Order of the Hidden Dragon

Scorpius felt it was hardly worth hanging out in Knockturn Alley at the moment. With the Ministry's latest set of raids, no one wanted to be seen hanging out in such an obvious shady area. He didn't want to risk any of his aliases being seen out either, so he went out as himself. He didn't know what he was searching for. Despite all their caution, Albus had ended up exactly where he had tried to avoid ending up. Neither Harry nor Hermione liked it, but they couldn't just release him either. Not even if Mary Piers didn't want to press charges. He cursed the stupid rules and he suspected Harry did that as well.

He went back up to Diagon Alley to get lunch. He didn't see the point in going into Lehrer and James' usual pub. No one would want to talk to him openly there either, if it was even open at this point. His thoughts kept going in circles, and he almost chuckled when he thought how this latest adventure now meant that all three of them, Rose, Al, and him, had been arrested by the Ministry at some point. Rose had been arrested in Norway, but it was in a similar situation.

As he sat down at one of the cafés in Diagon Alley, he was approached by an older gentleman. There was something familiar about him, but Scorpius couldn't place him. He had met so many people by now, most of them didn't even register, unless they had done something wrong or was the person he was looking for at that moment.

"Mind if I join you?" the man asked but sat down without waiting for an answer.

"You look like someone just killed your Crup, young man. A Knut for your thoughts?"

Scorpius tried to smile. "I'm afraid my thoughts are too muddled to be worth paying to hear. And depressing."

"I see. I would think that you would be out searching, to try and help your friend. Have you given up on him so quickly?"

Scorpius should perhaps be surprised that this man knew who he was and that Albus was in trouble, but he found he couldn't even muster the energy to ask how he knew that.

"I haven't given up; I just don't know what to do next. It's all out of my hands, it seems." He wondered what this man wanted. No one would sit down and talk to him just because. Not when he so clearly wanted to be left alone.

"Ah, maybe you just don't know who to ask."

"Why do you care, anyway?" Scorpius wasn't in the mood for talking in circles right now.

"Don't get your wand in a knot now, boy. Maybe I'm trying to help you."

"How can you help? What do you want to help with? Who are you?"

"Ah, finally you're asking the right questions. The name's Fred Roth. You might have missed me, but you were part of arresting our entire group yesterday."

Oh, that was where he had seen him before. The man who had looked strangely calm despite being arrested.

"And now you want to help me?"

"Specifically, we want to help our most recent member, young Mr. Potter. We all feel that he shouldn't be held in his current position any longer than necessary."

"How can you help with that?"

"Personally, I can't do much. I wasn't present when the event took place. The two young women who were there also didn't see anything. However, one of them hadn't made sure that the Muggle security cameras were off before we got started, like she should have. Or rather, she left one of them to Mr. Piers, who failed to disable it."

"Is that why there was no footage of what happened, other than that one camera that didn't see anything?"

"Yes. It has become a habit of ours, to avoid being spotted doing magic by Muggles. It was unfortunate in this case, since that prevented us from seeing what happened with another one of our members, Logan Piers."

"I sense a point in this conversation coming. Or have you just come to tell me that you've tried and failed?"

"I am not known for proclaiming failures. After a spot of tea, the young women managed to work out a solution. I am not well versed in Muggle technology, but somehow, Sophia, the woman that works with computers and the like, was able to extract the security footage from the camera. I have no idea how. Do you know how a computer works?"

"Not really. Others in my family do though."

"Excellent. I have been told to give you this. if you put that into a computer, it should show the footage they were able to extract. Sophia even managed to find a setting that penetrated the fog, showing what happened more clearly. I think it will greatly benefit your friend to let the Minister see it."

The man handed Scorpius a piece of plastic, with a metal part at the end, where it seemed something could be attached. He hoped Hermione or Rose would know what to do with it. He got to his feet in a hurry.

"Thank you," he said. "What do we owe you for this?"

"Not everyone lives in a world of trading favours, lad. And like I said, we wanted to do what we could for our newest member. Please let him know where this aid came from, in case his father forgets to mention that."

"I will. As for the rest, I am sorry we weren't able to prevent the raid. If we had known…"

"That's a different battle, lad. Take the victory you got, worry about the rest later."

"Yes. Thank you again." Scorpius ran off, forgetting all about lunch.

***

Albus didn't know what to do next. Despite his best efforts, he had ended up in the exact position he had tried to avoid. Being in custody, knowing his father and Aunt Hermione hated it. Though they could have avoided it if they had done just a little bit of research before barging into a base. If they really had been a hostile group, that could have ended badly for the Ministry. He suspected the recent raids had made his father impatient. He understood how he felt, but there had to be a better way. Look at the mess that had come from doing random raids? Piers dead and a group of people with so much valuable research refusing to help.

At least Sophia and the others had been released. Though that brought another worry. Sophia had seemed so mad at the Ministry. Would she now throw in her lot with McLaggen and help him in plotting whatever it was he was planning? He doubted it would ever amount to anything, but just trying could get them in a lot of trouble. He hoped that the way McLaggen had rambled in the interview with Rose would prevent Sophia from listening to anything he said.

He looked up as he heard someone approaching. He had never thought about how loud those footsteps were, when there were no other sounds. To his surprise, it was Dawson on the other side. Though maybe that shouldn't be surprising. He was the one in charge of his case. Albus had already given his statement to him, so what did he want now? Dawson turned the keys to the cell door.

"You're free to go. New evidence has come up that shows that you didn't do anything wrong."

"New evidence? What evidence?"

"Security camera footage. We thought they were out of order, or not able to see through the fog, but someone managed to get the footage clearer and handed it to us. It shows what happened. Let me show you."

Dawson took Albus to a room where they had a computer. On it was indeed a video showing Albus running into the small alley, then a lot of fog came down, and when it was cleared, Piers lay dead at his feet. But then it changed to what he thought were called thermal. It showed a person behind Albus, trying to sneak up at him. Another person comes in from the side, the first person points at him, then the second person drops to the ground. Then Albus turns around, and the fog is gone, and the first person is gone as well.

"We have someone else to find, it seems," Dawson said with a smile. "But I leave that to Potter. My job is done, and I am glad that we could clear this up."

"Who sent this? How did they find it?"

"That is a question you should rather ask Mr. Malfoy. He was the one who brought it in. We had found similar footage before but didn't know how to penetrate the fog."

Albus thought he had an idea of who was behind this. As he left the office with Dawson, he was met with cheers from Rose and Scorpius. Then his father gave him a hug and said he was sorry. Albus said he was sorry too, but neither of them elaborated. They all went home to the Potter house for dinner. The Malfoy's were invited as well, so Albus was surrounded by the people he cared about the most. So why did he feel that something was missing? He needed to thank Sophia for her involvement, but he should be happy that he was able to be at home with his family again.