Auror Behry saw Draco Malfoy and the Weasley Twins walking through the small corridor between the infirmary and Peverell.

"Come to make another try at it, 'eh?" he said cheerfully. "Well, you know the drill." There were trunks to store all of their gear.

"Can we take our wands through? I mean, that isn't allowed, but some people can do wandless magic."

"We're not trying to break it today," said one of the twins. "We just want to experiment on a few spells."

"We've got some ideas," said the other, conspiratorially.

Auror Behry pulled out his mirror. "I'm going to have to call it in..."

"Did you know that there are Muggle Wizards?" Draco Malfoy said, before taking a bite of a waffle.

Daphne looked up from her pancakes. She noticed that most of the table was watching Draco, now. He'd spoken loudly and now he paused, putting down his knife.

"I know, it's stupid. A Muggle Wizard. But they put on shows and they can do some amazing things. They make things float, or disappear. They can tell which piece of paper you picked even when you shuffle them all back together. They can read your mind."

Daphne had recovered first. "Those are all pretty simple spells, Draco," she said.

"Yes, but they can't do magic. They are muggles. They don't know Wingardium Leviosa, but they can fly. They can't do Transfiguration, but they turn people into tigers. They do it for show, to entertain other muggles. They can't actually do it, of course, they use gadgets and have figured out incredibly clever ways to confuse people and hide what they are doing. But the really funny thing? Some of them tricked scientists into thinking they could do real magic."

"But the Statute of Secrecy," gasped Colin Creevey.

"Doesn't apply to Muggles," said Daphne. "And these scientists believed them?"

"Some of them," Draco said, cutting his waffle. "It's funny. Listen to Potter and you begin to think of science as the greatest thing ever. But it's just like magic, only as good as the Wizard. Or Scientist, as the case may be. These scientists got the idea that if they couldn't figure out a way to do it, nobody could. They tricked themselves."

"And so the Muggles believed in magic?" asked Gregory.

"No," said Harry Potter, who had sat down during the conversation. "Other magicians exposed them as frauds. They showed that there were secretly wires to help things fly, or that when people were reading minds they had someone telling them the answers. It wasn't that science was at fault, it was just the all-too-human error of pride. But you know what I find funny about this, Draco?"

Draco, mouth full, just made a waving motion with his fork to ask for the answer.

"They probably got started by seeing a real Wizard. Some young boy sees Merlin float away a woman, and he spends a while trying to figure out how he did it. And that Muggle spends years and then figures out a magic trick that doesn't involve magic. And it builds up to this entire genre of entertainment. As a nice side benefit, now that Muggles are used to seeing magic tricks, they become less likely to believe in magic, because they know how to fake it ..."

"Which makes you wonder if Merlin planned that all along," said Daphne.

"So, what spells did they cast?" ask Harry.

"It might be easier to list what spells they didn't cast," Mad Eye Moody growled. They all sent a Patronus around. The Malfoy boy turned his robes into a muggle outfit. They spilled dirt on the floor then scourgified it. They flew a houseplant around the room. I talked to Li, Behry, Septavius, and everyone who watched them. They each had a list, but it seemed like a hodgepodge. A few powerful spells, those Weasley boys think they're clever. But mostly things you'd find in the Helpful Housewife Grimoire. They were there for hours, and they just went through the list, thanked everyone, and said they'd have to come back to try more things.

"Did he say what this was about?" asked Neville.

"He just said it was important," Vince said. They were walking back from the Quiddich match, which had been exciting but disappointing. Hufflepuff had put up a valiant effort, but Herbert Fleet gave up the final goal with a mere three seconds left on the clock, giving Gryffindor the game. Vincent's voice still sounded gravelly, he'd been screaming the entire final quarter.

The headed up the stairs, breaking away from the rest of the 'Puff contingent. Mike shouted out after them "Watch out for monsters!" and the crowd, mostly quiet after the close loss, laughed. There had been rumours of shadowy hooded figures roaming the halls. Vincent and Neville continued higher and higher into Hogwarts.

"Why the Offense lecture hall, I wonder?" asked Neville. "We have plenty of good meeting places, like, uh..."

"Like the room next to Slytherin?" Vince said.

Neville blushed, "You know about that? I mean, I was going to invite you but I don't know …."

"I lived with Draco all last year," Vince said with a shrug. "Don't worry about it, Draco couldn't invite me, either. Everyone can't do everything."

"Thanks," said Neville, as they got to the lecture hall door. "I can get you into the Muggle wargames. Harry's opening those up."

"That would be cool," said Vince, who'd heard about it from Neville, Gregory and Draco. Each story had a different focus, but they all fascinated him. They stepped into the lecture hall. Draco sat facing the door in a small wooden chair placed next to the tall leathery chair that symbolized Professor Quirrel. Across from Draco sat Daphne Greengrass, who turned her head Neville and Vincent entered. There were two empty chairs on the other two sides of the table, A stoppered flask sat on the desk.

"Shut the door behind you," Draco said, waving them in.

Vincent shut the door - which magically bolted itself after he closed it - and joined Neville as they went and sat down.

"Thanks for coming," Draco said as he opened up the stopper and carefully took out a dropper and placed it on his tongue, then swallowed it. He carefully slid the flask to Neville, who gave a sniff.

"Veritaserum? Where did you … no, I don't want to know." Neville said.

"Best you don't know," Daphne said.

Draco nodded with her. "You don't have to take any. But I wanted to impress on you … on all of you … that this is serious. I realize that my reputation plays against me in some cases. It will take a few minutes for this to kick in. Who won the game?" Draco asked.

Neville gave him a recap for a few minutes, then Draco stiffened a bit.

"It's taken," Draco said and Neville sat, waiting for him to continue. Draco raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you took my word for it," Draco said. "Do you want to test it?"

Vincent shook his head. Neville opened his mouth, then closed it. "This seems overly dramatic."

Daphne leaned across the table, "Now that you mention it, you could be an occlumens."

"He isn't," said Vince, "Unless he learned in the fall, or from..." Vincent caught himself. Neville looked over at Vince.

"From Harry," Daphne said, gasping.

"From Grindelwald," Draco corrected, "who was my houseguest for a month. And no, I didn't learn it from him, although he certainly could have started my lessons. But learning Occlumency from one the greatest magicians of the last century would have been a profoundly wasted opportunity."

Daphne seemed to accept this, but Neville started to get up, "Your houseguest? What is he even doing out of prison?" Neville's voice carried across the entire room and echoed slightly.

Vince put his hand on Neville's arm, but didn't pull him down. "Hear him out," he said. "Please?"

Draco nodded. "I need help. I'm investigating something, and it's important. I can't really tell you how important it is, except to say that I think it equals Voldemort's return from last year. And I need help."

Neville thought this over. "I don't see why you asked me. Harry and Hermione would be much better choices."

"I can't tell them. Sorry, I don't dare go into details, but you must not tell them. It's dangerous if they know. That's why I took the Veritaserum, so that you'll believe me when I say it is dangerous. I can't even involve Gregory, because I can't risk him accidentally giving something away. It's not that I don't trust Gregory, but Harry may notice if Gregory's acts weird..." Draco shrugged, "You know how he is."

Neville thought some more. "You don't trust Harry?"

Draco said, "Until I'm done with my investigation, I can't. I want to trust him." Draco's flicked the flask with his finger, the nail causing a small ringing. "I trusted you enough to tell you this. You could just go to Harry and say everything, but right now I need people I trust, and people who can fly under the radar." Draco blanched slightly, "Sorry, I meant under Harry's radar. People who can talk to him, or not, as the case may be."

"I got it," said Vince. "Will you tell us why you believe it?"

Draco shook his head. "Not yet. I'm worried about Legilemency. I've taken some precautions for myself, but it's a huge risk to share the information. If we get some confirmation, or if we need a full brainstorm, yes. But you'll have to swear under Veritaserum that you are behind the investigation. I'm hoping it won't come to that."

Neville ran his hands through his hair. "What did you study with Grindelwald. Dark Magic?"

"Nothing like that," said Draco. "He's under an Unbreakable Vow. Some history and experiments with enchantments and glamours. How to layer them, trigger them. He and Dumbledore were both intrigued with underlying theories of magic. We talked about that. Oh, and Transfigurations."

"Then why make him your house guest."

"He's useful, that's why Harry got him paroled," said Draco softly. "And before you agree. This is dangerous. I mean, I don't think we'll die. But we'll make enemies"

Vince nodded.

"Why me?" said Neville.

"You and Harry are friends. I'd like to think we're friends, too. Maybe this is a wild goose chase, but maybe it's not. Maybe I'm right, or maybe I've gone crazy. In any case, I'm going to need someone brave enough to stand up against his friend. Whether that turns out to be me or Harry, I'm not sure yet. You are my conscience."

Neville let out his breath slowly, then nodded.

"What's our first step?" asked Vince.

"Simple. We go to the Hall of Prophecy."

"Why did they support Voldemort?" Hermione asked Draco quietly, as the sat in the Potions room. The lesson had ended and most had wandered off, but they'd stayed behind. "The death eaters?"

"You ask that like there's just one answer," Draco answered. "Some believed him. They hated Muggles, end of story. Others wanted power. Voldemort carefully recruited powerful individuals and eliminated others, and given the choice between recruitment and elimination. Well, it's not hard."

"Voldemort didn't recruit anyone, he didn't need anyone! He could have ruled this country by himself," said Hermione.

"No, he really couldn't. A fearsome wizard can't do the thousands of things a country needs to do. He can take your money, but can he really go door to door to every salesman, crafter, author, haruspector, diviner, and tax half of their earnings? Does he know how much he can take from each person? Can he solve all the murders he didn't commit, because those criminals are an insult to his power and no government can allow that. Will he learn the thousands of details he needs to know, each day? Of course not, that's boring even if it were possible. Even if Voldemort could do all these things, he would not want to. No, a real government – of any type – requires people. You may not know what the Undersecretary of Divination does, but she has a job and at least half of those bureaucratic jobs involve real issues and knowledge. There's some featherbedding, giving some important ally's dumb nephew a stupid position of authority to cement his aunt's allegiance, but it doesn't happen as often as you'd imagine. Aurors have power, merchants have power, criminals have power, citizens have power, and it's arranged in a complex pattern. If you take it all you'll find that everyone is your enemy. You can take a surprisingly large chunk, but you can't get greedy."

"So, yes, Father cut a deal with Voldemort. He never admitted it, but suppose he hadn't dealt with him, and got murdered along with the others going on? How would that have helped. Voldemort needed Father to handle many aspects of power. All Dark Wizards delegate."

"You wouldn't negotiate with Voldemort, Draco."

"I'd like to think that," Draco said.

"Well, that was a waste" said George.

(Draco thought he could tell them apart, although he also suspected that they sometimes deliberately let him think that as part of some complex game that he didn't understand. Fred and George Weasley were impressive wizards, fiendishly clever, and funny, but they also reminded Draco that you abandoned traditions at some risk. Traditions started for a reason, in most cases).

The Weasley's had explained that you had to hold off on proposing solutions, so they'd decided to just try a bunch of spells and see what happened, not with any particular plan, just as a brainstorming technique. Sometimes an army won by brute force, but often they won by combining two seemingly random ideas into a stunningly powerful combination. They hadn't been able to think of any stunningly powerful combination, so they'd decided to just try casting spells to see if inspiration struck.

It hadn't.

"Even if we do think of something," said Fred (maybe), "we still don't know how we're going to smuggle a wand in."

"Well, if I only had something like the Muggle Naval Simulation's map, that might do it." Draco said. "There must be some spell powering it. If we knew that spell maybe we could sneak in, or find a small time when nobody was guarding the door. I know, it's a stupid idea. The door is always guarded, but there must be a pattern, some movement. No security is perfect, that would make it too expensive..."

Draco saw the twins exchange a look.

"What? What did I say?" he asked. They exchanged another look.

Professor Lockhart sat at his desk, in the small room tucked behind the lecture hall for Offense against the Dark Arts. His first lecture of the day would not be for thirty minutes, and he was using this time to review his notes from the prior weekends battle. He heard a slight scuffling of feet and almost called out "Horace?" before he checked himself.

Professor Slughorn did many things, but routinely climb seven flights of stairs was not one of them.

Besides, they'd just spoken an hour ago at breakfast. Gilderoy took out his wand, opened the top drawer and pulled out a small mirror inside it. The scene showed not his reflection, but a view of the lecture hall from atop a storage cabinet in the back, where Professor Lockhart had stuck the twin mirror.

A horrific robed figure stood in front of the main leather chair. Professor Lockhart gasped quietly, his eyes wanted to drift away from the mirror, to glance anywhere else, but he kept his gaze focused on the mirror as his wand twitched and he started raising defenses. He'd barely setup an explosive tripwire jinx on his doorway when the robed figure tossed back its hood and the effect disappeared. Gilderoy Lockhart gasped at the figure, now looking tiny instead of nearly seven feet tall, finished taking off his Armageddon Cloak and stuffed it into a mokeskin pouch, leaving General Malfoy in his place. Draco quickly checked his appearance and then walked towards the door to the teacher's alcove.

Professor Lockhart had just slid his mirror back into the top drawer and closed it when the knocking started.

"Come in!" he said cheerfully, and as the door opened he shoved aside his scrolls. "General Malfoy! A bit early today? What can I help you with?"

Draco Malfoy stood in his doorway and shifted a bit, and Gilderoy felt his smile falter in spite of himself. That boy has been receiving far too many Owls. Even for a Malfoy. Professor Lockhart could hear Slughorn's whispered confession from the week before. Had Draco reconciled with Narcissa, or had she told him something that upsetting? Lie or truth?

Professor Lockhart's moment of self-doubt lasted for about a second before Draco said, a bit too loudly. "I've been told to give you a message."

"You'd better come in, then," Gilderoy said. He took out his wand and motioned for Draco to shut the door behind him, then proceeded to cast a full dozen wards. He started off with the simplest wards, then moved onto more complex ones. If Draco knew them he gave no signs of recognition, but neither did he give any sign of surprise. Professor Lockhart cast more complex wards, things he doubted any student had ever heard. Certainly any second year. Only then did he slip in some detection spells, again complex ones, and he could see that Draco had several invisible shields raised.

Spells no second year should know.

He nodded at Draco. "What's the message?"

Draco looked at him, his face showing a bead of sweat on his forehead. Draco's hand clenched his wand, although he kept it lowered towards the ground. That, more than his expression, revealed Draco's fear. Draco, eyes slightly downcast, said "The eyes of the Basilisk are on you." His body barely moved when he spoke.

A moment later his eyes glanced up. "Professor?"

"I heard the message, Draco. Thank you." And he shifted his wand to point at Draco, who had already started to dodge. Of course, his entire attitude, his precautions, the Armageddon Cloak all demonstrate suspicion.

But Draco couldn't move faster than a wand. Gilderoy respected the boy's considerable skills, so he'd raised his own shields instantly.

Draco's defenses protected against stunning, jinxes, being put to sleep, and blunt physical trauma. They wouldn't stop Gilderoy's attacks - advanced or not Draco was still just a student - but they would have slowed him down. If he'd been attacking.

Gilderoy Lockhart, wand pointed at Draco, spoke "Eunoe" in a voice barely above a whisper.

Draco fired off an Expelliarmus at the same time, which Professor Lockhart's shields easily deflected as his own spell hit Draco. Draco had started to cast a second spell, but then spluttered and stopped. He turned away for a second, mouth working silently and then he brought his hands up to his forehead and crumpled into a corner, face covered.

When he finally got back up Professor Lockhart couldn't see Draco's eyes, still downcast. But his cheeks were wet.

"I'm sorry," Draco said, "I thought..."

"I can imagine," said Professor Lockhart, sitting back down and putting his wand away. "Do you need any help?"

Draco shook his head. "I don't know. I need time to think."

"I had to tell Professor Slughorn about this," Gilderoy said while releasing the wards on the room.

Draco nodded, and wiped his cheeks. He cast several spells and when he turned back around his face looked calm and serene, as though nothing had happened at all. "Tell him it makes sense now, and I thank him. But if he goes digging around my mind again..."

Professor Lockhart waited, but Draco just let the sentence hang between them, then left.