Harry Potter and the Stitch in Time

Chapter 23

Charlus spent well over twelve hours asking questions of the Dursleys, needing to dose the two repeatedly as the effect of the Veritaserum wore off multiple times. Every answer he got was enough to drive him into a rage. Slowly, the Dursleys' answers built up a picture of Harry's life with them. Barely enough food, no new clothes, sleeping in a cupboard, overly harsh discipline, no love or affection, beatings, and worked until he dropped. It was heartbreaking.

There were two reasons he hadn't killed them or worse. One, the director of the DMLE herself was well aware that Charlus knew about these muggles, so if anything excessively violent was to happen to them then he and Sirius would be the first people she would investigate. And as much as Charlus was prepared to spend the rest of his life in Azkaban for Harry if he had to, Harry didn't have enough family that he could lose any from his life.

The other reason was the result of a simple question he had asked the Dursleys again and again throughout their interrogation. Why? He had asked repeatedly for their motivation,, and each time the two had clamped up and gone silent. That was something that was impossible under normal Veritaserum conditions, which told Charlus that there was something else happening that was preventing them from speaking the truth about something. He wanted to find out what was going on before he went ahead with any of the particularly nasty things his imagination was conjuring to make the Dursleys pay for what they had done to his grandson.

Now, without the effects of Veritaserum, the Dursleys were stuck to chairs and looking terrified. They remembered everything they had said in the past twelve hours and it was obvious they weren't expecting Charlus to be merciful. They wouldn't be if it was their Dudley that had been treated that way. When Charlus pointed his wand at Vernon and started muttering spells without saying anything to them, it didn't surprise any of them that the big overstuffed walrus of a man cried out in fear and pissed himself, even if all the spells were diagnostic charms used by healers. The first check was easy; despite living with Harry for years, there shouldn't have been any active magic on them, maybe only some magic residue if Harry had lost control of his magic over the summer and done a little accidental magic around or on them. So when Charlus found signs of active spells on the two of them, the next step was to find out exactly what the spells were.

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Harry was sitting with Hermione on his bed in his dorm, listening to her grumble. "Why did he have to choose Lavender, though? She is so annoying, and all she ever wants to talk about is hair, makeup, and boys."

Ron had asked out Lavender after Harry pretty much told him to just do it. Ever since then, the two of them had been all over each other and it was winding up Hermione. "Well I wouldn't worry about it too much. You know as well as I do that it will probably burn out before long. Most relationships our age do." Realising what he had just said, Harry quickly added. "Hardly anyone gets to find a relationship as perfect as ours their first time."

Hermione laughed at Harry quickly backpedalling to show he didn't mean his words. "I know what you meant Harry, and you're right. Ron dating Lavender probably won't last long, but she was bad enough asking all sorts of questions about Ron when they were just interested in each other. Now that they are together it's going to be so much worse."

Harry grabbed the bottle of water he kept on his night stand and offered it to Hermione (who refused) before he quickly drained a quarter of it and returned it to its normal location. "Just tell her it would be more of a bonding experience if she was to learn the answers from Ron. Besides, just think of the benefits."

"What benefits?" Hermione asked, confused.

"Well for one, he and Lavender will be on their own date during the next Hogsmeade visit. That means we won't have to ditch him so that we can have some time alone." Harry gave her what he thought of as his seductive smile.