Liar. Harry Potter's sister ~ Book 2

chapter thirty-six

"It's none of your business who we talk to," Harry snaps, his fists balled tightly together, his jaw tight and clenched.

"Very well," She says in a dangerously sweet voice, "I have offered you a chance to tell me freely. You have refused - therefore I will have to force you. Draco - fetch Professor Snape." My eyes meet Draco's for a split-second before he tears them away and exits the office, placing my wand, along with Harry and Hermione's on the side of Umbridge's desk. I stare down into my lap. We're screwed. From the fact she asked to see Snape, I assumed that she would be giving us Veritaserum. I managed to avoid drinking it the other day, with the tea, but there was no way I could get out of it this time. She would force it down my throat if she had to.

The whole office was silent, except from the occasional scuffing of feet on the carpet or the fidgeting resulted from the Slytherin's attempts at keeping Ron and the others still. I draw my gaze back to Umbridge. She was watching me closer than she ever has before. I keep my face as blank and as calm possible, to ensure that she wouldn't become even more suspicious than she already was.

After what felt like ten years submerged into the awkward silence of the office, but was really only a couple o minutes, I hear faint footsteps coming from the corridor outside. A second later, Draco re-appears in the room, avoiding my gaze and holing the door open for Professor Snape.

"You wanted to see me, Headmistress?" Snape says, his eyes darting to the pairs of struggling students to Harry and I tied tightly to chairs, uncomfortably. A look of confusion, but also slight amusement spread across his face, for a split- second, but he wiped it almost instantly.

"Ah, Professor Snape," Umbridge says, standing up a little straighter than before, "Yes, I will be needing another bottle of Veritaserum, as quick as you can please." Yep. I called it. We're screwed.

"You took my last bottle the other day, to interrogate Miss Potter," he says, cooly, examining her through his greasy curtains of black hair. My eyes snap up to her. I knew it. "Surely you did not use it all? I told you three drops would be sufficient." She flushed.

"You can make some more I am sure?" She says, puffing out her chest in anger. Her voice was becoming more sweeter and more girlish, as it did when she was furious.

"Certainly," Snape says, his lip curling, "It takes a full-moon cycle to mature, so I should have it ready for you in about a month."

"A month!" squawked Umbridge, she was getting angrier and angrier. "But I need it now! Today! I wish to interrogate these misfits today! I wish you to provide me with a potion that will force them to tell the truth!" Her face was quivering with annoyance.

"I have already told you," Snape says, smoothly, "That I have no further stocks of Veritaserum. Unless you wish to poison them - and I assure you I will have the greatest sympathy with you if you did - I cannot help you." Snape looked back at Harry and I. My mind was whirring, trying to come up with some way to communicate with him without words. He's in the Order. I may not have complete trust in him, but there's nobody else I can turn to. He takes one last look around the room, before turning swiftly on his heels to exit the office.

"He's got Padfoot!" I shout, desperately, "He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!" Snape stopped, his hand still clasped around the door handle. He snaps his head around to look at me, his eyebrows knotted. I breathe heavily, raising an eyebrow at him, hoping that somehow he would understand.

"Padfoot?" Umbridge cries, looking eagerly between Snape and I. "What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What is she talking about Snape?"

Snape's face was blank. I could not tell whether he had understood what I had said, but I didn't dare speak freely in front of Umbridge. "No idea," He says simply, turning his head around and exciting the office immediately, his robes swinging at his feet. Snape had been my last hope. We couldn't do anything else now. Dread pools in my stomach, completely flooding my body.