𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒏 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒐𝒏 ♔ 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘰𝘯𝘦

xvi . it-adora vs the toad

╭━ ⋅☽ ⋅ ━━ ⌁☍ ━━ ⋅ ☾⋅ ━╮

𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫
𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳
𝒊𝒕-𝒂𝒅𝒐𝒓𝒂 𝒗𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒂𝒅

╰━ ⋅☽ ⋅ ━━ ⌁☍ ━━ ⋅ ☾⋅ ━╯

"I am not excited for Defence," Edmund grumbled as the trio made their way up the stairs to the D.A.D.A room.

"We can judge her fashion skills but we can't judge her teaching skills yet..." Isadora said, not wanting to completely dismiss the woman.

"Nah you're just blind-sighted because every year we think 'it can't possibly get worse!' and then it does."

"He does have a point," Charlotte piped up.

"Well excuse me for having hope."

They slide into their seats and started taking out their stuff when a familiar 'hem-hem!' turned their attention to the front of the class. Umbridge stood there expectantly. With a flick of her wand, she erased the chalkboard that read 'Ordinary Wizarding Levels' and began to write 'Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests'.

"Now that's better, isn't it?" She did that awful little giggle again that Isadora thought must be her signature, "Well, good afternoon!"

A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.

"Tut, tut," Umbridge said, "That just will not do, now, will it? I should like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please. Good afternoon, class!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her. The Weasley twins who were sitting in the middle row did so very enthusiastically.

"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly, "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."

Many of the class exchanged gloomy looks; that order had never yet been followed by a lesson they had found interesting. Isadora shoved her wand back inside her satchel and pulled out her quill, ink, and notebook. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand -which was an unusually short one- and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; N.E.W.Ts disappeared replaced by 'Defense Against the Dark Arts A Return to Basic Principles' at once.

"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" Umbridge stated, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly to her chest as if she were addressing a group of sad toddlers, "The constant changing of teachers -many of whom do not seem to have followed any Ministry-approved curriculum- has unfortunately resulted in your being far below the standard we would expect to see in your N.E.W.T year."

Isadora turned to Edmund with a wince, knowing he would be deeply and personally offended by such a statement. He was; he gawked at Umbridge as if she'd just declared his mother was a flobberworm.

"-You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centred, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please." She rapped the blackboard again; the first message vanished and was replaced by:

Course aims:

1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.

2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.