AN: So, this fic is set during the final battle of Hogwarts, in the BOOKS, meaning it's in the great hall with lots of onlookers, with Harry in what would be his 7th year. I put Merlin and Arthur as 1st years to make it more dramatic and have more of an impact. When I thought of this, I just had to write it, as I feel that there are way too few crossovers. Just saying. So yeah. Enjoy!
"ARTHUR! DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME RIGHT AFTER I FOUND YOU, YOU PRAT! ARTHUR!" Everyone turned their head in confusion to hear a shout of such sadness, anger, and raw power coming from an eleven-year-old.
"Max?" Harry asked cautiously, coming up behind his young friend slowly. "Max, I know he was your friend, but you have to let him go. He's dead. There's nothing you can do for him now except live, so let me just help you-"
"NO!" The grieving boy on the ground shouted, still holding his fallen friend. "You don't know ANYTHING. You think you know me? Well you're wrong,' he said grimly, gently placing Arthur on the ground to attend to later. He then turned to the Dark Lord, who at that point was watching with unconcealed mirth. "And you!" he shouted. "Who the hell do you think you are? You think you can come in here like you own the place, slinging death curses around without caring who gets hit, and get away without any repercussions? Well, you're wrong, too!" At this point, everyone in the room was stunned beyond belief, including Voldemort himself. Because on top of this tirade, the puny kid they all thought they'd known, had started to change. He started growing, his face losing its extra fat and becoming all angles, his curly black hair becoming longer, reaching the nape of his neck, and overall becoming older. When he stopped changing, he was 6'1, and all angles and bones. All in all, not that imposing of a figure- if not for the glowing. A golden light seemed to surround the boy-turned-man like an aura, emanating from his eyes. Those close to him could feel that said aura was made up of pure, raw power. It was this that caused everyone but the Dark Lord and Harry Potter to take a step back.
Once over his shock, Voldemort sneered. "You think you have a chance against me, boy? You think you can succeed where thousands have failed and paid with their lives?" He laughed in derision, but the man just stared at him until he stopped.
"Yes." He said. "I think I do. Because there's something you don't know about me that makes all the difference."
"Oh? And what's that?"
"My name."
"Your name?" Voldemort scoffed. "What could your name possibly be that you think you have a chance against me?"
"Merlin." Merlin replied.
"So you were named after The Merlin! That doesn't mean you ARE him, you idiotic child. And now, you shall die for your ignorance. AVADA KEDAVRA!" A flash of green light was all the warning anyone had before the killing spell was on its way.
"MAX!" Harry yelled, desperate not to have another friend taken from him. Yet as the spell hit, he didn't fall. The green seemed to surround him, then fizzle out. Everyone was left with their jaws on the ground. Max turned to harry, slightly annoyed.
"Didn't I make myself clear? My name is Merlin. And yes, before anyone asks, I am THE Merlin, known by the druids as Emrys. And for those of you who don't know, Emrys translates in the druidic language to 'immortal'. I cannot die. And let me tell you, THAT gets annoying real fast. But anyway, back to the problem at hand." He turned back to Voldemort.
"You, my disgusting little insect, are no match for me. Morgana's descendant you may be, but like all the rest, her magic has grown diluted over the centuries. You have about one fiftieth of her power, if that. And even if you did manage to somehow retain all her power over the millennia, she still fell to me, just as you and any who come against me will."
"No! Impossible! Unacceptable! This cannot be happening! I will not be defeated by some imposter who claims to be The Great Merlin. You will suffer for this! Crucio!"
Gasps echoed around the room, and yet, nothing happened. The spell didn't work. Merlin, to everyone's surprise, just laughed.
"I'm not sure how to take that last statement. Should I be flattered? Insulted? A little bit of both? In any case, simple wand magic has no effect on me; surely you see that by now. But just in case you start trying to use it on others…" He trailed off, looking to the side. "And Harry, I suggest standing back. You've fought valiantly in the past. Now it is my turn. And before you ask, I'm the one who invented invisibility cloaks. As such, I am able to see right through them. Now come over here behind me. I want to show you something spectacular." Stunned, the young wizard revealed himself, but obeyed him nevertheless. Once Harry was at his back, Merlin turned back to the wizard in front of him. Voldemort, against all common sense, was still trying to curse him. With a flash of his eyes, Merlin put a stop to that. For the first time that evening, a bit of panic could be seen in the Dark Lord's eyes when he discovered he couldn't move anymore, forced onto his knees and held there by whatever spell the man before him had cast. That panic increased ten-fold when Merlin raised his hand and pointed it at him. So far, everything had been done in his mind. Who knows what could be possible with the use of his hand?
With this thought in mind, Voldemort watched, completely helpless, as Merlin moved his hands in an intricate pattern and muttered words understood by no one but himself, ending with a closed fist. He looked around, confused as to what the legendary wizard did, when suddenly, he PULLED.
Voldemort jerked forward with a gasp as pain raced through him, worse than a hundred crucios, until it stopped with no warning, leaving behind only a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. He looked up, only to see him holding a ball of light filled with different colors, including Slytherin green, Gryffindor red, Ravenclaw blue, and Hufflepuff yellow, among others, all mixed up with an ugly, black darkness that just seemed wrong next to the pureness of the other colors somehow. Turning scared, confused eyes to Merlin, he asked in a voice that was little more than a rasp, "What did you do to me?"
"I took your magic from you," the warlock replied simply. "You were misusing it, so I deemed you unworthy and stripped you of your power. This is it, right here in my hand." He said, gesturing to the ball. Then he frowned. "But it's contaminated with evil. Before I release it into nature, I'll have to cleanse it. Excuse me for a moment while I take care of this."
He started to turn away, then seemed to remember something and turned to the crowd gathered at the side. "Oh, and you lot, leave him alone. When I took his magic, I took his evil, too. He's got a chance to start anew, do something good with his life, but only if you let him. So Don't. Touch. Him."
With the masses suitably threatened and terrified, he then closed his eyes, chanting a string of what sounded like meaningless gibberish, and took the light into his hands. He opened his eyes, which were now burning gold, and pinched at the black, pulling his pinch away from the rest of the light. The darkness followed his fingers, forming a small ball of its own in Merlin's other hand. He turned to Harry. "Could you hold this for me for a moment?" he asked him, holding out the multicolored light ball. Harry nodded dumbly, not trusting himself to speak, and reached for the light. "Hold it with both hands now. Don't let it get away from you."
With both hands now free to work with the black, he turned back to the ball. Merlin gathered it in his hands, pressing and compressing it smaller and smaller until it could no longer be seen. Finally, he pulled his hands apart, and let what he had been concealing fall to the ground. The cockroach was stunned for a second from falling from such heights, and that was all the time he needed to step on it and crush it. A few girls in the room winced, and a faint "ew" could even be heard. Smiling faintly, Merlin turned to Harry and took back the light.
"Now that it's pure, I'll have to ask the Earth Mother what she wants me to do with it. Excuse me for a moment, shouldn't be long." With that, he sat on the ground with his legs crossed, the ball of light in his lap with his hands on it, and started chanted quietly. Five minutes passed, and he was still this way. People started looking around, wondering what they should do. Ten minutes later, most had decided to sit and wait it out, talking amongst them about what had happened.
An hour went by like this, when finally, Merlin stopped chanting and stood up, a huge smile on his face. "The Mother has decided to let me revive Arthur with the magic." He announced. He crossed to his friend. Harry, who at that point had kept his position next to Merlin on the floor, quickly caught up with him as he crossed the room, catching his elbow to get him to stop.
"Ma- Merlin, Arthur was hit with the killing curse. I'm sorry, but there is no way to revive him. He's dead." Harry said gently, trying to help his transformed friend.
Merlin frowned slightly. "Considering I hold the balance life and death, I think I would know were he truly dead. No, the way that particular curse works, is that it rips a person's magic from them suddenly and with no warning, similar to the way I took Tom's magic from him, except a lot more violent. This leaves the victim a shell of who they used to be, just a husk waiting for its magic to be returned so it can flow through their veins once more. It works on muggles because all have some degree of magic in them, whether it makes itself known or not. And before you ask, I know this because I'm the one who came up with it in the first place. I was trying to take Morgana's magic from her, but because I was working against the Mother instead of with her, it didn't work out quite the way I had planned. Oops." He shot a rueful grin at Harry then continued walking to Arthur. When he finally reached his side, he knelt next to him and held out the light. No words were said, nor was there even a flash of his eyes, yet slowly the magic trickled into the body before him making him glow softly all over, until it had all disappeared inside him. The glow faded, and Merlin continued to stare until Arthur jerked forward with a deep gasp.
"That's right, get the lungs working again, easy now, take it easy…" Merlin continued to mutter nonsense to Arthur while rubbing his back, waiting for him to recover. Once his breathing was back to normal, he looked to Merlin with what was almost a pout on his face.
"Oh sure, YOU get to be old again, but I can't? That's so unfair."
Merlin just laughed. "Nice first words after returning from the dead, clotpole."
"Oi! Shut up and make me big again." Merlin laughed, but complied all the same, his eyes flashing gold. Arthur smiled when it was over, stretching his limbs. He looked down and examined himself, his smile widening at what he saw. "You even got the clothes right!" he exclaimed happily. Merlin smiled back at him, happy to be able to please his master again. He looked down at himself, wondering if he should do the same for himself. 'Nah,' he thought. 'Give these wizards something familiar to hang onto. Speaking of which…'
Merlin turned back to Harry, bracing himself for whatever questions he would be asked.
AN: So there it is. I thought of this when I woke up from a nap, and it was just too good to let slip away. I'm considering whether or not to make this a series and explain everything leading up to that moment and after... It mainly depends on whether you guys like it and if I have enough time for it, because if this interferes with school, it's a goner. In the meantime though, I'd really like to know whether you guys liked it or not, not only to know whether to make a series, but also just because it's my first fanfiction I've ever written and I want to know how I did! So please leave your honest opinion and I'll try to get better. Until then, goodbye Chickas and Chickos, and happy reading!