Umbridge picked up the letter. Her initial thought was that one of the students had played a prank on her. Dolores Umbridge started reading the letter, and the very first paragraph caused her eyebrows to rise.
~Look around you, Dolores.
The wizarding world has become flawed. There is no order. Hogwarts no longer has respect for the Ministry, and the Ministry no longer is respected for its order.
The Ministry is riddled with weakness. Deep down, you know of this. Not everyone is like you, trying their best to have order. Just look at Albus Dumbledore. He thinks of himself as one who should rule how everything needs to work. Wizards believe in him more than the Ministry.
Half-blood, half-breed, and even Muggle-born now live and are part of the Ministry as if they are equal to us.
You know the Ministry is failing.
That's why a little cleaning is needed. I need someone like you. With you among us, the wizarding world will be a better place.
Burn the paper, and it will reveal the place and time for the meeting to change the world.
THE DARK LORD VOLDEMORT. ~
Dolores Umbridge just stared at the letter for a long time after reading it. Was it really you-know-who that sent the letter, or was it one of the pranks from a student?
After some thought, she came to the conclusion that no student would dare to write the dark lord's name as a prank. But still, she found it impossible to wrap her mind around the idea that Voldemort was alive.
There was only one way to find out. Dolores pointed her wand at the piece of paper and set it on fire. In no time, the paper was engulfed completely, and the paper turned into ash. But instead of falling randomly, the ash began forming words, revealing the place and time as mentioned in the paper.
----
The first class has just finished.
Ron and Hermione were returning from Potion study towards the DADA class. Pushing open the creaky door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Ron and Hermione found Professor Umbridge already seated behind the teacher's desk. She was still wearing the same fluffy pink sweater they'd seen the night before.
Soon, the rest of the students came, filling the room completely.
"Well, good afternoon!" she said when finally the whole class had sat down. A few people mumbled "Good afternoon," in reply.
"Tut, tut," said Professor Umbridge. "That won't do, now, will it? I would like you, please, to reply 'Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge.' One more time, please."
"Good afternoon, class!" She greeted them again.
"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," they chanted back at her.
"There, now," said Professor Umbridge sweetly. "That wasn't too difficult, was it? Wands away and quills out, please."
Hermione shoved her wand back inside her bag and pulled out her quill, ink, and parchment. Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, extracted her own wand, which was an unusually short one, and tapped the blackboard sharply with it; words appeared on the board at once:
<
"Well now, your teaching in this subject has been rather disrupted and fragmented, hasn't it?" stated Professor Umbridge, turning to face the class with her hands clasped neatly in front of her. "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 O.W.L. year.
You will be pleased to know, however, that these problems are now to be rectified. We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year. Copy down the following, please."
She tapped her wand on the board again. The first message vanished and was replaced by a new one.
< 1. Understanding the principles underlying defensive magic.
2. Learning to recognize situations in which defensive magic can legally be used.
3. Placing the use of defensive magic in a context for practical use.>>
After all the students were done copying the course aims, Professor Umbridge made them open the book Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkard and read chapter one.
< Hermione could not take it any longer and decided to raise her hand. Umbridge seemed to ignore her and went to sit in her chair. The rest of the students began staring at the contents of chapter one. But even after several minutes, Hermione kept her hand raised without even having opened the book.
When more and more students began staring at Hermione instead of their books, Umbridge decided she could not ignore it any longer.
"Did you want to ask something about the chapter, dear?" she asked Hermione, as though she had only just noticed her.
"Not about the chapter, no," said Hermione.
"Well, we're reading just now," said Professor Umbridge, showing her small, pointed teeth. "If you have other queries, we can deal with them at the end of class."
"I've got a query about your course aims," said Hermione.
Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows. "And your name is… ?"
"Hermione Granger," said Hermione.
"Well, Miss Granger, I think the course aims are perfectly clear if you read them through carefully," said Professor Umbridge in a voice of determined sweetness.
"Well, I don't," said Hermione bluntly. "There's nothing written up there about using defensive spells."
There was a short silence in which many members of the class turned their heads to frown at the three-course aims still written on the blackboard.
"Using defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Well, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?"
"Surely the whole point of Defense Against the Dark Arts is to practice defensive spells? Are you a Ministry-trained educational expert, Miss Granger?" asked Professor Umbridge in her falsely sweet voice.
"No, but..." Hermione could not finish her sentence when the teacher spoke again.
"Well then, I'm afraid you are not qualified to decide what the 'whole point' of any class is. Wizards much older and cleverer than you have devised our new program of study. You will be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way..."
"But..." Hermione wanted to talk back but was interrupted again.
"Oh, wait a minute." Professor Umbridge came near Hermione's desk and stared at her face.
"Aren't you one of the friends of Harry Potter? Now I understand."