Harry Potters Twin Book Four

Foreign Schools

I rolled out of bed and stretched my arms and legs. I had fell asleep in my uniform and it wasn't agreeing with me.

"I told you that you should have changed," Dani's muffled voice said from under the heap of blankets on the bed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I lied.

There was a shreik from inside the bathroom and the door banged open, the sound making Hermione, Dani, Padma and I jump. We all whipped around to see Lavender with a towel wrapped around her and her hair full of shampoo that smelled lie lavender. She was holding out Unicorn and Faun as though they were infected.

"Keep your cats out of the shower, Nixie," Lavender said grumpily. "I keep stepping on them."

She dropped them and went back in the bathroom.

"That was dramatic," Hermione said, watching the cats play fight.

"Get dressed," I said, throwing her clothes to her. "Harry and Ron should be awake by now."

After we got dressed we traveled down to the common room to find a grumpy Ron sitting on the couch next to the fire.

"G'Morning Ron," Dani said, brushing her black hair away from her eyes.

"Harry left without telling me," Ron grumbled.

"He probably went to breakfast," Hermione said with a frown. "You don't think he's still upset about Sirius, do you?"

"Most likely," I said.

*~*

"

"That was a lie, Harry," said Hermione sharply over breakfast, when he told her, Ron, Dani, Bonnie and I that he went to the Owlery and sent Sirius a letter saying that we imagined our scars hurting and that he didn't need to come.. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting and you know it."

"So what?" said Harry. "He's not going back to Azkaban because of me and Nixie."

"Drop it," said Ron sharply to Hermione as she opened her mouth to argue some more, and for once, Hermione heeded him, and fell silent.

Our lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts.

To our surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of us in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether we could resist its effects.

"But - but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Hermione uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said - to use it against another human was -"

"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way - when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely - fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."

He pointed one gnarled finger toward the door. Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. Harry and Ron grinned at each other while Dani and I petted her back soothingly. We knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson.

Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. I watched as, one by one, my classmates did the most extraordinary things under its influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.