Tell the truth

"But you mentioned raids. Who are you searching for so desperately?"

Albus really shouldn't answer that, but he found the words spilling out of him anyway.

"We are searching for a man mostly known by the nickname the Knocker. He deals with the illegal trade of Magical Creatures."

"Illegal trade of Magical Creatures? I didn't know that was a thing,"

"Sadly, it is. And this man is the worst of the lot. He uses a form of torture to control the beasts and has lately seemed to go even further. We have rumours that he's even kidnapped a chimaera, and a dragon. Even an Auror has gone missing, which is why we have started the raids."

"He sounds like an awful person. Who does those sorts of things to other creatures?"

"He's one of the worst sorts of people I've heard of. And that's a tough bar to climb."

"So, all of these extra raids and searches lately… Has nothing to do with us?"

"Not unless you are involved in the Knocker's network. He's a lot more connected than we first thought." Albus suddenly realised what he was doing. He shouldn't say anything about this! Why did he spill all his secrets to this person he didn't even know the full identity of? He was usually better at guarding his tongue.

A moment later it hit him. He looked at his now empty goblet of pumpkin juice, then back at Sophia. She had been the one suggesting giving him the truth serum, to check if he was telling the truth. Had she spiked his drink?! The look on her face told him all he needed to know. He got to his feet. He didn't have an antidote to Veritaserum on him, but he could at least stop talking. Whatever moment they had shared was long gone. Sophia seemed to realise that as well.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I had to know. If I'm going to stick my neck out for you, I have to know if you are telling the truth or not."

"You could have asked."

"Would you have said yes? And it wouldn't be as effective if you knew about it and guarded your tongue. The others probably wouldn't believe it then."

"I don't really care what the others think." Albus was surprised he was able to say that. Maybe the effect was wearing off. He was surprised to see tears in Sophia's eyes.

"Listen, I know it might not mean much, but I want to help you. Both to avoid whoever you need to avoid, and to catch this Knocker. I don't like people who abuse animals."

"And how can you help with that? What resources do you have that we don't?"

"I don't know. But I want to try anyway. We can scour the internet and see if this man advertises his sales there."

Albus had only a vague idea of what the internet was, but he knew that Muggles used it a lot. And the Knocker had been known to sell some of his creatures to them. But surely Hermione had already had the Department of Technology checking that?

"You assume we haven't already done that? Can you even access the Internet down here?"

"I don't know what you've already tried or not. But since you're reduced to doing random raids, I'm guessing you don't have a lot of leads. Isn't it worth a try? And yes, I can access the Internet. I wouldn't have stayed here if I couldn't. We have our own router and tap into a nearby cable. Those are usually underground anyway, so it is virtually undetectable. You said the Knocker sells his creatures to Muggles? He probably does that online, that is where most private sales happen these days."

"Even illegal sales like this?"

"Especially illegal sales like this. Do you not monitor the Dark Web for people selling spells or potions to Muggles?"

Albus was completely lost. Router? Dark web? He managed to resist the urge to admit that he had no idea what she was talking about. How long did the effect of the truth serum last? How much of it had he consumed?

"That's not part of my job, but I'm sure the Minister, or my father does that. I haven't been an Auror for very long, I don't have all the details. My father sometimes seems to know things like that though, so I'm sure they monitor the internet."

"Either way, I figure we can start there. If we search for things like monsters, freaks and mutations, I'm sure we'll come across an ad with that eventually, if it exists."

Albus then remembered what he had overheard last night.

"Do you genuinely believe you can help, or are you just trying to distract me?"

"Distract you from what?"

"From asking questions. From figuring out what it is you're so desperate to hide."

"We're not desperate to hide anything!"

"No? Then why the secret underground base, the restricted access, the test?"

"We guard our own experiments. We are a group of scientists, in a way. We test new spells, new potions, that kind of stuff. I work on trying to combine Muggle technology and magic, as I've said."

"Scientists?"

"Yes. We just don't want others to steal our ideas. Or misunderstand what they're seeing."

Misunderstand. Albus had heard enough.

"You know what we did to the last group of scientists we found experimenting with dangerous things? We arrested them. They kidnapped Muggles and tested things on them, horrible things. It took us days to find it all and dispose of it. Most of the Muggles, and some other Beings as well, will either live with the results for the rest of their lives, or were beyond help. So, if that was meant to make me feel better, it failed." Clearly, the truth serum was still in effect. He hadn't meant to say that. Sophia looked horrified.

"We would never do something like that! We don't test things on others! And nothing of what we do is dangerous!"

Albus wanted to believe her. The horrified look on her face was quite convincing. But if this really were The Order of the Hidden Dragon, either the Ministry was mistaken, or Sophia didn't know what sort of people she was associating with.

"Do you still want to stay, or would you rather leave now?" she asked after they had been standing staring at each other for several minutes.

"You mean they would truly just let me walk out of here?"

"We would modify your memory first, but yes."

"Why modify my memory? I haven't seen any of your trade secrets yet. And I genuinely don't know where I am, so I wouldn't be able to lead others back here."

"It's just a safety precaution."

"Sure it is."

Sophia looked heartbroken. She turned away from him and turned on one of her computers. Albus didn't know what to do. He wanted to look around this place alone, but he doubted he would be allowed to. And despite the trick with the truth serum, he didn't want to get Sophia in trouble. She might be his only ally here. So, he sat down further away from her, but where he could see her screen. He had no idea what she was doing, but she typed on what he thought was called a keyboard furiously. Did she really go on the internet and check for the Knocker there? She was reading so fast, he rarely had time to read much of what appeared on the screen.