Chapter 56 - The Amazing Bouncing Ferret
Fourth year did certainly start with a bang, per the usual lessons, some now I would take on my own, there was only really one lesson I was interested in. The school year started as it always did, at the Gryffindor table waiting for McGonagall to give us our timetables.
"Today's not bad . . . outside all morning," said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuff's and Care of Magical Creatures . . . damn it, we're still with the Slytherin's. . . ."
"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, looking down.
"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" said Hermione dryly.
"Or you could have just not taken it... like me." I smirked. "Would you look at that... me the one with the brain?"
"Ha ha." 'Mione laughed sarcastically.
"Well... you might as well not wake me up tomorrow..." I sighed studying the timetable. "Just carry me to History of Magic so I can sleep straight through it." Ron and Harry chuckled while 'Mione looked at me disapprovingly. "Don't look at me like that Hermione Jean Granger when you know I'm right. You slept through a few History of Magic's last year."
"That's because I hadn't had time to sleep, fitting 24 hours into 12..." She shuddered remembering.
"And Binns could drive a Nun to swearing, he's that boring." Harry added, he received a strawberry in the face for that.
"I can't believe we don't get DADA until Thursday." I groaned.
"I'd of thought you wouldn't care for any other teachers after your uncle." Ron mentioned thoughtfully.
"Ordinarily no, but this is Mad-Eye Moody... so it's moot." I replied airily as I looked up to the staff table. He had his magical eye on us... probably Harry, as if he knew we were talking about him.
"You're obsessed." Harry exclaimed laughing.
"Come on, we have to get to Herbology." Hermione said. I groaned.
"I don't want to." I replied pouting.
"Come on babe, I'll walk you, I have Care of Magical Creatures." Cedric said appearing behind me. I grinned and stood up, clasping his hand in mine.
"Unbelievable." Hermione muttered before she made to follow us outside. A few gruelling hours later we made to go to dinner unfortunately stopped by Malfoy.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!" Me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"What?" said Ron shortly.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!
FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles
are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special
Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor
crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and
still unable to account for the disappearance of one
of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh
embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold
Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office.
Malfoy looked up. "Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed. Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:
Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession
of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved
in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers
("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive
dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to
the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror
who retired from the Ministry when no longer able
to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted
murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley
found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily
guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again
raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to
modify several memories before he could escape
from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily
Prophet questions about why he had involved the
Ministry in such an undignified and potentially
embarrassing scene.
"Get the fuck out of here you snot nosed twat." I snarled.
"Shut up, Hyde! And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house — if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?" Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy," said Harry. "C'mon, Ron. . . ."
"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry — both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy — "that expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?" Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink. I snorted.
"Good one, Harry." I chuckled.
"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter." Malfoy growled as he glared at the both of us.
"Keep your fat mouth shut, then," said Harry, turning away. Malfoy sputtered and as I went to turn away too, I saw him reach for his wand and shoot a spell, I pulled Harry out of the way just in time but I was furious.
"Why you?!" I ground out about to round on him, but someone beat me to it.
"OH NO YOU DON'T LADDIE!" The unusual growl of Professor Moody came out of seemingly nowhere. I watched as a spell non-verbally came from his wand and Draco Malfoy sunk out of his clothes. And where he was stood a brilliant white furry ferret. "Did he get you?" Moody asked Harry while I stood gormless staring at the ferret.
"No, Ash pulled me out of the way." Harry replied dryly.
"Merlin." I breathed as I fought laughter. He pointed his wand at the ferret again — it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do. . . ." The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. "Never — do — that — again —" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.
"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice. Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.
"What — what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.
"Teaching," said Moody.
"Teach — Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.
"Yep," said Moody.
"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall weakly. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock —"
"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"
"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike. Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable. "Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy. . . . You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son . . . you tell him that from me. . . . Now, your Head of House will be Snape, will it?"
"Yes," said Malfoy resentfully.
"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape. . . Come on, you. . . ." And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons. Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms.
"Don't talk to me," Ron said quietly to us.
"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret . . ." Harry and Hermione both laughed.
"I think I'm going to die of happiness... right here, right now." I stated before joining the others in laughter
-.-
Nothing of great interest happened in the next few days except for the ferret story bouncing around the school like wildfire, it was fair to say that Draco Malfoy had no reputation anymore... I wished I could have been a fly on the wall when dear old Lucius Malfoy had heard about it. But then Thursday finally came along and with it, our first DADA lesson, we'd heard nothing but great thing about Moody's lessons from the older years. I couldn't wait. The four of us got there early to get good seats at the front and it wasn't long before he came clunking into the room with a class full of quiet students and books in front of them.
"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them." They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled grey hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivelled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered. "Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "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 general murmur of assent. "But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," said Moody. "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 —"
"You're just here for the year." I stated. Everyone in the class turned to me, including Moody's magical eye.
"You're Leonardis Hyde's oldest girl." Moody growled.
"Yes. He goes by Liam. We met once... before you retired." I added quietly.
"I remember. Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gave a harsh laugh, and then 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 countercurse and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the 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." Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Pavarti her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head. "So . . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including mine, Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one. . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. I chuckled slightly as I saw Ron recoil... bless him. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. It was funny, a definite strange sight to see but definitely hilarious so everyone was laughing — everyone except Moody.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" The laughter died away almost instantly. "Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, and throw itself down one of your throats . . ." Ron gave an involuntary shudder. "Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, "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, and everyone jumped.
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" Hermione's hand flew into the air again and surprising so did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology, which was easily his best subject, the complete opposite to me. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes. I frowned slightly, knowing why he knew that. Not just because he was family but also because Nev's mother was mum's friend.
"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again. Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move. "The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!" The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"
The poor spider fitted and almost squealed in pain, I gritted my teeth, it wasn't nice for anyone to watch especially Neville. And nor me. It was just a reminder. I watched Nev cower slightly while watching the torture that spider was under, I breathed hard as I remembered the curse I had also used, that dark illegal curse that was a constant reminder of what I would perhaps become. Dark. Bad. Evil.
"Stop it!" I screeched, slamming my hands on the desk looking down.
"Can't you see...?" Hermione cried. I could feel his eyeball watching me. I slowly sunk back into my chair, slightly embarrassed, and kept my head down for the rest of the lesson. But I still felt his eye on me.
"Reducio... Pain," said Moody 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?" It was dead silence for a while.
"Advada Kedavra." Hermione whispered.
"Ah," said Moody, "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra . . . the Killing Curse." My eyes slipped upwards as I watched him put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface. Moody raised his wand, "Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared. There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air — instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him. Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. "Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." My eye's slid to Harry then as I saw him redden.
"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no countercurse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class jumped again. "Now . . . those three curses — Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus — are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills . . . copy this down. . . ." They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang. "Longbottom. Hyde. Stay after class please. No homework today." I frowned slightly but stayed in my seat.
"We'll wait outside." Harry whispered as we went outside. I looked at Nev, his face was really red, and he almost looked like he was crying. I felt crushed for him.
"Hyde that was a very strong reaction in class today." Moody stated. I stayed silent. "I was wondering why." I remembered cursing Pettigrew as I looked up at Professor Moody, daringly straight in the eyes. I suddenly felt a pressure in my head, I blinked rapidly as I felt a rapid head ache come on. I had no idea looking him straight in the eye would give me a head. "Ooh." He said quietly, I shouldn't have been able to hear but obviously with my animagus ears, I could.
"Neville is my friend, I knew it was affecting him." I replied eventually. I noticed a scent then... Moody's scent I assumed, it was very familiar but... I couldn't place it.
"Very well. But I can't let you get away with interrupting the class for no good reason going unpunished. Detention with me tomorrow night, after dinner." Moody growled.
"What?" I whispered in shock.
"You may leave." He replied, the obvious dismissal in the air. I squeaked slightly before standing and storming out of the room.
"Now, Mr. Longbottom..."