Fate is a wheel
It will reveal
All you’ve become,
All that you feel
Destiny knows
What has to be
You'll pay the price-
Nothing is free!

~ Taken from Xena, Warrior Princess
(as reported by Rei Shizuka Kasen)

 

Laurel's first class began at nine o'clock the next morning. It looked as if today would be an easy day, teaching-wise. She would begin her new career with the seventh year Gryffindor class containing the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan. This ought to be entertaining.

She entered her classroom, what had been the Potions classroom in her day, and gathered her notes for the day's lesson. For her fifth and seventh year classes, which had large cumulative tests facing them in the spring, she planned a yearlong review of the two big categories in her subject. The fall term would be spent learning Curses, and the spring learning about Creatures. Today she had scheduled the beginnings of an overview on the Unforgivable and Intolerable Curses. She knew that the students had already studied the Unforgivable Curses, but she didn't know how many had even heard of the Intolerables. With a frown, she surmised that most of the Slytherins probably had.

Her first class entered the room shortly before nine. She spotted two redheads in the back of the room, quite obviously the Weasley twins. She supposed that the mischievous-looking boy with them was Lee Jordan.

It seemed that the trio was eager to test Laurel early on, for they immediately began practical jokes. "Oi, Katie! Katie Bell!" hissed a twin.

When the blonde girl in front of them turned, the other twin asked, "Want a jelly bean?" He held out a scarlet drawstring bag innocently.

"Sure!" said Katie, reaching in and grabbing a few, popping them all in her mouth. Not a second later, she gagged. "Oh my word, what did you do to them?!?" she cried, running to the garbage can.

The three laughed at their work, but quit when they saw Laurel walking towards them. They obviously thought that they had gotten away with it. "Let me guess," said Laurel slowly, suppressing a smile of her own. "You've enchanted them all to be the same flavor. Sardine, perhaps? Or maybe booger. Which detestable flavor was today's pick?"

As Laurel picked up the scarlet bag, Lee muttered, "Vomit, ma'am."

She arched an eyebrow, moving aside to let Katie return to her desk. "Vomit? That's quite a hard one to enchant, if I recall. Most impressive." She turned, taking the bag of enchanted beans back with her, laying them on the corner of her desk.

Laurel turned back to the class, now smiling. She quickly called roll and then began, "As I'm sure you all know, I am Professor Raegan. I remember well the intrigue of a new teacher, so I will try to answer all decent questions you might have. Let me take this opportunity to assure you that I am not a Death Eater in disguise; I am the real Professor Raegan." Some in the class tittered at this comment, while others shifted nervously, remembering last year's deception.

"As some of you might have guessed from my accent, I am American. Despite that, I did attend Hogwarts, so I am not completely lost as you might imagine. Believe it or not, I was your age once, and I do know exactly how boring classes can be, so I will attempt to make this interesting. Or at least, engaging enough to keep you awake." A few more students laughed at this.

"This year, I plan for each and every one of you to ace the Defense Against the Dark Arts part of your N.E.W.T.s. We will spend this term on curses, with which you should be reasonably familiar. Now, if you would please take out your textbooks, we can begin." When she heard a few poorly concealed giggles, Laurel smiled. "How to Dodge, by Kell Narcassan. Yes, it sounds like a joke, doesn't it? Despite the humorous cover, this book is far from laughable, as is the entire topic of curses. If you walk out of here without learning a darn thing about the subject, then you had better know how to dodge, because you can't hope to hold your own in a wizard's duel otherwise.

"I daresay you are familiar with the Unforgivable Curses by now - Avada Kedavra, Cruciatus, and Imperius. Each is terrible, but the ranks of curses do not stop there. For some twisted minds, killing simply wasn't enough. The pain of Cruciatus wasn't intense enough. Power over another's mind was no longer satisfying. So a whole new rank of curses was created, building up the pyramid. These are the Intolerable Curses. They combine the effects of the Unforgivables with whole new torture, and each is more horrible than the next. The use of the least of these constitutes instant life in Azkaban without trial. Sometimes the perpetrators are even met with the Dementor's Kiss."

Laurel waited as the class scrambled to take down notes. "The first of these curses, found on page 57 in your books," she continued, pausing briefly for books to be opened, "is known as Amplector Morsus, or more simply, the Knife Curse. It doesn't sound too fear inspiring, but the repercussions of this curse, if you survive the initial attack, can last the rest of your life.

"No one knows exactly when Amplector Morsus came into being, but there is evidence of its use in the early tenth century. The curse saw its' most widespread use in the 1930s and 1940s with the rise of Grindelwald. The Dark Lord and his followers, however, all but abandoned this curse for the relative ease of the Cruciatus, which accounts for the virtual anonymity of this horrific spell.

"Just like Avada Kedavra, Amplector Morsus takes a good bit of power backing it to be executed properly. It is cast with the words Amplector Morsaii. Unlike most curses, this is one that is preferable to be hit with at point-blank range. Instead of losing intensity, Amplector Morsus only gains force over distances, which is why it is mostly used in long-range wizard battles."

A dark haired girl, Savyna Dewby, if Laurel remembered correctly, raised her hand. "What exactly does Amplector Morsus do, Professor?"

"Well, as I said, its' more common name is the Knife Curse. Wherever this curse hits you, it forms a knife-life stab wound. The further away it is cast, the deeper the injury. At the same time you are stabbed, intense pain sears through your body, not unlike the Cruciatus Curse. This pain lasts only for around thirty seconds, but that may be enough to doom you in a serious situation. A stab wound like this would usually not impediment a fully trained wizard, who could heal it in seconds, but it is impossible to treat Amplector Morsus with magic. Doing so only causes longer episodes of pain and a possible permanent injury. So you are now shaken from the initial attack and left with a nasty wound that probably disables you. If you were lucky, the spell-caster was either a good shot, and the stab killed you immediately, or a crappy aim, and couldn't hit fish in a barrel. Neither case is too terribly appealing."

One of the twins, George, she supposed, raised his hand but didn't wait to be called on. "Is there any way you could show it to us?"

Laurel shook her head. "To use Amplector Morsus on any living creature, even an enlarged insect, is punishable by law. There are no loopholes that could allow demonstration. I'm sorry."

Laurel talked a bit more about Amplector Morsus, and then continued on to the next curse, Severa. "I'm sure all of you have used this curse's little brother, Severa Primo, at some point or another to trim edges. Well, Severa does the same, except with body parts. It's quick, easy, and less messy than a battle axe. Contrary to how it sounds, this curse does not have the added bonus of turning the victim into a cross-dressing Snape, horrible fate as that is." She smiled and let the class laugh at her joke before continuing.

"It is cast by saying Severa and then the part of the body you wish to amputate. For example, if I were to sever Lee's arm, I would point my wand at him and say Severa Brachium. This is one reason knowing scientific terms is useful."

Fred copied his brother and didn't wait before speaking. "Why is that? In case we happen to decide to become Dark Wizards?"

"No, because you might like to know which body part you will be missing shortly, and have what little comfort that provides," explained Laurel, marveling at the imagination of those two.

It didn't seem soon enough when her first class ended. She glanced at the pile of confiscated items on her desk. Each time Fred, George, or Lee had brought one out, she had walked over and retrieved the offending object without interrupting her lecture.

The mischievous trio now came up to her desk. "Umm…Professor?" asked Lee.

"Yes?"

"Might we have our things back now?" asked a twin.

Laurel thought for a moment. Most of their joke items were not potentially harmful, like the enchanted jellybeans, but others she had cause to worry about, like the Filibuster's Fireworks concealed inside an inkbottle. Something reminded her that these students had Potions class next.

"Most of them, yes. I will have to keep a few, however, but I don't see why you can't have these." She picked out the two or three dangerous pranks and placed them in a desk drawer, and pushed the rest over to the boys, who were grinning happily.

Flashing a knowing smile before shooing them out, Laurel said, "I really would hate to hear about any trouble in Professor Snape's class."

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