Sitting in Professor Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts class, there was a distinct buzz of excitement around the room. Alex on the other hand, was a little nervous. She didn't know what to expect, and judging from the ferret incident, Moodey seemed like a dangerous person to be excited about.
As soon as the teacher walked in, everyone began getting out their books, Alex followed. "Put those away, you won't be needing those," said the booming voice of professor Moody. The students put their books away quicker than they had gotten them out, and Professor Moody took roll call. After, he stated that their former teacher, Lupin, had informed him on what they already knew. A hum of agreement came from all around Alex, but she was still caught on his scarred face and strange eye. Ron nudged her in the arm hard enough to bring her out of her trance; she gave him a dirty look.
"You are all very behind on curses however," stated Moody as he walked to his closet and pulled out a few props. Alex heard the rusting of paper evidentially at the same time Moodey did because he harshly told Lavender to put away her horoscopes.
"So, do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" Many hands went up, all wanting the glory from their new teacher. This was, however, a new subject for Alex, and anyways gaining glory from answering a teacher's question was not really her style.
Ron was called on to answer, and in a hesitant voice responded, "My dad told me about one, the Imperious Curse?"
"Ah yes. Your father would know about that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperious curse," Moody then pulled out three jars, each containing a spider. Ron's eyes got big and he angled his body as much away from Moody and the spiders as he could. This time Alex nudged him with a smirk on her face. Moody pulled out one spider, rested it in the palm of his hand, and shouted "Imperio!"
At that, the spider flew off his hand and jerked all around the room, doing a series of acrobatic stunts. Alex watched in amazement, but her mind was already making connections to magic from home. While Alex's face showed intense concentration, everyone else was laughing.
"Think this is funny, do you? What if this were you?" All of the laughter stopped, many faces turned to discomfort. "I could so easily make this spider drown himself, jump out the window, or even throw himself down your throats." The spider was now only rolling around in place. "Years ago there were plenty of people being put under the Imperious Curse. It takes a large amount of strength in character to fight it, but I will teach you in time." The spider was put back into the jar. "Does anyone know another curse?"
This time only the hands of Hermione, and an oddly brave but trembling Neville went up. To Hermione's disappointment, Moody chose Neville.
Neville answered, "The Cruciatus Curse."
Moody looked closer, squinting at Neville and asked, "And your name is Longbottom?" Neville nervously nodded, and an inspecting Professor Moody walked back to the front. Alex received a strange feeling from Moody.
"For you to truly see this curse it must be bigger," Moody continued with the lesson, and made the spider bigger. Alex, who also wasn't very fond of spiders, cringed, while Ron had already pushed himself as far away as he could.
"Crucio!"
As the spider twitched and jerked horribly, it became apparent that this was a torture curse. The pain was building in every movement the spider was forced to make.
"Stop!" Yelled Hermione, who was standing in her place, but it wasn't out of her concern for the spider. She was watching Neville who looked as though he were being tortured as well. Moody allowed the spider to stop, and put it back in the jar. The silence that had existed since after the first curse, dropped to an even lower volume.
"There is no need for knives or weapons if you know the Cruciatus Curse," Moody said in an old, raspy, experienced voice. "Does anyone know the final curse?"
Hermione, who was still standing, responded, "Avada Kedavra. The killing curse," then sat back down. Her voice almost shook.
Without a word, Moody reached into the last jar to grab a struggling spider, "Avada Kedavra!" Harry flinched and reached to his scar. The spider lay still. The once excited classroom mood had shifted to a dark place.
"This is not a nice curse," Moody was teaching once again, "There is no counter curse, and no way to get away. There is only one person who has ever survived it, and he is sitting in front of me." All eyes turned to Harry.
Alex turned around to see a look of painful realization on Harry's face, as he had just seen the very way his parents had died: Mercilessly.
Moody went on, "It takes an extreme amount of power to perform this curse. I am sure that if you each were to point your wands at me, it would not work. It is important that you know of these curses. You will need to be able to recognize them in the battlefield, and comprehend their significance. These curses are called the unforgivable curses. Performing any one of these on a human will earn you a life sentence in Azkaban. You must know how to protect yourself."
There was a chill in the room as everyone got out their quills and took notes for the rest of the period.
When class ended, conversations sprung up everywhere about the fantastic lesson they had just witnessed. Everywhere but with Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Alex. They walked quietly out of class, and an irritated Hermione directed them to where Neville sat on the stairs.
"Are you alright Neville?" Hermione asked, sitting down next to him.
"Oh, yes," he answered, then proceeded to mix up his words about dinner and the lesson.
Harry opened his mouth to ask him what happened, but stopped when they heard the sound of an unwelcome Professor Moody behind them.
"You alright Longbottom? Maybe you should come with me. I've got some tea, and maybe some books you'd like."
To Alex, this sounded like a dangerous invitation, and it looked as though everyone was thinking the same. If anyone had offered this on the streets of New York you would have declined and walked swiftly in the other direction, prepared to call the cops. Neville didn't look so thrilled about it either.
"I know it's harsh," Moody said to Harry now, "but you've got to know."
With that, Moody took Neville who was begging them to stop him.
"What was that all about?" Ron asked.
Hermione answered, looking off in the direction Moody and Neville had gone, "I don't know."
"Well Fred and George were right, Professor Moody really does know about this stuff. He's pretty amazing the way he killed that spider right there with Avada Kedavra. It deserved that death." Ron instantly knew he had said too much, and looked over apologetically at Harry. None of them said another word until they reached the Great Hall.
They all agreed they should start their divinations homework tonight, but once again Hermione rushed off to the library upon finishing her meal.
When they walked into the common room, Neville was sitting alone in a chair, reading a new book on magical plants. He looked much better than he had the last time they saw him.
"Hey Neville, you feeling better?" Harry asked from the doorway, "What are you reading?"
"Oh hi guys," Neville responded in a chipper voice, "I'm reading this new book Professor Moody gave me. Evidentially Professor Sprout told him I'm great in Herbology."
Neville looked much happier, and so they felt it was alright to leave him alone to read. Harry, Ron, and Alex each grabbed their things from their dormitory, and met back in the common room. From there they settled down at a table and got to work, but none of them knew where to start.
"I have no idea what any of this is supposed to mean," Alex said dropping her pencil after only three minutes, "we don't have anything like this at home." She was beyond irritated.
"I think it's back to the old Divinations Stand-by," Ron said with a mischievous grin.
"You think we should make it up?" Harry asked catching on.
"Why not?" Ron replied. Alex smiled in agreement, and with that they all launched into sharing what strange things they had decided were going to happen to them, not forgetting to back it up with the location of the planets.
I hope the eight pages on Microsoft Word made for a long enough chapter! I have decided that I really need to change how I produce chapters in order to get them out sooner, so I want to know if you guys like how closely I've been following the book. I have pretty much been skimming every page and quoting some things, but I think it might go faster if I just hit on ideas rather than details. Let me know what you think. Also I uploaded the first chapter to another story last night, so check it out. I know it's short but I just wanted to get it out there. And yes I changed my username, AllieMalfoy1912 felt like it favored this story too much. Thanks for reading and have a great week! :)