I was very close to strangling Fred, George, and Lee. They had spent the entire breakfast period discussing ways to get their names into the Goblet of Fire. We were all at our wits end.
"Would you bloody shut up?" I asked not-so-politely. "You guys aren't going to be able to get past something Dumbledore conjured!"
The boys turned to scowl at me. Lee said, "Is that some kind of insult, Potter?"
"Yes, it is," I said.
"You want to go?" he said, striking a fake fighting pose. "Any one of us can take you!"
Fred cocked his head at Lee, "I don't know… she has a guard dog now, and it's pretty big!"
"Don't remind me," Lee groaned, putting his head on the table. He was insanely jealous of my new pet - apparently, he had always wanted a dog. I rolled my eyes.
"Seriously, blokes. Give it a rest." Katie said from next to me.
"On the bright side, we have DADA first!" George said, holding up his schedule. Fred grabbed it from him, scanning it hungrily with his eyes.
"You're right!" he cried.
"What's so great about DADA?" demanded Angelina. "We have it every year! I prefer Charms."
"Are you kidding me? Mad Eye Moody is wicked cool!" Fred said indignantly.
"This is probably the only time I've ever had the occasion to say this, but come on guys… we don't want to be late to class," I said. Usually, the twins and Lee took every opportunity to NOT go to class they could.
Moody had us the second he informed us we wouldn't be needing our books.
I mean, a class where we wouldn't be needing our books was always welcome. Especially Defense, when there were more interesting things to be doing. Moody was sort of creepy however. If his eye could really see through things like the rumours said, did it mean he could see through our clothing?
It would be just perfect for our Defense teacher to be a bloody pervert, wouldn't it? It would still be better than Lockhart though.
"Right!" Moody said, clapping his hands loudly together. "This class is old enough to have covered most of the creatures, eh?" We nodded. "Good, because we're NOT doing that today. Someone, tell me, what have you learned about curses?"
Alicia's hand tentatively raised into the air, "Eh… we haven't really learned anything about curses… besides counter-curses, of course."
Moody shook his head. "That won't do. You need to know what's it's like our there, in the real world! Take it from me, you'll need to know more about how to fend off dark hexes than how to deal with hinkypunks!"
I risked a glance at the twins, and saw them staring at Moody with something like adoration in their wide blue eyes. It was a twisted kind of adorable. Like seeing evil little children excited!
"Now, you're sixth years! Which is the Ministry's legal age to learn about curses! I say that's all bogey - an opponent won't wait and explain what a curse is, so you should be ready to face them the second you walk through these doors as a first year! So, today we'll begin our unit on curses." He paused for dramatic effect. "What can you lot tell me about the unforgivable curses?"
Nobody raised their hands except for Fred and George, who were fighting to get their hands higher. Moody pointed at George, making Fred slump in his seat.
"The Imperius Curse, sir!" said George boastfully.
"Yes. The Imperius curse is very dangerous, indeed - if cast correctly, it could give you complete control over a living thing. There are ways to fight it, of course… but I'd wager this spider isn' properly taught how to do that." He pulled a spider out of a jar containing about six spiders inside out onto his desk.
He aimed his wand at it, and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider started jumping madly around the room. Alicia fell backwards in her chair, shrieking, as it scuttled onto her desk in jerky movements. The class burst out laughing, besides Alicia, who looked like she might burst into tears.
"Fighting this curse takes a lot of strength of character, and willpower! Not all of you will be able to, I'm telling you now. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Alicia embarrassedly looked at her feet. She was still fazed by the spider. "There's also Crucio."
"DON'T SAY IT OUT LOUD, GIRL!" Moody hollered. "You never know how magic will react! Never! Here's a lesson to all of you; never even say these curses out loud unless you really need to use them. The use of these on a human being will get you a ticket to Azkaban faster than you can say 'oops', even if it's accidental."
Alicia really looked close to tears now. I found myself wanting to go hug her, or something.
"I'm sorry," she muttered. "But… sir, you won't use it on the spider?"
As if to answer her question, Moody recited the incantation. The spider began to twitch violently, his legs caving in. It was clearly in pain. My heart lurched into my throat. I suddenly didn't like Moody as much.
"Stop it!" I said angrily. "You're hurting it!"
Moody stopped, a terrifying grin on his face. "You. What's your name?"
I gulped. "Kalmine Potter."
He whistled under his breath. "Potter, eh? Should've known." I didn't like the way he was looking at me. He looked like he had hit the jackpot… but I didn't know with what. I wondered if I should have brought Nox, just in case. "Tell me, Potter. What's the last unforgivable?"
"I won't answer that if you're going to use it on that poor spider," I said stubbornly.
His face became even uglier as he growled at me. I gripped the side of my desk, scared, but unwilling to answer. "Did I ask you if you wanted to answer it?"
"No," I said softly, looking down, sideways, up, anywhere but him. A pang of sympathy ran through me for Alicia, who had been yelled at by this terrifying person only moments ago.
"Then you'll damn well answer it,"
"I… no. The spider did nothing to you, you could just tell us! We get the idea-"
"WHAT IS THE CURSE, POTTER? Don't test me!"
"The Killing Curse," I spat out, anger coursing through my blood, rising into my cheeks.
"Right," he purred. "Avada Kedavra!"
The spider jerked and fell, dead. The class gasped around me, some people horrified, some impressed, some excited that they had gotten to see the Killing Curse.
Me? I was utterly horrified. I looked at Alicia and Katie, seeing similar looks of alarm on their faces, and the ones of mixed emotion on the twins faces. George caught my eye and gave me a look of sympathy.
"You sick bastard," I whispered, just loud enough to be heard. My hand flew to cover my mouth. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. Unfortunately, Moody had heard.
"What did you just say?" He growled, stalking over to my desk.
"I… I didn't mean to…"
"OUT OF THIS CLASSROOM!" he hollered, pointing at the door.
I didn't have to be told twice. I grabbed my bag and sprinted out the door, feeling tears form, burning hot, in my eyes.
The sound of fast footsteps approaching jolted me straight into a sitting position. I hadn't been sure where to go. On one hand, I didn't want everyone to know I had been kicked out of DADA class, but on the other, I also didn't want to spend an entire period sitting pitifully on the ground in some abandoned corridor. I had chosen to compromise and go to the Gryffindor common room, where nobody would be with classes going on.
I sighed in relief as familiar red hair came into sight. It was only Fred, not a professor.
"Hi," I said quietly, staring at my feet. It was quite embarrassing, what had just happened.
"Are you okay?" he sat next to me.
I ignored his question, "What are you doing here? There's still class. Or did you get kicked out, too?"
Fred shook his head. "Nope. I got permission to book out early. All it took was a puking pastille and he sent me out to go to the 'Hospital wing'!"
"But you were really excited about Defense," I said, upset that I had probably ruined the first class of the year - one that Fred had been looking forward to, no less. I was a terrible friend.
"Nah, don't worry about it. There's always next class! And anyway, what are friends for?"
"You're the best," I laughed.
"I know!" he said, shooting me his trademark cheeky smile. Inside, I could feel myself blushing.
"Did you really puke in the middle of Defense class?" I stifled laughter behind my hand.
Fred chuckled. "You bet I did! I wish you could have seen Mad Eye's face!"
"I don't like him," I said stubbornly.
"You've made that clear."
"Who kills spiders in class? He could have just told us about the last curse. It's so… so sadistic!"
"Yeah, but he really does know what he's doing." Fred said, obviously still enraptured with Moody.
"And that's why I have such a bad feeling about him," I whispered. "Whenever our Defense Against Dark Arts professors know what they're doing, it always ends badly."
Fred was silent for a moment, and I knew he was thinking about Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, both innocent men, almost being sentenced to the Dementor's kiss, and Quirrell (who had been a surprisingly good teacher) harboring Voldemort in his turban.
"Let's do something," he said finally, eyes lighting up. "We have almost an hour!"
With that, we got to our feet, linked arms, and walked out of the common room. I wondered how I had gotten so lucky to have a friend like Fred Weasley, and if it was normal that my heart was beating twice it's normal speed whenever my hand brushed his by accident.
"Woah!" Fred exclaimed.
He wasn't the only one who was impressed by Nox's intelligence. We had been trying to teach her tricks, and she was an insanely comprehensive learner. It couldn't be normal for a dog to look at us with such intelligence, like she understood us!
"This dog is the best thing ever," declared Fred. "I might have to steal her."
The dog, loyal as ever, got up and pranced over to my side. She looked almost SMUG. "Dream on, ginger," I imagined her saying.
"I would have chosen a more interesting name. Like Tiberius!" he said.
Nox yipped, obviously horrified. I was alarmed as well.
"You will not call this poor dog Tiberius! It's not even a bloke, anyway!"
"It's a fantastic name!" Fred argued.
"How about NO?" I said. "How about NEVER?"
Fred scoffed, "I'm calling her Tiberius, dammit!"
"Don't you dare!" I said. Nox emitted a low growl from her throat. I had reached the conclusion that she was probably one of those slightly magical dogs, like the cats who were charmed to deliver mail.
"She'll learn to like it!"
"That's what she said," I giggled. Fred pouted.
And suddenly, like a golf ball being thrown at my head, I remembered that I needed to write Sirius. Immediately. My little brother had already sent him a letter.
I began rushing down to the owlery, Nox at my heels. "Where the hell are you off to?" Demanded Fred.
"To write Sirius!"
Nox stopped running besides me, instead dropping into a sitting position. She stared at me, dog-eyes wide. Was it possible that my dog knew about the escaped man from Azkaban? Was she scared of him?
"Don't worry, Nox," I whispered. "Sirius is innocent. He's my godfather. But you won't tell anyone, will you? He'll be arrested and given the Dementor's kiss if they find him. Snape just about lost it last year when he got away after he found me and my brother."
Fred groaned. "Please tell me you're not really explaining this to the dog. She can't understand you, ya know!"
I shook my head, not breaking eye contact with the stone-still canine in front of me. "You don't know that she can't, Fred. You don't know." Then, I spun on my heel and resumed running across the common room to write my godfather.
A/N:
I know what you're thinking; HALLELUJAH! SHE ISN'T DEAD IN A DITCH! SHE UPDATED!
Well, I'm always really busy. Plus, I had writer's block. As always, this story is taking me INSANELY off course of the plot I had planned out, although I like the way it's going. I'm going to try to get some more writing done today, so that I can update more this week.
And also, I am SIRIUSLY (I HAD TO, SORRY) excited for the end of this year. There might be some surprises…. ;)
REVIEW!
Stay awesome,
Killer Queen of Slytherin (like my new name?)