The excitement and triumph that came with James's success lasted until right before lunch on Monday. "I understand that you just had tryouts, which means that the Quidditch season is approaching," Umbridge lectured them as class started, "but any distraction in this class will not be permitted. Now, please turn to Chapter 35, read it, and when you finish, you can start on your homework, which will be due on Thursday. There will be no need to talk." Lily, who had been very quiet since the first class, raised her hand. "Yes?" Umbridge asked her.
"I'm just wondering when we'll be starting our new unit," Lily prompted her. Umbridge gave her the girly laugh she was now famous for.
"We'll be starting it when we finish the defensive spells area of our textbooks, of course," Umbridge said.
"How many chapters are there to go?" Lily asked, "How many more weeks-"
"Ms. Evans, I suggest you learn how to count. You grew up as a muggle, didn't you? You should know how to better than anyone. That's a detention. 5:00, my office, tomorrow." The class was silent. Then Remus raised his hand. Umbridge nodded to him.
"Professor, shouldn't we be teaching equality and things along those lines? I thought that coming to Hogwarts showed that you have as much a right to be here as anyone else here. Who people's parents are should not be relevant to how we treat them," Remus said, looking Umbridge in the eye.
Umbridge did not break eye contact with him, and stated, "Well, Mr. Lupin, you should know that life isn't fair better than anyone, and stop trying to make it fair, because it won't be. Ever."
Remus went slightly pale, but replied, "Maybe it won't always be fair, but we can try to change that."
"That will be a detention for telling me how to run my class. Same time as Ms. Evans's." The class was silent. Remus Lupin had never gotten a detention. He had never even come close to having a detention. But here he was, nodding and accepting his fate, which now included a trip to Dolores Umbridge's office. "Well? You have reading to do!" Umbridge exclaimed at the class, and the class went from starting at Remus to staring at their books.
When Umbridge turned away, Sirius turned to Remus and gave him a thumbs up. Remus nodded and turned back to his book, eyes drifting blankly over the page. Sirius turned back to his book, and continued to read The Book Thief. "There were the erased pages of Mein Kampf, gagging, suffocating under the paint as they turned." James, too, was reading another book, hidden within the pages of his textbook. The rest of the class, however, turned pages of so-called educational books. While the two boys lapsed into a world of their own, clad in rebellion and words, the rest of the class lapsed into the silence of boredom. The class lapsed into a silence only words could bring- both the good and the bad.