My Slytherin- Draco Malfoy

Chapter 32 (Year 4)

Theodora's POV

We took our defense against the dark arts books out just as Professor Moody walked in.

"You can put those away. Those books you won't need them." He growled before sitting down at his desk.

"Is it just me or is he kind of cute?" Daphne whispered to the five of us. We all turned in our seats to look at her, confused.

"We're going to talk about this after class because you might have some problems," Pansy said, looking at Daphne, concerned.

"Right then, 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?"

People in the class nodded in agreement, and Professor moody went on.

"But you're behind - very behind - on dealing with curses. 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?" Weasley blurted out. Moody's magical eye landed on Weasley, who flushed. Moody stared at him before he smiled, making his face look more scarred.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh? Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago. ... yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore.... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He laughed,

"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 blushed, putting away something she was showing Parvati.

"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" Moody continued, several hands shot up, including Daphne's, but Mad eye pointed at Weasley.

"Er, my dad told me about one..... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah yes. Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." Moody laughed again. Standing up and opening a large drawer, he took out three enormous spiders. He opened the lid and caught one large spider in his hand. He pointed his wand at it and muttered,

"Imperio!" It hovered in the air, swinging around the classroom. Everyone started to laugh as it did cartwheels on the desk, but Moody didn't look pleased.

"Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" Moody growled. The laughter died away, quickly.

"Total control, I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse. Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. 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 barked and the whole class jumped.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" Granger's hand shot up before Longbottom raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," Longbottom said, with a small, nervous voice.

"Your name's Longbottom, isn't it?" Moody asked. Longbottom nodded. Moody picked up another spider, making it larger, before placing the curse on it.

The large spider started twitching and rolling around on the desk. I clutched on my desk uncomfortably.

"Stop it!" Granger cried. I glanced over at her, expecting to see her staring at the spider, but she stared at Longbottom instead, who had his fist clutched on the desk, his eyes wide and horrified. Moody lifted his wand up, and the spider stopped rolling around, but its legs still twitched.

"Pain. You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse.... That one was very popular once too. Right... anyone know any others?" Moody asked, before shrinking the spider. Granger raised her hand up.

"Yes?"

"Avada Kedavra," Granger whispered. Several people looked around uncomfortably.

"Ah. Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse." Moody smiled, slightly. He put his hand in the spider jar again, and the spider pushed its self against the jar like it knew what was coming. Moody finally managed to catch it and pointed its wand at it.

"Avada Kedavra!" There was a flash of bright green light, then the spider rolled over on its back, dead. Moody swept it on the ground.

"Not nice. Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." We all turned to glance at Potter, who shifted in his seat, uncomfortably.

---

"You know, the Weasley twins are rather cute, aren't they?" Pansy asked, watching them walk over to the Gryffindor table. I scoffed.

"Try living with them over the summer, you'll have a blast, I swear," I said, sarcastically.

"Ugh, who cares? They are cute, aren't they? Too bad they have to hang out with Granger and the rest of them." Pansy laughed. Immediately my eyes landed on Granger, who was sitting down next to Draco. He looked up, catching my eye, and I glared at him. He looked at me, confused, but continued talking with Granger.

"Theo, will you stop that!" Daphne yelled, Theo, who had been poking her on the side of her shoulder.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Theo smirked, Daphne huffed, annoyed.

"Merlin's beard your so annoying."

"I didn't do anything!" He started poking her shoulder again, and she looked ready to throw the mash potato plate over his head.

"You know you love me, Daphne," Theo smirked, putting an arm over her shoulder. Daphne shook her head, blushing, but said nothing.