Chapter 178: Gilderoy Lockhart (Edited)

As Fish wallowed in the Sorting Hat, Dumbledore hurried back.

Although Fish had had free access to the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore had been alerted when he entered the Headmaster's room.

Normally, Dumbledore wouldn't be in such a hurry to get back, but the problem is....

School starts today!

If Fish stole the Sorting Hat and had the opening ceremony fail, it would have been a big joke.

Although Fish is said to be much more sensible now, after all he has a criminal record, and Dumbledore had to be careful.

"Meow~" (=ΦωΦ=).

Hearing Dumbledore enter, Fish poked his head through the Sorting Hat and greeted him.

"Hello, Fish."

Dumbledore responded with a smile, not looking at all anxious as before.

He walked over to his desk, opened a drawer and, as usual, pulled out a roach cone and handed it to Fish.

"Come and have a snack, I have plenty more."

"Meow!"

Fish immediately jumped out of the Sorting Hat, tapping the pile of cockroaches in Dumbledore's hand on the table with one paw, watching them scurry away on their six feet, then grabbing them, dragging them back, and releasing them with one paw.

After several repetitions, the piles of cockroaches stopped moving, and Fish picked them up and chewed them in his mouth.

After patiently watching Fish chew the cockroaches away, Dumbledore asked, "What brings you to my office today?"

Fish transformed into his cat-person form and sat cross-legged on the table, picking up his Sorting Hat and placing it on his head as he replied, "I've come to play with Fawkes and the Sorting Hat nya, I don't suppose Fish will be able to attend tonight's Sorting Ceremony?"

He remembered that at the beginning of last term, the seniors had not joined the newcomers, but had been seated in the Great Dining Hall early, and only a small group of them wore the Sorting Hat.

"So that's it."

Dumbledore was relieved to see that Fish wasn't going to make a scene at tonight's opening ceremony, it seemed that Professor McGonagall's education had paid off.

So he pulled out more sandwiches and handed them to Fish as he chatted.

"Did you have a good summer?"

"Yes! But it's too short, Albus, can't you make it longer?" ?ω?

"Hahahaha! I can't do it, although I had the same idea as you did when I was a student."

"Aren't you the principal? Fish already knows, what the headmaster means, is that this school is all his territory nya."

"Oh, it's still a bit different..."

Dumbledore, who was already thinking of making Fish his successor, took the opportunity to explain to him how the whole school worked and the concept of the Council.

Of course, Fish wasn't interested at all.

"Then it's really boring being headmaster nya." Fish, who had been prying during the process, commented with contempt at the end, "I can't believe you have to do so many boring things."

"Being headmaster of Hogwarts is already fun compared to most other professions," Dumbledore was in no hurry, he had plenty of time to hold Fish's interest, "Like meeting a charming and interesting student like you in the process." "

"But you're the one who captured Fish!" (ˇˇˇ).

Fish suddenly remembered how he had been harassed by the mean old man in front of him and immediately got up from the table, baring his teeth at him.

"Bad old man, you must be trying to trick Fish again! Fish won't fall for it." (●ΦДΦΦ●)

With that, he jumped off the table and ran for the door...with the Sorting Hat on his head.

"Ugh...kids these days, they think so fast...this old man can't keep up..."

Dumbledore laughed and shook his head, then snapped his finger and the Sorting Hat flew back into his hand.

After Fish left, the group of sleeping Headmasters opened their eyes and began to speak their minds.

It was Phineas, the only Slytherin Headmaster, who had a problem with the choice of Dumbledore's successor and had been trying to convince the other Headmasters to join him in opposing Dumbledore's move.

However, most of the other headmasters were indifferent, and a few, such as Dilys Derwent, who valued Fish's special spells, were very supportive of Dumbledore's ideas.

After Dumbledore shushed Phineas again, and seeing that it was almost lunchtime, he left his office and headed for the Great Hall on the first floor.

By this time, there were already several people seated in the Great Hall, not in their usual places, but at the same long table, as there were not many of them.

Fish, who was the most active eater, was naturally there, along with Professor McGonagall and the deans of the other three Houses, who had arrived early to prepare for school.

In addition, there was Hagrid, Filch, Madame Pince and Madam Pomfrey, the school staff and some of the professors who usually lived at Hogwarts.

In addition to these familiar faces, there was a handsome blond who was relatively new to the school, Gilderoy Lockhart, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, who had been hired this year.

At the moment, he was talking non-stop, ignoring the unpleasant expressions of others around him, and his body movements and facial expressions were very exaggerated, looking like an actor in a play.

Fish listened with interest to Lockhart's boasts and was occasionally amused by his expressions and gestures.

Professor McGonagall had a complicated expression, fearing that her cat would get carried away by Lockhart.

Although Professor McGonagall had changed her mind a bit about Lockhart because of the books he had written, his vain nature had not changed, and Professor McGonagall did not want Fish to become like Lockhart in the future.

"Looks like we're all here," Dumbledore interrupted Lockhart's speech with his arrival, smiled and looked around the room, then said, "So, let's eat."

At Dumbledore's command, the house elves placed the prepared lunch on the table, except for a few distinctly different style dishes, and everyone centered themselves in front of Fish.

"Oh? Chinese food?"

The well-informed Dumbledore immediately recognized the different styles of food on the table and moistened his lips and said excitedly, "I haven't had Chinese food in years, I remember the last time I tasted it, over forty years ago."

And that's when Lockhart found something else to brag about.

"Oh, Chinese food, it's a good thing," he said with a smile on his face, showing his white teeth, "If you've read my book, A Year with the Tibetan Yeti, you'll know that I spent a lot of time traveling around Asia, and I tasted a lot of Chinese food during that time..."

He tells of hunting a vulture and trading it to the Tibetans for yak meat and horse milk wine.

What Lockhart didn't know was that the vulture is a sacred bird in Tibet and that, had he done so, he would have been beaten up.

Luckily, no one here except Dumbledore was familiar with such things, so no one could expose him.

"All right, Gilderoy," Dumbledore interrupted once more, "You'd better shut up while you enjoy your meal."

His voice was not loud, but he managed to shut Lockhart up.

But Dumbledore was not silent as he said he was, but muttered with a hint of suspicion, "When did the school's house elves learn to cook Chinese food?"

"Commey did it for Fish! Sister September gave me the recipe nya!". (●ΦωΦ●)

Fish twitched his cat ears and replied triumphantly, as Professor McGonagall whispered to Dumbledore what had happened.

"That's right," Dumbledore said cheerfully, stroking his beard, "Why don't we let the students join us for a taste of the exotic at dinner today."

Just as Professor McGonagall thought, Dumbledore, who was rich and powerful, wouldn't mind the cost of the food, he directly waved his hand and replaced some of the food at dinner.

This was in consideration of the fact that some of the students might not be used to Chinese food, otherwise he would have liked to have a purely Chinese dinner.

Of course, Fish was fine with Dumbledore's decision, as Comey would have given him a small meal anyway.

After lunch, instead of going off with Hagrid to play in the Forbidden Forest, Fish stayed in the hall, continuing to listen to Lockhart's bluster and occasionally asking him something from his textbook....

Professor McGonagall began to regret reading Lockhart's story to Fish.

When Lockhart learned that Fish was a faithful reader, he became even more enthusiastic, blurting out his own fantastic experiences and making Fish's eyes water.

Now Professor McGonagall regretted it even more, if the previous seven books had changed her opinion of Lockhart, now her boasting had made Professor McGonagall wake up again.

For there were some very low-level flaws in his words, not at all on the level of the Lockhart of the books, but in line with what Professor McGonagall had always thought of him....

So there must be something wrong with the contents of those books!

Although she didn't know exactly what was going on, Professor McGonagall wasn't about to let Lockhart keep poisoning her cat, and just as she was about to go upstairs to drag Fish ...

"Gilderoy , you're amazing!"(●ω●)

Fish looked at Lockhart with a twinkle in his eye, swiftly wagging his tail behind him.

Seeing this, Professor McGonagall, who still looked sad, was a bit surprised and stopped.

Professor McGonagall, who had a relationship with cats since childhood and had adopted Fish for three years, could not mistake Fish's tail wagging as a sign of affection for Lockhart.

Slowly, a meaningful smile spread across Professor McGonagall's face.