Goblet of Heartbreak (HP FanFic)

Defense Against the Dark Arts

Walking up to the Defense room, I was scared. Professor Moody looked really scary. I wasn't sure I really wanted to go at all.

"Last chance to ditch," I warned Emily. She was excited to learn from him, because he actually had experience with fighting Dark Arts. Everyone seemed to be excited. We were all queued up in front of the classroom before the bell had even rung. As soon as the door opened, Emily dragged me into the front desk and took out her book. Everyone was unusually quiet. After a few minutes, I heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor. He entered the classroom looking as strange and frightening as ever. I could just see his clawed, wooden foot peeking out from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them." We all returned them to our bags, Emily looking excited.

Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as each person answered.

"Right then," he said, when the last person had declared themselves here, "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about all of the classes. You all have a variety of knowledge on creatures, but every class is behind-very behind-on dealing with curses. So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark-"

"What, aren't you staying?" a girl from the back blurted out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at the girl. "You'll be Arthur Weasley's daughter, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just for one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.

"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 the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ginny's and Emily's. Moody pointed at Ginny.

"Er-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 Ministry quite a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Spiders are gross. He reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that we 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 it legs rigidly, and then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone was laughing-everyone except Moody and I. I felt almost bad.

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

The laughter died away almost instantly.

"Total control," said Moody 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, and throw itself down one of your throats..."

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and I knew he was talking about the days in which You-Know-Who had been all-powerful. "Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will." He continued to talk about the Curse.

The next curse that he talked about was the Cruciatus Curse. It tortured the spider. I couldn't even look at it, because I felt so bad. It was in so much pain. Then, the final one was the Killing Curse. He put the spider in front of our desk. "Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air-instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries; I flinched.

He swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor. He kept talking about the curses, but I didn't want to listen. I kept thinking about the torture the spiders went through. After the bell rang, everyone rushed out to talk with their friends about the lesson. I made my way up to the Gryffindor Common Room. Emily had forgotten her book in the classroom, so she ran back to get it. I had to continue the walk by myself. I was basically in an empty corridor.

Suddenly, I felt someone push me into the wall. "Watch where you're going, freak." The person said from behind me. I growled as a pulled myself up to see some very familiar faces.

Julie was standing there, smirking at me. "Long time, no see."

Oh great.

"You never told me about your dad. It was so nice of Ginny to tell me." she smirked, stepping sideways so Ginny could be seen. I gave her a look of disgust. This is why I didn't want anyone to know. "So how does it feel to be hated by everyone?" Julie asked with a sly smirk. I shuddered knowing that this wasn't going to end well.

She pulled out her wand.

"So, I've been dying to try out those new curses we learned in Defense. Aren't you?" She was just soaking it up. I kept looking at Ginny, begging her to help me. I knew Julie was serious about it.

"This is for getting my sister suspended!" Julie raised her wand and yelled "Crucio!"