Disclaimer I don't own Harry Potter and anything that's recognizable belongs to J K Rowling.
CHAPTER 14 - The Answer
Harry was sitting in his room looking over the new book that he had received from the Dark Lord. He was happy that he was able to get another book to study. He wanted to learn some new curses that he hoped to be able to use on the next raid. He hoped there would be one soon. He had been cooped up in his room for too long and he was starting to feel restless. He started thinking about all of the things he would do once he got out of here. First he would go with the Dark Lord to try to finish off the Headmaster and then he would find his 'friends' and practice the new curses on them. He just read about the perfect curse he could use on the mudblood. It sliced the enemy in various places and also broke every bone slowly at the same time, and to make sure that the victim would not pass out right away, the person would be kept alive until every bone was broke. It was supposed to be very, very painful. Harry was smiling when he thought about the look that blood traitor would have on his face when he saw his mudblood girlfriend being mutilated by that curse. Then he would slowly torture the blood traitor, making sure he suffered so much that he would beg for death. Harry was finally awoken out of his thoughts by the burning of his Mark, he hoped Snape would come soon and take him to the Dark Lord. He needed to thank him for the book, and who knows, maybe he would be able to use some new curses on some filthy muggle.
"Severus," Dumbledore said, surprised by seeing an out of breath Potions Master in his office.
"Potter's under the influence of Pareo Mocius," Snape said, sitting down in a chair in front of Dumbledore's desk.
"Pareo Mocius? I've never heard of that before? What does this mean for Mr. Potter though?" Dumbledore asked.
"It's very old magic. Dark magic. It hasn't been used in over a hundred centuries, since it was banned after a disaster that broke out because of it. It is like the Imperius Curse, but in a liquid form and it works a bit differently too," Snape started to explain.
"A liquid Imperius? But how come Mr. Potter cannot fight it off?" Dumbledore questioned.
"Well that's the thing about this potion, it affects the mind more so than the Imperius Curse. It makes the drinker believe completely that these are his own thoughts. The drinker does not realize that they are thoughts from the person cursing them, whereas with the Imperius Curse that is the case, one can distinguish his own thoughts and those of the one that cursed them. They just try to fight it off the intruders thoughts and that's that, but not with this potion," Snape further explained.
"But why would Mr. Potter take this potion? Or when did he encounter it? He has been like this almost all year," Dumbledore asked.
"Remember how he has told us that he was marked in the summer?" Snape asked, and at Dumbledore's nod he continued, "Well from what I have gathered he was given potions, told that they were healing potions. As such, after three doses of the potion, it effects start slowly. And another thing is, that if there is already a little thought that would agree with the thoughts off the potion or even something that could justify it, causes the potion to have a stronger and faster affect than normal. And since Potter's home life have caused him to despise his muggle family, those feelings have helped justified his hate of muggles," Snape explained.
"So he was tricked into taking the potion and once he had the potion, he would slowly start to agree with whatever Voldemort thought, and then believing that it was his own mind, and not someone or something making him agree and follow?" Dumbledore asked to clarify that he had understood everything correctly.
"Indeed that seems to be the case. He would have started following the Dark Lord on his 'own' choices, thinking it was really him that would follow the Dark Lord and not the Dark Lord making him follow him. But another thing that makes this potion so dangerous is the fact that it is not easily detected, that's why most people under the influence of this potion stay under the influence of it for the rest of their lives. We're lucky to have thought of this or else, I'm not quite sure what would have happened to Potter. He would probably have been under the influence of this potion forever and served the Dark Lord faithfully for the rest of his life, believing that this was truly what he had wanted," Snape said.
"But if it so difficult to detect, how were you able to?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well, as it is similar to the Imperius Curse, the person under the influence of the potion is still able to fight it off, it is just very difficult. When I asked him about his past, his mother and such, I could see an inner battle take place, but since the barriers in his mind are so strong he was not able to fight off the potion. The longer the person is under the influence of the potion the harder it is to fight off the potion, to the point where even you cannot remember your past beliefs. So in a sense, Potter would slowly start to forget that he was against the Dark Lord and that he didn't care about blood purity or the fact that he didn't hate muggles. That is why it is important to break through his barriers and fight off the potion as early as possible," Snape said.
"How do we break these barriers of his?" Dumbledore asked, wanting to get Harry back to his normal self.
"It can be very painful and difficult. A potion must be brewed to counter act the potion. I would be able to brew it and it would take around one week. Then he needs to brake through the barriers that the potion caused. This is the difficult and painful part. We will need to make his old memories resurface. The ones of his past. Such as his friendship with Weasley and Granger, and make him think about his previous thoughts on muggles and muggleborns. This can take a while, but I think that, believe it or not, his mind is strong enough to break through the barriers. After his barriers are broken, he should be back to his old self, and not under the Dark Lord's control," Snape explained.
"I guess you shall get on that potion right away. We cannot have Mr. Potter under the influence of this potion any longer. I must ask though, since he was under the influence of this potion, what about his actions? Were they his own or did the Dark Lord control him to do those things?" Dumbledore asked, although a bit apprehensive about the answer. There was a heavy silence, until finally Snape answered.
"Sadly, those are his own actions. Since he believes what the Dark Lord told him was true, his actions alone are really his. Only his 'beliefs' are not his own, but because of his beliefs, he acts the way he does," Snape said.
"So we can not blame Voldemort for Mr. Potter's actions?" Dumbledore asked.
"No we cannot, although few can blame him for wanting to do those actions. It would be like the Dark Lord telling you that I was a loyal Death Eater. You would believe it and in turn send me to Azkaban. It would be your own decision and own actions to send me there, and not the Dark Lord's. You would feel justified to take those actions, because of your belief that I was a loyal Death Eater. You would never do that if you didn't believe that I was a loyal Death Eater, but the potion would make you believe otherwise, which would cause you to take action," Snape tried to explain.
"Ahh, well I think that we better make sure that Mr. Potter gets that potion as soon as it is ready and then break through the barrier. I trust you will have the potion ready in a week?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes of course, I will get started with it right away," Snape said, and Dumbledore nodded his head. During a moment of silence, Snape's Mark burned. Noticing Snape's movement to his left arm, Dumbledore dismissed him.
Snape quickly went down to his quarters. He quickly grabbed his robe and mask, got Harry, and soon they Apparated away from Hogwarts.
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