After learning a secret that causes Lyra to question her whole life, she takes solace in the place that brought her the most comfort: The Astronomy Tower.
But what happens when someone arrives after her, seeking the same thing?
Their joint...
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As the first days of the new term passed by, Lyra and her fellow friends had their first Defense against the Dark Arts lesson on a warm Thursday morning, right before lunch, Ron happily pointed out.
The four friends had to rush into the classroom before they were late, and immediately groaned upon seeing they'd be sharing seats with the Slytherins. Lyra didn't mind the Slytherins. If anything, she thought they were greatly misunderstood. But if it weren't for Malfoy and his gang of bullies, she'd have a more delightful reaction to seeing the students adorning green and silver robes.
"You lot are lucky you made it on time," Professor Moody said, facing the opposite direction. When all of them were too stunned to respond, he added, "Well? Are you waiting for Christmas morning or something? Take your seats!"
Moody's order caused the group to look around frantically for empty seats. There were two next to each other towards the middle of the room that Harry and Ron rushed towards. Hermione opted for a seat at the front next to Padma Patil, leaving only one seat left. Her friends gave her glances of pity as she strode to the sole spot remaining, right beside the platinum blonde git himself, Draco Malfoy.
Lyra reluctantly sat in her seat, refusing to spare any bit of her attention towards the boy next to her.
Malfoy scoffed, "Great, I'm stuck with Sinistra for the rest of the year," he said. "I told you we should've sat at the front, Zabini."
"Alastor Moody," the Professor began. "Ex-Auror. Ministry Malcontent. And your new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher.
"I am here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story. Goodbye. The end." He clipped. "Any questions?"
His weird phrasing confused Lyra and her classmates. Everything was stated matter-of-factly and without emotion.
"When it comes to the dark arts... I believe in a practical approach," Moody raised his eyebrows for emphasis. "But first, which one of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"
In a very Hermione-like manner, she took the opportunity to answer his question. "Three, sir."
"And they are so named?"
"Because they are unforgivable," Hermione clipped, almost as if she was upset with herself for knowing the answer to the question. "The use of any one of them will—"
Moody cut her off, "earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct," he said while finishing what he was writing on the chalkboard. "Now, the Ministry says you're too young to learn what these curses do. I say different.
"You need to know what you're up against. You need to be prepared!" He grumbled out, "You need to find another place to put your chewing gum beside the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnigan!"
The whole classroom turned towards Seamus in shock, completely baffled at how Moody was able to see such an action while turned away.
"Blimey. The old codger can see out the back of his head," Seamus whispered to Dean Thomas.
"And hear across classrooms!" Moody bellowed, throwing the piece of chalk at Seamus, who ducked just in time before getting hit right in the face.
The room went silent. Then, Moody continued, "Which curse should we see first? Weasley!"
Ron looked up to Moody in fear, standing up when he was ordered to do so.
"Give us a curse."
Ron looked around at the other students with anxiousness, trying to rack his brain for the names of the curses.
"Well, my dad did tell me about one...the...Imperius curse..."
"Oh yeah... you're father would know all about that," Moody said to Ron. "Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."
Moody retreated back into the front of the classroom where he grabbed a spider-looking creature from a glass container. He casted a spell to increase the size of the creature, then said, "Imperio!"
Moody began to control the creature, moving it about the room and making the students laugh. Some were unfortunate enough to have the creature land on or near them, causing quite some panic.
Even Malfoy ended up with the freaky thing on his face.
"Ew! Get it off me!" Malfoy shouted, grabbing at Lyra's robes as she laughed. "Lyra! Get it off of me!"
The first thing Lyra felt was shock. Did Malfoy just say her first name? She was so shocked in fact that she didn't do anything to help Malfoy get the creature off his face, instead she sat there staring with her mouth agape.
Moody moved on to another student to torment while Malfoy began to wipe his face with his robe, trying to rid it of any germs.
"What are you staring at Sinistra?" Malfoy spat.
"You said my first name." Lyra responded.
He scoffed. "No I didn't. I would never do that."
"You did." Lyra stared at him for a couple of more seconds before she heard Moody say something to get her attention.
"Drown herself?" Moody brought the creature back into the palm of his hand. "Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the Imperius curse. But here's the rub— how do we sort out the liars..." He then looked around the room to find another student to call upon.
Neville ended up raising his hand. He stood up when instructed, and after receiving a complement for Moody on his 'knack for herbology' he provided a curse. "T-there's the um... t-the Cruciatus curse."
"Correct! Correct! Come, come." Moody directed Neville to the front of the class. "Take a little nasty. The torture curse." Then suddenly, "Crucio!"
As the bug writhed in pain, Neville became visibly uncomfortable. This sight made everyone in the class slightly squirm. Everyone was too stunned to say anything, until Hermione spoke up.
"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him? Stop it!"
Moody looked up at Neville and immediately ceded to curse the bug. Moving on, he grabbed the bug and made his way over to Hermione, placing it on her desk.
"Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable curse, Ms. Granger."
Hermione shook her head, eyes glistening with tears.
"No?" Moody said, then, "Avada Kedavra!"
Shock, again. Lyra didn't think her eyes could get any wider. She even noticed a slight look of concern on Malfoy's face as well.
"The killing curse. Only one person was known to have survived it. And he's sitting in this room."
Moody walked over to Harry as all students directed their attention to him as well.
Lyra felt conflicted about this new professor, and overall uncomfortable with how he decided to introduce himself to the class. She ended up unable to pay attention to much else going on, and this behavior followed her throughout the day.
Once she was back in the Gryffindor common room later that evening however, she was ready to let herself relax with her friends.
