Six Aurors stood guard along the bare walls of the room, two on the west side, two on the east and two one the south. Four Unspeakables stood guard by the door which opened in the north wall.
In the middle of the room Severus Snape sat in a wooden chair, barely coherent but certainly conscious. Thick black chains secured him firmly to the chair, which was affixed to the floor, and strong ropes were bound around the man's torso and legs.
A knock sounded at the door and one of the Unspeakables opened it. In came Amelia Bones, Rufus Scrimgeour, Cyrus Greengrass and Head Unspeakable Saul Croaker, along with two more Unspeakables and three more Aurors.
Croaker turned to the two Unspeakables who had entered with him. "Lower his Occlumency protections."
The two Unspeakables nodded in reply and drew their wands. When they pointed these at Snape, the man's body suddenly became very rigid as his mind instinctively tried to fend off their attack. They were not attempting to read his mind, but were instead working to lower his Occlumency defences just enough to enable the use of veritaserum on him.
The legality of this action was highly dubious, which was why it was being done off record by the Unspeakables. Officially Amelia, Scrimgeour and the other Aurors were not in the room and they had all been sworn to secrecy.
Primarily, any information gleaned from Snape during this session would be used purely to allow them to act. If they then chose to use this information in order to prosecute anyone, it would have to be presented by the Unspeakables rather than the Aurors. An annoying technicality, but that's politics. Technically they couldn't just use whatever means they wanted in order to wring the truth out of the man, but the term "information acquired by the Unspeakables" usually shut up all the naysayers.
Quite suddenly, after about ten minutes of the Unspeakables fighting against Snape's willpower, the man went limp, almost as if he had been stunned.
Croaker turned to another Unspeakable and asked the man to administer the truth potion.
"And remember to give him six drops instead of three."
The Unspeakable did as asked and, once the potion had taken effect, Croaker conjured up a seat opposite Snape and sat down on it before beginning his questioning of the man.
Starting with the standard questions to check that the potion was working properly he asked "What is your full name?"
"Severus Tobias Snape," came the barely lucid reply.
"What is your date of birth?"
"9th January 1960."
"Where do you live?"
"Hogwarts castle."
"And when not at Hogwarts?"
"17 Spinner's End, Cokeworth."
"And your occupation?"
"Potions Professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
At this point Croaker looked over to one of his subordinates standing by the door. The man had a sheet of parchment in his hand which he was currently using to check Snape's personal details.
The Unspeakable gave a nod of his head, confirming that everything that Snape had said was correct, and Croaker turned back to Snape.
With the potion obviously working, Croaker got on with the real questions.
"Why did you attack Sarah Abbott in her own home?"
"I had orders to kill her."
"Orders from whom?"
"Albus Dumbledore."
The others in the room exchanged dark looks.
"Why did Dumbledore order you to kill her?"
"To eliminate her influence upon Harry Potter and to draw attention to the Dark Lord's return."
Again the people in the room exchanged looks. They were a few of the handful of Ministerial employees who knew the truth about Voldemort's rebirth several months ago.
Filing way the bit about Harry Potter for a moment Croaker instead asked "And how would this have drawn attention to the Dark Lord's return?"
"I was to cast the Dark Mark in the sky above the house after completing the murder."
"How did you break through the wads surrounding the Abbott House so easily?"
"The talisman. It was designed specifically to bring down wards with ease. Rookwood designed it towards the end of the last war, and the Dark Lord used it to bring down the additional wards around Potter Cottage when he attacked it."
"How did you end up with the talisman?"
"I was there that night, waiting outside. When part of the roof caved in and the Dark Lord did not emerge I went inside. I took the talisman and the Dark Lord's wand."
"And how did the wand get from you to him?"
"Wormtail arrived at my house shortly after Wormtail brought the Dark Lord back to England. He had the Dark Lord and his snake with him and I handed over the wand."
"Yet you kept the talisman?"
"They did not ask for it, so I kept it for myself to use."
"Were there other talismans made?"
"Not to my knowledge. Rookwood could probably make more if he were ever freed from Azkaban."
"I see," said Croaker before changing his line of questioning. "Why does Dumbledore not want Sarah Abbott to influence Harry Potter?"
"Dumbledore says that Potter has a destiny to complete. A destiny that only Dumbledore can guide him towards. He says that Harry must not be subjected to outside influences."
"What does Dumbledore believe Harry Potter's destiny to be?"
"To die by the hand of the Dark Lord, completing the prophecy that ties them together and allowing Dumbledore to step in and kill the Dark Lord himself."
"What else has Dumbledore done to prevent Harry Potter from being influenced by others?"
At that question Snape suddenly began fighting against the effects of the potion and the magic that was working against his Occlumency.
As Snape fought, a third Unspeakable came forward and raised her wand. A few moments later Snape went limp again, the task of fighting off three assaults on his defences as well as the truth serum wearing him down quickly.
Croaker repeated his question again.
Snape, as it turned out, had a lot of answers to give.
.....
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