Chapter 663: Surprise! (Edited)

"Lumos."

Kingsley lit his wand.

"Grab your wands and follow me" he ordered, stepping forward.

The other four Aurors followed him in order, and Umbridge, who had lost her wand, closely followed Dawlish.

The tunnel was so low that even someone as short and plump as Umbridge had to crawl through it, unaware of what lay ahead. Everyone kept their eyes open, and the Aurors had to watch the tunnel as they advanced, which slowed their progress.

But Umbridge joined them, so incapacitated and injured that she was panting after less than ten minutes.

The Aurors tried to persuade her to turn back or wait in the tunnel, but stubborn Umbridge refused, and it took them at least twice as long as usual to reach the end of the tunnel.

Kingsley was the first to emerge from the hole and looked around with his wand raised...

Beyond the tunnel, there was a room, a messy and gray room. The wallpaper was peeling off, the floor stained, the furniture broken as if it had been smashed, and the windows boarded up.

The place seemed familiar to him, but Kingsley didn't bother investigating it at the moment, calling out to the others in the tunnel, "It's safe for now, come up."

One by one, the other four Aurors climbed through the tunnel, with Umbridge being the last.

However, as soon as she stuck her head out of the hole, she stopped with a red face.

"Give me a hand" she muttered through clenched teeth, lowering her voice to ask for help. "I'm stuck..."

Kingsley and the others looked at her speechless and insisted again, "Why don't you wait in the tunnel?"

"No!" Umbridge once again refused. "I must participate in this search myself."

It wasn't just because of Professor Trelawney's prophecy, but also because she feared that these Aurors would take credit for her work.

Besides, she had lost her wand and it was safest to stay with the Aurors.

Kingsley had no choice but to move forward with Dawlish, one of them grabbing one of her arms and struggling to "pull" Umbridge out of the tunnel.

"I think I might know where this is" Williamson suddenly said after looking around. "This must be the interior of the Shrieking Shack."

"The Shrieking Shack?" Umbridge asked. "The haunted house in Hogsmeade?"

"Yes" Williamson nodded. "The Shrieking Shack is also boarded up on its doors and windows, and judging by the distance from the tunnels, it's more or less the same as Hogsmeade. The conclusion is..."

He licked his lips and said with a hint of excitement at having discovered a secret, "If I remember correctly, the Shrieking Shack became famous around the same time the Whomping Willow was planted at Hogwarts."

His guess was seconded by another Auror named Prout. "You're right, I remember when the Whomping Willow was in my fourth year, and I came here in my third year when it was just an ordinary house, it wasn't called the Shrieking Shack at all."

Kingsley, who had initially felt relieved, became nervous again upon hearing the words...

Umbridge hadn't really discovered Dumbledore, had she?

But this suspicion was quickly dismissed because no matter how much he thought about it, he didn't believe Dumbledore would make such a stupid mistake as getting his invisibility cloak caught on a branch.

"In any case, we should all be careful" Kingsley warned in a low voice before raising his wand and leading the way out of the room.

The six men cautiously exited the room, first searching the ground floor of the Shrieking Shack.

"This doesn't seem like a place that has been abandoned for long..." Williamson wiped his fingers on a worn wooden table. "Have you noticed? There's hardly any dust... someone must come here to clean it occasionally."

"Isn't that normal?" Umbridge grumbled anxiously. "This is Dumbledore's secret stronghold! You should stop wasting time. We've been away for a long time, and the Minister doesn't know how long it could take!"

While trying to gain credit, Umbridge couldn't help but recall Professor Trelawney's prophecy that she might be in danger. From Umbridge's current perspective, it's very likely that Dumbledore noticed Minister Fudge, attacked him, and hurried to this location.

After all, she is the main discoverer of this secret and has been fighting against Dumbledore at Hogwarts all this time. And to make matters worse... the Whomping Willow took her wand!

The Aurors were highly dissatisfied with Umbridge's control, but due to Minister Fudge's order, they didn't show it and continued searching silently.

As Umbridge kept urging the Aurors, Dumbledore, who thought he might arrive at any moment, was calmly sitting in his office, sipping black tea and chatting with Fudge about inconsequential matters.

From the start, Fudge had approached Dumbledore with the usual topics, such as banning further discussion of Voldemort's return and cooperating with the Ministry's educational reforms.

These topics held only moderate importance, not enough to justify Fudge's arrival with the Aurors as soon as he had "finished his other business."

Fudge actually knew that if he did this, Dumbledore would likely sense the problem. However, Dumbledore's prolonged concessions in the name of a greater good had given Fudge the illusion that he still wouldn't dare to break with the Ministry. So, even if it was a mistake, Fudge didn't believe it would be a problem.

And of course, Dumbledore couldn't be bothered to expose Fudge, with the Minister of Magic himself as a witness. What a great alibi!

The cunning old man took a sip of his tea, a significant smile on his face.

"The ground floor has been searched, and nothing has been found," an Auror reported to Kingsley after a quick and meticulous search of the Shrieking Shack's ground floor.

"If there's something here, it seems to be hidden on the second floor..." Kingsley didn't believe that Dumbledore had deliberately left a loophole just to deceive them and make them climb up for nothing. He warned, "Stay on guard. It could be dangerous up there."

However, as soon as he said that, Umbridge, who hadn't seen anything suspicious on the ground floor, was already rushing upstairs. But upon hearing Kingsley's warning, she slowed down and clumsily stopped at the top of the stairs.

The Aurors gave her a disgusted look. When they were in action, they were more afraid of encountering this kind of idiotic teammate who would act on their own. Unfortunately, such teammates were abundant in the Ministry of Magic.

Kingsley sighed helplessly, then quickly instructed Dawlish and the others to join forces and cast the same defensive spell as before, while he continued to maintain the Lumos spell and cautiously led the group towards the second floor.

As soon as Kingsley set foot on the second-floor ground, he froze...

The door to the room facing the staircase was wide open... or rather, the entire door had been removed, along with part of the wall, allowing him an easy view of the interior of the room.

There were no furnishings in the room before him, only a giant snake that filled the entire space. Its body was as thick as the trunk of an oak tree, and its scales were green and shimmered with the characteristic venomous green color of snakes.