Chapter 3: In Which Plans Are Made

Merlin was quite bored. She didn't think that she would ever be saying such a thing while sitting on a sofa thousands of years in the future, but it was true. After Arthur's display of magic (and a subsequent display from Gwaine, followed by another one from Arthur), the wizards were gathered trying to figure out what to do next. For the first few minutes, looking around the room had been interesting, but now Merlin was very, very bored.

She took the time to see how Arthur and Gwaine were both doing. His magic seemed to have calmed a bit, but Arthur was clearly in shock, evidenced mainly by the way that he didn't try to take charge of the situation at all. He was just sitting there. Merlin hoped that he wasn't broken or anything, since she would hate to fail now after so many years of hard work.

As for Gwaine, he seemed a bit more relaxed about the entire thing. In fact, he seemed to be down-right enjoying his newfound abilities. He kept staring at things- the chairs, the vase- as though trying to do something magical to them. It seemed as though he hadn't gotten the hang of it yet, but if the other wizards had their way, he'd be learning soon enough.

Merlin wasn't completely following the conversation, but it seemed as though they were assuming that Gwaine's and Arthur's newfound abilities were being attributed to their strange journey. She heard things about wands and schools and protection from a moldy wart or something.

These wizards were strange.

Merlin didn't know what to make of it all. Unlike Arthur and Gwaine, Merlin hadn't performed any accidental magic. Unlike them, though, she had had years of practice controlling her magic. She couldn't deny that it felt very strange to her right now. She still had control, but it was a tenuous control.

Slippery, almost, like she couldn't get a good grip on it.

She huffed and turned her attention inwards. Merlin couldn't exactly see her magic, like she knew a lot of sorcerers could. In most cases, Gaius had once explained to her, magic was sort of like a core in a person's being, that could then be channeled outward and even looked at, although it took quite a bit of effort.

To Merlin, there was no core. Her magic was just a part of her. So she couldn't exactly look at it, but she could feel it, more and more easily these days it seemed (although whether that was out of practice or something else, she didn't know), if she tried.

And right now, it felt strained.

She took a deep breath and tried to focus. Her magic was almost being pulled...tugged... towards Arthur and Gwaine and oh, suddenly everything made a bit more sense. When they were, well, traveling, Merlin had reacted by trying to reach out to Gwaine and Arthur with her magic. Things must've gotten tangled up somehow (that was the best way to describe it), and now Gwaine and Arthur were stuck with a bit of magic.

Wonderful.

Arthur currently agreed with Merlin's sentiments, although neither of them realized that. First off, he had been transported into the future. Second, he was currently surrounded by practicers of magic (to be fair, they seemed like a nice lot, but he refused to let his guard down). And, most importantly, he had somehow managed to become magical.

He didn't know what to make of his magic. It wasn't his fault, obviously. He hadn't actively sought out to practice it or anything, which he supposed was a mark in his favor. But- magic was evil. That's what he was told all his life and that's what he had seen happen first hand. It corrupted people. He didn't feel evil, though. He actually felt rather normal, if a bit tense.

Perhaps it took time, Arthur mused, to corrupt people. Morgana didn't turn horrible in a day, he reasoned to himself. He would just have to be on his guard, he decided, and try to avoid using it as much as possible. Yes, that would do it.

Unlike Arthur, Gwaine had no intention of not using his magic. This was quite brilliant, actually! Since finding out about Merlin's magic, he had quizzed her to no end, to be sure, but it always seemed a rather foreign thing to him. Now, he could experience it for himself! Of course, he was having a bit of trouble controlling it... actually, he couldn't control it at all. He had seen Merlin manipulate her magic with an incredible easy grace, but he quickly learned that it wasn't so simple. Much to his chagrin, he couldn't do anything.

He looked at Merlin curiously and wondered how hard it was for her to use magic. He knew that she had been born with it and therefore had much more practice, but how much training had she had to do before she had good control? Gwaine also knew that her training couldn't have been that extensive (with magic being illegal) and also that Merlin didn't often use spells nowadays. Not for the first time, he wondered just how powerful she was.

Rather powerful, judging by the reactions of the other wizards in the room, who all treated her with a strange sort of reverence and respect that he could tell Merlin just wasn't used to. She must've done something in the future to earn such treatment, although Gwaine personally believed that Merlin had done enough to earn treatment like that already. The fact that she rarely (if ever) got it made Gwaine more than a bit annoyed on several occasions, but Merlin never seemed to mind too horribly.

If anything, she seemed a bit uncomfortable with it all right now. She kept sneaking nervous glances at Arthur, worried that he would notice something strange was going on, but he seemed too lost in his own thoughts.

"Excuse me?" Merlin's voice broke through the mumble of conversation in the room, snapping both Gwaine and Arthur out of their respective thoughts. The other wizards quieted and looked at her expectantly, as though she were about to say something incredible, which made Merlin feel rather silly for what she was about to say next.

She said hesitantly, "I have to pee."

It was the sandy-haired man (Remus, Gwaine remembered) who answered first.

"The bathroom is up the stairs," he instructed. "It'll be the second door on your right."

"Thanks."

Merlin smiled gratefully and headed upstairs. Gwaine couldn't help but take the opportunity to sneak a look at her bum... she might've been younger, but Gwaine still found her lovely. He actually found her adorable in her current state, he decided. Her clothes- which were normally a bit big on her- currently dwarfed her, making her smaller than ever, like a kid trying on their parents' clothes.

Arthur noticed where Gwaine was looking and rolled his eyes.

Merlin didn't notice where Gwaine was looking and headed upstairs. She meant to find the "bathroom" (whatever that was), but when she reached the landing, she found herself facing a strange group of kids.

The majority of them had red hair (the girl out of that group looked the youngest and two identical-looking boys looked the oldest). The only other girl had bushy-brown hair. They were all staring at Merlin with odd looks on their faces.

"Hello," Merlin greeted, not really sure what else would be appropriate, considering the circumstances.

"So is it true?" the youngest red-head boy breathed. "Are you the actual Merlin?"

"I'm not the 'actual' anything," Merlin told him. "I'm just Merlin."

"Ronald!" the bushy-haired girl hissed, before pulling him into the room where they had presumably just come out of. The others followed and the door shut firmly behind them, a clear message.

Merlin hadn't meant to snoop- really she hadn't- but the invitation of a slammed door was too great to resist.

She treaded softly to the door and gently pressed her ear against it. It was too thick. She had no choice. If she wanted to hear what they were saying (and she did, because there was clearly something going on here that was more than meets the eye) she would have to use magic. Merlin'd just have to be a bit more careful about it. There was no telling how it would react since their journey and now that it had been tied to Arthur and Gwaine.

She took a deep breath and gently uttered the spell to increase her hearing.

"ásce."

Merlin felt the odd sensation of, for a moment, loosing control of her magic, but before it went any further, it settled, and she could hear perfectly well, from everything downstairs to whatever was in the attic. It was quite nice, but she focused her attention on the room.

The murmuring from inside was much more distinct now.

"You can't think she's the actual Merlin," came a female's voice. It wasn't the same as the bushy-haired girl's voice, so Merlin assumed it was the other girl. The young red-head.

"Snape had Veritaserum!" Merlin now recognized the voice of the bushy-haired girl. "We all heard it! It's Merlin and King Arthur!"

"Legend would've mentioned something about Merlin being a servant, though, wouldn't it've?" asked a voice that Merlin hadn't heard before. It must've been one of the twins, she decided, although she had no idea which.

"It's not like you ever pay attention in History of Magic," the other twin, Merlin guessed. "You're hardly a reliable source."

"Hermione?" asked the red-headed girl.

"Not from what I can remember," mumbled the bushy-haired girl. "But Veritaserum is infallible! There's no way to beat the stuff! That's why it's been so invaluable during the war- this one and the one before! I read all about it in-"

"Tell us later, Hermione," said the youngest red-haired girl. "I mean- really. Merlin and Arthur, in the flesh."

"What're the odds that they show up a few months after You-Know-Who comes back?" asked the boy, Ron.

"You think Merlin is working for You-Know-Who?" laughed one of the twins.

"I don't know!"

"Well, if you want to ask her, I'd do so from a distance," said the other (or maybe the same...) twin.

"As ridiculous as it sounds, Ron is right. It is a very strange coincidence."

"You can't be serious, Hermione!"

"I'm not saying that they're working for You-Know-Who, Ginny. But time-travel is very tricky business-"

"You'd know," muttered a twin.

"- and it takes powerful magic to enact. We can't rule out the possibility that it is because of You-Know-Who that those three are here."

"Do you think they'll help in the war?"

"There technically isn't a war, yet," piped up Ginny.

"Will be soon, though," one of the twins said somberly. Merlin pressed her ear closer to the door, as though that would help her hear (the truth was, it didn't matter because of the spell she had used).

"Can I help you with something?"

Merlin jumped and turned around so fast somebody might've though there were pixies or something after her. Instead, it was just Sirius, who was looking at her amusedly. Merlin relaxed a bit when she noticed that he didn't look that angry.

"I- I got lost."

Sirius turned to the door across from them both and pushed it open slightly, revealing a room composed of what looked mainly like white tile.

"The bathroom," Sirius said. Merlin tried not to flinch. The spell made other noises a bit louder than normal. "Take as long as you like."

"Thanks," Merlin said, blushing as she went inside, closing the door behind her. Once the door was fully closed, she shut her eyes and leant agains the wall, breathing in and out slowly, letting the spell fade and her hearing return back to normal.

That was close.

In her mind, it was worth it to learn what she had. Clearly, as nice as these folk seemed, they were hiding something from them all. Merlin sighed and opened her eyes. But, first thing's first...

How exactly did this room work?

AN: So, this chapter is a bit shorter (or is that just me?), but I was having some trouble with my word processor. I hope you like it regardless!

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