Julia Swan-Black

Chapter 3

The storm had blown itself out by the following morning as they headed up from the dungeons to breakfast. Though the great hall ceiling was still gloomy it was still warmer than last night. Heavy clouds of pewter grey swirled over head as the group eat their breakfast. Snape came past them, dropping their schedules' off to them. He gave them a small smile before continuing on. 

They examined  their new timetables as they heard the twins loudly discussing how to get their names entered in. They were desperate. Julia smirked,' it would be more fun if they were in it.' "Awww come on, most of our classes are with Gryffindor again." Draco moaned as Harry patted his shoulder in mock sympathy. 

As they were finishing up breakfast a rustling noise was heard above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows, carrying the morning mail. There was an article about Arthur Weasley. "Weasley! Hey Weasley!" Draco called to the Gryffindor table. Julia facepalmed knowing the stupidity coming. Harry just smirked. He then went off about an problem going on at Alastor Moody's house. Julia just tuned it out as she checked her schedule.

The first week flew by with little incident until it was Friday and they had a double lesson with Alastor Moody, their first lesson with the Gryffindor. Julia was still attempting to try to get Draco to see people for themselves and not their house. She had mostly succeeded for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Unfortunately though Gryffindor is hard because of Ron and his friends Dean and Sean. (I was going to change his name after noticing this mistake but I think I'm just gonna leave it lol.)

They headed to DADA and queued up outside the classroom before the bell even rung as they waited for the Gryffindor's. As everyone was there they headed into their seats and waited, sitting at the back of the class to watch and listen. 

Everyone got their books out and were ready, waiting unusually quietly. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive footsteps coming there way. As he entered their room everyone looked up at him, curiously and ready having heard good things about his classes. "You can put those away, those books, you don't need them." Moody said.

They returned the books to their bags, the Gryffindor's excited and Slytherin's curious. Moody took out the register, shook his mane of grey grizzled hair out of his twisted and scarred face and began to call out names. His normal eyes moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivelled around, fixing upon each student as he or she 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?" Moody asked the class. 

There was a general murmur of agreement. "But you are still behind - very behind - on dealing with curses. So here I am 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-" Moody continues till Ron rudely interrupts him causing Julia to sigh and facepalm. 

"Can you just get to the good bit already!" Ron calls out interrupting his speech and annoying everyone. Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, though upon realizing this Moody tried to calm his face down smiled. The intended effect did not work on his scarred face. 

"You'll be one of Arthur Weasley's son's, eh?" Moody said though he obviously already knew. "Your father got me out of a tight corner a few days ago so I'll forgive this." He continued turning away from Ron. Ron looked slightly relived, 'oh that is too bad' Julia thought sadly. 

"So - straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms.  Now, according to the Mistry 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 your sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Headmaster Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what your up against, the better." Moody continues as the Slytherin trio roll their eyes.