Hey, sorry for the wait. College is really stressful and it's only the third week

Time to add Blast-Ended Skrewts to Harry's ever-extending list of things he did not like in the magical world. He shuddered a little at the memory of the lobster-like creatures with no heads and the tendency to explode without warning. But Thursday was coming up, which meant DADA with the Gryffindors. The twins had been full of enthusiasm about Moody's teachings, so obviously this wouldn't be another Lockhart. Man, that guy was an idiot.

"You can put those away," Moody said as he came into the classroom, "those books. You won't need them."

He delved straight into curses, specifically those most heavily punished by the law.

"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."

He took out a glass jar with spiders in it- Ron flinched away- and took one out. "Imperio!"

The spider began doing ridiculous stunts like back flips and tap dancing. The class started to laugh until Moody said, "Think it's funny, do you? You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

"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. 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.

"Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Surprisingly, Neville Longbottom raised his hand.

"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.

Harry could understand his fear; Sirius had shown him a picture of him with several others, including Neville's parents, who had been tortured into insanity.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded, looking apprehensive.

"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!"

Harry watched with morbid fascination as the spider began to jerk in horrible spasms. Merlin, this was a spell that he would not wish on anyone, not even his greatest enemy. He turned his gaze to Neville, whose eyes were wide with horror.

"Stop it!" Hermione shrieked, having seen Neville's expression as well.

Moody raised his wand, leaving the spider to fall still, though it still twitched.

"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.

"Right... anyone know any others?"

Harry felt a sense of dread as he recalled the third Unforgivable. Hermione's hand shook slightly as she raised it into the air.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra," Hermione whispered.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Yes, the last and worst. Avada Kedavra... the Killing Curse. "

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.

Harry stiffened as the bright green light came out and struck the spider, causing it to go ominously still.

"Not nice," Moody 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."

All eyes turned to Harry, who looked almost as shaky as Neville did.

The rest of the class went by in silence as they took notes over the Unforgivable Curses. But when they left, they were full of excitement.

"Did you see it twitch?"

"- and when he killed it- just like that!"

Harry saw Neville standing alone and went to join him. "Hey."

"Some lesson, huh?" Neville said in a voice much higher than usual.

Harry nodded. He didn't want to bring up Neville's parents, so he stood there awkwardly.

The sound of clunking made them turn to see Professor Moody. "It's all right, sonny," he said to Neville in a less gruff voice. "Why don't you come up to my office? Come on... we can have a cup of tea..."

Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, who shrugged helplessly, and followed the professor.

Two weeks later, Moody actually cast the Imperius Curse on them.

Hermion started to protest, but even she was interested, and she would never actually leave a class, with the exception of Divination.

Dean Thomas hopped three times around the room, singing the national anthem. Lisa Turpin imitated a squirrel. Neville performed a series of quite astonishing gymnastics he would certainly not have been capable of in his normal state. Not one of them seemed to be able to fight off the curse, and each of them recovered only when Moody had removed it.

"Potter," Moody growled, "you next."

Harry stepped in the center of the room.

"Imperio!"

Peace flooded Harry's mind. He relaxed, then heard a voice telling him to jump. Harry bent his knees, then paused. Why should he?

Jump onto the desk...

Seriously? I could hurt myself!

Jump, NOW!

No!

Harry wrenched himself out of his stupor and backed away, the calm that had invaded his mind gone.

"Now, that's more like it!" growled Moody's voice. "Look at that, you lot... Potter fought! He fought it, and he beat it! We'll try that again, Potter, and the rest of you, pay attention- watch his eyes, that's where you see it- very good, Potter, very good indeed! They'll have trouble controlling you!"

Harry was forced under the Imperius again to show how he did it. Well, if anything went wrong this year, at least Harry knew he could throw off one Unforgivable.