Chapter Five: A Coming Blackness

Everything was going wonderfully. Camelot was beautiful, the king had bought Draco's story, and they had a roof over their heads for seemingly however long it would take to get them home. They'd even― possibly― found Merlin already. Unfortunately, there was the minor detail of Harry having made one of the worst mistakes he could have possibly made in front of a citizen of the city of Camelot. He'd been caught in association with magic.

Well, it was a magical item to be more specific, but apparently even possessing an object with some kind of charm placed on it was an offence punishable by death. Great. He hadn't even been there for one entire day, and already someone wanted to kill him.

Harry watched in frozen horror as Merlin and Gaius poured over the Invisibility Cloak. They seemed to have even forgotten that he was there for the moment, but his feet were ignoring the commands from his head, which told them to get the hell out of there, and so he was still standing there when they turned around, finally remembering that he existed.

"Where did you get this?" Gaius demanded. He then went to the doorway to make sure no one was nearby. "You must know that keeping magical objects is forbidden in Camelot," he added as he returned, much more quietly and urgently.

"Yeah, um," Harry grasped for something― anything― that he cold say to diffuse the situation. "It's… uh…" Coming up with nothing, he sighed, and decided to tell the truth. "Fine," he said quietly. "Yeah, I'm a wizard." He waited for their reactions, wondering if he was going to have to do some creative memory charms to fix the situation. But before it came to that, perhaps they wouldn't react by running to the king and having him beheaded.

And, amazingly, they didn't. They just looked a bit surprised.

"Are you here to harm the king?" Gaius asked, "Or Arthur?" Despite the fact that it was a very silly question (after all, who in their right mind would say yes?), Harry shook his head enthusiastically.

"No," he denied, "Draco and I are here by accident actually. Oh, um, which reminds me…You're Merlin, right?" Said boy nodded, looking confused. "Are you really… I mean, do you― are you the Merlin?" The addressed sorcerer simply looked even more confused.

"Well, I'm the only Merlin I know of…" he tried to answer, not really understanding the question.

"Well, then you must be the same person as Merlin the sorcerer," Harry prompted, "Right?"

Merlin recoiled in shock. Just who was this boy, anyway, and how did he know so much? Then again, he had already revealed himself to be a sorcerer, and had that amazing fabric with him. So, if he ever went to the king with Merlin's secret, it would be his word against Merlin and Gaius's. He'd hope seniority would help their case here… But, his mind was wandering. Overall, if this Harry boy really was a sorcerer and seemed to already know Merlin's secret, what was the harm in admitting it?

"Yeah," Merlin said finally, "I have magic. A lot of it." Harry smiled and heaved a great sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank Merlin…" he sighed quietly with his eyes closed, confusing the boy whose name he was using in vain. His bright green eyes snapped open again, though, and he seemed to remember where he was. "Ah, ahem, right. That's really good news. Then hopefully you can help Draco and me get home," he suggested, indeed sounding quite hopeful.

"Home?" Merlin asked, sharing a confused and concerned look with Gaius, "What do you mean?"

"Well…" Harry hedged, "We aren't exactly from around here…"

"Perhaps," Gaius suggested, taking a chair at the table again to sit down on, "You should explain it to us from the beginning."

"You called for me, father?" Arthur asked, returning to the dining room, where his father had remained since eating.

"I did," Uther confirmed, sounding thoughtful. "Please, take a seat."

"The future?" Merlin asked after a moment of stunned silence had elapsed. Harry nodded.

"About a thousand years… Er, probably more." Harry really needed to learn to pay better attention in History of Magic class.

Merlin and Gaius looked at him disbelievingly. "You expect us to believe that?" Merlin laughed. Harry sighed.

"I know, I know, it sounds crazy," Harry consented, "I mean, I don't think the shock of it has even set in yet. I'm in Camelot for Merlin's sake!" For a moment, he even forgot who he was talking to. Merlin and Gaius both looked at him in surprise.

"For… my sake?" Merlin asked, perplexed.

"What? Oh!" Harry realized what he'd said. "No, no… I mean, your name; we kind of use it in conversation like that. It's the equivalent of how the muggles― I explained about them, right?" They nodded; he'd explained it quickly. "Yeah, well, it's the same thing when they say 'oh my god' as kind of an exclamation."

"So," Merlin tried to clarify, "To this wizarding world in the future that you spoke of, I'm some kind of god?"

"Well… kind of," Harry explained. "You're regarded as probably one of the greatest wizards of all time." There was awe in his voice as he finished that statement, as it hit him once again just who he was speaking to. Merlin turned to glance at Gaius, looking a bit smug.

"Oh, dear," Gaius commented, "I can see his head inflating already…" Merlin sighed and looked back at Harry.

"I don't understand, though," he said, "If all of this is true, about the wizarding world and that school, Toadboils―"

"Hogwarts," Harry corrected.

"…right, Hogwarts, and everything, then why are you here?"

"I have no idea," Harry said exasperatedly, "I followed Draco to the forest outside the school― he seemed like he was up to something― and something kept pushing us and there was this weird light in the trees, and the next thing I knew, we were waking up in the woods outside of Camelot."

"You didn't recite any kind of spell?" Gaius asked. Harry felt like he was under interrogation; and then he realized that he was.

"No, nothing. I mean, Draco was about to hex me for being there, but neither of us did any magic."

A thought occurred to Merlin. "Wait…" he said. "Where exactly was it that you woke up?"

"I fail to see how this is relevant, Merlin," Gaius stated.

"It may be," Merlin responded, looking to Harry for his answer.

"Well, in a clearing… it wasn't too far away from the road that leads into Camelot."

"Was there anything there that was unusual?"

"Not in a magical sense, no… nothing but a big rock covered in different colors of moss."

"Uh oh…" At his sound of regret, both Harry and Gaius looked to Merlin for answers. "I think," he explained, "That I might have been the one to bring you here."

"What?" Harry asked, as Gaius asked, "How?"

"Well…"

"So you're saying you believe I was right to be suspicious?" Arthur asked. His father still looked quite concerned over the matter.

"Well, I'm not saying that we should be suspicious that everyone who comes to Camelot is not who they say they are," Uther replied, "But let's face it; over the past few months, we've had a few too many imposters." Namely, Lancelot (the phony nobleman), Edwin (the so-called healer), and, more recently, Lady Catrina (whom Uther had forbidden anyone in Camelot to speak of ever again).

"Indeed," Arthur agreed, "Do you believe the boy's crest is a valid test, though?"

"Well." Uther shared a rare smile. "In this case it won't matter." He held up a piece of paper, which had been folded in front of him on the table for the entire conversation. "I've just received a letter from my old friend, Cepheus Black. He's coming to visit in just a few days."

Why, yes, that is a very bad thing. Draco and Harry may just be in quite a lot of trouble…

Oh, and a word on the Lady Catrina; I know I said spoilers for only the first season and she's from the second, but I won't say anything more about her or what happened when she was there. If you've seen that far, you know, *laughs* you know.

Review, please!