Harry Potter and the Secret Treasures

Chapter 946: Umbridge's Assessment

“I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspection…”

“Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom,” said Professor McGonagall curtly.

Many of the students exchanged looks of glee. This was Professor McGonagall.

Umbridge wouldn’t get any benefits from her, but it would be even better if she could turn her into a toad!

“Alright, today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until N.E.W.T. level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your O.W.L….”

“Hem, hem.“

“I wonder,” said Professor McGonagall in cold fury turning on Professor 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.”

Professor Umbridge looked as though she had just been slapped in the face. She did not speak, but straightened the parchment on her clipboard and began scribbling furiously, so hard that everyone heard the scratch of the quill.

Looking supremely unconcerned, Professor McGonagall addressed the class once more.

“As I was saying, we shall be practicing the Vanishing Spell in this class. This spell becomes more difficult with the complexity of the animal to be vanished. For this first Lesson, we shall only be using snails, which, as invertebrate, do not present much of a challenge. Alright, please line up and come here to collect your snails.”

“How she can lecture me about not losing my temper with Umbridge!” Harry said to Ron under his voice.

A few minutes later, they were each assigned a snail, and Professor McGonagall explained the spell again in detail.

Harry found the Vanishing Spells horribly difficult, and by the end of the Transfiguration class, no one had managed to vanish the snails on which they were practicing, with the exception of Hermione, who successfully vanished her snail on the third attempt, earning her a ten-point bonus for Gryffindor from Professor McGonagall.

She was the only person not given homework; everybody else was told to practice the spell overnight, ready for a fresh attempt on their snails in the following Transfiguration class.

Umbridge sat in her corner and took many more notes on the clipboard. When Professor McGonagall finally told the class to pack away, she rose with a grim expression on her face and walked towards the teacher’s desk.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron looked at each other and deliberately fell back to eavesdrop.

“How long have you been teaching at Hogwarts?” Professor Umbridge asked.

“Thirty-nine years this December,” said Professor McGonagall brusquely, snapping her bag shut.

“Very well!” she said, “you will receive the results of your inspection in ten days’ time.”

“I can hardly wait,” said Professor McGonagall in a coldly indifferent voice, and she strode off toward the door. “Hurry up, you three,” she added, sweeping Harry, Ron, and Hermione before her.

Harry could not help giving her a faint smile, and he was pretty sure Professor McGonagall smiled back at him too.

Evan didn’t find the evidence he needed in Umbridge’s office, but he thought he could come here more.

He returned to the common room with the black quill and examined it briefly.

It was a type of magic he hadn’t encountered before, and the magical reaction on the quill was also very strange. He made no progress even until Colin called him to Divination class.

Evan felt that he needed a little help, so he decided to write a letter to Rawya, asking about the principle of this witchcraft.

When he came to the shadowy Divination classroom, he was still pondering over this question.

Professor Trelawney looked the same as before, like a large, glittering dragonfly.

“Good day, class!” she said in her usual misty, dreamy voice.”And welcome back to Divination. I have, of course, been following your fortunes most carefully over the holidays, and am delighted to see that you have all returned to Hogwarts safely — as, of course, I knew you would. This term, we shall be studying the motions of the stars, the planets, and the mystical signs they show, but only …”

She stopped abruptly, and following her gaze, everyone turned round to see Professor Umbridge emerging through the trapdoor in the floor with a deliberate smirk on her face. The class, which had been talking cheerily, fell silent at once.

“Professor Trelawney,” said Umbridge with her wide smile. “I trust you received my note, giving the time and date of your inspection.”

It seemed that Umbridge hadn’t noticed Evan had already intruded into her office, nor did she spare him a glance.

Evan remembered that he saw Fudge’s reply letter in Umbridge’s desk, asking her to use her authority as High Inquisitor to quickly get rid of a professor. If anyone in the school was most likely to be targeted, it was undoubtedly Professor Trelawney.

Before entering a genuine trance, she was just an old fraud, lacking much credibility.

She was undoubtedly the worst professor in the school, and it didn’t take much evaluation to realize that.

Evan hoped that Professor Trelawney would perform better, so that she wouldn’t be cornered by Umbridge.

“I did!” Professor Trelawney nodded curtly, looking very disgruntled, and she continued in her misty, dreamy voice, “The movements of the planets and the mysterious signs they display can only be understood by those who know the rules of celestial dance…”

“Hem, hem!” interrupted Umbridge, who had little scruples about Professor Trelawney.

“I apologize, but could I have a word with you before the class begins? You know, my time is limited, and I can’t stay here indefinitely!” said Umbridge, rising from her chair.

It was apparent that outright refusal was not the best choice, so Professor Trelawney reluctantly nodded in response to Umbridge’s request.

“Very well, you’ve been in this post how long, exactly?”

Professor Trelawney scowled at her, arms crossed and shoulders hunched as though wishing to protect herself as much as possible from the indignity of the inspection. After a slight pause in which she seemed to decide that the question was not so offensive that she could reasonably ignore it, she said in a deeply resentful tone, “Nearly sixteen years.”

“Sixteen years… quite a period,” said Professor Umbridge, making a note on her clipboard. “So it was Professor Dumbledore who appointed you after he became the Headmaster?”

“That’s right,” said Professor Trelawney shortly.

“Oh!” Professor Umbridge made another note, “And I heard that you are a great-great-granddaughter of the celebrated Seer Cassandra Trelawney?”

Cassandra Trelawney was a highly renowned Diviner and mystic in magical history. It was said that she had the bloodline of a Seer and was active in the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. She was one of the most famous Seers in the entire European region, on par with Nostradamus from France.

She single-handedly caused the once powerful Pharaoh’s Council to disintegrate, and reorganize into the present-day Ministry of Magic, a famous prophecy that had been repeatedly mentioned in the history of magic.

Furthermore, she predicted the time of the End of the World….

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