Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [4]

⚡️ Chapter 21 ⚡️

"So, ... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Vega was surprised that they were learning about illegal curses from the first lesson onward, and she glanced at her friends, especially at Harry and Neville, before raising her hand slightly into the air. Several other hands rose just as tentatively, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Er," Ron spoke up tentatively, surprised that he was picked out of the lot. Vega looked at him along with the rest. "My dad told me about one... is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes," Moody responded rather appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse,"

At this, Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet and opened his desk drawer. He brought out a glass jar – there were three large black spiders scuttling around inside of it. Ron recoiled slightly.

Ah, yes, he's scared of spiders.

Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the frantic spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered: "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Vega held onto her knee.

When Moody jerked his wand, the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance. Everyone was laughing – everyone except Vega and Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" Moody growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

The laughter died away almost instantly, and Vega let out a low breath at the silence.

"Total control," Moody said quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," Moody said. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. 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,"

Everyone was just nodding along to what Moody was talking about when all of a sudden –

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody barked, and everyone jumped.

Vega blinked at his behaviour, and tried to recall if he had mentioned something like that back at the Ministry. It was true that he scolded Dora about her clumsiness and somewhat distracted actions but that Moody was the last person she would've expected to yell but she didn't know him after all.

"Anyone else know one?" Moody asked as he picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "Another illegal curse?"

Although Vega wasn't quite fond of the last two remaining curses, Vega slowly raised her hand into the air while Hermione's shot up into the air eagerly, and somehow, Neville's hand went up, too. That caused Vega to quickly lower her hand and her head, knowing that there could only one thing.

That curse, of course.

It was very clear to Vega because the only class that Neville otherwise usually volunteered to answer in was Herbology – which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.