Harry considered very carefully whether he should simply stop attending Defense Against the Dark Arts.
After all, as far as he was concerned, he could no longer learn anything from the subject.
But Hermione and Ron talked him out of the idea.
"Like you said before, Umbridge is trying every possible way to make trouble for us. If you don't go to class, wouldn't you be handing her something to use against you? Or are you planning to give up on school altogether and get expelled?" Hermione told Harry.
Yesterday, they had discussed Professor Trelawney's prophecy, then sought out Neville to check with him whether that Department of Mysteries really had something to do with prophecies-after all, Neville had only mentioned it in passing at the time, and none of them had made a particular effort to remember it.
Much to their disappointment, however, Neville was not especially certain either.
After all, he had only seen something similar written in his parents' notes. He did not know the exact details, so he could not be sure whether he might have remembered it wrong.
That made things rather troublesome.
It seemed like a little progress, but it rested on a whole series of uncertainties and could not be counted on.
Until they had any other discoveries or plans, Hermione was right: it would be better not to give Umbridge more excuses to make trouble for the time being. Although her previous attempt to punish him had failed, even Harry himself could not be sure he would be able to deal with it so easily if it happened again.
When they arrived at the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Umbridge was already waiting inside.
Since the students came to the teachers, the professors spent most of their time in their own