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The Rivalry	By : Pseudonymous_Entity Category: Harry Potter > General > General Views: 4959 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: If you recognize it from the Harry Potter books, I didn't come up with it. I'm not making any money off of this story nor do I intend to. It's purely for entertainment.

Chapter List
- 10
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The room was large and filled with nothing but rugs, plush blankets, cushions and pillows of various sizes and three boys. After a short explanation of how the room worked, Potter paced in front of a bare bit of wall, instructed by Percy Weasley to think of something comfortable, since no one knew how long he would have to stay there. Potter took it a bit more...literally...then intended.

"I almost wish there was a derivative of Veritaserum available...this isn't exactly a failsafe method you know."

"What do you mean?" Asked the Weasley.

Draco rearranged himself on his giant cushion so he could see the other two. Potter, who lay on his back and was staring at Percy upside down, gave an odd hand gesture.

"Are you attempting to communicate or is he meant to steal second?" Draco inquired.

Green eyes rolled. "I just don't think it's quite as effect as it's believed to be. For instance, the whole point of using it is to divine whether someone is guilty or innocent of whatever they happen to be accused of, agreed?"

"Yes." said Percy.

"Alright, well, what if they skipped any actual interrogation, the control questions and motivation and all of that, and just asked the straight question?"

"What about it?"

Potter let his head fall back and stared up at the ceiling. "Okay here is a scenario for you. Imagine someone is asked if they killed someone else? And that person answers yes, not because they were directly responsible but because of an action or inaction on their part that allowed the death to occur? They believe they are responsible, so they say yes. In this case, because it appears to be a confession, and you wouldn't normally assume someone confessing to murder was lying for kicks or something, might it be possible to assume the authorities will take that at face value?"

Percy sat up. "Skipping the Veritaserum and a proper trial altogether."

"Exactly. It's both true and not true, isn't it? They did answer the question honestly, they believe the answer they gave to be true, but they didn't give the answer the questioner was looking for. How would anyone know? For that matter, using the Veritaserum has issues. You can say 'Why did you push Mr Smith on to the train tracks?' And under Veritaserum one could say, within the confines required by the Veritaserum its self, that it was because their arms moved forward and the strength of their arms plus their velocity caused Mr Smith to fall on to the train tracks. Technically they are admitting to murder, but also, technically they aren't. It could have been an accident, but no one asked if was an accident, only why it was done. There ought to be a potion that still contained the compulsion to tell the truth without forcing you to give the literal answer to the question. Something that forces you to tell the truth as you honestly believe it to, not what you tell yourself you believe and not just answer exactly what you are asked...it allows you to understand what the questioner actually wants to know so your mind can select the appropriate response."

Draco sat up as well. "That's... a good idea actually."

"Wait, how would you make this potion? The recipe for Veritaserum isn't something you can look up in the library or pick up at the local Apothecary. And those licensed to make it aren't going to give you some just because you promise as fourteen year olds you have no ulterior motive for it." Percy folded his legs under him and leaned forward.

The smaller Gryffindor chewed his lip. "Oh! We reverse engineer it."

"What."

"You know, we think about what it looks like and what it does and we try to figure it out from what we know, altering it as needed to suit our purposes. There's no law against that is there? Because we aren't trying to make Veritaserum, we're...making something up."

They looked at Percy expectantly.

"What?"

"You're the resident barrister in training," he drawled, "so tells us. Is Potter's idea good or...?"

The red-head tilted his head and thought. "You are studying OWL level courses in school now, to prepare for OWLs at the end of next year, that's old enough to apprentice, and they certainly experiment. You need a witch or wizard of legal age to observe you as you work, to give you a bit of supervision. The testing of a Potion's Master to verify the use of your finished product would be required. And an Auror will need to be present anytime you administer it until its properly patented and of course if you're going to test it on minors. Since you'll probably be testing it on yourselves you'll definitely need one at some point."

Potter glanced at him. "Will this count enough as extra credit to please your Godfather?"

"I should say so."

Apparently the room sensed their desire to begin straight-a-way. Bookcases started lining the far wall, shelves lining the wall to their left and a long table and brewing station came to being in the far corner.

"Wicked."

"Hold on." Draco eyed the Weasley boy for a moment. "You act as a sort of quasi-teacher's aid sometimes, will that inhibit you from helping us? Because I refuse to do all of this work and then get a zero."

Percy smiled. "I haven't once been told not to help the students cheat."

"Good enough for me."

"Are these bare elements?" Potter stood by the shelving, examining small jars.

"What?"

"That's becoming a catchphrase." Muttered Percy.

Harry turned with a jar in his hand, "I'm holding Sodium immersed in Kerosene."

Draco and Percy half-tackled one another to get to Potter.

"No bloody way."

"Are we certain there's no known ingredients for Veritaserum? Because this is potentially dangerous, playing around with this stuff."

Draco was to busy calculating the galleons in Harry's hand alone to answer.

Percy cleared his throat. "All that I know off the top of my head, is that Veritaserum is a clear liquid, not easily distinguishable from water, including its lack of a taste or smell."

"Is Water, Magic and Vodka out of the running?"

The older boy patted Potter on the head like a pet. Potter scowled.

"Actually..." Draco trailed off, flicking through ingredients and side effects in his head. "Ethanol is useful for affecting the anterior cingulate cortex."

Potter's eyes lit up. "And impaired judgment can help with a compulsion to create a knee-jerk response to answer questions before thinking about it."

"Yes and that wouldn't give them enough time to colour their response with personal bias."

"They'd give the response they actually believe."

Percy frowned. "Guys?"

"A blood alcohol content of point-oh-four can impair judgment." Potter recited, tapping his fingers against his arm, pacing. Draco decided to wait to ask him how he knew that.

"And your ability to realize you've said something that maybe you shouldn't or wouldn't want to say normally."

"Yeah, exactly."

"What does that mean?" Percy interjected.

Draco huffed. "It means we're temporarily switching off the part of brain that says 'oops' and lets you know you made some sort of a mistake."

"We need more than that though. We need something with Sedative properties, like with Amortentia remember? That sort of relaxes you and makes it so you don't realize you're doing something you don't want to. More than just suppressing judgment, we want them to want to tell us, we want them not to wonder why were asking the question."

"Guys?"

"Crushing up muggle pills will make it thick, and using similar potions will colour it."

Potter nodded, "We don't want that anyway. We ought to use plant extracts. That will be easiest to prevent colouration and it won't noticeably thicken the end substance."

"Guys?"

"Alright," Draco flickered through his memory quicker, bringing up possible ingredients, "Nightshade, Henbane, Datura, Angel's Trumpets-"

"Corkwood." Potter called, small jars in his hands, looking through the ingredients.

"Guys!" Percy looked between them. "I want you both to know, I have no idea what you're doing. Why do you need to control their judgment why not just-"

Draco waved a hand. "I understand that abstract concepts are foreign to you, but big boys are talking right now and you need to be quiet."
Percy pouted.
"Not too much on the sedative side, we don't want the blatant glazed look." Potter placed his jars on the table.

"Agreed. If we're going to test it out, we can't have anyone aware."

"Wait a minute boys, I can't let you walk around experimenting on your fellow students!"

"Fred and George do it all the time." Potter pointed out, crossing his arms petulantly.

"And how many people end up going to the hospital wing?"

"Er...a fair few."

Draco scowled. "Can you be anymore Lawful Good?" He was disgusted.

"Oh, he isn't." Said Potter slowly, a smile blooming over his face. "Percy if you tell anyone what we're up to I shall tell Professor McGonagal that you retain a key to the old Prefect's bathroom in order to spy on us poor innocent children. That will in turn get it sealed off and I imagine the Slytherins will be displeased," he paused, "And I'll owl your mother."

The Red-Head's face flushed, he cleared his throat and averted his eyes, making a 'carry on' motion. "What are you guys going to do about flavour?"

They turned and looked at the older boy, then each other. The Gryffindor tapped his mouth, "I guess we could always get creative. You know, mix a bit, whatever the best amount is, into ice cream or tea or candies..."

Draco wrapped his arms around Potter and squeezed him tight. "Oomph!"

"If I said I think I love you, even though half the time I can't stand you, and honestly enjoy hexing you whenever the opportunity presents its self, would you take it the wrong way?"

"Don't worry Draco," Potter gasped, struggling to get free, "I know you're just using me for my mind." Draco let him go.
The smaller boy promptly squeaked and fell over.
Percy snorted.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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The Rivalry