Harry Potter and The Girl Who Knew {year 4} (A George Weasley & Harry X Reader)

25. Unforgivable Curses

It didn't take long for Thursday to come, and everyone was looking forward to your lesson with Moody. Everyone lined up outside the classroom early, apart from Hermione who turned up in the nick of time.

"Been in the..."

"Library." Both you and Harry finished the sentence for her.

"C'mon quick" Harry said ignoring that fact that you were both in sync once more "or we won't get decent seats." The four of you managed to get four seats right at the front of the classroom. You and Hermione on one desk and Harry and Ron on the one next to you meaning Harry was sat on the other side of you. You all took out your textbooks in a strange silence, you couldn't hear a single exhale in the room.

Soon enough, you could hear Moody's wooden leg stamp down the centre of the classroom. "You can put those away," he said to everyone's confusion "those books. You won't need them." Everyone did as he said still sat in a hovering silence. Moody did the register his normal eye transfixed on the sheet. But his magical eye swirled in the direction of the student when they answered their names.

"Right then" he said when he said the last person's name "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures. You've covered Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappers and Werewolves, is that right?" There was a murmur of a response, "But you're behind, very behind, on dealing with curses. So, I'm here too 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?" Ron said unable to stop himself. Moody's eye turned to look at Ron and though it looked rather unpleasant to the eye he... smiled.

"You'll Be Arthur Weasley's son, eh? Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favour to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement." He gave a quick laugh before slamming his hands together, "So straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the ministry of Magic, I am supposed to teach you counter-curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal dark curses look like until you're in your 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 is not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking." Lavender had been showing Parvati her horoscope, and when Moody had pointed her out, she blushed with embarrassment.

"So... do any of you know which courses are most heavily punished by Wizarding law?" Many hands shot up including yours, Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron who looked nervous at actually being chosen.

"Er, my dad told me about one... Is it called the Imperius curse, or something?"

"Ah, yes, your father would know that one. Gave the ministry off of trouble at one time, the Imperius curse." Moody said before moving to open his desk draw. He took out a jar that contained three large spiders. He put his hand into the jar and took one of the spiders out of it. It sat on his palm which he stretched out so that everyone could see it.

"Imperio!" The spider leapt from Moody's palm in an instant and started to do some kind of trapeze routine on a single thread. It did a backflip, cartwheels even a tap dance. Everyone started to laugh at the enthusiastic tap-dancing spider.

"Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?" Everyone stopped laughing so fast it sounded like someone had switched off the sound. "Total control, I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats... Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the imperious curse. 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. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" Moody yelled and the whole class jumped together at his outburst.