Disclaimer: Hahahahahaha!!!! I'm rich! I'm selling this story and there's nothing you can do about it! And if you try to stop me, I'll just wave the nickel in your face! Mwahahahahahaha!! *sees scary men ringing doorbell* Er… Did I say sell? I meant… Oh well, it stinks I can't sell this, by golly gee. Ok I'll stop rambling now… I'll bet no one even read this…
The _______s are found dead (not the Dursleys!), and Harry is the prime suspect, with strong evidence against him. He would be found innocent- if only he could remember where he was when the crime took place. Self-doubt, suspicion, and terror reign as the world turns upside down- for more than just Harry Potter.
Chapter 3
The Helpless
Albus Dumbledore, and his friend, Ms. Arabella Figg, walked up the path of 4, Privet Drive.
Inside, Mrs. Petunia Dursley was pacing through the living room into the kitchen, and back, just waiting for something to happen. She felt it in the air, she thought- but then snapped out of it. That would insinuate magic. She would never be insinuating anything abnormal. Or subnormal. Or- There was a quiet knock on the door, interrupting her troubling thoughts. This was it- she braced herself, and walked up to the window next to the door, peering out. And breathed a sigh of relief. What did that old bag want? Sure, she had taken the brat off their hands every now and then- but what could she possibly be doing here? She opened the door- and saw who – or what - exactly was standing behind the old woman. And fainted. Not an elegant faint, either- or a dramatic faint, for that matter. She just sort of keeled over.
"Oh dear me," said Albus Dumbledore, looking actually quite amused as he stepped past the unconscious woman into the house. He was followed by a rather confused-looking Arabella Figg, wondering what exactly would be going on here tonight.
* * *
Meanwhile, back in the scary-looking room…
With a snap Harry realized that the chairs he had been looking at had people sitting in them. They were all wearing grey, and rather blended into the room. One of them gestured to the chair at the head of the table- the only one, Harry noticed, that was made of metal and seemed to be slightly broken. He hesitantly stepped over and sat down. The one who had motioned to him opened his mouth as if he was about to say something when the creaky door behind Harry opened. He saw all the men jump up suddenly, and turned around. He saw, to his great relief, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, entering the room.
"Sir, what is-"
"Don't talk." Fudge ordered superiorily. Harry's mouth hung open, but he shook his head and quickly said,
"But, sir, I-"
"Do you really want me to tell you again?" Fudge said, eyes blazing. "Just sit." With that, he strode to the chair opposite Harry and sat. "Well, what have you found?" He spoke to the men.
One of them cleared their throat. "Well, sir, the muggles are dead, but we were able to clear out the house before others came." Others? Harry thought, confused. "We went to inspect the house next door, his," the man jerked his head towards Harry "house. The uncle told us he had been out of bed when the uncle had heard something and went to his room to- er- politely," the man said as if he doubted Uncle Vernon could possibly be polite, "see if he knew anything about it-"
"There is always the possibility, though, Minister," said the man who had tried to talk to Harry earlier, shyly, "that the man was lying."
"Well, was he under Veritaserum?" the minister asked impatiently.
"Yes, sir, but-"
"But what? Veritaserum is faultless."
"But, sir, we've never really tried it on muggles-"
At this point, Harry tried to lean forward and say something- when he saw he couldn't move. Someone had lay a spell on him, binding him to the chair.
"Do you really think that he would lie?"
Harry tried again to say something, but the head movement involved made the whole chair he was sitting in wobble, with him bound to it, and then crash over. Blackness surrounded him as he thought no more.
* * *
Vernon Dursley looked up sleepily at the crash he heard in the entrance hallway. When he saw the two strangers, he said "Banana" importantly and then went back off staring into space.
"Er- Albus? Do you think he's all right?" asked Arabella Figg uncertainly. "He looks-er- a little unstable."
Dumbledore furrowed his brow for a minute, and then whispered, "Veritaserum."
"What? What about Veritaserum? Unless- no, did they give him some?"
"Mr. Dursley, what do you think about my hat?"
"Too pointy," Vernon replied without hesitation.
"Yes, indeed, he is under Veritaserum. I've never seen him behave this pleasantly. This should make our job much easier. Unless-"
"Unless?" Figg asked, breathless.
"I'm just not sure Veritaserum has ever really been tested on muggles…"
"Well, how could that make any difference?"
"Veritaserum works mainly by taking out the resistance in a wizard's brain that might make them unwilling to answer any questions. And, frankly, the muggle brain runs a bit differently. I suppose we shall see!"
At that, Vernon suddenly looked up at Dumbledore and said, "Banana tart?"
"Oh dear..." mumbled Arabella under her breath, but waited to see what would happen next.
Considering my reviews for chapter 2 were all from stories I had reviewed, and loved, I took the liberty of making them all links so you can go check their stories out! No, I'm not insane, and no, I do have other things I *should* be doing, but I take care of people I care for J - if you review me, I'll be nice to you too!!
Torrential Zephyr- I want to address your qualm (yes indeedy it is a great word!) that Harry was a bit out of character in the first chapter, but I have an explanation! I agree that he was out-of-character, and I normally wouldn't do that unless 1) it fits the story better (not in this case- see 'The Auction' hehe), or 2) I have good reason. I don't know how clear I made this in the first chapter, but Harry has been extremely deprived of social contact for most of the summer, and he is suddenly awoken in the middle of the night by an old woman who he's known for a while as the crazy lady next door, who turns out to be a witch. Now, his reaction might've reflected on me, but when I'm woken up in the middle of the night (and it BETTER be for a good reason) and am told/see/hear something exciting, I just get extremely hyper. And, since the thing Harry had probably been missing the most was any sign from the wizarding world, I think that his reaction would probably be something like that of a small child, when seeing what they want, they get very excited and don't shut up. And I know Harry is usually more of the quiet type, but you'll have to bear with me! I hope that cleared things up…?
Ok, as for your questions- (dude, I should really be writing the STORY write now… I am such a procrastinator) As for the first question, when Albus mentioned about the ministry wizards, you'll just have to wait and see! Hehe I'm evil aren't I… as for number 2- the Harrises were the neighbors of the Dursleys, but they're pretty muggly in my view…. J And as for where the ministry wizards took Harry, assuming I cover that in this chapter (assuming meaning I haven't really gotten to that part… or really any part… yet…. cuz…. yeah…. I, um… well hopefully that part'll be mentioned! Don't blame me, it's the HANDS!)
Wolfmoon- Thank you for explaining! I really did try to figure out what the initials meant- but there was a slight problem. You know that whole intelligence thing? Well, I have none…
The Face of Evil- Why thank you!!! That aptitude you mentioned took quite a lot of practice, because when I was at school, our teacher would always tell us not to write run-ons, or at least if we did write run-ons, to make them pretty run-ons, and at first I would always write the crummy run-ons, but then I started getting used to my run-ons, so I finally learned how to make nice and pretty run-ons! Thank you, thank you, folks, I'll be here all week…
Jess Scefing- Oh I'm sorry!!!!! I didn't mean for you to bounce off!! NO!!! WHY DO I ALWAYS CAUSE THESE THINGS!?! *takes deep breath* yeah, ok. Well thank you!!
Also thank you to Meneharma!
A/N- this was actually a relatively fast update, for me. I'm never quick about these things…