occulta proditione - tomarry

Chapter 18

Revised: May 20, 2022

Words: 3244

Chapter 18

Harry was the first to be in Umbridge's classroom this time around. She was surprised, that was a given. He sat down and waited for everyone else to fill the classroom, Umbridge's toad-like eyes glaring daggers at him.

    Neville entered the room and stared at Harry in confusion, probably wondering why he was there so early. Harry grinned at him, not bothering to hide his fangs.

    Neville was one of the people he trusted.

    Neville gasped quietly, his eyes widening as he took in Harry's sharp teeth. He grinned then and sat down next to him, "You will tell me everything..." Neville ordered, trying to stay as quiet as possible. The toad's beady eyes were watching their every move.

    Harry nodded.

    The classroom began to fill up and Umbridge stood up from her desk and walked around it, "Th..." She was about to begin but Ron Weasley opened the classroom door, out of breath and wiping away sweat from his forehead.

    "Sorry, Professor..." Ron said, ears flaming redder than his hair.

    Umbridge glared at the boy and he paled.

    "Hmm, let's see. Five points from Gryffindor for coming in late," she practically spat.

    Harry curiously wondered why Ron wasn't in the classroom beforehand as he was in his previous life. He suspected it was something to do with Dumbledore.

    "By Ministry standards, this classroom has been extremely under appreciated. The Ministry expects great things from Defence Against the Dark Arts but Hogwarts is just not living up to it. Every year, Hogwarts has made each and every Professor for DADA, by physical violence or an act of mental damage to the mind..." Harry snorted, thinking of Lockhart, "...retire from this post and it just won't do. It has been rather fragmented and disjointed in your past classes, hasn't it?" She paused, as per every speech that came out of her mouth, "...know now that this is about to be rectified,

    "I will be following a pre-approved Ministry-prepared, theory Defence lesson plan..." She turned and waved her wand, words appearing on the chalkboard, "...copy this down immediately."

    Harry looked up from his book, bored out of his mind already and stared at Hermione as her hand waved in the air like a lunatic. He rolled his eyes. After a while, when Umbridge continued to ignore her, the whole class became interested in the situation and stared at Hermione.

    Umbridge, knowing she couldn't ignore Hermione anymore, turned to face the girl, eyes flashing in annoyance, "Yes?"

    "I wanted to know something about your course aims," Hermione asked confidently.

    "Well, they should be perfectly evident," Umbridge said through her teeth.

    "Well, I don't think they are. They say nothing about actually doing spells."

    The woman laughed in her toadish voice, "I can imagine no circumstance in my classroom where you would need to use spells, my dear!"

    The entire classroom turned to look at Harry, expecting him to stand up for his best friend.

    They were in for a rude awakening.

    "But, surely the whole point of DADA is practical application?" Hermione argued, getting slightly frustrated and angry.

    "Miss Granger, this class has been approved by Ministry experts. Are you a Ministry expert?"

    "No, but..."