Paige had a smile on her face for days after her night with Severus at the butterfly sanctuary, even having to work the extra hours doing watch for the first task couldn't dampen her mood.
Paige and her team positioned themselves in the Forbidden Forest around the perimeter of the first task. Paige is sitting up high on a tree, different to her usual one she sits at most nights.
"It should be starting soon; everyone be on high alert." Ripley says to them over their earpieces.
It wasn't until about ten minutes later, Paige could hear a dragon roar in the distance, signaling that the first task was starting.
Paige was trying to remain focused, her thoughts constantly slipping back to Severus. Her mind constantly slipping into memories of being with him. In the room, in the woods and the recent trip they took.
She hears cheers coming from the distance.
"First champion must have completed their task." Otakemaru whispers in her ear.
"Yep." Paige says as she digs though her bag.
She grabs her water bottle, unscrews the cap, and takes a long drink of her water. She could hear another roar in the distance from the task, but thought she also heard a leaf crunch below her as well. She slowly screws the lid on her water bottle while looking around the forest. She sees movement from below her. She gets up and stands crouching on her branch. She makes out a cloaked figure, dressed in all black, their face covered by a red skull mask. They were looking in the direction of the first task.
"I have an unknown on my 20, I need back-up." Paige whispers into her earpiece.
"Bobcat and I are the closest to you. Try and keep eyes until we get closer." Ripley replies back to her.
She watches the figure move from her tree and crouch walk to the next tree, trying to remain concealed. Paige could hear two sets of heavy footsteps approaching her location.
"Just in front of you, about 20 feet." Paige whispers in her earpiece as she sees Ripley and Bobcat close by the unknown person.
"Hey you! Stop right there!" Ripley yells at them as he spots them behind a tree.
The figure starts running back the way they came, surprised by Ripley and Bobcat. Paige waits until they get closer to her before she jumps from her branch and lands on top of them, both getting knocked to the ground with Paige on top of them. They bring up their knee and kick Paige off them, hitting her in the stomach and knocking the wind out of her. They scramble to their feet and start running again. Ripley and Bobcat run past her, trying to catch up with the assailant. Paige takes a second to catch her breath before getting up.
"They're heading north, we need everyone to regroup." Paige says to the other two Aurors.
"Copy, Hernandez and I are on the way." Yankis replies.
Paige runs in the direction where Ripley and Bobcat were heading, running deeper into the Forbidden Forest. The trees getting denser the more she runs in, the sunlight struggling to get past the abundance of leaves that have yet to fall from the trees above. She sees flashes of green ahead of her.
"Status check Ripley." Paige says, growing worried.
"He's attacking. I took cover behind a tree. I don't have eyes." Ripley says, out of breath.
"I got eyes. He's still heading north." Bobcat interjects.
Paige continues north, trying to find signs of which way they went like broken sticks and footprints in the ground.
"Oh shit." Ripley suddenly says over the earpiece.
"What? What's happening?" Paige asks.
There was no reply.
"Jack, what's going on. Tell me what's happening." Paige says, looking around desperately trying to find which way they went.
"I'm hiding in a near-by bush Captain." Bobcat whispers over the earpiece. "This guy is holding a jar of something. He says it's a bomb."
"Where is your location? We can back you up." Hernandez says over the earpiece.
"Negative, do not come here. It's too dangerous. Stay around the perimeter." Bobcat says sternly.
Paige sees a broken branch from a small tree ahead of her. She ignores Bobcat and runs in that direction. She could see light ahead of her, like a clearing in the trees. She notices that it's a cliff as she ran closer to it and tries to stop herself before tumbling over the edge. She manages to stop herself inches away from it. She looks down at the steep 50-foot drop with nothing but rocks and trees below her. She suddenly hears a man's voice to her left. As she turns her head slowly, she sees Ripley with his hands up and the figure with the red skull mask. They were holding a jar with glowing red liquid inside it. She spots Bobcat's trademark neon green mask hiding behind a bush nearby.
"Bobcat, I'm going to try and get closer to them. When I tell you, I'm going to snatch that jar and you're going to stun him." She says to Bobcat over the earpiece.
"Are you sure that's a good idea Captain?" Bobcat whispers back concerningly.
"Captain, we're coming up on your six. We can assist if you want us to stun him." Hernandez says over the earpiece, sounding annoyed.
"Bobcat has the better angle. I need you to take the shot Bobcat." Paige says sternly, trying to reign everyone back in. "Get ready. I'm going to approach."
Paige holds her wand in front of her as she approaches the figure with the jar and Ripley. Bobcat slowly started moving around the bush he was hiding behind to get the best angle and waiting for Paige to disarm him. Thankfully, the man's back was to Paige.
"I said, drop your wand now! You want to blow up into a million pieces?" A male voice says to Ripley. "And I better not hear you communicating with anyone, you hear me?!"
"Yep, no problem, buddy. You're the man in charge here, not me." Ripley says to him as he drops his wand to the ground.
Ripley's eyes quickly dart to Paige's then back to the man.
"Now, kick it over." He tells Ripley.
Ripley does what he says and kicks his wand over to the man. Just as the man kneels and grabs his wand, a twig snap could be heard over by Bobcat's location. Paige freezes in place, completely out in the open and exposed. He looks over to Bobcat's location, not seeing anything. He glances behind him and does a double take noticing Paige standing there. She had to do something now.
"Accio." She says pointing his wand at the jar in his hands.
The jar comes flying towards Paige. The man points Ripley's wand at the jar and fires a red bolt at it, causing the jar to explode between him and Paige. Paige gets knocked back from the explosion, sending her off the edge of the cliff. Paige tries to grab for whatever she could as she slides down the steep embankment. She finds a half-buried root and holds onto it, stopping her from sliding down. Her vision becomes slightly blurry as sweat and blood falls into her eyes from a wound she could only guess was on her head. She looks up to the edge as she dangles 50 feet in the air with only this feeble root keeping her from falling to her death. She gasps when a green light flashes above her. She couldn't hear anything except a loud ringing in her ears. She tries to pull herself up the cliff from the root, terrified that the man was now attacking her team. The root separates from the ground, not being able to handle the extra weight and it sends Paige a little further down the cliff.
She looks down. A newfound fear of heights growing inside her. She hears Ripley's muffled voice above her.
"Get over here now! I need help! Hang on Paige!"
Paige looks up and sees Ripley sliding headfirst towards her as Hernandez and Yankis hold his legs.
"Grab my hand." He says, getting closer to her.
Paige didn't question his judgement. She pushes all the pain she feels in her body down and reaches for Ripley's hand. He grabs her wrist firmly as the root Paige was holding onto breaks off and falls down the cliff.
"Pull me up! I got her, pull me up now!" Ripley yells back at the other two holding him.
Paige feels them get lifted from the cliff, then feeling hard ground underneath her. All four of them lie next to each other on the ground near the edge.
"What happened to that guy?" Paige asks laying on her back and looking over at the man who had the jar.
"I thought he killed you. I kind of had a moment of rage." Hernandez says out of breath.
Paige looks up at the sky. Her vision becoming blurrier and darker.
"I might need medical." Paige says quietly as she closes her eyes.
A loud voice in her ear and a pounding in her head woke Paige up. She tosses and turns on the soft material underneath her. Her eye lids feel heavy as she tries to open her eyes. Paige could hear a muffled voices through the ringing in her ears. She feels a hand grab her left hand and squeeze it. She looks down at the hand and follows the arms up to the face. Her focus clearing for a moment, noticing it's Severus.
"We're getting Dumbledore." Severus says as he crouches beside her bed.
"My… head. My ear." Paige mutters, moving her free hand to her right ear.
"I know, he will be here soon. Just hang on." Severus says softly.
"Everyone but Severus out." Dumbledore's booming and demanding muffled voice says as he enters the room.
Paige sees blurry figures moving towards the door. She sees Dumbledore's blurry figure quickly approach her bedside next to Severus. He lightly grabs her chin, turning her head side to side examining her.
"Looks like her earpiece exploded when the bomb went off." Severus says, also looking over Paige.
She grips his hand tighter and winces as she feels intense pain on her forehead as Dumbledore touches it.
"Looks like some of the glass embedded here as well. Pretty deep, she's going to need stitches there. Other scratches on her arms and legs are all just surface, nothing deep." She could hear Dumbledore's muffled voice say as he checks the rest of her body.
"We should put her to sleep before doing anything. Removing the earpiece is going to be too much pain to handle." Severus says to Dumbledore.
"We need her to stay awake for this. She might have a concussion." Dumbledore replies, putting his hand on Severus' shoulder.
"I'll go get some supplies." Severus says, letting go of her hand.
"Get Lieutenant Ripley as well." Dumbledore says to him as Severus reaches the door.
Dumbledore steps closer to Paige as Severus leaves the room.
"There was a guy with a bomb sir." Paige mutters as she tries to get up. "There could be more of them."
"We have the other Aurors looking around the area making sure there isn't any more. You can relax." He says, putting a hand on her shoulder and gently pushing her back into the bed.
Severus returns with a few bottles in his arms and Ripley. Severus twists off a lid from a dark purple bottle and comes to Paige's side.
"You need to drink this. All of it. It will help with the pain." He says, kneeling beside her and handing her the bottle.
Paige manages to prop herself up on one elbow. She grabs the bottle and presses it to her lips and takes a swig. She fights to get it down her throat, the taste like warm swamp water.
"This is disgusting." Paige says after finally managing to swallow the mouth full she had.
"You need to drink the whole thing." He says looking down at the bottle.
Paige hesitates a moment before pressing the bottle back to her lips, tipping the bottle back and consuming the rest of the disgusting liquid inside. She shivers as the last of it slides down her throat.
"I'm going to need you to hold her still while I get the pieces out of her ear." Dumbledore says to Severus and Ripley.
She lays back down in the bed as Severus and Ripley move on either side of her bed, each holding onto one of her arms and one of her legs. Dumbledore turns on the lamp above the bed.
"This is going to hurt, but it's very important to keep still." Dumbledore says to Paige as he turns her head to face the left, getting a better view of her right ear.
Paige takes a deep breath before Dumbledore raises his wand next to her ear. Paige was struggling not to writhe in pain as small plastic and electronic pieces start wriggling lose from being embedded in her ear. The ringing in her ears turning into a high-pitch frequency. It was making her want to claw her eyes and ears out. She shuts her eyes, clenches her jaw, and tries to bare the overwhelming pain inside her head and inside her ear. She started feeling hot and sweaty, like she was going to pass out from the pain and exhaustion. Suddenly, the high-pitched noise broke, just leaving a dull ringing in her ears.
"Done with that." Dumbledore says as Severus and Ripley let go of Paige.
"Hard part is done, everything else shouldn't be as bad." She heard Severus say to her.
She didn't have the energy to open her eyes. She felt a hand on her forehead.
"She's starting to get a fever, give her the other one Severus." She heard Dumbledore say to him.
She could hear walking around then a hand touch her shoulder. Severus helps her sit up in the bed. She weakly grabs the bottle and puts it up to her lips, taking it all in one gulp. She recoils from the taste.
"Why do they all taste disgusting?" Paige weakly jokes as Severus helps her lay back down.
She saw him smirk for a second before concentrating back on Dumbledore.
"Severus, go get Madam Pomphrey, she's better at stitches then I am." Dumbledore says to him as he looks more closely at Paige's bleeding forehead.
Severus leaves immediately to get her. Paige was just so tired.
"I'm just going to rest my eyes until he gets back with her." Paige thinks to herself.
"Paige you can't. You have to stay awake a while longer." Otakemaru says thought the dull ringing in her ears.
"Just five minutes." Paige replies to him.
"No. You get no minutes. Open your eyes." Otakemaru shouts in her head.
"Okay. I'm opening my eyes." Paige says as she keeps her eyes shut.
"Paige, you need to stay awake." She could hear Dumbledore say to her.
She feels Ripley shake her shoulders, but she didn't have the energy to open her eyes.
"Lieutenant Ripley, you need to give her that last bottle over there on the table." Dumbledore says to him.
She hears Ripley moving away from her, coming back seconds later. She feels his arm come underneath her back and lift her up.
"Come on Paige, you got to drink this." Ripley says, helping her hold the bottle up to her lips.
"It's probably going to be disgusting." Paige mutters.
She feels him pour the liquid into her mouth. The taste of what she could only guess was dirt, chalk, wet animal hair and… oranges?
Paige suddenly feels a surge of energy implode inside her. The lights in the room were intensely bright as she opens her eyes wide, her pupils pinpoint.
Just then Severus returns with a smaller older lady dressed in white robes. Everything was starting to feel like a dream.
"Thank you for your help, Lieutenant Ripley. She should be fine now." Dumbledore says, smiling over at Ripley.
Ripley nods and removes his hand from Paige's back. As Ripley leaves, Madam Pomphrey moves to Paige's right side. Paige could feel her heart pounding a million beats per minute.
"Oh dear, what happened here?" She asks looking over Paige's forehead and starting to clean it up.
"Small incident." Dumbledore replies to her "I got as much of the glass as I could out of there, but I might have missed some."
Paige is feeling so out of it that she couldn't even feel Madam Pomphrey stitching up her forehead. Paige's eyes dart around the room as she starts hearing echoes of voices whenever someone spoke.
"Are you okay." She hears Severus' voice echoing around her.
"Oranges?" She mutters, feeling like her body was speeding up, but her mind was slowing down.
"What?" He asks her confused.
"We had to give her the Weaslewood potion." Dumbledore explains to Severus, his voice distorting to a high pitch then going into a lower pitch.
"All done Professor Dumbledore." Madam Pomphrey says, her voice squeaking and echoing.
Paige's body suddenly feels jittery. Like her skin was made up of millions of tiny ants. She sees Madam Pomphrey moves away from her bed side.
"If you need anything else Dumbledore, just let me know." She says to him as she makes her way to the door.
"Thank you my dear." He replies warmly back to her.
Paige sees her turn around to close the door. Her head now a deer head with long branched-out antlers. She closes the door and Paige couldn't even react. Words were not coming to her.
"She's going to have some hearing loss in her right ear, but at least she won't lose it completely, or lose her ear, just a piece here at the top." Dumbledore says to Severus, pointing to the top part of her right ear where a chunk is missing. "All things considered she was lucky. Shrapnel could have entered her ear and directly to her brain, killing her instantly."
"Do you think he was trying to bomb the first task?" Severus asks him.
"We can only assume." Dumbledore replies.
"It's quite bold."
"And suicidal."
"Perhaps a distraction?"
Through the echoing voices of Severus and Dumbledore, Paige's memory flashes back to the event. The roaring of the dragon and then the explosion.
Her body now flashing hot and cold as she remembers getting tossed off the edge of the cliff. Trying to grab onto whatever she could.
She grabs the edge of the bed and looks over it, seeing the 50-foot drop from before.
"I should get the American Aurors to escort the Ministry Aurors to the body's location. I'm sure they would want to investigate that." Dumbledore says, walking towards the door.
His hand pauses as he reaches for the door handle.
"Would you mind just making sure Captain Asher gets back to her hotel room safely. She might be more comfortable there then in here. She should be able to rest now but she might black out." Dumbledore says, looking back at Severus. "I'm assuming there's no issue if the conflict between you two was resolved."
"I don't mind." Severus says quietly.
Dumbledore nods and leaves the room.
All the edges around her vision started to become blurry and black, like she was getting sucked into a black hole.
"Dumbledore, watch out for the cliff." Paige mutters slowly, long after Dumbledore has left the room.
"That Weaselwood potion is pretty powerful. I was hoping they didn't have to give it to you." He says to her, helping her out of the bed. The cliff now gone.
"It kind of tasted like oranges." Paige says as wraps her arm around his shoulder and helps walk her to the door.
"There are no oranges in it." He says with a smirk.
"That's fucking weird." Paige mutters, her vision now going completely black.
Paige woke the next morning in her hotel room. She groans and holds her head. A faint ringing still in her ears. She was unable to remember how she even got back to her hotel room. She still feels like hell, but she manages to push herself out of bed and hobbles over to the bathroom. She strips off all her clothes and gets into the shower. Washing off all the dried blood that was still on her face, neck and shoulder. The water hurt the scratches on her arms and legs, but she pushes though it, trying to get all the blood cleaned off.
After her shower she dresses in a spare set of her black robes and slowly makes her way downstairs to the tavern. She sees Ripley and Hernandez sitting at a table in the corner, deep in conversation.
"Captain, good to see you up and about!" Ripley says standing up from the table as Paige walks towards them.
Paige smiles weakly and sits down at the table. Ripley also sits back down.
"You look like shit." Hernandez comments with a smirk.
"Damn, I was hoping to win the beauty pageant tonight." Paige says sarcastically.
"Maybe next year." Hernandez says chuckling.
"My heart stopped when the bomb exploded. It dropped to my ass when I saw you fly off that edge." Ripley says in a more serious tone. "You got lucky."
"Trust me, I feel so lucky right now." Paige says, rubbing her temple trying to relief some of the pounding in her head.
"While we have a moment before the other two come, can we discuss what the hell Bobcat was doing during that situation?" Hernandez says, leaning into the other two and lowering his voice.
"I heard him question your orders too Captain, then he missed the stun." Ripley says to Paige.
"You're right, it's definitely out of character for him to miss a shot." Paige says, thinking back to the event.
"He said afterwards that he's never had to deal with a bomb before and just froze up in the moment." Hernandez says angrily.
"I guess that could be true." Paige reasons.
Hernandez slams his fist down on the table, causing Paige's head to pound even harder and flashes of memories of the bomb exploding enters her mind.
"He could have been the reason you died." Hernandez snaps.
"No, the psycho with the bomb would have been the reason I died, and we could have figured out why if you would have held your emotions and just detained him instead of killing him." Paige says, not having the energy or the patience to deal with this right now.
Hernandez looks to Ripley, but Ripley doesn't say anything. Paige could see the look of confliction between his work self and his personal self.
"Could have been nerves, could have been something else." Paige continues, calming herself down. "Whatever it was, just keep an eye on Bobcat."
"Yes Captain." Hernandez says with a hint of disappointment in his voice.
Paige stands up from the table, turning to leave.
"Before you go Captain Asher." Riley says, breaking his silence. "Colonel Andrews will be at Hogwarts tomorrow afternoon. He's requesting a meeting with Dumbledore and the team about the situation that happened."
"He's coming all the way here. In person?" Paige asks.
"Affirmative." Ripley replies.
Paige sighs and walks away from the table. Not wanting to deal with higher ups right now either.