Her name was Maureen Kraft. She had been working in Rome, making covert arrangements for even more covert agreements between the Minister of Magic there and the Order of the Pheonix. She had vanished just a day ago, failing to check in with her contact at the Order, missing an important meeting with the Minister's Secretary, and standing up an innocent and frustrated young Roman.

His name was Eugene Fergusen. He had been doing research in Dublin, research in advanced magical barriers. He had also vanished a day ago, similarly failing to check in. His coworkers had reported him absent as well, and Lupin hadn't issued any orders for him to be elsewhere.

There were other names, exactly eighteen others. They were stationed all over Europe and parts of Asia and Africa, all on different missions and from different areas. There was no age connection between them, no gender difference. The only connections that tied together all the missing witches and wizards were that they all worked for the Order, and that they'd all vanished exactly one ago.

What marked Maureen and Eugene apart was that they had both been found. Dead. Maureen in a park outside near the house of another Order agent, and Eugene on the steps of his favorite pub. The bodies… they hadn't been tortured, and the bodies hadn't been mutilated. But they were still dead.

Lupin stared down at the reports on them and the other eighteen, his fists resting on the top of his desk. Twenty members. Such a precise number. And they'd all vanished at the same time. Twenty. With a number like that… someone was sending him a message. Whoever was behind it (and there was a someone—this wasn't random) wanted him to know that they had control. That they knew where his operatives were, and that they had their operative everywhere.

Sam and Neville Longbottom sat before him, Sam intent and tapping the arm of her chair with her fingernails, Neville looking tired and travel worn. They were waiting for him to move, but he found that he couldn't speak just then.

"Sam," he said finally. "I want you to send a slimmed-down copy of these names and files to Ginny. She should know what's going on. This one—" he indicated the report on a missing girl stationed in London. "—was her junior assistant. So she should know about how wide-spread this is."

He paused, putting a hand over his eyes and stretching his back. The ramifications of this…

"Kraft and Ferguson may be exceptions, but we can't afford to assume that the others are alive. Neville, contact whoever would have been working with one of these people. Tell them to get out, if what they're working on isn't crucial. We can shuffle people around to take over their jobs. And I want you to mobilize some forces to investigate what these people were doing before they disappeared. Who they spoke to that wasn't an Order member, who they spoke to that was and Order member. Where they went. What they did before they vanished. You don't need me to tell you this," he finished, lowering his hand and sinking into a chair. "So just do it, please."

Neville nodded curtly, smiled weakly, and left the office.

Sam waited to be dismissed. Instead of doing so, Lupin gently gathered up the different reports and shuffled them into order, moving slowly and thinking hard. Sam waited, watching him. She hadn't seen Lupin this agitated in… in a long time. She'd known this was bad as soon as the reports arrived, but seeing Lupin's reaction… She just felt sorry for Neville. He hadn't even been able to prepare himself for this.

"Sam," Lupin said finally, setting down the reports and fixing his eyes on her face. "I can't think this is a coincidence."

Sam nodded slowly. "The timing's too close."

Lupin sighed, and sat back in his chair, raising his eyes to stare at the ceiling. "We send two of our own, and within three weeks members start disappearing."

Sam shifted in her chair, not really sure what to say to that.

"How's Wolfgang getting on with the notebooks?" Lupin asked. "We need those up and running even more than we did before."

"No headway. He says he might be getting somewhere, though. A sort of... stain's turned up on one of the pages."

Lupin blinked. "A brownish stain, appearing about two days ago?"

"Yes," Sam said, startled. "How'd you know?"

"That was me," Lupin said hollowly. "I spilled some coffee on it by accident when I was eating breakfast." Sam bit her lip, and rose to leave the office without another word. He waited until the door was firmly closed behind her, and then waited for a few minutes more until he was sure that everyone else had returned to their desks. Then he kicked his desk. Hard.

It wasn't nearly satisfying enough.

What the hell was going on?

A/N: So late! Please Forgive meeee! I had a little trouble getting back into this after reading the last book. It was just so good! I really loved it (except for the epilogue, but that's a given), and so my muse could see the storm coming and fled. She skulked back a few days ago, just in time for the start of school. Go figure. Let me know what you think! I love responses of all kinds!