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The Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth-years were rather nervous to attend their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year.
Like every previous year, they had been assigned a new teacher. However, the one person who truly felt like the world was closing around them, was Marina Black. It was the first lesson with Junior as her teacher. Knowing that he was going to be dressed as Mad-Eye, she felt her stomach do a flip.
The young Slytherin found her seat in the back of the classroom, clutching her quill and staring at the idiotic Harry Potter, who was sitting at the very front, laughing loudly with his friends. Merlin, could he be more annoying?
As Draco plopped down in the chair beside her, throwing his copy of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection on their desk, Marina found herself listening for the distinctive clunking of Junior's footsteps. It took less than a minute before the new professor came stumbling into the room.
"Right then," he began. "You're behind - this class is very behind - on dealing with curses. So, I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other."
He walked to stand in front of Harry, Ron, and Hermione's desk, took a look at them and chuckled to himself before he spun his magical eye to Marina. Over the summer, she had come to like Junior, but she knew that if he did anything wrong, she would light him on fire with the blink of an eye.
"Alastor Moody. Ex-auror, Ministry Malcontent and your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," he said, looking at the Dark Lord's daughter with both eyes now. "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 you need to be prepared. So, do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Junior pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Marina.
"Er," said Ron tentatively, "my dad told me about one. Is it called the Imperius Curse?"
Marina knew every Unforgivable Curse and how they worked. Her father had demonstrated them for her, but she had never tested any of them.
"Ah, yes," said Junior appreciatively, and opened his desk drawer. He took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Draco smiled and poked Marina's arm - he knew Ron's greatest fear was spiders.
