Kingsley was sitting at the Weasley kitchen table looking more than a little shaken. Remus didn't think he'd ever seen the man so pale and he had actually been shaking when he had come in as well.

And he had made quite the entrance, being the last to arrive for the Order Meeting. Which wasn't a problem - someone had to be last after all. But no, it was the way he arrived. He had staggered in, short of breath and covered in grime. He looked like he had been in a fight.

"Death Eaters." Was all he had got out before his knees buckled.

Remus and Bill had then grabbed him and set him in a chair where he was bow getting his breath back. Arthur and the twins had gone outside to make sure all the wards were still in place. Not that that would stop a concentrated Death Eater attack, as the wedding had shown.

"What about Death Eaters?" Dora sprang into action, into what Remus liked to call 'Auror Mode'.

She was focused, wand out but not up. Ready for anything. Remus normally found it quite attractive, if he wasn't on edge. Oh, who was he kidding? He still found it attractive.

"They were... I mean they weren't... but..."

Dora gave him an alarmed look. A look that was surely mirrored on his own face. This was not good. He didn't think that he'd ever seen Kingsley like this. He was always in control. This was definitely not him being in control.

"Kingsley, Kingsley, you have to talk to me," Dora urged, crouching in front of him and waving her hand in his face. "Kingsley?"

The man blinked slowly and looked right at her.

"Tonks?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm here."

Kingsley stared at her intently, like he was trying to make sure that she really was real. He came to that conclusion quite quickly and heaved a sigh of relief and then shook his head.

"You're here. I'm safe?"

"You're safe," Dora confirmed. "You're at the Burrow. See? There's Arthur and Molly."

She pointed across to the sink where they were and Kingsley followed her finger, some more of the tension leaving his body.

"Burrow." He repeated.

"You were talking about Death Eaters," she encouraged. "We're you attacked?"

"Not Death Eaters. Snatchers, they called themselves Snatchers," Kingsley mumbled.

"Snatchers?" Remus asked sharply. "Not Death Eaters?"

Dora sent him a frown at his tone. But now was not the time to gently prise information out of someone. They needed facts. And quickly.

"He's in shock," she told him quietly. "Give him a minute and then ask questions." She then turned to Kingsley, "Need a drink of water?"

"Something stronger, preferably," he muttered, earning himself a chuckle from everyone, half-hearted it may be.

"Tough luck," she retorted, a small smile on her lips as she passed him the glass that Molly handed to her. "Water only until you answer all our questions."

"Hard arse."

"Just drink."

Remus tried not to chuckle, that would only encourage them. Which would just be a distraction even if it was good to see.

"You were right, Remus," Kingsley said, clearing his throat and setting the now empty glass down. "It's a Taboo. On his name."

Remus couldn't help but sigh at that pronouncement. Just what he had feared.

It had been a faint hope that the Death Eaters were just tracking Order members and pouncing on them whenever they got the opportunity. Because that had made sense and they had been expecting something like that. They were targets after all; it came with the territory. But there had been too many attacks recently. So, this... this taboo made sense.

"I don't understand," George said, frowning. "What exactly is a taboo?"

They all had turned to Remus, something that always made him feel uncomfortable, even if he had been expecting it. Which in this case, he had because he had been one of the ones researching the possibility of the Death Eaters tracking them through some sort of curse. Bill and Fleur had been the other two. The concept of a Taboo had come up in his research but he hadn't given it much thought because there hadn't seemed to be a trigger for Death Eater appearances.

Remus stood up, out of habit, and explained to everyone what a Taboo was. It was a jinx, a curse really, put on a word or phrase. A potion had to be brewed to put it in place, over a very specific time period, each stage syncing with the moon. It was complicated and lengthy. And the Death Eaters had exactly the right person for such a potion, unfortunately. The spell was the cast at the end, putting the Taboo in place. In its most basic form, it set up an alarm for the word that was the taboo but if you were skilled enough you could tweak it to do almost anything to the person who triggered it. Like send out the location of the person. Or send the person somewhere but that last one was extremely complex and time-consuming. Even more so than the potion.

"So, it's his name?" Arthur asked, rubbing the back of his neck as Remus finished.

"How do we know that?" Fred interrupted. "It could be anything couldn't it?"

"They said it was his name," Kingsley said, suddenly looking very tired. "The Snatchers," he elaborated at the blank looks sent his way. "They were saying it when they were coming at me."

"That's not very bright of them," Elphias said with a frown."

"They don't seem to be," Kingsley said, rolling his eyes. "They seem to be more cronies or Death Eater wannabes than actual Death Eaters. I didn't recognise any of them."

"Snatchers?" Remus repeated, unfamiliar with the term.

"I guess it's because they snatch up people," Kingsley said either a shrug.

"Very unimaginative," George interjected.

"This is coming from people who call themselves Death Eaters." Fred told him.

"True, brother dearest. Very true. We can't expect much from them."

Molly hushed them sternly which nearly made Remus cower.

"Anyway, Kingsley said. "I heard them talk about 'people who say the Dark Lord's name' being much more valuable than Muggleborns."

"They're hunting down Muggleborns," Dora gasped and then waved her hand for him to continue. "Sorry."

Remus didn't blame her. They'd had no news of Ted since he had left. Not even a murmur. They just wanted to know if he was okay.

"I don't want to know what they do with people they snatch," Kingsley said darkly. "They put up a hell of a fight. Not very skilled but there was half a dozen of them."

Hence his dishevelled appearance.

"We are the only people who would say His name," Minerva said heavily, having remained silent up until now.

It was rare that she managed to get away these days. Thanks to the Carrows and Snape at the school. And she remained very tight-lipped about what was going on.

"That's right," Remus agreed, seeing where she was going. "No one else dared to even before this."

"It's an easy way to pick off the opposition." Dora finished in realisation.