Capítulo 175: 2Cool4Skool
Following the events of the Quidditch World Cup Finals, Oleandra's parents decided it would be best if they left their three daughters with a few words of wisdom right before dropping them off at King's Cross station.
"Now remember," Iris said to her daughters from the front seat of the car they had rented. "When you're out in public— and yes, that includes Hogwarts— never forget that you're representing the Greengrass family, an ancient noble House. We lead by example rather than by words— Noblesse Oblige, remember? So, no more embarrassing episodes, okay? No more getting into trouble!"
Astoria and Daphne both turned to stare at Oleandra.
"What are you looking at me for?" said Oleandra irritably. "I told you; it was unfortunate accident that could have happened to anybody."
"Anybody who carries fireworks in their pockets and gets in fights with House-Elves, you mean?" Astoria snickered. "There are too many to count!"
"But most importantly," Maxwell said, "what your mother is trying to say is that the most important thing is that you stay safe. Remember that we both love you— so try not to make us worry so much."
Astoria turned to look at Oleandra and Daphne, who were planning to enter the Triwizard Tournament and hadn't breathed a word of it to their parents. The twins simply turned away, pretending not to have noticed.
"Well, that's about all," said Iris to her daughters fondly. "Have fun at Hogwarts and make us proud. When you're our age, you'll look back on these years fondly as the best years of your life."
"So it's all downhill from there?" Oleandra asked innocently, causing her mother to scowl at her.
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Ten minutes later, the girls and their luggage were safely aboard the Hogwarts Express, and an hour later still, the train had left King's Cross station. Destination: Hogsmeade station.
It would be Oleandra's third time taking the train to Hogwarts; in her second year, she had simply Tree-Ported there. Tree-Portation was Oleandra's version of Apparition: safer, but it took longer to use, and one needed to travel between marked trees. She carried a bunch of acorns marked with the tree rune Berkana (ᛒ) for this purpose. (Acorns counted as trees for the spell's requirements)
The Greengrass twins and their common friend Tracey found themselves alone in their compartment for once; Astoria had her own friends now, and Draco's father had forbidden him from interacting with the Greengrass girls. It was a bit of a shame; Oleandra had been learning to appreciate the annoying git's sharp wit. If you could look past his many faults, Draco was a pretty fun person to be around.
After some time sitting around and chatting, the girls decided to leave their compartment to stretch their legs and say hello to a few acquaintances. As they passed by Pansy's compartment, Millicent Bulstrode poked her head out of the door to invite them in, saying that Pansy wanted to talk. Oleandra wasn't one to back down from a challenge, so she readily accepted. Surprisingly, Pansy wanted to reconcile; would wonder never cease?
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A few hours later, the train was approaching its destination. This time around, there were no Dementors ready to ambush the train before it arrived at its destination. Unfortunately, it seemed as though it was going to be raining as hard as last year's September 1st. As usual, when they arrived at Hogsmeade Station, the students were separated into two groups: first years, who travelled over the Black Lake by boat, and everyone else, who took the magical horseless carriages—
"What's wrong, Sis?" Daphne asked. Her sister had stopped moving, and she would rather get to the relative dryness of the stagecoaches before she was completely drenched in rainwater.
"Look!" Oleandra said, pointing at the carriages.
"What am I supposed to be looking at?" Daphne asked, shivering slightly.
"There's some kind of spooky skeletal horses with wings drawing the carriages," Oleandra said, "can't you see them?"
"See what?" Tracey asked in concern. If hearing things nobody else could hear was considered bad even among Wizardkind, then seeing things nobody else could see was even worse!
Oleandra activated and deactivated her Mystic Eyes a few times in quick succession to make sure she wasn't seeing things. And sure enough, the leathery, skeletal horses were still there.
"Doesn't ring a bell," said Daphne noncommittally.
"Don't worry, I can see them too," a voice said behind them.
The three Slytherin girls turned around to see who was talking; it was another group of three girls: their little sister Astoria, Ginny Weasley, and… Loony— ahem, Luna Lovegood. The outlines of a large, invisible umbrella could be somewhat perceived above their heads due to the rainwater trickling down its sides; Ginny's doing, no doubt.
"Loony," said Daphne scathingly. "I see you've elected to wear shoes today."
Daphne and Hermione didn't like Luna very much; their view of the world was built upon facts, and Luna loved nothing more than to talk about imaginary animals and try to market The Quibbler, her father's tabloid, to anyone who would listen. Unfortunately for her, everybody knew that The Quibbler was utter rubbish and that the paper it was printed on far out valued its content; in short, its only value was to be used as kindling or toilet paper.
"There aren't as many Nargles in Ottery St Catchpole as there are in Hogwarts," Luna said dreamily. "I think they're the ones who keep taking my shoes."
Oleandra gulped; this wasn't reassuring. She personally found the peculiar Luna Lovegood rather inoffensive, but it didn't bode well for her sanity if only she and the crazy Ravenclaw girl could see the weird creatures.
"You're not crazy, if that's what you were wondering," Ginny said. "I can see them too; they've got Thestrals pulling the stagecoaches. They're invisible to those who haven't known death; that is, those who haven't seen anyone die personally."
Oleandra had killed a Dusk Elf last year, and indirectly caused the deaths of many more. Obviously, to enable one to see a Thestral, one had to be emotionally impacted by said death; otherwise, anybody who had swatted a fly in their life would be able to see them. As for why exactly Thestrals only allowed themselves to be seen by those who had seen death (murderers making up a big part of this population), one could only guess.
In any case, the mystery having been resolved, there was no use standing around in the rain, so they all entered the carriages and rode them up to good old Warty Hogwarts.
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
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Azure_Abyss The Weasleys also live in Ottery St Catchpole, which is perhaps how Ginny came to befriend Luna before book 5.
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