There was a noticeable discomfort in the air, one that Grace Riddle had long co to recognize and expect. So of the students would have at least heard of the spells, have co from family lines where a parent or grandparent might have whispered about them as a scary story or simply had dark enough information in family libraries to stumble upon the three.
It wasn't exactly surprising and anyone with even the slightest interest in the more aggressive, or darker, forms of magic would be fascinated with even the title given to this group. Still, beyond basic knowledge few would be able to give any further insight. Even when the topic of The Unforgivables was normally introduced in later years, usually sixth or seventh year depending on the level of students, most would barely know more than a na or basic function.
Thus, she didn't expect an answer to her next question, "Can anyone na them?"
It was an open-ended query, one she didn't even turn around to ask since it was so automated, just as she would likely hear nothing but silence or a few muttered answers. Instead, a single voice replied, soft and yet hard at the sa ti, determined and yet empty.
"The Imperius Curse, used to take control of the bodies and minds of others."
An icy hollowness started in her fingers and worked its way through her body.
"Cruciatus Curse, used to inflict pain and torture."
She didn't want to turn, didn't want to see the looks of shock and horror on the other children, didn't want to see their judgnt. More than anything though she didn't want to see his eyes matching his tone.
"The Killing Curse, used to end the life of anyone or anything."
Slowly the professor willed her body to move, to look upon the face of the speaker, who was now almost painfully silent, along with the rest of the room and its occupants.
Harry Potter, his eyes downcast, attention focused only on the wooden surface of his desk was as motionless as the dead. She needed to break the atmosphere, needed to change sothing to draw attention away from him.
The witch knew she could give points or congratulate him on his studying and proficiency. She could make a big deal out of how far he was ahead of the syllabus and how useful such knowledge would be should he ever encounter such horrific spells.
Instead, her lips refused to move, body frozen along with all the others.
****
Ronald Weasley knew he wasn't the smartest kid at Hogwarts, hell he wasn't the smartest kid in Gryffindor of his own year, that title had to belong to either Harriet or Hermione, but he also wasn't stupid. He knew sothing known as 'Unforgivables' was likely dark magic, probably sothing bad and maybe even illegal, he also knew Harry shouldn't know so much about them, even if the expressions towards the boy weren't all concern or borderline fear.
He also knew soone should have been asking him if he was alright, if there was anything he wanted to talk about, needed to talk about. Instead, the lesson changed, and Professor Riddle pretended like nothing had happened. Even Harry's sisters seed to avoid the topic, and eye contact, with their brother.
It pissed Ron off. If one of the girls had been upset, he had no doubts Harry would be charging in to save the day, much like he already had the past few years. But now when he needed help it was too inconvenient?
Fuck them, if they wouldn't do anything he would.
"Hey, Harry, you want to co flying with after class?"
The question hadn't been discreet or quiet, but nothing about Ron was discreet or quiet, and he didn't want it to be. Contrary to popular belief he knew how to keep his voice down, knew how to whisper and do the subtle nudges that others did so often, but this ti he wanted people to see, to notice. He wanted to make them feel guilty about being shitty siblings or tutors, he wanted to leave a bad taste in their mouths when they realized soone else had to step up when they failed to.
Whether Harry realized what he was doing or not didn't seem to matter, and the raven-haired wizard nodded, still a bit down but with a hint of hope in his eyes.
****
"So, you want to talk about it?" Ron called out, even as he tossed the Quaffle at an odd angle, forcing the other to make a bit of a dive, and impressive catch, to save it. Harry, after retrieving it and returning the throw, shrugged.
"Not really much to talk about."
Ron flinched a bit as his arm extended just a tad too far in order to catch the ball, rolling his shoulder out monts later to prevent any strain, "Did Professor Riddle teach you all that stuff then? She seed surprised you knew about those spells."
The boy-who-lived sighed as he made passing sweep, catching the object before returning it to the redhead with a similar montum, "No, I just… sort of learned about them. It's hard to explain."
Ronald Weasley caught it before returning, but not before calling out another question, "You explained it to Ginny, didn't you?"
It took Harry by surprise, and he only caught the object a second later by falling into a steep dive to retrieve it, a minute later, far longer than it should have taken to return to speaking distance, and Harry was once again talking. "It isn't… like that, I promise. I probably shouldn't have talked to your sister about it though, it is sort of a family secret."
"Riddle?"
He nodded, "Only because Dumbledore let it slip, the staff knows too and my family of course. My sisters leaked it to Hermione though and Luna… well Luna just sort of knew."
"That's a lot of people."
It wasn't accusatory, but to Harry it sounded like it. There wasn't the normal jealousy he had been expecting, just a hint of hurt and to him it was far worse. He didn't want to keep things from Ron, wanted to have a closer relationship with the boy, because there were so few wizards he had any sort of relationship with.
So he floated closer, and the movent was matched monts later by the redhead who seed a bit surprised at first. "You have to promise not to tell anyone, understand? This isn't like answers to a test or sothing simple, it can be dangerous if soone finds out."
Ron stared for a mont, before he agreed with determination in his eyes.
"I'm… not from the Wizarding world, this one at least. Its like a different one but really similar. I had my own Ron, my own Hermione, my own Ginny."
The other boy continued staring before slowly asking his first question, "So like… did you have sisters where you were from?"
"No, no I didn't have any family. My parents were killed when I was a baby and there were no siblings."
"I'm sorry." It was heartfelt and so full of emotions that the boy-who-lived almost rocked on his broom, "I… I can't imagine not having anyone. Is that why you were weird around them at first?"
Harry sighed in response, "Yeah, it's weird going from no real family to have one that loves and supports you and then it felt like I was taking things away from them, like I was cheating them out of their lives."
Realization struck the redhead, "You played Quidditch before, didn't you?"
"Yeah, Seeker. We didn't have different numbers of boys or girls, so I was allowed to play like normal."
"Whoa…"
The raven-haired boy smiled, it was always weird seeing reactions to how different the worlds were, and he figured it was similar to how he felt upon first arriving.
Still, there seed to be more on the other wizard's mind, "But like, why is it such a big secret?"
"I was a fifth year before I was sent here and beca a first year again. We couldn't figure out a way to just throw that far into classes without soone being suspicious and risk having soone co after or my family to try and get so future secrets. Honestly though, most of the stuff is so different it hasn't been of much help other than knowing spells in advance."
Ron nodded slowly, clearly still processing the information, "So like… you have to do older student work and third-year stuff?"
Harry thought for a mont before shrugging, "Sort of, I an most of the stuff in our year is busy work for now and I don't have a lot of older work to do but yeah."
"Sounds awful mate, so can you show so aweso Quidditch moves?"
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