Chapter Fifty-Three: A Clear Head
Over the next few days, the meeting with the centaurs kept Daphne busy more than she would have liked. She'd told Harry and the others what she had seen — and had written down the exact phrasing of her words so as not to forget them — but she hadn't really drawn many conclusions yet.
She was fairly certain that the serpent bearer, at least, was Voldemort, which suggested that his return was close at hand, but how close was close? Was it weeks? Months? Combining it with the visions the crystal ball had given her, it suggested that a few other things would happen first. She recalled seeing a dragon, an underwater village, and a maze, but none of those things had shown up yet.
They could have something to do with the Tournament, perhaps, but that would imply that Harry would get involved in it somehow.
Because one thing she had realized was that her 'focal point' was probably Harry. He'd been in her mind for ages, after all, and it had been him she saw dying in the crystal ball. Her sarcastic predictions had been made while thinking of specific things, which would have served as her focal point then, and Hermione's tea leaves were, well, Hermione's, and Daphne had been trying to see Hermione's future at that moment. Apparently, though, when left blank, she defaulted to focusing on Harry, and now that she could admit to herself that she liked him, she wasn't all that surprised anymore that she did.
So if her visions in the crystal ball were true, and they showed Harry's future…then he might very well end up being involved in the Triwizard Tournament, despite not being of age. But what if she was wrong? Were these suspicions alone enough to go to Dumbledore? And even if they were, what could he do about it? Would he do anything about it?
She hadn't shared these thoughts with her friends yet, because she simply didn't know if it was worth doing at this point. There was too much guesswork involved, and she still didn't really want to believe that it was real, even though she knew full well that it was.
Maybe she should try to follow Firenze's advice and try a method of Divination that was more 'earthly', and practice on that, but she didn't think Trelawney would take kindly to her saying that watching the stars was useless to most people in the class, at least when it came to predicting their own futures. Harry might be able to do it, given that he apparently was 'steeped in prophecy', whatever that meant, but Harry didn't care enough about Divination in general to make the effort.
She didn't get much time to really get into it, however, as homework was brutal for the fourth-years, and then one lesson arrived that distracted her quite thoroughly from Divination.
"Today's lesson will be up close and personal," Moody said. "I'm going to be putting all of you under the Imperius Curse. You need to understand how it feels and what it can do. The curse can be fought, and I want to see if anyone in this class can do it."
"The Imperius Curse is illegal," Malfoy said. "Surely you don't mean to imply that you have permission to do this?"
"I do have permission," Moody said gruffly. "You may take it up with Dumbledore, if you want proof. Of course, I can't force you to do this, not without casting the curse illegally. But if you prefer to remain vulnerable, you'll be leaving the classroom. That goes for everyone else as well. If you stay, you're participating. Once I cast the curse on the first person, everyone still in the room will go through it as well. I will not have glib remarks from people who lacked the courage to undergo it themselves. So…who is staying, and who is leaving?"
Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle immediately left the classroom, as did Runcorn and Bulstrode. Nott, Zabini, Pansy, Tracey, and Daphne were the only ones left.
"You're made of sterner stuff than your classmates," Moody said appreciatively.
Daphne wasn't really sure why she'd stayed. Perhaps it was just morbid curiosity. By the expressions of her classmates, she wasn't the only one feeling apprehensive.
"Right then…Greengrass, why don't you start?"
Daphne got up and Moody cleared the center of the classroom, sweeping everything aside with his wand.
"Stand in the center there," he instructed, and Daphne stood where he'd indicated.
She looked at her classmates. Even Nott and Zabini looked concerned for her, despite not liking her much.
Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Daphne, and said, "Imperio!"
All of Daphne's apprehension disappeared. So did most of her other thoughts. She just felt happy and relaxed. In the back of her head, she heard Moody's voice.
Make a cartwheel.
Well, why not? She obediently made a cartwheel. That was quite fun.
Now the other way.
Again, she followed the order joyfully and without question. But in the back of her mind, something else seemed to make some noise. She ignored it.
Do a backflip.
Daphne bent her knees, but the buzzing in the back of her mind became louder and stopped her for a moment. She pushed the annoying sound away once more.
Do a backflip.
Again, it was like someone else was shouting at her, but it came from so far away. It was annoying, because she was supposed to be doing a backflip and she wanted to get on with it, because it would be fun.
DO A BACKFLIP, NOW!
Daphne jumped — but at the same time, the voice in the back of her mind shouted, NO!
As a result, she landed flat on her back, and the blissful happiness disappeared, to be replaced by complete dread.
The second voice in her head, when Moody had been controlling her, had been her own, and now that the curse had been lifted, she could finally hear her own thoughts again.
She sat up, breathing shallowly.
"Not bad, not bad at all," Moody growled.
Daphne didn't reply. For some reason, she just couldn't get her breathing under control. Everything in her body felt revolted at what had happened, at how easily she'd been controlled. If Moody had wanted to, he could probably have crushed her resistance easily.
Her stomach churned and she threw up on the classroom floor.
"Are you alright?" Moody asked, taking a step toward her.
"Stay the hell away from me," Daphne said, still unable to breathe normally. She was dimly aware that tears were running down her face, but all she cared about was that Moody didn't come near her.
Moody nodded slowly. "Get to the infirmary, Miss Greengrass. Madam Pomfrey will give you something to calm down. For a first attempt, that was certainly not bad…"
Daphne didn't meet any of her classmates' eyes as she left the classroom. She didn't want to go to the infirmary, but she had no real idea of where else to go. Harry was in his own class, and it was cold and rainy outside. So, very unwillingly, she entered the infirmary, which was miraculously empty.
"What's the problem?" Madam Pomfrey asked, sizing Daphne up. "You didn't jump in front of an angry hippogriff again, did you?" she asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I wish I had," Daphne said glumly. "This is…well…"
"Well, spit it out, then. Won't be anything I've never heard before," Madam Pomfrey said.
"I just had the Imperius Curse used on me," Daphne said, biting back a new wave of both tears and nausea.
"You what?! Has Dumbledore taken leave of all his senses? The Imperius Curse on a student…utterly preposterous!"
Madam Pomfrey kept rattling about irresponsible teachers while she checked Daphne for any lingering effects of the curse.
"Do you feel any leftover compulsions to do anything?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"Aside from taking a fifteen-year shower, no," Daphne said. "I just…I couldn't…I couldn't do anything. I felt happy obeying those commands, but at the same time there was this small voice, this small bit of me, yelling at me to stop…and I tried to push it away because I wanted to listen to the commands. I…I feel so…"
"It's alright," Madam Pomfrey said soothingly.
"No, it isn't!" Daphne yelled. "I'm still shaking and it has nothing to do with the curse itself! I'm not hurt…but I…"
She sighed and shook her head. "I don't even know what I'm doing here. Moody told me to come, but there's nothing to fix."
"What you ought to be doing is taking a Calming Draught. You just sit right there and I'll get you one," Madam Pomfrey said, directing Daphne to a nearby chair.
When she returned with a small bottle of blue potion, Daphne really didn't want to drink it, but she knew Madam Pomfrey wouldn't take no for an answer. She quickly downed the potion and felt it taking effect immediately.
It didn't, like she had initially feared, take away her emotions. Instead, it seemed to soften and cushion them somehow, allowing her to think about what happened more rationally. This didn't make them any more pleasant, though it at least kept things manageable. She didn't feel like crying or vomiting anymore, at any rate.
That was a good thing, too, because just a few moments later, Moody entered the infirmary.
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Moody," Madam Pomfrey said. "Putting the Imperius Curse on kids that young…"
"They need to learn, Poppy," Moody said. "In the real world, it's not going to be just a minute. It could be weeks, months, even years. Better to teach them how to resist it early."
He walked over to Daphne and sat down two chairs over. Daphne appreciated that he was still keeping his distance, even though her immediate panic and revulsion were being kept in check by the potion.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked.
"Not really," Daphne answered truthfully. "Calmer, but not better."
"It'll do," Moody said. "I'd be surprised if you were right as rain again, anyhow."
"I don't know if I'll ever be, short of modifying my memory. But if you intend to show that off in class, I'm sitting it out. I don't care how important it might be for me to learn to defend myself from it," Daphne said firmly. "So, now what? Here to tell me I'm too weak to handle the real world?"
She knew she was addressing a teacher, but in spite of the Calming Draught, she was still annoyed, even if the feeling was less acute than it sometimes was. Perhaps Madam Pomfrey had only given her just enough to be helpful without dulling her senses completely. If so, Daphne was grateful for it. Being clear-headed was exactly what she wanted right now, and the lack of a clear head was exactly why the Imperius Curse frightened her so much.
"You're not. You fought the curse, in the end. Yes, I gradually lessened the power, but there was no guarantee you'd break free," Moody said.
"Was that why the voice in my head got stronger?" Daphne asked.
Moody nodded. "Yes. The objective of this class — and the next couple of classes — is for you all to learn to throw off the curse at its most powerful. I may not be a Dark wizard myself, but I know how to cast their spells all the same. I need to understand them in order to fight them. If you can break my Imperius Curse, no one short of Voldemort himself is going to be controlling you, and likely not even him."
"You didn't use his name in class," Daphne said, with a curious glance at Moody despite the revulsion she still felt.
Moody grinned his lopsided grin. "Ah, but I know your reputation, Miss Greengrass. I see no reason not to use the name when I know you do."
"So why did it affect me that badly, if I'm not weak? I don't see anyone else here…"
"They knew what to expect because they got to watch you first. But more importantly, the way you respond to it is mostly seen with people who view every slipup as a deep, personal failure. People who feel responsible even if they can't reasonably be expected to. I can't help you with that, not really."
He got up and went on, "I don't doubt, however, that in an actual crisis situation, you would be able to function. You only broke down now because there wasn't an immediate threat anymore."
"How would you know? You've never seen me under pressure," Daphne said.
"Again, Miss Greengrass, I know your reputation. I had questions for Dumbledore before I came here. Somehow, your name kept coming up, as did those of Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger."
"And yet, one of your first impressions of me is me puking in the classroom. Wonderful," Daphne said with a derisive shake of her head.
"Don't get hung up on a single failure, Miss Greengrass. You don't strike me as the type to give up that easily."
With that, Moody turned around and strode out of the infirmary.
That night in the dorm, Daphne heard from Tracey that only Zabini and Pansy had been able to resist the Imperius Curse as well. Zabini had been able to shake it off entirely quite quickly, while Pansy was only able to do it after Moody had significantly weakened it, like he did with Daphne. Neither Nott nor Tracey had been able to break the curse.
"I felt really embarrassed afterwards," Tracey said. "I was the first who wasn't able to break it. But Moody said he'd help me do it, in the end. I think he went extra hard on Nott because of his father, though…"
"He used to be an Auror. I guess he's not too fond of anyone with the same name as a Death Eater…" Daphne said. "Wonder what the people who didn't try the curse will do, though. They can't just skip every class, can they?"
Tracey shrugged. "I don't know. I'm sure Moody will think of something for them to do." She shuddered. "As long as he doesn't try to practice the Cruciatus Curse on us. The Imperius is bad enough."
"Honestly, I think I'd prefer that one. But I don't think he would do that. The Imperius is something someone could conceivably use against you to control you. It has long-term uses. The Cruciatus and Killing Curses are much more situational. Besides, I don't think Dumbledore would allow his students to get tortured in cold blood.
"Not much to resist there, either. With enough pain, I bet even Moody would break eventually. Maybe not giving anything up, but more…permanent mental damage, or something. And unless your mother is willing to give her life for you in the classroom, surviving the Killing Curse is off the table too," Daphne said.
"Is that how Potter survived? Because his mother…?"
"She pleaded with him. Pleaded for him to kill her and spare Harry. He did kill her…and then tried to kill Harry anyway," Daphne said.
"That's– that's horrible," Tracey said, looking a bit pale.
"It is. But do me a favor and don't tell it to everyone else. It's…not exactly a secret. I mean, Voldemort himself knows about it now, but still. If Malfoy knew…he wouldn't be able to resist taunting Harry with it."
"Don't worry, I won't." Tracey smiled ruefully. "Unless they Imperius me, I guess…"
"They'd better not. I'm not going to let anyone mess with my friends," Daphne said darkly.
Then, she thought of something else. Tracey had never shown any kind of interest in her Gryffindor friends before until now…
"Hey, why don't you try and talk to Harry and the others sometime? You don't have to sit at their table like I do, obviously, but during Care for Magical Creatures or Potions or something. Would be fun if my friends from both Houses got to know each other a bit. It might help S.I.N. out too if we connect a bit more…"
Tracey looked uncertain. "I'll…think about it. Don't expect too much, though. Malfoy leaves me alone for the most part and I'd really like that to continue. I'm not as eager to get into a fight with him as you are," she said.
Daphne shrugged and grinned. For the first time since the class that morning, she felt a little bit better again. "Fine with me."
Okay, so Daphne's fear of the Imperius is complete projection on my part. The two spells I fear most in the HP world are Obliviate and Imperio. I'd sooner tank the Cruciatus Curse and go insane than being controlled like a puppet or having my memories erased. I've always felt the books are a bit too casual with those spells. Yeah, Imperio is considered unforgivable, but no one in class seems too bothered by being subjected to it outside of Hermione's token objection. And memory modification on Muggles is an everyday thing that no one cares about. Only Lockhart and Bertha Jorkins ever really suffer ill effects from Memory Charms.
As for Moody turning down the spell to allow people to resist it more easily…I know that doesn't happen in canon, but it seemed odd to me that Harry was the only one capable of resisting it the first time around, so I modified that a bit.