The bell tinkled as Moody entered the Happy Hearth bakery in Hogsmeade. He strode to the corner and greeted the girl at the register and told her that he was looking for Hannah Abbott.

Hannah stuck her head out of the kitchen with a bright smile. "Auror Moody. How good to see you. Why don't you come on back? We can chat about what you've been up to without the bustle of the bakery."

Moody raised an eyebrow and strode through the doorway.

Grace was in the corner where Hannah had placed a mat playing with her dolls. She looked at Moody with wide eyes.

"Amy, why don't you take a break," Hannah said.

Amy looked at Moody for a long time then left out the back. Hannah cast a silencing charm on the kitchen and gestured to the chair Amy had vacated.

"Are you hungry?"

Moody had heard things about this little blonde beam of sunshine. Whispers, really. He knew she was in the order, so he was fairly certain that she wasn't out to kill him, but until he knew the purpose of his visit, he felt that avoiding any potentially combustible comestibles would be in his best interest.

He sat, and replied, "Not at the present, but perhaps I shall be later."

Hannah raised a brow. "Would you eat it if I took a bite out of it first? If I were to poison you, sir, I'd find a better place than the kitchen of my own bakery."

"Quite frankly, Mistress Abbott, in my line of work, one can't be too careful... While I do not believe that you are going to poison me as such, as you pointed out in your letter, we are not acquainted with one another. Perhaps you might tell me in what capacity I am here today?"

Hannah set a plate of biscuits fresh from the oven before him anyhow. She broke

part of one off and started eating it with a devious smile

"Could be nothing," she said leaning against her prep table. "That little girl over there and her elder sister and brother are staying with Blaise and I. Their mother disappeared, and their father disappeared long ago, but this isn't to do with him. There was another girl who attends Sara Prep whose mother vanished recently. I don't think they ever found her either. That child stayed with Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley until her relative came to get her. Martha, Kris and Grace's mum, is a Muggle. I can't be sure, but what if the other woman was Muggleborn? There is a place, one of THEIR places in Scotland, right? I've been listening lately. A lot of people come through this bakery. Those two women aren't the only ones who've disappeared, and most of the ones gone? Muggleborn. I'm personally hoping I'm paranoid though."

Moody reached for a biscuit.

"And did anyone report these missing persons to the Aurors' Office?" He was sure that he'd have heard about a missing persons epidemic from someone, unless...

That little bastard.

"Kristen... she's the eldest child and my assistant, she did. I know Jane Spofford, the headmistress of Sara Prep. I'm sure she reported a parent missing if the women never turned up. Jane's very... detail-oriented. I don't know about the others. Would you like to speak to Kristen about it? All I know is her mother left for work on Friday before last and never got there."

Moody finished his biscuit.

"Perhaps I should take her statement down again," Moody stated. "Now that I'm thinking on it, there's a good chance that the previous one got lost accidentally-on-purpose."

"Excellent biscuits, by the way."

"Thank you."

Hannah smiled. She was more apt to like someone who ate and enjoyed her food. She did not know why this was. It just was.

She leaned out the door. "Kristen, can I see you in the back for a moment?"

Kristen walked to the back, wiping her hands on her apron nervously. She eyed the man who Hannah had invited into the back before her.

"Kris, this is Auror Moody. He wants to ask you some things about your mum."

Kristen just nodded.

Moody pulled a small pad of paper and a pencil out of his inside coat pocket. Opening the pad up, he stated, "I understand that you filed a missing persons report. Do you recall when this was, and who you spoke to?"

"That next Monday morning. I tried to file one on Saturday, but I was told she had to be missing for forty-eight hours even though they said she never showed at work on Friday night. He said his name was Baddock."

The point on Moody's pencil snapped.

He looked pinched when he reached inside his jacket and produced another one. "Missing since Friday. Where do you live, and where does your mother work?"

"Not this past Friday. The Friday before that. We live on the edge of town. Mother works at the whiskey distillery near Nem's Nook."

Moody scratched the date out and wrote another below the first. As he jotted down the information, he asked, "Is there anyone we might contact to assist us in our inquiries? Any other relatives? A boyfriend, perhaps?"

"She hasn't seen anyone for a while. She usually doesn't keep boyfriends for long," Kristen replied, looking at the floor. "We don't have anyone else. Our father... well, I don't know where he is. He wouldn't care anyway."

"Are there any places that she goes to be alone?"

"No. Usually she tells us if she is going to take a weekend away, and she goes with someone. She's not seeing anyone right now. She always brings them over like they're prizes she's won that she wants to show off. Really all she does is work the night shift. She doesn't do much else. I do the shopping and manage the house bills and stuff."

Hannah was getting angrier and angrier. Kristen was not the parent, and Hannah was getting that she had been, had had to be. Hannah'd had no idea about the grocery shopping and the bills. No wonder Kris was always so tired.

Moody nodded. "Thank you, Kristen."

Hannah gave her a hug and sent Kris back up front. She looked at Moody.

"Well?"

"Baddock's one of them," he told her. "I had to ward my office to keep him from planting bugs, and I had a 'chat' with him in the training room a while back about it. It seems I didn't frighten him nearly enough."

"So either he accidentally on-purpose lost the report because Martha is a Muggle or because he knows what really happened to her," Hannah said. "I honestly don't know which I think is worse right now."

"Oh, I'm certain that his orders came from higher up. He's a small fish. I'd love to know who his big fish is, though." Moody took another biscuit. "I'm thinking I'll also need to speak to Headmistress Spofford, and probably young Mister Malfoy, as well. And I'll need to drop in and speak to my old friend Jack about that aerial photography."

Moody looked at his notepad, and realized that he hadn't gotten the woman's -- Martha's -- surname. "What is Kristen's surname, and is it the same as her mother's?"

"Stewart, and yes, it's the same." Hannah packed a box of apple tarts and handed them to him. "For Jane. She'll be nicer to you and probably more forthcoming if she is plied with tarts. Apple are her favorite."

He smiled, and finished his biscuit. "Perhaps I should come and visit your establishment more often. Though, I'd rather not come for the same reasons, or in any of my official capacities."

Hannah moved and packed him another box. She was getting pretty good at doing that quickly. This time it was a biscuit assortment.

"This one is for you, and you're welcome in here anytime. If I can let Marcus Flint in, I can certainly let you."


{SUMMARY} Moody visits Hannah's bakery and she tell him about a few of the missing persons in the Hogsmeade area.