The storm had blown itself out the following morning, though sky was still rather overcast and gloomy, according to the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall. The Gryffindor quintet examined their new course subjects as they ate breakfast, while a few seats away, Fred, George, Lee, and Ivan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament. In Ivan's case, however, he had no desire to actually circumvent the rules and try to enter the Tournament and was only helping his friends.

Ron looked annoyed to discover that they still had Care of Magical Creatures with the Slytherins, saying, "What if Nott tries to do something during class today? He did make that threat against you and Beth yesterday, Alex."

"Hagrid won't let him get away with anything, and we'll be on our guard too," Alex pointed out reasonably.

Herbology consisted of the class having to squeeze and collect the pus of bubotubers, which, when diluted, was an excellent remedy for more stubborn forms of acne. At the end of the lesson, the Hufflepuffs headed for the stone steps for Transfiguration, while the Gryffindors went in the opposite direction towards Hagrid's wooden cabin.

When they saw what they were going to study that year, however, Alex wondered if Hagrid had gone crazy, because he was pretty sure Care of Magical Creatures did not involve learning about new creatures like Blast-Ended Skrewts. After all, in the previous year, the most dangerous magical animals they had learned about were hippogriffs. Skrewts, however, looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. The males had stingers, while the females had sucker things on their bellies that Hagrid thought might be to suck blood with. On top of that, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt every so often, and with a small phut, it would be propelled forward several inches.

"Erm, I know Hagrid doesn't have the same views towards dangerous creatures as most people," Beth whispered, "but I didn't think he'd introduce some newly-hatched species of dangerous beast to us and have us spend several sessions raising them."

"It could be worse," Alex whispered back. "Hagrid could have decided to show us a basilisk or an acromantula."

Beth made a face and they turned their attention to trying to feed the skrewts. When Draco Malfoy sarcastically wondered out loud who wouldn't want a pet that could burn, sting, and bite all at once, Hermione retorted, "Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean that they're not useful. Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"

Alex and Beth exchanged looks. "I take back what I said earlier," the latter muttered. "Considering that Hagrid loves dragon and actually had one for a week before it got sent to the dragon preserve Charlie works out, skrewts would be something he'd have raise."

"Well, at least the skrewts are small," said Ron as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.

"They are now," Hermione said in an exasperated voice, but once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long."

"Well, that won't matter is they turn out to cure seasickness or something, will it?" said Ron, grinning slyly at her.

"You know perfectly well that I only said that to shut Malfoy up," said Hermione. "As a matter of fact, I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all."

"Quite honestly, if Hagrid really had to show us some magical creature that has some resemblance to a lobster, he could have picked the Mackled Malaclaw," Alex remarked. "They're more manageable and I'd rather take the week of bad luck you get if one bites you."

After lunch, Alex, Beth, and Hermione went to Arithmancy, while Ron and Neville had Muggle Studies. In Arithmancy, Professor Vector did a review on some of the things they had learned last year before having the class work on a new number chart. She didn't assign any homework at all.

While waiting in the queue to enter the Great Hall for dinner, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle appeared behind the Gryffindor quintet, the first one brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet. Nott proceeded to taunt Ron, reading out loud an article written by Rita Skeeter about Mr. Weasley (mistakenly named as Arnold) and how he had rushed to the aid of 'Mad-Eye' Moody. Rita Skeeter being who she was, the article wasn't very flattering at all.

When Nott finished reading, he said, "Pity Rita Skeeter doesn't know about trouble you've caused, Romanov, or she'd write an article revealing what a horrible person you are. At least she skewered Weasley's father with this article."

"Get stuffed, Nott," Alex snapped, while Neville and Hermione grabbed Ron's sleeves to keep him from attacking Nott or otherwise doing something that could get him in trouble.

"You're the one that's going to get stuffed," Nott retorted. "Or be six feet under, once the Dark Lord returns." He flipped over the paper and started laughing. "Hey, there's even a picture, Weasley! It's a picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"

Despite Neville and Hermione holding on to Ron, he still attempted to launch himself at Nott. Beth had to grab the back of his robes. Meanwhile, Alex looked Nott up and down, then said coolly, "And your mother could - oh, right, I almost forgot. She's dead, isn't she? And your father is on the run and you're forced to live with a cousin. At least Ron still has his parents and they love and care for him. Your mother probably died just to get away from you, and I bet your father was glad to be arrested if it meant not having to be around you anymore."

Nott's face turned red and he shouted, "You take that back, Romanov! Don't you dare insult my parents!"

"I wasn't insulting your parents, I was insulting you," Alex said. "I'm sure your mother was a lovely person, and your father is too, other than being a Death Eater, of course. It's you that's the problem. Now, if you don't want me insulting you again, then keep your big fat mouth shut."

Alex turned away only to hear a loud BANG! Several people screamed - he felt something white-hot graze the side of his face - and he whirled around, withdrawing his wand from the holster under his sleeve, but before he could even point it, he heard a second loud BANG and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall. "OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"

Alex looked up to see Professor Moody limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and he was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Nott had been standing.

There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. He turned to look at Alex - or rather, his normal eye was, while the magical one was pointing into the back of his head. "Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.

"No," replied Alex, "missed." He tried to work up the courage to ask Moody if he had turned Nott into the ferret, but before Alex could do so, Moody shouted, "LEAVE IT!" and started limping over to Crabbe, who had frozen in the act of attempting to pick up the white ferret. The ferret gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.

"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more. "I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."

The derret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. "Never - do - that - again -" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.

"Professor Moody!" exclaimed a shocked voice. Professor McGonagall came down the marble staircase, her arms full of books.

"Hello, Professor McGonagall," said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.

"What - what are you doing?" asked Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.

"Teaching," responded Moody.

"Teach - Moody, is that a student?" shrieked McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.

"Yep," said Moody, sounding unconcerned.

"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Theodore Nott had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his brown hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.

"Moody, we never use transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall weakly. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"

"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I though a good sharp shock-"

"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"

"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Nott with great dislike.

Nott, whose dark eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something about his father and the Dark Lord getting revenge.

"That's enough, Mr. Nott!" snapped Professor McGonagall. "You don't threaten teachers! And what in Merlin's name were you doing in the first place that had Professor Moody decide to transfigure you as a punishment?"

Nott turned his head slightly to glare at her and didn't say anything. Moody opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Professor McGonagall looked at Hermione and said, "Miss Granger, can you explain what happened?"

"Nott started reading an article in the Daily Prophet about Mr. Weasley helping Professor Moody the day we returned to Hogwarts, Professor," Hermione answered. "Nott then insulted Ron and Alex. Alex snapped back at him, and when Alex turned around, Nott shot a spell at him, but missed. Professor Moody got mad about it, saying that he didn't like it when people attack when their opponent's back is turned."

"Mr. Nott, after everything that happened last term, have you still not learned your lesson about misbehaving?" demanded Professor McGonagall, sounding exasperated. "And you, Mr. Romanov. I understand that Mr. Nott insulted you and one of your friends, but that doesn't mean you should have snapped back at him. Ignoring him would have been a better option, since it could be argued that he only tried to attack you because he was provoked. I'm sorry but I'm going to have take five points from Gryffindor. Perhaps that will teach you to think first before you start snapping back at people that provoke you. As for you, Mr. Nott, I will write to your guardian about this incident, and you have a detention for threatening Professor Moody. Since he already punished you for trying to attack Mr. Romanov, I won't do so, but I think he and I will need to have another talk with Professor Snape about your behavior."

She waved her wand at the fallen books, causing them to rise into the air and back into her arms, and then she and Professor Moody escorted Nott off to the dungeons. There was silence for a couple of minutes before everyone that had witness this started chattering excitedly about it. Ron, after fixing the image of 'Theodore Nott, the amazing bouncing ferret' in his mind, expressed his eagerness to see what their first Defense class with Moody would be like, especially after Fred, George, and Lee sat down across from them and said how amazing and cool their lesson with him that afternoon was.

On Thursday was the Gryffindor fourth-years' first Defense class with Moody. After taking the register, he informed the class that he had a letter from Professor Lupin about the class, saying that they had a thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures. However, they were very behind when it came to dealing with curses, so Moody was going to spend the year bringing them up to scratch on the subject. He then proceeded to explain that while normally one didn't learn about illegal Dark curses until sixth year, Professor Dumbledore thought that the class could cope and Moody himself believed the sooner they knew what they were up against, the better. He finished off by asking if any of them knew which curses were most heavily punished by wizarding law.

As Alex knew all about the three Unforgiveable Curses, he raised his hand, along with his friends and Parvati and Seamus (though the latter two were very tentative). Moody pointed at Ron, who said, "We, 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." He proceeded to demonstrate it one of three black spiders that he had in a glass jar. The class laughed at the spider doing cartwheels and tap-dancing, up until Moody growled, "Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter instantly died and Moody continued to talk about the Imperius Curse. When he was done, ending with a barked, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!", he threw the spider back in the jar and asked, "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and Neville nervously raised his. Alex and Beth exchanged looks before they did the same.

"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. Alex and Beth exchanged looks again, while Ron stifled a gasp and turned pale.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he asked, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again while his normal eye looked at Neville.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. He instead removed the next spider from the jar, magically enlarged it so that the class could get a better idea of the Cruciatus Curse, and pointing his wand at it, 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 Alex was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. He looked away, wondering if this was what had happened to Neville's parents, and his gaze happened to fall on his friend. Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.

"STOP IT!" Alex shouted, springing to his feet, only to find that the rest of his friends (minus Neville) had done the same.

"Can't you see it's upsetting Neville? And us," Ron added.

Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch. "Reducio," he 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 once was very popular once too. Right...anyone know any others?"

Nobody raised their hand, other than Alex. He knew that his friends knew perfectly well what the third Unforgiveable Curse was, but after what just happened, they probably didn't want to volunteer the information.

"Yes?" asked Moody, looking at Alex.

"The Killing Curse," Alex replied. "And you don't need to perform it on a spider. My parents told me that there's a flash of green light and anyone hit with it instantly dies. There's no countercurse, and no way to block it, other than trying to dodge out of its way or putting a large object in front of you. But if you try to block it with an object, the item gets destroyed instead. Only one person was known to survive it, and that was Harry Potter."

Moody raised a brow. "I didn't realize that your parents would have told you about the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. They are correct, by the way. As for doing the spell, you may be knowledgeable about it, but not everyone in the room is, and the class should see how it works." He turned around, removed the third spider, which began scuttling around his desk, and did the Killing Curse.

When he was done, the class spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on the Unforgiveable Curses. However, Alex had difficulty concentrating. He kept imagining his biological parents dying in a manner like the spider, and when he wasn't doing that, his mind thought of Neville's parents. He had seen them once at St. Mungo's, when he and Beth had accompanied Neville on a visit. Seeing them like that had been very sobering, and Alex had reflected after that Neville had things worse. Yes, Alex's biological parents were dead, but he hadn't known that until his eleventh birthday, and in any case, he had grown up with a loving family and didn't really feel the lack of parents. Poor Neville, on the other hand, had to live with the knowledge that his parents were alive, but had no memory of him, and there was little chance, if any, of them ever recovering.

When the bell rang, and Moody had dismissed them, a torrent of talk burst forth in the hallway. Judging from the comments, it seemed that everyone but the quintet thought the lesson had been interesting or saw it as some sort of spectacular show.

"Idiots!" Ron muttered savagely. "That wasn't entertaining at all, what Moody did to the spiders! Maybe if they had friends whose parents were targeted by those curses they-"

"That's enough, Ron," said Hermione. "I don't think Neville would appreciate having the rest of Gryffindor know about it. Neither would Alex."

"Right," said Ron, turning red. "Sorry, Neville and Alex."

"It's all right," said Alex. "But I'm more worried about Neville." He nodded at the other boy, who still looked pale and horrified. "I think we should go to the Room of Requirement and help him get through this."

"That's a good idea," said Beth. "Let's-" She broke off as an odd clunking noise sounded behind them. The quintet turned around to see Professor Moody limping towards them. All five of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had heard yet.

"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on...we can have a cup of tea..."

Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody, but when Hermione opened her mouth to object, he swallowed and said bravely, "You guys go on. I'll meet you at our usual meeting spot, okay?"

"If you're sure, Neville," said Alex uncertainly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to him," said Moody. "As for today's lesson, well, you've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending... well...come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."

The four others went to the Room of Requirement, where it formed what was more-or-less a comfortable sitting room, consisting of a table with a plush sofa and two squashy armchairs around it. Alex summoned Dobby and asked, "Dobby, could you please go down to the kitchens and have a basket of food and drinks brought for us? We'd do it ourselves, but we don't know how to get into the kitchens, and it would be odd for us to just pack up some food in the Great Hall. Thank you very much."

"Dobby is pleased to do this, Master Alex," said Dobby, bowing. He then disappeared with a pop. A few minutes later, he returned with a basket of food in one hand and a stoppered jug of pumpkin juice in the other. The Room obligingly provided plates, utensils, and cups, and Dobby left with another bow.

The four sat around reading for the next thirty minutes, until Neville appeared. His eyes were rather red, but he was a good deal calmer, though not quite entirely normal. He had a book clutched in one hand.

"Are you feeling better, Neville?" asked Beth, springing to her feet.

"Oh yes," said Neville, sounding a bit more cheerful. "Professor Moody lent this to me..." He head up the book: Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean. "Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology. He thought I'd like this." There was a faint note of pride in his voice, which was quite deserved, for Herbology was his best subject and the one class he did better in than the rest of the students in their year.

"Come sit down and get some food," said Alex. "We were waiting for you before we started eating. Ron was getting hungry."

"And he still waited for me?" Neville asked with a laugh, though it was strained. "It's good to know that he thinks his friends are more important than food."

Ron threw a cushion at Neville. "Of course I think my friends are more important than food. I can get food any old time, but I can't replace my friends."

Neville threw the cushion back at Ron and then the five of them unpacked the basket and filled their plates. Hermione unstoppered the jug and poured out juice for everyone. The quintet ate in silence, other than the occasional comment to make sure that Neville was recovering from what happened in Defense class. When they were done, Neville started reading the book he'd been lent and the others started reviewing some spells.