A/N: Hello everyone so another chapter for all of you. Not as fast as I wanted, I was on holiday and struggling with the ending of this chapter. But even so here for all of you the new chapter. So this chapter is unbetad, but even so I wanted to experiment with some new things (manly new words, so please forgive me for any mistakes I have made, I'm not English, but I try to improve it as much as I can by writing many awesome stories for you guys). Furthermore I hope that you will all enjoy this chapter.
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Merlin stretched his wings, eying the two stunned boys for a moment more before he took to the sky. Underneath him the cousins began to move again, Dudley starting with waving his arms and shouting a goodbye, Harry soon copying him.
They waved till Merlin had left their sight. Merlin turned forwards again, flying higher and higher, eying the horizon and he saw the outline of London lying in the far away distance. He would have sighed if a bird could sigh. Maybe he would finally be able to let the guilt he felt of Gilli's dead go.
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''You're really sure that we can trust this guy, Albus?'' The headmaster looked up at the mother of the Weasley family.
He smiled gently at the worried woman in front of him before looking at the others in the room. It was clear that they weren't quite sure what to think of their soon to arrive unknown guest. Nearly the whole order was there, Nymphadora, Sirius, Remus, Molly, Arthur, Billy and Fleur. He knew it was nearly impossible for the whole Order to be all together, so he settled for these members, he would personally instruct all of the ones that weren't here at the moment. He returned to look at Molly, he had always liked the kind yet stern woman. ''You shouldn't worry about him, Molly. Emrys' a good and old friend of mine, I trust him with my life.''
The mother narrowed her eyes, but nodded before she hurried once more off to the kitchen.
He turned to look at the other members who were all seated around the large table. He was grateful that Sirius allowed the Order to hold their meetings at his family home, though he was almost certain that Sirius enjoyed the company more than that he found them being a bother.
Albus felt a sudden presence in his mind and the smile on his lips grew slightly brighter. ''Hello Emrys.''
''Hi Albus.'' There was a sudden pause in Merlin's voice before his voice returned slightly smaller. ''So... should I come in?''
''You're more than welcome, the members of the Order really want to meet you.'' He knew it wasn't a smart idea to tell Merlin that they were nervous, anxious even when it came to meeting him. He didn't want to scare him even further. Merlin was old, powerful and wise, but at the same time was he still a boy, barely a man in his heart, in his emotions. During his talks with Merlin he had realised that the warlock had stopped aging when he came to live in Camelot, which had been when Merlin had just turned eighteen. He had read several books about psychological theories and came up with a few of his own. He had figured that when Merlin had stopped aging, not only his body, but also his mind had stopped growing. His brain had stopped developing in a critical phase, in the phase in which he was supposed to find his own identity. This identification phase not only included finding out what he liked and disliked, but also the person he wanted to be and could be when it came to social relationships with both strangers and friends. The years that Merlin had lived had made him wiser, but due to the lack of an stable identity it caused him to become unsure when meeting people. He most likely knew what to do, but his mind couldn't fully understand it.
Though all of it was just a theory.
''Stay outside for a moment while I come to get you and disable the charms cast around the house.'' He heard Merlin chuckle through their mind link and he couldn't help but smile, he had indeed felt that someone, as if he hadn't known who, had tempered with his spells. ''Just wait.''
The headmaster stood up. ''I believe that our guest has arrived. I will fetch him.'' The other members of the Order looked at each other, but they didn't respond. Albus walked out of the meeting room, when there were no meetings in process it was simply the dining room, and into the hallway.
He felt the warmth of a summer evening hit his face as he stepped outside. He had crossed the street when a small Merlin jumped from a branch of one of the trees in the street and landed in front of him. ''It's good to see you again, Emrys.''
The Merlin smirked, if a bird could have smirked at least, before he felt a sudden magic spread through the air and the bird changed into an man. ''Hello to you to, Albus.'' The warlock replied.
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Merlin watched as Albus walked out of the twelfth house in the street, or as the muggles knew it; the missing house at Grimmauld place. He quickly hopped onto a lower branch as he watched the headmaster approached.
A breath left his beck as the memory of Harry and Dudley waving him goodbye flashed through his mind. He hadn't wanted to leave those two boys... the idea of meeting the Order actually scared him, he didn't really know what to do or even what to tell them, what would they think of him, would they think of him as an monster? He quickly shook his head. ''Just stop thinking about it.'' He mumbled to himself.
He hopped down a couple of branches, in the end landing in front of Albus and staring up at him. ''It's good to see you again, Emrys.''
Of course Albus would recognize him. ''Cierr hrycg be déofol.'' He felt his little bird body change again, his wing turning back into slender arms, his body growing and his beck retracting into his head... it was definitely not the best feeling. Once fully changed back into human he quickly straightened his back and smiled at Albus. ''Hello to you to, Albus.'' He walked up to his friend and hugged him, feeling the man's beard tickle his nose. ''Are they ready for me?''
Albus smiled at as a little laugh left his lips. ''I don't believe anyone could ever be ready for this.''
Merlin shrugged. ''Yeah, I guess so.''
He followed Albus to the door, yes he had noticed how Molly Weasley had peaked from behind the window's curtains, and with a simple whisper and a wave of his hand the headmaster opened it. Merlin walked after Albus and looked around at the old furniture in the hallway, the house definitely needed a good cleaning.
A few heads peaked from upstairs and he gave the group of Weasley kids and Hermione a wave and a smile.
''Hi Emrys, what-.''
''- are you doing here?''
It was Albus who answered. ''I'm introducing Emrys to the members of the Order.'' Smiles crosses the lips of the group and he could see the corner of Albus' lip curl up in amusement. ''So how are all your studies?''
Ginny and Ron paled as they heard the headmaster's words. ''W-we're working on it.'' The girl stammered.
''Albus?'' The door to the living room opened and Remus eyed both of them, Merlin with a rather bit of suspicion. ''We are ready.''
''Ah, that's good.'' Albus said with a smile at the werewolf before turning back to the warlock. ''So Emrys lets go inside and meet the Order.'' With that he grabbed Merlin by the shoulders and more or less forced him inside the living room.
All of the people inside looked at him, some worried, others looked just blank at him and Molly was eying him up and down, he had the strangest feeling that he soon would be filled with to many sweets.
He sat down in one of the chairs and it was Sirius that pulled back the chair next to him. ''You saved my life.'' He nodded and Sirius grabbed him by the shoulders. ''How in the world did you do that?! I mean, thank you for saving my life, but there isn't anyone, besides Harry, that could possible survive the death curse!''
Albus placed his hand on Sirius' shoulder and the black haired man turned to look at him. ''First lets get some tea and than I and Emrys here will tell all of you everything that you want to know.''
So ten minutes later they all sat with a cup of tea around the table, Albus on his left side sipping at his cup and Sirius at his other side just staring intensely at him, it was rather unnerving.
''So can you now explain to me how you saved my life?''
Merlin placed the cup back down as he turned to look around the room before his eyes rested on Sirius' and a deep sigh left his lips. ''I... there isn't a way to stop the death curse.'' He could see the questioning look in Sirius' eyes. ''Once someone is meant to die than the universe wants a life... the world needs to be in balance, a life for a life.'' He turned to look at his hands. ''I traded your life for that of one of the Deatheaters.''
A chair was thrown back as Remus jumped off his chair, his eyes fierce as he glared at Merlin. ''Something like that is impossible, no one has the power over life and death.''
''I can assure you that it is possible, or at least a alternative of it, otherwise we wouldn't be in the company of mr. Black today. Though you're partly right, the magic that is needed for something like that isn't one that we with our magic can perform.'' Albus replied as he eyed Remus with a soft smile, trying to bring calmness back to the room.
''Are you telling us that he has magic different from ours?'' Fleur replied with her thick French accent.
All eyes stared at him and he could feel a blush spread over his cheeks. ''Yes, my magic is that of the old religion.''
The whole order was looking nervously at each other before it was Arthur Weasley who straightened his back and asked. ''And who are you then?''
Merlin shared a quickly glance with Albus, before answering. ''I'm Merlin. Yes, the Merlin.''
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A/N: So an ending note as I felt that I needed to explain something. The theory that Dumbledore thinks of is an existing psychological theory (but do to me not being able to find a good translation for it I decided to not name it (it's the horrible problem of writing in a different language), so I still hope that you can all understand it, if not than please let me know and I will try to change it for the better. The reason that I wanted to give you all this explanation was to show why I write Merlin so unstable sometimes as I don't believe that being immortal has absolutely no effect on someone mind. Hope it's understandable now.