The Human Heart

"Suspicion is the most terrible potion, sir. But do you know what makes it so terrible?"

Tom's wand traced across the old wizard's face. Even without magic behind it, the old wizard still felt a burning sting from the scratch. What Tom was doing now could only be called humiliation, but not a single person stepped forward to stop him. The Aurors stood rooted to the spot, tense, their eyes filled with the comrades who had fought shoulder to shoulder with them not long ago.

"What makes it terrible is that you and the person you suspect will fall together into endless mistrust. What makes it terrible is that once it begins, it can't be stopped. Even if you cut out your heart and showed it to someone, it wouldn't prove anything." Tom's voice rang through the crowd without the slightest attempt to hide it. "People's hearts are sealed Black Boxes. Even the finest Legilimency can't reconstruct the thoughts that echoed through someone's mind in that instant. Do you have time to line up these warriors who muddle-headedly fought for you and check them one by one with Legilimency? And—"

Tom forced two sinister laughs through his nose. The sound chilled the old wizard closest to him to the bone. He struggled to straighten up, wanting to stop Tom from saying what came next, but Tom lightly pressed his wand against his chest and made him lie back down on the ground.

"—and who can guarantee... that the person in charge of the investigation isn't the traitor who had second thoughts from the very beginning? Sir, who can guarantee that you aren't a poor puppet bowing and scraping under my bewitchment?"

Tom lifted his head and took a deep breath of the fresh air that had been cleaned by magic.