Chapter 426: The Dark Mark (Edited)

After handing the trophy to the Irish team and watching them parade it around the field, the crowd began to leave their seats in an orderly fashion.

Everyone slowly made their way down the purple-red carpeted stairs, while still excitedly discussing the match.

Of course, this did not include a certain kitten who was not interested in Quidditch, but rather bored.

After making sure there was no fighting, Fish took the form of a cat, jumped into Hermione's arms, closed his eyes and began to sleep.

The crowd filed out of the stadium, headed for the lantern-lit aisles, and above them, a crowd of dwarves flew through the air, waving their lanterns and singing with hoarse laughter.

Fish, who slept with his eyes closed, twitched his ears and looked up.

"Nya-!"

?(=`Д′=)?

The cat snarled at the dwarves in the sky with a fierce look on his face, and the song over the crowd came to an abrupt halt as the dwarves circled over Professor McGonagall's group and then quickly flew away.

With the noisy goblins out of the way, the noise around them no longer affected Fish, and Fish buried his head back into Hermione's arms and fell asleep again.

After following the large crowd back to their camp, Professor McGonagall put a soundproofing spell on the tent so that no sound came from outside, then opened the curtain and went in first.

Hermione followed Professor McGonagall into the tent with Fish in her arms and Rolf.

Although it looked like a normal two-person tent from the outside, the inside was spacious, with several compartments and even a living room, a dining room and a bathroom, with windows facing the outside of the tent.

After entering the tent, the three of them took off their souvenirs and threw them on the couch in the living room.

Then, after briefly drinking some water, Hermione and Rolf began yawning one after the other....

They had arrived from the United States of America in the morning, so they had been five hours busier than the others, and not only Hermione and Rolf, but also Professor McGonagall herself had begun to feel sleepy and visibly depressed.

That was why Fish was staying in Hermione's arms; otherwise, the cat would be more active at those hours.

"Get some rest."

Professor McGonagall said to Hermione and Rolf, then went into her room.

"Good night, Hermione."

Rolf yawned again, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and went to bed as well.

Hermione stood for a moment in the middle of the room, hesitating, and decisively took the cat to her room.

After putting Fish asleep on the bed, Hermione took off her coat and got under the covers.

"Good night, Fish." She whispered.

The little cat lying on the bed didn't even bother to open his eyes, and wagged the tip of his tail in response.

...

Fish, who was sleeping soundly, was suddenly awakened by a noise.

"Fish! Professor McGonagall! Wake up! Something's wrong!"

The shouts of Seamus, Dean and Wood, whose tent was not far from Professor McGonagall's and who had obviously come to warn them, sounded from outside the room.

Awake, Fish jumped out of bed, changed into his cat-man form and leapt out of the room before Hermione could get up.

"What happened?"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish asked immediately after running out of the room.

"There's rioting in the camp! The Ministry of Magic people are keeping order, let's go hide in the forest first!"

Dean, the quickest of them all, quickly responded.

"Is there a fight?!"

?(??ω??)?

As soon as Fish's eyes lit up, he was about to run out of the tent.

"Stop right there!"

Professor McGonagall came out of the room and called to the kitten who wanted to join in the fun. Since she came out in too much of a hurry, she came out in a casual dress. Not only did she look askew, she even looked backwards.

"Minerva, there's a bad guys out there, let's go to..... nyajajajajaja! Minerva you're wearing your clothes backwards nya!"

?(?≧?≦?)?

Hearing Professor McGonagall's voice, Fish turned and was about to invite her into a "fight" when he saw her clothes inside out, and the kitten immediately pointed to Professor McGonagall's clothes and burst out laughing.

Professor McGonagall ignored the cat's taunt and said to Fish with a stern face, "Stay with me and don't go anywhere!"

"Why?!"

∑(?ΦДΦ?)

Fish was inexplicably shocked, "Why don't we go fight the bad guys together?"

"The Ministry of Magic people will take care of these things. If irrelevant people join in, they might accidentally get hurt. We just have to protect ourselves and not cause them any trouble."

Professor McGonagall had been a member of the Ministry for two years, and had dealt with a lot in it since then, and with the fact that Fish was a crazy kitten who couldn't be controlled, she had wisely opted to stay out of it.

"Fish doesn't cause trouble for others..."

(〃｀3′〃)

The cat, mercilessly restrained, pouted and muttered a few words before returning to his cat form and launching himself into the arms of Hermione, who had just left the room.

"Professor McGonagall, what happened?"

Hermione asked curiously, holding Fish in her arms, and in the distance Rolf looked at him with a confused look on his face... he was still half asleep and didn't understand what was going on.

"Follow me first, and we'll talk as we go."

Professor McGonagall led the group out of the tent, then raised her glowing wand and headed into the nearby forest.

In the distance, a jumble of jeers, maniacal laughter, and drunken shouts could be heard, accompanied by the glow of multi-colored spells and the red light of burning flames.

From Hermione's arms, Fish couldn't see far enough to see what was happening on the ground, blocked by the numerous tents and the panicked crowd, but he could see the four people flying through the air: two adults and two children.

One of them was Mr. Roberts, the camp caretaker, and the other three, whom Fish had never seen before, were probably Mr. Roberts' wife and children.

The troublemakers didn't seem to be moving their way, so Professor McGonagall led the group deeper into the woods and listened, observing the chaos of the camp from a distance.

"Who are the troublemakers?"

"I don't know, but I saw the Muggle porter earlier, he was hanging in the air."

"If it's a joke, that's a shame!"

Hermione and the other young wizards couldn't help but discuss the situation once they seemed to be safe.

"Pure blood... Hey!"

Fish's ears twitched slightly as he lay in Hermione's arms, hearing Professor McGonagall's muttering.

Fish turned his head to see Professor McGonagall looking at the crowd in the distance, a distinct expression of disgust on her face.

The term "pureblood" was one that Fish had heard mentioned around the school, and one that the Slytherin students seemed to take pride in, while the Gryffindor students mostly disdained it.

As for the concept of pureblood, Fish understood that as well, and he wagged his tail, suddenly thinking again of Draco's father.

Fish felt he should find some time as soon as possible to chat with Professor McGonagall about Lucius Malfoy.

While the cat was deep in thought, the commotion in the distance seemed to change again, and Hermione, who was holding him, clenched her arms violently, making Fish uncomfortable.

"The Dark Mark!"

Hermione shouted, eliciting a gasp from the young wizards around her.

Fish let go of Hermione's arm, jumped lightly over her shoulder, and then followed the startled gaze of the crowd into the distant sky....

A gigantic skeleton, made up of countless green star-like things, a large python protruding from the mouth of the skull, like a tongue.

As the crowd watched, the skeleton rose higher and higher, glowing brightly in a cloud of greenish smoke, illuminating a wide area in the distance like a terrifying neon sign.

In addition to the screams of Hermione and the others, the distant group of wizards who were causing trouble were also screaming in terror, and to Fish's ears, the group's screams sounded a little harsher.

After a brief scream, the commotion in the distance died down, and the giant skeleton in the sky shooed the troublemakers away.

"Nya?"

(=?ω?=)

Fish raised his head, looked at the Dark Mark in the sky and twitched his ears.

This spell...

Fish can do it too!