It was after a few weeks of school that Moody announced in one class that he'd be testing Imperius on them to teach them resistance.
Harry was shocked, and in rather two minds about it.
On one hand, he liked the idea in itself. On the other hand, he wasn't very sure he trusted Moody enough to let him do it.
He'd written to his cousin about the new teacher, and Alduin wrote back that Moody was famous for his no compromises approach, that he insisted on every Death Eater being locked away in Azkaban for good. He was undoubtedly against Riddle, the letter said, and devotedly a Dumbledore man.
Given his experience with Dumbledore, Harry wasn't very sure if that was reassuring.
But refusing would have meant embarrassing himself in front of the entire classroom, as was made obvious when Parvati tried objecting to the idea. So after watching many of his friends be forced to do ridiculous things, Harry rather resentfully got to his feet for his own turn. He tried to comfort himself with thinking that Moody would hardly do something terrible to him in front of the whole class.
When Moody cast the curse on him, Harry felt a sort of vague happiness descend on him, and did his best to fight it. It was hard. It was so pleasant, and a big part of him wanted to simply enjoy the feeling and relax…
"Jump onto the desk," Moody said, sounding distant in Harry's head.
I don't want to do that, Harry thought. And yet, at the same time, it seemed he was doing it. He tried to stop himself, and ended up in an awkward crash.
Moody was thrilled, and put him under three more times, until Harry was able to throw off the curse.
At the end of the class, he was exhausted. His friends had words of admiration for him – tinged with some jealousy in case of Ron and Seamus – but Harry hardly heard them. He ate dinner mechanically, and then rushed to his dormitory to write a letter to Alduin, describing the class in as much detail as he could. He wasn't sure what to think of it, and he wanted some advice.
What he got was an indignant call the next morning, when Alduin expressed his outrage. "Testing you is not a bad idea, mind you," he said, "but certainly not in this way. He should have reserved it for people who explicitly consent, as an extra, voluntary activity, and without any mockery to those who abstained...and I'm still not sure it shouldn't have been kept for NEWT-level only."
"I need to learn," Harry protested.
Alduin gave him a look. "You? Yes. But what you need is hardly a standard for other students, is it? If he'd done this bellow fourth year, it would have been completely unacceptable. As it is...well, you're all over fourteen, so it's not completely terrible, but it still makes me distinctly uncomfortable. And especially as he made you face it four times in a row. That's extremely exhausting, and could have done some damage, in fact. This training has to be done carefully." He sighed. "I'll consult with some friends to find out if there's a way to check Moody. I wouldn't like other excesses like this to occur."
Harry agreed. In the meanwhile, he made a decision, and as he entered Snape's office on Sunday, he declared: "Sir...would you train me in Imperius resistance?"
Snape gave him a look, the kind that used to make Harry quake in his shoes. He'd gained some resistance in the time he'd spent training with Snape, but it didn't mean the look didn't still make him regret all of is life choices that brought him to this place and time. "You want me to cast the Imperius on you?" Snape asked with exactly the right mix of incredulity and disdain.
"Yes," Harry said with a firm nod. It was a good idea, he knew it was. Even Alduin had agreed, really. He would not let himself be talked out of it just by Snape using his patented tone on him.
Snape scowled. "You do realize, do you not," he then bit out, "what would happen to me if the public found out? I have...quite a different reputation from Professor Moody. He might survive it. I wouldn't."
Harry blinked. For all he'd gone over this in this mind again and again before requesting it, somehow, he hadn't thought of that. Rather shamefully, he had to admit, he had only considered if it would be bearable for him, or if Snape giving him orders would be as bad as Moody doing so was.
If he spared any thought to how Snape would feel about it, it was to think to himself that he'd surely welcome the opportunity to boss Harry around a little, to take revenge for the Miss Brigit leverage Harry had employed against him.
"Sorry, sir," he said aloud, doing his best not to mutter. "It just feels like something I should know, and I don't really have anyone else to ask, but I will try and think of an alternative solution." After all, Snape was always telling him he should be coming up with those.
Snape furrowed his brow. "What about Professor Moody? I'm sure he would be willing."
Harry grimaced at the mere idea. "It was bad enough letting him do it once – well, four times. I don't really trust him."
Snape just looked at him for a very long time. "Very well," he said then, "but I'll be using your wand. I'm not having this traced back to me."
Harry exhaled in relief, and his mouth broke into a large smile. "Thank you sir," he said immediately, trying to keep his enthusiasm limited in his tone at least, and handed over his wand.
Snape stared at it as f it was a poisonous snake where it was thrust in the air between them, its handle towards him. "Just like that?" He then asked, in a strange tone.
Harry shrugged. "I did ask for this," he pointed out, "and it's not like I don't understand your objection."
Snape reached out a hand and took the wand by the tips of his fingers, looking like he expected it to bite him.
He waved it around a few times, without any incantation, and Harry could see an expression of distaste on his face. Harry himself had never handled someone else's wand, but he'd heard it can feel unpleasant, especially when the person was very different from you.
If that was the case, holding Harry's had to be actual torture for Snape, he couldn't help thinking.
Nevertheless, he got over it soon enough, pointing the wand at Harry.
"Get ready, Mr. Potter," he said in a serious, quiet tone. "I will to go easy on you."
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To consult about Moody, Alduin went to see Kingsley again.
"You do realize," his friend said, giving him a look, "that being Head Auror, and the situation being what it is, I'm a rather busy man?"
Alduin shrugged. "Yes, but then, I think Harry's safety is rather a matter of national interest."
Kingsley immediately grew serious. "Has something happened?"
"Well...depends on what you mean by 'something,' Alduin said nonchalantly. "Moody taught Imperius to Harry's class by casting it on them."
Kingsley blinked, and then groaned. "This is going to be a huge scandal if it gets out. And it will get out. There's no way the Slytherin students at least won't complain."
"Ah, but their parents might be reluctant to go against Moody in public. You know how it is." Moody took no prisoners, in anything he did. "However, it must have been extremely unpleasant for them, since the way Harry described it, it wasn't exactly fine for the Gryffindors either..." And Alduin related the story.
Kingsley shook his head. "I understand it's troubling for you, but I don't quite see what you want from me?"
"I never knew Moody. Is this normal behaviour for him?" Alduin wondered.
"Using the curse on the students? Certainly. The rest of it..." Kingsley frowned as he thought about it. "I'd have expected him to be a little more careful about Harry at the very least, but it's not outside the bounds of possibility that he'd throw all caution to the wind."
Alduin gave a thoughtful nod. "I just want to make sure he isn't being controlled by anyone, you understand."
Kingsley seemed amused by the idea. "Moody? That's be quite a feat."
"I know, but then this is Riddle we'd be talking about...if someone could pull it off, he could." Alduin frowned. "Wasn't there an article in the Prophet about Moody being attacked a while ago? It was written by Skeeter, so I only skimmed it, but..."
Kingsley sighed. "You never know with Moody nowadays...might have been. Might have only been his paranoia. We never found any evidence, but of course if it was Riddle, we wouldn't have."
So Alduin wrote to Harry to observe Moody very carefully, and report anything that seemed strange. In the meantime, he wondered whether he was becoming paranoid, too.
The thing was, though, ever since Harry became his ward, he hadn't been wrong in being suspicious, not once. The only mistakes he ever made were when he expected things would be better rather than worse, perhaps with the exception of Sirius. Every little strange thing that happened to Harry always tied into something larger, and usually sinister. So he felt far from comfortable waving this issue of Moody aside.
He didn't know what he suspected, exactly. An Imperius? That truly did seem unlikely, that an Auror would be unable to throw it off. Blackmail? Moody was the type to let himself be blackmailed even less. Some kind of arcane Dark magic that provided a less direct, but more reliable means of control?
Alduin supposed that was the most likely possibility. He should probably consult Theodore. Maybe, if he knew what the options were, he could make some actual assessment of the danger.
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It was a surprisingly pleasant day for early October, and so Harry used the opportunity to stay behind after a Creatures class with Draco and Daphne – as Theo didn't take the class – and catch up with how their year's been going.
"Defence is dreadful," Daphne said with feeling. "He's the worst teacher we've ever had."
Harry was surprised. He didn't exactly love Moody, but calling him worse than Lockhart – or Quirrell, but then the Slytherins didn't know about the biggest problem there – seemed like going to far. "Why?" He asked.
Draco grimaced, and Daphne said: "He treats us like dirt, and the boys – except Blaise – even worse. It's...we're used to some prejudice from a lot of the students, but the teachers normally stay mostly out of it, you know? But Moody, he's...his disdain just drips off him. He talks to us like we're the scum of the Earth."
Harry was absolutely horrified. "Have you written to your parents?"
The Slytherins exchanged looks. It took Harry a moment to realize what was going on, and then he sighed. "Look, I know, okay?"
They both gave him blank looks. He felt like tearing his hair out. "So," he began, "maybe your parents – or Draco's and Theo's dads, at any rate – have a reason why they don't really want to go against Moody this year in particular. And so maybe I know what that reason is."
There was another look exchanged, and then Draco said, very non-committally: "How would you know something like that?"
Harry shrugged. "Alduin talks to me, and he talks to a lot of other people, too."
Draco nodded. There was a short silence, and another look exchanged between the Slytherins.
"We think that's why Dumbledore has Moody teaching here this year," Daphne said then. "So protesting it would put us in...not the best light."
Harry nodded in his turn. He had suspected it was something like this from their silent look. It made sense, but it was still bloody frustrating.
"Do you think there's something I can do?" He wondered.
They both looked surprised at the suggestion. "Does he treat you well?" Daphne asked.
"I wouldn't exactly put it that way," Harry replied. "He doesn't treat me like dirt, though, that's for sure." He thought about it for a moment. "I think maybe...he treats me a bit like I was an Auror recruit? I mean, I heard he did training for years, and the way he interacts with me, and sometimes with Neville too, it's like he's not a teacher, but someone really training us for war."
Harry had never realized it before, but now he knew he was right. At the same time, though, he couldn't help but spot the differences between Moody and Snape. Snape was as far from coddling him as anyone could possible get, but he had started the training at Alduin's request, and he did some actual teaching during those classes, even if they were more training that school: he explained Harry's mistakes to him, and gave him tips how to be better, even if the tips were sometimes things Harry couldn't agree with, like prioritizing his life over the lives of others.
Moody, on the other hand, never really seemed to do that. He had Harry repeat something over and over again until he got it right, but there was never any real advice forthcoming. Harry wondered if it was because that's what they expected with the Aurors, figuring things out on their own, and so that was what he did to Harry too. It would make sense, but Harry didn't think he liked it all that much.
Meanwhile, the Slytherins thought about what Harry said, frowning, and then Daphne said: "Better than how he treats us, I guess, but still, doesn't sound like you have much of a leverage over him or anything."
Harry snorted at the idea. "No, I really don't."
"Then it seems we're going to just have to stick it out," she said with a sigh. Harry could tell she was worried, though.
"It's worse for Theo and Draco, right?" He asked.
"And Vince and Greg, like I said," she confirmed. "And Theo...I don't think he's taking it well. He's been withdrawn lately, and..." she shook her head.
"I don't think that's Moody' fault," Draco muttered grimly.
Harry looked from one to the other. It was true, now that he thought about it, Theo did talk to him less in their Runes class this year. Harry immediately felt guilty for not noticing. He hadn't really seen the boy over the summer, because he'd seen less of Draco, and Malfoy Manor was the only place where they could actually meet. They' mirror-called a few times, but Harry vastly preferred talking face to face, and Theo did too.
"What's going on?" Harry asked now.
"It's his dad," Draco simply said, in a tone that implied he didn't want to discuss it any further, and Harry nodded in understanding. Theo's dad had always been difficult, and he imagined the current situation made it no easier.
Riddle wasn't even back properly yet and he was already messing up everyone's lives.