Oriane wouldn't have Defense Against the Dark Arts for the next few days, but when it finally rolled around she had to admit she was a little more than nervous. Professor Moody was revered as a god by most of the Gryffindors, and he terrified most of the Slytherins (thanks to Draco Malfoy's recounting of the ferret situation, no doubt). And though she couldn't deny that Draco deserved to be put in his place, she couldn't sit there and say that the man wasn't unhinged.
However, Calista ended up spending the better part of their Potions class talking non-stop about Professor Moody. Apparently Fred and George Weasley's love for the man was starting to rub off on her.
"They had his class on the first day of school," Calista was whispering to the group, "and they said he's the real deal. I can't imagine some of the stuff he's seen, especially with the state he's in. Also, I wonder what that eye is for. Do you think he'll tell me if I ask him?"
All her chatting during Snape's lecture ended up in her losing five points from Hufflepuff house by the time class was over.
"Slimeball," Calista muttered as they traversed the corridors. "He seems to be more sour than normal."
"He is at the beginning of every year," Charlotte reminded them. "What's this? The millionth year in a row he's not the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher? He's been gunning for that position for ages now."
"Even if he got that position he'd still be a prick."
The Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom looked much different than it did the previous year. For starters, it was much darker, as it appeared Mad-Eye Moody wasn't a big fan of sunlight. Though, Oriane theorized that he tried to stay away from windows due to his apparently paranoid behavior. Still, the girls took their seats, which ended up being in the back of the class as most other students had arrived well before them.
"Awe, everyone else already got the good seats," Emerald whined, taking her seat next to Oriane.
"Maybe if someone had stopped yapping we could've gotten here sooner," Charlotte said.
"Yeah yeah, cry me a river," Calista sighed.
Once the students heard the familiar sound of Moody's prosthetic leg thumping along the stone corridor, an excited silence settled over the classroom. He entered the room and began to walk to the front without so much as a greeting, yet his prosthetic eye whirled around erratically.
"You can put those away," he said gruffly. "Your books. You won't need them today."
Everyone looked around at one another, slight grins forming on their faces. As the students began to put their books away, Moody began to call out their names, going down alphabetically. It was odd seeing a man like him doing such… normal things. With how everyone was speaking about him, Oriane had expected something a bit more eccentric from the man.
"Macmillian, Ernest?"
"Here!"
"Morissette, Oriane…"
"Here!"
There was a pause in the roll call, and Oriane was rather unsettled to find that both Moody's real and fake eyes were trained right on her. She swallowed hard.
"Alarick's daughter?" Moody asked.
She nodded. "Yes, sir."
The man let out a gruff laugh in what Oriane could only assume was approval. "Great Auror, he was."
It wasn't often that Oriane thought about her parents. She had grown up her whole life only experiencing her childhood with Esme, and only hearing of her mother and father in old stories and seeing them in pictures. She knew of them, of course, and what they used to do and what they were like, but they just never were a big part of her life. Yet time after time again she continued to run into more people who knew her parents. They'd say what great people they were, and she might learn more about them from a story or two. Yet, she never did know them, and hearing their names and her connection to them shocked her nearly every time.
It was strange, being the daughter of ghosts.
Professor Moody continued on with roll call until he had gone through all the students. Once he was finished, he tossed his paper to the side and turned his full attention to the students in front of him.
"I've received a letter from Professor Lupin. It seems you've done well in learning about Dark creatures… however you're very behind in curses. So, I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other," he said with a dark laugh.
Oriane could see Emerald shiver. Apparently she was one of the few students who didn't seem ecstatic about Moody's lecture.
"Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses 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 do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared."
Everyone soaked in every single word Moody spoke. This was untraveled territory for all of them. Professor Lupin had been a wonderful teacher, however, Moody was correct in saying they were behind on curses. Really, Oriane wasn't exactly sure how many she could even name, let alone the countercurses to them.
"So," Moody continued, "do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Much to Oriane's surprise, several hands shot into the air. Moody pointed his finger at one of the girls sitting in the second row.
"Isn't one the Imperius Curse?" asked Hannah Abbott.
"Yes! The Imperius Curse," Moody repeated.
Turning his back to the class, Moody reached for a large glass jar. Inside were three, large spiders, all of which were lazily walking up and down the sides. Moody took the lid off, reached his hand into the jar, and pulled out one of the spiders. Oriane couldn't help but recoil, wondering how he was able to do it so casually, until she remembered just what reputation that man had. A spider crawling on his hand was certainly not the worst thing to have happened to him.
With the spider in the palm of his hand, Moody held it up high for everyone to see. He then raised his wand at it, and muttered a single word; "Imperio."
Suddenly the spider began to move around as if it were animated. On a thin line of silk, it began to swing from Moody's hand. Its legs would straighten and curl in odd patterns, and eventually it flung itself onto Moody's desk. But its odd movements didn't stop there. It suddenly stood up on only two of its eight legs, something Oriane had never seen a spider do before, and began to do what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Several students started to laugh the moment the spider began to dance, even Emerald. Moody turned his eyes back to the class. He was not laughing.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he asked in a tone so severe everyone quickly ceased their giggles. "Total control. I could make it jump out a window, drown itself; anything. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but not everyone can do it. Best not to be hit by it in the first place. Constant Vigilance!"
Moody finally released the poor spider from its personal prison, and threw it back into the glass jar with the others. "Does anyone know another illegal curse?"
"Crucio."
The voice spoke up without being called on, and much to Oriane's surprise it came from the desk next to her and Emerald. It was Calista. She sat, eyes focused on the jar of spiders, but she was leaning so far forward with her head resting on her arms she was nearly laying down. She had muttered the word so quietly she thought Moody hadn't heard her, but when she looked back up at the professor, his eyes were trained on the girl.
He let out a gruff hum as he turned back to the jar to pull out another spider. "The name you're looking for is the Cruciatus Curse," he corrected her. Once more he pointed his wand at the spider and muttered the same word Calista just had moments before. "Crucio."
In an instant the spider's legs began to curl into itself. It attempted to roll around as best as it could, almost as if to get away from Moody, but all it could do was slip on his rough skin. Then, it began to violently jerk around, body contorting in ways Oriane didn't even know was possible. Eventually it became too much for her to look at; she knew that if the spider could, it would've been screaming.
She averted her eyes elsewhere, only to find her gaze landing back on Calista. She had sunk lower into her chair at that point, and her face was completely obscured by her arms. She wasn't looking at the spider at all, and Oriane wasn't sure if she had ever looked in the first place.
"Pain," Moody spoke up softly, returning the spider back into the jar. "You don't need a knife or searing iron to torture someone if you know the Cruciatus Curse." He paused for a moment before turning to fully face the class once more. "Any others?"
Things were silent for a long moment before anyone was brave enough to speak up after the torture they had just witnessed. Yet the look the man held as he awaited someone to answer his question prompted a quicker reaction from his students.
"The Killing Curse," said a young girl by the name of Susan Bones.
"Ah. The last and the worst. Avada Kedavra," Moody said.
One last time, Moody put his hand in the glass jar. The last spider scuttled around almost as if it knew the fate that was about to befall it. Despite its efforts, Moody was able to catch it, and he placed it on his desk. It continued to run, attempting to reach freedom, so close to the edge of the desk…
"Avada Kedavra!"
Oriane never got to see the spider die. She never got to witness as its legs curled in on itself, life no longer being able to hold its body together. Instead, she saw the unmistakable glow of stars. They were the brightest she had ever seen. Each one was so large Oriane could've sworn they were planets.
A hand reached up, stretching out towards the stars as if she could hold them in her palm. Yet, she only caught the air in front of her. She turned her head to the side, and then to the other, and found that she was once again in the maze from her dream. And she didn't know why she was trapped there, or what she was supposed to be doing, but for the moment she laid there, tired, exhausted, cold…
Oriane came out of her vision so suddenly and violently she almost fell out of her seat. It was as if her soul had been lifted up out of her body and then forcefully shoved back in. And it hurt. The aching in her chest was unlike anything she had experienced before, and her breaths came in quick bursts.
Yet everything else around her continued on like normal. Moody swiped the spider's body onto the floor, casting it aside just like the demonstration it had been. Several students were doing their best to stifle sobs, having gotten much too attached to the poor creatures.
But not Oriane. There were no tears from her. Just small, gasping breaths as she clutched onto her chest.
Then, while Moody was in the middle of continuing his lecture, Oriane rose from her seat and dashed out of the classroom, haphazardly dragging along her school bag. Emerald craned her neck to look over her shoulder, and just as she was about to call after her, Moody interrupted.
"Leave her," he ordered, though he didn't sound as upset as was expected. "Those Morissette's have always been a pain to control."
Oriane made it to the bathroom just in time to empty the contents of her stomach. She tried to hold it in for as long as she could manage, but in the end it all came spewing out of her. The pain in her chest had subsided some, yet she wasn't exactly comfortable. She was finding it all rather annoying how intense some of her visions felt, especially the one she just had. She did not feel that her laying in the middle of a maze was anything to throw up over.
Once her body was finished tormenting her, she sat back on the cold stone floor with her back resting against the stall wall. Sweat lined her forehead, causing stray baby hairs to stick to her skin in odd patterns. Whatever energy she had left for the remainder of the day had been totally soaked up by that class.
She spent the rest of that class period in the bathroom, sitting on the floor in front of the toilet. Really, she had felt much better the moment after she had thrown up, but the thought of going back into class after storming out wasn't exactly something she was keen on doing. Even if she could handle the embarrassment of it, she certainly wasn't in the best headspace.
And so she didn't move until the bell rang, excusing the students out of their last class of the day. She slithered out of the bathroom, and did her best to pretend that she hadn't spent the last hour in there on the floor while she made her way back to her dorm.
Her roommates had beaten her to their shared room. Calista and Emerald sat on the floor, tossing a ball between one another while Milo attempted to catch it. Charlotte sat on the edge of her bed, sketchbook on the bed sheets as she laid on her stomach, no doubt drawing the scene playing out before her. Yet the very moment Oriane entered the room, all eyes were on her (except for Milo, who had finally caught the ball while the girls were distracted).
And she expected them to all start speaking at once, talking over one another asking her what was wrong. She expected something similar to the end of the previous year when she earned those three, bright pink scars on her arm. Yet they just sat there, looking at her, almost as if they were afraid to speak at all.
"You look like you're about to pass out," Charlotte said, blunt. And well, Oriane wasn't sure what else she had expected from the girl. Charlotte wasn't exactly one to be afraid to speak her mind.
"I'm alright," Oriane excused with a slight giggle. "I am sorry for rushing off like that, though. I just felt really sick. But I'm feeling better now, promise."
Which wasn't entirely a lie. She didn't feel nearly as sick, yet that frustration still had a tight grip around her throat.
Emerald quickly pushed herself to her feet and walked to her school bag, which she had tossed onto the foot of her bed. After rummaging through a few pieces of parchment, she straightened her arm and held out one of the pages to Oriane.
"I made a copy of my notes from the class. Figured you might need them later," she said sheepishly.
Oriane quietly thanked the girl before setting her own school bag on her nightstand. She placed the notes on top of it and told herself that she would sort it with the rest of her notes later. Yet as her eyes scanned over Emerald's exceptionally swirly handwriting, she couldn't help but feel a sense of dread.
"He wasn't mad, was he? Professor Moody?" she asked, turning back to her friends.
With one final thunk, Milo flopped over onto his side, his toy ball resting gently between his paws. His ribcage swelled with each breath he took, panting heavily as he finally had tired himself out.
"No, not at all, I think," Calista spoke up. "Though, he did mention how 'you Morissettes' are a pain to control. Also, about what he said earlier… is that true? Was your dad an Auror?"
It was at that moment that Oriane realized just how little she had told her roommates about her family. All she ever spoke about was Esme, who she had grown accustomed to calling her aunt. They hardly knew anything about her past, nothing about her powers, nothing about the fate of her family…
"Yes, he was an Auror. Apparently a good one, according to everyone I've spoken to about it. But he… he died in combat well before I was old enough to remember," she explained as she gently plopped onto her bed.
And it almost felt good to let it out. Good to finally say something about her past that wasn't a complete lie. It was almost enough to get that terrible, restricting feeling out of her throat.
"I wish my dad died before I was old enough to remember…" Calista muttered.
Emerald quickly grabbed the ball Milo had been playing with and chucked it at Calista's head. "This isn't about you, Cal!" she exclaimed, utterly mortified the girl would say such a thing.
Really, it was the comedic relief Oriane needed at that moment. No pity, no making things awkward, just stating the facts. She was far too detached from her parents to really feel depressed about their absence in her life. As far as she was concerned, she fortunately grew up fine without their influence. Though, there was still that itch in the back of her mind; that what if.
What if things had turned out differently?
Maybe she would have met those girls sooner. Maybe she'd have better control over her Seer abilities. Maybe her arm wouldn't be scarred. She wouldn't have grown up in that cottage, next to the willow tree that stood proudly in an open, lush field. There would be no river for her to cool off in during the summer. There would have been no hiding her from the world, or secret killer or-
She was spiraling again. And so to starve it away, she laughed at Calista's poorly timed joke, which caused the three girls to look at her in confusion.
"It's fine," she assured them. She paused for a moment and turned her attention to the ground where Milo was sleeping. "Should we go grab dinner while our little monster is asleep?"
Pushing aside the odd tension that had grown in the room, the girls all nodded their heads before they quietly stood to their feet. Maybe they wanted to ask her more about it; Oriane wasn't sure. But either way, they had gladly taken the bait that would get them off of the conversation. So one by one, the girls gently exited the room, leaving behind Milo to dream his peaceful kitten dreams.
