An American at Hogwarts: Book Two

Chapter Twenty

I went to bed pretty much as soon as I got to the dorms. I woke up the next morning and headed to breakfast, ready to start day two of classes. Jackson had DADA first thing, and then we'd see each other in Care of Magical Creatures for our last period of the day. I knew he'd be just as unsettled by the Unforgivable Curses as I was, so I was already planning a strategy for learning to resist the Imperius Curse together after that class. Barely two days into the year, and the Astronomy Tower was already back in use.

At lunch, I took a trip to the owlery to mail a letter to Oliver about training with Pietro. I sent him a copy of everything I'd gotten from the omnioculars too, since he seemed so excited about that the last time I talked to him. I made it back to the Great Hall in time to grab a quick snack before my second DADA lesson. Moody continued his teaching of curses, although it was a bit less graphic for this second lesson. The class went by quickly, and so did our Charms class after that. Finally, it was time for Care of Magical Creatures, and time to get Jackson on the same page about this curse.

I saw Jackson walking with Adrian and Myrah a bit ahead of me and the rest of my friends as we walked down the Hogwarts lawn. I picked up the pace, trying to catch up to him as I caught his attention.

"Hey! Jackson!"

He turned around at the sound of his name, and instead of looking annoyed like I thought he might, he looked deadly serious as he waited for me to catch up to him.

Moody's lesson must have had exactly the impact I was hoping for.

"Stark. You were right. We have to do something about that curse."

"No kidding. The only question is what?" Jackson took a breath like he was going to answer, but I'd planned it all out this morning, so I continued before he could. "I'll tell you what we're gonna do, we're gonna go up to the Astronomy Tower after class and practice on each other until we can resist it."

"Good plan. Let's get started as soon as this class is over."

"My thoughts exactly."

It was nice to have Jackson actually agreeing with me, for a change. Although, given who his mother was and who she spends time with, I guess it makes sense he wouldn't joke around about mind control.

Hagrid's lesson was interesting, but Jackson and I were both itching to get to work as quickly as we possibly could. The less time spent in the world where wizards could use a simple spell to get us to do anything, the better.

Our friends all knew that we were going up to the Astronomy Tower to work on something after class, so we didn't do much more than call goodbye over our shoulders as we booked it back up to the castle.

"Alright Stark, you wanna cast first or resist first?" asked Jackson as we walked to a nice, open space in the Tower.

"I'll resist first." Jackson nodded and pulled out his wand, but I had a sudden thought before he cast the spell. "Just don't try to make me do anything to embarrassing, okay? Remember, you're next."

"Don't worry Stark, you're gonna be fine," said Jackson with a grin that actually made me very worried. Oh well, there really wasn't much I could do about it now. "Imperio!"

Just like that, every muscle in my body relaxed. It felt like I was floating on air. I couldn't imagine any reason for the worry and determination I'd felt before. Why not just go with the flow?

"Pat your head and rub your stomach." The voice was faint, just barely whispering what to do. Still, it only made sense to listen to it, right?

I started to move, the voice repeating the instructions over and over, and I managed to get it right on the first try. I vaguely thought that was impressive, since I'd never managed to get it right on the first try before, but the thought was gone as quickly as it'd come.