Chapter 103
Soon, Soren's first Defense Against the Dark Arts class arrived on Thursday. This class was jointly attended by Slytherin and Gryffindor.
The young wizards were in high spirits, eagerly anticipating Moody's lessons—something that hadn't happened in years during this course. The classroom atmosphere was unusually quiet, as everyone took out their copies of "Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense" and waited.
Before long, they heard Moody's distinctive thumping footsteps coming down the corridor. He entered the classroom looking as odd and frightening as usual. The young wizards caught sight of his claw-like wooden leg protruding from under his robe.
"Put those things away," he said in a gruff voice, laboriously leaning on his cane as he walked to the front of the classroom and sat down. "You won't need those textbooks; we won't use them in my class. Take out your wands."
The young wizards packed their books into their bags, each looking particularly excited. Based on past experience, taking out their wands meant that this class would be very interesting.
A few seconds later, Moody pulled out the roster, shook his head, causing the wispy white hair to sway away from his twisted, scarred face, and began calling the roll. His normal eye moved down the list, while the magical eye rotated continuously, locking onto each responding student.
When he reached Draco's name, he noticeably paused, and all the young wizards turned their gaze to Draco. The recent conflict between Draco and Moody had spread throughout the school.
Draco shrugged indifferently and raised his hand in response to his name.
"Alright!" Moody said after the last student responded. "I received a letter from your former teacher, so I have some understanding of your current progress. It seems that when it comes to dealing with dark magical creatures, you've mastered quite a bit of foundational knowledge—you've learned to deal with Boggarts, Gnomes, Puffskeins, Grimlocks, and Kabbas, and you've also studied vampires and werewolves. However, when it comes to dealing with spells, you're still lacking greatly. You haven't witnessed true dark magic, which is the most crucial thing."
"So… does anyone know which spells are subject to the severest penalties by the Ministry of Magic?"
No one in the class answered. Even Hermione, usually the most active participant, chose to remain silent. The young wizards focused their eyes on Soren, hoping he would answer this question.
"Malfoy Boy, you answer!" Moody said, directly calling out Soren's name after confirming that no one else would respond.
"Professor, there are many spells that are prohibited by the Ministry of Magic; currently, thousands of legal documents related to this exist, involving tens of thousands of spells," Soren replied. "But the most notorious ones are definitely those of dark magic—such as spells for summoning the dead, curses belonging to the domain of word-magic, and spells for altering one's bloodline, not to mention…"
"In addition, the Ministry of Magic has quite strict regulations on spatial magic, such as the non-detection expansion charm that can enlarge internal spaces and the Portkey charm that can transport people to distant locations…"
The classroom was silent; everyone was staring at Soren in astonishment, mouths agape as if they could swallow an egg.
It seemed they just realized how much Soren actually knew. Previously, they only recognized his strength, but no one had a clear concept of how strong or in what manner he was strong.
Except for a few close peers in Slytherin, most young wizards generally believed he could at most compete with upperclassmen just one or two years older than him, but never thought he could match seventh-year students. However, seeing Soren's performance today and how he effortlessly spoke about so many unheard-of dark magic spells, all the young wizards in the classroom gasped, looking at Soren in disbelief.
"Tch, just showboating," Ron muttered softly. "As far as knowledge goes, I don't believe Hermione would be any worse than him…"
Hermione looked at Soren with a complex expression. She didn't realize when she had stopped entertaining the thought of competing with him; this boy's rate of progress was both unscientific and magical.
He was rich in knowledge, skilled in technique, and his application of magic was particularly original and brilliant. Most absurdly—he didn't resemble a typical bookworm at all. Although he didn't participate in sports, he was part of two academic clubs and still found time to organize spell exchange meetings, publish academic papers, establish an alchemy workshop, and even represent international organizations…
So many achievements concentrated on one person; Hermione believed that even if she had a time-turner, she could never catch up with him.
When she heard Soren go on and on, Moody was also very surprised.
None of the answers Soren provided were what he wanted to hear, but they weren't wrong either. He knew he had to stop him; if he let Soren continue, he could easily fill an entire class, and by the end, without needing to demonstrate dark magic, everyone would likely leave in a daze. Finally, Moody interrupted Soren and praised his excellent performance, awarding Slytherin ten points.
"Mr. Malfoy spoke very well, but I believe your immediate priority is to understand the three main curses commonly used by dark wizards, known as the Unforgivable Curses," Moody stated. "Now, can anyone tell me what the three Unforgivable Curses are?"
"Uh, well," Ron said nervously, "my dad told me about one... called the imperius Curse or something, right?"
"That's right, Mr. Weasley!" Moody responded appreciatively. "Your father surely knows that curse; back in the day, the Imperius Curse caused a lot of trouble for the Ministry of Magic."
He struggled to stand up on his prosthetic leg, opened the drawer of the podium, and took out a glass bottle. Three large black spiders were crawling inside. Moody reached into the bottle, grabbed one spider, and placed it in his open palm for everyone to see. Then he pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"
The spider jumped off Moody's hand, suspended by a thin thread, and began to swing back and forth like it was on a high swing. It stiffly straightened its legs and then flipped over, the thread snapping. It fell onto the table and began to roll around in circles. With a flick of his wand, Moody made it stand on its back legs and perform what looked like a tap dance—yes, a tap dance. Most of the young wizards burst into laughter.
"You find this amusing, do you?" Moody asked in a harsh voice. "Would you like it if I did this to you?"
The laughter almost instantly ceased.
"Completely under my control," Moody said quietly—at this moment, the spider began rolling continuously. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, or jump down one of your classmates' throats... The Imperius Curse can be resisted, and I'll teach you how, but it requires a great deal of personal strength; not everyone can master it. You'd best avoid being hit by it and remain vigilant at all times!" Moody suddenly shouted, startling everyone.
"Does anyone else know any curses? The other two Unforgivable Curses?"
Next, Neville stood up and mentioned the Cruciatus Curse. Moody demonstrated this curse on the spider for everyone.
"Alright... Does anyone else know any curses?"
Draco answered, his voice devoid of any emotion, "It's the Killing Curse, Professor—legend has it that it is a one-hit kill spell."
"Ah," Moody's gaze fixed on Draco. "Yes, that's the last one, and the most powerful. Avada Kedavra... the curse used solely for killing."
He reached into the glass bottle, and the third spider seemed to know its impending doom, desperately trying to crawl around the base of the bottle to escape Moody's fingers, but he still caught it and placed it on the podium.
"Avada Kedavra!" Moody shouted.
A dazzling green light burst forth, blindingly bright, accompanied by a rushing sound, as if an unseen giant were flying through the air—at the same time, the spider flipped over, lying on its back on the table, showing no signs of injury, but undoubtedly dead. Several students fought back the urge to scream; as the spider slid towards Ron, he jerked back violently, nearly falling from his seat.
A flash of brilliance crossed Soren's eyes; he had just witnessed—
At the moment Moody uttered the spell, as the sound of whistling filled the air—
Soren saw the Grim Reaper!
It was a creature that looked like a Dementor; however, this creature—whether it was the Grim Reaper or something else—it resembled more of an amorphous gas, capable of flying through the air like a fluid or cloud. As it swept through the spider, Soren saw a soul-like energy being harvested and consumed by it.
Is this the essence of the Killing Curse?
Where did the consumed soul energy go in the end?
There are too many unresolved mysteries in the magic of this world!
"It's quite unpleasant," Moody said calmly, "and there's no counter-curse, no way to defend against it. As far as anyone knows, only one person has escaped this curse, and he is sitting right in front of me at this moment."
Everyone knew he was talking about Harry. Moody's eyes were fixed on Harry's, and Harry felt his face flush. He could feel the entire class turning to look at him.
"The Killing Curse requires a very strong magical power as its basis; even if all of you recited it to me right now, I doubt I would even suffer a nosebleed," Moody said, his magical eye gliding over the terrified faces of everyone, "but that doesn't matter; I'm not here to teach you how to use the Killing Curse."
"Then, since there's no counter-curse, why am I showing you all this? Because you need to understand. You need to be fully aware of what is the worst. You do not want to find yourselves in the situation you are facing now. Always stay vigilant!" he shouted, startling the whole class again.
"Alright, these three curses—the Killing Curse, the Cruciatus Curse, and the Imperius Curse—are collectively known as the Unforgivable Curses. Using any one of them on another human being is enough to warrant a life sentence in Azkaban. This is what you might have to face. This is what I am going to teach you to defend against. You need to be prepared. You need to have knowledge in this area. But most importantly, you need to remain vigilant at all times and never let your guard down. Take out your quills... and write this down..."
For the rest of the class, everyone was busy taking notes, recording the three Unforgivable Curses.
The classroom was quiet, no one spoke until the class bell rang. As soon as Moody announced the end of the class, a flood of chatter erupted as the students left, all discussing the curses in awed tones.
"Did you see how the spider twitched?"
"He killed that spider just like that—so simple!"
Draco called out to Soren, who was about to leave the classroom, and Soren gestured for Daphne to go ahead.
"Soren, you understand the Unforgivable Curses, right?" Draco looked at Soren earnestly.
"I understand the theory to some extent," Soren shrugged, "but I think it's best to stay away from dark magic. Learning dark magic will only distort our character, and ultimately turn us into slaves of power; no matter how strong you become, you will no longer be yourself. Don't you think?"
Draco fell silent.
"Alright," Soren turned around and waved, "I have things to do, so I'm leaving now." With that, he left swiftly, leaving Draco behind deep in thought.
****
Want to read more of this fanfic [25+ chapters], and support me :- Patreon.com/Theuntamed0 [Character's arts are uploaded there, you can check them out if you like.