The Tale of Dark Hermione

Year 4 - Mad-Eye Moody

Hermione woke up the next morning in a pleasant mood and was even more happy to get her schedule as she sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Of course one of the classes she noticed was with the new teacher and with the Gryffindors. 

The door opened and walked in the exact girl she was looking for. Hermione smirked, "Greengrass!"

The girl froze and walked up to her slowly and sat down, "H-hey Gran...err Hermione."

Hermione smiled, "Oh Greengrass, I'm just so happy that we've put aside our differences.  And I'm just so sorry about what I did Last year you know." Hermione was cold in her voice knowing that Daphne knows she should play along with whatever she wanted or else.

"Y-yeah..." Daphne stuttered out as she collected her schedule and eat slowly.

Hermione was finished and decided she wanted to get to her first class already, "Now Daphne, I can't wait for Defense class and for my new partner.  I'm sure you can keep up with me."

"Wait you're actually going to sit with the Slytherins this year?"

Hermione smiled, "Of course. I want a bit of a change of pace. See you in Defense." Hermione quickly got up and walked to her first class of Herbology with the Ravenclaws.  

It was mid-afternoon when Hermione finally came to Defense class and already sat in the middle was Daphne.  Hermione walked up to her and slid off her bag sitting next to the empty chair next to the girl.

"Hello Daphne, now I do have a few quick questions.  Your father works for the ministry, right? Now, what is it that made Hogwart hire Professor Moody?"

Greengrass was confused by the questions, "Yes, my father does, in fact, work for the ministry. And from what I hear Moody-he's a retired Auror.  I don't know the exact number, but from the last war, he caught a lot of death eaters. To me, Hogwarts hiring him wasn't a good idea.  All those years around prisoners he seems a bit...intense." 

Hermione was lost in her thoughts as the other students were taking their seats and chatting. Hermione looked and saw Harry and Ron in the back of the class.  Neville was sitting next to Seamus who was loud while smacking some gum and talking about one of the girls sitting in front of them.  

Before the girl could stand up and yell at Seamus the door flew open and walked in Moody with his cane, and he was eyeing everyone.

"Put away those textbooks, you won't be needing it today. Mr. Finnigan get rid of the gum."

Seamus complained and Moody quickly turned around and threw chalk at the boy. Seamus dodged barely, and the whole class was shocked by the violent teacher. 

"Now I'm here to bring you students up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other...curses. Even though it's not generally allowed to be taught until your sixth year, I have permission from Dumbledore to show you some these certain little curses. While most don't agree with this I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better." Moody finished his speech and walked over to a jar on his desk. There he pulled out a small spider, Ron paled a bit at the creature which Moody grew a little bit.

"Now to begin...Weasley! Stand up!" Ron paled at his name but stood up at his seat. "Now tell me what is one of the unforgivable curses?"

"Unforgivable curse....err... the Imperius Curse..." Ron almost whimpered out.

"Yes, yes...Mr. Malfoy...you too must be very familiar with this curse," Moody said loudly as he stared at the spider in his hand. Hermione thought that was wrong of him to say that in front of other people. Moody just pointed his wand at the small creature and whispered, "Imperio."

 Moody then let the spider jump and crawl around the room and on the students.  Most people laughed as others got scared, some were excited and thought it was cute, as it crawled on Hermione she just smiled a little at the small creature that had no control over itself. 

After Ron's little freak out Moody returned the spider back to his hand and released the spell. The class was back to being calm and turned to focus back on the Professor. "Yes, yes the Imperius curse. When used on any creature or anyone they lose free will and will follow any commands given by the caster.  Now if trained properly anyone can throw off this curse if their mind is strong enough.  We will be practicing that in the next class.  Now let us see... Longbottom stand."

Neville stood up shaking, "There is the...Cruc...curse..."

"Speak up boy!"

"The Cruciatus Curse..." Neville spoke up just a bit more still shacking. Moody told Neville to walk up by him as he put the spider on the front desk for everyone to see. 

Moody nodded and pointed his wand, "Crucio!" The spider started quietly screeching as it was held under the curse.  It was twitching and shrinking into itself. Neville looked paler and paler as it continued on for longer.  Hermione racked her brain and remembered an old article she read about the Longbottoms before the dark lord vanished.  Neville had some tears going down his face.  

Hermione stood up, "Stop it! Now!" Moody looked up at her harsh stare and released the curse and picked up the spider in his hand. Neville turned around and walked out of the classroom.  The students were silent, even the Slytherins didn't have it in them to say a single word.  Hermione was still standing glaring at the man who walked up to her desk and sat the still twitching spider on her desk.

"That was cruel," Hermione spoke in a flat angry voice at the man that stood before her.  She was not intimidated by him towering over her.

"Ms. Granger is it? There is one last curse, but with everything that happened.  I won't show this one to you.  Shame that I won't, a creature that size, tortured for that long, let's just say that it will spend the last of its days in an immense amount of pain before death. 

Hermione knowing that quickly picked up her wand and pointed it at the creature that held no hope of recovery.  Without a single word, the flash of green light was bright in the classroom as the other students jumped back a bit from the sudden spell, the spider laid dead before her at her own hand. Hermione looked up at Moody who was just staring at her. With the most dead stare at the man she spoke,

"Avada Kedavra...The killing curse."