The storm had blown itself out by the following morning, though the ceiling in the Great Hall was still gloomy, heavy clouds of pewter gray swirled overhead as Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione examined their new course schedules at breakfast. A few seats along, Fred, George, and Lee Jordan were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.
"Today's not bad...outside all morning." said Ron, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures...damn it, we're still with the Slytherins..."
"Double Divination this afternoon." Harry groaned.
"You should have given it up like me and Y/n, shouldn't you?" said Hermione briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."
"You're eating again, I notice." said Ron, watching Hermione adding liberal amounts of jam to her toast too.
"Y/n convinced me that there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights." said Hermione haughtily.
"Yeah...and you were hungry." said Ron, grinning.
There was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. Instinctively, Harry looked up, but there was no sign of white among the mass of brown and gray. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. A large tawny owl soared down to Neville Longbottom and deposited a parcel into his lap. Neville almost always forgot to pack something. On the other side of the Hall Draco Malfoy's eagle owl had landed on his shoulder, carrying what looked like his usual supply of sweets and cakes from home. A larger bird flew into the room now gathering the attention of most students. Y/n and Harry recognized the bird immediately.
"Fawkes?" Harry said as he watched it soar high and then dive low before coming to a rest on Y/n's shoulder.
Y/n looked up to see Fawkes was carrying a letter in his beak. Fawkes quickly dropped the letter and then flew off as the other students watched him go.
"It must be from Dumbledore." Harry said indicating to the letter, and he was right. As Y/n turned it over he could see Dumbledore's handwriting upon it.
He wasted no time in opening the letter now and reading it.
'To Y/n Grindenwald,
I have sent Fawkes with this letter for Professor McGonagall is busy with the first years this morning and the information in this letter I understand you wish to keep secret. I have been informed of your recent accomplishment. This is of course a serious matter and I should like you to skip your Arithmancy lessons today, instead coming to my office to discuss the matter further. Do not worry Professor Vector has been warned of your absence.
Albus Wulfric Brian Dumbledore
P.s, I'm currently fond of Pumpkin Pasties.'
Y/n lowered the letter now.
"What does Dumbledore want?" Ron asked curiously.
"Is it about...what happened in the carriage?" Hermione asked looking around them.
"You make it sound as if I did something scandalous..." Y/n said. "But yes it is, He has asked me to miss Arithmancy this afternoon and go to this office instead." Y/n folded up the letter now.
"That's still better than Divination." Ron muttered and Harry couldn't help nodding in agreement.
Y/n's thoughts on the letter lasted all the way across the sodden vegetable patch until they arrived in greenhouse three, but here he was distracted by Professor Sprout showing the class the ugliest plants he had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.
"Bubotubers." Professor Sprout told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus."
"The what?" said Seamus Finnigan, sounding revolted.
"Pus, Finnigan, pus." said Professor Sprout. "And it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves, it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus."
Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had indicated, and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints.
"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy." said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples. "
"Like poor Eloise Midgen." said Hannah Abbott, a Hufflepuff, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl." said Professor Sprout, shaking her head. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."
A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signaling the end of the lesson, and the class separated. The Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the Gryffindors heading in the other direction, down the sloping lawn toward Hagrid's small wooden cabin, which stood on the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Hagrid was standing outside his hut, one hand on the collar of his enormous black boarhound, Fang. There were several open wooden crates on the ground at his feet, and Fang was whimpering and straining at his collar, apparently keen to investigate the contents more closely. As they drew nearer, an odd rattling noise reached their ears, punctuated by what sounded like minor explosions.
"Mornin'!" Hagrid said, grinning at Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione. "Be'er wait fer the Slytherins, they won' want ter miss this... Blast-Ended Skrewts!"
"Come again?" said Ron.
Hagrid pointed down into the crates.
"Eurgh!" squealed Lavender Brown, jumping backward.
"Eurgh" just about summed up the Blast-Ended Skrewts in Harry's opinion. They looked like deformed, shell-less lobsters, horribly pale and slimy-looking, with legs sticking out in very odd places and no visible heads. There were about a hundred of them in each crate, each about six inches long, crawling over one another, bumping blindly into the sides of the boxes. They were giving off a very powerful smell of rotting fish. Every now and then, sparks would fly out of the end of a skrewt, and with a small phut, it would be propelled forward several inches.
"On'y jus' hatched." said Hagrid proudly. "So yeh'll be able ter raise 'em yerselves! Thought we'd make a bit of a project of it!"
"And why would we want to raise them?" said a cold voice.
The Slytherins had arrived. The speaker was Draco Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle were chuckling appreciatively at his words. While Atticus looked at the creatures with disgust.
Hagrid looked stumped at the question.
"I mean, what do they do?" asked Malfoy. "What is the point of them?"
Hagrid opened his mouth, apparently thinking hard, there was a few seconds' pause, then he said roughly. "Tha's next lesson, Malfoy. Yer jus' feedin' 'em today. Now, yeh'll wan' ter try 'em on a few diff'rent things. I've never had 'em before, not sure what they'll go fer, I got ant eggs an' frog livers an' a bit o' grass snake. Just try 'em out with a bit of each."
"First pus and now this." muttered Seamus.
Nothing but deep affection for Hagrid could have made Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione pick up squelchy handfuls of frog liver and lower them into the crates to tempt the Blast-Ended Skrewts.
"Ouch!" yelled Dean Thomas after about ten minutes. "It got me. "
Hagrid hurried over to him, looking anxious.
"It's end exploded!" said Dean angrily, showing Hagrid a burn on his hand.
"Ah, yeah, that can happen when they blast off." said Hagrid, nodding.
"Eurgh!" said Lavender Brown again. "Eurgh, Hagrid, what's that pointy thing on it?"
"Ah, some of 'em have got stings," said Hagrid enthusiastically, Lavender quickly withdrew her hand from the box. "I reckon they're the males...The females've got sorta sucker things on their bellies... I think they might be ter suck blood. "
"Well, I can certainly see why we're trying to keep them alive." said Malfoy sarcastically. "Who wouldn't want pets that can burn, sting, and bite all at once?"
"Just because they're not very pretty, it doesn't mean they're not useful." Hermione snapped. "Dragon blood's amazingly magical, but you wouldn't want a dragon for a pet, would you?"
Harry and Ron grinned at Hagrid, who gave them a furtive smile from behind his bushy beard. Hagrid would have liked nothing better than a pet dragon, as Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione knew only too well, he had owned one for a brief period during their first year, a vicious Norwegian Ridgeback by the name of Norbert. Hagrid simply loved monstrous creatures, the more lethal, the better.
"In a way they remind me of you Malfoy. Loud, Obnoxious and Irritating to the core..." Y/n said looking at him.
"Well, at least the skrewts are small." said Ron as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch an hour later.
"They are now." said Hermione in an exasperated voice. "But once Hagrid's found out what they eat, I expect they'll be six feet long..."
"And here I thought you said they were useful..." said Y/n.
"You know perfectly well I only said that to shut Malfoy up." said Hermione. "As a matter of fact I think he's right. The best thing to do would be to stamp on the lot of them before they start attacking us all."
They sat down at the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to lamb chops and potatoes. Hermione began to eat so fast that Harry and Ron stared at her.
"Er... is this the new stand on elf rights?" said Ron. "You're going to make yourself puke instead?"
"No." said Hermione, with as much dignity as she could muster with her mouth bulging with sprouts. "I just want to get to the library."
"What?" said Ron in disbelief. "Hermione...it's the first day back! We haven't even got homework yet!"
Hermione shrugged and continued to shovel down her food as though she had not eaten for days. Then she leapt to her feet, said, "See you at dinner!" and departed at high speed.
"And that, is why you do not skip meals..." Y/n said as he began to eat his own lunch now at a more steady pace.
"How did you manage to get her to give up that silly hunger strike in the first place?" Ron asked him shoveling food into his mouth.
"You shall just have to wait and see." Y/n said as he finished his chops.
Lunch was now over as both Harry and Ron went to Divination. Y/n however was standing outside of Dumbledore's office. It had been a while since he was last here and the usual nerves he felt being stood here started to kick in. Closing his eyes he raised his hand to the door and knocked.
"You may enter." Came Dumbledore's voice.
So Y/n did, as he opened the door to the office he could see Professor Dumbledore sitting down at his desk which was littered with parchment and letters. Y/n imagined that the tri-wizard tournament must be keeping him busy.
He was slightly surprised to see Professor McGonagall was standing beside the desk as well. But then again perhaps it made sense, she after all was the one who had informed Dumbledore of the matter.
Dumbledore looked up at Y/n from his half-moon spectacles. "I'm glad to see you have made it right on time Mr Grindelwald." He said. "Why don't you take a seat." He offered.
"...Yes sir." Y/n said as he moved forward and sat in a chair now. Y/n said nothing as he waited for Dumbledore to begin the conversation.
"Quite the achievement you have made this summer Y/n." Dumbledore finally said.
"Yes sir." Y/n just said.
"It takes hard work, dedication, and talent to pull off what you have and in such a short time too." Dumbledore continued. "As I said in my letter this is a serious matter...I needn't remind you that you could end up in Azkaban if you do not register your transformation with the Ministry."
"I am sorry sir but..."
"Y/n..." Dumbledore calmly raised his hand stopping him. "Professor McGonagall has already told me your reasons for not wanting to register." Y/n just looked at Professor McGonagall for a moment before Dumbledore continued. "I understand you're lack of trust in the Ministry Y/n, especially after your run-in with them at the Quidditch World Cup." Dumbledore said.
"You heard about that sir?" Y/n asked.
"Word travels quickly, to those who are well informed." Dumbledore told him and Y/n nodded. "It was Barty Crouch who stunned you was it not?"
"Yes sir." Y/n nodded.
"Then I am not entirely surprised. Barty has a deep hatred for the dark arts and those who perform them, even those associated with them. His obsession has cost him dearly in the past." Dumbledore commented. "I rather suspect that the sight of you took him quite by surprise. Barty Crouch after all...Is the one who oversaw your parent's trial...and sent them to Azkaban."
"I...I never knew that." Y/n confessed.
"Barty oversaw many of the Death Eater trials." Dumbledore continued. "The Ministry does like to uphold it's punishments."
"I still will not register with the Ministry Professor." Y/n said.
Dumbledore rose from his seat now as he began to pace the room with his hands behind his back. "I find myself in an interesting position young Grindelwald when it comes to you."
Y/n just watched him pace.
"I have however decided..." He paused. "Not...to inform the Ministry of you becoming an Animagus."
Professor McGonagall didn't quite look like she agreed with this decision but she stayed quiet nonetheless.
"You are not sir?" Y/n asked slightly taken aback.
"No Y/n." Dumbledore said turning to face him.
"May I ask why sir?" Y/n said next.
"I am choosing to believe in your conviction and you're past actions." Dumbledore said. "You said to Professor McGonagall that you wish to have an advantage in the future and that if people became aware you would lose this, Can you explain?"
"With everything that has happened sir. I have felt it was best to learn something that could aid me as well as being a final resort to help me hide away should danger I am unable to face alone show itself."
Dumbledore just slowly nodded as he seemed to take Y/n's views in. "It is wise to be cautious of the future, especially when it remains so uncertain. Though I must also ask Y/n, Who was it that taught you to do all this?" Dumbledore asked Y/n next.
Y/n hesitated but remembered how Dumbledore had helped them to save Sirius in the first place. "...It was Padfoot sir, I asked them to teach me."
"Padfoot?" Dumbledore repeated the name as Professor McGonagall looked slightly confused. "Yes...I suppose that explains a lot of things." He murmured. "As for you're transformation." Dumbledore changed the topic slightly now. "I've been told it is the form of a black cat. May I see it?"
Y/n just nodded as he stood up now. He closed his eyes and after a few moments, he found himself looking up at Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall.
"You are still full of surprises it would seem Mr Grindelwald." Dumbledore said impressed as he looked over Y/n who changed back to normal now.
"Thank you sir." Y/n said.
Dumbledore's face became serious again now. "Y/n, I must implore upon you the rule that you do not use this transformation unless practicing with Professor McGonagall or if you are in desperate danger. The more you use it, The more likely it is too be discovered."
"I understand sir." Y/n agreed to this.
"Professor McGonagall has no more classes to teach for this afternoon. As a fellow experienced Animagus she will instead be teaching you how to perfect your form." Dumbledore said sitting back down in his chair.
"Professor McGonagall will?" Y/n asked.
"Come Grindelwald, We will have you practice transformation until you can do it at will and without delay." Professor McGonagall insisted and Y/n followed her out of Dumbledore's office.
"Miserable old bat." said Ron to Harry bitterly hours later as they joined the crowds descending the staircases back to the Great Hall and dinner. "That'll take all weekend, that will..."
"Lots of homework?" said Hermione brightly, catching up with them. "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!"
"Well, bully for Professor Vector." said Ron moodily.
They reached the entrance hall, which was packed with people queuing for dinner. They had just joined the end of the line, when a loud voice rang out behind them.
"Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
Harry, Ron, and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"What?" said Ron shortly.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" said Malfoy, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, so that everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!
FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
Malfoy looked up.
"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed.
Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on.
"Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene."
"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house... if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
Ron was shaking with fury. Everyone was staring at him.
"Get stuffed, Malfoy." said Harry. "C'mon, Ron..."
"Oh yeah, you were staying with them this summer, weren't you, Potter?" sneered Malfoy. "So tell me, is his mother really that porky, or is it just the picture?"
"You know your mother, Malfoy?" said Harry as both he and Hermione had grabbed the back of Ron's robes to stop him from launching himself at Malfoy. "That expression she's got, like she's got dung under her nose? Has she always looked like that, or was it just because you were with her?"
Malfoy's pale face went slightly pink. "Don't you dare insult my mother, Potter. "
"Keep your fat mouth shut then." said Harry, turning away.
BANG!
Several people screamed and Harry felt something white-hot graze the side of his face, he plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but before he'd even touched it, he heard a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.
"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"
Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.
There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Harry, at least, his normal eye was looking at Harry, the other one was pointing into the back of his head.
"Did he get you?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.
"No." said Harry. "Missed."
"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted.
"Leave... what?" Harry said, bewildered.
"Not you, him!" Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe, who had just frozen, about to pick up the white ferret. It seemed that Moody's rolling eye was magical and could see out of the back of his head.
Moody started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret, which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.
"I don't think so!" roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again and it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned." growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do..."
The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly.
"Never...do... that...again..." said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.
"Professor Moody!" said a shocked voice.
Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with Y/n carrying an armful of books for her.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall." said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.
"What... what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.
"Teaching." said Moody.
"Teach... Moody, is that a student!?" shrieked Professor McGonagall almost knocking the books out of Y/n's arms.
"Yep." said Moody.
"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand, a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" said Professor McGonagall wealdy. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might've mentioned it, yeah." said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly. "But I thought a good sharp shock..."
"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"
"I'll do that, then." said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.
Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable.
"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy...You tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son...you tell him that from me... Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"
"Yes." said Malfoy resentfully.
"Another old friend." growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape... Come on, you..." And he seized Malfoy's upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.
Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at the books in Y/n's arms, causing them to soar up into the air and into her arms.
"Thank you Grindelwald, you may join your friends now. I must talk to Dumbledore." Professor McGonagall dismissed him and Y/n walked down the stairs to join the others.
"Don't talk to me." Ron said quietly to Harry, Y/n and Hermione as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.
"Why not?" said Hermione in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever." said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."
Harry and Hermione both laughed as Y/n chuckled. Hermione then began doling beef casserole onto each of their plates. "He could have really hurt Malfoy, though." she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it..."
"I have just spent the last two hours changing back and forth into a cat...Malfoy can survive five minutes as a ferret." Y/n said as he picked up his knife and fork.
Hermione however made an impatient noise and began to eat at top speed again.
"Don't tell me you're going back to the library this evening?" said Harry, watching her.
"Got to." said Hermione thickly. "Loads to do."
"But you told us Professor Vector..."
"It's not schoolwork," she said.
"You are beginning to make me regret stopping your hunger strike." Y/n slightly joked but within five minutes, Hermione had cleared her plate and departed. No sooner had she gone than her seat was taken by Fred Weasley.
"Moody!" he said. "How cool is he?"
"Beyond cool." said George, sitting down opposite Fred.
"Supercool." said the twins' best friend, Lee Jordan, sliding into the seat beside George. "We had him this afternoon." he told Harry and Ron.
"What was it like?" said Harry eagerly.
Y/n looked at them interested too.
Fred, George, and Lee exchanged looks full of meaning.
"Never had a lesson like it." said Fred.
"He knows, man." said Lee.
"Knows what?" said Ron, leaning forward.
"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it." said George impressively.
"Doing what?" asked Y/n.
"Fighting the Dark Arts." said Fred.
"He's seen it all." said George.
"Amazing." said Lee.
Ron dived into his bag for his schedule. "We haven't got him till Thursday!" he said in a disappointed voice.
The next two days passed without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Snape, who seemed to have attained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer, gave Neville detention, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.
"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?" said Ron to Harry as they watched Y/n and Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.
"Yeah." said Harry. "Moody."
It was common knowledge that Snape really wanted the Dark Arts job, and he had now failed to get it for the fourth year running. Snape had disliked all of their previous Dark Arts teachers, and shown it, but he seemed strangely wary of displaying overt animosity to Mad-Eye Moody. Indeed, whenever Harry saw the two of them together, at mealtimes, or when they passed in the corridors he had the distinct impression that Snape was avoiding Moody's eye, whether magical or normal.
"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know." Harry said thoughtfully.
"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad." said Ron, his eyes misting over. "And bounced him all around his dungeon..."
The Gryffindor fourth years were looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they arrived early on Thursday lunchtime and queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.
"Been in the..."
"Library?" Y/n finished her sentence for her.
"C'mon, quick, or we won't get decent seats." Harry said to the now.
They hurried into four chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces, A Guide to Self-Protection and waited, unusually quiet. Soon they heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.
"You can put those away." he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down. "Those books. You won't need them."
They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited.
Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered.
"Right then." he said, when the last person had declared themselves present. "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?"
There was a general murmur of assent.
"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, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out.
Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron. Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled, the first time Y/n had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.
"You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "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 gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together.
"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 countercurses 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."
Y/n sat forward intrigued. Learning what they could possibly have to deal with in the real world was something he wanted to do as soon as possible.
"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. "
Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head.
"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"
Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's, Y/n's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.
"Er." said Ron tentatively. "My dad told me about one...Is it called the Imperius Curse, or something?"
"Ah, yes." said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."
Moody got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Y/n saw Ron recoil slightly next to Harry. Ron hated spiders.
Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it. He then pointed his wand at it and muttered. "Imperio!"
The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.
Everyone was laughing, everyone except Y/n and Moody.
"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"
The laughter died away almost instantly.
"Total control." said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."
Ron gave an involuntary shudder.
"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse." said Moody, and Y/n knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful and his parents were out terrorising the wizarding world. "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!" he barked, and everyone jumped.
Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar.
"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"
Y/n and Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Y/n's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.
"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.
"There's one...the Cruciatus Curse." said Neville in a small but distinct voice.
Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes.
"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.
Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.
"The Cruciatus Curse." said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea." he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"
The spider swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula. Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"
At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body, it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Y/n was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently...
"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly. "Can't you see It's bothering him!"
Y/n looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Y/n, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified.
Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.
"Reducio." Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size. He put it back into the jar.
"Pain." said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse...That one was very popular once too, especially amongst you're parents Grindelwald." Moody said his eyes fixing upon him. "Perhaps you can give us the last curse?"
Y/n just looked up at Moody. "The killing curse...Avada Kedavra." He answered.
Several people looked uneasily around at him, including Hermione and Ron.
"Ah." said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra...the Killing Curse. Another favorite of your parents." Moody said as he put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.
Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.
There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air, instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead. Several of the students stifled cries. Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him.
Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.
"Not nice." he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."
Y/n saw Moody's eyes, both of them looking straight at Harry. The whole class seemed to be doing the same.
"Avada Kedavra's a curse that needs a powerful bit of magic behind it." Moody began again now. "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 countercurse, 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!" he roared, and the whole class but Y/n jumped again.
"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..."
They spent the rest of the lesson taking notes on each of the Unforgivable Curses. No one spoke until the bell rang, but when Moody had dismissed them and they had left the classroom, a torrent of talk burst forth. Most people were discussing the curses in awed voices
"Did you see it twitch?"
"And when he killed it ...just like that!"
They were talking about the lesson.
Y/n thought that it had been a harsh wake-up call to the reality of the dark arts. Something he was determined to learn to combat. He did not find the lesson to be an entertainment show like the others and nor, it seemed, had Hermione.
"Hurry up." she said tensely to Harry, Y/n and Ron.
"Not the ruddy library again?" said Ron.
"No." said Hermione curtly, pointing up a side passage. "Neville."
Y/n looked ahead to see Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
"Neville?" Hermione said gently.
Neville looked around. "Oh hello," he said, his voice much higher than usual. "Interesting lesson, wasn't it? I wonder what's for dinner, I'm...I'm starving, aren't you?"
"Neville, are you all right?" Y/n asked him.
"Oh yes, I'm fine." Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. "Very interesting dinner... I mean lesson...what's for eating?"
Ron gave Harry a startled look.
"Neville, If you want to talk..." Y/n began but an odd clunking noise sounded behind them, and they turned to see Professor Moody limping toward them.
All five of them fell silent, watching him apprehensively, but when he spoke, it was in a much lower and gentler growl than they had yet heard.
"It's all right, sonny." he said to Neville. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on...we can have a cup of tea..."
Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. Moody turned his magical eye upon Harry.
"You all right, are you, Potter?"
"Yes." said Harry, almost defiantly.
Moody's blue eye quivered slightly in its socket as it surveyed Harry. Then he said. "You've got to know. It seems harsh, maybe, but you've got to know. No point pretending...well...come on, Longbottom, I've got some books that might interest you."
Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, Y/n and Hermione, but they didn't say anything, so Neville had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody's gnarled hands on his shoulder.
"What was that about?" said Ron, watching Neville and Moody turn the corner.
"I don't know." said Hermione, looking pensive.
"Some lesson, though, eh?" said Ron to Harry as they set off for the Great Hall. "Fred and George were right, weren't they? He really knows his stuff, Moody, doesn't he? When he did Avada Kedavra, the way that spider just died, just snuffed it right..."
But when Y/n slapped the back of Ron's head he looked to the side and fell suddenly silent at the look on Harry's face.
Ron didn't speak again until they reached the Great Hall, when he said he supposed they had better make a start on Professor Trelawney's predictions tonight, since they would take hours.
Hermione did not join in with any of the conversation during dinner, but ate furiously fast, and then left for the library again.
Harry, Y/n and Ron walked back to Gryffindor Tower, and Harry, who had been thinking of nothing else all through dinner, now raised the subject of the Unforgivable Curses himself.
"Wouldn't Moody and Dumbledore be in trouble with the Ministry if they knew we'd seen the curses?" Harry asked them as they approached the Fat Lady.
"Yeah, probably." said Ron. "But Dumbledore's always done things his way, hasn't he, and Moody's been getting in trouble for years, I reckon. Attacks first and asks questions later... look at his dustbins."
"Balderdash." Y/n simply said and the Fat Lady swung forward to reveal the entrance hole, and they climbed into the Gryffindor common room, which was crowded and noisy.
"Shall we get our Divination stuff, then?" said Harry.
"I s'pose," Ron groaned.
"I am so very glad I dropped that subject." Y/n said as they went up to the dormitory to fetch Ron and Harry's books and charts.
As they entered it they found Neville there alone, sitting on his bed, reading. He looked a good deal calmer than at the end of Moody's lesson, though still not entirely normal. His eyes were rather red.
"You all right, Neville?" Harry asked him.
"Oh yes." said Neville, "I'm fine, thanks. Just reading this book Professor Moody lent me..."
He held up the book, Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean.
"Apparently, Professor Sprout told Professor Moody I'm really good at Herbology." Neville said. There was a faint note of pride in his voice that Y/n had rarely heard there before. "He thought I'd like this."
Telling Neville what Professor Sprout had said, Y/n thought, had been a very tactful way of cheering Neville up, for Neville very rarely heard that he was good at anything. It was the sort of thing Professor Lupin would have done.
"And she is right Neville." Y/n said. "You are very good at Herbology, Much better at it than I am. You have helped me in classes more times than I would care to admit. To me plants all start to look the same after a few of them."
"Oh no Y/n, Plants have very distinct ways of being told apart." Neville said now.
"Why not tell me about it Neville." Y/n said as he sat down on Neville's bed wanting to take his friend's mind off whatever it was that was deeply upsetting him.
An hour later Harry and Ron were down in the common room as they tried to get through their Divination homework but had in fact made very little progress, though their table was littered with bits of parchment bearing sums and symbols, and Harry's brain was as fogged as though it had been filled with the fumes from Professor Trelawney's fire.
"I haven't got a clue what this lot's supposed to mean." he said, staring down at a long list of calculations.
"You know." said Ron, whose hair was on end because of all the times he had run his fingers through it in frustration. "I think it's back to the old Divination standby."
"What...make it up?"
"Yeah." said Ron, sweeping the jumble of scrawled notes off the table, dipping his pen into some ink, and starting to write.
Y/n was walking down the stairs to the common room now as he made his way over to Harry and Ron.
"How's Neville?" Harry asked.
"Doing better now I think." Y/n said.
"Next Monday..." Ron said as he scribbled. "I am likely to develop a cough, owing to the unlucky conjunction of Mars and Jupiter."
Y/n sighed as he sat down in an empty chair. "Please do not tell me you are making it up again? You should have just dropped that subject."
Ron just looked up at Y/n. "You know her...just put in loads of misery, she'll lap it up."
Harry, crumpled up his first attempt and lobbed it over the heads of a group of chattering first years into the fire. "Okay... on Monday, I will be in danger of...er... burns."
"Yeah, you will be." said Ron darkly. "We're seeing the skrewts again on Monday. Okay, Tuesday, I'll...erm..."
"Lose a treasured possession." said Harry, who was flicking through Unfogging the Future for ideas.
"Good one." said Ron, copying it down. "Because of...erm...Mercury. Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend?"
"Yeah...cool..." said Harry, scribbling it down. "Because... Venus is in the twelfth house."
Y/n just watched the two shaking his head with unimpressed disbelief.
"And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worst in a fight."
"Aaah, I was going to have a fight. Okay, I'll lose a bet."
"Yeah, you'll be betting I'll win my fight..."
They continued to make up predictions which grew steadily more tragic for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into Y/n's lap, and stared inscrutably at Harry, rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren't doing their homework properly.
Y/n began to stroke Crookshanks as he looked around the room for Noctis, He saw Fred and George sitting together against the opposite wall, heads together, quills out, poring over a single piece of parchment. It was most unusual to see Fred and George hidden away in a corner and working silently, they usually liked to be in the thick of things and the noisy center of attention. There was something secretive about the way they were working on the piece of parchment, and Y/n was reminded of how they had sat together writing something back at the Burrow. He had thought then that it was another order form for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, but it didn't look like that this time, if it had been, they would surely have let Lee Jordan in on the joke. He wondered whether it had anything to do with entering the Triwizard Tournament.
As Y/n watched, George shook his head at Fred, scratched out something with his quill, and said, in a very quiet voice that nevertheless carried across the almost deserted room. "No...that sounds like we're accusing him. Got to be careful... "
Then George looked over and saw Y/n watching him. Y/n gave him a small smile and returned to stroking Crookshanks. Shortly after that, the twins rolled up their parchment, said good night, and went off to bed.
Fred and George had been gone ten minutes or so when the portrait hole opened and Hermione climbed into the common room carrying a sheaf of parchment in one hand and a box whose contents rattled as she walked in the other. Crookshanks sat up on Y/n's legs and arched his back, purring.
"Hello." she said, "I've just finished!"
"So have I!" said Ron triumphantly, throwing down his quill.
Hermione sat down in a chair next to Y/n, laid the things she was carrying in an empty armchair, and pulled Ron's predictions toward her.
"Not going to have a very good month, are you?" she said sardonically as Crookshanks moved now to curl up in her lap.
"Ah well, at least I'm forewarned." Ron yawned.
Y/n looked over at the predictions himself now. "Ron, You have put drowning twice." He pointed out.
"Oh, have I?" said Ron, peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging hippogriff."
"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione.
"How dare you!" said Ron, in mock outrage. "We've been working like house elves here!"
Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"It's just an expression," said Ron hastily.
Harry laid down his quill too, having just finished predicting his own death by decapitation. "What's in the box?" he asked, pointing at it.
"Funny you should ask." said Hermione, with a nasty look at Ron. She took off the lid and showed them the contents.
Inside were about fifty badges, all of different colors, but all bearing the same letters: S. P. E . W.
"Spew?" said Harry, picking up a badge and looking at it. "What's this about?"
"Not spew." said Hermione impatiently. "It's S-P-E-W. Stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. "
"Never heard of it." said Ron.
"Well, of course you haven't." said Hermione briskly. "I've only just started it."
"Yeah?" said Ron in mild surprise. "How many members have you got?"
"Well...if you three join...four," said Hermione.
"Very well, count me in." Y/n said picking up a badge and looking at it. Hermione gave him an appreciative smile.
"You really think we want to walk around wearing badges saying 'spew,' do you?" said Ron now.
"S-P-E-W!" said Hermione hotly. "I was going to put Stop the Outrageous Abuse of Our Fellow Magical Creatures and Campaign for a Change in Their Legal Status... but it wouldn't fit. So that's the heading of our manifesto."
She brandished the sheaf of parchment at them. "It was Y/n who pointed out to me that it is the laws that are the problem. So I've been researching it thoroughly in the library. Elf enslavement goes back centuries. I can't believe no one's done anything about it before now."
"Hermione...open your ears." said Ron loudly. "They. Like. It. They like being enslaved!"
"Our short-term aims." said Hermione, speaking even more loudly than Ron, and acting as though she hadn't heard a word. "Are to secure house-elves fair wages and working conditions. Our long-term aims include changing the law about non-wand use, and trying to get an elf into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, because they're shockingly underrepresented."
"And how do we plan to achieve this?" Y/n asked.
"We start by recruiting members." said Hermione happily. "I thought two Sickles to join, that buys a badge, and the proceeds can fund our leaflet campaign. You're treasurer, Ron. I've got you a collecting tin upstairs and Harry, you're secretary, so you might want to write down everything I'm saying now, as a record of our first meeting."
"And myself?" Y/n asked.
"I was hoping you'd take Vice-President." Hermione told him. "You were the one who pointed out the laws are the problem after all."
"I deem the position acceptable." Y/n said as he took two sickles out and handed them to Hermione for his chosen badge.
There was a pause in which Hermione beamed at the other two expectantly, and Harry sat, torn between exasperation at Hermione and amusement at the look on Ron's face. The silence was broken, not by Ron, who in any case looked as though he was temporarily dumbstruck, but by a soft tap, tap on the window. Harry looked across the now empty common room and saw, illuminated by the moonlight, a snowy owl perched on the windowsill.
"Hedwig!" he shouted, and he launched himself out of his chair and across the room to pull open the window.
Hedwig flew inside, soared across the room, and landed on the table on top of Harry's predictions.
"About time!" said Harry, hurrying after her.
"She's got an answer!" said Ron excitedly, pointing at the grubby piece of parchment tied to Hedwig's leg.
Harry hastily untied it and sat down to read, whereupon Hedwig fluttered onto his knee, hooting softly.
"What does it say?" Hermione asked breathlessly.
The letter was very short, and looked as though it had been scrawled in a great hurry. Harry read it aloud.
"Harry,
I'm flying north immediately. This news about your scar is the latest in a series of strange rumors that have reached me here. If it hurts again, go straight to Dumbledore. They're saying he's got Mad-Eye out of retirement, which means he's reading the signs, even if no one else is.
I'll be in touch soon. My best to Y/n, Ron and Hermione. Keep your eyes open, Harry.
Sirius."
Harry looked up at Ron, Y/n and Hermione, who stared back at him.
"He's flying north?" Hermione whispered. "He's coming back?"
"Dumbledore's reading what signs?" said Ron, looking perplexed.
"So that is why he let me keep it a secret..." Y/n said to himself.
"Harry! what's up?" Ron said for Harry had just hit himself in the forehead with his fist, jolting Hedwig out of his lap.
"I shouldn't've told him!" Harry said furiously.
"What are you on about?" said Ron still in surprise.
"It's made him think he's got to come back!" said Harry, now slamming his fist on the table so that Hedwig landed on the back of Y/n's chair, hooting indignantly. "Coming back, because he thinks I'm in trouble! And there's nothing wrong with me! And I haven't got anything for you." Harry snapped at Hedwig, who was clicking her beak expectantly. "You'll have to go up to the Owlery if you want food."
Hedwig gave him an extremely offended look and took off for the open window, cuffing him around the head with her outstretched wing as she went.
"Harry." Hermione began, in a pacifying sort of voice.
"I'm going to bed." said Harry shortly getting. "See you in the morning."
Y/n just rubbed his eyes and sighed.
"Should we say something?" Hermione asked Y/n and Ron.
"I think it would be best if we leave him for tonight." Y/n told them. "I doubt Harry is the only reason Sirius is returning north. If he has been hearing rumours then who knows what is going on out there."