บท 200: Utsusemi

Oleandra, Daphne and Tracey gulped down their lunches as fast as they could; they only had one hour to eat before Double Potions in the afternoon, and the last thing they wanted was to be late for Professor Snape's class when he already hated the twins.

Upon arriving in the library, they found that the librarian, Madam Pince, was still at her post. Did this severe-looking woman ever eat anything, Oleandra wondered? After Madam Pince made sure they hadn't brought any food in (Tracey nervously wiped some breadcrumbs off her blazer when the librarian's back was turned), she pointed them to the foreign works section of the library.

"Ooh, look," said Tracey. "They have a whole bookcase on African Transfiguration magic. I might rent one of these, I'm not doing so great in Professor McGonagall's class this year."

Before Oleandra could ask, Daphne spoke up.

"Nothing that would interest you, Sis," she said. "They're mostly focused on transforming into animals."

"I wasn't going to ask about that," said Oleandra in a huff. "I wanted Tracey to keep an eye on wandless techniques."

African Wizards had a vast heritage of wandless magic; while wands made spells both easier to use and more potent, they also dumbed down the casting process by quite a bit. Just point, and shoot! Well, it wasn't that simple, but it might as well be, compared to the complexity of wandless magic.

About ten minutes before the bell rang, Daphne ended up finding the book they'd been looking for.

"The Exsufflicate Shell Technique," Daphne read out loud, "was created by Japanese Wizards by observing insects moulting and casting off their outer shell. Allows one to rapidly change their garments."

Daphne flicked through the grimoire's yellowed pages.

"It looks like the translator created a wand-friendly version, complete with incantation," Daphne observed. "That's some dedication, for a spell that probably no one has ever used."

"Cambio Exuvia," Oleandra read over Daphne's shoulder. "Wand movement… tap the sternum with the wand tip. Seems easy enough; I've got my Basilisk-skin robes in my pouch. Shall we give it a try?"

"You might want to practise somewhere private first," Daphne smirked. "If you make a mistake, you might end up Vanishing your clothes permanently, and I'm not lending you anything I'm wearing right now."

"Right," said Oleandra sheepishly. "Good point."

Ending up stark naked in the library was about the last thing Oleandra needed right now; it was basically social suicide for someone as famous as she currently was. And what about doing the Charm during a task? Changing clothes in front of a thousand people probably wasn't the best idea, either…

Still, her combat robes had plenty of pockets enchanted with the Undetectable Extension Charm; if she managed to master this Quick-Change Charm, it would be the equivalent of smuggling all of her magical items and potions into the unknown first task, which technically wouldn't be cheating!

Oleandra and Tracey both borrowed the books on exotic magic they'd been leafing through and hurried to the Potions classroom, arriving just as the bell rang for the last time. To the twins' relief, Professor Snape didn't make things difficult for them, merely pursing his lips in a disapproving manner. Whether he liked it or not, Oleandra now represented the school and his House, so he repressed his distaste for her.

Upon entering the classroom, she couldn't help but notice that Hermione was skipping class, and that Draco was missing one of his henchmen.

"Here you go," whispered Draco, when Oleandra sat at the desk next to his. "I got Theo to make these for us."

He pointed to a shining badge on his chest that read: SUPPORT OLEANDRA GREENGRASS— SLYTHERIN HOGWARTS CHAMPION!

"Why, thank you, Draco," Oleandra whispered back, pinning the badge to her blazer, while making sure not to prick Cloak with its pin. "How very thoughtful of you."

Neville Longbottom, Oleandra's Potions partner, kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish. It certainly looked like he wanted to say something, but it seemed like the sight of Professor Snape glaring in Oleandra's direction kept him from emitting any recognizable sounds.

"Antidotes!" said Professor Snape, his eyes gliding across the room. "You should all have prepared your recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then we will be selecting someone on whom to test one…"

Professor Snape's eyes were looking past Oleandra; he was looking at the back of the room at Harry, who was glowering right back at him. And then, the tension in the air over who was going to be poisoned suddenly broke when someone knocked at the door. A rather small boy wearing Gryffindor's colours emerged from the doorway and walked up to Professor Snape's desk.

"Yes?" said Professor Snape curtly, his cold smile turning into thin-lipped displeasure over having his fun of threatening children with poisoning interrupted.

"Please, sir," the boy said. "I'm supposed to take Harry Potter and Oleandra Greengrass upstairs."

"They have another hour of Potions to complete," Professor Snape snapped. "They will come upstairs when this class is finished."

"Sir— sir," insisted the boy, courageously maintaining eye contact with the teacher. "Mr. Bagman wants them; the other champions are already there. I think they want to take photographs…"

'Well, it wouldn't be the first time my picture's in the newspaper,' Oleandra thought to herself. 'Wait, I still haven't written home about being selected as a Triwizard champion. I can't let mother learn about this from the paper!'

Oleandra dearly hoped that Astoria hadn't already shared the news with their parents; otherwise she'd get another talking to. The instant she was freed from this photo op, she was rushing to the Owlery to send an owl to her mother!

While Oleandra was being beset by visions of Howlers angrily screaming at her in her mother's voice, the Gryffindor boy and Professor Snape had been arguing back and forth about something unimportant.

"Very well!" said Professor Snape. "Potter, Greengrass, take your bags and get out of my sight!"

Oleandra clicked her tongue in annoyance and rapidly stuffed her potions equipment back into her enchanted pouch.

"Er—" said Neville nervously. "Could you leave your cauldron? I melted mine accidentally…"

"You'd better pay me back if you damage it," said Oleandra, setting the small cauldron back down on their desk with a small plonk.

"And—" Neville continued, but Oleandra didn't let him finish; if he borrowed anything else from her, she was fairly sure she'd never get to see it again.