Cassia's POV
So far, the first few days of classes were pretty normal, but I doubted it would stay that way, especially with Mad-Eye Moody teaching DADA class.
Our first DADA class with him was on Thursday, and it was our last class of the day. The name submissions for the tournament were opening tonight as well, so you can probably imagine how excited we were.
When I got into the classroom, I immediately took a seat next to my brother. Hermione took the desk to the left, and Ron took the one to the right, so Harry and I were basically sandwiched in between them.
Moody entered the room and stood next to the chalkboard. "My name is Alastor Moody," he wrote 'Moody' on the board as he continued. "Ex-Auror, Ministry malcontent, and your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I'm here because Dumbledore asked me. End of story. Goodbye. The end. Any questions?"
No one dared to raise their hand.
"When it comes to the Dark Arts, I believe in a practical approach. But first, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?" Moody asked.
Hermione, of course, was the first to volunteer to answer the question. "Three, sir," she said.
Moody turned back to the board and wrote '3', and then circled it. "And they are so named --?"
"Because they are unforgivable," Hermione answered again. "The use of any one of them will-" She was cut off.
"-earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban. Correct!" Moody finished her sentence, writing 'Unforgivable' in all capital letters. He turned and faced the class once again. "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 find another place to put your chewing gum besides the underside of your desk, Mr. Finnegan!"
Seamus' eyes widened. "No way. The old codger can see out of the back of his head," he whispered to Dean, who was sitting next to him.
Moody responded by throwing a piece of chalk at him. "And hear across classrooms!" he roared. "So, which curse shall we see first?" His eyes fell on Ron. "Weasley!"
"Yes?" Ron squeaked. I didn't blame him for being scared; I would be too, if I were the one being called on right now instead of him.
"Stand!" Moody ordered.
Ron didn't hesitate to comply.
"Give us a curse," Moody said. His voice was way lower than it was a few seconds ago, when he'd yelled at Seamus.
"Well...m-my dad did tell me about one. The -- The Imperius Curse," Ron stuttered.
Moody nodded. "Oh yes, your dad would know all about that one. Gave the Ministry quite a bit of grief at one time. Perhaps this will show you why," he said. He made his way over to a nearby desk with jars of bugs on it, and took out a spider, holding it in the palm of his hand. With his other hand, he pointed his wand at the arachnid and said, "Engorgio."
The spider nearly tripled in size. Now it was nearly the size of a Bludger.
"Imperio!" Moody said. As he moved his wand, the spider was lifted into the air and made to float from desk to desk. "Don't worry. Completely harmless," he assured us as he let the spider hover over Crabbe's head. "But if she bites --" he guided the spider to sit directly above Ron "-- she's lethal!" he warned.
Malfoy sniggered at Ron, seeming to enjoy seeing him scared to death of the arachnid. Moody definitely didn't like that, because he looked at Malfoy with a piercing glare. "What are you laughing at?" he asked. The grin on Malfoy's face completely vanished when the spider was made to jump onto his nose. All the Gryffindors (and a few of the Slytherins) in the room started cracking up.
"Talented, isn't she?" Moody boasted, "What shall I have her do next? Jump out the window?" He flicked his wand, making the spider smack against the window. "Drown herself?" The spider was forced to hover over a small bucket of water momentarily, but then Moody brought it back to sit in the palm of his hand. "Scores of witches and wizards have claimed that they only did You-Know-Who's bidding under the influence of the Imperius Curse," he told us, "But here's the rub. How do we sort out the liars?" He scanned the classroom. "Let's have another. Come on."
Hermione didn't raise her hand this time, but two or three other people did. Professor Moody took no notice of them, however. His attention was fixed on Neville. "Longbottom, isn't it?" he asked.
Neville hesitated a moment, but slowly rose to his feet.
"Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for Herbology," Moody told him.
"T-There's the -- the Cruciatus Curse," Neville stuttered. He was nervous, we could all tell, but he never broke eye contact.
"Correct, correct!" Moody said, "Come! Come!" He led Neville up to the desk, gently setting the spider down. "Particularly nasty. The Torture Curse." He aimed his wand at the spider. "Crucio!"
The spider let out a horrid screech, writhing in pain. Neville squeezed his eyes shut tightly, trying to block out the sound. His expression contorted into a pained one. I could see in his face that watching Moody torture this poor creature was too much for him to handle.
"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him? STOP IT!" Hermione shouted.
Moody took the curse off the spider. It stopped writhing and screeching, and seemed to sigh in relief. Neville looked just as relieved as he walked back to his seat next to Ron. The spider was set down on Hermione's desk, right on top of her books.
"Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Miss Granger," Professor Moody suggested.
Hermione shook her head. When I looked at her, I could see tears forming in her eyes. Moody seemed surprised at her refusal.
"No?" he questioned, earning no response from her. Moody raised his wand, and I felt a sudden sense of foreboding.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, visible something was soaring through the air -- instantaneously the spider rolled onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. "The Killing Curse. Only two people are known to have survived it. And they're sitting in this room."
I felt my face redden as Moody's eyes (both of them) looked at Harry's and my own. I could feel everyone else looking around at us, too. I stared at the blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing anything at all...
So that was how our parents had died...exactly like that spider. Had they been unblemished and unmarked, too? Had they simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from their bodies?
<><><><><>
"Brilliant, isn't he? Completely demented, of course. Terrifying to be in the same room as him. But he's really been there, you know? He's looked evil in the eye!" Ron gloated as we walked down the stairs, heading back to Gryffindor Tower so we could unwind before dinner and the name submissions.
Hermione, however, wasn't the least bit enthused. "There's a reason those curses are unforgivable. And to perform them in a classroom! Did you see Neville's face?" she said darkly.
We stopped halfway down the stairs. Neville stood in front of us, frozen, as he stared at a stained glass window. Speak of the devil.
I made a move to try to speak to him. "Neville, what --?"
But an odd clunking noise sounded behind us, and we turned around to see Professor Moody limping in our direction. All four of us fell silent, watching him apprehensively. "It's alright, sonny," he said to Neville. When he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than we'd heard previously. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on...we can have a cup of tea."
Neville looked up at him and gave a slight nod. It was partially acceptance, but also uncertainty. He followed Moody back up the stairs, to the classroom. I clutched the strap of my school bag tighter as I watched them slowly disappear from sight.
Harry gently tugged on my arm. "Sis? Come on, let's go," he said, starting to lead me back down the stairs. Despite my concern for Neville, I nodded and followed my brother back to Gryffindor Tower.
<><><><><>
I sighed in relief once I'd finally completed my Herbology essay. That was my biggest thing that I had to get done, 1 1/2 rolls of parchment on the properties of Bubotuber pus and how to safely collect it. My homework in the other classes I had this year wasn't too bad today. Just two or three assignments due in the next couple of days, and most of those assignments were halfway done. It was a miracle Snape didn't double mine and Harry's workload in Potions this year. Seriously, what is his problem with us?!
Glancing at the clock in my dormitory, I saw it was almost time for dinner, so I put my stuff away and started to walk down to the Great Hall. Hermione had gone down to the library an hour ago, taking Ron with her, and Harry said he was going down to the courtyard "to think", so I had been left to my own devices. But we had all agreed to meet up at dinner.
As I passed through the courtyard en route to the Great Hall, I noted that Harry was no longer there. But I did see Neville. He was sitting on one of the stone benches, with his eyes downcast.
"Neville, are you alright?" I asked, cautiously taking a few steps towards him.
"Hmm?" He looked up, now noticing that I was standing in front of him. "Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Cassia."
I wasn't all that convinced. "Are you sure?" I asked, "You don't sound like you're 'fine'." I sat down.
Neville sighed. "It's just...the Cruciatus Curse...watching Professor Moody perform it on that spider, it -- it brought back a really painful memory for me."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry," I apologized.
"No -- No, you weren't prying," Neville assured me, taking my hand and giving it a squeeze.
I squeezed his hand in return. "Watching you see him perform that curse right in front of you, I just -- I felt horrible. I can't even imagine what was going on in your mind when it happened."
Neville pulled me in for a hug. "It's okay. I'm fine. As much as I wish I could change what happened, I can't. No one can."
"How was Moody, when he took you up to his office?" I asked, pulling away from the hug after a while to give him a little space.
"He was alright. Gave me a new book on plants," Neville replied. He pulled a book out of his bag.
I read the title. "Magical Water Plants of the Highland Lochs."
He nodded. "Yeah. He reckoned it'd be of interest."
"I see," I said.
Neville then glanced up at the sky. "We'd better get inside. Looks like it's going to rain."
I followed his gaze to see he was right. Dark storm clouds were gathering in the sky, heavy with rain. "Yeah. Those clouds look pretty dark. It might thunder."
"By the way, I heard Fred and George are gonna try and sneak their names into the goblet," Neville said, chuckling a bit.
"Ha! Like they're gonna get past the age line spell!" I remarked, earning a laugh out of him.
"See you later, Cassia. And thanks for the company. I really appreciate it," he said, waving goodbye before rushing inside.
"Bye, Neville," I called back to him. Taking one more look up at the gathering storm clouds, I knew I had to get inside, and fast, if I didn't want to get caught in the storm. I stood up and started to walk into the castle, but someone grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close against their chest. I was startled at first, but mentally sighed in relief once I saw it was just Cedric.
"Hey, love," he greeted, kissing my forehead. "Sorry I scared you."
I shook my head. "I wasn't scared, you just surprised me." I shivered with pleasure as he ran his fingers through my hair.
"How were classes?" he asked.
"Uh...they were okay. Professor Moody creeped us out. We had to watch him perform the Unforgivable Curses in class," I answered. "What about your classes?"
"About the same as yours, except I didn't have Defense Against the Dark Arts today. My first class with Moody was on Monday," he replied.
I inhaled sharply. "Ooh. That must've been rough."
"That guy would scare just about anybody," Cedric agreed. It was a good five minutes or so before he spoke again. "Cassi, I need to tell you something."
"What is it?" I asked.
He sighed. "I'm entering my name in the tournament." And just like that, mood went from happy to completely and utterly shocked. He'd pretty much dropped a bombshell on me.
"Are you insane?!" I exclaimed.
Cedric had a stoic look on his face. "I'm 17. I'm eligible to enter," he said, acting like it was nothing. How can he be so calm about this?! He could die!
"No. No way," I refused. "You're not putting your name in that Goblet. I won't let you."
"Why not?" he asked. Was he REALLY asking me that?
"Because it's dangerous! You heard what Dumbledore said last week," I answered.
"I know. But I'm entering anyway," Cedric told me.
"That's suicide!" I protested.
"Why are you such a control freak, all of a sudden?" he snapped at me.
"I am not now, nor have I ever been a control freak," I argued, crossing my arms. "I'm concerned for your safety. Big difference."
"If you were my girlfriend, you'd support my decisions!" Cedric snarled.
"I do support them, just not this one. You don't have to be so defensive," I fired back. Why was he acting like this, all of a sudden? What was his deal?
Cedric groaned. "You're not my mother, Cassia, so stop acting like you are! What gives you the right to tell me what I can and can't do?" He was full-on yelling at this point.
"What gives you the right to snap at me?" I questioned him. I was so confused as to why Cedric was being so rude, all of a sudden. If he'd just tell me what the matter was, maybe I could help him. But no, he didn't think that through before he started getting defensive.
After a few long moments of silence, he spoke again, his voice barely above a whisper. "Maybe I was wrong, maybe this isn't gonna work out between us..." His facial expression became a sad one, almost regretful. I watched him walk away without another word, not even so much as an "I'm sorry" for snapping at me.
The rain came down hard. Within seconds, I was soaked to the skin. But that was nothing compared to the pain I felt inside, in my heart. My heart felt like it was wrenched out of my body. I let the tears fall, not caring about the fact that my cheeks were already wet from the downpour. Cedric and I had just had our first fight, and it could be our last as well, because he may have just broken up with me.