The morning sunshine was just right.
Quite a few students left their dormitories to enjoy their last days on campus that term.
Beside the Black Lake, several students were discussing that day's Daily Prophet headline.
Just then, a Gryffindor student,
clutching a copy of The Quibbler, strode over.
He wore a complicated expression, as though he were holding back laughter, or had discovered some earth-shattering secret.
"You actually believe what the Daily Prophet is saying?"
He smugly handed over his copy of The Quibbler.
"Look at this. This is the truth. Luna was handing these out in the Castle just now..."
Several nearby students were drawn over as well.
A Ravenclaw boy wearing round glasses held up the magazine and read its front-page headline in an exaggerated voice:
"'Fudge's Plush Toy Army? Behind the Ministry of Magic's "Werewolf Friends Plan": Assembling Werewolf Special Forces, or Does Our Minister Just Want Pets?'"
"Pfft..."
A Hufflepuff girl drinking juice spat it straight out, choking until her face turned red.
"A plush toy army? Hahaha..."
Beneath the headline was a crude but striking cartoon:
Cornelius Fudge, dressed in a general's uniform, smugly inspected a line of werewolves baring their teeth, their eyes glowing green, against a backdrop of burning villages and a shattered Ministry of Magic emblem.
A Hufflepuff girl covered her mouth and said in surprise:
"Merlin... isn't this drawing a bit... too blunt?"
The boy who had read the headline turned a page and said casually:
"Blunt? This hits the nail on the head! Though I somehow feel Minister Fudge should be replaced with Faw-mmph, mmph, mmph..."
Before he could finish, a boy beside him clapped a hand over his mouth.
And whispered:
"The holidays aren't over yet. I don't want a mountain of homework over the break."
Another boy beside