Chapter 580 Happy Cooperation

Monday, 3pm.

Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Before the course officially started, the little wizards always held on to a slim hope, imagining that Professor Umbridge's abscess might not be cured yet, or even the infection might become more serious. They didn't expect her to die, at least. Unable to attend class...

The wonderful fantasies of the little wizards came to nothing, the school bell rang, and Umbridge walked into the classroom with clattering footsteps, wearing her black velvet bow, full of ambition.

Loren was somewhat surprised to find that all the abscess scars on Umbridge's face had faded, and the prognosis was good, leaving no traces. Although Madam Pomfrey can prepare some basic potions, the more complex potions are mainly provided by Professor Snape. He didn't poison her potions?

"Good afternoon, classmates."

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," everyone drawled back.

"Please put away your wand..."

The little wizard in the classroom did nothing because no one took out the wand at all.

Umbridge glanced around the classroom with a false smile on her face, and her gentle eyes showed a bit of resentment from time to time: "I know what you are expecting. I have disappointed many students. Although it has been delayed for a few days, I will be back as soon as the weekend is over." At that time, Professor Snape went out to purchase materials for a special potion, which was very effective for my injuries..."

Loren and Hermione exchanged a look.

"I heard that there is another student organization in the school, the Defense Association..." Umbridge's eyes stayed on Harry, her expression was intriguing, "I would like to ask, which students participated in the activities of the Defense Association?"

Most of the students raised their hands.

Umbridge narrowed her eyes slightly, covered her mouth to cover her ugly face, and then laughed sharply: "Please forgive me, I feel sorry for you when I think of your precious time being spent on the meaningless Defense Association... Although It’s not your fault, you are still immature children and have not yet learned to distinguish between what is good for you and what is bad for you.”

"..."

Loren looked at Harry behind him and saw that he had clenched his fists, but he was still awake and had not been carried away by anger.

What was unexpected was that Neville, who was sitting in the third row, raised his hand and shouted: "The Defense Association is not a bad thing!"

A few veins popped up on Umbridge's forehead. She pursed her lips and said with a smile: "I think I have emphasized many times that in my class, you must raise your hand to ask for permission before speaking... Excuse me?"

"Neville Longbottom."

"Okay, Mr. Longbottom, I will deduct five points from Gryffindor for your recklessness."

"Can I say it now?"

"You already said..."

Umbridge shook her head, interrupted his indignant refutation, and made a well-meaning expression for the sake of the students: "It was not my intention to waste precious class time arguing with you about the merits of the Defense Association... clever Students will quickly understand that the most important time for you in fifth grade now is to prepare for O.W.L.s. How many useful things can a student organization association teach? "

"If you ask me, Dumbledore should agree to the Ministry of Magic's education order proposal and dissolve all student organizations, associations, groups and clubs. I mean, regular gatherings of three or more students... Of course, this does not It’s not about depriving you of your extracurricular life. As long as your gathering is reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Magic, all activities can be held as usual.”

Neville raised his right hand unconvinced, and Umbridge smiled proudly, pretending not to see it, and turned to look in the other direction: "Not to mention that the establishment of this Defense Association is redundant. The Ministry of Magic will not Let no danger come near, the Ministry of Magic will protect every good wizard who abides by the law..."

Loren saw her eyes moving over, facing his direction, and couldn't help but raise her hands.

Umbridge felt that this man was different from Scarhead and his friends. He was a sensible person, so she raised her hand with relief and said, "Mr. Morgan, do you have anything to say?"

Loren teased lazily: "Professor, I heard that you led a team to ambush the dark wizards in Hogsmeade last weekend, but they escaped."

Umbridge was silent for two seconds, hid one hand under her sleeve, pinched it hard twice, and explained with a smile: "Those people can't be called dark wizards at all, they are just a few thieves who hide their heads and show their tails." , was frightened by the Ministry of Magic and fled in panic."

Loren said in a weird tone: "Then our safety is very insecure. The event weekend in Hogsmeade is coming soon, so we are very insecure."

"Don't worry, Mr. Morgan. In the name of Senior Deputy Minister, I guarantee that the Ministry of Magic will definitely catch those little thieves before the event weekend!"

"I'm looking forward to that scene." Loren nodded and smiled.

Umbridge couldn't help but look at him a few times, and couldn't tell which side he was on for a while. She arranged the content of today's lesson in confusion:

"Please turn to page 34 of "Theory of Magical Defense" and read Chapter 3 "Reasons for Non-Offensive Responses to Magical Attacks". Please do not talk while reading..."

The whole book is hundreds of pages thick and has enough chapters for them to read in class throughout the school year.

In fact, except for a certain Miss Granger, none of the students in the class were reading seriously. Some took out homework from other subjects to copy, and some took out completely unrelated extracurricular books and sandwiched them between "Magic Defense Theory". With relish...

Loren has already started writing a nightmare in which Freddy resurrects and starts killing again.

The bell rang.

Umbridge picked up her textbook and walked out, as if she didn't want to stay in the classroom any longer.

Ron turned around and kicked the leg of Harry's chair with his foot, and said excitedly: "I thought you would stand up and scold her. Did you see the way she looked at you? It was like she was looking forward to a fire dragon that would jump out at any time, expecting you to jump out and spew out evil, despicable, and sensational lies, and then put you in detention!"

"If it were me before, I might have done that, but as long as I think that I might be emotionally excited and Voldemort might take advantage of me, her words just make me feel ridiculous."

Harry shook his head. At this point, he paused and looked at Ron, as if he was considering how to start, "Speaking of dealing with Voldemort, "Ron, I have a question for you..."

"That what..."

Ron seemed to remember something, glanced at his expression, and said awkwardly: "Harry, you go back to the common room first, I have an appointment with McMillan to discuss goalkeeping tactics, so I'm leaving first!"

"Why does he look so strange?"

Looking at his slightly flustered back, Harry turned to look at his other two friends, and said a little blankly: "I also want to ask Ginny what her last class is..."

Loren and Hermione lowered their heads and silently packed up their textbooks, their mouths tightly pursed into a straight line, feeling a little uncomfortable.

...

At five minutes to eight, Snape walked out of the dim underground corridor, walked up the marble stairs, came to the door of Umbridge's office, and knocked on the door gently.

"Come in."

Thinking that this sweet and greasy girl's voice was made by a middle-aged toad, Snape couldn't help but frowned, and every pore on his body revealed disgust.

Pushing the door open and entering, he subconsciously scanned the room, and the feeling of disgust and disgust became stronger.

He was quite familiar with this office. He had seen the smiling posters left by Gilderoy Lockhart on the wall, and the large floor-to-ceiling mirror. When Remus Lupin lived here, he would occasionally come to deliver the carefully brewed wolfsbane potion. At that time, the room was always filled with low-level and interesting evil animals, locked in cages or water tanks in the corners.

Last year, when Barty Crouch Jr. was in office, there was also a dangerous creature in the box, a retired lame Auror...

Now, the whole room has completely changed. Everything is covered with lace drapes and tablecloths, and there are several vases filled with dried flowers, each placed on a separate small cushion. There are decorative porcelain plates on the wall, painted with colorful big cats, and the cats wear various bows around their necks. The wallpaper has been changed to a pink girlish color...

It's simply disgusting.

"Good evening, Professor Snape." Umbridge, who was sitting behind the desk, looked up at him with a cheesy smile on her face. She was wearing a bright red printed robe, the color of which blended with the tablecloth on the desk behind her, and it was almost impossible to tell them apart.

Snape retracted his gaze and said lightly: "I'll deliver the last potion."

Umbridge's bulging eyes narrowed, and a strange smile appeared on her face: "Oh, I thought I was healed."

"Clean up the remaining toxins, and the wound will be considered healed only when it stops itching completely." Snape put a small bottle of potion on the table, as if he didn't want to stay for a second longer, "Put the potion here, I'm leaving first."

"Please wait a moment, can you sit for a while?"

Umbridge still had a strange smile on her face, "I have some questions to ask you, Professor Snape, you don't have to be so defensive against me. Based on my two weeks of investigation, I know your situation at Hogwarts. Not much better than me, is it? "

Snape said coldly: "I am only responsible for potions."

"Oh, of course..."

Umbridge grabbed the potion bottle and pulled it out with her thick and short fingers. The fingers with a lot of ugly old-fashioned rings were very inconvenient. She took some effort to pull out the cork and pour the potion into her mouth, like a toad swallowing a particularly delicious and juicy fly. She grinned and said, "The potion matter has been successfully completed. Now we have time to talk about other matters. Don't refuse the kindness of the Ministry of Magic, Professor Snape, please sit down. "

Snape lowered his eyes slightly and looked at her, and a few traces of sarcasm flashed in his cold black eyes. He sat down calmly.

"I checked some old information, which shows that you had just graduated from Hogwarts and had just made a name for yourself in the field of potions. Then you were caught up in the trouble of the Death Eaters. It was Dumbledore who came forward to vouch for you and saved you from the trial, right?"

"Yes." Snape replied softly, with an inexplicable look on his face.

"As a reward, you stayed in Hogwarts as a potion master and became a professor of potions..." Umbridge said softly, "Damocles Belby, the winner of the Order of Merlin, has revealed on many occasions that you have given him a lot of inspiration, not just in the wolfsbane potion... With your ability, you should have the same honor and reputation as him, but now you can only be trapped in this school and kill time..."

Snape did not say a word, the sarcasm in his eyes became more intense, but his face pretended to be moved.

"I can cooperate with you and take back what belongs to you for you, power, wealth, fame..."

"We can be more honest with each other..."

Snape looked at her swollen face, and his disgust reached its peak. He didn't want to talk to her any more, so he knocked on the table and interrupted: "I heard that Professor Umbridge is tracking down some dark wizards who are hiding their whereabouts?"

"Do you have any suggestions?" Umbridge said with a slight smile in her voice.

"The Potions Professor will always know some people who cannot be named. They may not be famous, but they can always find out things that most people don't know..." Snape spoke slowly.

"They can help me find those dark wizards!"

Umbridge exclaimed in surprise. As the Senior Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Magic, she certainly knew the unknown secrets here.

The potions in regular potion shops are ordinary and expensive. Those who have been hiding in the shadows all year round can only order from private channels if they want to get some rare potions, or illegal potions, and right in front of them is a skilled potion master!

Snape seemed to know exactly what she was thinking, and the corner of his mouth curved slightly: "I can introduce you, but you must abide by their rules, follow their price, or... barter."

"Of course, I understand." Umbridge's swollen eyes already reflected a bright future.

Find those dark wizards, connect them with Dumbledore, sink Dumbledore's reputation into the mire, and gain political resources. Maybe you can become the next Minister of Magic!

The broad toad-like mouth grinned brightly, and Umbridge asked with a bright smile: "What about you, Professor Snape, what do you want from the Ministry of Magic?"

"As you just said, power, fame, wealth..." Snape's eyes swept over the smiling face and said meaningfully, "Maybe there are also precious materials for potion research, what do you think? "

Umbridge felt it was a bit ridiculous. She was so confused when making potions that she even listed potion ingredients with power. She nodded: "The Ministry of Magic will not let you down!"

"Then we'll see you on the weekend."

“Happy to work with!”

"..."

Snape closed the wooden door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts office and glanced at the night sky outside the railing. The moon and stars were hidden in the thick clouds, and it was as dark as ink without a trace of light.

After a moment of silence, he shook his head and walked towards the basement.

Nothing can stop him from developing a drug to bring the dead back to life...