Chapter Four: Veritaserum

"Well done, girl," a cold voice muttered, looking at the house (which was now lop-sided due to the horiffic event that had happened between the walls). "You've done exactly as I asked. You killed Arthur, which is great. Yes, I know he was your father and it really was rather horrible to kill him... but you've helped me."

Ginny, who was hidden behind a wardrobe cowering in horror, could not speak. She didn't want to be under the Imperius curse anymore. It was awful. It was awful to perform horrible, heartless tasks that an evil wizard wanted you to do. She was under his power and couldn't stop the Imperius curse. No one could, only him. Ginny had been on the point of asking him to do this but then realised she would be killed for disobeying him.

"I... I didn't want to do it sir." She swallowed as she waited for his answer.

"Well, you did, and what you did will help me to gain power." His eyes flashed cruelly at her. "Now, I have my next set of instructions."

Ginny dreaded these moments.

"Go on, sir." She swallowed again and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her left ear.

"I wish for you to part with your mother. Molly will be under my power once she is dead, don't worry, sweetie. Now, go and do this and report back to me."

Ginny's eyes flashed yellow. She crushed the paper cup she was holding, and threw it at him. Her breathing had become short, sharp and forced. "No. I'm not going to kill her. There's no way I'd do that."

Police crews, cars and a crane had assembled outside the Weasley's house. Harry, who had escaped after Ginny had frozen him by using a non-verbal spell to melt ice, was watching all the action unfold from a bush about half a mile away. Ron was with him. Having managed to unfreeze himself, Harry had woken Ron from his dream after being knocked out by running ice cubes along Ron's legs. Together they had then unfrozen Hermione, Mrs Weasley, Luna and Bill. They hadn't been able to find Mr Weasley, since he hadn't been in the room at the time.

"Mr Weasley's been killed," Hermione muttered.

Ron looked round in horror, mouth agape. His ears went red. "Why? Why would anyone want to kill our dad? I thought he was going to die two years ago. If that was an attempt on his life, why didn't they finish him off then? Why now? Hermione, please. I'm going mad here."

Hermione rubbed her hands together.

"They nearly killed him when they used that snake," she said at once. "Why, then, didn't they instruct the snake to attack again and finish him off?"

"Ginny killed him," Ron said to himself.

Hermione brought out a book, and gasped. "What? Ginny killed her father? Ron, do you have evidence for this? Oh, if she did I really want her to be found out."

"She tried to kill me," said Ron coldly. "I have a burn mark here, look." He showed Hermione his arm. There was a deep purple bruise. Ron bit his lip. "Wrong arm. Hang on." He showed her his other arm, where a crimson burn was tattooed onto his skin. Hermione put a hand to her mouth. "She burned me with her wand. I dropped her, then she knocked me out. Harry rescued me and here I am."

Hermione nodded.

"So she must have killed him," Ron finished logically.

Harry kept quiet through this conversation. He hadn't yet told Ron or Hermione that he'd been inside the snake's body when it attacked Mr Weasley - but only in his dream. It wasn't real life. He wasn't a snake. He also couldn't believe that Ginny would join Voldemort when she had fought against him two years ago. What had made her change her mind?

Hermione gave him a goblet of smoking golden water. "Drink it, Harry. It's Veritaserum, but it's supposed to be clear. I've put too many beetle eyes into it."

Harry, who wondered why Hermione wasn't panicking because her potion was the slightest bit wrong, took the goblet from her and drank all the Veritaserum in one sip. "Not much, was there?"

Hermione looked at him with daggers in her eyes. "I couldn't make much. The storecupboard in your house, Ron, is really feeble and lacks ingredients," she told Ron. He raised his eyebrows and pouted. "Ron. I'm joking. Harry, I couldn't make much at all because it was with fear of getting caught in the process."

"Oh, I understand. Did you make extra for me?" Ron mumbled.

"Yes," Hermione said smoothly, taking out a second goblet from her bag and also a small bottle of Veritaserum. "You can pour it yourself, okay?"

Ron held the goblet between two nimble fingers. "Do I have to drink it out of a goblet? Can't I swallow it from the bottle? I'm used to doing that." He looked longingly at the tiny bottle that held the powerful potion.

Hermione shrugged. "Okay."

Ron handed her back the goblet, unscrewed the cork with his sharp fingernail and drank the entire contents of the bottle. Hermione gasped. "Ron, you shouldn't have taken that much. The Veritaserum in that bottle is ten times stronger than the one that Snape makes," she said frantically.

Ron, who appeared to be drunk, shook his hand. "So what?"

Harry put a hand on Hermione left shoulder. "Hermione, Snape isn't a teacher anymore. Who's saying that he still makes that potion? He probably only did it while at Hogwarts."

Hermione ignored him. "Ron, we'll have to get Molly to see if she can cure you. I didn't mean for the experiment to go this far and only wanted you to tell the truth for a while. I wanted to know what really happened when Harry and I were frozen. That's all I wanted to know."

Harry frowned.

"Well, then, why did you give me Veritaserum if your plan was to give it to Ron?"

Hermione took a deep breath. Her eyes were red around the edges, possibly from sadness or anger. Harry didn't know why her eyes were odd and didn't want to ask. "I don't know why, Harry. I guess I'm just truth-hungry. Maybe I wanted to know the truth about every lie you've ever told."

Harry said nothing. He couldn't. The Veritaserum was already working, and he knew it would only be a few minutes until he would start telling Hermione the truth about everything in his life. Hermione had moved away from them. She was sitting on a rock and wiping her eyes.

Harry immediately felt sorry for her.