Unexpectedly, Professor Umbridge’s lecturing style was different from other professors.

Once she saw the students had mostly finished copying, Professor Umbridge walked back to the podium.

"Does every student have a copy of Wilbert Slinkard’s ’Magic Defense Theory’?" she asked.

"Yes, Professor Umbridge," the students replied sparsely.

Umbridge’s eyebrows furrowed, and she said with great displeasure, "I should remind you, you need to behave like students should—do you think behaving like this makes you a qualified student? Surely you don’t need me to teach you how to respond properly?"

"Yes, Professor Umbridge." Reluctantly, the students answered uniformly.

After all, she was the professor, and rank does have its privileges.

"Tsk," Professor Umbridge shook her head in sighing exasperation, "Honestly, you are the worst students I’ve ever seen..."

Harry frowned.

He felt as if Professor Umbridge wasn’t here to teach, but rather, to find faults—to find faults in everyone.

"Very well," said Professor Umbridge, "I want you to turn your books to page five and read ’Chapter One, Basic Introduction’—make sure not to whisper to each other while reading."

Having said that, Professor Umbridge left the blackboard and sat down in the chair behind the podium, watching everyone with those droopy, toad-like eyes.

Harry opened his ’Magic Defense Theory’ to page five but didn’t read further; instead, he just stared blankly.

A few minutes passed, and the classroom was dead silent.

Beside him, Ron absent-mindedly twirled a feather pen in his fingers, staring blankly at the same spot in the book.

"I never thought there’d come a day when I’d think Professor Bin’s lectures felt lively and interesting," Ron said in a very low voice, "By Merlin’s sleeve, if Defense Against the Dark Arts were an elective, I definitely wouldn’t choose this class."

"Haven’t you noticed something off about Hermione?" Harry asked quietly, "Look at her; if it were any other day, she’d be reading the book happily, but look at her now?"

Ron followed his gaze towards Hermione and saw she was holding her hand high up.

Professor Umbridge seemed more interested in the view outside the window and wasn’t observing what the students were actually doing.

In other words, she hadn’t noticed Hermione at all.

A few minutes later, the students finally stopped looking at their books and all turned their attention to Hermione.

They all wanted to know what Hermione was about to do.

Professor Umbridge certainly noticed this too, and she could hardly ignore such a situation.

"Darling, do you have questions about the content of this Chapter?" she asked Hermione, acting as if she had just noticed she’d been raising her hand.

"No, it’s not about the content of this Chapter," Hermione shook her head, speaking firmly.

"Oh, we are currently reading," Professor Umbridge said, showing off her small and sharp teeth, "If you have other questions, we can discuss them after class."

"I have a question about your course objectives," Hermione said.

Professor Umbridge raised her eyebrows.

"What’s your name?"

"Hermione, Hermione Granger," Hermione replied.

"Well then, Miss Granger, I believe the course objectives are clearly written, as long as you read them thoroughly from beginning to end," Professor Umbridge said in an unwavering tone, the affected sweetness in her voice was indeed nauseating.

"But I don’t think so," Hermione stated bluntly, "There isn’t a single word mentioning the use of Defensive Spells."

A brief silence ensued, as many students turned their heads to scrutinize the three objectives still written on the blackboard.

"The use of Defensive Spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a light chuckle, "Oh, I can’t imagine a situation in my class where you’d need to use Defensive Spells, Miss Granger—I know you’re a Master of All Things, but surely you don’t expect to be attacked during class, do you?"

Harry let out a snort.

Hearing Harry’s laughter, Ron stopped pretending and joined in with hearty laughter.

Laughter is contagious; soon the surrounding group began laughing, having long since grown a bit impatient with Professor Umbridge.

"Utter nonsense, full of crap," Harry loudly said to Ron, using English.

He was genuinely fed up with Umbridge—honestly, this was precisely the season when Voldemort was making his return, the temporary peace of the British Magic World was about to be shattered, and the top priority was to urgently reinforce the students’ Defense Against the Dark Arts skills.

And Umbridge?

It was foreseeable that this fool... had no intention of properly teaching them.

How can one handle Defense Against the Dark Arts well alongside such pests?

What if, because of the delays in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, the students didn’t learn adequately and end up hurt by spells or even lose their lives when facing a Dark Wizard?

This can’t continue! She must be dismissed immediately.

Hogwarts doesn’t allow for a professor who disrupts learning like this!

Professor Umbridge’s toad-like face suddenly fell.

The classroom erupted in uproarious laughter, especially the students from Slytherin, who were the most enthusiastic.

The Ravenclaw students were more reserved, but their laughter wasn’t quiet either.