Chapter 1024: Facing Reality
Chapter 1024: Facing Reality
Due to the incident involving Miles Bletch and his eye-catching swan statue costume, the relationship between Gryffindor and Slytherin deteriorated further. Although there was no evidence at present, the Slytherin students insisted that this incident was a result of retaliation by Gryffindor students.
Yesterday at noon, Miles Bletch publicly cast an evil curse on Alice, causing her eyebrows to grow wildly, landing her in the hospital wing. However, he escaped punishment due to Snape's protection, infuriating the Gryffindor students. In retaliation, they immediately planned a payback.
Who was the mastermind behind this plot?
Who made Miles Bletch wear a ballet tutu and swan skirt to frighten people, and how did they manage to secretly freeze him above the sink as a sculpture decoration without anyone noticing?
Everything was shrouded in a thick mist of mystery, and no one could see the truth.
Currently, the biggest suspects were Albert and his friends, as Albert had the ability to pull off such a stunt without anyone knowing. However, this speculation couldn't convince the students outside of Slytherin House.
Few people suspected that Albert would do such a thing. If he really wanted to cause trouble for Miles Bletch, copying Draco Malfoy's punishment would have been a better option. Many people felt that the punishment given by Albert was too light, and some even secretly applauded the move, thinking that it was well-deserved.
In fact, the strangest part was that before Miles Bletch was discovered, quite a few students had used that bathroom without noticing the unfortunate victim frozen in place. Moreover, Albert and his friends had only passed by on their way to the library and didn't have time to do anything else.
What was even more surprising was that Miles Bletch himself didn't know who had ambushed him.
Yes.
The Quidditch captain had no memory of the assailants, didn't see them from start to finish, and didn't even hear their voices.
He knew nothing, like a little fool.
By the time he came to his senses, he had already been put in that embarrassing situation.
This did not prevent the Slytherin students from pointing their fingers at the Gryffindor students. After all, without any evidence, they could only blame Gryffindor.
A thick tension began to permeate the air between the two houses.
Unlike the minor scuffles of previous years, the situation took a turn for the worse when the pink toad took sides. The corridors witnessed several conflict incidents, most of which were unilaterally instigated by Slytherin students. Eventually, these incidents escalated into malicious events, but only Gryffindor students were punished and placed in detention, which undoubtedly fueled the dissatisfaction of the entire house. Their hatred for the toad was rising rapidly.
However, something magical happened that surprised Albert. Although the Gryffindor students disliked Umbridge, very few of them actually went to confront her. Instead, they complained about Albert's inaction, perhaps believing that he should have led them to resist Slytherin and Umbridge.
This was the peculiar thinking of Europeans.
"If you're not complaining to me, but instead creating a dispute within my line of sight and letting the Slytherin students make the first move, I would have handled the whole situation fairly."
However, only a few brave Gryffindors dared to challenge Umbridge's authority, and they only knew how to complain to Albert, the student council president.
Perhaps this was the norm for most people, the lament of the weak, or perhaps... the truly brave Gryffindors were actually rare, and being bullies and cowards was their true nature.
Perhaps... who knew?
Anyway, Albert didn't care.
Those dissatisfied students would naturally take revenge on the Slytherin students in secret. As for the daring Slytherins, their heads were intimately acquainted with the toilets in the bathroom, and the most arrogant one was hung in Umbridge's office for a night, causing the Slytherin team members to be cautious and afraid of becoming the next victim.
"In just one week, there have been twenty-three malicious conflict incidents at school." Professor McGonagall was about to explode with anger.
"Everyone's tempers have been quite fiery lately," Albert said calmly, as if all the conflicts had nothing to do with him.
"You are the male and female student council presidents."
Professor McGonagall glared at Albert and Katrina, who were sitting there drinking tea and eating biscuits as if they had nothing to do with the situation.
"Professor, even if you complain to me, it won't help," Albert said with a smile as he handed Professor McGonagall a cup of chrysanthemum-scented tea. "This matter is entirely due to the trouble caused by the Quidditch match. Every year, there are a few similar incidents, but this year is particularly severe because of Umbridge and Snape's bias..."
"Mr. Anderson," Professor McGonagall said, her eyebrows twitching slightly as she hadn't expected Albert to be so direct and blunt about the truth.
Some things were common knowledge, but...
"Some ugly truths cannot be covered up," Albert reminded kindly. "Umbridge and Snape's bias has encouraged some Slytherin students to cause trouble, but not all Gryffindors are cowards. It's only natural that people are very unhappy about this, especially when they are treated unfairly. There's a saying: 'Where there is oppression, there will be resistance.' That's why the situation has escalated to what you see now."
"It will probably be difficult to stop it," Katrina added, putting down her teacup. "Moreover, if people's dissatisfaction is suppressed and not addressed, it will only make the situation worse. When their anger explodes, you can't expect them to remain rational."
"So, you're just going to let them...?"
"Professor, that's not fair of you. Your anger is clouding your judgment," Albert interrupted gently. "I suggest you take a sip of tea to calm down; chrysanthemum tea is excellent for dispelling pent-up anger."
"But you can't expect us to patrol the school every day and be the firefighters. We're already busy enough as it is. Maybe you could consider mobilizing all the prefects and any professors with free time to help maintain order in the school." Albert suggested.
"And that's your suggestion?" Professor McGonagall asked, her voice laced with annoyance.
It was a lousy idea, meant only to placate her. The prefects were ineffective at reining in mischievous students, and the professors were too occupied with teaching to spare any extra time for such matters.
Well, Professor McGonagall had to admit that she was indeed influenced by her anger. Ever since Umbridge had arrived at the school, she had been accumulating stress and frustration.
Everyone had their limits, and professors were no exception.
"Everyone needs to vent their suppressed emotions. As long as they don't go too far, let them have their little scuffles! If there's a problem, refer it to Umbridge; after all, she loves dealing with these issues, so let her solve them herself." Albert's meaning was clear—he was washing his hands of the matter.
"I expected you to offer some useful suggestions."
"It's useless, Professor. The situation is inherently unfair, and any suggestions are meaningless. You should know that yourself. If you want to solve the problem, you have to tackle it at the source." Albert offered a smile as he proposed, "How about I help you gather all the prefects and rally the entire student body to drive Umbridge out of Hogwarts and send her packing? Then, we can claim that Umbridge's misfortune was due to the influence of a Dark Magic Defense curse."
"That's not a bad idea," Katrina piped up, her eyes sparkling with interest. "The success rate should be decent, and as for the Ministry of Magic, we can just kick them out too."
"For the vacant position of Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, we can temporarily appoint Professor Snape. I heard he's always wanted that position."
"You..."
Professor McGonagall's cheeks twitched, and she was so enraged that she couldn't speak for a moment.
"Umbridge has already made a mess of the school, and we really don't have much authority left. If she doesn't like it, she might just replace the student council president tomorrow," Katrina added nonchalantly. Ever since she had realized how chaotic the school had become, just as Albert had predicted, she had stopped taking her role as student council president too seriously.
"I suggest referring everything to Umbridge. Maybe if we make her happy, she'll stop bothering everyone," Albert added with a mischievous smile.
In the end, Professor McGonagall angrily showed the two student council presidents out of her office. She found them to be utterly irresponsible and only interested in making matters worse.
Perhaps they saw the situation too clearly.
"Was it wrong of us to act like that?"
Katrina turned to Albert, her eyes on the door that had been shut forcefully.
"Aside from forcing them to face reality, do you have a better idea?" Albert countered.
"It's not Professor McGonagall's fault. The entire school, even the wizarding world, is like this." Katrina shook her head. "Sometimes, being too clear-eyed isn't a good thing."
"I know. If Professor McGonagall refuses to wake up, there's nothing I can do. You can't wake someone who's pretending to be asleep," Albert said, unconcerned about Professor McGonagall's attitude. He was well aware that after Dumbledore had been ousted, Professor McGonagall had eventually given up her fantasies and faced reality.
"What do you think Professor McGonagall will do?" Katrina asked after a moment of silence as she quickened her steps to keep up with Albert.
"Who knows!" Albert spread his hands. "Maybe she'll suspend assigning homework for Transfiguration class. She does that every time there's a match between Gryffindor and Slytherin."
As the two of them climbed the stone steps, intending to head to the library together, they suddenly heard a familiar scream coming from the end of the corridor.
It was Umbridge's shriek, quickly followed by a roar that drew the attention of a large crowd.
When they reached the source of the commotion, they saw Umbridge in a state of furious impotence, with several dungbombs exploding around her and an even stranger sight—the words 'Anti-Toad League' now adorned her robes.
"I heard that Gryffindor students recently donated a large sum of Galleons to the Anti-Toad League to purchase dung bombs to deal with someone. I didn't expect it to be true," a Hufflepuff boy commented to his companion, pinching his nose to block the stench. He seemed unusually excited, and a crowd of onlookers gagged at the sight of Umbridge.
Amidst this chaos, the tension between the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams continued to escalate as the upcoming Quidditch match drew near. Conflicts between the two houses became more frequent, and every day, several students were sent to the hospital wing due to malicious incidents. Madam Pomfrey was struggling to keep up with the influx of injured students.
Umbridge's detention room was always full, and she eventually resorted to using an empty classroom to punish the unruly students.
However, on the first day, the keyhole was stuffed with gum, and someone threw a laughing potion made from Aliott leaves into the room, causing the punished students to laugh uncontrollably at Umbridge.
(End of Chapter)
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