Chapter Two
"What's a Veritas Cube?" Harry asked as Snape took a seat on the sofa.
"Sit." The potions professor commanded. Draco obediently settled himself in the nearest armchair, but Harry did not move from his spot on the floor. "In the chair, Potter." The man snapped.
Once Harry was seated, Snape eyed both boys as he began to explain. "The Veritas Cube was an unfortunate invention from my school days. It was a game - sometimes used for more sinister purposes - but a game nonetheless. The box was often given as a gift, and the receiver, along with five other students, could enter the cube to answer questions truthfully about themselves - hence the veritas part of the title. Usually, these questions were posed by other members of the group. In many ways, it is not unlike the muggle game of truth or dare, only without the dare part."
Harry raised his eyebrows at Snape's knowledge of the muggle world but didn't comment as the professor continued.
"The catch is that once a question is asked, it must be answered by each member of the group. The answers are recorded in that book," the potions professor nodded toward the text on the table. "Each time an answer is given and recorded, the page will glow either red or gold. Red indicates an untruthful answer, and the group will not be allowed to progress until a truthful one is provided. Gold, therefore, indicates an answer is true. In most cases, the game is not completed until the book has been filled entirely. This particular invention was forbidden at Hogwarts in my fourth year after several student cohorts disappeared for weeks due to squabbling among themselves."
"Hold on, you're telling me I might be stuck here with Scarhead for weeks?" Draco asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." Came the silky response.
Harry ignored the snide remarks. They weren't unexpected considering he was stuck with the two Slytherins who probably hated him the most. Instead, he decided to voice another concern.
"Sir, how are we supposed to survive in here for that long? There's no food, no loo, no water."
The potions professor sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose. "If memory serves me, and it usually does, I believe that question will be answered soon enough. Open the book, Potter, and let us begin this inane ordeal."
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Harry leaned forward in his seat and flipped open the cover of the book. The moment he did so, the quill on the table sprung to life and dipped itself in the inkwell. It moved to the first page, and scrawled neatly across the top:
1: What is your name?
Underneath, it drew three blanks.
"I guess there are some precursor questions." Harry said, looking up at the older Slytherin. Snape glared, but gave a single acquiescing nod from his space on the sofa.
"Okay then." Harry swallowed as he looked back down at the book. "Harry Potter." He watched as the quill wrote his name in the first blank, and the page glowed gold.
A moment later, the names Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape were written in the other two blanks, and the page lifted, ready to be turned.
Flipping to the second page, Harry watched as the quill wrote the next question.
2: What day were you born?
"31 July" Harry said. The quill scrawled the boy's words, but the page flashed red, and the text disappeared. Harry tried again. "31 July 1980."
Harry watched the page flash gold before turning to Draco.
"Fifth of June 1980."
Both students then turned to their professor, who appeared increasingly bored with this process. "9th of January 1960"
Draco's eyebrows shot up as the quill scrawled Snape's response. "You're only 33?"
Snape's eyes narrowed. "Of course, I'm only 33, you impertinent child. How old did you think I was?"
The younger Slytherin had the sense to look abashed. "Um, 34?" He tried, while Harry bit his tongue to keep from laughing.
The professor scowled but did not comment on the matter further. "Turn the page, Potter."
Harry did as instructed.
3: Where did you grow up?
The Gryffindor stared at the question, wondering what sort of response was required. Did he need to give the full address? Or would the general location suffice? He wasn't sure if he wanted either Slytherin to know where he lived. Not that he thought Draco would ever deign to step foot on a muggle street, but he wouldn't put it past him to send his lackeys to make Harry's life unpleasant. The thought of Crabbe and Goyle on Privet Drive, though, was laughable. He was caught up in a fantasy of them squaring off against Dudley when a set of fingers snapped in front of his face.
"Really, Potter," Draco drawled from beside him, "as thrilled as you must be to be in my company, I would rather get on with my life."
Harry scowled at the blond but looked down to find "Cokeworth" and "Wiltshire" already written in the other two blanks.
"Little Whinging" He supplied, turning the page as soon as it flashed gold. "Well, that's easy enough." He said when the quill completed the next question.
4: What is/was your Hogwarts house?
It took only a moment for all three to answer that question. Harry watched as the quill completed the second "Slytherin" entry and flipped the page as it flashed gold. The quill quickly went to work.
5: What are your parents' names?
The Gryffindor opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Draco.
"Lucius Malfoy." The boy said with a hint of arrogant pride. The paper flashed gold, and he then stated "Narcissa Malfoy."
The page flashed red.
Both Harry and Draco's brows creased in confusion. After all, Narcissa Malfoy was Draco's mother.
Or was she? Harry thought. Before Harry could entertain any thoughts of Draco being a stolen muggle-born, though, Snape spoke up.
"Try her maiden name, Mr. Malfoy."
Draco raised his eyes from the parchment to Snape, and then back down again. "Narcissa Black." The quill wrote out the name, and the paper flashed gold.
"Wait, Black?" Harry's eyebrows raised to his hairline. "As in Sirius Black?"
The Slytherin boy rolled his eyes. "Yes Potter. He's her first cousin. You'll find that most purebloods are related to each other. Even the Potters, unfortunately, are distant relatives of ours"
Harry flopped backwards in his chair, his arms folded over his chest. "I should have known that the mass murderer who's trying to kill me would somehow be related to you."
"Yes, and as Mr. Malfoy has already pointed out, that mass murderer is likely also distantly related to you. Now answer the question, Potter."
Much more distantly. Harry thought, but out loud he said, "James Potter." The page flashed gold, and he opened his mouth to say, "Lily Potter," only to pause when he remembered that he needed to say his mother's maiden name. But he didn't know what that was.
"I swear, Potter, you're making this take forever. Just say your mother's name!" Draco snapped. The blond had taken up a more relaxed position in his chair, with both legs hanging over the side.
Harry looked up in a slight panic, and his eyes met those of the potions instructor, who was watching him with shrewd eyes from his position on the sofa. "I – I don't know it." He stammered out. "her maiden name, I mean."
"What kind of dunderhead doesn't know his own mother's name?" The Malfoy heir queried from the opposite chair.
Snape's eyes had narrowed considerably. "Your aunt never spoke of it?" He asked, ignoring the question that had been posed by the room's other Slytherin occupant.
Harry shook his head. "She's never talked much about her childhood. I tried to ask her about my grandparents a few times but she seemed – I don't know - resentful of them. And the only thing she ever told me about my mom was that she and my dad died in a car crash, which turned out to be a lie."
In his peripheral vision, he saw Draco's eyebrows raise at this admission, but the boy didn't make any snarky remarks. Snape, for his part, looked away and muttered something under his breath, something that sounded a lot to the Gryffindor's ears like "she would."
The man turned back to Harry. "Evans, Mr. Potter. Your mother's maiden name was Evans."
Harry gave a single nod, and then stated, "Lily Evans."
"How did you know that?" Draco asked the potions master incredulously as the page flashed gold.
"Mr. Potter's parents were both in my year at Hogwarts." Snape said, raising an eyebrow "Surely, in similar circumstances, you would be able to produce very basic information about your own peers."
And with that, the older wizard turned to look down at the book on the table. "Tobias Snape." He enunciated. He waited for a flash of gold and then added. "Eileen Prince."
As the page flashed a second time, the distinct sound of something falling filled the room. The three occupants looked over to find the bricks from small archway crashing down to the floor one by one. It took only a short moment before all of them were collected in an untidy pile. The doorway was open.