The Tale of Jamie Devereaux

Abracadabra Yourself, Weasley

Chapter Eighteen: Abracadabra Yourself, Weasley

Jamie Devereaux Bruce was a good student. Teachers liked her, liked how she always did the reading and worked hard. It was one of the reasons she was named a Prefect. Jamie also always liked her teachers. She was even one of Professor Snape's more tolerated pupils, despite the few times her and Fred Weasley had gotten detention due to antics in his class. This, however, was not the case for Professor Moody.

The Gryffindor boys seemed completely in awe with the new battle-scared professor. The girls seemed slightly more apprehensive, but respectful. Jamie Devereaux wanted to get as far away from him as she could. There seemed to be a dull head throb come into her mind whenever he was around, and she didn't know what from. She suspected his magical eye was behind it. In Scamander's book The Vanishing of Veela Men she had read a small passage about magical items around male Veela. Some of the more powerful enchanted objects that were made to detect lies and deceit acted out around Veela like Devereaux. But the author had just stated it was unlikely they would work on male-Veela, not that it would give them a migraine.

The migraine, plus the fact that Jamie was exclusively eating chocolate so as to avoid House-Elf food, made the blonde particularly testy. She wanted to think this was why she didn't like Alastair Moody in that moment. However, when the scarred wizard wrote on the board behind him a title of "Unforgivable Curses" Jamie Devereaux knew that she would not be attempting any kind of relationship with the former Auror.

"You are sixth-years. Two years away from being thrown into the real world. You might have passed your OWLs, you might have even done well. I'm here to tell you that those scores don't mean anything." Professor Alastair Moody began his first class at Hogwarts. Fred and George Weasley exchanged smiles with one another at this announcement, and Jamie heard Fred's deep voice whisper 'Wicked' to his twin. "You might as well throw those scores out the window as far as I'm concerned." The new DADA teacher continued, "None of you are prepared for what is out there and what awaits you. Professor Dumbledore has coddled you all long enough. Now he has put me in charge of getting you ready. Of informing you of what waits for you outside these walls. It's not all fun jobs and growing old. Some of you might never grow old." That alarming news rang through the class room as the magical blue eye seemed to spin around before, once again, resting on Jamie Devereaux.

The blonde witch didn't know what to think about this pronouncement. His speech, which had to have been rehearsed at least once, was running through her mind. The idea of this unknown awaiting her after graduating made her think back to what McGonagall had unwillingly admitted to Jamie last year. That Dumbledore was planning on using her as a weapon. Maybe this unknown threat was what she was intended to fight. Moody limped across the room, looking strained with his wooden leg, and headed toward a cage filled with spiders. He took one gingerly in a scarred hand and placed the small spider on his desk. He then looked back up at all the sixth-year students. Everyone was staring, enraptured in his lecture. Jamie, somewhat reluctantly, was also eager to hear what else this wizard was going to say. She had never been in a class where a teacher had spoken to their students like this. It was shocking, but invigorating.

Moody addressed the class again, "Who of you have heard of the Unforgivable Curses?"

Many people's hands shot in the air and Jamie immediately felt a sense of dread. The only Unforgivable Curse she knew was the Imperius Curse. The blonde witch primarily knew about it because her own persuasive talents were made in comparison to the effects that the curse had on people. Mallory of all people—who often sat in the back of classes and completely ignored what was going on—was pointed at by Moody, prompting her to answer what the first curse was, "The Imperius Curse."