Chapter Fifteen
"Veritaserum"
By the next Friday, they made the Veritaserum and filled a little glass vial with the clear potion. The plan was that Hermione would dress up all smart like she had for the Halloween Ball and try to distract Crabbe and Goyle, then Ron and Harry would take Malfoy into an empty classroom and lock the door. Then they would interrogate him and find out all they needed to know and finally erase his memory of it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione went down to the dungeons and hid inside the room where Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party had been held three years before. They waited quietly in the dark for Malfoy to come strolling along. After about an hour, they saw Malfoy emerging from his dungeon common room. Surprisingly, Crabbe and Goyle weren't with him. As he approached the room where they were hiding, Ron prepared himself to jump out and grab Malfoy. Ron stuck his long leg out, and Malfoy tripped over it. As he began to fall, Ron grabbed him and stuck a dirty sock in his mouth and pulled him into the empty room. Malfoy was furious, but Hermione put her wand to Malfoy's throat and said, "Quietus." No matter how loud Malfoy screamed it was a mere whisper now. They had taken the sock out of his mouth and Ron, sitting on Malfoy, forced his mouth open and Harry administered three drops of the truth potion. "YOU IDIOTS! YOU WILL DIE WHEN MY FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS! YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Malfoy yelled in his whispering voice. "Malfoy, tell us what happened to your little cousin Patrick," Harry demanded. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, he was spilling his guts out. "My father and the rest of the death eaters had gone to my Uncle Algin's flat in London. They tortured him, they wanted him to feel the wrath of You-Know-Who for marrying a dirty muggle. They killed my Aunt. I didn't care, I hated them, I was raised to hate them, they dirtied the name of Malfoy and they had to pay. My cousin was a stupid prat to think he would be safe here. Not even that old idiot Dumbledore could have saved him." Malfoy kept right on talking. "My father was sending Patrick threatening letters, father told me to bully him, to make him miserable. So I did, I made him want to die. Then my father sent me a book describing exactly how to perform Avada Kedavra. I slipped it into Patrick's book bag that day I tripped him in the entrance hall. There was a nasty letter attached to it. Patrick couldn't deal with us anymore. He wanted to die. The note told him how to commit suicide, and so he did. My father and the others are very angry about what happened at the Weasley's house before Christmas. You-Know-Who wants you dead, Potter. You will die before the year is up you can count on that." Malfoy snarled and then he stopped talking. He glared at the three of them. "You're horrible," Hermione said with hatred in her voice. "You're all horrible." "So what if we are, mudblood?" Malfoy growled. Ron took his left arm and swiftly backhanded Malfoy's left jaw. Malfoy glared at Ron, a red handprint on his face. Ron continued to sit on Malfoy, completely disabling him. "Malfoy, what are your father's plans for the upcoming months? What is Voldemort planning?" Harry asked quietly. "Father told me that he and the death eaters were going to go through England finding those death eaters who had cowered at the return of our Dark Lord. They must die for their disloyalty. They will die. You-Know- Who is planning to come to Hogsmeade, the next time we are permitted a Hogsmeade visit. He is going to find and kill you, Potter. And I wouldn't be surprised if he killed Weasley and that filthy little mudblood over there." He nodded at Hermione. She scowled at him. Ron backhanded Malfoy across the face again. "WEASLEY!" he roared in a whisper. "If you touch me once more, you will regret it!" He looked up at Harry. "You-Know-Who is after you, Potter. He will not give you a sporting chance this time, he is going to kill you immediately on the spot!" "Really? You mean he is too cowardly to duel with me again? And listen to you, Malfoy, you can't even say his name like a real man." Harry spat. "You're so cocky now, Potter, you just wait until You-Know-Who is through with you. Father told me he is going to make you watch while he tortures your two little friends here. Then he is going to kill them slowly in front of you. Then he is going to kill the rest of the Weasleys in front of you, make you suffer before you die. How do you like that, Potter? I told my father that you're dating that Chang girl, she will suffer too. Everyone you've ever loved, will suffer, Potter, and there's nothing you can do about it." "Malfoy," Harry started, "has your father ever mentioned to you anything about Professor Snape?" "Professor Snape? Father told me that he too will suffer the consequences of disloyalty. They believe that he is still working as a spy for Dumbledore. And to think I used to admire that traitor. No one who has ever deceived You-Know-Who will have the chance to save themselves. He is out with a vengeance, and everyone who has ever wronged him will die, including Dumbledore. You think Dumbledore is so wonderful, well, there will be nothing left of him after we're through with him." "Then," Harry asked, "do you have the dark mark on your arm, Malfoy?" "No, not yet, but I shall receive the dark mark after my seventh year, then I will be free to honor the Dark Lord with my mother and father!" Harry shook his head in disgust. "Hermione, Ron, we're through with this piece of garbage." They nodded and pulled out their wands. Hermione pointed her wand at Malfoy's throat and said, "Sonorus." Ron pointed his wand at Malfoy. "Obliviate," Ron said and he wiped Malfoy's memory clean of what had just happened. He let Malfoy up to his feet. Malfoy sneered at them with no recollection of what had just happened. "What are you three looking at," he snarled. "Get out of my way!" and he trudged off toward the Slytherin common room. Ron glared after him. The three of them headed up toward the marble staircase. Once they were inside the Gryffindor common room they all sat down in front of the fire. "What do you reckon we should do, Harry? If we go to Dumbledore, we could get into a lot of trouble for administering the truth potion to Malfoy, even expelled." Ron said with a glint of worry in his eyes. Harry shrugged as he sat back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. They could catch Voldemort and the death eaters if Harry told Dumbledore what they had done. He wanted so much to tell Dumbledore, but he didn't think he had enough courage to do so. "I know what we could do, at least to start with," Hermione said. "We could hint around about what we've done to one of the professors, one who wouldn't really catch on, say.Professor Binns, for instance." Harry and Ron liked the sound of that so they waited until Wednesday, when they would have their next History of Magic class. History of Magic was by far the most boring class they had. They decided to wait until most of the class was sleeping before Hermione raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Granger?" the old ghost Professor asked in his dreary monotone voice. Hermione sat up straight in her seat. "Professor," Hermione started, glancing over at Malfoy to make sure he was asleep. "Is it illegal to give someone Veritaserum, if they were not first approved by the ministry of magic to do so?" "Miss Granger, this is not potions class, now if you don't mind, I will be getting back to the lesson." Professor Binns said with a scowl. "But, Professor, please? It would only take a moment to answer." She pleaded. "Oh, all right," he sighed. "It is not illegal to administer the Veritaserum to someone without the approval of the ministry of magic, however it is highly frowned upon and the offending party is usually punished at least slightly. I remember about fifty years ago when young Tom Riddle was attending Hogwarts. There was a student who gave Riddle the potion one evening, I believe that student was expelled." Harry, Ron, and Hermione gulped. "But that was fifty years ago, and that was when Hogwarts was under the control of Headmaster Dippet and he was quite refined." Professor Binns continued to prattle on about Headmaster Dippet for the rest of class. "I've read about Dippet, Harry, he was quite different from Dumbledore. In fact, he and Dumbledore used to butt heads a lot. They saw things quite differently. I think we should go to Dumbledore and try to stop You-Know- Who before something dreadful happens." Hermione said after class. Harry nodded his head. He knew that Dumbledore would need this information, even if it meant getting into trouble with Hogwarts. "Listen," Harry said. "I'll go to Dumbledore myself, that way if I get expelled, you two can carry on at school, all right?" "Oh Harry, don't be thick. We're all in this together." Ron said with a look of terror on his face. They walked up to the gargoyle that led up to Dumbledore's office. Harry looked up at the gargoyle and began to shout out different candies as passwords to try to open the gargoyle into the spiraling staircase. "Peppermint Toad! No? Er, Fizzing Whizbees! Um, Droobles Best Blowing Gum!" Ron laughed. Harry looked amusedly at him and Hermione scolded him to continue. "Ice Mice! Toothflossing Stringmints! Exploding Bonbons! Pepper Imps!" Harry, Ron and Hermione stood back as the gargoyle sprang open and started to spiral upward lifting a staircase beneath it. They each stepped onto the staircase and were lifted up to Dumbledore's office. Once they all stepped back onto solid ground, Harry looked at each of his cohorts and swallowed hard. As he raised his fist to knock on the door he heard "Come in" from the inside. They looked at each other and slowly opened the door. They made their way to Dumbledore's desk, where he sat, and they each took a seat in front of him. "Professor," Harry started, "w-we have something we need to tell you." Harry looked very worried. Professor Dumbledore nodded. "You see, Professor, we made Veritaserum and gave it to one of the students.then we wiped it clean from his memory." "I see," said Dumbledore quietly. "And who was it you gave the potion to? And what was your reasoning?" He leaned over his desk to listen. Harry looked at Hermione. "We gave it to Draco Malfoy, Professor. We had reason to believe he might know something about the death of Patrick Malfoy, and the whereabouts of V- of You-Know-Who." Hermione said. "And what did Mr. Malfoy have to say?" Dumbledore looked intrigued. "Well, Professor," Ron started, "we gave it to Malfoy and he told us all about his cousin Patrick. He told us how his father and the other death eaters had tortured Patrick's father and killed his mother. Then he told us how his father had been sending Patrick threatening letters, and then they gave him a book that told him how to kill himself with the killing curse." Ron finished, looking fearful of impending punishment. "That is dreadful." Professor Dumbledore said finally. "And what did he have to say about Voldemort?" Hermione and Ron cringed at the sound of his name. "Professor, he said that they were planning on killing everyone I loved. He said they were going to find me and Ron and Hermione at the next Hogsmeade visit, he said that they will die slowly to punish me for all I've done. Then he said the rest of the Weasleys will die, and Cho Chang will suffer, he said too. And he said Voldemort will kill me, it's only a matter of time, he said." Harry told him quietly. "So, Voldemort is planning on being in Hogsmeade, Harry?" Harry nodded. "I see. Well, I shall be forced to cancel all further visits to Hogsmeade." "But Professor! We could use that time to try and catch Voldemort!" Harry said. "That is true, but I don't want to endanger the lives of anymore of my students. I shall cancel all Hogsmeade visits until further notice. Then perhaps at the end of the school year, we will have an end of term visit. We will have lots of time to plan until then. You may go, except for Harry, I would like to speak to you privately before you go." He said calmly. Ron and Hermione obediently got up and left looking utterly relieved that they were still attending Hogwarts. "Yes, Professor? What is it?" Harry said cautiously and he frowned. The others had gotten away without punishment, but Harry thought, he was about to receive punishment enough for the three of them put together. "Now, now, Harry, it's not all that bad," Dumbledore said. "I didn't keep you here as punishment." Harry sighed with relief. "I wanted to talk to you about something very important. I will, of course, have to approach the ministry of magic on this point, but perhaps under the circumstances." Harry looked puzzled. "Oh, right, I'm sorry, Harry, I seem to have forgotten which one of us I was talking to." He chuckled and his blue eyes sparkled over his half-moon spectacles. "Harry, I'm going to speak to Cornelius Fudge about your learning how to apparate and disapparate a few years early. Since you seem to be the person Voldemort wants most, it seems fitting that you should be able to arm yourself with such an imperative power. I'll speak to Fudge, and if he agrees, I will meet with you every day to teach you how to apparate. We will of course have to have lessons in Hogsmeade- in private. We will prepare you for battle, Harry, and we will win!" Dumbledore said finally. "You may go to your dorm now, Harry."
By the next Friday, they made the Veritaserum and filled a little glass vial with the clear potion. The plan was that Hermione would dress up all smart like she had for the Halloween Ball and try to distract Crabbe and Goyle, then Ron and Harry would take Malfoy into an empty classroom and lock the door. Then they would interrogate him and find out all they needed to know and finally erase his memory of it. Harry, Ron, and Hermione went down to the dungeons and hid inside the room where Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party had been held three years before. They waited quietly in the dark for Malfoy to come strolling along. After about an hour, they saw Malfoy emerging from his dungeon common room. Surprisingly, Crabbe and Goyle weren't with him. As he approached the room where they were hiding, Ron prepared himself to jump out and grab Malfoy. Ron stuck his long leg out, and Malfoy tripped over it. As he began to fall, Ron grabbed him and stuck a dirty sock in his mouth and pulled him into the empty room. Malfoy was furious, but Hermione put her wand to Malfoy's throat and said, "Quietus." No matter how loud Malfoy screamed it was a mere whisper now. They had taken the sock out of his mouth and Ron, sitting on Malfoy, forced his mouth open and Harry administered three drops of the truth potion. "YOU IDIOTS! YOU WILL DIE WHEN MY FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS! YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!" Malfoy yelled in his whispering voice. "Malfoy, tell us what happened to your little cousin Patrick," Harry demanded. Before Malfoy knew what was happening, he was spilling his guts out. "My father and the rest of the death eaters had gone to my Uncle Algin's flat in London. They tortured him, they wanted him to feel the wrath of You-Know-Who for marrying a dirty muggle. They killed my Aunt. I didn't care, I hated them, I was raised to hate them, they dirtied the name of Malfoy and they had to pay. My cousin was a stupid prat to think he would be safe here. Not even that old idiot Dumbledore could have saved him." Malfoy kept right on talking. "My father was sending Patrick threatening letters, father told me to bully him, to make him miserable. So I did, I made him want to die. Then my father sent me a book describing exactly how to perform Avada Kedavra. I slipped it into Patrick's book bag that day I tripped him in the entrance hall. There was a nasty letter attached to it. Patrick couldn't deal with us anymore. He wanted to die. The note told him how to commit suicide, and so he did. My father and the others are very angry about what happened at the Weasley's house before Christmas. You-Know-Who wants you dead, Potter. You will die before the year is up you can count on that." Malfoy snarled and then he stopped talking. He glared at the three of them. "You're horrible," Hermione said with hatred in her voice. "You're all horrible." "So what if we are, mudblood?" Malfoy growled. Ron took his left arm and swiftly backhanded Malfoy's left jaw. Malfoy glared at Ron, a red handprint on his face. Ron continued to sit on Malfoy, completely disabling him. "Malfoy, what are your father's plans for the upcoming months? What is Voldemort planning?" Harry asked quietly. "Father told me that he and the death eaters were going to go through England finding those death eaters who had cowered at the return of our Dark Lord. They must die for their disloyalty. They will die. You-Know- Who is planning to come to Hogsmeade, the next time we are permitted a Hogsmeade visit. He is going to find and kill you, Potter. And I wouldn't be surprised if he killed Weasley and that filthy little mudblood over there." He nodded at Hermione. She scowled at him. Ron backhanded Malfoy across the face again. "WEASLEY!" he roared in a whisper. "If you touch me once more, you will regret it!" He looked up at Harry. "You-Know-Who is after you, Potter. He will not give you a sporting chance this time, he is going to kill you immediately on the spot!" "Really? You mean he is too cowardly to duel with me again? And listen to you, Malfoy, you can't even say his name like a real man." Harry spat. "You're so cocky now, Potter, you just wait until You-Know-Who is through with you. Father told me he is going to make you watch while he tortures your two little friends here. Then he is going to kill them slowly in front of you. Then he is going to kill the rest of the Weasleys in front of you, make you suffer before you die. How do you like that, Potter? I told my father that you're dating that Chang girl, she will suffer too. Everyone you've ever loved, will suffer, Potter, and there's nothing you can do about it." "Malfoy," Harry started, "has your father ever mentioned to you anything about Professor Snape?" "Professor Snape? Father told me that he too will suffer the consequences of disloyalty. They believe that he is still working as a spy for Dumbledore. And to think I used to admire that traitor. No one who has ever deceived You-Know-Who will have the chance to save themselves. He is out with a vengeance, and everyone who has ever wronged him will die, including Dumbledore. You think Dumbledore is so wonderful, well, there will be nothing left of him after we're through with him." "Then," Harry asked, "do you have the dark mark on your arm, Malfoy?" "No, not yet, but I shall receive the dark mark after my seventh year, then I will be free to honor the Dark Lord with my mother and father!" Harry shook his head in disgust. "Hermione, Ron, we're through with this piece of garbage." They nodded and pulled out their wands. Hermione pointed her wand at Malfoy's throat and said, "Sonorus." Ron pointed his wand at Malfoy. "Obliviate," Ron said and he wiped Malfoy's memory clean of what had just happened. He let Malfoy up to his feet. Malfoy sneered at them with no recollection of what had just happened. "What are you three looking at," he snarled. "Get out of my way!" and he trudged off toward the Slytherin common room. Ron glared after him. The three of them headed up toward the marble staircase. Once they were inside the Gryffindor common room they all sat down in front of the fire. "What do you reckon we should do, Harry? If we go to Dumbledore, we could get into a lot of trouble for administering the truth potion to Malfoy, even expelled." Ron said with a glint of worry in his eyes. Harry shrugged as he sat back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. They could catch Voldemort and the death eaters if Harry told Dumbledore what they had done. He wanted so much to tell Dumbledore, but he didn't think he had enough courage to do so. "I know what we could do, at least to start with," Hermione said. "We could hint around about what we've done to one of the professors, one who wouldn't really catch on, say.Professor Binns, for instance." Harry and Ron liked the sound of that so they waited until Wednesday, when they would have their next History of Magic class. History of Magic was by far the most boring class they had. They decided to wait until most of the class was sleeping before Hermione raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Granger?" the old ghost Professor asked in his dreary monotone voice. Hermione sat up straight in her seat. "Professor," Hermione started, glancing over at Malfoy to make sure he was asleep. "Is it illegal to give someone Veritaserum, if they were not first approved by the ministry of magic to do so?" "Miss Granger, this is not potions class, now if you don't mind, I will be getting back to the lesson." Professor Binns said with a scowl. "But, Professor, please? It would only take a moment to answer." She pleaded. "Oh, all right," he sighed. "It is not illegal to administer the Veritaserum to someone without the approval of the ministry of magic, however it is highly frowned upon and the offending party is usually punished at least slightly. I remember about fifty years ago when young Tom Riddle was attending Hogwarts. There was a student who gave Riddle the potion one evening, I believe that student was expelled." Harry, Ron, and Hermione gulped. "But that was fifty years ago, and that was when Hogwarts was under the control of Headmaster Dippet and he was quite refined." Professor Binns continued to prattle on about Headmaster Dippet for the rest of class. "I've read about Dippet, Harry, he was quite different from Dumbledore. In fact, he and Dumbledore used to butt heads a lot. They saw things quite differently. I think we should go to Dumbledore and try to stop You-Know- Who before something dreadful happens." Hermione said after class. Harry nodded his head. He knew that Dumbledore would need this information, even if it meant getting into trouble with Hogwarts. "Listen," Harry said. "I'll go to Dumbledore myself, that way if I get expelled, you two can carry on at school, all right?" "Oh Harry, don't be thick. We're all in this together." Ron said with a look of terror on his face. They walked up to the gargoyle that led up to Dumbledore's office. Harry looked up at the gargoyle and began to shout out different candies as passwords to try to open the gargoyle into the spiraling staircase. "Peppermint Toad! No? Er, Fizzing Whizbees! Um, Droobles Best Blowing Gum!" Ron laughed. Harry looked amusedly at him and Hermione scolded him to continue. "Ice Mice! Toothflossing Stringmints! Exploding Bonbons! Pepper Imps!" Harry, Ron and Hermione stood back as the gargoyle sprang open and started to spiral upward lifting a staircase beneath it. They each stepped onto the staircase and were lifted up to Dumbledore's office. Once they all stepped back onto solid ground, Harry looked at each of his cohorts and swallowed hard. As he raised his fist to knock on the door he heard "Come in" from the inside. They looked at each other and slowly opened the door. They made their way to Dumbledore's desk, where he sat, and they each took a seat in front of him. "Professor," Harry started, "w-we have something we need to tell you." Harry looked very worried. Professor Dumbledore nodded. "You see, Professor, we made Veritaserum and gave it to one of the students.then we wiped it clean from his memory." "I see," said Dumbledore quietly. "And who was it you gave the potion to? And what was your reasoning?" He leaned over his desk to listen. Harry looked at Hermione. "We gave it to Draco Malfoy, Professor. We had reason to believe he might know something about the death of Patrick Malfoy, and the whereabouts of V- of You-Know-Who." Hermione said. "And what did Mr. Malfoy have to say?" Dumbledore looked intrigued. "Well, Professor," Ron started, "we gave it to Malfoy and he told us all about his cousin Patrick. He told us how his father and the other death eaters had tortured Patrick's father and killed his mother. Then he told us how his father had been sending Patrick threatening letters, and then they gave him a book that told him how to kill himself with the killing curse." Ron finished, looking fearful of impending punishment. "That is dreadful." Professor Dumbledore said finally. "And what did he have to say about Voldemort?" Hermione and Ron cringed at the sound of his name. "Professor, he said that they were planning on killing everyone I loved. He said they were going to find me and Ron and Hermione at the next Hogsmeade visit, he said that they will die slowly to punish me for all I've done. Then he said the rest of the Weasleys will die, and Cho Chang will suffer, he said too. And he said Voldemort will kill me, it's only a matter of time, he said." Harry told him quietly. "So, Voldemort is planning on being in Hogsmeade, Harry?" Harry nodded. "I see. Well, I shall be forced to cancel all further visits to Hogsmeade." "But Professor! We could use that time to try and catch Voldemort!" Harry said. "That is true, but I don't want to endanger the lives of anymore of my students. I shall cancel all Hogsmeade visits until further notice. Then perhaps at the end of the school year, we will have an end of term visit. We will have lots of time to plan until then. You may go, except for Harry, I would like to speak to you privately before you go." He said calmly. Ron and Hermione obediently got up and left looking utterly relieved that they were still attending Hogwarts. "Yes, Professor? What is it?" Harry said cautiously and he frowned. The others had gotten away without punishment, but Harry thought, he was about to receive punishment enough for the three of them put together. "Now, now, Harry, it's not all that bad," Dumbledore said. "I didn't keep you here as punishment." Harry sighed with relief. "I wanted to talk to you about something very important. I will, of course, have to approach the ministry of magic on this point, but perhaps under the circumstances." Harry looked puzzled. "Oh, right, I'm sorry, Harry, I seem to have forgotten which one of us I was talking to." He chuckled and his blue eyes sparkled over his half-moon spectacles. "Harry, I'm going to speak to Cornelius Fudge about your learning how to apparate and disapparate a few years early. Since you seem to be the person Voldemort wants most, it seems fitting that you should be able to arm yourself with such an imperative power. I'll speak to Fudge, and if he agrees, I will meet with you every day to teach you how to apparate. We will of course have to have lessons in Hogsmeade- in private. We will prepare you for battle, Harry, and we will win!" Dumbledore said finally. "You may go to your dorm now, Harry."