When with Rome {Sirius Black}

34. Mission Impossible

Barbara walked into the Leaky Cauldron, awaiting the new teacher's arrival. Dumbledore told the Royal that he had big news he wanted to share with her. Apparently, her parents already knew and were in full support of whatever decision she eventually made.

At first, Barbara didn't know what to expect. She knew that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be there; and she didn't know what to expect. Apparently, the woman was new to the Ministry and wanted to show how loyal she was with them, which only meant trouble for Hogwarts.

After greeting Dumbledore, Barbara took a seat at the table. She immediately noticed that they were in the back, away from the newspapers flying about and away from people speaking about the current news. She could only hope that their seating was coincidental. When Barbara first lay her eyes upon the woman, she was worse than Barbara originally thought.

She looked like she was in her late thirties. Her face resembled a toad's that was tested on for experimental potions. She was wearing pink, and that's it. Just wearing pink everything and a ginormous bow in her hair. Barbara nearly threw up with the amount of that one color she was wearing.

"It is a pleasure to see you again, Dumbledore." She turned to the confused Royal, suddenly looking at her with distaste.

"You must be my assistant. I'm Delores Umbrige." Who said anything about assistant? If it's finding her a new color then I'll gladly do it, actually.

"Hello, Umbrige. I'm Barbara Potter. And what do you mean by 'your assistant'?" Barbara looked at Dumbledore for help.

"You haven't told her yet?" The pink lady asked the professor. He shook his head.

"Miss Potter," he began, "since you already have a stable job, you can truly graduate right now. However, your parents still want you enrolled at Hogwarts until you can make your own decisions when you're seventeen. So, we came to the conclusion that, if you want, you can drop certain classes you already get O's on and teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. How does that sound to you?"

It didn't take Barbara long to respond. "Yes! I mean," she coughed to try to lower her excitement, "yeah. That sounds good to me. I really don't need potions, DADA, charms, or transfiguration. However, I want to stick with charms, transfiguration, and herbology anyway. Also, if you don't mind, I still want to take Arithmacy and have less homework in all of my classes. If I'm going to be juggling two jobs I don't need an excess of homework."

Dumbledore chuckled lightly with how determined Barbara was to get no homework. "A wise counter, Miss Potter. And I have to say, your argument is compelling. Welcome to the staff this year, Professor Potter."

She smiled at the Headmaster. "Thanks, Professor Dumbledore. Now, what's the deal with the teaching schedules?"

"You will be teaching when the class is in the morning for the First through Third Years. Delores, you will be teaching in the mornings for the other grades and afternoons for First through Third Years. Obviously, since Barbara is a staff member, she will not be attending your classes. After all, she's far too advanced for Fifth Year at this point. She'll only be doing a few core classes and any alternative class she wants."

"Excellent." Umbridge replied with a bored tone. Yet she still managed to sound engaged in the conversation. Barbara suppressed an eye roll.

"So, Umbrige, what is your teaching style?" Barbara asked politely. She wanted to try to make acquaintances with the toad-woman.

Umbridge's posh manor reminded her of the other road she unfortunately knew. And Delores spoke in an equally posh voice.

"By the book. The Ministry of magic's book requirements make sure each student has enough knowledge for any career they wish to pursue."

Even though she expected an answer like that, Barbara was still slightly shocked with how much Umbridge restricted her teachings. "You don't allow yourself to go off script at all? Even if you know more information than the text provides?"

"The students will learn the lessons I have learned later in their lives; so they don't need to be taught what they'll learn in the future."

What? "What?" Barbara repeated her thoughts aloud. "Sorry for my bluntness, Delores, but that doesn't make any sense. If you can teach them the lesson now it'll make room for more lessons in the future. Why wait when you can prevent something before it happens? Especially now, when there's a psycho Wizard on the loose, gathering the lunatics for the impending war."

"What are you talking about? There is no 'psycho wizard' on the loose, Miss Potter." Umbridge denied Voldemort faster than Barbara could count to ten.

"I can't pronounce his name— I think it's Volddysnort— but he's definitely out there. There's no point in denying it, Umbridge, that only means you're not prepared. The students need to be, too— don't put your ignorance in the way of teaching valuable things for the near future." Barbara silently high fived herself for the amount of sass she was able to put in her retort. She couldn't believe the woman was denying simple facts. Who does that?

"Excuse you, Miss Potter–"

"It's 'Professor Potter' right now, actually–"

"– I don't care what you call yourself, but you will not call me ignorant. I'm far from it! I'm the farthest you can be from ignorant. In fact, I'm the least ignorant person you know!–"

"– Actually, that's the man seated in between us."

Umbridge fell silent, only giving Barbara a death glare. If looks could kill, Barbara would've been six feet under after calling the toad ignorant. The silence lasted longer than Barbara thought; so she decided to be he first to leave.

"Well," she started, "it was very nice to meet my new colleague, but I must get going. I have a few things I need to take care of." As she walked out of the Leaky Cauldron, one thought was going through her mind.

I have to work with Umbitch?! Can life for me get worse than this?!