"Go away, Oleandra," Tracey said dully, resolutely refusing to meet Oleandra's gaze as she sat down opposite her. "Go back to your sister and your Death Eater friends."
Tracey had taken to sitting at the end of the Slytherin table, a few feet from the staff table, as far away as possible from the Greengrass twins, who sat at the other end.
"I may have been too hasty when I said I was ending things between us," Oleandra said smoothly, tilting her head in an attempt to catch Tracey's gaze all the same. "You know I was only thinking of you when I said that, right?"
Their table neighbours obligingly turned their heads and pretended not to hear a word, and the first-year girl sitting next to Oleandra even began slowly shuffling away along the bench. Getting caught in a lovers' spat was always awkward, not to mention dangerous, considering who the involved parties were…
"Oh, yeah?" Tracey hissed. "Well, I am so glad to hear it! Were you also thinking of me when you had the brilliant idea to come bother me while I was eating?"
Tracey had not been seen speaking to either Oleandra or Daphne in so long that people had almost begun to forget they used to be inseparable… almost being the key word. Very few students had the courage to speak to Tracey at all these days; interacting with someone whom they were not quite certain was the twins' friend or their enemy was far more trouble than it was worth.
However, being ignored was far preferable to being attacked by students of Dumbledore's faction, so Tracey had come to accept this state of affairs. She would finish her last year of education in peace and then leave and never look back.
"Of course I was," Oleandra said, sounding rather surprised. "I think about you loads of times every day, at the very least."
Tracey looked mortified. She glanced around, hoping no one had heard Oleandra's unabashed admission of affection, but judging by the frozen expressions of their table neighbours, they had heard every word.
"Are we really doing this right now? In front of these first-years?" Tracey said, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "What do you want from me, Oleandra Greengrass? First you act as though you want to get back together, then you tell me to stay the Hel away from you, and now, here we are again. If you're just going to break my heart again, don't bother."
"I just wanted to let you know that I'm about to do something monumentally stupid," Oleandra said cheerfully. "I didn't want to leave you wondering what had happened to me if I ended up disappearing… or getting disappeared."
Tracey gaped at her.
"Wha— what in Merlin's woolly socks are you telling me that for!?" she spluttered. "Are you trying to get me killed as an accomplice? Are you trying to get a rise out of me? This is some new form of psychological torture you've come up with to torment me, right? Or is this some kind of test to see if I'd follow you into the abyss of idiocy?"
Out of the corner of her eye, Oleandra spotted Neville across the Great Hall, discreetly rising to his feet and making his way toward the oaken double doors. He wasn't the first of the Gryffindors to slip away from the feast early tonight; Ginny had gone a few minutes ago, and her brother Ron a few minutes before that.
Something told Oleandra that she wouldn't have any trouble convincing Loki to accompany her now…
"Hmm, I wonder?" Oleandra replied, humming happily as she swung her legs over the bench and sprang to her feet. "See you around, Trace."
"You always were a selfish woman, Oleandra," Tracey said coldly. "Always doing as you pleased, never taking others' feelings into consideration. You'll get what's coming to you."
At times whimsical, like a passing cloud forming comical shapes; at others, as capricious as the weather over the British Isles. Such was the true nature of the Great Fairies from Paradise Island, the great and terrible beings whose failure to understand the depths of humanity's desperation had been their downfall.
"Nothing but good things, I hope!" Oleandra called, winking at her. "I'll see you around!"
Oleandra turned on her heel and strode back to her usual seat, but instead of sitting, she approached Loki and whispered in his ear. "Up for a spot of hunting?"
A brief expression of surprise flashed across Draco's features, before vanishing quickly as he seemed to think of something. He put down the candied apple he'd been munching on and pushed away his plate, and he looked up at her, grinning widely.
"That ragtag bunch from Gryffindor, eh? I've had my eye on them for a while, they never cease to entertain…" he said, pushing himself to his feet. "Very well, I don't mind lending a hand… but you should mind that the hunter does not become the hunted."
At the sight of their master rising to his feet, Crabbe and Goyle, busy double-fisting fried chicken drumsticks and stuffing their gullets with assorted Hallowe'en sweetmeats (in no particular order), attempted to follow his lead. The wooden bench groaned and creaked as its burden briefly lightened, but with a curt shake of the head from Loki, they sank back down, much to the bench's dismay.
…
The final Horcrux stared expressionlessly as Loki and Oleandra left the Great Hall. There was something off about the boy Voldemort had believed to be nothing more than a pawn, only slightly more useful than his father… The vessel seemed instinctively repulsed by him, which in turn affected it. It was an unsettling feeling, to know fear once more, even though Dumbledore had fallen by this very vessel's hand…
The green-haired girl stood.
The first Horcrux had departed first, accompanying the Gryffindor children on their foolish quest to steal the only treasure Lord Voldemort had failed to claim and turn into a Horcrux… she would betray them, catch them red-handed, show them the futility of their struggles… and then she would double back and come to her aid.
Together, they would kill Oleandra Greengrass and claim the Elder Wand with their superior magical skill. Alone and friendless, the girl would not have the strength to conjure the phantasmal dragon that had once driven Lord Voldemort away… the girl had made sure of that herself.