บท 184: The First REAL Class of Defence Against the Dark Arts

"Longbottom, what are you doing?" cried Oleandra in despair. "I told you to stir anti-clockwise, not… whatever that is! You do know what a clock is, don't you?"

"I'm sorry, okay?" whimpered Longbottom. "I forgot, that's all!"

"Forgot what?" said Oleandra, as she helplessly watched the cauldron melt, its contents spilling out onto the boy's shoes. "The instructions, or the existence of clocks!?"

It seemed as though Professor Snape was in particularly foul mood, and to make matters worse, it was very likely that he had guessed that Daphne had used the Time-Turner to help Black and Lupin escape. Being a member of his House was practically Hel under these conditions.

In his Potions class, he had split up the Greengrass pair and assigned them new partners: Oleandra with Neville Longbottom, and Daphne with Seamus Finnegan. One was useless, while the other had such poor control over his magic that everything he touched exploded; one rarely saw him without burnt hair and singed-off eyebrows.

It had only taken one moment of inattention; Oleandra had barely turned away to chop up some blue spider lilies that the boy had managed to melt off the bottom of their cauldron, causing a mess.

"Evanesco," said Professor Snape, before tut-tutting the pair. "What a mess you've made, Mr. Longbottom. Miss Greengrass, when I paired you with him, I expected you to keep an eye on him. Five points off Gryffindor, and I do believe detention is in order for the both of you; perhaps you'll learn some teamwork by disemboweling a barrel of horned toads together tomorrow night."

"Yes, sir," said Oleandra bitterly. She knew better than to argue with Professor Snape; it only led to more misery, as he held all the power in any scenario where he was a teacher and she was a student.

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Time passed, as it sometimes does, and soon enough, the fateful day was upon Oleandra; her first class of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Students from other grades had already had their first class with him by the time Thursday came around, so when the fourth years arrived in the classroom that day, they had all already heard the rumours. Whatever Professor Moody had in store for the fourth years, it was sure to be exciting!

Oleandra put her hand in front of her mouth to yawn as she sat in the back of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with Daphne and Tracey. Dismantling the horned toads had taken ages, even with, or rather, despite Neville's help. He was so inept at delicate tasks that Oleandra wondered if someone had cursed him and replaced his fingers with sausages. All that to say, Oleandra was quite sleep-deprived.

"How'd you manage to finish your potion without exploding?" Oleandra asked her sister bitterly.

"Simple," said Daphne, "I did all the work, and Finnegan was quite happy with our arrangement."

"And Professor Snape just let you—" Oleandra began, before pausing. "I think I hear Professor Moody coming," she said, upon hearing the dull thunking of his peg leg as he made his way closer to his classroom.

"You can put those away," Moody growled, as he sat behind his desk, "those books. You won't need them."

Was that a sign of good, or bad things to come? The last time a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had asked them to put their books away on his first day, a Boggart had sent several students to the Hospital Wing! But on the other hand, Lupin had been a rather good teacher.

Contrary to her expectations, Moody then took out the class register and started taking attendance. When her turn came, he turned his unnerving, oversized electric-blue eye towards her, and Oleandra stated, "present!"

"Right then," he said. "I chased down your last teacher myself last year when he was revealed to be in league with Black. He managed to elude me, so I'd consider him to be fairly competent."

Oleandra almost snorted upon hearing that one. Hadn't Lupin won and suspended Professor Moody upside-down? Well, of course, Lupin hadn't been fighting alone, but still! Her doubtful expression froze upon her face when Professor Moody's magical eye ended up staring right at her.

"Though, I have to say that for a supposedly murderous werewolf," Moody continued on with a scary-looking smile, "he's a rather conscientious teacher. Even though he's on the run from us Aurors, he sent me an owl detailing which subjects he'd gone through with you: Dark creatures; Boggarts, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Grindylows, Kappas and… Werewolves."

Oleandra nodded; though for that last one, Professor Snape had been the one to teach the particulars.

"But I say you're still far behind on the subject of the most dangerous of Dark creatures— Dark Wizards, and their weapon of choice— curses!" said Moody. "So I'm here to teach you about what we Wizards can do to each other when we really mean it. I've only got one year, so—"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted out without raising his hand.

Moody smiled upon recognizing the son of the man who had extirpated him from a rather sticky predicament a few days ago.

"Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father helped me out of a tight corner the other day… Yeah, I'm only staying the one year, as a special favour to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

"Now then," he continued. "Let's get right into the subject; Curses. They come in all shapes and sizes; from practical joke-level Jinxes to full-blown life-threatening Curses. Now, the Ministry of Magic only wants me to teach you about Counter-Curses, but I ask you this: how are you going to use your Counter-Curse if you're dead?"

A chill fell over the class.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he yelled, making the class collectively jump.

"Know your Curses; which ones are safe to take; which ones you need to block; which ones you need to avoid at all costs. And how are you supposed to know these things, unless I teach them to you? A Wizard who's about to Curse you won't tell you which one he's about to do. You need to be prepared. You need to pay attention. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking!"

Oleandra looked to the side; Lavender Brown was showing Parvati Patil her horoscope under the table, where she thought the teacher wouldn't be able to see it!