Chapter 27: Pre-school special
Sirius stood up from his chair, clasping his hands and getting everyone's focus off their hot cocoa – or cup of tea, for Arcturus and Elizabeth.
"Alright, Aldebaran, Shivansh, Orion, you are coming with me, I have a pre-Hogwarts spell I want to teach you three. For the others, you can do whatever you want, as long as you stay in the manor."
The young man threw a look outside – it was still raining and the ground had to be soggy by now – and nodded to himself: that wouldn't stop him from sneaking out if he had a good reason, but as far as he knew, none of the kids had such a reason right now.
Orion stood up and came to him almost immediately, while Shivansh shared a hesitant look with his sister before wandering over. Aldebaran took the time to finish his drink, as Lamia – right, she was above seventeen and could legally do magic, that was why she still had her wand – was making sure she'd entirely dried him up with a hot-air spell, after the Witching Ring ritual outside.
Sirius' grandmother tilted her head.
"...What are you planning?"
Sirius gave her his most honest smile:
"We're not going to break anything, don't worry."
It was a very honest smile, because his plans didn't include broken furniture.
Still, that didn't seem to reassure Grandmother Melania very much.
As Aldebaran joined the other first-years-to-be, Sirius turned on his heels and headed out of the first-floor sitting room, ducking into his current bedroom to pick up the three boys' wands from under his bed – with both the restriction on magic for minors and the current situation in mind, it had been agreed upon that they shouldn't let nearly twenty children they didn't know very well have access to magic at all times, at least not at home. When they took the kids out of the domain, it was another story altogether, in case they got separated or if something happened...
The adults had planned to give them their wands back soon, if only because a solution would have to be found about the exams they hadn't passed in this world – but not yet, not all the time.
The reasons for the law about minors using magic outside of school were plenty: legal responsibility, maturity, the Statute of Secrecy, and yes, there was also the fact that the average age for someone's magical power to stabilize was around seventeen years old, and frankly, the school year was generally taxing on the body, doing magic – magic you didn't know very well yet, that you certainly hadn't mastered – all the time. Sirius wasn't certain cutting the practice entirely was the best thing to do, but he also knew what happened to witches and wizards who used magic for every little thing and never stopped.
After a year or two, they ended up in St Mungo's with intense, unexplained fatigue.
Children who were pushed to practice all year long... Well. Sirius had met Ingrid Carson once, even if the young woman had never gone to Hogwarts. Anthems Rosier and her parents had pushed her so far – claiming she was naturally gifted and should further her magic– that she'd crumbled on herself at fifteen. Now, using magic caused her terrible anxiety.
Anyway, his point was that – issues of trust and ignorance of the kids' temperaments aside – he did agree that children on a break shouldn't be allowed to use their wands too much. Lamia was of age, but the others...
Sirius joined the three kids, their wand boxes under his arm.
"Pear, hazel and ash, right? Come on, kids, we'll settle in the laboratory upstairs until you're ready."
The three boys followed him up the stairs. Orion asked:
"Until we're ready for what?"
Sirius gave him a smirk and walked faster. They pushed through the library and to the left – the young wizard ushered the children in the laboratory room and closed the doors behind him, only to find three pairs of eyes staring at him worriedly.
Aldebaran cleared his throat and shifted on his feet.
"...We're really not going to break anything?"
Sirius rolled his eyes and gestured for them to sit at the long table against the far wall. The room had a slanted ceiling on three sides, starting about a foot over the tabletop, and several dormer windows to go with it.
This afternoon, they would ignore the various potion equipment and other experimental tools.
"You hurt me, Aldebaran. Here I am, proposing to teach you a useful little spell, and you accuse me of misbehavior. What should I conclude from this?"
The boy didn't seem overly moved by Sirius' speech – well, a bit, but he seemed like a sweet kid – obviously used to sarcasm. Maybe not from his own father, not directed at him – actually, Sirius hoped not, you didn't treat your children the same way you did your brother or friends, and maybe he should take a moment to think about that, later – but definitely from his siblings.
Sirius' smirk softened.
"Don't worry, I'm not trying to get you in trouble. This is going to be a bit of fun once we're started, but no one will get hurt and Grandmother's vases are safe."
Aldebaran stared at him for a moment – then nodded slowly.
"Okay... And you can call me Baran if you want."
"Baran, right. Shorter, a nickname. I never really understood those, at least for diminutives of your own name, but if that's what you want..."
Sirius thought of a little girl with ever-changing hair.
"...Unless you don't like your name? Is it alright if I call you both, or is it just Baran, like Dora?"
The blond boy hadn't seemed to expect that question and hesitated for a moment.
"I... No, I like Aldabaran just fine. It's just... It's long, that's all, and 'Al' was already taken by our cousin. Elizabeth is the same, you can call her Beth, because Mom is 'El' and it's also close to Al... I... It's not like Dora, I like my name."
Sirius waited for half a moment, and when it was clear the boy was done, moved on.
"So, we are on a pre-school special here, and I'm going to do something you shouldn't do again without asking for permission, but we'll see about that later. For now, take your wand and tell me what you know of the basics of wand-spells."
Shivansh was the first to speak up, without even reaching for his pear-and-dragon wand.
"No one actually needs a wand to do magic, but it helps with focus, precision and intent, just like incantations. It's almost impossible to do a spell you don't know without a wand or an incantation, because you don't have the feeling of what you're supposed to do."
Sirius nodded.
"Not bad. There are a few spells and other forms of magic that never require a wand, but they have other mediums of focus, especially if we're talking about potions or enchantments. Also, anyone knows why the medium, wand, hand gestures, staff, solid form, et caetera, is necessary to learn, and often remains so if you want efficiency?"
Aldebaran looked hesitantly at Shivansh and Orion, his fingers tapping against his hazel wand.
"It... It shapes the magic? There are..."
The blond boy made a face, unable to come up with the right word.
Sirius finished for him:
"That's right. Each spell uses a specific configuration of magic, it's not just 'I want it and so shall it be', and you can achieve that configuration through both a proper incantation and a physical gesture. You'll notice, at school, that a lot of our European spells are a deformation of Latin: that's because the language is close to form with magic, but not exactly. Spellcrafters usually have to play around with the words before they manage an efficient incantation, adding letters, changing the intonation. And, on another matter, do you know when it's appropriate for children to do unsupervised magic?"
Shivansh shrugged.
"At school, for practice?"
Orion, who hadn't been fast enough to answer, shook his head discreetly and said under his breath:
"When we're in danger already."
Sirius' smile turned a bit grim.
"You're both right, but honestly I was aiming for Orion's answer. I... I'm going to teach you a spell for when you are lost or need the help of someone you trust. Nothing defensive, you don't have enough experience and control for that yet, but at least something that should help you out. Sterhn?"
The house-elf cracked into the room. Both Shivansh and Orion – not Aldebaran – jumped slightly.
"Master Sirius?"
"Did you get what I asked you?"
The house-elf snapped his fingers and several glass beads with something – thin and long and almost impossible to make out – inside appeared on the table behind the boys.
"Is there anything else, Master Sirius?"
"No, it's goo... Actually, yes. Do tell Grandmother and Grandfather that we are only practicing dnharganfod and they shouldn't tell the other kids about it."
Sterhn's eyebrows rose and his heavy eyes slid on the children for half a second before he nodded respectfully and apparated away with another crack.
Orion frowned while mouthing "Narcanvod".
Sirius winced and decided to work on the pronunciation right away, before something weird could happen because of a wrong incantation.
"Dnhar-Gan-Fod, written with a 'f' but sounds more like a 'v' at the end. And you should begin with 'd' and 'n', dnharganfod. Here, try again."
It took a few tries – Shivansh didn't like the first syllable, or maybe it didn't like him – until the three boys could do a passable incantation – and thus, not risk stabbing their target with their wands, for example. Aldebaran shouldn't have been holding onto his wand during pronunciation practice, Sirius reflected – the only reason the window hadn't broken when the hazel and unicorn wand had launched itself into the air with unexpected desperation was that the laboratory room had explosion-resistant windows, experiments oblige.
Well, the more you knew. All of a sudden, Sirius pitied his old professors, who'd needed to deal with entire classrooms full of kids who had no idea what they were doing.
Shivansh tried a last "dnharganfod" that did sound good and sighed.
"...That one isn't Latin."
"Nope, Welsh. Or, as Welsh as an incantation can get, what with the alterations. Someone who speaks Welsh could probably tell you more about the construction of that particular incantation than me. The idea is that you attach one of these beads..."
Sirius picked up a glass bead from the table and turned it around to show the small looped thread attached to the other side. Shivansh grabbed one for himself and squinted at the thin line of brown inside the bead. It definitely wasn't the same as the orange thread outside of it.
"...at the back end of your wand, don't worry, they'll fit themselves to it, and when you say the incantation the wand will start dragging towards the target you are looking for."
Just as Baran asked "how does it know the target?", Shivansh brought the bead closer to his eyes.
"What's inside?"
Sirius-not-Dad looked pleased with both questions.
"Single strands of hair. As I said, you can't just ask your wand to find anything for you, you need something to guide it. And that's the part I said you shouldn't do without asking, by the way. I had Stehrn collect some from your bedrooms for this, but I can do that because you are under my responsibility and I don't intend to hide it from the others after this. Otherwise, it's pretty dicey."
Orion opened his mouth – closed it, thought for a moment, and made a face.
"You learned that spell at the Auror Office?"
Sirius tilted his head in acknowledgment.
"Usually, we use it to find people. It's not very powerful, only works on short distances and can be countered with a number of potions and wards, especially if you don't have the owner's permission, and of course you need at least one hair and the potion to coat it in, but it can be useful when you have to split up with your partner or someone has disappeared."
"What about finding a culprit, if they left hair behind?"
The young man visibly hesitated at that question, as if he was searching how to best answer it.
Shivansh didn't know why. Orion had a point, and you'd think dark wizards catchers would know it.
"There's a... significant chance that a hardened criminal would know to drink a padetrace potion before going and doing something illegal, it erases prints you'd leave behind and turn to dust whatever could fall off your body. Or they might have the wards I told you about, stopping the echo between the bead and its origin. There are even ways to mess up the results and push the spell to identify someone else. For all those reasons, dnharganfod isn't considered valid evidence in a trial. We still use it, but it's not reliable enough."
"It's the same as veritaserum, then?"
Shivansh had never heard of that – didn't know if it was a spell, a potion, a ritual – before, but knew enough Latin to guess the purpose of it. Truth potion, most likely.
Sirius made a face and nodded.
"Same problem, yes. Anyway. Today, I want you to learn this spell and use it to find all the others. Hand them the bead without explaining what it is, just that they have to keep it for now, stick them with this without getting caught..."
Shivansh saw the wizard reach into his pockets and... reveal a bunch of invisible stickers. The kind that glowed with words, but only in the dark. Shivansh wasn't certain of where Sirius was going with this, but was willing to proceed to see the end of it.
"When you're done, come back here and I'll give you another bead. A little seeking, nothing too difficult if you can do the spell. Try not to get them suspicious until the end, alright?"
...This was practice for a day they might actually need to find someone. Practice under the guise of a game, and if they could pull it off... It might be fun, actually.
Orion seemed to think the same, and Aldebaran looked a bit uncomfortable – surely because he potentially had three older siblings to deceive, and they knew him much better than anyone else.
Well, maybe Shivansh and Orion would be the ones to get Lamia, Alastor and Elizabeth. Varsha, Shivansh knew, would be a piece of cake, if he had to find her.
He'd barely had the time to try and put the bead at the end of his wand when Orion paused.
"...Do we practice first?"
Sirius laughed a bit and sat down on the very floor.
"I was waiting to see if you'd ask. Sit with me, I have beads for myself."
They spent a dozen minutes or so getting the hang of the dnharganfod spell: at first, Orion's magic wasn't focused enough, pointing more often left or right than at Sirius himself, and Shivansh couldn't get his to react enough that he'd actually feel not only the pull but also its direction. Aldebaran, on the other hand, tended to put too much power in his spell, because it always tried to assault its target – Sirius only laughed at it and caught the tip of the wand, but Shivansh's father had always been a bit... deaf... to danger – and dislocate Baran's shoulder in the process.
Which sounded painful and wouldn't have been very inconspicuous.
When Sirius grew confident enough in their skills with the spell – Orion's wand still shivered a bit, but didn't move around wildly anymore and pointed in the right direction, Shivansh could feel the pull if he didn't let himself be distracted even if it wasn't very strong, and Baran's grip on his wand prevented all jerky movements, though the blond boy looked a bit too determined and focused to appear casual – he sent them off with a bead and a sticker each.
Orion, Shivansh and Aldebaran shared a look before trying the spell at the same time.
Shivansh found himself lightly tugged towards the other end of the library – the other two saw him disappear in the observatory room as they went down the stairs.
Aldebaran made a face when his wand started violently towards the great dining room downstairs, while Orion wandered incertainly towards the West wing. They separated then, Aldebaran throwing a glance above the balustrade to check who was there – calling to the bead and his wand – before forcing his way down the stairs. He certainly wasn't going to jump down the balcony just because his wand seemed to think it was absolutely vital to get there as fast as possible.
Harfang, the blond boy mused – Orion's older brother. Sitting on the floor with his back to one of the high windows, the rain batting against the glass. How could he...
Aldebaran shook his head and entered the great dining hall. Maybe he should just be honest.
"Hey."
Harfang blinked up from his book.
"...Aldebaran, right? Are... Is Sirius done with you guys? Where's Orion?"
Aldebaran shook his head and took the bead off his wand, handing it to the older boy.
"We're still practicing. You might see your brother and Shivansh running around too. Just, can you keep this bead? I think Da... Sirius wants to use it to check if we've done the spell right. And, uh..."
The boy floundered – the invisible sticker, right – and bit his lip, before moving to stand next to Harfang – just touching the teenager's shoulder, the sticker in his palm.
"What are you reading?"
Aldebaran didn't know what Harfang thought he was doing, but the teen stared at him for only a second before tilting the heavy book at him.
"937 Weird and Innocuous Facts of Wizarding Ireland. I found it yesterday in the library, apparently it's still being edited, because it dates back to the 1500s and there's an authors page with twenty-eight names on it, the last one being Abharrach Lughaidh, for the last fifteen years..."
Harfang stared at the book for a while.
"I think they keep adding facts and pages even in the books they've already sold. I don't know how."
Aldebaran had to admit, that was weirdly fascinating.
"I... have to go back. But, uh. If you find something interesting, could you show me?"
"Sure. Go, and tell Orion not to get too excited with his wand, would you?"
Aldebaran ran back upstairs, no sticker in his hand, to get another bead.
On the first floor, he stumbled on Shivansh, who was squinting in the middle of the balcony – his wand pointed at the hole over the entrance hall, but not downstairs.
The Indian boy spotted him and scowled.
"Second bead, but I can't get whoever this is... I looked all around the floor, ran into Dana and Stefania, asked Alastor, nothing. If I go in the sitting room, my wand just points at the wall instead."
"Maybe I can hel..."
"Looking for something?"
Both boys jumped. Shivansh's wand jumped to the side and Aldebaran felt himself turning red.
His oldest sister was sitting right behind them, balanced on the railing – Mom would scold her for that, but Dad... Dad would just make sure she was well-balanced and laugh it off.
"Oh, Lamia... Nothing, we... were looking for you? Sirius wants you to keep this for a while, I should have thought about the spiral staircase spot."
As he stammered through that semi-explanation, Aldebaran elbowed Shivansh discreetly. The other boy quickly caught on and produced the bead. Lamia pursed her lips as she took the small glass orb.
"Oh, he's got you three doing the dnharganfod spell? I see why you were having a hard time with that secret nook. Alright, hand it over, and..."
The older girl shook her head with a smile, not noticing as Shivansh took that opportunity to put – Aldebaran assumed that was what he was doing – the invisible sticker on her sleeve.
"...Don't worry, I won't tell the others about it."
Aldebaran licked his lips, a bit surprised by Lamia's reaction.
"You know that spell?"
"I was the first, Baran, Mom and Dad didn't know what they were doing for the most part. They hadn't yet figured out it was easier to seek out the missing kids from early on than to wait for them to turn eleven and be able to do magic themselves. Why do you think Mom always has our four blood marbles on her wand when we're going out?"
Aldebaran blinked – was that what it had been about? – and Lamia gently pushed him back.
"Anyway, go on. I'm sure I'm not the only one you have to find."
Both boys ended up walking back up to the laboratory under her amused looks, and Shivansh whispered to Aldebaran:
"But where was she, in the end?"
"There's a... Me and my siblings, we grew up in the manor. Lamia knows all the nooks and crannies, and when she wants to be alone for a bit, she always goes for the hidden alcove under the library's spiral staircase. People can't see or hear you there, and there's a gramophone too."
Shivansh stopped just before the doors to the laboratory room, a thoughtful look on his face.
"Baran... Let's try our best with the next ones? It's a bit like a treasure hunt, no?"
The blond boy smiled back: it was, wasn't it?
