บท 379: Intimidation

"REDUCTO!"

"BOMBARDA!"

"EXPULSO!"

Oleandra dived to the floor to avoid getting hit by the Curses that her enemies outside were hurling into her summer house's Entrance Hall; covering herself in the process with the blood that was still oozing from the Death Eaters' corpses.

The front porch and the house's façade exploded, and debris rained down upon the Entrance Hall.

"Wait, stop it, you morons! It's the girl! The Dark Lord wants her alive!" Oleandra heard the masked man she had thrown out of her house shout. "I don't know how she's made it here so fast, but she's here!"

The man that Oleandra had struck with the Thorn rune's power had said something about the Dark Mark; one of the now-deceased Death Eaters must have cast the Mark in a panic, as a call for reinforcements, upon being confronted by the whirlwind of terror that was a Dusk-Elf wearing a Lethifold…

Unfortunately for her, Oleandra had missed it, since she had Tree-Ported to her house's front porch, whose roof had kept her from seeing it floating above her house…

Oleandra rolled sideways back into the corridor from which she had come, before leaping to her feet and darting into the dining room. She was tracking blood everywhere with her footsteps, so she wouldn't be able to hide from them for long…

"What the fuck!?"

"How the hell did this happen!?"

Judging by the number of voices she was hearing from the Entrance Hall, there were at least half a dozen enemies. If Oleandra wanted to Tree-Port to safety, the moment was now. And yet, after having been seen by the eldritch presence after employing the World Tree to Disapparate, the last thing Oleandra wanted to do was use this magic again.

Oleandra crouched and peeked out into the backyard through the glass sliding door. There, the charred remains of her family's greenhouses stood, still in a state of disrepair after the Werewolves had firebombed them. More masked figures were arriving among the ruins via Apparition; this was an unwinnable battle…

Oleandra tried standing back on her feet, but her boots were slick with blood; she slipped, and as she tried to regain her balance, she knocked a flower vase off the dinner table, sending it loudly crashing to the floor.

"I heard her!" one of the Death Eaters exclaimed jubilantly. "Hey, girlie! Give yourself up, and I promise we won't torture you too much for killing our comrades!"

Liar!

The Death Eater who had just spoken ran into the dining room, and upon spotting Oleandra, he pointed his wand at her. However, Oleandra had already pressed her hand against the dinner table; the hidden rune engraved upon it began shining softly; and then the table shot towards the home invader, knocking him off his feet and sending him flying back into the corridor!

"Oof!"

From the moans of pain Oleandra was hearing, it sounded like she had managed to bowl over a few more Death Eaters with the dinner table as a bonus.

Finding her tactics to be successful, Oleandra ran around the dining room and laid her hands on as many of the concealed trap runes she had created. And since she had been grounded for most of the summer of '94, she had enchanted a lot of items…

Chairs, tables, plates, forks, knives and even spoons!

Upon being touched, each of the items flew into the air, searching for hostile targets much like Bludger would, before establishing a flight path straight into them. Soon, the house was filled with screams of pain and desperate voices incanting the Shield Charm, giving Oleandra a bit of breathing room.

However, this was not sustainable; she was bound to run out of items to launch at the Death Eaters, and the longer she stayed, the longer she risked the chances of Voldemort himself showing up. She wasn't ready for a fight of this calibre; her countermeasures such as the spell scroll of the Full Armour of Ægishjálmur was unfinished, and her other powerful spells required a friend or two to share the burden…

But what else was she supposed to do? She was at her strongest here, where all of her runic traps and defences were already prepared, but she couldn't stay here forever. If she attempted to flee on foot or on a broomstick, she would immediately get shot. A disguise? The Death Eaters and their Werewolf foot soldiers probably had a way to differentiate each other, since they wore masks. She couldn't possibly fight against this many at once, not unless she tricked them somehow…

"She's in the kitchen!" came one of the Death Eaters' voices.

"The Dark Lord wishes for your presence at dinner this evening, Miss Greengrass," another one called out. "I have simply come to extend an invitation on his behalf. I would seriously consider accepting, if I were you; one does not simply reject the Dark Lord's goodwill. So, Miss Greengrass? May I come in?"

Oleandra recognized the voice; it belonged to Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father.

"I will take your silence as a sign of compliance," came Malfoy's voice again after a few seconds. "I knew you were a reasonable woman, Miss Greengrass. I'm coming to you, now."

Lucius Malfoy poked his hands into the dining room, making sure to show that he was unarmed, before slowly revealing the rest of his body. He started and recoiled by reflex, upon seeing Oleandra's demonic-looking appearance: every inch of her body, snakeskin robes included, was coated with dark-red blood.

"My, you're much more polite than the last time we've spoken," Oleandra said bluntly. "Well? What does Voldemort want, Malfoy?"

"Please, I would ask you to refrain from calling the Dark Lord by his taken name," said Lucius Malfoy, wincing slightly. He cleared his throat, before continuing. "The Dark Lord is of the opinion that your sister is the Dark Lady described in the prophecy, but seeing as the content of said prophecy pertains to his continued immortality, he wishes to avoid overlooking any matters of import."

For as long as the Dark Lady lived, the Dark Lord would endure eternally… In other words, Voldemort was trying to lure out Daphne, using Oleandra as bait. As long as he kept the Dark Lady safe, he would never have to worry about dying!

"I'm sure he would love it if I honoured him with my presence, but there's just the simple issue that I don't want to see your Dark Lord," Oleandra spat. "So, call off your Death Eater friends, and stand aside. I have places to be."

Lucius Malfoy licked his lips anxiously.

"Then I'm afraid I must ask you to reconsider," he said unconvincingly. "Or we'll be forced to make the choice for you."

Oleandra's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I don't want to have to hurt you," Oleandra said with as much gravity as she could muster, "so unless you want to end up like your friends in my Entrance Hall, I'd highly suggest getting the Hel out of my way."

Like two combatants sizing each other up, Greengrass and Malfoy stared each other down. Oleandra could see droplets of sweat trickling down Lucius Malfoy's temple; a moment passed, then another, until…

"You've made your point," Lucius finally said, his shoulder sagging slightly. "I'll take responsibility with the Dark Lord; I won't trouble you on your way out, but I can't guarantee the others won't—"

Oleandra brushed past the cowardly Malfoy without giving him a second glance and exited her house from the front door, scaring a dozen masked Death Eaters who'd been standing guard on her front step.

"Y-you!" one of the cried out. "What have you done with Lucius!?"

Oleandra could feel their fear's feedback through the insigil of the Helm of Terror branded on her forehead. Invisible threads of Fairy magic began forming themselves between the Death Eaters and her; she had technically fooled them, as they believed that she had been the one to murder their comrades; not to mention the fact that she was drenched in their blood…

So, Oleandra simply smiled and continued walking down the steps from her summer house, ignoring the many wands pointed at her. These weren't Voldemort's best and brightest; from the wet dog smell emanating from them, this lot were probably just homeless Werewolves, bullied into doing the real Death Eaters' jobs for them. They had no dog in this fight, so they probably wouldn't risk their lives to capture her.

Make no mistake, even though these robed Werewolves had been ordered to take her alive, if she pushed them too hard, then they would probably fight back with killing intent. After all, a cornered animal has nothing left to lose, and it would only take one Killing Curse just barely grazing her in order to end her life for good, this time.

But as long as she kept her aura of danger and untouchability, they probably wouldn't have the guts to attack her, even outnumbering her twelve to one. Not unless they were especially stupid…

"Y-you won't get away with this!"

With her Mystic Eyes fully opened, Oleandra was on guard against any surprise attacks. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw magic ebbing and flowing through one of the Werewolves' bodies; that particular one had managed to summon enough courage to make the mistake of attacking her.

Oleandra merely glanced in his direction and directed a few tendrils of ability-stealing Fairy Magic, mixed in with some fear from the Helm of Terror at him. Robbed of his ability to stand or even control his bladder, the pitiful Werewolf collapsed to his knees in a puddle of his own urine, whimpering.

And after witnessing that, the others gave Oleandra a wide berth, as she leisurely strode down the footpath leading to the street, before disappearing behind the corner of a large hedge.