When he came home, Rose was already waiting. She was delighted when she saw that he had been allowed to bring the Porlock home, but shocked to see the belly chain.
"Why do you still keep it chained?"
"Because we can't find a way to take it off. Anything we try makes it give off a nasty shock, so we want to do more research before we try again."
Rose tried to hug the Porlock, but for the first time since Scorpius got him, the creature reacted. He shied back from her and hid behind Scorpius. Scorpius was surprised. The Porlock hadn't reacted at all to all the Ministry employees poking and unintentionally shocking it, but it didn't want Rose to even touch it?
"What's wrong?"
"It didn't react at all back at the Ministry, even when they accidentally shocked it trying to get the chain off. So, why does it shy away from you?"
"It may not be used to kindness. It has been cruelly treated by wizards. Maybe I can lure it in with food."
Rose led the way out to the garden. There wasn't a lot of grass there, but it seemed to be enough for the Porlock. It brightened at the sight of it and immediately bent down and started eating.
"That seemed to be the right call" Rose said with a smile. "Look how happy it is. I just hope we can find a way to get that chain off it soon. No animal should have to wear something like that!"
"Nor any human," Scorpius added sadly.
"Are you saying he has put chain like this on Yang too?"
"I'm not sure, but when I met him, he bragged about having placed a chain like this on a dragon and an Auror as well. I didn't see them, so I can't be sure, but I don't think he was lying. I fear that if we ever find Yang alive, he will have a chain like this as well. That's why it's so important to find a way to remove it."
Rose seemed horrified. No wonder. He could barely believe it himself. It could just be something he said, but he doubted it. The Knocker had no reason to lie about it. He could have just said that he had an Auror captive, that was impressive enough.
They really needed to find a way to remove that chain.
Rose bent down to see if the Porlock was less vary of her now. At least it didn't shy away from her this time. As Rose picked it up and hugged it, to both of their great astonishment, the chain fell right off! They both stared at it.
"What did you do?" Scorpius asked.
"Nothing. I just wanted to comfort it, to make the situation a little better."
"Well, at least it's off. But it won't make it easier to remove other chains, if we can't replicate what you did."
"Well, we're not putting it back on just to see if it works again!"
"I agree. I suppose we could try to give Yang a hug and see if his chain comes off as well."
They both laughed nervously. The Porlock wiggled out of Rose's arms to get down to the grass again. They needed to make some form of magical barrier now, to prevent it from straying away in the night.
"I'm not looking forward to explaining this to Harry tomorrow," Scorpius said.
As expected, the reaction was mixed when they returned the next day. They were all glad that the chain was off but not knowing how it came off remained a problem.
"What can we do if Yang really does have one of these chains?" Harry asked.
"We will just have to keep trying," Hermione said. "At least we know that they do come off now. That is more than we knew yesterday."
Scorpius was relieved that no one, not even the Charms experts, had suggested that they should put the chain back on again. The Porlock seemed a lot happier now, though still quite meek and humbler than they normally would expect from a territorial animal such as that.
"What do we do about him now?" Scorpius asked. "I can't have him outside at my house for long, it was Lehrer that bought him. To be safe, he shouldn't be visible anywhere someone in league with the Knocker can see."
"We can take him to the Magical Creatures Sanctuary with other Porlocks we have collected recently. But I suspect someone there might be in league with the Knocker as well. Several Occamys have gone missing lately, I fear they may have ended up with him." Hermione said with anger.
"Why would anyone want an illegal Occamy?" Rose asked.
"Why does anyone want any illegal animal? Some people just want to own things no one else has. Occamys are pretty, they are easy to care for, and easy to hide. Unfortunately."
Rose shook her head. This case had exposed a side of humanity that she hadn't really seen before. She was getting used to seeing what Dark wizards could do to others but seeing what they did to other creatures was worse in a way.
***
Harry became more and more annoyed. How could one man manage to evade him for so long? Sure, there were many ways to stay hidden with magic, but this man had a fairly large magical menagerie with him. He couldn't constantly move around; he had to have a base somewhere. But when Scorpius had gone to try to locate the base, he and the Tracker had disappeared the moment he had gone into the warehouse. And when they tried to search the last place Scorpius' Tracker had been visible, there was nothing. No sign of magic in that area at all. Wherever he was hiding, it wasn't where he had met Scorpius. Scorpius had tried returning to the spot, but the warehouse was empty. It had just been a small room where he had got his Porlock, there was nothing leading to anywhere else where the rest of his merchandise could be stored. All they found was dead ends. Harry hated it when someone managed to evade him.
Not knowing how to proceed from here, yet feeling the need to do something, he started a series of random raids in various areas of Britain. That turned up a number of things he would have been delighted to stop a few months ago, but nothing about the man that held one of his own men in captivity. They hadn't heard anything more from the man after that video call. He hadn't even made any demands, just a warning to leave him alone. After what they had discovered about the chain, Harry suspected the man had no intention of ever releasing Yang.
Harry didn't know what to do and it frustrated him. It had been a long time since he had had a situation that was so devoid of leads to follow, of places to check.
He knew that some of the Aurors and some of the other hitwizards as well questioned his raid tactic. None of them had dared to ask him about it directly though.
He shook himself out of these depressing thoughts and pulled out a fresh map of Britain. Where would they strike today?