It was dinnertime before Harry had the opportunity to bring up Draco's comment. Well, more accurately, it was dinnertime before Harry worked up the courage to bring up Draco's comment. Sometimes, Harry wondered how much of a Gryffindor he really was. "So," Harry said casually as he spooned something that looked remarkably like slop into his mouth. "You want men to swoon at your feet?"

"What I really want is something to make my back stop hurting," Draco grumbled. "It hurts if I sit down. It hurts if I stand up. I don't even want to try to bend over!"

"If you were better at this lance business, then you'd probably have a couple of people swooned at your feet right now," Harry persisted. "Both men and women."

Draco stared at him. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

Harry widened his eyes. "No, of course not!" he blustered.

"Then why don't you make yourself useful and come over here," Draco said as he beckoned Harry forward.

"Uh, why?" Harry asked. He stepped forward anyway.

"I have this knot in my back," Draco told him. He twisted his arm to prod at a point in the middle of his back. "Since I can't seem to massage that spot, I thought you could."

"What?"

"In a completely non-weird way, of course," Draco hastened to add. "Look, you're my servant..."

"I'm pretending to be your servant," Harry interrupted. "And I swear, your food looks better than mine. These guys really do treat servants badly."

"Okay, you're pretending to be my servant. It doesn't mean you can't help me work a knot out of my back."

"You want me to ... massage your back?" Harry asked slowly.

Draco sighed. "Well, of course it sounds bad if you put it that way. Look, it was your fault that I was out there jousting today. Therefore, you owe me."

"It was not my fault!" Harry denied hotly. "It was you who came up with this entire insane plan. You wanted to go jousting. You were the one who went on about padded lances and stuff."

"Then it was me who saved us in the forest!" Draco said triumphantly. He leaned back in his chair and then winced. "Look, just a favour? My back really does hurt."

Harry closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. Draco really was an arrogant twat. "Fine," he said flatly. "I'll help you. But I won't enjoy it."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't expecting you to."

"So, how do we do this?" Harry asked. He wiped his palms on his shirt. He seemed to be sweating slightly. He'd never given anybody a massage before. He'd tried with Ginny back when they had been dating but she'd just squirmed away from him and laughed. He missed the closeness they had back then. He was still friends with Ginny these days but it wasn't the same as being with her. None of his relationships since had been very serious.

"Use your thumbs," Draco instructed. "And sort of press into the middle of my back."

"Like this?"

Draco leaned forward. "No, not like that! That hurt."

"Then, how?"

"Lighter," Draco ordered.

Harry rolled his eyes but he pressed his thumbs lightly into Draco's back.

"Now sort of use your thumbs to make circles," Draco told him.

Slowly, Harry did what he said. Regardless of what Draco said, this seemed oddly erotic to him. As Harry slowly made small circles in the middle of Draco's back, he heard Draco moan slightly. Harry's cock twitched at the sound and Harry gulped. He couldn't be attracted to Draco.

"Getting better."

"I'm glad my technique is satisfying you," Harry retorted.

"It's very satisfying," Draco murmured.

Harry blinked. Surely Draco didn't mean what he thought he meant? He shook his head slightly. No, this was just Draco being his usual arrogant self. He just had a backache, that's all. Slowly, Harry pressed the tips of his other fingers into Draco's back and used his thumbs to make slow arcs across his back.

Draco inhaled sharply.

Harry was slowly moving his way up to Draco's shoulders when he heard a faint scream in the distance. He jerked his hands up automatically.

"Ahh!" Draco yelped. "Why the hell did you do that? You just dug your nail straight into my back. You have really bloody long nails, you know."

"I thought I heard something..." Harry said as he frowned. "And I do not have long nails."

"Your nails are long," Draco confirmed. "I wouldn't be surprised if I'm bleeding from those claws of yours."

"There was something," Harry insisted. He tilted his head and listened. "There! It was somebody screaming."

"I heard it," Draco said slowly. "Of course, last time we went to investigate screaming in this place, we found ourselves face-to-face with a giant snake. What do you say we stay right where we are this time around?"

Harry glared at him. "I'm going. You can stay if you want."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Why does this feel familiar?" he said with a sigh as he stood up. He stretched and massaged the small of his back. "Come on then. If you really want to get attacked by a giant snake again."

"That was just a once-off," Harry protested. It was really very unlikely that they'd meet yet another giant magical snake in this palace.

"Uh-huh," Draco said. He paused at the door and turned around. He looked pensive. "You know, I remember something in the Department of Mysteries that conjured up giant creatures. It was a cursed box."

Harry stared. "What are you trying to say?"

Draco shrugged. "It's just an idea..."

"Spit it out."

"What if the box was pulled back in time the same way we were," Draco said. He leaned against the door. "There's something in Camelot that's messing with space-time. It's pulling things from the future – from our future – back in time."

"But..." Harry paused. "That would mean that somebody here was doing it."

"Deliberately," Draco added.

"Possibly deliberately," Harry added. "We don't know exactly what's going on. Anyway, are you just going to stand there or are you going to open the door?"

Draco sighed loudly and pulled the door open. "Fine, let's go and investigate the strange scream." He stepped outside and began walking down the corridor.

Harry followed behind him. He scanned the empty doorways as they walked past. He wasn't entirely sure which direction the scream came from only that it sounded urgent. "Come on!" he said as Draco slowed down.

"For all we know, the person's been eaten by the snake by now," Draco muttered. "It's probably nothing. Somebody having a nightmare."

"You keep on saying that," Harry snapped. "It's barely dark. Why would anybody be sleeping now?" He took a few more steps forward when he heard the scream again. It was much closer this time and the person was obviously female. "See? It's somebody terrified." He grabbed Draco by the arm and dragged him forward. "I think it came from in here."

Harry yanked open one of the doors on his left and almost immediately jumped to the side in alarm as a knife came whizzing past his head, barely missing his ear.

"What the hell?" Harry exclaimed as he gingerly poked his head around the door again. A dark-haired woman was huddled in a corner, behind a huge chair. All around her cutlery was swirling around the room. "What happened?"

The woman looked up. "Help me!" she gasped.

"We will!" Harry called back as he ducked back behind the wall.

Draco stared at him. "How'd you propose we do that?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Harry whispered back. "But we can't just leave her in there!"

"We can't go and rescue every single damsel in distress," Draco retorted. "It's not like you can talk to knives and spoons to make them stop."

"We have to try something!" Harry peeked around the doorway again. He could see the woman visibly shaking as she tried to gather her silk skirts around her.

"Like what?" Draco demanded. "Do you have some sort of hidden martial art skills I don't know about?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Harry snapped. "But maybe we could..." He trailed off. Every single plan he could think of involved magic and copious amounts of it. He couldn't think of any way to stop knives from hitting them that didn't involve charming them away. He could always grab some sort of barrier and try to get to her, but the knives were whirling around all over the place. It was some small miracle that she hadn't been hit yet.

"See?"

"Oh shut up," Harry said. He looked around the room. Even the spoons looked rather dangerous when they were spinning around the room.

"We could get help," Draco said.

Harry looked at him. "That's possibly the smartest thing you've said all day."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "Thank you for acknowledging my brilliance."

Harry was about to walk away to see if he could flag somebody down. A knight would be good, but what he really needed right now was a sorcerer and they were obviously in short supply in Camelot. If there was any time where he needed his magic, this was it. He suddenly heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

"Merlin?" Harry exclaimed.

Merlin looked quizzically at them. "What are you two doing here? These are private kitchens."

Wordlessly, Draco pointed in the doorway.

"Be careful!" Harry added.

"Oh," Merlin said as he stepped backwards, his eyes as wide as saucers. "That looks... dangerous." Carefully, he looked back around the doorway. "Are you alright, Morgana?"

"Fine, once you get me out of here!" Morgana's voice floated back towards them.

"This is magic, isn't it?" Draco asked neutrally.

Merlin gave him an odd look. "I don't suspect both of you, if that's what you mean."

"We're not magical," Draco said icily. "What I meant was that this seems like magic. Which means that it's dangerous. We should get somebody to help that poor woman."

"Morgana," Merlin told him. "That's her name."

"We need to get somebody to help Morgana," Draco repeated.

"Are you going to just talk or are you going to help me?" Morgana shouted. Her voice floated out to them over the sound of the knives and spoons. She shrieked. "That was close! A spoon almost hit me!"

"Better that than a knife," Draco muttered.

Harry shot him a dirty look. "We'd be happy to stay here if you go and find somebody to help her," he offered. Undoubtedly, it would be a lot quicker if Merlin went to find somebody.

A flicker of something passed through Merlin's eyes. He hesitated. "Actually, I think I should stay," he said. "I know Morgana. She'd feel more comfortable with me. You two could go and look for help."

"But we don't know who to find," Draco pointed out. "You do."

Harry studied Merlin and frowned. There was something that Merlin wasn't telling them. There was some sort of plan going on behind his eyes. Perhaps Merlin wasn't as oblivious of his magic as they initially thought. Perhaps Merlin knew perfectly well what to do right now but he needed to wait for both of them to leave before he could help Morgana magically.

Draco shot him a look. He seemed to be thinking the same thing as Harry. "I suppose we should find somebody," he said slowly.

"We'll be right back," Harry agreed.

"I'll be right here," Merlin told them. He looked around the doorway again and ducked as a knife nearly missed his nose. "We're getting help for you soon!"

"Hurry up!" Morgana's voice broke slightly. "It feels like they're deliberately targeting me!"

Harry peeked into the room. To him it looked like the knives and spoons flying around randomly, but undoubtedly, Morgana was terrified. To her, it probably looked like they were trying to cut random bits of her off all the time when in actuality, most of them didn't go anywhere near her. In fact, now that Harry was looking at the room properly, he could see a possible escape route for her if she was quick enough and used the chair as a shield.

"Come on, Potter," Draco said as he beckoned for Harry to follow him. "We'll be back with help soon."

Harry hurried after him. As soon as they were out of earshot, Draco stopped. "I think Merlin's up to something," Harry said.

"Obviously," Draco agreed. "I think our boy is about to try some sort of magical solution to Morgana's situation." He began to creep quietly back towards the room.

Harry followed, trying to keep his footsteps as quiet as possible. "We should let him help her," he whispered.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Of course, but then we have proof of his magic. We can ask him to send us forward in time or we'll tell Uther about him."

Harry pressed his lips together. He wasn't sure he liked the idea of blackmailing anybody, much less one of the most powerful wizards of all time. "We could just ask him for help," he said.

"We could try that," Draco said. "But if that fails, we have another option." He turned the corner and stopped. "You managed to get her out!"

Harry's eyes widened as he saw Morgana standing there. The door to the room was tightly shut and from behind it, he could hear the knives still whirling around. Her face was tear-streaked and she was still shaking. With a trembling hand, she held together a tear in her bodice while she gave them a tremulous smile. "Thank you for helping."

"I see you didn't manage to get help," Merlin observed. "At least Morgana's safe."

Harry could tell that Draco wanted to ask questions, but he shot a look at Morgana. "Are you alright?"

"As well as could be expected," Morgana said drily.

"Lord Malfoy, if you could escort the Lady Morgana to her rooms," Merlin said politely. "Her maidservant Gwen should be there and will be able to look after her."

"Certainly," Draco said after a pause. He offered his arm to Morgana. "Shall we?"

Morgana smiled weakly and took his arm. "Thank you. I'm still feeling a little shaken but I should be fine soon."

"It's perfectly natural to feel shaken about something like that," Draco told her as they walked away. "I shall ask Gwen to fetch you some mead. It should calm your nerves."

"That would be lovely."

As their voices died away, Harry turned to Merlin. "How did you get her out of there so quickly? We were only away for a few minutes?"

"I saw an opening and I took it," Merlin said. "I didn't want to leave Morgana in there for any longer than necessary. She could have been seriously hurt."

"Then why'd you ask us to go and get help?" Harry asked.

"Why didn't you come back with any help?" Merlin retorted.

"We didn't know who to ask," Harry said. "We were coming back to ask you if you knew anybody who you thought would help."

Merlin snorted.

"In fact," Harry continued, "I think that there's only one way you could have got her out of there quickly enough."

Merlin froze. "And what way is that?"

"Magic," Harry said flatly. "You used magic."

"Do you go around accusing people of using magic often?" Merlin asked softly. "It's dangerous to do that in Camelot."

"It's dangerous to be magical in Camelot," Harry retorted.

"Only one of us is magical and that person is you, Harry," Merlin told him. "Gaius saw you talking to that snake. There's something very odd about you. I can feel it."

Harry took a deep breath. He could prove that Merlin was magical if he could make him perform magic.

"You're a sorcerer. Don't deny it," Merlin said.

"I'm not," Harry told him. With one swift motion, Harry reached into his pocket and threw a bread roll at Merlin.

Merlin simply stared at him. "What was that about?"

Harry could feel his face redden. "I wanted to prove that you have magic."

Merlin's mouth dropped open. "With bread?"

"It was the only thing I had in my pocket," Harry muttered. He'd shoved it in his pocket after lunch and had forgotten about it until now. He wasn't sure what he was thinking, but he'd hoped that Merlin would use his magic to deflect the bread roll. Obviously he needed something more dangerous.

"You're not thinking of throwing one of those knives at me, are you?" Merlin asked slowly.

"Of course not," Harry snapped. "That would be dangerous. Although, given that you're a sorcerer, you'd be able to handle it."

Merlin quirked an eyebrow. "You don't look particularly scared. Most people would be scared if they were confronting somebody they knew to be a sorcerer."

Harry bit the inside of his cheek. Too late, he realised that he should have looked shocked or horrified. "I am scared," he said lamely as he took a step backwards.

Merlin shook his head slowly. "You threw a bread roll at me. You're not scared."

Belatedly, Harry realised that he really should have thought this through a bit more.

"The only reason why you wouldn't be scared is if you knew that magic wasn't dangerous," Merlin told him.

"Are you admitting it then?" Harry asked.

Merlin gave him a half-smile. "I'm not admitting anything. And obviously, neither are you."

Harry couldn't help himself. He let out a small laugh. "I guess we have a stalemate then." He studied Merlin carefully.

Merlin frowned. "I don't know what you mean."

Harry could have kicked himself. Obviously chess hadn't been invented yet. That was what happened when he absorbed chess terms from talking with Ron. "I have to go," he said abruptly. Harry was about to turn around but he fixed Merlin with a long stare first. "I know you're magical."

"You believe I'm magical," Merlin corrected. "You're wrong."

Harry shook his head. "I know." He turned around and walked away in the direction that Draco had taken Morgana. They needed to convince Merlin to admit his powers to them. Neither of them had their magic back yet. Harry thought he could feel tingles of magic at times, but whenever he tried to use it, nothing happened. Merlin was the only person in this era who they knew was definitely magical.

If they could get Merlin to help them, maybe they could get home. Harry bit his lip. Now all they needed to do was convince Merlin.

Uther's eyes flashed as he looked at the assembled knights. "Find out what's happening!" He wrapped an arm around Morgana. "My ward was almost killed yesterday by magic. It's a plague upon this land. Innocent people are killed by it every day."

Morgana's bottom lip trembled slightly, but she lifted her chin. Her fingers seemed to be fastened tightly around Uther's arm.

Harry couldn't help but that Uther was taking it a bit far. Morgana had been in danger, but she wasn't almost killed. The knives weren't targeting her; she could have easily got out of the kitchen if she hadn't been so scared. Turning his head, Harry realised that Draco's lips were pressed very tightly together and his eyes were narrowed. "Don't do anything stupid," Harry whispered.

Draco gave him a wry look. "I'm not the type."

Uther waved his hand and the knights began leaving the room. Harry stepped to the side as one of them pushed past him. "This isn't going to be good," Harry muttered. All of the knights he could see seemed to be riled up from Uther's speech. It was obvious that they wanted to do something to protect the Lady Morgana. The fact that Morgana was currently perched on the edge of a chair wearing a rather tight green velvet dress probably didn't hurt.

Harry sighed. He knew he wasn't being fair to her. It wasn't her fault she was in the middle of that attack. It wasn't her fault that Uther was a crazy bigot. Of course, she probably didn't need to flutter her eyelashes at every knight who looked her way, but it was probably her way of forgetting about the whole situation.

"We need to talk," Harry hissed into Draco's ear.

Draco gave him an annoyed look but followed Harry out of the room. Harry kept on walking until he came to an empty room. Harry closed the door behind them. "What?" Draco asked.

"We need to come up with a way to get back home."

"That was urgent enough to drag me out of the room that quickly?" Draco demanded.

Harry ignored him. "I asked Merlin whether he had magic."

Draco stared. "What?"

"I thought that Merlin could help us. So I asked him whether he had magic," Harry repeated.

"What do you mean you confronted Merlin?" Draco spluttered.

Harry narrowed his eyes. "I didn't confront him! What would you have me do?" he demanded. "We need his help. His magic. How can we ask for that if he doesn't admit his magic to us?"

Draco rolled his eyes.

"What?" Harry asked. Draco's expressions were really beginning to annoy him. It felt like Draco thought he was some sort of idiot or some sort of child that needed to be guided through everything. "You were the one who decided that we couldn't tell them."

Draco tilted his head. "I'm rethinking that, actually."

"Oh, you're rethinking that," Harry retorted. "It would have been nice if you'd told me that."

Draco glared at him. "I hadn't made a final decision yet."

"Still, you should have told me," Harry snapped. "This isn't some sort of dictatorship. I'm not actually your servant, you know."

"Of course I know that. How could I forget with you reminding me every two minutes?"

Harry resisted the urge to punch Draco on the arm. "So why were you rethinking it?"

Draco's forehead creased lightly. "If there's anybody in this godforsaken era that we can trust, it's probably Merlin. We could tell him the truth."

Harry stared. "Great," he complained. "I just denied it to him again today. What makes you think that he'll believe us?"

"You forget one thing," Draco told him. "I actually paid attention in History of Magic. I know about this era. I know about Merlin's dragon friend. I know things that other people wouldn't know. We can prove to him that we're from the future using knowledge."

Harry wasn't too sure about that but he nodded anyway. "We need to find Merlin."

"I saw him going in that direction." Draco pointed a vague hand towards the corridor winding off into the distance to the right.

"Very helpful."

"That's not what I'm here for," Draco informed him. "I'm here to stop you from doing anything too dumb."

Harry glared at him and then stalked off in the direction that Draco had pointed in. A few seconds later, Draco came up and fell into pace next to him. They'd only walked along for a couple of minutes when Harry suddenly spotted Merlin sitting at a table. He seemed to be half-polishing armour and half-sleeping. "Merlin!" Harry called.

Merlin jerked his head up. The brush fell from his fingers. "Oh," he said, sounding relieved. "It's you."

"Who'd you think it was going to be?" Harry asked.

Merlin's face fell as he looked over Harry's shoulder. "Him," he said as he pointed a finger.

Arthur walked around Harry and picked up a piece of armour. "Nowhere near polished enough," he said.

"That's because this method takes too long!" Merlin exclaimed.

Arthur gave him a warning look. "You know how I feel about shortcuts."

Merlin glanced over at where Harry and Draco were standing. "Ah, yes," he said. "Of course. How can I help both of you then?"

"We wanted to talk to you in private," Draco asked.

"No," Arthur said flatly.

Draco raised an eyebrow. "No?" he asked. "I know that he's just a servant, but surely he can decide to have private conversations if he wants to. We have something that we want to discuss with him in secret."

"I said no."

Harry frowned. There was something about the way Arthur seemed overly protective of Merlin. Sure, he ordered Merlin around in a way that was reminiscent of how Draco ordered house elves around, but there was an underlying protective streak. "Merlin, I'd like to talk to you about our earlier conversation."

Merlin froze.

"I'm sure you remember it," Harry pressed. "I'd like to talk to you about it."

Merlin exchanged a glance with Arthur before Merlin nodded.

"Would you like to talk in private?" Harry asked. Given the sensitive nature of the previous conversation, Harry figured he needed to give Merlin that choice.

Merlin looked over at Arthur again. "No, Arthur stays."

Harry let out a deep breath and frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Whatever you say to him, you can say to me," Arthur said imperiously.

"You do remember what we talked about..." Harry trailed off.

Merlin shook his head slightly. "It's fine."

Harry bit the inside of his cheek. Draco had made a special point of emphasising to him the importance of being not magical in this era. Actually, Draco had ranted about the prejudices of Muggles, but Harry had got the idea. He didn't want to get Merlin in trouble with Arthur, but since he was so insistent, Harry wasn't sure what to do. Merlin couldn't have forgotten their earlier conversation, so if he still wanted Arthur here, then he must have a good reason for it. Suddenly, Harry realised something that should have been obvious to him. He looked over at Draco whose eyes were wide. Maybe Arthur knew about Merlin's secret!

"I guess you can stay then," Harry said slowly.

Draco opened his mouth, but Harry shot him a look. It wouldn't hurt to have Arthur on their side in this. After all, he was the king's son. Of course, if they'd misjudged this, then they'd probably all be hanged, but Harry didn't think he was misreading the look on Merlin's face.

"Fine," Draco said grudgingly.

"Oh good," Arthur said sarcastically. "This is my castle, you know. It means so much to me that a lowly servant has given me permission to stay."

Merlin, however, was looking at them seriously. "Go ahead," he said.

Harry looked over at Draco who nodded. He took a deep breath and began.

"You're from the future?" Merlin spluttered.

Harry nodded as he fiddled with his cup of mead. He sipped it and then immediately spat it back in the cup. It tasted disgusting. Alcohol definitely had changed over the thousand years and Harry liked the alcohol in his time much better. "We were examining a mirror when we were suddenly dragged back a thousand years into the past," Harry explained. He shot a glance at Draco. To his surprise, Draco had actually managed to convince Merlin. Turned out that Draco's knowledge of History of Magic was quite extensive and detailed. From Arthur's lack of shouting and the fact none of them were in shackles yet, Harry also surmised that Arthur knew about Merlin's magic.

"Suddenly and unceremoniously dragged," Draco drawled. "I believe it's something to do with either the mirror or the jewel we found in the back of the mirror." He pulled the ruby-like gem out of a pocket and put it on the table.

Arthur picked it up. "It looks precious," he said. He passed it from hand to hand and looked thoughtfully at it.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe it is. It's also probably magical."

Arthur carefully placed it back on the table and gave it a wary look. "Perhaps Merlin could help then," he said, sounding cautious.

Draco snorted. Harry glared at him and jabbed him in the ribs. "We were hoping he could."

Merlin looked puzzled as he picked the jewel up. "I don't think this is enchanted. Or at least, not any more. I can't sense any magic in it."

"Then it must have been the mirror," Draco said with a sigh. "We need to find the mirror."

Merlin nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. We could help with that. Ask around and stuff."

"That wasn't the only reason why we're telling you," Harry said. "Our magic is... malfunctioning right now. We wanted to ask for your help to see if you could send us back into the future."

"No," Arthur said flatly.

Harry stared. Arthur looked calmly at him. There was a stubborn set to his lips and his arms were crossed across his chest. "Why?" Harry asked. "Look, we don't belong in your time. We don't want to be here and Merlin could help us get back."

"I said 'no'," Arthur snapped. "I will not have Merlin risking his life for you two."

Draco raised an eyebrow. "You will not have Merlin risking his life? Doesn't Merlin get a say in this?"

"No."

Merlin sighed. "What Arthur means to say is that ..."

"I meant 'no'," Arthur said grumpily. "You don't need to risk your life for these two. We barely know them. We don't know that they're telling the truth. All we know is that they know a creepy amount about your life. For all we know, they spent all this time spying on you so that they could know this information."

Merlin bit his lip. "I'm not sure about that. They know some things that were very private."

Draco turned to Harry with a smug look. "I told you I was good at History of Magic."

"And I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of my life's secrets being studied in some classroom!" Merlin exclaimed.

"But you're one of the most famous wizards of all time," Draco said as though that explained everything.

Harry could feel his heart go out to Merlin. He understood what it felt like. Even though it had been years, he still had people staring at him in the streets. He still had little kids coming up to him to ask for autographs. While it was flattering, it was also rather annoying, especially when he was in a hurry. When he was juggling shopping bags, the last thing Harry wanted to do was smile and sign an autograph. But he couldn't be rude to the kids either.

Merlin gave him an odd look. Harry suddenly realised that he was staring at Merlin. "Sorry," he muttered.

"You wouldn't be risking your life," Draco said. "All we'd need you to do is perform a spell."

"And what you don't seem to understand is that Merlin will be risking his life simply by performing this spell," Arthur snapped. "As I keep on telling him, every spell he performs increases the risk of him getting caught by my father. Even this conversation itself is highly risky."

"But we can't just sit by and not help," Merlin said.

Arthur sighed. "That's exactly what you said the time an ogre attacked the city."

"If I hadn't done something, then it would have completely flattened Camelot."

Arthur laid a hand on Merlin's arm. "I know. I know. But you almost died."

"But I didn't," Merlin said. "And it worked. It's now happily in love with an apple tree." He hesitated. "Well, at least it would have been if your father's knights hadn't killed it."

Arthur shuddered. "I think I preferred it when it was terrorising Camelot. At least it wasn't singing love songs then."

Harry turned to Draco and raised an eyebrow. "What's that all about?" he mouthed.

Draco shrugged.

"I want to help them," Merlin said.

Arthur let out a long breath. "We're not going to do this in Camelot," he warned. "There's too high a risk. Not with the guards on the lookout for any sort of magic."

"We have no problem with that," Draco said smoothly.

Harry nodded. "No problem," he echoed.

"We'll meet you early in the morning on Friday," Merlin said. "Arthur usually goes out riding and it won't be suspicious if you come with us."

That was two days longer than what Harry wanted to wait, but he nodded anyway. "Sure," he said. "But in the meantime, you need to look up possible spells you can use to send us to the future."

"I'll bring the books," Merlin promised.

Arthur pursed his lips but didn't say anything. "Don't take unnecessary risks," he said to Merlin. "These two... they don't mean anything to us."

"They're our future," Merlin said quietly.

That was true, Harry reflected. They were the future for these people. Merlin's future, definitely. Their entire legacy of magic could probably be traced to the skinny person sitting in front of them. It was an odd feeling. It was like being in the presence of the father of modern magic.

"You're looking oddly at me again," Merlin pointed out.

Harry could feel his face turning red. "Sorry," he muttered. He really needed to stop doing that. Merlin was just a normal person. Or at least, right now, he definitely was. It would be years before he would be the powerful wizard textbooks talked about. Right now, he was an ordinary wizard who was willing to help them. And hopefully, that would be enough.

"That's surprising."

Harry began to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was something about Draco's tone of voice that warned him that yet another incident had happened. "What's surprising?" he asked wearily.

Draco beckoned him over to the window. As Harry gazed over the courtyard, he could see a large Dark Mark hanging over the cobblestones. People were giving that area a wide berth. In fact, there were much fewer people in the courtyard than would be expected for mid-morning. Obviously word had spread and people were avoiding the area. One could never be too careful when it came to magic. "About a thousand years too early for that," Draco drawled, pointing at the sky, but Harry thought he could detect a note of worry in his voice.

"This isn't good," Harry muttered, more to himself than anything.

Draco raised an eyebrow anyway. "That's obvious," he said snidely.

Harry ignored the tone. "I wonder how much more security Uther will order around the palace?" And how many civilian houses he'll order to be searched, Harry added silently. The atmosphere lately had been so brittle that Harry was afraid that it would shatter if he breathed too hard. Uther was furious that magic was obviously happening under his very nose, and under that bluster, he was obviously scared. Because of that, both Arthur and Merlin seemed on edge too. The general population of Camelot was terrified. Harry wished he could just tell them that magic wasn't a bad thing, that the events were just magical objects being pulled back in time from the future and that the world wasn't going to end.

"For the last time, we're not going to tell everybody who we are," Draco said, his voice sharp. "It's bad enough that Arthur and Merlin know."

Harry gave a start. "How'd you know what I was thinking?"

"It was written all over your face," Draco told him. His tone was flat. "If you want to be an idiot and risk your life, I'd prefer you do it when my fate isn't tied in with your own. You might not know anything about this era, but I do."

"Yeah, yeah," Harry muttered. He'd heard Draco's spiel before. He knew that this was an era where people were terrified of magic. You could tell that just by the smell of fear in the air. These people were more scared of magic than his aunt and uncle.

There was a brief knock on the door before Merlin burst in. Draco raised an eyebrow. Merlin had the grace to look slightly embarrassed before he burst out, "You've seen that, haven't you?"

Harry nodded.

"What on earth is it?" Merlin's eyes were wide as he looked out of the window. "I was with Morgana a few minutes ago and she was so shocked, she had to be escorted back to her quarters."

"Something magical, obviously," Harry muttered.

Merlin sighed. "Don't say that around Uther. He's twitching every time somebody mentions the word magic now."

"I wish we could just tell everybody that magic isn't evil," Harry said softly.

Merlin shot him a warning look.

"Don't worry," Harry said. "I'm not going to tell anybody. But don't you wish you could say something sometimes?"

"Of course I do," Merlin burst out. "Don't you think that I hate it that Gaius and Arthur are the only ones who know about this?" He waved a hand at himself. "I'd love to tell Gwen and Morgana. I'd love to be able to help people more obviously without all this sneaking around. But it's dangerous." He bit his lip. "I've almost got Gwen killed once. I'm not going to risk it."

"I guess," Harry said. He sighed. "But I wish it wasn't like this."

Merlin turned bright eyes towards him. "But at least I know it won't always be like this. The future's different, isn't it?"

"It is," Harry said. He was about to say more when Draco clamped a hand over his arm. "Ouch! What'd you do that for?"

"But we can't tell you anything about it," Draco said flatly. "Time continuation issues. We're changing the future enough already just by being here. We don't want to change it even more."

Harry closed his eyes. They'd had this conversation at least once a day since they got here. "How'd you know that we weren't supposed to be here?" he challenged. Least that was what happened the last time he'd brushed with time travel. Harry couldn't really see the difference between this and the time turner Hermione used back in their third year.

"What if everything's predetermined?" Draco snapped. "I'm working on the presumption that we're trying to minimise the flow-on effect of our actions. I suggest you do the same."

Merlin grinned. "Are you sure you weren't master and servant in the future?" he asked. "Or lovers? You certainly act like it."

Draco spluttered. "We most certainly were not lovers!"

"Most certainly," Harry echoed.

Merlin didn't look convinced. "You were definitely something."

"Enemies would be closer to the mark," Draco muttered. "Much, much closer."

Merlin shrugged. "Well, Arthur and I began as enemies, but now I'd say we're ... friends."

Harry blinked and stared at him. There was something about the way Merlin said friends that made him think that there was more to it. "He certainly orders you around a lot."

Merlin waved a hand. "Arthur's like that. He makes up for it in other areas."

Draco arched an eyebrow. "I'm sure he does."

Merlin coloured. "No, not like that!" he exclaimed. He quickly stepped towards the door and opened it. "Gaius wanted to see all of us. Whenever you're ready." He closed the door behind him and his footsteps echoed down the cobblestones.

Author Notes: There are two more parts after this. :) Thank you everyone for their reviews so far.