It Ends Tonight

By: TheFifthCharmedOne

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Merlin.

Summary: "It ends tonight because tomorrow everything will change." Gwen turned to Arthur and smiled sadly. "You're right. Tomorrow, Camelot will have a new queen. One that's worthy of her title." [New summary!] [Arthur/Hermione] Crossover of Harry Potter and BBC's Merlin. Takes place during Hermione's seventh year, post-war, and between seasons 4&5.

-X-X-X-

Chapter Ten

The Darkness Within

"It's obvious that she's stalling in order to lure us into a false sense of security." Arthur paced in front of his throne. "We cannot let our guard down. Morgana is a powerful adversary, but we have defeated her twice now. We will again; and this time, for good." Arthur raised Excalibur and the blade glinted in the sunlight. "For the love of Camelot!"

"For the love of Camelot!" the knights returned. With a bow to their king, the knights left the throne room. Arthur sat beside his queen, who had yet to show any emotion. Merlin and Hermione stood to the side, Gaius with them.

"Merlin, go and clean my armor." Arthur told his servant. "Gaius, you may go." he added.

"Hermione, wash my clothes." Gwen ordered hers. The servants and physician bowed and left the throne room. It was clear that the king wanted time alone with his queen.

"Guinevere, I hope you know that I am sincerely sorry for our disagreement." Arthur told her. "I was wrong."

I forgive you! Please, see that I'm not in my right mind! Gwen internally screamed. Guinevere turned to Arthur and smiled.

"All is forgiven, my lord." the queen said, and Arthur leaned over to kiss her lips. She returned it, but with little feeling. Arthur mistook this as a sign of residual tension.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Quite." Guinevere replied. "Forgive me, sire. I must go now."

It was only after she left that Arthur noticed she hadn't addressed him by his name once.

"I've got it!" Merlin entered Gaius's chambers with a triumphant shout. "I know where I've seen creatures like the Dementors before."

"Where?" Hermione asked.

"We call them the Dorocha. Spirits of the dead that come through a tear in the Veil between life and death." Merlin answered. "They cannot be killed or destroyed, only fended off with fire. They kill by passing through people, freezing them from the inside. The only person that doesn't die when faced with a Dorocha is a warlock with great power."

"Could the Dorocha and the Dementors be related in some way?"

It was Gaius who answered: "It's possible, though Dementors seem more like wraiths."

"Could Morgana unleash the Dorocha?" Hermione asked.

"She did before." Merlin replied. "But she'd need a blood sacrifice to do it."

"And one to undo it." Hermione finished. "Could she be attempting to lure Arthur to this fate? Make him willing to give up his life to make the pain go away?"

Merlin's eyebrows rose.

"It would explain her stalling. She's probably controlling the Dementors."

"Or she's agreed to some sort of bargain with them. In my world, Dementors can communicate with humans because they used to work with our government to protect our prison. However, they betrayed us and went to the opposing side during the war, indicating that they're drawn to that side. Or whichever side has more power."

"As creatures of dark magic, that makes sense."

"So, what do we do?" Hermione asked.

"We do what we do best." Merlin answered. "We protect Arthur."

And so the two sorcerers spent the rest of their day working on new spells and translating old ones, doing their best to complete their shared destiny. Ginny came along a bit later and practiced with them, even though she was completely knackered from her day with the knights.

Eventually, Gaius made the three of them stop and get some sleep. Ginny was grateful, and with a wave, went back to the knights quarters. Merlin watched her go, and Hermione noticed.

"Ginny's great." she commented. Merlin turned his attention back to her. "She's a great friend, and I don't know what I would do without her."

"Seems like the two of you are close."

"That's why it's so easy to pull off the sibling lie - we're like sisters." Hermione leaned forward and took a leap of faith. "Merlin, do you like Ginny?"

"W-What?! No! Of course not! I-I mean, she's lovely and everything but-no!" Merlin was flustered, and Hermione thought it was rather adorable. That was why she dreaded telling him what came next.

"She's in a relationship." Merlin stopped stammering. Hermione gave him a small and sad smile. "Back home - she and my best friend Harry are getting their lives together after being separated by the war."

Merlin sighed, not surprised. "I'm sorry, Merlin."

"Don't be. It wasn't meant to be anyway."

Arthur was beginning to wonder if Gwen was ill. She was acting very strangely and completely unlike herself. When they had meetings with the people, Gwen was always kind and understanding. Recently, though, she had been cold and uncaring.

"Do you honestly expect us to do something about your stupid little farm?" she asked a peasant woman, who looked near tears. "We don't care about you." she added, and Arthur's eyes narrowed. He stepped from his throne and went to the woman, who had tears slipping down her cheeks.

"I'll take care of you and your family. I promise you that." Arthur said quietly, and gratitude brightened the woman's face, her mouth turning upward. She hurried to wipe the tears away with the backs of her hands. Arthur stood tall. "Guards, make sure this woman and her children are moved into an open house in the lower town and that all their needs are met."

The guards nodded.

"Oh, thank you sire! Thank you, thank you!" the woman cried happily.

Gwen glared at Arthur as he sat down.

"Why would you show her such kindness?"

"Because she is one of my citizens, and I treat all of my citizens with the respect they deserve." Arthur said firmly.

Gwen said nothing, but inside, she was screaming.

I'm not in my right mind! You know me, Arthur! You know I would never treat anyone that way!

"Take the queen to her chambers and send for Gaius." Arthur told the guards. "I don't think she's fit to finish with council."

"I am perfectly fine!" Gwen said, even as the guards followed Arthur's order. "My lord, is this really necessary?"

"There's something very wrong with you, Guinevere. I will figure out what it is."

Inside, Gwen was cheering.

A bit later, Merlin and Hermione were taking a break from their duties and just talking. Hermione was mindlessly pounding herbs when Merlin brought up the topic that she had been dreading.

"I was talking to Gwaine earlier," Merlin breached the subject with care, because he knew Hermione rather well by this point. He knew she was very guarded, especially about matters of the heart.

"Oh?"

"He told me something rather interesting." Merlin's lips curled into a teasing smile. "You like Arthur."

Hermione dropped her bowl and it clattered to the floor.

"I do not!" she protested, kneeling down to pick it up, her face flushed redder than a tomato. "That's preposterous!" Mentally, she was cursing Gwaine. Bloody blighter can't keep a secret. Trustworthy my arse!

"The way you reacted only proves my point." Merlin pointed out, and Hermione sliced through him with a glare.

Hermione grumbled out, "He's married for Godric's sake." She pounded the herbs harder, and Merlin took it away from her.

"I think they're a paste now," he offered, and Hermione sighed, sitting down in Gaius's chair. "Don't be too mad at Gwaine - he was drunk off his arse, he was bound to be loose-lipped."

"Please tell me no one else heard."

"No one else heard, we were alone in the tavern."

"Thank goodness for small miracles." Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. "It's so stupid, Merlin. I wish I could just experience love in a less dramatic way. Can't I just like a normal bloke for once? Not an arse who was too much like my brother or a handsome but already married king from another time period?"

"If it's any consolation, Arthur mortally wounded my first love."

Hermione's eyes went round. Merlin's eyes became shadowed as he thought about Freya. "He didn't know, of course. I don't blame him for it, she was a monster at the time." At Hermione's confused glance, he explained. "Freya was a druid girl who was cursed to turn into a bloodthirsty animal at night. She killed four people in two nights, and, when she tried to escape, Arthur stabbed her. She died by the Lake of Avalon."

"Merlin, I'm so sorry." Hermione felt awful - here she was, complaining about her love life, or lack thereof, and Merlin had already lost his love to the very man who he was destined to protect. Any other person would hate Arthur; Hermione knew that she probably would hate him, had the situation been reversed.

"Don't be. I got to see her again, and she helped us save Camelot by explaining that only Excalibur could destroy Morgana's army, and she helped me find it at the bottom of the lake. It was thanks to her that we're here today." A small tear slid down his cheek regardless, and Hermione held his hand. They sat in silence, both of their minds in other places.

Meanwhile, Morgana smiled to herself.

So, the little witch has a crush. Hm. Maybe the Shadows can use this to their advantage. She sent them away with a flick of her hand. Though these Shadows looked different from the others, they were smaller and had indistinguishable features. When she first met one, Morgana had seen her own demise, which was her greatest fear. Now that she knew how to control it, the Boggarts left her alone.

Hermione wouldn't be so lucky.

The next night, Hermione had another nightmare.

His body was still, and she knew that if she touched his skin, he'd be colder than ice. Hands shaking, she did it anyway, praying she was wrong, hoping against hope that he would open his eyes and smile in that simple way, one last time. Her hand brushed his cheek, and tears came to her eyes. No. He can't be dead. I can't lose him.

"This is your fault." Hermione's head whipped around, and she faced Gwen, who had tears streaming down her cheeks. "You destroyed us; destroyed him! Guards!"

"No!" Hermione screamed. "No! I didn't hurt him! I would never do that!"

"Liar! Nothing but trouble has befallen our kingdom since you came! No more!" The guards arrived and restrained Hermione, who was pushed to her knees as a result.

Tears sprang to Hermione's eyes but she forced them back, willing herself to be strong.

Gwen leaned forward and smile cruelly. "You should have known better than to fall in love with him." she whispered, a coldness in her eyes that convinced Hermione that Gwen was still under Morgana's control. Despite that, she couldn't ignore the truth in the queen's words. "He belongs to me."

You should have known better..

You should have known...

You should have...

Hermione shot up, gasping for breath, her heart pounding viciously in her chest. She palmed her face and realized that she had been crying. Glancing toward her wrists, she found bruises where handcuffs would have been. Her stomach clenched, and she glanced over at Merlin's sleeping form.

Biting her lip uncertainly, she rationalized that Merlin should know about this. If no one else, he should. So before she could talk herself out of it, she prodded him to wakefulness.

"Mmph? Hermione?" he blinked, adjusting to being awake. "What's going on?"

"I had another vision, Merlin." she said softly. Merlin sat up, fully awake now. "Arthur was dead on the floor, and Gwen blamed me. She had me arrested. She said...she said some terrible things." Even though Merlin knew of her feelings for Arthur, she couldn't tell him the things that Gwen had said, even in her dreams, because that would be treasonous. "Look." she showed him her wrists, and he gasped. "They keep changing. One night I'm being burned at the stake, the next I've been stabbed, and then I'm being arrested...no matter what, something always happens to me. I think it's a sign."

"A sign of what?"

Hermione swallowed, some of her worst fears realized.

"That I'm destined to fail."

A/N: I'm currently on the fourth episode of season four of Merlin, so again, forgive any transgressions with characters or plots. However, I wanted the story to take place after Arthur and Gwen got married. Too many of the few Armione fics make it so that a) Arthur is still a prince and therefore much more able to fall for someone other than Gwen or b) Gwen is with Lancelot already, in which case, Arthur must find someone else. I feel as though this adds another element to the story, the forbidden love aspect that occurs when a married man falls in love with another woman, especially while his queen is cursed to betray the kingdom he would die for.

Just some food for thought as we go into the double digits! Chapter 11 comes out next week!

Please keep reviewing!

-Charmy