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BELLA AND HER FRIENDS had decided that they were going to do everything they could to win Mad-Eye Moody's affection. Bella had suggested the idea, as she had her own personal motivations for it – she'd like to get comfortable enough with the eccentric man to ask him why she and Harry had both been able to resist the Imperius Curse without feeling intimidated by him or his wandering eye.
Her friends agreed without a second thought, stating their awe and intrigue with the notorious professor, so they'd spent the rest of September trying to be active participants in his class, doing their homework thoroughly, and acting in the ways that they thought star students like Hermione must've.
Moody was completely unreceptive to all of this.
That was why they were sitting in the Common Room on the first of October, trying to devise a more strategic plan to make him favour them. They'd just found out that the students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be arriving at the end of the month, so they were running out of time – they had to make him like them before everyone was swept up in the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament.
"We could Imperio–"
"That's illegal," Victoria interrupted, and Eva huffed, crossing her arms and sitting back against her armchair.
"What if we just tell him that we really like him?" Nigel suggested, receiving four looks of disdain and a pat on the back from Colin.
"Have you not been sitting in Defense Against the Dark Arts for the past month, Nigel?" Bella asked. "That would never work."
Ginny nodded. "This is Mad-Eye Moody, not Flitwick or Sprout."
Nigel groaned and rolled his eyes. "Well, alright, what's your grand idea then?"
Crickets.
Bella sighed and stood to walk a lap around the Common Room, hoping it would wake up some part of her brain that was just dormant at the moment. The room was mainly empty, except for her group of friends, a couple of first years, and the Weasley twins talking hushedly in a corner.
They eyed her warily as she approached them, both sitting up straight and immediately stopping their conversation, making Bella roll her eyes. "I already know what you're talking about, you can resume your plot, I'm just passing through."
Fred raised his eyebrows in obvious doubt as George asked, "How do you know?"
"You two should really be careful about where you discuss your revenge plans," she dropped her voice to a mock whisper. "Next time, I'd suggest not talking about it in the owlery. I overheard you when I was sending a letter to Si – somebody."
