Umbridge had only just returned to school and had not yet had time to trouble the students when she found herself beset by a whole host of problems.
The ancient castle seemed to have been cursed. All manner of incidents kept cropping up, and every one of them required Umbridge to handle personally. As a result, she had no choice but to run about yet again, dealing with the endless emergencies erupting throughout the school.
Even with Filch's help, Umbridge was still harried half to death by all the trouble.
As for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which had previously been suspended, classes naturally resumed, though the subject still seemed barely alive.
Once the class bell rang, students in the classroom would begin displaying all sorts of symptoms of physical discomfort. Then, in groups, they would file out under Umbridge's watchful gaze and head for the School Hospital.
Staring at the empty Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, Umbridge watched the last student leave with vacant eyes, a vicious expression creeping across her face.
Hogwarts had now completely slipped free of her control. That was why those students dared to be so brazen. As for those damned emergencies, Umbridge could guess with her knees that students had deliberately created them to cause her trouble.
And then there was that damned Anti-Toad Alliance. Even the Slytherin students Umbridge had previously won over were no longer much use. Apparently, they had been viciously retaliated against by students from the other houses during her hospitalization.
And that damned Peeves! That nuisance accounted for more than half the trouble Umbridge encountered in the school.
She had tried to deal with Peeves before, even attempting to persuade the only ghost Peeves feared, Bloody Baron, to ask the Slytherin ghost to discipline him. The results had