Punishment of the worst sort
Who: Pen, Croaker (NPC Head of Dept. of Mysteries)
What: A very bad Monday
Where: Ministry
When: April 30th, 1999
Rating: Gen
Status: Closed

The Monday before had been one of the worst in Penelope's memory (some little snit from the PR office named Pucey had somehow gotten into her office, she hadn't heard the end of it from her coworkers). That is, until Monday turned this week, and this one took the title swiftly. She'd gotten a memo late Friday evening as she was just closing up her tiny office from Mr. Croaker, asking her to dress as a Muggle for Monday morning. No work robes. He'd written that if she needed to shop for something suitable, he could expense it from the Department's Gringott's account but he'd also written that he assumed that someone as young and non-traditional as Pen (she'd laughed when she'd read that one) would have appropriate attire. And so she slouched into the Ministry slightly embarrassed Monday morning dressed in denims and a women's button up blouse that she'd picked up at a shop in London. Even with her comfortable Muggle overcoat on, she felt naked without her robes, and she'd fussed for an hour in the morning to find a place to comfortably keep her wand. She ended up magicking an inside never-ending pocket to the coat, and just planned on keeping the darned thing on all day if she needed to.

The note, of course, hadn't explained. Mr. Croaker very rarely wrote details down (he even loathed writing official papers lest someone not of the Department ever lay eyes on them), and only ever signed his letters "CK" as if he were afraid they'd be intercepted. So, wrapped firmly in her long coat and rather miffed, Pen knocked on his door not long after dropping her things off in her own small, over crowded with books, office. "Sir?" she asked, uncharacteristically timid, still feeling out of sorts in her Muggle garb.

"Yes, Pen, come on in." He had a deep, grainy voice and a jumpy personality, he was always nervous and normally this drove Pen up the wall but today it only served to feed her already nervous feelings about the whole assignment he was about to give her. She didn't sit even when he'd gestured to the chair in front of his desk. "Right, anyway," he went on, "I'd like you to attend a lecture for most of the day at the London School of Economics, top secret work you know, and so we've gotten you a Muggle identity for the day and you're to take notes and blend into the crowd."

"Excuse me?" The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them and the look on her face was one of pure disgust. She wasn't anti-Muggle, but she certainly didn't go around consorting with them, even for research.

Mr. Croaker cleared his throat and sounded a bit like a bullfrog, "The lecture is on Muggle security research programs in Britain and America and we need the information that as of yet we have not been able to get. We're hoping that if need be, you can use your... well, talents be that magical or otherwise, to get the information from some of the speakers." He handed her a parchment, but quickly took out his wand and transfigured into a Muggle notebook. "All the questions we need answered are in there, the ink is for your eyes only but don't go about losing it - we don't need the Auror's to know we're doing this research and after last week..." He let the rest go unsaid as Pen rolled her eyes and was nearly ill at the mention.

"Some punishment, I swear, not even my fault the damned rookie moron was snooping around where he shouldn't be - you all should be blaming the security of the place on this, not me." She grumbled perfectly clearly for him as she turned and stormed out the door. A day with Muggles. How degrading. She was one of the best minds in the Department and here she was taking notes like some common Muggle secretary!

Pen stormed through the halls of the Department of Mysteries, the other wizards steering clear of her. She took the lift up to the main lobby and looked briefly through the information in the notebook before flooing out of the Ministry to her flat and then headed into the streets of London via Diagon Alley, very prepared for the worst Monday in memory.