Scorpius became more and more worried. No word from Albus, and there were no signs of him anywhere. Just that strange note left with Foley. How had Albus even encountered him? Foley hadn't said a word to anyone, no matter how hard Harry pressed. There had been traces of a magical battle down in his lair, and a cage that probably was meant to capture whoever fell down the trap, but no sign of where Albus had gone after that.
Rose tried to say that no news meant Albus had managed to hide somewhere, but Scorpius wasn't convinced. He knew Al would have tried to contact him, if he was safe. The fact that he hadn't heard anything, meant he was in trouble. If he had run into Foley, who else would he have encountered? Why couldn't Rose understand that? How could she go about her day, still focusing on the Knocker? Anytime he tried discussing it with her, she shot him down.
"We've been told not to meddle in it, Scorpius. Don't you remember what happened the last time we acted without Harry's knowledge?"
She had a point, but Scorpius felt that this was different. In this case, Harry himself had said he didn't want to know. He had left it all up to Dawson, who had reluctantly come out of retirement for this. Scorpius had tried asking him what would happen if he found Albus, but Dawson had evaded the question.
His best friend was missing and everything was spiralling out of control. Daily, he was in a different disguise, desperately searching for news. He may have unintentionally made things worse, as it now seemed that several characters eagerly sought after Albus Potter. More people knew he was missing. But he couldn't stop.
At least he hadn't asked for news as Lehrer. He was concerned that several of his aliases were broken, with how he desperately asked after Al in different guises. The last two days, he had only asked as himself. Lehrer had visited Knockturn Alley several times, but he couldn't care less about Potter. He wanted to know if there was any activity from other groups, anyone else who might have gone missing. That could also indicate where Albus might have gone. But with the increasing raids from the Ministry, at more and more random places, that was hard to find, as most people had gone underground. Harry's new tactic made his job more and more difficult. But with Harry's current mood, there was no point in trying to get him to listen.
Scorpius had heard some rumours though. Rumours of a new group that had been making waves, though he hadn't been able to hear any names yet. It had something to do with a dragon. That was all he had heard.
Rose was worried too, no matter what she said, but she believed Harry would figure it out. Maybe Scorpius should have more faith in him as well, but it was hard, when he saw how stressed Harry looked every day. And there were still no signs of Yang, or the Knocker.
***
Albus felt that he started to get the hang of this computer stuff. At least reading through the results of what the search came up with. Maybe that wasn't the most impressive feat, but at least he wasn't completely useless.
It seemed the Knocker had stopped advertising on the internet after he captured Yang. That wasn't surprising, but it was slightly disheartening. Would this searching be of any use, if he had stopped advertising? The only change Sophia had been able to trace to being done after Yang's capture was marking the cat advert as "sold".
Then he heard another ping from Sophia's computer. He recognized that as the sound for another search result and ignored it until he heard her utter a curse word. She often mixed wizard and Muggle vocabulary, but he found that endearing. He had to stop his mind from going over everything that she did that was cute, instead focusing on what she might have found.
"What is it?"
"This notice here? Please tell me this isn't what I think it is?"
Albus leaned over to read what Sophia pointed to on her monitor. His heart sank. This was bad. Very bad.
"He's trying to sell Yang!"
"That's how I read it too. No one seems to have expressed interest in that just yet though."
The seriousness of what they had found made their smiles vanish in an instant. Now they had another problem. What could they do with this information? Could this be trusted to an owl? How long could they afford to wait? Sophia printed out the ad but didn't say anything about sending it to someone. The printer really was useful, that way they didn't have to copy what they saw on screen onto paper themselves. Some would call this a sort of magic. Albus realised that this was a whole other type of world which he knew way too little about. No wonder Sophia had questioned whether she would survive at Hogwarts without it.
They worked on in silence for a few minutes, before Albus said something again.
"Sophia," Albus said. "I know this is a lot to ask, but I need you to do me a favour."
Sophia looked at him questioningly.
"I know that I'm supposed to spend another night in that guestroom," Albus said in a low voice, hoping no one else could hear them. "But I need to see for myself what this place is all about, and that can most easily be done when everyone thinks they know where I am. Can you help me manage that?"
"Perhaps I can. But only if you're honest with me."
Albus was baffled.
"What have I lied about?" He had been as honest as he could be. In fact, he had shared more with Sophia than he had with most other people he knew, and not only because of the truth serum. She was easy to talk to and seemed interested in whatever he had to say. Not many others had been, outside his family.
"You're not going to "see for yourself what this place is about". You're going to sneak into McLaggen's house, aren't you?"
Albus decided to be honest. Sophia seemed to value that, to the degree of feeding people truth serum to be sure they didn't lie.
"Yes. If something bad is happening here, that's where it'll be. Besides, aren't you a little curious yourself, what McLaggen is so keen to hide?"
Sophia sighed. "I am. Which is the only reason I'm even considering something like this. Why can't you just leave it alone? He's not your responsibility and we have more important things to worry about, like finding the Knocker and Yang. You're not an Auror at the moment, remember?"
"I know. But I can't stomach staying here if something illegal is happening right under my nose. Besides, if he is doing something bad, we can all be dragged down with him."
"Do you have any idea what you're asking of me?"
"Yes. But I have to know. This is our best chance to get to the truth."
"If you're caught, I will be thrown out with you. And that's not even factoring in what I'd have to do to get rid of Jack."
"I won't get caught." And if they did get thrown out, they could run away together. Albus didn't say that last part, he had to get Sophia to help him.
"You don't know that. You don't even know what's in there!"
"Listen, my only other option is to blast a hole in that guest room and make a run for it. I'd rather not do that, and I suspect that won't reflect well on you either. It will be a lot better if you can work with me."
Sophia didn't answer, and Albus didn't press her. He hoped she would see sense and work with him. If not, he probably wouldn't blast a hole in the guest room though. That was not going to help him get on the inside of this group.