Truth and Lies

Truth and Lies Chapter 03

It was quiet, if you didn't count Ron's usual snoring, when Harry started to stir. It was also warm and comfortable, quite unlike what it was at Grimmauld Place.

He opened his eyes, and looked around him. He was in a St. Mungo's ward.

He recognised it from when he had visited Mr Weasley, who had been attacked by a snake. But he was the only patient in the room, so he suspected it must be a private ward.

Harry looked at his visitors.

Hermione was there, holding his right hand, and she and Ron were both fast asleep with their heads resting on the bed. Sirius the dog was curled up on another chair, and Mr and Mrs Weasley were slumped in theirs. Lupin was also there, and also asleep.

Harry looked out of the window. It was dark. Had he only come in a few hours ago? Unlikely, Harry thought, as he looked at Lupin, who had dark rings under his eyes.

Harry gently squeezed Hermione's hand, and she awoke with a start. Ron gave a snort, and jumped awake as well. Soon, everyone was moving around.

Hermione smiled at Harry. 'You're awake. How are you feeling?'

'Eh,' Harry shrugged, 'I've been better. What happened? I seem to be having a very bad few days.'

Lupin yawned. 'Well, we took you from--Headquarters--to here. You were in a bad way. You'd lost pints and pints of blood, we didn't know if you'd make it.'

'We asked for a private room,' continued Sirius, also yawning. 'You know, no questions asked, for obvious reasons.'

'There was a piece of rock stuck in your neck, they had to be so careful, one wrong move, and it would be in your wind-pipe or something,' chipped in Mr Weasley, smiling broadly in relief. 'There was also a rather nasty-looking hole in the back of your head. Of course, I said that you wouldn't mind a bit of old, Muggle healing, you know, spiches.'

'Stitches,' Hermione whispered, trying not to giggle.

'Yes, that's what I meant. But--'

'But I said no,' Mrs Weasley said firmly.

Harry silently thanked her.

'Wait a minute,' he said, frowning, 'how long have I been here?'

'Two weeks tomorrow,' supplied Tonks, who gave him a cheeky grin and winked at him; she had just appeared out of no where.

'Oh, goodness, Tonks! You almost gave me a heart attack!' Mrs Weasley clutched at her chest.

'Oh, I'm sorry Molly, didn't mean to frighten you. Remus has stayed here with you, Harry, all that time.'

She looked at Lupin proudly, who turned faintly pink and mumbled something about, '--least I could do...'

He stood up, and volunteered to get them all coffee.

As he trudged out of the room, Sirius, who had transformed, said quietly, 'He's been blaming himself. Reckons he should have checked that you were still with him. Or at least gone back to the woods to check if you were alright, but we foolishly told him that you'd be OK. We didn't realise there were Death Eaters there, otherwise we would have come immediately. We agreed that if you weren't back by midnight, we would go back and get you.' (How generous of you, Harry thought.) 'We knew that you were smart, and that you'd think of an alternative way to get to London. We were just about to set off when you turned up.'

'It was still very irresponsible to leave him there like that!' Mrs Weasley said shrilly. 'He could have waited there, until midnight, not knowing what to do!'

Sirius nodded. 'Yes, Molly, we didn't properly think it through. Anyway, Remus thinks, that if you hadn't got out of there pretty quickly, you would be dead, or captured, or worse. And it would be all his fault.'

'What?!' said Harry angrily. 'It wasn't his fault! How was he meant to know that I wasn't holding onto him when he Disapparated?'

Sirius just shrugged.

~ • ~

Harry was discharged from St. Mungo's two days later, and was taken back to Grimmauld Place by Lupin.

They entered the hallway, and closed the front door behind them.

'Molly?' Lupin called. 'Arthur? Sirius?' There was a tinkle of breaking china, but no one answered.

Lupin gave Harry a meaningful look, and drew his wand. Harry did the same, but hung back as Lupin moved towards the kitchen door. He entered, and the door slammed behind him. Everything was still silent.

Harry cautiously approached the door, and pushed it open, wand held in front of him.

'I'd put that away, if I were you, Potter!' snarled a rasping voice from behind the door. Harry spun around and saw Fudge, with his wand up against Lupin's throat. He turned, and saw more Ministry workers with their wands pointing threateningly at Tonks, Mr and Mrs Weasley and Sirius.

'Well, well, well Mr Potter,' jeered Fudge with a nasty smile, 'it turned out to be a good idea of mine; setting an Auror on the Weasleys. He followed them to this...house, and was able to call me to the scene, in order to question them about your whereabouts. Little did I know that I would be catching another Azkaban escapee as well as yourself.' He indicated Sirius. 'Now then, I'd come quietly, unless you want one of our wands to--slip.'

Harry thought about it for a moment, not daring to look at the expressions on the other's faces. He sighed, he had no choice really. 'OK, but you have to release Sirius.' He was not condemning Sirius to the same fate as well. 'You can have me, and I'll come as quietly as you like, but let him and the others go.'

'You are hardly in the position to be negotiating, Mr Potter!' snapped Fudge, his eyes bulging. Harry looked at Sirius, who gave him the slightest of nods.

Harry's shoulders sagged. 'Fine, just...just don't hurt the others, and we'll come quietly.' He looked around the room, they had no chance of escape anyway; they were too heavily outnumbered.

'You are correct, Mr Potter. You will come quietly,' Fudge snarled, and he jabbed his wand into Harry's back, abandoning Lupin. Before anyone had a chance to say anything or react, Fudge cried, 'Impedimenta!'

The Order members cried out, taking a step towards Harry, but were held back by the sneering Aurors. Harry's knees buckled, and he fell forwards onto the kitchen floor. His last sight was of the broken shards of a teacup that had obviously been smashed in warning.

The warning, unfortunately, had been useless.

~ • ~

'Ugh.' Harry sat up in the familiar grey room. It might have been the same cell he was in before. But then again, Harry thought, they are probably all the same.

'Harry? Are you alright?' A dark haired man leapt off the bed in the corner, and Harry put his glasses back on.

'Sirius? How did--?'

'Confunded the guard,' he said proudly, with a grin. 'Right before he took my wand back off me. Poor bloke, he seemed to think that we'd be much better off in a double cell.'

'How long have I been out?'

'Oh, I dunno. A couple of hours at most, I suppose. You don't seem to be having much luck do you?' He grinned again.

Harry sat on the end of the bed.

'I ought to warn you, Harry, Fudge is coming. You know, to see if you've suddenly changed your mind about Voldemort's return, and that every time you've seen him and fought him, it's just been a particularly dangerous and vivid figment of your imagination.' He snorted.

'When's he coming?'

'Soon. A few minutes? I heard him talking about it to an Auror.'

'Great.'

They sat in silence for a few minutes, then they heard footsteps approaching, echoing down the hallways. Harry also heard Fudge's voice. 'Thank you, Kingsley, but I think I can handle a wand-less teenage boy!'

Kingsley muttered something inaudible.

A terrible thought crossed Harry's mind. 'Sirius!' he whispered, 'Sirius, hide!'

Sirius' eyes widened, and he dived under the bed.

Harry looked at the wall. How would they get through? Or would they just talk to him through the eye-hole?

He looked at the gap, and saw them coming closer. He stepped back, though he wasn't quite sure why.

The next thing he knew, the Minister for Magic had walked through the wall. Harry blinked, and ran his hand over the spot where Fudge had come through. It was solid.

He turned around, and saw Fudge watching him closely. 'It's a defensive spell. Stops prisoners getting out, but lets others come and go as they please.'

Harry didn't say anything.

'I take it that you know why I'm here, why you're here?'

'Not entirely, no.'

A vein bulged in Fudge's neck as he tried to stay calm.

'You are here,' he said through gritted teeth, 'for lying about something as serious as You-Know-Who returning. I am here to give you your freedom. If you admit to being dishonest.'

'I'm afraid, Minister, that I couldn't possibly lie to you.' He held up his hand. The hand that bore the scars, I must not tell lies. Fudge paled, and Harry continued, his voice low. 'You see, I was in school just long enough to acquire this, before you sent me to Azkaban. I have seen and fought Voldemort--,' Fudge shuddered, '--more times than you can imagine. You are just too scared to admit it.'

'I- I will not be spoken to like that! You-' Fudge spluttered, but Harry overrode him, his voice cold and frighteningly calm.

'I refuse to say that people like Cedric Diggory just randomly dropped dead.'

There was silence. Fudge stood up. 'I see. Well, I will--' He was interrupted by a colossal crash. It sounded like an explosion. 'What on earth--?'

The wall to the cell flickered, and disappeared.

Harry's scar throbbed dangerously, and he ran out into the hallway. Sirius bounded out from under the bed, and Fudge looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. 'What the--?'

Sirius and Harry looked to their right, and saw the hall stretching seemingly for ever. There seemed to be nothing out of place in that direction. They looked to their left, and saw a slight bend in the path, obscuring their view beyond a few hundred yards.

Prisoners had come out of their cells, and were running amok, shouting and laughing gleefully. The pair hurried to their left, trying to see around the corner, being careful not to step on any rubble. They turned the slight corner, and saw smoke billowing out of a hole in the side of the prison, a little way down. There was a group of people, most either kneeling or bowing so low that their noses touched the floor.

Harry's scar started to prickle unpleasantly as they drew nearer, and he was aware of Fudge following them, quite far behind.

Harry caught a glimpse of the thing in the middle of the circle. It was a person. A person dressed in long, black robes. A person with white, pearly skin. A person with red, snake-like eyes.