Thanks for all your support guys and I'm glad so many people enjoyed Merlin's little reveal last chapter! Again I apologise for the wait (which seems like it's going to be a reoccurring theme with this story), but I've been cheating on this story with another one. My bad.
Chapter 10: Fifth Year- Departing
Merlin jogged down the stairs with his small bag of possessions over his shoulder. He'd held the aging spell for so long that he felt strange without the aching joints and bent back. It was nice to be able to leap down the last four stairs and not have to worry about his knees giving out though.
Leaning against a doorframe in the hallway Merlin watched Harry and Ron struggle with their heavy trunks. Merlin had always been something of a specialist at travelling light, now he was very glad he didn't have to lug a heavy wooden trunk around.
The front door swung open letting a blast of chilly air edged with the promise of warmth into the hallway. Along with the air Dumbledore stepped through, dropping his hat and cloak onto the available hooks. Merlin frowned and sidled through the gathering luggage towards the Headmaster. He had a bone to pick and now was the perfect time. Dumbledore cast an absent glance through the chaos in the hallway without seeming to see Merlin hovering in a shaded doorway. Instead he headed immediately to the left and vanished.
Merlin followed quickly into the currently abandoned meeting room and made himself known by clearing his throat. Unsurprisingly Dumbledore started slightly. Merlin had been a servant and despite all the complaining his master had done Merlin had been quite good at his job, he knew how to move quietly and without drawing attention.
"Merlin, what can I do for you?" Dumbledore folded his hands into the sleeves of his robe. The gesture seemed casual, but Merlin couldn't help but wonder if the Headmaster was holding his wand. That would make more sense than the other option.
Merlin closed the door behind him. "Answer a question. Why do you suddenly trust me? Up until the other night you still didn't believe me, but suddenly out of the blue you believe every word I say."
Dumbledore looked at him seriously.
Merlin knew from talks with Harry that the old man was notoriously bad for keeping secrets, even from people who really should know. He was prepared to push this point and was relieved when instead Dumbledore pulled up a chair and motioned for Merlin to do the same. "I certainly didn't trust you at first. For me trust is something to be earned and I had no evidence except your word that you had Harry's safety in mind. To all of us it seemed too good to be true, for Merlin to be helping us." Here Dumbledore paused apparently torn.
Merlin waited, he was getting an answer no matter what. Finally the old man continued. "However something you said when I confronted you caught in my mind. You spoke of the Lady of Camelot."
Merlin grimaced. In his anger he'd allowed his tongue to run away with him and he had let slip some things he didn't want known.
Dumbledore smiled kindly at him. Merlin folded his arms, this always happened when he dropped the aging spell. People started to treat him like an idiot again. "I am assuming the she is the Queen Guinevere, wife to Arthur Pendragon."
"Yes." Merlin admitted shortly, despite wanting answers to his questions there were some things that Merlin just wasn't going to talk about, his past being the main point.
"I thought as much. So I went looking. I thought that perhaps she was the key and it seems she was. Tucked away in a dingy little corner of the Hogwarts Library was a book. It was written by The Knight Champion Leon of the Queen of Camelot. There was one mention of you. Merlin, the sorcerer who would never abandon his King, not even to death. What little mention there was suggested that Merlin, you, would remain at your post until you felt that your duty to the King was done. Am I right?"
Merlin said nothing. His heart was pounding in his ears. He had asked Gwen never to mention his continued living; apparently she'd kept her promise by getting Leon to do her dirty work.
Dumbledore nodded in understanding. "At that point I felt that surely your words had to be truth, because within that paragraph was a picture, a sketch. It was of a young man, but your eyes which I must inform you are rather unmistakable told another story. I was convinced, even more so when you revealed this face." Dumbledore gestured to Merlin's self.
Merlin sighed. "Fine then." He turned to leave. He'd heard enough. His past was important, it kept him going, but it was no business of these wizards.
"You have nothing else to say?" Dumbledore asked quietly and Merlin thought, with just a little bit of hope.
"Nothing. I only ask that you show me no more attention than you would any of your other lowly staff. I prefer to work undetected. Particularly if there is a dangerous force attempting to harm what I'm trying to protect."
"I trust you absolutely." Dumbledore professed.
Merlin snorted. "You shouldn't, my history isn't exactly riddled with success stories." He strode away from the other man and out to where the others were gathered ready to depart for Hogwarts.
The trip to Kings Cross Station was interesting to say the least. Due to Harry's underground celebrity status they were accompanied by three Order members, Moody, Tonks and Lupin in addition to Mrs Weasley and Sirius in his dog form. Moody had taken their luggage and gone his own way leaving the others, thankfully, to take a slightly less stressful route to the station.
Merlin who was used to walking just about everywhere, was unbothered by the trek though Ron and the twins complained until Ginny told them to button up. The walk gave him time to think. Being at Hogwarts was going to be vastly different from the way he had been living for the last few hundred years, still the castle at least would feel like home.
There were going to be a lot of memories associated with the school, though the original Camelot castle was mostly gone he was sure there were still the ghosts of his past hovering around. Merlin just prayed that there were no actual ghosts still occupying the castle. That was the last thing he needed, for the ghost of Gwaine or Leon or one of the other knights to suddenly make an appearance.
The Ministry appointed Defence against the Dark Arts teacher was going to be an issue as well. Merlin was sure she would investigate him. The most important thing he felt was that Harry, Hermione and the Weasley's had to remember to call him Emrys. Merlin had done everything he could to keep his druid name out of general circulation and unless Gwen had done something sneaky again he had succeeded.
Still he could imagine this woman causing some problems. Merlin would have to keep his head down. Watching Sirius bound about chasing leaves and shadows Merlin smiled faintly, he'd been a sorcerer practicing magic in Camelot under Uther Pendragon's rule without ever raising suspicion. He'd be fine.
As they approached the station and the number of potential wizarding families increased Merlin edged closer to Lupin. "I'll leave now. If I'm going to pretend not to know Harry then it probably wouldn't do to arrive at the station with him."
Lupin nodded. "Alright, hopefully we will see you soon."
Merlin nodded and began to push his way through the crowd on a different trajectory to the group.
Pushing through the always packed King's Cross Station Merlin made his way slowly to the barrier between this station and Platform 9 ¾. He waited and watched for a minute while a few younger students, accompanied by their parents vanished casually through the stone wall.
When they was a convenient space, Merlin sidled up to the barrier and leant sideways through it.
Arriving on the platform Merlin's first impression was the noise. Over the shouting from parents and children there was the impatient whistle of the brilliant scarlet engine. Merlin looked around with interest; he had never been to Platform so he let his curiosity lead him around.
Skirting his way through the crowd Merlin hopped onto one of the carriages as the last call was sounded. There was an empty compartment in the middle of the carriage which Merlin claimed as his own.
Sliding his bag into place in the overhead locker Merlin dropped into one of the window seats and looked out of the window. He could just see the flock of red haired Weasley's being ushered into the train by their mother.
The door to his compartment slid open and Merlin turned quickly to see who it was. Four startled looking girls backed out with confused looks on their faces. Merlin shook his head and turned back to the window. The Weasley's had vanished into the train and Merlin couldn't hope to pick Harry out through the mass of dark haired children and adults.
He could only hope that Harry would find his way safely onto the train and maybe even find this compartment. Knowing Harry's record that could be more difficult than it sounded. The train whistle began to sound their imminent departure and students rushed onto the train reluctantly accepting final kisses and well wishes from their parents.
As the train pulled from the station Merlin settled back into his seat and waited. There was currently no one else in his compartment, surely there were so many students that someone would have to end up in his compartment. However as the train began to pick up speed while several people opened the door and peeked in, no one appeared willing to sit with him. Merlin propped his feet up on the opposite seat and slumped down, it was going to be a very long and very boring train ride if he had to spend it all alone.
Stretching until his spine popped and chewing on the end of his scarf Merlin waited. Where was Harry?
Merlin was one minute from getting up and going for a walk when the door slid open and admitted Harry, Ginny and another boy that Merlin only knew from his glimpses into Harry's life in the last few years.
The other boy frowned and was about to step out and keep looking but Merlin jumped in. "I can pretty much tell you that everywhere else is full." He sat up and pulled his feet off the seat.
"Oh...er." Harry didn't seem sure what to do. Ginny sighed and looked between the two of them. Merlin had pre-warned them that he wanted to appear new to everyone at Hogwarts. Harry, however, didn't seem sure how to do this.
Ginny offered her hand. "Ginny Weasley, that's Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter." She pointed first to the new boy and secondly to Harry.
Neville smiled cautiously and lifted a potted cactus which Merlin was sure he recognised and set it carefully on the seat beside him. Harry settled next to Merlin warily. Ginny sat next to Neville.
Merlin grinned. "I'm Emrys." He offered brightly, given the situation he had decided that bright and cheerful was the way to go. He was going to go back to playing the happy-go-lucky if slightly thick servant boy that Arthur had originally thought he was. Merlin figured it would work well to hide him from the Ministry's scrutiny if he didn't appear to be too bright. Even if did hate being thought an idiot sometimes it was an incredibly useful disguise.
"Nice to meet you." Harry said as casually as he could, but Merlin could see he thought that whole situation was weird.
"I've never see you before?" Neville pointed out and then went red. "Sorry I just mean...are you moving here from another school or are you a teacher?"
"I'm taking on some of the Groundkeeping duties. Now that the old Groundkeeper has been made a teacher Professor Dumbledore thought it would be best if he had someone to help out." Merlin informed him.
"Oh...You'll like Hagrid." Harry said enthusiastically. Neville didn't look convinced and Merlin smiled. Considering the half-giant's love of dragons Merlin was sure they would get along just fine, though according to the Order he was off on business for Dumbledore at the moment so another Professor was filling in.
"I'm sure I will." Merlin replied. They fell into a silence that seemed to hover halfway between awkward and comfortable. Harry obviously wanted to talk about other things; however Neville's presence prevented further conversation.
Turning to the window Merlin settled down to watching the country-side wash past. Over his shoulder he could hear Neville explaining his cactus to Harry and Ginny with enthusiasm. Merlin leant his head against the cool glass and let his eyes unfocus. He wasn't tired as such, but the steady rocking of the train did well to make him drowsy.
Suddenly there was a peculiar squelching noise and something wet and sticky hit him in the back of his head. A putrid stench filled the carriage making him and the other occupants gag violently.
Twisting in his seat to face a red and apologetic Neville and a splattered Ginny and Harry, Merlin couldn't help but grin. The horrendously smelly liquid was everywhere. Harry, Ginny and Neville had their fronts covered with it; Merlin could feel it over his back and in his hair and the seats and windows were all splattered. Ginny pulled out her wand while Harry glared at Neville. "Sorry, I've never done that before, I didn't think it would be so..." Neville muttered.
"Effective?" Merlin chuckled, wiping stinksap out of his hair with his scarf.
Neville smiled warily. "I suppose we should clean up." he looked around and flicked a bit more of the sap out of his eyes. Ginny gagged and pinched her nose closed. "Evanesco." under her wand the stinksap almost completely disappeared, the smell unfortunately remained.
The ridiculous and slightly embarrassing event loosened the tension which had grown in their compartment. By the time Hermione and Ron arrived, complaining about someone called Malfoy being prefect, the four of them had made a picnic of snacks from the trolley and were chatting away happily as though they had been friends all their lives.
After two more re-introductions Hermione and Ron happily joined in their feast.
As the trained pulled into the Hogsmeade station Merlin had decided that he liked Neville, despite his nerves he was remarkably optimistic about life and he had an adoration for plants which reminded Merlin of Gaius. With the students changed Merlin waved goodbye and went in search of Professor Grubby-Plank whom Minerva McGonagall had told him was taking the Care of Magical Creatures classes while Hagrid was away.
From the station Merlin couldn't see the castle, but he could feel it. The magic in the air was so strong he could almost taste it, like blood mixed with honey, sweet and metallic. It was almost like being back in the Crystal Cave.
Picking his way through the crowd, bag over his shoulder Merlin caught the sound of a gravelly female voice yelling. "First years over here please, follow me first years." He made a beeline for the short serious faced witch who was holding a lantern against the growing dusk.
"Hello I'm Emrys." He introduced himself. Using his druid name tasted odd, but he supposed he'd get use to it.
Grubby-Plank eyed him as several more first year students presented themselves. "Yes, the assistant ground-keeper, Dumbledore told me about you. Well you can come with me taking the first years across the Lake there should be plenty of room in the boats."
Merlin just nodded and fell into step with her as she led the group of students, finally complete, to the little boats moored on the edge of the black watered lake.
"Four to a boat please, no shoving." Grubby-Plank informed them, supervising the new students stepping into their boats. Merlin clambered carefully into one of the spares and then held onto the dock while Grubby-Plank climbed in after him. As soon as everyone was seated the boats began to float away from the dock and once free streamed smoothly through the dark water and around a corner.
The silence, broken only by the soft excited whispers coming from the first years was eerie. Unaware he was doing it, Merlin held his breath; releasing it only as Hogwarts castle rose into view over the forest which bordered the waters. Bathed in moonlight with specks of light shining through the windows it was truly a sight to behold.
Merlin looked up over the astounded heads of the first years. It was different now than it had been, but the castle was unmistakable.
Bowing his head and studying his hands Merlin sighed. For the first time in a countless age, he was coming home.
I can guarantee there is going to be a bit of a wait on the next update. I'm off on my 'holidays'- which is code for work placements again. I can write while I'm there, but no internet means no updates unfortunately. I'll still reply to reviews because I'll have my phone with me.