“Ahhh…”
In the early morning of the morning, a shrill scream suddenly rang out from the Hogwarts Castle, waking up the students who had just fallen asleep.
“It’s started, it’s started!”
Albert listened to the noise in the room and turned over lazily. Lee Jordan's voice came from the other end of the room. He fumbled to open the curtains around the bed, looked at the Weasley brothers and Lee Jordan who were ready to watch the fun, and covered his yawn with his hand, muttering, "Next, that guy should be quiet for a long time."
"Get up!"
Lee Jordan smiled and poured Albert a cup of strong tea.
Albert looked at the cup of strong tea with disdain. How could he sleep after drinking this
He suppressed a yawn again, climbed out of bed, picked up the cloak hanging next to him, put it on himself, and followed the other curious students to the common room.
A large group of curious students, who had just gotten out of bed and were wearing pajamas and cloaks, had gathered here. They were gathered in twos and threes, whispering about the screams that had just occurred.
"Quiet, who knows what's going on." Albert looked around and asked, "I just heard a scream,"
"Something seems to have happened in the castle." A boy raised his hand first.
"It sounded like a banshee's scream."
"It felt more like someone was being severely tortured."
"I wonder if that was the scream of a toad?"
Everyone was talking at once, and in the end the toad's scream was widely recognized, because it was not the first time the toad had 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. Three prefects in cloaks squeezed through the crowd and came to Albert.
"Who of you wants to come with me to see what's going on outside? It doesn't take too many people."
As soon as Albert finished speaking, several people raised their hands.
"Very good, you three, and the four of you take your wands and follow me outside to see what's going on." Albert pulled out his wand from his cloak pocket and said, "The rest of the prefects will stay to maintain order and don't let them run around. Wait for news."
Although many students expressed dissatisfaction with this, they had to swallow all their dissatisfaction. As the president of the Student Union, Albert had a strong authority in Gryffindor.
"And the rest of you, go back and put on your cloaks, so as not to catch a cold and cause trouble for Madam Pomfrey." Albert said to several students who hurried over in pajamas.
"Okay, those who are called, follow me. Those who don't want to go can stay!"
No one wanted to stay, especially since the student union president was the one leading the trouble this time.
"Is that really the scream of the toad?" Fred said in a dramatic way, "Although that creature has screamed many times at night before."
"But this is the first time I've heard someone scream so miserably," George agreed.
Ron and Hermione looked at each other and nodded in agreement with the twin brothers. They naturally knew what the screaming just now was about, but they did not expect that Albert would personally lead a team to watch the miserable plight of the toad. They were really surprised. The only regret was that Harry could not come along.
"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.
"The professors probably don't bother to care anymore. No one can stand it after so many times."
Although the seven people Albert brought out this time were all his own people, they did not dare to act too recklessly for fear of being discovered.
Everyone now is a brave Gryffindor student who heard the shrill screams and came out to check the situation.
"I just contacted Cedric, and he brought some people out to... ahem, check on the situation." Fred quickly changed his words and asked in a low voice, "Do you think Ravenclaw will also send people to check on the situation? It might be interesting then."
"Probably. Curiosity is human nature."
Albert tightened his cloak and quickened his pace to rush out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office. While heading to the secret passage on the fifth floor, he met Nick who was almost headless.
"You guys..." Nick looked at Albert, the leader, and frowned slightly, saying, "Why are you guys out at this time?"
"They said someone might be suffering, so I brought people here to check what was going on." Albert said calmly, "Nick, do you know what's going on?"
"I'm not sure." Nick shook his head.
"Then come with us and help us explore the way ahead. If you find anything wrong, alert us." Albert said to the Gryffindor ghost.
"You really can summon ghosts." Nick muttered, but he did not refuse. Nick actually heard the scream just now. It was too shrill. No wonder Albert was on guard, worried that some dangerous people would break into Hogwarts.
The group quickly came to the third floor through the secret passage. When they were approaching the corridor of the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office, they heard some noises.
"Who is it?"
Albert gestured for everyone to stop and let Nick help them see what was going on around the corner.
"It's Filch and a group of Hufflepuff students." Nick said to the others.
Only after Albert got the news from Nick did he lead his men into that corridor.
At this moment, Filch was glaring angrily at the group of Hufflepuff students in pajamas and cloaks. However, strangely, there was no professor present.
Seeing another group of students coming, Filch looked even more annoyed, and kept muttering something about not sleeping in the middle of the night... putting everyone in detention.
"What's going on?"
Albert simply ignored Filch's mumbling and cast a probing look at Cedric.
"We heard a shrill scream, and when we came to check, we saw Umbridge had turned into a toad." Cedric had a stern face, as if he was trying hard not to laugh.
"Umbridge turned into a toad?"
Several Gryffindor students also gathered around, wanting to see Umbridge's ugly appearance.
"This look really suits her image," someone muttered.
Umbridge's skin was very rough and looked very much like a toad's skin. What surprised them most was that Umbridge's face looked like a real human-shaped toad.
Everyone began to whisper, discussing what had happened to Umbridge and how she had become 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 discussing what had happened here, and whispers filled the entire corridor.
"How disgusting! The toad has really become a toad."
"Does she have some skin disease? Can it be passed on to other people?"
"I think it's the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor's curse."
"Quiet."
Albert signaled everyone to keep quiet, and asked them to temporarily make enough space and not gather here, then he drew out his wand and used the resuscitation spell on the unconscious Umbridge.
Umbridge, who had fainted, soon woke up 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, hovering above Umbridge's head, allowing everyone to see the toad clearly.
"Ugh... the more I look at it, the more disgusting it becomes."
"She has really become a toad."
"Did she faint from ugliness herself?"
"We'd better stay away from her. Maybe it's some kind of skin infection."
"It's probably a curse. This isn't the first time the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has cursed me."
"Look, she's awake."
Amid the students' whispers, Umbridge opened her eyes and seemed dazed at first, slumping down on the cold marble floor.
"Professor, what happened? Why 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 in confusion and found that the students around her were staring at her with a very strange look, and she could hear the students whispering in her ears.
"Professor, you really don't know what's going on?"
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. She threw the mirror away, scratched her cheek, raised her head and let out an extremely shrill scream.
Then, she fainted.
Yes, Umbridge frightened herself to death.
Everyone looked at Albert. He must have done it on purpose!
Absolutely!
"Very interesting, isn't it?"
Peeves appeared out of nowhere, covered his belly, looked at the unconscious Toad, and started to chuckle.
The others couldn't help laughing as well.
Albert secretly cast a spell on the toad, putting her into a semi-comatose state.
"Peeves, it's you who did this!"
Filch immediately turned his attention to Peeves.
"Without evidence, I'll sue you for libel." Peeves made a face at Filch and spun happily in the air like a fish.
"What's going on, Peeves!" Albert asked.
"Isn't that the little brat?" Peeves somersaulted in the air, grinning at everyone from between his own legs. "When I heard the scream, I saw her suddenly screaming and rushing out of the office, and then... falling here."
"She's the funniest person I've ever seen," Peeves said with a grin. "She looks like a... toad."
"Ahem, we should send her to the school hospital. Madam Pomfrey will definitely have a way to cure her." Albert waved his wand to conjure up a stretcher, then moved Umbridge onto the stretcher. A group of people then sent Umbridge to the school hospital in a mighty manner.
Meanwhile, everyone was whispering about what had happened to the toad.
As for Filch, he was just left aside and no one paid any attention to him.
After they woke up Madam Pomfrey and put her on the bed with her face twitching, Albert let Cedric explain the situation to her.
"Mr. Administrator, please notify Dumbledore. If the headmaster is not here, please notify Professor McGonagall or other professors to let them know what happened here."
After giving the order, Albert turned to the students standing outside the school hospital and said, "Go back and rest. Don't hang around outside in the middle of the night."
"There's really no peace for a moment." Albert held back his yawn with his hand and called on 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 extremely alarming speed, as if it was riding on a Firebolt. Even Headmaster Dumbledore was alarmed and came to visit the patient in the middle of the night. Several deans also showed up in the school hospital.
As to whether this group of people came to visit the patient, it is really hard to say.
Anyway, Professor McGonagall had a stern face, Professors Flitwick and Sprout were talking in low voices, Snape was looking at Umbridge on the bed with a very strange expression, and Madam Pomfrey was talking to Dumbledore about Umbridge's condition.
"... She may have some kind of skin disease. To be honest, I initially suspected it was caused by a spell, and gave her a small amount of powerful restorative potion, but it didn't work well." Madam Pomfrey glanced at Umbridge on the bed and suggested, "I suggest that she be transferred to St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries for more formal treatment?"
"Can it be cured?"
Dumbledore looked up and down at Umbridge's rough toad-like skin, and poked it with his slender fingers.
"It takes time. I think it should be no problem to cure her." Madam Pomfrey's face was full of disgust, but she did not refuse.
"Then thank you for your help." After chatting with Madam Pomfrey for a few words, Dumbledore walked outside, and Snape followed.
"What did you find?"
Dumbledore slowed down his pace deliberately in order to wait for Snape.
"Her appearance is very strange, it seems that she is incompletely deformed."
"Minerva said something similar, and even Madam Pomfrey used a powerful restorative potion on Professor Umbridge, but the effect was not very obvious." Dumbledore was actually a little confused, but he instinctively felt that what Snape said should be true.
Umbridge's appearance does indeed look like the symptoms caused by deformation.
Of course, Dumbledore also suspected that Umbridge's appearance might be caused by some students. Umbridge had encountered a lot of bad luck recently, and even Peeves was behind her to make trouble.
"No, I mean maybe taking some potions, like the Polyjuice Potion," Snape reminded.
"Can a compound potion cause such symptoms?" Dumbledore asked in surprise.
"I'm not sure, but I don't think the Polyjuice Potion can transform into an animal." Snape speculated, "Also, what are you going to do about the Ministry of Magic? I think the Minister..."
"The curse of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor." Dumbledore said without hesitation, "Until we find the cause, Professor Umbridge's illness is likely to be attributed to the curse."
"You should have guessed that this is most likely..."
"We have no evidence Severus," Dumbledore interrupted.
"evidence?"
Snape repeated in a low voice as he watched Dumbledore's retreating back.
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 guess.