Chapter 28: Both Houses

The Board adjourned to the long study behind the dais, and for the first time in two years Harry was not told to wait outside.

He stood against the bookcase with his hands behind him.

Draconia stood beside him, a little apart, with her chin up and her fists clenched at her sides.

The room was full of people who had not wanted to be there.

The Warden sat at the head of the table with the tin box in front of him.

The letters were laid out on the green cloth.

He had read all eleven, slowly, with his spectacles pushed up on his forehead.

Nobody had spoken while he did.

"These are genuine," he said at last.

"Of course they are," said the woman in grey.

She stood by the fire.

She had taken off her gloves.

Harry saw that the ring on her hand was the same ring as the one on Draconia's left, the one with the small crossed mark.

"I have known about them for thirty years," she said. "I was shown the recess when I was married."

"Mother," said Draconia.

"I told your father it should be said. I told him the day you were born."

"Be quiet," said a voice from the door.

Harry knew it before he turned.

He had heard it in a hundred letters read aloud, in the cold, over a cradle.

Draconia's father was a tall, grey, upright man in a travelling coat.

He had the long Malfia nose and a mouth that had not smiled in a good while.

He walked into the room with the air of owning it.

He did not look at his daughter.

He looked at the letters.

"So it is out," he said.

"It is out," said the Warden.

"Then the Board will understand that it must be put away again."

"The Accord has stood fifty years on the war. If it is known that it stood on this..."

He gestured at the tin.

"Every house in the college will say it has been cheated."

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