"What do you mean, dead!?" Oleandra cried. Had her escape all been her imagination? Had You-Know-Who killed her?
"Well, not you, obviously, dear," the witch said, looking at her like she was an idiot. "Don't tell me young ones these days can't even tell when they're dead?"
Following this roller coaster of emotions, Oleandra didn't know what to think. How was she supposed to know if she was dead, if it had never happened to her before? At any rate, the stars wouldn't help her, but at least she was still alive. For now.
"Do you know how to get back to Earth?" she asked tentatively.
"We were just going there, remember?" said the man with a jolly tone. "You know, the archway?"
"It's how I died," said the witch dismissively. "Everyone crosses it dies, without exception. My name is Bryn Bode. I was once an Unspeakable at the Department of Mysteries. I thought myself clever, and I had devised a spell to secure my soul to my body, allowing me to explore the realm of death and come back safely. Evidently, I was wrong."
"I was hit by a bus as I was picking up a quarter," said the man, speaking of his death as if he were discussing the weather. "My soul flew out, entered the archway and I was here!"
They had been walking for hours now, but it was still twilight, just as when she had arrived. Oleandra glanced up at the sky. The stars were all wrong, she noted. She certainly wasn't in Kansas any more. That's when it hit her; the stars were the same, but the runes weren't working properly, because the constellations looked different from wherever here was! Niflheim wasn't in the same place as Earth, after all.
They walked for a few more hours, chatting about various things. Oleandra's stomach suddenly growled. She was getting awfully hungry, which was a good sign, since it meant she was still alive. She certainly hoped she didn't have to resort to eating her acorns.
Finally, the little group had arrived at the archway. As she approached, Oleandra felt the runes in her soul dance and vibrate. The archway definitely connected the world of the dead to the Earth, she could feel the familiar magic of the stars spilling through the cracks in reality. She placed her hand on the pillar closest to her, and the entire archway started humming. Golden runes appeared at the very top of the archway, near the keystone. They looked different from their usual appearances, but they were very clearly Wunjo, Raidhu, Eihwaz and Dagaz.
"I get it now," she thought to herself. "The magic I used summoned a temporary portal, through which I came here. This archway is a permanent portal between worlds, thus the incantation to use it is less complex!"
She was right. Kenaz, which acted as a guide, was unnecessary here, since the physical locations of the archways were fixed. Ansuz, rune of magic, Laukaz, rune of the lakes and sea, and Uruz, rune of the aurochs, gateway between worlds, who together formed the rune-word ALU, allowed one to gather enough magical power and mould it into a portal between worlds. Elhaz, the protection rune, was also unnecessary here, as the archway's magic was very stable.
Now that Oleandra thought about it, she had seen ALU tattooed into her shoulder in the Mirror of Erised's reflection. She hadn't known that the mirror read one's thoughts in order to generate an image of what they wanted most. It had forced its way into the memories that had been locked away for her safety, and accidentally loosened the seal! This had temporarily jumbled her memories, causing her to conflate the Realm Travel magic with a safe way of travel.
"Well, it looks like you've got things figured out," said the witch. "Be mindful, though, that if you do make it to the other side, you'll trip more than three dozen variations on the Caterwauling Charm, which will alert every single person in the Department of Mysteries. No one has ever come out from the archway, so I suppose you'll give them quite the scare!"
"I suppose it's goodbye, then," said the man sadly. "We'll be here waiting for you to come back after you die!"
And on that morbid note, Oleandra closed her eyes and started reimagining the runes in her mind world, urging them to take on their new Niflheim forms. At first, they seemed reluctant, but one by one they fell in line, altering their shapes. After some meditation, she opened her eyes, who seemed to gleam with myriad lights. The runes were once again under her control.
She tried thinking of a plan. She couldn't let any Ministry personnel know what she looked like, so she drew Perthro and Mannaz on her cheeks to conceal her general appearance (this time taking care not to inscribe them backwards). Oleandra snapped open her little portable mirror and watched in satisfaction as her reflection blurred and twisted, becoming unrecognizable.
She had no intention of letting herself get captured by the ministry after her return, and she had no intention of revealing any of her secrets, unless she absolutely had to. Even if she had recently performed a marvellous feat of magic during her battle against You-Know-Who, it was only due to her possession of the Philosopher's Stone at the time. There was no way she could fight off an army of Aurors and leave unhindered through the Ministry's front door. (It was doubtful if she could defeat even one, even taking them by surprise.) There was also no way of knowing what bizarre magic Unspeakables had mastered. Ordinary Anti-Apparition hexes couldn't stop her, since she didn't know how to Disapparate.
At any rate, she had to leave the instant she arrived, or she would be done for if the Unspeakables sealed the very space around her. Which is why she had grown a tiny oak sapling, which she grasped tightly under her robes.
Her preparations done; it was finally time to leave this dreary place.
"Wunjo, Raidhu, Eihwaz, Dagaz!" she sang, her body twisting as she danced. "Let the power of the stars unite under my standard! In the name of the tree of terror, carry me home through time and space! Let the gate to the world of man be opened!"
Even though the archway had none, Oleandra felt as though a set of luminous doors had opened, and she was sucked into the void, disappearing between the columns of the archway.
This time, she stayed awake during her travels. For what seemed to be an eternity, she glided through the stars. An enormous illusory tree seemed to rise up from the depths of space. Oleandra was currently rising up the trunk, away from Niflheim, the realm of the dead, which existed at its roots. She could just barely make out eight other worlds, when suddenly she stumbled out of an archway in a dimly lit room.
Oleandra looked behind her, looking through the archway. The mists of Hel and the world she had just left seemed so close, yet so far away. She sighed with relief. She was finally home.