Rune stone path

Unforgivable and unforgettable

Barty watched as the group of Gryffindors and Slytherins walked into his classroom. This was going to be such a fun class! He had been looking forward to this one since he'd started this year. Surprisingly he'd actually almost enjoyed the teaching thing in general but this time…this time he'd get to expose them to a bit of the real Barty Crouch Jr.

"Professor, why do you have spiders on your desk?" Weasley asked with a slight whimper. Barty barely managed to hide his smile. The Weasleys may not rate very high on the Dark Lord's priority list but the boy was part Prewett too. And the Prewetts were always fun to play with.

"Well, Weasley, these volunteers are going to help with today's demonstration," Barty said grinning. He saw Greengrass' eyes widen and was somewhat impressed that girl had already sussed out his intentions. Or maybe he was giving her too much credit? Eh, didn't matter. "Now, today we'll be going over something that the Ministry doesn't like you folk knowing, but times are changing and if the World Cup was any example you lot need to know what's coming so that you can properly defend yourself. Who knows what the Unforgivable Curses are?"

That comment drew quite a few more in-drawn breaths and Barty saw the Longbottom boy, the Granger girl and Potter all narrow their eyes. There was a definite growl coming from one of them too. With amusement he also saw the Davis girl snarling low. Greengrass seemed to have drawn an aura of calm detachment down over herself. Useful skill that. Maybe he could recruit her too? Perhaps if he could grab both her and Potter he could use the two to turn each other and gain two skilled servants for the Master?

"Professor Moody, I thought the Unforgivables were illegal to use?" Granger said.

Barty nodded. "Aye, that they are. There are some exceptions such as demonstrations and during the last Blood War the Aurors were given leave to use them on Death Eaters resisting arrest. Good riddance to bad rubbish I say. Now, Miss Granger, do you know just why the Unforgivables are classed as Unforgivable?" If they were going to be put under these spells they really ought to understand just why they were special after all. Such beautiful, beautiful spells.

"Well the use of one immediately confers life in Azkaban," Granger said with a bit of a frown.

"Yes, but why? What makes them special? What makes them different? A blood-boiling curse is certainly more dangerous than the first, a transfiguration that turns blood to mud is both more painful and more lethal than the second and there are far more painful ways to kill than the third. So what makes an Unforgivable, unforgivable?"

Granger frowned, shook her head and sat back thinking. Eventually Malfoy raised his hand. Holding back his groan of annoyance Barty nodded to the boy. "Well, speak up, ferret."

Malfoy scowled and the round of quiet laughter was quite satisfying. "They bypass any form of shield and they target a person's soul instead of the body."

Barty grunted. "They don't bypass every shield, boy. Just magical shields."

"What other form of shield is there?" Malfoy snarked.

Barty tossed out a quick spell at the child and the boy squawked falling out of his chair as he rocked out of the way. Barty sent another two spells at him until the idiot finally managed to flip his chair to block the spell which hit it harmlessly. "That sort of shield, ferret. A physical item will block an Unforgivable. A protego doesn't do squat. Your second point was correct though. The Unforgivables are so classed because of their target." Well, mostly. The cruico had originally been a medical spell but no self-respecting mediwitch would ever bring that up these days. Not since someone had worked out long ago how to ramp it up and make it last longer than a second. Really, who'd want to restart a heart anyway? They were so much better off when they stopped beating.