章 392: It's a Date, then?
When Oleandra had touched upon the memory of her 'death,' Harry had naturally relived it as well. It had been a while since he had seen that particular nightmare; ever since he had found out that Oleandra had miraculously escaped death, Harry's nightmares had gradually faded away, replaced by the visions that the Dark Lord was now inflicting upon him on a regular basis.
"Are you okay?" Harry asked Oleandra worriedly; she hadn't said anything for a while now.
Little by little, Harry had let those bad memories fade into the past where they belonged, but unlike him, Oleandra had left a part of herself behind in that cemetery; a part that had been very important to her. Ever since that fateful night, Oleandra had put on a brave face, acted like nothing could affect her and allowed her anger to consume her whenever sorrow threatened to take over.
Taking over the mantle of Lady of the Lake, joining the Order of the Round Table… Oleandra had been chasing after something to do; anything to distract herself from the hollowness, the void in her heart, but the feeling of loss had still remained hidden in the back of her mind, out of sight, but never out of her heart.
"I saw the woman from that night in your memories," said Harry quietly. "You cared about her, yeah?"
Normally, Oleandra would have immediately tried to Obliviate anyone who had discovered her secret, but in that moment, she was finding herself unprecedently vulnerable. So what if Harry learned about everything? She just couldn't bring herself to care any more…
"Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked gently.
"Nope," Oleandra replied shortly, stone-faced.
The feeling of wanting to be left alone was one that Harry was quite familiar with; wallowing in his own misery was actually his speciality. It made him sick when people pretended to understand what he was going through, even if it was their way of showing empathy, so when Oleandra rejected his offer, he didn't insist.
"Right, then," Harry said after a while, having seemingly thought of something. "Remember how I told you that I was going on a date with Cho on Valentine's Day?"
"How could I forget?" said Oleandra, letting out a sort of strangled laugh. "You based your Occlumency shields on that one moment. I had to worm my way in through one of Cho Chang's nostrils."
"Are you taking the piss?" said Harry in disbelief.
Oleandra shook her head, with the faintest of smiles on her lips. Not as if she could lie…
"Well, the reason I asked…" Harry sputtered, 'Er, I was just wondering… if you'd like to go on a double date with me and Cho on that day."
Of all the things she had been expecting him to say, Oleandra would have never guessed that particular sequence of words, so she simply looked at him with a vacant expression on her face.
"You're not going out with Malfoy, are you?" Harry then added suspiciously.
"Of course not!" said Oleandra, flustered.
To tell the truth, Harry's date with Cho had eclipsed all of his other worries by a long shot, and he would have been rather glad to have someone he trusted at his side for his first outing with his girl… Hang on, was Cho his girlfriend? There was clearly something romantic going on between them, but he had forgotten to make things official…
"You want to make your first date with Cho a double date?" said Oleandra in disbelief. "No wonder Hermione calls you dense."
"What's wrong with what I said?" said Harry, puzzled by Oleandra's reaction.
There was nothing wrong with making a first date a double date if you were only casually dating, or if you were an adult, but for sheltered teenagers with virginal fantasies about first loves, a first date was supposed to be something magical; something special. Or at least, that was how Oleandra saw it; she had never been on one.
"I just thought you'd want to be alone with Cho for your first time out together," Oleandra patiently explained. "You know, to enjoy each other's company, to check if you're really made for one another..."
"I don't really get it," said Harry, slightly disappointed. "But if you say so…"
With those heavy topics out of the way, Oleandra resumed testing Harry on his Occlumency skills, but since both of their heads were now filled with ideas of love, neither of them could concentrate enough to achieve consistent results; with either Oleandra completely failing to invade Harry's mind, or Harry utterly failing to repel her.
And so, after another unproductive hour of Occlumency training, Oleandra mechanically retraced her steps back to the Slytherin common room, ignoring the whispering, the cursing, and the pointing, and upon entering her room, she found Tracey hard at work on her Potions homework.
"Oh, you're back already?" said Tracey, smiling as she lifted her eyes from her parchment.
Oleandra's mind went blank, and before she could stop herself, she found that her lips were forming words on their own.
"D'you wanna go out?" she blurted out. "There's a Hogsmeade outing on that day. Valentine's Day, I mean."
"Sounds fun," said Tracey, her eyes shining excitedly. "Where'd you want to go?"
That hadn't been the reaction that Oleandra was expecting; perhaps Tracey hadn't understood the meaning behind her words?
"I mean," said Oleandra, choosing her words carefully, "would you like to go out with me on Valentine's Day, as, like, you know, my… g-girlfriend…?"
Tracey's jaw fell open.
"Say that again," she said giddily. "I think I misheard you…"
"Oh, come off it," said Oleandra angrily. "I know you heard…"
Oleandra could not finish her sentence, seeing as Tracey had jumped into her arms, knocking the wind out of her.
"Ooh, I can't wait!" Tracey chattered away nervously. "What do you have planned— No, wait— Don't tell me, wouldn't want to spoil the surprise— I just know you've got something really amazing in store for me, you must have been planning this for so long…"
"Ha, ha…" Oleandra laughed nervously.
She hadn't planned anything, Harry had literally just given her the idea! Tracey was obviously expecting something incredibly, amazingly, romantic, but how was Oleandra supposed to beat the Yule Ball, with the lights, the snow, the dance, the ambiance and the Fairies, and everything—
That was it!
What was the point of being a Greater Fairy, if you couldn't abuse your authority over regular Fairies to get them to help you seduce girls!? The outlines of a plan began drawing themselves in Oleandra's head; she just needed to recreate the magic of that night and put her own spin on it!
Now, she only needed a secluded venue, where there would be nobody to point and whisper at them…
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