Hello again, fellow FanFiction users! I am sorry for updating a bit late but I will update the story, regardless of time or day. Once again, thank you for reading this story and following it, means a lot! Enjoy!


"She's a nightmare, honestly!" Ginny exclaimed, "I don't know why she's even here. She's so unfit for a teacher!"

Hermione nodded absently, her eyes on the words of Magical Herbs in Modern Times.

It was Monday after the weekend, and Hermione was getting very irked by Ginny's useless complaints. The first class for the day was with Umbridge, and Hermione needed some peace to clear her mind and read her book before she attended it. But unfortunately, Ginny was making it impossible. To make matters worse, Harry and Ron weren't present yet. Them being here would have made Ginny's rants a bit bearable.

Must be sleeping in late, Hermione thought, groaning silently.

"I don't know why Dumbledore doesn't say anything," Ginny wailed, "She ought to be sacked!"

"Professor Dumbledore has a lot of things in his agenda," Hermione replied quietly, "Things more important than sacking Umbridge, you know."

Ginny rolled her eyes and looked at Hermione's book with disgust.

"Why are you always reading?" she asked rudely, "There are other things more interesting than books!"

The comment enraged Hermione, "But I prefer to read books over those things, thank you very much!"

"Ughh, you're so boring!" Ginny hollered.

"Who's boring?" a voice asked. It was Ron, followed by Harry.

Hermione's heart fluttered at the sight of Harry, as it has been doing throughout the weekend. This feeling was extremely awkward, especially since they were best friends. So she tried to force herself not to behave weird and bashful around him, even if she just couldn't put aside her actual feelings. It was a raging war unfolding inside of her.

"Hermione!" Ginny exclaimed, then batted her eyelashes at Harry, her voice dramatically changing, "Hey, Harry! What's up?"

"Nothing much," he answered, not looking at her, "And Hermione's not boring."

"She reads books, so she is boring," Ginny said firmly.

"Reading books doesn't make one boring!" Hermione hollered, unable to contain herself.

"Yeah. And besides that, she has done a lot of adventures and acts of bravery, so she is, in fact, not boring," Harry stated. Hermione blushed to her roots at his comment, but Ginny just glared.

"Do you know what she did?" Harry said excitedly.

"What?" Ron asked, his mouth full of scrambled eggs.

"It was nothing, okay!" Hermione refuted, shaking her head.

"She broke another rule. But this time for herself," Harry declared proudly.

"Shh, not so loud!" Hermione exclaimed.

However, both Ron's and Ginny's eyes were popped open.

"She did that?!" they asked in unison.

"Yeah, I did," Hermione told them, meekly, "I just felt like it."

"When do you ever feel like it?" Ron demanded, incredulous.

"The timing was right," Hermione giggled.

"Timing...?"

"That's a story for another time, Ron," Harry said, in a voice that indicated 'Not in front of Ginny.'

Ron nodded in understanding and focused on his food again. But Ginny got the message, too.

"You guys don't want to talk about this in front of me, right?" she said angrily.

"You're too little," Ron told her teasingly.

"I'm not little!" she cried, "I'm 14 years old, for goodness' sake!"

"Oh shut up, you spoiled brat," Ron retorted. She burst into tears and ran away from them.

"That wasn't nice, Ron..." Hermione tsk-tsked.

"What could I do? She was being annoying!" he insisted.

"Well, she is spoiled, no doubt about it," Harry agreed, "Okay, so, last night..."

They filled Ron in about Sirius's visit and his message for Harry.

"Um, do you think it's wise to approach Dumbledore like that?" Ron said, eyebrows creasing, "I mean, he's hardly around anymore, and when he is, he looks intimidating as heck..."

"That's true," Hermione agreed, looking at Harry, "He seems unapproachable."

"But what I've got to tell him is extremely important, too! For what he's busy in for the Order, wouldn't this dream be crucial?" Harry argued.

"You're right, but..." Hermione bit her lip, "He's not around as much as he's used to."

"More reason for You-Know-Who to attack Hogwarts..." Ron mumbled.

"Ron!" Hermione exclaimed, horrified.

"He's right. Isn't Voldemort afraid of Dumbledore, and that's the sole reason for him not taking over Hogwarts?" Harry said, "If he's out of the picture more often, then who's stopping Voldemort from attacking us?"

"Please, Harry, will you stop saying his name?!" Ron yelled with fright.

"You shouldn't be afraid of that, Ron," Hermione advised him, "Besides, the curse behind saying his name was years ago, so I don't see any problem saying it now."

"Exactly!" Harry smiled.

The bell rang, indicating the start of the first class for the day. For the trio, it was Defense Against the Dark Arts with that Ministry hag, Umbridge.

"Good morning, students!" she said cheerfully to the class before her, "For today's lesson, we'll be studying the theory of Counter Jinxes, so put your wands away and open chapter three. Off you read!"

There was a ripple of groans in the class - which was silenced when Umbridge sharply rapped her short wand on her desk.

"There will be no sound of disapproval!" she warned, her lips pursed, "Or else you'll have to face detention!"

The class immediately quietened down and read the words before them about jinxes they could practically do - and have fun.

Half an hour passed as students read from their books while Umbridge observed them. Truth to be told, many of them were just staring at the words and were not actually reading them, like Harry and Ron. Ron was looking at the words as if they were a tricky math question, and Harry was glaring at them, his anger at Umbridge rising each minute. It seemed like only Hermione was actually reading, because she had raised her hand for a question with a puzzled look on her face.

"Yes?" Umbridge asked her, smiling tightly.

"Professor, I have a question."

"And that is?"

"Well," Hermione chose her next words carefully, "Here it says that jinxes for self-defense can only be comprehensible when used practically. Otherwise, it's futile to read about them?"

"Miss Granger, are you questioning my teaching style?" Umbridge demanded angrily.

"No, professor!" Hermione exclaimed, "I was a bit stuck around this part, so that's why I asked you about it. To clear up my confusion."

Umbridge let out a frustrated sigh, to calm herself down apparently, because the next moment, she was smiling.

"Well, no matter what the book says, we are going to be studying theories of everything. The Minister thinks it's safer for you this way. Why allow harm when you can prevent it, right?"

"Right," Hermione said, still unsure.

"Yes. Now go back to your book and stop asking me silly questions, Miss Granger."

Hermione didn't reply and averted her eyes to her book instead. The anger in Harry was bursting, especially after this, and he couldn't resist.

"She's right, you know!" he declared before he could stop himself, "What's the purpose of learning these jinxes if we can't even use them?!"

"Lower your voice, Mr. Potter!" Umbridge snapped, "And raise your hand before you speak!"

"I don't care!" Harry retorted, making the whole class gasp, "These classes are rubbish compared to what we went through the past years. Just because Fudge is a coward, we have to suffer!"

"Mr. Potter..." Umbridge said.

"Harry, stop this!" Hermione whisper-shouted, but he wasn't listening. The words were already out, and he couldn't stop from saying more.

"If we face a difficult situation, how are we going to defend ourselves?" Harry demanded to a speechless Umbridge, "Are we going to hurl these books at them?"

Some people laughed, but some were horrified. Harry Potter was in big trouble, predicting from the look on Umbridge's toad-like face.

"Mr. Potter, that is enough!" she hollered, "Not only did you break my class rules, you also disrespected the decisions of the Ministry! Whose sole purpose is to provide a safer environment for you all! I assure you that you will NOT be facing such situations and never have. So, stop -"

"Have never faced such situations before?!" Harry interrupted, nonplussed, "Then what about last year, huh? When Cedric Diggory died? From the wrath of Voldemort?!"

The class gasped. He just spoke You-Know-Who's name in front of the last person he should be speaking it to. Umbridge looked infuriated.

"Detention, Mr. Potter!" she told him harshly, "And 20 points from Gryffindor! You should be ashamed of yourself! Come here!"

Since he was not the least bit afraid of her, Harry stood up and obeyed, all the while glaring at her.

"Take this piece of parchment to Professor McGonagall and tell her I sent you," huffed Umbridge, writing something quickly on the paper, "You deserve to be punished, you insolent young man!"

Harry glowered at her and snatched the paper from her hand. Mumbling to himself, he left the classroom, leaving behind a very dazed class and an even more dazed Ron and Hermione.

"What are you waiting for? Continue reading!" Umbridge shouted, and the class immediately focused back on their books.


"Oh, I hope Harry's okay..." Hermione said, worried, as she headed towards Charms with Ron.

"He'll be fine," Ron reassured her, "McGonagall hates Umbridge as much as we do. Do you really think she'll take Umbridge's side?"

"No. But the detention..."

"He has gone through a lot of detentions. Surely he can go through one more," Ron grinned, "The look on Umbridge's face was worth everything, though."

"It was, but it got Harry in trouble. Not only did he lose house points, but he also landed himself in detention. We can only wonder what a woman like Umbridge could do..." Hermione sighed.

"Quit worrying so much," Ron replied, "I told you, he'll be alright."

But Harry seemed more than alright. When he met up with them in Charms, he had a huge grin on his face. It appeared that Ron was right, and Professor McGonagall had taken Harry's side and dismissed Umbridge's note without a second thought. But he still had detention, though. And it was horrible...

Harry was to go to Umbridge's office every Friday afternoon, exactly at the time of Quidditch practices.

"Angelina is gonna kill me..." Harry murmured.

"She ought to understand!" Hermione said, annoyed, "You didn't choose the timings."

"But she won't. That's the problem," he sighed, "The big match against Ravenclaw is coming up, and if I miss every practice, I'm bound to fall behind the whole team's strategy."

Hermione felt truly sorry for Harry. He had a lot of things to worry about; Quidditch, detentions, Dumbledore, the Order, and Voldemort. She knew it was more than he could take.

"Oh, Harry..." she said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "It's gonna be all right. In the end, everything will click into place, and the best things will happen. You just have to wait."

"You're right," Harry said, then smiled at her, "Thanks, Hermione."

Her heartbeat quickened in her chest, but it halted when Professor Flitwick started the class.

"Let's begin our lesson for the day, students!" Professor Flitwick announced, "We'll be learning the Silencing Charm, which you can tell by the name, silences the object before you. The incantation for this spell is - Silencio!"

The class had fun in Charms, which they always did, as Professor Flitwick's teaching style was practical. Harry forgot about his problems for a bit, and his face lightened up with cheerfulness at Ron's complaints about the difficult spell and Hermione's words of advice. What would I do without them? He wondered to himself.

After Charms, they had Care of Magical Creatures, and Hagrid introduced Flobberworms to them. They were small and dull, hardly moving, and disgusting in looks. The Slytherins were madly complaining while the Gryffindors were trying to study the boring creatures as best as they could, for Hagrid's sake.

"I hate those Slytherins..." Harry murmured as the three made their way to Herbology, "Especially Malfoy."

"Agreed. I would do anything just to smack that stupid smirk off his face," Ron put in menacingly.

"You better be careful around him," Hermione warned them, "You know he loves to get you in trouble. Fighting him will lead to no good."

"But he and his goons were making things harder for Hagrid!" Ron exclaimed, surprised, "They want to get him sacked."

"I know, and I feel the utmost pity for him! But there are other less violent ways we can deal with the problem," Hermione said.

Ron opened his mouth to argue further, but Harry cut in.

"Hermione's right, Ron," he said, "What good will come out of fighting Malfoy? He's a git, and he deserves more than a solid hex."

Ron rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. As for Hermione, she was so glad Harry agreed upon her suggestions. He did that before, too, of course, but before, Hermione's heart didn't swell up like a balloon as it was doing now...