As an Auror, you would think Yang had seen everything. He thought so at times too. But it seems there were no limits to what some wizards would do to make money. Here he was, trying to stop someone selling magical creatures to Muggles. The illegal sale of magical creatures was nothing new. But what was new was that this man specifically targeted a certain type of Muggle, the ones that believed in aliens, conspiracies and that the end of the world was near. He would then show them magical creatures like Crups or Puffskeins and make them believe it was some sort of mutant Muggle creature. It was amazing what some Muggles could make themselves believe. He had also been spotted selling Fwoopers and Augureys calling them rare parrots.
The fact that this man now broke the Statutes of Secrecy in addition to illegal sales of Magical Creatures made him a top priority in the Ministry. Every available Auror was out searching for him. And Yang finally had a promising lead. He had thought to call for reinforcement, but he wanted to be sure that it really was a lead, before he called others in. He hated being proven wrong. Besides, he didn't need help, really. This man operated alone. That was all very clear from all the reports about him. Yang could handle one man alone. If he brought in this man, maybe Potter would even give him a promotion. He was due to get one soon, but he knew from experience that Potter and the Minister, who made the ultimate decision, didn't take kindly to people who tried to speed up that process. Yang agreed with the policy but still wanted to make sure to show a good figure, when a potential promotion came up.
He inched carefully around a corner, wand out in case the man was right there. But there was no one. That is, there was no one visible. But he thought he saw the outline of a mooncalf. A mooncalf with a large chain on it. Yang felt rage rise in him. Not only was this man dealing with magical creatures, but apparently he was also abusing them. He lit his wand, to try and make sense of what he saw.
Before he could do anything more, something blue swooped down from above and had him in a tight grip. No matter how much he squirmed, he couldn't get loose. Where did his wand go?
As he saw his still-lit wand on the ground below, he also saw a man emerge from the shadows to pick it up.
"Swooping Evil" the man said as he looked up at Yang. "A fitting name, don't you think? Of course, they aren't really evil in our sense of the word. A beast can't be defined as good or evil."
Yang struggled to no avail to get himself out of the blue creature's grip. Swooping Evil. Weren't they the creatures who fed on human brains? He probably should have waited for backup.
"Now, I had expected Aurors to come for me eventually, but this was a bit unexpected. I haven't even had time to perfect my method yet. Well, I needed a test subject anyway." As he had talked, the man had conjured a large cage. Yang didn't like the sight of that.
"Drop him," the man said, and Yang suddenly fell down towards the cage. Then everything went black as he hit the hard bottom of the cage below.
-
When Yang came to, he felt a strange itching over his whole body. And he had a terrible headache. What had happened to him?
He raised his head and inspected his surroundings. He was in what appeared to be a storeroom. It was full of cages with a variety of magical creatures. This man's operations were more extensive than they had thought. He saw a Chimaera sleep peacefully in one of the cages, but with a large chain around his chest. The same was true of another large creature he was fairly certain was a Wampus cat. A water-tank held no less than four Grindylows, also with the same type of chain. Several cages held Red Caps. And cages upon cages of Porlocks, Crups and Knarls. He thought he heard a dragon roar from a distance. Where would he have room for all of this? There was no way he could have all of these creatures in the middle of Leeds, where he had been searching.
He looked around at the cages surrounding him. There were such a large variety of creatures in here, not all of them magical. He recognised some of them from Muggle studies as exotic creatures from other continents. Most likely, they were also illegal to trade. He saw a door to the right, but there was no way he could get to it whilst he was trapped in the cage.
The strange itching came again, and he was surprised to feel a chain around his own chest as well. He touched it with astonishment. What was going on here? Had this man decided to upgrade from creatures to human trafficking? Yang tried to get the chain off. He got more and more desperate as he felt the thing resist being moved or touched. The chain was only around his waist, it wasn't attached to anything, yet it was almost like it was stuck to his body. And there was no place to open it. As he desperately tried to find the weak spot, a shock went through him, and he fell unconscious again.