Chapter IV -- Veritaserum
"One pint o' Butterbeer, comin' right up!" Madam Rosemerta's voice rang loudly through the pub in Hogsmead. The door swung open, letting in a gust of freezing wind, along with an unseen guest. Everybody around seemed too tired, cold, or drunk to notice. Through the smoke-filled pub a particularly quiet Sirius stepped, clad in the Invisibility Cloak he nicked from James' trunk. He walked as silently as possible towards the back room, careful not to bump the pleasant barmaid. The walls were lined with bottles upon bottles. He searched for one that had the highest number on it. Wait, 1254? Was that the date or the proof? He grabbed the bottle anyways, hoping it was the right stuff.
Just then, Madam Rosemerta stepped into the room. Sirius held his breath and ducked as she reached over for a bottle just above his head. He let out a sigh of releif when she exited the room carying a bottle of sherry.
"Great job, Padfoot." Remus grabbed the bottle from Sirius as they stepped around a corner, into the shadows. He tucked it into a pocket in his robes, hidden inside the Invisibility Cloak. The quartet headed back for Hogwarts Castle.
"Okay, so does everyone understand what you're supposed to do?" Sirius, Lauren, and Rosemary nodded as Remus went over the plan.
"Rosemary, you and Lauren go into Slughorn's office with the bottle and appologize for missing Potions. Tell him that you had to go to Dumbledore because of someone fed gillyweed to your owl and it was dying or something. Tell him Dumbledore said to drop this by Slughorn as a sort of apology. He'll beleive that."
Rosemary gave Remus a sort of hurt look before the boy continued.
"Then, when you're telling him the details, he'll pour himself a few glasses of this stuff, perhaps a few too many. When he starts singing songs and acting drunk, act as though you're listening to every detail and keep him talking while Lauren sneaks into the potions cabinet."
Remus looked to Lauren this time. "Once inside the cabinet, look for a small vial marked "Veritaserum" or "Truth Potion" or something of the like. It'll be a clear liquid, possibly only about an ounce or two's worth. We don't need a lot of it for our plan to work. Put a little in this vial and be sure to return the original vial to it's correct spot. He's got that thing alphabetized, color-coordinated, and sorted in the Dewy-decimal system three times over. He'll know if it's even in the wrong spot."
Lauren took the small, circular vial from her fellow sixth year.
"Now be sure not to ingest any of it in any way. Don't even drop any on your skin. We don't want you blabbing our plans to Slughorn or James or anyone else before we've already gone through with everything. When that's done, report back to me in the sixth year Boy's Dormitory. I'll make sure that it's empty."
"But I thought only boys were allowed in there." Rosemary pointed out. "Don't the stairs turn into a slide or something?"
"Ahh, there's a catch to that rule." Sirius piped up. "It's only when boys try to go into the Girls' Dormitories that the stairs turn into a slide. Girls are more 'trustworthy' or some rubbish like that. Trust me, through the years we've learned that one the hard way."
"Okay, so does everyone know what they're supposed to do?" Remus looked around at the three other faces.
"Yeah."
"Yup."
"Wait, what am I supposed to do?" Sirius asked.
Remus shrugged. "Sit back and watch?"
Sirius scowled. "That's no fun."
"Fine, Pouty-Puss. You can do James' interrogation when Lily's with us." Remus sighed heavily. "I'm fine with just doing the planning." Sirius' face brightened. "One more time, now: Does everyone know what they're doing?"
The answers were all "Yes."
"Okay, then, let's be off."
Lauren took the bottle and entered Professor Slughorn's office with Rosemary close behind. The stout man looked up at the girls from behind a pair of reading glasses. "Good morning, girls. I'm sorry, but class was at seven this morning."
"Yes, we know, Professor." Rosemary said politely. "We just wanted to say that we're sorry we missed potions this morning. My owl, Moonface, he..." All of a sudden, tears began to well in her eyes. "He-- I'm sorry, Professor." She turned from him and began to dry her eyes. Lauren gave her a sympathetic look before turning to Slughorn.
"Someone fed her owl gillyweed this morning. He couldn't breath; we had to rush him to Madam Pomfrey. She said he might not make it."
Rosemary burst loudly into tears.
"I'm sorry, sir. She's deathly attached to him."
Slughorn looked tenderly at Rosemary and waved her over to a seat nearby. "Here, girl. Take a seat. Go ahead and cry if you need to, I won't laugh." Shakily, she sat in a comfortable armchair nearby.
"Professor," Lauren took the bottle from inside her robes and set it on his desk. Immediatelly she saw Slughorn's face light up. "The Headmaster asked if we could deliver this to you for him for our absence this morning."
In a flash, Slughorn took the bottle and examined it, muttering things to himself. "Will you go into that cabinet there, dear," He motioned nearby. "And bring me that glass. No, no, the bigger one... That's a girl." The man popped off the cap and poured a great ammount into the glass Lauren placed in his hand.
"I would offer you some, my dear, but I'm afraid I'd get another less pleasant gift from Professor Dumbledore; a one-way trip out of the castle." Slughorn laughed heartily as Rosemary peered out from behind a soaked sleeve. She tried to smile as he began to down glass after glass like a great, dehydrated walrus that hadn't seen the sea in months. Within no time, he was singing one of his old pub songs and trying to get Rosemary to join in. She didn't know the words so she made some up, but he didn't seem to notice.
Lauren slipped off towards a large cabinet marked "Students -- Keep Out". She opened it gently; the man didn't even notice. He was caught somewhere between laughing and crying. The Ravenclaw gave the Slytherin a look that said, "HURRY UP! Don't leave me here with this guy any longer than I have to be!" Lauren searched the cabinet for a clear liquid. In no time she found it. She quickly poured a small ammount into the vial Remus had given her. A single drop fell onto her arm and, without thinking, she licked it off. The girl then proceeded to replace the vial marked "Veritaserum" to its proper place.
"Thank you, Professor. You've really helped me cheer up." Rosemary said with a smile, wiping the last of her tears from her eyes as Lauren gave her the thumbs-up.
"Glad I could help." He slurred. "Let me know how everything turns out for your aunt."
"Err, owl."
"That's what I said. Your aunt."
Rosemary shook her head as she and Lauren exited the office. Outside, Lauren handed Remus the tiny vial.
"Great," Remus exclaimed as they headed for the Gryffindor common room. "We've got more than enough now."
Once inside the common room, they proceeded up the stairs to the sixth year Boy's Dormitory. Lauren, Rosemary, Sirius, and Remus all took seats on random trunks as they began to talk of what came next in the plan.
"Okay, so now we have the Veritaserum. How did it go with Slughorn? I could hear crying from outside." Remus looked to the girls for answers.
"I told him that Rosemary's owl was fed some gillyweed, like you said."
"And I turned on the waterworks, and he began to drink. A lot. He quite liked whatever it was we gave him." Rosemary smiled.
"So, what are we going to do next, Remus?" Sirius asked. Before Remus could answer, Lauren began to talk. But it wasn't about the plan at all.
"You know, you have very pretty eyes." She was looking at Sirius the whole time.
"Errm, thanks." He gave her a weird look. "How often do you look that intently at my eyes?"
"All the time, actually." Lauren suddenly looked as though she couldn't control what she was saying. "Well, when I'm not staring at that hot tail of yours." She clapped her hands over her mouth.
Sirius' face had a look of mingled "Oh, my God, am I really hearing this?" and "Really, now"
"What are you doing, Lauren?" Rosemary raised an eyebrow.
"I -- I don't know." Lauren looked a bit horrified.
"So, Lauren..." Sirius was having fun with this. "Do I turn you on?"
Lauren couldn't help but answer. "Yes, you do!"
"Fleas and all?"
"I'll fight your fleas over you." The Slytherin's eyes looked as though they were tearing up.
"So, would you like to--"
"Sirius!" Rosemary stopped him before this went any further. "Quit asking her questions!"
Sirius grinned devilishly. "But, I want to know what she really thinks of me..."
"Lauren," Remus snapped out of his complete shock. "Did you get any of the Veritaserum?"
"Yes, I think." Lauren racked her mind. "I might have spilled a drop on myself earlier. I don't really remember."
"Okay, now that we've got that established..." Sirius smirked, eyes locked on the Slytherin. "Would you like to--"
"SIRIUS!" Rosemary growled. "For the last time, quit asking her questions! I think she's embarassed herself enough already!"
Sirius folded his arms and leaned back on his trunk, a scowl on his handsome face. He didn't say another word, but his mind began to create all sorts of things after what he had just found out.
Remus tried not to look amused at the fact that Sirius just got scolded by a girl, and a younger one at that. "If you only got a drop, the effects should wear off in about an hour. Until then, we can't continue with our plan. We don't want anything getting out that hasn't already been said, do we?" Lauren nodded her head vigorously.
Remus headed downstairs to continue planning, leaving the three by themselves. Sirius saw his opportunity and began to whisper more questions to Lauren. She looked as though she was trying with all her might to keep the answers inside, but it wasn't working very well.
"I'm leaving before I find out something else I really don't want to know. I'll be in the Great Hall for lunch if you guys decide to join the rest of the world." With that the Ravenclaw, too, went downstairs.
Downstairs, Rosemary passed Remus, who sat scrunched in a great crimson armchair, scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment. His brow furrowed and he unconsciously gnawed at the end of his quill, deep in thought.
"I'm off to lunch. You coming?"
He didn't look up but answered destractedly. "I'll be there in a little while. Is Sirius still asking Lauren questions?"
Her face twisted into a look somewhere between amusement and disgust. "Yeah."
Remus tried to hide a half grin as he finally stopped his scratching away and looked in the Ravenclaw's direction. "He'll either get bored of this game, or the effects of the Veritaserum will wear off... or she'll just pulverize him. Either way, they shouldn't be too much longer. I'm just going to finish up these last couple of ideas and then I'll be there. I need to wash down that hare again. I think I feel it trying to jump back out."
Rosemary grimaced. "With the way you completely mutilated that thing, I don't think it's going to be jumping anywhere anymore." With a laugh, she said her goodbyes and headed for the Great Hall alone.