Leah Riddle (Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-One

"No, Hermione, it's just a potion I created. I do this kind of thing for fun... it's supposed to be calming. I just need to calm down, as you know," I smoothly lied. Draco and Pansy seemed impressed.

"Would you like to sit with us?" Potter asked, smiling as he looked at the glares Draco and Pansy were giving me. I was about to make up some lie, but just then Moody burst in, ushering the trio into their seats. I smiled sadly and shrugged. We pulled out our books and Moody waved them away.

"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 this Death Eater 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. I frowned. I never learned about anything but boggarts and werewolves. The rest of the class, however, seemed to know what he was talking about.

"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 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 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 of people raised their hands, including Draco to my surprise. Barty 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...Leah, 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 coaxed. I sighed and walked to the front of the room. The trio sent me a worried look and Draco and Pansy were watching with wide eyes.

"Imperio," Moody said, pointing his wand at me. I felt the sensation of a dream world float over me but I brushed it off. I heard a voice in that was telling me to do a cartwheel but I just scowled and crossed my arms.

"Leah, spin around three times," I heard his voice say out loud, angrily.

"No," I snapped. He looked at me in surprise and I felt the dream sensation go away.

"Very good job, Ms. 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 know I was supposed to do whatever the curse giver instructed, but my parents taught me how to overcome the imperius curse. I learned quickly once my parent's imperiused me to do household chores like a house elf. Moody took out a jar of spiders and I inched away as he pulled out the biggest one in the jar.