Harry Potter and the Puppetmaster of Hogwarts, Chapter 11

It was Sirius Black. "Whoa, pup, calm down!" he exclaimed, jumping back from the curse that Harry had cast automatically. "It's me."

Harry did not immediately relax. "What is the password to the Mauraders' Map?" he asked, just to be sure.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," Sirus responded calmly. "So you're going to tell them?" he jerked his head at Ron and the limp Hermione.

"Yes," Harry told him. "I was trying to use veritaserum and Ron figured out what I was doing."

"Oh. I see." He blinked a few times and then started. "Wait, where did you get the veritaserum?"

"Umbitch tried to slip me some so I pretended to drink it but spelled it into my water bottle instead."

Sirius grinned at her. "Definitely a Maurader thing to do! But...do you want me to check your friends while there here?"

"Not until you rest," Harry retorted. "You should be laying down right now, speaking of resting. And where's Snape?"

Sirius burst out laughing in lieu of a response. Harry's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. It's just that he found the lab. I have never seen him so exited in my life- he was actually smiling."

"You should have made him take a rest," Harry responded. "He's still recovering."

"I tried to," was Sirius's response. "He was doing five cauldrons at once and nearly blew my head off when I tried to interrupt him. Told me that the ingredients he were using were so rare I couldn't compensate for anything that got destroyed if I distracted him. Then he went back to chopping and hasn't looked up since. Last thing I saw he was muttering about Saluki's Law and the qualities of kitsune whiskers and completely ignoring me."

Harry smiled. "I'll go in and stun him if he doesn't take a break soon."

"Good luck with that, pup," Sirius said.

Ron had been watching their interaction, head swiveling back and forth. Finally he burst out: "What is all this with Snape?"

"Um, I'll explain...you probably need to sit down for this."

Ron only gave a look, considering that he was already sitting down on the Chamber floor, next to a still-drugged Hermione.

"I was going to get my Potions textbook when I caught Dumbledore using Unforgivables on Snape, so I took him to the Chamber and sent Sirius an owl. Sirius and I talked and then he cast some detection spells and figured out Dumbledore's been using loyalty potions and compulsions and even love potions...I just had to know if you guys were really my friends, if you really cared...I didn't know who I could trust, and I couldn't take the risk that I shared my secret and you would run to Dumbledore and tell him I'd figured it out and I'm so sorry..." Harry was almost in tears from all the tension.

Ron stared at him, slapped him hard, and then pulled him into a hug. "I-you- I get it but you have to know that I'm always going to be there for you and so is 'Mione. I mean, you couldn't make us leave."

Harry swallowed. "Ron- I know, I was just so afraid..."

"Dumbledore is a twisted bastard to make you afraid of your own friends," Ron told him.

It was at that moment that Hermione's eyes began to clear. "Harry? Ron? What's going on?"

Ron let go of Harry hastily. Sirius frowned. "Hold still," he said, raising his wand. "I need to do a diagnostic."

"A diagnostic? What happened?"

Sirius ignored her and cast a couple of diagnosics. And winced. "Ok, I need you to trust me on this," he said at last. Harry didn't like the sound of that. "I am going to have to cast some counters on you. It may or may not hurt based on how long they've been ingrained."

"Based on how long what have been ingrained?"

"Hold on, just a second," Sirius said, beginning to cast. Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Accio diagnostic paper."

Said paper flew out of Sirius's hands. Both the boys' eyes widened. "You can do wandless magic?"

"Sometimes," was her response. "I did have an incentive, you know, I hate people telling me there's something wrong with me but not telling me what it is." She started to read. "The bastard!" she burst out at last."I knew there was something up!" Then she started frowning. "Wait. This thing says 'veritaserum exposure, 9:35." She cast a quick tempus. "It's 9:42. What did you do?"

Harry cringed.

"Well this chucklehead learned Dumbledore was drugging him and decided to see whether we were in on it," Ron filled her in, "without telling us."

Hermione drew his wand. "You better be glad Ginny never taught me her famous bat-bogey..." she began. Harry flinched as she raised it. "You could have explained to us and obliviated us if we refused to take veritaserum."

"Obliviation is dangerous, 'Mione," Harry protested. "You've got a great mind- I wouldn't want to mess it up!"

"You wouldn't have, because I wouldn't have refused. And complements are not going to get you anywhere. Now Mr. Black, could you please cancel the rest of those spells?"

Sirius hurriedly began to cast, until his hands were shaking with exhaustion. At last, he lowered his wand and began digging in his pockets. "Done. Now all we have to do is make sure it can't happen again. I know some Black family magic...I could charm something..." he paused. "Hang on, I might still have a few Black family rings. I don't have any of the ones that resist the imperius with me, but this one detects love potions and keeps your mind from being read and I think this one blocks compulsions and veritaserum..." he handed the love potion and legillimancy one to Hermione (Sorry, but I think that you're more at risk from being love potioned) and gave the other to Ron, after he made sure the boy had the usual pureblood occlumensy training. Then he leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes.

"Sirius?" Harry asked. "Oh, God, we shouldn't have asked you to do that while you're still tired- are you ok?!"

"I've been better, pup, but it's not like I'm made of glass or anything."

It was then that he fainted. Again.