Shallow ~ Draco x Lilia Lowe

The Goblet of Fire

After I told Harry everything, we walked to class. I was intrigued to see what Professor Moody was going to teach us.

"Alastor Moody. Ex-Aurora, Ministry malcontent, and your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?"

No one raised a hand or spoke up. We all just sat in silence.

"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"

"Three, sir," Hermione spoke.

"And they are so named?"

"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will."

"Earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct. Now, The Ministry says you're too younger to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against! You need to be prepared. You need to find another place to put your chewing gum beside the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnigan!"

Everyone looked at Seamus.

"No way. The old codger can see out of the back of his head."

Moody threw a piece of chalk at Seamus.

"And hear across classrooms! So which curse shall we see first? Weasley!"

"Yes?" Ron said, a little spooked.

"Stand. Give us a curse."

'Well, my dad did tell me about one." Moody grunted. "The Imperious Curse."

Oh, yeah, your father would know all about that. Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."

Moody walked up to a jar and took out a spider. He then enlarged it.

"Imperio!" He spoke.

The spider then started moving to the command of Moody's wand. It landed in front of Dean and Neville, then on Crabes' face. Everyone gasped.

"Don't worry. It's completely harmless."

It then jumped onto another girl's hand. Her laugh turned into a gasp. Then the spider went over Ron's head. He's deathly scared.

"If she bites, she's lethal."

Then the spider fell onto his head.

"What are you laughing at?"

The spider jumped onto Draco's face, which made me laugh a little more.

"Get it off!"

Then the spider landed on my arm. I didn't move. I didn't panic. I knew that I would be fine. Moody then made it crawl up my arm and around the back of my head. It crawled up my neck and onto my head.

Then it went onto my face. But I knew I would be okay.

"Talented, Isn't she? What should I have her do next? Jump out the window? Drown herself?" the room was calm as he said these things.

Then, he put her back in his hand.

"Scores or witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of The Imperious Curse. But here's the rub: How do we sort out the liars? Another, another. Up, up. Common."

I slowly raised my hand, knowing the last two left were two that I didn't want to say.

"Lowe, is it? Up."

I stood up and looked at him.

"T-t-t-there's the um," I cleared my throat. "The Cruciatus Curse," I said, looking right into his good eye.

"Correct, correct. Come, come. Particularly nasty. The torture curse. Crucio!"

I nearly hunched over in pain as he spoke the words. The spider started to move around uncomfortably. My eyebrows furrowed, and I felt the pain I had last night. The only difference was it was the memory of the pain, so it wasn't as bad.

She even started to squeal as the curse continued. I balled my hands into fists and looked at Harry. The look of horror was written across his face. A tear fell from my eye as I then looked at Draco, who looked at me confused.

I looked back to the spider as Hermione spoke.

"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering her? Stop it!"

Professor Moody looked at Hermione. It seemed like he was knocked out of a trance. He pulled his wand away, ending the pain for the spider. Then he picked it up and walked over to her.

"Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Miss Granger." She shook her head no. "Avada Kadavra! The Killing Curse. Only two are known to have survived it, and they're sitting in this room." He said, looking at Harry, then me.

Tears were still falling from my face. I walked over and sat beside Harry, who put an arm around my shoulder.