Planning for the future

Five members of the Weasley family entered the room one by one. Oleandra had seen them all before, so she immediately recognized Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Percy, Ron and Ginny.

"Oh, you poor dears!" cooed Mrs. Weasley. "Ron told me all about how you helped save our Percy. When I heard from Max that you had woken up, I just had to bring everyone to thank you in person!"

"Go on, Perce," Ron guffawed. "All you have to say is, 'thank you.'"

Percy's face reddened. He was a prefect, for Merlin's sake! And he was to be Head Boy this year! How embarrassing was it to need to be saved by kids four years younger than him?

"Yes, a thank you is in order, I suppose," he spluttered. "Thank you."

"You're most welcome," said Oleandra, trying to imitate how her sister would have acted. "It was a team effort, anyhow."

"She's right, you know," said Ron. "Where's my thanks?"

Percy's ears reddened ever further.

"Molly baked you some cookies," said Mr. Weasley, trying to spare his son further embarrassment. 

Ginny came up to Oleandra, holding a wicker basket.

"Thank you very much for taking care of my brothers," she said, while setting the basket on a nearby table. "I loved hearing about your adventures from my brother. If you don't mind, would you like to be friends?"

"Sure, why not," said Oleandra, reaching for a cookie and taking a bite. Mmm, tasty.

Oleandra watched as Ginny went over to talk with Daphne. She couldn't help but think that there was something different about the girl. The only interaction the twins had had with the red-haired girl amounted to a single instance of butt-to-face collision, but Oleandra had often seen her stalking Harry. There was a maiden in love if she'd ever seen one, and a veritable shrinking violet to boot.

But now, she exuded confidence. What exactly had happened to her?

"Say, Ron," Oleandra whispered. "What happened to your sister? She seems… different. More confident, you know? Is she and Harry, you know, a thing?"

"What, Ginny?" said Ron blankly. "I dunno. Maybe? She's the same as always, I think. I'm sure she's still in love with him, but they're not together."

Their discussion was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley.

"Go on, dears," she said. "Eat all you want; those cookies aren't going to eat themselves!"

"Unless you enchant them," joked Mr. Weasley.

"What mum means is that she's going to need the basket back," Ron whispered to Oleandra. 

Oleandra stared with wide eyes at Ron, but he didn't seem to be kidding. Just how poor were they? The two continued chatting, shoving cookies into their mouths at regular intervals. Once the cookies were all eaten, the Weasleys said their goodbyes and returned home.

"Now I feel bad about ruining Ginny's Sorting Ceremony," said Daphne after the Weasleys had left. "She's such a nice girl."

Oleandra nodded. Ron had said she acted the same way as she always did at home, but that she had gained some confidence. Oleandra felt as though Ron had wanted to say something else, but chose not to in the end. It may only have been her imagination, but he had seemed slightly abashed at that moment.

"Hey, Sis, I've been thinking about something," Oleandra said after a moment. "We should be strong enough to travel to another world, right?"

"As in strong enough to open the gate between worlds?" Daphne asked, "or strong enough to survive once we're on the other side?" 

"Both, I suppose," answered Oleandra. "Though if we could build our very own gate, like the Archway at the Ministry of Magic, the journey would be much easier. But it's not as if the Ministry would let us use it."

"Doesn't it belong to you?" asked Daphne. "You're the inheritor of the stars, or whatever it was you told me the Centaurs called you. Can't you, I don't know, call it back to you?"

"I wouldn't know how," said Oleandra, shrugging. "But the Ministry must have found a way to move it. I don't think it's always been down in their basement, since the magic of the stars doesn't like being underground very much."

"Then in any case, we'd still have to storm the Ministry of Magic," concluded Daphne. "Or sneak in. But there's no way we're doing that."

"Yet," corrected Oleandra. "There's no way we're doing that yet."

Oleandra did some mental calculations.

"Let's see, opening Hel's gate just a sliver took about a hundredth of the effort to use the Realm Travel Spell, but that was two years ago… I'd say we should be able to mobilize eighteen times as much power as back then… And we've got Tracey, Draco, you and me, for a total of four people."

"It doesn't check out," said Daphne. "We'd need one extra person, at the very least."

"Who else do we know?" asked Oleandra. "I mean, who'd be willing to go on an adventure with us."

"Harry? Ron? Granger?" suggested Daphne. "Wait, no, there's no way they'd accept to go with Draco."

"We can't bring Astoria either, she's too young, and there's her condition," Oleandra thought out loud. "Besides, it'll be her first year at Hogwarts, she doesn't know any spells yet."

"How about Ginny?" Daphne proposed. "She seems decent enough. Plus, she likes us."

"We should get to know her better first, then."

And with that, Oleandra wrote three letters destined to Tracey, Draco and Ginny, informing them of her plans.

"Here, Pyg," she said, handing the letters to her owl.

Oleandra watched as Pyg flapped its little wings as hard as it could and disappeared into the clouds.

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Unfortunately, it turned out that Tracey and Malfoy would be unavailable for the rest of the summer, which meant all of Oleandra's plans fell through. As for Ginny, she expressed an interest in joining the Starshower Club, but against all odds, the Weasley family won the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw later on in the month. They decided to blow their winnings on a month-long vacation in Egypt, which meant that Ginny was also unable to attend. Not that it mattered much, since even a single missing participant meant the spell wouldn't work.