"I heard from some fifth years that it was the best lesson they've ever had." Justin whispers to Eden and Hannah as the three of them make their way to their first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson with Professor Moody as their teacher.

"I'm kind of scared, to be honest," Hannah says, clutching her books closer to her chest, "Doesn't he look quite scary?"

"Well, wouldn't you go a bit mad after catching so many dark wizards that half the cells in Azkaban are filled because of you?" Justin scoffs at her as they all enter the classroom that was already almost filled. Turns out everyone had heard how exciting Moody's classes were. Justin and Hannah take seats next to each other toward the middle of the classroom, shooting Eden sorry glances as they realize there were no open seats close to them.

She works her way up the classroom, finding a seat in the middle front desk next to Neville Longbottom. She likes Neville. He was the only student she really had to worry about knocking her out of her top spot in Herbology but they got along very well, "Hi, Neville."

"Oh, h-hi Eden." He says shyly, flashing her a small smile before looking back down at his book. Eden reaches into her bag and pulls out her book along with parchment and her quill just as the familiar thumping sound of Moody's wooden cane can be heard coming down the classroom towards the front.

He sets his walking stick off to the side and addresses the class face-to-face, "Alastor Moody." He states before he turns toward the blackboard behind him, grabbing a piece of chalk to write his name on it, "Ex-Auror. Ministry Malcontent." He tosses the chalk onto his desk, "And your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." Eden stares up at him with wide eyes as the entire class sits completely silent, "I'm here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end." He says bluntly, "Any questions?"

No one makes a sound or makes a move to raise their hand, so they continue, 'When it comes to the Dark Arts I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"

Eden begins to lift her hand off of her lap to offer the answer but Hermione Granger beats her to it, "Three, sir."

"And they are so named?"

"Because they are unforgivable." Hermione's voice sounds shaky like she's scared of what he'll do to her if she talks, "The use of any one of them will-"

"Earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct." He finishes scribbling more on the board and turns back around to face the students, "The ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do, I say different!" He shouts, turning back to the board yet again, "You need to know what you're up against. You need to be prepared...You need to find another place to put your chewing gum beside the underside of your desk Mr. Finnigan."

"Oh, no way. The old Codger can see out the back of his head." Seamus mutters under his breath but Eden has to duck as Moody chucks the piece of chalk he had been using across the classroom at Seamus.

"And hear across classrooms!" Everyone is on edge after his outburst but they would apparently have to get used to it in this class, "So, which curse shall we see first?" He asks the class, "Weasley!" He shouts, causing Ron to let out a little yelp and Eden turns in her chair to look at him while Moody towers above him. "Stand."

Ron stands up meekly, his eyes wide and his eyebrows pushed downward in fear, "Well...my dad did tell me about one.' Ron starts and Eden shuffles in her seat anxiously, "The Imperius Curse."

"Oh, yeah, your father would know all about that one." Moody nods, sounding satisfied with his answer, "Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago." Eden can't help but steal a glance behind her at Draco at the mention of it. When you-know-who was caught, Lucius and Francis had insisted that they had been under the Imperius Curse while following him. "Perhaps this will show you why."

Moody pulls out a very gross and large spider, holding it in the palm of his hand as he casts a spell on it to make it even larger, "Imperio!" He curses the insect and is immediately able to control it with his wand. Much to Eden's dismay, the first thing he does is make it land in front of her on her desk, making her gasp and scoot back in her chair.

It didn't last long, Moody made it move all around the classroom, dancing on Ron's head and even landing on Draco's face. The whole class was laughing, "Talented, isn't she? What should I have her do next? Jump out the window?" He swipes his wand across the room and the spider smacks against the glass window, making the laughter die down almost immediately. "Drown herself?" He hovers the spider over a bucket of water before he brings it back over to rest in the palm of his hand once again, "Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the Imperius Curse."

Eden folds her hands in her lap, fiddling with the gold rings on her fingers uncomfortably, "But here's the rub: How do we sort out the liars?" She looks up nervously, hoping that Moody wasn't looking at her as he asked for another curse and he wasn't, it was Neville who was raising his hand and offering his input, "Longbottom, is it? Up." Neville stands up carefully, "Professor Sprout tells me that you have an aptitude for herbology." Neville nods.

"There's...the um...the Cruciatus Curse." He stutters out.

"Correct! Correct! Come, come." Moody beckons him forward and sets the spider down on his desk as Neville follows him, "Particularly nasty." Eden's eyes flicker between the spider and Neville's face nervously. Why was Moody making him watch if it was so awful? "Crucio!" He utters the next curse and the spider instantly starts bending in pain. It couldn't scream, but Eden was sure that if it could they would all be covering their ears.

But she watches Neville's face as the torture to the insect continues and it's almost more painful to watch than the spider. He's squeezing his eyes shut, looking rather uncomfortable and almost traumatized. Eden doesn't know what comes over her but she stands up from her chair quickly, her chair scraping against the floor as she does so, "Stop! Its-it's obviously bothering him, stop it!" she yells loudly, knowing that all eyes in the classroom are all on her but she doesn't care. She leans forward on the desk, her eyes wide with urgency and worry.

The torture stops, but Neville can't bring himself to move from the spot or open his eyes. Moody clears his throat and picks up the spider, placing it in front of Eden on her desk like he had done moments ago but this time, he leaves it. She sits back down in her chair, looking up at Moody with angry eyes, once that could kill if she gave them the power, "Perhaps you could give us the final curse, Miss...Haywood.' He says her last name with such distaste that she knows he recognizes it. Everyone did.

She looks down at the spider on her desk who was barely moving now that it had been through the pain of being tortured, "The killing curse, sir." She looks back up at her professor.

"The name, Miss Haywood."

Eden takes a deep breath, her heart pounding in her ears and her palms sweaty, "Avada Kedavra.' The words slip past her lips and leave an awful taste in her mouth. She never thought she would say those words, not even in an educational setting.

The words are much harsher when Professor Moody utters them at the spider. There's a bright flash of green light and the spider falls dead on top of Eden's book. "Only one person is known to have survived this curse," Moody's eyes move behind Eden finally, and he focuses on Harry Potter, "And he's sitting in this room."


Eden felt sick for the rest of the day. She couldn't touch her lunch and despite all of the times her two friends would ask her if she was okay, she would say she was fine and not to worry. But she wasn't really all that fine. All her life she had tried to avoid the rumors of her father and her mother. That they were Death Eaters. She tried to remind herself that she was different and that it was in the past what her parents did. She couldn't be held responsible for her parents' mistakes, she could only try and be better than them and make up for what they had done.

But despite everything she tells herself, there were always stronger reminders that you could never undo what the Dark Lord had her parents do-what they chose to do. They could say all they want that they were under a curse but at the end of the day, Eden knew in the back of her mind that they had done what they did because they wanted to. And she would give anything to never end up like her parents.

She only started to feel slightly better when she made her way to one of the green houses to meet up with Cedric. At breakfast this morning she said they needed to get ahead on his herbology studies, especially if he was going to be entering the tournament.

"Eternal glory will mean nothing if you can't even graduate, Diggory." She had told him.

He tried to insist that he no longer needed her assistance because of all the help she had given him last year. But Eden knew better and the look she gave him told him that. So, he agreed, and she was running to the greenhouse as quickly as she could with her bag held over her head to prevent it from getting too wet from the rain.

Cedric was already in the greenhouse waiting for her when she arrived and the look he gives her is one full of concern, "Eden, are you alright?" He asks, rushing over to her as she sets her bag down and smooths her damp hair out, "I heard what happened with Moody today-"

Eden frowns at him, "How did you hear about that?" she asks.

'Well, everyone is talking about it, really." He says, "I think mainly because half the people here aren't even sure how your voice sounds, let alone heard you yell at someone before."

Eden sighs, putting some gardening gloves on as she chews on her bottom lip. She didn't really like the fact that people were talking about her but she didn't regret what she had done in DADA, "If you had seen Neville's face you would have done the same thing. He was terrified." She says, dropping her hands to her sides and turning to look at Cedric, "Is everyone really talking about it?"

"Well, maybe not everyone," He gives her a look of sympathy, "But I think Malfoy may have told your sister, and your sister told your brother…" He trails off, "He was...complaining about it in potions, said you-"

"Never fail to embarrass them." She nods, "Yeah, I've heard that one before." Cedric opens his mouth and Eden knows he's going to try and say he's sorry but she stops him, "It's alright, really," She waves a hand, "now enough about me, let's get to propagating." she claps her glove clad hands together and grins at him excitedly.

They work on Herbology for a while, mainly just going over review but also catching up about things that happened over their summer holiday that they hadn't managed to get into their letters to each other.

"Oh, you've got some soil on your face," Cedric chuckles softly at Eden, motioning the area right under his eye to indicate that's where the dirt is. Eden blushes, trying to wipe it away but she only manages to get more since she forgot to take off her gloves first, "No," He laughs a little harder, "here, I'll get it." He takes one of his gloves off and cups her cheek, using his thumb to wipe away the soil from her cheekbone.

Eden's breath hitches in her throat as he gently strokes her face, cleaning it off with the pad of his thumb, "There you go," he whispers softly as their eyes meet and time seems to slow down. Cedric doesn't remove his soft hand from her cheek and doesn't quite want him to, if we're being honest. They stay like that for what seems like forever and Eden starts to think that maybe he's going to lean in but instead he clears his throat and pulls his hand away, her cheek immediately feeling cold in the absence of his touch, "I should get going." He says, taking a step back from her as he collects his belongings and his thoughts, "I'm meeting the lads in the Great Hall to put my name in the Goblet."

"Oh," Eden is flustered, to say the least as she nods her head and forces a normal smile onto her lips, "Yeah, of course, good luck!" She smiles at him, "I'm going to stay here for a minute and...fertilize." Her face is scrunched up in awkwardness as she watches him head out of the greenhouse, but luckily he doesn't comment on it.

Eden watches Cedric run through the rain, his wavy brown hair getting soaked by the rain that was pouring down still, and she lets out a breath she had forgotten she was holding.

She leans against the wooden table that was behind her, a smile slowly creeping onto her face. Maybe she could make room for a crush on Cedric, or maybe one had been there all this time and she could now have the capacity to acknowledge it fully.

And maybe-just maybe-he could like her too.


Hello hello! I usually wait a couple of chapters before I do an Author's Note so here I am! I started posted this story on Wattpad a couple of months ago but I missed the interactions I have on this platform so I wanted to post it here! Thank you for the reviews I have gotten so far each one means a lot!I hope to hear from more of you on how you are liking this story! Until next time xx