FicWad

Chapter Sixteen: Unforgivable

Harry looked at his schedule with great interest, seeing what his class schedule would be. History of Magic and Arithmancy were scheduled to be early in the morning on the first day but in the afternoon, it would be double Care of Magical Creatures with the Gryffindors. However, the class Harry was really looking forward to was the first class the following morning, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Moody. Perhaps he could get some answers on why exactly Moody agreed to teach a cursed class, despite rumored to be one of the most paranoid wizards in the Magical World.

"Pretty good class schedule this time around," said Daphne, glancing at her schedule.

"Yes, History of Magic the first thing in the morning, nothing like getting a bit more sleep on Monday morning," remarked Theodore. "Right Harry?"

Harry just nodded absentmindedly, thinking about what the year would bring and looking forward to the Triwizard Tournament. At the very least, for once it would not be Harry who would be thrown into the line of danger.

"Morning everyone," said Ginny who arrived at the Slytherin table right next to Harry.

"Hello, Ginny," said Harry. "What do you have this morning?"

"Study of Ancient Runes and Charms," said Ginny. "Then in the afternoon, I have double Potions with the Ravenclaws. It should be a really interesting day."

"What other new classes are you taking besides Runes?" asked Harry.

"Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies," said Ginny.

"Interesting classes, even through Muggle Studies is a bit of a joke the way they teach it," inputted Hermione who had just joined them.

"From what I heard, I can teach that class in my sleep better than that teacher can," said Harry.

"I would have to agree, because after the third Muggle device the teacher didn't explain correctly or named wrong, I kind of gave up on the class," said Hermione. "That's why I'm not taking it this year."

"Should be a lot more easier on your sanity, after all you looked about ready to crack when you used the you-know-what last year to get to all your classes," said Daphne.

"Yes, well it's learning experience and I will try my hardest not to do anything that stupid ever again," said Hermione, looking pained at remembering the bad judgment call that using the time turner was last year.

At that point, Hailey walked over towards the Slytherin table, looking rather nervous about her first day.

"H-hey everyone," said Hailey, playing the part of the nervous, first year Hufflepuff to a tee. "Harry, Ginny, how are you today?"

"Good," said Ginny.

"Fine, what's you first period class, Hailey?" asked Harry.

"Potions," said Hailey.

"That's a lovely way to start off your Hogwarts experience," said Harry. "Just don't give Snape any reason to come after you and you should be fine."

"Yes, of course, Harry," said Hailey. "Still, I heard the horror stories about Snape and..."

"He's not that bad, Hailey," said Hermione reassuringly. "True, sometimes he could attempt to be a little more fair, and attempt to not play a Slytherin stereotype but if you are not hopeless in Potions, you shouldn't incur his wrath too much."

Hailey nodded but from what she heard, Potions was a subject that required lots of patience and focus, something she lacked in spades. Still, it appeared that the Hufflepuff house was rather timid, not confrontational at all, but very loyal and hard working. In other words, the exact opposite of who Hailey was but she still had to act the part so Snape or Dumbledore didn't become suspicious, as there was no doubt they were already due to her connection with Harry.

The three fourth year Slytherins went to History of Magic, Hermione to Transfiguration, and Ginny to Study of Ancient Runes, with Hailey joining her fellow Hufflepuff first years, deep into the dungeons, to Potions. It seemed the random drawing had paired Hufflepuffs and Slytherins together for Potions, which had to be someone's idea of a cruel practical joke, even more than the Slytherins and the Gryffindors being paired together.

The Slytherins sat down on one side of the Dungeon and the Hufflepuffs on the other side, with the Hufflepuffs staying as far away from the Slytherins as possible. The Slytherins didn't seem all too bad this year, but still there was a bit of bad feeling due to some of the upper year Slytherins attempting to hold onto the old, pre-Harry Potter, ideals of the Slytherin house.

Hailey sat down next to a first year Hufflepuff girl named Claire Jones before the door burst open to reveal her first meeting with the infamous Severus Snape.

"How I tire of giving this speech every year, but Dumbledore still hasn't given me my Defense Against the Dark Arts position as I keep requesting constantly," muttered Snape to himself before turning to the class with his usual meancing glare. "There will be no foolish wand waving, silly incantations, or any of that other nonsense in my class. I don't expect any of you dunderheads to enjoy or even tolerate the fine, precise, and often-complex art of Potion making. Perhaps with my years of knowledge on this noble subject, I can teach you to brew fame, bottle glory, stopper death, but by the looks of you, it seems that perhaps a select few of you could even stand up a cauldron the right way."

Snape took roll, sneering at some of the student's last names, as he had some of their older siblings in class in the past. After finishing, Snape turned around to face his class, as it was time to show some hapless student that his class was to be taken seriously. It appeared that a young Hufflepuff girl named Hailey Evans was not focusing on his class like she should so Snape decided to exert his authority.

"Evans!" snapped Snape. "What is the key component for the Polyjuice Potion?"

"Huh, the key what to the what," said Hailey, looking confused and not quite understanding what Snape was saying. This class did not interest her at all.

"And they say Hufflepuffs are hardworking," said Snape. "About as far off for the mark as the stereotypes for the Slytherin house but I digress. Let's try again Miss Evans. Where would you find me a bezeor?"

"A Potions store cupboard," suggested Hailey, unable to stop herself. There was just something about Snape that was bringing out the worst in her.

"Five points from Hufflepuff Miss Evans for not taking my class seriously enough to give a serious answer," said Snape. "One more question, Evans. What is Veritaserum?"

"Some kind of Potion," suggested Hailey cheekily.

"Another five points from Hufflepuff," said Snape as Hailey gave him a dirty look. "And another two points for giving me that look. You want to go for any more, girl?"

"No, Snape," said Hailey. "What I would like to go for as for you to actually teach the lesson and you not to single me out to make yourself look like you are actually superior to someone?"

"Ten points from Hufflepuff and that's Professor Snape you wretched girl, so another ten points for that," said Snape, something about this girl's disrespectful attitude reminded him of James Potter but perhaps he was just being paranoid In any event, he saw no reason to inform the Headmaster about the wild theory that was forming in his head, besides the age didn’t match up so Snape decided this girl was just another first year with delusions of grandeur. "Now would you like to apologize?"

"No, Professor Snape," said Hailey cockily, before getting a worried look on her face due to the way Snape was now glaring at her. She wondered if she pushed Snape just a little bit too far.

"Well perhaps three nights detention will change your mind about back talking me," said Snape in a cold, spooky voice before turning to the rest of the class. "And for your information, the key component for the Polyjuice Potion is a piece of the person you will be changing into, the bezour can be found in the stomach of a goat, saving you from most poisons, and finally, Veritaserum is the most powerful truth potion in the world. It will have you spill your deepest, darkest, most personal secrets but it is also regulated by strict Ministry guidelines."

There was silence as Snape stared emotionlessly at his first year students for a few seconds.

"Well, why aren't you all writing this down?" asked Snape in a cool deadly.

They all wrote it down with Snape setting them to create a simple, hiccup relief potion. It wasn't really a hard potion, mere child's play to someone like Snape but for someone who had a bit of a patience problem and could not focus on something as precise as Potions, then it would be a big problem.

"Got to focus, got to focus," said Hailey, shaking her head and attempting to get herself to focus.

"Hailey, keep it down please, we don't want Snape knocking off any more points from Hufflepuff for you disrupting the class," said Claire desperately. "My older sister is a fourth year and she says Snape can be really nasty when he's pushed to a bad mood."

"Harry said the same thing," said Hailey, dumping a cup full of beetle’s eyes into the cauldron, as she believed it said.

"Oh, that's right, you live with Harry Potter, adopted by the same family," said Claire. "What's he really like anyway?"

"He's not all one would expect, he hates his fame," muttered Hailey, stirring the cauldron but it was starting to bubble. "Something's wrong."

"You did put a half a cup of beetle's eyes in the potion, didn't you?" begged Claire hoping against all hope.

"No a whole cup," said Hailey in horror as the potion turned pink before fizzing.

"Oh bloody hell," said Claire before the cauldron exploded, covering the two first year girls in the pink botched potion.

"So, you to botched up the Potion by talking and not focusing on your work," said Snape dangerously. "I believe I will take ten more points off of you each, and a detention each, bumping your number of detentions up to four Miss Evans. You should be grateful that potion that we were making wasn't lethal or dangerous."

Snape turned his back, if he wasn't in such a foul mood due to Moody getting the Defense Against the Dark Arts job over him, he wouldn't have been so harsh but someone had to pay for this not happening. Also, Dumbledore had told Snape to be a bit more vindictive towards non Slytherin students, in order to drum up anti-Slytherin sentiment because it was at an all time low due to most of the younger students in the school looking up to Potter, a Slytherin student and Potter being seen as the true epitome of the Slytherin house spirit, of ambition and cunning, but generally working towards the bettering the Magical world, instead of the malicious, all witches and wizards of Slytherin turn dark lies that Dumbledore was trying to brainwash the students of the other three houses with ever since he became Headmaster. It had worked, until Potter showed up and now Dumbledore was trying to get things back underneath his control.

"Four detentions Harry, four, and I didn't do anything," said Hailey, complaining to Harry at lunch. "This is so harsh it isn't even funny. Snape is out to get me."

"Snape isn't out to get you, Hailey, settle down," said Harry.

"I answered his questions to the best of my abilities, I even offered him some constructive criticism on how he was teaching," said Hailey.

"There's your problem right there, Hailey," said Ginny. "Snape doesn't take people telling him he’s wrong too well."

"Yes, well I'm going to have to help him classify Potions ingredients for the next four evenings," whined Hailey.

"Well, maybe that’ll teach you not do anything to irritate Snape," said Harry calmly.

Hailey just walked off, with her head hanging down low in shame. Her brother sounded a bit disappointed with her behavior and she kind of wished her brother had shouted.

"She's a bit daring isn’t she, for a Hufflepuff?” asked Daphne. "I heard I rumor that she back talked Snape, and refused to apologize to him for her actions when he demanded she would."

"Still, Snape seems to be a bit of a touchy mood so far this year from what I heard," said Theodore. "He snapped at a couple of second years this morning for blocking the entrance to the Great Hall."

"It's all to do with Moody, I think," said Harry. "Snape's wanted that Defense Against the Dark Arts for a long time or so he said."

"I wonder why Dumbledore doesn't want to give it to him," said Hermione thoughtfully.

Harry went quiet, yes that was very interesting that Snape had apparently been denied the Defense Against the Dark Arts job time and time again. He didn't have too much time to think this over too much as he had to leave for Care of Magical Creatures, Harry hoped that the subject was more interesting than it became last year, as Hagrid lost his nerve after the incident with Buckbeak and began teaching lesson, after lesson on how to take care of Flobberworms.

Of course, Harry regretted hoping this when he saw the horrors Hagrid was going to teach them about this year. With any of other Hagrid's pets, Harry could at least find some quality that a halfway sane person might find remotely cute or useful, but these things were perhaps the most horrid he ever encountered since he came to Hogwarts and Harry spent an entire year being taught by Lockhart.

"Ewww, Hagrid what exactly are these things?" demanded Lavender Brown from Gryffindor who looked revolted at seeing the creatures that looked like deformed shelless crabs and smelled quite like rotting finish.

"Ah, Blast Ended Skrewts," said Hagrid fondly. "A new addition to the curriculum this year..."

"I've never heard of them," said Malfoy in a drawling voice.

"Well, Malfoy, they are a bit exotic and they aren' from aroun' these parts, extremely rare they are," said Hagrid uncomfortably which made Harry have a funny feeling that Hagrid had acquired these creatures quite illegally or worse, had broken the laws that made cross breeding with two different magical creatures illegal.

"Yes I'm sure they are fascinating creatures," said Malfoy sarcastically. "Of course, Professor, could you enlighten us on what these creatures do."

"That's the next lesson Malfoy," said Hagrid. "Today you'll be simply feedin' them. It isn't quite known what they like for sure but I've got a few different foods to experimen' with, so knock yourselves out."

"Knowing that oaf’s taste for dangerous creatures, I probably we get knocked out by the end of the lesson," said Malfoy in a snide, loud voice as Crabbe and Goyle stared blankly at him before laughing at Malfoy's antics.

Harry walked over to the Skrewts, the only good thing he could think of right now, as they weren't that big, yet. He could shudder to think what horrors they would be when they grew to be full sized.

"Ouch" said Hermione in agony as the Skrewt blasted off, burning her hand in the process.

"What's wrong?" asked Hagrid a mixture of being anxious and curious showing in his face.

"The Skrewt burned me," said Hermione, holding up singed hand to show Hagrid to burn marks the Skrewt left.

"Ah, they can sometimes do that," said Hagrid, nodding his head.

"What in the name of Salazar is this thing?" shrieked Pansy Parkinson, backing away from the Skrewt as it pointed a sharp pointed object towards her.

"Oh that's a stinger," said Hagrid, as Parkinson backed up even further. "I reckon those are the males and the females have sucker like things on their bellies for sucking blood."

"Well isn't that lovely, who wouldn't want pets who could burn, bite, and sting all at the same time?" asked Malfoy sarcastically. "It would make a lovely Christmas present for your mother."

"Shut it Malfoy," said Harry dangerously. "For all you know they may be useful for something."

"Yeah, dragon's blood is pretty magical but no one would really want a dragon for a pet," said Hermione looking at Hagrid who smiled behind his beard. He did once have a dragon named Norbert as a pet and it would be a long time before Harry forgot the trouble the dragon brought down upon him.

Malfoy just sneered at Harry as they went back to experimenting with what the Skrewts would eat but it appeared that the Skrewts did not like any of the food Hagrid selected for them. To make matters worse, every time someone got near the Skrewts, one of them blasted off, resorting in many burnt hands. Harry was glad to see the end of class to be honest.

"Those things are quite horrid," said Daphne. "Hagrid means well and everything but I think he has finally lost whatever sanity he was hanging on to."

"Maybe when they'll full grown they will be better behaved," said Theodore hopefully.

"Malfoy's three years older than he was years ago and he isn't well behaved," said Hermione. "Still, hopefully the Skrewts kill each other before they kill us."

"Weren't you the one who said they could be useful, Hermione?" asked Daphne.

"No I believe she just said that to do the world a service and shut Malfoy up," said Harry.

"As usual, Harry's right," said Hermione with a sigh. "When are you ever wrong, Harry?"

"Many times, more than I can count, but it's rather depressing to go into when because it's the times that have hurt me the most," said Harry.

Ginny came up from the Potions Dungeons looking a bit irritated. She walked up to Harry as Harry gave her a quizzical look.

"Snape's in a bit of a foul mood right now, he assigned two rolls of parchment on a Shrinking Solution," said Ginny.

"It's Moody," said Harry. "It just has to be, the fact Moody has been given the Defense Against the Dark Arts job over Snape. Something may have happened in the past between Moody and Snape that we don't know about."

"Moody probably doesn't trust Snape," said Daphne. "After his past, can't say I blame him, people don't turn away from You-Know-Who that easily, something is up."

"I think Snape's reformed from his servitude Voldemort," said Harry, ignoring the shivers from the other four. "Something else is not quite right but Snape is..."

Harry stopped in mid sentence, he remembered the words of his mother when she talked about Snape, "Severus Snape is only on the side of one person and that is Severus Snape."

"He's complicated," finished Harry. "He might not be on anyone's side but his own, he might not have his own agenda but what happened to Snape in the past is none of my concern."

With that everyone went to eat dinner and then went up to bed. Harry slept on and off; he wondered what exactly Professor Moody had in store for them tomorrow for their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

The next day, the fourth year Slytherins entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, waiting for their new teacher. Harry reflected on the past three teachers in this subject and Professor Lupin was no doubt the best of the three teachers, as he had the most knowledge to share with the class. Lockhart had been a joke as a teacher certainly, not talking about anything but himself, and Quirrell had that slight drawback of having the spectral form of Lord Voldemort taking up residence in the back of his head.

Everyone sat down with Malfoy conversing with Crabbe and Goyle, no doubt about ways to best disrupt this class. In an instant a clunking sound was heard, signifying Professor Moody had arrived, his wooden leg bouncing across the floor with each step. Moody stopped in front of the class, looking at the students, with his magical eye whizzing all around.

"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Moody in a low voice. "As you have all figured out I am Professor Moody and I will be your..."

Quickly, Moody whipped out his wand, pointing it at Draco Malfoy. A puff of smoke is seen and a few seconds later, a white ferret appeared in Malfoy's seat. Harry, Daphne, and Theodore exchanged grins; it appeared that Malfoy had been turned into a ferret.

"You see, that could have been a killing curse and you wouldn't have known it," said Moody, lifting his wand to cause the ferret to bounce off the ceiling before bouncing off the walls. "See, this boy let his guard down and he suffered the consequences. You must remain on your guard at all times. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Moody bounced the Malfoy ferret off the walls a few more times before waving his wand, returning Malfoy to his human form. Malfoy's hair looked all sticking out of face and his expensive robes were all wrinkled. Needless to save, he wasn't too happy.

"Just wait until my father hears about this you bug eyed bas..." stammered Malfoy angrily before Moody waved his wand, silencing Malfoy with a wordless silencing charm.

"I recognize who you are boy, you'd be a Malfoy and trust me when I'd say I know your father all too well," growled Moody. "He is quite adept to slipping out of certain circumstances."

Moody looked at the class who were now given him their full and undivided attention. The new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher took roll before turning to address the class.

"So, you have had three teachers in this subject," said Moody. "Professor Lupin's given me a letter about last year’s lessons and it seems you all have a very through grounding about dark creatures. That's extremely fortunate but there is one thing you must realize. You are very, very, behind on your knowledge of deadly and dangerous curses."

Moody paused, looking at Malfoy before continuing his speech.

"Now, some of you may have a bit more knowledge than others but rest assure, after this year you will be up to...STUPEFY!" yelled Moody, pointing his wand at Harry who took his wand out with cat like reflexives a bit surprised at Moody's attack.

"Protego," whispered Harry, causing the stunning spell to hit the shield. Harry stared at Moody, as Moody looked rather intrigued that he blocked his spell.

"Excellent reflexes, Potter," said Moody. "That is exactly the type of attitude you need in this class, ready to defend yourself at a moments notice. There are dark wizards and witches everywhere, ready to attack unsuspecting people at a moment's notice. Remember that and Mr. Potter, you can take your shield down right now, I'm done attacking."

Harry made a move as if he was going to take down his shield, which caused Moody to launch another spell towards Harry, but since Harry had his shield up, the spell was not effective.

"See that, just because a potential enemy is done attacking, does not mean you should relax your defenses," said Moody. "Luring your adversary into a false sense of security by making them think you're leaving your guard down is another excellent strategy. Potter, you show a mind of an Auror with some of your tactics, ten points to Slytherin for exhibiting Constant Vigilance."

Moody went behind his desk as Harry relaxed his shield but he had his hand kept on his wand at a moment's notice, just in case Moody decided to attempt to give another class demonstration by attempting to attack him again. Moody did not go on the attack again, he pulled out three jars with spiders in them before turning to address the class.

"Today we are going to talk about the three darkest spells in existence, named fittingly enough the Unforgivable Curses," said Moody. "They are named such due to the fact that the use of one of these sinister spells on another human being will land you a lifetime sentence within the wretched walls of Azkaban prison. Now who can tell me one of these curses?"

Blaise Zabini raised his hand as Moody nodded to Zabini.

"The Imperius Curse?" suggested Zabini.

"Yes, the Imperius Curse, gave the Ministry a right headache during the war with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," said Moody. "People were not quite sure who to trust, who was put under the Imperius, who was just claiming to be put under the Imperius, or what. Still, allow me to demonstrate this curse on the first spider."

Moody tipped the jar over, allowing the spider to crawl out on all eight legs. Raising his wand, Moody pointed it directly towards the spider.

"Imperio," said Moody in a commanding voice before raising his wand, causing the spider to do a tap dance on his desk. Another jab of the wand and the spider appeared to run back and forth across the desk, as if under some kind of trance. Moody raised his wand up before spinning it in a circle causing the spider to run around in circles before jerking it forward causing the spider to leap off the desk and smash sinisterly into the wall.

The spider slid down the wall as Moody scooped up the arachnid before canceling the spell and turning to face the class.

"Complete and utter control using this spell," said Moody. "I could have had that thing attack each and every one of you before I had it thrown out of the window, causing it to snap it's own neck and drown itself before having it shove itself down each and every one of your throats."

Most of the class shuddered in horror at the very thought of this happening.

"Fortunately we don't have quite that much time in class but we must move on," said Moody. "Now anyone know another Unforgivable?"

Daphne raised her hand in the air and Moody looked at her, nodding his head.

"I believe there's the Cruciatus Curse, it causes a lot of pain I think," said Daphne, looking a bit nervous as Moody was watching her carefully with his magical eye.

"Yes, that curse was a favorite among the Death Eaters back in the day, especially some of the more sadistic ones," said Moody as he pulled the second spider out of his jar. "Needs to be a big larger for you to get the picture."

Moody waved his wand at the spider, causing it to grow about five times its normal size.

"Crucio," said Moody, pointing the wand spider causing him to flip over, jerking its limbs in pain. Harry was certain if it had the power of speech, it would be screaming in pain. Moody tortured the spider for a couple of minutes before letting up.

Moody shrunk the spider before levitating it up into the air, dropping it into the jar.

"Pain and agony, you don't need thumbscrews or knives to cause pain when you mastered this sadistic piece of magic," said Moody. "Now the only way for this spell to work would be to actually want to cause pain, pure magical or anger will not be enough to get this dark curse to work for more than a few seconds, especially on a living human being. Now, who could tell me the third and final Unforgivable curse?"

Moody waited before Harry reluctantly raised his hand into the air.

"Yes Potter," said Moody.

"The Killing Curse," said Harry in a dark voice.

"Ah yes, Potter, you would know about that one," said Moody in an emotionless voice. "The most deadly curse of them all, the most sinister, the one that there is no return from, Avada Kedavra, the Killing Curse."

Moody pulled the final spider out of the jar as Harry looked on. There was part of him who believed that he shouldn't watch but there was another part of Harry that was interested in this in a morbid sense. The spider seemed to sense what was about to happen and attempted to get away but Moody pointed his wand at the spider.

"Avada Kedavra," said Moody, causing a jet of green light to fly out of his wand, striking the spider and causing it to fall motionless.

Harry looked at the spider, he had braced himself for what he was about to see but he was still a bit disturbed at what he saw. The jet hit the spider and killed it within a couple of seconds of Moody casting the spell. From what Harry saw, his mother was extremely lucky to pull off the spell work that ended up saving both of them and destroyed Voldemort's body.

"Not nice, not pleasant, and no way whatsoever could block it," said Moody. "Only one person has been known to survive the Killing Curse and he is sitting right in front of me."

Moody looked intently at Harry who pretended to not be bothered by Moody. After a few seconds, Moody turned away to address the rest of the class.

"There is no magical defense for these three curses, even through pure mental will power could break the hold that the Imperius Curse puts on the victim. I doubt any of you would have any of the power to pull off any of these curses at a one hundred percent success rate," said Moody. "However, I am not here to teach you how to do them, I am teaching you how to avoid them, and with the lack of defensive spells, the best method to avoid these curses is not be there when they are cast. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

The majority of the class flinched as Moody said these last words.

"The Ministry did not want me to teach this last lesson feeling you should not be exposed to the horrors of the world but guess what, the people who practice dark magic do not care your age," said Moody before flicking his wand towards the blackboard, revealing a series of extensive notes on the history and theory behind each of the three Unforgivables. "Copy all that down."

The fourth year Slytherins spent the rest of class taking notes on the Unforgivables before Moody dismissed them at the bell.

"Interesting lesson, Moody seems to be a rather interesting teacher," said Daphne. "Slightly deranged mind you but he seems like he knows what he is doing."

"He’s a nutcase but we'll likely to learn a lot from him, as he was a top Auror for many years," said Theodore before turning Harry. "What do you think Harry?"

Harry just nodded head in acknowledgement, thinking about how Moody had used those Unforgivables without a second thought and how fast the Killing Curse hit that spider. It seemed instantaneous and didn't seem to allow much time to react, as the spell seemed to be one of the most quickly accelerated pieces he had seen.

Harry may have survived the Killing Curse once thanks to his mother's researching and spell crafting abilities, but Harry didn't want to test his luck with another round with the Killing Curse.