Frederick hadn't noticed anything amiss when they'd returned to the group, as they still had the same head count as when he'd departed it. He didn't even take much notice of the other man until he spoke, when it struck him that he didn't recognize him--and that one of the familiar faces from the train was missing.
"He looks different," Freddie said, rather stupidly--the one missing was Sterling, who he knew well enough from how often his face had been splashed on the front page over the past few years. No amount of transfiguration or plague symptoms or other fog mischievousness could have shrunken the formidable form of the auror into that decrepit looking stranger. He didn't even sound the same, and...
"Did he say killed?" Frederick asked, incredulously, before noticing the hole in the man's chest and realizing this was yet another stupid thing to say. "Oh."
"He looks different," Freddie said, rather stupidly--the one missing was Sterling, who he knew well enough from how often his face had been splashed on the front page over the past few years. No amount of transfiguration or plague symptoms or other fog mischievousness could have shrunken the formidable form of the auror into that decrepit looking stranger. He didn't even sound the same, and...
"Did he say killed?" Frederick asked, incredulously, before noticing the hole in the man's chest and realizing this was yet another stupid thing to say. "Oh."