Chapter 572: The curriculum carefully formulated by the Ministry of Magic (Edited)

"Mr. McGonagall, it's time for class, what are you doing?".

Once again, Umbridge couldn't keep the smile off her face, but asked in a halting voice.

"Nya?"

Fish raised his head and glared irritably at the woman who had disturbed his sleep....

After a moment's hesitation, he returned to his human form and replied impatiently, "Fish is sleeping, can't you see it nya?"

"But, it's a class."

"So what?" replied Fish with a straight face, "Your class is so boring nya!".

Umbridge knew Fish a little bit, but knew nothing about Fish's usual classes, so she unconsciously assumed that Dumbledore had told Fish to do that, to cause trouble in her own class.

"My classes, carefully arranged by the Ministry of Magic, are not boring classes." She said coldly.

"Fish doesn't know that much nya!" Fish grimaced and continued with a straight face, "Classes that require reading are boring classes! Fish sleeps in those classes! Even Albus or Minerva wouldn't care!".

Umbridge was about to continue scolding Fish, but suddenly she had a flash of light and asked with a happy face, "Is that true?"

"Why would I lie to you? We all know."

Fish replied, folding his arms, not embarrassed, but proud.

Umbridge looked around at the other students in the classroom, most didn't react, but there were a few frank ones who nodded unconsciously as they met her gaze.

"Since Headmaster Dumbledore has allowed it, you can go back to sleep." she said with a fake smile on her face again.

Umbridge thought this was excellent news to use against Dumbledore: giving special treatment of all kinds to the adopted son of Vice-Principal Minerva McGonagall showed that there was something very wrong with Dumbledore's approach to education.

Hermione's face paled slightly, she was smart enough to guess what Umbridge was thinking, only it was too late now, even if she woke Fish up and told him to change...not to mention that Fish didn't necessarily change.

But... from what the twins had heard, it sounded like Dumbledore had let Umbridge come to teach at the school on purpose, so he should have been prepared for this....

Hermione opened her copy of Theory of Magical Defense, but her attention was not on the book, but on the current situation.

In fact, she was only half right.

If he could have, Dumbledore wouldn't have wanted Fudge to be the one to slow him down, but firstly, it was too difficult to find a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and secondly, he didn't want his relationship with Fudge to deteriorate further, and with Harry's trial, Dumbledore had agreed to send Fudge to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts.

But she had not thought that Fudge would send such an "excellent" person as Umbridge, and now it was too late for Dumbledore to regret it.

Hermione was unaware of the various problems between Dumbledore and Fudge, all she knew was that the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor didn't seem to have any intention of teaching them the real thing.

The book Umbridge had asked them to read, Theory of Magical Defense, which Hermione had already studied, was really just theory and not a word about the application of defense spells.

Even the Voldemort-possessed Quirrell had taught them some practical spell applications in their first year, and had even organized some practical battles.

Second year, the lying Lockhart, had a lot of practical content in his stories, and the deans had a wide variety of substitute classes.

Third-year Professor Lupin was a favorite of almost all the students.

Moody, a fourth-year, though fake, introduced them to the Three Unforgivable Curses and some relatively over-the-top content.

But Umbridge, the Ministry of Magic's so-called method of education, is not as good as Quirrell and Lockhart. Ministry of Magic experts are not as good as Lockhart?

However, after hesitating for a while, Hermione still did not stand up to question this method of education.

Knowing that Umbridge had been sent by the Ministry to compete with Dumbledore for power, it was useless to argue with her, and who knew if Dumbledore had other plans, so Hermione decided to wait and see.

Just as Hermione had suspected, Umbridge had no intention of teaching them real magic, or even, for that matter, teaching them anything serious.

While Professor Binns' History of Magic had at least been taught by the books, Umbridge merely kept the students reading until the end of class. She made no noise, except to remind the sleepy students to stay awake.

"That's all for today, I'm sure we'll have a great time together." Umbridge said in her sweet fake girlish voice, "Go back and write a paper on the basics of the Defense spell."

Once the assignment was given, she picked up the pink girlish bag and walked away.

As soon as Umbridge had left, the classroom was filled with a chorus of complaints from the students.

"Introduction to basic theory!" asked Ron with an absurd expression on his face, "What's the point of this to us?"

"Why am I coming to class to read a book if that's what the class is about?" Seamus Finnigan shouted.

"Professor Binns' History of Magic is so much more interesting than your class!". Hannah Abbott was outraged.

"If this is the level of the Ministry of Magic, I can probably see why they won't believe You-Know-Who is back!" sneered Justin Finch-Fletchley.

Fish woke up and shook his head, then scratched his chin with his hind legs and cocked his head toward his grumbling companions.

Unlike them, Fish was quite happy with the lesson. The classroom was fairly quiet, as everyone was reading and Umbridge wasn't lecturing, which made for a great snoozing experience....

Well, I don't even want to beat her up.

When it was time for dinner, Hermione asked the third-year Ravenclaw, who also had Defense Against the Dark Arts today, and discovered that their lesson was exactly the same as the fifth-year's: read the first chapter of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

This confirmed Hermione's suspicion that Umbridge had never intended to teach them anything.

At dinner, the long tables of the four houses were discussing Umbridge, the newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and everyone, including the Slytherin students, had a poor opinion of her class.

"Hermione, are you okay?"

?w?

Fish walked over to a worried Hermione and gave her a concerned look.

"I'm fine," Hermione whispered as she gave Fish a reassuring smile. "Can you take me to the Headmaster's office tonight? I have something I want to talk to Dumbledore about."

"No problem nya, to Albus' office Fish can go whenever he wants, I just don't know if he'll be there nya."

"Let's see..." Hermione knew that Dumbledore was too busy lately to let himself be seen, so she could only sigh helplessly, "If he's not there, we'll go find Minerva."