Immortal Magic (Book 1)

Chapter Forty-Two

Allison's Point of View.

"That was a lie, Harry," Hermione said firmly across the Gryffindor table. "You didn't imagine your scar hurting."

The four of us were sitting at breakfast while owls swooped overhead delivering the morning mail. Harry had just admitted that he'd written to Sirius again, telling him the scar pain had been nothing.

"So what?" Harry muttered. "At least now he won't come charging back and get himself caught because of me." Hermione opened her mouth to argue, but Ron and I exchanged a look before both turning to her.

"Drop it," Ron and I said at the same time. Hermione frowned at us, clearly unhappy, but eventually sighed and nodded.

About a week and a half later, we found ourselves standing in Defence Against the Dark Arts while Professor Moody limped slowly around the classroom.

The desks had all been shoved to the edges of the room with magic, leaving a wide open space in the centre.

"But you said those curses were illegal," Hermione said nervously as Moody rolled his sleeves up. Moody's magical eye swivelled sharply toward her.

"They are illegal to use against another human," Hermione continued quickly. "Dumbledore wants you all to understand what these curses feel like," Moody interrupted gruffly. "Better to experience them here than out there."

He leaned heavily on his staff. "And if any of you would rather stay ignorant and let some dark wizard control your mind someday, the door's right there."

Hermione immediately went red. "I didn't mean I wanted to leave," she muttered. Moody ignored her. One by one, he placed students under the Imperius Curse.

Dean Thomas ended up hopping around the room while loudly singing the school song. Lavender Brown spent nearly five minutes pretending to be a squirrel while the class laughed helplessly.

Even Neville, poor Neville, performed an entire sequence of gymnastic flips he would never have attempted willingly. Then Moody's scarred face turned toward me.

"Your turn, Miss Weasley." I slowly walked into the centre of the room. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Harry watching me carefully, concern already written across his face.

"Imperio." The moment the spell hit me, warmth spread through my entire body. Everything felt distant. Weightless.

Every anxious thought, every worry, every lingering irritation simply melted away. Do a back handspring. Moody's voice echoed smoothly through my mind.

I shifted automatically, crouching slightly as if preparing to move. And then something snapped. A memory surfaced suddenly. Jasper standing over me in the Room of Requirement.

"Accept the pain, Allison," Jasper had said calmly while circling me as I struggled to breathe on the floor. "If you fear it, it controls you. If you accept it, you control it."

My muscles had screamed in agony from training, but he'd forced me back onto my feet anyway. Slowly, I had learned to ignore the pain. To push through it. The memory shattered through the haze in my head.

Do the back handspring. "No," I whispered under my breath. DO IT. "No." Something deep inside me fought back hard enough to break the floating sensation completely.

Suddenly, the classroom snapped back into focus.I realised I was crouched low to the ground, shoulders tense, body poised like I was ready to attack someone.

Moody's normal eye narrowed while his magical eye spun wildly. Then, unexpectedly, he smiled. "Interesting."

The entire class stared at me. "Miss Weasley fought the curse," Moody announced loudly. "And her vampire instincts reacted immediately once she realised someone was trying to control her."