Firenze the Centaur's arrival had not escaped the notice of the other students—or rather, Dumbledore had never intended to conceal it in the first place.
When Umbridge saw Firenze standing on the stone steps, her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. She personally demonstrated to everyone what it meant to be dumbstruck.
She had clearly never expected Dumbledore to find a Centaur to serve as the Divination Professor.
Umbridge could hardly say anything about it, since most Centaurs had studied Divination and were even more professional than most wizards.
No one had expected Dumbledore to hire a Centaur as Hogwarts' Divination Professor. It was undoubtedly something novel, especially to Hogwarts students who knew little about Centaurs. They were all curious about the new professor's arrival.
Of course, there was also that string of prophecies Trelawney had left behind.
Although Centaurs possessed intelligence equal to that of humans, they had asked the Ministry of Magic to classify them as "beasts," unwilling to share human status with creatures such as hags and vampires. So Centaurs were not people.
Yes.
Not people, but beasts.
Trelawney's third prophecy had been: Dumbledore would hire a Divination Professor who was not human to teach at Hogwarts.
Without question, Trelawney's prophecy had come true again.
Then what would the next prophecy be? Most students had already forgotten the prophecies Trelawney had once made, but there were always a few who remembered. However, the content of Trelawney's next prophecy was rather dreadful: Umbridge would drive Dumbledore away and become Hogwarts' new headmistress?
Umbridge becoming headmistress? What kind of joke was that?
Given this Deputy Minister of Magic's dreadful performance, aside from some Slytherin students who might support her, probably all Hogwarts students would loathe and reject her.
In fact, once the contents of the fourth prophecy spread,