Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.

I am going on vacation for a week. I really don't remember if my aunts have Internet, or if they have a word processor I can upload from either, so it could be a while before anything gets done.

Defense Against The Dark Arts

All the Slytherin fourth years were vibrating with excitement. Stories about Professor Moody's classes had been flying around the school for days now, and this was the first time he'd be teaching them. Ryua already knew he was good with transfiguring things, thanks to the ferret episode, and that he knew about spells and dueling, thanks to his Auror background, and those scars promised tales of some very interesting curses.

What none of them expected was to be shown Unforgivable Curses. I guess this is what had the Gryffindors in such an uproar. When Harry, Ron, and Hermionie had come back from their class, they had been maddeningly close- lipped about the whole thing, saying she'd find out for herself. She was definitely finding out.

Moody didn't even blink when he asked for Unforgivable Curses and more than half the class put up their hands. He demonstrated the Imperius on a spider, much to the hilarity of most of the class. Ryua was too busy trying to figure out how to cast it, even more so when he used the Cruciatus curse. Pity that's not blockable... Now that she was old enough to officially know about the curses, Father may just start in with them, especially if she were to do something 'bad'. She herself named the killing curse, having read about all three in books, watching intently as Moody flooded the spider with green light. Needless to say, Ryua wrote down everything he put on the board carefully, intrigued for later study.

Of course, the class after this, he decided to start putting them under the Imperius curse. Most of them were completely unable to do anything about it, and were forced to do some rather incredible things. Crabbe and Goyle were by far the most stunning, launching into a graceful flamenco dance across the cleared classroom. Draco, although he still paraded around, twirling his wand like a baton, did at least manage to twitch and drop it a few times, much to Moody's pride. He praised him, giving him a chocolate frog for his efforts, and called Ryua up in his place.

The first thing she noticed was a complete sense of happiness, like she was soaring gently on her broom on a warm summer night. As Ryua rarely felt happy, she was quite content to just relax in the feeling. Of course, it couldn't last forever. A voice started gently telling her to do a handstand, itching in the back of her head. I can't do a headstand... Yes you can, the voice said. Why should I? Because you want to. No, I don't, stop telling me what to do! Her imperious Malfoy blood was acting up again, and she was not about to act on some half-baked, useless little request. Of course, the fact that she was rather used to being cursed probably helped... I SAID NOW!

Although Moody had probably intended to shock her into obeying, it had rather the opposite effect. In Ryua's mind, the shout was much like Father at full fury, only far, far worse because it was directly inside her mind. She let out an ear-piercing shriek and collapsed on the floor from shock, as a wave of fear-magic blasted three of the desks into matchsticks. She sat there, frozen, not even noticing the class looking at her, only glad the hazy, disquieting happy mist had finally left her mind, with it the echoes of the command.

Moody, although rather rattled at her extremely violent response, held out a hand to help her up, saying gruffly, "Well done. Haven't seen many witches strong enough to break free that quickly." She looked up at him with haunted, furious, confused eyes. It was the only part of her showing emotion, however, as she coolly accepted his help up and walked back to her place. Vaguely noticing the chocolate frog she'd earned for defeating the curse, she absently unwrapped it, remembering Lupin's words about chocolate. It wasn't as effective as for dementors, but Ryua still felt revived a bit by the sweet, creamy taste. She shook her head, clearing away the last of her shock, and swallowed the last of her chocolate.

That was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. Not only was she caught in an extremely powerful curse, it truly had seemed like her Father was the one yelling in her head. Of course, that had had the double effect of making her absolutely, beyond doubt, refuse-until-death to do whatever was being asked of her, but it also had paralyzed her with a fear she had always been able to repress or ignore. Right inside her mind like that... she shuddered. She hadn't been expecting it in the least. Although now... Father won't be able to use that one on me. Now that she knew what it did, what the curse felt like, there would never be anyone able to control her like that again. She flatly couldn't, wouldn't let her innermost guards down, she could never have that much trust and calm.

She snapped out of self-reflection when she heard Millicent singing in a duet with Blaise of a beautiful rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle", however. Well, he's got a decent voice, although that's probably part of the spell... It was completely cheering, however, to see his face flush a deep purple when Moody lifted the curse. After that song, no one would remember about her turn...

The professor standing at the front of the room watched her calculatingly through the magical eye. He wasn't lying when he'd said he'd never seen a reaction like that. Not in all his years of very personal contact with the Imperius curse, had he ever seen someone able to shatter it like that. There was more than just Malfoy stubbornness there. That girl had a mix of power, pride, and a deep fear he couldn't quite figure out. Once this was all over, he'd have to ask Lucius what he'd been doing to her. What ever it was, it likely was having the opposite effect he intended.