The three friends were soon joined by Hermione and they trekked their way to the entrance hall. Hermione was teasing Ron about not having any homework and Rose started to consider dropping Divination for Arithmancy when a voice distracted her.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
The quartet turned and saw Draco standing there with a newspaper in his hands, Crabbe and Goyle flanking his sides.
"Want more antlers?" Rose asked. Draco smeered at her but turned to Ron instead.
"Your father's in the paper," Draco informed the red head before he started reading the article. Rita Skeeter didn't even properly name Mr. Weasley, calling him Arnold instead of Arthur.
"Imagine not even getting the name right," Draco laughed. By this point everyone in the entrance hall was listening to Draco, who continued to read the paper. Apparently Mr. Weasley had had troubles when Professor Moody called him, needing help. The ministry had to alter some memories because of Moody's false alarm.
"And there's a picture!" Draco announced as he flipped the paper around. "Your family standing around a house-if you could even call it that. Your mother could do with losing some weight, don't you think?"
"I think you looked great with antlers, don't you think?" Rose seethed. Malfoy took a step back. Rose could practically feel Ron shaking with fury behind her.
"Shove off, Malfoy. Come on, Ron, Rose," Harry said, guiding his friends into the great hall and away from Draco.
"That's right, you spent time there over the summer. Tell me, is his mother as porky as she is in the picture?" Malfoy questioned with a laugh. Rose, Harry and Hermione had to grab Ron to keep him from launching at Draco, but Rose was inclined to let him go.
"You know your mother, Malfoy... the expression she has, like she has sung under her nose, does she always look like that or is it just cause you were there?" Harry retorted. Rose masked her laugh with her hand as Malfoy's face turned pink.
"Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter," Malfoy said softly, anger coating his voice.
"Keep your fat mouth shut then," Harry retorted, turning around. Rose glanced back at Draco to see him shooting a spell at Harry. In a split second, Harry was pushed to the side and Rose was blasted back.
"Ro-Lyn!" Hermione yelled, rushing to her side. Rose panted but sat up and saw Harry and Ron with their wands pointed at Malfoy, who looked a little scared. Before either boy could do anything, a yell distracted them.
"OH, NO YOU DON'T LADDIE!"
Professor Moody hurried down the steps with his wand out. Within seconds, Draco was a pure white ferret. Despite the pain in her side, Rose let out a laugh. Moody turned around to the quartet, but his wand was still on Malfoy.
"Did he get you?" Moody asked Harry.
"No, R-Lyn pushed me out of the way. I think she needs to go to the hospital wing," Harry said. Rose could already feel herself healing, but didn't say anything. She acted as if she was still in pain as to not draw suspicion.
"I see...LEAVE IT!" Moody said, not looking away from Harry and Rose.
"Leave...what?" Harry asked.
"Not you, him," Moody growled. Rose looked and saw Goyle trying to grab ferret Draco. Apparently Moody's fake eye could see through his head. Moody finally started to walk towards the ferret, who quickly started to run away.
"No you don't!" Moody said with a cold laugh, pointing his wand at the ferret, which soared high in the air before landing back on the ground.
"I don't like people who attack others when their back is turned or they don't have their wand! Stinking, cowardly thing to do..." Moody growled, still bouncing the ferret.
"Professor Moody!" The shocked voice of Professor Mcgonagall echoed through the corridor, her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor Mcgonagall," Moody said calmly as if he wasn't bouncing a student turned ferret.
"What-what are you doing?" Mcgonagall asked, still watching the ferret.
"Teaching."
"Teach- Is that a student?" Mcgonagall gasped, dropping her books and rushing forward, her wand pulled out. Within seconds, Draco was back to human, red-faced and panting. He winced a little as he stood up.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment. Surely Dumbledore mentioned that!" Mcgonagall scolded.
"He might have mentioned it, yes...but I thought a good sharp knock-"
"We give detentions or talk to the Head of the House!" Mcgonagall reminded the man.
"I'll do that then," Moody said, looking at Draco, who stared at the Professor with anger and humiliation in his eyes. Rose heard him mutter something about his father.
"Oh, yeah, your father. I know him...you tell him Moody is watching you. Now, your head of house is Snape, right?" Moody growled at the boy, who nodded his head.
"Another old friend. I've been meaning to talk to him..come on," Moody said, marching off with Draco. Ron and Harry rushed over to Rose and helped her stand. By this point she barely felt any pain, but Hermione was the only one who would know that.
"Are you ok?" Harry asked the girl.
"Yeah, I'm good," Rose assured the boy. Mcgonagall walked past and gave Rose a pointed look, telling her to act like she was hurt. It seemed she knew the truth. "I mean...it hurts a little."
"Maybe we should see Madam Pomfrey," Ron suggested.
"No!" Rose and Hermione said at the same time.
"And why not?" Harry asked, looking back and forth between the two.
"Because... I barely fell. I'll be fine soon," Rose replied.
"You almost bled out a week ago," Harry reminded the girl.
"I'm so tired of boys trying to tell girls what to do!" Hermione said sternly. Rose caught on and continued.
"Oh, yeah. It's like they're always telling you what to do. You know, I go through a whole week of pain and blood every month, I think I can handle a little fall," Rose said. Hermione and Rose giggled as Harry and Ron blanched and opened and closed their mouths. It was the same reaction Remus had had when Rose told him she started her period. Remus hadn't even told Rose about periods, but gave her a book to read instead. Needless to say, he was very uncomfortable when she told him, but he immediately gave her what she needed and chocolate.
"Are you hungry?" Hermione asked Rose.
"I sure am. My period is supposed to start in 2 days so I am extra hungry," Rose replied with a giggle. Hermione and Rose linked arms and walked towards the great hall. Hurried steps behing them informed them that the boys were following them.
"You guys are horrible," Ron muttered as he came to walk next to Rose.
"No, we just won't let you boys shame us for something that happened naturally," Rose said.
"Well I don't want to hear about it," Ron complained.
"Yes, well, we don't care," Hermione said. Rose nodded and sat down next to the girl at the table. Ron and Harry sat down across from them, but didn't make eye contact. Rose and Hermione discreetly high fived under the table.
"Anyways... don't talk to me anymore. I need to put the memory of ferret Malfoy into my head forever," Ron sighed. Harry laughed.
"He could've been hurt," Hermione chastised the boy.
"Well, Rose was hurt," Harry pointed out.
"But I'm fine," Rose reminded the boy.
"Well, while you put that to memory I'm going to the library," Hermione announced, standing up from the table.
"But...!" Rose said, but Hermione was already gone. Her absence was quickly replaced by the twins and their friend Lee Jordan.
"What class did you come from?" Ron asked.
"DADA," Fred said.
"How was it?" Harry inquired.
"Amazing. The man knows," Lee said.
"He's been out there. Crazy," George said.
"He's seen it all," Fred concluded.
"We don't have him till Thursday!" Ron complained.
Rose stared at them as if they were crazy before grabbing some bread. No one would be better than Moony in her eyes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The next two days went by quickly. Rose was tired after healing herself but she drank some coffee and felt better. The only real incident was when Neville burned a hole through his cauldron in potions and Snape yelled at him. Everyone knew it was just because Snape wanted the DADA job and was upset he didn't get it.
The day of the first DADA lesson the fourth years entered the classroom early, eager to experience Moody and his now famous teachings. Harry, Ron and Rose had to wait for Hermione, who was once again in the library. When Hermione finally came, the quartet entered the class and took the seats right in front of the teachers desk. Rose had just taken out her book when Moody clunked into the room.
"You won't need those, the books. Put them away," Moody said, sitting behind his desk. The class did so quickly, not wanting to get on his bad side. Moody took roll before addressing the class.
"Now then, Professor Lupin left me a list of what you've covered. It's very good but you're behind on dealing with curses. I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do. For this one year-" Moody started.
"What, aren't you staying?" Ron interrupted. Rose held her breath as Moody turned to look at the boy. Ron gulped and seemed to shrink in his seat.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son. He got me out of a tight place recently..." Moody said, causing Ron to let out a sigh of relief that he wasn't going to be turned into an animal. "Yeah, I'm only staying one year before going back to my quiet retirement."
"So, straight to it! Curses. According to the ministry, I'm only supposed to teach you countercurses and leave it at that, but I disagree. The sooner you know what you're up against, the better. And Dumbledore agrees. You need to be alert and watchful at all times and you better put that away Ms. Brown," Moony explained. Lavender jumped and put way the astronomical chart she was showing Parvati.
"Now...who knows the curses most heavily punished?" Moody asked. Many hands went up but Rose kept hers down, feeling uncomfortable. Her mum had been tortured into insanity, and she didn't want to think about it. Moody looked to Ron for an answer.
"Well...there's one my dad told me. The Imperius curse...or something?"
"Ah, yes. Your father would know about that one. Gave the ministry quite a bit of trouble," Moody said as he leaned under his desk. He pulled out three glass jars, each with spiders in them. Ron instantly recoiled, hating spiders arguably more than Voldemort.
Moody reached into one of the jars and pulled out a spider. He placed the spider on the desk and pulled out his wand saying "imperio."
The spider started jumping all over the class. With a wave of his wand, Moody had the spider tap dancing. Everyone in the class was laughing except for Rose. She stared at the spider with concern on her face.
"You think this is funny, do you?" Moody asked the class. "And you would like it, if someone did it to you?"
The class was silent, everyone thinking about how serious the curse actually is.
"Total control...I could make the spider to anything. Jump out the window, crawl down your throat..." Moody trailed off. He turned to Rose. "Ms....Dylan, is it?"
"Yes, sir," Rose replied, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Hmm. And why is this curse such a problem?" Moody asked, hobbling over until he was staring her in the eyes.
"Umm...well, my godfather told me that many dark wizards claimed to be under the Imperius curse during the days of You-know-who. The ministry had to pick out the liars," Rose answered. Moody nodded but stared at her for a few more seconds before standing up straight and hobbling back behind his desk.
"Very good Ms....Dylan. Now, the Imperius curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how. We all need CONSTANT VILIGANCE!" Moody barked and everyone jumped in their seats. He turned and grabbed another spider.
"Can anyone give me another curse?"
Hermione's hand went up and Neville's did as well. Rose was shocked as he only ever answered questions in herbology.
"Yes?" Moody said, looking at Neville.
"There's the.. umm... Cruciatus Curse," Neville whispered. Rose shuddered as she remembered his parents from the hospital. She thought back to how her mum hadn't recognized anyone when she saw her.
"Longbottom, is it?" Moody asked and Neville nodded. Moody didn't respond but instead made the spider larger. Ron pushed his chair as far back as it would go.
"Crucio!" Moody muttered. This spider started rolling around on the desk and its mouth was open. Rose thought that if the spider could, it would be screaming. Moody didn't release the spider from the curse.
"Stop it! Can't you see it's hurting them!" Hermione yelled. Rose quickly wiped her eyes from the tears that fell down her face and made the mental note to respond to her mum's letter that afternoon. Her mum didn't deserve what happened to her and she didn't deserve having a daughter that couldn't respond just because she was confused.
"Pain," Moody whispered. Harry reached over and grabbed Rose's hand, trying to comfort her. She squeezed his hand so hard it hurt, but he didn't dare let go. "This curse was very popular...Right, anyone know any others?"
Rose knew that everyone knew the final curse, but no one wanted to say it. Hermione shakily raised her hand in the air and Moody called on her.
"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.
"Ah, yes. The last and the worst. The killing curse," Moody said as he grabbed the last spider from the jar and placed it on the table. The spider quickly started to hurry away, but Moody muttered the curse before it could. The spider stopped instantly and Moody swiped it off the table with a swipe of his hand.
"Not nice, not pleasant. There's no countercurse. The only person to have survived the curse is sitting here in this room," Moody said, looking at Harry.
Rose and Harry didn't let go of each others hands, not when Moody kept talking and not when he told them to take notes. Rose and Harry left the class still holding hands, their grip so tight they were causing bruises to appear, although neither felt the pain. Harry was so lost in thought he didn't notice and Rose was as well, although her healing did help. But what helped most was knowing that she would always have Harry to help.