Leah Riddle (Book 1)

Chapter Six

"I got Potter to trust me. That's enough to get the other two to hop on board."

"Still, Potter trusting a Slytherin so quickly is bizarre."

"I'll say. The amount of trouble we've given him means we thought he'd never trust one of us in a million years," Blaise grinned, taking his seat. Draco sat down beside him.

"He trusts Leah because she smiles sweetly and bats her eyes to get what she wants. Something none of us have ever done, nor will we," Draco smirked at me.

"Well, then maybe you should since it obviously works," I quipped back. He was going to retort when the doors slammed open and Moody walked in.

"You can put those away, those books. You won't need them," he muttered, looking around with that creepy mechanical eye. I slipped my book into my bag and leaned back, wondering what "Moody" would be teaching us.

"Right then, 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?" he asked. Who the fuck is Lupin? I looked around with raised eyebrows as the class nodded hesitantly, clearly intimidated.

"But you're behind, very behind, on dealing with curses. 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 magic. 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 your sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But, Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he recons 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 be nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful," He said, looking around the room at us.

"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" A couple people raised their hands, including Draco. Moody looked at me expectantly, but called on the Weasel.

"Err, my dad told me about one...the Imperius curse or something," he said.

"Right, now...Miss Loveland," his gaze landed on me and I fought the urge to groan.

"Would you like to demonstrate for us?" he asked me. Did he mean he would curse me, or did he want me to curse someone else?

"Professor?" I asked in confusion.

"Let's see if you can resist, come up here," Moody urged. I sighed and walked to the front of the room. Hermione watched me with a frown. Draco, Pansy, and Blaise were on the edge of their seats.

"Imperio," Barty said, pointing his wand at me. I felt the sensation of a dream world float over me but I brushed it off like Sev had taught me. I heard Moody's voice telling me to do a cartwheel but I just crossed my arms.

"Loveland, spin around three times," he said aloud.

"No," I rolled my eyes with a sigh. He looked at me in surprise and I felt the dream sensation go away.

"Very good job, Miss Loveland," he said, clapping his hands. The class joined in and I saw Pansy high five Draco.

"Can I sit down now?" I asked with a scowl.

"No, stay here for a moment, if you don't mind," he said. I watched as Moody took out a jar of spiders and I inched away as he pulled out the biggest one.