L-Voldemort (L version)

Chapter 8 – Honesty.

L noticed, with a twinge of embarrassment, that a small crowd was gathering around them. Draco was giving them his best Slytherin-glare, but this was blunted by his glowing cheeks and bleeding mouth. Professor McGonagall shot them all a sharp look, which cleared them out of the corridor pretty quickly.

"I am sorry, but I do need you to come with me, L," she continued. She turned to Draco. "And I suggest you get yourself down to the hospital wing to have that seen to." She gestured towards the thin stream of blood trickling down Malfoy's hand, which was pressed over his lips. He gave a meek nod then hurried off down the corridor, throwing L an apologetic look over his shoulder.

"I don't know what you've done to him, but he's turning out to be less of a pain these days," McGonagall commented softly, leading L to the stairs. L followed her in silence, mulling the situation over in his mind. If someone had planted the cherry stems on the girl - who was she, anyway? - then they were clearly intent on framing L for the attack. After all, who else was there in the school that tied their cherry stems into knots like that? Since L was well-known as "Slytherin's heir", he had a high profile in the school, so anyone could know about his habits. That didn't narrow down his list of suspects at all. It would have to be someone who was already in the castle, or nearby the castle, at the time of attack, since the attack occurred in the grounds. It would have to be someone who had a grudge against this girl, or Muggle-borns in general, and also against L himself. It would most likely be someone older than the girl, so he (or she) could overpower her.

L's brain clicked into detective mode. He made a rapid list of potential suspects in his head. Or rather, he came up with a profile that would suit the suspect of this crime. He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline. It felt like he was home again.

"Mint humbugs." Professor McGonagall's voice snapped him out of it for a moment. They had reached a stone gargoyle on ... L wasn't even sure which floor. It had slanted, deep-set eyes, and a vicious smile. Stone fangs protruded from stone lips, which were canine in appearance. It spread the claws of a cold, grey hand and gestured for them to enter. Then it moved out of their way, revealing a spiral staircase. L was pushed up these stairs, to a large oak door. McGonagall knocked once, and it swung open. They came into a huge, round room filled with books and interesting-looking artefacts. There was a shimmering, orange-coloured bird standing on a shelf at the far end.

Finally, L's eyes came to rest on the adults in the room. Professor Dumbledore was sitting behind a large desk, peering over his half-moon glasses, his chin resting on his hands, which were folded together as though in prayer. Next to him was Snape, clutching a small transparent phial, in which there was a colourless liquid. There was a man who L had never seen before, wearing Muggle clothes. At the back of the room, gazing out of the leaded window was Lucius Malfoy. L felt a twinge, but was too preoccupied to recognise the emotion.

"Thank you for joining us, L," Dumbledore began, gently. "I want to make it clear to you, and everyone else in this room, that I do not believe you to be the attacker in question here. However, the young lady's father has asked us to administer Veritaserum anyway, to make sure. Since news of your ... heritage has come out, people are wary of you. With your connection to the Malfoy family, as well ..." He trailed off, glancing backwards to Lucius, who wasn't paying attention. He cleared his throat. "As protocol, I have to show you the warrant from the Ministry allowing me to administer the potion." He handed a piece of parchment to L, who narrowed his eyes as he pretended to read it. He'd read about Veritaserum. It was the most powerful truth potion, used to get information from prisoners during warfare. It could cause someone to spill their darkest secrets, if they were asked the right questions under its influence.

L felt sick. The Ministry was supposed to be limiting and monitoring its use as much as possible. So why on Earth would they be allowed to use it on a fourteen year old? It made L wonder about the nature of the attack.

A thought struck him. Maybe it was linked to the Muggle killings! Since he'd started at Hogwarts, there had been cases of Muggles being murdered in a distinctively magical way, perhaps three or four times a year. The Ministry had no leads so far, according to the Daily Prophet. So if this attack showed the same characteristic signs as the Muggle killings, of course they would want to investigate it so thoroughly and intensively. His eyes widened as he made this connection.

"Please take a seat, L." Dumbledore gestured towards a comfy-looking armchair against on of the walls. L jumped onto it, after handing the parchment back. He balanced lightly on the balls of his feet, hunching over. In detective mode, L went back to his default posture. "Severus, the serum," Dumbledore nodded. Professor Snape handed the phial to L.

"Only take three drops," he advised, "Or you'll be spouting the truth for days." His eyes flickered to the blood on L's mouth, then his eyebrow arched, as if to say "and we don't want to know everything that's been going on, to be honest".

L nodded, to show he'd understood, then stuck out his tongue. He partially removed the stopper then shook three drops of the liquid out. He swallowed hard, so the potion could start to work. The taste caused him to screw up his eyes. It tasted like bitter chocolate which has been left under some rusty metal for a month.

"Ugh," said L, disgusted. The potion started to affect him almost right away. After a moment or two, he felt himself relax. Lies, which formulated in his mind reflexively, dissolved and the truths of things skipped to the front. His brain felt looser, somehow, like his skull had grown bigger. His eyelids dropped slightly. He pressed a hand to his forehead. "It feels like I'm high."

Dumbledore chuckled softly. "Shall we begin?" Approving mutters from the others told him he should. "Your name, please."

"L Lawliet. At least, I think that's my name. It might not be. It's just what I was called at Wammy's house so I could have had another name before that." L spoke in a flat voice, feeling the words tumble from his mouth with no ability to control them. He felt his cheeks heat up slightly as, somewhere in the loose haze, he wondered if he'd be able to stop himself revealing anything too personal.

"What is your relationship with Draco Malfoy?" the next question came, from Dumbledore.

"Albus!" McGonagall exclaimed, "That's not an appropriate question for this!"

"Going by the book, one must ask two questions to confirm the interviewee is under the influence of the potion. We must ask questions we know the answers to already. You know this, Minerva." Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling, though, so McGonagall just frowned.

"To answer your question," L interrupted, "Draco Malfoy is my best friend, although he told me today that he likes me as more than a friend. Since I'm very inexperienced with such social situations, I wasn't sure how to react. I'm not disappointed - quite the opposite. I like him too. But is the correct thing to do in this situation to tell him, or just to let him spell out his feelings? So I let him talk. He ranted for a long while, actually. He was apologising for earlier. We'd had a fight in the Slytherin common room after Defence Against the Dark Arts because I saw him kissing Pansy Parkinson and I was jealous, so I hit him-"

"Enough!" Lucius Malfoy bellowed. "We don't need to hear this ... this verbal diarrhoea. Get to the point, Dumbledore." The headmaster's name was spoken with venom, which contorted Malfoy's pointed face for a second.

"Of course," replied Dumbledore, calmly. "L, can you tell me why you missed dinner this evening?"

"Yes." L felt the haze in his head thicken slightly. He rocked back onto his heels and sank into a sitting position."I feel really weird, is that normal?"

McGonagall muttered something about "oxymoron", but Dumbledore nodded and gestured for him to continue.

"Well, I was late anyway, because I stayed back after Defence Against the Dark Arts. Remus was-"

"Professor Lupin," Snape corrected.

"Professor Lupin, then," L repeated, "Did you know he's getting married?"

"Get to the point," Lucius snapped.

"Professor Lupin was teaching us how to cast a Patronus Charm, and I just couldn't do it, which was weird since I've never had any trouble with any spell before. So he helped me for a little while until I managed a little one, but I was still annoyed with myself for being so slow. So I went back to the common room to sulk. However, in my haste, I went to the Slytherin common room instead of the Gryffindor one. That's when I saw Draco with Pansy, so we had a fight. He scratched me right down my face which snapped me out of it. I was really upset so I ran to the girls' bathroom on the third floor. Don't misunderstand. I didn't go there intentionally. It was the first bathroom I came across and I didn't look too closely at the sign on the door. There was nobody in there anyway. I washed my face in there and I found a carving of a snake on the tap."

He described how he'd spoken to it in Parseltongue and that it had winked at him. Snape and Dumbledore had a brief, hushed discussion at this point, and L fell silent.

"Minerva, I'd like you to fetch Professor Lupin, please," Dumbledore instructed after a few minutes. "Severus will go ahead to the bathroom to look at this carving."

Professor McGonagall was gone in seconds. L licked his lips, leaning back against the chair. He felt like he was going to fall asleep, or pass out.

"How long does this potion last? I feel unwell."

"It shouldn't have any side effects," Snape murmured.

"Well, it is having side effects," L replied, his words slurring slightly. The fog was spreading from his mind into the room. His pulse started to throb painfully in his ears.

"I prepared the Veritaserum myself," Snape exclaimed, waving his arms towards Dumbledore.

"I'm not accusing ... antidote to the ..."

"What?" L muttered. The scene was fading from view, like something was dragging him backwards into his own mind. He frowned, forcing his eyes to open wider. Snape was pulling something out of his cloak, saying something about emergencies. With a soft groan, and the beginning of a swear in Japanese, L slipped from the chair, into the blackness of the haze.


Snape pushed the bezoar into the unconscious boy's mouth. At the same time, McGonagall entered the office with Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, both of whom looked considerably ruffled and embarrassed. McGonagall looked annoyed, and was muttering something about "what is it with gay...twice that's happened today...no shame...animals..."

Remus started when he saw L's figure slumped on the floor. Dumbledore rose from his seat.

"Remus, I need you to go to the girls' bathroom on the third floor and investigate the sinks. There seems to be some remnant of Salazar Slytherin in there and we need to make sure it's safe. Sirius, would you be so kind as to fetch Draco Malfoy from the hospital wing?"

"Yes, headmaster." The two men left and McGonagall rushed to the headmaster's side.

"What happened?" she asked.

"The Veritaserum was poisoned," Snape explained, "And I can't work out how or when, so don't even ask." He was trying to revive the boy, but to no avail.

"Don't panic, Severus. Give the bezoar a chance to work," Dumbledore soothed.

"I know!" Snape snapped.

"Is there anything I can do?" Mr Smith - the attacked girl's father - asked. Dumbledore shook his head no.

There was a lull in activity, until Sirius returned with Draco, whose mouth was still bleeding steadily - but his black eye was gone. He spotted L, who was now lying on his side, and paled even more than usual. He tried to speak, but only a choked noise came out. McGonagall saw with a stab of pity that he had tears in his eyes. She looked to Lucius and raised her eyebrows in a way that was calculated to say "comfort your son", but Malfoy just glared at him.

"Pull yourself together Draco, he's not dead."

Draco sniffed loudly, then rubbed his eye, smearing blood over his face. Lucius wrinkled his nose. McGonagall offered Draco a handkerchief, which he accepted.

"Sorry to give you a shock. The Veritaserum we gave him was poisoned, it seems," she explained. Draco just nodded numbly.

"Draco, I need you to confirm that L was with you at dinner time this evening." Dumbledore's stedy blue gaze seemed to calm Draco a little.

"Yes," he said, after a moment, "He was in the Slytherin common room with me, then he went off somewhere-"

"The third floor bathroom," McGonagall nodded.

"Then he was in Gryffindor tower. He was only separated from me for a couple of minutes. It wasn't long enough to get down to the grounds and back, even on a broom."

"Okay. Thank you Draco. Will that be enough to satisfy the Ministry?" Dumbledore added, turning to Lucius, who nodded once. He returned to his window.

L coughed. His face constricted, then smoothed out again as he woke up. Draco dropped to his knees beside the boy and helped him into a sitting position.

"Doushita no...?" L gasped, inhaling heavily.


"What happened?" he repeated. The fog was gone from his head, but he felt like he'd been punched in the chest. He forced his eyes open. Draco's crystal grey eyes met them, his pointy features drawn together with worry.

"Are you okay?" he whispered. L shook his head.

"No, I feel like I've been kicked by a horse."

"I've written a letter to the Ministry explaining your innocence, L," Dumbledore called, from the doorway. "I'm going to send it now. Professor McGonagall and Mr Black are going to investigate the third floor bathroom. Mr Smith, Mr Malfoy, would you kindly follow me...?" Dumbledore gestured for the Muggle and Draco's father to come with him. To the Owlery, L presumed. Lucius glared at L, then gave his son a disgusted look before following the headmaster.

The room emptied rapidly, leaving L, Draco and Snape together in the office. The Potions Master and his pupil helped L onto the armchair.

"I'll fetch Madame Pomfrey. I won't be long," said Snape, in reassuring tones. Draco nodded, and clutched L's hand. The door slammed shut behind the professor.

"Draco, I need to tell you something, while the Veritaserum's still affecting me. I won't know how to say it otherwise," L murmured.

"Okay. I'm listening." He lifted his other arm to stem the blood flowing from his mouth.

"First of all, I'm sorry I ruined your mouth. I don't know what came over me. It was a good idea at the time." He allowed the words to tumble from his mouth, his eyes opening wider as he became more awake.

"I understand," Draco replied. "It was good at the time. Once I learn the spell for fixing this-" he waved his arm towards his face then covered his mouth again, "-you can do that any time you like."

L gave a soft but hearty laugh. "Also, what you said earlier, about how you like me as more than a friend. I've been thinking, and the truth potion helped me realise that ..." He paused for a moment, the words slipping from his grasp as the potion was wearing off. "I realised that ..." Draco was watching him with an encouraging smile, but L faltered. Suddenly, his mind became noisy again. The lies that he'd though of and told through the years sprang back to the foreground. L made a frustrated noise.

"What?"

"I can't remember. The potion's worn off," L sighed, slapping the arm of the chair.

"It doesn't matter," Draco shrugged. He squeezed L's hand and stood up. "Are you feeling better?"

"It does matter. I wanted to tell you that I like you, but I've forgotten how to say it. This is the time when I wish I had social skills," he growled, standing up too. Draco turned slowly to face him.

"You just said you like me back," he pointed out, "all by yourself." L frowned at him. When he realised that this was, in fact, true, his eyes widened again, his heart thumping.

"I did not," he retorted, his cheeks burning. Draco laughed aloud at him and pulled him into a warm hug. L let himself melt into Draco's strong, slender arms. With the haze gone, and the odd sensation of having recovered from poisoning, L needed a good hug. He brushed his cut cheek against Draco's soft hair. It was getting long. It still smelled like the softly fruit-scented shampoo Draco had been using since he was eleven. It made L feel safe when he smelled it; like nothing could get him, or bother him, because Draco's arms were around him and their hearts were beating together.

"What have you done to me?" breathed Draco, echoing McGonagall's earlier sentiments. "Have I always been this soft?"

"No," L snorted, "You're not soft. You have half the school scared of you just because you're a Slytherin. And the other half hate you because you're a Malfoy."

Draco's arms dropped from around L's waist. "Thanks," he huffed. He turned away.

"You act like a girl," L added, bluntly.

"Are you sure that potion's worn off?" Draco asked, one slender eyebrow raised. L ignored him. He took hold of one of Draco's hands, holding it delicately as though it was dirty.

"I've figured out the profile of the attacker," he said quietly, to change the subject. "I'm ninety per cent certain that, given the time and resources, I'd be able to track down the attacker in three months, or in as little as five weeks if I use magic to assist my outstanding brain. I can't believe the Ministry haven't caught on to him yet, he's being so obvious. It's like he wants me to catch him."

Draco was silent for a moment. "What do you mean?"

"I know the attacker must be the same person as the Muggle killer. It must be one person working alone, otherwise the Ministry would have caught them. One person can be more successful in a serial crime like this than a group of people. It's most likely to be a pure-blood, since he's only attacked Muggles and Mudbloods so far. I say 'he' but I'm more convinced that it would be a female, since more females have died than males in the Muggle attacks, and the student attacked was a girl, but there was no evidence of sexual abuse before or after the deaths. It would have been reported. Of course, I can't assume much more than that until I've seen one of the bodies and spoken to the girl who was attacked."

Draco's eyes were wide. "You're bloody amazing, you know that?"

"Yes. And I also know that I can't convince the ministry to let me work on this case until I have more facts, so please don't relay this information to anyone."

Miming a zipping motion over his mouth with his free hand, Draco ended up smearing more blood over his face. L frowned and licked his finger. As he was rubbing some of the crusting blood from Draco's face, the oak door flew open, bringing a gust of cold air in. The two boys automatically let go of one another.

Dumbledore gave a chuckle, and gestured for the other adults to enter first. Lucius stormed in, his pale hair fanning out behind him. He strode to the desk, walking stick in hand. He was followed by Mr Smith, who looked worried, then McGonagall, and finally Snape and Madame Pomfrey, both of whom looked rather grave.

Madame Pomfrey hurried over to L and Draco. She thrust a potion into Draco's hand and told him to drink it. He did so, as she examined L. She poked her wand in his ear and checked the size of his pupils.

"You need to sleep more and you should eat some chocolate as soon as you can, but you're fine," she concluded, after a few minutes of poking and peering. Dumbledore stopped his quieted chat with Snape to fetch a chocolate frog from a drawer, which he handed to L. While he ripped it open and ate it, Professor McGonagall had her turn to speak.

"We've confirmed the existence of the carving and Remus thinks that it's most likely something to do with the Chamber of Secrets."

The room fell silent. L looked to Professor Dumbledore, confused. He didn't know what this meant.

"We need to go and investigate this right away," he instructed. "L, I need you to come with us. Draco, please go back to the hospital wing." He didn't issue any more orders, but the adults all seemed to know where they were needed. L followed McGonagall, Snape and Dumbledore down the spiral staircase, the chocolate he'd just swallowed restoring his strength. It felt like a fire had been relit inside his chest. With his detective brain in gear, his posture was hunched. He gave an encouraging nod to Draco, as if to say "I'll be fine". Then, the office fell out of sight. He turned his gaze to the backs of the teachers.

"What is the Chamber of Secrets?" he asked in a flat voice. McGonagall shot him a puzzled look.

It was Snape who explained. "When the Founders were alive, Salazar Slytherin is said to have created a secret chamber somewhere in the school, but nobody knew the location until now."

They were power-walking down an empty corridor by now, the light outside the windows fading into night-time gloom. L considered the possibilities of what the purpose of such a chamber could be. He licked the last of the chocolate off his lips and glanced at the Chocolate Frog Card he still had in his hand. It was Salazar Slytherin. L felt goosebumps raise along his arms.

He stuffed the card into his pocket then ran a little to catch up with the three teachers. Before he knew it, they were on the third floor, facing the bathroom. L could hear a conversation through the door, but couldn't make out the words. There were two male voices, one sounded calm, the other was panicky. When Dumbledore pushed the door open, it was Remus uttering soothing words to Sirius, not the other way around as L had expected. Sirius was pointing at the sink with the carving. L pushed past the adults. He felt his stomach flutter as he tried to remember how he'd spoken in Parseltongue before.

"Who made you?" he said, the words coming out as a fine, elegant hiss. The snake lifted its head and winked. The teachers all gasped.

"Don't open it Albus, please. Just seal it up, we don't need to know what's in there," Sirius implored. L felt his brows push together in puzzlement. Why was Sirius so afraid? It couldn't just be a magical carving, then. There was more to it that they weren't telling him.

Suddenly the snake carving moved again. It opened its mouth and let out a stream of snake-talk. L felt the sounds slot into place in his mind.

"In your pocket..."

L pulled the card out of his pocket. Snape peered over his shoulder and gave a soft grunt.

"My blood, but not my brain..." the snake hissed. "My blood, but not my heart... My blood, but not my true heir ..."

"What's it saying?" Sirius was staring at the sink. Remus placed a hand on his fiancé's back.

"Calm yourself, Sirius," he soothed.

"It's telling me that I have Slytherin's blood," L explained. "But that Slytherin and I are not similar." He repeated the exact words the snake had said. Behind him, he heard Dumbledore give quick instructions to the other teachers. They all pulled out their wands and said an incantation. L started back towards the door. Since they didn't need him now, he might as well leave. There was a loud grating sound behind him. This was followed by a large crash, then the sound of bodies hitting stone floor.

"DUCK!" someone shouted, but it was too late.

L felt something hard hit him on the back of the head.

For the second time that evening, he blacked out.