章節 187: Dux Bellorum

Total pandemonium: that was what a simple class of Defence Against the Dark Arts had turned into. Some of the students were screaming and scrambling over each other to escape through the doorway, while some of the braver ones were staying on the edges of the classroom to watch the fight unfold.

Oleandra couldn't afford to divide her attention; fighting Britain's best retired Auror was sure to take all her concentration; she could only hope that no other student would be stupid enough to attack her from behind.

"Good luck, Sis!" called out Daphne from the sidelines. "I'll make sure to send you letters after you're expelled for attacking a teacher!"

"It's self-defence, so it doesn't count!" Oleandra yelled back, keeping her eyes firmly on Moody. Something was wrong— why wasn't he attacking? As far as she knew, there was nobody behind her. Unless, he had already made his move?

Peg leg clunking rhythmically against the ground, Mad-Eye was slowly circling to the side, towards the exit; no doubt to put himself between her and the fleeing students. But when Oleandra tried to take a step to the side in order to keep facing him, she found that she couldn't move her feet. She couldn't help but look down for an instant to see what was hindering her; and that's when Mad-Eye struck.

"Stupefy!" he barked, slinging a bolt of red energy at her.

He had probably cast a silent Sticking Charm to the underside of her shoes at some point, but she hadn't noticed when exactly that could have been.

"Elhaz!" cried Oleandra, extending her left hand's forefinger, middle finger and ring finger, while she reached into her sheath to grab her wand. The jet of red light struck her and dissipated harmlessly, albeit leaving her a little woozy.

"Finite!" Oleandra said, using the general counter-spell to end the Sticking Charm's effects. With her feet free, she barely had enough breathing room to roll away from the volley of curses that flew over her head. She needed to close the distance and bring the fight to him; Mad-Eye was too good at manipulating the environment, not to mention that she was in his arena: his classroom!

But first, a distraction. Perhaps the Dangling Jinx would work; after all, she had never seen it used before other than the time Lupin performed it in front of her. Maybe it would put Mad-Eye off his game if it was used on him again?

"Levicorpus!" Oleandra shouted, brandishing her wand.

Unfortunately, she had never practised the spell before; in fact, she didn't quite remember the wand movements the spell required. However, it didn't matter when the spell inevitably failed, it was only supposed to be a diversion.

"Expelliarmus!" shouted Mad-Eye, taking advantage of the spell's failure to disarm Oleandra.

"Banana Hanger," Oleandra said under her breath. Complex black lines suddenly appeared all over Oleandra's body as the magical ink reacted to her voice command. (Unfortunately, it didn't need to be her voice, so she preferred it if nobody knew the secret password to activate her magical body paint. Otherwise, anybody would be able to turn her magical paint on and off as they willed!)

Oleandra reached for her shoulder and swore. She had forgotten that she was wearing her ordinary Hogwarts robes, which meant that most of her upper body was covered, and her magical sigils, inaccessible!

The only runic tattoo with offensive power left accessible on her body was Teiwaz, on the back of her right hand. However, Oleandra didn't want to hurt Mad-Eye too badly, so that was off the table. But just as Oleandra was pirouetting out of the way of another spell and she was building up the resolve to simply get up close and punch the old man, another senior citizen entered the fray.

"PROFESSOR MOODY!" Professor McGonagall screamed as she burst in through the door. "What is the meaning of this? There are terrified students in the courtyard; some are saying you attacked a student, and others are saying you're fighting a Dark Wizard!"

"He's gone crazy, Professor," Oleandra said quite unconvincingly, with her face covered in black lines and runic patterns. "Oh, right, hang on," she said, before whispering the code word again to render the paint invisible again. Ahh, much better.

"I've found a Dark Wizard disguised as a student," said Mad-Eye gruffly, his magical eye turning in its orbit to look at Professor McGonagall. "The other one's also probably in disguise; Polyjuice, probably."

"Professor, if I may," said Hermione timidly, poking her head out from under a desk, "Nobody else can use runic magic like the Greengrass sisters; in my opinion, it's really them."

"Well, now that you mention it," said Mad-Eye as he scratched his chin unconcernedly, "Dumbledore might have slipped in a word on the subject at some point—"

'THEN WHY DID YOU WANT TO LOOK INSIDE MY HEAD SO BADLY!' Oleandra wanted to scream.

Ten minutes later, the scared students were all rounded up, and the class resumed as if nothing had happened at all, though Oleandra was now receiving plenty of fearful or admiring stares.

Professor Moody continued applying the Imperius Curse on students, and obviously, Daphne, Tracey and Draco were counted among those immune to the spell. Having learned his lesson, Professor Moody didn't attack them on the spot like he had with Oleandra. And finally, it was Harry's turn.

"Potter," Professor Moody growled, "you next."

Oleandra watched on in interest as Harry's eyes went blank; he then bent his knees, as though he was going to do a squat. And then, nothing: he just froze in place, and after a moment, he decided to smash his head through a desk and then flop onto the floor.

"Ooh," Parvati winced, "that has to hurt."

"Now that's more like it!" Professor Moody growled in appreciation. "Look at that, you lot… Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll have another go, and for the lot of you who are not immune to the Imperius Curse, pay close attention to his eyes! That's where it's at! Good, good, good!"

When the class ended an hour later, people were still talking about Oleandra's fight with Professor Moody; each time the story was told, it became wilder and wilder.

"Blimey," said Ron with a mixture of jealousy as they exited the classroom. "My dad told me all about how Mad-Eye filled nearly half of Azkaban all by himself, and you fought him on equal ground! It's a shame you're too young to enter the Triwizard Tournament, I'd wager you'd have a fighting chance…"

"Tsk," was Oleandra's only response. Mad-Eye hadn't even given her an opportunity to strike back, she'd been too preoccupied defending against the Auror's onslaught to even fire off a single successful attack!