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Chapter 6: The Mutafidus Curse
"It was mortifying." Róisín dragged the word into a low groan. "Professor Snape, in my room - and you guys know how messy my room is – and me just gaping at him like a complete eejit."
Anna stifled a snort and Róisín gave her a light smack on the arm.
"It is not funny."
"That is a matter of opinion," Anna teased.
"And you!" Róisín turned to Ida. "How could you bring him to my room, you traitor!"
"What did you expect me to do? Say no to Professor Snape, duel him in the corridor?" Ida retorted.
"Yes, that's what friends do," Róisín said, trying to keep a straight face.
"Ha! You wouldn't talk back to Snape to save me from the cruciatus," Anna scoffed.
Róisín laughed. "You're right there. But I expect higher standards from my friends."
The three girls hurried through the castle towards the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom.
"I don't think I can emphasise enough just how messy my room was!" Róisín began again.
"Stop fretting about it. It could have been worse. Did you hear that last year he caught a seventh year Hufflepuff giving head in the fifth-floor bathroom?" Anna snickered. "Can you imagine?"
Róisín barely heard her. "And I was in my pyjamas, with no bra, and my sheets were stained, and it was so heavy….. Oh God, do you think he could smell it?"
Anna tipped back her head and let out a bark of laughter, her dark chocolate locks swinging with the movement.
"Well, he is known for his acute potions master's nose," Ida said and winked at Anna. "Last year he knew Martin used pumpkin seeds instead of apple in his dracotabus antidote just by the smell."
"Oh, shut up." Róisín shot her friends a fake scowl.
"Today we will practice resisting the mutafidus curse," Professor Lupin began, "as the few of you who actually did their reading assignments will know, the mutafidus can be used to influence the loyalties of your opponent."
A murmur of anticipation rippled through the class. The mutafidus curse was in the same family of spells as the imperius.
"Can anyone tell me how it achieves this?" Lupin asked.
"The mutafidus changes the victim's feelings towards the caster. It makes them empathise with their attacker," Anna answered.
"Correct Miss Bathworth." Anna's pretty cheeks rounded with her smile. "The degree of manipulation depends on the strength of the casting. It can range from subtle feelings of misgiving over causing harm to the caster, to feelings of intense respect and admiration towards them. So… what are the typical outcomes when it's employed in a duel?"
Anna answered again,
"It can vary, sometimes the victim continues attacking the caster with lessened enthusiasm, other times they will cease their actions altogether. In rare cases the victim may even turn on their allies." Róisín and Ida raised their eyebrows to each other in response to Anna's prompt answer. Anna always prepared thoroughly for their Defence against the Dark Arts classes. Although her friends knew that she aspired to be an auror, they thought that a crush on a certain professor may contribute to her passion for the subject.
Professor Lupin smiled warmly. "Correct again Miss Bathworth."
"He so knows," Róisín whispered. Anna walloped her with her knee beneath the desk.
"I have asked Professor Snape to lend us his expertise for today's lesson, as he is particularly adept at the mutafidus."
Róisín's head shot up at the mention of the potion's master.
"I bet he is. There's not a dark curse he can't do," Róisín heard a Gryffindor mutter.
Lupin gestured for the students to leave their seats. The desks and chairs clattered as he stacked them along the side of the room with a few flicks of his wand. The light from the tall thin windows lit slices of the air in which the dust motes drifted, and made a striped pattern on the floor of the newly cleared space. A colossal dragon skeleton hung above as if waiting to judge their skills.
"Ah Professor Snape, thanks for coming." Róisín swung around at Lupin's greeting.
Snape stood at the back of the room like a dark spectre. The students hadn't noticed him enter.
"My pleasure," he drawled. Lupin ignored his sarcasm.
"Ok, form groups of three. Each group will attempt to disarm either myself or Professor Snape. You may, and in fact I encourage you to, use the whole range of defensive spells we have covered thus far." Looks of surprise bounced around the students. "In terms of offensive spells, please limit yourselves to those which are unlikely to cause grievous bodily harm. Professor Snape and I will, obviously, show restraint." The glance Lupin shot Snape hinted at his uncertainty that this was obvious to the both of them.
Lupin instructed the students to line up into two rows in their groups. Each group would take turns to duel one of the professors.
"During these duels, Professor Snape and I will attempt to use the mutafidus to lessen your resolve. When you feel our influence on your mind, attempt to recognise it as foreign, isolate it, and ignore it."
The students swarmed into a line in front of Lupin. Only one group of Gryffindors, the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan, stood defiantly in front of Snape. They huddled together to strategise in urgent whispers. Snape looked entirely unperturbed. Lupin sighed.
"Could the last two groups of my line join Professor Snape's? I have complete confidence that you will leave here intact."
Ida, Róisín and Anna, and another Gryffindor group, reluctantly lined up behind the Weasleys.
"OK, why don't our foolhardy Gryffindors go first."
The rest of the class backed away. The Gryffindors in question stood in a classic duel stance with their wands trained at Snape's chest. Snape let his wand slide into his hand, but barely changed his posture. The three students bowed slowly, their eyes not leaving their target. Snape inclined his head in response.
"Begin-"
"MELOFORS-"
"STUPEFY-"
"CANTIO-"
The Gryffindors' curses bolted towards Snape before the second syllable of "begin" had left Lupin's mouth. Snape's wand moved in a blur and the curses rebounded off an invisible shield with three thuds and a flash of colours. His opponents were knocked backward. The orange spark from the melofors jinx hit one of the twins in the gut and a pumpkin popped onto his shoulders, encasing his head. The other twin was flung into the air by his ankle with a silent levicorpus. Jordan's verdimillious charm missed its mark and green sparks exploded where it hit the top of the blackboard.
"E-Expell-"
"Mutafidus" Jordan's hesitant disarming charm was smothered by Snape's first verbal command. Róisín shivered at the confidence with which the syllables slithered from him.
Snape lazily deflected two badly-aimed curses from the incapacitated twins and stepped towards Jordan.
Jordan mumbled "Expelli..." but then hesitated, seemingly unsure. He glanced between his friends and Snape with a strained look on his face. Just as the Weasley encased by the pumpkin managed to crack the vegetable and free his head Snape stupefied him. The other shouted at Jordan to disarm Snape and continued trying to cast stuns upside down. Jordan ignored his requests.
An unpleasant feeling twisted Róisín's gut as Jordan slowly turned away from Snape and pointed his wand at the Weasley suspended in the air.
"What are you-?" The twin protested but was cut off by Jordan's low voice,
"Expelliarmus"
Weasley's wand flew from his hand and landed with a clatter on the stone floor.
Jordan stood in front of Snape, like a guard dog.
"Finite Incantatem"
At Snape's words a look of confusion crossed Jordan. One twin fell to the floor while the other clambered to his feet from where he had been lying stupefied.
The students were still. Róisín could taste in the air the collective awe and disquiet at Snape's duelling prowess.
"I knew we could expect no less than an excellent demonstration from our potion's master," Lupin praised.
"Well, if it had occurred to even one of your three students to perform a shield charm then the defeat may not have been so abrupt." Snape sneered.
"Yes… still it was a gallant effort boys." Lupin smiled at the deflated trio. "Your timing was a fraction off, so the use of a non-verbal would have been advantageous, but well done none the less. Ten points to Gryffindor for being the first to bravely confront Professor Snape." Snape threw his eyes to heaven as Lupin grinned at the boys. "Mister Jordan, could you explain to your peers how it felt to be under the influence of the mutafidus?"
Jordan looked between Snape and the Weasley twins as if trying to figure out what had happened. He scratched his forehead.
"Eh… I dunno really, at the beginning I felt this surge of… respect for the professor, and I still tried to use expelliarmus, although I didn't really, want it to work." Jordan's cheeks tinged red as he looked apologetically at the Weasleys. "And then… well I just felt like I should protect him, I had this overwhelming sense that it was… the right thing to do, I suppose that's why I disarmed Fred."
Lupin addressed the class.
"Try to banish any sudden urges to "protect" your opponent, especially if you hear the mutafidus being cast."
A rumble spread through the classroom as the students began to steel themselves for their turn. Anna turned to Róisín and Ida with a look of determination.
"Ok, tactics… Ida, you have the best shield in our year, can you cast a protego amicis around the three of us the instant the duel begins?" Ida gave her a quick nod. "I'm the quickest, so I'll use equiperture to knock off his balance as fast as I can. Róisín, you try to disarm him. Any objections?"
Ida and Róisín shook their heads. Róisín whispered,
"Don't worry, we'll try not to make you look bad in front of your favourite professor."
"You better not," Anna said darkly.
The next group, a trio of Ravenclaws, stepped forward to duel Lupin. Moments later two of the students were disarmed while the other was under the mutafidus. The bewitched student had stopped fighting, although he did not turn on his peers like Jordan had.
Róisín had believed that there were a few excellent duellers in their year, Anna being one of them, however she was amazed at the gulf in skill between her fellow students and her teachers.
Then it was their turn. Róisín, Ida and Anna stepped towards Snape.
"And next we have… Ah excellent! Three of the brightest young witches in Hogwarts," Lupin exclaimed. The three girls thrummed with adrenaline as they stood in front of Snape.
"Now, don't go too easy on your professor girls," Lupin said with a wink. "And… Begin!"
"EQUIPERTURE!"
"PROTEGO"
"EXPELLIARMUS"
The roar of the girls' incantations caused their peers to jump, and anyone watching closely would have seen Snape's eyebrows rise slightly at the girls' show of spirit.
The professor erected a shimmering shield a millisecond before Anna and Róisín's spells ricocheted off it. A heartbeat later a bright purple spell sparked against Ida's own shield.
"Titillatio," Snape muttered.
A long sliver of light poured from his wand and snaked towards the girls. Róisín and Anna continued trying to disarm him but his shield stood strong. Ida's wand hand shook and her brow furrowed with the effort of maintaining the protego amicis. The three girls huddled together to minimize its required size. To their horror, the light wriggled under Ida's shield and split in three, striking each of them in the abdomen. The three Ravenclaws stilled, waiting to discover the effect of Snape's spell.
A tickling sensation burst inside of Róisín, not an itchy type of tickle, but the type that makes you writhe on the floor and beg for relief. She clutched her stomach and giggled as Anna squealed. Their shield dropped when Ida's laughter joined theirs and her wand flew across the room with a silent disarming charm from Snape.
"Mutafidus"
Róisín felt the tickling sensation abruptly disappear. A thought gripped her: Snape is amazing. He was watching her. Róisín cocked her head to the side like a curious animal and returned his gaze. He's smart and powerful… and so kind to help us learn. Why are we fighting him? He deserves better.
Róisín turned and regarded her friends. Ida was wriggling on the floor, wandless. Anna was attempting to stay on her feet and disarm Snape while squirming wildly against an invisible assailant. She looks ridiculous, what is she trying to do? Attack our professor? Crazy. Then a quiet voice fluttered from a corner of her mind. Do I always sound like this in my head? These thoughts sound… foreign. But the train of thought scurried away when she met Snape's gaze. I should stop Anna.
Like a wild cat striking its prey Róisín whipped around, threw out her wand hand and cried,
"VOLAT PULSUM"
Anna flew into the air like a rag doll and smacked against the stone wall with a revolting thud, followed instantly by a crack as she struck the tiled floor.
The sound freed Róisín from the mutafidus. For a moment the whole class stood still in sickening silence. Then the quiet was ripped apart by Róisín's desperate wail.
A huge wolf patronus darted by as Snape swooped over Anna, muttering furiously as he weaved his wand above her. Róisín staggered towards them, begging incoherently.
"Please… PLEASE… NO.."
Anna lay like a distorted prop from a horror film. The sight of her slack jaw and the strange angle her head made with her neck caused Róisín to fall to her knees and dry heave.
She didn't notice Lupin barking orders at her frantic classmates or being shoved out of the way by Madam Pomfrey. Nor did she realise that Ida, shivering and crying, was trying to drag her across the cold stone floor away from Anna's bloodied body. She couldn't hear Ida mumbling in her ear, or feel her trembling arms wrapping around her and rocking her back and forth. All she could feel was a guilty panic that gripped her chest tighter and tighter until she knew it would strangle her.