Chapter 2: The Dark Professor

Since the tournament was about seven months away, I managed to push it off as a distant dream. It wasn't that difficult, since after the first week of school, the excitement died down and people began to focus more on their classes. Soon, the halls were buzzing with different gossip: the new DADA teacher.

Garmadon had completely taken over the class and made it his own. His lessons were interactive, in your face, and real life dark arts. Literally. There were times when he would actually throw curses at us and expect us to block them. I had him next period, and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to or dreading it.

I sat down in my seat in the back left, next to Cole and Jay, and waited for the show to begin. I looked at Garmadon's desk to see if there were any clues to today's lesson. All I saw was a spider in a jar. I glanced at the clock. Sixty seconds…forty-five…thirty…

BAM!

The door slammed behind our professor as he marched with purpose to the center of the classroom. He hadn't changed much since we had rescued him. He still wore his warlord helmet, and his red eyes pierced through our souls. The only difference was his armor had been replaced with billowing, black robes.

"What are the three Unforgivable Curses?" Garmadon asked the class, without so much as a good morning.

I looked at Cole, who shrugged back. I had never heard of the unforgivable curses before, and I guess he hadn't either. In front of me, a girl raised her hand.

"Go on," Garmadon said, gesturing with one of his four arms for her to speak.

"The Imperius Curse," she responded.

Garmadon nodded. "Ah, yes. The Imperius Curse. I remember it quite well."

The class murmured quietly, reminded once again that their teacher used to be a dark wizard.

Meanwhile, Garmadon had unscrewed the lid of the spider's container and whipped out his wand. "Imperio!"

With a mere flick, the spider jumped onto a student's head. The girl shrieked and tried to get the creature out of her hair. Garmadon laughed, and the whole class joined in. After he had his fun, Garmadon made the spider fly back to the jar.

"The Imperius Curse allows the user to have complete control over its victim. The ministry doesn't want me to preform it on a student, but I think that's absolutely ridiculous. Is a dark wizard going to hesitate just because you're a student?" Garmadon's red eyes swept the room, before he answered his own question. "No. Which is why you are all going to have an opportunity to experience it for yourself."

The class shivered as the professor made another sweep of the classroom.

"Can he actually do this to us?" Jay whispered urgently.

I shrugged. Honestly, our professor was so unpredictable; I had no idea. I didn't want to tell Jay that though. He looked panicked enough as it was.

Garmadon's gaze fell on an unfortunate student in the front. It was Chen. I grinned to myself. This was going to be good.

The professor pointed his wand at the bully's face.

"But, sir!" Chen protested, "Isn't this illegal?"

Garmadon didn't look fazed. "Probably, but what the ministry doesn't know can't hurt them."

I craned my neck to get a good look at Chen. I could tell he was shaking in his boots, but I wished I could see his face.

"Imperio!" Garmadon said.

It felt like the whole class was holding its breath, waiting to see what would happen next. We didn't have to wait long to find out. Chen jumped on top of his desk and started singing and dancing to an invisible tune. The desk pitched and rolled under his weight, but he didn't stop, not even when he went tumbling through the air and crashed on the floor.

Someone snickered, followed by another, and another, until the whole class broke out into hysterical laughter. I joined in too. It was satisfying to see the bane of my existence make a fool of himself in front of everyone. Garmadon let us laugh, but before long, he pulled everyone under control.

"Who's next?" he asked, an impish grin on his face.

I walked out of that class with a headache, and a gurgling stomach. One moment, I was in a relaxing, floating, trance-like state, and the next, I was lying down on the floor with a terrible pain in my head. I dimly remember a voice telling me to spin in a violent circle as fast as I could. I guess at some point I got so sick; I just collapsed on the floor, hitting my head in the process.

I didn't get it so bad though. One person imitated a shark, and another person got into a fight with the professor. That poor kid is probably real sore right about now. Tomorrow, he would be teaching us the rest of the curses and how to resist the effects of the Imperius curse. I just hoped that the next few lessons wouldn't be as interactive as this one.

Later, I sat down at lunch with a big sigh. My stomach felt better, but my head was still pounding. I wondered if I got a concussion.

"Garmadon is crazy! Absolutely crazy!" Jay ranted as he came into the library. "He preformed an Unforgivable Curse on us! An Unforgivable Curse! That can't be allowed."

"Correct," Zane replied.

"What'd he make you do?" I asked Zane. Jay did gymnastics, even though I knew he wasn't flexible in real life, and Cole sang in front of everyone, but since Zane wasn't in our class, I had no idea what kind of torture he was subjected to.

Zane looked down at his book. "I would rather not discuss it," he replied, which only made me more curious.

"The whole thing was kind of cool though," Cole said. We all stared at him. Cool wasn't the word I would use.

Cole continued quickly, "I mean, how many teachers give us actual, real life experiences that we could actually use one day? If we come across a dark wizard, I want to know how to take him down."

"I guess," I admitted. "What'd you think of him, Nya?"

My sister just shook her head. "If he keeps teaching the way he's teaching, he won't be here very long," was all she said. So, I'm guessing he's the same in her class too.

I tried to remember what we learned about third year. Defending against magic creatures, like boggarts and grindylows, I thought. I shuddered to think what he was doing in that class.

"What about you, Lloyd?" Jay asked.

"Yeah, what's it like having your father as a teacher?" Cole asked.

I winced. Last time I tried to talk to Lloyd about his father, he wasn't too happy about it.

"Fine." His voice was flat, and clearly, class was anything but fine. I wished I could help him, though; I got the feeling that pressing the matter would only make things worse.

"I have him next period," Lloyd said in the same flat voice. The others realized they'd hit a touchy subject and fell quiet. Zane re-read the same page over and over again. I could tell because I couldn't hear the tell tale sound of paper crinkling and settling again as the page turned.

I leaned against a bookshelf and sighed. The atmosphere dropped fifteen degrees in here. The only sound that could be heard was the chewing of food, and most of it was coming from Cole.

Then, gradually, conversation started back up again. Jay was talking to Nya about his latest invention. Apparently, he was planning on building an actual jet from scratch for his Magic and Technology project, kind of like the one he built first year, only a lot better.

Soon, he and Nya were laughing together, much to my annoyance. To get my mind off them, I started talking to Cole and Zane. Zane and I had Transfiguration next period and since Cole had the class earlier, I asked him what we were going to expect. Nuero was a strict teacher, so we could have a pop quiz for all I knew.

Before long, our little circle was back to normal. The awkwardness with Lloyd was all but forgotten. When the bell rang, I stood up and walked quickly to class. Zane preferred to walk by himself, so I thought I'd get a head start and walk to class ahead of everyone else.

But when I looked at the door, I saw Lloyd slipping away without anyone noticing. My heart burned. He had to face Garmadon, all alone. I hoped he'd be okay.

AN: Will Lloyd survive class with Garmadon? You'll have to read next week to find out! Thanks for your continued support!