Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
Notes: Harry uncovers more than he actually wanted to see or hear.
Chapter 35: Veritaserum
None of the adults seemed to feel any pressing need to look for the Death Eater agent, but now that Harry was almost sure that he had identified him and seen him leave with the headmaster it didn't feel quite as necessary to him anymore either and events confirmed Harry's suspicion even further. Nothing at all unusual happened until the return of the headmaster and his fighting-expedition and hadn't Auror Potter always seemed especially unfriendly? Harry was strongly reminded of the way he'd insulted Professor Snape and scared him and his friends the very first time they'd met. And then, in the Shrieking Shack, he had attacked Professor Snape, tied Harry and Hermione up and manhandled the injured Ron quite brutally. He really should have realised that the man was evil much sooner!
And this man was his father, if what he'd overheard the Minister and some of his Professors talk about in Hogsmeade last year was true? But no, if Harry were a Death Eater's child then why would You-Know-Who have tried to kill him? Obviously the story he had overheard could not have been about him. His headmasters hadn't lied to him after all! James Potter was not his father. His father had died heroically trying to save him and all the other children at the Nursery Institute!
But the story he had overheard had been his. There could be no doubt about that.
Then, finally, as he was watching the fighters make their slow exhausted way towards them and trying to pick out Auror Potter among them, Harry finally realised the obvious. There were of course two James Potters! One was his father and the other the Auror Potter he knew. Or maybe the Auror wasn't even called James at all! Harry seemed to remember his secret uncle Sirius referring to him as 'James', but maybe he'd been mistaken. Maybe when he said James he was talking about Harry's father, who, after all, was his best friend since childhood and his Auror partner was merely the brother, or cousin of that friend.
He'd have to warn Uncle Sirius about his partner, though, Harry thought. Who knew what he might do now that You-Know-Who was back!
The search party quite obviously had been in a fight. Several of them were limping and most had torn or singed robes and they were levitating along two stretchers. Harry couldn't find Auror Potter. Perhaps he had given himself away and fled with the other Death Eaters? Or maybe he was one of the two men supporting limping wizards? Harry couldn't see their faces, because the heads of the injured men were in the way.
"Those of you who are injured head right on to the hospital wing," Professor Dumbledore ordered when he himself stopped next to the group around the Minister. "Where is Igor?"
Nobody knew. Apparently he hadn't been among the fighters after all, neither those who stayed with the headmaster nor those who were heading on towards the castle, leaving the stretchers behind to Harry's surprise.
Shouldn't those who couldn't even walk receive medical attention first? Surely they needed it the most!
Maybe it was because Professor Dumbledore had forgotten to tell the ones levitating them to go to the hospital wing as well? They were probably uninjured so they had to stay.
Harry decided to make himself useful by taking care of that. Surely a levitating stretcher could be pushed where one wanted it to go? If not, maybe Wingardium Leviosa would work, but he'd try simply pushing first.
He stepped up to the first stretcher. There was a shape covered by a black cloak on it. Even its head was covered, which Harry wasn't sure was a good idea. Didn't it hinder the injured wizard's breathing? Oh well, Madame Pomfrey would be sure to know. Harry took hold of the end of the stretcher and gave it a good strong push.
"Don't!" the sharp voice of Professor Snape barked and he felt a sudden rough grip on his upper arms pulling him backwards. "Leave that alone, you foolish boy!"
But it was too late. The stretcher jerked violently, its end bobbing up and down a few times, and the cloak slid off the head of the person lying there with wide-open, staring eyes.
"Victor," Harry recognised the face right away. "Why did you cover him up? He needs to breathe. And he needs Madam Pomfrey. I'll take him to her."
"No, you fool, he does not," Professor Snape snapped letting go of Harry with one hand to pull the cloak back into place. "Now be silent."
"But," Harry started to protest.
Why was nobody helping Victor? It looked so horrible how he lay there all stiff and unmoving. He must have been hit with some version of the full body bind, Harry decided, except that that could be reversed with a simple spell and he'd never seen it affect somebody's eyes as well. Victor's eyes had been unmoving as well. Apparently he wasn't even able to blink.
Maybe that was why they had covered his face? Maybe the sunlight would hurt his eyes while he wasn't able to blink!
Harry reached out for the stretcher again, but another hand caught him, this time by the wrist.
"Victor here might have no use for Madam Pomfrey's services, but I think Harry would feel much better after a nice dose of calming draught," Professor Moody's voice announced. "Come along, boy. You'll hear all you need to know about the battle soon enough."
Obediently Harry followed Professor Moody, but the adult didn't take him to the hospital wing after all. Instead they went to his office where he gave Harry the promised potion.
"You did see truly even if you failed to win and fulfil your rightful destiny in our Lord's plan," he told Harry then. "Oh yes, he is back and I was the tool to restore our master even if I failed to bring you to him. I gave him Victor instead and now I will kill you for him. That will make up for my mistake ..."
With ever increasing horror Harry listened to Professor Moody's confession of how he had put Harry's name into the goblet of fire and manipulated the tournament so he should win and be taken to that graveyard so He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named could use his blood in the ritual that would revive him. That part of the plan had failed, but they had used Victor's blood instead and it had worked just as well.
Victor was dead, killed by the Dark Lord, and so was one of the Death Eaters, a man called Crabbe that had gotten between the headmaster and You-Know-Who by accident. The rest had escaped, though and apparently Crabbe was no big loss to the Death Eaters. He had been disloyal and stupid.
"But not nearly as bad as Igor Karkaroff," Professor Moody said. "That stinking coward has fled, but we will track him down. He will be the next to die after you."
But just then the door exploded and Professors Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall rushed in to rescue Harry.
To Harry's surprise Professor Dumbledore only tied Professor Moody up and then went straight on to his trunk which he opened seven times. Each time it contained something else, the last a horrible prison cell in which they found the stunned Professor Moody.
But Professor Moody was also still outside the trunk, tied up and unable to move.
"How is that possible?" Harry asked looking from one Moody to the other.
"Polyjuice potion," the headmaster said simply.
Then he surprised Harry once again and instead of taking the real Professor Moody to the hospital wing just put a cloak over him and started interrogating the false Moody under Veritaserum. Remembering Victor Harry began to worry whether the real Moody was dead, too.
Soon the effect of the polyjuice wore off and the impostor turned into a man Harry had never seen before. Professor Dumbledore seemed to recognise him, though and then Professor McGonagall arrived with Winky the house-elf who identified him as Barty Crouch junior, the son of Mr. Crouch.
For a while Harry found the interrogation rather exciting. The way Mr. and Mrs Crouch had broken their son out of Azkaban and Mr. Crouch had then hidden him sounded like a truly great adventure, but then Barty Crouch told them how he had murdered his farther right after Harry had fetched Professor Dumbledore to help the poor man and Harry suddenly remembered Victor and the real Professor Moody in the trunk and began to feel awfully sick. He didn't want to hear any more after that.