The WizaGod Tournament

Chapter 5

“So . . . do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by Wizarding law?” Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron’s and Hermione’s. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

“Err,” said Ron tentatively, “my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?”

“Ah, yes,” said Moody appreciatively. “Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse.” Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered,

“Imperio!” The spider leapt from Moody’s hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, and then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. Everyone was laughing - everyone except Moody.

“Think it’s funny, do you?” he growled. “You’d like it, would you, if I did it to you?” The laughter died away almost instantly.

“Total control,” said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. “I could make it jump" then he brought it over to one of the girl's hand.It crawled up her hand a bit then it flew to the next person who happened to be Draco Malfoy. It landed on his hair as everyone started to laugh. Then the unexpected happened it flew to Nico’s direction. It landed on his shoulder then it went limp. By the time it went back to Professor Moody it was dead. Everyone in the room gasped but Professor Moody just laughed

"Well so much for this one," he said “Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?” Hermione’s hand flew into the air again and so did Neville’s. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.

“Yes?” said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

“There’s one - the Cruciatus Curse,” said Neville in a small but distinct voice. Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.

“Your name’s Longbottom?” he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again. Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

“The Cruciatus Curse,” said Moody. “Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea,” he said, pointing his wand at the spider. “Engorgio!” The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretenses, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody’s desk as possible. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered,

“Crucio!” At once, the spider’s legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but I was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently

“Stop it!” Hermione said shrilly. I looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and following her gaze, saw that Neville’s hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, and his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. The spider’s legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.