The Slytherin Princess

Chapter 17: New Friends, Old Enemies, and One Angry Cousin

On Thursday I had Potions and then I had Defense against the Dark arts. Snape was in a very foul mood which I could only assume was because the school year started again. After Potions, I went to Defense Against the Dark Arts where Professor Mad-eye Moody lived up to his name.

I sat next to Blaise because the seat next to Hermione was taken. Moody was writing crazily on the chalkboard and yelling at students for things he couldn't possibly be seeing. Makes me wonder if he was even human.

"Can anyone tell me which curses are the most punishable?" He practically shouted. I was grateful I was in the back or his voice would surely have given me a headache with my heightened hearing. He called on Ron.

"My dad told me..uh... The Imperius Curse?" He posed it more like a question.

"Yes, Dumbledore and I agreed you need to see these curses in action." He went over to his desk, right to a jar of gross long-legged spiders. He pulled one out of the Jar, causing me to tense and curl my hands into fists.

"You Ok?" Blaise whispered.

"No." I breathed. My eyes were fixated on the spider. Moody said...something? I tuned out, solely focused on if I would have to kill that thing or not.

He started making it crawl around the room. This made it difficult to keep track of. Soon he made it fly across the room, landing on various kids' heads. It landed on Ron's and he let out a terror-filled squeal. Once it neared my head I sent a small but strong gust of wind to push it away from me, no way was that demon touching my head. I saw Moody's face show a flicker of surprise at my use of non-wizard magic.

"I can control every muscle in someone's body with that curse. Another." I saw his one good eye glimmer with excitement when he said that. A glint of someone with a dark side. I would know since I've had that glint in my eye as well. "Longbottom."

"There's the Cruciatus Curse." Neville was incredibly nervous, not only could I feel it and smell it, but his hands were shaking as well. Moody enlarged the spider. Why, just why did he feel the need to do that? He had it in the front of the class, I almost had to avert my gaze. Upon him yelling Crucio the spider started convulsing. I doubled over, covering my ears. The spider was screaming a shrill, deafening sound, but only I could hear that pitch.

When I regained enough composure to look up it wasn't the spider I noticed. It was Neville. I couldn't see his face, but his hands were clenched so tight his knuckles were white. I could smell depression, terror, and rage coming off of him, so much so it soured my stomach. 

"Neville has been hurt by this curse," I whispered to Blaise through clenched teeth, still covering my ears.

"How can you tell."

"There the same emotions I had, when someone close to me was murdered." Neville's emotions were so strong they were starting to affect me. Making me sad and full of rage.

"Stop it," Hermione yelled. Moody stopped, and I immediately calmed down. My head was starting to hurt from the spider's screams, not that I didn't slightly enjoy the fact the spider suffered though. When he asked for the last curse he moved through the aisles, closer to me. I got a whiff of polyjuice potion coming off of him. That can only mean one thing.

He was not Mad-eye Moody. 

So who was he? With the way he was enjoying this, I would think of a dark wizard, but I didn't know enough about this world to make conclusions. But I could make him sweat a little. Moody was now demonstrating the killing curse. He pointed his wand at the spider and said Avada Kadavra, a bolt of green light shot from his wand at the spider. The spider went limp, its heartbeat disappeared. I smiled, good riddance.