The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy; heavy clouds of pewter grey swirled overhead as everyone decided what they were going to do over breakfast. Schedules of events being hosted through the week had been delivered to everyone's rooms which offered anything from flying lessons to magic demonstrations and the much anticipated lessons from Moody.
"I can't imagine what he could be planning to show us" Finn said, he, the other Storm Hawks and Starling having decided to attend his class today.
"Whatever it is, it'll be something to use in combat no doubt, Moody was always about being constantly on guard" Ace replied.
"So looking like he's going to be attacked at any moment is normal for him then?" Piper asked, glancing over at the former Sky Knight, who was just taking another swig from his hip flask.
"Guess so" Aerrow replied, rather hoping he didn't end up like Moody, missing limbs and paranoid, when he retired.
After breakfast the Storm Hawks and Starling had travelled up to the third floor where they saw a group of both squadrons and students waiting outside a door at the top of a spiralling staircase off one of the corridors, including the Diggorys and, much less welcoming, Draco and his two bodyguards, Crabbe and Goyle, who do no more than glare among the crowd of Sky Knights and squadrons.
"Hey guys, you here for Moody's thing too?" Cedric asked them cheerfully as they joined the group.
"Well, aside from flying there's not much else we can do, though Aerrow's the exception of course" Starling said, smiling as Aerrow waved it off.
"Oh yeah I heard about that, well I suppose congratulations are in order" Cedric said jokingly, having heard about Aerrow's new abilities that morning.
"Barely had a day, can't do anything yet" Aerrow shrugged off just as they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor.
Sitting at rows of desks big enough for two in a large heavily wooded panelled room, which had wide arched widows running along the walls, they faced Moody, who looked as strange and as frightful as ever, his booted, metal foot could be seen protruding from underneath his robes.
"Most of you are in the line of work I was for over forty years, and whilst you might think you've seen everything, trust me there are much worse things you can face, some things which I can teach you to defend yourselves against" He growled at the Sky Knights and squadrons present. " Whilst the rest of you are here to get a taste of what we go up against and, if your lucky you'll learn something too" He added in the student's direction. No one said a word so he carried on. "I'm talking about curses, favourite tool of dark sorcerers not unlike the ones who attacked the Quiddich World Cup" He said, causing a few whispers, the world cup still being a hot topic. "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 counters and blocks to them and leave it at that and that I'm not supposed to show you what illegal dark curses look like as they are considered illegal to perform," He said, almost sounding annoyed by this decision. "But Dumbledore's managed to twist their arm for today, and, as I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better because how are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen?" He said, smiling at his own joke. "Someone like, the late Master Cyclonis or a Death Eater who are about to put an illegal curse on you aren't going to tell you what they're about to do, they're not going to do it nice and polite to your face, you need to be prepared, you need to be alert and watchful" He said, a few whispers and surprised looks being raised at his boldness. "So, do any of you know which three curses are most heavily punished by the law?" He asked almost in a whisper. Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Cedric's and Draco's. Moody pointed at Cedric.
"My dad told me about one, I think its called the Imperius Curse, or something?" He guessed.
"Ah, yes," Said Moody appreciatively. "Amos's boy right, yes, your father would know that one, gave the both the Ministry and Council a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse" He said before going over to the desk behind him and opened one of it's drawers, taking out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Out of the corner of his eye Aerrow saw Finn recoil slightly – Finn had a fear of spiders, though he thankfully didn't encounter them in the airborne Condor. 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. "Imperio" He muttered. 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 back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. A few people had started laughing at this, mostly the students and a few of the squadron members, who did not yet have the feeling that it was a serious lesson. Some of the watching group, however, including Moody remained deadly serious whilst the rest watched in curiosity and suspicion. Ace, Aerrow, who was sitting next to him, noticed had quickly become rather tense.
"You ok?" He whispered. Ace took a moment before replying.
"I think, that's the curse Cyclonis used on, me" He whispered back, not taking his eyes off the acrobatic spider, as Aerrow nodded in understanding, knowing that the two years Ace spend under Cyclonis's control, when he had been forced to kill his own squadron and brother, was still a very painful and no doubt guilt ridden subject.
"Think it's funny, do you?" Moody growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" He asked. 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..." He said, Finn giving an involuntary shudder. "Years back, when Master Cyclonis had her first rise to power, there were a lot of people being controlled by the Imperius Curse," He said. "Some job for the Ministry and Council, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will" He added, Aerrow's mind instantly flashing back to what Ace had said about Lucius, that how many considered his forced service to Cyclonis to have actually been wilful. "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" He said with a chuckle as he picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "But first the other two curses, anyone?" He asked the group. Again quite a few hands rose including, to the other Storm Hawk's surprise, Stork's as well. "Yes?" Moody said, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Stork.
"There's one, the Cruciatus Curse," Stork said in a small but distinct voice. Moody looked very intently at Stork for a moment, this time with both eyes before looking back to the crowd. 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," He said. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," He added, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio" He muttered. The spider swelled. It was now easily bigger than Moody's palm. Abandoning all pretence, Finn pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider. "Crucio" He said. At once, the spider's legs bent in upon it's body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Aerrow 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!" Piper suddenly said shrilly. Aerrow looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but next to her at Stork, and Aerrow, following her gaze, saw that Stork's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles a paler green than the rest of his hands from the tension in them, his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"Reducio," Moody 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 any other torture methods if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse, that one was very popular once too. He said seriously, but the growl had gone from his voice. "Right...anyone know any others?" He asked. Aerrow looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. A teenage girl, one of the Hogwarts students, slowly raised her slightly shaking hand. "Yes?" Moody said, looking at her.
"Avada Kedavra," The girl whispered. Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Cedric.
"Ah," Moody said, a slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse." He said. 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 Aerrow 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. Several of the crowd stifled cries; Finn 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 counter-curse, there's no blocking it" He added solemnly. "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 person being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban" He warned, everyone looking extremely grim.
Azkaban was Atmos's most secure and more feared prison, home to it's worst criminals which included many of Cyclonis's old followers. Located on it's own Terra in the middle of very remote and stormy skies, it was a place not many wished to venture, even the name of the fortress itself was enough to scare people out of committing crimes. "That's what you're up against, that's what I'm going to teach you to fight," Moody told them all. "Because whilst the last to curses cannot be blocked, the Imperius Curse can be, so, who wants to see if they can hold it off?" He offered. "Don't worry, Dumbledore's got permission for it" He quickly added, seeing some people's shocked faces at the idea of the curse being performed on them. After a moment the sound of chair legs scraping on the wooden floor made everyone look back to see a Sky Knight, that Aerrow recognised but could not name, a boy in his late teens with sandy hair, stand up. Moody beckoned him to the front. "Ready?" He said. The Sky Knight nodded and readied himself. "Imperio" Moody muttered, pointing his wand at him.
At first it looked as if nothing had happened as the Sky Knight had not moved or done anything he hadn't been doing a second ago. "Let's see now, why don't you...?" Moody said, considering. "Do a back flip?" He asked the Sky Knight, who immediately respond with an impressive flip. "Now hop on the spot" Moody told him. Again the Sky Knight obliged. "See, total control" Moody said, waving his wand as the Sky Knight suddenly looked dazed and unbalanced for a moment before he blinked rapidly and looked around, obviously confused and with no memory of what just happened.
After he had taken his seat again, Moody had called the girl, who had named the Killing Curse beforehand, and placed the Imperious Curse on her and watched as she imitated a squirrel, Aerrow, with much annoyance, noticed that Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had looked amused at this. "No one able to fight it off?" Moody asked. "We've got time for one more attempt" He said, looking around the room for a volunteer. Then his eyes, both his normal and magical one, fell on Aerrow.
"You, your the one who took down Master Cyclonis aren't you?" He asked, walking over and standing in front of him. "How about you try and ward off one of her favoured attacks" He said, almost challenging. Aerrow, now aware of every eye in the room upon him, thought for a moment. Moody wanted someone to beat the curse and, whilst he wouldn't likely succeed, images of Ace's and Stork's obvious discomforts at seeing the curses, topped with Draco's smirk at watching someone not being able to throw one off, had made him determined to try.
"Sure" He replied calmly as he stood up and headed over to where Moody was stood. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at him.
"Imperio" He muttered. It was the most peculiar and wonderful feeling. Aerrow felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him. And then he heard Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Jump onto the desk...jump onto the desk... Aerrow bent his knees obediently, preparing to spring. Jump onto the desk... Moody was actually saying this out loud so the crowd could see. "Jump on the desk" He ordered Aerrow, who, from the crowd's perspective was taking a lot longer to do as he was told. Then Aerrow seemed to wince as if he had a headache, his knees were slowly beginning to straighten again. Aerrow himself, however, was unaware of this but was aware of of another voice awakening in the back of his brain, Why, though? It asked, stupid thing to do, really, it added. Jump onto the desk... The first voice ordered. No, I don't think I will, thanks, said the other voice, a little more firmly...no, I don't really want to... The other voice said. Jump! Now! The first voice suddenly shouted. The next thing Aerrow felt was considerable pain. He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping - the result was that he'd smashed headlong into the desk knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps. "Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, and suddenly, Aerrow felt the empty, echoing feeling in his head disappear. He remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in his knees seemed to double. "Look at that, you lot, he fought, he fought it, and he damn near beat it!" He chuckled. "Very good, very good indeed, they'll have trouble controlling you!" He told Aerrow as he helped him to his feet.
The lesson had ended soon after and whilst most left in a torrent of discussions on the lesson, some including the Storm Hawks and Starling were much more subdued. "Where's Stork?" Aerrow, who had hobbled out of the room, his only consolation for his pain being nearly everyone congratulating him on resisting the curse for so long and that Moody had to shout his orders before he had moved, asked, concerned by the Merb's earlier unexplained reaction to the Cruciatus Curse.
"I don't know, he left very quickly" Piper said, also sounding concerned as they started heading down the stairs.
They found Stork standing halfway down the staircase, waiting for them but staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
"Stork?" Aerrow asked, limping down the stairs so he was more level with him. Stork looked around.
"Oh hello," He said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it?" He added, not taking his eyes off the wall. Knowing this was something that couldn't be left alone, Aerrow looked back at the rest of his team and Starling. "I'll handle this" He mouthed. They all nodded and quickly filed past, leaving Aerrow and Stork alone on the staircase. "Stork, are you ok?" Aerrow asked. "Anything you want to tell me?" He added gently, hoping he could get to the bottom of Stork's problem. Stork didn't say anything but looked as though he wanted too. "You know, it's part of my job to make sure your all ok?" Aerrow told him, squadrons being a Sky Knight's responsibly.
"I," Stork managed to say. "I've seen that curse before, as a kid when some of, her, forces attacked my home town" He suddenly blurted out. Aerrow immediately understood, knowing 'her' meant Cyclonis.
"Right," He said, only able to imagine how painful it must have been to watch people you knew be inflicted with it. "Stork..." He began to say, trying to comfort him, but an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Moody heading down towards them.
"You aright sonny?" He asked Stork, in what sounded like the most gentlest voice he could managed. "Why don't you come up to my office, come on, we can have a warm drink," He offered. Stork looked even more frightened at the prospect of drinks with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Aerrow. "You all right, are you?" He asked.
"Yes," Aerrow replied, almost defiantly. Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Aerrow.
"This is your pilot isn't it?"He asked him, obviously having learnt it from someone, before turning back to Stork.
"It seems harsh, maybe, but no point pretending, come on, I've got some books you might be interested in, if it's aright with your Sky Knight?" He said, glancing back at Aerrow.
"Up to you Stork, we'll be at lunch if you need us" He told Stork but looked Moody in his normal eye as he started down the stairs to join the others.
"Aerrow," Stork called, as he was following Moody back up the stairs. Aerrow looked back up at him. "What I said, I don't want the others..." He began to say, sounding embarrassed.
"No problem" Aerrow reassured, glad to see Stork's skin was now a much dark shade of green than before as he carried on his way.