AN: This song comes from AVPS and is sung by Harry and Sirius when Harry, Ron and Hermione find the Mirror of Erised and learn the truth about Lily and James' deaths. This one is fairly AU but I needed it to fit to the song because I didn't want to change the lyrics too much.

It was that day of the year again. The day when everyone mourned and remembered what had happened on that day seventeen years ago. It was a day of remembering the tragedy that almost tore the kingdom apart and whilst the townspeople went about their daily lives, a young woman was wandering through the forest alone, not willing to be around anyone today of all days. As she walked alone with her thoughts, the woman stopped as she heard what sounded like people singing in the distance.

La, la, la, la, la...

Something about the singing made the young woman stop and turn around. She debated whether or not to follow the strangely familiar voices. Part of her wanted to see who it was, the other part knew she had enemies lurking in the woods who wanted to strike her today. Placing one hand on the dagger her older brother had given her for her eighteenth birthday, the young woman walked in the direction she had heard the voices and as she walked, she could hear them again.

La, la, la, la, la...

The young woman stopped and stared. The voices had drawn her to a lake she had passed by many times. It was quite a picturesque place really, the lake surrounded by the trees and some mountains in the distance. However it wasn't the scenery the young woman was focused on; it was the two people standing in the water. The tall handsome blond man and the slightly shorter dark haired woman who were smiling at her that seemed so familiar. Before she knew what she was doing, the young woman had removed her shoes and held the hem of her dress above her knees as she waded into the water.

"I know you.
I've seen you in a dream,
An old familiar scene, from somewhere...
You know me.
There's glowing in your eyes,
A glow I recognize, from somewhere..."
The young woman claimed as she stopped when the water reached her knees, she was so close to them and she knew at once who they were. She didn't remember them personally but she and her brother had been compared to them so many times and she walked past that portrait every single day. The man and woman weren't just any man and woman, they were King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. Her mother and father.

"Those voices,
Singing out,
"La, la, la, la, la..."
the woman claimed and the ghosts of the king and queen smiled at their daughter.

"La, la, la, la, la..." they repeated as they looked at their daughter. She was eighteen now and so very different from the year old toddler they had left behind along with their three year old son who at twenty had recently been officially crowned king as he came of age.

"La, la, la, la, la... la." The family harmonised and the princess felt a mixture of emotions, part of her was joyful at actually seeing her mother and father, albeit in ghost form whilst another part was sad that they were only ghosts, reminders that they had been taken away before their time and a third wished her brother had joined her on her walk so that he could see them too.

The princess didn't know how long they simply stood staring at one another but the sound of water rippling made her turn and drop one side of her dress as she reached for her dagger at the sight of the man wading towards him. He was fairly tall and slim with dark hair and dressed in a long robe. The past eighteen years had been kind to his physical appearance if little less. There were barely any lines on his forehead or at his eyes and the tips of his sideburns were only slightly grey. The princess glared at him as he approached. How dare he come here? How dare he see her parents on today of all days?

"You, what are you doing here?" the princess asked. She knew who he was, what he had done to her parents. Everyone knew of the events of that day. How Sir Mordred betrayed the kingdom and formed an alliance with Morgana and they led an attack on the kingdom. In the midst of the battle, Morgana and Queen Guinevere duelled while at the same time Sir Mordred and King Arthur were battling it out. Both the king and queen were slain yet when Morgana and Mordred escaped, Merlin was found claiming that it was his fault the king and queen had died. Apparently he had known Mordred was the traitor yet had done nothing to stop him. In their sorrow and anger at the deaths of their monarchs and friends, Merlin had been seen as practically an accomplice and exiled from the kingdom. Nobody had seen him since. Until today.

"I always come here," Merlin replied. The past seventeen years had been horrific, losing his two best friends, being exiled by his other friends, knowing that he had been the cause of Arthur and Gwen's deaths. He came to the lake every year on this day to see not just Arthur and Gwen but also Elyan, Lancelot and Freya as well as reflect on everyone who had died because of him.

"You shouldn't. It was your fault! You betrayed them! You're the reason they died!" The princess snapped and had it not been so serious, Merlin would have been amused at how much she sounded like Arthur then. He almost expected her to call him a prat.

"You don't understand." Merlin replied before he looked at Arthur and Gwen's ghost forms. "I see them.
They were people that I loved,
You were barely old enough to be there.
But I know you.
You have your father's eyes,
Beneath your mother's dark hair."
Merlin claimed, the princess had only been a baby when Arthur and Gwen had been killed, he didn't expect her to understand. As he looked at her, Merlin could see some resemblance to both Arthur and Gwen in her. Her skin was a light shade of brown and her dark wavy hair was almost waist length Her eyes however were blue like Arthur's. From what he remembered and had heard, the current king was supposed to be the spitting image of Arthur.

"Those voices,
Ringing out,
"La, la, la, la, la..."
Merlin sang as he thought about all he had lost and how today was the worst day of the year for him. Seventeen years ago his destiny and his life was torn apart at his best friends' deaths and the knowledge that those he considered friends still obviously blamed him as did he made it worse.

"La, la, la, la, la..." The ghosts of Arthur and Gwen sang as they looked at Merlin. Poor Merlin had always been a true friend and his experiences after their deaths were unjustifiable. It hadn't been his fault they had died, it was Morgana and Mordred's.

"La, la, la, la, la..." Merlin and the ghosts chorused before Merlin looked back at the princess who was looking at them with growing comprehension. If her parents were pleased to see Merlin and were singing with them, then maybe things hadn't been as they had seemed. Maybe. Just as she thought that, Merlin turned back to the princess and looked at her beseechingly.

"I would never do
Anything that could hurt you!
They were both my family!
You're all that's left of what I knew,
You must know somewhere that it's true!
Do you understand me?"
Merlin asked as he reached for her hand. The princess looked at her parents before looking at Merlin and in that moment she did understand. Merlin's admission of guilt had been merely Survivor's Guilt, he had lived but Arthur and Gwen hadn't. Somehow she did know that Merlin wasn't lying, that he would never lie to her and that unlike her dear auntie Morgana, he would never try and hurt her.

"Yeah, I do." The princess replied as she took Merlin's hand before they looked back at Arthur and Gwen's ghosts who were beaming at them with pride.

"Those voices
Reaching out,
"La, la, la, la, la..."
Merlin and the princess harmonised as they both reached out to Arthur and Gwen with their free hands, whilst they slid through the translucent hands of the ghosts; there still was that sense of a connection, of a unity between king, queen, princess and warlock as they stood in the waters of the lake.

"La, la, la, la, la..." Arthur and Gwen sang as they slowly began to fade from sight. The princess blinked back the tears and resisted the urge to beg them not to leave her again as she and Merlin remained holding onto each other's hands and harmonised one last time. "La, la, la, la, la... La."

For a moment they stood still, staring at the empty lake before the princess shivered slightly before turning and wading back out of the water, being weighed down by the soaked bottom of her dress. As she stood on the bank, wringing out the excess water, Merlin too waded out of the lake and she looked at him.

"Merlin, I was wondering, could… could you tell me about them? About how you met and what really happened, I think I want to know the truth if that's OK with you." The princess requested. Merlin looked at her before nodding in understanding before sitting down on the ground and gestured for her to join him. As he dried their clothes with a quick flash of his eyes, Merlin smiled at the princess as she sat down beside him and he began to tell his story.

"Well, it all started when I first came to Camelot many years ago,"

AN: Ok so it's that time once more. Whoever gives me review number 300 gets to pick the next song to be done in the next chapter. Thanks again for all your support.