Happy Holidays to everyone! I'm going to try and have another chapter done on some story before Xmas, but present wrapping and cookie baking have first priority right now. Enjoy the holidays, time off work/school, and pray for no more snow (shivers).

This story is set back in the timeline of The Mummy Returns, so here's a basic rundown of the Harry Potter timeline in relation to this chapter.
1922: Harry Potter is born to Lily and James Potter.
1923: Harry is a year old and his parents are murdered by Voldemort.
1927: Harry is five and goes to Egypt with his distasteful relatives and becomes Kedar.
1933: Harry turns eleven and starts Hogwarts.
1936: Harry's fourth year at Hogwarts, current year.

ShadeDancer

Disclaimer: Not even in my dreams do I own Harry Potter…believe me, I've tried, but the thought of lawsuits deters all such dreams. I also don't own anything recognizable from either the Mummy or the Mummy Returns.

Chapter 10: The Unforgivables

The week passed quickly, Kedar balancing his time outside of class between his friends and helping Alex in getting used to life at Hogwarts, and before anyone knew it Thursday was upon them. As usual Kedar rose early to work out so that he didn't lose the edge his years in the desert had given him before heading back up to the dorms to get his roommates and Alex up for breakfast. Yet for all the routine, Kedar was feeling slightly unsettled. Today he would have his first class with Professor Moody and the young Medjai felt wary around the professor for some unknown reason, all his instincts screaming not to trust the man. It wasn't Moody's unsettling appearance either, he had seen worse in the desert and had encountered men with far more dangerous and deadly miens, but still Moody unnerved him. It wasn't a feeling that sat well with Kedar, not at all. This opinion had only been reinforced by Moody turning Draco Malfoy into a ferret and bouncing him up and down for a while. Even though Kedar didn't hold any particular fondness for the Slytherin who had tried to hex him when his back was turned, indeed he was getting fed up with the Slytherin to the point of ignoring his resolve not to let the Malfoy heir bait him into doing something rash, Draco hadn't deserved Moody's idea of punishment; such embarrassment could turn one into a dangerous enemy and Draco could not help his upbringing anymore than Kedar could his own.

So it was that after lunch Kedar found himself queuing up with his classmates outside of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, a vague mood of disquiet hanging over him in the silence. The bell finally rang and shattered the stillness as Kedar began to file into the room behind Hermione and Ron. As they took their seats and pulled out their texts, Kedar for once wished that they didn't always sit in the front for all their classes as he wanted to put some space between him and Professor Moody. Yet there was nothing Kedar could do about this and already Moody's wooden leg could be heard clumping down the corridor. Taking a deep breath Kedar prepared himself for anything the Professor might throw at them as the grizzled man entered the classroom exuding an aura of danger.

"Put those away" the grizzled man growled, the clunk of his wooden leg punctuating every word as he motioned towards their textbooks "you won't need them."

Many of the students were suddenly excited as they returned their books to their bags and Moody took out the class register. As he called out each name, Moody's normal eye moved down the list, but his magical one roved to fix upon each student as they answered. Once he was satisfied that everyone was present, Moody addressed the class.

"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?"

Moody didn't wait for an answer before he plowed on, his imposing demeanor keeping the class in line "but you're behind—very behind—on dealing with curses. 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 suddenly, drawing Moody's attention as he interrupted.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody asked with an unnerving smile "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."

Moody's harsh laugh grated on Kedar's nerves and the young Medjai took a few calming nerves to keep himself in check. He didn't understand why this man bothered him so. He didn't think it was the appearance, knew that it wasn't. Perhaps it was the aura of danger surrounding the man, or perhaps it was just the bad track record he'd had with Defence teachers so far. Kedar tuned back into the lesson and mentally relaxed himself in ways similar to the ones he had been taught to use before a battle. It helped immensely and Kedar soon found himself enjoying the slightly disturbing lesson Moody was giving.

"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. Kedar wondered why they bothered with that class. He hadn't signed up for it as Anhar could teach him what he needed to know about divining, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy had appealed to him more, and according to Hermione the Divination teacher was a fraud and quack. It also appeared that Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.

The lesson continued without much disruption after that as Moody started teaching them about the curses most heavily punished by wizarding law. The first curse to be brought up was the Imperious curse, Moody jerking around his demonstration spider as if it was a puppet on strings. Most of the students were laughing over this display, but there were a few who understood what Moody was showing them. The spider had no free will of it's own while under the curse. Moody could command it to do anything and it would be forced to obey. It wasn't a pretty thought and Moody expounded on that before he gave them a slight bit of hope.

"The Imperious 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, causing everyone to jump.

Surprisingly Neville offered up the next illegal curse, the Cruciatus Curse, in a trembling voice. For a long moment Moody stared at Neville with both eyes before nodding and turning to draw out another spider and enlarging it so they could see the effects of the curse. Ron skidded back in his chair as the spider swelled to enormous proportions, he was deathly afraid of spiders and this lesson didn't seem to be helping with those fears any.

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

Immediately the spider began to twitch and convulse, its legs bending in sharply towards its body as if to protect itself and lessen the immense pain it was in. No sound came from it, but Kedar had heard the screams of people under torture and could imagine how horrifying the sound would be if the spider had a voice.

"Stop it" Hermione said shrilly.

Looking over at Hermione, Kedar saw that she had turned away from the sight of the twitching spider to see Neville sitting with clenched hands upon the desk in front of him, eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand, but though the spider relaxed, it continued to twitch.

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

"Pain" Moody said softly, this voice almost worse than his growl as Kedar thought he sensed a hint of longing in it "you don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse…That one was very popular once too."

Kedar thought he would prefer the thumbscrews and knives, and he had seen them used plenty of times in the desert. He would not lie to himself and say the Medjai were always a peaceful people, they did what had to be done and gave no mercy to their enemies, but to see the Cruciatus curse used…it was an abomination.

"Right…anyone know any others?"

Kedar looked around, he knew the last one, knew the particulars all too well, but he wouldn't be the one to offer it up. Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her with both eyes.

"Avada Kedavra" Hermione whispered.

Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron, before glancing over at him as if to see his reaction. For his part, Kedar remained still and allowed no reaction to show.

"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 jar and the last spider scuttled around frantically, as if knowing what was coming, but of course the spider had no way of evading Moody's twisted fingers. Taking a last bid for freedom, the spider began to scuttle across the wooden surface of Moody's desk, but Moody already had his wand raised and Kedar felt himself tense.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, similar to swooping wings as if a vast something was soaring invisibly through the air—instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him. Kedar continued to hold himself still even as he mused upon this more tangible view of that which had on occasion haunted his dreams, what had filled his head when the dementors had come near him. There seemed to be no pain associated with this unforgivable, no pain, only the desperate fear that came in anticipation of death. He would prefer such a painless death to one filled with torture, or the slow death of blood loss, but then he had already survived the curse once and perhaps his vision of it was skewed. Moody swept the spider off the desk almost disdainfully as if he had just squished it with his hand instead of murdering it with a curse.

"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."

Kedar felt as every eye turned to him, as both Moody's eyes locked on him. It was almost as if they expected some reaction from him, but that was something he could not give them, would not give them. How was he to explain that he was glad to know his parents had died by the killing curse rather than know they had been tortured? How was he supposed to feel about witnessing something he had once survived? For all he knew he would be able to survive the curse again and had no reason to worry about it, or perhaps the next time he came face-to-face with that curse it would claim his life. But then there were a lot of things that could claim a person's life, a lot more tangible things: swords, knives, guns, spiders, snakes, scorpions, scarabs, the desert, resurrected mummies seeking destruction, people themselves. It wasn't the green colored light or even the words that killed, it was the person who gave intent to the spell that killed. There was no reason to fear the spell itself, but rather the person fueling the spell.

"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" Moody was saying "but that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it."

Kedar felt he could disprove that notion if he had a strong enough reason to want to kill Moody, even the weakest of people could do awesome things if their intent was strong enough.

"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 acing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody roared the last into the room, making some people jump.

"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 for the rest of the lesson, but as soon as they were dismissed from class almost no one seemed able to keep quiet. No one except for Neville and Kedar that is. Almost everyone else was suddenly taking the class as some sort of entertainment, not truly grasping the effects those curses had on people. To see it performed on spiders in the safety of the classroom was one thing, and most children in the wizarding world of their age group led a pretty sheltered life when it came to realities such as war. Kedar stopped next to Neville, Hermione on his other side; Ron was somewhere behind them talking with Dean and Seamus.

"Neville?" Hermione asked gently, prompting the boy to turn to her and began speaking nonsense in a slightly higher voice than was the norm for the clumsy Gryffindor.

Kedar didn't beat around the bush, it wouldn't help Neville at all "it was the Cruciatus that got to you, wasn't it? Someone you know was tortured under it."

"Yes" Neville's voice was utterly miserable "my—my…"

Kedar understood; Neville had never talked about his parents after all, only his grandmother "your parents."

Neville nodded and opened his mouth as if to say more, but the clunking of Moody's peg leg interrupted them as the man himself walked up behind them. The three of them fell silent, Kedar and Hermione watching as he spoke to Neville in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard; it was almost enough to cause Kedar to ignore the strange distrust he felt around the man.

"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 Kedar.

"You all right, are you, Potter?"

"Fine, sir" Kedar replied evenly before turning to Neville, he could tell the boy didn't want to go with Moody, but didn't know what to do about it without obviously inviting himself along "I'll see you at dinner, Neville. We can talk then."

Neville nodded before nervously following after Moody, Moody telling him about some books he had that might interest him. Ron caught up with Kedar and Hermione.

"What was that about" Ron asked, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.

"I don't know" Hermione replied, keeping Neville's secret to herself; if Neville wanted people to know, he would tell them in his own time.

"Some lesson, though, eh?" said Ron to Kedar 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 the spider just died, just snuffed it right—"

Kedar gave Ron a look of disbelief and the other boy fell silent. He already knew that Ron had next to no tact at all, but after all they had been through over the years, surely the redhead would have come to understand that stuff like this wasn't for fun and to be entertaining. The rest of the walk to dinner was spent in silence and Kedar could only shake his head as he heard people continuing to praise their lesson with Moody through the meal. Besides himself, Neville, and Hermione, didn't any of them understand?

Posted On: December 18, 2005