Chapter 39: The Secret of the Dark Arts
Since the Stoat Incident, the next two days at Hogwarts have been uneventful, with no further incidents.
It was fast forward to Thursday, and the Gryffindor fourth-year students had been waiting for a Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson to finally arrive.
After lunch on Thursday, before the bell rang, they lined up early outside Moody's classroom.
When the three Clark arrived, they found that the classroom was already full.
Emotions were high and they were looking forward to Moody's for the first time in several years.
Ron and Harry had already arrived, and Clark and the others hurriedly sat down on the seats directly in front of the podium, taking out their respective "Dark Forces: Self-Defense Guide" and waiting, the atmosphere was extremely quiet.
Soon, they heard the characteristic "pop" sound coming from far and near.
Professor Moody limped into the classroom, looking as odd and intimidating as usual. They could just see his claw-like wooden feet peeking out from under his robes.
"Put these things away," he said in a gruff voice, struggling to the podium with crutches and sitting down, "you don't need the knowledge in these textbooks. ”
The students excitedly put their books in their school bags, they had already inquired before they came, and Professor Moody never talked about it in class.
Sure enough, after the roll call, he said.
"I received a letter from Professor Lupin about the course.
It looks like you've got quite a bit of the basics on how to deal with dark magic beasts - you've learned how to deal with the Boggart, the Red Hat, the Hinkpunk, the Grindillo, the Kaba, and the Werewolves, right? ”
The students whispered their approval.
"But you don't know enough about how to deal with spells—not enough," Moody said, "so I'm going to give you a taste of the spells that wizards cast among themselves." I've got a year to teach you how to deal with the dark arts—"
"What! What did you say? Ron blurted out.
Moody's magical eyes turned to stare at him.
Ron looked terrified, but soon Moody laughed.
Of course, many students prefer that he not laugh.
Because he smiled, the scarred face looked even more distorted and weird.
But it's always comforting to know that he can still have a friendly smile, or at least Ron breathes a sigh of relief.
"You're Arthur Weasley's son, huh?"
"A few days ago, your father helped me out of a very difficult situation...... yes, I've only been teaching for a year, so I'm doing Dumbledore a favor...... I only taught for a year and then went back to living my peaceful retirement. ”
He laughed hoarsely, then patted his big rough hands.
"Okay – let's get down to business.
Spells, they come in many forms, and they take different forms.
According to the Ministry of Magic, I should teach you all kinds of spell cracks this year, and that's it.
Logically speaking, you're not in the sixth grade, and I'm not supposed to tell you what illegal dark magic spells look like.
Because you are still young and cannot grasp this set of things, it is easy to indulge in it because of curiosity and arrogance, and go down the wrong path.
But Professor Dumbledore praised your courage for a great deal of it, and he thought you could handle it, and it seemed to me that the sooner you understood what you were going to deal with, the better.
If you've never seen something before, how can you protect yourself from it?
If some evil dark wizard were to recite you an illegal incantation, he wouldn't tell you what he was up to.
He will not recite mantras to you frankly, fairly, and politely, and you must be prepared and vigilant.
You'd better get that thing out of the way while I'm talking, Miss Brown. ”
Lavender was startled, and his face flushed.
Just now, she showed Parvati the drawn fortune-telling chart of the Heavenly Palace under the table.
It was clear that Moody's enchanted eye could penetrate not only the back of his head, but also the hard wood.
"So...... Do any of you know which spells are subject to the harshest punishment of wizarding law? ”
A few hands trembled and raised, and Ron was among them.
Moody pointed at Ron, but his enchanted eyes were still on Lavender.
"Well, that's right," Ron said uncertainly, "my dad told me a ...... It's called Imperius or something, right? ”
"Ah, yes," Moody said appreciatively, "your father must know that spell." Back then, the Imperius Curse caused a lot of trouble for the Ministry of Magic. ”
With difficulty, he walked to the podium with his prosthetic legs, opened the drawer, and pulled out a glass bottle from it.
In the bottle, three large spiders with large palms and black fur were crawling restlessly, as if aware of their next fate.
Moody reached into the bottle and grabbed a spider and placed it on its outstretched palm for everyone to see.
"Out of body!"
A gray-black mist resembled an abstract palm, like an octopus, flying out of his wand with an ominous aura and submerging into a spider's body.
The next moment, the enchanted spider jumped from Moody's palm, dangled from a filament, and began to swing back and forth, as if sitting on a high swing.
It stiffened its legs, then turned around and flipped over, the filaments being pulled off.
The spider slammed straight down on the table, but it didn't react to it, and continued to flip its head in circles.
Moody flicked his wand, and it stood up on its two hind legs and did a kind of tap dance, yes, that kind of tap dance.
Everyone laughed—only Moody's didn't.
No, there was one more person, and Clark didn't laugh either.
Not only did he not smile, but his expression was even a little solemn at the moment.
As a Psychic Warlock who played with consciousness and soul, he was keenly aware of the almost imperceptible xenomorphic aura in the Imperius Curse that Moody had just cast.
The aura was faint and faint, and well hidden, but Clark still felt it.
However, just the slightest breath he sensed made him feel his scalp tingle, as if he was being wound and bound by a dozen soft and slippery octopus tentacles with suction cups.
That disgusting, strange feeling made him uncomfortable all over.
At this time, Moody was still splattering from the podium.
"Under my control," he whispered, as the spider was on its knees and began rolling around, "I can make it jump out of the window, or drown itself, or jump into the throat of one of your classmates......"
Ron shuddered involuntarily.
"Years ago, many wizards were under the control of the Imperius Curse," Moody said, "and it really overwhelmed the Ministry of Magic by trying to tell who was forced to do what they were forced to do and who was doing what they wanted." ”
"Fortunately, the Imperius Curse can be resisted, and I will teach you how to do it, but it requires a lot of personality strength, and not everyone can master it.
The best way to resist the dark magic is not to be hit by it and to be vigilant at all times! He suddenly yelled, startling everyone.
Moody grabbed the somersault spider and threw it back into the bottle.
"Does anyone else know any spells? Illegal spells? ”
Without waiting for the man below to raise his hand, he reached out to Neville, who was sitting next to Clark.
"Say it."
Moody's enchanted eyes stared at him, and Clark on the side frowned slightly.
Neville's parents were victims of the Dark Arts, and Moody deliberately asked him to answer, clearly revealing his scars.
"There's one—the Diamond Curse." Neville's voice was still clear and bright.
Moody looked at Neville very intently, this time with both eyes at the same time.
"You're Longbottom, aren't you?" He said, the enchanted eye down to check the roster.
Neville was silent, just nodded.
Moody didn't ask anything more, turned his back to the class, pulled a second spider out of the glass bottle, and placed it on the podium.
The spider remained motionless, apparently frightened.
"The Drill Spell needs to be enlarged so you can see it," he said, pointing his wand at the spider, "and get bigger!" ”
The black spider swelled and was now bigger than a tarantula.
Ron couldn't hide it, and moved his chair back, as far away from Moody's podium as possible.
Moody raised his wand again, pointed at the spider, and said softly, "Drill the heart and cut the bone!" ”
Just like the Imperius Curse just now, this time, Clark also sensed that along with the Diamond Heart Curse, there was also a faint dark red hot aura like lava.
And the spider who was hit by this breath, all eight legs immediately shrunk and clinged to the body.
It flipped and flipped as its body twitched violently, swaying from side to side.
Although it didn't make a sound, everyone present believed that if it had articulatory organs, it must be screaming desperately at the moment.
Moody didn't take his wand off, and the spider began to tremble and twitch even more—
Clarke turned his head to look at Neville beside him, a little worried, and saw that he looked as usual, no different from the other students.
However, he noticed that Neville's hands were clutching his robes tightly, and the joints were white.
"Extreme pain." Moody also whispered on stage, "If you can recite the Diamond Heart Mantra, you won't need to use a thumb grip or a knife to torture others...... This spell was also very popular at one time. ”
He lowered his wand, and the spider's legs flagged, but still twitched.
"Shrink down!"
Moody retracted the spider back to its original size and put it back in the bottle.
"Alright...... Does anyone else know what spells? ”
The little wizards in the audience, you look at me, I look at you, seeing that no one answered, Clark took the initiative to raise his hand, then stood up, and replied before Moody could speak.
"Avada's Curse."
Some of the students turned their heads to look at him uneasily, including Ron.
"Ah," said Moody—his crooked mouth twitching again, a slight smile, "yes, this is the last and greatest spell. Avada Curse...... Death curse. ”
His magic eyes glanced down at the roster again, "You're Clark Pritter, the Prit family?" ”
Clark nodded, "yes, my father and my uncle should have worked with you, don't you remember?" ”
"Ah, of course I do, Brother Puwit."
Moody whispered, then turned and reached into the glass bottle.
As if aware of the impending doom, the third spider crawled desperately around the bottom of the bottle, trying to avoid Moody's fingers, but it was still caught and placed on the podium.
Moody raised his wand, and all the little wizards held their breath.
"Avada's Curse!" Moody yelled.
A dazzling green light pierced the eyes, and there was a jumble of sounds, as if an invisible shadow slipped through the air—
This time, not only Clark, but even Hermione noticed it, and she looked at Clark in confusion and shock.
The two looked at each other, and everything was silent.
At the same time, the spider also turned over and lay on its back on the table, although there was not the slightest scar on its body, but the breath of life was gone.
"It's not pretty," Moody said calmly, as if crushing an ant to death, "it's unpleasant, and there's no way to break the spell and defend against it." As far as is known, only one person has escaped this spell, and he is sitting in front of me at the moment. ”
Moody's eyes were fixed on Harry, and now everyone knew who he was talking about.
"But rest assured, the Avada Spell requires a lot of magical power as a foundation, and it's not a spell that anyone can master.
Take out your wand, aim it at me, and say this incantation, I suspect I'll only get a nosebleed at best. ”
His sneer didn't make the students laugh,
"Alright...... All three of these spells—the Avada Curse, the Imperius Curse, and the Heart Curse—are all known as the Unforgivable Curse.
Applying any of these spells to a human would be enough to sit in prison in Azkaban for the rest of his life.
That's what I'm going to teach you to resist, and you need to be prepared.
But the most important thing is to always be vigilant and never let up.
Now, why don't you take out your quill and write it down? ”
For the rest of the lesson, the students were busy taking notes and recording the three unforgivable spells.
The classroom was silent, and no one spoke until the bell rang for the end of class.
When Professor Moody's announced the end of class, as soon as the students left the classroom, all kinds of discussions suddenly surged like a flood that broke the mouth.
"Did you see the spider twitching?"
"—he killed the spider in one fell swoop—it's that simple!"
"No wonder other people have held him in high esteem after taking classes—"
The three Clarkes did not participate in the discussion, but walked quickly out of the classroom.
They made their way through several corridors and up many steps in a row, until they were about to reach the Gryffindor common room, when they slowed down.
"Do you feel it, Clark? When Professor Moody cast the Unforgivable Spell just now. Hermione asked, turning to Clarke.
"Of course!" Clark nodded, "The power of the Old Gods, the Hellfire, and the Breath of the Grim Reaper." These wizards are really bold. ”