Order of the Hidden Dragon

Albus was a little apprehensive as he entered the office answering the emergency call. He hadn't actually been in the office since he had fled after thinking he had killed Piers. Had his father had time to explain that to the others? No one questioned his presence, so he probably had.

"We managed to corner two members of the Dark part of the Order of the Hidden Dragon." Harry said as they were all gathered. "They didn't need much persuasion to give up the location of their hideout in return for not going to Azkaban. They denied that Yang was there but refused to say much about what they were doing. Expect it to be a terrible sight. Be careful with anything you touch. We don't know what they are doing in there, so prepare for trouble. It may also be that the Wampus Cat we have been searching for is there as well, so be on the lookout for that as well."

Harry split them up in teams and Albus was partnered with Rose as usual. They were the fourth team that Apparated to the small hill that the group was inside. When they were all there, Harry made a large hole to get in.

The inside was dark and smelled terrible. Albus quickly made the Bubblehead Charm that made sure he didn't breathe in anything dangerous and put on dragon-hide gloves to have as little exposed skin as possible. He saw that Rose did the same before entering. For a while they found nothing, just a long stretch of dark corridors that seemed to lead them in a maze. Albus nearly lost his sense of direction, but Rose never doubted where the correct way was. When they finally found what was probably a main area, someone had been alerted. Many spells flew from all directions, and only the quick Shield Charms of the Auror's in front made sure they didn't all get Stunned at once. After a few moments of chaos, it devolved into several smaller duels as the members inside defended themselves fiercely. It was exactly what Albus had envisioned would have happened if the Order had tried to defend their Base. They were the intruders here and didn't know all the passages. But it looked like the Aurors had managed to block most of them already. These people weren't very skilled duellists. It took only a few minutes for this group of defenders to be defeated. Harry left two groups of Aurors to gather them up and keep watch, but the rest of them spread out and searched for others.

Albus found a room where a Porlock was stuck to the wall, with a chain that looked a lot like the one the other Porlock that Scorpius had bought from the Knocker had had as well. This at least pointed to the theory that the Knocker had had dealings with this group and gave him hope that he didn't know who had managed to trace him, or how. Albus gingerly touched the Porlock to check if he was alive, and it tried to kick him.

"Woah. Sorry. I am only trying to help you." Albus said, though he wasn't sure if the creature could understand him.

"You may need to cut out a layer of the skin," Rose said from the other side of the Porlock. "He's really stuck on tight. Careful not to touch the wall, it's all sticky. Careful with that chain as well."

Albus sighed. "I think you're right."

Albus raised his wand, cut off the piece of skin that was attached to the wall and quickly dragged him away from it before something else could get attached. Rose quickly healed the skin, so there was minimal blood. The Porlock seemed to understand that they were there to help him, so he stopped struggling. Or it was calm because of the chain. He hated the sight of that, and he could see that Rose wanted to remove it as well, but that would be better to do after they were out of here. He hoped she would be able to repeat what she had done the last time.

The other rooms also bore signs of horrible experiments, but nothing else seemed to be alive. Albus heeded his dad's advice to touch as little as possible and used his wand to move or open things. He had no idea what most of this was, and probably didn't want to know either. Nothing in his training had prepared him for sights like this. But at least most of this wasn't done on live objects. The last one had been worse. Maybe they had got to this one early enough that it hadn't started testing things on other humans yet.

He was the first into yet another room, expecting more horrible sights. What he got was a sudden cold feeling in his stomach, then he passed out.

***

Rose couldn't help but scream as she saw Albus grunt and then fall to the ground. She had enough presence of mind to block the sharp axe that now swung towards her. She quickly got down to assess the damage. She stopped the bleeding, and it didn't look like there was any poison or other damage done. Albus had just been the unfortunate one to get struck. But he seemed to have passed out, which indicated that it wasn't just a wound. She didn't have time to dwell on him right now. She ducked under the frozen axe and was met with a most horrific sight. A large cage with a creature shackled and muzzled. What had they done to this one? It vaguely resembled a Wampus Cat, but if so, it had mutated into something much more sinister. Was it a new mixed breed of something? It too had a chain around its waist like the Porlock had, only much larger. So, the Knocker had sold some creatures to this group. Had they bought Yang as well? Rose didn't know if she wished they had or not. She heard other people coming.

"Axes!" she shouted. "Careful of the axes!" She didn't see any contraption to indicate where they had come from. Harry froze the axe heading for him just as he saw his son on the floor. To his credit, he didn't immediately abandon everything else, though he was quick to assess the damage. Albus had started bleeding again, so the wound was probably poisoned or cursed in some way after all.

"Where are the axes coming from?" he asked.

"I don't know. Let me look closer when the next person arrives."

The next Auror came soon after, and Rose saw that the axes materialised from nowhere at a spot to the side of the door. A few more axes coming as more Aurors arrived told her that it came from the same spot each time. She made a metal wall to prevent more axes hitting them until they could undo the spell.

"It seems Yang isn't here either. I suspect the Knocker was lying. All of this was for nothing." Harry said.

"It wasn't for nothing. Groups like this shouldn't be left alone." Rose said, but she knew what he meant. They had wasted precious time when they should have focused on finding the Knocker and Yang. And in the process, they had made enemies of the one group that might actually be able to help them.

Harry took Albus straight to St. Mungo's when they had finished. Rose went back with the others, disposing of the gloves and other things that may have been contaminated in that place, but she had a hard time erasing the image of Albus being struck by an axe from her mind. He would be okay though, wouldn't he?

She buried her face in Scorpius' chest when he came to meet them. He understood what she needed, as usual and had her out of the hallway and into their office in a moment.

"Was it that bad? Where's Albus? Did you find Yang?"

Rose told him and Scorpius were naturally horrified.

"How is Albus doing?"

"I don't know. I don't know anything at the moment. Harry took him to St. Mungo's but didn't say anything about what he wanted me to do."

"Let's go there as soon as you've completed the basic report then. I'll help, you seem like you need a break anyway."

Rose wanted to kiss her husband but settled on hugging him tightly. She needed his calming presence after seeing that horrible place. Kissing could come later.