Chapter 29: Imperius Curse!
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Hermione's face flares up in anger again and Harry rubs her back again.
Ron deflates in disappointment. "Well it did look awesome."
I look at him askance. "Do you guys say 'awesome' here?"
He shrugs. "Just trying it out."
"That's brilliant, mate."
Hermione scoffs, after my banter with Ron combined with Harry's ministrations thankfully cools her temper. "Really William, that's positively awful."
"Hey, I'm trying!"
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So far I'm keeping my promise to avoid magical exhaustion. Harry, Hermione, and I make it up to the seventh floor after breakfast to meet Luna the next weekend.
Ron begs off, for which I was both thankful and surprised, considering how clingy he can be.
Now that introductions are complete, we simply greet each other, stand in comfortable silence for a while, then say goodbye. It's a weekend, of course, but I still look forward to those times.
I am victimized early on by a rather mild prank perpetrated by the Twins, turning my robes a bright pink for that entire Sunday. It was nice of them to keep it to the weekend.
They express disappointment that I do not rise to the challenge, instead immediately conceding that they are the greatest pranksters ever. Unfortunately I think this only serves to encourage them further. Not looking forward to that.
I make up a bit of my debt to Professor McGonagall, but I've still got a long way to go. She insists that my fetching and sorting tasks were worth a full galleon, even though I expected less.
I guess I don't have a real solid feel for economics in the Harry Potter universe yet. I have no idea what the exchange rate was in 1994, but I figure a low end job in the US is probably around the equivalent of a galleon an hour, and the job only took me a half-hour. I don't argue too hard, because it means my debt is down to thirteen galleons and change.
Classes are actually going quite well, all things considered. I thank Hermione profusely, but any brownie points I win are immediately lost when I fall to my knees and insist I'm not worthy. Apparently she hasn't seen Wayne's World, or it isn't out yet in this reality. Oh well.
When Crouch-Moody walks into DADA today it makes my skin crawl as usual, but I'm suddenly gripped with panic when he says he is going to cast Imperius on all of the students.
Hermione brings up the illegality of it even with the headmaster's permission, and as soon as he offers Hermione the option to be excused, I shoot up out of my chair.
"May I be excused, Professor?" My voice quakes with fear, but I don't care. Maybe that will help my case. I don't care if it's illegal, it's the possible effects that have me scared to death.
I don't know what information Crouch can pull from my mind, but I'm not taking any chances. It might not work quite like Legilimency, but he could probably order me to say why I'm afraid.
Yeah, that would definitely be bad. Standing up and saying, 'because you're Barty Crouch Jr. using Polyjuice potion to imitate Alastor Moody' is a good way to end up on the receiving end of a killing curse.
He waves his hand and grunts in a gesture that I assume means I can go. I hear some jeers behind me quickly cut off by the impostor before I flee the room.
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"Is everything okay, William?" Hermione asks when they find me at dinner after class, most traces of indignation from our little spat a week earlier gone from her voice. Even though she's worried about me, I can tell she's still a bit unhappy with me. She and Harry sit across from me, Ron sits next to me.
I nod. "Yeah." I don't elaborate at first, but her fidgeting is enough to tell me she would like me to do so. I sigh. "I don't know how the Imperius curse works exactly. For example, would he be able to see thoughts? Memories?"
Hermione's face pales.
"Why—oh..." Ron says.
"Yeah," I say.
"I don't think so...I mean...it's probably just..." Hermione starts, but trails off.
"We'll have to be more careful," Harry says.
"You don't need to," Ron says, then turns to me. "You should have seen it, William. Harry can throw off the Imperius curse! Only wicked powerful wizards can do that, you know."
"That's amazing, Harry," I say, trying to sound surprised despite the fact that I already know. "I may not know how it works, but I know enough to say he's right."
Hermione leans over and whispers in Harry's ear, after which he nods. Then Harry turns and whispers something in Hermione's ear, after which she nods as well.
Ron raises an eyebrow at me, then clears his throat. "You know, I don't want to get in the middle of it, but if you two are going to start snogging, you might have to wait until Hermione's old snogging partner isn't around." Ron jerks a thumb at me.
"Don't be ridiculous, Ronald. William, will you meet us in the seventh floor corridor after dinner? Ron, Harry, and I have to run back to the dorms, but we'll meet you there."
I think I have an idea of what they're going to do. "More secrets, eh?" I ask with a smile.
Hermione looks troubled by that and appears to want to say something, but she merely sighs. "We all must have our secrets, I suppose."
"Yes. Yes, we must."
I eat the rest of dinner making small talk and listening halfheartedly to Ron's brothers discussing how Dumbledore might enforce the age limit and ways to get into the Tournament.
I'm thinking about what secrets the Trio is apparently going to tell me, and what I'm going to do about it.
Not for the first time I'm considering the ramifications of dropping my knowledge at different points in time.
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