parents after all

chapter 5

Chapter 5 - The Goblet of Fire

The next few weeks passed smoothly, except that Ron really got burned by a Blast-Ended Skrewt in Care of Magical Creatures, just like how he predicted his miserable fate would be, and James earned himself an extra detention from Snape as he bumped into the Potions Master in the corridor one day.

'This is the last time you will be collecting Bubotubers pus,' said Professor Sprout, a pudgy, good-natured woman and Head of Hufflepuff. 'Bubotubers produce the most concentrated pus when they are at their boom of life before their death... good job, Neville,' she beamed at the round-faced Gryffindor, who extracted a bucketful of pus successfully, 'as I was saying, their pus will be the most undiluted so far, so please be careful –'

'Urggggg!' screeched Lavender Brown with her hands full of sticky yellow pus.

'-not to have any direct contact with the pus. This way to the Hospital Wing please, Lavender,' said Professor Sprout cheerfully.

Defence Against the Dark Arts with Moody, as it turned out, was really an unusual experience. Bringing three spiders with him, Moody took the class through the three Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, the Cruciatus Curse and the Killing Curse.

'You'd better be fully prepared at a young age for the Unforgivable curses,' Moody growled. 'You'd regret it when you only get to know the curses when you're the cursed one. So next lesson, you will learn to resist the Imperius Curse on your own'

'Professor, wouldn't it be a bit dangerous to teach the Unforgivable curses in class... now?' Hermione's hand shot into the air.

'If you'd rather learn it the hard way in the battlefield, which I doubt you'd like the experience, you can leave now,' Moody snarled.

                      

'He couldn't be cooler,' said James as he left the classroom. 'He's right, we need to be armed.'

'I don't like the way he teaches,' said Lily quietly. 'The spiders are innocent.'

'If he didn't use spiders how would he be able to demonstrate the curses?' said Ron shrilly. 'And believe me, spiders are not innocent.'

'Did you see Neville's face when he used Crucio on the spider?' snapped Hermione. 'He looked so pained, so horrified. Shouldn't you consider how students would react before you teach?'

'I'm taking stuff up to the dorm,' said Sirius abruptly. 'See you at dinner.' He turned on his heels and walked away.

'What's up with him? He's awfully quiet,' Peter frowned.

'Dunno, let's go after him,' and James too, ran towards the seventh floor.

Lily watched her classmates go. 'Will you go to the library with me? I've got to return the books.'

Hermione and Remus nodded, and the three parted ways with Ron and Harry. They rounded a corner when they nearly bumped into Neville, who was holding a book and was completely absorbed in its contents.

'Hiya Neville,' said Hermione. 'You alright?'

'I – yeah,' nodded the chubby boy, his eyes never leaving the book, ' just feeling a bit funny after class, so Professor Moody invited me to tea and gave me a book.'

'A book?' Lily looked over to Neville, who was holding Plants in the Ocean: A Study of Gillyweed.

'Er, yeah,' said Neville. 'Professor Moody said that everyone's got their strengths and weaknesses, and showing your weaknesses is not your fault,' he looked up and smiled shyly, 'he said Professor Sprout ... um, likes me, so he thought I'd be interested in a bit of extra reading on Herbology.'