Oi! You got a license for that knife?

"Hey, sis," Oleandra sudden asked in the middle of breakfast.

"What is it?" Daphne responded, after swallowing a spoonful of yogurt.

"Do you think Mother and Father would get me a ceremonial dagger for Christmas?"

"Whatever would you need one for?"

"I can't say."

"Then I daresay that they would not."

Oleandra frowned. After their little incident in potions class, she realized the limitations of the magic system she had discovered. In order for them to be used at their fullest potential, runes had to physically be brought into existence. 

She raised an eyebrow. Why had she specifically worded her thoughts that way? Runes were meant to be written in ink or engraved onto some surface, weren't they? That is why she had wanted a special engraving dagger, after all. 

Her musings were interrupted by a small gang of Gryffindors passing by the Slytherin table.

"Eeeek!" they cried in mock horror, raising their hands above their heads.

Oleandra scowled at them. They were very clearly making fun of what had happened to her last Wednesday during Astronomy class.

As she was searching for something witty to say, she soon came to a realization; that was what a Ravenclaw would do. A true Slytherin would protect their honour through meaningful action! But they were in the Great Hall in full view of all the professors, so she had to use finesse.

Oleandra narrowed her eyes and selected the best rune for the job. She pictured Thursaz, the rune of strength, in her mind as best she could. 

"Thursaz, Thursaz, Thursaz…"

Three yelps of pain resounded through the Great Hall, as the trio held their bloody noses in pain. Even the mightiest of runes only had the effect of a light jab, with a first year's level of magic and without being written down, but at least it was discreet.

"What's going on, here?" 

The three Gryffindor students jumped up in fright. Snape had, for lack of a better word, sneaked up behind them. 

"She hexed us!"

"They were making fun of me!"

The two explanations rang out at the same time.

"Doubtful," Snape's lip curled. "Miss Greengrass's wand never left her pocket. Unless you second graders think she can cast magic wandless and while omitting the incantation? Five points off Gryffindor."

The three students glowered at Oleandra, but didn't say anything more and returned to their table. Snape briefly glanced back at her, and went back to the teacher's table. Dumbledore had asked him to keep an eye on her, but he hadn't said why. 

"Nice going, Greengrass!" Malfoy guffawed. And then he went to the Gryffindor table to bother them.

Oleandra sighed. With all of this, she had lost her train of thought.

=====================================================

Back at the Slytherin common room, Oleandra spotted a notice pinned to the notice board. 

"So, this is why Malfoy had been bragging about his flying skills much more than usual, lately. We have flying lessons with the Gryffindors," Oleandra whispered to Tracey.

"If he's even half as good as he says he is, never mind the Quidditch Cup, I think we may have a shot at the World Cup!" she whispered back.

They shared a giggle. Although they couldn't say it to his face, Malfoy really was a pompous ass.

"I've never flown a broom before," Oleandra admitted. Her parents had never even let her touch one, as she had never shown any sign of being magic until a month before school. "I'm not afraid of heights, but I'm afraid I'll lose control and crash."

Before Tracey could say something back, Malfoy jumped into the conversation.

"Worried about flying, ladies?" Malfoy said. "I know all about it. You know, I almost hit a muggle plane, once. Goyle had distracted me, you see, but I expertly dived out of the way. Right, Goyle."

Goyle nodded dutifully.

Malfoy then plunged into a long story about how he had once executed a Wronski Feint without even prior knowledge of it, interspersed with stories about how his instructors had been amazed of his talent.

As Oleandra desperately resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him, Tracey found an excuse to leave. Oleandra also thanked Malfoy for his lesson and told him she had homework to do.

Oleandra had a small idea on how to survive her first flying class, and it had to do with runes! Many of the runes were head-scratchers; she had no earthly idea on how to use them. She had a nagging feeling that they might come in useful when paired with others, like the three runes she had seen before blacking out in astronomy class. But for now, there was one that perfectly suited her situation; Raidhu, the Riding/Journey rune!

She had thought of an experiment during breakfast, so she had slipped a butter knife into her pocket. She climbed up to her bed and carved the Raidhu rune into her bedpost as precisely as she could.

"Raidhu!" 

The good part about runes was that they were only comprised of straight lines, which made them easy to engrave. Still, she had made a mistake. She had written in a bit too much like the letter R.

Oleandra tried again, and copied it ten more times for good measure. Then she sat down on the bed.

"Raidhu!" she exclaimed, brushing her hand over the runes.

It worked! The bed was perfectly under control! She moved it around the room, then drove it back into its rightful place before anyone noticed.

Then, she wrote a few copies of each of the 24 runes onto some parchment, then stuffed them into her pouch, along with a roll of Spellotape.

Oleandra grinned to herself. She was ready.