Chapter 9

The Unforgivable Curses

On the Monday after the Hogsmeade weekend, I had my first Defence Against the Dark Arts class with our new Defence teacher, Professor Mad Eye Moody.

I had heard from Fred and George and their friend, Lee Jordan that Moody was a good teacher, minus the fact that when he was sacked from the Ministry (he was an ex-Auror), he went a little nuts.

I walked into class that day with Ivy and Dominique and Harry. Avoiding Pansy and the rest of the Slytherins, we walked into the class and sat in the front row along with Hermione.

Moody limped into the class and his glass eye zoomed to me. I gulped as he set a jar with a spider on it on the desk.

"I am Alastor Moody." he said, writing it on the blackboard. "Ex-Auror, Ministry malcontent, and your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Questions?"

No one said a word. I kept my head in my book and away from that moving glass eye. It kind of gave me the creeps.

"Good. When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach." Moody said, eyeing the back row of Slytherins, Draco among them. "Who can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"

Hermione, Ivy and I raised our hands. Moody smiled a creepy half smile and pointed to Hermione.

"Three, sir." Hermione said solemnly enough that took the smirk off my face.

"And they are so named?" Moody said, pointing to Ivy and I.

"You start." I said to Ivy.

"They are so named because they are Unforgivable." Ivy explained with a stony expression.

"The use of any one of them is guaranteed-" I said up until Moody cut me off.

"A one way ticket to Azkaban! Correct, ladies." Moody said, writing "The Unforgivable Curses" on the blackboard. "The Ministry says you are too young to see what these curses do. I say different! I believe in CONSTANT VIGILANCE! And you cannot be vigilant if you have no clue of what you are up against! You need to know, and be prepared! You need to find another place to write Draco plus Pansy equals forever besides on your desk, Ms Parkinson!"

I giggled and doodled in a corner of my textbook.

"I swear, the old man can see from the back of his head!" Seamus Finnegan said to Dean Thomas (another Gryffindor who I found completely annoying, and not just because I heard he had a crush on Drosie.)

Moody grabbed a piece of chalk and hurled it across the room at Seamus "And hear across classrooms!"

When the class was finally stunned into silence, Moody started back to the lesson "Now, which curse shall we see first? WEASLEY!" he barked at Ron, who rose shakily "Give us a curse. Any curse."

Ron looked around the classroom before speaking "Well, my dad did tell me one…the Im-Imperious Curse."

"Yes, your father would know all about that. Before we see the effects of the Imperious Curse, who can tell me why they caused Ministry workers so much strife in the past?"

I shot my hand up in the air, smirking when everyone stared at me.

"Ms Potter."

"The Imperious Curse caused so many Ministry workers strife in the past because when You-Know-Who fell from power, many of his followers said they only did his bidding under the influence of the Imperious Curse."

"Correct!" Moody said, writing "The Imperious Curse" on the blackboard. "But there was one issue…and that was…"

"How do you sort out the liars?" I said, reading his thoughts.

Moody turned to me in a look of pleasant surprise "Yes, Ms Potter." he said, taking out the spider. "Let's see what the Imperious Curse can do to this spider."

Moody pulled out his wand and pointed it at the spider "Engorgio." he whispered, causing the spider to grow to double the size "Imperio!" he shouted, making the spider fly across the room to our desk and do a tap dance routine.

I bit my lip and held my breath. I absolutely hated spiders.

Moody, somehow sensing I was uncomfortable around it, made the spider fly onto Crabbe's head.

I laughed as Crabbe whimpered. "Karma, Crabbe!" I said, leaning on Ivy's shoulder for support.

"Funny, is it, Ms Potter?" Moody said, making the spider fly onto MY head.

I screamed "GET IT OFF ME! GET IT OFF!" and started trying to get the spider off my head as the Slytherins burst into a fit of laughter.

"Don't worry, completely harmless." Moody said, making the spider fly onto Ron's head in a small bought of mercy. "But if she bites…she's lethal!"

I kept my mouth shut and stifled laughter as Ron panicked with his worse fear on his head.

Draco started laughing, Moody turned to him. "What are you laughing at?" Moody demanded, taking the spider off of Ron and putting it on Draco.

The giggles I had were wiped away at once at seeing Draco freaking out over the spider on his head and him whimpering for Goyle to "Get it off me! GOYLE GET IT OFF!"

When Moody had the spider back in his hand, he ordered Neville Longbottom to give him another curse.

"The…The Cruciatus Curse, sir." Neville stammered, turning to me, Ivy, Harry and Hermione.

"Ah, the Cruciatus Curse…the Torture Curse. Correct. Come. Come." Moody said, leading Neville to the front of the classroom, where he put the spider down on the desk.

"Crucio!" Moody said, pointing his wand at the spider, who instantaneously started writhing and squeaking in pain.

Suddenly, Hermione shouted "STOP IT! CAN'T YOU SEE IT'S BOTHERING HIM! STOP!"

Moody turned to Hermione and immediately stopped, waking the writhing spider twitch with pain.

I swallowed as Ivy bit her lip. That didn't look like a friendly curse to use.

"And…the last curse…?" Moody said, turning to Hermione, Ivy and I.

I took a deep breath and shook my head, unable to say the curse aloud.

"The Avada Kedavra." Hermione whispered.

My eyes widened and turned to her "You said the curse." I whispered, blanching.

Moody smiled at Hermione as Ivy blanched to almost my complexion (and trust me…I am very pale. And Ivy is one of the most tanned person I know.).

"Avada Kedavra." Moody said, turning to the spider and pointing his wand at it.

There was a flash of green light and the spider slid over to me, dead.

My scar prickled and I gripped my dagger tightly. I turned to Harry and he was just as pale as I was.

"The Avada Kedavra…the Killing Curse." Moody said solemnly "Only two people have been known to survive it. And…" both eyes turned to Harry and I "They're sitting in this very room."

All eyes in class turned to us as Moody took out his hip flask and took a deep drink from it.

Ivy was a wreck when we went down for Potions with Dommie and Hermione. She had not been able to regain her colour and she was pretty quiet.

"Ivy, you seem out of it since Defence." I said when we got to the hands on portion of the class, making a Pepper-Up Potion. "What's up?"

Ivy turned to me, then turned to Professor Snape "Professor, may we go to the washroom?" Ivy asked.

"Very well." Snape said coldly, turning back to the Slytherin side of the class "But be quick about it!"

Ivy and I got up from our seats and headed towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "Ivy, you know that there's a washroom in the last corridor?" I asked as Ivy pulled me in.

"I can't risk people overhearing what I'm about to tell you." Ivy said, looking around the room "Myrtle? Are you in here?"

I looked around for Moaning Myrtle as well before Ivy, assuming that Myrtle wasn't in there. "You know when Moody used that Avada Kedavra curse on that spider?"

I nodded "That's how You-Know-Who killed your mum, right?" I asked.

Ivy nodded "But that's not why I'm so upset…I…I sort of watched him kill my mum. My mum hid me under a bed and I watched the flash of green light from the gap between the comforter and the floor."

I nodded in comprehension "I see…that's all I remember from my parents' deaths as well. A lot of green light."

Ivy smiled "I guess we have more in common than I thought. Come on, we'd better get back to Potions before Snape hands our asses to us." Ivy said, turning to leave the bathroom.

I smiled back "Good idea." I said, following Ivy out and back to the dungeons.

When Ivy and I got back into the Potions classroom, Snape was standing at the front of the class with Colin Creevey.

"What's Colin doing here?" I said, annoyed, because I found Colin to be the most annoying, fanatic person on the planet.

"I'm supposed to take you and Harry to do something involving the Triwizard Champions." Colin said, turning to Harry.

I rolled my eyes and stood next to Harry, who had his things along with mine "Ok, let's go." I said, walking out of the dungeons.