After a weekend to get settled classes started in full force.
Rachel, Millie, and Theo started Monday morning in the greenhouses, working together to pop pustules and collect the bubotuber pus from them. Rachel knew that bubotuber pus was useful for several different healing potions but it was still quite disgusting, and wearing dragon-hide gloves did not make popping the pustules any easier.
After Herbology they went to Charms where they did a review on the Banishing charm in preparation for learning the Summoning charm.
After lunch they met up with Hermione and Neville and walked down to Hagrid's house.
"What do you reckon Hagrid is going to start us off with this year?" Theo asked.
"Dragons," Millie suggested with a laugh.
"Just as long as it's not flobberworms again, I'll even take dragons," Neville said.
"It would be nice to see some unicorns," Hermione said.
"Oh, yes, I'd like that," Rachel said. Maybe they could talk Hagrid into showing them the unicorn herd that was in the Forbidden Forest, as long as they didn't have to go too far in.
"Well, he's got something," Theo said, nodding to where Hagrid was standing with Fang. There were several wooden crates nearby.
"Hi Hagrid. How was your summer?" Rachel called.
"Very good, how about yours?" Hagrid asked.
"Also good. What are we learning about today?" Rachel asked.
"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid said.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"In the crates there," Hagrid said.
The study group peered into the crates. The creatures were kind of ugly looking, almost like lobsters without a shell. They were grey and had an odd number of legs. They were about six inches long and were climbing all over each other inside the crates.
"I've never heard of them before. Where did you get them?" Theo asked.
"Well, they've just hatched. I want to make it a class project for you all to raise them," Hagrid said.
Rachel exchanged glances with Millie, noting that Hagrid hadn't exactly answered the question.
"Well then we should read some books about them to prepare. They aren't listed in The Monster Book of Monsters, so where should we look for them?" Hermione asked.
"I don't think you'll find them in any books," Hagrid said.
Theo turned and looked around. The rest of the class was still coming down the path. "Hagrid, you didn't breed these yourself, did you?" he asked in a hushed voice.
"Just an experiment. Fire crabs and manticores," Hagrid said quietly.
"Isn't that against the law?" Hermione asked, her voice equally quiet.
"It is," Theo said.
"No harm done, they're just critters," Hagrid said.
Rachel sighed but didn't say anything because the rest of the class was now joining them. It looked like this was something she needed to tell Severus, though she figured it could wait until she saw him for dinner on Sunday.
"Gather round," Hagrid called. "We're going to be raising Blast-Ended Skrewts this term."
"Eww," Lavender said as she looked in the crate.
Rachel couldn't disagree.
"Why are we raising them?" Draco asked, standing near Rachel to get a good look in the crate.
"To see what they're like, of course. Today we'll be feeding them. I've got a selection of things for them to try, go ahead and see what they'll eat and let me know the results," Hagrid said.
Rachel went with the study group over to the table where a number of different things had been spread out. She picked up some of the shredded lettuce, since most things seemed to like plants, and went with Millie back to the crates.
"I kind of don't want to stick my hand in there," Millie said quietly.
"What if we just sprinkle the lettuce in and see if they go for it?" Rachel suggested.
They dropped the lettuce in the crate and watched as the Skrewts scrambled over it.
"I don't think they have mouths," Neville said, coming up next to them to peer in the crate. He had a handful of frog livers.
"Well, they've got to eat somehow, otherwise they wouldn't be alive, right?" Rachel asked.
"I guess," Millie said.
Watching the Skrewts did result in some useful observations. They didn't eat any of the things they dropped in the crate, but their ends sometimes exploded and propelled them forward quickly, and some of them had stingers and some had suckers on their bellies.
"You're going to tell Professor Snape so that Professor Dumbledore can deal with this?" Hermione asked once they were walking back to the castle.
"Yes. You don't think they'll kill them, do you?" Rachel asked.
"Well, that is probably the smart thing to do, but I don't know what they'll do," Hermione said.
"Maybe they'll take them to the Ministry to study them," Theo said. "I can't even figure out how Hagrid did it. You shouldn't just be able to breed a fire crab and a manticore, it doesn't work like that."
"Hagrid shouldn't even have a manticore, those things are very dangerous," Hermione said.
"You don't think Hagrid will get into legal trouble?" Rachel asked.
"No, Professor Dumbledore will help him," Neville said.
"I think we'd all feel better about the situation if Professor Dumbledore at least knew about these things. And, I mean no disrespect to Hagrid, but they certainly aren't going to be on our OWLs," Hermione said.
"I can ask around the Slytherin common room and find out what textbook Professor Grubbly-Plank used to use," Rachel said. They had done this in Defense in second year, there was no reason they couldn't self-study for Care of Magical Creatures too.
"That's probably not a bad idea, but let me do it. I can use the excuse to talk with Avery Acker, he's doing a NEWT in Care of Magical Creatures," Theo said.
"Alright," Rachel agreed. That was easier for her anyway.
"Maybe ask him if he remembers what was on the OWL. I'm sure it changes from year to year, but it would be good to have an idea of what to expect," Hermione said.
"Sure, but remember, we're not studying for our OWLs until after the end of exams this year," Theo said.
"I remember, though heaven knows what I was thinking when I made that agreement with you," Hermione said.
"We'll have plenty to keep us busy until then," Neville said.
That was true enough.
After lunch on Tuesday the study group climbed to the seventh floor for their Arithmancy lesson.
"Did some people drop the class?" Hermione asked, looking around the room just before class was about to start.
"Either that or they're late," Theo said.
"That happens every year, Miss Granger," Professor Vector said. "The work only gets harder from here and some students are simply not willing to do it."
Rachel looked around. Susan was now the only Hufflepuff, and it seemed Mandy and Lisa from Ravenclaw had left as well.
"Well, let's get to work," Professor Vector said when the clock chimed that it was now one o'clock. "Hand in your homework and we'll begin."
Rachel passed her parchment in with everyone else's and prepared to take notes.
"This year the work is a little bit different. We're going to start with applying Arithmancy to spells, which is the very beginning of using Arithmancy in spell-crafting. That means we're going to begin to work with variables. Those of you who have attended a muggle primary school likely have some understanding of this already," Professor Vector said.
Hermione raised her hand. "Do you mean algebra?"
"Yes, Miss Granger, that is the word that the muggles use to describe this sort of equation," Professor Vector said. She tapped her wand against the chalkboard and a series of equations appeared.
Rachel had done a little bit of algebra in her last year in primary school but it was rather fuzzy now. She hoped they weren't getting in over their heads with this class.
"The power of a spell varies not only with the caster, but with the spell itself. You'll remember that last year we did equations that determined your affinity for different spells and different classes of spells. This, along with the equations that show how powerful a spell is innately will determine how powerfully you cast a spell. I have an equation on the board that describes the Wand-lighting spell. Please copy it down and we'll go through the steps of solving it," Professor Vector said.
They left class ninety minutes later with a pile of homework.
"I hope one of you got that, because I didn't," Millie said.
"Me neither," Neville said.
"It's alright, we'll do an algebra lesson this evening. Professor Vector went pretty fast and skipped a few steps that I think might help," Hermione said.
"Thank Merlin," Millie said.
They only had to go one floor down to get to their Ancient Runes class, with Terry from Ravenclaw coming with them.
"I wonder if people dropped this class too," Hermione said as they went inside the classroom and got settled.
"I wish we could drop Astronomy and History," Rachel said as she took out her summer homework.
"Well, I would like Astronomy if it wasn't for the disruption of our sleep schedules," Hermione said.
"And I would like History if we had a different professor," Theo said.
"Could be worse, could be Lockhart," Millie said.
Rachel couldn't help but smile. It was easier to laugh about that now that he was gone.
"I think you could say that for just about any professor though," Neville said.
"Doesn't make it less true," Millie said.
They stopped chatting as Professor Babbling arrived and took her place in front of the lectern. "I'm glad to see that everyone is still with us and I hope you had a good summer. Pass in your homework and we'll begin. Last year we began with numbers and basic runes. This year we are going to increase your vocabulary and also get some practice with carving runes. Carving is an artform and it is often dependent on what you are carving into and with what tools. This year we'll be starting with wood as it is easy to work with. Eventually, if you continue with the NEWT classes, you'll learn carving into stone and metal as well," Professor Babbling explained.
Rachel took notes about carving methods and then Professor Babbling passed around small chisels and flat pieces of wood.
"Go ahead and practice carving the numeric runes into the wood. You may wish to sketch the runes in ink before you try to carve them," Professor Babbling said.
Rachel was glad for a hands-on activity after sitting and staring at math equations for the past hour and half and got to work. Her piece of wood was a mess before long.
"Wow, that's good," she said, leaning over to look at Theo's work.
"Thanks, but it's not that good. We'll get better with practice," Theo said.
Rachel nodded. They probably would. If they were going to be doing this a lot she thought she'd Owl Order a set of chisels and figure out how to get some wood they could work on in the study group.
On Wednesday after lunch they went up to the third floor and found the Defense classroom already open, though Professor Moody wasn't inside.
"Do we want to be up front or in the back?" Millie asked.
"Considering our history with Defense professors I'm more partial to the back," Theo said.
"That's not a bad idea," Neville agreed.
Hermione hesitated, seeming to weigh various points in her head as she tilted her head back and forth.
"You'll still be able to hear him, and you can still see the board, and it gives us more time to react in case he decides this is a practical lesson," Theo reasoned.
"I suppose, but you don't think it's important to show the professor that we're interested and invested in his class?" Hermione asked.
"We can do that by answering questions and through our homework assignments. The back is the best place to be until we get an idea of how he runs his classroom. We can move up to the front later in the term if we decide we trust him," Theo said.
"Alright, but just until we decide whether or not it's safe," Hermione finally agreed.
They took seats in the fourth row, and before long the rest of the Gryffindors had taken up the first row and most of the second, with the Slytherins filling in the rest of the second and the third row.
Rachel set her textbook on her desk, along with her quill and some parchment for notes, and she turned as she heard a clunking sound coming from the hallway.
Professor Moody entered and after a moment she realized why he had made a clunking sound as he walked - he had a foot made out of wood, the front area with carved claws. This was her first up close look at Professor Moody and she got the feeling she understood why he had retired from being an auror. His face was heavily scarred and part of his nose was missing. One of his eyes was a normal dark brown, the other was electric blue and seemed to move independently of his other eye. Given all that magical medicine could do, it was clear that he'd been very seriously injured at some point in his life.
"Put your books away, you won't need them here, and you don't need to bring them to class either," Professor Moody said as he took his place at the front of the classroom.
He called roll next, stopping after each name to fix both of his eyes on the person who answered. Rachel wasn't sure if she was imagining that he'd stopped longer on her than her classmates.
"Curses," he began. "You've spent your first three years covering Dark creatures, if I'm not mistaken, and now you're ready to begin curses. My task is to spend the next year preparing all of you for the worst that is out there. The Ministry would prefer me to teach countercurses and leave it at that. Professor Dumbledore and I, however, think that is selling you short. You need to be prepared. You need to know what is out there, what we're capable of. You need to know how to defend yourselves. How can you do that if you've never seen a Dark curse? Does anyone know what curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Rachel hesitantly raised her hand, along with the rest of the study group, and a few others in the class.
"Mr. Weasley," Professor Moody said, pointing at Ron.
"My dad, he works at the Ministry, he's told me about the Imperius curse," Ron said.
"That's right. The Imperius curse gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at the end of the war, sorting out who was lying and who had really been under it," Professor Moody said, his gaze raising to rest on Draco. He stood up and removed a jar from his desk. From the jar he took out a spider, which he used the Engorgement charm on to make it bigger.
"Imperio," Professor Moody said, his wand pointing at the spider.
The spider began to dance on his hand, followed by a flip onto the desk, and then it started doing cartwheels. Most of the class was laughing, but when Rachel looked away to glance at her friends she saw that all of them had immediately gotten the point as well. Someone casting the Imperius curse could make you do anything they wanted you to do, and you couldn't stop them.
"Amusing?" Professor Moody asked. "Would you like it if someone did it to you? I have complete control. I could make it jump from a high window, kill itself, and no one would ever be the wiser."
The class had fallen silent and they watched as he shrank the spider and put it back in the jar.
"You can resist the Imperius curse, with practice, but it's tough. It takes strength of character and will. The best thing you can do is avoid being hit with it. Now, what's next. Another curse. Anyone?"
The study group raised their hands again, along with a few other students.
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor Moody called.
"The Cruciatus curse, sir," Neville said, the hand holding his quill trembling.
Rachel wondered if Professor Moody had called on Neville on purpose, if he knew what had happened to Neville's parents. Either way, this wasn't going to be pleasant to watch.
Professor Moody took another spider from the jar and used the Engorgement charm again. "Crucio," he said firmly.
The spider rolled on its back, its legs twitching horribly.
Rachel leaned over and took Neville's hand in hers, not sure what else she could do to help. Neville squeezed her hand so hard that it was painful, but Rachel didn't stop him.
"That's enough!" Hermione said loudly as the spider began to jerk more violently.
Professor Moody fixed both of his eyes on her before he pulled his wand away from the spider, its legs still jerking weakly.
"The Cruciatus curse is also known as the torture curse. It causes pain, far more effectively than any other method of torture. With enough time, it can cause lasting damage. There's no blocking the Cruciatus curse, it will go right through a Shield charm. Your best bet is to dodge it. Always be aware of your surroundings. Know who is at your back. Constant vigilance," Professor Moody said, turning to shrink the spider and put it back in the jar. "There's one more curse that belongs to this set, who can tell me what it is?"
Rachel raised her left hand, her right still holding onto Neville's hand. The rest of the study group except for Neville did as well, along with the same classmates who had raised their hands before. After that, Rachel expected Professor Moody to call on her.
"Miss Snow," Professor Moody said.
"The Killing Curse," Rachel said, and for the first time in a long time she had to focus on making her voice audible.
"That's right, the Killing Curse," Professor Moody said, taking out the last of the spiders and dropping it on the desk. "Avada kedavra!"
Rachel tightened her grip on Neville's hand reflexively as she watched the bright flash of green light. The spider lay on Professor Moody's desk, completely still. So that was the last thing her parents had seen.
"There's no countercurse. You can't block it with a shield, or with anything else. There's only one known survivor and she's sitting right there," Professor Moody said.
Rachel blushed as everyone in the room turned to look at her, but she didn't look away.
"The Killing Curse requires both a powerful magic force behind it and a powerful hatred. Try to cast it without either of those and you might as well be casting lumos. These three curses, the Cruciatus, the Imperius, and the Killing curse, are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any of them on another human being will earn you a life sentence in Azkaban," Professor Moody said, taking the class's attention again. "You need to be prepared. You'll hear me say this every lesson, and I'll say it again, you need constant, never-ending vigilance. Now, get your quills, take notes."
Neville gave Rachel's hand one more squeeze before he let go and Rachel picked up her quill and tried to force herself to focus on the lecture, though her mind was anywhere but present.
"Let's go to our study room," Hermione said, though the original plan had been to drop by the library after class.
They walked down the corridor, past the library, and partway down the left third floor corridor to their study room and found Luna and Ginny already inside.
"Is everything alright?" Ginny asked, looking up at them.
Neville went to sit in one of the armchairs by the fireplace instead of coming to the table.
"We just had Defense," Hermione said.
Rachel left her bag at the table and went to sit in the other armchair by Neville. She wished she knew what to do.
"Professor Moody demonstrated the Unforgivable curses," Theo said. "People seemed to think the Imperius curse was pretty funny until they realized it could be used on them."
"It's not funny at all," Luna said, her mouth fixed in a frown.
"No, it's not," Hermione said. "And. Well."
"You can say it, Hermione, I won't break," Neville said quietly.
"Neville and Rachel saw the curses that were used to hurt and kill their parents," Millie said. She came over to the armchairs and knelt down on the floor between them. "I'm not sure if I agree with Professor Moody or with Professor Dumbledore. How is seeing that supposed to help us?"
"So we know when to try to dodge or find something to hide behind instead of using a Shield charm, I suppose," Theo said. "It's important to know, but I feel like he could have handled that better. Maybe talked with Neville and Rachel in advance, or offered to let them skip class."
"I wouldn't have skipped. And I knew what was coming, once he started asking about the curses. I just never pictured it like that," Neville said. He closed his eyes and exhaled. "I used to try and imagine what it must have been like for them, how it could be so bad that their minds could just leave and never come back. And now that I've seen that, I can picture it really clearly, except it's not the spider who is rolling around on the floor, it's my parents and they're screaming."
Rachel shuddered. As much as she wished that her parents had survived, she was glad they hadn't gone through that. The Killing curse seemed clean and quick, as horrible as it was. She was glad they hadn't suffered.
"Does your Gran talk to you about them, what they were like before?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, mostly my father though. She doesn't talk a lot about my mom," Neville said.
"Is it helpful to try to picture them like what she's told you about?" Hermione asked.
"Sometimes. Just, right now, I can't," Neville said.
"That's understandable. That was a lot to deal with in the middle of class," Hermione said.
"Would you like to come over to the Burrow at some point this next summer? I know my parents knew your parents, maybe they could tell you something about them that your Gran wouldn't know," Ginny offered.
"Maybe. That might be good," Neville said. "Mostly I just want to try not to think about it right now."
"That's okay. And we're all here if you want to talk about it, to any of us," Millie said. "And if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay too."
"Thanks," Neville said.
"Rachel, how are you doing?" Theo asked.
"I'm okay," Rachel said. "Like Neville, I kind of got the idea of where things were going, so it wasn't a complete surprise. I just, I didn't expect it to look like that either."
Millie took her hand and gently squeezed it.
"Like Millie said, we're all available if you want to talk or anything," Hermione said. "Also, did it seem to anyone else like Professor Moody was calling on you both specifically? Like he knew?"
"I think so," Rachel said.
"Yeah, I noticed that too," Theo said. "I'm not sure what that means, exactly, but I think we should keep our guard up around him for the time being. I don't think he's out to harm us or anything, but something about that seemed weird."
"Agreed," Millie said. She turned to Ginny and Luna. "You're in separate Defense classes, aren't you?"
"We are, but we'll be on our guard too," Ginny said.
Luna nodded. "I'll see what the Muahorns have to say about him as well. He doesn't have many wrackspurts around him though."
"I suppose that's good," Hermione said.
"Oh, Rachel, Angelina is going to act as Gryffindor captain this year. She said Roger talked to her and Ravenclaw is in," Ginny said.
"Good. Cedric caught me at breakfast and said the Hufflepuff team is in as well. Now we just need a place to play. I'll ask Professor Snape on Sunday about using the pitch," Rachel said, glad for something else to think about for a moment.
"Okay, just let us know. If we can't use the pitch we'll figure something else out. We've got to recruit a Keeper, and I know you need another Chaser and another Beater," Ginny said.
Rachel nodded. "We'll work something out, even if we have to play Quadpot instead."
"It's a good thing Oliver Wood isn't here to hear you say that," Neville said.
Rachel felt herself smile and it was a relief. When she glanced at Neville, she saw that he was trying to smile as well.
"Alright, I think first on our agenda is our Charms essays, and then Potions after dinner?" Hermione asked.
"Sounds good," Neville said.
Rachel nodded. Time to get to work.
"I have a proposal to make," Theo said as they settled into their study room on Saturday after lunch.
"We're all ears," Hermione said, pausing with a quill in her hand.
"I know we've decided to put off the more active parts of the process of becoming an animagus until our sixth year, when Professor McGonagall can potentially help. I'd still prefer it to be sooner, but considering everything that can go wrong with the process, I would feel better if we had her guidance," Theo began.
"And if Professor McGonagall won't teach us, Sirius will. Remus said it was a good idea to hold off until a little later, but at the very least we still have someone who will help us," Rachel said.
"Which is a good back-up plan," Theo agreed. "But in the meantime, why don't we plan a once monthly group discussion about where we are in the process of the meditations and we can determine whether or not we're ready to move onto the next meditation in the series?"
"Once monthly seems reasonable, though we can always have smaller discussions if someone is running into trouble with something," Hermione said. "Having said that, how is everyone doing with the first meditation?"
"It got better for me after I started following the advice Rachel got from Sirius," Millie said. "I still have to tighten my muscles in order to find them, but at first I had trouble even identifying the muscles to figure out where they were. Now I can go straight to them."
"Same," Rachel said. "Things in the middle are sort of nebulous, but I can find my feet, legs, hands, and arms now."
"I'm trying to do it twice a day, twenty minutes in the morning before I get out of bed, and twenty minutes in the evening before I fall asleep. I think I have a good grasp on it, though in the book they recommend that you can continue practicing this meditation until it's routine," Theo said.
"I've only been doing it in the evening, but I'll try adding it in the morning too. I think I'm getting better at it, better than I was at first at least," Neville said.
"I think twice a day seems reasonable while we're at Hogwarts. During the summer I was doing it more frequently, but obviously we're out and about most of the day now. I also feel like I have a fairly good handle on it, but I want to continue on this one for a while more before trying the next meditation in the series," Hermione said.
"Me too," Ginny said. "I feel like I'm doing okay with it, but it's hard to know what to judge by."
"I have a bit of trouble reaching the end," Luna said. "I try to focus on my body, but I often find myself distracted."
"What do you get distracted by?" Hermione asked.
"Oh other thoughts, mostly. I'll remember something I heard or something I've seen, and I'll start thinking about that instead. And when I finish, I remember that I was supposed to be doing the meditation, so I start again," Luna explained.
"Maybe don't start from the beginning again," Rachel suggested. "Maybe just pick up where you left off, that way you have practice going through the entire meditation, even if it's in pieces."
"That seems reasonable," Theo said. "It's possible if you keep going after you get distracted, you'll help teach your mind that you're meditating and that it can be distracted later."
"Do you find yourself getting distracted like that while you're doing other things?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. My mind's quite busy, really. There's always something new to think about," Luna said.
"I feel like that too, but I think that it's in a different way than how you feel it," Hermione said. "Sometimes, it's like my thoughts can't keep up with themselves, because it's happening too quickly, but the thoughts are feeding each other and all going in the same direction."
Luna shook her head. "Mine are more like I'll be in class and the professor will be talking and I'm taking notes, but then I'm thinking about a conversation I heard earlier in the day and I'm remembering what the people looked like while they were talking and how their voices sound. And then I realize that I've missed part of what the professor said. Does that not happen to you?"
"Maybe occasionally, but I'm able to tell myself that's not what I'm thinking about right now and go back to what the professor is saying," Hermione said. "What about the rest of you?"
"Not really," Theo said. "Not like that at least."
"I get distracted sometimes, but it's more because I'm trying to keep up with what the professor is saying, and I'm still on the last thing they said, but they keep going," Neville said.
"For me, I'm usually okay with paying attention, but sometimes I'll be thinking about something else and I can't make those thoughts go away, and they sort of block out whatever else is going on," Rachel said. She hadn't realized that people paid attention to things differently.
Ginny shrugged. "Sometimes I don't pay attention in class because I just don't want to, like if Professor Binns is going on forever. But most of the time I can pay attention when I'm trying."
Hermione shook her head. "Just when we get back to Hogwarts I need the muggle library."
"What for?" Theo asked.
"Because I imagine that muggle psychologists would have something to say about all of this, and maybe they'd have suggestions to help anyone who has trouble staying focused," Hermione said.
"I could ask Torey if she has suggestions and then tell you what she says," Rachel offered. She wouldn't see Torey again until next Saturday, but she could hopefully remember to ask.
"That might be a good idea, if you don't mind," Hermione said.
"I don't mind, not if it helps," Rachel said.
"Anyway, in the meantime, it sounds like we want to continue doing the first meditation for a while, so let's plan to stick with that," Hermione said.
"And if we have any more questions we can ask Sirius. And we can potentially see him on the first Hogsmeade weekend that is in the last weekend of October," Rachel said.
"I'm interested in meeting him just to meet him," Millie said.
"Maybe we can have lunch with him after we go around Hogsmeade," Theo suggested.
"I'll ask him in the next letter I send to him," Rachel said.
"Alright, if that's all settled we have Herbology essays and equations for Arithmancy," Hermione said. "What do we want to do first?"
"Herbology," Neville said quickly. "I can lead the discussion since I've already put the notes in our books."
Rachel smiled as she pulled out her two-way book and some parchment for her essay. She'd hate to be doing all of this on her own.
Severus looked up at the sound of his office door closing. It was ten minutes past six and Rachel came through the permeable wall that separated his office from his quarters looking flustered.
"Sorry, I lost track of the time, we were doing Ancient Runes," she said.
Severus stood up. "You're still wearing your watch?" he asked.
"I am," she said, pulling back her sleeve to show him. "I just didn't look, I'm sorry."
"In the future try to be more mindful of the time. I don't want you to skip meals. Are you ready for dinner?" he asked.
"I am," Rachel said, going to her usual spot at the table and setting down her bag.
Severus flooed the kitchens and asked for two dinners to be sent to his quarters and then went to the table as well. Two plates appeared, with roast beef, mashed potatoes, and green beans. The House Elves had sent Rachel a goblet of pumpkin juice and him a glass of red wine.
"How was your first week of classes?" he asked, watching as she began cutting her meat.
"Oh, busy. Arithmany is going to be hard this year, but at least it's interesting. Ancient Runes will be interesting too, I hope we get to do more carving of runes. I'm pretty terrible at it, but it's fun. Oh, and there are some things I should tell you," she said.
Severus immediately felt worried, though surely she would have come to him earlier in the week if it had been urgent. "Such as?" he prompted.
Rachel stared at where she was drawing lines in her potatoes with her fork tines. "Such as we think Hagrid might have illegally bred the Blast-Ended Skrewts."
Severus sighed. "Dare I ask what a Blast-Ended Skrewt is?"
"They're little grey crab-like things with tons of legs. They have exploding ends, some of them have stingers and some of them have little suckers on their stomachs. Hagrid said something about fire crabs and manticores when Theo asked him how they were made," Rachel explained. "Can Professor Dumbledore do something about it?"
"I will inform Albus and I'm certain he will take the appropriate measures," Severus said.
Rachel looked worried. "They're not going to kill them, are they?"
"That will likely be up to the department for the regulation and control of magical creatures," Severus said. "Are you familiar with the term invasive species?"
Rachel shook her head.
"Sometimes when a plant or a creature that is not native to a habitat arrives, they can disrupt the balance of everything that is living there. If they eat another species' food or crowd the space where they live, then that species might die out, which might kill the species that eats them, and so on. Obviously it would be a good precaution to keep these creatures out of the Forbidden Forest, at least until they are studied and it's determined how harmful they are," Severus explained. "Were there other things you needed to tell me?"
"Well, I wanted to ask you about whether or not we can use the Quidditch pitch. I've asked around and all four of the House teams still want to play, so we figured we could organize some informal games," Rachel said.
"I will ask Albus if you can use the pitch, however, you will need staff members to attend the games to help in case anything goes wrong or if there are any injuries," Severus said, recognizing what he was about to get into.
"Oh, maybe Madam Hooch would do it?" Rachel asked.
"Madam Hooch is away on a leave of absence, which is one of the reasons that Quidditch was cancelled this year. However, I will be available to attend some of the games, and I can ask Minerva if she would attend some of them as well," Severus said.
Rachel smiled brightly. "That would be great. Thank you!"
Severus nodded. "Anything else I should know about?"
"Well, something kind of happened in Defense," Rachel said, going back to poking at her potatoes.
"Oh?" Severus asked. Moody was going to be a problem. He couldn't intimidate Moody the way he could Quirrell or Lockhart, so he'd have to go through Albus if there was an issue.
"He showed us the Unforgivable Curses in class. Neville was pretty upset," Rachel said.
Severus frowned. "Is Neville alright now?"
"He seems to be, but he was really quiet for a few days. We're trying to be supportive, but it's hard to know what to do to help," Rachel said.
"He's fortunate that he has you and your other friends to be there for him," Severus said. "How was it for you?"
Rachel shrugged. "I didn't like seeing it, but it's good to know, I guess. I hadn't really pictured the Killing curse like that. It seems too easy."
"It may help to know that the Killing curse is not actually easy to cast. In many ways it is the opposite of the Patronus charm. Just as you had to concentrate on powerfully happy memories, to cast the Killing curse you have to feel a powerful hatred, one that is nearly all consuming. It also requires quite a lot of power behind it. Just as many people can't cast the Patronus charm, many of them can't cast the Killing curse," Severus explained.
Rachel was quiet for a long moment, her gaze on her dinner. "Is Professor Dumbledore using the Triwizard Tournament to recruit for the Order?" she asked.
"No, the Order is essentially defunct, though I imagine Albus will reactivate it should there be another war," Severus said. "And regardless, Albus won't-"
"Won't what?" Rachel asked after a moment.
"I was about to reassure you that Albus wouldn't recruit from the school, but that is more or less what he did last time as the war grew longer. However, I can assure you that Albus won't recruit students while they are still in school," Severus said.
"Are Professor Moody's injuries from his time in the Order?" she asked.
"Moody was both in the Order and was an auror. Most of his injuries were from being cursed by Death Eaters," Severus said.
"And the Healers couldn't do anything for him?" Rachel asked.
"The Healers did a lot for him, which is why he's still alive. Curse injuries are not like other injuries. Limbs or organs that have been lost from curses cannot be regrown. Oftentimes it is difficult to stop a curse wound from bleeding and they leave scars that are difficult to remove. This includes things like the Cruciatus curse. While that doesn't cause apparent injuries, it is doing damage to your nervous system," Severus explained.
"And that's why they can't help Neville's parents, because they can't heal the damage that the curse did inside their brains?" Rachel asked.
"Exactly. Curse injuries leave a residual dark magic that interferes with Healing," Severus said.
"And there's no way to remove that dark magic?" Rachel asked.
"Not directly. There are some remedies that work better than treating curse damage than others, but the reasons behind that are still unknown. It's a somewhat difficult topic to research because to test your treatments you need people who have been injured by dark curses," Severus said. "Was there anything else you needed to tell me about your Defense class?"
"Well, there was one thing that was a little weird," Rachel said. "When Professor Moody was asking the class what the curses were, he called on Ron, who mentioned Mr. Weasley had told him about the Imperius curse, on Neville, whose parents were tortured with the Cruciatus curse, and on me. It seems like a bit much to be a coincidence."
It definitely was not a coincidence, but Severus wasn't sure what to make of it either. "I'm not sure what his point was, but I want you to be on your guard with Moody. I have no doubts of his loyalty to Albus, but I don't fully trust him either." To be more accurate, Severus didn't trust him with Rachel's well-being.
Rachel nodded. "We're being careful. We decided to sit in the back of the classroom for now, in case of any surprise practical lessons."
"That's reasonable. Stay with your friends and use whatever precautions you feel are necessary. And tell me if anything else odd happens," Severus said. That was the best they could do for now.
"I will," Rachel said.