Sirius Black's Daughter

Chapter Twleve: Beauxbatons and Durmstrang

Posted: December 4th, 2020
Edited:
Major editing: August 3rd, 2021
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"That was a lie, Harry," said Hermione sharply over breakfast, when he told her, Natalia, Jae and Ron what he had done. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know it."
"So what?" said Harry. "He's not going back to Azkaban because of me."
  "Drop it," said Ron sharply to Hermione as she opened her mouth to argue some more, and for once, Hermione heeded him, and fell silent.
"I hope it will be alright," said Jae. "I don't want him getting involved with the wrong sort."
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To their surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.
  "But - but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Hermione uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said - to use it against another human was -"
  "Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way - when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely - fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door.

Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. Natalia, Harry and Ron grinned at each other. They knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. Natalia watched as, one by one, her classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem.
Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel.
Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state.

Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
  "Lebedeva," said Moody, "you next."
People watch in horror as Natalia slowly walked forward. Natalia moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Natalia, and said, "Imperio!"
It was the most wonderful feeling. Natalia felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in her head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. She stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching her.
And then she heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Spin. Spin around the room as if you're a tornado.
Natalia bent her knees obediently, preparing to spin.
'Jump onto the desk....'
'Why, though?' Another voice had awoken in the back of her brain.
'Stupid thing to do, really,' said the voice.
'Spin around like a tornado.'
'No, I don't think I will, thanks,' said the other voice, a little more firmly...no, I don't really want to....
'Spin! NOW!'

The next thing Natalia felt was considerable pain. She had both spinned and tried to prevent herself from spinning - the result was that she'd smashed her leg into the desk knocking it over, and, by the feeling in her leg, messed it up somehow.
"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, and suddenly, Natalia felt the empty, echoing feeling in her head disappear. She remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in her leg seemed to double.
"Look at that, you lot...Lebedeva fought! She fought it, and she damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Lebedeva, and the rest of you, pay attention - watch her eyes, that's where you see it - very good, Lebedeva, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

"The way he talks," Harry muttered as they walked out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class an hour later (Moody had insisted on putting Harry through his paces four times in a row, until Harry could throw off the curse entirely after Natalia went), "you'd think we were all going to be attacked any second."
"Yeah, I know," said Ron, who was skipping on every alternate step. He had had much more difficulty with the curse than Natalia and Harry, though Moody assured him the effects would wear off by lunchtime. "Talk about paranoid..." Ron glanced nervously over his shoulder to check that Moody was definitely out of earshot and went on. "No wonder they were glad to get shot of him at the Ministry. Did you hear him telling Seamus what he did to that witch who shouted 'Boo' behind him on April Fools' Day? And when are we supposed to read up on resisting the Imperius Curse with everything else we've got to do?"
Natalia was limping as she really hit her leg hard.