AN: I am very sorry to those of you who follow this story. It is sometimes difficult for me to update some stories. I hope to update this story more in the near future. Once again anything you recognize is JK Rowling's anything you don't is mine.
Neville POV
Everyone was excited for Defense Against the Dark Arts but it didn't take us long to realize that Umbridge didn't want to teach us. It was something about her sweetly saccharine smile that made me nervous, and then she told us to read from our books.
At first I tried, really I did, but the material was extremely dull. In fact is was rather childish. It went over how to correctly grip your wand. Of all the things they could teach us, why would she ask us to read something like this?! It was first year material!
While I was reading Hermione raised her hand. It was hard to ignore her since she was sitting across from me so I started to watch her instead. For years I had secretly been crushing on her but she had made it perfectly clear in our fourth year that she thought of me as a friend and nothing more.
It took me a moment to realize I had been staring at Hermione and I flushed in embarrassment but I was no longer the only person staring at her. Half the class was watching Hermione as she wildly waved her hand back and forth. Umbridge was resolutely staring out the window trying to hide her annoyance but her face was red.
After another few minutes Umbridge finally turned to Hermione, a dark frown on her toad-like face but she quickly hid it.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" She asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her.
"Not about the chapter, no," Hermione said.
"Well, we're reading just now," Professor Umbridge said, showing her small pointed teeth. She reminded me of a vampire. "If you have other queries we can deal with them at the end of class."
"I've got a query about your course aims," Hermione said.
Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows, her nose flaring.
"And your name is?"
"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.
"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully." Professor Umbridge said in a voice of determined sweetness.
"Well, I don't," Hermione said candidly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive
spells."
There was a deafening silence as everyone turned to look at the board and reread the course aims Umbridge had put up there.
Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.
Hermione was right. What the hell was the ministry thinking?!
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
"We're not going to use magic?" Ron exclaimed loudly.
"Students raise their hands when they wish to speak in my class, Mr-?" Umbridge said her eye twitching.
"Weasley," Ron said, thrusting his hand into the air.
Professor Umbridge, smiling still more widely, turned her back on him. Harry and Hermione immediately raised their hands too. Professor Umbridge's pouchy eyes lingered on Harry for a moment before she addressed Hermione.
"Yes, Miss Granger? You wanted to ask something else?"
"Yes," Hermione said. "Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells?"
"Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" Professor Umbridge asked, in her falsely sweet voice.
"No, but —"
"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way —"
"What use is that?" Harry said loudly. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be in a —"
"Hand, Mr. Potter!" Professor Umbridge sang off key.
Harry thrust his fist in the air. Again, Professor Umbridge promptly turned away from him, but now several other people had their hands up, too. I wanted to raise my hand too but I was too nervous. This was probably the kind of thing Gran would want me to figure out since something felt off, wrong, about all of this.
"And your name is?" Professor Umbridge said to Dean.
"Dean Thomas."
"Well, Mr Thomas?"
"Well, it's like Harry said, isn't it?" Dean said. "If we're going to be attacked, it won't be risk free."
"I repeat," Professor Umbridge said, smiling in a very irritating fashion at Dean, "do you expect to be attacked during my classes?"
"No, but —"
Professor Umbridge talked over him. "I do not wish to criticize the way things have been run in this school," she said, an unconvincing smile stretching her wide mouth, it gave me the willies, "but you have been exposed to some very irresponsible wizards in this class, very irresponsible indeed — not to mention," she gave a nasty little laugh, "extremely dangerous half-breeds."
I stiffened and I could hear Harry growl angrily.
"If you mean Professor Lupin," Dean piped up angrily, "he was the best we ever —"
"Hand, Mr. Thomas! As I was saying — you have been introduced to spells that have been complex, inappropriate to your age group and potentially lethal. You have been frightened into believing that you are likely to meet Dark attacks every other day —"
"No we haven't," Hermione said, "we just —"
"Your hand is not up, Miss Granger!"
Hermione put up her hand. Professor Umbridge turned away from her. She flushed angrily but kept her hand in the air.
"It is my understanding that my predecessor not only performed illegal curses in front of you, he actually performed them on you."
"Well, he turned out to be a maniac, didn't he?" Dean said hotly. "Mind you, we still learned loads."
"Your hand is not up, Mr Thomas!" Professor Umbridge trilled. "Now, it is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be more than sufficient to get you through your examination, which, after all, is what school is all about. And your name is?" She added, staring at Parvati, whose hand had just shot up.
"Parvati Patil, and isn't there a practical bit in our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.? Aren't we supposed to show that we can actually do the counter-curses and things?"
"As long as you have studied the theory hard enough, there is no reason why you should not be able to perform the spells under carefully controlled examination conditions," Professor Umbridge said dismissively. My mouth dropped open in shock. Was she stupid or willfully ignoring us?
"Without ever practicing them beforehand?" Parvati said incredulously. "Are you telling us that the first time we'll get to do the spells will be during our exam?"
"I repeat, as long as you have studied the theory hard enough —"
"And what good's theory going to be in the real world?" Harry said loudly, his fist in the air again.
Professor Umbridge looked up.
"This is school, Mr Potter, not the real world," she said softly.
"So we're not supposed to be prepared for what's waiting for us out there?"
"There is nothing waiting out there, Mr. Potter."
"Oh, yeah?" Harry said his voice dark.
"Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourselves?" Professor Umbridge inquired in a horribly honeyed voice.
"Hmm, let's think…" Harry said in a mock thoughtful voice. "Maybe… Lord Voldemort?!"
Ron gasped; Lavender Brown uttered a little scream; and I slipped sideways off my stool. Professor Umbridge, however, did not flinch. She was staring at Harry with a grimly satisfied expression on her face.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr. Potter."
The classroom was silent and still. Everyone was staring at either Umbridge or Harry. I was staring at Harry in awe, I wish I had that kind of courage.
"Now, let me make a few things quite plain."
Professor Umbridge stood up and leaned towards them, her stubby-fingered hands splayed on her desk.
"You have been told that a certain Dark wizard has returned from the dead —"
"He wasn't dead," Harry said angrily his hands fisted at his sides, "but yeah, he's returned!"
"Mr.-Potter-you-have-already-lost-your-house-ten-points-do-not-make-matters-worse-for-yourself," said Professor Umbridge in one breath without looking at him. "As I was saying, you have been informed that a certain Dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie."
"It is NOT a lie!" Harry said. "I saw him, I fought him!"
"Detention, Mr Potter!" Professor Umbridge said triumphantly. "Tomorrow evening. Five o'clock. My office. I repeat, this is a lie. The Ministry of Magic guarantees that you are not in danger from any Dark wizard. If you are still worried, by all means come and see me outside class hours. If someone is alarming you with fibs about reborn Dark wizards, I would like to hear about it. I am here to help. I am your friend. And now, you will kindly continue your reading. Page five, 'Basics for Beginners'."
Professor Umbridge sat down behind her desk. Harry, however, stood up. Everyone was staring at him; Seamus looked half-scared, half-fascinated. My heart was pounding loudly in my chest. What was he going to do?
"Harry, no!" Hermione whispered in a warning voice, tugging at his sleeve, but Harry jerked
his arm out of her reach. Her lip trembled but she quickly shook her head in defeat.
"So, according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord, did he?" Harry asked, his voice shaking.
A huge gasp went around the room. I watched Harry silently my eyes wide. No one, apart from Ron and Hermione, had ever heard Harry talk about what had happened on the night Cedric had died.
Everyone stared avidly from Harry to Professor Umbridge, who had raised her eyes and was staring at him without a trace of a fake smile on her face.
"Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident," she said coldly.
"It was murder," Harry said. He was visibly shaking. He had hardly spoken to anyone about this, least of all thirty eagerly listening classmates. "Voldemort killed him and you know it."
Professor Umbridge's face was quite blank. For a moment, I thought she was going to scream at him. Then she said, in her softest, most sweetly girlish voice, "Come here, Mr. Potter, dear."
He kicked his chair aside, strode around Ron and Hermione and up to the teacher's desk. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Harry looked furious and for a moment his eyes flashed red.
Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag, stretched it out on the desk, dipped her quill into a bottle of ink and started scribbling, hunched over. Nobody spoke. After a minute or so she rolled up the parchment and tapped it with her wand; it sealed itself seamlessly so that he could not open it.
"Take this to Professor McGonagall, dear," Professor Umbridge said, holding out the note to
him.
Harry took it and walked out of the room without a backward glance. Merlin. I had never been so wrong in my life. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a hundred times worse than Divination. Umbridge, was absolutely barmy. In fact she was slightly terrifying.
AN: Please Review! It helps so much more than you realize. Reviews make me happy and when I'm happy I think about the story more. The more I think about it the more I create new twists and turns for the story and I end up updating more. Which in the end makes everyone happy.