Auror Li fidgeted in the small interrogation room, sighed, and picked up the quartz lensed glasses in front of him. They slid comfortably onto his face, and instantly his vision defocused then reformed, somewhat. A door opened. He could see the shape entering the room, a blurry, not large but easily discernible blob, of no particular height or color. The blob took the seat opposite him and opened up a bag, then unceremoniously dumped out the contents, a scroll, a quill, and some device Li couldn't quite place. Unlike the blob the items were easy to focus on, it was a Ready Write True Testimony Copying Quill, and a Never-ending Evidentiary Scroll. The other device looked vaguely Muggle in origin, but Li hadn't really paid attention to Muggle Studies in school.

Muggle Studies didn't help you land a job, although talk around the precinct said that may change. Michael watched as the blob fiddled with the Muggle device, and he heard The Voice. Perps called it the "Voice of Doom" or just "The Voice" and it was always the same. Not loud, not booming, but it had a definite presence. Gravitas. You couldn't not hear it, no matter how quietly it spoke, and while it didn't magically compel answers - that's what the drop of Veritaserum Li had taken several minutes ago was for - it seemed to resonate throughout your body, a basso profundo that could shake a criminal's confidence to the core.

Auror Li really liked being on the other side of the table. Damned Internal Affairs.

The Muggle device made a hissing noise, which thankfully wasn't echoed by the Voice, but the Voice spoke up. Instantly the Quill perked up and started writing, scritching away dutifully on the evidentiary scroll. For a moment, the Voice spoke formally, almost distractedly.

"Follow on questioning of Auror Li Xiaoguang under a single drop of Veritaserum regarding the attack on Peverell Hospital on the morning of March 7th. Questioning takes place on ... March 13th, approximately 2pm. [Redacted] questioning."

Li sat up a bit higher, since the Voice redacted his interrogator's name. An important blob, not just a shift commander or random investigator.

"Auror Li, I just want to state for the record that this questioning is not in any way a reflection of poor performance during the attack. The records indicate you acted with competence and valour during the situation. There are just several confusing aspects, that we want to delve in further."

Li nodded. "Well, it was a confusing morning."

"When the Fiendfyre destroyed the DMLE auxilliary entrance, you quickly subdued Draco Malfoy."

"Yes, that's standard procedure. He wasn't cleared. I mean, he had some clearance to be there as part of a testing procedure, but ..."

"Yes, thank you. That wasn't the question. I wanted to ask why you woke him back up." The Voice paused, and when it spoke again it sounded ... not hesitant - the Voice never sounded uncertain. The Voice sounded either certain or accusatory. But now there was just the slightest hint of apology. Almost. "In your own words. Again, this is not second guessing what you did in a drastic situation, but we want to understand why."

Li licked his lips. The repeated protestations that he wasn't being hung out to dry rung a bit hollow now, although if there's one thing that Li believed - that everyone believed - was that Alastor Moody might kill you and burn your corpse for the smallest mistake if you worked on his squad, but he'd never turn you over to anyone else for judgment. In any case, it wasn't like he could lie. The quill hovered in front of him, perfectly still, and as he spoke it started taking down his words.

"Well, the initial attack wasn't subtle. Sanchez was dead before we knew it, just as support appeared from the closet the Fiendfyre slammed into them - it doesn't even smell like burning flesh, they never mentioned that in training. The North and Eastern walls were melting. People wearing Armageddon robes were coming through the gaps. My trio were in waiting, we'd been watching the Malfoy boy before the attack started and we were outnumbered almost instantly. Most of the others were in the other wing, and they had it even worse. I could hear the fighting coming through from the infirmary. The Hogwarts one, that is, which at least protected our flank. But we were all separated and pinned down. Prabat left to secure help and counter-attack, even though I told him not to. And Draco's a good kid, you know. I caught him casting underage last summer, and found out he can summon a Patronus. Imagine that, a Slytherin with a Patronus."

Li paused, and the blob slid a glass of water across the table. He recognized the technique, he'd used it often enough himself. But he drank the water.

"Anyway, I figured I'd be out of the fight in another minute or two in any case. So I decided to chance it. I mean, it's not like I'd die more if he shot me in the back. And if not ... he deserved better than dying as a random victim in my battle. And we'd all heard the stories...so, I figured I'd roll the dice."

Ennervate.

Draco looked up and saw the underside of a bed. Another bed had been thrown on it's side and an Auror peered out over it, facing away from Draco. The room wasn't dark, it was still brightly lit but there were crimson and purple undertones. The Auror - Mike Li - shouted complex chants but mainly ducked behind the beds, which were surprisingly spell resistant.

Huh, I never thought to test that. Makes sense, the Aurors would expect to be defending. Time is on their side. Draco thought it automatically. He started to sit up and then thought better of it, he rolled over on his stomach and grasped the cane on his side. Behind him - behind them both - the wall glowed sickly red and was dropping to the floor in large chunks.

"I hope you've got something useful. But if not, just shoot me when I'm not looking," screamed the Auror, not even sparing Draco a glance. Draco looked down at the cane in front of him, and looked back at the wall. There was already a large hole and a figure in an Armageddon Robe peered through the hole, carefully not touching it. Draco scooped up his cane with one hand and quickly slid towards Auror Li. He raised his other hand and screamed loudly, his voice cracking and breaking:

Sigil Prodi!

Auror Li turned his head in confusion and amazement, head swiveling around just in time to see a second cane appear in the boy's up stretched right hand, the twin of the cane in his left hand. Li spotted the figure coming through the wall. It was aiming at him, directly at his back, and Li wildly tried to reposition his shields as a green streak flew from the wand pointed at him when Draco Malfoy slammed the newly arrived cane into the ground, and the rest of the world disappeared in a white haze.

The silence stunned Auror Li for a second, but he leveled his wand at Draco Malfoy.

"You are working with them," he said. A statement not a question.

"I'm not. We only have a few moments, then we'll be back in the battle."

Draco released the cane in his right hand, and it stood straight up, vibrating slightly. As though it were forcing the earth down and slowly cracking under the strain. Draco snatched the other cane into both hands and grabbed the top and started ... twisting. After a moment the top of the cane started turning.

"This can't be a coincidence," Li said.

Draco was unscrewing the top of the cane, and now he was sweating. Li took the moment to adjust his shields and ready some new spells, trigger based spells he could fire the instant that ... whatever was happening ... ended.

"There are coincidences, and there are coincidences." At this point the top of the cane fell to the ground, landing without a noise, and Draco upended the cane. Three flasks tumbled out, one shaped like a diamond, the other a small cylinder, and a traditional sphere from the 1600s, favored by arabic alchemists. After that came a wand, a silver ring and package wrapped in twine. Li put his foot on the wand, but Draco reached for the spherical flask and popped it open with his right hand, plucking out one of his hairs with his left hand. Draco threaded the hair into the flask before restoppering it and shaking it up.

"Polyjuice," said Auror Li, more question than a statement. The cane on the ground vibrated more violently, the snake head was now a blur moving roughly an inch side to side, and they could hear a rumble.

"If I'm working with them, then you should disguise yourself as me and surprise them. And I am happy to see you looking like me, since they're going kill me, and this improves my odds." He tossed the flask over to Auror Li and pocketed the package and remaining flasks. He took off the silver ring off his left hand and replaced it with the one on the floor, then reached for his wand. "In any case, if I was on their side I'd have shot you in the back, like you said."

Li let him have his wand and took a sip of Polyjuice, instantly his limbs started shortening. Draco reached out and plucked the flask from Li's hands, leaving the silver ring in its place. Draco put the flask into his pocket. The cane's whining had gone from low organ rumble to more of a trumpet like call, and was still rising. Li could see the strain of maintaining this separation on Draco's face as he concentrated on untying the package.

Draco kicked the cylindrical flask over to Li. "Another gift," he said, hands shaking.

Li lifted the flask to his eyes, ignoring the high pitched whine, and glanced into vial. A small golden drop flew upwards out of the rest, then floated back down. By now he was Draco's size, he could still feel his features flowing slightly, hair shortening, but he was now child sized and he put the ring on, careful to match the same finger Draco had has ring on. Another few seconds and the polyjuice finished the job. It was safe to drink another potion.

Li opened the flask then hesitated.

"Only one dose," Li said.

"I'm not going to be able to break their wards anyway," Draco was pocketing the contents of his package. "Besides, my ring's magic."

Li was already drinking by the time Draco finished the sentence. Li felt the smooth Felix Felicitis calm him as it flowed down his throat, his nerves relaxing. Even the screeching whine of the cane no longer felt like it was grinding into his bones. Draco finished screwing the top back onto his secondary cane and handed it over.

"What does it..."

"Nothing. So they can't tell us apart, they might not notice if you didn't have a ring..." Li grasped the cane into his off hand. If nothing else it did look intimidating.

The other cane was whipping violently back and forth and Draco cupped his hands around the top, moving them slowly together, forcing the cane's vibrations to slow. The pitch rose dramatically, a cry of alarm and terror. With a clap Draco's hands were together and the world jumped back into view.

Each Draco grabbed his cane in his left hand, but one fired spells wildly all around while the other just hit the ground and flailed across the floor. The figures already in the room stopped and aimed at the dangerous Draco.

"And then, I covered him as he crawled away" Li continued.

"Yes, thank you. What happened after that is well documented. Did you see what else Draco Malfoy had stored in the hollow cane? What was in the package?"

"No, but was fairly small, perhaps a large amulet? Just wrapped in paper. He untied the string, but he didn't take it out. Just shoved it in his pocket."

"The 3rd potion?"

"No idea."

"Did you see Draco again after you separated from the white haze?"

"Just his body."

"How do you know it was his?" Li stopped to consider this. "You said he took back the Polyjuice with his hair in it. He may have given it to someone else."

"Well, the other cane was on the ground next to him."

The blob and Voice considered this for some time.

"Knowing what you know now, do you wish to revise your opinion as to whether or not Draco Malfoy was working with the attackers?"

Now Auror Li sat and thought. The Voice didn't press, merely gave him time to think.

"Draco seemed like a good kid. Not perfect, but not his father. I still don't think it's a coincidence he was there. He's a kid who ... asked ... me to look the other way for his crimes, but minor stuff, the kind rich kids get away with all the time. Like I said, I caught him practicing a Patronus, not some dark ritual. And when it comes down to it, he probably saved my life. Yeah, he used me as a distraction to save his own skin, but he could have drank that liquid luck himself, in which case I'd probably be dead and he'd be sitting here. And he could have shot me in the back, like he said. Am I sure he wasn't involved in trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone? No, I'm not sure. But if he was he didn't have the stomach to kill for it."

Auror Li took another sip of water. "I suppose I'll never know."

"This concludes the questioning. End Transcript." The quill fell to the table, as though content with a job well done. "I do have one more question, though. The Liquid Luck. No side effects, did it work as advertised?"

Li smiled. "That stuff is great. I know it's too expensive, and I keep hearing about side effects, but I think it should be standard issue in emergencies. Not a single spell hit me."

"Well, that's good to know. Thank you for your help, Auror Li. Stupefy."

Harry looked down at Auror Li, who'd slumped onto the table, obscuring goggles still stuck to his face. Then he stood up and stuck his hand just over his side pocket. A long wand, fifteen inches made of elder wood flew up and into his grasp.

"Thank you again, Auror Li," said Harry Potter, as he prepared a simple memory charm to repair the last minute.

"Your story checks out."

Harry finished his summary of his interview with Auror Li (skipping the part where he knocked him out and memory charmed him) and took a sip of water.

"You must believe Draco was in on the job, after Auror Li's story," said the Chief Mugwump, wiping her brow.

"He planned the heist, yes. Obviously. In any case, the rest of the story leaves no doubt. But, like I said, Draco's goal was never theft. Clearly whatever he planned had gone by the wayside. The transcripts are clear. Selwyn deviated from the plan. But in any case, suppose that Draco and the rest did steal the stone. How would you respond, Madam Bones?"

"Unleash hell and Moody," she answered firmly.

"You and every other semi-intelligent wizard. Everyone with any dream of power would hunt them down. Not to mention that once they had the Stone, Draco would have outlived his usefulness in a room full of moral monsters. No, they'd be easy to track and Draco would be dead anyway. Draco may be a flawed reasoner, but he'd understand that perfectly. He got that right, at least."

"Draco's plan seems clever," said the Headmistress.

"At some level, it was. Certainly the core ideas work well. The key to Draco's plan - well, the plan that we saw anyway - is that both sides reasonably concluded that having Draco alive helped their chances and were under significant time pressure, which prevented them from revisiting that decision. Draco had the advantage that he'd considered this for some time. Auror Li rescued Draco, and could have decided to knock him out again. But, Draco shared his equipment with him."

"Which Li interpreted as proof of good faith, even though it also helped Draco," said Hermione.

"Gift giving also creates a powerful desire to reciprocate," Harry said. "I've read Cialdini's book on the psychology of Influence, but Draco understands that at such a level that it's practically a super-power. He's ridiculously good at reading people and manipulating them. Draco had just rescued Li from his attackers, given him time and equipment to regroup. It's no surprise that even consciously recognizing that Draco was almost certainly involved, Li let him go. After all, there was still the remote possibility that this all just was a massive coincidence. And he owed Draco. So he decided to let him go, and hope to sort things out later. It probably wasn't even a conscious decision, but you'd have to be Mad Eye Moody to knock someone out after they just saved your life. I didn't want to press him under Veritaserum and scuttle his career, Madam Bones. He was wrong to trust Draco, but it was a battlefield decision. A reasonable mistake. Hard cases make bad law."

Amelie Bones shook her head. "No, he followed protocol early on. I don't blame him for what he did later. Protocol is for expected things, as you note."

"Anyway, Draco's charade lets him play an oversized role, like in a parliamentary government where some fringe faction could be crushed by either major party, but has just enough votes to decide the majority. In that case, the fringe gets courted by both sides. Draco smuggled his equipment past security because I let him. It was my mistake that sets this up. The attackers assume Draco and 'Lockhart' shares their goal of stealing the stone. They considered Draco and Lockhart fools who didn't understand that they'd be betrayed as soon as the heist was done. Their mistake."

Harry flicked up his third finger, counting. "Auror Li, desperate, rolled the dice and ennervated Draco. Third mistake. To be fair Draco did help both sides and made sure to be seen helping them. Draco got lucky, because one group was stuck back defending against Hogwarts and the rest were spread out attacking the Aurors and looking for the stone. The defenders never saw Draco (by which I mean Mike Li) attacking their allies. And everyone involved under-estimated Draco, and misjudged his goals." The last part was said with some bitterness.

Professor Asimov cleared his throat - "As a non-wizard, I'm not clear why you suspect Draco may be alive?"

"Well, Draco is carrying around Polyjuice potion keyed to his likeness and he gave some to Mike Li. He could have given some to someone else and escaped in the confusion."

"But, Mr. Longbottom's body did not stay in Gilderoy's form after he was killed. It reverted several minutes later."

Amelia Bones spoke up. "I don't think we need to reveal the details of this..."

But Harry was already speaking. "The power of the Philosopher's Stone is to make temporary changes permanent. That's a secret, but people are figuring it out, and it's not very well kept anymore. We've always had the ability to make people young, but just short term. The stone locks the changes in. Draco had somehow figured that out. I think we'll need to have a high level talk about how well our decisions about secrecy versus transparency have played out, and how the new revelations affect them. But that can wait for a few more days."

(Harry didn't bother to add the details about the Maurader's Map, which could identify Polyjuiced people as their true identity, but he'd already tested - the map didn't display dead people. He'd checked that before the ambush, which was helpful, since someone ... possibly an ally of Draco or perhaps merely a student who recognized it's usefulness, had swiped it in the chaos after the funeral.)

Harry took another drink of water. Hermione had been awfully quiet. These revelations had been tough on her. She blamed herself for not getting there in time, and now she feels conflicted because Draco tricked her as well.

"You said Draco's other plan," Hermione said.

"Well, he expected a betrayal, but I think Draco was honestly surprised by the use of Fiendfyre. He sketched out a plan to get in and get out stealthily, using some distracting attacks, but with minimal force. It looks good on paper, but it wouldn't work. Draco probably knew it. But he believed he'd sold it. It's even hard to guess at, but I know he had another plan."

"And why do you know that?" asked the Headmistress.

"Because he'd already won once he got through the door. He could have simply walked over to the Auror and quietly confessed. He could have told them about the attack and said he feared for his life and begged them for a debriefing well away from my control and the government and spread the rumour quietly. Slughorn had the map already. They'd burned my office. Draco had already won. He could have extricated himself from the situation. But he didn't. I think his plan all along was the have the 'subtle' attack fail and fake his death. And to make the failure his fault, so that there was no instant reprisal against Gilderoy. Neville."

The Headmistress bowed her head, and Hermione followed. Harry continued. "Neville wasn't Imperiused. He knew the risk when he agreed to play the role of Lockhart. I imagine Draco told him the full story, as he believed it, under Veritaserum. Neville knew he couldn't sound an alarm himself, he could only alert everyone by ... dying while still in Hogwarts. He was the best of us all."