Redamancy (d.m)

Chapter twenty six-the unforgivable curses

It stank in here

The room was dark again, and the stench was even more present. One of parchment and ink, yes, but now there was an addition of something sort of metallic...and salty...blood.

Lots of blood.

I pushed around the eggs and bacon on my plate with my fork, unable to bring myself to eat something the morning after my dream. I felt the concerned gaze of my friends beside me, but tried to ignore them as best I could.

I was silent on the way to our first DADA which was something I had been looking forwards
to, after rumours of his exciting classes spread throughout the school. Harry and I chose a table in the middle of the classroom, while Hermione sat to our right and Ron sat a row behind us. I looked up suddenly, seeing Harry's hand lifting up mine, and placing a granola bar into my palm before folding my fingers closed over it.

"Harry-" I began
"Please just eat it, (y/n), you're worrying me"

So I sighed, peeling back the wrapper and taking a bite of the snack bar. I instantly felt a burst of energy wash through me, and Harry smiled at me gratefully. I ruffled his hair playfully while waiting for our Professor to appear, chatting with him and finishing my granola bar, mocking Harry by returning his previous actions, folding his hand closed over the empty wrapper I had handed him. He grinned, turning in his seat to throw it across the class where it landed neatly inside a trash can.

"Show off"
"Don't be jealous, (y/n)"

I rolled my eyes and twisted back in my chair to face the front of the classroom,, but not before catching the gaze of an extremely agitated Slytherin, who had snapped his quill from his tight grip. Before I had a chance to wonder what Malfoy's deal was, Moody burst into the room, his intimidating presence silencing all conversation.

"You can put those away" he said, pointing to our textbooks, "you won't need them."

I opened the latch of my book bag and slide the textbook back into its compartment, excited for a practical lesson.

"Right then" said Professor Moody, his glass she swivelling around in its socket, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures — you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

Nods of approval were seen all throughout the room at the mention of last year's teacher.

"But you're behind-very behind-on dealing with curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with dark-"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron asked from behind me

Moody looked tentatively at Ron, who shrunk in his seat

"Yeah I'm staying just the one year, special favour to Dumbledore...one year, and then it's back to quiet retirement" he said, clapping his gnarled hands together loudly, "So — straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."