Harry Potter And The Summer Of Surprise-Chapter 35

Veritiserum

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Harry Potter.

"Are you sure that you want to go through with this, Ron? You're only going to be proven wrong, you know." Ron glared at the group assembled in the room and addressed Ginny.

"I'll be the judge of that, thanks. Or rather, this will be." He held up the small vial of Veritiserum that he and Harry had somehow been able to knick from Pofessor Slughorn's office.

"Funny, I don't remember Slughorn's office being this dark and gloomy. It reminds me of when Snape was here," he had remarked to Harry when they entered the room. Harry had shuddered at the thought that Snape, Dumbledore's murderer, would be back for their final year at Hogwart's. There was no chance of that, though. Slughorn had been at the head table, and a new teacher was there. The new addition had been a witch, tall, dark haired, and severe looking. Somewhat like Professor McGonagall, who had been seated in the chair that Dumbledore had been in for the last six years of Harry's school career, empty seats on either side of her. None of them had noticed any sign of Snape. A lot of the students seemed apprehensive about another year in the school where someone had been killed by the worst of the unforgivable curses at the end of the year before.

Some hadn't returned.

Eloise Midgen (the Patil twins said she had been transfered to Beauxbatons for her final year), Hannah Abbott, Colin and Denis Creevey, Dean Thomas just to name a few.

All during the sorting, Ron could talk about nothing but putting Malfoy under the Veritiserum to learn the truth about what had happened during that fateful night, and whether he was being honest to Ginny about his feelings, not even noting that many of the remaining students were goggling at the hourglasses.

It seemed that Gryffindor had already aquired a vast amount of points, and the year hadn't even officially started yet.. He and Harry went under the invisibility cloak right after they had arrived at the dorms, Harry chuckling as he realized he knew the reason for the results of the Gryffindor bulbs, and had disappeared, returning a half hour later with the vial.

Ron had inturrupted his sister's conversation with Hermione about what her morning sickness had been like so far to drag the two of them and Harry to an empty classroom. Lavender followed them, making it to the room only to have to knock on the door after Ron had closed and locked it. He had opened it a crack to see who it was, and yanked her inside a little more forcefully than neccessary and snapped it closed behind her before giving his instructions.

"Ginny, I want you to go get Malfoy." She had crossed her arms over her chest and snorted.

"Why?" she snapped. He told her about the conversation that he had with Harry and Hermione. She sighed and headed to the door. "Alright. I'll go get him, but only because he said that he would take it. Not because you want to settle this vendetta with him." She slammed the door behind her. Now Draco was seated at one of the desks, surrounded by the others.

"Ginny, Love, it's alright. I did say that I would take it." He gestured to the goblet of water that was in front of him. "Go ahead, Ron." They all started at this. Malfoy had never referred to Ron by his given name before. He had always been insulting. Hermione took the potion from Ron's shaking hand and put three drops into the water. Malfoy picked it up and drank the entire amount in one gulp.

"O.K. How about I ask the questions?" Harry said. "You two would be a little biased," he pointed at Ron and Ginny, "And at any rate, none of you were there when it happened." They all nodded and Harry turned to a now glassy-eyed Malfoy. "What is your full name?" he asked.

"Draco Aristides Malfoy." Ron snorted with laughter.

"Aristides? Hey! That means that his initials spell DAM." Harry, Hermione and Lavender chuckled at this, but Ginny smacked her brother on the back of his head.

"Can we get on with it? I don't like seeing him like this." Harry cleared his throat.

"How old are you? When is your birthday?"

Malfoy's slack face didn't change expression as he anwered, "Seventeen. 5 June." Harry looked to Ginny. She confirmed it, so he continued.

"What happened last year? What did you do? Start from when you went into Borgin and Berks and end when Snape took you away after he...he killed Dumbledore. Are you working for the Ministry or Voldemort? But first answer, who is Snape working for and where is he?" Malfoy was quiet for only a second.

"Snape is a spy for the Ministry. He is in the Order of the Pheonix, under orders from Dumbledore to do whatever he had to to make it appear that he was still a Death Eater. I don't know where he is. He Apperated me to Malfoy Manor and told me and my mother to go into hiding." He paused to take a breath. "The summer before last term, I got away from my mum to go to Borgin and Berks per instructions from the Ministry. They wanted me to be a spy for them, using the Vanishing Cabinets as a gateway. I entered the store and showed Borgin the letter from the Minister himself, saying that if Borgin didn't want all the objects in his store confiscated, he would cooperate and not say a word to any of the Death Eaters that may come asking for information. Borgin was also to help me in any way that I needed. I spent a lot of time traveling between Howarts and Diagon Alley to talk to Ministry officials and to Death Eaters. The Death Eaters were given false information all throughout the school year, but they found out what I had been doing, and showed up the night that Dumbledore was killed. I was under an Imperious Curse and Dumbledore was trying to help me fight it. They got ahold of Snape and placed him under the Curse and told him to kill Dumbledore. He broke it as he was running away, angry at himself for what he had done. Harry Potter showed up and started to fight with Snape, and in his anger, Snape lashed out at Harry instead of running.

"He took me outside the Howarts grounds and Apperated the both of us to Malfoy Manor. Told us to go into hiding right away and Disapperated. Mother and I left within the hour to a town called Ottery-St. Catchpole and have been there ever since. We have made one of father's distant cousins, a Squib that father never talks to or mentions except during holidays and with absolute contempt, our secret keeper so that Voldemort can't find us. He will kill me if he finds out that I didn't go through with the orders he gave me in place of my father. He wanted to see how loyal I was to him." With that, Malfoy fell silent. His head dropped to his chest and his body went totally limp. Ron's blue eyes were horror struck as everyone turned to look at him.

"Just one more question, Draco. Do you love Ginny Weasley?" Harry asked. Malfoy's head rolled to one side.

"With every fiber in my being. I met her one day when I was walking along a lane, pouting about having to hide while the Ministry and the Order of the Pheonix got to fight Voldemort. I helped her out of a tangle of Devil's Snare that was growing just inside a thick patch of woods. She had been gathering toadstools for a potion that her mother was making and had gotten snagged by one of the tentacles. I heard her shriek and ran to help her. When I got her free," he smiled. "She kissed me. I lost my heart to her, then and there. We've been together ever since. She had to lie to Harry Potter about us, though. She thought it would break his heart if he knew that I had won over him. When she told me she was carrying my baby a few weeks later, I proposed on the spot, and she accepted, making me the happiest I have ever been in my life."

His head fell to his chest again and he was silent. Ginny looked at her brother smuggly.

"There's your answer, Ron. Are you satisfied, now?" She flipped her long red hair and stormed out of the classroom, leaving the rest of them to wait for Malfoy to come out of his stupor.