Albus was once again over at Sophia's place, watching her computer. They had tried to continue tracking the Knocker's computer, hoping to see it being taken to London, an indication that Rose had alerted Harry and found them. Instead, the signal moved in an instant from Sandwich to the northeast coast in France.
"They missed him," Albus said with a curse. "Now what?"
"We could try to tell them where he is again?"
"They probably haven't even been there yet. Let's see if he stays there, maybe this is a temporary stop on the way to somewhere else. How far away can you track him?"
"There is no limit, as long as the computer is on. But if he enters a new area that is Unplottable or hidden in other ways, I might have to start the tracking all over again."
They kept watch over the blip on the map for hours. They didn't want to miss it if it suddenly went offline somewhere or moved again. When it finally stopped showing, and Sophia was about to start the Tracking all over again, they were distracted by noises coming from the other end of the Base. It sounded like a battle. Flashes of spells erupted from near McLaggen's house and people started shouting. Albus' heart sank. He recognised those voices. Sophia looked at him and understood what was happening as well.
"Why?" she asked. "Why are they raiding us now?"
"I don't know. They should be busy with the Knocker, I don't understand."
"Either way, they can't find you. You need to hide."
"I can't hide. They will search very thoroughly."
"Then leave!"
"I can't leave you here to deal with this alone!"
"Nothing will be better by your father thinking we've kidnapped you! Maybe that's why they're coming!"
"I'll explain."
"He won't listen. Not right now."
Before they could say anything else, the door opened with a bang. To Albus' relief, it was Rose who had found them. Her shock was almost as big as theirs.
"What are you doing here?!"
"I think that's my question." Albus said with his arms crossed. "Shouldn't you be finding the Knocker?"
"We went to the location you gave us. He had already left, but we found a notebook, where he said he had sold Yang, and a Wampus cat, to something called the Order of the Hidden Dragon. That led us here."
"What? That can't be true!" Sophia said.
"Listen, all of that can be sorted out later. For now, please, come with me. If I tell Harry that you're the source for the lead in the first place, he will listen."
"No." Sophia had drawn her wand and pointed it at Rose. Albus tried to go between them, but Sophia pushed him away. "I'm not going to let the Ministry arrest me for something we haven't done."
Scorpius came into the room as well. He took in the scene in front of him and tried to deescalate the situation.
"This is the only house left. Whatever we decide to do, we need to do it quickly, before others see you as well. I don't think Harry will believe that Albus is here by choice. Not with what evidence he has against this Order."
"Whatever intel we have is wrong," Albus insisted as he placed himself in front of Sophia. "Do you think I would have stayed here if it was true?"
"We don't have time for that now." Rose said. "Don't make this worse than it already is."
Albus stood firm. He didn't even know why he was doing it. He knew as well as Rose that resisting wouldn't do anything. All he knew was that he couldn't let them take Sophia away like some criminal, when she had been nothing but helpful.
Rose sighed, then pointed her wand at him. Whatever spell she used, Albus felt a searing pain in his face.
"Augh! What was that!?"
"A Stinging hex. That way, your face will be unrecognisable for a few hours at the least. Now come on."
"You think Harry won't recognise him? That's exactly what your mother did to him when she tried to hide him from Snatchers."
"It'll give him an excuse to at least do the interrogation away from other prying eyes. Help me get them out of here."
Albus could hardly see through the pain, but Sophia seemed to realise that resistance was futile. Scorpius got him on his feet as Rose led Sophia away from their area and towards the kitchen area.
"What happened to him?" he heard his father say. It was strange hearing him use such a hostile tone towards him.
"I don't know, I found him like that." Scorpius said. Albus thought he could see his father scrutinising his face but didn't know if he recognised him. He tried to hide his eyes, that would be a dead giveaway to who he was. It was the exact same shade of green as his father had.
"Put them with the others. We need to search this whole place for Yang."
How could they think Yang was here? There was no place for anyone to hide such things. He was sure they were mistaken about whatever intel they had about this organisation. But why would the Knocker lie? Could he really know about Sophia tracing his computer? It had only been a day since they did it.
Albus tried to think through the searing pain of whatever Rose had done with his face. He tried to stay close to Sophia, but whoever held his arms didn't let him.
"Do we need to get him to St. Mungo's, sir?" he heard one of them ask.
"No, it looks like a standard Stinging Hex. It will go away in a few hours." his father replied. Albus still didn't know if he had recognised him or not. He probably wasn't expecting Albus to be here, so it may be that he didn't. Either way, as he said, he would be recognised sooner or later, when the effect wore off. Albus needed to think about what he would do then.
"Put them in there. I'll talk with them later," Harry said and Albus felt himself being pushed none-too-gently into a dark room.
"D'you think they're listening?" he heard someone whisper.
"Most likely," he whispered back.
"What do they think we've done? Who's this Yang they're looking for."
"Yang's a missing Auror. It's a big misunderstanding, hopefully we can clear this all up when they realise that he's not here."
No one said much else until Harry came back from searching, hours later.
"Who's your leader?" he asked, still sounding hostile. Albus didn't know where McLaggen was in this crowd, and he didn't want to speak and potentially give himself away. After some scuffling and small protests from the man in question, McLaggen came forward. Harry sounded surprised.
"Cormac McLaggen?"
"Hello, Potter. What is the meaning of this? What have we done to deserve this sort of treatment?"
"I am working on determining that as we speak. Are you speaking for everyone in this group?"
That sounded like a terrible idea to Albus, but he didn't dare to say anything. Others had no such hesitation.
"No," at least four or five voices from behind said at once. Then Sophia alone elaborated.
"We can all speak for ourselves. But for once, Cormac and I wonder about the same thing. What have we done, to warrant you all coming in here and attacking us?"
Albus thought he felt his father's eyes on him again, but he didn't look up. Was his face less of a mess already?
"We had intelligence that one of my missing Aurors was taken by a group called the Order of the Hidden Dragon. Do any of you care to tell me where he is?"
Naturally, no one spoke up, though shocked whispers came from all around him.
"Very well," Harry said after a few minutes. "I will give you all a chance to speak to one of us in private. Maybe that will loosen some of your tongues."
Albus felt Sophia's hands in his briefly, before someone separated them again. He had no idea who held him now, but it wasn't Rose, Scorpius, or his father.
In no time at all, they were all taken back to the Ministry. They didn't have enough holding cells for all of them to have a separate one, so they were separated into groups of three. Albus ended up at the same one as Sophia. Even though their hands were still secured behind them, they managed to hold on to each other. She led him over to the bench he hadn't even noticed. Then they sat down and waited. Would someone come for them before whatever jinx it was that Rose had done would be healed? He started working on releasing his hands from the bonds. Scorpius had shown him how to do that, though he never expected to have to do it.