Oleandra held her breath, biding her time as she listened for Daphne's slow footfalls. The rebounding of her Stunning Curse had taken her by surprise, but luckily for her, she could not be knocked out via magical means; it was one of the perks of being a member of the Fae Folk.
The only notable exception being potions, naturally, since they Physickally altered her brain's chemistry.
"Dagaz…" she murmured, biting her tongue until she drew blood, then smearing the crimson liquid across her forearm in the shape of a sideways hourglass. "Local acceleration, times two."
Ironically, the rune of the hourglass was the slowest acting in her arsenal. Manipulating time was risky business, and so Oleandra rarely made use of Dagaz, even on her enemies. Daphne knew many of her secrets, but she didn't know all of them…
"Incarcerous," said Daphne out loud. "Mobilicorpus."
Silvery ropes flew from the tip of her wand and wrapped around Oleandra's body, and her bound body was lifted into the air. Voldemort rarely used magic verbally unless it was for the Killing Curse, but it seemed that, now Daphne thought no one was paying attention, there was no need to keep up appearances and do everything in an awe-inspiring fashion.
Oleandra's mind raced. There was no reason for Daphne to bind her with ropes; Voldemort knew about her little wandless rope escape trick. She had demonstrated in front of him and all his Death Eaters two years ago, when she and her sisters had been captured in Malfoy Manor.
"Cru—"
"CAMBIO EXUVIA!" Oleandra shouted.
The silvery ropes vanished into Oleandra's clothing space, replaced by her winter scarf. With her limbs thus freed, she plunged her hand into her pocket, fingers closing around Dolohov's wand, which she had kept as a backup.
"Liberacorpus!"
Luckily, Lupin's counter-spell to his Dangling Jinx worked, and Oleandra's body fell back to the ground. Quick as a flash, Oleandra rolled, snatched up her own wand and Harry's Invisibility Cloak, then hastily threw it over her shoulders, vanishing from sight.
"Argh!"
Oleandra stifled a groan, clutching at her chest as a sharp pang gripped her heart. The distortion ratio of the river of time she had cast over her body was gradually increasing, accelerating the passage of time on her person compared to the rest of the world… but even her Dusk-Elf's heart was finding it difficult to keep beating steadily under such strain.
"Hiding again?" said Daphne, sounding rather bored, listening to Oleandra's rapid footfalls against the dungeon's flagstones as she ran towards her Lethifold, her book and her sword, which she had left behind at the intersection. "Do it," she hissed in Parseltongue. "Now."
All of a sudden, Oleandra's winter scarf had vanished, and coiled around her neck was a boa constrictor, looping around her body and pressing in against her throat, restricting the flow of blood to her head. Oleandra tripped, and the Invisibility Cloak caught under her foot, slipping off her body as she fell.
"Where is the cup?" Daphne hissed in the snake's direction.
"No cup," replied the boa, tongue flickering. "Not in dark space."
"You… tricked me…!?" Oleandra choked out.
She was close to fainting.
Willing it to defend her with all her strength, Oleandra extended her sword towards Excalibur, and the sword came spinning towards her, chopping off the snake's head as it conversed with Daphne.
"No cup, I'm afraid," Oleandra wheezed as the Conjured snake dissolved into smoke that reeked of brimstone. "I left it in good hands before coming here to fight you."
"So you truly are a Parselmouth," Daphne said, eyes narrowing. "This isn't your runic parlour trick with the earrings…"
Oleandra was not wearing her Translation Earrings; Daphne had had them removed when she tortured her into a coma. To this day, Daphne had no idea who could have freed Oleandra from the dungeons. She had interrogated the teachers and Professor Snape at length, but none of them seemed to have any idea how Oleandra could have been smuggled out of the castle…
"Do you remember when Lord Voldemort struck me with the Killing Curse three years ago?" Oleandra asked. "Well, the same thing that happened to Harry happened to me… a sliver of his soul came free and lodged itself inside me… I trust you know what that means?"
Daphne's pupils shrank to pinpricks.
"You're both accidental Horcruxes," she said, her tone hardening. "But so what? It's only a matter of transferring the divided soul to a new, sturdier container."
She whipped her wand in Oleandra's direction, raising a wall of blue fire between them.
Now that Daphne knew her body's sister was also a Horcrux, she could no longer fling Killing Curses at her willy-nilly, but in Oleandra's opinion, that only made her sister more dangerous… a creative Wizard was more dangerous than one who relied upon a single spell practised to perfection. This was magic, not martial arts, after all.
For her part, Oleandra was relieved that she had managed to trick Daphne in turn, offsetting the sensation of weakness that had filled her when her sister had deceived her with her rope-into-snake trick in an attempt to retrieve Hufflepuff's cup.
Great Fairies could not afford to be tricked, or they would lose part of their powers.
"In a hurry to go somewhere?" Oleandra said nonchalantly as Daphne turned on her heel to leave. "It would certainly be disastrous if Lord Voldemort accidentally killed Harry before he could retrieve his soul shard…"
Daphne refused to dignify Oleandra's taunt with an answer.
"Wherever the sky kisses the land, the light of the stars shall shine down upon the earth, and wherever earth is to be found, there shall be at least one lake that reflects the starry night sky."
Daphne faltered as she heard Oleandra's clear voice rise behind the wall of blue flames.
"Sowelo Above."
She slowed to a stop and revolved to look behind her.
"Laukaz Below."
Behind the wall of flames, Oleandra was dancing.
"Ansuz in my Right Hand, Uruz in my Left Hand."
How could Lord Voldemort possibly forget the only time he had ever been defeated in a straight-on battle, even if it had been four against one? Oleandra's ambush at St Mungo's didn't count naturally; his attention had been focused on Harry Potter lying defeated at his feet…
"Kenaz in Front, Odala Behind, and Mannaz in my Heart…"
"You're bluffing," Daphne snarled. "You aren't powerful enough to use that spell on your own."
Daphne swiped at the air with her wand, marshalling the wall of blue flames into crashing into Oleandra's dancing silhouette, but it was too late.
"The Sun, the Lake, the Godforce, the Aurochs, the Torch, the Fortress, the Cosmic Egg… Stars Above, Grant me Infinite Strength… Aquamirror that Epitomises the Stars!"