Ginny's Sixth Year

Chapter 5

After all of the talk about how evil my family is, I was glad I had saved George's letter to read after Muggle Studies. I unfolded the letter and began to read.

Ginny,

This is George Weasley. You can know it's me because when I lost my left ear, I made the joke "I'm holey."

Fred was very distressed to get a letter like that 3 hours in to your Hogwarts education. The Carrows are hard-core Death Eaters. We promised to write serious letters, but how can I stay serious when I have something funny to tell you? I swear Fred sleeps with your letter under his pillow. He won't admit it, though. Anyway, back to serious.

The Carrows can't do much more to you than make you write lines; not under McGonagall's watch. I wouldn't worry about your detentions. I hope you're giving them a hard time, Ginny. Do better than we did with Umbridge. I'm counting on you!

Have fun,

George

I don't know why, but this letter scared me. The fact that George joked more than Fred was unusual to say the least. Fred was scared for me? This year could be worse than I thought.

I arrived in the DADA classroom, thinking about my family and how worried they were for me. Finally, Professor Carrow snapped me out of my funk.

"This is not Defense Against the Dark Arts class. This is Dark Arts." I thought Neville had been kidding. "You will not need your books.

"Now, what can you tell me about the Imperius Curse?" All the Slytherins' hands shot up. I slowly raised mine. "Weasley!" Carrow barked. "What do you know?"

"The Imperius Curse gives the caster total control of the victim. It is one of the three Unforgivable Curses." Goodness, I sounded like Hermione.

"Right," Carrow stated simply. "Now, my job is to teach you the Dark Arts. We are going to practise the Imperius Curse on each other. Pair up."

I immediately dashed to the other side of the room, where Colin Creevey was sitting. Surely, he wouldn't cast the curse on me? I wouldn't cast it on him. I was smart enough to know that if I got caught casting the curse, I would end up in Azkaban. 

"Now, I want both partners to say 'Imperio' like you mean it. Whoever casts the Curse faster gets to control the other person," Carrow explained with glee. "On my count. One, two, THREE!"

"IMPERIO!" shouted most of the class. Since I didn't want to end up in Azkaban, I didn't utter the curse. Unfortunately, I got hit with Colin's curse.

The Curse was a pleasant sensation, but it reminded me far too much of Riddle. I wasn't aware of what I was doing exactly, and I was completely numb. I couldn't hear anything, or really see anything for that matter. It was like all my senses had shut down; I felt as if I was in a dream. 

Suddenly, I heard a powerful voice inside my head. Draw your wand, the voice said. I felt compelled to obey. I drew my wand. Whack yourself with your wand until I tell you to stop, the voice continued. Once again, I had to do what this voice said. The strangest thing, however, was that I couldn't feel the mild sting that you often feel when you whack yourself with a springy wooden stick. I, in fact, couldn't feel anything at all.

This continued for the rest of the class. When I finally woke up, I found myself falling. I seemed to have been standing on my head. The rush of pain from hitting myself with a wand for half an hour hit me all at once. Is this how the people coming out of the Imperius Curse after a long period of time felt? Confused and feeling any pain inflicted on you all at once? I didn't want to know. 

I stumbled out of the class feeling very disoriented. It was almost detention time, so I quickly made my way to the Great Hall. I had ten minutes to eat. 

"How was Muggle Studies, Ginny?" Neville asked as I sat down. "You look rather pale."

"I am never doing that again, no matter what anyone says," I replied, barely aware that Neville had asked me a question.

"You alright?"

"Oh, sorry, what did you ask?"

"How were the Carrows?"

"Torture. I had to go under the Imperius Curse."

"Yikes!" Neville responded sympathetically. "You only have 10 minutes until your detention, Ginny! You'd better eat something."

"I'm not hungry," I moaned.

I left the table, said a quick hello to Luna, and made my way back to the Dark Arts room. I would write Fred and George later.