Veritaseum

[grey_wolf_c]

No: HPFGUIDX 31385

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Chelsea2162 at a... wrote:
I was thinking about the trial or Barty Crouch Jr., and Sirius' lack of 
one, when i came upon a huge question. If the wizarding world has 
Veritaseum (i hope I'm spelling this correctly) then why don't they 
just use it to find out if someone's guilty of committing a crime or 
not? All anyone had to do (or could do now) would be to give Sirius a 
few drops of Veritaseum, and then ask him what really happened on the 
day that he faced off with Peter (that rat!). Doesn't this seem 
logical? This way, Sirius would be free, and Peter would be found and 
prosecuted. Does this make snese to anyone else, or am i missing 
anything?
-------------
There are three plausible explanations I can think of for that theme:

1) At first view, you always get the impression (specially with 
Hollywood movies, but also in other medias) that truth-telling liquids 
must be marvelous things. However, we muggles have or own 
non-alquemical Veritaseum (sodium penthothal, I believe), but it is not 
widely used in our justice, for reasons I don't know, but which I 
assume will have something to do with the error margin. Maybe the 
Veritaseum is similarly un-trustworthy.

2) I've got the impression from the books that alchemy is a very old 
science that, nonetheless, still has lots to discover/invent. We know 
for certain that the wolfbane potion Lupin takes at full-moon (sorry if 
I don't get the name correct) is a very recent discovery, and that the 
philosopher stone has been only discovered once (althouth any number of 
people have tried to discover it over the ages), so it's posible that 
the Veritaseum was only reserched and invented in Harry's life-time 
(that is, after Lord Voldemort's fall, when it wasn't as necesary as 
before)

3) Finally, it could happen that the state of the imbiber affects the 
result. Barty Crouch Jr. had been thrown to the other end of the room 
by Albus and rendered unconscious. Albus asks for quickness of action, 
maybe because the potion will not work if you've got your wits with 
you.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf