A/N. So, the musical is over, I've got my life back together (and my own laptop, so updating is easier!) and so now updates will hopefully be coming faster for the next couple of week before exams. Thanks for sticking with me, I know I haven't been the most reliable of updaters. Anyway, here's the next chapter. I promise they are gradually getting longer after this one!
Defence Against the Dark Arts, Take 4
September 2nd 1994
Dear Diary,
Classes started today. Hagrid has some weird animals that seem kind of pointless, but of course we can't tell him that. Everyone is raving about Professor Moody. Could we really be lucky enough to have two good DADA Professors in a row?
We had just started our fourth year at Hogwarts, and we were about to meet our fourth Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. I must admit, I wasn't holding much hope.
Professor Quirell was a Death Eater who was killed by a combination of Harry and Voldemort. Professor Lockhart was a fraud who now lived in St Mungo's with no idea who he was. Professor Lupin was a brilliant teacher, but had to resign when he was outed as a werewolf. So, I don't think anyone above third or fourth year was holding much hope that Professor Moody would be all that good at the job, nor that he would stay for more than this one year.
People claimed the DADA job was cursed, and I was beginning to agree. If it was true, what would happen to Professor Moody at the end of the year? Professor Lupin had been lucky, really. He had only lost his job. That sure beat dying or erasing your own memory.
In the end, the rumors about Professor Moody were right – he was a very good teacher. I wasn't sure if I agreed with the subject matter though. While I fully agreed that we needed to know about Unforgivable curses, I wasn't sure if showing them to us was the right idea. Just look at how they affected Harry and Neville. I didn't know how or why, but Neville had obviously had experience with the Cruciatus Curse, and Harry had to watch how the curse that killed his parents worked. It didn't really seem fair that either of them should be put in that position.
And as for the rest of us, we were only fourth years. Many of us felt like being told about them would have been enough until NEWT level. Seeing how they worked was just too much, especially when Professor Moody started putting the Imperius Curse on us. For kids who had grown up in a time of peace, only hearing rumors of these curses and their effect on their victims.
What we didn't know at the time was just how useful those lessons would be to Harry, or how this would not be his only encounter with the Unfogivables that hear. Nor did we realize just how soon we would be seeing, hearing about, and dodging these curses on an increasingly frequent basis. But for now we were just your average innocent kids, never dreaming we wouldn't be safe for long.
A/N. Again, thanks for reading guys. Id love to hear what you think, so I can continue to improve this for you amazing readers. If all goes to plan, the next chapter should be up in the next couple of days. NG