Paragraph 3 - 68 : White, Green And Black

Three days later, Ann was in a class when her neighbour noticed she was completely unresponsive. She was staring at a point in front of her, that was corresponding to the back of another student, with her wand raised. Ann's neighbour pointed out the problem to Professor Sprout who was this time teaching theoretical elements about Herbology. The Professor took out her wand, which was typically unnecessary in her field, and tried to elicit a reaction from Ann unsuccessfully. Therefore, she dispatched a fellow Slytherin student to carry her by Levicorpus to the Hospital wing. Ann had barely had enough time to embroider the message :

The fight will be on soon

Immediately, the three other friends had invented an excuse to leave their own class - this worked only because none of them had ever lied to a Professor up to now - and started looking for Ann. They quickly received a second flurry of green threads :

Hospital wing

Eleanor, Judith and Sigismond adjusted their course accordingly. They were joined at the Hospital wing by Adelaide Morr, as if she had herself read Ann's warnings. The latter was lying on a bed, still staring at nothing in particular, this time some tile of the ceiling. Mrs. Pomfresh had visibly taken her wand off her hand, and she arrived to scold the four students :

I didn't give permission to any of you to visit. You should be in class

Adelaide retorted :

If you want to know what Ann is suffering from, you will need us

And she started performing Legilimency on Ann. Mrs. Pomfresh raised her voice, furious :

This is a hospital, not some place for a performance

Eleanor's facial expression indicated as much seriousness as her voice, which Mrs. Pomfresh knew was extremely rare :

We are not here for a show

Hearing this from Eleanor Magarthy made Mrs. Pomfresh scowl in surprise, but the Ravenclaw witch had made her point, and Mrs. Promfresh left, upset of being implicitly excluded from her own territory. Adelaide could now describe what she was seeing in Ann's mind. A green paved terrace circled with green stone towers was spreading towards the opposite side, which symmetrically was made of a white paved terrace circled with white stone towers. At the meeting point of the green and white terraces, dust was flying in the air, as if both terraces were each moving towards the other, each damaging the other. Amidst the white part of the landscape, a tall blond wizard with green eyes, clad in blue robes, was facing another, who on his part, was shorter, had brown hair and also green eyes. Mr. Hexler addressed the other wizard in a voice that was unexpectedly soft :

You got caught with your wand in the cookie jar. The Board needs someone who will not collect anything from the community pot

The other wizard vehemently shouted :

You are a disgusting piece of crap. You stole the money, and you manipulated the Board for them to believe somebody like me could lower themselves to be the one embezzling the company

Mr. Hexler coolly retorted :

There is nothing substantiating such a thing

By looking at Mr. Hexler's face, it was obvious the situation appeared to him as normal, not conflictual in the least, nor worrying. Mr. Hexler's feelings started influencing Ann's. For the first time in her life, she could experience satisfaction out of injustice and scruple-less treachery. The white terrace started gaining ground over the green one, blasting it. But then Ann wondered :

Am I really like that ?

Her thoughts derived, and one memory came back to her. A clandestine party had been organised at Hogwarts. Sure, she hadn't been invited, nor her friends. But according to every account of what had happened, students had had an astounding amount of fun. And this had made her somewhat happy, altogether bittersweet. Immediately, the white pavement grew again, and repelled the green one. Another drama started taking place on the white side. Mr. Hexler was speaking to a dark haired witch with brown eyes :

Somebody has reported something disturbing to me. It seems that the Ministry has favoured Mr. Yerry for the contract of the broomsticks fleet, not because his offer was the best, but because he was close to the Head of Materiel. I could set this problem aside, preventing it at all cost from becoming public, if the Ministry could also improve my fortunes

Mr. Hexler and the witch disappeared briefly, before showing up again. The witch presented to Mr. Hexler a box in a red fabric envelope, and said :

The Order of Merlin. First-Class. For protecting so many people from injustice

Ann this time felt Mr. Hexler's unhealthy relish at power. He had reached his goals, even the Ministry couldn't keep him in check anymore. His position was impregnable. Should one person at the Ministry complain about his crooked methods, the Ministry itself would collapse under the amount of compromising information divulged to the press. Ann felt this exhilaration of the person who is on top, having crushed every possible competitor. She thought that this was her Slytherin side taking over. The white pavement moved closer, erasing the green one. She had to envision things differently. Mr. Hexler had felt pride for his own convoluted accomplishments. This was very different from the pride Ann Aves could feel, for example when Judith had bravely chosen to cast the 'Provo' spell. Ann had been proud that Judith, with whom she overall liked to spar friendly, each of them making fun of the defects of the other in a benevolent way, had gone past her fears and past the biggest drawback of her personality. The green pavement made progress again at the expense of its white counterpart, sending more dust in the air. Then, a witch and two wizards that neither Ann nor Adelaide had ever seen became visible at the white end. One of the wizards held a notepad, and the other a camera. The wizard with the notepad asked the witch :

Mrs. Dreght, have you ever come across something dubious, an injustice by Mr. Hexler ?

The witch answered

Not at all, quite the contrary. I don't like at all your innuendos

The same wizard cast a penetrating glance at the witch and said ironically :

Would you be ready to make an Unbreakable Vow according to which you commit to report to me any injustice you would hear about from Mr. Hexler ?

The witch replied, defiantly :

Yes

And she extended her hand. The journalist gripped the witch's arm, and the photographer raised his wand, before pointing it at the interlocked arms. The two wizards and the witch vanished, but the witch was soon back, talking to Mr. Hexler, explaining she had made the Vow with the journalist, whose name was apparently Mr. Treadboat. Mr. Hexler smirked. Then, Mr. Hexler and the witch looked like they had instantly both changed robes. Apparently, it was another discussion between the two, at a later time. Mr. Hexler told Mrs. Dreght that curiously, the journalist, Mr. Treadbeat, had been found beaten in an alley, Obliviated, and transferred to Saint Mungo's. He added, without the slight threat in his voice, but on the contrary, a tone that implied he was putting his life into Mrs. Dreght's hands :

I hope I can rely on your loyalty

The witch vanished, replaced by a wizard, who was updating Mr. Hexler :

Mrs. Dreght died. As if thunderstruck

The flamboyant wizard commented, more talking to himself than to the news bearer :

This is really what I call a die hard fan

He was feeling elated. He had believed his successful blackmail of the Minister of Magic would be his life's crowning feat. But this new perception was unprecedented. One had to be powerful to deal with a whole Ministry in a position of superiority, but this was nothing in comparison with what it took, to inspire such a devotion, that the person feeling it would die for you. Ann was feeling jealous. Of course, she deserved this. Why hadn't any of the three cowards she could consider as her friends proposed to sacrifice their life in order to prevent Ann from endangering hers ? At least one of them could have come forward, and announced they would fight in a duel Hexler. But why should any of them, including Ann, attempt to erase Mr. Hexler's existence from this world ? He was clearly an exceptional man, with so many gifts. Only a truly fantastic wizard could have inspired Mrs. Dreght's sacrifice. What was the point of this opposition ? The white pavement and its flanking towers advanced swiftly towards the green buildings. The two green towers that had been closest to the white part were toppled by the two white towers that had faced them. The two green towers collapsed, becoming a rubble engulfed in green and white dust. Yes, that was fair. There was nothing to fight for, least of all, her three lame friends. They had ceremoniously met in the room with the bookshelves. This ultimate gathering now sounded ridiculous. It was time for Ann to sacrifice herself, as had Mrs. Dreght. The white terrace kept substituting itself to the green one, erecting a wave of the same green and white dust at the meeting point of both sides. Ann felt something troubling. The four friends had visited the room where their friendship had started, and this memory made a powerful nostalgia mixed with satisfaction emerge. The white terrace came to a halt. Then, on the white part, that was now much closer to Ann's point of view, thus easier to watch, a teenage blond wizard with green eyes wearing the Hufflepuff uniform was seated in the air, talking to a witch of the same House :

Without me, Davis wouldn't have had better than a T. With the appropriate help by me, though, he got E. That's wonderful, isn't it ?

The witch, an indignant look on her face, stood up without saying a word. The young Hestervey Hexler was now talking to a Gryffindor wizard :

Look. You are a perfect Gryffindor. You consider that braveness is above everything, and as a result, you get loathed by the whole school, who think you should be more focused on ethics. I am the truest Hufflepuff. I believe nothing can surpass loyalty, and even when helping Davis to cheat out of will to exhibit my House's most prized quality, I got only scorn as a reward. We are both sharing the same dreadful pool of injustice that Hogwarts is. We could work together, I have a little plan in mind. We could swap two essays. For instance, an essay by the excruciatingly arrogant and smart Elly Fowes, and another one by you

The Gryffindor boy vanished, and the teenage Hexler, alone, was left. He was sporting a look of intense satisfaction. Ann could feel the same. Revenge could bring so much of this, she should have gone for this option early on. The other Slytherins hadn't respected her, because she was Muggle-born, but the solution had been obvious, in front of her eyes. Her House valued success at all cost. In other words, ignoring the fact that one was using unpalatable means to achieve something. Mr. Hexler was a superb example of this. As reckless as a Gryffindor, as defiant of stupid ethics as a Slytherin, as loyal as the fact of belonging to his House commanded, as filled with foresight as the smartest Ravenclaw. She could have exploited the skills of the three others to come on top of her House, forcing Slytherins from the first year to the seventh one to bow to her ambitions. The white terrace crashed onward faster than before, blowing up the two last green towers standing, leaving only a few feet of green paved terrace. Death was coming, but it didn't matter. After all, she could die now, having learned at last what mattered most, and having felt Mr. Hexler's deepest satisfactions as if she had lived as long as he had. There was something going counter to that oblivious happiness, though. Mr. Hexler had never given altruistically, he always had a motive. This was very different from what she had done to guide Eleanor in the Muggle word. She thought again about the absurd remarks by the Ravenclaw witch, and this was funny. But the white terrace kept grinding the green one, even though it was at a slower pace. Then Adelaide could not see anything any longer, and stopped reporting to Eleanor, Judith, and Sigismond. Eleanor immediately understood what it meant, and swiftly moved to check Ann's pulse. She waited two whole minutes, but didn't register a single trace of heart beating. In the meantime, Judith and Sigismond, having seen what Eleanor was trying to do, watched Ann, looking for any tiny move of her body that could indicate she was still alive. Judith, whose face was extremely pale, stood up, and went to see Mrs. Pomfresh. The latter arrived soon, made a few checks, and looked intently at all four students, trying to read guilt on their faces. And yes, there was. But Mrs. Pomfresh was too upset to even shout at Eleanor, Sigismond, Judith and Adelaide. Miss Morr, in a hollow voice, explained to the nurse what had happened. She finally concluded :

Several days before Ann entered the hospital wing, there wasn't anymore anything you could do to save her. You could have stayed near her, but this wouldn't have changed a single detail

Mrs. Pomfresh ordered them to stay at the exact same spot, and went to fetch Professor Dumbledore. About ten minutes later, the Headmaster was back. On reaching Ann's bedside, he stared at the corpse, then at each of the four students still alive. Then, he spoke :

I would have most severely punished you if I hadn't experienced myself resounding, even ashaming, failures brought by young age when trying to act for the best. You, on the other hand, did nothing that deserves shame, therefore I would not be fair if I disciplined you more than the teenage Albus Dumbledore himself had been. The death of your friend and schoolfellow will affect you very much till the end of your schooling, and even after. The only thing you can do to repay her sacrifice is to learn from your Professors as much as one can learn from her braveness. Nevertheless, do not seek solace in feverish hard work aimed at forgetting your loss. The more time you will abscond from facing her departure, the more cruel the wakening call will be. Now that you know the price of fairness, use this knowledge to appreciate every ounce of justice that one can find in everyday deeds. Now, I think you should know something : one of the portraits in my office has warned me that Hestervey Hexler has just died. I am very sure it is not a coincidence

The three girls - Eleanor, Judith, Adelaide - and Sigismond stayed near Ann's bed during the whole day, and into the evening, till 1am. Judith cried a lot, and she was the one whose pain was most easy to capture, but tears also flowed on the cheeks of Eleanor, Adelaide, and Sigismond.