I unfortunately do not own the world of Harry Potter. That honor belongs to J. K. Rowling.

I would just like to say a quick thanks to Princess-Lazy-Chan, Allen Pitt, Spontaneous. Combustion99, AnonymousMSQ, narniagirl19, Sam-EvansBlue, Whispering-Lestrange, Roxie Night, Dolpheen, Gaow, Forest Grrl, Loonynamelass, and Luvender Flaws.

This is my first fan-fic. Hope you like it! (And if you haven't guessed by now, reviews are greatly appreciated!)

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Chapter 35:

The Imperious and Killing Curses

As Ariella made her way to the waiting classroom for her first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with Moody, she wondered just what kind of a teacher he would be. In the past three years, she had only had one decent teacher – Professor Lupin. She took her usual seat in the back, and as everyone got settled, Moody started to speak.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "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?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Moody. "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 blurted out.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "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."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"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 your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. 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 do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful."

Ariella shuddered a bit. She had a feeling she knew what Moody was talking about, but she personally had no desire to learn about them whatsoever, especially when she had been subject to one or two of them herself.

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

Well, not always, she thought bitterly.

Moody pointed at Ron, whose hand was raised for once.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one… Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one.

Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it.

Ariella shuddered slightly. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone else in the class was laughing. But Ariella just watched in silent horror, knowing full well that this could easily be used on her…and knowing that the "servant spell" placed upon her acted very similarly to this curse.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats…"

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Ariella knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. And again, she shuddered a bit, knowing that if and when Voldemort returned, that could easily be her.

"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!" he barked, and everyone jumped.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. But she knew why…living with the Malfoy's, it was hard not to overhear some of the horrors of the First Wizarding War…except told light.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"

The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula.

Ariella gripped the edge of her desk in preparation. She really didn't want to see this…to see what the curse she was constantly placed under looked like to an outsider.

Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Ariella was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming – as that was what she did many a time it was put onto her…especially the first time. She looked away – she couldn't bear to watch this anymore – at the moment, she felt as if she was under it again. Now she understood – and the realization that someone could do this legally hit her, and it hit her hard.

"Stop it!" someone said shrilly. Ariella dared to look up, to find that it was Hermione who had called out…and she could see why –Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. And Ariella was pretty sure that she didn't look much better – her knuckles were also white from gripping the desk so hard.

"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse… That one was very popular once too."

Hermione slowly raised her hand as he looked around the room.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra… the Killing Curse."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.

"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air - instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries, Ariella included.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "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."

She turned to look at Harry Potter, as did a majority of the class.

"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. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it.

"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. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again.

"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…" Ariella snorted. You sure about that? Because last time I checked, there are ways to get around that.

As she left the classroom, her arms full of books, she looked to find Neville, and for a moment, he was nowhere to be found. Then she saw him. He was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse. She turned to Draco, and said,

"I'll be back." The blond boy turned, gave her a glare and an abrupt nod, before turning back to his friends.

"Neville?" He turned to face her, and she saw that he looked a bit fearful.

"You alright?" she asked softly. He just nodded quickly.

"If it helps, I already know…and I'm very sorry for what happened." She said just as quietly, before turning, and walking in the opposite direction, leaving a wide-eyed, fearful Neville behind, and three very confused Gryffindors.

At the next lesson, Professor Moody announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.

When Ariella's turn came, she was forced to simply grab a book from the bookcase. As she returned to her seat, she couldn't help but wonder whether why she couldn't resist due to her own lack of ability, or simply because Draco had said right before she went up,

"Don't even think about resisting it."

The only other reason that she could think of would be because of the "servant spell". Overall, she was actually learning something, but personally, she thought that someone 'ought to correct their professor. After all, to every rule, there was an exception, and Ariella Lyons was, very unfortunately, the victim of those exceptions.

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Anything you recognize is from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Thanks to all who are reading, and liking it. If you have any suggestions, questions, or comments, please feel free to review/private message me. Also, if you have any ideas at all, or would like to see something happen, let me know, and I'll consider putting them into a chapter. Thanks! ~ Leanora