The Epilogue : Part I - The Shadow Army

CHAPTER FOUR

The Last Candidate

That night, Harry dreamt about the spectral Death Eater heads, floating in the air around him and dead–end corridors.

Early on the morning, Harry was in the Atrium already, standing by the Fountain where he was waiting for Ron and Hermione to tell them everything he learnt from Draco the day before. On the newsstand nearby, Harry noticed that many newspapers were still hoping him to be candidate for the ministerial election.

He saw hundreds of witches and wizards passing by, and gazed at them with a suspicious look: who could be the infiltrated agents? Who could be the traitors? However, all of them had carefree and innocent faces, but all of them couldn't be innocent: who could really be trusted?

Hermione suddenly emerged from the crowd and walked toward him.

"Hello Harry... have you been sleeping tonight?" asked she worried.

"Barely... but that's not the point," said Harry excited. "I've got lots of things to tell you! Where is Ron?"

"Actually, he didn't come back last night... 'spent his night at office again..."

"Again? That's strange, even more when considering that..."

"Considering what?" Hermione interrupted him in a worried tone.

"Considering that Sykes is suspecting Ron to steal the archive, or maybe worse..." replied Harry.

"That's rubbish!" Hermione said, outraged.

"I know — but you can't deny that he's hiding something."

Before Hermione could reply anything, Ron got out from a lift and came to them. He was livid and looked exhausted.

"...Let's go to my office, I need to talk to you: I think we have some news."

As soon as they got in, Harry told them everything about Draco's adventures: Judgson's aggression, the chase in the Egyptian Ministry of Magic, the long journey to Luxor, the fight at Al Hussein building and the arrest from the Maât.

"What is the Maât?" asked Ron.

"It's the Egyptian Ministry of Magic's Law Enforcement," Hermione answered.

"... anyway, what an adventure!" exclaimed Ron.

"And there is more," said Harry.

He showed them the large file: Ron seemed confused but Hermione, without opening it, knew what it was about.

"Is, it?"

"Yes," Harry answered with a smile. "That's exactly it."

Ron gazed at Hermione and Harry, and secretly felt furious inside: He has always hated these kind of moment when the both of them seemed to share a deep connection beyond friendship that effectively pushed him aside.

A flying note written by Sykes broke this moment of symbiosis and landed on Harry's desk.

"What's wrong?" Ron bitterly asked.

"It's Sykes, he demands me for an emergency reunion," Harry said, eyes frown. "He also says that you must be there."

"Me! Why?"

Harry and Hermione saw that Ron was seriously concerned about Sykes' note, so they looked at each other, Ron noticed it and his face tensed even more.

"I — I must be going anyway," said Hermione, after a short and awkward silence. "We'll talk about it later."

They all left the office and Hermione turned left, when Ron and Harry headed on the other way to the Aurore Office. As they were walking, Harry noticed Ron looked nervous.