Always - Welcome to the Wizarding World

Part 12

"Professor Alastor Moody, ex-Auror, Ministry of Malcontent and your new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher. I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?" Moody bellowed throughout the classroom as he ascribed his name on the blackboard in chalk. 

The whole room was silent. He was even more petrifying to be in the same room with than I expected. Zarah and I were both terrified; we were even trying to breathe quietly in fear that he might pick on us. We had both been sat behind Harry and Ron. Luckily for me, Parkinson and one of the Carrows were sat at the back of the classroom, well away from us, and Draco wasn't close enough to talk to me either. I was safe in this lesson. Well, as safe as I could be with a psychopathic teacher standing at the front of the classroom.

"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach" he continued. "But first, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?" A few gasps were let out around the classroom. Amos had told Ced and I only mentioned the Unforgivable Curses to us a few times, and all I knew was that, if you used any one of them, you end up in Azkaban Prison. For life. I was shocked that Moody was asking us this; surely he wasn't allowed to teach us about the Curses just yet!

"Three, sir" Hermione piped up.

"And they are so named?" he asked her.

"Because they are unforgivable." she replied, a catch in her throat as she spoke. These Curses clearly bothered her, they bothered everyone. "The use of any one of them will..."

"Earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct" Moody interrupted, pronouncing every word of the forsaken prison as though he knew it all too well. "Now, the Ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different!" he said, banging his fist on the desk in front of him.

"For once, I'd have to agree with the Ministry" Zarah muttered to me.

"You need to know what you're up against, you need to be prepared! You need to find another place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr Finnigan!" he shouted. Seamus Finnigan was sat right at the back of the classroom and Moody's back was turned, so God knows how he saw Seamus putting his chewing gum there!

"Aah, no way. The old codger can see from the back of his head" Seamus murmured. Moody swiveled around and threw the white chalk across the classroom at Finnigan's head, but he ducked just in time.

"And hear across classrooms!" Moody bellowed. He was a frightful man, my hands started to shake whenever he raised his voice. "So, which curse shall we see first? Weasley!" he ordered.

"Yes?" Ron whimpered, rising from his chair.

"Give us a curse" Moody requested. Ron was shaking just as I was, but he spoke nevertheless.

"Well, my dad did tell me about one. The Imperius curse" he explained. Moody nodded, his false eye wobbling in its socket.

"Oh, yes. Your father would know all about that. Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why." Moody stalked over to his desk and took a spider-like insect out of a jar, cooing at it as he did so. He whipped out his wand and directed it at the insect.

"Engorgio. Imperio!" he uttered. The spider grew about three sizes and then, as Moody moved his wand, the insect flew onto Neville and Dean's desk, making them flinch and squirm. He then moved it onto Crabbe's roundish face, making it crawl all over him and causing everyone to burst into laughter. "Don't worry, she's completely harmless!" he insisted as everyone laughed at the comical insect. Moody moved it onto Parvati's hand and then hovered it over Ron's head, causing him to squeal. I started guffawing along with the rest of the class. "But if she bites, she's lethal!" he teased, dropping it onto Ron's head, making him scream. Draco starting laughing very loudly, causing Moody's attention to switch to him.

"What are you laughing at?" he said, making the spider fly over onto Draco's nose. I started to laugh even louder at that as he started screaming "get it off me, get it off me!" to Goyle who sat there laughing helplessly.

"Not such a big tough guy now, is he?" Zarah giggled. Moody started laughing hysterically as well.

"Talented, isn't she? What shall I have her do next? Jump out the window." Moody said, hovering her over a cauldron of boiling water. "Drown herself". The class fell silent. This curse wasn't as funny as it looked, now I understood why we were being taught this. Imperio was life-threatening and people had died because of it. He hovered the insect back over to him and let it rest on 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 problem, how do we sort out the liars?" he asked rhetorically. He seemed to know a lot about this and clearly felt very strongly about it, he was a rather brilliant wizard, no matter how fearsome. "Another, another" he requested. A handful of students raised their hands, including Neville Longbottom, who was two seats in front of me and Moody selected him. "Longbottom, is it?" he asked. Neville nodded. "Up. Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for Herbology" he said as Neville rose from his seat. Neville nodded again.

"Th...there's the, erm, the Cruciatus Curse" he told him nervously.

"Correct, correct! Come, come. Particularly nasty" Moody said as Neville walked cautiously with him back to the exhausted insect. I had a feeling that this curse was personal to Neville, I had heard that his parents were in a mental institution. Maybe this curse had a hand in it? 

Professor Moody directed his wand back at the insect. "The Torture curse" he murmured under his breath. "Crucio!" he bellowed. The insect starting squealing and squeaking, pressing it's body into the table in pain. It wanted to die to stop the pain, it wanted to kill itself. Neville stood there fixated, flinching at every move the insect made to cease the agony. I was right, the poor boy did know it all too well. I felt helpless and had to turn away; this was too disturbing to watch. Hermione rose from her seat abruptly, a distressed look on her face.

"Stop it! Can't you see, it's bothering him? Stop it!" she screamed. Professor Moody looked around the classroom; everyone was on the edge of their seats, including me. He removed his wand and the insect fell down, Neville exhaled loudly, his eyes shimmering with tears. Professor Moody let the insect crawl onto his large, hairy hand and he cleared his throat, walking over to Hermione's desk and placing the insect on her pile of books.

"Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Miss Granger?" he requested. Hermione looked up at him, tears in her eyes and shook her head slowly. "No?" She shook her head again. Moody whipped out his wand and shouted "Avada Kedavra!" and the insect died, free from suffering. The whole room echoed with this, the worst of all curses and the hissing noise that came from the insect's body until its last breath was released. I looked ahead of me at the back of Harry's head. He stared at the dead insect's carcass as Professor Moody walked back to the front of the classroom, leaving it lying there on Hermione's books. "The Killing Curse. Only one person has been known to have survived it and he's sitting in this room" Moody uttered, stalking over to Harry's desk and staring down at him patronizingly. Harry looked up at him in fear and Moody's tongue flicked out of his mouth slightly. I'd noticed that he did this a lot, like a nervous tick of some sort. He produced a bottle from his coat and drank from it, taking large gulps but looking like he had to endure it, not enjoy it. He placed it in his breast pocket and hobbled back over to his desk. Harry trembled in his seat and I just sat there in awe. 

This was my first lesson at Hogwarts and I had witnessed something die in front of me. 

This was the first time since I'd arrived that I'd missed home.