Karina's POV

Everyone decided to put differences aside and come together for once to make sure Draco was actually okay. We all sit in the hallway outside the boys dorm in silence until I finally break it.

"How is he?"

Vincent grimaces as he looks over at me, "Well I don't know. He kind of kicked us out ever since this morning."

"Seriously?"

All the guys nod and the silence in the room continues once again. Blaise looks down at his watch on his wrist, "He missed lunch, and class already. It's time for dinner and he hasn't even left the room yet."

"Well do we really expect him to? He got tossed around as a freaking ferret." Pansy frowns.

I sigh and twist my hands together uncomfortably.

"You guys go get dinner. I'll stay and make sure he's okay."

Everyone looks at me with wide eyes.

"You sure?" Daphne asks with concern written all over her face.

"Yeah I'm sure."

They all nod and slowly get up and leave down the hallway. As soon as they disappear, I stand up and walk to the door then knock on it.

"Malfoy? You okay?"

Silence.

"Malfoy?"

Silence.

I sigh and then pull out my wand, "Alohomora."

The door clicks open, I quietly turn the doorknob and walk inside the dark room. Walking through the pitch black dark I try to find my way to Draco's bed. Out of nowhere, I trip over something and fall to the ground.

"Ouch."

Looking over at what I tripped on, I notice that it was Draco's leg. He sits on the ground with his back leaning against his bed. He stares straight forward not moving an inch.

"Draco..."

"You know now I know how Buckbeak felt..."

Sighing sadly, I sit on the floor beside him, "Moody was wrong for what he did... But so were you."

"I don't need a speech right now Grey."

We sit in silence just staring into the darkness.

"You okay though?"

"Fine... for now."

Silence.

"You?"

"Same."

Out of nowhere, I feel his hand grab mine and squeeze gently. He says nothing and doesn't look over, just squeezes my hand as we sit in silence.

"Thanks..."

"You're welcome."

I get up to leave but his hand gripping mine tightly stops me.

"Can you stay? Just a little bit longer..."

I nod even though I know he can't see me. Sitting back down beside him our shoulders touch. My head falls onto his shoulder. I feel his breathe stop for a second then his heart speeds up.

"Karina..."

"Yes?"

"I'm so-sorry..."

Silence.

"Me too."

========================================================================

3rd Person's POV

Hermione, Ron, and Harry hurried into three chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, and waited, unusually quiet. Harry turns to look over his shoulder and sees weirdly enough Malfoy and Karina sitting next to each other. It not only surprises him but also the Slytherins too. Oddly enough the two don't talk to each other and they don't sit close either. Soon the class heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor, and he entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. They could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

"You can put those away," he growled, stumping over to his desk and sitting down, "those books. You won't need them."

They returned the books to their bags, Ron looking excited. Moody took out a register, shook his long mane of grizzled gray hair out of his twisted and scarred face, and began to call out names, his normal eye moving steadily down the list while his magical eye swiveled around, fixing upon each student as he or she answered. His eyes stayed on Karina a moment more then everyone else.

"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're behind- 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 out.

Moody's magical eye spun around to stare at Ron; Ron looked extremely apprehensive, but after a moment Moody smiled- the first time Harry had seen him do so. The effect was to make his heavily scarred face look more twisted and contorted than ever, but it was nevertheless good to know that he ever did anything as friendly as smile. Ron looked deeply relieved.

"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 the one year. Special favor to Dumbledore... One year, and then back to my quiet retirement."

He gave a harsh laugh, and then clapped his gnarled hands together. "So- straight into it. Curses. They come in many strengths and forms. Now, according to the Ministry of Magic, I'm supposed to teach you counter curses and leave it at that. I'm not supposed to show you what illegal Dark curses look like until you're in the sixth year. You're not supposed to be old enough to deal with it till then. But Professor Dumbledore's got a higher opinion of your nerves, he reckons you can cope, and I say, the sooner you know what you're up against, the better. How are you supposed to defend yourself against something you've never seen? A wizard who's about to put an illegal curse on you isn't going to tell you what he's about to do. He's not going to do it nice and polite to your face. You need to be prepared. You need to be alert and watchful. You need to put that away, Miss Brown, when I'm talking."

Lavender jumped and blushed. She had been showing Parvati her completed horoscope under the desk. Apparently Moody's magical eye could see through solid wood, as well as out of the back of his head. "So... do any of you know which curses are most heavily punished by wizarding law?"

Several hands rose tentatively into the air, including Ron's and Hermione's. Moody pointed at Ron, though his magical eye was still fixed on Lavender.

"Er," said Ron tentatively, "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 got heavily to his mismatched feet, opened his desk drawer, and took out a glass jar. Three large black spiders were scuttling around inside it. Harry felt Ron recoil slightly next to him- Ron hated spiders. Moody reached into the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in the palm of his hand so that they could all see it.

He then pointed his wand at it and muttered, "Imperio!"

The spider leapt from Moody's hand on a fine thread of silk and began to swing backward and forward as though on a trapeze. It stretched out its legs rigidly, then did a back flip, breaking the thread and landing on the desk, where it began to cartwheel in circles. Moody jerked his wand, and the spider rose onto two of its hind legs and went into what was unmistakably a tap dance.

Everyone was laughing- everyone except Moody and Karina.

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

The laughter died away almost instantly. Karina crosses her arms angrily.

"Total control," said Moody quietly as the spider balled itself up and began to roll over and over. "I could make it jump out of the window, drown itself, throw itself down one of your throats..."

Ron gave an involuntary shudder.

"Years back, there were a lot of witches and wizards being controlled by the Imperius Curse," said Moody, and Harry knew he was talking about the days in which Voldemort had been all-powerful.

"Some job for the Ministry, trying to sort out who was being forced to act, and who was acting of their own free will. The Imperius Curse can be fought, and I'll be teaching you how, but it takes real strength of character, and not everyone's got it. Better avoid being hit with it if you can. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" he barked, and everyone jumped.

Moody picked up the somersaulting spider and threw it back into the jar. "Anyone else know one? Another illegal curse?"

Hermione's hand flew into the air again and so, to Harry's slight surprise, did Neville's. The only class in which Neville usually volunteered information was Herbology which was easily his best subject. Neville looked surprised at his own daring.

"Yes?" said Moody, his magical eye rolling right over to fix on Neville.

"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse," said Neville in a small but distinct voice.

Moody was looking very intently at Neville, this time with both eyes. "Your name's Longbottom?" he said, his magical eye swooping down to check the register again.

Neville nodded nervously, but Moody made no further inquiries. Turning back to the class at large, he reached into the jar for the next spider and placed it upon the desktop, where it remained motionless, apparently too scared to move.

"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 swelled. It was now larger than a tarantula.

Abandoning all pretense, Ron pushed his chair backward, as far away from Moody's desk as possible. Moody raised his wand again, pointed it at the spider, and muttered, "Crucio!"

At once, the spider's legs bent in upon its body; it rolled over and began to twitch horribly, rocking from side to side. No sound came from it, but Harry was sure that if it could have given voice, it would have been screaming. Karina and Hermione stare in disgust as Moody looks to enjoy the spiders pain.

Moody did not remove his wand, and the spider started to shudder and jerk more violently.

"Stop it!" Hermione said shrilly.

Harry looked around at her. She was looking, not at the spider, but at Neville, and Harry, following her gaze, saw that Neville's hands were clenched upon the desk in front of him, his knuckles white, his eyes wide and horrified. Moody raised his wand. The spider's legs relaxed, but it continued to twitch.

"Reducio," Moody muttered, and the spider shrank back to its proper size.

He put it back into the jar.

"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 popular once too."

Everyone stares in silence and fear.

"Right... anyone know any others?" Harry looked around. From the looks on everyone's faces, he guessed they were all wondering what was going to happen to the last spider.

Hermione looks back at Karina as if asking if she should say the answer. Karina frowns and shakes her head.

"Ah," said Moody, another slight smile twisting his lopsided mouth. "Karina Grey... I am sure you know the last and final curse..."

He put his hand into the glass jar, and almost as though it knew what was coming, the third spider scuttled frantically around the bottom of the jar, trying to evade Moody's fingers, but he trapped it, and placed it upon the desktop. It started to scuttle frantically across the wooden surface.

"Tell me."

"No."

Gasps sound throughout the room as everyone turns in their chairs to stare in shock at the stubborn Slytherin.

"Ah a hard headed Slytherin-"

"I'm not hard headed, I just know right from wrong and this is definitely wrong. You're going to kill an innocent creature. I'd prefer not to help out in any way."

"Miss Grey either you give me the curse or you go to detention for insubordination."

"Fine by me."

Without another word, Karina grabs her belongings and races out the door but not before slamming it shut. Moody laughs angrily to himself then quickly turns to Hermione making her jump in fear.

"Miss Granger, curse now."

"Av-ada K-kedav-ra..." Hermione stutters with her head down.

Moody raised his wand, and Harry felt a sudden thrill of foreboding. "Avada Kedavra!" Moody roared.

There was a flash of blinding green light and a rushing sound, as though a vast, invisible something was soaring through the air- instantaneously the spider rolled over onto its back, unmarked, but unmistakably dead.

Several of the students stifled cries; Ron had thrown himself backward and almost toppled off his seat as the spider skidded toward him. Moody swept the dead spider off the desk onto the floor.

"Not nice," he said calmly. "Not pleasant. And there's no countercurse. There's no blocking it. Only one known person has ever survived it, and he's sitting right in front of me."

Harry felt his face redden as Moody's eyes looked into his own. He could feel everyone else looking around at him too.