The Epilogue : Part I - The Shadow Army

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Greenhouse N°3

    Absolute confusion surrounded the results of the election of the next minister of Magic.

    In the middle of the night in the boy's dormitory, James was stuck into a troubled sleep. He was surrounded by a freezing fog. Helpless and, James suddenly saw a light and ran for it until he felt as though he was falling in midair and felt a strong pain that woke him up.

    "James? James!"

    He opened his eyes and understood he had fallen on the floor. He stood back on his bed, and understood that his nose was broken again.

    "Are you ok James?" asked Andrew concerned.

    "According to you..."

    "Alright, don't move," Andrew said while taking out his wand.

    "Episkey."

    James's nose felt very hot, and then very cold: once again, it seemed mended.

    "I really need to learn this spell... who won by the way?"

    "I don't know, the results haven't been published yet: I guess there must have been a problem..."

    Indeed, total uncertainty reigned in the Great Hall, and James discovered that nobody knew the name of the new minister. Everyone waited for the morning owl which would hopefully bring the answer to the question everyone was asking. James, Andrew and Rebecca were finishing her Herbology homework.

    "Hello... what's wrong?" asked Cassiopeia when she noticed Andrew looked tensed.

    "The election of course..."

    "Come on, Potter is going to win anyway," Rebecca said, hardly managing to keep calm.

    "It's not certain at all: Yaxley have been leading all pools these last weeks," Andrew reminded, gloomily.

    "It doesn't mean anything, Andrew."

    The tone of the conversation quickly raised and ended up to another argument.

    Even if they were friends for years now, a Cold War-like atmosphere had settled between the two of them for quite some time now. At every argument, James and Cassiopeia just chose not to take part of it.

    The relation between the two of them had also changed: they significantly got closer ever since James fell off the stairs during the Halloween feast. Despise that, a thick fog of mystery was still surrounding Cassiopeia Malfoy, who still wasn't attending lessons which required the use of a wand as she apparently was forbidden to use it at school and, partly for this reason, he systematically looked in her direction in every lesson he could.

    Andrew and Rebecca were still arguing when the mails finally arrived: wings hushes resounded in the enchanted ceiling and hundreds of owls appeared at once, welcomed by applauses and sighs from the entire Great Hall and who brought with them the information everyone was waiting for.

    As soon as an owl landed on a table, his owner rushed on it, opened the journal and began to read.

    James gave a look around him, noticing impassive faces from those who were reading the journal. He was released to see that, at Slytherin table, Sayre seemed to be grave. At the stuff's table, McGonagall was having an agitated conversation with Professor Ewing.

    Mirva, Cassiopeia's owl finally landed in front of her between the sugar bowl and pile of toasts with the today's edition of the Daily Prophet. She took it and started to read.