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The morning was going wonderfully. So wonderfully that Dom decided to pause the sun in the sky to prolong it.
He'd finally been able to create a sort of dummy wizard to send through some of his traps. . . . Purely for testing reasons of course. Zuriel (and it was completely a coincidence that Dom had named it that) wasn't anywhere near as capable as a sentient being, but it could move like a wizard and knew to try and get away from danger. It couldn't react to things intelligently or creatively, but it could mimic a person terrified and in shock. Dom was having fun watching Zuriel attempt to escape his snake pit when Harry's voice interrupted.
"Dom," she said, her voice ringing throughout the pyramid. "The ministry is about to administer veritaserum. Use whatever magic you need to stop me from spilling anything."
And then she went silent. Dom, in eagerness and determination, rushed to Harry's core.
Her magic was agitated; swirling and leaping faster than normal. As he ingested a handful, all of the stars and planets in the room slowed until they stopped revolving. Then a clear glaze began to erupt from inside them and wrap around each of the memories, leaving them looking more like marbles than planets and stars.
That glaze had to go. Dom twisted his body into a dragon, gathered Harry's magic inside him, and roared fire at all of the nearest marbles.
It was thrilling, better than true dragon flame. But Dom had a time limit. He dropped the flame—
—to the sight of a bunch of perfectly intact marbles.
He transferred a small bit of Harry's magic into his hand, sending it around one of them to look for weak spots, but even when the magic tried to batter its way through, the glaze didn't crack.
Dom stood back and glared. One of the marbles suddenly lit up from the inside. For a moment Dom thought he'd done it with the force of his anger, but of course it wasn't that easy.
Dom turned away and growled, (slightly impressed with how intimidating it sounded coming from a dragon's mouth) then closed his eyes and focused.
He could just barely hear Harry talking, in the real world, her voice emotionless.
". . . I am the daughter of Lily and James Potter . . ."
No, no, NO! This was not happening. Dom had been entrusted by Harry to stop this (one of the only times Harry had entrusted him with anything) and he was not going to fail!
If Dom couldn't get rid of the veritaserum, he was going to have to make it so Harry couldn't answer. Harry had hidden everything in this room, including the manual controls for her body. If Dom could find the one that connected to her mouth, then he could shut off Harry's blabbering before she revealed anything important.
-
Auror Dawlish really did feel bad about doing this to Potter's daughter, but if he didn't then someone else would. Harry's part in this ruse was almost certainly more than she and Black had admitted, and the aurors needed to know what she knew. She might receive fines if she'd been more involved than she'd claimed, but Dawlish was confident that, overall, finding the Rigel kid would be the best thing for the Potters. They could afford some fines, and knowing where the Rigel kid was would ease the pressure on the Potters.
He was nearing the end of the basic security questions, designed to ensure the person under veritaserum was not just a person under polyjuice who had altered memories. The exact questions changed every time, but they always focused on specific events or people. It was possible for someone to be confounded to the point where they believed themselves to be a different person, but when grilled on specific events, they would only have their own experiences to pull from. Once they started explaining those it was easy to recognize when they weren't who they thought they were.
"What gifts did you get at your eighth birthday party?
"Mom got me a flower that sang me awake every morning. It was nice for two weeks until the charm started to wear off and it sounded like a frog. Dad got me—"
Suddenly, for no discernable reason Dawlish could see, Harry's arm flung itself up into the air before going limp and dropping back down over the arm of the chair she sat in.
Dawlish had never seen that happen in a veritaserum interview! He'd have to add that in the report—
Harry's leg swung up and over the side of the chair—so fast it almost seemed intentional. This illusion was shattered when her body, obeying the law of gravity, tilted toward the other side and dropped off the arm of the chair. Harry's unruly hair was now covering her face and she did not look comfortable.
Dawlish stayed still, unsure what the protocol for this situation was. He was pretty sure he couldn't legally touch her . . .
Harry was explaining Remus's gift (as she'd been doing undisturbed throughout her body's rebellion) when she cut off in the middle of a sentence.
Dawlish had a moment where he felt Harry was about to stand up normally—the first person to throw off veritaserum—but she just lay there, limp.
Dawlish looked down at his list of questions, as if hoping it had answers.
-
"Ah-HA!" Dom crowed triumphantly
—though the sound came out completely distorted through his sharp teeth.
He'd finally found Harry's manual controls (represented as a small meteor) and from there it was easy to stop Harry from talking. If he just held on to it, then it wasn't in Harry's control and she couldn't talk. Easy as. . .
The meteor jumped right out of Dom's hands.
-
After a moment of silence, Dawlish decided to at least attempt the questions.
Starting at the top of the list, Dawlish asked the slumped figure in front of him, "Do you have a method for contacting the Rigel kid?"
Harry's head jerked to the side. Then, in the same bland voice: "No."
"Does the real Arcutus Black?"
There was a moment of stillness, then Harry thrashed, flipping over onto her back. Her feet were now in the air and her head draped off the end of the chair.
"Yes," Harry said. "Every week Archie—"
"—also letters, though—"
"—much faster to—"
Dawlish watched, amazed. Was Harry editing herself? That kind of control seemed unbelievable at her age . . . Maybe there was something wrong with the batch of veritaserum she'd drunk.
Her behavior was concerning. But just as Dawlish was about to call someone in, Harry stopped. She was still sprawled practically upside down on the chair. Dawlish hesitated, uncertain about continuing.
Before he decided, Harry reached one hand up, brushed the hair out of her face, and opened her eyes.
-
Dom glared at the little meteor where it hovered next to a nearby planet. It was slippery and evasive. Every time the veritaserum compelled Harry to answer, it did everything within its power to escape Dom's clutches.
It was strong. But it wasn't strong enough.
Dom had both withstood and brought down empires. He had dominated dragons, sphinxes, and wizards alike. He had motivated a severely drugged girl to climb a tower! He was going to control that meteor if it WAS THE LAST THING HE DID!
With a battle cry worthy of goblins, he sprung. His claws wrapped fiercely around the piece, and before it could jerk away, Dom shoved it into his mouth and swallowed it.
-
"Hello," Dom said politely to the man sitting in front of him. He'd considered trying to intimidate him, but the man had just silently watched Dom struggle to maneuver his body into a proper sitting position and he was pretty sure it wouldn't work. How did people do it? The limbs were so heavy! Dom had considered trying a full possession before, but this was so much harder than manipulation! He couldn't seem to move limbs simultaneously, and it was a pain to do anything moving them one at a time. He'd stick to his tried and true method for now. . . . Not that it was going particularly well with Harry. . .
"Hello," the man returned stoically. "Are you aware the veritaserum isn't supposed to wear off for another 45 minutes?"
"Ye—" Dom choked. Harry's body rebelled, and Dom could feel as his mouth moved and a toneless voice said, "No. I didn't know that."
Dom froze. The veritaserum was affecting him. Not completely, but Dom hadn't even known what he was saying until he said it. This could still be a disaster. After all that, his mouth was just going to spill Harry's secrets and she'd go to Azkaban and it would all be Dom's fau— No. He couldn't freak out. There had to be a way to do this.
The man silently evaluating him was not helping with Dom's not-freaking-out.
Mr. Silence glanced down at the papers in front of him. "Do you know where Rigel is now?"
Dom could feel the mouth opening, ready to reveal all secrets—
"I sort of have an idea," Dom blurted instead. Dom couldn't not answer, but he also couldn't lie . . . "Not exact coordinates or anything. In fact, I can say that I have no idea where —" Dom couldn't force out "he", "—Rigel is. Except that I know exactly where Rigel is, but not in comparison to anything else."
The man stared at Dom for a long time.
Finally, he resumed questioning.
"Is Rigel on the continent?"
"I don't know."
"Is Rigel with his parents?"
"No."
"Is Rigel an orphan?"
"No."
The man frowned at the list, then casually tossed it away and leaned forward.
"How would you describe where Rigel is right now?"
Dom swallowed (an uncomfortable movement). Gray, sparse, and here all came to mind . . . except . . .
Harry wasn't really here right now, was she? If Dom was here, then she was probably in her mindscape . . . but there were two . . .
Dom took a deep breath, and felt more in control. He'd dealt with Sphinxes before, and knew how to mimic them.
Staring into the man's eyes, Dom said calmly, "Rigel is either somewhere in a desert or in a field of flowers. Somewhere up high or deep underground. Surrounded by sand or stars. A maze or traps--"
"Alright," the man said, standing up and moving to loom over Dom. "Back to yes or no. Did you know Rigel was a halfblood when the ruse began?"
"No." Dom was still in a pyramid then.
"Have you aided him since he escaped?"
". . . Not really." That . . . shouldn't be true . . .
"Have you ever brewed polyjuice or an altered version?"
"No," Dom said sullenly. He wasn't useless! Why was he just letting the man question him anyway? " . . . And I want to stop answering questions now."
The man looked at him in a way that somehow seemed both attentive and dismissive. "One more, and you can go."
Dom didn't know enough to judge whether or not letting him have one question could prove disastrous. But if worse came to worse he could cover his mouth and try to run . . . if he could figure out how to use the limbs . . . Dom, wanting this to be over, nodded.
"Who is Rigel?"
Dom bit hard on his lips in the effort to not say "Harry" or "weilder", but he had to answer. His mouth opened.
"The best person I've ever known."
Dom froze . . . That was true? I mean, it was, obviously, but still . . .
"Alright, you may leave now," the man said finally, opening and holding the door wide.
"Thank you," Dom said blankly. Then he stood up and walked out in a dignified manner.
Yes. That's what happened. There was definitely no clinging to the chair, stumbling, or tripping onto the floor until the man finally called Harry's parents in to carry him out. But if that had happened, it would not have been Dom's fault because bodies are hard.