I'M ALIVE! So a couple of weeks ago I remembered that I started this story and stopped writing it so I decided to bring it back! I've rewritten all the previous chapters because they were pretty poorly written lol. I'm fully committed to finishing this story so I hope there are people who are still interested in reading it. Enjoy this chapter!
"That's wrong, Patil!" Alecto Carrow growled for the third time that morning after Padma had made yet another feeble attempt at using the Cruciatus Curse on a shivering rabbit.
"Is it?" Padma cocked her head to the side as she peered down at the animal on her desk. Though Padma was one of the smartest students in their year and had the capability to utter the spell, Neville knew that she wouldn't do something that went against her strong moral code. So instead she chose to play dumb, acting blissfully ignorant as to why her spell wasn't working.
"You didn't even hit the damn thing," Carrow barked out, causing her to flinch slightly. His shortlived patience was completely gone as he stormed down the aisle towards her. He grabbed the hand that held her wand and pointed it directly at the poor animal. "Do it, Miss Patil. That's an order." Carrow impatiently tapped his dragon leather shoe on the floor as he looked at her expectantly.
"I can't," Padma whimpered, her previous scatterbrained attitude gone. She shook slightly, and Neville couldn't quite tell if it was from the thought of having to hurt an animal or Carrow's sheer proximity to her.
"Yes you will," he said through gritted teeth. His growing anger caused tension in the room as the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Lavender held Parvati tight to her side, who looked ready to leap up and defend her sister at any minute. In the front row, Anthony, Terry, and Michael also looked as if they were ready to intervene.
"It's too cruel!" Padma looked up at the professor with slightly wild eyes. "I won't do it!"
"Yes you fucking will!" Red-faced and growling, Carrow raised his hand to hit her. His hand flew through the air in slow motion but never reached its target.
"Protego!" Morag MacDougal screeched from the back of the room as she leaped to her feet, thrusting her wand forward with such force that Carrow was blasted off his feet. He flew backward into one of his bookcases, causing books to drop off the shelves around him in a ring.
Terry and Michael swore under their breath in unison as Parvati jumped out of her seat to pull a shocked Padma away from the demonstration table. Morag stared at the professor's limp body with a look of horror on her face. Her arm fell limply to her side.
"Shit, Morag, I think you've killed him," Seamus gasped, hope lacing his voice as he leaned over his desk to inspect the damage. Neville, who was sitting beside him, jabbed him in the side with his elbow.
"I'm very much alive, Finnegan," Carrow wheezed as he slowly sat up, much to Seamus's disappointment. The professor waved his wand and the books jumped back onto their rightful shelves until the floor around the bookcase was completely empty. The Gryffindors and Ravenclaws held their breaths as Carrow slowly got to his feet and dusted off his dark robes with a flick of his hand. "Well, that was unexpected." Carrow looked more bewildered than angry, which surprised Neville. He made eye contact with Terry, who widened his eyes and shook his head. Neville raised an eyebrow, confused.
Carrow had begun to walk down the aisle towards Morag, who quivered under his gaze. "And where, pray tell, did you learn to do that, MacDougal? You barely talk in class, let alone cast spells with strength like that."
Neville, in any other instance, would've been extremely proud of Morag, for the shield spell she had just cast was fantastic and she had made so much improvement in her spell-casting skills since joining the DA. A thought suddenly hit him and the breath was knocked out of him as he understood Terry's nervousness. Carrow was dangerously close to finding out about Dumbledore's Army.
"I've been practicing a lot," Morag squeaked as she swayed slightly on her feet. Su Li, who was sitting beside her, pulled her down onto the bench by her robes.
"Practicing?" Carrow tapped his chin with his long wand as he drifted towards the shaking Ravenclaw girl.
"In the Common Room," Morag gasped out. "W-with Su and Terry and-"
"And why is that?" Carrow loomed over her desk. "For I don't remember teaching you any shield charms. Is my teaching so inadequate that you find the need to make your own lesson plans, MacDougal?"
"No! No, not at all," Morag cringed away from him so far back that she was leaning heavily on Su's shoulder. The other girl didn't seem to even notice, for she was so distracted by Carrow'. "You're a g-great professor."
"You're lying!" Carrow's short temper was revealed once again as he slammed his hands down on the Ravenclaw's desk. Morag shrieked and jumped back, tumbling into Su. "I know you're not practicing in the Ravenclaw Common Room, I know you're lying." Neville and Terry's wands were out in an instant and Seamus and Michael jumped to their feet, all four of them ready to restrain Carrow. Having heard them, Carrow turned around and quirked an eyebrow at the four fuming students. "Aha, I'm assuming you four have something to do with this little spell practice, then? What are you seventh years hiding?"
"Nothing," Neville said evenly, though he was shaking. They had made themselves obvious, Carrow knew that there was something going on.
"Boot? Finnegan? Corner?" Carrow addressed the other three boys one at a time, though they stayed silent and clenched their jaws. "No? Fine then." He rounded on Morag once more and grabbed her by the neck, pulling her out of her seat and down the aisle. Su let out a cry of surprise and Lavender openly gasped.
"Let go of her!" Padma and Michael shouted in unison as they watched their housemate being choked and dragged to the front of the room by the professor.
"This is what happens when students don't comply," Carrow said with a shrug that was far too casual for the situation at hand. He looked down at Morag and released her with a flick of his hand. She fell over the table, coughing and grabbing at her throat. "Maybe the Cruciatus Curse will loosen your tongue."
"Stupefy!" Seamus cried as Carrow raised his wand, sending the professor flying through the air for the second time that day. He landed hard on his back next to his desk and did not move. There were sounds of benches scraping against the floor as everyone jumped up from their desks and hurried to the front of the room. Morag tumbled off the table and into Padma and Su's arms, shoulders shaking silently with dry sobs.
"Now you've done it, Seamus," Lavender whimpered as she looked down at the motionless body, clapping a hand over her mouth in shock.
"Me?" Seamus cried indignantly. "I didn't do anything wrong, he was going to Cruciate her!"
"He wouldn't have really done it," Parvati protested, then looked at Morag. "He couldn't have," she muttered in a low voice.
"What do we do now?" Michael groaned.
"Obliviate." Anthony's calm voice said above the shouts, causing everyone to fall silent. A thin stream of blue magic floated from the tip of his wand and surrounded Carrow's head. The man sighed in his sleep as his short-term memory was suddenly wiped. When Anthony looked up, he was met with blank stares. And then his friends erupted.
"What the hell did you do that for, Anthony?" Su gasped, releasing Morag, who had miraculously stopped crying.
"Tony!" Michael and Terry exclaimed in unison, looking at their normally level-headed friend with shock.
"Oh shit," Lavender and Seamus muttered as their eyes grew as wide as saucers.
"Anthony?" Neville, just as shocked at the rest of his friends, turned to look at the Ravenclaw for an explanation.
Anthony huffed slightly and put his wand back in his pocket. "Oh come on, was it really that bad of an idea? He would've literally murdered Seamus once he had woken up. And do you think he would've stopped questioning Morag about the DA? He would've tortured her, and the rest of us until he found out." Michael, Terry, and Neville relaxed slightly at his explanation, but the girls were still furious.
"That's not the point though," Parvati protested. "The point is that we're no better than he is if we go around stunning professors and wiping their memories!"
"Do you even know how to do a proper memory charm?" Padma put her hands on his hips as she glared at Anthony. "What if you scrambled his memory and he's messed up for good?"
"Would that really be such a bad thing?" Seamus muttered quietly.
"Are you doubting my abilities, Pad?" Anthony asked his friend, raising an eyebrow. She glared at him and spun around, arms crossed over her chest.
"Let's all take a deep breath for a second," Terry stepped in to act as the voice of reason. "It was wrong to wipe Carrow's memory but it'll benefit us all in the long run. Let's just pretend it never happened and go on with our day." He put a hand on Anthony's shoulder, only for it to be shrugged off by the scowling, bespectacled Ravenclaw.
"But maybe we should start using the memory charm more often," Seamus protested, jumping to Anthony's defense. "Carrow's lessons are cruel, why shouldn't we act out against him? If we stopped him every time he was going to hurt one of us and used a memory charm on him then no one would get hurt."
"He would! We can't very well go around hurting teachers like this!" A red-faced Parvati shrieked at Seamus, who jumped back slightly.
"I know, I'm so sorry," Morag babbled nervously, wiping her face with the sleeve of her robe. "I don't know what came over me, I shouldn't have been so impulsive."
"I was actually talking about Seamus and Anthony," the Gryffindor said, scowling in the direction of the two boys. "Carrow's going to know that something happened when he wakes up and we're all gone."
"Then let's stay here," Su spoke up. "Sit in our desks, wake him up, act as if nothing happened." Her suggestion seemed to satisfy Parvati, who had calmed down enough to nod.
"That's a great idea, Su." Lavender nodded encouragingly, seemingly glad that the dispute had been settled. "I suppose we'll have to sit him back up in his chair, though."
"Not it!" Seamus drew his wand and tapped it to his nose with a smirk. There was a mad rush as people scrambled around for their wands and mimicking the gesture. The losers of the little race were Neville, who had taken a ridiculous amount of time to tug his wand out of his pocket, and Anthony, who hadn't made any attempts at even moving. "Tough luck," Seamus whistled as he skipped over to his desk and plopped down as the rest of the group scurried back to their desks.
Anthony and Neville hovered over Carrow's body as they looked down at him in distaste. "Alright there, Anthony?" Neville asked, having noticed the boy's sour expression.
"I didn't mean to cause such a fuss," Anthony mumbled as he prodded Carrow's stunned body with the tip of his shoe. "I wanted to try to do the right thing for once, or what I thought was the right thing, I guess."
"I don't blame you," Neville said comfortingly, but he was cut off.
"Whatever, let's just get him back up in his desk." Anthony crouched down and took one of Carrow's limp arms before looking up expectantly. Neville quickly grabbed the professor's other arm and with their combined effort, they managed to haul the body back into his desk chair. Carrow fell forward, his forehead making a hollow sound as it connected with the tabletop. Seamus snickered into his hand. Neville looked up to speak to Anthony but the Ravenclaw was already spinning on his heels to return to his seat. Neville sighed but followed him, sitting down next to Seamus and pulling out his notes.
Terry, who sat in the front nearest to Carrow, looked over his shoulder at the rest of the class to see if everyone was ready. They all lifted their quills in acknowledgment and he yawned. He leaned forward, lifted his wand, and whispered, "Rennervate!" As the man began to stir, Terry quickly shoved his wand into his sleeve and picked up his quill before pretending to work on an assignment.
"What's going on?" Carrow's slurred voice suddenly broke the silence, causing all pairs of eyes to turn their attention to the front of the room. He pushed himself up by his elbows as he looked around with droopy eyes. "What happened?"
Neville put on an innocent face. "Why, you fell asleep, Professor. And a pity it was that you did, the lesson you were teaching was ever so interesting." Carrow blinked owlishly, rubbing his reddening forehead.
"We would've woken you but you were just saying earlier how tired you were," Michael chimed in as he stroked the quill in his hand. "So we decided to start working on the homework you had assigned at the beginning of class."
Seamus looked down at his watch and tsked. "I would've loved to have seen the Cruciatus Curse in action but unfortunately class is over, what a bummer. See you later, Professor." He gathered his things and got up out of his desk as the rest of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws hurried to get up and file out of the room. "Get some sleep tonight, Professor," Seamus, the last to leave, said with a wink as he closed the door on the confused professor.