Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other canon characters or plots. JK Rowling does. Any characters that she doesn't own are mine, though.
Chapter 4b: Interrogation
The first thing they did when they landed in the hospital wing was set Harry down on his old, "reserved" bed. The second was to activate the many charms they had to keep him strapped down and helpless. While Sirius and Remus were especially uncomfortable with this and had argued for almost a full day against it, they were eventually reminded of the scenario they needed to create. The ex-convict and werewolf finally agreed to it, realizing that the temporary entrapment of Harry would lead to his freedom.
That's what they hoped, anyway. Sirius still had one more trick to pull off before they could really call Harry free. But first, they needed some answers.
After Madam Pomfrey had assured herself that Harry was as well as could be expected, they administered the Veritaserum and woke him up. Fortunately, the truth potion remained unbeatable and Harry tonelessly answered each question.
"What is your name?"
"Harry James Potter."
"How old are you?"
"Fifteen." Remus glanced at the dictation quill, which had neatly printed the beginning of the interrogation in bright blue ink (to alert teachers of inattentive students) and nodded at Dumbledore. Both potion and quill were working perfectly. The headmaster cleared his throat and continued.
"What happened to you on the evening of September 7th this year, and what happened afterward?"
"I left the castle to visit Hagrid with Ron and Hermione. We had tea. He offered us rock cakes, but we all said that we were full from dinner and that with the tea, we just couldn't put anything else in our mouths." The marauders traded grins, memories of the same sort of situation with Harry's father coming to mind. "He gave us some to have later, and we took them and left. About five minutes away from the castle, I realized that I had left my bag in Hagrid's hut. So I told Ron and Hermione to go on ahead, and I went back for my bag. Halfway there, though, I heard someone start to shout the stunning spell, and I just barely dodged it. I saw Malfoy and his goons, Crabbe and Goyle, smirking at me. But before I could get away, Crabbe and Goyle grabbed me and knocked me out.
"I woke up alone in a cave later; I don't know how long I was unconscious. When I woke up I searched myself and the cave. I still had my wand and a spare piece of parchment from class, and all of my clothes. I was unharmed. There was a pool of fresh water, but I couldn't find the bottom. No spell I tried worked. I have since realized that there was an anti-magic field around the cave. Not even the lumos spell worked. I was completely helpless, despite my health and wand.
"I was in that condition for about two days, I think. I searched the cave for an escape over and over, doing nothing else but drinking water, going to the bathroom in a corner, and sleeping. I may, of course, be a few days or half-days off about how long I was in there.
"I woke up for the third time in that cave to see a figure in front of me. I could feel power practically rolling off him, more power than I had ever felt, even more than when Dumbledore got angry at the imposter last year. He said he was the god of Fate, and that he had an offer for me.
"He said that he could get me out of the cave, help me get revenge on those who had imprisoned me, and give me great power, if I agreed to serve him. He said that my only task would be to rid the world of evil in his name. He said that he was the only one who would ever truly appreciate my skills, and that he could put them to real use. I thought about it. I agreed. He made some strange gesture, and I felt something on my arm, right below my wrists. I looked down in time to see some strange red line cut through my skin. The pain was absolutely indescribable, but I couldn't fight it. I could only scream. I screamed." Harry's voice had grown odd. It seemed as if he was reliving the pain and terror, and that the memory was enough to overpower the dampening effect of the Veritaserum. Except that was impossible. Not even memory of the Cruciatus could put emotion in someone under the potion's influence.
"The next thing I knew, I was on my knees on the ground, and the pain was gone. I looked at my arms, expecting them to be nothing but bloody stumps, but there was no blood. I still had hands. He had created them somehow. Right below my wrists, where the red line had been, were runes. He said they were to represent my new position in life. He gestured again, and a sword fell in front of me. He said that it was magical and tuned to my will. He gestured again, and a snake appeared. It was asleep. It was red, gold, green, and silver. He said that the snake was my new magical familiar, and that he would let me figure the details out. Then he told me to pick the snake and sword up, and as soon as I did that, he grabbed my shoulder and we disappeared. The next thing I knew, we were in a forest somewhere. I believe it was in Germany, but I'm not sure.
"The god of Fate told me that he would leave me to figure everything out by myself. He said I had two weeks, and then I would begin my service. He said that I was not to contact anyone at all, that he would know if I did. He said that I was not to let anyone know I was still alive. I could do whatever I wanted with myself within those boundaries, though. Then the snake woke up, and bit my wrist. I fell unconscious. The last thing I was aware of was power everywhere. It was in my mind, my blood, my body, and all around me. Then I lost unconsciousness."
"That will do." Dumbledore interrupted quietly. Harry obediently fell silent. For a minute no one spoke as they absorbed Harry's story. Sirius was certain that if he hadn't had lots of time beforehand to imagine worse scenarios, he would be freaking out completely. Remus quietly cast a quick spell on the parchment to give it a few more feet. It was almost full with the dictation quill's bright blue words. Dumbledore glanced at the list of questions, crossed out a few of them with his own quill, and moved on to the next.
"What is the exact relationship between you and the god of Fate?" Harry opened his mouth to answer, but then snapped it shut with an audible click. Sirius and Remus glanced sharply up at him, then as one turned to Dumbledore, the obvious question on their lips. They still had at least another half-hour of time before the Veritaserum wore off. They were interrupted by Harry, who had gasped. The teenager's eyes, which had been clouded by the truth potion, were now completely clear, but filled with fear. He rolled his eyes frantically, trying to grasp the situation. Soon his entire body started writhing, clearly trying to break free of the physical and magical bonds holding him down. Sirius and Remus leapt up to calm him down, to no avail.
"Harry, stop, you'll hurt yourself…"
"Harry, it's fine, you're safe, it's alright…" But Harry ignored them both. His breath was coming in short gasps and his eyes had clouded over again, this time with definite fear.
"Let me go! Don't you get it? I can't be near you! He'll make me kill you! I can't be near anyone! Let me go! He's here!" Suddenly he was rigid – with terror, apparently. Stunned, Sirius glanced over to where his godson was staring now and frowned. There was nothing there. Nothing but a chair.
A chair that splintered and shattered as the god of fate appeared in its place.
Author's Note: Sorry! Sorry! I had the majority of this written back when I last updated, but somehow it got deleted and I couldn't work the motivation up to rewrite it. Well, I finally did, but then I realized that Confrontation really didn't describe this chapter, so I gave it a new name.
Either way, I need to go, or Mom will really start to yell at me. (I'm supposed to be doing my homework right now. See, I'm taking AP Chemistry right now, and I really hate it. It's about the only homework I have, but I don't feel like tackling it. So I tackled this instead, and look! A chapter! A really short one, yes, but it's here!) But I do have to get to homework, since dinner will be soon and then I'm probably going to have to go to my sister's concert. Yeah, Mom's here. I need to go.