Harry Potter and the Bucket List

Year 4 - 3

"Hard to say. It could also be the result of your unique form of occlumency."

Either way, Tom was in control of my body while Moody kept trying to cast the spell. He didn't do much, just stand there and coldly stare at Moody. We could both hear the command to jump onto the desk, but neither of us felt compelled to do it.

A couple of minutes passed and the assault stopped, abruptly giving me control back over my body.

"That was weird," I muttered out loud.

"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice, "Look at that, you lot! Potter fought and beat it. We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention—watch her eyes, that's where you see it—very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

It was a very long class. We both found it irritating to be jerked back and forth in control. Tom theorized the Imperius Curse could only control one soul at a time, and so when a body held two souls it forced whichever soul it was trying to control into a submissive state. Interesting.

Personally, I had always assumed the Imperius took control over the nervous system and could somehow dissociate the subconscious mind from the conscious mind. The idea that it instead controlled one's soul was rather alarming.

Of course those were simply theories. It would be hard to test the extent of the Imperius Curse while attending Hogwarts.

I was rather glad I did not experience it the same as canonical. I remembered Harry described it as a dreamy state which I correlated to being severely dissociated.

I had plenty of experiences dealing with that in my previous life. I did not savor the thought of going through anything similar again. Even if it was described as "pleasant" it still forcibly altered the state of my mind and ripped away my emotions. No thanks.

Life went on.

I was tragically forced to wake up before dawn in order to get my necessary time with Madame Willow in our ongoing tennis tournament. Not all the babeh snakes were ready to dedicate their exercise on top of their workload—Blaise and Pansy dropped out—but those that remained did their best.

The castle was in overdrive as people prepared to welcome the new schools on October 30th. The House Elves cleaned every nook and cranny, the professors were stricter than normal, and all any of the students ever talked about was the tournament.

When we went down to breakfast on the morning of the thirtieth of October, we found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hung from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts House: red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger, and snake united around a large letter H.

The whole day was highly disruptive for classes, as none of the students could invest themselves. It was clear all they could think about was the arrival of the other schools.

When it was finally time to meet the delegations the students were lined up outside in the chilly air. Daphne, Tracey, and I huddled together in the sharp cold winds that blew through the courtyard.

We must have waited fifteen minutes for Beauxbatons to arrive—and yes, they were all very pretty—and another twenty for Durmstrang to arrive—and yes, there were fangirls and fanboys squealing when everyone saw Krum.

The Hogwarts students were finally allowed back inside the warmth after what felt like for-friggin-ever. We followed behind the Durmstrang party, and I could hear the excited chatter of the students about Viktor Krum.