บท 21: Oleandra uses a dangerous rune as an air conditioner to stay cool during her exams
Whatever Oleandra was planning to do, it would have to wait until after the exams. Ordinary students had to do their last-minute studying under a sweltering heatwave, but the Greengrass twins had rich parents, and temperature regulating robes. The Slytherin common room was also underground and half under the lake, which meant it was pleasantly cool even during the hotter months.
What's more, Oleandra had engraved a small flat pebble with the hailstorm rune Hagal on one side, and the cold rune Isaz on the other. Whenever she rubbed the pebble between her fingers, it would produce an aura of cool air around her. The runes weren't big enough to cause an actual hailstorm, which would have been rather disruptive during class. Other Slytherins would have liked to get closer to take advantage of Oleandra the mobile air conditioning unit, but the rumours of what she had done to the third years kept them at bay.
It was almost time for the end of year exams. Due to Oleandra use of Ingwaz, anything that had to do with memorizing or problem solving was no issue at all, so she was going to ace any written paper, provided she had been awake during class to hear about the subject in question.
Ingwaz also helped one concentrate for spells, but succeeding at spellcasting mostly relied on natural talent, plain old hard work and willpower. After all, there's a limit to how much a wand can help fill in the gaps. Some wizards and witches simply have an easier time bringing their thoughts into reality, and some other are really good at precisely making the right movements so that the wand will recognize which spell to cast. And inversely, some are really bad at both. There's no reason for it, it just is.
The first exam was for Professor Flitwick's Charms class. For this exam, students had to make a pineapple dance, then make it levitate. The answer to the first problem was at first glance easy; just cast the Dancing Feet spell on it. Simple, no? Well, yes, but not actually. The Dancing Feet spell requires the target to have feet to begin with. Granger solved this problem easily, using Transfiguration to grow the pineapple a pair of legs, that ended in tiny feet.
Oleandra hadn't been prepared to use Transfiguration in this exam, so the most she could do was make the pineapple rock back and forth rhythmically, then make it jump and twirl using the levitation charm. It turned out that this was also a correct answer, since it demonstrated one's skill at manipulation an object through the levitation charm.
The next exam was for Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration class. Oleandra was dreading this one the most. Professor McGonagall's exam required one to Transfigure a mouse into a snuffbox, with extra points awarded for decorations, and penalties if mouse features remained. One also had to Transfigure any small object into a bird, using the Avifors spell, a magic related to Avis, the bird conjuring spell.
At any rate, Oleandra did manage to Transfigure the mouse into the snuffbox, but it retained its legs, causing it to scurry away. Then, instead of using Avifors, she used Ducklifors, transforming her purse into a duck! This spell was more complicated, since ducks are bigger than the small birds generated by Avifors, but Oleandra still succeeded, since her affinity towards ducks was stronger. Since ducks are technically birds, Professor McGonagall gave it a pass.
Then was the Defense Against the Dark Arts exam. Professor Quirrell was sick, so some seventh-year students proctored the written exams, and Professor Flitwick judged the practical. In this exam, one had to demonstrate their survival skills with the Fire-Making spell, and their ability to keep enemies at bay with the Knockback Jinx.
This was rather simple, so with an "Incendio!" and a "Flipendo!" Oleandra was done.
The rest of the exams were rather easy for Oleandra. She was sure she was going to get great grades!
For Herbology, one had to identify the various plants seen during the year, as well as demonstrate the Severing Charm, which was useful to make new plants out of cuttings. Nobody likes having parts of them cut off, so a mastery of this spell was necessary to avoid getting injured by the plant one was operating on! Oleandra was rather good at this spell, often using it to engrave runes into harder surfaces.
For potions, one had to memorize all of the recipes learned during the year (including the Forgetfulness potion, ironically enough), as well as brew a Boil-Curing potion. No spellcasting was required for this exam.
As for Astronomy and History of Magic, they were a cinch! Oleandra could name every star visible from Earth as well as their every characteristic, while Ingwaz made cheating incredibly easy for the history exam!
Finally, exams were over. Oleandra mechanically wandered throughout the school thinking about various things, until she had subconsciously ended up in front of the Forbidden Corridor on the third floor. She clenched her fists. She knew exactly what she wanted to do; she wanted the Philosopher's Stone for herself! Then her little sister would finally be able to live a long and healthy life, and she would be rich! Well, richer.
But first, she had to get past Fluffy, the giant three-headed dog.
"Ingwaz…"
Oleandra started brainstorming, and finally ended up with a plan. She left her spot on the moving staircase, and headed towards the Forbidden Forest, where she picked up a great number of acorns. She then returned to her dorm room, where she found her sister.
Oleandra knocked on the door.
"Sis, d'you have a moment?" she asked.
"What's going on this time?" Daphne responded hesitantly. She had heard the rumours concerning her sister, but rather than being angry at her for making her House lose one hundred points, she was rather envious. If there was one thing Slytherins respected more than blood, it was power!
"I've found a way to cure our little sister, but I'll need your help," she began. "It will probably be dangerous, against school rules, and we'll have to face that mutant dog again. Are you with me?"
Daphne hesitated, then nodded. It didn't matter if a noble was expelled from school, since they could always hire a tutor. She was rather worried about the danger, but if her sister had a plan, then she would believe in her.
"Good!" said Oleandra, grinning. "We leave for the Forbidden Corridor tonight. In the meantime, I'll have you help me with something."
And then, they both engraved Berkana into as many of the acorns as they could.
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