Beta: Asma20
Original Release Date: 4/25/17
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in the canon Harry Potter universe or any other universe. AU.
Chapter Fifty-Eight – Curses
"I'm not certain how we're going to convince Luna to assist in this project of ours" remarks Harry looking down at the parchment with barely any free space on it.
"Harry, I don't think she'll need any persuasion to help. Honestly, I think she'd be on cloud nine if she got to take part in designing and developing a system to keep track of creatures, their stages of development, etc. But that's my opinion" answers Neville putting his bag and contents neatly away in his trunk at the food of his bed.
"Good point, but I think I'll start with drafting it out myself before I pass it along to Luna; it wouldn't be fair to have her do all of the work" states Harry.
Entering the common room, Harry, Ron, and Neville take a seat, waiting for the ladies.
"This Divination homework looks utterly terrible" complains Ron.
"Well, we did select the class, so we're going to have to deal with it. Besides, complaining won't make it easier or go away. We'll just have to dig in and do it this evening" answers Harry.
"You're right…it's just such a drag" mutters Ron darkly.
"I do wonder what lessons will be like with Professor Moody however. Should at least be quite informative considering his background" wonders Harry.
"I daresay it will be, especially with the number of witches and wizards currently in Azkaban because of him" remarks Neville before leaning in and whispering very quietly after checking to see that no one else is around, "especially considering we don't know if Voldemort is still alive or not."
"I hope you all weren't waiting for too long" chimes Hermione as she and Ginny arrive in the common room.
Flinching in surprise, the men look up before Harry recovers first and answers, "No, we haven't been waiting long", before joking, "let's get to the Great Hall before Ron's stomach implodes from being a vast wasteland."
Exiting the common room, the quintet made up of Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Neville, and Ron descend the ever-moving staircases down to the Great Hall. Sitting down at the table, the quintet look at the barren serving platters as others around them notice the lack of food. A few minutes later as the chatter from students begin to increase in volume about the non-appearance of food, Dumbledore stands up and holds his hands up for silence before speaking, "It has come to my attention that many of you were afraid that the Inter-House Quidditch cup would be cancelled due to the upcoming Triwizard Tournament. After great deliberation and a most wonderful howler from last year's Gryffindor captain, I have decided to have the Inter-House Quidditch Cup be played around the Triwizard Tournament for a most entertaining year. Now, feast."
"There was a possibility for Quidditch to be cancelled? I hadn't heard any rumors about that being a possibility" remarks Fred somewhat bewildered.
"Knowing now that it won't be cancelled is a very comforting, especially with all of the possible maneuvers to try out from the world cup earlier this year. I wonder if any of the other teams will give any thought to trying something like that" remarks Harry as he begins to scoop and place food onto his plate.
"Anyways, Professor Moody is fantastic, truly knows what it's like to be out there, dealing with the witches and wizards who support Voldemort's…erm, well just support him" remarks George.
"Simply put, he's the best Defense Against the Dark Arts professor that we've had" adds Fred with a grin.
"I'm looking forward to having two competent professors in a row. Say, when do we have Defense Against the Dark Arts?" remarks Harry.
Digging into his bag with unusual energy, Ron retrieves his schedule and quickly reads over it before grumbling, "Not until Thursday."
"Well, I'll be looking forward to a riveting lesson from Professor Moody. I don't figure he's one to disappoint" adds Neville.
Finishing up their meal half an hour later, Harry and Ron trudge back to the dormitory for their bags and books before setting up in a corner of the room and digging into their homework.
/*a few days later, Thursday*/
Sitting down at breakfast, the quartet of fourth years help themselves to the various breakfast foods before Harry looks up and notices the awkward and heavy looks Snape and Moody were giving each other.
"Professors Snape and Moody seem to have some history between them, or something" remarks Harry interrupting the rest of the conversation.
Stopping and staring at the pair of teachers still giving each other weird stares, the rest of the quartet looks away after a few seconds and Ron offers, "Maybe Snape took Moody's preferred chair or something? Think about how McGonagall and Snape look at each other, it's not with the friendliest of looks."
Shrugging his shoulders Harry replies, "You have a valid point, but this looks…different. Not any of my concern anyways."
"Defense Against the Dark Arts is directly after lunch, and I almost can't wait" says Neville.
"But, think of the other classes you have before then, you need to stop and learn from each of them as well" remarks Hermione giving Neville a slight stare.
"Don't worry, I'll be paying attention in Potions and Charms as well" remarks Neville with a smile.
A few hours later the entire fourth year Gryffindor students line outside of the DADA room, eager to find out what all the hubbub is about Moody. As lock clicks and the door swings open, students rush the door, determined to get the best seat possible. Settling down, most of the students pull out their books and begin to 'read', reading the words on the page but not actively understanding and processing what they meant.
As minutes' tick by before the bell rings indicating the start of class and quickly the class quiets down, awaiting the mysterious entity by the name of Professor Moody. A low clunking sound reverberates and shakes the floor as a grizzled entity missing a chunk of his nose enters the room, taking a swig from his hip flask. Sniffing as the flask is put away, Harry's brows furrow for a few seconds before Moody growls, "Those books, you won't be needing them for a while. I prefer a more…hands on teaching style."
Eagerly all the students quickly put their books away while responding as Moody calls down the register of individuals before Moody speaks, "Your former professor, Lupin I believe, left a nicely detailed list of what each class covered before he left. While I agree with what he covered, it leaves you nearly DEFENSELESS in the way of handling curses. Curses come in varying levels of strengths and forms and while the Ministry of Magic only wishes me to show you counter curses and nothing more, Dumbledore, and more importantly I, believe that you need to experience the real thing. Are any of you aware of any curses that extremely punished by Wizarding law?"
A handful of hands raise into the air tentatively, before Moody indicates to Hermione, who jumps in without much pause, "The Imperius Curse, granting you power over the one whom it is casted upon."
Without blinking, Moody answers, "Correct, the Imperius Curse gives you control over someone's body when cast, and gave the Ministry quite a hard time quite a few years ago. Made sorting out who was acting upon their own will and those who were being controlled by another by the Death Eaters. However, one can learn to fight off the Imperius Curse through plenty of time and a lot of determination. You'd best be off avoiding the curse through CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
Levitating a spider out of a nearby glass jar, Moody quickly enlarges the spider before stating firmly, wand still pointed at the spider, "Imperio", causing the spider to begin various acrobatic tricks much to the surprise of the class.
As the class silently takes mental note of what Moody had just provided, Moody asks in a daring tone, "What is another curse that can land you in Azkaban if performed?"
Another handful of hands raise into the air, Moody narrows his eyes ever so slightly before selecting Neville's raised hand, "Yes Mr…Longbottom, correct?"
"Correct sir, and it is the Cruciatus Curse, the torturing curse" answers Neville a little uncertainly after seeing what happened to the previous spider.
Withdrawing another spider, Moody enlarges the spider before casting, "Crucio" causing the spider to curl in upon itself, watching it for several seconds in relative silence before Hermione exclaims, "Stop it! It's so…barbaric!"
Looking up from the clearly in pain spider, Moody clears his throat before lifting the spell, reducing the spider back to normal size, and placing it back into the jar. "Until now, the curses I have shown you have been treatable to some extent. The third and final curse is the Killing Curse, and there is not a known counter curse or way to reverse the effect. There is one and only one survivor of the curse and fortunately for us, he is sitting in this very room."
As many sets of eyes turn towards Harry, Moody continues, "And Mr. Potter has been quite humble about such event. Doesn't matter however, as simply USING any of those spells will land you a lifetime in Azkaban."
Forty-five or so minutes later as the bell rings and the class files out, Ron remarks, "A lot better than most professors we've had. Lupin was great too though. Can't wait to see what else we're to be taught this year."
Sitting down in the common room Ron slowly drags out his Divination homework and skims over it before turning to Harry and asking, "Mind if I look over yours to see if I've done mine properly?"
Chortling quietly, Harry passes his homework to Ron who begins to read over the piece of parchment, brows furrowing the longer he reads. "Really mate? You expect to be sent to the Hospital Wing because you're going to be caught between two girls fighting over you?"
"Honestly I started making stuff up after putting several hours in and getting nothing but gibberish. I've got more important things to do than spend time on Divination, especially when it hasn't helped me in understanding what I'm to do later in life. Spending more time in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Herbology, and even Care of Magical Creatures would result in more of an education for me. So, some various poppycock for me in Divination, assuming it seems possible, will reduce the amount of time I must spend on the subject while increasing the time available for other subjects or projects" answers Harry shrugging his shoulders.
Saturday morning after the early morning workout routine, Harry grabs his bag with a greatly lessened load of materials before disappearing down the stairwell to the Great Hall alone. Entering the Great Hall, Harry eats a light breakfast while keeping his head on the swivel every few minutes before finishing his meal. Grabbing a handful of toast and wrapping them carefully before placing them in an outside pocket and slipping quietly out of the sparsely populated Great Hall and out onto the front lawn. Moving towards the Forbidden Forest and spotting his target, Harry quietly and carefully makes his way down the slope and right beside the blonde-haired individual before opening his mouth to speak and getting interrupted with a dreamy, "Good morning Harry."
"Good morning Luna, it's very pleasant out this morning" answers Harry warmly.
A comfortable silence grows between the two, before Harry clears his throat and says, "So Luna, I've had an idea for learning more about the Blast Ended-Skrewts and wondered if you could help me. My idea is essentially creating a database and a way to interpret the data on entities in the database."
"Harry Potter, I wasn't aware that you were interested in Magizoology?!" exclaims Luna both excited and surprised.
"Erm, I'm not really, not right now at least. I'm more interested in collecting and making others research is able to be gathered together and utilized to find any discoveries that might not been possible without consolidation of research material" answers Harry before withdrawing a roll of parchment.
"Do you mind if I look?" requests Luna cocking her head to one side.
"Oh no, please go ahead. I was actually hoping you would" answers Harry handing the roll of parchment over.
Reading over the design and everything else on the parchment, Luna wordlessly begins to walk off as if in a trance, murmuring before saying, "We should eat and discuss", leaving Harry with no choice but to follow Luna up towards the castle.
Author note: Thank you all for reading and reviewing, I've been very busy with real life, working two jobs with one racking up 82 hours in a seven day period, not including travel and sleep. After some communication, I'd like to hear some more from you all about the Triwizard Tournament. My original plan was/is to have Harry participate but I've heard and agree that after a while that the tournament is really done the same way across many fanfics. Should Harry not be in the tournament but with a fourth person there instead, should Harry be there as the fourth champion, or another version that I'm keeping close to my mind just in case? Or is there something else you'd rather see? I appreciate it greatly. :)