A/N: Another chapter for all you amazing people! This story is nearly over. Two more chapters, probably. Who else is excited?

Review responses:

kaykay25: I can at least fulfill one of your wishes, hehe :P. Hope you enjoy this chapter too!

MidnightGoddess2112: I know hehe. So glad you liked what I wrote. *accepts kisses and blows some back*

Sindhuja: Yep, it was her! Half the answers you'll get in this chapter, the rest is in the next :3

juneb: You will find out soon enough! Here you go, a brand new chapter :D

Once again, I'm not JKR. HP is hers. NLG is mine. Now lets get on with the story. :3

CHAPTER TWENTY: INTERROGATION

"He is stable now, Harry," said Madam Patil, wiping her hands on a small towel. "The poison wasn't administered in a dose large enough to kill him."

Harry, who was sitting on the chair beside James' bed, let out a sigh of relief, covering his face with his hand. "Oh, thank Merlin," he groaned.

Teddy let out a breath he hadn't realised he had been holding. Beside him, Albus hugged Lily tight, both of them smiling through their tears.

The last hour had passed by in a blur. Once they had got over the shock of things, Harry had quickly gathered James in his arms and literally sprinted through the castle, trying to get him to the Hospital Wing before he lost anymore blood. By that time James' seizure had stopped and he hung limply from Harry's arms, his face ashen, lips blue. He was barely breathing. Teddy had feared the worst.

Professor Longbottom and a few other teachers had followed Harry to the Infirmary, but Teddy and the Aurors stayed behind. The other teachers were trying to get the crowd to disperse. Teddy stayed back with his cousins; he could see James later on. First, he needed to get some answers.

"What happened?" he demanded, rounding on Albus.

"He... he just got up from the table and collapsed," Albus answered thickly, wiping his nose on his sleeve. "Teddy, he won't... James won't die, will he? We've already lost Lu..."

Teddy shook his head furiously. "No, he won't. He can't just die." James had to live. "But how did this happen? Did you see him eat or drink anything before?"

"He just had a sandwich and a glass of juice," Dominique said quietly. She still had one arm around Lily, who was now sniffling quietly. "He didn't even want the juice, but Clara was begging him to have something and he -"

"Where is she?" Teddy demanded, tensing up.

Clara. Of course, he should have known it'd be her. After all, she was the one who slipped Lucy the poison -

And suddenly, like an oncoming train, it hit him. He finally remembered what it was he was forgetting.

Sneaking, son of a -

"I don't know - I think she went to - there, by the door!"

Teddy swivelled around. Clara was running towards the double doors, looking back towards him frantically, and he thought he detected a slight of fear in her eyes. He rounded on the Aurors. "Don't let her escape," he barked.

A few seconds later, the Aurors had tackled her to the floor. Teddy strode over to the girl, who was still struggling with the Aurors, screaming for them to let her go. One of the Aurors brought her to her feet.

"Clara Elizabeth Stettin," Teddy said loudly, ignoring the gasps and mutterings coming from the student body that still remained in the Hall. "You are under arrest for the murder of Lucy Weasley and for the attempted murder of James Potter. You do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not mention, when questioned, something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. You shall be relieved of your wand immediately and any attempts at wandless magic shall result in your incarceration in Azkaban for life, without trial." He took out the handcuffs from his pocket and placed them over her struggling hands. They clamped shut, magically sealed until the correct keyword would be spoken.

"How long before he wakes up?" Teddy croaked, pulling himself out of his memories.

"That depends on how fast his body recovers from the shock, but I'd wager it'd take four to five hours," Madam Patil said.

"Do you know what he was poisoned with?"

She shook her head. "I'm running the tests, but the results haven't come in yet. I do know it was definitely in the juice, though. Whatever it was, it was mixed in the juice."

Clara had given his the juice.

Harry nodded. He then looked at Teddy. "Have you got her?"

"She's in custody of the Aurors," Teddy said. "They've taken her to the Ministry. I've asked them to keep her in interrogation till you get back."

"Good." Harry stood up, squeezing James' unmoving hand once. He turned to Albus and Lily, and said tenderly, "I need you two to be strong. Look after your brother will you? Mum will be here soon, I've sent her a letter".

"Yes, Dad," said, Albus, his voice unwavering. "Should I call the others? They've been waiting."

"I bet they are all waiting outside the door right now, trying to listen in," Harry said, glancing at the open door; Teddy barely heard hushed voices arguing, their owners no doubt hiding away from view. "Make sure they don't crowd around him too much."

Albus nodded.

"Come on, Teddy, let's go."

Half an hour later, Harry and Teddy walked into the interrogation room located inside the Auror office. There was a large mirror on one wall and a flaming torch on the other. A large table sat in the middle of the room. Behind the table, facing them, sat Clara Stettin, her hands crossed over her chest.

"Why am I here?" she demanded the minute her eyes landed on them.

"You know why," Harry countered, slamming a file and a few books down on the table before pulling out one of the chairs opposite her. The metal legs screeched against the stone floor. Harry sat down on the chair, while Teddy opted to lean against the two-way mirror, so that he could see both Clara and Harry.

"State your full name for the record, please," Harry said, taking out a long wad of parchment and a blue quill from one of the drawers. The quill immediately started scribbling on the paper.

She mumbled something under her breath.

"I'm afraid the quill won't be able to hear you if you talk so quietly, Miss Stettin," Harry drawled. Teddy didn't know how Harry was so calm. He could see the hatred for the girl reflected in Harry's eyes. But the way he spoke and moved, no one would be able to guess how truly furious he was.

"You already know my name," she snapped, louder this time.

Harry sighed impatiently. "Are you trying to make this more difficult for you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Do you want to know the charges of impeding an Auror investigation? A murder investigation, to boot?"

She was quiet for a second, before saying, "Clara Elizabeth Stettin."

"That's better," Harry said. "Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Place of residence?"

"Brooklands, Manchester," she grumbled.

"Miss Stettin, you have been arrested for the murder of Lucy Weasley," Harry said. "What do you have to say about that? Remember," he added, when Clara had opened her mouth to speak, "that we have evidence in favour of this statement, on the basis of which we arrested you."

"I didn't do it," Clara said stubbornly.

"You deny it?"

"Yeah."

"Will you consent to repeat your statement under influence of Veritaserum?"

She scoffed. "Fuck, no. You can ask me all sort of shit and I can't deny anything I don't want getting out. There's no way I'm agreeing to that."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Very well, but your hesitance certainly brings your integrity under question."

"Whatever."

"So, Harry continued. "You claim to have a perfectly reasonable excuse for your absence from Hogwarts on the following days?" He opened the file and handed her the paper from the very top of the stack. Teddy knew it contained the list of dates of the visits paid to Zachary in Azkaban.

Clara grabbed it and her eyes scanned through the list. "I do," she said. Teddy didn't miss the slight wavering of her voice.

Harry crossed his arms and leaned back. "We're all ears."

Clara cleared her throat, uncrossing her arms and tapping her fingers on the table. "My mum's ill, so I took leave from Hogwarts to go visit her. My sister had a baby, so some of them were to go see her and my nephew. I had to go to London for some visa related issues - Dad's a Muggle, so we have to board a flight to go abroad, and other stuff like that." The recorder quill scrawled away on the parchment as she spoke.

Harry pointed at the paper in her hand, leaning forwards again. "Do you know what that is, Miss Stettin?"

"No."

"That's a list of dates of whenever Zachary Williamson was paid a visit in Azkaban. Do you know who that is?"

Teddy believed he didn't imagine the slight widening of Clara's eyes when she heard the news.

"Yeah - no, I mean, not really."

"Hmm. that's funny."

"Why?"

"We'll come to that later. Right now, you're saying it's a coincidence that those dates correspond exactly with your leaves from Hogwarts?"

Clara mumbled something unintelligible.

"Speak up, Miss Stettin!" Harry snarled, clearly annoyed.

"I-I said yes, it is."

"I can show you something that isn't, though," Harry said, putting aside the file and taking out a diary. "This is Lucy Weasley's diary. Minister Weasley was kind enough to send it to us today after he found something... shall we say interesting, while going through it in remembrance of his daughter."

Clara stared at the diary, looking slightly panicked.

Harry opened it to a tabbed page and read aloud, "It's been a week since the poor girl, Alison, died. I feel so bad for her. Uncle Harry took the case, and he linked it back to her boyfriend. I can't believe it - how can her own boyfriend KILL her? Just cause he didn't want the baby? That's so twisted. I also expected Clara to be a bit more sad - Alison was her cousin, after all. Granted, Clara had a crush on the bloke and she was awfully ticked off when he asked Alison to Hogsmeade all those months ago instead, but I thought she'd be over that by now. I can't imagine what I'd do if one of my cousins died. How can she be so unruffled by all this?" Harry finished, and looked intently at the Clara.

Clara wiped a bit of sweat from her brow. Funny, the cooling charms were working fine, Teddy thought. "I don't see what that has to do with this case," she shot back. He didn't miss the way her shoulders were hunched.

Teddy remembered what Auror Instructor Smethwick had told them during their seminar on Suspect Interrogation: Interpreting the body language. "If a suspect feels an intrusion into their personal space, they will shut their eyes, shy away from you, or hunch their shoulders. Innocent people do not do that."

Clara's body language so far had spoken louder than her words.

"Alison MacDougal and Lucy Weasley both died by croton oil poisoning. Both of them were pregnant. Both murders were pinned on their boyfriends after the poisons were found with them. You had feelings for both of the boys. One was your cousin and the other was your friend. The only common link we found between the two of them is you. "

"Who-who the hell said I had feelings for James?"

"Let me answer that," Teddy spoke up, finally moving away from the wall and walking towards the table. He pressed his palms to the surface and leaned towards her, his weight supported by his hands. "You lied to me, remember? All those days ago when I first met you at Hogwarts? Remember I asked you a few questions?"

Clara nodded. Teddy could now see the beads of sweat on her forehead, and it gave him a vicious sense of satisfaction. "You said you were friends with James first and then you met Lucy through him. But today, when I was at Hogwarts, I distinctly remember James telling you that you were not his friend, and he couldn't figure out why you hung around with him even though Lucy died."

Clara fumed. "Well, I did meet Lucy through him. I was trying to get to know him better, but Lucy was always there with him, wasn't she? He was never interested in me anyway! So I kind of gave up and started talking to her instead, and we became close! What's so wrong with that?"

"So you poisoned him because he snubbed you?"

"Yes!"

Teddy and Harry exchanged a look.

"I mean - no!" She immediately backpedalled, eyes wide. She licked her lips. "I-I didn't poison him! Why would you say that?"

Teddy could hear Harry breathing hard, and saw his fists clenched tightly. "We have witnesses who said that the last thing he had to drink was a glass of juice you forced him to drink."

"But he also had a sandwich, didn't he?" Clara shot back.

"Ah, but the reports of his stomach wash found traces of poison in the remnants of the juice, not in the bits of sandwich," Teddy deadpanned, taking the report from the file and slamming it in front of her. "A search of your trunk was conducted after your arrest, and do you know what we found? A vial of the same poison, stashed away safely in your socks. What do you have to say to that?"

Silence.

"The second charge against you," Harry said coldly, his eyes burning, "is the attempted murder of James Potter. You're lucky he is still alive. Otherwise, with the evidence we uncovered was enough for a life sentence to Azkaban. If anything happens to him, Stettin, I swear -"

"Harry," Teddy warned, pointing to the quill, which was still writing everything that was said. Harry could not make threats, not when everything he said was admissible to court. Harry growled, staring at Clara with hatred.

"You want more proof?" Teddy asked, showing the parchment with the statement from Madam Patil. "The croton oil was stolen from her two years ago. Lucy was poisoned this year. Before that, Alison was killed with croton oil. You know what the same circumstances in both case suggest? That you killed Alison first, due to your infatuation with Zachary. Since he chose your cousin over her, you decided to kill her the moment you learned she was pregnant, and snuck the oil into his trunk somehow. And then, you went to visit him disguised as his father, and got him out, hoping to probably rekindle a relationship with him? Did he know that you were the one who got him in Azkaban in the first place?"

"Shut the fuck up, Werewolf," she spat.

Teddy snorted. "Real mature," he said, ignoring the sound of Harry's gritting teeth. "So after that, when you found out he died, you decided to pursue James again. But by that time, Lucy was already in a relationship with him, something you couldn't digest. And, when you found proof that Lucy was intimate with him, that is, the day you found out that she was pregnant, you decided to kill her too."

Clara was staring at him murderously.

"So you decided to slip her the croton oil you still had in your possession," Teddy continued, closing in for the kill. "of course, you had every chance to do it. You shared a room with her. Who else could it be? You were her closest mate. You knew what she did every day. Who else knew her routine well enough to slip the poison into something she consumed every single day without fail?"

"I already told you I don't knew who slipped the poison into her potion," Clara sneered.

Teddy smirked, his eyes gleaming. "Precisely."

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Wh-what?"

"Miss Stettin, I don't think Auror Potter or I have mentioned anything about a potion so far."

She blanched, all colour draining away from her face.

"You see, Miss Stettin, I knew I was missing something terribly important, something that I couldn't remember, for the life of me. And then, when I heard that you were the one who gave James the juice, something clicked. Remember when I interviewed you the last time, you told me that you didn't know who snuck the poison into Lucy's potion. But the thing is, no one knew about that. Not a single person on the outside knew about it. So how did you know to say that sentence to me?"

"I - I didn't... I -" She stuttered, sweating profusely. Her eyes darted towards the exit, then towards Harry and Teddy, as if planning to escape. A futile attempt. They were in a floor full of Aurors, eight levels below the ground. She had nowhere to run, and nowhere to hide.

"Do you still deny killing Lucy, even after every single proof we gave you?" Harry asked.

She breathed heavily, eyes still darting around, paying no heed to Harry.

"Answer me!" he bellowed.

She jumped, alarmed, looking at Harry. She cowered, noticing his murderous look.

Finally, she spoke one word. One simple word that finally cemented the case shut.

"No."

A/N2: And there we have it. she admits killing Lucy! It's all over. Nearly. Two more chapters left!

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-Nadia.