The Pacifist Necromancer of Hogwarts

Chapter 349 Umbridge Leaves

A smile flashed behind Dumbledore's half-moon glasses. He sat back down behind the table and said briskly, "Now, Henry, what was it you wanted to tell me in the first place?"

"Me? Just what I said, sir—I have already said it all," said Anthony, somewhat bewilderedly.

"Is there anything else you would like to tell me, then?" said Dumbledore. "Anything."

His gaze was so sharp and yet so gentle, as if he already knew everything.

Anthony felt that he was expecting a good topic, perhaps about necromancy, or perhaps about Anthony himself. Perhaps as a powerful wizard, Dumbledore noticed something happened after Umbridge put her hand on Anthony's shoulder. Perhaps it was all the same topic.

But he didn't want to talk to Dumbledore about this. He didn't want to talk to Dumbledore about sour milk or delicious apple pie, about magic bursting, about Quirrell's screaming spirit, or about a neighbor slumped over a grave that had opened one spring. Not now. Not with Dumbledore, the living one. Maybe he could ask the Bloody Baron for advice, but how could he ask his questions if they couldn't even be captured in words?

He looked around: parchments were scattered on the table, the cushions on Umbridge's empty chair were still dented, the fire in the grate flickered and died down. He had a sudden feeling of disorientation, as if none of this was real, a shaky dream. Umbridge was leaving? Dumbledore stood up, told her to "get out," and she left? That was it?

"One thing, Professor Dumbledore."

Dumbledore asked gently, "What is it, Henry?"

"Since Ms. Umbridge is leaving..." Anthony said thoughtfully, "Can we give the empty office to Professor Lockhart to hold club activities? I miss the staff room a bit."

"That requires consulting Minerva, but unless someone has booked that room first, I don't see why she would object. What time is it now?" Dumbledore stared thoughtfully at the clock in the closet beside him for a while before turning back. "Ah, I think Toots must have helped Dolores pack all the luggage and carried it to the door. If you walk quickly enough, Henry, you should be able to find Minerva at the door of the Transfiguration classroom and tell her your proposal."

……

"What?" said Professor McGonagall.

She stood at the door of the classroom, staring at Anthony with a tense face. Several Hufflepuff students from the lower grades shrank their necks and quickly left the classroom by their side, sticking to the wall, and looked back frequently after walking away.

"Yeah, Professor Dumbledore said her office should be empty by now," Anthony laughed.

Professor McGonagall asked slowly, "Now?"

"Are you all right, Minerva?" Anthony asked concernedly. "Why do you look so angry?"

"Why do I look angry?" Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows and repeated her question in a strange tone. "No, I'm very happy, of course I'm very happy. For several months, I have been telling Dumbledore that he can't let Umbridge boss around and act tyrannically in the school. I told him that Umbridge has been disrupting our classes, deducting house points at random, and looking for evidence to attack him, but every time - every time - the answer I got was not something like Azkaban, Peter Pettigrew, You-Know-Who, the Ministry of Magic, etc., but perfunctory answers like 'It's not time yet' or 'I'm not omnipotent, Minerva'! Sometimes, he just disappeared!"

Anthony was startled by her sudden outburst of anger and quickly looked around. Fortunately, all the students had already walked away. A few ghosts wandered through the wall, chatting and laughing, and greeted them, shut up, and then went back through the wall.

"I told him that keeping Umbridge in school would do us no good at all - not for the students, not for the professors, not for the castle. But he insisted that it would help the students understand the current workings of the Ministry of Magic and let them learn how to deal with such people. Look at it now! Look at those Muggle-born students in the fifth and seventh years! Are we going to let them apply for jobs with such unfair grades?"

Just then, he heard a muffled sound, and the windows of the Transfiguration classroom seemed to shake.

Professor McGonagall turned her head sharply and walked into the classroom quickly. Anthony followed her, passing the desks and chairs, and the blackboard with complicated diagrams. He was almost hit on the head by a drawer that suddenly popped open. Professor McGonagall shook her wand without looking back, and turned the rabbit with button eyes that had just poked its head out back into a velvet pillow, and stuffed it back into the drawer. Boom! Another muffled sound. Professor McGonagall pushed open the window and poked her head out. Anthony heard the faint, chirping sound of excited laughter.

"Jordan!" shouted Professor McGonagall sternly. "Jordan, come here!"

Lee Jordan seemed to hesitate for a moment whether to pretend not to hear, but finally he turned and walked reluctantly to the window.

"What's wrong, Professor McGonagall?"

Boom!
Professor McGonagall glared at him. "Where are you running to - and what's that on your head?"

"What?" Jordan scratched his face, "Uh, I have a stomachache..." He was wearing a hat that seemed to be made of dragon dung, mixed with some dry and broken grass stems.

Boom!
"Jordan!"

Jordan said quickly, "But I heard that all of Umbridge's things were thrown out the door! She wanted to bring them back, but Peeves was guarding the door. As soon as she threw them back, Peeves picked them up! She was fighting with Peeves for the suitcase!" He looked at Professor McGonagall expectantly, "Can I take a look? Just take a look."

"Just look at it," said Professor McGonagall, "and take that ridiculous thing off your head!" But before she had finished the first half of her sentence, Jordan had already run away happily.

Professor McGonagall stood at the window for a moment and let out a long breath. "Well, Albus waved his wand and poof, she disappeared." She shook her head.

Boom!
"Well," said Anthony, "can we go and have a look, Minerva?"

……

When they arrived at the gate, the first words they heard were: "She hid a toilet in the office!"

"Shut up!" Umbridge screamed. Several ridiculously large suitcases were stacked together and suspended beside her, but three of them were in Peeves' hands. Peeves was sitting cross-legged in mid-air with an open suitcase on his lap.

"Umbridge, Umbridge, you are such a lazy girl." Peeves giggled, throwing a white and transparent porcelain toilet and two other boxes in the air. "The toilet is placed next to the bed. No wonder you smell a little bit."

"I said shut up!" Umbridge shouted angrily. "That's - that's a suspicious magical item, it's still under inspection! It's still the property of the Ministry of Magic! Give it back to me, you damned ghost!" She fired a spell at Peeves, but it went straight through his body, hit her open suitcase, and bounced back to the ground, causing a burst of exclamations among the surrounding students.

"Here comes the toilet!" shouted Umbridge, and her spell set off another round of chuckles among the students.

Peeves gripped the edge of the toilet, irritated by her.

"Ohhhh, lazy chick is mad! Lazy chick wants her toilet!"

He let the remaining two suitcases fall heavily to the ground, laughed strangely, and threw the toilet towards her. Umbridge raised her wand and waved it left and right a few times, but she didn't hit the flying toilet. She had to slam the oak door in panic, and hid behind the door skillfully amid the students' laughter. Boom, the toilet hit the solid door.

Peeves threw the toilet with such force that Anthony felt the ground beneath his feet shake. The loud noise echoed under the high roof. Anthony was a little surprised at the quality of the toilet. It didn't break.

"Peeves!" Filch came over angrily, holding a broom. He looked at Umbridge outside the door, then at Peeves above his head, the flesh on his face trembled, and he shouted fiercely to the students around him: "Get out of the way, get out of the way!"

"Haha, Filch!" Peeves' eyes lit up, "Peeves, you have the best heart. I'll help you clean the castle." He lowered his head and took out an ink bottle from the box. He shook it and twisted the cap. Without opening it, he made a grimace and searched the box again. All kinds of things fell down like rain, parchment, quills, seals - Umbridge shouted in horror and summoned the seal in her hand. Peeves was busy searching for treasure in the suitcase and ignored her - finally, Peeves found a strange metal product.

"Barrabo's herb hoe!" Professor Sprout whispered. She had come up behind Anthony and Professor McGonagall and was watching from a distance in the corner.

Peeves knocked the lid of the ink bottle with his herb pick (Professor Sprout gasped in regret), and it popped off. He pursed his lips and blew, sending black ink beads flying all over the air. Students screamed and dodged, Filch cursed, and Peeves somersaulted with a chuckle of delight, and rushed into Umbridge's open trunk, pulling out handfuls of things and throwing them everywhere: broken statues, sets of jewelry, two or three strange, screaming snuff boxes, several crystal balls filled with smoke, a wooden wedge with a brown stain on the tip, a tattered old book, a large roll of blood-red parchment... Sometimes he would aim specifically at Filch's forehead and watch with great glee as he angrily dodged.

"Oh, Argus..." Professor Sprout said reluctantly and took out his wand.

However, just as Peeves was about to pull out a long, black box with silver edges, the suitcase suddenly closed and clicked shut.

"The show is over, Peeves," Umbridge panted, wand raised. While Peeves was doing his thing, she took the opportunity to summon the other trunks to her side.

Peeves found that the two boxes beside him were gone, and he made a frustrated and dissatisfied sound, rushed to the ground, rolled up the things that were thrown out, along with the rubble, dead leaves, dead insects and other things on the steps at the door, and threw them at Umbridge in a mess. Professor Sprout quietly kept the herb hoe.

"Put them away quickly!" Umbridge shouted, and opened one of the boxes regardless of anything and sucked all the things in.

"Add this, Peeves!" Jordan shouted, took off his hat and threw it at Peeves. Peeves wrinkled his nose and looked at it, then suddenly laughed maliciously, with a cunning light in his eyes, and crushed the hat - a foul smell burst out - and threw it at Umbridge, who was showing an angry look. Swish, the dragon dung was also sucked into Umbridge's suitcase. Jordan jumped up happily: "See, Fred, George! I knew it! I knew this thing would always be useful!"

The Weasley twins high-fived him and eagerly pulled out their wands.

"Hey, George, wanna make a bet?" said Fred, eyeing Umbridge's trunk.

"Okay, I bet on the pink one."

"I bet that's it." Fred raised his wand. "Hiss, wrap her up!"

The box, which was sucking in all kinds of things with a clang, suddenly expanded, as if it had eaten too much of something it shouldn't have eaten - twice as big, three times as big - bang! Dozens of colorful things slipped out of the wide-open mouth of the suitcase, and climbed up along her ankles as Umbridge stomped on them angrily, entangled her, and almost drowned her. Umbridge reached out to push them away from her eyes, and finally turned around several times in a daze and fell on the stone steps.

Amid the students' laughter, Professor McGonagall frowned, sighed with some worry, and drew out her wand: "Relax the force!"

Roger's snakes swelled up and entangled Umbridge even more happily. "Oh! Pre-defined spells - effect transfer effect! Very exciting!" Professor Flitwick jumped behind them and looked at the scene at the door. "This must be the work of Mr. Emery Shinn! He asked me for at least a dozen books about this! It's so exciting! - Sorry, Minerva."

"Wrong spell, Minerva," Anthony said, raising his wand, "hiss let her go."

Roger's old snake fell apart like water, revealing Umbridge's pale face of shock and anger. The Weasley twins turned their heads in surprise, looking at their classmates, until they met the eyes of the professors standing in the corner (especially Professor McGonagall who was glaring at them), and then they retracted their heads.

"Don't take any marks off, Minerva," said Professor Flitwick sharply, patting Professor McGonagall's arm reassuringly. "It's just some Charms practical work, and they did it very well."

Professor McGonagall smiled with pride, and then said, "And Lee Jordan..."

"That was Herbology," said Professor Sprout briskly, turning his head. "Oh my God! Albus, Severus, you gave me a fright! When did you get here?"

"Not long." Dumbledore smiled and nodded to the professors who turned their heads, then pushed them aside and walked to the center of the crowd. Seeing him, the furious Umbridge seemed to calm down a little. The students also restrained their smiles and stared at him. Even Peeves disappeared silently after he glanced at him.

"Give my regards to Cornelius, Dolores," Dumbledore said briskly, bowing slightly toward Umbridge. "I hope Hogwarts has made a good impression on you during your investigation. Hogwarts Castle stands ready to be investigated by the next High Inquisitor."

Umbridge, covered in dust, stared at him for a moment with her bulging eyes, then managed a smile: "Of course, Dumbledore. It's a pity we have to say goodbye. Thank you for your help with the investigation."

"Please allow me to take you to Hogsmeade, Dolores." Dumbledore said politely, walked to Umbridge, held several suitcases floating in the air for her, and slowly walked down the steps towards the other side of the Black Lake.

……

No matter how the professors persuaded or ordered, the students just lingered near the gate, unwilling to leave. Everyone was excited with shining eyes and red cheeks, whispering to their companions, or dancing and telling something to the latecomers, and bursting into laughter from time to time.

In the end, the professors just let them go. With the exception of Filch, who stared at the door sadly, the entire staff was delighted. Professor Trelawney arrived belatedly and announced that she had known this would happen, and that she was not alarmed when Umbridge threatened to sack her, but was indignant at the disrespect shown to the Prophet. Professor McGonagall graciously made no comment.

After a while, Dumbledore's tall, thin figure reappeared at the gate. The students who were wandering around the gate suddenly stopped and watched him close the door behind him. There was no suitcase, no short, fat, toad-like man with a bow tie.

"You remind me of Fawkes," Dumbledore said, pausing halfway and smiling warmly at the student nearest him. "That's how he looks at me when I forget to bring him food. Did I promise to bring you any sweets from Honeydukes?"

"No - no, Professor Dumbledore." The student's face turned red with excitement. He hesitated for a long time and didn't say the second sentence.

"Professor Dumbledore?" said Harry, breathing.

Dumbledore turned his head and said, "What's the matter, Harry?"

"I wanted to ask - if it's alright to know - Umbridge - has she left?"

Everyone waited with bated breath for Dumbledore's answer.

"Ms. Umbridge, Harry," said Dumbledore. "Yes, the term of High Inquisitor has ended. She has left, and I doubt she will return."

The students looked at each other in bewilderment. Then, a huge cheer broke out.

"She's gone! She's gone! She's gone!" the Weasley twins shouted, clanking their suits of armor. "She's never coming back!"

"We should have a celebration!" someone else shouted. "Cake! Ice cream! Pumpkin juice!"

"Go take a shower, Jordan!"

"Anyone want a chocolate frog?"

"Wait, she also confiscated my entire set of 'The Complete Collection of Ridiculous Prank Spells'!"

"She's gone! She's gone! She's never coming back!"

Filch said listlessly, "The only person who knows how to treat students properly has left..."

"That's my old Roger Snake! Can I have it back?"

"She's gone! She's gone! She's gone!" Jordan yelled, wrapping several of the old Roger snakes around his neck and running madly around the hall.

"That's absolutely crazy," said Professor McGonagall, frowning.

"We're going to go tell the elves the good news," said Professor Flitwick cheerfully. "Would you like to come along, Minerva? This is worth a good dinner!"

"Of course," said Professor McGonagall. "Pomona? Henry? Severus?"

"Not now. I must write to Baraboo and tell him that I have her herb hoe," said Professor Sprout, smiling.

Anthony smiled and said, "Then ask her to send the best herbal tea."

Professor Sprout agreed, "And the best wood for the barbecue."

"I have little interest in mixing with this insane carnival parade," Snape said drily. "If you would rather associate yourself with the chaos, the noise, and the nonsense, please do so."

"Relax a little, Severus," Professor Flitwick advised. "At least today is a day to be happy about."

Bang! The oak door was suddenly pushed open again. Everyone looked towards the door warily.

"Oh my God, I just found out that I won the Most Charming Smile Award again. Have you started celebrating for me?" Lockhart said, "Of course, winning the Witch Weekly Most Charming Smile Award six times - this does not sound easy! But I no longer take this kind of award too seriously..."

His words were drowned out by the louder cheers and laughter.

(End of this chapter)