Chapter 549 Umbridge’S New Plan

Shortly after the exciting match between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, Umbridge finally ended her long recuperation in the school infirmary and returned to class.

While in the hospital, Umbridge heard a rumor from Marietta that her bad luck was the result of a curse from the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

In fact, this rumor has been circulating since the beginning of school, but it really became popular after Umbridge's continuous bad luck.

The same applies to Umbridge herself. At first, she dismissed the rumor, but as she encountered misfortune one after another, the rumor gradually fermented in her heart, becoming more real and terrifying.

Umbridge sat on the leather chair in the office, frowning.

She began to re-examine the position she had always desired - Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts.

She had forgotten how many times she had looked through the files of previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.

The files show that this position indeed seems to have been cast by a curse, and all professors have not been spared.

To make matters worse, the curse is now at its most powerful.

According to records, before Harry Potter came to Hogwarts, although this position was frequently replaced, most of the teachings had a decent ending.

Basically, they had to resign from their professorship within a year due to personal reasons or family reasons.

However, ever since the boy with the lightning scar on his forehead stepped into this school, the fate of the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has really seemed to be cursed.

Harry Potter's first year, Professor Quirrell, died at 26.

When Harry Potter entered his second year, Professor Lockhart was exposed and his reputation was immediately ruined and he entered Azkaban.

Harry Potter entered the third year, and Professor Lupin had a happy death for the time being, but within two years he was still stigmatized and almost sent to Azkaban for attacking a student.

Harry Potter entered the fourth grade, and Moody, who was originally going to be a professor, was locked in a box from beginning to end for the entire school year.

The fate of Barty Crouch Jr., who replaced him, was even more unlucky. His soul was directly sucked away by the dementors, and he also died miserably.

And now, Harry Potter is in fifth grade...

Although Umbridge did not want to believe the so-called curse, the facts before her eyes made her unable to let go.

Is it really just a coincidence that for decades no Defense Against the Dark Arts professor has been able to hold the post for more than a year?

Why Principal Dumbledore could never recruit a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who was willing to serve for a long time, she now had the answer in her mind.

She couldn't help but smile bitterly, she actually stepped into this cursed abyss on her own initiative. Whenever she thought of this, her mood seemed to be shrouded in gloom and it was difficult to cheer up.

"Am I really going to encounter something unexpected before the end of this semester, as that old liar predicted?"

Umbridge murmured to herself that she could not accept such a fate.

As a result, a plan quietly took shape in her mind: to voluntarily resign from her position as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor before the end of the semester in order to avoid the terrible curse.

This is the best solution she came up with after studying the files for so long.

In the files she looked through, those Defense Against the Dark Arts professors who resigned early were able to escape unscathed.

Even after Harry entered school, there was an example of Zhanping starting well and ending well.

If he hadn't forced himself to "live a second life", he wouldn't have ended up like this.

However, as a professor sent to Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic, Umbridge cannot give up his position as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at will, let alone his influence in Hogwarts.

Therefore, she needs to find a suitable alternative position, such as Headmaster of Hogwarts.

Replacing Dumbledore as the new principal of Hogwarts is Umbridge's ultimate goal. In her opinion, as long as this goal can be achieved, all difficulties are not daunting.

However, reality poured cold water on her.

During her time at Hogwarts, not only did she fail to catch Dumbledore, but she was made miserable by a series of pranks.

What makes her even more upset is that there is a prophecy circulating in the Ministry of Magic recently: Minister of Magic Fudge will be ousted next summer.

Although Umbridge does not believe in prophecies, she is well aware of the cruelty of political struggle.

She must prepare in advance to deal with possible changes.

From the moment Umbridge stepped into Hogwarts, she shouldered the important responsibility given by the Ministry of Magic - to win the due efforts for the Ministry of Magic in this historic magic school.

She knew that as long as she could complete this task beautifully, her position in the Ministry of Magic would be more stable, and Minister Fudge would never give up easily on a capable person with strong skills and outstanding execution ability like her.

Since it was impossible to directly replace Dumbledore, in order to achieve this goal, Umbridge carefully planned another plan: to use the power of the Senior Investigator to "install his trusted professors at Hogwarts."

In this way, she can gradually penetrate into every corner of the school and influence the decision-making of the entire Hogwarts.

However, things did not develop smoothly as she expected.

She had tried to find fault with the professors before, but to no avail.

The series of events that followed caused her to lose her authority.

He tried to expose Levin's secret and sneak into his secret base, but failed.

What made her even more annoyed was that she tried to retaliate against Zhang Qiu through corporal punishment, but failed.

This series of setbacks left Umbridge feeling unprecedentedly frustrated and angry.

As she walked in the corridors of Hogwarts, she felt that every little wizard passing by was looking at her strangely, as if they were laughing at her incompetence. This feeling made her feel even worse.

Regarding the incident of banning Harry Potter, although she was angry, it was not enough.

Therefore, whether it was to advance her plan for promotion in the future or to regain her authority, she decided to expel several people at Hogwarts no matter what to regain her prestige.

On Umbridge's list, three names were highlighted.

The first is Hagrid, the half-giant from Care of Magical Creatures.

According to information provided by Slytherin students, Hagrid's courses are simply terrible, especially the Explosive-Ended Skrewt incident last semester that caused a lot of fuss.

Umbridge felt that this was a perfect opportunity. As long as he fired Hagrid, he could give Dumbledore a blow.

Unfortunately, Hagrid is not at school, which makes Umbridge feel a little regretful.

But she has not given up her determination to fire Hagrid. She was thinking in her mind that when Hagrid came back, she would find an excuse to expel him from Hogwarts.

However, Umbridge is also aware of a problem. This position is not without alternatives: if Hagrid is fired, then the substitute teacher Wilmina Grubbly-Plank of the Care of Magical Creatures class is likely to become a regular professor, remove the substitute title, and become a full professor. .

And the professor was clearly more interested in Dumbledore than the Ministry of Magic.

In other words, expelling Hagrid does not occupy a teaching position.

The second person is Sybill Trelawney from the divination class.

The divination professor nicknamed "Old Liar" by the students has always been the target that Umbridge wanted to get rid of.

She heard that Trelawney's classes were always full of absurd predictions and baseless speculations, which made Umbridge deeply doubtful of her teaching ability.

"If Trelawney is driven away, it will be difficult for Dumbledore to find a suitable Divination professor to fill the vacancy in a short period of time."

Umbridge thought about it in his mind.

After all, the number of wizards who truly know how to do divination is too small, and Dumbledore has strict standards for the selection of professors.

As the rumor claimed: "Professor Trelawney is Dumbledore's illegitimate daughter. Because of her, Dumbledore gave up on canceling the Divination class.

The first half of this rumor may not be correct, but the second half is indeed true.

If he hadn't seen the prophecy about Voldemort from Trelawney, Dumbledore would have really wanted to cancel the Divination class.

This shows how difficult it is to find a professor for this course.

The last one was Professor Charity Bubbaji from the Muggle Studies class.

The problem with this professor is that her views are always incompatible with pure-blood wizards.

She once put forward some theories that deeply dissatisfied the pure-blood faction, such as "There is not much difference between Muggles and wizards" and the like.

Umbridge clearly remembers that once in the corridor, she heard several pure-blood students complaining about Professor Bubaji's courses.

"How can she say there is no difference between Muggles and wizards? This is simply an insult to us pure-bloods!

These remarks gave Umbridge an opportunity to fire Professor Bubaji.

She knew that if she could successfully fire Bubaji and find a professor who was more popular with the pure-blood faction to take her place, she would be able to win the support of the pure-blood faction.

This is undoubtedly a huge political capital for her.

Umbridge is very clear that both she and Minister Fudge need the support of pure-blood factions to stabilize their status in the magical world. .