We filed into Defense Against the Dark Arts on Thursday afternoon. I took my usual seat next to Hermione.
After taking attendance, Moody began our first lesson.
"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 show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in sixth year."
"And for good reason," I whispered to Hermione.
"You will not talk when I am speaking, Miss Hart." I jumped and glanced back at the front of the classroom.
Professor Moody wasn't looking at me, but I noticed his magical eye was pointed in my direction.
"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Several hands rose in the air. Moody pointed to Ron.
"Er," Ron said tentatively, "my dad told me about one...Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministeu a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Moody got to his feet and pulled a jar out from a desk drawer. Inside were three black spiders. He took one of the spiders and put it in the palm of his hand.
"Imperio!" Professor Moody muttered.
The spider lept from Moody's hand and began to do all sorts of tricks, such as backflips and cartwheels, respectively.
Everyone was laughing— everyone except Professor Moody.
"Think it's funny do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did that to you?"
The laughter stopped.
"Total control," said Moody quietly. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."
I shifted in my chair uncomfortably.
"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.
Moody asked for another curse. Hermione raised her hand, and so did Neville, which surprised the whole class.
"There's one— the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small voice.
"Your name's Longbottom?" Moody said.
Neville nodded, and Professor Moody turned back to the jar for another spider.
"Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"
The spider was huge now, and I saw Ron push his chair as far back as it would go.
Moody raised his wand again. "Crucio!"
The spider began to twitch horribly. It writhed in pain, and Moody did make any move to stop it.
Tears began to form in my eyes. I looked away from the spider.
"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.
I glanced back up at the front of the room to see that Neville looked horrified.
"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse...Right...anyone know any others?"
I raised my hand, as did Hermione.
"Yes?" said Moody, looking at Hermione.
"Avada Kedavra," she whispered.
"Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra...the Killing Curse."
Moody grabbed the last spider from the jar. He raised his wand, and without a second thought, uttered the curse.
"Avada Kedavra!"
There was a flash of green light, and the spider was unmistakably dead.
I felt tears flood my eyes once more. What kind of teacher was he, to perform the three Unforgivable Curses in front of fourth years?
***
After dinner I headed back up the common room with Harry and Ron, seeing as Hermione had ran off to the library again.
While the boys worked on their Divination predictions, I sat by the fire, tangled up in my own thoughts.
No matter how many times I tried, I couldn't forget Moody's lesson. I couldn't unsee the spider that had writhed in pain while being tortured. And I couldn't escape the flash of green light followed by the motionless creature.
I was suddenly pulled out of my daze when I was tapped on the shoulder. I looked up to see Fred standing over me.
"Oh, what do you want?" I asked.
"What, do I always have to want something from you?" he replied.
"No, but you usually do." I responded, turning my gaze back to the fire. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him sit down next to me.
"You okay?" Fred asked hesitantly. "You seem off."
"I'm fine." I told him. But when I finally met his eyes, I knew he was unconvinced.
"My hair is silver, isn't it?" I sighed.
"Very," Fred chuckled. "So what's up?"
"We had Defense Against the Dark Arts today, and Moody performed the Unforgivable Curses for us."
"Aren't they supposed to do that in sixth year?" Fred asked. I nodded.
"He said we were old enough to see them. It was horrifying."
No one said anything for a while after that. Finally, Fred broke the silence.
"Want to do something?" he asked. "We could use your help."
"With what?" I questioned. He stood up and grabbed my arm.
I was led to a deserted corner of the common room. George was sitting against a wall, bent over a piece of parchment. He looked up and smiled when he saw me approaching him.
"Ella! Glad to know you'll help us!"
"Help with what?" I said, confused.
"Look, this is top secret information." Fred said, sitting down and taking the parchment from George.
"You can't tell anyone!" George said, patting the empty space between him and Fred. I sat down.
"I won't, so what's this about?" I glanced over Fred's shoulder.
The parchment was a letter, addressed to Ludo Bagman.
"You know how we won the bet at the Quidditch World Cup?" Fred said.
"Yeah, and Bagman owed you guys a strangely specific amount of money." I replied.
"Well, he gave us leprechaun gold, which is completely worthless. We're trying to write him a letter to demand that he pay us."
"Can you help us?" George cut in.
"Sure, here," I took the quill from George's hand and the parchment from Fred and began scratching things down.
"Maybe you should add that he's a grown man and shouldn't be making bets with underage wizards just to give them worthless gold." Fred instructed while reading over my shoulder.
"Fred! You can't say that! You have to try and suggest that it was a mix up, and then politely request your money back."
"Where's the fun in that?" he asked.
***
Unlike my previous year, I was growing to hate Defense Against the Dark Arts. During one class, Professor Moody put us all under the Imperius Curse and tried to get us to fight it off.
Of course, I hadn't succeeded.
The only thing remotely exciting was that the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be arriving the day before Halloween.
Classes were going to be ending a half hour early, which everyone was fond of.
"Brilliant!" said Harry as we read the sign posted in the entrance hall. "It's Potions last thing on Friday! Snape won't have time to poison us all!"
"Only a week away!" said Ernie Macmillan, a Hufflepuff. "I wonder if Cedric knows? Think I'll go and tell him..."
"Cedric?" said Ron blankly.
"Diggory," said Harry. "He must be entering the tournament."
"That idiot, Hogwarts champion?" said Ron as we made our way 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."
"No wonder Miranda turned him down," I thought aloud. My friends gave me a look of confusion. "He asked her out last term. She said no, which I thought was ridiculous, considering he's not bad looking. But it all makes sense now! Of course she wouldn't want to date a prefect."
"What's wrong with that?" said Hermione.
"It's Miranda we're talking about," I told her. "Her taste in men is toxic and rebellious. Cedric is the complete opposite."