Window into the Past

🌙55🌙

***

I took the seat next to Harry in Defence Against the Dark Arts. "Did you talk to Remus?" Harry asked me. "Yeah, he did freak out a little but Snuffles calmed him down." I told him, pulling out my books. "What about Malfoy?" Harry frowned. "No idea, but Moody made him wet his pants."

"Put the books away," Moody grumbled as he walked in. "You don't need them."

He limped to his desk and faced us all. "Now, I heard from Professor Lupin about what you've covered the previous year, though you are very behind on dealing with curses. I have one year to teach you how to deal with Dark..."

"You're not staying?" Ron frowned. "You're Arthur Weasley's boy, right?" Moody asked him.

Ron bit his lip and nodded. "Your father got me out of a tight spot a few days ago. I'm doing this for Dumbledore as a favour then back to my retirement."

He turned to all of us. "Curses come in many strengths and forms, according to the Ministry, I'm only supposed to teach counter curses and leave it there. Not supposed to even talk about illegal curses until your sixth year but Dumbledore reckons you can cope. The sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself if you don't know what's coming? A wizard won't politely ask before using an illegal curse."

He looked all around the classroom. "Who can name the curses that are heavily frowned upon in the wizarding world?"

A few hands went up, including mine. "Jones! Give me a curse," Moody said.

"The uh..the Imperius Curse," I mumbled. "Yes, good one," he muttered. "Your mother was great at fighting that curse."

He pulled out a glass jar with a spider in it and I could see Ron tensing up.

I watched as Moody pointed his wand at the spider. "Imperio!"

The spider jumped onto silk and acted like it was doing some sort of trapeze dance. It started tap dancing on Moody's desk. Some people started laughing but I didn't.

"You wouldn't be laughing if this was happening to you," Moody growled. "I could make it jump out the window, drown itself or make it jump down one of your throats, years back, many witches and wizards were under complete control over the Imperius Curse, it can be fought but it takes real strength of character to do so, not everyone has it."

He put the spider back in the jar and looked around the classroom. "Any other curse?"

Neville raised his hand but looked absolutely terrified. "The..the Cruciatus Curse."

"It's Longbottom, isn't it?"

Neville slowly nodded. Moody took the spider out and pointed his wand at it. "Engorgio!"

The spider grew in size so we could all see clearly. "Crucio!"

Although no sound came from the spider, it was writhing around on Moody's desk, clearly in pain, jerking and twitching violently. "Stop it!" Hermione shouted.

I looked at Neville, who was about to burst into tears. Moody lowered his wand and whispered a spell, so the spider would return to its normal size. "This is also known as the torture curse. Who knows the last one?"

Hermione raised her hand. "Avada Kedavra," she murmured. "Ah yes, the last and worst of them, the Killing Curse," Moody muttered.

He took the spider out again and pointed his wand at it. "Avada Kedavra!"

Once the green light burst from his wand, I flinched and I gripped onto Harry and he held onto me as well. His eyes started watering as he remembered the green light from when he was little. When You-Know-Who killed his parents and tried to kill him too.

There was no forgetting that green light.

"Not nice, only one person has survived that curse," Moody mumbled. "And he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry refused to meet his eyes and was still clinging onto me. Class had ended and Harry still held onto my hand. "So that's how they died...my parents."

"I'm so sorry," I murmured.

I can't believe he showed us those, the Unforgivable Curses. The kind that would get you a one way ticket to Azkaban. We were walking down the stairs and Harry and I were still shaken after seeing the Killing Curse.

"Joy?" Tia was at the bottom of the stairs and nodded her head, asking me to follow her. "I'll see you later," I said to Harry and followed her.

"Problem solved," she told me as we walked to the Clocktower Courtyard and sat down on a bench. "Really? He's not gonna blab?" I gaped. "Did you obliviate him?"

"Merlin no! We didn't do that," Tia laughed, tucking her dark hair behind her ear. "Though that would've been a better idea."

"Then what did you do?" I asked her. "Dumbledore told him to keep his mouth shut or the consequences will be severe," she told me. "He can't hint at it, tell anyone, call you names that may lead people to suspect it..."

"So, I'm off the hook?" I frowned. "For now, just be careful Joy, I'm not sure if he told his goons or not," Tia warned me. "If they call me half breed then I'm screwed," I sighed. Tia elbowed me. "Don't call yourself that," she scolded me. "Just stay away from him, he's nothing but trouble."

"Fine, but if he calls me that once, permission to castrate?"

Tia shot me a look. "On strike three you can."

"How's life?" I asked her as we walked the halls of Hogwarts. "Mad-Eye's cracking the whip," Tia chuckled.

"Do you know every single spell? Because you're an Auror" I asked her. "Most of them, not all of them, what spells do you know?" she looked down at me with her piercing blue eyes. "Well, I know how to disarm, stun," I started listing the spells I know. "And I can do the Shield Charm."

"Well, I should teach you a few hexes and jinxes," Tia offered. "Halloween, I'll teach you everything I know."

"Really?" my eyes lit up. "Only if you promise not to tell Remus...or Sirius for that matter, I'm legally responsible for you."

"Deal," I smirked.

***

Just as I was heading back to the common room, the stairs decided to change. "Oh, for bloody shit sake, why are the stairs against me?!" I ranted.

I crossed my arms and huffed at the stairs, waiting for them to change back. "Finally," I rolled my eyes. "Balderdash."

The portrait swung open and I went inside to see Hermione giving Ron and Harry badges. "Uh, what are those?" I asked her.

She tossed me a badge and I caught it with one hand. I looked at it, scrunching up my nose. "Spew?"

"No, S.P.E.W," Hermione corrected me. "I'm going to need more information," I sighed. "It stands for Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare," Hermione told me. "I just started it."

"And how many members do you have?" I asked her. "If you, Ron and Harry join, four," she told me. "You really think we're going to wear badges saying 'spew' on them, you must be crazy," Ron shook his head.

Hermione pulls out a scroll of parchment and starts reading it. "Can you believe this?! Elf enslavement goes back centuries! Why has no one done anything?! Every single witch and wizard that owns house elves abuses them and mistreat them!"

My eyes widened at her last sentence and I folded my arms. "Come on, listen to me! All pure-blood families who own house elves are just horrible! Like the Malfoys! Like the Crouches..."

"Like my family?!" I lost my temper. Hermione's eyes widened. "No, Joy, I didn't mean it like that!"

"You said all witches and wizards that own a house elf! Which includes my family! And by the way, my aunt has never mistreated Angie!"

I stormed upstairs into the dormitory and slammed the door behind me, very hard, I nearly took the thing off the hinges.

I kicked my trunk, startling Biscuit. "Sorry, Biscuit, I'm just pissed off," I sighed, stroking him.