บท 390: Breakpoint

The mood at the Slytherin table the following morning was one of quiet celebration, but it was only when the newspaper owls delivered the Daily Prophet to its subscribers that Oleandra finally understood what all the fuss was about: there had been a mass breakout at Azkaban, and ten high-value Death Eaters had escaped from the Wizarding gaol.

And among them was Antonin Dolohov, who had single-handedly attempted to end the Prewett bloodline, and had almost succeeded at erasing the name from existence, so Oleandra was now beginning to seriously worry about her parents' wellbeing.

At first, she had thought that since her parents were neutral parties of pure-blood status, Voldemort would mostly leave them alone, but if Dolohov was back in the mix, then perhaps he'd like to finish what he had started…

Oleandra leaned forward and glanced at Mafalda, her distant family member, who was sitting at the end of the table. If she was worried about this news, then she wasn't showing it. Oleandra then focused her attention on her newspaper, and she continued reading it to the end.

[…] We think it likely that these individuals, who include Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, have rallied around Black as their leader. We can only count ourselves lucky that their wands were all incinerated in a freak accident in Azkaban's wand storage room in late December. We are, however […]

Personally, Oleandra found it monumentally stupid that the Ministry of Magic would store the prisoners' confiscated wands in the same place as the prisoners themselves. It was just waiting for an accident to happen, like storing explosives and detonators in the same room. Besides, what did prisoners for life need wands for? They should have just snapped the lot of them in half to begin with (the wands, not the prisoners).

"It looks like Dumbledore took matters into his own hands when he escaped from Azkaban," Tracey whispered to Oleandra. "Do you think that's why he allowed himself to be taken?"

"I don't think so," Oleandra whispered back. "And at least the Ministry's not stupid enough to try to pin the breakouts on Dumbledore…"

It had been embarrassing enough for the Ministry to admit that Dumbledore had escaped from their custody within months of his capture, but to try and convince the Daily Prophet's readership that Dumbledore was on Voldemort's side… most people were stupid, but they weren't that stupid.

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The news concerning the ten Death Eaters' escape from Azkaban was at the forefront of discussions over the next few days, though that particular topic did nothing to dispel the rumours about Oleandra, leading her to become more and more isolated from her peers in Slytherin.

After all, from their point of view, she was an unstable variable, who might kill them in a gruesome manner for no good reason, even though they were all supposed to be on the same side…

However, this did not mean that Oleandra automatically became popular with members of the three other Houses; far from it. To regular students, she was still the sister of the Dark Lady, and furthermore, if even the Slytherins, members of Oleandra's own House, were scared enough of her to give her such a wide berth, then what did that say about her?

It was beginning to seriously wear on Oleandra's sanity to be treated as a dangerous madwoman by the vast majority of the student body; even some of the teachers were walking on eggshells around her. Everyone had read about the bloody Death Eater massacre at her house over the holidays, and Cedric Diggory actively spreading wild theories about her behind her back wasn't helping either…

And so, despite the rumours, Oleandra settled back into the routine of daily life, going to classes, doing homework, chatting with Tracey, pretending as if her entire world hadn't gone utterly mad, eating, going to sleep, waking up, repeating the cycle over and over, watching the days crawl by…

At this point, after having lived through so much misfortune in the past few months, living a regular life was the only thing still grounding her, but Oleandra was rapidly approaching her breaking point.

…

But as long as she kept living in the moment, everything would be fine, right?

…

Funnily enough, Potions class was beginning to grow on Oleandra as her new favourite class! Professor Snape was still his usual horrible self, but at least he wasn't treating her any differently, and without Daphne around to show off, Oleandra, Mafalda and Hermione could now compete on even footing for the title of best potioneers!

However, Oleandra would be lying if she claimed that Professor Snape was the only teacher who did not discriminate against her, or had changed how they acted around her:

While it was true that Professor Binns didn't treat her any differently either, that was mainly because he was barely sentient enough to even take the register. Besides, Oleandra couldn't even bring herself to stay awake during his lessons, so it's not as if the drivel that spewed out of Professor Binns's ghostly mouth mattered to her either way.

As for Professor Trelawney, she was more insufferable than ever; ever since she had learned that she was a True Seer, her ego had inflated to ridiculous proportions. In class, she would keep asking Oleandra to weigh in on her prophecies, calling her a 'fellow True Seer,' just to keep driving in the point to the other students that she was also a True Seer… It was beginning to seriously get on Oleandra's nerves.

But to Oleandra, all of her other classes were now Hel.

Professor McGonagall, despite respecting Dumbledore to an unbelievable degree, had her own ideals and opinions. She had always looked at Oleandra with suspicion, but now, she was treating her as if she were downright dangerous.

During class, Professor Babbling would sometimes go on about cautionary tales about good intentions turning the best of people towards evil.

Professor Flitwick wouldn't even look her in the eye, Professor Sprout and Professor Sinistra would act nervously while Oleandra was in their classes, Professor Grubbly-Plank would give her the evil eye, and Umbridge…

Well, Umbridge was pretty much the same as she always was, but that couldn't really be called an improvement, could it?

This was the stigma of a suspected murderer, Oleandra was realizing.

Even for all of its division, Wizarding society was very tightly knit, since there weren't many Wizards and Witches to begin with; at least when compared to Muggles. On the 'good side,' the side of normal Wizards and Dumbledore supporters, the loss of even one magical person, even an enemy, was considered a tragedy, especially in times of peace.

And the 'evil side,' Voldemort's side, they obviously wouldn't take too kindly to people who were ready to murder them…