OH YOU'VE ACTUALLY DECIDED TO COME BACK!

*ahem*

I mean, thanks for reading! Keep going, please!

Disclaimer: I am not Queen J K Rowling, otherwise this would not be a fanfiction, it would be a novel.

~Amaya~

Cairo POV

"Hello Lee," I greeted, as Lee Jordan bustled past me to talk to the twins. He gave a small wave, then started talking to George about a new prank idea.

Fred reached over, grabbing my elbow, and pulling me away. He looked agitated for some reason. "What is it?" I asked, looking at him confused. "Did Lee do something? I thought he was your best friend?"

Fred merely grunted and practically dragged me to our next class. Not that I was complaining; Fred could've dragged me anywhere he liked and I would've complied. I do fancy him, though I'd die before admitting it.

After entering our DADA classroom, we slipped into seats in the front row, saving a seat for George. I was excited, and yet terrified of having Moody as a teacher. He was intimidating, but also had an air of intrigue about him. And of course, there was the part about him being a fantastic auror.

George sat down next to us. "Why the sudden departure, Freddie? Lee do something?" Fred muttered something incoherent, and I could barely make out the words 'eyeing her.' Whatever he said made George let out a snort of laughter.

Soon we heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. I could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

We returned the books to our bags. I looked at our new professor quizzically as Moody took out a register and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled 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 -"

"Why aren't you staying?" George blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at George; George looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled - the first time I had seen him do so. George looked relieved that he could actually smile at all.

"You'll be one of Arthur Weasley's sons, eh?" Moody said. "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 then clapped his gnarled hands together. "So - straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, this year is the year where you get to learn the illegal Dark curses.

"Personally, I would've liked to have taught them to you in an earlier year, maybe your fourth. 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.

"So. . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Fred and George's hands both shot up (I expected as much, with their father working for the ministry) and my hand was in the air too. I glanced around the classroom, but everyone else seemed to scared or shy to give a suggestion.

Moody looked impressed at us. "You there." His magical eye focused on Fred. "Whichever twin you are."

"Fred," Fred said, then went on. "Our dad told us about one of them. The Imperius Curse."

"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. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that we 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 backflip, 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.

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, throw itself down one of your throats. . ."

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and I knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "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?"

Once again, George's and my hands shot up. Moody was looking at George this time. "You must be George."

George nodded and said, "There this other one, the Cruciatus Curse."

Moody nodded. Turning 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!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but I was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.

Moody only raised his wand when Francine Jefferson started sobbing. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. "Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.

"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?"

I timidly raised my hand. I had known them all, but this last one was the one I dreaded the most. When Moody focused on me, I gulped before speaking. "The worst of all the Unforgivable Curses. The Killing Curse. Avada Kedavra."

Moody studied me carefully with his magical and normal eye. "What was your name again?"

"Cairo Agatha," I whispered, suddenly feeling solemn, as if I had just used the Killing Curse.

Moody nodded slowly, walking back over to his spiders, but I could feel his magical eye still focused on me. He 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. I whimpered, staring at the dead spider. 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 within this very school."

I thought of Harry. Poor Harry. His parents were dead, all because of a stupid curse. Moody began to speak again, and I banished Harry from my thoughts to listen.

"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. . ."

We spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang - but when Moody had dismissed us and we had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices - "Did you see it twitch?" "- and when he killed it - just like that!"

I wasn't really listening. I just wanted to get to dinner, away from all these curses. Fred, George and Lee followed a few paces behind me, in heated conversation about how cool Moody is. Except I don't exactly agree with them. I think he's just scary.

I slipped into a seat across from Harry and Ron. I was disappointed when Fred sat beside them and George and Lee sat beside me. "Moody!" Fred said. "How cool is he?"

"Beyond cool," said George.

"Supercool," said Lee. "We had him this afternoon," he explained to Harry and Ron.

"What was it like?" said Harry eagerly.

Fred, George, and Lee exchanged looks full of meaning. I just rolled my eyes and slowly began to eat my beef casserole.

"Never had a lesson like it," said Fred.

"He knows, man," said Lee.

"Knows what?" said Ron, leaning forward.

"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it," said George impressively.

"Doing what?" said Harry.

"Fighting the Dark Arts," said Fred.

"He's seen it all," said George.

"Mazing," said Lee.

Ron dived into his bag for his schedule. "We haven't got him till Thursday!" he said in a disappointed voice.

"You're lucky! He's downright scary," I announced, finally stating my true opinion. Before any of them could object however, I stood up and left for the common room. Mostly so nobody would notice my tears.

Fred's POV

"Cai!" I called after her, also jumping to my feet. I don't know why I felt so worried for her, but I did. I could see tears sliding down her face as I followed her out of the Great Hall. "Cai!" I called again, starting to speed up. She let out a loud sniff and turned into a sharp corner.

Upon following however, I found she had disappeared. Luckily, having the Marauder's Map for years, I had memorized all of the known secret passages. I peered behind a large painting of a forest and saw Cai sobbing in a small secret room. I sat down next to her, rubbing her back, in what I hoped was a comforting way.

"Fred," she sobbed, "go away!"

"No," I said plainly. "I will not go until you tell me what's wrong."

She nodded, but was still sobbing too hard to speak. I allowed her to regain her composure, then she said, in a quiet, hiccuping voice, "Moody scares me. Those Unforgivable Curses were, well, unforgivable! I don't like how he teaches. He's intimidating!"

I didn't know what to say. I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again. I wasn't sure how to properly sympathize with her. She seemed to take my silence badly and pushed past me, out of the passage.

I stood up to follow again, but something stopped me. I had noticed a glint of gold in the corner. Scooping it up in my hand, I saw it was Cai's locket. She never took the thing off and I had never seen the inside. Temptation took over and I gingerly opened the little gold heart.

Nothing. There was no picture. But why would she have a locket without anything inside?