kbinnz - Harry's New Home

"Um-bitch!" Ron whispered as Harry slunk into his chair, fighting an intense desire to bury his head in his arms.

"What a toad," Draco muttered on his other side. Hermione gave him a look of sympathy over her shoulder, and Harry began to feel a little better.

That night, he indignantly regaled his father with the story, but to his annoyance, Snape merely observed тАУ with his usual coolness тАУ that Harry could have expected that a new professor was likely to start her teaching career by making an example out of the first few students who misbehaved.

"But I didn't misbehave," Harry argued. "I didn't even talk back to her. Even when she called me a liar and said I had obviously not bothered to do the work at all. She said I was lazy, and I was just lucky that she couldn't send me to Filch to be caned!"

Snape's eyes narrowed dangerously, but his voice remained even. "Unlike your other professors, Madame Umbridge does not know you, and pleading lost homework is a common ploy of lazy children. What is more, as a new professor, she naturally was relying upon your homework to give her an understanding of your level of competence. I suggest you attempt to redeem yourself with your essay."

Harry resigned himself to following his da's advice and headed to the Slytherin Common Room to study with his friends. Behind him, Snape hexed half the living room furniture to splinters. How dare that reptilian creature doubt his son's word тАУ not to mention the note he himself had written!

The next few weeks brought no thawing of relations between Harry and his new professor. If anything, Umbridge seemed intent on making Harry look as ridiculous and ignorant as possible, and she called on him with ever more pedantic questions. In the meantime, he тАУ along with the other students тАУ was rapidly finding DADA classes to be every bit as boring as Binns' History of Magic. Umbridge refused even to demonstrate the spells, and most days merely had them either read their textbook or recopy pages from it.

She also played favorites so blatantly that the students were taken aback. She gushed over Draco and a few other students who had relatives in high Ministry positions and was nauseatingly unctuous to those whose families were wealthy or politically powerful. She was coldly dismissive towards Muggleborn students and any others with no connections to the rich and famous of the Wizarding world. Harry was the only exception to this rule.

"Merlin, Malfoy, is your robe soggy from all the sucking up Umbitch did to you in there?" Ron demanded as they walked along the corridor, leaving the DADA classroom behind them. The redhead was still smarting from a snide comment the professor had made about "families who will insist upon breeding despite having neither the finances nor the wit to do so".

Draco shuddered. "You think I like having her lips imprinted on my arse, Weasley? I leave class wanting to climb into a hot shower. I mean, smarming up to a first year? How pathetic is that?" He sneered. "My father always says that there's nothing more pitiful than people who bend over to kiss your feet when you don't even have a stick to threaten them with. Spineless slugs тАУ they deserve to be stepped on."

"Nice, Draco. Are you planning to grow up to be a jackbooted fascist like your father?" Hermione demanded.

Draco blinked. He wasn't sure what a 'jackbooted fascist' was тАУ something Muggle, presumably тАУ but the sense was clear from Hermione's tone. "Now you're defending her, Granger? You think she's worth it?"

"I never said that," Hermione retorted, tight lipped, as she marched down the corridor.

"Brainless scum like her are why we need a strong leader," Draco continued, clearly quoting his father. "People like us need to keep people like her in their place."

Hermione stopped and looked him right in the eye. "People like us, Draco?" she asked pointedly. "You'd let a Muggleborn into your little elite circle?"

The Slytherin had the grace to blush. "I never said anything about only purebloods being smart enough to govern," he protested, a bit weakly.

"Doesn't your father?" she pressed, while the others watched with interest.

"Just because I think my father's right about some things doesn't mean I agree with him on everything," Draco said, giving a guilty look around as if Lucius might suddenly loom out of the shadows. "People like Umbridge need to be told what to think. Look what happens when they're let into positions of authority."

Hermione couldn't argue with that, so she shrugged and started walking again. "She really is a dreadful teacher," she agreed тАУ Hermione's ultimate epithet. "She doesn't even try to help us learn the material, and she says some awful things."

"How come she hates you so much?" Ron nudged Harry. "You'd think she'd be sucking up to you as much as Draco. I mean, yeah, his father's good friends with the Minister, but you're The Boy Who Lived."

Harry shrugged. "I dunno. She's just hated me since the first class."

By the third week of classes, all of the Heads of Houses had heard loud complaints about the new professor. She was unfair, outrageously harsh in her punishments, and contributed nothing to the students' education. Those who would be taking their OWLS and NEWTS were particularly upset, and impromptu study groups had sprung up everywhere to compliment the ones the Heads had organized.

Although Harry didn't complain about Umbridge after that first night, her treatment of him did not go unremarked. Gryffindors and Slytherins alike reported how nasty Umbridge was to him to their respective Heads of House, who met to discuss the "Umbridge Situation".

"Harry has not mentioned anything to me; has he spoken to you?" Minerva asked in concern, stirring her tea with rather more agitation that was her usual.

Snape shook his head, his features more than normally severe. "Not a word. But I have heard stories from other students. She seems to delight in pointing out his shortcomings."

"Nor is he the only one, though he does seem to receive an unusually large dose of her vitriol. Many other students тАУ in Filus' and Pomona's Houses as well тАУ have been humiliated and mocked for no good reason."

"While others are lavishly praised despite a similar lack of justification," Snape nodded. "Draco Malfoy, Susan Bones, Cho Chang, Marcus Flint, Cedric Diggory, Germaine ScrimgeourтАж"

"All of whom have relatives with money or power or both," Minerva pointed out. "I suppose we now know how that horrible woman achieved success at the Ministry."

"Does she have any supporters? Even Trelawney has a few students every year who worship the ground she walks upon."

McGonagall smirked. "Hardly. Even Hermione Granger thinks she's horrid."

"Miss Granger?" Snape's eyebrows rose.

"Indeed. It appears that early last week Miss Granger asked That Woman about a counter to Duro. You will recall that the children witnessed its use against Poppy in the Infirmary." Snape nodded warily. Minerva took a sip of tea and continued the story with uncharacteristic animation. "That Woman told Miss Granger to stop wasting class time by mentioning archaic spells that none of them would ever see, and further chastised her for being a mediocre little witch who tried to make herself look bright by bringing up irrelevant trivia."

Snape's eyebrows were now at record height. Whatever issues he might have with Hermione's annoying habits, no one in their right mind could call the child mediocre. The young witch was already showing signs of being one of the smartest Hogwarts students in a century. "How did Miss Granger take the rebuke?"

"As you might imagine," McGonagall's tone was dry, "two of my other lions chose to intervene before Miss Granger could say anything."

Snape rolled his eyes. "Weasley and Potter."