Moonlight filtered through the barred windows of the makeshift cell and bathed the huddled Magus in its pale glow. His already sallow skin seemed to shine with the addition and he shivered under the contact.
Paige held her breath at the sight and beside her she heard Dawn do the same.
In the cell Magus fought his way to his knees and glared defiantly up at the now full moon. He closed his eyes and bowed his head resolutely as his body began to shake more violently. His fists clenched until they were white knuckled, blood began to ooze from several of his bandaged wounds and his breathing began laboured and erratic.
Dawn turned her head away as the tears started and Paige swallowed a thick golf ball sized lump in her throat. Determined to stay strong, she clenched her wand and waited.
And waited.
To her surprise nothing more happened.
Her mentor and friend's breathing seemed to ease out and he began to relax as he realised that nothing was actually happening. Apparently, it was just the combination of his already wrecked body and alcohol dependence.
Dawn tentatively uncovered her eyes and peeked out at her lover with a glimmer of hope.
"Huh, I guess I'm good." Magus noted with a shaky laugh and feigned indifference. His hands unclenched and he breathed a thick sigh of relief, his shoulders slumped as the tension left his body.
"Still a monster just not a werewolf." He reassured the girls with a forced saucy wink.
"Such an idiot." Dawn agreed with a cracked voice and a suppressed sob.
"Can you guys get me out of this kennel then please?" Magus ordered flatly.
"Of course!" Paige mumbled, springing the door with her wand and rolling through his easy chair.
She levitated him back into the chair and he slumped into its depths with visible relief.
He wheeled himself back out of the cell and accepted a drawn out kiss and hug from Dawn.
Suddenly he stiffened in her arms.
His head snapped to look at the moon and his back arched vividly in his chair.
"No!" Dawn moaned in horror, stepping back from the twitching man.
Paige raised her wand in trepidation as her mentor's eyes rolled back in their head. With a banishing charm, she blew the wheelchair back into the cell once more. With speed lent by emotion, Dawn whipped forward to slam the door shut behind him.
Magus tilted his head back as far as it would go and a hoarse baying howl escaped from his throat. His whole cage seemed to echo with the noise.
The eerie haunting howl lasted a full 30 seconds and the girls despair grew with each moment.
The howl changed pitch until it was a racking couching.
Magus stopped twitching and arching and continued to hack and shake.
It took Paige a moment to understand.
He was laughing!
Sure enough Magus was unable to contain the mirth in his eyes and he was now doubled in the chair with amusement.
"Oh you son of a witch!" Paige cursed under her breath, before raising her wand for a genuine curse.
As angry as Paige was it was no comparison to how furious Dawn was. Her eyes fumed and seethed with anger, her lithe frame shaking with uncontained outrage.
"You absolute jackass…" She uttered in a dangerous low whisper.
"What? Too soon for a practical joke?" Magus wheezed; his voice hoarse from the fake howling.
"Way too soon, dick." Paige growled, still trying to decide on a curse that would make him suffer but not kill him.
"You can just stay in that fucking cage." Dawn decided in a huff, turning her back on him and walking towards the kitchen.
Magus pushed weakly at the door, but without his wand he had no hope of getting the door open.
"Oh come on Sweets, it was kind of funny right?" He implored her to no success.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Paige accosted him, lowering her wand in frustration. Magus still looked so weak that any hex she chose might just finish him off.
She didn't wait for an answer and instead followed Dawn to the kitchen, where the other girl had furiously removed the top on an expensive looking bottle of whiskey.
"I thought we already covered this, Sociopath; remember?" Magus called after her in mild amusement. His amusement began to fade when he realised they were serious about leaving him in the cell.
Dawn poured herself several fingers of the scotch and downed it all with one big swallow before offering the bottle to Paige. Irritably, Paige accepted a tumbler of the aromatic liquid and followed her example. The expensive whiskey burned her all the way down and seemed to match the burning resentment she was currently feeling for Magus.
Dawn poured them both another glass and took the bottle with her as they returned to the lounge.
"Good idea, lets toast to me not being a furry." Magus agreed, glad to see the whiskey and a change in tone. He hungrily reached between the bars of his cage for his share.
Dawn only gave him a cruel smile instead.
"Sorry Darling, whiskey isn't good for a man in your condition." She sarcastically informed him, taking another big sip of the amber liquid and stoking the fire with her wand.
"Your many, many conditions." Paige agreed, taking a seat by the fire once more and clinking her glass with Dawn's.
The girls wore identical smug grins of satisfaction, while Magus looked on wistfully at the warm fire and whiskey.
"Aw man that is the 30 year.." He licked his lips like the thirsty convict he was.
"And it is delicious.." Dawn purred extravagantly, languishing in another sip.
"Mmmm tastes like peat and smoke." Paige observed, trying not to visibly cringe as she drunk the powerful drink that was not at all to her taste.
"Don't bullshit me Calamari, you don't even like scotch." Magus accused her doubtfully.
"You are right." Paige reluctantly agreed.
"I'm going to cut it with Coca Cola." She decided with a sly grin, summoning a bottle from the fridge with her wand.
"Sacrilege!" Magus hissed in horror as he watched her do just that.
"Good thinking." Dawn agreed, taking the bottle after her and diluting her own glass painfully slowly.
"Nooooo." Magus moaned in despair, receding from the bars in defeat.
It was going to be a long, cold, sober night for him in punishment.
Paige was grateful she had a whole day to recover from the resulting hangover of the impromptu whiskey night before attending their disciplinary tribunal at the Ministry of Magic.
Magus was also grateful to have been let out of his cage after many profuse apologies to the girls and a rather graphic promise of how he would make things up to Dawn. Accordingly, he was allowed back in their bed for the night before the meeting and even got his bandages changed.
Breakfast was a subdued affair in Dawn's cottage, as the two reversers pushed the food around their plate and Dawn got ready for a day of work. It was bacon and eggs today and surprisingly there wasn't a Bloody Mary or Kahlua cornflakes in sight for her mentor.
Paige was wearing her best pressed robes and had her hair done up in a tidy professional bun. She was pleased to see that her mentor was taking things more seriously today and had even dressed up at Dawn's prompting.
Magus had somehow found a pair of actual robes to wear and miserably donned the dusty dark green garments in a more Spartan wheelchair he had transfigured for the occasion. He was also as clean-shaven as he got with all the scars and fresh wounds on his face. His messy blonde hair poked in spikes through the bandage around his crown. One of his eyes was still too badly swollen to open and was concealed by a gauze eyepatch. It gave him a pitiful crippled pirate look.
As time ticked down to their meeting the cottage got quieter and quieter as the mood darkened.
Finally Dawn and Paige grabbed an arm of the chair each and with a crack they apparated to the Ministry.
They appeared in the apparition circle of the preparation room, which was as cluttered and dusty as usual. Together they walked and rolled to the fireplace and one by one caught the floo across to the office. This ensured they took the back way into work and at least Magus didn't have to fight the crowds in a wheelchair. The sooty trio were some of the first into the office for a change and the room looked oddly bleak with the lack of activity.
Only one person was present at the Tracer desk. The always sombre, gothic Mikayla sat quietly observing their entrance in a flat silence.
Magus gave her a weary nod of greeting as they approached her desk on the way to Unwin's office.
"Magus, you are still alive." The odd Tracer noted keenly in her flat tone but with a creeping edge of interest in her voice.
"Barely." Paige snorted derisively.
"The devil didn't want me." Magus dismissed her surprise.
"Oh I don't know about that, he loves company." Mikayla morbidly replied.
"You would know." Dawn conceded lightly, resting a hand in Magus's shoulder to try and steer him away from their occultist colleague.
"Yes, I would." The Tracer agreed amiably with a hint of pride.
"Well give him my best the next time you see him." Magus insisted.
"Of course." Mikayla drawled before wandering her gaze to Paige.
"Good luck in your meeting, I don't think you will get fired today. I asked him not to have you fired." She told the subdued trio.
"You talked to Unwin about our meeting?" Paige enquired curiously.
"No, I haven't." The Tracer replied cryptically, tilting her head in mild confusion.
It took the three of them a moment to click to who she had entreated for their protection.
"Oh." Dawn exclaimed, schooling her face into a socially acceptable expression.
"Hey with Satan on our side how can we lose?" Magus conceded light-heartedly and he reached a bandaged hand over the desk for a fist bump from the Tracer.
"Exactly." Mikayla agreed in satisfaction and nodding in approval as they headed off towards Mullis Stake's office.
"Better the devil you know…" Paige wryly remarked to her friends.
Two unfamiliar security wizards were waiting outside the office and halted them from entering. Magus narrowed his eyes at them, but slowed to a roll in front of the pair. Neither Magus or Paige recognised the pair and from the expression on Dawn's face neither did she. The ministry wasn't a big place and strangers tended to stand out. This was a surprising increase in security. These two mysterious wizards appeared to be twins, cut from the same cloth, with matching brown robes under a dark long overcoat. They were both tall, with dark short cropped hair and were well-built with lynx-like eyes that surveyed their new arrivals.
"Name." Grunted one of the security detail, with his arms folded defensively across his chest.
"Magus McIntyre and Paige Calamari, we have a meeting with Stake and Doit at 0700." Magus told the doormen, looking between the two to try and figure which chimp he should be addressing.
The first wizard gestured at Dawn suspiciously.
"And this one?" He enquired in a snap.
"Dawn Dennison." The witch in question introduced herself, flashing her work ID to prove her identity.
"You don't have an appointment. You wait here." The second wizard decided, in a tone that left little room for argument.
Dawn indifferently shrugged and settled herself down on a nearby bench, she rolled her eyes down the empty corridor leading up to the office.
"Whatever." She muttered.
At that moment Unwin Doit appeared at the door of the office, he was wearing his finest robes and his curly hair was well combed. Even with a severe expression it was hard to take him seriously, his long-limbed body, curly hair and bulging front teeth begged the comparison to an unthreatening domesticated animal like an alpaca, a llama or perhaps Hugh Grant.
"Good morning." He curtly greeted the pair and pointedly ignoring Dawn.
"We'll speak to Paige first." Unwin informed them.
"Like hell you will!" Magus snorted derisively in blatant insubordination.
"You'll see us together or not at all, none of this management bullshit of divide and conquer." He snarled rudely from his chair and daring the two wizards at the door to take another step closer.
Unwin stuttered and fought to find his words, looking rather like he was trying to swallow a frog of indignation. He shied under the intense gaze of Magus and instead turned to face Paige.
"If you wish to be tried together then you will receive the same punishment." He informed her coldly.
"Punishment implies guilt and you haven't proved we have done anything wrong yet." Magus growled back equally frosty.
Paige finally found her voice to reply.
"The Ministry union guidelines state I am allowed a support person for disciplinary meetings." She managed to mumble out, standing her ground, but casting an uncertain look at her mentor who looked ready to run over their department head.
Doit looked further put out by her knowledge of the procedure, but eventually backed down.
Eyeing Magus's injured form critically, he held the door open.
"Very well, come in." He invited with a strained attempt at politeness. His eyes caught on Dawn sitting in the chair ignoring him and the two wizards standing in sentinel either side of the door. He gave one of the pair the barest of nods before following Magus and Paige inside.