"What are you looking at me like that for, Lo— Malfoy?" Oleandra barked, noticing the godling grinning at her from across the Slytherin table. "Looking at your face is making me lose my appetite."
Looking at Loki truly made her sick; the core of his very being, his spirit origin, was synonymous with trickery and lies. Staring at him too long with her Truth-Seeking Mystic Eyes even gave her headaches.
"Oh, it's nothing," Loki replied playfully. "I was just wondering if I was looking at the real you…"
Oleandra had no idea why Loki was still attending school and pretending to be Draco Malfoy; it boggled her mind that this ten-thousand-year-old monster was still here. She could only imagine that there was something he wanted in the castle, something that could only be obtained here… but as for what it might be, she had no idea.
Surely, he couldn't still be here for the sheer thrill of giving her anxiety.
After the first two weeks of September, Loki had mostly stopped bothering her, so for him to give her such a knowing look at such a critical juncture, just when she was putting the finishing touches on her plan to take him out of the picture permanently… it was disconcerting, to say the least.
Scowling at him one last time, Oleandra turned her attention back to her vegetable potage, her fare for the evening dinner. She aggressively buttered a piece of white bread and angrily dipped it in the soup, before tearing out the moistened chunk with her pearly white teeth.
Where was Daphne, Oleandra grumbled inwardly?
Without her at the table, the only person still willing to engage her in conversation was Theo, and his favourite topic was his latest alchemical experiments. Apparently, his work with Time-Turners had hit a snag, but to be perfectly honest— which Oleandra always was— she really did not want to have anything to do with time travel after what had happened last year.
"…and that's why I need a sample of your blood," Theo rambled on. "The last person who voyaged into the distant past aged 500 years in the span of seconds, but you went even further back and emerged perfectly fine from the ordeal, so I was wondering whether it was something special about either you or the batch of sand I made, and to test my hypothesis…"
"Uh-huh," Oleandra grunted. "Yeah, no, that's not going to happen…"
"Miss Greengrass? Come with me, please."
Oleandra looked up from her potage and met Professor Snape's gaze head-on. She continued nibbling her piece of bread, staring back at him unflinchingly, as if daring him to look away first. She took her time to answer, slowly chewing then swallowing her piece of bread.
"What's this about?" Oleandra said impertinently.
A vein bulged on Snape's forehead. Making him wait? That rude tone of voice? Oleandra's sheer capacity for insolence truly was only surpassed by Harry Potter's. But to Oleandra's surprise, the headmaster did not comment on or admonish her for her cheek; instead, he swallowed his anger and put on the best air of sorrowful gravitas he could muster.
"Please follow me, Miss Greengrass," he said solemnly. "Your sister is already waiting for you."
Professor Snape made a stiff sort of jerking motion with his head, and Oleandra followed the imaginary trajectory line to the Great Hall's double doors. Astoria was waiting there, her gaze fixed on her feet, glancing up every so often and looking slightly awkward.
"Okay," Oleandra said, as she pushed herself to her feet.
By now, most of the students around them were staring. It was not every day that the headmaster himself deigned to leave the staff table and walk amongst them, let alone to fetch the infamous Oleandra Greengrass.
"What's going on?" Oleandra whispered to Astoria as they reached the doors, but she simply shrugged and shook her head.
The double doors opened, and Professor Snape, Oleandra and Astoria in tow, took them through the Entrance Hall and up the Grand Staircase. Murmurs rustled amongst the portraits as they whispered to one another and pointed at them, but Oleandra ignored them, used to the pointing and the staring as she was.
Astoria leaned over and whispered in Oleandra's ear. Much to Oleandra's annoyance, her little sister had outstripped her in height over the summer, standing a good head taller than her, and then some. What was the world coming to, when little sisters could tower over their elders?
"You've been using the sword, lately?" Astoria said quietly. "It disappeared from my room a few days ago."
"I was attacked by angry suits of armour," Oleandra whispered back. "Don't worry, they got what was coming to them."
Oleandra was pleasantly surprised by her little sister's attitude towards her. From what she'd heard from Daphne, Astoria had been a nightmare to be around during their time at Malfoy Manor this summer, but it seemed her hatred for Daphne did not extend to Oleandra herself.
Come to think of it, they had spoken right before Dumbledore's murder, thanks to Time-Turner shenanigans. Perhaps Astoria did not think she could have had anything to do with his death, since the Oleandra she had met had gone down the Astronomy Tower instead of up.
"Don't forget that I'm your faithful knight," Astoria said with a playful wink. "I can't do much protecting without my weapon, wouldn't you agree?"
Professor Snape scoffed loudly as the stairs they had been waiting for locked into place with a loud rumble. Evidently, he'd been listening in on their whispers, and he didn't think much of games of princesses and noble knights. Astoria bared her long canines at him as he marched up the stairs, and they followed suit.
"Isn't this the Faculty Tower?" Oleandra commented. "I haven't been here very often…"
"What about all those times you ended up in the Hospital Wing?" Astoria pointed out. "Goodness knows how many times Da… I visited your bedside."
"Passing by doesn't count," Oleandra replied.
"If you're almost done with your inane prattling," Professor Snape said tersely. "We've reached our destination."
Oleandra looked at each other. Oh no. They were standing in front of the Hospital Wing's entrance.
"Your sister has had an accident," Professor Snape said coolly. "For the sake of the Dark Lord's image, only her family is to know of her circumstances…" He looked at Astoria meaningfully. "…and only her family."