Slytherin Royalty (Draco Malfoy)

v) Avada Kedvra

We walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts not knowing what to expect. Remus is not here anymore and Moody is supposed to be mad. We'll see, I guess.

I sit down with Draco while Blaise and Pansy sit behind us. Once the whole class is settled Moody speaks up.

"You can put those away." He indicates our books. "You won't be needing them." Draco and I exchange a confused glance as we put them away. I can't tell if it is a good or bad thing.

"Right then." He says. "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?"

There is a murmur of agreement through the class.

"But you’re behind - very behind - on dealing with curses." Moody says. "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-"

"You aren't staying?" Ron blurts out.

Moody observes Ron carefully. "You'll be Weasley's son, eh? Yeah, I’m staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore… One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gives a harsh laugh, and then claps his gnarled hands together.

"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."

"Why does that not sound like Dumbledore?" I mutter under my breath. Draco gives me a side look. He slightly shakes his head to make sure I don't say anything.

"Do any of you know how many unforgivable curses there are?" Moody asks. My hand shoots up but Hermione says, "Three, sir."

I roll my eyes at her though she can't see me. "And they are?" Moody asks and points to Ron.

"Er......my dad did tell me about one. T.....The Imperius Curse." Ron stutters out.

"Ah yes." Moody says appreciatively. "Your father would know that. Gave the ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody pulls a spider out of a jar and casts the curse on it. It's legs start flailing about and the class starts laughing.

"You think it's funny do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you? Total control." Moody raises his eyebrows and the spider balls itself up and rolls over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, make itself go down one of your throats...."

He puts it on Ron's hand and he whimpers a little. He makes it dangle on different people and everyone starts laughing again. Draco laughs hardest until Moody puts the spider on his face.