The Wolf's Lion ~ Harry Potter (Editing)

Chapter Nine | Moody is Definitely Mad

Ariana was situated beside Hermione in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She had mixed feelings about the room.

During their first year, Professor Quirrel had the room. It smelled so strongly of garlic that it gave Ariana a headache. The Professor had been convinced that a vampire he met in Romania was going to come after him, although it did not.

Professor Lockhart, a complete and utter vain fraud, taught them nothing about defence at all. His walls were adorned with massive portraits of himself, which Ariana thought was absolutely ridiculous.

Of course, Remus was the only competent teacher they had been taught by. He had a array of creatures in the class and his office, including a Grindylow, which Ariana had first-hand experience with.

Now, the class was sprinkled with jars of insects crawling about inside them. Mad-Eye limped about the front of the class, chalk in his hand in order to write on the black board.

"Alastor Moody," he grumbled, sprawling his name on the board. "Ministry malcontent. And your new defence against the dark arts teacher. I'm here because Dumbledore asked me, end of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?" He looked about at the class and no one raised their hand in fear of getting it bitten off. "When it comes to the dark arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many unforgivable curses there are?"

"Three sir," Hermione answered.

"And they are so named?"

Hermione replied immediately, "Because they are unforgivable. Use of any one of them will..." 

"Will earn you a one way ticket to Azkaban. Correct. Now the ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against, you need to be prepared -" He turned to write on the board "- you need to find somewhere else to put your chewing gum other than the underside of your desk Mr Finnigan!"

"Aw no way, the old codger can see out the back of his head," Seamus groaned in disbelief, and he soon came to regret it.

Ariana moved her head slightly as a stick of white chalk flew past it, smacking the boy a couple of desks behind her. She was truly beginning to question the sanity of this man.

Mad-Eye spun around, glaring daggers at Seamus. "And hear across classrooms! So, which curse shall we see first? WEASLEY!"

"Yes?" Ron stuttered, shocked at their teacher's sudden shout.

"Stand."

Ariana watched Ron slowly rise, shooting a fearful look at Harry. She so hoped that her friend wasn't about to get chalk lobbed in his face.

"Give us a curse," said Mad-Eye, standing in front of Ron and Harry's desk.

"Well, my dad did tell me about one... The imperious curse," Ron responded, his face sheepish as their Professor eyed him.

Mad-Eye nodded slightly. "Ahhh yes, your father would know all about that. Gave the ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."

Ariana shared a glance of concern with Hermione; surely he wasn't about to perform an Unforgivable Curse on something, or even worse, one of them.

He popped open a jar, scooping a spider out its depths. He used an engorging spell to make its body swell slightly, so the class coukd clearly see it. Ariana was correct: He used a curse.

"Imperio," said Mad-Eye, the spider's entire body at the complete mercy of Mad-Eye.

He send the spider sound the class, landing on terrified students' faces. Ariana hoped it wasn't about to land on her face; she pitied the spider, since it was under a terrible curse.