Chapitre 174: Final Preparations
In the end, Oleandra was not charged with any crimes; for some reason, Mr. Crouch ended up pushing the blame for Oleandra's unfortunate incident during the World Finals on his Elf. Spoopey, the Greengrass family's House-Elf, told her that rumour ran in the Elf community that Crouch had fired Winky for making a grievous mistake. Oleandra was impressed; now that was accountability.
Crouch even ended up fully reimbursing the full sum Oleandra randomly named for the items she had tragically "lost." He admitted to taking her personal belongings into his tent for investigation, which had had "unfortunately" burned down. As long as she didn't wiggle her wand in his face, it should be safe to keep using it; nobody else knew it was supposed to have been burnt to ashes.
As for escaping her holding cell, who actually cared? Death Eaters had appeared; no one would blame her for running off, and the Aurors had much more important things to do than to bring a thirteen-year-old girl to justice; especially a rich one.
The night of the incident, her father had taken both Astoria and Daphne back home, while her mother had stayed around to look for her daughter. After the Aurors were done interrogating her, Iris immediately took Oleandra back to their summer home.
The next day, when Oleandra came down from her room for breakfast, she found her parents reading the Daily Prophet, the British Wizarding World's premier newspaper.
"If the terrified Wizards and Witches who waited breathlessly for news at the edge of the wood expected reassurance from the Ministry of Magic, they were sadly disappointed. A Ministry official by the name of Arnold Weasley emerged some time after the appearance of the Dark Mark alleging that nobody had been hurt, but refusing to give any more information. This statement turned out to be untrue, several witnessing the removal of several bodies from the woods an hour later," Iris read from the newspaper. "Four of the bodies were identified as Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's, and Fred and George Weasley's, the sons of the very Ministry official who gave the prior comment."
"Poor Molly must nearly have had a heart attack reading this," said Oleandra's father Maxwell, shaking his head. "This Rita Skeeter will really write anything to get her articles read; she could have at least mentioned they were unharmed."
Molly Weasley was Oleandra's father's cousin; it was natural that he'd be concerned for her.
"Does it mention the thing with me and the fireworks?" Oleandra inquired.
Her father flipped through the newspaper.
"Page 2," he responded. "There's a big picture of you under the Weasley's little ad; but the article's mostly about the ministry's failure to stop you, and about the lacklustre security measures."
Since Mr. Crouch had sent over his excuses for his Elf's behaviour, Oleandra's parents had been inclined to believe Oleandra's fantastical excuses. Otherwise, she was fairly sure she'd have been grounded for the rest of her life.
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"Will you stop giggling?" Daphne said in annoyance. "I'm trying to concentrate, here. Do you want me to make a mess?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't help it," Oleandra said, as she struggled to keep a straight face. "Your paintbrush is tickling me. I've got sensitive skin, I'll have you know."
The Greengrass twins had locked themselves in Daphne's room in order to do a little body painting. Since Oleandra was going to try her chance at entering, and eventually winning, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, she was going to have to up her game if she wanted to have even the slightest chance of beating the older students who would inevitably end up getting chosen as the other schools' champions.
And there was also that… discomforting prophecy about the Dark Lord's return. In any case, Oleandra preferred to be prepared.
In any case, simply being younger than one's opponent was an enormous disadvantage; a Wizard's magic would keep steadily growing throughout their life, but only during their teen years would they experience explosive growth. If thirteen-year-old Oleandra had to face a seventh year, she would basically be facing a full-powered adult. The number of Magic Circuits dictated the amount of power one could channel from the world, and it made a world of difference.
For instance, having more magic meant having access to more potent spells, as well as the ability to overcharge basic spells. For example, in Oleandra's second year, Professor Snape had used a Disarming Charm so powerful it had not only sent Professor Lockhart's wand up into the air, but the man himself as well!
But of course, having a lot of magic wasn't everything, and that was what Oleandra was banking on. People already knew about Oleandra's runic magic, but they hadn't seen everything. What's more, she would continue to innovate; and painting magical symbols over her body was one of the ways she had devised to streamline her casting process.
Using stances to perform simple runic spells was fine and everything, but for Galdr; which necessitated stringing runes into sentences to cast more complex spells, she couldn't afford to start dancing on the spot when she needed to remain mobile. Hand seals were great for this purpose, but what if she also needed to use regular Wizard spells with her wand? Oleandra wasn't ambidextrous, unfortunately.
And thus, Daphne had come up with a recipe for invisible ink that required a special solvent to remove. It was made with Mandragora extract, which had certain properties related to sound frequencies. Daphne had enchanted it so that the ink would only appear when a certain key phrase was said; it needed to be a rare enough to not come up in everyday conversation, as well as being easy to say. And so, Oleandra's key phrase was the named after the most pointless of Muggle inventions: the Banana Hanger.
The real estate on Oleandra's forehead was already occupied by Ægishjálmur, so Daphne couldn't use that area, but everywhere else not covered by her combat robe was fair game:
- Right cheek, Perthro (ᛈ) backwards, to allow her to easily disguise herself.
-Under the left ear, the Faraway Communication spell, Ansuz (ᚨ) and Wunjo (ᚹ).
-Right shoulder, Daphne painted her Pleiades's spell: Seven times Thursaz (ᚦ).
-Left shoulder, the Tree-Porting Spell: Wunjo (ᚹ), Berkana (ᛒ), Raidhu (ᚱ), Eihwaz (ᛇ), Dagaz (ᛞ).
-Back of the right hand, Teiwaz (ᛏ) (The idea was to grant her other spells shield-piercing power).
-Back of the left hand, Oleandra's special Transfiguration spell: Wunjo (ᚹ), Gebu (ᚷ), Raidhu (ᚱ).
-On her back, Oleandra planned to have her own special constellation spell once she was done fine-tuning it; for now, all she had accomplished was causing the inundation of her summer home's basement.
Interestingly, drawing runes on her right palm caused her other spells to explode in her face; the magic running through the ink was probably interfering with how she channelled her magic through her hand to her wand. Having runes drawn on her palm also conflicted with her hand seals, so for now, she left both of her palms rune-free.
Once Daphne was done painting on her sister's body, they swapped roles, and Oleandra painted the same runes on her twin. However, since Daphne's forehead was free of runes, Oleandra drew Ingwaz (ᛜ) on there, making her look rather like Tsunade, if the Naruto manga had existed at the time!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone