the wrong choice // d.l.m.

twenty four

"alastor moody. ex auror, ministry malcontent, and your new defense against the dark arts teacher."

y/n took in all of professor moodys features. shaggy, dirty blonde hair rested on top of his head while a fake eye sat in his left eye socket. he had a prosthetic leg which gave him a small limp when he walked. he was incredibly intimidating and she knew she didn't want to end up on his bad side. she cleared her throat lightly and draco looked at her, a smirk on his face. he watched as she sat up straighter and instantly put her quill down to give the new teacher all of her attention.

"i am here because dumbledore asked me. end of story, goodbye, the end. any questions?"

the whole class grew silent, staring at moody shyly.

"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?"

y/n stared at the professor with wide eyes. she grew up with spells, hex's, and curses due to her mother's profession. she had always been taught to never use any of the unforgivable curses and was surprised the students would even be learning about them in class.

"three, sir." hermione croaked out, a scared expression on her face.

"and they are so named?" moody turned to the chalk board and began writing.

"because they are unforgivable. the use of any of them will,"

"earn you a one way ticket to azkaban, correct." professor moody finished. "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!"

y/n jumped slightly as he forcefully slammed his piece of chalk down onto a desk. she looked at her boyfriend and he looked just as nervous as her.

"you need to find another place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, mr. finnigan!"

the whole class turned to look at the boy, "no way. the old codger can see out of the back of his head."

moody turned around and threw his chalk at seamus, "and hear across classrooms!"

draco clutched onto their desk tightly, shock written across his perfect face.

moody began to walk closer to the students before spitting, "so which curse shall we see first? weasley!"

ron jumped at the sound of moody's voice, "yes?"

"stand." professor moody instructed, "give us a curse."

ron stood up slowly, trying to not make eye contact with the man in front of him, "well, my dad did tell me about one. the imperius curse."

moody turned away and pulled the glass lid off of a small container. he stuck his hand inside and pulled out a small insect, it's body resembling one of a spider. he pointed his wand at it and said, "engorgio." the creature then grew to the size of his large hand.

still sticking his wand at it, he shouted, "imperio!" using his wand moody directed the bug to land on students desks. it then jumped onto crabbes head as he quickly went to smack it away. the class laughed as the insect tormented several students. draco thought this was one of the funniest things in the world until moody pointed his wand at him, the creature landing directly in the middle of the blonde boys face.

"get it off!" he screamed at y/n who only laughed hysterically at her now frantic boyfriend. moody noticed this and the bug flew onto her arm. she let out a short high pitched scream before pushing the bug off of her.

moody soon brought the creature back to him, placing it in his palm, "scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did you know who's bidding under the influence of the imperius curse."

y/n's stomach did backflips at the sound of you know who's name. her family hardly ever spoke about him. they didn't like to admit it, but all three of them were deathly afraid he would return some day.

"another, another." moody stated as a few hands went up, "longbottom, is it? up, come on."

neville stood up slowly just like ron did, "there's the, um, the cruciatus curse."

"correct, correct! come, come." moody directed the boy over to the creature that now sat on the long desk in the front, "crucio!"

screeches could be heard coming from the bug as it cried out in pain. y/n winced and put her forehead on dracos shoulder, doing all she could to not pay attention to what was happening in front of her.

"stop it!" hermione yelled, "cant you see it's bothering him? stop it!"

moody looked around at all of the sad faces, quickly putting his wand down. y/n watched as he walked over to hermione and set the bug on one of her books.

"perhaps you could give us the last unforgivable curse, miss. granger."

hermione shook her head, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

y/n noticed that hermione was starting to break down so she quickly spoke up, "the killing curse, sir."

alastor whipped his head in y/n's direction and picked up the insect. he walked over to her and dracos desk and instead put the creature in front of her.

"miss. y/l/n, is it?" y/n nodded her head, squeezing dracos hand under the table. she kept her exterior strong and confident, but on the inside she was terrified. she already knew what was about to happen. she could feel the eyes of everyone around her and she began to hold her breath, waiting for the curse to come from her teachers mouth.

"avada kedavra!" the bug fell onto its back, now lying lifeless.

"only one person is known to survive to have survived this curse, and he's sitting in this room."

professor moody soon dismissed class and y/n gathered her things quickly, wanting to leave as soon as possible. she walked out of the door, draco close behind, and was met with hermione who was stood leaned against the wall. y/n tried to walk past her but she called out, "y/n?"

the y/h/c haired girl stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her, "what?"

"thank you for that back there." hermione said as she gave a small smile, "you really did save me."

y/n sighed but threw her a small smile back, "don't mention it, but don't expect it to happen again."

hermione nodded, still smiling. y/n grabbed dracos hand and they both continued walking down the spiraling staircase.