บท 411: Big Brain Time
"You're all just a bunch of cowards!" Astoria shouted. "You're just afraid of losing the power you're used to having, and you're ready to lie, bully and cheat to keep clinging onto it!"
"Idealistic drivel. Is it so wrong to fight for one's own kin, for one's own benefits?" Rookwood snarled, his mask of composure slipping. "The Ministry had the right idea with the Heliopath Initiative— but they were the real cowards. We had everything we needed to bring the fight to the enemy, but instead, we contented ourselves with living in secrecy, instead of seizing our birthright and ruling over the Muggles!"
The old, established families, descendants of the clans that had once ruled over Europe's magical society for hundreds of years, had always looked down on Muggles and the Muggleborn.
At first, they had simply hated and despised them, dismissing them as subhuman filth. But little by little, the noble Wizarding families had been forced to come to the conclusion that Muggles and the Muggleborn were much more of a threat than they had initially realized.
Muggles, just like them, were beings capable of reshaping the world to their every whim. And the Muggleborn, whom they had initially dismissed as pale copies of true Wizards, who were supposed to lack the potent magical blood inherited from generations of selective breeding… Muggleborn magic was not inferior to theirs— in fact, it was actually superior, in certain cases!
And from there, hatred had gradually turned into fear— unless the Pure-Bloods acted quickly, they would eventually be overrun and replaced! To the Sacred Twenty-Eight Noble Families and the people who depended on them, the existence of the Muggleborn had become an existential crisis!
"Well, then," said Theodore Nott, breaking the silence that had set in after Astoria's outburst. "If Daphne's life is not in danger, then I see no real reason for jumping into a fight that we cannot win."
And having said his piece, Theo walked over to Rookwood's side.
"A wise choice," said Rookwood, nodding to his godson. "I would not have enjoyed striking down my best friend's son." He then turned to Oleandra and company. "By all rights, the Greengrass family is an ancient and storied Pure-Blooded family— you ought to understand what you stand to lose by refusing to join us. So, the time has come for you to make a choice; will you swear fealty to the Dark Lord, or will you die?"
"Well, if you put it like that…" said Oleandra thoughtfully, her pupils turning heart-shaped as she activated her Mystic Eyes. "Then, I'd have to pick the third option."
Rookwood's eyes widened in surprise— but his time in Azkaban had apparently not dulled his acumen for combat. He instantly reached for his wand, which he had holstered to lower Oleandra's wariness; to convince her to engage in discussion with him…
…but he was a fraction of a second too slow.
"Stupefy!"
Three beams of crimson light simultaneously struck Rookwood in the chest; the combined might of three Stunners lifting him off his feet and sending him crashing into the wall at his back— whereupon his unconscious body slid down the wall and fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.
"What about you, Theo?" said Oleandra, pointing her wand menacingly in his direction. "Do you want to take a refreshing nap as well?"
"I'm going to go look for the Time Room, now," said Theo, gesturing to the door behind him with his thumb. "That is what I originally came for, after all."
Oleandra watched as Theo retrieved a silvery sheet of fabric from his pockets and draped it over himself, fully covering his body under its folds.
"Nice Invisibility Cloak," said Oleandra, as she looked him dead in the eye. "But you'd better not get any ideas— I can still see you."
"And I can still smell you," Astoria chimed in, sticking her tongue out at him.
"I know better than to pick a fight with you, Oleandra," said Theo, slightly unnerved at the fact that he could still be seen under his expensive Invisibility Cloak.
Oleandra kept staring him down until he left the Room of Blood, just to make sure that he wouldn't revive the Stunned Rookwood. She then gave said Death Eater a wary look; Voldemort's elites were nothing like the weaklings she had fought in her summer home. They were extremely quick on the draw— Rookwood had almost managed to fire a spell at her in the short instant before he got Stunned— and they were also ruthless and decisive.
"What should we do, Oleandra?" asked Tracey shakily. "He knew we'd be here from the start. The Death Eaters were lying in ambush for us all this time— there's no way Potter's gang hasn't already been captured…"
"All the more reason to keep going," said Oleandra, trying to muster some confidence into her tone. "They'll need all the help they can get."
Oleandra spotted a door at the other end of the Room of Blood, its appearance somewhat distorted due to the glass vat that she was viewing it through. It was as good a place to start as any, so Oleandra set off for the room's exit.
However, as she approached the door, she began hearing the muffled sounds of shouting on the other side, so she picked up her pace and threw the door open… and immediately ducked.
"What the—" Oleandra blurted out.
She had almost got brained by something that looked like an octopus— a human brain to which tentacles had been grafted. The tentacled brain flew over Oleandra's head harmlessly and landed behind her with a wet squelch.
"Oleandra!?" came Harry's astonished voice. "Wha— argh, it doesn't matter! Help us seal these doors, will you?"
Oleandra immediately took notice of the spherical object in his left hand— it shone like the sun and swirled like a whirlpool in her Mystic Sight.
At any rate, it seemed like Harry had successfully escaped his ambush, just as Oleandra had— though the rest of his group hadn't escaped unscathed. Hermione was lying on the floor, unconscious, while Ron seemed to have taken a blow to his head— he kept babbling to himself incoherently.
"Colloportus! Colloportus! Colloportus!"
Of their original number, only Harry and Luna were still able to fight— they were currently in the process of barricading themselves into the Brain Room by sealing every door in sight— and there were many of them.
"Collo— aaaargh…"
A pale-faced woman had just burst out of a yet unsealed door and Stunned Luna.
"Get Potter!" she shrieked, as she sprinted towards him.
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