The next morning, Merlin woke up in a strangely soft bed. He opened his eyes in fear that he might zonked out in one of the beds placed in the guests' chambers, or worse - in Arthur's bed. He jumped to his feet at this thought and looked around nervously. With every second, he started to remind himself that he is no longer in Camelot. He glanced to the left and saw Arthur sleeping soundly with no idea what's going on and waiting, for sure, for Merlin to wake him up. The warlock rolled his eyes and pulled the covers off his friend. Arthur shrugged at the sudden feeling of cold and glared at Merlin with sleepy eyes.

"What are you doing?" he murmured.

"I'm waking you up, but I'm not your servant here, remember that," Merlin replied. "This castle is madness. How am I supposed to find a kitchen here?"

"Yeah, I know. I'll manage." Arthur rubbed his eyes. "I hope that Hermione will solve our problem."

"Don't worry, she's the best in Hogwarts," someone's voice answered them. It was Ron looking for some clean clothes in his trunk. "She knows everything."

"It's true," said Harry, untangling himself from the sheets. "We would've been lost without her."

"After yesterday's talking, I can say that she is very eloquent," Arthur stated.

Talking like that for a while they all got ready to leave. Merlin and Arthur watched as Harry and Ron were packing books, which seemed heavy and old due to their thickness and the state of the covers. The warlock took a glimpse of one of the pages that had fallen out of the brown-cover book. He recognised that they were runes, which made him optimistic. The knowledge of runes by young wizards certainly testifies that they are familiar with other areas of magic, and that will surely make it easier for them all to find the cause of his and Arthur's time travel.

"So, what are we gonna do now?" asked Arthur.

"We have to go to classes. You come with us, obviously, unless you choose to die here out of boredom," said Harry. "Besides, we want to show you our school and tell you something more about it once you are here. We will try to help you after we're finished."

"Hey! You're not going to go out like this, are you?" exclaimed Ron, noticing that Merlin and Arthur have the same medieval clothes as yesterday.

"I think I need to take a bath," Arthur stated looking down at his armour.

"Yeah… how much time do we have before your classes start?" Merlin turned to Harry and Ron.

"We should make it if we hurry, but then we'll miss breakfast," the ginger boy muttered and added. "Glad, we don't have potions first…"

"Right, I'll take some spare robes and you lead them to the bathroom, Ron. I will join you in a moment."

It took them about twenty minutes to get ready, including wasted time going up and down the unruly stairs, and the four of them now were heading to the attic of the North Tower. Out of breath, Arthur and Merlin barely climbed the winding stairs after their new friends, and then had to rest for a while before entering the classroom. Ron, seeing them struggling with breathing, said something about knights being out of shape. Arthur took offence at it and murmured more to Merlin and himself that if they were really that powerful wizards they would've magically make it easier for them to move around the castle faster, rather than making it more difficult.

As soon as they crossed the threshold, a strong scent of tea hit their nostrils that made Arthur choke. They were walking through the darkened classroom when a light blue coloured flash caught Merlin's eye. The warlock stared at the shining globe which stood on a small table in the middle of the room. He couldn't take his eyes off it because of something strange that drew him to this, until someone's whispers made him look away. It appeared that they were the last ones to join the classes and shortly after they took their seats, the teacher walked out of the dark and stood next to the table with a shining globe.

"Good morning, everyone…," said the teacher with a sleepy voice. "I see some new faces here," the woman wearing big glasses walked over to the table where Harry, Ron, Arthur and Merlin were sitting, and looked at the faces of the latter.

She tilted her head which made her look like a dog or a cat begging for some snack. The effect was added by her unnaturally large and round eyes magnified by glass as thick as the bottom of a jar. Now, her black as night irises were staring at Merlin curiously.

"I sense something in you… a gift of seeing the future," she stretched out her hands towards them, closing her eyes.

Arthur and Merlin exchanged confused glances, but Harry and Ron just watched the weird scene with a bored look. Suddenly, Trelawney's eyes widened, which made her appearance more ridiculous, and she took a few steps away as if she realised who they were. It was just in the same moment when Harry and Ron comprehended that it was a mistake to take their new friends to the divination class. Both of them waited impatiently for the teacher to say something about Merlin or Arthur, but it seemed like she couldn't get her head around it that someone like them might have travelled time, so she quickly shook her head, left this thought and whatever she wanted to tell them, and started talking about seeing the future in the crystal balls. Harry and Ron sighed in relief.

"What was that?" Merlin whispered.

"I think she had a glimpse of your future…," Ron murmured.

"Our future?" asked Arthur with disbelief. "How…"

"It's the divination class," said Harry. "We're learning to read the future from tea leaves or crystal balls. But for sure, she might have seen who you are, not your future."

"Yeah, because everyone knows how your story ended. You are history, there's no need to read the future… Ouch!" Ron cried out looking at Harry who stepped on his foot and now was giving him a meaningful stare.

Everyone's eyes turned to them and professor Trelawney paused her lecture. Ron apologised quietly for the interruption and the teacher continued, getting back the students' attention.

"Wait… what are you talking about?" Merlin asked with a small voice and looked at them suspiciously.

"Nothing," Harry and Ron said simultaneously.

"Hey, I am the king of Camelot and I order you to speak your mind," Arthur stated.

"Yeah? But we're not your subjects," Ron replied.

The king blinked a few times, mumbled something like "fine" and turned his head to look at the professor.

"I don't think anyone wants to know the exact date of their death," whispered Harry after a beat. "You're the legends from the past so it's obvious that everyone, even muggles, know your story. But no one will ever tell you how and when you'll die."

"Who's muggles?" asked Arthur.

"People without magic. You're the one," Ron replied and the king nodded his head slightly.

"You're right," said Merlin to Harry. "It's better especially for us to not know the truth. It has never turned out to be any good for anyone," a shadow of bad memories crept into his face. Harry and Ron agreed.

"I see you have knowledge about things like that, Merlin," Arthur stared at his friend but Merlin didn't answer so the king decided not to pull teeth.

In the meantime, professor Trelawney put on everyone's table one crystal ball explaining how to see things in it. Arthur looked around scanning students' faces and frowned.

"Where's Hermione?" he had not noticed before that the girl was absent.

"She has other classes," Harry replied, tapping the glass ball, but he quickly pulled his finger back when the globe suddenly turned a pale blue colour. "She said she wouldn't waste her time on such nonsense like this."

"Yeah, because she can't learn that from books. You need to have a gift and special predisposition," Ron chuckled.

A gift, thought Merlin. How much he wished he hadn't had the ability to see things in the crystals, and these crystal balls were exactly the same because once the warlock laid his eyes on one of them, terrible visions started haunting him and causing him a headache. Merlin squeezed his eyes shut trying hard not to pass out.


Good for Merlin that the divination class ended so fast. If he had to sit there for five more minutes, he would have thrown up. So when they walked out from the classroom and the strong smell of tea left their nostrils, the warlock slumped down the wall, letting air out of his mouth.

"Merlin, are you all right?" Arthur was immediately by his side.

"It was terrible… I just need a second and we can go on," he murmured, holding his head.

"It's our fault," said Harry. "We didn't think it might end this way, I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Merlin nodded and looked at them with slightly red eyes. "I've experienced something similar before… In our time there's a cave with the crystals inside. You can see in them things that may happen in the future. You can always change the course of events but playing with it does no good, on the contrary, it does more harm and it turns out that instead of preventing something from happening you actually make it happen…"

"What are you talking about?" the king frowned.

"Not here, Arthur. We have a lot of catching up to do and when we get back home I'll tell you everything about me and my world."

"I can't wait…"

"Yeah, and sorry to interrupt you, but Snape can't wait either. If we're late, we're screwed," Ron stated.

They met Hermione halfway. She just ended her numerology classes. When she saw Harry, Ron, Arthur and Merlin she caught up to them.

"You didn't come for breakfast, what kept you?" she asked.

"The privileges of the king," said Ron, glancing at Arthur.

A big smile appeared on Hermione's face when she noticed Arthur and Merlin wearing the same clothes as them. "You look like students, where did you get the robes?"

"I gave them mine, but I don't think that it looks good on Arthur," said Harry, glancing at the king. "I think it's a bit too tight."

"Excuse me?" Arthur narrowed his eyes.

"Just kidding," Harry smiled.

Hermione looked at Merlin who was held by Arthur by his arm. The warlock's unsteady gait and reddened eyes worried her. It looked like he was crying or went through something terrible. She quickly connected the dots and with a serious face stood in front of them not allowing them to pass.

"Don't tell me you took them to divination classes," she said with a disapproving tone.

"Well…," Ron started glancing uncertainly at Harry. "We haven't thought…"

"You idiots," Hermione muttered.

After Merlin's many assurances that everything was fine, Hermione finally gave him a break. However, Harry and Ron weren't so lucky, because before they reached Snape's class, Hermione attacked them again, but they quickly calmed her down, explaining that no one told Arthur and Merlin about their future.

The five of them walked into the potions classroom and took their places at desks which were connected to each other so as to form a rectangular circle. When all the students were finally present, Snape walked into the classroom. His cloak flew behind him, and the teacher himself looked like a huge bat. Snape stood in front of the class with a grim expression on his face and scanned everyone with narrowed eyes. He smirked when he noticed Arthur and Merlin.

"School robes really suit you," stated Snape walking over to them. "Dumbledore informed me of the temporary presence of the two of you at Hogwarts. During this time, you follow all the rules, just like the others, and I don't want to hear any objection or self-exaltation, because you have the title of king. Just because you are world famous legends doesn't mean that you'll get any special treatment," he paused and glanced sideways at Harry.

"Popular… just like Potter. May only Mr. Potter's fame not suffer from it. It would be a great pity," he added sarcastically.

Harry's anger began to boil in him, and he could hardly restrain himself from saying a few words. His emotions were quickly cooled by Hermione's gaze reminding him of yesterday's points taken from Gryffindor.

At Snape's order, each one of the students took their cauldron to prepare the antidote. Harry and Ron decided to brew it with Merlin when Hermione said that Arthur would join her cause he has no idea about magical potions and she is the best at it. When they were ready with all the ingredients, Arthur poked Merlin on the shoulder.

"Why is he staring at us like that?" he asked quietly, nodding slightly towards the boy sitting across from them.

"I've no idea," Merlin looked at the boy. He had white hair like snow and was pale like a ghost. "It's hard to tell his intentions…"

"Don't bother," said Hermione. "It's Malfoy. He's the most cynical and arrogant…"

"Prat?" Merlin interjected and smirked.

"Yeah, I think that's a good word," she nodded.

Arthur punched Merlin slightly in the arm. Hermione shot him a disapproving look so he apologised and returned to preparing the antidote with her. The minutes passed. Malfoy continued glancing at them from time to time while Arthur began to watch Professor Snape, who was sitting at his desk and looking at some phials with colourful liquids.

"Hey, Merlin!" the king whispered and poked Merlin again on the shoulder. "Doesn't he look a bit like Agravaine to you?" he pointed at Snape who was now checking something in a book. Merlin stared at the professor.

"Well… maybe you have some point," the warlock agreed. "But Agravaine washed his hair, I guess."

"It's the same length and colour," Arthur stated, still staring at the teacher.

"Who are you talking about?" Harry joined the conversation.

"Ah, about someone we know from our time," Merlin replied.

"What, he also wears a dirty black mop on his head?" Ron glanced at them.

Merlin burst out laughing but choked it down quickly. Arthur, on the other hand, began to laugh uncontrollably so that everyone looked at him as if he was mad. Professor Snape shot him a murderous look, rose from his seat and slammed a book on the desk. He was about to spit venomous remarks, when suddenly the bell was heard announcing that the lesson was over.