Chapter 669: Cornelius Slashes the Toad with Tears

The Aurors searched around Hogsmeade for a short time before they found traces of the basilisk's movement.

They followed the traces all the way into the Forbidden Forest, and then found that the other party's size was getting smaller and smaller as it moved, and finally it was so small that the Aurors could not distinguish its movement traces.

This seemed to confirm Dumbledore's guess that the snake was not a basilisk, but an ordinary venomous snake that was enlarged by magic.

However, the Aurors did not leave just like that, but continued to search in the Forbidden Forest for a while, and fought with some grumpy magical animals. If the centaurs had not come out to mediate in time, both sides would probably have suffered casualties.

In this process, they did not find any traces of the giant snake, but ran into Fluffy, a three-headed dog. If the centaurs had not arrived in time, the Aurors might have had a bad ending, and Grawp was hidden by Hagrid early and was not exposed to the Ministry of Magic.

The Aurors had naturally asked the centaurs, but the centaurs' answers were still vague and no one could understand them. In addition, after a few days, there was no incident of basilisks injuring people, so the Aurors could only choose to let it go.

After Cornelius Fudge went back, the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. It seemed that the mastermind behind the scenes was making such a big fuss just to teach Umbridge a lesson.

It didn't seem like some dark wizard was accidentally discovered by Umbridge, nor did it seem like Dumbledore deliberately set a trap to harm her...

Although Fudge was full of prejudice against Dumbledore and stubbornly believed that the other party wanted to overthrow him and control the Ministry of Magic, Fudge also understood Dumbledore's character. If he really wanted to retaliate against Umbridge, he would never use such a mediocre method.

It's not that he didn't suspect Fish, but the last time the attack was a bit playful, it was proved that it was not done by the cat, and this time it was even less likely. Because petrifying a living person requires extremely profound attainments in dark magic. Even though Firth's magic level is far beyond his peers, Fudge still doesn't think he can do it.

And Hagrid, the former professor of Care of Magical Creatures and the current gamekeeper, is naturally also among Fudge's suspects, but Hagrid's magic level is even worse. After all, he was expelled halfway through his studies, and his grades in school were not very good, so Fudge quickly ruled him out.

It's okay that there is no clue about the murderer who attacked Umbridge, but what really gives Fudge a headache is who should replace her.

Fudge rubbed his temples and sighed deeply...

He wanted to arrange for someone else to go to Hogwarts to replace Umbridge as the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts and senior investigator, but no one dared to agree.

Umbridge's two hospitalizations and the unlucky Defense Against the Dark Arts professors in previous years made the members of the Ministry of Magic believe in "Voldemort's curse". No one wanted to take the risk. Even Pierre Sampson, who had temporarily replaced the class before, refused Fudge on the pretext of being ill.

As for waiting for Umbridge to recover...

Not to mention that St. Mungo's has insufficient inventory of treatment potions and cannot treat Umbridge for the time being, even if she is cured, Fudge will not continue to employ her.

Judging from the feedback from Kingsley and other Aurors, this woman has been dragging her feet throughout the whole process.

And from the results, the other party seems to be targeting Umbridge. If she is sent to Hogwarts again, she will most likely continue to be attacked. So for Fudge, Umbridge is no longer of much use.

Although Umbridge knew how to please her superiors and was good at making trouble for Dumbledore, her poor execution ability and the various evil deeds that had been exposed long ago had caused a lot of complaints in the Ministry of Magic, and Fudge had no reason to keep her.

Of course, Fudge could also choose to use public opinion to say that Umbridge's attack was Dumbledore's revenge for the Ministry's interference in school management, but doing so would not make much sense...

Because now there is no one to take over this mess, and if you tell others that doing so will anger Dumbledore, then no one will be willing to take this risk.

And Fudge had already planned to give up Umbridge, so naturally he would not bother to stand up for her when he knew there was no benefit.

She has not been sent to Azkaban yet, just because Fudge still wants to save some face for the Ministry of Magic.

Because the Daily Prophet has been advocating how great Fudge's education reform is during this period of time, if Umbridge, the main person in charge, is convicted at this time, then all the previous flattery will become a joke.

So Fudge temporarily suspended the punishment of Umbridge, intending to deal with Umbridge's problem in secret after the storm had passed.

In addition to Fudge, Voldemort was also in a bad mood.

He had learned the details of what happened in the Shrieking Shack from the Death Eaters lurking in the Ministry of Magic. Unlike Fudge who was fooled by Dumbledore, Voldemort knew for sure that the big snake was definitely not an ordinary venomous snake cast with the Swelling Curse, but a real basilisk.

As for why the basilisk left by Slytherin was controlled by others...

Is there any need to think about it? ! It's not like he hadn't seen the scene of Fish running rampant in the Forbidden Forest!

When Voldemort thought that the basilisk he inherited from Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets was abducted by Fish, he was so heartbroken that he couldn't breathe...

So he found an excuse to punish Lucius Malfoy severely, which made the Death Eaters panic, wondering what kind of illness the Dark Lord was suffering from.

…

Unlike the furious Voldemort and the anxious Fudge, Hogwarts was full of joy after learning that Umbridge had once again been sent to St. Mungo's due to an attack by "unknown persons".

As for who the unknown person is... the teachers and students of Hogwarts have long known it, and they don't need any evidence at all. They can guess the truth of the matter based on their experience in previous years.

"Fish, how did you do it?"

At the first Cat Club meeting after Umbridge left, Fred asked hurriedly: "Is it some kind of powerful curse? Can you teach us?"

"It's not a magic spell, that's Ouroboros' ability, meow."

(`ω≡`ω)

Fish shook his head and answered honestly.

Everyone asked again about the details of Fish's lesson to Umbridge, and then they threw themselves into the training with great interest.

Today's training is still the Patronus Charm.

After this period of practice, many people have been able to successfully summon their own patron saints, but they only summoned their patron saints in a brightly lit classroom and were not threatened.

So at Hermione's suggestion, Harry found Cedric, Neville, Luna and other members who had summoned the Patronus to discuss it, and decided to let them proceed to the next stage of practice without summoning the Patronus. The members went to the other end of the classroom to practice on their own.

However, after contacting the two groups separately, Harry discovered a new problem...

"But... we don't have a Boggart in our hands..." Harry scratched his head and looked at Hermione, who was the first to propose, "You should be ready, right?"

Hermione is the real core of the Cat Club's gatherings. Basically, she plans, arranges and implements all the contacts. Harry and the others are only responsible for teaching.

Hermione smiled and said, "Even if there is a Boggart, not everyone is like you and will turn it into a dementor. Besides, we obviously have better choices."

As she said that, she looked at Fei Xu beside her.

"Put it on Fei Xu, meow!"

(`)

Maomao patted his chest and raised his head proudly.

The next second, Feishu's body suddenly expanded, and in the blink of an eye he transformed into a majestic white tiger.

At the same time, Harry and the others suddenly felt their hearts sink, and the air around them seemed to be stagnant. A fear originating from biological instincts surged into their hearts, making everyone present's legs and feet weak.

A few girls who were timid even screamed and sat down on the ground.

Fei Xu, who turned into a white tiger, calmly licked his paws and glanced at the girls who fell to the ground.

(=)

He hadn't even had time to roar in frustration, yet he was so frightened...

So the cat simply lay down, waggled its tail lazily a few times, and then began to close its eyes and rest.

Others also began to practice the Patronus Charm after gradually adapting to Fei Xu's animal deterrence.

…

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In the original book, it only took about a month for Hermione and Cho Chang to learn the Patronus Charm...

They started learning after Valentine's Day on February 14th, and then before the Easter holiday (March 21st), both Hermione and Cho Chang summoned the complete Patronus...

It was said before that this spell was very difficult, and many powerful wizards could not summon a complete form... Later, many people in D.A. learned how to use the Patronus, including even the demolition genius Seamus.