DADA - Lesson 2 (Years 3, 4 & 5)

She almost laughed when Jake had actually taken her suggestion and done it, but managed to control herself and keep a straight face. When he mentioned it eating itself, her eyes lot up momentarily before she realized that he wasn't going to actually do it. He has no guts, she thought bitterly, disappointed. When Callum offered an answer, she averted her gaze from the front of the class to her desk without realizing it before catching herself. What was wrong with her? She didn't know, but it had to be side effects from the best game of her life, and that was the solution she was sticking to, no matter how much her instincts told her it wasn't.

But that feeling was not to last, for the DADA Professor had moved on to the Cruciatus curse, and it was something she had been particularly interested in.

As he explained how aurors could legally perform the spell, she briefly wondered why they would need to use it, but didn't think for too long, for there was to be a demonstration. The odd noises that showed the spider was in immense pain made her stomach do a flip - she did not like seeing things that didn't deserve it in pain. When Jake ended the spell, she let out the breath that she did not know she had been holding, looking left almost instantly to see if she could spot Victoria's face. If she herself had found that hard, she couldn't imagine how the Wormwood was reacting. Worry for someone, Janique? What is wrong with you today? her mind scolded. Not worry, I'm intrigued, she tried to reason, realizing how weird it was to be having an argument with herself.

"Who can tell me of an infamous case in which the Cruciatus Curse has been used in history? Known users? Known recipients? Also, who can tell me the most defining feature of the Cruciatus Curse? What makes this spell harder than Ang other?"

Trying to get the noise the spider had made out of her mind, she spoke up without bothering to raise her hand. "In history, the Cruciatus curse has been used on members of the Order of the Pheonix. Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom were tortured using that spell until they went mentally insane. St. Mungo's, in the UK, plays host to them," she said with a hint of excitement in her tone. "I remember reading it in a history text book before. The person who used it on them was Bellatwit or something like that."

The curses were horrible things, even without the lesson Isabelle would have been able to say that much. She smiled her thanks at the awarding of points to her name and watched her classmates answer for themselves, sitting quietly and writing down anything she deemed as important. The introduction of the spider made her swallow hard, the creature big enough without the enlargement charm placed upon it, but she couldn't detect the same kind of fear amongst her classmates so she kept silent.

The Imperius Curse wasn't the worst of the three, she reasoned, watching the spider dance and bungee off the table. She jumped a little as it hit the window; despite the fact that she hated spiders with a burning passion, she didn't want the poor thing to be hurt, no that would just be plain horrid. She watched it closely, following the spider with her eyes as it floated back to Professor Newbury's hand, and she had time to relax for a few seconds before the screams met her ears.

She held back a scream of her own at the noise, hands instinctively clamping to her ears to block it out. The Wormwood did calm herself though, a few moments later, and she returned them to her side as she took a few breaths to tell herself it was only a spider.

"S-Sir... Didn't the Carrow siblings use it to torture children for detention back in the 1997-1998 school year at Hogwarts?" she asked, sure she'd heard that rumour somewhere but she couldn't remember for the life of her whether it was true. "The spell is difficult because... because you have to mean it. Anyone can say a word and wave a wand, but the hard part is meaning to cause pain, wanting to torture someone..."

Estelle felt sick to the stomach hearing all of these. She rested her head temporarily on the desk to see if it would pass. She listened to the answers vaguely of the other students, writing them down almost robotic. The last she heard was the Cruciatis curse before she blacked out. Her head went down with a soft thud.

While she was in her own moment, her mind went through its own film of dark memories. These curses, were what the figures did to her. The shadows loved torturing her. Seeing her in pain. It was played black and white with splotches of red in her mind. It was almost being an observer to the situation at hand. It was terrifying. The two main curses were used except the killing curse... Otherwise Estelle wouldn't be here today.

Gasping quietly, clutched the desk and woke up. Her ears were ringing and her heart thudded in her chest. Her head hurt and there was liquid in her lap. Worried she wet herself, she looked down and saw black ink. There were a few smudges on her parchment but nothing too noticeable. The class had ended and people were exiting. She grabbed her stuff and walked up to the desk, handing in the sheet of paper. "Um, Thanks -er- Professor." She slung her backpack over her shoulder and headed for the door.