Why Mervy's Tense

The town of Mincepie, England, stayed financially afloat mostly by tourism. A very famous cricket player, as well as a very famous modern author both spent their childhoods in Mincepie, and the town now had two small museums dedicated to both people. It was a small, pretty sort of town, had many nice pubs, restaurants, arcades for the children and large gardens for adults to walk around in.

Mincepie also had a large area to the north of it; and this town was called Missus Mincepie. No one was really sure why it was called this; and the Mincepieonians knew that they certainly wouldn't want to be married to the people of Missus Mincepie. The people there were strange; and sometimes the Mincepieonians would see one of the Missus Mincepieonians wearing some very strange things, like cloaks and pointed hats, and there seemed to be altogether way too many stray cats and dogs running around Missus Mincepie for the Mincepieonians liking. The only reason a Mincepieonian would dare to venture into Missus Mincepie without being talked about behind their back would be on a man's bachelor party; the only strip club that wasn't in the city was in Missus Mincepie, and maybe to play some cards at the many casinos in Missus Mincepie.
Thirteen on Pros Blvd. was the largest house and strangest house in Missus Mincepie. It was right across the street from that infamous strip club, and sandwiched between a cigar shop that no one seemed to go in, and a casino. It had been painted bright red years ago; but now the paint had started, ever so slightly, to peel off. On the porch by the front door, there was a life-sized statue of a person. It was nearly impossible to tell if the statue was a man or a woman; the statue had short hair and broad shoulders, but it was smiling at the people who passed by in a very calm, motherly and feminine way. At the statue's feet there were many, many unlit candles. Each one was a different vibrant color, and one got the feeling from looking at that they were all somehow very significant.
This was the McGonagall house.

Mervy McGonagall-Stevens was sore. She felt as though every joint in her body ached. She had been squashed into the same position for nearly three hours, barely moving, wedged into a tiny corner between a dumpster and the side of Xexel's Quill and Miniature Head Co. (which Mervy knew sold a lot more than just quills and miniature heads). Anyone just casually passing by on Knockturn Alley would never be able to see her.

Not that there were many people ever passing casually on Knockturn Alley. People on Knockturn Alley were on the Alley for a specific reason; they didn't fool around. Apparently, to Mervy's dismay, no one seemed to have a specific reason at four forty five on a rainy Sunday morning.

Mervy shifted her weight slightly, careful not to either make any noise or upset the shaky charm she had used in herself to repel water and avoid the downpour. It wasn't a very good charms (Mervy had serious charms problems, which her godfather, Filius Flitwick, was embarrassed to admit) and rain was occasionally drizzling through the charm, surprising and irritating Mervy.

"Secret Dark Wizard Meeting at three o'clock in the morning at Borgin and Burks," Mervy snorted under her breath, imitating her Uncle Georgie. "Underage wizards will be there... you need to go identify them, Mervy, your mother's in Cuba and no one else knows what they look like...Right, Uncle Georgie." Mervy snorted, remembering how excited she was just a few hours ago at having her first assignment in Family Business. Finally of age, Mervy thought glumly to herself. The right to use magic outside of school and the right to... sit by a dumpster in the rain. Fantastic.

The last six years had not changed very much of Mervy's face physically. Her face was a bit longer, and she herself was much taller, but she was still very skinny; (or, as Uncle Marshall once said to her without embarrassment: "Flat as a board. Like all, good McGonagall women.") her nose still seemed too big for her face, her gray eyes too small. The thing that had changed most about her appearance over the last few years was the way she held herself. She walked very tall, held her head up very high; and her face commonly held an irritated look on it.

She looked (and even occasionally behaved) very much like her mother, the Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts. She hated this, hated all the snide comments her schoolmates threw at her, but she had learned to deal with all the snide comments that had been thrown at her during her years at Hogwarts.

A movement jarred Mervy's thoughts off her face and onto the job that she was supposed to be working on. She peered across the way and saw, to her astonishment and fear that three dark, shadowy figures were headed toward the entrance of Borgin and Burks. Underage Dark Wizards, Mervy thought to herself, her eyes widening, starting to tremble slightly. Dark Wizards that can't just Apparate in... they must know that the Floo Grate is being watched... just like Uncle Georgie said... Mervy shivered, as one of the dark figures moved his cloaked head up and down the alley, passing right over where Mervy was hiding. They can't see me, Mervy reminded herself, trying to forget the fact that she was frightened beyond all reason. Uncle Georgie had tested this hiding spot personally about a hundred times, and he had even managed to fit his large plump body into it once or twice when he needed it. Mervy held her knees tight to her chest in fear, but nevertheless was staring intently at the three as they began to slowly open the door.

Names. Mervy needed names, faces. That was her assignment... a list of the underage Dark Wizards that were meeting, which she would give to her Uncle Georgie, who would give them to Albus Dumbledore. What Dumbledore was doing with the names Mervy had no idea.

A sliver of light poured out of Borgin and Burks, and Mervy saw many more people wearing heavy cloaks in the inside of the store. The three walked in; and the heavy door slammed shut. As soon as Mervy was sure that no Dark Wizard, underage or not, would be able to hear her, she cursed softly underneath her breath. She hadn't been able to recognize any of the Dark Wizards. Mervy looked up and down the street, noticing the pink dawn creeping up the street, and, when she was sure no one was coming, took a deep breath, and bolted across the street.

She landed, flying slightly, on a cardboard box almost directly opposite from the place she had been sitting before. Borgin and Burks loomed right beside her, and right above her head was a small, dusty window that she knew would let her see everyone inside Borgin and Burks. She licked her dry lips. She was unconcealed here, it wasn't safe. Any passerby could see her from this position.

If only I had an Invisibility Cloak, Mervy snarled to herself. Wonder Boy has one for some reason, and the only thing he does with it is nick snitches. Mervy shook her head, come on now, she told herself angrily, and you're a McGonagall. You can do this. Mervy hesitated for a moment, and then; as quietly as she could muster, turned to the cardboard box that she had landed on, and Transfigured it into a large bag that appeared to be stuffed to the brim. Mervy had seen these bags around a lot in Knockturn Alley; and she knew that they were for dropping off illegal goods to store owners. She felt very sure that such a bag would not be out of place right beside Borgin and Burks, and proceeded to quietly position the bag so that she was more or less hidden from view from the street.

Mervy knew that she needed to risk a view in the window, but she suddenly felt paralyzed. There was no way of knowing if anyone would see her when she chanced a look... Mervy looked down at her clothes nervously. Typical whore-bum look, chosen that if she was found she could weep and pretend to be homeless. Mervy tried very hard not to think about the horror stories she had heard about exactly what male Dark Wizards were known to do with prostitutes; grabbed the windowsill, and chanced a quick look before ducking down again.

She was breathing very fast. Mervy swallowed, against the will of her dry throat, and sighed. It wasn't so bad, she told herself. They were listening to a speaker on the other side of the room; so that everyone but the speaker himself was facing the wrong way. Surely someone giving a public speech wouldn't be looking over the audience's head out of windows that led to deserted alleyways, Mervy told herself reassuringly.

Mervy sneaked another look in the window this time, deliberately, and looked around inspecting each hood she saw, trying to find some names. It was hard to do, because she didn't recognize the speaker at all, and everyone else was turned the other way and covered by the hoods, but Mervy found that by squinting and shimmying all the way to the end of the window she could manage to see the first row of Dark Wizards. She could easily detect Severus Snape's head, who was looking at the speaker as if he was God, and she was sure the man next to him was a boy who graduated three years ago named Macnair. The sight of the next person she recognized surprised her so much, however that she slipped off the windowsill and landed back hard on her back on the alley floor with a quiet, but still audible, thunk.

It was Sirius. Sirius. Sirius Black had been sitting there, nodded and smiling at the speaker. Mervy felt ill.

Mervy really didn't have time to feel ill; she was sure the Dark Wizards heard her (she just hoped they thought she was one of the many drunken bums or a stray dogs that populated Knockturn Alley), and she acted very quickly. She stood up quickly and quietly, and ran off (still managing to be quiet) into the shadows of the adjacent building, a place to get some very frightening potions for cheap. She heard voices coming from the window she had been under earlier ("Was this bag always here, Bob?") and she ran faster, still trying to be quiet, listening intently for following footsteps and hearing none, until she managed to fling herself into the Knockturn Alley Pub, the Witch's Cat.

The bartender didn't even look at Mervy as she loosened some Floo Powder from her bag concealed under her whore-bum outfit, nor did he comment when she ran headfirst into the fire gasping the name of her house. Later, when Severus Snape would come around and ask him if he saw anything unusual at around 4:30 in the morning, the bartender would say no, that he had seen nothing. The only way to survive in Wizard slums, he thought grimly to himself, is to be vicious, tough, love the McGonagalls and notice nothing.

Mervy stepped out of the McGonagall House Floo Grate quickly, coughing up some

soot. She blinked, looking around the living room hastily, and saw her Uncle Marshall frozen in the act of taking off his gray traveling coat, staring at Mervy's arrival and frowning.

"You're back early," Mervy managed to gasp, as she sat down on the stone floor underneath her. "Georgie said you'd be doing a Diagon all day." Her heart was still beating very fast and the adrenaline rush she had gained while running away from the Dark Wizards seemed to be very hesitant in going away.

"Yes, I am," Marshall said, frowning even deeper now. "And where, may I ask, were you?"

Mervy stared at her Uncle Marshall. He was the Head of the McGonagalls, surely he had to have known about her mission. Maybe he left before Uncle Georgie could've told him, Mervy thought, and then remembered that her mother and Georgie had seen Marshall off when he left on the Knight Bus after Georgie had told Mervy about the plan. That could only mean... Mervy groaned internally. Lord, she thought angrily, I hate it when they sneak around each other's backs like this.

"No where," Mervy gasped, rushing out of the living room and nearly flattening Nymphadora Tonks, her younger fifth cousin twice removed, on the stairs.

"Watch where you're going!" Marshall bellowed at Mervy's retreating back. "You could kill someone, you know!"

Mervy burst into Uncle Georgie's bedroom and found him sitting at his desk looking very embarrassed, and trying to avoid the gaze of Mervy's parents who were sitting side by side on his bed, looking extremely grim.

"Mervy!" Doug Stevens, Mervy's father, gasped as soon as she walked into the room, and quickly swooped her into his arms. "We were so worried!" Mervy saw Doug shoot an extremely angry look at Georgie out of the corner of her eye.

Georgie nervously ruffled his already messy hair.

"I say..." he said, trying to sound reasonable. "Of course she's all right. What could've happened to her, eh?"

"Many things," Professor McGonagall said curtly, glaring at her younger brother. "Many, many, many things. Don't you see that? Do you not understand how dangerous these Dark Wizards are?"

Georgie took a deep breath.

"I'm sorry," he said, and for a second he truly looked it. "But really," he said in a pleading voice. "What was I supposed to do? There's no way I could fit into that tiny lookout point, could I?" Georgie patted his large gut. He took another deep breath. "And it was such a golden opportunity. For us and for Dumbledore's cause. Did you get any names, Mervy dear?"

Professor McGonagall looked at Mervy, her head tilted slightly to the left and looking at her daughter with a now slightly interested look.

"Yes, did you?" she asked, adjusting her square shaped spectacles slightly.

Mervy's chest swelled. Finally, she thought to herself happily, Mum actually looks sort of... proud of me. Professor McGonagall didn't like to give out compliments very often, and the professor often times forgot how important it was to compliment one's child constantly.

"Severus Snape," Mervy said, remembering his greasy head with a shudder. "Macnair." Mervy paused, remembering how she had next seen Sirius. The bubble of confusion raised in Mervy's chest again. It was true she had never really gotten along with Sirius... but he couldn't be a Dark Wizard, could he?

"Erm..." Mervy said. She took a deep breath. "I saw Sirius next."

"Sirius Black?" Georgie yelped. "The one Andromeda's always going on for you to marry? Mervy nodded glumly.

"The one that's visited here when Andromeda's dragged him over here? Andromeda's cousin?" Georgie persisted, as if not believing his ears.

"I never would have imagined..." Doug said, sighing and rubbing his eyes as if he had a very draining day. First his daughter was sent on an extraordinarily dangerous and stupid mission (and had probably nearly been murdered and then raped), and now Sirius Black, who'd he's met, was a Dark Wizard.

Mervy's mother, however, was looking Mervy and frowning slightly.

"Mervy..." Professor McGonagall said, and then hesitated. "Are you sure? It wasn't someone who just happened to look very, very much like him?"

Mervy stared at her mother. Suddenly she understood. A wave of relief swept over her.

"Regulus!" she said weakly, leaning back slightly. "Of course! Sirius's rotten little brother. In Slytherin. Of course. Yes, they look almost identical. Of course it was him. I can see it now." Mervy could see Regulus now under the Dark Wizard's hood. Yes, Regulus's head was slightly skinnier... Mervy was sure it was him.

"Well, that makes sense, then," Mervy's father said, sounding very relieved. "Sirius is such a good boy..."

"Well, I'll just write those names down and give them to Dumbledore then," Georgie said brightly, reaching for a pen and paper. "What was it? Snape, Macnair and Black Junior?"

"You will do nothing of the sort," Professor McGonagall snapped. "Don't write those names down."

Georgie stared at her sister.

"Minnie," he said, adopting one of his many pet names for Professor McGonagall. "Just because you're still mad at me for sending Mervy on a mission doesn't mean that--"

"It was practically a suicide mission, you stupid fool," Professor McGonagall snapped. (Georgie's plump pale face turned slightly pink.) "But that's not why."

"Why then?" Mervy cried, angered that her precious findings wouldn't be given to Professor Dumbledore. Professor McGonagall turned to her daughter slowly with an odd expression on her face.

"Because," she said tightly, "you made a mistake. If you thought Regulus was Sirius, what's would've stopped you from thinking another oily-headed boy was Severus?"

Mervy gaped at her mother in horror.

"Mum!" she cried, "Snape and Macnair haven't even got look-alike brothers!"

Professor McGonagall stood up.

"That," she said, "is not the point. You mixed up one person's identity, there's no reason you couldn't have mixed them all up. Your findings are defective." She spoke in a tone of voice that said very clearly that the matter was closed. Professor McGonagall then stood up and swept out of the room.

Mervy stared at the door that her mother had walked out of in dismay. Defective, Mervy thought glumly. Defective. I can't do anything right. She tried to stop the tears of frustration that were welling up in her eyes.

"Ah, Mervy, it's okay," Georgie said consolingly pulling his arm around her.

"Yeah, baby," Mervy's father said, giving her a tight-lipped smile. "You know how your mother gets." Mervy nodded glumly.

The door swung open, and Mervy looked up, half expecting it to be her mother, ready to apologize for storming out on her.

Uncle Marshall walked in.

"Oh, it's you," Mervy said in a disappointed voice upon seeing her uncle. Marshall raised his eyebrows at her.

"I'll ignore that," he said briskly. "Mervy, I have no idea where you've been but I will talk to you and Georgie about it later. Because I left someone as mature and prudent as Georgie in charge, I'm sure you were no where dangerous. Isn't that right, Georgie?" Marshall asked, raising his eyebrows at his brother. Georgie gulped and agreed.

"Right," Marshall said. "Well, it's Sunday. Come on, get ready for church. Our family's supposed to be taking your friend Remus Lupin there today."

There was a stunned pause after Marshall said these words. Georgie, Marshall, and Doug all stared at Marshall.

"What?" Georgie asked. "That boy who hangs around with Sirius and James? The skinny one? We're taking him to church?"

"Yes," Marshall answered briskly.

"Our church?" Mervy asked, frowning. "The Church of Exiles?"

"Yes," Marshall answered, looking irritated.

"Why does some random seventeen year old in Mervy's class need to go to a secret wizard church based on people who feel ousted by normal society?" Doug asked, looking slightly amused.

"I have no idea," Marshall said imploringly. "It's secret, you see. Now get ready."

Marshall left the room.

"First I'm defective and now I'm taking one the James and Sirius Wonder Boy Clan with me to church," Mervy grumbled.

"What was that?" Doug asked, looking at his daughter in what looked to be a look of amusement.

"Nothing," Mervy snapped. Doug smiled and went away to try and calm his wife down. I wonder though, Mervy thought, why Remus would be interested in The Church of Exiles? I wonder what he's hiding...