~Chapter 5- The Auror and the Curses~

I woke up the next morning and changed into my robes. I noticed it wasn't storming anymore, but the sky was still gray. I went down to breakfast where schedules were being handed out. Start-of-term nerves affected me a bit, though I wasn't sure why. Usually I was excited to start school, but not today. Something had me shook up.

The sight of a giant light blue eye spinning in a socket from a seat at the staff table gave me the answer. Something about Mad-Eye Moody was making me anxious.

I looked at my schedule. Herbology was first with the Hufflepuffs, Care of Magical Creatures was second with the Slytherins, Double Divination was after lunch, and Arithmancy was last.

I had a dreadful first day. I would have enjoyed it if I enjoyed squeezing repulsive pus from bubotubers, trying to feed Blast-Ended Skrewts (thus singeing the sleeves of my new robes), and listening to Professor Trelawney drone on about how Harry Potter was going to die this year.

I left Divination class in a foul mood. Ron Weasley had said something inappropriate in class; therefore Professor Trelawney dumped a load of homework on us.

Disappointed at Ron for making us have to do so much, I headed to Arithmancy. The only other person I knew in there was Hermione, and she allowed me to sit next to her. Fortunately Professor Vector didn't give us any homework, so I'd have more time to work on Divination.

"You should have dropped it like me," Hermione said when I told her about Ron's outburst.

"I wanted to, but my aunt won't let me."

"Your aunt?"

"I meant my mother," I said, suddenly aware that I'd almost blown my cover. I hated doing this. I was afraid that one day everyone would find out who I was. I wished they'd just known who I was from the beginning - maybe there'd be some prejudice but they'd eventually come around. Now it was too late. I hated the stupid Ministry for doing this to me.

"Well, at least - " Hermione began, but she stopped once we'd reached the foot of the Grand Staircase. "Is that a - "

" - Ferret?" I finished for her. "Wait, that's Professor Moody right next to it! He's doing something ... " I stood on the tips of my toes to get a better view through the crowd clustered around the scene. A loud snapping noise filled the entrance hall, and a second later Draco Malfoy was on the ground where the ferret had been.

"He Transfigured Malfoy!" I said to Hermione cheerfully. "No wonder everyone gathered around! Oh, Professor McGonagall's not happy, is she?"

This was excellent. I decided that I wasn't going to be suspicious of Mad-Eye Moody anymore. He was probably just trying to entertain us. Holding in my laughter, I entered to the Great Hall for dinner and checked my schedule, wondering when I had his class. Disappointed, I realized I didn't have him until Thursday.

The next two days were uneventful. Potions class was the same as always-Professor Snape was in his usual foul mood. But I managed to get through his first class, looking forward to Defense Against the Dark Arts. Everyone was ready for Moody's class.

When it was time for our first D.A.D.A. lesson of the year, everyone queued outside of Moody's classroom to get good seats. I managed to find on in the middle of the room. Yet again, I sat by myself.

We all got our books out, but as soon as Moody arrived he told us to put them away. Many were excited by this - spellbook reading was one of the most boring ways of learning, mostly because we didn't learn from them.

He jumped right into the lesson and announced we were going to learn about curses, but not just any curses. He was about to demonstrate the Unforgivable Curses! It was a scary thought, but I knew learning about them was important.

Then I felt a prickle of unease towards this ex-Auror again. The Unforgivable Curses were something Dora hadn't learned until her sixth year, and she told me they were rather disturbing. Yet, Mad-Eye told us that Dumbledore had approved the curriculum, so the lesson couldn't be that bad ... could it?

Moody went to his desk and picked up a jar where three spiders crawled around. He reached a scarred hand into the jar and pulled one out. Pointing his wand at it, he cast the curse.

The spider did whatever Moody commanded it to do. He made it flip, tap dance, and cartwheel. I felt a shiver go down my spine. This was the Imperius Curse, the curse of complete and total control. Dora had once told me that during the first war Death Eaters used it often, causing a hassle for the Ministry. She said nobody ever knew who to trust.

When Moody asked for the next curse, the forgetful Neville Longbottom's hand went up to everyone's surprise.

"There's one - the Cruciatus Curse," [*] Neville said quietly.

"Your name's Longbottom?" [*] Moody asked. He stared at Neville with his normal eye, but his magical one swiveled into the back of his head and I got the feeling he could see through anything. But what was that? For a split - second, his odd eye seemed to rest on me. Had I imagined that?

Moody enlarged the spider with a spell before he said the incantation for the Cruciatus Curse. I braced myself for something terrible, something worse than the Imperius Curse. I made the assumption that the final curse would kill, so this one couldn't be as bad as that. There had to be something less powerful, but still terrible.

Terrible was an understatement. The spider twitched, rolled around, and struggled in pain, but there was nothing it could do to fight the intense torment it was experiencing. I knew what this was: the torturing curse. I'd heard Death Eaters had also used this one back when Voldemort was powerful.

And then the weirdest thing happened. At that moment, half of me wanted to yank the wand from Moody's hand for making the helpless spider suffer so much pain. But the other half of me - I'd never felt this before - wanted to take my wand and torture the spider with as much pain as possible until it died. What was wrong with me?

There was no mistaking it this time. Moody must have seen the fire in my eyes, because both of his eyes - magical and normal - were fixed upon me. His twisted mouth seemed to be shaped into a slight smile. Surely he didn't know who I was? He was an ex-Auror, so ... what if he was the one who had captured my parents? He could probably see Bellatrix's resemblance in me just like everyone else, but maybe he'd actually known them ... maybe he was the one who had captured them! Maybe they were in prison right now because of him!

I was lost in thought when someone's shout brought me back to reality. It was Hermione Granger. Everyone turned to her, and I realized what she was yelling about - Neville was sitting in his seat with a troubled, horrified look on his face.

Moody lifted the curse, shrank the spider, and put it back in the jar.

I barely noticed that Hermione was the only one person to raise a hand this time. My mind was still on the Cruciatus Curse. Wondering what could be worse than the pain that spider experienced, I looked over to see Moody call on Hermione.

The curse she told him about rang a bell in my mind. Avada Kedavra was the Killing Curse. He took out the final spider and said the incantation with his wand pointed at it. In a flash of green light, the spider was dead. It was awful - and yet, I didn't think it was as bad as the Cruciatus Curse. The Killing Curse killed, but it didn't leave marks or even cause any pain.

My mind drifted away again. The Imperius ... the Cruciatus ... the Killing. They were all pure evil, dark magic. I tuned in to Moody again just enough to hear him say, " ... the use of any one of them on a fellow human being is enough to earn a life sentence in Azkaban." [**]

My parents. They must have performed an Unforgivable Curse. I knew what they'd done was horrible, I just didn't know what it was. Frustration boiled inside me and I suddenly had the urge to ask Moody about certain Death Eaters - the Lestranges - but I couldn't. I was sure he could see right through my barrier as it was, and asking about my parents would be a dead giveaway.

And then - it was as if I was being possessed - my hand floated into the air. I didn't know what I was doing or what I was saying, but Moody called on me and it came out.

"Er - so ... so these curses - you get sent straight to Azkaban for using them?"

Moody looked annoyed. "And you'll be ... ?"

"Er - Lindsey Tonks."

"Miss Tonks, yes, you get sent straight to Azkaban. I believe I just covered that," he said, his voice sounding weary and irritated.

"So ... the Death Eaters ... they were imprisoned for doing these ... back when ... when You-Know-Who was powerful?"

"Yes, Miss ... Tonks, is it? Many of them thought it was just a joke, and they tortured and killed for the fun of it."

For the fun of it. More questions: did my parents do something just for the fun of it?

We were dismissed. I headed out on my own to the Great Hall for dinner though I wasn't particularly hungry. I walked right past Hermione trying to talk to Neville on the stairs - he still seemed extremely shaken by the Cruciatus Curse.

The Cruciatus Curse. The words wouldn't leave my head. The pain it caused was obviously unbearable; I believed I could almost imagine feeling it. The amount of agony it could inflict on people seemed to make the painless Avada Kedavra benign.

Before I reached the Great Hall, I did the strangest thing. I pulled my ivy wand from my robe pocket and ran my fingers down the length of it. I could feel an enclosed power pulsing from it, as if the magic inside was dying to burst out. The incantation was that simple. I could release that power if I wanted.

Crucio. That was all it would take.