Chapter 628: Is this the training partner you mentioned? (Edited)

Time passed, and soon December arrived.

Throughout this time, Umbridge continued to persevere in her search for the cause of the Umbridge Syndrome. Despite the fact that Hogwarts students had drastically reduced their use of skipping class candies, she refused to give up.

"Fish, Hedwig is injured, come and heal her!"

One afternoon, as Fish was about to go to the Forbidden Forest to teach English to Grawp, Harry came running with Hedwig in his arms. The snowy white owl whimpered, with disheveled feathers and a bent wing.

"Could you hold on for a moment, nya?"

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish quickly lifted Hedwig, comforting her as he fixed her broken wing, and then cast a rejuvenation spell to heal her wound.

"Coo-coo~"

Hedwig, who had recovered, happily flapped her wings and landed on Fish's shoulder, pecking his ear in gratitude.

Fish shook his head, rubbed his cheek against Hedwig's shoulder, and then frowned, asking, "What happened? Why did Hedwig get hurt?"

(?ω?)

The others in the common room also approached curiously.

As messengers of wizards, there was no wizard who hated owls, let alone harmed them, so everyone was very concerned about who, or what animal, had hurt Hedwig.

"I don't know," Harry shook his head expressionlessly, then pointed at the fireplace and cryptically said, "Cold hasn't contacted me since the last time we spoke there, so I sent him a letter two days ago to ask how he was doing..."

When Harry said this, he unconsciously looked at Hedwig's claws. Just now, because he was worried about Hedwig's injury, Harry forgot about the letter. Fortunately, Sirius' response letter was still tied to Hedwig's leg.

"Coo, coo... coo!"

On the other hand, Hedwig let out a cry of grievance and told Fish what had happened to her.

"Hedwig said she was attacked with a magical spell while flying back."

(??ˇ?ˇ??)

Fish repeated Hedwig's words with a serious expression. "I don't know who attacked her, only that the spell came from near the owlery."

"Who else could it have been?!" Harry said angrily, "Who else in the school would attack our owls but Umbridge?!"

"We must tell Dumbledore!" Ron added, "Attacking an owl! It's a crime punishable by Azkaban."

The others chimed in.

And Hermione sighed and said, "But... we don't have any evidence... I'm sure the Ministry of Magic won't condemn her just based on speculation."

She then told Harry, "You should try to send fewer letters in the future. Umbridge should be watching you... and if you do send letters, stop using Hedwig and use the school owl instead."

"Coo~!"

Hedwig let out a dissatisfied cry and made a gesture to peck at Hermione, but Fish calmed her down.

And Harry nodded solemnly as he soothed Hedwig.

Mad-Eye Moody had warned them that the Ministry would intercept their letters, but after so long, Harry had become relaxed about it.

He removed Sirius' response from Hedwig's leg and gave her some advice before taking her to the window and letting her fly away.

There was no evidence to identify Umbridge, but word spread among the Gryffindor students, and many of them told their parents about it.

Many of these powerful families wrote letters to the Ministry of Magic protesting the matter...

Then Umbridge received another angry letter from Fudge, which forced her to tone down a bit.

But all this was happening behind the scenes, without the knowledge of the students at the school. After a few complaints about Umbridge and a further deterioration of their opinion of her, things returned to normal school life.

Meanwhile, Fish's teaching and the activities of the Order of the Cat continued.

The Order of the Cat was making good progress, and most of its members had already mastered the Invisibility spell, with about a third of them also knowing the Silencing charm.

Although most of the spells didn't last for long, they were enough to avoid Umbridge's inspections and safely reach the meeting in the Room of Requirement.

The few students who had invisibility cloaks, like Harry, had also provided them for those who hadn't learned the invisibility spell yet. So, the Order of the Cat not only resumed practicing Defense Against the Dark Arts for a long time but also organized special events... and they had recently managed to defeat an equal number of magical creatures from the XXX Class.

The classification of magical creatures by the Department of Magical Creatures Management defines XXX Class as: These creatures shouldn't pose a problem for competent wizards.

This means that, according to the standards of the Ministry of Magic, the members of the Order of the Cat are at least on par with adult wizards in the field of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

After Fish patiently taught him, Grawp was barely able to communicate, although he still couldn't form complete sentences when speaking.

Hagrid, as his older brother, also taught him some basic manners, and with Fish and Fluffy as deterrents, Grawp has become quite the gentleman... of course, that's if you compare him to other giants.

Once Grawp was able to communicate with people, Fish ended his "teaching" career.

Fish's patience had worn thin with Grawp, and if it weren't for wanting to finish his lessons as well as Professor McGonagall, Fish would have given up.

Of course, when he was free, Fish didn't mind talking to Grawp, but he also didn't care to continue teaching him... Fish himself still needed to be taught!

Since he had been teaching Grawp, Fish hadn't been able to sneak out at night with Hermione, so the two kittens had resumed their strolls around the castle and the Forbidden Forest during the past nights...

Hermione had even reduced the number of Order of the Cat meetings so that everyone could relax a bit anyway, as it was almost Christmas.

After all, training in Defense Against the Dark Arts was nothing compared to being with Fish.

But before Christmas, the Order of the Cat held their final special event before the holidays, and just as they had done on previous occasions, they ventured into the Forbidden Forest with the help of their house-elves...

"So... this is the training partner you said was much weaker than Fluffy?"

The members of the Order of the Cat stared in astonishment at the nearly five-meter-tall giant for a moment before questioning Hermione indignantly.

Hermione, however, solemnly nodded and replied, "Yes, Fluffy wouldn't have much trouble defeating Grawp... in fact, Grawp wouldn't even dare to fight Fluffy."

Hermione had become a bit mischievous after spending so much time with Fish, and she covered her mouth and let out a giggle when she finished.

But her words didn't seem funny to anyone else; they all looked at the enormous figure in front of them with expressions of despair.