November Snow

t h i r t y - t w o

Guess who became our Defense against the Dark Arts teacher? A pink woman with a toad-like face named Dolores Umbridge from the Ministry of Magic, under Educational Degree twenty-two or whatever she called it. And guess why she was here? Because apparently the Ministry didn't believe in Harry's, Dumbledore's and the Order's story. Short version, I didn't like her.

My day hadn't been the best. Professor McGonagall didn't have her brightest day, Snape clearly had never had a bright day, Trelawney seriously just predicted an awful lot of disaster in my future. And the worst of all was having Defense against the Dark Arts at the end of the day with Griyffindors. Not any Gryffindor, but Harry, Ron and Hermione.

I sat down near the Slytherins at the end of the room as Umbridge settled the class.

"As I has been informed, your Defense against the Dark Arts lessons have been--"

"Sorry, Professor..." Harry ran into the classroom.

"Hmm, let's see. Five points from Gryffindor for coming in late." She gave a disgusting toad-like smile "Now, as I was saying before Mister Potter interrupted with his antics, your Defense against the Dark Arts education has been rather fragmented and disjointed in your past classes, hasn't it? Know now that this is about to be rectified. I will be following a pre-approved Ministry-prepared, theory-centered Defense lesson plan."

She waved her wand to write on the black chalk board.

"Copy this down." She reminded us.

Everyone opened their books and began copying down whatever she wrote on the board. I narrowed my eyes at her, my book remained unopened. It had been my forth year in Hogwarts and I had never had a Defense against the Dark Arts lesson that students had to copy things down in their notes. Hermione seemed to have the same thoughts, her hand shot up in the air. Umbridge ignored her, but soon, as the whole classes watched the girl, she sighed.

"Yes?" Umbridge asked.

"I wanted to know something about your course aims." Hermione said.

"Well, they should be perfectly self-evident." She said.

"Well, I don't think they are." Hermione claimed "They say nothing about actually doing spells."

"I can imagine no circumstance in my class where you would need to use spells, my dear." Umbridge laughed.

"But excuse me, Professor." I said, nearly choked at the word 'professor', all eyes turned to me "Surely the whole point of Defense against the Dark Arts is practical application? How can we know how to fight against the Dark Arts when we can't even get the spells right?"

Hermione nodded at me in appreciation.

"Miss Granger, Miss Avery, this class has been approved by Ministry experts. Are you a Ministry Expert?"

"No, but--"

"Then you have no business challenging those who are." Umbridge said "We will be learning about spells in a safe, risk-free environment--"

"But we've got O.W.L.s coming up!" Hermione exclaimed "You expect us to do the spells with no practice?"

"What good's theory in the real life?" Harry said.

"This is school, not the real world, Mister Potter." She said "There is nothing out there waiting to get you."

"What about what's after school?" I asked "Isn't that the real world?"

"What about Lord Voldemort?" Harry said.

Everyone flinched at the sound of the name. Umbridge's smile turned into a deep frown, the corner of her lips twitched.