Mina's first class of the year was herbology, a combined class with the Gryffindors. They were extracting pus from plant-creatures that resembled slugs called bubotubers. Their pus was a cure for acne when diluted. Mina took a look at Harry, who was working with a rather disgusted expression. She decided that she was going to go to the hospital wing later to get some of the diluted final product.
Immediately afterwards was care of magical creatures, taught by Rubeus Hagrid. The previous year his classes had been mired by Hagrid's worry over the fate of his hippogriff, Buckbeak. With Buckbeak saved the hope of many of his students was that he would be able to demonstrate more interesting animals this year.
All students unanimously preferred the flobberworms.
With a renewed vigor and a determination to provide more interesting lessons than he had the previous year, Hagrid had somehow come into possession of an animal not even Hermione had heard of over the summer, large armored scorpion-like creatures he called blast ended skrewts. They had claws, pincers, a stinger, a sucking mouth on their underbellies, and a spark emitting rear end. About six inches long, Hagrid kept them massed in large boxes, telling the students to feed them whatever it was they would turn out to eat since he did not know himself.
By the end of the class the majority of Hagrid's students had suffered mild burns or cuts. Madame Pompfey was kept busy well into the afternoon.
All of Hagrid's favorite students were too angry with him to stay behind after class to talk with him. Even Mina and Harry agreed with Malfoy's assessment. The best thing would be for the skrewts to be destroyed. But Hagrid had already decided that they would be raising the skrewts as a project over the year.
Later, Mina had her first defense against the dark arts class with Professor Moody. She had been walking though a large hall on the way to the class when she encountered a crowd that was guaranteed to make her late. At the center Harry, Ron, and Hermione were arguing with Draco Malfoy. When the three Gryffindors had turned their backs Malfoy took out his wand. The spell just missed Harry, who spun around, raising his own wand.
"Oh no you don't laddie!"
Making his way through the crowd was Professir Moody, also on his way to his classroom. The moment Malfoy had cast a spell at Harry Moody reacted, pointing his wand at Malfoy, who disappeared the next second, leaving only a small white ferret behind.
The crowd laughed as Moody levitated the screaming ferret up and down.
"Never. Do. That. Again."
"Professor Moody?" Professor McGonagall had just arrived, attracted by the disturbance. "What are you doing?"
"Teaching."
"Is that a student?" she asked in alarm.
"Yep."
"No! She pointed her own wand at Malfoy, returning him to human form. "Professor Moody, we never, never use transfiguration as a punishment! Surely Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might've mentioned it."
"Then never do that again!"
"All right." He looked around the hall. "Off to class, all of you!"
Mina and the other fourth year Hufflepuffs followed Professor Moody to the classroom. At one point he said "I've got my I on you. Don't try anything funny." even though he had not turned around to see them.
They got inside and sat down. Professor Moody looked at them seriously with both eyes.
"Never, attack an opponent when his back is turned. It's a cowardly thing to do. Anyone I see doing that from now on will get detention and lose fifty house points.
"But…" he swayed, "if you ever meet the Dark Lord and his back is turned, don't hesitate to curse him. Hesitating then'll cost you dear. Have constant vigilance!" The class jumped.
"Now, who can tell me about the three unforgivable curses?"
One student raised his hand. "The three curses that are banned. The use of any one of them on another person has the minimum sentence of a life in Azbkaban."
"Right. Take ten points. These curses are the most sinister you'll face out there. The ministry doesn't think you should learn about them till your sixth year, but Dumbledore knows better. He knows that you've got to know what dangers the other side presents. Who can name the unforgivable curses?"
This time a girl answered. "There's the imperious curse."
"The hardest to detect. It allows one to control another person. Observe." He opened a jar on his desk that contained a spider. It crawled onto his hand.
"Imperio!"
The spider began to hop around the desk, moving in a pattern that had to be man made.
"I can make it do anything I want, even kill itself by jumping down one of your throats.
"You have be constantly alert, have constant vigilance, to not fall victim to the imperious curse. Only a powerful will, much more powerful than this spider's, can overcome it. Now what is the second curse?"
"The cruciatis curse." another student answered.
"Shows what the ministry knows. You kids know these curses already! People are learning these things younger and younger; the world's getting more dangerous-"
"Sir?" Mina asked, holding up her hand. "You were telling us about the cruciatis curse."
"Wha? Er…right. The cruciatis curse. That is one of the most effective means of torture in the world. Observe." He pointed his wand at the spider again.
"Please don't." Hannah said form the row behind Mina's.
"Too much for your stomachs, eh?" Moody shook his head, disappointed. "You need to toughen up, or they'll eat you alive out there. Now this curse, if applied long enough, is painful enough to literally drive people insane. It happened to some good people I knew. Been more than ten years, and they still haven't recovered. You never know when these things are going to happen, so you've got to have constant vigilance.
"Now, who knows the final curse? Have you heard of it?" he asked Mina, who looked him straight in the eye.
"Yes."
"And what is it?"
"Avada Kadavra. The killing curse." Artemis had told her about all of the unforgivable curses the year before when he was attempting to research the practical applications of magic against the Dark Kingdom.
"Good. Good. Ten points to Hufflepuff. The worst curse imaginable. It causes instant death. Exactly one person is known to have survived it."
"Harry Potter." Mina said.
"Yes. Now don't go around thinking that you can survive it too. No one knows how Potter got so lucky, and tempting fate is never a good idea. Be sure to have constant vigilance.
"Now, take out your books and turn to chapter 3."/
"I swear. He thinks we're going to be attacked the second we step out of he building."
Mina was sitting on her bed, looking into a pocket mirror while she held up her bangs to apply the diluted bubotuber pus she had gotten from Madam Pomfrey.
"You can learn a lot from him, Mina." Artemis said.
"Like how to act like a nut. Are you going to tell me to be 'constantly vigilant' and train in the room of requirement every day?"
"I guess not. You defeated a werewolf with your bare hands., and you're close to perfect with your powers and weapons. I don't see what else we can do. Of course we should keep the training up to be sure you don't get rusty, but it wouldn't be as often as last year."
"Good. Then I can go to the library."
"Getting a head start on your homework?" Artemis asked hopefully.
"Not exactly."
Artemis had to wait until she got to the library to see what Mina was up to. He saw the title of the first book she took off the shelves.
"Oh."
It was a book about the theory of memory charms.