บท 11: They weren't kidding about the Forbidden Corridor
"Why are you following us!" Weasley hissed loudly, as they ran. "Find your own bloody escape route!"
The six of them were sprinting down corridor after corridor.
"I don't know!" panted Daphne. "We're just — trying to get away —too!"
Oleandra and Neville leaned against each other, wheezing and gasping for breath. They had all managed to get away from Filch.
"I — told — you," Granger gasped, "I — told — you so."
"We've got to get back to Gryffindor Tower," said Weasley, "quickly as possible."
"I warned you this was a bad idea," Granger chided Potter. "With all the noise you made, there was no way this was going to go unnoticed!"
Potter grunted, unwilling to admit fault.
"And you!" Granger turned to Oleandra. "That wasn't a first-year spell. It's not a second-year spell, either. I've already started looking over next year's subjects in the library. In fact, it doesn't sound like any spell I've ever heard of!"
"I've already told you not to believe everything you read in books," Oleandra shrugged. "It's a family secret, anyways, so I can't tell you."
Daphne raised an eyebrow. She'd never heard of her parents doing anything like her sister had done.
Dumbledore, who had somehow kept up with them invisibly, also raised an eyebrow. He recognized the words she had shouted before as what they were; ancient runes. In fact, Study of Ancient Runes was an elective course given at Hogwarts in a student's third year.
He knew they were magic; he knew there were artefacts engraved with runes that produced magical effects, but directly invoking them in combat? That was new to him.
"It would seem Professor Babbling still has much to learn," Dumbledore thought to himself mirthfully. "Perhaps I should have Miss Greengrass teach the class?"
He might have to reevaluate his opinion of Miss Greengrass. He had been keeping watch over her, and she did not act like someone without a soul (who weren't supposed to be doing much of anything to begin with, except being in a coma). In fact, she acted her age, in a perfectly non-evil way.
He would still watch out for her, but he would focus his attention on Harry and Quirinus Quirrell, just as he had initially planned.
Suddenly, Peeves the poltergeist flew out through a closed door. After a short confrontation with the little group, he shouted, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED! STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"
Oleandra's heart lurched. If she had to run any more, she would seriously consider simply lying down on the floor and await her fate.
Nevertheless, she still gathered her legs under her and ran with the others… Which to her relief wouldn't be for too long, since a door blocked their way.
"This is it!" Weasley moaned, scrambling desperately at the door like a cat begging to be let in, "We're done for! This is the end!"
Multiple footsteps were heard coming. Filch, still being unable to see, had got the prefects to run after them!
"Move over, now," Granger snarled. She grabbed Potter's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "Alohomora!"
Everyone dived into the room, and slammed the door shut behind them.
A moment later, a voice was heard coming from the other side.
"It's Percy!" mouthed Weasley to Potter.
"Well, they don't seem to have come this way. They wouldn't have come through here, it's the forbidden corridor. I hear the headmaster warded this place himself."
Everyone on the other side of the supposedly warded door looked strangely at Granger.
At any rate, this seemed to have convinced the other prefects, and they soon all left.
"Will you let go, you numb —," began Daphne angrily, but she soon swallowed her words. "Oh."
Everyone turned around and saw a mountainous, three-headed dog, its three pairs of eyes riveted on them, its fangs dripping with saliva.
"Oh." said Oleandra in a tiny voice.
If she hadn't been so scared for her life, she would have laughed out loud at Weasley's face.
As Potter desperately tried to get the door back open, the dog lunged, its three mouths wide open.
As they all screamed in unison, the door finally gave way and they all fell through the open doorway. Oleandra, Daphne and Neville didn't even look back before running for their lives, while Potter, Weasley and Granger managed to close the door shut.
The trio ran all the way down to the dungeons, after which the twins booted Neville out of the party, before entering their common room.
"At least show me the way out of here!" He wailed, before his knees gave out and he crumpled into a pile.
That night, Oleandra would have a nightmare, crashing her still enchanted bed into Pansy's in her sleep and destroying them both in the process. She would then shakily climb into Daphne's bed, and fall asleep there.
The next morning, something unusual happened at breakfast. Two large packages were dropped at the Gryffindor and Slytherin tables respectively by a small fleet of owls.
"Ugh, what a mess," said Tracy. The package had knocked her orange juice over. A smaller owl dropped a letter onto Oleandra's buttered toast.
Oleandra tore upon the letter and read:
Your new Nimbus Two Thousand, courtesy of Slytherin Quidditch Team budget.
Professor S. Snape
Oleandra rolled her eyes. Obviously, it was a broomstick from the shape of the packaging. She tore open the wrapping and laid eyes on a golden, sleek broomstick. She couldn't wait to deface it with runes!
Malfoy and his goons got up from their seats and came up to admire her new broom.
"Very nice," said Malfoy with a trace of jealousy on his face. "You're our new Quidditch secret weapon, right? But Potter also got a broom, and he hasn't been expelled…"
With a frown on his face, having evidently come to a certain realization, he went off to bother Potter.
That evening, Oleandra very carefully cast the Severing Charm she had learned in Charms.
"Diffindo!"
She gently moved her wand over the broomstick's handle, cutting a quarter inch into the wood.
"Wunjo, Raidhu, Elhaz."
"Harmony, riding and protection runes." Oleandra said to herself. "This should make the ride pretty smooth."
To increase her reflexes, Oleandra had some ideas. There were two runes that governed time, but she wasn't in a hurry to try them on herself. Better test them on something else first, she reasoned.
In the weeks that would come, Oleandra would keep trying new rune combinations instead of practising her transfiguration, and spend three evenings a week training with the Slytherin, slowly but surely improving her reflexes and fitness.
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