Chapter Seven
The Christmas holidays went well overall. Blaise's parents went out for New Year's Eve celebration, so I went round to his to keep him company and make him dinner as a late Christmas present. The rest of my time off was spent with my parents and wider family. I was a bit annoyed at the time, not getting to see my friends at all apart from that one night, but in retrospect it was for the best; this was the last time I saw my family.
The night before going back to Hogwarts, my parents and I went out to eat in town at a new Indian restaurant. It was going great, lovely meal, but later that night I got a sickly feeling in my stomach and spent the night in the bathroom, throwing up.
The long journey back to school on the next day was hell. I turned up on the platform on my own as usual, sat down on my trunk and continued to feel like throwing up. I daren't open my mouth until I was safely in my room in the Slytherin common room, so I wasn't much company.
"Hey, Florence," Blaise said, upbeat, sitting down by me. He gave me a big hug, inducing the sickness feeling due to the tightness, and was confused when I didn't kiss him back, "What's up, buttercup?"
I mustered up the restraint to open my mouth and keep my belly at bay, "Feel sick. Food poisoning or something."
"Shit, Flo, I'm sorry! Are you okay? Do you want water or anything?" I shook my head, "Can I get you anything at all?" I shook my head again, "You want to just keep quiet?" I shook my head again, leaning against him as he put his arm around me. I stayed mute for the journey, just cuddled up to Blaise and staring out the window. I wasn't sick then, but as soon as we got to the dorm, I rushed straight to the loos and stayed there for a good half hour.
I had to miss the belated New Year's Eve party that was held that night, I remained bedridden instead to avoid throwing up over everyone. I expected Blaise to come and join me, give me some company as I lay in bed alone, reading, but he never showed up. Not that I'm complaining, it was a good book, I just thought he'd show up.
There was a point when I thought I heard him coming up, around half eight, "Oh finally!" I exclaimed, "I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me."
The door opened, but Blaise wasn't behind it, "How could I forget about you, Carrow?" Draco replied.
"Oh! Malfoy, I wasn't expecting you! What do you want?"
"Thanks for the warm welcome, means a lot," he smirked, "I was going to give you some company seeing as you're all on your own, but if this is the treatment I get then I'll just go."
"No! Stay. You know what I mean. Why aren't you partying?"
He sat down on my bed as I shuffled into a sitting position, "Wasn't having any fun, really. Pansy's still fragile after the break-up and I'm just not in much of a sociable mood."
"You angsty bastard. Sounds like a great time then." I replied sarcastically.
"But can we not talk about Pansy? Really not in the mood tonight."
"All I'm hearing is angst, angst, angst from you Malfoy!"
"Fuck off, Carrow; you want me to force feed you until you vom?"
"It'll be aimed at you if you dare."
We laughed. Draco and I spent the evening chatting about the holidays and all, and in the end I forgot all about the queasy feeling in my belly and the fact that Blaise hadn't shown up. He got me in my sorry state ready for bed and insisted that I try to get to sleep before the girls came up. Probably for the best, don't think it would've done me any good to have the smell of alcohol filling my nose.
I forced myself out of bed the next day, skipping breakfast to avoid the rich smells making me feel even worse. I found a big bottle of water on my bedside table as I woke, thinking that maybe Blaise had stopped by to check on me when I was asleep, and left this for whatever reason. While the other four frantically rushed around to get ready in their hung-over state, I took it slow, making sure I didn't hurry myself into an even sicklier state as I went. Nobody talked much, I guess trying to avoid headaches or whatever.
"See you in Dark Arts, Flo?" Hazel asked just as she was shutting the door behind them.
"Yeah, of course. I can't miss any school now, even Dark Arts."
"Okay, see you there!"
You might be wondering why we were going to a class on the Dark Arts and not its defence. Well, it's officially called Defence Against the Dark Arts, but the way my uncle was teaching it, it didn't feel defensive anymore. We were encouraged to practice the Unforgivable Curses, and generally spent the time duelling. Amycus even brought in Dementors and Inferi at times, which really freaked a lot of us out. I sat on my own in the few minutes before class, waiting for everyone else to filter in. Hazel sat down beside me just as Amycus came in to start.
"Good morning, class," he said sternly.
"Morning, Professor," we all mumbled in return.
"Today, we will be continuing our work on the three Unforgivable Curses, which are of course…"
"The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Killing Curse," the class mumbled back in unison, as we did every lesson he brought them up in.
"Fantastic," he sarcastically congratulated, "And before anybody brings it up again," he shot a look at Neville, "We have been given specific Ministry permission to be teaching and practicing these in Hogwarts. We are not, I repeat not, doing anything illegal that will result in anybody going to Azkaban. So you can get off your high horses and just be prepared to learn.
"So, on with the lesson. Your work last term on the Imperius Curse was… Decent. If I remember correctly, most of you managed to use and resist it with a certain degree of success. And so, for the next term, we will be moving on to study the Cruciatus Curse," I gulped, "I figured I'd just throw you all in at the deep end, probably the best way to start, so you will all be practicing this curse today."
I turned to Hazel, wide eyed and rather scared, "I don't want to do this," I whispered to her in a panic.
"Me neither!" she replied in the same fashion, "I don't want to hurt that bad or make anyone go through it!"
"Me neither!"
"Is there a problem girls?" Amycus interrupted, "Rosier? Carrow?"
"Err… No, sir," I stuttered, "W-we were just saying that… Err… That we-"
"Professor, I think it's highly unfair that you're making people to do this," Neville piped up from the back, "You can't just force people to inflict or take the Cruciatus Curse! It's immoral!"
"Longbottom, are you questioning my teaching techniques again?!"
"Yes!" he was standing up now. You've got to hand it to him, Neville's a lot braver than I remember from all those years ago, "You can't make your students harm each other! I'm pretty sure no one here will want to have the Curse done to them, so then what do you do? You've got no one to practice on!"
"Well, Longbottom, in that situation, we will use it as punishment on those who have stepped out of line; maybe someone who is being a loud-mouth know-it-all and severely pisses off his teacher every lesson? What do you say?" Neville stuttered for a while, "That's what I thought. You need to be taught a lesson, Longbottom, and I think it might be a good idea for that to happen today."
"B-but… You can't-"
"Front and centre, Longbottom."
"But-"
"FRONT AND CENTRE!" Neville conceded and approached the desk where Amycus was sitting, "Let this be a lesson to all of you to just keep your mouths shut and do as you're told.
"So, class, to finally get on with the lesson, you will all be practicing the Cruciatus Curse on Longbottom here. No ifs. No buts. No excuses. If anyone makes a fuss, they will be joining him. To cast the Curse, you must jab your wand at your victim and yell 'Crucio'. There's no defence that will work, so don't even try, Longbottom. For the Curse to really work, you've got to mean it; if your heart's not in what you're doing, you'll only inflict pain for a small amount of time.
"You'll each have five seconds of casting time on Longbottom, after which we'll give him a bit of time to rest before his next five seconds. Hopefully he won't pass out before you're all done. After this, we'll finish up with a write up of what you did. Any questions?" the room filled with silence, "Fantastic. Form an orderly queue."
We all did as he said, lining up down the centre aisle of the classroom in front of the desk that Neville was propped up against. Dean went first, apologising profusely before finally casting. Most people did this, though not usually to the lengths that Dean did, and Neville's reply was always the same: "It's fine, honestly. It's not like any of us have a choice in the matter."
Each time someone had there go, Neville was knocked back into a lying position on the desk, shaking rapidly for his five seconds of torture. He took about a minute after to muster up the courage to get up again, a duration which slowly got longer and longer as we got further and further into the lesson. It was my turn about two thirds of the way through, after which I apologised a lot and gave him some of my water, hoping it'd help. I got pushed away by Amycus, though, spraying water all over Neville and the desk.
"Did I ask you to help Longbottom?!" he asked enraged.
"No but he's suffering terribly! I can't just sit idle by and do nothing," I answered defiantly, looking angrily into his eyes. He didn't yell at me or anything, thank goodness, he just pushed to the side and called the next pupil forward. The last two before Neville could rest again were Crabbe and Goyle, and they got really into it. Out of everyone, they were the two who really got into it. I've never known why, but they've hated Neville ever since first year, and I bet they've been waiting all their Hogwarts careers to do this. Once they'd finished, Neville passed out. In all honesty, I didn't think he'd last that long at all, but Neville's strong. He didn't deserve any of this.
"Okay, let's finish off with these notes," Amycus began, pushing Neville off the desk and onto the floor, "Somebody make sure Longbottom copies up the notes when he regains consciousness. And Dean, get him up to the Hospital Wing at break, will you?" Dean nodded.
At the end of the period, Hazel and I walked out into the corridor sheepishly and stunned. Blaise was leaning against the wall when we got out, ready to give me a hug, "You okay, doll? You look paler than yesterday."
"No, no I'm not. First, thanks for the water, it's really helping," I paused to give him a kiss on the cheek, during which I heard him murmur something confusedly, "Second, we just had a lesson on the Cruciatus Curse and had to use it, too."
"Fuckin' hell is that even legal?! Did you get hurt Flo?"
"No, no I didn't get practiced on."
"Well then, who did?" Neville floated out of the classroom at that point, guided by Dean, so we gestured at him, "Longbottom?! Ha! Weakling."
"I'd like to see you last through over thirty hits of Crucio in one sitting and not pass out!"
"Whoa, easy! Why are you standing up for Longbottom?"
"Because he just had to go through more pain in a short space of timethan you're ever likely to feel in your life, and yet you think he's weak? I-"
"Anyway!" Hazel cut in, "What've you got next Flo?"
I sighed, "A free."
"Well, I've got Ruins so I'll see you at lunch if you can stomach it," she smiled at me, giving me a hug and then leaving.
"See you later, Blaise," I huffed as I made my way to the common room. I knew I had work to do, but it seemed more productive to sleep off my bad mood for a bit before starting.
