Chapter 627: Hermione: Maybe we can have more training partners (Edited)

During the following days, Umbridge's mood improved considerably, and she seemed to regain the good humor she had when she started at the school.

Of course, whether she was in a good mood or a bad mood, she was equally annoying.

But Umbridge's good mood didn't last long, and after a few days, she returned to the irritable state she had been in after the attack, and even worse...

Every day she wandered through the castle like a ghost, and at the slightest sign of something she didn't like, Umbridge deducted points and punished students.

Of course, there was also Umbridge's favorite form of corporal punishment: she forced offenders to write on parchment with a special quill, whose ink was the student's own blood.

After a night of punishment, the back of the student's hand was deeply marked with the words they had written during the punishment.

"What madness is this old witch up to?!" George and Fred covered the backs of their hands, grimacing as they ran to Fish for help.

It wasn't the first time they had come to see Fish, and they were among the unfortunate ones who had been caught by Umbridge for the slightest offense and punished.

Teachers like McGonagall and Sprout also protested against Umbridge, but they were overruled by her as Senior Investigator. Soon after, the Ministry of Magic issued Education Decree Number Twenty-Six, which further expanded Umbridge's powers as Senior Investigator.

The reason for this strange change was a misunderstanding during Care of Magical Creatures class, and she wasted no time in writing to Fudge about her suspicions when she left.

When Fudge discovered that the pure-bloods she had been working with for so long seemed to be aligning themselves with Dumbledore, he panicked but didn't dare to question them directly, so he sent someone to investigate in secret.

Naturally, the investigation failed.

Feeling deceived, Fudge immediately sent Umbridge a raging letter scolding her and emphasizing once again that if she didn't manage to find anything substantial, the Ministry would start pursuing her for all her previous misdeeds.

That's why Umbridge was restless, so much so that she needed to torture her students to feel better.

"Well... it's not all bad." George rubbed the back of his hand, which had been healed by Fish, and smirked. "Lately, students have been coming back to buy candies to skip class."

He thought the product he had invested so much effort and money in would fail, but who would have thought it would turn around and Umbridge's actions would revive the twins' product.

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "The other teachers easily took care of your skipping class candy."

"I don't think that old witch Umbridge gets it," Fred pouted and said confidently, "We once asked her a question in class that was probably at a third or fourth-year level, and she couldn't even answer it."

"That's right nya," Fish chimed in, "Umbridge is weak, pretty much the same as Colin and Neville a month ago nya."

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Neville had improved a lot recently and was beginning to catch up with Ron and Seamus in his class, while Colin Creevey, a fervent admirer of Harry, was one of the youngest and most talented members of the Order of the Cat.

In other words, in Fish's opinion, most of the Cat Knights could defeat Umbridge, even if only that.

As Fish and the twins had predicted, the supply of the Skiving Snackboxes from the twins had run out after a few students used them without Umbridge noticing the issue. By the time Defense Against the Dark Arts class arrived, a large number of students were unconscious, vomiting, dangerously feverish, or bleeding from both nostrils simultaneously.

Even Umbridge knew they had to be up to something, but with her level of magic, she couldn't figure out what was happening. She punished several classes in a row, but couldn't uncover their secret.

But Umbridge didn't give up easily, and although she stopped punishing students for this reason, she frantically tried to trace the origin of these mysterious symptoms.

Because she suddenly remembered that she had also experienced similar symptoms after the attack, but she had been too preoccupied with her own transformation into a toad and the Dark Mark to realize the problem.

"Umbridge is probably going insane..."

In a meeting of the Cat Order, Cedric rubbed his forehead in distress. "Lately, she's been monitoring us so closely that it's becoming increasingly difficult to avoid her completely when we gather."

As Umbridge has been busy tracing the source of the "Umbridge Syndrome," she has been patrolling the castle more frequently, and there have been a few cases where the Cat Order members haven't made it to the Room of Requirement in time to avoid her. There have even been cases where people have been caught by Umbridge near the seventh floor.

Umbridge already had her eyes on Gryffindors, and due to that mistake, she has been spending more time on the seventh floor.

"So, we'll have to adjust our study plan a bit." Hermione also sensed the situation and had already come up with a solution. She looked around the room, lifted her chin, and said, "During the next period, we will practice the Disillusionment Charm and the Silencing Charm..."

"Of course, if you have an invisibility cloak, you don't have to practice the Invisibility Charm, but you still need to practice the Silencing Charm." She added, looking at Harry.

"Damn it!" Fred slapped his forehead and suddenly grumbled aloud, "We should have kept developing the headless hat, George!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Fred." George pouted and said, "I still say that with that amount of money and time, we could stock up on invisibility cloaks and sell them."

Apart from the twins, who continued joking, everyone else had no problem with Hermione's suggestion, except...

"Where's Fish?" Parvati frowned and asked, "He hasn't come to the Cat Order meetings for the third time in a row."

Many of the girls had joined the Cat Order because they wanted to pet Fish, and although none of them would want to leave now, they were still upset that Fish had suddenly stopped coming...

The Cat Order couldn't do without the cat!

"Well... um..." Hermione scratched her hair, distressed, and then vaguely explained, "Fish has something to deal with. After he's done, maybe we'll have more training partners."

"Training partner?" Dean Thomas's face changed slightly, and he asked, "Could it be like Fluffy again?"

The Cat Knights had gone through a few special events over time, and most recently, thanks to Zacharias Smith's arrogant remarks, Fish had allowed Fluffy to come down and fight them once...

The outcome was not surprising, with Fluffy holding back, the Cat Knights lasted about three minutes before they were all annihilated. During that time, they were merely toys for Fluffy, with no hope of winning, so although none of them were injured, the psychological trauma was not small.

The man who caused the incident, Zacharias Smith, was hung from a tree for half an hour by other members of the Cat Order.

"No, no," said Hermione, waving her hand, "He's much weaker than Fluffy."

The three-headed dog was much more powerful, fast, and magic-resistant than the giants. In a single fight, not to mention Grawp, not even the current leader of the giants, Golgomath, would be a match for Fluffy.

So...

Hermione wasn't lying at all.