Chapitre 256: Mind Shuffle

All sorts of workbenches, garden beds and animal enclosures appeared all around them, as the Room of Requirement revived the hero of the Goblin Rebellion of the nineteenth century's secret base. In a cobweb-ridden corner of the room, a small black bag began to quiver.

Reacting to Oleandra's Summoning Charm, a handful of discarded red hairs flew out of the bag and into her hand. One didn't need to know the precise location of an item in order to Summon it, as long as it was in the vicinity of the caster!

"Got the hairs!" Oleandra called out to her sister, who was preparing a second dose of Bloodline Atavism Potion as quickly as she could.

Oleandra quickly handed the Kamaitachi hairs over to her sister, before kneeling at Astoria's side to examine her. Astoria's eyes had rolled back in her head; she was unconscious, which was probably a good thing, considering that her extremities were growing black, a sign of necrosis. Her organs were failing and her cells breaking down, as her DNA tried to recombine in vain. Even if she were to miraculously survive the second change, there would be no guarantee she would ever fully heal from this much cellular damage…

"It's done," Daphne said breathlessly, bringing over the blood-red potion she had just made. "Hold her up, and pinch her nose so that it all goes down her throat…"

Daphne carefully pried Astoria's small mouth open and poured in the potion, the liquid sliding over her tongue and down her throat, while Oleandra rubbed her throat gently to make the potion go down easier.

The twins anxiously watched their little sister, who had at least ceased seizing and foaming at the mouth.

"She's not getting any better," said Daphne worriedly.

"But she's not getting any worse, either," Oleandra said unconvincingly. "I think."

Minutes passed like seconds.

"It didn't take this long with me, did it?" Daphne asked, breaking the silence. "We need to take her to Madam Pomfrey, and damn the consequences. It's all my fault, I'll take the blame. I should have listened to you—"

Some colour was returning to Astoria's cheeks; her tissues were no longer rapidly decomposing, but she was still rapidly wasting away. Oleandra realized that the only reason why this hadn't happened in Daphne's case during her transformation in the Chamber of Secrets was because of her different bloodline. At the time, Oleandra had created harsh sunlight; enough to feed Daphne's Wood Nymph body!

The reason why Astoria was rapidly losing weight was because the potion was consuming her muscles and her fat reserves in order to complete her transformation; sunlight wouldn't help her, since her bloodline had nothing to do with plants!

"She needs food!" Oleandra cried. "At this rate, she's going to be eaten alive by her own body!"

Astoria's canines began to lengthen, almost like a vampire's fangs, and her hair was turning as red as Ron's. She didn't need just any food, she needed meat; proteins, fat, blood!

"If only you had harvested some of the Basilisk's meat along with its venom," Viviane said. "Mustelids love snake meat, and Basilisk meat is rich in nutrients and magic. It's also delicious, I've heard."

"I've got some eclairs," said Daphne. "They might be a little stale, though."

That was good, sugar was instant energy, it would tide her over for now, but Astoria needed to rebuild her entire body; she needed actual food. While Daphne was retrieving the pastries from her bag and conjuring a glass of water, Viviane spoke up:

"She won't be able to swallow anything until she wakes up, and you should also stabilize her before moving her," she said. "Now, this is a fairly complex healing spell I learned from Merlin, so listen carefully—"

"This really isn't the time to be learning new spells," Oleandra whispered, turning her back to Daphne so that she couldn't see her mouth moving. "Swap places with me, and you do it."

"Are you sure? I'll only be able to mobilize a fraction of your magic if I'm in control—"

"Just do it! I'll relinquish control temporarily."

Oleandra's body froze up, the light in its eyes dimming for a fraction of a second, and then, it blinked. A new owner was occupying it; Viviane examined her hands, before taking an experimental step… and almost tripped over her own feet.

"Just relax," Viviane whispered. The last time she had (briefly) assumed control, Oleandra had been unconscious, but this time, she was wide awake. In spite of her best intentions, Oleandra's consciousness was instinctively fighting against her for every single little movement, every step of the way.

Viviane was very much out of practice at moving a living body (whoops, don't forget to breathe!). And it didn't help that Oleandra's body was much smaller than Viviane's original human body. Her limbs were now shorter— it was a strange experience seeing the world from a shorter person's perspective— the ground was much closer, for instance. And speaking of which, she could now see her feet without much effort; it had certainly been a while.

Cloak the Lethifold, sensing a change in the consciousness of its master, began stirring; and Oleandra immediately had to comfort it, assuring it that all was well, and that it could go back to sleep.

With Oleandra concentrating on another task, Viviane was finally free to act. She pulled out Oleandra's wand from its holster and began waving it in anticlockwise circles above Astoria's body, chanting a string of words that were vaguely reminiscent of ancient Greek.

"What are you doing?" Daphne asked worriedly. "What's that spell?"

Viviane ignored her, closing her eyes to maintain her concentration and her grip on Oleandra's body. A bead of sweat ran down her temple, and her throat was beginning to hurt after speaking non-stop for a few minutes.

"There, her life is no longer in danger," Viviane said after another minute had elapsed, before pointing her wand directly at Astoria and uttering the word, "Rennervate."

"Who are you?" Daphne asked, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"What do you mean?" Oleandra said vexedly. "Who else would I be except myself? Now, if you're done asking stupid questions…"

At that moment, Viviane had relinquished control over Oleandra's body, returning it to its rightful master just in time to placate the suspicious Daphne.