Harry Potter and the Lighting Lord

Chapter 37

He looked at Daphne who had a frown on her face too. So instead of heading for lunch, they stayed behind and approached him.

"Hagrid, can we talk to you?" asked Harry quietly.

"Harry! O' course, wha' can I do fer you?" asked Hagrid.

"Hagrid, I know that you think these creatures, those Blast-Ended Skrewts are interesting, but they are not part of the syllabus for the year and thus you leave us at a disadvantage for our OWLs" said Harry patiently. He was not going to allow them to be attacked by those creatures, so he decided to put a stop to it immediately. "You have also bred a Firecrab with a Manticore; a Class Five beast and this was the result. Let me put it this way; you have blatantly violated the Ban on Experimental Breeding, and if anyone reports you or is injured in class, you could very well be put in Azkaban". Hagrid paled at this. "My advice is to keep those creatures far away from the students and stick to the material provided. There are so many beautiful creatures you can introduce us to, like unicorns. If you bring magical snakes, I don't mind talking to them and translate to the rest of the class. But get rid of those creatures Hagrid. It's for your own good as well as ours."

With that, Harry and Daphne walked back to the castle. They walked into the Entrance Hall and saw the spectacle of Moody bouncing Draco Malfoy, who was transfigured into a ferret. With a smile on their faces, the couple entered the Great Hall for lunch.

The next day, Harry had Defence with the Gryffindors. He entered the classroom and sat next to Neville. They were idly taking when Moody entered the room. After he finished taking the roll call he began.

"So, right to it" said Moody gruffly. "Who can tell me what Unforgivable Curses are?"

Harry's head snapped up. Well, he had no objections with Moody teaching them about them, but he could feel Neville shudder right next to him. He would have to keep an eye on his friend.

Hermione Granger's hand shot up as usual. "There are three" she recited. "They are the worst curses one can perform and use of any one of them on a human being is automatic life imprisonment according to International Wizarding Law."

"Correct" said Moody. "Can anyone name them? Which is the first curse?"

Many people raised their hand and finally, Ron Weasley answered "Ahm, the Imperius Curse?"

"Ah yes" replied Moody. "Your father would know about it. Let's see how it works". With that, he took out a spider from a jar and said "Imperio". The class laughed when the spider found itself on many of their fellow students, but Harry didn't. He watched Moody with narrowed eyes. Explaining about the curses was one thing, but showing them was something else, and he didn't like it.

"You think it is funny, do you?" snapped Moody. "How would you feel if I put it on you and made you do all sorts of things, like commit murder?"

The class became silent once more. "Anyone knows another?" he asked the class.

Neville tentatively raised his hand. Harry was shocked because his friend was shaking from head to toe and he idly wondered if he should take Neville out of the class. "T-the Cruciatus Curse" he said.

Moody's eye twitched when he asked for Neville's name. He went back to the spider, enlarged it and said "Crucio!" The spider twitched horribly as if it was being cut off into separate pieces. Harry saw Neville shake violently and so decided to take action.

Moody was concentrating on the struggling spider until suddenly, the spider was pushed away from his wand, and it landed on the other side of the table. The spider relaxed once the curse was lifted. Moody looked around to spot Harry Potter wearing an expressionless look on his face as he said softly but firmly, "That's enough. I think they've got the gist of how it works."