Chapter 12

The Imperius Curse

Cassie was very nervous as she and Colin entered the classroom. She had absolutely no idea what to expect and Hermione's gold star was not really helpful in telling her. Ginny wasn't even there to help. Of course, the same thing happened in this classroom as had happened down in the dungeons. She walked in and everybody stopped talking and stared at her. She tried to smile and hoped it looked a little more authentic than it felt.

"Come on, uh, Pia. We'll go sit by Gin and everyone." Colin started over to a group of desks and chairs in the front corner and Cassie noticed Ginny smiling at her, like she thought something was really funny. Cassie let her eyes skim over the classroom quickly, trying to get an idea if anyone else she knew was in the class. A second later, she stopped and stared straight ahead, her eyes opening wide and despite her efforts to remain calm, a really huge smile broke across her face. Standing in the front of the class, leaning against the desk, smiling at her very kindly, was Remus Lupin. He straightened and walked toward her, reaching out his hand.

"You must be Miss Spencer. I was told to expect you this class period. You're Ginny's cousin, I believe."

"Yes. That's right." He took her hand to shake it and she felt suddenly much more confident in her ability to get through this class without too much problem.

"I'm Professor Lupin. I teach Defense against the Dark Arts. Welcome. I'm sure you'll be a great contribution to our class."

"Why didn't you . . . " She wanted to ask him a million questions, but he just smiled and walked back to his desk. She realized that he really couldn't talk to her like he knew her and so she continued to follow Colin over to where Ginny and Elspeth were sitting along with a couple of other kids she didn't know.

Cassie sat down next to Ginny. "Why didn't you tell me he was teaching this class?"

"I thought it would be a great surprise. Besides, I didn't really have a chance when Hermione handed out schedules this morning."

"Speaking of Hermione, are we ever going to have any classes with the three of them?" Ginny nodded quickly but before she could elaborate, Remus started class and she couldn't continue.

"All right, class. Let's get started. We have a lot to do today. First, let's introduce our new student, Pia Spencer. Pia, will you stand up and let everyone see who you are?" Cassie reluctantly stood up and looked around the classroom, feeling like a very big idiot. Everyone clapped politely and she sat down quickly.

Remus moved onto the subject matter and Cassie was very interested to watch him teach. "We were working on our dueling skills last class and I'd like to finish that up quickly today so we can move on to something else. I think we just had two more pairs, right?" Four of the students stood up quickly and moved to the front of the classroom. Remus motioned two of them over to the side of his desk and the other two sat down on the floor quickly to watch. They both pulled out their wands and faced each other. Cassie watched, fascinated, at the looks of concentration on their faces as they stood there. One of them wiggled his wand in a very exaggerated waving motion and everybody in the classroom laughed, even Remus, although he tried to look upset instead. The student bowed and then stood straight again, losing the smile and looking intently at his partner. Remus said something and suddenly a flash of purple light flew out of one of the student's wands. The other student reacted, but apparently it was a second too late because the light hit him full in the chest and he flew back about three feet where he collided with a bookshelf and hit his head hard. There was complete silence for a moment and Cassie wondered if he'd been knocked unconscious but he stood up quickly, looking rather sheepishly at Remus.

Remus addressed the student who had fallen down. "You did really well, but your shield charm was just a little late. You have to anticipate what your assailant is going to do and move before he does." He turned to the other student. "That was great. Good power control. It's a vast improvement over the last time I saw you. Have you been practicing?" There was a shy nod. "Well, keep it up."

The other pair of students stood up and one of them approached Remus and talked quietly to him for a minute. Remus glanced over at Cassie and shook his head. There were a few students turning and shifting in their seats to look at Cassie and she for the first time since she had seen Remus felt a little nervous. She suddenly realized why Hermione had marked this class with a gold star. Remus knew she couldn't do magic. The students in the class, however, would expect her to be able to and it would be hard for him to get her out of it completely. It was obvious this boy wanted to partner with her in the next duel. She pictured herself flying across the room like the poor boy a minute ago and decided this was definitely not an experience she wanted to have. Remus, however, really helped her out.

"No. She hasn't been here practicing with us and it wouldn't be a fair contest. There will be plenty of time this year for you to put her through her paces. Just go ahead and work with your assigned partner." This was a more interesting duel to watch than the last one and Cassie was grateful that it wasn't her up there. The girl and the boy were fairly equally matched. One would cast a spell and the other would block it and then throw one of their own. This went on for several rounds before the girl finally managed to sneak one by the boy with some little fake-out maneuver. Everyone clapped, even the boy who wound up on the floor, and Cassie was very impressed at the girl's skill. She smiled warmly at Ginny as she returned to her seat.

"That's Luna. I'll introduce you to her later. She's really good. In the D.A. and all."

Remus was standing in front of the class again and Cassie turned her attention to him. "Okay. That was really good, Luna. You're a good duelist, and clever, too." The girl smiled in a rather vague looking way which made Cassie wonder about her. But if Ginny liked her, that was certainly a recommendation.

"Students, you all remember, I'm sure, when Professor Moody was your Defense against the Dark Arts teacher." There was a little bit of muttering around the room at that and Cassie watched as Ginny's face as well as Elspeth's froze into a tight, hard expression. "He was, despite everything, a good teacher and I know that he covered to some extent the three unforgiveable curses with the older classes. Did he discuss them at all with you?" No one moved for a long moment and the tension in the room was almost palpable before Ginny finally, reluctantly, raised her hand.

"He talked about them one day. He didn't do the demonstrations like he did with some of the other classes."

"Is that true for you Ravenclaws as well?" Almost everybody nodded, looking somber. Cassie stared around, dying to ask Ginny what exactly was wrong, but she didn't dare. After a moment, Remus cleared his throat and spoke again.

"I don't intend to do the demonstrations on the spiders. That was, I think, a rather cruel way to teach the classes. It upset a lot of the kids. I don't want to upset you but I think you need to be aware of what the curses are and how to repel them."

"You can't repel unforgiveable curses." One of the students from the back of the room spoke up, his voice loud in the complete silence of the room.

"I think," and Remus' voice was soft when he answered the student "that a few years ago I would have agreed with you. And most wizards would still agree that this is why the curses are called unforgiveable. However, I think that recent events, events you have seen with your own eyes in many cases, have proven that this is not true. At least two of them can be fought successfully. The third, well, perhaps repelled is too strong a word, but avoided is not. I . . ." Remus looked around and his eyes rested on several of the students, finally landing on Cassie. "I think that you need to be aware of how you can fight these. I'm afraid that many of you will be forced to face these at some point. Know your enemy. Know what they can do. Know what you need to do to survive." The entire class sat quietly for a few more moments and Cassie could tell they were all lost in their own thoughts. These kids, she could tell, had seen a lot more in this world than they should have. It made her sad to think about. Her attention shifted to Remus, who was also sitting quietly. It was obvious he was having the same thoughts.

After a moment, he cleared his throat. "All right. Well. The first thing we can do about these curses is avoid getting hit with them in the first place. To do that, we use a charm that we all are familiar with from dueling. It's the basic protection charm. Miss Spencer, any idea what that would be?"

Cassie looked up, surprised. She had the crib sheet still in her hand as she had pulled it out to study during the previous part of the lesson, hoping she could figure out what some of the words the students had been throwing at each other meant. She glanced at it now. She had seen the word. Oh, yes. "Um, Protego?"

"Very good. Very good. You would, of course, need to say it a little more forcefully than that if a skilled wizard was throwing these curses at you, but that's fine." He smiled and Cassie smiled back, relieved. Ginny winked at her and she winked back.

"If a simple charm, then, one that most wizards and witches are familiar with, will repel these curses, why are they so terrible? Can anyone tell me?" No one raised their hand for a long minute. Cassie sat there and thought about the question, thinking that she might actually know the answer, wondering if she was brave enough to raise her hand and volunteer the information. She decided she had nothing to lose and tentatively raised her hand in the air. Remus looked at her, extremely surprised, but he hid it well. "Yes?"

"I think it has something to do with the power behind them. You have to be a powerful wizard to use those spells and make them work." Cassie remembered Harry explaining this to her that long night they spent talking before they had come here to battle and she remembered how he had explained that no one could really fight Voldemort because no one else's power equaled his. "And if such a powerful wizard is trying to, um, curse you, you have to be a fairly powerful one to protect yourself against it. Or it just goes right through the protection, I think." She looked down at her desk, sure that the entire class would break out laughing. After all, she knew nothing about magic.

"Excellent, Miss Spencer. That's exactly right. Very good." Remus looked around the room again, his eyes meeting those of various students. "So . . . what does that mean for all of you?"

Colin raised his hand this time. "We don't have any chance of fighting them." Everyone laughed at that and Remus smiled.

"Well, there are a few of you in here who would be able to protect yourself. But, you're right, Colin, most people in this room would not be able to defend themselves from an unforgivable curse. So, let's assume, then, that you're hit with one and whether you try to protect yourself or not, it doesn't work. What happens then?"

No one said anything again and it seemed to Cassie that everyone was shifting uncomfortably in their seats. "All right. Well, that's what I want to teach you about today and probably for the next class. Assuming you aren't killed immediately with Avada Kedavra, the other two curses can be fought." Cassie heard some muttering behind her and tried to turn to see who it was interrupting the lesson, but she couldn't tell. She turned her attention back to Remus. "Today, I want to start with the Imperius curse. Just as a quick reminder, what does the curse do, exactly?" Cassie started, suddenly realizing why Remus was talking about this today. He wanted her to get an idea what those dark wizards had planned to do to the Prime Minister and probably other Muggles who they wanted to control.

"It controls your mind, makes you do things you don't want to do." Elspeth spoke out quickly to describe the curse and smiled happily when Remus agreed with her.

"Has anyone here ever been under Imperius before?" No one raised their hand in reply although Cassie noticed Ginny shift uncomfortably. "I'm going to put each of you under the curse, just so you know what it feels like. I want you to try really hard to resist what I am telling you to do, concentrate, and fight against my voice. It can be done, has been done, by students much younger than you are now."

"Harry Potter did it. That doesn't mean we can." Cassie could have sworn that this complaint came from the same student who had been muttering earlier, someone apparently was very unhappy with the tone of this entire lesson.

"Yes, he did it. Fourth year. But you can do it, also. I expect some will do better than others. However, this isn't a competition and you mustn't feel ashamed if you give in more quickly than your neighbor. You must remember that you will feel relaxed, docile and amenable to whatever you are told to do. It will seem natural for you to do whatever you're commanded. When you obey what you're commanded to do is when you have surrendered and are under the person's complete control. Remember to fight it with all you have." Cassie glanced over at Ginny, who was very white, and Cassie wondered if she was going to be sick. She sure looked like she was about to pass out.

"What's wrong, Ginny?" Cassie managed to whisper as she tried hard to pay attention to what Remus was saying as well as what else was going on in the classroom. Ginny just shook her head and looked like she was trying to compose herself. All the students were muttering nervously as Remus was telling them to stand up and assuring them he wouldn't ask them to do anything dangerous or embarrassing. He cast the first spell and the first student was told to stand on his chair. He did so after a few seconds and Remus smiled encouragingly at him as he released him from the spell. Cassie watched with a rather morbid fascination as Remus moved methodically around the classroom, commanding each student to do something different. Some had to stand on their desks, or pretend they were flying on a broom, one had to quote a poem, and so on. A few of the students were able to remain standing calmly at their desks for quite a few moments, but eventually, with a little stronger tone from Remus they all gave in and did as he asked. Finally, he reached their little corner of the room. Colin was first of their group and Remus performed the curse and then ordered him to sing the Hogwarts anthem. Everyone laughed at his rather off-key singing but Cassie's stomach was churning. There were only two more students before it would naturally be her turn. She was not sure what to expect. It would look strange if he skipped over her, but her nervousness at being cursed was asserting itself strongly at this moment. No one was screaming. Maybe it didn't hurt too badly. Or maybe that was part of Remus' command to them. The next student gave in to Remus' command immediately and everyone got a huge laugh as he had to hop around like a toad. Then it was Elspeth's turn. She was ordered to jump off her chair and then back on again. She held off for probably 30 seconds but then got on the chair, jumped off, and then jumped back on again. Cassie would have chuckled along with everyone else but she was too nervous. What would Remus do to her? She hoped she didn't look like to big of an idiot.

Remus looked at Cassie. "Okay, Pia. This won't hurt. Just concentrate and try to fight the urge to give in." He pointed his wand at Cassie and said the curse. An incredible feeling of detachment came over her and she felt like she never had before. She felt as if she hadn't a care in the world. After a moment, she became aware of a voice telling her to hop like a bunny rabbit. She felt her muscles tighten in preparation to jump but stopped herself and questioned why she should hop around like a rabbit. That could be really embarrassing. No, she wouldn't. Again, she heard the voice telling her to hop around like a bunny and again she told herself it was stupid to do so and she wouldn't. Now she heard the voice more urgent and insistent in her mind. She felt a powerful struggle inside herself and, ultimately, the urge to hop overpowered the urge to ignore the command. She felt herself, almost as if it was some other person, hopping around. Then Cassie was aware of who she was and where she was. She looked tentatively into Remus' face and saw that he was both surprised and pleased with her performance.

"Excellent, Pia. You held off several of my attempts to control you. Yes," he repeated as he looked at her thoughtfully, "most excellent, indeed." Remus then turned to Ginny whose pale face had an intense expression. "Are you ready, Ginny?"

She swallowed hard, nodded, and he placed her under the curse. He ordered her to climb up and stand on her desk. She stood there in an obvious trance but with an defiant expression on her face. For a couple of minutes, there was a mental struggle between Ginny and Remus as he ordered her several times to climb onto the desk, becoming more insistent each time before she finally obeyed. Even her movements as she climbed onto the desk showed she was still fighting the command with everything she had.

A moment later, Remus lifted the curse and Ginny climbed quickly down from the desk, looking quite upset. She sat down right away and Cassie thought that she looked like she might cry. She tried to ask her again what was wrong, but Ginny just shrugged her off and Cassie decided that she didn't want to push her new friend. If she wanted to tell her, she would tell her at some point. Maybe some other time, when there weren't 20 other people in the room.

Remus moved on to other students, finishing a few minutes later with one student's spectacular impersonation of Professor McGonagall which had everybody laughing loudly. When the class had regained their seats and were relatively quiet again, Lupin looked around seriously once again. "Next class, we'll practice defending ourselves against the curse and we'll see how strong some of your protection spells are. Also, I think we'll spend some time talking about the next unforgiveable curse - Cruciatus." There was a general murmur, but whether this was from excitement or fear Cassie could not really tell. All she could think about was Harry telling her about the Cruciatus curse, that it's only purpose was to cause pain and that it was absolutely one of the worst pains imaginable. She had seen people after they were hit by that particular curse and she knew she never wanted to see that ever again. The screaming was unbelievable. She couldn't believe that Remus would actually perform the spell on anyone in this classroom but she didn't know how else they would learn about it. It was the sort of thing you really couldn't imagine. Of course, maybe most of these students had seen it performed before. Maybe they were all familiar with it. She couldn't really ask so she didn't. Professor Lupin assigned them to each write a 12-inch essay on their experience with the Imperius curse and then he dismissed the class.

The girl Ginny had pointed out to Cassie earlier sort of drifted over to them. "Luna, this is my cousin, Pia Spencer. Pia, this is Luna Lovegood. She's in Ravenclaw and she's a really good friend." The girl looked vaguely at Cassie, like she didn't quite register her presence.

"Hi, Luna. Nice to meet you." Cassie looked at Ginny with a questioning gaze, wondering if the girl was blind or something. But Ginny just raised an eyebrow at Cassie.

The girl spoke again to Ginny which made Cassie almost more convinced that she didn't really see her. "I'll be cheering for Gryffindor in tomorrow's match. I'll be wearing my hat."

"Oh, thanks, Luna. I'll make sure to look for it. I think we have a good chance of winning."

Suddenly, the girl's rather protuberant eyes fixed on Cassie and she felt like she was almost being x-rayed, the stare was so intense. "So, who are you hiding from, then?"

Despite herself, Cassie felt her eyes grow wide and she backed up a step. "What?"

Ginny quickly stepped in, clearly taken aback a bit herself by Luna's question but trying to cover for Cassie's obvious shock. "What makes you think she's hiding, Luna? She just . . ." but before she could launch into the cover story they had developed, Luna answered her.

"Why else would someone transfer to Hogwarts in the middle of the year?"

"Um, yeah, well . . ." Ginny wanted to somehow explain about the traveling parents and the joining the Order and everything, but the girl had apparently moved onto another subject in her mind.

"I hope they have steak and kidney pie for lunch. I didn't have time for breakfast today." She turned and walked out of the classroom and a very bemused looking Ginny stood smiling after her.

"She's a little, um, disconnected from reality sometimes."

"Really? I never would have figured that out." They both laughed and Elspeth joined them a moment later. The three of them headed down to lunch. "What do we have after lunch, Ginny?" Cassie had enjoyed the two classes she had had so far quite a bit, but she wasn't sure her nerves could take too much more strain today.

"Herbology. With the 7th years. You'll like it, I think."

"Herbology? Is that plants?" She almost didn't dare hope for a subject as simple and straightforward as plants after this morning's excitement.

"Yeah. Plants."

Cassie felt the knots in her stomach come undone. She loved plants anyway. But she quickly decided that they were her new favorite friends. They descended a staircase into the Great Hall and saw Ron, Hermione, and Harry waiting for them. The three of them looked up and there were obvious questions that they couldn't ask in their eyes. Both Ginny and Cassie smiled broadly and all three seventh years relaxed visibly. The first morning was done. Cassie had survived it.

Elspeth went to sit with the other two roommates, which in a way was a relief to Cassie. They could talk a little more freely without any of the other girls to overhear what they had to say. They would, of course, still have to talk somewhat guardedly as everyone else at the table assumed she was magical but at least they could relax a little bit.

"So, how was it?" Hermione was eager, apparently, to get a blow-by-blow account of the morning's activities. Cassie was unsure of how to answer and so to forestall having to discuss the events in the two classes, she helped herself to (she didn't want to believe it but it was true) steak and kidney pie.

Ginny was exuberant in her praise of Cassie's poise. "She was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I think she has practically convinced Snape to hire her on as a personal assistant as her potion turned out perfect, and you should have . . ."

"Her potion? What about your potion?"

"Hey, Pia, isn't it?" Cassie turned her head to see a student, from Ravenclaw she guessed, standing behind her.

"Yes?"

"I just thought you were fantastic in potions today. Old Snape practically swallowed his tongue when you told him that life wasn't fair."

"Oh, I thought the best part was when you told him you didn't want to wind up as decoration on his walls." Another student had come up behind the first and they were both grinning at her widely. Cassie smiled back, a little chagrined that she had made such a spectacle of herself.

"Thanks. I really appreciate it."

"I just can't believe you didn't get detention. Plus, no points taken either. That was brilliant. I'd say you really threw him for a loop." The two students wandered back over to their own table and as they left, Harry, Ron, and Hermione all turned and stared directly at Cassie.

There was a sudden outburst of questions, all tripping over each other in their enthusiasm to be answered. Ginny held up her hand after a second. "I will happily tell you the entire story. She was absolutely brilliant." She related the entire story to a very shocked-looking trio with what Cassie thought was exaggeration running throughout. As the recitation came to a close, all three of them looked at Cassie with different looks. Ron looked at her with practically worshipful reverence, Hermione looked slightly scandalized that she wasn't trying to blend in better, and Harry had a look of pleased satisfaction.

"So, what did you think about Snape?" Harry asked quietly.

"He's an arrogant, condescending jerk. And he doesn't like the Weasleys, of which he thinks I am one."

"No, I mean, what did you think about him?"

"I told you, he's . . ."

"No. You're missing my point. When you saw him, what sort of impression did you get from him?"

"Oh, you mean what sort of vibes was I picking up from him?"

"Yeah."

"Couldn't really tell. Ginny said that he could read my mind and I shouldn't look at him directly. So, I didn't and I couldn't really." Harry looked extremely disappointed at this news.

"You mean you can't get any sort of sense of . . . ." Before he could continue, Niles Caden sauntered over. Harry and Ron both glared at him. He was a Slytherin after all, and decidedly unwelcome at the Gryffindor table.

"Hey, Pia. I wanted to thank you again for your great work with me today in potions. You really have some talent, there."

"Um, thanks, Niles. Have you met . . . ." But before she could introduce him around to her friends, he rudely said that he had met them and that he didn't want to repeat the experience. He flashed her a quick smile and retreated back to the Slytherin side of the hall.

"Bloody hell, Pia. You must have made quite a splash this morning. Even Snape's own house doesn't mind that you smarted off to him. Incredible." Ron was sitting there with complete and utter shock all over his face.

"Snape's own house?"

"He's the head of Slytherin house. Certainly you noticed he was just a little biased toward them?"

"Well, I noticed, but I didn't know why."

"Now you know. The git. And I got assigned a 12-inch essay on what I did wrong with my stupid Veritaserum potion. Well, come on, Pia. I want to get back up to the dorm to put down these books. They're heavy and we don't need them for herbology." Cassie finished her last bite of pastry and shot a pleased smile around at the three friends.

"Plants. Should be easy, huh?" And she walked out of the Great Hall right behind Ginny.