"Professor Umbridge wants to see you."
Cedric had just finished his class and was about to go to lunch when he was stopped by Filch in the hallway.
"What does Umbridge want with Cedric?"
Several of Cedric's friends glared at Filch. Now everyone knew that being targeted by Umbridge would never lead to good things.
"Come with me."
Filch ignored the unfriendly looks from others and took Cedric to Umbridge's office.
Cedric glanced back at his friend, shrugged, and followed Filch out of the hall.
"Damn Toad, we have to do something?"
Although they said this and knew they had to do something to help Cedric get out of trouble, no one took action.
Maybe they don’t know what to do, or maybe they don’t dare to do anything at all.
When he arrived at Umbridge's office door, Cedric's expression was still calm. He had been expecting this day to come. After Filch knocked on the door three times, he walked in through the door that was opened by the other party.
Umbridge sat on the chair behind the desk, writing something. After Cedric walked in, she put down her quill, looked up at Cedric, smiled her signature smile, pointed at the chair opposite and said, "Sit down, Mr. Cedric."
Cedric secretly looked around Umbridge's office, this was his first time here. The office was filled with pink decorations that did not match Umbridge's age at all, and various cat trays were placed on the shelves, which was very girlish.
However, the owner of the office is an old witch.
Cedric suddenly understood why Umbridge liked to speak in a sharp girl's voice. It turned out that she had always had a girl's heart.
However, the thought of Umbridge's current age really made him feel sick.
On the wall behind the table, there was a thick, sturdy iron bolt, and three flying brooms were tied to the bolt with iron chains and locked.
Cedric recognized it at a glance as Potter's Firebolt and the Weasley brothers' two sweeping five-stars. Thanks to Umbridge's "help", perhaps Hufflepuff could defeat Gryffindor again in the next game. However, Cedric was not happy.
"Professor, what do you want to talk to me about?" Cedric asked directly after adjusting his facial expression.
"I've heard some rumors recently and I want to talk to you about something." Umbridge stared at Cedric with her usual fake smile on her face. "By the way, what would you like to drink?"
"What?" Cedric's heart suddenly skipped a beat, and he thought to himself: Is it coming after all
"What would you like to drink, Mr. Diggory?" Umbridge's smile became even brighter. "Tea, coffee, pumpkin juice?"
"Then let's have milk tea!" Cedric said without hesitation.
Hearing this answer, Umbridge didn't know why she always felt a little uncomfortable, but she still waved her wand and conjured a cup of steaming milk tea for Cedric.
Cedric stared at the milk tea in front of him, knowing that he could not escape, so he took a sip of the milk tea and said stiffly, "The taste of this milk tea is really hard to describe."
"What?"
Umbridge didn't react for a moment.
Cedric put down the cup of tea he had drunk and began his performance: "This cup of milk tea tastes terrible. It makes me feel a little nauseous."
Umbridge raised her eyebrows slightly, glanced at the partially consumed milk tea, and looked at Cedric with a sinister yet kind smile, and asked, "I heard that the Self-Defense Guide is with you?"
"The Self-Defense Manual?" Cedric said calmly. "I have read that book before."
"once?"
Umbridge's face darkened.
"Yes, once. I saw the book on the table in the library and put it back after reading it." Cedric explained expressionlessly: "This is a private rule among everyone, just to prevent Umbridge from knowing who took the book."
"Who came up with these rules?" Umbridge looked unhappy.
"I don't know." Cedric shook his head.
"So, you don't know who has the book now?" Umbridge's face turned even darker.
"I don't know. Only the person who took the book knows."
After a brief silence, Umbridge asked again: "Mr. Cedric, how much do you know about Dumbledore's Army?"
"I know a little bit. There are all kinds of rumors about Dumbledore's Army in Hogwarts School." Cedric looked at Umbridge and continued, "Some people say that Dumbledore's Army is an organization established by the Anti-Toad League, and its purpose is to drive Umbridge out of the school."
The smile on Umbridge's face disappeared completely. What Cedric had just said was undoubtedly an insult to her, but she couldn't be angry because Cedric, who had drunk the truth serum, only told the truth.
"Others say that Dumbledore's Army is an organization founded by Dumbledore. This organization is recruiting Hogwarts students to join and teach them how to use magic to fight. Its goal is to overthrow the rule of the current Minister of Magic Fudge. Everyone says that Dumbledore has set up his headquarters somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, but no one knows the details."
"Are there any students joining?" Umbridge suggested. "Potter?"
"No." Cedric shook his head. "Everyone thinks it's a rumor."
"Go on," said Umbridge expressionlessly.
"Some people also say that Dumbledore's Army is actually a group formed spontaneously by students because the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Umbridge, is so bad that students who want to get excellent results in the upcoming important exams have joined. It is said to be called the 'Defense Association'..."
"You think this matter is related to Albert Anderson," Umbridge interrupted again.
"It's okay. Albert is very busy. The last time I asked him for advice on the knowledge in the Self-Defense Guide, he refused." Cedric shook his head.
"What is he doing?" asked Umbridge warily.
"He is about to graduate, and Albert is rushing to finish reading some of the books in the restricted section." Cedric said calmly: "He can borrow any book in the restricted section."
“Who gave you the power?”
"Principal Dumbledore." Cedric said and then fell silent.
"You can go now."
Umbridge looked Cedric up and down, and when she was sure that she could not ask any other answers, she let him leave.
Looking at the door that closed again, Umbridge frowned. Her intuition told her that Cedric might be lying, but Umbridge couldn't tell where he was lying.
Is there something wrong with the truth serum
Umbridge stared at her half-full cup of tea with milk and frowned slightly.
Finally, she called the house-elf, asked her to drink the half cup of milk tea with truth serum, asked the house-elf a few questions, and only let the house-elf leave after confirming that the truth serum was indeed effective.
"Am I being overly suspicious?" Umbridge murmured.
If Albert were here, he would definitely complain about Umbridge's level of potions knowledge, as she didn't even know that there was an antidote for Veritaserum.
Of course, it is also possible that Umbridge did not think that Cedric would prepare the antidote in advance and take it quietly under her nose.
Cedric actually took the antidote on the road, thanks to Albert's promotion of the method of preserving Felicis.
The news that Cedric was called to Umbridge's office quickly spread throughout Hogwarts Castle, immediately causing dissatisfaction among the Hufflepuff students.
If Albert is the face of Gryffindor House, then Cedric is the face of Hufflepuff. Umbridge's actions are undoubtedly a slap in the face of Hufflepuff House.
Hermione was shocked by the news, but she was relieved after she was sure that Cedric did not trigger the curse she cast on the list.
"How did you do that?" Harry asked deadpan.
Because of his secret crush on Qiu Zhang, Harry's relationship with Cedric was not very good. However, after taking the sedative, he was still able to maintain his calm on the surface.
"Antidote to Veritaserum."
Cedric still has a lot of weight among the DA members. At least the Hufflepuff students all agree with him.
During the practice period when the team was separated, in addition to Harry, Cedric and the Weasley brothers would also help lead people separately to speed up everyone's efficiency in mastering spells. Otherwise, it would be difficult to complete the content of the "Self-Defense Guide" in a short period of time and let everyone get sufficient training.
"Antidote for Veritaserum?" Hermione asked, eyes wide. "Can you make an antidote for Veritaserum?"
"Of course not. Albert gave me the antidote." Cedric shook his head. "Don't count on it. He doesn't have much antidote left."
"The DA is still at risk of being exposed if Toad uses Veritaserum on other members.
Cedric briefly told the two of them the three suggestions Albert had given him.
"The first one needs to be more reliable. We can't give everyone the antidote to the truth serum. As for the Oblivion Charm... if you are not good at it, it's best not to use it indiscriminately." Hermione said immediately, "So the best result is to find an opportunity to delay time, provide reinforcements to others, and cause trouble."
"We may need to go to Fred and George. They are better at this." Harry agreed with Hermione's suggestion. "Start the next gathering as soon as possible. We must make everyone alert!"
"It would be best to expose the fact that Umbridge was suspected of using Veritaserum on students," Hermione added.
…
"I think Toad is courting death by daring to use Veritaserum to torture Hogwarts students." George took the time to tell Albert the news during the Herbology class.
"Really?" Sana's eyes widened.
"Not long ago, Cedric was called to the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office by Toad for tea." George lowered his voice and said, "Now everyone is worried about being called to tea by Toad."
"Dumbledore doesn't care about this kind of thing?" Shanna really couldn't understand why the toad dared to be so unscrupulous.
"There is no evidence."
"evidence?"
"The adult world is far more cruel than you think. It is common to use any means to achieve the goal. To be honest, if necessary, I have no doubt that she will use the Cruciatus Curse to torture students." Albert handled the plants at hand slowly.
"Attention, gentlemen and ladies, you have to speed up, Albert is almost done." Professor Sprout reminded as he passed by.
"Toad can also use the Cruciatus Curse?" George expressed his doubt. Toad performed too poorly.
"Cruel people are usually able to use the Cruciatus Curse, which is the source of power for most black magic." Albert has taken a small brown ball from the tree. This thing is called the exploding fruit. It will explode when it matures and spread its seeds. It has a strong killing power on ordinary plants and animals. It has to be picked before it matures, and the freezing spell must be used to freeze the exploding fruit before picking.
The exploding gummies sold at Honeydukes contain a small amount of exploding fruit extract.
"I think we should let her stay in the hospital so that everyone can live comfortably." George looked at Albert, hoping that he could give them some advice.
"Some spells cannot be mixed together, otherwise there will be some bad effects." Albert pondered for a moment and said, "Of course, some potions can also achieve similar effects."
"That's a good idea." George said without hesitation, "It's not surprising at all that something strange happened to the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"Are you really going to do that?" It was hard for Sana to understand what was going on in the world. Hogwarts was no longer their warm home. She felt that everyone in the world had become extremely crazy.
The relationship between Umbridge and her students was so bad that they wanted to kill each other.
"Who said that the era of chaos is coming?"
"The Age of Chaos? It seems our luck is not very good." Sana stopped in front of the entrance hall and looked at the students gathered in front of the bulletin board with disgust. There was no doubt that a new educational order had been born.
"We are actually quite lucky. At least we graduated from Hogwarts on time." Albert looked at the education order on the notice wall and said jokingly, "If we ask people to copy the education order now, they will definitely go crazy."
"Umbridge plans to form an action team, saying that it is to maintain the stability of Hogwarts and avoid some conflicts. How disgusting!" Lee Jordan appeared out of nowhere and said with disgust, "I dare say that the so-called action team is composed of students from Slytherin College. Toad even forgot that he is from Ravenclaw College."
"She has been expelled from Ravenclaw House," Albert reminded kindly.
He was not surprised by the toad's actions. Adults pay more attention to the pros and cons. In fact, he was the same.
"She should be punished!"
On the way back to the common room, George suddenly said, "If Toad doesn't get punished, she'll just keep getting worse.
"What are your plans?"
"I want to turn her into a toad." George said in a low voice, "Of course, I can also secretly cast a spell on her so that the toad will suffer from a serious skin disease and have to stay in the hospital for the next few months."