Chapter 39: Greasy Git

Naps were the nicest invention in the history of mankind. Merlin stretched like a sunbathing cat and lingered in his bed for a while. The clock said that the evening feast was about to start. He had to hurry and eat fast to make it to detention on time. He considered using the 'I'm sick' excuse to get out of it but knew that it wouldn't stick for long, and Snape would only get even more annoying, so he grudgingly got up.

He sat down in the Great Hall with Harry's gang and filled them in on his thieving progress.

"Here's the boomslang skin," he handed it to Hermione who took it with glee. "There was no bicorn horn in the storeroom. Where else could he keep some?"

"There's a locked room inside his classroom. I think there are ingredients in there," she answered.

"Right. I'll check there next."

"So, tonight," Hermione cleared her throat and stirred the food on her plate. "I'm available if you want some tutoring?"

"Sorry, Hermione. I've got another detention with Snape."

"Oh, of course." She dropped her fork, and it sunk into her mashed potatoes. "Whenever you're ready, let me know."

Harry and Ron sniggered at a joke they didn't share. Merlin was hoping to drop the tutoring now that he was on better terms with the gang, but if Hermione was this excited to be a tutor, then he thought it better to extend.

Later that evening, Snape seemed pleased to see Merlin. Of course, he was informed of the "low blood sugar" incident, but Merlin expected an extra-awful job awaiting him.

"You did not show up yesterday. You appear to tend to your responsibilities only when it suits you."

"I was unconscious, sir."

"I didn't ask for excuses."

Snape gestured at the classroom which was filthy after a full day of messy potion-making. "I want everything spotless, all cauldrons, ladles, tables, and the floor."

Merlin gaped at the classroom with foreboding. So, he was a house-elf for the night. Would he get his own pillowcase to dress in?

"And refrain from fainting here. We wouldn't want you to hit your head and contaminate my classroom with your bodily fluids again. Where you might lack skills at everything else, you appear to excel at bleeding out."

Merlin cleared his throat to stop himself from smiling. He'd made an impression, alright.

He got started, and Snape worked on grading essays—while standing, of course. The cauldrons reeked and soon Merlin recognized what mixture the last class had worked on: the Swelling Solution. His hands were now thrice their size. Snape should have provided him with protective gloves. Ah, but that was the punishment for missing detention.

Oh well, there was no need to suffer. Merlin whispered an incantation to ease the swelling and another one to protect his hands and forearms. He couldn't wait to see Snape's reaction later when his hands were okay. Whenever Greasy Git wasn't looking, and he rarely was, Merlin used magic to continue his scrubbing job while he lazily looked on. By the time Snape finished grading, Merlin was already mopping the floor with casual indifference, whistling an old folk tune.

Snape's lip twitched. "You finished all the cauldrons?"

"Yes, sir. They're sparkly clean."

Snape's gaze lingered on Merlin's hands which were not swollen. Then, he walked up to inspect neatly stacked cauldrons and asked in a monotone voice, "What spell did you use?"

"There's a spell to clean cauldrons? I wish I had known that."

Snape swept across the floor, grabbed Merlin's wrist, making the mop drop to the ground, and pulled out his wand. Was he going to jinx him?

"Revelio. Aparecium."

Snape brought Merlin's hand closer, trying to detect the protection charm that prevented the swelling. Thankfully, wand spells were too weak to uncover what was hidden by Old Religion, otherwise, he would have just unraveled Merlin's aging spell and that would have been tricky to explain.

Snape's eyes bore into him and Merlin could feel the strength of the git's legilimency press against his mind. He kept all of his doors closed and maintained a clueless expression while thinking about taking another nap.

"Is there anything else, sir?" he asked lightly while maintaining their eye contact to give the wizard the appearance of someone who wasn't aware of the mind violation.

"Who taught you occlumency?"

"What's that, sir?"

It was plausible for a child his age to not know what the art of closing one's mind was called. This had to confuse the git even more.

"You expect me to believe that you can resist without training?"

"Resist what, sir?"

Snape scowled even deeper as his confidence faltered. Oh, how much Merlin would love to reverse the roles and show him a real mind invasion. How would Snape like to hear voices in his head?

"What are you smiling about?" Snape hissed between teeth.

Merlin cleared his throat and tried to compose his face. He was getting carried away. "I just remembered a good joke, sir."

Snape raised one eyebrow, and he said, barely moving his lips, "Go ahead. Share it."

Joke. Joke. He needed a joke.

"Alright. What subject is ironically missing from Hogwarts curriculum?" He paused for effect. "Spelling!"

Snape's face did not even flinch.

"Because of spells and…" Merlin cleared his throat again. No surprise, Greasy Git had no sense of humour. "So, am I done for the day, sir?"

Snape looked around the classroom as if he was disgusted with how clean it was. Seeing nothing else that needed scrubbing, he sent him away.

The next morning, Merlin was in high spirits, knowing he had tricked Snape yet again, and as much as he didn't want to waste another evening with the git, he was looking forward to irritating him some more. Maybe this time, he'd get an opportunity to break into the closed storage room? It was also time to write that letter to explain the curse. Hmm, and the second curse was also waiting to be activated. He had so many juicy plans for the Potions Master. Things were looking up.

It was with these high spirits that Merlin got an unexpected gift in the form of a truth slip-up from Jack. They were casually chatting while getting ready, and Jack commented on Merlin's chosen surname.

"Why is your name pronounced Ehl-dor and not Eel-dor?"

Merlin chuckled. "Excuse me, we all couldn't have an easy name like Nix."

"That's why we chose it."

"Wait, what?"

Jack froze, and Merlin could hardly believe his luck. He wasn't even trying to cause the slip-up this time. The boy offered it on his own.

'That's right, kid. I caught you,' he thought.

He did not suspect at all that the name was fake, but lies, like fake identities, were difficult to keep track of as the boy was about to find out.

"What?" Jack said while feigning confusion.

"You made up your name? What is your real name?"

"Why would you think that?"

"Is your name even Jack?"

"Yes, it is."

"What is your last name?"

"You're being silly. It's Nix." Jack gave him a sly smile and tried to leave the room.

Merlin blocked the doorway. "What is your name?"

"Let me out."

"What is your name?"

Merlin was enjoying this. The boy was trapped literally and figuratively. He was not going to let him get away before explaining this.

"It's Jack Nix. There is no other name." He tried to pry Merlin's fingers off the door frame with no luck. "Let me out, Merlin. I don't like this."

"Not until you tell me the truth."

"I'm telling you the truth."

Merlin maintained eye contact. Even if he couldn't break into the boy's mind, he was good at judging if he was being lied to. He'd had to lie so much in his long life, he became an expert at it. Jack was not.

"I swear, Merlin. I have no other names."

Merlin didn't know what to think. It appeared that the boy wasn't lying, but what he said and how he reacted to being confronted pointed to someone who was trying to hide something.

"Then, why are you trying to run away?"

Jack pressed his lips tight together and stared him down. The boy was stubborn. Well, Merlin was patient. Which trait would win? They continued their silent battle of the wills, and Merlin was sure of his victory. He would wait however long it took to get his answer. Time meant nothing to him, he kept telling himself.

Jack threw his hands in the air. "Fine!"

Patience. Patience always won.

Jack turned around and sat on his bed.

"What did you mean that you chose your name?" Merlin asked, coming closer.

Jack stared at the floor thoughtfully and swung his leg, kicking a rug under his bare foot. Merlin settled on the bed across from him and waited for the answer. The boy raised only his eyes and there was so much pain in them, Merlin felt a sudden need to comfort him. Then, his eyes opened wide in shock, and he silently pointed at something over Merlin's shoulder.

Merlin quickly turned, feeling a sudden desire to protect the boy from whatever danger lurked in the shadows but saw nothing threatening there. He looked back only to see the back of Jack's robes as he ran out of the room.

Merlin sat on the bed, momentarily stunned.

Cunning. Cunning won.

"The Great Merlin fell for the oldest trick in the book," he said to the empty room.

It was those eyes. The boy's icy blues disarmed him. He shook his head and gathered up his things. Jack may have gotten away this time, but Merlin was not done yet. He was going to keep digging until he found out the truth.

He noticed something on the floor and laughed out loud. Jack may have given him the slip, but he forgot something in the rush.

Merlin walked out of the dorm, heading towards his morning class, feeling oddly satisfied when imagining what McGonagall was going to do when she noticed that Jack came into her classroom barefoot.

》《

There was a clever prankster running around Hogwarts. Severus Snape was cursed with a chair-breaking jinx, and Irma Pince had to deal with an animated pot of stew. Both were impressive pieces of magic that none of the staff could undo. Albus tried to hide his reaction when he learned of them, but Minerva knew him too well, he found both amusing. Still, he felt bad for Severus and attempted to remove the curse plaguing him but to no avail. The magic was too formidable even for the great Albus Dumbledore.

So it was a great mystery as to who had created both jinxes. It had been days, they should have worn off by now, and yet they hadn't. Could one of the students really have done it? And so now, all teachers were on high alert, worried that they were going to fall victim to the next prank.

Minerva surveyed the first-year class in front of her. It couldn't have been any of them of course, they were too young. Besides, the worst misbehavior she'd seen from them was showing up in her class barefoot. Well, there was one student who kept committing that particular offense.

Her twins' performance improved tremendously after she had given them proper attention. From then on, she was keeping a close eye on them to not let them fall behind again. The rest of the class was making progress as well. Maybe one more lesson, and she would move on to the next transfiguration.

When she thought about students who were falling behind, her eyes landed on the poor Ealdor boy. He wrote wonderful essays, Miss Granger did a splendid job tutoring him in the transfiguration theory, but he was still terrible at practical execution. Some people simply did not have the talent for it.

Remembering directions from her Headmaster, Minerva pulled young Merlin aside after the lesson.

"Mr. Ealdor, a word, please." She felt very awkward in her request and now forgot how she wanted to phrase it. "I would like to be present during your next… gathering."

"Gathering?"

She cleared her throat. "Gathering of the followers of the Old Religion, if that is not a problem."

He scratched his head. "No, it's not a problem but we didn't schedule any gathering."

"Oh. I was under the impression that you were a leader of sorts."

"I wouldn't call myself their leader, although, I do know more about it so they're expecting me to teach. With everything that has happened, I put those plans aside for the time being. Colin Creevey was one of the children who wanted to learn."

Minerva felt a lump in her throat at the mention of the boy. "Yes, I see how that would change your priorities. How many more students practice Old Religion in this school?"

He smiled weakly. "Not as many as I'd like to see. Jack and Elsa Nix for start, although their mother didn't teach them much about it. Besides them, Colin and Luna Lovegood expressed interest in learning, and I will gladly have them as well. Other than that, I don't know of any other practitioners in this school. It's not like there's a way to tell us apart from a distance."

While he paused, thinking, Minerva tried to unpack the amount of information he threw at her. What was that detail about the twin's mother?

"Maybe there is a way to reach out?" he continued. "But I need to be subtle. I'm not keeping Old Religion a secret, on the contrary, but history has taught me to be cautious. Being publicly branded Pagan usually has negative connotations."

He paused to think, and Minerva felt moved by his words. Did she not already form a negative opinion of his faith simply because of its association with paganism?

"You're right, we should have a gathering," he finally said. "I have detention for the next few days so maybe sometime after that. I'll let you know the time and place, Professor."

"What have you done to deserve detention, Mr. Ealdor?"

"I got caught when I broke the curfew," he said with a shrug. "It won't happen again."

"Let me remind you that the curfew is there for your protection, Mr. Ealdor. Indeed, it better not happen again. And I mean breaking the curfew, not just getting caught."

"Of course."

"Keep me posted. You may go."

He left her with quite a lot to think about. It didn't escape her notice that he didn't act as arrogant today as she'd seen before. That observation coupled with what she knew about his poor health, and how it appeared that he had been persecuted for his beliefs in the past, softened her attitude towards him. There were a lot of sides to everyone's character. She may have misjudged his.

A/N: Hey there, beautiful peeps. This happens to be the last chapter I had ready to go. Allow me a few weeks to get back into the groove of this story and I'll publish the rest of it.

In other news, I was finally able to put together the scattered scenes of Cursed (book 2) and it's looking good. I expect that by the time I finish posting the chapters of this book, I'll be ready to publish Cursed so you'll have minimal interruptions.

Happy New Year!