Back in the common room that night, Bella and the others, bar Hermione, were working on their predictions for Divination.
"I haven't a clue what any of this means." Harry said, staring blankly at his textbook, Unfogging the Future.
"You know." Ron said, running his fingers through his hair for the hundredth time, making it stand on edge as if he'd been shocked. "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."
"What, make it up?" Emily asked.
"Yeah." Ron replied, sweeping the jumble of parchment off the table.
"Next Monday -" he said as he scribbled. "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter." He looked up from his parchment triumphantly. "You know her - just put in loads of misery and she'll lap it up."
The four of them shared a look but they all agreed Ron was right, there was no way Professor Trelawney would even have the first clue their predictions were a lot of rubbish. Harry crumpled up his parchment and lobbed it over the heads of some first years into the fire with a grin.
"Okay... on Monday, I will be in danger of burns -"
"Yeah, you're right about that." Freya said to Harry. "We've got Care of Magical Creatures on Monday."
"On Tuesday I will..." Bella said, tapping her quill against her chin. "What can happen to me?"
"You'll get into a fight with someone." Ron said, reading from his textbook.
"Good thinking." Bella said, tapping the side of her head with her quill before she dipped it in her ink and began to write.
"Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?" Ron said, tapping Harry's parchment to get his attention.
"Yeah... cool." Harry said, scribbling it down.
They continued to make up predictions, all of which grew steadily darker, for another hour, while the common room slowly emptied. When, at last, the common room was deserted, the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed through it carrying a large bundle of parchment and a box that rattled with every step she took.
"Hello." she said. "I've just finished."
"So have I" Ron said eagerly, throwing down his quill.
Hermione sat down, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her.
"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sarcastically as Crookshanks curled up in her lap.
"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned," Ron yawned.
"You seem to be drowning twice," Hermione said.
"Oh am I?" said Ron, peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff."
"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" Hermione said.
"How dare you!" Ron said, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!"
Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"It's just an expression," Ron said hastily.
"What's in the box?" Harry asked, pointing at it.
"Funny you should ask," Hermione said, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid and showed them the contents.
Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S.P.E.W.
"'Spew'?" Freya said, picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"
"Not spew," Hermione said impatiently. "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
"Never heard of it," said Ron.
"Well, of course you haven't," Hermione huffed. "I've only just started it."
"Yeah?" Ron said in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"
"Well - if you guys join - six." Hermione said.
"And you think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" Ron said.
"S-P-E-W!" said Hermione hotly. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status — but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."
She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them.
"I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now."
"Hermione - open your ears," Ron said loudly. "They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!"
"Oh, shut up, Ron." Bella said. "I'll wear one, Hermione."
"Yeah, me too." Freya said.
"And me." Emily added.
"Our short-term aims," Hermione said, handing badges to the three girls and ignoring the fact that Ron had even spoken at all. "- are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long- term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly underrepresented."
"And how do we do all this?" Harry asked.
"We start by recruiting members," Hermione said happily. "I thought two Sickles to join - that buys a badge - and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer, Ron... I've got you a collecting tin upstairs - and Harry, you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting."
"What do you want us to do?" Bella asked, gesturing to herself, Freya and Emily.
"I want you three to be our spokespeople. Try and get people involved, get them buying badges, that sort of thing." Hermione smiled.
"I think we can do that, can't we?" Bella looked to Emily and Freya who both nodded their heads.
"Do you not think you're going a bit far with this, Hermione?" Ron said.
"No, I don't." Hermione snapped. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to bed."
She snatched up her box and parchment and stomped from the common room.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again," Ron said, staring after her. "She's mental."
Their lessons had been getting progressively harder as the weeks wore on, but no lesson compared to Moody's Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. To everyones surprise, Moody had 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.
"But - but you said it's illegal, Professor." Hermione said uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said - to use it against another human was -"
"Miss Granger -" Moody said, his magical eye fixated on Hermione. "You need to know how it feels. In any respect, if you would rather learn when someone has total control over your body and they are using you to do all manner of terrible things, then be my guest, you are excused."
Hermione went very pink in the face and shrunk back into the crowd of students. Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Bella watched as, one by one, her classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Parvati Patil imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
Harry had gone and done better than anyone else in their class. He had managed to throw Professor Moody off from making him jump up on the desk but had fallen and injured himself in the process. Moody was extremely pleased that at least someone had tried to throw him off.
"Weasley" Moody growled, "you next."
"Me or him?" Bella asked, pointing between herself and Ron.
"You." Moody said, pointing a long, calloused finger at Bella.
Bella moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at her, and said, 'Imperio!'
It felt very strange to be under someone elses influence. She felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in her head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. She stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching her.
And then she heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of her empty brain: Do an Irish Jig... Do an Irish Jig...
Bella moved into position obediently, prepared to dance in front of everyone.
Do an Irish Jig...
But, why? Another voice said in the back of her head. You're going to look really stupid the voice said.
Do an Irish Jig...
I think I'll give that a miss, thanks though, the other voice said forcefully.
Dance, now!
Bella felt her whole body lurch forward. In her attempt to dance yet not dance, she had tripped over her own foot and fallen flat on her face.
"Two in one lesson!" Moody said. "I dare to think what your father's been teaching you, eh, Weasley!"
"He hasn't been teaching me anything, sir." Bella said, rubbing her elbow as she got to her feet.
"I want you both to try again!" Moody said excitedly. "Everyone else pay attention! They're going to have trouble controlling you!"
"The way he talks." Harry muttered as he hobbled out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class an hour later (Moody had insisted on putting them both through their paces, until they could throw off the curse entirely), "you'd think we were all going to be attacked any second."
"I'm getting really sick of him." Bella added, rubbing the sides of her temples to try and alleviate the pain in her head.
"He's obsessed." Ron said, who was skipping on every alternate step. He had had much more difficulty with the curse than Harry and Bella, though Moody assured him the effects would wear off by lunchtime. "Talk about paranoid -" Ron glanced nervously over his shoulder to check that Moody was definitely out of earshot and went on. "No wonder they were glad to get shot of him at the Ministry. Did you hear him telling Seamus what he did to that witch who shouted 'Boo' behind him on April Fools' Day? And when are we supposed to read up on resisting the Imperius Curse with every- thing else we've got to do?"
When the fourth years arrived in the entrance hall, they found that they couldn't go anywhere, owing to the ;arge crowd of students all gathered around a large sign that had been placed at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, the tallest of the lot, stood on his tiptoes to see over the heads of the others in front of them and read the sign aloud;
'TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at six o'clock on Friday the thirtieth of October. Lessons will end half an hour early'
"Brilliant!" Harry sad. "It's Potions last thing on Friday."
'Students will reurn their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.'
"Only a week away!" Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuss said, emerging from the crowd with wide eyes. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..."
"Cedric?" Ron said blankly as Ernie hurried past. "That idiot. Hogwarts Champion?"
"That's what I'm hoping for." Cedric chuckled, appearing behind Ron.
Ron's eyes widened comically and he took a step away from Cedric, turning around to look at him.
"Sorry." Ron murmered.
"It's okay." Cedric smiled with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"Are you entering the tournament?" Bella asked.
"I am, yeah." Cedric smiled but his smile dropped when he saw that Bella wasn't smiling back. "What?"
"That's really dangerous Cedric." Bella said in an imitation scarily like her mother.
"I'll be fine." Cedirc laughed nervously. "We don't even know if I'll be picked yet."
"As if they would choose anyone else." Bella scoffed. "Just don't come crying to me when you get hurt."
"Okay, boss." Cedric chuckled.
"I'm being serious." Bella replied.
"So am I." Cedric said, placing his hand on his heart. "I'm a big boy, I can handle myself."
