A/N: After this update it will be awhile longer between updates, but we'll be working hard.
So far the day wasn't going well. Their classes hadn't been quite a disaster but they'd gotten close. And now two of the girls were going to be on their own. Ravan had Divination and Lizi was on her way to Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Mad-Eye Moody. Emi and Jewl had Care of Magical Creatures together so that wouldn't be that bad. At that moment all they were concerned with was surviving to lunch.
Ravan trudged up the stairs, wondering if they ever ended. When they finally did she was standing in an empty space with no classroom in sight. She was very relieved when some of her housemates arrived and showed her how to get into the classroom. She was surprised to see so few Ravenclaws there but she just shrugged and went with it. Her mother had wanted her to take this class, not Ravan. She looked around before choosing a booth.
'This is a classroom?' she wondered, looking around. She pulled out her textbook and her quill as she waited. When the teacher arrived and began to speak Ravan was in too much shock to pay any attention. By the time she had regained her senses Professor Trelawney was done telling some student how much her life would suck and was telling them to "consider the stars, the movements of the planets and the mysterious portents they reveal." (Goblet of Fire, pg. 200) Ravan opened her book and did as she was told, and tried to pay attention to the ditzy teacher. But, like most students she drifted, thinking about the divination class back home. And how the teacher there, though male, was almost identical to the teacher here.
"Who are you?" Ravan jerked to find Trelawney standing before her, looking very confused. She bit back a smile and a sharp retort.
"I'm Ravan Daniels, Professor," she said politely. Trelawney still looked blank. "I transferred from America?" Still blank. "I'm new." Ravan finally went blunt and was unsure of what to do when the teacher still seemed lost.
"Nobody told me," she muttered. Ravan wondered what the sweet smell around the Professor was but didn't say anything. "Where did you say you were from?"
Ravan stared. "America. The United States of America."
"Well, dear, there was no need to be sarcastic. The mundane details of your existence are not of great importance when compared to the majesty of the beyond." Now Ravan's jaw was hanging. Mundane details? The Beyond? This teacher was beyond something alright, but Ravan wasn't sure what.
"I wasn't aware that my home was a mundane detail of my existence," she couldn't help but say. The Professor didn't answer and turned away. "Professor," Ravan called, "did you want something?"
"Oooh, what?" The Professor turned back, still unsettled. "Oh, I was going to ask you if I was right in assuming that you were born under the planet Venus, under the hot, blistering sun of summer? All the signs point to it." Ravan couldn't help but grin.
"No, Saturn. I'm a Capricorn. January." The class chuckled, but quietly so the Professor couldn't hear. Trelawney mumbled something and wandered off, eventually dismissing the class with some homework that had Ravan scrambling to get out of the class before she died of shock.
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While Ravan was dying of disbelief Lizi was sitting nervously in DADA, wondering what this "Mad-Eye" guy would be like. She didn't have long to be nervous, he came clumping in precisely on time.
"Now, I understand that your practical knowledge is woefully poor. You've had several teachers, though I see that Professor Lupin did his best to make up for this. Now, I believe, firmly, that without proper knowledge you might as well put a target on your back and wait for the blow. You must be prepared. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The whole class jumped as he bellowed at them.
"Now," he continued, leaning against his desk and studying them closely. Most of the Hufflepuffs were now shaking in their seats. "Who here knows what an Unforgivable Curse is?" Lizi frowned, what in the world was he talking about? Trying to be subtle she opened her book and flipped to the index.
One student tentively raised his arm, cringing as Moody called on him. "They're the curses that are forbidden to use. They get you sent to Azkaban." Lizi had no idea what Azkaban was but it sounded bad.
"Correct." The student sagged in his seat and closed his eyes. "Can anyone tell me the names of these curses?" A bit braver now two more students raised their hands.
"Yes?" Moody was looking at the girl now standing up but his fake eye was wandering around the class.
"The Imperious Curse," she said precisely, sitting down neatly in her seat. The teacher barely spared her a glance.
"Correct. And you?"
It was another boy who stood. "The Killing Curse."
"Correct again." The class began to feel better. So far so good. Except for Lizi, who still had no idea what they were talking about. The words sounded familiar but she'd never heard of "Unforgivable Curses". Still flipping through the book she didn't notice Mad-Eye focus on her.
"You, girl." Lizi froze and looked up slowly. He was staring at her. "What are you doing?"
"Looking for definitions," she said hesitantly. As she spoke his frown deepened.
"American, are ya?" he demanded. She nodded. "Must be one of those new students." She nodded again. "Never heard of the Unforgivable Curses, have you?" She shook her head. "That's because you people have to be so bloody politically correct you use different names for everything." She had nothing to say. He turned to another student.
"Last one," he demanded. The poor kid was shaking in his seat. "Come on, only one left. What is it?"
"Cru-cru-cruciatus?" he stammered. The former Auror nodded once, sharply, before turning to the board and writing the three curses on it.
"Imperious, Cruciatus, and Killing. All curses you'd best hope to never experience. But how, I ask you, are you to be prepared if you don't know what they look like? The Ministry thinks you're too delicate to hear about this but I say, and Dumbledor agrees, that you've got to know. YOU'VE GOT TO KNOW! CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The students were back to cringing in their seats. Lizi was beginning to get a bad feeling about this.
Mad-Eye turned away from the class and approached his table. When they could see what was going on he had a large spider sitting there. "Watch," he said, then turned to the spider and cried, "Imperio!" Lizi felt her jaw drop at the curse, then watched in shock as he made the spider perform various stunts around the room. She couldn't make her throat work by the time he was done, having made his point about absolute control of the spider. Then he brought it back to the table and pointed his wand at it again. Lizi knew what he was going to do but before she could do anything he'd said the second curse.
"Crucio!" The spider immediately began writhing in pain.
"Stop it!" she screamed, shooting to her feet. The rest of the class were staring in dismay at the spider and jumped sky high at her voice. "Stop it, this isn't right!" He didn't stop but he did look at her.
"Did you want something?" he asked calmly, ignoring the spider.
"Stop it! This is cruel! We believe you, just stop!" When he didn't seem interested in doing that she snatched her wand and summoned the spider. Mad-Eye broke off the spell and watched her with interest. It landed on her desk, shaking horrible still. She reduced it back to it's original size and gingerly slid it onto a piece of parchment. Without looking at the Professor she carried it to the window and let it out. Then she stormed back to her seat and stared at her quill.
"Didn't like that, did you?" Professor Moody said finally, still studying her carefully. She refused to answer. "I didn't much like that either. But you've got to know."
He stood up straight and paced in front of the class, clumping back and forth. "These curses aren't pretty, they aren't nice, and they aren't socially acceptable. But they exist, and there are people out there who would use them without much thought. If you don't know about it you could be caught off guard. It's my duty to teach you what you need, and if it isn't pretty then it isn't pretty."
"You could have shown us with video," Lizi snapped. "Projection, something other than torturing a creature right in front of us!"
"Video?" he asked, frowning in confusion.
"Yeah, I know it's a muggle device but you could try to expand your horizons and use it. It would save you some spiders."
"I'm more worried about your lives than some spiders." Without looking at her again he turned. Quickly he summoned another spider, engorged it to the proper size, and pointed his wand at it.
"No!" Lizi cried, knowing what was coming.
"Avada Kedavra!" The green light of the curse shot out and the spider died, unmarked and looking for all the world like it was sleeping. Ignoring Lizi's outburst Moody turned to the board and began giving them information until the class was over. Lizi stared at his back for a long moment before picking up her quill and copying down the information. When class was over she stalked out, refusing to speak to anyone.
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Emi and Jewl had no idea what was going on in their friend's respective classes and approached CoMC equitably. They liked Hagrid and were willing to be open. They'd never had this class presented like this before and they were actually curious.
Before the class even started they were getting an education. Slytherins and Gryffindors did not mix together in class or out of it. They were getting some odd looks but they ignored them, instead listening curiously to the odd noises just out of sight.
Later, during the lesson, they could only stare at the Blast-End Skrewts in dismay. Emi loved animals and usually had no problem with any of them, except insects. But she just couldn't quite get her mind around these creatures. Jewl had taken one look at them had agreed with Seamus that this was just not fair. (First pus then this, Goblet of Fire, pg. 196) But they were getting through it until they heard Draco Malfoy, the boy who had pinned them and insulted them just the night before. He was making some sarcastic remark about how these creatures made just wonderful pets. They were both glad when a Gryffindor they thought was named Hermione shot him down. They smirked and went back to feeding their Skrewt.
It was a surprisingly uneventful class for them. Hagrid had stopped by quickly to speak to them. Apparently he had liked the brooms in the castle bit they'd done earlier and asked how they were doing, were their classes okay, etc. He'd been shocked when they told him that they'd never had a class like this. They'd always learned about magical creatures from books. They didn't tell him that this was because most of the magical creatures in America were extinct or tightly controlled away from human populations. They were grateful to be heading for the Great Hall for lunch.
To their great surprise they walked with Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, Gryffindors one and all, and they didn't say anything mean to Emi. Of course the conversation quickly turned into Hermione, Jewl and Emi, with the guys lagging slightly behind. They split once they reached the castle to find their friends but Emi and Jewl were happy to have met one person who didn't faint at the thought of Gryffindors and Slytherins being friends.
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By mutual agreement they met at the girls bathroom closest to the Great Hall. Lizi was still furious and in shock and she got there first. She just stood there, holding her book to her chest, waiting. The other three arrived at the same time, all wondering what was wrong with Lizi.
"What happened?" Ravan asked her. Lizi was seething and she told them what Moody had done through gritted teeth. They were shocked.
"He's allowed to do that in front of students?" Emi demanded, horrified. They all knew about the curses of course but they'd never demonstrated them in school. That was akin to demonstrating the effects of shooting someone in front of a class.
"Apparently," Lizi said, shrugging. Telling them about it had helped with the anger and she was finally relaxing a bit. The others were outraged.
"We have to talk to the Headmaster about it," Ravan said. They agreed, privately deciding to write to their parents as well.
"Okay, new subject before we all exploded," Jewl said suddenly, turning them into the Great Hall. "How was your class Ravan?" Ravan immediately broke out in a bemused grin.
"You won't believe me," she warned, then launched into a description.
They ended the day with making an appointment to see Dumbledor, then headed to bed. They had to be ready for the next day, assuming they survived the night.
A/N: REEVIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!