Albus couldn't help feeling a sense of déjà vu as he once again walked up to the line in the Portkey station. But this time he wasn't running away. He was hunting. He wondered whether Smythe had set him up on purpose, or if the raid had been a surprise for him as well. They were about to find out.
"I'm sorry Mr. Smythe, but you are not authorised for a Portkey today," he heard the same man that had told him a month ago say to the man in front of him.
"What? Why?"
"I don't have the details Mr. Smythe, I am just told the list of people who are not allowed to use our Portkey station."
Smythe was about to protest further, but then he saw Harry and Albus walking towards him. He clearly knew what they were there for. Harry blocked him from Apparating just as he tried turning around.
"David Smythe, you are under arrest for the murder of Logan Piers." Harry said. Albus was quick to secure him with his hands behind his back and took his wand.
"It was an accident," Smythe said, trying not to cry. "I didn't mean to."
"You'll get a chance to tell your side of the story later," Harry said, before the three of them Apparated back to the Ministry. All in all, it was one of the fastest arrests Albus had ever made.
Harry let Dawson deal with the interview, but it wasn't hard. Smythe claimed that he hadn't intended to kill Piers, just hurt him slightly, to get back at him for firing him. He had made the fog when he heard the raid begin, to prevent Albus or anyone else from seeing them. Sophia sighed when she heard that. Albus came to tell her the story over lunch the next day.
"It wasn't even Logan that made the decision. He was just the messenger."
"And Smythe knew that, but he also knew that he would never be able to get to Hermione. Though I wish he would have tried. Then he would be in even worse trouble, and probably suffering from whatever mixture of jinxes Hermione can think of when she's threatened."
"Why did he wait so long to try to run?"
"Apparently, he realised that I had got the blame for it and thought he was safe. He only realised he wasn't when he saw the news that I was part of the team to take down the Knocker."
"Right. How are things going with him?"
"Slowly. He isn't talking, which isn't surprising. But he doesn't need to. We caught him in the act, and Yang can testify to enough instances of torture and abuse that he will get life in Azkaban even without the breaches of the Statute of Secrecy and Creature trafficking. Not to mention what he did to you."
"Has Rose managed to get the chains of the other creatures?"
"Yes, with the exception of a few of the larger ones, like the Chimera."
"That's good. What's the big secret?"
"Basically, she gives them a hug. She feels very sorry for them and hugs them to make them feel better. It's one of those cases where we don't really know why it works, it just does. It's worked on almost every sort of creature we have found by now, I'm sure they will manage to do it for the Chimaera eventually as well."
"Well, I'm glad it works."
"Me too. I have one more thing on my to-do list today, and I was wondering if you want to come with me?"
"With you? To do what?"
"Talk to Mary. She deserves to know the truth, and my father said that I could be the one to tell her that the man who killed Piers is finally caught."
Sophia smiled. "I definitely want to be part of that. She'll be relieved."
"Do you happen to know where she is?"
"I'll text her." A few minutes later, Mary replied.
"She's in Diagon Alley."
"Perfect. Let's go."
***
Mary didn't expect to see Albus and Sophia coming towards her as she was headed out of Flourish & Blotts. Was that why Sophia had asked where she was?
"Hi Albus, hi Sophia. Aren't you at work?"
"We are," Albus said. "But we have something to tell you."
Mary looked at them, trying to decipher what it was. Neither of them revealed anything. They were smiling, so whatever it was, it was probably good news.
"Okay, I'll bite. What's the news? Are you engaged?"
As she expected, that made them both blush, and they unconsciously moved one step away from each other.
"No, it's about your brother." Mary's smile vanished at once. It was still painful to think about Logan. Especially because his death had been so very pointless.
"What about him?"
"I was finally able to get a clear image of the man that killed him, using different camera angles in other places," Sophia said. "When I ran that against a database with facial recognition, I got a hit! It was really surprising, since I hadn't even started searching properly, just using a prototype search…"
"Sophia, I don't know what half of that even means," Mary said exasperated.
"Sorry. What I mean is…"
"What she's trying to say," Albus interrupted. "Is that she managed to find out who that man in the video was. We arrested the man that killed your brother yesterday, and he confessed. It's over."
Mary gaped. She had thought that was impossible. But of course, if anyone could do the impossible, it would be Sophia. She ran towards her friend and embraced her.
"Thank you," she cried.
"You're welcome. Though to be fair, I wasn't even really looking. Not yet. But it was on the list of things I wanted to use the technology for."
"I don't care how you did it. I'm just glad you did."
After hugging her friend for several minutes, she remembered her manners and turned to Albus as well.
"Thank you too," she said.
"No need to thank me. I just did my job. Though in this case, it was extra satisfying, considering what his actions did to me."
"Well, if he hadn't, you probably wouldn't have found the Order."
"Hmm, that is a good point. Maybe I should thank him as well." His grin told Mary he didn't really mean it. She felt like a huge burden was lifted off her shoulders. Sophia was smiling too, even more than she usually did when she was with Albus. The two of them talked about the details as Albus saw something behind her. His face went blank as he ran towards something.