The Order of the Phoenix - Harry Potter Male Reader Insert

37: An Abrupt Announcement

This year's fifth years had already had it pretty rough so far, what with them having to teach themselves Defence, a subject they were already behind on, but they at least deserved peace and quiet on the morning of their first exam, right?

Apparently not.

Usually, this time of year was when the students would respectably keep hubbub and chatter to a minimum, out of respect for the fifth years and seventh years going through their exams.

However, having to be mindful of O.W.L season seemed to be the last thing on anyone's minds as Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the Great Hall for breakfast that morning. In fact, the Great Hall had never been so excruciatingly loud.

"Oh, what is it?" snapped Parvati, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table and trying to practice incantations under her breath. "What's all this bloody fuss?"

"That's what I'd like to know," said Hermione weakly, taking a seat beside Harry and Ron.

Again, Y/N had not been present that morning. His consistent absences were becoming worrisome, and Hermione couldn't help but feel it was time the remaining members of the Quartet finally decided to get nosy on what it was he was being so painfully secretive about.

"Haven't you heard?" came the voice of the third year somewhere down the table. "I heard someone trashed up Umbridge's office early this morning!"

There were plenty of other voices discussing this very same topic. Not just the Gryffindors.

"Are you being serious? Were they caught?"

"No one knows yet..."

"They say the office is a complete mess, not even Peeves could compete with it!"

"I heard it got set on fire!"

"Have you heard the news?" came a voice from behind the three friends. They turned to face Lee Jordan.

Lee had somewhat lonely since Fred and George's flight to freedom. With his best friends gone, and N.E.W.T's looking over his shoulder all he could do nowadays was study and wait for the day his time at Hogwarts would come to an end.

"What's this, Lee?" said Hermione sharply. "What's all this about?"

"Well, apparently Filch was dancing across the corridor this morning, before most of us woke up." shrugged Lee. "Apparently he caught a student trashing Umbridge's office."

"Well, isn't that normal?" said Ron. "There's been a lot of incidents where students are trying to get in there and break a few things."

Lee shook his head. "No one's ever actually been brave enough to step in there in person and deliberately get caught. Even I've been sending Nifflers up there to cause a bit of destruction, but I've been levitating them through the window. Plus, this isn't your normal type of chaos. Apparently the magic is on par with the twins swamp."

"I suppose you can't blame anyone for wanting to avoid the risk of getting caught." pondered Harry. "What with Filch's new power of whipping us all."

"She isn't here," said Hermione suddenly.

"Who isn't?"

"Umbridge," she replied. "The Head's chair is empty."

Hermione was right. Professor Dumbledore’s old chair was empty and devoid of any annoying squatty pink thing.

"She normally never misses a chance to sit in that chair." frowned Harry. "Where is she?"

Ron suddenly went a little green in the face. "You don't think that she's - you know - punishing the student who destroyed her office?"