The Curse of the GateKeeper (James Potter #2) (54 page)

"Yah!" Ashley cried, dropping the plant and brushing her hands violently on her robes.

"To the hospital wing," Neville announced, sighing. "Madam Curio has a salve for repelling the stings, but you'd best hurry or you'll be smarting for hours."

Ralph and James watched Ashley bolt off toward the castle, her robes flying.

Ralph said to James, "Are we all set for Defence Club tonight?"

"I guess," James answered. "I've barely seen Scorpius since the holiday. Frankly, I think he's running out of things to teach us."

"You think so? I've learned loads of useful spells from him. That grandfather of his really must have known his stuff."

"Yeah, well, that grandfather of his was one of the worst people my dad ever knew," James replied. "Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater. He's one of the few who never recanted either, even though old Voldy's long since dead. He's in hiding now, probably still waiting for the rise of the pureblood empire. He knew plenty of dark magic, including all three Unforgivable Curses."

Ralph shrugged. "Well, wherever Scorpius learned it from, I'm glad he did. Considering what's going on with Merlin and this Gatekeeper thing, I'm glad to learn as many curses and hexes as I can."

"I don't know," James said, lowering his voice. "I'm starting to wonder if we're going about this all wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," James said, sighing, "what if Debellows is right about what makes a great magical fighter? What if we're spending too much time just learning curses and hexes and Disarming Spells? Maybe we should start practicing some of those Artis Decerto techniques he's been showing us."

Ralph shook his head. "I can't do stuff like that, James. Look at me. Zane was right. I'm a brick wall."

"You're no bigger than Debellows, and you saw what he did, dodging all those spells, moving like he knew exactly where every bolt was going to be. He made it look really easy!"

"Yeah, I know about things that look really easy. Turns out they aren't. He said Artis Decerto was a lifetime study."

"So what else you got planned for the rest of your life?" James asked, grinning. "You want to be great at something or what?"

Ralph smiled crookedly. "You think Scorpius can even teach us that stuff?"

"Only one way to find out," James replied, arching an eyebrow.

But neither Ralph nor James saw Scorpius for the rest of the day. As they walked to the gym for the Defence Club meeting, Rose was rather enthusiastic about using the club to practice Artis Decerto techniques.

"You know he's hardly even teaching it to the girls," she fumed. "Debellows is a first-class cretin when it comes to women in combat roles. Some of the best fighters in history have been witches! Hasn't he ever heard of Chloris the Clobberer? Or Ghia von Guggenheim? Or for that matter, Bellatrix Lestrange and the woman who defeated her, Grandma Weasley?"

"He may
not
have heard of Grandma Weasley," Ralph answered thoughtfully. "But you have a point."

"A woman is arguably more inclined to being good at Artis Decerto," Rose went on. "We're more graceful by nature. And more intuitive."

"Maybe you should teach it, then," James said with a straight face.

"Maybe I should," Rose replied, glaring at him.

The three turned into the gymnasium and stopped. Most of the club members were cheering and shouting, gathered in a raucous throng near the line of clockwork dummies. Green flashes lit the group, but James couldn't see where they were coming from.

James and Rose ran forward, pushing into the throng. James, being taller than Rose, saw what was happening first. The assembled students had formed a semicircle around Tabitha Corsica, Philia Goyle, and Albus. The three Slytherins were smiling happily as they fired green bolts at one of the mechanical target dummies. The dummy thrashed and writhed, spitting tiny cogs and springs, wracking loose of its frame.

"Stop it!" Rose yelled, her cheeks bright red. "What do you think you're doing? Stop it this instant!"

Tabitha whispered an incantation, shooting one more spell at the dummy, and then raised her wand easily. She turned to peer back over her shoulder at the newcomers. "Good evening, Rose, James," she said. "Is there a sign-up parchment we should attend to? We'd hate to bypass any of the necessary formalities."

"What kind of spells were those?" Rose demanded, planting her fists on her hips.

"Calm down, Rosie," Albus said, pocketing his wand. "We were just having a little fun. It's just a dummy, you know."

"You were using
Killing Curses
," Rose said, wheeling on Albus. "How dare you? You can't just come into this club and start using Unforgivable Curses, especially that one! You'll get us all expelled!"

"The law is rather vague when it comes to practicing Unforgivable Curses on inanimate objects, Rose," Tabitha said, smiling indulgently. "Besides, what's the point of a Defence Club if you aren't going to practice useful defensive techniques?"

"Killing someone is your idea of a defensive technique?" James spat.

Tabitha blinked at him, adopting a puzzled look. "Can you think of a more effective one?" she asked.

"She's right," Nolan Beetlebrick, one of Tabitha's fellow Slytherins, called from the crowd of students. "Debellows is a numpty. He's not teaching us anything useful. I want to learn how to fight for real."

There was a chorus of agreement.

"We hardly wish to usurp control of your club," Tabitha said, pocketing her wand. "We are here to learn, as are the rest of you."

"But if someone doesn't teach the lot of you how to do a basic Cruciatus Curse," Philia interjected, "how do you expect to deal with those who won't give a second thought to using a Killing Curse on you?"

The crowd of students babbled excitedly. "That's right," someone said. "You have to be ready to fight fire with fire!"

"Are all of you Slytherins completely daft?" a voice declared. James looked and saw Joseph Torrance push to the front of the group. "That's the way your kind have always been, isn't it? Go straight for the dark magic. You lot are just a bunch of one-trick ponies."

There was another babbled response from the crowd. A few people moved away from Joseph, as if they believed Tabitha might curse him where he stood.

"If the one trick is powerful enough," Tabitha said, smiling her most charming smile, "it might just be all a pony needs."

"That's enough of this," James called as the crowd began to get agitated. He raised his hands, turning toward the assembled club members. "We started this club, Ralph and Rose and me, and it's supposed to just be for first- through fourth-years," he said, glaring back at Tabitha and Philia. "Debellows is teaching magical defence to the older years, like those two. This club was meant to be a place where we could practice the basics of defensive magic. It was never the plan to learn any Unforgivable Curses."

"Why not?" Beetlebrick interrupted, his face stony. "Why is everyone trying to make sure we don't know how to defend ourselves?"

A chorus of agreements and arguments erupted from the crowd. James called for order, but the noise of the babble was too loud. The group seemed about to dissolve into complete chaos.

A loud crack echoed through the room, surprising everyone present. James looked up, trying to see where the crack had come from. A dissolving trail of smoke led down toward the main door where Scorpius stood, his eyes narrowed and a small smile curling his lip.

"You want to practice Unforgivable Curses, do you?" he drawled. "In case you've forgotten, I am the teacher for this club. You Slytherins are new, so I'll let it slide, but you surely wouldn't want anyone to get the impression that you were trying to take over."

Tabitha's charming smile turned decidedly sharklike as she looked at Scorpius. "So it's true, first-year Scorpius Malfoy is going to teach us everything he knows. Does that include how to be a traitor to one's family values and traditions?"

Scorpius sighed and walked into the room. "Not until next term," he answered breezily. "Although when it comes to underhanded tricks and backstabbing, I'd hate to repeat anything you lot already know. Maybe you can test out of that section."

Scorpius threaded to the center of the group, moving between Tabitha and Albus, who stared at the pale boy with unmasked disdain.

"Excuse me," Scorpius said, bumping Albus with his shoulder. He turned to face the group, pulling his wand from his cloak with a flourish. "You wish to learn the most powerful curses, do you? You wish to know how to defend yourselves, and even more, to take the fight to the enemy, is that it? Well, contrary to what you may believe, I won't stop you. We will learn such things. And I will be the one to teach them to you." Scorpius narrowed his eyes again, staring hard at James, as if daring him to argue. "I may only be a first-year, but my family tradition, as 'Tabby' has already mentioned, is rich in the deadly arts. I'll teach you just as I was taught by my father and grandfather."

"You little prat," Philia hissed. "We've been practicing defensive magic for years! What can a greasy turncoat Gryffindor like you teach us?"

"The first thing I can teach you is to shut up when the teacher is speaking," Scorpius said, turning to Philia, his face unflinching. "Outside this room, you may be a fifth-year and I may be a 'greasy turncoat Gryffindor', but in this room, you are the student and I am your instructor. Or perhaps you're having second thoughts about joining this club?"

Philia's face had gone beet red with anger. "I'll teach you to speak to me that way, you—"

"Do stop, Philia," Tabitha interrupted, amused. "Scorpius is right. This is their club. We must abide by his rules. While we are in this room. Let us see what he can teach us, since he has apparently been so well-educated."

Scorpius glared at Philia, daring her to defy Tabitha. After a moment, Philia's face hardened. She pocketed her wand and folded her arms.

"Just as I thought," Scorpius said, turning to face the gathered club members again. "First things first. You must learn to defend, parry, and Stun before you can learn to make good use of anything more powerful. Skip the basics and you will be target practice for any git with a wand. Fortunately, we are well on our way with those skills, and I can only hope that our new Slytherin friends can keep up with us. But later, once you have mastered those techniques, you will be ready… to learn this."

Scorpius spun on his heel and flung out his arm, aiming his wand at the broken clockwork dummy. "Avada Kedavra!" he roared, baring his teeth. The bolt that shot from his wand was so bright and so green that it lit the entire room. It struck the dummy in the chest, and its arms and legs flailed full length, trembling violently. Then, with a clank and a rattle, the dummy fell off its frame. It clumped to the floor in a heap.

Scorpius stared at it, his eyes slit and his teeth still bared.

Nolan Beetlebrick stepped out of the perimeter of the crowd and kicked at the dummy with his foot. A cog tumbled out of it and rolled across the floor. "Well," the boy said, nodding, "you definitely killed it."

There was a round of nervous, scattered applause. Rose looked over at James, her eyes wide and worried. Her expression seemed to ask what have we done?. James simply shook his head slowly.

"This could be better than I thought," Albus said, nudging James. "Way to go, big brother."

As they left the gym a while later, James caught up to Ralph. "What happened to you? Where were you back there?" he demanded.

Ralph glanced at James defensively. "What? I was there the whole time!"

"You didn't say a word when Tabitha and Goyle showed up and started killing the target dummies!"

"Well," Ralph replied, shrugging and walking quickly, "it looked to me like you and Rose had it under control."

"Under control? You call completely losing our grip on the club 'under control'? Scorpius is planning to teach Unforgivable Curses!"

Ralph didn't say anything as he walked. James stared at him angrily, his eyes narrowed. "You want to learn them too, don't you?" he demanded.

Ralph pressed his lips together, refusing to reply. James turned in front of him, stopping him in the hall, but Ralph spoke first.

"Don't, James," he said, dropping his eyes and shaking his head. "Look, you're my best mate in the whole school, but we come from two different worlds. You Gryffindors can be all sweet and courageous about things like the Unforgivable Curses, but frankly, yeah, it does make sense to me to learn them. I'm sorry."

James' mouth dropped open. "Ralph, there's a reason they're called 'unforgivable'. We can't even use them to fight the Gatekeeper if it comes to that! That thing isn't even human! So there's no excuse for learning them."

"Isn't there?" Ralph said. James knew Ralph hated confrontations, but the bigger boy forced himself to look James in the eye. "Are you telling me you wouldn't have used an Unforgivable Curse to stop Voldemort from killing your grandparents?"

James backed up a step, speechless. He started to reply, but Ralph went on, cutting him off. "What about when my uncle was getting ready to murder Ted Lupin's dad? Would you have used an Unforgivable Curse to stop him from doing that? Or even my own grandparents when they were driving my dad to a Muggle orphanage, telling him they didn't want him anymore, that no Squib was good enough to be their son? What if someone had been there to Imperio them, and force them to take him back home, and make them love him the way parents are supposed to love their kids? Are you telling me you'd have decided not to do it because only 'bad' people use Unforgivable Curses?"

James stammered, shocked at the quiet ferocity in Ralph's eyes. "Ralph, I… no. I mean…"

Ralph shook his head and looked away. "I can't blame you for not understanding that, James. But honestly, if using an Unforgivable Curse could bring back the people you'd thought were lost forever, wouldn't you do it? If it could return the things that were taken from you by people who were stupid and selfish and mean… wouldn't you?" Ralph looked at James again, his eyes bright. "Because I'd do it, James. I really would. Without a second thought."