In the brief few days since term began, everyone had more or less figured out Dolores Umbridge's personality. She was a hypocritical, self-righteous, unreasonable old woman who loved controlling people.
Not a single prefect who had dealt with Umbridge liked her.
No one knew which prefect had secretly leaked the contents of their conversation with Umbridge, but rumours were already spreading through the school that Umbridge wanted the prefects to serve as her spies and monitor Hogwarts students.
This Deputy Minister of Magic had clearly mistaken Hogwarts for the Ministry of Magic. She was actually playing political games, intending to divide the students, destroy their trust in the prefects, and pull the prefects over to her side.
As soon as the news spread, the whole school nearly exploded. The prefects had no idea how many times they cursed Umbridge in their hearts.
To avoid being ostracized by the other students, they began spreading all sorts of information they had gotten from Umbridge. Before long, negative rumours about Umbridge were everywhere.
The news that excited everyone most was that Umbridge had finally hit a wall with Albert and had smashed up her office in rage.
Quite a few students had heard the sounds of smashing and furious cursing coming from the Defense Against the Dark Arts Office.
Everyone took great pleasure in her misfortune. They did not dare ignore Umbridge as Albert had, but seeing the old woman suffer a setback still thrilled them immensely.
Unfortunately, no one knew what Albert and Umbridge had actually discussed.
Even if they had known, they could not have copied him.
Albert could basically ignore his N.E.W.T. results. Even without that transcript, no one would doubt his true ability.
His highly visible title as a world champion was undoubtedly the best proof, and Albert seemed