บท 398: Crossing the Line

"An unfamiliar ceiling," Oleandra muttered to herself upon waking up the following morning.

To be perfectly honest, there were no discernible differences between the dormitory's various rooms, but it still felt different waking up here, without Tracey or Daphne to shake her awake. No, Oleandra now had these two…

"Eek!" Millicent Bulstrode shrieked, covering up her bare front with her blouse as Oleandra sat up in her bed.

"Oh, come off it," said Oleandra irritably. "No one's interested in seeing you naked."

Pansy howled in laughter, and Millicent's shoulders drooped in defeat, her eyes downcast. For a moment, Oleandra felt sorry for the bigger girl— there was no telling how many times she must have received such reactions from Pansy, who was supposed to be her friend. However, Oleandra's sympathy was in short supply, as she knew very well how Millicent coped with abuse— by bullying those even lower down on the pecking order than she was. Oleandra had put a stop to such acts quite a few times in her tenure as prefect…

"Cambio Exuvia!"

Disgusted, Oleandra changed out of her pyjamas into her school robes with a Quick-Change Charm, and left for her old dormitory room to fetch Tracey, to walk together to the Great Hall for breakfast. She raised her hand to knock on her door, but just as she was about to give it a good rap, it opened by itself from the other side.

"Good morning, Oleandra!" said Tracey leaning forward slightly through the doorway to give her a kiss on the cheek. "I hope Pansy and Millicent didn't bother you too much, they can be really annoying, if they want to be…"

The upside to having their relationship exposed was that they no longer had to hide public displays of affection. However, since Tracey was extremely self-conscious, other students probably wouldn't be catching them snogging in the halls between classes too often.

"Mornin', Trace," Oleandra replied, yawning slightly. "No, they mostly kept to themselves, which I am perfectly fine with. Shall we get going?"

Oleandra and Tracey joined the stream of Slytherin students gathering in the common room, and a quick jog up the Great Staircase later, they were settling themselves in their usual spots at their table. However, right before Oleandra could take a bite of her slice of baked beans on toast, a delivery owl made the strategic decision to dive bomb straight into the culinary masterpiece, sending it flopping to the ground— bean side down, obviously.

"These owls, I swear," said Oleandra in annoyance as she picked up the dizzy owl by the scruff of its neck. "Feathered menaces, I tell you."

"Duck," said Tracey, her eyes fixed on something behind Oleandra.

"Where—"

Oleandra turned around in her seat, wondering just when it had been that Hogwarts had swapped from delivery owls to delivery ducks— and quickly found out why Tracey had told her to duck. Oleandra cowered in her seat, raising her arms to ward off the veritable shower of letters being dropped onto her. But just as she raised her head, believing the worst to be over, one last package was flung right into her face. She was a bit rusty when it came to Seeking, but Oleandra still managed to snatch the cylindrical package out of the air before it collided with her nose.

"It amazes me just how unlucky you can get," said Tracey in admiration. "It's almost as if you're Cursed, or something."

"Unlucky?" Oleandra retorted. "This is obviously— gllk!"

Since Oleandra couldn't consciously tell lies, she had got used to watching which words came out of her mouth, because if she tried to tell a lie, even if it was a small one, or even if she was attempting to make a joke, the words would get caught in her throat in a quite embarrassing manner.

Oleandra reached for her glass of grenadine, pretending to have choked on a piece of toast, before unravelling the cylindrical package's wrapping paper and unrolling the newspaper rolled up within.

"Aha, I knew it— It's The Quibbler!" said Oleandra triumphantly. "Listen to this:

TRIWIZARD CHAMPIONS OLEANDRA GREENGRASS AND HARRY POTTER SPEAK OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED AND THE NIGHT HE RETURNED."

"It looks like the Gryffindors also got a free copy," Tracey remarked, craning her neck to look above Oleandra's shoulder. "There goes Umbridge…"

Oleandra and Tracey began tearing open the envelopes and reading their contents. Many of the letters were the usual hate mail, calling for Oleandra to commit Self-Avada Kedavra, while others simply contented themselves with calling her a madwoman.

"Hey, this one's got mixed feelings," said Tracey as she read through one of the letters. "She believes Harry Potter's story, but she thinks you're lying about the Ancient Magic Charm that saved you— she thinks you're on Voldemort's side, and he just pretended to kill you…"

However, the letters weren't all toxic spew; some people actually believed her story enough to call her a hero! Why, it was enough to a warm a cold Witch's heart…

"Uh-oh," said Tracey, as she glanced up from the latest letter she'd been perusing. "It looks like we're about to get a speech…"

One would have expected Umbridge to be livid— but for some reason, she was smiling, which really wasn't a good sign…

"Hem, hem."

There was the usual throat clearing…

"It has come to my attention that some students have been using Hogsmeade outings for certain unacceptable extracurricular activities," she began, her voice sickly sweet. "I have been patient and forgiving for the longest of times, and I have tried my best to understand students' circumstances, but there is such a thing as crossing the line."

She cleared her throat once more.

"But I am headmistress— my duty is to the school as a whole, and not to the few rotten apples that ruin the bunch," she continued. "It is only now that I realize that I should have been harder on the offending parties, to prevent them from straying away from the right path— but now, you have gone too far for simple reprimands. And so, it is with the greatest regret that I hereby expel Harry Potter and Oleandra Greengrass from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!"