Him - A Harry Potter Love Story

Chapter Four

"Harry, let me see your schedule."

Harry hands the piece of parchment over to me, and I hold it next to mine. A smile slowly grows on my face as I compare the writing on the two.

"We all have everything together!" I exclaim. This was perfect - I hate not having classes with them.

"We have Defense Against the Dark Arts first," Ron notices, his mouth filled with food. My smile falls as I think about the new teacher. Something about him makes me really uneasy.

"He certainly seems...interesting," Hermione says, looking up at the head table. Moody isn't touching his food, letting his fake eye dart around, stopping for only a second on a student before moving on.

"What do you think about him?" I ask Harry, turning around. He shrugs, but looks a little troubled, like he's trying to decide just that.

"No idea," is all he says. I turn my attention back to my plate, shoving a piece of bacon into my mouth.

••••••••••

"Good morning, everyone." Moody quickly staggers into the room, moving across the floor to his desk in seconds. "Today I will be teaching you a class that the Ministry wouldn't approve of - one they think you're not ready for."

I glance over at Harry, a little alarmed at his announcement. Harry looks to me as well, his eyebrows raised.

"I say that this is something you all need to know," he grunts. "Does anyone know of the unforgivable curses?"

I notice several people in the room tense up, including Ron, Hermione, and Neville. I've never heard about unforgivable curses, but by the looks on the faces of those around me alone, I can tell why the Ministry doesn't want us to know about them.

Hermione tentatively raises her hand.

"Granger."

"Three curses that are not to be used, sir," she says quietly. "Using any of them could result in severe punishment from the Ministry. They're...well, unforgivable."

"Right you are, Granger," Moody replies. "Five points to Gryffindor. Now, who knows one of them?"

His eye flickers throughout the room, landing on me a little longer than the rest. I can nearly feel my heart beating out of its chest as the glassy orb studies me.

"Miss Winters?"

I shake my head slowly. Why would he call on me?

"What about Weasley? Your father's at the ministry, yes?" Moody quickly moves on to look at Ron, who takes a deep breath before replying.

"The-the imperius curse."

"Very good," he says, walking over to the desk. On it sits a jar that he picks up, unscrewing the lid. I flinch as a spider quickly crawls out of it, onto his hand.

Moody takes his wand out and whispers a spell that causes the spider to grow to be almost the size of his hand. I bite my lip as he lets it crawl onto the table, once again pointing the wand at it and saying "Imperio!"

The spider tremors for a moment, before flying up into the air. I feel my breath catch in my throat as I watch Moody toss the creature around, an amused smile on his face. Others in the class chuckle a little, but I don't understand what's funny about this.

"You lose all control of yourself when you're under this curse," Moody explains, flicking his wand so the spider is flung onto the desk of one of the students in the front row, which happens to be Ron. He jumps in his seat, moving as far away as possible, his hand on the back of the chair as if he's preparing himself to run. "Your body, your thoughts...it takes a lot of strength to resist."

I swallow the lump that has formed in my throat, looking away as he makes it dance around more, the feeling that I'm getting from the idea of the curse indescribable; I'm certainly as uneasy as I am about Moody himself.

Moody sets the spider down, back on his desk.

"Can anyone name another?" he asks, searching the room. His eye lands on Neville, who I suddenly realize looks like he's going to be sick. "Longbottom, is it?"

He doesn't answer for a long moment.

"The cruciatus curse," he chokes out. Moody sends a nod his way, pointing the wand at the spider.

"Crucio!"

I let out a gasp and cover my mouth with my hands as the spider starts to writhe in pain, making a small, terrible, squeaking noise. The same feeling as before floods through me, but far more obvious. Far stronger.

"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him? Stop!"

My head snaps over to Hermione, who's staring at Neville in horror. He sits there on the verge of tears, shaking violently. Moody glances over at Hermione, then Neville, and drops his arm to his side, ending the curse. The spider crumples down on the table, looking close to death.

Moody places his hand on the table, using the wand to push the spider onto his hand. He walks over to Hermione, placing it on her desk.

"And do you know the last curse, Granger?"

She shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes. She knows. I have no idea what it could be, but I'm terrified to find out.

Moody lifts his wand, pointing at the spider one last time.

"Avada kedavra!"

The spider crumples down once again. We all realize that it won't be standing back up.

The room is silent for a long moment before Moody speaks again.

"The killing curse. Only one wizard has ever survived it." Both of his eyes look just past me. "And he is sitting in this room."

Everyone turns. Harry sits there, an unreadable expression on his face. I quickly look away, not wanting to stare.

"Class dismissed. Go have some free time."

Everyone packs up as quickly as possible, Moody asking Neville to stay and talk. I follow Harry out, having to run a little to catch up.

"Harry, are you alright?" I ask softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. He nods, not looking back at me.

"I'm fine."

"Harry." I move my hand to his arm and pull him to the side of the hallway, keeping him from continuing to walk. "I...I-"

"It's okay, Cassie. Honestly." He shrugs a little. "I'm just a little surprised."

I nod understandingly. "Okay. I just wanted to make sure you weren't upset."

"I'm not."

"I know," I say, chuckling a little. A smile comes to his face. I look around a little, seeing a clock on the wall. "We have over thirty minutes until our next class...what do you want to do?"

"Let's just walk. I don't really feel like going anywhere in particular," he says. I smile.

"Okay. We'll just walk."

As we head off, a thought enters my mind.

Why did Moody think I would know any of the curses?

Edited 7/15/18