Chapter 7 – Harry's Dilemma and Hermione's Determination

Hermione was in the library pouring herself over large book after even larger book when someone sat down next to her. She looked up and saw none other than Cedric Diggory who smiled and nodded before greeting her.

"Hello, Hermione. I hope you don't mind my sitting here?" Cedric's polite question made Hermione a bit more nervous.

"Oh, no. Of course not," Hermione stammered. 'Why in the world would he want to sit with me when there's all these tables.' Hermione looked around the library and saw that only she and two other people, Cedric and Madam Pince, were the only ones in the library.

"I hope you're not bothered by my presence," Cedric added as he saw her looking around.

"No bother," Hermione said simply. Cedric gave a snort of laughter at her high squeaky voice and her short answer as she smiled weakly and flushed at her cheeks.

"I just don't like sitting off by myself in here. She's kind of like a vulture waiting to prey," Cedric whispered as he nodded toward Madam Pince who was looking at some books that were tattered and torn. Hermione suppressed a giggle and smiled at him as he sighed and pulled his books toward him and began to read.

"What's that you're working on?" Hermione looked at the rather enormous book in front of Cedric as she pondered out loud.

"This?" Cedric held up the book to show her the cover. "It's just something that I need to work on for my Advanced Potions class."

"Is it hard?" Hermione was trying desperately to break the awkward silence between them, she was having trouble working because of it. The silence just pushed and pulled at her nerves.

"Not really, but I'm not the greatest at it. I bet you'd do all right in it," Cedric replied, making her blush a little more than she already was.

"I don't know about that," Hermione sighed as she looked down at her work in front of her.

"So what about you...? What are you working on?" Cedric's curt manner was sweet, but Hermione was just a bit afraid to tell him what she was working on. 'What would he think if I told him?'

"Um-... well, I'm working on something for my- well, other's purposes."

"What other's purposes?" Cedric smiled at her timid way, she really was a kind person.

"I'm working on starting a rally for house-elf rights," Hermione answered with a downcast look.

"That's very ambitious of you," Cedric remarked.

"I just don't think the way they are treated is fair. You should have seen the way things went off at the World Cup with that poor house-elf, Winky, being accused of conjuring the Dark Mark. There was no way it could have been her! I mean Mr. Crouch was in hysterics to begin with and the way he dismissed her like that when she was only doing what was right. And then Amos Diggory and his accus-," Hermione stopped as she realized that she was about to bad mouth Cedric's father right in front of him. There was an awkward silence in which Cedric looked downward as though in shame and Hermione bowed her head in embarrassment.

"Don't be sorry. A lot of people don't like my father," Cedric sighed finally. 'Oh, Hermione, you idiot' she mentally scolded herself.

"I didn't mean to–"

"No, honestly it's fine. My father does get carried away with work and bragging about things – mostly me."

"Your father's just proud of you. Don't be sorry about that," Hermione reprimanded gently with a weak, lop-sided smile.

"Pride is a bit of an understatement, don't you think," Cedric said in an almost amused sigh. "You were there at Stoatshead Hill when my father started bragging about my beating Harry last year. It was purely accident that Harry fell off his broom or else I bet he would have beat me instead."

"It's fine... Harry was probably happy to have one of his faults pointed out like that since everyone thinks he's such a big hero."

"But he is a big hero," Cedric said pointedly.

"Oh, yes... there's no doubt about that. You save an entire wizarding world, of course you'll be a hero, but he gets fed up with the limelight of it all," Hermione sighed.

"I don't blame him," Cedric added. "I hate being the center of my family's world... that's bad enough. I couldn't even begin to fathom what he must go through with that burden of horrid fame at such a costly price."

"It hurts almost as bad to be his friend and know that you can't really do anything to help him, though," Hermione said shyly.

"If you're implying that you don't do anything to help him, then you're sadly mistaken," Cedric reassured her. "What about in first year when you helped Harry get to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? And what about in your second year-"

"I was petrified while lying in the infirmary," Hermione interrupted.

"Well, I'm sure you gave him something useful to go on even then," Cedric said.

"I did help him figure out a few things... yes," Hermione admitted with pink cheeks.

"See! And just being his friend is enough of a help for anyone," Cedric commented.

"I suppose so," Hermione relented. Cedric was smiling at her as she sat there blushing, and she was about to ask him if he'd like to help her with her house-elf movement, but someone interrupted her.

"Cedric Diggory," said a playful female voice. "There you are." Hermione and Cedric looked up to see Cho Chang walking into the library with a smile on her face as she neared Cedric.

"Hello, Cho," Cedric greeted as he stood up and took her hand in his.

"Come down to dinner, won't you?" Cho was looking up at him with pleading eyes, while Hermione suddenly felt alone.

"All right," Cedric laughed as he gave into her sad puppy face. "Just let me get my books and we'll go." Hermione frowned as Cedric gathered his books and his bag before turning to her with a smile in place. "It was nice talking to you, Hermione."

"Yeah," Hermione sighed. "Nice talking to you too." Cedric nodded and left as Hermione felt her heart become heavy. "You should know better than to think he's cute and stuff. He's got a girlfriend and he won't leave Cho Chang for you," Hermione thought aloud in a hushed voice as she went back to her books. She found after twenty minutes though, that she couldn't concentrate. Giving up for the night, Hermione gathered her things and went to her dormitory before the rush of dinner let out.

The next couple of days went off without a hitch, and the class that Hermione had really been waiting for came. Hermione got to the class just in time and sat down in her desk, pulling out her copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection as Moody entered the class.

"You can put those away," he growled as he made his way to the front of the class.

"Put our books away? What's going on here? We need books for learning," Hermione mumbled to herself as she reluctantly did as she was told. It was normal for Hermione to not use a book in learning so she certainly wasn't used to this.

"Right then," Moody said after he took roll. "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? But you're behind – very behind – on dealing with curses. 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?" Ron's voice rang out in the classroom above Moody's as his eye went around the room in frantic search of who had spoken up. Moody smiled when he saw Ron, and then he continued to speak again.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh? 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." There was a moment's pause as everyone looked around from Moody to the person sitting next to him or her and back again before Moody continued to speak. "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. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of you nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better."

"Finally someone besides Lupin with some sense about this," Hermione sighed as she thought about her teachers from the previous three years.

"How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to go it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

"What?" Hermione was totally perplexed as she looked over to where Lavender Brown, one of her Gryffindor dormitory mates, was sitting. Hermione watched Lavender jump and blush before quickly tucking something she was showing Parvati under the desk back into her pocket.

"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

"Oh, I know this," Hermione breathed as her hand shot into the air, shockingly followed by Ron's. Moody pointed to him and Ron became slightly nervous as he answered, he had never been chosen over Hermione to answer a question.

"Er," Ron began, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes. Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Hermione and the others watched as Moody got up, pulled out a jar with three spiders in it, and emptied the spiders onto the desk. Hermione sat up a little higher in her chair to see what Moody was about to do. "Imperio!" Hermione watched the spider do tricks like it was in a traveling bug circus, flipping and cartwheeling all about the desk. Hermione couldn't help herself as she began to giggle along with everyone else, but she stopped when Moody spoke again. "Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

"Oh, dear," Hermione breathed in a hushed way as she sunk back into her chair and realized that what Moody was doing was supposed to be a bad curse, not something to laugh at.

"Total control," Moody said. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..." Hermione grimaced and closed her mouth tight as she downcast her chin. "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!" Hermione jumped and clutched her hand over her heart as it began to beat madly in her chest, her ears ringing with his last words.

"My lord," Hermione sighed as she calmed down.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse," Moody asked. 'Oh, I do, I do!' Hermione shot her hand into the air once more, and much to her shock, this time she was beat out by Neville Longbottom who Moody picked to answer. "Yes?"

"There's one – the Cruciatus Curse," Neville answered in his usual shy voice.

"Your name's Longbottom?" Hermione looked over at Neville who looked timid and sort of depressed as he nodded his head to Moody in response as Moody picked up another spider. "The Cruciatus Curse needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea. Engorgio!" Hermione watched the spider grow to be as big as Moody's hand if not bigger as it sat waiting in fear on the desk, apparently afraid it might suffer the same fate of its friend. Then without warning, Moody cast the curse upon the spider. "Crucio!" Hermione watched the spider ball itself up and begin to rock back and forth on its back, but something caught her attention from out of the corner of her eye. It was Neville and he was staring on in fear, his fingers threatening to become a permanent attachment to the table.

"Stop it!" Hermione's shrill voice rang in the class as everyone sat watching Moody in silent awe. Moody did as she requested and relented on the curse, shrinking the spider back to normal size and placing it back into the jar with the other.

"Pain. You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular too," Moody informed. "Right... anyone know any others?" Hermione knew the answer to this one as well, but she was sort of afraid to answer as she looked around and saw everyone staring at the last spider on the desk with growing pity. "Yes?" Hermione was surprised to find that she had in fact raised her hand and that Moody called on her this time.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione said in a timid tone. She shrunk back in her seat as the others in the class turned and looked at her with apprehensive and fearful looks on their faces as Moody spoke again.

"Ah, yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse." Hermione stomach dropped as she watched with fright as Moody pointed his wand at the last spider which was fervently trying to escape across the desk. " Avada Kedavra!" Hermione shivered as green light bolted out of Moody's wand and hit the spider, rendering it motionless after it rolled over onto its back. "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."

"Huh?" Hermione turned just as both of Moody's eyes settled on Harry and everyone in the class stared at him in awe. Hermione watched Harry sit there in awe, his eyes wide and blank and his expression unreadable. 'What's he thinking?'

"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."

"Hmm?" Hermione stared around the room and began counting the students. 'I think that you might get a nosebleed... and a concussion too! But then again...'

"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."

"Appreciate the worst?" Hermione was getting totally confused. "I think you should avoid the worst, not appre-," she had begun to whisper to herself, but Moody scared her.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Hermione and everyone in the class jumped yet again at his outburst. "Now... those three curses – Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus – are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. 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-"

"Oh, no... here it comes," Hermione said as she closed one eye tight and prepared to hear Moody yell 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!', but instead his voice was normal yet still with emphasis.

"Constant, never-ending vigilance. Get out your quills... copy this down..." Hermione sat there the rest of the class in a bit of a depressed daze, taking notes in silence just like the rest of the class. When Moody dismissed them, the students began buzzing quietly about the curses, but Hermione noticed someone not buzzing. Neville Longbottom was up ahead and he was standing alone and looking quite upset as though he would go into a fit any minute.

"Hurry up," Hermione urged Ron and Harry.

"Not the ruddy library again?" Ron sounded irritated, but he obviously hadn't seen why Hermione wanted to leave.

"No. Neville." Hermione and the boys approached him quickly, but carefully and Hermione began to speak in a soft voice. "Neville?"

"Oh hello," he said as he looked around as though noticing where he was for the first time. Hermione felt a twinge in her gut from his squeaky voice as he continued. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving, aren't you?"

"Neville, are you all right?" Hermione felt apprehensive as she wondered what was going to happen next because she felt he would snap at any minute.

"Oh yes, I'm fine. Very interesting dinner – I meant lesson – what's for eating?"

"Neville, what-?" They didn't have time to finish their question though as Moody came up and began talking.

"It's all right, sonny. Why don't you come up to my office? Come on... we can have a cup of tea..." Neville didn't move though and Hermione had the feeling that tea with Professor Moody wasn't going to motivate him any time soon either, let alone make him feel better. "You all right, are you, Potter?"

"Yes."

"You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending... well... come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you." Hermione wanted badly to help Neville as he looked at the Golden Trio for help, but his fellow Gryffindors kept quiet and watched Moody guide him away from them.

"What was that about?"

"I don't know," Hermione answered Ron as she felt a loss of appetite while sinking into a thoughtful state.

"Some lesson, though, eh? Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right-" Hermione wondered why Ron had suddenly stopped as she looked over at him, expecting his face to be purple from choking or something, but instead he was staring at Harry who was looking slightly saddened. 'Ron, you idiot! Harry's parents' Hermione thought as she realized what was wrong. They kept quiet for the rest of the walk to the Great Hall, but even then, Hermione didn't talk because she was scarfing down her dinner so she could rush off to the library.