(A.N: yeah I know that I have acted like a total jerk by not updating…I have probably lost the few readers I had before. Whew! It's been some 4months since I have updated hasn't it? Sorry about that. Had some personal problems. But I will try to update when I can, kindly bear with me. Another thing, Krum has developed a proper English accent over the summer, so he won't be speaking words like "what" as "vat"! Now on with the story!)
"Its Malfoy," said Ron.
"What!" exclaimed Harry. "It couldn't be."
" I saw them snogging behind a bookshelf in the library," said Ron angrily.
"But Ginny knows about the enmity between your families," said Harry.
"Tell that to her," said Ron.
"We should ask her before coming to any conclusion," said Hermione.
"What's there to ask," said Ron. " I saw it with my own two eyes I tell you."
"Hermione's right, Ron," said Harry. "There might be a logical explanation for all this," he said.
Ron reluctantly agreed.
The three of them walked to the great hall. But there was no sign of Ginny even after they had had breakfast.
"We will ask her later," said Harry as the three of them proceeded to the first lesson of the day, defense against the dark arts.
Krum was waiting for them in the classroom.
"Come in," he said before they could ask him for excuse.
"Today, we shall be learning the empaty curse."
They were an audible gasp from Hermione though no one else said anything.
"I believe you know the answer, herm-own-ninny," said Krum.
There was a burst of laughter from the class, Ron leading the pack, as Hermione turned beet-red. Krum however seemed unperturbed by this.
"Well," he said.
"The empaty curse kills a person slowly and painfully and is also referred to as slow death. This is also said to be the worst legal killing curse," said Hermione.
"Correct," said Krum "10 points to Gryffindor."
"The word to be used to cast this curse is empaty," said Krum. "Now repeat after me. No wands please, only the word."
"Empaty" he roared.
"Empaty" roared back the class.
"Very good" said Krum. "But now lies the hard part, wands out please. You will all find a beetle in a jar in front of you on which you can show your skills. So then on the count of three, 1...2...3…"
"EMPATY" everyone roared. There was a blast of yellow light from some wands, but others seemed to make have made little progress. There were only two people who seemed to have performed the curse correctly. One was, very obviously, Hermione, the other, was Harry. Both their beetles seemed like they had been hit by the cruciatus curse, but one could see that they were dying.
"Aah!" said Krum. "It is no surprise that Miss Granger has done well, but Mr. Potter, I expected you to do well too. From what I have gathered from Professor Dumbledore, your father was a master of this curse, 10 points each to Harry and Hermione."
Harry looked at him stunned. It seemed his father knew many deadly curses. He didn't know whether he should be proud of this or not.
The rest of the class passed away in taking notes on the curse.
It was only when he saw Ron storming towards the great hall after the period for lunch did he remember the Ginny-Malfoy issue.
Ginny was there having lunch.
"Ginny," said Ron "We need to talk, in private."
Ginny looked puzzled but accompanied them to the entrance hall where there was no one around.
"How could you go out with that dung brain Malfoy? How could you snog him!" burst out Ron.
"Ron, calm down," said Ginny.
"Calm down, while you do such stuff, you got to be joking." said Ron angrily.
"He isn't like what you think. He has acted in this way due to the fear of his father, but he is really nice, deep down," Ginny said in a choked voice.
"How do you know that," attacked Ron. "For all you know he could be acting, so that he could know about the activities of the order."
"He isn't like that," said Ginny.
"I don't believe him," snarled Ron.
"You don't have to," said Ginny. "Stop interfering in my activities." She shouted and stormed away.