"Father, if Voldemort was so powerful, why did he need any Death Eaters?"

"He lacked the patience for administration. Also, he needed an audience to truly enjoy himself."

- Conversation between Draco and Lucius Malfoy, circa 1989

Draco paced back and forth, staring at the blank wall. It had been a risk, ditching Gregory, but the entire castle was out celebrating Harry Potter Day – except for Harry himself, who had disappeared into his chest after breakfast – so Draco felt safe from ambush. And in any case, he had his liquid luck and wand out, he'd simply stun anyone he saw.

Draco paced back and forth, staring at the featureless wall. Harry told them to make bold predictions. Draco had decided to make the boldest one he could – this room appeared in response to student's desires, and fulfill them … somehow. You had to really need it, not just find it convenient. There was no reason for this to be true, or at least for this prediction to be any more true than some other one. But, Draco remembered what the Weasley twins said about summoning the Sorting Hat, so it wasn't entirely unprecedented.

If Draco's prediction didn't pan out, he'd learn something. And if it worked … invaluable.

Draco started his experiment. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

I really need to know if Harry Potter will turn out to be a Dark Lord. It's the most important question I can ask, not just for me but for everyone, and there's no easy answer. I need to know. Draco took several deep breaths, concentrating.,When he opened his eyes Draco saw a small, solid door in the blank wall. Draco blinked again, then quickly opened the door. Before, where there had been a clean, polished bathroom complete with sinks and a sauna, stood a small wooden room.

Draco stepped inside, closing the door behind him, when he heard the voice.

"Hello, Tom," said Albus Dumbledore.

Draco froze. "Headmaster?" Draco ran forward and saw a giant piece of glass floating gently in the middle of the room, a portal to another room. Dumbeldore stood in the other room, just beyond the portal, which was surrounded by a gold frame. The frame anchored the room around it, as if it alone was real and the two rooms, the one Draco stood in and the one Dumbledore occupied, were merely illusion.

Draco stopped, frozen by Albus Dumbledore's piercing glare.

"They said you were lost. And how did you know about..."

Dumbledore's face, so hard a moment ago, became bewildered. "Quirinus? What -"

Draco looked confused, and he stuttered out another "Headmaster?"

"Well," said Albus Dumbledore. "I do feel stupid."

"Sir, I don't understand. You are supposed to give me advice. I thought this room would ..." but Dumbledore spoke right through him.

"There I am, searching so hard for Voldemort's shade, never noticing that the Defense Professor of Hogwarts is a sickly, half-dead victim possessed by a spirit far more powerful than himself. I would call it senility, if so many others had not missed it as well."

This isn't Dumbledore. This is a ... movie of Dumbledore, perhaps. A shade. Draco waved and shouted, but the Albus Dumbledore in the mirror - the mirror which did not reflect the room he was in, but of another room, more of a cave really – didn't answer. The only one in that other room was Dumbledore. After a moment, Draco registered the actual words he'd heard. Quirrell was Voldemort. Draco sat down, practically collapsed. I made the same mistake Father did. I didn't recognize my enemy. For a year.

Draco caught himself. If this is true.

"Oh, yes indeed," Albus Dumbledore said in level tones. "Your acting was perfect; I confess myself utterly deceived. Quirinus Quirrell seemed - what is the term I am looking for? Ah yes, that is the word. He seemed sane."

This is not necessarily true. Why do you believe this is true? This is an illusion. Draco wanted to believe this is a lie, but it felt correct. Why would this room, or whoever created it, lie to Draco. What would be the point? That seemed far fetched, and if Hogwarts itself was lying to him, Draco didn't know what to think.

Draco considered what he heard. Professor Quirrell was Voldemort? Did that make sense? He'd been powerful enough, but ... it didn't fit. Did it? Draco sat and listened, listened to only one side of the conversation as best he could. Would anyone fake half a converstion to fool me? Actually, this seems exactly like the sort of thing Father would expect Dumbledore to do.

"The Boy-Who-Lived came out of it well enough. Tried to turn him into you, did you? Instead you turned yourself into a corpse, and Harry Potter became the wizard you should have been."

Draco snapped back his full attention at the mention of Harry Potter. If Professor Quirrell was Voldemort, what did that imply? Draco's stomach knotted, that sentence could be interpreted many ways, but they didn't seem good...

"All of Tom Riddle's icy brilliance, tamed to the service of James and Lily's warmth and love. I wonder how you felt when you saw what Tom Riddle could have become, if he had grown up in a loving family?"

Draco relaxed, and realized he'd been holding his breath. This was the proof he'd searched for. Dumbledore knew about Harry. Dumbledore didn't know about Voldemort, exactly, but Dumbledore trusted Harry. Clearly there was some connection between Voldemort and Potter, but Harry had become – better. Draco started laughing.

"I suppose the humor of the situation would be lost on you."

He's not reacting to me. Is he? He wasn't before.

"How I laughed when I realized it! When I saw you had made a Good Voldemort to oppose the evil one - ah, how I laughed! I never had the steel for my role, but Harry Potter shall be more than equal to it, when he comes into his power. Though I suppose Harry shall have to find some other Dark Lord to vanquish for it, since you will not be there."

Draco watched the one sided exchange of the Dumbledore and Voldemort's argument, the Headmaster said he wouldn't give in despite Voldemort's hostages. This was odd, why did Dumbledore not attack Voldemort? Why was he not defending? Why were they talking, instead of fighting?

I went down this entire path because Harry Potter spoke with Voldemort, and here Dumbledore did it too. Draco paused, them remembered to add. If this is true. Does anyone just attack their enemy?

Dumbledore knew Voldemort's true name, he must have taught him. Professor Quirrell - Voldemort - must have known about Harry on the very first day of classes, known about their relationship. Now that Draco thought about it, Quirrell practically devoted his first two classes to Harry. Oh, he'd involved Draco and Hermione. But mainly Harry. Quirrell mentored Harry through the year, but had it been much more extensively than he'd taught Draco?

Harry probably didn't even know that Quirrell was Voldemort, everyone thought Voldemort died. Harry would consider it … irrational to worry about, until he had proof.

Draco now had a perfectly good explanation why Harry Potter had been on good terms with Voldemort until he killed him. At some point Harry deduced Voldemort's true nature and then they had fought, and Harry had won.

Draco's train of thought was interrupted by the name "Harry Potter," the Headmaster breathed. "What are you doing here?"

Draco glanced around, instinctively, to see if he'd been discovered. He turned back to see Dumbledore's frantic "No! No! No!" and watched as Dumbledore tossed away his wand and a rod that Draco recognized as the Line of Merlin Unbroken.

Then there was a flicker, and Dumbledore was gone.

The Headmaster reappeared with the words "Hello, Tom."

Draco watched again, paying attention, surprise replaced with concentration. He watched a third time.

Harry could be the hostage. Dumbledore had then conceded defeat rather than have Voldemort kill Harry. That made sense.

Or Harry had betrayed Dumbledore while working with Voldemort, who he betrayed later. That seemed … less likely. But not impossible.

Or Harry had stumbled onto the final duel between the two greatest living wizards and somehow accidentally messed up Dumbledore's plan. That hypothesis … could not be rejected out of hand. General Chaos had that effect on people.

Draco, after several repetitions, tenatively decided against the third option. Dumbledore's eyes moved around, he was watching Voldemort. It just seemed unlikely that Harry would be there by accident. Too many coincidences. Dumbledore's surprise seemed genuine. How had Harry snuck up on him? And Voldemort?

Draco remembered Hermione, appearing out of nowhere in the battle just outside this door.

Draco wanted to believe that Harry was a hostage. It wasn't far fetched. Draco may have discovered Quirrell's secret, but Dumbledore had said "All of Tom Riddle's Icy Brilliance..." Tom Riddle must be Voldemort's real name. On some level Voldemort was Evil Harry. Or, perhaps, Harry was Good Voldemort.

That was a disturbing thought. Draco shuddered at the implications.

Voldemort only pretended to fly into a rage? Father had described scenes of Voldemort with Death Eaters (as second hand descriptions). Voldemort didn't appear sane. But if Voldemort was Quirrell, that meant he already knew the lessons Quirrell taught. How to Lose. Martial Arts. A Voldemort that laughed at Harry's ridiculous ways to murder people as useless, because he had hundreds of non ridiculous ways.

A Voldemort so confident that he worked under the nose of his greatest enemy for a year - while dying and injured and far from the full height of his powers - just to teach and connect with his younger self. Or for some other reason, but viewing that as a benefit.

Quirrell was so cunning that he'd managed to fulfill multiple wishes with a single plot, just because he wanted to.

Draco thought, and the examples kept piling up. That was Voldemort? Not the bedtime monster Father described, but someone so cunning that Hogwarts itself - and everyone in it - was just an amusing plaything?

Draco remembered imagining Harry Potter as evil, trying to find a sign or clue, all the times he'd looked for a mistake. Now, at least, he had the cold comfort that he wasn't just deficient in imagination.

If this was true.

Why do I believe what I believe?

Then Draco thought about it again. Voldemort had defeated Dumbledore ... somehow. Dumbledore was gone, and this didn't seem like a ruse. If Quirrell was Voldemort and had Harry as a hostage, then he'd gotten the upper hand. That didn't make sense at all, that felt confusing. Draco got up and started pacing, when he came to the backside of the portal he saw that it had some thickness, but not nearly enough to hold the room Dumbledore was in. Draco read the words, and felt like he understood them, but when he looked away he couldn't remember what they meant. He want back around to the front, and looked through the portal. Draco put his hand out to see if he could touch it, but it felt like a sheet of glass, smooth and cool.

Draco considered the timeline. Dumbledore is waiting for Voldemort in this device, a doorway into another place. Presumably he knew Voldemort needed it. Dumbledore surprised Voldemort, but learned that Voldemort was possessing Quirrel. Voldemort traps Dumbeldore without any spell, so presumably he'd expected an ambush, and maybe brought Harry Potter along.

And then Harry Potter defeats Voldemort? No. On their best day the entire first year army would stand no chance against Professor Quirrell, unless they ambushed them. A clever Voldemort with enough time to plan to defeat Dumbledore. Draco could convince himself that Harry and Quirrell could defeat Voldemort, but Harry by himself AND facing Voldemort as smart as Quirrell? Was that really more likely than Voldemort had simply quit possessing Quirrell

That Voldemort had pretended to lose. He could be possessing anyone. He could be possessing Harry. Or they could be working together, for some purpose.

Despair washed over Draco. "This isn't an answer," he mumbled to the room, empty except for the shade of his former Headmaster. Then he shouted "I still don't know!" at the image of Albus Dumbledore, who was saying 'Hello, Tom' again. "It's not enough! How does this qualify as an answer? You trusted Harry knowing he was Voldemort, but Voldemort fooled you too!" Draco took out his wand and lashed out, cutting the portal, smashing spell after spell at it, first normal spells he'd use in classes and on the battlefield, then the spells Father had told him to not reveal. Draco levitated a chair from across the room and flung it at the portal. The chair itself shattered from the impact, leaving no cracks on the glass.

After a few minutes, exhausted, he slumped back to the ground, mumbling. "It's not fair. That's not an answer."

Draco woke up with a start, sitting at his desk.