Their lessons were becoming more difficult and demanding than ever before.
Professor Moody or Crouch Jr. had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its 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 swivelling onto Hermione and fixing her with an eerie, unblinking stare. Adelaide raised her eyebrow suspiciously.
"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 one gnarled finger toward the door. Hermione went very pink and muttered something about not meaning that she wanted to leave. Harry and Ron grinned at each other. They knew Hermione would rather eat bubotuber pus than miss such an important lesson. Adelaide, however, had half a mind to leave.
Moody began to beckon students forward in turn and put the Imperius Curse upon them. 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.
Adelaide moved forward tentatively when it was her turn. She did not want the imperius curse on her.
"Imperio!" Moody said clearly.
A most wonderful feeling spread through her. She felt as though she was floating, all her worries were gently wiped out. She could have fallen asleep that very instant. When a small, yet loud voice interrupted her peace.
'Yo! Earth to Adelaide!'
"The hell?"
"Do a pirouette" she heard from a distance.
'Sounds like a good idea. I've always wanted to try ballet...The voice sounds familiar, though.'
'Don't be stupid! That's Moody's voice. The imposter! Remember!'
'But it's ballet,'
'No, you don't you lil bish! He put you under the imperius curse'
"Do a pirouette," Moody's voice echoed in her head again, older this time.
'Now that I think about it, it's kinda stupid. In front of all these people., especially when I don't know the first thing about ballet...and I'm wearing my school uniform,'
'Exactly!'
"A pirouette"
"No thank you. I don't think I will"
"A pirouette!"
'No.' 'NO!'
"PIROUETTE!"
"I SAID NO!" This time the voice came from her mouth. The classroom became clearer and she grew aware of her surroundings. Her right hand was clutching her head, which now had a prickling headache. Her other hand was wrapped tightly around her wand which was in her robes. She blinked.
"Excellent! Look at that you lot! Gracia fought! She fought it and beat it! Her eyes, that's where you see it! Ten points to Gryffindor!" Moody said.
Adelaide felt conflicted. She actually liked it and wanted to soak in the pride, but she was aware that this wasn't Alastor Moody. She frowned. Oh, how she wished he was the real one, then she would be beaming in pride.
"Potter! You next," Moody said happily.
Harry did well. He almost jumped onto the desk, but he fought it and crashed his knees onto the desk instead.
Moody was ecstatic. He was going on about how brilliant Harry and Adelaide had done it and how 'they' would have trouble controlling them.
"The way he talks," Harry muttered as he hobbled out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class an hour later. Moody had insisted on putting Harry through his paces four times in a row until Harry could throw off the curse entirely.
"You'd think we were all going to be attacked any second."
"Yeah, I know," said Ron, who was skipping on every alternate step. He had had much more difficulty with the curse, though Moody assured him the effects would wear off by lunchtime.
"Talk about paranoid . . ." Ron glanced nervously over his shoulder to check that Moody was definitely out of earshot and went on.
"No wonder they were glad to get shot of him at the Ministry. Did you hear him telling Seamus what he did to that witch who shouted 'Boo' behind him on April Fools' Day? And when are we supposed to read up on resisting the Imperius Curse with everything else we've got to do?"
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 the 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 the fifth year!" said Dean Thomas indignantly.
"Maybe not, Thomas, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Gracia and Miss Granger remain the only students in this class who have managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you that your pincushion, Thomas, still curls up in fright if anyone approaches it with a pin!"
Hermione turned pink, and Adelaide bit her lip, both trying not to look too pleased.
Meanwhile, Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic, had them writing weekly essays on the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century.
Professor Snape was forcing them to research antidotes. They took this one seriously, as he had hinted that he might be poisoning one of them before Christmas to see if their antidote worked.
Snape was teaching Adelaide different charms and curses and also reviewed the spells she created. They divided their time between duelling and understanding different curses, hex and jinx. Snape was really strict and gave her a huge load of work. He asked her to create a whole chart of curses that were related to each other. Adelaide made this chart and added her own spells and stuck this in her room in the RoR.
Professor Flitwick had asked them to read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on Summoning Charms. Adelaide passed happily. She grinned at the others' misery, she had finished reading these books long ago, somewhere in her second year.
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 part of their "project," suggested that they come down to his hut on alternate evenings to observe the skrewts and make notes on their extraordinary behaviour. To be honest, Adelaide thought this was an absolute waste of time. She could spend all that extra time practising duelling. The only reason she agreed to do so was her deep respect and affection towards Hagrid.
"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. "I see enough of these foul things during lessons, thanks."
Hagrid's smile faded off his face.
"Yeh'll do wha' yer told," he growled, "or I'll be takin' a leaf outta Professor Moody's book. . . . I hear yeh made a good ferret, Malfoy."
The Gryffindors roared with laughter, except for Adelaide who seemed particularly interested in her Blast-ended Skrewt. It was horrible. The more she thought about it, the more guilt she felt.
Malfoy flushed with anger, but apparently, the memory of Moody's punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting.
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 four, stood on tiptoe to see over the heads in front of them and read the sign aloud to the other three:
TRIWIZARD TOURNAMENT
THE DELEGATIONS FROM BEAUXBATONS AND DURMSTRANG WILL BE ARRIVING AT 6 O'CLOCK ON FRIDAY THE 30TH OF OCTOBER. LESSONS WILL END HALF AN 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 Macmillan of Hufflepuff, emerging from the crowd, his eyes gleaming. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him. . . ."
"Cedric?" said Ron blankly as Ernie hurried off.
"Diggory," said Harry. "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!" Adelaide said indignantly.
"I've heard he's a really good student — and he's a perfect." Hermione added.
"And he is nice and funny and kind and cute," Adelaide said, nodding.
"Do you have a crush on him or something?" Harry asked. Hermione giggled.
"Really, Mione? And no, I don't have a crush on Cedric" Adelaide said, incredibly flustered.
"Right," Ron said with a smirk. "That tall bloke who seems practically glued to you,"
"He is not," Adelaide snapped.
"Sure," Harry said in a disbelieving tone. "We don't see it at all, do we?" he said sarcastically.
"He spoke to you at the Quidditch tournament, he waves at you every day, speaking in between classes. Oh, I've noticed alright. We've all noticed." Ron added.
"And you are unusually nice to him," Harry said.
"Yeah. No sarcasm, no hitting. All nice and pretty" Ron said. "And! You know what! You don't even swear in front of him!"
All Hermione did was giggle and nod her head fervently.
"Really guys? He is just a good friend," Adelaide said, she was sure her face was representing a tomato.
To add on to it, Cedric had just waved to her from the Hufflepuff table. He did this every day, but that moment was not exactly the best. Adelaide waved back, trying to smile. Harry and Ron were wiggling their eyebrows, ad Hermione was giving her a knowing look while giggling.
"Stop it, you three!" Adelaide yelled, brandishing her knife threateningly. "I swear I'll stab you all with this and I'll make it as painful as possible!"
The other three just laughed.
"Just you wait. There'll come a time when I'll get back at you. And I'll show no mercy. No mercy!" Adelaide cried as she stabbed her beef but a small annoying part of her mind was agreeing with them.
If Adelaide ends up with Cedric what do you think she would smell in the Amortentia?
Any suggestions?