Chapter Eleven

A/N: Thank you to Rya3SaberVitar and dream-on-sunday for reviewing.

Despite the minutes of silence that had passed, Morgana could not bring herself to believe what Arthur had said. After all that time, after all that effort, she could not believe that her secret had been spoken.

It took a moment for her to realise that she had broken Arthur's eye line, as she was now staring directly at the ground, hoping that it would swallow her up as if in a dream. But for once, dreams would not appear for her, and she was finally forced to raise her head, her pride instructing her to look the prince in the eye, and confront her fate.

"How long have you known?" she asked, her voice a lot smaller than she would have wanted it to be, something for which she cursed herself, annoyed that she sounded as if she were a frightened mouse, as opposed to the Cornish chough that she was, and the dragon that she had been raised to become.

"I don't know, really." the young man answered, quite clearly still in shock at the words that he himself had spoken, as he had kept them hidden for so long. "I knew for certain when you were sent away to that school, this Hogwarts, because I read of a place of magic not too long ago, one that went by that name, and I knew that that must be where you were going. But to be honest, I think I knew for longer than that, since you came to live with us. Your nightmares were strange, things went very wrong when you were angered, and there was always a glint in your eyes that I could never explain. I never asked you because I didn't want anyone to hear, and I wasn't sure whether even you knew. I'm sorry for hiding it from you. I know that I shouldn't have done that now."

The explanation that the blonde gave her left Morgana fixed in place, a stunned silence the only response that she gave to him. Of course, she now knew that he had known of her magic, but to hear that he could have known since over a year previously… she did not know what she could say to that. Suddenly, a question appeared in her mind, burning like the noontime sun. She knew that she should not say it. The walls had ears after all, and people eavesdropped all around the palace, overhearing things that could be disastrous if they were spoken to the wrong people. Kings had been felled by this, and the young girl knew it all. She could not ask the question. She could not.

"Will you tell your father that I have magic?" The question flew from between her lips before the young lady could stop it. Even as she raised her hand to her mouth, she could not quite manage to muffle the final words enough, though she imagined that she had done so sufficiently to prevent anyone other than the prince from hearing.

For another minute, silence fell, as Arthur contemplated her question, and the answer that he would give to it. Those seconds in the absence of speech were the longest of Morgana's life by far, and she would not have been surprised if the prince had said the same. However, when they came to an end, it was all worth it, as the answer given would save the younger of the two from execution.

"Of course I'm not going to tell him, Morgana." the young man sighed, wrapping an arm about his cousin's shoulders. "What kind of a person would I be if I betrayed you like that? Besides, you can't help it if you are magical. I can see from the pattern in the family that you were born with it. And you would never hurt anyone. Why should you be punished for something you cannot control?"

"I wish that Uther saw it that way. The kingdom would be a far better place if he did." the girl told him, her voice deliberately a little quieter, as she expected that he would reject her opinion, and so did not declare it for all to hear. It was, after all, treasonous to imply that a king could run his kingdom more successfully.

"Maybe you're right." Arthur told her, something which shocked his cousin immensely. Out of all of the people that lived in Camelot, both in the city and in the kingdom itself, the prince was the one who was least likely to even think against his father's decisions, let alone speak out against them. He had always followed his father's instructions, and seemed to idolise the man, so to hear that he did not really agree with the man's decisions was a shock to say the least. "When I am the king, everything is going to be different, I swear. You won't be persecuted just for being different. When I am the king, Camelot will be a fairer place."

"I hope so." was all that Morgana gave him in response, before she leant her head against the glass of the window pane, where the shining lights of a thousand candles emitted a beautiful glow. "We should probably go now, or they'll be wondering where we are."

"Yes, we should." the elder of the two agreed, his head nodding to affirm his point of view. "There may be a fair few people attending this celebration, but that doesn't mean the prince and the king's ward would be missed in even a crowd that large."

And so, arm linked in arm, the two went down to the hall where the celebrations were being held. They spent the entirety of the evening admiring the festivities, enjoying the dancing, music and laughter. Every so often, they would share a glance between the two of them, their eyes conveying the importance of the secret that only they knew.

When Morgana finally returned to Hogwarts, she felt a great deal better, as she knew she longer needed to bear the burden of her secret alone.

A/N: The majority of this was written in a day, so any mistakes, please tell me. Review!