Michael Corner and The Education of Wizards

Michael Corner and The Lady of The Lake

David McKenzie and Toni Wilshire were already sitting in The Proflet's study when I arrived. He was sitting at his special desk absent-mindedly scratching his temple with a quill, with the result that he looked as though he had been gored by a werewolf. They were sitting on normal sized chairs so they towered over him even more than usual.

'Ah, Michael, come along in,' he said. 'I take it you were at the feast last night? The question that has been debated long and hard among my colleagues is how we occupy our guests from when they arrive until the conclusion of the Tournament when they leave. One of each party will be pretty fully occupied in preparations for the Tournament tasks but the rest of them will be at something of a loose end.'

We all nodded sagely, wondering where this was leading.

'Now, thanks to Michael,' he went on, 'we have been given, with Hufflepuff, the task of entertaining the Beauxbatons students. I think, frankly, that we have the easier task than the other houses as Beauxbatons is more like Hogwarts than is Durmstrang. Incidentally, Madame Maxime sends her regards,' he told me. 'You must tell me what you did, that night. She seemed very impressed.'

'I, er, cloaked some of their students when some of those hooded people were threatening to hunt them,' I said.

'What were you using?'

'Ennuiage,' I said.

'Good heavens, where on earth did you learn that,' he said. 'I haven't taught it for years. We prefer Disillusio.'

'They taught it to me,' I said. 'We were chatting and they said it was one of the last spells in French.'

'It is indeed,' he said. 'And you used it to cloak a whole party, the first time you used it?'

'I guess so,' I said.

'Then I'm not surprised she was impressed,' he said. 'Now the party coming over will all be older than you, they will be in David and Toni's years, but I am including you in this for two reasons. The first is that you have met some of them, though I don't know who will be coming over. The second is that, frankly, Madame Maxime asked me to so you obviously made a hit there. It will be extra work for all of you, but it will be greatly appreciated.'

'Do any of these dudes speak English?' asked David as we walked down the corridor after the meeting. 'I mean, I don't speak a word of French beyond 'Bonjour''

'Yeah, they speak it really well,' I said. 'Though they tend to forget it when they're stressed. Apparently there aren't any French spell books. They were all burned in the Revolution, so they have to learn English. And Latin.'

'I didn't know they'd had a Revolution,' said Toni.

'Well. It was a long time ago,' I said.

So my claim to fame rested on the fact that I had actually met some of these strange monsters that were coming to visit. Every time, the question was: 'What are they like?' and every time the answer was 'Just like us', but that didn't satisfy everyone.

'I mean, do they just, sort of, like, have wands?' asked McClaggen, who was one of the Griff 'ambassadors' because he spoke some French. I wondered how that would work.

'Of course they do,' I said. 'They're just like us.'

'But, I mean, do they, sort of, use them the same as we do? Do they have the same spells?'

'As far as I know,' I said. 'There aren't that many French spells, as I told you.'

He was absolutely convinced that they were some sort of different species.