The band had only just struck up a fast-paced jig when, out of the corner of her eye, Oleandra caught sight of Bill leading his new wife, Fleur, onto the dance floor— followed closely by their respective parents, who had swapped partners for the length of the tune.
"Who is that man in the yellow?" asked Viktor Krum, scowling.
To Oleandra's annoyance, Loony Lovegood's posterior stayed stubbornly planted in her seat, even as Ron and Hermione slid in on either side of her at Harry's table.
"That's my daddy," said Luna, tilting her head to one side. "You look rather cross. Care for a Wrackspurt siphon?"
"A vot?" Krum blurted out, taken aback.
More dancers spilled onto the floor to join the married couple and their parents, their limbs keeping time with the frenetic pace of the tune.
A sinking weight settled in Oleandra's chest as Tracey's face came unbidden to mind, just as laughter rang out—Fleur had slipped and fallen into her husband's arms. She would never find anything quite that rare again, she thought ruefully. But that was the price of following her ambitions, wherever they chose to lead her.
"That's Xenophilius Lovegood, our neighbour from over the hill," said Ron confrontationally. "Come and dance," he added abruptly, turning to Hermione.
Oleandra couldn't see them, with her back turned to their table, but judging by the scrape of chairs, Hermione had accepted his offer to dance.
"Ah," Krum said distractedly. "Are they together, now?"
Luna's answer went unheard as another wave of laughter erupted from the dancers. Oleandra strained her ears.
"Hey, Harry!" Ginny's bashful voice resounded behind her. "Do you want to dance, maybe?"
"Sorry," Harry replied in a strained voice. "Not right now. Maybe later."
Oleandra turned her head slightly, watching as a disappointed Ginny slunk away. But just before she vanished into the crowd of dancers, a glint of darkness caught Oleandra's eye— an ugly, gaudy gold ring, set with a large round black stone, gleaming on Ginny's hand in the sun.
"Your vater," growled Krum. "Vy does he vear that filthy sign upon his chest?"
"Filthy?" Luna echoed airily. "You mean the Deathly Hallows emblem? Daddy polishes it every day on our Crumple-Horned Snorkack horn, so I don't know why you would say—"
Oleandra flinched at the loud bang as Krum slammed his fist onto the table, sending cutlery rattling a few centimetres into the air with a metallic jingle. It gave her the perfect excuse to turn around and stare without seeming too obvious— so she did exactly that.
"Don't get funny vith me!" Krum growled, his hand twitching at his side as if itching to draw his wand. "That's clearly Grindelvald's sign! Are the two of you followers of his!?"
Oleandra vaguely recalled reading about Grindelwald on one of Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog cards. She wasn't especially keen on collecting them herself, but Astoria had kept a small collection to trade with her penpals when she used to be bedridden, so Oleandra usually saved hers up for her from those younger days.
"That's the sign of the Deathly Hallows," Luna insisted. "Daddy and I are Questers."
"She's right!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. "I remember seeing it in an old storybook!"
Krum, on the verge of exploding with anger, shot him a cold look and demanded an answer.
"It's like this…" explained Harry.
Harry's entire world flipped upside down that fateful night when, rather than attempting to save a falling Dumbledore, Oleandra had tried to summon his wand— the Elder Wand. Naturally, Harry had never heard of such an artefact before, having been raised by Muggles, but when he recounted the events he had witnessed while helplessly frozen, Ron immediately told him about the Tale of the Three Brothers.
As if Dumbledore had foreseen his fate, he had bequeathed something to each of Harry's friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had only just received the items the headmaster had left them the day before— after the Ministry had thoroughly examined them for a month.
To Harry, the Sword of Godric Gryffindor— which he hadn't received, as it had never truly been Dumbledore's to give in the first place.
To Ron, the Deluminator, an alchemical creation Dumbledore had invented himself. It could absorb all sources of light from its surroundings and release them at will.
To Hermione, Dumbledore's first edition and annotated copy of the original, unadulterated and uncensored Tales of Beedle the Bard… which included the Tale of the Three Brothers, written in Ancient Runes... which just so happened to be Oleandra's personal brand of magic.
Coincidence? The Gryffindor Trio thought not.
Naturally, knowing that Oleandra had likely taken the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's still-warm body, Ron had urged Hermione to decipher the chapter's contents and Dumbledore's annotated notes, while he and Harry contented themselves with looking at the pretty illustrations as she worked.
At the very end of the tale, after all three brothers had at last met their ends; the first murdered in his sleep by a rival obsessed with the idea of an unbeatable wand, the second having taken his own life to rejoin a lost love, and the third having passed away peacefully after a long life— there was an illustration of their tombstones; each marked with a triangle bisected by a vertical line, with a circle nestled in the centre touching all three sides of the triangle.
The sign of the Deathly Hallows.
"And this book of yours— it vos given to you by Dumbledore himself?" asked Krum, still sounding unconvinced. "But… he could not possibly haff been a supporter of Grindelvald…"
"GREGOROVITCH!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. "He made your wand, didn't he?"
Krum stared at Harry with wide eyes.
"Vot about him?" asked Krum suspiciously. "And how do you know that?"
Unbeknownst to Oleandra— who had spent the past month holed up at home— the Order of the Phoenix had mounted a major operation to move Harry from his Muggle relatives' house before the protective blood ward on their home faded.
They had been ambushed mid-flight by Voldemort himself, leading a swarm of Death Eaters. It was then that Harry's wand had unleashed a stream of golden fire, shattering the borrowed wand Voldemort carried to avoid a repeat of what had happened in the summer of 1995.
In his visions, Harry had seen that Voldemort had kidnapped Ollivander, Britain's premier wandmaker. And now, his nemesis was searching for Gregorovitch, another wandmaker… was he searching for a way to overcome Harry's wand advantage?
Had Oleandra, on Voldemort's orders, retrieved the Elder Wand for him…?
But if that was the case… why was he still looking for a wandmaker?