Aevumiter

18: Dream

Harry didn't sleep well that night, and woke up groggy. He managed to pry his eyes open at breakfast, before heading to Transfiguration.

McGonagall marched into the room without any indication that she knew Umbridge was there. Despite his grogginess, Harry was in high spirits.

"That will do." McGonagall said, and silence fell immediately. "Mr. Macmillan, kindly come here and handback the homework. Miss Bones, please take this box of mice and hand one to each student."

Umbridge coughed her signature 'hem hem'. McGonagall entirely ignored her. Harry took his essay from Ernie, not caring to check his grade.

"Right then, everyone, listen closely- Miss Perks, if you do that to the mouse again I shall put you in detention- most of you have now successfully vanished your snails and even those who were left with a certain amount of shell have got the gist of the spell. Today, we shall be-" McGonagall said.

"Hem hem."

"Yes?" McGonagall said, turning to Umbridge, her brows furrowed together into a severe line.

"I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec-"

"Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom." McGonagall replied. Many of the other students looked just as gleeful as Harry felt. "As I was saying; today, we shall be practicing the altogether more difficult vanishment of mice. Now, the vanishing spell-"

"Hem hem."

"I wonder," McGonagall said coldly, looking to Umbridge. "How you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking."

Umbridge looked like she'd been slapped in the face. She didn't say anything, but scribbled furiously on her clipboard. Entirely unconcerned, McGonagall turned back to the class.

~~~

Hermione and Ron approached Harry during the lunch break. He split off from Blaise and Draco who were debating which desert was better.

"Hi Harry." Hermione grinned.

"I know that look." Harry said. "What are you thinking about?"

Hermione blinked in surprise. "Well, I was thinking..." She paused, and then her voice became rather firm and determined. "If Umbridge won't teach us, we should learn Defense Against The Dark Arts ourselves."

"Yeah, I think that's a great idea." Harry said.

"You do?" Hermione smiled.

"Oh, come off it. You want us to do extra work? I'm already behind as it is." Ron complained.

"But this is more important than schoolwork!" Hermione said.

"I didn't think there was anything more important than schoolwork." Ron said incredulously.

"Don't be silly, of course there is." Hermione said. "It's about preparing ourselves, like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, for what's waiting for us out there. It's about making sure we really can defend ourselves. If we don't learn anything for a whole year-"

"We can't do much by ourselves," Ron said, sounding defeated. "I mean, all right, we can go and look jinxes up in the library and try and practice them, I suppose."

"No, I agree, we've gone past the stage where we can just learn things out of books." Hermione said. "We need a teacher, a proper one, who can show us how to use the spells and correct us if we're going wrong."