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“Tomorrow, your Veritserum will have finished. We will be testing the potions on each other. You will each be given a potion, made by one of your classmates. Only I will know who brewed the potion. I will call each of you privately into my office and ask the question or questions to determine whether or not the potion was properly brewed,” said Snape at the end of class the next day.


“Not bloody likely,” said Harry as he and Hermione left the dungeon. “I want someone in with me when I go in there. He’s going to try and take advantage of this, I’m sure. If he try to get information out of me than I’m sure he’ll try to get it out of you.”


“What do you want to do about it?” asked Hermione.


“Are there any members of the New Order who have an off period while we’re in Potions tomorrow?” said Harry.


“I think Ron does. Please don’t tell me you want him to sneak into Snape’s office with us,” said Hermione.


“Fine, I won’t tell you,” said Harry. “He could take full advantage of this if he wants to. Maybe he wants to get the prophecy from me or some other information for Voldemort. I can’t take that risk. I don’t trust him to grade it either, so I bottled some extra to take to Dumbledore if I don’t get the right grade on it. I know I brewed it correctly.”


Ron, it turned out, did in fact have a study period at that time, and so agreed to accompany Harry and Hermione to their potion test.


“After I have asked your questions I will give you an antidote that will end the effects of the Veritserum. You will still remember what transpired,” informed Snape.


Harry waited as one by one students were called into the Postion Master’s office and left the dungeons, sometimes looking rather embarrassed or angered. Harry was the last to be tested. From checking the map he knew that Ron was hidden and had made sure that nothing incriminating had been discovered.


“Drink, Potter,” instructed Snape. Harry took the clear liquid from the Professors hand and drank up. As soon as he swallowed he felt his sense of responsibility and all of his inhibitions melt away. It was a feeling very similar to the Imperious Curse, except that he was more aware of his surroundings and didn’t think that he could fight the potion


“What is your full name?”


“Harry James Potter,”


“Who killed your parents?”


“Tom Marvolo Riddle, Peter Pettigrew and Severus Snape.”


Snape’s eyebrows rose at his name, but he didn’t comment.


“Who killed Sirius Black?”


“Bellatrix Lestrange,”


“What is your least favorite subject?”


“Potions,”


“Who is the person most important to you?”


“Ginny Weasley,”


Snape had a smirk on his face and the part of Harry’s mind that wasn’t clouded by the potion was filled with dread. He had just put Ginny in even more danger than before.


“Very well, it seems that this potion was brewed properly. Unfortunately, I seem to be out of the antidote, so you will just have to let it wear itself out. I hope that you don’t have any secrets at this time,” said Snape with a look of glee.


Harry walked out, a glazed look in his eyes and saw that the only one still in the room was the last person he wanted to meet when he was under the influence of Veritserum, Draco Malfoy.


“I hope you haven’t got too used to being in this class Potter. The way you brew potions I’m surprised that someone didn’t get poisoned,” said Malfoy.


Normally Harry would have simply ignored Malfoy’s taunts, but the potion compelled him to respond in a toneless voice, “I know I brewed my potion correctly.”


If Malfoy was surprised by Harry’s tone he didn’t show it, but merely asked, “So, why don’t you make life easier for both of us and tell me that prophecy?”


Harry couldn’t stop himself from opening his mouth to answer. Luckily, he found that no sound was being produced and realized that Ron has cast a Silencing Charm on him. Still hidden under the cloak, Ron steered Harry out of the room and towards the common room, where Hermione was working on her homework.


“You two took awhile, I was beginning to worry,” said Hermione.


“Snape conveniently ran out of the antidote, and guess who was waiting outside his office to pounce?” said Ron. “Luckily I was able to silence him before he went around telling the prophecy to Malfoy.”


“What did Professor Snape ask?” said Hermione.


“A bunch of things, but I don’t get how any of them told him whether or not the potion worked,” answered Ron, recounting the questions Snape had asked.


“I’d imagine Snape was trying to get a reaction out Harry. His parents have always been a sore spot between those two, especially now that Harry knows that Snape was at least partially responsible for their deaths. Those questions were designed to push Harry’s buttons and get a reaction out of him, which, let’s be fair, Professor Snape is good at. I can’t really imagine Harry answering those questions as calmly as it seems he did. This means the potion must have been causing his responses,” said Hermione.


The potion took an hour to wear off, setting Harry behind on the day’s homework. Even Hermione had to admit that Snape had gone beyond his normal treachery. What most concerned Harry, however, was Ginny. He was certain now that Voldemort was going to go after Ginny. Snape’s question had served either as a warning or as a taunt.


“Harry, what’s are you doing, you’ve barely written anything on Flitwick’s essay?” asked Hermione.


“I need to talk to Ginny about something Snape asked,” responded Harry.


“I’m right here,” said Ginny, sitting next to Harry.


“I need you to be careful. During my test with Snape I said that you were the person most important to me,” said Harry.


“That’s sweet, but why do I need to be careful?” asked Ginny.


“Because I’m fairly certain that he was getting that information for Voldemort. He wants to know who he can use to lure me into another trap,” explained Harry.


“It’s difficult to kidnap a student inside Hogwarts and Ginny’s fairly well protected at home by virtue of her large family, how would he go after her?” asked Hermione.


“It’s been done before,” said Harry darkly. “Why couldn’t he just have Snape give Ginny a Portkey?”


“That wouldn’t work, after the Ministry admitted Voldemort was back Dumbledore put up wards to stop that from happening. No one can Portkey in or out,” informed Hermione.


“Well then I don’t have any idea, just promise me you’ll be careful, ok. I can’t get anyone else killed,” said Harry. “Have Luna come up with ways that Voldemort might try to kidnap someone.”


Harry was a bit on edge for the rest of the week, so he was relieved when that Saturdays Quidditch match against Slytherin arrived with all of the hype that always surrounded the house rivalry.


“And now Gryffindor Captain Katie Bell leads Chasers Ginny Weasley and Dean Thomas, Beaters Seamus Finnegan and Colin Creevy, Keeper Ron Weasley and Seeker Harry Potter,” introduced the announcer. Harry looked up to see that Lee Jordan had left his post at Fred and George’s Diagon Alley shop to return to his announcing duties.


After Katie shook hands with Malfoy, the Slytherin Captain, before taking off into the air. Katie took possession of the Quaffle and passed it to Dean, who quickly scored. The Slytherins tried to respond quickly, but Ginny intercepted the shot and scored a goal of her own.


“Excellent play by the Gryffindor Chasers early. Of course it’s only a matter of time before the Slytherins resort to their usual cheating and-” said Lee


“Jordan,” warned McGonagall.


“Right. Anyway, Slytherin in possession of the Quaffle. Bell almost intercepts the pass,” continued Lee.


The match continued, with Gryffindor maintaining a comfortable lead. Finally, with the score 120 to 70, Harry saw the Snitch gliding near the ground underneath the Gryffindor goal. Malfoy noticed the Snitch, but much too late, and his Nimbus 2001 was no match for Harry’s Firebolt. The Gryffindor fans temporarily halted a rendition of Weasley is our King to cheer their victory while Seamus declared that there would be a party in the common room.


“So that’s how Potter convinced the Weasley to be his arm candy. It looks like you had to pay off big brother also,” said Malfoy in the hall as they went back to the Common Room after the game. “I can’t say I blame them. Those brooms are probably worth more than the rest of your possessions put together. What I want to know is how Potter here was able to afford them. The Potter’s weren’t Weasel poor but it’s not like they were Malfoy rich either.”


“Draco, Draco. It amazes me that you could be so behind in the affairs of your own family,” said Harry. “Does the phrase Black Fortune mean anything to you?”


“Yes, it’s sitting in my family’s vault right now,” said Draco.


“Actually, Malfoy, if you’d remove your head from its normal location up your arse you’d know that there is no way Sirius would let you get anything of his. The fortune has been split between me and those important to me,” said Harry.


“What, that’s an outrage! We’re his closest relatives, that money is ours!” shouted Malfoy.


“If Sirius hadn’t specifically stated where his money was to go, perhaps it would be yours. But sine a will was left you get nothing,” said Hermione in such a lawyer like manner that Harry was sure that she had researched this matter before.


“We’ll see, mudblood. Enjoy rolling in your unearned gains while you can. No one robs the Malfoy’s,” said Malfoy before turning and heading back to the Slytherin Common Room.


Fresh from their confrontation with Malfoy the four Gryffindors went to, for the fifth time since arriving at Hogwarts, celebrate a victory over Slytherin in the Common Room.


“Great catch today, Harry. Would you like a Butterbeer?” it was Romilda Vane, holding a bottle that was suspiciously already open. A sniff of the air told Harry everything he needed to know. There was a faint flowery smell coming from the bottle that Harry recognized as Ginny’s perfume.


“Oh, um, sure thanks Romilda,” said Harry, taking the bottle and walking away.


“Are you insane?” asked Ginny when she got to him.


“No, I’m actually quite brilliant,” assured Harry. “Hermione, will you please show this to Professor McGonagall? I’m fairly certain it’s against school rules to try to give another student Amorentia.”


The Prefect took the bottle and left in search of the Transfiguration Professor as Romilda tried to hide the look of fear in her face. The party continued into the night until Professor McGonagall came into send them all to bed and warn Romilda the if she attempted to give Harry Love Potion again she would have a month’s worth of detention. On Sunday Luna gave her theories as to how Voldemort could kidnap someone, which ranged from the logical (there are no wards in Hogsmeade) to the Quibbler worthy (Voldemort was training an army of something called Snaggles, which were supposedly elephant shaped beasts that were invisible except when exposed to smoke). Eventually it was agreed that they were the most vulnerable in Hogsmeade.


“But what can we do? Is there some spell we can use to identify Portkeys or make it so that they won’t work on us?” asked Ron.


“Not to my knowledge there isn’t, but I don’t think we need to worry about Portkeys. I don’t think that that’s how Voldemort would come after us,” said Hermione.


“Why not?” asked Ron.


“Because, if Voldemort is going to kidnap Ginny or any of us it will be because he wants to lure Harry into a trap. Therefore, he is going to make sure that Harry knows where we are being held, or else Harry won’t be able to try to save us. If he uses a Portkey, Harry will have no way to find whoever it is that gets kidnapped,” said Hermione.


The discussion continued until Harry turned his attention to Animagus training. Harry was able to successfully transform portions of his body, but had yet to complete a full transformation. Harry concentrated on the image of his panther Animagus form, suddenly he was lower to the ground, his vision sharper. Harry looked into the mirror that they used to conference with Fred and George to find a green-eyed panther standing where he had previously been. After a few minutes of running around, giving his new body a test run, Harry transformed back into his human form to applause from the rest of the group. The Chosen One did not acknowledge the praise, however, but merely moved along to his next transformation. Hermione shrieked a little when the black serpent appeared in Harry’s place.


“So, when are you going register?” asked Hermione.


“Are you kidding? Can you imagine the fall out if the whole world knew I was an Animagus, much less capable of multiple forms? The press would have a field day,” said Harry.


“But it’s illegal,” said Hermione. “I’d hate for Fudge to have something else he could use against you.”


“I don’t see how he could find out unless someone told him and even then he’d have a difficult time proving anything,” countered Harry.


“If someone saw you transform…”


“They’d have to prove that I didn’t simply do a human to animal transfiguration with my wand,” said Harry. “I’m not registering and neither should the rest of you when you complete your transformations. I don’t want Voldemort to know I’ve got another weapon to use against him.”


“Fine. Just be careful. I don’t want to think about what will happen if you get caught,” said Hermione.


“Neither do I, but I can’t let Voldemort find out about this,” said Harry.


“Congratulations, by the way. That’s really impressive magic,” praised Hermione.


“What’s really impressive that mastered it before Hermione,” said Ron. “That has to a first. No one ever master’s a spell before she does.”


“Just because it takes an act of God to get you to focus on your work doesn’t mean Harry’s a lazy slob also,” said Hermione. “Besides, Harry’s been working a lot harder on this than the rest of us have.”


“It would have taken me forever if I didn’t have the Marauder’s journals. Sirius could have made a great teacher,” said Harry wistfully. “Not that he would have wanted to. I can’t imagine him being in a position with that much responsibility. It would be like naming Fred and George Head Boy.”


“So, what are you planning for your next lesson?” asked Ginny, who Harry knew was trying to distract him from dwelling too much on his late godfather.


“I think I’m going to do the Burning Hex for the fifth through seventh years, Stunning and Impediment jinxes for third and fourth years, Expelliarmus and Petrificus Totalis for second and first years,” answered Harry.


“I wonder if we’ll ever get around to learning about Unforgivable Curses,” commented Ron.


“I’m not really eager to repeat those lesson,” said Neville, who Harry remembered had been shaken when Crouch taught them about the Cruciatus Curse.


“But they are more important now than they ever were,” said Hermione.


“The only one that he can teach anything about is the Imperious Curse. The other two you just have to dodge,” said Harry.


“True. I’d imagine that would be the one that we’d have to spend a lot of time on. I’d imagine that Lupin would simply make sure we can recognize the others,” said Hermione.


It was during this conversation that Harry was overcome by the sense that he was missing something, that he had been overlooking an important detail or had forgotten to do. Harry confirmed that he had all of his weekend homework completed, though he suspected that whatever he was forgetting was more important than that. He knew he hadn’t forgotten anyone’s birthday, Hermione’s was in a few days, but he had already gotten her gift, and Ron’s was not until March. Harry took out his frustration on his pillow, unsuccessfully trying to convince himself that he was fretting over nothing.