Hermione sighed deeply as she, Ron and Oleandra exited the Lockhart family home. Their interview with Dumbledore's collaborator hadn't yielded as much information as she had hoped, but the news that four… no, three, Horcruxes had already been rendered harmless was heartening.
"Another wild goose chase, as if looking for the Horcruxes wasn't difficult enough…" she sighed again. "You don't suppose Professor Lockhart was just worried about us? Maybe he just wanted us out of harm's way…"
"I don't think Lockhart's worried about anyone but himself," Ron grumbled.
"I know who's got that crystal phial Professor Lockhart was talking about," Oleandra said suddenly. "Draco Malfoy's got it. I've seen him with it."
Ron and Hermione looked at her in surprise.
"How lucky can you be?" Ron said, aghast. "First you find not one, but two Horcruxes without even going out of your way to look for them, and now this?"
Oleandra shrugged.
"I never could have guessed I'd be saying this one day, but it's a shame Malfoy's dead," Hermione sighed. "If he were still alive, we could have caught him and forced him to tell us where he had put it…"
Oleandra sniggered.
"What's so funny?" Ron said, frowning.
"Ah, no…" she chortled. "It's not my secret to tell, but something tells me we won't have much trouble finding this phial Professor Lockhart wants… let's head back to the Sanctuary, shall we?"
Hermione extended her hand, and Ron and Oleandra took it; she pivoted on the spot, and the three vanished from the Lockharts' front porch. The familiar, unsettling sensation of being squeezed through a rubber hose washed over them, and in an instant, they Apparated in Hyde Park, London, right beside the mushroom ring…
…only to be met with a wave of searing heat. Gone were the lawn and the mushrooms, and in their place stood a roaring inferno, beside which a Wizard was waving his wand, visibly coaxing its flames to consume the fairy ring. The way back had been cut off!
"What are you doing!?" Hermione screamed.
"Expelliarmus!" Ron shouted, pointing his wand at the Wizard.
Taken by surprise, the Wizard revolved to face them as his wand flew out of his hand.
"Wait, you don't understand, the Sanctuary is under attack!" he cried. "Lady Dulac has decreed that all Fairy Rings leading to the Sanctuary are to be disabled, to prevent any new refugees from entering!"
"How did this happen?" Oleandra asked, stupefied. "I thought the Sanctuary was impregnable!"
"I've no bloody clue," said the Wizard miserably. "The Death Eaters came from the north-west side and started setting the treehouses on fire. Lady Dulac and her troops went to intercept them while the residents evacuated…"
"Where to?" Hermione asked worriedly.
"The only Fairy Ring Lady Dulac ordered to be left alone, the one in Hogsmeade," the Wizard replied. "I believe the plan is for the refugees to make for Hogwarts, and for us to make our last stand there."
Hogsmeade lay on the other side of Great Britain, far too distant to reach in a single bound. If they set out from London by Disapparition, it would take the average Wizard at least four or five consecutive jumps to get there. Thankfully, Harry's group had roamed up and down the country while on the run, and they knew plenty of jumping-off points they could use to close the distance bit by bit.
"You two should go," Oleandra said simply. "I'll try to mend the Fairy Ring and help with the evacuation."
Ron and Hermione joined hands and nodded tersely. Hermione pivoted on the spot, and they vanished with a loud pop. The Wizard charged with destroying the Fairy Ring also Disapparated, leaving Oleandra alone before the raging inferno.
Oleandra unhooked Hufflepuff's cup from her waist and aimed it at the fire as though she were a firefighter holding a hose. She doused the flames with a powerful jet of water, and before long, the fire was out. Thankfully, owing to their high water content, mushrooms were rather difficult to burn, so Oleandra was relieved to see that, despite the inferno, the Fairy Ring was more or less intact, if a little scorched.
"Muin," Oleandra said as she stepped into the ring.
Her surroundings began shifting rapidly, almost as if she were standing still and the Earth rotating rapidly beneath her feet, and before she knew it, she was standing in the Muggle-Born Sanctuary.
"Stop pushing!"
"I have children, let me through!"
The instant she appeared, Oleandra was almost deafened by the sound of stampeding people screaming and clamouring to be let through. The central plaza, the hub of the sanctuary that housed the various Fairy Rings leading to different parts of the country, was crammed to bursting with panicking refugees pushing against one another in their desperation to reach the portal to Hogsmeade.
The air reeked of the cloying smell of sweat, blood and panic, mingled with the acrid fumes of great fires roaring in the distance. Above the refugees' heads and the roofs of the treehouses, a tall column of black smoke rose in the north…
"Form an orderly line!" Julianne roared. The muscle-bound woman towered over even the tallest men, waving her arms in a futile effort to direct the crowd. "Stop pushing!"
The sounds of splintering wood, rustling leaves and toppling trees rang out.
"TROLLS!" someone screamed.
Oleandra began throwing elbows as she forced her way against the flow of the crowd, before suddenly remembering she could fly. Suit the Lethifold oozed out from between the fibres of her clothes, cladding her in darkness and pushing those around her aside as it lifted her into the air above the refugees' heads, its black, leathery folds flapping and billowing around her.
Her pupils contracted.
Trolls were pouring out from the treeline in the residential treehouse area to the north and into the clearing that housed the Fairy Rings, wielding heavy wooden clubs stained with blood. They were the Death Eaters' vanguard; either they had defeated Mai and her troops, or pushed past her while she was busy dealing with the enemy spellcasters.
Left alone, they would charge into the crowd and trample them underfoot…