Author's Note:

Hi! So here it is...

Also you may have noticed that my book cover artwork has changed! It was done by my very talented beta... go check out her work here: ?qh=§ion=&global=1&q=FalconFate (She's very good at drawing dragons and animals!).

Thank you!

Chapter 16: Imprisoned

When Merlin awoke, his head was spinning. Lights danced on the underside of his eye lids and he lay there for a while, a sharp ache banging at the inside of his skull like a drum. Slowly, he tried pushing his head up, but it protested, bumping back on the damp stone floor.

Merlin groaned and forced his eyes open an inch. To both sides he could see a cluster of candles, their flames each sending a small puddle of light onto the hard wall behind them. There was something to the side of their light, it lurked in the shadows; from where he was Merlin could make out teeth, large fangs erupting from the sides of what looked like a tongue.

Suddenly, a loud clanging sounded, the shuffling of feet followed by another clang and another getting closer and closer like chains being dragged. Merlin closed his eyes tight shut; a few seconds later he felt whatever it was peer over him. He braced himself, waiting for something to happen, but when nothing did he opened his eyes again.

"Merlin?" Ron stood there, his wrists were chained. That would probably be where that clanging had come from.

Merlin grunted and realised his wrists too were chained, he flexed his fingers; the metal grated against the floor as he tried moving his hand upward slightly, but stopped, the effort proving too much for him.

A voice sounded from a few meters away; it was Ginny's "He's awake?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ron answered, and then a little softer, this time directed at Merlin: "Are you okay, mate?"

"I think so."

Merlin tried sitting up again, but again he fell, this time, though, before his head hit the ground, Ron caught it, helping him upright.

Finally, Merlin was able to take in the whole of his surroundings. He was in a vast chamber made of an odd green-tinted stone; the candles now seemed out of place in their holsters, they were positioned in a large circle around the five of them—Harry and Hermione lay knocked out beside Ginny—and they cast a haunting light over the party.

Huge snake heads were placed along what looked like a walkway; these, it seemed, were what Merlin had been able to see when lying on his back, they snarled at him, making him uneasy.

"Where are we?" he queried, and looked back as Ron gestured behind him. A ginormous faced carved from the rock at the rear end of the chamber looked down at him. Merlin shivered, the face seemed powerful, god-like even; it reminded him of the myths and legends he'd been told about beings like Zeus and Poseidon, but what was he doing sitting under its glare?

"The Chamber of Secrets," Ron said, answering his question. "Out of all the rooms in Hogwarts, this was the one I least wanted to re-visit."

Merlin nodded "Are those two alright?" He gestured toward Harry and Hermione.

"I don't really know, after Pro… I mean, Morgana, sent that curse at you they tried fighting back, but they weren't strong enough. I think they're just knocked out like you were, but I'm no doctor." Ron sighed.

"I'll look at them," offered Merlin. He got up, dragging the chains with him.

"How do you know anything about medicine?" asked Ginny inquisitively as he walked over to her.

"When I lived at Camelot, the chief physician looked after me." For a minute a faraway look entered Merlin's eyes, but he batted it away and knelt beside the unconscious figures.

Ginny shuffled by him, and Ron sat next to her, clasping Hermione's hand in his.

"I'm guessing Mordred has the sword?" Merlin grunted as he tilted Harry's head to the side.

"Yeah," said Ron "It's a shame really, I thought he was a nice boy."

Merlin smiled subconsciously, "You and me both."

Ron nodded slightly, then went on: "Hugo really liked him too, he was the first friend he had at Hogwarts." Ron paused, thinking. "What if Morgana goes after him?" Panic crossed his face, "None of the kids are safe! We've put them in danger!"

Merlin looked back at him "Ron… I—"

"You what?" Suddenly Ron was angry; he stood, shadowing Merlin with a raged stare "This is your fault! We should never have trusted you!"

"Ron calm down." muttered Ginny.

"Shut up Ginny! We wouldn't be here if it weren't for him, and why should we help him in the first place? Where was he when Fred died? Doing his own self-centred thing no doubt! 'Cause his problems are the only thing that matter aren't they? After all, he's the great Merlin, why should he help anyone apart from himself?!"

Merlin looked at the ground, contemplating something… Then all of a sudden the space in which he was standing was empty; Merlin had vanished from thin air!

Ginny and Ron looked around "What the hell?" Ron murmured, spinning on his feet. Ginny just stared at the chains that had been left empty on the floor.

"Just because you can't see me, doesn't me I'm not there." The whisper had come from behind Ron's shoulder. Ron turned his head.

A boy stood there; he looked about 17 and he wore a black Gryffindor cloak. Ginny gasped and the boy turned to her, smiling.

"You're… you're… what?" exclaimed Ginny, "We all just supposed you were dead!"

"Well…" he paused, lifting his arms slightly in a gesture of innocence. "I'm not."

His face seemed to swim and just as soon as he had appeared, the boy was replaced by Merlin. He chuckled, bowing his head somewhat, before returning to Ron and Hermione.

For a few minutes there was a pause before, finally Ron exclaimed: "I'm sorry, but what the hell is going on?"

Merlin nodded to Ginny to explain, before cupping Harry's head in his hands again and whispering a few ancient words. Harry moaned faintly, and Ron gazed at him for a second before cocking his head questioningly towards Ginny.

"I…" Ginny stuttered. "Well that was Luke Walker, he joined Hogwarts when you, Harry and Hermione where off looking for horcrucses."

"What?" blurted Ron, he looked over at his unconscious friends; their eyelids where fluttering now and Harry's hand was twitching. He rolled his eyes "So you fought in one battle. So what? You're obviously capable of so much more than that… You could have stopped all this without anyone getting hurt, but instead you decided to wait until it was nearly over." His voice had changed. Now, instead of confusion, it dripped with venom.

Merlin rose from beside Harry and Hermione and, facing Ron, smiled sadly. "I wish I could have for done that for you, but it's not as simple as you think." He looked Ron in the eye, holding his gaze. "I saw what the future would have been like if I had stepped in… If I had killed Tom Riddle he would have been replaced by another, maybe even more formidable opponent and again and again, until one appeared that was too powerful for me to defeat and that would have ended any chance of having a peaceful world."

Ron held his gaze for a moment, still unsure if he was happy with the story; but then he shook his head, it appeared, for now, that he was content and he walked over to help up his—finally—fully conscious friends.

Ginny smiled, looking at Merlin "Come on then, what else did you do?"

"Sorry?" Merlin turned to her, surprised.

"You didn't just fight, did you? What else have you got hiding up your sleeve?"

"What's going on?" The voice was Harry's. "Why are we in the Chamber of Secrets?"

"Oh, Merlin was just going to tell us about how he helped us when we were fighting You-Know-Who!" Ginny offered in way of a greeting.

"I was…?" Merlin slurred, looking around at the expectant faces.

"Oh come on!" Ginny laughed "We both know you enjoyed showing off with the whole 'Luke Walker' thing." Merlin watched as Hermione mouthed the name questioningly to Harry. "Why don't you enlighten us with the rest?"

Merlin didn't answer.

"Okay, let me guess." Ginny proposed "First, who was able to blow out the passage way to Aberforth's house? We all just supposed it was Abeforth himself, but no sign of the blockage was left, which was most probably out of his powers… so how, if it weren't for you, could that have happened? Also, why was it that Wormtail's hand just happened to turn on him when you all needed to escape from that basement in the Malfoy manner?" She directed the question at Ron, Harry and Hermione "And, finally, Rowena Ravenclaw would have only let someone she knew and trusted from when she was alive approach her. Luna was a sweet girl, but Rowena didn't trust anyone back then… Maybe she just needed a bit of encouragement from the right person." Ginny's voice trailed off and she looked quizzically at Merlin, waiting for a response.

"How did you…?" Merlin stuttered.

Ginny smiled, laughing slyly for a second, before all at once, her body collapsed in on her and she crumpled to the floor.

The four of them rushed to her side. Merlin put an ear to her chest, checking for breathing; there was none.

He backed away, pausing, straining for a sound that was far in the distance, that with every second approached, until it was only meters away.

Anger boiled in Merlin's stomach and he turned to greet the clicking of high heels on stone floor.