Harry Potter and the Puppetmaster of Hogwarts, Chapter 10
It was ironic and kind of sad that what would ordinarily have been a detention from Hell turned out to give him the means necessary to complete his plans.
He was (once again) headed to detention with Professor Umbridge, and he couldn't say that he was looking forward to it. But then- who would be looking forward to being made to write lines in one's own blood by a sadistic bitch? In Harry's mind, the fact that she was even there was a testament to Dumbledore's evil plans- he couldn't not know what was going on.
Unconsciously he braced himself, preparing for another evening of torture. He knocked, and Umbridge's saccharine voice oozed through the door like frosting that hadn't set up. "Come in, Mr. Potter."
Harry opened the door and calmly walked in, not wanting her to see that she'd gotten a rise out of him. He waited within feet of the door until she told him to sit down, and then stiffly sat, expecting the usual scheme, the Black quill which cut up his hand with every line he wrote- using his own blood for ink. Instead, she offered him tea.
He was instantly suspicious. There was no way that tea was not spiked with something; she wouldn't just invite him in for tea and biscuits for her own health. However, he did not want to tip her off as to his suspicions, so he accepted a cup- with lemon, but no sugar- and wandlessly reduced the liquid in the teacup while pretending to take a drink, although he would have much preferred to dash the tea out onto her potted plants...or on her hideous pink cardigan.
She then started interrogating him, and he realized with a shock that she had attempted to use veritaserum on him. Veritaserum. It was a very good thing that he had refrained from throwing the spiked tea out, and an even better thing that Umbridge didn't seem to know the symptoms induced by the substance she had just tried to use. So he kept his features blank, and told her what she wanted to hear, and kept his head down until she dismissed him, giggling girlishly...and as he got up to go, he slipped his hand surreptitiously into his bag and performed a discrete switching spell, swapping the contents of his nearly-empty water bottle with what was in the teacup.
Once he got back to the common room, he used his Black heir ring and some of the potion-detecting spells that Sirius had taught him to test the liquid. 60% tea and 25% veritaserum, with a further 5% lemon juice. Oh, Merlin, he was very lucky indeed not to have drank it; that dose would have been highly poisonous, as he had learned from their lesson on veritaserum in his fourth year. A dash of that liquid was going to be quite enough for what he needed to do.
It almost physically sickened him to do it, even if the veritaserum was medicinal-grade (probably from Snape's stores) and unlikely to harm those he was about to attempt to use it on. But he had to. He had to know their loyalties before he could go further. He had to know if he could trust them, if Ron and Hermione were really there for him, and not to Dumbledore and his vague platitudes- "for the Greater Good". And the only way he could be sure they were telling the truth (without resorting to legillimancy, which would be even more invasive) was to use a safe dose of veritaserum. Luckily, a golden opportunity presented itself to accomplish his task without arousing his friends' suspicions just that evening.
Like always, when there was any kind of assessment coming up, Hermione had roped the three of them into a study session in the corner of the common room, and seeing as there was both a Potions and a Defense test the next day, even Ron was attentive. However, since two of the three fifth-years were teenage boys who thought with their stomachs, Hermione had a snack break actually listed in her color-coded schedule, and Ron always made sure they had a quantity of snacks and drinks on hand for when that long-awaited time came. Tonight he had gotten tea, since it was the only beverage they could all agree upon liking, and which was available on short notice (Hermione didn't like pumpkin juice, Ron didn't like apple juice, and hot chocolate- at least the way the Hogwarts elves prepared it- took about half an hour to be ready.)
So Harry studied with the other two, chipped in when appropriate, and tried to stifle the part of him that wanted to blurt out everything, headmaster be damned. He thought that Hermione might have been worried, seeing as he was unusually tense, but she seemed to believe him when he mentioned offhand that he was having dreams of Voldemort all too frequently. And then, at last, Hermione crossed off "the ministry-approved theory of placating Elder Vampyres" off their list, as the last thing they had to study in DADA, and they all gave a collective sigh of relief. Then Hermione said "Snack next," and pulled the hat she was knitting for the house elves out of her bookbag.
Both boys tore into their food like ravenous werewolves, while Hermione gave first Ron and then Harry a disgusted glance before tearing into her own pumpkin pasty. Neither of them seemed to notice that Harry had drawn out a vial of decanter veritaserum-tea mixture out of his bag, although if Harry had not been consumed with nerves, he would have noticed that Ron shot him a sharp, calculating glance and only pretended to drink. And that was when Hermione's eyes began to glaze over. And a curse shot by his ear.
Harry whirled. Ron had gotten up, wand in hand, and was looking livid. "What did you do to her!"
"What?" Harry asked, heart sinking. Ron would never believe him after he tried something like this.
"I saw you slip something in our tea," Ron responded, in a furious but quiet voice. "So I'm going to ask you just once again, and if you don't give me a workable answer I'm going to call Dumbledore.
Harry's eyes went wide. "Not Dumbledore," he replied in an equally hushed tone. "Listen, I've got a lot to explain and we can't do it here. I used veritaserum. I need you to come with me and bring Hermione," he said, picking up the precious bottle, "and will you trust me if I give you my wand and the veritaserum vial?"
Ron stared at him for a long moment, but then finally nodded and carefully took the wand and bottle that Harry gingerly offered him. Then Harry called Dobby, who popped the three of them to the Chamber of Secrets for their discussion. In a flash of white light and a rush of steam, smelling of dish detergent, they were in the middle of the Chamber, a wide-eyed Ron taking in the serpentine columns and green half-light.
"Alright, explain," he barked at last, when he seemed to be over his shock.
Harry blinked a few times. "Ok first, how good are your occlumency shields? And second, I think you'll learn just as much from my interrogation of Hermione, and I have to do that now before the veritaserum wears off."
Ron settled for responding "Good," and nodding stiffly, still looking furious, his eyes not leaving Harry's face.
"What is your name?" Harry asked, to make sure the serum was working, pulling out a dicta-quill the twins had given him so he wouldn't have to take notes in Magical History and a roll of parchment.
"Hermione Jean Granger," she replied tonelessly, the pen scribbling down each syllable. Ron seemed to be grinding his teeth, and Harry was surprised he hadn't knocked Harry out and taken him to Dumbledore already.
"Where do your loyalties lie?"
"Albus Dumbledore."
Harry winced. "If I told you he was using loyalty potions on you, what would you say?"
"That it must be for the Greater Good if he is doing it, and that I should be grateful."
Ron's expression was slowly shifting, like a mood ring, between anger, confusion, horror and worry.
"What do you think of us?" It was evidently too open-ended a question, as she listed about fifty different things she liked and disliked about each of them, and followed it up by declaring she had a crush on a red-faced Ron.
"What are your views on Voldemort?"
"He's an evil bastard who needs to be either in an insane asylum or a prison," she responded, startling them with her language.
"What do you think of Dumbledore?"
"He's a great teacher and really wise and..." she listed a lot of over-emphasized characteristics before finally saying "...but there's a tiny part of me that doesn't trust me, and I don't know why."
Harry looked at Ron, who looked grim. And then, all at once, a noise from behind them had them whirling around with a start, almost ignoring Hermione as their hands leapt simultaneously to their wands.