Author's note: Okay, I've proofread twice, and rewritten the parts I didn't like, and I think I'm satisfied with this chapter. I hope you all enjoy, as it was really hard to write.
This is going to be in two or three parts, as I'm not very far ahead in writing anymore and I've been slacking and writing other nonsense and life has been hectic. I'm only really posting because I've written it already, and I'm late on all my other stories.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Merlin or Harry Potter.
Finals were coming up, and Merlin was probably the only person not studying.
That is, until Hermione forced him to.
One day, at breakfast, Hermione had come over to the Slytherin table, reprimanded Merlin about not studying, and practically dragged him by the ear to the library. Merlin had been forced to go to the library every day since, and Draco had eventually gotten bored and decided to join him. This led to the library being a lot more quiet than it would have been, as nobody dared to break the silence. Eventually, though, Ron snapped, and the silence was ruined.
"I'll never remember this!" he exclaimed, looking out the window wistfully. Merlin had to admit that the weather was nice, but he was forced into studying with Hermione, and he wondered why Draco was staying cooped up in the library with how nice it was out.
Merlin turned back to his notes, until he heard Ron exclaim, "Hagrid! What are you doing in the library?"
Merlin looked up to see the giant that had led them to the boats. He instantly decided that whatever this giant was doing was more interesting than his notes, and Draco obviously agreed, seeing as he looked up as well.
"Jus' lookin'," he said shiftily, eyeing Marlin and Draco warily. He turned towards Harry. "An' what're you lot up ter?" he asked, then in a lower voice, which Merlin could still hear, anyway, "Yer not still lookin' fer Nicolas Flamel, are yeh?"
"Oh, we found out who he is ages ago," Ron said, "And we know what that dog's guarding, it's a Sorcerer's St-"
"Shhhh!" Hagrid and Merlin both said at once. The giant turned to Merlin in confusion, and the warlock smiled sheepishly. Hagrid turned back to Harry. "Don' go shoutin' about it, what's the matter with yeh? And how do you know?" Hagrid whirled on Merlin, almost knocking over the table.
"Oh, he's the one who figured it out," Ron said. Hagrid looked between the two boys, shocked. Harry chose that moment to intervene.
"There are a few things we wanted to ask you, as a matter of fact, about what's guarding the Stone apart from Fluffy-"
"SHHHH!" shouted Hagrid, turning back to Harry. "Listen- come and see me later, I'm not promisin' I'll tell yeh anythin', mind, but don' go rabbitin' about it in here, students aren' s'pposed ter know. They'll think I've told yeh-"
"See you later, then," Harry said, and Hagrid left.
"What was he hiding behind his back?" Hermione asked as soon as he had gone.
"Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?"
"I'm going to see what section he was in." Ron hurried off, coming back with a pile of books.
"Dragons!" Ron exclaimed, and Draco jumped. Merlin raised an eyebrow at him, but he just snorted and waved the unspoken question off. Ron looked at the two curiously before continuing, "Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, a Dragon Keeper's Guide."
"Hagrid's always wanted a dragon, he told me so the first time I ever met him," Harry explained.
Merlin frowned. Dragons weren't pets!
"But it's against our laws. Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks' Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden- anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous. You should see the burns Charlie's gotten off of wild ones in Romania."
"Can't dragonlords tame dragons?" Merlin asked Ron, and the boy scoffed.
"Dragonlords are just a myth. Besides, even if they were real, they died off ages ago."
Merlin smirked.
...
Merlin decided not to go to Hagrid's hut with Harry, but abruptly changed his mind when he heard Ron talking about it during breakfast one day.
"Hermione, how many times in our lives are we going to see a dragon hatching?" Ron said, and Draco stopped abruptly, looking at Merlin.
"We've got lessons, we'll get into trouble, and that's nothing to what Hagrid's going to be in when someone finds out what he's doing-"
"Shut up!" Harry hissed, noticing 'Marlin' and Draco listening. The three looked at them, and Merlin grabbed Draco's arm and led him out of the Great Hall.
Once they were outside, Merlin stopped.
"What are you going to do?" Draco asked Merlin. Merlin shrugged nonchalantly.
"I'll probably sneak out to make sure Hagrid doesn't burn his house down," Merlin said.
Draco looked somewhat upset. "Oh, no you don't. You're not sneaking out- not without me."
Merlin gaped, then smirked. "Arthur Pendragon, wanting to see a baby dragon? Why, I-"
"Shut up, Merlin!" Draco growled, then, after a thought, "Should I make sure that Potter doesn't get hurt watching the dragon hatch?"
Merlin chuckled, "You just want to see the dragon hatch yourself!" he said, and Draco glared indignantly.
"I do not!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms.
Merlin laughed some more, then shook his head, "No, baby dragons are relatively harmless. He won't be taking their heads off just yet," Merlin said, and Draco frowned.
"Relatively harmless?"
"Hey, at least the ones I've hatched, okay?" Merlin said, "Maybe the new dragons are different, but hatching dragons hasn't killed me yet."
...
Thus it was that Merlin and Draco snuck out of their dorms at midnight, slipping through the common room. Merlin pulled Draco into an alcove, removing the age spell from himself and transfiguring Draco back into Arthur Pendragon- without the chain mail, this time. Draco yelped as he was transformed, then glared at Merlin.
"You could have warned me, you know," he stated, and Merlin grinned.
"Well, we don't want to be caught, do we?" Merlin said.
"So you're making us larger? How does that work?"
Merlin grinned and slipped out of the alcove, Arthur stumbling behind him as he got used to his new legs. They continued back down the hall.
...And ran right into Severus Snape.
The potion's professor stared at Merlin and Arthur with wide eyes, then abruptly whirled around and stalked off without saying a word.
Merlin sighed in relief as he realized that they weren't getting punished, and Arthur stared at him. Merlin waved off the unspoken question and the two continued, making it through the rest of the castle without any problems.
Once they were outside, Arthur decided it was safe to speak.
"So, Merlin, what exactly do you plan on doing?" he asked, and Merlin grinned.
"Well, we'll see, won't we?" he said, and Arthur frowned at his words.
The two headed in silence to Hagrid's hut, and Merlin rapped on the door once they arrived. There was mumbling from inside and then Hagrid opened the door with a crossbow in his hand. His eyes widened when he saw Merlin and Arthur and he backed up and pointed the crossbow at them.
"Who are yeh?" he exclaimed, looking between the two. "What do yeh wan'?"
Merlin grinned, then said, "Well-"
Then the baby dragon scampered around Hagrid and jumped at Merlin, barrelling him over. Merlin let out a yelp and fell to the ground as the dragon butted its head against Merlin's chest, letting out squeaks of joy. Arthur watched as Merlin struggled to get the dragon off of him with a look of amusement.
Hagrid's eyes were wide. "Wot's that dragon doing?" then his eyes got even wider as he seemed to come to a realization.
"Yer a dragonlord! That's why the dragon likes yeh!"
Merlin finally managed to get the dragon off of him and stood up as the dragon rubbed itself against Merlin's legs like a cat. "Yeah-" he said, but was cut off by Hagrid.
"Yer not from the Ministry, are yeh?" he asked, panicking a bit. Merlin shook his head.
"No-" he said, but Hagrid interrupted him again.
"Blimey, a dragonlord! At me hut! Wot did yeh say yer name was again?"
"Marcellus," said Merlin, holding his hand. Hagrid shook his arm, and Merlin was momentarily incapable of speaking, as his body was being jerked up and down by the force of Hagrid's handshake. Eventually Hagrid ceased his shaking and Merlin pulled his arm from the giant's grip, rubbing it in pain. Arthur watched these proceedings with an amused expression.
"Well," Merlin said eventually. Hagrid was standing there with a starstruck look on his face. "I just came to make sure you wouldn't burn your house down. May I...?"
Hagrid jumped to attention, motioning for Merlin to go inside. "O' course! Come in!"
Merlin stepped inside the hut, and was immediately struck by how cluttered it was. There was rubbish everywhere- animal traps, dead animals for feeding magical creatures, and some magical creatures themselves. The dragon plodded after Merlin faithfully as he entered, looking at him as if to gauge his approval. Hagrid was looking at him the same way.
Merlin frowned, and both dragon and giant seemed to take that as a bad thing.
Then Merlin said, "You know you have a wooden house, right?" and Hagrid's shoulders sagged in relief.
"Yeah, but 'e hasn't been breathin' too much fire," Hagrid said.
"Still, I'd like to put up some wards," Merlin said. He figured if the dragon was spewing fire day and night, it still wouldn't be too much fire in Hagrid's eye. Hagrid nodded his assent and Merlin began placing the wards, the giant watching with fascination and jumping back when he saw Merlin's eyes glow. Arthur chuckled at the giant's reaction, and Hagrid then noticed his presence.
"And who are yeh? Yer Marcellus' friend?" he asked. Arthur nodded.
"Yes, I'm Dr- Arthur," said Arthur, and Hagrid took his hand, grinning. Merlin watched Hagrid shaking Arthur with amusement and gold fading from his eyes as he finished.
"Well, that's done," he said, startling Hagrid. The giant shifted his gaze back to Merlin. "I suppose you know how to take care of him?"
Hagrid looked confused for a moment before realization dawned on him. "Oh! Yes- feed him a bucket o' brandy mixed with chicken blood every half hour, righ'?"
Merlin nodded, "Yes," he said, then had an idea. He wondered if Aithusa would be willing to take a baby dragon. "Listen, once he's gotten big enough, I'm thinking I could call another dragon to look after him."
Hagrid's eyes widened. He obviously didn't want to part with the dragon. "Bu'-"
"You might be able to see him again," Merlin intervened, "If Aithusa doesn't have a brood of her own, I can ask her to stay in the Forbidden Forest so you can see him. That is, if she agrees."
Hagrid's eyes lit up at this, "Really?" He grinned at Merlin's nod, then got a confused look on his face. "Who's 'Aithusa?'"
"A dragon of the Old Religion," Merlin said, not expecting Hagrid to understand what he said. Most information about the Old Religion had been lost, and Merlin had personally destroyed all memory of the darker rituals himself. After experiencing most of them, he figured he'd better save future generations from the trouble.
Unfortunately, the information about dragons had apparently not been lost, as Hagrid grew excited at this information.
"Really? I didn' know they still existed!"
Merlin smiled a bit. Apparently there wasn't too much information about them left. "No, they live for a very long time, and only a dragonlord's magic or a sword forged in dragon breath can kill them. They live in seclusion, and I don't think the ministry would be able to tell an Old dragon from a New one, as long as they kept their tongue," Merlin chuckled, remembering Kilgharrah's chatty ways. He missed his old friend.
Hagrid grew even more excited, and Merlin frowned as he realized that he was going to be bombarded with questions if he didn't say something to stop him.
"Look, I know you're curious, but we really should get back to business," Merlin said as soon as the giant opened his mouth, and he shut it quickly, nodding.
"So, you'll contact me when he's big enough?" Merlin asked. Hagrid nodded, then looked confused.
"How will I contact yeh?"
Merlin opened his mouth to reply, then realized that he didn't have an answer. He closed it and thought for a second. Then an idea came to him.
"I'll scry every day and check on you," he said, wondering how he was going to sneak a scrying bowl past his roommates. "When I decide that he's big enough to travel, I'll owl you."
Hagrid seemed to think this idea over, then nodded. "Okay, then."
Merlin nodded, then turned to Arthur. "Well, we've got a dragon to see, don't we?" he said, and Arthur frowned.
"Tonight?"
Merlin crossed his arms. "Yes, tonight! I need to see if she'll agree to what we have planned!"
Arthur opened his mouth to reply, then closed it and nodded. Merlin turned to Hagrid.
"Well, I'll be seeing you, then," he said to the giant, who was still looking a bit shocked. Hagrid just nodded, and they left the house.
Merlin turned to Arthur once they were outside, and grinned.
"Well, we've got a dragon to see."