HP: Alchemy? Nah, It's Crafting

"Antidote, Snape—Professor Snape—we're dealing with serious matters right now! If you want revenge, come at me!" Lupin shouted at Snape.

But Snape just shook his head. "He's far worse than you. If you're a fool, then he's a brainless degenerate. He has absolutely no idea what consequences his actions might bring..."

He took a deep breath, as if savoring the moment, then said slowly, "Like using his good friend to try to kill his enemy, without the slightest understanding of what that might do to said friend. And he even became a disgraceful traitor... Hmph. A traitor is more despicable than an enemy!"

Sirius, who was writhing on the ground uncontrollably, glared at Snape with his bloodshot eyes. "I'm not a traitor! It was Peter Pettigrew!"

Kasenhis, who had been held back by Dumbledore the entire time, finally had enough.

He flung Dumbledore's arm aside and slammed a splash of Milk block straight into Sirius's chest.

Instantly effective, Sirius let out a breath of relief. He patted Kasenhis's arm. "That wasn't necessary." Then, supporting himself to sit up, he declared, "I am not a traitor! If you don't believe me, go ahead and get your Veritaserum. Mix in whatever crap you want!"

Snape sneered, but still pulled out a bottle of Veritaserum from his pocket. Unlike the large bottle of poison from earlier, this one was just a small dropper-sized vial—not even full, barely covering the bottom.

Sirius caught the vial Snape tossed over and poured it straight into his mouth.

In the next moment, his expression went vacant, as if his soul had been pulled out—he became a hollow shell.

Without wasting a second, Kasenhis asked the first question he had seen them ask in the lie detector tv shows: "Are you Sirius Black?"

"No."

"Eh..? What the fuck—"

"Ehm.. Professor Kasen, please let me do this." Dumbledore stepped forward and asked.

"Is your name Sirius Orion Black?"

"Yes."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"I am not."

"Did you betray the Potters?"

"No."

"Who betrayed the Potters?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Who was the Secret-Keeper at the time?"

"Peter Pettigrew."

"Why?"

"It was my idea. I secretly switched the Secret-Keeper to Peter Pettigrew. I thought we could create two targets—I would openly draw Voldemort and the Death Eaters' attention, while Peter Pettigrew would hide in the shadows as the real Secret-Keeper."

At this point, Lupin couldn't hold back any longer and walked over. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"At the time, none of us told anyone. The only ones who knew were me, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, and Lily Potter."

Lupin looked a little lost, momentarily unsure of what to ask next.

In his heart, the four of them were supposed to be the tightest, closest of friends—brothers-in-arms. Even though he understood that the fewer people knew about such a secret, the safer it was, he still couldn't help but ask the one question burning in his mind.

"Why did you choose Peter Pettigrew and not me?"

"Because you're a werewolf."

"Wh.. What did.. you say..?" Hearing that, Lupin's mind nearly collapsed.

"Oh?" Snape's eyes flashed with stars as he asked with a devious smile. "Mr. Lupin here wants to know more about your discrimination. Could you please elaborate on that?"

"After every full moon, you're extremely weak. Plus, Greyback was actively hunting werewolves at the time, and Voldemort had all kinds of incentive policies aimed at recruiting them. We knew you'd never betray James, but when we compared your situation with Peter's, we chose the safer option—Peter Pettigrew."

Kasenhis smacked his forehead the moment he heard Sirius's explanation. Then, instinctively, he glanced over at Lupin—just in time to see Lupin kick Sirius square in the face.

"AND WE DON'T HAVE JAMES WITH US BECAUSE OF THAT!"

With a loud thud, Sirius crashed headfirst into the blocky tree behind him, while Lupin stormed out of the office in a fury.

"That's one hell of a soul-crushing truth bomb," Kasenhis muttered through gritted teeth, turning to run after Lupin—but Dumbledore yanked him back with magic.

"Let him finish," Dumbledore said quietly.

"He has finished, hasn't he? That's literally all there was to it. If anything important comes up, just fill me in later." And with that, Kasenhis used Ender teleportation and vanished from the office, reappearing at the end of the corridor—where Lupin stood with his arms crossed, staring at an iron golem.

"Alrighty then, mood out of whack?" Kasenhis clapped his hands and asked.

"Sigh..." Lupin turned around. "Angry, yes. But I get it. If I were in either of their shoes, I'd have made the same choice. It's like one percent versus... ninety-nine point nine-nine-nine... sure, the chances are nearly equal, but that one percent is still the safest bet."

"Well, that's good. I thought you were doing a Teru Teru Bōzu cosplay or something. Scared me half to death," Kasenhis let out a sigh of relief, looking at Lupin as if nothing had happened.

"Do I look that fragile to you?" Lupin asked, spreading his hands.

"Very much so," Dumbledore replied, appearing next to Kasenhis out of nowhere.

"Eh? ...You came out... Sirius didn't get murdered by Severus, did he?" The two of them looked helplessly at Dumbledore, who had suddenly popped up.

"Severus knows his limits. But I've never quite understood your mindset, Lupin."

"Then you've misunderstood it."

...

Not long after, Sirius—looking like he'd just died and come back to life—staggered out, leaning against the wall. Kasenhis stared blankly at Snape, who followed right behind him.

"What did you do this time?"

But Snape wasn't about to take blame for something he didn't do. "Not my fault. Maybe he cracked the back of his head on the tree."

"R-Remus, I want to apologize to you," Sirius said with effort, turning to Lupin.

"Oh... actually, I wasn't even mad."

"Still, that kick was well-deserved. Want to throw in a few more?"

"Just wait," Lupin replied with a deadpan expression.

Leaving the stage to Lupin and Sirius, Kasenhis pulled Dumbledore and Snape aside to start whispering.

"So what's the next step in the plan? What did you guys decide?"

"Hold position. Sirius is sticking to the original plan. Since we didn't intervene early, the board only has Sirius and Peter on it—plus Karkaroff, who's off the board. Peter has no way out, so the goal now is to draw Karkaroff into play."

"Not a high probability, but not impossible either. Still, if we interfere and preempt the plan, then Karkaroff almost certainly won't take the bait," Dumbledore explained.

"...Why don't we just send some insanely powerful person to go find Karkaroff and then..." Kasenhis raised one hand in front of his chest like he was holding something, then mimed tying a rope with the other, wrapping it casually twice, before pulling both hands tight.

"...And where do we find someone like that?" Snape asked.

Kasenhis patted his own chest.

"You?" Dumbledore looked doubtful.

"Come on, you do know how good of an alchemist I am, right?" Kasenhis said, shrugging.

"..."

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