A/N

I really, really, really appreciate the response I have gotten on this story. Every time I read a new review my heart swells a little bit more. =)

I hadn't planned on updating today. I actually was thinking of making Mondays my regular update day. But I'm going away tomorrow and won't come back until the following Sunday. I will be on an island with very limited Internet access. And I'm not allowed to bring my laptop so I won't be able to write while I'm there. So I tried to finish my latest chapter today but only made half because I got stuck on some dialogues and what not. But I thought that I would be nice and still upload a new chapter so you only haft to wait 1, 5 weeks for the next instead or two whole weeks.

I would also like to thank Whenithitsthefan. You know why, I have Pm: ed you. Tack så jättemycket.

Now on with the story.


Chapter 2 The One Where Merlin Lies, a Lot

Merlin regained some of his consciousness after a while, only to have the darkness replaced with a flood of memories. He saw memories from his time in Camelot with Arthur and the Knights. He could see the first time he had met Gwaine, several of his long discussions about magic with Gaius and his short time with Freya among some of the memories.

But they were soon replaced with other memories during his 14th century old life, until finally something new came in view. It wasn't a memory but it showed a place he recognised. Merlin would never forget that place; after all he had lived just beside it for several hundred years.

It was the lake, but there where something else there to. Merlin couldn't see what it was at first where he stood on the shore, but it came closer and closer until Merlin finally realised it was a person, a person with a long red cloak, chain-mail and ruffled blond hair. He looked at Merlin with eyes as blue as the sky and a smirk on his face as he stood in the lake with water up to his waist.

"Arthur!" Merlin called out to him and started running towards him, "Arthur, Arthur, ARTHUR!" But the vision started to disappear and instead he saw several pair of eyes looking at him where he sat in the bed. He hadn't noticed that he had sat up but he could feel the gold from his eyes disappear as he was regaining his consciousness.

When he looked around the room he could see two women and an old man looking down on him from the end of the bed. On the opposite side of the room, two young boys and two young girls sat on two beds. On the far corner of the room, there was a toad like woman lying in a bed, seemingly asleep.

Merlin recognised them all from the crystals. The old man was Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster at Hogwarts. One of the women was Professor McGonagall and the other was the healer, Madame Pomfrey. The toad like woman was Professor Umbridge; Merlin shuddered a little when he saw her. He hadn't met her personally but he had seen enough visions and heard enough stories to know how evil she was.

Merlin recognised the children to. The ones in bed were Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry's best friends. Harry himself sat on Hermione's bed, and the other girl that was sitting on Ron's bed was Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister.

Merlin ignored them all with a shrug and immediately jumped of the bed and started looking for his staff.

"I guess this is what you are looking for." Dumbledore said to him and showed him the staff. "But I think it's better that you explain who you are first before I give this back to you."

Merlin eyed him suspiciously but he understood that he would get his staff back faster and with less violence if he told them part of who he was. He couldn't tell them the entire truth yet, they weren't ready for that, and it would be easier to convince them later if they trusted him, so he sat down on the bed again.

"My name is Marcus Embrose." He said. It was a name that he had used before so it would be easy to remember.

"Do you care tell us what you were doing in the forbidden forest and how you got the injuries?" Dumbledore asked.

"I was trying to save Harry." Merlin answered and made a nod to the black haired boy on the other side. He figured that he could at least tell them that part. "I saw what was going to happen at the ministry," He paused and looked out the window "Was it two days ago?" He asked but continued before anyone could answer.

"But as I was making my way over two where they were going to fly with the Testriles, I caught my foot on a root, clumsy as I am." He said with a small chuckle "I hit my head hard enough to pass out. By the time I woke up it was already too late, so I decided to make my way to the school instead, because I was too weak to heal myself." He finished.

"How did you know I needed help?" Someone asked.

Merlin looked around at the sound; he had been staring out the window the whole time. He found the source of the question, it was Harry. He looked down on his feet that were dangling from the bed, when he answered in a sad but slightly grave tone.

"I saw a vision of it, of everything. I had to stop you before you ran into the trap. Not that I have had any luck in stopping visions to happen before." The last bit he muttered mostly to himself. He couldn't help but think back to the time in Camelot where he had tried to stop Morgana from killing Uther and then to the time of Arthur's death, but he stopped himself.

If he thought too much on the past he wouldn't get out from there for a while. That was something he had experienced several times during his long life. Sometimes he had just lain in hid bed for several days just thinking of his old friends that were long dead. He hadn't gotten out from bed until his hunger had snapped him out from it.

"Are you a seer?" Dumbledore asked with curiosity in his eyes. Merlin looked up at the question.

"No I'm not a seer," He answered with a grin, "But I have methods to look into the future. But I don't like it, never had".

"Do you mean like tea leafs in a cup?" Ron asked from where he was lying in his own bed.

"No, not tea leafs." He answered and couldn't help but to chuckle a bit at the question. "Those methods aren't really reliable." He could see on Ron's expression that he agreed on that. "No, I use a scrying crystal."

"What is a scrying crystal?" Ron asked baffled.

He looked around for his bag and saw it lying on the bed to the left of his own. He stood up and walked over to retrieve it. It hadn't been opened; not they would have been able to. He had put a deflection charm on it, so that if someone were to try to open it, they would forget why as soon as they got close and would just set it back down again.

He could see by the expression on Dumbledore's face that he had tried to open it, and he could also tell that he had also figured out why he couldn't. But Merlin just ignored it, he would deal with that later. He opened his bag and took out the scrying crystal and held it up so everyone could see.

"Can you really see the future in that?" Hermione asked, not sounding very convinced. Merlin remembered from the visions that she was really smart.

"Yes." McGonagall said before Merlin could answer. "But to do that you have to have very powerful magic. No one alive today has the power to wield it. If what you say is true Mr Embrose, then you much bee very powerful indeed." She said gravely. "Your ageing spell must have been powerful to, especially if it stayed on for so long after you passed out." she continued.

'The ageing spell? What was she talking about?' Merlin thought. Then he saw his reflection in the crystal. He hadn't realised the spell had lifted, but he couldn't tell them it was a spell. The woman was right, it was a powerful spell but he didn't want them to know how powerful he really was. He had to come up with a lie.

"The ageing spell was performed with a potion." He said which wasn't really a lie; he had used a potion to transform back from the spell in the beginning. He just didn't need to do that anymore. "It only lasts a few hours so it was only a coincident that it would stop working while I was unconscious." He continued.

"I can use a crystal because I am of druid descending." He said as he tucked the crystal back in his bag. It was partially true, you had to have the magic of the old religion to use a crystal, but not all druids could use it, it was actually very few that had that power, but they didn't need to know that.

"I thought the druids died out centuries ago." Hermione stated. Clearly she lived up to her reputation. Merlin made a mental note to remember that.

"They didn't die out," He said, "They simply went into hiding. They didn't want to be part of the New Magic that was being taught here at Hogwarts. They...ehm...we use a different kind of magic, a wand less magic. But that kind of magic has been declining for a long time now, even more since the wand was introduced. So most druid doesn't know many spells, or they can't use the spells they know because their magic is too weak. So most druids today don't use magic, but they can still use elemental magic like a scrying crystal." He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"What about your eyes?" Ginny asked.

"What about my eyes?" He asked back with a frown, deep down fearing for what she was about to say.

"They glowed golden when you woke up." She said with raised eyebrows.

Merlin wasn't sure what to say. He had a vague recollection of it happening but he had quickly forgotten it when he took in all the people in the room, and he was still a little upset about the dream vision he had just had. He had to figure that one out later when he was alone. Right now he had to come up with a reasonable answer to the girl.

"Druid magic," He said, "Manifests itself in the eyes so they turn golden when magic is performed. I don't know why my eyes turned golden when I woke. It may have been because of my injuries. My body was trying to heal itself and some of the magic was released when I finally woke."

"That must be powerful magic you druids have." McGonagall stated, "To be able to alter something as fundamental as the colour of your eyes when used."

"It is powerful magic compared to wand magic, but the magic I possess is still weak if you compare it to how it used to be 14th centuries ago." He answered.

"How much magic do you possess?" she asked.

"Not much." He lied. "I can do a few healing spells, at least when I don't have a head injury." He chuckled and pointed to his head. "I can do a few other spells, but nothing of importance."

"Can you do wand magic?" Dumbledore asked.

"I can do some wand magic. My uncle wasn't a druid, so he taught me everything he could in the time I had with him. My father didn't want me to learn so I never went to Hogwarts, but when he died I moved in with my uncle. He was a physician so he taught me many potions. But he died a few months ago." Merlin couldn't help but feel sad when he thought about Gaius, even if it had been centuries since he died. It still felt so fresh. He could feel tears prickle his eyes but he quickly wiped them away.

"I'm sorry." He said, voice thick with emotions. "The pain is still fresh in my mind."

"Don't worry, Mr Embrose." Dumbledore said. "We will leave you to rest for the night and talk more tomorrow." He turned to Harry and his friends.

"You three can return to your common room." He said and indicated towards Harry, Hermione and Ginny. "I don't want you interrogating our guest when he needs sleep. Miss Granger, I have talked to Madame Pomfrey and you are well enough to leave the hospital wing now. As for you Mr Weasley, you are not well enough to leave but you will be moved to a bed on the other side of the wing so you won't disturb our guest."

Merlin could see the four of them exchanging glances. They had apparently expected Hermione and Ron to stay and find out more about him. He couldn't help but chuckle a little when he saw their disappointed looks. But they left without protest and soon he was alone in the room except for Umbridge, who was still asleep, and Ron on the other side of the room. He could now finally start to figure out what his vision had meant.


Dumbledore sat in his office that evening together with Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape. They were discussing the young man lying in the hospital wing. Dumbledore wasn't sure how to react to him. He claimed he wasn't powerful, but there was something about him that made Dumbledore feel differently.

One of the things was his bag. He had tried to look through it when he was unconscious but every time he picked it up, something made him put it down again. Dumbledore could tell that a deflection charm was put on it but he couldn't break it. He had tried everything but nothing worked. Eventually he had to give up.

"He might be working with you-now who?" Dumbledore was woken from his thoughts by Professor Snape.

"I don't think he is Severus." Dumbledore said. "There's something about him that makes me trust him."

"I agree." McGonagall said, "He may be powerful but I think we can trust him. Weren't the druids supposed to be a peaceful people?"

"How do we even know he's telling the truth? Everything I've heard about the druids, they're supposed to have died out." Severus stated.

"I will make some research about the druids under the summer," Dumbledore said, "But in the meanwhile we need to decide what to do with the boy. He said he could do some wand magic. Maybe we should let him attend Hogwarts in the autumn. That way we can keep an eye on him and see what his intentions are."

Severus didn't say anything but Dumbledore could see that he didn't agree. 'Maybe he's right.' Dumbledore thought. 'Maybe he is working with Voldemort.' But Dumbledore was once again woken from his thought, this time by McGonagall.

"But what are we to do with him during the summer?" She asked.

"He can stay at the Weasley's over the summer. That way, members from the order and the Weasley family can keep watch over him." Dumbledore had first started to suggest Grimmauld place but he had a feeling that they wouldn't be using the old house for a while; the pain from Sirius death still to fresh.

"Minerva, please inform Arthur and Molly immediately. Make sure they're ready to take in the boy when the school term ends."

McGonagall left the office with a nod to Dumbledore. The moment the door closed, Severus turned to Dumbledore.

"I hope you know what you're doing." He said. "What are we going to do with him rest of the week before the term end?"

"I'm going to talk to him tomorrow. Poppy said he's ready to be released then."

"Do you really think it's wise to let him walk the castle alone?"

"We haft to show him we trust him. That will make it easier to convince him to live with the Weasley's and make him attend Hogwarts next term. But you're right, I don't trust him completely which is why I want you to keep an eye on him." Dumbledore said with a tired sight. Severus didn't answer immediately. He turned to walk out the office but before he left he said over his shoulder.

"I don't trust this boy, but I will keep an eye on him." With that he shut the door, and left Dumbledore alone with his thoughts.


A/N

I hope you all liked it and have a great weekend. Both this and the next one =)