"So, Hermione, can't help but notice that you're eating," Harry commented the next day at breakfast. "What happened to your hunger strike?" He asked Hermione who took a moment to swallow the bit of food in her mouth.
"I've decided that my 'hunger strike' as you called it, is not effective enough," Hermione replied. "So, I am going to fill my stomach up and then I'm going to start getting to work on forming a club."
"What club?" Ron asked, a bit of sausage hanging out of his mouth.
"Ron, please swallow your food first." Hermione groaned. "Anyway, I'm going to start a club, I've already made one badge for it and I'm going to make some more when I have the time." She said pulling out a blue badge.
"What the hell is this supposed to mean?" Harry asked, looking at the green letters on the badge.
"Well, 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."
"Really?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"So, I changed the name." Continued Hermione, ignoring Harry for the moment. "I am calling it the 'Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare',"
"Is that why the badge spells 'spew'?" Ron frowned.
"S.P.E.W for short," Hermione told him, taking the badge and proudly pinning it against her robes. "I'll make both of your badges as soon as I can."
"Oh," Ron blinked, staring at the badge on Hermione's robes like it would jump out at him.
"What?" Harry blinked. "Why are you making those badges for us?"
"Because you're going to join me," Hermione said in an 'it's so obvious, I'm surprised I have to tell you' voice.
"I'll take a pass on that for now," Harry replied slowly, eying the badge with barely concealed distaste.
"What?!" Hermione shrieked, causing a few nearby Gryffindors to stare at them. Hermione sent them apologetic looks before turning her attention back to Harry. "What do you mean you're not going to join?! You can't actually support slavery!"
"I support slavery as much as I would support Snape in winning this year's Witch Weekley's Most Charming Smile' award," Harry responded with a roll of his eyes.
"Hey, it could be his year!" The Weasley twins called from a short distance down the table.
"Then what's the problem?!" Hermione demanded angrily. "Why aren't you joining?"
"Because we barely know anything about house elves," Harry pointed out. "We don't know how they work, how they operate, what their needs and wants are."
"Harry, you remember Dobby! He was horribly mistreated, not to mention Mr Crouch. I heard that he had an elf as well, one that he treated horribly!"
"That's because they're both dickheads," Harry said bluntly. "We don't know that all house-elves are treated the same. I don't know about you but if I'm going to start supporting a cause then I'm at least going to do my research first."
'Yeah, because we're not dumbasses,' Venom agreed.
"I mean, look at my mother," Harry continued. "She was a muggleborn like you, I bet she probably found out about house elves at one point too. I reckon if she herself didn't start a group to save them then there was probably a good reason."
"Or maybe I'm the only one who can be bothered to do anything!" Hermione huffed before standing up, she stopped and stared at him deeply for several seconds. "You've changed a lot, Harry." She told him before storming off.
"What's her problem?" Ron blinked.
"Not a clue," Harry sighed before taking a drink.
'Maybe it's her time of the month,' Venom commented, causing Harry to spit his drink out.
"I can't wait, I heard from Fred and George that Moody's great," Ron told Harry as the trio walked over to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class along with the other Gryffindors. "And those two rarely ever compliment teachers." He couldn't help but add.
"True," Harry nodded at that.
"He's a real one, you know," Ron said excitedly. "Someone who's actually seen and done things."
"I know," Harry said patiently, Ron had said the same thing at least twice in the last five minutes. "Tonks had told me all about him, apparently he was her main trainer."
"Whoa, really?!" Ron gasped.
"Yeah," Harry confirmed with a small nod. "According to her, he really earned the 'mad' part of his nickname. Would hex the trainees randomly, and keep yelling about 'constant vigilance'. Tonks told me that one time he reversed the knees on one auror because he got too relaxed when he went to the bathroom."
"Wicked!" Ron breathed out in an awed voice.
"Honestly, Ronald, I hardly see how getting your knees reversed is wicked." Hermione huffed, quickly walking past them and into the classroom, having walked a short distance behind them the whole time.
"You two really need to sort things out between the two of you," Ron whispered to Harry.
"Why should I?" Harry questioned with a roll of his eyes. "All I said was I'm not going to join her club without doing the proper research, if she doesn't like that then that's up to her. I did nothing wrong." He added as they walked into the class and took their seats a couple of desks behind Hermione who was sitting at the front.
Soon the class was filled up with many chattering students, shortly after Professor Moody walked into the room, walking fairly fast for a man with a peg leg and a cane.
"Shut your traps," He said without taking a moment to even look at his students. He walked to the front as all of the students straightened up and sat still in their seats. "I'm here because Dumbledore asked me to be," He growled as he walked over to the blackboard and began writing on it while his fake eye began spinning in seemingly random directions. "End of discussion, like me or hate me, you got a year with me and I've got a year with you before I can go back into my cosy little retirement. So be damn well sure that I plan to make the most of it - Miss Brown, that magazine had better be gone before I transfigure it into a woodpecker!" He barked without turning back. Lavender Brown gulped before quickly putting away the magazine that she had been trying to show Parvati Patil. "I understand your first teacher in this subject taught you a bit of theory, your next teacher taught you how to preen and your last teacher mostly taught you about defending yourselves against dark creatures like boggarts and the likes. I will be teaching you primarily about curses along with other things such as not putting your chewing gum under your desk, Mr. Finngean!"
"Blimey!" Seamus exclaimed. "Old codger can see anything." He blurted out before a bit of chalk hit him right in the neck.
"And hear across classrooms!" Moody spat before summoning the chalk back to himself, he gestured to what he had written on the board, 'THE UNFORGIVABLE CURSES'. "Can anyone tell me about these?" He asked, staring around the classroom. "You," He grunted at Hermione when she raised her hand.
"The unforgivable curses are three horrible spells that have been forbidden by the Ministry of Magic," Hermione said with a slight shake of her voice. "The use of any one of them would result in a life sentence in Azkaban. They're cruel and sadistic spells, Sir. I don't think we should be learning about them in school."
"Then feel free to learn them out of class when someone attacks you with them!" Moody barked. "Now, can anyone tell me the name of an unforgivable curse? Huh? Go on, don't be shy." He waited as a few students hesitantly raised their hands. "You, Malfoy!" He pointed to Draco.
"The imperius curse," Draco answered in a lazy drawl, a small smirk on his pale face.
"Ah yes, you probably learnt about that from your father, I reckon. Yes, he'd know all about that, wouldn't he?" Moody said, mockingly mimicking Draco's drawl, wiping the smirk off of the Malfoy heir. "The imperius curse is a highly dangerous curse that allows the witch or wizard to take control of their victim's minds, forcing them to do whatever they want. Once under the control of this curse, the victim would happily jump off the highest tower in this castle if ordered to do so. Scores of witches and wizards in the last war claimed that they were acting under the influence of the curse, the hard part was discovering the difference between the honest ones and the liars. Personally, I don't think we've always made the right call on that front." He made a point to stare at Malfoy who was glaring at him. "Now, who can tell me another? You," He pointed to Neville.
"T...the cruciatus curse," Neville said, his voice shakier than Harry could ever recall hearing it.
"Correct," Moody grunted. "The curse would cause a victim to be flooded with unimaginable pain, pain worse than any other method of torture. I've experienced it a couple of times myself, and each time I felt myself wishing for death instead. I can tell you now, that only the strongest of witches and wizards could last more than a few seconds under it." He said, giving Neville a subtle nod before turning his attention back to the rest of the classroom. "Can anyone tell me the final curse? Huh?"
"The...killing curse," Hermione said quietly, just loud enough to be heard.
"Aye, correct Miss Granger," Moody nodded. "Instant death if you're hit."
'Unless you're us,' Venom said proudly.
"There's only one known survivor and he happens to be in this room," Moody said, both of his eyes focusing on Harry for a brief moment. "Now, I've gotten special permission from Dumbledore to perform a little test on you all. In order to train you how to resist it, I will be putting you all under the imperius curse." He said, earning many loud gasps and shocked looks."
"But Sir, you can't!" Hermione cried out. "That's horrible!"
"Would you rather find out what it's like in a classroom or later when you're forced to kill your own family?!" Moody snapped at her. "I've seen untrained wizards and witches taking out their closest friends and families, only to wake up and cry when they realise what they did! If you don't want to be part of this lesson and learn it in a controlled environment then you know where the door is!" Hermione stared at him for several moments, looking indecisive before shortly nodding her head and staying still. "That's what I thought, now, let's begin."
Not even a minute after he had said that, Moody had started having the students line up to be put under the imperius curse. For many students, it was a humbling and scary experience as they watched and experienced the total power of the imperius curse. Moody had made Seamus comb his hair, he had made Lavender sing the Hogwarts motto, Parvati ended up cleaning Moody's desk for him, Dean slapped Semaus for messing up his hair not long after combing it, Ron was forced to do a cartwheel, Hermione had torn up a book (much to her horror when she was released from the curse) and Malfoy had been forced to do thirty push-ups, which Harry estimated to be about twenty-five more than Malfoy could do. By the end of it, Malfoy was a red-faced and sweaty mess who was helped back to his seat by the ever-loyal Crabbe and Goyle all while muttering about how his father would hear about this.
"Tell him, I dare you." Was Moody's response before Harry was called up.
'This'll be fun,' Venom told Harry.
"You ready, Potter?" Moody asked, aiming his wand at Harry.
"Whenever you are, Sir." Harry nodded.
"That's the spirit boy, imperio!" He cast the spell, it hit Harry who froze as he was hit with the spell. 'Jump on the desk,' A voice told him.
'Fuck off, this is my yard!' Venom growled back instantly, severing the connection between Harry and the voice. Harry blinked before shaking his head and turning to a shocked Moody. "I didn't like it." He frowned, looking like he had smelt something horrible.
"Merlin's groggy nutsack!" Moody chuckled, looking absolutely delighted. "See that everyone, Potter broke it! Damn instantly broke it! Well done, lad! Fifty points to Gryffindor!" He laughed, Harry gave him a small bow before walking back to his seat.
"That was wicked, Harry!" Ron whispered as soon as Harry had sat down.
"How'd you do it?" Hermione whisper-shouted from her desk.
"I'm Harry Potter," Harry smirked with a small shrug of his shoulders. Hermione glared at him heatedly before turning around in her seat and ignoring him.
"Wow," Ron breathed out as all of the Hogwarts students sat at their house tables, waiting on the arrival of the other schools. "It's hard to believe, we're actually going to be able to see the Triwizard tournament."
"Yeah, it should be cool." Harry nodded.
"I suppose it is interesting," Hermione said quietly.
Harry resisted the urge to sigh, in the days building up to today, Hermione had barely spoken to him, and whenever she had it was with short sentences. The girl was upset with him for not joining her club, which so far consisted of her, Ron, the two Creevy brothers, a first-year Gryffindor girl and Neville Longbottom. Though Harry suspected that his two dormmates only joined out of fear of what she would do if they didn't.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Dumbledore called out. "Prepare yourselves, the schools will be arriving shortly."