The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention

"Uzumaki, stay after class if finished I need a word with you." Snape said as he walked past the blond table where he and Hermione were partnered together. Naruto only nodded as his head of house walked away.

"Relax Hermione." Naruto said as he saw the worried look on his friend's face. "It's probably nothing." After the lesson and having finished putting his things away Naruto walked over to the front of the classroom and stood Infront of Snape's desk.

"It has come to my attention that several ingredients have gone missing form the potions stores over the summer holiday." Snape said as he looked down as Naruto. "You wouldn't have anything to do with this would you." Whatever excuse Snape was expecting to hear, the truth was never something he expected.

"Oh, yeah that was me I needed some things over the summer, so I helped myself." Naruto said it took Snape a moment to gather himself.

"And what make you think you can just walk in here and take what you want." Snape said angrily cl

"Well its was summer so school out, so I wasn't breaking any rules when I took the ingredients." Naruto said in a matter of fact tone. Snape was silently fuming at his response

"Get out." Snape finally said, "Get out of my sight." Naruto didn't need telling twice and he quickly exited the potions classroom and made his way up to the Great Hall. After lunch Naruto and the rest of the Gryffindors hurried to their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. They hurried into three chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them." They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures — you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?" There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal

with Dark —"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out. Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive,

"Special favor to Dumbledore. . . . One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.

"So . . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one. . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble. Then Moody reached into his desk and pulled out a jar of spiders. Taking one in his hand as he pulled out his wand

"imperio." Moody called out The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of itshind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. Everyone was laughing — everyone except Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" The laughter died away almost instantly. "Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over.

"I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats . . ." "The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" Moody asked as he looked around the room.

"There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

"Crucio." Called out Mood as he pointed at another spider. At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently —

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly and looking around Naruto looked around and saw that it was Neville and not the spider she was talking about. Neville hand her clenched upon the desk in front of him his knuckles white his eyes wide and horrified.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. . . . That one was very popular once too. "Right anyone know any others?" Hermione's hand shook slightly as for the third time she raised it into the air.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered. Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra . . . the Killing Curse." He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface. Moody raised his wand, and Naruto felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air — instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." Naruto looked over at Harry just like the rest of the class. "That must have been what killed his parents." Naruto thought to himself.

"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.

"Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again.

"Now . . . those three curses — Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus — are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills . . . copy this down. . . ."

They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang. As everyone left the lesson they were all discussing the curses, but Hermione had hurried them along so that they could catch up with Neville Longbottom. Neville seemed to be really bothered by the lesson Naruto thought, but before they could talk more Professor Moody walked up behind them

"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on . . . we can have a cup of tea. . . ." Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry.

"You all right, are you, Potter?"

"Yes," said Harry, almost defiantly. Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said,

"You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe but you've got to know. No point pretending . . . well . . . come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."

""Some lesson, though, eh?" said Ron to Harry as they set off for the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right —"

"Ron." Naruto said as he pointed out the look on Harry's face Ron fell suddenly silent and didn't speak again until they reached the Great Hall, At dinner they when the separate ways and Naruto headed over to the Slytherin table.

"Hey Pansy, Millicent, Daphne." Naruto said as she sat down and greeted the three girls.

"Hello Naruto, how was your day." asked Pansy

"Not to bad Had my first class with Moody today." Naruto told the as he stated to serve himself food

"Really how was it." asked Millicent excitedly. "Is he any good."

"Oh, it's interesting." Naruto told them and then he went into detail about his first class with Moody.

"He just cast the Unforgivables, right in the middle of the classroom." Daphne said surprised

"Yeah he said Dumbledore was okay with it." Naruto told them this caused the Slytherins who were now listening in to the conversation take a second look at the old headmaster. After Dinner Naruto went back to his common room found an empty table and taking out his copy of Unfogging the Future and stated to get to work on his homework. After an hour Naruto had finished his work he decided to go to his dorm and get ready for bed. he was the only one in the room which was a good thing because atop his bed was a letter, walking over and opening it up Naruto saw that it was from Sirius.

Naruto-

I'm Flying north immediately. They're saying Dumbledore has Mad-eye out of retirement, and with the news about Harry's scar. Keep your eyes open and on Harry I'll be in touch soon. I'm making my way from Albania

Sirius.

"Looks like things are about to get a more interesting around here." Naruto said to himself. for a long time Naruto lay staring up at the dark canopy of his bed, the dormitory was completely silent. As he went over the mental check list of all the spells and curses he had mastered and the different situations in which he would need them.

"I should write Sirius tomorrow." Naruto finally told himself as he drifted off to sleep.