Chapter 1

Zoltan and his half brother Sigismund were looking forward to going back to school.

Sigismund had come to stay in the castle belonging to Zoltan's stepmother's parents in Germany after Cacilia had birthed their twin half-sisters named Agata and Nefrita. Mother Cacilia had declared that the twins were not identical; but as Zoltan said to Sigismund, you could have fooled him. They both looked as red and wrinkled one as the other; and both had tufts of red hair.

Sigismund regarded the babies judiciously.

"One of them is darker red than the other" he said "And maybe they'll turn out to have different coloured eyes. And I think that one has a shorter nose, but I might be fooling myself."

Zoltan chuckled.

"I think they both look like the bald and pink Herr Examiner who came; the one whose eyebrows are too pale to show" he said.

"ALL babies look like that" said Sigismund "I remember the younger of my siblings – my adoptive siblings – looking the same. They get interesting in a year or so."

"When do your siblings come in?" asked Zoltan.

"Klarisza next year and Vitóz the year after" said Sigismund "And they'll have left by the time these sprouts go up. We shall have to cultivate juniors with long families who are suitable to Maraud whose younger siblings will be able to take the twins as fags. And I say, I think I shall ask Wencelada to take Klarisza as her fag because Wencelada is cool as well as being blood group and she'll be in the lower sixth then. And I say, we ARE supposed to be looking out for people Viktor Krumm asked the old folk to keep an eye out for; the children of the brother of his friend Polina Ivanova who used to play Chaser for Bulgaria. And it strikes me that if the kid we're looking out for is all right and has all right siblings, they'll be able to take care of the twins in their turn."

"That's not a half bad thought" said Zoltan "Are we collecting er, Ilarion Ivanov?" he recalled the name their father had mentioned.

"Not hardly!" said Sigismund "WHO are the senior Bulgarians in the school? Only the Asimov twins! And if the kid's worth corrupting into being a marauder I expect Zlatko and Zlatka will have done it already! There's two other Bulgarians in the school also, Diliana Zhikova in the, er, fifth, now, and her sister Bianka a year younger. Viktor wanted marauders closer to him in age to sort him out was all, if he needed sorting. And I guess Viktor and Lydia will breed soon too, and then Agata and Nefrita will be looking out for THEIR kids."

"If they send them to Durmstrang not to Hogwarts" said Zoltan.

"Dad said, Viktor said he wants to make sure that Durmstrang keeps on the straight and level by having hereditary marauders in constant supply" said Sigismund. "And apparently if you can credit it to give opposition to Jade Luytens' children in Triwizard competitions."

"Hah! As if we shan't have siblings ready to do that!" declared Zoltan.

"Too right!" agreed Sigismund and they high-fived each other.

oOoOo

It had been for each of them a good holiday; and Sigismund had come for the last week of the holiday to see his brother and new sisters and to make it more convenient for returning to school to which Attila Nagy and his wife Cacilia Von Freyer Nagy would side-along apparate them – officially anyhow since the blooded boys were capable of doing it for themselves – as the only Hungarians currently in the school. Attila would leave them in the Lodge where the children met up before being taken on to the school proper; it had fallen to the Herbology Professor, Kunegunde Kluba to be in charge in the Lodge this September; she having lost the draw of cards with which the staff determined whose duty it should be. Madam Kluba quite liked the half brothers for the interest they had taken in Herbology; though she might have been less sanguine over their industry had she realised that their industry had been purely with one end in mind; the production of a heavily enchanted maze to form part of the defences of the school and a place in which to have endless and usually nefarious amusement for Marauders. As she did NOT know, she smiled warmly at the boys when Attila brought them in early and demanded a cuddle of the babies that were strapped firmly to Cacilia's chest.

Cacilia was not about to antagonise anyone unnecessarily and Agata and Nefrita were duly passed over to the older woman to coo over with all the adoration of babies so many aging maiden women manage.

"My dear, I do hope you can manage to deal with their needs and teaching too; I don't believe anyone has ever done it before" said Madam Kluba, worried "Most people stop teaching when they wed; certainly if they are in the family way."

"Oh but it has been done before; frequently" said Cacilia "None of my English friends would dream of giving up teaching when they may have their children close to them; save Krait Malfoy-Snape who gave up for a term or two when she was ill with one of her pregnancies. There's nothing out of the ordinary; I have a family elf who will care for them when I am in lessons so I do not have to be a drain on the resources of the castle elves. And I can always leave them with Tildi; Clovis is a close friend of mine, you know! Their Little Clovis is old enough to be less hard work and Radagas is old enough to take an interest."

Professor Kluba pursed her lips.

"It was very compassionate of Clovis to adopt that goblin boy, but do you think… I mean, to let him have anything to do with your children….."

"And why should he not?" said Cacilia "He's a nice child; he'd not want to be saddled with them indefinitely, but I dare swear he'd not object to a little extra pocket money for baby sitting like any child his age. At nine he's quite old enough to be capable you know!"

Professor Kluba had not meant to disparage the boy's age; but like all of the casually racist she could not see that a goblin could be trustworthy; and hoped fervently that poor dear Cacilia would not regret trusting her dear little babies to him.

"Radagas is cool" said Zoltan "I wish he could come to Durmstrang with us when he's old enough; he'd be a grand Marauder!"

"He can be a grand Marauder in Jade's school or Prince Peak" said Attila calmly. "Come, Cacilia; re-pack the small smells and we'll get on to the school without embarrassing Zoltan by our presence as more people turn up."

The Transfigurations professor ruffled his sons' hair and left them to the shocked Madam Kluba who could hardly credit that nice pure blood young wizards should even suggest having a goblin within the hallowed halls of Durmstrang as a pupil!

oOoOo

The Romanian contingent were the first to arrive, which meant two marauders among its number, Corneliu and Beryx yodelling cheerfully to their friends to the disapproval of Nikolai Nagy, the oldest Romanian boy and no relation to Attila and his sons. Felicks Knapp arrived shortly thereafter; and though not a marauder, Zoltan counted the musical boy a friend and he greeted him warmly. And shortly behind him were three marauders, Lindhard, Beremud and Bronislava, who travelled together now Bronislava lived with her brother, full of the news that she had felt her goblin friend Grelleg being blooded since the other school started back a little early and she was really glad that he was now their blood brother.

"You love us best though, don't you?" said Zoltan.

She laughed.

"Of course I do!" she said. "My Marauder group! But I spend the hols with Grelleg as well as Beremud and it's really nice that he's now a brother too so we can do marauder things in the hols, and Lindhard when he can catch the train into Neubrandenburg. We felt the babies arrive though Cacilia – Professor Von Freyer I should say – was blocking; what are they like?"

"Red and wrinkled and they smell but they'll grow out of it" said Zoltan cheerfully.

oOoOo

The Bulgarian contingent arrived next; the Asimov twins in obvious charge of the two small people and Diliana keeping young Bianka, her sister in check. Bianka was a year above the Musical Marauders, in a class with the Jade Fag Marauders of whom she was NOT an intimate, though her older sister was accounted mostly harmless. Penka Giorgieva was in the same class as the Musical Marauders and she too was under Diliana's watchful eye; which pleased her classmates who considered her hard and nasty.

In addition to the small boy who was presumably Ilarion there was too a small girl. Zlatko looked around and whistled for the Musical Marauders, all of whom were now foregathered.

"Here, brats, this is Ilarion Ivanov and this is Nedelya Grgica and Nedelya is sulking faintly that we don't have stables at school for her precious horses so I've suggested she write to her parents and ask to transfer to Prince Peak or Schloss Adler; she doesn't give a toss about goblins so long as she gets to ride."

"My parents will care though" said Nedelya sadly "They don't think goblins would be quite nice to know. I get on just fine with our goblin grooms though, who know what they're talking about so what's the difference? It's not like goblins are a huge lot different to humans is it?"

"Ah, a girl after our own heart!" said Sigismund. "Ilarion, we've got parents who know Viktor Krumm so we're sort of told off to be people for you to run to if the inimitable Zlatko should prove too lordly a sixth former who's about to get voted in as Head Boy if I know how the Eulenspiegel twins are going to run their canvassing. We're Marauders; Marauders fix problems and sort out bullies and things. And that goes for someone who cares less about race who we'll also be adopting" he added smiling at Nedelya

"What do you mean, sort out problems and fix bullies?" demanded Nedelya "Don't prefects do that?"

"Well yes; but then there's marauders for things people don't necessarily want to take to prefects" said Sigismund.

"We fight for justice and fairness in all ways" said Beremud "And Marauders who left school set up the free school for good education for all and we want to work on changing attitudes and teaching people that everyone's the same."

"Well it does rather stand to reason, doesn't it?" said Nedelya "If you couldn't see who you were talking to I bet you couldn't tell if you were talking to a goblin, a mud blood or a pure blood or if you stuck to subjects they knew about probably even a muggle. And if there was a spell to hide the squeakiness of the voice, an elf for that matter; our family elf is quite as knowledgeable as anyone and he scolds quite as much as any grown up."

"You've got a decent family then actually" said Zoltan "We've heard of families whose elves are so downtrodden they speak only in the third person and cringe a lot and won't volunteer opinions. And actually the elves belonging to the school were so cowed by the previous head they're only just starting to recover; and one of them was made to bury herself alive for reading in the library. He was an AWFUL man and such a bully; and so bigger Marauders imprisoned his spirit in a portrait and buried it so he got a taste of own back. That was Zlatko, Zlatka and the Owlglasses; but it was still a Marauder thing. They told us about it. And Madam Bacsó has specifically given permission to the elves to read if they've finished their work. One day, Marauders are going to free house elves; when they're ready to be free. Same as Marauders lifted the compulsion to self punish; and look at it this way – if every time you resented something your parents said you had to bang your head on the floor or burn yourself you'd be a pretty poor sap. And that's what had been done to elves."

"It is RIGHT that slavery should be abolished!" declared Ilarion "How do we get to be Marauders?"

"They'll do" said Lindhard.

"What you do" said Bronislava "Is to declare the intention to Maraud, you two; and bond together and seek out if there are others who feel right to work with; and stand together against those who would throw their weights around. Nationality and race do not matter, not that there's any real race issue here. But if you become true Marauders, if we invite you fully in, you will have brothers and sisters – because we are a family – all over Europe who are goblins, part goblins, muggle-born, elves, part elves and so on; cured werewolves, rakshasa, fey; all sorts. We shall educate you about such manner of people" she added as they looked confused.

"Good; we shall then look for other Marauders" said Nedelya "Come on Ilarion; let us observe all new ones and see what we think."

"How will we tell they are first years?" asked Ilarion.

"DURR! New uniform, looking a bit lost, staring around like we did because the place is new!" said Nedelya "I guess if we can Maraud I shan't mind AS much about not being able to ride but I don't half resent it all the same!"

oOoOo

Because Zoltan counted Herman Langstab, like Felicks, as a friend and Periklis Theodrakos too, he firmly introduced their respective little brothers to Yorick Thorwaldsen now in the lower sixth to be his fags. Yorick's sister Sofie was a Marauder and Yorick was decent enough if rather blunt; and would never make a push for himself to grab a fag. In the same way, Sigismund deposited the sister of Alois Dunkelschwann, who was harmless, on Gisela Schutzmann who was an austere and self sufficient body and would not mind if her fag were as inefficient and dim as the child's brother, Alois. Xanthos Theodrakis was not the only first year from Greece; a little girl called Malina Doukos was also along and as she explained firmly to a boy who seemed to be organising fagging that she should be placed with someone whose blood was as pure as her own near pure blood, Zoltan took a dislike to her immediately.

"Well you ain't in my remit" he said "So go pick yourself a stuck up sixth former to go with your stuck up self; I'm doing a favour for a friend, kiddo, not running after every brat who happens across my path. Try Aglaia Hallow; because she'd actually like care if you're descended from Circe because she's descended from one of her swine."

"Blunt" said Periklis. He was a year below Zoltan since Zoltan had worked for his remove but was devoted to the Musical Marauders who had arranged to have his hearing problems sorted out with chanting.

"I don't much like blood snobs" shrugged Zoltan.

"I suppose you're barely a step from being a muggle" sneered Malina.

"Actually" said Zoltan sweetly "I'm pure blood; but I don't let irrelevancies like that interfere with my friendships."

Needless to say, Malina was NOT one chosen by the incipient marauders.

Her countryman was another matter.

Xanthos had the look about him that spelled determination; and the Bulgarian children leaped on him and asked him what he knew about Marauding and was he up for it knowing that it meant being friendly with goblins and up for elf rights and so on.

Xanthos had never considered goblin and elf rights but he was ready to listen; his family was not as pure blooded as some and he did not consider he was a worse wizard than any who were pure so he was prepared to accept that blood status and race were fairly immaterial.

oOoOo

The only other younger sibling to arrive this year was Shazia Malik; Zoltan did not feel a particular friend to Zahid, who had initially backed the revolting Zsombor Czerny. However, they had taken the Pakistani boy under their wing and he HAD moved into the dormitory with Zoltan's other friends when he moved out so as not to fall prey to the rather parochial German contingent of that year. Zoltan duly deposited the girl on Scholastica Uccello. Shazia seemed a quiet enough child with a determination to do well; and to have a protector was quite important for a girl who had the slight deformity of webs to her hands.

The new Marauder group however rejected her; they thought she had a hardness to her and she was never even asked if she knew about Marauders. They did not ask Renate Dunkelschwann either since Nedelya declared that she had the look of 'all the candles lit but no-one at home'; and Laurenz Langstab was a worthy looking youth who was NOT the sort to be getting into trouble. As Ilarion said, finding those who felt right was easier said than done.

And at that, had he but known it, he was in a better case than Zoltan had been, having found no marauding fellows in his own class, the reason he had worked for his remove to join his half brother and HIS group.

They rejected three more girls who were ethnic Germans out of hand as stuck up and probably blood snobs; and presented the aims of the Marauders to a fourth German girl who looked on the world with wide and interested eyes.

"You actually mean that?" asked Marlene Weisskessel intently after they had introduced themselves and explained their aims.

"Yes we do" said Nedelya.

"What would you then say if I told you I am a part goblin?" asked Marlene.

"Goodness! How did you con the school into taking you?" asked Ilarion.

"My parents did not tell them" said Marlene calmly "My papa married one of the workers on the line of the factory he owns. Mama is one eighth goblin. If the authorities find out and kick up a stink I am to go to the new school but papa and mama want to see if I can't prove to be as good as anyone else here and then I shall tell them when I leave just to cock a snoot at the system."

"She'll do" said Ilarion.

"Excuse me" another girl leaned over "I have heard some of what you said; and you are right. It is time to stop being old fashioned. I should like to be a part too of your society to change things."

"It's about being really ready to put your money where your mouth is and accept that in English schools there are goblin and elves and other sorts of people as Marauders who will be our brothers" said Nedelya.

"And in my country we have a creep called Klaas De Witt and I should like to do anything that runs counter to what HE believes" said the girl "And my name is Daffodil. Daffodil Steen."

"Welcome aboard then Daffodil" said Ilarion "And I say, Xanthos, we appear to be outnumbered by girls."

Xanthos shrugged and grinned.

"I expect we'll survive" he said "And when we get old enough to have to do squishy things like dance with them, at least it gives us a choice."

"There is that" admitted Ilarion.

There were no others who caught their eye; and the Bulgarian pair and cronies reported that their Marauding group was five strong.

"An excellent number" said Sigismund "The fourth have a group of four; we're a big group of seven because Broni joined later and we stole Zoltan from the year below us and made him catch up to be with us. The rule is, total truth within Marauding; no secrets. You may want to keep that just in your own group for now, but any troubles you lot have, you share with us and we sort it. You work as a self-help group and help each other out with weaknesses in class and help other oiks that need it as will accept help. Look for secret passages. Consider the castle in terms of how you would defend it from attack. Practice spells and jinxes; and above all join the English Customs Club."

Xanthos had already broached the ECC to the others and they nodded solemnly. They would have a lot to do!

"Is it likely the castle might be attacked?" asked Daffodil.

"It has been" said Sigismund "We'll tell you more about stuff like that as you settle in; but dark wizards do like the idea of trying to control schools and thus train up minions. And some people who got expelled can get stroppy and vindictive you know."

"Oh, yes; I can see De Witt doing that if he could get the support" said Daffodil. "We shall then need to read about defending castles."

"Library work; you can't beat it" grinned Sigismund.

oOoOo

The Musical Marauders amused themselves by seeing who the new prefects were – which was the Eulenspiegel twins, Scholastica, Adolf Zollschange and Alexand Amsel; generally speaking the latter three would follow the lead of the Eulenspiegel girls but just to make sure, the marauders made sure to explain that in the view of the lower school, Zlatko Asimov would make the best head boy out of a rather decent set of upper sixth prefects none of whom would do a bad job at all but after all, to whom did everyone turn to sort things out.

As Gisela Schutzmann said, there was no point voting for anyone else because Zlatko was one of those people who sort of automatically ran things anyway.

"You WERE our second choice" said Sigismund "Zlatka could lead but you WILL lead."

"Thanks" said Gisela, feeling almost foolish that she should feel pleased that third years should feel her the best second choice. Still, the opinions of the lower school DID count; an unpopular choice could cause a lot of trouble!

The Musical Marauders also firmly undermined the power of the sixth by informing sundry new children that they did not HAVE to accept fagship with the first upper school oik who asked – and especially if the asking was by way of demanding – and they could actually refuse to be a fag at all but it helped to make good contacts and if in doubt they should ask to think things over and check with those in the know which elderly types they did NOT want to fag for. This being so they proceeded to arrange most of the younger ones to fag for those of the sixth – and the fifth – that they liked leaving them with two or three fags each, and those the marauders did NOT like without any, except Harald Trollkettil who had already extracted the promise to fag from his small countryman, lad named Max Varghund whose family knew Harald's and who hoped that Harald would see that he got some quidditch games in against the first seven.

It came as a shock to him when the marauders told him that Harald had only served on the first seven for a portion of the last year having been slung off for bad attitude and poor play.

They left him plotting revenge against his man.

It only remained to drop the fluorescent fart jinx onto Harald and onto Aglaia Hallow just because they did not like her.

oOoOo

Once the journey to the dark, forbidding castle had been completed the school assembled in the great hall for the welcoming speech from Madam Bacsó. Sigismund was very proud of his mother and her dignity as she addressed them all and welcomed them back.

"You may be pleased to know that Zlatko Asimov has been voted head boy; and that an idea he suggested in passing last year has been implemented" said Agata "He suggested a duelling match with Prince Peak; and I have been in contact with Professor Snape who suggested making the match three way, by inviting in the Cheesteeykrovy Shkola Koldoovstvoy to participate. Now you may recall how ill-mannered the Russian school was when we played them at quidditch; I anticipate that we shall have an enjoyable match against the children of Prince Peak and I shall take it as the patriotic duty of the duelling team to thoroughly show up the Russians. We SHALL show every courtesy to the visiting Prince Peak team regardless of race; if they send any goblins or part goblins we will show them as much courtesy as to humans to show that OUR manners are impeccable. It has been proven that goblins are as educable as humans; Durmstrang reflects the preferences of those families who prefer not to have their offspring educated alongside goblins and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. That does NOT mean however that we should behave as barbarians to those of schools whose philosophy is different. We have seen what it is like to be on the receiving end of the incredible blood snobbery of the Russians and how such blood snobbery robbed them of the simple courtesies any highborn should take for granted. However well we perform against Prince Peak does not matter; we and they will do our best and we should be very well matched. Crush the Russians, my children; crush the Russians."

The school cheered, some with more enthusiasm than others when taking on board the possibility of having to be polite to goblins.

The Musical Marauders grinned. It had been their spell – the putrid popping pustule curse, where pustules burst with a simultaneous summoning of maggots into the exploding pustules – which had completed the humiliation of the Russian Quidditch team after their rudeness, since they had needed to beg for aid to have the curse removed.

The Musical Marauders LOVED chanting.

oOoOo

It may be said that the top duellists in the school loved chanting too, and Zlatko had every expectation of being chosen to be one of the duellists; and planned to hold up the end of Takeo Namudzu, whose strength of will the Bulgarian boy admired.

Madam Bacsó herself, as a one-time duelling champion, organised the duelling club though she left picking the team to Clovis Gierek so there could be no accusations of favouritism or fixing when she came to referee the match. She suggested sweetly that a representative from each school should be sent to judge points on style since this was outside the purview of a referee; it should even things up. It was embarrassing to recall that when there was the match against Beauxbatons and Hogwarts the marking had been blatantly unfair on the part of her own school; because nobody knew any better than to use the advantage of home soil, and did not realise that this made them a laughing stock to others without the disadvantage of a Durmstrang upbringing. Learning why the English were so good, because they did not believe in favours to favourites, had gone a long way to cutting through a fog of resentment over what made them different; and now she was willing to bet that her school stood equal to any of the English schools, even though the range of subjects was not so great. Jade and Severus had both held forth on Divination, which they had described as an unfortunately vital fuzzy study; that the English considered it largely useless but sufficiently important to retain on the curriculum made her have to consider including it.

Comparative Magic; that sounded interesting but as it included studies of elf and goblin magic the parents would not accept that. And no goblin would consider for a minute teaching in Durmstrang where he would be treated like dirt, even if the parents were ready to accept goblin metal work on the curriculum. Agata had learned a lot about goblins after having been forced by Jade to come more into contact with them; and had to admit that she found them less disgusting than she had expected. Some were crude; but that might equally well apply as a descriptor of some of her pure blood pupils. Well now at least there was a more than adequate Arithmancy teacher in the person of Katarina Nachtigall; and there was the subject of Geomancy now taught formally under Nannerl Schweffel; and Chanting taught by Volodya Potishev. There would not be the embarrassment of watching a candidate fail to understand any arithmantic key in the next Triwizard since hopefully all her sixth form of the time would have a good grounding. A shame Zlatko would not be here for the next year; Agata had already sounded him out about staying on and the boy had laughed and said that the Eulenspiegels would do well enough by the school.

It was true that Xanthe and Xanthippe were the most talented in the year; Agata would personally have preferred a champion who was not an ethnic German, and Zlatko would have fulfilled the situation perfectly, but if he would not stay with some excuse to study further that was his choice. Hogwarts' Lionel Dell had stayed the extra year; but then that HAD been part of a plot to embarrass Odessa, and she merely embarrassed incidentally.

She must suggest – with as much saccharine sweetness in her tone as she could muster – that the Russian Pure Bloods should enter the Triwizard. Seven schools; but why not? It might be made clear that only established schools might host the Triwizard; that meant that the Russians had a good chance of being embarrassed by goblins from the worst and meanest families as brought on by Jade, because they could not host it and so could not arrest wanded goblins for breaking the laws of their country. Nor could Jade host it, so there would be less chance of incidents if any of her goblins and blood-taints felt like reverse blood snobbery. Indeed perhaps it might be well if only the three original schools were available to HOST the thing; naturally the tasks might be devised by any participants who registered early enough to be drawn. Yes, it was a question of scale; the ability to accommodate the extra children during the tasks. And besides one did not want one's own pupils seduced by the cosy background that she strongly suspected prevailed in Prince Peak.

It was lowering to admit that the best students were also Marauders; and that this was a gift from Jade to her school. It was not because of the blood pact; she had ascertained that using this was considered the most damnable cheating. It was more to do with the concept of plotting mischief so sophisticated that it required a level of research that would be declared cruel and unusual if set for class work.

Why her son and his cronies should be building a maze though escaped her.

oOoOo

The Musical Marauders and their runic based maze were well content with this basis for mischief and school defence. And in time – should the new group prove suitable – they would reveal its secrets and explain how to use the power of the four runes embedded in its pathways to block, confuse, move about and even imprison those they did not like; and how to use the Ehwaz rune in combination with the Raidho rune to open a gate into the maze from the crossing of a line about the school, which they had yet to chant in, once it was activated, and containing the whole of the maze in a broken bubble of wizarding space so they could not get out unless they knew the right keys, passwords and gates. That way the maze could be activated to defend the school and marauders could enter it from THEIR secret gates to defeat enemies in detail within it.

The hedges were growing well and the boys were preparing to train certain of their hedges into rampant horse shapes as some of the defences of the maze, again using the Ehwaz rune which represented horses, travel and comradeship. The second most powerful rune, the Eihwaz rune, represented the yew from which the hedges were largely formed – with sundry other significant plants – and stood for strength and protection. Its opposition form could be seen as confusion and destruction and allied with the merkstave of Ehwaz, which was restlessness and recklessness, and was to be used to make an enemy destroy themselves by attacking each other. Raidho was the rune of translocation and was handy for apportation points and gates; and its merkstave might be used to hold static any who were translocated in to a carefully constructed wizarding space oubliette.

The whole was based around the Ingwaz rune, indicative of home and caring. This was the centre; a place where Marauders might recuperate and rest in a wizarding space headquarters. They would use this as a general headquarters too, from which to plot mischief and hold midnight feasts. It was a shame not to use it after all just because there were no enemies to test it on as a vital nerve centre. It was a place to draw on the energies of recuperation. And the Musical Marauders felt that they had chosen an excellent set of runes for their purpose; and planned to write it up – though not fully – to present as a project to enable them to take Art in Magic as an English OWL exam. As none of them were particularly artistic they knew they would never pass highly; but the opportunity to study pattern in magic – and compare it to the patterns in their music in magic that Volodya was teaching them – was too good to miss as Madam Bacsó had granted them permission to get the text books and study on their own time! No Marauder ever passed up an opportunity to learn more and apply it; and if their use of the runes was far more sophisticated than might be expected of even sixth formers let alone third years – indeed second years when they had set it up – this was perhaps down to having two natural transfigurationists in the group who had a feel for movement and change.

The level of sophistication had never occurred to the marauders – any more than it had occurred to Agata to consider that they might use something of that level – because it was just something they wanted to do and had required library work. Their main concern was pruning and further growth-encouraging charms.

"This ruddy hedge is going to be a full time job" growled Bronislava.

"Not when we have the self pruning spells up" said Sigismund. "And then it'll be a doddle to maintain. It's only while the ruddy thing is growing that it's so high maintenance; reckon we'll be able to leave it almost to its own devices once we need to concentrate because we're in the fifth and don't you go groaning you lot; just THINK what an excuse it is too, that we need to tend our hedges, if we want to slip out and get up to mischief."

The others brightened.

There was that!