Veritsaelum

[Enchanter]

If veritsaelum makes people tell the truth why didnt the MoM just give it to sirius black and other suspected death eaters and ask them if they commited crimes?

[Cougie]

It may not be completely fool-proof.

[Violet]

Especially if they are under the imperius curse. they may not be able to over-ride that if the person controlling the individual is very powerful.. ie voldermort

[Meg Boyd]

The MoM is corrupt, it doesn't want the truth, it wants "answers" as fast as possible and it just doesn't want "answers" it wants the answers it wants to hear. Perhaps learning of the truth would just ruin the MoM's perfect little theory of what happened...i dunno

[Enchanter]

i would have to say i agree with u Meg. The Mom must have just wanted to blame someone.

[Diamond Angel]

The Ministry probably would've just denied Sirius or whoever, not believing they were telling the truth. Remember at the end of the fourth book? They gave the Veritaserum to Barty Crouch Jr. and Fudge kept saying that he could've been just believed everything because he was "insane" or something. Fudge was probably implying that he didn't think even a Truth Potion as strong as Veritaserum could override crazy beliefs.

Besides, they've been looking for Sirius for 14 years ... Fudge probably would have gone against all of the written rights of hearing peeps out by saying, "off with his head!" and feeding the poor guy's soul to any Dementor nearby ... that is, if the Dementors weren't already under Voldie's power.

[Enchanter]

yeah i had a theory about dementors never really being under Mom control. The demenentors seem to devote lots of energy to harry. in POA when harry falls off his broom it says that all the dementors were looking up at HIM. the dementors also tried to kiss harry

[highsorcerer]

The use of Veritiserum is supposed to be used only under tight MoM regulations. Nobody at the ministry was going to take somebody like Lucious Malfoy and give him the serum when they were in full denial. If Harry had taken it, they'd have dismissed what he said as the ravings of a lunatic.

Look at people like Frank and Alice Longbottom. Their testimony, even under veritiserum, wouldn't be very reliable.

Umbridge was probably in complete defiance of the regulations when he thought she was using it on Harry (Snape gave her the fake stuff, then told her he was out of it, chiding her for using it all when three drops would have been sufficient).

[Holly Golightly]

I tried to come up with reasons for it a while ago, but decided on the easier version...

Becaue it would have wrecked the plot... If they had given Sirius Ver(etc), they would have knows he was innocent, no 3rd book... and many many many many more examples!!! It woudl jsut ahev wrecked teh entire plot... Just like if Harry had used that Mirror in OOTP, and seen Sirius alive, or had remembered that Snape was a member of the OOTP... it didnt' happen becaue then it would have wrecked the plot...

Oh wells...

[Eol]

They thought Sirius was crazy, and from the events which took place on that night, it looked like an open and shut case. The muggle witnesses' statements corroborated with Sirius betraying the Potters and killing Pettigrew. Even Dumbledore didn't know that Wormtail was their new secret keeper. They wouldn't use veritaserum on everyone, just as they don't use polygraphs on everyone in real life.

[Hermione Weasley]

maybe the veritsulum(s/p) is like a polygraph and its not completly 100% accurate maybe that way they didn't use it.I was thinking about it and what the MoM did with the death eaters sounds alot like what the US did when there were "communists" in our country and all they wanted was names and a statement saying that you are communist and you wont do anything bad ever agian and you could go well most of the time anyway, but i don't know alot about that subject in us history.

[Nacht]

I tried to come up with reasons for it a while ago, but decided on the easier version...

Becaue it would have wrecked the plot... If they had given Sirius Ver(etc), they would have knows he was innocent, no 3rd book... and many many many many more examples!!! It woudl jsut ahev wrecked teh entire plot... Just like if Harry had used that Mirror in OOTP, and seen Sirius alive, or had remembered that Snape was a member of the OOTP... it didnt' happen becaue then it would have wrecked the plot...

Oh wells...

Exactly, and that's why I highly dislike the inclusion of something like veritaserum in these books. It's almost as bad as a bring-back-from-the-death-potion would be.

[highsorcerer]

but veritiserum is not a truth potion. Yes, it makes the drinker say what he thinks is the truth. But somebody delusion would be unaffectd.

Look how Fudge reacted to it. He dismissed Barty Crouch, Jr. as a lunatic, rather than accept what he said under veritiserum. So he'd easily dismiss what Sirius, Harry, Hermoine, Ron, or Lupin would have to say about the events of the PoA.

[Colin]

I think JKR made sure Siruis did not come within a country mile of that truth serum. He could reveal the very existance of a secret organisation: Namely the Order. That would be messy to explain to Fudge.

[highsorcerer]

But does Fudge care? Until the end of the OotP, he denied his perfect world was was now in jeopardy. It's very easy to reject the truth if it interfers with his view of it.

There are leaders who are great, both in times of peace or times or war. Fudge is simply not a wartime leader. Harry is a wartime leader. He knew patronuses are not supposed to be "cute", but protectors. Most of his students didn't understand it, but he did, because he found the strength to cast the spell when it mattered the most.

Harry makes hard decisions - but ones designed to do a greater good. He defied the MoM with DA to try to teach people to defend themselves. And in the end, didn't the Daily Prophet also send articles on self defense? Harry was right all along.