Two more months passed, and the death toll in the Wizarding World continued to rise.
The students at Hogwarts walked about in a perpetual gloom, so heavy that even Peeves's usual pranks failed to provoke their anger. In fact, Peeves's mischief only succeeded in frightening many of the already fragile, nerve-wracked young wizards into the Hospital Wing.
Of course, Peeves never discriminated by occasion or read the room; seeing these students packed into the Hospital Wing only piqued its interest further. The inevitable escalation of its antics drew a joint disciplinary response from the furious professors, leaving the poltergeist's ethereal form significantly more translucent and wispy—and earning it the long-running mockery of the castle's other ghosts.
Chapter 277