The Big Dipper

Beauxbatons & Durmstrang

After her visit to Madam Pomfrey, Ursula returned to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. She accepted his offer of tea, and they talked about her mother. Professor Moody sounded as if he had known her, or at least known of her, which surprised Ursula.

Their conversation, plus the day's lessons, inspired Ursula to make a trip to the Owlery after dinner. She wrote a letter to Dimsey and Helgie, including a list of books she requested they send her, then sent Agatha off into the night.

Ursula had wanted so many books from the library at Corvus Manor that it took Agatha two trips to carry them all, but once Ursula had them, she immersed herself wholeheartedly in reading them. She could recall her grandfather talking about the spells contained in their pages, telling her to learn to recognize them so she could avoid them if she ever needed to. There were worse spells in worse books, Ursula knew, but she wouldn't dare bring them into Hogwarts. Even what she had now was risky, and she doubted even the Restricted Section covered what could be found in Corvus Manor.

Aside from her added topic of study, Ursula had enough on her plate as is. She was kept busy with long hours of complicated homework, followed by prefect patrol once a week. She was keeping up well with her homework so far, but it was hard to drag herself up the stairs to the Astronomy Tower on Thursday nights.

To their surprise, Professor Moody had announced that he would be putting the Imperius Curse on each of them in turn, to demonstrate its power and to see whether they could resist its effects.

"It's illegal," muttered Cassius under his breath. No one dared protest louder than that.

"Warrington," barked Professor Moody. "Why don't you go first?"

Cassius shook his head, face pale, but Professor Moody beckoned him forward to the front of the room. He flinched when Professor Moody raised his wand.

"Imperio," said Professor Moody.

Cassius stood there, just as tense, for several long seconds. He shook his head, like he was trying to expel Professor Moody's curse. But after a moment, he visibly relaxed. Professor Moody got him to do one cartwheel, then another — which was especially surprising, because Cassius didn't know how to do a cartwheel — but in the middle of the third cartwheel something in Cassius changed, and he landed with a thud, sprawling on his back.

"There you go!" said Professor Moody, as Cassius sat up. "It took a while, but Warrington got there eventually! Let's try this again..."

It took Cassius three more tries to throw off the curse completely, and he looked sore and unhappy when he finally returned to his seat. His success made others eager to try, but it soon became clear that he was an outlier.

Not one out of the next dozen people who went managed to throw off the Imperius Curse, and Professor Moody had them doing the oddest things. Jacob Selwyn did a handstand while reciting the monarchs of England. Rose Marwick played neverending hopscotch, and Elizabeth Barrett declared herself the queen, using a textbook as her crown. Kenneth Towler jumped from desk to desk, imitating a squirrel.

There were only a handful of people who managed to throw off the curse, and it took all of them more tries than it had taken Cassius. Cedric, then Rue, and eventually Fred and George. Then there was Angelina Johnson, and then Dennis Moon, who only admitted after singing the national anthem that he hadn't really been told to.

"Miss Black, you next," grunted Professor Moody.

Ursula walked with trepidation to the front of the room. When Professor Moody put the curse on her, she felt a floating sensation as every thought and worry in her head was wiped gently away, leaving nothing but a vague, untraceable happiness.