The Unforgivable Curses
He had managed to have a decent sleep despite the previous nights events and was one of the first ones up to get ready for breakfast. It was a habit of sorts to be up early for a shower, still not having shown his dorm mates the scars littering his back (not even Draco) and he felt like it was something they shouldn’t see by surprise. He quickly had a shower and got dressed then woke up the others before going to brush his teeth and pack his bag and then finally collapsed back on his bed to wait for everyone.
Thankfully, they didn’t take too long and soon enough they were all up getting breakfast, watching Severus’s progress as the man passed out timetables. Fourth year timetables weren’t that interesting as they were the same as last years so when he was handed his he barely even glanced at it before going back to his toast. He was trying not to think too much about what they had first, which happened to be defence, because the new defence teacher somehow looked even more intimidating now. He took a deep breath and just concentrated on his food, he would meet the defence teacher when it was time for class.
Class came far too soon, he was definitely not ready to meet this guy and was fidgeting nervously as they all waited in a line outside the classroom. Although, it seemed everyone shared his nerves as the normally rowdy bunch was currently standing completely silent in a uniform line which was a once in a lifetime occurrence. Somehow they stood even straighter when they heard the clink of the wooden leg coming down the corridor from behind them but no one dared look back until they heard a gruff voice.
“Don’t just stand there, get in the room and to your seats so we can make proper introductions.”
They all filed in silently, he chose a seat in the middle of the table in the second last row, Draco on one side and Hermione on the other, hoping this would be a place where he wouldn’t draw any sort of attention. Moody stood at the front of the classroom, the fake eye skimming over all of them before focusing back in on him and then back to skimming around the room.
“Alright everyone, I am Professor Alastor Moody and I will be your new defence against the dark arts teacher. I have a lot of experience in this area from my decades of being an Auror which was what inevitably led me to look like this.” Here Moody sweeped a hand over all the areas that looked a bit mangled. “I have learned over these years that constant vigilance is key, if you aren’t aware of your surroundings then you are open for attack and if you are open for attack then it is unlikely you will have time to defend yourself before it’s too late. If you get to the defence point of the attack, well you need to know what your doing to defend yourself or once again it will be too late. Not every spell has the same defence and there are some that you are unable to defend yourself from. Can anybody tell me what these spells are?”
No one in the room raised their hand until eventually Hermione slowly inched her hand up.
“Yes you, What’s your name?”
“Erm Hermione Granger sir, and a spell that you can’t defend yourself from is the cruciatus curse.”
“Correct Miss Granger, the cruciatus curse of the torture curse has no counter spell. Does anybody know another one?” He raised his hand seeing that no one else was going to. “Yes Mr Potter.”
“The killing curse.” He stated, not commenting on the fact the man already new his name because well who didn’t at this point.
“Correct, and you will be familiar with that one won’t you. The killing curse is inescapable, if you are hit with it well you have no chance, well except from the one exception. The only known person in existence to have survived the killing curse is sitting in this room with us right now.” Both of Moody’s eyes focused in on him before breaking the eye contact in favour of taking a swig from what look to be a hip flask. “Now both of those spell are part of a trio of curses. Does anyone know what the name of this trio is?
“The unforgivable curses.” Neville Longbottom answered quietly.
“Correct, of course you would be aware of these curses. Do you know what the third one is called?”
“The imperious curse sir.”
“Correct again. The imperious curse is used to control a persons every movement. A lot of You-Know-Who’s old supporters escaped Azkaban prison on the grounds that they were under this curse. In my opinion none of them truly were but I guess that decision wasn’t up to me. Now, the ministry has grudgingly agreed for me to show you these spells in person because I and Dumbledore believe that it isn’t enough for you to know about them but you also have to be able to recognise them. I am also going to have you all attempt to break the imperious curse today as it is possible to learn how to do this.”
“Sir how are you supposed to show us them, surely because they are unforgivable if you use them you earn yourself a ticket to Azkaban?” Hermione asked cautiously.
“The ministry and Dumbledore has granted me permission to use them on teaching grounds and I will not be using the two harmful ones on students obviously. The imperious curse is only harmful if you make someone do something harmful. Now if that is all the questions let’s begin.” Moody grabbed a jar from the front desk and brought out a spider. “I will first demonstrate the imperious curse.” The spell was cast on the spider and they all watched curiously as the spider flew between tables landing on students. He had to fight to retain laughter had Ron Weasleys screams when the spider started tap dancing on the boys head. Eventually though Moody got bored and the spider was returned to the table. “Next is the cruciatus curse.” This time when the spell was cast on the spider, it started trembling and jerking about. He averted his eyes not wanting to watch the poor creature suffer and landed on Neville who looked white as a ghost and was staring blankly at the spider. He made a mental note to check on the other boy after class, he may not be close to Neville but he also had a bad feeling that this spell had some personal connection to the boy. He was brought out his thoughts by Moody speaking once more. “And now onto the last curse, the killing curse.” Before he could avert his eyes, a bright green light shot out the man’s wand and the spider, still jerking from pain, went completely still. He flinched violently at the sight, the green light bringing back a memory only the dementors had managed to show him.
“Take Harry and run.” A man shouted frantically.
“Please not Harry. Kill me, don’t kill Harry.” A woman pleaded desperately.
He focused on taking deep breaths and thought of his friends, Severus and any good memory he could think of to try and drown out the voices and that damned green light.
“Harry, do you want to go. I will walk out with you if you need.” He heard Draco whisper to him, the blondes hand wrapped in his.
“No, it’s fine. I will finish the class. If that changes I will tell you.” He added the last sentence when he saw the disbelieving look on the others face.
Moody seemed to have not noticed his discomfort and was just carrying on with the lesson. “Now you have seen them all, let’s have a go at fighting of the imperious curse. If everyone could move their desk to the side so we have a big open space in the middle and then I want you all to line up in front of the desk.” They all followed the instructions and nervously lined up waiting for Moody to speak again. “Ok, now who wants to go first? No volunteers alright, let’s go with a Gryffindor Mr Longbottom.”
Poor Neville looked terrified walking into the centre of the room today stand in front of Moody and when the boy spoke it was barely more than a whisper. “What am I supposed to do to break it sir?”
“Well people have all sorts of different methods, some like to visualise themselves in a happy place, some focus their anger on the attacker and manage to break free and others don’t really have a method and just do it. I would be very surprised if any of you manage it first time so this is just a trial run.”
He watched uncomfortably as the spell was placed on Neville and the boy started doing flips and tricks with ease, even though he knew Neville wasn’t capable of this before, then moved into breakdancing until finally Moody cancelled the spell allowing Neville’s to return back to the line.
“Ok it looks like we are running out of time so this will be the last person.” Moody’s fake eye whizzed up and down the line of students searching for the next victim and he cursed his luck when it landed in him. “Mr Potter why don’t you come on out and give it a shot.”
He walked forward slowly and into the middle of the class, taking a deep breath to prepare himself as the wand was pointed at him. He heard Moody say the spell then everything went quiet, too quiet. He could still vaguely see everyone in the room but something was wrong, his head was never silent, the silence is wrong. Suddenly a voice echoed on his mind.
“Jump on the desk over there.”
“No, something is wrong.” He responded, although no sound escaped him as if he was only communicating in his head.
“Jump on the desk over there.” The voice repeated but stronger this time.
“No.” He replied louder this time but instead of the voice repeating itself again like he expected, the same voice spoke to the room and his mind started getting louder again.
“Well done Mr Potter, you resisted perfectly. I want to have you demonstrate again at the start of next lesson to show everyone what it should look like. I could see the fight in your eyes as you resisted me and that is what everyone needs to do. If you can repeat that again, well let’s just say people will have a hard time controlling you.” Moody praised him but he wasn’t really listening, no he was too busy with his brain running a mile a minute as if making up for the minutes of silence. The voices of his parents all those years ago, the green light, the years of pain that those events lead.
He was grateful when the bell went signalling that is was break so he could leave the classroom and get away from everyone. Draco was trying to talk to him but he couldn’t concentrate over the memories flashing through his head so he simply kept walking towards his goal but reached for Draco’s hand and squeezed it to indicate that he wanted the blond to follow him. As soon as he reached the portrait to his quarters he said the password and walked straight towards Severus, who looked to have just entered the room seconds before them, and hugged the man, burying his face into the man’s chest.
“Are you alright, what’s wrong?” Severus questioned him worriedly but he didn’t want to release himself from the comfort that was helping chase away the memories so he just squeezed tighter. “Draco, what has happened?”
“Defence today included a lot of stuff that I think brought up far too much for him. Moody didn’t even seem to care that he looked extremely uncomfortable throughout the lesson, I know the man is supposed to be a top auror but are we sure he hasn’t lost his mind.”
“Why what did you do today?”
“We we’re learning about the Unforgivable curses. It started off fine with him just asking if anyone knew what they were but then he brought out a spider and demonstrated the three curses on the poor creature. Harry’s face when he saw the green light was heartbreaking, I could see in his eyes that he was remembering the night his parents died, I offered to leave with him but he wanted to finish the lesson so we stayed. The last thing we done was about the imperious curse, Neville and Harry were chosen by Moody to be put under it in order to try and break out of it. Neville ended up flipping and dancing but Harry didn’t moves a muscle just stared at Moody defiantly until the curse was lifted. Moody praised him for resisting but Harry wasn’t paying attention, he looked pained but I don’t know why. As soon as the bell rang he came straight here and that’s all I can tell you.”
“Thank you Draco, you best get going for your next class or you will be late. I’m just going to keep him here since I have free periods until lunch and he is in no state to go to a class.”
“Ok, I will come back at lunch.” He felt Draco squeeze his hand one last time then footsteps and then he heard the door opening and closing as Draco left but he still refused to move from his position.
“Harry let’s go sit down, you don’t need to talk if you don’t want to, but you are trembling and I think it would be best for you to be sitting.” He still didn’t move, not wanting to break the contact even for a second but had to cling tighter as Severus lifted him up and sat on the couch. A soothing hand ran up and down his back as he was rocked back and forth slightly causing him to sigh and go boneless in his guardians hold. “Is there anything you need from me?”
“Just keep holding me.” He said quietly. “Also, could you contact Matthew. I think I would benefit from talking to him again.”
“Of course, once you feel more grounded I will go and floo him and try get an appointment for tomorrow. I am also going to be having a discussion with Moody on his teaching methods and Dumbledore for his lack of common sense when it comes to authorising certain activities.”
“Someone needs to check on Neville. He looked terrified when the spider was put under the cruciatus curse. I was going to catch him after class but the noise in my head was too loud for me to even think about helping someone else.”
“I will contact Minerva to check on him at some point today and I am proud of you for realising your limit and coming to find help yourself. Although, what do you mean by too loud?”
“The spell made everything go silent but the silence was wrong. My mind is always active, wether that be school work, or unwanted reminders of the past or worry about what is going to go wrong. Once the spell was taken off, it was as if my brain was trying to make up for the silence and everything bombarded me at once and the reminder of the green light set of a chain reaction of bad memories.”
“What about now?”
“There is still noise but it has dulled down since I got in your arms. Don’t go yet though, I still need more time.”
“I won’t be going anywhere until you tell me to. I’m with you for as long as you need me and then longer.”
He sighed and relaxed further into the strong arms, this was his safe place at Hogwarts, being held on his guardians arms meaning that no harm can reach him. Nothing can reach him here.