Ness expected his first day of Hogwarts to be like this. Wake up, get breakfast with Ginny and wave hello to Luna, groan over the class schedule- which now had Divination and Magical Creature Care added to the list and the fact that he was going to have to use his wand-which he had just recently found after misplacing it for the entire summer—for most of the classes.
Then go through the school day with a smile as Selvis and his Slytherin house mates taunted him before ending the day with the members of Boundless to meet up and chat or theorize over something before bed.
It wasn't supposed to involve crazy teachers outright attacking a student for a rude (And undeserved comment that sparked a brief battle) or for Ness to become their new Defense Against the Dark Arts favorite.
Mad Eye Moody gave him the creeps, from his status of being a famous Death Eater hunter to his unsettling appearance, and the fact that his scowl could possible beat Snape's disgusted sneer when he worked with the Gryffindors in Potions class wasn't helping. After all, Snape didn't bother him it was just Mad Eye Moody.
Which is why Ness silently prayed that they didn't have they didn't have Defense Against the Dark Arts on the first time while he grabbed a sandwich and nervously studied Mad Eye Moody, who was nowhere to be seen oddly enough despite it being time for breakfast.
"He's probably eating in his office." Ginny explained when Ness asked her about their new teacher's disappearance, "He doesn't trust anyone not to poison him."
"After that entrance, he made last night? Don't blame him." Ness said as he noticed how at ease the teachers compared to last night, even Snape seemed relived despite the permanent scowl on his face.
"I wonder what class we have after lunch." Ginny mused, studying her class schedule with a curoise smile, "Hopefully not with Professor-," Ness started to say when Ginny's eyes lit up, "Oh! Our first second period class is Defense Against the Dark Arts!"
"…Thanks for nothing God." Ness grumbled as he checked his own schedule and suppressed a groan as he saw DADA boldly printed in first period along with Potions before the final period started.
"He isn't that bad." Ginny soothed, "He's just experienced."
"I'm experienced too, and you don't see me sending shivers down everyone's spines." Ness reminded her.
"I don't know, some kids jump when they see your eyes." Ginny said, "They're practically the color of the night sky."
"Really? I always thought they were midnight black."
"Either way, it's unnerving."
Ness grumbled something under his breath but didn't push it, instead he finished his breakfast and followed Ginny for class, dreading Defense Against the Dark Arts, where Moody would be waiting for them with his scowl and creepy blue eye. And, right after lunch he was, his blue eye slowly trailing after each student that entered before it locked onto someone else.
Ness sat down near the back of the class, not liking how the blue orb seemed to linger on him before focusing on Emily Parsnip, as if it knew he wasn't a wizard.
Once everyone was inside and the bell rang, Moody gave a sharp rap of his cane, causing everyone to jump and be quiet, even though everyone had been silently studying their new teacher without glancing at their neighbors, a rare feat for any teacher since everyone was usually distracted unless called for.
"Now…." Moody said, his voice practically echoing around the room despite how low and gravely his voice was, "I understand that you lots went over basic defense in Year One, and somewhat dangerous monsters in Year Two, but it's come to my attention that none of you. Know how to handle yourself in a proper battle."
He slowly turned around, his blue eye spinning in its socket to keep a close eye on the students as he wrote in slow, agonizing strokes on the chalk board, Battling 101.
"This morning, I had the wonderful opportunity to witness a pathetic attempt of an attack and an even worse attempt of defending one's self, courtesy of Potter and Malfoy." He slowly walked forward and coldly studied them all, "Do you know what happened?"
They all shook their heads no, "The attacker, waited for his opponent to TURN HIS BACK AROUND LIKE A COWARD." Moody practically roared, "And his opponent willingly LEFT HIMSELF OPEN FOR AN ATTACK!" he took a slight pause before he continued his gnarled features twitching slightly as he spoke, "Now, do you know the proper ways to handle yourself in a fight?"
No one raised a hand, at least not at first. Prompting Ness to mentally groan and spar his classmates any opportunity of making a fool of themselves in front of the war veteran.
"Never leave yourself unguarded, open to attack and be two steps ahead of your opponent." Ness guessed. Knowing that the first answer was correct, but the second one was a half n half since most of the time he was focusing on pounding the enemy with his bat while Paula ensured that everyone was healed and prepared to handle a powerful attack.
Would thinking ahead be a good step to keep yourself alive? Very, but that was in-between ensuring that everyone knew what everyone else was going to do and not getting in the way.
Like calling out healing, Ness could easily heal like Paula could, but if he didn't mentally call out, "I'm going to heal Poo!" the moment Paula noticed he was low on health then they would waste precious time on healing the same person.
Moody studied him for a long moment before a crooked grin formed, sending an army of wobbly ants down his back as Moody praised, "Correct Mr. Earthbound, five points to Gryffindor." then he turned to the class asking, "And do you know why those are two important things to remember when battling?"
Mike Warf timidly raised his hand and said, "Because if you don't keep an eye out you'll be hit a lot more than normal?"
"Yes, and?" Moody pressed.
"If you can guess what your opponent is going to do then you can counterattack." Bella Field answered.
"Excellent. Nice to see that not all Gryffindor's are clueless when it comes to fighting." Moody said with a nod, "Now get up, all of you, we're going to go through some simple drills."
And by 'simple' he meant nightmare mode of hard. He had the students march out to an empty Great Hall and stand in two lines which faced each other, wands out and nervous frowns on their faces as they looked to their teacher for instructions.
Then, it became utter chaos as Moody gave them all colored scarfs to wrap around their arms and simply said, "Basically, this is capture the flag, stun your classmates and steal the scarfs, and whoever has the most scarfs gets an A on the next essay."
Gasps rippled throughout the hall as the students gawked at him in disbelief, then Ginny raised her hand, "Sir, is there anything else to know?"
"Other than keep your eyes peeled for attacks coming from all direction? Nope, go at it!" then he raised his wand and uttered a spell which caused a firework to explode, startling the students to scramble into different corners of the room as Moody yelled, "Begin capturing the flags!"
"He's insane!" was all Ness could think as explosions of spells happened around them, forcing him to duck and slid under attacks as he struggled to figure out how he could stun students and steal their scarves without using PSI.
Maybe that theory of magic being more than just mental thought could come in handy, although, now that he thought about it PSI and magic shared a lot more in common as he remembered how panicked he was and how he willed that Muggle family to head home during that attack at the Qudditch World Cup.
"Why is this so hard to figure out?" Ness groaned as he jumped back and tried not to close his eyes as his voice joined the yells of spells being cast, "Stupidfy!" at Denis Poppet, picturing the boy being temporally frozen. The 'spell' which was really just a yellow zigzag instead of a ball of light missed Denis by inches before making an abrupt turn and slamming into him. Prompting Ness to mentally groan, "So much for my awesome pitching skills."
Denis yelled and looked around the best he could as he was frozen mid leap back as he tried to fend off Rose and Lila Ribbons, "Mine," Ness simply said as he pointed his wand at the sisters who tried to duck under the zigzag only to be slammed in the back.
"How… did… you…?" Rose asked between gritted teeth as he grabbed their scarfs and looked around, staying low to the ground as spells flew overhead, they had lessened slightly as students were slowly stunned but not enough for Ness to catch his breath as he whispered, "I honestly have no clue. I think I just got lucky since I fail at magic."
"Luckkyyyy…" Lila groaned, knowing first hand that Ness was indeed a terrible wizard when it came to using spells and charms.
"Maybe I should find somewhere to hide-," Ness started to say as he ducked and pivoted around stray shots making his way toward the back of the classroom, when he felt something slam into his side his legs snapping together.
"Huh… That actually worked," Henry Erand said, pushing up from the ground and losing his 'stunned' status to steal his collected scarves, "Smart plan, only, I can counterattack." Ness said, Henry frowned, then yelped as Ness 'stupefied' him and sat up, glancing down at his legs.
"Is anyone else acting stunned?" Ness asked as he rolled onto his back and sprang forward, landing on his feet as he looked at Henry, "Don't… think… so…" Henry grunted, "I'm…the…only…one…. who…fails…at…active…combat."
"It was still a good plan." Ness offered, shooting him a grin before he hopped away, trying to find a quiet spot to use Heal Omega before anyone else got him. Thankfully, by the time he found an empty corner, the bell rang ending Defense Against the Dark Arts and the practical death match.
"Time's up!" Moody yelled, walking around and freeing the unlucky victims, "Come up here and count your flags before Potion class." They dutifully obeyed and watched as Mason George was crowed champion.
The class gave feeble cheers of, "Good for you mate." And "Good game." As their bodies burned from running around and being stunned, even Ness felt tired, despite being physically more active than the other wizards!
Why the heck was Defense Against the Dark Arts the first class?! It didn't make any sense! Then again, having a somewhat mentally troubled retired Death Eater hunter for a teacher didn't make any sense either, why on earth did Dumbledore hire—
"Now as wonderful as you all did out there." Mad Eye Moody started, his voice laced with slight disgust and sarcasm as Ness blinked in surprise at his teacher's tone, "I noticed one common trend among all of you."
They jumped as he stamped his cane on the ground, "None of you were actively dodging!"
"Hey! I dodged!" Ness mentally protested.
"Although, I did notice one student who had his head on his shoulders." Ness flinched as both of Mad Eye Moody's eyes locked onto him, lingering for too long as the bell rang, forcing Moody to dismiss them, "Off to class you lot, next class we'll be working on shields spells."
"I wonder who that one student was." Ginny mused as they hurried to the dungeons for Snape's class.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe the one kid whose actually been in fights." Ness said, rolling his eyes slightly as Ginny managed a smart, "Oh yea…" as they joined the crowd of Slytherin third years, giving them all a look of amusement at how tired everyone looked.
"Won't be laughing when Moody gets through with you." Ness thought as he took his usual seat at the back and unpacked his things, hoping that they wouldn't need to use his wand for class. After all, this was the first day, Snape probably wouldn't set out anything too hard for them to do-,
"Today, we'll be making a Liquefier potion." Snape said with his usual sneer, "I wonder how many of you slacked on your summer studying."
Ness suppressed as groan as a vague memory of Liquefier, a potion that temporally turned solid objects into liquids and was very hard to make.
He was about to crown the first day of school the best day ever thanks to Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts when he went to Divination class and discovered that Professor Trawleny was their teacher.
At first, he was relived since she was on good terms with Professor Kale only to learn that she was obsessed with predicting outlandish things, like how Ness's fate was tightly wrapped around Harry's, and how poor Henry was going to have a terrible day when Mars rose to its highest apex.
Then there was the lesson, which had them studying tea leaves saying that they could predict the future if studied correctly.
All Ness found was a soggy leaf and an upset stomach from having to drink tea.
"I'm not crazy, right?" Ness asked as he glanced at his bench mate, Wes Mur who was poking and prodding his own leaf, "This does look like a soggy tea leaf, right?"
"Yup, although, mine looks like a crescent moon." Wes glanced at his book and frowned, "Which means that I should stay indoors on the full moon and beware of werewolves."
"That prediction is a year late." Ness joked, earning a smile from Wes before they resumed making up predictions and waited for class to end so they could head to lunch then finish the day with Charms and History of Magic.
"I am soooo tired." Ness groaned as they headed for the Gryffindor Tower with the rest of their housemates, too tired to sneak away and head up toward their club house and too close to other people to properly avoid being seen.
"Hopefully Selvis and Luna will understand why we didn't show up." Ginny yawned, her eyes drooping with fatigue.
"And if not, we'll send them a letter." Ness said then he frowned and muttered, "That sounded so shallow."
"Why is sending a letter to friends shallow?" Ginny questioned as they climbed through the portrait hole and prepared to part ways, "Because! We should be able to talk to them! Not send letters when there a couple feet away!" Ness protested.
"Still doesn't sound shallow." Ginny yawned as she headed up to the Girls room, with a mumbled, "Night." As the other students perked up and played a couple games of chess. Ness happily ignored them all and went to bed. Wondering if all his school days were going to be this tiring.
Lucky, as the week passed they weren't so tiring and Ness managed to fake magic with slight ease as he remembered his strategy, poke the object with his wand enough and picture it doing what the spell would do and it would work long enough for him to get a D-.
Unlucky he discovered that Magical Care for Creatures or whatever Hagrid's class was officially his worst subject since every creature was uneasy and wary around him.
Hissing death threats and curse words every time Ness tried to hold telepathic conversation with the creature of the week. He also discovered that he and Harry were Mad Eye Moody's favorite students since had he forced Harry to practice a supposedly 'forbidden' curse on his first class with the Fourth Years over and over again and that he kept having reasons for Ness to demonstrate something.
"He has it out for me!" Ness complained as he, Selvis, Ginny and Luna sat in a circle in their club-room, "He knows I'm not a wizard guys!"
"Impossible." Selvis scoffed, briefly looking up from his journal, "Mad Eye Moody's magical eye can do a lot of things, like find cloaking devices and see through things. It doesn't allow him to pinpoint liars or PSI users."
"Besides, he seems to be showering Harry with the same praise as well." Ginny reminded him, "Mad Eye Moody had him go through the Impervoius curse until he could easily break free."
"Great, so it's just to the two renowned heroes suffering." Ness groaned as Luna patted him on the back. "Well, maybe he'll lighten up once the Triwizard cup starts." She offered.
"I wonder what the trails will be." Ginny mused, "It'll have to be stuff on six and seventh year level, like Apperating!"
"Oh please." Selvis scoffed, "There probably going to have a mock battle to the death."
"Moody already did that." Ness said then he shuddered and added, "Twice." As he remembered how the second battle had been them dodging books and school supplies being throw by a group of rowdy imps Mad Eye Moody had found.
Selvis and Luna grimaced muttering, "Oh yea…" as they remembered their own versions of battle to the death.
"So, Triwizard cup aside, what do you think of our new teacher?" Ginny asked.
"Insane." Ness deadpanned while Luna hesitantly said, "A bit overboard with paranoia if you ask me."
Earning a scoff from Selvis who said, "Of course he is! He murdered You know who's followers and he's a descent of two well-known auroras! I'm actually surprised that no one tried to murder him yet."
"Whoa… No wonder he's so paranoid." Ness exclaimed, "I thought it was just a case of PSTD from having to see some horrific things."
"No, once he attacked a birthday present because he thought it was a Basilisk egg." Ginny recalled, "It wasn't, but that was enough to be wary of what they sent Moody in case he sent it back with hexes."
Selvis shuddered and grumbled, "Leave it to bloody Dumbledore to hire a veteran nut-job who could possibly murder a student in 'self-defense.'"
"Well, he's not that bad. He just sends shivers down my spine." Ness offered, "Besides, with that last attack it'll be good to have some actual dueling practice in case we're jumped again."
"Yea, if we're jumped." Selvis sourly said, "You can just blast them with PSI and be done with it."
"I'd honestly prefer to have a baseball bat then my PSI." Ness admitted with a small shrug, "My PSI skill set revolves around physical attacks, so I'm not that powerful compared to Paula and Poo who's pretty much even with physical and mental damage."
"Oh yea… Paula's better with elemental and stat PSI while you just do physical status effects and one main attack." Luna recalled, "I keep forgetting how diverse PSI is…"
"It's weird." Ness sighed, "Every time I think I found something that magic doesn't have PSI I find something."
"It's really weird if you remember that weird story about the aliens." Selvis recalled, "I was browsing through some old comic strips my mother had saved and found out that PSI was a gift from aliens or something."
"That's correct, Giygas was the alien who was supposed to come back and retrieve the gift since their experiment with humans were done." Ness explained, "That sort of backfired since he became friends with a pair of humans which sent the chain of fates into order and my adventure."
"So…Aliens created PSI. And wizards have always been wizards." Luna slowly said frowning slightly, "And yet they have the same principal expect for how it's preformed."
"…Aliens are con artists." Selvis declared before he sat up straight, "Oh yea! I meant to give you guys these."
"These what?" Ness asked as Selvis shoved three colored rocks into their hands, two Gryffindor red and gold rocks into Ginny and Ness's and a Ravenclaw purple into Luna's.
"Communicators." Selvis proudly announced, showing off a Slytherin green and sliver rock before he proudly folded his arms, "Since we're starting our third year and have the choice to branch out in our classes, I'd figure it'll be harder for all of us to meet up later in the school year."
"Especially since someone is a status obsessed student." Ginny coughed earn a sharp retort of, "As if your mother would willing let you walk around with a snake!" from Selvis who looked flustered.
"A-anyway." Selvis continued, "All you have to is tap your wand to it or rub the small rune I carved into the stone and make a small announcement. Then, whenever the receivers check their stone which will faintly glow to alert them to the message they'll get the news."
"So, there magically cell phones." Ness said, gently tossing his rock into the air as he watched the gold flash in the setting sun.
"Cell…phones?" Selvis questioned, getting an abrupt, "Never mind." Before Ness changed the topic, "How did you even make these? They look awesome!"
"Hard work and a lot of stealing." Selvis happily boasted, "Magic is much more complicated than simple PSI, I had to place locator charms and link the charms to each other so they could cover the school yard and beyond if necessary, then I had to carve some runes so the announcements would appear on the stone in writing so the users wouldn't have to worry about being overheard then I had to cover it with a replication potion so the exact message would be heard and then-,"
Long story short, Selvis went on until dinner, animatedly chatting and causing his wand to spark a couple times as he repeated the gestures he had used when he created the Messenger Stones (Created and owned by Selvis of course.) and the process of gathering the muggle ingredients to shine, polish and decorate each rock so they wouldn't be too weird to carry around.
"For a Slythrin, you enjoy creating things." Ginny noted as they hurried down to the Great Hall, "So? I like to keep busy." Selvis huffed as he purposely lagged behind.
"I think you'd do much better in Ravenclaw." Luna admitted, "It sounded so complicated just to ensure that the charms wouldn't fade away easily."
"I." Selvis started, "Am a perfect Slytherin. After all, think of all the accidental gossip I can get from you guys!"
They rolled their eyes as Selvis gasped and whispered to himself something about finding out possible Qudditch team's plans until he realized that Qudditch was canceled for the year and pouted.
"You'll get them next year." Ness offered as they entered the main hallway and headed for their respected seats with their peers who were groaning and bemoaning about classes before talking about the upcoming Hogsmeade.
"We're going to visit the candy store." Ness said when Ginny mentioned about places Ness wanted to visit with them. She blinked in surprise then groaned as Ness excitedly said, "They have prank candy! Can you imagine how annoyed Selvis would be if I tricked him into eating vampire candy?"
"Very, he would probably murder you." Ginny said before a small smile appeared, "And me, since I would probably help."
"…I have a feeling that 'help' well end up hurting Selvis."
"Ye of little faith." Ginny teased as they started on dinner. Slightly relived to see that Hermione was eating until they heard her mention something about protesting for the house elves.
"Well, good luck to her." Ness muttered as he sensed Mad Eye Moody eyeing him and Harry, causing the usual shivers to run down his spine as the electric blue eye slowly focused on something else.
"Whatever he has planned for us better not be too bad." Ness grumbled as dinner ended and weary students headed for bed, "Look on the bright side, at lease we'll get to look at the stars." Ginny yawned before she bid Ness good night and headed for bed.
Leaving Ness to do some last-minute studying for an essay for charms before turning in for the night as well. Having slight nightmares of whatever challenge Mad Eye Moody had in store for the third years.
He was pretty sure everyone was on edge as they slowly filled into Defense Against the Dark Arts, hoping they could have a quiet day of studying and not having to rush to Madam Pomfrey as someone accidentally used the wrong spell and nearly blew off the victim's arm.
But nothing could prepare them for a normal looking classroom with three normal looking spiders in glass jars on Moody's desk. Ness shared a wary glance with Ginny before they sat down and waited as Mad Eye Moody stood up, looking over before slowly nodding.
"Now then… I'm quite sure that you're all wondering why I have these spiders here." Moody slowly started, "Well, I've finally decided that you're ready to witness the true dangers of dark magic."
"What?" Ness resisted to look around as Moody took a step forward, leaning heavily on his cane, "Now, as most of you should know, dark magic is when the user casts unforgivable and vile spells on their victims, strong enough to break both the caster and the victim if they're not prepared as well as send the user to Azakaban, no questions asked." He paused and looked them over once more, "Now, as clueless as you lot may be thanks to your… off and on teaching styles through the year I'm quite sure that you know the three unforgivable curses which has ruined more lives than the Black plague."
He turned around and slowly wrote out, three spells before facing them once more, "I wanted to show you this on day one, to get a feel for how much your parents coddle you but Dumbledore insisted on spacing out the lessons before I showed these."
"I'm going to have nightmares… aren't I?" Ness mentally groaned as Moody slammed his cane against the first line of writing on the chalkboard, "The first once, the Cruciatus Curse, used to torture your victims. It's hard to dodge and even harder to block and once you're cursed…" he trailed off slightly as he stepped forward, opening a jar and pulling out a jar as he eyed the frightful third years, "You're done for… Unless you can work through the pain." Moody softly finished as he allowed the giant black spider onto his hand and pointed his wand at it, bellowing, "Crucio!"
Ness and Ginny stiffened as the Spider suddenly rolled onto its back, writhing in pain until Moody pulled his wand away, causing the spider to relax in jerking motions.
Crucio, a spell Ness, Ginny and Paula would have been cursed with if Ness hadn't interrupted the wizard's spell and breathing rhythm. The mere memory sent shivers down the spine as he imaged one of his friends hit by that monster of a spell.
"Now, there's the Imperius Curse." Moody continued, unfazed as he placed the twitching spider back into its jar, "This curse can turn you into the user's living puppet if you don't have a strong mind and will to resist the intoxicant effects. Some victims say it felt like they were in a dream as they carried out horrendous tasks for their masters, able to vaguely tell what was going on but not quite." Moody freed the second spider and placed it on the desk, allowing it to scuttle around before he pointed his wand at it and bellowed, "Impero!" causing the spider to freeze then perform lazy cartwheels before it climbed back into the jar and waited as Moody closed the lid and stopped the curse.
"See? No control over its no actions." Moody said before the turned to the third spider who was nervously inching around in its glass prison, "And finally… The Killing Curse. The only thing in the world which can't be stopped… Basically… It's the last chapter of your life." Moody paused then added, "Unless you get lucky like Potter did, but I highly doubt it."
He eyed the class who were slowly shrinking in their seats, fearing the worst for the creepy crawly, "Now… Who knows the name of this curse?"
"Avada Kedavra." Denis Poppit shakily whispered, earning five points toward Gryffindor and a horrific first hand example as Moody freed the third spider and repeated the curse in a low voice. In a flash of sickening green light the spider paused then curled up and rolled onto its side. It's life completely gone.
And with that, so were the nervous fidgets and muffled, "I'm going to be sick." That had been echoing around the classroom as the class gawked in silent horror at the corpse of the suddenly dead spider.
"Now then… I can't ensure your safety if you were to go up against the other two curses." Moody said, unfazed by the pale faces looking at him in sheer horror, "But, I can see to it that you get proper training for the Imperious curse."
"You're joking." Someone feebly squeaked, probably Ness since it was a reflex to crack a joke when things got bad. Moody ignored him, or whoever had said it as he ordered for them to stand up and form a line as he pulled a desk forward.
Instructing that he was going to have them under the curse for a brief time and order them to jump on the desk, their job was to resist and not jump on the desk.
"It's easy." Moody said as everyone slowly tried to form a line, not wanting to be first. Feeling pity and a bit of courage Ness quickly stepped up, giving his peers a small smile as they rushed behind him with grateful smiles.
"Earthbound, eh?" Moody questioned as Ness stepped forward and adjusted his hat, he shrugged and tapped his head, "My friends say I have a hard head, maybe that'll decrease my chances of being cursed.
He got a couple light chuckles for that as Moody merely nodded and pointed his wand at him, yelling, "Imperio!" for a moment, nothing happened, Ness saw a hazy white ball approach him then dissipate but he didn't feel the sudden urge to jump on the desk.
Then, he felt his head explode in pain as a voice boomed, "Jump on the desk!" and his PSI went nuts, jumbled words flew past his mind's eye as he tried to focus on Moody who seemed to be growing frustrated as Ness felt his hands curl into fists.
"Make me." Ness retorted, nearly biting his tongue from the effort from not yelling out in pain as the throbbing pain got worse and the words grew louder, the command now ringing in his ears.
"JUMP. ON. THE. DESK!" the voice screamed as Ness retorted, "How about you do it instead?!" in a desperate attempt to make the yelling and pain stop, "Now get out of my head!"
The orders abruptly stopped as something heavy jumped, causing Ness to blink and take a wobbly step back as his classmates gasped and pointed as the heavy thing from before suddenly fell to the ground.
"What…?" Ness questioned, "What's going on?" then he saw the 'heavy' thing was Mad Eye Moody, lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling with wide eyes.
"He jumped on the desk!" Henry Erand exclaimed, "Then he just sort of, flew backwards, as if someone pushed him!"
"What did you do?" Denis asked sounding amazed.
"I dunno…" Ness admitted, "I was just trying to stop my head from hurting."
"Hey… is he alright?" Lila Ribbons asked, "He… isn't moving?"
"Did I kill him?!" Ness yelped as Rose Ribbons and Mike Warf dutifully left class to alert Madam Pomfrey.
"No… He's still breathing." Bella Field said, gingerly poking their teacher with her wand.
"What did you do?" Justine Prince asked in disbelief.
"I dunno!" Ness repeated, "I just told him to jump on the desk and then I yelled at him to get out of my head!" then he frowned and looked at them, "You guys didn't hear me say anything of that?"
"You were mouthing something a couple times," Ginny recalled, "And you looked really frustrated, but you didn't verbally say anything. You just stood their eyes narrowing in frustration and hands balled into fists as Moody tried to make you jump on the desk."
"I could have sworn that I said something aloud…" Ness murmured as Mike and Rose returned with Madam Pomfrey in tow, who did a brief double take at their knocked-out teacher then dismissed them from class, ordering them to give a short essay on what they learned as they hurried to enjoy ten minutes of peace.
"Well, look on the bright side." Ginny offered as they rushed outside for a brief moment before they had to head for Herbology.
"What?" Ness grumbled as he took off his hat, protecting it from the random bursts of wind as September prepared to be replaced with chilly October.
"You're probably not his favorite anymore."
"…Doubt it." Ness sighed as he adjusted his bag and studied a fallen leaf. And, he was right. When the next Defense Against the Dark Arts class rolled around, Moody was practically beaming Ness crooked smiles as the other kids tried, and failed to break free of the Imperus curse.
He even pulled Ness over after class ended to tell him that he did even better than Harry Potter! Who had taken ten tries to completely shake the curse off!
"Greatttt…" Ness groaned as he hurried away, his shoulder crawling from where Moody had touched him. He now, officially hated Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Selvis who had attempted to use the forbidden curse on him only knocked out with a power Hypnosis Alpha and earned an ink painted mustache.
He didn't talk to Ness for a full week after that little incident.
When I was busy writing(/procrastinating.) I was a bit worried about the Mad Eye Moody introduction class since it seemed a bit over a top, then I remembered the few classes that were shown in the book and decided that Moody would totally set up a battle to the death match if he had the chance in order to teach the kids to be overly paranoid and prepared for battle.