Chapter 19

SLAM

Harry

Harry swiftly found his friends, and told them about that Allistor had said.

"Wouldn't be surprised if the Toad did that," Vlad said.

"I agree," Hermione said, "And by same time, same place… it's the fireplace again, isn't it?"

"…And there is Malfoy," Ron grunted, as Malfoy and the Gorillas came into sight as they walked to the Potions classroom.

Malfoy was talking: "Yeah, Umbridge gave the Slytherin Quidditch team permission to continue playing straightaway, I went to ask her first thing this morning. Well, it was pretty much automatic, I mean, she knows my father really well, he's always popping in and out of the Ministry… It'll be interesting to see whether Gryffindor are allowed to keep playing, wont it?"

"Don't rise," Hermione whispered imploringly to Harry and Ron, "It's what he wants…"

"I mean," Malfoy said, raising his voice a little more, his gray eyes glittering malevolently in Harry and Ron's direction, "If it's a question of influence with the Ministry, I don't think they've got much chance… From what my father says, they've been looking for an excuse to sack Arthur Weasley for years… And as for Potter… My father says it's a matter of time before the Ministry has him carted off to St. Mungo's… apparently they've got a special ward for people whose brains have been addled by magic…"

Malfoy made a grotesque face, his mouth sagging open and his eyes rolling. His goons gave their usual reaction. Arthur was standing by their side in the Slytherin line with a disgusted look on.

Then something collided hard with Harry's shoulder, knocking him sideways. A split second later he realized that Neville had just charged past him, heading straight for Malfoy.

"Neville, no!" Harry, Vlad and Hermione shouted.

Harry and Vlad leapt forward and seized the back of Neville's robes – then Vlad grabbed Neville by his right arm and Harry by his left. Neville struggled frantically, his fists flailing, trying desperately to get at Malfoy who looked, for a moment, extremely shocked. Hermione and Ron too looked shocked from the side that Neville was the one to have a go.

"Not… funny… don't… Mungo's… show… him…" Neville was muttering. The dungeon door opened. Snape appeared there. His black eyes swept up the Gryffindor line to the point where Harry and Vlad was wrestling with Neville.

"Fighting, Potter, Lupei, Longbottom?" Snape said, "Ten points from Gryffindor. Release Longbottom, Potter, Lupei or it will be detention. Inside, all of you."

Harry let go of Neville, who stood panting and glaring at him.

"We had to stop you," Harry gasped, picking up his bag, "Crabbe and Goyle would've torn you apart."

Neville said nothing, he merely snatched up his own bag and stalked off into the dungeon.

"What in the name of Merlin," Ron slowly said, "Was that about?"

Harry did not answer. He knew Neville's parents were in Mungo's. Vlad and Arthur too seemed to know, as they both had uncomfortable looks on.

They sat at their usual seats at the back row, and then noticed the pink lump in the classroom.

"You will notice," Snape said in his low, sneering voice, "That we have a guest with us today."

He gestured toward the dim corner of the dungeon, where that pink lump was standing with a sickening sweet smile on.

"We are continuing with our Strengthening Solutions today, you will find your mixtures as you left them last lesson, if correctly made they should have matured well over the weekend—instructions"—he gestured to the board—"On the board. Carry on."

Professor Umbridge spent the first half hour of the lesson making notes in her corner. Harry was very interested in hearing her question Snape, so interested, that he was becoming careless with his potion again.

"Salamander blood, Harry!" Hermione moaned, grabbing his wrist to prevent him adding the wrong ingredient for the third time, "Not pomegranate juice!"

"Right," Harry said, putting down the bottle and continuing to watch the corner. Of course, the rest of the Golden Trio and the nations too were interested at Umbridge. But Hermione was making sure her potion was done too.

Harry saw Vlad and Arthur doing the same as Hermione. Ron too – surprisingly.

"Well, the class seems fairly advanced for their level," Umbridge said briskly to Snape's back., "Though I would question whether it is advisable to teach them a potion like the Strengthening Solution. I think the Ministry would prefer it if that was removed from the syllabus."

Snape straightened up slowly and turned to look at her, surprisingly to Harry with the same aura around him as Allistor when she told Allistor to remove violent things from his syllabus.

"Now… how long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?" she asked, her quill poised over her clipboard.

"Fourteen years," Snape replied, and Harry dropped stuff into his cauldron and making it hiss while turning orange. Harry was pretty sure he did something wrong again.

"You applied first for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, I believe?" Professor Umbridge asked Snape.

"Yes," Snape quietly said.

"But you were unsuccessful?"

Snape's lip curled.

"Obviously."

Professor Umbridge scribbled on her clipboard. Ron couldn't help but to let out a snort of laughter.

"And you have applied regularly for the Defense Against the Dark Arts post since you first joined the school, I believe?"

"Yes," Snape quietly said, barely moving his lips. He looked very angry.

"Do you have any idea why Dumbledore has consistently refused to appoint you?" Umbridge kept on asking, dismissing his angry look.

"I suggest you ask him," Snape jerkily said.

"Oh I shall," Umbridge with said with her sweet smile and voice.

"I suppose this is relevant?" Snape asked, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh yes," Umbridge said, "Yes, the Ministry wants a thorough understanding of teachers'—er—backgrounds…"

She turned away, walked over to Pansy Parkinson and began questioning her about the lessons. Snape immediately slammed the book he was holding on Ron's head – he was standing behind him.

After class, Arthur said: "Well we know that Snape hated Umbridge too. He's human too, I suppose."

"But that 'obviously…'" Ron murmured, "…It will remain in my memories forever. It was golden."

The group of friends laughed, before separating to go for class. Ron, Harry and Vlad has Divination, so they hurried off to the tower quickly.

-0-0-0-

Trelawney slammed a copy of the Oracle down on the table between Harry and Ron and swept away in anger.

"Well, carry on!" Trelawney loudly said in a somewhat hysterical way, "You know what to do! Or am I such a substandard teacher that you have never learned how to open a book?"

"I think she's got the results of her inspection back," Harry whispered to Vlad and Ron, as Trelaweny cried tears of anger from her chair.

"Professor?" Parvati said in a hushed voice, "Professor, is there anything—er—wrong?"

"Wrong!" Trelawney cried in a voice overflowing with emotion, "Certainly not! I have been insulted, certainly… Insinuations have been made against me… Unfounded accusations levelled… but no, there is nothing wrong, certainly not…"

Her tears did not stop as she turned to look away from the student who admired her.

"I say nothing," Trelaweny choked, "Of sixteen years' devoted service… It has passed, apparently, unnoticed… But I shall not be insulted, no, I shall not!"

"But Professor, who's insulting you?" Parvati timidly asked, clearly annoyed that someone had insulted the very professor she admired.

"The establishment!" Trelawney shouted in a deep, dramatic, wavering voice, "Yes, those with eyes too clouded by the Mundane to See as I See, to Know as I Know… Of course, we Seers have always been feared, always persecuted… It is—alas—our fate…"

She gulped, wiped away her tears with her sleeves and blew her nose. Ron sniggered at the sound of her blowing her nose. Lavender shot him a disgusted look, and Vlad whispered to Ron: "Manners, Ron. Manners."

"Professor," Parvati said, "Do you mean… is it something Professor Umbridge…?" ('Yes, probably is,' Harry thought.)

"Do not speak to me about that woman!" Trelawney leapt to her feet, "Kindly continue with your work!"

For the rest of class, she walked around the classroom, not really keeping an eye on what students were doing, but still tearing up and muttering:

"…May well choose to leave… the indignity of it… on probation… we shall see… how she dares…"

-0-0-0-

Today's just the Canon stuff that I really wanted to put in. The movie scene of Snape's Inspection has to be my fav out of the movie... so, yeah. Heh.

Also, I uploaded the cover. This time it's Romania. It took me ages to determine the size of the fang - I ended up drawing a pretty small one. And the wand may look curved. It is supposed to be curved. Totally not me not able to draw a straight line. And there is a little bat wing on the end of the handle bit of the wand, along with a tiny figure of a bat. And he IS in Hogwarts uniform, but he does have the hat on. I just drew it in there cuz I wanted to draw those ribbons. But normally he won't have it on when its not a time they can wear casual wear. To say more about this cover, I tried a new drawing technique- which is why the style of drawing is slightly different from the Norway drawing - and VERY different from England.

I look at that England and I cringe. That was before I got a tablet so yeah. Btw, I don't draw from scratch on the tablet. I'm still getting used to it, so I draw on paper first, then take a nice photo of it with my phone, get that photo to my computer, open the image in the drawing program I use, and I trace the line after making the image half-transparent.

By the way, I think my drawing had improved. I mean go look at Prisoner of Azkhaban's cover. Iggy is drawn very badly. Speaking of him, I suppose HB Prince's cover will be him enlarged like this Romania and Norway from GoF with the flag background.

I don't think I'm 'bad' at drawing - but I'm not 'good' at it. Though I am happy with myself.

-PotterheadNo.04