Thick Smoke

Hungry for Glory

The first few days passed in a blur. Herbology was in the morning with the Hufflepuffs, and nothing was really going on. Unfortunately, Care of Magical Creatures still had Slytherin students, but Hagrid was getting better at teaching.

Divination was in the afternoon, and it was just as dreadful as before. Eliza took her seat next to Neville and drifted off for most of the lesson. She wasn't one to look at the stars and planets in order to find out things about herself or others.

"You will need it. Your past and present are intertwined," Professor Trelawney told Eliza, but she simply rolled her eyes and completely ignored her.

By dinner, Eliza was thinking that maybe she should take Hermione's example and finish her homework before it started piling up.

"What's going on? Why is Ron looking so happy?" Eliza asked once she sat down.

She was quite late because Professor Flitwick had just happened to find her walking in the corridor and decided to give her some piece of advice.

"Control your wand, don't let it control you. You should have learned that first," he had said, but Eliza was sure it wasn't really about control.

Whenever she swayed her wand, her arm would sting and she would freeze. Her brain wasn't even able to connect the movements properly and register what she was doing. With Sirius, it felt more natural, and she would use charms he had learned with Remus, but at school, she was helpless.

Therefore, she had missed the show.

"Malfoy said some nasty things about Mr. Weasley, but then Moody came up and transfigured him into a ferret before swaying him around. It was amazing!" Harry explained while Ron started laughing at the memory.

"And I missed it..." Eliza pouted before she suddenly noticed something else. "Where is Hermione?"

"Library," both boys said in unison.

The class that everyone was looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, with the interesting new professor, Moody. It came on Tuesday, and the fourth-year Gryffindors were there early.

When Eliza arrived, she was surprised to see them standing quietly and waiting for the lesson to begin. She walked inside and took the seat behind Lavender. Eliza wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary; maybe a little craziness, but nothing too unusual.

Eliza was wrong. Moody had strange behaviour and an eye that seemed capable of seeing everything, even when it rolled into the back of his head.

He started the year with the Unforgivable Curses because he thought they had to know what they looked like in order to defend against them. The Imperius Curse, Cruciatus Curse, and Killing Curse; he went through all of them and demonstrated their effects on spiders. By the end of the class, everyone was both thrilled and a bit freaked out by what they had seen.

Poor Neville was probably the most affected; he still looked terrified.

Professor Moody walked out and told Neville to follow him. Eliza could only guess that Moody had realized how horrifying the lesson had been for Neville.

"Seeing him up close must have been traumatizing," Eliza whispered, leaning towards Harry.

The boy chuckled and nodded.

By the time classes ended, Eliza was sure she wouldn't survive another week if they continued like that.

Unfortunately, homework piled up just as she had imagined, and it became incredibly hard to concentrate on anything but school. She barely made time to write letters to her father and Remus before she found herself buried in homework again.