It was finally Thursday, and our first lesson with Moody was right after lunchtime. Everyone was planning to queue outside his classroom early because they wanted good seats. I would've been too, if not for the fact that I was running late. While everyone had gotten started on their Divination essay the previous night, I had instead opted to sleep. So I had to rush to get at least the first part of it done during lunchtime in the library.

I cursed loudly as the bell rang. Wonderful. The only seat available was next to Malfoy.

I quickly sat and took out my copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, setting it on my desk, dutifully ignoring his presence. Until he slipped a note under my book.

Library after dinner, 7pm.

I almost groaned, having forgotten than Snape had assigned us to be partners in Potions. If not for the fact that we had both been late for class, we wouldn't have had to sit together and have Snape partner us. I cursed my tendency to be late for everything.

I was about to reply when I heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever.

"You can put those away," he growled, limping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

Puzzled, I returned my book to my bag.

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 him.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago...Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. 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 countercurses 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, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. 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 at one time, the Imperius Curse."

He got heavily to his feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it.

Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind 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..." I flinched.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. 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.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" Hermione's hand flew up again, and, to my surprise, Neville's.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"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.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!" The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula.

Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"

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 I was sure it would have been screaming if it could. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.

"No," I whispered, aghast.

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, whose hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.

Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"Reducio," he muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"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.

"Yes?" he said, looking at her.

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

"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. He raised his wand.

"Avada Kedavra!" he 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. I whimpered, clenching my hands into fists. Several of the students stifled cries. Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." My eyes darted up instinctively to Harry. He looked uncomfortable under the weight of everyone's gazes.

"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." Could've fooled me, I thought bitterly. "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…"

Thankfully, there weren't any more demonstrations, and the rest of the class was spent on taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang—but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices—"Did you see it twitch?" "—and when he killed it—just like that!" I felt much better after class ended, when there wasn't the immediate threat of being terrified by Moody's erratic behavior. But I didn't think it was going to be my favorite class.

Hermione ate quickly at dinner, before leaving for the library again. I excused myself a little while later, remembering my appointment with Malfoy.

Shouldering my satchel stuffed full with homework, I hurried to the library.

The library was big, but I still thought it was unusual how I couldn't seem to find Hermione anywhere. Her visits to the library usually included roaming around the whole place, inspecting shelves at random for interesting books, then returning to a table when her arms couldn't hold anymore books. Oh well. Perhaps she didn't stay long today.

I settled myself comfortably at an empty desk, pulling out a blank piece of parchment and my Magical Drafts and Potions book.

"Selwyn," a voice drawled from above me. "You're late."

"Hello, to you too, partner," I rolled my eyes. "By ten minutes. I'm afraid not all of us are pasty-faced vampires who don't have to eat. By the way, I'm sure Parkinson will be more than willing to offer her blood to you. But obviously, you know that." I flashed him a cheeky grin.

"Bugger off," Malfoy glowered at me.

"Can't, unfortunately," I sighed. "But since we're stuck with each other, I thought I'd might as well make your time with me miserable." He glared, before sitting in the seat across from mine.

"Let's just get this over with," he growled.

Surprisingly, studying with Malfoy wasn't too bad. I had expected him to be slacking off and making me do all the work. But he was actually actively contributing to our project.

Someone was shaking my shoulder insistently.

"Ms. Selwyn!"

"Huh?" I peeled my face off my textbook and looked up blearily. Madam Pince, the Hogwarts librarian, was staring concernedly at me.

"You both fell asleep, dear," she shook her head disapprovingly. "You should pack up, curfew's in half an hour." I raised a questioning brow. Merlin, had we been working that long?

My eyes flicked across the table. Malfoy was asleep, head atop his folded arms. His pointed features didn't look as sharp as when he was awake, sneering at everyone who displeased him. He looked peaceful, unguarded. Well, well. If he could ever bring himself to look this way when while awake, maybe he did still have a soul.

"Malfoy," I reached across the table to poke him. "Malfoy." He groaned softly, refusing to stir. "Wake up," I hissed.

He mumbled something under his breath, then grabbed my hand from his shoulder. I froze. Even asleep, his grip was surprisingly strong. I yanked my hand out of his and smacked his head lightly.

His head jerked up abruptly, eyes darting around in confusion before settling on me.

"What time is it?" Even the ice-cold side of my heart I usually saved for gits like Malfoy couldn't help but melt a little at the sound of his voice, husky from sleep. Oh, snap out of it, I told myself, appalled. Stupid teenage hormones.

"Thirty minutes to 10," I said, shoving my things into my satchel. Thank Merlin we had, at least, finished our project.

Just as we parted ways at the staircase, Malfoy gave me a look I couldn't quite fathom.

"See you, Selwyn."

My lips curled up in a slight smile.

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

Well, he certainly seemed more agreeable after a nap. Not unlike a baby. I snorted to myself, yawning tiredly, as I finally snuggled into the covers of my bed.


i feel like the last part was rushed.

so i've been editing bits here and there the past few days, not much though. but i think i might need an editor, or...beta reader, is it? i think i'll do that, as soon as i'm free enough to stalk the beta readers.

OMG I WATCHED DOCTOR STRANGE LAST WEEKEND AND IT. WAS. FANTASTIC. CUMBERBATCH IS BAE ABSOLUTUS, I SWEAR. ALSO I'M SUPER PUMPED FOR INFINITY WAR ASDFSQHKVFDI

AAAAAND in other news...

LokeLeo i think you might be my new fav person on FF. thanks SO MUCH for your support, and i'm glad you like it! i was worried that their conflicting feelings might be too complicated to work, but hey, if someone thinks it's believable... :D

okay end of author's note. thanks y'all for reading, and have a great day, alright?

catastropherika xo