They were walking down the corridors again. Hermione couldn't help but wonder why was the Inquisition so keen to test her. This was the second time the old priest tried to test her reactions, and she was sure that they were observing her constantly. The whole thing was such a charade, like something out of bad spy movies. It would be much easier if they would just ask what they wanted to know, she would be happy to simply tell them. Only after a few steps did she realize exactly what she just thought. It caused her to miss a step. It was never about the tests, it was about manipulating her into this exact state, where she would willingly hand over information. Grudgingly she allowed herself to feel respect for the old man. Now that she knew what the game was, she had no option other than to play.
"I know what you are doing sir, it's not going to work."
The old man didn't seem to be too concerned about this.
"What is it that I am doing Miss Granger?"
She decided that the truth might be the most unexpected move here, "You are manipulating me by putting me through pointless tests so that I would feel the need to prove myself to you, and you are carefully controlling my fear of you so that I don't freak out and start lying.". She was sure that this would cause a reaction, and she wasn't disappointed. What she didn't expect is who would react. The young priest was obviously angry.
"I told you she was dangerous! She is too smart to be allowed to walk among us, nevermind the fact that she is also armed! We should stop this madness at once!"
The old priest was unfazed. He just kept walking in his pace, forcing the angry young priest to match his speed while he was ranting. Hermione also found it difficult to respond to Piotr's accusations and keep up pace at the same time. She was surprised at the level of disobedience the young priest was displaying. The Inquisition was supposed to be a fearsome military order, and in every movie she saw, the soldiers would follow orders blindly. Especially if they were religious zealots.
"Yes, you have said that already. Repeating it doesn't make it smarter.", the young priest was too shocked to respond, "But he is right Miss Granger, I did not expect you to be this fast. Very few recognize the true nature of tests, congratulations. Now tell me, what effects is this going to have?"
Hermione had to think fast. There were a few downsides to this. She lost the element of surprise, it could have been useful to be smarter than expected. The young priest was obviously considering her a bigger threat now, and she was not sure if he would act on it. On the upside, the old priest seemed happy.
"Now that I have exceeded your expectations, you will adjust them. You will now expect me to perform at this level all the time. On the other hand, with this question, you have already started to share more information with me than before.", she surmised.
"Excellent! A very perceptive response. Quite diplomatic too, since you avoided commenting on Piotr completely. Good Miss Granger, good."
For the first time, the corridors of the base stopped being featureless. There was a heavy metal gate right in front of them. As they passed through the gate, she was surprised to see another set of metal bars in front of them. They reached the prison block.
"Since you displayed such great concern for the wellbeing of 'your' prisoners, I decided you should see them. In fact, I believe you can help us gather some information from them. You are a famous leader of the rebellion, they will have certain prejudice about you. We can use these to our advantage.", explained the old priest.
"It also helps you hide the fact that you are muggles.", Hermione commented. "I think I understand a bit more how you operate. But I refuse to curse random people. Yes, they were responding to a Taboo, but some of them might be just lowly Ministry workers who had no choice in the matter."
"There is always choice. But don't worry, we don't need you to cast any magic. Just be yourself."
They entered a small dark room. One of the walls in the room was a window looking into the neighbouring room. The other room was very well-lit and she could clearly see two wizards tied to chairs in front of an empty desk. On the other side of the desk were two empty chairs. She was surprised to see the lack of guards in the room. Remembering back to her own experience, she realized that the Inquisition probably had something else besides the cameras. Probably something quite lethal if they were willing to leave adult ministry wizards alone in the room.
"Tell me Father Paul, how fast would they get shot if they tried something?"
Piotr groaned in obvious displeasure with her question. "I'm not sure why Paul doesn't just get rid of you once and for all, but I'm sure that you didn't really expect an answer to that question. We would never give out information on the base defense systems to a witch. Even to, or perhaps should I say especially to, a witch like you."
"Now, now Piotr.", the old priest admonished, "Even though you didn't answer her question, you did just confirm the existence of the automated defense systems. I'm sure that was the young lady's intention all along.". Turning to Hermione he said, "On the other hand, he is right Miss Granger. I acknowledge you as a much smarter than most other witches and wizards, but some information is on a need to know basis."
"And I don't need to know.", Hermione remembered a quote from an old movie.
"Exactly."
She turned her attention back to the prisoners. They didn't look feral, as she would have expected Snatchers to look. After all, they were led by Greyback, the out of control werewolf. As she was studying them, she noticed something that was bothering here. None of the men was looking in their direction. She could clearly see them right through the window. If she was in there, she would be looking back at her capturers.
"Are they somehow bound to look straight forward? How come they are not looking at us?"
"Ah, wizards and their lack of proper education. We are standing in an extremely dark room while their room is bright. Even with normal glass they would have trouble seeing us, and this is a special one-way glass. We can observe them, but they cannot see us. Tell me Miss Granger, what do you see?"
She had to admit to herself that she didn't really see anything. It was in the end just two wizards tied to chairs in a room. She didn't know them, she didn't know what the dark red armbands represented, what the standard Snatcher group hierarchy was. "I see two wizards tied to chairs.", was the only thing she could say, so she did.
"Yes, I wouldn't really expect you to be proficient in interrogation techniques. You see Miss Granger, you were worried that we are going to torture the prisoners physically. What you really should have been worried is that we are going to break their minds. That is after all where the information we need is. And breaking into somebodies mind takes an understanding of that mind. We know that some wizards can use spells to read minds directly. We don't have that luxury. But we do know how to read people. You will be surprised at how much you can learn just by looking at someone. The way they move their body, the involuntary movement of their eyes, direction of their attention, especially if there are others nearby. All these things can tell you exactly what you need to know. And our goal here is quite simple: get them into a state where they will volunteer information.", Hermione listened intently nodding her head, "And in the end, there is only one way to do that. We need to give them what they want in exchange. So we either need to figure out what they want now, or make them change it. Now tell me Miss Granger, what is the relationship between the two prisoners?"
"How could I know? I don't even know them!", Hermione was confused. "They are obviously coworkers, although I don't think Snatchers have anything more hierarchical than loose associations. I mean, they don't even look at each other. They are probably not even friends."
"Quite the opposite actually. If they were enemies, they wouldn't take their eyes off each other. If they were just friends or coworkers, they would be scanning the room, occasionally exchanging glances to transfer information but more importantly try to judge each other. You see enemies, friends and coworkers would all be worried about one simple question: is the other one going to betray me?". Hermione was amazed at how much sense this made. "There is only one reason why they would never look at each other: they both honestly believe that there is no way the other one would betray them. They are either best of friends or even more.".
"So what you are saying is, we know that they are incredibly close. But how does that help us? How does it help us to keep them together? Aren't they more likely to resist us when together?"
"Perhaps, but they are far more likely to try and save each other. And that is exactly what we are going to offer to them. And you will see them volunteering themselves, because nobody wants to live with the knowledge that his best friend died just to save his life.". Hermione could understand that. After all, she risked her life just hours ago for Harry and Ron.
"So now you know the plan. You and me are going in Miss Granger, and because it is quite fortunate for us that we have you here, you will be leading the interrogation.", Hermione was shocked by this, "I'm sure that they will recognize you as one of the leaders of the rebellion. This will help us greatly in maintaining our secrecy. And remember, before we go in, we need to know where they take their prisoners, who is guarding them, and do they know what happened to the team we took out when we captured you.", and with that, he pushed back her in the corridor and opened the door of the interrogation chamber for her.
She had only a few seconds to pull herself together. With a determined look, one she was hopeful it was a look worthy of a Rebel Leader, she walked into the chamber.