Magical or not, Jonas hated hospitals.  Even back when he'd been working as an Auror, he'd seized upon every excuse possible to avoid a visit to St. Mungo's.  Though the required conversation with the dressmaker's mannequin was always good for a laugh - less because of anything that the mannequin actually said, and more because he always got a kick out of the fact that he was talking to a dummy - the visits themselves were never anything to chuckle at, partially because he was never sure what was an inconveniently placed tea cozy and what was the unfortunate result of a transfiguration accident.

The waiting room of the hospital didn't look to have changed much in the years since he'd been gone.  Jonas motioned for Lexus to wait as he strode over to check in with the Welcome Witch, a young girl who looked considerably less harried than the one he remembered. 

He hadn't asked his assistant if she'd ever been to St. Mungo's before, and he didn't recall her offering the information, but then, that was part of the point of this exercise.  Lexus had been insistent that she wanted to help with the actual footwork on cases.  His warnings hadn't done anything to diminish her eagerness, and so Jonas had given in and invited her along.  He'd given her the basics on technique and cautioned her not to contradict their story, and so it was up to her whether she sank or swam.

It probably said something that he considered the Runespoor investigation the least risky of his current casework.  There was no way in bloody hell he was letting the Canadian have anything to do with his spying for Malvivicus, and not only because she knew the subject in question.  Involving her with the mess with Tawse had seemed equally like a bad idea, especially since he knew that she was already wary of potential trouble with the Ministry.  But a nice legal inquiry - well, mostly legal inquiry - into the medical circumstances surrounding three-headed snakes was relatively tame in comparison.

"The good mediwitch should be with us momentarily," Jonas announced quietly, keeping his hands in his coat pockets as he rejoined Lexus.  He nodded to the rest of the waiting room, eyebrows raising as he glanced over the other figures who were clustered about in twos and threes.  "Quite the place, innit?  Did you see the bloke in the corner who looks like he's got a lightbulb stuck on his nose?" he asked conversationally.

Lexus was absolutely fascinated by the thought of going to an all magical Hospital. Back home, at least in her home town, the magical medical facilities they had were located underneath the actual muggle hospitals. They were accessed through similar barriers to the one in King's Cross Station. Lexus had never had to go there but had heard from a few of her friends at school what they were about. She had been to muggle hospitals plenty of times and after finding out she was a witch had even spent one visit after getting her tonsils out trying to find the magical barrier.

She was thankful for Jonas letting her come along with him. It gave her more than just purpose to be working an actual job and she was really determined to prove she would be an asset to him. In an attempt to look less conspicuous Lexus had tried to charm her hair back to it's natural colour, honey brown with a few blonde highlights, ever since she became a werewolf she had gotten streaks of silver mixed in and didn't want to set off any alarms for the healers that she might not be normal. Unfortunately, much like anything she had tried to do with her magic over the past month, the spell had gone haywire and she now stood with brilliantly bright yellow hair. She had tried to do what she could to make it stand out less, putting it up in a bun with a nice fashionable hair wrap to take the eyes away from the colour. She had no idea what was going on with her magic, even the smallest of spells weren't working the way they should and she was paranoid it was some kind of side effect to Daz's wolfsbane potion. She wondered if she could get a minute alone with one of the mediwitch's to inquire about it.

Lexus looked in the direction Jonas had indicated and stifled a giggle. She tried to look away as casually as she could, "This one time at school a kid transfigured his ears into fog horns that went off everytime he got angry. It took the school healer a whole week to turn them back to normal."

The red-haired man shot her a crooked smile.  "Yeah?" he asked, nearly launching into his own school story before he realized who it involved and thought better of it.  Sometimes, it was safer to avoid tempting fate, and giving the world a reminder of whom he had been friends with back at Hogwarts most likely wasn't the smartest move when he was trying to downplay those connections.

He shrugged instead, shifting his weight to his good leg as he glanced around the room.  "Reckon that's something that comes with the territory.  This lot has more limits to push, so the emergencies end up being a bit more creative."  It was really too bad that there wasn't a hope of getting a magical medical drama on television, considering how most of the American ones ran together.  If some enterprising screenwriter came up with a way to base a show at St. Mungo's without getting hauled in by the Ministry for violating the Statute of Secrecy, Jonas imagined that he might actually skip a few episodes of his usual crime dramas to watch it.

"This is actually pretty quiet for St. Mungo's, from what I remember," he remarked without thinking, balancing slightly on his left foot.  "Granted, most of the time we got hauled in here, it was in the middle of some disaster or right around the full moon.  Picks up a bit then, it does.  Not that you'd ever catch me complaining about something not being as interesting," he concluded cheerfully, with more than a hint of irony.

Moira had been leery of requested meetings ever since Rita Skeeter’s article had run in the paper and the press had started following her whenever possible.  She was usually safe within the walls of St. Mungo’s and this appeared to be an actual inquiry for medical information, not an attempt to pry into her personal life.  Things there were tense and the last thing she wished to do was field questions about her relationship with the Minister of Magic.

Her hair hung in a lose braid over her right shoulder and she quickly navigated her way down to the welcome desk after receiving the notice that her expected visitors had arrived.  The welcome witch pointed out the pair to her and she approached the man she assume would be Jonas Trevelyan and the woman next to him who should be his assistant.  The woman’s hair was quite a shade of yellow, but she didn’t think too long on that.  Her guess was the woman was a year or two younger then her and she figured it to be some left over rebellious streak leading her to that particular fashion statement.

“Mr. Trevelyan?” she asked him, giving them both a small smile.  “I hope you haven’t been waiting long…I’m Moira Randall.”

She extended her hand to them both.  It had been a quite day so far, but she didn’t dare mention that to anyone.  That was usually the kiss of death that meant all hell would certainly break lose within the hour.  She had learned very early on you did your best to relish these rare quiet times, because they were far and few between.  No one ever talked about them as it seemed to be the ultimate jinx.

Lexus looked to Jonas expectantly but nothing came. He seemed to have left space to insert his own story about a crazy injury but apparently thought better of it. Lexus let out a soft sigh and turned her attention back to the surrounding room. She didn't really blame him for not opening up to her more, after all he was just her boss but he was also one of the very few people she knew in London and it would have been nice to get to know him better. She supposed in time he would open up more.

A visible shutter ran through her when he mentioned the full moon and she tightened her travelling cloak around herself as if being in the middle of a magical medical center made it possible for people to see her scars through her clothing, or at the very least be able to know she was a werewolf just by looking at her. She knew that there had always been superstition around the full moon, something that actually had nothing to do with those inflicted by lycanthropy. Even Muggles noticed that odd occurrences happened more often around the full moon. Her mother always said it brought out the crazies.

As Ms. Randall finally appeared Lexus gave her a matching warm smile and shook her offered hand. She'd leave the talking to Jonas since she was only there to observe and help if needed. This was her first time out with him on a case and it was best if she just kept back and watched how Jonas did things. If she expected to be brought out like this more often she'd have to restrain herself and keep quiet. She had gone over as much of the case as Jonas allowed her and was sure she had all the facts straightened out in her head but she didn't want to mess up in front of their interviewee.

At the sound of his name, the private investigator looked up, quickly glancing the woman over.

"Nah, not long at all," he said easily, gripping the woman's proffered hand as he returned her smile.  She seemed young, maybe about Lexus's age, and was pretty enough in person.  Even with how little he read the Prophet, it had been impossible to miss what seemed to be a near-constant chronicle of the young witch's love life.  "The waiting room here's enough entertainment all on its own, anyhow."

Lexus was smartly keeping quiet beside him.  His new assistant had a friendly enough manner that he suspected she'd have a knack for building a rapport with strangers, which was one reason why he'd brought her along; short of being thrown into things, watching and observing was one of the best ways to learn their trade.  Her current hair color, though, was a subject that they might have to discuss later.  He hadn't wanted to raise the issue when she'd arrived for work, but something so conspicuous made her stand out more than he would have liked.

"This is Miss Dale, my assistant.  Thanks for taking the time to meet with us, Mediwitch Randall," he continued cheerfully, tucking his hands back into his pockets.  "I know how busy you lot must all be, so we appreciate you stepping out for a bit.  Is there somewhere we might be able to pop in and chat?  This shouldn't take very long at all."

Moira gave a slight chuckle and nod in agreement when he mentioned the waiting room providing entertainment while waiting.  One never could tell who was going to come through the doors and with what injury.  The most severe cases were naturally ushered past the waiting area, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t without its share of oddities.  She hadn’t been able to completely ignore the young man who had seemed to manage to have his head transfigured into a telescope when she had entered.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you both,” she said, “and honestly it’s no trouble.  We have a tea shop up on the fifth floor.  There’s usually a quite spot available up there.  The lift’s just this way, if you’ll both follow me.”

She didn’t get up to the tea shop very often.  It would be more comfortable then most of the other spots in the hospital and certainly would have less distractions.  There was something about the break room that usually kept her from focusing completely, and she could point mostly to the constant foot traffic and fellow healers discussing their cases.

Approaching the lift she had to quickly sidestep another healer who rushed by, likely to meet an emergency case that was being brought in.  Turning to Jonas and Lexus before calling the lift, she offered a slight, apologetic smile saying, “Sorry…things can be a bit crazy around here.”

"No need to apologize," Jonas replied cheerfully, following behind her at an easy pace.  He kept half an eye on the healers and the patients being rushed about, stepping out of the way when necessary.  Each visitor was a bit of a mystery in him- or herself, some because he couldn't figure out how they had gotten that way, and others because it wasn't obvious at first sight what was wrong.  One young woman sitting in the corner looked perfectly normal aside from the unhappy expression on her face, until she hiccuped and let escape the scratchy music of an old record player.

All in all, it was like the best sort of guessing game.  Jonas didn't make much of an effort to avoid looking like he was staring as they waited for the lift.  When it finally arrived, if it hadn't been for the commotion of people getting off, he easily could have missed it.

"You lot certainly get kept on your toes, don't you?" he asked good-naturedly, eyeing an old man with duck feet who was sadly gazing at his webbed toes as he waddled out of the lift and into the lobby.  All he needed was a bottle of whiskey and a way to keep score and he probably could have been occupied for hours. 

"This is all the usual sort of mayhem though, yeah?" the private investigator inquired curiously, gesturing for Lexus to step on first and then following her inside.  "No magical epidemics of blokes turning into weevils or suddenly sprouting household appliances as a second head that we need to worry about, are there?  That could get a bit awkward on the way back to the office."

Moira smirked as the lift opened and once it was empty she stepped inside holding the door for Lexus and Jonas.  Pressing the button for the fifth level she could understand a bit of the fascination.  It was part of why she kept coming back day after day to the same job; there was always some new challenge.  She was always learning, and for a former Ravenclaw that was key.

“Not that I know of,” she said, laughing a bit in reference to the magical epidemics.  “But, if I spot a horde of weevils I’ll be sure to give you fair warning.  It usually is pretty crazy around here though, but for those who are meant for the healing arts it’s the sort of environment we do best in.  There always something new to make you stop and think.”

Every day brought something new as well.  There wasn’t a moment that she wasn’t pushed and challenged.  If she were to give it all up to do anything else she was certain she’d grow bored relatively quickly and it was part of her motivation to keep going.

“I imagine in your profession you sort of know that feeling of having the constant mystery to figure out though,” she added as the lift doors opened again.  Not that she really knew, but in her mind it seemed the life of a private investigator would also be filled with lots of those moments where one had to stop and try to piece together the available information to come up with the most likely conclusion.

Jonas shrugged, glancing easily across the new floor as the doors to the lift opened.  At first glance, this level appeared to be decidedly less interesting than the waiting room on the ground floor.  He waited for the women to exist, then followed them off, glancing up at a sign that indicated that the direction to the tea shop was just down the hallway.

"Yeah, unfortunately it's not as exciting as you'd think," he replied, giving the Mediwitch a slight smile as he started in the direction of the sign.  "Not like we get taken on to catch murderers  or find priceless stolen artifacts on a regular basis.  Most of it's just doing the legwork for insurance companies."  It was the standard line, though it was becoming less and less true recently; with all of the headaches and worries that dealing with wizards had brought recently, Jonas was not about to complain about the sudden uptick in interest that had come along with the odder cases.

"Lex might speak to it better'n I could, though," he added nicely, giving his assistant an amused look as he paused just outside the open doorway to the tea shop.  "I warned her when she got into this that it wouldn't be like you see on the television - or the Wireless," he added almost seamlessly, peering in through the open door.  The shop was almost empty, which was good - he didn't want to be broaching this subject with too many people around to hear.  "You'd have to ask her if it's lived up to her expectations.  Just take a table, shall we?"

Lexus had been keeping quiet while riding the lift with the others. Being in the waiting room had not been too troublesome but once in the main part of the hospital Lexus was finding herself slightly queasy. Apparently even a magical hospital still smelled like a hospital. Lexus wiggled her nose often and dabbed at it trying to keep all the smells at bay. Something in the back of her mind connected the queasy feeling and enhanced smell with her lycanthropy but the forefront of her mind was still ignoring the obvious.

She stepped out of the lift with Moira beside her and looked back to Jonas with a smirk before nodding slightly to the other woman, tucking an unusually yellow lock of hair behind her ear, "I honestly wasn't expecting it to be all mystery and intrigue but it has been interesting. A job's and job though right? I'm just happy to have one." She gave Jonas an appreciative smile knowing that now she had spoken it was rather obvious she wasn't from around here. Whether the healer would be one of the few people that seemed to be able to discern the difference between an American and Canadian accent was yet to be determined.

She sat at the table with the others still nervously fiddling with her over enchanted hair while taking out a pad and quill. She was determined to do good and take down all the important information that Ms. Randall was able to give them about their current case.

She exited first with Lexus, turning in the direction of the familiar teashop.  It never seemed terribly crowded at that time of day, usually most visitors felt more of a need to escape for a bit of refreshment and a chance to catch their breath as the day moved on.  It was normal, she supposed, especially for family members who ended up playing the waiting game the staff at the hospital usually did their best to avoid.

She gave a slight nod when Jonas mentioned that the work wasn’t as exciting as one might be led to believe.  There was a lot that happened in hospitals on Muggle television shows that usually didn’t happen at St. Mungos so in a way she could relate.  When Lexus confirmed it, Moira glances at her for a moment a little surprised to find she was from somewhere across the pond.

Leading them to a table that was more tucked away she settled in one of the chairs giving a smile in greeting to the witch working behind the counter.  Folding her hands in front of her she gave Lexus a moment to get her pad an quill out, glancing over at Jonas and asked, “Where did you want to begin?”

Jonas kept a careful eye on the rest of the room as he followed Moira to a table and pulled one of the empty chairs back.  No one looked to be paying much attention to them, but he stayed watchful nonetheless.  If anyone started to perk up, to react, that might be useful information in itself.

It was odd to begin an interview without a pen and notepad in hand, but today, that task had been assigned to Lexus.  Jonas refrained from glancing in his assistant's direction as he carefully lowered himself into the chair.  He had trusted her to come along and help, and if worse came to worse, he imagined that he could probably remember any details that might stand out even without a shorthand account.

"Well, the beginning's always a good place to start," he replied, flashing Moira a quick smile.  Not taking notes meant that he had nothing to do with his hands, which nearly left him fumbling for a moment; he settled for crossing his arms against his chest as he leaned back in the chair.   "Like I said in the letter, we've been hired on to look into that explosion in Knockturn a few weeks back.  Insurance, all that.  So I'm just trying to get a sense of things, get as much information on Runespoor venom as I can so that I can put it in the report."

 The idea that any of the businesses in Knockturn could afford insurance was more than a little ludicrous, but even so, it was a better cover story than explaining whom he was really working for.  It was as much information as he'd given Lexus; though he trusted the Canadian, she was jumpy enough about the Ministry that Jonas wouldn't have wanted to formally tell her even if he'd thought that Tamis Raynor would have been all right with it.

He regarded Moira thoughtfully for a moment, then gave her another slight smile.  "So you've been here at St. Mungo's for how long, Mediwitch Randall?" he asked, meeting her gaze.  "Seen many injuries from Runespoor venom in all that time?"

The week of the explosion in Knockturn Alley had been incredibly stressful for her to begin with, but with the time that had past things seemed to have settled into a more normal pace once more.  Working primarily on the first floor of the hospital she had encounter  plenty of Runespoor cases since accepting her current position, and nearly all of them had been incredibly high profile.  She hadn’t really given much thought to whether or not anyone in Knockturn Alley would actually have an insurance company asking too many questions about this particular incident.

“I’ve been here since April,” she told them.  “I did my training in America and St. Dymphna's in Salem’s Peak, and they hired me on upon completion.  We’ve had several cases since I started, most of them common knowledge thanks to The Daily Prophet.  So, I have a fair bit of experience with Runespoor venom, unfortunately.”

More then she would have liked.  As long as snakes and their eggs were of any sort of value then she had the sneaking suspicion the smuggling trade would continue and she would be seeing more cases.  The poison of the venom was fast acting and it took a great deal of concentration and speed whenever one of those cases came through the doors.

“Creature related injuries are never fun, but I’m sure you realize that Runespoor bites are among the most dangerous,” she added.  “You have to be on your toes when those sort of cases come in.”