CHAPTER TWELVE: VERITASERUM AND THE ROR
I burst into the common room, probably a little too loudly because everyone turned around, but I pretended not to notice.
"C'mon Hermione!" I said, pulling her into the entrance hole. Ginny climbed in after her, followed by Ron and Harry.
"So, what are we going to do all day?" Ginny asked. I sighed in thought. Classes had ended earlier than usual due to a small, er, rather large explosion set off by the Weasley twins and Lee Jordan.
"Well..." Hermione trailed off.
"Let’s play truth or dare. With... Veritaserum." I offered. Hermione gasped in clear objection to my idea.
"Iris, you know it’s forbidden for student use! Its use at all is strictly controlled by the Ministry of Magic! Besides, where would we get Veritaserum?" She huffed.
"I know where, we played with it all the time in Slytherin." I shrugged.
"I've never seen you like this!" Hermione said sternly, but more calmly.
"Guess it's my inner Slytherin." I joked. "Ginny, I know you want to play!"
"Well, if you say you've used it before... then I guess it couldn't hurt." Ginny said.
"What about you two?" I asked, turning to Harry and Ron. They both shrugged, looking slightly interested.
"Never mind, you don't have a choice!" I joked. "Ron, make sure Ginny doesn’t change her mind and swan off. Harry, come with me!" Grabbing Harry by the arm, I pulled him from the common room before he could object.
"Where are we going to get Veritaserum?" He wondered aloud as I pulled him along.
"I think you know, Mr. Potter!" I reply in a shockingly accurate impression of Harry's favorite teacher.
"Snape?"
"Of course!" I laughed. "Now, C'mon!" We slurked through the hallways and made our way to Snape's creepy storage room. "Alohomora!" I whispered. The door swung open. "Huh," I breathed in admiration. "I didn't think that would work." Harry looked at me and shrugged, proceeding to walk inside. The storage room was lined with shelves that were piled with vials and vials of potions and draughts and poultices and just about anything you could stuff in a cauldron.
"Wow... he added more." I gasped. Harry simply nodded as he gazed around. I shook my head. "Now where's the Veritaserum?"
"Oh, right. I'll check over here!" He rushed over to the shelves on the right. I walked over to the ones on the left. It wasn’t long before I discovered they were in alphabetical order. I scanned through the vials until I came to the bottom of the shelves.
“Twilight, Moonbeams….Venomous Tentacula Juice…. Veritaserum!” I read aloud. Harry jumped up and I swiped the bottle.
“Brilliant!” Harry exclaimed. I grabbed him by the arm once more, and pulled him out of the potions storage, but not before locking the door. We ran down the hallways and burst back into the common room. Ginny and Ron had excitement plastered across their faces while Hermione was torn between wanting to play and disapproval of the idea.
“I’m going to get Angelina, Alicia, and Katie! I’ll be right back!” I dashed up the stairs to the girl’s dorm and saw the three of them lounging about.
“Hey!” I exclaimed. “We’re going to play a game, care to join?” They jumped up.
“We’ve been sitting here all day! Of course!” Angelina exclaimed.
“Great!” I replied. “ C'mon!” They followed me back down the stairs.
I looked around at everyone and we left the common room, even a conflicted Hermione. We were all walking down the hall when a door slowly spread across the previously blank wall.
“What is that?” Ginny asked. Hermione’s face lit up while the rest of us looked confused.
“That’s the room of requirement!” She exclaimed.
“The what?” Angelina asked.
“It only appears for those who need it.” She explained.
We all exchanged glances and rushed through the door. It shut behind us, I took one look around and was slightly disappointed, the walls were lined with mirrors and the floor was old and wooden. I gasped, realizing I had forgotten something or someone rather. I tossed the Veritaserum to Ginny.
“I forgot something, Ange, can you help?” I asked.
“Sure!” She said.
“Thanks! Go ahead and start playing, we’ll be back!” Angelina and I left the ROR and watched it disappear as the door swung close.