The Three Forbidden Curses.
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"You don't want to know what i will do to you. Do you understand?"
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Tw | Homophobia (use of the F slur), mention of Abuse and Death.
THE NEXT two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all agreed to not speak to Rose about whoever Aurora was. They all said they would pretend it never happened, and leave her alone. Because clearly it's a very touchy topic. Although it did concern them, they didn't want to interfere. They all had different assumptions about Aurora. Ron's theory is that she could be Rose's ex girlfriend that passed away, Harry assumed she was Rose's sister, and Hermione just think's it could be a deceased family member.
Rose had been trying to get Draco alone so she could beat the shit out of him, but she has had no luck. He's avoided her with every cell in his body. He knew she was pissed, he very clearly saw the look in her eye when she pinned her wand against his throat. Did it scare him? .. little bit. But he won't admit that. Whenever she got even a small bit close to him, he'd be making an excuse to leave immediately. Rose realized it too.
That's why she was here, thinking of a good plan to get Draco alone. She definitely would not mind beating him up in front of a bunch of people, but there were some things that needed to be said. And those things must remain private.
"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?" said Ron to Harry and Rose as they watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.
"Yeah," said Harry. "Moody."
It was common knowledge that Snape really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for the forth year in a row. Snape had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it— but he seemed strangely wary of displaying overt animosity to Mad-Eye Moody. Indeed, whenever Rose saw the two of them together—at mealtimes, or when they passed in the corridors—he has the distinct impression that Snape was avoiding Moody's eye, whether magical or normal.
"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad," said Ron, his eyes misting over, "and bounced him all around his dungeon..."
"I'd pay to see that." Rose sighed.
The Gryffindors were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. Harry and Ron had dragged Rose with them, as she wasn't looking too excited for Moody's lesson. She had been suspicious of him the second his eyes had landed on her. She didn't know how to describe it, but it was like he wasn't in his right mind.
The only person who wasn't early with them, was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.
"Been in the—"
"Library." Harry finished her sentence for her. "C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats."
They hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, and Rose was not too happy about that. They took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.
"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."
They returned the books to their bags, Rose slumping in her seat and crossing her arms, and Ron looking excited.
Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he, she or they answered.
When he called, "Rose Black." and Rose replied with "Here." his magical eye seemed to stick onto her a little longer. She couldn't lie if someone asked if it made her a little uncomfortable.
"Right then," he said, when the last person has declared themselves present, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark Creatures—you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"
There was a general murmur of assent.
"But you're behind—very behind—on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So i'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark—"
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled—the first time Rose had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago.... Yeah, i'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."
He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
"So—straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to teach 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 until then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of what your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and i say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. 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 they're about to do. They aren't going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when i'm talking."
Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.
"So.... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by the wizarding law?"
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Unfortunately, Moody pointed at Rose.
She stayed where she was. "My hand wasn't raised."
"I didn't ask you if it was raised," He waddled closer, staring down at her. "Do you have an answer to my question?"
"No," She stared stonily at him. "I don't."
"Really?" He didn't seem convinced. "You don't know what the three forbidden curses are? You didn't seem to have a problem attempting to use one against Mr. Malfoy just three days ago—"
"Call on somebody else." She interrupted him, getting sick and tired of him already.
"Hm." He grunted, nodding his head toward Ron.
"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
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. Rose saw Ron recoil in the corner of her eye. Ron hated spiders.
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 want 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 it's legs rigidly, then did a backflip, 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 it's hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing—everyone except Rose and 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 out the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."
Rose's eyebrows raised and Ron gave a involuntary shudder.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying ti sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting for their own free will.
"The Imperius Curse can be fought, and i'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He barked, and everyone jumped. Even Rose flinched a little bit.
Moody picked up tue somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's slight surprise, did Neville's.
"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 swopping 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 bugger 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 pretense, 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 itself body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming.
Rose's jaw clenched and her hands began slightly shaking as she saw the spider struggle around helplessly. Images.. horrible images flashed through her mind like a slideshow.
"Stop! Please, don't hurt her! I'll do anything!" A terrified ten year old Rose screamed and cried as she banged on the locked door of the inside of her bedroom. The distant screaming of twelve year old Aurora coming from downstairs.
"Please!" more tears streamed down the child's face as she heard her best friends cries of pain.
Rose punched the door several times, enough to make her fists bleed.
"Crucio!" She heard Brian shout, making her cry louder as her chest rippled with pain. "She didn't do anything wrong! It wasn't her fault, hurt me instead! Please!"
She sniffled and hesitantly stepped away from the door when she heard footsteps coming close. She heard the click of the lock, before the door opened to reveal Amanda. "Hurt you instead?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Rose's bottom lip trembled before nodding.
"Then get downstairs."
Rose had no idea her knuckles had been turning white before Hermione shouted shrilly, "Stop it!"
Rose seemed to have come back to date, seeing in the corner of her eye, Harry staring at her in shocked worry.
Rose noticed she was not the only one heavily affected by the Curse, it seemed Neville was also gripping the table in front of him, his eyes wife and horrified.
Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to it's proper size. He put it back into the jar.
"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse... That one was very popular once too. . . . Right, anyone know any others?"
Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider.
Hermione's hand shook slightly as, for the third time, she raised it into the air.
"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.
Several people looked uneasily around her, including Ron. Rose was staring at the table, though listening intently.
"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse."
He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
Moody raised his wand, and Rose knew what was coming.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air— instantaneously the spider rolled over into it's back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Rose stared right into the spiders lifeless eyes as it skidded across the table, landing right in front of her.
Moody swept the death spider off the desk and onto the floor.
"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too. Rose wasn't, though. She stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all....
She wondered if that was how Aurora had died. If she was hit by the killing curse... exactly like that spider. Had she been unblemished and unmarked too? Had she simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from her body?
Rose had been picturing all the different ways Aurora could have died over and over for three years now, ever since she'd walked into that kitchen and heard the tragic news. She always prayed it had been quick, and painless. Unfortunately, that probably wasn't the deal.
Moody was speaking again, from a great distance, it seemed. With a massive effort, she pulled herself back to the present and listened to what Moody was saying.
"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful hit of magic behind it—you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and i doubt i'd get as much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no countercurse, why am i showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he roared, and the whole class—except for Rose—jumped again.
"Now... those three curses—Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus—are known at Unforgivable Curses. The use of any of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban."
Why isn't Amanda in Azkaban, then? Rose thought bitterly, slightly glad she had been interrupted from using the Cruciatus Curse on Draco three days ago.
"That's what you're up against." Moody continued. "That's what i've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never ceasing, vigilance. Get out your quills... copy this down..."
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang—but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices— "Did you see it twitch?" "—and when he killed it—just like that!"
Rose had been walking unknowingly fast, and started walking down the hall, subconsciously caught up with Neville.
"Are you okay?" Rose hesitantly asked him, but she honestly wished someone would ask her the same question.
Neville was standing alone, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
He hasn't responded. He surely heard her, and attempted to speak but just a shocked breath came out as he continued staring at the wall.
Rose heard footsteps coming their way, and heard Hermione ask gently "Rose? Neville?"
Neville looked around. Rose just shifted her eyes to Hermione.
"Oh, hello," Neville said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, i'm—i'm starving, aren't you?"
Rose stayed silent.
Hermiones eyes shifted between Neville and Rose uncertainly. "Are you all right?"
"Oh yes, i'm fine," Neville gabbled in the game unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner—i mean lesson—what's for eating?"
Ron looked at them all, startled.
"Neville, what—?"
But an off clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them. All five of them were silent, watched him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it as in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
"It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on... we can have a cup of tea..."
Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Rose.
"You all right, are you, Black?"
Rose did not reply for a moment before nodding her head once.
He then turned to Harry. "And you, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, almost defiantly.
Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in it's socket as it surveyed Rose and Harry. Then he said, "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point in pretending... well... come on, Longbottom, i've got some books that might interest you."
Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Rose, Ron, and Hermione but they didn't say anything. Until—
"Does he have to?" Rose spoke for the first time in a while, Neville looked over at her in quiet thanks.
Moody irritatedly turned his head back to Rose. "Was i speaking to you, Black?"
Rose shook her head, "No, but he clearly doesn't want to go."
They stared at one another for a bit, almost as if reading each other's mind before Moody looked away from her, and back at Neville. "Come on, lad. Let's go."
Neville looked at Rose in a way of saying "Thank you for trying.." before he had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody's snarled hands on his shoulder.
"What was that about?" said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.
"I don't know," said Hermione, looking pensive.
Rose turned, and began to walk away.
"Wait," Hermione caught up with Rose, "What happened in there? Were you okay?"
"Yeah." She answered shortly, continuing to walk.
——————
"Some lesson, though, eh?" said Ron to Rose and Harry as they set off for the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did the Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right—"
But Ron fell suddenly silent at the look on Rose and Harry's face and didn't speak again until they reached the Great Hall, but both Harry and Ron grew confused when Rose turned off toward the Dungeons, instead of the Great Hall.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked as she departed.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Harry watched as she walked farther away.
"I'm good." They heard her distantly shout, as she turned the corner toward the dungeons.
Ron turned to Harry before shrugging, setting off through the Great Hall doors. Harry looked after Rose, his worry growing for her every day. Has she even been eating? He thought, as he followed after Ron.
Once Rose had made it to the portrait hole, she mumbled the password (Pureblood), and lazily stumbled in. The second she looked up, her mood was pleasantly lifted.
"Huh," She snickered, scaring the living daylights out of Draco, who was sitting on the couch staring into the fire.
The very second he realized it was her, they stared at each other. A few moments had passed, before he made a run for it. He ran off toward the Boy's dormitory steps, before racing through them, Rose right on his tail.
"Get away from me, Black!" He rushed into his dorm, about to slam the door shut when Rose stopped it with her hand, shoving it back open.
He stepped away, sneering at her. "You stay away from me."
"Why?" She asked, an amused smile resting upon her face. "Scared?"
"No!" He growled, grabbing a flower pot and threatening to throw it at her. "You can't hurt me. I can alert the Headmaster and you'll be expelled."
"Is that so?" She tilted her head, stepping closer to him. He lifted the flower pot higher. "You know that's plastic, right?"
He surveyed it, before groaning and throwing it aside.
"I've been trying to speak with you face to face for three days now. You've been avoiding me. There's no reason to be scared, i'm not gonna hit you." She shrugged, but her eyes said different.
"... You're not?"
"No." She shook her head. "Only if you promise me something."
"Promise you what?" He looked apprehensive.
"You'll leave me, Ron, Hermione, Harry or anybody else, alone." She offered, "That includes, no harmful jokes, and no bringing up past things that shouldn't be brought up."
He didn't seem to like the offer. "No! I'll do what i want." He attempted to run past her, but she gripped him by the collar of his shirt and shoved him back into place.
"I tried playing nice with you, Malfoy. We're family members. We shouldn't hate each other like this. Just do as i say and i'll let you walk out of here without your face smashed in."
"No!" He argued as she had him against the wall. "I'm not gonna let a fag tell me what to do!"
They both seemed to have frozen.
His eyes shown regret, but his face didn't.
"What?" She breathed out, looking straight into his eyes.
He seemed to have hesitated, before ridding of all regret shown. "I said, i'm not gonna let a fa—"
He had been interrupted as Rose's fist collided directly into his face. He groaned loudly, holding his nose while hunching over.
Her hand shot out to grip his hair and pulled his head up to make him look at her. His nose was bleeding. Sadly, he could tell her feelings had been hurt from his comment.
"That was low." She whispered, "Even for you."
He didn't say anything.
"Let's get something clear, shall we? You are never going to speak about Aurora to a single person ever again, including yourself. If i catch you talking about her," she paused. "You don't want to know what i will do to you. Do you understand?"
He hated this. He hated the fact that he hurt her, but he had to maintain this intimidating aura. He hated the fact that he seemed so weak, he couldn't do anything about this. He had no choice but to nod.
Once she let go of his hair, he stood up immediately, holding his nose once more. They stared at each other, Rose looking highly disappointed, before she turned and left the dormitory.
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She was now in her own dorm, sitting on her bed. Holding her knees to her chest.
The word fag replayed in her head over and over. The same boy who would play dolls with her when they were seven, was now calling her a fag. Amanda and Brian were close friends with Lucius and Narcissa, though Narcissa never really liked them. Draco would play games with Rose and Aurora. It was fun. Rose and Aurora had gotten their free time away from Housework, Abuse, etc. when they had him over. Sure, him and Rose fought... a lot. Mainly over him cutting her doll's hair off, But neither of them thought it would end up like this. They were only fourteen, why was their relationship ruined already? It just wasn't fair. Rose doesn't have one family member left other than Sirius. He is all she has. And yet, they've barely even spoken. He has no idea the things she's been through. If she told him, she was sure he'd had wished he never had to leave.
Rose reached down under her bed to grasp her bag, and yanked out her copy of Unfogging the Future, placed it down in front of her, and set to work on her prediction homework for the coming month. An hour later, she had made little progress, though her bed was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and her brain was fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Trelawney's fire.
"I haven't got a clue what all this is supposed to mean." She muttered to herself, staring down at a long list of calculations.
Sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the bed, dipping her pen into some ink, she started to write whatever came to her head.
"Next Monday," she said as she scribbled, "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter."
When she was finished she pursed her lips together and nodded, "'Kay, hope that's good."
So she continued, "Er—okay, Tuesday, i'll.. lose a treasured possession... because of.. Mercury?"
She continued to make up random predictions for another hour.
She laid down her quill, having just finished predicting her own death by getting ran over by an angry hippogriff.
The silence in the dorm was broken as many other girls stalked in, yawning, getting into their beds. As Pansy walked in, her and Rose glared at each other until she was on the other side on the room, out of sight.
As many of the girls fallen asleep, Rose heard a soft tap, tap on the window right next to her bed. She looked beside her and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, an owl perched on the windowsill.
She furrowed her eyebrows before getting out of bed and lifting up the window. The bird softly flew inside, landing on the bedside table.
She looked down at the grubby piece of parchment tied to the owl's leg. She slowly took it, untied it, and sat down on her bed to read.
The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Rose skimmed through it.
Rose—
I'm flying north immediately. I need to see you and Harry. I hope you're doing great, and no one is giving you any trouble. I haven't heard from my daughter in quite some time so i thought i'd send a letter. If you don't have time to write me back now, you can take your time.
Ps, i heard about what happened with you and Pansy Parkinson last year. And i'd love to hear more. Stay save !
Padfoot.
"He's flying north.." She whispered. "He's coming back? Why?" I bet Harry did something.
———————
Early next morning, Rose woke with the plan to go and ask Harry what the fuck he did to make Sirius want to come back and risk getting caught. She got up, dressed into a sage colored shirt, a green and blue checkered flannel, and jeans, left the dormitory without waking any of the other girls who weren't already up, and went down to the common room. A few people were already there, but she simply walked past them and out the portrait hole.
As she was walking through the silent castle, she turned a corner only to see Harry walking in front of her, his back toward her.
She jogged up until she was right next to him and whispered, "You dumbass." making him jump and almost scream bloody murder.
"Why am i a dumbass now?" He asked as he finally got over the fear that someone else was following him.
"What did you do to make Si—padfoot—want to come back here? He's gonna get caught." She walked faster as he was speed-walking, clearly anxious to get somewhere.
He sighed in frustration, "I accidentally told him my scar has been hurting—"
"Your scar has been hurting?" She stopped both of them, worry slightly taking over her. "Why?"
"I—I don't know, and it's not a big deal—"
"But you're in pain." She looked at the scar and back at his eyes. He gulped at the close proximity between them before snapping himself out of it, continuing to stalk down the hallway. Rose following after him.
"I have to get to the Owlery to send him a letter, and make sure he does not come back." He ranted, Rose struggling to keep up with his fast walking pace.
"Okay," she nodded, "And how do you expect he'll get the letter before he get's here?"
"I don't know. We'll just have to hope."
They finally arrived at the Owlery about two minutes later, which was situated at the top West Tower.
The Owlery was a circle stone room, rather cold and drafty, because none of the windows had glass in them. The floor was entirely covered in straw, owl droppings, and the regurgitated skeletons of mice and voles. Hundreds upon hundreds of owns of every breed imaginable were nestled here on perches that rose right up the top of the tower, nearly all of them asleep, though here and there a round amber eye glared at Harry. He spotted Hedwig nestled between a barn owl and a tawney, and hurried over to her, sliding a little on the dropping-strewn floor, Rose following behind him.
It took him a while to persuade Hedwig to wake up and then to look at him, as she kept shuffling around on her perch, showing them her tail. She was evidently still furious about his lack of gratitude the previous night.
He had finally got her to stick out her leg and allow him to tie a letter to it, as Rose was getting very annoyed.
"Just find him, all right?" Harry said, stroking her back as he carried her on his arm to one of the holes in the wall. "Before the dementors do."
She nipped his finger, perhaps rather harder than she would ordinarily have done, but hooted softly in a reassuring sort of way all the same. Then she spread her wings and took off into the sunrise. Harry watched her fly out of sight with the familiar feelings of unease back in his stomach. He had been so sure that Sirius's reply would alleviate his worries rather than increasing them.
"Why'd you let your hair grow out like this?" Rose's voice cut him out of his thoughts.
"Huh?" He turned to face her. "I don't know. Why? Do you not like it?"
"No i like it," She reassured.
"Oh." He awkwardly chewed on the inside of his cheek.
"Come on," She turned and headed toward the exit of the Owlery.
The fourth year's lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before, particularly Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts.
To their surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate it's power and to see whether they could resist it's effects.
"But—but you said it's illegal, Professor," said Hermione uncertainly as Moody cleared away the desks with a sweep of his wand, leaving a large clear space in the middle of the room. "You said—to use it against another human was—"
"Dumbledore wants you taught what it feels like," said Moody, his magical eye swiveling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. "If you'd rather learn the hard way, when someone's putting it on you so they can control you completely—fine by me. You're excused. Off you go."
He pointed a gnarled finger toward the door. Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. The class watched as, one by one, their classmates did the most extraordinary things under it's influence. Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lavender Brown imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.
"Potter," Moody grunted.
Rose watched as Harry stood up and went to the middle of the classroom, into the space Moody had created. Moody lifted his wand, and said, "Imperio!"
Harry stood there feeling immensely relaxed, only dimly aware of everyone watching him.
He bent his knees, looking as though he were preparing to jump.
Moments later Harry seemed like he were in pain. He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping—the result was that he'd smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps.
"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice. "Look at that, you lot.. Potter fought it! You can go back to your seat, Potter."
Harry limped back toward his desk, the pain in his knees seemed to double.
"Black," Moody growled, "You're last."
"Mm-mm." She shook her head, the Curse far too embarrassing to do willingly.
"You have to." Moody grunted," Get on up here, Black. It'll be quick."
"If i break any of my bones, i can sue you." She slowly stood up from her seat, making her way to the center of the room.
"You do that." He nodded absentmindedly, pointing his wand at her. "Imperio!"
Nothing.
The whole room was silent in concentration, waiting to see what would happen next.
"Do you.. not feel anything?" asked Moody, looking at her curiously.
She shook her head softly, "I can kinda feel a little bit of pressure around my chest, but.. that's it."
"Interesting," muttered Moody as he set the wand down. "Very interesting indeed."
——————-
Rose's classmates would not leave her alone after that. Constantly questioning in awe, "You didn't even feel the Curse? How is that possible?"
She shrugged every single time.
All the fourth years had noticed a definite increase in the amount of work they were required to do this term. Professor McGonagall explained why, when the class gave a particularly loud groan at the amount of Transfiguration homework she had assigned.
"You are now entering a most important phase of your magical education!" she told them, her eyes glinting dangerously behind her square spectacles. "Your Ordinary Wizarding Levels are drawing closer—"
"We don't take O.W.L.s till fifth year!" said Dean Thomas indignantly.
"Maybe not, Thomas, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Granger remains the only person in this class who managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might you that your pincushion, Thomas, still curls up in fright if anyone approaches it with a pin!"
Hermione, who had turned rather pink again, seemed to be trying not to look too pleased with herself.
Even Hagrid was adding to their workload. The Blast-Ended Skrewts were growing at a remarkable pace given that nobody had yet discovered what they ate. Hagrid was delighted, and as a part of their "project," suggested that they come down to his hit on alternate evenings to observe the skrewts and make notes on their extraordinary behavior.
"I will not," said Draco Malfoy flatly when Hagrid had proposed this with the air of Father Christmas pulling an extra-large toy out of his sack. Rose observed that his nose looked broken. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks."
Hagrid's smile faded off his face.
Draco looked slightly behind Hagrid to see Rose staring at him with a look that said, Remember what i told you, and he glared at her, gulping, before turning back to Hagrid.
"Yeh'll do wha' yer told," Hagrid growled, "or i'll be takin' a lead outta Professor Moody's book... I hear yeh made a good ferret, Malfoy."
The Gryffindors roared with laugher. Rose snickered, loving the embarrassed look on Draco's face.
Harry, Rose, Ron, and Hermione returned to the castle at the end of the lesson. When they arrived in the entrance hall, they found themselves unable to proceed owing to the large crowd of students congregated there, all milling around a large sign that had been erected at the foot of the marble staircase. Ron, the tallest of the three, stood on tiptoe to see over the heads in front of them and read the sign aloud to the other two.
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
The delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be areiving at 6 o'clock on Friday the 30th of October. Lessons will end half and hour early—
"Brilliant!" said Harry. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
Students will return their bags and books to their dormitories and assemble in front of the castle to greet our guests before the Welcoming Feast.
"Only a week away!" said Ernie Macmillian of Hufflepuff, emerging from the crowd, his eyes gleaming. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think i'll go and tell him..."
"Cedric?" said Rose blankly as Ernie hurried off. The name was so familiar. Yet, she had no idea where she's heard it.
"Diggory," said Harry, his cheeks slightly pink.
She stared at him, before gasping. Harry knew exactly what she was thinking, and about to say, so he slapped his hand against her mouth as quick as possible.
Thankfully, Ron and Hermione were conversing with one another about the Tournament, not paying attention.
She slowly peeled his hand off and whispered, "Is Cedric the boy you like?" grinning mischievously.
He glared at her, mentally cursing himself for blushing in front of her. "Maybe. But be quiet about it!"
"I need to see what he looks like." She muttered to him.
"Who?" Ron butted back in, making Harry jump. "Cedric?"
Harry was thankful Ron hadn't hurt anything else before that, and nodded, "He must be entering the Tournament."
"That idiot, Hogwarts champion?" said Ron as they pushed their way through the chattering crowd toward the staircase.
"He's not an idiot. You just don't like him because he beat Gryffindor at Quidditch," said Hermione. "I've heard he's a really good student—and he's a prefect."
She spike as though this settled the matter.
"You only like him because he's handsome," said Ron scathingly.
"Excuse me, i don't like people just because they're handsome!" said Hermione indignantly.
Ron gave a false cough that sounded a lot like "Lockhart!"
—————-
There was a pleasant feeling of anticipation in the air two day's later. Nobody was attentive in lessons, being much more interested in the arrival that evening of the people from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang; even Potions was more bearable than usual, as it was half an hour shorter. When the bell rang early, Harry, Ron, and Hermione hurried up to Gryffindor tower while Rose went to the Dungeons, deposited of their bags and books as they had been instructed, pulled on their cloaks, and rushed back downstairs into the entrance hall.
The Heads of Houses were ordering their students into lines.
"Weasley, straighten your hat," Professor McGonagall snapped at Ron. "Miss Patil, take that ridiculous thing out of your hair."
Parvati scowled and removed a large ornamental butterfly from the end if her plait.
"Follow me, please," said Professor McGonagall. "First years in front... no pushing..."
They filed down the steps and lined up in front of the castle. It was a cold, clear evening; dusk was falling and a pale, transparent looking moon was already shining over the Forbidden Forest.
"Nearly six," said Ron, checking his watch and then staring down the drive that led to the front gates. "How d'you reckon they're coming? The train?"
"I doubt it," said Hermione.
"How, then? Broomsticks?" Harry suggested, looking up at the starry sky.
"They're really far away." said Rose. "They aren't going to come all the way here on broomsticks."
"A Portkey?" Ron suggested. "Or they could Apparate—maybe you're allowed to do it under seventeen wherever they come from?"
"You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, how often do i have to tell you?" said Hermione impatiently.
They scanned the darkening grounds excitedly, but nothing was moving. Everything was still, silent, and quite as usual. Rose was starting to feel cold. She wished they'd hurry up. Maybe the foreign students were preparing a dramatic entrance.
And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers—
"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!"
Rose looked up.
They're here.
———————-