I own nothing. J.K.R Owns everything :(
Chapter 24: Fourth Year (Part 12)
16th August. 1998. 7.30pm...
"Mum, Dad, Frank, Alice and Neville can I have a word before we start this memory?" Harry asked, the five nodded and they all went through to the kitchen, "Moody's class." he said looking at Neville who had looked confused.
"Oh." he said with understanding in his eyes.
"What?" Alice asked.
"In our first lesson with Moody we covered the Unforgivables." Neville explained.
"They were demonstrated for us on spiders, the Imperious actually being put on us during a different lesson." Harry added, "Are you all going to be okay seeing them demonstrated?"
The four parents looked pale but after a moment Frank said, "If we're not we can just leave the room. We should be fine though."
"We'll cope." Alice added.
Neville looked quizzically at his parent's.
"Can you warn us before it happens?" Frank asked.
"Of course." Harry nodded, "I'll do it with all three. I figured I'd ask you because you have all had worse experiences with two of the curses."
"We'll be fine if you warn us." Alice decided.
"Neville?" Harry asked.
"I'll be fine. I seen it used a lot during the war... Well the after effects anyway." he sighed, his eyes looked slightly haunted. "Will you be alright Harry? With all three having been used on you before."
"I'll be fine. It was years ago and I'll be expecting it this time." he smiled as they all headed back to the living room. "Time to warn the rest of you then. This memory is of our first class with Moody, we covered all of the unforgivables and had them performed in front of us on spiders."
"Do you have to show that horrid lesson?" Hermione asked warily.
"'Mione you know I do. I'll keep it short though, I have a lot of depressing thoughts after seeing the Killing Curse so I'm going to stop it before them." he explained.
"Good. I had those type after seeing the Cruciatus and it wouldn't help anyone to hear depressing thing's after a lesson like that." Neville sighed.
"That's what I thought." Harry nodded. "Anyway let's start." he put the memory in the pensive and sat down.
The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.
"Been in the -"
"Library." Harry finished her sentence for her.
"C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."
They hurried into three chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.
"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."
"Is it just me, or is someone else noticing a pattern here?" Sirius muttered.
"Huh?" James asked.
"Moony and Mad-Eye both started with practical lessons."
"Lockhart did too." Ron said, "Did Quirrell?"
"I don't think so..." Harry muttered, thinking hard.
"He never." Fred supplied, "Claimed it was too dangerous with a new class since he didn't know anyone's abilities and there was too much that could go wrong."
George nodded, "It was only after 5 or 6 lessons with him that he let our class start doing practical work."
They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited.
Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.
"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "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 boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
There was a general murmur of assent.
"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 each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark -"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.
"Bad move, Ron." James murmured.
"Mad-Eye won't be happy about being interrupted." Dora agreed.
"He didn't care actually." Harry frowned.
"That's not like him." Frank commented.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled - the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.
"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 favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."
He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
"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."
"Thats true." Lily frowned. "Especially when you were only 14."
"And with the amount of people in that class with bad experiences involving those curses." Regulus frowned.
"We dealt with it." Neville shrugged.
"It took time but we did." Harry nodded.
"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?"
"Yeah, the Unforgivable curses." Draco said glumly.
"The Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse -" James began.
"And Avada Kedavra." Harry finished, having plenty of experience with that last one.
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Arthur! I told you not to tell any of them about the Unforgivables!" Molly scolded.
"I asked him Mum. And I was 10 when he told me." Ron explained.
"Sorry Molly but I think it's a good thing I did tell them all." Arthur admitted, "I waited until they were 10 or until they asked. And Ron asked after his little bit of accidental magic that made Charlie dance around the kitchen."
"Technically I asked if there were any spell's that force people to do stuff because I was scared about what I made Charlie do." Ron added.
"I'd noticed that. That's why I told you to run and get Dad." Charlie chuckled, "I shouldn't have annoyed you anyway so I deserved being made to look like an idiot for a while."
"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "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 his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Harry felt Ron recoil slightly next to him - Ron hated spiders. 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.
"Warning for the Imperius." Harry announced.
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..."
Ron gave an involuntary shudder.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry 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.
Everyone in the Burrow jumped too.
"I'd forgotten he liked to do that." Dora chuckled.
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 Harry'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, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.
"Warning for the Cruciatus." Neville informed them all.
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 Harry 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.
Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Harry, 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.
"Were you okay?" Cissy asked worriedly.
"I was fine. Just a little shocked." Neville smiled, he looked at his parent's, "You two okay?"
"Fine." a pale Frank answered, Alice was shaking slightly but smiled weakly none the less.
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?"
Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.
"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.
Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron.
"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 Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.
"You know what's going to happen." Harry sighed.
"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; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.
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."
Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all...
"We could tell." Hermione sighed, "Your reaction was worse than Neville's..."
"Because you never reacted at all." Ron finished for her.
"I was more shocked than anything." Harry admitted, "I just never let it show." he shrugged. "That's where I'm ending this memory." he added.
"I wonder why Moody singled you out and not Neville." Regulus commented.
"Not many people knew about Alice and Frank until their 5th year." Luna explained.
Neville nodded, "I never told anyone. It only became public when Azkaban was broken into... And 'They' escaped." he shuddered.
"'They'?" Alice asked.
"The Lestrange's." Luna clarified.
"Let's continue before we go anymore into that." Hermione suggested, the Longbottom's looked at her gratefully.
"Okay this one isn't important or necessary but it will cheer you all up." Harry smirked. "It's me and Ron doing our Divination homework."
"How's that going to cheer us up?" Dudley asked curiously.
"You'll see." Ron grinned.
Harry and Ron took their copies of Unfogging the Future back down to the common room, found a table, and set to work on their predictions for the coming month. An hour later, they had made very little progress, though their table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and Harry's brain was as fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Trelawney's fire.
"Mine too mate." Ron chuckled.
"I haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean," he said, staring down at a long list of calculations.
"You know," said Ron, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration, "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."
"What - make it up?"
"As long as it's tragic, Trelawney will love it." Hermione said grinning. "I see why it'll cheer us up now."
"Yeah," said Ron, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink, and starting to write.
"Next Monday," he said as he scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up at Harry. "You know her - just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."
"Normally I'd not be happy with you two not doing your homework properly but... I've never really been able to stand Divination." Molly chuckled.
"I agree with you on that one." Lily nodded.
"The homework wasnt that bad when we did it together." Harry admitted.
"Amusing really." Ron agreed.
"Right," said Harry, crumpling up his first attempt and lobbing it over the heads of a group of chattering first years into the fire. "Okay... on Monday, I will be in danger of - er - burns."
"Yeah, you will be," said Ron darkly, "we're seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'll... erm..."
"Lose a treasured possession," said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.
"Good one," said Ron, copying it down. "Because of... erm... Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"
Ron and Harry exchanged looks, Ron hadn't believed Harry that year, technically stabbing Harry in the back.
"Yeah... cool..." said Harry, scribbling it down, "because... Venus is in the twelfth house."
"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight."
James laughed, "Remember when we did that?"
Sirius laughed and Remus smiled.
"You two came up with the most ridiculous things." Remus said, laughing now.
"Yeah, so? We got an 'E'." Sirius said.
James snorted, "We should always get an 'E'. We're Exceeding Expectations just by doing our homework."
"That's what we said about doing our OWL's." Fred laughed.
"We should have got E's just for showing up to the exams." George chuckled.
"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. Okay, I'll lose a bet."
"Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight..."
They continued to make up predictions (which grew steadily more tragic) for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at Harry, rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren't doing their homework properly.
"Creepy when he did that." Ron muttered.
"I told him to." Hermione smirked, "I knew there was no chance of you two doing your homework properly without me there." she looked smug, "And I was right."
"Even if you were there we would have made it up anyway." Harry chuckled, "It's Divination Hermione, would you really have cared?"
"Probably not." she admitted.
"Anyway we're skipping a little bit. Or should I show the start of S.P.E.W?" Harry asked.
"Nah, we'll explain." Ron answered.
"Okay. Basically Hermione had been spending a lot of time in the library and just as we were finishing our homework she came in carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box in the other." Harry gestured Hermione to continue.
"I had been in the library looking up House-Elf right's and I decided to start the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare or S.P.E.W for short. In the box Harry mentioned I had badges with S.P.E.W on them..." she explained exactly what her aims were for starting S.P.E.W.
"She made me treasurer and Harry secretary and wouldn't listen to me when I pointed out that the House-Elves liked being enslaved, well most of them." Ron added when she had finished.
"After that Hedwig returned." Harry frowned, "Along with a letter I wasn't all that happy about from Sirius."
"Why not?" James asked.
"It was very short and said:
Harry -
I'm flying north immediately.
This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore - they're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is. I'll be in touch soon. My best to Ron and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry.
Sirius
So naturally I wasn't happy about it." Harry glared at his Godfather who cringed.
"Come on. I wasnt going to stay where I was when you so obviously needed me." Sirius frowned, "Besides you were happy to see me no matter how much you tried to hide it. Worried but happy."
"It was still risky Paddy." Remus frowned, "You could have been caught."
Sirius nodded grudgingly, "I could have but I wasnt." he stated.
"You're right though. I was happy to see you again." Harry admitted, "After the letter I tried to think of a way to stop Sirius returning, eventually I sent a letter saying I probably just imagined my scar was hurting because I was half asleep and everything was fine but..."
"I didnt work." Sirius smirked, "I knew you were lying." he added.
"Of course it didn't fool you." James chuckled. "You'd be able to smell the emotions off the paper."
"Which I did. I detected lies and guilt." he smirked. "I love being able to turn into a dog."
"We'll be continuing from when I was at the Owlery to send that letter." Harry smiled.
The Owlery was a circular stone room, rather cold and drafty, because none of the windows had glass in them. The floor was entirely covered in straw, owl droppings, and the regurgitated skeletons of mice and voles. Hundreds upon hundreds of owls of every breed imaginable were nestled here on perches that rose right up to the top of the tower, nearly all of them asleep, though here and there a round amber eye glared at Harry. He spotted Hedwig nestled between a barn owl and a tawny, and hurried over to her, sliding a little on the dropping-strewn floor.
It took him a while to persuade her to wake up and then to look at him, as she kept shuffling around on her perch, showing him her tail. She was evidently still furious about his lack of gratitude the previous night.
"I don't really blame her." Ginny muttered.
"What? Are we going to have to start a S-P-O-W now?" Ron asked.
"Of course." Harry grinned as Snow flew in the window and came to perch on his shoulder, "Hello you. I'd wondered where you'd gotten to."
I was hunting. Snow seemed as though he didn't know Harry could understand him.
"Ah. I thought that." Ginny smiled. Snow looked at her reproachfully, "Both me and Harry can understand you Snow." she explained.
"Yeah, and I don't mind if you're out hunting." Harry added.
How come you never told me before then? the owl asked.
"Never thought about it." Ginny shrugged.
Okay... If you need me I'll be upstairs sleeping.
Harry nodded and Snow flew off and out the window again.
"It's so weird seeing you two hoot like owls." Petunia muttered. The two just chuckled.
In the end, it was Harry suggesting she might be too tired, and that perhaps he would ask Ron to borrow Pigwidgeon, that made her stick out her leg and allow him to tie the letter to it.
A few of them laughed and everyone else smiled.
"She really didn't like Pig." Ron chuckled. Harry nodded in agreement.
"Just find him, all right?" Harry said, stroking her back as he carried her on his arm to one of the holes in the wall. "Before the dementors do."
She nipped his finger, perhaps rather harder than she would ordinarily have done, but hooted softly in a reassuring sort of way all the same. Then she spread her wings and took off into the sunrise. Harry watched her fly out of sight with the familiar feeling of unease back in his stomach. He had been so sure that Sirius's reply would alleviate his worries rather than increasing them.
Sirius huffed.
"That was a lie, Harry," said Hermione sharply over breakfast, when he told her and Ron what he had done. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know it."
"So what?" said Harry. "He's not going back to Azkaban because of me."
"Harry, you worry way to much." Sirius sighed.
Everyone, except Harry, agreed.
"Drop it," said Ron sharply to Hermione as she opened her mouth to argue some more, and for once, Hermione heeded him, and fell silent.
Harry did his best not to worry about Sirius over the next couple of weeks. True, he could not stop himself from looking anxiously around every morning when the post owls arrived, nor, late at night before he went to sleep, prevent himself from seeing horrible visions of Sirius, cornered by dementors down some dark London street, but between times he tried to keep his mind off his godfather.
"Merlin Harry. It's nice to know you worry about me and all, but it's getting a little out of hand." Sirius said, surprised.
"Well, think about it Padfoot." Remus began, always the logical one, "You were the closest thing Harry had to a parent and you were on the run from the Ministry and had a fair chance of getting attacked by Dementors... and you don't have a wand. Wouldn't you worry if on of your parents was in a situation like that?"
Sirius gave Remus a blank look at his question.
"If it was one of my parent's Paddy?" James suggested. Sirius's eyes widened and he nodded towards Remus instantly.
He wished he still had Quidditch to distract him; nothing worked so well on a troubled mind as a good, hard training session.
On the other hand, their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts.
To their surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.
Regulus was the first to voice his protest, "WHAT?! But they're just kids! That's a dark curse."
Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn't help but laugh a at the 'just kids' bit.
"What?" Sirius growled at them.
"It's just, we've faced far worse than having an unforgivable curse placed on us by a teacher... a good bit of it before we even got to fourth year." Ron explained.
"Like what?" Alice asked.
"Well, let's see..." Harry began, thinking, "I've had Voldemort trying to kill me at least three times before we got this far, we fought a troll, a three-headed dog, a relatively weak Voldemort, and a dragon as first years, giant spiders, a basilisk and another Voldemort as second years, and Dementors, a Werewolf and what we believed to be an insane mass murderer who we thought was after me in our third year. No offense, Remus, Sirius."
"None taken." they said together.
"That's just scratching the surface of those years and we still have four years to cover." Hermione said.
"Do you realize how boring life would be if you weren't my friend?" Ron asked.
Harry laughed, "I could imagine."
"You seem to be treating these things as day-to-day life." Frank commented.
"For us it was." Harry shrugged, "Life is far more interesting when we're around."
"Definitely." the Weasley brothers, minus Ron, said as one.
"Life would be very boring without those three." the twins chuckled together.
"But - but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Hermione uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said - to use it against another human was -"
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way - when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely - fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
"I guess it's alright as long as it's not Crucio and Avada Kedavra because Moody's not going to do anything to make them hurt themselves." Alice said reasonably.
He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. Harry and Ron grinned at each other. They knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Harry watched as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
"Potter," Moody growled, "you next."
Harry moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Harry, and said, "Imperio!"
It was the most wonderful feeling. Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.
And then he heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Jump onto the desk... jump onto the desk...
Harry bent his knees obediently, preparing to spring.
Jump onto the desk...
Why, though? Another voice had awoken in the back of his brain. Stupid thing to do, really, said the voice.
"Your fighting it." James said shocked.
"Not completely, but yes I was." Harry smiled.
Jump onto the desk...
No, I don't think I will, thanks, said the other voice, a little more firmly... no, I don't really want to.
Jump! NOW!
The next thing Harry felt was considerable pain. He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping - the result was that he'd smashed headlong into the desk knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps.
"Ow." Sirius muttered as Harry rubbed his knee in remembrance.
"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, and suddenly, Harry felt the empty, echoing feeling in his head disappear. He remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in his knees seemed to double.
"Look at that, you lot... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention - watch his eyes, that's where you see it - very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"
"I guess that's a good thing." Sirius muttered.
"Oh it is." Harry said evasively, "By the time I was done with that class I could throw it off completely."
"At 14?!" Andy asked, "Not many grown Witches and Wizards can fight that curse off."
"It took me a few weeks and I was 16." James muttered, "At 14 though... That's impressive."
"The way he talks," Harry muttered as he hobbled out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class an hour later (Moody had insisted on putting Harry through his paces four times in a row, until Harry could throw off the curse entirely)
"And now it's even more impressive because it only took you 4 tries." Dora chuckled.
Harry blushed, "I couldn't not fight it if I wanted to. I always fought even if I didnt mean to. I suppose it's a good thing." he shrugged.
"Very good thing." Ron nodded.
"you'd think we were all going to be attacked any second."
"Yeah, I know," said Ron, who was skipping on every alternate step. He had had much more difficulty with the curse than Harry, though Moody assured him the effects would wear off by lunchtime. "Talk about paranoid..." Ron glanced nervously over his shoulder to check that Moody was definitely out of earshot and went on. "No wonder they were glad to get shot of him at the Ministry. Did you hear him telling Seamus what he did to that witch who shouted 'Boo' behind him on April Fools Day? And when are we supposed to read up on resisting the Imperius Curse with everything else we've got to do?"
"Right we'll take a quick break while I quickly sort through my memories." Harry decided.