"Of course, Professor Dumbledore, just now..." Lupin sighed. How was he supposed to be pleased about this?
"I heard everything Professor Umbridge said just now." Dumbledore did not let Lupin continue. "It seems our High Inquisitor can hardly wait to turn Hogwarts into an achievement she can claim as her own."
"Professor Dumbledore, are you going to let her do whatever she likes? If the students aren't allowed practical training, as she's ordered, what will they do when they face danger?"
"Remus, you know I'm only the Hogwarts Headmaster. Under Wizarding World Law, I'm subject to the laws of the Ministry of Magic." Dumbledore winked at Lupin.
"You—" Lupin could hardly believe it. Had Dumbledore really said that?
Before Lupin could respond, Dumbledore's next words lifted his spirits at once.
"But we can find a legitimate way to make her leave Hogwarts. That's why I came to see you."
Once Umbridge posted Educational Decree Number Twenty-Five and issued Lupin a written warning, word of what had happened in Defence Against the Dark Arts spread through the whole school. The students were furious.
The students in fourth year and above were up in arms. Those who had lived through Lockhart's and Quirrell's years remembered learning nothing in class and having to study for exams on their own. At last they had a good professor in Lupin, only for some pink toad parachuted in from the Ministry of Magic to ruin it.
The fifth-years were even angrier. They had lived through Quirrell's and Lockhart's years too, but they also had O.W.L.s to sit this year. What would Umbridge's interference do to their results?
Defence Against the Dark Arts was compulsory. If Lupin was restricted in what he could teach, they might never learn the defensive spells that would appear on the