FINITE | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire [4]

𝘅𝗶𝘅 | 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝘀

The next day passed rather uneventfully. No more bouncing ferrets or human transfigurations, but Neville had managed to melt his cauldron in Potions again. This must have been the sixth time it had happened. Snape gave Neville detention, and Neville returned that evening in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads. Gwen and Hermione kindly taught Neville the Scouring Charm, to help him remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.

  They all knew that Snape was in a foul mood because, once again, he had failed to get the post for Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Snape had always disliked the Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers, and often made a point of it, but around Moody, Snape appeared strangely wary. He seemed very hesitant to show his animosity, and whenever Gwen had spotted them passing either in the corridors or at the staff table at meal times, Snape seemed to be making a point of steadfastly avoiding Moody's eyes, both normal and magical.

  'Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad,' Ron said, on their way to their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, 'and bounced him all around his dungeon...'

  The Gryffindor fourth years were all so excited for their first lesson with Professor Moody, that they had all arrived early and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person who was missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time.

  'Been in the--'

  'Library,' Gwen, Harry, and Ron finished for her.

  When the bell rang, they filed into the classroom and hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, and waited. The whole class was unusually quiet.

  They heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps before they saw him. When he entered the room, he looked frightening as ever, his clawed foot just barely visible beneath his robes.

  'You can put those away,' he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, 'those books. You won't need them.'

  The class all returned their books to their bags, Ron looking thoroughly excited, and Hermione appearing somewhat disappointed.

  Moody took out a register, shook his long grey hair from his twisted face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye whirred around, focusing on each student as they 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, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?'

  There was a general murmur of yeses around the class.

  'But you're behind-- very behind-- on dealing with curses,' said Moody, '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--'