PARALLEL {Cedric Diggory | Harry Potter}

Five

Fred was practically howling with laughter by now, Katie looking at her porridge and trying not to cry, while George just kept eating his toast.

"Tell me about it," Cedric replied, shooting an odd look at Fred, "I've been trying to tell Danny that for years."

Noticing that her bowl was empty, he held out his hand to Lori, "Shall we?"

Thinking she would die from embarrassment at any minute, she took his hand and climbed off the bench and to her feet. Casting one last look at Fred, they walked off, neither aware that their hands were still connected.

*

Defence Against the Dark Arts was her first subject of the day, as well as her favourite. Even when she had been taught by Lockhart in her third year, she had excelled. To say that Lori was excited about having an Auror as a teacher would have been a vast understatement.

Katie had caught up with her on the way to the Common Room after breakfast, both on the way to collect their bags before class.

News had spread like wildfire that the Cup was cancelled this year and Lori was thankful that she had managed to avoid much of the Gryffindor team - she didn't want to get their hopes up about the friendlies until Roger and Montague were in.

Fortunately, the latter was already in the classroom when Lori and Katie arrived early for the lesson. As Katie went to find two seats near the front (knowing how in awe her best friend was of their new professor), Lori went to speak to the Slytherin Captain, their classmates filing through the door around her.

"Montague," she awkwardly began, standing in front of his desk, "Hooch says the Cup is off this year."

The green-robed boy looked up at her and folded his arms, "So I heard. I assume you're bothering me for a good reason?"

She nodded, "Cedric and I want to hold a tournament of friendlies this year."

Montague listened intently to her suggestion, and placed his hands together at the fingertips, looking up at her from his seat, "I'm in."

She had been expecting to need a lot more persuasion than that, especially for him. Just as she turned to leave, he spoke up again.

"Any excuse to humiliate your entire team in front of Krum."

Scowling, Lori slid into the empty seat beside Katie and pulled out her books, some parchment and a quill. Her books were all dog-eared, since they were all hand-me-downs from her older brothers, their pages holding various ink blots and some of Charlie's doodles of dragons.

"What was that all about?" Katie asked.

"You'll find out later." Lori whispered as Moody swing the door open to classroom from his quarters and began to lope down the stairs, his gnarly walking stick syncopated from his heavy footsteps.

The entire class was silent when he positioned himself in front of the blackboard.

"Alastor Moody." he introduced, writing on the board with a small stub of chalk, "Ex-Auror. Ministry malcontent. And your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. I am here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story, goodbye, the end. Any questions?"

Silence was his response, everyone hanging on his every word, though most out of fear that anything.

"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which if you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"

Lori's hand was the only one up, her fingers itching towards the ceiling when Moody sent her a curt nod, "Three, sir."

"And they are so named?" he asked again, turning to the blackboard.

"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will..."

"Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct." each word accompanied with a harsh scratching of chalk, "The Ministry says you're too young to see what these curses do. I say different! You need to know what you're up against! You need to be prepared! You need to be employing CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

His hands slammed down onto one of the tables, most of the students flying back in their seats, apart from Lori, Katie, Cho Chang, Montague and (to both Lori and Katie's annoyance) McLaggen. Moody seemed to scan the room, as if taking inventory of all the students who had remained rigid in their seats.

Smiling malevolently, Moody addressed the class, "Which curse shall we see first?"

He looked at each student in turn, his real eye coming to rest on Lori, while his glass one rotated in the back of his head, "Miss Weasley. Stand. Give us a curse."

Lori slowly rose, but answered confidently, "Well, my dad did tell me about the Imperius Curse."

"Oh, yeah, your father would know all about that. Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief a few years ago. Perhaps this will show you why."

Moody hobbled to a desk at the front, opening one of the glass jars and delving his hand into its contents, before producing a spider, "Engorgio. Imperio."

The spider swelled to twice it's normal size, before, at Moody's command, it flew across the classroom and landed on Cho's head. The Ravenclaw Seeker began to swat at it, screaming when it crawled onto the bridge of her nose.

Several of the Slytherins laughed, but dropped into silence when the spider flew at Montague. Now, the Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs laughed, watching him screech like a banshee as it crawled between his jumper and shirt.

Flying upwards, the spider was launched at Katie, who simply sat resolute in her seat as it crawled all around her head and disappeared into her hair.

"What should I have her do next?" Moody's gruff voice broke the silence, the spider flying towards the glass, then hovering over a bucket, "Throw herself out the window? Drown herself?" before the spider came to lie in his outstretched hand, "Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the Imperius Curse. But here's the rub: how do we sort out the liars?"

"Veritaserum." Lori voiced, earning another nod from Moody.

"Another curse, this time from someone else?" hands rose slowly at his question, "Miss Abernathy?"

A Hufflepuff girl near the back was picked on to stand and answer, "The Cruciatus Curse, sir."

Moody pointed his wand at her excitedly, "Correct, correct! Come, come!" the girl, who Lori had never spoken to and didn't know the name of, cautiously walked to the front, "Particularly nasty. The torture curse." The spider was placed on the looking glass, "Crucio."

A terrible noise, half way between a whine and a wail, erupted from the spider. Pure agony flushed through the arachnid, the Hufflepuff girl wincing as if she felt its pain. The spider thrashed around on the glass, as if trying to escape the invisible bonds that held it there.

The Hufflepuff girl turned and ran, not stopping to collect her belongings as she shot out of the door, her brown hair whipping behind her as she went.

Lori stood and ran after her, taking both of their bags, the spider having finished its screeching. She turned, clearly knowing the words that played on her professor's tongue, "The Killing Curse, sir."

She saw the shocked looks on her classmates' faces as the spider hung in mid air, running after the Hufflepuff, just as Moody cast the third and final Unforgivable Curse, "Avada Kedavra."