The door of the DADA classroom banged open. There stood a war hardened man. Scars littered his face, half his nose was missing and his magical eye swirling inside its pocket. In some way or another, this man reminded her of Remus.
She knew this was Alastor Moody, or Mad eye moody as commonly known. For he was the one to fill up half of Azkaban with death eaters. Has been an old friend of Dumbledore's and had the old mans complete and utter trust.
"Ahh Alastor, glad you could finally join us." Marvolo said as he turned on his heels, flicking his wand in a flourish and seating himself on his chair.
"Be my guest Alastor." Marvolo drawled out as he picked up his book, legs on table and crossed over at the end. The man was as relaxed as he could be. Ana could only gape.
Moody gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
He went over the register, sneering and belittling everyone in some form of insult to them or their family.
"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. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.
"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ronald's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Er," said Ronald tentatively, "my dad told me about one...Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," said Moody distastefully. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened Marvolo's desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Anastasia saw Ronald recoil slightly from the corner of her - Weasel hated spiders. They were his greatest fear. Everyone knew that since third year after dealing with boggarts.
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 and muttered, "Imperio!"
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. 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 - everyone except 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..."
Ronald gave an involuntary shudder.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Ana knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "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 everyone jumped.
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Ana's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.
Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.
"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.
Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, 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," 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. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ronald pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed 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. No sound came from it, but Ana 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!" Hermione said shrilly.
Anastasia looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Ana, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. Right there and then, Ana felt immense sadness for the boy for he lost his parents to insanity, living inside their own heads.
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 thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse...That one was very popular once too.
"Right...anyone know any others?"
Ana looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Ana raised her hands, all eyes locking on her.
"Yes Miss Potter?" said Moody, looking at her.
"Avada Kadevra." Anastasia breathed out, her eyes slightly fluttering closed.
Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Hermione.
"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 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 Ana felt a sudden thrill of feeling the tainted dark magic in the air.
"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 students stifled cries; Ronald and Hermione had thrown themselves backward and almost toppled off their seats as the spider skidded toward the pair.
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 she's sitting right in front of me."
Anastasia felt her face redden as Moody's eyes as well as Marvolo's eyes looked into her own. She could feel everyone else looking around at her too. Ana stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all...
So that was how she could've died... exactly like that spider. Would she simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from her body.
Moody was speaking again, from a great distance, it seemed to Anastasia. With a massive effort, she pulled himself back to the present and listened to what Moody was saying.
"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. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.
"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 facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again.
"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."
"Well that certainly didn't stop Voldemort and his minions to use them did it Professor. What good is Azkaban if we have a crazed-power hungry Lord who uses unforgiveables freely with out a care? What good is Azkaban if the deranged Bellatrix Lestrange escaped the Wizarding prison, which was supposedly the most guarded place. Equally using any kind of magic could get you a one way ticket to Azkaban Professor. Someone told me it's the intent that matters and I agree wholeheartedly and the fact that the Ministry just labelled magic that they fear and do not understand as dark shows us how shallow wizard and witches alike have become." Ana said with such solemnity that the Gryffindors were squirming in their seats.
"Indeed Miss Potter. Valid point, magic is magic but what can a 14 year old do about it. After all the Minister is an incompetent fool who does not have a mind of his own. Come back to me Potter when people start thinking like you do. Maybe then I'll think more of you than the girl-who-lived." Moody said with a sneer but you could tell from his eyes that he was rather impressed.
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang - but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices - "Did you see it twitch?" "- and when he killed it - just like that!"
They were talking about the lesson, Ana in general thought, as though it had been some sort of spectacular show, but she hadn't found it very entertaining - and nor, it seemed, had Draco and Theodore.
"Hurry up," Hermione said tensely to Ana, Drake and Theo.
"Not the bloody library again?" said Ana. She was honestly sick of going to the library. The bushy haired girl had been dragging her to the library nearly every day, at the hours that she wanted to spend time with Marvolo. She really just wanted to ditch her friend, not caring if it hurted Hermione's feelings.
"No," said Hermione curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Neville."
Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
"Neville?" Hermione said gently.
Neville looked around.
"Oh hello," he said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm - I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are you all right?" said Hermione.
"Oh yes, I'm fine," Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner - I mean lesson - what's for eating?"
Draco gave Theo and Ana a startled look.
"Neville, what -?"
But an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All five of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
"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 Ana.
"You all right, are you, Potter?"
"Yes," said Ana, almost defiantly.
Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed the jaded eyed girl. Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending...well...come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."
~New Beginning~
"Come on Ana, we have to get going to the library." Hermione said in frustrated tone. For two weeks she had dragged Anastasia to the library with her in hopes of decreasing the time she spent with Marvolo, which was working out rather well but the Anastasia seemed rather set out on not going with her today.
"No Mione. You've been dragging me around to the library more than Drake and Ted, take one of them. I need to go visit Marvolo, it has been a long time since I've spoken to him." Ana pleaded. The dark haired girl failed to miss the anger that entered Hermione's eyes. "Maybe after I spend some time with Marvolo."
Hermione was beyond livid. The nerve of that girl. How could she be so naive and clueless of what she was trying to do. Her whole face was now an ugly red. "Fine, go spend your time with Marvolo, sticking to him to like a freeloader and whilst your at that, spread your legs open for him like the harlot you. Obsessing over him and Voldemort at the same time. Your sick in the head Anastasia. You should've died when Grindelwald tried killing you, it would of done everyone good, especially me. You always have to take or get everything you want because your the bloody-girl-who-won't-die." Hermione screeched off, turning on her heel and leaving a shell shocked girl behind her.
Well some people have rather uncanny traits which brings out the worst of them.
As they say, good cannot exist if their is no evil to balance it out.
A/N. Lol your girl is getting saucy. Early update so like why not and I've got this new idea of a new story which will be called. "Emerald eyes don't lie."
This is the summary for it, do tell me what you think of it.
"Those jaded eyes lost their sparkle. Lost its defiance, replaced by fear. Those eyes that once shone as bright as their stars themselves lost their life. She was nothing more than an empty shell. Time was nothing to her. She spoke in riddles and spoke nothing but the truth for Emerald eyes do not lie."