Lady Mortem || Harry Potter Fanfiction

Dolores Umbridge

An unfamiliar face, up in the teachers table, caught Scilla's attention. The woman was donned in bright pink clothes, which made Scilla avert her gaze. She must be the one from the ministry, Draco warns her about last night.

Scilla nudged Draco and gestured her head towards the lady in pink with questioning eyes. Draco glanced up and nodded.

"Well, that's a lot of.. um.. pink." She said unsure.

Blaise snorted at that, placing another piece of pancake on Scilla's almost empty plate. Scilla absently ate her breakfast, not noticing an addition on her plate.

"You should've heard her last night at the welcoming feast."

"...That bad?" Scilla looked to Pansy on her left. Pansy shrugged, silently confirming her question.

"Which reminds me, she's our defense teacher." Draco added nonchalantly.

"You said she's here for inspection." Scilla frowned.

Even though she only saw her this morning, she could somehow understand why Draco warned her to stay away from the woman last night. She could feel a bad vibe coming from her.

"Yeah, I forgot to mention that."

Scilla felt like they will have a hard time this year. Her instincts are telling her that Dolores Umbridge is a threat to her. Why? She's still unsure, but she'll probably know why soon. For now she will stay back and keep an eye on her.

~~~~~

The door to the DADA classroom was opened, gaining the attention from the whole class, as Ron Weasley comes staggering in.

"Sorry, Professor..." Umbridge smiles stiffly at him.

"Hmm, let's see, five points from Gryffindor for coming in late."

Ron frowns, his ears red from embarrassment, but he didn't say anything. He entered the class and walked towards an empty seat next to Seamus.

"Now, as I was saying before Mr. Weasley 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. Copy this down."

She waves her wand at the blackboard and words are written down on it.

Everyone opens their books and begins copying, except Hermione, who sits with her book unopened, her hand in the air. Scilla glanced at the bushy haired girl with disinterest. She, herself, didn't bother to copy the words on the blackboard.

Umbridge ignores her. However, within the next few seconds, nearly the whole class is watching Hermione. Umbridge sighs.

"Yes?"

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

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

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

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

"But surely the whole point of defense against the dark arts is practical application?" She continued to argue.

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

"No, but-"

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

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