Order of the Hidden Dragon

Hermione Granger hadn't been so confused in a long time. Harry had told her that they finally had a lead on the whereabouts of the Knocker, but when he returned there were about 20 people arrested, no magical creatures and none of the people seemed to have a clue about why they were there. And Albus was one of them. She had tried to talk to him, but he was surprisingly close-mouthed. Was he afraid to say much when the others could hear him?

Harry better have a good explanation for this. She went to meet him as he came with the last group of Aurors that had searched whatever base they had found.

"Did you find all of these people at the Knocker's hideout?" she asked.

"No. That place was empty, but he had left behind a notebook. A list of the sales he had done in Britain. On the last page, it said that he had sold Yang to a group known as the Order of the Hidden Dragon. I briefly returned here to find whatever intel we had on them, and we raided their base. That's where all of these people come from."

The Order of the Hidden Dragon? Hermione wasn't familiar with the group. But she wasn't involved in surveying every group that operated in Britain. This could be a new group. Many of the people she had seen were fairly young, but she had noticed two older men as well.

"And? Did you find Yang?"

"No," Harry said with a scowl. "We turned the place upside down, but no sign of anything illegal at all. They must have a secondary location where they have that. Quite smart of them. Possibly somewhere you can only get to by Apparating in, so no one is ever seen leaving. That would also make escape impossible."

"Or we are led on a wild goose chase by the Knocker," Rose said. "By the complete surprise and bewilderment of the people we just arrested, I doubt any of them know anything about Yang. If they do, they are good actors."

Rose definitely knew something Harry didn't, Hermione thought. That made sense, if she had been the one to jinx Albus to prevent Harry from recognising him. But why?

"Why would he do that? How would he even know about this group, if he hasn't sold something to them?"

"Not that he left in that book. I doubt it is a complete list; it was definitely left there for us to find."

"Why are you so certain these people aren't involved?" Harry asked.

"Because two of them are the ones who gave us the Knocker's location in the first place! If they had been in business with him, that makes no sense."

"It does if they try to avoid paying him or want to distance themselves from him."

"That's not what Albus thinks."

"What does Albus have to do with this?"

"Didn't you recognise Al when you arrested him?" Hermione asked. "He is here, in a holding cell with Mary Piers, Logan Piers' sister, and another young woman. Piers seemed remarkably calm about sharing a cell with the person who allegedly killed her brother."

Harry's mouth fell open. He didn't even seem to register the last part of the sentence.

"Albus is here?"

"Yes. Didn't you see him?"

Now Harry turned to Rose.

"Was he the man hit with the Stinging Jinx Scorpius brought back?"

"Yes. I don't know how much he has told them, and I wanted to avoid having this exact conversation in front of the whole group. But it was Albus, and a woman named Sophia that gave us the Knocker's location. They didn't mention the name of the group then, or I would have perhaps been able to prevent this. Sophia had no idea that her information would lead us back to them, and Albus vouched for the whole group. He insists that any information we have about this group is wrong, though I don't know how he can be so sure."

"Well, he has probably stayed with them for the last week," Hermione said. "That would give him time to get to know them and probably sneak around a bit as well."

Harry didn't seem to pay attention to any of their talk; he turned around and went to look for his son. Hermione had to follow, to prevent him from making this worse.

"Harry, stop."

Harry stopped, but reluctantly.

"Remember what you told me in Norway? You can't handle this one. You're too close."

"I'm not going to leave him in there!"

"I'm not asking, Harry. Let me handle the interview. Rose can talk to Sophia."

Harry drew several deep breaths, clearly trying to calm down. Maybe a little more of what they had said registered with him as well.

"Fine. I will talk to Mary Piers then."

Hermione walked over to the holding cell that she had seen Albus in previously. He failed to hide his Extendable Ear in time, so he had probably heard at least part of their conversation. Maybe that had been what she felt touching her as she moved away from the cell area. Hermione ignored that but wondered if they had all been searched so poorly. It may be that Rose had deliberately neglected to do that.

"The three of us would like to give our statements together," Albus said before any of them could say anything. Hermione noticed that they had all gotten out of their restraints as well.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Hermione asked. She didn't want to have to skirt around the issue of Logan Piers, but if Mary Piers didn't already know that Albus was a suspect in his death, this would be a poor way for her to find out.

"If you're worried about them hearing about my actions, they already know. I think that by talking to all three of us at once, we may have a chance to clear this up faster."

"You know that's not usually how things are done."

"I am aware. However, I would think that since Sophia here is pretty much the only reason you even know that the Knocker has tried to sell Yang, and that you found his hiding place, you would be inclined to grant this request. Especially if you want to ask her to try to locate him again."

Hermione hadn't thought that far, but it was true. If this Sophia could indeed locate the Knocker again, that would be very helpful. But looking at her, she didn't seem inclined to offer that help at the moment. Hermione could understand that. This was all such a mess, and her family was once again caught in the middle of things.

"You do realise that this, combined with the evidence we have, could be seen as confirmation that you have indeed been in contact with him and are now throwing him under the bus to save yourself?"

"I didn't think about that. I probably should have phrased it better. Either way, the point still stands. We're not asking for something unreasonable."

Hermione looked over at Harry. He shrugged but left the decision to her.

"We do need her help," Rose whispered. "And I agree that these people cannot be the same people that possibly bought Yang."

Hermione nodded, and Harry took the hint and left. Hermione opened the holding cell and brought all three of them into one of the larger interrogation rooms. Rose came with them as well. Albus grinned at her when she saw that they didn't have any restraints. So, it hadn't been Rose that removed those. Hermione ignored that and tried focusing on the other two.

"Okay, let's start from the beginning. Who are you, and what is the purpose of this Order of the Hidden Dragon?"

Albus looked at Mary, who sighed, but replied.

"Well, for the full story, you should probably talk to Greg Bainham or Fred Roth. They tell it much better than I, but the short version is, we are a fairly old group of magical pioneers who want to create new products or spells. The name is a rather long story, but there is no Dragon anymore. The group disbanded around the time you were born but got together again during the last Wizarding War to protect some of its members who were Muggleborn. Ever since, we have continued trying to foster an environment that boosts creativity and cooperation."

That didn't sound at all like what Harry and Rose had described. Rose also frowned hearing this.

"I understand your confusion," Albus said. "I was taken aback as well, when I heard the name. I thought I was only seeing the shiny front of a darker backside, but now I believe otherwise. I think someone else, probably someone these people have turned away, have started their own group doing dark experiments and using the same name."

"Can you prove that?" Hermione asked.

"No. It's just a theory, but it is the only thing that fits. Either that, or everything we have on that group is wrong. I presume you didn't find anything, even after searching the whole Base?" Albus asked Rose. She nodded.

"We went over the whole thing, including the large house that is the main entrance. There was nothing. We thought we just missed an entrance to where the secret base was, or that it is a secondary location that isn't connected to this one."

"If it is, we don't know anything about it." Mary said. "I've been there for years, ever since leaving Hogwarts, and none of our members have done anything that would warrant concern with the Ministry."

Sophia looked like she might disagree but kept silent. Hermione decided not to press that right now. She wanted to clear this all up, not have to keep a large group like this on little concrete evidence. 

"However, there are some issues within the group," Albus said. Sophia looked like she wanted to stop him, but he held up a hand. "I know you want to say that it's none of their business, but I think we need to explain everything."

"I agree," Mary said. "But our issues can really be summarised to one name. Cormac McLaggen."

Hermione nearly fell off her chair.

"Did you say Cormac McLaggen?"