"Mind reminding me why we're tailing my sister?" Oleandra whispered.
The swarm of Lesser Fairies were still floating happily about her head, bathing her in an ethereal glow that was perfect for staving off the darkness, but rather inconvenient when trying to remain inconspicuous.
"I…" said Harry hesitantly. "I can't say."
Oleandra pretended to study the Marauder's Map, feigning indifference to Harry's refusal to reveal his motives. If he was trying to spy on Daphne, then could it be that he knew what Voldemort had done to her? That she had been turned into a Horcrux? And if he did know, then it was likely Dumbledore who had told him— probably during one of those private lessons he kept giving him.
Unbeknownst to both Oleandra and Harry, they were each just as lost in their own turmoil as the other.
On one hand, Oleandra was beginning to wonder if she'd need to assassinate Dumbledore ahead of schedule, to stop him from killing her sister just to get at Voldemort.
Eventually, she would have to pry the Elder Wand from his cold, dead fingers anyways— claiming all three Hallows was the only way to fulfil her vow to restore Avalon, so one way or another, she would have to kill him or die trying.
On the other hand, Harry was trying to keep his promise to keep the contents of his lessons with Dumbledore a secret, but he also desperately wanted to tell Oleandra about her sister, unaware that Mai had already informed her that Daphne was a Horcrux.
By accepting to bring Oleandra along on his spying mission, he was hoping that Daphne would let her secret slip, but deep down, he knew the odds of that were very slim— Dumbledore had told him that not even Voldemort's most trusted Death Eaters would know the truth behind his immortality. And if Daphne did end up revealing it, then Oleandra would learn that her sister would inevitably have to die for the world to be rid of Voldemort.
…Well, to be fair, Professor Dumbledore had told him he had a plan, but he hadn't seen fit to share it with him just yet.
…
Still pretending to study the map, Oleandra noticed two sets of footsteps emerge from a folded edge of the map. The tiny footprint icons were moving quickly— at this rate, they would run into each other at the upcoming intersection in the corridor.
"What's Malfoy doing out of bed at this hour?" murmured Oleandra. "There's someone else walking next to him, but I can't make out their name…"
The text printed on the pennant floating next to Malfoy's was mostly garbled, almost as if two names had been superimposed. The last few letters towards the end looked slightly clearer, but even that was unreadable gibberish. Was it a spell concealing their name? Or was their name written in a language that didn't use the alphabet at all?
"Malfoy?" whispered Harry. "You don't suppose he came to meet Daphne?"
Even though he had recently learned that Daphne was no longer alone in her own head, he still suspected Malfoy to be up to something. For all he knew, he was tasked with assisting her, but nothing noteworthy or particularly evil had happened yet this year. No failed poisoning attempts, no cursed objects sneaked into the castle— nothing.
"Bollocks," swore Harry, noticing yet another name appearing on the map. "Filch's coming up right behind us, and we're lit up like a Christmas tree…"
And right on cue…
"Oi! Stop right there!" came Filch's raspy voice as he raised his lantern, its light flaring in their faces and forcing them to shield their eyes. "Out of bed after curfew, eh? I know who you are—so don't even think about running!"
Oleandra and Harry looked at each other.
"Run!"
They had been given special permission to break curfew to attend Professor Slughorn's party, but that did not mean they could just use that as an excuse to wander the halls at night!
Filch let loose a stream of curses as his quarry broke into a sprint. How dare these rule-breakers make him run, at his age and with his bad hip? Still, he'd find them yet, or at least one of them… he knew the castle like the back of his hand, and the girl was in high heels!
"Go bother him!" shouted Oleandra as she ran, pointing over her shoulder.
As if sensing the urgency of the situation, the Fairies fluttering around her head finally heeded her orders and swarmed around Filch— but there was little they could do to impede his advance, as their little fists were fairly harmless.
"What'd you go and do that for? I can't see!" hissed Harry, fumbling in his pockets for his wand as he ran. "We're not going to get very far without light— oof!"
Unlike Oleandra, Harry couldn't see in the dark. It wasn't long before he stumbled over the hem of his robes and fell flat onto the cold, unforgiving stone floor at the intersection. He landed on his stomach, and his glasses flew from his face, clattering a short distance away.
"Come on," said Oleandra urgently, taking him by the arm and trying to pull him to his feet. "I'm fairly certain he didn't see our faces, so we need to head back to Professor Slughorn's office before we get caught."
The fireworks she usually saved for such situations were still tucked away in her pouch, back in the past, so all hopes of creating diversion were off the table.
"My glasses," groaned Harry, feeling around blindly on the ground with his hands. "Can't see without my glasses…"
"You can't see in the dark, glasses or not," retorted Oleandra, pulling harder. "Now come on!"
Slowly but surely, the light cast by Filch's lantern and the footsteps produced by his uneven gait were getting closer behind her. At the same time, Malfoy's and his mystery companion's footsteps were growing louder from her left. Unless she left Harry behind, there would be no way of avoiding detention. The only silver lining was that Malfoy was also going to get caught, at this rate…
A beam of light swept down the corridor as Malfoy walked rapidly towards the intersection, his wand held aloft. His Wand-Lighting Charm lit up the walls and floor as the beam of light shifted back and forth. As he drew closer, he spotted Oleandra crouched next to Harry and immediately turned the light on her.
"Greengrass? Potter!?" came Malfoy's surprised voice. "Wha—"
"You!" hissed the girl standing next to him.
Harry finally found his glasses and put them back on his nose.
"Eh?" he gasped, vaguely recognising the girl. "I thought she went missing…?"
Oleandra's heart sank. The girl standing next to Malfoy was Hannah Abott— or at least, that was her face on this impostor's face…
"Make an old man run, eh?" snarled Filch, grabbing Oleandra and Harry tightly by the shoulder. "It's detention for you— and who do we have here…?"
In that moment, Oleandra stopped caring about detention.
Even though she'd spent months preparing to turn the tables and hunt down her most dogged pursuer, Oleandra hadn't expected to run into the Dusk-Elf here— at night, in the supposed safety of the castle.
She didn't have the poison she'd concocted on her person (the one she'd intended to drink herself, to weaken the Elf through their shared bloodstream), and she never even got the chance to turn the Vampire's hair into some kind of Anti-Elf weapon. She wasn't ready to face the one who had hurt her most, and with two people to protect, it was unclear if any of them would make it through the night…