Drastic changes in store for school & classes in book 6?

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 123081


Nicky Joe wrote:
This is exactly the thing that irritated me about OoP. At the end of
GoF, Dumbledore is gearing up for war, Fudge has jammed his head
firmly into the sand, and sides are beginning to be taken. Then
Harry gets shuffled off to another crappy summer at the Dursleys,
school starts, and DD tries to get everyone to pretend that it's
simply school as usual. The entire time they are dealing with
Umbridge and everyone is tiptoeing around, I was shaking my book and
screaming, "HELLO??? Anyone remember Voldemort? That guy that's out
there? Most likely plotting something horrible? Remember him? Why
are we worried about OWLS and detention?" I was heartily let down to
find that LV was after something as trite as a prophecy. I expected
him to be out there creating monsters to fight for him. Or
Polyjuicing all of the DEs. Or creating some scheme to mow down
Hogwarts and crush Potter once and for all. But no, LV is looking
for some prophecy and Harry is studying potions and arguing with
Snape. Quite a letdown after GoF. I hope she ramps it up a bit for
HBP.

vmonte responds:
I do think that things will change drastically at the beginning of 
the next school year. Dumbledore's opening speech to the students 
will of course include, what everyone in the WW now believes, that 
Voldemort is back. I wonder if classes will be more geared towards 
learning strategy and defense. Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, 
etc, will be more geared towards military defense. This will also be 
interesting because Harry and gang will be learning human 
transfiguration this year with MM.  That's probably something that 
will come in handy at the end of book 6 (since they always learn 
something during the year that they end up using at the end to save 
themselves). Runes classes, Divination, and WW History may be geared 
more to strategic divining and analyzing and developing alternate 
paths (strategic planning in Runes), and learning historical military 
strategy. I wonder if this is the year that Professor Binns will 
teach the children who Grindelwald was and Dumbledore's role in his 
defeat. We may also learn more about the Hogwarts of the past-- 
meaning the founders of the school and how and why they had to 
protect themselves from muggles... 

This may also be the year that Ron realizes that he has an important 
gift to offer the Order, his gift for strategy! 

Vivian