Oleandra yawned and set her book aside and stretched her arms.
It was getting rather late. She glanced out of the window. It was already dark outside— the sun had fallen beneath the horizon, and with no Muggles about and the city's lampposts powerless, London had fallen deathly still.
Very soon, unless something was done, the rest of the United Kingdom would fall to darkness—one as deep as the night outside the Leaky Cauldron. And when that happened, the quiet hope still slumbering in the hearts of the Wizarding World's inhabitants would at last be extinguished, and You-Know-Who would rule eternally over the British Isles… and perhaps even beyond.
"If only they knew," sighed Oleandra, lowering her eyes to the pages of Dumbledore's book. "It was over before it even began."
The Chosen One was still out there, fighting the good fight— but Harry Potter was just as lost as everyone else. Though Oleandra hadn't pressed Harry too hard for fear of arousing his suspicion, she suspected he had no plan at all.
In addition to the thirteen consonant Ogham, there exist two more outside of the month system.
Ng: Ngetal, the reed rune that rustles in the wind, from which wounding arrows are cut.
Z: Straif, the unlucky blackthorn rune, the tree of black magic and blasting, for a total of fifteen.
(Blackberry ramble vines, hawthorn and blackthorn appear to be beloved by Faeries, possess vicious thorns, and possess ruinous magic, which I do not believe to be a coincidence.)
The more Oleandra read, the more convinced she became that the land itself was intimately tied to the Greater Fairies. Whether benevolent or malevolent, the Fae Folk had always played a crucial role in sustaining the land's magic— which might explain how the Saxon invaders with their star magic had so easily vanquished the Celts and their earth-and-moon magic.
The final Ogham are the vowels, for a total of twenty runes.
A: Ailm, the silver-fir-tree rune. It is said to aid childbirth.
(Though I have no way to verify that, and I rather doubt I'll ever have occasion to!)
(I would have assumed Ailm stood for the elm, but apparently not!)
O: Onn, the gorse rune. Gorse— also known as furze— is a shrub that produces yellow flowers. This rune's most important function is to counteract the effects of Gort, the ivy rune, but it also holds the power to end active spells. (Much like Finite Incantatem, though in a far more permanent fashion.)
Oleandra turned back to the previous page. As expected, the section on ivy was almost completely obscured by ink spots, rendering this description all but useless to her.
U: Ura, the heather rune. Supposedly increases luck.
(I have seen no improvement, but when have I ever relied on luck?)
E: Eadha, the aspen-tree rune. This rune excels at shielding against physical threats, but is entirely useless in the face of magical attacks.
"One half of Elhaz or Protego, then?" Oleandra remarked.
I: Idho, the yew-tree rune. Yews are for all intents and purposes immortal, and each part of the tree possesses deadly toxins. The final rune of the vowel series, Idho is the rune of instant death.
"That makes two runes with the same origin," Oleandra commented, glancing at the two wands resting in her holster on the table. "The birch, with Berkana and Beth— and the yew, with Eihwaz and Idho... yet their effects couldn't be more different."
(It appears that Ogham not based on trees have rather weak effects. My experiments have shown that the oak, hazel, holly, yew, ash, pine and apple -tree runes are the most powerful, while those based on shrubs or bramble bushes are the weakest).
"Come on, Viviane, show yourself," said Oleandra coaxingly. "I could really use your help with this."
Oleandra waited, but Viviane did not appear, not even to offer a word of encouragement.
The urge to put on the ring suddenly overwhelmed Oleandra, and she found herself reaching for the pouch on her bedside table. She froze, fingers trembling. The Resurrection Stone couldn't possibly summon Viviane— she was still alive, in Oleandra herself— but even if it did, it wouldn't truly be her.
"Not as if Shadows were real people to begin with," Oleandra sighed.
Ghosts weren't real people either— just pale imitations of the living, bound to tread only where they had once trod in life. Only the living could shape their fate through their choices and decisions. Clinging to the dead served no purpose, no matter how comforting it might feel to look back.
Oleandra blew out the candle on her bedside table, and the room went dark. It was time to sleep, as tomorrow would be a brand-new day.
…
But barely an hour later…
"Alohomora."
"…"
"It's not working."
Oleandra, who'd been tossing fitfully in her bed, cracked open one eyelid. Outside her door on the pub's first floor, footsteps shuffled softly on the creaky floorboards— not the sort of patrol she'd come to expect from You-Know-Who's minders, but an altogether different kind of company…
"Shut up, Ron, you'll wake her!" Hermione hissed. "I can very well see it's not working!"
"Let me try," came Sirius's hushed voice from the other side of the door. "I've this knife that can cut through like Locking Charms like butter... hang on, where was it…"
"About that," whispered Harry, "your adult self gave it to me, but it sort of… melted."
Silence.
"Reductor Curse it is, then?" said Sirius cheerily. "Shall we do it on three?"
Oleandra silently swung her legs out of bed, grabbed her pouch and wands, and crept over to the tall mirror in the corner of her room. When Odin had briefly possessed her, she had gained no small amount of insight into the uses of ancient runes, and she was eager to test the spell that allowed the Aesir gods' avatars to be everywhere at once…
"Are you mad?" growled Ron. "We'll be up to our ears in Death Eaters before the door falls!"
Oleandra bit her thumb until it bled, then began smearing the crimson liquid across the mirror, tracing intricate runes with her lifeblood.
"Ansuz above, Laukaz below, Mannaz centred, Ingwaz before, Ehwo behind… Gebu," murmured Oleandra. "By these words, grant wisdom unto this reflection of mine in the glass, and let a pact be struck between us."
Oleandra stepped away from the mirror, but her reflection remained… and then it blinked.