Chapter 838 Contradiction

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge... well, let's call her a professor, said with a smirk, "for giving us a welcome speech."

Her voice was high again, urgent and girlish, and Harry felt a strong sense of disgust that he couldn't explain; all he knew was that he hated everything about her: from her stupid voice to her fluffy pink hair. cardigan.

It’s hard to imagine what it would be like for a decades-old witch to wear pink clothes and communicate with you in a very girly and delicate language. Most people can’t bear it anyway.

This is not aimed at anyone...well, this is aimed at Umbridge. Anyway, the first impression he gave to Hogwarts was not very good. Fan Lin could tell from the expressions of the people next to him, like Eating it... makes me feel just as disgusting.

However, this is Umbridge's style. She will not belittle herself in this way. It can be said that she completely ignores this attitude. For a qualified politician, this is just one thing...it belongs to sitting down and is a basic operation. visual sense.

Umbridge coughed again and continued. "Well, I must say it's great to be back at Hogwarts!" she said with a smile showing her very prominent teeth, "and to see so many happy little faces!"

Harry glanced around. No face he saw was happy. Instead, they all looked like they were five years old again.

"She graduated from Hogwarts?" Harry asked.

"Maybe, anyway, I can't guess where the Sorting Hat will sort her." Fan Lin shook his head. He knew very little about Umbridge's past. This woman should be a mixed-race, which is not in line with Slytherin. Admissions Standards.

However, who can guarantee that today’s pure-blood families are not mixed?

It should be said that this woman is hidden perfectly.

"I'm very eager to get to know each of you, and I'm sure we will become good friends!" Umbridge let out a very short laugh, which felt strange in conjunction with the content. The laugh seemed like she was forcing herself to It's like it's squeezed out of the throat.

The students exchanged glances; some were almost laughing.

"I'm willing to be her friend as long as I don't borrow her cardigan," Parvati whispered to Lavender, and they both started giggling.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again, but when she spoke again some of the urgency was gone from her voice. Now her words were delivered in a dry voice.

"The Ministry of Magic has always considered it important to educate young wizards and witches. The precious gifts that accompany your birth will be lost if not carefully educated and understood. The ancient and unique skills of the wizarding order must be inherited by future generations to avoid being lost. We The treasures of magical knowledge discovered by our ancestors must be protected, supplemented and perfected, and it is the noble teachers who bear this responsibility." Professor Umbridge paused here and bowed slightly to the colleagues sitting there, but did not. A teacher returns the favor.

Professor McGonagall's black eyebrows had shrunk, so she looked like an eagle. Harry clearly saw Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape exchange a meaningful look, as if only Dumbledore Nodding slightly, Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again and continued her speech.

"Each Headmaster of Hogwarts has brought something new to bear on the heavy administrative tasks of this historic school. That is as it should be, for without progress there will be stagnation and decay. However, the interest in progress for progress's sake It must stop that the traditions we strive for and test are often perfect, then it is a balance between the new and the old, permanence and change, tradition and innovation.”

Harry found that his attention was slipping, as if his brain was relaxing and drifting away. The silence that had filled the Great Hall while Dumbledore had spoken was now broken again, students putting their heads together, whispering and chuckling.

Over at the Ravenclaw table, Qiu was chatting animatedly with her friends. A few seats away from Qiu, Luna took out her magazine again.

Meanwhile, at the Hufflepuff table, Annie Maclean was one of the few students still staring at Professor Umbridge, but his eyes were blank, and Harry was sure he was only pretending to listen. To keep that sparkling prefect badge on his chest.

The Slytherins were more direct. They didn't look at Umbridge very much at all. Harry saw Laura talking to the girl next to her, while Malfoy was talking to Perkins.

No one was as interested in what Umbridge said as a joke, talking about the Ministry of Magic's educational decisions at Hogwarts?

Professor Umbridge seemed completely oblivious to the noisy audience below. Harry even thought that if a large-scale commotion broke out under her nose, maybe she could stop her tirade.

However, the teachers were listening carefully, and Hermione was also carefully understanding every word she said, although it seemed from her expression that Hermione did not agree with some of her views.

"Because some changes are good, so follow them, and over a long period of time, these are seen as errors of judgment. At the same time, some old habits will be retained, and because of this, other habits, those that are outdated All old and outdated ones should be abolished. So, let us move forward and enter a new era of openness, efficiency, and responsibility, retaining those that should be retained, improving those that need to be improved, and modifying those that we find in practice should be prohibited Yes." She finally sat down.

Dumbledore started clapping. All the teachers applauded along with Dumbledore, but Harry saw a few teachers only give a symbolic clap or two before stopping.

A few students also clapped a few times, but most of them were unaware of the end of the speech and did not listen to a few words at all. When they realized they were about to start clapping, Dumbledore stood up for the first time.

"Thank you very much Professor Umbridge for a very enlightening speech," Dumbledore said, bowing. "Now listen to me, the Quidditch preliminaries will be held... and more details will be announced after the specific implementation..."

"Yes, the speech was certainly enlightening," Hermione murmured.

"You're not going to tell us you liked the speech, are you?" Ron said, rolling his eyes at Hermione. "That was the dullest speech I've ever heard, and I grew up with Percy."

"You don't understand what Hermione means, Ron." Fan Lin said.

"When I said inspiring, I didn't say I enjoyed it," Hermione said. "This speech explained a lot of things."

"Really?" said Ron in surprise. "Sounds as boring as waffles to me."

"There's something important hidden behind the boring speech," Hermione said seriously.

"What is it?" Ron was confused.

“Regarding ‘Progress for the sake of progress must be restricted’, there is also the sentence ‘Modify everything that is found to be prohibited in practice’.”

"Okay, what does that mean?" Ron said impatiently.

"I'll tell you what that means," Hermione said through gritted teeth. "It means that the Ministry of Magic wants to interfere with Hogwarts affairs."

This caused a shock among them; Dumbledore had evidently called it a day, for everyone was preparing to leave the hall. Hermione jumped to her feet, looking furious.

"One of Fudge's methods," Fanlin said, "is to break the independence of Hogwarts. There is no doubt that students who leave Hogwarts, in some aspects, are more inclined to Hogwarts when faced with choices. Gewoz."

Fan Lin stood up as he spoke, but then Fan Lin paused, and then sat back down with peace of mind.

"Ron! We should lead the new students!"

"Oh, yes," Ron said, apparently forgetting this, "hey-hey-, you're left behind! Dwarf!"

"Ron!"

"Well, they, they're small..."

"I know, but you can't call them dwarves! They are first-year students!" Hermione shouted along the table, "Please go this way!" A group of freshmen shyly walked to Gryffindor and Hufflepuff House Among the long tables, no one wanted to stand at the front.

They looked really small; Harry couldn't remember ever looking so childish when he came to Horwarts. He grinned at the new student. A red-faced little boy standing next to Euan was clearly stunned; he nudged Euan and whispered in his ear. Euan seemed equally scared, and looked at Harry with fearful eyes, which made Harry feel that his smiling face looked like a fool.

"Goodbye," he said depressedly to Ron and Hermione, "let's go."

"Oh, I still need a while." Fan Lin shook his head and said.

"Oh, okay..." Harry looked a little depressed, and then he walked out of the hall alone, doing his best to ignore any more gossip, and people stared and pointed at him as he passed.

Harry stared straight ahead as he walked through the crowd towards the door of the hall, and once out of the hall he quickly ran up the marble stairs. There were one or two small pauses, and then more people were pulled down.

He hadn't meant to be so stupid, and his thoughts became even more irritated as he passed through the emptier staircase corridor. Of course everyone would be watching; two months ago he had wiped out his rivals and emerged from the maze of the Tri-Wizard Tournament claiming that Voldemort had been resurrected. He didn't have time to explain last semester before everyone went home - not even that he wanted to tell the entire school the full details of the horrors in that tomb.

Harry had reached the Gryffindor common room at the end of the corridor, and was cornered in front of the portrait of the Fat Aunt, when he realized he still didn't know the new password.

"Yeah," he said gloomily. The fat aunt was currently smoothing the wrinkles on her pink satin and looking at him sharply.

"You're not allowed in without the password," she said arrogantly.

"Harry, I know the password!" Someone panted behind him. Harry looked back and saw that it was Neville. "Guess what the new password is? I can actually remember it after hearing it once -" he said, shaking the pot of the plant he had displayed on the train in his hand, "Mimbrass Mimbretonia!" "

"Correct," said the fat aunt, and her portrait moved away like a door, leaving a circular hole in the wall behind, through which Harry and Neville could now crawl. The Gryffindor common room was as popular as ever, a comfortable round tower-shaped room filled with damaged soft armchairs and rickety old tables. A fire was burning in the fireplace, where several people were warming themselves before going to bed; on the other side of the room, Fred and George were concentrating on assembling something.

Harry greeted them and headed straight to the boys' dormitory; he was in no mood for conversation at the moment. Neville followed him. Dun Thomas and Seamus Finnigan had arrived first in the bedroom and had posted posters and various photographs on the wall beside the bed.

They were talking, but stopped when Harry opened the door and came in. Harry now wondered what they were talking about, and he also wondered if he was suffering from paranoia.

"Hello," Harry said, walking over to his suitcase and opening it.

"Hello, Harry," Thomas was putting up two West Ham United posters, "how was your holiday?"

"Not so bad," muttered Harry, who had actually spent most of his holiday catching up with friends he didn't want to face anymore, "how are you doing?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Thomas chuckled, "Anyway, judging from what he just told me, I'm better than Seamus."

"Why, what happened, Seamus?" Neville asked as he placed his plant on the bedside table.

Seamus didn't answer right away; he was checking to see if the poster of his favorite Quidditch team was straight. Then he turned his back to Harry and said, "My mother won't let me come back to study again."

"What?" Harry asked as he pulled the robes out.

"She won't let me go back to Hogwarts." Seamus walked away from the poster and dragged out his pajamas, but still didn't look at Harry.

"But - why?" Harry said in surprise. He knew that Seamus' mother was a witch herself and could not possibly misunderstand a wizard. Therefore, why did she do what Dudley's family did? Seamus didn't answer until he buttoned up his pajamas.

"Well," he said in a tentative tone, "I guess it's because of you."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked immediately. His heart beat faster, and he vaguely felt that something was approaching him.

"Well," Seamus still didn't dare to look into Harry's eyes, "She...well. Yes, it's not just you, but also Dumbledore..."

"She believed the Daily Prophet?" Harry said. "She thought I was a little liar and Dumbledore was an old fool?"

Seamus looked up at Harry now. "Yes, that's what happened."

Harry was speechless. Throwing his wand onto the bedside table, he angrily took off his robe and threw it into his suitcase, then put on his pajamas. He was tired of it; tired of being stared at and talked about all the time.

If any of them knew, if any of them could understand even a little bit what it felt like to have everything happen to the same person, Mrs. Finnigan didn't know, that stupid woman, Harry thought a little savagely.

Harry wanted to lie down on the bed and draw the curtains around himself. But before he could do that, Seamus said, "Look what happened that night, when you, you know, you were with Cedric Diggory and those corpse eaters?" Seamus' voice said. It sounded nervous and eager. Thomas was hunched over his suitcase, searching for his slippers, when he suddenly went strangely still, and Harry knew he was listening carefully.

"What are you asking me for?" Harry retorted. "Just read the Daily Prophet like your mother did. Why not? It will tell you everything you need to know." (To be continued)