Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin. This is for my own amusement.
"King" Arthur's court is nothing more than the outside eating area connected to the old cafeteria, a building that should have been torn down years ago. The reason it still stands, or that he is allowed free reign of it is subject to much rumor. Most people are of the opinion that Arthur has the Dean of the college under his thumb, due to family connections. Others (approximately 1% of the student population) believe that his Jedi mind powers (which he obviously must have) combined with his overwhelming charisma have effectively hidden that area from view. However, the simple truth of the matter is that it would cost money to tear the place down or to renovate… money that no one wants to spend. Also, the dean of the college does not care what Arthur does in the old building as long as nobody dies.
Arthur likes this particular spot because back in the college's hey-day, when his father was in attendance (before The Event), it was THE place to be. His dad had renamed the cafeteria Camelot and it was the life of the campus. Uther, out of boredom and the school's real need for some sort of unofficial remediation, set up shop as a kind of lunchtime judge. Students came to him with their problems, he sorted them out, and everyone else came to watch. As his popularity grew, so did the weight of his words till eventually they became law. If ever a man ruled a school, then that man was probably Uther Pendragon.
Those days ended around the time that Arthur was born and the college, Albion, is now a ghost of what it once was. Arthur has small dreams of restoring its former glory and maybe even becoming a bigger legend than his father, but mostly he hangs out there (in Camelot) with his friends because it is quiet and no one bothers them there.
This changes when Merlin (and with a name like that, it has to be Destiny) literally crashes into his life. It was quite painful, really…
Next Chapter: A Momentous Occasion
In which The Event is explained or In which everyone, except Arthur, wants something from Merlin… and Merlin just wants to go home-