Freaks: Year One

Nightmares

Abuse.

Harry entered the boys' dorm at around 3:00 o'clock that afternoon. He had missed flying, but he had stayed with Penelope to comfort her until she said she just wanted to sleep. After, he went back to the boys' dorm, deciding it would not kill him to miss the rest of flying as he really hated the subject, and was not the best at it anyway.

Jasper was still in the dorm to Harry's surprise. He wouldn't have thought Jasper would miss a flying class, but here he was reading the Defence textbook, his wand in hand.

Jasper looked up at the sound of the door opening, and once he realised it was Harry, he asked, "How's Penelope?"

"Better." Harry replied, taking a seat on his bed, and then opening his Herbology textbook. "She's having a nap now."

Harry started to read the textbook, and after a couple of minutes of silence, Jasper asked, "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, continuing to read even though he had a pretty good idea at what Jasper was referring to.

Jasper bit his lip, nervously. "You just said...some things earlier – about your school. I - I had no idea."

"Well, it isn't like I go around telling people." Harry replied, but he shook his head. He did accidentally tell the whole year of Hufflepuff boys about it, but he was just so frustrated, and stressed about this apparent DADA curse. Hogwarts had been going so well! He was doing pretty good in his classes (besides flying), and he had friends; he did not want anything to ruin that. He didn't want his time at Hogwarts to be like his time in muggle school. "It just slipped out. Don't worry about it."

"Well, if you want to talk about it–"

"I don't." Harry said, shutting Jasper up. He knew Jasper was going to ask about it, and he also knew that he was just trying to help, but he really didn't want to discuss it. He was probably overthinking it, but he was worried Jasper would judge him if he ever did tell him the whole story. "Please, drop it."

Jasper nodded, knowing it would not be a good idea to push, but he did hope if Harry ever did want to talk about it in the future, he would feel comfortable enough to confide in friends or even the professors. "Okay." A pause. "Whatcha reading?"

Harry held up the book. "Herbology."

Later in the night, Jasper was lying awake thinking about the events of that day. The new Defence Against The Dark Arts professor was terrifying. The way he just told them there was basically a war going on was scary. He knew there were rumours about Voldemort, but he, and every student had been told that the Ministry would deal with it. Jasper now knew they had only told them that to keep the students calm. There was an actual war, and it was targeting people like him.

Professor Moody was also aggressive. So, so aggressive, and rough. It reminded him of home – his father specifically, and he hated that. He was sure Professor Moody was not like his dad, but he still frightened him nonetheless.

How would he ever be able to ask Professor Moody for help with defensive spells if he was too afraid of the bloody teacher to ask?

He was back in the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom, but instead of him being in class with the other Hufflepuff first years, it was only him, and the Defence professor.

His father?

Jasper certainly did not like this.

"You know what happens to kids who don't behave?" His father asked while facing the board that had the scribbles from the actual Defence class earlier that day upon it. The classroom looked the same. The only difference was his father was at the front of the class, and not Professor Moody.