𝐒𝐊𝐈𝐍 - 𝐡.𝐩.

10 | Why Mismatched Eyes Are Useful

"Good morning, Professor," Gemini smiled at Professor Moody, who looked quite impressed by her quick reflexes.

But he didn't say a word until all of them had entered the classroom and taken their seats. Gemini sat on the first bench, Blaise beside her. On their left sat Draco with Goyle and on their right were Pansy and Tracey.

No one bothered to open their books; not even Gemini, surprisingly.

Moody pulled out a register and started calling their names, each person declaring themselves present. When the last person, Blaise, had declared himself present, Moody put the register aside and looked at them intently for a while with his good eye, the other blue one kept whizzing around and changing its focus. Then suddenly —

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked.

The class jumped, except for Gemini and Blaise, who were just too impervious.

"You must always be aware of your surroundings," said Moody. "Miss Delmar showed an excellent example of this to you just now."

Gemini gave a complacent smile.

"You never know who might attack you," Moody continued, "A flock of birds?" he proposed and a dozen aggressive birds shot out of his wand and flew around the classroom; Pansy and Tracey screamed loudly as a bird tried to peck them — they had been talking as always. "Or a giant spider?" Moody said, enlargening a spider he had removed from a jar and throwing it at Draco's face, who had been laughing at Pansy and Tracey.

Draco uttered a shriek more girlish than Pansy's.

Moody then flicked his wand at the spider and it bounced around the classroom, landing on one person to another. Blaise deflected it with his wand when it landed on their table, looking at it with disgust.

Moody put the spider back in its jar.

"But 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 do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful." he said. "Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then."

"But I say otherwise," he banged his table with his fist. "You need to know what you're up against; the sooner, the better. Professor Dumbledore agrees, he believes you should be able to cope with them fairly well."

"Who cares about what Dumbledore says?" Draco muttered to Goyle.

"Mr. Malfoy, since you seem to underestimate the imperativeness of this class so well, why don't you give us the first curse?" he growled at Draco, apparently having heard his jab at Dumbledore.

"The Imperius Curse," he answered without delay.

"Yes, yes," Moody muttered as he opened the jar containing the spider again. He pointed his wand at it from the open mouth of the jar. "Imperio!" he said, and the spider seemed to go unnaturally still. The class stared in amazement, obviously not expecting a Professor to use an illegal curse in the class. Gemini went as still as the spider, and Blaise didn't fail to notice this. The spider jumped out of the jar and landed on Moody's table and started performing what was unmistakably the Irish jig.

Several students uttered phrases of wonder.

"Appealing, isn't it?" said Moody. "Imagine me doing the same to you."

Everyone quietened at the thought, their awe fading away.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats...."