Chapter Text
London
Sometime at the beginning of July
A man with dark curly hair walks down the street at a quickened pace. He was adorned with an all-black look, sporting a black baseball cap and blacked-out sunglasses. While also wearing a black set of workout clothes. He was, in fact, not leaving the gym but rather trying to be incognito on his walk back to his flat. He luckily landed a job not too far away from his home in London, and that meant every day after a long shift, he could walk back home and be comfortable in his own home rather than shacking it up in a hotel. But today was nice, no paparazzi following him, forcing him to take a cab rather than enjoy the nice hustle and bustle of the city. It was a soothing day, which was nice since it rained most of June, so it was finally starting to feel like summer, well as summer as it could get in London weather.
The man looked up at the sun briefly to bask in its rays when he saw something rather particular. It was a.. visual light show or something of that nature. Well, whatever it was, it depicted a skull with a snake coming from the mouth. It was made to look like green smoke; in all honesty, it was rather cool looking, so the young man stopped to stare at it. He was wondering what kind of event was happening, but when he looked around, he noticed he had walked to where he was completely alone. It was the park right before his flat, all he had to do was cross through the park, and he’d be home.
But that’s when something odd happened. A very beautiful woman he’d never seen before was walking his way, smiling. The young man politely smiled in return, walking passed the woman, thinking that maybe she was new to the area as he’d never seen her before. But as she passed, he heard her footsteps stop.
Curiously he moved to turn around when it all went wrong.
The last few things he saw were a rather nasty smile adorning the pretty lady's face and a black bag being shoved over his head.
Then he knew no more as he seemed to have lost consciousness seconds later.
May 4, 2007
10:24 am
There was a silence in the air as if waiting for what was to happen next. The person standing at the edge of the lake was lightly coughing, her rather thin frame shaking from breathing in air that was so foreign and dirty. The long dark brown hair and vibrant blue eyes made the beautiful woman seem out of place at this weird abandoned beach. The light cough turned into a rather hard hacking cough reverberating through her body as she breathed in this new modern air. After a few harsh minutes, the woman seemed to adjust, and she stood tall, taking in her immediate surroundings.
As she looked up, another car drove by.
“That is…?Hmmmmm?” She mumbles to herself before waving her hand and drying herself completely.
Suddenly a whirlwind starts to gather around her. It forms at her feet until it completely envelops her body before transporting her to another location.
And soon she steps foot on the Isle of the Blessed.
The Order Meeting
10:30 am
Merlin, who was last seen clutching his heart, felt a pulse of old magic in the air. It was old, ancient even for him.
This wasn’t Morgana…was it? If so, she would have fully regained her memories and been as powerful as before.
But, no…it felt different…older.
Merlin felt someone's arm around his shoulder, but he paid no mind as he was feeling something else. Besides the use of old magic, there was someone trying to break into the Isle of the Blessed. And simultaneously, someone was entering the boundaries of the Crystal Cave.
It couldn’t be the same person doing both, so he let go of his chest and gasped in the air after he forgot to breathe and walked to his desk; he’d stashed the Crystal somewhere in there; it would make things clearer.
The people around him broke him out of his trance, briefly, but this was much too important, something was happening, and it was something big.
All too soon, he got a hold of the crystal, and images started to appear, Morgana looking rather twisted with a wand in her hand, then………… Mordred appeared looking bloody and beaten, then…a face Merlin never ever expected to see again in his life appeared. Someone who was a relic of the past appeared in a foretelling of the future.
That woman… Merlin’s thoughts broke through his brain-to-mouth filter, and he spoke rather briefly in shock,
“No way……No way!”
And in a quiet voice not even Remus heard, he said her name,
“Nimueh,” before he apparated out of the room with a large crack.
Surprising all those in the room with his weird behavior.
Malfoy Estate
May 4, 2007
10:40 am
Morgan was sitting patiently, watching the hustle and bustle of the dark wizards following Voldemort's orders. It was very lively in here since the death of that old guy Draco said was killed. Draco was apparently supposed to have killed him but couldn’t do it, and some other man did, so Draco was sulking next to her. She felt he wasn’t really that sad about failing but rather about what happened.
But she didn’t turn him away she rather liked Draco as he was kind of adorable, like one would find a younger brother. So she sat next to Draco, trying to show him her phone and all the cool stuff it did, he was listening, but he seemed more conscious of the people watching as anything muggle was frowned upon.
It was a rather peaceful day when things changed. Morgan, who was holding the phone in front of Draco, dropped it suddenly.
Draco was startled, looking at her confused. But Morgan acted like she wasn’t there; her eyes looked rather lifeless as she stared at the floor, not seeing anything in particular….no she felt something deep within her heart. Like something was happening.
Suddenly a vision happened as she was awake. She saw a place she’d never seen before; it seemed to be a mystical cave with millions of crystals everywhere. The vision wasn’t long, but she saw it and felt like it was calling for her to come.
Suddenly she gasped, coming back and finally saw the phone on the ground and Draco looking worried.
“Morgan? Are you alright?” Draco said for the third time, yet Morgan only just seemed to register it.
“I…I...I don’t know.” Morgan stuttered out, unsure of what was happening.
Voldemort was watching as well but didn’t say anything as he found the girl rather like an unsolvable puzzle, and he was tempted to just break it to get the prize rather than solve it.
Morgan stood up, abandoning her forgotten phone on the floor, and walked to Voldemort in a manner only she was brave enough to do. She never cowered in front of him.
“What?” Voldemort asked as she stood before him, yet never said anything for a minute.
“I saw a vision.” Some people looked rather intrigued by the word vision but didn’t show it.
“And what was it of?” Voldemort asked as Morgan seemed to be lost in thought rather than focusing on the conversation at hand.
“I’ve seen a cave full of crystals. It reminds me of something my sister told me. The birthplace of magic…but why now…?” Morgan said, remembering her past life’s sister’s teaching.
Voldemort looked rather interested now.
“The birthplace of magic? There is such a place?” He asks.
“Yes, my sister used to tell me, it was where magic came from and where prophecies began. It was said to contain the knowledge of the past, present, and the future, just by staring into those crystals.” Morgana said, clearly hearing her sister's voice in her memories.
Voldemort’s eyes gleamed,
“Oh really? So you know where this place is?” He asked, very intrigued about something called the birthplace of magic.
“Yes, I think so… I can see the terrain; it reminds me of the Valley of the Fallen Kings,” Morgana said as she could see places that seemed to trigger her memories.
“Valley of the Fallen Kings? Where is that?” Voldemort said never heard of this place.
“I…well, it’s probability called something different now,” Morgan said, rolling her eyes.
“Can you get there?” Voldemort said icily.
“Hmmm, maybe. Here let's go.” Morgan said, holding out her hand.
Voldemort stared at it, not touching it.
Morgana looked confused, shaking her hand again.
“I am not letting you apparate me anywhere; I am happy not to get splinched,” Voldemort said, belittling her poor excuse of magic.
“Splinched? What’s that?” Morgan asked, confused.
“It happens if you don’t know how to apparate properly.” Another Death Eater said, scoffing at her for not knowing the basics.
But Morgan just brushed the jab off.
“Who said I was apparating? The old religion is much more complex, and we can transport ourselves without losing limbs. Ha, new magic seems rather rudimentary.” Morgana said to the Death Eater who spoke to her.
“Are you coming? Well, if you want to go, you have to, as only I know how to get there.” Morgan said, annoyed at her companions.
She turned to Draco,
“Come.” She said, holding out her hand.
Draco picked up her phone and held Morgan’s hand, looking like he’d rather disappear.
Voldemort glared; he knew she was trying to make a point bringing the little Malfoy along but sighed as he pointed to three Death Eaters and motioned them to follow.
“Can you handle more?” Voldemort said in a taunting tone.
“Yes, I can; I hope you don’t forget Voldemort, I am Morgana Pendragon, and I am far more powerful than you will ever know,” Morgan said, looking rather regal.
The wind started at their feet, soon encasing them, and soon they, too, were transported to a new place.
The Isle of the Blessed
10:30 am
Nimueh, a woman who was the sole caretaker of the Isle for years, broke through Merlin’s barriers and landed softly on the grounds of the Isle of the Blessed.
As she stepped on the shores of the island, she noticed barely anything was out of place when she last left it. She walked through the grounds, and she noticed signs of a rather fresh battle but ignored it as no one was on this island but her.
She walked around aimlessly till she stood before where she died.
Nimueh chuckled. Was this peace after death? She thought to herself.
She wasn't angry anymore nor vengeful. Rather she felt like laughing at the events that led to her death. She felt like she should have known that that baby prince would be that man of the legends.
Of course, she had heard the prophecies of Emrys. She could remember trying to get some Druids she knew to shut up about it after hearing the story fifty times. But as most her age, the legends of Emrys and the once and future king were just fables to make magical children hope for a more peaceful time.
How was she to know Emrys would strike her down?
She thinks this all to herself as she stares at a blackened mark on the floor where she presumably perished.
Sighing, she stopped looking at her gruesome grave and walked further into the castle.
The ground was wet and muddy, leaving imprints and footprints as she traversed the old ruins. She eventually appeared near an old desk that had seen better days, and she pulled a drawer open.
The desk fell apart at the touch making the sorceress sigh. But trifling through the rubble, she could not find what she was looking for.
“I die, and a thief rummages through my things,” Nimueh says, annoyed but instead walks over to her old scrying bowl.
It’s filled with dirty rainwater, but it would serve its purpose.
“Let’s see…what should I look at….Camelot?”
Nimueh ponders aloud as the water ripples to reveal a broken but blurry castle.
“Wards? Powerful ones, but how odd, Camelot fell?”
Nimueh has a bad feeling she looks through old magical sights and see’s wards and ruins. Also, she catches glimpses of the modern world; whether it is a car driving by or a tall glass building, she realizes something is wrong. Something is very wrong.
She backs away from the water holding her head. This was not the world she knew; it was, but not. She needed definite answers; she needed the Crystal Cave.
After a weary look at the water, she disappeared in the wind once again, heading to the cave.
Isle of the Blessed
10:36 am
Merlin appeared in a puddle. He frowned, looking down at his muddy and wet dress shoes.
Sighing, he stepped out of the puddle and looked around, seeing and sensing no one. Still, he knows he felt a breach, so he walks to a spot in particular and sees something rather alarming.
A set of small footprints in the mud just before a burnt patch of blackened ground. The image of the crystal flashes in his head once again, and he freezes.
“No way,” Merlin says to himself, even though it is really happening.
He follows the footprints into the castle and walks the path Nimueh walked before appearing before the murky scrying bowl.
Merlin felt goosebumps on his arms.
A foe from the past seems to have returned.
Crystal Cave
10:36 am
Nimueh lands on the wet ground before the entrance to the cave. She breathed in a fresh breath of air as the air near this place seemed cleaner. She silently walked into the cave, needing to confirm some things.
Inside the cave was exactly as it had been the last time she was there.
She walked up to a spot where it seemed like a crystal was broken off.
This was the particular spot she broke the Crystal of Neahtid all those years ago when she was but a young priestess. She briefly stared at that spot before walking to a new cluster of crystals a reached for a new one. Her eyes glowed a golden hue, and a crystal broke free, landing in her hands.
A new Crystal of Neahtid was born.
Once the crystal fell into her hand, she saw the past.
Briefly, she saw her death. Then she saw the death of the baby prince turned king, she saw Kilgharrah, that old dragon, die, and she saw the world change. The world grew and evolved as the decades passed. But she noticed something every few years that young boy Merlin would appear looking older and sadder as time passed. Eventually, she saw him lie down in what looked like a cell, and she didn’t see him anymore as the world continued to change.
She pulled her eyes away from the crystal.
It wasn’t that the world was different it was rather she had been misplaced into the far future of her evolved world.
Crystal Cave
10:43 am
Morgan, Draco, Voldemort, and the other Death Eaters appeared at the entrance of the Crystal Cave.
They all appeared in one piece, and the wizards of the modern age felt cheated as this way of travel was pleasant rather than the squeezing feeling of apparation.
Morgan let go of the hands she was holding and stalked forward, going into the cave before being violently jerked back by Voldemort.
“What?!” She yelled, affronted.
“We are not alone,” Voldemort said quietly, looking into the cave.
He felt uneasy, almost like Myridian Emrys was standing in the shadows of the cave.
“Who goes there? Emrys?” Morgan shouts, looking into the darkness, also uneasy, thinking similarly in line with Voldemort.
A soft enchanting laugh leaves the cave. And soon, a small and beautiful woman exits the cave, crystal in hand.
“I was wondering who would show, but I must say I was not expecting the little feisty girl from Camelot,” Nimueh says, remembering Morgana from her times tormenting Camelot.
“Who are you? I don’t recognize you from the past.” Morgana asks, startled by Camelot being brought up.
“No, you wouldn’t; I died not too long after I met you.” Nimueh sighed.
She looked at Morgana’s companions, the little boy, and the monster. Then she looked at the masked individuals in the back.
Nimueh frowned while looking at the lot.
“So this is what magic amounted to in the future, huh? Rather pathetic,” Nimueh said, not interested in the group ahead of her any longer.
“To confuse me with Emrys, though, haha, should I feel touched? Honestly, I feel sort of annoyed.” Nimueh laughed to herself.
“Hmmm, what’s wrong with you? And obviously, there is something wrong with you.” Nimueh asks Morgana and states the obvious to Voldemort, who, if looks could kill Nimueh, would be dead.
“What’s wrong with me?” Morgana asks.
“You’re different. You are clearly young, not immortal, not like him , but your magic it’s muddy. It’s like your soul is not only your own, like there are two people slowly merging into one body.” Nimueh said, having never seen something like this before.
Whatever had caused it was old magic, older than anything she’d ever seen. Not even Emrys could be capable of something like that.
The immortal comment went under Voldemort’s lack-there-of nose, as he thought she was talking of him when she really meant Merlin. And Morgana soon answered Nimueh’s queries while making her own assumptions.
“Oh my god! You…you’re a… I’m so stupid how did I not see? She’s a reincarnation like me!” Morgan says, turning to Voldemort and smiling.
Voldemort looked as intrigued as the witch before him felt strong.
“Oh really?” He said, smiling, thinking this was going to be another easy pawn.
“Reincarnation? How do you mean?” Nimueh asked, intrigued at this new magic that had happened in her absence.
“My name was Morgana Pendragon, Queen of Camelot,” Morgan said, smiling.
Nimueh, however, frowned deeply at the surname Pendragon and looked confused about the queen comment.
“But I was reincarnated, like you, into the body of Morgan, a muggle. But as I regain my memories, I grow stronger.” Morgan said.
Nimueh frowned; that was definitely not her situation, but she went along with that story.
“I see a reincarnation; I wonder who cast that kind of powerful magic. Hmmm, anyway, why are you here?” Nimueh asked.
“This is the Crystal Cave, no?” Morgan said, looking at the crystal in the woman’s hand.
“It is.”
“We’ve come here to gain knowledge against Emrys,” Morgan said.
“Do you know of him?”
“Yes. He killed me in the past.” Nimueh enlighted the group to her demise.
Morgan smiled,
“Me too! He killed me as well.”
Nimueh didn’t see what was so grand about being murdered by the boy of prophecies.
“This is great; join me! Together we can kill Emrys together, get our revenge, and rule together.” Morgana said, grabbing Nimueh’s hands excitedly.
However, Nimueh had other plans in this life. She rejected Morgana’s hands and looked a bit disgusted.
“No.”
“What?” Morgan said, frowning.
“Why not? He killed you as he did I; do you not want revenge? Are you afraid of him?” She asked, looking confused and angry.
Nimueh just sighed,
“I already tried to kill Emrys once before, and I died. I no longer hold any anger against him. If I had better foresight, I probably wouldn’t have tried to kill him.”
“What?” Morgana asked again.
But Nimueh just continued on,
“I, too, was once filled with bloodlust and revenge; I, too, was once stupid enough to try to get Emrys killed. You can’t kill him; if only I’d known then…I may have joined him…haaa well then was a different time..who knows it’s all up to destiny really….” Nimueh sighed with a sad frown.
This time Voldemort didn’t miss it.
“What do you mean he can’t die?”
Nimueh had looked towards the noseless monster with a wicked gleam in his eye.
“Emrys is immortality itself. What do they teach magic folk nowadays?” Nimueh said, surprised that they didn’t know the meaning of Emrys.
“Wait! You mean that crazy old man has been alive all this time?” Morgan asked, scared for the first time since her death; she imagined how much stronger the old man would have gotten if he had never died.
Nimueh paused at the old comment but smirked,
“Who knows..maybe.” She found it funny seeing the torment on their faces.
Voldemort took that answer another way.
He believed that he would know whether or not someone was living immortally in the magical world, considering he had been researching it in his youth for a very long time. So Voldemort understood it as his family would be around forever. Because as far as Voldemort knows, the Emrys family has literally been around forever; it is probably one of the oldest pureblood families in existence.
But then again, Voldemort was smiling at the possibility that if he were Immortal or an ancestor of his since Morgana kept mentioning some old man, then that would mean immortality was not but a fever dream.
It was something graspable.
Morgana had enough and asked again.
“One last time, I will ask, join us, join me and let’s kill Emrys. We can see if he’s really immortal when I stab a sword through his heart. No matter how immortal you may think he is, there is always some way to kill him; there has to be.” Morgana said viciously.
Nimueh sighed, shaking her head again,
“Maybe…but I'm not making that mistake again, haha. I plan to have a long life. No.” Nimueh laughed at Morgana’s nativity, thinking she could take Emrys after dying once already by his hand.
And also for the fact that she was so powerless in comparison to the days of the old.
Morgana raged inside.
“So that means you are my enemy, then? So then you need to die!” Morgana said, thinking that if this woman didn’t join her, then she’d be better off dead, as it would be bad if she joined forces with Emrys.
Morgana pulled out her wand as her companions followed suit.
Except for Draco, who was holding his head in his hands ever since the Emrys talk.
But even without him, Morgana shot off her first spell, a cutting curse sending it spiraling to Nimueh’s face.
It bounced off a wordless shield charm.
Nimueh seemed bored.
“Pathetic. Forbearne! Akwele!” She yelled, conjuring a fireball.
“It’s a sad sight to see that thousands of years later, the magic on this earth is reduced to such insignificant measly beings as you. How could you fools abandon the Old Religion, the power of the Triple Goddess, magic in its purest form? To call yourself sorcerers is a disgrace on your lineage.” She lectured as the fireball got bigger and bigger.
“Perish.” She said as the fireball surged forward.
Voldemort stepped to the side, not relying on his shield charm.
Morgana tried to block it with a spell of the old religion, luckily just managing to block herself and Draco.
Unfortunately, when Voldemort sidestepped the spell and hit the three Death Eaters behind him, they faced the brunt of it all, burning to a crisp on the spot, they weren't completely dead, but they weren't far from the afterlife either.
“Ah, it feels nice to put idiots in their place. The fact you couldn’t see how much stronger I am is a testament to how weak you truly are.” Nimueh said with a wicked smile of her own, adorning her pretty face.
Nimueh only gave a second to breathe, raising her hand and watching them flinch before the words even came out of her mouth; her eyes blazed gold as she yelled,
“Astrice!”
Morgana’s hand shot out,
“Shieldan!” she screamed as her eyes blazed the same golden glow.
The Dark lord watched in fascination as he stood off to the side, watching two relics of the past go at it.
“How can you not want revenge? Y-you psychotic bitch!” Morgana screamed, struggling more than she thought she would.
“If I knew he was Emrys when I met him, I would’ve never done what I did. I would have never touched his King. I regret it. But I know my limits, and I follow the old religion, and balance will be kept, and me atoning for my sins is my balance. Working with you is not my destiny. No, my destiny is something greater this time.” Nimueh said, not backing down nor letting Morgana persuade her.
Morgana just screamed in anger, unleashing the old magic in anger.
Nimueh smirked,
“An untrained child.” She said under her breath while laughing.
“Hierste thaet cicen sona.” Morgana shouted as the ground around the women set aflame she would burn everything in her anger.
Nimueh laughed loudly,
“Let me show you something Emrys taught me.” The women laughed as the sky started to darken and thunder roared across the sky.
Lighting flashed all around them.
But before she could release the spell, Voldemort flung a cutting curse at her stomach, stopping her in her tracks.
The storm raged on, but Nimueh started to cough up blood, but nonetheless, she looked calm and eerie with a smile covered in blood.
“I died once before; I fear nothing.” She declared falling as rain fell with her.
Drenching the people and the surroundings.
Thunder crashed like rain in the area as she crumbled to her knees. And she fell lifeless and limp after but a moment.
Morgana panted, exhausting herself as she wasn’t used to using magic yet; she looked to her strong companion. A vile creature who left his humanity behind but a powerful ally nonetheless.
“Thank you. Shame, she could have been useful, but she was foolhardy.”
Voldemort looked as if he couldn’t believe he had killed the lady but sighed,
“Grab the crystal she has and let us leave I’d rather not get killed by the aftermath of her last spell,” Voldemort says, watching in morbid fascination as the lighting starts falling closer and closer to them.
“Right!” Morgana says, pulling out a pouch and grabbing the crystal with a bit of difficulty as it was clutched rather tightly in the dead woman's hand.
But after getting it free, she secured it on her waist and pulled Draco along as she transported them out of there.
A final lighting bolt hits the ground below them right as they disappear.
A few minutes later…
One of the presumed dead Death Eaters rises with an unsteady balance. He was farther to the back when the attack went down; he got barely singed but was knocked unconscious. The man looked at the woman's bloody corpse. Then he took a quick look at his surroundings, but that was his mistake.
The woman rose from the ground, bloody and hurt, but still alive.
She lifted a dagger from inside her cloak, stabbing the Death Eater.
“Foolish child, always keep your eyes on your enemies. Or rather make sure they dead.”
Nimueh held his mouth shut,
“Ah, ah, shhh. I need you for something, can’t get interrupted just yet.”
Nimueh said, and she lifted her hand to the sky,
“Ic, seo heahsacerd, the acwelle, strengthe ealdan aewfaestnesse!” Nimeuh whispered to the sky, killing the man, and she opened her mouth and drank the rainwater that fell from it.
The wounds on her body slowly healed as the man she stabbed slowly died.
“A life for a life, balance, it’s how the old religion works,” Nimeuh said, smirking as she dropped his body to the floor.
She looks at the cave and sighs,
“Now I need another crystal,” Nimueh says as she walks back into the cave.
The storm clearing, and her clothes drying as she walks in.
Notes:
Hehehehehehehehehehehehe
You all thought Arthur was back, nahhhhhhh hahaha.
Sorry, sorry, that was the biggest plot twist I had so far.
I have 50 chapters in this book; do y'all really think I'm bringing Arthur back now?
Haha no. He must be the grand finale.
Don't be too hard on yourself. I purposely described it pretty ambiguous so you wouldn't know. I've been waiting to write this for a long time. Arthur will definitely come back, no worries but not today.
Also, next chapter Merlin shows up at this messy battlefield.
Chapter 2: Not A Reincarnation But A Rebirth
Notes:
So I have prepared something special. Y'all will get the three promised chapters before my hiatus, but on Halloween, I have made a fourth chapter as a little special, looking into the past. It's just something for Halloween. I was even gonna make it its own little new story, but after writing it, it was canon to my story, so I decided I was just gonna make a Halloween special. I'm not planning on doing it often, but I thought I'd treat y'all to something cute after the Nimueh plot twist.
It's not gonna be scary. A bit angsty and fluffy, but I think y'all will like it. And it will be my only romance attempt for a while.
So three chapters will be posted by Halloween! Enjoy that!
<><><><><><>
Anyway, I really love Nimueh's character. I love writing evil characters and sassy characters. And she is like hitting both for me. It's so fun to write. She is an absolute menace; it's amazing.
Also I was so determined to post this chapter that I made it really long. I finished the next chapter but it's short so I think I will work on it a bit more before posting. Thanks for reading tho!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Crystal Cave
May 4, 2007
10:50 am
Merlin finally arrives at the entrance to the Crystal cave. But what he sees before him is a mess; there are three dead Death Eaters. One looks to have bled out from a cut in their stomach. But it’s the other two which make Merlin nervous. Two of the dead Death Eaters are burnt black, and it looks an awful lot like an Old Religion spell only himself and one other use. And since he’d been seeing that person's face in the crystal. Merlin looked around the outside of the cave, and there was not a soul in sight. He then looked to the dark luminous entrance to the cave and took a deep breath.
“Nimueh?” He called, waiting patiently as he had no plans to step into the cave with her.
After nothing but silence for a moment, Merlin heard soft footsteps slowly getting louder the closer they got to the entrance of the cave. And the face of his nightmare slowly entered into the light. She was holding another crystal, and she had a wicked smile on her lips.
“Ah, so my next visit is you,” Nimueh says with a haughty expression on her face.
“Haha, so we meet again, Merlin, or should I say Emrys?” Nimueh chuckles and greets Merlin.
Merlin pales.
“You….” Merlin stares at a loss for words.
Merlin flinched at the name Emrys, as she was truly one of the only ones who knew the meaning behind it.
“.....Nimueh,” Merlin said quietly, looking distrustful.
She felt as strong as her past self, nothing like the Morgana of the present.
“Oh, come now, that can’t be the only thing you have to say to me since you killed me.” Nimueh was having fun.
Merlin was panicking.
“That..I…uh..” Merlin was at a complete loss.
He was thinking that maybe Arthur had returned, but Nimueh….well, he didn’t know what to think of this.
“Nimueh…you’ve returned as well. But your not a reincarnation?” Merlin stated and asked at the same time.
“No...I’ve hmmm…it seems I’ve just been brought back. I felt like I died by your hand no more than a week ago. Though I can guess that it’s been far longer than that. Seeing how much you’ve grown. And how the world advanced from the crystal,” Nimueh said, looking at the mature face Merlin sported compared to the baby face he had when they first met.
She also noticed the stubble and the long scar stretching into the confines of his suit.
Merlin laughed a cold, detached laugh.
“Oh, it’s been a long time Nimueh,”
Merlin said, looking at the High Prestiess in front of him with a sad, nostalgic look,
“A very long time.”
He takes a better look at her and sees she’s covered in blood, and there is a large gap in the stomach area of her dress as it was like it was cut, but the skin was unblemished. He then looked back at the dead Death Eaters and frowned.
“Looks like you were having fun,” Merlin said, sighing.
Nimueh also looked down at her bloody attire,
“Well, the monster with no nose happened.”
“Why do you know about Voldemort?” Merlin asked, picking up on the ‘nose-less monster’ jab.
“Well, if you had let me finish, he cut me as I was having fun with the….reincarnation, was it? Angry that I wouldn’t join hands with her and kill you in revenge. I almost died for rejecting the idea but of course, a life for a life.” Nimueh said, pointing to the stabbed Death Eater.
“Ah. Well, I guess that’s something different. I must say I expected you to join her. Morgana. To try to kill me again.” Merlin said not to be bothered by the dead bodies nor the fact that she killed so many Death Eaters.
“Why aren’t you killing me?” Merlin asks.
“Uh, not that I want you to,” Merlin says, backtracking with a sheepish expression.
“Why would I try to kill Emrys? Your immortal; I’m not stupid. If I had known your destiny before, things may have been different in the past. Unlike the little sorceress, I now know that Emrys can’t die; I made that mistake once already; wouldn’t it be stupid to repeat history?” Nimueh explained.
Merlin frowned at the immortality comment but understood her reasons.
“Plus, if it’s been as long as you said, what’s the point anymore? I mean, Uther is dead now; why should I linger in the past?” Nimueh said, smiling after realizing Uther was dead.
“I suppose,” Merlin said, not sure.
“Well, I was a little bit angry, especially at the time. But maybe it’s like I’m at peace after death. I don’t want to kill you, nor do I have any plans of working with Morgana to kill you. Actually, she probably thinks I’m dead.” Nimueh says as she runs her hand over her bare stomach.
“I’m working in line with you this time, I guess,” Nimueh says, smiling, putting Merlin on edge.
He still couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.
Nimueh walked up right in front of Merlin, and she tugged his suit jacket briefly,
“But look at you. No more thin fabric shirts, and too small brown trousers and your cute little red scarf around your neck. No, you look like a popper nobleman even though the clothes are not exactly as I remember; but since I know times have changed as I’ve been dead, the fabric is enough to allude that you are no longer a servant, it seems.” Nimueh said rather astutely.
Merlin stepped back and adjusted his suit jacket again,
“You're right I'm not a servant. I am the sole heir to a very old family. Of course, it’s just me throughout the years creating a fake family for myself, but I have the money and power of what you would remember as a nobleman. But there are no kings or queens that have power like they used to in this day and age. The monarchy has fallen in terms of power, even if they still are revered. And more importantly, for you, I guess the magical community has hidden completely away from the eyes of normal people. They have their own government systems and laws. They have schools and magical jobs, and communities that thrive hidden away tucked in little corners of the world. There are no more witch hunts and burning at the stake. Well, if this war goes the way I’d like it to. See these masked idiots and that noseless monster you talked of, they have that dream of killing or enslaving those without magic while having those with magic rule over all. A foolish idea.” Merlin sighed, looking annoyed.
“Oh, so there is peace now. How nice. While I don’t like the idea of having to hide away, I can appreciate no meaningless deaths of my kind.” Nimueh said, enjoying this future she heard about.
“I agree. I, too, would rather not hide away, but they are scared of our past they’d rather stay hidden than be hunted and persecuted again. I can’t blame them, but they frown upon the world that’s ruled by people without magic. And the two communities don’t interact much at all; the world of people without the gift of magic has advanced so much; it’s so amazing what people have done without magic. And in the magical world, there are cures for diseases that plague the non-magical one, and I feel that since they are so separated, it’s a shame because together, they would be so amazing. But I digress; that's the world I dream of, not the one we currently have, I guess.” Merlin said, sobering up after imagining a united world, his vision of Albion.
But then Nimueh could also imagine the world Merlin was talking about as it put a smile on her face just thinking about what a nice place it would be.
“Dreams are meant to someday be achieved, and I’m sure your dreams will come to fruition as long as it aligns with destiny and fate,” Nimueh said, being nice rather than her sly or wicked usual nature.
Merlin softly chuckled,
“Maybe. But only Arthur could achieve something so great.” Merlin said, truly believing his words.
Nimueh didn’t say anything, but she thought Emrys was pretty influential that he could do it too.
“Any way how did you know I was here?” Nimueh asked.
For Morgana, she basically said she came for the crystals but found Nimueh as a plus. But Merlin was not shocked at all; no, it was like he expected her.
“Well, my wards were breached.” Merlin said.
“Oh, your the one warding all the magical sights.” Nimueh deduced.
“Yes. And I could feel it, while I didn’t know it was you until using the crystal.” Merlin explained, finding this situation so weird.
“Oh, I see,” Nimueh said, looking down at herself.
“Do you happen to know where I can get more clothes in these times?” Nimueh asks as she notices as compared to Merlin, she was dressed in rags.
Merlin looked at her bloody clothes once again and agreed; he couldn’t bring her anywhere near the others covered in blood.
“Ah, well, I can just do this..” Merlin said, pulling out his wand and transfiguring her old rags into a rather modern and muggle-ish red spring dress.
Not for the weather, but it was better than before.
“Oh well, that’s a nifty spell. But why are you using the weaker magic with that stick? Did you do away with the old religion as well?” Nimueh said harshly.
“No. The newer magic is considerably weaker, which is true, but it is magic nonetheless, and they have a more developed availability in the difference between each spell. While I could transfigure your clothes with the old religion, I’m not sure I would get such a clean result. Of all people, do you think I would do away with the old religion?” Merlin explained.
Nimueh shrugged her shoulders,
“Who knows, the world is so different now,” Nimueh said, looking around her even though this place looked relatively the same, she knew everywhere else was not.
Eventually, she asked a good question, “
Why are we here now? Is something…?” She was going to ask if something was wrong, but she didn’t need to ask; she was almost as in tune with the old religion as Merlin.
She felt the unbalance; she felt the wrongness of the world.
“Does it have to do with that noseless monster that hangs around the young sorceress?” Nimueh asked, connecting the dots herself.
“Yes. There was a prophecy made a long time ago. When my King would return some day when Albion's need is greatest. Seeing as there are reincarnations popping up and your return, it seems to me the time is now.” Merlin explained.
“Ah, your prophecy. Hmmm.” Nimueh tried to remember the prophecy of Emrys in its entirety.
“But there is another prophecy as well happening now as well. The monster, Voldemort, has obviously thrown off the balance. And there was a prophecy made of a boy who will vanquish him, his name his Harry Potter.” Merlin explained.
“Poor kid, the noseless man, seemed powerful compared to the rest of the magic users,” Nimueh said, feeling a bit bad for the young kids' destiny.
“He is in comparison. There was only one other man strong enough to keep him at bay, and he was murdered three days ago.” Merlin said, dejected remembering how he failed even if his friends assured him it wasn’t his fault.
“And you,” Nimueh said, stating the obvious.
But Merlin sighed,
“I could duel him a hundred times and win all hundred times, but I can’t kill him it’s not my destiny; he dies by the boy, Harry Potter. Destiny is something that controls me; even though I could’ve saved that old man, I couldn’t.” Merlin said, beating himself up still.
“If it were his fate to die that day, then there would be nothing to prevent it even if you had stopped it then. Death would’ve found the old man sooner or later.” Nimueh said, not knowing how right she was.
“No one can allude Death, well, except maybe you,” Nimueh said.
“What about you as well, miss ‘a-life-for-a-life’?” Merlin asked, hating that she kept pointing out his immortality.
“Well, I was just not fated to die today, that’s all,” Nimueh said like it was obvious.
“Now, can we leave here? As much as I love this place, the blood and the dead bodies is ruining the atmosphere.” Nimueh said, pointing to the dead Death Eaters.
Merlin sighed and took out his phone, took a picture of what happened, and tried to get a close-up of their faces so they could be identified and labeled as dead.
Nimueh was watching with fascination,
“What is that?” She asked, pointing at the flat metal box in Merlin’s hand.
“Oh, it’s called a phone; you can message anyone instantly and talk as well as capture pictures. Ah, I’ll explain later.” Merlin said after seeing the confusion on her face.
“So shall we leave here? I retrieved a crystal, so my business is done.” Nimueh stated, holding the cloth-covered crystal in her hand.
“Don’t you scry?” Merlin commented after a moment.
“Yes. But this is better.” Merlin just nodded, agreeing.
He raised his hand and reapplied the barrier, doubling it for safety.
Nimueh looked surprised but smiled at the use of the old religion. Merlin then held his hand out to Nimueh.
“What?”
“I’ll take you to my home. And later I can introduce you to everyone. I have to go back to a meeting... I left abruptly….” Merlin said, dredging to go back to the meeting.
“Hmmm, I suppose so. What’s the meeting for?” Nimueh asked as the whirlwind started up.
“The sorcerers and sorceresses of this day and age are preparing to fight against the noseless guy,” Merlin said as they disappeared into the wind.
Hogwarts
12:50 pm
Once arriving at Merlin’s house, the conversation continued as if they had never moved.
“Didn’t you say that only this Harry boy can kill him?” Nimueh said as the wind dissipated.
“Yes, but it’s an all-out war now; it’s more than just Voldemort; he has an army, and you killed three of them,” Merlin explained.
“Oh, I see this makes sense.” Nimueh says, then glances at the new area around them,
“Oh, how nice,” She says in reaction to Merlin’s home.
“Shall I go as well? I’m curious about magic users of this day and age.” Nimueh said, curious about this newfound future and the meeting Merlin was talking about.
Merlin hesitated but figured now or later, meeting Nimueh was going to be involved.
"Okay, but two things you must know first. Well, actually, one since we can just say you are not reincarnation and were reborn. But my name is Myridian Emrys, or rather it’s my fake identity. So you can’t call me Merlin. My name became weird in the future.” Merlin stressed.
Nimueh shrugged, not caring too much as it was easy just to call him Emrys.
“Consider it done. Let’s go.” Nimueh said excitedly.
It was so unusual compared to her eerie and serious nature of the past. But Merlin just grabbed her hand again and traveled back to Hogwarts. It seemed that the order meeting that was going to happen before the funeral had finally ended in his absence.
Hogwarts
It seemed the funeral had started.
Merlin, who was supposed to be standing on the stage, just folded himself into the crowd in the back with Nimueh. He wasn't going to disrupt the funeral even though afterward there was going to be a shock that he was back and didn't say anything but this was a somber time and a time for the magical community to mourn. No need for disturbances. Though the duo did look a little out of place since Nimueh was wearing a muted but red dress. But since they were in the back, it wasn't too noticeable.
As the speeches went on, the first was by Mrs. McGonagall and some other faculty members and some students. Eventually, after all the speeches were said and done, all of the participants in the funeral started to spread out and talk amongst themselves. They grouped into groups of 5 to 6 to 10 people and just chatted about Dumbledore and their worries about the future.
This time Merlin dragged Nimueh to a particular group, one group that was very large. The order members and the reincarnations, and his co-workers were standing around just chatting. Though all the conversation stopped when Merlin walked into view. Gwaine runs up to Merlin to ask what is happening when he notices Nimueh.
“Merls…ah, who is this?” Gwaine whispers the nickname, but his voice gets louder in his confusion.
“This is Nimueh…I think this conversation should be had in private…if possible.” Merlin suggested not wanting people outside the Order to hear. Everyone subtly nodded their heads, agreeing, and soon, they all shuffled back into Merlin’s classroom.
On the walk there, Gwaine pulled Merlin aside.
“Merlin. Are you okay? Who is she?” Gwaine whispered.
Merlin sighed,
“For now…….she’s an ally,” Merlin said, mumbling, not explaining further. Gwaine looked unsure but trusted Merlin.
Myridian’s Classroom
3:30 pm
Merlin, Nimueh, Gwaine, Gwen, Percival, Leon, Bell, Remus, and Sirius were the first to enter. Next entered Moody, Kingsley, the golden trio and Mrs. McGonagall, and a few other staff. Two new people were also attending, but Merlin had never met them before. It was two women, one with vibrant pink hair and the other with a tight slicked back bun.
Nimueh took her time analyzing everyone in the room since these should be some of the best and brightest. Their magic was all very different and definitely not as strong as those in their prime back in the day, but it wasn’t bad.
Nimueh actually had a soft spot after learning this place was a school for magical children. It was something unheard of happening in the past, so she was quite happy that there was such a place. But she still had a cool neutral expression on her face. She wanted to ask questions to the teachers and even learn about this new magic, but the vibes of the room showed this was time for a serious conversation.
“Myridian Emrys! I don’t understand what happened before but explain what happened. This is the Order of the Phoenix, and I understand you have other responsibilities however that doesn’t excuse your sudden leaving nor the fact you broke through Hogwarts wards. Druid or not, I need a better explanation. I would also like to know who this young lady you brought is,” Mrs. McGonagall demanded.
Merlin sighed.
“I apologize for the sudden departure in the morning. I, as some in this room know, have placed wards around famous and important magical sights around Europe. Earlier, two of my wards were broken, and they were very dangerous places for people to trespass, so it was imperative that I had to leave immediately to check. However, I am sorry for not explaining prior I was just a bit overwhelmed.” Merlin said, actually sorry since this was a sad day and he didn’t mean to make a mess.
“And your friend,” Moody asked.
Merlin looked at Nimueh as if he was scared she would lash out at being called his friend, but she said nothing looking at Moody with a blank face.
“Ah well, I found her at one of the magical sights. She broke through my wards.” Merlin said, not caring she broke through the wards because they were only meant to stop either Morgana or Voldemort; Nimueh would’ve broken through with ease.
“And why did you bring her?” Moody continued.
“Well, as you know, Alastor, the place where I found her was a place you have been at before, a place you can only get two if you were guided there once before. Also for the fact that I increased the wards around that place since we found the Dark Lord and Morgana rummaging around last time. However she broke through those Wards, and she knew how to get there on her own. Meaning to say that she is…” Merlin said, pausing.
Kingsley listened to what Myridian was saying about this new girl he suddenly showed up with and summarised it, and voiced it out loud,
“Oh, so you've been reincarnated then.”
Merlin nodded his head.
Around the room, everyone who knew about reincarnations now understood why she was here. Remus paused in thought….something seemed to click in his head at that moment, but he didn’t know what to do with the information.
However, Nimueh had something to say. Shaking her head while Merlin nodded, confusing some in the room.
“That little girl Morgana was saying the same thing, but no, she assumed wrong, just like you. I haven't been reincarnated but rather Reborn.” Nimueh said, looking proud.
“Reborn? What do you mean?” Kingsley asked, confused about the difference between the two.
“I was never put into another body; how should I explain this? This body that I am currently in, is the same body I died in 1500 and some odd years ago. I literally walked out of a lake.” Nimueh explained.
Merlin looked shocked, but it made sense why she was so strong and had all her memories it also explains what she said earlier. It was reasonable since she was so unlike Morgana.
“Wait, a lake? Do you mean that lake? The one Myridian brought us to?” Sirius asked.
Nimueh paused, remembering Emrys was now Myridian but shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what lake that was.
“How would I know I only just came back this morning,” Nimueh said.
“It has a small island with a broken tower, and there is a bench overlooking the lake,” Merlin said, describing the lake Sirius was talking about.
“Oh, then yes, that’s the one. I don’t know what was so special about it.” Nimueh said, not remembering much until her feet hit the sand and it wasn’t like it was a magical sight; she would’ve felt it if it was.
“It’s a grave,” Merlin said rather sadly and didn’t say anything more about it nor about it being a passage point that looked into Avalon sometimes.
Nimueh watched Merlin as if she was examining him.
“Wait, Morgana? You met her?” Gwaine asks after looking at Merlin worriedly.
“Oh yes had a lovely chat. Met her monster and some goons in masks.” Nimueh said, recalling the events of a few hours ago.
“Her monster?” Mrs. McGonagall asked.
“Oh, what was he called again, Emrys? Something with a V? Honestly, a forgettable being.” Nimueh said, making Merlin want to bang his head against the wall.
He’d never talked to Nimueh for so long, and like this, he didn’t know this was how she normally was.
“She’s talking about the Dark Lord,” Merlin said, making everyone look at Nimueh in a different light.
“You met with He-who-must-not-be-named and are okay?” Hermione asked in awe.
Nimueh looked at the young girl and nodded.
“Yes, he was nothing. Well, he’s strong for sorcerers from this day and age, but for me, he’s nothing but a child. Not embracing the Old Religion and the practices of the Triple Goddess no wonder you all are so weak. You’ve forgotten the greatest teachings of your ancestors.” Nimueh said admonishing the wizards and witches in the room, though it was less their fault than their ancestors who learned this new magic forgoing the old religion.
“Oh,” Hermionie said, thinking she did something wrong in asking.
Nimueh felt slightly bad,
“But I was not okay; I almost died,” Nimueh said.
Everyone looked at her and then didn’t believe her.
“I was leaving the…no…a magical sight.” Nimueh began deciding not to mention the Crystal cave.
“And when I was leaving that girl…Morgana Pendragon was there with the noseless guy and a kid and three masked people.” Nimueh said, grating her teeth over the name Pendragon as her grudge against Uther seemed to just be as bad as it was.
Rather than focusing on the dislike for the name Pendragon, everyone couldn’t overlook the noseless comment. Sirius, for one burst out laughing.
Nimueh looked at him and paused.
“Who’s that, Emrys?” She asked Merlin.
Merlin smiled, “Oh, my older brother.” He said out loud.
In his mind, however, “ He’s in disguise; leave it. ”
“Ah, I see; you looked so similar I was curious,” Nimueh said, playing along.
“Anyway, as I was saying, that group showed up saying crazy things.” Nimueh continued.
“Crazy?” Kingsley asked.
“Yes. That I should join them and take over the world and whatever else they said. They really wanted Emrys dead, though. Heh.” Nimueh said, rather bored of villain monologues.
Merlin wanted to bash his head into the window. Everyone was looking at Merlin as if they pitied him.
“Why is that funny?” Gwaine said defensively.
“Ah well, it’s just something between Emrys and me, don’t worry,” Nimueh said, enjoying getting on Gwaine’s nerves.
It’s been a long time since she could talk to so many people; she was having fun.
Gwaine looked like he wanted to kill her, but Merlin touched his shoulder and whispered, “Later,” so Gwaine said nothing else.
“I don’t recognize you. Ah, sorry.” Leon said, then apologized as he just talked abruptly.
“Nor I you,” Nimueh said.
“Did Morgana kill you? Or Uther?” Leon asks, not remembering her, but her face feels familiar even if he can’t tell.
But with what Merlin said, she seemed to be a magic user. But Nimueh chuckled.
“No, neither. But not for lack of trying, I should point out.” Nimueh says and looks at Merlin, who is staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face.
Nimueh sighed as if she was hesitating to say something.
“Emrys….has told me a little about the world with our brief exchange, and it seems the man who killed me is someone so famous.”
The wizards in the room looked confused, but Nimueh continued,
“See, the man who killed was Merlin. When I met him, he was nothing but a servant, but I guess times change, especially after I died.” Nimueh said with a sad voice, but she was straining not to laugh out loud at the look on Emrys’ face.
All of the reincarnations looked shocked and side-eyed Merlin.
Remus, who had been watching everything from the sidelines, had his suspicions suddenly confirmed, and he stared in shock but for another reason.
“You knew Merlin!?!”
“Merlin tried to kill you?”
“What!”
Half of the witches and wizards in the room exclaimed.
“Why?” Harry asked seemingly the most important question.
Nimueh smiled at him.
“Your name is Harry Potter, right?” Nimueh said, lightly touching her pouch as she smirked, remembering something she saw from the future after she had gotten the second crystal.
There were murmurers around the room as that question dawned in their minds as well.
“Ah, right; I’m not someone who wouldn't be labeled a hero from the past. I used to be good friends with Arthur Pendragon’s' mother. I even used magic to help her conceive him, but unfortunately, things went bad, and then I was hunted like a rat for the rest of my life until I was killed mist of getting my revenge against Uther Pendragon.” Nimueh said simply, as she may have forgiven Merlin, but she’d never forgive Uther for the betrayal and the mass murder of her kind.
Merlin scoffed, but when others looked at him, he didn’t say anything.
Nimueh sighed again, explaining further,
“Well, my revenge was done by a different version of myself. Now I am not constrained by revenge, nor am I being hunted for being able to use magic. Then I may have tried to kill the prince and then almost killed Merlin’s mother and mentor in the process, and ultimately tried to kill him, but seeing as I died at the end of that ordeal, I feel like it’s over with, and it’s been so long now.” Nimueh said to the room, but it was meant for Merlin.
Remus, who was still in shock, seemed to be internally freaking out as the conversation continued. He had learned something that should’ve been rather obvious as he spent so much time around Myridian, despite it being ridiculous. It was a thought he had laughed out of his thoughts time and time again, but now he couldn’t believe it to be anything but the truth.
Myridian caught his eye, and Remus couldn’t control his face, and soon Merlin, who noticed the weird look on Remus’ face but was not sure what it meant. Merlin decided to take a small peek into Remus’ mind for just a second as he couldn’t read the emotion on his face, and the word he heard spooked him.
Merlin quickly looked away, panicking internally as well, and he thought that he needed Nimueh to shut up!
He coughed loudly and spoke into Nimueh’s mind,
“ Stop talking of the past. Say you tired and end thing conversation, they can not find out I’m Merlin, so stop hinting at it.”
Merlin glared at Nimueh as he spoke into her mind.
Nimueh just smiled, enjoying the chaos. She wasn’t necessarily evil anymore, but her nature was always slightly wicked.
“Ah, I don’t mean to quell your questions, but I’m rather tired. Could we finish this another time? I was just reborn only hours ago and then almost died fighting a couple of crazy sorcerers. I think I’m due for a break, right?” She said to the room but looked at Merlin with her eyes saying, ‘like this?’
McGonagall seemed the quickest to get over the information she had just heard and compose herself enough to answer.
“Ah, right, you’ve been through a lot today; let us eat; I’ll have the house elves make us a separate space so we can continue talking at a leisurely pace.” She called a house elf and went to get everything ready.
Merlin let out a breath before smiling a fake smile at Remus,
“Remus, could we talk a second.” Merlin asked, walking out of the room with a slow-paced and rather hesitant Remus following.
The reincarnations wanted to talk to Merlin, but he seemed weird when he had just left, so they would wait for him instead.
As they left, Hermionie couldn’t contain herself and walked up to Nimueh,
“Did you really know Merlin?”
“Yes,” Nimueh answered, finding the little girl cute with her bushy hair and excited smile, and obvious awe on her face.
“Wow, that’s amazing.” She paused and then turned to the other reincarnated people in the room as it dawned on her,
“You guys know Merlin, too, right?” Hermione asked with an intelligent gleam in her eyes.
Gwen smiled,
“Yep, he was my very first friend.” She said, remembering the early days in Camelot.
Nimueh looked at Gwen and spoke,
“Oh, I remember you.” Gwen looked at Nimueh, having thought she was familiar but not someone she remembered.
“You do?” Gwen asked, trying to remember her.
“Yes, we met once at a party, but I’m afraid this was another instance where I tried to kill Merlin,” Nimueh said, remembering all her interactions with Merlin and his friends, who she knew would be bad.
The witches and wizards around the room weren’t sure what to feel about this woman as she was someone who tried to kill the Merlin multiple times, but then she was also killed by Merlin. And she also knew about Merlin, which was something they all wanted to know about.
“Remember the poisoned chalice? When Bayard visited Camelot, I was posing as a servant at the time. I was responsible for the chalice being poisoned. I will say my actions were rather evil, but at the time, I detested Uther and wanted nothing more than to see him in pain.” Nimueh said after seeing the looks on the faces around her.
It took a moment, but Gwen remembered,
“Oh, you! I remember! That was sooooo long ago. Woah……like….a really long time ago, now that I think about it. You tried to poison Arthur, but Merlin stopped it, but no one believed him, and they made him drink the poison to see if he was telling the truth, and he drank it so Arthur wouldn’t have to, but it was poisoned, and he almost died if Arthur hadn’t found the cure.” Gwen said, vividly remembering as the memories flashed through her mind.
Others in the room looked awed at the stories being said around the room; it was literally legends never told before being said in this very room, and most of the witches and wizards felt honored. However, they also didn’t like how Merlin was treated.
“Why did they make Merlin drink the poison?” Harry asked; he thought they had poison testers and stuff back then.
“Because he was a servant to the prince,” Nimueh said, watching in glee as Merlin’s idea in the minds of these people crumbled. She was a tiny bit bitter that no one seemed to know who she was. She wasn't doing this maliciously she was just a little annoyed that she wasn't remembered in history, that was all.
“What?”
“A servant?”
“Merlin was?”
“Why?”
Was mumbled loudly as the witches and wizards felt personally offended.
“Magic was banned in Camelot,” Leon said.
“I assume Merlin was just hiding his powers; if he hadn’t, he would’ve been executed,” Leon said.
Gwaine nodded his head,
“Yeah, Princess...ah no...Arthur, yeah, his dad was a bad dude; he killed anyone if they were accused of using magic, even if they weren’t actually. Lots of people died.” Gwaine said his American accent was slipping in.
Those in the room were horrified.
“Then, when Arthur was king, it was different, right?” Hermione asked.
Gwen frowned,
“No. It was better, though. As long as they didn't attack the kingdom, Camelot and its knights didn't hunt for magic users when Arthur became a king. But there was a lot of mistrust during that time. See, Arthur's father was killed by magic, and his sister was a witch who tried countless times to kill him and take over Camelot; you know her as Morgana. She was a very different person when she was younger; she was a very good friend of mine. But suddenly, she changed; I don't want to say it's because of the magic, but maybe the influence of the people around her made her into a very wicked person.” Gwen said.
As she always believed it was the magic that made Morgana turn crazy, but after learning about Merlin and all of these magic users, she now knows it was just something that Morgana had a personal experience that changed her and not her magic.
“Then what’s with the history books? Why are they so wrong?” Hermione asked, feeling like she couldn’t trust the accuracy of books.
All of the reincarnations shrugged their shoulders as they had no idea. Though it was probably to do with Merlin messing with history so he could keep his identity a secret.
“Why did you side with us?” Percival asked after he had been mulling over the question for a while.
“You mean, why didn’t I join Morgana?” Nimueh asked.
Percival nodded his head.
“Hmmm, I seemed to reach peace after death. Uther was killed, and now I know by magic which makes me even happier, and well, I like how magic has progressed in the future. A school was something in my wildest of dreams, so why would I destroy such a place? I am your elder in magic craft. I feel I should teach you rather than taking over. Plus, I don’t know what this world is like; I am confident in my strength, but the……….muggle world was it….it’s like a foreign world. I know my limits, and I wouldn’t be able to grow with them. Plus, Emrys looks very similar to someone I know.” Nimueh said, chuckling.
“Really, who?” Harry asked, curious about Myridian.
“Oh, he looks like Merlin when he was young,” Nimueh said.
The reincarnations looked like they wanted to slap their hand over her mouth.
“He looks like Merlin?” Kingsley asked, shocked.
“Yes, very similar. Not exactly the same, but similar enough that when I first met him, I thought it was Merlin. I thought he'd come to fight me again.” Nimueh chuckled, enjoying herself.
“Is Myridian Merlin’s reincarnation?” Harry asked.
“No. He’s not a reincarnation. And before you, either of you asks, he wasn't reborn either. He doesn't feel like he was. If I had to take a guess I would say he is Merlin's very distant ancestor. Maybe. I mean, that would make the most sense.” Nimueh backtracked a bit because she remembered Merlin's warning before he left.
“Wow,” The kids said.
Kingsley thought that made sense as well; it made sense as to why he seemed to be in the center of the Darkest Hour prophecy and why his family knew about it so much. Sirius remembers Merlin saying something similar, so he thought it made sense and thought it was cool.
Mrs. McGonagall stepped out into the hallway and then stepped back in, saying dinner was ready. They were planning to eat in the kitchen to have some privacy, as the students were still eating dinner in the dining hall. McGonagall had the elves set up a few tables and simple decor for them.
All too soon, she led the big group to dinner.
Abandoned Classroom on the Newly Renovated Second Floor
4:10 pm
“Remus,” Merlin said, not asking anything but everything at once.
“Are you a reincarnation or reborn or whatever?” Remus asked.
Merlin was silent. He wasn’t sure what to say. He could lie and say he was, and it would be so easy, but he didn’t want to lie to Remus.
“No. I am not.” Merlin said, standing tall with a mask prepared for the worst outcome.
“Then how? You-your him, right?” Remus asked without saying his name.
But Merlin wanted to hear it.
“Who am I?” Merlin asked.
“Are you Merlin?” Merlin smiled a broken and sad smile when Remus lifted his head at the silence.
“Yeah. I am.” Merlin said slowly.
Remus stared into his eyes and still couldn’t believe it.
“That’s…..I don’t know..” Remus was awed and confused.
“How? I mean, you don’t look old, and you-you said you didn’t reincarnate or get reborn, so how?” Remus asked.
Merlin looked sad for a moment before the mask he always wore was back,
“I am immortal, Remus. I never died.” Merlin said in a monotone voice.
Remus’ eyes bulged at the thought. Myridian….no...Merlin was immortal, so this whole time he was alive………he was alive for a thousand years.
“You..no..how…I….how old are you?” Remus asked the seemingly stupid question.
“Oh, about 1530-ish. I think I’m not too sure, I might be a few more years older, but I lost count when it came to the little numbers.” Merlin answered.
But Remus didn’t know what to say. So it was silent for five minutes. Merlin was letting Remus digest the information, he knew it was a lot.
“Why weren’t you here earlier? To stop the Dark Lord or to…?” Remus wanted to say everything bad.
“I actually was in prison. Just for a little longer than I said.” Merlin said, scratching his face.
“Not five years, more like 500 years.” Merlin laughed awkwardly.
Remus looked horrified,
“F-f-f-f-five hundred years?! How are you okay?” Remus said, touching Merlin's shoulder, worried; he didn’t think of him as Merlin, the greatest wizard, but his poor friend Myridian for a moment.
“Ah, I may have lied about something but not everything. The Dementors don't like me. Whether it's because of my old magic or just me, I don't know, but they tended to stay away, and their bad influence, and depressing thoughts didn’t bother me. I already had depressing thoughts and horrible nightmares without Dementors they didn't really do much to enhance it, if any. Plus, I don't age, nor do I really need food or water or anything really. I mean, I still starve, and I still feel thirsty, but it won't kill me. Plus, I slept for most of it. I didn't realize I was in there for that long though, not until like made it outside. I must have just lost track of time while I was inside.” Merlin said, being truthful but making Remus feel even worse for him.
They were going to continue, but a house elf appeared.
"Lord Emrys and Mr. Lupin, dinner is ready and will be held in the kitchen." It said bowing to Merlin and then popping away as it was very busy.
"Ah, should we?" Merlin said.
"Uhm, yes, let's go, uh, but can we talk some more later, Myridian," Remus asked, still too nervous to call him Merlin.
"Yeah, anytime, Remus. I want you to know I may have lied about my identity, but I'm still your friend." Merlin said.
Remus just looked down, not sure how to answer.
Merlin frowned but hid it.
"Let's go eat I'm starving!" He said happily and left the room.
Remus sighed and followed.
Headmaster’s Office
4:oo pm
Sirius pulled the new Headmistress aside.
“Okay, mister Emrys, what is it?” Mrs. McGonagall asked, wondering what the older brother had in store since the younger one was such a troublemaker these days.
“Ah, that’s…hmmm…how do I explain this…see Dumbledore knew the truth before, so I figured it would be fine to tell you now.” Sirius started.
Mrs. McGonagall seemed nervous but was ready.
“I’m not James Emrys.”
“What?” Mrs. McGonagall said, then almost immediately pulling her wand out in alarm.
“Who are you? Where is Mr. Emrys?” She asked, hostile and worried for one of her professors.
“No, no, no. I am James Emrys. The real one.” He said, pulling his cheek.
“But what I’m trying to say is that James Emrys doesn’t really exist. Here.” Sirius said, pulling out a blue vile.
He uncorked it and downed it. All too soon, the change took effect. The shorter raven black hair and his ocean blue eyes soon reverted back to his old look. What was once James Emrys turned into Sirius Black.
Mrs. McGonagall wasn’t prepared for this, so when it happened, her jaw dropped, and ever her wand hit the floor.
“Mr. Black?” McGonagall asked, confused.
“Yeah, it was me all along. I was in disguise so I could help Myridian teach and so I could be near Harry.” Sirius explained.
“Also, Myridian, Remus, and Mad-eye know. As well as some kids. Dumbledore knew; he approved of it too. I don’t know how Myridian convinced the goblins at Gringotts to forge fake documents, but he managed it, and soon James Emrys was made. I thought I should tell you as you are the new head of the Order.” Sirius explained since Dumbledore had told everyone he had sent Sirius was on a mission for him to explain his absence recently.
Mrs. McGonagall was at a loss for words truly. She didn’t know whether to be upset at the lies or the law-breaking. But even after stuttering for a while, she sighed; if Dumbledore approved it, then it was fine for now. And she thought in his absence, it would be okay to have a few hidden cards.
“I see. Well, I’ll keep this a secret then.” Mrs. McGonagall said, looking tired.
“Okay, thanks, I’ll tell everyone at some point; I plan to clear my name and live as my usual self anyway. But it’s convenient for now since I need to move freely.” Sirius said, taking out another vile and drinking it, and transforming back into James Emrys.
“Sirius, what is that potion?” She asked.
“Oh well, I don’t think it has a name yet, but Myridian made it. He said his uncle made it for him when he was younger, but he modified it for me to change into him.” Sirius explained as he was leaving the room.
“I see. How marvelous. I’ll have to talk to Myridian later. Be on your way I still need to organise things." She said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Sirius said cheekily and left.
He reminded McGonagall of his younger days when Potter, Black, and Lupin would run around causing mischief. Though now that she thought about it, nothing changed. Kids will be kids no matter how old they get.
McGonagall smiled, looking at Dumbledore’s sleeping portrait.
The Dinner
5:00pm
Merlin and Remus were the last to arrive soon, sitting down. When they sat, Merlin noticed a bunch of people staring at him.
“What?” He asked as Remus took a sip of his drink, needing it after the conversation he just had with….Myridi-.......no…….Merlin.
“Is it true your ancestor was Merlin?” Ron asked.
Merlin glared at Nimueh, and Remus spit his drink all over Sirius, who was, unfortunately, sitting in front of him.
Everyone looked at Remus and James. Remus stood apologising to James, and James looked like he wanted to punch his good old pal Remus. Nimueh raised her hand, and the drink disappeared from Sirius’ face and clothes. Everyone looked at Nimueh, who shrugged and went back to reading a book Hermionie had lent her.
All too soon, people looked back at Merlin still curious.
“It is possible, I don’t know if it’s 100% accurate, though, but people in my family like to think so,” Merlin said.
Remus was shocked but then more amazed at how well Merlin was at lying. But then, putting his years of experience into thought, it made it seem obvious why.
“Ah Nimueh was it? May you continue to tell us about when you met the Dark Lord?” Mrs. McGonagall asked.
“Oh, sure. Well, for a while, they asked me to join them and tried to convince me to join them. But as I kept denying, they got angry and tried to kill me. I took out the 3 Death Eaters…..that’s what they are called, right? And then, after that, I started to fight Morgana. It was going pretty well. I was overpowering her but then, as I was getting ready for my final spell to get rid of her, but that noseless bastard cut my stomach open with a spell.” Nimueh said, annoyed.
Everyone looked shocked.
“You survived that?” A teacher asked worriedly.
“Oh yes. See, I fell to the floor, obviously from the wound. And they thought I was dead, so they left. Luckily however, one of the minions on the floor we're still alive. Apparently, they only had been knocked unconscious by the initial spell I threw at them. So I performed the spell to save my life. In the old religion, it was focused solely on the belief of balance. As long as there was balance you could do anything. So since I was dying, all I needed to do was trade a life for my own. So I killed the minion, and then I lived. Well, I say it is simple, but it is only so simple because I am a high priestess of the old religion I was at the pinnacle of magic back in the day. Even sorceresses from my time would have trouble with those types of spells. But someone of Merlin or Morgana's level in the past could definitely have done it. If they knew how.” Nimueh said.
She was open to sharing information because she wanted people to start following the old religion again. She had made up her mind when she saw how interested everyone was in the past. She had no plans to teach them old magic, but she would at least be able to give them the history of their own kind. However, she was thinking of taking an apprentice at some point; she thought it would be fun, but not right now.
“You killed three Death Eaters; where are they?” Kingsley asked.
“Oh, I left their bodies where they were. But I took pictures; I’ll send them to you.” Merlin said, pulling out his phone.
“Right, but I think I’ll need to collect their bodies too,” Kingsley said.
“Okay, I can transport them to the ministry after this,” Merlin said, not offering for him to go near the Crystal cave.
Kingsley agreed, but he was a tad unsure about Myridian still.
From then on, the conversation continued. They chatted about the past. They talked about Merlin, the great sorcerer. They even talked about the future and Hogwarts and how the world has evolved for the benefit of Nimueh.
It was a very pleasant conversation on such a somber day. But the gaining of a new and powerful ally was something that reassured the members of the Order of the Phoenix.
Notes:
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, Remus has discovered something. He was always going to be the first to know. It would be weird if he weren't. He'd seen so much. I already know who the next person is going to be and maybe the next after that. I wanted Hermionie to figure it out quickly, but I can't have Harry knowing just yet, and if Hermionie knows something, she's telling Harry, so, for now, she will not know. I'll distract her with the reincarnations for now.
<><><>
(side note) As I read the Harry Potter wiki for research, I've come to understand that I have severely lacked knowledge about the last three books. LOL, I watched the movies cause I was too busy to read the books, and I thought I knew everything, but I was a fool. Plus, my timeline for things that happen within the book suck; I forgot about so many small details *crying* But I'll try to fix it. I will eventually make everything work.
<><><>
Also, lastly, my favorite ship in this whole series is coming soon. I will burst out of my comfort zone and write a cute romance if it's the last thing I do! Ahhh, I can't wait. It was delayed cause I'm dumb and for got to bring one half of the relationship into the book, but it will happen!
Chapter 3: To Think Even He Would Betray Me
Notes:
Hello!
I am back again. I finished writing this chapter with the last chapter, and I just added a bit to the end. I'm just trying to wrap up the last book. So I can get into the real stuff I had planned for this book.
Oh yeah, this is the bad chapter, like the Mature chapter...violence, and shit...I'm sorry it's sad...but not too bad...I'm just being careful.
Anywho if ya don't like torture skip the first half or skim it or something. IDK.
I will post one more chap on Halloween and then work on my other stories. I'll probably work on this story more, anyway.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Morgana was not always so psychotic and crazy. Morgan was not evil nor crazy nor a murderer in any sense, but she was a bit cutthroat in that she had to establish a place in the world for herself as she was all alone by the age of 17. She worked her way up the business ladder through hard work and effort and had to be self-confident and persuasive and someone in charge.
And Morgana was someone who went through traumatic experiences and dealt with dangerous and terrible things on a daily basis after she figured out she had magic. The combined experience of both Morgan and Morgana just clashed into this new hybrid of a monster.
The fact that Morgan wanted to know what Morgana knew and to be more powerful to defeat Emrys, she went nuts. After not being able to attract the attention of Nimueh, she felt like things were going wrong for her, and she started to panic, but instead of freaking out, she studied more dangerous things.
She was learning curses so quickly, and she was trying to remember things of her past. Her magic was progressing even greater after the fight with Nimueh.
Morgana had come to the realization that she was far too weak. She was someone who couldn't beat Nimueh nor Voldemort, and there was no way she was going to be able to face Emrys if she couldn’t fight them. After coming to that realization, she went even crazier. She didn't understand why Emrys and Nimueh were so adept at old magic. She didn't understand how she could be so far behind, and that thought pushed her forward into doing terrible things.
Voldemort was known to be a horrible, horrible person, but the things that Morgana was thinking of doing made her seem even worse if that could even be possible.
July 15, 2007
Morgana had captured Mordred a few days ago and had locked him in her room. She made Draco help her to brew some potions just in case things went wrong, and the next day she confronted Mordred.
Morgana walked into the room alone and locked the door so no one would peek in. She watched Mordred lie on her bed, still out of it. He looked the same as in the past, maybe a bit different as his hair was straightened and he was in designer clothes.
Morgana leaned in and lightly slapped his face.
“Wakey, wakey!” Morgana said to a barely conscious Mordred.
“Huh? Mmmhmm AHHH!” Mordred screams, not recognizing Morgan or where he was.
“Who are you? Where am I?” Mordred looked spooked.
“Relax! Please, Mordred, I mean you no harm. It’s me, Morgana.” Morgan said, looking optimistic.
But Mordred had no memories of his past life nor of the witch in front of him. He was reincarnated, but his memories never returned to him.
Morgan was frustrated.
“Why aren’t you remembering? That bitch remembered right away…hmm...maybe I should help?” Morgan mumbled.
She picked up her wand and pointed it at Mordred. Mordred looked at her like she was nuts.
“Listen, lady, I don’t know who you are, but this isn’t right. Look, if you are a fan, I’ll take a photo or a video with you. I’ll sign anything you want. But how about letting me go in return, no hard feelings, okay?” Mordred said, trying to reason with the crazy witch.
But Morgana ignored him and held the wand higher and more confidently.
While fighting with Nimueh, Morgana had gotten a sizable burn on her arm, and whenever she thought of Nimueh, it hurt, and it fueled her anger even more. She was going off the rails, and right now, the target of her madness was the poor muggle actor, Mordred, in front of her.
“No. You will remember. Even if it’s by force.” Morgan said, smiling.
Mordred backed up to a corner of the room, looking scared.
“Don’t worry, Mordred. You were once my most trusted ally, and soon you will be again, rejoice; you’ll have magic again.” Morgan said, casting a mind curse on Mordred, trying to stimulate his past life memories.
Mordred screamed.
Morgana was by no means a pro at this spell, and if you weren't a pro at it when you used it, it would hurt the person's mind you were trying to enter into. And while this method would probably work in the long run, there would be side effects. And the damage that would be done to Mordred would be irreversible.
But Morgana was so far gone that she didn't care about all that she just wanted things to go her way for once. She didn't care who she had to kill, torture, or hurt to get what she wanted.
The method Morgana was using was to go into Mordred's mind and dig for his past memories. And these were not surface thoughts. They were something in the far reaches of his memory that were even older than his childhood memories. It would take a lot of looking around and digging to find them.
This method works, but it would be torture. Very, very, very, very, very, very painful torture.
But Morgana didn’t care to think about that.
No, not even from listening to the screams ripping from poor Mordred’s mouth did she stop.
Not even as he started to cry did she stop.
Not even when blood started to pour out his nose did she stop.
Only when he fell unconscious did she stop sighing, annoyed.
But even when that happened, she didn't stop all the way.
She would simply grab a potion she had made the previous day, pour it into Mordred's mouth, healing him and waking him only to start it again.
She would heal him only to torture him again. And this would go on for several days. Several excruciating days for Mordred.
While Morgana got up and left to eat and socialize, she left Mordred in the room with nothing, chained to her bed. It was a miracle that he even survived what she had put him through.
The first two days, he pleaded for her to stop.
“Stop! Please, I don’t remember whatever it is you want me to remember, but please stop. It hurts so much! My head feels like it’s splitting in half. Oh god, no more!” Mordred screamed, begging Morgana to stop.
But Morgana paid no mind picking up her wand again.
“This is happening until you remember. So stop whining.” She said, casting the spell again.
For the next two days, Mordred just cried. Either from the pain or the realization that he was going to die because Morgana was crazy.
“Morgana, right? Just let me go, please. If you stop, I'll do anything.” Mordred said as tears ran down his cheeks.
Morgana was no longer affected by the crying nor the begging, not that she ever seemed to be, but her face was blank like she hadn’t been torturing him for four days straight.
“If you would remember, this would stop. But as long as you don’t, this will continue. I don’t care if it takes months. So shut up and remember already.” Morgana screamed, annoyed.
By the next two days, more precisely the sixth day of this ongoing cycle of torture, Mordred woke up one healing session remembering Morgana. And little by little, the rest of that day, all of his past memories recovered.
However, due to the terrifying nature of the spell used and the cruel methods and continuous uses of the spell, it seemed to have left him almost incapable of remembering anything else but the past. He had all of his memories of what happened in Camelot and everything else around that time, but any of his more recent memories or his new life was completely gone. That was one of the side effects of the spell; it wouldn't have been so severe if Morgana hadn't done what she had done. Now Mordred was purely Mordred of the past; he had no recollection of anything in the future. He was also a little malnourished and sick because of the treatment he was put through, but that was something that at least could be fixed.
Though the one fortunate factor in all of this was that since he forgot his present life, he also was lucky enough to be able to forget the torture. His body still felt the effects of it, but he had no recollection of it ever happening.
Morgana had no qualms about him forgetting his future self. She agreed that her future self made her weaker, and she thought that it would be better if Mordred didn't remember anyway. She liked the old Mordred much better anyway. Not that she ever knew the new one, though.
“Mordred, welcome back.” Morgana smiled.
“Morgana…..how?” Mordred asked the voice horse from the screaming he couldn’t remember having done.
“You reincarnated. Now we can finally have our revenge. We can finally kill Emrys!” Morgana yelled excitedly.
Finally, she would have an ally to help her, she thought.
Mordred, however, had other ideas.
Mordred frowned.
He didn’t want to do that. He remembered his mistake. How he had damned the fate of a prosperous magical future that was to come. He vowed never to go against Emrys again as he died. He saw his strength on the battlefield; he knew he messed up in the past and didn’t wish to repeat it. Mordred was angry in the past, and he felt his anger was justified, but he believed in the moments of his death that maybe he had made a mistake. And that thought had haunted him right up until he died.
“Morgana…I…can’t help you. My loyalty is to you, there is no doubt, but I can’t help you with Emrys. I can’t. Not again.” Mordred said, grimacing and closing his eyes.
Morgana had a blank look on her face. It was complete emptiness. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Mordred had betrayed her. Emrys was stealing him too…..no….NO!
Morgana’s face shifted suddenly. It was a frightening kind of change, but the warm and kind smile on her face led Mordred to believe that nothing was wrong. She smiled a kind smile. A fake smile.
“Mordred.” Mordred looked up to see the warm face.
“Don’t worry; you are my family. You don’t have to fight Emrys if you don’t want to. It fine. Let’s heal you, and we can discuss our future, okay?” Morgana said, turning around and picking up another healing potion.
Though this one looked different. It wasn’t the warm orange color of the other ones he had been drinking. This one was a murky black and red one. But since he had no recollection of the torture nor the healing potions, he didn't know the difference.
So unbeknownst to him, he drank poison, but not poison to kill him no, that wouldn't satisfy Morgana and what she wanted to do. It was a different kind of poison, a poison that would make him do what he did not want to do. Yet Mordred accepted the bottle smiling as he drank.
Morgana mimicked his smile, watching him drink the Gregory's Unctuous Unction potion she had brewed two days ago. It was a particular potion to ensure friendship between them.
Though Morgana was thinking that wasn’t enough, she thought she would need more than just friendship. Something stronger. But for now, this should do.
Mordred would not join Emrys…even if she had to kill him.
Morgana smiled at Mordred, and he smiled back at his best friend.
A Fancy Muggle Apartment
May 24, 2007
“Ughhh.” Lance groaned, waking up.
It was his day off, and he had slept in late but not peacefully at all. Ever since that car accident, he was having nightmares, and they only got worse since meeting that long hair devil of a man. The nightmares grew worse tenfold since meeting him, and he had had enough. The man, Gwaine, had been texting him non-stop since their meeting. He was telling him to meet up or to go somewhere, but Lance had been doing a good job of ignoring him. But he consistently told him to come to this particular address if he remembered or something.
Lance’s plan was to go there today, confront Gwaine, then tell him to stop this shit from happening. Clearly, Gwaine knew all about it from their last conversation, Lance thought. So he should help this shit stop. Marc tried to get him not to interact with the ‘crazy people' anymore, but he was determined to live a normal life.
Marc, who seemed to know his boss too well, was waiting outside his apartment when Lance exited the building.
“Marc?!” Lance asked, shocked and as if he was caught red-handed stealing cookies out of a cookie jar.
“Thought you said you were gonna spend your day off catching up on sleeping? Boss, don't tell me you’re meeting those psychopaths?” Marc asked with a face that said, ‘I’m tired of your shit.’
“I’m just getting some shopping done.” Lance lied badly.
“Mmhmm sure, lemme come along. I need to as well.” Marc said, hoping in Lance’s car.
Lance sighed,
“Marc, I’m an adult I can meet with other people and handle it on my own,” Lance said, not keeping up with the lie.
“I would believe you, boss, if you weren’t going to go meet some psychopaths right now just because they said ‘they had the same dream as you.’ They-are-stalking-you-and-trying-to-use-you-to-get-money. I am not going to let you go get killed by psychopaths or get blackmailed as your good friend.” Marc said, clapping, enunciating each point in that sentence.
Lance sighed deeply and just started driving after putting the address in the GPS of his car.
Marc smiled, satisfied that he wasn’t kicked out. He also patted his briefcase, which held a taser and pepper spray, because he didn’t trust those people at all.
Merlin’s House
Two hours later, from driving from the city to the countryside, they finally made it to the address that Lance put in his GPS.
To say the least, they were very surprised at the meet-up location. Considering Marc had assumed that they were scamming Lance for money, he assumed they were going to live in a dirt hut in the middle of nowhere. But this house, rather mansion, was not what he had in mind. And neither was the Rolls-Royce in his driveway.
Marc's expectations were blown out of the park even though he still didn’t trust this whole interaction. Because if it wasn’t for money, it still didn’t make any fucking sense. Actually, it made less sense if they weren’t trying to scam him. Because otherwise, they were involved in some kind of dream nightmare cult thing, and they somehow got Lance to drink the kool-aid. Which was very alarming if that was the case.
Marc almost didn’t want to get out of the car with that thought in mind.
But once Lance parked and got out, he didn’t seem to have a choice. They walked up to the mansion and, for a brief moment, hesitated on knocking on the door. Marc was actually trying to convince Lance not to knock on the door and just to go back home, but it was a futile attempt as a few minutes later, Lance just knocked on the door, preparing himself to meet Gwaine once again.
But what neither of them was prepared for again was a beautiful woman that answered the door. She was very pretty, and it made more sense that she lived here than that Gwaine lived there.
Lance even thought he got the wrong address because of how beautiful she was and his conception of who Gwaine was in his head.
“Uhhh, hi,” Lance said, stunned as his brain didn’t work for a second.
“Hello,” Nimueh said, looking at the two men, confused.
“Are you here for Emrys? Because he’s not home.” Nimueh said.
“Emrys? No, I think I have the wrong house. Haha, I’m looking for a bloke named Gwaine,” Lance said, embarrassed that he was at the wrong place.
“Wait, Gwaine? He doesn’t live here; if he told you he did, he was lying. He lives………. in the city……uh………..London, I think. But if you were looking for him, what is it that you wanted to talk to him about? I could call him here or maybe help you.” Nimueh said as she forgot what the city was called, and as she was talking to Lance, she noticed he was a reincarnation by the way the magic was fluctuating in the air.
Lance was shocked again, and he was shocked that this was the right house; he was also shocked that Gwaine had lied and didn’t live here though in retrospect, he never said he did, and he was also shocked that this lady assumed she could help, which was to mean that she was also in on the stupid nightmare shit.
Well, that was if she could help.
For Marc, the more that he listened to the conversation, the more that he believed that this was a cult and that something very fishy was going on here. And if they didn’t start asking for money soon, he was going to pepper spray them and grab Lance and run.
He felt like he was getting involved in something very sketchy but for all different and wrong reasons.
“Uh well…this uh…how should I put it? Do you know about the nightmares?” Lance asked, not wanting to sound crazy.
“Nightmares? No, what about them?” Nimueh asked; since she was reborn, she never had any terrible nightmares remembered in her past life. So she had no idea what they were talking about.
“Ah, well, I think you can’t help me then,” Lance said, embarrassed to talk about it because it would make him sound crazy to someone who didn’t know.
Marc feeling bad for his friend's struggle helped.
“We came here to talk to the guy Gwaine because he told my buddy Lance that the nightmares he was having about like medieval knights and stuff weren’t nightmares but his past life or something stupid like that. My buddy Lance just wants to talk to him about it so the nightmares will stop and he can get back to his life. So, unfortunately, unless you could help with that, I think we need to talk to that guy, Gwaine.” Marc explained.
Nimueh was silent for a second before answering.
“Oh. You came to the right place. Come in. I will call Emrys and Gwaine.” Nimueh said, opening the door wide enough so they could come in.
Lance and Marc hesitated, but eventually, Lance walked in, feeling rude just standing there.
Marc did not want to enter but didn’t want to abandon Lance.
Once inside, they were led down a hallway into the living room, and Nimueh told them to sit and walked off, grabbing something off a table and walking back into the room. She sat down on the couch next to Lance and Marc.
They both looked confused as there were so many other seats.
“Emrys told me to contact him using this,” Nimueh said, holding up a phone.
“But I forget how it works. You are a Muggle, yes? You know how to use it.” Nimueh handed the phone to Lance, who looked confused.
Marc was thinking of betting money on his cult thought at this point.
“Ah, I don’t know what a Muggle is, but I do know how to use a phone. Let’s see; you said…ah…Emrys….hmmm oh here.” Lance said, looking through her contacts.
“I’ll call it for you. Just put it up to your ear.” Lance said, handing the phone back to Nimueh.
Nimueh did as instructed; she was starting to remember what Emrys had told her when he was explaining how to use it earlier this week. Of course, she never had a chance to use it, and she was more interested in reading magical books, so she just ignored it until she couldn’t anymore, which was at this moment when she actually needed it. It rang three times before Merlin’s voice filtered through.
“Nimueh? You finally got a hang of the phone, cool I’m glad you’re learning. But uh, is something wrong, or do you need something?” Merlin asked as he was currently talking to Remus again after the day of the funeral.
They had gotten so busy that this was the first chance they could meet.
“Ah, well, we have guests,” Nimueh said, not elaborating.
“Guests? Who? Leon and Bell? Gwen? Gwaine and Percival?” Merlin asked, listing the only people he assumed would visit.
“No. Uh, what are your names?” Nimueh asked.
Marc was wondering whether the girl was dumb or just naïve. He didn’t understand how she let two strangers, who were men, into her house without even questioning what their names were.
“That’s Marc, and I’m Lance,” Lance said, feeling bad he never got the chance to introduce himself as everything about this situation was weird.
“Ah, they said Lance and Marc,” Nimueh said.
“What!? Really? Oh, uh, I’ll be right there. Make sure they don’t leave, okay? I’ll be there in a few.” Merlin said, not expecting that.
“Alright, I will make sure they don’t leave,” Nimueh said, scaring Marc and Lance.
“Emrys is coming. Don’t leave till he comes.” Nimueh said, leaving the phone on the table and picking up a magical history book, and sitting down in another chair, ignoring the two guys to go back to reading.
Marc leaned over to Lance,
“This is totally a cult. I think we are doomed, Lance doomed.” Marc said, finding the once beautiful lady now very creepy.
No matter how many times he looked at his own situation, this was clearly a cult. The fact that they won’t let them leave is a big indicator. But also the fact that this girl doesn’t know how to use a cell phone. Then the fact that they’re all talking about nightmares and reincarnation and bullshit that shouldn’t make any sense. And what’s worse is the book that is in the girl's hand says magic on it. Nobody would be able to convince Marc that this wasn’t a cult.
Lance was worried that Marc was right, but he was also terrified about himself because the nightmares were not fake. He had been having them so vividly every night for months now that if this was a cult thing when there was something truly not natural happening because how in the hell would they know about his nightmares? Were they the ones who caused it? And if they did, how the hell did they do that?
Lance was starting to wonder if he was going crazy or if this whole situation was some drugged-up situation that he somehow found himself in.
Even worse, in the very back of his mind, he was wondering if this had all been a long and weird nightmare and that maybe he was in a coma from the car crash; but he pinched his cheeks multiple times, trying to figure out if this was real life or a nightmare.
The worst part is he is still not sure.
Notes:
Ahhh poor poor Mordred. I feel bad, but he killed Arthur, and I am still mad, so eh. Also, I love Marc, he's such a realist.
The problem with Mordred is that I wanted him to be a bad guy, but I couldn't figure out a way how he would realistically be a bad guy because I thought that he would have a change of heart like Nimueh. And technically, he does, however; unfortunately, he was picked up by the wrong person, and that person is a nutjob version of Morgan. Since the fight with nimueh, Morgan has become batshit crazy and is starting to turn more into Morgana than Morgan. Honestly, she's becoming something worse which is a combination of the two. I know some people wanted Mordred to be good, but he is going to be forced to be bad. I have had this idea for a while now, where Morgana would force him to be an ally. She's going to do a lot of shity and horrible things to Mordred in the future, so there's that.
I already know how the book will end, and I feel like I'm an evil person writing the story. It's terrible to be an author because you know how the character is created and how they live, and also how they die. *sigh* And it's even worse when they die horribly. I didn't like Dumbledore in my book, but I hated killing him; oh my God. And all the other deaths that I'm going to have to do later are going to suck. But this is my FanFiction, there are some people I'm not killing. I will save them one way or another.
Anyway bye till Halloween!
Chapter 4: Halloween Special :)
Notes:
I have no plans to bring Freya, in my series, back to life. I know there are a lot of people reincarnating, and I know Freya is someone who we would all love to see and her relationship with Merlin. However, for me personally, I have a conflict of interest in bringing Freya back. She is an amazing character, Merlin's first love, and pretty much the only love in the series. I love her character. Absolutely love her character; trust me, there is no doubt in my mind that I would love for her and Merlin to be friends and be a couple in my story, but it's just not going to happen.
For me, I believe that Merlin truly loves her. And I believe his love for her is so strong that it may outplay his love for Arthur. Whether you believe the love between Merlin and Arthur is romantic or platonic, it doesn't really matter since it's so freaking close either way. I just don't want to downplay the love Merlin has when Arthur comes back, and I feel if I bring back Freya and make her alive, not like the ghost she is, I feel it would just take away from that, and I don't want that in my story. Some people may disagree with me and say that it won't mess anything up, but in my mind, it would mess it up, and that would ruin it for me, and since I have to write it, I don't want to mess it up.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
A Love That Feels Immortal
(could be cannon to my story)
One Halloween…. sometime before Merlin took his 500-year slumber in Azkaban……
The waters of the lake gently rippled as the wind carried itself over its surface. The trees shook with the breeze, making a lullaby with their leaves. The grass freshly wet from the shower earlier in the day made the grass greener and more vibrant than ever. The small bit of sand that one would hesitate to call a beach was a sinkable foothold for the man standing in its grains. The fish swarmed to the bread chunks that were being gently tossed into the water, nibbling and fighting for the biggest pieces.
The man’s midnight ocean blue eyes would captivate anyone with the moon mirrored within them. The white and pale yellow moon was huge in the sky above the lake; it was a full moon celebrating the end of the month on Samhain. The lake was covered in a light rolling fog, almost as if setting the mood on this rather spooky day of the year. The man’s curly raven-black hair was tussled every now and then as he ran his fingers through it.
With a deep sigh, the man tossed the last bits of bread from his pocket and sat down in the wet sand. He pulled off his carrier bag and drew out a half-drunk bottle of brandy. Today was a somber day for the man; every Samhain was a day of remembrance, a day to remember all the friends he lost and, ultimately, how he failed his king. It was a sad day he usually spent alone at this lake. The man's blue eyes traced the island in the middle of the lake as he took a long pull of the bottle. Another deep sorrowful sigh left his chapped lips as he just stared out into nothing.
Today was a day when the veil between the spirit world and the human world was at its thinnest, and it was normally a day of mourning where wizards and lucky muggles could catch a glimpse of their missed loved ones. But not Merlin; his friends never seemed to be able to cross over; it was like something was stopping them, or that their souls weren’t in the spirit world …but that would be weird…where else could they be?
But either way, they never could see nor console this old soul who sits by the lake every Halloween. And so Merlin was often times alone every time he visited the grave of his best friend.
As he was sitting on the sand, taking in the cool fall breeze, letting it numb his body as frigid as his heart, he saw something particular happen in the water. The lake seemed at a standstill, the fish had left, and the trees stopped shaking. The breeze was almost non-existent suddenly, and it made the slightly drunk man look around.
The water was bubbling as if there was a great disturbance beneath the surface. Merlin dropped his bottle as a head suddenly surfaced from the lake, followed by a body, and as her body raised, her eyes slowly opened.
Merlin’s face was purely shocked as he thought he must’ve been dreaming, having fallen asleep after getting drunk, or that he was just so drunk he was hallucinating.
As someone he’d never thought to see again had risen from the lake.
“Freya,” Merlin whispered in a voice that sounded out of breath.
“Freya!” Merlin spoke louder as he jumped up from the wet sand as it clung to his trousers, not that he cared.
Merlin cared for nothing as his eyes trained on the ethereal woman of his dreams who was floating above the lake waters; he didn’t even pay mind to the freezing icy mid-fall waters as he stepped into the lake, almost running to see if she was real.
Freya descended into the lake, meeting Merlin as he walked until he was waist-deep in the water.
Merlin was frozen just before her, he was so close that if he just extended his hand a few inches in front of himself, he would touch her, but he was scared. He was so terrified that she wasn’t real. So scared that if he reached out, she wouldn’t be there. That this could be a figment of his alcohol-addled mind.
Merlin stood there, just taking in her features.
She looked as beautiful as the day he last saw her, still wearing the clothes he brought her so they could escape Camelot together. Merlin’s eyes teared up, remembering their plan, their plan to run away together, their plan to be happy and to love each other.
Merlin broke inside, even if this was a dream or a drunken hallucination; he started to cry, crumbling into the water below him.
“Freya…I’ve missed you, I’ve..” Merlin mumbled, not able to finish as he just cried, staring at her hands which were moving towards him.
“My love,” Freya said, causing Merlin to flinch as he stared into her brown eyes.
Merlin brought a sad smile to his lips, mirroring the happy one on Freya’s face.
“Freya.” He said softly, reaching out desperately, hoping that he would or could feel something.
And as true as the existence of magic, their hands clasped together.
Merlin laughed, looking at their interlocked fingers.
“Freya!” He shouted, pulling her into a crushing hug.
Merlin was laughing with tears racing down his cheeks.
“You’re here, you really here, oh how I’ve missed you, my love.”
Freya just laughed a cheerful laugh relishing in Merlin’s embrace.
“I’ve longed to see you as well.”
Merlin pulled back, really taking her in. He almost couldn’t believe the hands that were touching her shoulders as he looked.
“Freya,” Merlin repeated over and over, just so happy.
Merlin was on cloud nine. There was no experience happier than this, he thought. It had been a thousand years. A thousand years since all his friends and family had passed and left him all alone. Kilgharah had lasted a while longer, but soon, he, too, left.
The only relic other than himself was the baby Athusia, and she liked her freedom, so he saw her seldom.
It had felt like an eternity since he had felt so much emotion.
He wanted to do a dance or run a marathon with all this newfound adrenaline in his system.
It was like the dim life he was living was lit anew.
Merlin surged forward and planted a soft kiss on Freya’s lips as he didn’t know what else to do with his joy.
Freya giggled softly, returning the kiss and holding Merlin tightly in her arms.
Merlin didn’t need to speak as his hug spoke volumes as he held Freya tighter and tighter.
Eventually, Merlin’s feet gave out, and he sunk into the water. Freya followed, neither, noticing the icy waters as they were warmed by their love for one another.
“Freya? Is it time?” Merlin asked hopefully.
Freya frowned, and that was answer enough.
But Merlin could handle waiting. All he had been doing was waiting. And now, with Freya next to him, life would no longer be lonely, and he could find the will to live again.
“Merlin, my love,” Freya said, still frowning.
“It’s okay, I know. I know it’s not time yet; sorry for asking.” Merlin said, sighing.
“But it’s okay; I have you. I’m so happy, Freya, I….I’m just so happy.” Merlin continued hugging her again, but the frown didn’t leave her lips.
“No, Merlin, I…I can’t leave the lake.” Freya revealed the sad truth of her return.
Merlin’s head whipped up as he pulled back from the hug.
“What? You are real! I can hold you. I can touch you; this isn’t a dream………..Freya………..please.” Merlin cried, gripping her arm as if he was afraid to let go.
Freya pried his hand from her arm and held his hand gently.
“Yes, I am here. It’s no dream, but I am still but a spirit. I can see you whenever; I promise I’ll meet you whenever but I can not step out of Avalon; it’s not my destiny to do so.” Freya said as it saddened her to hurt Merlin.
She didn’t want to say any of this, but if he tried to take her from the lake, he would feel even worse despair then.
“Damn destiny! Damn it to hell! Why why can’t I have anything? Why am I still being punished? Were a thousand years not enough? How long, Freya? How much longer must I wait?” Merlin said, crumbling in sadness.
“I don’t know; I’m so sorry, Merlin, I’m so sorry,” Freya said, gripping his hands tightly and tearing up.
Merlin sighed deeply and looked at Freya.
“No, don’t apologize; you are as much of fate’s pawn as I. So don’t apologize. I love you, Freya, and I always will. I miss you so much, and even getting to see you like this and having the opportunity to see you many more times is a gift enough. Don’t cry.” Merlin said, wiping her tears and kissing her again.
While he let his hopes and dreams sore when he touched her, he returned to reality and just chose to cherish this moment rather than despair over what could not be fixed.
“I love you as well, Merlin. And I’ve missed you just as much. I’ve been watching over you for so long; I'm so glad to hold you again.” Freya said, hugging Merlin.
Merlin smiled and hugged her back. This wasn’t perfect, nor something he ever expected to have to happen today, but there was nothing better than holding Freya in his arms and being able to talk and kiss her; he felt as if he gained something wonderful the more, he sat in the cold lake.
He hadn’t felt so loved and full in years.
He found himself smiling randomly as Freya talked and spoke of Avalon.
As the sun was rising into the sky, turning the dark world back to a colorful and vibrant one, you could more clearly see the state of Merlin, who was affected by the icy waters and cool fall temperatures. His chapped lips turned blue, and he was shivering even if the man himself didn’t notice.
His skinny frame was soaked fully by sitting in the lake waters. Freya was as pristine as ever, seemingly human by the touch, but more unnatural in nature as she was not bothered by the cold, and as the sun rose, her body seemed almost translucent as the sun elevated higher and higher.
Soon her body became incorporeal, and Merlin’s fingers slipped through her hands.
Merlin reached out again and again as his hands continued to slip through her visage.
“What’s happening? Why can’t I touch you anymore? Freya!” Merlin said, panicking.
“I must go back; it was because of Samhain that I was able to be touched and that I could come in this form. But call on me whenever; I will always answer your call Merlin, my love, and every Samhain visit me like this when the veil is at its thinnest, and we can hold each other again.” Freya said as her body was slowly descending down into the lake as if she couldn’t stop it.
“I love you!” Merlin said before it was too late.
“And I you,” Freya responded, smiling before disappearing under the murky water.
~Fin~
Notes:
I hope you enjoyed it! I hadn't read this in a week. I'm crying fuckk.
As you all know, I will now be entering the scheduled Hiatus.
I just need to get my other series to a place where I can regularly upload them alongside this fic then I will return.
(side note about my life... I went shopping yesterday, and I went to a grocery store that normally closes early, but I made it in time today, and I bought all my favorite Asian food. I got shrimp dumplings and pork buns. I also got red bean buns and soup dumplings to try. I also bought some milk bread, which is just apparently the bread that makes up the outside of the pork bun, no real taste, but that was my dinner because I didn't realize that when I made it. I got some melon-flavored ice cream, and some jelly drinks too. I bought a lot. I also got my mom and my grandma dumplings and other stuff they wanted, so all in all, I spent the most I've ever spent in one of those stores, lol. I also learned I need to buy a new steamer (like for dumplings) because I'm currently sharing the one I have between two houses with my grandma. So I want another one, but it looks like I gotta go back to an Asian market for one cause amazon ain't doing it this time. Anyway, I had fun yesterday until my mom went nuts cause she couldn't figure out how her computer worked. I tried to help till she started threatening me; then I said you're on your own and let her figure it out on her own. She just wanted to yell at me and not listen and expected me to just sit and take it, and I don't do that shit anymore. Lol, get fucked, I guess. So yep, that was yesterday!)
Chapter 5: This Is Not A Cult I Swear!
Notes:
Hello hello.
Sorry for the long wait. I did update some of my books, and I did take a lot of time to relax.
I also went to a lot of doctor appointments and was trying to take care of myself while also trying to Christmas shop for my extended family.
I also have a lot of bad days and some exciting days that just seem to eat up all my time.Some cool and exciting news, these past few months I have been working towards getting a gastric sleeve done to help with my weight and just ease of life really. And after like six months of going to doctors' appointments and getting blood tests done and getting clearance forms I finally got a surgery date.
It’s a little daunting honestly and I’m kind of nervous. There’s a lot of work to be put into it and I have to go to a lot of really strict diets before the surgery and after the surgery but it’s finally graspable it seems to me.The date is 6 January, and I am excited and scared at the same time. But that’s what’s been going on with me. I’m also going to be continuing my leave of absence from school because school starts right when my surgery is, and I’m not gonna be going to class anyway, so it just seems pointless to go back right now. Mainly because I have to do five months of extreme dieting, and I don’t really think I can handle school alongside it, so I’ve just made a decision to head to school the next semester. It’ll be exactly 5 months, and I think by then I’ll have lost a lot of weight and will definitely be healed up.
The surgery is a lot bigger than I thought. It was going to cut a big incision in my stomach, and I was not aware of that beforehand, so it was a little scary. But I am happy in the end; it all worked out, I guess.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Merlin’s House
Merlin runs inside to see Lancelot and the other man looking spooked while sitting in his living room.
“Ah, hello! Sorry I didn’t expect guests today. But I’m glad you came nonetheless.” Merlin said cheerily.
“Ah no, we didn’t give a heads up and came unannounced; I’m sorry. I assumed this was Gwaine’s residence, and since he had been texting me nonstop for the past few days, I assumed not telling him I was coming was retribution that he deserved. But I didn’t know it was your house. I’m so sorry.” Lance said, suddenly remembering why the name Emrys sounded so familiar, as it was the bloke he hit with his car.
“You've been in contact with Gwaine?” Merlin asked, confused.
“Ah, yes. He confronted me a while ago about uh….. some…..things, and he has been non-stop texting me about it, and I thought I would just come and ask him to stop.” Lance said, not going into the specifics of his nightmares in the medieval crap because he didn’t want to seem crazy even though the situation was crazy enough as is.
“Oh… I’m so sorry I told him not to bother you. Well, not you specifically, but I told him not to do what he was doing. But please sit down and relax. I’ll bring some tea and some refreshments, and let’s just talk since you came here to talk.” Merlin said, leading them back to the couch and swiftly walking into the kitchen and preparing refreshments with his magic as quickly as possible so that he could get back to the living room and have a conversation without them getting spooked and leaving.
It took but five minutes for Merlin to carry out a tray with tea and biscuits and set it down on the table in front of the two slightly scared and awkward-looking men. Nimueh, who had been silently pretending to read the book she was holding, was carefully watching what was going on, but anytime anyone looked at her; she would look back into her book like she wasn’t just watching them. Merlin glared at her but ultimately gave up.
“So other than Gwaine being annoying, what exactly brought you to come here?” Merlin asked.
Lance looked uncomfortable, but Marc took the lead as he didn’t want to play into whatever con was happening here.
“Your colleague has been pestering my boss, Lance, here about medieval knights and reincarnations and somehow having nightmares connected to this cult or whatever it is that's going on here. Listen, I don’t really buy any of this bullshit. You may be intimidating and a little creepy and scary. Especially with her magic book, and clearly, this is a cult . But I just want to know what’s going on. And my boss would like it to stop happening to him. If this is like revenge for him, hitting you with his car, could you cut it out a little bit? If you need compensation, which it doesn’t look like you do, but if you do, just ask for it rather than tormenting him, please.” Marc said, speaking his mind.
Lance looked affronted,
“What he’s trying to say is that the nightmares and the reincarnation talk we had last time and the talk that I’ve had with Gwaine, why is it happening to me? I’m confused. I have nothing to do with either of you. I don’t know who you are. I’ve never met you before the accident. The dream didn't really make any sense in the beginning, and now they’re getting worse and worse. I just want to know what’s going on. And how do I make it stop?” Lance asked sincerely.
Merlin felt terrible because there was no way to stop it. And he also has to have a talk with Gwaine about pestering people too much. But there was really nothing he could do for Lance. So Merlin took a deep sigh and started to explain his side of the story.
“You’re not going to believe me. But you’re not alone in having these nightmares about medieval times and knights in shining armor. As annoying as Gwaine can be, he has also been going through this. As have quite a lot of people I’ve met recently. It’s not a cult—it kind of sounds like one to someone who doesn’t understand it. I can see where you’re coming from, but it is something that is very real and is happening to you, Lance. And what is happening is that you are the reincarnation of Lancelot from Camelot. And I know it sounds absurd and crazy, but it’s true. You have been reincarnated, and the nightmares you’re experiencing are your memories trying to come back. It’s supposed to come back naturally, and it is coming back to you naturally, but it seems to be slower than the other reincarnations I’ve met. I can help it along if you want me to so that you can get a full grasp of what’s going on. But what I am telling you is the truth.” Merlin explained carefully.
Marc scoffed loudly, looking to his boss to confirm this was such a bad lie.
But he doesn’t see the disbelief on Lance's face.
“Boss! You can’t believe him, can you?” Marc asked, confused.
“I……I don’t know. It sounds stupid, Marc; it does. It sounds made up and make-believe, but how do you explain these nightmares? How do they know about these nightmares? Why do they know it’s about medieval knights? Why do I see myself wearing armor and fighting battles in these dreams? Why did I see this guy in my dreams before I even met him?” Lance asked.
He wanted to say he didn’t believe Gwaine or this Emrys guy, but the problem was before he even met them, he dreamed of meeting them in another life.
How could you possibly explain that in a normal way? How was it explained other than what they’re telling him?
Lance took calming breath.
“You’re telling me you could make me remember everything, and let’s say I’ll let you do that,” Lance said, tired of it all.
“Lance!” Marc yelled, feeling that his boss was going off the deep end.
But Lance held his hand up to quiet him,
“Let’s say all of that happens, and I believe you. What is it that this all accumulates to? What is it that’s happening that’s so important that I need it to be reincarnated if it’s true? What exactly is the crisis that’s happening that needs knights from medieval times to appear again? I mean, do we have guns and technology now? What use is a bunch of knights walking around with swords in their hands? It’s not like magic exists. What use do those types of memories have in this real modern world?” Lance asks.
“There is a battle. It’s going on in a place that is hidden from society. And that battle, if it escalates too much, it could affect the modern world that you know. It has already been affecting the world, that you know. Have you seen the recent terrorist attacks and unexplained attacks with unimaginable weapons recently? The weather that’s been out of control recently. Stuff that is hard to explain, but it happened, and it always seems to disappear out of the news a few days later. Do you ever wonder how that could happen and how it gets quieted so quickly? What exactly happened in those events, and why it’s never explained in much detail to the public? It may sound crazy. And it may sound like I’m making up a bunch of crap. I can see where you’re coming from, but if you just remembered these memories you have that are repressed inside your soul, then it would help bridge the knowledge. I could tell you about all these recent events. It would make you believe what’s going on.” Merlin explained, itching just to do some magic, but he wanted to explain it first.
Lance looked unsure, but before he could speak, Marc cut him off and started speaking,
“How about this? Forget his repressed memories. If it’s something so real that it should be plausible even if it seems unimaginable, tell it to me so that I can believe you. Because I do not have these nightmares. I do not see things the way Lance and you all are seeing them. Tell it to me so that I can understand it. Show me proof that there’s a battle going on somewhere that we can’t see. Show us something tangible that makes sense. Because all I can see is you praying on my boss's nightmares that he’s been having. I don’t see any proof of any of this in any other form other than you guys share dreams or whatever.” Marc asked.
Marc was secretly smirking to himself. He would uncover this scam for what it was. Proof...as if anything could convince him, he thought neievely.
Lance looked surprised but thought it was a good idea because he felt like he was getting drawn in, and he wasn’t sure If it was a good thing.
Merlin scratched his chin. It was a clever idea. If Merlin could show Marc proof of what he was saying to the point where he believed him, then it would probably lead Lance to accept remembering his repressed memories, and it would probably make the situation go a whole lot smoother.
However, before Merlin could decide to act upon doing something like Marc had suggested, Nimueh took the opportunity to do it for him, startling the crap out of Marc and Lance.
Nimueh, who had long since put down her book that she was reading. Extended her arm out in front of her as her eyes fiercely glowed and gently raised the tray into the air. All of the biscuits and half-drunk cups of tea also rose in the air; the liquid from inside the tea cups swirled up into the air and made its way to form the word magic in the air.
Both Lance and Marc were quiet in stunned silence as it was happening, but the moment everything was still in the air, just gently floating, they freaked out.
Marc jumped out of his seat and crawled up the back of the couch so far that he ended up falling off the back of it onto the floor in bewilderment.
Lance jumped up like Mark, but instead of falling off the back of the couch, he screamed in a very high pitch and then promptly passed out.
After falling behind the couch, Marc stood up again, shaking and screaming and pointing at the floating tableware and food, and ended up fainting, but more so because Merlin made him faint rather than it happening of his own volition.
After both men were unconscious, the tableware and biscuits and tea slammed back onto the coffee table.
Merlin, with eyes still glowing gold, turned to Nimueh angrily.
“Why?” He asked angrily.
“You were taking soooo long. It’s not like what I did was any different than what you were going to do.” Nimueh admonished.
“Sure, however, you could’ve gone about it more subtly. What we didn’t want them to do was freak out and pass out. We wanted to ease them into magic so that they would trust it and not be scared of it!” Merlin yelled.
Merlin was going to continue yelling, but the fireplace flared up, and Remus stepped through.
Merlin and Remus before Lance and Marc arrived, we’re talking about some things, and Merlin had told him to pop on over in about 20 minutes.
It seems that Merlin had forgotten to tell him not to come through the fireplace, which would’ve been as much of a disaster as Nimueh, making the tea set float in the air.
When Remus dusted the soot off his clothes, he looked up, noticed the argument going on, and paused.
“Uhhh, bad timing?” He asked.
Merlin sighed deeply as his eyes returned to blue.
“No. It’s fineeee..…come in, Remus.” Merlin said as nothing was going right for him at the moment.
Remus walked in, only to pause once again as he saw the two unconscious people in the living room. One was awkwardly slumped into the couch, and the other one was on the floor, almost towards the kitchen.
“Uhhhh, I feel like I came at the wrong time,” Remus said again.
“No, no, that was all her fault. It’s fine. I’ll just….” Merlin said, trailing off as he used magic to raise both Lance and Marc up off the floor as he walked to the guest room, carrying them along through the air.
As he walked, he called out to Remus as he was farther into his home,
“Make yourself at home Remus. I’ll be with you shortly.” Merlin said, with a tired voice, like he had given up on the situation.
Remus looked at the void, dark hallway that Merlin disappeared into with confusion and trepidation, then to Nimueh, who was floating her book back into her hands.
Remus sighed and took off his coat, and sat down, grabbing a biscuit and stuffing it in his mouth to relieve the awkward tension he was feeling.
He definitely came at the wrong time, he thought to himself.
Voldemort’s ‘Ever-Changing’ Hideout
Draco was scared.
Morgan was changing.
At first, she was nice and kind and a little bit weird. She was a weird cross between a Muggle and a wizard. But unlike the Muggleborn‘s that he had gone to school with.
First off, she was much older than anyone in school, and she also as more confident about her Muggle side than any other wizards and witches that he had met before.
Since Draco normally was in the company of pure bloods, or people who hated Muggles, he never really got to see the cool nor good side of them. Even seeing it in Morgan didn’t really register in his mind so soon.
It took a while for him to warm up to her, but after being in charge of watching her and hanging around her so often, she became like an older sister to him.
She would get him in trouble and protect him at the same time.
Which Draco liked about her.
Also, she would teach him things; always interesting things end from both profiles of her life. She would teach him cool stuff about his cell phone and tell him about the wonders of the Muggle world and the ease of use that she wished was implemented into the magical one. And she also told him stories about her past life and even taught him some interesting spells, even if they were too hard for him to get the hang of.
Morgan was a kind person.
Morgana Pendragon was something else.
Draco didn’t really like her.
He knew it was the same person with different memories, but as the days progressed, and as Morgan regained more and more of her memories of the past, some things seemed to change within her.
She definitely got stronger as she remembered things that she had learned in her past life. Spells and poisons and magical rituals that she has been writing down in a book to catalog all of her memories.
Everything was going downhill in a way. The more she remembered, the more crazed she became. And the more she remembered, the less she was Morgan and the more she became Morgana Pendragon.
It was initially a slow going to change, but everything changed when she happened to pick up the Muggle celebrity that she said was an old friend of hers.
After kidnapping him, locking him in a room, and torturing him, it seemed like the final barrier between these two separate souls broke.
It seemed like there was no more Morgan and Morgana. It just melded into Morgana with the memories of Morgan.
All of Morgan’s mannerisms and feelings seemed to diminish. She was no longer the overprotective and kind older sister but now a scary and extremely powerful sorceress of the past who just remembered that she kind of liked Draco.
Before, Draco liked to hang out with her and often chose to be by her side rather than anywhere else, but now he wanted to get far away, even though he didn’t actually do it.
She scared him.
The new Morgan, if she was even still Morgan, was scary and dangerous, and Draco didn’t like the change.
But it seemed like the new Morgan, or rather Morgana was here to stay.
Notes:
I had no plans of updating today, but I wrote this chapter in 20 minutes, and I decided to update it. I actually had to re-read this third book because I forgot what was going on. And now that I remember, I wrote this in the excitement of reading my own book, and yeah, cool.
Chapter 6: Not Believing The Unbelievable
Notes:
I am finally back after my very long Hiatus, which I didn't intend to do. I originally planned to just like take a few weeks off and then get back into it. But then doctors' appointments and stress and then the surgery itself all culminated into one little ball of pressure, and I just needed time to relax, so I did. I did give you guys an update about the surgery. I think I wrote it while I was still in the hospital and on pain drugs, so when I read it back, I was like, when the fuck did I write this? But at least I wrote something. I have written three new chapters. All weirdly enough today. I just started writing earlier this morning and then never stopped. Actually, as of this moment, I have to go feed my dog again and take her on a walk. So you guys won't notice anything, but in between me writing this and posting the chapter, I will be outside for a little bit.
Also to talk about a few things in my life. remember my little puppy loki. he's a terror child. He's cute and adorable, but God, does he not listen at all. The only cute thing he does is when we feed him; he sits and waits for his food. that's really cute, but otherwise, he’s a horrible little terror.
Also, the other news is that my weight loss journey is going great. On December 23rd, I started this really intense diet that I had to go on because of the surgery, and I had to follow with it into different stages after the surgery. I'm currently in the puree food section of the diet, and I have lost so much weight considering it’s only been a month-ish. A little bit concerning the amount to me personally because I'm not doing the diet correctly. I never thought I would tell myself that I'm not eating enough, especially since I was always telling myself you're eating too much. But my concern now is I am definitely not eating enough food every day. Which probably contributed to the extensive weight loss that I have acquired. But either way, I lost 45 lbs in about a month. I noticed that, in retrospect makes sense that I will lose more weight if I do some exercise alongside dieting. because from January 22nd to today, I lost like 5 lbs because I started walking my dog at night.
I did decide that once I lose a lot of weight, I'm going to treat myself to a sandwich because I'm craving the one from the deli near my house. But that's after I lose a little bit more weight. I could eventually eat bread, but whole wheat and all that other nonsense like healthy people do. I would be eating more food, but I get really nauseous after eating, and also I can't drink while I eat which really pisses me off.
Today I tried tuna, like from a can. I mean, I've had it before, obviously but not in like so many months because I don't really like tuna. However, it's because I've been making it wrong. Everyone knows you add tuna fish and mayonnaise. I use the low-fat kind cuz you know. But if you had just a teaspoon of sweet relish, it will change your world. When I got back from the dog walk, which is now, by the way, I made myself a new fresh bowl of tuna fish because I finished the last one earlier and I added some relish, and it slapped so hard. It was so good. But then again this may just be me rediscovering food again because I haven't eaten anything in a long time. Especially when you're on a liquid diet, and you can't have any food for like 4 weeks it kind of makes you look at bland and boring food in a whole new light. Especially because I had a meatball this week for the first time in a while and I cried; literally I cried. It was hilarious in retrospect, but I had tears flowing down my face while I was taking a bite of a meatball because it was so good compared to everything else that I was eating.
Anyway, long authors note aside I hope you enjoy this chapter and I'm going to let you know right now the next chapter is possibly the coolest thing I've ever written in my life. I'm going to save what I want to say until the next chapter because if I talk any more I will spoil it.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Merlin's House
Lance and Marc did not wake up for at least four hours.
Lance didn’t wake up because he was startled into believing what he saw as the truth, and his mind was trying to convince him this was all possible and made sense even though he didn’t want to believe it. Marc was having the opposite problem where he knew what he saw was real, but his mind was trying to convince him that it was fake and that he just was tricked that maybe the tea or the biscuits had been drugged in some way that he didn’t know even though he didn’t get to eat any. His brain was trying to find any possible reason that what he saw was fake.
So while they were having their internal battles with themselves, hours passed.
At that time, Remus came and went, he and Merlin tried to resume their talk but Merlin was panicking so much that it was pointless.
Eventually, the rest of the reincarnations trickled in as the hours passed by.
Gwaine, who was doing absolutely nothing, came right away, and then next was Gwen, who finished her shift at the computer store. Then there was Percival, who was meeting with a client of his before he made his way down to Merlin’s house.
Leon and Bell were the last to arrive, they were lucky that they started their shifts early in the morning and that by the time they were finished, it was still a reasonable hour in the evening. They were tired, but they still decided to make the trek to Merlin’s house as they were curious to meet the new reincarnation who didn’t meet besides Gwaine.
At the end of the fourth hour, Merlin’s bedroom
Lance and Marc seem to magically awaken at the same moment. Both were extremely disoriented even after they woke up as if the dreams and plausibility swimming around their heads weren’t enough, waking up in a weird, the medieval-ish yet modern-looking room didn’t really help the fact.
They were both napping in Merlin’s bedroom.
His room was an interesting mix of medieval artifacts and modern electronics spewing everywhere in a very non-organized/mad genius fashion. Very Merlin-like but very weird to the Muggle eye.
Lance groaned, grabbing his head with both his hands.
“Marc?” He asked, seeing the man beside him.
Marc looked relieved, in the sense he convinced himself this was all a dream.
“Lance, I think we should distance ourselves from these people, I think I’m starting to have crazy dreams too,” Marc said, rubbing his head as there was a pronounced bump there from when he fainted.
Lance didn’t respond because, in this short “nap,” he had remembered everything, but he didn’t know how to break it to Marc, who was a firm disbeliever.
“Uhhh, did you dream about a floating tea set?” Lance asked instead.
Marc, who had gotten up and was adjusting his rumpled clothes, stopped. His mouth pursed.
“Lance, please don’t tell me about my weird dream. Because people can’t share dreams.” Marc said as his fake reality he crafted to explain earlier that day was crumbling.
“Marc….it wasn’t a dream; I saw it too,” Lance said gently, seeing his friend and colleague freak out.
The soft way he said it didn’t help Marc’s sanity.
“Lance, that's not possible. Tea sets don’t float, people’s eyes don’t glow yellow, and magic isn’t real.” Marc said, barely believing himself as he saw it already.
Lance sighed, “Remember what Emrys…no uh Merlin was saying.” Lance said, remembering Merlin’s name from his memories.
“He said that I’m a reincarnation, and trust me if I didn’t have these memories right now, I’d say he was crazy like before but I remember, like everything. I remember being Lancelot. As stupid as that sounds.” Lance says disbelief in his voice even though he clearly remembers now.
It’s still a lot to take in even if he believes everything. Marc was seriously looking at Lance and realizing he was serious.
“No. Ha, no.” Marc said, laughing a scared laugh.
“This is stupid and crazy. And it’s not funny, Lance.” Marc looked hurt and scared as he walked backward till his back hit the wall and he saw the door handle.
He grabbed the handle and opened it so hard to where it left a small dent in the wall. Marc didn’t even seem to notice though as he turned and started to fast walk into a brightly lit room. Lance hurriedly got up to follow, calling out his name as he ran after him.
“Marc, wait!”
Both men froze once entering the new room as Merlin, and the others were there, having gotten quiet after hearing the door.
Marc was momentarily shocked, with his mouth hanging open for a moment. Lance paused for a long time as all the faces from his past life were staring at him. But Marc just angrily gestured at the group and continued to storm outside. Lance fought between running to his friend and crying at seeing his old mates.
But he sighed and smiled at everyone,
“Uh,
hi, give me a moment.” He said following Marc outside.
Outside Merlin’s house
“Marc! Marc! You don’t have the keys to my car; where are you even going?” Lance asked as Marc paused in front of the car.
He turned around and walked up to Lance.
“Lance…buddy…boss, I am not believing this stupid shit; if you want to buy into this cult…….fine. As your friend, I'll let you know; it’s a bad idea. But if it’s where you want to be, be my guest. But I’m not buying it. Magic isn’t real. Reincarnation isn’t real. Do you really think you are Lancelot from Camelot? Show me what you got with a sword. I mean, you should know how to use one, right? Are your memories telling you where to find the sword in the stone? Oh no, wait, that's not for you to pull out, but how will I know if you're worthy or not?” Marc sassed.
He was fed up with this situation and had a massive headache.
Lance frowned.
Merlin slid outside and pushed his way into the conversation.
“I can prove that magic is real. How about you both just come inside and talk? Yelling at each other out here isn’t going to help anyone.” Merlin offered.
Lance smiled at Merlin and hugged him out of the blue.
“Merlin.” He whispered with a smile.
Merlin froze for a moment and smiled,
“Did you remember?” Merlin asked.
“Yeah, seeing magic earlier was enough of a push, I guess.” Lance laughed.
Marc scoffed.
“Fine. Show me.” Marc said, pushing past Lance and walking back into Merlin’s house.
“You have a stubborn friend,” Merlin commented to Lance.
“Yeah…yeah, I do,” Lance said, sighing and jogging up to catch up to Marc.
Two hours later
“You’ve seen magic in front of your eyes like five times; believe it already,” Gwaine complained as Marc was still denying the existence of it even though the white shirt he was wearing was now bright green and Lance’s hair had turned blonde.
Lance was sighing alongside Gwaine as he believed Marc was just arguing because he couldn’t dispute it anymore. Also, Nimueh had been causally floating a book in the air as she read it, seemingly out to spite Marc.
“I need to process this,” Marc said, pacing around and battling with himself.
Clearly, he was seeing magic, but the fact that it was magic was throwing him for a loop. He understood what they were saying, and he could see the proof in front of his eyes, but his brain wouldn’t let him believe anything. He wanted just to say fuck it and tell them okay; he believed it, but he was way too stubborn to give in so easily.
So he paced around for awhile while the rest of the room slowly left him to it.
Eventually, he sat down with everyone else, but he’d closed his eyes and was massaging his head, so everyone just left him to it, and the conversation moved on.
“Gwen, do you have an older brother?” Gwaine asks.
Everyone in the room wants to facepalm as no one else thought to ask.
“No, I’m an only child. Why?” Gwen asks.
Everyone looks deflated as they thought this was gonna be easy to find Elyan.
“Oh well, you know, Elyan, I was wondering if he was your brother in this life as well.”
Gwen was quiet for a while, and everyone thought the conversation died till Gwen shot up.
“Oh, my God. Gwaine, you're so smart!” Gwen shouted.
Gwaine smirked and dusted off his shoulders dramatically,
“I always knew I was the smartest out of you lot.” He bragged.
Leon glared with no heat,
“Shut up, Gwaine. Gwen? Why is he smart?” He asked.
Gwen laughed with a feathery giggle,
“I don’t have a brother in this life, but I do have a half-cousin, and I’m pretty sure it’s Elyan. No, I'm positive it is him. But I haven’t spoken to him in years. And he doesn’t live here. He moves around a lot. I’d have to call my mum to see if she has his phone number. Hmmm. I’ll head home now; I have some stuff to sort through.” Gwen shares.
“We could give you a ride; you came by taxi, no? We should head back too; as lovely as your house is, Merlin, it's quite far from work, and we have a morning shift.” Bell said, standing.
Leon stands,
“I agree now that we’ve all met, I’m sure planning out the plan ahead will be easier going forth.” Leon shakes Lance’s hand and offers it to Marc as well, but the man had not been paying attention, trying to sift through his thoughts that he seemingly ignored him.
Leon didn’t take any offense because he understood trying to believe all this with his past memories was hard, but he couldn’t imagine without anything other than the confirmation of others.
Actually, Leon agreed silently that this could be a cult if he didn’t know better.
Once they left, it didn’t take long for Lance to drag Marc outside and wave goodbye.
Actually, it was a bit of a struggle to drag Marc outside, but Percival picked him up from under his arms and carried him outside till he wiggled out of the carry and walked for himself.
Once they left, Percival left soon after, and Gwaine decided to sleep over since Merlin’s house had great Wi-Fi for a place so remote.
Merlin simply didn’t understand what Gwaine was talking about and just smiled as he did.
As magic tech didn’t rely on Wi-Fi or normal technology rules. Actually, it was a bit of a wonder how it all worked; that was something Merlin made that was more of a happy accident than a planned outcome.
Once Gwaine was situated in a guest bedroom with one of Merlin’s laptops, saying he was working, but by the sounds of music coming from the laptop, Merlin wasn’t too sure how much of that was true.
Merlin had put on his coat and said bye to Nimueh, who had moved since the conversation started. Nimueh had made Merlin buy her a wand a week ago, she didn’t need it, not even to perform new magic spells, but she was interested in it as she was always interested in magic, even if this type was pathetic at first glance. So Nimueh was outside behind the house in the free-growing garden, just testing out the spells from a book that Hermionie had lent her when she’d met her at Hogwarts.
Hermione was happy to lend her books since Nimueh had answered all of her questions without seeming annoyed or angry at the young witch. Nimueh actually liked all the young magical children and told Merlin she wanted to go visit Hogwarts again in the future. That’s part of the reason she wanted to learn how to wield a wand, as Merlin said she could teach a class if she learned how to use it, maybe as an extracurricular activity or something of the sort.
So she was off practicing.
And Merlin was off, leaving the house, had a meeting sort of.
Sirius’ House
Harry was sitting with his two best friends and debating on whether he should voice his troubling thoughts.
Even to himself, his thoughts sounded stupid.
And Dumbledore’s conflicting messages made his brain mush. How can he tell Harry not to trust someone, then take the statement back days later, and then die soon after? It all seemed extremely suspicious.
Then with Draco. Well, Draco was an enigma, he was all but there to kill Dumbledore, but he didn’t, and the Dark Mark on his arm is clear proof that he’s evil. But why would Professor Emrys lie about it? Why was he so suspicious?
Harry thought there was a small chance he was a Death Eater himself. It made sense to him; he protected Draco when he knew he had the mark. Snape hid under Dumbledore’s nose for years, and he was a Death Eater. Also, this reincarnation stuff doesn’t make too much sense, either.
Harry believes the reincarnation, and it’s hard not to with Nimueh using a different kind of magic as she was showing Hermione earlier, but why Professor Emrys? What was his involvement? And why did he seem to be at the center of it?
It was so weird, but no one was voicing their suspicions. Also, Remus seemed to be acting weird lately. He would visit often to grab his godfather to go to work sometimes and even stay over, but whenever Harry asked questions about Professor Emrys, he would find a way to avoid or say he wasn’t sure and to ask the man himself.
After thinking in circles, he quietly mused,
“Ya think he’s a Death Eater?” Harry asked.
Ron, who was stuffing his face full of sweets from a bowl Sirius had left in the room, started to choke. He ended up needing help from Harry to dislodge the stuck candy in his throat before relaxing again.
Hermione looked confused and disgusted and asked after Ron sat down again.
“Who?”
Ron picked up a glass of pumpkin juice and took a big sip.
“Professor Emrys,” Harry said, which caused Ron to spit it out of his mouth as he looked shocked.
“What? Oh, uhh…” Ron exclaimed and then noticed his two best friends covered in pumpkin juice.
“Sorry.” He said as Hermione spelled them both clean, looking grossed out.
“Uh, but Harry, why do you think so? Isn’t he fighting on our side? I mean with the reincarnations or whatever they are.” Ron asked.
“He’s fighting a war, but it doesn't seem like it’s the one we're part of sometimes. Like his goal isn’t the Dark Lord, isn’t that girl Morgana? What if he kills her or captures her and then stops? I mean it sounds stupid, but sometimes it seems like he’s working separately from everyone else. I don’t think he’s evil, but I can’t say I trust him either.” Harry says seriously.
“I see where you're coming from, I even asked Nimueh how Professor Emrys found the reincarnations, but she said to ask him, and every time she was about to tell me something rather interesting, she would look at the Professor and change the subject. I agree he’s weird, but a Death Eater is a bit much, no?” She said.
“Also, don't a lot of people trust him, too, like Remus and Sirius? Wouldn’t they know if he was faking it all?” Hermionie finished.
But Harry wasn’t satisfied because his gut was telling him that there was something else, but he didn’t have proof or any idea what it was. So, for now, he dropped it.
“I guess so,” Harry said, still thinking.
After about an hour of eating sweets and drinking juice, the kids were about to hunker down for the night when Sirius popped his head into the room.
“Hey, I’m heading out for drinks in Hogs Head and will be back later. Stay in the house and out of trouble and go to sleep before I get back, okay? Otherwise, Molly will give me hell.” Sirius said, clad in a light coat and a nice fit.
“Who are you going with?” Harry asked, more awake than before.
“I’m hanging out with Remus and Myridian. And possibly Kingsley. Don’t give me that face; it's not a secret Order meeting; I told you we were gonna start including you kids. We have all decided to get a few pints, that's all.” Sirius said to a frowning Harry.
It made Sirius feel like a kid talking to a disapproving parent.
“Get some sleep. I’ll be back later.” Sirius smirked and headed outside and apparated into the night.
Harry gave it a few minutes before shuffling through his luggage and pulling out his invisibility cloak.
“Har’ry?” Ron asked with slurred speech as he was tired and in the middle of a sugar crash.
“Yeah?” Harry asked not to look at his friend as he was grabbing his wand holster and some other light necessities for going out.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“I’m following Padfoot,” Harry said, speaking softly as Hermione had fallen asleep a little while ago.
“Ughh, we are getting into much trouble,” Ron said, trying to get up.
“No, you are staying here. I’ll go alone. You still have trouble apparating, and I’m not confident to bring you through sidelong. Also, if Padfoot gets home before me, you can cover for me.” Harry said, pushing Ron back into his makeshift bed.
“This is not a good idea, Harry. You could take Mionie….she can apparate.” Ron suggested.
“No. She will not let me leave. Also, she’s sleeping. I’ll be safe and quick. If they are just meeting for drinks, I’ll come back real quick. But if it’s a meeting, I’ll listen in for a bit and then make my getaway. Don’t worry; even if they catch me, it’s not too big of a deal. It’s not like I’m going to be in any danger; I’ll probably just be forced to stay in the house for a week or so and clean.” Harry said, grinning.
He left Ron looking unsure as he left into the night.
Hogs Head
Sirius arrived, shedding his coat and draping it over a chair as he sat at a full table near the back.
“Hello!” He said happily as he was handed a beer.
“Ello!” Merlin said cheerfully; he had gotten here first and had since drank three beers in the meantime, waiting for his friends.
He was pretty relaxed, or rather he was trying to relax himself as he knew this wasn’t just a pint with good friends.
Remus and Kingsley weren’t as enthusiastically drinking as Merlin was, and Sirius was about to be.
Arthur Weasley was the unexpected but welcomed fifth attendee. Arthur and Merlin always talked about getting drinks, and finally, they were having their moment. Arthur also brought his laptop as he had questions.
Merlin was using him as a distraction for the impending questioning that was to come at some point tonight.
This was gonna be a long night.
Notes:
I'll probably post all three chapters tonight but we will see :)
Chapter 7: A Secret Meet Turned Bloody
Notes:
So this chapter wasn't supposed to go like this. But then I started writing, and then I started writing some more, and then it went a certain direction, and then I kind of fucked it a little, and then well this chapter happened after all that.
However, it led me to write the next chapter, and let me tell you how much fun I had writing that.
See, I had a plan, but as I was writing, it went askew, and then something magical happened.
I'm not going to spoil anymore..............
But get your butts ready for some fight scenes.
Oh my god, yay!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Hog’s Head
The not-so-secret secret Order meeting soon began after everyone had at least one glass of beer.
Sirius tried to order a round of whiskey for everyone but was vetoed pretty quickly. But Merlin out of the corner of Sirius’ eye showed a bottle of fire whiskey he had swiped before everyone came and winked at Sirius with a smirk on his face. Sirius grinned and pushed his chair closer to Merlin waiting for their moment to sneak a swig.
The talk started just as mutual greetings and general how was your day kind of talk and then after a few drinks more they got into a more serious topic.
At first, they started easing into questions about reincarnation and how it was cool and weird at the same time. They even discussed what exactly they were going to do with Morgana. Most of the table was already overwhelmed with Voldemort and now they had this new threat that could be just as powerful or maybe even more so and it was like a ticking time bomb they had no idea how to defuse.
They even discussed maybe they should send in the team of Aurors to take her out now. Since Merlin kept saying she was slowly regaining her power, maybe that now would be the time to do it before she got too powerful to a point where not even the reincarnations could stop her. Also, there was a lot of disbelief about what Muggle knights could really do.
The only thing that made them believe that they stood a chance was Nimueh. The question is how strong she really was and whether was she trustworthy since in the past she was an evil sorceress who did bad things.
Merlin sidesteps a lot of the questions but reassures them that Nimueh is on their side and strong. But he decidedly ignores the question about attacking Morgana now because he had similar thoughts but he gets the feeling that he can’t do anything until someone special returns but he didn’t want to get into that conversation with everyone.
Soon after hitting a few dead ends with Merlin, they move on to talk about the Dark Lord and his recent movements.
Ever since the attack on Hogwarts and the killing of Dumbledore the Death Eaters have been going crazy. It’s like attacks left and right. Many bustling and busy wizarding world attractions are now like ghost towns, as nobody wants to be caught up in the middle of an attack. And it’s getting harder and harder to explain away attacks in the Muggle world as there could only be so many gas leaks and terrorist attacks from unknown organizations before even the Muggles get suspicious.
Also, many Wizarding families are extremely worried to send their kids back to Hogwarts or to even letting them leave the house at all. The fact that Hogwarts was breached and the headmaster was murdered by a former teacher was still the main headline in most of the newspapers. Parents were too fearful of the Security breach that they didn’t trust Hogwarts anymore. It wasn’t only Dumbledore that was killed that had shocked the world, no there was only one fatality in the attack hundreds of students were injured and shaken up by the turn of events that day. Even without their parents holding them back some students didn’t want to come back. And they loved Hogwarts. It was their second home, a place full of happiness and learning new things but they were scared. Also, they didn’t trust their own classmates anymore as half of the Slytherin population was declared Death Eaters and disappeared. They were worried that there was more hiding in the shadows and that there were a lot of letters sent to Mrs. McGonagll about students not coming back the next year.
It was a big fiasco that the order and the school were trying to figure out. The conversation also moved to what the school was going to do since the sudden death of their headmaster.
Merlin got pretty depressed over talking about it. He still felt immensely guilty about not saving Dumbledore, well rather not being able to. He still was beating himself up about it.
Though no one seemed to blame him except himself.
The talk moved on to Snape and his betrayal of Dumbledore and of his teaching position and how he was a death eater in disguise this whole time.
Sirius, who was too drunk at this point to be having this conversation, stood up with his beer in his hand and declared that he knew Snape was a bad person the whole time and that they should’ve never let them be a teacher.
He was going to keep going before Kingsley smacked his hand over his mouth and brought him back down into his chair.
It seemed that Sirius remembered where he was and calmed down even though he did down the whole glass he was holding in frustration of not being able to yell his woes.
The conversation moves on after Merlin leans over to Sirius, shushing him and handing him more alcohol. Merlin was also extremely drunk at this point. Merlin could hold his liquor but on top of his nerves and secretly drinking fire whiskey under the table Merlin was getting plastered without even realizing it.
As they got drunker the conversation got more passionate as they started talking about how the kids of the wizarding world were going to have to face war. It was like the previous generation all over again when the first war was happening. Except for this time, it’s not kids right out of Hogwarts who were early adults then, but no, now it was just the children who were barely in their fourth year going to be on the front lines of this horrible war.
The adults who were drunk or depressed and angry and letting it show by the volume of their voices.
They talked about their plans for winning the war even though as they were talking about it it seems like they were talking about a pipe dream where they wanted to believe they were going to win, but there was some doubt in their voice. Realistically speaking if they didn’t win they wouldn’t have a life to think about afterward anyway but even if they didn’t fully believe that their chances of winning were high they talked about it as if it was the only possible answer and it was going to be the future.
That talk eventually led to a more somber mood where the angry drunks were finally calming down, and most of the alcohol was gone.
They were in a pub, but even the bartender stopped sending drinks to the rowdy table.
Eventually, the conversation almost depletes other than Merlin drunkenly showing Arthur Weasley how to work his laptop.
Sirius tries to help, but he was drunker than Merlin because he was not someone who could handle his alcohol but was someone who really liked to drink anyway. After Merlin started to spill his last glass of alcohol all over Arthur’s computer, that signaled the end of their brief meeting. The laptop wasn’t damaged, of course, but it signified that they should probably all head home now.
It had been at least two hours since they all met up, and most of them were varying amounts of very drunk.
The only person who was still pretty sober was Remus, who decided just to have one beer as he wasn’t too confident in himself drunk; he already spends one night of the month out of his mind he didn’t need to replay that every other day by drinking in his sorrows.
However, Merlin and Sirius were two peas in a pod who were both absolutely smashed.
Both of them needed help out of the pub, and since it was so quiet in the middle of the night, they were drawing unwanted eyes as they were screaming loudly drunk off their asses.
On the other side of the pub
Harry Potter, who had followed Sirius to the impromptu meeting, was also leaving. He had gotten there when they started talking about what they should do about Morgana. And had stayed for the remainder in the corner, covered in his invisibility cloak out of direct eye line Professor Emrys; as Harry was suspicious that he could see him through the invisibility cloak even though he was not quite sure how he did that, he was careful though not to be found nonetheless.
Harry was quite upset with his godfather as this was clearly a meeting, maybe not a formal one, but it was definitely a meeting.
Though Harry did find some enjoyment in watching his godfather and the professor get extremely drunk.
It was very funny, especially as professor Emrys was leaving and nobody was watching him or holding onto him, which led him to fall face-first into the floor.
Harry almost gave himself away by bursting out laughing; even though he was still covered by the invisibility cloak, the laughter was loud enough for a moment that he was worried they noticed.
But the varying degree of drunk men was none the wiser.
It’s probably what led to the rest of the night getting out of hand.
Once they all stepped out into the cold nighttime air that’s when the night started to turn dangerous.
If they were sober and in their right minds, maybe they would’ve noticed the eerie quiet, and extremely desolate streets. Even if it was late, there was still a bit of hustle and bustle on a normal day. Well, there was until minutes ago.
Remus noticed it first as he was the most alert, and his heightened senses could smell the putrid scent of death long before he spotted a dead man laying on the street.
“Hey… I think something’s wrong…oh god!” Remus spoke out loud to his friends before noticing the body, followed by seeing three more.
Sirius and Merlin, who were still pretty out of it, looked forward and saw the dead bodies, and it brought them out of their drunken stupor. Not by much, however, they still couldn’t stand straight, but they weren’t as cheerful as before.
“What’s going on?” Arthur Weasley asks, drawing out his wand as he was the last to leave the pub as Merlin and Sirius walked out without their coats, and he offered to retrieve them.
“It’s probably the remains of a Death Eater attack. I’ll send a patronus to the Auror department. Myridian and Siri-ah-James sit on the sidelines. Remus and Arthur be on the lookout and see if you can find any more damage.” Kingsley took charge, moving to the side to send his patronus out.
But he never got the chance as a yell alerted them to the disaster.
“Look Out!” Harry shouted out, forgetting about hiding since the situation turned out like this.
Not noticing who shouted but thankful either way Kingsley ducked and narrowly missed getting struck by a curse.
Kingsley turned around to face his comrades with their wands out and was surrounded by a massive number of Death Eaters. There were close to twenty. Kingsley would've felt better if Myridian and Sirius were not drunk, but at the moment, he was worried if they could escape alive.
Kingsley grabbed Arthur Weasley and whispered to him.
“Escape. Apparate and call for backup.” Kingsley ordered.
He wasn’t sure he could trust the two drunk men to actually do it, and he wanted Remus beside him.
Also, Arthur had a family, and he wanted the man to return to them rather than die here if they couldn’t make an escape. Mr. Weasley looked grim but nodded and apparated with a crack.
Some Death Eaters tried to follow, but Kingsley attacked, and they ended up messing up their spells and ended up being thrown across the road.
“You two better sober up,” Kingsley said as he stood in the forefront, ready to fight for his friends and comrades.
Remus looked at Merlin and stood in front of him, figuring it would be best if he protected him because he had an important future. Remus raised his wand cautiously alongside Kingsley.
Sirius was still unsteady as ever, but his mind cleared up, and he drew his wand.
Merlin was confused about why Remus was in front of him when he knew Merlin was…well, Merlin.
Even drunk, he could defend himself. It wasn’t the best condition to be in, but it wasn’t the worst. He just had less control of his magic, which in certain cases was bad, but with twenty Death Eaters staring him down, he didn’t particularly think it was a bad thing.
One Death Eater stepped forward and spoke to Kingsley.
“Hand over the blood traitors, and you can escape.”
Kingsley looked confused and surprised, he thought this was a random attack, but it seemed like his companions were the target.
He looked at his two drunk companions and sighed.
“And if I don’t want to?” He asked, knowing what was coming.
“Then die together!” The Death Eater yelled and flung a silent spell.
Before Kingsley could react, a giant glowing shield charm encompassed the group.
Kingsley looked to Myridian, whose wand was raised, and the glow of the shield charm illuminated his eyes, making them almost glow gold. The Death Eaters all started attacking the moment the shield charm dissipated.
Kingsley and Remus were fighting back, overpowering the enemies, and Sirius, for his part, could hold his own; even in his unbalanced drunk state, he dodged spells even if accidentally, yet he didn’t seem in dire straits. And Myridian was something else. He was battling five Death Eaters alone and not looking in trouble actually; he seemed to relish in the fight.
Remus, whose original goal was to protect Merlin, gave up after Merlin saved him while not even looking at him.
But Remus probably wished he’d kept an eye on Merlin by the end of it all.
As the fight was going on, it looked like Kingsley and the gang were winning as they were fairly okay, only gaining a few cuts and bruises compared to the seven dead Death Eaters. But it all started to go downhill when a bunch of people apparated in.
At first, it looked like allies, but the dark hoods and masks proved otherwise.
Everyone besides Merlin was tired but still going strong because the only other option was death. Merlin was fine, but he wasn’t sure he could protect three people and fight 15 plus Death Eaters at the same time while drunk.
“You guys should escape.” Merlin voiced his opinion when he got close to Kingsley.
Kingsley looked annoyed,
“I’m fine. You’re not tired, right? Take Sirius and escape. If they are after you, I’m not leaving you here.” Kingsley said matter-of-factly.
“Anyway, Arthur will come through…even if he is taking his time,” Kingsley said, sighing slightly as he was not really fine.
He’d taken a spell to the knee and wasn’t faring too well.
A laugh vibrated through the night, making everyone look.
A man….well, no, a beast was standing near the pub with a wicked smile on his face.
Unbeknownst to everyone but him and Harry, it was directly next to Harry Potter.
Harry, who was watching the fight, didn't notice the beastly wizard until he was right next to him.
Remus blanched, looking at his worst nightmare. Fenrir Greyback was standing there sniffing the air.
Harry backed away as fast as he could, even letting the invisibility cloak fall off his head as he ran to his godfather’s side.
Once Harry’s face was seen, the Death Eaters looked surprised but excited about the chance to kill the chosen one.
Kingsley looked like the worst thing in the world just happened, and it sort of did. Remus immediately grabbed Harry and shoved him behind him.
“Harry Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing here?” Kingsley asked angrily; everyone was a little surprised because they had never seen the man so angry before.
“I was following Padfoot 'cause I thought you guys were having a secret meeting. I just wanted to come to see for a bit, and I was going to head back, but then the attack started, and I wanted to help, so I stayed but then I got found somehow.” Harry said he was being truthful because he just made the situation ten times worse.
Merlin sighed and looked at Fenrir; he raised his wand and walked forward.
“Myridian!” Remus whisper-yelled, grabbing his shirt.
“He’s a werewolf. He’s very strong.” Remus said, worried, as he was still scared.
Merlin pat Remus’ hand,
“I’ll fight him. You and Kingsley hold off the others and Sirius, take care of Harry, Harry…hmm, help where you can but stay close to at least one of us all the time.” Merlin said, taking charge as the situation was getting dangerous.
Kingsley didn’t like this plan but couldn’t argue now that Harry’s safety was the top priority.
The fight continued, and they seemed to fight even harder now that they had something important to protect. They were tired and exhausted, but they didn’t complain nor back down, not even when they were cut or when they were bleeding.
Merlin, who was handling Fenrir Greyback, was also watching Harry and everyone else. He was covered in cuts, but Merlin didn’t really care and was focusing on everyone’s safety more than his own.
Fenrir seemed to notice and bombarded spells at Harry making Merlin focus on protecting him. Hell, everyone tried to protect him and missed a spell aimed at Merlin’s feet. An explosion erupted at his feet, sending him into the air and pummeling him down hard into the broken brick path.
Merlin cried out and coughed up blood.
Remus got a little feral and attacked Fenrir, but he was overpowered and was thrown with force into the ground as well.
Sirius threw himself in front of Harry taking a spell to the side of the head and knocking him down and out of the fight. Harry just kept casting a shield charm over the both of them, not knowing what to do.
Kingsley was too far away, swarmed by Death Eaters, to help. Everything was looking grim.
Fenrir grinned manically and stood over Merlin, and Remus, who had crawled near him. He placed his foot on Remus’ stomach and held his wand, and pointed it at Merlin.
Merlin’s eyes were still open, but his body was messed up. He was trying to heal himself, even if just enough to move. But a curse was shot into his leg.
He screamed.
Remus was growling, but Fenrir just stepped on him harder.
Fenrir was enjoying himself. He fired off another spell into Merlin’s shoulder that left a hole.
Merlin shook in pain. It was too much; he was going to faint; he used the last bit of consciousness to try one last thing.
His eyes glowed for a moment before he fainted.
Fenrir laughed and picked him up off the floor.
He broke Remus’ leg before walking to Harry Potter.
Kingsley looked horrified; things had taken a terrible turn.
But things started to look up as cracks were heard around the street, and reinforcements were finally there.
However, the relief was short-lived at the sight of the battlefield. They were still outnumbered, and Fenrir was holding Merlin hostage. He had his hand wrapped around his throat and was smirking.
Nothing had changed…everything looked as grim as before.
That’s when the sky rumbled.
Notes:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooo, I wonder what's gonna happen next................
You know, for a moment, I felt like I went a bit too flighty/vicious, but this is my kind of scene; I love the bloody beaten-up characters; it always leads to an epic next step.
Chapter 8: The Witch Of Lightning
Notes:
I freaking love this chapter. This was something magical that happened after I messed up the last chapter a bit. I feel like I'm a simp for Nimueh in this book. I think I'm just obsessed with her, and anytime I get the chance to write about her, she becomes a badass. because she is a badass, of course, but God, I just love writing her in my book. She was an unplanned character that I added at the last minute, and Hallelujah that I did. In every single chapter she is in, she is just oozing badass energy. I love it so much.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Early Early Morning
May 25, 2007
The sky, which showed no signs of rain or storm, started to rumble. Lightning danced in the clouds all around the sky above the fight. Rain still didn’t fall, but the lightning got brighter, and the thunder got louder.
Merlin, who was out cold, smirked like he was having a good dream.
As the lightning raged, one bolt zigzagged through the air, landing between Harry and Fenrir.
And the burnt ground revealed Nimueh standing there as the wind of the oncoming storm blew her pale blue dress and hair in an untamed fashion.
Nimueh looked over the battlefield and grimaced at the utter destruction. Her entrance stopped all fighting and enraptured everyone’s attention.
She looked ahead and saw Merlin unconscious and bloody, held up by his neck in the hands of Fenrir.
She frowned and held her hand out,
“Give him to me….mutt.” She said, looking down at Fenrir even though he was several heads taller than her.
Fenrir, who thought Nimueh was pretty, immediately growled and dismissed the thought. He squeezed Merlin’s throat tighter and was tempted to break it.
Nimueh sighed like this was all beneath her.
She raised her hand, and the thunder and lightning, which had merely become background noise, started up again.
She was controlling the weather, and it was ferocious following her command. Magic was flowing through her body as it was her conduit to the earth and nature; both were responding to her fervent call. The thunder shook the sky, and the lightning ignited the earth. As they played a song of anger, they simultaneously danced to the same tune that Nimueh conducted.
Death Eaters couldn’t react as random lightning bolts crashed from the sky in a fast and deadly tempo. Nimueh smirked as she brought down a dozen Death Eaters in seconds.
Everyone was in awe. She was the strongest presence on the battlefield.
Nimueh was sparking as the lightning danced in her fingertips. She hadn’t been able to do something of this scale in the past. She felt rejuvenated and on fire; she felt like she could do anything, and it was exhilarating.
She looked at Merlin and felt a tad jealous as she thought that he could do this since birth, but that thought left as she directed a bolt into the dog man.
Merlin had said something of werewolves, men that were turned into beasts, but she didn’t really care as she wasn’t too interested in magical beasts as Merlin was.
Fenrir finally let go of Merlin as his body burned. He howled and screamed.
The remaining Death Eaters surrounded him, retreating. Cracks were heard all around the battlefield.
And once the enemies had fled, the storm subsided to a calm rolling thunder.
Nimueh sighed and walked over to Merlin and saw Remus.
Who had been crawling over with all his strength, though when he saw Nimueh, he sighed and fainted, knowing things were okay now.
Aftermath of the battlefield
Kingsley, who was very injured, walked over to Nimueh and looked down at Remus and Merlin, startled. He bent down and checked if they were alive and almost fainted with relief when that was the case.
“Thank you.” He said to Nimueh, who was standing there, arms folded as people crowded.
“Hmph, I only came because he called. Why was he so weak?” Nimueh asked, wondering how on earth he got bested in the first place.
“Ah…we were drinking…we didn’t expect this,” Kingsley said, feeling stupid for letting up his vigilance.
Nimueh sighed.
Aurors started to spread out and clean up the battlefield, then started grabbing bodies and separating the dead. They gathered the victims and the Death Eater's corpses.
Nimueh sat beside Merlin and Remus, who were placed on sheets until medi-witches could arrive. Kingsley and Sirius were also next to them. Kingsley was told to sit as his injuries were worse than he let on. Sirius was still out cold, and Harry was currently getting yelled at.
Harry was in between Mrs. McGonagall and Molly Weasley, who had arrived once they heard Harry was caught up in the fight. Harry was okay, all things considered; he was uninjured other than a few scrapes.
Soon the medi-witches arrived, and they gathered up all the injured and unconscious people whisking them away to St Mungo's. It took a while for everyone to get taken to safety, but by sunrise, all that was left of the battle were two holes in the ground.
The news spread fast. Literally, the morning of the attack, The Daily Prophet was headlining the story.
Thankfully not all the details were out there, but there was a photo on the cover of Nimueh surrounded by a fervent lightning storm. It was an epic photo along with a title that matched the energy of the photo; the title read, “The Witch Of Lightning.”
Other statements were, “Who was this mysteriously powerful witch?” “Was it really possible to defeat ten Death Eaters alone?” “Where has she been hiding?”
And it wasn’t just The Daily Prophet by noon; all the wizarding newspapers were buzzing with the most recent attack and the strong witch that forced dozens of Death Eaters to retreat.
Of course, most of the people involved in the attack were none the wiser of this turn of events. Nimueh followed Merlin to the hospital for a brief moment before she decided that she didn’t like all the people staring at her and abruptly left. However, she’d forgotten that Gwaine was still in the house and elicited a manly scream from him as she returned home.
“AHHHHHH!” Gwaine said, seeing Nimueh appear out of thin air.
“Ahh, ouch! Fuck-ah…damn it.” Gwaine continued to curse under his breath as he had spilled hot tea on himself as he was carrying it to the couch when she appeared.
He collected himself rather fast, sighing as his freshly made tea was now on the floor. Nimueh felt bad and cleaned it up with a wordless chant.
“Thanks…I think.” Gwaine said, touching his now-dry clothes.
“Oh, have you seen Merlin? I thought he was home, but I couldn’t find him.” Gwaine said, walking back to the kitchen and talking over his shoulder.
“He apparently went out for drinks,” Nimueh answered.
Gwaine looked back, affronted, “That basta- he went drinking without me. I could never get Merlin into a tavern back in the day, and now he went out drinking and didn’t bring me.” Gwaine said, sighing and mumbling to himself.
“Gwaine,” Nimueh called out to him before he reached the kitchen.
Gwaine turned back and then noticed she was serious; he also noticed blood on the end of her dress.
“Are you hurt?” He asked, walking back to her.
Surprisingly Gwaine and Nimueh got on pretty well. It wasn’t a fast friendship.
Actually, Nimueh found him quite annoying at first. But she appreciated his loyalty and friendship towards Merlin. She thought it was a good quality to have. And he was smarter than he let on. On a normal day, you’d think he was a drunk fool, but if you really talked to Gwaine, he was extremely smart and conniving. Not in an evil way. More like a prankster than anything dubious.
And Gwaine liked Nimueh, even though he spent a week annoying her after he found out she tried to kill Merlin in the past. But soon, they were good mates who ended up drinking and talking about the past often.
Nimueh looked at the blood on her clothes and shook her head,
“It’s not mine.”
Gwaine looked relieved before his brain started to work,
“Where’s Merlin?” He asked, drawing his own conclusions.
“He’s in the hospital. He’s hurt pretty badly.” Gwaine stalked forward and grabbed her shoulders, panic-stricken, “What happened?”
“He was attacked, I was just with him, but I was being stared at, so I came back,” Nimueh said, knocking Gwaine’s arms off.
Gwaine didn’t know what to do with himself for a moment before taking out his phone and putting into the group chat that Merlin was hurt, and that he was going to go visit him. The group chat went crazy as all the reincarnations were curious and worried.
Gwaine ignored all the messages going into the guest room,
“Can you take me to the hospital with magic? I think Merlin carries his car keys with him even though he doesn’t drive,” Gwaine shouted and stepped out of the room, hopping on one foot as he shoved a shoe on his other one.
Nimueh, who just left the hospital, sighed and held her hand out.
Gwaine grinned and grabbed it, and they were gone with a slight breeze.
St Mungo’s
Later Morning May 25, 2007
“Did I ever tell you I love the way you teleport with magic?” Gwaine said, grinning as they appeared inside Merlin’s hospital room.
Their sudden appearance startled Remus, who was in the room on the other bed, and Kingsley, who was bandaged up and sitting on a chair across from Remus’ bed. Sirius was also in the room but he was still out cold and didn’t notice the sudden appearance.
Kingsley jumped with his wand raised and then relaxed, seeing Nimueh.
“Oh, your back.” He eventually said.
“Yeah, Gwaine can’t get here on his own,” Nimueh said, pointing to Gwaine, who rushed to Merlin’s bed with a worried face.
“What the hell happened to him?” Gwaine questioned as Merlin was heavily bounded with bandages, and his shoulder was red even under the bandages.
“He was trying to protect us and got surprised and attacked. Also, he was very drunk, which didn’t help the situation.” Remus shared, though he coughed roughly as he spoke.
Gwaine looked devastated and grabbed Merlin’s hand and sat beside him, and sighed.
He whispered, “Only you, Merlin, only you would still be so selfless.”
Two Hours Past
Gwaine fell asleep holding Merlin's hand in the chair.
Nimueh stayed for a little while before leaving as reporters had somehow found out she was in the hospital and swarmed the place.
The group chat on Gwaine’s phone was going haywire, and he at least updated them once before falling asleep. He took a picture of Merlin and sent it into the chat, and when they asked what hospital, he said it was some magical hospital that he was magically transported to and that he didn't know how to get them there.
But he said he would keep them updated, and soon the chat died down to a normal level soon after that.
May 27, 2007
Gwaine went home after Merlin showed no signs of waking for the second day. He promised to bring everyone over the next day and soon left after that.
Remus was discharged pretty quickly. His wounds were healed, and besides some mental trauma from seeing Fenrir again, he was alright and good to go home, which he was the one who offered to take Gwaine back home. Sirius was also still out, but since the wounds were healed, it was just a matter of time before he woke.
This is what brought Harry Potter to be in the room with Sirius and Merlin, watching both men sleep.
His honest intentions were literally just to visit his godfather in the hospital because he was very worried about him. Knowing that his godfather had ended up in the state protecting him was all the more reason he felt guilty inside and just wanted to be with him. But now that he had the opportunity to be in the same room as Myridian while he was unconscious, let him investigate a little bit more into his theories.
Merlin was covered in bandages from head to toe, basically. His chest and shoulder were heavily wrapped up, and his leg was also extremely covered in bandages, both of which were dyed a little bit pink from the blood since the wounds were so extensive. Meaning Merlin wasn't exactly wearing a shirt, and when Gwaine was holding his hand, his arm was now out of the blankets that were covering him. And Harry chose that moment just to check.
I mean, he had the perfect opportunity to see whether his Professor was a Death Eater or not. He didn't want to think ill of the guy who pretty much saved his life, especially after each fight he gets into; he seems like a good guy. But his trust levels were at an all-time low, and he couldn't help but check.
So he walked away from his godfather and walked up to Myridian’s bed and grabbed his arm, turning it over to look at his forearm where the dark mark would be nestled should he have one. But he saw nothing there.
For good measure, he even checked his other arm, inspecting it, rubbing the skin a little bit, wondering if maybe there was a magical charm in place or just doubting if he was a Death Eater at all. I mean, all the signs pointed to: no, that he wasn't.
But something in Harry's chest made him believe that Myridian was something else. Maybe he could be a good person, but there was just something that wasn't adding up in his brain, but Harry couldn't give you proof or a reasonable explanation. He couldn't even provide reasonable doubt about Myridian's character. It was just a gut feeling that he couldn’t let go of.
The only thing Harry found suspicious about Myridian and couldn't use as proof of anything was all the scars all over his body. It was way more than someone his age has.
Also, the fact that he had this giant hole in his chest that was like a burn mark or something and it just made Harry more curious about what the hell Myridian had been doing his whole life.
Harry sighed, covering Myridian back up and just looking at his face.
“What are you doing, Harry?” Sirius called, having woken up, and noticed Harry inspecting Myridian.
“Ahhh!” Harry mini-shrieked and jumped a foot in the air, feeling like he was caught stealing food out of the fridge when he knew he wasn’t supposed to.
“I-uh-it’s-um….” Harry stuttered as he didn’t know what to say.
Sirius just beckoned him closer, and Harry moved to sit beside him on his bed.
“Are you okay?” Sirius asked, poking Harry’s face where there was a small bandage on his cheek.
“Oh yeah, I’m alright. You protected me, so I was perfectly fine. Are you feeling okay?” Harry asked.
“Mmmmm…I have a massive headache……but otherwise, no.” Sirius said, looking a Myridian.
“What happened to him?” Sirius asked.
“Oh, he lost to Fenrir and almost died, but we were saved by Nimueh, you know, the reincarnation. It was amazing. She could control the weather; she sent lightning bolts down from the sky and saved everyone.” Harry said with awe in his voice.
Even though he was present to witness the event, he still couldn't believe his eyes. He didn't think someone could be so powerful. He had an idea of what a powerful witch or wizard could be like, especially with people like Dumbledore and even Voldemort as examples but just seeing the raw power from this reincarnation, he couldn't fathom having that much power at his fingertips.
It was an incredible experience, and he felt a little bit better about his own future because that kind of ally was incredible just to know you have. He thought that even if he died in this war and didn't win, the world wouldn't be so hopeless without him. It was like a little bit of pressure easing off his shoulders. Even if the future seemed uncertain, it didn't feel as nerve-wracking as before.
Sirius let go asking what Harry was doing as he woke up, and told Harry to bring in a doctor so he could get out of there. He didn’t like hospitals. Well, no, he didn't like the feeling of being locked up in small places. Azkaban was more than enough. Not that the hospital room was small but more so that it was a room he couldn't leave without permission from a doctor.
Merlin’s Hospital Room
May 28, 2007
Merlin had finally woken up very early in the morning, and the news spread to all of the reincarnations, which is why they were now all huddled around Merlin's bed. most of Merlin's wounds had healed thanks to the very talented medi-witches in St Mungo’s. But he was still being looked over by his friends.
Especially Leon and Bell, as they would only feel reassured if they looked him over with their own keen medical eye. But apart from the shoulder wound, Merlin was fine. It seemed that that wound specifically just didn't heal perfectly with medicine or magic. Merlin's magic would have taken care of it, but it would be something he'd have to do once he left the hospital and after he felt a bit more rejuvenated.
When Merlin woke up, he was very groggy and disoriented and a little stiff since he hadn't moved in a few days. But by the time all of his friends had arrived, he had plastered on a cheerful smile and was very happy.
“This is why you have to take me drinking with you, Merls; if I'm not there, you always get in trouble,” Gwaine said, sitting next to Merlin with his arm around him in the bed, on his good side.
“If I remember correctly, in the past, I was always the one getting you out of trouble, not the other way around.” Merlin countered.
“But you've never been drinking with me in the present or in the past, might I add, and so far, without me, you ended up in the hospital. So what do you say we get a pint and prove one of us right?” Gwaine said, grinning.
“I think Merlin has had enough to drink for the time being, Gwaine,” Leon argued.
Gwaine just grumbled and whispered in Merlin’s ear, “We are getting drunk in the future whether you like it or not.”
Merlin sighed but ultimately conceded.
Leon sighed, and Bell laughed.
Gwen gently sat on Merlin’s other side, watching out for his wound.
“How are you, Merlin? Does it hurt a lot?” She asked.
Merlin smiled, “I’m okay. Once I leave here, I’ll be as good as new.”
“Can’t magic cure everything?” Percival asked from a chair near the door; he was a bit too tall for the room, so he’d been sitting down since he arrived.
“Magic can cure a lot with the right spell. Wounds can heal in a day. Bones can get rebuilt after drinking a potion, but some magic is so evil that not even magic can cure it. Of course, the old religion and the magic that myself and Nimueh use is on another level and can cure basically anything. There are always stipulations. Like I'm very good at magic, but I've always had trouble with healing magic. especially on myself. Personally, I think it would be better if I treated someone with normal medicine than if I were to use magic. Healing magic is always been very difficult. The fact that it's evolved so much and has grown so much is one of the few amazing things about new magic in comparison to the old religion, the diversity of spells and simplification of it all.” Merlin said, going off on a tangent and losing some people in the explanation, so he stopped talking.
“All in all, magic can't heal everything, especially things are done to you by magic. however, it could heal most things. Many muggle problems and diseases can be easily cured by magic. But then there's a ward in this hospital where there are people who are utter mysteries in their healing process and are just continuously getting treated trying to solve the problem.” Merlin explained.
“Much like Incurable diseases in our world. Magic seems so different, but it’s so similar at the same time.” Bell said.
“Exactly. That's why I think there would be such a great benefit from our world's merging. so that the whole of the world can evolve into something even greater. it's what I was trying to do in the past with our King, but………..” Merlin trailed off, frowning.
Gwaine slapped him on his good shoulder,
“Hey, don’t be sad. We will achieve your dreams this time. It's why we got another chance, no? Anyway, I wonder what's taking Sleeping Beauty so long anyway?” Gwaine said.
“I don’t know,” Merlin said sadly.
Gwaine frowned as his attempt to lift the mood failed.
*BANG*
The door to the room opened, and Remus ran in and then shut the door. He turned around and paused.
“Oh, uh, sorry.” He said, breathing fast.
“There are a lot of reporters outside.
“Wow, your famous,” Gwaine said, poking at Merlin again.
Merlin looked confused as he didn’t understand why he was famous after he got beaten up.
“Uh, no, not for Myridian. They are here to capture a picture of you.” Remus said, pointing to Nimueh, who was here the whole time but lounging on Remus’ old hospital bed.
Merlin frowned even deeper,
“What’d you do?” He asked.
“I saved you.” Was all Nimueh offered?
“Oh, I picked one up when I went to grab some water. Here look.” Gwen said, pulling a copy of The Daily Prophet out of her bag and showing Merlin.
Merlin’s eyes went wide, and looked at Nimueh,
“What’s this?” He asked, shocked.
“I may have gone all out. It was fun. I didn’t know these things existed. You said the magical world was stuck in the middle ages; we didn’t have these moving pictures then.” Nimueh explained.
“I run a technology shop!” Merlin argued back.
“I forgot,” Nimueh said, sighing.
“Anyway, it’s not that big of a deal. Isn’t it better to spread the word about how strong I am? Wouldn’t it make that noseless abomination not be so reckless in attacking?” Nimueh said, making a good point that Merlin couldn’t really argue.
“Anyway, I wonder how that picture was taken?” Bell said moments later, holding the newspaper.
“Wouldn’t the person who took it to have to be there?”
Merlin paused, trying to remember if he saw anyone, but his memory was foggy; the alcohol was literally clouding his memory.
“Hmm, I think so, but I couldn’t say,” Merlin responded unsurely.
“Ah, but Emrys, make them stop following me, or I will,” Nimueh said.
“Huh?” Merlin asked, confused.
“Those people who are outside, they found out where you live and keep trying to flash me with the little black box. I don’t remember what you said it does, but it’s annoying.” Nimueh said, not remembering the word for the camera.
“Well, to make them go away, you probably going to have to speak to them. But let’s deal with that when we know how we are going to explain you.” Merlin said before the door opened again, and in walked Kingsley, who was bandaged up and limping along with a medi-witch who looked like she wanted to knock him out but just smiled a fake smile instead.
Kingsley looked around the room.
“Oh good, your here.” He said, looking at Nimueh.
“Myridian, I think it’s time we fight back against the Dark Lord. And with Niumeuh as the spearhead.” Kingsley said with a smile as he came up with a grand idea.
Merlin and Nimueh frowned simultaneously.
Notes:
Did I tell you how much I love this chapter? Because I love this chapter. I've been writing on my iPad recently since I have the keyboard attachment, and I have been writing up a storm because I can take that little tiny computer anywhere I go. So when I get distracted, all I have to do is bring my iPad with me, and boom not distracted anymore. Or if I get moved around a little bit, I could just open my iPad and then have my story right in front of me, and it's nicer than my cell phone, which I also write on because it has a keyboard. I may have spent an absorbent amount of money on that keyboard attachment, but it was worth it. Seriously, guys, look up the price of the Apple iPad attachment keyboard and cry with me. I also bought the pen, but I don't really use it cuz I'm not artistic, but of course, I spent a stupid amount of money on that too, like a dumbass. I thought I could make planners on my iPad, but then I realized that it's just not my forte. I should stick to writing which I am thankfully good at. also, I've been on my phone like 12 hours a day. because I'm not in school right now and I have nothing to do during the day, I literally just scroll through Instagram and watch my brain rot. So thankfully, I'm back into writing which is stimulating my brain at least a little bit.
Chapter 9: Another Fake Identity
Notes:
Hello!
I'm back. I've been in the mood to write for a few days now, and finally, I worked up the strength to pull myself out of my comfy bed and do it. Bruh, Instagram is a fucking trap. I can sit there in bed and scroll for hours. It's so addicting it's scary.
Anyway, my tummy is all healed. I can finally eat solid food again. I am really fiending for steaks. I feel like I can get down with the carnivore diet. But that's not till later. However, I can only eat a small portion. Like, I get super full from a 2oz steak. Like if I ate more, I would puke kinda full. That part sucks. I find myself throwing up a lot because I have bad self-control. I mean, there was a reason I was overweight in the first place. But besides that, I also signed up for the gym a week ago. I went once. I need to build up the courage to go again, but it's more of an anxiety problem than a laziness problem. But it's true I do be lazy too. I signed up for a personal trainer, so I will hopefully get to that too. But that makes me even more anxious, so I'm trying. I had a nice friend offer to go with me, but I haven't responded to his message because I'm too anxious to be seen since I haven't seen him in like four years, and I feel ugly. It's a real struggle to be an overthinker. >< But I need to work out because I noticed I'm no longer losing weight from just existing anymore. I did lose 50 lbs, though, so I'm pretty happy, all things considered.
I can sorta see it in my body; if I hold my arms out, they seem smaller, and my double chin, while still there, is very non-noticeable now. It's nice. But god do I hate it when other people tell me that they see a change; I never thought something would make me so uncomfortable. Anywho, life has been stale otherwise. I think I don't write much because my computers are all in my office and I like typing on a computer rather than on my phone nowadays. Also, my dog hates my office but has separation anxiety and annoys the fuck out of me, so I end up chilling in the bedroom more often than not.
Oh, in other news, I got a mini fridge in my room. It's nice all my drinks are cold, and I can enjoy fruit without having to leave my room. I can also feed my dog downstairs now. And I can eat downstairs so I can take my time and eat rather than rushing and feeling like crap after. Things are going smoothly right now, which is nice.
I mean, I still get fucked over on a day to day by my parents, but now, if it happens, I don't have to see them. Also, I'm no longer speaking to my dad again......figures I trust the bastard, and he uses me. He steals shit from my mom and distracts me by pretending to be my friend. And then my mom yells at me for letting him steal, saying [I should've known better] Ughhh, I felt like I wanted to die when that argument started. So fuck my dad. I, as of now, no longer have a dad cause fuck that piece of shit. Ughhhhhhhh, That happened a week ago. I'm over it, but as an overthinker, I'm never over anything, really.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
May 28, 2007
“I’m not sure I like the sound of this Kingsley,” Merlin said, seeing the grin on the man’s face.
Nimueh looked absolutely in agreement with Merlin.
“No, it’s the perfect plan. Everyone in the wizarding world is curious about who you are and how powerful you are. I mean, the amount of people who are crowding around this room is insane. But this is a good thing. I know that Harry has been the poster child for defeating the dark lord since the day he was born, but he’s just a kid, and the dark lord isn’t gonna pause on his path of destruction to let Harry grow up. That’s why instead of waiting till Harry is ready, we can start the offense with Nimueh. We can buy time and be on the attack.” Kingsley shared.
“My department in the wizarding government can create an identity for her, as being reborn doesn’t really help with legality and birth records in this day in age. We can also give you the necessary foothold to enter this world. Anything you need can be provided if you join and help. I mean, your overwhelming power is something that rivals the dark lord; it’s unprecedented since Dumbledore. It would be a waste to stand in the shadows. I mean, the wizarding world has woken up to the reality that the Dark Lord has returned, and our Order, the order of the Phoenix, no longer needs to work behind the scenes. We can go out and fight. This is an opportunity. We might be able to even defeat the Dark Lord without Harry altogether.” Kingsley said, hyping himself up.
Nimueh looked not too pleased, and Merlin sighed.
“What? It’s not a bad idea.” Kingsley said after seeing their reactions.
“Kingsley, I understand your excitement, but only Harry Potter can defeat the dark lord; there’s a prophecy, you know this,” Merlin said.
“Propechy’s aren’t set in stone.” Kingsley rebutted.
Merlin frowned as he knew how set in stone they were .
But Nimueh answered, “I don’t wish to fight against the noseless man. I already almost died once; I want to live my life in freedom. I don’t mind helping the way Emrys helps, but I’d rather stick to the shadows.” Nimueh responded, making Kingsley deflate.
“I also think it’s better to work in the shadows. I mean I know she’s powerful, but it wouldn’t be good for the enemy to see everything we have. Also, she’s been reincarnated to fight Morgana, who’s working with the Dark Lord. We haven’t seen Morgana since a long time ago; wouldn’t it be better for us to stay hidden till the right time.” Remus said as he was just listening to the conversation.
Kingsley frowned, sighing, seeing as everyone was against his great idea.
“Well then, what are we going to do about your identity? You can’t completely disappear; you are all over every paper in the wizarding world. You will need to do an interview, at least one.” Kingsley said.
Nimueh looked at Merlin.
Merlin sighed, “I can get her an identity.” He said, ignoring how Kingsley was looking at him.
“Illegally?” He asked.
“Well, it would be impossible any other way.” Merlin defended.
“And how exactly do you know how to do that?” Kingsley asked again.
“The goblins at Gringotts like me.” That was all the explanation he gave.
“Okay, fine, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear about this,” Kingsley said, standing with difficulty until Percival all but picked him up to help.
He sighed deeply once more while looking at Nimueh until giving up.
“Get well soon, Myridian.” He said, sighing again before leaving.
“He’s a character,” Gwaine said, relaxing on Merlin’s bed next to Merlin.
“I guess. But he’s partially right about getting you an identity. When I get discharged, we should go get one.” Merlin said.
“I can make one.” Gwaine offered randomly.
Everyone looked at him weirdly.
“What? I know a guy.” Gwaine said it was normal.
“No thanks. I can do it too. Plus, I can get her a wizarding identity that is as good as a real one. How do you guys think I have a fake brother.” Merlin said.
“Or better yet, my own identity.”
Gwaine conceded, figuring his people would be able to make one, but it would get sniffed out sooner or later with magic.
The conversation continued until Merlin fell asleep listening to a story about Gwaine bar hopping in America a few years ago. After he fell asleep, most people left, leaving only Remus for another hour before he left too.
Inside one of Voldemort’s many bases
June 5, 2007
Voldemort was sat at the head of the table looking at the newspaper with a frown. This so-called “Witch of Lightening” was annoyingly familiar.
“Morgana?” He called to the woman who was also sitting at the table eating the food that was in front of them rather than staring at it like he was doing.
“Hmm yeah?” She asked mid-bite.
“Isn’t this the woman we killed?” He said, passing the paper to her.
Morgana swallowed her food before grabbing the paper and looking at Nimueh in all her glory that was captured through the picture.
She squinted her eyes and looked confused,
“Oh yeah, that is her…..how is she alive again?” Morgana asked, confused as she was positive she remembered the blood pouring out of her stomach the last time they’d met.
Voldemort looked bothered.
He didn’t look scared or frightened like half of the death eaters who had already seen the paper was acting. Rather he felt annoyed and angry that things just kept changing. It wasn’t at all how he predicted these days to go. He knew it wasn’t going to be easy taking over the wizarding world, but things were turning out worse than he thought. It’s like an unforeseen variable was fucking up all his plans.
But Voldemort didn’t let any of this annoyance or uneasiness show and moved on after flipping to the next page in the paper.
“How’s it coming with that boy you were experimenting on?” Voldemort asks.
Morgana smiled.
“Oh, it’s going great; there were a few problems at first, I will admit. But I’ve learned that magic really solves all problems. I mean, just to feed someone a few potions and they are more loyal than family. I have high expectations for my dear friend Mordred. He’s a bit out of practice, though; once I have perfect loyalty from him, I’ll move on to training him with a wand, and then this Witch of Lightning will be something you needn’t even think about.” Morgana said, laughing.
Morgana knew that Nimueh was strong but on the right stage with Voldemort and Mordred by her side that women would be nothing.
At least, that’s what she thought.
Merlin’s House
May 30, 2007
Merlin was finally discharged from the hospital two days after he woke up. Once he got home, his house was already bustling with people. Almost all of the reincarnations were present.
Gwaine practically lived there at this point. And Gwen and Percival always carpool after work to come over on most days. Leon and Belle didn't come over as much, more so as their hours were unpredictable sometimes, and they couldn't always be there on the fly. And Lance, who was late to the party, didn't really understand what the point of coming over every day was. So he only showed up when called, and nobody was called to come over today.
Merlin didn't mind at all. It actually made him happy that his house was so full of people all the time; he didn't feel so lonely. But once he came home from the hospital, he used magic to fully heal his shoulder.
Well, he tried to do that, and it wasn't working so well, but Nimueh came by and really showed how much better she was than Merlin and healing magic at that moment.
After his shoulder had been healed, Merlin was back to normal. And so he set about getting to business.
First, he pulled up a giant heavy trunk from his basement. The trunk looked medieval, which actually was. He lugged it with magic out into his backyard and opened it for those who were at his house. It was full of armor and swords and shields. Truly medieval weaponry. All of it was in pristine condition. Like someone had kept up polishing and sharpening it. Whether it was done by Merlin or his magic, no one could really tell the difference.
“Here, guys,” Merlin said, showing Gwaine and Percival the stuff.
Gwaine grabbed a sword and looked skeptical.
“Merls, buddy, I understand we are reincarnations, and we used to fight with swords and wear armor, but it's the 21st century. Shouldn't we just get some guns and some bulletproof vests or something? Because I'm almost positive, I'd rather have a gun than a sword if I have to fight against a sorcerer.” Gwaine explained as the sword got too heavy, and he leaned it against the ground.
Percival looked at the armor and the chainmail and had to agree.
“Well, I suppose you could use guns, but I don't know where to get them from. Also, I can teach you guys how to fight against a wizard or a witch just by using these weapons. And not to say I would send you guys out to battle with just this. Of course, I would enchant the armor and the weapons. I could make them light as a feather or make the blades extra sharp. Honestly, while there is an advantage to having guns, I feel like you'll be underestimated this way. Of course, you'll need to practice to make it easy for you guys to fight, but I think you should still give it a try. I mean, you already have the knowledge of how to fight with a sword. It just takes a little bit of practice to get back into it. And Nimueh and I are the cream of the crop magic user if you get proficient enough fighting us, you’d have an easy time with others.” Merlin said, picking up a sword with ease and enchanting it to be lighter, which he handed to Gwaine, who looked impressed.
“Plus, you guys are Knights. It would fit your image better.” Merlin said, laughing.
He grabbed another sword and made it lighter while handing it to Percival. He grabbed a bow and arrows out of the trunk and handed them to Gwen.
“You can use these or a sword. Since you don’t have much practice with either, you can try them both and see what you like better.” Merlin said as he created a few targets in the distance out of the dirt for her to hit.
“Thanks, Merlin.” Gwen smiled.
Merlin just smiled back.
He was walking back to the house when Gwaine stopped him.
“Where are you going?” He said, letting the sword sit on his shoulder.
“I’m going with Nimueh to get her identity papers and stuff,” Merlin said.
“Oh, okay. Just making sure you weren’t drinking without me.” Gwaine joked, worried for Merlin since seeing him in the hospital.
“It’s 11 am! You know what, never mind, we’ll be back soon. Don’t smack each other too hard with the swords, please.” Merlin said while sighing and walking into the house to find Nimueh.
Gringotts
“What a weird place,” Nimueh said, standing outside Gringotts.
“True.” Merlin agreed as he also looked at the lopsided building. Nimueh and Merlin were wearing cloaks to cover their faces as their faces were too well known at the moment.
“Let’s go,” Merlin said, opening the door for Nimueh, and they walked in.
Nimueh didn’t show it, but the goblins had shocked her.
“Goblins….in charge of your money…that’s something new,” Nimueh said after seeing all the Goblins sitting behind the desks dealing with the wizards.
As they walked in, there was a little place on the wall that read, “Fortius Quo Fidelius,” which was Latin for ‘Strength through loyalty’ Nimueh chuckled as she couldn’t imagine a world where goblins could be loyal.
Merlin saw the sign and sort of agreed, as when he’d first heard of this place, he’d had the same thoughts.
The duo looked a little suspicious. Standing around in dark cloaks and whispering to each other. The wizards in the area avoided them, especially since one could never tell who was a Death Eater or not.
Merlin bypassed all the lines this time and walked up to a goblin who looked to be alone and not doing anything.
The goblin looked like it wanted to strangle Merlin as he was coming up to him, but his attitude changed as soon as he recognized him as Lord Emrys.
“L-lord Emrys…welcome.” The goblin said, bowing, drawing attention to them.
Merlin patted his shoulder, making him stop bowing.
“Yes. Yes. Uh, I need to speak with the head goblin if you don’t mind….in private, please.” Merlin asked as the adoration grew in the little goblin’s eyes.
“Of course, Lord Emrys, please come this way.” He said, rushing them to a private room.
Nimueh was laughing silently at the service, and Merlin was red in the face as he still didn't like it still.
As they sat alone, Nimueh was mocking him, calling him Lord Emrys any time she was curious about something. Merlin sighed but expected nothing less, hell he thought if Gwaine had heard this, it would be worse. Sometimes they truly were alike.
Merlin sighed as he listened to Nimueh prattle on about how she’d never seen so much gold adorning a place before and asked why Merlin didn’t do this in his own house since he said he had similar wealth. It all stopped when a goblin covered in just as much gold as the room walked in. It was the same Goblin Merlin had met previously for his other visits. “Lord Emrys, it's nice to see you again.” The goblin greeted.
“Another person to be put into your family tree?” He quarried.
Merlin choked a bit.
“No…no, not that. I’ll need fake papers, though; this is Nimueh, a sorcerer of the old; she’s been reborn and needs legal papers. Not under my family; we’ll need to create a new one.” Merlin said.
“Oh, I can’t be your long-lost sister?” Nimueh jokes.
Merlin looked aghast.
“No. I’m already suspicious enough. You should just attach yourself to an old family that died out centuries ago. She doesn’t need any of the assets, just pureblood status. It should be fine, right?” Merlin asks the goblin.
The goblin looked unsure.
“That’s not as easy as you want it to be.”
The goblin sighed,
“Messing with your lineage Lord Emrys is fine as you are unlike normal wizards, but we goblins have to be loyal to one's blood and will only give the family's assets and titles to their descendants.” The goblin said, closing down that option.
“Hmmm…that’s fair….” Merlin conceded.
“However, if you have another wizard who wouldn’t mind adding her to their family tree, I could do that. Though it’s only something I would do with you. But if you think adding her to your family is not the right thing to do, then another family would be fine as long as one descendant agrees.” The goblin said, whispering as this was technically not allowed, but he was just being nice to Merlin.
Merlin smirked and pulled out his phone, and walked away for a moment.
12 Grimmauld Place
*RING RING RING*
Sirius’ phone was ringing in a room he was not in.
At first he dismissed the sound until he remembered the existence of phones and ran like mad looking for it.
Harry laughed as he watched his godfather frantically search for his phone. Harry was hanging out with Sirius every other day or hanging out at the Burrow with Ron during his summer. It was extremely peaceful for him for the first time in his life.
Finally, Sirius found the phone with a tired smile directed at Harry as he opened it without reading who called.
“Hello?” He asked.
“Hello,” Myridian answered from the other side of the phone.
“Oh, Myridian, did you get home from the hospital?” Sirius asked, not expecting the man to call him.
Harry looked curious as his godfather sat next to him.
Sirius was currently looking like himself because as much as it was nice to be James Emrys, it was also nice to be himself.
“Yes, I did; actually, I was wondering if you could do me a big favor.” Myridian’s voice filtered through the phone.
“What kind of favor?” Sirius asks before agreeing.
“Well, could you come to Gringotts where we could talk in person?” Myridian asked.
Sirius looked at Harry before agreeing and hung up.
Sirius got up and grabbed a potion to change his appearance. Harry looked on in fascination as this wasn’t his first time seeing it, but it was still so cool to witness.
“Come on, Harry; I’ll take you with me,” Sirius said rather to keep an eye on Harry than to leave him alone.
“I can come?” Harry stood up, looking interested.
“Well, we are only going to Gringotts, so I’m sure it’s fine,” Sirius said, walking to the door with Harry in tow.
*Crack*
And soon they apparated out of there with a loud crack.
Gringotts
Sirius, as James Emrys, and Harry Potter was an odd pair to see together though the duo didn’t seem to notice it themselves.
Harry hadn’t been to Gringotts since the beginning of the school year and took his time to look around but still followed Sirius inside. Harry didn’t see Myridian anywhere but still followed his godfather, who walked up to a nervous-looking goblin.
“Hello, I was told to ask for Myridian Emrys,” Sirius told the goblin, who nodded his head.
Merlin had told Sirius to just ask for him, and a goblin should point him in the right direction.
“Ahh, y-yes, L-lord Emrys is right this way.” The goblin stuttered and lead them down the hall.
Harry leaned to Sirius,
“Lord?” He asked, as he’d never heard goblins call wizards lords.
“Oh, yeah, I don’t know. Myridian said it’s cause the goblins like him or something.” Sirius said, answering as he remembers experiencing the oddity himself.
They were soon led into a room adorned with gold. There was a goblin covered in gold accessories sitting at the main desk in the room and two hooded figures sitting opposite.
“Myridian?” Sirius asked cautiously, holding Harry behind him.
But he needn’t worry as Merlin’s face popped out from under the cloak.
“Hey!” He said, smiling.
“Ah. Who’s your friend?” He asked, still cautious.
Nimueh removed the cloak altogether, looking at Sirius.
“Oh. Sorry I’ve been on edge since….well, you know..” He said, pulling Harry more into the room as a goblin shut the door, sealing them all inside.
Merlin looked at Harry and was confused but smiled.
“Hello, Harry.”
“Hi, Professor,” Harry said meekly, as he didn’t know what was going on just yet.
Merlin smiled and pulled Sirius aside.
“I need to ask Sirius something real quick,” Merlin said as he pulled Sirius to the golden desk and whispered,
“Can I add Nimueh to your family tree?” Merlin asked.
Sirius, who had no idea what to expect, looked even more shocked.
“Huh? What do you mean by adding her to the family tree? The only way to do that is through marriage! I’m not getting married!” Sirius said, freaking out.
Merlin burst out laughing,
“No, no, no. I meant, can we just add her in illegally.” Merlin said, pointing to the stern-looking goblin.
“I just need permission from a descendant,” Merlin explained.
Sirius let out a large sigh.
“God, I almost thought…ahh… never mind…listen, I don’t mind, but it would be suspicious.” Sirius began to explain.
“I’m not the only living member of the Black family line. There are a lot of us still left. I have no problem, but people might contest her identity.” Sirius said.
“What about a distant cousin from another country,” Merlin said sad, thinking this was a good idea.
“Mmmm…I think that could work. If she were a half-blood, it’d be more believable.” Sirius said, as there were a lot of people who were cast out from his family since they defected and married muggles or half-bloods.
Well, his family tree was a bit of a burning mess.
They talked and argued a bit over the logistics for a few minutes before agreeing that Nimueh would join the Black family as a distant, distant, distant cousin. Merlin and Sirius filled out the paperwork together, editing the documents till they looked good enough to fool anyone that read them.
Sirius said he had cousins he knew about that didn’t associate with his family over here in Europe and thought it would be best if she were to pretend to be one of their kids as Nimueh looked young still. Merlin agreed, and soon all that was left was Nimueh’s blood and a few signatures.
Harry had caught the gist of what was happening as Merlin and Sirius were arguing quite loudly as they were debating on the family's finer details, and he just had one thought; this seemed so illegal. And it made Harry question how the goblins were letting this happen.
Yet when he looked at the Goblin that was in the room with them, rather than looking upset, he seemed to be enjoying the situation.
Everything that happened around Myridian was weird.
Notes:
Bruh, the opening speech by Kingsley is *chef's kiss* my own brain floors me, lol.
I think this chapter is a catch-up and a filler to what to expect next because I'm going to move on to the nitty-gritty of the book in a few chapters, like the Horcrux's and Arthur's return and stuff.
NOT YET, FYI...but soon.
This book will be double chapters of the last book, so I have 50-something chapters to make perfection.Oh, I wrote the very last chapter...got ahead of myself again, buuuuuuttttt it is so good. I have so many good ideas. I have a notepad on my iPhone full of ideas for this book. Also, I have a google doc as well full of ideas. So many ideas. I just need to get the sequence of events down and then write it all.
But let me tell you, the hunt for the Horcruxs will be the best thing ever....just wait.
Funnily enough, what I'm most stressed about is Arthur's return. I have no clue what to do. I feel like Nimueh's return was so cool that I have to one-up it, and I haven't figured that out yet. But I'll have a moment of inspiration, hopefully. I mean, that's how most of my writing gets done.
Chapter 10: Following Dumbledore’s Will
Notes:
Hello, hello. Sorry for the long hiatus. I had really bad writer's block, and I couldn't write anything, I would open up my documents and just stare at them. Somehow today, I had some luck, and boom chapter was written. I have a really good outline for the story; just getting to the main plot points is a little difficult for me and I struggle in doing so. That's why there's hiatuses and writer's block that happen from time to time.
Anyway, I just came back from Alaska. I went on a 7-Day Cruise to Alaska, and I enjoyed the first three days and then was sick of my family after the fact. And then on the second to last day, I really enjoyed myself cuz I met this really nice group of people and they were really wholesome and really good company for that little portion of the day that it like made the rest of my trip.
Also, some good news on my part I lost a total of 90 lbs since December 22nd of last year. It's a really big achievement for me. I mean, it was an achievement for me when I lost 25 lbs, but at the 90 lb mark, I'm starting to see physical changes, and it's really making me happy. I mean I'm not really too much skinnier, but you can definitely see it when I look in the mirror or something. So it's nice. I still have 155 lb left to lose before I get to my goal weight, but I've just dropped out of the 300s so I'm uber-happy. Cuz I've been in the 300s since high school, and now I'm not there anymore. Honestly, if you want to lose weight, just do calorie deficit. I don't work out at all. I mean, during the trip and like a few days after, I did go on walks and stuff, but then I got a cold, and I went back to my sloth ways. However, with the calorie deficit, I'm losing weight rather than gaining it even though I'm eating like shit. It's cuz my mom tempts me with fast food every day, and she's really bad at hiding her snacks. I mean, it is my fault that I'm looking for them, but it's also her fault for hiding them so poorly. Cuz we already know I have an eating problem. We already know I'm the problem here hence she should help me not to fall into temptation. It's a mix of faults on both sides if you ask me.
Also, I'm considering changing my major from secondary education to English because I'm not sure if I want to be a teacher. I'm a little scared of school shootings and shit like that even though it doesn't really happen in my state. But I honestly am reconsidering being a teacher because I'm scared for my life. So I was thinking of maybe going down a different line of work. But that's for the future. I want to change my major so I have more time and more options. Because if I'm going to get my Masters, I might as well get it in something that I'm actually going to do and not just get a Master's for no reason and not have it relate to anything that I want to do.
Also, I'm getting a tattoo. Me and my friends decided to get matching friendship tattoos. I've always wanted tattoos. I don't know where to put it. It's like a middle finger with an acrylic nail on it, and then like my friend has a peace sign, and my other friend has like a rock and roll sign. The problem is I don't know where to put it because if I am going to be a teacher, it can't be anywhere on my hands or wrists because it's offensive. And two I don't want to put it somewhere where I'm like overly chubby because then when I lose weight it'll stretch. So I'm thinking I'm going to put it on my ankle but then I have to be careful because I'm not telling my mom I'm doing this.
And I'm an adult who's going to pay for it by herself, but you know I'm living under my mom's roof, so better be safe than sorry. I just got to be extra careful for like a year, and then I'll be surprised, look at my leg, and just expect not to be talked to for a week. I mean, what are they going to do? It's going to already be there. They can't take it off me. And it's not like they don't know that I want tattoos. Because I clearly told my mom that when I'm older, I'm getting half a sleeve and a few random tattoos, and one to commemorate someone I lost. So it's not like they don't know; they just probably assume it's going to happen later in life. Or they don't believe me and will be super uber-shocked when it happens. All my friends have tattoos already, so I'm just excited that we're all going to go together and get a tattoo that binds us all together. Because I really cherish my friends, and they're very sweet and wholesome to me, and I really appreciate them, and I can't wait to get tattoos with them.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
June 7, 2007
The newspaper read:
Rita Skeeter here reporting to you; I have gotten an exclusive interview with the famed Witch Of Lightning. She had reached out to me saying that this was the only interview she would do, of course, with the prestigious Daily Prophet as her choice. And her story is absolutely incredible. She is not from Europe. However, she is part of quite a prestigious family from the Wizarding World, as some of you may know, the pureblood family of the Black's. Her pure-blooded lineage truly shows with her outstanding magical prowess. According to Nimueh Black, she is a distant cousin of some of the more insidious family members. According to Miss Black, she said that the infamous Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange Nee Black are her first cousins on her mother’s side.
But aside from her lineage, I asked about how she got involved in that fight against the Death Eaters a week ago, and this is what she had to say:
“Well, I was just strolling through the streets taking in the world, and I happened to feel a dark presence in the distance. I went to go see what was happening, and I noticed that there was a large fight taking place. I ultimately decided to step in when I noticed the poor child was about to get hurt. I believe as elders of the magical community, we must protect the next generation,” was her truly inspiring words.
I asked her how she became so astute in magic, and she credited it to her homeschooling and the elders in her family. I also asked her her stance on the war and her plans going forward, but she said the world would just have to wait and see. Isn’t she sensational? More on page 10.”
- Was the blurb staining the front of this morning's Daily Prophet. As was a truly stunning photo of Nimueh as she posed for the camera.
Nimueh looked at the photo of her on the front page and saw how it moved, and smiled at her.
“I did well….right?” She asked Merlin, who was sitting across from her eating breakfast, looking at his own copy of the paper.
“Yeah, I mean, this worked out well; most people who don’t know you’ve been reborn think you are from the Black family, so it works out well. Plus, you can help me with something in the future too.” Merlin said, thinking it would be easier to clear Sirius’s name later after everything was cleared up.
“Sure. By the way, what now?” Nimueh asked.
“Now? In general or with the war or with our stuff?” Merlin asked.
“All of it. I mean, what are you planning to do next.” Nimueh asked.
Merlin went silent as he was a bit unsure; well, no, he knew the general gist of the future events, but he didn’t really have that solid of a plan till Arthur returned. He thought of just getting his friends to be able to fight and then just wait and see. It was really a waiting game with the very slow Pratt, that still hasn’t made his return.
“Well, that's hard to say. my movements and plan of action are pretty much stalled until Arthur returns. I mean, I can finish setting up my base of operations, another property I had bought so that it could house everyone rather than everyone using my own home. Also, I was thinking of enchanting some of the knight's armor. Putting protection charms and some extra special features in case we run into combat. I was also thinking of getting some friends of mine from the Wizarding world to actually do mock battles with them so they can know what it is like to fight a wizard because the Wizards of this day and age are much different than the Wizards of the past. Battle techniques and battle strategies are on a whole new playing field, and I have some personal stuff I have to look for out and about around the world at some point, and of course, we have to plan every action for the future in correspondence with whatever happens on the other side. This means that whatever happens through Morgana or Voldemort in the coming months will obviously impact and change my plans if things go awry. That's why no plans have been permanently set in stone, as I cannot accurately tell what the future holds.” Merlin said, looking off ahead of himself as he debated with himself what he should be doing now.
“Hmmm, alright, so tentative plans for a tentative future. Okay, I'll try to figure some things out as well. Since fighting and war are inevitable, I'll start making some of my own preparations.” Nimueh said, thinking to herself.
The table was pretty quiet until Gwaine barged in.
“Morning!” Gwaine said cheerily.
He sat and stole some bacon off Merlin's plate before sitting down.
“Oh, I have something to tell you. I got a call from a buddy of mine, and I got to head back to the States for a little bit. Nothing wrong, actually; someone I know is getting married, and I figured, why not. Also, I can set up some groundwork for you, possibly expanding your business into....the….. what you call it….. muggle world. Also, if there is a branch of the Wizarding World in America, I can set a foundation for that too. However, I don't know how I would get in contact with the American Wizarding Association in the first place. But I guess that's something for the future. If you guys want anything from America, just let me know I'll make sure to smuggle it back with me.” Gwaine said cheerily, munching on the bacon while trying to steal food off Nimueh’s plate next.
Nimueh debated stabbing his hand with the fork but then just figured it wasn't worth it and let him steal a hard-boiled egg off her plate.
The rest of the morning continued with idle chatter between them. it was pretty peaceful and eventful for a few days.
Merlin’s House
June 20th, 2007 - 7:00 pm
Merlin was home alone as Nimueh had gone out saying something about checking in on old stomping grounds or whatnot, and Gwaine had to briefly go overseas because he got invited to a friend's wedding and was tempted by the unlimited bar and extravagant location of the venue that he apparently just could not pass up the opportunity and his words,
“It’s not like I can do much against an all-powerful dude with no nose.”
And so off he went to the States for the weekend.
That left Merlin by his lonesome though he used this time wisely. He debated telling others about Death's Earthbound items.
Well, of course, Gwen knows, which is why he invited her over. But he debated telling everyone else about it all. Not that he wanted to keep secrets but more so for the fact that he didn't think everyone would agree with his line of thought. He thought that some people might argue about him talking to the Master of Death, whoever that may be.
While it will solve his problems, he doesn't know exactly what it would entail to make himself go from being immortal to mortal. And before he told everyone, he'd rather make a plan of action and figure out all the logistics as best as he could. It also depended on who the Master of Death was and how willing they would be to help cure him of his immortality.
So to avoid chaos, he thought talking and researching with Gwen first may be the better option. Though he has a feeling that any decision he makes, he'll get some type of argument for doing so later on, so he thought he might as well pick the best of all the options and work with at least one of his friends.
Gwen arrived not too shortly later as he’d called her in advance so they could chat and discuss possible avenues and possibilities.
“Gwen. Remember the Death’s Earthbound items I had told you about before?” Merlin asked.
“Uhm yeah. The wand, cloak, and magic stone, right?” Gwen says as a question of her own.
“Yes, exactly. Well, since we have the house to ourselves, I was wondering if you could listen to a few ideas I have about that and maybe help me plan for future events.” Merlin asked.
“Of course, Merlin. What exactly were you thinking?” Gwen asked, looking at the disorganized piles of papers and documents and a few open laptops scattered around the living room table and some of the couch.
“Right, well, remember how I said I knew where one of the items was, and I wasn't very good friends with the person who had the item, and we talked about how we could mend the relationship over time. Well, that's now impossible, considering he's dead, and the person who picked up the wand is Voldemort, the noseless guy, as Nimueh likes to call him.” Merlin started.
“Oh,” Gwen said, shocked.
“I highly doubt that Voldemort is going to be the Master of Death, considering there is a prophecy that he will die at the hands of Harry Potter. Of course, that also, in my mind, eliminates Harry Potter being the Master of Death, considering the prophecy also states that Voldemort could kill him.” Merlin said, frustrated slightly because he'd rather know people who he could count as possible Masters of Death rather than people who he could eliminate.
“My god, how horrible,” Gwen said, as she had never heard of the prophecy about Harry Potter before.
She briefly remembers meeting the boy at Hogwarts, but she doesn't know his significance or too much about him. Especially not his significance in the Wizarding World and in this war itself.
“And I haven't found any new information about the cloak or the magic stone. I couldn't tell you what they looked like or what they do or where I could even start to find them. The best thing I found is a children's book explaining a vague story that sort of resembles the items that we are looking for. But a children's book written many years ago isn't going to help finding the items presently, considering the children's book is talking about the story like it's a fairy tale.” Merlin said, holding up a dilapidated book that was the fairy tale.
Gwen gently took it slowly, looking through it so as not to destroy the book much more than it already seemed to be.
“So this book relates to the items you are searching for but doesn’t tell us where to start looking. Is this book based on fact? I know we consider this a fairy tale and as a children's book, but should we start looking at the information that it is presenting as somewhat true? It does give names to the first owners of the items. Maybe we could look into those people and maybe track the items through their lineage and into maybe their next generation. I’m sure this isn’t a dead end. Couldn’t the goblins help? I mean, don't they create fake identities for you? Doesn't that mean that they have access to people's family trees? I mean, because none of this information would be on the internet like we have, but wouldn't they have that information because they hold people's stuff and have to make sure it goes to their descendants if they suddenly die or something, right? Couldn't this possibly be a way for you to track where the items went if it was indeed passed down from generation to generation?” Gwen said, bringing up a really good point.
Merlin smiled and hugged Gwen,
“I knew calling you was a good idea.”
Gwen smiled happily at Merlin's excitement and happy vibes.
Grimmauld Place
June 20th, 2007 - 7:00 pm
Harry Potter was currently sitting in his room.
He had just been handed a letter. The letter was a letter left to him by Dumbledore. Apparently, he was in the man's will and was left some things, which would explain the box that was delivered with the letter. It was a rather small box, but he felt touched that Dumbledore had left him anything at all. Opening the letter startled Harry as if it flew from his hands, and a voice spoke to him. It was a voice he didn’t recognize but was soon introduced. It was sort of in the form of a voice message.
“Greetings, young Potter child. Normally this would be done face to face. However, considering the most recent events and the dangers of meeting up in public, we have decided to use this nifty spell which will record my voice speaking to you. Unfortunately, that means that we cannot have a conversation, and I cannot respond to any questions you may have; however, I will explain what it is. I'm here to explain. My name is Rufus Scrimgeour, the current Minister of Magic, and following Albus Dumbledore's death, it is my job to hand out property that he has given as a requirement from his will. I have sent respective letters to your classmates, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, as they were also recipients of the will. However, if you have questions as to what they received, I'm afraid you'll have to exchange letters with them as it is their prerogative whether or not they wish to share what was left to them with you. That being said, I will now go into what Albus Dumbledore has left you and what words he wished to share with you.“ Was the monotone voice of an older gentleman that had spoken through the letter.
Harry looked somewhat confused, but there was no such thing as a pause button on the letter, so he couldn’t gather time to think before the voice of the Minster of Magic continued his ramblings.
“ To Harry James Potter, I leave the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match at Hogwarts, as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill’ … Quite an interesting choice. I do wonder why, of all the things he could have left you, why the snitch? I wonder if there is a hidden meaning behind its purpose. But alas, you cannot answer my or my queries, unfortunately. Enclosed in the box is what Dumbledore has left you. You will find a single golden snitch, apparently from the first game that you played. The other item, unfortunately, will not be delivered to you. According to reliable historical sources, the sword may present itself to any worthy Gryffindor. That does not make it the exclusive property of Mr. Potter, whatever Dumbledore may have decided. So even though in his will he has left the Sword of Gryffindor to you, it seems that you will not be receiving it. If you have any complaints regarding that matter, I am more than welcome to speak to you about it, but this was a decision based purely from the opinions made at the Ministry of Magic, and it will be hard-pressed for you to gain ownership over the sword.” The monotone voice finished as the letter closed itself and fell to the floor as if it never floated in the air in the first place.
Harry was overall confused and slightly rubbed the wrong way by the man speaking through the letter, but most importantly, he wanted to speak to Hermione and Ron to see what they got.
For a brief moment, he was frustrated over the fact that he would have to wait till their letter arrived after sending one of his own, but then he forgot that he had a cell phone now and could just call.
Quickly dialing Hermione's number, he pressed call and waited with bated breath as the phone rang thrice before Hermione eventually picked up the phone.
8 Heathgate, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London : Hermione's Residence
June 20th, 2007 - 7:00 pm
Hermione sat in her room after eating a slightly awkward dinner with her family.
As the dinner was going normally, she was being berated by her mother for reading a book at the dinner table while her father was cracking a joke about dentistry, and it was never funny as he thought it was. Everything was as it should be until Hermione's owl flew through the window that was open and crash-landed onto the table, holding a letter and a box that seemed a little bit too heavy for the bird to handle.
The owl was seemingly fine, stole some food off of her father's plate before hopping out back through the window where it came and just began to chill in the front yard. Hermione helped her family reset the table and held the letter in the box off to the side, and waited till she got back in her room before opening them.
After opening the letter, she was rather glad she did wait to open it. Considering the letter flew out of her hand and started to float in front of her while a man's monotone voice came out of the letter.
“Greetings Miss Hermione Granger. I am the newly appointed minister of magic Rufus Scrimgeour. This letter is being sent to you because, as per your previous Headmaster's will, one Albus Dumbledore has left you something in his will. Unfortunately, we could not meet in person, considering the danger, since all of the recent Death Eater attacks. So we have decided to send this letter with a nifty voice charm attached to it. Getting right into it, I was told to inform you that your classmates, Harry Potter, and Ronald Weasley, also have received letters and items per Dumbledore's will. however, if you inquire about further information, please contact your friends and classmates on your own time, as I am not allowed to discuss the contents of what they received with anyone other than the person who is receiving the items. ‘To Miss Hermione Jean Granger, I leave my copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard , in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive '… Why do you think Dumbledore left you that book, Miss Granger? Though this is an unfortunate reality as you cannot answer my most curious questions since we cannot talk through the letter. How unfortunate; I would really like to know the answer to that question. More toward the reason that I would inquire why that book in particular. Is there perhaps a hidden code he is trying to send you, or did you ever discuss this book in general? Many questions I have towards Dumbledore's choice of items he chose to bequeath to you, children.” The man's voice tapered off as he seemed to notice he was getting off-topic.
“The book is enclosed within the box that was sent to you. If you have any further questions or wish to speak with me, please inquire through the Ministry of Magic.” Was the last thing said before the letter closed and fell to the ground as if it was a puppet whose strings were suddenly cut.
Hermione gently lifted the Box up as she sat back on her bed. She opened the lid gently to reveal a small book. A book that fits nicely in her hand but was no bigger than her hand itself. It had a weird symbol across the cover of the book, a triangle with a circle and a line all intertwined with each other. The book was called The Tales of Beedle the Bard, as per the letter stated. Gently flipping through the book, it looked like a children's fairy tale book as there were many different stories written.
Pondering the question that the minister of magic had set in her mind, why Dumbledore had left this book to her, was something that threw her into a fit of questions that she had herself. That was until a phone call brought her out of her thinking.
Gently putting the book back in the box and placing it on the bed, Hermione turned her head side to side, wondering where exactly she had placed her phone last.
Eventually, she saw it on her dresser, and she got up and quickly looked at it, noticing that Harry was calling her; with a smile on her face, she picked up the phone.
The Burrow
June 20th, 2007 - 7:00 pm
Ron had just gotten into his room after eating enough dinner for probably three people. He was quite stuffed and wasn't expecting his owl to be asleep on his bed next to a letter and a small box. Curiously he picked up the letter disrupting his owl's sleep. However, the owl didn't seem to care too much as it seemed to consider Ron moving it as no big deal as it turned around and settled somewhere else on his bed.
Curiously Ron opened the letter and tripped as it sprung out of his hands and floated in the air as a man's voice protruded out of it, filling the room.
“Ahem, ahem. Is the spell working? It is…very well. Hello Mr. Weasley. My name is Rufus Scrimgeour. If you don't already know, I am the newly appointed minister of magic as of recent events. I am sending you this letter in regard to one Albus Dumbledore. Apparently, you and some of your classmates were left some of Albus Dumbledore's personal items in his personal will. And this letter and the box you received beside it are what you will obtain. I was hoping to have this conversation in person, but as this chaotic world and ravaging war continues, apparently, it is too dangerous to meet in person in any capacity, which is why it's unfortunate that I have to rather use this nifty spell to send this message to you. But as the Minister of Magic, it is my duty to present Dumbledore's will to you, and here it is being done. ‘To Ronald Bilius Weasley, I leave my Deluminator, in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it '… That is a valuable object. It may even be unique. Certainly, it is of Dumbledore's own design. Why would he have left you an item so rare? Dumbledore must have taught thousands of students, yet the only ones he remembered in his will are you three. Why is that? To what use did he think you would put to the Deluminator, Mr. Weasley? But unfortunately, my queries cannot be answered to my displeasure, but I do wonder what your answer to that question would be. Anyway, If you have any queries of your own and wish to speak to me regarding Albus Dumbledore's will or the item you received, please send a letter to the Ministry of Magic, and we will hopefully get in touch and meet in a face-to-face environment otherwise please cherish what you received and think fondly of your past headmaster……..Is it over now? How many more of these do I have to do? Oh, it's still recording my voice….. how do we sto-?” The message seemed to end rather abruptly and mid-sentence as it seemed like this was the first letter that was made out of the batch of three of them.
Apparently, by saying it was a nifty spell, I was also saying that it was a brand-new spell. And obviously, the wizards who were using it to make the letter work didn't exactly know how to use it correctly.
Ron looked rather confused after the letter had fallen to the floor. But instead of thinking about it too much, he picked up the box and opened it to reveal the Deluminator. But Ron was more confused than ever before as he had no idea why Dumbledore would leave him this of all things. Not that it wasn't valuable or that it was useless entirely, but he couldn't figure out why it was given to him in the first place.
He played with it a few times, turning the light on and off in his room. But eventually just sat back, staring at it, confused.
That was until his cell phone rang, and a weird message popped up.
It said that both Harry and Hermione were calling him at the same time. But there was only one option to pick up, so he slid his finger across the screen and, with confusion, waited to see whose voice would filter through.
Hermione's voice came through first. Then not too long after, Harry's voice also filtered through.
Ron, who was already very confused about multiple things, asked what was going on,
“How come I hear both of you? Are you guys together?”
“Isn’t brilliant? Hermione said that there's a function on the phone that can let multiple people talk to each other on the same phone call. I have no idea how it works, but it's just bloody brilliant.” Harry's voice filtered through, sounding semi-excited.
“Apparently, it was already a function on muggle phones. I never owned one, so I didn't know about it, but some of my friends in my neighborhood told me about it as I was talking to them last weekend.” Hermione said.
“Wow, muggles invented that?” Ron said, awed.
“Ron Muggles invented technology. Professor Emrys may have made it work with magic, but he's using technology that Muggles made.” Hermione's voice filtered through with a how-did-you-not-know-that tone of voice.
“Oh. That's wicked.” Ron said, dazed a bit before remembering why his friends had probably called.
“Did you guys receive letters and stuff too?” Ron asked.
“Yep. Dumbledore put us all in his will. I feel like there’s a hidden meaning behind it.” Hermione said.
“A hidden meaning? Could he not have just left us stuff?” Ron asked as he didn’t understand the purpose of his item but didn’t seem suspicious of Dumbledore’s intentions.
“I agree with Hermione. It does seem a little suspicious that he only left us three items from his will, also for the fact that he told me to search for the Horcruxes and to destroy them. I feel like there's a hidden meaning behind his will, as there always seems to be a hidden meaning in everything he does. I mean everything he did.” Harry said as his voice filtered through the phone.
“Hmmm, I guess. So whatcha get? He left me his Deluminator.” Ron said.
“He left me a book; it’s a fairy tale collection. What about you, Harry?” Hermione asked as she originally thought that the book either held clues to the hidden meaning she assumed Dumbledore had laid out for them.
Or there was a hidden meeting in the items themselves. Though after learning what Ron had received and what she had received, it may be a hidden meaning in the book itself. At least depending on Harry's answer.
“I was left a golden snitch, apparently the one that I had caught in my first game. I thought that there might be something special about it, but it seemed like a normal snitch to me. I was also left the Gryffindor Sword, but the Ministry of Magic said that Dumbledore didn't technically own it, so they couldn't give it to me, and it belongs to Hogwarts or something like that.” Harry’s voice said through the phone.
“Aw, that sucks. I can’t believe they didn’t give you the sword that would have been handy in the fight.” Ron said, sounding sad.
“Ron, do you even know how to wield a sword? What use would it really have?” Hermione's voice filtered through.
“Well, not us, obviously. We Are wizards, and we use our wands. But don't the reincarnations use swords? I mean, they're from medieval times with knights and armor and stuff, right? Wouldn't it be useful to give it to one of them? I mean, it's not like we have Excalibur. I wonder if Professor Emrys has that, which would be so cool.” Ron said something rather intelligent.
“Oh well, that’s true. I didn’t think about that. Well, maybe Professor Emrys can talk to the ministry and get the sword.” Hermione said.
Harry made a sound over the phone.
“Harry?” Ron asked.
“I don’t think we should trust Professor Emrys,” Harry said.
“Why not? Is it cause of the stuff that you said happened the night Dumbledore died? But didn’t Dumbledore tell you to trust him?” Ron asked.
Harry had told his friends about what had happened before he had told the Order and everyone else. He briefly mentioned why he didn't trust Professor Emrys, but then he also told them about how Dumbledore told him to trust him. But Harry couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right, whether it was the professor himself or Dumbledore's mixed information. Or how he acted in front of Voldemort. Harry couldn't quite put his finger on what was setting him off, but whatever it was, made him not trust Professor Emrys at all.
His two best friends weren't exactly in the same frame of thought as Harry. They understood that the professor was weird and a bit eccentric. But they couldn't fathom him being evil in any sense. That's why even though they didn't want to doubt Harry, they couldn't see it the way he did.
The conversation reached a quiet standstill as everyone had their own thoughts to think about when a somewhat random shriek reverberated over the phone through Ron's side.
“Ron?” Hermione wondered if it was Ron that made that sound though it didn't sound like it.
“Uhh ummm no, not me, hold on,” Ron said, getting up.
Molly excitedly made another noise from downstairs.
Ron curiously peeked his head out his door while still on the phone. His other siblings also looked around at each other curiously before heading downstairs.
They found Molly Weasley holding a letter with a big smile on her face. She noticed her children looking at her through the doorway and turned to them, smiling still.
“Great news! Look what I received." She says as she turns the letter around.
Although the script is so small and the children have to walk forward to read exactly what was printed on the letter, they all soon see what she was so excited about.
They see it's a wedding invitation. It's a wedding invitation to their brother's wedding. Apparently, Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour were getting married. After everyone had read the letter and cheers were heard throughout the house, the message eventually got across the phone to Harry and Hermione who congratulated the Weasley family, and soon.
Ron had to hang up as there was too much going on to continue the conversation they were having.
Voldemort’s Most Recent Base of Operations
June 20th, 2007 - 9:00 pm
Voldemort was casually admiring the spoils of war. He was marveling over the craftmanship of the Elder Wand, and he twirled it in his hand and shot the random curse at some of his changed-up prisoners.
He was relishing in the power and feeding off the feeling that everything would soon work out as long as he had this wand in his hands.
Suddenly a door slammed open, and it could only be one person who would do that in Voldemort's presence.
Morgan walked in with a smile on her face from her room, which she had been cooped up in for the past few days. However, rather than just timid Draco, who was not following her this time, it was a man that they hadn’t seen since his kidnapping.
Mordred walked out behind her, he wasn’t as confident as she was, but he walked behind her not too far behind.
“Voldemort!” Morgan called out excitedly.
“This is my loyal friend Mordred. As you know about reincarnations, he is one of them. And he has decided to join our side. I wish Athusia were still here, and then I would feel complete.” Morgan said, reminiscing about her old allies.
“Athusia? Another wizard who fought with you. Is there a chance she would be reincarnated?” Voldemort asked, curious how many reincarnations he should expect, whether they be friends or foes.
Morgan shook her head.
“No, she wasn’t a wizard. She was a dragon. She was a great dragon who was imprisoned beside me. Who suffered with me and who sought revenge with me. Her kind lived long, but I don’t know if she would still be alive after all this time. And I doubt she’d reincarnate, unfortunately.” Morgan said sadly though the emotion didn’t show right on her face.
It’s like she sounded sad, but her face was emotionless.
Mordred spoke up for the first time,
“Who else was reincarnated?” He asks.
“Ah, some women I never heard of.” Morgan said, holding out the paper that was recently published explaining an obviously fake background that was created.
She handed the paper over to Mordred.
“We met her briefly, and we fought; she was strong, and I tried to get her to join us, but she was crazy and resistive.” Morgan trailed off, getting annoyed thinking about it.
Mordred curiously looked at the paper to see if he recognized her but didn’t, yet when he read the name, he recognized it.
He heard whispers of Nimueh, a High Priestess who was very strong. He didn’t mention it, however, and just tried to memorize her face.
Notes:
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I will see you when I post the next one. Sorry, the schedule is a little bit more hectic than when I was updating before. My life has just gotten more hectic.
Also, I got a bunch of souvenirs from Alaska. My goal was to get a ring in Alaska, and I got four of them. I spent too much money. But I made it out with four rings, two necklaces, and a green hoodie which I cherish. Because green is my favorite color and the hoodie is freaking amazing, I've wanted a green hoodie for the longest time, but I couldn't find one. But I went to this Raptor sanctuary, and there it was on the wall, and I bought it faster than my mom could get into the gift shop. I saw another green sweater that I really wanted, but my mom was like no, and I didn't have any more money, so I ended up not getting it.
Big regrets.
If anyone goes to Sitka, Alaska, and stops by the port gift shop and sees a green sweatshirt that says Sitka Alaska on it. Just know that's the one I wanted, and I'm very sad that I don't own it.
Chapter 11: Emrys: The Blood Traitor
Notes:
Yo! What up!
For today's chapter and possibly the next two chapters, I had a sudden brain inspiration. I had written out an outline for what I assumed was going to be just one chapter, but as I started writing and writing and writing and writing, I realized that if I didn't split the chapters, it would be a weirdly long single chapter so I just started to split it. Also, it makes me upload it quicker because if I were to have to wait until I finished writing all of it and then I probably wouldn't upload it today, tomorrow, or the next day. I have to wait a little bit longer, but if I split it into like three parts hence three different chapters, as soon as I finish one chapter, I can automatically upload it like I am doing right now. a lot of exciting stuff planned though.
I went to the dog emergency vet because my dog started limping, and I got worried and I ended up sitting in there for 3 hours without being checked up on because there were other dogs with more serious emergencies. It was crazy; there was this group of four girls who had brought in two six-year-old dogs. They were maimed by this pack of four dogs, and they were such small and cute babies it was so horrible. The first dog had like both their legs cut at the tendons by one dog, and the other poor baby, a little pomeranian, was ripped to shreds at the stomach. It was absolutely horrible, and the owner of those four dogs that attacked the two little puppies had the audacity to talk to the owners and say, “Are you hurt?” while they were covered in blood. Absolutely freaking nuts. The little pomeranian was so cute; I felt so bad, it looked just like a doll, but it was covered in blood and had this horrible wound on its stomach. The owner was also drenched in blood; she was lucky she was wearing black because she was just covered from her chest to her foot in blood. I felt so bad for those poor dogs. I was ultimately going to wait there, but my mom wanted to go home, so we just left. Also, my dog seems to be putting on a bit of an act when she's with me, acting like she's limping and falling all over the place, but when she was in the vet's place, she was acting like she was totally fine. It was like making me feel paranoid and delusional, but I have an actual appointment with my normal vet on Tuesday, so we'll hope that just fixes everything then in there.
I had plans to go to my grandma's after the vet, but I didn't end up doing it because the vet took too long, but I was trying to move some of my stuff back home with me. I mean, technically I could just go there and walk it home, but I would have to make like six or seven trips, and I'd rather just put it all in my mom's car and then take it from my mom's car into the house rather than walk it down the block and then bring it into my house. It's going to be a hassle either way so I might as well make it a little bit easier on myself. But my mom wants me to pick up a mattress tomorrow and bring it upstairs, and I am dreading it. I told my mom I would try my hardest, but I'm not breaking my back because my grandma wanted to call a mover to do it, but my mom was like no, we can do it for free, and I was like bitch you can break your back and do it all you want, but I'm not breaking my back to bring a mattress upstairs because I have to go back to school soon and I already have back problems, and I literally left school because I couldn't walk to school, and I am not rehashing this issue again. I stopped going to school for two weeks before I took my medical leave because I could literally not walk to school with my school swollen ass feet. I am not going to break my back before I have to go back to school again. My mother started threatening me, saying that if I didn't help, I was going to get in trouble, and I was like I will try to help you, but if it looks like my back is going to be in pain, I am going to stop helping you, and you can do it on your own or let Grandma call a mover. Of course, she kept threatening me, but I was like it is what it is; I don't care.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
*edited as of 6/20/23*
Early Morning
June 27th, 2007
“Bloody Hell!” James Emrys said, running up the stairs into the break room.
Sam was startled and jumped out of her seat.
It was pretty early in the morning, and she was the only one at work at this hour. She came in pretty early to work on some designs for certain websites that she was creating. Originally they were just going to be standard Muggle-style website designs, but she thought that she could make really cool, animated ones since she was a pretty good artist and she had the power in the company to do so.
Why have something plain when you could have something sparkly and colorful?
She was in the middle of designing a certain website that they had thought about creating, which was a place where you could upload digital files of books. It was the slowest and longest project that they were currently doing. And they were considering hiring more people because they had to literally transcribe every book ever written onto a computer by typing it up in documents. It was hell and it had to be done manually, unfortunately.
The only plus side was that all of the Muggle novels that already had PDFs available were just imported onto the website, illegally, but it was the magical world and nobody would really know.
So at the moment, Sam was making the webpage sparkly and vibrant because the rest of the work in this project was making her utterly exhausted. So she was having a little bit of fun in the morning before work.
Well, at least she was in till the boss's older brother ran inside, looking completely disheveled and slightly bleeding from his head.
It startled her so much that she dropped her laptop, but thankfully, no need to worry as it was practically indestructible.
“W-wha- are you alright? You’re bleeding!” Sam said, shocked but worried nonetheless.
Sirius looked like he was about to explain himself, but he started coughing because he had run so quickly that he forgot to breathe and was now choking.
He coughed roughly a few times before putting his hands on his knees and breathing deep breaths, trying to calm himself down.
“I’m……not…..okaaaaay.” Was what he eventually said after two minutes of trying to breathe.
“Call……..Remus……please.”
Sam looked worried but nodded her head.
“Of course, uh, sit down, breathe. I’ll grab some water, you just wait here.” Sam rushed to pour some water into a glass and rushed back to hand James the glass as soon as he sat down.
After the cup was in James’ hand, she pulled out her phone and called Remus. It rang for three beats before Remus picked up.
His voice was a little muffled and rough like he had just woken up.
“Remus! Wake up! James is injured! You have to come to the shop, I don’t know what happened but he asked for you saying he wasn’t okay, you gotta hurry. He’s bleeding!” Sam said fast and increasingly more panicked as she was freaking out a bit.
It took Remus five minutes before he fully digested and understood exactly what she was saying. Once it finally registered in his brain, he began to freak out and said he was coming, hanging up the phone before Sam could get another word in.
After realizing that Remus had hung up on her, she looked back at James and got even more worried as he seemed to be passing out.
She wasn’t sure if it was because he was injured or because of how hard he was breathing. But it in turn made Sam freak out, and she kind of felt like she wanted to pass out as well from having a panic attack. But she took control of her situation, telling herself that she needed to just call her boss because even though James didn’t ask for him, she was sure Myridian would be worried about him and would want to know what was going on so she started to dial his phone number with shaky hands.
“Hello!” a cheery voice answered the phone.
Even though it was so early in the morning, it seemed that Myridian was wide awake and as happy as ever.
Of course, that didn’t calm down Sam at all, and her shaky and panicky voice filtered through the phone,
“Boss!”
“Sam? What’s wrong?” Merlin asked worriedly.
“It’s your brother! He just ran into the shop out of breath and bleeding, and he said he wasn’t okay and I called Remus because your brother asked, but I thought I should call you because he’s your brother and he’s bleeding, and I don’t know what to do. And I’m panicking, and I’m freaking out, and I think you should come to the shop, like right now; you have to hurry!” Sam yelled, as since she was panicking more, the volume of her voice kept going higher and higher until she was practically yelling into the phone.
Merlin was silent for a few minutes, and Sam had thought he had also hung up on her, but his voice filtered through moments later.
“I'll be right there, just take a deep breath and breathe. I will be there in a few seconds, so don't panic. Everything’s all right. Just sit down and wait until I get there.” Merlin said calmly to help Sam relax.
“O-okay….okay….just hurry,” Sam said worriedly as she hung up.
Both Remus and Merlin literally did not waste any time and almost arrived at the same exact time; Remus arrived first and ran into the room out of breath, as he had seen some blood on the step outside of the shop and panicked himself into a frenzy.
He was worse off than Sam, who was in the middle of a panic attack. Neither of them seemed to be holding on really well.
Remus calmed down a bit once he finally saw Sirius, as he had expected the worst, and let his mind conjure up all these horrible images of Sirius fatally injured, which caused him to panic so much. But when he noticed it was a scratch on the head and that the blood was mainly coming from there. He relaxed a little bit, even though he was still really worried and freaked out.
Merlin rushed in, maybe two seconds later, and looked calmer, though he was panicking a bit on the inside. He just didn’t want to freak out Sam because he had heard how frantic she was over the phone.
“Myridian?” Remus looked behind him, surprised momentarily, and then turned to Sirius.
“Sirius! Are you alright?” Remus said, walking to him and sitting beside him, patting his shoulder.
Merlin walked deeper into the room and walked into his office, where he had some medical supplies. He quickly grabbed his medical bag and walked back into the room, and sat on the coffee table in front of Sirius.
“Sirius. Hey, you there? Buddy? I’m gonna start touching your face and cleaning up some of the blood, alright? Well, I’m gonna do it even if you don’t respond. Let's hope this makes you feel better.” Merlin pulled out some gauze and started wiping the blood away on his face.
Sirius’ eyes were open slightly, but he seemed kind of dazed. He was finally breathing better than before, but obviously, he was still out of breath, and there was sweat mixed in with the blood on his face as he had sweat running away from wherever he had run away from.
Merlin made the decision to take off Sirius’ sweater, thinking that maybe he was overheating. Then he bandaged up the cut on his forehead. It was quite a big slash as it went from above his ear to the middle of his forehead, and it was bleeding like crazy. After bandaging everything up, he proceeded to check if he was injured anywhere else, but it didn’t seem to be the case.
Eventually, Sirius seemed to regain focus as he started to open his eyes wider and started breathing more normally.
While both Remus and Merlin seemed to be calming down and feeling better because Sirius looked to be getting better, someone else in the room was, in fact, not doing better.
Sam was a little bit confused. She didn’t say anything, and she wasn’t outwardly freaking out anymore. Still, something in the back of her head was making her seem like she was forgetting something, like something on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t remember exactly why it was so significant or important at this moment.
But once Sirius started to cough and become more self-aware, that little thing in the back of her mind disappeared completely as she was happier that he woke up and was looking to be getting better that she just forgot about it now.
Sirius grabbed his head and groaned as Merlin’s first aid was more like a Muggle's first aid. Where it would get him out of danger, but it wasn’t on the level of magical medical treatment. So he was still in quite a bit of pain from his head, and he was trying to rack all of his thoughts back into place.
“James, are you okay?” Sam said, bringing herself back into the conversation as she sat on his other side.
Remus looked slightly panicked for some reason but didn’t say anything about why.
“I’m in pain, but I’m okay. Thanks,” he said, looking at Sam first and then looking at Merlin, who was still sitting in front of him.
“What happened? How did you get hurt?” Remus asked.
Sirius looked at him and recounted his events of this morning.
Even Earlier That Morning
Sirius had woken up to an empty house, as Harry had gone to visit Ron and decided to have a sleepover.
He tried to go back to sleep because he woke up in the middle of the night, but he wasn’t having any luck. He still had pretty bad nightmares from Azkaban, and sleep was never abundant.
Realizing that he couldn’t fall back asleep, Sirius went about his house going around cleaning up and just doing menial tasks to bide his time.
Eventually, he left his house. Sirius planned to go to the shop and pretend like he was actually doing something because he was bored and didn’t have anyone to hang out with, and at some point in the morning, other people would come to work, and then he would be less bored and alone.
However, on his way there, he ran into quite a bit of trouble. It had only been a week or two since the last attack he was involved in. Now here he was again, getting attacked by Death Eaters, who seemed to be targeting his “family.”
Of course, he was under the disguise of James Emrys. Apparently, the other half of his family, which is his brother, Myridian Emrys, had really pissed off the Dark Lord and his followers, and probably Morgana as well, which is probably why they were attacking him. Or at least that is what Sirius assumed.
Since it was so early in the morning, there was barely anybody anywhere in Diagon Alley. Even in the normally bustling parts of the city, nobody was in sight except for the Death Eaters and Sirius himself at the moment.
Sirius immediately pulled out his wand, backing up a bit and preparing for a fight. Instead of automatically sparring with each other, the Death Eater standing closest to him started talking first, which was odd. Death eaters normally fight first and worry about repercussions later, sort of organization.
“James Emrys, the Dark Lord wants you. Just because your brother is a blood traitor doesn’t mean you must forsake your pure-blood ancestry. The dark Lord is giving you an opportunity to join hands and work together. Your brother is already a lost cause by mixing magic and Muggle devices. But the dark Lord is giving you a chance to prove that you’re different from him. Join us!” The most forefront Death Eater said, holding his hands out as if he was waiting for Sirius to grab his hand and join their side.
Sirius laughed loudly in the quiet earlier morning.
“Hahaha, haaaaa. Did you really try to recruit me? I hate that this is the second time this has happened to me, but I’ll answer just like I did the first time, NO! I’d rather be labeled a blood traitor than ever work for your Lord.” Sirius sneered.
“Haaaa, I knew this was a waste of time. Capture him!” The Death Eater said as they all grabbed their wands and cast binding spells.
Sirius realized the gravity of how bad the situation was as he realized they weren’t trying to kill him, but they were trying to capture him alive.
Meaning there was torture and painful death in his future. Hence, instead of fighting, he decided to run away.
He briefly remembered the blood spell that Myridian had done around the shop and thought that if he could just get to the shop, he would be safe. Because Myridian said that unless the shop itself was destroyed, nobody could get in.
And he was banking everything on that, and without protecting himself or firing back any spells, he just made a beeline for the shop. As he ran, he got a spell to the side of the head and started bleeding heavily on his head and into his eye. But he kept running.
Eventually, once the shop was in sight, Sirius ran through the front door, locking it behind him.
The Death Eaters flung spells at the door for a few moments, but once the spells started to ricochet back at them from the wards, they decided to give up and retreat.
Sirius was going to sit down and catch a breath, but then he noticed that the lights were already all turned on and that there was a light on upstairs. He thought that maybe Myridian or Remus was there, and he ran up the stairs only to find Sam.
Back to the present
“So that’s what happened,” Sirius said, taking a large sip of water after explaining the events of this morning.
“Wow, Death Eaters….we have to call the Auror department. Right?” Sam asked, looking at the others in the room.
Myridian looked at Remus and Sirius first, then responded,
“Yes, you’re right; let me call.”
Merlin turned and dialed Kingsley and walked to the other side of the room to talk. It was a very short phone call, and he soon walked back and said that they were coming.
Normally they wouldn’t have called; they would’ve waited until the next Order meeting and brought it up there, but considering that Sam was a civilian and couldn’t know about the Order and their involvement in it, they decided to act like normal people and do things how normal everyday witches and wizards would do.
Though every day, normal witches and wizards wouldn’t have the phone number of the head of the Auror department, just because they were acting normal doesn’t mean they were.
Kingsley arrived soon.
He brought two other Aurors that worked for him. Sirius reiterated the story for Kingsley and the other two Aurors, and then Kingsley sent the other two to investigate the outside of the shop and the path where Sirius said that the fight took place.
He then walked into Myridian’s office and brought everyone but Sam inside.
Merlin’s Office
Kingsley sat on the corner of Myridian’s desk.
“This is dangerous. This isn’t the first time that they tried to take you. You may have been too drunk to remember, but in the last fight where Nimueh saved us, the Death Eaters asked us to hand you over then, and now they tried to kidnap you. This means they consider Myridian someone who obviously wouldn’t join them as a target to kill, and you as someone they might be able to convert into being a Death Eater.” Kingsley explained the reality of the situation.
“Well, I declined, obviously! But they still wanted me alive, but I don’t know why?” James said, annoyed.
“Well…I have a guess……” Myridian said, contemplating theories in his head.
“Morgana probably…..mmm, how should I say this? My last name Emrys probably reminds her of someone unpleasant. And so she probably wants to torture us or something along those lines, depending on how much she remembers.” Myridian said offhandedly.
“So what should we do? Do you think you should be more careful, be in disguise or travel in pairs at all times?” Remus asked.
Kingsley shrugged his shoulders,
“I don’t know. Realistically you two shouldn’t follow your normal schedule because, obviously, it’s predictable. Whether they’re following your route to work or your route home, it puts you in danger and anyone you live with in danger. I think it would be smarter to stop coming to the shop on a day-to-day basis, or if you need to take different paths or be more careful and ensure you’re not followed anywhere. It’s a tricky situation because they have the numbers to follow you, and we don’t have the numbers to keep a constant watch over you. Sticking in numbers would be the best possible outcome, but I know it’s not possible all the time, and that one moment you are vulnerable and alone is most likely the moment they will strike again. That’s why I said we should’ve used Nimueh to launch a spearhead attack at the Dark Lord and his followers .” Kingsley grumbled.
“Wait! Do you think they were stalking me? That’s dangerous.” Sirius ignored the end complaint and worried for Harry’s safety.
“Why? You live alone, no? Or with Myridian?” Kingsley asked.
“Uh no, we don’t uhm.." Myridian says.
Kingsley was silent, waiting for someone to say something.
”Sirius, who are you worried about that lives with you?” Kingsley said, almost anticipating his answer.
“My godson. Harry, he’s been staying with me since I created this fake identity, and you know where we live at my place. While it is dangerous that I could be followed as long as he’s there, it shouldn’t be too bad.” Sirius explained, considering even if Death Eaters followed him home, them ever getting into his home would be a probability of zero.
Kingsley rubbed his brow, “Sirius, this is more dangerous than you probably think. It doesn’t matter about the charm placed on your house because Snape betrayed the Order. He’s been there before. He knows it’s a frequent Order meeting spot. That means you and Harry are in grave danger if you stay there. You have to find a new safe house. Honestly, you shouldn’t even be staying with Harry at all because your disguise as James Emrys is just as dangerous as you, Sirius Black being with him.” Kingsley explained.
“Are you telling me to send him back to live with those Muggles who mistreated him?!” Sirius yelled.
“Well, there was a reason he stayed with them in the first place. The protection charm from Lily’s sacrifice extends through the blood of her sister; it’s safer than staying with you. And I am sure a few choice words from you would convince them to stop miss treating him. Listen, Sirius, I understand where you’re coming from, but you have to think about how dangerous the situation actually is. Unless you can find a completely safe house where you are 100% sure that no Death Eater could follow you or ever find Harry, then I think you have to give this up.” Kingsley said, being the devil's advocate, because he thought it was too dangerous.
He could completely understand where Sirius was coming from, but at the same time, it was just too dangerous. Kingsley even felt that Harry going to Hogwarts again was too dangerous, but it’s not like he could lock the kid up in a safe house and never let them leave.
Sirius looked devastated.
“Wait. I’m sorry, I think I’m lacking some information here. So let me see if I understand for now; we can’t have Sirius or Harry living at Sirius‘s house because it’s no longer protected, because Snape, who betrayed us, knows about it and could tell the Dark Lord. But Sirius doesn’t want to return him to his aunt and uncle because they’re Muggles who are bad people who hurt Harry. Couldn’t we just set up a new safe house?” Myridian asked.
“Well, unless you can cast a Fidelius Charm and we set up an appropriate secret keeper, but even still, we have to find the perfect location not connected to any of us. And ultimately, Harry would have to stay there alone. As terrible as his Muggle relatives are, it may just be better for him to stay there. If he continues to go to Hogwarts, he only has to go during the summer months.” Kingsley said.
Myridian looked confused at something.
“How do you know about the Fidelius charm?” Was the weird question Myridian asked Kingsley.
It was Kingsley’s turn to be confused, and he asked,
“What do you mean? It’s a pretty well-known and ancient spell. Other than it being very difficult to cast as it’s a very complex spell, many people know about it. I don't know why you seem so shocked.”
The reason why Merlin was so perplexed was because he had created this spell almost 1000 years ago. It was actually created 100 years after Camelot fell. And he was almost positive. He never told anyone about the spell after he created it. Of course, it was called something a little bit different when he created it, but the name is fairly the same, and it doesn’t really matter what the spell is called; it was more shocking that other people knew about it.
But it does make sense why the spell is so complex to these wizards because when he created it, he didn’t create it with new magic in mind. It was a spell created to be performed using old magic, so the fact that it was cast by anyone in this day and age was pretty amazing, at least in Merlin’s eyes.
“Don't worry about it. I was just a little confused about……well, it doesn’t really matter. I’m pretty sure I can cast the spell, though; however, I hate to do this to you, Sirius, but I agree with Kingsley here. Of course, Harry’s opinion matters the most in this scenario. Even if it is for the safety of Harry, if he disagrees, I’m not going to force him to go back and live with his maternal family. But until a safe house is found and all the spells cast on it, it may be safer at the moment for him to live somewhere else. I also have to put stronger wards on my house. It seems as much as Nimueh can protect herself. I also have Muggles coming in and out, and plus, Gwaine has practically moved in, so I’ll have to take some extra precautions as well.” Myridian said, starting to ramble.
“Oh yeah, Myridian, your wards are amazing,” Sirius said as an afterthought.
He didn’t like what was happening, but he at least agreed with Myridian that they should ask Harry’s opinion on the matter.
“I mean, you guys should’ve seen what happened once I walked inside and closed the door. The Death Eaters' spells were bouncing off and ricocheting and hitting them back, and they were just getting a taste of their own medicine. It was great.” Sirius said.
“What ward?” Kingsley asked.
“You should go try it. Just fling spells at this building, and it’ll bounce right back.” Sirius said.
“Please don’t. The ward is strong and will protect the building. But let’s not start testing its boundaries. It does take magic to keep it up. Of course, with the essence of the spell using my body as a conduit for my magic, it’s stronger than most spells and wards for protection, but that doesn’t mean we necessarily have to test its strength.” Merlin said.
“You set your own wards? Hmm, if they are as strong as you say, they are. Would it be possible to add some more to Hogwarts, or would that take too much of a toll on your body?” Kingsley asked.
“Oh, I did that already. It’s not as good as the ward I put around this building, but I definitely strengthened the wards around the school the last time I was there.” Myridian answered.
“Though, not that it helped much, considering the Death Eaters found a different way in,” Merlin grumbled.
*Knock knock*
Someone from the outside knocked on the door.
Sirius quickly uncorked the second bottle and downed it as quickly as he could, turning around and hiding behind Remus while the potion took effect. At the same time, the door was being opened, and Sam poked her head in.
“Sorry to bother you, but the Aurors are done and are looking for you.” She said, pointing to Kingsley.
“Ah, well. I guess that shuts this conversation. We will continue to investigate this matter. My best advice is to think about what we talked about today before we meet again next time. I would think it’s in your best interest to close down the store for a few days and travel in pairs for the remainder of this month to be on the safe side. And James Emrys, I think it would definitely be helpful if you were to move as soon as possible. This is not something you should twiddle your thumbs in doing. If you’ll excuse me.” Kingsley said, leaving the room.
12 Grimmauld Palace Later That Evening
June 27th, 2007
Sirius was pacing. In stressful situations, he was a pacer. At the same time, his anxiousness and stress were exuding themselves as he walked back and forth. Harry Potter‘s stress and anxiety was him biting his nail because his godfather was just pacing back and forth, not saying anything. Only abruptly stopping to look at him opening his mouth to say something and then closing it as he went back to pacing.
It was setting Harry Potter on edge, but he didn’t know if he should interrupt his godfather‘s pacing or wait for whatever it was that would happen.
However, they didn’t have to wait long as a few minutes later, the fireplace lit up, and two people stepped outside the fire and into their living room.
The two people that greeted them were Myridian Emrys and Remus Lupin. Both men quickly dusted off their clothes of the soot from their way of travel and joined Sirius in front of Harry.
Neither of them was pacing, but their expressions both proved to Harry that something was wrong or something was about to go wrong. And it just made Harry even more nervous as he didn’t know what to expect.
Myridian was looking at Sirius expectantly but, eventually, side as he realized that he would have to start this off because Sirius obviously didn’t want to and seemed to be refusing to do so.
“Harry. It’s coming to our attention that it is too dangerous for you to continue living with your godfather. Sirius was attacked again today. Obviously, he’s fine, but we believe it’s too dangerous for you to remain here. Considering that Snape has been here before, and he could possibly leak this location to the Dark Lord hence why it’s not safe for you to be here. We don’t really have many options at the moment, and we think it would be in your best interest to go and live with your relatives once again.” Myridian explained.
Harry looked devastated.
He wanted to shout and completely disagree with everything that they were saying. But it's not like he could disagree that it wasn't dangerous, especially because he knew how dangerous Snape was especially watching him kill Dumbledore.
But he did not want to have to go live with his aunt and uncle again. He thought with Sirius’ new fake identity, he could live alongside his Godfather and have a happy rest of his life, never having to see his aunt and uncle again. But it seems like he didn't really have a choice in the matter.
“I don’t want to……but I guess I don’t have a choice.” Harry says, depressed.
“Well, of course, you have a say in this matter, Harry. And we are trying to create a new safe house, but it won't happen anytime soon. It would just be for this summer or at least the rest of it. Once Hogwarts is back up and running for the new semester, you will come back, and by then, I may be able to have a safe house where you can stay for the summer instead. And, of course, we will drop you off at your aunt and uncle's house, and we will make sure to have a talk with them so that nothing will happen to you under their roof. It won't be a good time, but it will not be horrible. I promise.” Myridian said as he was willing to use magic on his aunt and uncle if he had to.
“Harry, you know I don't want you to leave. Trust me; it's not because I'm kicking you out. I'm getting kicked out as well. I can't live here anymore, either. But after I got attacked and we talked to Kingsley, and we had to tell him that I'm James Emrys, and after all of that went down. He learned that you were living with me; he suggested that this was the best option because apparently my brother over here and I are in grave danger because Death Eaters want to murder us.” Sirius said, grumbling.
“Yeah, I guess. Are you okay, Sirius? You said you were attacked?” Harry asked, worried for his godfather.
“Oh, I was just slightly cut on the head. It’s all healed up now. But the fact the Death Eaters were following me is what’s making this whole situation dangerous. That’s why you and I living together is dangerous. But don’t worry; I’ll have a talk with your aunt and uncle as well.” Sirius said with a somewhat evil smirk on his face that didn’t bode well for Harry’s relatives.
“Okay. I’m not really happy about this, but as long as it’s not permanent or anything and you’ll talk to them, I guess for one month, it’s fine.” Harry said, conceding.
Notes:
I watched this weird Q&A YouTube video about a guy questioning this girl about how she doesn't have an internal monologue. You could literally type that into YouTube and probably find the video I'm talking about. It's so mind-blowing to me that some people don't have an internal monologue and only can think with shapes, and they compartmentalize in their brain, but they can't imagine anything in there. It's so weird to me. I heard about this a while ago, and I didn't believe it, but then I heard a few whispers here and there about it, and then I saw this video, and I was like, huh? It's really hard to comprehend. That's why I recommend other people should watch the video and have their mind be blown and have this weird feeling of no comprehension like me.
I have an internal monologue, and if you watch the video, I'm basically the same as the interviewer. But if you're someone who is like the interviewee, I'd love to hear about it like from your own perspective. It's just so interesting to me because I can't comprehend this other side that I love to hear about other people who have this explain it to me. I tried looking up other videos, but I didn't get that far before I was interrupted by other things.
Also, tell me in the comments how you like my story. Or what you dislike about it if you want to. I would say I'm open to criticism but I take it to heart a little bit too much and then get a little petty in the comments, so if you're going to say something mean say it at your own risk because I clap back. I would like to say that I'm the epitome of patience, but I'm not. The thing is, I take compliments about my writing to my heart so deeply that it means more to me than if someone were to tell me that I was beautiful. The same applies to negative feedback. Not that I can't take constructive criticism, but if it's not constructive at all and it's just criticism, I spiral into a frenzy of anger, and then I clap back. Sometimes I'm good at it; sometimes, I'm not. Listen, a butthurt author is not a good author. And I get my feelings hurt enough in real life by people who are supposed to be nice to me. Maybe that's why I don't take criticism well. I'm discovering so many new things about myself, lol. Listen, it's really late at night, and I haven't slept because I tried to finish this chapter. Sorry if my rambling got too rambly. I don't know, I feel like I'm high, but I'm not. It's like the sleep-deprived High kind of feeling. That's what I'm feeling right now. And it's making me talk more; I say talk and not write because I'm voice-typing all of this because my hands are too lazy after typing this chapter. I typed this chapter on my phone because I was too lazy to come to my computer. And also, because I was in the veterinarian's office so I had to work with what I had.
Chapter 12: A Good Therapeutic Punch To The Face
Notes:
Hello hello! Sorry for the long ass hiatus; I had a lot of personal things going on. Some sad things, some annoying things, and some good things. All wrapped up in a few months of crazy hecticness.
I will list the stuff I want to talk about in bullet point form because if I don't, I will chat for ages.
- one thing that happened, which is sad news, is that my beloved dog passed away. that really took me out of commission for quite a while. I didn't do anything but cry for days. I feel much more at peace now that the urn has arrived and that she's back home with me, but I'm still really sad about it, and it's hard to talk about, so I just wanted to get it out of the way but update anyone curious since I do talk about my dog a lot.
- another thing that happened is that I finished my medical leave and was planning on going back to school, and I even switched my major back to an English bachelor's after I had switched it to a teaching bachelor. I've decided I'm not going to school this semester. I made a decision that it's probably for the best. I know school is important and everything, but I think I'm better off learning how to be an adult than just staying in school forever. Also, school stresses me out a lot and gets me depressed quite often as well.
- I got over my fear of the dentist. I'm still very anxious and nervous about it, and whenever I go, those feelings are ever present, but luckily I can now go to the dentist without convincing myself not to go. That being said, when I did go, obviously, there were a lot of problems with my teeth because I hadn't gone in 10 years. But I did end up getting my braces removed, and I filled in a lot of cavities, and I found out that I needed four root canals which was a nightmare. Currently, got two done, and in two weeks, I'm finishing.
- also I've decided to get a job. Since I'm not attending school, part of my adulting plan is getting a job. I'm not going for anything specific; I'm applying to everything in my area. Like I'm going to every fast food place, every pharmacy, and every small mom-and-pop shop close enough for me to get to I'm applying. Mainly I want money so that I can move out of the house because I've had it up to here, [if you could see my imaginary hand which is touching the ceiling] with my parents and I'd like to leave and be independent as fast as possible so I need some money because New York is expensive.
-I also bought a lot of books to help me take control of my mental health and not let it destroy me. I also bought a book on how to be an adult, which seems kind of stupid but is actually really useful. If anyone else wants the name of it, I can let them know; just ask. I don't have the book in front of me; otherwise, I would put it here. It's like an interactive book, so you can write inside of it as you progress as an adult, so it's kind of cool.
- another book that I bought was a writing book because I am seriously considering becoming a writer. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I think I'm actually really good at writing, and I don't want to sound like I'm bragging because I'm not, but I think I could make a career out of it. I know I do write fanfiction, and people rarely see what I actually write, which is novels on the side. But I think a few of my novels that are in my drafts are really, really good and could really be popular if I were actually to finish them. So since I have some free time, I'm going to be working hard on those. As I work in whatever job I ultimately get. But I'm also going to be looking around and seeing if I could maybe possibly get a job in a Publishing House or maybe become an apprentice or intern to an actual writer to see if I can learn some things and see if it's the job for me because I really think I could do it. I have a lot of people in my life telling me that being a writer isn't a viable career to live off of, and while I do understand that I've always thought that my dream career would be a writer and I'm deciding not to listen to others and see if I can actually do it. Because I think I can, and I think I might be really good at it, so I'm going to give it a shot. So that being said, I bought these two really good books about writing, and if anyone's really interested and also likes to write, I'll tell you the names; ask; as I said, I would put them here, but I don't have the books in front of me so just ask me, and I will definitely tell you all the titles if you want. I'm keen to share because I love recommending books.
Anyway, that's pretty much the updates on my life minus all the stuff you really don't need to know. I wrote this chapter sporadically throughout the months I've been away. I have really sat down in front of this computer typing like seven or eight different times, but I never finished this chapter.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Order Meeting at Sirius’ Residence
June 29th, 2007
“So we can deduce that Myridian and James are being targeted in this war,” Moody says, perplexed.
“Unfortunately,” James said, sitting back like he was unbothered by the information.
“You shouldn’t be so relaxed about it. Neither of you should. The Dark Lord is targeting you. It’s admirable to be brave but dangerous, especially since Morgana is working with him, and you're heavily involved with that.” Remus said to James as he looked at Myridian.
Merlin sighed,
“I understand you are worried, Remus, but besides being careful, there's not really much we can do. If we get attacked or targeted, we have to deal with it at the moment. Of course, making plans and escape routes ahead of time is a smart idea; it doesn't always work out that way when the incident occurs. I may seem to be relaxed in this situation, but if there were something I could do to prevent it completely, I would. It's not practical for us to go into hiding. I mean, I have the shop, and if school starts back up again, I have to be a teacher. If there is something you would suggest that could evenly distribute everything I do and keep me safe at the same time, then lay it on me. I'm all ears, but otherwise, what can we do other than expect the unexpected and fight when the time comes.”
Remus sighed as he had no response.
“Why don’t we make the first move? A small group of us attack and slowly pick away at the Dark Lords' forces. Because we all realize that this war will come to a climax at some point, but the point of the time we have now before that is to do anything we can to ascertain victory for us in the future, so that's why I don't understand why everyone is so opposed to sending out small squads to either gain information or to take out enemies.” Kingsley argued.
“Kingsley, I don't have a problem with your ideas. It's that you still want to use Nimueh as the spearhead.” Merlin said for the millionth time.
“And why is that a problem?” Kingsley asked.
“She's already come out to the public as Nimueh Black. She's already been seen fighting at a strength never seen before. Why are we hiding her? We should be using her to drive fear into our enemies. She's a chess piece that's stupid not to move in for the attack. I understand the Darkest Hour and the importance of that to you and your friends and your ancestors, but isn't it all the same war in the end? Considering that Morgana is working with the Dark Lord together to attack us as an entity, shouldn't we, as an entity, attack them with our full fighting force? Using all the cards we have laid out.” Kinsley continued.
“Why don’t we put it to a vote? If the majority agrees, we will bring it up with Nimueh and lay it out for her. We will tell her the plan that we have and how it's going to be carried out. If she agrees to do it, then and there, it will happen. But spending this whole meeting arguing about this without her opinion on the matter is pointless. But let's put a vote on whether or not everyone here agrees that we should start taking the initiative against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters.” Mrs. McGonagall says, calling for a sense of order and to break up the fight between Kingsley and Myridian, who would have probably continued going at it till the end of time as they did not agree.
“All those who agree, raise your wands.” Mrs McGonagall said.
It took a moment for the room to respond, but of course, Kingsley's wand went up first, followed by Moody's and Mcgonnagall’s. Sirius also raised his wand, much to Merlin's displeasure. A few of the other members, the newer members, also raised their wands. It didn't matter if anyone else raised their wand at this point, as it was already the majority.
Merlin sighed, “I will bring Nimueh to the next meeting.” Merlin said not to argue further.
Kingsley wanted to be happy, but he felt like Myridian was up to something, and things weren’t going to go his way.
But he was spurred out of those thoughts as McGonagall said something to him, interrupting his thinking,
“Kingsley, I trust that you will create teams out of the members who are willing to join your attack squads and information squads. Anyone willing to join after the meeting confers with Kingsley, and whether Nimueh joins us or not, we will still carry out this plan. Also, I have to mention that there are no more ‘If’s’ on whether or not Hogwarts will continue next year. We are taking advanced measures to make sure the school is impenetrable. We're hiring experts to complete new wards around the school, and we are going to be hiring some of our members here as teachers this year since we have quite a few positions to fill. And above all, we will be limiting access to the school from outside parties. Also, we have made the decision to limit children leaving the school for any reason. Extra precautions will be taken this year. If you have any ideas to help with the protection or suggest ideas, I am open to hearing them after the meeting.” McGonagall said, closing the meeting there.
As people dispersed, most headed towards Kingsley to chat about the attack squads.
Merlin walked to McGonagall.
“If you’d like, I can work with whoever you hired to do the wards. I can add a few strong ones I know and carefully watch those that your experts will place.” Merlin offered.
McGonagall thought about it but agreed as it was better to be safe and not trust outsiders too much.
“Okay, that would be a good idea. Also, it was brought to my attention by Mr. Potter that you have decided to send him back to live with his relatives along with Sirius. As much as I don't like his muggle relatives, I couldn't help but agree with your suggestion, especially with what we talked about in the meeting today and how you're being targeted. That being said, I wanted to run something by you. When we open school again, we were thinking of holding another class for self-defense. Of course, most parents will not agree with this hence why I didn't bring it up in the meeting because I knew how much Molly would probably be opposed to it. But I feel like we may need to have a class about how the kids can be safe in this chaotic time we live in. I don't necessarily want to teach the kids how to fight in a war because that is the last thing I want. The last thing I want is for these children to be fighting a war that the adults should be handling, but I don't want to send them into the world where there are Death Eaters and the Dark Lord; with no safeguards. Rather than teaching them how to fight, I wish for us to teach them how to protect themselves and how to run away from danger. I would like to teach them how to keep themselves alive should war break out. Is that something you would be looking to help me out with when the school's term starts again?” McGonagall asks passionately.
Merlin smiles genuinely,
“Of course, I’ll help in any capacity. Whatever you need. If you need funds for this, let me know. I’d be happy to sponsor the class.”
“Good. If you have any suggestions on the class or any people you trust to help get it in motion, be sure to send me a letter.” McGonagall said as she went to go talk to Kingsley herself.
Mrs. McGonagall wasn't planning on joining any of the attack squads or information squads, but she was looking to be kept in the loop about it because her main priority was not involving any of the kids in this war as much as possible and if these attack squads and information squads were to thin out the Dark Lords forces so that the ending conflict; which she already knew Harry Potter was going to be involved in, would be maybe just that much easier to deal with she was all for it.
Her main priority was the school and the children she taught within it.
...
Sirius’ House soon became empty, leaving only Sirius, Remus, and Merlin. Remus looked fidgety and soon left, saying he needed to do something. It was odd since he normally stayed to hang out, but it wasn’t too weird. And so that soon left just Merlin and Sirius.
“Sirius, you said Harry left already, right? Are you planning on leaving anytime soon?” Merlin asks.
Sirius sighed,
“I’ve been looking for properties but haven’t had any luck. My funds are limited, as entering the Black family's vault is stupid since I’m technically a wanted man. And I’ve only been working for you for a few months. So I don’t have many options.” Sirius said, annoyed as he never thought he’d have to go house shopping.
Merlin squinted, his eyes confused.
“But you have money,” Merlin said.
“Where?” Sirius questioned, not understanding where he missed the money that he had.
Merlin pointed to himself,
“You have access to the Emrys family vault, take whatever you need,” Merlin said like it was obvious.
Sirius looked gobsmacked.
“Myridian, you shouldn’t tell a stranger to just take whatever they need from your family vault; that’s how you end up robbed of all your assets. And I can’t take your money; once my name cleared and I can walk around as myself again, I won’t be James Emrys anymore.” Sirius said.
Merlin looked unsure,
“First, you aren't a stranger. Second, you wouldn't be able to spend enough money for me to go broke. Even if you bought half of Britain, I would still have enough money to live comfortably for a few generations. Besides that, even after you get your name back, I have no intention of removing you from my family tree. Honestly, I don't really even know if I can… " Merlin Mumbled almost in a whisper.
"Not that it really matters too much. If you're struggling to find a new place, use my money and buy somewhere where you can be safe. Consider it an investment on my part rather than you staying here for longer, considering it's dangerous.” Merlin offered.
Sirius grumbled under his breath, “Fine. But I’ll pay you back once my name is cleared.”
Merlin smiled like he wasn't going to let that ever happen. But then a thought popped into his head.
“Oh, can you do me a favor, though? I’m going to be pretty busy preparing things before school starts. So I wanted to ask, when you go to my vault can you take Nimueh with you? She said she wanted to go and buy some things, but one of us would need to be with her, and I couldn’t make time to go. If you don’t mind.” Merlin asked.
“Oh sure, that’s easy; uh...can I get your key?” Sirius said, though feeling embarrassed asking for it.
“Oh yeah, sure here,” Merlin said, grabbing it off his key chain where his Gringotts key was right next to his car key and house key.
“Oh, are you okay staying in your house? I’m sure you have wards around it, but aren’t you worried Death Eaters might come as a group and attack?” Sirius asked as he took the key.
“Mmmhmm, rather than worried, I feel bad for those who come. Nimueh has set up some of her own wards and is a scary force to be reckoned with. I won’t worry about myself or Nimueh, I’m mostly worried about the reincarnations coming and going from my house. I plan to buy another home or something like a base of operations for them to hang out at, and I’d keep the location secret and try to fortify it extremely well, but well, I’m not sure yet; it’s some of the stuff I have to work out before school starts.” Merlin said, also getting ready to leave.
“Well, I’m glad I’m not as busy as you. Anyway, thanks for the help, and I’ll text you when I’m going to Gringotts.” Sirius said, showing Myridian out.
Two days later
Merlin’s House
July 1st, 2007
Sirius, disguised as James Emrys, walked into Myridian’s house; it was weirdly active at nine on a Wednesday morning. Most of the reincarnations he’d met were there, and some he’d never met before, and they were all looking at a laptop that was showing different outfits of tight-fitting full-coverage clothes.
Sirius was noticed by one of the reincarnations he’d never met before.
“Mer-” Lance opened his mouth to say Merlin, considering Sirius looked identical when he was James, but Gwaine, who was one step ahead, covered his mouth.
“Hi, Sirius, right? Or I guess James when you look like Myridian, right?” Gwaine said, greeting him.
Lance shoved Gwaine’s hand off his face with a glare. “Yeah, James is good for now. Anyway, uhm, I’m here to get Nimueh.” Sirius said.
“Oh? Uh, she’s….” Gwaine said, not having a clue where she was while looking around.
“Oh, are you looking for Nimueh?” Gwen asked as she heard the conversation from where she was sitting on the couch.
“She’s in the garden, I can go get her for you.” Gwen offered as she got up to fetch Nimueh.
“Where are you guys going? Doing something fun?” Gwaine asked curiously.
“Oh, we are going to the bank, I’m buying a new house, and I heard Nimueh wanted to go to Myridian’s vault,” Sirius said.
Gwaine looked at Myridian, then to Lance, and pulled Lance to a corner.
“Distract Merlin; I wanna go see the vault with them,” Gwaine asked Lance.
“What? No.” Lance shut it down.
“Awe come on, I helped you to remember.” Gwaine pleaded.
“That wasn’t a good experience Gwaine. I thought I was going crazy and thought about joining a cult!” Lance said in a loud whisper.
“Okay, I’ll owe you one then; come on, mate, help me out; I wanna explore a magic bank,” Gwaine said, showing his ultimate attack, his puppy eyes.
Lance sighed.
Gwaine smiled,
“You are the best! Just distract Merlin, and I’ll convince Nimueh and this bloke to take me,” Gwaine said, patting Lance’s shoulder as he walked back up to Sirius.
“James, so this is a magic bank, right?” Gwaine asked.
“Uh yeah, goblins run it, and they safely keep our money and family possessions,” Sirius answered.
“Goblins? Oh, I have to come. I’ve never seen a goblin before. Take me with you. It should be no problem.” Gwaine said.
“Uh, I don’t think so; it’s dangerous.” Sirius tried to say no.
“Oh, come on, how would I be in danger with you and Nimueh beside me,” Gwaine argued.
Sirius really couldn’t refute that; Nimueh was powerful, and protecting one person between the two of them wasn’t that hard.
“I guess it’s fine. But don’t let anyone find out you're a muggle; otherwise, we’ll run into other issues.” Sirius said.
“Oh, don’t worry, I’ll be on my best behavior,” Gwaine said, wrapping his arms around Sirius.
“This is going to be a great adventure!” Gwaine said, smiling, while Sirius was starting to doubt his choice.
Diagon Alley
Gwaine was bent over in the corner, puking. He’d grabbed Sirius’ hand excitedly, forgetting how much he hated the new magic’s version of teleporting.
“Never again,” Gwaine said to Sirius, completely serious,
“She teleports us from now on,” Gwaine said, pointing to Nimueh, who was frowning; she wasn’t sick like Gwaine, but it was a rather uncomfortable form of transportation.
Their first stop was Gringotts.
Gwaine was like a kid in a candy shop; he stopped at all the shop windows along the way. He asked questions about shopkeepers and gave puppy eyes when they passed by the familiar store.
“Nimueh, buy me one,” Gwiane said, as he had no wizarding money.
“I don’t have any money right now. Let’s go take some from Emrys and come back; there are a few shops I want stuff from as well.” Nimueh said as she was just as excited.
Sirius watched from afar, thinking that Myridian was going to go broke soon.
…
Inside, Gringotts was much of the same behavior; they clearly didn’t know what it meant to be undercover. Especially since Gwaine screeched as a goblin passed him by. It was like painting a muggle on his forehead.
Nimueh was more dignified, and also because anyone who saw her instantly started to whisper if she was the woman from the paper and what she was doing with James Emrys.
Coincidentally they were both pretty famous in the wizarding world. James Emrys was famous because he was the brother of the amazing inventor Myridian Emrys and was also the heir to the long-lined, pure-blooded family that he was a part of. And Nimueh was the witch that had just taken on multiple Death Eaters by herself and was plastered across every newspaper for about 3 weeks.
They were quite the odd pair walking into Gringotts together. And the fact that they were walking around with an unknown, presumably muggle man was now gossip for at least everyone in Gringotts.
Sirius had been to the bank with Merlin before and tried to muster up the same swagger as he walked up to a goblin.
They had unintentionally yet unavoidably gathered a crowd who were curious about them. And Sirius wanted to stop drawing attention to himself and their group.
“Excuse me?” He said to a goblin standing off to the side.
The goblin looked at him with a sneer,
“What is it?”
Sirius sighed,
“I need to visit Emrys’ vault.” He says quietly, taking out the key Myridian had lent him.
The goblin reacted to the name and looked at the others,
“All of you?”
“Yes?” Sirius said, confused.
While Gwaine grabbed the key out of Sirius’ hand,
“Hey! This is the Pendragon crest.” Gwaine said, looking at the key.
“Pendragon crest? Not the Emrys one?” Sirius asked, confused as he had assumed thats what it was.
“Yeah, it’s Camelot’s crest,” Gwaine said, lost in his old memories.
“Probably for the princess,” Gwaine said, handing the key to the goblin who had tried to reach for the key before Gwaine snatched it.
“Wait, what’s the Emrys’ family crest then?” Sirius asked.
“It’s a hawk, a Merlin.” The goblin said, turning as he walked away.
“Follow me.”
Gwaine and Nimueh smirked as if they wanted to laugh but followed instead, keeping the joke between themselves.
Sirius looked confused but followed moments later.
The cart ride was long and, at times, scary. Gwaine loved it; he screamed the whole way; he loved roller coasters, and this was a less safe and more fun one.
Nimueh liked the wind blowing through her hair but wasn’t as fond as Gwaine.
And Sirius enjoyed it even though it was longer than he was used to, even though he came here before.
Since Sirius has been through all of these proceedings before, he wasn't as shocked or as allured by the happenings down in the tunnels under Gringotts. I mean, he may have only been to Myridian's Vault himself once, but he has been down here numerous times in his life. However, Gwaine and Nimueh were excited and interested as this was all new to them.
Once the door was opened and they were allowed inside, and the Goblin had moved to the side to let them conduct their business, Sirius had decided to warn them as a precaution,
“Apparently, we shouldn't touch anything in here. I almost touched a stone that apparently could have possessed me or something. I'm not really sure, but for safety, let's not touch anything in here besides what we need, which is the money. Which should be in the front, but I don't see it….” Sirius said as he was looking around the room, confused as most Wizards left their money in either a pile or a chest in the center of the room, but this room was just filled with a lot of old stuff as it has been since the last time he was here.
He remembered Myridian grabbing money the last time he was here, but he couldn't remember where exactly he had grabbed it from.
What a dilemma, he thought to himself.
“Uhm, I don’t know where Myridian keeps his money,” Sirius said rather quietly.
“Then let's just ask,” Nimueh said, closing her eyes.
She opened them, looking at a mirror in the corner of the room. It was a bit dusty, but it would do.
“Emrys….Emrys….do you hear me?” Nimueh said as the mirror rippled like a bowl of water.
Emrys’ face appeared as he looked confused,
“Nimueh?” He asked to the air.
“Nimueh isn’t here; she left with your brother, who is not your brother, remember,” Gwen said as her voice filtered through the mirror though she didn’t appear in the mirror.
“No...I know that, but-”
“Emrys, it’s Nimueh; I’m at your vault; where do you store your money? We can’t find it.” Nimueh said, cutting Merlin off mid-sentence.
“You….hahh…it’s in the big red chest opposite the crystal table; Sirius should know what I’m talking about. It’s where he almost touched that stone, anyway, big red chest, no lock, just open, and you can take as much as you need. Also…next time, call with a cell phone, please.” Merlin said as his face faded and the mirror turned into a normal mirror.
“Ah, right, cell phones,” Nimueh said, completely forgetting the time period she was in.
“Big red chest….” Gwaine was mumbling, looking around the room.
“Uhhh, it should be…over here…I guess.” Sirius said, retracing his steps to the crystal table and walking in the opposite direction.
And there it was. A big red ornate chest seemingly made out of gold. True to what Myridian said, there was no lock, and upon opening it, there were piles and infinite piles of gold gallons.
“Woah, that’s a lot of money, right? I mean, it’s all gold.” Gwaine said not too sure what the currency exchange was between the muggle world and the wizarding world was, but even he could tell that his good ole friend Merlin was loaded.
“Uh, yes. Wow, he may be right about never going broke.” Sirius said, stunned, as this was more money than his family vault.
Nimueh just smirked and pulled out a small pouch Emrys had given her, and she filled it with coins. After her third scoop, she realized that the bag never seemed full and decided to stop putting scoops and coins inside. Figuring she had enough with the five handfuls that she took.
“Oh, cool, a magic bag. I don’t have one of those; take some for me too.” Gwaine said, peering over Nimueh’s shoulder.
Nimueh stuck her hand back in and grabbed two more hand fulls figuring she had enough.
Sirius sighed and also grabbed a bit; he worked out in his own head that he’d count what he owed and any leftovers he’d hand back to Myridian after he bought the house.
After a quick cart ride back up to the surface, Gwaine and Nimueh made a bee-line to the shops they had passed by earlier.
Gwaine walked into the familiar shop with new confidence now that he had money to spend. Nimueh followed him as she thought she ought to get an owl at the very least, as that would be more comfortable than her cell phone, as she was still getting used to the technology of the modern world.
Sirius was sighing, thinking that today was going to be a struggle, especially with the manic glee in Gwaine’s eyes.
Gwaine wanted all of the animals he saw but was argued down to one. There was one animal that seemed to like Gwaine as much as Gwaine liked it.
A small black cat with a little tuff of white fur on its chest.
Every time Gwaine looked at another animal, the cat would meow and draw Gwaine’s attention back to it.
“Hello!” Gwaine said, crouching down in front of the cage,
“You want all my attention, huh?” He said, smiling at the cute little cat; he thought it must be a kitten since it was so small.
He stuck his finger in between the bars and scratched the little cat's chin.
He was debating on getting the cat or a snake. There was a cool black snake a few aisles down, but a meow cut through his thoughts while he was thinking.
“MEOW!” The cat said loudly while a paw reached out of the cage, trying to touch Gwaine’s face, which had started to look toward the snake.
Gwaine found the cat a bit odd. He wondered if it was like a magical cat since it was in a magical store, as the cat seemed oddly smart. But that just made the little cat cooler in Gwaine’s eyes.
“Yes, yes, sorry. I didn’t mean to look away. I guess you like me, huh? Well, let me go get the money; I’ll be back.” Gwaine said, looking for the price tag below the cage.
“Let’s see, it says 10 gallons; okay, I’ll go pay and get you out of there.” Gwaine smiled, making his decision, and went to find Nimueh.
Sirius, who was watching the exchange, walked up to the cage and looked into the cat’s yellow, almost orange eyes; he had a weird feeling about the cat, but since he couldn’t place why he never voiced his thoughts.
He went to look at the price tag and saw that the space where it should say the breed and/or species was left blank. But since it was in the shop, it could just be someone forgot, and he reached out to scratch the cat’s ear.
It seemed friendly.
Gwaine came back with the shopkeeper after having already paid.
“That’s the one.” He said, pointing to the cat.
“Meow.” The cat said, moving away from Sirius’ finger and reaching her paw out to Gwaine.
The shopkeeper smiled and unlocked the cage seeing the immediate bond.
And the little cat wasted no time before slipping around the hands of the shopkeeper and jumping between Sirius's legs before running up to Gwaine and jumping up on another cage to eventually land on Gwaine’s shoulders and rub her head on his.
Gwaine was surprised but smirked as he thought to himself that magic was so cool.
After declining the cage since the cat just made itself comfortable on Gwaine’s shoulder, they soon left after purchasing a small gray owl for Nimueh. Gwaine looked rather smug and considered that since Nimueh was getting an owl, technically, they got two pets which he was happy about.
After that, Nimueh guided them to the bookshop and bought every single book she wanted; she wasted no time even thinking about the price and just purchased everything she was interested in learning about.
Gwaine snuck a few books in, too, he knew he couldn’t use magic, but he was just as interested in it as he was in his past life. Any book that had Merlin’s name in it was bought too. Especially one book meant for younger people, which was a book full of popular Merlin curses. Gwaine had a rather devilish grin on his face when he found the book, and it made Sirius worried as he couldn’t see the title of the book, but whatever made Gwaine make that mischievous face would be trouble for someone, he was sure.
After piling all the books into a bag that Nimueh spelled to be lightweight with old magic, they left, and Sirius guided the two to Olivander’s as that was the main point of this trip other than the money.
“This is Olivander’s. It’s a shop where we bring the student’s about to go to Hogwarts to buy their first wands. A wand is what we use to channel our magic. It is made from wood and has a magical core. Here the cores are generally of phoenix feathers, unicorn hair, or dragon heartstrings. The wood types vary, and there are some more differences, but each wand is unique. Myridian said you wanted a wand, even though you don’t need one, but this is where we’ll get it.” Sirius said, giving a rather brief but factual introduction to wands and opening the doors to the shop.
It was empty; not even the shopkeeper could be seen. Though after ringing the little bell on the counter, a sound in the back let them know he was somewhere in there. A man with grey hair and sliver-ish eyes popped out from behind a shelf and started to tidy his clothes,
“Oh, hello! Sorry, I was a bit lost in thought and didn’t realize I had any customers. Please step forward; who’s buying a wand today?” Olivander asked as he looked for a child but was only met with three adults.
“Did you perhaps snap your previous wands? I must say that as a wizard, you must treat your wands delicately as a second wand is never the same as your first…” Olivander started to rant as adults only bought new wands if they broke them or were stolen.
“Uh, no, my friend lived a rather reclusive lifestyle and has never bought a wand; she’s here for her first one,” Sirius said, making up an excuse.
“Oh! I guess that could happen. Either way, you’ll need a wand; it’s the lively hood of us magic folk. Let’s see.” Olivander said briefly, looking at Nimueh before scanning the shelves of wands with his masterful eye.
“Hmmm, very particular, hmmm…” he said, looking at Nimueh a few more times, unsure.
He walked into the back of the shop and seemed to be trifling through the shelves being indecisive and carrying two wands to the counter.
“I must say, miss, I had a hard time finding a wand that seemed to match you. These two are wands that are rather old, hand-me-downs from other wizarding families that died out; they were donated back to my shop a long time ago. Normally I wouldn’t sell them, but none of the other wands seem right. Anyway, why don’t you try it out.” Olivander seemed unsure but still prompted Nimueh to test them out.
Nimueh had no idea what he was talking about but grabbed one of the wands. Merlin had warned her that she needed to cast new magic threw the wands as the magic of the old religion would rip them apart. She silently cast Luminos, and while the light was rather bright, it didn’t break or stress the wand out.
“Hmmm, maybe try the next one?” Olivander said as the light dimmed out after Nimueh canceled the spell.
Nimueh grabbed the next wand and waved it while casting a spell of the old religion, she understood Emrys’ warning, but she needed a versatile wand if she was going to use one.
To her surprise, the spell worked, and the wand was still intact.
“What spell did you use, if you don’t mind me asking,” Olivander asked as a wind raged through the shop, but nothing was being disturbed.
Nimueh just smiled,
“I like this one.” saying instead of answering.
“Oh..uh, yes. I see you are pleased with it. Well, I guess I still have an eye for these things. Haha.” Olivander laughed awkwardly.
Nimueh took out her purse and began to pay.
Gwaine, who was distracted, was almost behind the counter trying to pick up his wayward cat.
The cat had hopped off his shoulder and was, unbeknownst to him, leading him to a wand.
Gwaine wanted a wand but was told it wouldn’t do anything for him multiple times by multiple wizards and witches and Merlin.
So when his new cat pulled what seemed to be a random wand off the shelf onto the floor, he wasn’t going to get it, but the meows from his new cat started to convince him to get it, maybe, to have one as a keepsake.
So when Gwaine reappeared with a wand in one hand and a cat in the other hand, he explained why he wanted it, and soon they left the shop with two wands rather than one.
The shopping was coming to an end as the light in the sky was dimming, and they were slowly making their way back to the muggle entrance Gwaine said the perfect way to end the day was to get a drink at a pub.
Sirius sort of agreed, and since Nimueh was also in agreeance, they made their way there. Sirius was walking ahead, leading the way as he talked about the area he was considering purchasing his next house. Nimueh was the closest to him listening and telling him should live next to a forest as magic was better practiced around nature.
And Gwaine was…..well, he was lagging behind.
Actually, he was not following Sirius or Nimueh to the bar.
He was stopped on the street staring down a particular man.
His face was furious.
The emotions building in his chest could not be stopped as he marched over to the man in his sight.
It was someone he hadn’t seen in a loooooong time, well, since his past life, really.
The cat on his shoulder meowed, but it didn’t deter Gwaine on his march.
Gwaine walked right up into the man’s personal space and punched him. Someone screamed and attracted the attention of everyone in the immediate area.
Nimueh turned, looking shocked, as she didn’t realize Gwaine had gotten so far. Sirius looked frantic, running back and grabbing Gwaine, wondering what was going on.
“Gwaine!” Sirius called out while pulling him back from throwing another punch.
Nimueh helped as Gwaine wasn’t listening and was oddly really strong.
The man on the floor was holding his cheek and looked rather startled by the punch.
But when he looked at Gwaine, he had a faraway look in his eyes as if he was remembering something.
The gasp broke Gwaine’s anger as he had a new target of his fury standing to the left behind the man he’d just punched.
“Morgana!” Gwaine yelled angrily at the woman who killed him.
But Morgan gasped because of another reason.
Gwaine’s two companions and Gwaine himself surprised her. It was shocking to see a woman you thought you killed and someone who looked similar to Merlin.
Morgan remembered Merlin quite well, actually; however, she was missing one bit of information in her memories that was really important. The fact that Merlin was a sorcerer was not in her memories yet.
All she knew was that Emrys had killed her and that Merlin was a very annoying annoyance in her life.
Her memory has yet to completely return to her as she has not yet met the key ingredient for all her memories to return, which would be; Merlin himself.
So she thought while looking at Sirius, who was currently in disguise as Merlin's brother James Emys, she thought she had met Merlin's reincarnation in the flesh, and considering he was next to Nimueh and Gwaine, who were both reincarnations, it just seemed to make the most sense to her and shocked her quite a bit.
The reactions to seeing Morgana were quite different between the three of them.
Gwaine was obviously enraged and angry; he was looking at his two worst enemies standing side by side, obviously in cahoots and obviously a repeat of the past. His past memories were surfacing, and his anger was seemingly uncontrollable.
Nimueh didn't know who Gwaine had punched in the face but clearly noticed Morgana and clearly realized what was going on. and seeing the anger on her friend's face clued her into that neither of the people standing before her were her friends or allies.
And Sirius was freaking out, as he now realized that Morgana was standing before them, and knowing that she was extremely powerful was disconcerting, considering he had a muggle beside him. A muggle who couldn't protect himself. Also, if this was Gwaine's reaction to Morgana, then who bloody hell was this man on the floor?
“Morgana? Why is Gwaine here?” Mordred asked, confused.
Morgana forcefully returned his memories so he knew who Gwaine was. He remembered how they were knights together in Camelot. He remembered dying and reincarnating and meeting Morgana, and he remembers agreeing to help Morgana. And deep in his mind, he wanted to apologize to Gwaine for what he did in the past, but it was like he couldn't say what he wanted to say; almost like something was blocking his real thoughts. And it really confused him. So he asked the only question that was able to come out of his mouth.
But Morgana didn't think now was the time to stay around and chat; she quickly grabbed Mordred's shoulder and teleported away using old magic in a panic.
Not caring about the complaints he would get, Sirius grabbed Gwaine’s shoulder and Nimueh’s arm as he, too, apparated out of there as they had drawn a crowd.
Merlin's Backyard
They crash-landed in Merlin’s backyard as Sirius rushed a bit too much.
Nimueh was fine, though uncomfortable; Gwaine had roughly landed on his back. However, his cat was fine landing on its feet.
Sirius, like Gwaine, fell to the floor but didn’t care as he was just relieved that they got out of there without causing another big problem.
Two curious heads popped out of Merlin’s back door.
One was Gwen, and the other was Bell; they’d heard the crash landing and came to see what was going on.
“Gwaine? Nimueh?” Gwen asked, walking up to them. Bell followed curiously. And then gushed over the cat sitting on Gwaine’s lap.
“Oh my, a kitten!” Bell said, picking it up and hugging it.
The little cat looked troubled but didn’t fuss, accepting its fate to be squished in a hug.
“Where’s Myridian?” Sirius asked, standing with a serious look on his face.
“Oh, he’s just in the kitchen; we were cooking dinner,” Gwen answered.
Though Sirius didn’t have to go inside as Merlin’s head popped out the door, as Gwen and Bell never came back.
“Oh, you guys are back! We are cooking….ah…just a bunch of different foods, did you eat yet?” Merlin asked, he couldn't really describe what he was cooking as everyone had picked a different dish to make and they were all cooking at the same time, and they ended up making a feast for probably about double the people that were in the house.
But Merlin soon realized the tense atmosphere and just asked,
“What?”
“I saw Morgana and….and Mordred!” Gwaine exclaimed suddenly, still sitting on the grass.
Gwen gasped and looked him over, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. But they were.....together.......shopping together…..history will not repeat itself.” Gwaine declared angrily.
Merlin looked grim,
“No, it will not. We will win completely this time.” Merlin said, looking at Gwaine.
“But did a fight occur?” Merlin asked as they all seemed spotless and uninjured.
“Oh, a fight happened, but not a magical one.” Nimueh chimed in.
“Huh?” Merlin made a confused noise as he didn’t understand what that meant.
“I punched Mordred in the face.” Gwaine cleared up his confusion.
“Ah, I see,” Merlin said, seeing Gwaine’s fist was rather red.
“Are you okay?” He asked Gwaine.
“Oh, I feel great; I mean, seeing them was not great, but punching Mordred was therapeutic. I'll have to tell Percival about it. He should offer it as a method for anger release.” Gwaine said, smirking even though he wasn’t really happy.
Notes:
I really like this chapter. As I said, it was an accumulation of a few months of work, so I've been looking forward to posting this chapter. Also, I know you don't get to see the explanation of the chapter title until the very end of the chapter, but I guess that's suspenseful.
Anyway, I have one thing to say about this chapter:
Gwaine’s cat is special, and that's all I'm ever going to say. It's some lore that I made about the cat that I don't know if I want to let you know, so all I will say is that the cat is special, and whether I reveal it or not, know that in the back of your mind, that there is something odd about the cat I'm just not sure if I want to reveal it.Let's say I fell down a rabbit hole on the internet, and the cat is weird, okay? Good.
Chapter 13: A Plan Is Made
Notes:
Little life update...skip if ya want:
It's my birthday month this month. My birthday is on the 10th. I don't have good birthday memories. To be honest with you, they're sad, and the last 5 years were really shitty, like traumatizingly shitty. So, I was expecting a bad birthday again this year, and it didn't disappoint. It was shitty again, but I made up for it because the next weekend after my birthday, I hung out with my friends, and I had the time of my life that day. I did end up getting heat stroke, and I did almost faint in the train station, but I have good friends who took care of me. What we did for my birthday was we went to the Museum of Ice Cream in the city, and we hung out there, and it was really fun. It was all pink, and there were ball pits and slides, and like a coloring thing, it was fun. Also, there were a lot of aesthetically nice places to take pictures. We then met up with another friend of mine, and we went to a Japanese food festival that was also happening on the same day. While I didn't personally eat anything there, my friends got a lot of snacks, and they ate their fill. And then, after that, one of my friends who joined us at the festival took us to Koreatown in the city, and I bought a bunch of cool things. I found my favorite snack of all time in this Korean grocery store we went to. After that, we also went to the cafeteria hall thing where there were a bunch of different stands for food, and you could buy whatever you wanted and then go sit down together. It was really cool. I didn't eat anything, but I did buy a little cheese ball, and that tasted pretty good. I wasn't really hungry because of my stomach issues. But I was having a really good time anyway. I walked 10,000 steps that day. Now, on a normal basis, I walk 300-800 steps. I went above and beyond that day. Also, the one thing I hate doing is climbing staircases, like the staircase in my house is whatever, but actually, to climb very high staircases is a nightmare, and I climbed like 15 that day. Because in the museum and the cafeteria and going through the train stations they all had really long staircases and they murdered my soul. But in the end, it was all right. There were some ups and downs that day, but it was overall a really great day, so I really enjoyed that day. Also, I built up the courage to ask my friends to hang out with me because I get nervous with that sort of shit, and the fact that they said yes makes me more eager to ask them to hang out again, so it's going to be great.Also, I did some retail therapy and bought myself a bunch of shit that I probably didn't need again. I did this last birthday. So it's becoming a pattern, but this time, I bought a portable charger, I bought some makeup, and I bought a mirror. I bought a new mouse because my old one broke. I bought some purses and some clothes, and I bought this bedtable that I've been looking at online for like a year now, and I was just like, you know what fuck it? I have some birthday money. I'm buying it, and I bought it, and now I'm really happy about it. Of course, everything I bought is green. All of the presents my friends got me are green. All of my clothes are green. The only thing that I bought that wasn't green was I bought some shoes because I needed shoes that weren't green because I have clothes that aren't green and I only have green shoes, and it's becoming a problem so that was the other part of my birthday spending extravaganza that lasted like a week of me just buying random shit that I probably didn't need as consolation prizes for surviving through my birthday.
Also, on another another note, my dog. Loki, the big one. He is a nut job and actually almost murdered my hand today. I have a very big hole in my finger because he grabbed one of those silica packets that fell out of a shoe or something, and I didn't want him to eat that because of poisons and shit. So I tried to get it out of his mouth by offering him something else, and I was trying to offer him some cheese, but the butter fell out of the fridge when I grabbed the cheese packet, and he grabbed the whole ass stick of butter and ran away with it, and I was like fuck he'll get sick if he eats that so I ran and cornered him and tried to grab the butter, but instead he dropped the butter and chewed the fuck out of my hand. I have Band-Aids all over my hand because bitch it hurts so bad. I'm trying to move forward and try to mend my relationship with my dog by training him better. I'm trying it's really difficult because I'm really pissed at the moment. But he has a cute face, so I'm sure it'll fade. Though he did eat a stick of butter, so that's that. I never got the stick of butter out of his mouth because when I tried, my hand became a chew toy, and there are now cuts and bruises and holes in my hand, and I didn't want to try again
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Malfoy Manor (Reclaimed By Voldemort again )
July 2, 2007
Voldemort and the Death Eaters that followed him have been switching bases for a while now to always keep on the move so that they weren't detected by Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix, but after the death of Dumbledore, Voldemort decided that there was nothing that could get in his way as much as Dumbledore did and decided to make Malfoy Manor his base of operations, more like the home base where everything would take place on the down low. Of course, they still had to be cautious, but not like they used to. So, while they didn't advertise that they were there, they definitely didn't hide it either.
“Reiterate what happened yesterday while I was out.” Voldemort said, sitting at the head of a long dinner table, tearing apart a piece of meat with his hands as he was eating it in a poised yet barbaric manner.
Currently, they were having a meeting as a certain event took place yesterday that called attention to some problems that may arise or not during the fights that were soon to come. Sitting at the table was a group of Death Eaters with some recognizable faces of whom were Snape, Draco, Draco‘s parents, Morgana, Mordred, and Bellatrix, along with six or seven other Death Eaters. Most of them were standing in the background, and only a few were sitting at the table.
There was an array of food on the table, but the only people who were eating were Voldemort and Morgana.
Normally, it would just be Voldemort, but Morgana fears nothing except for the unpredictability of her eternal foe, Emrys.
“As I was saying, yesterday when we went to Diagon Alley for some potion ingredients, we met other reincarnations,” Morgan said, rather frustrated.
“Allies?” Snape asked as he knew about the reincarnations, but he had been on the run recently and had just made it back to being into the loop of everything again.
“No! Considering Gwaine was there, there is no possible way they will be my allies, considering I killed him in my last life. Also, it almost confirms that the woman we met at the crystal cave is 100% working against us; first, I thought she may have just gone on her own and did whatever she wanted to do, but considering she was standing next to Gwaine, it’s almost easily assumed that they were working together. And to top this horrible moment off, the last person I saw, while looking a little different than what I remember, but I’m almost positive that I just met, is the reincarnation of Arthur’s trusted, loyal servant, confirming that all three of them are our enemies.” Morgan said, having come to this annoying conclusion herself yesterday.
“Loyal servant?” Bellatrix asked, as she wasn’t really that knowledgeable about muggle legends, but even though she knew a bit about the Arthurian legends, she didn’t remember a servant mentioned.
Morgana laughed loudly,
“Ah right, you don’t know who I’m talking about, a thorn in my side, as great as Emrys was, and completely loyal to Arthur, Merlin.”
There were shocked reactions all over the room. Mainly, the shock was from learning that Merlin reincarnated. But the rest of the shock was that he was a servant. Actually, it's not just shock. They were bewildered as they couldn’t believe what they just heard. And some of them were refusing to believe what they had just heard, considering how many angry faces were around the room when she said that. The thought that one of the greatest wizards to ever exist was a servant to a Muggle King, their pure-blood hearts couldn’t handle it. Even Voldemort looked confused as there was no inkling in any of the legends, or throughout anywhere in history, that Merlin was ever King Arthur’s servant.
“You said that Merlin's reincarnation doesn’t exactly look like him. Could it be a descendant rather than his reincarnation?” One of the Death Eaters asked, cutting through the shock.
The room went silent as everyone looked at him, and he started to stutter, explaining himself and his thought process,
“I was just asking because don’t all the recent reincarnations look identical to their past self? …..uh…ma’am.”
Morgana looked thoughtful.
“I think I might agree,” Mordred said.
“Why?” Voldemort queried.
Voldemort wasn't too sure what to think of Mordred as he was under the impression that Mordred was not reliable, but under Morgana's influence and a handful of potions, he was compliant with them.
“I was there as well, and I did recognize Gwaine, like Morgana, after he punched me in the face. I didn’t recognize the woman, but she felt powerful. But who we assumed to be Merlin’s reincarnation, I would have to disagree that it’s him. I don’t doubt that he is coming, but I know that’s not him. Other than my magic telling me it’s not, I couldn't really explain why I think so.” Mordred said.
Mordred was a bit confused because Morgana was talking as if Emrys and Merlin were two separate people. She kept talking about an old man being Emrys and Merlin as just Arthur’s servant. This didn’t make sense to Mordred as he did have all his memories, but something was telling him that he shouldn’t speak up and clear the confusion, even though he really wanted to .
He wanted to help Morgana, his trusted friend and ally, in this fight, but something deep within his soul was telling him that he shouldn’t say anything at all. He was trusting that instinct for now, but he wasn’t sure why he was having so many conflicting thoughts in his head, especially against Morgana, whom he trusted and who was like family to him. He didn’t understand everything going on, but he would help Morgana whenever he could, as long as his thoughts didn’t persuade him otherwise.
“But I will agree. It looks very similar to him.” Mordred said confidently.
Voldemort looked slightly, almost inconceivably worried. Myridian Emrys was already enough of a hassle to deal with, plus the Order of the Phoenix and, of course, Harry Potter.
Now he had to deal with reincarnations of legends from the past and…….Merlin.
This war was looking more of a nuisance than he thought.
The room was full of worried and anxious faces, but one particular person in the room wasn’t paying attention at all. He was listening to the beginning, half of what was being said, but after someone mentioned Merlin's name, his head started burning in pain.
He wasn’t making any noise to give any indication that he was in pain, but his head was down, and he had a permanent frown on his face. But nobody noticed because of all the relevant information being said; no one could pay attention to Draco.
Draco was leaning on his hands, looking down at the table in pain. He had a deep frown etched onto his face, and his eyes were squeezed shut as if he were in pain.
He didn't make a peep to let anybody else know that he was in pain, but he sure as hell felt it.
His skin was wet with moisture, and his legs were shaking.
He was doing everything he could to keep what was happening to him silent.
His head was on fire.
It felt like someone was taking an ice pick to his brain, stabbing it over and over and over again every time someone said, Merlin. It was just a word that shouldn't mean anything to him, that shouldn't bother him as much as it's hurting him, but for some reason, anytime the name was uttered, his head screamed in pain.
It was like an ongoing headache that just hurt more and more and more as the conversation continued on.
It was almost too much for Draco to handle.
It was so painful sometimes he felt like he wanted to scream or pass out to make it stop.
He didn't really understand what was triggering this pain other than the word Merlin, but he didn't know why the word itself was so painful. And any time he tried to think of a reason why Merlin would be painful in his head, his head just hurt excruciatingly more, and he stopped all those thoughts to stop the pain.
As the conversation moved on and as he stopped thinking about Merlin altogether, the headache drifted off into a dull throbbing pain and eventually settled to a small remaining headache. He didn't understand why this was happening to him or how to stop it, but in his mind, as long as he didn't think about it he wouldn't be in such pain, and he was more than happy to stop thinking about it.
Even if it was something of concern, he'd rather not feel the pain.
Order of the Phoenix meeting
July 29, 2007
A quick meeting was put together as not everyone could make it, but a good group of people was there, considering all of the reincarnations on Merlin's side were present. From the order, the people who could make it were Kingsley, Sirius(in disguise), Remus, Arthur Weasley, Mrs. McGonagall, and Tonks, someone they recently met at the funeral. Harry Potter was brought as well, as he needed to be updated on some things that were important enough to take him out of his aunt and uncle's house. The meeting was held at Merlin’s residence as it was just easier than bringing all of the reincarnations anywhere else.
Merlin hosted them in his garden but more now Nimueh’s garden at this point, as she had probably spent the most time here since her rebirth.
Also, the garden was looking a lot more vibrant under her care as Merlin had just left what the previous owners had done with the place but, anyway, had made the garden flourish under her magic.
It felt like they were in a forest now rather than a well-managed posh backyard.
They held the meeting in the backyard because there was just more space for everyone to gather, and Myridian's house was becoming rather cluttered with boxes of stuff they were ordering for their preparations for the future, and the house was a complete mess.
Merlin said it was fine and that it just needed a little shaping up, but it was a mess, plain and simple.
“Okay, we gathered as fast as possible; what happened?” Kingsley looked to the group.
Gwaine, who normally doesn’t speak during meetings, spoke up,
“We met Morgana in……uh….what’s that place called?” Gwaine asked, looking at James/Sirius.
“Diagon Alley,” Sirius answered.
“Yeah, there, and she was with Mordred,” Gwaine said, mumbling under his breath about how Mordred needed more than a punch to the face.
“Really? She’s just going around in the open?” Harry asked, confused; he’d thought Voldemort would’ve kept her hidden.
“Yes, she and Mordred were out shopping like us; Gwaine noticed them first, but it probably would’ve ended worse if it was the other way around. I mean, all they got was a punch to the face courtesy of Gwaine’s fist to Mordred’s face, but it would have been worse if they had attacked us out in the open. I’m sure if they could’ve gotten the first attack, they wouldn’t have held back.” Sirius said.
“And that boy, Mordred, you said he was a druid in the past? Emrys?” Nimueh asked.
“Yes,” Merlin said, wondering where she was going with this.
“Hmmm, he isn’t as strong as druids of the old, though, to be fair, druids of the old weren’t all that strong either. He’s much weaker than Morgana, or the noseless creature. But they had wands on them.” Nimueh said as an afterthought. She could feel the magic in their wands, but she still thought wands were useless to any reincarnations.
The only reason she bought one was because she was interested in what Merlin had said previously about how new magic had made magic more simplified, and she wanted to test it out, but if she was fighting or wanted to do something simple, why use a wand when she doesn't need it.
“So you attacked them, and they just left? I would have assumed that a huge fight would’ve broken out.” Remus said, confused.
Gwaine looked away,
“Well…”
“They looked a bit startled,” Nimueh said, not elaborating.
But she looked at Merlin and spoke into his mind; they were shocked at Sirus’ appearance. This might not be good. Merlin was worried about that, but what could he do other than prepare?
“Probably because of Gwaine,” Merlin interjected,
“I mean, Morgana probably recognized Gwaine, and Nimueh is famous right now for destroying a bunch of Death Eaters; they probably thought it was safer to leave,” Merlin said, looking at Gwaine who understood what he was saying.
Kingsley agreed as he had no more information,
“Okay, since they are being careless, let’s take advantage of it. I’ll take Aruors and start patrolling busy districts since they think they can blend in since no one knows their faces yet.” Kingsley looked down at his phone and started to write stuff down in his notes.
“I know what Morgana looks like; describe Mordred to me. As best as you can.” He said to Gwaine.
“Oh, no need; I have a picture, you see. I thought he looked familiar a few months ago, and no wonder why I thought so,” Gwaine said; taking his phone out, he googled a name, and there popped up Mordred’s photo.
“The dude is a celebrity in the muggle world,” Gwaine said, showing a picture of Mordred on the red carpet.
“He’s also gone missing, but we now know why.” Everyone grimaced, and Gwaine proceeded to send Kingsley the photo and then spent five minutes showing him how to do it since Kingsley didn’t know sending photos was possible.
After that, everyone separated to eat as Gwen had ordered delivery, and everyone tucked in.
Eventually, the casual conversation shifted to another main topic, which was a plan to safely transport Harry to school without Voldemort finding him. In the process of moving him back to his aunt and uncle's house for the protection that his mother bought him, in her sacrifice, that protection was waning as he finally came of age. The protection was due to disappear anytime now. And, of course, with that in mind, nowhere would be safe, at least none of the predictable spots, and with that being said, they had to move Harry strategically and with a ton of backup plans.
After discussing with the Order on different occasions, a few plans were put into discussion, but one plan in particular worked its way up the chain of command, and it was brought about in this meeting.
“This was an idea that had been flying around for a while. We have seven different people disguise themselves as Harry, and we match each different Harry up with a guardian, and all of us will depart at the same time from the same location going in different directions, hoping that the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord will follow the wrong one while Harry can make his escape to the new safe house,” Kingsley said.
Harry looked concerned with that plan,
“I don’t know that’s dangerous; that means that everyone who’s disguised as me will be attacked, and the dark lord will be coming to kill me, so everyone’s life will be in danger.” Harry looked unsure.
“Potter, this is the best option; it’s better the adults who can handle themselves get attacked than all the heat is on you alone. It’s either this or we move you now and hold up somewhere, preparing for an all-out dog fight.” Moody said as his eye swiveled sporadically.
Harry sighed.
He didn’t like this, but even though he agreed it was a good idea, but he felt guilty that his friends were to risk their lives like this for him.
“Who’s going to go? We should set this up now to make the plan go more smoothly the day of, no?” Merlin asks.
“I am more than happy to be a distraction as well,” Merlin said, being the first to offer himself into this smart but dangerous plan.
“I will participate as well.” Nimueh offered.
“If there’s anything I can do, let me know,” Gwaine said.
He’d heard the gist of the plan, and while he was useless for the magic portion, he wouldn’t mind causing a distraction if needed.
He was also itching to get in on the action.
“Meow.” A small cat who hadn’t made an appearance all night hopped up on Gwaine’s lap and sat up like she was saying she’d join too, but that was just what it looked like; obviously , the cat didn’t know what was happening.
Nimueh gave the cat a weird look but didn’t say anything.
“Well, no need to volunteer; each and everyone here will be involved, as well as some who couldn’t make the short notice meeting. Myridian and Nimueh, we will be happy for you to join. Mr. Gwaine, I appreciate the offer, but this is far too dangerous for someone without magic. Of course, I mean no offense, but while this won't be an all-out fight, I do not expect it to come out unscathed. And I do not doubt your bravery, but standing against a wizard with no magic is quite suicidal.” Mrs. McGonnagal said politely.
Gwaine sighed but expected this.
“We are working on that,” Merlin said, pointing to Nimueh and himself.
They knew that whenever the final fight happened, the knights were not going to be content to sit on the sidelines, so they were slowly creating modern armor, specifically against magic. Their magic-proofing tech spells were coming in handy in particular. Also, Gwaine had commissioned Merlin to make him a few weapons outside of a sword, as he thought since they were in the 21st century, they should be utilizing it. But that was for another time and not this fight.
“I suppose that’s good in the long run; I hope you succeed. “ Kingsley said, calculating the risks of Muggles being able to combat against wizard kind, but then he thought that Myridian was a rather good fellow and he didn’t need to worry too deeply at the moment.
“Then let’s decide the pairs now. Since we already made a list of who would join, let’s decide who will be disguised and who should pair with whom.” Kingsley said, pulling out a list and placing it on the table for all to see.
Gwen was the closest and read through the list first,
“Wait? These are children, right?” She said, pointing to a few names on the list as Harry and she had a chat as he helped her grab the takeout and bring it to the table.
Harry shared a school story, and she recognized some of the names.
The list of people was… Hagrid, Kingsley, George, Remus, Fred, Moody, Tonks, Hermione, Ron, Fluer, and Bill. Myridian and Nimueh’s name was scribbled underneath as they were the two new add-ons.
Everyone else got a chance to read the list soon after Gwen brought up her concerns.
“I think we should substitute the other children for some of us. We may not be able to use magic, but we are better to be in danger than children. Mer-Myridian, you agree, right?” Gwen asked Merlin, almost slipping up as she was pretty passionate about this.
Merlin nodded as he agreed that this was rather dangerous for children; if he could, he’d wish Harry would stay out of it as well, but Destiny sadly wouldn’t allow that.
He did care a lot about his friends, but he also trusted them enough to know that they would be fine, especially with the stupid amount of protection spells he would cast before sending them off anywhere dangerous.
“Yeah, I still am open to join,” Gwaine said before getting up and running inside quickly; he then proceeded to rummage through the couch seats and produced a wand after a few minutes of searching,
“I can even pretend to see,” Gwaine said after running back outside, waving the wand around like he was dueling some imaginary man.
He then smiled while holding his wand out.
Merlin frowned, searching his pockets, and found his own wand and looked even more confused.
“Where did you get that?” He asked, confused.
Nimueh took out the one she acquired and held it out to show it off,
“We got it at the wand shop when we were shopping.”
Everyone looked confused.
“Wait, I thought you said you didn’t need a wand,” Kingsley said, confused.
“I don’t. I can do magic without it. I was just curious about this new version of magic you all use, so I bought one to study it.” Nimueh said.
The others around the room nodded, seeing the sense in that.
“But how did you get the wand? You're a muggle, right?” Harry asked, not understanding how a muggle would get a wand to choose him.
“Oh, my cat picked it out,” Gwaine said, picking up his cat.
“It’s a magical one…I think…I bought her in the familiar shop.” Gwaine said, showing off his cat to everyone proudly.
That didn’t really ease the confusion at all, but they moved on, deciding to add Gwaine and Gwen to the list as they volunteered to go instead of Ron and Hermione. After that, they discussed who would match up with whom. Harry Potter was going to go with Hagrid, as Harry said he was comfortable with that. Merlin and Nimway were being paired up together. Even though it seemed like an imbalance of strength, they considered it rather that they were better to be together because they fought well in tandem together. The next group was George and Moody. The next group was Fred and Remus. Another pairing that was made was Fluer and Bill, as they worked well together as well. After counting the remaining people, they figured that Gwaine would go with Kingsley and Gwen would go with Tonks. Just for extra precautions on their end.
After everything was decided, James/Sirius offered to run interference as he was sure there was going to be a lot of Death Eaters joining the fight. He said he was going to follow one of the pairs to make the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord feel that maybe he was chasing the real Harry.
But, of course, he planned on following someone else. It was a solid plan, all things considered, and it was to happen in two days.
Notes:
Okay, big, big things. It's been a while since I last posted. I apologize; I've had a lot of real-life problems going on, and I've just been thrown so many different ways with everything that's been going on, and I'm finally back in a place where I'm here to write. I've been trying to do more self-care recently, and as much as I love writing, self-care for me is just reading books and doing things I wouldn't normally do. So I've been trying to do all of the self-care things, but since it's been raining for the past few days and I can't leave my house, I've been starting to really feel like I wanted to write again, so I took the initiative and wrote about half of this chapter and I'm going to try to continue on a fresh new chapter back in it all its glory of writing a really long chapter, but for now, this is just going to be the short one because I need to get the story started for me again at least if that makes sense.
Big updates for this story, actually. I finished it. Yes, that is correct. I completed the story in my notes. The chapters are not written, so don't expect fast updates because I don't have that, but I made a timeline of all the events that I want to have happen in chronological order, and I wrote it down. I spent a day doing that, and I ended up with 30 pages of just notes. So imagine how many freaking pages this book is going to take to finish; who knows, honestly. I'm hoping and aiming for 50 chapters, but I have doubts. But no matter what happens in my life, know I have the ending written so it will be completed even if it takes a little longer because of real-life drama that happens. So, look forward to the ending at some point. It's really epic, and I'm proud of myself for it.
*****A little timeline adjustment. I forgot that the spell on Harry Potter's uncle and aunt's house wears off when he turns 17. So let's say that the spell wears off within a week of him turning 17, so two or three days later, it'll completely wear off for the sanctity of my fanfic; please let this happen. I write things, and then I post things, and then I go back, and I'm like, oh fuck that's basically what happened here. It's hard to remember the Harry Potter Canon when I'm trying to write fanfiction with its own alternate show characters, and World mixed into it.******
<3
Chapter 14: Several Potters, One Mission
Summary:
The battle happens!
Notes:
I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Thanks for sticking through the long ass wait.
I explain briefly in the note at the end.If ya wanna hear more let me know I'm down to chat!
OOOHHH (SIDE NOTE, I FIXED THE DATES THROUGHOUT THIS BOOK BECAUSE I WAS MOVING TOO FAST, IF YOU DON'T NOTICE IGNORE BUT IF YOU THINK THE DATES HAVE CHANGED, IT IS CAUSE I WENT THROUGH ALREADY AND FIXED THEM} :p ((ALSO REREAD THE LAST CHAPTER CAUSE I CHANGED THE GROUP A BIT. BASICALLY FOR YOU LAZY FOLKS, I REPLACED ARTHUR WEASLEY FOR MOODY CAUSE I MADE MISTAKES))
Also, I was gonna post a short ass chapter but then I wrote this. ENJOY!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Two Days Later
July 30, 2007
Harry Potter was sitting on a couch he didn’t dream of sitting on when he was younger. He was lounging really, legs apart, leaning back, comfortable as one could get on a firm cushion. Not being proper, nor hearing his aunt’s nagging shrill voice in his ear. It was rather unnerving.
Harry had been left alone in the Dursley’s home often enough as a child, but having seen his Aunt, Uncle, and cousin rushed out of the house in the early morning hours and having been brought in through the back door in a rush, was odd.
Having seen his friends move his Aunt’s furniture, making room for them to congregate in the living room was odd too.
Everything was the same as it always had been with this company, but being in this house, where everything about being Harry; was always so wrong and so freaky was becoming broken by seeing his side destroy the order that was normally in his Aunt’s house. It was odd but refreshing.
But Harry still didn’t know what it was he felt about all of it as today was going to be a daunting day. The mission, the plan, it was dangerous.
He'd done many dangerous things since going to Hogwarts. He faced almost death multiple times, but it was never so many people involved.
Mainly just himself, with Ron and Hermione helping. But now for the sake of his survival, so many others were putting their lives on the line and Harry was not feeling too great about it.
He thought; what was so great about him?
Someone who’s prophesied to save the wizarding world from the Dark Lord, sometimes the weight of the future felt too much, especially when people he cared for were at risk; to save stupid old Harry.
Harry was soon snapped out of his depressed mulling over the future as Myridian and his godfather, a disguised Sirius, walked in through the front door. Myridian was carrying a trunk with potions in it.
“Okay, we seem clear for now, since we can’t pinpoint the exact time the spell will wear off let's get started now. Harry, you brought the extra clothes right?” Myridian asked.
Harry nodded getting off the couch and pointed to a bag near his feet.
“Good, now who here is drinking again? Shall we pair up now?” Myridian said opening the trunk while looking around the room.
Sirius pulled a potion from Myridian’s hands,
“Will I be alright taking this?” He asked.
Sirius originally was going to be on defense but hours before everything was happening he decided to also change into Harry and just cause mayhem, instead of running away he was going to disguise himself as Harry and go on the attack, everyone thought it was dumb, Merlin included, but Sirius was a tad stubborn about it.
Myridian looked thoughtful.
“Here, take this in case, I’ve never taken a polyjuice and my own potion at the same time, so it might cancel the effects when one wears off, but I don’t know, and unless you wanna switch taking the potion, and just do what was originally planned,” Myridian said in a hushed voice trying to convince him out of his stupid plan, but Sirius ignored him.
“Ah. It’s fine. Like I told you brother, this will be amazing.” He said with a slightly mad glint in his eye cheering to the room and downing his potion.
Merlin laughed slightly but also uncorked his,
“Cheers!” He said cheerily before downing the next potion.
Both brothers slowly turned into a spitting image of Harry.
“Thats so weird,” Harry said a little uncomfortable.
“No,” Fred said,
“That’s wicked!” George finished.
George walked forward,
“Me next!” George said, grabbing the next potion and drinking it down.
Soon he, too, turned into Harry.
“Ah, we should’ve done it at the same time, Georgie,” Fred said, grabbing the next one and drinking it as he too, turned into another Harry.
“Who’s next?” Sirius asked as he started to change his shirt.
“I’ll go!” Gwaine said rather excited as he raised his hand as if he was a student in class.
His cat was with him walking circles around his legs.
“Magic is sooo cool.” He mumbled to himself as he marveled at the potion for a few minutes before drinking it as he became another Harry.
He spun around looking in the mirror,
“Wow so cool!” He said picking his cat up and having a conversation with her even though he was the only one who could talk.
“And, Fluer, right?” Myridian said, holding the potion out to a new person he met for the first time today.
“Oui. Merci.” Fluer says in French before realizing she doesn’t speak English.
But Merlin seems to not have noticed,
“De rien,” Merlin said closing the trunk back up.
Fluer paused before taking the potion, realizing her slip-up,
“Parles-tu français?” Fleur asked.
Merlin smiled with Harry Potter’s face,
“Oui, bien sûr, j'ai appris de nombreuses langues. Le français est une langue amusante mais difficile à apprendre.” Myridian responded.
“I learned it for a bit when I was younger,” Merlin explained to the rest of the room who seemed confused.
Fluer was somewhat shocked as she’d read about Myridian vaguely in the few news articles about him but he seemed like a genius speaking fluently and since he said he’d learned many languages, plus the many amazing things she heard from Mr. Weasly. She thought it be nice to have someone to talk to in her mother language from time to time, with a smile she took the potion.
“That means me next,” Gwen said smiling as she was given the last potion.
She did a mini cheer to the room and downed it as well, she hadn’t really experienced magic like this before, and this was going to be a dangerous day but she trusted Merlin.
Also, Merlin had given her and Gwaine a special bit of armor, that kind of looked like an under-armor for working out, but according to Merlin it was covered in so much magic they were practically bulletproof and magic-proof.
Once they’d all finished drinking the potions and changing clothes, they separated into their pairs. All the Harry’s had to find their respective partners as nobody could tell them apart now.
“Okay, Harry, I mean the real one.” Kingsley clarified after three too many heads turned.
“You and Hagrid will be the third to leave. You’ll be riding Hagrid’s motorcycle, but you have your broom, right?”
Harry nodded, lifting his broom.
Everyone had brooms in their hands.
“Gwaine and I will depart first. Followed by George and Moody. Next will be Harry and Hagrid. After that, Fluer and Bill will leave, then Fred and Remus should leave with Gwen and Tonks yet go in separate directions, and lastly Myridian and Nimueh. James stays and causes confusion. Everyone clear?” Kingsley asks the room 5 minutes before their plan takes off.
The group of Harry’s and their respected partners nodded.
“Well, good luck everyone and may this plan work,” Kingsley said.
Gwaine with a cat on his shoulder walked up next to him by the front door. He turned and winked with a large smile on his face. He was more excited about all this than anyone. He knew it was dangerous but he couldn’t help but feel as if he was in his element. He was a knight in the past and even a soldier in this life, he’d been feeling bored since coming back home this was just what he needed.
Merlin looked a little worried but the excitement in Gwaine/Harry’s expression made him worry for different reasons. It was the same feeling of worry he got while looking at Sirius. Not worry about them in danger, but worried about everyone else dealing with them.
After a few minutes, they walked out the front door. It was fairly silent and the second group consisting of George and Moody walked up to the door.
“See you all on the other side,” Moody said before they walked out.
It was less silent but that meant they had to hurry this up more.
“Harry and Hagrid, leave now, James, I think it’s time for a little distraction,” Merlin said as he ushered the actual Harry outside.
Sirius smirked and ran out the front door with a mad look on Harry’s face.
Harry himself was worried for his godfather but he had no time to worry deeply about him as it was his turn now.
Moments later a few groups left, leaving Merlin and Nimueh behind as the last group.
The outside sounded atrocious. There were clear sounds of battle going on outside and Nimueh looked like she was itching to join it.
But she didn’t need to wait as the roof suddenly got blown off.
Merlin covered his head and soon looked up to a Harry, most likely Sirius, flying around on a broom hovering over seven Death Eaters laughing hysterically as he was going crazy firing spells and dodging those lobbed at him.
Merlin sighed and picked up his broom,
“Shall we?”
Nimueh looked at the broom she had and dropped it starting to float in the air.
Merlin sighed deeply as he hopped on his broom.
So much for being subtle.
As they rose into the air they saw the others flying away in the distance.
Voldemort was still in the area he had not picked a Potter pair to follow yet and he was a bit thrown off by Sirius’ weird actions.
He definitely noticed Nimueh floating in the air though.
It took a while but he too rose into the air, which caused the Death Eaters to cheer and for the action to really start to take off.
The Battle Begins
July 31, 2007 -3:00am
Merlin flies up next to Nimueh to take stock of the battlefield.
All the Harry pairs are going in different directions and flying with at least 4 Death Eaters behind them. But that was expected.
Voldemort was probably going all out to kill Harry when he thought he’d have the chance. However, the fact that they were found so quickly seemed rather odd and Merlin decided he’d look into that later.
Well, it’d have to be later as spells started to fall his way, the moment he was noticed beside Nimueh.
Merlin barely had to do anything as Nimueh was protecting him, since he had a role to play on this day.
No old magic, or extreme bravado. He had to act like Harry. Not that Harry wasn't confident but at a sight like this if you were anyone but Merlin, it would be weird to be confident.
So Merlin put a determined and scared look on his face and held his wand in his hand while sitting on his broom next to Nimueh.
It would be the best possible scenario if Voldemort thought that Merlin was Harry Potter. And they were probably the best people to be chased. Because it would give the actual Harry Potter the best opportunity for survival.
Actually, it would be giving everyone else the best opportunity for survival too.
At least that was what Merlin thought.
…
Voldemort looked at the fight ensuing around him and smiled.
It was exactly as Snape had told him.
Even after Dumbledore died, and even after he got outed as a spy he still had some good useful information left.
He saw Nimueh lift herself into the sky, levitating with magic, and ascended into the air himself. The plan was smart he had to admit. Making several Harry Potter's so that the real one would get lost in the confusion was a good plan.
Against anyone else; at least that's what Voldemort thought.
It was almost obvious which Potter was the real one. A few of them didn't make sense.
Especially the one next to the famed Lightning Witch.
Which was funny because he looked the most like Harry Potter except they weren't moving. They weren't running away, or fighting; they were just standing there, watching the battlefield. Though Voldemort couldn't tell exactly which of Harry Potter’s that was running away was the Harry Potter. He knew it wasn't the people still in the area.
And especially not the crazy one that was flinging spells at Death Eaters and causing havoc.
It wasn't until he looked away from Nimueh that the battle really seemed to start.
The moment his head turned to the other Potter’s, Nimueh took that moment to attack. Even the fake Harry beside her started to fight.
Voldemort lifted his wand, not the Elder Wand that he had taken from Dumbledore, but another one. One of his followers had to relinquish their wand to him because for some reason the Elder one wasn't accepting of him just yet.
But to Voldemort, it didn't matter because he believed that without the protection Harry Potter could die from any wand, in his hands.
But Voldemort still didn’t turn to face Nimueh. Not today. He’d deal with her and those Emrys siblings soon enough.
Instead, he kept ignoring her and flew higher as he went to follow two pairs. He was sure one of these two was the real Potter. And he thought if he killed both, he’d get his answer.
What or rather who he left behind was formidable in their own right.
Morgana, Mordred, and a slew of Death Eaters stayed behind to attack the last two Harrys and Nimueh.
“We meet again. You can’t seem to stay dead, huh?” Morgana said holding out her wand to Nimueh.
Sirius and Merlin were in the air near each other slightly lower to the ground.
“The same can be said for you,” Nimueh said flying forward while chanting spells of the old religion under her breath.
Spells started to fly between the women as they dueled.
In Morgana's mind, she believed that Nimueh might have been stronger than her at this moment but she believed that in the future or the moment she gains her memories back completely, that she would be able to kill Nimueh, kill Emrys, get rid of Voldemort once he's not useful anymore.
Her plans were grand but at the moment her skills did not match up to par.
And Nimueh didn’t give her any space to breathe.
Sirius, watching for a minute took the initiative to enter the battle as it looked like it was going good. He jumped off his broom and landed on the ground and started attacking the Death Eaters that were surrounding Morgana.
And Merlin was staring daggers at Mordred.
It was his first time seeing him again in a thousand years.
The anger hadn't disappeared.
The rage was silently bubbling underneath the visage of Harry's face.
If anyone had been paying attention to him they would have seen absolute rage on Harry's childish face. An expression he probably never made so scarily before.
For Merlin, the only thing running through his mind were memories of Arthur and of the past; of his failures and his lonely lonely lonely life that followed.
The reason for Arthur's death was in front of him once again.
And he couldn't hold it back.
Merlin felt his wand hand burn, as the wand he was holding started to burn from how much magic was emanating from him.
He grabbed it tightly anyway and shot spells of the old religion directly at Mordred's head.
Mordred and Morgana both felt the surge of power coming from behind Nimueh and they put shields up as quickly as possible.
Mordred looked spooked like he recognized something but he just couldn’t remember what it was exactly, only that it scared him. And Morgana looked to see who it was that cast that spell.
Only to see Harry Potter with a dark look on his face.
Merlin was no longer on the broom, he was standing on the ground and looked like he wanted to murder someone.
Even Nimueh looked confused.
She’d heard the story of what happened from Gwen and Gwaine. They’d told her how Camelot with Arthur as its leader came to an end. And she could understand Merlin’s rage, she’d felt the same towards Uther for murdering her kin, but she also knew the time for this wasn’t right.
Their original goal in this plan was to hold Voldemort back if possible or if he followed Harry somehow, they were the backup.
So while everyone focused on Myridian, she flew down to his side.
She whispered,
“Emrys, it’s not time yet. You know you can’t do this until he returns, your destinies are intertwined so you must finish it together.”
Merlin turned to face her, and his face was still dark.
An odd look marring Harry’s normally gentle-looking face.
“I’ve waited so long. How much longer?” Merlin said with rage laced in his words.
Nimueh frowned as she had no answer for him.
When he was met with silence he sighed deeply.
He lowered his wand and dropped it to the ground.
It was burnt and broke as it fell to the ground. There was a rather bad-looking burn on his palm but Merlin didn’t seem to care to acknowledge it.
He looked to Sirius who was still mid-battle. He’d drawn 7 or so Death Eaters with him to the side and was battling them.
Mordred and Morgana were staring at the obviously now fake Harry beside Nimueh.
They were wary of the two strong opponents and weren’t sure if fighting was smart anymore. They’d thought with just Nimueh they could take her on with numbers.
But now was a different story, they needed to know who it was behind the facade of Harry Potter that was standing next to Nimueh.
Mordred had an odd feeling while looking at the fake Harry.
It was like he’d met Morgana all those days ago. It was a similar feeling but also different. Whoever that was they were emanating magic of the old. That much Mordred could sense, but how much or who it was under the disguise, he wasn’t skilled enough in his new life.
Merlin and Nimueh's thoughts were interrupted by the ding of text.
Merlin pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked down at the notification on the screen; it read:
“Retreat. Harry Potter made it to the first safe house. Regroup.” Merlin sighed and showed Nimueh the text.
Sirius in the distance was also looking at his phone and looked to Nimueh and Myridian for what to do now.
The message marked the end for their battle.
So Merlin put his phone away and grabbed his broom off the floor and rose into the air again. Nimueh floated beside him. And Sirius joined moments later.
“We’ll all head to our locations first. Once we know we haven’t been followed, we go to the rendezvous.” Merlin said confidently with Harry’s voice, before looking at Mordred once more then speeding away on his broom in one direction.
Sirius looked after him as he left and asked Nimueh,
“Is he okay?” He asked.
Nimueh sighed, also looking at Morgana and Mordred.
Sirius’ gaze followed still unsure what had caused that look he’d seen on Myridian’s face, or rather Harry’s.
“He’ll be fine. Go first.” Nimueh said, patting Sirius on the shoulder to get him to leave her to go last.
Sirius nodded and picked up his broom jumping on it and speeding off after taking one last look at the battlefield.
Once Sirius was gone it was just Nimueh and the enemy left, but Nimueh wasn’t scared or affected by the number difference.
She simply let the wind gather.
As it started to swirl around her feet and brush her hair back she smirked.
“Till we meet again.” She said with a sweet voice that seemed laced with a threat, she soon disappeared into a whirlwind of wind leaving nothing but Merlin’s broken charred stick of a wand rolling around.
The battle is over………..?
The Burrow
July 31, 2007
All throughout the morning, since the battle ended around 5 in the morning there have been cracks of apparitian happening nonstop around the Burrow. Harry was the first to arrive. He was greeted by the rest of the Weasleys who didn’t go during the plan and Hermione who was here with Ron waiting on Harry. Hermione rushed to Harry with a hug and Ron followed happily, as his best friend had made it back safely.
Hagrid had been there briefly but left to go finish something he'd left near Hogwarts and so he left soon after Harry was safe.
Harry wasn’t happy even though he made it safely, he’d lost his owl after it saved his life when they first left the Dursleys as the Dark Lord attacked all the Harrys he’d seen leaving before picking one to follow.
The next few people to arrive were Fred and Remus. They both made it without a scratch but Fred looked troubled like something was wrong.
Remus’ face looked stressed but he didn’t say much, just stared at the entrance.
They had seen a lot as the second to last to leave and they were worried about what they’d seen.
But all they could do was wait.
Moments later Gwen and Tonk’s arrived.
Tonk’s fell into the room and Gwen fell to the floor not used to magic travel without Merlin.
She almost threw up while Tonks fell into Remus who was closer than she thought when she entered the room.
Tonk’s hair was black and she had quite a few cuts on her arms and was exhausted.
Once Remus helped her to a chair she said that the Dark Lord had followed them thinking that they’d been the real Harry pair and that there were so many spells and they’d almost died because Gwen slipped off the broom and they freefell for a moment before Tonk’s got them out of there.
Gwen after they’d caught their breath said to not tell Myridian too many details about what happened to them. Gwen knew that Merlin would freak out if she’d gotten hurt.
In her mind, it was better if he just didn’t find out so soon, if it could be helped.
The next to crash in were Fluer and Bill.
Molly and Arthur both breathed sighs of relief when almost all of their family had come back. There was still George but every time another one came back the relief followed.
Of course, they were worried about everyone but Molly’s motherly love for her children felt different.
Fluer’s clothes were messed up as she explained how they’d crashed into a tree trying to escape from Death Eaters. Bill was covered in leaves and sticks and he was bleeding slightly but he assured everyone it was minor injuries from the crash and not from magic.
They’d made it to safety by sheer luck as when they’d crashed they fell into a hole in the ground and the Death Eaters ran another way looking for them.
The next group was an odd mix of two groups for a sad reason. Gwaine and George stumbled in through the door.
They’d appeared outside and Gwaine had been luging George in.
George was heavily bleeding from the left side of his face. The spell had worn off, so all the Potters now looked like themselves and the Weasleys seeing George stumble in bleeding sent them into a frenzy.
Molly screamed almost fainting but being held up by Ginny and Gwen who acted quickly.
Arthur looked haunted.
And Fred and Ron and Harry ran up to Gwaine helping set George on the couch.
“What happened?” Ron asked, seemingly the only one who could speak.
But Remus answered oddly enough.
“They were attacked by Death Eaters. They were being followed by at least 20 the last time I saw them.” Remus said as he remembered telling Fred that his brother would be alright and that they needed to stick to the plan.
Fred had been feeling uneasy since he’d agreed with Remus and now he knew why he’d felt off.
“Where’s Moody?” Harry asked as he was sure the man would’ve saved George but found it odd that Gwaine and George showed up.
George was knocked out so he couldn’t add to the conversation but Gwaine frowned.
And he didn’t answer the question. The adults concluded what his face meant but the younger kids were still waiting for an answer.
Till Kingsley barged in with an angry look on his face.
He was limping with Gwaine’s cat sitting on his shoulder. Everyone looked happy that Kingsley made it but the smiles disappeared moments later.
“Alastor’s dead.”
Everyone’s expression fell.
“How?” Harry asked, feeling guilty already.
Kingsley sighed,
“They were picked and chased by the Dark Lord. He got hit with the killing curse.”
Everyone gasped.
“He saved George with his body. But that bast-Snape caught George in the head.” Kingsley said, trying to reign in his anger.
Kingsley stood.
He was hurt and didn’t look good but he turned to the door,
“I’m going to round up the rest of the ministry that’s left. And we’ll go retrieve his body.” Kingsley said before leaving, not waiting for an answer or permission.
Gwaine’s cat hopped off his shoulder and went to sit by the bleeding George.
Next to pop in was Sirius.
Or rather Sirius in disguise.
James Emrys walked in looking fine apart from his clothes being destroyed.
He walked in confidently after seeing Harry was fine but he noticed the solemn looks on everyone’s faces and asked,
“What?”
Before he saw George and he frowned, then Remus told him about Alastor and the frown deepened.
Sirius was then asked what happened back at the Dursley residence.
“It was a battle. The Dark Lord left after you guys,”
He said pointing to the others in the room,
“And we were left with Morgana and like 30 Death Eaters. Nimueh and Myridian didn’t fly off, we stayed and fought till we got the message that Harry arrived, then we split up and started heading here. They should be here soon. I thought Myridian would’ve beat me here actually.” Sirius says because he remembered Myridian left first.
And he spoke too soon as Myridian walked through the door and Nimueh appeared in the room with a gentle breeze accompanying her.
Merlin looked around the room and noticed something was wrong.
Nimueh saw George and walked over.
Merlin noticed as well as asked what happened.
They all retold what happened and about how Moody died, to George losing his ear, and where Kingsley went and they recapped the fight and everyone sat around getting treated for their slight injuries.
Nimueh offered to help George.
She had a soft spot for the magical children.
Molly and Bill joined her in stopping the bleeding and treating the other injuries he had on his body.
Fred was watching like a hawk while Gwaine’s cat comforted him.
The Next Day
August 1st, 2007
In the night, George woke up and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
With him regaining consciousness everyone started to relax and eventually, everyone settled in the living room and fell asleep.
Fred fell asleep next to George and Nimueh chatted with George before he fell asleep.
She explained that he may have lost his ear but there were magical solutions. And she told him if he healed up well she’d teach him a spell of the old religion to give him a new ear.
George seemed rather excited before falling asleep with the prospect of learning cool magic.
The Weasleys all seemed to settle around George, but even then they struggled to sleep so Nimueh decided to tell stories of the past.
She told tales of dragons and druids.
Some looked to Myridian who met their curious gazes with smiles.
He closed his eyes as he too listened to Nimueh talk of a time before even he was born.
She told about the magical sights that existed around the world and of the old religion and of her own past and of her childhood.
Only telling the nice stories soothing everyone.
Soon everyone was sound asleep, their dreams filled with dragons and magic and a past they could only imagine in their dreams.
Nimueh smiled and she too went to bed.
Harry woke to a bustling Burrow.
Only the kids were left sleeping. Most of the adults were gone from the living room. The sound of movement was filling the house with life.
He’d been woken from his dreams of dragons and adventures by a nightmare.
He’d dreamed of Voldemort coming for him and when he woke and looked at George and remembered Moody’s sacrifice he felt a resolve harden in his mind, ‘no more sacrifice for Harry Potter’.
Soon others woke and they were ushered into the kitchen to a grand breakfast.
Harry was then showered with gifts.
It was his 17th birthday yesterday and Molly wanted to make this day better than how yesterday was.
She thought that’s what everyone needed.
She realized this while seeing the faces of happiness from the stories from last night that they needed a break and if some stories and a big breakfast and some presents for Harry would make their struggles lessen some, then she was more than happy to provide that for them.
She put a smile on and hosted to the best of her ability today.
Merlin watched everyone give Harry presents. It was a day after his birthday and the kid was awkwardly accepting gifts and eating at the same time. He got books and games from his friends and Fred gave him a box of newly designed magical prank toys. Remus didn’t have anything on him and told Harry he’d send him something later. Same with Sirius and a few others who didn’t bring anything with them to battle.
Harry assured them all it was fine.
Nimueh conjured an everlasting rose and handed it to Harry.
Harry thanks her, thinking it’s cool.
Hermionie geeks out and asks her how she did it. As for making something out of nothing.
Nimueh smiles and says "Magic", causing a few in the room to chuckle.
Nimueh then sat George and a few of the kids down trying to teach them the spell to give George a new ear.
Bill chimed in that there were spells for that with their magic, but was told to shush by every one of the kids as they were curious about old magic.
Nimueh and Merlin smirked.
Merlin joined and tried to help Nimueh explain it. Nimueh was good at teaching but she wasn't as adept at the new magic as Merlin.
Gwaine tried to do something with his wand but nothing happened.
Merlin then frowned realizing he didn’t have a wand anymore.
Nimueh then starts to explain the spell.
“The essence of this spell is unique. In the past people lost body parts far more than now. With bandits and swords being abundant it was bound to happen often. And magic kin learned ways to enhance what we lost. There are quite a few spells that we could choose from but I figure you’d enjoy this one.”
Nimueh then whispered into Merlin’s ear.
Merlin frowned and looked unsure but sighed thinking this would lift their spirits.
“The spell is temporary and won't last forever but I think that makes it better,” Nimueh explained.
“It’s a spell that replaces the lost body part at random with an animal's body part. And since you need an ear, you would have various animal ears instead. Fun right?” Nimueh asked.
Fred and George’s eyes lit up.
“Yes!”
“Teach Me!”
They said one after another.
Nimueh smiled.
“How long does it last?” Ron asked, he thought it was cool but if it needed to be recast often maybe it wasn’t the best.
“Mhmmm, it used to last about a day’s time, depending on skill and ability, maybe longer,” Nimueh said, thinking back to the people she’d known who used it.
Merlin had sat back thinking on how to adjust the spell.
Teaching them the old religion was possible, even though he’d lied to them previously but it’d be hard to teach them a single spell without the proper foundations, so he was thinking how to modify it.
Then he turned to Gwaine.
“Can I borrow your wand?” He asked.
Gwaine handed it over, curious as to what Merlin would do.
Merlin stood and pointed it at George.
“What’s the spell?” He asked Nimueh.
“Perdita membrum ad regenerandum membrum animal” Merlin hummed and thought to himself that it was already a basic spell.
So he casted it and in place of the wound a donkey’s ear appeared.
Merlin clutched Gwaine’s wand and looked shaken.
Everyone else looked awed.
Gwen even chuckled, remembering Arthur.
Merlin also remembered Arthur but his reaction was rather different, especially after meeting Morgana and Mordred, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
“Woah!” George said, touching his ear.
“I can hear better.” He exclaimed.
“Yes, that was another bonus of the spell, you can gain the ability of the animal part, so whatever animal’s ear you end up with, you hear out of it at the same as said animal,” Nimueh explained.
All the kids looked awe’d and seemed happy for George who looked ecstatic.
He looked like losing an ear was a blessing.
When Molly saw her son with an animal ear she was less than thrilled but let it go as all the children were practicing the spell and looked happy.
But since none of them needed an extra body part they ended up with extras that Myridian had to come and remove.
George and Fred both thanked Nimueh and asked her about the possibilities of other spells and such from the old religion to turn into prank spells.
Nimueh answered as best as she could because magic was rarely used for pranks, at least the kind with verbal spells attached to it.
You’d need power to back that up in the past and it was more about survival rather than fun and games back then, especially so for the magic community, back then peaceful days were seldom.
The day comes to a close when a letter is dropped off by Merlin’s owl.
It hops through the window and lands on Merlin’s lap interrupting any discussions happening.
Merlin pets the bird and grabs the letter and paper attached to its leg.
He handed the paper to Nimueh when she asked for it and read the letter.
It was from Mrs. Mcgonallal.
It read:
“I hope you all are well. I’m writing this to you with the latest newspaper. I’ve just been informed that the new school year is going to be forcibly opened by interference from the Ministry of Magic despite the appearance of the Dark Lord and his attack on Dumbledore.”
She expressed that she tried to fight this but it fell on deaf ears and there was going to be a compulsory mandated attendance.
Merlin frowned and so did Nimueh as she read the newspaper.
“What’s wrong?” Sirius asked, not liking the frowns that appeared on their faces.
“Hogwarts is opening again next year,” Merlin said.
“Well, that’s not terrible, right?” Ron asked.
“But the Dark Lord infiltrated it once, the students aren’t safe,” Molly exclaimed,
“What are they thinking?” She huffed.
“They aren’t, it’s the Ministry. They are forcing Mcgonallal to open the school and they are enforcing mandatory attendance.” Merlin said, which caused everyone else to frown.
“That’s suspicious,” Sirius said as Merlin nodded.
“Yes, it is. Has anyone contacted Kingsley? I think he should watch his back in the Ministry. We don’t know how deep the Dark Lord's forces have gotten, we need to be on our toes.” Merlin said standing.
Remus piped up from the corner of the room,
“If nothing, nowhere, and no one we don’t trust is safe we should move. Too many people would suspect us here, for the rest of the summer we should stay on the move. We prepared multiple safe houses, we can familiarize ourselves with them in case of emergency for later and we can always be on the move to lessen someone finding us.” Remus said.
Most of the adults agreed.
Molly looked sad that this was the life that her kids and Harry and Hermione had to live but ultimately agreed for their safety.
They spend a few more days at the Burrow before they separate.
Merlin heads out with the reincarnations and the rest built a squad to transport Harry and the others, while Sirius, disguised as James, went off to find Kingsley and catch him up to speed.
Notes:
Okay, this is my third time writing this note. Because I have so much to say but not enough words available in the little note box.
Crazy I have more than 5000 words to say. But I guess I do. Instead, I'm going to make a bullet-point list of all the things that I want to talk about,t and if anyone's curious about like longer stories about the stuff that's going on in my life y'all can ask. Because trust me I'd love to spill the tea.
1)I was diagnosed with autism. I am very happy about this fact because I was in a lot of turmoil about feeling like I was doing something wrong in my life and I was very depressed and I went through a whole big long journey that lasted a year before I got my diagnosis which was like 3 months ago and I'm very excited about it and I'm very happy because it makes me forgive myself more and I'm healing and clearly it's helping my writer's block and everything else.
2) I went to Mexico twice. The first time was a shit experience because it was before I got diagnosed and my mother was horrible to me. She literally said a lot of rude things targeting my autism and she was trying to gaslight me into believing that I was making it all up. But the second trip was much better because I had gotten diagnosed and she couldn't say shit to me anymore. Also, I left the resort the second time I went out and it was really fun and I had a lot of good Mexican food. I think I ate a pound of guacamole but that was fire.
3) I went to Jordan. I saw Petra and the cool Stone place. it was like the Grand Canyon but smaller and you can walk through the Canyons. and they had like really nice carved buildings in stone it was really cool. That was the good part of the trip. plus the good Middle Eastern food. the negative part of the trip was that I almost got put into an arranged marriage if you want the tea on that ask me because I love to talk about it because it was so fucking crazy. Just know me 25 years old. And my dad's new wife tried to set me up with her brother. that would make him my step-uncle. Let that sink into your brain because it's sunk into mine and I hate every fucking moment of it I had to have a literal 2-hour conversation with my dad's wife about why I don't want to get married. But it made me so grossed out about men I convinced myself for about 2 weeks that I was straight up a lesbian. I'm pansexual so I guess it doesn't really matter but like for those 2 weeks I was like fuck men completely out of my life, please.
4) I've been cleaning. I'm really proud of myself because my room became disgusting because of my depression and it was horrible down here in the basement but I've been making a lot of progress cleaning and I can happily say that I cleaned up about 70% of the basement. and it's now actually really making me happy so I'm happy and I'll continue to finish it.
5) I got to hang out with my friends more. We have hung out twice since I last wrote. It's a little difficult to hang out with my friends cuz they don't live very close to me but we chose to meet up twice and it was really fun.
6) I figured out how to walk my dog. It's a little difficult because he's a big boy but I can walk him now and that also gets me out of the house. I also got a picture of my dog dressed like a king made and now it's hanging in my room it's my Christmas gift to myself. I wish I could send photos on this app cuz I would post a picture of my dog in his kingly garb.
7) Last thing I went to the country that will not be named while I was in Jordan. I have family in that country and I hadn't seen them in 12 years. I will say that was my best experience in the Middle East because the whole marriage thing kind of made me not like the trip to Jordan and I stayed in the bedroom most of the trip. But we did cross borders and I did go into the country that we will not name anymore and I did see my family and that was great. It was scary though because of the bombs and the missile sirens going off. My family lives on the border next to Lebanon in the country we shall not name. And so that was scary and I feel so worried for my cousins and uncles and aunts. But it was really nice to see them. And I hope the Genocide ends soon. #FreePalestine
Chapter 15: New Homes
Notes:
Hi, I'm here again. I don't know what happened but around 11:00 yesterday I started to write and it's currently 5:17 a.m. and I just finished writing. Actually, I didn't even finish, I was starting the next chapter before I was telling myself to pause and upload this one first because it would be a pain in the ass to edit two chapters in a row rather than just one. Because I'm already editing this one cuz it's so fucking long. I did get to talk about some plot points and loopholes that I had forgotten about, as pointed out by some helpful readers, so I got to touch base on some of them and got to add momentary fixes that should clear up some stuff for now until I want to dive deeper into it. You'll see if you're the person who commented on it. So this is for you otherwise, maybe it will clear up some things for other people in their head if need be.
You guys should see my setup right now. It's actually insane. I have my laptop where I usually upload and write; on a little pedestal because I bought one. However, being on the pedestal makes it annoying to type because it shakes. So instead of typing on it, I now push it backward and pull out my iPad that has a keyboard attached to it and I type on my iPad. And then I could use my laptop for the timeline that I have, so I could use it alongside what I'm writing on the iPad and then I have my phone set up next to me playing whatever music I want to listen to in the meantime. Then I have a 40 oz fake Stanley Cup next to me full of water that I've been drinking for the past 5 hours. I don't know what's happened to me today but I am in the zone. :^)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Merlin’s New House
August 5, 2007
The few days after Harry’s birthday and the battle, Merlin got busy realizing that things weren’t safe anymore. Too many things were known about him and his friends that he needed to start being more cautious.
His normal methods were to throw caution to the wind and act reckless. But now he had people he cared about and needed to take extra measures to ensure their safety, even if he didn’t really care about his own. Being immortal made him more reckless than when he was younger. Being alone for so many years didn’t help that fact, and since the reincarnations started coming back he’d tried to reign himself in, but clearly, he wasn’t doing the best job, so after the battle he finished the project he’d been working on.
For a few months, since around the time he met Lance, he’d been looking for a bigger house for all the reincarnations to use as a home base of sorts. He bought a property and had been renovating it and adding furniture since purchasing it. Finally after weeks it was completed. He originally thought he may have gone overboard but standing in front of it made him happy he did it.
He was there alone, none of his old friends nor his new friends by his side. It was just little ole Merlin standing in front of a…castle. It was an old castle that was left partially intact and after a bit of refurbishing it was pretty much brand new. If you have the kind of capital that Merlin had, any rundown building could look brand new. And so that’s what he did.
There were a few places that were missing walls, but he ended up deciding to go with this particular castle because it was the right amount of space he was looking for. He wanted it to be the perfect safe house/meeting area/home for anyone that didn’t have one. And he didn’t want it to be stuck in the medieval times like on the outside. So he made sure to upgrade it to a more modern interior. He kept most of the old furnishing and what was salvageable of the interior but anything that was beyond repair. He didn’t make any effort to make it look like the rest of the house. Which made the castle look like a patchwork of the changing times. Some rooms looked like they were made 60 years ago and some looked like they were built two days ago, which was actually true but the point still stands.
It wasn’t the most well thought out home, but it definitely was worth the money he put into it. There were a total of three floors, about 12 bedrooms and 7 community rooms that you could do with whatever you wish with. There were about an equal number of bathrooms, matching the bedrooms and there was a kitchen sort of in the basement. Not fully underground as the windows in the kitchen could still see the outside, but it was definitely lower than the ground floor. The kitchen was mainly made out of brick that was polished, but you could still see most of the imperfections. The floors on the first floor were marble and wood for the upper two floors. They had a grand staircase that led from the entryway up to the second floor, and there were a few staircases on the second floor that led to the third. There were large windows All over the place. It was beautiful and huge.
Merlin stood in front of it and smiled. Something he’d been working on was finally completed. He had a door with a key lock and also a keypad. But that wasn’t all the security measures. The reason he was there today without anyone else present was because he was going to be putting up wards all around the place. The castle itself was pretty well hidden as it wasn’t like sitting on the main road or anything. It was, at least half a mile into a forest. It was surrounded by pretty tall, pine trees that almost reached as tall as the castle itself. He had a big amount of land surrounding the castle that he also owned, and so there was no worry of doing magic in the vicinity and worrying about neighbors seeing him. Not that he normally cared anyway. But his other home was more in the public eye than this one was. Also, nobody knew he owned the castle. He put it under Gwaine’s name so the wizarding world couldn’t track it back to him.
He trusted the goblins with his information, but it seemed he couldn’t trust the wizarding world itself anymore or rather its government; according to the information Kingsley and Sirius had told him, no one could be trusted. So rather than risk the possible leak of his new safe house he put it under the name of a Muggle that had absolutely no connection that the wizard and government could make. Because the only people who knew about the reincarnations were people he trusted. Of course there was Snape, but he doubted that Snape would bring up any random information like that to Voldemort. And even if he did, this, House would be well taken care of. Unlike his actual home which was more easily accessible by Muggles and others. He couldn’t put a lot of traps or too many safety measures around because it would just cause problems. But the castle was a different story. There was nobody around for miles, and nobody would randomly stumble on his property without a reason. So he was more inclined to put traps and semi-dangerous safety measures in place.
His ultimate goal was to make sure that anybody who came to this property for safety got it and anyone who came to this property to harm anyone inside would die a horribly painful death. Because the only people who would know about this place would be the people he cared for very dearly and he would do anything to protect them.
Two Days Later
Merlin’s House
“So is everyone here?” Merlin said as he looked around at the people with him.
Gwaine and Gwen were standing together chatting about Gwaine’s cat; who was currently on his shoulder playing with his long hair. Gwen was taking pictures and showing it to Bell who was beside her. They were giggling at the cat and Gwaine’s dumb expressions every now and then.
Leon, Percival, and Lance were chatting about something to do with Lance’s company and about how Lance was getting offers to expand to America.
Nimueh was talking to Sirius, who was disguised as James Emrys and Remus. She was telling Sirius that if he wanted to learn old magic he should ask Myridian. And Sirius was arguing that she must be stronger than Myridian since she actually came from the time period in which it was used.
And Remus was standing there like a fish out of water, wanting to tell Sirius he was wrong but then not actually saying anything since he couldn’t tell Merlin’s secret.
But they all turned to Merlin the moment he spoke. Once he saw everyone nod he looked to Nimueh and he held up his hands, she held hers up and they both casted a transportation spell together. Merlin or Nimueh could’ve moved everyone alone, but better safe than sorry.
Soon a large gust of wind came in from the left and by the time the wind reached the right side of the group they were all gone.
Merlin’s Castle
The whole group's vision settled and they were in a dense forest near a pebbled pathway.
It wasn’t till they turned that they noticed the castle.
Sirius was more shocked at Nimueh and Myridian’s way of apparation than the castle but even he had to admit this place was huge.
“Welcome!” Merlin said, bringing attention back to himself.
“To the new house..? Or rather the safe house,” Merlin said as he didn’t expect them all to move in here right now or was forcing them to.
“I made it to be a place we can meet or live in whenever you want. I love you all at my house but I don’t think it’s safe anymore. This place can’t be traced back to me unless you look really hard. And it’s been warded to the nines. No one without a pass can get in.” Merlin finished by pulling out a few keys.
“These are for the front door, but also your pass to enter onto the land. As long as you have this on you, you can enter unscathed by any of the traps I set. If you are bringing others who don’t have passes just make skin contact until you pass the threshold of the door and they’ll be fine with you.” Merlin said, clarifying.
He wanted it to be a safe house for his friends but he understood Remus or James might bring other’s here and he wanted a method for guests to enter as well. But if someone was being chased they wouldn’t be leading an enemy in either.
Of course, there were ways enemies could enter. Like holding a key holder hostage and dragging them in. Or being able to use old magic and be capable of breaking Merlin’s blood wards. But those situations were rare and practically impossible. So Merlin chose not to bring them up so as to not freak anyone out.
“And there is a keypad on the door. It has two codes. One you use to enter along with the key. The other can be used to turn on the alarms. The alarm system is hooked up to alert my phone that something is wrong. So if I’m not here enter the second code and I’ll know to come. If anyone else wants their phone connected to the alarm let me know.” Merlin said as he demonstrated using the key and entering the first code which was 888.
Then he pulled out his phone after closing the door to enter the second code which was 500, and the moment he pressed enter, his phone started to ring and vibrate in his hand. And only those with magic could feel the air change.
Nimueh turned her head and looked around as she felt a suppressing feeling in the air like it would be difficult to move if she tried.
James and Remus looked like they were having trouble breathing from the pressure they felt.
It was only when Merlin placed a key in their hands they felt better.
Once he handed one to Nimueh she had an impressed look on her face.
“Show me what you did later.” She said as she squeezed the key and walked to the door to try entering herself.
“Sure,” Merlin said, smiling as he moved to give the keys to the others.
He even placed a key on a string around Gwaine’s cat’s neck as he figured it being a magical animal, it might experience the side effects of the wards and wanted to be safe since Gwaine and everyone else loved the cat.
After everyone tried the door themselves they explored the inside with Merlin leading.
“I haven't picked nor assigned rooms, so be civil and decide among yourself. I’m sure there are enough for everyone to have a choice.” Merlin said pointing briefly upstairs as the bedrooms were mainly on the second and third floors.
He then led everyone to a meeting room with a round table.
Gwaine did a double take at the table,
“Hey, isn’t this…?” He said while looking at the table.
Leon also had a confused look on his face.
“It is.” He exclaimed.
Nimueh, Remus, James, and Bell looked confused as they didn’t make the connection.
“Oh my, now that you mention it. It is.” Gwen said moving to touch a table she hadn’t seen since her last life.
“You kept the table?” Gwaine asked.
“It was in my vault,” Merlin said, peeking slightly at James, as he was the only one still not knowing Merlin was well Merlin, in the room.
“I can’t believe it still exists. I guess we can be called Knights of the Round Table again. Wait, we were never called that in person…” Percival said noticing its name only told in legends, not during his actual life as a knight.
“Wait, you're telling me you had the actual table that was from the legends?” Bell asked, walking up to the table in shock.
To her, it was crazy that magic was real. That her husband, Leo, was someone who lived two lives and one of them was a knight of Camelot but to see a piece of history like this was shocking. She figured it should have been half destroyed in a museum or something; not in someone’s house.
“It is indeed that round table. It was kept in my safe at the bank. I never had a place to put it so I never needed to take it out. But I figured we could use it.” Merlin said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as he didn’t think it was too weird to have kept some stuff from Camelot.
He actually had quite a collection of things from his friends. But it felt awkward to bring them out now that they were alive again, so he didn’t say anything.
After a few pats and one picture taken of it, the group moved on from that room to several other rooms.
One was an office room with some computers and a few desks.
“In case you need to do work while hiding out. I don’t know, there were a lot of rooms.” Merlin said in his defense as he wasn’t really sure what to do with the non-essential rooms.
The way he had the internet and electricity would surprise any muggle electrician because by their standards nothing in this house should work since there were no outlets and nothing was plugged in. Yet everything still worked.
Actually, for most of the electronics Merlin ripped the charging cords off of them as he didn’t know what they were for, and when he found out later, he realized that combining magic and tech seemed to supercharge electronics and realized he solved a problem that he didn’t know he created.
How he would explain it to muggles was something he decided to tackle another time.
The next room was going to an empty room but since it led to the backyard he turned it into an armory. He didn’t really organize it but he put everything one would need should they want to do battle and left it for the knights to figure out.
And he explained it as such,
“I left this room unfinished, you all can buy whatever you think might help add to this room and organize it as you like. If you need to buy anything inside the house just go to Gwaine, he has my banking information.” Merlin said.
Everyone looked at Gwaine with a skeptical look.
Those who knew him in his previous life weren't sure this was a good idea. And those that didn’t know him were confused as to why Myridian would trust someone else with his money. But then they looked around them and came to the conclusion that Myridian really was freaking rich and it probably didn’t matter to him.
Which was truly the case.
Gwaine couldn’t spend all the money even if tried for 100 years.
Merlin led the group to the kitchen and everyone was awed at its rustic and homey feel. It was, to Merlin, the best room in the castle. At least he liked it the best. It reminded him of Gauis’ workshop. He also wasn’t the best cook but he had enough years to get decent at it. The kitchen had modern appliances alongside some older cookware. Like there was an oven and a stove but there was also a brick oven and a griddle over a fire pit. So it was a mashup of modern and old. Which fit the rest of the castle.
The next room was a dining room and there was a long table able to seat 12 people and it was a rather posh setup. Very fancy looking in comparison to some of the other rooms. The art in the halls and the random sculptures and plaques on the walls were depictions of different times throughout the ages.
Most of the stuff was priceless collections from Merlin’s vault. He thought it was fitting to place them here rather than collect more dust in his vault.
After a few more areas like a storage room, that Merlin filled with random stuff he could use and stuff that others might need. Or some other miscellaneous crap that he didn't know what to do with; he just placed it in this room.
He was good at magic, not interior design and decoration.
After that, most of the rooms were explored and he let everyone go on their way to pick out a bedroom and told them to go to Gwaine if they wanted to spruce it up to their liking.
There was only one room that Merlin had claimed. It was the room he designed for his king. He didn't even pick out his own room yet. But Arthur's room was almost an exact replica of his bedroom back in Camelot. As best as he could recreate it, what with the building layout he had to work with. He didn't show anyone in the room or tell anyone what the purpose of that particular room was; he just said that this room was being used and that they could pick from any of the other bedrooms.
Merlin was close with everyone but the pain of Arthur's death was still a sore spot even now. Just hearing his name sent pain coursing through his head. Even remembering past memories of Arthur or even good times from the past with Arthur made his heartache.
It just reminded him of his failure and he couldn't handle it very well.
Even with the prospect of Arthur being reincarnated and coming back sometime in the future, Merlin was slightly worried. He of course wanted Arthur back and would be beyond thrilled to see him. Words couldn't describe the feelings he would have the moment Arthur returned.
However, he was also terrified of Arthur's reaction to him failing him. Of him not being able to save him. He didn't know what Arthur would think of that.
He never really thought about it before because it seemed like Arthur would never return, prophecy be damned. It wasn't a worry that he was worried about until very recently. But now that he was worried about it he couldn't stop thinking about it and it was destroying him a little bit inside.
But he was trying to push those emotions deep deep within his heart so he didn't think about it because he was beating himself up about it; because he didn't know why he was slightly dreading meeting Arthur again when he should be feeling ecstatic. It was causing a lot of turmoil in his head and he didn't know what to do with it; so instead of dealing with it or talking about it to somebody else, he decided to shove it deep inside where nobody, not even himself, would look at it and deal with it when it came to head. Or just keep ignoring it and hopefully something besides what he was dooming in his head, would happen.
Hogwarts
August 15, 2007
Merlin was standing near Hogwarts alone. He was doing something he’d promised to help Mrs. Monagall with, around the time of Dumbledore’s funeral. Merlin had promised Mrs. McGonagall that he would help her with-doing some of the wards around Hogwarts after the last break-in, when all of the students were in danger and whatnot. She’d called in a few wizards to help restore the wards around Hogwarts. And Merlin had so helpfully volunteered back then as well.
And today was to make good on that promise.
Merlin enters Hogwarts greeted by Hagrid, who recently got rehired by the new Headmistress. Merlin had yet to have a conversation with Hagrid since he’d met him on the day of the battle a few weeks ago. And even back then it was just brief introductions.
Either way, Merlin reintroduced himself to the half-giant.
“Nice to meet you again. Myridian Emrys.” Merlin said, holding out his tiny yet normal-sized hand, to the large man in front of him.
“Hi, I’m Hagrid. I’m the groundskeeper at Hogwarts. The Headmistress said she was expecting you. Also, I heard you're a teacher too.” Hagrid said as a way of making conversation for their walk up to the castle walls.
“Yes, me and my brother co-teach here. But you’ll probably see more of him than me. I have another business outside of teaching.” Merlin explained.
“Remus sometimes comes by as well, he used to be a teacher here, right?” Merlin said remembering Remus used to teach and assumed they knew each other.
“Oh that’s great, I didn’t know. It was a shame he was fired but I guess things tend to work out in the end. He still can come to teach with you and I got my job back.” The large man said, smiling.
“Yes, I’m glad good things happen despite the bad.” Merlin agreed as they finally made it to the outside of the Hogwarts castle grounds.
When they were walking up they could see Mrs. McGonagall and another wizard. He had thick glasses and was a rather short man who looked dwarfed next to Hagrid.
“Myridian! Welcome, thank you for coming, even though I know you're busy.” The headmistress said, greeting Merlin warmly.
“Oh, of course, I’m never too busy to help protect the future generations,” Merlin said smiling.
Mrs. McGonagall smiled and took out a piece of paper.
“Okay, thank you, Hagrid for helping lead everyone here. Now, Myridian allows me to introduce you to someone you know, Professor Filius Flitwick.” She said turning to the other professor, of whom Merlin knew.
“Hello. You’ll be helping with the wards?” Merlin asked as he shook hands.
“Yes! I am good with charms. And wards, while different, in essence, are similar.” The shorter man said.
Merlin nodded, as it was true they were all interconnected in magic theory.
“But I didn’t know you were good with wards, Mr. Emrys. Many talents for one so young.” The Professor who looked like he could be Merlin’s grandfather, age-wise, said chuckling.
Merlin gave a small smile taking the compliment even though he knew this wasn’t such a great achievement as he was 10 times this man's elder but chose to keep that to himself. He found it better to just be quiet and accept compliments as opposed to having hour-long conversations because of denying them.
“Shall we get started?” Mrs. McGonagall said, clapping her hands once.
Merlin and Flitwick nodded and they moved with the headmistress as she walked and talked.
She straightened the paper in her hands and surmised the contents for her companions.
“Albus left behind some instructions to reinstall the wards that were originally up before the break-in. And we will all be following them to re-install first. Then Myridian you said you wanted to add more wards, and I would appreciate it. However, if you could note them down and explain the spells to create them I’d appreciate it. I trust you but in case it's good to have a record of it, and it helps a curse breaker remove it if needed. You understand.” The headmistress asked Myridian.
Merlin nodded.
“It’s no problem. However one of them, may I explain it to you rather than write it down. It’s a spell from my ancestors and while I too trust you it’s not something I should be sharing so openly, I hope you understand. But I can explain what I’m doing and how to deactivate it.” Merlin said as he was planning to do some wards with spells of the old religion and didn’t need them leaked.
McGonagall smiled,
“That’s fine. Thank you for using your ancestors' spellwork here, I appreciate the effort,” She said.
After that, they moved forward casting wards and chatting for the rest of the day. It wasn’t till late in the evening did they finish all the wards. Flitwick and McGonagall were rather exhausted with the weight of the magic they were casting today. It was complex spell work and a lot of power was used between the three wizards. Merlin was slightly exhausted, not because of the wards shared between the three of them but rather from the last ward he placed by himself. He’d told McGonagall, he’d made a small one just surrounding the castle walls but he’d lied and spread it as far as he could and that took a lot out of him.
McGonagall offered him to stay in Hogwarts as she was worried he’d have trouble getting home safely but Merlin declined saying he still was okay to apparate home and started making his way off Hogwarts grounds waving as he left.
When he made it back home he crashed more tired than he thought and slept soundly from exhaustion.
Merlin’s House
August 17, 2007
Merlin was sitting at the table with Gwaine and Nimueh as company.
Gwaine lived here as much as Nimueh and Merlin did, so Merlin often saw him in the mornings.
And Nimueh’s only connection to the present was here at Merlin’s house so she was rarely anywhere else.
Anyway, they were sitting around the table enjoying each other’s company but not talking. They all had things they were doing.
Gwaine was on his laptop doing work. He’d taken a break doing his old job since meeting Percival. He’d kind of been freeloading off of Merlin since finding out he was rich but he’d got bored and some buddies hit him up with job offers and he thought he would get back into it part-time to do something when he was bored. And he thought maybe it’d be helpful to stay fresh in his field should anyone need his expertise as multiple people he knew owned businesses and they might need him at some point.
So he was organizing his work this fine morning.
Nimueh was reading.
She had a stack of about five thick books about modern magic. She was very interested in the advancements of magic throughout the years since she’s been dead. And Merlin’s libraries had all the books she would need for a complete history of magic throughout the ages. So she was making her way through his books one day at a time.
She also thought it would be beneficial to learn the new magic as while they forgot their roots and foundations they did have smart ideas on adaptations to the application of magic.
In the past magic was very general. There was no conciseness to it then. The more powerful spells were specific in nature but rather than that, other spells were hit or miss depending on skill. Modern magic relied on skill but there was a structure now that could never have happened in the past.
It wasn’t a lack of intellect in the past but rather a lack of peace; that would have led to a community that could take the time to sort it out. Back in Nimueh’s time, there were rarely congregations of enough magic kin in one space for such ideas to be tested and shared. Magic books were rare back then as most that were made were burned or stolen by muggles. So this was something that wasn’t possible in the past but interesting nonetheless.
Nimueh was a high priestess, she was a sorceress ahead of her generation. She was powerful and smart, she thought, like Emrys, she could create something here.
There were no memories of her in this future she came back to, but that doesn’t mean that it will always be that way. She started to dream of a future where she was involved in this new world and wanted to build a bridge back between the old religion and this new generation's magic.
And if she could create a combination of new magic and old magic then she believes she can close that gap.
And she loved to teach the younger kids magic. The twins and Hermione’s enthusiasm when she talks about the past has fueled this passion she had to learn all she could because it’s nothing she could’ve dreamed of before her death.
Nimueh was happy in this future she came to and was glad she was back.
Merlin was also rather focused with a laptop on one side and a stack of books on the other. He, like Nimueh, was creating something never done before.
But unlike Nimueh he didn’t need to read about theory he needed to see if what he was thinking was actually possible.
See, after creating wards around Hogwarts he had a rather brilliant idea. He’d thought of portable wards. In theory, wards were placed around objects to protect them from outside damage. However, the magic needed to place wards was tiring on the average wizard in the past and now. It took a lot of power to place strong wards down. Merlin didn't necessarily have that problem, so he thought that since you could place wards on and around immovable objects; what would it take to place them on movable objects?
He was worried about how he was going to have the knights go into battle in the future. Gwen and Gwaine came back with injuries after the battle on Harry's birthday. They had strong protection spells on the pendants they were wearing, but it wasn't enough to deter all physical damage. It stopped serious injuries and healed serious wounds but it wasn't a block-all.
However, in theory, a ward attached to a shield could possibly build an impregnable barrier that is movable. However, applying magic that is strong enough to block most if not all attacks and be attached to a movable object; would in theory have to be small otherwise you would drain all of the magic in casting the spell, even for Merlin since it seemed to require continuous magic to be sent.
However, a small wall wouldn't work, or wouldn't be useful enough to waste all of that energy put into it. But to create something larger, it would need a lot more thought put into it.
Which is currently what Merlin was trying to figure out now. He was on the cusp of a discovery but not there yet as he couldn't figure out exactly how to attach it to something movable, yet also be large enough to protect a person.
He was working all of that out now or at least trying to.
Creating something from nothing was harder than it looked. He may have created multiple brand-new spells in the past but it all had roots in the old religion. The spells he created all had ties to something that was once there but just not remembered. This was something completely new. Something like his technology. His magic technology was something new. It was easier than this, still, because it was based off of technology that was already created with explanations behind it so he didn't have to think about how to create it himself, also rune work was something that had existed for a long time.
This would be a breakthrough in magic for the first time in a very long time if he could figure out how to do it.
...
But all thoughts were interrupted by Merlin's owl flying in through an open window.
His owl flew through the house till it landed with a little thump on the wooden table. Everyone looked up from their perspective workstation to see the little owl holding its leg out for Merlin to take the newspaper. Merlin took the paper, pushing his work aside, curious as to what the newspaper could say today.
As of recently, it was never anything good. And as expected it was more bad news.
Merlin’s face frowned so visibly that Gwaine asked him,
“What now?”
Merlin looked up at Gwaine then looked back at what he just read and reread the parts out loud:
“Ministry passes new laws.” He starts as the frown gets deeper.
“Muggle-borns will need to be registered at the ministries information bureau. Tabs must be kept on bloodlines to ensure the future of the magic generations.” Merlin finished.
Merlin then dropped the paper rather harshly.
“Basically it’s saying that the government is going to keep track of all the wizards and witches who have parents who aren’t magical. It’s a way to segregate blood purity. Blood purity is a big thing among pure-blood families. It may not make sense to you Nimueh, because back in the past it was odd if both of your parents had magic but nowadays there are a lot of people in the magic community who believe that the stronger your blood purity is the better wizard you'll produce when you have a child. So they have a bit of a hierarchy or class system in place where there are purebloods who as far back as their lineage goes are all magical. Then there are half Bloods which is where one parent would be magical and the other would be a muggle with no magic. And then there are muggle-borns which are considered a bit confusing to wizards nowadays, as neither parents are wizards, but their child is born magical. Of course, it's all stupid and dumb and I hate this but it's the same as it is with royalty and wanting to stay in their own circles and bloodlines. However, the reason it's not good is because if the government is enforcing laws like this that means the government or what's left of it might be working for Voldemort.” Merlin concluded.
“Most of his ideologies in his war are about blood purity and how purebloods are superior. And if this ideology is now interjected into the government that means that somewhere in there is corrupt and most likely full of Death Eaters. As I say this I should contact Kingsley.” Merlin says pulling his phone out to text said, man.
He was probably reading the paper too but just in case he hadn't seen it, he is in the most dangerous place to be if the government is being overrun by Death Eaters hypothetically.
“Why would blood ties matter when even the muggle-borns are magical kin? They are fighting about the purity of the magic within their people but no matter the parent the child is still of their kin, no?” Nimueh asked, confused, as Merlin said in the past it was rare for both parents to have magic, if either.
Muggle-borns were not common in the past. But it wasn't considered weird either. In the past, with the old religion, you could teach a muggle magic. They wouldn't be as powerful as a sorcerer or a sorceress but they could still use magic. So this segregation didn't really make sense to Nimueh at all.
“My guess is they are trying to build a wall between muggles and wizards. This has been going on for a while. It's the same fight that keeps happening. Half of the wizards like how life is and the other half thinks that wizards and witches are the dominant race and that they should oppress muggles and take over the world.”
Merlin sighed,
“It's not a new outlook on life but it's a tiring one. It happened in the past with Morgana. and now it's happening with this Voldemort fellow. And before Voldemort, there was another and another and another.” Merlin said getting tired of experiencing this over and over again throughout his long long life.
Gwaine and Nimueh frowned at the prospect of this blood-purity fight.
“I still don’t get it, I mean muggles are one thing. I can understand some disdain, no offense.” She said to Gwaine, who was, in fact, a muggle.
But she didn’t mean any harm in her thought process.
“There are bad people, and having grudges against those who wronged you or those who oppressed you is one thing. I had my fair share of hatred in my youth. However, the children brought into the world with magic had no choice of the family or background they came from; yet they are being targeted even though they are kin. I can’t understand the modern way of thinking.” Nimueh finished.
“Uh, that's not the modern way of thinking, that's more medieval,” Gwaine said, as class systems based on bloodlines were medieval ideologies.
“Yeah, they are stuck in the past that’s for sure. While I agree something should change with this modern magical world, it has nothing to do with bloodlines. Rather we should focus on coexistence with muggles not try to be the oppressor. Because we all know where that leads.” Merlin said remembering his failure of his destiny, which caused the magic world to hide themselves away and for there to be this strong divide between worlds which existed today.
He kinda, in a long convoluted way, blamed himself for the way the magical world was.
But he didn't say those thoughts out loud.
…
It’d been 10 days since Merlin contacted Kingsley.
Yet he’d never gotten a response back.
Rather he got a letter in the mail from Hogwarts.
The letter stated that by order of the government, this year’s school term was starting a week earlier to make up for lost time last year. Since Dumbledore’s death and the attack, the studies stopped early last year. But since that happened they moved up the school year to start at the end of August rather than early September. And this letter was informing Professor Emrys to be situated before the term started.
Merlin just stared at the letter and felt iffy.
The government was too involved for everything to be fine.
Plus Kingsley’s missing status was worrying and the lack of Voldemort showing his ugly noseless self was eerie as well.
Nothing was adding up and it was worrying Merlin.
It felt like the calm before a big storm was brewing and he didn’t like being so unaware.
Notes:
This chapter was really long because I really took the time to explain my thought processes. But it may be a little bit theory-heavy, but this story brings up concepts that I don't have an explanation for from the books, movies, and TV shows that I'm using the world from; so I'm literally having to brainstorm my own fucking ideas right now and it's a lot of brain work. I mean that's what this story is in essence, a lot of brain work, and making shit appear from nothing. But it's working out so I'm happy, it just takes a long time.
I didn't think it would take me 5 hours to write one chapter but here we are. I think I'm just getting back into the groove of writing, so normally I could write a chapter in 1 hour. Maybe the catch-up is now 5 hours which is fine by me because I'm not tired and I'm actually trying to write more so this is fun.
I'm fueled by Ferrero Rocher and Doritos just fyi. I'm having a current fight with my mother and she refuses to feed me so I'm just eating snacks to fuel my life right now. I had some fast food earlier but one meal a day does not really last as long as I wanted it to. And I don't have money, so fuck my life I guess. But I'm doing okay. I'm pretty happy right now because writing makes me happy and I'm just trying to vibe with the positive vibes right now. I hope you enjoy the story and I'm writing the next chapter too, so if I still write after finishing the edit of this chapter then you might get another chapter later today. I doubt I'll finish the next chapter this morning, but I'm willing to try. *I’m doing a double thumbs up*
Chapter 16: The Ministry Comes A Knocking
Summary:
An action-packed chapter.
Where the Dark Lord's forces start to move and chaos ensues.
Notes:
I'm back again. I finished the next chapter. I've been really really enjoying writing recently. I'll admit I got into a bit of a writer's block when the Seven Potter battle started because I wasn't really too sure how to go from there even though I had an outline and a timeline I just wasn't sure how to get through the battle itself and I think that's what started the writer's block and then that just grew. But now that we got past it I feel re-energized and excited to continue writing. Also, my outlines/timeline is kind of crazy. There are like 30 pages I think in total for the whole outline for the rest of this book. Most of the bullet points are like one sentence per point. there's not much written in the bullet points it's just what I need to have happen in said chapter. And some of them are like full-on chapters in a bullet point. but none of them are like that at the point I'm writing now it's more towards the end of the book where I had really good ideas and I wrote them out so I wouldn't forget them. bBecause an idea could be captured in a sentence but dialogue has to be written out exactly how I said it in the first place otherwise I won't remember exactly what I said. So that's why most of the dialogue had to be written out hence why I wrote some bullet points as chapters and why the outline probably got to 30 pages
Also, today was pretty hectic because I ordered a sweatshirt and sweatpants set 3 months ago for my birthday and it was on pre-order so it came today except it came to the wrong address and somebody signed for it and now I'm having trouble trying to get in contact with the company. I literally walked up and down every block in my neighborhood ringing everybody's doorbell asking them if they received a package with my name on it and nobody said anything at least the people who answered the door. So that was fun and cold. Especially cuz the first time I went out I decided to stupidly not wear my jacket and then when I went back and got it I was already frozen even though now I was wearing a jacket. I emailed the company so I'm just going to have to wait until they get back to me because I contacted the delivery service and they were like yeah we can't do anything for you because someone signed it and I was like well great that makes me so much happier. I did pay for shipping insurance so we'll see where that gets me.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Technomage Shop
August 21, 2007
Merlin stretches his arms over his head tired. It was the morning but he was already tired. Tomorrow school would start and he felt so overwhelmed.
He looked to James who was sitting next to Sam, looking over her shoulder and commenting on designs she created for some magical websites. He was helping her pick from her many concepts to pick a design for the ‘Merlin’ branded search engine.
Merlin was glad he’d left James in charge this year. He’d talked to McGonagall about it a few days ago. He’d realized pretty early after getting the letter of the new school year starting early that he wasn’t going to have much time, so he was debating on canceling his class this year. But Sirius volunteered to be there full-time since he didn’t have much to do.
Plus he felt better being near Harry. Especially now that the protection spell Lily casted when she died was gone.
Sirius was excessively worried so when he was given the opportunity to stay near Harry he jumped at the prospect.
But it wasn’t like Merlin was completely hands-off. He’d still offer new material to learn and would work on getting cool things to show in school but he just wouldn’t be physically present in Hogwarts. Nor would he be involved in grading homework or essays or tests. But Remus offered to help Sirius so Merlin wasn’t worried nor did he need to feel bad pushing it all on Sirius.
So while Merlin was still tired since he had lots to do with prepping for the unavoidable upcoming battle and his shop, at least he had some help.
The technomage shop was doing well.
Products were being made without Merlin’s consistent presence, which means his workers could manage a while without him.
And the most progress was made by Sam. A genius at her craft. She’d single-handedly created the foundation for magical knowledge accessible online. A magical online library. With the help of a photocopier, a muggle one, she managed to photocopy 1,500 magical tomes and have them available online. She even opened the library to have others with computers to help with the uploading process. In total, there were 5,000 books available as of today.
And all this happened in a little over three months.
It was crazyly efficient.
Merlin was currently working on a magical photocopier to expedite the process of transferring magical texts to the digital world.
But that seemed like the easy part as the foundations were set through Sam’s hard work.
And Merlin wasn’t hogging all the credit. He’d already given Sam an expensive bonus and offered her a higher position in the company. Originally, the order was Merlin as the boss, James as his brother and co-owner, to the public, then Remus as the manager, and the rest of the staff as workers. But Sam moved up to a position close to Remus’ level.
She was in charge of all designing elements for the magical websites. And she designed most phone cases sold in the shop. But also was given co-owner rights to the search engine and managed those who were involved with anything done online, in the magical side of the internet.
Currently, James and Gwaine are working with her in that department. James was quickest with the uptake on technology cause he had the most free time this past year and Gwaine offered help since his work mainly dealt online and thought he could offer good insight on the muggle front.
But now Merlin couldn’t think of any of that.
Tomorrow was the first day of classes and he needed to organize the class schedule for the upcoming year.
Sirius was to deal with all the school proceedings but Merlin was in charge of the topics he was to teach and Merlin was tired. He was supposed to have delivered this two days ago but lost track of time and was making up for it now.
Hogwarts
August 22, 2007
It was the first day of school today.
Many students were making their way onto the campus grounds. The first years would show up later but the other years were already on the castle grounds walking around and getting their stuff together. The student population was almost halved, as many parents were worried about sending their kids back to Hogwarts after the disaster of last year.
All the professors had made their way there two days ago and have been setting up for the new semester since.
Myridian and company were also there. They were busy setting up the classroom.
James and Remus were there setting up paperwork and Remus was trying to organize James’ lack of organization.
Sam took any excuse to enter Hogwarts so she was there. She had prepared some magical moving stickers as gifts for the first years and some phone charms for the other years. She put two little baskets near James’ desk so the kids could pick what they’d like themselves.
Gideon was there as well, he’d come to leave some other studies he had with James. He was trying to figure something out regarding technology and magic and asked James if he could get some student feedback on it, and they were arranging the possibility of a joint lecture day with some of the older students.
It was a busy day in that classroom and the school in general but it was almost as if a sense of normality was returning to the lives of those who lived in and around Hogwarts again.
It was peaceful.
But it didn’t last for long…
Hogwarts
August 30, 2007
Not even a full week passed before the wizarding world started to go to shit.
It wasn’t just small things, it was problems happening left and right. Big and small things causing a shift in all those affected. The changes started small but were effective enough to worry the hearts of all.
War was brewing and it was starting to show.
First, it started in the Ministry.
But it wasn’t noticeable to the outside world till the end of August. The Ministry had been pushing its boundaries with the educational front in Hogwarts and had been passing random laws that spelled trouble for those with muddled bloodlines but that was just the start.
Then about 4 days into the school semester officials from the Ministry appeared in front of Mrs. McGonagall and demanded policy changes to happen within the school.
At first, the headmistress decided to hear them out but soon they took advantage of her care for the students. They came with fake intentions of worrying for the safety of the children but their solutions seemed to make the school more unsafe.
...
First, it was the implementation of Auror’s on school grounds.
While the headmistress didn’t exactly enjoy the prospect of it, she coincided, with the reassuring knowledge that, should an attack happen, it wouldn’t be the teachers as the student's only defense.
So she welcomed them.
They were stiff but she appreciated their presence.
The second implementation of the Ministry being able to take students out of class and interrogate them on suspicious activities is where Mrs. McGonagall tried to stop the Ministry’s involvement.
...
One day on the first of September, she had an angry-faced James Emrys appear before her, in her office, alongside a stiff-looking Ministry official.
“Professor Emrys?” She asked as Sirius was generally laid back while parading around as the elder Emrys sibling.
“Stop this ridiculousness, please.” He said pointing to the Ministry official.
“I found out that they had been taking students out of class to interrogate them,” James shouted.
“You're lucky I’m here and not my brother, he might've killed you,” James mumbled the last part, as Merlin was so overprotective of his people, the schoolchildren included.
The headmistress looked shocked,
“Explain yourself, please. I don’t remember any talks of something like this happening?” Mrs. McGonagall said standing from behind the desk.
“We are here to prevent another attack on the school. From our investigations previously held, we deduced that the other attack must have had an inside man on the job. So we’ve been collecting information from the students we think may have been co-conspirators. This is official Ministry business, no need to involve yourself further.” The man said as if that would’ve helped his case.
James spoke up,
“Just because it’s Ministry business doesn’t mean you can interrogate students without their parents. Also, you’ve been disrupting their studies by pulling them from their classes. And the students have even been complaining that you are screaming at them and scaring them. Also if it was to do with the attack that happened last year, why are you questioning the first years as well, they weren’t even here last year?” James said, asking question after question.
The man sneered at James,
“Your class is hardly important. Muggle technology isn’t something the future generation needs to learn much about. We are wizards, not muggles .” The man said with such disdain, at the word muggle.
“And we are conducting interviews on all the students, we want to get to the bottom of what’s happened.” The man said.
James huffed and looked at Mrs. McGonagall.
The Headmistress was beyond shocked as they hadn’t informed her of any of this and it was definitely against what she believed the Ministry should be allowed to do within and on school grounds.
“If what you said is true, I’d like to ask the Ministry to step away from Hogwarts.” She said standing tall.
“Professor Emrys, please gather a list of all the students traumatized by this matter, we will see all sides of this story and we will hold whoever has done wrong accountable.” She motioned for James to move.
James Emrys nodded and sneered at the man himself before leaving the office.
He sent a quick text to Remus saying that he needed Remus to contact Kingsley as something fishy was going on with the Ministry and they needed to know what it was.
“Now sir, I understand the importance of finding out what happened last year and getting ahead of HeWhoMustNotBeNamed but that doesn’t give you any right to interrupt the students' studies or to mentally scar the children by putting them into scary settings, especially without seeking permission or bringing it up with me out of courtesy. That being said, this stops now. Please head back to your chambers and await there until I confer with the students involved and Professor Emrys. You are not to leave your quarters until further notice. As well as your colleagues. Please inform your associates and head back till tomorrow.” She ordered as this was something she needed to deal with fast, as she felt her power slipping if the Ministry dug their claws in any deeper.
The man frowned deeply but didn’t argue. He nodded and turned to leave.
His face turned dark once McGonagall could no longer see it.
He walked with purpose to his room but walked just as steadily passed it. And kept walking till he got to the room where they’d been holding the interrogations.
There were four other officials congregated in the room. They looked at his entrance.
“We are moving forward now. First, we take the two targets and then move forward with the acquisition of Hogwarts. By morning our plan is to be in full effect.” The man said as the others in the room started to move.
They had lots to do tonight.
Hogwarts.
September 2, 2007
The great hall was filled with students eating breakfast but something was wrong.
The students have been feeling uneasy for the past few days since the presence of the ministry officials being in the school.
It was odd to see unfamiliar faces and some of the students even had PTSD from remembering Death Eaters walking the halls since last year’s incident. They were slightly reassured by the fact that the teachers and the Headmistress were reassuring them that everything was fine and that this was an extra safety measure.
But on this morning nobody felt safe.
The hall was pretty empty since it was morning and not all teachers always arrive for breakfast and not all students woke up in time but today there were absolutely no teachers present this morning. The food was still laid out on the table and everything else seemed perfect but clearly something was wrong.
The students who would arrive early were eating breakfast but none of them seemed joyous or happy. They all had this restless look on their face like they were waiting for something to pop off.
They were waiting for at least one teacher to walk in through the doors and say everything was fine but nobody came.
The only adults in the hall were the ministry officials guarding each exit. And no matter how long they waited, or how full the hall started to get with students; no teachers were in sight.
The students started to panic until Mrs. McGonagall walked in, and suddenly all of the students gave a sigh of relief; as if she was there so nothing could be so terribly wrong. But when they looked at the look on her face, they weren’t too sure about that deduction.
...
Mrs. McGonagall walked up to the front where the teachers normally sat and instead of sitting down she turned around last thing her hands in front of her stomach and looked out to the hall of students.
Almost all if not all of the students were there.
First years to seven years all staring at her was worried expressions on their faces.
She wanted to reassure them that everything was all right but with one look to her side seeing the man that she had spoken to briefly yesterday she instead turned forward and spoke words that none of us just wanted to hear.
“Hello everyone. It seems that the Ministry of Magic has deemed Hogwarts not fit to be run by me, your current Headmistress, and have asked me to step down.” She said, causing a look of shock to pass on all the students' faces.
“However, I have declined that offer.” She said defiantly.
The Ministry officials started to move towards her.
“I will call for all classes to be dismissed today and I will ask you all to head back to your rooms for today. The rest of your meals will be served in the common rooms and I ask you all to be patient as I deal with our school year going forward.” She said as two men half dragged her away to chat.
This was not what was originally agreed upon between Mrs. McGonagall and the Ministry of Magic.
The Ministry of Magic had told her to step down and pass on the headmaster position to the Ministry of Magic candidate they'd picked out. As they would be now conducting this year at Hogwarts.
Of course, while Mrs. McGonagall cared about her own safety, the safety of the students and the well-being of their future was more important than her own. So with the little time she had left to put the students at ease as best as she could, she told the students to go to their rooms where they were safe and to stay there until she could figure something out.
She was already in a bit of a pickle as all of the muggle/magical technology that Myridian Emrys had provided her with was confiscated on behalf of the Ministry of Magic. Also, all of the owls were being monitored on behalf of the Ministry of Magic. And all of the teachers were being held under suspicion by orders of the Ministry of Magic.
And such was how today was going.
To make matters worse two teachers seemed to have disappeared from Hogwarts.
The correlation between their fields of study was rather alarming considering the dangers in this day and age. The Muggle studies teacher had disappeared last night and the Muggle technology teacher had disappeared in the early morning hours of today.
The indication that both teachers who taught Muggle studies in their own right had disappeared on the day that the Ministry of Magic tried to take over the school, things were starting to become awry.
All of the different problems were starting to come together and it started to paint a rather unsettling picture.
The Ministry of Magic was always annoying, to say the least. But they were never this annoying at least since Dolores Umbrage had left the building. Also, the fact that everything started at the moment Dumbledore had disappeared from this world. Whether it be the fight that happened leading to his death. To the attacks that were starting to increase from Death Eaters. Or even know where the school was being taken over by the Ministry with no care for the well-being of the students.
...
Though it was on the tip of everyone’s tongue as to what was going on there was no evidence that was matter-fact enough to secure an in place what was happening…till today.
The newspaper in everyone’s hands all across the British wizarding world read:
“The Ministry Of Magic Has Fallen!”
Death Eaters under HeWhoMustNotBeNamed have forcefully taken control of the Ministry of Magic. What troubles will this bring about for the future of the Wizarding world. And see page 2 on what will happen to the students at Hogwarts? And how this change will affect life as we know it.
Following the paper multiple owls were sent to Hogwarts and even multiple calls were made to the cell phones of the students and teachers yet no responses came back. Even the more persistent parents who waited out front of the school grounds couldn’t get a response as there were spells placed around Hogwarts disallowing unpermitted entry. The school became a prison to those inside and to keep those who wanted in, and out.
It was the worst situation possible.
...
While parents all over Britain were freaking out, Merlin and Remus weren’t doing better.
Remus had gotten the last text Sirius had sent which was about needing to get into contact with Kingsley as something bad was happening inside the school and with the Ministry as a whole. But after that text, Sirius never called or texted again. He went MIA and there was no way to contact or find him.
Merlin tried to locate him but the fact that he wasn’t actually Merlin‘s blood relative cut his options in half of trying to find him. No matter how much he looked like Myridian it wasn’t the same as being related to him so blood spells didn’t work. And those were the most accurate tracking spells Merlin knew.
Even Nimueh tried but she was being blocked, she tried to scry into the water to find him but the image never was clear enough to gather a location or attempt a bridge of communication and so that method was a bust.
Gwaine even tried to track his cell phone but learned that tracking magical devices was next to impossible as they weren’t using cell towers and their signal never pinged off of other devices and in turn not trackable via the muggle way of tracking technology.
Besides being worried for Sirius, they then realized if the Ministry was taken over by the Dark Lord, and he controlled the government then that meant all the students at Hogwarts were in trouble.
And with Sirius’ disappearance, they couldn’t tell what other teachers were still there or if the students were even alright.
It was a true clusterfuck.
September 8, 2007
The Daily Prophet, the only source of news that seemed to get any information to update the worrying masses, released a new paper this morning.
Those in Hogwarts have already heard the news, but to those of the outside world, things were getting bleaker.
The title on the front page read:
“New Headmaster Appointed! Severus Snape becomes the next headmaster following Mrs. McGonagall’s sudden step down.”
It seemed like the paper was being censored as it didn’t have the same spark it once had previously.
It was like a lackluster version of the old Daily Prophet. The Daily Prophet wasn’t always accurate or truthful but this one seemed almost like whoever was writing the article was biting their tongue and clenching their fists, seeming to write what somebody else was telling them.
And considering that most of the world knew by now that Severus Snape, the old potions master and brief defense against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts was in fact a undercover spy working for Voldemort and unbeknownst to many, had ultimately been there at the time of Dumbledore‘s death, didn’t really make anyone feel good about this old professor coming back.
It also didn’t make sense that Headmistress McGonagall would step down if she had any choice on the matter but considering that half of the population believed that the Death Eaters were currently controlling the school, they believed that it wasn’t by choice at all.
The situation was growing dire by the day and there was nothing anyone could really do about it.
Hogwarts was impenetrable at the moment and the newspapers were being censored.
Death eaters no longer feared being seen out in public.
There was no government to combat against them, it seemed like it was all coming to an end on the side of the light.
Hogwarts
September 9, 2007.
From Mrs. McGonagall’s last warning to the students they had been hiding away in their common rooms and their dorms waiting for the inevitable to happen. They didn't know what exactly was going to happen but they were scared and they had no way of communicating with the outside world.
They were literally rats stuck in a jar. They knew very little of what was going on.
Clearly, the Ministry officials were not Ministry officials.
Especially because one kid, while being interrogated saw the dark mark on their arm and that rumor spread like wildfire.
So most of them realized that they were being held by Death Eaters in Hogwarts and it was like a repeat of last year which had already scarred half of the student population and they weren't feeling any better about it this year.
Of course, there were a few students who had formed a militia of sorts to try to protect themselves as best as they could. There wasn't really much they could do but they tried to keep the first years as safe as possible because they didn't have any knowledge of what this world was like just yet.
The Muggle-borns were the most terrified as they knew what was in their future if the Death Eaters got into the common rooms at some point, and they didn't doubt that it was never going to happen. They knew it was only inevitable but they were just hoping that maybe Mrs. McGonagall or another teacher would come to their aid first.
Most of the students were praying for something like that to happen.
And they weren't wrong, some of the teachers did come back.
Actually, most of the teachers were allowed to enter the common rooms and fill in the students on what was happening and what was going to happen in the future. It wasn't good information, especially after learning about Snape's reinstatement as the Headmaster of Hogwarts. And Mrs. McGonagall’s step down.
But the teachers were trying to give the students a sense of safety, at least in their presence.
...
The teachers that were allowed to speak to the students, were each head of house and were allowed to go into the common room of their prospective house to inform their students of the new changes that were happening at Hogwarts.
Mrs McGonagall was speaking to the Gryffindors as of right now.
She was getting murmurs of whether they should fight back or should they run or what they should do or how they could contact their parents and for once Mrs McGonagall didn't know how to reassure the students before her.
She would die for them, but to get them out of the situation she wasn't sure exactly what to do.
All she could think to do was to hold out until help came. She may not be able to get in contact with the Order of the Phoenix but that didn't mean that they wouldn't realize something was going on sooner or later and she was sure they would be more than happy to step in and save them as this is what their fight was about especially since the Dark Lord would be at the epicenter of this.
That being said, she was also worried about one particular student more so than the rest.
Harry Potter, was in the worst possible situation he could possibly be in.
It wasn't safe for him here.
But she didn't know how to get him out either nor who she could call to help.
It was a bad day for all those in Hogwarts.
September 9, 2007 - 9:00 p.m.
Harry Potter was sitting in his bed staring out. He didn’t have his phone or laptop, they’d been confiscated. Everyone was scared and he couldn’t find Sirius. He was sitting there for about an hour before Mrs. McGonagall headed in and sat on the corner of his bed. Harry was startled. He heard from the Professor earlier, along with everyone else, about how Snape became the Headmaster and how Death Eaters had infiltrated the Ministry and how they couldn’t contact the outside, and how things were looking grim.
He looked at his head of house and she’d never seemed so weary before.
She wasn’t talking, seeming to try to gather her words.
She wasn’t the brave, strong, and fearless woman he’d always seen her as she seemed tired and scared.
“Professor?” Harry asked, concerned.
McGonagall sighed and looked at Harry, she’d been debating on telling this but she knew not saying anything wasn’t right either.
“James Emrys has been kidnapped.” She said.
Harry's brain took a second before realizing Sirius was kidnapped.
“What? When? Why?” Harry said, asking all the questions as they sprang to his mind.
But McGonagall held her hand up.
“Potter, you have a way to get out of Hogwarts.” She said as a statement rather than questioning him.
Harry looked sheepish and glanced at his trunk where the Marauder's map lay. He had a few ways via a secret passage to leave Hogwarts.
“Yes.” He answered truthfully.
“You need to leave. No one here is safe, but you need to escape more so than anyone else. The moment the Death Eaters decide to come for you that will be the end. Take whatever you need and I’ll help you get out if you need it.” She said looking desperately at Harry.
Harry gulped, as he knew this was serious now.
He’d never seen the look on his Professors face like this.
It was like she needed him to go and get help.
And Harry, while nervous, heard what he needed to hear.
...
It’s not like he wasn’t already thinking something similar.
Harry knew that he still had things to do. From last year with Dumbledore, he knew he needed to track down the remaining Horcruxes and to do that he needed to leave the school.
His original plan was to work with his godfather and leave the school with, him or his permission and search for the Horcruxes while going to school. Then the takeover happened and he was just worried about how things were gonna go for his friends and classmates. And now he’d learned that the Death Eaters took Sirius and that changed things.
Now not only did he need to go after the Horcruxes to help defeat HeWhoMustNotBeNamed, but he also needed to find his godfather.
“Why was he taken? Did they find out he was Sirius?” Harry asked, whispering, even though they were the only two in the room.
Mrs. McGonagall shook her head,
“No, I believe it was because he was teaching a subject to do with muggles. The muggle studies teacher is missing as well. As long as Myridian’s potion continues to work I believe they think they’ve captured James Emrys. Though I don’t believe that makes it any better.” Mrs. McGonagall says as she knew both Emrys men got into trouble with the Dark Lord and his followers whether they were related or not they were very similar in this facet.
Harry looked down but was determined.
Once he stood the Professor stood with him.
“Gather what you need and let me know what I should do to help.” She said as she left Harry alone going back to the common room.
Once she was gone Harry clenched his fists and took a deep breath before running to his trunk and grabbing the invisibility cloak and the map. He also grabbed the golden snitch Dumbledore left him and a few other necessities he thought he might need. He grabbed a bit of money and turned to go down the stairs but slipped in shock and fell to the ground as Ron and Hermione were giving him a look.
“Wha-bloody hell. You scared me.” Harry said, dropping most of the stuff in his hands and grabbing his chest above his heart, breathing a bit erratically.
When his friends didn’t say anything he looked them in the eyes,
“What?” He asked.
“You’re leaving without us,” Hermione stated looking disappointed.
“What? I’m not going anywhere.” Harry chose to lie.
He was doing a piss poor job of it though. Ron picked up his cloak and the map.
“So where are you going then?” Ron asked.
Harry looked away and sighed,
“Fine, it’s true. I am escaping. But I need to. Mrs. McGonagall said it's dangerous if I stayed here with all the Death Eaters. And Sirius was kidnapped so I have to save him.” Harry explained picking his things back up.
“And? What about us? You didn’t think we didn’t want to come and help?” Hermione argued.
Harry sighed,
“It’s too dangerous, you guys could die,” Harry said worrying for the safety of his friends.
Since Moody’s death, he vowed to not let anyone else die.
“And, so you think it’s okay if you go off into dangerous places by yourself and die by yourself? Harry, we faced all these challenges together in school. We almost died plenty of times together in school. We are coming with you. Tell him, Ron.” Hermione said, slapping Ron’s shoulder.
Ron clutched his shoulder, giving Hermione a look.
“She’s right mate, we’ve been doing this together so we aren’t going to let you go off on your own. Plus we’ll be stronger together. Plus Hermione is all packed and ready to go.” Ron said, pointing to Hermione’s rather small bag over her shoulder.
Hermione looked sheepish and silently agreed, she’d been packed and ready as she assumed Harry would’ve thought to escape just as she had.
Harry sighed but secretly was happy that his friends were there to back him up.
All he could do was nod his head and ask his friends to meet in the common room in five minutes.
...
They’d met with Mrs. McGonagall and exited the common room under the cloak and Mrs. McGonagall distracted the Death Eaters standing guard in the hallway while the children used the map to head to the secret tunnel out of Hogwarts.
The trio had no trouble going around unfound as they’d done this many times before and they quickly escaped the castle with the forces of evil none the wiser.
Notes:
I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'm so excited that it's finally starting to build up to the exciting part. I think the Horcrux hunts are probably my favorite part to write about so far. I dread the ending not because it ends but because it's going to be a pain in the ass to write that shit out but I think the Horcrux hunts and with Sirius being kidnapped I think that's going to be so much fun. I have so much planned it's so exciting. I want to spoil so much but I'm going to keep my mouth shut because I have so much to say cuz I know what's going to happen next and I want to tell you but I guess I'm going to save it for my writing damn it, sucks but you'll see it soon hopefully.
I probably will write more this weekend I don't think I'll be writing and updating as frequently as I have been these past two days but I'll try. I do want to build some bookshelves that I bought. I don't know where I'm going to put them though, so that's also what's causing me to not want to put them together. Also, I assume it's going to be a lot of fucking screws and that's going to be a pain in the ass. I always buy furniture that I have to assemble myself and it sucks. I tried to last minute by bookshelves that were easy to assemble but my mom was like ‘fuck you I'm buying the cheaper ones’ and I'm like damn it. It was my Christmas gift so I'm going to juggle whether I'm going to build shelves or clean up or write. I have two days left of freedom home alone so we'll see what I get done. I don't have to take care of my dog so I'm literally free to do whatever I need to do at any time because I'm not going to be waking anyone up if I start deciding to do stuff in the middle of the night so we'll see what happens.
Also, I'm currently like munching on cold french fries because I bought my food when I started writing the story at like 6:00. and it's now 11:30 as I upload this and my food got called. thankfully this time I did eat some of it before it got cold but the fries got cold hella quickly so that sucks but at least they still taste good
Chapter 17: Only Destruction Follows
Summary:
The events of the upcoming weeks and how Sirius/James Emrys got kidnapped.
Notes:
I'm doing a fourth update in 2 days, what is going on?
Honestly, I don't know what I'm doing I just have really strong urges to continue the story. I feel like since I'm finally getting to the good parts I'm more enthusiastic about writing them and so I'm writing more. I've already written 20,000 words I don't know how many thousand words this chapter is. But I'm sure it'll add at least 3,000 more words or whatever. I had a little bit of a hard time writing this chapter funnily enough. The next chapter is going to be really cool.
So I wanted to get through this chapter to write the next chapter. But at the end of the chapter, there's some exciting dialogue stuff that I added in to prelude to the next chapter so it'll be great.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy and leave comments to know that you're still here.
I'm so glad to see so many people who were there at the start of the story and are still coming back to check in it's very
*warm feeling in my chest*I don't know how to describe it. <3
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
September 14, 2007
Not too long after Harry left the school everything was thrown into chaos. Hogwarts was declared to be taken over.
McGonagall and the students were holding out trying to behave as best as possible to not face the ire of the Death Eaters who were causing havoc in the school but it was a tumultuous relationship, where everyday spelled a new outcome that couldn’t be anticipated.
Not only in the school were bad things happening. The government was deteriorating day by day.
The only reason it collapsed so quickly was because apparently , the whole world was late to the news, but the Minister of Magic had been murdered.
The whole Ministry was silenced with unforgivable curses and hidden killings to try to keep the information hidden as long as possible until it started to all get out after the school was taken over.
Kingsley the head of the Auror department was declared missing or dead or captured, once news broke of the previous minister being killed.
That news put fear in the hearts of some of the Order members because soon after Death Eaters started to publicly target them.
It wasn’t public knowledge on who the members were, but some of them were being made examples of.
The information network was pretty shaky as everything started to come to light all too late.
James Emrys’ kidnapping started it off.
Then Kingsley being missing or worse was the start.
Then some of the safe houses were blown up as messages that nowhere was safe.
Harry Potter was declared missing.
A bounty placed on the capture of Harry Potter was soon issued.
And it only kept getting worse.
...
Myridian Emrys also became a target and so did his shop.
Death Eaters tried to storm the building attacking it in broad daylight.
Though, it took about two hours, the wards in place started to crack.
Merlin was all-powerful, however, 30 Death Eaters flinging curses nonstop for an hour, started to take a bit of an effect on his blood wards... well that and he was simultaneously transporting people and electronics out of this shop continuously while this was all going on.
The blood wards used constant magic being pulled from him to create the effect of being impenetrable. While Merlin knew that it was inevitable that they could eventually break as nothing was perfect even with his magic.
Especially if there was a curse breaker, because at the end of the day, wards were a type of spell, and if they had someone smart enough they could be broken.
Or brute force was an option it just took a while.
And while he was inside helping people leave who were still in the shop and even some customers who got caught up at the wrong time and wrong place it was a bit taxing even on him.
It was just him in the shop with three other employees and about four or five customers so he took the burden and decided to stay while everyone tried to escape and escape with merchandise. Although it could all be replaced there were some things that needed to be saved, if possible, and it was possible as long as Merlin was in the store.
Once everything was taken and moved he let his magic go and let the store wards break which caused the Death Eaters to flood the building.
They started destroying the first floor.
Anything that was left was destroyed. Of course, the actual products were indestructible but everything that wasn’t an electronic device was blown to smithereens.
After the first floor, they stormed the second floor destroying doors and blowing out windows.
It looked like a hurricane had blown through except it seemed they were too late as nobody was in the store, not even Merlin.
They counted it as a failure but weren’t too bummed as this was also serving as a message that they were coming and not even the most powerful wards could stop them.
...
Following the shop being destroyed, the house of a member of the Order of the Phoenix was blown up and burned down. There were many members of the order of the Phoenix who didn’t necessarily join every single meeting or were privy to most of the information concerning the reincarnations and the Darkest Hour.
These members were targeted first but definitely not last.
The house that was burned down belonged to Dedalus Diggle.
Thankfully he wasn’t home and managed to escape with his life but that didn’t stop the worry that it placed in everyone’s heart as members of the light realized that it was full-on war now.
Nothing was brewing anymore, it had started and its entirety.
…
Momentarily throughout the wizarding world, a problem occurred.
With Merlin’s slight damage during the whole shop incident. His magic fluctuated and caused a little issue with some of his products.
Originally he had solved the problem of needing to charge electronic products by infusing magic into them, hence powering them off the residual energy that was magic.
However, the fluctuation in his magic caused some of the products to have issues meaning that they started to lose power.
It could be simply fixed by plugging them in but a lot of wizards didn’t have outlets in their home as they really didn’t need them. So it became a bit of a hassle as a lot of electronic products stopped working.
And there was no way to get them fixed as the only electronic shop in the world had been blown up and destroyed weeks previously.
That caused a rippling effect of issues and communication was then cut off again. And owls became the main source of communication for anyone who couldn’t meet with Merlin personally.
After the store was destroyed more problems started to happen as even the employees started to get targeted.
Reasons were; that they were working with muggle technology and muggles were a taboo topic, as of recently because of the whole being taken over by the Dark Lord and his decree that muggles should be killed and their sympathizers could join them in death and yada yada yada.
He was just enforcing that anyone who had anything to do with muggle-loving ideas would be targeted and or killed if captured.
And that’s when the disappearances started.
Multiple people started to go missing. And since communication was basically cut off and the only source of news was the Daily Prophet, which was being censored.
People weren’t sure if their family members or friends were just not home on time or had been kidnapped by Death Eaters.
It was a time of great worry.
...
Muggles and muggle sympathizers weren’t the only ones targeted. Even muggle-borns were being hunted. They had to go through a trail of sorts if captured.
They had to denounce any family that they had that were Muggles. Then if any of them were alive they had to take one, bring it to a Death Eater, and kill them to prove that they truly had renounced their relationships with the muggle side of their bloodline. Or if they didn’t do that they were then captured and taken somewhere and tortured.
Hence why most people stopped leaving their houses and lived quietly like mice as they were worried for the safety of themselves and their loved ones.
It didn’t even matter if they escaped the Wizarding world, Death Eaters would come to find muggle-borns through the Ministry of Magic’s files and either capture them or kill them or destroy their homes in freak gas leak accidents or electrical explosions, according to muggle newspapers.
That wasn’t the end of the damage they had been doing.
After taking control of the ministry they went to Azkaban and released more prisoners without any fear of being stopped or fear at all. They had the Dementors under their control and new power players started to act up within the Ministry.
Most officials were killed but they still needed some sense of government in this new world they were trying to make.
Even after the death of the previous minister, they placed in a replacement. Though he was being controlled through an unforgivable, and was made to do and pass whatever the Death Eaters wanted.
A fan-favorite person was reinstated in the ministry.
After being coincidentally released from Azkaban, Dolores Umbridge took up a leadership position in the ministry and started to enforce a team who were bringing about policies of the persecution of muggle-born witches and wizards and made it imperative that muggle-borns must register in a database so that the Ministry of Magic could keep close tabs on whether they were truly wizards now.
She called it the Muggle Born Registration Commission (MBRC) and their job other than gathering information, was tasked to investigate muggle-borns on the charge of having stolen magic from actual pure-blooded wizards and/or the magical community as a whole. Because their whole thought process was that it would be impossible for two muggles to create a magical child so something devious must’ve happened in the process of the birth of the child and they were being investigated for those crimes.
In the end, it was just a movement to limit the muggle world from encroaching into the wizarding one. And in the process, it was targeting and dehumanizing muggle-borns and even some half-bloods.
It was like a witch hunt, but in the case of, if you weren’t tied to magic why did you have it?
And under the assumption that if you didn’t have blood ties then it must’ve been stolen somehow.
And if the muggle-born and half-bloods didn’t comply with swearing their allegiance solely to magic and denouncing their muggle ancestry or ties to the muggle world they were to be taken care of, to put it lightly.
The Daily Prophet spread this news by including this article:
"The Ministry of Magic is undertaking a survey of so-called 'Muggle-borns,' the better to understand how they came to possess magical secrets. Recent research undertaken by the Department of Mysteries reveals that magic can only be passed from person to person when Wizards reproduce. Where no proven Wizarding ancestry exists, therefore, the so-called Muggle-born is likely to have obtained magical power by theft or force. The Ministry is determined to root out such usurpers of magical power, and to this end has issued an invitation to every so-called Muggle-born to present themselves for interview by the newly appointed Muggle-born Registration Commission." -The Daily Prophet
...
Harry, Hermione, and Ron stumbled upon a copy of the newspaper and Hermione got worried for the safety of her family as she was well known as a muggle-born who fought against the Dark Lord.
Harry was worried about the other members of the order.
As they had seen Myridian’s shop after it was breached by Death Eaters.
They luckily weren't near when it was happening as the place was crawling with Death Eaters at the time but the aftermath wasn’t pretty and spelled a clear message to all those who were against Voldemort.
September 14, 2007
“This is bad,” Ron said, pacing in a circle around a seemingly random muggle neighborhood.
“Yeah,” Harry agreed dejectedly while looking at Hermione who had started biting her nails with the anxiety she felt for her parent's safety.
They were standing a few houses down from her house and they saw a Death Eater watching her house.
Hermionie almost rushed in to save her family.
As the smartest witch of her generation had lost all reason when it came to the safety of her loved ones. Hermione didn’t know what to do. Despite wanting to run in, she knew it was stupid. She needed to think.
She slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath to calm her mind.
Harry and Ron looked concerned but couldn’t say anything from the look of determination on her face, so they stood quietly waiting for what she would come up with.
She could think of something.
She had to.
Think, think, think.
For Hermione, safety was most important.
The safety of her family, her friends, and lastly herself.
She needed to contact her parents. She pulled out the magical phone and looked crestfallen. It was dead. Which logistically made sense as it was a phone and it could die because it needed to be charged but Hermione and most of the magical community either didn’t know or forgot that they needed to be charged because they didn’t seem to need it in the beginning. She figured they found a way to have them be endlessly charged but something must’ve gone wrong after the tech shop was blown up and destroyed.
She wondered if she could go to just a regular muggle store and buy a charger. And if that would work but she wasn’t sure she didn’t necessarily want to leave away from her parent's house just yet especially not with a Death Eater hanging around.
So she pushed that to the back of her mind, they had time to test it later, for now, she needed to make sure her parents were safe.
She was sure it was possible to maybe subdue the Death Eater, get to her parents, and get them out. But she was sure that was only a temporary solution as she didn’t think her parents would be fine with her skipping school to go on a hunt for dangerous magical things while being chased by mad men trying to kill her at any chance they got.
She knew that they wouldn’t let her go and get harmed but she couldn’t leave them here to be used as a bargaining chip eventually against her. Because she would die for her family.
But she couldn’t figure out a solution.
She was racking her brain for every spell she knew, for any safe house she thought was safe enough.
But it was not enough for her.
Most of the safe houses were blown up or destroyed.
The Death Eaters were hunting for them in broad daylight.
The ministry and all of its files on every muggle born and their family were out in the open.
There was truly no safety available within the Wizarding world.
And with her helping out Harry and looking for the Horcruxes she couldn’t stay here watching over her parents forever. And they wouldn’t leave her alone in these trying times either.
...
After thinking for about an hour she found a solution.
Not a good solution.
Not a safe one.
One that would probably make her parents angry when they found out in the future, should she survive this whole ordeal.
But it would keep them safe.
And she needed them to be kept safe so that she could do what she needed to do.
“Let’s go,” Hermione said standing after crouching for so long.
Her legs wobbled but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Are we leaving?” Ron asked confused.
“No. I need your help to knock out the Death Eater. Then I’ll take care of my parents.” Hermione said with a grim look on her face.
“What are you going to do with them?” Asked Harry.
She looked worried but said,
“I’m going to make them forget me. If they don’t know me then they’re not going to be in trouble. And then I’ll make them think that going to Australia at this time of year is nice. When all of this is said and done I’ll go and undo what I did.” Hermione said not paying attention to her friends and only walking forward.
The boys couldn’t even say anything to dissuade her from this idea as they couldn’t offer a helpful solution anyways. But they knew that this wasn’t easily decided nor what Hermionie really wanted.
But since they were powerless to help her they just quietly nodded their heads even though she couldn’t see their faces and walked behind her ready to help her do whatever she decided to do.
They just knew that when this was all over they too would be there beside her to undo what she was doing today.
If they all survived.
Hogwarts, James Emrys’ Office
September 1, 2007
Sirius was in his office.
He was compiling the list of students who were interrogated by those suspicious ministry officials. He had called Kingsley’s phone at least 30 times yet still no answer. He decided that tomorrow he was going to go to the Ministry of Magic himself and see what exactly was going on.
He’d gotten a text back from Remus but didn’t reply as it was the same for them, as they couldn’t get in contact with Kingsley either.
...
As he was in his office there was a knock at his door.
He paused and walked to open it. It wasn’t someone he was expecting. It was the muggle studies professor.
She looked shaken up.
“Professor Emrys?” She asked, sounding upset.
“Yes?” Sirius said not understanding what was going on.
“I need help from those Ministry people who are trying to search through my classroom. They have broken the door down and have said it’s Ministry business while destroying everything.” She said crying as tears welled in her eyes.
Sirius looked confused.
“What? Why are they investigating you? You teach muggle studies, wouldn’t you be the last person they should suspect of working with the Dark Lord?” Sirius said, actually confused.
First, it was the first years and now they were targeting the muggle studies teacher, something was really not right.
“I don’t know. They were asking where my loyalties lied and why I would ever teach about muggles when they were so insignificant. I have a bad feeling. But I don’t know what to do.” She said, trying to wipe the tears falling down her face.
“Are they still in your room?” Sirius asked.
“Yes, I came here as I assumed you might still be awake.” She said.
Sirius nodded, going to his desk and grabbing his cell phone to take pictures for evidence, and ushered the muggle studies professor out the door.
“Let’s go. We will capture the evidence with the phone and then show it to the Headmistress and then we will head to the Ministry tomorrow morning.” Sirius said, walking out in front.
He shouldn’t have turned his back.
The tears stopped falling from her face the moment he wasn’t looking at her and she pulled her wand out.
Sirius turned only to see a jet of red filling his vision before he fell over petrified, dropping his phone along with his stiff body.
The muggle studies Professor stood over him as he looked at her confused.
But the confusion didn’t last as her face changed after the polyjuice wore off.
Standing there was the Ministry official he’d seen around the school.
He glared, still not sure what was going on still.
Until the man raised his sleeve showing a dark mark as he smirked one last time before kicking James in the face, knocking him unconscious.
“Goodnight and sweet dreams, James Emrys.” The man said laughing.
…
In the corner of the hallway, a young man looked on in fear.
His blonde hair was no longer slicked back and proper. He was holding his breath as he watched the events of the Professor getting attacked and getting dragged away.
Once he was alone he started to hiccup.
He knew this was coming.
But something about watching those blue eyes of the professor glaring scared him.
Like he should be remembering something and whatever it was had something to do with Emrys and he needed to remember but he couldn’t.
The only thing he could do was slide down the wall, hiccuping and having a headache.
Till he heard a phone ring. He walked over to where the professor just was and picked up his abandoned phone. Myridian Emrys' name flashed across the screen but his headache only got worse. He turned the phone off pocketing it and sat with his head against the cool stone of the wall; trying to make the pain in his head go away.
That’s how Snape found him moments later.
Worried for his godson, Snape got him off the floor and pushed him back to the dorms, and told him to rest as big days were coming and he needed to be prepared.
Notes:
Oh my God, we finally discovered how Sirius got kidnapped. I apologize for not calling him James as often anymore. Just know whenever he's out in public or if I don't make the distinction that he looks like Sirius, he definitely looks like James Emyrs. I just think that those people thinking about him would think about him as Sirius even if he looked like James. So anytime somebody knows who he is under the facade they're going to think about him or maybe even call him Sirius. But if they don't know him they'll either call him by his last name or James if they're more familiar with him but still don't know his secret identity.
I hope that clears up any if all confusion that there was. I'll try to go back to calling him James again I just think I'm not exactly used to it since it's been a year. I think I'm focusing more on the essence of my writing rather than the names and exactly what I was doing before. Cuz when I stopped writing I wasn't really happy with my writing. Because if you look at the very first book of this series and you read that very first chapter it looks so different from what I'm writing now. And that discrepancy kind of makes me unhappy. Because I know and you know how good that first chapter is. And I'm trying to emulate it through the rest of my story but it's not been going as well as I like so I'm trying my best to get back up to that level of writing that I was at. I think I'm getting closer again, so double thumbs up for me.
Anyway, I'm already working on the next chapter so we'll see what happens next.
I ordered the same meal I had yesterday again today and it is again cold.
I'm eating cold fries again.I asked for more food money and I was given nothing but a video of my dog so I will sit in my sorrows I guess.
*dropped my phone a 4th time today.....wtf man. T.T
Chapter 18: Tired, Trapped, And Tortured
Summary:
Sirius get beat up and Merlin takes charge.
Notes:
I am here again....wow....a miracle.
I'm just really excited about writing so I'll keep going strong for as long as possible.I slept a lot today. Makes sense though, I always become exhausted after therapy. No matter what I talk about on Sunday I always feel super sleepy afterward.
And my mom returned today and she asked only now if I was hungry, yet ignored my pleas during the weekend so I was like ‘No dawg’. I’d already ordered food expecting she wasn’t gonna buy me anything. She didn’t think she would finish her own food so she wanted me to finish it, it wasn’t even an offer of buying me something of my own.
So I ordered from Taco Bell. I haven’t eaten Taco Bell since 2022. Since before I had my stomach surgery.
But to be honest, I’m not gonna eat takeout anymore, I see some adverse effects of consuming nothing but it for 3 days. So once I go grocery shopping, I’ll eat better and walk my dog a bit more so I feel better.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
September 10, 2007
It had been 9 days since his imprisonment.
And these past few days have been terrible.
...
He had woken up with a broken nose and he was cold.
Being in a cell gave him PTSD from Azkaban. He’d thought for a moment that his whole experience since his escape was a dream he’d conjured up to escape the reality that he was in.
It wasn’t till he noticed the cell was different and the clothes he was wearing were too nice for him to still be in Azkaban. He was wearing the clothes he was wearing when he’d last been talking to Harry in his Muggle Tech class. And he was chained to the wall so that he couldn’t move far from the wall.
The biggest difference is he wasn’t alone. There were multiple people with him.
There were people chained on the opposite walls and they were mainly curled up and shaking at every sound that was made.
Whether it be the jingle of the chains Sirius was wearing as he moved or the drips of water dripping from the ceiling, any sound made them flinch as if they couldn’t trust what followed the sounds.
Most he didn’t recognize except for one, the muggle studies Professor. Sirius flinched remembering his kidnapping slowly, he glared but then remembered it couldn’t have actually been her as the person was a Death Eater.
Plus she looked horrible.
She was bruised purple and her hair was more on the ground beside her than on her head.
She looked broken.
Even though she had her eyes open she seemed to be seeing nothing anymore.
Sirius took the chance anyway to ask what was happening,
“Hell-cough” Sirius started but started to cough horribly as his throat was dry and it was humid and cold in the cells which just seemed to aggravate his throat the more he coughed.
He eventually had to forcibly stop himself as he felt lightheaded if he’d continued for much longer. He forced himself to swallow his own saliva as a means to comfort his scratchy throat.
He took deep breaths trying to regain his composure.
Instead of talking he decided to take account of his surroundings instead and see what he could figure out till he got some water.
He figured they’d give him something if they went through the trouble of keeping him alive.
...
After the 9 days, he’d learned something from observing.
One, there were multiple people in his cell but they also seemed to be multiple cells with multiple other people in them. Though most of the people down here seem to be quiet as a mouse trying not to gain attention, you couldn’t completely hide signs of life. Whether it was a calculated breath or a whimper from pain, Sirius spent 8 days listening to it all. He couldn't tell exactly how many people were there but at least more than 15, as he could see 3 cells, and in his own cell there were 5 people in it, including himself. So assuming the same amount was in each there were a lot of people being held captive.
And they weren’t put here to waste away, there were Death Eaters who’d show up with meager provisions. They consisted of dirty water and molded food, but he’d survived off of something similar in Azkaban so this treatment didn’t phase him as much as others.
When it was food time, which happened once a day, some people seemed to find a fire within themselves and started to fight back but those moments were short-lived.
The Death Eaters didn’t care about what happened to those in the cells, if they’d cause too much trouble they’d be killed on the spot. And they wouldn’t even drag the bodies out of there until a stench started to permeate the air.
It silenced others as the message was clear, ‘you act up, you die’.
But living in the cells wasn’t a pleasurable experience even if you cooperated.
At random times during the day, someone would be forcibly dragged out of the cells and would disappear up the stairs and all you could hear moments later were that person's screams.
Then laughter Sirius knew too well would follow.
It was definitely a Death Eater base, as Belitrix was the loudest during the torture.
Sometimes the poor people would be brought back down, and thrown back into the cells but most times they didn’t come back.
And new people would be shoved in their place.
Sirius wasn’t touched or moved out of the cell for a long time.
They seemed to want to break him by waiting, but they didn’t know who they were dealing with.
Sirius had done this all before, but since he looked like James Emrys, they didn’t know that.
It took around a month before Sirius saw more than the inside of the cells.
October 1, 2007
Finally, after days of seeing others dragged up those stairs it was Sirius’ turn.
Three Death Eaters showed up. Two removed him from the wall and one held a wand on him should he try anything.
Sirius wanted to snarl and attack but he needed to know where he was if he was going to escape. So he refrained from all his instincts and went limp, letting himself be dragged up those stairs.
The light was so blinding that he instinctively raised his arms to block his eyes, but someone smacked him in the back of the head the moment he tried.
He closed his eyes and slowly tried to open them to adjust the light as best as he could after being in the dark for a month or so. He wasn’t sure how many days passed but thought it to be that long.
After regaining his sight he saw a place he knew.
He’d not been a frequent visitor but had been here once or twice when he was young still living with his parents. It didn’t look the same but similar enough that he could tell he was in Malfoy Manor.
It was a bit trashed and the place he was brought to had blood staining the floor, but it was definitely Malfoy Manor.
His dear cousin Bellatrix Lestrange was sitting on a throne in front of him.
While he knew she was there, he half expected the Dark Lord to be there as well, but it was just her.
Well no there were tens of Death Eaters and he could see a poorly-aged Lucius Malfoy standing next to Morgana and the person Gwaine punched, Mordred.
Sirius sighed,
‘Great a room of people who want me dead.’
He thought to himself as his throat was still messed up, as the water was too infrequent to help his voice.
Sirius defiantly looked up at Bellatrix and glared because that was all he could do at least for now.
She smirked and laughed, and then looked towards Morgana, moving her hand to say ‘Your turn’.
Morgana smirked and walked forward.
She looked at Lucius and the man summoned two chairs. One for Morgana and one for Sirius.
Sirius was dropped in the chair and he couldn’t help the wince. But he still looked at Morgana with hatred. Morgana sat back and beckoned Mordred over.
“It’s him right? He has the same annoying look.” Morgana said, looking at Sirius with disdain.
Sirius looked confused for a moment. Looking at the man who stepped up he was trying to figure out what they were talking about.
“They do look similar,” Mordred said.
Looking at Sirius as if there was something wrong with him.
“But there is also something different,” Mordred said not sure.
Morgana looked back at Sirius.
“You're a reincarnation right?” Morgana said, looking at him, as it was Merlin clear as day in her eyes.
Those piercing blue eyes, his raven black hair, and that defiant and quite annoying look on his face whenever they met in the past when he was beside Arthur ruining her plans. It was like looking at Merlin from the past.
He looked a little bit older.
There were some differences, but she looked a little different from her past self as well.
It was almost a spitting image, but it looked different because they were in modern times.
There were differences, that were just factors of time.
Sirius’ or rather James Emrys’ face was pure confusion.
“Ha!” He laughed, causing him to cough uncontrollably, but he couldn’t help himself as he found it funny.
Morgana frowned and looked at another Death Eater.
“Bring water. I need his mouth to work.”
The Death Eater walked away coming back with a pitcher of water and a glass. He poured the water and handed it to Morgana.
Morgana roughly grabbed Sirius’ jaw and poured the water into his mouth.
He had to drink it or he would choke.
It was both refreshing and terrible. It was finally nice fresh cold water, but it was also being forced down his throat after he just had a coughing fit.
And Morgana didn’t let up until he had to physically pull his face away, getting drenched in cold water as he coughed, trying to regain his breath.
Morgana handed the glass back to the Death Eater and shook her wet hand out.
“Is that better?” She said smiling sweetly but Sirius glared as there was nothing sweet about this woman.
“Bitch.” He said with a rough unused voice.
Only to get smacked in the back of his head by someone he couldn’t see.
Sirius gasped in pain as his head was taking a lot of damage.
Morgana wasn’t smiling when he looked at her again.
“I’ll ask once more since you can talk now. Are you a reincarnation?”
Sirius glared but answered,
“Who knows.” He said smiling.
He knew he was going to probably get hit. But he wasn’t going to give these people what they wanted.
Morgana and Mordred frowned.
She held her hand up in a waiting gesture as if someone behind Sirius’ head was about to smack him again.
“I’d recommend you to talk now. I am being nice.” Morgana said.
But Sirius didn’t respond.
“Ah, I should’ve known. You were the same in the past. Annoyingly loyal and a pain in my ass. I would kill you right now if I knew where Arthur was, but since I don’t, you and I can hang out every day from now on until you get to chatting. And when I do find him, I’ll kill him in front of you again.” Morgana said, standing.
She grabbed Sirius by the jaw once again leaning close,
“I don’t know what you were planning while you’ve been out there in the world, but just know this time you will not win. I was brought back to life for a reason and I’m not wasting this opportunity. Without Arthur, you are nothing and a nobody. You failed him once, and you’ll fail again. It’s your destiny.” Morgana said laughing.
“You may think you’re hot shit since you were born as an aristocrat this time but no, you are and will always be a peasant, and I’m the Queen!” Morgana said, digging her nails into his skin.
Sirius bleeds trying to pull away.
None of what she said meant anything to him.
It probably made sense to a real Emrys, but for Sirius none of the Darkest Hour shit made sense.
Of course, he knew of the legend of King Arthur and Morgana, and he had heard stories from the knights that were reincarnated but none of it really meant something to him. As much as it did to those people.
He was sure if she was actually talking to reincarnation, that they’d be pissed right now, but Sirius was really not bothered by it.
Morgana seemed to notice his indifference,
“You are so sure of everything, just the same as before. But don’t worry, this time I’ll target everyone you know, everyone you love. You have a younger brother, right? I’ll kill him first. Then the other reincarnations, since they are all just muggles it will be easy. I’ll capture them and have them tortured in front of you. Then when Voldemort kills that annoying child Harry Potter, I’ll parade you around town as an example.” Morgana said laughing.
Sirius’ eyes got furious at the mention of Harry and Myridian.
He was sure Myridian could save himself, so he wasn’t too concerned, but Harry was his biggest worry.
He gathered spit in his mouth and spit in her face as she was still so close.
Morgana backed away wiping her face with a scream.
Sirius was being beaten again but it didn’t stop with a single smack or punch. He was being kicked and punched non-stop till Morgana appeared in front of him again.
She slapped him hard across the cheek and glared.
She looked at the Death Eaters who carried him up the stairs.
“Take him back, we’ll continue tomorrow. But since he can’t seem to keep the water down, let’s stop giving him any. I’m sure he’ll need to drink at some point, maybe he’ll be more talkative then.” Morgana said, walking away as Sirius was dragged in the opposite direction by his shoulders, back down the stairs he went.
Every step agitated his newly forming bruises and the cuffs were tightened to the point of pain before the cell door was slammed and the Death Eaters left.
Sirius tilted his head back hitting the stone behind him.
And thought to himself that he was fucked.
Secret Location
September 9, 2007
An Order meeting took place.
Merlin was sitting with some of the Weasley family and Remus and Tonks. Nimueh and Gwaine were there but that was all.
With the Order being hunted, and several people missing, it was a rather shabby reunion as this was all the people that could come.
Mrs. McGonagall was trapped in Hogwarts and couldn’t escape to attend, they couldn’t even get a message that there was one happening as all communication had been cut from Hogwarts.
The only reason they knew the school and the government were even overrun was because the Death Eaters were proudly putting their own people in charge.
They no longer held fear of being out in the open.
Sirius was missing and so was Kingsley. Moody had died and they didn’t even have his body. And they were worried for the safety of the school children. Especially Harry as he was in the most danger.
Merlin was willing to storm Hogwarts to try to get some of the children out of there because he felt like they were just sitting in a death trap. Especially Harry, however right before his plans were set in stone. There was a bounty released for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, as they had somehow escaped the school, and then Merlin’s plan was stopped as the Order said that his running in would be too dangerous and might hurt children more than save them.
Merlin conceded rather annoyed but was also not willing to put the children in danger.
...
The meeting was more so a worry fest.
Molly was concerned about the children’s safety. She was wondering why they hadn’t contacted anyone yet. She knew it was difficult to contact them, but at least Ron knew where he lived. They knew they could get into contact with people who could get into contact with other people, but there was no communication whatsoever and that was scaring her.
Arthur Weasley was there on the day of the Death Eaters' attack; when they stormed the Technomage store and while he escaped on Myridian’s say-so, he was upset he didn’t fight back. With Ron being in danger on the run, Ginny still trapped in Hogwarts and George’s missing ear, he was rather furious and wanted to fight something or someone responsible.
He’d already lost friends in the previous wizarding war, and now he was losing more, especially some of his colleagues in the government, and even his children were being harmed or affected by it.
He just felt like he couldn’t stand still.
Remus was worried for Harry but also for Sirius.
He was missing and hadn’t gotten in contact with anyone in days. At first, they thought he might’ve been trapped in Hogwarts with everyone else because they had learned that all of the Muggle technology had been confiscated on behalf of the new headmaster.
But that idea quickly faded as almost once a day Nimueh would scry his location for Merlin yet they could see nothing. But when they tried to look for other people who were in Hogwarts, at least they could find them or at least see glimpses. That meant that Sirius wasn’t in Hogwarts.
There was also a brief moment where they thought he might’ve escaped with Harry Potter, but there was no wanted poster for James Emrys, so they’d assumed he was kidnapped but hoped he was with Harry.
Merlin was unsure what to do exactly, but seeing the disarray of his fellow friends he stood up making the others look at him.
“We need to be organized. I know we are missing many members and times are at their worst right now, but scrambling around with no sense of direction will help no one. We are the Order of the Phoenix. We are what Dumbledore left and trusted to fulfill what he left to us. So let’s not keep disappointing him.” Myridian said, taking the lead.
“We have people missing and on the run, so we must keep working hard so they have less to worry about when they need to rely on us,” Merlin said to Molly who looked ready to argue.
“First we need to gather information. We are too far behind on the news. We can’t keep relying on the news to deliver information, we can’t even trust it.” Merlin said, looking around the room.
Before even asking, Remus stood.
He looked at his good friend.
“I’ll gather information.” He said volunteering, he’d been feeling helpless and thought this was, easily, something he could do.
Merlin nodded, he was worried for his friend but also they needed this.
Getting ready to move on, Merlin was interrupted.
“I can go too.” Tonk’s said standing.
“It’s stupid for only one person to go. Even with phones, which make communication easier, there are too many Death Eaters around to travel alone. It would be suicide to gather information alone.” Tonks said giving both men a look of, ‘I’m going too’.
Like Remus, she felt restless, after Kingsely she tried to find him on her own and learned what traveling by herself meant.
She almost died being found by 5 Death Eaters at the last location she knew Kingsley was.
She knew Remus going off by himself was beyond dangerous as she experienced that once, plus she would feel bad if that gentle and smart man died so stupidly.
Merlin smiled before Remus could argue,
“I agree, we should stay in groups, going off alone is stupid. Okay, I’ll leave the information gathering to you two. You must check in once a day by text at least, so we can make sure we don’t run into another missing ally. Understood?” He asks.
Tonks nods, smiling, and Remus nods, sighing as his opinions are being ignored.
“Okay next we need more safe houses, I trust some of them are still good, but the fact that we have members missing or dead I fear the safe houses may not be safe anymore.” Merlin brought up the second topic.
“I have a safe house that I believe is safe as I prepared it in case my house got attacked. Molly, I think you should do the same. You and your family, like mine, are too well known, our houses may be being watched.” Merlin said, making the woman frown but she nodded, as this wasn’t her first war either.
“I have a few places I can set up, but the children don’t know of them. I want to be home just in case.” She explained that while she knew the danger she was more worried about her family.
Merlin grimaced,
“Make a bag so that you can escape quickly. I know I can’t convince you to leave, but you should take measures to be safe anyway.”
Molly nodded with a small smile,
“I can do that, thank you Myridian,” Molly said, grabbing her son’s hand and squeezing it as she was still worried about the children she couldn’t hold in her arms.
“The last thing is we need to gather friends to storm Hogwarts at some point.” Merlin raised his hands as others shouted it was too dangerous.
“I know it’s dangerous now, and that we don’t have as many allies as we’d like to, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find people who are willing to fight. Especially since the families of the children currently in Hogwarts would want to do something. Whether they join the fight or support us in gaining control of the government or anything to move out of the position we are currently in would be good. And I’m not saying today or tomorrow or next week. Let us rebuild, it may take a while, but we can trust McGonagall and the rest of the teachers to take care of the students as we know they’d never live if the kids got hurt. We will trust those who are currently fighting and we will gather everything we need in the time they are buying us.” Merlin said, looking around the room.
“I trust the teachers for overseeing the children,” Molly said, sighing as she knew better than Myridian how much the Professors cared for the children.
She’d been to Hogwarts and seen the love and care they show, so she decided to believe in Myridian’s words and her own experience.
Merlin smiled and nodded to her.
“So what now?” Arthur asked restlessly.
“Now we gather strength and prioritize safety. If we want to help anyone, we need to be alive to do it. Get the safe houses prepared and text the locations to whoever you want to know. I wouldn’t recommend sending it to anyone in Hogwarts as we don’t know what the Death Eaters are doing with their devices, as I know they can’t break them. But anyone who you trust feel free. I will set up a few more just in case as well.” Merlin said thinking he could purchase a few small apartments in the muggle world just in case.
“Could I send the locations to Harry, Hermione, and Ron?” Molly asked.
“Yes, that should be fine. Since they are on the run.” Merlin agreed, wanting to not send anything to Hogwarts because he was worried that the Death Eaters were tracking people through the phones and he was wondering if that’s how Sirius was captured or even Kingsley as he had no information on how they went missing and he was being cautious.
Molly smiled as stood,
“Alright, I will go now, then.” She said wanting to create a safe place for the children.
Merlin nodded, but held out his hand,
“May I see everyone’s phone for a moment? I noticed a bit of a problem after the attack on the shop, I can fix everyone’s phone right now. It would be a temporary fix but it should last for a year.” Merlin said as he’d force magic into each of their phones so they could last a year without a charge as he didn’t want what happened to happen again.
Those who he couldn’t meet could fix it on their own, if they had any knowledge of muggle tech, that’s why he was sure if Hermionie was with Harry and Ron, it would be okay once she figured it out.
And why he didn’t dissuade Molly from sending them locations as they’d be more likely to be able to be safe quicker that way.
After the phones were fixed the meeting was over and people started to apparate one by one leaving just Merlin, Nimueh, and Gwaine.
“Things are starting to get serious, huh?” Gwaine asked.
Merlin nodded, getting up and holding out his hand to him.
Nimueh also soon disappeared.
Gwaine made a sound and started thinking about what he could do to help the cause, as without magic he sometimes felt like he was useless.
As he started to move with Merlin an idea popped into his head.
He smirked a bit wickedly, if Merlin could see it he’d have told Gwaine ‘NO' to whatever it was he was thinking but Merlin didn’t see and Gwaine had no one to stop him as he was soon going to be busy too.
Notes:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo poor Sirius.
Also, imagine if Merlin heard what Morgana said, she'd look like a pancake. lol.
I feel so bad for poor Sirius. Normally I love writing angst, as we can see from Merlin's depressed state in the first book, but I feel bad doing it to Sirius, and I know it's not getting better for a bit so I feel for the poor baby. sighhhh.
Also, I totally ship Tonks and Remus so had to add little bits so they can get together, I love Teddy too, so I am team romance for once in my life. At least in my own stories, I like reading romance too, I just struggle writing it. But I'll do my best.
Also, my hair is growing again. I shaved it last year and since then I've been growing it back out. Don't get me wrong, shaved is the best but I don't go to the hair salon enough for it to stay looking good. So I've decided to grow it to the point where I can do braids and then keep it at that length. I had a cousin do my braids went I went to visit and they were so cute, but she has more skill than I do so she did it while my hair was shorter, so I'll wait till I can do it, and then I'll rock that for a bit. Also, I think I forgot to mention, my hair is partly bleached, for my birthday, I dyed it red (it's faded since) and I am just enjoying the difference. Next time, I'm dying my whole head. I'll fully commit, I think I can rock it. Like my whole head is one color and then the ends are a darker color. Maybe once the red fades more since I know red is hard to color correct. Im talking about my hair because I'm trying different hair styles and I have enough hair for a half up half down look and I never did this before so I thought it looked pretty neat.
Chapter 19: Many Forms Of Getting Information
Summary:
Trigger warnings for like torture and shiz. It feels Stockholm Syndrome-ish, be warred.
Morgana is batshit crazy.
Lil time skip. By like two weeks.
Notes:
I have a few chapters prewritten. Not many just like two. And I'm currently in the middle of finishing one of them. I absolutely destroyed myself last Sunday and Saturday. I sat in my computer chair and wrote for 13+ hours. Like legitimately did not move except maybe go to the bathroom once in 13 hours. I got like 20 Pages out of that but that was absolutely batshit crazy. I kind of suffer from time blindness and I don't notice when time passes. Normally it just affects me when I talk about things that happened in the past and I say they happened like 2 days ago but it's actually like weeks ago. I used to have 5-hour sessions where I would write for 5 hours or read for 5 hours and that's pretty normal, but I've never sat still for 13 hours and not realized it. The only reason that I even knew that I was getting tired was because my neck started to crack and my hips started to hurt. And then I was like why does my body feel like it's giving out on me and then I looked at the clock and I was like how long have I been actually writing for? I made good progress though so that's nice. Also right after the writing session that lasted 13 hours, I passed out for 6:00. And what was so funny was that my first thought when I woke up was that I was really sad that I wasted my whole day sleeping. Yet I spent 13 hours of the day writing.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Malfoy Manor
October 8, 2007
James Emrys was on the floor in a room. It wasn’t the area with the throne, or the cells but a smaller bedroom née office.
Mordred was standing at attention behind Morgana’s right shoulder and Morgana was sitting on a swivel chair near the office’s desk. On the desk were potions and potion ingredients.
Mordred didn’t look too good about what was happening to this man, he wasn’t comfortable with this yet. While he forcibly remembered the past he was still not used to this new world. Magic still seemed so far-fetched. He’d been around it for months now but he still wasn’t used to it.
Also, the man who resembled Merlin was weird, he looked somewhat like Merlin.
Acted a bit like Merlin, but the magic wasn’t the same.
He remembered Merlin’s magic.
When he was young it was like standing at the face of a cliff, the magic was like the fear of plummeting off the high ledge. It was all-consuming when you were in its presence and it was scary. This man had magic, but it wasn’t the same. There was no pressure behind it.
It felt so mundane that Mordred had a feeling that despite the outer shell this man was not Merlin.
But he never voiced his opinions.
Something deep in his mind, felt like he shouldn’t correct his friend's misconception. He didn’t know why, but it felt like this was what he was supposed to do this time, but what that was, he didn’t know.
So he’d stand there more often than not with a rather confused expression.
…
Morgana sighed looking at the man on the floor. It had been 4 days of beatings and curses and forcing him to drink potions to cause pain, but the man didn’t falter.
He screamed in pain, he cried, he bled, but his constitution was solid.
He wasn’t breaking.
Morgana wasn’t tired, she actually enjoyed torturing Merlin.
But she needed results.
She swiveled in the chair thinking of a new torture method to get the man to say something.
And she suddenly had an idea.
“Mordred watch him for a moment, I’ll be back,” Morgana said, smiling at her companion as she jumped up to leave the room.
Once they were alone, Mordred walked to Sirius.
“You should talk.” He said.
Sirius glared with blood at the corners of his mouth.
“Screw you.” He said as his voice cracked and the screaming ruined his voice.
Mordred crouched down,
“You’re not a reincarnation.” He said matter of factly.
Sirius looked confused, how’d he know?
“You look like him. But you're not him.” Mordred said looking at Sirius’ ocean blue eyes.
“Merlin was a friend once,” Mordred said, surprising Sirius.
Sirius was wondering why he was talking about Merlin.
“But he never trusted me. I never knew why. He always looked at me like I was an enemy, maybe he knew my destiny. Maybe he knew I’d kill Arthur.” Mordred said, confused.
“Or he was jealous. Since I became a knight even though I had magic. But he was never more than a servant in the eyes of the public.” Mordred said thinking out loud.
Sirius was still unsure why he was talking about the Merlin.
“You’re not Merlin. But you look like him.” Mordred said, clueing Sirius in finally.
“Morgana thinks you're his reincarnation. But you're not. Is it your brother? Did we get the wrong one? I haven’t met your brother yet, but if I do I can find out.” Mordred said still talking to himself though he was looking at Sirius.
“Emrys and Merlin…how funny,” Mordred said to himself, finally looking away.
“I‘ll give you some advice, you should give up, Morgana isn’t going to stop till she kills Emrys. She hates him more than Arthur. And you are in her way. She is going to destroy you to get what she wants. And since you're not involved you should save yourself.” Mordred said sitting on the chair Morgana left looking at Sirius with pity.
…
Sirius had a lot to think about. This guy was very talkative whenever Morgana wasn’t near him.
When she was he acted almost like a different person. From talkative to quiet and reserved. He seemed like a guy who didn’t like what was happening, it felt like he felt sorry for Sirius. But he never acted on it, he just silently observed and watched.
But anytime he’d talk to Sirius, Sirius would learn new things. Like apparently Myridian was the reincarnation of Merlin.
He’d always known Myridian was keeping something secret, this must’ve been it. It made sense as he’d gotten so defensive denying it before.
Sirius sighed, knowing that he knew his kidnapping was definitely because of the Darkest Hour stuff, not that it was a secret since he’d only ever been interrogated by Morgana. But now he knew at least Myridian’s potion was holding up and they didn’t know he was Sirius in disguise, so Harry was safe for a while.
Myridian was screwed though, he’d wished he could let the guy know, but his ‘brother’ was smart so he assumed he’d be fine, especially since he had Remus. Sirius looked to the door as he knew whenever she came back he’d be in a lot of pain.
But even if he said he wasn’t a reincarnation would that crazy witch believe him?
And he still didn’t want to talk. But he wasn’t doing so well. He hadn’t drank anything in 4 days. He was barely surviving by licking the wet stone of the cells but that wasn’t healthy in the slightest. Plus the food got worse and he was pretty badly injured, he kind of feared that if he didn’t say something he could die in these conditions.
He wasn’t afraid to die but leaving Harry wasn’t an option, not again, not for stupid selfish reasons would he abandon the kid again.
He looked at Mordred again, seeing the man looking at his hands.
…
Mordred stood,
“She’s coming back.” He said as he moved to stand where he was before.
Sirius groaned not looking forward to what new method of torture she’d think to inflict on him. And not moments later the door swung open.
Morgana appeared again with some tools for potion-making.
A Death Eater lugged a large jar through the door looking nervous. And another Death Eater dragged the muggle studies Professor’s body in. She was unconscious but still alive. The Death Eaters put the jar down carefully and dumped the professor on the floor then made to leave.
Morgana smirked.
She walked to the jar and caressed it.
“Merlin.” She said finally calling him by the name she thought he went by.
“I’ve brought an old friend by. I thought using the Old religion would be fun for old time's sake. You should remember this one. You were a shit assassin in the past but maybe you’d do better this time.” She said removing the cloth covering the contents of the jar.
And a three-headed snake hissed at him through the glass.
“You remember right? You became my puppet, and now it’ll happen again. I’ll set you free and when you return to your friends, you’ll kill them. Maybe I’ll send you to the person you care about the most and make you bring them back to me. So I can make you torture them. I wonder how you’d feel killing your little brother?” Morgana said laughing.
Mordred looked at the creature with fear as he’d recognized it, not knowing where she found one. He’d only heard legends about Fomorroh’s as they came from the spirit world.
“Or if you somehow fail again, I’m having another snake coming. You remember Elyan right? Or did you hear how I used this other creature to torture your good friend Gwaine before I killed him?”
Morgana smirked,
“It was so hard to get my hands on one. But being friends with Voldemort has advantages, see he found someone who had one. A Nathair is a rare little serpent nowadays. But I fear that will kill you, so let’s hope you don’t fail this time.” Morgana said in a cutesy voice as if she was enjoying every moment of this.
“Unless you give me the information I want. I mean, if you tell me what I want to know, I’ll stop all this. I’ll give you water again, I mean you must be thirsty.” She said pouring water she had on her desk into a glass and holding it near Sirius.
Sirius gulped looking at it and his gaze shook a little.
Morgana smirked.
“See, you're thirsty right?” Morgana said, dripping a bit of water on his lips.
Sirius couldn’t help but drink it.
“Will you talk?” She said, stopping and looking at Sirius with a gentle look.
…
Sirius moved his tongue in his dry mouth. He looked at the water in the glass condensing on the side as it dripped to the floor.
He then looked at the snake with multiple heads in the jar that was still hissing at him. And then he thought about whatever was coming next was death. Whether it be from dehydration, starvation, torture, or whatever she had planned next. But the thing he was the most afraid of was what she said.
She said that he would be set free and go after the one he loves the most. And while she must believe it’s his little brother, he knows it’s Harry Potter. And while he doesn’t know where Harry is, he knows he could probably find him if he tried hard enough. And that scared him.
He cleared his throat and looked at Mordred, then to Morgana, and nodded his head while saying quietly,
“I’ll speak.”
Morgana smiled,
“Really? Oh good. I didn’t want to waste the Fomorroh on you to be honest. But I would’ve if I needed to.” She said, helping Sirius slowly drink the water.
She was much gentler this time.
“There you go, you must’ve been so thirsty.” She said as if she was talking to a baby.
She let him drink two full glasses of water before stopping.
Sirius was a little thrown off by the kindness but knew this was all a tactic to make him talk.
“See, you feel better now, right? If you keep doing what I want, I’ll help you more.” She said smiling.
She looked to Mordred,
“Get some food. He must be famished.” She said, smiling at Sirius. Mordred nodded smiling as well and left the room.
Once he was gone Morgana scooted the chair till she was sitting in front of him.
“Now, that your throat is soothed, you can speak right?” She asked, gentle but firm.
Sirius looked at her and nodded.
“Speak.” She said sternly.
“Yes,” Sirius said not used to it but complying.
“Good, good, very good. Now I'll start off with something simple, tell the name of every reincarnation you’ve met. I know of Nimueh and Gwaine, but tell me the others. Who else came back?” Morgana asked, finally looking serious, dropping the sweet act even if her voice wasn’t hostile anymore. Sirius tried to sit up but winced and gave up.
He opened his mouth and started to talk,
“Gwaine, Gwen, Lance, Leon, Percival.” He listed all those he’d met.
Morgana nodded her head, remembering each person and attaching a face to them.
“Good.”
She then tilted her head,
“You repeated Gwaine but not Nimueh, why?” Morgana asked.
“She’s not a reincarnation. She was reborn.” Sirius said as his chapped lip started to bleed.
Morgana pushed a tissue against it looking thoughtful.
“Is that why she’s so strong? Hmmm, what’s the difference?” Morgana asked.
“She explained it as she woke up at a lake and only remembers her death, she didn’t have a life before,” Sirius explained what he remembered hearing.
His head hurt a bit but was willing to comply to not endanger Harry and he trusted Myridian to take care of his friend s. Plus he had that safe house so they should all be fine.
“She didn’t have a life before her memories came back, she just came back, hmm. Odd. A lake? What lake?” She asks.
But Sirius shakes his head,
“I don’t know where. It’s a lake with a small island in the middle. Myridian knows where it is.” He said as he’d been there but didn't know how to get there again.
“Hmm. If you can be reborn instead of reincarnated then, Arthur… So you haven’t seen Arthur?” She asked, looking the most serious.
Sirius shook his head,
“No.”
“Hmmm, odd.” She said, looking away from Sirius.
Mordred walked in with some chicken and bread.
Morgana smiled and beckoned him closer, grabbing the tray when he brought it. She grabbed a piece of chicken eating it, then ripped another piece offering it to Sirius.
Sirius ate it from her hand. He didn’t feel good about any of this, but for Harry, he’d act like a dog.
Sirius laughed in his head, as he’d escape as a dog too. He let her feed him. He ate half of the chicken and a slice of bread.
He wanted more but he was feeling sick as he’d eaten too much after not having enough for a while.
Morgana noticed and placed the food on the desk.
“Let’s stop here for today. There’s always tomorrow.” She said smiling.
She helped Sirius stand and Mordred had to move in to support him as he couldn’t keep standing even though he tried.
Sirius’ gaze landed on the muggle studies professor noticing she was still there.
“Oh, I’d brought her to show you what the Fomorroh did. But we don’t need that anymore do we.” She said smiling.
She pulled her wand out and smiled before casting the killing curse.
Sirius’ eyes widened and backed away.
Morgana looked at him confused,
“What? Did I scare you? Oh, don’t be. As long as you're good that won't happen to you.” She said with a sweet smile on her face, she was enjoying causing fear.
“Hmm I should’ve done it outside the room though, I do sleep here and now it’ll stink.” Morgana laments as she kicks the dead body.
Sirius wants to puke everything he just ate.
Morgana steps on the body going to the door and catches the attention of a Death Eater.
“Would you take this body and throw it with the others? Also, can you help him back to the cells, oh but treat him nicely, he’s finally cooperating.” Morgana added on as a few Death Eaters spelled the dead body to float and took Sirius from Mordred and walked him back to the cells.
No one kicked him or hit him, and they chained him less rough.
Once everyone left he found himself back in his cell again, full and hydrated but he felt empty as he looked across and saw the empty spot where the Muggle studies Professor used to be chained up.
He felt like he’d made a deal with the devil.
Malfoy Manor, Early Morning
October 9, 2007
Morgana was sitting at the dining table. She was with Mordred but no one else was awake yet.
“A lake….hmm.” She seemed to keep repeating it over and over.
“Mordred.” She looked to get the man's attention.
“Yes?” Mordred asked, he’d been rather silent since Morgana murdered that woman yesterday.
He loved Morgana and she was always right but he couldn’t understand why she killed that lady. So he’d just been thinking about it, because he knew she could be nice, with how she treated him and the fake Merlin, it was obvious she was still kind and loveable. He concluded that the women must’ve been terrible or tried to harm them as that made sense why Morgana was so cruel.
“I need you to do something for me. You have a better sense of magic than I do, so you could tell if something is hidden by magic right?” Morgana asked as she knew Mordred was much more sensitive to magic than she was, but she was stronger.
“Yes, I can feel the protective spells or wards if there are any. I can identify who has strong magic or not as well.” He said listing what little he believed he was good at.
Morgana nodded.
“Good, I need you to look for magical sites. Places with lakes or a big lake.” Morgana seemed to think that was important from what James Emrys had said.
“Also I’ll make him tell me where his brother’s house is today. After I find out we will go and capture the younger one.
“It must be him, that is Emrys. You said Emrys’ magic would be strong right?” Morgana asked.
“Yes. His magic would be much different than even the normally strong wizards.” Mordred answered, then took a bite of the food in front of him.
“But would James Emrys tell you where his brother lived?” Mordred asked as he felt like he answered because he was worried for his brother yesterday.
“Well, I have the Nathair now.” She smirked as someone dropped it off earlier this morning waking her up.
“He’ll beg to tell me if he doesn’t keep being good,” Morgana said knowing James would comply with the fear of his own life at play.
Mordred nodded, continuing to eat as he watched the sunrise from outside the window.
Ministry of Magic
September 30, 2007
Remus was currently inside the Ministry of Magic.
Tonk’s was beside him and they both had worried expressions on their faces.
They had somehow managed to sneak in, which was the easy part of this whole ordeal; because now that they were inside the ministry they were kind of like rats in a cage. While nobody knew they were there, there was really nowhere to go without almost being found.
Each new corner they would turn there was a group of Death Eaters.
Or they would see Dolores Umbridge walking with a purpose into the courtroom every few hours.
Or they would see muggle-borns getting sentenced to Azkaban for the crime of stealing magic. They would be young and old getting dragged away with Dementors following behind.
However the one good thing, as long as they weren’t found, they were able to hear what was happening as the Death Eaters had gotten sloppy. They no longer felt the need to hide in the shadows and seemed to be talking about top-secret things as long as they thought they were alone.
And with Remus’ heightened senses and Tonk's ability to shapeshift they were the perfect spies as they were rarely surprised or snuck up on and they always seemed one step ahead.
Even though they were technically trapped inside the Ministry of Magic, they also were able to gather the most information from there as well. As long as they made their daily check-ins, everything was going well.
Malfoy Manor, Late Afternoon
October 9, 2007
Sirius had a nightmare all night, remembering all those he’d lost during the last wizarding war.
He woke up in the afternoon and assumed Morgana or Mordred would come get him but it took till later in the evening before someone came for him. He was escorted back up the stairs, he was still dragged but that was because his legs weren’t good enough to walk yet.
He was hungry and thirsty as he didn’t eat anything yet. But he didn’t get his hopes up as he felt like today the questions would get harder to answer.
Once he’d reached the door to Morgana’s room he had a flashback of the professor's lifeless body and seemed to get sick again.
But then the door opened and Mordred was standing there rather emotionless. He reached for Sirius and took him from the Death Eaters bringing him into the room and setting him on the floor except there was a cushion where he was sat.
Mordred also positioned him to be sitting up and brought over a glass of water.
“Here, please drink.” He said, holding the glass out to him, smiling.
Sirius drank a bit cautiously. He felt weirded out by the kindness.
Mordred smiled as he drank. When Sirius finished the first glass he looked at the spot where the Professor had been killed and felt sick again putting his head down.
“Oh, I guess yesterday was hard on you,” Mordred said noticing Sirius’ mood.
“It may not mean much to you but Morgana is only bad to those who do bad by her, that woman must have done something bad, so it was mercy to kill her, Morgana is so kind for giving her a quick death, that women would’ve been tortured for a while longer if not,” Mordred said with a smile that morphed into pity.
Sirius tried to control his face. Because to him Mordred was nuts, he was, in a way, worse than Morgana.
Morgana was evil and she knew it. She could act sweet and kind but she knew it was all a ploy.
Mordred seemed to genuinely believe everything he said. He really thought Morgana was a kind and benevolent woman who sent someone out of their misery when it was a murder in cold blood.
He was weird, it was almost like he was being controlled….
Sirius paused his train of thought. Then looked at Mordred who was smiling again as he poured more water.
“How did you meet Morgana?” Sirius chanced to ask.
Mordred stopped pouring water and looked into James’ blue eyes.
“Oh…that was in July.” He said, smiling, placing the water pitcher down as he walked back to Sirius.
Seeing James’ face of confusion he continued,
“Morgana found me in July. She then brought me here. According to her, I didn’t remember right away. So she helped me remember.” He said his smile disappeared but soon it returned.
“And since we’ve been together. She’s the best.” Mordred said, holding the water to Sirius’ lips again.
Sirius drank again and contemplated some new information he’d discovered accidentally.
He soon finished both glasses and Mordred brought over some bread, breaking pieces to give to Sirius.
“Sorry, it took so long for food. We were busy today. The Dark Lord is here.” Mordred said, causing Sirius to choke.
“Chew slowly, I’ll give you everything, I ate already,” Mordred said thinking Sirius choked by eating too quickly.
“We wanted to chat earlier but everyone was so busy. Also, I’ll do you a favor.” Mordred said, lowering his voice.
“Don’t act up today. Even if she asks you tough questions. Answer them all. She won't be nice anymore. You’ll be in a lot of pain.” Mordred said feeling bad for the man he’d been nursing for the past 3o minutes.
He then glanced at a box on the desk.
Sirius' eyes followed.
“It will be very painful.” He repeated breaking another piece of bread up.
Sirius gulped and breathed deeply knowing he had a bad feeling about today.
Notes:
I'm not going to post the next chapter just yet. I think I have to edit it a little bit more, so look for it another day. But this should hold you over until then.
I feel bad for my characters too, but things gotta happen sometimes...I feel sad too. As much as I love angst, I also feel bad, but it's written in the outline so it must happen.Oh yeah, I'm really happy because my friend invited me to go out with her to eat at a fancy restaurant near like Christmas time. I feel like a normal person. I always dreamed of hanging out with friends going to restaurants and hanging out near Christmas time. I just felt kind of like out of touch with the world for a few years because I was like super depressed and just dooming and glooming in my house by myself. But this year I've been like hanging out with my friends talking to them like every day and like we keep inviting each other to do things and so freaking fun. I even got to introduce my friends to like some of my favorite places to go eat, it was so freaking fun. Now I'm excited to go to a fancy restaurant with my friend. I also got an outfit planned out. I'm going to wear a dress which I rarely wear. I even bought fleece line tights just for this. I mean they're always good to have now that I have them but I purchased them just because I knew that it was going to be cold outside but I really wanted to look fancy and look presentable. I'm also going to wear boots but I'm like not sure how it will that's going to turn out for me. I might wrap up some flip-flops and shove them in my bag just in case. I don't think flip-flops will help me either but I think the littlest wedge of a heel on the boot might kill me. My boots were not made for walking, well, maybe my boots were made for walking, but not with my feet.
I finally got to go grocery shopping. which was hella great. Cuz my body could not handle any more fast food. My body was a bit really destroying me day by day. Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed the chapter, and let me know what you think, peace.
Chapter 20: To Capture Emrys
Notes:
Hello, I am here early. I got my new computer a bit earlier than expected, so Im back.
I was going to wait until my birthday to post, but I'm going to have surgery on the 2nd of September, so I decided to get one or two chapters out before then.
I'm doing the stomach surgery again, just to help lose weight, but I also need to get my gallbladder removed, so I decided to do both at the same time since it was cheaper, and im about to lose my family health insurance, so. Gotta love that American healthcare (I hate it)Anyway, I wrote a lot during the time I was absent. I had a rough year and dealt with losing someone close to me, but I feel okay now, and I am writing again, so I hope to finish this book soon.
lil spoiler, Im currently writing Arthur's return. But I'm like 7+ chapters ahead of what I'm publishing today, so it's not that big of a spoiler, also we all knew it was coming lol.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter and the next. Depending on the feedback, I'll upload more. I just want to give others time to find this again, since I know it's been a year. :)
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Malfoy Manor, 7:00 p.m.
October 9, 2007
Morgana finally walks in to see James Emrys sitting on a cushion.
All the food and the water were gone, and the man's complexion looked a bit better, even if he still had bruises all over.
“Oh, good, you got dinner. I got caught up outside, but now we can continue. Did Mordred treat you well?” She asked, moving to the desk, glancing at the box on it, but instead pulling the chair out so she could sit in front of James again.
“Yes,” Sirius answered, looking forward but not in her eyes; he wanted to be careful.
“Good, good. I have a few more questions for today. Nothing hard. I just need to speak with your brother.” She started.
James raised his head, looking at Morgana’s expression to try to see what she was playing at.
“Talk?” Sirius asks before he can stop himself.
“Yes. Just talk. I won’t have him kidnapped. I didn’t intend this for you either, it’s all Voldemort and the Death Eaters' idea to kidnap people and torture them. But not me. I hate this sort of thing.” Morgana said, and they both knew she was lying.
But Mordred was nodding as if Morgana were a saint.
“I just wanted to stop by his house and have a talk. So where does your younger brother live?” Morgana said as she didn’t sound so sweet anymore.
Sirius paused.
These questions were harder to answer.
He saw Mordred in the background give him a look.
And he sighed,
“Just talking?” He asked, knowing she’d lie.
“Of course, just talking,” Morgana said, smiling so bright it looked fake.
Sirius sighed deeply.
“Can I see a map?” He asked, and he didn’t know the exact address, but he knew where it was, as once Gwen and Leon had tried to explain to him how annoyingly far away Myridian’s house was from the city.
Morgana smiled, and Mordred smiled.
“Of course, we can bring one. And how about a potion for the pain? I can’t heal you, but I’ll try to alleviate the pain.” She said, patting James’ shoulder, and stood to exit the room.
Once she was gone, Mordred walked up and brought another glass of water over.
“See, this way you won't experience pain.” He said, offering the water again, and Sirius took it as he didn’t have a choice, as he needed it.
…
Morgana returned with a map, and the Dark Lord was there.
Sirius looked stunned.
He really never expected to encounter him, even though he knew he was here.
The Dark Lord walked into the room after Morgana and looked at James’ face, studying it.
“If you were going to be compliant, you should’ve joined when we offered the first time.” The Dark Lord said.
Sirius looked defiant.
He didn’t really care about Morgana and Mordred. They were crazy and terrible people, sure. But the Dark Lord, the biggest threat to Harry, was standing in front of him, and he was itching to move his body and just try to kill him. He knew he had no wand, and he was weaker than a puppy with the state of his body, but he wanted to snarl and bite him if he would just move closer.
But the Dark Lord didn’t move closer, so Morgana pushed the map on his lap.
“I assumed it was in London. If not, let me know, I’ll get another map.” Morgana said sweetly.
James was still looking at the Dark Lord, but soon turned his attention to the map as Morgana pulled his face to look at it.
“Ignore him. Just show me where your little brother’s house is.” Morgana said.
Voldemort looked annoyed but still didn’t say anything.
He was surprised that Morgana got him to turn on his own flesh and blood. So he was willing to just watch.
He was more interested in finding Harry Potter than Myridian Emrys, but he’d come to check up on Morgana and her creepy doll-like puppet Mordred as they’d get carried away if he left them to their own devices for too long.
Plus, the rare creature she kept asking him to find, he wanted to see them in action and see how he could use Morgana to instill fear into others using her knowledge.
Sirius looked at the map for a while, and he finally found the spot he was looking for.
It took a lot of effort, but he raised his hand and pointed to a spot on the map.
“My brother's house is here. I don’t know the exact address, but it’s here.” James said, breathing heavily as his body was in a lot of pain.
Even if they gave him food and water, he wasn’t healthy. Even before he got kidnapped, he wasn’t healthy. Ever since escaping Azkaban, he’d been malnourished and weak, so the past month of pain wrecked his already shitty health.
Morgana smiled.
“That’s good enough. It’s fine if you don’t know where exactly. We can question the neighbors and find out real soon.” Morgana said with a laugh in her voice.
She would destroy every house till she found Emrys.
“When I get there, who else lives there? Do all the reincarnations live together?” She asked.
James shook his head, and his raven hair shook with him.
“No. Just my brother and Nimueh.” He said, not mentioning Gwaine, as he hoped he’d be somewhere else when they attacked.
“Where do the others live?” Morgana asked.
“I don’t know. In the Muggle world. I’ve never seen them outside of my brother’s house.” James answered.
Morgana nodded,
“Okay, good, good. Hmm.” Morgana said, trying to think of more questions.
Voldemort interrupts,
“Do you know where Harry Potter is?” He asked.
James looked at him with a frown.
“I don’t know.”
Voldemort took his wand out and cut his leg with a spell.
Sirius fell over screaming, his leg burned as if a burning blade had been stuck in his leg.
Voldemort moved again.
“Where is Harry Potter?” He asked again.
“I don’t know,” James said again, only to be cut in the shoulder next.
He screamed again. The pain was excruciating.
“Hey, this one’s mine,” Morgana said as she wiped some of James’ blood off her face where it splattered after the cut was made.
“If he answers, you can have him,” Voldemort said, raising his wand again.
“Where is Harry Potter? The next one will be your throat.” He warned.
Sirius sighed, feeling tears spilling from the pain, “I don’t know, the last time I saw him was at Hogwarts.” He finally spat out.
Voldemort lowered the wand, “He’s not there anymore. He ran away. Any guesses where he might go?”
Sirius felt happy that Harry wasn’t in Hogwarts anymore, but he still could count ten places he could be, but he couldn’t give up the safe houses he knew of.
“I’m not sure, he’s smart, he’d know to be safe,” James said as he really only could guess where his godson is at this point.
Voldemort looked like he didn’t believe him, but Morgana stood clapping her hands.
“That’s enough for tonight.” She declared.
Voldemort frowned, looking at James as if he wasn’t done.
“We can ask others tomorrow. He’s been stuck here for almost two months; his information is out of date.” Morgana clarified.
“I need him to be able to talk. So let’s end this for tonight.” Morgana said, standing in front of James.
James sighed, feeling like shit but glad it was over.
Voldemort sighed and left the room, telling Morgana to follow.
Morgana sighed, annoyed, and turned to Mordred.
“Send him back to the cells. Give him the potion.” She said, leaving the room after the Dark Lord.
Mordred puts a bottle to James’ lips.
“It’s for pain.” He says, and James drinks it as he would pass out otherwise.
After drinking it, the pain didn’t go away, but it dulled to a hot throbbing pain instead of a scorching sting. It was better than nothing.
Mordred picked him up, and Sirius yelped in pain as he couldn't put weight on his leg anymore.
“Sorry, sorry. The Dark Lord is a bad guy, and Morgana and I are tolerating him, if I’m honest. We need his resources. But we don’t condone this only to our enemies. But you're helping now, so you're okay. I’ll try to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Mordred gives an empty promise because if Morgana said so, he would kill James Emrys.
“I'll make sure they bring you food tomorrow,” Mordred said with a genuine yet creepy smile on his face.
Ministry of Magic, 11:00 p.m.
October 9, 2007
“We found it.” A Death Eater said.
“Found what?” Another one asked.
“That blood traitor’s house. Can you believe his own brother sold him out? Haha.” The first man said, finding it funny.
“Well, considering he was tortured by that psycho, it makes sense. Did you see what she did to that man who follows her like a dog?” The second man said.
“Wasn’t he her ally?”
“Yeah, but she forced him to drink potions for allegiance. If she does that to her friends, I can’t imagine what she did to the blood traitor, what was his name, James?” The second man gossiped.
“She’s been buying up poisons and rare magical beasts; she’s dangerous. I’m glad to be stationed here, rather than in the Manor.” The second Death Eater continued.
“Right? Malfoy thought he’d grabbed the golden stick, but I feel he’s regretting that now.” The first man said, laughing at the misfortune of the Malfoys as they always acted so important, yet since they failed so many times, they were in a bad position now.
“Are you joining the attack?” The second man asked.
“Hell no. I heard the Witch of Lighting is there. I’d rather stay in the shadows and reap the rewards when the Dark Lord kills the boy who lived. If I want to enjoy the profits, I’ll have to be alive to hold them.” The First man said.
“True. I was thinking of joining, but I don’t want to die if it’s not for the Dark Lord.” The second Death Eater said as they walked around the corner.
Remus and Tonks, who had been hidden in a closet as that was the closest place they could hide in time, when they heard the pair coming down the hall, were both wide-eyed and frozen stiff.
Remus had to control himself from growling.
They were talking about Sirius getting tortured and Merlin being targeted and attacked. He almost gave their position away, if it wasn’t for Tonks slapping her hand over his mouth.
“Shhh.” She whispered up close in his personal space.
Remus was startled for a new reason as he listened to the men walk farther away before they both stepped out of the closet.
“We need to warn them,” Remus said, feeling like he needed to go now.
Tonks agreed, but she felt like there was a lot of information they had learned, and felt like staying here was dangerous.
“Let’s leave the Ministry.” She said.
“We won’t be leaving quietly.” Remus explained the reality.
They’d been trying to secretly leave for days now. He was glad they didn't get out since they got the kind of information they were after, but they also really had no choice in the matter, as they’d been stuck.
“Well, let’s cause some havoc for James Emrys’ sake,” Tonks smirked, pulling her wand out.
Remus, who was usually cautious, could get behind what she was saying.
“Let’s!” Remus answered by pulling his wand out, too.
Tonks smiled at him before running down the hall, casting a Bombarda and running straight into it.
Remus questioned what he was getting into, but found himself running after her anyway.
He knew he was screwed at this point, but he just gave up, knowing he fell for this kind of charisma. Evidence of his fast friendship with Myridian.
Remus sighed as he ran faster to catch up with his pink-haired partner.
Merlin’s House, 8:00 a.m.
October 10, 2007
Merlin was sleeping.
But he heard a large crash in his living room.
At first, he thought it was Gwaine again.
A week ago, the man was napping on the couch with his laptop on his chest and woke up from a nightmare, which resulted in him chucking his laptop at Merlin’s glass window in the kitchen, shattering half of the glass archway.
Thankfully, with magic, it was a simple fix, but Merlin tried to ban him from sleeping with things within throwing distance. But then again, banning Gwaine from anything was a pain in the ass as the man didn’t listen on purpose.
But Merlin was startled as he heard a few more sounds of things getting broken.
He got up, ready to smack Gwaine if this was indeed him.
But walked in to see Remus and Tonks covered in cuts and blood.
Merlin looked around for danger, but it was just them alone.
Nimueh walked in thinking it was Gwaine as well, she had an annoyed look on her face till she noticed it wasn’t Gwaine.
Even Gwaine walked in, saying loudly,
“It’s not me-“ Before noticing, everyone stopped at the sight of Remus and Tonks.
It took a minute, but Merlin rushed to Remus, worried about him.
Nimueh magically turned the lights on and moved to go pull the first aid kit, Bell left here, out from under the sink.
And Gwaine ran over with Merlin.
“Woah, what’d you guys do?” Gwaine asked once he saw them under the light.
Merlin picked up Gwaine’s wand, which he was using temporarily, as his own wand was gone.
“We’d snuck into the Ministry.” Tonks started.
“And this is how we chose to get out.” She said, still smiling despite the wounds.
Remus laughed but winced when Nimueh started to clean his wounds.
“Why are we doing this the Muggle way?” Remus asked Merlin as he flinched from Nimueh again.
“I’m not the best at healing magic,” Myridian said, sorting through his potion collection.
Gwaine was helping Tonks, and he was better at it than Nimueh, as he’d had to do this in the army.
“Why did you need to leave so badly?” Merlin asked, and it caused Remus to stand suddenly.
He got so caught up in the atmosphere that he forgot.
“James, James was tortured.” He announced. Merlin’s jaw dropped.
“What?” Merlin said, standing too, looking like he was caught unaware.
“Is he okay? No, where is he? Is he alive?” Merlin said as the questions swirled quicker than he could remember asking them.
“We’re not too sure if he’s alright, we overheard some Death Eaters talking about it, while we were running around the Ministry. We came because they were saying James had given up your house location. We believe they’ll come to attack today, that’s why we broke out of the Ministry because sneaking out wasn’t working.” Tonks said, recounting what had happened last night.
“They said James was kidnapped and was being kept by Morgana. At least it sounded like they were talking about her. They said she could break James.” Remus said, worried for Sirius’ well-being.
Gwaine grimaced,
“She is capable of breaking someone,” Gwaine said from experience,
“He’s probably not in good shape. She likes to hurt people.” Gwaine said with a faraway look in his eyes.
Merlin looked like he wanted to kill someone.
“Where is he?” He asked again.
“Uh, Malfoy Manor, I think. But I have a feeling the Dark Lord is there. We looked around the whole Ministry, but he wasn’t anywhere inside. And most of the Death Eaters he keeps by his side weren’t there either. We assume the full force congregates in the manor.” Tonks explained.
She’d jotted notes down to make sure she remembered.
Merlin looks serious but smiles.
“Well, this is easy, we know where James is, let’s go get him,” Merlin said, eager to go save his fake brother.
As much as they weren’t related, Merlin still cared very deeply for his friends. And in a way, Sirius kind of felt like a little brother.
Gwaine nodded,
“I’m down,”
Gwaine said Ready for some action, he’d been forcing Percival to duel him at least once a week so they could get better with long swords.
But Gwaine was already proficient in small knives and guns, so he was just learning new things to help.
Nimueh liked Sirius and had been trying to scry his location for weeks now, feeling frustrated that it wasn’t working.
“I will come too.” She said as if it was obvious.
Merlin nodded his head and was about to say something when an explosion went off, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
Everyone in the room paused.
They looked for flames or for signs of an attack, but there was nothing.
But then the sky on the horizon turned orange and black.
Smoke was rising from a large fire a mile down the road. Merlin and company watched as the fire got higher through the tree line before another explosion happened.
“That’s-“ Tonks said as a Dark Mark rose in the air.
“Shit!” Remus cursed, unlike himself, as he saw multiple Death Eaters marching down the road with their wands up.
Gwaine saw Mordred in the front, leading the men, and Morgana standing in the road laughing as she watched the other house burn.
“That psychopath!” Gwaine said, standing next to Remus.
Nimueh broke everyone out of their stupor.
“We need to go.”
Merlin realized they’d just been staring and moved.
“Grab what’s important. We’ll run. Saving James is a priority; if we get into a fight…that delays his rescue.” Merlin said, going to his room to gather important things he’d rather not lose.
There were a lot of medieval artworks in the house, but he didn’t really care for them that much .
Only like one portrait, he had done of his friends from the past that he wanted to save, and a few prototype devices, and just some general miscellaneous stuff that he needed, but most of that was all in a bag that he had prepared just in case. He just never thought his house would be attacked so soon.
He was a tad mad; he seemed unprepared when he’d told everyone else not to be.
Nimueh actually listened to his advice and was ready to go.
She’d kept all her books and important stuff in a bag she had Emrys help enchant with new magic, and she was ready to go before she looked out the back window and noticed some of her plants in the garden, and she hesitated, not wanting them to get burned.
It was a three-minute decision before she decided to run out the back door quickly, grabbing whatever plants she needed to keep. Most of them were just normal, but some of them were magical in nature, and she wanted them. It had taken her a few months already, and they were a little bit like her pride and joy.
As much as she thought she could leave them behind, she didn’t want to, and they had a little bit of time, she decided to quickly collect them.
Gwaine, who was not prepared, runs to his room and just stares at all his stuff lying around.
“Fuck me.” He says while rubbing his hands through his hair roughly.
Unlike Nimueh, he didn’t prepare at all. He, just like Merlin, assumed there was no way it would happen today. He could always make a little bag another day, but no, it’s happening right now, and he was not ready.
He just started haphazardly throwing things in his backpack. Mainly his work laptop and some clothes.
His cat, who’d been sleeping under his bed, crawled out meowing.
“Ahh, you!” He said, grabbing the confused cat and putting it in the bag as well. He zipped the bag up, with just enough room for the cat's head to poke through, and he ran back to the living room.
Then he ran out the back, and he saw everyone but Merlin there.
Remus and Tonks had followed Nimueh to the garden. They knew the plan was to escape, but by the time Gwaine ran out, Death Eaters were sending spells their way. All you could see were jets of multicolored lights hitting the wards. The wards were good. But not as good as at the shop or the secret ones he placed around Hogwarts. And they definitely lacked compared to the ones at his secret safe house.
A few spells even started to break through the wards.
One narrowly grazed Gwaine.
But after Gwaine patted his body and he found he was not injured, he ignored it.
By the time Merlin is out the back door, Nimueh has raised her hands as she starts to cast a shield over the back of the property.
Merlin turns to Remus and Tonks.
“Go now. Leave for a safe house, and tell everyone my house is no longer safe.” Merlin says.
Tonk’s looked hesitant to leave first. It wasn’t in her nature to leave comrades behind, but Remus grabs her hand and nods to Merlin before apperating them both out.
The moment they leave, the glass all over the house shatters.
The beautiful glass archway and the many windows all scatter into a million pieces as the wards slowly break under the barrage of spells being hurled towards them.
Merlin grabs Gwaine and Nimueh as he starts to transport them using old magic.
Nimueh, not bothered, starts to cast a spell of her own, a last sort of ‘fuck you’ to the approaching Death Eaters.
The winds were blowing around Merlin and Gwaine so hard that you could barely see them.
And as that fierce wind was about to cover Nimueh too, she cast a spell, and thunder boomed across the sky.
The few Death Eaters that escaped from this spell the first time they’d seen it cowered in fear as they knew what was coming.
As the trio disappeared, soon followed the thunder, dark clouds, rain, and then lightning.
Unforgiving lightning that seemed like the wrath of nature.
The fires were extinguished by the rain, the explosions were muted by the thunder, and the screams of the Death Eaters grew louder as they were burned by the lightning.
The last thing both parties saw before the night was over was the burnt and charred remains of Myridian’s house and some unforgettable blue eyes disappearing into a storm.
Morgana’s rage doesn’t stop there.
She couldn’t believe all that work left her with just missing Emrys again.
She slapped Mordred and screamed and yelled at the Death Eaters around her.
“How did they get away!” She yowled.
Most backed away as the ground around her started to tremble.
Mordred, with his cheek turning a pinkish red, just looked forward and spoke,
“We know a lot of safe house locations, but we were waiting for others to take action because we were after Emrys. But since he escaped, we just need to destroy everything, and at one point, he’ll need to come crawling out.” Mordred said, thinking rationally despite the pain in his cheek.
Morgana’s anger subsided, and she hugged Mordred,
“Yes, you’re right. I will get my hands on that old bastard soon.” She cooed and she gently patted Mordred’s cheek.
But the madness never left her eyes.
She just seemed to rein the crazy in.
Muggle Electronic Shop
October 9, 2007
Hermionie walked in, looking around, and saw an older woman behind the counter.
“Excuse me, ma'am.”
Hermionie stepped up to the counter to get the woman’s attention as she had her back turned.
An older woman turns and smiles gently at the young girl standing across from her.
“Yes. What can I do for you?”
Hermionie smiled.
It had been a while since life seemed so mundane.
“I went on a trip with my mates, but I forgot my charger. I was wondering if you had one for this model?” Hermionie said, holding her dead phone up to the lady.
The women took a look at it and nodded.
“We do, if you’d asked a month ago, I probably wouldn’t. Some young entrepreneurs starting a new technology company came here and bought most of them. But we get new shipments the first of every month, and he hasn’t come in for a while, so you're in luck.” The woman smiled, walking around the counter to some boxes in the back.
Hermionie didn’t really pay attention to what the woman was saying.
“He even wisped away one of my top employees. Gwen is such a nice girl. I hope her new job does her well.” The lady said, walking back to the counter with a phone charger in hand.
Finally, Hermione’s mind caught up.
“Gwen works here?” She asked.
“Oh, you know Gwen? But I’m afraid you're too late. She quit a few days ago, saying she got a new job.” The older woman sighed like she were at a great loss.
“Right, you said that. Uh, do you mind if I charge here for a moment? The hotel is rather far, and I really need to text my family before they freak out.” Hermionie said slightly bitterly.
“Oh, of course, dear. Come here, and I’ll bring you a chair while you wait.” Hermionie smiles and plugs her phone in.
Time to get back in the loop.
Notes:
Honestly, I'm so far ahead in writing that I don't even know what's going on in this chapter. Lol
But let me know what you think!
edit Mordred is a character I feel bad for, but also I just get a creepy feeling from, I know why, since I wrote him as such, but ughhh he's just so naive.
Chapter 21: Running, Escaping, Or Rather Fleeing
Notes:
HEHEHE Im feeling so good to be uploading again. I find lots of joy in writing and uploading stories. It's just something I've been doing so long that it feels comfortable.
Anyway, I might upload three chapters. Honestly depends on how long it takes me to edit this chapter. Also, I have therapy in a few minutes. Let's see how I feel with those interruptions.
Low key I wanna write the next chapter but I also really wanna upload....lol
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
An Abandoned Industrial Building
October 9, 2007
Hermionie walks in with a fully charged phone and a few pastries that the electronic shopkeeper gave her because she looked too skinny.
Finally, after she enters the building, Ron and Harry pop out of the corner. Hermionie hands the pastries out and turns her phone on.
The moment it turns on, sounds start to blast from it, spooking the trio that had been in silence for so long.
The phone screen lit up with constant little dings as new messages started to arrive quicker and quicker. It's like all the information they had been missing for a week just decided to let itself be known.
It was moving so fast that Hermione couldn't open the phone or press the screen as a new notification blocked things she needed to press; they literally had to wait it out. Harry gulped as he wasn't sure what this could mean. Ron took an especially loud bite of the pastry he'd already gotten into, freezing after crunching so loudly. Hermionie sighed, waiting for her phone to function properly again.
Hermione's first order of business once the phone calmed down enough for her to actually look at the text messages was to first catch up on all the information they had been missing since escaping Hogwarts.
When they escaped, they really just brought the bare minimum, and getting their electronics and getting out of Hogwarts was probably the biggest struggle so they haven't been able to be contacting anyone after their phones died in the first two weeks of their escape.
She wanted to give everyone an update, but first things first, they needed to know what was going on in the wizarding world. Harry found an outlet in the building and plugged the phone in, hoping that maybe this place still had electricity running in it, though he doubted it. But they needed to have their phones too.
Hermionie opens the group chats, she was in a few of them.
One was for just Ron, Harry, and her. The other was with her school friends, and the last one was for the Order. She immediately opened that one and scrolled back from her last message she sent out and started getting all the information they missed.
Thankfully, and luckily, the abandoned building still had electricity, and Harry and Ron were able to charge their phones as well.
And soon the trio was going through all of their messages. They had texted people back and most people didn't respond.
It's like all communication had suddenly cut off from everyone.
That wasn't until early the next morning when one text in the Order group chat came from Remus.
The text read:
"Myridian's house is in danger. Morgana will attack."
"James is in danger."
Hermionie covered her mouth, worried.
Harry texted Remus multiple times, but he wasn't responding.
Harry was distraught; he wanted to know what and how his godfather was doing.
And what kind of trouble?
He texted some other kids from school, asking what was going on and where Professor Emrys was.
...
It wasn't till the 11th that Ron received a response for that question; it was from his little sister Ginny.
She stated that a few teachers had started to disappear, beginning a few weeks ago.
First, it was the Muggle studies professor, and then Professor Emrys disappeared. She also said the school wasn't safe and to not come back.
Hermionie suddenly thought maybe they should go to Myridian's house.
She thought they might be holding out or in trouble since no one was responding.
Ron wasn't too sure this was a good idea as he thought they'd be walking right into a group of Death Eaters.
But Harry said they needed to know if they'd escaped or were in trouble. So in the end the trio reluctantly went.
Hermionie knew the address and then took a taxi. As it was rather far from their current location.
Myridian's Neighborhood
October 12th, 2007
They didn't go there the magical way because they only knew the coordinates of Myridian's house, and they were worried that if they transported straight there, they would run into a bunch of Death Eaters; so Hermione found the location on the map, and then they traveled there the Muggle way.
They took a cab, as far as the cab would take them, but eventually they had to stop because there was police tape everywhere.
They thought maybe Myridian's house would be destroyed or burnt or something because obviously there was going to be an attack or was an attack that happened already, but the destruction was on another level.
Not just Myridian's house, but every single house in a 5-mile radius was destroyed.
And it wasn't even just the houses.
The ground was crumbling, and there were craters everywhere.
It literally looked like a bunch of natural disasters had hit this neighborhood at the exact same time.
The ground was still wet from a rainstorm that seemed to come from nowhere. There were burnt marks on the ground like the lightning was targeting somebody and there were dead bodies; that's why the police were there, besides the fact that there were so many destroyed houses.
The trio noticed that most of the bodies were Death Eaters, especially with the hoods and the masks, but they needed to get closer to Myridian's house to see if their friends were okay.
It wasn't too hard as most of the bodies seemed to be running from Myridian's house before they dropped to the floor, so there was not much hustle near the wreckage of his house. The cops were already moving the bodies and taking photos and moving around to clean up, so the trio snuck past the yellow tape and rushed behind broken buildings.
Staying out of sight but still going as close as they could get unseen.
Once they'd arrived at the ruined house, they all looked pretty broken.
They'd been on their own for weeks now, so even if it was mid-fight, they wanted to see some of their allies again. But alas, it was just rubble.
Harry was the first to move to pick up some burnt remains of a book.
Ron kicked a piece of stone that fell over to reveal a broken set of tea cups.
And Hermione even found a badly broken Muggle laptop, clearly not one of the indestructible ones, seeing how destroyed it had become.
They kept shifting the debris to see if their friends had been caught up and were stuck or worse, but thankfully, it was an empty house.
Harry was looking through the book in his hands. It was old-looking, like ancient, honestly. And it was charred, and the top right corner was missing, but the words inside were still somewhat legible. If it were written in proper English, that is.
It was written in a language that looked like English, but wasn't exactly English. Harry honestly wasn't too bothered by the book; he just flipped through it out of curiosity and happened to land on a page that made him second-guess the value of the burnt book in his hands.
There was one simple signature that made him pause. It was written in the style of a diary or something similar, and this one entry was signed: Merlin.
But that wasn't the only odd part; it seemed as if at some point the book was being written in recently. It seemed this was more like Myridian's diary as the pages progressed. The writing even changed. Harry thought to himself that he'd remembered a conversation where Myridian said that Merlin was his long-distance ancestor, so that made some sense if this was his ancestor's diary, and maybe it was family tradition to continue. Harry felt a tad nosey reading Myridian's diary after realizing what it was, but his curiosity got the better of him. It was a sudden change in writing, it was from an older, almost foreign English to a more modern version in Myridian's entries.
Myridian's entries talked about coming back to London after a long time. Which made sense as it felt like Myridian appeared out of thin air one day, which was explained if he was abroad for a while. It also talked about the Muggle world and his fascination with it. Even how he had met Remus and their soon fast friendship.
It was very mundane, and Harry almost stopped reading, especially when it got into the nitty-gritty of gushing over electronics and how cool they were. But he flipped several pages and paused. It talked about Malfoy.
Harry now refocused.
It talked about meeting him in school and how Myridian was reminded of someone he didn't name. It said that Malfoy was so similar, with his blonde hair and prattish attitude. Then it stated something Harry knew, and talked about how Myridian knew Malfoy was a Death Eater. It stated he'd seen the dark mark on his arm. There was unfortunately, a large burn mark near most of the recent entries, but Harry continued on, looking through what he could read.
It talked about Draco doing something in the room of requirement but the entry was almost illegible. Flipping more pages, Harry saw an entry about Dumbledore. It was somber sounding talking about how he died. But it was alarming as Myridian sort of wrote how he didn't save Dumbledore, even though he could have.
It made Harry sick. Harry had been beating himself up about being too weak because Dumbledore had to protect him, and in the end, lost his life because of it, but here was a diary entry written by somebody else who was apparently watching the death of Dumbledore, saying that he could do something to save him, but chose not to.
Harry was getting angrier by the second. Coupled with the fact that he knew Malfoy was doing something shady in the Room of Requirements and that he was a Death Eater, but said none of it to anybody. Harry distinctly remembers Myridian standing up for Malfoy and saying that he was sure he wasn't a Death Eater, but here is the proof that he knew he was lying.
Then the weirdest entries of all were the talk of somebody coming.
It was very vague, even if it was a diary, all of the talks about this mysterious person whom Myridian was waiting for to come save everyone. It was very odd compared to the other detailed entries. It talked about how he was waiting for someone to come, someone to win the war. Someone who was going to rise above everyone and become the true leader.
The more Harry read, the more confused his state of mind became. And with no knowledge of what Myridian was really thinking, he came to a conclusion, a conclusion that had been brewing in his mind for quite a while.
It was the only obvious path he saw, which was that Myridian was a Death Eater, and the person he was waiting for was Voldemort... obviously... right? I mean, if someone were to have to win the war, Harry would assume it was him since that's what everyone else believed or hoped for.
But if it wasn't Harry that Mryidian was talking about winning, then the only other option was the Dark Lord.
...
In the end, this book/diary only confirmed Harry's suspicion that Myridian was, in fact, a Death Eater, and that he could not be trusted, and that somehow he was fooling everybody, and only Harry could see the truth.
Harry clutched the diary and looked distrustful.
He looked at his friends, looking around the rubble, and looked at the diary, then placed it back on the floor under a rock.
He trusted his friends, but they trusted Myridian too much.
Just like how Dumbledore trusted him to get rid of the Horcruxes, he'd bring to light Myridian's truth.
He left the diary and moved back to his two best friends and firmed his resolve.
A Safe House, 11:00pm
October 13th, 2007
Remus and Tonks were eating dinner.
While Myridian and Nimueh were looking over some pictures of Malfoy Manor.
They were the force to save James, but they'd run into some issues; no one sitting in the safe house had ever gone to Malfoy's house.
Myridian had been there once, but he didn't think to get a layout since he never planned on going back. So now they were deciding where James could be located and how they were going to save him exactly.
Myridian and Nimueh, were kind of on the path of running and fight their way out while Tonks and Remus were trying to speak some sense into them because while they might be able to get in that way, if the full force of the Dark Lord's army was there, including the Dark Lord and Morgana and Mordred; then them leaving with their lives, seemed less plausible.
Especially if James was either injured or not in a condition to walk or run. They needed to be stealthy and do this correctly.
Gwaine was texting everyone to not go near Merlin's house and to stay attentive as it seemed the battle was going to happen soon.
Besides the looming threat of a war and their planning of rescuing James, it was semi-peaceful.
But then things started to happen all at once, almost at the snap of a finger.
Remus got a text first, it was from Harry.
Someone they had not been able to get in contact with at all for weeks on end.
It was a simple text saying that they were alive.
It made Remus jump up and show the text to everyone.
He was happy. The news had already traveled that Harry was out of Hogwarts, but beyond that, nobody knew if he was safe or not. They all had hoped he was all right, but with this confirmation, it let them breathe a sigh of relief; however, that did not last.
At the moment, they all seemed to come down from the high of feeling relieved that an explosion occurred.
They weren't housed in Merlin's super extra-strengthened, secure, safe house.
They were in one of the orders, safe houses, and apparently, this was not so safe.
How they had been found was not known, but they had been found again.
Gwaine and Nimueh were the first to go.
This time, they had a decisive exit strategy. After running around like chickens with their heads cut off at the last attack, they decided on an exit strategy for the next one.
They paired up Gwaine and Nimueh together and Tonks and Remus together as escape partners.
Myridian would stay behind and make sure that they did all escaped before leaving himself.
And the safe houses they each would go to were different, and then they would all meet up later after exchanging text messages.
So almost immediately after the shock of the first explosion went off, Gwaine grabbed his bag, and Nimueh grabbed hers before grabbing hands and leaving in a gust of wind.
Tonks and Remus shared a look with Merlin before also clasping hands and apparating with a pop.
Merlin too grabbed his things, a tad confused on how they were located so fast, before blocking the fire from another explosion and leaving with a loud pop.
The Not-So-Safe House, Five Minutes Later
The explosions halted.
After the not-so-safe house was vacated, Morgana walked in, annoyed.
Missing Emrys by a breath.
She glared at the spot they were just at.
And the room exploded.
She screamed and turned to leave as the fires flared behind her.
Soon she'd get her hands on Emrys.
Very soon.
Notes:
Let me know what you think!!! I love feedback and comments!
edit: omg im remembering as I edit these next chapters are gonna be so good!!!!!!!!!
Chapter 22: Always Finding Gwaine
Notes:
Okay, last chapter for now.
I was only going to upload two, but I love this chapter soooo here you go!
Also, we've got a long chapter!!! Wooo
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Percival’s Flat, 3:00 am
October 14, 2007
Gwaine stumbled over some stuff on the floor once they appeared in the living room of the flat.
Nimueh looked annoyed that the space was so small.
And then turned with her hand up, but stopped her attack, and the attacker also froze.
“Gwaine? Nimueh? What are you guys doing here?” Percival asked with a bat half in the air.
“Oh, Percy, buddy, we’ve had a long day,” Gwaine said, hugging his friend.
Percival dropped the bat and hugged Gwaine back.
“Are you guys okay? I thought you said you were safe since you escaped Merlin’s house?” Percival asked after looking Gwaine over, then Nimueh worried they were hurt.
Even though the texts said they were fine, you couldn’t ever be sure without seeing it for yourself.
“We thought so, too, but they found us again. The safe house must have been leaked; we were in one prepared by the order, so I guess we can’t trust them. The only one we should be using is Merlin’s. Anyway, we’ll stay here for the night, the probably regroup later. Is the spare bedroom still available?” Gwaine asked jokingly, but Nimueh pushed past them both, walking to the couch.
“Ah, ladies first,” Gwaine said, offering the room to Nimueh as he’d feel bad making her take the couch.
Nimueh sighed and went to the guest room.
“We should leave by tonight; staying in one place too long isn’t good.” She said, disappearing into the room.
“Is it not safe here? Who would come here?” Percival said, confused.
But Gwaine wasn’t sure.
“I don’t know. But staying on the move is a good move. Let’s get some sleep. I think tonight is going to be busy.” Gwaine said, lying on the uncomfortable couch.
Percival’s Neighborhood, 5:00 pm
Nimueh had left to go find some food.
Also, she said the room was so small that she didn’t understand why someone would pay to live there. And so she disappeared from the flat somewhere around 3 o’clock that afternoon.
Gwaine had stayed using his laptop to ship some things that he had coming from America to a different address, as the address he originally put in was Merlin‘s house, which is now destroyed. So, as he was rerouting some of his packages that he had some of his friends in America send him, he was just lounging on the couch.
Percival was at work.
Though the times are getting dire with all of the attacks happening for the Muggles who were with Merlin. Their lives seemed almost uninterrupted by what was happening in the Wizarding World. There were moments where the wizarding conflicts breached into the mundane world, but it was so far and few between that the Muggles were nowhere near being in a panic. And anytime they even got close to it. They were obliviated and nobody remembered anyway.
The Wizarding World‘s way of handling things was in no way smart or recommended, but it happened nonetheless. Hence, that’s why nobody was ever really prepared for what happened next.
It seemed like everything was going fine.
Especially after we left, it was quiet. Even after Percival had to leave, it was still quiet, but while Gwaine was alone on his computer, another explosion occurred.
It wasn’t directly to Percival‘s flat, but somewhere, maybe a block away, a loud bang went off.
Followed by the ground rumbling and sirens, blaring and car horns honking, and just utter chaos, followed by the almost peaceful quiet that was happening just moments before.
Gwaine shot up off the couch, almost tossing his laptop to the floor, and ran to the window.
In the distance, he could see smoke billowing in the air, and he could see several cars on the streets, making noises even though there was nobody inside.
At first, he thought, or rather hoped, it was some freak accident, but then his suspicions of something different happening were soon confirmed when a dark mark rose into the air.
Gwaine thought to himself, ‘How the fuck did they find us again?’ Once was a coincidence, but twice….something was wrong.
Gwaine quickly put all of his things in his bag and ran.
In hindsight, maybe he should have waited for Nimueh to come back, but that could be Nimueh getting attacked, or Percival could’ve gotten recognized on the street since he was at that old guy's funeral.
Gwaine couldn’t just sit there waiting like a sitting duck.
He couldn’t not take action.
Instead of running away and getting as far away from the attack as possible.
Gwaine did the stupid thing and ran directly into it.
He was brave, if nothing else.
…
Gwaine running in headfirst was reckless and stupid, but he was good at drawing attention towards himself.
Meaning less unfortunate souls got swept up in the attack.
Mordred was the one in charge of this rampage, and the moment their eyes met, Gwaine smirked.
He was really defenseless against magic, but this time, he was smarter.
He had more knowledge about his surroundings and was more knowledgeable about magic itself.
Gwaine smiled, with a somewhat evil smile, not befitting his face; before he gave a quick wave to Mordred and then booked it down the block, running and turning into a side alleyway, hoping that they’d follow.
And follow they did.
They chased Gwaine far and wide through London.
Gwaine, who had excellent stamina, ran around the city dodging spells and keeping the Death Eaters on their toes as they chased him.
By sheer luck or maybe magic, I guess you could say, somehow Gwaine didn’t get hit by a single spell that was fired at him; and trust me, there were a lot of spells fired in his direction.
Especially after the ground that he had just previously stepped on was broken and burnt and singed, and a whole menagerie of spells that thankfully didn’t hit him, but hit everything in his surroundings.
However, since everyone was so focused on him, everyone else seemed to get the picture that this was dangerous and that they should run away, meaning the more Gwaine ran, the fewer people he ran into and the safer it was for everyone else around him.
But Gwaine was kind of running out of options here as he didn’t want to take them deeper into London because there were more people there and less places for them to hide, but he also on the other hand, didn’t want to run into the middle of nowhere because then he would be screwed and he didn’t know where Nimueh was nor did he have a moment to call or check his phone.
Instead, he was just running, trying to formulate a plan.
Somewhere Else In The Chaos
While there were very few casualties because the Death Eaters were chasing after Gwaine, there were still some injured people lying around, whether they got hit with the brunt of the first few explosions or that as Gwaine was running away the trail of destruction that Gwaine left behind him, which caught some unfortunate people who ran the wrong way.
There were quite a few injuries.
None of the life-threatening, but injuries nonetheless.
And where there are patients, doctors step forward.
Like Gwaine, who was brave enough to run into danger, Bell, too, ran straight up to a group of injured civilians.
She was on her way home from work.
Bell and Leon lived somewhat close to Percival, in a flat of their own. And when Bell saw the explosion and the dark mark in the air, she was scared, but her worry for others overcame her fear.
And so she too ran straight to her first patient, a man with an injured leg and a woman with a burnt arm. She was in the thick of it, treating people when a man stepped before her.
Not someone she recognized nor someone she was warned about, but she smiled at the man and asked,
“Are you hurt? Do you need help?” She asked, scanning over the man, only to stop at his forearm; there sat a dark mark.
She froze and looked into the man's eyes, but instead, a red light blocked her vision, and she was soon out of it.
Back At Gwaine’s Location, East of London
Gwaine hit a dead end.
Running down alleyways was good because they were narrow and short, and there were barely any civilians. But it was also bad because the farther he got away from Percival’s flat, the less he knew the area he was in, and in turn, that’s probably why he walked down a dead end.
Gwaine turned, and Mordred was the only one who had been keeping up with him.
Most wizards were not exactly physically great at running around.
Even without Mordred’s past as a Knight, in this life, he was pretty fit. As an acto,r he had to keep a solid workout schedule, and so he seemed to be the only one who kept up with Gwaine, who was clearly fit as a soldier.
“So we meet again, traitor,” Gwaine said with an absolutely furious look on his face.
Mordred frowned, out of breath slightly.
“I’m not the one who betrayed first. Merlin betrayed me, then Arthur. I was the one who was betrayed, yet I’m the traitor?” Mordred said, remembering the worst moments of his past life, the moments that brought out the most hatred.
“Oh, you think you're innocent after killing Arthur, then? You think helping Morgana is just?” Gwaine spat with anger.
“Morgana is my friend. She accepted me. She didn’t persecute my kind. She placed her trust in me and believed in me. She helped me. She’s the only one I could rely on and the only one I trust. You have so much faith in Merlin . But he’s nothing but a coward without Arthur. He’s nothing without Arthur.” Mordred said, mumbling. It seemed like the words he spoke came from bitter resentment about his past, but something was off in the way he spoke, not that Gwaine cared to analyze it or discover what it was that was off; instead, he focused on the words that Mordred said and got angrier by the minute.
Here, this traitor was talking about how Merlin was nothing without Arthur.
Gwaine knew that Merlin also believed this to be the case, but he was sick and tired of freaking hearing it.
Merlin was his best friend, yet Merlin himself and the people who think that they know him think that he’s nothing without Arthur.
And that just grinds Gwaine’s gears.
Nobody belittles his best friend, not even his own fucking best friend.
...
Gwaine pulled out a small knife.
He knew it was futile, especially against magic, but hell if he’d go down without a fight.
“Meow.” Gwaine’s backpack meow’s and both men stop moving, and the hostile tension almost pauses.
Gwaine looked at his back, and his cat climbed on his shoulder.
“Not now, Dee,” Gwaine said, trying to push his cat back.
Bedisa, his cat, was trying to get pet rather than allow Gwaine to shove her back into the bag.
Gwaine was distracted, but Bedisa’s eyes were focused on Mordred.
Mordred felt a sense of dread looking into the cat’s eyes. Like something was off about the seemingly normal-looking black cat.
Bedisa meows loudly and claws into Gwaine’s shoulders.
“Ow…Dee, that hurts. You normally cooperate, why are you-“ But Gwaine’s ramblings cut off as he saw Merlin appear behind him.
“Merlin?” He asked, confused.
Gwaine was wondering where he appeared from.
Obviously, magically, since he was standing in a dead end up how he found Gwaine was truly lucky.
Merlin too looked confused, as he was running around looking for Gwaine after Percival had called and said there was an attack again.
Nimueh was fighting Death Eaters alone when Merlin showed up and left her to it, trying to find Gwaine. It wasn’t hard to tell he’d left the flat. And after hearing some muggles talk about a brave bloke who lured them away, Merlin was hot on Gwaine’s trail, but he’d lost him after running into a group of Death Eaters who were out of breath.
Merlin had hope that maybe Gwaine had juked them and gotten away, but since he’d gotten no calls or texts, he continued to search.
But while searching, he felt a weird wave of magic pulsing from the opposite direction he was headed and then changed course, finally stumbling on Gwaine at a dead end with his cat, cornered by Mordred.
Who was thankfully without Morgana.
Mordred frowned when Merlin appeared and apparated.
Merlin looked confused at his departure, but grabbed Gwaine and whisked him away as whatever caused him to retreat was fine for Merlin too.
Three Days Later
October 16, 2007
Gwaine was checked over by Merlin and discovered to have been hit with a tracking spell, hence why they kept getting found so often.
Merlin fixed the problem, and they headed to Merlin‘s safe house, the super secret safe one that had a lot of traps around it. It took a few days for everyone to take leave of absences from their jobs and to congregate at the super secret safe house; however, there was a problem, even once everyone got together.
Leon was panicking.
He could not find Bell anywhere.
He spent the first two days asking if anyone had seen her or if she was in the hospital, maybe got hurt since the attack was so close to their house, but as time progressed, Leon came to the horrifying conclusion that Bell was kidnapped by the Death Eaters as well.
There were quite a few missing people who were discovered to have been kidnapped by the terrorists. But the definite number and the exact people who were kidnapped were never mentioned, and so Leon had come to the worst conclusion.
Bell was kidnapped by the Death Eaters, and they needed to save her.
Malfoy Manor, The Cells
October 16, 2007
Bell groaned.
Her head hurt, and her back was sore from the hard floor she was on. For a moment, she was very confused about why she was sleeping on the floor.
But then, as she sat up, her memory started to come back to her of the attack and the explosions and the hurt people and the red light and the death heater before her.
Her eyes widened as she looked around, but there was not really much to see as it was pretty dark. But she could make out that she was in a cell of some type. Not like a prison cell because it was very dank and dark, and kinda looked a little medieval.
There were other people around her, but most looked malnourished or badly beaten.
And in her search of the room, her eyes landed on someone she hadn’t seen in a very long time.
They were chained to the wall was a very beaten, very hurt, very pale, and malnourished: James Emrys.
...
The very James Emrys who was kidnapped by Death Eaters, and the one that they were planning on saving, but kept getting interrupted because they kept getting attacked by Death Eaters.
Or at least that’s what Gwaine had shared in the text messages she had last read.
But here he was now in front of her, looking in a very bad state.
“Oh my goodness! James!” Bell mouthed without making much sound.
Bell couldn’t stop herself; she immediately jumped up to her feet, realizing that she wasn’t chained up, probably because she wasn’t a wizard, but nonetheless, she ran over to James, trying to take stock of his situation and see how she could help him if she could.
They’d removed James' chains since he started to cooperate.
But he was still heavily injured. Bell and other muggles were restrained based on whether they were being difficult.
And Bell was unconscious for most of the trip to the Manor and stayed unconscious for two days, so she was sitting in front of James, cradling his bloody face.
“What did they do to you?” She said, appalled by the state he was in.
James startled after being touched and almost looked like he wanted to kill whoever touched him until his face turned from anger to confusion as he recognized Bell’s face.
“What are you doing here?” James asked, voice slurring as he wasn’t feeling well.
That was an understatement.
He then started to cough as his voice was rough because he hadn't drunk anything in a few days.
Bell produced a bottle of water with a wink.
She was prepared for going on the run, so, had some water and food with her.
Most Death Eaters went with Morgana, and so they barely paid attention to those who were here, leaving them to starve. Not that they cared.
So the water bottle in Bell’s hands looked almost fake since it seemed too easy.
For a moment, until the cold water touched his lips, James thought he was under a spell, but the cold water shocked him out of the misconstrued delusion his fevered brain was making up.
“I uh, I got kidnapped, I think? But what happened to you? You look awful….uh, no, sorry. But are you okay? Obviously, you're not, uh, what hurts?” Bell asked, becoming scatterbrained for a moment before clearing her mind of her questions and moving to see his injuries.
While they did take her electronics, now that they were aware that electronics were dangerous, to let the muggles keep them.
They didn’t take her little pouch that she had on her belt. It was a gift from Merlin that contained a bunch of medical supplies, just in case of an emergency, and her little on-the-run supplies. Thankfully, it was put to good use because this was an emergency.
James' sick mind took a minute to refocus.
Since giving up the location of Meridian’s house, he hadn’t been tortured anymore, but the wounds inflicted on him by Voldemort got infected, and he was sick because of it.
Not finding the words to explain to Bell what he needed, he just pointed to his leg, which was the worst injury and the one that was causing him the worst pain.
Bell nodded and went to work assessing the wound and grimacing, but moving her adept hands as he cleaned the wound with some alcohol pads and water.
James groaned but didn’t, or rather couldn’t, move anyway.
He wasn’t still shackled, but he was pretty out of it.
Bell did the best she could, cleaning and treating the worst wound before moving on to the next and the next. Even the small cuts and scratches got ointment or a Band-Aid just to help. She even offered James some painkillers and fever reducers that he had to swallow with more water, but they’d help in the long run. It wasn’t perfect, but he was doing better.
Modern medicine couldn’t do much in the face of magic, but it was better than nothing.
She then sat next to him, just chatting about how they had known he’d been captured and were already planning to rescue him, so he wasn’t having to wait long.
James fell asleep to the sound of Bell chatting about her day at work and other mundane events that had been happening while he was kidnapped.
It was a peaceful sleep with the medicine taking effect.
And finally, the pain had eased since the painkiller Mordred had given him had worn off.
Notes:
I’ve named Gwaine’s cat. I found the perfect motherfucking name for it.
It was like literally destiny.
I was looking for a name that means lucky or good luck, because, well, I guess that’s a little spoiler into the cat's presence in Gwiane’s life, at least.
Anyway, as I was looking for a name, I found the perfect name. It’s a Georgian name, and it’s Bedisa, Dee for short, because when you pronounce the name, it’s pronounced beh-DEE-suh, and I thought Dee for short was cute.
And the definition or meaning of the name that I’m going off of says
{It means ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’, representing someone whose life is shaped by fortune and predestined outcomes.}
How fucking spot on for the story is that name?
Literally felt like fate when I found the name; so that’s the cat's name, and according to my lore, she picked it out herself.
She pointed to a book and picked that name.
So it really could be fate, who knows….lol
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