Chapter 13
Chapter Twelve
Harry had an unpleasant surprise waiting for him at Hogwarts that year (besides Hagrid being mysteriously absent): the appointment of Dolores Umbridge—the woman whose prejudice against half-breeds had separated Harry’s family—as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
The next day, Harry had a class with Umbridge, in which she heavily criticised the previous Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers at Hogwarts, calling Lupin an “extremely dangerous half-breed.” “He’s my dad,” said Harry indignantly. “One of your dads,” corrected Umbridge. “And you separated me from him with your anti-werewolf legislation,” said Harry. “He’s not at all dangerous in his human form.” “Is he?” said Umbridge. “I would have thought he had rather disturbing motives for adopting you, given his...other abnormality. I repeat, he’s one of your dads.” Harry immediately detected this dog whistle for what it was—that Umbridge, like other pure-blood supremacists, was also homophobic, and she’d interfered particularly strongly in the Lupin-Black family’s case. Even worse, she had outed Remus as gay—Harry hoped that everyone in the class already knew this from having seen Sirius and Remus at Harry’s Quidditch matches.
Umbridge then explained exactly why she had assigned Defensive Magical Theory as the textbook for her class: because theory was all they would be learning. When a great many students objected to this—Hermione was the first to point out that they would not be learning how to use defensive spells—Umbridge asked the class, “Who do you think wants to attack children like yourselves?” to which Harry replied in a mock thoughtful voice, “Hmm...maybe Lord Voldemort?” After everyone had recovered from the shock of Harry using Voldemort’s name, Umbridge said, “Ten points from Gryffindor, Mr Lupin-Black. You shouldn’t even have that surname—I found out what your adoptive grandparents on Sirius’ side did during Dumbledore’s hearing—if only they had succeeded in making him marry a pure-blood witch...” “Dumbledore has harmed me beyond repair!” shouted Harry. “In any case,” said Umbridge, “Minister Fudge needs to find some way to punish Headmistress McGonagall for all her disinformation about a certain Dark wizard returning from the dead.” “He wasn’t dead,” shouted Harry, “but he’s returned. I saw him, I fought him! You’re the one who’s spreading disinformation.” “Detention, Mr. Potter!” Umbridge said. “Tomorrow, five o’clock, my office. I repeat, this is a lie.”
Umbridge then wrote something on a piece of parchment, magically sealed it, and said to Harry, “Take this to Professor McGonagall.” Harry did as she asked, and was advised by Professor McGonagall to “tread carefully around Dolores Umbridge.” Professor McGonagall also reminded Harry, “This is not about truth or lies! It’s about keeping your head down and your temper under control! Have a biscuit.” Harry took a Ginger Newt from the tin on Professor McGonagall’s desk.
The next night, Harry had his detention with Umbridge—and, much to his shock, she forced him to write I must not tell lies over and over again with a blood quill that carved the sentence into his hand. He stormed out furiously, and Professor Umbridge shouted, “Legilimens!” through which she was able to see into Harry’s mind and see that he was about to send a letter to Sirius. Harry could tell that she had attacked his mind, and he knew that she would know if he told Sirius what Umbridge was doing to him. He talked to Ron and Hermione, and Hermione said, “How on earth are we supposed to tell Sirius what Umbridge is doing to you, if Umbridge might stop you from doing so?” Harry wrote Sirius the following letter:
Dear Sirius,
Hope you’re OK, the first week back here’s been terrible, I’m really glad it’s the weekend.
You know that Madam Umbridge who separated our family? She’s teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts now. I had detention with her, and that thing that happened last summer happened again.
We’re all missing our biggest friend, we hope he’ll be back soon.
Best,
Harry
Hermione said, “Your scar hurt when you were in detention? Why didn’t you tell me?” “It’s enough of a problem what Umbridge is doing to me,” said Harry. “I hope she doesn’t see this.”
A few nights later, Sirius’ head appeared in the Gryffindor common room fire. “I hope Umbridge doesn’t get suspicious,” he said, “but of course parents of students are allowed to send their heads through the Hogwarts fires. Now, about your scar...now that Voldemort’s back—I was a member of the Order, of course I’ll say his name—it’s bound to hurt more often.” “So you don’t think it had anything to do with Umbridge touching me while I was in detention with her?” “I don’t think so, although I’m still mad at her for separating our family.” “Now let me show you what Umbridge did to me…” said Harry, but then a hand with stubby little fingers, which looked like the hand of the last person Harry wanted to hear this conversation, dragged Sirius’ head out of the Gryffindor common room fire and into the one in her own office.
“Harry’s getting to be just like what he thinks Draco Malfoy is, isn’t he, Mr Black?” Umbridge said to Sirius. “‘My fathers ‘“—she emphasised the underlined letter—“‘will hear about this.’ Mr Black, Fudge said that he saw you, your cousin, her husband, and her daughter coming to watch Harry in the Triwizard Tournament last term. This is just another instance of gay parents being permissive and unfit parents, isn’t it? It would almost have been better if you’d married your cousin…both for you, because you went and married another bloke instead, and for her, if her husband is a Mudblood…” Sirius then had a traumatic flashback to the moment he’d been given an antidote to Narcissa’s love potion and realised what she had done to him, and thought that any Muggle (of either gender) would have a similar reaction to being raped...
“I heard your conversation with your son, Mr Black—every word of it,” Umbridge continued. “You two were plotting to get me in trouble instead of Minerva and her allies. Don’t ever come here again!”
Sirius went back to his cottage and told Remus, “It’s worse than I thought. Umbridge is policing the fires at Hogwarts, and she’s even gone so far as to prevent students from communicating with their parents. She showed particular prejudice against us because we’re gay—she thinks I should have married Andromeda. She sort of got what she wanted—now Andromeda is basically Harry’s other parent. Harry isn’t our biological child, though, plus Andromeda is married to Ted, so that’s not that much of a problem.” “So that’s the real reason she separated our family,” Remus bitterly realised. “Even worse,” said Sirius, “Umbridge captured me right before I was about to see something really bad that she’d done to Harry during his detentions with her. What are we supposed to do, if Umbridge could get me in trouble for violating her order that I never come to Hogwarts again? I won’t even be able to meet Harry in Hogsmeade as usual...not that I would anyway, when Minerva wants me to stay at home so that I won’t get captured by Voldemort—because if I do, she says, Harry will put his life in danger to rescue me. At least I can stay here and not at 12 Grimmauld Place—especially since we adopted Harry, this house has made a lot of good memories for us.”