10 Downing Street [OPEN: Muggle Investigators!]

William Lawrence sat on his chair at the end of a long table with a glum look on his face. He had a cup of tea in one hand and was holding up a newspaper in the other. The tea was bad, but it was the news that had brought the foul taste to his mouth. Yesterday night, two London residents had died, with many more injured, in a ‘bombing.’ In truth, the attack had not really been a bombing. In fact, the investigators were unsure exactly what had happened. Something had caused the fire, but investigators were unsure what had, and firemen arriving to the scene found it difficult to put out the fire. The fire seemed to have vanished of its own accord, rather than through their efforts.  After a long investigation everyone seemed pretty satisfied in labeling the event as a terrorist attack, and so it read on the front page of ‘The Telegraph.’

William of course knew better. It had only been a few days since he had been visited by Robert Lupin, who had informed him of an unusual situation that was causing the ‘magical folk’ to lose control of their magic. William was smart enough to connect the two.

But the ‘Minister of Magic’ had also assured him that no deaths would be caused as a result of this! Up till now he had not been too worried. Some people had spotted some oddly dressed folk popping out of nowhere and disappearing again, and numerous cracks and odd noises had appeared around London. But these were the first deaths, and with the elections coming up, William could not afford this. Three days ago he had ordered a highly secretive investigation into the so called Magical World and was now waiting for the results.

The meeting was in the cabinet room in his residence at 10 Downing Street.

"Sir," Steve greeted, sliding into the room and closing the door firmly behind him. It was just a few days ago that the Prime Minster had first asked the veteran to look into the strange happenings around London. What the advisor had found so far was confusing, to say the least. There were all sorts of strange incidents being reported from one end of London to the other. Many of them sounded utterly ludicrous, but Steve knew better than to disregard the statements. One or two people swearing they'd seen something impossible was normal enough, for London. This many of them, however? No, Steve knew better than to believe that this could be a coincidence.

Pulling his electronic tablet from the inside of his jacket pocket, Steve slid into one of the seats beside the Prime Minister. As an advisor to the man, the move was not nearly as pretentious as it would have been a few months prior.

Turning on the device with the flick of a button, the man tapped on a bubble at the bottom of the screen. Steve, tactician that he was, had created a map. The map was of London, and the picture was covered in drop-pins, each marking the location of an incident, or report of one. The pins were color-coded by day, and tapping upon each would pull up the basic information surrounding the unusual happening. There was a definite pattern to be seen.

Sliding the tablet in front of his boss, Steve propped an elbow on the table before him and began to explain. "I've marked all the incidents, sir. For the most part, the numbers seem to be directly related to the population of the area. Two exceptions, there's been surprisingly few reports from Pelham, considering the population there, and right here." Leaning over and tapping a certain area of the map in time his last words, the screen zoomed in upon the area the man had touched. It was covered in pins. "I don't know what this means," Steve informed the Prime Minister, "it could be some sort of source." Frowning down at the area which, unbeknownst to him, held the temporary headquarters to the British Ministry of Magic, Steve leaned back in his chair.

William looked up from the newspaper as Steve Mitchell entered the room. “Ah, Steve,” he greeted. William liked to think that he was able to judge a man’s character quite well, and it was for this reason that he had made Steve his advisor despite only having known him well for a little over six months. Indeed, at this point only William, Steve and a few select members of the MI5 had some sort of knowledge about what was really going on. William trusted the man because he was loyal and dutiful, but above all he was remarkably efficient.

As Steve leaned forward with the tablet computer, William reached out for his spectacles and bent closer over the map that was now displaying on the screen. “Ah,” he exclaimed as Steve zoomed in towards a part of London with a particularly large amount of pins. This was great, until now they had literally nothing to go on for the investigation. This was something at least. Reaching out, William tapped one of the pins, which was of a car accident that had occurred because a woman had seen a man appearing out of nowhere on the middle of the road. “That is interesting… Hell, the fire (William gestured towards the newspaper) wasn’t too far from here either.”

William leaned back, thinking. “A source…” he repeated, slowly. “A source of what? Until now I thought we were dealing with some sort of terrorist operation… Well, that place could be there headquarters but…” He shook his head, it didn’t add up. The magical folk or whoever they were, they were the ones responsible. William was certain of it. But he hadn't told anyone about that yet. He was the only man in Britain who knew about that. Robert had warned him not to tell anyone else, but that is exactly what William planned to do now. “What do you think?” he asked finally, curious.

"To be frank, sir," Steve started, brows furrowing, "I haven't a bloody clue what to think." Out of this whole situation, the utter lack of solid knowledge was what was bugging him most. Steve may have liked to plan, loved to plan, even, but he didn't have to. It was one of the things that had made him so different when in the military, one of the reasons he'd been promoted before most of those that he'd graduated with. Steve loved his diagrams and lists, but he didn't need them to be efficient. If he had the time to draw up elaborate battle tactics, he would, but the man could be just as successful on the fly. Steve could not be successful, however, when he had no idea what the hell was going on. It was lack of proper intel that had gotten Steve shot, after all.

At first, Steve had been relatively unfazed by the whole situation. Deaths were terrible, but people lost their lives all the time. Strange reports were almost as common as legitimate ones in this day and age. It was only when the pieces of the puzzle refused to fit together, that the man had started fretting. Just a little, and entirely in he safety of his own head. But still, he was fretting.

"Perhaps that is some sort of base, and terrorists are getting sent out to cause all sorts of little distractions. I just can't see what would be gained from that, or why they'd be willing to risk men on half of these things," Steve admitted, gesturing toward the virtual pins. While some of the reports spoke of dangerous incidents, many spoke of petty tricks.

"My first thought was some kind of hallucinogen," Steve informed his superior. "Something airborne or in the public water supply that was released right there," the veteran gestured toward the area filled with pins, "before spreading." The brunet paused and took a deep breath. "But sir, even that theory has a fair number of holes."

William nodded, rather impressed by Steve’s reasoning. He was following the same train of thought as he was. “Yes, holes. As in, hallucinogens can’t cause fires that refuse to go out,” William said. He wished there was some other explanation, but there didn’t seem to be. And although being the only person in Great Britain with knowledge of what was truly going on did make William feel quite important, he could no longer keep the secret in these circumstances. The ‘minister of magic’ had trusted him with the information, but he also told him the whole problem would be contained.

William paused, then looked around briefly. He had, yesterday, removed all portraits from the room, and searched the entire area for any devices. He was sure that his office was being watched, this room perhaps not. “Okay Steve, what I am about to tell you is absolutely top secret, is that clear,” he said, in a quiet but urgent voice. “You cannot tell anyone about this. Not your family, not any members of parliament, not even Her Majesty the Queen.”

William then launched into his story about his first and second meetings with Robert Lupin, keeping his voice low at all times. When he finished, he looked at Steve’s expression. When William had first been told about this, he had assumed Robert Lupin was a charlatan, or worse a completely insane person who somehow found his way into his office. It had taken a long demonstration by the minister of magic to convince William. “You don’t have to believe me, but I think that this place right here” – he pointed at the area on the map – “Is where these people live.”