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I walked slowly into the DADA classroom, nervous and excited about how our first lesson with Moody was going to go, plunking down into the seat beside Harry.
"Alastor Moody. Ex-Auror. Ministry malcontent, and your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. l am here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?" He said gruffly, scribbling his name on the board. When no one was brave enough to ask him any questions he continued. "When it comes to the Dark Arts l believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"
"Three, sir." Hermione answered quietly.
"And they are so named?" He demanded.
"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any-"
He interrupted her. "Will earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. The Ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. l say different! 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!"
I glanced back at Seamus, trying to hide a smile.
"No way, the old Codger can see out the back of his head!" He said, still continuing to stick his gum under the desk quickly.
"And hear across classrooms!" Moody yelled, throwing his piece of chalk at Seamus' head roughly. He then turned to Ron. "Weasley!"
"Yes?" Ron gulped.
"Stand."
Ron stood up slowly as Moody asked him to name an unforgivable curse. "Well, my dad did tell me about one. The imperius curse."
"Your father would know all about that, gave the ministry a fair bit of grief a few years back. Perhaps this will show you why." He turned towards a spider in a glass jar. "Engorgio."
As the spider grew larger, my faith in this class grew smaller. A lump formed in the pit of my stomach as I knew how this class was going to play out.
"Imperio." He forced the spider to float around the room, climbing all over students as everyone laughed, everyone except me.
"Talented isn't she?" He laughed manically. "What should I have her do next? Jump out the window? Drown herself?"
Everyone in the class seemed to realized this was no laughing matter and immediately quieted down.
"Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the lmperius Curse. But here's the rub: How do we sort out the liars?" His eye wandered around the room before landing on Neville. "Another, another. Up, up. Come on. Longbottom, is it? Up. Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for herbology."
