The Rising of Merlin

The One With Death

Chapter 18 The One With Death

Merlin was up at the break of dawn the next day. He had gone to bed immediately when he reached his chambers, so he felt well rested. Aithusa was still sleeping next to his pillow, so he tiptoed out of his bedroom and into the bathroom to get ready. Soon he was on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast.

The Hall was almost deserted when he arrived; the only ones there were some teachers. He grabbed some bread and ham and stuffed it in his satchel, which he had saved from Camelot. He then made his way to Filch's office, where he was greeted by a large cat.

"Hello dear. You look absolutely stunning." Merlin crouched down and started petting her behind the ears, and she started purring.

"She is a beauty all right." A gruff voice said from the door, which up until now had been closed. Merlin looked up and saw a slightly old man with battered clothes and long dirty hair. He glared at him with a sneer. "Who are you and why are you petting Mrs. Norris? She doesn't like anyone touching her besides me."

"I'm sorry," Merlin quickly stood up and offered his hand to the man. "I'm Marcus, the new assistant caretaker." The man didn't take his hand; instead he gave Merlin a once over and turned around to walk back inside the door.

"Come on then." He said after a few seconds when Merlin still hadn't moved. Merlin realised that this man was probably Mr. Filch and immediately made his way inside the office. "Well, sit down then, boy. I don't have all day." Mr. Filch said with a drawl.

"Are you Mr. Filch?" Merlin thought it was best to ask, so as not to take orders from a completely different man. The man, Mr. Filch, nodded in response.

"So, Dumbledore tells me you're here to help me with my chores. Doesn't he think I can do it by myself any-more?" He glared at Merlin.

"Of...of course he thinks you can handle the chores by yourself, sir." Merlin stuttered a little, surprised by Mr. Filch's bluntness. "It's for my benefit and nothing else. I needed a job and he was kind enough to give one to me or two actually, since I'm also an assistant gamekeeper." He started ranting a bit before he stopped himself.

"Very well." Mr. Filch said gruffly. "Your chores for the day will be to clean all the bathrooms and the surrounding halls. I want you to come here every morning around this time, and I will give you the day's chores. You don't have to report back to me after the end of the day, I will notice if you haven't done your job anyway. You will also work as long as it takes to do the chores, but when you're done you can take the rest of the day off. You're dismissed." He finished and gave him a mop, a broom and a bucket with a sponge in. Merlin thanked him and quickly made his way to the top floor. He figured he might as well begin at the top.

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Cleaning the bathrooms was a lot more relaxing than Merlin would have thought. He made it mostly by hand, only using Magic when absolutely needing to. It felt like the old times when he scrubbed Arthur's chambers and polished his armour.

By noon he had arrived at the fourth floor. He had cleaned the bathrooms and was in the middle of sweeping the halls. He had his Walkman on, so he didn't hear the approaching footsteps until someone suddenly yanked the headphone off his head.

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Marcus quickly turned around with his hands up, probably expecting to have to fight, but when he saw that it was only Ron and Harry, he relaxed.

"Sorry mate didn't mean to scare you." Ron said with a grin. "We tried to call you but you couldn't hear us with this thing on." He waved the headphones in the air to emphasize his point. "What is it anyway?"