章 171: Run, Oleandra, Run!
With a thought, Oleandra expelled the mental image of the half-finished sturgeon she'd had for supper. It was no use keeping her takeaway to eat later if it was going to get her killed by distracting her at a crucial moment.
"Evanesco?" Oleandra said hopefully, trying to wandlessly Vanish the imprints she had made in the mud. Transfiguration was one of the most difficult branches of magic, but Oleandra had turned out to be quite gifted at it once part of the curse afflicting her had been lifted. And what's more, Vanishing mud wasn't exactly complex; much easier than Vanishing fish, a vertebrate.
Success! Now, she had the imprints saved in case she couldn't find her things!
"Lumos!" Oleandra lit the tip of her finger with the Wand-Lighting Charm, the only other Wizard spell Oleandra could use Wandlessly for now. With a source of light at her disposition, she began to navigate her way through the forest back to the campsite.
On the way, she encountered many panic-stricken people running away from the campsite. Some of them huddled in fear together, while others, once they'd gathered their spirits, summoned their courage to Disapparate away.
"Has anyone seen a young red-haired girl?" Oleandra heard some voices shouting in anguish. And then, she heard a yelp of pain. Oleandra recognized those voices; they belonged to the Gryffindor Trio's. And there was another familiar voice: Draco's.
"I saw her!" Oleandra said as she walked into the small clearing they had temporarily stopped in. "Further in; Fred and George have already gone after her."
"Oleandra?" said Hermione? "Is that you?"
"Draco?" said Oleandra in astonishment. "What are you doing with these guys?"
"Looking for my parents," said Draco miserably. "I can't find them anywhere…"
"Why don't you ask the nice people in the masks?" said Ron sarcastically. "I'm sure they'll be happy to point you to them, Malfoy."
Draco opened his mouth to say something; but he closed it just as fast.
"Fine," he spat. "If you haven't seen them, then that's fine."
And having said those words, he stormed off.
"That was some prank you and my brothers pulled," said Ron once Draco was gone, "but did you absolutely have to do it during the World Finals?"
"No time to talk," Oleandra said, "I gotta get my things back; they stole my pouch when they arrested me."
"Can you really call it stealing?" Hermione observed. "They obviously wouldn't allow you to bring anything with you when they locked you up. Speaking of which, they already freed you and the twins?"
"Nope, we broke out when we heard about the riots," said Oleandra impatiently. "Now look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I really need to find my things before—"
"This can't be happening!" exclaimed Harry. "I don't believe it… I've lost my wand!"
"I'll keep an eye out for it!" Oleandra shouted back, as she set off at a jogging pace towards the tents.
"Come back!" shouted Hermione in a worried voice. "It's too dangerous!"
However, Oleandra accelerated her pace instead of turning back. If someone accidentally touched the Basilisk venom in her pouch, then she'd be directly responsible for their deaths.
"Qu'est-ce qu'il nous a pris de venir crapahuter dans les bois!" Oleandra heard some female voices say nearby. "Nous sommes complètement paumées! Comment est-il possible de perdre quelqu'un comme Madame Maxime!?"
Oleandra ignored them and kept running until she had reached the edge of the woods. In the distance, she could see burning tents, as well as a large crowd of Wizards dressed in black from head to foot. Above them, four wriggling silhouettes could just barely be seen against the night sky. Two of them were quite small; goblins, or children, perhaps? A flash of light originating from a curse briefly illuminated their faces; yep, definitely human children: one boy, one girl.
"Perthro," Oleandra murmured. Using rune of the Cup of Dice this way, she'd become unnoticeable, not invisible. She could still be seen, but nobody would register her existence unless she walked up to their faces or did anything attention-grabbing, like use a spell.
Crouching low, Oleandra slowly approached the centre of the campsite, closer and closer to the Death Eaters. They were actually laughing, the monsters! They were having a grand old time!
Now that she was here, Oleandra had no idea which tent held her belongings. She hoped it wasn't one of the burning tents; she had used a fairly durable container to store the venom, but it wouldn't hold eternally. There was also the fact that Oleandra didn't know if the venom would retain its toxicity if it burned up into smoke; if it did, everyone here would die a painful death.
Oleandra entered a tent at random and released her Vanishing spell, and a clump of patterned wet mud fell on the carpet. After redoing the sympathetic magic spell, the drawings in the mud changed again; revealing rows and columns of tents. The map had zoomed in, which was very helpful.
"Exit the tent, turn left, walk past three tents, turn right, first tent," Oleandra repeated to herself as she located the thief's tent on her map. "Left, three, right, one."
Repeating the directions to herself as a mantra, Oleandra dashed out of the tent.
"Look over here, lads," shouted a man's deep voice. "It looks like we've missed one. Impedimenta!"
Oleandra's heart skipped a beat; her concealment spell must have been cancelled when she'd used magic to recreate her mud map! She jumped to the side, attempting to dodge the Impediment Curse.
"Got her!" yelled the man triumphantly, thinking he had hit her. The Impediment Curse was designed to slow or trip up enemies, so whether or not he hit, he had accomplished his purpose, since Oleandra had fallen to the ground!
Or so he thought. The best way to avoid being cursed was to avoid getting hit in the first place! Oleandra was quite agile; after taking up jogging last year, she had also started practising using her Lethifold's mobility to traverse terrain rapidly over the summer vacations. After all, she'd been grounded for the entire summer so far; all she'd been able to do was run around her summer home's garden, do her homework and watch Muggle television with Daphne.
Instead of hitting the ground hard, Oleandra rolled forward; the instant her feet touched the ground again, she sprang ten feet into the air before the Death Eaters' bemused eyes. Everyone in the world already knew she could fly thanks to her little misadventure, and she didn't want the Death Eaters ringing at her doorbell when they recognized her. Since she was restricting herself from flying, jumping very high was the next best thing.
Jets of colourful lights whizzed past her. One of them nearly hit her as she landed; a Reductor Curse, by the looks of it. Helpfully, it tore a hole into the tent she was trying to enter, and she dived into the opening that had just been created.
Expecting more shots to be fired at her, Oleandra stayed on the ground, but strangely enough, none came.
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