Lucinda Evans - still in progress

Chapter 5 - My first DADA class

That morning at breakfast I sat next to Merope and I told her about all the fun stuff she missed the day before. 

"He turned him into a ferret?" she asks in disbelieve with clear amusement in her eyes. 

"Shh!" I look over at were Draco is seated to make sure he didn't here us. He's talking to that Pansy girl so I turn back to Mer with a smile on my face. "Not so loud. He could hear us. But yes, he really did. It's was really funny."

"I wish I could have seen it," she mocks pouting. Then her eyes light up and she smirks, "Was he cute?"

My face starts turning red. I hate it how red I turn when I blush. "Mer! Don't ask stupid questions," I hit her arm and pretend to focus on the food in front of me while trying to calm down so the blush goes away.

Merope starts laughing really loudly. I glance quickly to Draco and see him looking with squinted eyes with suspicion. I give Mer another hit on her arm but she only starts laughing louder and I start blushing redder. 

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My first class today was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Merope and I enter the classroom and see it's still empty so we can freely choose where we want to be seated. Mer takes a place in the back corner of the class. In the front of the class, on the teacher's desk is a pile of copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self- Protection. I walk over and take two, when I hear footsteps coming closer I go back to the last row of the classroom and take a seat next to Merope. 

Groups of students slowly entered the room. They're clearly excited for this class. I've also already heard a lot of rumors about this class, mostly of Draco who isn't very fond of Professor Moody. When everybody was inside it was unusually quiet, waiting in anticipation. Soon we hear Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he enters the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. We could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from under- neath his robes.

"You can put those away," he grows, stomping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them." Mer and I look surprised at each other and back to the rest of the class to see what they are doing. The students in front of us put their book on the ground. Confused I put my book inside my backpack. How does he plan to teach if we're not using our books?

Professor Moody takes out a register and begins to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swivels around, fixing upon each student as he or she answers. When the last person had declared themselves present he pauses for a long time before speaking up again.

"Right then, 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?" There follows a general murmur of assent. "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 —"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ronald Weasley blurts out.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Professor Moody asks. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

Professor Moody starts laughing and claps in his hands before continuing. This man is giving me the creeps.

"So — straight into 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 you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got 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 isn't going to 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 watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."