Author's Note:I hope you enjoyed the last chapter. I'm a little sad this isn't one of my popular stories, but that's ok. I just happen to have the most written for this one so lucky you guys! This chapter starts progressing the story a bit faster, the next chapter has the champions named. I hope you guys enjoy it!
~Chapter 7 Start~
Max and Hermione were both missing from lunch that day; not that any of the fourth years took notice. Everyone was so excited for their first DADA class most had been sitting in their seats since midway through lunch. Max wrinkled her nose in irritation, the whole point of skipping lunch was to avoid people.
Max was sitting in one of the front tables against the wall when Harry and Ron walked in. She was hunched over her parchment already idly doodling as Ron went to sit next to her.
"Hey, we missed you at lunch." Ron began as Harry nodded as he pulled out his own chair.
"Sorry, had a stomach ache and dreading handing in my potions essay." Max shrugged idly as she turned to greet Hermione who had just arrived as the bell went.
"Hey Hermione, saved you a seat." She waved with a bright smile.
"Thanks, been in the -" Hermione went to explain.
"Library." Harry finished dryly.
"C'mon sit down before someone takes your seat." Ron huffed motioning for the empty seat beside Max. Hermione happily sat down and took out her supplies organizing them primly on her portion of the table. The door to the classroom burst open and Professor Moody stalked in on his wooden leg, eyes peering dangerously at everyone he passed. His cane clicked loudly against the stone floor making his sizing up of the class all that more uncomfortable.
The Slytherins had taken up the back of the classroom glaring steadily at the Professor as Malfoy crossed his arms with a sneer. He seemed to be whispering something to a girl on his right, who giggled and brushed her hair from the nape of her neck.
"You can put those away," Moody growled, leaning over his desk as he addressed everyone, "those books. You won't need them." Silently they all did as they were told, Hermione trading odd looks with Max as they did so.
Moody took out the class register and shook out his long grey hair before he started roll call. His magical eye was swirling every which way stopping momentarily on each student as they responded. It lingered on her a moment longer than everyone else before returning to its rolling.
"Right then," He started as he finished with roll call, "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 quiet murmur of assent. "But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses, 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 are you saying?" Ron interrupted, not at all bothered by how rude it was. Moody's eye spun around until it landed on him and he smiled, his yellow teeth gleaming.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody asked, "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 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 counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in 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. You need to put that away Miss Brown, when I'm talking."
The girl in question jumped and blushed beet red. She had been showing a piece of parchment to Parvati and had been caught by Moody's wayward eye. Sheepish, she snatched the parchment and tucked it into her robes before crossing her hands on the table.
"So..." He turned back to the class getting back into his lesson, "do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by Wizarding law?" He asked, a tilt to his voice that made Max uncomfortable.
Several hands rose, including Ron and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron and Hermione deflated.
"Er," Ron began tentatively, "my dad told me about one...Is it called the Imperius Curse or something?"
"Ah, yes," Moody began appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Moody moved towards his desk and pulled out a glass jar full of three spiders. He opened the jar with a twist of his hand and extracted one of the small sized black spiders before placing it down on his desk.
"Imperio!" He shouted at the small creature. It let out a strangled whine before completely going rigid. Suddenly the spider leapt from his desk on a fine thread of silk and begun to swing back and forth, doing the occasional flip.
Moody jerked his wand again and the spider began to tapdance. Everyone began to laugh while Max felt instantly sick to her stomach. She had heard the horror stories about what this curse had done.
"Think it's funny, do you?" Roared Moody as he turned on the class, "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" The laughter died instantly and Moody looked smug.
"Total control," He began again, "I could make it jump out of a window, drown itself, throw itself down on of your throats..." He trailed off looking dangerously at the Slytherins.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," Moody began, "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 out. He picked up the now somersaulting spider and dumped him back into the jar.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" No sooner that the words had left his lips, Hermione's hand was raised. Moody pointedly ignored her and zeroed in on Neville instead.
"Yes?"
"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse." Neville answered, his tone nervous and soft.
"Your name's Longbottom?" Moody inquired, magical eye swooping across his form to check the register. Neville merely nodded mutely.
Moody pulled out another spider this time and placed it upon the desktop where it stood motionless as if afraid to move.
"The Cruciatus Curse," Moody started, "needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea, Engorgio!" He shouted as the spider swelled to be bigger than a tarantula.
Ron pushed back his chair as far as he could, his eyes wide with fear. It was obvious the poor guy had a fear of spiders.
Moody raised his wand again, his eyes growing dark and Neville squirmed in his seat.
"Crucio!" Moody shouted as the spider started to spastically twitch it's limbs about. It rolled over and started to twitch even worse and Max felt sick. If the poor creature had vocal chords she knew it would be screaming.
However, despite the fear-stricken eyes, and Neville's pale and ghastly form, Moody did not remove his wand fixating the spell even harder as the magic sung through the air.
"STOP IT!" Max finally screamed finally having had enough. She couldn't take how much the room had been bathed in fear and disgust. She couldn't handle how near tears Neville was, and she couldn't handle the fear oozing from Ron. It had all become so overwhelming.
Everyone had turned to look at her now as Malfoy scoffed making a dry remark at how the new Gryffindor seemed to have a knack for pissing off professors.
Moody shifted his gaze between the white knuckled Neville and the standing seething girl, before removing his wand and muttering "Reducio." and the spider went back to its proper size.
"Pain," Moody began 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...right, anyone know any others?"
Harry was looking around at all the grim faces as Max glared even harder towards Moody. Hermione's hand shook slightly as she went to raise her hand again, but Max beat her to the punch.
"Avada Kedavra," She spat out hostile, "and I swear to god if you cast that spell here in this class on that spider, I will be going to Dumbledore and the Ministry." She instructed darkly. Moody took a moment to regard the girl as he took in her words.
"Yes, the last curse is INDEED Avada Kedavra, Miss Suthers, it is the killing curse. However for speaking out of turn and threatening your professor I will be going to your Head of House and providing you with detention this week." He cleared his throat and looked towards the rest of the students again.
He stuck his hand into the jar extracting the spider and placing it in front of everyone on his desk. Max's mouth went dry and she knew exactly where this was headed. His eyes were begging her to try and stop him and she felt fear for the first time ever at Hogwarts.
"Avada Kedavra!" He roared as a shot of green light hit the spider at record speed. Just like that the spider ceased moving and Max felt sick.
"You fucking son of a bitch." She hissed, tears threatening at the back of her eyes. She grabbed her school supplies and swept out of the classroom not wanting to see more. The class was in chaos, Ron had toppled over, Hermione had screamed, Neville had all but passed out, and Harry was staring mouth agape as the classroom door slammed shut.
~Break~
Max was quickly found by Filch and deposited at Professor McGonagall's office for her behaviour. She was given a month's worth of detention for disrespecting a teacher, swearing, and leaving class before it was finished. It was bullshit, but she would be having it with Hagrid if we was available at least. Professor Moody wasn't really invested in having anything to do with her now.
Leaving quietly, Max met up with her housemates in the school halls. She noticed Neville standing alone halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite to him, looking as terrified as he did in the class. Max quietly moved towards him and placed a cautious hand on his shoulder
"You ok?" She asked as Hermione echoed a similar question from behind her. Neville looked around, before registering who it was.
"Oh, hello," his hushed voice was an octave higher as he continued, "interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm - I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are you alright?" Hermione spoke, coming closer towards them as Max squeezed his shoulder to comfort him.
"Oh yes, I'm fine," Neville gabbed on in the same high pitched tone. "Very interesting dinner - I mean lesson - what's for eating?"
Ron gave Harry a startled look.
"Neville, what -?"
But an oddly familiar clicking noise interrupted Hermione's question, and they all turned to see Professor Moody limping towards them. They all fell silent, watching him approach, but when he spoke it was a much lower and gentler voice than they had ever heard before.
"It's alright sonny," He began as he moved towards Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on...we can have a cup of tea..."
Unfortunately all it seemed to do was frighten the poor boy more. When he did not make a move to respond, Moody turned his magical eye to Harry.
"You alright, are you, Potter?"
"Yes." Harry responded almost defiantly.
"You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending...well...come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you." Moody spoke. His blue eye quivered slightly it it's socket as it surveyed Harry, then it slowly slid back to Neville who seemed to cower even more.
Neville gave them a pleading look, but no one said anything, so Neville had nary a choice but to allow himself to be steered away by the horrifying man.
"What was that about?" Ron spoke up as Neville and Moody turned down the corner.
"I don't know." Hermione muttered, looking pensive.
"I have a feeling he's ensuring everyone sings him good graces." Max spat as she turned a cold shoulder towards the direction Moody had headed.
"Some lesson, though, eh?" said Ron to Harry as they set off for the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really does know his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right -" but he never finished as his gaze locked with Harry's. The look Harry was giving him was unreadable causing all conversation to drop until they reached the Great Hall.
Hermione ate furiously once again leaving Max carrying on a conversation with Fred and George over aging potion ingredients. It was hardly going to work, but it was still fun to pick their brains.
Once they had all finished dinner Max headed towards the Gryffindor Tower with Harry and Ron; Hermione having already disappeared halfway through their dinner. They were both engrossed in discussing unforgivable curses now much to her chagrin.
"Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore be in trouble with the ministry in they knew we'd seen the curses?" Harry asked as they approached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Yeah, probably," Ron shrugged, "But Dumbledore's always done things his way, hasn't he, and Moody's been getting in trouble for years, I reckon. Attacks first and asks questions later - look at his dustbins. Balderdash." The portrait swung open and all three of them stepped inside.
"That doesn't make it right though." Max finally spoke as Harry nodded thoughtfully to her opinion.
"Maybe, but he caught more death eaters than anyone else. There has to be a reason for that." Ron reasoned as they made their way to a few free chairs.
"Alright, Divination homework then?" Max asked as she moved towards the stairs to her dorm. Ron and Harry nodded so she headed to gather her books and charts. Once she had collected everything she headed towards the free table and chairs and started to work while she waited for Harry and Ron.
They joined her not too long afterwards and they worked on their homework together. They mentioned the book Neville had been given and how it eased their fears about the odd professor. Sadly, all it did was irritate Max further.
"I haven't a clue what this lot's supposed to mean, " Harry groaned, staring down at a long list of calculations.
"You know," Ron began, staring down at an equally long list of calculations as he threaded his fingers through his messy red hair for the hundredth time, "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."
"What - make it up?" Harry asked as Max spluttered.
"Guys come on, I know it's bull, but we can't just LIE." Max attempted to voice reason, but her friends were too far gone.
"Yeah we can, gotten away with it too." Ron bragged. He swept the table of his jumbled scribbled notes and dipped his quill into his ink and started a new parchment.
"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 at Harry pointedly as he spoke next. "You know her - just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."
"Right," Harry agreed, crumpling up his prior attempts and lobbing it over the heads of some first years, landing it right into the roaring fire.
"While that shot was impressive, don't you think you are LITERALLY playing with fire here?" Max sighed as she added the finishing touches to her work.
"We've done it before. Not like it's going to be used as anything legitimate anyways. Okay...on Monday, I will be in danger of - er - burns."
"Yeah you will be." Ron uttered darkly, "we're seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'll...erm..."
"Lose a treasured possession," Harry supplied looking much to proud.
"Unbelievable." Max muttered into her hands as she covered her face.
"Good one," Ron complimented as Harry leafed through Unfogging the Future for ideas. "Because of...erm...Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"
"Yeah...cool..." Harry nodded, coping it all down, "because...Venus is in the twelfth house."
"God have either of you ever heard about tempting fate? Unbelievable..." she groaned as she listened to all the bullocky they were spewing.
"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight."
"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. Okay, I'll lose a bet."
"Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight..." and they continued on like that for awhile until Max stood up, work done, and excused herself. She had detention she had to make it too, and she knew Severus wouldn't want to wait.
~Break~
Most of her detention that week had been done sans Severus. He had popped in only to give both Neville and her instructions, but had left as soon as he had given them. Today, however, was the start to her additional detentions. Something professor Mcgonagall had decided would be spent with Severus instead as Hagrid was busy helping out for the Triwizard Tournament. Max assumed this was one of the detentions he was using to continue training her, as she doubted Hagrid would decline hosting detention if specifically asked.
She quickly slipped into the dungeons right into her Potions classroom. When she entered Severus was working on marking some essays, taking only a moment to look at her as she entered.
"You will be helping me mark essays, afterwards if we have time I will continue to teach you dueling." He spoke with an authoritative tone.
"Yes Professor, it's humbling to know that I am smart enough to mark essays for you, but not smart enough to garner full marks." She primly spoke as she took a stack of essays and sat down noisily in one of the seats at the front.
She heard Severus sigh as she began to mark, and heard him place his quill down in exasperation.
"It's no wonder everyone is handing you detentions, Max." he spoke sounding incredibly tired.
"What can I say, not everyone appreciates my charm."
"I think the word you are looking for is cheek Miss Suthers." His tone had a warning edge to it, one she did not heed.
"Charm, cheek, what's honestly the difference? My cheek is my charm. Being an unbearable prat must be yours." She bristled feeling much too angry.
"I have done my best to keep my calm when regarding you Max, but you are making it incredibly difficult. Like it or not I am your professor and I am deserving of more respect than that language entails. Fifty points from Gryffindor. I'm sorry I had to dock you marks, but you should know better by now. I can't have you ignoring instructions and risk someone noticing the tricks you are using. You must remember I coined them, many people know this. Think before you act Max." She felt the hot coil of embarrassment settle in her chest and she frowned.
"I'm sorry Severus..." she spoke softer this time as she heard him sigh.
"It's Professor Snape when we are at Hogwarts Miss Suthers." He chastised as he dipped his quill into his red ink marking relentlessly the paper in front of him.
"Sorry Professor." She poked with a small grin.
"How was Professor Moody?" He spoke after a few moments. Max looked around curiously and realized Severus wouldn't have brought this up if he hadn't set up enchantments to prevent being overheard.
"Horrible. You must have heard by now I got myself kicked out of class." She huffed.
"How it was described to me, it was more you stomping out and slamming the door than it was you being actually kicked out."
"He was using the unforgivables!" Max attempted to defend herself.
"If you remember correctly this is not going to be the last that you will see them. Even I will be required to use them in the future, so pray tell what was so important for you to get on the bad side of a known and dangerous death eater?"
"He was torturing Neville." She spat out in a hiss that caused Severus to raise an eyebrow.
"You truly are a Gryffindor to the bone." Severus snorted.
"Hey! My loyalty is more a Hufflepuff trait than anything else."
"I meant the lack of thinking your actions through, actually." While his tone was harsh, his eyes showed more amusement more than anything.
"Is this a bad time to mention I pissed of Malfoy?" Max asked as Severus groaned and put down his quill entirely to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"I hadn't quite heard yet, but I assume it had something to do with Moody transfiguring him into a ferret?"
"I mean, you're not wrong." Max chuckled in embarrassment.
"You might as well tell me what else you've done." and she did. Severus and Max spent the entire evening talking about her first week of school, the essays left forgotten.
~Break~
It was early next morning when Max got to see her friends again. She awoke to Hermione already dressed and muttering to herself about 'S.P.E.W.'.
"Hey 'Mione, what's up?" Max asked as she pulled her school cloak on and wandered towards where she was seated, notebook in hand.
"Working on an organization for the furthering of house-elf rights, you interested?" She asked as she looked up through her bushy brown hair.
"Sure, always ready to help out a good cause." She smiled as she patted Hermione's shoulder.
"Excellent, we can discuss this more later, I want to get an early start at breakfast today." She shut her notebook closed and they both descended the stairs and headed towards the Great Hall.
It wasn't long until Harry and Ron joined them. Harry was currently divulging the contents of a letter he had written to his 'Godfather'.
"That was a lie Harry," Hermione hissed quietly at something Harry had said. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know it." Ron offered a hurried 'shh' as he locked eyes with the curious Max.
"Don't shh me Ronald!" Hermione snapped waspishly.
"She doesn't know about all this stuff, do you really think we should be just divulging who Harry was writing too?" Harry seemed to nod at what Ron was saying as Hermione scoffed.
"Unbelievable, she stands up for you, Neville, and the whole lot of us and you want us to just treat her like she's an enemy? I refuse." Hermione hissed.
"But we don't know anything about her. I like Max but we just met her! You don't get to decide who Harry shares this secret with!"
"Guys," Harry began as they continued to argue about Max. Harry sighed and turned to look at the aforementioned girl with unease.
"It's ok Harry, I get it. I am still a stranger. You don't need to divulge anything you don't want too. I want you to trust me because you trust me, not because you think you should." She gave a lopsided grin as she stood quickly wanting to avoid the arguing.
"Don't go!" Hermione gasped as she quickly dropped her argument with Ron.
"No, it's ok. You guys clearly need to talk so I'll see you guys later?" She quickly excused herself and headed towards the library to read a book, wanting to avoid the drama inside the Great Hall.
Harry watched Max go and sighed as he turned towards Ron and Hermione.
"Guy's just drop it. If she is going to be a member of our group we are going to have to come clean with her eventually."
~Break~
The next few weeks went by without much excitement. Max finished her detentions with Severus, and had even gotten to spend some quality time reviewing muggle books with Hermione on weekends. However, what took the cake was the night Harry had her meet them in his dorm room to tell her about the past three years at hogwarts. Max hadn't ever heard this much before and couldn't believe all the shit they had to deal with while just attempting to grow up.
Everything was coming along swimmingly, until the day Professor Moody loudly proclaimed he was going to be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them to demonstrate its power, and to see whether they could resist the effects.
Truth was, Max hadn't gotten to this level of training with Severus yet and she was nervous. She knew he was a death eater, but she couldn't do or say anything out of accidentally ousting them right as Severus was going to become a double agent. What was even worse, was that she couldn't get ahold of Severus to ask his advice with such little notice.
"But - but you said it's illegal, Professor," Hermione nervously spoke as Moody pushed the desks out of the way with the use of his wand.
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, mad eye swinging around and fixating on Hermione. "If you'd rather learn the hard way - fine by me. You're excused. Off you go." He pointed a gnarled finger towards the doors and Hermione went very pink. She muttered something about how that wasn't what she meant, causing Harry and Ron to grin. Max glowered at them for enjoying her embarrassment and put a thoughtful hand on Hermione's shoulder.
Moody began beckoning students forward in turn and put the Imperius curse on them one by one. They watched as one by one each one of their classmates were put under and and forced to do extraordinary things. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitate a squirrel. Neville performed a series of gymnastics he should not have been capable of. Not a single one of them had been able to overcome the compulsion and had only recovered when Moody had removed the curse.
"Potter," Moody growled, "you're next." Harry moved forward and Moody cast the curse causing Harry to smash into the desks, as Moody attempted to ordered him to hop onto them. Max gasped as she rushed forward as he came down particularly hard on his head. His eyes fluttering in pain.
"Now that's more like it!" Moody cheered as Max glared heavily as she inspected the bump on Harry's head and helped him sit up.
"Look at that, you lot...Potter fought it! He fought it and damn near bear it! We'll try that again, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"
"This isn't a game!" Max spat as she stood annoyed, "If you want to force someone to learn force me, leave him alone! He just smashed his head for god's sake!"
"Eager are we Miss Suthers?" His mad eye zeroed in on her and seemed to freeze as it clicked inside his head, "Interesting..." Moody began as he twisted his toothy grin and barked out a laugh.
Before she had a chance to ready herself she was hit with the Imperius Curse and felt her mind lift as everything became foggy and warm, It felt like the time she was on laughing gas when she had her wisdom teeth removed.
She heard the silky whispers first. 'Run into the wall...' it spoke, and Max found herself nodding along with it. It seemed reasonable of course, why wouldn't she? As she turned towards the wall and began to hurl herself at it, she heard someone shriek as she fell to the floor as pain ate away at her limbs. It took her a moment to realize she was the one screaming. She couldn't figure out why she was doing this, it seemed insane to want to run into a wall, yet that's all she wanted to do. All that was encompassing her.
"Stop it!" Hermione begged as Harry stood shakily.
"She is the one who wanted to show everyone up, this is her exercise to own. She's fighting me rather well. Let's see if we can push her just a little..." Moody grinned as his manic eye swirled around insanely.
Max felt the words whisper for her to stop resisting, to just run into the wall, it would make the pain stop. She began moving again only to find Harry was holding her by the shoulders.
"Harry let go." She dreamily responded as she started to claw at his fingers. The voice in her head echoing to draw blood, to get him off her. She couldn't remember why she wanted to fight the voice, it cared about her, it was doing what was best. She had to run into the wall. Once the fingers had been peeled from her shoulders, blood coating her nails lightly, she bolted towards the wall once more. As she was going to connect she screamed again as her mind shrieking no. Throwing herself to the left, she slamming into a pile of desks with a smash. That was the last thing she remembered.
~Break~
"Why is it whenever something happens you are always involved mister Potter!" Severus spat as he entered the hospital wing with Dumbledore. His robes wooshed outwards as he whisked through the door in a hurry, Dumbledore at his heels.
"Calm down Severus, you heard Professor Moody, it was an accident during one of his lessons." Max could hear Severus snarl in response to Dumbledore's excuse, so she slowly sat up and peeked through her curtains.
"Professor, I swear I was helping this time. Professor Moody had Imperiused her! She was headed for a wall until I tried to stop her, I even have the injuries to prove it!" Harry desperately plead.
"Mister Potter I don't remember asking you!"
"I'm ok Professors. I was trying to fight against the curse and it didn't go well. I'm not the only student who got hurt, Harry did too." she spoke up, causing everyone to turn to her.
"Well since she is awake I think it's time you go mister Potter. Enjoy lunch with your friends." Dumbledore spoke pleasantly, as he ushered Harry away.
"Must you always coddle the boy?" Severus dryly remarked.
"Now Severus, he is only a boy. A boy who tried to help his friend. Now we've had everyone else tell us what happened, why don't you?" his soft voice filled her with warmth, and she almost thought for a moment he had cast a spell on her.
"Professor Moody was imperiousing us all, under your instructions apparently, when Harry managed to fight it. He got hurt in his attempt but still failed all the same. Moody grew eager to keep casting it on Harry to see if he could fully stop the curse, so that's when I stepped in. He gave me zero warning and the next thing I knew I was compelled to run headlong into the wall. I managed to stall myself but if it wasn't for Harry it would have been miles worse. In the end all I managed to do was deflect where I went but I ended up hurt all the same." once she had finished Dumbledore wasn't smiling anymore while Severus' face was unreadable.
"Do you think he's targeting you?" Severus finally asked.
"Severus he's a teacher and ex-Auror I hardly think it was on purpose." Dumbledore began.
"Do you now!?" Severus snarled, "He told us he had compelled her to attempt to climb the wall, yet she is telling us she wanted to ram her head straight into it instead! I hardly call that an accident."
"You know as well as I do, it's hard to remember what you have been compelled to do. That's why that spell is so dangerous." Dumbledore spoke with a calming edge to his tone.
"How does a fully trained Auror managed to allow two students to injure themselves?!" Severus spluttered incredulously.
"Alright, enough! I do think I was targeted if only because I keep getting in the way of his actual target, Harry. Severus we need to tell Dumbledore about Moody." She placed a hand over Severus' as he gave her a tight lipped smile.
"Let's worry about healing you." He whispered as he raised his wand to her head and slowly chanted a soft song like spell. Max felt warmth spread through her head as he moved his wand away slowly. His fingers lingered for a brief moment as they caressed the skin that he had just healed.
"Not even a month in and you're already injured..." he spoke mostly to himself but Max heard him loud and clear.
"Rest here for the night Miss Suthers, we shall check on you tomorrow." Dumbledore bid adieu as he gave a small smile and wink towards Severus as he left.
"Be careful." Severus whispered as he pulled his hand away, his finger ghosting the length of her cheek as he did.
"I always am." she grinned cheekily as Severus handed her a sleeping draught and something for the pain. Severus then excused himself following Dumbledore to his office for a much needed talk.
~Break~
Max had been let out of the hospital wing that evening so she could sleep in her dorm with the rest of her school mates. She was found to have a concussion and a fractured wrist; both of which had promptly been healed once she was admitted. Severus was not able to meet back up with her afterwards, but had sent her a warded letter detailing his talk with Dumbledore, and subsequent decision to keep an eye on the now known death eater, 'Moody'. He explained that Dumbledore did not want to risk the Death Eaters learning that Severus was not truly loyal to the cause, and risk his cover in the future. It was a frustrating, but logical decision; considering they had no idea how many of the Death Eaters from the future had also made it back. Setting it aflame afterwards she watched the note disappeared behind the flames.
There was something that was starting to bother Max though. Despite it all, they still hadn't run into any of the death eaters they had fought back at the museum. Greyback and Dolohov were back most likely, as were those two unknown death eaters. Severus merely mentioned for her to focus on her studies and let him worry about them. Over the weekend she finished her first set of detentions, as well as progressed to higher level lessons in dueling and self defence.
She was pleased to discover she had a knack for wordless magic and had procured a book detailing it as a just-in-case precaution. If she could learn to do a few spells she would be much better equipped for the future, or so she assumed. Severus was still very tight lipped about the future. Detailing as little as possible where he could. It was beyond frustrating.
It also served as a reminder of how little she knew about his past.
Soon enough it was Monday, and she found herself seated next to the much too smug Harry and Ron; Both of which had ended up with fantastic marks on their homework. Max merely groaned at their jeering and jests towards each other and instead frowned at her lesser mark.
What rubbish, it's not like any of this was true, for her anyways.
However, they got theirs when Professor Trelawney asked them to do it again for the next month, causing the two boys to scramble for ideas.
Meanwhile, Professor Binns, the ghostly professor who taught History of Magic, had them writing an essay a week on the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century. Snape was overloading them with researching antidotes, cheekily hinting that one of them might be poisoned before Christmas to see if their antidote worked. Professor Flitwick had them read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on summoning charms, while even Hagrid had them alternating evenings to observe the fast growing blasting beasts.
The only bright side in all of this was Professor Hagrid's poke at Draco when he attempted to complain about the workload, insinuating he may find himself as a ferret if he continued to cause trouble. Everyone had a good natured laugh, sans the blond boy, leaving Max feeling very carefree for a moment.
They headed back towards the entrance hall that evening only to find the entrance blocked by a large crowd of students congregated there, all milling about a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, being the tallest, had managed to read the sign outloud to the three of them.
"Triwizard Tournament. The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving at 6 o'clock on friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half an hour early -" Ron began reading.
"Oh brilliant!" Harry interrupted, "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
"Oh Harry if Snape wants to poison us, do you really think class ending early would stop him? After all, he is a teacher here, and has complete unfettered access to the kitchens..." Max sung as she twirled a piece of her fringe with a grin.
"Thank you ever so much for that reminder and mental image Max, I don't know what I would do without you." Harry responded dryly as Max let out a bark of laughter.
"Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the welcoming feast." Ron finished as he leveled himself from his tippy toes and stood flat footed.
"Only a week away!" Ernie Macmillan gushed, he was a Hufflepuff if Max remembered correctly. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..."
"Cedric?" Ron asked blankly as Ernie hurried off.
"Diggory," Harry sufficed, "He must be entering the tournament."
"That idiot, Hogwarts champion?" Said Ron as they pushed their way through the chatter crowd and made their way up the staircase.
"Ron he would be representing our whole school, you could be nicer." Max grumbled remembering the outcome of this tournament with sorrow. They still held a remembrance of his death in her time at Hogwarts.
"I agree with Max, he's hardly an idiot too." Hermione scoffed, "You just don't like him because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch. I've heard he's a really good student - and he's prefect."
"You only like him because he's handsome." Ron retorted scathingly.
"Excuse me, I don't like people because of something as arbitrary as looks!" Hermione defended, clearly offended by Ron's remark.
"Lockhart!" Ron coughed into his hand as he started to giggle.
"Unbelievable!" Hermione hissed as she turned away her face flushed with frustration.
"Ok ok, enough now, he's old enough and smart enough, but he still has to be chosen. If he isn't found to be worthy enough this entire argument is moot." Max attempted to calm the rising tempers as Harry merely shrugged as they headed towards their common room.
~Break~
As the weeks went by Max managed to avoid further detentions, minus her continued lessons with Severus. The entire castle was abuzz about the news of the Triwizard Tournament. In fact, the entire castle was being turned inside out as every nook and cranny was cleaned and polished in anticipation of their guests. Portraits were scrubbed clean, sparkling like she had never seen them before. Suits of armor were gleaming as different portraits grumbled about being rubbed raw, claiming it akin to torture. It was amusing in it's own right but also incredibly daunting. It served as a reminder that this year was a slippery slope and fell apart just as fast.
Even the teachers and were short when it came to subpar behaviour. Filch had screamed at a few first year girls who had tracked in mud on their shoes, causing them to run away in tears. Even Mcgonagall had lost her temper and mentioned to Neville he may not want to showcase his transfiguration skills to Durmstrang, nor Beauxbatons, after he had accidentally transfigured his ears onto a cactus.
It was October 30th when they headed down to breakfast to find the Great Hall had been redecorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls detailing each house. Behind the teacher's table was a unified banner most likely created for all of Hogwarts. It also detailed the Hogwarts emblem large in the center.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Max sat down together beside Fred and George. Fred instantly began chatting with Max excitedly as she leaned into him with a smile. She had gotten to know the twins decently well over the past few weeks and had found herself around them whenever she wasn't with Hermione or Harry.
They were talking in hushed whispers when they approached. Up to no good no doubt, or so Max assumed.
"It's a bummer, all right," George uttered gloomily, "But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand. He can't avoid us forever."
"Not making much headway on the aging potion then boys?" Max cheekily spoke as George jokingly glared as Fred laugh awkwardly.
"Just making sure we have backup plans is all."
"Who's avoiding you?" Ron voiced suddenly in confusion to their half spoken conversation.
"Wish you would." Fred joked as Max snorted, resulting in a withering glare from Ron.
"What's a bummer?" Ron turned to George pointedly ignoring Fred and Max now.
"Having a nosy git like you for a brother." George retorted as Max snorted again.
"Fine, whatever..." Ron grumbled as he crossed his arms in a huff.
"I'm guess you aren't having much luck with ideas then?" Harry asked as Fred and George grinned at him.
"Really? you let everyone else in but me, your brother?!"
"Hush Ron, the adults are talking." Max shushed as Fred clapped her on the back good naturedly.
"Oh not you too." Ron groaned, his head landing into his arms dejected.
"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," George responded bitterly, "She just told me to shut up and get on with Transfiguring my raccoon."
"Sounds like her alright." Max laughed as she rubbed George's back to soothe him.
"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" Ron thoughtfully wondered, "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry. We've done dangerous stuff before..."
"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," Fred remarked, "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."
"Who are the judges?" Harry asked.
"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel." Hermione answered causing everyone to turn to her in surprise. "Because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792. When a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage."
She noticed them all looking at her now and with her usual air of impatience she sighed.
"It's all in Hogwarts: A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. A Revised History of Hogwarts would be a more accurate title. Or a Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School."
"A.K.A Hogwarts: A History of What We Want You to Know So We Look Good." Max joined in.
"What are you two on about?" said Ron.
"House-elves!" Hermione spoke, her eyes flashing wildly. "Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts: A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!"
"It's like President Lincoln, the history books wrote him like he was some kind of heroic slave freer, that he didn't benefit from the lack of rights of slaves. Yet, despite freeing them, he still benefited heavily from their dehumanization. He was still nowhere near progressive enough to make it right, he was never an abolitionist, nor did he believe they deserved the same rights, merely that slavery should not be upheld in the constitution as a basic right, and I am rambling ignore me." Max coughed into her hand as every gave her an odd look.
"Yes, well Max's ramblings are correct. It's like we've gone back in time!"
"Hermione you can't honestly be surprised they still don't see the problem with it. Slaves may have been made illegal in Britain in 1833, but that didn't change the laws on selling and transporting slaves to the new world, where it was only made illegal in the US in 1865, but despite that laws took forever to catch up and give the same basic human rights back to slaves, I mean it took another hundred years to allow black people the right to vote, even longer for indigenous people, which doesn't even cover the whole 'sending all your worst prisoners to an island and just taking it over' part. I am rambling again. Regardless, I agree with Hermione. For hundreds of years muggles assumed people of colour were less than human and needed direction to survive. Which is such bull, they never have needed our asses. They only became reliant on us when we removed them from their homes and cultures to work for us for free under duress, else they'd starve or worse, sound familiar?" Max scratched the back of her head with a cough.
"You are certainly versed in muggle history." Fred grinned as his hand trailed up her bare arm.
"Yes, well, call it a hobby. I find it fascinating. There is much we can learn from Muggle History even now. Muggle technology as well, did you know a pen is just way easier to write with and more efficient?" Max began as Hermione bounced in her seat.
"Oh yes! I have been wanting to push for pens forever!" Hermione agreed as she pulled out a pen from her pocket with a small grin.
"A girl after my own heart, come on Fred marvel at the amazingness that is a ballpoint pen! Now with less ink spills!" Max gushed as she started to draw little doodles on her notebook as Fred watched.
Despite the change in conversation, it was still a reminder for how upset Hermione was for the house-elves. She spent every night trying to organize S.P.E.W and collect members. Some people had ended up paying her just to get her to stop, such as Neville. But she did seem to be getting through to a few people, despite their lack of contributions.
George, however, leaned in towards Hermione with a small grin.
"Have you ever been to the kitchens Hermione?"
"No, of course not," was Hermione's curt reply, "I hardly think students are supposed to -"
"Well we have," George nodded, motioning towards his twin who was still excitedly talking to Max about the pen Hermione had given them. "Loads of times, to nick food. And we've met them, and they're happy. They think they've got the best job in the world -"
"That's because they're uneducated and brainwashed!" Hermione started hotly, but her next few words were drowned out as the post owls arrived in a flurry.
"That certainly didn't sound bad." Max groaned to herself as Fred started to draw little shapes on the back of her hand tickling her.
Hedwig landed before Harry and he removed what was most likely his letter from Sirius. This caused Max to smile and turn back to Fred to give Harry some privacy.
"What on earth is THAT?" Max laughed as Fred attempted to sketch a cat.
"It's a cat, what else could it be?" Fred scoffed as he accentuated the whiskers.
"A mouse with pointy ears?" Max offered as Fred glowered at her.
"Oh come off it girly, don't be rude when I am lavishing you with wonderful drawings of what you mean to me." He flirted unabashed.
"Oh, this lopsided square shows you how you feel about me huh?"
"Oh yeah, completely."
"Well then rhombus me right up." She flirted back as she leaned in with a pompous grin on her face.
"Oh yeah, talk geometry to me." Fred surprised her causing her to splutter out a laugh.
"Oh bless you for being you Fred."
Hermione and Ron were whispering over the letter as Harry tucked it inside his robes confirming Max's suspicions that the letter was indeed from Sirius.
~Chapter 7 End~
Reviews:
Windreamersan: Nothing is going to end up easy unfortunately, but at least they finally got to talk! I hope you enjoyed this chapter too :)
: Ha ha time travel is confusing! Sev and Max still get to have some sweet moments together so hopefully you enjoyed the few bits in this chapter :)
