-1 The World of a King and the Grandfather of Magic
By Tenchi Malfoy
Chapter 4: Plans and Settling In
"Camelot," remarked Hermione loudly. " I read in a book once that Camelot was just a myth," said Hermione indignantly with her chin a little higher then normal. Merlin chuckled amusedly while Arthur looked hurt as he exchanged glances with Gwen.
"Ah dear but it is quite real, let us show you," replied the old mage with a soft but firm voice. He started walking once more toward the stone barrier that stood proudly in their way.
"How do we know you won't kill us as soon as we are out of sight!" cried Ron incredulously from behind Hermione. Harry just put his fingers to his temples and rubbed tiredly.
"Ah but he speaks the truth all you need to do is listen," remarked Luna in a dreamy voice, her eyes seemed distant as if she saw something the rest had failed to notice.
"Who are you to tell us so, your bloody loony is what you are!" yelled Ron as he glared at the indifferent Luna who just kept gazing heavily out on the horizon.
"That will not help us Ronald," said Ginny with an evil smirk as Ron's furious gaze shifted from Luna to her.
"Stop it both of you and lets see what Harry thinks," murmured Neville meekly at the raised voices. Everyone turned toward Harry who still had his eyes closed and was muttering to himself. Hermione was about to snap at him but he opened his eyes right before and smiled sheepishly at the glares he was receiving.
"What did I miss?" Harry asked timidly as he tried to keep the smile from reaching his face.
"They want to know what you think about staying at Camelot," answered Luna back to her usual self. Harry smiled thankfully at her before turning back to the others.
"I say we go, I mean what else have we got to lose," replied Harry with a raised eyebrow in a questioning manner. Although everyone got what he was trying to say, "Where else can we go, we don't know where the bloody hell we are!" Ginny nodded her acceptance, soon followed by Hermione and Neville, by then Ron had no choice but to accept. Harry smiled at them before turning toward the amused yet curious elders.
"Lead the way if you could," said Harry happily as he gestured toward the awaiting castle. The elders observed the six young adults before nodding and continued walking down the hill. The field was as green as they come and tulips and daisies lay sticking out from beneath the damp ground. The air smelled like rain was coming but oddly enough there were no rain clouds hovering in the sky.
They all walked in silence, nobody wanting nor needing to confirm each others suspicions. In their hearts they knew this was Camelot from the fairy tales they had listened to when they were little. It was the logic that kept interfering, plain and simple logic told them it could not be true and to stop being foolish. Impassive faces met two stony ones as they reached the draw bridge that lay next to the stone wall barring them entrance from the Kingdom.
"Hello Kenneth, Jonathan, how are you this fine day?" asked Arthur with a small smile on his kind face. The guards however did not smile but merely inclined their heads a bit toward Arthur who nodded.
The next moment passed in a blur, Harry was watching the guards one moment and the next all he felt was immense pain and could hear Ron yelling out something before a smack was heard. He heard a groan beside him and opened his eyes to see Ron laying on the floor with his eyes shut in pain and his hand over his ear protectively. Harry could fuzzily see droplets of blood appearing from beneath Ron's hand.
"Kenneth why did you do that?" asked Arthur angrily as his temper flared at his guards. The guards looked confusedly at Arthur before masking their faces once more and answering.
"Sir you signaled that these were assassins and they were holding you hostage," answered Jonathan proudly with Kenneth nodding his head stiffly next to him. Arthur's mouth dropped an inch and he stood there gaping from above Harry.
"When did I do that?" asked Arthur impatiently as Hermione helped him and Ron up carefully. Ron glared at the guards who seemed to have something akin to joyfulness sparkling in their eyes.
"When you said the code phrase," said Kenneth as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"What code phrase?" muttered Arthur. "No, you know what never mind, these are our guests and you will treat them as such. Now let us in if you will," said the older man impatiently as he wiped a bead of sweat from his brow tiredly. The two guards both nodded before yelling out a few orders loudly to a lookout box at the top of stone wall. The bridge was slowly lowered to the ground and the six got their first look of their new home.
People were walking around chattering to their friends and children were playing while they laughed and giggled. Stores and houses filled the streets making the air even sweeter from the aromas of fruits and baking bread. In the middle stood a grand castle made out of the cleanest stone he had ever seen. Harry followed the elders over the bridge barely noticing his mouth was hanging open from bewilderment.
"Camelot is filled with a few hundred people," said Merlin softly as if answering their unasked question. "It was built a few years ago by magic, no easy task I assure you," added the old man with a chuckle. Gwen nodded beside him with a small smile as she walked beside her husband loyally.
"People come from miles away to build a house in Camelot," said Arthur as he led them toward the large castle. "The infirmary is located in the castle as well as the training facilities," continued Arthur as he nodded to the guards who were standing beside the large castle entrance.
"Yes if you follow me I will get Treaty to show you to your rooms," said Gwen as she started walking toward a room down a long corridor. At the end or the corridor was a single white door. Gwen open the door to reveal a set of winding stairs but she didn't walk up them. Instead she motioned for the teenagers to go ahead and so they each clambered on to the stairs. When they turned around Gwen was still at the bottom of the stairs with a small smile on her tan face.
"Treaty will be up to take you down for dinner," said Gwen as she gently closed the door with a murmured good day. When the door shut the stairs started to move like a muggle escalator and up they went without moving even once. Harry looked back when he heard a surprised giggle and laughed at Ginny who was sitting there on the step where she had fell onto her bottom. Ginny looked up when she heard a tender laugh and glared at Harry who smiled sheepishly and looked away.
"Well are you going to open the door or what?" asked Ron as Harry turned back around and noticed another door but this time it was black. Harry nodded and softly opened the door and walked inside followed by the others.
"Mediator," Harry heard Luna mutter with a excited tone in her voice. Harry ignored it though as he looked back toward the room.
They were in a common room of some sort by the looks of it, a fireplace stood in the middle of the room with a black colored couch sitting in front of its roaring flames. There were desks and chairs off to the corner of the room both were the darkest colored wood he had ever seen. A single book shelf stood by the fireplace with only a few books on its shelves. There was three doors that stood out by their bright white color and golden doorknobs.
"They don't trust us," muttered Luna to herself but it was quiet enough for the rest of the group to hear.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry as he held his hand up to Ron who was about to make a sarcastic remark. "Why wouldn't they trust us?" asked Harry sarcastically as he plopped down onto the couch.
"Listen Harry this is a mediator room," answered Luna in a almost cheerful voice. Hermione seemed to be in deep thought as her eyebrows came together in concentration.
"A mediator room, I think I remember reading about those," spoke Hermione suddenly as she stood up and started pacing around the room. "They were used for guests at ones house when the Lord or Lady did not give you their full trust," explained Hermione as she slowed down and brought out her wand and swished it around the room. "There is defiantly magic in this room but I cannot decipher what kind," muttered the brown haired girl as she tucked a few strands of hair behind her ears.
"So what does this…mediator did you say?" asked Neville surprising them but they didn't say anything. At Hermione's nod Neville cleared his throat before completing his thought. "So what does the mediator room do for the owner of the place?" asked Neville, he was not quite getting what Hermione was trying to say.
"Well the book I read doesn't say much just that the room was used for keeping an eye out for the guests but the rooms were outlawed in the late 1800's," explained Hermione as she looked around suspiciously at the shadowed places in the room.
"So we are being spied upon!" yelled Ron, what if he was seen in the shower by the old people? He didn't want to think about such a fact, so he plopped himself down next to his best friend.
"Be quiet Ronald, while we are in this room we will not speak of such things," said Ginny as she glared at her brother who could be so dumb sometimes. Ron kept his mouth shut but returned the glare with a look that shown this conversation wasn't over.
"Alright let's go check out these rooms, stay together," suggested Harry with a glance around the room suspiciously before proceeding to open the door to the left.
Opening the door, Harry smiled at the normality of the room but kept his guard up, normal wasn't always good. The room held three beds with dark blue comforters and silver pillows. Matching silver curtains hung around the beds, plushy white carpet lay beneath their feet. The room wasn't very grand or large but it was nice enough to stay in comfortably.
"Well boys hurry up and let us go see our room," spoke an impatient red haired girl as she glared at the boys mockingly. The three boys shook their heads before walking back out through the door and closing it behind them.
"I want to open this one," said Hermione as she pushed her way through the huddled group. Patting her hair down nervously she opened the door and smiled at the homey colors.
Dark red comforters and golden pillows adorned the bed that was enclosed by odd white curtains. As the boys white carpet lay beneath their feet and nothing else was in the room. It still looked nice, especially cause the group were dearly missing their beds.
"So what now?" asked Neville as they came out of the room and seated themselves around or on the couch.
"Well that lady said to wait for some Treaty person for dinner but dinner won't be for awhile yet," remarked Hermione as she got up and sat down on the window sill in the common room.
"I meant what are we going to do," said Neville as he looked down once more sadly. Everyone didn't know what to say to that so one by one they each got up and went to their respective rooms to rest from their long day.
Harry laid down on his bed and quickly fell asleep from the days adventure. He dreamed of red hair and sparkling blue eyes. Waking up later from a loud noise that seemed to vibrate the whole room. Jumping out of his bed he grabbed his wand and looked around ready to attack the next thing that moved. Sure he was being a bit paranoid but he had good reason to be.
He was somewhere that he wasn't suppose to be, transported by a magical object of some kind. It wasn't like he could just walk back to Hogwarts either, he hadn't a clue as to where they were! All he could do was hope that it was either a practical joke or he was dreaming away still at Privet Drive.
"Did you guys here that?" Hermione yelled running in, followed by the other two girls. Ron and Neville had heard it too, both looked more startled then deer in the headlights of a moving car. Harry swung his legs over the bed and slid down to the floor in a hurry he ran out to the common room area.
"The Mistress has told Treaty to come and get the guests for dinner is served," a small voice said from behind the opened door, Harry moved it from next to the wall. There standing was a two foot tall creature, large green eyes and green skin, something familiar, a house-elf.
"It's just a house-elf," Ginny sighed, everybody visibly relaxed at the sight of the small creature.
"Hi Treaty, I'm Hermione," Hermione introduced herself offering her hand to the small elf, who shied away from it. "It's lovely to meet you."
"The guests must follow Treaty now for dinner is served," Treaty repeated walked towards the door that led to the staircase.
"Hermione, I think Treaty just doesn't like you," Ron muttered in a joking voice when the girl slowly took back her hand. Hermione smacked him in the head, he gave her a glare.
"Come on children, I'm bloody starving!" Ginny whined dragging one with each hand, they both pulled away but followed as they too were hungry.
"Keep our secrets safe within our own minds for bringing them out could bring problems of disastrous kinds," Luna spoke softly once they were all onto the staircase, everyone heard though and it wasn't a surprise when Ron made the first comment.
"What are you a poet or a seer now?" Ron asked sarcastically, the girl got on his nerves sometimes with all her oddities and whatnot.
"Listen I think Luna's right we need to keep our mouths shut, we don't want to end up in some ancient mental facility," Hermione put in, Neville and Ginny nodded their heads, Ron looked at Harry expectantly.
"They're right mate, let's keep our mouths shut at least for the moment," Harry agreed, the staircase had stopped minutes ago.
"For the count, I agreed with Harry not Luna," Ron muttered, that was his way of agreeing to the matter at hand.
"For the count I think you're a idiot," Ginny commented, making the group alight in laughter. They followed Treaty down the stairs and all the way to a double door entrance where she stopped them and went in alone.
"Everyone have their wands?" Harry asked, four nods met him, Neville was digging in his pockets. "Neville?"
"I must of left it somewhere," he muttered searching through his pockets frantically, Luna reached into her own pocket and out came another wand. "My wand!"
"It fell out of your pocket back at the hill, thought I would keep it safe for you till you needed it," the blonde girl explained with a smile. Neville smiled back, he was happy that he hadn't lost his wand, again.
"Announcing the guests of the evening," said Treaty in a loud voice, she then went on to state all of their names.
"Guess this is our cue," Harry said opening the door and leading the group into the spacious dining room. Men in armored suits, knights all gave them suspicious looks, the table was wooden and laden with lots of different platters of food, most that looked unfamiliar. Arthur sat to their left on one end of the table, Gwen to his left and Merlin was on his right. A particularly scarred man that reminded the six of old Mad Eye sat on the other end of the table.
"Knights of the Round Table I would like you to meet our guests," King Arthur said standing and flourishing his arm towards them. Nobody knew what to do, so in doubt smile. "Hurry now and sit young ones so we can feast."
Harry took the seat next to Merlin, Ron next to him, Neville next to Ron, Ginny took the seat next to Gwen, then Hermione and finally Luna. They all looked at the food with worried expressions, when everyone started to eat they went for the familiar looking stuff, bread and potatoes.
"So young ones tell thee where ye was heading when we bumped heads," Merlin said starting a conversation, Gwen and Arthur turn their own ears toward them to listen. Everyone looked up slowly from their food, not sure what to say.
"We haven't anywhere to stay and we were hoping to find a village of some kind that would allow us a few days of rest and provide us with an ample food supply," Hermione quickly thought up, she talked slowly though but the three seemed to accept the answer.
"So ye are witches like Merlin, what kind of magic do you practice?" Gwen asked gently as she ate her food.
"Not the dark arts if that's what you are asking!" Ron exclaimed indignantly, Harry put his head down on the table, they would be kicked out of here in no time.
"Dark arts, I'm sorry but I'm not familiar with that term care to explain?" Merlin asked intrigued by the outburst of the red headed man.
"He meant that are intentions are true and we only use our magic for good," Ginny quickly entered the conversation, seeing that nobody else would say anything.
"I see, so explain those sticks of yours what do they do?" asked Merlin changing the subject, everyone sighed something they could answer truthfully.
"They channel our magic through a magical core so we don't have to concentrate as much," Hermione explained, obviously the wand had yet to be invented in these times.
"Can you show us another bit of your kind of magic then?" Arthur asked, he rather liked seeing magic performed. Five heads looked toward Hermione, she knew the most spells and plus, they just didn't want to do it.
"Um sure we could," Hermione said slowly thinking of a spell that wouldn't make them think anything bad of them. "Accio water goblet." The water goblet came flying into her hand, she took a large drink, it wasn't water though, it was wine.
"Ye children are so young, who did you learn such magic from?" Merlin asked, after he and the royals gave Hermione a round of applause.
"Harry's grandfather taught us, Albus was a good man past away about a year ago," Ginny lied fighting to keep the smile off her face when Harry knocked over his own goblet, he quickly cleaned it up. "That's what led us here, been traveling by foot ever since."
"Its dangerous out there ye children shouldn't be out alone even with magic on your side," Gwen scolded gently sending them a disappointing nod, everyone just kept looking at their plates.
"That brings Arthur and I to our next discussion matter," Merlin interrupted Gwen in her mother instincts. "We would like to offer training."
"What kind of training?" Ron asked suspiciously, he wasn't going out and fighting for no one, he didn't need to be killed.
"Well you must of heard of Arthur's great knights!" A man exclaimed in his own knight armor. "Their the best in all of Britain!"
"Calm down my good man, they are just younglings. I thought we could set up a deal of some sort. If you help around the castle, using your magic of course, I can continue to provide lodging and food for you. If you like I can have someone train you men to be knights and the women can learn cooking, sewing and other house work," Arthur offered, Hermione looked like she was going to say something about the girls not being able to train with the boys but Ginny kicked her under the table.
"As well as lessons from me on my kind of magic but only if you teach me your word and stick kind," Merlin added, everyone looked lost for words. Learning magic from one of the best wizards that ever lived! Surely this was a dream or some crude joke.
"Well children, an answer would be necessary tonight," Arthur said wiping his mouth, more silence met him but finally the one brown haired one that never talked said something.
"We'll do it, won't we guys?" Neville said in a firm voice, slowly everyone nodded their heads in agreement.
"Good then, now they we are all watered and fed, you may head back to your rooms. Training starts tomorrow, Florence the servant, will be up to awaken ye children at the proper time, sleep well younglings," Merlin instructed them, they all rose from the table and in the same order walked out of the room.
"Are you bloody mad Neville?" Ron asked once they were back on their way to the staircase. Neville looked up at Ron, who was much taller, his fearful eyes conveying the truth.
"Leave him alone Ron," Ginny said absently. "It isn't like you have somewhere to be. We're stranded until someone comes to find us."
Everyone was silent as the rest of the way. Ginny had just said what everyone had been thinking, their whole world had shattered in a few mere seconds. Now all they had was each other and if they couldn't learn to get along, things could turn out to be disastrous.