High stakes

Back home, however, there was no Scorpius. Rose hurried upstairs, to check on James without Albus seeing. As she came down, Albus handed her a note from Scorpius. Rose took the note and read it. Then she read it again, as if hoping the content would have changed. 

"Sorry, I will be missing dinner. Tom contacted me and said he wanted me to meet the boss. Yes, I'll be careful, but it might be our best chance at getting to the bottom of this. I'll let you know what I found tonight.

We're meeting at Sam's house, so please stay away until I return."

"When did he send this?" Albus asked. "We only just heard Dawson and Sam talking at the inn!"

"But it was Tom that called on Scorpius. They could have done that whilst they were talking. Or Tom might have acted on his own, feeling trapped between two scary people."

"Either way, it is clear that Scorpius is in danger! Dawson is there right now, and if he recognises Scorpius…"

"No if. Dawson knows his fake name and what his disguise looks like. He saw that when I threw Scorpius and Tom in the same room. Dawson will recognise him immediately!" 

For a few moments, they both looked at each other in horror. Then they ran outside.

"Should we contact Uncle Harry now?" Rose asked, though she didn't really want to wait.

"No. He told me earlier; he has an important meeting tonight. I don't know where he is. We don't have the time."

"Who else can we contact? We normally ask Dawson in cases like this…"

"Would anyone else believe us? An overheard conversation, small hints and pieces…"

Rose sighed. Albus was right. They were on their own. She had wanted to do her own case for so long, but she hadn't expected the stakes to be this high! 

They arrived together a few blocks away from Sam's house. Now they just needed to make sure that they were not seen as they approached. Scorpius had specifically asked them not to come here, so they had to be sure that he was in danger before they took action. And preferably, they needed to catch Dawson by surprise. He was after all a fully trained Auror and had years of experience. Rose had once beaten him in a duel, but she had lost many, many other times. Albus had only ever made it to a draw. They needed the element of surprise, especially since he was not alone. In fact, they didn't know how many people were involved. They had to try and find that out first. 

Sneaking up to a target was a part of Auror training, but again, Dawson would know that. He was the one who had taught them most of what they knew. But he didn't know that they were on to him. Would he be on the alert for someone trying to sneak up to their hideout? 

Rose had never felt her own body so keenly. She had been scared before, terrified for her life. But those other times, the situation had been mostly out of her control. This time she deliberately set herself in a dangerous position, and only her own skill and her ability to stay quiet would help her. She barely even saw Albus, though he was crawling next to her. He was a lot better at this part than she was. Disillusionment charms helped a lot, but when moving, you could be seen, if the person knew what to look for. 

At last, they came close to the house, and it appeared to be empty. No lights were lit on the ground floor, or in the 1st story. There was a small light coming from the basement window though. They sneaked closer and closer to it. 

It was a horrible sight. Tom stood in the doorway looking terrified, Sam was nowhere to be seen. Scorpius was on the floor. Rose thought she saw the faint outline of chains on his legs, though it was hard to see from her angle. Dawson stared down on him, looking angry, his wand pointing straight at Scorpius. It was impossible to hear what was being said, but the sentiment was clear. Dawson had broken Scorpius' alias and he was now captured and possibly being tortured. Scorpius made a grimace, it could almost look like a smile, but it must be from pain. Or maybe he was trying to taunt Dawson. Rose had seen enough. She had to stop this!

"How are we going to get inside?" she whispered to Albus. He shook his head, forcing himself to look away from the scene below. 

"We could try to break the window, but I think only one of us can fit through there at the time. Besides, that is going to give Dawson the second he needs to Stun one of us. We need to either catch him by surprise or get his guard down."

"I don't think he will let his guard down now. Any distraction, he will send Sam or Tom to check. And if they don't come back, he will be even more alert."

"The terrace door is on the opposite side of the house. I bet you anything there are multiple closed doors between that, and the room Dawson is in now. Maybe we can get in through that?"

"What if there is an alarm on the door?"

"Well, then at least we will get one of them out of the room. We probably won't be able to get all the way down there without alerting any of them. Did you see Sam there?"

"No, just Tom and Dawson. We need to locate him before we try to break in. He could be hiding, waiting for us."

"Dawson is the one who taught us how to do this. I never thought I would use it against him." 

"Let us make him regret ever teaching us how to do that then."

Rose could just make out a grin on Albus' face. Then they painstakingly sneaked around the house to the terrace doors Albus had seen. Two shadows could maybe have been seen by someone with a keen eye, but there were no eyes to be seen. Rose cast "Homenum Revelio" to be sure Sam didn't hide in the living room. His continued absence was a problem, but they couldn't back down now. Quiet like snakes they approached the back door. It was open! Why? Was this a trap? Would an alarm sound the moment they tried to enter through that door? Dawson probably has Stealth Secrecy spells in place. Maybe a window would do better? It wasn't as normal to put sensors on those. They sneaked around and found a small window that led to a bathroom. No one was inside there either. From the outside, apart from that one basement window, the house looked completely deserted. 

They quickly went out of the bathroom and tried to find the way down to the basement. None of the rooms hid Sam, or anyone else. There was no sound of anyone. The basement must be soundproof. 

At last, Albus found the door to the basement. It too was not locked. Could Dawson really be that careless? Maybe he was waiting for Sam to come back from somewhere. Anyway, there was no other way to sneak down to the basement, they had to use this staircase. However quiet they tried to be, still with Disillusionment Charms and without any source of light, if there was a trap, this staircase would be the place for it. Albus sent a ball down the staircase first. A risk, as it made noise, but it could trigger any potential traps. But the ball just bounced down every step, luckily barely making a sound. They could hear voices from the door to the left, where the window they had looked through was located. No one was screaming, which Rose took as a good sign. As she and Albus crept closer though, they were at a loss. How were they to get into that room, rescue Scorpius and defeat Dawson and Tom, without being hurt themselves?