Chapter 1068: Total Defeat
Chapter 1068: Total Defeat
"Where did Dumbledore go?"
Umbridge asked point-blank as she saw Harry Potter drink the Veritaserum.
"Don't know," Harry shook his head.
"Who knows where Dumbledore went?" Umbridge frowned and continued to interrogate.
"Albert Anderson knows where Dumbledore is," Harry replied simply.
"They're in cahoots?" Umbridge asked excitedly, feeling that she had caught a big fish.
"No," Harry continued, "Dumbledore invited Albert Anderson to join the Order of the Phoenix, but he refused."
"Who are the members of the Order of the Phoenix?" Umbridge asked.
"Sirius Black."
"Any other members?"
"Not sure," Harry shook his head.
"Who told you this?"
"Sirius Black told me."
"Where is Sirius Black?" Umbridge felt that things were not going in a favorable direction.
"In..."
To everyone's surprise, as Harry Potter opened his mouth to speak, something seemed to erase the specific location from his words.
"What's going on?" Umbridge asked.
"It's probably some kind of secrecy magic," suggested Gawain Robards, "like the Unbreakable Vow."
"Is Sirius Black's residence protected by an Unbreakable Vow?" Umbridge asked tentatively.
"Yes."
"Who is the Bonder?"
"Dumbledore."
"Then why did you say Albert Anderson knows where Dumbledore is?"
Umbridge realized that she couldn't get any useful information from Harry Potter. No wonder he had drunk the Veritaserum without any hesitation.
Turns out, he truly didn't know anything, or at least nothing of real importance.
"Sirius said that Albert Anderson is a powerful diviner. He once paid a hefty price to have Anderson locate Peter Pettigrew, and thus succeeded in taking his revenge," Harry explained.
The Aurors widened their eyes and quickly exchanged glances, their hopes of finding the escaped Death Eaters rekindled.
It wasn't that the Aurors didn't want to capture the Death Eaters, but they simply had no idea where those fugitives were hiding.
However, they didn't know that Harry was secretly laughing at them in his mind.
A bunch of bullies who only picked on the weak would surely meet their match when faced with someone even more unreasonable than themselves.
This would be interesting.
"Does Dumbledore have any secret plans or important matters in motion?" Umbridge continued her interrogation.
"Sirius said that Dumbledore formed the Order of the Phoenix to fight against Voldemort," Harry continued nonchalantly, ignoring the gasps of the Aurors around him. "The Order is trying to stop Voldemort from obtaining something within the Ministry of Magic, supposedly a very terrifying weapon."
"What weapon?"
"Don't know."
"Anything else? What about Dumbledore's Army?" Umbridge asked impatiently.
"There's never been a Dumbledore's Army," Harry said expressionlessly.
"That's impossible! What about the DA then?" Umbridge asked angrily.
"DA is the abbreviation for Defense Association," Harry explained.
"The illegal organization you formed?" Umbridge was persistent in framing Harry.
"No, that was a group formed by Albert Anderson," Harry honestly answered.
"Albert Anderson formed that group to oppose me?"
"No, the Defense Association is a study group aimed at helping students achieve better grades in their Defense Against the Dark Arts exams."
Umbridge's face turned uglier as she realized the story was not unfolding as she had imagined.
"Then what about your gatherings?"
"Everyone thought that the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes were poorly taught and wouldn't help us master the subject. Some even feared they wouldn't pass the exams. So, we wanted Anderson to continue hosting the Defense Association gatherings, but he refused. Later, with Cedric's and others' efforts, we planned to reorganize the Defense Association, and eventually renamed it to 'Defense Against the Dark Arts Study Group'."
The fake smile on Umbridge's face completely vanished as she sneaked a glance at the stiff-faced Aurors. She quickly changed the topic, her eyes narrowing at Harry, "What about Hagrid? What secrets is he hiding?"
"Hagrid went to contact the giants at Dumbledore's request, hoping that they would remain neutral in the upcoming war and not get involved in the wizarding conflict. However, Hagrid encountered a group of Death Eaters led by Walton McNair in the giants' camp and was attacked by them. He barely escaped and returned to Britain injured," Harry explained.
The Aurors exchanged looks, their brows furrowed as they hadn't expected Walton McNair to be a Death Eater.
However, Walton McNair's name was indeed on the list of Death Eaters provided by Potter.
Umbridge's face darkened, and she asked in a gloomy tone, "What secrets is Hagrid hiding in the Forbidden Forest?"
"He's probably helping Dumbledore manage a secret base," Harry replied.
"A secret base?" Umbridge's eyes lit up, and she eagerly asked for more details.
"Sirius said that Dumbledore has a secret base in the Forbidden Forest, and it holds a secret weapon that can weaken Voldemort's power," Harry revealed.
"Where is this secret base located?" Umbridge inquired further.
"Don't know. It's said to be in a dangerous area within the Forbidden Forest. Only Hagrid has the ability to traverse the forest and reach it. Others can only Apparate there," Harry answered.
"If such a place exists, it shouldn't be too far away, otherwise Hagrid wouldn't have enough time to come and go. I assume Hagrid hasn't been skipping classes, has he?" Gawain Robards interjected with his analysis.
"No!"
Just as Umbridge was pondering what Harry meant by a 'secret weapon', a burst of wicked laughter filled the room.
A putrid stench assaulted their nostrils.
An odd-looking bucket was overturned on an Auror's head, and some filthy substance trickled down from beneath it, filling the entire office with a terrible stench.
"Hee hee hee! I heard you want to kick me out!"
A malicious little dwarf sat cross-legged in mid-air, staring at the people in the room and cackling. In his hand, he held a wand, tapping it on the head of the Auror whose head was covered by the bucket.
"Peeves, hurry up!" Umbridge shrieked.
The Aurors were quick to react, attempting to expel Peeves.
However, Harry's heart was wailing inside; he wished Peeves had waited for him to leave before appearing! Nonetheless, Harry endured the stench and continued his act, even though Umbridge and her crew might not have noticed him. He couldn't afford to ruin his plans now, or things would only get more troublesome.
One dung bomb after another was hurled at Umbridge, and as for the expulsion curses coming from the Aurors, Peeves didn't care a bit; there were actually very few spells that could effectively affect him.
Peeves stuck his tongue out at the crowd and then procured a bucket of filth from somewhere, dumping it onto the Aurors and laughing uproariously.
The space in the Defense Against the Dark Arts office wasn't small, but it wasn't huge either. Peeves' antics undoubtedly disgusted everyone in the room.
Just then, the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts office was suddenly flung open, and several Aurors with their heads shielded by the Blasting Curse barged in, hurling various curses at Peeves.
"A bunch of idiots!"
Peeves stuck his tongue out at them again and then disappeared with a giggle.
The next moment, the office door suddenly closed.
"Quick, open the door, Alohomora!"
Umbridge felt like she was being suffocated by the stench in the room, and she lunged at the door, trying to escape this foul place.
However, the door seemed to be sealed shut, and even Alohomora didn't work! Before the Aurors could use a spell to blast the wooden door open, Peeves reappeared in the office. This time, he had an even more sinister smile on his face, and he was holding two strange flowerpots. Peeves smashed one of them toward Umbridge, but it was shattered by a Reducto Curse.
"No, it's Mandrake roots! Stop him quickly!" Gawain Robards exclaimed as he saw the plant debris on the floor, finally realizing what Peeves was up to.
"It's too late!"
Peeves smashed the flowerpot onto the ground, and as the flowerpot shattered, he clutched his stomach and laughed hysterically, laughing so hard that tears almost fell from his eyes.
"Hee hee hee, this is so fun, it's just too fun!"
The flowerpot fell to the ground but didn't break. However, the other wizards all covered their ears as if something terrible had just happened.
"Damn it!"
The Aurors' noses were almost twisted out of shape, and they knew they had been played for fools by Peeves.
Before they could draw their wands again to expel Peeves, he pulled out a strange metal ball and dropped it on the ground.
The metal ball cracked open, and a terrifying wail emanated from within.
The expressions on Umbridge and the Aurors' faces froze, and they clamped their hands over their ears, but it was too late.
A large number of people in the Defense Against the Dark Arts office fainted, including Harry. However, for Harry, passing out might have been a fortunate turn of events, as he no longer had to endure the putrid stench.
"Hee hee! You actually wanted to kick me out? Eat shit!" Peeves stood with his hands on his hips, laughing even more wildly.
"Who taught you that?"
Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, wearing ear guards and sporting Bubble-Head Charms, entered the foul-smelling room and looked at the triumphant Peeves, exchanging glances.
Especially the twins, their feelings were particularly complex. They had originally thought they would have to leave Hogwarts while taking the blame, but they never expected Peeves to single-handedly take care of Umbridge and a group of Aurors.
"Immature Mandrake roots, I bet this was definitely Albert's idea," George said as he picked up the Mandrake root from the floor and gestured to the others.
"Who knows, it might even have been cultivated by Albert himself. I remember him mentioning that Mandrake roots are quite a practical medicinal ingredient," Fred said as he waved his wand, conjuring a flowerpot, and replanted the Mandrake root.
Lee Jordan was in charge of moving the unconscious Harry out of the room.
"Change their wands, let's teach them a lesson," George said as he patted Fred's shoulder, pointing to the wands.
"Feels like this is a losing deal," Fred muttered, but he eventually agreed and replaced the original wands with identical fake wands.
"And turn Umbridge into a toad."
George took out a bottle of Polyjuice Potion from his pocket and poured it into Umbridge's mouth. Only after seeing her transform into a toad did the three of them nod in satisfaction.
"I plan to send these photos to the Daily Prophet and other newspapers," Lee Jordan said as he took out a camera and snapped a few shots of Umbridge. "Do you think this will cause a huge uproar in the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts?"
"Who knows, let it happen. We don't care anyway," the Weasley twins replied nonchalantly. They actually wanted the school to be more chaotic, as that would make things more interesting.
Just as Albert had told them, this year at Hogwarts would be very interesting.
Indeed, it was interesting.
Just as the three of them were about to retreat, they saw Peeves reappear with a sealed bucket in his hand. He opened it and, with a large wooden spoon, began scooping and splashing foul liquid onto the people in the room.
"Was all of this prepared by Albert?" Fred asked in surprise.
"Who knows, but I'm sure they'll be infamous!" Lee Jordan replied, clearly enjoying the misfortune of others. He adjusted the camera to capture Peeves in the shot as well.
"I have a great idea. Why don't we turn this place into a swamp?"
As they spoke, the three of them smiled maliciously and poured Portable Swamps into Umbridge's office, slowly turning the Defense Against the Dark Arts office into a swamp.
"Oh right, we can't forget about this."
After doing all this, they erased their traces, carried Harry away from this foul place, and left behind a slowly spinning Umbridge, croaking, "I'm a toad."
(End of Chapter)
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