By Thursday, Evie was just as antsy as all the other Gryffindor fourth years to get into DADA. They had formed a line outside of the classroom before the bell had even rung. She and Hermione made it just in time for class, as they had been in the library.

Two days ago Evie had finally found out what Hermione was so keen on doing in the library:

"Knitting? Why d'you want to learn how to knit?" Evie raised an eyebrow at Hermione as the latter girl sat a huge pile of books on the table in front of her. Evie picked up the top one in the pile. On the cover was a picture of a pair of knitting needles and the beginnings of what was possibly a scarf. The picture moved, showing the same line being made over and over again.

"So I can give the elves clothes, so they can free themselves and start demanding pay and sick days!"

"Hermione…" Evie sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You do understand that, to them, clothes are a punishment, not a reward?"

"They're just scared of being abused! If they are given their freedom and realize they can ask for more…that they deserve more, they will be excited to receive clothes." Hermione explained waving off Evie's disbelieving look.

"I really don't think this is going to go the way you hope it will…" Evie paused and looked at her friend. "Alright, I'll help. Teach me how to knit."

Since that day they had been spending a lot of their free time in the library learning to knit, finding patterns for things like small hats and socks. Evie still believed no house elf would take Hermione's clothes, but her friend was so passionate about the cause, she felt the best thing she could do was support her.

The group grabbed the seats right in front of the teacher's desk and readily took out the book for the course, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection. After a few moments of silence Moody came in and instructed them to put their books away. Well, it was more of a bark than anything, but they listened, shocked as they were that they weren't going to be using their books.

Moody checked his list to make sure everyone was in class; his normal eye moved down the list of names, but his blue eye was rolling around in his head, clearly watching everything going on in the classroom. Once the last student had answered, Moody clasped his hands together and told them all that while Professor Lupin had done well teaching them all about magical creatures, they were behind on curses. "I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark –"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out. Evie tensed for him, not sure how Moody would take the interruption. Ron also looked apprehensive as Moody's magic eye swivelled around to stare at him. His response, however, was quite surprising, albeit relieving. Moody smiled, the most gnarled and awkward smile Evie had ever seen, but a smile none-the-less.

"You're Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Apparently Moody owed Mr. Weasley one for getting him out of a tough spot right before the school year started, and the only reason Moody was here was as a favor to Dumbledore. "One year, then back to my quiet retirement." He laughed as though it was a private joke the rest of the class wouldn't get.

After that he jumped right into the lesson, telling the class that while the Ministry didn't want them learning illegal Dark curses, both he and Dumbledore thought they could handle it and so that's exactly what he was going to be showing them in the very first class of the year. "You'll need to be alert and watchful. You'll need to put that away, Miss. Brown, while I'm talking."

Lavender had been showing Parvati her finished horoscope chart under their table. When she heard her name and realized she'd been caught, she jumped and blushed, mumbling a sorry and focusing back on the class. It seemed Moody's magic eye might be able to see through anything, not just the back of his skull. That thought gave Evie the creeps though.

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

One instantly popped into Evie's head, but she kept her hands firmly clasped in her lap. She watched as both Ron and Hermione raised their hands, along with several other tentative people in the room. Moody called on Ron.

"My dad told me about one." Ron said hesitantly. "The Imperius Curse or something?"

"Your dad would know about that one. It gave the Ministry a lot of trouble a while back." Moody reached into his desk and pulled out a jar with three large, black spiders inside. Ron tensed in his seat. Reaching into the jar, Moody got hold of one of the spiders and pulled it out. Holding it in his palm, so all could see, he pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio."

The spider responded instantly, leaping from Moody's hand on a thin silk thread and swinging back and forth. Then, at the coaxing of Moody's wand, it hopped from the thread doing a back flip and landed on the desk. Upon landing it immediately began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand once more and the spider rose to its feet and began what was unmistakably a tap dance. At the sight of it the class began to laugh.

"Think it's funny, do you? What if I did it to you?" The laughter died almost instantly. "I have total control. I could make it jump out the window, or drown itself, or maybe throw itself down one of your throats."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

Moody began to explain that a while ago, though he didn't say it was during Voldemort's rise to power Evie knew that's when he meant, there were a lot of people who had that curse used on them. The Ministry apparently had a really hard time figuring out who was acting under the curse and who was acting of their own free will. He then told them that it was possible to fight the curse off, but it was hard to do and required a real strength of character. "Better avoid getting hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He barked and the whole class jumped. Then he replaced the spider and pulled out another one. When he asked if anyone else had another illegal curse Neville raised his hand. Evie imagined the whole class might have been shocked by that. "Yes?" Moody eyed him with the magic eye.

"There's one – the Cruciatus Curse." Neville's voice was small and distant as he answered, and Evie knew he wished he hadn't said it. She wished he hadn't either. She never wanted to see that curse.

"Your name Longbottom?" Neville nodded nervously. Moody made no other comment on it, just turned his attention back to the spider, which he enlarged so the whole class could see the effects of the curse. "Crucio!"

Instantly the spider began to feel the effect of the curse. Its legs bent in upon its body. It rolled over and began rocking back and forth, twitching uncontrollably. It made no noise, but it was unmistakable that if it could it would be screaming. The longer Moody kept his wand on the spider, the more uncontrollably it began to jerk and shudder.

"Stop…" Evie whispered, her hands clenched in her lap. Her knuckles where white and her body shaking. She turned to Neville, who was sitting right next to her and whose own body had stiffened. His fists where clenched on the table, with knuckles just as white as her own. He was staring at the scene wide-eyed, with an expression of horror etched on his face. Evie turned back to the spider, still withering and jerking…she almost swore she did hear it scream. "Stop…stop…STOP!" She shut her eyes as she finally found the strength to yell.

Moody moved his wand and the spider's legs instantly relaxed, though it still twitched.

"Reducio." He said, returning the spider to its original size and placing it back in the jar. "Pain…" Moody said softly. Evie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to keep herself together. "You don't need thumbscrews to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. That one was very popular once."

Evie's bottom lip quivered as she opened her eyes again. She was sure she wasn't going to cry, but the image of the spider withering in pain was forever burned into her mind. That's what they had done to her mother. That's what had weakened her, nearly driven her mad before they finally decided to kill her; almost kill her. Better to leave her for dead, let her die slowly they thought. As though they hadn't done enough to torture her.

Evie looked at Neville again, still frozen in horror at what he had just seen. As Moody asked for another curse she silently reached over and covered his still clenched fist with her own shaky hand. He looked at her as Hermione told Moody the last curse she knew, the Killing Curse, and Evie knew that Neville had suffered the same way she had. There was a reason Neville was raised by his grandmother, and Evie knew in that moment what that reason was.

They turned back to the lesson, but Evie never took her hand off of Neville's. She had a feeling he needed it there. Moody was pulling the last spider out of the jar. It had apparently seen what had happened to the others because it tried desperately to make a run for it. It didn't get far though. Moody raised his wand and roared, "Avada Kedavra!"

After a flash of blinding green light the spider rolled over on its back. There was not a mark on it, but there could be no doubt it was dead. Several students stifled cries. Evie distinctly heard Hermione gasp. Ron pushed so far back in his chair he almost tipped it over. But Harry just sat there. Evie was positive even she had at least jumped at the sight of the curse. But Evie also knew that just as she and Neville had been affected most by seeing the Cruciatus Curse, this was the curse that would affect Harry the most. It was the curse that killed his parents, the curse used to try to kill him; it was hard not to be effected by it.

"There is no counter curse, no blocking it. Only one person has ever survived and I'm looking right at him." Evie grimaced for Harry. He hated being looked at as The Boy Who Lived; she had learned that fairly quickly. He looked as though he was deep in thought, far away from everything that was happening in class, and Evie couldn't blame him.

Moody kept talking, but Evie couldn't really follow him. Beside her, Neville was still in a state of shock. On her other side Harry was also lost in his own mind, and Evie found it easy to drift back into her own musings as well. She had just seen a spider go through the same thing her mother had gone through, the same thing that she in essence had gone through…possibly the very thing that had given her the birthmark or scar on her hip. It had been horrible, and the more she thought about it the easier it was to imagine that spider as her mother, withering and jerking in pain. Had she been worried about herself, or worried about Evie? Had she screamed until her voice gave out? She must have, by the look of the spider, which had yet to recover from the curse; she must have been in unimaginable pain, the sort of pain that... Jumping from her thoughts, Evie realized she didn't want to think about her mother anymore.

"CONSTANT VIGILENCE!" That's what Evie came back into focus on, and it once again made her jump. "Now those three curses you just saw are known as The Unforgivable Curses. Use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn you 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 constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quill…copy this down…"

To the relief of probably everyone in the class that was what they spent the rest of their time doing. Nobody dared speak until the bell rang and most of the class hurried to pack up their things. As they exited they were talking excitedly, as though they had just witnessed a spectacular show. Evie packed in a daze, slowly but deliberately. Beside her, Neville had packed quickly and disappeared out the door. She didn't realize how slow she was going until Hermione had urged them all to hurry up and get to Neville, who had only managed to make to a small side passage before returning to his trance-like state of shock.

The four friends walked over to Neville hesitantly. "Neville?" Hermione called his attention to them.

"Oh, hello." He said in an unusually high voice. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm – I'm starving."

"Neville, are you alright?" Hermione asked even more cautiously than before.

"I'm fine." His voice was still unnaturally high. "Interesting dinner – I mean lesson. What's for eating?"

Harry and Ron shared a worried look, and Evie just sighed.

Before anyone could say anything else the distinctive clunk of Moody's staff and wooden leg could be heard coming closer to their little group. They all turned to see what was happening. He looked straight at Neville. "It's alright sonny. Why don't you come up to my office? Come on…we can have a cup a tea…"

Neville didn't look particularly excited about that idea. Moody seemed to ignore his fear, and after asking Harry if he was alright and reminding them that they 'needed to know', he started to pull Neville away from the group. When Neville looked back at them pleadingly, Evie had to say something.

"P-professor!" She called, halting their movements. Neville looked relieved, but what he didn't know was that Evie actually hadn't thought of a way to get him out of the tea, so instead she did the only thing she could to make him feel better. "May I come too?" She gulped hard and hated herself for not having anything else to say, but after a once over by Moody, he seemed to decide there was no harm in letting her go too.

After he let out a grunt that sounded vaguely approving, Evie turned to look at her friends with a forced smile. "I can't let Neville go up there alone. I'll see you all later. Meet you in the library?" She directed to Hermione, who nodded. Then Evie rushed to catch up to Neville and Professor Moody.

The walk to Moody's office was silent. Evie walked close to Neville, as if to give him some of her strength. When they got to the office, Evie realized how different it was from when Professor Lupin was there last year. Instead of all the magical creatures, there were many devices on small tables and on the walls, and against one wall was a long trunk with seven locks on it. Evie didn't know what the trunk was keeping in, but she didn't like that it required seven locks to do so.

"Take a seat." Evie was beginning to learn that Moody's voice was pretty much always gruff. She looked at Neville and then they both sat in the chairs Moody had just conjured up. "Longbottom, I heard from Professor Sprout you have a knack for Herbology, is that right?"

Evie and Neville both looked shocked at the direction the conversation went. Evie watched Moody, with a sense of hesitant curiosity. "A knack? Neville won't admit it himself, but he's probably the best Herbology student in our whole year." Evie answered, looking at Neville and smiling.

A healthy blush formed on Neville's cheeks and he almost started to deny it before Moody cut him off. He handed them both a cup of tea and then reached into his desk and pulled out a book. The cover read, Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. A smile slowly formed on Evie's lips as she lifted the cup to her mouth. It was a really nice gift for Moody to give to Neville, and a great way for him to try to cheer Neville up, Evie mused as she almost took a sip of her tea. For some reason she paused before doing so and sniffed the liquid before actually drinking some.

"Sniffing for poison?" Moody eyed her.

"N-no, I –"

"It's alright. That's smart. Like I said in class, constant vigilance. You don't know me, I could be an imposter!" Evie and Neville jumped as Moody yelled the last part of his sentence. Then he seemed to remember something. "Diggory…you were with Potter when Malfoy tried to curse him behind his back. You had the quick reflexes." It wasn't really a question, but Evie nodded anyway. "You've got potential. You remind me of my protégé, girl by the name of Tonks." Moody grunted in approval.

"Th-thank you, Professor." Evie smiled, not sure what exactly that meant as she didn't know anyone named Tonks. She did, however, know that being Moody's protégé meant the woman had to be strong and brilliant, and obviously an Auror.

"Now, I know the Cruciatus Curse was hard, for both of you." Moody looked pointedly at Evie who handled it decidedly better than Neville. It appeared as though Moody knew what had happened to her mother; he was an Auror at the time so it only made sense that he would. "But seeing that wasn't to torture you, it was to show you just how dangerous the other side of the fight is. To show you that they have no remorse and won't be kind enough to wait if you aren't ready for a duel. You need to know what's coming." When he said that Evie felt chills down her spine. What did Moody mean, 'what's coming'?

"Yes, Professor." Evie whispered. Neville just nodded.

"Now, go get some dinner or you'll starve." Moody waved them out of the room and the two left quickly, both grateful to be out of that situation.

"I'm not really feeling hungry, are you?" Evie asked Neville. He shook his head, then looked down at the book in his hands.

"You really think Professor Sprout was saying I'm good at Herbology?"

"Are you kidding? Neville, I've never seen anyone with such a knack for plants. The things you figure out about them astounds me." Evie smiled. Neville smiled back at her, and it killed Evie that she felt the need to ask what she did next. "Neville…?" Evie paused, almost losing her nerve. "What did happen to your parents? I mean, I know you live with your gran, but I never really thought to ask why."

There was a long silence as they continued to walk towards the Gryffindor Tower.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Evie rushed out.

"No, it's alright. It might be kind of nice having someone who knows." Neville smiled, but it was forced. "You-Know-Who had a follower called Bellatrix Lestrange. She was one of his most loyal. My parents were fighting against Him and she and a few others came to our house and used that curse to torture them." Neville struggled through his whole story.

"Neville, I'm so sorry." Evie swallowed the lump in her throat. "They did the same thing to my mum." She added. Neville looked at her as they stood in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Balderdash." Evie said and the portrait swung open.

They climbed into the common room which was empty since everyone was still at dinner. They sat in the chairs in the corner of the room, by the tall window and farthest from the fire. No one ever really sat in that area, it was usually cold in the winter.

"When she was still pregnant with me, my mum was known as a 'Muggle sympathizer'; she wasn't a flat out fighter because she was pregnant, but she would help Muggleborns and Muggles in the small town near our house if they were looking for a safe place to hide or a warm meal as they fled. I guess some Death Eaters found out, because they came to our house while my dad was out with Cedric and tortured her, and then they cut her up and left her for dead. That's how my dad found her." The tears had entered Evie's eyes quite suddenly and she blinked them away just as quickly.

"They didn't kill my parents." Neville said, his eyes also heavy with unshed tears. "They just tortured them mad…and left them."

"Are they still alive?" Evie asked in horrified shock. Neville nodded. "I am sorry Neville."

"Me too." They stayed silent for a long moment before Evie remembered she had promised Hermione that she'd meet her in the library. Perhaps some knitting would actually help take her mind off things.

"I have to go Neville. I promised Hermione I'd meet her in the library. Are you going to be okay?"

"Yep, I think I'll just go to the dorm and look over this book." Neville gestured to it and then waved Evie off when she hesitated. "I'm okay, really. You're a good friend Evie."

"You're a good person, Neville." Evie responded back before leaving him and making her way towards the library.