Ants on the Same Rope, Picking a Fight

"Do you have any evidence?" the blond Hufflepuff asked again, sounding somewhat aggressive.

"Hehe!" Aaron shook his head, amused. "This student..."

"Zacharias Smith".

"Well, Mr. Smith, you remind me of someone," Aaron said with a meaningful smile. "Cornelius Fudge, the current Minister for Magic and Dolores Umbridge's boss."

He always liked to evade certain things, calling Barty Crouch's death a disappearance, the Death Eater ' attack a prank, and Voldemort's resurrection nonsense.

After the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore than once about the seriousness of the situation and urged him to prepare, but each time he would respond with, "You have no evidence."

Does the lack of evidence necessarily mean that the event didn't happen?

"Uh... Aaron, Smith is just being suspicious," said Macmillan, the Prefect of Hufflepuff.

"I don't have any evidence, but if you still don't believe me..." Aaron pointed to the bar's door, "The door is over there, goodbye."

The crowd looked at each other, but no one left, not even Zacharias.

"No one's leaving?" Aaron sighed regretfully. "That's really disappointing."

"We need to learn how to protect ourselves," Hermione continued. "If you want to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts, we'll have to plan how often we'll meet and where we'll meet."

"Did Gaius teach us?" asked Susan Bones, who had long braids of blonde hair.

"I suppose so!" Aaron said reluctantly. "Harry Potter will be my assistant."

"Great!" Fred and George laughed.

The others were also quite satisfied with this answer, after all, they had all seen Aaron and Harry's performance in the Triwizard Tournament, so teaching them wouldn't be a problem.

"It seems no one objects to us having Defense Against the Dark Arts," Hermione said with a hint of relief. "Then we need to discuss how long each class should be."

Aaron meant one class a week, each lasting no more than two hours.

"It can't conflict with our Quidditch training," Angelina said.

"And ours too," Smith said.

"I'm sure we can find a time that suits everyone," Hermione said.

"Another problem is where we'll have the classes," Aaron said. "Not that I'm being a spoilsport, Dolores Umbridge probably won't allow so many of us to gather together to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"We definitely need to find a place," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Let's all look together, and I'll send a message to everyone once we've decided on a time and place."

As she spoke, she took out a piece of parchment and a quill from her bag, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "I think we should write down our names."

Firstly, it confirms the number of people, and secondly, signing means...

"In the same boat?" Aaron glanced at the parchment, his eyes showing interest, then looked at Hermione. "Is that what you mean?"

Hermione nodded slightly. "I know this is quite sudden, but it's also very necessary."

"Uh..." Zacharias said with a complicated expression, "I think our Prefect will let us know when the gathering will be."

"I disagree as well," Draco said dismissively. "It would be disastrous if this list fell into Dolores Umbridge's hands."

"I'll keep it safe," Aaron said. "Do you have any objections?"

Draco paused for a moment, then reluctantly shut his mouth.

Aaron was the first to sign his name on the parchment, followed by Harry, Draco, and Celine. Draco and Xilin exchanged a glance and reluctantly wrote their names down.

With someone taking the lead, the others no longer hesitated and lined up to write down their names as if signing a contract.

As everyone left the Hog's Head, Draco looked resentful on the way back, as if someone owed him a large sum of money.

"I don't understand. I can tolerate attending classes with those guys, since it's not much different from usual, but the list...?"

"Calm down, Draco." Aaron took out the parchment and looked at the name on it in the sunlight. "This contract is very crude, but it still has some binding force."

"A contract?" Xilin frowned slightly. "No wonder I felt something was off when I signed it!"

"What kind of contract is this?" Draco asked worriedly.

"If you secretly inform on someone, you'll get a pockmarked face. It's not too serious, but you'll be despised by everyone."

So don't write your name on paper casually in the future, unless the paper is your own.

"Luckily, you had the list, otherwise I definitely wouldn't have signed it," Draco said, pursing his lips.

"But Hermione is thinking too simply," Aaron said meaningfully. "This piece of paper can at most guarantee that there won't be any problems inside, but Dolores Umbridge will find out sooner or later."

"I don't think they care about getting caught," Xilin said thoughtfully.

"I think so too." Aaron nodded in agreement. "Breaking school rules is commonplace in Gryffindor, but if I have this list, then there's room for manipulation."

"What's the meaning?"

"It's better if you don't know."

The next day, a notice with a strange name appeared on the bulletin board:

Hogwarts High Inquisitor Decree

Effective immediately, all student organizations, associations, teams, or clubs are hereby dissolved.

Hereinafter, an organization, association, team, and club are defined as a regular gathering of three or more students.

High Inquisitor (Professor Dolores Umbridge) requests a reorganization

No organization, association, team, or club may exist without the approval of High Inquisitor; any such organization found to be operating without such approval will be immediately expelled.

The above regulations comply with Educational Decree No. 20.

High Inquisitor – Dolores Umbridge

"My goodness, that's something else." Aaron couldn't help but click his tongue. "I knew this couldn't be kept secret for long, but I didn't expect it to last even a day."

"That's not a bad thing," Draco chuckled. "Perhaps you can use this as an excuse to decline teaching so many people!"

"You're overthinking it. They're determined to go against Dolores Umbridge. They won't give up unless they get caught red-handed."

While eating breakfast, Hermione, Harry, Ron kept looking around, seemingly observing who was behaving strangely. When they saw Draco and Xilin eating normally, a hint of disappointment inevitably flashed in the eyes of all three of them.

"Stop looking, no one inside has leaked anything," Aaron cautioned. "We're having a meeting in a bar, where there are lots of people and it's normal for guests to talk nonsense after drinking."

"You mean..." Harry asked, his face darkening, "That she really knows?"

"Obviously, I don't believe it's a coincidence."

"The question is, what should we do next?" Fred walked over and glanced at the Long Table of the other houses. "Everyone else is feeling uneasy and anxious."

"We still have to keep going," Harry said firmly.

"I knew you'd say that," George said, patting Harry on the shoulder with satisfaction.

"I don't really care," Aaron shrugged. "I'm just responsible for being the teacher. Just let me know when the time and place are confirmed."

A notice in Umbridge ruined the mood for many people, causing them to be distracted all day.

During the History of Magic class, the injured Hedwig flew to the window and brought a letter with her.

When Harry saw that it was injured, he quickly asked Professor Binns for leave and took it to Professor Grubbly-Plank for treatment.

Professor McGonagall happened to be in the office, and her heart jumped when she saw Harry, since it was during class time and he shouldn't be there.

"Potter, please don't tell me you're in solitary confinement again."

"No, Professor," Harry said, pointing to Hedwig, "My owl is injured."

"Injured?" Professor McGonagall looked at Hedwig, whose feathers were particularly disheveled and one of its wings was broken.

"It may have been attacked," Professor Grubbly-Plank said. "But there are very few birds that attack near schools."

"Potter," Professor McGonagall said, as if she had just realized something, staring at Harry with a very serious expression, "How far did it fly?"

"I don't know," Harry said guiltily. "Maybe it flew in from London!"

Professor McGonagall immediately realized that Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix was in London, Sirius Black had been stationed there because he couldn't show his face due to the Ministry of Magic's warrant for his arrest.

Professor Grubbly-Plank carefully examined Hedwig's wings. "Leave them here; they should heal in a day or two."

"Thank you, Professor."

"Nothing."

Harry had just stepped out of the office when Professor McGonagall chased after him. "Your letter."

"I almost forgot."

"Harry, the communication channels inside and outside Hogwarts may, no, have already been monitored," Professor McGonagall said seriously. "It's best not to write any letters during this time."

"I understand," Harry said weakly.

The bell had already rung, but instead of heading to the History of Magic classroom, he went to the Potions Classroom.

Ron and Hermione caught up with them halfway there. "How's Hedwig?"

"I gave it to Professor Grubbly-Plank, and it will be cured soon."

Oh, by the way, Professor McGonagall just reminded me that Hogwarts ' communications channels are being monitored.

The two weren't particularly shocked by this; it wasn't surprising at all that Umbridge would do something like this.

"Who wrote the letter?" Ron asked.

"Just a cold," Harry said, opening the scroll. It contained only one sentence: Today, same time, same place.

"I reckon we'll be stuck guarding the fireplace in the Common Room tonight."

"No one has read this letter, has anyone?" Hermione said worriedly.

"I don't think so!" Harry said somewhat uncertainly. "At least it was sealed properly before I opened it."

"Magic can do this very easily."

"But we use a code, and no one but us knows the old time and the old place."

"But what if someone is monitoring the Floo Network?" Hermione's worries were no less. "We can't notify him."

Harry was speechless for a moment, and his mood became somewhat gloomy.

He became even more agitated after arriving at the Potions Classroom, because Umbridge was there too.

"You'll all notice we have a guest today," Professor Snape said meaningfully. Umbridge, who was holding a writing tablet, immediately smiled kindly and waved to the students.

"Today we'll continue preparing the Enhancement Potion. You'll see the mixture you left over from last class. If all goes well, it should be finished by the weekend," Professor Snape said, waving his Wand. The next steps for preparing the enhancer appeared on the blackboard.

Following the steps, the students added ingredients to their respective crucibles, controlled the heat, and patiently stirred...

Snape was patrolling the area, while Umbridge was occasionally jotting something down on her whiteboard, and gradually a smile crept onto her lips.

"Professor Snape, there seems to be some disrespectful behavior in your class..."

"Harry Potter," Snape said instinctively, then turned around and glared at him. "You should be adding salamander blood instead of pomegranate juice right now. Gryffindor loses points."

"Uh... Professor Snape, I..."

"What? Professor Umbridge doesn't think the points deducted are enough?" Snape said meaningfully. "Potter. Potter just made a mistake in the steps. If the conclusion is incorrect, I will punish him again."

"Professor Snape," Umbridge took a deep breath, "I'm not talking about him, but..."

"Me?" Aaron pointed to himself, then rolled his eyes.

"It's you, Gaius Sr." Umbridge said smugly. "Everyone else is preparing Enhancement Potion, but what are you writing on the paper?"

"None of your business." Aaron said speechlessly, casually tearing off a page of the Magic Array and putting it in Abei's pocket.

"When it comes to my affairs, I am High Inquisitor dispatched by the Ministry of Magic."

Just because Professor Snape didn't notice your breach of classroom rules doesn't mean I didn't.

"Professor, didn't you tell her?"

"Not yet," Snape said dismissively.

"Tell me what?" Umbridge asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Many Potions can be successfully prepared by Gaius himself long ago, so I gave him special permission to do other things during my class, as long as he doesn't disturb the other students."

"Is... is this appropriate?"

"Is it inappropriate?" Snape feigned ignorance. "But as far as I know Defense Against the Dark Arts, Gaius Jr. seemed to have..."

"It's appropriate, absolutely appropriate," Umbridge said immediately. "I was too hasty this time. It's only right that outstanding students should have some privileges."

"I don't mind," Aaron waved his hand. "But Professor Umbridge, this kind of thing might happen in other classes as well, so I hope you won't mind."

Upon hearing this, Umbridge felt a surge of rage.

She's High Inquisitor, and you really don't give her any face in front of everyone!

She forced a stiff smile, then looked at Abei, who was dozing on Aaron's table, a glint of light flashing in her eyes, "Gaius, is that your pet?"

"Obviously."

Umbridge raised an eyebrow slightly. "The process of brewing Potions is extremely dangerous. You left the pet on the table; what if..."

"Professor Dumbledore has agreed," Aaron interrupted. "If you feel it's inappropriate, you can go to him."

I know you are High Inquisitor, but as of now, Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster.

Umbridge:...