Disclaimer: The characters of Harry Potter are the property of JK Rowling, Scholastic/Bloomsbury and Warner Bros. I'm just borrowing them for the time being and hopefully when I'm done they aren't too messed up.

Thursday couldn't come quick enough for the fourth year Gryffindors, Ron constantly moaned and groaned, as time seemed to crawl by. However, Thursday afternoon finally came around and found Harry, Ron and Hermione all queued up outside the Defense classroom along with the rest of their classmates. The bell rang and the door opened causing a scrum to form as they all stormed the door to get the best seats. Harry, Ron and Hermione were able to get through and get seats right at the front of the classroom.

Moody's clunking walk preceded him as the bell rang signaling the start of class. He stumped up to the desk and pulled out a roster and began reading off it, his electric blue eye swiveling to each face to match the name.

"So I got a letter from Professor Lupin about this class," Moody growled. "He said that you all have a pretty good grasp of Dark creatures…but you're sorely lacking in curses. And that's what we'll be working on this year, what wizards can do to each other. Now who can tell me what the most heavily prosecuted curses known to wizards?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air, and Moody nodded at her. "The Unforgivable Curses," she answered instantly.

"Right, now how many Unforgivables are there?" Moody asked. Once again, Hermione's hand was first into the air.

"Three, sir."

"Correct. Three Unforgivables curses," Moody growled. "And they are named because the use of any one of them on a fellow human will earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban."

After a moments pause, "Now who can tell me the name of one of the curses?"

Several hands went up, including Ron's, Hermione's, Malfoy's and surprisingly Neville's. Moody gazed at Neville but pointed at Malfoy.

"The Imperius Curse," Malfoy said smugly.

"Right, you would know that one Mr. Malfoy," Moody growled. "A while ago, that curse was very popular with You-Know-Who's crowd. Many people said that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding because they were under the Imperius Curse. But how do we sort out the liars?" he finished, his magical eye fixed on Malfoy.

Moody reached under his desk and pulled out a jar of spiders. Ron shuddered. Moody unscrewed the jar and pulled out one of the spiders, pointed his want at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from his hand, held only by a thin piece of silk. The spider fell to the desk and began running around, in what was unmistakably a tap-dance. The class erupted into laughter, except for Harry and Neville.

"Funny is it?" Moody roared. "What if I had done that to you! Complete control, that's what the Imperious Curse provides."

The room fell silent. "Now the Imperious Curse can be fought and I'll be teaching how to, but it takes real force of will and character, not everyone will be able to do it," Moody said. He lifted the curse and placed the spider back in the jar before selecting another.

"Who can tell me another one?" Moody barked. Once again, Hermione's hand shot into the air, followed hesitantly but Neville's. And that was whom Moody called on.

"The Cruciatus Curse," Neville stammered. Moody looked like he was leering as he pointed his wand at the spider and said, "Cruico!"

A jet of blood red light flew from Moody's wand, engulfing the spider. The spider rolled onto its back and started twitching frantically. Its legs began curling in towards its body and Harry was sure if the spider had a voice, it would be screaming at the top of its lungs.

"Stop it," Hermione cried. Harry tore his gaze from the spider to her. But she was watching Neville, who was watching the spider with a terrified look, his hands balled in shaking fists that were trembling. Then it hit Harry.

Flashback:

"Hey Sirius, who are all these people with you, Moony, Mum and Dad?" Harry asked, holding up a battered old photo.

"Where did you find that?" Sirius asked.

"Up in the attic, so what's with it?"

"That's a photo of the Original Order of the Phoenix," Lupin answered.

"Order of the what?"

"It's a secret society that Dumbledore created to fight Voldemort during the last war," Sirius said.

"So Mum and Dad were part of it?" Harry asked, looking down at the photo.

"Yes they were, same as Lupin and me."

"Who are these people, they look familiar," Harry asked, pointing at a round-faced, brown-haired man with his arm around the shoulders of a kind-faced, brown-haired woman. The couple was standing near James and Lily.

"Those are Frank and Alice Long…Longbottom," Lupin said thickly. Sirius had watery eyes.

"Neville's parents? What happened to them?"

"The Death Eaters caught up with them about a year after your parents died," Lupin said with a shadow of the wolf flitting across his face.

"So they're dead?"

"No, worse," Sirius growled. Harry looked stunned. "They were both Aurors, and my cousin Bellatrix, her husband Roldolphous, his brother Rabastan and Barty Crouch Jr. tortured them using the Cruciatus Curse until they lost their minds. They're in St. Mungo's as we speak."

"Neville never said anything," Harry said, feeling sick to his stomach. He knew the feeling of losing his parents, but to have lost them but they weren't dead had to be a thousand times worse.

"I always wondered about Neville," Lupin said. "He just seemed so lost and clumsy. Frank and Alice were two of the best and brightest, could have given James and Lily a run for their money. I can't believe their son would be like that."

"He's got a really bad memory problem," Harry said. "Neville's smart but he's just nervous and forgets things.

Sirius and Lupin exchanged a look. "I wonder if someone put a Memory Charm on Neville," Sirius said. "But it was too strong or it went wrong, so it messed up his total memory."

"That's possible," Lupin said. "It would have to be really traumatic for someone to perform it on a child."

"Like seeing his parents being tortured," Harry said softly. Sirius and Lupin nodded. "What would happen if we were able to take the Memory Charm off?"

"No one knows for sure? Memory Charms are some of the trickiest magic known to our world," Lupin mused, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "You don't know how it exactly works."

"And also, would Neville be able to handle it," Sirius said. "Being able to remember something like that could be worse."

"First things first, we need to know for sure if Neville had a Memory Charm performed on him," Lupin said. "And we should talk with Neville's grandmother about this."

"Harry…Harry, are you all right?" Hermione's voice came from a long way away. With a tremendous effort, Harry pulled himself back to the present. And he saw that his sojourn into his memories had not gone unnoticed. The entire class and Moody were staring at him.

Shaking his head, Harry turned to Hermione and gave her his best lopsided grin, even though he could tell that she didn't believe it, "I'm fine, Hermione."

Hermione nodded but gave him a look that told him that she wasn't dropping the matter.

"All right, can anyone tell me the name of the final Unforgivable?" Moody asked. No one raised their hand, even Hermione, who looked like she was fighting the deeply ingrained need to answer questions. "Anyone…perhaps Miss Granger?"

Hermione shook her head; Harry could see tears welling up in her eyes.

"I see," Moody growled. He stumped over to the desk and pulled out a third spider and placed it on the desk. As Moody raised his wand, Harry felt a cold wind wash over him, like the Muggles would say, 'someone was walking over your grave.'

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared. A jet of green light flew out of his wand, a rushing sound filled Harry's ears. In a bright flash of light, the spider rolled onto its back, unmistakably dead.

"The Killing Curse, not nice," Moody said, brushing the spider off his desk. "Now the Killing Curse can't be blocked, only one person has been known to survive it and he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry glared up at Moody, who looked like he was waiting for Harry to do something. But Harry just contented himself with staring at the Professor.

"The Killing Curse requires quite a bit of magic behind it," Moody said, turning back to the class. "I doubt that if you all stood up and said the words, I'd get much more than a nose bleed. Now why aren't you writing this door?"

"I can't believe he performed those spells in front of the class, especially you Harry," Hermione fumed as they walked back to the Gryffindor common room.

"I'm fine Hermione," Harry said firmly.

"Then what was that when Moody performed the Cruciatus curse on that spider," Hermione pressed.

"I was remembering something that Sirius and Lupin had told me," Harry said.

"What was that?" Ron asked.

"Its not my secret to give," Harry provided simply. Hermione nodded yet Ron persisted.

"Oh come on Harry, you can tell us," Ron said.

"Ron, I can't and won't."

Ron made to continue but the look on Harry's face brokered no argument.

"Anyway, I'm surprised that Moody would show those curses in the classroom," Hermione said. "Won't he and Dumbledore get in trouble form the Ministry?"

"I doubt it," Ron answered. "Moody has gotten in loads of trouble with the Ministry and Dumbledore always does his own thing, look at hiring Lupin and Hagrid last year."

After dinner, Harry went to the Owlery with a sheet of parchment. Right after the Defense lesson, Harry had decided to write to Sirius and Lupin about Moody and Neville. Sitting down at a desk in the circular tower, with Hedwig perched on the chair at his shoulder.

'Padfoot, and Moony,

How's everything going? Everything is fine up here. Did you know that Dumbledore had hired Mad-Eye as the new Defense professor? I'm asking because today during our first class he showed us the Unforgivables, performing them on spiders. Neville seemed really freaked out about it. If I remember correctly Moody never used the Unforgivables when he was an Auror during the last war, even against the Death Nibblers. So why would he perform them in front of kids. Telling us about them, fine but actually showing us gave me a weird feeling.

Harry'

"Here you go Hedwig," Harry said, curling up the letter. She gave him a soft hoot as he tied the letter to her leg. Spreading her large wings, Hedwig soared out the open window. Harry watched her disappear into the rapidly darkening sky before turning back to the castle.

Hedwig didn't return the next day or even in the next week. Harry took special care to watch Neville during their Defense lessons. The entire Tournament business had been pushed from his mind, as in early October Moody announced that he would be casting the Imperius Curse on each of them.

"But it's illegal," Hermione protested.

"Your enemies aren't going to care," Moody barked. "They're not going to stop and ask you if you're felt it beforehand. But if you don't want too, you're excused, there's the door."

Hermione went pink and muttered something. Harry and Ron knew that Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson, but Harry was still shocked that Moody would actually perform the curse on them.

Moody lined them up and began putting them under the curse one at a time. Dean did some amazing gymnastics; Neville imitated a squirrel while singing the national anthem.

Harry stepped forward and had to force himself to not draw his wand when Moody turned his on Harry.

"Imperio!" Moody growled before Harry's mind was wiped clear, as if a giant eraser wiping a blackboard. A blissful sense of peace fell over Harry, he was dimly aware of the other people in the room.

"Jump on the desk," Moody's voice echoed in Harry's mind. Harry bent his knees obediently. "Go on jump."

"Why?" a second voice echoed. This one was vaguely familiar but Harry couldn't place it.

Moody's voice growled louder, "Jump on the desk, NOW!"

"Nope, don't feel like it," the second voice said evenly but with a steel of command. Shaking his head, Harry blinked rapidly and the blissful feeling was burned away as awareness flooded back. Standing up, Harry turned to Moody, who was smiling or at least what passed as a smile for Moody.

"There you go," he growled. "Potter beat it, extraordinary they'll have a hard time controlling you."

Turning back to the class, Moody said, "It's all in the eyes that's how you know. Also the stronger the wizard, the stronger the curse."

The bell rang and they filed out of the room. They had just settled in for dinner when a loud hoot came from above them. Harry looked up and saw Hedwig spiraling down to him.

"You've got my reply, huh girl?" Harry said happily.

"What reply?" Hermione asked. Harry untied the parchment from Hedwig's leg and let her drink from his goblet of pumpkin juice and some scraps of his food.

"I sent a letter to Sirius and Moony a week ago," Harry answered.

"What about?" Ron asked, entering the conversation.

"Just wondering if they know that Moody was going to be teaching this year, since Moody was they're Auror trainer when they were in the Academy."

Well open it," Hermione said excitedly.

Harry paused. He didn't know what Sirius or Moony had written. 'What if he had said stuff about Neville's parents,' Harry thought. 'Ron will probably go right to Neville and blab, Hermione would probably have more tact but eventually her curiosity would win out.'

"Come on Harry, open it," Ron said.

"It's all right, I can wait until after dinner," Harry said, stowing the letter in his pocket. Ron and Hermione frowned at him but acquiesced. Ron was much easier to convince than Hermione. Harry knew that he had to read the letter before he showed it to the others.

"I'll meet you guys in the common room, I want to ask Professor…Flitwick something about our essay on the Summoning Charm," Harry said, as they left the Great Hall. Ron shrugged but Hermione narrowed her eyes at him. "Relax Hermione, I'll be up in a few minutes."

Hermione bit his lip but nodded. Harry waited until they had disappeared up the marble staircase before slipping into an empty classroom. He lit his wand and pulled out the letter.

'Harry,

First off neither Moony nor I knew that Moody was to become the new Defense teacher. Dumbledore was playing it extremely close to the vest. And Moody was the best Auror the Ministry ever had, even if he is a bit crazy. As for doing the Unforgivables, you were right. Moody never did any of them so showing them is very interesting but Dumbledore and Moody know what they're doing. And I'm sure that Neville, and you, probably didn't appreciate the lesson. Moony was shocked when he read your letter but he thinks that it's nothing to really worry about.

As for Neville's reaction, I would just be a friend to him. We've talked to Dumbledore about our conversation over the summer and he thinks there's something to it. But there's nothing he can really do because he thinks that removing the Charm could bring more harm than good.

Keep me updated, I want to hear about anything odd.

Sirius'

Harry frowned at the letter. 'Why would Moody actually perform them in front of us if he's never used them in the field,' Harry thought. 'Maybe we should include Neville more, I could partner with him when we start spell work. Ron can work with Hermione, though she might not like the arrangement that much.'

A clock rang outside the classroom, Harry cursed and swept out of the room, stuffing the letter into his pocket.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked.

"Balderdash," Harry wheezed, clutching his chest. The portrait hole swung open and Harry clambered inside.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked when Harry entered the common room. She and Ron were at the trio's favorite table, poring over Snape's latest tear of homework, which was mainly directed at the Gryffindors.

"I told you, I went to talk with Professor McGonagall…"

"I thought you were going to Flitwick," Hermione said softly. Harry's eyes widened, realizing his mistake. "Harry…"

"Relax Hermione, I ran into McGonagall as I was coming back," Harry said, not meeting her eyes. He never could lie to Hermione.

"Look at me Harry," Hermione said sternly. Harry slowly raised his gaze to meet her's, chocolate met emerald. "Now where were you?" she asked.

"I wanted to read the letter by myself first, there's something I needed to make sure that was or not in the letter," Harry said.

"What are you talking about?" Ron asked.

"I asked Sirius about our first Defense lesson, how Moody show us the Unforgivables," Harry said. "He and Remus knew Moody from the first War and they said that he never used the Unforgivables, even the against Death Eaters."

"But they why…" Hermione began.

"That's what I thought," Harry interrupted. "It could be nothing but I think we need to keep our eyes open this year. I've got a bad feeling about Moody, though I could just be paranoid. But I don't think so, since with my history I'd rather be prepared."

"Can't we just have a quiet year at Hogwarts?" Ron said. Harry and Hermione looked at one another for a second then they both burst out laughing, Ron joined them a minute later.

"With me, I doubt that'll ever happen," Harry said once the laughter had died down.

"What's going on?" a voice came from the staircase. They turned to see Neville standing at the foot of the stairs.

"Nothing Neville, just trying to keep sane with all this homework," Harry said.

"Yeah, it's been unbelievable," Neville said. "I just can't wrap my head around Moody's essay."

"Why don't you come sit with us, I think we're going to work on it," Harry suggested, casting a suggestive look at Ron and Hermione. Hermione cottoned on immediately and pulled out her Defense essay, Ron shrugged.

"Anything to get away from Potions," he grumbled. Neville looked surprised but walked over to the table and sat down. Harry caught Hermione's eye and silenced her with an 'tell you later' look, to which she nodded.

"Man, I'm beat, I think I'll turn in," Ron yawned. Neville also looked beat. The two trudged up the staircase, disappearing into the dormitory. Hermione turned to Harry.

"Ok Harry spill, what was that about?" she asked.

"I just though that Neville needed some help, especially after the first Defense lesson," he answered easily. Hermione nodded.

"That was sweet Harry," she said. Harry blushed. "But I wonder why he reacted like that?"

"Don't know but can we just drop it," Harry said evasively. A look of hurt flashed across her face but she nodded. "I'll see you in the morning."

Harry gathered his things and headed toward the stairs, he missed the soft smile that spread across Hermione's face.

Neville continued to join the trio when they studied, always at Harry's insistence, as October flew by. Harry also paired with Neville during Defense lessons when they started spell practice. As a result, Harry noticed that Neville seemed to be carrying himself with a quiet confidence that had only appeared during Herbology, which was Neville's favorite subject.

Suddenly it was October 30th and the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students would be arriving that evening. But all that Harry cared about is the fact that lessons would be cut short so everyone would have time to get ready to welcome their guests. After lessons, Harry trudged up to the Gryffindor common room with the others to stow his bag. They returned to the Great Hall where Professor McGonagall was busy sorting her house into rows. The students and professors walked out of the castle and onto the lawn.

"How do you think they'll get here?" Harry asked.

"I don't know, maybe the train?" Hermione suggested.

"Or maybe where they're from they can Apparate," Ron said.

"You can't Apparate inside Hogwarts Ron, how many times have I told you this?" Hermione snapped.

"All right Hermione, calm down," Ron said. "Just throwing out some ideas."

Harry rolled his eyes at their antics but didn't comment. He had had too much experience dealing with a squabbling Ron and Hermione, he had played middleman too much for his liking. Just then came a cry from some of the first years. Harry whipped his head around, scanning the sky. Then he saw, there was a dark mass speeding toward them low over the treetops of the Forbidden Forest.

"What's that?" Ron asked.

"It looks like a house or something," Harry frowned. Just then the mass turned and Harry saw, silhouetted against the setting sun, several flying horses pulling an enormous carriage. The horses were pure white, almost gleaming like ghosts against the rapidly darkening sky; they were also the size of elephants. The carriage they were pulling was the size of a small house, pale blue with some sort of coat of arms. Harry couldn't make it out before the carriage came to a stop and the door opened.

A handsome, olive skinned woman stepped out, Harry's mouth dropped. If the horses were huge, it was nothing compared to the woman. Harry's eyes flicked to Hagrid and back to the new arrival, he thought that there wouldn't be an inch in height difference. The sound of clapping broke everyone out of his or her reverie. It was Dumbledore, soon everyone joined in, even if it was only a couple of claps.

"Madam Maxine, welcome to Hogwarts," Dumbledore said, his arms spread in welcome.

"Dumbledore," Maxine said thickly, striding forward. Dumbledore kissed her outstretched hand, barely having to bow even though he was tall himself; in fact only Hagrid was taller than the Headmaster.

"Would you like to stay her, Karkaroff should be arriving momentarily, or would you wish to enter the castle?" Dumbledore said.

"I think I would like to warm up," Maxine responded, pulling her cloak tighter around her. "My charges," she continued gesturing to the carriage, where a group of twenty or so students had assembled at the base of. The students were wearing pale blue cloaks, same color as the carriage, which they were clutching tightly to themselves. At Maxine's gesture, they filed into two lines and marched smartly behind their headmistress.

Just as the Beauxbaton students disappeared into the school, Harry heard a loud sucking sound, almost as if someone had opened a drain. Turning to the lake, Harry saw a whirlpool blossom in the middle and a large ship burst out. The lights coming from the portholes gave the ship a skeletal appearance. The ship glided into the shadows and Harry saw people disembark.

"Albus," a curt voice called out from the head of the students.

"Igor," Dumbledore answered as he shook hands with a dark haired, sallow skinned man with rather yellow teeth. Harry recognized him as Igor Karkaroff, a Death Eater who had been caught by the Ministry, but was released when he gave names. The Durmstrang group passed them and in the light of the open oak doors, Harry saw a familiar profile of a wizard with thick eyebrows and a curved nose.

"Harry's its Krum," Ron hissed.