Forever and Always Potter

4.8

The next day, we had our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class with the new Professor Moody. Kat, Georgina, and I hurried into three chairs right next to each other, we took out our copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Draco took the seat in front of us right next to Crabbe and Goyle.

Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. We could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes."You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

I was hesitant to close my book, what would we be doing. "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 counter curses 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 Rosier, when I'm talking." 

Georgina jumped, she was showing Kat a mood ring her mother had sent her. "So . . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's, Hermione's, and I's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Georgina."Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one. . . . Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?""Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!" The spider started tap dancing then Moody made it fly to land on a very fearful Ron's desk. The class, especially Draco, burst into laughter at his quivering face.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled, the spider flew to land on Draco's nose, "get it off, get it off," he screeched. The class fell into further laughter, "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"The laughter died away almost instantly."Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats . . ." Kat shuddered at this, Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and I knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will."The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?" The usual hands flew into the air again, and to my surprise so did Neville's. Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix onNeville."There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes."Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move."The Cruciatus Curse," said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider."Engorgio!"The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula.

Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. I cringed at the thought of the pain the spider must have been in, Kat put her head in her lap unable to watch it anymore.

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly, Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch."Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar."Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse. . . . That one was very popular once too."Kat, it's ok, its over," I whispered she looked up, was she crying? "Right . . . anyone know any others?"

I turned to look at Harry, it seems like the rest of the class had a similar idea. I raised my hand hesitantly, "Yes?" said Moody, looking at me."Avada Kedavra," I whispered.Several people looked uneasily at me, Draco turned around and raised his eyebrows.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra . . . the KillingCurse."He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.Moody raised his wand, "Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of green light, the spider rolled back, dead. "Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no counter curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

The entire class shifted to look at Harry, but I stayed looking at the spider. That was how my parent's died, they saw a green light and then boom they were dead. As unsettling as it was, I felt a rush of relief. My parents didn't die a painful death, it was quick.

Moody dismissed us and Georgina rushed to the library, Kat and I decided to do our homework in the court yard because it really was a beautiful day. "You know it's ironic," she said as we set out books down, I raised my eyebrows and she continued, "we learned about the curses with Georgina and Draco." I sat on the grass next to her,. "what do you mean?"She looked at me dumbfounded, "you don't know," I shook my head, "both Georgina and Draco's father claimed to be under the imperius curse while You-Know-Who was in power." Lucius Malfoy I believed, but how have I never heard about Georgina's father.

"I though Georgina's uncle was the Death-Eater and her father was completely innocent." "Her uncle Evan Rosier was terrible, one of You-Know-Who's most loyal followers, but her father was caught at a crime scene but their family payed for that to stay out of the papers. When he was tried he claimed to be under the imperius curse from his brother and he was proclaimed innocent."

Why was I just now hearing about this, I had been friends with Georgina for years. "What crime scene?" I asked curiously,