Chapter 13: The Unforgivable Curses

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A/N: I'm so so so so sorry I took a month to update, but school just started for me, so I basically have no time to do anything. I'm sorry.

I just realized I say sorry a lot. I guess it's the Canadian in me.

It's Thursday. One more day until the weekend. Can't wait.

Will and I were walking over to Moody's class. It was our first time with him, he was teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts. I absolutely suck at everything that has to do with me using my wand, so I don't know how that's going to go. I am probably the worst wizard to have ever existed. Then again, technically I'm not actually a wizard.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were talking about something, I don't actually know what, I wasn't listening, and Will and I were discussing what DADA, (That's what Will likes to call Defence Against the Dark Arts) would be like.

"I think it'll be one of the most interesting classes so far, seeing as he's clearly a great teacher from what everyone was saying," Will said.

"Yeah, I will never forget when he turned Draco into a ferret. That was probably one of the best things that happened so far," I said.

"Wait," he said in mock hurt, (which just confused me) "You mean our date wasn't the best thing so far?"

I felt my cheeks burn, "I said one of the best, not the best."

Will chuckled. "Yeah, our date was great, but the kiss was better," he said with a smug smile.

My cheeks turned even redder, "Sh-shut up, Will."

"Haha, nope!"

"I hate you."

"You love me."

I just glared at him. No words needed to communicate with him.

He chuckled again.

We entered the classroom and sat down behind Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I took out my copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection and waited. Since Will only had the books for the fifth years, we had to share mine, which resulted in our heads being a little too close when we were reading.

My face had only just gone back to normal, when Will grabbed my hand from under the desk and started rubbing circles on the back of my hand. My cheeks burst into colour again. Why, Will... why? He had been doing that in basically every single class we had, and every single time I blushed. My face seems to like being the colour of a tomato.

By the time Moody walked in, my face had returned to it's normal colour.

"You can put those away," he grumbled, walking over to his desk and taking a seat, "those books. You won't be needing them."

I looked over at Will confused. He shrugged as if to say, Dude, don't look at me.

I put the book back in my bag, (with one hand, which is significantly difficult, because Will was still holding my other one.)

"Right then," he said after finishing with the attendance, "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 Bogarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

What the heck even are those?

"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 one another. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark—"

"What, aren't you staying?" said Ron abruptly.

Moody's Magical eye spun around to stare at Ron. Ron seemed to tense up, but after a moment Moody smiled. I'm s nice to know he can do that. He didn't look the best when he smiled, but... he tried.

"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 favour to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then he clapped his gnarled hands together.

"So— straight to it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses 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 your 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."

Some girl jumped and blushed. I assumed that was Miss Brown. She was showing something to some other girl beside her. I should probably learn names. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood and the back of his head. I need one of those.

"So... do any of you know which curses are most punishable by wizard law?"

Several hands went up, including Ron and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, but his magical eye was still watching the girl.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one... is it called the Imperius Curse or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody. "Your father would know about that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble that one, the Imperius Curse."

Moody walked over to his desk and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Ron visibly recoiled in his seat. I guess he doesn't like spiders.

Moody reaches into the jar and took out a spider. He held it in the palm of his hand so we could all se it. Then he pointed his wand at it and said, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and vegan to swing backwards and forwards 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. This spider is awesome. 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, (yes, including me) — everyone but 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..."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

"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 we all jumped.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back in the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" he said.

Hermione's hand flew up and so did another boy's, I think I heard someone call him Neville. He kind of looked surprised that he had raised his hand.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling over to look at Neville.

"There's one— the Cruciartus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody's gaze on Neville was intense. "You're name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody didn't say anything else. Turning back to the class, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it on the desk, where it was motionless, apparently too scared to move.

The Cruciartus 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 until it was bigger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backwards, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.

Moody raised his wand again, pointing 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. If it could talk, it would probably be screaming. Moody didn't remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.

I wanted to get up and stop it, because the spider was clearly in pain and we got the idea of the curse, but Will held me back.

Then I heard Hermione yell, "Stop it!"

I turned to her, but she wasn't looking at the spider, she was looking at Neville. I then realised his hands were clenched on the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, and his eyes wide and horrified.

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

"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shank to it's original size. He put it back in the jar.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciartus Curse... That one was very popular once too... Right... anyone know any others?"

What is up with these wizards? Who invented these horrible spells?

"Yes?" said Moody, and I realised Hermione had raised her hand.

"Avada Kedavra," she whispered.

Everyone kind of looked at her warily, and to be honest I felt something weird when she said the spell. Something dark.

"Ah," said Moody, another smile twisted his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse."

Ah, that would be why I felt something.

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 on the desk. It scuttled frantically across the surface.

Moody raised his wand, and I felt an aura of death suddenly consume the spider. Will grabbed my arm and held me down, I guess I'd started getting up.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and 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. Ron had thrown himself backwards almost falling off his seat as the spider skidded towards him. I instantly felt the spider die, which is weird since I didn't know I could feel spiders die. Will gasped and squeezed my hand, and several students stifled cries.

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."

I could see Harry's ears go red even from behind him. I guess that's why Hermione and Ron were so surprised when we said we'd never heard of him.

I zoned out of what Moody was saying because I was too busy trying to figure out the reason wizards invented these spells. Someone probably just decided to be like, 'Hey, I want to kill someone, better make a spell for that!'

I was brought back to the present when Moody yelled, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" which made me jump.

"Now... those three curses— Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciartus— are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them against a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence to Askaban. 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..."

We spent the rest of the time in class taking notes on the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang— but when Moody had dismissed us and we left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth.

Will and I were talking about the curses and Moody as a teacher. I suddenly asked, "What's Askaban?"

He just shrugged and said, "I don't know, it sounded like it was a prison, though."

After dinner we walked back to the Gryffindor Tower and didn't even bother going to the torture that was Divination. We just went up to our separate room and talked about the day.

I mean, it had been an interesting day.

A/N: I'm sooooooo sorry about not updating sooner. I hope the long chapter made up for it. I'll try updating as soon as I can (although that may or may not be in another month)

I hope you liked the chapter.