Tristan Parkes: Day of the Dementors

A short while later, they arrived back at the TARDIS, stepped through the hologram. Ashlee took Tristan's remote out of his pocket, unlocked the TARDIS and led him to his room.

"Thanks Ashlee. I don't know if I could have made it back here on my own, given my current psychological state."

Ashlee smiled kindly. "That's okay. It's not much of a comparison, but I have to put down animals at the shelter all the time. I kind of know how you feel." She gave Tristan another comforting hug.

"Thanks," replied Tristan. "That does make me feel a bit better. Still, there is nothing worse than having to kill a member of your own species. I've only used Avada Kedavra once before on a human, and I was a psychological wreck for a month afterwards."

Ashlee was clearly unable to think of a response, so she continued to hug Tristan.

"I probably wouldn't have been so bad if I'd used a different means of killing that poor man, but Avada Kedavra was the most humane method of killing him. Given the crowd, using the Killing Curse was probably the safest method of killing him. When an autopsy is done, it'll look like natural causes, unless a magical autopsy is done, in which case the trace of the curse and the Kiss will show up."

Ashlee mumbled, "Can I do anything for you?"

"Just replicate me a couple of Dreamless Sleep Tablets. No need to bother with water. A few hours of dreamless sleep will help me recover," replied Tristan, weakly.

Ashlee headed over to the replicator and selected the tablets off the Medicine menu. "Here."

Tristan popped the tablets into his mouth and swallowed twice, then took off his boots and pattern buffer and got into bed. He was sound asleep in twenty seconds.

Hours later, Tristan slowly awoke to see Ashlee asleep in a chair next to his bed.

"Ashlee?" he asked gently, as he sat up in bed.

Ashlee opened her eyes halfway. "Hmm?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Have you been here the whole--" Tristan looked at his watch, "--three hours I've been asleep?"

Ashlee nodded. "I couldn't leave you alone."

"I appreciate that, given the state I was in," replied Tristan, sincerely. "Those three hours of dreamless sleep really helped me recover. For someone who is good at heart, using Avada Kedavra doesn't do them much good psychologically. You just saw that with me. For someone evil, using the curse doesn't have the adverse side-effects on the user."

Ashlee smiled. "Well, I wasn't alone," she replied, indicating the sleeping furball on her lap.

"Hello Aster," said Tristan, reaching out and relieving Ashlee of him. "How's my favourite Kneazle? Well, it's nice to know you're concerned for me." Addressing Ashlee, Tristan asked, "Did you have a talk with Aster?"

"It's strange," she replied. "It's almost like I was having a real conversation with him."

"It's like that for me, too. Kneazles are mildly psychic. As am I."

Ashlee walked over and sat down on the bed. "Are you sure you're feeling better? Want me to do anything?" she asked, with her face full of concern.

"I'm feeling a bit better, but I don't think I'll be fully-recovered for about another day," replied Tristan. "I'm going to run some scans with the TARDIS scanners. Hopefully, it will help take my mind off what I did."

Ashlee bit her lip and hugged him again. "You did it out of human kindness. Nothing can take that away from you."

"Those words help make me feel a little better, too. Why don't you spend some time reading up on Dementors and the Killing Curse while I run those scans?"

Ashlee smiled and replied, "Sure."

"If you need me, I'll be in the control room."

Tristan got out of bed and headed for the control room. As soon as he arrived, he headed straight for the scanner consoles and started running every scan he had at his disposal. Tristan spent nearly four hours scanning the environment and building up a detailed three-dimensional map of the town and its surroundings before Ashlee turned up.

"Ah, Ashlee, I've just about finished the last of the scans. Hold on a minute while I incorporate the data from all these scans into a 3-D model. There. The computer in the main data core should be done in about ten minutes."

"So, what exactly are we looking at?" inquired Ashlee.

Tristan left the control room and started making his way through the TARDIS, with Ashlee following. "This 3-D model will show everything in a radius of ten kilometres of the TARDIS, and I should be able to track the movements of the Dementors once the computer finishes crunching the data."

"We can spot them before they come?" asked Ashlee.

"Not quite," replied Tristan. "We will be able to see their movements within the scanner range, and /possibly/, although I'm not counting on it, find whatever is drawing them here."

"What will happen to the object if we find it?"

"Depends on what the object happens to be. We may be able to disable it, or we may have to destroy it. Either way, whatever it's sending out that draws the Dementors here must be stopped."

"Okay." Ashlee continued to walk beside Tristan.

"Ah, here we are: the Projector Room," announced Tristan. Tristan opened the door and they entered the room. The square room was about four times the area of a typical single bedroom, and the ceiling was excactly four metres high. In the centre of the room, there were one hundred holographic projectors in the ceiling arranged in a 4*4 metre grid.

"Woah," gasped Ashlee, gazing around in wonder.

"It's kind of like the Holodeck on Star Trek, only the projected images are not solid, just like the TARDIS cloak," explained Tristan. He then headed over to the wall and picked up what looked like a flat screen with a long cable attaching it to the wall. It was about the size of a piece of A4 paper and Tristan held it horizontally.

"What's that?"

"This is the control interface for the Projector Room. It's basically a display screen that is pressure-sensitive. I'll be using it to control the room."

"Control the room?" Ashlee laughed nervously, and added, "Lucky I don't get motion sickness."

"Perhaps I could have phrased that better? I mean it controls the holographic projectors in the room. Look at the ceiling. See that grid of small black squares? Each one of those is the part of a holographic projector that the particles for the hologram come out of."

Ashlee smiled faintly. "The advances in technology are brilliant, but I guess everything has a bit of magic in it to make it work."

"The holographic projectors actually do have some magic in them," replied Tristan. "The magic is in the power-supplies for the individual particles. Anyway, the computer has finished creating its model. Let's take a look." Tristan tapped the screen of the control unit several times, and a large 3D model of the town appeared in the space below the projectors. "This is just how it would appear if viewed with light only."

"Cool." Ashlee grinned cheekily. "Hey, I can see my house from here."

Tristan laughed at Ashlee's joke. "That's funny. Anyway, let's put on a magical overlay." Tristan tapped a control, and a multi-coloured overlay appeared over the town. One large circular area was completely blacked out, and there were a number of moving white dots and a few stationary ones. "That's odd," remarked Tristan. "Why is that area blacked out? It's like the TARDIS scanners couldn't get any data from that area. Why would that be?"

"Maybe some bugs got into the spellware?" suggested Ashlee.

"No, I don't think so," replied Tristan, with a thoughtful _expression on his face. "If it was a bug in the software or spellware there would be random patches like that. This is localised."

Ashlee looked more closely at the black patch on the projection. "Hang on a sec. That's where my work is." Looking at Tristan, Ashlee asked, "Maybe there's a magical creature in the shelter?"

Tristan shook his head and replied: "Magical creatures don't interfere with the scanners. Every white dot you can see there is some form of magically charged life. I haven't instructed the computer to distinguish different types, but it can do that."

"So, what could be causing the interference?"

"I don't know. These scanners can see through Unplottable Charms, so whatever is blocking them is something completely new to me."

"Should we check it out? It's my weekend off, but I could pretend I needed to get some paper work."

"Whatever is interfering with the scanners seems to be pretty powerful, given that circle has a radius of about one to one-point-five kilometres. Interestingly, it doesn't appear to affect electromagnetic scanners." To demonstrate his point, Tristan turned off the magical overlay and replaced it with an electromagnetic one. "See what I mean? The EM scanners got data from everywhere, while the magical ones," Tristan switched back to the magical display, "are jammed in that area."

"Well, are you coming or not?" asked Ashlee, heading towards the door. She turned around and looked back at Tristan. "Come on! We haven't got all day. The shelter closes in about an hour or so."

"Why not just take the TARDIS?"

Ashlee rolled her eyes. "Whatever. While you do that, I'd better think of a cover story for you."

Tristan turned off the display, put the control unit back in its rack, and left the room, heading for the control room with Ashlee following. When they arrived in the control room, Tristan set their destination and started the TARDIS running. The pulsing light in the central column stopped and the TARDIS materialised just on the edge of the black area. "Damn!" exclaimed Tristan. "I can't get the TARDIS into that dead area. We'll have to walk the rest of the way."

"No problem. I can fill you in on your cover on our way."

"Right, I'll just find something suitable for a disguise. Aha! Those cargo pallets of bricks will do." Tristan activated the cloak, and then gestured to the door. "After you."

"Thankyou," replied Ashlee and walked through the portal to outside the TARDIS. A few seconds later, Tristan stepped out of the hologram and locked the TARDIS.

"From where we landed, we'll have to go west-south-west to get to the centre of that black spot," said Tristan.

Ashlee and Tristan started walking in the direction of the centre of the black spot, and Ashlee cautioned Tristan: "Now I warn you to let me do all the talking. Donna at the front desk is a furious gossip and she could get us into big trouble."

"I know what gossip can do," replied Tristan, with a nod. "My older brother ruined his worst enemy's reputation at Hogwarts through gossip," he added with a grin. "I can't say the guy didn't deserve it, either."

Ashlee smirked. "There's one in every family. Well, here we are." They came to a halt in front of a tall building covered in animal posters.

"I presume the posters are to encourage people to adopt animals, right?" asked Tristan.

"That and to take care of them," replied Ashlee, gesturing to a poster with a puppy, proclaiming, 'A pet isn't just for Christmas. It's for life.'

"Nice slogan."

"Check out this one," said Ashlee, pointing at a poster of a dog with a pleading look on its face, and holding a leash in its mouth, with the caption: 'Is a walk too much to ask?'

Tristan laughed, and said, "Cute. Didn't you say the place was going to shut soon?"

"Yep," replied Ashlee. She took a deep breath and said, "Well, here we go. Remember: Keep your yap shut!"

"Don't worry, I will," replied Tristan, sounding mildly offended.

Ashlee opened the door, and a bell rang. The middle-aged woman with short curly red hair at the reception desk looked up and smiled. "Hello, Ashlee. Isn't it supposed to be your weekend off?"

"Yeah, but I forgot to bring home some paperwork."

Donna spotted Tristan and eyed him closely. "And who's this strapping young man? Well, it's about time you got yourself a boyfriend, even if Matt has been dying to ask you out for ages."

Ashlee blushed and murmured a soft "Sorry" to Tristan.

"What are you apologising to me for? You only met me yesterday evening," replied Tristan, softly.

Ashlee elbowed Tristan and muttered, "Shut up."

"Donna this is Tristan. We've been emailing each other for about two years. He's from England and I finally convinced him to come down for a visit."

"I'll say this for Ashlee, in two years she still hasn't managed to remember to run the spellchecker over her email." Tristan grinned and added, "Then again, neither have I."

Ashlee smiled, and asked, "Could you let us in, Donna? We won't be long."

"I'm not supposed to let in people who don't work here," replied Donna.

Ashlee batted her eyelashes and practically begged, "Please? I've been wanting to show him around but I can't do anything with all that paperwork on my mind." Ashlee was slowly growing more pleading and desperate in her tone, but Tristan suspected this was just an act. "And this is his first trip to Australia and I'm so behind and..." Ashlee started sniffing and wiping eyes her eyes as she trailed off.

Tristan recognised that Ashlee was putting on a pretty good act. and rolled his eyes.

Donna smiled kindly. "Of course, dear. Just go right on through." Donna winked at Tristan. "Don't get into trouble now."

"What trouble could I possibly get into?" asked Tristan, looking puzzled. 'Well there is that matter of the Dementors...' he added, mentally.

Ashlee smiled gratefully. "Oh, thankyou! Come on, Trist." She headed through the door to the back of the animal shelter, dragging Tristan behind her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," said Tristan.

Ashlee sighed tiredly. "Phew! I haven't had to stage cry in years."

"Well, you put on a pretty good act. You almost had me convinced," replied Tristan.

Ashlee smiled secretly. "That's what you get when you've got top marks in Drama."

"I got top marks in Transfiguration and Charms, seven years in a row," replied Tristan, with a smug grin.

"Gimme a break. I had to work hard for that top grade. Besides, it helps when you know how to pull peoples strings."

"Well I had to work hard too for the Charms one. I had some serious competition."

Ashlee headed towards a large door, and instructed Tristan: "Keep quiet or you'll startle the animals."

"Shutting up, Ma'am." Tristan got out a handheld computer and started fiddling around with it, while Ashlee headed over to a cage.

Ashlee opened the door and looked into the cage. "Hey, sweetie. You haven't eaten your dinner."

Ashlee opened the cage door wider, and out bounded an extremely thin, large dog.

"Down boy!" said Tristan, looking a bit frightened.

"Sit!" said Ashlee, and the dog complied with her order. "Poor thing. His owners didn't feed him. See his ribs? They're in court at the moment." Ashlee scowled, and added, "Pity capital punishment is illegal. I hate it when people are cruel to animals." Looking at Tristan, she asked, "You a bit scared?"

"I'm a bit frightened of dogs and Crups," admitted Tristan. "No idea as to why, though. I once had to deal with a bloody dragon in seventh-year at Hogwarts, and I wasn't anywhere near as bad as I am around dogs and Crups."

"Oh, Terry wouldn't hurt a fly." The dog rolled over and Ashlee kneeled down to rub his stomach.

"All the same, I think I'll just keep my distance until you're finished with him," replied Tristan.

Ashlee walked into the cage and grabbed the food dish. "No wonder you didn't eat! Your bloody food is frozen!" Ashlee paused for a moment then scowled. "Matt, you lazy son of a bitch," she murmured under her breath.

"Who's Matt?" asked Tristan.

Ashlee headed to kitchen to heat up the food, with Terry following at her heels. "The other rescue officer who works here. All he cares about is his pay packet. Bet you he's skipped off early."

"Hmmm... I wonder..." said Tristan, thoughtfully, and tapped his handheld computer several times, linking it to the TARDIS computers. "Hey! We're out of the dead zone. It's moved to the other side of town."

Ashlee set the defrosted food on the ground, and said, "There you are. Eat up," to the dog, which hungrily obliged. "Pardon? I wasn't listening."

"I said that the dead zone has moved fifteen kilometres. It's on the other side of town now."

Ashlee frowned. "That's strange."

"Whoever has whatever is causing the blackout-zone on the TARDIS scanners has taken it with them when they went somewhere else."

"Wait a sec. Did you say the spot moved about fifteen k?"

"Yes," replied Tristan. "Fifteen-point-seven-eight-one kilometres to be exact."

Ashlee ran her hand through her longish brown hair, her hazel-grey eyes glowing as she thought. "What would this object look like?" she finally asked.

"If my hypothesis about it coming from space is correct, it could look like anything. It could just be an interesting rock, a gem, or maybe a piece of space-junk. I don't know. Whatever it is, it's pretty damn dangerous, and whoever has it probably has no idea of the danger they are in."

"Wait, a gem?" exclaimed Ashlee, then growled, "Matt, you idiot!"

"You think this Matt person has the object, whatever it is?" inquired Tristan.

"Yeah. He's always looking for a way to make a quick buck. If this object looks valuable, he would keep it."

"Great. Some greedy idiot has what is potentially the most-dangerous thing to fall to Earth in all of human history and he thinks he's going to make some money with it. He'll more-likely end up getting Kissed by a Dementor," replied Tristan dryly.

"Well, come on! We'd better move it!" said Ashlee urgently and locked Terry back in his cage.

"Yeah, let's get back to the TARDIS. I'll materialise us as close as possible to the object."

Ashlee and Tristan rushed into the office, and Donna asked, "Ashlee, did you get that paperwork?"

"Um, yeah. It's in my pocket," replied Ashlee. "We gotta go, Donna. See you."

"Bye, dear." Donna looked at Tristan. "You look after her. She's a good girl."

"I'll say. You should see her with a gun." Tristan grinned and walked out after Ashlee.

They arrived back at the TARDIS; Tristan set the controls, and a matter of seconds later they appeared on the edge of the dead zone. Tristan cloaked the TARDIS as a tall, dense shrub.

"Well, lead the way, Ashlee. You're the one who knows this Matt guy."

"We'll have to think of another story for you. It won't do for him to think you're my boyfriend."

"I'm not, anyway."

Ashlee rolled her eyes. "Duh! But he doesn't know that!"

Tristan's green eyes suddenly brightened.

"I've got an idea. Just let me go back and replicate a little something."

"Well, hurry. I don't like Matt, but I wouldn't wish a Dementor on him."

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes." Tristan rushed off towards the TARDIS and came back a few minutes later, holding a card. "I think this should do. According to this phoney ID I just made, I'm Doctor Tristan Parkes, Global Space Watch, come to investigate an unusual meteorite fall."

Ashlee smirked. "Make sure you mention it's valuable and you're willing to buy it from him."

"Wouldn't mentioning that it's dangerous be more effective?" asked Tristan.

"No," replied Ashlee. "The quickest way to get to Matt is cold, hard cash." Smiling seductively, she added, "That and a little female influence."

"I don't think I'm going to like the 'female influence' part."

Ashlee laughed at Tristan's remark. "Don't worry. A little compliment here, a bit of giggling there and that object is as good as ours."

"I hope you know what you're doing..."

Ashlee grinned, and replied, "Oh, I do. Matt's been trying to get to me for ages." She gave an evil smirk and added, "He'll think it's his lucky day."

"Well, let's go and see the slime ball," replied Tristan. "Hmmm... I think I should change my clothing to look more official." Tristan promptly transfigured his shirt and pants into a grey suit. "There. How's that look?"

Ashlee straightened Tristan's tie and said, "Perfect."

After walking for about twenty minutes, they came to a small, scruffy house.

"This is it," said Ashlee, obviously not very enthusiastic about the prospect of a visit to Matt's place.

"Looks very appropriate for the kind of person you said Matt is," remarked Tristan.

Ashlee screwed her nose up in distaste. "Well, lets get this over with."

"If he's as unpleasant as you say he is, I'll be glad to get it over with."

As they made their way up the front path, Tristan muttered, "Geeze, hasn't this guy ever heard of a lawnmower?" Ashlee snickered at Tristan's remark.

When they arrived at the front door, Ashlee said, "You better knock. You're the official."

Tristan knocked on the door rather hard, and after a minute's waiting, a tall man with blond hair opened the door. As Ashlee had remarked to Tristan on the way to Matt's house, sleaziness practically oozed out of every pore of his body.

"Yes?" asked the man.

"Matt Carson?" asked Tristan, in an official tone.

"Yes. Who are you?" asked Matt.

"Doctor Tristan Parkes, Global Space Watch." Tristan reached into his pocket and got out his ID card, which he held out for Matt to see.

Ashlee moved forward. "Hi, Matt," she said, in a soft, seductive voice.

Matt grinned. "Ashlee. What a surprise it is to find you on my doorstep."

"This isn't a coincidence, Mr. Carson," said Tristan, in his official tone. "Recently, an unusual meteorite fell, and I've been assigned to locate it."

Matt stared hard at Tristan. "And what's that got to do with me?"

Ashlee batted her eyelashes. "I was on my way here and he was looking for you, so I showed him here."

Matt smirked slyly. "And why were you on your way here?"

Tristan took a device out of his suit that looked a bit like a Geiger counter and started scanning the area. "I have reason to believe that you have this meteorite in your possession, Mr. Carson."

Matt watched Tristan carefully, and asked: "So?"

Ashlee inched towards Matt, and said: "Matt, this guy wants to buy this rock or something."

"We picked up some unusual radiation readings as we were tracking the meteorite, and also similar traces in the crater it made when it landed," explained Tristan.

Greed lit up in Matt's eyes. "I might have it, but I'd not let it go cheap," he told Tristan.

"Let me see it," said Tristan. "The radiation it's giving off could give you radiation-poisoning."

"Matt, just let him see it." Ashlee then whispered seductively in Matt's ear: "If you do, I might consider that drink you've been offering me."

Matt smiled slyly. "Of course. Follow me." Matt looped his arm possessively around Ashlee's waist and walked into the house, with Tristan following, scanning the area with his device.

Matt was watching Tristan and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Oh don't interrupt him, Matt."

"But-" began Matt, but he was shut up when Ashlee kissed him full on the mouth.

"Radiation levels are bordering on dangerous here," announced Tristan. "Where is that meteorite?"

Matt managed to tear himself away from Ashlee's lips long enough to say, "The kitchen."

Tristan headed into the kitchen and scanned the gem. The gem was about twelve centimetres in diameter, the green of Avada Kedavra in colour, and a bit chipped. "I'm going to have to put this in a lead-lined container. The radiation levels are too high to be safe." Tristan produced a container with his Pattern Buffer, and then produced some long-handled tongs to handle to gem with. He picked up the gem and put it into the box, then sealed the box. "Safe, now. Thankyou for your cooperation, Mr Carson. I must be going," said Tristan, and headed for the door.

"Hey! Hang on! Where do you think you're going?" demanded Matt.

"Back to a research facility that is equipped to handle this kind of material," replied Tristan, in a serious tone.

Just then Matt pulled out a gun. "Hold it."

"Matt! What do you think you're doing?" exclaimed Ashlee.

Matt just smirked and replied, "Just keeping my investment safe, babe."

"Need I remind you, Mr Carson, that I have full government authority to relieve you of this hazardous material?" asked Tristan, irritably.

"And need I remind you who's got the gun? Hand it over," responded Matt.

"So, you want me to pay you for this dangerous material?"

"Everything has its price." Matt aimed the gun at Tristan's head and added, "Including your life."

"Fine. How much do you want?"

"Matt, put down that gun, now!" shouted Ashlee.

Matt turned to Ashlee and smirked. "Aww, babe. You in on this too?" Matt changed his aim from Tristan to Ashlee then, addressing Tristan, asked: "So, what's it gonna be? The gem or her life?"

"Look, I offered to pay you for the stupid gem, now name your price," exclaimed Tristan, exasperatedly.

Matt smirked. "What do you think?"

"If I knew how much money you wanted, I wouldn't be asking."

Ashlee suddenly darted forward and slammed a fist into Matt's face, snatching up the gun and aiming it at his vitals.

"Now, babe, what did I tell you about playing nice?" asked Matt, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Are we going to be holding this gun all night, or am I going to pay you and leave with this gem?" asked Tristan.

"That thing's gotta be worth a thou," replied Matt, who then stared hopelessly at Ashlee. "Babe, I thought we had something special."

Ashlee switched off the safety on the gun and aimed at Matt's heart. "That was before you pulled a gun on Doctor Parkes, here."

Tristan put the container with the gem on the floor, got out a fake chequebook, wrote a cheque for $1000 and held it out. "Here. One-thousand dollars."

Matt took the cheque and put it in his pocket. "There, I'm paid and happy. Can you call your bitch off me?"

"You'll have to talk to her about that," replied Tristan. "That, and she's not mine."

Ashlee proceeded to kick Matt in the crotch, and Matt howled in pain. "Remember that this bitch bites." She spat to the side. "God! When did you last brush your teeth?"

Matt grabbed the gun off Ashlee and tried to shoot her, but only managed to hit her in the arm. Tristan held out his hand, and the gun suddenly became dull-red-hot. Matt dropped the gun, yelling in pain.

It was at that moment that a Dementor decided to show up. "Behind you, Ashlee!" shouted Tristan.

Ashlee tried to reach her microwave gun but was unable to, due to her injury. "My arm!"

Matt made a mad dash towards Tristan, grabbed the container with the gem, and ran out the front door, knocking Tristan to the ground. "Coward!" Tristan shouted over his shoulder. Quickly, Tristan tried to replicate a microwave gun, but the Pattern Buffer was damaged from when he fell on it. Tristan instead drew out his wand from inside his suit, pointed it at the Dementor, and roared: "EXPECTO PATRONUM!" A huge silver eagle shot out of his wand, grabbed the Dementor, and dumped it outside.

Ashlee was whimpering softly and holding her arm close to her body. Tristan couldn't tell if she was whimpering more out of fear or pain, but suspected the former.

"I'd better tend to that arm. You're in no condition to fight. My Pattern Buffer is damaged, so I'll have to treat you back at the TARDIS. Come on," said Tristan as he helped Ashlee to her feet.

"Where's Matt" And the object? And-" Ashlee didn't manage to finish her sentence as she passed out from the pain.

Tristan managed to catch Ashlee before she hit the floor. He pointed his wand at her and said, "Mobilicorpus!" The unconscious Ashlee floated up a couple of centimetres into the air and Tristan directed her back to the TARDIS with his wand. When they arrived at the TARDIS, Tristan settled her down onto a bed in the medical bay and Ashlee woke up.

Ashlee groaned groggily.

"Don't worry Ashlee, you're back in the TARDIS," said Tristan. "I was about to start treating you when you woke up."

"Man, I feel like shit," Ashlee muttered softly.

"Just be glad he only shot you in the arm, and not somewhere vital, or you would be dead instead of injured," replied Tristan, and injected her with a glowing blue liquid. "That should numb all the pain."

Ashlee yawned then asked, "So, did he get away?"

Tristan was fiddling around, trying to get the bullet out. "Yes, he got away. If he keeps that gem on his person, which I think he will, he'll be a walking magnet for Dementors. It'll also make it harder to track it down." Tristan successfully managed to pull out the bullet, then took a small tissue sample for later analysis.

Ashlee sighed. "You don't happen to have any mouthwash, do you?"

"I'll get you some after I finish treating this injury." Tristan poured a dark green liquid into the wound, and the wound started to close up before Ashlee's very eyes. Within a minute, it was completely healed, with no sign that there had ever been an injury there.

"Thanks," said Ashlee gratefully.

"No scars when using that stuff," replied Tristan. "Even in this time, it's been around for nearly a hundred years. It is difficult to make, and is really only of use for minor injuries." He headed over to the replicator and replicated some mint-flavoured mouthwash, which he handed over to Ashlee.

Tristan watched with some amusement as Ashlee washed out her mouth furiously and uttered random words in between washes. "Prick. Get his. Sledgehammer."

"I don't think I'd want to be in Matt's shoes after you get through with him, Ashlee," said Tristan, grinning.

Ashlee scowled. "The bastard stuck his bloody tongue down my throat! I'm never going to get rid of the taste!"

"Half of that feeling is psychological," replied Tristan. "The mouthwash has probably gotten rid of the actual chemicals responsible by now. The rest is in your head."

Ashlee shuddered. "It was the only way to get him off your back."

"I'll bet you're wondering about how I made him drop the gun. He thinks he's safe with the gem in a lead-lined box, but he's not. That gem was giving off huge quantities of anti-magical radiation, and it was only about twelve centimetres in diameter. Whatever it's made of must be highly concentrated."

Ashlee just nodded, obviously trying to stay awake.

Tristan put a hand on Ashlee's shoulder. "You get some sleep. You look like you need it. I'll be in my room if you need me."

Ashlee wrapped her arms around Tristan's neck in a feeble hug, and uttered a weak, "Thankyou," before flopping back down onto the bed.

"You're welcome. Sleep well, Ashlee."

Ashlee pulled up the blanket on the bed and fell asleep. Shortly after, Tristan left the medical bay and headed off to his room for the night.