I sat frozen amid a cacophany of "aw"s and "dang"s. I saw one guy stand up. He was in Gryffindor, but even though he was a fourth year like the rest of the class, he was the size of a sixth year. He looked a lot older than he was, and I immediatly recognised him as Kim Yugeom; one of Jackson's friends. I groaned inwardly and rose out of my seat, beggining to approach the front of the classroom. It got quiet the moment Yugeom stood. Yugeom was intimidating, being the tallest, scariest, and best in our year at Defense Against the Dark Arts. I hadn't spoken to him once.

I timidly followed Yugeom to the front of the class, where an estatic Potter stood smiling at us enthusiastically. We stood at the front of the desks, facing everyone else. I stood farthest away from Potter, with Yugeom in the middle of us.

"Now, I have been told by proffessor Park," Potter began, "Mr. Kim and Ms. Wang are the top two in DADA and have been for the past few years." Everyone nodded and mumbled. Most glared, the Gryffindors at me and the Slytherins at Yugeom. I heard someone mutter about "Asians always being the first in everying". 

"This will be an introductory lesson for the year. I do not want to do the demonstration that my teacher once did for my year when I attended Hogwarts, as it was very brutal, but unfortunately it is in the curriculum. Today I will be putting an Imperius curse on our two volunteers. However, although it is in the curriculum, I will not be demonstrating the Killing or Cruciatus curse, merely describing them. Unless, of course, you want to see me torture and kill a bug." I saw Yugeom visibly flinch at the word volunteer. It seemed I was not the only one who had not raised their hand to be put at the front of the class.  The other students looked slightly happier when they heard they didn't have to do what we did now.

"Who wants to go first?" Potter grinned at us. I looked away and out one of the small windows near the ceiling. Yugeom sighed and raised his hand. I let out a small breath I had been holding in previously, but I could still feel my hands shaking. I didn't like demonstrating things for crowds.

"Mr. Kim it is, then," Potter laughed. I couldn't help but think he was a little crazy. I felt like I had to show up Yugeom. I could tell Potter expected him to do better at whatever he had planned. There was a glint in his eyes, something that made me question whether he played favorites or not. I didn't want him to embarass me on purpose in front of the whole class, so I mentally prepared myself for what was to come.

Potter had me stand a ways away, and he himself backed away as well. When Yugeom said that he was ready, Potter pulled out his wand and near-shouted; "Imperio!" There was an immediate shiver that I saw go down Yugeoms spine. He took a step forward, then back again. It seemed that he was trying to resist the curse. However, after about ten seconds of stepping around and him trying to avoid submiting, Yugeom turned facing the class and belted out a few lines of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas before Potter stopped. When Yugeom stopped, his face got really red and he embarassedly walked back to his desk. I tried cutting back a grin but failed, muttering "you got a nice voice, Yugeom." Unfortunately, he heard it and turned to face me, glaring as he sat down.

"Well. It seems that Mr. Kim had some resistance going at the beggining, if you hadn't noticed," Potter said, facing the class. Then, he turned to me. "I don't expect you to do much better, Ms. Wang, but I hope you're up for the challenge."

I immediatly nodded, but without warning Potter raised his wand and yelled "IMPERIO!" with much more vigor than he had at Yugeom. I was suddently hit with a wave of unexpected calm. Then, I heard Potter's voice in the back of my mind, encouraging me to do something I REALLY didn't want to do. He nudged a few times, then becan ordering me to do it. I was so focused on mentally denying Potter the grace of my action that I didn't think about what I was doing physically. As Potter tried doing it, I chanted in my head; "No, I will not do the Macarena. No, I will not do the Macarena. NO, I will NOT do the Macarena!" After the last sentance I had roared out in my head, I was suddenly back in the classroom. I hadn't taken any steps like Yugeom, and it looked like I was in the same place I had started, looking at Potter. He looked surprised and very miffed. I saw a few students giggling in the back and I realized that I probably hadn't said those words in my head at all. Potter shrugged and put his wand away, nodding thoughtfully.

"Well, class," he started, "As we see, Ms. Wang here managed to completely avoid the curse and even break herself out of it." Yugeom looked positively pissed. Potter then turned back to me.

"Well done, Ms. Wang. I have had no one break themselves out of the curse before," he said, then turned away again. I took that as my cue to go back to my desk at the back of the classroom. As I sat down, Potter turned away and magically summoned a chalkboard into the room.

"I'm going to take a tally of people who want to see the other two curses performed on a bug. I understand that it might be hard for some of you to see it, so if the majority wants to, I will do it but you may leave for a few minutes if I do." Potter wrote two boxes on the board marked 'Do' and 'Dont', then called for people to raise their hands for either box. He began making chalk tallies in the boxes with his wand.

I was glad that the attention wasn't on me and Yugeom anymore. I hoped it wouldn't be on me again for at lest the rest of the day. Boy, how I was wrong.