days at Hogwarts

Chapter 574 Investigation Interrupted

The dim divination classroom suddenly became quiet. Only the spices and firewood in the fireplace were burning quietly. The little wizards hid behind their books, their eyes reflecting the dim firelight.

Professor Trelawney of Divination raised her head in the firelight and subconsciously looked at the picture in Umbridge's hand. The blond man's eyes seemed to have some kind of magic. Indistinctly, Trelawney heard the sound of flames burning, which was huge and overwhelming. Then she heard the crackling sound of matches in the fireplace. Trelawney suddenly woke up. For the first time, she realized that her third eye really detected some incredible scene, but it was difficult to describe in words.

Trelawney took a deep breath and suddenly woke up from the hazy trance, as if she had broken out of the water from the bottom of a black lake. Oxygen poured into her lungs from her dilated nostrils, her chest heaved violently, her heart beat like a drum, and her brain soaked in sherry spun at an unprecedented speed. She clearly realized that ordinary lies would not be able to deal with the Senior Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Magic.

Trelawney calmed himself down, lowered his eyes slightly, and a vague voice floated out from his slightly closed lips:

"The storm is coming... those who look down are looking down... it will eventually descend upon the earth... those who peeped in are watching... but they will return in vain... the truth will be revealed before the heavy snow falls..."

A strange and inexplicable atmosphere of oppression hovered over the classroom. Umbridge broke out in sweat on her forehead. She subconsciously tried to force a smile and make a sarcastic remark, but when she looked up she saw a pair of bulging eyes and a pale white in the eyes. In a trance, it was as if an invisible hand grasped her heart. She suddenly felt that this classroom was so stuffy and hot that she could not stay there for a moment.

"Okay, okay... I understand. That's all for today..." Umbridge uttered a few weak words, scribbled a few words on the writing board in a panic, turned and walked towards the trapdoor, and hurriedly climbed out.

The young wizards in the classroom remained silent and exchanged glances with each other. They all knew that Professor Trelawney was mediocre, and suddenly saw that she had suppressed Umbridge. They were surprised and happy. They hated Umbridge so much that they would rather see her lose face.

Loren and Harry looked at Trelawney in surprise. They had seen the professor actually make a prophecy, and it was somewhat similar to what they had just done, but also somewhat different. For a moment they were unsure.

Trelawney strode to the front of the podium, sat down with lingering fear, and let out a long breath: "Continue the class!"

The Divination class was immediately followed by the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. As soon as the bell rang, the students quickly fled the stuffy Divination classroom and met students from other elective courses on the stairs.

Hermione had just come down from the ancient runes class. Without Loren having to repeat what had happened, Parvati and Lavender chattered away and embellished the story.

"Divination usually requires specific rituals and tools to foresee the future. When Trelawney saw Umbridge take out the photo, she should have prepared a ritual based on the clues shown in the photo, but she made a prediction without any ritual process. This is obviously different from what is said in the book..."

Hermione smoothed the straps of her schoolbag and whispered to Loren beside her, "What do you think? Did Trelawney make a real prophecy, or did he scare Umbridge away by pretending to be a ghost?"

Loren stepped over the stair trap and walked steadily towards the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. "I don't know. The words that came out of her mouth were intermittent and vague. I'm afraid she herself can't explain it clearly."

"I think it might be a real prophecy. She predicted this in the last Divination test." Harry said in a heavy tone, "I wonder who the Overlookers and Peepers she mentioned are, and whether they are related to Voldemort..."

"What an unrigorous subject..." Hermione muttered softly.

When they walked into the classroom, Umbridge was sitting on the podium, staring at her writing board in a daze. It was not until the bell rang that she stood up belatedly and assigned the course tasks with a kind smile.

"We finished the first chapter in the last class. Today I want you to turn to page 19 and start reading the second chapter, General Defense Theory and Its Origin..."

She changed the subject, her eyes fell on Harry, and she warned him meaningfully: "Don't talk while reading."

Loren lay on the table. It was another hour and a half of self-study time. There was no need to open the book at all. He had almost read it through in the last class. The awkward wording and obscure meaning were not worth savoring again and again.

"What an irresponsible professor!" Hermione slammed "Magical Defense Theory" on the desk.

……

Wednesday morning, during the Arithmancy break.

Professor Setima Victor was sitting on the podium, holding a book on linear algebra in her hand. It was a gift that Kerrydi Bubaji brought back from the Muggle world during the summer vacation. She was reading with great interest, and from time to time she looked up at the students who were talking and laughing in the classroom.

Some little wizards were studying the difficult problems from the previous class. Their drafts filled up an entire sheet of parchment. They kept deriving formulas, substituting and simplifying them. In the end, they were surprised to find that they were back to the first step. In order to calm their frantic emotions, they kept taking deep breaths and almost broke the tip of their quill pens.

Some of the little wizards stared at the questions, with their hands in their pockets, and did not pick up their pens even though sweat appeared on their foreheads, trying to find the answers from the questions.

Professor Victor slowly looked away and decided to call on him to answer questions in the second half of the class. If he didn't know how to calculate, he could come to the podium and follow her ideas step by step. This would definitely leave a deep impression on him.

The students in the front row had basically solved the puzzle and were chattering about interesting things that had happened recently in the school. They were not far from the podium and the noise was a bit loud, but it could be clearly heard by her.

"You know, Umbridge has been investigating professors recently, and she looks so arrogant!" Lisa Dupin from Ravenclaw pinched her throat and tried to imitate, but the teenage girl's voice could not produce the high-pitched, sweet and artificial feeling, so she could only droop her eyelids and get close to Umbridge in expression, "At that time, we were taking Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, and Umbridge pushed the door open and came in!"

"Professor McGonagall didn't react at all?" Loren asked at the right time, looking puzzled.

There were not many students who chose to take Arithmancy, and even fewer who could persist until the fifth year. More than half of them were from Ravenclaw. Loren and Hermione had excellent grades and always sat in the front row, so they naturally became familiar with several classmates.

Hermione sat quietly nearby. She could clearly feel that Lisa Dupin's eyes lit up when she heard the question, as if she was celebrating finding a qualified audience. Her eyebrows couldn't help but twitch in excitement, and the expression on her face became more vivid.

Obviously, this is another interpersonal skill.

Hermione silently glanced at Loren and wrote the technique down in a mental notebook.

"Who said there was no reaction? Professor McGonagall's face turned black!" Lisa Dupin said happily, "But she didn't want to pay any attention to Umbridge at all. She didn't even look at her and continued teaching as if there was no one there."

"And then what?" Loren asked impatiently.

"Professor McGonagall asked Hannah to hand out the homework, and asked Rolf to hand out the teaching aids, a box of mice. You should have had this lesson before. It's the Vanishing Charm in the second chapter... During this time, Umbridge was sitting in the back making trouble, coughing non-stop as if she had a cold... Professor McGonagall couldn't help it--" Lisa Dupin suppressed her twitching eyebrows, restrained her expression and imitated Professor McGonagall's solemn face when she was angry, and said coldly in a low voice: "If you are sick, go to the school infirmary. Madam Pomfrey has enough medicine for you. Besides, I usually don't allow others to talk when I am talking!"

Without waiting for Loren and Hermione to respond, she couldn't help but burst into laughter, and laughed out of breath: "You didn't see it, Umbridge looked like she was slapped in the face, that toad face was red with anger!"

"Pfft!"

The little wizard who heard the voice immediately turned his head and looked suspiciously at Professor Setima Victor on the podium, only to see her calmly push her glasses up and continue staring at a matrix operation problem.

"..."

Lisa turned to look at the two of them and raised a suspicious eyebrow: "Did I hear it wrongly? Did you hear Professor Victor laughing just now?"

"You must have heard it wrong."

"Really? Never mind. I'll continue to tell you about Umbridge's investigation of Professor Flitwick!" Lisa said excitedly, "Yesterday, in the first-year Charms class, Umbridge arrived earlier than Professor Flitwick and occupied the stool that the professor usually used to stand on. As a result, the professor had to stand on the podium to lead everyone in practicing the Levitation Charm."

"Merlin's beard... and then what?"

Lisa snickered for a while before she suppressed her laughter and continued, "Then she stupidly asked Professor Flitwick if the students could see your demonstration movements, and if this would ensure the teaching effect?"

"Pfft!"

Lisa turned her head abruptly and saw Professor Victor performing matrix transformation on the manuscript paper. The confusion in her eyes became more intense. She turned her head slowly and asked, "Did I hear it wrong again?"

Loren and Hermione looked up at the professor whose pen tip was trembling, and nodded silently: "I heard it wrong, I heard it wrong!"

"Okay..." Lisa nodded thoughtfully, patted the table and continued, "Professor Flitwick did not answer her question at the time. He just replaced the feathers used to practice the levitation spell with wooden sticks. How could a first-year student control this well? Everything was out of control. The wooden sticks hit Umbridge all at once, leaving her with a big bump on her head! Hahahaha..."

"That's nothing. The most powerful one is Professor Snape..." Lisa smacked her lips, sighing, "Qiu Zhang told us last night that in the sixth grade Potions class, she went to the underground classroom to investigate Professor Snape. The professor didn't react much, but just said in a sarcastic tone that we have a guest today..."

"Umbridge spent the first half hour curled up in a corner taking notes, but when it was time for the students to brew potions, she became restless and began to pester Professor Snape with questions, such as how many years have you been the professor of Potions, why are the steps you explained different from those in the book, did you apply for Defense Against the Dark Arts at first, and do you regret not being selected..."

Loren took a deep breath. This Senior Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Magic was really courageous. He dared to dance in Professor Snape's minefield.

"I want to ask, did she walk out of the basement classroom standing?"

"She was carried out..." Lisa gave him a look that said "you are an expert", "she followed Professor Snape wherever he went, and ended up knocking over Marietta Edgemore's cauldron, spilling the entire pot of boiling potion on her. In less than half a minute, pustules started to appear all over her body, densely packed, eh..."

"Tsk, now you really have become a toad."

Perhaps the potion improved by Professor Snape was so effective that Umbridge never showed up again until this weekend, nor did she appear in other professors' classes. Needless to say, the pustules on her body never subsided.

On Saturday morning, Snape, the mastermind behind the plot, turned up the collar of his wizard robe and walked out of the Hogwarts gate.

After leaving Hogwarts, he waved his wand, and the abundant magic power stirred the space, the air made a slight explosion, and he disappeared into the muddy path.

In Wiltshire, England, far away from the city, a stately mansion sits on a plain, surrounded by carefully designed gardens with fountains and white peacocks roaming freely, and hazy smoke floating around the exquisite wrought iron gate.

The space in front of the door twisted and trembled, and with a soft "puff" sound, a tall figure wearing a magic robe with a straight collar appeared out of thin air at the door.

Snape looked at the wrought iron gate and walked forward, his figure shrouded in smoke. Before he could ring the doorbell, a sound of light footsteps was heard in the courtyard.

With her slender pale fingers resting on the cold wrought iron, a blond woman with delicate makeup pushed open the iron door. Her slightly tired eyes lit up slightly after she saw who was coming, and she called out with a hint of joy: "Severus!"

"I can see that you welcome my arrival, Narcissa." Snape's low voice was neither hurried nor slow, and his thin lips formed a slightly sarcastic smile, "But when will Mrs. Malfoy need to open the door for guests personally? Have all the elves in the manor hanged themselves?"

"Oh, I..." Narcissa first looked back at the castle behind her cautiously, then stepped back to let him into the yard, and then she whispered nervously: "Severus... I came here specially to greet you."

"So, what can I do for you?"

"I want to ask about Draco's recent situation and how he is doing. You know, he is still a child and can't bear such great pressure..."

"Fifth graders do have some pressure. Professor Sinistra, the astronomy professor, complained that his homework was perfunctory and that he, as a class leader, could not set a good example..."

"This child..."

The two walked towards the main castle on the soft grass.

It was like a professor or a student's mother visiting their home.

(End of this chapter)