Harry Potter, The Heir of Merlin
Chapter 1
Harry Potter and his best friend Ron Weasley shuffled into a Leaky Cauldron on a late Tuesday Evening. They were both incredibly tired from job at the Auror's Office, it was mostly paperwork since dark wizards and witches seemed to be hanging low at this point. Who could blame them really blame them though, after the defeat of the Dark Lord Voldemort, most of the fight seemed to be zapped out of them. There were still petty crimes of course such as the breeding of illegal animals and the occasional stray Death Eater, but other wise things seemed to be slowing down.
"You know, I always though being an Auror would more exciting then school." Ron admitted as the two friends sat down at there usual spot by the bar.
"What, not enough near-death experiences for ya Ron?" Harry joked as he sat down next to Ron.
Ron scoffed at that, before sighing.
"Okay, fine I suppose the near-death experiences and the like." Ron admitted as the barkeep approached and brought the two young wizards the usual beer.
"Well that's life from now on Ron, paperwork and reform." Harry said he raised his glass in a mocking toast.
Ron smiled before raising his glass to toast as well.
"To paperwork and reform." Ron joked as the two clanked glasses before nursing their beer a bit.
The two friends had a good laugh at that there mocking toast. But in truth that pretty much was there job now. The Auror's where in need of drastic reform after the Second Wizarding War. The current Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt was running everyone ragged with his constant reforms to help revolutionize the government and make sure not another puppet minister would be able to come into power. This caused the office to be in much more of a paper-pusher mindset rather than the glamour and grit that the Auror's where known for. But Harry and Ron both knew deep down that things would pick up eventually.
"So, how's the wife Ron?" Harry teased, Ron blushed slightly.
It had been a year since Ron got married and every time Harry asked that question or a similar question his best friend would grin like an idiot and blush.
"The wife has a name ya know Harry." Ron said, sipping his beer.
"Oh, course I know that, allow me to rephrase it then, how is Hermione." Harry asked.
"She's still in school 'I gotta finish my education Ron', I swear she's never gonna leave that place Harry." Ron said, his smile running away from his face.
Harry patted Ron on the back in an attempt to cheer him up.
"Come on, there's worse places to live then Hogwarts." Harry said, slyly raising his glass. "I should know, I lived in a broom closet for the first ten years of my life."
"I know Harry…I guess I just thought I'd be able to spend more time with my wife." Ron said looking a bit down still.
"At least you have a wife." Harry said sipping his beer before finishing it. He waved down the bartender who quickly brought him another.
Ron looked at Harry in bewilderment, before rolling his eyes.
"Oh, for the love of Merlin, Harry just talk to Ginny, better yet I'll take to her for ya." Ron said shaking his head in disappointment.
Harry sighed as his second beer was brought to him, it had been over a year since he talked to many of his friends. Except for Ron, but he worked with him that was different.
"No, no…I gotta focus on my career." Harry replied, as he lifted his beer.
"Sure, ya do, because The-Boy-Who-Lived, the Slayer of Voldemort, Harry Potter would have no other career aspirations if he got fired from his job at the Ministry." Ron joked as he chugged what was left of his beer.
"I'll talk to Ginny." Harry eventually said, smiling at the thought.
Ginny went onto play for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. She was quite good at being a chaser, Harry and her kept in touch but not nearly as often as either would have liked.
"You better, or else." Ron said, brandishing his fists.
Harry had a good laugh at that, he smiled a bit. The two spent the evening chatting it up as they often did, before going to their perspective homes. But before they parted ways, Ron handed Harry a package on their way out of the Leaky Caldron. He was half-drunk by that point and slurring his words.
"It's from the Ministry." Ron managed to articulate before waving Harry goodbye and stumbling to down the street.
Harry looked at the package that Ron had given him, before looking it over. It addressed to him, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary about it. When Harry got to his apartment, a small place on the edge of town not worth mentioning, he opened it. Inside the package, was a rustic leather bond book with rotting yellow pages. The young wizard flipped open to the first page of the book, a slight feeling of dread coursing through his veins. It cannot be said that Harry had good experiences with small old books. Flashbacks to his early years at Hogwarts and finding Tom Riddle's Diary echoed in his mind.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Harry turned to the first page of the book. Even more interesting, the book was written in Old English. Thankfully Harry knew his way around Old English, primarily thanks to Hermione whom gave him a cursory look over the language during there third year. The first paragraph on the first page stated.
Let it be known, that there will come a time when History will sing my name in praise or curse it with bitter and foul tongues. I have taken to serve a man who will be a great King, the First of Britain. Arthur who pulled the Sword, Excalibur from Stone and help bring forth everlasting peace, or so he claims. I see enormous potential in this lad Arthur, may he not disappoint.
- Merlin Ambrosius
Harry's eyes went wide, in is very hands was a journal written by debatably the Greatest Wizard of all time, Merlin himself. His thoughts ran wild as he read on. He could only imagine what Hermione or one of his Professors would do with a such a find. The last thought to cross his mind however was who on earth would send a book so old, and so rare to him.
In the dark of that same night, a small boat with three people crashed on the endless waves of the Atlantic. All three were wizards in their mid-twenties. One of them was fat, with a long brown beard and worn out cloak. Currently the fat man was reading the Daily Prophet with a certain scowl on his face. The other two where more fit and lean. The one doing the rowing was a nervous man with a grey cloak and light-green eyes. But the leader, was a tall and stoic looking fellow with a long scar across his face. His bright blue eyes, starring forward into the darkness ahead. None of them spoke, save for the fat one who kept skimming through the Daily Prophet.
"Hmmm…Minister of Magic, continues to hammer through reforms at an alarming rate." The fat man muttered to himself.
"Elphin, I know you like reading the paper…but could you please not while I'm trying to row." The nervous man asked shakily to the Elphin, the fat man.
Elphin shrugged before flipping through the papers, not really paying attention to the skinny man. The stoic man at the front of the boat laughed loudly and falsly.
"If you're gonna criticize that useless paper Halflight, you should at least mock the Ministry." The stoic man said, Elphin who had been flipping through the paper put it down for a moment.
"I think the Ministry's doing an outstanding job now, especially after that whole debacle with You-Know-Who…Mobius. Surely you can see there at least trying." Elphin said, trying to sound reasonable.
Mobius chuckled again before turning to face, Elphin.
"Just say his name, Voldemort, the man's dead anyway. But there are worse things then him in this world not nobody can defeat." Mobius said solemnly.
Elphin just scoffed at Mobius.
"We have good people guiding the way Mobius, leave it at that." Elphin replied looking the man straight in the eyes.
"Oh sure, there's good men and women in the Ministry now, but just wait in a decade or two all those reforms will be thrown out the window as a new Dark Lord rises. That's the way it will always be…unless we snuff out the roots of the problem." Mobius, the stoic man said with vigor and confidence.
Elphin rolled his eyes, before returning to the paper.
"Oh yes, you and your Human Dregs…I'm only here to ensure I get my pay." Elphin replied halfheartedly.
Mobius turned around and went back to looking at the front of the boat. Halflight continued to row, almost robotically at this point, it was strange he seemed perfectly content with rowing on his own whilst the other two men did practically nothing. Elphin just continued to read the paper.
A deep fog began to surface as the boat moved forward, a wispy fog that seemed to snuff out everything around it, even the darkness itself. Mobius's stoic demeanor rose a bit, a look of fear grew in his eyes. Whilst Elphin just took some deep breathes and tried to read the paper. Halflight on the other hand simply rowed the boat without care or fear, for he was already nervous. As the boat continued forward, a vague humming could be heard in the distance followed by the sounds of the same note being sung repeatedly.
"Ignore them…just keep going forward Halflight, we wouldn't want a few sirens leading us astray." Mobius mused confidently, Halflight nodded nervously.
"Yes sir." Halflight said, still rowing forward. Elphin seemed to be getting a bit antsy.
"How long until we make it to shore…" Elphin asked flipping over to the funny pages.
"Soon, soon, Avalon takes some time to get to my friend." Mobius said with a pleasant voice.
It was so close; the stoic man could feel it. The legendary resting place of King Arthur himself. Avalon, the isle of Apples. This place could only be found once a century and only by the most desperate souls. Mobius grinned, once the shoreline came into view on the horizon. He pointed a gnarled finger towards the isle.
"There it is my friends; our salvation is near." Mobius mused as they eventually made landfall.
When they eventually landed, on what was supposedly Avalon. Elphin took a good look around, he saw nothing but apple trees and grass.
"Well…is this it, Mobius. The mystical isle of Avalon, kind of a disappointment if you ask me." Elphin said with look that portrayed both smugness and disappointment.
But Mobius was quick to point out a small hill, with what appeared to be a mound on top of it.
"There…we're almost there…but first." Mobius said pulling out three potions from his cloak and a dagger. "We must purify ourselves from our Mortal Dregs."
Halflight approached after bringing the boat a shore, he quickly grabbed a dagger and a potion. Elphin stared the two men, skeptically shaking his head in disappointment.
"You two have truly lost it. Mortal Dregs…a bunch of hogwash. There's good people and bad people that's it." Elphin proclaimed, as Halflight and Mobius ignored him. They drank their potions before cutting themselves with a dagger of there choosing. Instead of blood coming out of their wounds, a thick dark Mercury like substance did in the place of blood. It writhed on the ground for a moment, almost as if that thick ooze had a life of its own. Before it softened into sludge and disappeared into nothing.
Mobius stood up, his composure a bit less stoic.
"Elphin my friend, I would recommend preforming the Bloodletting with us…it's the only true way to ensure the Dregs are properly dealt with. While there is good and evil, the Dregs are the accumulation of all our sins that swell in the blood." Mobius proclaimed, lifting a dagger and potion offering it Elphin in a friendly gesture.
The fat man refused to even look at Mobius's instruments and turned it down, Mobius looked back at Halflight who had finished his Bloodletting.
"Very well…now let us approach the King." Mobius said softly.
Three men walked up the hill and funeral mound atop it. Upon further inspection, it was not a mound at all, but stone throne of all things. They approached the stone throne with a half-rotted corpse firmly stationed on it. That corpse sat upright on that throne with a fading grey cloak. Beneath that was a rusted old set of early English armor. By the corpses' side was a large staff and immaculate sword that shimmered silver in the moonlight. The corpse clearly was of some sort of King, since a golden crown sat atop his head. This corpse stood seven, eight feet tall, pale and gaunt, yet somehow his skin and flesh still clung to him. Elphin's greedy eyes, smiled greatly.
"Well, Galloping Gorgons…those are some mighty fine treasures…" Elphin said approaching the corpse, Halflight put a hand on the fat man's shoulder trying to stop him.
"W-wait, don't you don't understand." Halflight said meekly, as Mobius gave him a stern look encouraging the nervous man to not intervene.
Elphin chuckled, as his began to examine the riches that littered the corpse upon the throne. All sorts of rings and jewelry, but the one thing that caught Elphin's attention the most was a beautifully crafted sword with a jeweled hilt at the King's side.
"Well now, don't mind if I do." Elphin said to himself as he reached for the sword.
Mobius and Halflight watched as Elphin grabbed the sword looking it over like a fine potion.
Then corpse of the king's fingers began to twitch on his right hand, before he grabbed the sword at his side and stabbed Elphin square in the chest. Gasped and coughed up blood as the King's corpse slowly began to flex and move in his throne. Before finally getting up and raising Elphin, a good five feet in the air. He slide the poor man off of his sword, and the fat man fell to the ground dead. The corpse of the King nearly fell to his knees, but eventually collected his composure and stood up tall and proud. Almost like a regal lion after killing his prey. His eyes rolled open, they were a beautiful bright yellow. The King starred down at the other two men.
"Who art thou?" The old King asked with a voice so old and ancient you could feel the dust coming out of his throat.
He raised his sword, ready to kill either Halflight or Mobius if they stepped out of line. Mobius bowed in a subservient fashion to the King.
"We come from Britany, oh glorious King Arthur, praise be." Mobius said preforming and old-fashioned prostration before the King.
Halflight's jaw and mouth would not close properly. He looked positively shocked, his eyes where wide in disbelief. This old man, tall as a mountain was the legendary King Arthur. The legendary King who held Merlin and Morgan le Fay in his court. Shakily, Halflight bowed also, when he caught sight of the King's gripping his bloody sword tighter. The two wizards stayed in that position for at a minute, as King Arthur rolled his yellow eyes over them.
"Rise and get ye gone from my isle…I must return to my slumber." The King said, returning to his molding throne. Unfazed by the age, he hardly seemed to notice."
Mobius stood up and crawled over to the King in desperation.
"Oh, but King Arthur, these mournful disciplines of magic bring you news, horrible news of the world." Mobius pleaded, still on his knees. A dumbfounded also remained on his knees, eyes still wide in amazement. "The world, is filled with corruption, despair and dregs."
The King stopped before he could sit down on his molding throne and return to his slumber.
"Thou'st know of Dregs?" The King asked before staring down at the older wizard.
"Oh, my King, they are everywhere, in every Kingdom in almost all people. It truly is a travesty that only you can mend." Said still effectively feigning his intentions, that elixir seemed to be doing a fine job at masking the old wizard's emotions and his own Human Dregs.
King Arthur sighed a bit, before lifting his sword and cleaning it of Elphin's blood.
"Well, if the problem is dire I must see it with my own eyes." The King said, his eyes flickering like candles in the moonlight and fog.
"I could not agree with thy more, Glorious King Arthur, praise be." Said, hamming it up a bit too much.
The King then smacked Mobius with his large staff, reeled in pain. Halflight let out a small chuckle.
"If thy intentions are to lick my boats, get on with it already." The King said with stern authority, squirmed a bit in the dirt before standing up and brushing off his cloak. Mobius tried to look dignified. This now got a chuckle from the rotted King Arthur. "Well, I cannot claim thou'st a beggar…now before you show me of the World's corruption." The King said, bending over to the now blood-soaked corpse of Elphin.
He sheathed his infamous blade, Excalibur to touch the dead wizard with his bare pale hand. A small golden light then began shine from his hand, then without warning the Old King began to chant in Old English. Within moments, the cold flesh began to peel off of Elphin and enter the King's body, returning some amount of flesh to the old corpse. When the King stood back up to face the two wizards, he no longer looked as shrivels. His facial features began a bit more defined, but still uncanny and pale.
"Now, take me to my Kingdom." The King said with a renewed vigor and youngness in his voice.