Chapter 477 Umbridge’s Power
The foyer of the castle was lit red by torches and echoed with the footsteps of students. Ada walked across the stone-paved floor towards the two doors leading to the auditorium on the right.
Fortunately, Ada was not stopped by Professor McGonagall at the entrance of the auditorium this year.
The auditorium was filled with four long academic tables, and there was a dark ceiling without stars, exactly like the sky outside seen through the tall windows.
Students chatted animatedly, exchanging news about the summer vacation, shouting hellos to friends from other colleges, and examining each other's new hairstyles and clothes. Everything looks the same as before.
While walking, Ada suddenly stopped and looked at the teacher's desk in surprise.
Her unusual behavior naturally attracted the attention of others. George behind her asked: "What's wrong? Why don't you find a place to sit down first?"
"Umbridge," Ada said desperately, "Dolores Umbridge."
Lee Jordan also came up and asked, "Who? Hogwarts has never heard of such a number one person?"
"It can't be that old toad from the Ministry of Magic you mentioned before!" Fred said. He remembered that Ada once mentioned such a person, and that was the first time he knew that Ada hated a person so much.
"Toad?" Alia asked curiously. "Are you talking about Longbottom's Lyford?"
"No, Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary of the Ministry of Magic, I call her the 'Old Pink Toad'." Ada raised her head in the direction of the teacher's chair to indicate to everyone whether they looked like her.
I saw a strange woman sitting at the teacher's desk. She was short and fat, with a big pink bow on her short gray-brown hair, and her pink cardigan was even more eye-catching.
"What a beautiful cardigan!" Fred said with a smirk. "It goes so well with her bow!"
"Don't you feel a little heartache when you say this?" Angelina said, "When I go home at night, I will throw away all my pink things. I feel like I will never like pink again in my life."
Love the house and the crow, hate the rest.
Because of Umbridge's girly pink dress, another girl who was disappointed with pink appeared.
"Me too, this is the first time I know that wearing pink is so artificial." Aaliyah said, and then she looked at Ada, "You should have thrown it away a long time ago, right? I feel so sorry for every penny I spent on pink. Copper Nat!”
"Fortunately, I have almost no pink clothes in my wardrobe," Ada said. She doesn't like pink, as she said herself, it's too delicate.
Instead of buying a pink dress, why not buy a forget-me-not flower-like blue one.
At the front of the long Gryffindor table, Ada and others found a few empty seats and sat down. On one side of them were junior students from the same school, and on the other side were Katie and her classmates.
"They look so much alike! Even better than Leif." Lee Jordan sighed, "But why is she in school? Monitoring Dumbledore for the Ministry of Magic?"
Several people were silent for a moment at the same time. At this juncture, the purpose of Umbridge's presence in the school is self-evident. You don't need to use your brain to know what Fudge is planning.
Ada let out a long sigh and said very sadly: "The situation is probably even worse than that. I think "Magical Defense Theory" should be the textbook of choice for this person..."
The students in the auditorium were all chatting with each other. No one noticed the pink old witch on the teacher's bench, nor did anyone notice that a group of senior students fell down on the Gryffindor table.
After a while, the door to the hall opened, and a long line of frightened first-year students walked into the auditorium led by Professor McGonagall. Professor McGonagall held a three-legged stool with an old Sorting Hat on it.
The buzz of conversation in the auditorium gradually died down. The first-year students lined up in front of the teacher's desk, facing classmates from other grades. Professor McGonagall carefully placed the stool in front of them and stepped back.
Looking at the staggering students on the long Gryffindor table, Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, a little angry.
However, when the Sorting Hat held its annual hat concert, the little lions of Gryffindor reluctantly left the table and sat upright.
By this time almost everyone in Gryffindor knew who Umbridge was. Maybe the little lions still know how hateful Umbridge is, and they don't know how bad the Defense Against the Dark Arts class this school year will be...
But everyone knows one thing - the eldest sister is very unhappy when she first sees Umbridge, and she hates her deeply!
The last time the eldest sister hated a teacher so much was when Gilderoy Lockhart was around.
The students applauded, and the Sorting Hat's concert came to a successful conclusion. Students from the four houses were whispering to each other and whispering about the new song of the Sorting Hat.
"...Our Hogwarts is in danger, and enemies outside the school are eyeing it. We must be united internally, otherwise everything will collapse from within..."
It was not until Professor McGonagall glared at the whispering classmates with a very stern look that the discussion in the auditorium came to an abrupt end. Professor McGonagall looked down at the parchment in her hand and loudly announced the first name.
"Euan Abercrombie."
It was a little boy with a frightened look and a pair of surprisingly big ears. He was sorted into Gryffindor by the sorting hat, and the noise made by the little lions immediately filled the auditorium.
The sorting ceremony continued, and slowly, the long line of first-year students shortened little by little.
As Rose Zeller was sorted into Hufflepuff, Professor McGonagall picked up her hat and stool and strode away. At this time, Dumbledore stood up and without saying any nonsense, he announced that it was time to eat.
The five long tables were suddenly piled with large pieces of beef, pies, plates of vegetables, bread, jam and jugs of pumpkin juice, and the long tables groaned because they were overwhelmed.
The appreciative laughter and enthusiastic applause in the auditorium stopped momentarily, and then the sound of knives and forks being clashed echoed throughout the auditorium.
It's just that the atmosphere at the Gryffindor long table is a little different, and the atmosphere of cooking is not strong. Probably only Ron Weasley and the first years could enjoy their meal without any worries.
The little lions looked at Ada at the same long table for a while, and then at Umbridge at the teacher's table, all without saying a word.
The students had all eaten and drank, and the sound in the auditorium gradually became noisy. At this time, Dumbledore stood up again.
The talking stopped immediately, and everyone turned to the principal. Dumbledore emphasized a few school rules as in previous years, such as not being allowed to go to the Forbidden Forest, not being allowed to cast spells in the corridors between classes, etc.
"This year we have two changes to our teaching staff. We are delighted to welcome back Professor Grupplan, who will be teaching your Care of Magical Creatures course. We are equally pleased to introduce Professor Umbridge, our Defense Against the Dark Arts course New teacher."
Once again, Ada's crow-mouthed misfortune led to the Ministry of Magic not only specifying Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching materials, but also simply sending a teacher over.
If the Ministry of Magic could take the initiative to change the headmaster, Umbridge would probably be the new headmaster.
As Dumbledore continued speaking, Umbridge stood up and interrupted the Headmaster. No new teacher had ever interrupted Dumbledore before.
"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge said with a smirk, "thank you for such a warm welcome."
Her voice was high, high-pitched, and breathy, like a little girl's voice. She said: "Well, I must say, it's great to be back at Hogwarts! It's great to see all these happy little faces looking up at me!"
But in fact, none of the students' faces were happy, and no one liked to be treated like a five-year-old child.
Although the students were looking at Umbridge, many of them laughed secretly in their hearts: This woman obviously does not understand the rules of Hogwarts.
Umbridge's clipping sound continued, and she spoke in a very bureaucratic tone, as if this was not the Great Hall of Hogwarts, but the Ministry of Magic.
From the Ministry of Magic's point of view, she first praised Hogwarts, and then said that the current school needs to be "corrected", "maintain what should be maintained, improve what needs to be improved, and abandon what we should ban." ".
Her entire speech had only one theme: the Ministry of Magic was unhappy with Hogwarts, so they wanted to interfere with Hogwarts.
As for the reason for dissatisfaction, is there any other reason besides Dumbledore?
The auditorium was very quiet, and it seemed as if everyone was listening carefully to Umbridge's speech. But in fact, apart from a few students, only the administrator Filch listened carefully to every word of her speech.
Umbridge sat down. Dumbledore started clapping, the other teachers followed suit, and the students, out of habit, wanted to do the same.
At the long Gryffindor table, Ada had no intention of applauding. She sat quietly like an outsider.
Ada didn't applaud, and the people around her didn't follow suit; Ada and the people around her didn't move, and other Gryffindors also stopped what they were doing.
The little lions sat there, as if they didn't know Umbridge's speech had ended.
Gryffindor's strangeness naturally cannot escape the eyes of the other three houses.
Although it is unclear why the little lions "collectively boycotted" Umbridge, the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students followed suit and stopped clapping like Gryffindor.
Slytherin also didn't know the reason, but this did not prevent some of them from choosing to support Umbridge. After all, the enemy of my enemy was my friend.
So there was such a strange scene in the auditorium. At the five long tables, including the teacher's seat, only Slytherin students and teachers were applauding.
The remaining Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, and Ravenclaws remained silent, as if they were all collectively disconnected.
Many people met Umbridge for the first time tonight, but her personal image, her long speeches, and her behavior of interrupting the principal's speech were all very unpleasant, and it was difficult for people to accept her at once.
Umbridge on the teacher's bench was irritated by the scene in front of her. She wanted to write a letter to her beloved minister. This Hogwarts is simply lawless!