Aria Lestrange (Rewrite)

Imperio

It took Draco a full day before he apologised. She'd barely poured the cereal into her bowl before she'd felt him settle into the seat beside her. She hadn't spoken a word to him, didn't say anything at all until he muttered the quiet apology. Nothing more than an I'm sorry, but it was more than she'd really expected from him.

She couldn't blame him, not really. It was a defence for him to push people away when things got difficult. Just like she became more sarcastic when she was stressed, it wasn't really his fault. It was all he knew. It didn't mean she had to let him away with it though. The only response she'd given was a stiff nod of her head before returning to her bowl of cereal. She could forgive him and still be mad at the things he'd said. But by the time they'd wound their way into Amycus Carrow's classroom that afternoon that nights fight was the last thing on her mind.

For the most part, classes hadn't been too different. The herbology, transfiguration and charms classes the previous day had been almost the exact same thing she'd have expected to be taught if this was any other year; basic human transfiguration, the protean charm, studying the Belladonna plant. Even Potions that morning had had some sense of normalcy studying the basic components of a potion. But then had come Muggle studies.

She'd thought it couldn't get worse, not after the now compulsory muggle studies class that had seen them spend the better part of an hour listening to the female Carrow harper on about how Muggles were like animals; stupid and dirty and how they'd ruined many pureblood families with their dirty blood. Apparently however, she'd been wrong.

Amycus Carrow hadn't been in the room when they'd entered, which was fine by her. It had given them time to take their seats, to notice the clear divide between the Slytherin and Gryffindors who shared this class, and to try and figure out what, exactly, this class would entail.

"Imperio" The sudden sound of Professor Carrow's voice took her by surprise, so much so it took her more than a minute to realise what spell had just been cast. By the time she did the Gryffindor girl by the name of Sally-Anne had already catapulted to her feet, moving in ways that were completely out of her control.

"The Imperious curse, I believe you've seen it in action before" Amycus drawled as he walked to the front of the classroom seeming to enjoy the silence that lapsed out around him, the students too busy staring at Sally-Anne as he made her move around the classroom, swiping things around, throwing them everywhere. "But we won't be practicing it on something as stupid as a spider, no. In order to truly learn this spell you need to feel it. To know exactly what the spell entails, exactly how far you can make a person go."

Sally-Anne was at the top of the stairs at the front of the classroom now having taken the stairs two at a time, practically running up them. She saw movement out the corner of her eye as Neville Longbottom and Sophie Roper rose to their feet, their cries of stop lost to the sheer panic coursing through her.

Aria's breath caught in her throat as the blonde haired girl took hold of the railing keeping her safe on the landing, there was nothing she could do as they watched her climb over it, one foot after the other. She was going to fall. She was leaning too far forward, her grip was going to fail.

Amycus let the spell drop and Sally- Anne scrambled back into the barrier, her silent screams no longer silent as she clung onto it for dear life. It took her friends a matter of seconds to reach her and then they were hauling her back over the banister collapsing onto the floor with her clinging to them as she sobbed loudly.

"Oh quit the noise and take your seats" Amycus snapped as they made their way back down the stairs. Sally-Anne was still clinging to Sophie, terrified to let go. But it was the look on Longbottom's face that really caught her attention, the hard set to his expression as he glared down the Professor refusing to take his seat. Amycus blinked at him before his own face hardened. "Be careful Longbottom, you got off with a detention this time. Next time we won't be so lenient"

Detention? Longbottom had managed to get a detention already? She hadn't seen him in trouble once in the entire time they'd been at school.

He seemed to consider for a moment before he backed down, storming back towards his seat without another word.

"Pair up" Amycus demanded turning back to face them, "The first to successfully cast the spell gets twenty house points. The last get's detention, begin"

The entire class scrambled to find partners, if what he'd just done to Sally-Anne and what had happened to the red-haired boy at the feast was anything to go by the last thing any of them wanted was a detention with the Carrows.

"Imperio" Pansy stated for what had to be her fifteenth attempt of the spell, none of which had been successful.

"Pitiful" Professor Carrow snapped as he strolled between the pairs offering comments like that one along the way. "Perhaps you need to feel the effects of the spell yourself to get it right Parkinson? What do you say Lestrange, will it be you or me?"

Aria could feel the stares on the back of her neck, but it was nothing compared to the slight panic on Pansy's face. "I'll do it" She muttered quietly, finally removing her wand from her pocket for the first time that class.

He wasn't entirely wrong. To truly be able to cast a spell as dark as this one you had to know what it felt like, usually it was enough to read about it in books. To be able to picture it as the words were said. But Amycus had given them none of that. He'd told them only the spell itself and expected them to be able to do it.

It hadn't surprised her when Crabbe and Goyle had been the first to complete the spell successfully, as prone to violence as the two were a spell like this one was bound to come easy to them. But it only made sense that the only other people who'd successfully managed to perform the spell were Sally-Anne who'd just experience the effects of the curse and Neville Longbottom who'd been used as a demonstration during their fourth year.

The imperius curse was tricky, it didn't have the usual wand movements that most other spells did, it didn't need to be perfect. But the caster had to mean it, to know exactly what they wanted to happen.

"Imperio" Her voice was quiet as she pointed her wand at Pansy, watching as her entire expression fell blank in one go.

Lifting her wand like a puppet master she watched with an entirely empty expression as Pansy lifted first one hand to rest on top of her head, followed by the other. She spun her slowly round in a circle before she let the spell drop.

The silence was the loudest thing she'd ever heard in her life. She could practically hear the thoughts of her classmates as they took in how simply she'd cast that spell, as if it had merely been Lumos and not one of the unforgiveable curses.

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from a Lestrange" Carrow stated before he moved on, barking something at Lavender Brown that nearly had her in tears.

"How did you do that?" Pansy hissed as she stepped closer to her, "You made it look easy"

"It will be for you too now" Aria muttered as she turned back to face her, placing her wand back into her pocket. "You know what it's like. Picture it when you cast the spell"

Pansy nodded raising her own wand to point at her. "Imperio"

Aria felt the familiar floating feeling wash over her and for the first time in a while she forget what, exactly she'd been so stressed out about. The imperius curse wasn't so bad, it couldn't be, not when it made her feel quite this happy. She could imagine living like this forever, would it really be so awful? To never have another worry in her life? To never care about anything again?

She suddenly lurched forward, moving so quickly she'd have fallen if it wasn't for the fact she wasn't in control of her movements. Even this, this wouldn't be so bad. To let someone else be in control for a while. She lurched forward again another step, followed by another and another. Before she quite knew what was happening, she was dancing around the classroom, spinning over and over and over again like a ballerina.

She vaguely heard muttering behind her only a second before the spell dropped and she crashed into the desk beside her so hard she let out a hiss of pain, clinging to it for a moment.

"Are you alright?" Draco was beside her in an instant, reaching for her. She shook him off before he could even touch her.

"I'm fine" She muttered pushing herself back onto her feet, trying her best to ignore the smug looks on the faces of her classmates. They'd probably be telling this story for weeks to come, about how the slytherin princess had fallen flat on her face.