au 5th year - HP et all belong to JK Rowling.
Harry Potter did not feel confident about his fifth year at Hogwarts. Part of it was that things had started off with Dementors attacking him in Surrey. Then he'd been put on trial, apparently for having the audacity to not only not be Kissed but to have defended himself. He wasn't sure what to think about Ron being made Prefect... actually, he was quite certain that Ron hadn't done anything to deserve it and suspected that Ron would stuff it up somehow, but he wasn't about to say that out loud!
This year's Defense Professor was Dolores Umbridge, a short, round woman clad in pink with a sticky sweet voice. She'd been at his trial, making little snide remarks, doubting that he could cast a patronus, doubting that Dementors could have been in Surrey, doubting... well, doubting him in general. While he really, really hoped he was wrong, he didn't think she'd do very good at teaching students how to defend themselves.
Maybe she'd surprise him? After all, Remus Lupin hadn't looked like much, but he'd been quite capable, both with Defense and teaching. Professors McGonagall and Flitwick were capable in both. As for Snape... Snape was... well, Snape knew his potions, and was apparently very, very good with them. Potions Mastery aside, he couldn't teach a rock how to roll downhill.
By Wednesday, Harry was disgusted with Umbridge. He had been right - she didn't seem capable of teaching anything other than how to yell for help - and also surprised at just how useless she would be. Useless and insulting.
"Because if a dangerous beast is attacking you, of course it's going to wait for you to send an owl or make a floo call for help, and patiently wait for them to arrive before attacking you. If you have time to make a floo call for help, just get the bloody hell out of there and send someone else to find the beast," Harry snarled, fresh from his first class with Umbridge.
He couldn't even call it a Defense class. She was infuriating... and her voice reminded him of ant baits - something sweet to draw them in and also poisonous to kill them.
He hoped that this might turn out like History class - useless teacher, but a tolerable textbook. Skimming over the book, he'd been equally disgusted by the book. Students should 'be careful and cautious, lest they injure themselves with difficult and dangerous magics' and 'always remember to summon aurors or the Ministry to handle dangerous beasts or dark wizards'. He'd been so annoyed that he'd thrown the book against the wall, where it landed with a loud thud that drew offended looks from several paintings.
For a moment, he wondered if he might be able to salvage something by going through the previous Defense texts... the real ones, not the Lockehart books. The Lockehart books were making themselves useful back at Privit Hell propping up the furniture - one under the left side of the low shelves, three propping two of the legs of the desk, and one under the bed. It was perhaps the most useful thing that they could do.
Looking over them, he concluded the one from last year, which might have been picked by Moody, or possibly the Death Eater Crouch Jr, was still a pretty useful text. Which still left him needing new material...
"I can't believe I almost forgot," Harry shook his head, hoping to clear out the cobwebs and the stupid. "This is a school, with a great big library on the third floor. There must be something there that I can use."
Harry headed towards the library, relieved that he was finished with classes for today. There only homework was reading the first chapter for the Pink horror, and that could wait. He wondered if she would actually test them on it... It didn't matter. The library, with its hope of useful Defense texts, beckoned, and the House Elves in the kitchen would be delighted to feed him if he missed dinner.
"Mr. Potter, what brings you to the library this early in the year?" Madam Pince's voice suggested that she was thinking of his father's penchant for pranks.
Harry stood straight and looked at her, considering just what her job entailed. "Madam Pince, can you direct me towards some good Defense texts? This year's seems to be about three inches thick on how to call for the Ministry for help rather than saving ourselves."
"The shelves in front of the window with the Welsh flag. Look on the third book case in front the window, perhaps the fourth shelf from the floor. The third and second shelves might be a bit above what you're ready for now, and the ones above might be better for a year or two behind you."
"Thank you, Madam Pince," Harry replied.
It didn't take long before he'd gathered a stack of books and laid claim to the use of a small table. He decided to try something that he'd heard as a way to test fiction books - check a section at the front, in the middle, and towards the back.
When he opened the third book to the middle, there was an odd diagram, with mistletoe and little things crawling over it. Further down the page were larger things, things with wings.
"Whaaaa?" Harry leaned closer to the book, curious. The writing was odd, with strange spelling and a few weird words, but he could make out a warning about Nargles in the mistletoe. There was also something about Biting Fairies nesting.
Considering that while the book might be wonderful, he wasn't very good at deciphering this sort of older writing, Harry wondered just what a Nargle was and why it was featured in a Defense text.
This was a school, with more than a few eccentric people, and Hagrid knew all sorts of things about strange animals. Someone would be able to tell him about Nargles.
end fragment - 5th year with nargles