THE GRYFFINDOR FOURTH-YEARS WERE LOOKING FORWARD TO MOODY'S FIRST LESSON THAT THEY ARRIVED EARLY AFTER LUNCH ON THURSDAY AND QUEUED UP OUTSIDE HIS CLASSROOM. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.
The quartet hastened into four chairs in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually silent. Soon, Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps were heard from down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as uncanny and unnerving as ever.
"You can put those away," he grunted, trampling over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."
Everyone bestowed the books back into their bags.
"Right then," he articulated, finishing ticking off names from the register. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding with dark creatures—you've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas, and Werewolves, is that right?"
There was a murmur of undertaking.
"But you're behind—very behind—on dealing with curses," Moody divulged. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other..."
Moody conducted to elucidate on his one year position as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, stating that after he attained his position, he was going to abase himself into retirement.
"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Multiple hands rose timidly in the air. Moody pointed at Ron, though his bewitched eye was fixed on Alena.
"Er," Ron modulated reluctantly. "My dad told me about one... the Imperius Curse, or something?"
Moody got rigorously to his disaccorded feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large, black spiders were scampering inside it.
