they might be but half grown tiger cubs are still big.
Jayashree purred loudly, went forward and licked each of the others with her rough tongue.
"See? We're no threat" she said.
Zvetelina left three English girls tentatively stroking and petting two Indian tigers.
That was going to work out just fine.
Sextus Scarpin found himself in a dormitory with just two other new boys, most of the new Ravenclaws being girls. Philamon Graves and Leontius Bradley eyed him and each other up warily.
"I already made some friends here; some are in Slytherin and one in Gryffindor" said Sextus.
"I hid from some Ravenclaw people on the train" said Leontius "Are you a quidditch freak?"
Sextus shrugged.
"I enjoy a game; I follow the league but I don't get upset if I miss hearing a game on the wireless" he said. "Why?"
"Thank goodness! My cousin was chaser for Ravenclaw about ten years ago – in Harry Potter's time – and I'm not really interested in the game. I want to learn potioneering and I could care less about flying!"
"Potioneering? That's something I'm interested too" said Sextus.
"It does sound awfully interesting" said Philamon "Are we a sort of conglomerate of would be potioneers?"
"I guess so" said Sextus. "Of course, to be a serious potioneer one requires Arithmancy; and Herbology; and chanting doesn't go amiss either."
Philamon brightened.
"Really? I'm really looking forward to learning chanting; music's sort of rather important to me."
"I should think we ought to try to help each other out and get along then" said Leontius "Because one hears wild stories of bullies you know."
Sextus chuckled nastily.
"Like Crabbe and Zabini; I wonder how long it took the prefects to unjinx them?" the other two stared and he shrugged. "We felt like a bit of practise, so Kazrael Gan Tokar set herself up as bait and when the racists hove in sight we jinked them. Only two of them, but they ARE fifth years" he said "Snape has older siblings in the school; so have Gan Tokar and Malfoy-Tobak so they gave some of us the low down."
"Crumbs, er, Scarpin, you know the right people then!" said Leontius.
Sextus shrugged.
"If you're potioneers reckon Snape and her crew will like to know you; she's an intellectual snob like me. I'll introduce you."
That felt uncommonly sweet.
"She's in the house with Heath Barbary isn't she? I know him" said Philamon "His uncle and my cousin are friends."
"Yeah; he hangs with James Malfoy and Paris Bullivant" said Sextus, who had met them all in the game of 'Beat Voldemort'. "He's into chanting too; so's his big sister he said. Reckon he'd have dragged you in with us if he'd seen you."
"I don't know him that well; only to say hello to" said Philamon.
"Ah well; for good or ill, in a class together that will change" said Sextus with mild malice. He was just realising that both boys were related to musicians in the Weird Sisters, a favourite group of his mother's.
It did not mean necessarily that the younger relations were in any wise soppy; and indeed Heath was not.
Famous relatives or no, however, Sextus had a chance here to dominate both the other boys in his dormitory and be a leader figure to them; and that way they would not pick on him.
And it would require a delicate touch that made them loyal without resorting to the crudities of the likes of Crabbe and Zabini.
They were not marauders; Sextus could figure THAT out straight away.
Graves and Bradley wanted to be left alone to get on with their own lives; and Sextus was going to make sure that that was what they had. Then they would be in his debt; and that was always useful.
And they needed to be told about the MSHG to make them even more grateful and happy. So he told them, emphasising how it would help combat bullies as well as helping with their work.
Sextus Scarpin had been in two minds about giving in and joining in out of sheer perversity; but his complex little brain was alive to the opportunity of self protection by helping out two who had NOT been dragged into the in-set of Marauders and Malfoys; however rich Philamon Graves' family might be.
And the newest marauders had sworn loyalty to each other on the train; and he had been part of that oath. And he would do just about anything for Lilith; though that he did NOT let himself think about!
Consequently a goodly number of weevils turned up to the MSHG next morning; the three Ravenclaw boys and one girl – Fenella Crawford's older sister having firmly collected her – all the girls of Hufflepuff, two of them still stripy; four Gryffindors and seven Slytherin, lacking only Gareth Rookwood and Michelle Makepiece, the former because he had not been invited, the latter because such 'kids' games' were of no relevance to her ambitions.
Which refusal had relieved the mind of Lilith who had only made it in the spirit that she felt she ought to!
Phylloxera is a species of greenfly.