Chapter 60 - Experiments

Warning:- This chapter is a bit dark and has mild torture in it. Please don't read it if you can't stomach such things.

I'll post the summary of the chapter in the comments section for those who want want to skip it.

"Excuse me." Harry said in a childish voice.

"Yes." The woman asked as she kept down her newspaper and peered at him.

"Do you have a dog?"

"No." The woman said with a smile "I used to have one when I was a child but not anymore. Are you here with your parents?" she asked and started looking around for an ȧduŀt responsible for the strangely curious child.

At the same time, Harry used his Shroud and covered both of them without her noticing anything strange and pointed Voldemort's wand at her.

"Obliviate."

"…"

"Excuse me." He called once the woman regained her focus after being obliviated.

"Hmm… Oh… I didn't see you there. Do you want something little guy." She asked curiously.

"Yes. Do you have a dog?" he asked.

The woman seemed confused at the question for a moment before she mulled over that question for a while before finally shaking her head "No. I have never had a dog before. But what are doing alone here. Are your parents nearby."

"Yes. They're buying me ice cream."

"Oh… then you should go with them." She said "In fact let me escort you to them. Where is the ice cream parlor again."

"Thanks but there's no need." He said with a warm smile and left the cafeteria in search for his next random victim.

That old man sitting alone in the park seemed to be as good a victim as any.

"Excuse me." He said in his best childish voice.

"Hmm?" the old man looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Can you please tell me the direction of to the nearest library."

"Why not. You see…"

"Obliviate"

"Excuse me."

"Hmm… Ohhh… Do you want something son?"

"Can you tell me the direction of the nearest library?"

The old man closed his eyes for a second before shaking his head "Sorry little buddy. I seemed to have forgotten a lot of things with my old age. How about you ask that kind lady over there. I'm sure that she'll remember the way."

"Okay. Thanks."

"No problem son."

He found the next victim walking alone in the busy streets of London and the process repeated.

Ask them about something related to their life. That something must not be a very important part of their life.

Because the more important a memory is. The harder it is to erase it and the worse repercussions that the victim will suffer.

If you wipe out the memory of a victim's family from his mind, then even though he won't remember anything about them, he'll still feel that something big is missing from his life and if he meets his children or wife in the future, then there's a good chance that some of his memories might even return.

So he was starting with small questions.

After all, 'Partial Memory Obliviation' was the second most important type of obliviation after the 'Immediate Memory Obliviation' and would be of great aid to someone like him who wants to become great in mind arts.

Immediate Memory Obliviation spell was easy to learn and just about every Obliviator in the ministry learns this basic spell within 1-3 months.

But the same could not be said for Partial Memory Obliviation which takes more skill and a goo grasp of the mind arts. Especially Legilimency.

By this point, he was already quite good at Legilimency which was why he was getting the hang of Partial Memory Obliviation at such a rapid manner.

And thanks to the small amount of magic he put behind his spells and the fact that he was using Voldemort's wand, no ministry official ever came to investigate his Obliviation spree.

This form of power was scary on it's own.

Since a wizard could practically barge into a woman's home, **** her and then leave after obliviating her and no one would know anything.

A part of him was happy that he was a powerful wizard and that such a thing would never happen to him but another part of him felt pity for those poor muggles.

With that thought, he walked on in search for his next victim.

After all, practice makes perfect.

—————

"Your name is?"

"Walden Macnair."

"Your age?"

"49"

"Do you work for the ministry?"

"Yes."

"Do you hate muggleborns?"

"…No."

"Really?"

"I mean… I…"

"Answer in yes or no. Do you hate muggleborns or not?"

"…No."

"Legilimens"

Walden squirmed in the chair against the ropes as memories after memories passed through his mind as he was mind rȧpėd by the masked boy before a few memories where he talked with his peers about his hatred for the filthy mudbloods and muggles surfaced through.

"Walden... Walden. I told you not to lie. Didn't I?"

"Wait. Let me explain. I can…"

A hand gesture from the boy and he lost his voice. "You know, the only good thing about you lying to me is the fact that I get to practice healing spells because of that. Thanks for volunteering Walden. You're such a good man."

And then Walden watched in terror as the boy took out a hammer and a nail and removed the ropes that held his arms to the chair.

But even without the ropes, no matter how hard he tried, he was not able to move his hand even an inch.

And then with another gesture, his hand was forcefully pulled on top of the wooden table.

"Don't worry Walden. It won't hurt as much as a crucio." The boy said as he placed the nail above his hand

"Though on second thought, I've never been placed under crucio nor have I been nailed so I can't really tell."

Walden could only watch in absolute horror as the boy talked about his situation as if he was talking about the weather before he struck with the hammer.

Walden let out a soundless cry as pain ȧssaulted his hand and he promptly lost all control of his bowls.

His shoulder jerked back and forth in pain but no matter how much his arm moved, his hand remained stuck in place under the influence of the masked boy's powerful wandless magic.

The boy waved his hand again and the wetness in his pants was removed at once before he calmly kept the hammer and the nails beside his nailed hand and calmly sat back down on the chair like nothing had ever happened.

And then Walden heard himself sobbing, realizing that the silencing charm have now been removed him his mouth.

"Why are you doing this to me?" the words came out with a sob and the boy chuckled at that. His distorted voice sounding eerily haunting to Walden.

"Isn't that clear Walden. You lied. And lying is a bad, bad habit. If your mother had taught you not to lie, then you would not have felt any pain today."

"Now I'll ask you again. Do you hate muggleborns Walden."

"Yes." He sobbed "Yes I do."

"See. Wasn't that easy." He said and clapped his hands joyfully, filling Walden with more and more dread.

He was hurting right now. And that was not something you feel happy about.

The only person he'd seen laugh like that at someone else's pain was perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange. And… the dark lord.

Shit. Now he understood why he was so afraid of the masked boy.

Because the boy reminded him of the dark lord.

And the snake wrapped around the boy's shoulders didn't help in that matter either.

"Next question." the boy spoke calmly "Are you a death eater?"

Walden's first impulse was to deny it. But then the pain reminded him of what would happen to him if he lied to the boy and he thought better of it.

After all, it was not very hard for a person to check if he had the dark lord's mark on his left hand or not.

Even if the mark had faded after the dark lord's death.

And something told him the boy won't fall of the 'I was under imperius' story either.

So he simply nodded his head and replied "Yes."

"Did you became a death eater willingly Walden?"

"Yes… Doctor." He replied.

"And what did you do to become a death eater?" the boy asked.

"Pardon?" He asked, feigning confusion even though he knew very well what the boy was talking about.

"I heard that having a dark mark was considered an honor. And that you could only gain it by completing a mission of some kind."

"So tell me. What did you do to gain that tattoo. What kind of missions did you complete. I'm curious."

Walden once again considered lying. Because the thing he'd done to gain that mark from the dark lord was not something that would gain him any sympathy from the boy.

Especially if the boy loved muggles.

"Times up." The boy said and before Walden could even speak another sentence, he was silenced and within the next ten seconds, they boy had hammered another nail in his arm. This one slightly larger than the last one.

By the time the silencing charm was removed, he was sobbing from the pain once again.

"Now I'll ask you again. And I want you to answer as quickly as possible as I don't like to waste my time. Do you understand."

He nodded his head.

"I didn't hear you." The masked boy said and shook his head and before Walden even had to time to be terrified, the boy had silenced him once again and put another nail in his hand.

By this time, he was practically whimpering with pain but the boy once again continued on as if nothing had happened.

"Now when I ask you a question I expect a proper answer from you. Not a shake of your head or something. Do you understand?"

"Yes. Doc… doctor.." He whimpered through snot and tears.

"So what did you do to gain the dark mark?" the boy asked and this time Walden didn't even hesitate before confessing his crimes.

"I killed a muggle family." He said without any hesitation. The price of hesitation had already been hammered into his hand and he would rather not feel another nail piercing his hand if possible.

"Why?" the boy asked in a disinterested manner and Walden wondered if the boy was actually bored with this interrogation.

If so, then why couldn't the boy simply let him go.

It was not like he had actually done anything wrong after all.

Just killed a few of those filthy muggles who are not even as good as animals.

But those thoughts passed by quickly in his mind and the fear and conditioning opened his mouth.

"The woman. She was beautiful." He acknowledged. She might have been a filthy muggle but she was beautiful.

"You fancied her." He boy asked without any hint of emotion in his voice.

"Yes." He admitted. "I rȧpėd her. Then I killed her before disposing the rest of her family and lighting up their whole house so that no evidence would remain." He said between sobs and waited for the next nail to pierce his skin.

But nothing happened.

"Good." The boy said "You see. You just need to tell the truth and nothing bad will happen to you. Isn't that simple enough?"

Walden wondered if that was actually a question or such a statement but just to be sure, he replied "Yes doctor."

"Good." The boy replied and with another negligent wave of his hand, the ropes binding his hand vanished and his hand was forcefully pulled toward the table and his now both his hands were laid of it before a few metal bindings flew from somewhere behind the boy and held his arm firmly in place.

Then the boy tore off his sleeves and the Dark Lord's mark was bȧrėd in front of the boy.

"Now Walden." The boy said softly before standing up from his chair "I'm going to make a few changes in the dark mark and I want you to tell me exactly how you feel as I go through the process. Do not even think about lying to me." The boy cautioned "Because I'll know. And this time your punishment will be much much worse."

Walden didn't even want to know what that worse punishment entailed so he hurriedly nodded his head before he remembered what the boy had earlier said and gave voice to his thoughts. "Yes doctor."

"Good." The boy said and took out a snake from within his sleeves and talked with it in that scary snake language for a while before he once again paid attention to the dark mark.

And then, the experiments started.