𝘝𝘖𝘐𝘊𝘌𝘚. harry potter world ¹

𝘹𝘹𝘷𝘪𝘪𝘪. 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵

     "RIGHT THEN," says Professor Moody when the last person finally took a seat, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures — you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

     Everyone nods but no one felt brave enough to say anything else. Moody didn't seem to mind and kept going. "But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," he adds quickly. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark —"

     "What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurts out.

     Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; and he almost had a heart attack. But moments later, Moody's lips turned to a smile. Making his scarred face look even more twisted. (Rory had to hold on to the table). "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody says. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago. . . . Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore. . . . One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." 

     This didn't come as a shock to the rest of the class as none of their Defence Against the Dark Arts seems to last for more than a year. Regardless, Rory was glad to see that Moody was promising to be as good a teacher as Professor Lupin (one of the best who turned out to be a werewolf).

     "So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses 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 tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

     Lavender jumped and blushed.

    Rory stirs in her seat. The uneasy feeling in her stomach had come back with a bang. 

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

    Several hands rise into the air, including her own (the advantage of being raised by a psychopath). Moody points at Ron. "Er," he doubts, "my dad told me about one. . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

     "Ah, yes," says Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Moody got to his feet and from a drawer in his desk, he showed them a transparent jar with three spiders. 

     Rory could feel their panic. Their uneasy glances at their surroundings, they were being watched by stranger's eyes. Probably that was the last thing they were going to see.

     He got one out and He then pointed his wand at it, "Imperio!" And as if the spider had an invisible string attached to it, it began to follow Moody's orders, without putting up a fight, without any sign of recognition of being manipulated in the slightest. Looked as if the spider had its memory wiped off and had just his eyes and ears for Moody's disposition.

    Everyone was laughing, but not Rory, Rory couldn't find it funny.

     "Think it's funny, do you?" he growls. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" The laughter died away. "Total control," says Moody quietly as the spider began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats . . ." Ron gave an involuntary shudder. "Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," Moody explains, "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will." He let the spider crawl back to the jar. ''The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barks, and everyone jumps. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"