บท 338: Tracey

"Do you think I've changed, too?" Oleandra had asked her.

"You're still the same Oleandra I've always known," Tracey had responded.

Tracey Davis had always had a high emotional quotient. She was a Half-Blood Witch in a Pure-Blood's world; of course she'd needed to learn how to read people. It had been essential for her to learn when to give and when to take, and to learn to avoid offending the wrong people. People like Pansy Parkinson, for instance.

But all of that had gone out of the window the moment she had met Oleandra. When she had first met her, she had thought her to be the weirdest girl she'd ever met, in more ways than one. Even so, the two of them had become fast friends, and the more Tracey had got to know her, the more she'd come to understand her; even though Oleandra sometimes defied common sense…

In hindsight, it had been inevitable for a girl like Tracey to eventually fall in love with her; Oleandra was strong, beautiful and wilful, but she was also brave, and she cared very much for her friends and sisters. She also had a clumsy side— Oleandra was considerably unlucky, and whenever things would go wrong for no reason in her everyday life, she would always have the cutest, 'what in Merlin's name just happened to me,' expression on her face.

It had all come to a head last Christmas at the Yule Ball, when Tracey had confessed her love to Oleandra. There had been a nonzero chance that she would succeed; she'd always been fairly certain that Oleandra went both ways— the way her gaze stayed overlong on beautiful people, whether they be man or woman. Even so, Tracey had known that her confession would probably be doomed to fail, since Oleandra cherished their friendship more than anything. She had been her first real friend, after all.

Even so, Tracey had to try; she couldn't keep those feelings bottled up inside her. And who knew? Perhaps by declaring her love to her, Oleandra would finally notice her feelings, and the spark of love would ignite the fires of passion.

But once again, Oleandra was defying Tracey's understanding of her.

After facing her own twin sister in single combat, Oleandra had clearly wanted validation; to be told that she hadn't changed, that Daphne had been wrong about her. And so, Tracey had told her what she had so desperately wanted to hear.

However, Tracey had instantly known she had picked the wrong choice, the moment she had seen Oleandra's smile. Girls' feelings were complicated, but this was a lesson she was supposed to have already mastered. Where had she made a mistake? She didn't have a single clue.

After all, how could Tracey have known that Oleandra possessed the soul of a Greater Fairy? Even though she'd been raised in a sealed state, as a human in a human body, she'd still retained some traits of her true nature, like her love of all things beautiful, her capriciousness… and her ability to detect lies.

Fairies loved beauty, but they would often become envious of those more beautiful than themselves. Oleandra had once envied the Muggle Stacey Pullman's perfect looks. She'd had a crush on Cedric Diggory, the pretty boy. And she'd been noticing Tracey's charms for a while now…

Unfortunately, when Tracey had told Oleandra what she had wanted to hear, she had also inadvertently lied.

"Do you think I've changed, too?" Oleandra had asked her.

Had Oleandra changed? Of course she had! But those changes had only made Tracey fall even more hopelessly in love with her. But since Oleandra couldn't tell malicious lies from white lies, she had grown despondent, thinking that her best friend had grown to despise her as well…

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Two weeks: that's how long it had been since Tracey had seen the twin sisters talk to each other. They ignored each other at all times, pretending as though they couldn't see each other. She wished she could get them to make up; Oleandra wasn't as fun to be around when she was depressed, and Daphne had completely closed herself off to others.

Tracey sighed. She was still spending all of her time with Oleandra; in class, doing homework together, at Quidditch practice, at night, since her bed was never far away… There was only one time in the day when they weren't together: in the evening, Oleandra would slip out of the common room to do who-knows-what, even when it wasn't her turn to go on patrols.

At any rate, even though they were always together, it felt to her like they'd never been so far apart. She knew she had to do something, and so…

"D'you wanna go out?" she suddenly asked Oleandra, one fine Friday evening at dinner.

"Wha—?"

Oleandra nearly choked on a spoonful of treacle tart upon hearing Tracey's words and had to take a drink of grenadine to clear her throat.

"Tomorrow's a Hogsmeade weekend," Tracey said patiently, patting Oleandra on the back as she coughed. "We could go out and do some shopping."

"O-oh, that's what you meant," said Oleandra; unsure whether she ought to be relieved or disappointed. "Yeah, sure, I was planning on spending my Triwizard winnings anyway— and have my wand checked."

But things rarely went exactly as planned; when Oleandra and Tracey left the Great Hall, they were accosted by Hermione.

"I've managed to get quite a few people to join up!" she said excitedly. "We're meeting in the Hog's Head Pub, tomorrow morning. Did you find any other Slytherins who might want to sign up?"

"Oh, were we supposed to recruit people as well?" Oleandra asked in surprise. "I suppose I can ask around…"

Hermione looked around, before leaning in and whispering in a rather conspiratorial manner:

"Well, there's no rule that explicitly states that we shouldn't be creating this kind of… study group," she said, "but something tells me that Umbridge wouldn't especially approve of our… initiative. So, try to be discreet about it."

Tracey was growing slightly annoyed at Hermione, but she kept quiet. Her romantic outing with Oleandra would probably be cancelled, at this rate…

"Right," Oleandra said with a nod. "How many people have you got?"

"Oh, a few," Hermione said vaguely. "No need to worry, Harry will be teaching us as well, so between the two of you, it shouldn't be too difficult..."