Chapter 1

Sigismund Tóth smiled kindly at the petrified looking small boy he was escorting to the portkey that would take them to outside the lodge where the pupils of Durmstrang collected.

"Three – two – one – grab" he said; and they were whirled with that uncomfortable feeling into the dark silent forest some hundred yards from the big impressive lodge.

Sigismund had suggested to his natural father, Attila Nagy, that he should set up the portkey to take them far enough away to give him a chance to have a word with his half brother, who he was meeting for the first time.

He grinned at Zoltan Nagy and dropped the lump of wood that was now no more than that; a lump of wood.

"Is – is that the school?" asked Zoltan.

"No, this is actually too small; we meet here to make friends and grab a type to fag for and so on" said Sigismund. "THIS year the prefects are going to vote for a head girl or boy and that'll take place here. You need to pick a good type to fag for, and I say, I have heaps of advice for you; if you're prepared to listen."

"I'll always listen; you haven't tried to bully me and I guess I was afraid of that."

"There are those that do try to; and I promised Professor Nagy that me and my friends would look out for you and beat on any bullies."

"Why? I mean, why would you do that, and – and do you mean he actually cares?"

"Why we do is a long story that there's not time for now; and yes of COURSE your father cares you- you poor prune!" Sigismund had picked up a lot of Jade's slang in the year she had taught at Durmstrang.

"I don't think I'm a poor prune; he never seems to care much and he shouts at me and mama says he's violent."

Sigismund snorted.

"If she believed that, she'd send you to somewhere like Prince Peak NOT put you under his care" he said dismissively "He's sort of loud; I generally shout back, though not in class of course, I have to hold a reasoned argument or it would be rude to a professor. He talks a lot about you and how he misses you but he doesn't get on with your mother so I guess it starts quarrels. But just listen to the advice; I'll talk about family stuff later! You do NOT want to mention him being your father to any old oik you know, because some of them will take it the wrong way; some might bully you just because it's a way to get at a teacher; and others might be smarmy at you because they're stupid enough to think it might get them better marks. It wouldn't" he added. "Any more than threatening you would, except if they did you can bet he'd be doing more than shouting at them. I got six strokes from him last year – not that I didn't deserve it – and he was being moderately lenient but I shouldn't want him irritated with me. He'll respect you better too for being proper and not calling him 'father' like I don't call him 'Uncle Attila' for knowing my family well" Sigismund went on. "And about being a fag, you want someone half decent so I thought you might like to fag for Takeo Namudzu. He used to be a bit uncertain of temper because he had problems at home but he's always been decent to my bunch, we're the third Durmstrang Marauders; and he's in with all the right crowd. And you'll want to join the English Customs Club."

"Why? I'm not likely to visit England" said Zoltan.

"Oh it's only a code name that was used to hide it from Odessa" said Sigismund "We run to get stamina – to hold spells longer, you know – and learn cool counter curses and some of the older marauders know some cool jinxes too that THEY got from English Marauders and teach us; like the fluorescent fart jinx that makes your farts glow in horrid colours, and our bunch are working on it to make it luminous so you get glow-in-the-dark farts; WIZARD!"

"That sounds er, interesting" said Zoltan.

"And we learn more chanting too; you so will want to learn chanting if you're musical, one of my friends is musical, Corneliu, and he's taught us a lot and we're having a special music teacher this year, who's also teaching chanting as a full time class and those of us who want to do music study on Saturdays. And none of us plays cello so that's just AWESOME" he added, indicating Zoltan's big case. "You and us six are the only ones who'll be studying unless there's anyone else musical in your class; we'll learn so much, and us who are interested but not so good can back up you and Corni. You can do AMAZING magic with music, as well as it being cool to have musical people around" he added, and paused for breath.

"So I won't get called sissy? Mama said that father would tell people I was a sissy."

"Well I think you mama doesn't understand him very well" said Sigismund, wishing he could slap his half brother's mother. "He's tremendously proud of you being musical, and he wishes he could be proud in public rather than protecting you by pretending to be no relative. It's a common enough name to get away with it; but he WILL be hard on you in class because he won't want anyone guessing if he seems to be too soft."

"Will – will he whip me?" asked Zoltan in a small voice.

"Not if you don't do anything to deserve it" said Sigismund. "WE got a whacking for setting a whole bunch of doors to explode a little bit and it made some of the staff nervous enough that we got offered the choice of copying out the entire of the 1812 Overture or six good whacks. Well we took the whacks; soonest over! If you do mischief, you got to pay for it; if you stay clear of trouble you won't get any impot. Here, come on inside and we'll see if Herr Namudzu is here yet."

oOoOo

Takeo was there; and one of his favourite juniors brought him a small boy with a cello.

"You need a fag, Herr Namudzu" said Sigismund "And so here is Zoltan Nagy, who is musical and can play for you when he does his practising; he's also clever."

Takeo bowed, Japanese fashion, pulled a face and did so again European fashion.

"I enjoy listening to music" he said. "And I shall enjoy calming music; it's been an interesting holiday."

"Did you tell the old goat where he could stick his rotten bullying school?" asked Sigismund, interested.

"Eavesdropping brat" said Takeo. "Your description is a trifle more picturesque than I should have used; but essentially, yes."

Sigismund beamed and held out a hand.

"We were all rooting for you when you were feeling agitated" he said.

"It helped; my thanks" said Takeo, dryly, shaking. "You should be careful" and he flicked a glance so fast at Zoltan that the younger boy did not see it. Sigismund answered his blood brother with an almost imperceptible nod.

Takeo knew about Zoltan; he would take care of him.

oOoOo

Sigismund grabbed Zoltan to meet his own set when they arrived; Corneliu and Beryx had a small Romanian boy in tow whom they patted kindly on the arm and left with Nikolai Nagy, the senior Romanian. Another Hungarian boy was brought in by Attila Nagy himself, who contented himself with a nod at each of his sons before apparating away.

"He's the cousin of the yucky sixth former I refused to fag for last year" said Sigismund "And as I'd heard of him through the wizarding community I didn't think you'd want to travel with him any more than I did; it's what teachers are for, to palm off unpleasant duties on. Anyway, I talked fast to get to have a private time with you without a sullen spoilt brat hung on us."

"I still don't know why" said Zoltan.

"Well, first off, you should know that our bunch – me, the four boys and Bronislava – are the junior branch of a not-very-secret society called the Marauders" said Sigismund "And it was started in England by the father of Harry Potter – THE Harry Potter – because one of his friends was a werewolf and he and his other friends wanted to protect him AND see he got to have fun. And it's got more serious with people like Voldemort and Odessa and Marauders pledge to be friends forever and fight dark wizards and have a jolly good time too doing japes to hone our skills; only I guess if you don't like being whacked you'd have to opt for copying."

"Thanks, I think I'd actually rather be whacked than write out the entire 1812 overture" said Zoltan "Only violence is scary because I don't know what to do."

"Oh we'll teach you; and you'll learn a load of defences in the ECC too" said Sigismund. "It's not being whacked that's scary it's wondering what bullies there are if any and if they've got a warped imagination. A sore bum soon cools down; Professor Nagy isn't that unkind a whacker, and it didn't even hardly leave any bruises; not like stories I've heard of whippings from seniors – before the Odessa got slung out – which made you bleed. It's kind of there to chasten. Anyway" he went on "We sort of wondered what you might think of marauding."

"I – do you think I'd be brave enough?" asked Zoltan wistfully.

"I think everyone has as much courage inside them as they are prepared to look for" said Sigismund "If you WANT to maraud with us, you know, you'll find the courage; and that doesn't mean not being scared. Doing stuff even though you're scared is what real courage is; and you know, you're a whole year younger than us and if you want to butt out of stuff we shan't hold it against you or think worse of you. Courage IS a renewable commodity, Frau Von Luytens says, but sometimes it needs a break from doing stuff to renew it. She's most awfully wise; I told her you'd had a mum who babied you a bit and it might have kind of made you doubt your manliness and she said that once at school and more independent you'd soon find your feet. I went to her as a special grown up you see because my real mother is the Head; though I am adopted by mum and dad too. No secrets between Marauders."

"Is – is that hard?"

Sigismund shrugged.

"She leaps on me harder than most if I get caught marauding; but it's handy for her having marauders in the school. Marauders sort out bullies and tell things off the record if there's DANGEROUS trouble; like someone trying to be another little Prince Gerhardt" he explained. "And – and no secrets between Marauders; and you wondered why I singled you out; well, you see, you know your parents don't get on because they had an arranged marriage?"

"They hate each other I think" said Zoltan "And I used to be ready to hate father but the last few hols he's been home more and taken me places and – and I can't believe what mama believes that he only wants to make it worse for me by showing his true colours and whipping me lots at school."

"I am afraid your mama has let her prejudices take her into the realms of fantasy" said Sigismund while the others hooted in derision. "Has he EVER whipped you?"

"No; anyway, mama would not let him" said Zoltan.

"My father beats my mother and beats us regularly" said Bronislava "My brother and me, anyway; our eldest sister is his princess. But my mother wouldn't dare try to stop him. I guess THAT tells you how violent YOUR father really is, 'cos he's a big strong man and you're quite skinny so I guess your mama isn't large."

That made Zoltan think.

"I guess you have a point" he said.

"She does" said Sigismund "And I'm trying to TELL you something you prune; so do listen! Because your dad knew my mum – well still knows my mum but they're only friends now – and so- so I'm your brother and brothers are supposed to look out for kid siblings you know!"

Zoltan stared.

"In good families siblings look out for each other" said Bronislava "My brother is now a freelance cursebreaker and he has a goblin as his assistant, who's married with heaps of children, and they ALL look out for each other; there isn't any favourites; wouldn't that be nice? And Grelleg and the twins are in Frau Von Luytens' school now, and another girl in the street they live, she's human, and she gets on really well with Saxburra. Saxburra and Torschik are your age and so is this Emilia; and Grelleg's a year older than me and Jaromir brought him on as much as he could in the hols with my books. And they're such nice people and by the way, Marauders also stand against racism and there are goblin and even elf marauders; are you in?"

"If elves can have the courage to be marauders I jolly well should think I can" said Zoltan.

"Good; let's blood him in quick before the big ones can stop it" said Sigismund.

"Blood? What do you mean?" Zoltan was scared.

"We join to each other with blood magic and no it ISN't dark magic; it's neutral. Intent is what makes things dark or not" said Sigismund "And then we'll ALWAYS know where you are so if anyone's bullying you we can turn up and bully them back only worse, see? And you can draw on us too; it's amazing, Zoltan, there's so many Marauders and supporters in all the schools, some of them teachers too; and we all fight evil and none of us is ever alone ever again. And your blood will sing and the music of the musical ones will burst through your soul" he added.

Zoltan swallowed.

"I – I trust my brother" he said stoutly.

They slit palms and Sigismund smiled reassuringly as Zoltan swallowed hard and followed suit.

And then Takeo came in with his palm bloody.

"Thought you ought to have an older one to take the blame for protecting my fag" he murmured "And there's sweeties in my pockets."

"You ARE the best, Takeo!" said Sigismund.

Zoltan was looking amazed and awed.

"So MANY!" he said softly, and raised his voice in a wordless song of joy.

Corneliu fished out a notebook printed with staves and jotted it down; and Sigismund gave his friend a smile of gratitude. Zoltan might work it up later; so long as it was remembered in notation.

And then they ate chocolate gratefully.

Meanwhile the prefects had arrived early to vote for a head boy or girl; with new prefects in the Asimov twins, Gisela Schutzmann and Sigismundis de Brujin joining Zhanargul, Stiv, Jochen and Hilde in the upper sixth. This too accounted for the greater part of the quidditch team; but as Agata Bacsó said acidly to sundry of her staff, it could merely be that those who played using team work to this get themselves on the team were also those who were prefects for the same reason and happened to have been trained by Jade Snape Von Strang und Luytens. She had also promoted Takeo as prefect for his much improved attitude; and Zoltan was busy noticing that of those with Prefect badges, he could feel the blood of five of them out of the nine.

Takeo hurried off to leave the little ones to it as soon as the whole complement of prefects arrived – the twins bringing in a junior from Greece and Zlatko's murmured comment about too many jokes and so little time; and the ballots were cast into a box that magically engulfed them and took them directly to Agata Bacsó's office.

Zhanargul was glad to be back at school though it was her final year; she was determined to do a year of research too at Prince Peak if her father permitted it next year however! She had spent much of the holidays with Lazlo Ijas and wanted to be immersed in work so she did not miss him too much; but as Lazlo was doing sundry investigations on Jade's behalf, and would not be teaching, she might see more of him if she DID do another year in education as he would likely be regularly visiting Prince Peak to consult with Professor Snape. Her lady in waiting, Saula, would be glad to return to a young man she had met in their own country; a young man of prominent family who would cherish a bride with so extensive an education as Saula and would doubtless encourage her to teach and prepare other Kazakhstani children for a European school. And Saula's brother was this year starting Prince Peak, and it would be worth using as part of her argument that duty to underlings meant she should see how he was settling in. They had travelled with the cold-eyed Uzbeki girl Moxsuda and her brother who was to be in this year's first; and Zhanargul liked his looks far more than she had liked those of his sister. She duly passed him on to Desolina Uccello, a gentle girl, with a suggestion that he fag for her.

oOoOo

Wencelada was also busy arranging fagging duties for her twin sisters Amatista and Esmeralda; whom she firmly deposited on the Eulenspiegel twins with the firm comment that twins needed twins to fag for them.

Fortunately this appealed to Xanthe and Xanthippe more then the idea of having fags at all did; and they welcomed the little girls, Xanthe taking under her wing straightforward no nonsense Amatista while Xanthippe favoured questioning Esmeralda.

The third Marauders nodded with more courtesy than enthusiasm as Ernst Reinkessel, in the dormitory of the boys, turned up; and Pyotr Gorshok. From a number of Russians entering the previous year, there were none this year; that was the way it went. Alois Dunkelschwann was another matter, with another small boy in tow from Austria; a boy with the most horrendous burn scar over his face and disappearing inside his robe; and fingers burned into a claw on his left hand. Alois looked around and dragged the new junior over to the marauders.

"This is Leopold Pessl; you lot CAN chant to clear his scars and make his hand work, can't you?" said Alois hopefully. "You lot having picked it up better than me?"

"Well I don't know that WE can but if we enlist the Eulenspiegels we can certainly assist THEM to do so" said Beremud. "You chose not to go to Prince Peak, school of the greatest chanter in the world?"

"IS it?" said Leopold "I did not know; I did not even know that chanting might do anything until Alois suggested it. I have almost ceased to notice the scarring, though it can be painful at times."

"How did it happen?" asked Beryx.

Lindhard kicked him.

"That SO is a nosy question!" he said.

"Questions generally are; it's the point of asking them" said Beryx. "I guess if Leopold minds answering he'll tell us to go fish up a tree."

"Oh I don't mind" said Leopold "My great aunt set fire to our house when I was a baby because she was jealous; and the neighbour's elf apparated mum and dad out first because she had forgotten they had me, and by the time she got me, the wall next to my cot had got rather hot. I'm glad to say I don't really remember it; but the old moo is in Nurmengard and serve her right."

"Rather" said Beryx. "She'll be good company for Zhanargul's wicked uncle who kept trying to kill her last year and stuff. Who are you fagging for?"

"I wasn't sure" said Leopold.

"Gisela?" suggested Bronislava.

"Good one; give that girl a banana" said Sigismund. "She can help chant too."

Gisela and the Eulenspiegel twins came over in response to blood pulses; took one look at Leopold, nodded and began an impromptu chant right away. The third marauders started to sing a wordless counterpoint; and a startled Zoltan picked it up quickly and joined in.

Leopold gasped as the skin suddenly itched, then eased – and his fingers stretched out and started to move!

Zhanargul's contralto added more skilled words to the wordless efforts of the second years as she joined the group and Takeo took up the chant, as did Wencelada who strolled over. Soon the young Austrian boy had clear skin and a full range of movement in hand and arm; and he was crying with delight.

"Have we almost a quorum of the next lot of Marauders?" asked Xanthe "There are four first years here, Wencelada's sisters, Leopold and young….. Zoltan, wasn't it?"

"Too late; we stole Zoltan to maraud with us" said Sigismund.

"I thought I felt illicit ceremonies" said Xanthippe. "Had you thought he might like to put together his own Marauder group?"

"No" said Sigismund "But I guess if he does, there'll be time enough for that when he knows the rest of his class and can make sensible decisions; which picking by who fags for whom as convenient ain't. Sensible I mean."

"Point, I guess" said Xanthippe.

"Please, our sister has explained marauding, and like her we think we will not maraud" said Esmeralda "Though we will back any who do."

Marauding was explained to Leopold.

"I too would support, if so helping people is what you marauders do; but I think I prefer to be a coward and leave such things as fighting dark wizards to others" he said "It is what they pay Vehmgerichten for; to arrest people like my great aunt."

Sigismund was neither surprised; nor displeased. Not that he wanted to stop his half brother having his own group, but to his mind, none of the new first years was particularly prepossessing in the way of marauding; those that did not look selfish or stuck up looked decidedly ordinary.

And Zoltan whispered,

"Am I supposed to be looking for interesting looking people? Because I don't think any of them are!"

"Scarily, no they aren't" said Sigismund. "Ask the elves to arrange you to dorm with this Leopold, and the boy with Desolina – that one over there, he's some eastern steppe type – and the Romanian boy because Beryx and Corneliu say he's mostly harmless; and having mostly harmless types in your dorm is jolly good. Prigs are the worst! And I say, there's a kid come in with a French Horn and that's NOT easy so he must be musical; HE might be worth bagging for your dorm, and maybe as a friend, if he's not stuck up about his music and doesn't boast a lot."

The boy in question noticed that he was the object of attention and came over.

"'Smatter, never seen a French Horn before?" he demanded, a little defensively.

"You been playing long?" asked Corneliu "We have a bit of a music group and we have no brass."

The boy brightened.

"Oh good!" he said "They said there was to be a music teacher this year so I brought the horn; I've been playing four years now, transferred from bugle. What do you play?"

"I'm fiddle, Zoltan, who's in your year, is cello; we're the serious ones. Sigismund is second fiddle, Beryx is recorder, Lindhard is oboe and Beremud is percussion" said Corneliu. "Lindhard was thinking of taking up saxophone which makes more sense if we have a horn to go with it. We learn how to use our music for magic too as well as for pleasure."

"What, can music do magic?" asked the boy. "My name's Felicks Knapp by the way."

"You bet your ass music can do magic!" said Sigismund; and then proceeded to introduce them. "You and Zoltan will want to bags a dorm together as well as the harmless ones so you can talk music half the night; it's really best if you can get dorm mates who share interests."

"Or failing that have moderately interesting interests you can talk about" said Bronislava. "We do talk chanting in our dorm at least; and I keep them amused with satirical poems. A rapport of some sort is necessary or you so can rub each other up the wrong way."

"We had a prig last year but he pissed off Frau Von Luytens by interrupting her class to sneak us up" said Beremud "He's mostly harmless now."

"And the other two who aren't us are mostly harmless" said Beryx "And a pity we can't get rid of them and have Bronislava instead only girls are too bracing and hearty in the mornings for it to be safe for boys to share rooms with them."

He retrieved his ears from the sides of the French Horn and restored them to the sides of his head as Bronislava took exception to this and forgot that switching spells flummoxed most third years, having learned that useful if felonious application of the spell from her brother.

"That's rather advanced transfiguration" said Zoltan, impressed.

"Huh, nothing's too advanced if you really want to do it" said Bronislava "So long as you don't skimp on the basics. Library work; and more library work. It's the basis of everything especially a really good jape and by the by who's Felicks going to fag for?"

"Desolina" said Sigismund "She could do with a second fag to help her jinx the more idiotic boys into a ball. She's beautiful" he explained to Felicks "And the older boys go dippy over her. She needs bodyguards and you're one of them."

They proceeded to dump Felicks on Desolina and left him to make friends with Melior Gdylan, the Uzbeki boy.

"He wasn't QUITE right, was he?" said Zoltan "Can you always feel them? Potential Marauders?"

"We hadn't looked before" said Sigismund. "WE were put together by Frau Von Luytens – she was a marauder in an English school and was blooded awfully young to fight beside Harry Potter – and we just went right together like that. Then we sort of collected Bronislava later. But yes, I guess there IS a sort of feel. And it can change; Bron was a bit, well, suffering from her family at first but when she came out of herself she was definitely a Marauder."

"You make me sound like a snail or something" complained Bronislava "WHAT are we going to do as a first term jape?"

"I dunno about a jape, but how about a concert?" suggested Corneliu "We play well together now and if we ask Professor Potishev he might help coach us a little. Nothing high brow; just some fun pieces."

"I like that" said Sigismund "What about a jape too though?"

"The sneezing curse on all the suits of armour?" suggested Beremud.

"That's a distinct possibility" said Lindhard "Or we could fill all the senior bathroom baths with snakes we summon."

"Any of them snake phobic? 'cos if so that's bullying" said Sigismund.

"We can find that out" said Lindhard. "Maybe we should just fill the baths with green jelly instead with pond weed on top and papier-mâché grindylows."

"I like THAT" said Beryx "With snakes you can't guarantee one of the big ones won't hurt them."

"We can save the sneezing armour for when there's an outbreak of colds or fairy flu" said Bronislava "And get people thinking they've caught it too."

"MUCH funnier" approved Beremud. "This three day meeting here is great for getting the year's mischief planned now we're settled in and old in the ways of wickedness."

oOoOo

Zoltan was happy; as he had never thought to be. He had a brother! He had hundreds of blood siblings! And he was to be encouraged in his music and to play jokes and he had learned so much just from the planning; like how to cast the sneezing curse, and what grindylows were and how to do switching spells – which were actually dead easy – and how to do the levitating charm.

This had come up in conversation when Beremud said,

"It isn't a jape, but I have a jolly good game; taking turns to try to crown Gerhardt."

"On foot or on broom?" asked Beryx.

"We could try both" said Beremud.

"Who's Gerhardt?" asked Zoltan.

They all grinned.

"He used to be a snowman; Frau Von Luytens had all of us building snowmen in Dark Arts and animated them so we could practise jinxes against them" Sigismund explained "And for the top class, she turned them into stone; and one of them wasn't entirely destroyed, his head and torso and one arm remain and he sort of flails angrily at anyone who comes near and gnashes his stone teeth; and it seemed like a good way to hone reactions."

"I don't think it could be done not on brooms" said Lindhardt.

"Unless one used wingardium leviosa and stayed out of range" said Bronislava.

"That's CHEATING!" said Beremud.

"Not if that was the rule of that game; to levitate it over from where he could see it coming" said Sigismund "That'd test our control too."

This was the point at which they taught Zoltan the levitating charm; and went on to pass the time by teaching him sundry jinxes and perfecting the noctilucent noxiousness curse to make farts glow in the dark.

oOoOo

Attila Nagy returned to the lodge briefly because in its chaotic atmosphere it was easier to briefly extract his younger son to ask him how it was going.

"I promise not to be a heavy handed parent but I do worry about you – as all parents do" he said.

"Do you really, father? I'm sort of glad" said Zoltan. "I'm going to be properly formal in class but it will be nice to know that you're only going to be snippier with me because you don't want me picked on."

"And too to stop certain fools thinking that they can get better marks by creeping round you; or threatening you if you don't tell me they're good to you" said Attila. "We will take generations to shed the taint of Odessa I'm afraid; Frau Professor McGonagall in Hogwarts says that some families still have the taint of Voldemort's influence in England more than ten years after he was killed. I met her at the symposium; I told you about it."

"Mama said it was a lie and you were with a mistress" said Zoltan "Though as she doesn't want to sleep with you I can't see that it would matter much. Do you fancy this English professor?"

Attila laughed.

"Not hardly! She's not much younger than Albus Dumbledore himself! And the transfigurations teacher at Prince Peak – who is beautiful – would turn me into something I couldn't get out of; she's Snape's wife and the daughter of Voldemort. The teacher at the new school is male; and I'm not quite sure what gender the French one is. And I wasn't about to ask in case I got told" he added. "I don't have a mistress at the moment; though I've had lovers."

"Like the head; Sigismund's mother" said Zoltan.

"Ah, he has told you? I hoped he might. He wanted to tell you himself rather than have me do it; and you boys have to live together in school so I agreed."

"I bet he's better at coping when you get cross than I am" said Zoltan "Angry voices are like discords and they make the music in my head go away; and that's what frightens me."

Attila stared.

"I see" he said. "Well I partly see. For me it would be losing the beautiful mathematical certainties of transfiguration; so yes I think I do see. That would frighten me. Would it help to let it be martial music?"

"I think" said Zoltan "Now I've been made a marauder I won't find it as hard."

"What, they blooded you in already?" Attila was slightly shocked. "Well, I suppose I shan't have to worry so much about you then" he added "You'll never be alone."

"That's what my wonderful brother said, father" said Zoltan.

"Come and embrace me; I do love you. I just find it hard to express; especially when I'm afraid that the private war your mama and I have will turn that into something twisted" said Attila.

Zoltan hugged him.

"Sigismund says she lets disliking you let her see fantasies that she believes but are just her worst fears" he said.

"Well maybe that's what it is" said Attila, thinking how wise his older son could be! "I guess I could have been a better father to both of you."

Zoltan giggled.

"Attila has done better of late but still needs to improve; could do better" he said "Like a school report."

Attila roared with laughter.

"Well you DO have a sense of humour in there!" he said. "I WILL try to do better; just please don't return me a report 'Attila is trying' which I use for some of my more atrocious pupils!"