Proactive Harry

First chapter: Fragments Chapter 54

"What can we-" one twin began.

"-do for you?" the other finished.

"I need a way to magically compel the truth out of someone," Harry said.

The twins looked at each other probably having an entire conversation in a glance, but then they seemed to share a brain so that wasn't surprising.

"Truth serum is a restricted substance and potion masters and occlumency masters are very resistant, one pointed out.

"Not to mention if you get the dose wrong you can poison someone," the second said.

The second year Slytherin hurried to report on what he'd heard.

"Is there any other way to compel the truth other than by potion?" Harry asked.

"There probably are," the twins chorused and frowned, one gesturing for the other to continue.

"But we haven't researched them. The truth is dangerous."

"So I've heard," Harry agreed sourly.

"What's this about anyway?" one asked.

"Every year the Defense teacher tried to kill me, so I thought I'd take care of him in advance so I could actually study and relax for once," Harry admitted.

The twins looked at each other, their faces contorting in a variety of ways as they were either communicating in some twins' shorthand or had really bad gas.

"You have a point," they chorused. "What can we do to help?"

"I need a list of all Death Eaters living or dead so I know when I run across one of their names on the map," Harry said, thinking how much easier it would have been to get Sirius name cleaned if he'd known who Pettigrew was last year, completely forgetting he wasn't known to have been a death eater at the time. Of course seeing a man's name in Ron's bed so frequently would have raised some alarm bells if Harry had bothered to pay attention to the map.

"Come to think of it I'd also like a list of everyone that is supposed to be in the castle so I can rule them out when I'm searching for intruders."

"We can handle that," the twins agreed.

"Hermione mentioned something you might want to consider, Binary Potions."

"Binary?" they chorused.

"Yeah, put half the part on something and the other half on something else, so it can't be detected. Like half in their tea and the other half in the biscuits. Means you can have tea with them and be fine, as long as you don't eat the biscuits and have the tea," Harry explained.

"That would let us get the people-" one twin began

"-who avoid eating or drinking anything unless we did it first. One of us has the tea-"

"-and the other the biscuits."

"All the detector spells in the world won't help when you are mixing it in your stomach," Harry agreed.

"This is going to be big," the twins said. "It'll take a lot of research and testing, mostly on the reaction's table."

Harry opened the door. "Just get me the list as soon as you can please."

"Will get the list of both to you, as soon as possible," the Twins chorused.

"Thanks," Harry stepped a Slytherin who was trying to act casual.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

"I'll get the word to Professor Snape as soon as we arrive," Malfoy said. "He's probably planning to use the confusion of the Triwizard to cover up his actions."

A dark haired boy rushed into the compartment ignoring the number of wands that were suddenly pointing at him. "He's got the twins involved. I overheard something about the list."

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Harry returned to the compartment feeling a bit better about things.

"Things go well?" Neville asked.

"Very. Now I just need a couple of spells to help me organize and update a couple of lists I'm getting from the twins later. Well that and do research into ways of compelling people to tell the truth," Harry said.

"I can help you with that," Luna volunteered. "The first part anyway, the second will probably require a pass to the restricted section."

"I've got a couple of those," Harry said.

"How'd you get passes to the restricted section?" Ron asked.

"Hermione needed one to find out what was petrifying people so I handed a pad of them to Lockhart and he signed a bunch without once thinking about it. Each pass is good for a year and I hung unto them."

"Oh."
"Can I have one?" Luna asked.

"Sure," Harry replied. "Remind me tomorrow morning at breakfast so I'll remember to dig them out."

"What are you going to research?" Neville asked.

"Truth, Justice, and the Canadian way," Luna replied.

"The Canadian way?" Neville asked.

"Yes, mainly how and why they put up with mimes while other countries have laws that allow you to hunt them."

Harry laughed then stopped when he realized no one else was. "You're serious?"

Luna looked hurt. "I'm not one to make up stories."

"Sorry Luna," Harry quickly apologized. "But this is the first I've heard about it. I've never heard of anything allowing people to hunt people."

"They aren't people," Luna wrinkled her nose," They're mimes."

"I thought mimes were just muggles in makeup."

"They're a form of undead. This is first year material," Luna said.

"First year I had a dark lord possessed DADA teacher who was trying to kill me," Harry replied, "He didn't teach us much."

"On second year we had Lockhart," Ron added.

"Looks like you have to hit the books," Luna said.

"So… why do muggles pretend to be mimes?" Harry asked curiously.

"Aurors confound first year art students to act that way so the muggles won't find out about them."

"And people hunt them?"

"Just the actual undead ones," Luna promised. "Well… mostly."

"And they're really 'crawl out of your grave' undead?"

"Oh yes and suffering flashbacks of being in the grave and past events," she explained. "It's why they keep reliving things that are completely disconnected from reality."

"Are they dangerous?" Harry asked.

"No, just annoying," Luna replied.

"The invisible box they keep getting trapped in is their own coffin!" Hermione exclaimed in understanding.

"First year material," Luna repeated in sing song just to annoy Hermione.

Typing by: AzureSky123