"Shacklebolt! Head's office! Two Minutes!"

Moody stumped along and walked past the vacant desk and banged on the door.

Kingsley sighed and followed Mad-Eye, wondering what bee was in his bonnet this morning.

"Oh my gosh! You're Mad-Eye Moody. This is so exciting! Ooooo, Auror Shacklebolt! Are you guys having a meeting with Auror Potter? Because I could get everyone a nice piping hot cup of tea if you are. Perfect for a cold day like this one."

Kingsley was blinking. "Who are..."

"Oh hell! My manners! I'm Maxine Jones. I'm Potter's temporary assistant. I'm filling in because Lorelai decided to crap herself near to death. Can I get you guys hot chocolate?"

"What? No," Kingsley said loudly, then added, "thank you."

She talked really fast. She was like a pixie on pepper-up. Lots of pepper-up.

Moody considered stunning the irritant, but replied with a forced calm in his voice. "No thank you, Mistress Jones. Please go about your business."

Just then Harry opened his office door because of the banging.

"You have visitors. Yay. I just came back from the owlery and sent that stuff off that you wanted sent. Your mail has been gone through," she said, leaning around Moody and thrusting a small stack at him. "This is what you might actually be interested in, and those brown loafers that Lorelai spewed on are a total loss, but I ordered you some new ones. Also, don't forget that you have a meeting with Madam Dolohov this afternoon. She's such a snappy dresser with her little gloves and hats and stuff. So... tea?"

Turning blinking eyes from Maxine to the men standing before him, it took Harry a moment before he managed to step aside and make room for Kingsley and Moody to pass into his office. "I think we're fine without the tea. And we don't want to be disturbed," he added as Moody passed him, seeing the look on the Senior Auror's face.

He shut the door on the blond before she could say anything in response, as that would probably take a good five minutes to listen to and understand coherently, and turned to look at Moody and Kingsley expectantly.

Moody moved past the two men and dropped the substantial pile of file folders onto a clear spot on Potter's desk. He turned and faced the other two men. "Gentlemen: we have a problem."

He paused and his eye swiveled off to the left.

"Just a mo," he said, drawing his wand. He fired something red at the wall, and a dark spot on the wall momentarily caught flame and then burned itself out.

"Right," he said, putting his wand away. "It's called 'The Mystery of the Misplaced Missing Persons.'"

"If they're already missing persons, how can they be misplaced," Harry asked, utterly confused.

Kingsley sighed. Moody could be so dramatic. He waited and listened. Kingsley snorted at Harry's comment, though.

"Not the persons. Their case files. I have here twenty-seven different missing persons cases filed in the last four months that had mysteriously found their way into a disused corner of the file room under a dead ficus plant and a large number of 'Martin Miggs the Mad Muggle' comic books."

Harry crossed to his desk and looked at the files, thumbing through them quickly. "Who's been put in charge of the missing persons?" He looked over at Kingsley. He'd been letting the Chief Auror take care of most of the assigning of cases.

"I recently put Savage on a few of them. Teacher went missing from Sara Prep. Or an aid or something. Someone on staff. Before, we were so busy trying to find the escapees. I had trainees doing the missing persons."

Moody nodded. "One of the parents went missing as well... I went and talked to Malfoy about that, and refiled the case, and the Abbott girl in Hogsmeade had me come in and speak to her assistant about her mother. That one was refiled as well. The originals are both in that pile, along with a whole slew of others which have not been followed up on."

"And do you want to know which two names are on each and every one of those?"

"Two," Kingsley said, frowning. He was betting on Baddock, not that they could prove anything as of yet, but who else?

Harry shared a look with Moody. He knew there were trainees that were in the Liberi, but what were they supposed to do about it? Kick them out of the program? They had no proof, nothing tangible. "What do we do about this?"

"Well, the way I see it, we have two trainees who have grossly circumvented proper procedure and due process. For that, I believe, the head Auror, the Training Auror, and/or the Head of the department choose what punishment befalls our young Mister Baddock and young Miss Quirke."

"One problem," Kingsley said. "Baddock is no longer a trainee, but I think a month or so of desk duty might suit him just fine. As for Orla, she's terrified of Hestia, and I am sure Mama Auror would love to hear all about this."

"Bugger," Moody said. He'd been so focused on his own new trainee -- who was a mess -- that he hadn't thought to look to see who had passed their exams. He resolved to rectify that as soon as was possible. "Potter, might we impose upon your lovely new secretary go and collect Hestia?"

Harry nodded, almost dreading giving the blond a task... or subjecting Hestia to Maxine. He opened the door, giving Maxine a small grin. "Do you think you could go see if Hestia Jones is free to join us in the meeting?"

Maxie shot up like she was on a spring and saluted Harry before almost running down the hall. In her haste she only nearly fell once.

Sighing, Harry turned back to Moody and Kingsley. "She'll be here soon. Maxine is nothing if not fast."

"Is that girl on potions?" Moody was considering sending her to Hogsmeade and having Arthur Weasley's daughter run a tox screen.

"Not that I know of," Harry said, "but my previous secretary was dosed, so I don't suppose it'd be too far off."

Moody chuckled. "Is that what happened? Couldn't have happened to a nicer enemy agent."

Harry frowned. "If you'd have seen her, you wouldn't feel the same way." Even knowing that Lorelai was one of them, and probably undermining him at every turn, she'd wanted to die. He didn't think he wished that on anyone.

Hestia backed into the office. "No thank you! No tea! Bugger off!"

She glared at Harry. "You are about to lose another secretary, Harry. What in the hell is that child's problem?"

"I think she's on potions," Moody commented. "What do you think about having Ginevra Weasley do a tox screen?"

"I don't think she's using potions. I just think she's... eccentric," Harry said, surprised he had found a semi-polite word for what Maxine's attitude was.

"She complimented my arse in these slacks. Not that it doesn't look fabulous these days," Hestia grinned at Harry's and Kingsley's discomfort at the arse discussion. "So... why am I being calling into this meeting by Pixie Pepper-up?"

Moody reached over to the pile of the twenty-seven file folders and picked up a few and handed them to her. "Have a look at who's been misplacing missing persons reports."

Hestia started flipping through. "I'm going to go kill her now with my bare hands. Excuse me."

Kingsley grabbed her arm when Hestia tried to leave.

"That moronic wet sock is one of THEM?" Hestia's eyes were flashing in anger. "Is that what we're saying here?"

"We're saying that the Liberi have weaseled their way into our department, and we need to make a plan as to what to do about it," Harry said, understanding Hestia's anger. He knew, however, that attacking them or treating them any different would only look bad in the long run. They had to figure out how to handle this carefully.

"How is she even... she was at the London raid," Hestia was still not believing this.

"The Liberi factor seems to be a recent development with Quirke," Moody commented. "She was fairly badly injured, was she not?"

Hestia nodded.

"Perhaps she was promised something in regards to that." he shrugged. "Any way we look at it, she's wearing the special silver. Or collaborating, anyway."

"Well, wherever she's wearing it, she doesn't flaunt it like Baddock does. Either that or she's having to prove herself?"

Hestia shrugged. She was still pissed. It didn't matter if Quirke was a new recruit for those fanatics or not. Point was - she had switched sides.

"It doesn't matter why she went, just that she did," Harry said, crossing his arms over his chest. "And now we have to figure out a way to fix the things they're deliberately trying to break. Like those files."

Hestia sighed. "I hate to suggest this, but we could have them buddy up on some of this with people we know we can trust. They'd be less likely to try any crap that way."

"What do you suggest? Pairing Quirke up with Natalie? Baddock up with Romy? I don't even know if they'd go for that," Harry said with a frown. "Besides, they'd just be babysitting if we did that. We need them actually working."

"We could see who sent Carfax the dosed biscuits and get them to send some to Baddock and Quirke. And while we're at it, McLaggen," Moody suggested.

"Why do we need to find out who did it," Hestia asked. "Let's just buy some biscuits and dose them. Snape's back in the country, yeah? I'll volunteer for potion duty, see if the man still can't stand me. Should be fun."

Moody grinned. "I have another contact who may be able to help us as well. Just don't tell Tonks I suggested her."

"Wait, wait." Harry held up hands, closing his eyes. "We can't really be suggesting that we poison our trainees and Aurors. We can't... we can't poison them."

"Fine," Hestia said. "I'll handle that. It's not my fault if they eat things left lying on their desks."

Kingsley chuckled then covered it with a cough.

"Potter," Moody said, "They're enemy agents. You can't think of them as 'Our Trainees and Aurors' any longer."

He interrupted when Harry looked like he was going to say something.

"And don't think about it as poisoning. Think about it as..." he paused. "Nonviolent resistance."

Harry shook his head. "No."

"So what do we do then, Harry," Hestia snapped.

Kingsley glared at her. Hestia's moods were running a bit hot lately. Perhaps someone should tell Black to keep her in the bed for a weekend.

"Well we don't poison them," Harry snapped back. "Should we round them all up, too? Keep them in one place so we know where they are? Maybe have them make a few cauldrons while we're at it?"

"Harry, calm down," Kingsley said. "No one is suggesting we poison or round anyone up, but what I can do is consider what cases they are put on a bit more carefully. Like I do with Proudfoot."

Harry neglected saying that poisoning was exactly what Hestia and Moody were talking about.

"All right, then. Getting back to the matter at hand..." Moody changed the subject. The Liberi in the department would have to be dealt with sooner or later; the subject would be tabled until later. "One Auror and one Trainee have each -- at best -- circumvented departmental procedure, and -- at worst -- committed obstruction of justice. What are we going to do about that? We'll need to keep in mind, of course, that anything we do won't stick for very long."

"Well, obviously, they have to be called out for it," Kingsley said.

Moody crossed his arms. "Yes. What do you have in mind?"

"I did not have anything specific in mind," Kingsley replied. "I was looking for suggestions."

"Well, back when I was their age, that sort of infraction would have resulted in my dismissal, were I to have done it," Moody commented. "Of course, when Old Jonathan Device was minister back in the thirties, that sort of punishment went right out the window except for the very very bad cases. Nowadays, I think it's a week's suspension without pay, and desk duty for two months."

"That we can do," Harry said. "As they were in charge of the files, and they were the ones who misplaced them, it would be perfectly logical to reprimand them in that way. We'll send them home, and when they come back, we'll make sure they're at a desk and being watched thoroughly."

Not only did the punishment fit the crime, they were less likely to be reported for unfair treatment. Harry wasn't stupid. He knew the Liberi had people high in the Ministry. He could not give them anything to latch onto. It'd be too dangerous.

Kingsley nodded. "I'll get on that as soon as I leave this office."

Hestia still liked the biscuit idea.

So did Moody. But he knew better than bring it up in front of Potter.