Leave something unforbidden, and no one did it; forbid it, and people only did it more.
This was a psychological effect many people experienced, known in Muggle psychology as the Pandora Effect.
Harry was a classic example of someone susceptible to this effect. In his first year, for instance, when Dumbledore had said at the opening feast that the Third Floor Corridor and the Forbidden Forest were off-limits, Harry's immediate thought had been which one to visit first.
Don't ask. If you had to ask, ninety pounds of his hundred-pound body were pure defiance.
And Harry's case was far from unusual among young wizards.
So the moment Hermione spotted Umbridge, she had already thought of using her, along with the young wizards' rebellious streak, to get the entire student body to read the magazine.
The Quibbler was a decidedly niche publication, at least at Hogwarts.
Under those circumstances, getting everyone to read Harry's article would probably be very difficult.
But once Umbridge appeared, Hermione had a solution.
If they wanted every student to read the magazine and the article, the best way was undoubtedly to get Umbridge to ban it.
Hermione's plan had undoubtedly succeeded.
Although Harry and his friends never caught sight of so much as a corner of The Quibbler in the Castle that day or over the next two days, they could hear people discussing the article everywhere-keeping out of Umbridge's way, of course.
People discussed the article in corridors, classrooms, and even the Washroom.
Over those few days, students Harry knew, students he barely knew, and even students he had never known before would come up to him from time to time and say, "Harry, we've read the article. We believe you."
Harry felt that at least two-thirds of the students had read the magazine and