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𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐏𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐄𝐌  ── ◦'𖥸'◦ ──  𝒜𝒞𝒯 𝒯𝒲𝒪
↳ ❛ so this is the curse that killed her mother ❜︎
𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟯𝟳 ╱ ╱  🏛🧺 ˚◞𑁍ﾟ𝙳𝙸𝙾𝚁𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙰𝙼𝙴𝚃

Celeste's days back have been pleasant.

Except when it came to Potion's class with Professor Snape.

Severus Snape seemed to have gained new levels of vindictiveness over the summer. He started off by giving Neville detention right off the bat.

Neville was on the verge of collapsing due to his nervousness and fear of the Potion Master.

"I hate him. I really hate him. I want to shove his greasy head into this cauldron and burn his annoying face off." Celeste seethed quietly, stirring her Potion. How dare he treat Neville that way?

"Unless you want to land a detention baby cousin I suggest you pipe down." Draco chuckled quietly at her threats towards his Snape.

Celeste scoffed, "I can't believe he's your godfather."

"Hey, at least he's better than Aunt Bella."

"Bellatrix is your godmother? You poor thing." Celeste uttered a little nudge from Draco.

When arriving into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom she spotted Neville alone looking over his Herbology textbook and decided to sit next to him.

"Hey Nev, are you feeling okay after what happened in Potions?"

Neville smiled, "I'm fine, I mean he's always picked on me before so it's nothing new."

Celeste's heart clenched at his words. "I'm so sorry Nev. He's nothing but a git."

By now everyone entered the classroom and took their seats. Professor Moody walked into class and told them to put away their books.

She gladly put away her books raising a brow at him questionably.

"Right then," he said when the last person had declared themselves present. "I've had a letter from Professor Lupin about this class. Seems you've had a pretty thorough grounding in tackling Dark creatures ── you've covered boggarts, Red Caps, hinkypunks, grindylows, Kappas, and werewolves, is that right?"

There was a general murmur of assent.

"But you are being ── very behind ── on dealing with curses," said Moody. "So I'm here to bring you up to scratch on what wizards can do to each other. I've got one year to teach you how to deal with Dark ──"

"What, aren't you staying?" Ron blurted.

His magical eye stared at Ron and smiled, "You'll be Arthur Weasley's son, eh?" Moody said. "Your father got me out of a very tight corner a few days ago...yeah, I'm staying just one year. Special favor to Dumbledore...one year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

Celeste listened attentively as he rambled on how they were going to learn about the three curses. He also called out Lavender Brown who was gossiping with Parvarti over her completed Telescope which caused some snickers around the room.

"So...do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose including Ron, Hermione's, and Celestes.

"Er," said Ron tentatively when he was called on. "My dad told me about one...is it called the Imperius Curse or something?"

"Ah yes," said Moody appreciatively. "Your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a lot of trouble at one time, the Imperius Curse."

Moody brought out a jar of spiders and reached into the jar and caught one. He held it in his palm and pointed his wand at the spider. "Imperio!"

The spider leaped and tired around, then speeding backward and forward as though it was doing trapeze. He jerked his wand and the spider did a little tap dance.

Everyone was laughing except for Moody.

"Think it's funny, do you?" he growled. "You'd like it, would you, if I did it to you?"

"Total control," said Moody quietly as everyone's laughter silenced like candlelight burnt out. "I could make it jump out the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats."

Celeste gulped.

He explained some history about the Imperius Curse and how it was relevant to Voldemort's rising. Imperius curse can be fought, and they'll be learning how to do so.

"Anyone else knows one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew up and surprisingly Neville did too.

Moody pointed to Neville, "There's one ── the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody looked very intently at Neville.

"Your name's Longbottom?" he said his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously but Moody didn't question him further.

"The Cruciatus Curse." said Moody. "Needs to be a bit bigger for you to get the idea." he said, pointing his wand at the spider. "Engorgio!"

The spider welled. It was now larger and Ron pushed his chair back farther away from Moody due to his fear of spiders.

No sound came out but Celeste reached out involuntarily and squeezed Neville's hand.

Moody didn't remove his wand despite the spider's jerking violently.

"Stop it!" Celeste snapped. "Can't you see it's bothering him?"

Harry looked around her including Hermione and Ron. The Granger seemed awed that Celeste took the words right out of her mouth.

Celeste moved to hug Neville and glare at their Professor.

"Reducio," Moody muttered and the spider returned to its regular size.

"Pain," said Moody softly. "You don't need thumbscrews or knives to torture someone if you can perform the Cruciatus Curse....that one was very once too. Right....anyone knows any others?"

Moody's eyes fell on Celeste with a glint of curiosity. "Why don't you tell me, Miss Black?"

Celeste merely just scoffed and continued consoling Neville, avoiding both his eyes practically burning on her.

There was a bit of silence until Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes?" said Moody, looking at her.

"Avada Kedavra." Hermione whispered.

Several people looked around uneasily.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting in a lopsided grin.

He got out the last spider and pointed his wand.

Celeste let out a soft gasp and blinked.

There was a flash of green light and a rushing sound. Several of the students stiffened their cries. Ron threw himself backward off his seat as the spider skidded towards him.

Moody swept the dead spider off the desk and onto the floor.

"Not nice." he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only two people known have ever survived it, and they are both sitting right in front of me."

So this was the curse that killed her mother. Celeste didn't see the flicker of sadness in Moody's beady eye.

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╭                                                         ╮
✎↷... 𝒂 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒂𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒓𝒂 ✉️
➩ 𝑣𝑜𝑡𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢!
╰                                                         ╯

Hi everyone, I hope you enjoyed the thirty-seventh chapter. In this chapter, there isn't much interaction with Barty and Celeste but there will be in the future.

FRIENDLY REMINDER: Remember to vote & comment because it makes my day to know what you think! Even if it's just a 'hello' I'm totally cool about it cause I love to hear from you guys.