章節 353: Hogwarts Nights

As the day wore on, Oleandra found herself glancing in her twin sister's direction more and more. As far as she knew, there were only two real candidates for the title of Dark Lady; maybe three, if you stretched some definitions.

The first was herself, Oleandra Greengrass; the soul of a Greater Fairy in a human body had to count as an abomination against nature; Fairy souls were meant to dwell in Fairy bodies, and human souls in human bodies. Her old wand wouldn't have qualified, since it was made of cherry wood, but her new wand, Viviane's, was made of yew.

The second was Mai Dulac, the reincarnation of Morgan le Fay, even though the prophecy stated: she is already amongst us. The prophecy didn't necessarily mean amongst us as in amongst us here at Hogwarts; it could be that those words simply meant that the Dark Lady had already been born. Nevertheless, Mai was a Fairy incarnation just like Oleandra, and her wand was also made of yew, so it was entirely possible that she was the object of the prophecy.

But somehow, to Oleandra, Mai being the Dark Lady seemed highly unlikely…

And the third was her twin sister, Daphne Greengrass. She was a different kind of abomination; not of the soul, but of the body. Her wand was made from yew as well…

Oleandra desperately racked her brains for any others who might fit the prophecy's description, but none immediately sprang to mind. It wasn't as if she could just go around asking people if they were abominations, and confiscating their wands for inspection! Even if she was a prefect, there were limits to her powers!

She suddenly a pang of pain in her chest, followed by a surge of anger. Why was all of this happening to her family? Why did she have to do all of this stupid homework all by herself? And what was so important that Tracey would cancel their usual homework session together?

Was she seeing someone behind her back?

For a moment, Oleandra felt like tearing her essay on the uses of vervain in potions to pieces, but rationality soon returned to her. Something was very off with her; this couldn't be explained away as a teenager's mood swings. And besides, she and Tracey weren't even going out in the first place, so she had no right to control her best friend's love life.

And for some reason, she had the oddest feeling of having failed.

Oleandra checked her pocket watch; she'd been kicked out of the library hours ago, and she was technically supposed to be on patrol right now to catch students breaking curfew. Sighing despondently, she quickly packed her things into her pouch and stepped out into the darkness.

Patrolling was incredibly boring; she basically never found any students out of bed after hours; those who had mastered the art of curfew-breaking were rare, but it was that very fact that made it difficult to even catch a glimpse of them. Hogwarts was a big school after all, and it was easy enough for a lone wanderer to sneak past patrols.

Oleandra stopped to meow a hello at Mrs. Norris, Filch's old cat, who meowed back at her.

"Good kitty," she murmured.

Oleandra fondly remembered breaking the rules and wandering around the school at night; setting off fireworks in the halls in her first year, and turning the floor to lime pie all the way down to the dungeons in her second year.

Now that she thought about it, she'd always had a mischievous side; probably due to her Fairy heritage. Was it any wonder that Oleandra enjoyed the Weasley twins' pranks so much? She remembered pulling pranks on Daphne quite often when she'd been younger, like when she had learned her first spell, the Wand-Lighting Charm… Oleandra's mother had tried to crush the fun out of her, to instil in her daughter the notion that Squibs ought to stay out of sight and out of mind, but luckily, she had failed.

"Stop right there!" a boy's voice suddenly rang out behind Oleandra, and a beam of light fell upon her.

Out of habit, Oleandra immediately raised her hands above her head in surrender; even though she was at Hogwarts, and it was highly unlikely that she was going to be shot at with dangerous Curses.

"I thought I'd heard something," Ron crowed triumphantly. "Thought you could sneak around in the dark, eh? Wait 'till Hermione hears about my first catch, that'll show her…"

"It's me, cousin Ron," said Oleandra irritably, as she turned around to face him, lowering her arms. "Congratulations, you've caught yourself a prefect. Do you want a medal?"

Ron's shoulders slumped; he'd obviously been looking forward to catching his first curfew-breaking students by himself.

"Oleandra?" he said glumly. "What were you wandering around in the dark for?"

Oleandra could now see in the dark thanks to her awakened Mystic Eyes, so she had no need of light.

"Would you lower that thing?" Oleandra grumbled, shielding her eyes from Ron's lit wand.

"Obviously, she's taken a Cat's Eye potion," said Hermione, rounding a corner and walking briskly towards them. "We were looking for you, so at least Ron's done a good job at doing that."

Ron indignantly protested, but Hermione ignored him.

"Come on, let's find a secluded spot where we can talk," said Hermione conspiratorially. "I saw Malfoy patrolling over on the first floor, so let's head upstairs some more."

"How about the prefect's bathroom?" Ron suggested. "I've been meaning to take a look…"

"That's not a bad idea, actually," said Hermione brightly. "I haven't had time to take a bath yet."

Ron hadn't actually expected Hermione to agree; after all, the prefect's bathroom was unisex. Suddenly, he was feeling much more nervous!

And so, the three of them headed up to the fifth floor, where their personal bathroom was located, and Hermione spoke the password to the door, "Lemon Pledge."

Oleandra frowned; that had been the password to the headmaster's office last year, towards the end of the school year. Reusing passwords wasn't safe, what were they thinking!?

But upon stepping inside the fabulous bathroom, for the first time, Oleandra thought to herself that it had indeed been worth it to become a prefect.