At the time, the only person who could communicate with Fudge was Kael, so the answer was obvious.

In this week alone, Kael managed to earn extra house points almost every class.

Five points for writing a good Transfiguration assignment, five points for handing Professor Sprout a shovel, five points for helping correct a classmate’s gesture in Charm class...

Though the points weren’t many, they piled up quickly, and by the end of the week, Hufflepuff’s hourglass had surged over a hundred points, leaving the other three houses far behind with an absolute advantage.

"It seems Professor McGonagall has completely given up on competing for this year’s House Cup." Fred sighed as he looked at the hourglass in the auditorium, "If this keeps up, I’m afraid we’ll never catch up to Hufflepuff."

"No, there’s still a chance," Kael smiled from the side, "As long as you don’t lose any more points."

Since their first year, these two have been one of Gryffindor’s main point-losers, and though they became much cleverer in their seventh year, it had been a while since they got caught breaking school rules.

But as luck would have it, right after the Christmas holidays, the fifth-year courses increased, and their Skiving Snackbox became extremely popular, sometimes causing over a dozen students in a single class to vomit, have enlarged tongues, or experience other symptoms.

This unusual situation naturally caught Professor McGonagall’s attention, who then traced it back to Fred and George, the culprits selling the Skiving Snackbox.

The end result was predictable; each of them had fifty points deducted, causing Gryffindor’s ranking to plummet from third to last.

"You should really talk to Snape about this," Fred clearly didn’t want to take the blame, "If he deducted fewer points from us, Gryffindor might be in first place."

That was indeed true; Snape had always been ruthless when it came to deducting points from Gryffindor.

And ever since Umbridge left, he had reclaimed his spot as the most hated professor at Gryffindor, with second place pending.

...

Umbridge’s departure chased away some of the gloom hovering over Hogwarts, and the dreary March finally saw a glimmer of sunshine towards the end, even the relentless rain and wind of April seemed a bit easier to bear.

The only downside was that Quidditch players had to train in damp conditions on muddy fields.

Even with waterproof badges, it was still quite an uncomfortable ordeal.

Up until the day before the Easter holidays, Dumbledore hadn’t returned, and no one knew why he had been gone for more than a month.

However, they did get some news about Umbridge.

"Oh, look at this..." Cedric pushed a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of Kael.

[Ministry of Magic Staff Successfully Thwart Death Eaters’ Plot]

The headline was eye-catching, accompanied by a photo of Umbridge, who had finally taken off her pink cardigan sweater, standing on a street with her wand in hand.

"Look at this..."

Cedric read from the newspaper:

"This morning, a Muggle street experienced a pipe explosion incident, causing quite a stir among Muggles and injuring dozens.

"Senior Deputy Minister Dolores Jane Umbridge quickly led a team to the scene. According to investigations, the culprit was identified as the recently-escaped Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, who was seen fleeing the area in a panic.

"Antonin Dolohov is known to be an extremely cruel Death Eater, previously charged with multiple counts of using the Killing Curse and attacking Muggles.

"It’s not hard to guess that his purpose this time was to announce his return to everyone."

Deputy Minister Umbridge, who led the team, said, "We received the report too late. If we had gotten it earlier, we might have caught him."

"She urged people to be vigilant. Antonin Dolohov is a dastardly Death Eater. If anyone spots him, they must immediately notify the Ministry of Magic.

"This is a unique period, and only by working together and standing united can we hope to win the upcoming battle."

Cedric put down the newspaper, smacking his lips, and said, "Is she really chasing Death Eaters?"

He couldn’t have imagined the power-hungry Umbridge had such abilities back when he was in school.

Catching Death Eaters... Cedric simply couldn’t associate such an act with Umbridge.

"Who knows..." Kael shrugged.

He remembered last time he went to the Ministry of Magic; he happened to chat with Mr. Weasley out of boredom and accidentally saw a document on his desk.

It mentioned someone playing a nasty joke, causing a garbage bin on a Muggle street to explode. It was right after work hours, and the flying rubbish hit many people.

It was about fifteen or sixteen people, Kael couldn’t quite recall.

He remembered it because Mr. Weasley had complained that higher-ups didn’t take the issue seriously and insisted on addressing other problems first.

Kael wasn’t sure if this related to today’s report, but based on the content... the street exploded, a dozen Muggles injured, all critical information matched.