Chapter 5

Harry

I have to admit. Nico is pretty good with his acting. When I see how he acts with Malfoy and his cronies, I can imagine him as a pureblood. He acts like a pompous and cunning Slytherin. Not much different from how Malfoy acts. It's like he was there the whole time.

Ron and I entered the defense classroom and we sat near the front of the classroom.

"I can't believe that Dumbledore managed to convince Moody to teach Defense"

"Who is Moody anyway?"

"He is an Auror" Ron said "He's a well known Auror, half the people in Azkaban are there because of him."

"I'm personally excited." Hermione said "We have double Defense today."

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

We all returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray 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 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?"

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses," said Moody then smirking in Nico's direction. Who just shrugged. "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 –"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out. Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled .The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, 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, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses 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 Parvati something 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 Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Err," 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. 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, and 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. 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" then he brought it over to one of the girl's crawled up her hand a bit then it flew to the next person who happened to be Draco Malfoy. It landed on his hair as everyone started to laugh. Then the unexpected happened it flew to Nico's direction. It landed on his shoulder then it went limp. By the time it went back to Professor Moody it was dead. Everyone in the room gasped but Professor Moody just laughed

"Well so much for this one," he said "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. 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.

"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. Abandoning all pretenses, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. 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

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly. I looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, and his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. 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 looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, I guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider. Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time; she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered. Several people looked uneasily around at her, including Ron.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra. .. The Killing Curse." 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; 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 counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

I felt Moody's eyes on me. Then he suddenly barked.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE" Moody said. "There is no cure, no counter curse. The only way you'd be able to protect yourself is constant vigilance."

The rest of the class he let us take down notes. No one spoke until the bell rang.

"After lunch we would have our second class outside, class dismissed." the Professor said when I was about to leave the room, the professor called back "Mr. di Angelo, please stay for a moment."

"Come on, Harry." Ron said "Let's go to the Great Hall. I'm starving."

~(*)~

The second Defense class was more terrifying than the first. First Professor Moody had us all meet at the courtyard.

"Alright everyone. We are off to the Forbidden Forrest." Most of the students were uneasy. Unsure if Moody was still sane if he wanted all of us to go into the Forbidden Forest with the word 'forbidden' in the name.

"Oh don't get your knickers in a twist. I had already asked permission from Dumbledore. Let's go!"

He brought us deep into the forest. I looked at Hermione beside me practically quivering in fear. I looked at the rest of the class and most had the same reaction.

"Alright everyone. We are all here to see a demonstration of the Dark Arts." Moody said with a smirk. "Wands out. And be alert."

Lavender Brown raised her hand and Moody called on her.

"Professor are you sure this is safe" she said her voice breaking as she said it.

But before Moody could reply, sounds of clattering bones started to echo through the trees. I, like everyone else, looked through the trees. But found nothing. I tightened the grip on my wand. My heart racing in fear.

After a sudden silence… a walking skeleton jumped down from one of the trees. It was wearing a tunic. It's eyes yellow and cruel. In its hand, it had a sword and a shield as white as bone. More started to jump down from the trees. We were surrounded. All of us started to huddle together. Trying to get away from the skeletal warriors as they try to get closer to us.

"Where is Professor Moody?" Hermione exclaimed. I looked around and couldn't find the professor anywhere.

"I don't know" I replied. "But we need to do something about this."

I pointed my wand at the skeleton. "Bombarda!"

The skeleton was shattered into shards of bone. The rest of the class started to do the same, until all the skeletons were nothing more than mere shards of bone.

"That was easy." Malfoy boasted "I don't understand why everyone was so scared."

The bones started to sink lower into the ground. Then from the soil more skeletons burst out. The entire class was in pandemonium.

"Hermione!" Ron exclaimed through the noise of panic. "What do you know about zombie skeletons?"

"They're not allowed by the ministry." Hermione screamed back. "They're just as bad as dementors. Even worse. No one but a Necromancer could control them."

"Could they be warded off my a Patronus?" I asked

"I don't know"

"Just try it mate!"

"Expecto Patronum!"

A white stag came out of my wand. It ran towards the skeletons in full speed. The skeletons bursted into golden dust and disappeared in touch. The stag started to stampede through the army of skeletons. As the last one dissolved into ash, we heard someone clapping slowly. We turned to see Moody with a smirk in his face.

"Five points to Gryffindor for quick thinking and spell work." Moody said "They did great work didn't they, my boy?"

"I have to admit" I turned around and saw a kid, around fifteen to sixteen years old, sitting on a branch in a tree. He was wearing a black muggle clothes and a hoodie that covered his face. the only thing you could see from him is his mouth. "I didn't think anyone could figure that out."

"Necromancy is illegal." Hermione said loudly. "You could get arrested."

"They say the same about killing people yet they still do it." the black hooded teen said the flipping backwards disappearing into the shadows. Everyone turned looking for him. "Necromancy is in my blood. Telling me that I couldn't do it is like telling a wizard he shouldn't do magic."

We all turned our gaze back at the professor. Beside him was the kid.

"This is an example of Dark Magic." Moody said "As Ms. Granger pointed out this branch of magic is called Necromancy. Who could tell us what Necromancy is?"

Hermione raised her hand eagerly. But Moody called on one of the Slytherins.

"Yes, Mr. Zabini."

"It's the art of raising the dead." Zabini said "It is considered dark because once someone dies it is wrong to summon them back. It drives both the Necromancer and the spirit into madness. It's a very rare talent. It cannot be learned. Only inherited."

"Very good. Five points to Slytherin." Moody said "From what Mr. Zabini said my friend here inherited the ability to Necromancy."

"Doesn't he have a name?"

"I do." the kid said "But I never said anything about having to mention it to you."

"And this is where constant vigilance is needed. You'll never know who is going to be your opponent. What kind of power he may have. Any other Questions you want to ask our guest?"

One of the Slytherin girls raised her hand. "From which side did you inherit Necromancy and how long did it take you to master it?"

"I inherited it from my father." He said "I haven't completely mastered it. It would take nearly a decade of training and study to be able to master the art. But I have successfully mastered most of the art."

"How long have you been learning?"

"Since I was ten" he said "So about four years."

"Aren't you afraid that the ministry would arrest you for using Dark Magic."

He gave a chuckle. "I would like to see them try. There is a difference between Dark Magic and Black Magic."

"Black Magic is like supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes. These can sometimes be found in monsters and demons like dracaenae or gorgons. And diluted amounts are found in Vampires and Werewolves. This is the cause of their disease as we call it." he said knowingly "But they don't over power the person bitten unless they allow it. That's how some were wolves look more like wolves than human before the moon is full."

"Dark Magic is what we usually call grey magic." He said "It's not exactly light. Nor is it black. But it's somewhere in between. Necromancy, Umbrakinesis and even the ones you call Unforgivable Curses are under this category."

"If it's bad to kill people why is the Killing Curse under Dark Magic not Black Magic?"

"Imagine if you were so sick, for example gorgon blood from the left side entered your body. It would kill you from the inside. Burn you melting you from inside it would cause a few minutes of pain before it totally kills you. Yet if you were to simply kill him with a spell. It would be as fast as having a gun shot through your head." he explained "it used to be a form of mercy."

"Alright. I believe it is time to return to the castle." Moody said "Thank you again my boy for that demonstration."

"It's my pleasure." He said "I hope to see you all again."

Then he stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

YAY ANOTHER CHAPTER BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS!

Ok. I have some sad news. I have to start pulling up my grades. So I might not be able to update as frequent as I usually do. Between School, Rehearsals (HELL!), and Writing. I'm having a hard time managing. But don't worry I have a firm grasp on the story line so it won't be so hard for me to write. I'll try as much as possible to update but for this January no promises.

Goals for this 2014:

Finish the rest of the Fanfics that are already posted

Start Original Stories that have been there since forever :D

GO TO COLLEGE!

Alright that's everything

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