Harry Potter : Flash Forward

"So. Is it too much to ask that I go along with being paraded as a champion when, in fact, I'm not? Yes, Professor; yes."

Seeing that Harry wasn't going to 'go along', as she expected him to, Professor McGonagall sighed, shook her head, said, "I'm very sorry about those incidents, Mister Potter." With a snort, Harry turned to walk away. He took a few steps before he turned back and said, "You know, Professor... if it wasn't for my belief you'd constantly have yourself checked out for compulsion charms, loyalty potions and the like, what with the number of students who would try such upon you to get better grades... with the amount of hero-worship you have for the meddling old fool, I'd suspect you of being under either or both." Then he turned back around and walked away.

On hearing his words, Minerva McGonagall felt as if the blood in her veins froze on the spot. 'Could it be?' she asked herself. Quickly, before she could doubt her decision, she hurried from the classroom and headed directly to the infirmary. "Definitely, Minerva," sighed Madam Pomfrey. "It's weak, but it's there. A loyalty potion... long-term."

With an almost defeated sad little sigh, the Professor asked, "Can it be flushed?"

"Possibly," the medi-witch replied. "But, not by me. It appears both of us need to report ourselves to Saint Mungo's."

Looking up, the Professor asked, "You too?"

"Me too," replied Pomfrey with a grim look.

Thinking about it for a few moments McGonagall asked, "Do you think the same will apply to the rest of the staff?"

I've been thinking about that," replied the medi-witch. "I'd suspect as much for all the human staff; but not Severus. He's too wise to allow himself to be slipped such a potion. However, I don't know about Filius, Hagrid... or Albus."

"Why not Albus?" the Professor sharply asked.

With a determined but angry look, the medi-witch replied, "I suspect it was Albus who dosed us."

With a gasp, McGonagall began to ask, "Surely not... Wait. It would have to be him or Severus, wouldn't it?" She slumped in extreme disappointment.

"It wasn't Severus," disagreed Pomfrey with a slow shake of her head. "The potion trace is far too old for it to be him when it comes to you. It could have been him for me; however, the potion trace is the same. Ergo, not him." "Why would he do this?" the Professor plaintively asked.

"I suspect it's so we wouldn't question him on any of the things he's done," replied Madam Pomfrey. "The Philosopher's Stone, and the poor traps that even first years were able to get through; the petrified students and not closing the school, as should have been done; the basilisk, itself; the dementors around the school last year, and Sirius Black; and going along with that dangerous tournament, this year.

"But that doesn't account for just how long these potions have been in your system, let alone mine. I suspect we've been... what's the muggle term for it... programmed."

"Pro-what?" asked the confused pureblood Professor. "Programmed," repeated the medi-witch. She thought for a bit and tried to explain. "There was a muggle experiment, centuries ago, where a muggle wanted to know if he could make his dog salivate on command. To that end, he used to ring this bell immediately before every time he fed it. Then he started varying the times he fed the dog, but would always ring the bell immediately beforehand. It was not long before the dog would begin to prodigiously salivate as soon as the bell was rung, but before the food was placed before it. He had programmed the dog to salivate whenever it heard the bell ring. Understand?"

"Yes," frowned McGonagall, thinking. "Yes; I do."

"We've all been programmed in one way or another," the medi-witch continued to explain. "For example, if you suddenly feel heat in a much localised area on your hand, you immediately snatch your hand away, without even thinking about it. Your subconscious recognises you're about to be burned and acts, irrespective of what your conscious mind is thinking at the time. We call that sort of thing a 'knee-jerk reaction'."

"And you think that's why we've been dosed for so long?" asked the Professor.

"I do," replied Pomfrey. "We've been programmed, just like that dog, not to question Albus about all the things he does. And the loyalty potion ensures it. At least, that's my thoughts."

With a sad and disappointed sigh, the Professor asked, "When do we do this? How do we... overcome this?" Thinking for a few long moments, Pomfrey replied, "As for when, right now." Looking to the older witch, she asked, "Do you have any classes on for the remainder of the day?"

"No," McGonagall replied, shaking her head and thinking hard. Before Pomfrey could speak again, however, she looked back and asked, "If there're more than just us two, would it not be best for someone from Saint Mungo's to come here?"

Surprised by the question, Pomfrey thought about it for a moment before replying, "Yes, actually; you're right."

With a firm nod to herself, the medi-witch rose and went to the direct link Floo to St Mungo's at the end of the ward. The one used for emergencies she was unable to treat herself; or emergencies where there were too many victims for her handle on her own. "Yes, definitely long term exposure to loyalty potion," an older wizard in healer's robes explained with a frown. He'd just finished scanning Professor McGonagall after scanning Madam Pomfrey.

Madam Pomfrey's call to Saint Mungo's saw a fellow student of hers from when she was a student come stepping through the fireplace only ten minutes later. He was someone she considered completely trustworthy. After she explained what they knew and suspected, he got right to scanning the both of them.

With a sigh, the medi-witch said, "I'll get the flushing potions."

"No need," said the wizard healer. "I know exactly what potion it is still coursing through your veins and your minds. Therefore, I can just supply you with the specific counter. There's no need for a general flush that can negate almost every potion when the specific counter will be even more effective and less... intrusive on the body."

This time it was McGonagall who sighed, but in relief. She'd already been told how the flushing potion affected the body by causing both pain and an almost explosive evacuation of the bowels and urinary system. She truly did not wish to experience it for herself.

Still, she had to ask. "The flushing potion causes..." she stammered. "Well, does the counter have a similar effect as the flushing potion?"

"No," the healer replied with a smile. "Instead of doing as the name implies. The counter merely cancels the potion within your system, neutralising it that way."

"Thank Merlin!" the Professor said with clear relief.

Replying only with a smile, the healer then turned to Pomfrey. "Poppy? When can I examine the rest of the staff?"

"Treat us," she replied. "Then I'll send an elf to each, asking them to come see me in the infirmary. However, I'd really rather wait until Albus was out of the castle for one of his many 'other' responsibilities before calling them."

"She's right," added McGonagall. "We don't want to tip our hand to Albus before everyone is clear of the potion."

Arrangements were made for the healer to return on the weekend when Dumbledore was out of the castle in the very near future.

Unknowing to what was occurring in the infirmary, Harry had rejoined Hermione and Daphne in their apartment.

"What did Professor McGonagall want, Harry?" asked Hermione, looking up from where she was already making a start on that day's homework.

"She told me I'd need a date for the Ball, as I was 'expected' as a champion to lead the first dance," Harry replied with a smirk.

"I take it you corrected her assumption?" Daphne smirked back.

false

"Of course," he replied with a little bow. "I told her I'd asked the two prettiest witches in the school to be my dates. She wasn't happy with that, and tried to claim I could only ask one of you to attend; and that I had to escort that one into the Ball with the other competitors.

"Of course, I... disabused her of those errors. When she tried to guilt-trip me by asking, 'Is it too much to ask you go along with this,' I ripped into her about how we had approached her on at least two occasions during first and second year about risks to the school but she wasn't willing to 'go along' with what we were trying to inform her.

"And I gave her 'what-for' over how the other three houses all have their own student councils, and yet Gryffindor does not. And, how we probably would have taken our concerns to that body, if it had existed. I think I might have also implied she was operating under compulsion charms or loyalty potions. "All up, she's not getting her way over this. So," he said dropping to a knee before the two girls. "Would both you ladies do me the great honour of being my dates to the Yule Ball?"

"Harry, you've already asked and we've both already said yes," giggled Hermione.

"Oh. Yeah," he replied, a little sheepish in embarrassment. "I forgot."

Both girls laughed at him while he rose from the floor.

"I'll... just get my stuff for homework; right?" he muttered. He quickly went into his room and doffed his school uniform robe. He returned to their living room and pulled out his own homework. By then, the girls had calmed down again. Giving a little throat-clearing cough, he asked, "So, what're we working on?"

"Well," replied Hermione, showing her work. "We decided to first make a start on Potions..."

Before long, all three were working both together and independently on homework assignments.

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