AN: There comes a time when you realise that it's 3am in the morning, you're watching videos about ducks and you have to ask yourself; what path did I take to come to this? Well my dear reader, you certainly didn't choose yellow brick road that's for sure.
Chapter 4 – Moody & Curiosity
The next day came and with it, Daphne and her friend's curiosity grew with every passing hour; what would Harry and Hermione show them? Would it be in a safe area? Was it easily accessible? These questions plagued their minds as they made the journey towards the second floor.
"Where do you think they'll be taking us? I mean there aren't any good areas that are large enough for five people to fully practice spells," Lavender said as the trio turned another corner.
"They're proven themselves as quite intelligent so I'm betting that they have something up their sleeves, merlin knows strange things always happen around Harry," Padma also voided her thoughts with a shrug.
The girls continued to discuss where their friends would be taking them and when they turned another corner, they saw that the two of them were waiting for them, talking softly amongst themselves.
Harry and Hermione noticed the girls walking towards them and turned to them with a smile.
"Hello you three, now I'm pretty sure you're all wondering where we will be going since there aren't any good places around here, but you'd be wrong, turn around" Harry said, indicating with his hand.
When they did turn around, they saw that they were in front of the second floor girl toilets, home to one very loud and moaning ghost.
"Really Harry? This is where we will get further studying done?" Daphne said with a disbelieving eyebrow raised.
"But of course, no one come in here and the best part about it, no one knows where our training location is" Harry smirked and laughed a little as he saw that both Padma and Lavender turned towards him with raised eyebrows.
To ease their concerns, Harry only turned towards the sinks and to the others dread, whispered a word in parseltongue and the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets opened.
"You wanted to know where we will be studying further on, well here it is; the Chamber of Secrets" and with that, Harry began to lead them down the stairs, all the while laughing at their wide eyes and open mouths, with Hermione at the rear to make sure no one knew where they were.
Scene break
When the group came before the entrance to the inner chamber, they saw the great iron door did not have snake motifs that they thought Slytherin might have used on it, it had an eight-pointed barbed double circle(AN1).
"I bet you're wondering about the door, right? Well Hermione and I have been busy and chose to change the door; we wanted something that encompassed all and keep everything undivided" Harry said with a shrug as he opened the door to the inner chamber.
As the group walked further in, the trio of girls saw that in front of a giant stone face, a stone altar lay with two symbols on them, sending chills up their spines for very different reasons.
"So anyway, this is where Hermione and I have been studying and practicing our spell work for the past year, ever since I cleaned this place out it's become ours"
"And what exactly are they for?" Padma asked as she pointed towards the symbols on the altar.
Harry looked at Hermione but only received a raised eyebrow in return as he quickly thought up an excuse.
"They are a story for later date, now come on; we have defence in twenty minutes and it wouldn't do our group to be seen together just yet for fear of repercussions" at this Harry looked at Daphne, understanding that her house would almost tear her apart if they were seen together.
As they began to exit the chamber, Daphne, Lavender and Padma all heard subtle whispers in their heads, but they shrugged them off as if they were from themselves.
Scene break
"My name is Alastor Moody and I will your Defence against the Dark Teacher for this year and only this year as a favour for Dumbledore" Moody glared at the class while his fake eye kept whizzing around, stopping sometimes on random students.
"In regards to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach, which is why Dumbledore has given me permission to demonstrate several spells as I believe it is to know what you're up against and so you can properly defend against it"
When Moody said this, a portion of the class inhaled a sharp breath and some (the slytherin boys) not so subtly leant forward slightly, as if in anticipation to see what they will get to see.
"Now to begin with, can anyone tell me one of the names of the unforgiveable curses?" Moody's fake eye spun at every student, waiting for someone to raise his or her hand but no one did.
"Weasley! Give me a curse" Ron jumped as Moody shouted his name and stuttered a response.
"T-t-the Imperius curse"
"Oh yes I know all about that one, gave the Ministry trouble years back and I shall show you why" Moody walked back to his desk and grabbed a spider from a jar (Quick question, is it an actual spider or some other creature? Can someone please tell me because all I have found is that it is a spider but it sure does not look like one) and placed it on the front table.
"Imperio!" Moody grunted as the spider suddenly became carefree and almost floaty in comparison to the rigidness it had looked before.
Harry, Hermione and Neville watched at the back as Moody began to make the spider leap across table after table, climbing onto random students and when the spider came in front of Harry, he did not bat an eyelid as it began to crawl over him.
Moody watched as tried to get a reaction from Harry with the spider but only watched as his bright ice blue eyes drilled into his, making his turn away from him, lest the control over the spider break.
"Manipulation at its finest," whispered Harry as Moody broke the spell.
"Scores of witches and wizards has used this curse as a cheat clause to get scot free from jail, it was prevalent at the end of the war against You-Know-Who, and those who did his bidding used this as an excuse because they were such weak willed"
Moody's fake eye whizzed around and stared at Malfoy, which made him redden slightly in anger.
"But now, how can we sort out the liars of these so-called weak willed magic users?" Moody grumbled as he asked for the second curse.
Hermione raised her hand and just like Harry, she driller her uniquely pink eyes into Moody as she gave him the curse.
"Yes, the Cruciatus Curse"
"Crucio!" the spider began to squeal loudly as the pain of white-hot knives began to drive itself into the nerves of the spider.
Moody looked over towards the back table, hoping to get some reaction from them but what he saw unnerved him immensely.
Pink eyes, dancing and glistening brightly as Hermione took in with an almost pleasurable relish the spider's pain as it continued to squeal loudly.
He looked over at Neville but he still did not get a reaction from him, which surprised him slightly as he knew Neville's parents were tortured into insanity with this curse.
"Pain at an almost pleasurable scale" whispered Hermione as Moody broke the spell and asked for the last curse while looking directly at Harry.
"The Killing Curse" surprisingly, Neville answered as he spoke up with confidence.
"Yes, the last and most unforgiveable out of the three, Avada Kedavra!" Moody spat at the spider and as the green light captured the spider in its glory, no one spoke a word as the students witnessed the killing curse being used.
"The inevitable end of all," Neville whispered to himself as they watched the spider being killed.
'Did Neville just say something?' both Harry and Hermione thought as Moody looked back at the class.
"The killing curse, so named because it could not be blocked and survive it, until Potter came along that is" while Moody said this, it seemed to Harry that he glared at him, ever so slightly but it was there if you looked hard.
"I was more worthy of life in the eyes of magic" Harry scoffed, which made the majority of the Slytherins bristle with anger at his words.
"Hmm, maybe Potter but right now in this class room I will be the one finding out if anyone is worthy because right now I'm going to subject you all to the Imperius curse, as I said at the beginning of this class I have permission to do it, so all of you stand up and get in a line," Moody shouted as the class scrambled into a line.
The first in line to be put under the Imperius curse was one of Harry's half-friend/friend Anthony Goldstein, who Moody made to run around the class like a chicken.
Further on the line went down; Ron Weasley was made to profess his everlasting love for Malfoy, Susan Bones was made to attempt to dance like a Ballerina, Daphne seemed as if she was going to break the curse but succumbed to it until it came to Harry.
As the others watched Harry be put under the Imperius curse, he did not move, as if waiting for something to happen and the class was shocked to hear him suddenly speak out.
"Is something supposed to happen?"
Moody had a shocked look on his face at Harry's words and only laughed as he congratulated him.
The pattern repeated until it came to Hermione when just like with Harry, Hermione's eyes twinkled in amusement that such a spell could ever control the champion of Slaanesh.
"Interesting, two students who could throw off the Imperius curse as if it were nothing, maybe Longbottom will do the same huh?" Moody smirked as Neville stepped up to the plate.
Every single person in the classroom, including Harry and Hermione, were shocked when they saw that Neville did not react to the Imperius curse but only raised an eyebrow in response.
"It's good to see some students are strong enough to fight the curse off, when I saw in this school the majority of my classmates were able to do it," Moody snarled at the students who were not able to resist the curse.
When the end of class bell rang, looks were sent at the three students that exited the class first, not giving a single look back as they cared not for what was to be said.
Now that our Champions have shown the girls the training area, will the proximity of the altar hasten the corruption? Will the reactions from Harry, Hermione and Neville prompt further interest from Moody? Find out next time on The Affliction!
AN1: It is the symbol of Chaos from the Lexicanum website, as I do not have a codex handy nearby.
Give it a good read, possibly even give a review as they are always welcome and it tells me if you're liking the story and you have yourself a very good day :)