Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Merlin do not belong to me, the only thing I own is the plot.

He sat in darkness; any feeling he may have felt was nullified by the utter nothingness around him. A misty grey smoke leaked from invisible cracks in the nothing, completely filling the pitch-black space. It hardened in front of him, forming a long obsidian hallway. He felt himself move forward and the details around him blurred as his subconscious form sped through the endless corridor.

"So close..." whispered a bone chilling voice, echoing around the empty corridor. Waves of sound bounced back at him their malicious joy almost visible in his dream state.

Suddenly the smoke returned, waving around forming strange patterns as if pushed by nonexistent wind. It took a strange rectangular shape, like shelves built up high above the ground. It then formed crude humanoid shapes whispering things lost to his ears. The figures roamed around, completely oblivious of their visitor in the endless black room.

Harry felt his stomach tighten once again as the horrible voice entered his mind once again.

"I shall know soon...finally...I shall win..."

He felt himself backing away, in the hopes to escape something he couldn't see. He felt his lungs close as he backed straight into one of the smoky figures. He was enveloped in the deadly grey mist and it entered his ears and clouded his vision. Taking a desperate gulp of the smoke in hope of finding air, his mind began to burn and a strange ache in the center of his chest started up. Unable to escape, he fell to the floor, everything around him slowly fading as the grey smoke corrupted his soul.

Harry shot up in his bed gasping and shaking. He brought his hands up to his face and found that his entire body was covered in a cold sweat. His pajamas were soaked through and he felt a hand on his shoulder. He glanced up to see Dean Thomas looking at him with eyes filled with worry. For some reason the ache in the center of his chest hadn't diminished but Harry ignored it.

"All right?" he asked quietly, removing hand from Harry's shoulder awkwardly.

"Y-yeah...sorry 'bout that" Harry muttered, his head in his hands.

"It's cool mate...Ron brought up some toast a while ago. It's probably cold now though" Dean rambled awkwardly.

Harry managed a smile and pushed himself out of the tangled bedding, "it's alright, and I'm not that hungry anyways." He glanced over at the clock and sighed.

"You better head to class Dean, or you'll be late."

His friend offered him another smile and picked up his book bag, "I'll tell Flitwick you're not feeling well." Harry nodded gratefully and watched his roommate walk out.

Harry sat still for a few more moments watching the door Dean had just left though before he grasped his stomach and emptied its contents on the floor besides him. Groaning he lie back in his bed, groping for his wand to clean up the mess.

It took him almost five minutes to finally find it, and even them it was almost impossible for him to cast any sort of cleaning spell. It was as if every bit of magical energy had been drained from his body. He sat in the hot sweaty torture that was his sheets for the next hour before Ron barged into the room, his face full of worry.

"Harry! What's wrong mate?" he asked in the quietest yell he could manage. Even then it still made Harry's head throb. He managed no more than a groan and felt his stomach heave again.

He managed a glance at his friend and saw how how terrified he looked. "Neville! Go get Mcgonagall!"

Harry groaned again at the noise and realized his face as screwed up in pain and discomfort. After a few more minutes he heard more voices enter the room, all sounding worried.

"...Move him..." was all he managed to catch before he passed out again.

Instead of the horrible nightmares that had recently graced him with their presence, Harry's mind could only conjure disjointed colors and shapes as the fever began to overtake him. Single words raced through his mind at top speed, and even unconsciously he could feel himself writhing and groaning.

Distantly, he felt someone pry his mouth open and pour a tasteless liquid into it. He spluttered a bit, but eventually he felt it drip down his dry throat.

It seemed like forever, but eventually he felt himself slip from his hallucinogenic sleep into a shallow coma.

Harry lay still in his bed, not even shifting in his sleep. Two chairs were pushed up next to the bed, one holding a tall boy with flaming red hair and another a petite girl with a giant bush of brown. They both had their heads resting on the small space on the bed not taken up by their friend's unconscious body. The door of the hospital wing opened slowly and Minerva Mcgonagall entered with light feet. The old woman glanced over at her friend who was compulsively organizing the potions that she had in stock.

"How's he doing Poppy?" she asked quietly, eyeing the children sleeping just to her left.

"I...I've never seen anything like it Minerva" the healer stammered, "his magical reserves are completely drained and he's running a fever of 104 degrees. If this doesn't improve soon we're going to have to transfer him to St. Mungos."

The transfiguration teacher nodded morbidly and sighed, "I just don't understand how this happened...Dean Thomas said that he had been up most the night and soon after he did fall asleep. But...how could a nightmare ever do this?"

Madam Pomfrey shook her head, "I can't think of what could be wrong...I just...Not even insomnia could explain even a fraction of his ailments."

The head of Gryffindor house shook her head and silently exited the room, unable to see her student in that state for any longer. She found herself wrapped in her own thoughts and doubts as she walked down the halls of the castle, poor Harry had been through enough, but this? This was something none of them had ever seen before.

"Oh!" she yelped as she ran straight into someone, causing their towering pile of papers to fly into the air and drift away in every direction. She looked up to find Professor Emrys blushing and rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"I'm sorry Minerva I'm a bit out of it at the moment" he said quietly, bending down to grab the papers. After a moment he seemed to remember that he had magic and drew his wand and waved it, gathering all the papers in one fluid moment.

"No Ben, it's not your fault. One of my students, Harry Potter...he seems to be very sick at the moment" Mcgonagall sighed, rubbing her tired eyes.

"He seemed fine yesterday, what happened?" Merlin asked, concern evident on his youthful features.

"We...we have no idea" she admitted, shaking her head before an idea suddenly slapped her in the face, "maybe...if you wouldn't mind...you could take a look? You seem to be better traveled than any other person in this school." Merlin studied the barely hopeful look on his coworker's face and handed her the papers he was holding.

"I would be happy to. Would you mind taking these to my office?" he replied, giving the older witch a reassuring smile.

After she nodded, Merlin began to walk towards the hospital wing. Minerva looked after the young man hoping to Merlin that he could help Harry.

Merlin arrived at the hospital wing to find Madam Pomfrey fixing a young Ravenclaw's broken nose. She inspected the child's bloodied face and tutted in annoyed disappointment.

"Now why in the world were you all messing with Peeves anyway? I just can't...Ben!" the older lady jumped a bit when she saw him standing in the wide doorway of the Hospital Wing.

"I'm sorry Poppy I didn't mean to startle you" he said apologetically, "Minerva wanted me to take a look at Harry and see if I could help him in any way." A small frown appeared on Madam Pomfrey's face, angry that people were no longer confident in her healing skills.

"You know, just because I've been to a lot of remote magical villages and remote corners of the earth, she thought I may have seen something similar to this before" he continued quickly. Her frown was appeased a little and the healer went back to healing the young girl's nose.

Merlin quickly walked across the room and took a seat next to Harry's bed and examined his face. His skin had a sickly pallor to it, and deep bags underneath them, pointing to his chronic insomnia, accented his eyes. Merlin sighed sadly; a boy this young did not deserve all the pain that had been engraved into his soul.

Taking a calming breath, Merlin placed a hand on either side of the boy's sleeping face. His eye slipped shut as he felt his own magic melded with Harry's, not that there was much left for his magic to grasp on to.

He had never seen magical reserves this dangerously low before and he felt a sense of dread wash over him. Inhaling deeply, he pushed himself into Harry's reserves and found that the space normally occupied by the intangible golden substance of magic was instead filled with a foreboding grey mist. It was twisting and turning, slowly absorbing the small amounts of magical residue that Harry had left. Knowing he had to act soon, Merlin focused the majority of his magic into a form so compact it was almost solid. He then used the invisible bridge formed by their connected magics and sent the ball of magic into Harry's soul. Merlin's eyes opened slightly as his breathing quickened and anyone watching him would have immediately noticed that they shone pure gold. The center of Harry's chest glowed a dull gold for only a moment, before he unconsciously opened his mouth and a small puff of grey mist floated away into the air.

Quickly retracting the ball of magic, Merlin pulled away and tried to calm his erratic breaths and shaking hands. Due to his distraction, he was completely unaware of the pair of obsidian eyes that peered around the doorframe of the Hospital Wing, watching his every move. Merlin almost jumped when a light and kind hand was placed on his right shoulder.

"Well?" Madam Pomfrey asked quietly, carefully observing his facial features.

"I believe I have seen this before. While I was in Egypt a year or so ago, I visited a very remote tribe of wizards and witches. At one point during my stay a man came stumbling into the camp, he seemed extremely sick and it wasn't long before he lost consciousness and started to fade away from us. The tribe's healer eventually recognised what it was, but not before it was too late to save him. Someone had drained the man of all his magic...and as you know our magical reserves are something we can't live without.

"I believe that if you cast some simple charms on him it may help. His body is so desperate for magic that any cast on him will be absorbed straight into his magical core."

Madam Pomfrey nodded quickly and drew her wand. Merlin stood slowly, his shaking hands hidden in the pockets of his trousers.

"Please keep me updated on Harry's status" he asked quietly, before walking from the room.

Merlin walked swiftly down the shadow-infested hall before turning into the first empty classroom he could find. As soon as he entered, he gave the door a weak shove, attempting to close it. It was left open enough that a small crack of room was visible from the hall. He gripped his pounding head and found himself leaning against the nearest wall for support. The magic inside Harry Potter was not one of New Magic, but not one of the Old Religion either.

It was evil. Pure evil.

It had completely drained Harry's magic and Merlin had felt a bit of it seep into him when he had entered the boy's mind and soul. He could feel his magic fighting inside him, but was not aware enough to see the effect he was having on the furniture surrounding him. The desks and chairs closest to the cracked door and farthest away from Merlin only shook, but the closest shook so violently that they eventually turned to dust. Merlin held in his cries of pain as the evil attacked his magic. Although it was no match for the Old Religion that lived inside him, it still racked his body as much as it could.

"OUT!" Merlin found himself bellowing as his entire body tensed and a strange black smoke was blown from inside him. He collapsed on the floor, exhausted. Unknown to the warlock a shadowed figure stood in the door, watching the scene in front of him unfold. The figure watched for only moments more before turning and striding away, his black cloak billowing behind him.

Author's notes: Sorry for the short chapter guys. I only realized how short this was like an hour ago and I don't have any time to make it longer what with homecoming and midterms and getting sick all in the same week. Just to clarify Merlin's power level went past Purple, because in a rainbow color scheme pink will come after purple, it's not a light red. Sorry for the confusion guys. I know I don't really answer comments personally in the Author's notes because a lot of them would make me spoil the entire story. If you are really confused about something in the story message me and I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have that aren't related to what future chapters may have in terms of plot. Other then that every single comment I've received has been so positive and amazing! Thank you all so much!