A/N: Sorry for skipping around with perspectives. Enjoy.

Welcoming Feast Perspectives

The next night, a young man with green eyes and messy black hair plopped himself unceremoniously onto a bench at a table in the Great Hall. His friends that sat with him glanced at him, but said nothing. Just another year at Hogwarts, the boy thought snidely. He then glanced towards one of his best friends who kept staring at him.

"I'm fine, Hermione," he growled moodily. He wished she would just stop staring at him like that. He was fine. He didn't need her acting like his mother all the time. He had been taking care of himself from an early age. He didn't need anybody, especially her.

"Prat," his other best friend, a red-haired boy his age, mumbled under his breath.

"Good evening, children," the Headmaster loudly announced stepping up to his podium. The Great Hall instantly quieted. "Now, we have two changes in staffing this year. We're pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank who'll be taking Care of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid is on temporarily leave. We also wish to welcome our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Dolores Umbridge. I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing the professor good luck. Now, as usual, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you—"

"Hem, hem," echoed loudly from the Head Table.

Harry instantly glanced up there. He had to have heard that wrong. It sounded like it came from the direction of the evil git, otherwise known as Professor Snape. However, the bat didn't even seem to blink an eye when he caught Harry's glance. The young man then glanced towards the horridly pink witch that sat on Snape's left. His mouth nearly dropped in shock when he watched the witch slowly rise to her feet before walking towards the Headmaster. No one had ever interrupted the Headmaster before.

"Thank you for that lovely welcome, Headmaster. If I may?" the pink plump witch asked.

Dumbledore inclined his head respectfully before glancing towards Professors Snape and McGonagall. Both caught his eye and returned his look. He sighed softly prior to him moving back from the podium. He'd allow Professor Umbridge this one respite. He had to admit that he too was curious as to what she would say or even what path she would chose to say her words to the students.

"We at the Ministry are extremely worried about the egregious health violations that have befallen Hogwarts these past years," Professor Umbridge, the pink horridly dressed witch, stated with a sickly smirk on her face. "While we understand that none of this can be directly linked to one individual, we hope to repair what has been broken here. In fact, we have already taken steps with the full cooperation of Madam Pomfrey to offer you all healthier options for food, which will start tonight. I am sure that we can help you all live healthy lives." She then calmly walked back to her seat and sat down.

"She's one to talk. She's a freaking cow," the red-haired young man said. He instantly glanced towards the green-eyed young man when he heard his friend's laughter. "Oh, sure, you laugh at that, Harry," he grumbled.

"You have to admit, Ron. That's sort of funny."

"Whatever," Ron replied before glancing at his empty plate. His stomach grumbled loudly a few seconds later. "They better serve us something soon. Otherwise, I'm gonna start a riot." Sure enough, moments later, food arrived. However, it only made Ron grumble louder. "They call this food!" he said outraged as he picked at his slopped together food.

"Oh, please, Ronald," Hermione drawled. "I'm sure it's fine." She then caught both boys staring at her as if to dare her to take the first bite of the half-liquid, half-solid green slop. She rolled her eyes before lightly scooping a portion up to take a bite. The exact second she took a bite was when she quickly spit it back into her napkin. It tasted like Tabasco sauce mixed with broccoli and fish. "Never mind," she said grimacing. The taste refused to leave her mouth as she drank an entire glass of milk that tasted a bit sour.

"Great. If it's not Voldemort," Harry started to say, but stopped when he caught his friends' flinches at the name. "Fine, You-Know-Who trying to kill me, then it's the Ministry with this garbage." He then glanced towards the Head Table and nearly laughed when he caught Snape pushing his food around his plate. The older wizard looked positively disgusted as he glared at his plate. "Least Snape has to eat this crap with us." It didn't take long before Harry watched Snape push his plate away with pure disgust on his face. However, before he could watch Snape any longer, he caught a quick movement out of the corner of his eye. His eyes instantly darted towards the far right side of the Head Table just as Professor Sinistra stood up. He had never seen her so angry before. He watched her turn towards Professor Umbridge and glare at her with such ferocity that he swore it was worthy of Snape.

"This is your healthy food?" Professor Sinistra snarled as she motioned towards her plate. "I'd rather eat bugs!"

"Sit down, Aurora," Professor McGonagall quietly commanded as every student glanced towards the Head Table.

"NO! This tastes like—"

"Sit down," Professor McGonagall said through grit teeth. The witch was making a complete spectacle of herself in front of everyone. If she thought that was bad, then she was in for a rude awakening when Professor Sinistra threw her plate of food at the far wall. Professor McGonagall instantly closed her eyes and shook her head. There went their chance of the Ministry considering the staff to be semi-sane.

"Now, Professor, if you have an issue—"

"Oh, you haven't seen an issue, Umbridge!" Professor Sinistra growled before she pulled out her wand. "I bet you're the witch who thought it'd be a good idea to move Astronomy to the Room of Requirement, aren't you? Well, let me tell you, you TOAD—"

"ENOUGH," the Headmaster loudly said as he rose to his feet. His voice boomed around the large hall, which quieted down instantly. "Thank you. Please take your seat, Professor Sinistra." He caught the Astronomy professor's glare before she grudgingly followed his orders. He flashed a sympathetic smile towards Professor Umbridge. However, she didn't seem to notice as she too took her seat again. He glanced out at the students and caught their disgust at the food. He had to admit that he didn't like it either. Closing his eyes, he made up his mind. When his eyes reopened and his mind made up, he calmly clapped his hands once and waved away the disgusting food. In its place quickly appeared salads that actually looked somewhat healthy. He caught the loud huff from his left, but he ignored it. After all, what was the Ministry going to do, fire him?