Chapter 602: Look What You've Done!! (Edited)

A tall and slender figure appeared at one end of the corridor and floated like a giant bat until reaching Umbridge's side.

Snape glanced at Umbridge, who remained unconscious on the floor, and then slightly curled the corner of his mouth...

Although he had guessed what might happen when Fish asked for the Polyjuice Potion, even Snape, who had always been composed, was still somewhat nervous.

He drew his wand and cast a few more spells on Umbridge, then took out a few vials and poured potions of different colors onto her.

The spells and potions didn't cause any additional changes in Umbridge's appearance, but they made it impossible for anyone to identify what had caused her to look the way she did.

After all, although the modified version of the Polyjuice Potion had been quite disorienting, it was difficult to know if the Ministry would find another potion-maker who could see the difference.

Even if, as Fish said, there was no reason to blame him without evidence, it was something to cover up for Fish.

With that in mind, Snape raised his wand and cast some destructive spells around the room, staging the scene as if there had been a fight, and then healing Umbridge's wounds, which, after all, resembled the injuries caused by Fish's beating.

Then, Snape cast a few more malicious and poisonous spells on Umbridge, causing tentacles, boils, and similar things to grow on her toad-like face.

Having done that, Snape nodded and left the place as silently as he had arrived, like a giant bat.

As for informing Dumbledore about this...

Sorry, but Snape had the same idea as Fish, that the headmaster of Hogwarts was the most suitable person to take the blame.

Most likely, the Ministry would end up blaming Dumbledore anyway.

Moreover, Snape would like to see how the Ministry blamed Dumbledore. Although he had betrayed Voldemort and sided with the Order of the Phoenix, Snape's relationship with Dumbledore was not very good.

And, if the need arose, or if the Ministry caused any trouble for Dumbledore, he could use it to attribute his "loyalty" to Voldemort....

He could also use it as a reason to mitigate the consequences of Fish's troubles.

...

"Something happened! Something happened!"

Fish woke up from his nap with the sound of Seamus' shouts.

"Nya?"

?(Φω??)?

Fish rubbed his eyes and sat up in bed, then lifted the curtain and looked outside.

Since it was Saturday, Harry, Ron, and Dean were sleeping in, just like him, and they peered curiously as they raised the curtains of their beds.

Neville, on the other hand, was already up, but he had obviously just woken up and hadn't even changed out of his pajamas yet.

"What's going on, Seamus?" Dean, Seamus' best friend, asked.

Seamus responded with a joyful expression, "They say Umbridge was attacked last night!".

As soon as he said that, everyone else's eyes focused on Fish, who had an innocent look...

Who allowed Fish to have a record? And more than once, so when they learned that the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher had been beaten up, the first thing that came to everyone's mind was Fish.

"I don't think it was Fish," Seamus offered in his defense. "Filch found Umbridge in the third-floor corridor this morning, and there were clear signs of a fight nearby, except it was all due to a magical spell."

As we all know, Fish's fighting style usually involves his claws, and even if he uses his wand, he basically only uses the Transfiguration spell... and the Patronus spell.

So when Seamus said that, everyone immediately dismissed the suspicion of Fish.

"That's right, Fish and Hermione went out together last night, Hermione wouldn't let him get away with it," Harry said, with a justified expression.

"Nya?"

(?ω?)

Fish, who was still trying to play it cool, scratched his head in confusion.

"And what about Umbridge?" Ron impatiently asked.

He wasn't really concerned about Umbridge, of course, but he wanted to know how badly she had been treated so he could revel in it.

However, Seamus shrugged and said, "I don't know, I've heard that the Ministry of Magic took her and sent her to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies... Obviously, Madam Pomfrey's healing skills are not too bad either."

"It's natural," Harry continued with an air of confidence and analysis, "The Ministry doesn't trust Dumbledore at all right now, and naturally, they don't trust anyone else at Hogwarts either."

"Did anyone see Umbridge's sorry state?" Ron reluctantly insisted.

"No, it's Saturday, and everyone is sleeping in," Seamus explained. "Even the fact that Umbridge was picked up by the Ministry of Magic was something that the Hufflepuff students had learned from their House's ghosts."

"What a shame..." Ron sighed regretfully, then looked at Fish, who said nothing. "By the way, Fish, did you and Hermione see anything last night?"

"Fish doesn't know anything, nya!"

(ω´≡ω´)

Although he didn't know what was going on, Fish shook his head and said the lie he had already thought of: "Fish went to the Forbidden Forest with Hermione last night and didn't spend much time in the castle."

He wasn't lying because after giving Umbridge a lesson, Fish and Hermione had indeed gone to the Forbidden Forest to play around.

Fish knew how to put on a good show.

Of course, while the students might have been fooled by Snape's signs of battle, the Hogwarts professors weren't so easily deceived... especially Professor McGonagall, who knew so much about her cat that she could identify the culprit without even analyzing it.

And after seeing Umbridge's toad-like face, he assumed that Snape, who seemed distant, was actually the most indulgent with Fish.

But neither Professor McGonagall nor any of the other professors who had guessed the truth had mentioned to the Ministry that Fish had used Polyjuice Potion to transform into a half-human, half-animal form.

With such a group of people trying to cover up the story, the Ministry didn't suspect Fish.

The Ministry had to send Umbridge to St. Mungo's for treatment since she had lost her memory and was in a distracted state due to the changes that had occurred in her and her physical condition.

The Ministry had no intention of leaving the attack on Umbridge at Hogwarts unanswered, or rather, at the entrance to the Headmaster's office, and sent an Auror to Hogwarts to find out the truth.

And then... Fish's little trick worked...

An Auror used Umbridge's wand to cast the Prior Incantato spell.

When the green skull sprouted from the tip of the wand, the Ministry's Aurors and the Hogwarts professors were stunned.

It also included Snape, who had taught Fish this spell...

When Fish had asked him to teach him the spell, he had used the excuse of wanting to see how it differed from his own cat head symbol, and Snape hadn't thought much of it, but who would have thought Fish would do something like this!

When Fish had asked him to teach him the spell, he had used the excuse that he wanted to see how it differed from his Cat Head symbol, and Snape hadn't thought much of it, but who would have told Fish that he would do such a thing!

In reality, Fish was telling the truth. He was curious to know the difference between the Dark Mark and his own Cat Head, so when he found out that Snape was a Death Eater, he approached him and inquired about it, using it as a whim to mess with Umbridge.

So far, so good.

The Auror sent by the Ministry didn't have time to discover the truth and hurried back to the Ministry with Umbridge's wand.

"Severus!!" As soon as the Aurors had left, Professor McGonagall growled at Snape like an enraged lioness. "Look at what you've done!!"