Author's Note: Hello to everyone. First of all thank you very much for taking time and reading this fic. Also, thanks to everyone who have added the fic to their following/favourite story. It means a lot. Here is the next chapter for you awesome guys. I hope you all enjoy it! Happy reading!

I don't own Harry Potter, it solely belongs to J.K. Rowling!


CHAPTER 5

The next morning came too early, much to Harriet's annoyance. She had barely slept three hours because of the ever-present nightmares plaguing her sleep. She willed her mind to stay in present, to not ponder again and again over the agonizing screams filling her ears or the flashes of bloodied, broken bodies in front of her eyes.

Harriet could feel the familiar tightness in her chest as the struggle to breathe properly became difficult with each passing second. With shaking hands, she gripped the edges of her bed tightly and tried to practice the breathing exercises Hermione made her do. Harriet closed her eyes and tried to imagine the bushy-haired girl encouraging her.

"That's it sweetheart, deep breaths- in and out, in and out. You're doing great Harrie. Now try and relax your muscles. That's it, deep breaths again."

When her breathing returned to normal, Harriet opened her eyes, gingerly wiping the tears away. Merlin! How she missed Ron and Hermione; the two people who have been her rock, the two people who always held her whenever the world was too cruel to her. She wanted nothing more than to bury herself in Ron's comforting arms as his warm hands would rub her back gently.

Peering at the surroundings, Harriet was yet again reminded of the heavy burden resting on her.

'Stay strong, Harrie. If not for yourself then for Ron and Hermione; for all your friends who could have a chance for a safe and better future.' With these words echoing in her brain, it didn't take her long to get ready for the day and leave the comfort of her room.

Not much later, Harriet was munching on her toast hen a polite 'good morning' brought her attention to the speaker. Harriet saw the Slytherin prefect, Sarah Fawley, sitting across from her.

"Good morning."

"I never got the chance to introduce myself. I'm Sarah Fawley."

"Harriet Christopher. Nice to meet you." Harriet took the offered hand and smiled in return.

"Nice to meet you too! I'm glad to finally have some girl company." Sarah beamed at her.

"I thought we have another girl in our year. Bellatrix, I think her name is."

"Yeah, but Bellatrix isn't the most fun to be around. Not that I hate her, but she's just the prejudiced pureblood who thinks everyone else is beneath her. And my family is totally opposed to those notions so we never really got along." Sarah explained her point of view. From what Harriet could recall, the Fawley's were a neutral family who never participated in the war.

"Well, that's no wonder."

"I beg your pardon."

"Nothing." Harriet lied.

"Good morning, Ms Fawley and Ms Christopher." Slughorn's chirpy voice interrupted their conversation.

"Good morning, professor." The duo said in unison.

"These are the timetables for the first years, Ms Fawley. Please make sure they get them. As for today, Mr Malfoy will be on the duty to escort the little ones for their classes."

"Of course, professor. I'll inform Lucius right away."

"Thank you, Ms Fawley. Ms Christopher this is your timetable." He handed her a piece of rolled parchment.

"Thank you, professor."

"Good luck on your first day at Hogwarts. If you need any help, you can always come to me."

"I'll keep that in mind." Tearing her eyes from Slughorn's retreating form, Harriet studied her timetable and groaned in annoyance. The first day of her 7th year and she got double DADA to start with; she really wasn't in the mood to put up with Voldemort's antics especially after her grumpy start of the morning.

"You ready to go for the first class," Sarah asked as she came back from distributing the timetables.

"As ready as I'll ever be."


Sarah and Harriet made their way towards the DADA classroom. Never in her wildest dreams had Harriet thought that she would be learning from the Dark Lord himself. She had a mission on her hands, but she didn't exactly plan to die within the first week; so she'll have to constantly keep up her Occlumency shields. That was how Harriet found herself in front of the classroom, unnerved and concerned. They were soon joined by the Gryffindors and the tension was palpable enough to be cut with a knife. Harriet recognised Rodolphus Lestrange and Barty Crouch standing beside Lucius. She also recognised Frank Longbottom, who was in a deep conversation with his friends. Seeing all these people in their teenage years, unaware of their future, didn't calm her nerves at all.

The door to the classroom opened and students took their seats. Harriet chose to sit somewhere in the middle so that she wouldn't be in Voldemort's line of sight directly. Soon the person she had been trying to avoid entered the class, with a stern expression and a confident walk. All the girls, including Sarah, began blushing. As expected the devilish smirk on his face only seemed to grow wide.

"Good morning everyone! Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I'm Professor Nicholas Grey." His firm voice reminding Harriet yet again of whom exactly he was.

"There is only one rule of my class- when I assign you some work I expect it to be on my desk in due time. No excuses regarding late excuses will be accepted. Other than that pay attention to whatever is being taught and take appropriate notes. If you follow what I say and not misbehave, you'll have no troubles. Disobey me and I assure you the punishments wouldn't be liked."

No student made even an inkling of noise. There was an unusual command between the words rolling off his tongue and everyone understood that if you never wanted to be on Professor Nicholas' bad side; everyone except Harriet, who for the oddest reason found the situation quite hilarious. Maybe it was the fact that she didn't expect anything less from Lord Voldemort. Whatever the consequences may be, but witnessing the Dark Lord barking for homework submission would be quite amusing.

Meanwhile Professor Grey stilled when he felt amusement and hilarious emotions; emotions that definitely weren't his and got confused as hell. The stupid faces sitting in front of him brought him back to reality as he started with his lecture.

"I have read what you have covered up so far and not at all surprised that you are all lacking behind syllabi. Since it's your NEWT year, you'll have to cover up a lot and there will be more practical than theory. Do focus more on your wand movements and incantations. For the next two classes, we'll be covering up the Unforgivable Curses. Now, who can tell me what are they?"

The irony of the situation almost made Harriet smile but she busied herself to look around the class as students raised their hands to answer, that did not go unnoticed by Grey.

"Mr Crouch."

"There are three unforgivable- Imperius, Cruciatus and the Killing Curse. They are called the unforgivable because using either of them gives a person a one-way ticket to Azkaban."

"That is correct, 5 points to Slytherin. Now please elaborate on what exactly they can do."

"Mr McLaggen."

"The Imperius curse allows the caster to control other's actions. In simple words used to make someone do exactly what you want. The incantation used is Imperio."

"That's correct, 5 points to Gryffindor. How about you go Mr Longbottom?"

"The Cruciatus curse is used to inflict excruciating pain on the recipient or victim. The incantation is Crucio." Harriet felt too uncomfortable with the whole topic but could do nothing than to sit through the lecture.

"Correct, 5 points to Gryffindor. How about you explain the last one Ms Black?"

"The Killing Curse uses the incantation Avada Kedavra. It's a powerful curse which kills the victim instantly." Bellatrix chimed at her own answer making Sarah sitting beside Harriet flinch.

"Correct, 5 points to Slytherin." Professor Grey spoke in a monotonous tone.

"The answers you all gave were right, but let's dig a little deeper into it. Tell me is there any way to throw away these curses?" No one spoke until he singled out Harriet this time.

"You've been awfully quite Ms Christopher. How about you answer my question and let us know what you've learnt so far?" Oh, the nerve of that man! Harriet wished she could wipe the smug look off his face.

"Occlumency- the art of shielding mind or strong will of the victim, both can be used to fend off the Imperius. In both cases, the caster can find it difficult to enter the victim's unconscious mind and thus fail.

The intensity of the Cruciatus Curse depends on how much pain the caster wants to inflict on the recipient. It causes pain beyond anything ever experienced, like your bones are on fire. In order to avoid being hit with it, you have to dodge it with quick reflexes, block it physically or interrupt the caster before they can finish off the incantation.

The Killing Curse, though being one of the most sinister and darkest curses doesn't cause any pain to the victim. Its only purpose is instant death. It is also unblockable which means the shield charm wouldn't work against it, but it can be avoided by a physical barrier between the victim and the caster. Another way to avoid the Avada Kedavra is by invoking the ancient magic of Love and Sacrifice." Harriet spoke without missing a beat and there was absolute silence in the class.

"But there has not been a single person to avoid the Killing Curse." Harriet wanted to laugh at the bold statement; the history between her and Voldemort wouldn't have been there in the first place if the curse had hit her. So she simply said.

"No there hasn't." The statement was delivered without conviction and Professor Grey smiled like a predator looking at his prey. He had purposely asked Harriet to answer and he wasn't displeased with the results.

"30 points to Slytherin for you answer Ms Christopher." The genuine tone in his voice made Harriet look at him in surprise, but was quickly replaced by an emotionless facade when the next question came out of his mouth.

"Forgive me for my curiosity, Ms Christopher, but can you please tell on how you got that scar on your forehead?"

"I got it from an accident when I was little, fell off from the top of the stairs to be exact." Harriet did not take a second to contort the lie but by the looks on Voldemort's face, she knew he did not believe her one bit. And Lord Voldemort wasn't happy about it. He wasn't the Dark Lord for no reason; he was the Master of the dark arts which made him extremely sensitive to magic, especially Dark magic. The moment he saw her in class today he could feel the darkest energy coming off from her odd-shaped lightning bolt scar. But then she had lied about how she got it, no wonder she was in Slytherin.

The bell rang indicating the end of the lecture.

"We'll be continuing the same topic in the next class. That's it for now." The students didn't take long to scramble out of the class and Harriet was left full of curious and gleeful emotions; emotions she definitely knew wasn't her.


A/N: Leave your reviews and let me know what you guys think about it! Good day to all!

A/N: Also thank you to the lovely guest who left a review for the story:). I hope you enjoy as the stroy progresses!