ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛꜱ/[ᴊᴀᴍᴇꜱ ᴘᴏᴛᴛᴇʀ]

10

Adhara

As the robed figures stepped forward once more, their voices echoed through the chamber, infused with an eerie calm. The first figure spoke, "To ensure that the secrets you share are true and complete, we will administer Veritaserum to each of you. There will be no lies tonight."

The second figure, in that same unsettling, charmed tone, added, "The potion will take effect quickly. When it is your turn, the truth will come forth. Do not resist it."

A cold wave of anxiety washed over me as I heard this. Veritaserum was no joke. There was no way to fight it once it was inside you. My mind started racing. There was only one secret I feared spilling into the open, the one that could ruin everything—my being marked as a Death Eater.

I could feel the blood draining from my face as my thoughts spiraled. The weight of that single truth loomed over me, threatening to crush me under its enormity. I barely registered the others as they took their turns. Voices around me blurred into a dull hum, distant and unimportant. It was as if I were underwater, their words muted by the pounding of my own heart.

I only snapped back to attention when I heard Sirius's voice. Something about it drew me out of my head, forcing me to focus. He stood there, his usual bravado stripped away, replaced by a raw vulnerability that I hadn't seen in him before.

"My biggest regret," Sirius began, his voice heavy with emotion, "is leaving my brother behind."

The words hung in the air, and I felt their weight just as much as he did.

"I knew what I was doing," Sirius continued, his eyes fixed on some distant point as if he were reliving the moment. "I knew I was being selfish, choosing my freedom over everything else. I thought I was doing the right thing, getting away from the toxicity, but... I left then there, to deal with it all on their own. Addy...and Reggie... I never stopped thinking about them."

His confession hit me harder than I expected. I could feel the pain behind his words, a deep, unresolved guilt that was clearly eating away at him. It was a side of Sirius I hadn't seen in a lot—a side that made me realize how much more there was beneath his usual carefree façade.

But even as I listened, that small part of me—the part that knew what was coming—tightened its grip on my mind. I tried to push it away, but it was no use. The truth was coming, and I was powerless to stop it.

As Sirius spoke, I noticed something strange. One of the masked figures standing by the door seemed to falter. The eerie calm that had blanketed the room since we were brought here began to crack. The figure's hand twitched, their stance suddenly less composed, as if Sirius's words had hit closer to home than intended. For a moment, it almost looked like they were struggling to maintain their posture, their breathing visibly uneven under the mask.

I wasn't sure if anyone else noticed. Most of the others were too wrapped up in their own thoughts, trying to process Sirius's confession. But that slight shift caught my attention, gnawing at my already frazzled nerves.

The vial in my hand felt impossibly heavy. I couldn't take my eyes off it, dreading what would come next. The Veritaserum was meant to tear open every layer of protection I'd built around myself, dragging my deepest, most dangerous secret to the surface. My thoughts swirled in a chaotic loop: the Dark Mark, the whispers of dark magic, everything I'd been hiding—it would all be laid bare. I wouldn't be able to stop it.

But then, just as I was raising the vial to my lips, the same masked figure who had lost their composure suddenly stepped forward, interrupting the tense silence.

"We need to leave. Now," the figure said, voice strained, the charm slipping. "We're going to get caught if we stay any longer."

The other masked person turned sharply toward them, clearly taken aback by the abrupt change in plan. But whatever the issue was, it was clear that they were not willing to take any risks. The second figure nodded quickly, and a sense of urgency spread through the room.