Chapter 110: The Interrogation
Several days passed in a state of tension. The teachers piled lessons on the students to keep them from dwelling on the danger surrounding Hogwarts, and fortunately, the children shifted their attention back to their studies quickly enough.
"Daphne, is everything ready?"
I looked at my friend and assistant, and she gave a slow nod.
"Yes. I've prepared the potions, chosen the location, and already written the love notes that will draw them there."
I gave a satisfied nod.
"Excellent. Now they just need to arrive without anyone tagging along."
"Don't worry. I'm much more of a Slytherin than those two, who barely have a brain between them. They'll come alone. You can be sure of that."
I nodded.
"Good. Then let's go. You send those letters to our two idiots, and then we wait."
"Of course."
Daphne and I left my room.
---
***Several hours later***
I was tucked into one corner of the room under my Invisibility Cloak. Daphne was in another corner, and we waited for our guests to arrive.
The door gave a quiet creak. Goyle and Crabbe stepped inside.
"She wrote to me..."
Crabbe elbowed his companion.
"No, to me!"
Goyle punched him in the stomach.
"No, to me!"
They had clearly been having this argument for some time. When the door swung shut behind them with a quiet creak, neither of them paid it the slightest attention. The first Paralyzing Jinx shot from my wand and struck Goyle. The second hit Crabbe immediately afterward. Both bodies dropped to the floor with a dull thud.
"Draco."
Helena's head appeared through the wall.
"Are you certain about this?"
"Don't worry."
I shook my head.
"I have no intention of harming any students. I simply need to verify some information and determine whether their fathers were involved in the attempted poisoning of our district's residents. We mean them no harm."
I nodded towards the paralyzed bodies.
"Do you mind if I watch?"
"Not at all."
I uncorked a flask of Veritaserum already diluted in water. I turned one body over. It was Goyle. I poured the liquid down his throat, then lifted the jinx.
"Your name is Gregory Goyle?"
"Yes?"
"Are you aware that your father intended to poison the Black district?"
"No."
"Who might know about your father's plans?"
"Lord Crabbe."
I sighed, gave the boy the antidote, paralyzed him again, erased the last five minutes from his memory, put him to sleep, and laid him back on the floor. I turned the second boy over and poured Veritaserum into his mouth.
"Your name is Vincent Crabbe?"
"No."
"What is your name?"
"Julius Crabbe."
"You are Vincent's father?"
"Yes."
"Does Gregory Goyle know that you replaced Vincent?"
"No."
I gave a slow nod and glanced at Helena. She understood immediately and disappeared into the wall. I turned back to Julius.
"Did you attempt to poison food supplies destined for the Black district?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Bellatrix and Narcissa betrayed us. They refused to reaffirm their vassal oath and provide us with funds. We were on the same side, the side of the Dark Lord, and they chose to disregard that. Our families were nearly ruined as a result. This was the best moment to take revenge."
I sighed.
"Where is Vincent?"
At that moment, Julius blinked, and it was clear he was beginning to come around. I immediately administered another dose of Veritaserum. His eyes glazed over again.
"Where is Vincent?"
"At home. I considered it too dangerous to send him to Hogwarts."
"Was Lord Goyle aware of your plan to poison the food supply?"
"Yes."
"Did he take part in devising the plan?"
"Yes."
"Did he take a direct part in carrying out the poisoning?"
"Yes."
I closed my eyes and drew a long, slow breath, then let it out. With a wave of my wand, a Patronus appeared beside me. I sent it to my mothers, asking them to come to the school and collect the prisoner involved in the attempt to poison the district's residents.
"Draco!"
Dumbledore came through the door urgently, looked quickly around the room, then spotted me and Daphne, along with the paralyzed figures on the floor.
"Draco, what happened? Helena said someone had taken a student's place."
"Yes. Vincent was replaced by his own father."
"And why?"
I nodded toward the man in the boy's body, who was still under the effects of the potion.
"Why did you replace your son?"
"I needed to wait for the right moment and, when it came, get close enough to Draco Black to abduct him."
"Why did you go into the room you were lured to by a love letter?"
"I hoped it was genuine and that there would be a girl inside, one I could put under Imperius and have her do whatever I wished."
I gripped my wand a little more tightly and fixed Julius with a look of pure contempt.
"What did you plan to do with Black after abducting him?"
"Black himself was to die. But we would have used him to blackmail his mothers, and when they came with a ransom, we would have seized them."
"Draco, don't do anything foolish."
Dumbledore's voice was a warning, and I looked at him with slight puzzlement.
"I wasn't going to."
"Truly?"
He nodded to the side, and I followed his gaze. My wand, which I had been holding in my hand without thinking, had an unformed spell flickering at its tip. The color of Avada Kedavra. I stared at it for a couple of seconds, then extinguished it by sheer force of will.
"I see. That got to me more than I realized. Headmaster, would you be able to open a portal for my mothers?"
"You want to hand Julius over to them?"
"Yes."
"Of course, but let's wait for the Polyjuice Potion to wear off first."
"You're certain that's what it is?"
"Yes. I've already run several diagnostic charms, and the response was quite unambiguous."
I blinked.
"I see. It seems I wasn't paying close enough attention."
"It happens."
The wait was not long. Twenty minutes later, Vincent's father stood before us, paralyzed and clearly uncomfortable. His body had reverted to its true form but remained in the same clothing, which had split in some places and was digging into his skin in others.
"I think it's time to take him to your office."
"Yes. And..."
"The Binding Jinx on Goyle will wear off in fifteen minutes. He'll have lost his friend, but I don't see any great harm in that. Let him write to his father. His father will panic and start making mistakes."
I answered the question Dumbledore hadn't quite asked.
"I'd advise against that."
Dumbledore pointed his wand at Goyle. A wave of magic flowed from it.
"You and Vincent quarreled. You don't want to hear his name. You've decided he's a traitor."
I blinked.
"That way, you'll have time to deal with his father before he realizes your mothers are coming for him."
I gave a grateful nod.
"I hadn't thought of that."
We moved together towards the Headmaster's study.
"Draco!"
Cissy came shooting out of the fireplace and threw herself at me.
"Are you all right?"
"Yes."
I smiled at her. A few seconds later, Bella came through the fireplace and went straight to me as well, pulling me into an embrace. Julius looked on with hatred, though mercifully, the binding charms kept him from saying a word.
"So then, Julius. You decided to infiltrate Hogwarts."
Bellatrix looked at the man who had once been her colleague with undisguised contempt.
"Well, in a way, we're fortunate you came up with this plan. Though it was probably your wife who thought of it, since you're far too stupid to manage it on your own. If you hadn't, it would have been considerably harder to get to you. And now you're in our hands."
She looked at the man steadily, and something of what she felt must have shown through, because I saw fear in his eyes, followed by panic.
"Shall we take him?"
"Go ahead."
Dumbledore waved a hand.
"I need to think about how to prevent this kind of infiltration in the future. If it weren't for Draco, some of the girls here could have been seriously harmed by Julius."
My mothers left with the prisoner. Before going, both Cissy and Bella hugged me once more and gave Daphne an affectionate pat on the head.
"I confess, I did not expect this."
I shook my head.
"Nor did I, Mr. Black. Nor did I."
"And I never noticed anything unusual in his behavior throughout my time teaching him. He imitated his son so effortlessly."
"In fairness, it was not that difficult to do, and the fact that the other professors, with far more experience, also noticed nothing suggests that your chances of catching it were essentially nil. He chose his timing well. If he had infiltrated after the New Year, his changed behavior would likely have been spotted much more quickly. But as it was, everyone had already half-forgotten exactly how Vincent used to carry himself."
I accepted Dumbledore's explanation with a quiet sigh.
"And since we find ourselves here, this is your third year teaching at Hogwarts. How do you like it?"
Dumbledore settled into his chair and offered us seats with a nod.
"On the whole..."
I looked up at the ceiling.
"...not bad. I wouldn't say that teaching in a school will become my life's calling, but I'm fairly certain I'll take on students far more often than most masters do. And I won't be turning down group lectures."
"No desire to teach in a school at all?"
I gave a slight grimace.
"On the whole, I enjoy it. Most of the students reward you with their progress and genuine effort. But then there are the ones like Crabbe and Goyle. They drain your will to teach any group you lack the power to remove them from."
"A shame."
"Oh? Has something happened?"
I looked at Dumbledore with curiosity. He had let out a sad sigh when I answered.
"Nothing of the sort. I have simply been watching you, and I have come to the conclusion that you are, on the whole, a rather good teacher."
"Well."
I turned my wand over thoughtfully in my hand.
"I haven't ruled out the possibility of continuing to teach. But in any case, the responsibility for the district rests with me."
"I understand, and I am glad you haven't dismissed the idea out of hand. Particularly since your own school will need teachers as well."
Dumbledore seemed intent on steering me toward a career in teaching, or perhaps he had something else in mind entirely. What exactly he hoped to gain from this conversation, I could not work out.
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