"I have been better, can't say much for the reading material on the other hand," he voiced as he waved his hand over the discarded magazine.
...
An amused smile grew on her face at his remarks, "You should have asked for something else to read then," Madam Bones observed, as the pair of aurors behind her chuckled at their leader's answer. He knew he would never have asked, or even taken up the offer with what little remained of his pride on the line.
"Now that the pleasantries have been exchanged, let's cut to the chase shall we? You want to make a deal to escape a lengthy prison sentence, but the question is, is your information good enough to be worth it?"
"I assure you Madam Bones, the information I have is far more impressive than your other lowly informant," he voiced with a hint of smugness.
"I would say the information that my other informant has provided me with so far has been plenty impressive," she answered back airily, making it clear to him that he couldn't just give her little things of no real consequence as he'd originally planned. Big secrets would be needed if he had any hope to retain his freedom.
"I know many things. In my role as the Chief Warlock's spy within the death eater ranks I was in an ideal position to gather huge amounts of information," he offered, even as Madam Bones' lips curled in disgust.
"That's the thing, I know you weren't Dumbledore's righteous, self sacrificing spy, as he claimed, during the days after You-Know-Who's downfall," she voiced, giving him a firm probing look, before continuing with a shark-like smile.
"Otherwise, the men you betrayed would have killed you a long time ago for betraying them, for selling them out. I'm thinking you were a willing death eater, one who was sent by You-Know-Who to infiltrate Hogwarts under the cover of being the new potions master, with orders to spy upon the Headmaster and his Order of the Phoenix.
But to get the information you desired, you had to win the old man's trust somehow. And since the war was going so badly for us, the Headmaster accepted, despite any doubts he had of your loyalty, simply desperate for any scrap of information he could use.
And, in turn, you bargained for his protection as payment, in case your true master was defeated by some unexpected miracle," he resisted the urge to shuffle at her almost correct assumption. "This ensured you remained safe and free regardless of who won."
"That is an interesting assumption," he replied dryly, faking disinterest in her words, but his inner confidence was falling sharply.
A small smile appeared on Madam Bones' features, before she continued, "Indeed, but I'm wondering why he has kept you around as Hogwarts' potions master for so long. You're hardly an ideal teacher, and there have been so many, many complaints against you and your conduct. At one point I thought it was due to your harsh teaching methods achieving excellent academic results that justified your placement, but then I checked the exams results. Each year the numbers of students taking potions at NEWT level has decreased to an all time low," the head of law enforcement voiced.
"Then I considered that it might be your good friend Lord Malfoy's doing, but I dismissed that idea rather quickly. He may be influential, but I know he doesn't have the requisite influence necessary to secure your position as potions master if the headmaster really wanted you replaced. That was tested and confirmed after young Mr. Potter came to see me last summer asking for legal advice, considering your illegal uses of legillimency."
He decided to remain silent for now, rather than deny or confirm her guess work, before Madam Bones continued her assessment. "I think you are of some yet unknown use to Dumbledore. The only reason I can think of is that you are his spy and agent for monitoring your former associates, like Lucius. And with your former friends soon to be facing imprisonment, you are no longer useful or needed; hence why he has withdrawn his protection and given you over to me as a peace offering of sorts."
"That has some truth to it," he offered back with an annoyed sigh. "I'd much rather be doing other things than teaching ungrateful and untalented fools, potions."
"I can imagine that; you don't strike me as the caring type," she voiced bluntly.
"I am you know, I am the caring type, I just don't care for teaching ungrateful misbehaving snot nosed brats," he countered with a huff.
"Really? I have serious doubts about that, but we're getting sidetracked," she announced firmly, before pulling from her robe pocket a small vial containing a crystal clear liquid he immediately recognised as extremely high grade veritaserum, commonly known as truth serum by the uneducated masses of the magical world.
Veritaserum forced the dosed individual to speak the truth, but a smart, educated person, trained and proficient in the mind arts like himself, could resist its effects partially and speak half truths. In short, one could carefully edit one's own responses and tell half truths as long as they weren't outright lies. Even then it could only force the individual to speak the truth, or what one believed the truth to be, so you could lie unintentionally.
In a nutshell, it was a very useful and powerful potion, but much more so if used in the hands of a skilled interrogator aware of its limitations, which he fully expected Madam Bones to be.
Naturally, like any type of magic or potion around for long enough, there were means to counter and weaken the effects of the potion, if one was prepared in advance. Cruder methods of countering Vveritaserum were to remove the incriminating memories from one's own mind and then planting false ones in their place, but that wasn't foolproof by any means, and the signs could be spotted easily by trained interrogators.
And, unfortunately, extensive use of these mental methods could drive individuals insane if not done with the appropriate care.
The mind was a delicate thing and these modifications were far more than complex than the simple obliviations that the Ministry doled out to the muggles like they were candy.
A far more subtle and elegant method was in consuming certain ingredients and foods in advance, to counter the potion's effects in the run up to exposure. Unfortunately, this little piece of information was well known to countless magical governments and law enforcement agencies, and was dealt with easily by carefully controlling diets prior to the interrogation, or with a purging potion. That potion forced any non natural compounds out of the person's body, purifying it.
Unfortunately, none of these options were available to him and his food had been carefully selected and eating monitored while detained. He then remembered the headmaster's advice about using 'conflicting oaths' as a reason to avoid answering certain questions. "I wouldn't advise using that Madam," gesturing towards the vial of veritaserum. "The magical oaths I've been forced to take in the past may result in my death." He replied, knowing that his words were complete rubbish.
"I seriously doubt that, even though the headmaster tells the exact same lie," she answered back coldly, catching his big white lie. "Mr. Pettigrew was fine, and it worked perfectly well on other past death eaters."
"Do you want to take that chance? Especially when I'm already willing to cooperate with your ongoing investigation," he asked the stern faced woman.
"What is it you can offer? And what is you want in return for your cooperation?" she asked.
"I can tell you the finer details that Pettigrew simply can't offer you. As for what I want, I just want my freedom," he offered plainly.
"How about you tell me how you persuaded the headmaster you could be trusted as a spy?" she countered as he shuffled uncomfortably.
"That's between him and me; but a magical oath was involved to prove that I could be trusted," he replied emotionlessly, but his stomach was turning in knots at the memory of Lily, despite his best efforts to keep his emotions under control.
"The short version is a woman I loved found herself at the wrong end of You-Know-Who's attention, the type of attention that gets you killed. After that I started spying for the headmaster, while paying the role of double spy. You-Know-Who got bits and pieces of carefully chosen information, enough to validate my loyalty and continued usefulness to him, but not enough to truly damage the Order or its members. Of course, I had no idea that Peter was a spy, so my efforts didn't help much in that regard."
"Interesting," she muttered thoughtfully to herself, before looking at him again, her stare piercing, as if she was looking into his very soul. "Did this woman survive the war?"
"No, unfortunately she was killed in the closing days of the war by You-Know-Who's followers, despite my best efforts to keep her safe," he answered emotionlessly, but with a hint of bitterness, as he edited his answer on the fly rather than risk revealing just who he loved to the Aurors, even as he fought to restrain the raging emotions rebelling inside of him.
"Why was You-Know-Who after this love of yours then?" she asked, while placing the potion vial to rest on the tea table next to her seat.
He didn't know how to answer that question, at least not without revealing some shocking secrets, but it suddenly occurred to him that those secrets could ensure his freedom and win over Madam Bones' protection and trust, to a point.
"Because she was a danger to him," he answered back calmly, realizing he was starting to assert a measure of control over the meeting as Madam Bones' one good eye widened in disbelief, while the two aurors accompanying her started to mutter between themselves in disbelief. Not that he blamed them for their doubts, he would be sceptical too if he was in their position.
Madam Bones took a couple of seconds to recover her wits before replying to his shocking remark, "I find that rather hard to believe. You-Know-Who was the most powerful dark wizard in centuries after all."
"I know it's hard to believe, but You-Know-Who did consider her a real threat to him," he answered back patiently, not surprised at her reluctance to believe him. "If you want to know more, please ask your companions here to leave. This information is highly sensitive and is why the Chief Warlock trusts me," He added.
"It is also the reason why the Chief Warlock protects me, and why I shouldn't be arrested and put on trial. Especially, when I'm fully cooperating with you and have already taken the huge personal risk of being a spy for the Chief Warlock."
"That's a bold claim," Madam Bones challenged.
"But an accurate one," he answered back with growing confidence before adding. "It also helps explain the headmaster's actions and motives in recent years, which I'm sure you'll find extremely useful."
...
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