Kitty: 'Ello! I'm in San Diego!

Sigy, Kitty's Step-Brother:(boredly) And she's dragging me into this thing. Hello, world.

Yugi: It's good to be able to post again, eh Kitten?

Kitty: Yes, while with Aunt Lucy, I couldn't really download any of my stuff...she's a conservative Republican, and I don't think she'd like these chapters on her computer. (winks)

Yugi: But your dad will let you do anything and not snoop!

Kitty: (pouts) I miss Claire, though...she flew out to Florida the same day I left for San Diego.

Atem: (pats Kitty's shoulder) I'm sure she's having fun, and I'm sure when she'll be glad to review again, as will we.

Seth: Well said, cousin.

Kitty: (smiles and looks at Sigy expectantly)

Sigy: What?

Kitty: Say it.

Sigy: Say what?

Kitty: (rolls her eyes and gives him an index card)

Sigy: (reads the index card) R&R? What the hell does that mean?

Kitty: Read and Review.

Sigy: (rolls his eyes) Whatever...

Kitty: So R&R, PEOPLES! (grins broadly)


Chapter Ten:

The Unforgivable Curses

The next day the fourth year Gryffindors and Slytherins would have their first class with Professor Moody. The Brits, Marik and Yugi were excited to see what Moody would be teaching after the ferret episode the previous day.

"I wonder if Moody-sensei could turn Snape into a fat horned toad and bounce him around the dungeons while he's at it," joked Marik as they sat down at a table together at the front of Moody's classroom, "At least then Snape would be a bit more entertaining."

"Snape wouldn't give him the chance," Harry pointed out, "I mean…is it just me, or is Snape a bit scared of him? Moody, I mean."

Diana shook her head. "It's not just you, Harry…but hey, Moody was an Auror…and haven't we all thought Snape was a Dark wizard?"

"Dumbledore trusts him, Dare," Hermione reminded her reproachfully.

"Yeah, so?" asked Ron, "That doesn't stop him from being a big bullying git. Plenty of people don't agree with Dumbledore, Mione…they just respect Snape because he does."

"That, and Moody-sensei is pretty paranoid," Yugi noted, "He'd even suspect those not proven as Dark wizards of being up to something, so it's not surprising he's keeping an eye on those who probably were."

Moody entered the classroom right then. He walked up to the head of the class, his wooden leg clunking against the floor as he went. On the way, he passed Malfoy, who flinched involuntarily but still was able to glare at him.

"You can put those books away," he told the students without facing them, likely using his magical eye to look behind him, "You won't need them."

The students did as they were told, and Moody turned to look at them at last.

"Professor Lupin wrote me a letter about you all," he said quietly but clearly, "Seems you all have a good grounding on magical creatures…you've covered Kappas, grindylows, Red Caps, boggarts and werewolves, correct?"

The class murmured with assent. Diana nodded.

Moody cleared his throat. "But according to what I've noted after reading the records of your classes, you are very behind on curses…so I've got one year to get you up to scratch-"

"You're not staying?" Ron blurted out.

Everyone looked at him, and Ron's cheeks flushed.

"You're Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody asked, "Your father got me out of a tight spot a few days ago. Yeah, I'm only staying one year, as a special favor to Dumbledore…then I'll go right back to my not-so-quiet retirement."

He laughed harshly and Diana smiled, glad to know he wasn't so mad he'd forgotten how to have humor.

"Alright now…straight back to it. Curses come in many strengths and forms. The Ministry of Magic says I should be teaching you counter-curses, and nothing else. Apparently they think you shouldn't know about illegal Dark curses until you're in your sixth year…well, I say different! Professor Dumbledore thinks you should learn this stuff as soon as possible. After all, a Dark wizard isn't going to tell you what he's about to do with a polite smile on his face…you need to be alert…you need to be prepared…and you need to put that away, Miss Brown, and pay attention."

Lavender Brown looked up in surprise and blushed: she had been showing Parvati Patil her completed horoscope under her desk. Obviously Moody's magical eye could see through wood as well as through the back of his head.

"So…do any of you know one of the three Unforgivable Curses?"

Ron and Hermione raised their hands: Moody looked at Ron.

"Yeah, Weasley?"

"Er…" Ron wasn't used to answering questions often and sounded a bit awkward, "My dad told me about one…the Imperius Curse?"

"Your father would know that one," murmured Moody, "Gave the Ministry plenty of grief at one time. Maybe this will show you why…"

He went over to his desk and took out a glass jar with a large black spider inside. Ron pushed his chair as far back from Moody's desk as he could: he was deathly afraid of spiders.

Moody reached into the jar, took out the spider and laid it on his desk so everyone could see it. He then took out his wand and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider immediately jumped into the air, did a back flip and landed back on the desk before doing a series of cartwheels. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and started to tap-dance.

Everyone was laughing, except Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he asked as a growl, "What if I did it to you?"

The laughter died instantly.

"Complete control," whispered Moody as the spider balled itself up and rolled around the desk, "I could make it jump out the window…or drown itself…or throw itself down one of your throats…"

Diana couldn't help but feel similarly to Ron as he shuttered next to her.

"The Imperius Curse can be fought," stated Moody, "But only by real strength of character…I will be teaching you how, but I can't guarantee you all will get it. Better avoid it if you can…CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Everyone jumped at the loud severity of the last part.

"Many of the wizards accused of being Death Eaters," Moody continued, "Claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the Imperius Curse…but here's the question: how do you sort out the liars?"

Marik muttered something inaudible.

"What's that, boy?" inquired Moody, "Speak up!"

"Veritaserum," Marik repeated, a little louder, "Truth potion."

The Slytherins sneered and chuckled among themselves, but the Egyptian didn't look embarrassed at all. Both of Moody's eyes were focused on Marik: then the professor's badly scarred face broke out into a wry smile.

"Yeah, you'd think the Ministry would think of that, wouldn't you? But it's a complex potion…most feel it would waste time…"

"It wouldn't waste time if they were able to pin down those responsible," Marik dissented calmly.

Moody laughed gruffly. "Your name is Ishtar? You're speaking like an Auror, you are! Five points to Slytherin for that, boy. It's always good to have a brain in your head if you want to fight the Dark Arts."

The Slytherins' smirks faded: Diana and Yugi grinned at Marik.

Moody went back to the lesson. "Anyone know another?"

To Diana's surprise, Neville raised his hand.

"Yes?" Moody asked him.

"Th-the Cruciatus Curse," stammered Neville in a very small voice.

Moody eyed him carefully.

"Your name's Longbottom?"

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. He merely pointed his wand at the spider on his desk and growled, "Crucio!"

The spider immediately bent in upon its body, squeaking in immense pain and rolling over and over in violent twitches…

Yugi, unable to watch anything suffer like that, changed his focus to Neville.

/I wonder how he knew about Cruciatus…I don't think his grandmother works in the Ministry…/

His eyes widened at the sight of Neville. His fists were clenched upon the desk in front of him and the look in his eyes was nothing short of horror. The only time Yugi ever remembered seeing someone look so scared was when he unknowingly watched a horror movie with Kitty that reminded her of her terrible life before him.

Yugi's eyes shot over to Moody, who was only paying attention to the spider and didn't seem to notice how much he was affecting Neville, and then back to his classmate, and finally the King of Games lost it.

"Sensei, stop it!" he shouted, "Can't you see it's bothering him? STOP IT!"

The class looked at Yugi, and a few turned to look at Neville. Moody eyed them both quickly, and raised his wand to end the curse. Neville closed his eyes, breathing heavily as if he'd just woken up from a terrifying nightmare.

"Pain," murmured Moody, "You don't need whips or knives to torture someone if you can do Cruciatus…another popular curse at one time. Right…anyone know the last one?"

Diana lowered her gaze to her lap, took a deep breath and raised her hand.

"Yes?" Moody asked her.

Her heart was pounding hard in her chest, and it took a few long seconds before she was able to open her mouth and whisper her answer.

"Avada Kedavra."

The class turned to look at her. Ron and Hermione looked concerned. Harry, Yugi and Marik clearly didn't know what was going on, but they all the same looked uneasy by the difficulty Diana was having just saying its name.

Moody crossed his arms as he peered down at her. "Your name's Randall?"

Diana nodded without looking up at him.

"Don't blame you for being uncomfortable about that one, my dear," Moody remarked, "That one is the last and the worst…the Killing Curse."

He pointed his wand toward the spider still struggling to stand after the long session of the Cruciatus Curse.

"Avada Kedavra!"

There was a flash of green light and, instantly, the spider was dead.

Harry's eyes widened.

'So that's how they died…' he thought, remembering the happy faces of his parents that he'd seen in his photo album and thinking of the photo disappearing in a blast of green light, 'Just like that…and they were dead…'

Diana closed her eyes and opened them again slowly: she was thinking similarly to Harry right then.

Moody swept the dead spider into the trashcan by his desk. "Not pleasant…not nice…and there's no counter-curse to stop it. There's only one person who's ever survived it…and he's sitting in this room."

Everyone looked at Harry, and Harry's face reddened a little at all the unpleasant attention. Diana looked up at Moody once more as he looked away from Harry and addressed the class once more.

"Avada Kedavra is a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it…I doubt any of you could give someone so much as a nosebleed with it if you tried…I'm not here to teach you how to do it. 'Why am I teaching you it at all?' you may ask. After all, there's no counter-curse. I'm showing it to you because you've got…to…know. You've got to know what the worst is, and you don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Everyone jumped again.

"Now…everyone take out your quills and copy this down…Avada Kedavra, Imperius and Cruciatus…the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. That's what you're up against, and that's what I've got to teach you how to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. And, most of all, you need never-ending, constant vigilance."

They spent the rest of the class copying down notes on the Unforgivable Curses, and it seemed forever before they were able to leave the class and head for the Gryffindor common room to take a break.

"That was amazing," Ron muttered to the others, "He's completely mental, of course…but he's really been there, you know?"

"There's a reason why those curses are unforgivable!" Hermione argued, looking very disapproving of Moody's teaching tactics, "To use them in a classroom…I mean, did you see Neville's face? He was completely-"

Marik held up a hand to stop her as they had just walked next to Neville. He was looking out the stained glass window at the light drizzle outside, looking as if he were in another world, and a very sad world at that.

Hermione immediately looked guilty. Yugi put a hand on Neville's shoulder, and the boy's head shot around to look at him.

"Are you okay, Neville-kun?" Yugi inquired concernedly.

Neville nodded shakily. "Y-yeah…f-fine."

Yugi would've said more, but right then, Moody clunked down the stairs.

"It's alright, sonny," he told Neville, "Why don't you come up to my office and have a cup of tea? Got something I want to show you…"

Neville didn't look at all thrilled at the prospect of having tea with Moody, but nevertheless did as he was told and followed the professor back up the stairs toward his office.

A little while later, when the Brits and Yugi settled into the Gryffindor common room, Neville came into the common room, looking a lot calmer than at the end of Moody's first class.

"Hey, Neville-kun," Yugi greeted tentatively.

"Hi, Yugi!" Neville answered cheerfully, "I've just been reading this book Professor Moody gave me…"

He held up a book called Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean.

"Apparently Professor Sprout told him I'm good at Herbology," he explained, a faint note of pride in his voice, "He thought I'd like this…I think I'm going to show it to Ryou, I think he'd like it too."

So he headed out through the portrait hole to go find Ryou. Yugi was glad to see Neville was feeling better: he was so glad that he didn't notice the tapping at the window until Ron said, "Hey! It's Hedwig!"

Harry raced over to the window and opened it to let his white owl inside the common room. He took the letter from her and sat down next to the others.

"It's from Sirius," he whispered to them.

"Open it!" Diana and Hermione said in unison.

Harry,

I'm flying south immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore. They're saying he's got Mad Eye out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts, which means he's reading the signs, even if no else is.

I'll be in touch. My best to Dare and your friends. Keep your eyes open.

Sirius

Diana looked at Harry accusingly. "You never told me your scar hurt!"

"It was during the summer," Harry replied defensively, "I had this weird nightmare with Wormtail and Voldemort…Voldemort said he wanted to kill m…someone…and I woke up with my scar hurting."

Artemis's Heir crossed her arms, her eyes widening at Harry dangerously.

"It's nothing!" Harry assured her, "Really!"

"Oh yeah, nothing," Diana growled sarcastically, "You had a dream with Voldemort and Wormtail wanting to kill someone…absolutely nothing wrong with that."

"Dare, there's other things to worry about," Hermione pointed out worriedly, "I mean…Sirius just said he's coming back!"

"He'll be caught if he comes around here again," Harry muttered, "Damn it, I never should've told him! I have to write him and tell him not to come."

"And hope he decides to listen for once," Diana pointed out with a sigh.

Sigy: Is it over? Can I go back to my conversation with my own friends now?

Kitty: Yes.

Sigy: (sighs in relief) Thank you, Lord... (leaves)

Yugi: (bounces Ferret Malfoy in the background) R&R!