Oleandra Flies Under the Radar

"Wand?"

"Er… I left it in my other trousers?"

Ollivander raised a singular, bushy eyebrow.

"Come now, Miss Greengrass," he said tiredly. "We both know what your wand is truly made out of. Please submit your wand for inspection; I do not wish to have to call the Aurors on you."

After having failed to capture Daphne and Ginny, Umbridge had berated the discomfited Aurors at length for allowing the two underage Witches to escape from right under their noses.

At any rate, as if to make up for the failure of Education Decree Number 25, Umbridge had then transitioned directly into Educational Decree 26: the girls' wand inspection. Oleandra was rather surprised that Umbridge still had enough of her voice left to bark out orders, after having screamed for ten minutes straight!

And so, the boys had been escorted out of the Great Hall, while the girls had been made to line up to have their wands inspected by Ollivander himself; all of this under the strict supervision of the Aurors. Since there was only one Ollivander and many young Witches, the wand inspection had been projected to take a good part of the day, which meant that the day's classes were being cancelled.

The examination had been set to start with the youngest and was supposed to end with the eldest, so by the time Oleandra's had come along, she had had ample time to come up with a genius plan to avoid detection. After some deliberation, she had decided to store her wand in her pants pockets, before using the Quick-Change Charm to swap them for a short skirt she rarely wore. It wasn't the greatest of plans, but surely it was better than nothing?

After all, Ollivander already knew about her wand, and she wasn't able to tell lies, so what else was a girl supposed to do?

"I'm not lying," Oleandra insisted, as she stuck her hands in her skirt's pockets and turned them inside out, to show just how empty they were. "See?"

Oleandra didn't really like wearing skirts, since Hogwarts had a lot of stairs, and the halls got breezy in the winter. She usually saved them for the hottest days of the year; the temperature in Scotland rarely exceeded 20 degrees Celsius, but when it did, it was an absolutely miserable experience, due to the high humidity index…

(Relatively speaking, of course; the average Floridian might find such weather downright refreshing, for all I know!)

Oleandra's explanations didn't seem to impress Ollivander, because he began turning around to flag down an Auror. For a wand lover like him, it was probably unconceivable that any Wizard or Witch would just forget their wand in their other trousers…

Well, it looked like she would have to resort to Plan B…

"Stop," said Oleandra forcefully.

She layered her own voice with a multitude of other women's voices, like she had heard Viviane do a few times. It was a completely harmless Fairy trick that she could just barely perform with a human's throat, but it was rather impressive, if one accompanied the thousand-woman voice with other special effects.

Ollivander froze momentarily, before slowly turning his pale eyes towards her. He was obviously hesitating.

In Oleandra's eyes, Ollivander was a creepy and vain man whose only interest was wands. However, she was also guessing, and hoping, that he was a coward. Men of his ilk lived only to uncover the mysteries of wandlore, so if her impression of him was accurate…

"Mr. Ollivander," Oleandra continued, as she performed an entire choir's worth of voices all by herself. "What do you suppose would happen if you snitched on me?"

"Are you threatening me?" Ollivander asked, slightly unnerved. "There must be more than twenty—"

The sigil of the Helm of Terror began glowing dimly on Oleandra's brow. In Ollivander's eyes, all of the light in the world began disappearing, sucked into the nothingness at the centre of Oleandra's forehead. Fear gripped the old man; he felt himself panicking, he could hear the blood thumping loudly in his ears…

"The Aurors couldn't stop my sister," said Oleandra softly. "And I'm even stronger than she is."

Ollivander's eyes grew wide.

"It's you!" he gasped. "You're the one they're looking for!"

Oleandra said nothing.

And suddenly, the world was back to normal. Ollivander glanced fearfully around him; the Aurors clearly hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. He quickly made his decision. He was a coward, and this wasn't his fight; antagonizing the Dark Lady for no good reason would only get him killed.

"Ash!" Ollivander managed to blurt out, cold sweat running down his temple. "Her wand is made from ash!"

Liar, Oleandra's eyes told her.

Not that she had needed her Mystic Eyes to know that!

"All right," said one of the Aurors guarding the Great Hall's double doors with a yawn. "Off you go, then."

"'Till next time, Mr. Ollivander," said Oleandra pleasantly, causing the old man to blanch.

As soon as Oleandra set one foot in the Entrance Hall, her expression darkened. She wasn't proud of herself for terrifying the old man with dark magic, but she didn't have a choice. Daphne had taken the fall for her, so she could only honour her sacrifice by staying at Hogwarts.

"There you are!"

Oleandra looked up and saw the Gryffindor Trio walking towards her at a brisk pace. Hermione had passed Ollivander's inspection right before her, since the Aurors were going by alphabetical order within school years for the inspection.

"Your sister, is she the Dark Lady?" Ron asked fiercely. "Is she going to hurt Ginny?"

"Daphne wouldn't do that," Hermione admonished him, before quickly glancing at Oleandra to gauge her reaction. "She wouldn't, right?"

"Don't you have eyes, Ron?" Oleandra snapped. "Daphne was going to give herself up, but your sister just had to make a mess of things by attacking the Aurors! For all I know, Ginny could be the one the prophecy refers to!"

The Gryffindor Trio's expressions told her all she needed to know; between Ginny and Daphne, they'd pick Ron's little sister any day of the week.

"Oleandra," said Hermione gently, "I know you don't want to believe your sister could ever go wrong, but isn't it possible at all that her… transformation could have changed her brain chemistry, somehow? Don't you remember how she lashed out at you, in the girls' bathroom?"

Oleandra's temper flared, and she stared down Hermione until the other girl looked away, ashamed of herself.

That was her sister they were talking about! So much for Hermione being Daphne's friend, huh!?

So what if the potion had changed her sister a little! Daphne might sometimes act a little cold and emotionless, but Oleandra knew that her sister's love for her family ran hotter and deeper than anyone else she knew!

"You've got to be mental if you really believe that!" Oleandra said forcefully, a little louder than she'd meant to. "Daphne only did that because she was worried about me. Besides, Ginny is one of the strongest Witches I know! So, if anyone should be worried about their sister, it should be me!!"