Nico di Angelo and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 6: Where Nico takes his Sass to the Ultimate Level

Harry got up early the next morning. Ron was still snoring in bed, and strangely enough, Nico was missing. Harry dressed, then headed towards the Owlery to mail his response to Sirius.

Dear Sirius,

I reckon I just imagined my scar hurting, I was half asleep when I wrote to you last time. There's no point coming back, everything's fine here. Don't worry about me, my head feels completely normal.

Harry

Hundreds of owls were perched on the walls, nearly all of them asleep. Harry found Hedwig amidst the mess of owl droppings, straw and the skeletons of mice and rats.

Hedwig was clearly still mad about Harry ignoring her the previous night. In the end, it was him suggesting that he would ask Ron to borrow Pigwidgeon that convinced her.

"Just find him?" Harry basically begged. He didn't want anything to happen to his godfather. Especially since the Ministry was still looking for Sirius Black. "Before the dementors do."

Hedwig hooted softly, then spread her wings and took off in a flurry of feathers. Harry watched her fly away. He had wanted Sirius's reply to reassure him, not only worry him more.

"Harry, that was a lie." Hermione said sharply when he made his way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know that."

"So what?" Harry replied. "I'm not sending him back to Azkaban because of my scar."

"Drop it." Ron said as the two prepared to argue some more.

Nico glanced up from a black, tattered book. "I think you should tell me who Sirius Black is to you, seeing as all I know about him is that he should be in Azkaban."

Harry sighed, exchanging glances with Ron and Hermione. "Sirius is my godfather. He didn't kill those thirteen people, Peter Pettigrew-another former friend of my father's-did. Sirius was trying to stop him, but Peter, an animagus, turned into a rat, cut off his finger and disappeared for twelve years, hiding as Ron's rat. Sirius was put in Azkaban, where he decided to escape once he saw Peter in the newspaper. Everyone thought that he was trying to kill me, but he was after Peter. Peter managed to escape when Professor Lupin-who was our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher last year-turned into a werewolf. The dementors then came and we went back in time and saved Buckbeak-who was going to be executed for attacking Draco Malfoy after he was insulted, but it was Malfoy's fault, Hagrid told us that Hippogriffs can't be insulted-then took Buckbeak to Sirius so he could fly away and escape." Harry finished rambling, aware that Nico probably wouldn't get anything because of the lame explanation.

Nico nodded. "I see. I believe your godfather is innocent," he said like he had completely understood what Harry was saying.

Harry sighed in relief. He didn't want to give a longer explanation.

He did his best not to worry about Sirius over the next couple of weeks.

True, he could not stop himself looking anxiously around every morning when the post owls arrived, nor, late at night before he went to sleep, prevent himself seeing horrible visions of Sirius, cornered by Dementors down some dark London street, but between times he tried to keep his mind off his godfather. He wished he still had Quidditch to distract him; nothing worked so well on a troubled mind as a good, hard training session. On the other hand, their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Defence Against the Dark Arts.

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 swivelling 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 towards the door.

Hermione went very pink, and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. 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 forwards in turn and put the Imperius curse upon them.

Harry watched as, one by one, his classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence.

Dean Thomas 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 the curse off, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.

"Potter," Moody growled, "you next."

Harry moved forward into the middle of the classroom, into the space that Moody had cleared of desks. Moody raised his wand, pointed it at Harry, and said, "Imperio."

It was the most wonderful feeling. Harry felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in his head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness. He stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.

And then he heard Mad-Eye Moody's voice, echoing in some distant chamber of his empty brain: Jump onto the desk...jump onto the desk...

Harry bent his knees obediently, preparing to spring.

Jump onto the desk...

Why, though?

Another voice had awoken in the back of his brain. Stupid thing to do, really, said the voice.

Jump onto the desk ...

No, I don't think I will, thanks, said the other voice, a little more firmly ... no, I don't really want to ...

Jump!

NOW!

The next thing Harry felt was considerable pain.

He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping – the result was that he'd smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps.

"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, and suddenly Harry felt the empty, echoing feeling in his head disappear. He remembered exactly what was happening, and the pain in his knees seemed to double.

"Look at that, you lot ... Potter fought! He fought it, and he damn near beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention – watch his eyes, that's where you see it – very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

"Now you-di Angelo," Moody waved his wand, "get over here."

Nico sauntered over.

"Imperio!" Moody called out.

Nico stood there, then went up and slapped Moody, then promptly sat back down.

Moody looked furious. "Class dismissed-well done, di Angelo," he gritted out.

Nico laughed as they left.