One Scene Where Harry Potter Missed the Perfect Chance to Strike Back at Umbridge

Summary:

• Harry Potter has always been one of the most sarcastic and snarky people in his titular series.
• During her first DADA lesson, Umbridge engaged in a heated debate with students and asked whether they expected to be attacked during her class.
• Harry missed the chance to point out that all four of his previous DADA teachers did indeed attack him, so he had all reasons to answer positively.

From a young and tender age, Harry Potter developed a phenomenal ability to cleverly insult or strike back at people he didn’t like. Some of the best one-liners in books and movies came from him, and especially with folks like Snape and Umbridge, Harry never felt the need to hold back, coming up with the most venomous punches and replies.

And yet, one time, the Chosen One chose the wrong comeback for Umbridge.

Umbridge Set the Trap for Herself

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Professor Umbridge’s first Defense Against Dark Arts lesson with Gryffindor didn’t go according to plan whatsoever. The students openly rebelled against her “Ministry-approved plan” of locking them behind textbooks and disabling them from actively practicing the spells they’ll be learning.

Losing more patience by the second, Umbridge engaged in a heated discussion of her methods with the class — and at one point, she asked Dean whether he was expecting to be attacked during her class. That was the perfect opportunity for Harry to jump back into the debate with what could have been his most iconic comeback ever because Umbridge virtually set a trap for herself with that question.

Harry Missed the Perfect Opportunity

Up until his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter’s luck with Defense Against Dark Arts teachers hasn’t been the best. All of them were shady individuals whose relationships with Harry culminated in their attempts to murder him by the end of the school year, and Dolores Umbridge forgot about it while asking her snarky question.

Harry could have pointed out that indeed, he was expecting to be attacked, considering he had a 100% run thus far. Professor Quirrel tried to choke him out; Professor Lockhart tried to wipe his memory clean; Professor Lupin transformed and went werewolf on him and his friends; and Professor Moody turned out to be a Death Eater who was this close to at least hurting Harry when Dumbledore arrived.

Statistically speaking, Harry could have been sure that at some point, Umbridge would attack him, too (which happened, by the way). Their potential dialogue was perfectly written by Kate Park in a once-popular fan snippet that you should definitely check out: for some reason, reading about Umbridge getting destroyed is always fun.

Source: Kate Park via Tumblr