The next day, the whole school was immersed in a sea of joy, and for some unknown reason, the ordinary breakfast became as sumptuous as a banquet, with the dining table filled with full golden plates.
"How did you do that?" Fred and George came skipping to the Hufflepuff table with a large pot of pumpkin juice.
"What?" Kyle asked.
"Umbridge," said Fred, happily pouring a large glass of pumpkin juice.
"Don't try to fool us." George sat next to him and raised his eyebrows and said, "You must know something."
"Well, I do know something," Kell said, smiling. "Fudge had an important errand to run, and I happened to be nearby, so I recommended Umbridge."
"Did he agree?" George asked a question that seemed stupid to others.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" said Kyle. "Fudge found the best candidate, Umbridge is happy, and the students at Hogwarts are happy too. It's a win-win for all."
"I don't care about Fudge and Umbridge..." Fred drank the pumpkin juice in the cup generously, "but this is indeed a great thing for us."
"Haha, you'll be a hero if you drive Umbridge away, at least a hero of our Gryffindor." George patted Kyle's shoulder.
"It is no exaggeration to say that we even think you can win another special contribution award for the school with this."
"It would be great if it were really as you said, but it's a pity that Headmaster Dumbledore is not in school." Kyle smiled and didn't take it seriously.
Hogwarts would not award a student an award for special contribution to the school just because he drove away a professor, no matter how annoying the professor was.
In addition to the students, the professor was also very happy.
In the teacher's seat, Professor McGonagall was chatting with Snape next to her. Both of them looked very relaxed, and there was no trace of their previous serious look.
Professor Trelawney, who was sitting one seat away from them, was drinking glass of sherry after glass.
The school cafeteria did not provide drinks such as alcohol, even the professors did not provide alcohol, so she bought her own drinks from the Three Broomsticks.
And it was the Three Broomsticks' best sherry, which cost thirty Galleons a bottle. In just a short while, she had finished two bottles and was opening the third one.
In other words, she spent her month's salary on this meal.
Of course, not everyone is happy, like Tonks...
At this moment, she was sitting there with a look of despair, without a smile on her face.
She couldn't laugh. Now that Umbridge had returned to the Ministry of Magic, wouldn't it be natural for her, an assistant teacher, to become a professor? When Tonks thought of the curse of the legendary Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, she felt that the tender and juicy steak in her mouth was as dry as dead grass and difficult to swallow.
"No..." Tonks stood up suddenly and walked out of the hall, preparing to go back to write letters to Fudge and Dumbledore.
Whoever wants to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor can be it, but she will definitely not take over.
Moody was such a cautious old Auror and was powerful enough, but he was suddenly attacked just after he finished teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts for a whole school year.
And Sirius was tortured by Death Eaters half a year after taking over the job and almost died.
The only lucky one was Lupin, but even he had to lie in the school hospital for a long time, and was carried into the school hospital in the state of a werewolf.
It is said that several of his bones were broken and his whole body was wrapped in bandages. He had to lie in the school hospital for three days before he could barely walk.
That was a werewolf with thick skin and flesh, and could ignore some spells, but he was injured like that.
It would be fine if it was Dumbledore who took action, let alone a werewolf. Even a dragon would have to flee sideways in front of the headmaster.
But the problem is that it would be too easy for Dumbledore to restrain Lupin who turned into a werewolf. It was impossible for him to take such heavy-handed measures, including for the professors.
But Lupin was still injured.
This position is too evil. Tonks doesn't think she is much better than them, so she'd better be cautious.
Even if he cannot be transferred back, the school will have to find a new professor... Three members of the Order of the Phoenix have already suffered, and Dumbledore can't always betray his own people.
Tonks left in a hurry.
All I can say is that her idea is good...but that's all.
A whole week passed before she received a reply from the Ministry of Magic. The content of the letter was very simple: the Ministry of Magic was short-staffed and could not find a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for the time being.
As for Dumbledore...he hasn't replied yet, and no one knows where he has gone.
Tonks was desperate. She felt that the road ahead was lost and hesitated whether to stock up on some healing potions and ask who had Phoenix Tears... She might need that.
Except for Tonks, everyone else was very happy. In the days without Umbridge, every day seemed like the Christmas holiday, relaxing and enjoyable.
Interestingly, the professors also seemed to attribute Umbridge's departure from school to Kell.
Mainly because of Professor McGonagall.
She went to the Ministry of Magic with them, but as soon as they came back, Umbridge was transferred away by Fudge. How could such a coincidence happen? Someone must have done something.
The only person who could contact Fudge at the time was Kyle, so the answer was obvious.
So during this week, Kyle was able to earn extra house points in almost every class.
Five points for doing a good job in Transfiguration, five points for handing Professor Sprout a shovel, five points for helping to correct classmates' gestures in Charms class...
Although the number was not much, due to the frequency, after a week, Hufflepuff's hourglass soared by more than 100 points, leaving the other three colleges behind with an absolute advantage.
"It looks like Professor McGonagall has completely given up on competing for this year's House Cup." Fred looked at the hourglass in the hall and sighed, "If this continues, I'm afraid we will never catch up with Hufflepuff."
"No, there is still a chance." Kyle said with a smile, "As long as you don't lose points anymore."
Since the first grade, these two people have been one of the main sources of deductions for Gryffindor House. Although they have become much smarter after entering the seventh grade, they have not been caught for violating school rules for a long time.
But as luck would have it, after the Christmas holiday, the number of fifth grade classes suddenly increased, and their quick-acting skipping candies became very popular. Sometimes in one class, more than a dozen students would vomit, their tongues would suddenly become larger, or suffer other different conditions.
This abnormal situation naturally attracted the attention of Professor McGonagall, who followed the clues to find Fred and George, the two culprits who were selling quick-acting skipping candy.
Needless to say, the final result was that each of them was deducted 50 points, which directly caused Gryffindor's ranking to drop from third to last.
"You should tell Snape this." Fred obviously didn't want to take the blame. "If he could deduct fewer points from us, Gryffindor might be the first place now."
This is true. Snape has always been ruthless when it comes to deducting points from Gryffindor.
And since Umbridge left, he has once again topped the list of Gryffindor's most hated professors, with the second place to be determined.
…
Umbridge's departure dispelled some of the haze that had been hanging over Hogwarts. The gloomy month of March finally saw some sunshine at the end, and even the continuous wind and rain in April seemed to be much more pleasing to the eye.
The only problem was that the Quidditch players had to practice in wet conditions and on a muddy pitch.
Even with the waterproof and moisture-resistant badge, this is a very uncomfortable thing to do.
Dumbledore did not return until the day before the Easter holidays, and no one knew why he was away for more than a month.
But they did get news from Umbridge.
"Oh, look at this..." Cedric pushed a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Kyle.
[Ministry of Magic staff successfully prevented the Death Eaters' conspiracy]
The title was very eye-catching, and there was a picture of Umbridge below it. She had finally changed out of her pink cardigan and was standing on a street with her wand.
Cedric held up the newspaper and read:
"This morning, a pipe exploded on a Muggle street, causing uproar among Muggles and injuring dozens of them.
“Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic Dolores Jane Umbridge led the strikers to the scene immediately. According to the investigation, the culprit of this incident was identified as Antonin Dolohov, a Death Eater who had escaped from prison before. Witnesses saw him fleeing in panic nearby.
“It is reported that Antonin Dolohov is an extremely cruel Death Eater. Among his past crimes, he has used the Killing Curse and attacked Muggles many times.
"It's not hard to guess that his purpose this time is to announce his return to everyone."
Deputy Minister Umbridge, who led the team, said: "We received the news too late. If we had been there earlier, we might have been able to catch him."
“She urged people to be as vigilant as possible. Antonin Dolohov is a Death Eater who has done all kinds of evil. If anyone finds him, they must inform the Ministry of Magic immediately.
"This is a special period. Only if we work together and unite as one can we win the next war."
Cedric put down the newspaper, smacked his lips and said, "Is she going to catch the Death Eaters?"
When he was in school before, he had never realized that the power-obsessed Umbridge had such a skill.
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Capturing Death Eaters... Cedric couldn't connect such a thing with Umbridge at all.
"Who knows..." Kyle shrugged.
He remembered that the last time he went to the Ministry of Magic, he went to chat with Mr. Weasley because he was bored and accidentally saw a document on his desk.
It said that someone played a bad joke and blew up a trash can on a Muggle street. It happened to be after get off work and the flying trash hit a lot of people.
It seemed to be fifteen or sixteen, Kyle couldn't remember clearly for a moment.
The reason he remembered this was because Mr. Weasley complained that someone higher up didn't take this matter seriously and insisted that they deal with other problems first.
Kyle didn't know if this had anything to do with today's report, but judging from the content... the street had exploded, and more than a dozen Muggles had been injured. All the key information matched.
He whispered his discovery to Cedric and Connor.
"You mean... this is fake news?" Kanna said incredulously, "The culprit in this matter is not Antonin Dolokhov, but someone else?"
"I think that's probably right." Kyle nodded, "Why do you think Umbridge suddenly became so brave?"
"You knew they were going to do this," Cedric asked. "So this was Fudge's plan, to blame the Death Eaters for what others did?"
"Well, I guess so." Kyle said, "But this also has its advantages. At least it can remind everyone at any time not to forget that there are Death Eaters hiding in the dark."
After such a long time, the students of Hogwarts seemed to have gradually forgotten about the mysterious man, but after reading today's newspaper, they finally remembered it again.
For a moment, the castle fell into panic again.
But some people expressed doubts, and they were all people who knew Umbridge, such as Harry and Ron from Gryffindor.
"She's not the type to do something like that," Harry said firmly.
When it comes to fighting Death Eaters, no one knows it better than him; that's what the Order of the Phoenix does.
And Umbridge... honestly, there was no way Harry could associate her with a member of the Order of the Phoenix, or an Auror.
"But that's what the newspaper says." Hermione looked at the Daily Prophet over and over again, as if trying to find something in the corner that they had overlooked.
But she almost put her face to the newspaper and found nothing.
"The newspapers said that Umbridge rushed to that street as fast as she could with a team of strikers, and many people saw it."
"The news in the newspaper may also be false." Ron said, "Remember? Some time ago they insisted that the mysterious man had not been resurrected."
"That's right." Harry nodded. He insisted that he didn't believe Umbridge would do such a thing.
This is just like Snape giving extra points to Gryffindor, which is absolutely impossible.
There were many people like them, and they also remembered Headmaster Dumbledore who had disappeared for a long time.
There had been a lot of talk in the castle since morning.
"Who remembers when the principal left the school?"
"I don't know, it must have been a long time."
"I remember he hadn't been around since the Christmas holidays."
"No, it should be mid-February..."
“Why do I remember it was March?”
…
There are many different opinions, but the only thing that is certain is that when Dumbledore is not in school, there is always a lack of security here.
But soon they didn't have time to think about it anymore.
Because the Easter holiday is here.
As is a Hogwarts tradition, the two-week Easter holiday is more like a homework carnival.
The professors seemed to be in a competition to see who could make people more frustrated, and they were completely ruthless when assigning homework.
Everyone felt numb when looking at the holiday homework that filled up a whole piece of parchment just because of the requirements.
"Are the professors crazy?" Mikel trembled, "We can't finish so much homework in a month."
"Then we'll have to write all night." Ryan gave him a blank look, "Don't forget, the Easter holiday is only two weeks."
"Oh!" Mikel howled in pain.
This is the case for all sixth graders, not to mention the fifth graders who are about to take the OWL exam.
Hermione had originally wanted to hold more DA gatherings during the holidays, but after seeing the amount of homework, she crumpled up the schedule.
Impossible, no one would want to attend a party at this time, as can be seen from Harry and Ron's behavior.
The two of them sat numbly in the armchairs in the common room, as if they were under a petrification spell.
"What are they doing? Why are they taking a holiday?" Ron said hoarsely.
"I think the professors probably want me to forget about You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters," said Hermione.
"So they succeeded," Harry sighed, "and we probably won't be able to think of anything other than homework for the next two weeks?"
"Hermione..." Ron raised his head suddenly and said hopefully, "Only you can save us now."
"You should write it yourself..." Hermione glanced at the homework sheet inadvertently while speaking, "Okay, I'll try my best, but you'd better not count on me."
"Of course." Ron and Harry said hurriedly, "We even cancelled Quidditch practice."
In fact, Angelina Johnson came to them and talked about this not long ago. She is in the seventh grade and has to take the NEWT test. Not only does she have to do homework, but she also has to find time to review. She is much busier than the fifth graders.
(End of this chapter)