Thick Smoke

Jealousy

The first few days passed in a blur. Herbology was in the morning with Hufflepuffs and nothing was really going on. Unfortunately Care of Magical Creatures was still with Slytherins. 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 stuff about herself or others.

"You will need it in the future," Professor Trelawney told Eliza but she rolled her eyes.

By dinner, Eliza was thinking that maybe she should take Hermione's example and finish the homework before it would pile up.

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

She was quite late because professor Flitwick 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 said but Eliza was sure it was the wand that had control over her.

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

Therefore, she got late for 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 to laugh at the memory; again.

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

"Library." Both boys said in synch.

The class that everyone was looking forward to was Defense against 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 ordinary; maybe a little potty but nothing out of ordinary.

Eliza was wrong. Moody seemed to have a strange behavior and an eye that could see everything, even when it was rolled in the back of his head.

He started the year with the deadly curses because he thought they had to know how they looked in order to defend against themselves. The Imperius Curse, Cruciatus Curse and Avada Kedavra; he passed through all of them and exemplified on spiders. By the end of the class everyone was both thrilled and a bit freaked out of what they saw.

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 realized how horrifying was for Neville.

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

The boy chuckled and nodded.

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

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

"How's school going?"

Cedric caught her in the corridor which made everything very awkward. A few Hufflepuffs turned their heads and stared.