"Aside from you," he said, a bit dryly. "How very kind of you." He took a bite of his sandwich to give him a moment to formulate an answer. A year ago, he wouldn't have thought twice, now, suddenly, he was full of paranoid imaginings about what her motives might be in asking him such a thing.
"Veratiserum should be simple enough," he finally said. "And certainly you could ask someone else to keep you company. Potter, for example. Since you seem to be keeping company with him lately." He wasn't certain why he was bringing that up, only that he'd seen them talking in the library the other night. He'd slipped out again, angry and sullen, and gone off to work off some of his anger on the pigeons that roosted near the clock tower.