"Alastor Moody. Ministry malcontent. And your new defense against the dark arts teacher. I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions? When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"
"Three, sir," Hermione answers.
"And they are so named?"
"Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of those curses will..." Holly says.
"Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now the ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against; you need to be prepared, you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnigan!"
"Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head."
"And hear across classrooms!"
After that, Professor Moody asks for volunteers to name the unforgivable curses. He then begins to demonstrate them much to the horror of the entire class. When Moody demonstrates the killing curse, the class is silent.
"The killing curse. Only two people have been known to have survived it. And they're sitting in this room."
He approaches the twin's desk and takes a drink from his flask.
As they left class, Ron kept babbling about how brilliant Moody was while the twins and Hermione were troubled by the whole ordeal. Seeing the flash of green light triggered the memory of their mother being hit with the killing curse when Harry and Holly were babies. Unconsciously, Holly reached up and rubbed the crescent moon shape scare on her forehead. Harry looked at his sister and took her hand, squeezing it.
"There's a reason those curses are unforgivable, and to perform them in a classroom. I mean, did you see Neville's face," Hermione said as they walked down the stairs.
They came across Neville, who was staring out the window, "Neville, are you alright?" Holly asks, putting her hand on his shoulder.
At that moment, Professor Moody comes stomping down the stairs, "Son, are you alright?"
Neville nods, absentmindedly.
"Come on; we'll have a cup of tea. I want to show you something," And with that, Moody leads Neville back to his office.
Holly and Harry make their way towards the Great Hall with the others. They sit down at the Gryffindor table and serve themselves lunch. But Holly can't eat, she too disturbed by what happened in DADA. She sits there next to Hermione and picks at her food.
"Holly, you need to eat," Hermione tells her.
"I'm not hungry."
"What's the matter with you," Ron asks with his mouth full of food.
Hermione and Holly grimace, "Swallow your food before you speak, Ronald." Hermione tells him.
Holly shakes her head, "It's nothing, I'll see you guys later. I'm going back to the Common Room."
Harry, Hermione, and Ron watch as Holly gets up and leaves the Great Hall. Harry's brow furrows, he's about to get up and go after his twin when Hermione catches his arm.
"Leave her, Harry. Holly needs some alone time," Hermione tells him.
Harry looks at his best friend and nods. He doesn't like the thought of his twin being upset, but maybe Hermione was right. Across the room at the Slytherin table, Viktor watches as Holly gets up and leaves the Great Hall. He can tell from where he's sitting that she's upset about something, and it concerns him. Viktor gets up and discreetly makes his way out of the room. As he searches for Holly, Viktor sees through the window heading towards the Quidditch pitch with a broom in her hand.
Viktor runs down to the ship to get his broom and follows Holly towards the Quidditch pitch. When he gets there, Viktor finds Holly flying through the air, doing corkscrews and flips on her broom Her red hair flying wildly in the wind. He watches as she does a Chelmondiston Charge, standing on her broom and leaping over a pretend opponent and landing back on her broom.
'She's a Chaser,' Viktor thinks.
But to his surprise, Holly, perform his signature move the Wronski Feint. Viktor continues to watch Holly fly in fascination; He almost cried out when he watched Holly make a sharp dive straight towards the Quidditch pitch. At the last minute, Holly pulls up, she then stands up on her broom and does a backflip off, landing lightly on her feet.
All the years of Aunt Petunia forcing her to take gymnastics and ballet have paid off, giving Holly perfect balance. Though Holly was treated just as severely as Harry, their Aunt Petunia tried to live vicariously through Holly and had her work until exhaustion to be the perfect gymnast and ballerina. Holly stands there, catching her breath when she suddenly hears someone applaud. She turns around and for the first time notices Viktor Krum standing there watching her.
"That vos amazing. How did you learn to fly like dat?" Viktor asked.
Holly blushes and rubs the back of her neck, "Um, just practicing. I'm a reserve Seeker and Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team."
Viktor's eyes widen, "Only a reserve? Vith talent like dat, you should be playing every game."
Holly blushes harder, "I'm not that good."
"Da you are," Viktor says as he walks closer to Holly, "Ver are my manners, I am Viktor Krum. You are the girl I saved at the Quidditch Vorld Cup, Da?"
"Um, yeah, I am. I'm Holly Potter," She says and puts her hand out to shake Viktor's hand.
Viktor is startled that this is the famous Potter twin. His eyes flick up to her forehead to see the renowned crescent moon scar, but they quickly go back to Holly's emerald eyes. Viktor smiles at her, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles. It amuses him to see Holly's eyes widen and blush again.
"It is very nice to meet you, Holly."
"It's nice to meet you too, Viktor."
"Tell me, vhy are you flying alone?"
Holly frowns, "I was a little upset and needed to clear my head. Flying makes me feel better."
Viktor's brow furrows, "Vhat has you so upset?"
"It's nothing, really. Something happened in Defence Against the Dark Arts class that upset me."
"Vhat?"
Holly stared into Viktor's brown eyes, and then she started to tear up. She suddenly felt the need to tell someone how she was feeling, "It was horrible; Professor Moody performed the Unforgivable curses in class, even the Killing Curse. And all I could think of was how that curse killed my parents." Holly tells Viktor as tears begin to run down her cheeks.
She suddenly found herself in Viktor's strong embrace. He held her tightly as she cried into his shoulder, "Shh, it is alright, Little One. You haff every right to be upset. He should not haff shown you such tings," Viktor whispers in Holly's ear.
Holly hiccoughed and pulled away from Viktor. He looked into her sad green eyes, and his heart clenched. Viktor reached up and wiped he tears from her eyes. Holly gave him a sad smile, "Thank you, Viktor, I'm sorry I cried all over you."
Viktor smiles, "It is nothing, Holly. I am glad I could help in some vay. Now, vould you like to fly with me for a vhile?"
Holly smiled, "I'd love to, but I have to get back to the castle for my next class."
"Ah, vell, perhaps another time then, da?"
"Yeah, that'd be great," Holly said, then she walked over and picked up her firebolt, "Well, I'll see you later, Viktor."
Viktor reached out and took Holly's hand; he kissed her knuckles again, "I hope so, Holly."
Holly blushed then ran back to the castle. Viktor stood there and watched Holly. He sighed and mounted his broom to take a few laps around the Quidditch pitch.
When Holly reached the Common Room, she found Harry, Hermione, and Ron waiting for her, "Where have you been?" Hermione asked.
Harry noticed that Holly had her broom, and he frowned. Harry knew that Holly only flew when she was upset about something. He walked over to his sister and took her hand, "Are you okay, Hol?"
"I'm fine, Harry; I only need to clear my head. Let me go put up my broom, and we can go to class."
Holly ran upstairs and put her broom away. She grabbed her bag, patted Archimedes on the head, then ran back downstairs, "Okay, let's get to class before we're late."
Hermione looked at her best friend, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No, I'm fine, Hermione, I promise. Let's go to class."
And so the quartet left for their next class, but Holly couldn't get the thought of Viktor out of her head. She smiled at thinking of the Bulgarian Seeker.