"There it is!" Oleandra cried, spotting a brown mushroom cap poking through the snow beneath a nearby tree. "I've found it!"
It had been a few months since she'd rescued the Muggle-Born prisoners from the Ministry of Magic, yet the Fairy Ring that Mai had planted in Hyde Park remained untouched. With a casual flick of her wand, Oleandra swept the snow aside to uncover a perfect circle of mushrooms amongst the flattened grass. It looked as though no one had mown the lawn for some time— unsurprising, with all the Muggles gone.
"A mushroom ring…?" Harry said, frowning. "No way. Not again."
The last time he and Sirius had stepped through such a ring, following the instructions of someone who looked exactly like Oleandra, they'd been transported to the Muggle-born Sanctuary, exactly as advertised. Yet, on their return, what had they found but Hermione in hysterics and his best friend Ron and the Oleandra lookalike nowhere to be seen?
"In case you've forgotten, London belongs to You‑Know‑Who," Oleandra said coolly. "I don't much fancy being swarmed by Heliopaths, but do as you like. Still, if I were you, I'd forget about Disapparating. The city's under an Anti‑Disapparition Jinx, and there are only a few secret spots where Apparition isn't restricted… though I wouldn't know where they are."
Harry hoisted Sirius's unconscious body onto his shoulder, caught Hermione's hand, and Oleandra watched with a flicker of amusement as he turned on the spot— only to remain exactly where he was.
"My case is a little unusual, so you can forget about Disapparating the way I did to get us out of St Mungo's," Oleandra said, a touch of smugness creeping into her voice. "So, are you coming?"
"Come on, Harry," Hermione sighed. "If she meant to hurt us, she'd have done it by now. Besides, the Muggle‑Born Sanctuary's real, isn't it? We should be safe there."
"Fine!" Harry snapped. "But she still has plenty to answer for."
Harry and Hermione joined Oleandra in the ring. Now, all they had to do was wait for the Witch in charge of periodically checking the Fairy Rings to come fetch them… but Oleandra wasn't one to wait around.
"Muin," said Oleandra, invoking the bramble rune.
Left unattended, wild brambles could grow to impressive sizes, weaving thorny mazes that many small animals used for cover from predators, and that more than one child had vanished into while hunting for tasty blackberries. Thus, Muin also governed the threshold to what Muggles might call the otherworld— a kind of subspace born of magic, where Fairies built their cosy little homes.
The mushroom ring glowed, and the world around them shifted away from the white and dull grey of Hyde Park's winter scenery. All of a sudden, they found themselves standing in the middle of a green clearing. A large signpost hung overhead, its neon lettering cheerily declaring, Welcome to the Muggle‑Born Sanctuary!
Oleandra marvelled at how much the place had changed.
The makeshift tents that once haphazardly dotted the football field were gone, replaced by a forest of treehouses linked by swaying aerial walkways. She could scarcely make out the walls, stands and terraces of the old stadium in the distance, through the foliage— just how far had St Andrew'sStadium's internal space been stretched by magic? This kind of use of the Undetectable Extension Charm surely had to be illegal…
"Oh, if it isn't Harry and his friends!" came a rather familiar voice.
Oleandra goggled at the Welcome Witch.
"Luna?" Harry croaked. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, well, it's rather a long story, isn't it?" she said dreamily. "There I was— I'd just got home for the winter holidays— and I'd gone down to the river to see if I couldn't do a spot of fishing and catch a few Plimpies for Daddy's world‑famous Gulping Plimpy soup, and…"
"Those don't exist," Hermione said reflexively.
"Er…" Oleandra said tentatively. "Couldn't you abridge a little?"
Luna nodded— or at least, that's what Oleandra imagined she was attempting to do. Perhaps she was simply trying to shake a few Nargles loose from her nostrils.
"So then, Miss Maëlle asked me how I'd managed to get through her wards and find this place, and I said, I don't know, you know?" Luna explained. "So, she gave me a job. I'm meant to greet visitors when they arrive without Miss Maëlle, you see. Like you four!"
Harry and Hermione looked thoroughly perplexed, but although Luna had skimmed rather briskly over the most important part of her story, Oleandra had gathered the gist of it. Luna had apparently stumbled into the Muggle‑Born Sanctuary while out fishing for imaginary creatures, somehow bypassing the need for Mai's escort, or any knowledge of the Muin rune to activate the Fairy Ring.
"Anyway, I'm sure Neville, Astoria and Dra— and Cassiopeia will be happy to see you!" Luna said, clapping her hands. "Come on, I'll take you to see them~!"
Luna hopped down from her stool behind the welcome desk and trotted off, leading them into the forest of treehouses. By the look of it, she had quite forgotten her duty of guarding the Fairy Ring that linked this place to the outside world.