Year's End

Wednesday, Herbology Class.

In the covered shed outside the greenhouses, Professor Sprout finished demonstrating how to bury slow-release fertilizer for Black Snargaluff. The Advanced Class Herbology students then spread out in groups to tend the Black Snargaluff in their respective beds.

Compared with the Whomping Willow they had dealt with some time ago, these little flowers were much cuter. Flowers with downward-facing stamens peeked out from between their sturdy, tender green leaves, their sepals slightly elongated. There were no wildly flailing vine tendrils, nor any sticky, disgusting sap. The fermented slow-release fertilizer barely smelled at all, making for a relaxed and pleasant lesson.

The beds tended by Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students were adjacent. Susan Bones was beside Loren, dressed in a neat, crisp brownish-yellow gardener's outfit. Her long hair was braided down her back, swaying as she walked.

Smiling, she carried over a small bucket full of slow-release fertilizer and greeted the pair in the neighboring group.

"Good morning, Loren, Hermione!"

"Good morning, Susan," Hermione said with a smile. "You seem much cheerier than you were a while ago."

"Hannah said the same thing." Susan Bones picked up a small trowel and loosened the soil around a Black Snargaluff as she explained brightly, "I got a letter from home this morning. It said the Ministry of Magic successfully rescued my aunt, so I'm very happy!"

"I see..." Loren nodded thoughtfully.

Many people at school knew that Susan Bones's aunt was Amelia Bones, a senior Ministry of Magic official and a member of the Wizengamot. She had remained at the Ministry on Halloween Night and been captured by Voldemort. There had been no news of her until now.

It seemed the prisoner exchange between the Ministry of Magic and Voldemort had begun.

According to the information Dumbledore had revealed, the first