Oleandra and the Rising Dragon Fist

Before sending the students back to their beds after the feast, Dumbledore had said that Beauxbaton's and Durmstrang's representatives would be arriving in October, and that the selection of the champion would be done on the last day of the month: Halloween.

This meant that Oleandra had a little under two months to prepare to become Hogwarts's champion. After that, it was a simple matter of actually winning the Tournament, along with the one thousand Galleons prize money and endless glory. Well, one thing at a time.

Oleandra, Daphne and Tracey trudged along with the rest of the Slytherins back to their common room in the dungeons, part of which had been built under the Black Lake. A prefect said the password (Great Expectations), and they all entered through the hidden passage that revealed itself when a great stone snake uncoiled itself. Suddenly exhausted beyond belief, Oleandra took a warm bath before settling under the warm covers of her bed for the night.

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The following morning, the Slytherins headed up to the Great Hall and were handed out their course schedules by their prefects during breakfast. And Oleandra found out that for some reason, there was extra course in her schedule that she hadn't signed up for. What was up with that? 

"What's the matter?" asked Oleandra, distracted by the ugly expression on Daphne's face as her sister examined her schedule. Like last year, she had selected all twelve available subjects.

"Wait here," she said abruptly, before standing up and storming off to the teacher's table.

"Am no' goin' 'nywhere!" Oleandra mumbled back through a mouthful of buttered toast.

From where she was sitting, Oleandra could see Daphne gesticulating animatedly at Professor Snape. Shortly afterwards, a defeated-looking Daphne plopped back in her seat.

"He didn't apply for a Time-Turner for me this year!" whimpered Daphne. "He said there were doubts about my character, and until he could verify some things, I wouldn't be able to get one again!"

"Do you think he knows about us?" asked Oleandra. "I mean, about us helping free Black and Lupin."

"It mustn't have been too hard to put two and two together," said Daphne glumly. "We were together with the Gryffindor Trio when he came to accuse Harry in the Hospital Wing, and he knew about the Time-Turner because he helped with my application last year…"

"Uh-oh," gulped Oleandra, sneaking a look at Professor Snape, and was met with a loathing glare.

Oh yeah. He definitely hated them now. Okay, this was pretty bad.

"I can only keep a maximum of three electives now," sighed Daphne. "I think I'll keep Runes, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures."

"Speaking of which, we have a class with Professor Hagrid in the afternoon with Draco and the Gryffindors this morning after History of Magic," said Oleandra. "Good thing too, Cloaky was getting hungry. Weren't you, Cloaky?"

Oleandra affectionately tickled the edge of the black cloak she wore over her school robes, which began to wriggle in an otherworldly fashion. Daphne shuddered; she didn't like the Lethifold one whit!

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The first class of the day, History of Magic, was as boring as ever; and thus, Oleandra decided to make better use of her time while listening to Professor Binns drone on with one ear. How about testing out the spell she had learned from the rusty sword she had seen at the Quidditch World Finals gala? Holding her breath, Oleandra began to draw impossibly straight lines in the parchment before her.

ᛜ ᛉ ᛞ ᚷ

Oleandra was always very cautious when testing out spells that had no recorded uses. When she had first received her runic powers in her first year, when she had beheld the Inheritance rune Odala in the stars in the form of the Boötes constellation, she had also received a certain amount of knowledge about runic spells in the process. She was actually still uncovering the full of extent of the inheritance she had received to this day, actually. Too much information at once would have caused Oleandra's brain to burst like an overripe melon!

But even if a spell wasn't recorded in the inheritance, that didn't mean it was worthless. For example, her Tree-Porting spell was completely original, as was Daphne's Pleiades's Sevenfold Strike spell. However, Oleandra still needed an appropriate amount of caution when testing out unknown magic.

Ingwaz, rune of the Divine Spark. Elhaz, rune of Protection. Dagaz, rune of the Sideways Hourglass of Time. Gebu, rune of the Gift. Put the Graphemes together, and the Galdr that had been inscribed on the rusty sword could have been read in English as: may you forevermore be granted divine protection.

Oleandra raised an eyebrow. Another protection spell? The Armour of Elhaz already did a fine job; and if it came down to it, she had its powered up evil version, the Helm of Terror: Ægishjálmur. Well, since it was a protective spell, surely it wouldn't be too dangerous to test out. Oleandra glanced to the side; if anything went wrong, her sister was right next to her.

Just to be safe, Oleandra didn't say the words out loud; she merely touched the runes she had drawn in the parchment in front of her, which began to glow faintly. Nothing happened.

'Well, that was a waste of time,' Oleandra tried to say. 'Wait. Uh-oh. Can't move.'

Oleandra was frozen in place. And since she had written the runes on paper, their power wouldn't dissipate. Well, surely Daphne would notice something was wrong? Nope, she was sound asleep in class. So much for being an honours student.

This was a fate worse than death; being forced to pay attention to the ghostly professor's boring lesson. Oleandra was completely stuck in the position she'd assumed before touching the runes: staring at the blackboard, pretending to be paying attention. And now, she couldn't look anywhere else.

And by the end of class, neither Daphne nor Tracey had noticed that something was definitely wrong with her. They both gathered their things and got up, and made to leave the room.

'Come on!' Oleandra wanted to scream. 'Take the parchment away from me, or destroy the runes! Do something!'

"Oleandra?" asked Tracey, turning around. "Did you fall asleep with your eyes open, or something?"

When Oleandra didn't respond, Tracey approached her and poked her in the cheek with her index.

"Hello?" Tracey said with an amused tone. "Are you in there—"

"Finally, I can move!" shouted Oleandra, launching an uppercut into Tracey's chin.