Lost Memories

vi. professor "moody"

It was finally Thursday, which meant it was the first day of our Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. For the last three days, Harry and Ron were like children in a candy store, thinking about their Thursday afternoon class. Hermione and I weren't too excited, but for different reasons. Hermione didn't like how liberal Professor Moody was with his punishments, e.g. Draco, but I didn't like him because he wasn't the real Moody.

"C'mon," Harry called to us, "quick, or we won't get decent seats."

We hurried into the four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, they took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon we heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. I could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stomping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

"How come?" I asked innocently.

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes, giving me a knowing look. He knew I knew the reason, but he might also know I know who he actually is.

"That's not how I teach," he commented.

I looked over to Hermione and elbowed her ribs, making her close her mouth and not ask her questions. I knew her smart-Alek self couldn't help bringing up his teaching method.

But obediently, they returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Of course, he was, no books.

Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled grey hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call outnames, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivelled around, fixing upon each student as they answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves present, "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?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," said Moody. "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 Arts Special favour to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"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 countercurses 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.

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

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including mine and Hermione's. Moody pointed at me, though his magical eye was still fixed on Harry.

"Uh," I said tentatively, "I read about this one called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Probably would as it gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."