Lies Revealed

Pranks

The Dark Lord and Severus leaned over the cauldron. "Perfect. The other one will be ready in a few more minutes." Severus started to ladle the mixture into the candy molds. He watched the molds worked their magic and the potion turned into lemon drops. Lemon drops that were going to taste like salt, garlic, onion, beets, paprika, and curry, depending on which one Dumbledore took. However, the lemon drops would taste normal to everyone else.

"Dobby is waiting to replace them with his lemon drops." The Dark Lord already placed a curse on Dumbledore's office. The man was going to be permanently bald, beardless, and no matter what he wore it would feel like the itchiest, uncomfortable clothing imaginable. They wouldn't fit him very well either. Dumbledore thought the curse on the DADA position was bad, he was going to hate this curse. The Dark Lord made sure to do it in parseltongue so only he could remove it.

"Weasley and Granger are going to be getting a taste of their own medicine." Severus' plan was to make Granger feel like it was to be hit every time she hit anyone else. Weasley was going to feel the pain his own words caused others. "Hopefully, they will learn." Severus was ladling the potion for Granger and Weasley into vials.

The Dark Lord didn't respond. He knew Severus felt the same way he did. They wanted them to learn but each knew the chances were very slim they would. Granger had a better chance of learning since her parents weren't Dumbledore's stooges. Dobby popped into the room. He had Dumbledore's candy dishes. "They empty." Severus and the Dark Lord started to fill up the candy dishes. "Extra for when gone for mean Headmaster?"

"Yes, just keep an eye on the dishes and let us know when they start getting low. I expect he will toss out these when he tastes them." Severus pointed to the other cauldron. "We have the next batch."

"For Weasley and Granger. Dobby, add this to their food and drink every morning." Severus handed over the vials.

Dobby looked excited. Well, more than he normally was as he bounced on his feet. Dobby had been eager to assist Severus and the Dark Lord. No one hurt the great Sakura Potter as far as he was concerned. "Dobby will add it."

"Let me know when you run low." Severus instructed.

Sakura was able to avoid the duo all week. Most due to Dobby's efforts in popping the trio around Hogwarts. Sakura, Draco, and Neville spent a lot of time with the older years in the common room if they weren't with Severus or the Dark Lord outside of classes. The Slytherin students closed rank around all of the first years. While the Gryffindors were keeping themselves away from Weasley and Granger. However, Severus wasn't so lucky. Friday afternoon he was summoned to the infirmary. He arrived to find Poppy arguing with Dumbledore about getting out of bed. Granger and Weasley were adding their own problems. Severus hadn't really seen Dumbledore all week. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad. Bad because he wanted to curse the man. Good because he knew if he did curse the man he would be in Azkaban. Severus knew the Dark Lord would prefer that Dumbledore was dead. However, now wasn't the time.

"Severus, thank Merlin." Poppy pointed to the trio. "Perhaps you can explain it to them since they don't believe my opinion."

"What is the problem?" Severus knew he was going to regret asking.

Dumbledore started a long monologue about how he had been daily to see Poppy. Severus saw that Dumbledore was still bald. Dumbledore rambled on about his clothes and his precious lemon drops were all ruined. Dumbledore explained how he had tried to change clothes and that he even ordered new ones, nothing worked. Dumbledore had tried to regrow his hair but that didn't work, either. His lemon drops didn't taste right. Dumbledore used a variety of scans and nothing was revealed.

Severus wanted to put a muzzle on each of them as the duo joined Dumbledore in their ranting about what was happening to each of them. They had been quiet up to the point where Dumbledore mentioned the different scans he had run. Granger was complaining about her variety of pain. Weasley whined about his different ailments, most of the pain came in the form of headaches. Each getting louder to try and outdo the other two.

Poppy held up her hand. They stopped talking. "Here is the list of their different ailments. It lists what I have tried to do in order to solve their issues." She handed Severus some parchments. The trio of idiots started talking at once. Poppy cast a Silencio on them. "That is part of the problem. They can't stop talking. They each try to be louder than the others."

Severus wasn't expecting that side effect. He wondered if it was part of the curse or his potions. "Albus complaints are about being bald, his clothes, and lemon drops?" Severus read down the list of scans that Poppy had done. He knew she was thorough but he wasn't expecting her to run even a residue scan.

"Yes. I haven't found any potion residue in him. He claims his clothes itch. They also don't fit. He said his lemon drops taste funny. I tried one but they tasted fine. The same thing with his clothes, they felt fine to me. I've been in contact with St. Mungos and they aren't sure what is wrong. They are researching." Poppy walked to stand in front of Granger. "Ms. Granger keeps feeling pain in her arms, shoulders, and her back. It's not continuous. She has no bruises and nothing is showing up on my scans." Poppy stood in Weasley. "I have no idea. He just says he feels pain and has a lot of headaches. He can't tell me where the pain is or even where his headaches hurt. I have nothing on the scans."

"I can't think of any potion that covers all those symptoms." Severus loved how he didn't even lie. He was going to have to make some notes on the potion and curse for future reference.

"I told them that but Albus was insistent that I speak to you. He believes it might have been something dark." Poppy hated how biased Dumbledore was. He never believed anything unless someone else backed them up unless they were Gryffindors.

"Just because he isn't sure what is causing the problem doesn't mean it's dark. Albus, you know that. There are plenty of things in magic that might be the issue but it's not all dark." Severus loathed how Dumbledore decided what aspect of magic was dark or not. If he couldn't explain it, it was dark. If he didn't like part of a ritual, it was dark. Dumbledore had never realized that using dark magic required a lot of training and skill. It wasn't for everyone. You had to have control over your emotions which is why dark magic could be dangerous. Gryffindors had a problem with controlling their emotions. Dark magic took years to masters and you never truly mastered it completely.

"I agree. If he was dark it would have a residue and it would have set of the Dark Arts' wards. Not to mention whatever is causing the problem isn't killing them or overall harmful. It's annoyance factors. I thought it might be pranks but I've never seen pranks that would also react with other pranks." Poppy had already spoken to Minerva and the Weasley Twins. The twins were impressed by the pranks but didn't do it.

"True. I can research the different ailments. All I can do right now is offer to make whatever potions you deem they require." Severus would make sure the potions wouldn't counter anything they had done to the trio.

"There really isn't anything I can offer them. I was going to release them with orders to keep away from each other but Albus wanted me to speak to you first. He was insistent that you would be able to solve the problem." Poppy had tried to tell Dumbledore that Severus wouldn't have the solution.

"Indeed. I will research but I can't guarantee an answer that covers all three of them." Severus would be researching but not for a solution. He had another idea and was going to be speaking to the Dark Lord before they went out to dinner with Sakura.