Veritaserum
Mrs. Weasley's eyes grew at the sight of Chloe. She paused, the handful of letters she had prepared to knock Sirius with remained up. Maddy, who had been waiting on the steps, dragged Siria, by the wrist, down to the kitchen. Hermione and Ron were at their heels, but Remus and Sirius lead Chloe upstairs. Colin and Dennis thundered after Siria.
Sugar. Thick, dense, whipped, heated sugar filled their noses. It was like someone lit an entire store of dessert scented candles at once. Maddy paused at the bottom of the stairs to clench her stomach and cover her nose. Dennis, on the other hand, pushed past and pounced on the table of sweets.
"Er…" Siria gawked at the rainbow feast of treats. "I… I see," she said. "Kreacher?" She scanned, but couldn't see him through all the food on the table and counters, which had been covered with tea towers.
"Mistress," Kreacher croaked and poked his head out from under the table. He gave her a huge, toothless grin and smiled back as she crouched down to eye level.
"Kreacher, weren't you supposed to take it easy today?" Siria asked.
"But Mistress, it's movie night," said Kreacher. He took her hand to take her around and point out some of the treats for the night: chocolate dipped pretzels, caramel corn, and breadsticks stuffed with cheese.
"Can you believe he didn't know what a computer was until summer?" Colin asked Siria. He poked his nose into Kreacher's laptop, which had been placed on a chair to allow more room for food on the table. Dennis smiled at the website Kreacher used for the stuffed breadstick recipe. "Now look what he's doing."
"Kreacher's a very quick learner," Siria smiled as Kreacher led her to the largest pot. "He works very hard at everything he does," she praised. Kreacher had her fill the bottom of the with oil and salt. Making popcorn together was one of his odder favorite things, in Siria's opinion. When Sirius offered to get an air popper, Kreacher nearly cried and the subject was dropped.
Once the popcorn was made and buttered, they carried the bowls up to the living room. A large television, more new than one Uncle Vernon had bought to celebrate Dudley's return from school, spanned most of the wall opposite a long sofa. The floor was cushioned and covered in pillows. There were two low coffee tables with padded legs and edges, as if baby proofed. Sirius even added a dimmer for the lights, which, at their lowest setting before off, looked like the night sky in the city with only a handful of stars still visible.
Nestled between Hermione and Dennis, Siria tried to watch the movie with the others. Movie nights mostly consisted of their suspicions to what Lord Voldemort was up to, how Albus Dumbledore may be planning to stop him, or what the Order was up to. Tonight, however, they watched quietly and listened as best they could to the pieces of conversation that drifted down the stairs.
"It's nothing we don't know," said Cassius. He turned to Siria. "Now's probably the best time." She nodded to him Ron. Ron poked his head into the entryway, where he swept up Siria's bag and brought it in. Siria slid her wand from her jacket and summoned a snake.
"Let us know when they're coming," Siria told the snake. It slithered away as pulled out her laptop and opened it up. "Okay," Siria clicked and pulled up her document. Hermione snuggled closer to Siria, so she could read the screen better. Cassius, Cedric, Fred, George, and Ron sat almost on each other, on the sofa, behind Siria. Ginny curdled up to Hermione, with Maddy and Patricia by her side. Dennis pressed himself to Siria's side, with Colin pressed just as close to him, and Alice on Colin's other side.
"So, the Order is guarding… well," Siria sighed, "something." Even behind a locked and protected door, the members of the order seemed to not want to name whatever it was Voldemort was after.
"We know it's in a public or somewhat public place," Hermione said.
"Because they need Moody's Invisibility Cloak for it," Ron nodded.
"Shame they can't cast an Invisibility Charm like Hermione," Fred said. Hermione blushed and tucked her hair behind her ears. Maddy looked over her shoulder at him, for she, Patricia, and Cassius had also mastered the charm.
"Anyways," Siria glanced to the snake, who was calmly listening to the upstairs. "They take turns and watch it over night, usually from about four or five in the afternoon until sometime in the morning."
"Maybe it's at a business," Hermione thought aloud.
"Whatever it is, it's old," said Siria. "Sirius said Voldemort wanted it, but couldn't get it last time."
"Didn't he say it was a weapon?" Ron asked.
"Like a weapon," said Fred and George.
"Sirius would have called it a weapon," said Fred
"If it was a weapon," finished George. Hermione examined Siria's scar, which caused Siria to rub at it.
"He's already got her blood," said Cassius, "and she's usually here from dusk to dawn."
"Then," said Siria, as she put both hands back on her keyboard, "there's Hagrid's secret mission, which we haven't caught real wind of…" Siria sighed.
"But he's with Madame Maxime," Hermione added, "so it's probably giant related."
"I mean, didn't Dumbledore say Fudge should recruit the giants?" Patricia said.
"Suppose I'd send them out of everyone in the Order," said Ron, "to recruit giants."
"If Fudge finds out Dumbledore sent anyone to the giants, he'll really think Dumbledore's making an army," said Siria. Hermione huffed.
"Honestly, he's ridiculous," Hermione rolled her eyes.
"To be fair," said Cassius, "Fudge saw Siria and I use Fiendfyre, which is considered above N.E.W.T. level. That's not to mention all the other things we did."
"So," said Siria as she continued. "In Snape's last meeting, he said that Voldemort was keeping a low profile, while Death Eaters of influence get in the good graces of the Ministry and Daily Prophet." Siria gave Hermione a sideways glance and smirk. "Especially with Lumos throwing a real wrench into things." Hermione blushed furiously and hugged Siria's arm.
Rather than using the name of the Hogwarts Herald to publish the interviews with Cassius and Siria, Hermione founded a new paper: Lumos. Lumos was usually more of a pamphlet that came out weekly with information on past Death Eater tactics. It was published without any names, delivered only once everyone in the house was asleep or away, and Sirius agreed to eat the cost of the paper to make it free and accessible.
Even without names, Hermione had gotten letters of support. Cassius and Siria started to get letters once the Daily Prophet published its first smear piece "The Girl Who Lied". They had only made small jabs at her the first week, when Lumos came out, but the second Sunday's paper was slander. Cassius had been reduced to a single mention "Regardless of what The Girl Who Lied and her Slytherin Senior student say[...]". The Daily Prophet article caused a storm of letters to arrive at the loft on Baker Street with encouragement, questions, and praise. Most of the letters had been without names, but Cedric and Hermione recognized the handwriting of a few Hogwarts Herald members.
"What are we doing for this week's Lumos?" Colin asked Hermione. "I got a picture of the dementors." Hermione hummed as she considered. She peered into Siria's eyes.
"No…" Hermione's voice was quiet and full of wonder. "We'll wait until after it's all settled…"
"Yes?" Siria asked.
"Do you think we could go to the Ministry with them?" Hermione asked.
"As in slither in?" Maddy nodded in the direction of the snake.
"If we can't get in ourselves, probably," said Siria.
"Maybe we can just do another piece on what to look out for," suggested Cedric. "Suggestions for what to do if you think someone is trying to recruit you or how to distance yourself from people you think might be Death Eaters?"
"What—" Alice's voice sliced through the already quiet room. She hardly spoke these days. "— if we gave suggestions for if your parents are Death Eaters and you don't support them?"
"Like, jinx household items so it's difficult for them to leave?" Ginny asked.
"Say you need help with summer homework?" Colin suggested.
"Complain you don't spend enough time with them," said Dennis. "They're not going to bring their kid to a meeting." Hermione nodded and smiled.
"I think that's a brilliant idea," she said.
"Shh," Siria hissed at them them as the snake slithered quickly over to her. She closed the document, then her laptop screen, slid it into her bag, and passed it to Ron. Ron tucked it into the corner of the sofa. Dennis put his head on Siria's lap and pretended to be asleep, while the others pretended to be immersed in the movie.
Sirius leaned in the doorway and examined Siria's face. She smiled at him like there was nothing to hide. "You wanna jump in?" She asked. Sirius crossed his arms.
"No…" his face was paler than usual. "We're starting veritaserum tomorrow," and he headed back up the stairs.
"I thought we weren't going to start until the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. prep was over," said Hermione. Most the room turned to her.
"Hermione," said Fred,
"Are you preparing for N.E.W.T.s already?" asked George.
"You even have Cassius's notes from O.W.L. year," said Siria.
"What more preparation could you do?" asked Ron. "Hermione, I think you've ready every book in this house, twice."
"I just don't know we're ready for veritaserum," Hermione confessed.
"Not us," said Fred.
"Siria," George patted Siria's wild black hair.
After breakfast, Siria followed Sirius up the top landing, where his room had been. In a sense, it still was, but he now shared it with Order members that came and went. Siria sat down in his rocking chair, beside the bookshelf. He held out half a glass of water, which Siria knew held the veritaserum. Her hand trembled as she accepted it and gulped it down.
Siria had been thrown back into the Room of Requirement, into her pool of water. It was the same feeling of suspension. There was an even weight throughout her body, but it was the shift in her mind. She was feverish and her thoughts raced, but disappeared too quickly to know what any of them were.
"What is the Order of the Phoenix?" Sirius's voice echoed through her mind. The words bounced around. They collected others and started to come out of Siria's mouth before she realized what was happening.
"The Order of the Phoenix," her own voice sounded like a faded radio station.
"Stop!" A voice demanded from somewhere inside Siria, but she followed another voice and repeated its words.
"Was founded to fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters," her distant voice continued. She knew it was aloud, unlike the voice that continued to shout for her to stop. "They were outnumbered, twenty to one. The Order of Phoenix got hunted and picked off, one by one." This was true. Hermione had learned and shared what little there was about the old Order of the Phoenix.
"Who are the members of the Order of the Phoenix?" asked Sirius's echoing voice.
"Peter Pettigrew, though he was a spy for Voldemort," replied Siria as she continued to follow the lead of the other voice inside her.
"Who are the current members of the Order?" He asked. Words echoed through her mind. There was the voice that instructed to stop, but the other was cunning. "The Order" that other voice repeated.
"Doctor Strange," Siria listed, Sirius hacked out a bark of laughter. The suspension seemed to sway like rising toward the surface of the Lake at Hogwarts.
"Who are the current members of the Order of the Phoenix?" Sirius asked.
"When Voldemort defeated himself and gave me the scar, there was no more need for the Order of the Phoenix," said Siria. Sirius repeated the question with a few variations, but Siria continued to reply similarly.
"Is the Order of the Phoenix active?" Sirius asked. His voice echoed less, like it was just into an empty room with good acoustics.
"They're lethargic." The other voice inside Siria shook its head. "It's either that or too clumsy or busy to be 'active'."
"No." Siria said. Her body tingled like chills from music.
"It's worn off, hasn't it?" asked Sirius.
"Mostly," she replied. There was no point in hiding it. Sirius patted his daughter's hair as if to further mess up the already wild mane.
"The others will join tomorrow, in the practice room," said Sirius. "Maybe seeing you will help them challenge it when it's their turn." He smiled. "Do you like anyone?"
"Loads of people."
"Any crushes?"
"War is no time for such things," she answered and Sirius's smile fell. He stood behind the chair and brushed Siria's hair. There was something about his slow hands and silence that felt like an apology.