A/N- Hey there! A slightly funny idea that sort of just sprung up in my head for a story, I essentially was wondering with a friend how the magical health system works and using magic to heal folk. Looking at the MOM and St Mungos, we reasoned that it would have to fall to one of the departments to regulate right? Personally for me, this will be an experiment largely in using OC's and remaining as true to the universe and canon as possible. Expect to see the story cross-over around book 5 in the actual series and with plenty of interactions with characters from the HP universe. Read on and let me know what you think, always happy to receive feedback.
Cheers.
-Grey.
The department for Magical Accidents and Catastrophes was nothing like Paige had expected. For one thing there were a lot more spot fires burning and a lot less of a welcoming committee then she had expected. Wizards in dull smoking blue robes rushed about frantically, yelling Aguamenti and trying to extinguish the dozens of fires that had apparently jumped up around the office. A tall silver haired man, suddenly bounded up to her from around the corner of one office.
"Ah you must be the new girl, Paige?" He beamed happily, a large smile adorned his face and seemed too wide for it. His face was covered in soot, but seemed to glow all the same. If alpacas could be people, this is how they would look; tall and lean with curly hair and an almost dopey looking grin.
"Uh huh. Yes. I mean Yes Sir. That is me!" Paige stuttered in nervousness and she uncertainly offered her hand to the gentleman.
He laughed and accepted it gladly.
"None of this Sir business. I may be head of Accidental Magic Reversal, but please just call me Unwin or Un for short. Unwin Nigel Doit. And I'm very pleased to meet you."
"Paige Calamisi," The new girl introduced herself, her enthusiasm trumping her nerves as the older man continued to pump her hand with vigour.
Enthusiasm appeared to be his thing.
Quite startlingly, flames sprung up on the sleeves of his robes and she immediately let go. With mild interest the head of squad, beat the flames off his flowing sleeves the old fashioned way. He looked up to find Paige looking around in concern as several other wizards continued to battle the remaining spot fires.
"Ah you see we've been having trouble with some mischievous wizard and his self-sparking fire spell. The squad has had difficulty battling it and so we've been trialling different ways to stop it in the office." Unwin explained
Paige didn't reply to this and only watched in horror as one nearby pudgy witch's robes were completely engulfed with flames and she dropped to the floor to roll around frantically, screaming in terror.
"With mixed results as you can see." Unwin elaborated somewhat unnecessarily.
As he spoke a young man ran up and vigorously sprayed the ailing witch down with what appeared to be a muggle fire extinguisher. Unlike the lightly scorched witch, he wasn't wearing the traditional ministry robes and instead was sporting faded blue jeans and a black t-shirt emblazoned with the word 'Disturbed'. He was noticeably less phased then the others or as scorched as them either.
"Alright there, Peregrin?" The Squad leader enquired of the young witch who was being helped to her feet by the bloke who had put her out.
"A bit singed, nothing worse thanks Un." The plump woman named Peregrin replied breathlessly, checking on the now curled and uneven ends of her untidy long blonde hair, which had fallen out of its ponytail.
"Good save, Magus." Unwin called after his firefighting member of staff, who had already wandered off. If the man heard he didn't reply.
It seemed that the last of the fires had been put out, Paige noticed glancing around at the otherwise standard looking cubicle based office.
"How about a tour then?" Mr Doit offered genially and he excitedly led her off to view the rest of the department.
"We aren't a large or particularly well-funded squad here at Accidental Magical Reversal, I'm afraid." Doit apologised as he led Paige to a pair of desks facing each other at one end of the small open air office. The woman from earlier, Peregrin was sitting at one of the desks, studiously shortening and tidying up the tips of her burnt hair with her wand. The acrid smell still lingered in the air. Her purple robes were burnt all the way through in places.
"Amanda Peregrin, meet Paige Calamisi; our new member of the Reversal team."
The round faced woman stood and reached a well-manicured hand out to Paige and gave hers a light shake.
"Nice to meet cha." She grinned genuinely, brushing soot off her robes and straightening her hair once more.
"Fresh outa, Hogwarts are we?" Amanda asked, eyeing the narrow, young, freckled face in front of her.
Paige tore her eyes from the coffee mug on Peregrin's desk which read 'don't get between a witch and her wine!'
"Just graduated." She shyly answered, wondering if it was that obvious from the way she presented herself.
Unwin picked up on her nerves and decided to continue his tour.
"And this is Mikayla Gordy, our other Tracer." He introduced Paige to the other woman sharing a desk with Peregrin.
Mikayla was quite the opposite of Amanda, skinny as a whip in comparison to her slightly tubby deskmate and with a short bob of black hair. Her demeanour seemed at odds to with dark sunken eyes and a melancholy face that took no joy from meeting the new girl. She had went large on the eyeliner, giving her the appearance of a starved panda, with the way it contrasted her extremely pale skin.
"Fresh blood for Reversals?" Mikayla nodded in greeting and taking a set of overlarge headphones off of her ears. Only now that she saw them, did Paige notice that an identical pair were crimped around Peregrin's thick neck.
"The girls here on the Tracer desk monitor any magical activity that comes up in the proximity of underage wizards. They also help to pinpoint any distress calls for us or Magical Enforcement." Unwin went on to explain, ignoring the odd gothic girl and her staring eyes.
"Let's carry on shall we?" Doit exclaimed happily and Paige gave a weak wave to the girls on the desk. Mikayla continued to simply stare with her dark eyes, but Peregrin waved back with a big smile on her face.
"See ya round, Paige!" She exclaimed.
They walked past a group of other office cubicles and Unwin waved at them as they passed. The office was divided in half with a rowdy bunch of witches and wizards across from the Magical Reversal offices, at their own desks.
"We share an office with the Obliviators, since they attend many of our calls too."
Two middle aged men sat opposite each other at desks that faced, each had a thick toothbrush moustache and the start of grey at their temples. That was where the similarities ended though, one was tall with a flat brick of a nose and the other short nugget of a man with a square face. Neither seemed to be working particularly hard and Paige noticed each fold up a copy of the Prophet as the boss approached with her. The magical newspaper was scorched around the edges and the shorter magician still actively smoked from the mornings earlier endeavours.
The Prophet headline read 'Potter the liar; Triwizard cheat!' Another Rita Skeeter special, it would seem to be about the recent disastrous end to the Triwizard cup.
"Ben and Bryce here are the other pair of Reversers, they've probably been doing this longer then you've been alive!" Unwin introduced Paige.
"Morning," They called together in bored tones, apparently not concerned by the new addition.
"Gent's, this is Paige our new Reverser, fresh out of Hogwarts and her Magimedic training."
"Gerry's replacement?" Ben the taller one asked in a deep voice.
"About time." Bryce commented, with a weak attempt at a smile in her direction.
"Hi." Paige uttered, somewhat underwhelmed by her new colleagues. She had met friendlier Redcaps.
Seemingly unaffected by the pairs obvious disinterest, Unwin guided Paige onwards with an eager hand on her arm.
"Moving on!" He called loudly like a tour guide and the remaining pair resumed their perusal of the newspaper.
Approaching another group of cubicles, Paige noticed the young man from earlier in muggle clothes, he appeared to be the only one in the office who shunned robes.
He was leaning casually against a carpeted wall and chatting animatedly with another witch who wore robes in a mysterious purple colour. On the breast was a crest of crossed wands over a question mark. She too was young and had short black hair in a pixie cut, her features were sharp and elven, with a petite frame to match. Unlike Mikayla from earlier, this slim girl didn't look unhealthy in her physique, instead there was a compact sort of strength about her frame. They were conversing on what appeared to be the border between the two departments. The pair were smiling and laughing about something, but abruptly stopped as the boss approached. The girl nodded politely to the pair and disappeared back off the Obliviator side of the office.
The young man turned to face the pair, his eyes electric blue and piercing, his face set in an unreadable expression.
"Magus, meet your new partner, Paige Calamisi." Unwin introduced the pair.
The new man Magus was decidedly unkempt, Paige decided in disapproval straight away; eyeing his unshaven, dark stubbled jaw and short messy brown hair, it seemed to spike up at the front and in a ridge along the top, while being close shaven at the back and sides. It was hard to guess his age with his hard lined face, pointed chin and sharp brows, but she would have put him in his late twenties or very early thirties. Her father would have described his face, as the face of a beater; based upon the rough story of scars and injuries it told. Magus had a rather pointed nose with a kink halfway down like it had be broken sometime in the past, over his right eyebrow a crescent shaped scar lined the top edge of the hair. One eye sat slightly lower than the other and had a small circle of darker pigment on that cheek.
Those thick dark eyebrows kinked in evaluation and out of courtesy he held out a scarred hand for her to shake. She noticed first the calluses that pressed into her palm with the firm grip he gave and then the small irregular scars that marked his strong hand. It was as though his hand had been attacked by an angry bird at some point that had really not wanted to be held. He was of average height, not towering above Paige like Ben was, nor dwarfed by her like Bryce had been. He was no slob, physically, like the other two were though and she noticed the curve to his biceps and the way his shirt was stretched by a fair set of shoulders and a strong chest.
His intelligent gaze held her own and she couldn't help but think that this calculating man was measuring everything about her, from the firmness of her handshake, to the amount of eye contact she provided as well as every nervous chew of her lip or fidget of her fingers.
"Magus McIntyre," He finally told her in a slight Irish lilt, his voice was casual, but hard to read and gave nothing away in the tone.
Hard and analysing were the two words that came to her mind to describe McIntyre.
Releasing his grip, he returned his arms to fold them across his chest and she dropped hers down in front of her to hold her own hands.
"You're giving me a newbie, Unwin?" Magus inquired of the older man sceptically.
Paige found a frown on her face at the term 'newbie'.
Unwin laughed, but there was a trace of strain in his humour.
"Please McIntyre, we couldn't leave you by yourself for long." He joked.
"I didn't see much problem with it, what would another year make it? 5?" Magus muttered sardonically.
"Regulations and all." Un explained briskly brushing aside his argument.
"Besides, a new partner might be good for you." Unwin added.
If the dubious look on McIntyre's face was anything to go by, it was clear he doubted it.
Unwin must have noticed the uncertain expression on Paige's face too because he moved to reassure her also.
"Magus here is the best Reverser and Magimedic in the business, one of the best I've ever seen!" He assured her and looked to McIntyre to see if his praise had earned him any leeway.
Paige had her own doubts based upon the appearance of her new partner, he looked more like the typical lazy muggle grad student than a highly skilled wizard.
The younger man studied Paige again in silence, taking in her skinny frame, olive skin, bookish square glasses and perfectly pressed robe. Her long straight brown hair done up in a single plait probably made her look younger then she was. He seemed to be weighing his options carefully.
"Fine..." He relented, with an exaggerated sigh.
"I'll train her at least, show her the ropes; but I'm not looking for a new partner." Magus decided, looking suspiciously at Unwin Doit.
"Excellent!" Unwin declared and he guided forward the new girl to follow her mentor as he started towards the largest office.
"And you owe me, Doit!" McIntyre called back to his boss over his shoulder as he led Paige away.
Unsure about her new career choice and mentor, Paige uncertainly followed the grizzled wizard into the nearest office.
"That's your desk, New Girl." Magus gestured and he started clearing things off of it. He was obviously used to using it as his spare desk, based on the amount of junk that required moving. The small cubicle held exactly two desks, two chairs and a filing cabinet packed into a corner. The two desks were side by side like they had formed one large desk for its usual occupant.
And all of it was precariously stacked untidily with various nick knacks, clothes, utensils, bowels and various equipment.
"My name is Paige." She reminded him, having found her voice and not entirely liking his manner for addressing her.
"Right, Paige." McIntyre grunted and he picked up a grey T-shirt off the desk, sniffed it briefly before flinging it onto his own half of the desk.
Paige tried to help him, picking up an empty coffee cup and wrinkling her nose at the congealed leftovers solidified at the bottom. With a tap of her wand and a muttered a vanishing charm, the cup was now clean and she carefully placed it to a side on the filing cabinet.
"So I guess I should give you some sort of induction speech, here goes." Magus talked while he worked.
"Happy days and welcome to the department for Magical Accidents and Catastrophes or the MAC as you might sometimes hear it referred to. Of all the departments to join, you've made the choice to be part of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad." He began with a fake cheerily sing song tone, like he was the stewardess on a plane.
"My name is Magus and I'll be your reluctant mentor and your direct supervisor or whatever I guess." He shrugged uncertainly, his cherry facade beginning to fade.
"Cards on the table; I haven't done this sort of thing in a long time, I'm pretty used to working by myself." He continued awkwardly, gesturing between the two of them with his hand when he said 'this sort of thing'.
"Today will be a bit of a trial day for us to see how we get along, I figure. We'll basically just do the job and see where the day takes us." Magus finished with a vague nonchalance.
Paige was less then enthused by his lacklustre approach, the dirty office or the reluctance of her mentor. So she decided to show off a bit and to change one of the few things she could.
Their office.
Already tired with his slow manual progression in readying her desk, Paige decided the problem could use a little more magic. With a complicated swish of her wand paper flew from the desk into the filing draws, food wrappers jumped into the bin and a large spilled ink pot sucked itself back up. A stack of muggle CDs danced and spun across the desk before finding their right cases and climbing inside, the cases then shuffled themselves into a neat stack on his desk. The old fashioned CD radio, shook off the layer of dust it wore and leapt across from her new desk and across to his.
A booze stained Christmas hat slunk out from under a nest of crumpled memos and an opened Christmas cracker, to come to a spinning finale on the top of Magus's battered reading lamp.
Lowering her wand from the final direction of cleaning, Paige smiled in satisfaction at the neat and tidy cubicle that now faced her, complete with a clear desk for her to work at. Placing her satchel bag down on her new desk, she looked up when he hadn't responded.
Magus looked impressed despite himself.
"You know your way around a charm or two." He granted her, with a slight nod.
"That's what my N.E.W.T.S. say.." Paige shot back, a smug smile tugging at her face. Using her magic always gave her a little buzz even all these years later. She had always had an affinity for charms that never failed to impress others and she found herself coming out of her shell a bit, now that she felt she had proven herself.
"Good, you'll need that. I guess to put plainly; our job is to go round unfucking things for people. Helps if you are handy with a wand, among other things." Magus explained in a bored tone, like it was a description he had grown tired of giving.
"Unfucking things?" Paige uncertainly uttered the crass new word.
Her recently appointed mentor seemed unaffected by her shyness and clarified things without bothering to lower his volume.
"Yup reversing magic, fixing magical injuries and maladies that sort of thing. Basically when shit goes wrong, we are the team that wizards call, right?"
Paige had read several descriptions of the new role she was accepted for, none of them had read like that.
Her mentor considered her once more in the silence that had fallen.
"You were a Ravenclaw, weren't you?" He muttered, the hint of a smile hiding on his own face.
"Yup!" Paige popped the 'P'.
McIntyre seemed to be re-evaluating her, as if perhaps she wasn't all she seemed.
"You must be pretty bright." He further concluded, before leaning in closer to her.
"So why the hell did you take this job?" Magus slowly demanded of her, with a disbelieving expression.
Of all the questions to be asked, Paige hadn't expected that. Her feeling of elation plunged.
"I uh... wanted to help people?" She stuttered.
"Plenty of safer ways to do that." Magus replied with a chuff of amusement, his eyes continued to examine her.
"I remember reading about you in the Prophet and from when you visited Hogwarts on career day…" Paige started, having slowly realised that she recognised the young wizard, but she stopped at his reaction.
Magus rolled his eyes and snorted.
"Eugh that whole public relations thing? What a sham! I got harangued into doing that by those bloody muppets Mulis Stake and Fudge." His tone made it clear how he felt about management.
Paige had never heard of anyone refer to their head of department or the Minister of Magic like that before, to be fair though she had only worked in the ministry for half an hour now. It wasn't quite how she thought her first half an hour would go either.
"You made the job sound so rewarding and noble." Paige confessed with a helpless passion.
Magus chuckled again, with a little more warmth this time.
"The Prophet talked it up a fair bit, the reporter was fangirling over me." His eyes twinkled as if remembering something amusing.
"You do realise the last new Reverser we had died, right?" Magus asked her, his eyes returning to the present.
"What?" Paige exclaimed all colour leaving her face, this was news to her.
"Yup, about nine months ago; some crazy old wizard in Kent was confused and crushed him to death under an enchanted refrigerator."
"No way!" Paige cried in horror.
"True story, it wasn't cool." Magus insisted, whether the pun was intentional or not she didn't know.
"I thought you said we were just reversing spells, hexs and potions that go wrong, fixing magical maladies or injuries. That sort of thing!" Paige despaired.
"We do but that it isn't always a safe job, nor is scraping up the remains of other unlucky wizards." Magus pointed out.
"The most dangerous thing in our job is often the people we encounter." He illuminated. "They've usually created something dangerous and we have to deal with it and often patch them up too."
"It's dangerous?" Paige echoed him back, still struggling to digest what he was saying.
"Hell yes, Darling! After the Aurors, we have the highest injury, mortality and insanity rate." Magus informed her, seeming surprised that she didn't know this.
"I.. I didn't realise it was that dangerous." Paige uttered, taken back at his blunt admission.
Magus chuckled again bitterly.
"Did they not cover that in orientation?" He sardonically asked.
"They largely focused on counter curses, charms and magical medicine." Paige mumbled, hoping now that there was something useful in her training.
The veteran wizard shook his head in amazement.
"You could get mauled by a sentient weed whacker, eaten by a troll, blown to smithereens by a backfired curse or driven mad by an untested jinx." Magus listed grim outcomes on his fingers, oblivious to her shock.
Finally meeting her eyes once more, his tone changed from jovial to serious.
"I would know, I've seen it, I've picked up the pieces." Magus ominously added.
Looking furtively about, he peered over top of his cubicle as if to see if anyone else was listening in.
"Things are getting more dangerous here at the ministry too. You might not have heard about it at Hogwarts, but there are some serious dark wizards gathering again." He whispered furtively.
Paige remembered back to what the boy a couple of years younger than her had yelled at the end of the last school year, after the Tri-wizard cup. Harry Potter, the boy who lived and his claim that Voldemort was back. A dead Cedric Diggory stuck in her mind, a real pity too, that boy was hot!
"Are you sure you still want to do this job?" Magus asked a moment later to her in the silence that had settled.
"Are you scaring the new girl, Magus?" A new spritely voice called from the doorway.
McIntyre jumped a full foot straight up in the air and fired a curse in the direction of the voice. Paige startled too, drawn from the grim discussion and noticing for the first time the woman who had quietly come to lean on the open doorway to their cubicle.
Whoever she was, she was obviously talented and batted away Magus's hastily fired spell. It lobbed away over the top of the offices and landed somewhere faraway with a flash and a muffled scream.
Magus smiled a cheeky grin that light his face up like nothing had since the start of their meeting. He tried valiantly to twist his features into something resembling innocence, but he couldn't quite manage it and a twinkle of mischief broke through in the corner of his lips.
Feigning offence, Magus deftly tucked his wand back into his belt and approached the pretty young woman with the cute elfish face and short black tom-boy haircut. Paige realised it was the same girl he had been talking and laughing with when they had approached him earlier.
"Me? I'd never do something so cruel!" Magus exclaimed dramatically.
"You wound me, Dawn," He added, holding a hand to his chest like he was impaled.
"Mean Magus McIntyre.." The attractive young woman, apparently named Dawn, rhymed in disapproval, like she had said it plenty of times before.
"Be nice, it's her first day." She reprimanded him, jabbing him in the chest with a pointed finger.
"Fine.." McIntyre groaned, making like it was a big effort and now a personal favour.
He threw an arm around the slight girl in a friendly fashion and turned back to face Paige.
"This is the Dangerous Dawn Dennison, the most beautiful face you will ever forget." He dramatically introduced her, much to the humiliation of the girl under his arm.
"Stop it." She hissed, slapping him in the chest playfully.
"I'm an Obliviator." Dawn explained rolling her eyes at the idiot leaning on her.
"So you must be Paige, the new girl. Welcome to the MAC." She continued, poking Magus in the rib and dancing out from under his arm to sit on the now clean desk to face the new girl. Dawn glanced around seemingly impressed by the cleaning job too.
Paige smiled, a genuine smile for the first truly friendly person she had met since her arrival that didn't seem completely insane.
"Thanks, it's not exactly what I expected.." She admitted and this was reinforced as Magus returned from what appeared to be a muggle fridge under his desk, with three bottles in his hand.
Incredulous, Paige watched as her new mentor held each bottle in turn and used his thick wand to strike the lid off of the bottle. Each lid in turn sailed off into the air over the office with the force of a bullet. From somewhere else in the office they could hear someone that sounded a lot like Bryce swear loudly, having been struck by one of the projectiles.
"Well we work pretty hard when we are called out here in MAC, so they pretty much leave us to our devices the rest of the time." Dawn shrugged, accepting a bottle from Magus.
Magus passed the next one to Paige and held aloft his own to the others for a toast.
"To Paige.. What was your last name again?"
"Calamisi."
"Did you say calamari? Like the squid dish?"
"Calamisi!" Paige said again a bit firmer.
"To Paige Calamari, may she survive her first week in the MAC!" Magus toasted, ignoring the evils he got from Paige.
"Here here." Dawn snickered at his antics and the three took a big swig of their drinks.
Paige immediately gagged and spat a mouthful of the bitter liquid on the already heavily stained office carpet.
"Easy, New Girl! I just cleaned up in here.." Magus teased with a smirk and a wink at Dawn.
In horror Paige lifted the bottle up to examine what she had assumed was butterbeer.
It was not.
The label read Casa Especial.
It was not butterbeer, but regular beer. Muggle beer. Imported none the less, but still very muggle.
Neither Magus nor Dawn seemed bothered by her reaction and continued to sip away, unconcerned that it was only 0900 in the morning.
The pair had sunk into respective seats on the two desks and had moved onto discussing Quiditch.
Dawn jabbed her bottle at McIntyre's chest to get his attention as she suddenly remembered something important.
"Oh yeah, I meant to warn you. Angus is looking for you."
Magus winced and his eyes darted as if this new man may have been hiding behind his thoroughly disused filing cabinet.
"Damnit, is he still miffed about losing five gallons to me? That dunder head shouldn't have bluffed on a pair of nines!"
Dawn gave him a patient look, as if waiting for him to find the answer himself.
"No?" He checked, doubtfully.
"I think it had more to do with suction spell you left on his toilet before you left his place on the weekend."
A guilty, yet in no way apologetic smile found Magus's face.
"I had forgotten about that.." He chuckled, indeed given the consumption of the night he had forgotten most of what he had done.
Paige looked at the pair like they were mad, she had put her beer carefully on the desk and had a mouthful of mints in her cheek to try rid the foul taste from her mouth.
Their conversation was disrupted by a loud shrill beeping from somewhere nearby.
Paige nearly leapt out of skin at the piercing noise, before realising the beeping was to the tune of the song 'Tequila!'.
Magus on the other hand seemed less concerned, almost bored, with a sigh he stood, tipped his bottle up and chugged the last of his beer. Lifting his left wrist, Paige saw the chunky watch on his wrist flashing orange and emitting the beeping song until he swatted it irritably.
Magus burped loudly and Dawn wrinkled her nose, she had gotten up too.
Paige caught her mentor's eye and he nodded.
"Alright New Girl, let's go to work." He muttered.