In the early morning at Hogwarts Castle, a shrill scream suddenly came out, waking up the students who had just fallen asleep.
"It's begun, it's begun!"
Albert listened to the movement in the room and lazily turned over. Lee Jordan's voice came from the other end of the room. He fumbled to open the curtains around the bed and looked at Weasley, who was about to watch the excitement.
The brothers and Lee Jordan stretched out their hands to cover their yawns and murmured: "Next, that guy should be in peace for a long time."
"Woke up!"
Lee Jordan smiled and poured a cup of strong tea for Albert.
Albert looked at the cup of strong tea with disgust, wondering how he would sleep after drinking this.
He covered his yawn again, got up from the bed, picked up the cloak hanging next to him, put it on himself, and followed other curious students to the common room.
A large group of busy students who had just climbed out of bed, wearing pajamas and cloaks, had gathered here. They were gathering in twos and threes, whispering and discussing the screams just now.
"Quiet, who knows what's going on." Albert looked around and asked, "I heard a scream just now,"
"Something seems to have happened in the castle." A boy raised his hand first and said.
"It sounded like a banshee screaming."
"I felt more like someone was being severely tortured."
"I suspect that's the scream of a toad?"
Everyone talked to each other, and finally the scream of the toad was widely recognized, because it was not the first time that the toad made such a sound at night, but this time it was particularly sad.
"Prefect, are there any prefects here?" Albert raised his hand to signal everyone to keep quiet. Three prefects in cloaks squeezed through the crowd and came to Albert.
"If any of you want to go out with me and see what's going on outside, we don't need too many people."
As soon as Albert finished speaking, several people raised their hands.
"Very well, the three of you, and the four of you, take your wands and follow me outside to see what's going on?" Albert took out the wand from his cloak pocket and said, "The remaining prefects stay here to maintain the situation.
Order, don’t let them run around, and wait for news.”
Although many students expressed dissatisfaction with this, all dissatisfaction could only be swallowed in the stomach. As the president of the student union, Albert had strong authority in Gryffindor.
"And you guys, go back and put on your cloaks, don't catch a cold and cause trouble to Madam Pomfrey." Albert said to several students who hurried over wearing only pajamas.
"Alright, those who have been selected come with me, and those who don't want to go can stay!"
No one wanted to stay, not to mention that this time it was the student union president who took the lead.
"Is it really the scream of a toad?" Fred said with great acting skills: "Although that guy screamed a lot at night before."
"But this is the first time I screamed so miserably." George agreed.
Ron and Hermione looked at each other and nodded in agreement with the twin brothers. They naturally knew what the screams were about just now, but they didn't expect that Albert would actually lead the team to watch the toad's miserable situation. This really surprised them. The only
It's a pity that Harry couldn't follow.
"Is this really okay? I mean, professors should..." Shanna reminded in a low voice.
"No professor got up to check." George said, staring at the Marauder's Map in his hand.
"Professors probably don't care anymore. Everyone can't stand it again and again."
Although the seven people Albert brought out this time were all his own, they did not dare to act too recklessly, lest any flaws would be discovered.
Everyone is now a brave Gryffindor student who heard the screams and came out to check the situation.
"I just got in touch with Cedric, and he also brought people out to surround...cough, to check the situation." Fred quickly changed his words, and lowered his voice and asked, "Do you think Ravenclaw will also be waiting for people to come over?
Check the situation, it might be interesting then."
"Eighty percent of the time, curiosity is human nature."
Albert tightened his cloak tightly and hurried out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. While heading to the secret passage on the fifth floor, he also met Nick who was almost headless.
"You guys are..." Nick looked at Albert, who was leading the team, frowned slightly and said, "Why did you come out at this time?"
"They said someone might be suffering great torture, so I brought someone over to see what was going on." Albert said calmly: "Nick, do you know what's going on?"
"I'm not sure either." Nick shook his head and said.
"Then you come with us and help us explore the way ahead. If you find anything wrong, give us an alert." Albert said to the ghost of Gryffindor.
"You can really summon ghosts." Nick muttered, but he didn't refuse. Nick actually heard the scream just now. It was too sad. It's no wonder that Albert would stay vigilant, worried about any dangerous elements breaking in.
Enter Hogwarts.
A group of people quickly reached the third floor through the secret passage. As they approached the corridor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office, they heard some noises.
"who is it?"
Albert gestured for everyone to stop and asked Nick to help them see what was going on on the other side of the corner.
"It's Filch and a group of Hufflepuff students." Nick said to several people.
After Albert got the news from Nick, he led people into the corridor.
At this moment, Filch was glaring angrily at the group of Hufflepuff students wearing pajamas and cloaks. However, strangely, no professor was present.
Seeing another group of students arrive, Filch looked even more annoyed, and kept mumbling about staying up late at night... and being in solitary confinement.
"what happened?"
Albert ignored Filch's thoughts and cast a searching look at Cedric.
"We heard a very sad scream, and when we came to check, we saw that Umbridge had turned into a toad." Cedric said with a straight face, as if he was trying not to laugh.
"Umbridge turned into a toad?"
Several Gryffindor students also gathered around, wanting to see Umbridge's ugly appearance.
"This appearance really fits her image." Someone muttered in a low voice.
Umbridge's skin was very rough and looked like the skin of a toad. What surprised them most was that Umbridge's face looked like a living toad in human form.
Everyone began to whisper, discussing what happened to Umbridge and how she turned into such a toad, completely forgetting that she should be sent to the school hospital.
In fact, Filch wanted to do this, but Cedric stopped him, saying that Umbridge might have a contagious skin disease.
Not long after, a group of Ravenclaw students, led by Katrina, appeared in the corridor outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. The originally spacious corridor suddenly became crowded.
Everyone was talking to each other about what happened here, and whispers filled the entire corridor.
"It's disgusting. The toad really turned into a toad."
"Did she have any skin disease? Can it be passed on from person to person?"
"I think it's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's curse."
"Quiet."
Albert motioned for everyone to keep quiet, and then asked them to leave enough space for the time being so that they would not all crowd around here. Then he took out his wand and used the resuscitation spell on the unconscious Umbridge.
Umbridge fainted and soon regained consciousness.
"Professor, who attacked you, and what happened here?" Albert took a step back, and a ball of light flew out from the tip of the wand and hovered above Umbridge's head, allowing everyone to see the toad clearly.
appearance.
"Ugh...the more I look at it, the more disgusting it becomes."
"She really turned into a toad."
"Did she faint from her own ugliness?"
"We'd better stay away from her, maybe it's some kind of skin infection."
"It's probably a curse. It's not the first time that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has cursed."
"Look, she's awake."
Amidst the whispers of the students, Umbridge opened her eyes. She seemed a little confused at first, and she slumped down on the cold marble floor.
"Professor, what happened, how did you become like this, and who attacked you." Albert asked again.
This time, Albert retreated further.
Umbridge, who had just woken up, looked around confusedly and found that the students around her were staring at her with very strange eyes, and the students' whispers could be heard in her ears.
"Professor, do you really not know what happened?"
When Umbridge raised her hand to look at her palm, a mirror fell on her palm along with Albert's gentle voice.
Looking at the figure in the mirror, Umbridge was stunned for a moment, then seemed to remember something, threw the mirror away from her hand, stretched out her hand to scratch her cheek, raised her head and let out a shrill scream.
Then, she fainted and passed away.
Yes, Umbridge scared herself to death.
Everyone looked at Albert, it must have been intentional!
Absolutely!
"Very interesting, isn't it."
Peeves appeared out of nowhere, holding his stomach and looking at the unconscious toad, and chuckled.
Everyone else couldn't help but laugh.
Albert secretly cast a spell on the toad, making her fall into a semi-conscious state.
"Peeves, it's you who did it!"
Filch immediately turned his attention to Peeves.
"If there is no evidence, I will sue you for slander." Peeves made a face at Filch and happily turned around in the void like a swimming fish.
"What's going on Peeves!" Albert asked.
"Isn't this the little devil?" Peeves somersaulted in the air, grinning at everyone from between his own legs: "I just heard the scream and came over, and saw her suddenly screaming.
Rushed out of the office and... fell down here."
"I've never seen anyone as interesting as her." Peeves said with a smile. "She looks like a... toad now."
"Ahem, we should send her to the school hospital. Madam Pomfrey must have a way to cure her." Albert waved his wand to conjure a stretcher, and then moved Umbridge onto the stretcher. The group of people were like this
They rushed Umbridge to the school hospital.
Meanwhile, everyone was whispering and discussing what happened to the toad.
As for Filch, he was left alone, with no one paying attention to him.
After they woke up Madam Pomfrey and placed her on the hospital bed with her face twitching, Albert asked Cedric to explain the situation to her.
"Mr. Administrator, please inform Dumbledore. If the principal is not here, inform Professor McGonagall or other professors and let them know what is happening here."
After giving the instructions, Albert turned to the students standing outside the campus hospital and said, "Go back and rest. Don't wander around outside in the middle of the night."
"I really can't have any peace for a moment." Albert stretched out his hand to cover his yawn and called other Gryffindor students to go back to sleep.
…
In less than half an hour, the news that Umbridge had turned into a toad spread throughout Hogwarts at an alarming speed like a Firebolt. Even Principal Dumbledore was alarmed. In the middle of the night,
I came to visit the doctor, and several deans also appeared in the school hospital.
As for whether this group of people came to visit the doctor, it's really hard to say.
Anyway, Professor McGonagall kept a straight face, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout were talking in a low voice, Snape looked at Umbridge on the bed with a very strange expression, and Mrs. Pomfrey was following
Dumbledore discusses Umbridge's condition.
"...She may have some kind of skin disease. To be honest, I initially suspected it was caused by a curse. I gave her a small amount of powerful recovery potion, but the effect was not good." Madam Pomfrey glanced at the bed.
Umbridge suggested: "I suggest that she be transferred to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Maladies for more formal treatment?"
"Can it be cured?"
Dumbledore looked up and down at Umbridge's skin, which was as rough as a toad, and poked it with his slender fingers.
"It will take time. I think it should be okay to cure her." Madam Pomfrey looked disgusted, but did not refuse.
"Then I'll trouble you." After Dumbledore chatted with Madam Pomfrey for a while, he walked outside, and Snape followed.
"what have you found?"
Dumbledore deliberately waited for Snape to slow down.
"Her appearance is very strange, it seems that it is caused by incomplete deformation."
"Minerva also said something similar. Even Madam Pomfrey used a powerful recovery potion on Professor Umbridge, but the effect was not very obvious." Dumbledore was actually a little confused, but he instinctively felt that
What Nap said must be true.
Umbridge's appearance is indeed very similar to the symptoms caused by deformation.
Of course, Dumbledore also suspected that some students might have caused Umbridge to become like this. Umbridge had encountered a lot of bad luck recently, and even Peeves was causing trouble for her behind her back.
"No, I mean that you may have taken some magic potions, such as compound potions." Snape reminded.
"Can a compound potion cause such symptoms?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.
"I don't know, but I think compound potions should not be able to transform into animals." Snape speculated, "Also, what are you going to do about the Ministry of Magic? I think Mr. Minister..."
"The Curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor." Dumbledore said without thinking, "Before we find the cause, Professor Umbridge's illness is likely to be attributed to the curse."
"You should have guessed that this is probably..."
"We have no evidence Severus," Dumbledore interrupted.
"evidence?"
Snape looked at Dumbledore's leaving figure and repeated in a low voice.
He suspected that a student had given Umbridge a cup of compound potion mixed with toads. Although Snape didn't know what it would look like to use the compound potion to turn into an animal, Umbridge's appearance undoubtedly fit his personality.