"You look tense," Tracey said. "Here, this is for you."
Lost in thought, Oleandra gave a small start as Tracey pressed a slightly cold and moist sandwich against her cheek. With a mumbled thank you, she accepted it and took a delicate nibble.
The sandwich tasted rather bland, which was quite unlike the usual fare from the House-Elves' kitchens. Then again, Oleandra supposed it might have been too much to ask of the Elves to find a way to make cucumber and watercress interesting. There was only so much even magic could do, after all.
The two girls continued eating their lunch in silence.
For the time being, they had the Quad Courtyard all to themselves. Even though it was still early September, it was quite chilly this far north, so most students preferred eating indoors in the Great Hall, where they were free to pick at their plates without freezing off their fingers.
"I was wondering…"
Oleandra glanced sideways at Tracey, who had just spoken. To her surprise, she saw in her eyes an intensity that she had never seen before.
"Where do we stand, right now?" Tracey said in a low voice. "You and me."
"I don't understand," Oleandra said quizzically. "How do you mean?"
Tracey sighed and put down her half-eaten sandwich next to her on the bench.
"I've known Daphne for much longer, but you and I have known each other for six years and a week now," she said. "In that time, I've come to accept that you like keeping your secrets, and I've respected that, even when I shouldn't have— because I thought the mystery, the disappearing acts and the pulling miracles out of your hat made you look cool… when really, keeping secrets just shows you don't care enough to share the important things in your life!"
By the end of her tirade, Tracey's voice had risen to a shout, her words echoing between the courtyard's four walls.
"I told myself we were through," Tracey went on, "but you came crashing back into my life, and yesterday, that small voice in the back of my head told me maybe we could make this work... whatever this is."
"Tracey…"
"So, my question is this: what do you want from me, Oleandra Greengrass?" Tracey cut across her, sounding thoroughly exhausted now. "Everything's changed. We can't go back to how things were before."
Oleandra was taken aback by Tracey's fierceness.
While they'd had their fair share of arguments over the length of their relationship, she had never known Tracey to be so vocal about her frustrations. The Tracey Oleandra had parted with was a sweet and mild-mannered girl who usually took her side whenever she had a fight with Daphne… even when she was probably in the wrong.
Perhaps it was Oleandra's Fairy side, or perhaps that was simply the kind of girl she was deep down, but her passion burned hot and fast, like a candle lit at both ends. After Oleandra's initial serenading, to her slight disappointment, Tracey found their relationship slipping back into familiar patterns, only now with far more snogging involved… though she couldn't say she minded that part.
Tracey, on the other hand, was more of a romantic— more in love with the idea of love than with love itself. She'd placed her girlfriend on a pedestal, and it was only when she was forced to face Oleandra's flaws when she vanished without a word that the illusion began to crumble.
"What happened to you, Trace?" Oleandra whispered, noting the resentment in her eyes.
"My mum vanished when the Muggle-Repelling Charms went up in London, and my dad never came back after going out to look for her, so I had to fend for myself," Tracey said dully. "All on my own."
From the looks of her, she hadn't had an easy time of it.
Even so, it didn't sound as though she intended to share what had happened to her in the time between Oleandra saving her from being possessed by an Aesir and the start of the school year. Her parents had wanted to move to America at the beginning of last year, but when Tracey ran away from home in protest, unwilling to leave Oleandra and the others behind, they had decided to stay in Britain.
Tracey clearly blamed herself for that..
"Oh, Tracey…" Oleandra said mournfully.
"I never did tell you why I've always held Professor Dumbledore in such high esteem, did I?" Tracey said brusquely. "Before I was born— during the war— my father was engaged to a woman from the Rosier family, a distant relative from France. At his stag party, he discovered that several of the guests had gone out to the neighbouring village and brought back a group of Muggle women to… to have their way with."
Tracey shuddered slightly.
"One of them was in an apprenticeship at a Muggle law firm… that's my mum, by the way," she went on. "My dad had only met her once before, in court… something to do with a property dispute, I think… Grandmother was feuding with her neighbours; she'd been stretching the family house upwards bit by bit to block out the Muggles' sunlight, and they'd noticed something was off after a while… anyway…"
Oleandra struggled to keep a straight face. Tracey's parents had married because of some petty neighbourly dispute over daylight?
"Dad had never given Muggles much thought before, but that night, he recognised Mum's face amongst all the others, and he realised Muggles weren't just faceless masses," Tracey said. "He never told me what happened next, but Mum said he was quite brave… anyway, the next thing they knew, Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix were storming the party and capturing everyone they could get their hands on."
A faint smile played at the corner of Tracey's mouth.
"The Order tried to Obliviate Mum, naturally, but she started screaming about her inalienable rights and how they had no business taking away her memories… even the ones she'd rather forget," Tracey continued. "I don't know why, but that was when Dad, tied up and beaten black and blue, shouted that he'd marry her… and for some reason, Mum said yes on the spot."
In Britain, it had long been a Wizard's right to marry a Muggle if they so wished. The Statute of Secrecy included a special exemption for Muggles married to Witches or Wizards, allowing them to keep their memories of the Wizarding World— so long as they upheld the secrecy themselves.
"Everyone in the Order of the Phoenix said that Dad was just as guilty as the rest of the men present at the party, that he was just trying to weasel out of trouble, and that he would only take advantage of Mum the instant they let him free," Tracey said wistfully. "Dumbledore was the only one to believe in him. To believe in love at first sight. If it hadn't been for him, I'd never have been born, so…"
Tracey's tone grew cold.
"Oleandra, for once in your life, please be honest with me. If you really did kill Dumbledore, as Harry's been telling everyone, then you'd better have had a bloody good reason."