He had now come to a partial consensus on who the Hogwarts Champion would be. He was hovering between Cedric Diggory and Roger Davies, having ruled out Angelina long ago. While she was authoritative and popular, she was not overly talented in her magic. That was not to say that the other two were prodigies, but they definitely were Angelina's betters in that particular field.
Not that I'll ever tell Angelina.
Harry stumbled through the door to Moody's classroom and was surprised to see the Professor speaking to six members of the Auror Guard, including Tonks and Hestia. Most of the class was already seated, all looking equally confused as to what was going on.
Harry took a seat in the back corner of the classroom, earning a disapproving look from Hestia. He made gestures to Hestia, trying to ask her what was happening. Unfortunately for Harry's curiosity, she shook her head, gesturing to pay attention to Professor Moody.
"Well then!" growled Professor Moody, turning to the class, "I think I've told you that we'd be doing this! Any guesses?"
No one answered the question.
"Constant vigilance! Remember to pay attention, it could save your life one day!" Moody half shouted, "No matter, today we will be attempting to fight off the Imperius Curse."
I knew he was a nutter.
The reactions of the class were as one might expect them to be: some were horrified, some scared, and one (none other than Harry Potter) was glaring at Auror Tonks, who smiled cheekily.
Apparently Moody had received permission to perform the curse on all students fourth year and up, with Aurors to make sure that the exercise was being performed safely. Harry was fairly certain it wasn't a coincidence that Tonks and Hestia were both in his lesson; Hestia probably wanted to make sure he was safe, and Tonks likely wanted to see Harry looking like an idiot.
Harry watched as each of his classmates were called up to the front of the class, made to do the most bizarre things. Hermione was forced to teach the class, Dean to sing the Hogwarts School Song, and Ron to pretend he was a spider. Each and every student seemed incapable of fighting off the effects, although Neville seemed to fight the curse slightly.
"Potter, you're up."
Harry made his way to the front of the classroom, sending a discrete glare at Tonks as he did so. He stood there for a moment, wondering how his wandless magic would affect the curse; Salazar told him that it would have little to no effect - apparently that was not how wandless magic worked, something that disappointed Harry slightly.
"Imperio!"
For a fraction of a second, Harry felt as though nothing in the world mattered, as though he were finally at peace.
Pretend to be a snake . . . said a voice within the depths of his mind
Harry didn't particularly want to do such a thing, yet at the same time, he really did. It simply seemed like the right thing to do.
Come on now, slither around like a serpent, it'll be rather fun . . .
Harry still wasn't sure; doing so would get his clothes dirty. He had Snape after this, the last thing he needed to do was create an excuse to lose house points.
Hurry up, slither slither slither, let's not dither . . . just like a snake . . . it'll be great, I'm quite sure . . .
He decided against it. It did seem like a rather pleasant idea, but he would not be doing it; the idea simply felt too foreign, and much too strange.
The peaceful feeling of unending happiness vanished. He was back in the classroom now, standing in the front of the room. The rest of his class was staring at him in shock, as were the Aurors. Moody, however, was beaming. It was not a rather good look, considering the prominence of scars upon the ex-Auror's face.
"Would you look at that!" said Moody, turning to the class, "Potter fought it, he beat it! Come one, let's go for another round everyone. Second time might be the charm!"
....
Harry made his way down into the chamber during his lunch break, Hedwig on his shoulder. The snowy owl had simply not wanted to leave him. Harry was more than fine with that; he had not yet shown her the chamber, something he felt was long overdue. She was one of his greatest friends, having stayed with him during his summers at the Dursleys. He had grown even closer to her this year in particular, spending even more time with the owl.
"How Gryffindor of you," said Salazar loudly as Harry entered the study, "Bringing an owl into an underground chamber, I can not say I am surprised."
"Oh, shut up." retorted Harry, "She's really close to me, my best friend of sorts. I should have shown her this place a long time ago."
Harry spent a solid hour showing Hedwig around the chamber, much to Salazar's irritation. Hedwig seemed rather interested in the chamber, showing signs of excitement and surprise that shocked Harry.
To be fair, she's always been a smart owl.
Upon finishing the tour, Harry set Hedwig down by the fireplace. He turned to Salazar, making his way over to the other side of the room.
"Didn't you tell me that it's impossible to remove someone's free will?" he asked the portrait.
"So you do listen to my lessons, I was wondering."
"The Imperius Curse seemed to remove my free will."
Salazar paused within his frame, his eyes widening.
"You were put under the effects of the Imperius Curse?" asked the portrait.
"Yeah, remember that old nutter, Moody? Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor?"
Upon seeing Salazar nod, Harry continued.
"He thought it would be a great idea to put all of us under the effects of the curse, so we would know what it feels like."
"He's right." the portrait agreed, "Imagine if your first time feeling the effects of the curse was on the battlefield."
"Yeah, I know that. But back to the question."
Salazar shook his head at his descendant's lack of politeness, before gesturing for Harry to take a seat.
"What I said is true, there is no way to remove one's free will." began the portrait, "It is one of the natural laws of magic, others being that all who live must die, and that the dead can not truly be awoken."
Harry nodded at this, having head Salazar tell him that many times, particularly when Harry talked to the portrait of his parents.
"The Imperius Curse simply dominates your will, it does not eradicate it. If it did, it would not be possible to fight the curse, and after experiencing the curse you would be similar to one who has taken the Dementor's Kiss. Whatever it was that made you who you are would be gone."
"And what about other forms of mental control?" asked Harry, "You know, love potions, allures, things like that?"
"They simply create a strong obsession, or a need to impress, respectively." stated the portrait, "The first one does not affect your will whatsoever. It simply redirects your focus onto another. As for the second, that can be fought with a strong will, like the Imperius Curse. If you can fight that, you should be able to resist the others as well."
"I can." Harry informed the portrait, "I was able to fight off the allure of the Veela girl, and if what you said about Veela beauty being proportional to magical power, then I would assume I should be fine in that area. Though she wasn't exactly trying to use her allure on me, it was just her passive allure."
"If you are capable of fighting off her passive allure without feeling a thing, you should be capable of fighting off the full force of her allure." the portrait informed him, "Or do you simply feel nothing at all?"
Harry's head tilted sideways slightly.
.....
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