The Forgotten Potter- Draco Malfoy

Chapter 25 (Year 4)

River's POV

"You can put your books away," Moody said, as he walked into the classroom.

"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, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?" We all nodded out agreement.

"But you're behind — very behind — on dealing with curses," said Moody. " 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! Are you not staying?" Weasley blurted out. Moody's magical eye turned to Weasley. He studied him before smiling. It was scarier than his resting face, his cuts twisted his face around.

"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son?" Weasley nodded,

"Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago.... Yeah, I'm staying just the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore.... One year and then back to my quiet retirement." He laughed, harsh and ruff.

"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 counter-curses 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. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking." Brown jumped and put her book in her bookbag.

"So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?" He asked, several people put their hands up in the air, including Theo, who was almost jumping in his seat. Mad eye looked at Weasley,

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

"Ah, yes," Moody said,

"Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse." He turned around and took out three spiders from his desk, all in a jar. He took the first spider out. 

"Imperio!" He yelled, the spider swung back and forth, people started laughing as it sat on a desk and walked in circles.

"Think that's funny, do you? Would you like it if it were you?" Everyone stopped laughing quickly, as his eye scanned our frightened faces. 

"To control," he said. The spider had balled itself up and started rolling around the desk.

"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 Imperius Curse," said Moody. 

"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!" Everyone jumped in their seats. Moody didn't seem to notice and placed the spider back into its jar.

"Anyone else know another?" He asked, Granger's hand flew up into the air, and to everyone's surprise so did Longbottom's.

"Yes?" Moody's magical eye landed on him.

"There's one — the Cruciatus Curse," he said,

"Your names Longbottom?" Moody said, Longbottom nodded.

"The Cruciatus Curse, needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea," He took out the spider, making it larger, then placed the unforgivable curse on the spider. It started twitching and rocking side to side, violently.

"Stop it!" Granger yelled, but she wasn't looking at the spider, but at Longbottom. His hands were clenched tightly on top of his desk, his knuckles white, and his face expressionless. Moody raised his wand and stopped the spider's pain, but it still twitched. 

"Pain, you don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse.... That one was very popular once too."

"Right, anyone knows the last one?" He asked, as Granger raised her hand.

"Avada Kedavra." She whispered; most of the class shuddered. 

"Ah," He said, smirking. 

"Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse." He put his hand in the jar and grabbed the last spider that struggled, knowing what was about to happen. He placed it on the desk, Moody raised his wand for the last time. 

"Avada Kedavra." He said, a green, bright light came from his wand and hit the spider. It stopped, suddenly become motionless, becoming dead.

"Not pleasant. And there's no counter-curse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me." Moody said, walking until he was in front of Potter's desk. Potter stared at his desk, probably feeling every pair of eyes on him.

"Avada Kedavra, a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it — you could all get your wands out now and point them at me and say the words, and I doubt I'd get so much as a nosebleed. But that doesn't matter. I'm not here to teach you how to do it. Now, if there's no counter-curse, why am I showing you? Because you've got to know. You've got to appreciate what the worst is. You don't want to find yourself in a situation where you're facing it. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" The class jumped as he screamed the last part. 

"Now... those three curses — Avada Kedavra, Imperius, and Cruciatus — are known as the Unforgivable Curses. The use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban. That's what you're up against. That's what I've got to teach you to fight. You need preparing. You need arming. But most of all, you need to practice constant, never-ceasing vigilance. Get out your quills... copy this down...." No one dared to speak for the rest of the class to terrified of Professor Moody, as they scribbled down everything he wrote.