Chapter 123: Someone cheated Fish (Edited)

Together with Professor McGonagall, Fish spent two days reading the "book of the felines of the world" that Hermione had given him.

Although it did not result in any new changes, it was interesting and fun for Fish to learn that there were so many types of cats in the world.

After reading the book, homework still needed to be done. With the "enthusiastic help" of a group of little witches, Fish finally completed all the homework the day before the end of the vacation.

"I think Fish has been tricked!" ?ω?

The night before school started, instead of running off, Fish sat cross-legged on his bed and said to Neville with a serious look on his face.

"What?"

Neville looked up in confusion.

He's tidying up the homework he's done and putting it next to the bed, to keep the homework from getting lost tomorrow.

Then, when Fish suddenly said this out of nowhere, Neville, who was still trying to remember what he'd missed, had no idea what he was talking about.

The others in the dorm didn't understand either, but they all gathered in concern.

"Who tricked you? Professor McGonagall?" Dean guessed, dropping the brush in his hand.

Except for a few professors, Dean didn't think anyone could fool Fish, and Fish had shouted "Minerva the great liar" in front of everyone more than once.

The others didn't say anything, but they all thought the same thing Dean did, that Fish was in trouble with Professor McGonagall again.

They couldn't help, though, and they didn't dare.....

They were interested in listening to Fish's gossip while they ate popcorn.

"It's not Minerva."

Surprisingly, Fish shook his head and said with a serious expression, "It's Sister Canaria and the others." ?ω?

Sister Canaria, as Fish called her, was Sharpay Evans, the girl who had led the fight against Hermione and was primarily responsible for helping Fish with his homework.

Fish called her Canaria because of her beautiful blonde hair and light voice.

"Miss Sharpay?"

Harry and the others were stunned, they were under the impression that Sharpay was a cool, but elegant person who was expected to run for Female Prefect next year.

And Fish had used the word "they," which meant that more than one person had lied to Fish.

Harry and the others only had to think for a moment to realize that Fish was referring to the witches who helped him with his homework.

"How did they trick you?" asked Ron curiously, as he had long envied Fish's group of tutors.

"Did you finish all your homework? when did you finish?"

Fish suddenly asked an irrelevant question.

"Before last night, I think?" Ron scratched his head, not quite sure, and replied, "Harry and I tackled it together... Harry?"

"It was the night before last," Harry confirmed with a shake of his head. "We were with Fred and the others yesterday, playing Monopoly all day, have you forgotten?"

"Oh, yeah!" Ron slapped the side of his head, his words as bitter as possible, "That Muggle game was kind of fun, the first time I ever got that much money...even if it was in a game."

Both Seamus and Dean had also finished their homework a few days ago, only Neville, like Fish, had finished it all today, and he had finished it in the morning, half a day before Fish.

"That's it!". (●｀Д′●)ツ┏━┓

Fish slapped the blankets hard against his hands and pointed at Neville, "Fatty did all his homework this morning, and Fish had all that help, why didn't he finish it until now?"

"Ah..." ∑(●ΦДΦ●)

After Fish said that, he realized it was a bit rude to say that.

"I'm not saying you're stupid, fatty, just that you're not as smart as Scarhead and the others."

Fish explained to Neville in all seriousness.

Neville smiled bitterly, without getting angry, because he knew how bad his usual performance was, and it was above Neville's expectations that Fish would care about his state of mind and go out of his way to explain himself.

Fish's explanation was better than no explanation at all, though....

"So, what you're saying, Fish, is that Sharpay and the girls are deliberately delaying your homework?" Harry quickly opened his mouth to bring the subject back up, breaking the now awkward atmosphere.

"That's right!" (??ˇ?ˇ??).

Fish nodded, looking serious, and said to Harry and the others, "I just remembered that at Minerva's I could do my homework faster than they could teach me!"

"They must be bullying Fish on purpose! It's too much, meow!" ?(●ΦДΦ●)?

The more Fish thought about it, the angrier he became that they had wasted their vacation, and he flopped down on his bed, rolling around furiously.

"I'm going to tell Minerva! Get Fish's vacation back!" °(°ˊДˋ°)°

Harry and the others looked at each other, winking frantically.

From what they knew of the girls, they were capable of such things, and Harry and Ron, who knew more about it, knew who the culprits were.

Fish can't be allowed to make a big deal out of this!

Harry and Ron looked at each other, both opting to calm Fish down first.

"Well, Fish, maybe Sharpay and the girls didn't do it on purpose," Harry said stiffly, but he couldn't think of any good excuses at the moment, so he shot Ron a helpful look.

At this point, Ron's head was also running at full speed and he suddenly remembered Hermione's usual studious attitude.

"Right, they should be trying to help you do your best homework!"

He slapped his thigh and said this to Fish, and after finding a foothold, the explanation he temporarily concocted became softer.

"Everyone has a different attitude to homework, like me, who appreciates getting it done, but good students, like Percy and Hermione, check their work over and over again, trying to make it perfect, so the teacher can't spot a single mistake!"

"Exactly," nodded Harry frantically, as he gave Ron a silent thumbs up, "You can see that in class, Hermione can answer almost any question the professor asks her."

Though it wasn't clear why Harry and Ron were helping to calm Fish down, Neville and the others followed suit, silently agreeing.

"Meow?"

At the explanation, Fish stopped whining and sat up in bed.

He folded his arms and lowered his head to try to remember, it seemed, when the girls had checked his work over and over again when they tutored him and then asked him to correct it.

And with this careful tutoring, he had passively picked up a lot of knowledge about magic... even if Fish didn't find it useful.

So...

Scarhead and the others are telling the truth?

"But Fish doesn't want to write that well, meow!" ?(●ΦДΦ●)?

Even if they're doing it for their own good, it's not right to take away Fish's playing time!

"Well... you'll have to talk to Sharpay and the girls about that, they mean well after all."

Harry and Ron reckoned they had done all they could, and left the girls to work out what to do with Fish after that.

Fish: "What about Fish's vacation that went missing?"

Ron: "We can't do anything about it."

Fish: "How can you do that?!" ∑(●ΦДΦ●)