章節 19: Detention is a form of punishment in which children are sent to their deaths
When Oleandra saw the giant hourglasses that represented the house points, she was given quite a surprise. She had only expected the Slytherins to lose points, but somehow Gryffindors were beneath even them. Then she heard the rumours; the Harry Potter, along with Longbottom and Granger, had been caught wandering the castle at midnight, losing themselves a total of one hundred and fifty points in a single night! Then she heard the rumours concerning her and Malfoy; apparently, they had been tricked by Potter into some wild goose chase, during which they were caught by a professor, whereupon they would have tried to Transfigure the professor into a teapot, losing them one hundred and twenty points! Each time Oleandra heard the story, the teapot would change into some other household item, which just goes to show you shouldn't believe any rumours!
Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws came and thanked them while smirking, thanks to their efforts, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were finally in the lead. They also went to thank Harry and his gang for simultaneously taking each other out of the running!
At any rate, as far as the Slytherins were concerned, Oleandra and Malfoy had lost them the House Cup, so things got really nasty. Ordinary half-blood and pure-blood Slytherins didn't dare show their displeasure due to their inferior status, but other nobles on the same standing had no such qualms. Things escalated just before the supper on the day their detention was due. Three burly third years and one mean-looking fourth-year girl came to confront Oleandra in the dungeons just outside the common room, their faces concealed with masks.
"Here's what's going to happen to you," the smirking girl said. "We're going to strip you of your clothes, then use the full-body bind curse on you, then we'll suspend you upside down in front of the common room."
"Isaz, Isaz, Isaz…" Oleandra silently chanted.
"We'll let you down when they come looking for you, since you won't be making it to detention," she continued. "I guess you'll have an even longer detention some other day!"
During her monologue, Oleandra happened to be standing perfectly still with her arms at her sides, which was the stance for Isaz, the freezing and stillness rune. This meant her runes were at full power!
"Well, get to it lads," the girl said to her cronies. " … Guys?"
The three boys were frozen still. Oleandra hadn't applied the cold aspect of the rune, merely the freezing them in place. As she cast her magic, the sideways hourglass, Dagaz, seemed to react slightly in her inner world. Oleandra took note of this and promised herself to try it out when her capacity for magic had risen to accommodate it.
"It looks like your little followers are otherwise indisposed," Oleandra said indifferently, examining her nails. "Now, I won't do anything as crass as what you had in mind, but it seems to me like you need some punishment."
Oleandra froze her as well, then with a "Wingardium Leviosa!" floated the four into the nearest rubbish bin, head first. She shook her head. Isaz took some time to act, she would never have won if all four of them had come at her, instead of posturing and monologuing within her attack range.
At eleven o'clock, Potter, Granger, Longbottom, Malfoy and Oleandra had gathered in the entrance hall. Filch marched them out of the castle, and handed them off to Hagrid, the Gamekeeper. Apparently, they were to enter the Forbidden Forest for their punishment.
Oleandra was alarmed.
"The Forbidden Forest? Isn't that one of the places we're not supposed to enter, along with the corridor which leads to the room containing the gigantic dog?" she asked.
"How d'yeh learn 'bout Fluffy?" Hagrid asked, frowning.
"I'm not going in that forest," Malfoy interrupted, a note of panic creeping into his voice.
"Yeh are if yeh want ter stay at Hogwarts," said Hagrid fiercely. "Yeh've done wrong an' now yeh've got ter pay fer it."
Hagrid did not like Slytherins at all, after one had got him expelled from Hogwarts. They were all sly, cold-blooded, calculating potential dark wizards, in his opinion.
After a brief exchange, Malfoy gave up on convincing Hagrid, electing instead to stare at him angrily. He was going to get back at him, somehow!
Hagrid finally announced what the students were here for; they were to help him search for a recently injured unicorn. Something out there was hunting down unicorns, and this one wasn't the first to be killed!
"And what if whatever hurt the unicorn finds us first?" said Malfoy fearfully.
Oleandra nodded. Malfoy raised a very good point.
"There's nothin' that lives in the forest that'll hurt yeh if yer with me or Fang," said Hagrid, who then proceeded to asked them to split up into two teams.
"This man keeps raising death flags," Oleandra thought to herself. "Has he ever watched a horror film? Or an episode of Scooby-Doo, at the very least?"
Hagrid evidently had not.
Speaking of dogs, Malfoy chose Fang's Hagrid's mutt as his first companion, since he looked scary. Hagrid added Neville to their team, taking Oleandra, Potter and Granger along with him.
As they walked between the tall trees, Berkana and Eihwaz, the birch tree and yew tree runes, starting vibrating and emitting buzzing noises in Oleandra's mind world. She had never known what uses they could possibly serve, but apparently trees had to be around. An experiment for another time, she thought to herself. Maybe it will work well with my family's signature magic?
Her musings were disrupted when she bumped into Hagrid's back, who had stopped to kneel in front of a large puddle of silvery blood.
"Could a werewolf be killing the unicorns?" Potter asked.
"Not fast enough," said Hagrid. "It's not easy ter catch a unicorn, they're powerful magic creatures. I never knew one ter be hurt before."
Hagrid's previous words came Oleandra's mind. Were they really safe with Hagrid? Were Malfoy and Longbottom really going to be all right, with only a big dog for protection?
Hagrid suddenly pulled out his crossbow. They were definitely not alone.
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