He managed a small smirk after listening to Tonks, Sirus and Remus recalling their days at the place called 'Hogwarts'. He felt his stomach growl, and then reached for the food before him to fill it. Hermione was speaking with Remus, and he heard something about "werewolf segregation" and "wizards thinking they're superior to anybody else." With that, Ed's smirk grew just a little wider. He met her eye, and smiled his true smile, somewhere between a smirk and a frown, just for a moment.
He was pulled aside by Mrs. Weasley and introduced to the son named "Bill". He was unsurprised he was yet another redhead, but pleasantly surprised that the man shared his own tastes in hair and clothes.
'But..dammit..he's taller.' Ed thought with annoyance. 'People are SO freakishly TALL here.'
Then Mrs. Weasley went on and fussed with both of them to cut their hair.
"No. Mine iz diz vvay for goot vvreason." And Ed held up his right metal hand and pointed to it with his left. "Iz muck eazier for me to be carink for hair if kept long bekauze of diz. Hair iz being kaught in jointz all time."
"But its really getting..uh..out of hand, and you both are so handsome.." Ed choked on his drink at that point. He considered himself many things, but never EVER considered himself THAT. Bill kindly patted his back to help clear his airway. The polite conversations continued, Mrs weasly moved on to other things and people. Following the flow of the party.
More conversations. He learned Bill happened to work at a place called "Grinnocks" as a kind of banker, desk person, or some such. Ed nodded but understood very little other than it was a job that had a lot of paperwork involved. Then came the kind of questions directed at himself that he always dreaded:
"That arm..Muggle-made isn't it? Amazing work.."
Ed nodded politely, and quickly excused himself to get a refill on his half-full mug. He was wishing at that point he had thought to cover the arm and worn gloves. He drank to keep his mouth too busy to answer, then used the built in excuse of "having to use de luu" to go upstairs. His escape was a successful one, for no one called him back.
He took the stairs, and at the first landing..he heard unmistakable sound of someone sobbing..He looked about. Listening carefully. It was coming from the drawing room...
He finished climbing the stairs and called out.
"Hello..? Vwhat's vwrong?"
There was no answer and the sobbing continued. He walked across the landing and opened the drawing room door. There, in the moonlight, lay the body of Ron Weasley. Ed had seen enough dead bodies to know that with but a glimse.
The sobbing was coming from figure hunched over in the dark corner, a wand in her hand. The head lifted a little, and Ed could see it was Mrs. Weasley. She lifted her wand and pointed it at the dead body. Ed sprang into action, bursting into the room..His only thought..
'...NOT HERE!! NOT HER!!'
Before she could say a word, he grabbed her wrist with his metal right and forced her hand open. She gasped aloud from the cold painful grip, and her wand dropped, clattering to the ground. He then kicked the wand as far as he could and squatted to face her, looking into her eyes, purposely blocking her view of the dead body. He eased his grip on her injured hand, but kept holding it.
She sobbed uncontrollably, and he was at a loss at what to say. Her son was dead...what ever could he say that would be remotely enough? He blinked, and swallowed. He put his left hand first on her shoulder, then cupped her jaw.
"N-never..never DO dat..No matter how tempting it is being..." Ed swallowed back a lump in his throat. "Life..it goes in vone direction. Never..."
He saw it then, the subtle shift as the room began to change...shifting to the white plain that was far too familiar. And it was then he knew had acted too late...
The Gate was summoned.
And there was no stopping it.
Harry was behind Ed and heard the sobbing as well. He creeped along as silently as he could, and heard Ed call out.
"Hello..? Vwhat's vwrong?"
He was nearly to the top of the stairs, at the first landing when Ed rushed into the drawing room--moving so fast Harry could have sworn he had to have disapporated. He reached the doorway and his brain turned icy cold. Ron was dead, lying on the floor in a patch of moonlight. 'How can that be? I just left Ron downstairs.'
He saw Ed viciously kick a wand across the room, and then squat in front of the sobbing figure in the corner. He saw that it was Mrs. Weasley.
He watched as Ed gently cupped her chin with his left hand, metal right shining in the moonlight as he shifted slightly.
"N-never..never DO dat..No matter how tempting it is being..." Ed said, his voice thick with some emotion. "Life..it goes in vone direction. Never..."
Then, the body of Ron dissolved..changed. The room began to fill with..a 'whiteness'. There was no other way to describe it. It certainly wasn't fog to Harry's mind. There was nothing cloudlike about it. He looked over and noticed that the desk in the corner was now open before it faded before the oppessive whiteness.
'The boggart.' Harry thought, and looked back to Ed. 'He kicked away the only way I know of to fight it.'
Ed slowly stood, and squared his shoulders.
The room grew cold. So very, very cold. Harry could see his breath as he exhaled. Goosebumps erupted up his arms, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Oddly, the room was no longer dark. The whiteness had erased even the shadows.
:::
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