By the afternoon, Sirius had mostly recovered—or rather, sort of recovered.
If you ignored the neck brace, that is.
"So, you're telling me we still haven't found the bastard who framed Harry?" Sirius asked cautiously, sipping his tea.
"You could put it that way," Kasenhis replied dryly.
"Then what do we do? I mean, about Harry?"
"There's no great plan yet," Kasenhis sighed. "The only thing we can do is mix the Polyjuice antidote into the food in the Great Hall, see if anyone's sneaked in using the potion. The other option is wand testing—but that's unreliable. Anyone who's already a dark wizard or Death Eater must have more than one wand."
"And then there's the Imperius detection," he continued. "That one's tough too. Severus told me the Imperius Curse can make people act in two ways: one, by planting a thought in their minds; two, by directly controlling their body."
"The first can be detected through Legilimency, but the second… not so much." Kasenhis said helplessly.
"What about that Neos guy? Why don't we just tie him up and pour some Veritaserum down his throat?" Sirius growled, latching onto the prime suspect.
"You're a bit too extreme, seriously," Kasenhis muttered under his breath.
"But it's efficient, isn't it?" Sirius shot back.
"Maybe…" Kasenhis's eyes flickered thoughtfully. "Tonight, I'll go to Severus and get some Veritaserum. You go to St. Mungo's and find a man named Lockhart. Bring him back."
It was, admittedly, the best plan they had so far.
With someone like Lockhart—the so-called master of memory—on their side, they could even make Neos drink the Veritaserum, answer their questions, and then walk back to his tent afterward like nothing ever happened.
"I remember Lupin's working for him, right?" Sirius suddenly asked.
"Perfect. Then Lupin can lure Neos out for us."
...
Kasenhis moved fast—so fast, in fact, that by the time he arrived, Snape hadn't even finished the meal the house-elf had brought him for lunch, despite it already being afternoon.
"What do you want?" Snape asked.
"I need some Veritaserum. Got a use for it."
"Second shelf from the bottom, only transparent bottle on the right," Snape said without looking up.
"Got it. Thanks."
"Mm-hm. What do you need it for? …Never mind, don't tell me."
"Heehee." Kasenhis chuckled slyly and slipped out of Snape's office.
When he returned to his own office, Sirius still hadn't come back, so he had no choice but to head into the Forbidden Forest again to share the plan with Lupin.
Lupin agreed quickly, and all that was left now was to wait for Lockhart to be brought back—and for nightfall.
By dusk, Kasenhis finally saw Lockhart for the first time in a long while.
"You've gone nearsighted?" he asked in confusion.
"Uh…" Lockhart said awkwardly, "these glasses are the ones you made back when we were dealing with the Basilisk. I… haven't been able to take them off since."
Kasenhis smacked his forehead with his palm.
"You could've told me!" he said helplessly, pulling out a small grindstone and giving it a quick rub.
"Alright, try now."
Lockhart hesitantly took off the glasses… and they came right off.
"Whew… I can't even remember the last time I washed my face. So, what's our plan?" Lockhart asked casually.
"You don't need to worry about anything," Kasenhis explained. "We'll bring someone here and question him with Veritaserum or Legilimency. If he turns out to be innocent, your job is to erase that part of his memory. That's all."
"No problem, that's exactly my specialty." Lockhart let out a sigh of relief—he'd been half-expecting Kasenhis to send him on some suicidal errand like clearing landmines or charging into battle.
Didn't think it'd be this easy.
"Mm-hm, it's that simple. Just stick close behind us," Kasenhis said, glancing at the clock on his desk. Still early.
....
Late at night.
"This the place?" Sirius whispered.
"Yeah. I told Lupin to bring him right here… and there they are."
"Just say what you need, Remus. What's so important you've got all these people waiting for me?" A tall, broad-shouldered figure followed Lupin out of the darkness, looking at Kasenhis and the others gathered there.
"It's just for peace of mind, Mr. Neos. Would you give us a chance?" Kasenhis said calmly.
"I have the right to refuse," Nios said gruffly.
"Expelliarmus." Lupin, who was standing closest, disarmed him instantly.
"Oh… what a brilliantly sloppy plan you've got there." Neos shrugged, and in the next second, he moved with a speed that didn't seem to belong to this world—appearing right in front of Kasenhis, who, to be fair, looked like the weakest one of the bunch.
The punch he threw, strong enough to split a tree trunk, came whistling toward Kasenhis.
Bang!
"Please, you're really weak," Kasenhis said, rolling his eyes as he blocked the blow with one hand.
"Eh—Owwww!!"
Before Neos could even look surprised, Kasenhis pressed down on his fist with one hand and his shoulder with the other, forcing him to his knees.
"Sirius, the Veritaserum!"
Sirius rushed over and poured the pre-measured dose straight into Nios's mouth.
"Now ask." Kasenhis loosened his grip slightly.
"Was it you who threw Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire?"
"No…"
"Are you a Death Eater?"
"No…"
"Are you a Dark wizard?"
"No…"
"What was that purple light in the bathroom?"
"No idea…"
Kasenhis frowned. The answers weren't what they wanted—but at least it confirmed that Neos was innocent. He turned to call Lockhart over to wipe Neos's memory clean.
But then he saw the fear in Lockhart's eyes—and the shock in Sirius's and Lupin's.
Kasenhis furrowed his brow and looked back. What he saw was the sly glint in Neos's eyes.
At some point, he had shaken off the effects of the Veritaserum.
Or worse—maybe he'd never been affected by it at all. Maybe he'd been pretending from the start.
And now, a wand that no one had seen before was suddenly in his hand, aimed straight at Kasenhis.
"Avada Kedavra!"
_________
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