Oleandra watched as Enora took careful aim with her Luger pistol at the archery target that had been set up in the middle of the men's changing room. Mai looked on with interest, while Gwen and her team of magiscientists raised their pens, preparing to scribble down their observations on their notepads.
"The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency," Enora said, enunciating clearly as she squeezed her gun's trigger. "Swansea."
BANG!
Emerald flames erupted from the Luger's barrel, and… nothing. No bullet hole appeared in the target, but, judging by the excitement of Gwen and the other Muggles, that had been the point of the experiment, which left Oleandra wondering why they had set up a target in the first place.
"I was told the DVLA is actually a front for the Ministry of Magic's Muggle Census Bureau, which is why it's connected to the Floo Network," Gwen explained, sensing Oleandra's confusion. "No actual work is done there."
Oleandra pictured a bullet flying out of an electric fireplace and striking some poor civil servant who happened to be passing by. It was just as well that, with everything that had happened after the Death Eaters took power, the place was probably empty. Hopefully.
"Is it really safe to connect the Muggle-Born Sanctuary to the Floo Network?" Oleandra asked worriedly. "Isn't the Ministry going to notice?"
"Is… is that how it works?" Gwen said, sounding rather uncertain. "We don't have Floo in France… the British Wizarding World keeps the processing method of the Floo plant a closely guarded secret, so the French Wizarding World relies on other means of travelling long distances…"
"Cancel the experiment and have Enora toss out her gun," Mai said abruptly. "No more experiments into Floo travel."
If someone tried to use the Luger as an exit point from the Floo Network, Oleandra could not see how they might emerge as anything but spaghetti-shaped meat paste from the narrow gun barrel, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
…
With the demonstration out of the way, Gwen pointed Oleandra and Mai towards the women's changing room next door, where they found Julianne enthusiastically lifting weights with a group of Muggles and Muggle-Born.
"Strengthening Solution is temporary!" she cried. "But the muscles the potion helps you build will stay with you for the rest of your lives!"
Noticing Oleandra and Mai standing in the entrance, Julianne threw down her dumbbells with a resounding clang, far louder than their size might have suggested, and massaged her rippling biceps.
"Five-minute break!" she called. "Don't forget to take a sip of Skele-Gro between sets!"
A chorus of groans echoed from the bodybuilders; the potion didn't exactly taste like pumpkin juice, and the squirming sensation of their bones shifting beneath their muscles was anything but pleasant.
"What, do you want your bones to snap like twigs?" Julianne laughed boisterously. "Your puny skeletons won't be able to handle your muscles unless your bones grow along with them!"
Oleandra watched as the gigantic, musclebound woman strode towards them.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Greengrass," Julianne said, looking down at Oleandra from her seven-and-a-half-foot height. "What brings you here today? I see you haven't brought your sword with you… Care for a spar? Hand to hand, of course…"
Were Julianne to cover herself from head to toe in Goblin silver armour, she would be able to brush off most spells aimed at her. Short of using the environment to knock her off her feet, Oleandra did not see how she might defeat such a tank-like opponent straight on.
"Perhaps later," Mai said. "We've come for another matter…"
Mai briefly explained the situation to her.
"I accept!" Julianne said, pulling up her shirt to reveal her diamond-hard abdominal muscles. "Well, come on, then!" she added, slapping her toned stomach. "Let's get this over with! Put a child inside me!"
Oleandra placed her hand on Julianne's stomach.
"Just like that?" Julianne said, as Oleandra removed her hand a second later. "It's done?"
"Were you expecting fireworks?" Oleandra sighed. "Yes, it's done. Congratulations."
Oleandra felt as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was not that Tonks's baby had been a great burden on her physically at its stage of development, but in the short time she had carried it, it had weighed heavily on her conscience.
"Take good care of it," Oleandra said brusquely.
And with those words, she turned on her heel and strode away.
"Wait, your eye!" Julianne called after her. "Didn't you want my eye in exchange for the baby?"
"Keep it," Oleandra called back. "I've changed my mind."
She had carried Tonks's baby to atone for killing her. It did not sit right with her to exploit a tragedy of her own making for her own benefit.
"Huh," Mai said, the strange expression from before flickering across her face. "You really have changed… Viviane."
If the Lady of the Lake had found her humanity… then Mai was not opposed to them truly becoming sisters again. Just like in the old days, before everything changed…