On Sunday evening, Ron received a letter from Percy.
It was another encrypted letter.
On the surface, it reproached Ron for opposing Umbridge and demanded that he follow the Ministry of Magic's arrangements and obey Fudge and Umbridge's orders.
Clearly, Umbridge was more than happy to see a letter like this, and it reached Ron without any obstruction.
Once decoded, however, it yielded a piece of news that was neither particularly big nor particularly small.
Umbridge had brought in several helpers from the Ministry of Magic.
Three Aurors and five Hit Wizards.
Counting the two Hit Wizards she had summoned to her side earlier, she now had as many as ten Ministry employees under her command.
This was no small move, but Harry and the others did not yet know what Umbridge intended to do.
After all, the other years' final exams would follow the Wizard Level Examinations. Then Hogwarts would break up for the holidays. They really had no idea what Umbridge wanted with such a large group of helpers at this point.
Clearly, Percy had not obtained any information about that either, so he had only reported the matter itself without mentioning the reason.
Hiding information in a coded letter was no easy task. Very little information could be included, and Percy could only use a few brief words to convey what he really wanted to say.
For the moment, Harry and the others had no particularly solid guesses either. They could only wait and see what Umbridge wanted to do, then adapt as things unfolded.
The weekend passed, and the exams continued.
Monday's exam was Potions.
Many of the seventh-year students outside Slytherin-especially those in Gryffindor-remarked on how lucky Harry's year was to have Professor Slughorn teaching their Potions classes.
By the time the seventh-year students had