I clenched my jaw and looked between Dumbledore, Mcgonallal and Moody. Moody's eyes were filled with intrigue, Mcgonallal's were filled with stern anger. Dumbledore's eyes had a small twinkle in them. I crossed my ankles and leaned back in the chair, waiting for someone to speak.
"So, why is Miss Malfoy here?" Dumbledore said, breaking the silence. He looked between the three of us.
"She attacked-"
"I defended my quite incapacitated brother from an attack by a teacher" I said pointedly, glaring at Mcgonallal.
"Ah, self defense? Then why is she here?" Dumbledore said, pursing his lips and looking at me from above his glasses. "How do you feel, Professor? Are you horribly wounded?"
"I'm fine, she just disarmed me" Moody growled.
"Leave us. I wish to speak to Miss Malfoy alone." Dumbledore said, shooting Moody and Mcgonallal. Mcgonallal shot me a quick glare as she left, and Moody raised his eyebrow at me.
"What is it you wished to talk about professor?" I said politely, wrapping my hands together in my lap.
"I heard from two different professors that you used wandless, nonverbal magic. Twice." Dumbledore said, pulling his eye glasses down to look at me from above them. "Nonverbal magic takes a great deal of power"
I simply sat there. I didn't deny it, I had used it. I simply sat and looked at Dumbledore.
"And wandless magic is almost non-existent except for a few great warlocks, including myself, so. Miss Malfoy, did you use wandless, nonverbal magic?"
"Yes I did professor" I said, honestly.
"When did you learn this magic?" Dumbledore said,.
"I've had it mastered since I was 11 years old." I said, I fidgeted with my hands in my lap. Why did he ask so many questions?
"You're dismissed." Dumbledore said abruptly.
The next two days flew past quickly. All of the Gryffindor fourth years had been eagerly looking forward to Monday, the eerie feeling I had felt when Dumbledore asked about my magic hadn’t left. The awkwardness between Moody and I would be obvious.
In Defense Against the Dark Arts, I sat next to Harry and pulled out the textbook, and waited. Soon I heard Moody’s signature limp, or stomp. And then he entered the room. I could see the clawed, wooden foot protruding from his long robes.
“You can put those away,” He growled. I narrowed my eyes. He stomped over to his desk and sat down, glowering at me, I glared back, determined not to break eye contact, determined not to show weakness. He continued to glare at me, I raised my eyebrow as a silent dare. “Those books. You won’t need them.”
I put my book back in my bag quietly and looked over to see Ron practically imploding with excitement.
Moody took out a register, shook out his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivels around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.
“Right then,” He said after 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?”
Lupin. That was the Professor Draco would never shut up about.
“But you’re very behind in dealing with curses.” I stiffened, I felt my spine tense, and I saw Moody’s eyes glued to me, my reaction. “So I’m here 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–”
“What? Aren’t you staying?” Ron blurted.
Moody’s magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled. The effect this smile made on Moody’s face made it look even more contorted and strange.
“You’ll be Arthur Weasley’s son, eh?” Moody said. “Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago . . . Yeah, I’m staying for just one year. Special favor to Dumbledore . . . One year, and then back to my quiet retirement.”
He gave a sharp laugh and clapped his gnarled hands together.
“So —- straight to it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I’m supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I’m not supposed to show what illegal Dark curses look like until sixth year. You’re not supposed to be old enough to deal with them until then. But Dumbledore has a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you’re up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you’ve never seen? A wizard who’s about to put an illegal curse on you won’t tell you what he’s about to do. He’s not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watching. You need to put that away while I’m talking Miss Brown.”
Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Paravti her completed horoscope under the desk. Moody’s eye could see through solid wood as well it seemed.
“Do any of you know which curses are most punishable by wizarding law?”
Several hands went in the air, including Ron and Hermiones, Moody pointed out Ron although his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Er", Ron said. “My dad told me about one . . . Is it called the Imperious Curse of something?”
“Ah yes.” Moody said appreciatively. “Your father would know about that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperious Curse” Lucius loved that curse, Father was always more of a killing curse enthusiast, whereas Mother, the Cruciatus Curse was always her favorite.
Moody got up heavily, opened his desk drawer and pulled out a glass jar. Three large spiders were scuttling around in it.
Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so we could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered. ”Imperio!”
The spider leapt from Moody’s hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing back and forth as though on a trapeze. It stretched its legs out rigidly, then did a backflip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto his hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone laughed besides Moody and I. I stared at the spider, I saw its freedom ripped from its grasp.
“Think it's funny?” he growled. “You’d like it, would you if I did it to you?”
The laughter died away almost immediately.
The spider began to ball itself up and then roll itself, over and over again. “I could make it jump out the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats . . .”
Ron gave a shudder, by how he's been reacting, I believe he doesn’t like spiders.
“Years back, there were lots of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperious Curse.” Moody said, looking at me. “Some job for the Ministry, finding out who was acting under the orders of the curse, or who was acting of free will.”
I raised my eyebrow and made steely eye contact with Moody. I know he was talking about my Uncle, Lucius Malfoy, except everyone believed he was my father.
“The Imperious Curse can be fought, and I’ll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone’s got it. Better avoid being hit with it when you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE.”
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
“Anyone else know any others? Any other unforgivable curses?”
Hermione and Neville’s hand rocketed in the air.
"Yes?" Moody said, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse," Neville said in a small, distinct voice.
Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both of his eyes.
"Your name's Longbottom?" He said his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.
Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it on the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.
"The Cruciatus Curse." Moody said. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea." He said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backwards, as far from Moody's desk as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider and muttered. "Crucio"
I flinched. The spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly. My breath caught in my throat as I watched the spider twitch. I couldn't breathe, why couldn't I breathe? I rubbed my hand across my throat.
"Stop it!" Said Hermione shrilly, she grabbed my hand and looked at me. I fought for breath as I kept my eyes locked on the spider. I remembered the crazy look in my mother's eyes, 'Crucio!'
Moody raised his wand. The spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back in the jar.
"Pain." Said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can prefer the Cruciatus Curse . . . That one was very popular once too"
I listened to my racing heart and tried to picture Narcissa. She always could calm me down. I pictured her face and how she used to sing to me, of dragons and dragon riders. My heartbeat began to slow.
"Anyone know any others?" Moody said.
Hermione put her hand in the air.
"Yes?" Moody said, pointing at her.
"Avada Kedavra" Hermione whispered. I looked over at Hermione and noticed her bottom lip began to tremble slightly as she said so.
"Ah" Moody said, another slight smile twisting his lopsided face. "Yes. The last and worst. Avada Kedavra . . . The Killing Curse."
He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle across the wooden surface.
"Avada Kedavra" Moody roared.I flinched away, as a flash of blinding green light hit the spider, and it rolled on its back, unmarked. I started in horror as it twitched one last time and an overwhelming feeling of nausea began to rise from the pit of my stomach.
"Not nice, '' Moody said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. There's one known person who survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Harry's face reddened, he was staring at the black board. I felt as though I was gonna vomit at any moment, I'd seen Lucius use the killing curse before, multiple times. But this, this felt different.
"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point it at me and say the words, and I doubt id get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to show you how to do it. Now if there's no counter curse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE"
I rubbed my eye, why was my face hot? I put my hands in my lap, and leaned back in my chair slightly. The nausea was getting stronger, the feeling of wanting to vomit began to get more intense.
"Now . . . These three curses, Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus —- are known as the unforgivable curses. The use of them on or against another human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against, that's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice, constant, never ending vigilance. Get out your quills and copy this down.
My hand was shaky and my skin paler than normal as we took notes for the rest of the class, I felt clammy. Once the bell rang, I packed up my stuff quickly and began to walk towards my dorm, my legs were shaky and unfeeling.
"Where are you going enya? Are you alright?" Harry asked, placing his hand on my elbow, stopping me from walking away.
"I'm just gonna go to bed" I said quickly, adding in a fake smile. He took his hand off my elbow and I continued to walk to my dorm. I began to hyperventilate as I felt my tie choking me. I loosened my tie and I still couldn't breathe.
Once I got into my dorm, I set my bag and my wand on my bed, I unbuttoned the top four buttons of my shirt, and ripped off my vest.
I continued to hyperventilate, as I started the shower, I felt dirty. I stepped into the freezing water. I felt water pour down my face, into my nose and my mouth.
After a while, I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself. I rubbed my face and looked into the mirror, it had been fixed since I last broke it.
As I stared into the mirror, it was not my face that stared back, but my father's.
"Squeamish at the sight of death?" He sneered, narrowing his eyes.
"No father" I said, assuredly, as though I hadn't almost vomited at the sight of a killing curse.
"Good" He snapped before he disappeared. I put on some new clothes and watch nightstar fly into my window.
"Hello darling" I said, gliding my fingers across her slick feathers, she held a letter in her talons, she nuzzled close to me and snapped at me affectionately with her beak.
I grab the letter from her talons and open it hesitantly, it was from Narcissa.
Gryffindor? Your father always believed you would be a Slytherin, just like him, just like our entire family. I, on the other hand, knew you could never be a slytherin. Slytherins need to possess a lot of traits you don't, and could never have. Such as selfishness, you have never been selfish a day in your life darling. You have and always will be my little lion, no matter what, I will always love you and be by your side. How was your first day of classes? I heard that you attacked professor Moody? I expect a letter back as soon as you can, I understand you're busy, but I wish to communicate with you.
-with much love, your mother Narcissa Malfoy.
YOU ARE READING
Dirty Blood
Fanfiction"What did you call me?" Granger said, confused. "A muggleborn...? That's what you are isn't it?" I said, narrowing my eyes in confusion. "Well yes... nevermind" Granger said, shaking her head. I stuck my hand out...
