Chapter 254 Interlude

Snape did not tell any jokes till the end, which is a pity, it must be said. Felix thinks that the professor still has the talent for telling cold jokes.

He secretly made a note about next year's Christmas present.

Felix sat next to Snape, just about to jest a few words, the main door of the great hall suddenly opened, from the door swept in a great blizzard.

A short, fat witch in pink walked in, and Felix heard the sound of Professor McGonagall inhaling deeply two seats away, her black eyebrows knitted together.

The short, fat witch is Dolores Umbridge, and she is accompanied by two other individuals, a middle-aged, thin, dark-skinned male wizard who wears a gold ring in one ear dressed like an Auror.

Felix knew him, when Minister Fudge came to visit the school last year to see the basilisk, he brought this man with him, and Fudge called him "Kingsley".

The other one is a witch, with the same Auror dress, face covered with a thick scarf, from some of her lively little movements you can see she is not that old, she and Kingsley walked together.

The smile on Dumbledore's face narrowed, the expression of surprise lasted only for a moment, then he stood up and said courteously: "What a rare guest, I did not know you would be here on this special day."

"Haven't been able to meet you in person, Professor Dumbledore." Umbridge's toady face heaped with a conspicuous fake smile, "Not that I'm saying this Deputy Headmistress of yours isn't serious and responsible enough ... to get things done, like me, I can't help but share Minister Fudge's worries during Christmas."

Dumbledore said calmly: "I have full confidence in Minerva, she has done her job very well."

Umbridge did not seem to feel embarrassed at all, but the female Auror behind her had looked away, with an uncomfortable look.

Kingsley stepped forward and in a low, slow voice he said, "Dumbledore, we have come over to share new information with you."

Umbridge immediately shouted shrilly, "Kingsley! I'm the one appointed by the Minister as the investigating officer--"

Kingsley did not look at her, but his next sentence explained everything well: "I only take orders from Minister Fudge and Scrimgeour - Dumbledore, there are new developments regarding Sirius Black."

"I'm all ears, Kingsley." Dumbledore said mildly.

" Someone spotted the Suspect Sirius Black in Knockturn Alley, and according to the information we have - an unlucky wizard was attacked from behind, and the attacker snatched his wand."

"So, he rearmed himself?" Dumbledore said, "I would have thought that he would be wandering between the school and Hogsmeade."

Kingsley said, "We thought so before, so we let our guard down over there. But he may be more cunning than we thought, and I'm leaving for London tomorrow - this is Tonks, through whom Scrimgeour hopes to pass on the message."

"Tonks?" Dumbledore smiled and looked at the young witch.

"It's me, Headmaster Dumbledore, it's so good to see you." The female Auror said enthusiastically as she removed the scarf covering her face.

Kingsley explained, "Tonks will remain in Hogsmeade most of the time, just as a precaution." He glanced at Umbridge, who was impatiently fiddling with a pink bow on her cuff, "And she can restrain the Dementors, as well."

Dumbledore nodded and said, "No problem, Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic have a common cause on this matter."

Kingsley fell silent, the man with an air of calmness, with nothing to say, after his task is complete, his presence immediately reduced.

In contrast to him, Umbridge finally found an opportunity to speak, so she said in a chirpy little girl's voice, "Thank you, Kingsley, for speaking, Professor Dumbledore, I hope you will reconsider, Tonks - if somehow insufficient to keep on track, the Ministry of Magic would be happy to send a permanent team ..."

"We don't need to talk about that, Umbridge." Dumbledore insisted, "Go back to Fudge and tell him to come straight to me if he has any ideas."

Felix on the sidelines more or less understood, Umbridge and Kingsley are not together, Umbridge's support Fudge stance is unclear, it may be a test, or the woman made up her own mind, in any case, she tried to reach into Hogwarts, only to be Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore have pushed her back.

And although Kingsley listened to Fudge's orders, he obviously didn't mind the attitude of Umbridge, the investigating officer, and this time he came under the command of Scrimgeour - the head of Auror's office.

They soon left, and with this episode, the professors were not in the mood to joke. The conversation inevitably turned to Umbridge; the threat of Black is far away for the professors to care, but the toad lady simply couldn't bring any good feeling out of anyone.

Professor McGonagall said pointedly, "I'm not one to speak ill of others, but Umbridge-" Her nostrils flared a little, clearly exasperated. "If you knew how she treats her subordinates and her own family, you'd understand how I feel."

"Umbridge treats her family badly?" Felix asked.

"Heh! She repeatedly claimed that her 'deceased' father was a prominent figure in Wizengamot during his lifetime, but he's actually alive and well."

Flitwick frowned as he recalled, "I seem to remember something, the surname Umbridge is still very rare, I remember more than ten years ago, there was a cleaning lady with the surname Umbridge in the Ministry of Magic ..."

At this time, students finally came over, two first years appeared in pairs, and not long after, a sixth-year Slytherin student arrived with a gloomy face.

The professors talked about the lighter topic again, Dumbledore left once midway and reappeared with a pile of silver-coloured poppers, "This is a party popper I made, and like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, it will have a surprise if you pop it."

He gave one to each person at the table and asked in a cheerful tone, "Does anyone want to try it?"

Felix looked over at Snape, and Dumbledore followed his gaze as he winked and smiled, "Severus, you definitely don't want to miss this."

As they spoke, Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived, watching in amazement as Snape impatiently pulled the cord of a silver popper, which came apart then with a thud, revealing a lady's peaked cap.

Dumbledore handed the hat to Snape, but Snape pushed it away without thinking, so Dumbledore immediately replaced his wizard's hat with it.

"Merry Christmas, ladies and gentlemen."

Harry and the others looked at Dumbledore's new image blankly, unable to speak for a while.

The meal lasted for two hours, and everyone enjoyed themselves so much that no one bothered to talk about Umbridge, an unappetizing topic, except for Trelawney, who appeared halfway through and had to do a headcount before being seated, while she counted for the number 13 she shouted twice as she couldn't the number 13.

Until Felix politely reminded her that she may have forgotten to count herself, then Trelawney silently sat down.

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