Dr Hannah Bombay may not have been a friendly, dramatic and emotional person. She may not have been terribly sociable, caring or able to hold scintillating conversation with people who weren’t medically minded. But she definitely wasn’t a bad person. Therefore, when the ME found herself faced with a simply disgraceful display of rude and unwarranted abusive posters, she felt the need to mention this fact to the woman concerned. Dr Bombay had received enough bad press in the last couple of years to know how much nasty and slanderous comments could sting, and quite often, wound.

That was why the small, very smartly dressed witch found herself stood outside the wizarding record shop holding a handful of these malicious posters which she’d just stripped from the walls of Diagon Alley in her gloved hand.

After tucking a lock of messy hair behind her ear, Hannah pushed the door to the record store open and stepped inside, high heels clicking on the linoleum flooring. Without dawdling and becoming distracted by records by bands with names one would expect to find on labels for shampoo or green leather boot polish, Hannah made a beeline for what looked to be the only till in the establishment which, by process of elimination, Hannah had come to the conclusion would house a staff member (hopefully the dark haired member from the posters plastered on the walls of the street outside). She was in luck.

Without a pause for breath upon reaching the desk, Hannah dropped the posters onto the surface and her eyes locked onto the pretty face from the pictures.
“Apparently you’ve got yourself a fan. I’ve removed around 20 myself but if you want the rest gone, I’d suggest you lend a hand, I have to be back at work in exactly thirty three minutes and I’m never late.”
With that Hannah turned on her heel and began to walk towards the door where she’d entered through only moments before.

“Come on, I’ve not got all day.”

Outfit

It was becoming clear fate didn't want Jacoba getting bored and it was doing a fairly good job of it.  Within a day of her brother's return to the We-Know-Where-You-Ares, the fliers had started cropping up all along Diagon Alley.  Rumor had it they were also showing up in Knockturn but Jacoba had no intentions, what so ever, in venturing there to investigate. She might be brazen and foolish but she wasn't that stupid. 

She'd resolved to pay them no mind.  Looking at them gave the impression she might care.  Taking them down gave the impression she, definitely, cared and would likely only push those who were on the fence more the the poster-bearer's side.  Really, going about her day as if she hadn't noticed the fliers seemed the best response she could give.  She had conceded to keeping more to background store activities, at least until the initial phase of sensationalism had past.  Manning the register, stocking new arrivals in the back store room and only rushing to greet those customers that were known entities in the store.  She figured, two - maybe three weeks and the whole thing would blow over enough that she could go back to business as usual. 

So, when the shop door opened and an unfamiliar woman stepped in, Jacoba only glanced up briefly.  That glance was enough for her to recognize the stack of fliers in the woman's hand.  She felt her spine bristle and tried to get herself ready to face the newest onslaught of threats and other various verbal attacks.  "Look.  I'm not -" she started in what she hoped was a placating tone before the woman's curt explanation cut her off. 

A fan?  "Wait - what?  Why?"  Jacoba sat on the stool behind the register watching as the woman started heading for the door again.  "But, I'm ..."  She cast a quick glance at her coworkers who offered a hurried, wordless approval of the sudden lunch break.  Quickly, Jacoba hurried after the woman, catching up with her just outside the shop but stopping there.  "To be honest, I'm not sure if my pulling them down is really the best idea.  I've been assuming it might give the wrong idea.  I - who are you?"

The woman at the desk looked quite gormless and stunned. As Hannah spoke concisely to her, she was certain she could see the cogs slowly turning in motion, her brain trying to fit the pieces together. People in the past had tried indoctrinating the FME into believing muggles were lesser beings. Their brains smaller and less intelligent and their cognitive abilities seriously inhibited by the lack of magical expertise. Right now, looking into the woman’s face, Hannah felt the tiniest inclination to agree. Maybe the muggle just needed a little more time to figure out what was being said. Hannah had learnt that some people were slower than her. It was a fact of life.

During her research, Hannah had found physical differences between the bodies of muggles and witches and wizards. The bone structure of muggles seems to be different, more fragile. Witches and Wizards were also a lot healthier at older ages. Comparing a body of each at the same age, Hannah had been quite amazed. There was an astounding difference. But their brains? They happened to be similar in size. The cell structure was simply different. Not that that mattered right now.

Dr Bombay paid it little mind and instead proceeded to leave the shop, expecting fully to be followed. If the muggle girl wasn’t in tow, she would simply continue on her way to the sandwich shop and carry on with her lunch as usual. A cheese and tomato baguette, wholemeal with a cup of perfectly brewed vanilla tea. The same was always ready for her when she walked into the tiny café. Now that was efficient service. However, if the woman did follow her out, Hannah would miss out on her sandwich and help to remove the vulgar posters.

“Nonsense.” The doctor replied softly, waving the girl’s worry off with a physical wave of her gloved hand. “By leaving those up more people are going to become aware of the ‘muggle working for our gringott’s gold’.” She quoted from the posters before sighing. “You’re best to remove them, Miss. This kind of propaganda shouldn’t be permitted.”
Who was she?
“Dr Hannah Bombay. I work for the ministry.” She offered her hand to shake while she continued speaking. “I’ll take these posters back to work with me once we’ve removed them. I’m sure the men in my department would like to take a quick look at them.”

Jacoba wasn't sure her reasoning worked. She couldn't help but wonder if ripping them down would just call more attention to them.  And, from what she could tell the poster seemed to have an unlimited supply.  With this magic stuff, that might actually be feasible. 

"I'm not a fan of that propaganda but ... people should be entitled to their opinion."  Yeah - she couldn't believe she was actually voicing this point of view but it seemed like it needed saying.  Freedom of speech and press.  If you only allowed it when you agreed with what was being said or printed than there was no freedom.  Only a very poorly supported façade to placate you into thinking you had freedom.  "And, really, I'm the last one that should be telling whoever posted that they aren't entitled to their opinion.  It'll just give them more ammunition." 

Jacoba pulled up in the street and shook her head.  There was no doubt, yanking those fliers from the wall would give her a strong sense of satisfaction but it wouldn't be worth it.  Eventually, if they just stayed there, fluttering in the breeze, they'd become old news.  That's what she was counting on.  "I do appreciate having a fan and, you probably can get away with taking them down.  I really shouldn't be a part of it, thought." 

She wasn't here to argue with anyone - she wasn't here to cause conflict.  She was here to work and to make her way.  Just like anyone else.  The fact she couldn't waggle a stick and make things levitate without gadgets or all those things those illusionists use shouldn't make a difference. 

"You work for the Ministry?  Of Magic?  What department do you work in?"  Ignoring the stray glares and glances cast in her direction, she offered a slight grin.  "Name's Jacoba Schlagenweit.  No fancy titles.  Other than muggle." 

Hannah’s eyebrows rose as she looked up at the other woman. “Oh, so it’s perfectly acceptable for these morons to express their opinion by publicly isolating and making an example of you?” The ME tilted her head, looking up at the sky and entwining her fingers as if trying to comprehend this strange occurrence. “I wasn’t fully aware that this was how things were done in the modern day.” Apparently Hannah had been living at least a decade in the past when the Death Eaters were still around and Voldemort was at large or this was just how muggles perceived things. Either was t was ridiculous to let someone bully you in such a way.

The extremely tall woman was trying to get out of taking the posters down? Was she seriously that worried? Of course Hannah understood that the posters were obviously created by someone angry, with a lot of hatred, but by leaving them, it was simply accepting a fate of being targeted and terrorised. Did the muggle realise that? If she had two brain cells to rub together she would. Hannah had dealt with bullies all the way through Hogwarts. She knew that if you let them carry on things would only get worse. One had to fight back. It had taken until her final year to realise that one.

“That’s ridiculous!” Hannah let out a small laugh and folded her arms across her stomach, shifting her weight onto her left leg as she looked up at the record vendor. Bombay was used to looking up at people. “You have the guts to come into this world and work when we keep it a secret from the great majority of muggles for security reasons, and when there’s trouble from someone disagreeing with this new move, you just ignore it. How does that make sense?”

Well that name was a tongue twister. Hannah wasn’t even going to attempt repeating it. She pursed her lips in thought for a moment, looking Jacoba up and down. “That’s a rare enough title around here.” The Doctor sighed and glanced down the street at the posters plastered on the walls and shop windows. “I work for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I’m the Forensic Magical Examiner... Look, this is a form of harassment, Jacoba. You can report it.”

---

(Sorry about the late response, been very busy)

"I never said it was perfectly acceptable," Jacoba pointed out, shaking her head at the woman as she stopped in the street.  A handful of curious, and sometimes accusatory glances flittered in her direction.  It was unnerving: all these random strangers recognizing her off hand when she didn't know any of them from the next. 

And, the woman was mistaken if she thought Jacoba hadn't been tempted to do that very thing.  Every time she passed by one of those fliers fluttering in the chilly wind, she wanted nothing more than to reach out and rip it down.   "Does anyone know how this is supposed to be done?"  From what she could gather, she was sort of traversing uncharted territory here.  "Trust me, I'd love to rip them down and tear them up but ... I don't think ... my taking them down will just give the impression i don't think whoever put them up is entitled to their opinion.  It'll just reinforce the belief I'm here to stir trouble or whatever.  I'm not going to encourage anyone to be tolerant of me by being intolerant of them." 

It was convoluted, perhaps it was even foolish.  This wasn't exactly something she was familiar with.  But, Adon seemed to agree with her: she should leave declaring open warfare against the fliers to the natives.  She needed to stick by her beliefs here. 

"I'm not ignoring it and I am reporting it."  To Adon, at least.  He was official even if the reports weren't exactly.  "It doesn't - and it's not going to make sense.  But, the less it gets sensationalized, the sooner it'll get boring and pass."  She was convinced of that - and convinced it was the best strategy to take.  "It is harassment and it's annoying but no one has tried to hurt me."