"Why did you kill him?"
"I didn't see who it was. It was a reflex, yet one I shouldn't have acquired. The man I killed also shouldn't have been there, but I doubt that will make much of a difference." Albus didn't want to go into details with a group of unknown characters, but he also didn't want to be openly hostile. He felt that these people were not evil, but he didn't know why he thought that. Caution was wise in either case.
"And just because of one mistake, you think your whole family will turn against you?"
"No, not my whole family. I doubt my father, or my friends will tell them exactly what has happened. Not at once anyway. But I have placed myself, and my father in a difficult position. I ran away to avoid forcing my father to arrest me. Neither he nor I want that."
"So why did you come here?"
"I didn't intend to come here. I have no idea who you all are. If you show me the way out, I will leave."
"I don't think you can leave just yet," a new voice said from behind him. Another person had come down through the hole.
"McLaggen!" the first man said. "He came down the hole just a few minutes ago. He claims it was an accident."
"I could deduce that much. What have you told him? Don't you know who this is? What he is?"
"Yes, he said it himself. We haven't told him anything."
The man called McLaggen looked over at Albus. He didn't like the way he looked at him. He expected suspicion, but there was some anger there as well. Had he ever met this man before? He looked to be around his parent's age, was this another jealous classmate? There was something familiar about that name.
"Why are you here?" McLaggen barked. "What do you want from us?"
"I don't want anything from you. Like I said, I was out walking, trying to think of a good place to hide, when I fell through a hole and found myself here. If you'd rather I left, I can leave. I have no business with any of you."
"You expect me to believe that you breaking into our secret hideout, after the Ministry has raided so many of our testing sites for days, is just a coincidence?"
Testing sites? The only raids they had done were for potential locations for the Knocker. Though it was true that his father seemed to send them to more and more random locations, they hadn't found anything like a testing site. Testing site for what?
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. The recent bout of raids is because of the manhunt for one individual. I don't know who you are or what you're testing. And I don't need to know."
"If he tells the truth, we could modify his memory," a woman said. "Then release him somewhere the Ministry will find him quickly." Several of the other people around seemed to like that idea.
"Memory modification is not a fool-proof method. The true memories are still there. I don't want to release him for the Ministry to find. Not just yet anyway."
Albus hoped he wouldn't have to fight these people. They didn't sound like Dark wizards, but then, some of them were quite good at hiding it. And why would they need a secret base?
"Who did you kill?" a woman said from the side. Albus turned to face her. There was something familiar about that woman.
"Have you suddenly become deaf? You claim you killed one of your fellow Aurors. What was the name?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Why won't you answer? Or did you just make the whole thing up, to have an excuse to try to infiltrate this group?"
"If I wanted to make up a story, I would think of a better one. If you have to know, his name was Piers. He wasn't supposed to be there, and I suspect he tried to kill me."
The place became dead quiet. It seemed some of them knew that name.
"You killed Piers? When?"
"Early this morning. Did you know him?"
"You could say that. He was my brother." The woman who had asked said this as her posture became more and more hostile.
Her brother? Piers had never mentioned a sister before, but then, Albus hadn't talked much with him. He was a loner type, much like Yang. Harry often paired those two together, when a mission required teams, but they both preferred working alone. Piers hadn't even returned to work when he was informed of Yang's abduction.
"Logan Piers was one of us." McLaggen said, his voice also turning hostile. "Why did you kill him?"
One of them? How could that be? His father was quite clear on not having any attachments to other groups without informing him. Though it may be that Harry did know, and Albus just hadn't heard. He still didn't know exactly what this was.
"I told you; it was an accident. I didn't even see who it was, I reacted on instinct."
No one seemed to move or know what to do next. Albus didn't dare to say anything else. He had tried to Apparate away the moment he had landed here, but it was blocked. Of all the places he could have found, why did he have to encounter friends of the man he had killed? He had the worst luck today.
"There is a way we can know the truth." one of the women said. She held out what looked to be a Potion. A translucent Potion. Veritaserum? Well, this could be interesting.
"This is stronger than any other truth serums. Even if he has trained to avoid the effect of Veritaserum, he won't be able to lie outright with this."
Albus hadn't actually trained to do that. It was on his long list of things he should do.
"And why would I drink that?"
"So that we can know whether you speak the truth."
"I don't care what you believe. Let me out of here and I won't bother you again."
"Too late for that," McLaggen growled. "You're already here."
"Listen, I don't know who any of you are. I can understand why you don't trust me, but there is no need for this to turn violent. Just open that hole again and I will be out of your hair."
"No."
"Are you really going to try and keep me here against my will?" Some of the others got uncomfortable as he said that.
"We can't possibly win against an Auror, Cormac," one of them whispered. McLaggen grumbled under his breath.
Albus knew that if they all attacked him at once, he would probably be in trouble. Especially since he didn't know how to leave and was surrounded. But he began to feel like these people were exactly who he needed at the moment. That this could be a place to hide.
"Listen, maybe there is a way to solve this. If you can help me with something I need, I am willing to show my sincerity by taking that truth serum."
"Why would we help you?"
"I need a place to hide. I don't know for how long, but that was what I was looking for when I fell down here. This place looks like a good place for it."
"You want to stay here?"
"That depends on who you are and what you're doing. But unless you are actively working against the Ministry in some way, I would want to consider it. I don't have a lot of options."
"And you're willing to trust our word that we are not working against the Ministry."
"Are you willing to trust my word that I don't know anything about you? If I take your Potion, one of you takes it too, and tell me what I have stumbled onto."
"That's not going to happen. If you want to know everything about us, you need to pass the test. The same goes for staying here."
"What test is that?"
"Nothing too difficult. All it means is that during the next three nights, you need to remain in a room no matter what happens. You need to stay there until your Minder comes to open the door for you. Do you think you can do that?"
What on earth sort of requirement was that? What would happen in that room?
"And what if I can't do that? And where will I be during the day?"
"If you cannot or choose not to complete the test, we will modify your memory and place you on the doorstep of the Ministry for Magic. If you're worried, everyone here has done this test, and we all passed. No physical harm will come to you because of the test. During the day, you can be out here in the hideout, or leave, if you'd rather not be here anymore. However, if you leave before the test is completed, you will never be welcome back."
Albus was still sceptical, but did he really have much of a choice? Besides, as long as he had his wand, they would be hard put to keep him contained if he decided not to do this. He would give it one night. If they didn't let him out, he would find some way to escape.
As he was led towards this special room, he looked for a location to leave the listening end of an Extendable Ear. He needed to know what he had stumbled into.
He was placed in what looked surprisingly like an ordinary guestroom. It had a bed, a small table, and a comfortable looking chair. He used his wand to check the room for sensors, and the only thing he could find was something in the corner, probably used for keeping an eye on him without opening the door. What would happen in this room? Maybe he should have just insisted on leaving.