Chapter 1041： Strong onlookers

  Chapter 1041 Strong crowd

"Ah ah ah ah ah ah ah…"

  In the early morning hours of Hogwarts Castle, there was a sudden, extremely shrill scream, which woke up the students who had just fallen asleep.

   "It's started, it's started!"

  Albert listened to the movement in the room and turned over lazily. Lee Jordan's voice came from the other end of the room. He fumbled and opened the curtains around the bed, looked at the Weasley brothers and Lee Jordan who were going to watch the excitement, stretched out his hand to cover his yawn, and murmured: "Next, that guy should be quiet for a long time. "

"Woke up!"

  Lee Jordan poured Albert a cup of strong tea with a smile.

   Albert looked at the cup of strong tea with disgust, how could he sleep after drinking it.

  He suppressed his yawn again, got up from the bed, picked up the cloak hanging beside him, put it on himself, and followed other curious students to the common room.

   A large group of good students in pajamas and cloaks who just got up from the bed have gathered here. They are gathering together 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 screaming just now,"

   "Something seems to have happened in the castle." A boy raised his hand first and said.

   "Sounds like a banshee scream."

   “I feel more like someone is being severely tortured.”

   "I suspect it was the scream of a toad?"

  Everyone talked with 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 shrill.

   "Prefect, is there a prefect here?" Albert raised his hand to signal everyone to keep quiet, and three cloaked prefects squeezed through the crowd and came to Albert.

   "Who of you want to go out with me to see what's going on outside, you 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 go out with me to see what's going on?" Albert took out his wand from his cloak pocket and said, "The rest of the prefects stay to maintain Order, don't let them run around and wait for news."

  Although many students expressed dissatisfaction with this, all dissatisfaction can only be swallowed in their stomachs. As the chairman of the student union, Albert has a strong authority in Gryffindor.

   "There are a few of you, go back and put on your cloak, don't catch a cold and cause trouble for Madam Pomfrey." Albert said to several students who hurried over in only their pajamas.

   "Okay, those who have been ordered will follow me, and those who don't want to go can stay!"

  No one wants to stay, let alone the president of the student union this time.

   "Is it really the scream of a toad?" Fred said with a burst of acting: "Although that guy screamed a lot the night before."

   "But it's the first time I've screamed so badly." George echoed.

Ron and Hermione looked at each other and nodded in agreement with what the twin brothers said. They naturally knew what was going on with the screams just now, but they didn't expect that Albert would personally lead a team to watch the toad's tragedy, which really surprised them. It's a pity that Harry couldn't follow.

   "Is this really okay? I mean the 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 are probably too lazy to take care of it, and everyone can't bear it again and again."

  Although the seven people brought out by Albert this time were all his own people, none of them dared to act recklessly, so as not to be seen as flawed.

   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...cough, to check on the situation." Fred quickly changed his words, and asked in a low voice, "Do you think Ravenclaw will also wait for someone to come over to check? It might be interesting then.”

  "80% of the time, curiosity is human nature."

   Albert tightened the cloak on his body, quickened his pace and rushed out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office. During the trip to the secret passage on the fifth floor, I also met Nick who was almost headless.

   "You are..." Nick looked at Albert who was leading the team, frowned slightly and said, "Why did you come out at this time?"

   "They said that someone might be suffering a lot, so I brought someone over to see what was going on." Albert said calmly, "Nick, do you know what's going on?"

   "I don't know too well." Nick shook his head and said.

   "Then you come with us, and help us find the way ahead. If you find anything wrong, call us the alarm." Albert said to Gryffindor's ghost.

   "You can really summon ghosts." Nick muttered, but he didn't refuse. Nick had actually heard the scream just now, it was too horrific, no wonder Albert was vigilant, worried that any dangerous elements would break into Hogwarts.

  A group of people passed through the secret passage and quickly came to the third floor. When 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 that corridor.

  At this moment, Filch was staring angrily at the group of Hufflepuff students in pajamas and cloaks, but strangely, no professor was present.

  Seeing that another group of students came, Filch looked even more annoyed, muttering things like staying up late at midnight...going through the confinement.

"what happened?"

  Albert directly ignored Filch's thoughts, and cast a searching look at Cedric.

  "We heard a terrible scream, and when we came to check, we saw that Umbridge had turned into a toad." Cedric had 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 softly.

  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 toad in the shape of a human.

  Everyone started whispering, discussing what happened to Umbridge, how he turned into such a toad, completely forgetting that he should be sent to the school hospital.

   Actually, Filch wanted to do this, but Cedric stopped him, suggesting 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 corridor.

   "It's disgusting, the toad really turned into a toad."

   "Did she suffer from some skin disease, will it be transmitted to others?"

   "I think it should be the curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

"Quiet."

  Albert motioned for everyone to keep quiet, and then asked them to leave enough space for the time being so that they wouldn't all gather around here before drawing out his wand and using the Revival Charm on the unconscious Umbridge.

  Umbridge, who fainted, soon regained consciousness in a daze.

"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, suspended above Umbridge's head, allowing everyone to see the toad clearly look like.

   "Ouch... the more I look at it, the more disgusting I get."

   "She really turned into a toad."

   "Did she faint from her own ugliness?"

   "We better stay away from her, maybe some kind of skin infection."

   "It is likely to be a curse, and it is not the first time that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has cursed."

   "Look, she's awake."

  Among the whispers of the students, Umbridge opened his eyes, and at first seemed a little dazed, slumped on the cold marble floor.

   "Professor, what happened, how did you become like this, and who attacked you." Albert asked again.

   This time, Albert stepped back further.

  Umbridge, who had just woken up, looked around in confusion, and found that the students around her were staring at her with very strange eyes, and there were whispers from the students in her ears.

   "Professor, do you really not know what happened?"

   When Umbridge looked up at her palm, a mirror landed 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 think of something, threw the mirror off his hand, stretched out his hand to scratch his cheek, raised his head and let out an incomparably miserable scream.

   Then, she passed out like this.

   Yes, Umbridge knocked himself out.

   Everyone looked at Albert in unison, it was definitely on purpose just now!

   Absolutely!

   "Very interesting, isn't it."

  Peves appeared out of nowhere, clutching his stomach, looking at the fainted toad, and giggling.

  The others couldn't help laughing too.

  Albert secretly cast a spell on the toad, causing her to fall into a semi-conscious state.

   "Peeves, you did it!"

   Filch immediately turned his attention to Peeves.

   "There is no evidence, be careful to sue you for slander." Peeves made a face at Filch, and happily circled around the void like a fish swimming.

   "What happened to Peeves!" Albert asked.

"Isn't this the little devil's boss?" Peeves flipped somersaults in the air, grinning at the crowd from between his own legs: "I just heard the screams coming, and I saw her suddenly screaming Came out of the office and... fell down here."

   "I've never met anyone as interesting as her," said Peeves, grinning. "She looks like a...toad now."

"Ahem, we should send her to the school hospital. Madam Pomfrey must be able to cure her." Albert waved his wand to conjure up a stretcher, then moved Umbridge onto the stretcher, and a group of people just like that Mighty send Umbridge to the school hospital.

   Meanwhile, everyone was whispering and discussing what had happened to Toad.

  As for Filch, he was left alone and no one paid any attention to him.

   After they woke up Madam Pomfrey and put 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, please inform Professor McGonagall, or other professors, to let them know what happened here."

  After giving the order, Albert turned his head and said to the students standing outside the school hospital, "Go back and rest, and don't wander around outside in the middle of the night."

   "It's really restless for a moment." Albert stretched out his hand to cover his yawn, and beckoned the 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 astonishing speed like a firebolt. Even Headmaster Dumbledore was alarmed. When they came to visit the patients, several deans also appeared in the school hospital.

   As for whether this group of people came to visit the doctor, it is 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 hospital bed with a very strange expression, and Madam Pomfrey was following Dumbledore discussing Umbridge's condition.

"...She may have some kind of skin disease. To be honest, I suspected it was caused by a spell at first, and gave her a small amount of powerful recovery potion, but the effect was not good." Madam Pomfrey glanced at the cub on the hospital bed. Mrich, suggested: "I suggest that she be transferred to St. Mungo's Magical Injury Hospital for more formal treatment?"

   "Can it be cured?"

  Dumbledore looked up and down at the toad-like rough skin on Umbridge's body, and poked it with his slender fingers.

   "It will take time, I think it should be fine to cure her." Madam Pomfrey was disgusted, but she did not refuse.

   "Then I will trouble you." After chatting with Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore walked outside, and Snape followed.

"what have you found?"

   Dumbledore slowed down while waiting for Snape.

   "Her appearance is very strange, it seems to be caused by incomplete deformation."

"Minerva also said similar things. Even Madam Pomfrey used a strong recovery potion on Professor Umbridge, but the effect was not very obvious." Dumbledore was actually a little puzzled, but he instinctively felt that What Nep said should 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 has had a lot of bad luck lately, and even Peeves is messing with her behind her back.

   "No, I mean that you may have taken some potions, such as compound potions." Snape reminded.

   "Can compound medicine cause such symptoms?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.

   "I don't know, but I don't think polypharmacy should be able to transform into animals." Snape speculated, "Also, what are you going to do with the Ministry of Magic? I think Mr. Minister..."

   "The curse of Professor Defense Against the Dark Arts." Dumbledore said without hesitation, "Before we find out the reason, Professor Umbridge's illness is likely to be attributed to the curse."

   "As you should have guessed, this is probably..."

   "We don't have any evidence for Severus," Dumbledore interrupted.

"evidence?"

   Snape watched Dumbledore's leaving back, and repeated in a low voice.

  He suspected that a student had given Umbridge a glass of compound potion mixed with toads. Although Snape didn't know what it would look like to turn into an animal using the Polyjuice Potion, Umbridge's appearance undoubtedly fit his guess.

  (end of this chapter)