Magical Studies at Hogwarts...

Chapter 208 Pink Horror (Part 3)

The wait was agonizing, but also filled with anticipation. Harry and his friends were eager to see Umbridge's reaction when she saw the article published in The Quibbler.

That would be absolutely amazing.

This is indeed the only thing worth looking forward to recently; everything else is just frustrating. For example, the Gryffindor Quidditch team's epic defeat.

It wasn't about how many points they lost, but rather the helplessness they displayed in the match against Hufflepuff. If Harry and the twins hadn't been suspended, they could have easily crushed Hufflepuff without Cedric. But even though Ginny ultimately won the Golden Snitch, Gryffindor still lost by ten points.

The tragedy of the Bulgarian team in the Quidditch World Cup has been repeated, which is very despairing and heartbreaking, but fortunately it did not last long.

On Monday morning, as Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat at the long table for breakfast, a swarm of owls flew straight at him, dropping letters. The owls were so eager they even started fighting over who would deliver their letter to Harry first. The noisy scene attracted the attention of almost everyone.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Ron asked in surprise, still feeling down from his Quidditch defeat. He reached out to take a letter, but was pecked hard.

"I know!" Hermione was delighted. She reached right into the owl flock that was fighting fiercely and pulled out an owl carrying a large, cylindrical package. The poor creature rolled its eyes back in its head from Hermione's grip.

He casually picked up the package, opened the lid, and took out a tightly rolled-up newspaper, which was the March issue of "Singing the Divergent".

"I knew it! Look!" Hermione handed Harry the Quibbler, and the first thing Harry saw when he took it was his picture, with a line of large, blood-red words on it:

Harry Potter finally reveals the truth: I witnessed the resurrection of the Mysterious Man that night.

I flipped straight to the article that night, read it quickly, and Rita, unusually, didn't use her unique writing style to embellish it too much, just as he had said that day.

This is so unlike Rita, but so Hermione...

"Isn't it great, Harry?" Luna floated over from the Ravenclaw table, her voice still ethereal. "It just came out yesterday, and I had my dad send you a copy... Looks like the readers are really going well."

Harry nodded, a smug smile on his face, and he, Hermione, and Ron began to open the letters with great interest, with the twins joining in later.

The letters contained all sorts of opinions. Some thought he had lost his mind and needed treatment; others were confused, believing him but not that the Man of Void had really returned. However, these opinions only made up half of the letters; the rest were expressions of gratitude, thanking Harry for telling them the truth.

"What happened?" Just as the group was happily opening their letters, a sickeningly sweet voice rang out above Harry's head.

Harry froze, still clutching a handful of letters. Turning around, he saw Umbridge's hateful face, and behind her were even more onlookers.

"Answer my question, why are there so many letters?" Umbridge said slowly, her voice still sweet, but very suppressed.

"I gave an interview, and it's in the newspaper now. These are the thank-you notes people wrote to me." Harry knew he couldn't hide this anymore, so he decided to tell the truth.

"An interview? You again..." Umbridge said, glancing at the messy table in front of Harry. Harry didn't hesitate, reaching into the table to pull out "The Quibbler" and tossing it to Umbridge.

She caught it, and her face instantly turned ashen.

"You... what have you done! When did you do it!" Umbridge's voice trembled, and it was hard to tell whether it was fear or anger.

Harry didn't care and replied directly, "When I went to Hogsmeade last time."

Upon hearing this, Umbridge became furious, pointing a finger at Harry, but her voice was even softer: "You are forbidden from going to Hogsmeade again, Mr. Potter..."

"I've taught you time and time again not to lie, not to lie, but you've clearly ignored me completely..."

She took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"Fifty points deducted from Gryffindor, plus a week of closed school!"

As soon as she finished speaking, Umbridge hurried away in her high heels, clutching the book "The Quibbler" tightly in her hand.

Harry simply shrugged at this. Perhaps because he had been locked up by Umbridge for so long, he didn't think it was a big deal. Instead, he was very curious about what Umbridge was going to do next.

Before long, huge notices were posted all over the school before noon, announcing that "The Quibbler" was banned by Umbridge and any student found with it would be expelled immediately.

"This is great!" Hermione whispered. "She's done us a huge favor! Without this announcement, many people might not have seen your article, but now I promise everyone will know!"

If Harry had any insights or lessons learned from nearly five years of school life, then "Hermione was right" would definitely be one of the most important.

And indeed, that was the case. By evening, although there was no trace of "The Quibbler" in the entire castle, everyone had seen it, and it became the hottest topic for the next few days. They talked about it in class, at meals, and even in the bathroom.

That's not all. The professors had obviously read it too, and their attitudes towards Harry had changed drastically. Professor Sprout gave him an extra twenty points just because he handed him a teapot during class, Professor Flitwick gave him lots of delicious snacks, and even Professor Trelawney, who had previously said in class that he would meet with misfortune, changed her tune, saying that he would live to be a hundred years old, become Minister for Magic, and have many children and grandchildren.

This feeling was wonderful; Harry was already feeling quite giddy, and Ron was beaming all day long, since most of Professor Flitwick's snacks had ended up in his stomach. Only Hermione had been frowning constantly these past few days, looking worried.

"This isn't normal, Harry," Hermione said when asked. "She can't just ban 'The Quibbler.' Clearly, something more serious is going to happen."

Upon hearing this, Harry suppressed his smugness. According to Hermione's First Law, this was basically a foregone conclusion, and indeed it was.

A few days later, while Harry was continuing his Occlumency training with Snape, he suddenly heard a piercing scream and a commotion outside the door. Curious, the two went outside and saw everyone walking down the corridor toward the castle, crowding the outer perimeter of the foyer.

He squeezed through the crowd and saw Professor Trelawney standing in the middle, wand in one hand and an empty sherry bottle in the other. She looked disheveled; her eyes were crooked, her hair was messy, and her decorations were in disarray. At her feet, boxes lay upright and overturned, as if they had been thrown down from above.

"No! No! This can't be!" Professor Trelawney screamed. "I won't accept it! I won't accept it!"

"Nothing is impossible." Umbridge stood opposite Professor Trelawney, her voice still sickeningly sweet. "Your classes are all terrible. With this kind of performance, dismissal is inevitable."

"You can't fire me!" Professor Trelawney cried, tears streaming down her face. "I've been here for sixteen years! This is my home!"

"That was then..." Umbridge said calmly. "An hour ago, when the Minister of Magic signed your dismissal order, you ceased to belong here..."

"Now, please leave!"

(End of this chapter)