Angry Harry

"Well, what can we do?" Ron yawned. "It's too late already, isn't it? She got the job, and she's bound to stay here. Fudge will make sure of that."

"Mm..." Hermione said hesitantly. "That's true, but today I was thinking..."

She glanced nervously at Harry, thinking of the things Jon had taught her to say, then continued, "I was thinking—maybe we should simply—simply do it ourselves."

"Do what ourselves?" Harry asked suspiciously, his hands still soaking in the juice of the Murtlap Tentacle.

"Er—we learn Defense Against the Dark Arts ourselves."

Hermione said it, her voice slightly low with uncertainty, but that only lasted for a moment before it returned to its normal level.

"Don't be ridiculous," Ron complained. "You want to add to our workload? Don't you know Harry and I are behind on a whole pile of homework already, and it's only the second week?"

"But this is much more important than homework!"

Harry and Ron stared at her wide-eyed.

"I don't think there's anything in the world more important than homework!" Ron said.

"Don't be stupid, of course there is."

Harry saw Hermione's face suddenly light up with the same fanatical enthusiasm she usually showed for S.P.E.W., and he could not help feeling a sense of foreboding. "I mean, just like Harry said in Umbridge's first lesson, we need to be prepared for whatever is waiting for us outside.

"I mean, we need to make sure we can really protect ourselves.

"If we go a whole year without learning anything—"

"We can't do anything on our own,"

Ron said in a disheartened tone. "I mean, sure, we could find some nasty curses in books at the library and practise them ourselves, I suppose—"

"No, I think we're past the stage of learning things only from books," Hermione