Chapter 4
The addition of extra lessons on the curriculum had been something of a nightmare; but Dumbledore was flexible. This was the first year a full introduction to metalwork was to be expected; and he planned to have Divination taught to half term to all first year pupils to pick up any talented – Madam Spikenard was QUITE confident that any talents would show up by then; and metalwork up to Yule. Over the holidays the students would pick which of the two they would follow and if Madam Spikenard was heard to sigh and murmur that she would have those out for the soft option she knew perfectly well that this was the case often enough amongst those choosing electives.
Chanting was to be a voluntary lesson on Saturdays, as Geomancy had once been; and next year perhaps all quidditch practice would be set for Saturdays as not all were interested in quidditch, so long as they had their compulsory flying lessons in the first year to make sure all were competent on a broom.
As all who were starting chanting – saving those who had learned from Lydia Snape – would be starting a fresh subject, the ages would be mixed, as Geomancy had been. And that had worked out well enough and was now an established subject!
And Geomancy was the first lesson of the day for the new weevils; the first full day of term being a Friday.
Lilith was very pleased with herself; she remembered not to call Sirius 'Padfoot' at all and remember that he was 'Professor Black'. Uncle Sirius had been to see them in the holidays to check she really did want to go to school early – WHAT a stupid question – and that it wasn't some daft-like idea Scales – daddy – had got into his head. She took being called her father's daughter with fond exasperation as a compliment.
There was nothing in the first Geomancy class Lilith had not long since known; but she sighed gently and did the work neatly, copying a Geomantic map of the surroundings of Hogwarts to cover Geomantic symbols. And when she was done she did Durmstrang from memory as well.
Padfoot pretended not to notice.
Comparative magic next would be more interesting; she had not had a chance to cover much of that. Hence Professor Khan found an eager and enthusiastic little girl in addition to his dutifully eager and enthusiastic niece and friend. And indeed an interested and curious group of Hufflepuff little girls.
In Hufflepuff, stripes were suddenly in fashion.
Lilith had intelligent questions to ask about fey shapeshifters like fox spirits; and asked if the hytersprites of East Anglia, fey who took the form of Sand Martins were real or just muggle tales.
"I do not know" said Professor Khan in his purry growly voice "I will endeavour, however, to find out. Widespread muggle legends generally have some basis in fact. Like the widespread tales in the eastern parts of England of Dires being seen frequently; that I am convinced is but a family of unregistered dog animagi."
That was interesting!
Lilith enjoyed herself; and was happy at break to be introduced to Sextus' dormitory mates; whom she promptly shortened to Phil and Leo. And finding that Phil knew Heath she abandoned them entirely to the stable triangle as Heath, Paris and James were nicknamed, to discuss abstruse theories with Sextus.
After break was Transfiguration; and Madam McGonagall gave her usual warning that those who mucked about were out. She permitted herself a smile at Lilith.
"Weel. Miss Snape, I wasnae expecting you for a couple of years; but I've nae doot ye've as much trrouble up your sleeve as your wee mother. I mind weel when she firrst brocht ye back frae St Mungo's and ye wouldnae stay in human forrm but kept wrriggling oot of your nappy! I'm minded tae warrn the rrest of the class that Miss Snape is no' sae usual in being an animagus so young; and I dinnae want ony of ye experimenting with human trransfiguration until I say ye may!"
Lilith beamed at her.
"Even using assimilative correlation by association to turn Zabini into a pig?" she asked.
"You are NO' supposed tae be talking aboot assimilative correlation by association or nomenclature at your age!" said McGonagall horrified "Ye dinnae need tae ken the theory until NEWT…. HOW much do ye ken?"
"You mean can I quote Gamp's laws and its exceptions and understand them?" asked Lilith cheerfully "And it's no good scowling, Shacklebolt, and forming all those thoughts about me trying to be teacher's pet because when you've a mum who writes for 'Transfiguration Today' it's kind of hard not to pick things up, especially as she argues out loud with other people's articles. And I'd be kind of a hypocrite to pretend I DIDN't know, wouldn't , Madam McGonagall?"
"Does she STILL argue out loud?" sighed McGonagall "Weel, Lilith, a' I can dae t'see if you're stretched enough is tae sit ye some past paper OWLs and find out what you do NOT know."
Lilith beamed.
That sounded a bit more interesting than turning matches into needles which was too easy to ever need a wand for. Indeed she had already turned her matchstick into a needle, summoned thread for it and a piece of cloth and had enchanted it to embroider her initials on the fabric. McGonagall heaved out a past paper for her and told her to get on with it and went round to supervise other, less talented matchsticks.
Three Gryffindor boys had no trouble; Hector Weasley who rumour said was like Percy had once been; Hubert McLaggan, who had been prepared to be impressed by himself at anyone who would listen and was MOST put out by Lilith; and Julian Bode, who was grinning openly at the outrage of McLaggan and Shacklebolt, herself having difficulty with the transfiguration, though not as much as Alcippe and Lycidice.
Kazrael managed the task rapidly; Michelle Makepiece, Gareth Rookwood and Heath Barbary making very heavy weather of it.
In Hufflepuff the Rakshasa proved no better at ordinary transfiguration than anyone else; the surprise star was Phylloxera Sprout whose needle appeared with aplomb.
Sextus could not resist threading his needle as well just because; which, it is to say, irritated two Ravenclaw girls, Rufina Scrimgeour and Jennifer Edgecombe who had been pleased with themselves until they saw his efforts!
Madam McGonagall looked over Sextus' shoulder, glanced at his face and said,
"Your no' anither Snape by any chance, Mr Scarpin?
"No Madam McGonagall; though I do admire Professor Snape a lot" said Sextus.
"Weel, weel! Try not to get too creative before ye're ready for it!" said McGonagall.
Lilith handed in her paper; and McGonagall groaned inwardly over the extent of the arithmantic additions over her answers.
Severus had been QUITE right she conceded; the child DID need school if only to stop her becoming a top class prig for being so academic.
She changed her mind when she read the last arithmantic equation in the section on inanimatus conjuratus that by being read summoned a chocolate frog right out of the page.
It was ridiculously advanced; but it was at least a practical joke in keeping with the child's age!
As the afternoon was normally for quidditch practice, the first years had an afternoon off to explore; and it has to be said that the newest would-be marauders took every advantage to go and seek for secret passages!
Lilith also went to renew her acquaintance with Argus Filch and hugged both him and Mrs Norris – Argus was touched and Mrs Norris endured – and introduced him to her friends volunteering them to help.
Later Sextus said,
"Look, half-pint, I hope there was a point to volunteering us for messy and unpleasant jobs."
"'COURSE there is" said Lilith "Apart from the fact that Uncle Argus needs more appreciation than he gets, just 'cos he's a squib, we can get to go places that are normally out of bounds if we're helping him."
"'Sides" said Venus "My mum told me, always keep in with the cook and the caretaker and at least you'll always have a free meal and no extra hassles."
Lilith's leadership decision was no longer in doubt!
Especially when she showed them how to tickle the pear to get into the kitchen where she was fondly remembered by all the elves; and cake and pumpkin juice was the order of the day!
Wendy Manning did not feel as happy about her first day as the first years.
Her first lesson of the day was with Professor Lupin doing Defence Against the Dark Arts; something Wendy thought she knew a lot about.
The class were studying counter curses and the shield spell; and the level of curse the professor expected them to counter was a revelation.
Having discussed the shield spell – which, when he asked, more than half the class claimed to have knowledge of and experience in casting – and set them in pairs cursing each other and protecting themselves.
Wendy, paired with quiet Ian Pender Malfoy, found that quiet and gentle or not, he had a quite implacable will and considerable talent. Ian had learned a lot in the relatively brief time he had been of the wizarding world; and with a big brother like Draco to bring him on he had an eclectic range of curses to throw.
Ian absently cancelled all the spells on Wendy, releasing her from being a rubber ball farting uncontrollably and green with little tentacles.
"You have to try harder than that, Wendy" he said "Or anyone will be able to jinx you; and there's plenty that will."
"It's really hard" said Wendy "I never used the shield charm before."
"Then I guess it's up to the rest of us to bring you up to Hogwarts standard" said Ian seriously "At least, if you want to be an auror like your parents! I know not every family teaches it to babes before they even get to carry a wand; we're a bit unusual I guess, but it should be the first spell a kid learns from those who DO teach it early, on the way to school! It's far and away more useful to know than the bat bogey hex, even if not as amusing."
"I never even HEARD of the bat bogey hex" said Wendy.
"Oh it's when your bogeys crawl out of your nose and turn into aggressive bats… I won't do it on you, it's a bit nasty. It's also a good reason to blow your nose well before you EVER go on the train with bullies or enter into a duel with anyone."
After some more practice, Professor Lupin called a halt.
"Those of you who are still struggling with the shield charm should practise, practise, practise" he said "Harry Potter reckoned it one of the single most useful charms there is. Who can tell me what else is a good counter charm?"
Bella's hand was up.
"Miss Black?"
"Expelliarmus" said Bella.
"Excellent; yes" said Lupin "It is a fact that many witches and wizards never get the hang of casting spells without wands; to disarm them and deprive them of a wand at a critical time can save your life. It saved Harry's; for all Voldemort's vaunted power he had neglected wandless magic. Anything else?"
"Casting wandless and wordless finite incantatem if you've been caught out" said Ian.
"Very good, Mr Malfoy; IF you can cast wandless and wordless. Remember only a handful of children your age can do so; and some never learn. Miss Manning?"
"Gee sir, is it really possible to cast spells without a wand? I – I've heard that the best can cast wordlessly, but I never heard of WANDLESS magic!"
"Well, Miss Manning, if you think about it, the way a child exhibits that he or she is magically active is in the uncontrolled manifestation of magical effects. And the instinctive defensive charm remains with us always. A wand is no more nor less than a focus for your will, increasing the effect of your words. For many people, a wand is necessary to get any effect at all which is why not all learn to cast wandlessly. Mr Malfoy; most people will be using specific anti-jinxes and we shall be concentrating on those over the term; but next lesson I have received permission to use the Imperious Curse so that each of you know what it feels like; and we shall practise until you can all throw it off. Mr Malfoy, Miss Black, we have ten minutes of lesson time remaining; perhaps you would care to give us a demonstration duel wandlessly and wordlessly. If you can actually keep your mouth shut for as long as ten minutes Bella" he teased.
"Oh SIR!" protested Bella.
The duel was for Wendy quite mindblowing; and not a little frightening. She had seen Bella and Jack play duelling on the train – which had been bad enough; but this was stupendous! Bella forced her way past Ian's guard several times and she could see the boy sweating with effort to throw the effects off.
Lupin blew a whistle just before the bell went.
"Good; you've both been working hard in the holidays" he said "Still a bit slapdash, Bella; you MUST learn to rely on subtlety not the brute force of your power."
Bella beamed at him.
Remus laughed.
Bella was like that.
Wendy was out of her depth as well after the break; she had elected to take History of Magic, having studied no Astronomy and not even being entirely sure what Geomancy involved; those being the other electives in this period. She had studied history of American magic; but the English of course specialised in their own country's history – and there was a good deal more of it – AND seemed to expect to handle an overview of world history too. Wendy had tried to read up in the text book but had never dreamed how far into it the rest were, nor how much extra incidental knowledge was taken as a matter of course.
It was fascinating, however, that the goblin rebellions were taught from the point of view that there was right and wrong on both sides; and Professor Lector reminded his pupils that each race had stereotypical perceptions of each other that had been all too often born out by the more hot headed on each side.
What impressed Wendy more than anything else was that the goblins in the class were as happy to refer to certain goblin leaders as stupid as they were the humans in the case. And this she planned to write to her parents!
Wendy was homesick already; she went to a day school in America and being away from her parents was hard. But she knew that she would do better in life if she continued at Hogwarts even after her parents returned to America.
Wendy sighed. She would have to write and tell her parents how advanced the work was that she was expected to do – assuming the other classes were as hard – and yet how much more she could learn here. If only the rest of the class did not already have, on the whole, special friends! Bella had her group, that kind of extended to Mafalda Prewett, who struck Wendy as something of a loner; the Malfoy twins were sufficient unto each other, the other goblin girl in Slytherin hung out with the goblin boy. And the girls in other houses seemed to be in groups of two or three, even if some of the groups looked more like a sycophancy than friendship – this was one of the Ravenclaw groups – that Wendy would want nothing to do with anyway.
The boy Jack Clements sat down beside her at lunch.
"ARE you planning on being an auror like your parents, Manning, or has that put you off?" he asked.
"I suppose I am…. I never really thought about doing anything else" said Wendy. "Are your parents aurors too?"
Jack gave a harsh mirthless laugh.
"My parents were muggleborn who were just happy to be part of the wizarding world; they were tortured to death by deatheaters and I was sent for – training. The kids here helped me find out that I want to fight evil like Voldemort and his minions; that's why I want to be an auror. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Wendy gasped.
"I – gee, Clements, I can't even begin to imagine!"
"No; nor can a lot of even English kids. 'Cept some of the goblins who've had stuff almost as bad happen to them. But if you want to work with me to pull your game up, you need to know why I can be a bit moody."
"I – will you truly help me catch up?"
He shrugged.
"Said so didn't I?"
"Then thanks! I guess I want to make sure we never have a Voldemort in America!"
Jack Clements nodded.
He was on good terms with all the boys in his year; but he was essentially a loner and felt that it was something Professor Snape would have expected him to do – pass on the helping hand he had himself received.
Jack missed Professor Snape. He had had the sardonic Potions master as house head for only one term, before Severus had needed to take over at Prince Peak; but it had made a lasting impression, for the kindness he had been shown on his first night at school. Which was why Jack intended to take chanting; because he knew it had been reintroduced by Professor Snape, who set great store by it. And so he told Wendy.
Wendy had been unsure whether to invest time into another subject when it looked as though the ones she was studying were to take all her time to catch up; but Jack said,
"Chanting does what nothing else can in breaking curses. It's the second most important background skill for any serious practitioner of magic. Only Arithmancy is more important!"
"I never learned any Arithmancy; but I never learned any comparative magic either so I plumped for Arithmancy because I'd heard of it; but I'm in a frightful muddle."
"Crumbs! Well it CAN be done; Madam Malfoy-Snape, they say, caught up four straight years reading the textbook on the train; but she is exceptional. It doesn't come easily to me; but I'll do all I can and so will everyone else I reckon. This year in Slytherin are about the best bunch of oiks ever."
Wendy was profoundly grateful! The book she had assumed the knowledge of basic tuition – that she had never had; and to have the chance to just study through the notes Jack had kept from his first three years would make a great deal of difference – especially the first elective year!
That afternoon she found out that at least she wasn't too far behind in herbology which was not a subject Jack did; that at least seemed one subject with which the two cultures were on a par!
And then it would be chanting.
Professor Queach looked rather nervously at the first real class he had ever taught; that seemed to be an entire horde of mixed age pupils.
Actually it was less of a horde than it looked; not everyone was prepared to give up their Saturday mornings, but those that were there looked mostly enthusiastic. Actually the only children he had were those mainly from the fourth and below; those studying chanting in the fifth, the OWL year, had negotiated an evening with him, and that had pleased Tony Queach well enough. He knew that those in the fifth who were planning to take the exam had already been serious about the skill and had been learning on their own; and would be in a different class. He had spoken with Lydia; and discovered that she also had taught sundry children now in the fourth and one child in the third; as a result of which the Belle Marauders and Sara Barbary would also be in the evening class. He had instead one boy from the fifth, the unpopular Darryl Zabini, who wanted to know the source of the power of such as the marauders; and the likes of Jack Clements who would have joined the classes with Lydia had he realised before the use of chanting to heal the French boy and the Hellibore boy in the Triwizard how powerful chanting could be; and for similar reasons, Richmaya Crouch-Jones joined him and Wendy because, as she said, she was such a klutz that chanting might help her to cast spells by taking it methodically rather than blowing everything on a charm gone wrong.
"Still won't keep you on a broom though" laughed Jack.
Richmaya poked him good naturedly.
Her disastrous exploits on a broom were well known; and she took no offence.
Ian Malfoy had also come along; he had been busy enough adjusting to the wizarding world to feel unable to take an interest hitherto; but Lucius had strongly suggested that the discipline was well suited to his iron will.
Most of the third had turned up; which is to say the luminaries of the Society Against Slavery and The Other Gang who were not prepared to go as far as Marauding but wanted to jinx bullies and help people out; and sundry other members of the MSHG who were hangers on of the two gangs without fully joining either.
It has to be said that Kevin Slugworthy dreamed of using chanting to produce larger and even more psychedelic slugs than his conventionally bred streelugs; though all the SAS had heard whispers of the eight-hour chant that had freed House Elves from the compulsion to self punish and had ambitions in the same sort of direction!
The second were represented by the nine members of the MSHG of that year, seven of whom hoped to Maraud (and the marauding group had already had a taster of chanting from Bella and co); plus Genevieve Harris who was musical and her two swains who were there for entirely the wrong reasons and were not musical. The first years were those of the MSHG that Lilith had more or less bullied into attending, Roxanne Shacklebolt who had NOT taken her cousin Kingsley's advice to join the MSHG in the shared opinion with Michelle Makepeace that is sounded childish and the Hufflepuff boys who were about to make Hufflepuff history by having an entire year of their house actually joining in the MSHG at the urgings of the girls.
Tony Queach had no illusions.
He was well aware that a large number of the class would drop out as soon as they found out how painful some of the voice exercises were until the diaphragm was used to being exercised; and still others because they had not listened to his initial explanation of how they could not undertake serious chanting without voice exercises and gave it up as boring because they had not used it to destroy dark wizards within the first half term.
Then they might get onto the serious stuff when those without dedication had dropped away.
Tony Queach made his introduction.
"The art of chanting almost died out and has been revived by Professor Snape; who taught, in his time, such illustrious pupils as Harry Potter and his friends in private classes, since they had something of a need to know rather esoteric magics. I will warn you now, not all people can manage successful chanting. This is nothing to do with how musical you may be; though musical talent helps. Chanting requires an innate feel for the arithmantic idiosyncrasies of the curse you hope to break or the enchantment you wish to install. It is a subtle skill that works by either adding or peeling away layers of enchantment slowly and methodically. As such, a skilled practitioner may be capable of producing effects as far above the understanding of the ordinary witch or wizard as magic itself is above the understanding of a muggle. Next year I hope that the subject will be introduced as a taster in the first two years and become subsequently an elective taken with knowledge of what is involved; meantime, thank you for giving up your free time. The first few lessons will be hard because as well as a little theory I shall be training you to breathe. You laugh; but believe me, those of you who have studied any music will know that without being trained to breathe, a singer cannot get easily through a song without the revolting noises Celestina Warbeck makes; and excess breaths in a chant can change the entire result of it. Yes, er, Miss Cornfoot, isn't it?"
Tony had still been at school when Venilia had been in the junior school; as she was of his own house, Ravenclaw he could remember her name!
"Sir, will we have to make noises like the Cacophonic Crow – er, Amos Leroy, I mean?" she asked.
There was some laughter.
"Mr Leroy has been taught to use his voice by similar exercises we shall be doing" said Tony "But I shall not expect anyone to want to sing opera, especially the more misguided efforts of Callinus* Strainz,"
There was laughter over the mention of the notorious Austrian writer of impenetrably clever opera.
"Oh good" said Venilia. "Nothing wrong with elegiac poetry that an enema to the writer won't cure."
Tony managed not to grin.
"We SHALL be studying poetry formally as part of the class" he said "And some of your homework will be at times to produce poems according to strict metre. That's how many legs each line has and whether is goes, for example de DUM de DUM deDUM de DUM or DEdum DEdum DEdum DEdum. Emphasis can be as important as the correct number of arithmantic syllables. I tell you this so that those who thought you were going to do a little gentle singing know what you might be letting yourselves in for. Chanting is not a solely practical class; it is deeply arithmantic. And by a number of faces, I suspect this class is going to be smaller next week. I WILL put in the time with anyone who wants to learn, even if they have any difficulty; but whether you succeed or not is ultimately down to your determination. If chanting were a matter of learning some poetry by rote, any idiot could do it. And those charms that CAN be used by rote are used in the enchanting class. Chanting is about will and intent. I have heard that those luminaries of the fourth known as the Belle Marauders managed to produce a higher than NEWT level spell by using an incantation from a muggle film" – here Charis Rawlins giggled – "Simply because their will was sufficient. Lilith Snape, what are you doing here? You already chant at least at OWL level."
"I can help my friends though" said Lilith looking inscrutable. "Professor Dumbledore isn't hardly likely to let me take OWLs that many years too early."
Tony laughed.
"All right; I designate you my classroom assistant" he said "And if anyone is going to get silly ideas about a weevil helping out, she IS the daughter of the same Professor Snape who reintroduced it and grew up with chants in the background."
"Is there ANYTHING Snape didn't grow up with in the background?" asked Roxanne Shacklebolt snidely.
"Not a lot, no" said Tony Queach "Severus Snape had a more exacting role than most in the fight against Voldemort; it is scarcely surprising that such has rebounded onto his family. Rather than pulling jealous faces, ah, Miss Shacklebolt, be pleased that you never had to watch your parents take the cruciatus curse. For all knowledge gained there is the price that is paid."
"That which does not kill us makes us stronger" said Lilith. "That's why Zabini is never going to be a chanter because he hasn't got the passion; he's just a sad little git who can't understand the realities of life."
"Thank you Miss Snape, that was uncalled for; seven repetitions of King Gama's song on my desk for Monday and do NOT let me see a forked tongue wagging at Mr Zabini" said Tony, who knew well that Lilith hated repetitions of Gilbert and Sullivan as punishment.
Lilith nodded.
"Sir" she said.
She had scored on Zabini; and that counted for more than getting punishment! Shacklebolt was such an idiot too; she should have been part of Lilith's own set with a cool cousin like Kingsley but she just had to be self sufficient and stuck up about having a famous auror as her cousin!
Oh well, there was no VICE in Shacklebolt; hopefully she'd settle down and be less of a pain when she found that sometimes help WAS required by anyone.
Lilith meanwhile went round half the class while Tony went round the other, having set them to breath, to make helpful criticisms and suggest improvements.
There was an irony that Shacklebolt, who was supposed to be one of the good guys, did NOT take Lilith's advice; and Zabini, who was a racist git, DID.
"'S a pity you've a bee in your bonnet about muggles and goblins, Zabini" said Lilith "You're almost as stubborn and clever as any of my family. I guess any of us would have liked you if you hadn't been so determinedly set in the mould of racist. And I can't see why you are; reckon someone's done a really good brainwash job on YOU!"
Zabini was too black of skin for a flush to show; but Lilith was enough snake even in human form to be marginally heat sensitive, especially if she picked up just enough of the change into snake to enhance it; and she knew he had flushed at her comments.
He would be a harder target that Sextus Scarpin to make happy; because she knew how to avoid Lily's mistakes over Sec.
Zabini might however be worth stealing, though Lilith.
He had, after all, only been teasing the muggleborn Dunbar Finch; objectively, Lilith thought, he could have been behaving worse.
She got a little sidetracked soon after that because Sirri had gone into labour; and Lilith was proud that she could help the birthing of her little sister; whose name, Sirri liked to tell everyone, was to be Charis. It was a nice name; it meant 'grace' Lilith knew and that was sort of appropriate for a delicate half elf. And she could feel baby Charis too, born of the bloodgroup and receiving love from everyone.
Perhaps Lilith would be her special big sister like Jade was Lilith's!
Callinus was a writer of elegiac poetry