Sophia had never been so terrified in her life. It was like everything she had ever feared had happened all at once. The Ministry had raided their Base, like McLaggen had always feared, and they had all been arrested! And the worst part was that it was all her fault! If what Rose Malfoy had said was true, she had led them straight to the evidence that made the Ministry attack them. But why? How could it be? Had the Knocker known who it was that tracked him? How could he even know that name? She had nothing about the Order on her computer, or anywhere else online. Her thoughts went in circles, and she felt tears coming. Somehow, even though he could barely see through the damage from the Stinging Jinx, Albus noticed and was able to comfort her. She didn't even care that Mary, who was the third person in their cell with them, saw it. Mary looked about to collapse from nerves herself. Sophia wanted to go over and comfort her, but she wasn't able to extract herself from Albus.
As she looked over at him, she saw that his face was back to normal. Was that better or worse for their case though?
"I'll talk to them," he whispered to her. "It will be alright, I promise."
"Don't promise things you can't keep," she murmured back.
"I will get to the bottom of this." Albus replied. "It all has to be a misunderstanding."
They heard someone outside. A Ministry employee came to the door and asked their names.
"Sophia Buller," she replied calmly, though she wanted to scream.
"Mary Piers," Mary said, more defiant.
"Albus Potter," Albus said. The employee jolted as if he was stung and suddenly paid more attention to them.
"Potter? Did you say Potter?"
"Yes."
"What are you doing here?"
"You arrested me a few hours ago. Along with the others here, one of whom is Logan Piers' sister, and the other is the person who recently helped the Auror department with a major breakthrough," Albus replied calmly. The employee clearly didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth several times, until he just scurried away. Sophia felt a sudden urge to laugh, but the seriousness of their situation made the laugh die in her throat.
"I think someone will come and talk to us now," Albus said. He had, after moving around on the bench, managed to get out of the handcuffs they were placed in. He started to remove Sophia's as well.
"What are you going to say?" Mary asked. "What do you know that I don't?"
"I'm going to tell the truth," Albus replied. "And I don't know how much Sophia has told you about what we've been doing in the last two days, but I suspect that whatever lead they had that led them to raid our Base Camp, came from the man we've been tracking."
"You think he misled them there on purpose?"
"I don't know. I mean, they knew the name of our group. How would the Knocker even have learnt that? There are still some missing pieces, but I think that if we combine our knowledge, we will get to the bottom of this and get you all released." As he said that, he was finally able to get Sophia's handcuffs off. He quickly moved over to remove Mary's as well.
"Why are you suddenly so certain that we are all innocent? You weren't so sure when you first came down the tunnel a week ago." Mary said as she raised her hands so Albus could get to them.
"I didn't know what I had stumbled onto then. And I had literally just ran away from another, similar encounter, where there was a hostile man meeting me at the bottom of the hole. But from everything I've seen over the last few days, you are not a threat. Whatever they found has to be a mistake, whether he left it deliberately or not." Albus said as Mary's handcuffs came off.
Sophia wished she could be as optimistic as Albus. He still believed in the system, despite his own predicament. Yet he had stood up against Rose Malfoy for her, even when he must have known it was pointless. She had known that too. They should have Apparated away the moment they heard the raid. But that would have left everyone else in even worse trouble. At least this way, Rose knew that this was the same group that had given them the clue to the Knocker's whereabouts in the first place. But Potter didn't seem to care about that at all. Would they all be arrested because she had tried to help Albus?
It was the Minister herself that came to see them. Sophia and Mary both kept their hands behind them, to try to hide the fact that Albus had removed the handcuffs. He hadn't told them to do that, but they both did it without thinking. Albus made no secret of the fact that his hands were free. Sophia wondered if he even still had his wand. Had Scorpius removed that? Rose had taken hers, but she hadn't seen Scorpius search Albus at all.
Sophia had never met the Minister for Magic, but she was hard to miss. Even when taken aback, like she was right now, she presented an aura of authority that made it clear that she was in charge and expected to be heard.
"Albus!" she exclaimed. "It IS you. Where have you been?"
"A few different places," Albus replied. "Is that really the most important question right now?"
The Minister shook her head. "Why are you here?"
"I wasn't exactly given a choice. The other Auror's brought us all here, as I'm sure you know."
"Actually, I haven't got all the details yet. Who are all these people?"
"Well, I haven't learnt all their names yet, but the woman over there," he tilted his head towards Mary, "Is Mary Piers, Logan Piers' sister. This is Sophia Buller. Rose and Scorpius have met her once already. You should probably talk to my father, or at least Rose. I don't know what led them to do this raid."
"Didn't they see you when they did the raid?"
"I was subjected to a Stinging Jinx to the face. That was probably why my father didn't recognise me."
"A Stinging Jinx? From whom?"
"Your daughter."
"ROSE attacked you? Why?"
"You should probably go talk to them. I don't know the full story, so I don't really know why."
Sophia was relieved when she didn't ask Mary or her any other questions, just Albus. She was surprised that he talked to a member of his family like that, and even more surprised when Albus defended her. When the Minister turned to leave, Albus took out what looked like an Extendable Ear from his pocket. How had he been able to hide that? He threw something out of the small opening in the door, and it stuck to the back of the Minister's robes. Sophia was confused, as she thought Extendable Ears needed a string, but she eagerly accepted the earbud Albus offered her. She needed to hear this, so she knew what to say when they would be questioned later.