Beneath Her Skin

Chapter Ten

"You can't just go raising your wand at teachers, Alastriona." Darcy lectured as they left their Charms class to go to lunch, "It's going to be so awkward now."

"What was I meant to do? Let him attack Draco and get away with it?" 

Darcy groaned, there was no getting through to her, "Try using your words next time."

Alastriona grumbled incomprehensibly under her breath as they sat at the Slytherin table, Alastriona sat next to Draco and Darcy sat in between Theo and Blaise on the other side. 

Theo looked up from his plate, "What were you two talking about?" He asked.

Darcy got in before Alastriona did, "Alastriona needs to start using her words to solve problems rather than her wand." 

Draco scoffed and shook his head, "If she had tried using words Moody could've thrown me around like a bloody quaffle."

Alastriona poked her tongue out at Darcy as if to prove her point. Darcy rolled her eyes, "That may be but now classes will surely be uncomfortable."

Blaise decided now was a good time to interrupt, "It will likely be an uncomfortable class regardless, he's an odd wizard, a little bizarre." 

Bizarre was seemingly an understatement.

Darcy and Alastriona had their first Defense Against the Dark Arts that afternoon and he was wildly unpredictable. Between his magical eye whirring around, him yelling 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE', and his showcase of the three Unforgivable Curses on a poor unsuspecting fly that landed on his desk, it was a shocking first class.

Alastriona sat at her desk in the back of the class, breathing heavily after just seeing the poor fly killed in a flash of green light, the same spell that had killed her father.

The class was just about finished when Professor Moody addressed them one last time, "I tell you all this, about all these curses, to help prepare you for the future. There will always be another fight, another battle, dark wizards and witches are everywhere, maybe some even in the making in this very room." Alastriona felt his magical eye settle on her, she shivered but didn't let him see. "You need to be prepared and ready to fight back. Fight for your life." He nodded at the door, "Dismissed." Alastriona stood shakily, Darcy watched her friend closely with concern, "Miss Breen, stay behind."

Alastriona groaned but stayed where she was, "It's all right, I'll meet you in the Great Hall." She told Darcy. 

Moody limped over and leaned on the desk behind him as Alastriona did the same. "I was very impressed with you yesterday, defending your boyfriend like that. Very brave." Alastriona didn't say anything, she didn't bother correcting him about her relationship with Draco, it was none of his business anyway. "You may have found this lesson slightly disturbing-"

"I found the demonstration disturbing and unnecessary." Alastriona interrupted, folding her arms over her chest. "A lecture could've explained each Unforgivable Curse."

"A lecture wouldn't have been able to show this class what they needed to see. What you've already seen." He stared at her, unblinking, "I thought you looked familiar in the Great Hall," Alastriona's heart nearly beat out of her chest, "and then when you pointed your wand at me I saw your mother in you—"

"Don't—"

He towered over Alastriona, she fought the urge to hit him in his damaged nose, "Little Alastriona Breen, I knew your parents, and I know who your mother is... I wonder, does that same madness run in your blood? And, I wonder, do your little friends know who you really are?"

"I am not my mother." Alastriona growled out through clenched teeth.

"I saw your eyes when you had your wand pointed at me. Same eyes as your mother, you think I don't recognise that look? I saw it more times than I remember in your mother's eyes as she caused chaos as a Death Eater—"