Bold*- parstletounge
Italics - thoughts
"Normal"- speech and narrative
Chapter 54: Draco And Moody
TW - talk of anorexia/eating disorder
2/9/1994
~~~~~~~~~
It was nearly curfew and Cassandra had been putting off going back to the common room.
She trudged reluctantly down to the dungeons and stood in front of the wall that concealed the Slytherin's quarters of the castle.
Cassandra tried to compose herself, and thought for a moment it had worked, so she spoke the password.
A gap formed in the wall and she marched into the room, a mask of indifference on her face. As soon as she saw Draco, however, it turned to rage. She stormed over to him, everyone parting to let her through.
His eyes widened as she approached.
"Get. Up." She hissed. He quickly rose and she grabbed his collar, slamming him against the wall, holding him to it with her arm.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy how dare you! Sure, I'm all for riling up the Gryffindorks and having a bit of fun, but if I tell you to stop - you stop! YOU DO NOT BODYSHAME THEIR MOTHER! ESPECIALLY AS YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENED WITH MY MOTHER, YOUR AUNT, WHEN THAT HAPPENED TO HER! OR SHOULD I REMIND YOU?"
"Cass I-"
"SHE DID NOT EAT, SHE SKIPPED MEALS, SHE WASTED AWAY - SHE NEARLY DIED. AND YOU DECIDED TO POSSIBLY ENDURE THAT TO WEASLEYS MOTHER?! MAYBE YOU SHOULD REMEMBER WHAT YOUR FAMILY WENT THROUGH AND NOT WISH IT ON OTHER PEOPLE HUH?"
Her eyes flashed red and angry tears were threatening to escape.
"AND ANOTHER THING! HOW DARE YOU JUST FLING ME TO THE GROUND LIKE I WAS NOTHING! I TOLD YOU TO STOP AND YOU DIDN'T LISTEN. I DON'T CARE WHAT POTTER CALLED ME! THAT WAS NOT THE TIME TO HEX HIM, EVEN IN YOUR MOTHERS OR MY HONOUR. HE WILL GET WHAT IS COMING TO HIM - YOU KNOW THAT! NOW NEXT TIME YOU THINK OF USING AN INSULT THAT COULD HAVE KILLED YOUR FAMILY MEMBER, OR PUSHING ME ASIDE LIKE I AM NOTHING, YOU REMEMBER THIS!"
Cass removed her arm and Draco relaxed.
She glared at him with a look of pure anger and disappointment before running up to her dormitory and flinging herself onto her bed.
Fang slithered towards her, growing in size, and engulfing her with as good a hug a snake can give; holding her as she cried herself to sleep.
———
4/9/1994
It was tense between Draco and Cassandra the next few days. In fact it was tense between the whole group. No one wanted to take sides but everyone wanted to be there for and comfort Cass, especially Blaise and Theo - however she was making it extremely difficult for them.
She had eaten her meals at the Hufflepuff table with the twins and Cedric, they walked her to class, she sat with the other houses in lessons, even coping with Granger as her partner just to not sit with them.
And then, when they returned to the common room, she sat with Malcom and asked about his day before heading straight to bed and drawing her curtains to not be disturbed.
You could say she was in a bit of a mood.
Cedric had just bid her goodbye after walking her to her first Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson and she was now seated in the front row next to Granger, once again with Blaise and Theo sat on the desk behind them: glancing longingly at their friend.
"You can put those away," a voice sounded out into the room, "those books. You won't need them."
The class placed their books back into their bags. Cassandra noticed Moody glaring at Draco. He then seemed to glance between her and her friends with a saddened look, before returning his glaring at her cousin.
After he took the register he began to speak, "right then 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 murmur of assent throughout the class.
"But you're behind, very behind, on dealing with curses," Cass's head snapped up, "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?" Weasley burst out from the desk on Grangers side.
The Professors head whipped around to face him as Cassandra rolled her eyes at the gall he had to interrupt an Auror - retired or not.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said as the Weasel nodded. "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, before clapping his 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. I say, however, the sooner you know what you're up against the better!"
He surveyed the class.
"So, do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Cassandra raised her hand, as did many of the class. Moody pointed at her, "yes Miss...?"
"Riddle sir. The Unforgivable curses sir."
"And there are how many?"
"Three sir."
"And they are so named?"
"Because they are unforgivable - casting any one of them will give you a one way ticket to Azkaban." She shuddered slightly at the name of the foul place her family was being kept.
Moody nodded, "excellent, 5 points to Slytherin. Now can any of you tell me what these curses are?"
Weasley got called on first.
"Er, my dad told me about one - the Imperius Curse?"
"Ah, yes," stated Moody. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Suddenly the Professor was on his feet. He had acquired a spider from a jar on his desk. He cast an enlargement charm on it and then pointed his wand at the creature once more.
"Imperio!"
The spider leapt from Moody's hand and landed on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody then jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs began to tap dance. He made it go around the room, scaring people, landing on Draco's screaming face - an unnoticed look of satisfaction at his screams.
Everyone was laughing and he seemed to snap out of his internal amusement.
"Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The laughter died away.
"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..."
Cassandra was fixated on the spider, the Imperius was the only Unforgivable she had not preformed.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse. 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.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Cassandra once again raised her hand, as did others around her. Longbottom, however, surprised her by raising his.
"Yes?" said Moody, his sights on the boy.
Cassandra knew instantly what spell he would utter.
"The Cruciatus Curse."
As Moody began torturing the spider by means of this dark curse Cassandra found a wave of sadness wash over her. This was the reason her Uncle Rab, Uncle Rod and Uncle Barty got thrown in Azkaban for, and nearly her mother - luckily being able to replace her with a glamoured muggle.
She couldn't help thinking that if they had never used it on the stupid Longbottom family, her Uncle Barty might not be dead...
"Stop it!" A voice from beside her called out. "Can't you see it's affecting them?!"
Cassandra looked up to see Granger gesturing to a pale and shaking Neville and, surprisingly, Cassie herself.
Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"Pain," he said softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. Right - anyone know the final Unforgivable?"
None of the class were so keen to raise their hands this time.
"Come on! Surely someone knows?!"
Beside her, Granger shakily raised her hand.
"Yes Miss Granger?"
"Avada Kedavra," the Mudblood whispered.
"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse."
He pointed his wand, once more, at the spider.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was a flash of green light and the creature was still.
"Not nice. 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."
Normally Cass would have rolled her eyes, made a snide remark, or something but her Uncle's death, and the possibility of her other Uncles dying the same way, just because of the stupid Crutiatas curse, was playing on her mind.
Moody was speaking again.
"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." Cassandra snorted quietly under her breath.
"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!" The whole class jumped again.
"Now, those three curses - Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus; 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. Get out your quills, copy this down."
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses.
No one spoke until the bell rang. As soon as they left the classroom everyone was discussing the curses in awed voices.
Cassie, however, was pale and upset.
She was stood alone, having ducked into an empty passage to hide from her Slytherins. Cass knew the would know she was upset and therefore try and talk to her.
But she didn't want to talk, she wanted her Uncle back.
"Neville?" Grangers voice echoed near her. She looked up and realised that, unfortunately for her, Longbottom had decided to follow her lead - but had led the terrible trio to her hiding spot in the process.
"Are you alright?"
Cassandra huffed and went to leave. She didn't want to stay here, especially with the boy who's parents got her family caught and sent to that hell hole.
"Riddle?"
She whipped around, wiping her tears to not show weakness. "What Granger?"
"Are you okay aswell?"
Cassie was shocked at the question, as were Potter and Weasley. She just nodded and then turned to leave again, however she got stopped once more.
Professor Moody was standing in the entrance to the passage. "It's all right, sonny," he said to Longbottom, "and you girly. Why don't you both come up to my office? Come on, we can have a cup of tea."
Cassandra knew she had no choice in the matter, for she would never deny a teacher - especially an ex-Auror. Longbottom on the other hand looked positively sick at the idea.
The duo of fourth years dragged their feet all the way to Moody's office. Once there, they entered the room and sat down awkwardly.
The Professor sat opposite the two and started by pouring three cups of tea with, surprisingly, a dainty china tea set. In any other scenario Cassandra would have laughed - but she knew better.
He kept up the pleasantries and, luckily for Cass, he swooped in on Longbottom first. He talked to him about Herbology, Professor Sprout and then gave him a book, before dismissing the now smiling boy.
After Moody waved him away he shut the door. Cassandra heard the click of a lock and her head whipped up almost instantly.
"Professor? I hardly think that will be necessary for a chat and cup of tea."
Her hand was inching towards her wand ever so slightly.
"It's okay, I'm not going to harm you!" He was walking towards her with his hands raised. Cassandra now had her wand out and pointed towards him, backing up with every step he drew closer.
The man suddenly began to shake, he fell to the floor. It was like the spider did under the effects of the Cruciatas, although this was much much stranger. He began removing his fake leg and the strap that held his revolving glass eye. His hands seemed to be bubbling, as did his face.
Cassandra still had her wand pointed at him, she had absolutely no clue what to do but she could not go near him to help - it could be a trap after all.
She cautiously circled him, he reached out towards her foot and she stomped on his hand. Moody recoiled and looked up at her to find a wand directly in his face.
"Please! Don't do anything to me! You'll see in a minute, Andrea, just wait! Andy I promise be patient!"
Cassandra stopped dead in her tracks. "What did you just call me?!"
Moody had started shaking again so could not answer.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?" She yelled, leaning her back on the door and slumping to the ground.
Cass watched as something began happening to the man. He began to grow thinner and taller, but still keeping his muscular build. His hair became shorter, darker and less grisly all whilst he kept shaking.
Soon enough, he stopping. His head was to the ground and Cassandra could not see his face - but she needed to, desperately. She needed to see if what she was thinking could actually be possible.
As if reading her mind the man on the floor looked up. Cass gasped and her had flew to her mouth. It couldn't be. It wasn't possible! He was supposed to be dead!
The person allowed to call her Andrea/Andy when no one else was. The person who begged her to plait his hair even though it was too short. The person who had been her best friend.
It couldn't be...
But it was here in front of her, clear as day - her Uncle Barty was alive!
