STEAL

"Now, there's just one small obstacle to overcome before you start learning Fae magic," Viviane said. "As you might have noticed, you have a human body."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Oleandra commented.

A human had none of the special magical organs a Greater Fairy had, Viviane explained. No hallucinogenic powder, no wings, no emotion reading antennae, and no…

"Hang on," Oleandra said brusquely, "Fairies lay eggs? Am I going to start laying eggs?"

"Not with a human body," Viviane snapped. "And stop interrupting!"

From what Oleandra understood of Viviane's explanations, not having a Fairy's body seemed like a huge obstacle to practising Fairy magic! Was having only the soul part sufficient?

"The very essence of our magic is misdirection," Viviane began.

"Like the Hinkypunks Professor Lupin taught us about," Oleandra interjected.

Hinkypunks were magical creatures that took the form of wispy smoke; they enjoyed luring travellers off the beaten path and into inconvenient or dangerous locations.

"It's a bit more complicated than that," Viviane said, sounding slightly offended. "In order for our magic to work, we must first trick our target into doing something that they normally wouldn't do, and then point it out to them. Fooling them into believing something that isn't true also works, to a lesser extent."

"And then what happens?" Oleandra asked.

"We can take something from them, either permanently or temporarily," said Viviane with a scary smile. "It can really be anything; a belonging, an organ— it doesn't even need to be something physical; it can be a concept, or something immaterial, like beauty, emotions, friendships, thoughts, memories, or even… time, strength, intelligence, magic, their name, or even their very soul."

Oleandra then asked Viviane to walk her through the process. First, she needed to trick her target, or fool them; without the ability to consciously tell a lie.

Afterwards, if the discrepancy between the target's reaction to the trick and what they'd normally do if they hadn't been tricked was small, or if she managed to fool the target into believing something pointless was true, she could take something unimportant from them.

However, if the discrepancy was big, or if the act of fooling the target put them in dire straits, like endangering their lives or that of their comrades, then she could accordingly steal something important.

For example, if she created the illusion of dog poo in the middle of the road, causing her target to sidestep it, then she could take something as small as a few inches of hair length, or maybe a cheap watch.

"Suppose you're on the battlefield," Viviane said, painting a vivid picture. "It becomes much more difficult to trick your opponent, as they'll be on their guard. But since the stakes are so much higher, you can also gain much more. For example, if you can trick your enemy by placing fake runic trap circles on the ground along with the real ones, or make them think that an illusion is real, you can turn any battle around by taking something they need to fight; like a few moments of their concentration, or their wand."

"What would it take to get something like beauty or time?" Oleandra asked, her interest piqued. "Permanently, I mean."

"Depends on the value your target places on it," Viviane answered. "For example, it's easier to steal youth from the young than it is from the old, since they don't know its true value until they've lost it. But as a rule, it's much more difficult to obtain conceptual things from your target; especially things that make up part of who they are as a person. You would need to trick your target into doing something horrible to one of their loved ones in order to make it work. And seeing as the worth of a soul is unquantifiable, well… you can imagine where I'm going with this."

Oleandra gulped. What Viviane implied went far beyond the scope of a simple prank; it was evil. Dark magic of the highest order; but what did Greater Fairies care about human morals? They did as they pleased, detached from the world; perhaps it was a good thing that all but two had disappeared from this world, for humans' sake.

"Now, to help you use Fairy magic," Viviane continued, "there are a few tools at our disposal that we can use; Legilimency, for one, can help you obtain a better mental picture of your target; how far you can push them to act, what they value, and so on."

"Mind reading magic?" Oleandra asked. "Isn't that illegal?"

"It's frowned upon, from what I've seen," Viviane. "Your headmaster has attempted it many times on you, in fact."

"I knew it!" Oleandra exclaimed.

"Mind-altering Charms can also come in handy," Viviane continued. "The Cheering, Bravery, Confusion, Entrancing Charms, for instance, and the Jelly-Brain Jinx, to name but a few. I suggest seeing your Professor Flitwick for help with those."

"What about the Imperius Curse?" Oleandra suggested. She had no intention on using it, since its use on humans was an automatic Azkaban sentence, but of the three Unforgivables, this was the one she could see herself using, if the need ever arose.

"It won't work," Viviane said, shaking her head. "Fairy magic requires finesse; and using the Imperius Curse is like taking a sledgehammer to a person's brain."

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Oleandra now had a number of fighting styles at her disposition. Currently, she was relying on Cloak the Lethifold to give her unparalleled mobility in the sky to land fierce strikes from above with her runic magic. Add the Sword of the Lake to the mix, once she'd properly trained in swordplay, she'd be able to fight at any range and counter any spells aimed in her direction.

But now, another avenue was opening itself to her. Discounting lake magic, which required lots of water, Fairy magic was now another weapon in her arsenal. Wizard magic and runic magic both lent themselves well to trickery; the first to disturb her opponent's mind, and the second to generate illusions or fake runic landmines for bluffs.

Once she'd mastered runic arrays, she'd have access to domains, which would in theory put her on the same level as Dumbledore himself, a man who could make his environment fight for him through advanced Transfiguration. Although, she would have to age another hundred years before her magic could rival his!

Daydreaming aside, it was getting late, so Oleandra made her way back to the dormitory. As she crossed the common room, she spied the perfect victim/test subject: Pansy Parkinson. Oleandra approached her and coughed.

"You might want to take a look at your shoelaces," she said casually. That wasn't a lie; it was merely a suggestion, one that implied that…

"What are you talking about?" Pansy snapped, after a quick look at her feet. "My shoelaces are perfectly tied, thank you very much. Is this your idea of a joke?"

"My bad," Oleandra simply answered, the edge of her lips curling up in amusement. Pansy's skin was turning rather blotchy and red!

On the way back to her room, Oleandra stopped by the bathroom for a quick bath; and upon looking in a mirror, she found that her already healthy complexion was clearing up even more. She had stolen the aspect of smoothness from Pansy's skin. Her skin would heal back to normal in time, so Oleandra didn't feel too bad about it.

"Serves her right," Viviane said in amusement. "Though I'll be very disappointed if you don't turn her into a toad by the end of the year."