"School life is rather exciting, isn't it?" said Loki, smiling at Oleandra obsequiously with Draco's face. "Is this what it's always like?"
"No," replied Oleandra, giving Michael Corner a vicious kick in the ribs. "It's not."
The first week of school was finally drawing to a close, and Oleandra had found herself ambushed in the halls no fewer than three times. She was an easy target for those who believed strength lay in numbers and that justice could be found in the coward's path, since she often wandered the school alone.
It had to be said that Oleandra didn't have many friends left.
"Look on the bright side," Loki told a groaning Michael. "You'll have plenty of time to catch up with your friends in detention!"
So far, those who had attacked Oleandra had got off lightly. She hadn't had a proper look at the girl who had shot a hex at her from across the long corridor running parallel to the library, and the girl had fled around the corner and vanished before Oleandra could catch up.
The second group of fools had been a bunch of fourth-year Hufflepuffs who ambushed her where the Grand Staircase met the dungeons. She had left them unconscious and covered in boils, but had not reported them to the Carrows, knowing what awaited them.
It was unlucky for Michael that Draco had walked in on Oleandra giving him the beating of a lifetime.
"If you don't mind, I've got a lot of homework," Oleandra said offhandedly.
"Of course," grinned Loki. "By all means."
Showing remarkable strength for his otherwise ordinary frame, Loki picked up the groggy Michael by the scruff of the neck and dragged him off. The instant he was out of sight, Oleandra sprinted down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. She knew exactly where Loki would be for the next ten minutes, so she had to search his quarters for the Invisibility Cloak before he returned!
"Perthro, Mannaz, Odala, Gebu," whispered Oleandra, signing as she went. "The Dice Cup, the Cosmic Egg of Man, the Domain, the Gift. Grant Me the Stealth of a Thief."
As long as no one was actively searching for her, Perthro alone was usually more than sufficient to diminish her presence and grant her a form of psychological invisibility, but Oleandra did not want to take any chances. She weaved the runes and melded them into a Lokk, ensuring she could not be seen wandering the boys' dormitories.
Oleandra tiptoed down the stairs to the boys' section.
Thanks to the perks of seniority, the Slytherin seventh-years' rooms were nearest the exit and the bathrooms, so Loki's, Crabbe's, and Goyle's room was staring her right in the face by the time she lightly hopped off the last step.
Oleandra opened her Mystic Eyes and examined the door. Activating her magical sight within Hogwarts's hallowed halls was always a guaranteed headache-inducing experience, but once again, she didn't want to take any chances.
"Specialis Revelio!" Oleandra said clearly, pointing her wand at the doorknob.
Flagrante Curse, Locking Charm… runes of sealing… touching any one of them would set off a Caterwauling Charm.
It suddenly occurred to Oleandra that Crabbe and Goyle were both too stupid to memorise how to disarm Loki's defences. And yet, somehow, they always found their way back to their room for a good night's sleep after dinner. Or at any rate, they weren't sleeping on the common room's sofas, so far as she could see.
Oleandra's form shimmered as she took Goyle's shape. She looked at her immense mitts and grimaced, wondering how he could even grasp his wand with such sausage-like fingers. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, so she grasped the doorknob, half expecting to be burned, and… nothing happened.
She turned the doorknob, and the door swung open. The room was empty.
"Accio Invisibility Cloak," said Oleandra.
Once again, nothing happened. Then again, Summoning had not worked on either the Resurrection Stone or the Elder Wand, so she was not sure what she had been expecting by trying. She would have to search manually.
"The last time I 'saw' it with these eyes," Oleandra thought out loud, "The Cloak looked like a hole in the world…"
When worn, so long as there was nothing magical in the background, the Cloak would remain perfectly invisible to her Mystic Eyes, but its magic was not infallible. When something magical lay behind it, such as Wizards, artefacts, or Hogwarts Castle itself, it appeared as a hole in reality…
…and it just so happened that there was one such suspicious-looking hole hung on the wall above Loki's bed.
"You can't be serious…" said Oleandra, aghast. "He didn't even bother hiding it. It's that easy!?"
Oleandra stalked over, careful not to walk on any of the magical sigils carved into the stone floor around Loki's bed, and she reached out hesitantly. Her fingers brushed against the soft, flowing fabric of the Invisibility Cloak, and she yanked it off, only to find a pair of frightened bulbous eyes staring back at her.
"Dobby!?" Oleandra gasped.
The petrified House-Elf was being used as a coat hanger.
It was at that moment that she heard a series of monosyllabic grunts, which she recognised as Crabbe's and Goyle's preferred method of communication, whether their mouths were full of food or not. Without thinking, she lifted the House-elf, freeing him from the hook buried deep in the wrinkled folds of skin on his back, and draped the Invisibility Cloak around her shoulders, hugging the frozen Dobby tightly to her chest.
Without bothering to wonder why the door was ajar, Crabbe and Goyle lumbered heavily into the room and sat at their desks. Oleandra had given the books on their desks a brief look when she'd come in— evidently, they were still trying to pass their O.W.L.s.
"Draco's different," said Goyle, the brighter of the pair.
"Unh."
"I'm telling you."
"Yeah. Wonder what's for dinner?"
"I smelled roast beef from the kitchens."
"Nice."
Oleandra felt as though she might suffer second-hand brain damage by listening to them for too long, so she tiptoed out of the room and returned to her own, down the stairs opposite the boys' dormitory. With a Quick-Change Charm, she stored the Invisibility Cloak in her clothing space, then placed the Malfoy family's House-Elf on her desk.
"Now, what am I to do with you…" she muttered, half to herself, half to the frozen Dobby.