England is my City

"Well," Oleandra glumly told herself, "Merry Christmas, I s'pose…"

She took a dainty bite from a slice of chocolate Yule Log she had cut for herself and grimaced; the sweetness of the cake was a little bit too jarring, especially since she hadn't eaten anything else beforehand.

The cake was the only food she had on hand to eat, having emptied the already mostly empty refrigerator in the flat she was using over the past few days. She was currently hiding out from the Death Eaters in a flat in Soho, and luckily for her, its Muggle occupants were currently sojourning in Spain, leaving it free for her to use.

Oleandra's stomach growled; this meagre fare wasn't especially filling, even for all of its calories. Driven by hunger, she had only dared to leave the house on Christmas Eve, venturing southwards into the crowds of shoppers and partygoers, following the alluring aromas emanating from the Christmas market in Leicester Square.

(Incidentally, a statue of Harry Potter, among other characters, was installed in Leicester Square a few years ago. No doubt Oleandra would be very surprised to see it if she ever returned to that spot in twenty or so years!)

She now wished that she had purchased more than just a Christmas cake and some pretzels at the Christmas Market that evening, but she hadn't wanted to spend too much of the money she had 'borrowed' from the Muggles' flat.

(And yes, the Yule Log had been a totally necessary purchase.)

At any rate, Oleandra remembered passing through Chinatown when she had made her way to the Christmas Market. And on Christmas Day, pretty much all Chinese restaurants would remain open for business…

The prospect of eating a succulent Chinese meal was sounding more and more appealing to Oleandra…

However, the streets would be mostly empty on Christmas Day, so if she were to venture out, she would likely stick out like a sore thumb. Even so, rationalizing to herself that she couldn't just allow herself to starve, Oleandra borrowed a few more banknotes from the Muggles' secret stash, disguised herself with a short runic spell, and stepped out of the flat, taking in a deep breath of the brisk winter air.

Oleandra wouldn't be coming back to repay the Muggles, so hopefully, her good deed of cleaning out the pernicious black mould on the bathroom walls would cover the cost of the food she had eaten and the money she had taken.

(A week later, the Muggle family would return from their vacations to find their flat as clean as a whistle, but their fridge and pantry emptied, leading them to believe that a homeless maid had invaded their home. Which was not far from the truth!)

Head down and hands in her pockets, Oleandra began following the same path she had borrowed the previous day, when suddenly, she began hearing faint voices in her head. Right under her ear, the tattoos of Ansuz and Wunjo were beginning to glow faintly; someone was attempting to call her via the Faraway Communication Galdr, and the only person in the world who knew the spell other than her was Daphne!

Unfortunately, the connection was quite bad; they were too far apart. Oleandra quickened her pace, trying to close the distance between them, but the problem was that she had no idea which direction would bring her closer to her sister! Rather than turning around in circles like a lost tourist, Oleandra quickly ducked into an alley and pulled out a piece of chalk from her sock, before graffitiing a wall with a large version of the Faraway Communication Galdr.

"Daphne?" Oleandra said tentatively, laying a hand on the wall. "Are you still there?"

"MY EARS!" came Daphne's screeching voice in reply. "There's no need to shout, I can hear you just fine!"

Whoops; maybe Oleandra had drawn her runes a little too big.

"Sorry!" Oleandra whispered. "So, how was your trip? Are you okay?"

"There'll be time for small talk later," Daphne simply responded. "Do you think you could find your way to Number 12, Grimmauld Place?"

"Number what?" said Oleandra quizzically. "I didn't quite catch that."

Silence.

"Right, I nearly forgot," came Daphne's voice after a short while. "Come to the house in between Number 11 and Number 13, Grimmauld Place. Dumbledore will come greet you at the door."

After giving her a few more directions, Daphne hung up the metaphorical phone, and the connection cut off from her end.

Daphne's words left Oleandra thoroughly perplexed; why hadn't she just said ******? Oleandra frowned; for some reason, every time she tried to unite the concepts of the number 12 and the location Grimmauld Place, her thoughts would slip away from her. How very strange.

And wasn't Dumbledore supposed to be in Azkaban?

In any case, there was only one way to find out what her sister had been talking about, and it was to go to the place she had specified. And so, Oleandra began making her way northwards, and roughly an hour later, she had made it to her destination— sort of.

Number 11 and Number 13 Grimmauld Place were two tastefully decorated Victorian era townhouses— red bricks, white mortar, black slate roof— and for some reason, next to each other, with Number 12 being nowhere in sight.

"Well?" came Professor Dumbledore's voice out of nowhere. "Will you be coming in, Miss Greengrass?"

Startled, Oleandra looked around her warily, only to find that Dumbledore had been standing right in front of her the entire time. And that wasn't all she had missed; Number 12 had just magically manifested itself behind him, pushing aside the other buildings it was sandwiched between, as if it had been there all along.

Dumbledore, as the Secret Keeper, had formally invited her in, and in doing so, he had made her privy to the secret that the house existed.

"The Fidelius Charm," Oleandra said in amazement, lightly slapping her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I should've guessed…"

Oleandra was letting the cold air into the house by standing there in wonder, so she quickly stepped inside the house. Dumbledore stood aside, and Oleandra caught sight of her twin sister and Ginny, who'd been waiting for her in the entrance hallway.

"I do believe you have some catching up to do?" said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling gently.