Harry returns from Hogwarts Legacy

Chapter 324 Professor Umbridge
Harry decided to write a letter of advice to his godfather, since he and Snape were both brothers in the same camp who were causing trouble, and it would be bad to damage their relationship.

Why did you have to persecute Snape for no reason?

In the end, Snape couldn't get revenge on you, so he still took his anger out on me.
With some time to spare before Divination class, Harry wrote a letter advising Sirius to stop bullying Snape and had Hedwig take it with him.

Professor Trelawney looked a bit sickly at the start of the new semester, but she immediately perked up when she saw Anne.

The divination classroom was cluttered with some thin little tables, and the light from the lamps covered with cloths was very dim. In particular, there was a weak fire burning in the classroom, which even emitted an unpleasant smell that made people's heads ache.

“I kind of regret choosing to take the divination class again,” Ron said.

Professor Trelawney seemed not to hear Ron's words; her attention was completely drawn to Anne.

“My dear~” she said to Anne in her usual rambling, indistinct voice, “Welcome to the divination class—welcome…”

"Hello?" Anne asked uncertainly, "Professor?"

“Of course I’m fine, my dear,” Professor Trelawney said, raising her hands in a French military salute. “But you… you possess a third eye that no one else in this school has… yes, I can see your third eye…”

This really stumped Annie.

Tianmu?

What it is?
“As I said, the third eye is an innate talent.” Professor Trelawney’s voice began to become clearer. “Some girls—you know who I’m talking about—have souls as dry as straw and don’t possess that talent for divination… But this one… oh, my dear, what is your name?”

“Anne,” Anne answered timidly, “Anne Salou.”

“Oh.” Professor Trelawney raised the corner of her lips. “Annie, you have an excellent talent for divination. If you are interested in divination, you can stay after class.”

Anne didn't answer, but instead focused her gaze on Harry.

“This is a good opportunity, Anne.” Harry reached out and ruffled Anne’s hair, just like he always did. “I believe Professor Trelawney wouldn’t lie to you. Since you have the talent for prophecy, why not study with Professor Trelawney?”

Since it was Harry's suggestion, Anne hesitated before nodding in acceptance.

After all, Harry wouldn't harm her.

“Then…” Professor Trelawney’s voice trembled again, “every Friday evening, my dear…you come to my office for after-school care…”

“Okay, Professor,” Anne nodded.

Harry felt that they really needed a prophetic talent right now. Gellert was a nonviolent noncooperative guy, and Vivi's prophecies could only be seen within a few days, and they were sometimes accurate and sometimes not.

Anne would be a good choice; at least she wouldn't resort to nonviolent noncooperation like Gellert.

Harry felt a little itchy to touch Gellert just thinking about him.

If given the chance, I should definitely spar with my brother-in-law on the magic.

The divination class went by quickly. As a professor whose teaching attitude was not much different from Professor Binns', Professor Trelawney did not impose too much on whether the students listened attentively in class.

Ron pulled Seamus along, and the two of them secretly played Connect Four under the table, looking quite happy.

Zhang Qiu taught them this game during the summer vacation, saying it was a kind of educational game.

At first, Zhang Qiu was able to win with her rich experience, but after a few games, she started to lose more than she won.

The time when Hawk lost to Ron was particularly laughable.

But when get out of class ended, the students stopped laughing.

Professor Trelawney assigned everyone homework, which required them to record in detail their dreams from the past month.

“I think she might as well just kill us,” Ron said, somewhat resignedly. “Look at all the homework we’ve received today! Professor Snape gave us a paper a foot long, and Professor Binns went even further, making us write a paper a foot and a half long—I thought that was the end of it, but then there’s someone else, Professor Trelawney, who made us record a month’s worth of dreams! Who can remember what they’ve ever dreamed about!”

“You can write down your dreams first,” Harry said with a shrug. “There’s no need to wait until after you dream to write them down. For example, when you go home at night, you can write down all the dreams you’ve had in the past month.”

"I think it's made up," Simon grumbled from behind. "But I really like this method, so I'll steal it."

“I have a bad feeling,” Ron suddenly said, looking up. “I bet that woman named Umbridge will follow suit and fire her own spectacular salvo! She’ll definitely give us a ton of homework!”

“Doing homework isn’t so bad,” Neville whispered from behind. “It’s much better than being put in solitary confinement by Professor Snape, don’t you think? I’d rather be with Hagrid’s Blasttail than be put in solitary confinement by Professor Snape…”

“What if Hagrid lets you eat rock bread?” Ron asked from behind.

Neville shuddered and said without thinking, "Then I'll just have to be put in solitary confinement by Professor Snape."

"Huh?" Anne suddenly asked, "Rock crust cake? Harry, didn't you tell me that rock crust cake is delicious? Why is Longbottom like this?"

“Oh, because they don’t know the proper way to eat rock cakes, Annie—believe me,” Harry said dismissively.

Neville realized his mistake and quickly changed his tune: "Yes, I don't really like the flavor of rock cakes—you can ask Ron if you don't believe me, rock cakes are actually quite delicious..."

Annie was somewhat skeptical, but since all her classmates said so, she didn't know whether she should believe them or not.

As for Hermione... well, Hermione didn't choose Divination, so she didn't have the chance to stand here and explain to Anne what real rock cakes actually taste like.

Filled with questions, Anne followed Harry and the others to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

When they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, they found Professor Umbridge already seated behind the podium.

She was wearing the same fluffy pink cardigan she'd worn the night before, with the black velvet bow on her head, making her look like a pink old toad.

It's not surprising that the students think that way, after all, Umbridge's speech yesterday proved that she is... not a very popular professor.

Think about it, even Dumbledore, the headmaster, tries to keep his speech under one minute—how could a professor like her dare to speak for half an hour?
The atmosphere in the classroom was very strange. Students who entered the classroom tried their best to control themselves and not make any noise.

This was in stark contrast to when Professor Lupin was around—even in Professor Snape's Potions class, everyone wasn't this overly reserved.

No one knew what the new professor's personality was like, so it was best to keep a low profile. Once everyone had arrived, Professor Umbridge stood up and said, "Good afternoon, students!"

Everyone looked at each other, bewildered, with no one knowing what was going on.

Harry was quite accommodating; after giving Ron and the others a wink, they replied in unison, "Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge."

A look of surprise flashed in Professor Umbridge's eyes.

“Tsk, tsk.” She shook her head and said, “This can’t go on. As the only magic school in the UK, why do you have no discipline at all? But what surprises me is that such a polite student is from Gryffindor. I thought it would be a Slytherin student.”

No one could figure out what she meant. Before they could think about it, Professor Umbridge spoke up again.

"Of course, that's exactly what I want—from now on, in class, if it's in the morning, you'll reply 'Good morning, Professor Umbridge,' and if it's in the afternoon, it's the same principle—understand? Let's do it again! Good afternoon, students!"

"Good afternoon, Professor Umbridge," the students replied in unison.

Professor Umbridge's face flashed with satisfaction, and a particularly... how to describe it, a particularly arrogant, particularly self-important satisfaction.

“That’s right,” Professor Umbridge said in a childish voice that was utterly repulsive to her appearance. “It’s not too difficult, is it? It’s certainly much simpler than the art of Defense Against the Dark Arts.”

“Yes, Professor,” the students said listlessly.

I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but a significant number of people think this new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor is really annoying.

“Now, please put away your wands,” Professor Umbridge said, head held high, continuing in that sweet, coquettish voice, “and take out your quills—”

Since no one knew what kind of medicine Professor Umbridge was going to sell, they didn't think much of it, put down their wands, and took out pens, ink, and paper.

“As far as I know, students,” Professor Umbridge said, “for the past four years—at least the four years since you enrolled—you’ve had a new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor every year, haven’t you? So I don’t think your Defense Against the Dark Arts course has been taught systematically—and I’m not exaggerating, because everyone has their own teaching style.”

At this point, Professor Umbridge sighed regretfully.

"Well, that's why I think you students are indeed talented, but you've been held back by Hogwarts—the teachers keep changing, and many of them don't seem to be teaching according to the curriculum standards approved by the Ministry of Magic. Unfortunately, this has kept you far from the level you should be at in your OWL years."

These words immediately perked up many students.

Wow, this new teacher speaks so eloquently, he's quite knowledgeable.

No one had ever spoken to them from such a high vantage point before, and for a moment, they were genuinely taken aback.

Professor Umbridge opened her handbag, pulled out an unusually short wand, and slammed it hard on the blackboard.

Two lines of text immediately appeared on the blackboard:
Defense Against the Dark Arts Returns to Basic Principles

"However, you will be pleased to know that these problems are about to be corrected. This year, we will be studying a carefully designed, theory-based Defense Against Magic course approved by the Ministry of Magic. Please write these words down."

She knocked on the blackboard again, and the two lines of words disappeared and were replaced by "Course Objectives."

1. Understand the basic principles of magic defense.

2. Learn to identify situations where it is legal to use Defense Against the Dark Arts.

3. Evaluate Defense Against the Dark Arts in the context of practical application.

Ron looked up and glanced at the words on the blackboard.

Could it be that she actually has some skill?

He turned to look at Harry beside him and saw that the other had already picked up a quill and started taking notes.

I was about to ask what was going on, but upon seeing this, our new prefect shrugged and joined in taking notes.

The classroom was completely silent, except for the soft scratching of a quill pen on a book, which sounded quite pleasant and created a very classroom atmosphere.

Professor Umbridge didn't rush to speak. She held her wand in one hand and patted it as she walked around the classroom, occasionally glancing down at the students' notes.

“You,” Professor Umbridge tapped Blaise Zabini with her wand, “this Slytherin student, why aren’t you copying your notes?”

Brace had no choice but to pick up a quill and copy it into his notebook.

“You should say, ‘I’m sorry,’ Professor Umbridge,” Professor Umbridge said sternly.

“I’m sorry, Professor Umbridge,” Blaise said reluctantly.

Professor Umbridge didn't investigate further, but this action undoubtedly made other students who didn't want to copy notes uneasy.

They all lowered their heads and took out their pens to write furiously in their notebooks.

“She really knows how to do things,” Ron whispered gleefully, a voice only he and Harry could hear.

However, Harry had no intention of paying any attention to Ron.

He knew that Professor Umbridge was from the Ministry of Magic and was a close associate of Minister Fudge.

She must have had some ulterior motive for entering Hogwarts.

The Ministry of Magic was very unhappy about his encounter with Voldemort, and Harry couldn't be sure if Umbridge would target him because of it.

Based on the principle of not being afraid of trouble but not causing trouble, Harry felt that writing it down wouldn't hurt. What if Professor Umbridge really did have some skills?
As the saying goes, when three people walk together, there must be a teacher I can learn from. That's the point.

Humility makes one progress.

Umbridge continued walking around the classroom, and when she reached Harry, she stopped and lingered there for a while.

Seeing that Harry had copied her blackboard notes perfectly into his notebook, Professor Umbridge nodded in satisfaction and turned back to the podium.

(End of this chapter)