Tonks-as-Ed hesitated, then walked to what looked like a counter, and Harry moved to follow. He felt a hand on his shoulder as soon as he shifted his weight.
"Let her." Lupin whispered. Harry swallowed, and nodded.
Tonks-as-Ed was speaking to a lady in a crisp white shirt with a bowtie, a nametag pinned to one side of her chest. Harry couldn't make out what was being said, but the woman was smiling politely.
He felt Hermione's hand on his elbow, and he looked to her. She looked at him a moment then jerked her chin in a direction down the crowded hall. He turned his head to see what she was indicating for himself. Walking there, with calm self-assurance Harry had only seen in the lions he had seen in zoos, was a tall man with piercing eyes and a wild mass of hair. He was robeless, but Harry recognised the man from moving pictures in the magical newspapers he had read since he began at Hogwarts: Rufus Scrimgeour, the head of the Aurors himself.
'Certainly looks much different than he did at the Ministry.' Harry thought, remembering the wrinkled old thing with a pointy hat that had been stuck in the hand sculpture.
"Professor Lupin..?" Harry whispered.
"I see him." Lupin replied. "Don't worry."
'This could work out.' Harry thought, hoping that the man would look to Tonks-as-Ed at the counter. 'Hope he takes the bait.'
Scrimgeour's eyes did wander in that direction, as Harry had hoped. But instead of settling there, they instead seemed to zero in on Harry himself.
"Bloody hell.." Ron whispered, and he scooted back behind Harry, seemingly wanting to put as much distance between himself and the Auror. Harry raised eyebrows at his friend's reaction to the man. He would have asked, but there was no time. The man had approached them, and was now looking down at Harry as though he were a bug to be examined, then crushed.
"Well, Well. The boy-who-lies. Fancy seeing you here. Shouldn't you be busy getting ready for the new school term, Mr. Potter? Not, for instance, wandering about in Muggle inhabited places?"
"Last I checked, that was considered no crime." Lupin said softly.
The man flicked his eyes briefly at the sickly looking former professor.
"For wizards without certain, conditions,...yes. " Scrimgeour said, with particular emphasis on the word 'conditions'. Harry narrowed his eyes at the slight against Lupin. "May I ask what, exactly, your business here is, Lupin?"
"Personal." Harry said. "That goes for all of us."
"REAlly."Scrimgeour said, and narrowed his own eyes as he once again examined Harry. They breifly focused on his scar on his forehead, and Harry felt a slight twinge from it that made him blink. Then, they sort of flowed off him altogether.
Scrimgeour walked past them, heading towards the counter. He felt Hermione squeeze his elbow painfully, but before he could look..
"FUKKEN..... TECHNOGEEK..... GEARHEAD!!!"
It was definitely Ed's voice, cutting through the general din of the crowd around them. And it came from down the hall.
"VHA DA SHIT DID YOU DO?!?" Ed yelled.
In his mismatched hands, he held the spare of his left leg. It felt much much lighter than it should. He tranferred it to his gloveless left, not believing what his pressure plates on his right were telling him. The foot was a bit..odd..to look at. It was just a simple piece of metal with 3 bends. No toes.
'That would be strange' He thought. 'walking without moving toes..'
"Improvements, bookworm. That was a piece of junk when I started, now..it's state of the art."
Ed narrowed his eyes, and regarded Jon suspiciously.
"Vhy? ..VVhy... do dis..?"
"We're even. That's all." Jon said. "Consider it equivalent exchange. Besides, I'm sure to make a small fortune from what I learned from taking both of them apart and remaking them. Your father must have been a genius."
At the mention of his father, Ed stiffened.
"THAT BASTARD is no fa..." He automatically began, temper flaring against the man who was never there, voice bitter to his own ears, then stopped with his mouth open for a moment. His right fist banged uselessly against the table.
"Hmm..?" Tonks said, softly.
Ed looked at her and blinked. After a few moments, he looked away, and slid his knapsack off his back.
'Glad to be rid of the last of him...' He thought angrily.
"So..give it a go. I want to see if I guessed your measurements right."
"No. Now is not goot time." Ed said, and placed the leg in the bag. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tonks as she leaned against the wall near the closed door. They stood in a small dimly lit room, surrounded by monitors of various shapes and sizes. Wires spilled from each, and spilled to the floor in a messy tangle that converged somewhere under the table Ed was standing in front of. Jon was just on the other side, leaning causually against a particularly big monitor.
"Still wants to give you good massage. As a 'thank you'. You really can use it, too. Those..are SOME knots you get...."
:::
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