Chapter 414

Umbridge was rude, but Dumbledore still showed his demeanor, and he gave up the opportunity to speak to Umbridge without showing any concern.

"Thank you, Headmaster," Professor Umbridge said with a smirk, "thank you for such a warm welcome. "

The smirk on Umbridge's face was instinctively disgusting at first glance, and many of the students in the audience were already frowning. They were going to see what the woman could say.

Her voice was high, high-pitched, and breathy, like that of a little girl, and judging by the expressions of most of the students, it was obvious that they were feeling uncomfortable. Quite a few of the students' buttocks (to avoid possible river crabs, the word is still there) moved around on the stools, and it looked like Umbridge's voice was hurting them.

"Well, I must say, it's great to be back at Hogwarts!" she grinned, revealing her sharp teeth, "It's great to see these happy little faces looking up at me!"

The students frowned.

Draco was a little upset, "Does she treat us like children?"

"Maybe compared to this old woman, we are all children. Sylna's words were obviously much more lethal than Draco's, but Umbridge couldn't hear them.

Slytherins erupted in laughter.

"I can't wait to get to know all of you soon, and I'm sure we'll be very good friends!"

The students listened to this and exchanged glances with each other. Some of them smiled almost unabashedly. "I'll be friends with her, just don't let me borrow her cardigan." Parvati whispered to Lavender, and both of them chuckled silently.

Snickering began around the Gryffindor table, and everyone apparently didn't take Umbridge's words seriously.

Professor Umbridge cleared her throat again, but as she continued to speak, some of the breath in her voice was inaudible. Now her voice was much more serious, and her words were dry, as if they had been memorized by heart.

"The Ministry of Magic has always believed that educating young wizards is a very important thing. Some of your innate and valuable talents may be fruitless if they are not nurtured and exercised under careful and meticulous guidance. Ancient skills unique to the wizarding world must be passed down from generation to generation, or they will be lost. The precious repositories of magical knowledge accumulated by our ancestors must be protected, supplemented and perfected by those who have had the privilege of pursuing a noble profession of education. "

At this point, Professor Umbridge stopped talking and bowed slightly to the other teachers, none of whom returned the salute. Professor McGonagall's two dark eyebrows were tightly twisted together, making her look like an eagle.

"The headmasters of Hogwarts have been innovative in their responsibilities to run this historic school, and it is entirely right, because if there is no progress, it will stagnate and it will decay. At the same time, however, progress for the sake of progress should never be encouraged, and our traditions are tempered and often do not need to be poorly revised. To strike a balance between the old and the new, between permanence and change, between tradition and innovation......"

Umbridge's words were vague, and although they contained a lot of subtle hints, it was clear that the vast majority of students did not have the ability to extract them. Unlike the students who like to go straight and straight, the adults — especially politicians like Umbridge — like to beat around the bush.

Dumbledore was silent as he spoke, and now the students were talking to each other, whispering, and the Great Hall was noisy. The students all thought that Umbridge's speech was nothing more than a nutritious cliché, and that few students could afford to listen to it.

Umbridge didn't seem to notice the audience's fidgeting, and she continued to speak to herself, as if the small movements of the students below didn't exist. Unlike the students, the professors listened very carefully.

"Because some changes work well, while others are found to be bad decisions when the time is right. At the same time, there are old habits that will be preserved, which is understandable, and there are habits that are obsolete and must be abandoned. Let us keep moving forward into a new era of enlightenment, efficiency and reasonableness, resolutely keeping what should be maintained, what needs to be perfected, and what we should forbidden. "

It wasn't until Dumbledore was the first to applaud that the students applauded as if they had just woken up from a dream, but the applause was sparse, and many of them were still deserting, not realizing that the speech was over, and before they could start applauding properly, Dumbledore stood up again.

"Thank you very much, Professor Umbridge, for your very enlightening remarks. As he spoke, he bowed to her, "Well, as I said, the Quidditch selection will be ......."

"Inspiring, inspiring?" Draco was confused, he looked at Solim, "What do you mean by those words that woman just said?"

There were quite a few students like Draco, and it could even be said that most of them could not understand the meaning of what Umbridge had just said.

"That means - the Ministry of Magic is interfering with Hogwarts. Hermione said to Harry, "She's not talking nonsense. "

"Really?" said Harry, surprised, "it sounds like nonsense to me." "

"yes, I grew up with Percy. Ron on the side yawned in approval of his buddy, "This is probably the most boring speech I've ever heard." "

There was a clash of tables, chairs, and benches, and it was clear that Dumbledore had announced the disbandment of the entire school as everyone stood up and prepared to leave the Great Hall. Hermione jumped to her feet, looking panicked.

"We should be going to show the way to the first-year!" Hermione looked a little flustered, after all, it was the first time she had done such a thing.

Draco on the other side was the same, if it wasn't for Sylna reminding him, he would have been ready to slip away.

"Look, what's so good about this Broken Captain?" Solim said to Sylna, "There's a lot of, and it's not much good. "

Not only was it no good, it was just trouble—when Draco and Pansy. When Parkinson led the Slytherin freshmen into the common room, almost all of the Slytherins were standing. Such a scene was very rare—so rare that Solim had never seen it, and it was rare for Slytherin to have an older student who dared to be interested in the new students, at most only the second or third year students, and the older students would have already gone into their dorms by this time.

But today's battle looks unusual.