The next morning, a crowd packed the entrance to Hogwarts' Entrance Hall.
Breakfast was still steaming on the four house tables, but hardly anyone was sitting down to eat.
Everyone was crowded into the very center of the Entrance Hall.
Two enormous ranking lists floated there.
A red one on the left.
A white one on the right.
The red list showed the top twenty students in each year.
The white list showed the bottom twenty students in each year.
Each list was six feet wide and ten feet tall, edged with a gold frame, floating in midair and slowly rotating to ensure that every name could be read clearly from any angle.
This had been Umbridge's idea.
After marking the last exam paper the night before, she had spent a full two hours designing this display.
She had even added a ring of twinkling golden stars to the red list.
The white list had no decorations at all.
Just black lettering on a bare white background.
Cold and stark.
"She's posted the rankings. It's only the day after the exams. Is she out of her mind?"
Ron stood at the very edge of the crowd, his neck stretched out like a startled giraffe's.
Harry was looking too.
His gaze swept over the red list first, then shifted to the white one, before returning to the red.
"Hermione's first. I thought-at least, going by what Dad said about Umbridge-I thought a pure-blood would come first."
Ron pointed his chin toward the very top of the red list.
First place in fifth year.
Hermione Granger.
Her total score was followed by a capital O, with a small note beside it-"Full marks in every subject."
Hermione herself stood toward the back of the middle of the crowd, clutching a highlighter and rapidly