"Potter, I will not tell you again – pay attention!" Moody roared from the opposite side of the classroom.
Harry jumped and returned his attention to his work with Annabeth Donovan, a tiny Hufflepuff with startling silver eyes. He shrugged and she giggled.
"At least he's not changed deep down, you know?" She said, grinning a huge smile.
They returned to practicing the Reductor curse, taking it in turns to blast apart strange, animated humanoid figures made of sand. Harry had become bored quickly with the task, as he had grasped the point that Dumbledore had made in their preceding lessons about understanding how magic interacted differently with objects, creatures and other magical effects: it was just a matter of feeling how the local magic either penetrated, wove around, or was absorbed by one's target.
Annabeth had caught onto the task similarly quickly and the pair had devolved into a kind of giddy laughter, taking turns in blasting small parts off the figures. But that had quickly grown old and they'd taken to casting random spells at the figures, which had ended with Annabeth turning its hair a violent, acid green; after which they'd both almost fallen over laughing.
"Sorry, Professor." Harry called back across the room.
They went back to half-heartedly practicing the blasting spell. Within a few minutes there came the clunk-clunk of Moody's carved wooden leg.
The old auror sat down in Harry's chair and ran a calloused hand over his lined face. "Mr. Potter, Miss Donovan, you two aren't exactly up to your normal-"
"Reducto." Harry said, pointing his wand at the figure and it was demolished into a fine cloud of swirling dust.
"-good behaviour." Moody said, the hint of a smile appearing at the corner of his twisted mouth.
"Sorry Professor," Annabeth said, "we just got it quite quickly."
Moody nodded, "No need to apologise Miss Donovan, it is rather basic. There are a few in the class that are having trouble with it. Just try not to disrupt the class."
A tearing explosion filled the back of the room followed by a cheer. Moody sighed and stood. "Right you animals, pack away. Half a roll on the defensive uses of the Reductor charm by Monday." He turned to Harry and spoke just to him. "If you wouldn't mind remaining behind, Potter?"
The practice figures all collapsed into small piles of sand and Harry, nodding, helped Annabeth collect theirs up and return it to the large clay jar provided by Moody.
When the class was almost empty, Harry promised to meet Ron and Hermione at lunch before returning to lean against his desk.
Moody reappeared through the door that led to the DADA teacher's private quarters and perched on his own desk. "Potter."
"Welcome back, Professor." Harry said, taking in the weirdly changed appearance of his teacher.
Whatever the healer had done to him had worked wonders. He had straightened out, his face no less scarred, but smoothed and less lined. His shortened hair was thicker with less grey and his remaining eye was a bright, liquid brown and seemed larger and clearer.
"Thank you, Potter." Moody said, rubbing at his magical eye which seemed better integrated into his body now, moving less erratically. "I asked you to remain behind for a purpose. On the night of the Yule Ball, I said I had something to give you."
Harry nodded.
"It is not something like the books that I gave to Longbottom. What I have for you is knowledge. As you no doubt heard my talking with Dumbledore, I don't have a great deal of time left, even with the healing I've taken recently. What I have for you is complex, and I'm truly unable to explain it to you because my memory has been modified – at my request, so that I couldn't divulge what I know to anyone else, even under torture or veritaserum or similar."
Confused, Harry remained silent.
"But there is a requirement. Do you know what an Unbreakable Vow is?"
"No Professor." Harry felt cold at the words, aware that Moody was, even then, breaking open some long-held enchantments.
"In short, an unbreakable vow is a binding thing, a high enchantment that ties a magician's magic and life to an agreement – a vow. What I have for you requires you make a vow with me, just like I did with the person who gave me the information. Do you understand?"
Harry felt like he was floating. The idea made sense but the implications and intensity was just too great.
The door to the room opened and McGonagall stepped into the room. She was still and didn't look happy.
"Good morning, gentlemen." She said, her mouth a tight line.
"Morning Minerva."
"Good morning, Professor." Harry said, his throat dry.
"I see you've started to go through this madness." McGonagall observed. "Are you alright, Potter?"
Harry nodded but was unsure. "Yes, I think I get the idea. Professor Moody made a vow to tell me something and had the memory of it removed so it couldn't be forced from him. And I have to make a vow with him for him to be able to tell me?"
Moody nodded. "It is a complex idea. For another thing, I am only allowed – by the vow I have made – to talk to you about the subject because you have so successfully thrown-off the imperius curse. Before that, I had no memory whatsoever of the thing. I only even became aware of the vow, and my related duty to you when Madame Montague – the healer – did so much to repair my body and mind."
McGonagall harumphed with much flaring of nostrils. "Well, I for one am not happy with this. We have no idea who could have set this enchantment on you, Alastor."
Moody rolled his eyes, the magical one rolling all the way back around. "Come now, Minerva. We've discussed this – it was done with an unbreakable vow – it could only have been done with my informed knowledge, consent and will. Whoever did it and whatever it is could only have been done with someone I trust, and you know that there are precious few of them in the world."
McGonagall just glared from Moody to Harry and back.
"Professor, it's okay. Someone wanted me to have something and if I've got to the point of being smart, or powerful enough to access it then I want it. You said yourself that I've changed this year, maybe this is what I've been working toward." Harry said. Somewhere deep inside him, he knew that the message was from or had something to do with his parents. The idea that he could see them, talk to them – even if it was a one-way message – was intoxicating.
She was silent for a long time in the silent room, before making a tiny twitch of her head. "Oh, very well. Potter, you will have extra lessons with Professor Moody until he judges you ready to be able to both perform and survive the binding of an unbreakable vow."
Harry frowned but nodded. "Thank you, Professor."
"Mr. Potter, Professor Moody." McGonagall said, turning on a heel and leaving the room.
"Extra classes?" Harry asked as soon as the door clicked shut.
Moody nodded gravely. "Yes, Potter. There's no way I'm opening either myself or you up to magic I don't understand until I judge you both capable, powerful and mature enough to tackle possible… problems that might come from it. Also, as Professor McGonagall said, unbreakable vows are extremely taxing on a wizard and can be fatal even in the casting, if one isn't strong enough. Before I attended Madam Montague's, I'm not sure if I would have survived trying to give you the information I have."
Harry nodded.
"I understand you've been attending the duelling club with Mr. Abercrombie?"
"I have, it's amazing."
Moody grunted. "It's a start. Abercrombie has no lack for power, but it makes him arrogant. You have to avoid going the same way yourself. Like your father, you have a tremendous amount of power in you, but if you can learn to harness it with the same care and dedication that your mother had, you will be a force to be reckoned with."
"You knew my parents, Professor?" Harry asked, grasping instinctively on the subject.
Moody nodded. "I did. I was training James to be an auror when your grandfather Charlus passed away, forcing him to focus on his duty and the Wizenagemot."
"My dad was going to be an auror, like you?" Harry asked, mouth agape.
Moody shrugged. "He was, bloody talented he was, too. He and Sirius Black started training together, like they did in everything, but both had other, supposedly more important duties that forced them to divert their attention." He rose from his perch on the desk, stretching – in a way that made Harry think of a badger. "Your father – and Black too, for that matter – was one of the most naturally powerful wizards I ever met. And your mother was so natural a potioneer people used to say she wasn't muggleborn, but Ceridwen's daughter."
He stopped and eyed Harry shrewdly. "Stop getting me off-track, Potter. You want to do this thing?"
"Learn enough to do the vow? Of course." Harry said, almost dismissively.
"Very good. By the time I'm done with you, you might well want to consider training as an auror – you'll be halfway there, let alone the Triwizard.
Harry stopped. He had never given any real thought to what he would do after school. Whenever he thought about some time post-Hogwarts, he usually just saw some vague image of Voldemort. "Me, an auror, Professor?"
Moody nodded. "Absolutely, you've got the knack for defensive work, and the temperament, so far as I can tell. And you're obviously powerful enough when you get over your own hangups. But that's all down the road: always keep one eye on the future, Potter. Now go to lunch, I have lessons to plan for."
Dismissed, Harry paused for a second as Moody headed back to his quarters.
Through the open door, he heard Moody bark, "Dobby, bring me some lunch, please."
Harry smiled and left the room, taking the time to visit Gryffindor tower and write to Sirius before lunch.
