"Are you sure it's hidden here?"
In a bathroom on the first floor, watching Dumbledore walking ahead, Evans's expression was decidedly strange.
Since it was already very late, Nicolas Flamel couldn't hold on and had returned to his room to rest, but this old man before him obviously had no intention of sleeping. Instead, he was excitedly leading the way, saying they were going to find the hidden Ms Umbridge.
"It should be here, no mistake." Examining a bucket with curious interest, Dumbledore said softly, "A few days ago, I personally saw her sleeping in the crystal ball. At that time, the location was in this bathroom."
"You know divination?" Evans's eyes showed genuine surprise.
He'd never seen Dumbledore perform divination before—he hadn't expected the headmaster still possessed this skill.
"As for divination, I do know a bit, but that's limited to methods like Tarot." Dumbledore shook his head with a slight smile. "But this room was arranged by me for 'foreign guests'. Do you think it would be any normal room?"
Seeing the mischievous glint in Dumbledore's eyes, Evans couldn't suppress a slight shudder.
"However, although this room is within my control in the castle, I can only use the crystal ball to see the person here and a small area around them. I can't pinpoint the specific location."
"But judging by what the crystal ball revealed, she should have been placed under some spell and hidden in a rather concealed place."
"This is why I asked you to help."
Nodding, after briefly searching the nearby stalls, Evans asked casually, "Why choose today?"
Dumbledore had known several days ago that the real Umbridge was hidden here—why wait until today to act?
Hearing this question, Dumbledore replied, "A few nights ago, I couldn't confirm whether that 'Umbridge' would return, nor could I confirm whether he would check this hiding place."
"If we found her early and that 'Umbridge' discovered it, he might not proceed with his later plans."
"He?" Evans's eyes narrowed slightly, noticing the pronoun in that sentence wasn't quite right. After brief consideration, he asked, "Is it that old man who escaped in France?"
"It should be." Dumbledore nodded, his tone dropping to barely above a whisper. "All clues related to him were cut off about a month ago, and around that same time, this Ms Umbridge began becoming quiet, no longer causing trouble everywhere."
"He probably felt that being quiet would be more conducive to his infiltration, but when someone who used to love causing trouble suddenly becomes quiet, that's precisely the biggest red flag."
Having learnt the target's information, Evans slowly nodded, but the previous question still wasn't resolved.
"If you couldn't be certain before, then why do you want to find this real Ms Umbridge today?" Evans asked with obvious curiosity. "Can you be certain that today he definitely won't check this location?"
"Because there's no need to wait anymore." Dumbledore explained in a low voice, his azure eyes gleaming with satisfaction. "The reason I didn't search before was because I hadn't figured out his purpose for coming to the school."
"But yesterday, after I chatted with Professor Lockhart about some teaching issues, I basically figured out what he came to do."
"And today, Nicolas completed that living transmutation and brought that diadem out of that room."
"Even if tonight that 'Umbridge' has no immediate plans, he definitely won't return to this restroom."
"After all—" A knowing gleam flashed in his azure eyes. Dumbledore didn't continue but instead focused on searching through everything around them.
Hearing Dumbledore's explanation, Evans nodded in understanding and joined in searching through this bathroom with renewed purpose.
Time slowly passed. As his wand traced across the wall, suddenly Evans made a soft sound of discovery and pointed his wand at one of the bathroom's bricks.
The brick lit up with a faint glow, rolling outward. Evans reached out to grab it.
"Found it?" Seeing the commotion on Evans's side, Dumbledore approached and asked softly.
"Yes, it should be." Evans confirmed, pointing his wand at the brick with precision.
"Finite Incantatem."
As the incantation fell, the original brick rapidly transformed into a rectangular box. Opening the lid, they saw a woman with half a head of light brown short hair and a toad-like face lying in the box, her sleeping posture far from dignified.
Observing Umbridge in the box, complex emotion flashed across Dumbledore's weathered features.
"Very impressive Shrinking Charm, combined with a sleeping draught. Quite convenient for hiding people."
"She was probably used as material, right?" Looking at Umbridge's hair that was only half remaining, Evans couldn't help the slight smirk tugging at his lips.
"Yes, to maintain Polyjuice Potion for so long, how could they manage without fresh material?" Dumbledore studied Umbridge in the box with clinical detachment. "If Polyjuice Potion didn't require living material, she would probably already be dead."
"Do you plan to wake her?" After pondering for a moment, Evans said carefully, "I think after you wake her, you'll probably need quite a lot of explaining to make her believe you. Even so, she might still think you knocked her out and then hid her in the school."
He had no warm feelings toward this woman called Umbridge and was intimately familiar with her unreasonable tendencies.
She wasn't someone easy to deal with. If they rashly woke her, they might get accused in return.
Taking action against a senior undersecretary of the Ministry, even Dumbledore would probably be questioned for considerable time. Those overwhelming reports would probably be infuriating just to read.
This was also why he hadn't acted hastily at the time, instead letting that newly tamed reporter rely on public opinion to bring her down, then slowly dealing with this woman who disgusted him so thoroughly.
However, although Rita's articles had significantly affected her reputation, they weren't enough to pull her from the senior undersecretary position yet—just making her somewhat flustered and defensive.
"Or do you plan to tamper with her memory?"
This was one of the few useful methods he could conceive, but the problem was that Ministry officials all carried protective amulets, and there were annual physical examinations for detecting such magical interference. Modifying her memory—if anything went wrong during the spellcasting, it could easily be discovered.
At that point, the problem would probably become exponentially worse.
Hearing Evans's words, Dumbledore's expression brightened with barely concealed amusement.
"No, we don't need to wake her. We just need to wait for an opportunity, find the right place, put her there, and then leave."
His voice practically danced with mischief. "At that time, the Ministry's senior undersecretary will wake up on her own and personally witness quite a spectacular show."
"This kind of handling is far more effective than any amount of explanation."