Chapter 426: Frustration

"You're back!" chanted Astoria, pointing out the obvious in a singsong voice. "So, how was your Charms exam?"

"At least let me get out of the fireplace before bombarding me with questions," said Oleandra tiredly, as she stepped out of the roaring emerald flames. "Now, where were we…?"

After having spent months in bed convalescing, Oleandra was a bit out of shape— mentally and physically. Ideally, she'd have taken her O.W.L.s at the end of the school year, when the subjects would have still been fresh in her memory, but unfortunately, circumstances had dictated that things would go otherwise for her.

Since Astoria still had her Trace, Oleandra hadn't been able to practise her spells at home; only review her notes and reread her grimoires. Oleandra's own Trace had been erased when she had very briefly died, but if she tried to use her magic to practise for her exams, it would still show up on Astoria's Trace.

Under ordinary circumstances, Ministry officials would have simply attributed any use of magic in their temporary hideout to their mother (who was still sleeping upstairs, deep in a coma), and assumed that she had been the one to cast spells around her daughter— but Oleandra had preferred not to push her luck.

And if she had insisted upon practising at home…

Surely, Oleandra had told herself, surely even the least observant of Ministry workers would have found it odd that an adult Witch would repeatedly and frequently practise a fifth-grade repertoire of spells every single day, almost as if she were preparing to sit her O.W.L.s?

Besides, with Death Eaters having doubtlessly infiltrated the Ministry, Oleandra couldn't afford to let her little sister's Trace trigger under any circumstances, allowing them to discover their location, so the Greengrass sisters had spent those long months without magic, like Muggles…

But there was more to Oleandra's exhaustion.

Oleandra wasn't simply rusty, she felt like she was literally being stretched thin, and she knew exactly why it was happening; it was her new heart— the Dusk Elf's heart, which was now shared between the two of them.

In fact, if it hadn't been for her stealing Umbridge's magic, Oleandra would have been constantly running on empty. The heart, which was now beating slowly in her chest, was drawing away her power; using her own magic to modify and repair her body, leaving her barely enough for spellcasting.

What she was becoming, she didn't know, but she knew that Dusk Elves weren't great spellcasters— their magic enhanced their speed, strength, agility and five senses to inhuman degrees; even those possessed magic among them usually preferred to fight in close combat with enchanted weapons, like their Dusk Elf Muggle equivalents.

And so, as far as Oleandra knew, until the day came that she killed her foe and severed their connection, her transformation would just keep continuing until it was done...

…

"You were about to tell me about your day," prompted Astoria.

"Daphne was there; she came to sit her O.W.L.s," said Oleandra. "She told me she would be coming back to Hogwarts in September."

Astoria's eyes grew as round as saucers, allowing Oleandra to clearly see her horizontal pupils.

"She's okay?" she breathed. "She's really okay?"

"She looked tired, but otherwise, she looked fine to me," said Oleandra gently. "She told me she had things to do, so she won't be coming home yet."

Astoria opened her mouth to ask yet another question, but Oleandra cut her off, claiming that she was tired, and that she needed to review her notes for tomorrow's exam, and before her sister could protest, Oleandra had slipped away and swiftly jogged up the stairs to the first floor, reaching for the headband she had worn all day long.

Her fingers brushed against its soft fabric, as she debated removing it. The headband felt stuffy in the summer heat, but Oleandra preferred to suffer in silence, rather than run the risk of having someone catch a glimpse of those things poking out of her head through her long hair.

In fact, she didn't like seeing them even when she was alone.

As Oleandra set foot on the first floor, she decided to check in on her mother first, instead of going to her room to study straightaway— since there was a mirror hanging on the wall, at the end of the corridor that led to her own bedroom.

Oleandra opened the door to her parents' room a sliver and peered inside— the afternoon light filtered through a crack between the closed curtains, casting a thin beam of warm light that partially illuminated Iris Greengrass's sleeping face, which so resembled her own.

She looked so peaceful.

If what had transpired that fateful day in the early morning at Malfoy Manor had never happened, Oleandra would have hesitated to say if she preferred her like this over her usual disapproving self, but after that day, Oleandra knew with certainty that would have given anything to have her mother on her feet once again, even if it meant getting ignored again.

She had treated Iris the best she could with the Healing Spells Viviane had taught her, but without the knowing the exact Curse that had struck her mother during their flight from Malfoy Manor, she could only wait for her own magic to take its course…

…

Oleandra's hand hovered above her mother's, trembling slightly— but in the end, she decided against taking her mother's hand into her own, and she turned on her heel and exited the room, making a beeline towards her bedroom. She ignored the mirror at the end of the corridor and threw open her door, before slamming it shut behind her.

"This stupid headband!" Oleandra hissed, her frustration mounting. "It's so itchy!"

Her fingers curled around the headband's fluffy fabric, and she tore it off, hurling it at the wall with all of her strength— though the soft sound it produced upon hitting the wall (and then the ground, shortly after) was quite unsatisfactory; doing nothing to alleviate the anger simmering within her, just below boiling point.

Oleandra glared at the headband lying helplessly on the floor, as if it were somehow the source of all of her problems, before angrily stalking over to her desk for some last-minute studying. She had her Transfiguration O.W.L. the next day, and even though it was her best subject after Study of Ancient Runes, Transfiguration required a lot of memorization, since each edge case often had its own variation of the spell…