"No," Professor McGonagall responded coldly. "This doesn't follow proper procedure, Dolores. As Head of Gryffindor House, I should be the one handling all disciplinary matters concerning my own students."
The atmosphere in the Great Hall instantly shifted, becoming noticeably more tense and uncomfortable. Several nearby students who had been lingering over their breakfast stopped their conversations to watch.
Harry and Ron stood completely frozen between the two professors, watching this tense confrontation unfold with anxiety. They didn't dare to move a single muscle or even breathe too loudly, afraid that any movement might draw attention back to themselves.
The strained relationship between Professor McGonagall and Umbridge was visible to the naked eye, anyone could feel the crackling tension between them, the mutual dislike that had been building throughout the term.
It was like watching two cats circling each other with fur raised and claws ready.
Professor McGonagall stood tall and rigid, her robes seeming to crackle with suppressed magical energy. Her lips were pressed into a thin, disapproving line, and her eyes behind her spectacles were sharp.
Umbridge, by contrast, maintained her simpering smile, but her toad-like eyes had gone cold and calculating. Her fat fingers clutched at the photographs she still held.
In the end, however, after several seconds of silent staring, Umbridge backed down with reluctance.
"Very well," Umbridge said stiffly. "I shall defer to your... experience in this matter, Minerva."
The way she said 'experience' made it sound almost like an insult.
Professor McGonagall's eyes narrowed fractionally, but she didn't take the bait.
"Off to class immediately, you two," Professor McGonagall turned sharply to the two guilty boys, her expression still stern. "And don't think for a moment you've gotten off easy—I won't be lenient with you just because I intervened on your behalf."
"Yes, Professor!" Harry and Ron answered in unison, relief was flooding through them like warm water despite the promised punishment.
The two of them, feeling as if they'd been unexpectedly pardoned from execution at the last possible moment, immediately prepared to leave the hall with nimble movements. They were eager to escape before things could somehow get worse or before Umbridge could find another angle of attack.
"Also," Professor McGonagall continued sharply, her voice stopping them dead in their tracks just as they'd begun to edge away, "bring everyone else who participated in your rule-breaking activities to my office this evening as well. I expect you to show some awareness and responsibility."
"Understood, Professor," Harry replied immediately.
Standing at a distance not far away near one of the windows, Adrian witnessed the entire process with mild amusement and easily pieced together what had happened from context and observation.
Harry and the others had secretly gone to Hogsmeade during the holiday break and were unfortunately caught red-handed by Umbridge, who had apparently been lying in wait like a spider in a web ready to pounce.
These children really never gave anyone peace of mind or a moment's rest. They seemed to have an almost supernatural talent for finding trouble.
Fortunately, this wasn't anything particularly serious or dangerous, just typical student mischief and rule-breaking.
Adrian shook his head with exasperation before turning to leave the Great Hall himself. He had his own classes to prepare for.
"Sure enough, we were discovered just as I feared," Ron said regretfully as they walked quickly through the corridor, quickening his pace toward the dungeons and their Potions classroom.
His face was still pale with residual anxiety. "I knew we should have been more careful. I shouldn't have agreed to take John to Hogsmeade in the first place. What was I thinking?"
In fact, the entire excursion had only been organized to let John experience the magical wizarding world properly and see places he'd only read about in books. Since John had mentioned with some sadness that he was born in a Muggle orphanage and had never seen places like Honeydukes or Zonko's Joke Shop, they'd wanted to give him that experience.
Simply put, they'd gone to have innocent fun and show their friend around.
Compared to Ron's regret and spiraling worry, Harry seemed considerably much calmer about their unfortunate situation.
"It's really not that big a deal," he said dismissively, shrugging his shoulders. "As long as Umbridge doesn't end up handling our punishment and she won't, McGonagall made that clear, we'll be fine. She won't be too hard on us. At most she'll make us clean the trophy room without magic for a few evenings."
"That'll still take quite a bit of time and be incredibly boring work," Ron wailed dramatically, throwing his hands up.
Then he lowered his voice to a whisper, glancing around to make sure no one was listening. "By the way, should we tell Hermione and John about this whole mess before tonight?"
"Of course we should," Harry nodded without any hesitation, his expression was serious. "They participated too, so they can't escape anyway. Rather than having Professor McGonagall go hunt them down herself and drag them to her office like criminals, we might as well confess honestly and bring them ourselves—maybe we can even reduce our total detention time by being cooperative and showing regret."
He paused, thinking through the potential complications.
"Besides, Hermione was already photographed clearly in those pictures Umbridge was waving around... As for John, we'll ask him later during lunch and see what he wants to do."
The two boys stopped outside the Potions classroom door, their conversation ended as other students began to gather.
"Ah, it's Potions class first thing," Ron sighed heavily with dread. "What's scheduled after that?"
Harry checked their timetable with a growing sinking feeling in his stomach; his expression became complicated and deeply resigned. "Defense Against the Dark Arts with Umbridge."
What absolutely rotten, terrible luck—the two classes they least wanted to attend in their entire schedule were scheduled back-to-back today of all days.
Perhaps because term had just started and Snape was in an unusually charitable mood, or perhaps because he was preoccupied with some other concern, he didn't deliberately target or bait anyone today during the lesson.
Or rather, Snape's mood had improved considerably lately for reasons completely unknown. Although he still fixed Harry with his typically cold, penetrating stare across the dungeon classroom, he deducted house points far less frequently than he had in previous years.
Even so, despite this relative mercy and restraint, the Gryffindor students remained continuously on edge throughout the entire double period lesson.
The entire period proceeded in a tense, careful atmosphere with everyone working diligently. Finally, the bell rang and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief.
"Next is Defense Against the Dark Arts," Ron said glumly as he gathered his textbooks and carefully bottled his potion sample with reluctance. "Honestly, I'd genuinely rather have another double Potions class. At least Snape teaches us real magic, even if he is a git about it."
"You two seem distinctly off today," Hermione observed keenly. "Did something happen this morning that you're not telling me?"
So, during the short fifteen-minute break between classes as they walked slowly through the corridors, Harry recounted the morning's unfortunate events in detail.
"I thought as much," Hermione sighed as well, shaking her hair in resignation. "I had a bad feeling about that day. I told you we should have been more careful."
This outcome was within her expectations, since she had been the very first to spot Umbridge watching them with suspicious intensity that afternoon in Hogsmeade. She'd tried to warn them then.
She frowned with concern and said, "John's only a first-year student, and now he has to serve detention with us. I feel quite sorry for him. He didn't even suggest the trip, we pressured him into coming."
"Harry got into much more exciting and dangerous trouble in his first year," Ron said casually as he walked beside her. "This is absolutely nothing compared to that."
"That's not really the point, Ron," Hermione said disapprovingly, giving him a stern look. "And that doesn't make this okay."
"Anyway, we'll talk to him properly at lunch," Harry said decisively, ending the debate. "Explain the whole situation."
If John was really against serving detention, they could choose not to implicate him and take full responsibility themselves. It wouldn't be that hard to leave him out of the confession.
Soon they reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on the third floor.
After they took their usual seats near the middle of the room, Harry preferred not to be too close to the front where Umbridge could easily target him, they settled in with varying degrees of reluctance.
Umbridge didn't walk into the classroom with her typical mincing, irritating steps until a full minute after the bell had rung.
Her pink robes swished as she entered, and her toad-like face bore that familiar, simpering smile.
"Good morning, students," she said in that uncomfortable, high-pitched, artificially sweet doll-like voice as she placed her pink-covered textbook carefully on the lectern. "Please turn to page forty-two of 'Defensive Magical Theory.' Today's lesson will cover theoretical response strategies when facing potential magical threats in controlled environments."
Ron muttered under his breath, "Theory again... We need more useful practical training and actual spellwork, not this useless rubbish."
Harry had completely lost count of how many times he'd heard this complaint from Ron over the past several months of Umbridge's teaching.
In fact, almost everyone present, thought the same thing. Umbridge's purely theoretical classes were completely useless and taught them nothing they could actually use to defend themselves in a real magical confrontation.
Of course, no one would be foolish enough to voice such doubts openly and directly to her face where she could hear.
Umbridge was still a professor, after all, wielding absolute power over house points, detentions, and increasingly, their entire educational experience.
Even Harry couldn't accept losing too many points and disappointing his house or letting down his fellow Gryffindors.
Harry listlessly opened his own copy of "Defensive Magical Theory,".
This was a textbook Umbridge had personally written and required for her course, its content based entirely on her own safe, conservative, defensive, and ultimately completely useless teaching philosophy.
It was full of vague warnings about "maintaining proper distance" and "assessing threat levels" but contained absolutely no actual defensive techniques or practical spells.
"Mr. Potter," Umbridge's sugary voice suddenly rang out sharply, cutting through the quiet classroom, "you seem to have some dissatisfaction with today's lesson? Perhaps you'd care to share your thoughts with the class?"
Harry's head snapped up immediately in surprise to find the entire class's eyes suddenly focused on him with various expressions.
"What?" he said, genuinely confused and caught off guard.
Wait—he hadn't done anything at all except furrow his brow slightly while reading the assigned passage about "maintaining emotional equilibrium during confrontations."
"No, Professor," Harry answered quickly.
"Really?" Umbridge walked to his desk with light, quick steps. She leaned down slightly, bringing her toad-like face uncomfortably close to his. "But the expression on your face tells me quite clearly that you have a rather low and disrespectful opinion of me and my teaching methods, Mr. Potter."
Harry forced himself to maintain a completely blank expression.
"I was just reading carefully and concentrating on the material, Professor," he said as calmly as he could manage.
"Talking back to a professor," Umbridge's lips curved into a thin, false smile. "Two points from Gryffindor."
A soft gasp of outrage and disbelief echoed through the classroom from the Gryffindor students.
Harry couldn't help feeling a surge of anger rising hot in his chest, his hands were clenching into fists under the desk.
Anyone with eyes could clearly see he hadn't done anything wrong.
"I was only answering your question honestly, Professor," Harry couldn't help but defend himself.
"Another point from Gryffindor," Umbridge said with sickly, poisonous sweetness, her smile was widening, "for your unrepentant attitude and continued disrespect toward authority."
Well, that shut Harry up completely.
How had Umbridge become just like Snape today in deliberately targeting him, or perhaps even worse and more petty in her vindictiveness?
Could this blatantly unfair behavior be because of this morning's incident with the photographs and her humiliation at Professor McGonagall's hands?
She really was an incredibly petty, vindictive woman who couldn't let go of the smallest slight.
Seeing that Harry had finally stopped talking and fallen into silence, Umbridge nodded with satisfaction and walked back to the lectern with swishing pink robes.
"For the remainder of class, I sincerely hope everyone will take my lessons seriously and with proper respect," she said primly, her voice was dripping with false concern. "After all, learning knowledge and respecting your betters is what you should be doing, not questioning your superiors or their methods."
Ron made an exaggerated face of disgust behind his textbook, and Hermione quickly elbowed him sharply in the ribs in warning before he could make a sound.
The entire class continued in an increasingly oppressive, suffocating atmosphere that made it hard to concentrate.
For some reason, Umbridge had suddenly become much stricter and more tyrannical than she had been last term.
Anyone caught daydreaming, doodling in the margins, or losing focus in class for even a moment had points deducted immediately and harshly. Ron even lost two points for "improper sitting posture" when he slouched slightly in his chair.
By the time the blessed relief of the final bell rang, signaling the end of the lesson, Gryffindor had lost nearly ten points in a single class period.
Fortunately, Hermione had answered several difficult questions correctly with her usual quick thinking, earning back about half those lost points through her knowledge.
However, Umbridge didn't seem to be targeting Gryffindor specifically today, the Ravenclaw students sharing the class had received exactly the same harsh treatment and arbitrary point deductions.
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