Chapter 30: Sixth Year: Research

The time until their return to school seemed to pass at snail's pace. Merlin and the members of the Order made frequent appearances at the Burrow, however they never reported success at locating the Cup of Life. Every time Harry saw Merlin the sorcerer looked more and more worried.

At first Harry, Ron and Hermione had tried to insist they could help if only they were brought along on some of the 'outings'. It wasn't until Merlin pointed out that while under the age of seventeen none of them could perform magic outside of school, that the three of them gave up asking and set about researching other possible locations to look.

It wasn't satisfying by any means, but at least it gave Harry something to do. Dumbledore ensured that they had an endless supply of books from Hogwarts and his own personal library to look though.

Hermione, as always, seemed to relish the exercise, delving into the books for hours on end. While Harry had Ron quickly bored of reading through obscure paragraphs about things they didn't really understand.

As the start of term approached, Harry felt his gloom lift slightly. Once they were back at Hogwarts things would improve, they always did.

The night before their return Hermione corralled the two boys into Ron's room with the magic phrase. "I need to show you something."

Over the years Harry and Ron had learnt that this could mean anything. Once they were sitting on Ron's bed, Hermione sitting cross legged on the mattress serving at Harry's bed, she fixed them with a hard look. "Look I've been wondering what it was that Merlin was talking about."

Harry and Ron exchanged a look. "Talking about what when?" Ron asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes and gave a long suffering sigh. "When he explained about the cup he said there were two ways to defeat Voldemort if he was using it. One way was the way we are working on, trying to find the cup and empty it."

Harry frowned. "The other way he said there was no point discussing..."

"Because the power does not exist anymore." Hermione nodded. "Exactly. I've been wondering about that. So I've been doing some research."

Ron smirked. "We've noticed Hermione, you've had your nose in a book for the last month."

"Not just research about where You-Know-Who could have hidden the cup, I've been doing research about Merlin."

"What kind of research?" Harry asked curiously. He supposed they should have looked into Merlin more closely earlier than this, but Harry knew the legends of Camelot and King Arthur and hadn't really bothered about finding out more.

"Well you see, there are so many different versions of Arthurian legends..."

"What legends?" Ron looked startled, which earned him another flat look from Hermione.

"Legends concerning Camelot and the court of King Arthur." She explained in her 'why are two being so dense' voice.

Ron glared at her, Harry ducked his head to hide his smile.

Hermione huffed and continued. "Anyway...I've been reading through all the different versions I can find to try and see if I can work out the common points. I've been hoping that if a fact is repeated often enough then I can consider it true."

"Did you find anything?" Ron asked eagerly.

Hermione looked uncertain, which wasn't an expression Harry was used to seeing on her face. "I'm not sure. There are a lot of things similar in many of the stories. Names, places and some events. But getting specifics is really difficult. We know there are some things that are just plain wrong, like magic being practiced freely and Merlin being the court sorcerer. He's already told us that magic was forbidden. However there was something that I did manage to find which might be what he meant."

"Yes?" Harry and Ron were leaning forward in interest.

"The sword of King Arthur...Excalibur. The sword given to the King by the Lady of the Lake...with that sword King Arthur was supposed to have been able to kill anything. Some of the legends say that the sword guided him, some say that Merlin cast a spell on it, most don't give a reason, but pretty much all of them agree that King Arthur's sword was the most powerful weapon of the age."

"What happened to Excalibur?" Harry asked eagerly, but was immediately disappointed when Hermione shrugged. "No one knows. It's not mentioned towards the end of the legends and after Arthur was killed it isn't mentioned at all."

"I bet Merlin knows where it is." Ron pointed out.

Hermione winced. "I thought of that, but then I remembered what he said."

"That power doesn't exist anymore." Harry buried his head in his hands. "Sort of suggests the sword was destroyed right?"

Hermione nodded sadly. "I was hoping to have good news, but...I'm sorry Harry." Harry shrugged his shoulders and turned away. It was interesting, but not helpful.

Harry stared out of the window at the setting sun. The last dimming rays stained the sky a brilliant gold, which reminded him of something. "Guys? When we were at the Ministry, did you notice something about Merlin?"

"Yeah he was awesome." Ron chuckled. "That staff was epic."

Harry shook his head. "That's not what I meant. When he does magic have you noticed..."

"That his eyes turn gold." Hermione whispered, she looked shocked as she met Harry's eyes. "I thought I was seeing things."

"Huh?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head. "I thought so too, but they do. Whenever he does magic his eyes glow...how?" He stared at Hermione, hoping she had found an answer in her reading.

"I don't know Harry. The only thing I can suggest is what Merlin already told us. The magic he uses is more powerful that what we do. It is magic in its purest and oldest form. It makes him immortal, it doesn't really surprise me that magic with that kind of power would show something up externally when he used it. It must be like out wands producing light when we use magic."

Harry bit his lip. He didn't like not knowing things and despite Merlin's promise there were so many things that their friend hadn't told them.

A hand touched his arms making Harry turn. Hermione was looking at Harry sadly. "I know what you're thinking Harry and there is no point. Merlin is old, very old there is no way that he can tell us everything."

"He is purposefully leaving things out Hermione." Harry retorted.

"Well yeah mate." Ron added. "I mean we've known him what a year, he's not really had the time to tell us every little detail about his whole life yet." Harry looked between his two best friends. He knew they were right, but the annoyance nagged in the back of his mind.

Turning back to look out the window Harry just hoped that things would get better once they were back at Hogwarts.

A short chapter here just to finish off a few points before things really get underway.

Hermione's information may not be completely true regarding Excalibur, but I need it that way for my story, thank you poetic licence!

The next chapter should be updated after Christmas, depending on how things go there my even be two chapters. Exciting!