I have returned, two chapters coming up for you.

Chapter 35: Sixth Year: Tales

The brilliant red flash of the stunning spell shattered into the stone where Harry's head had been only a moment before. Merlin bent around the fallen stone and spoke a long sentence of apparent nonsense. Whatever he had done worked well, silence fell over their battle area. Harry collapsed against the fallen piece of wall and tried to catch his breath. "What took you so long?" He gasped.

Merlin peered cautiously around the corner toward the Death Eaters who had been attacking them. "Sorry, they had another attack near the front gates."

Harry felt bad for snapping, Merlin looked exhausted. The sorcerer had spent the last few days running from one end of Hogwarts to the other with the other teachers trying to keep the increasingly frequent attacks by the Death Eaters and Ministry at bay.

Harry, along with many of the older students, members of the Order of the Phoenix and the other adults who had sought refuge within Hogwarts walls had been doing their best to defend the walls, but despite the power in the old castles walls, they were slowly losing ground.

With the entire Ministry at his command Voldemort had an almost limitless number of witches and wizards to throw at the school. Then yesterday the fog had set in.

Harry glanced over the lawns towards the castle. Constant sheets of rain had been added to the dense fog that morning. They had been hoping the horrible weather would mean no attacks today, but it wasn't to be.

Merlin followed his gaze. "Dementors." He sighed. "Just what we need."

"Is there anything you can do?" Lupin asked, edging around to keep out of the rain.

Merlin shook his head and gave a dry, humourless laugh. "No. Dementors are completely immune to my magic. The Patronus Charm is still your best defence against them."

"Why is that?" Lupin asked, a note of curiosity leaking into his voice as he shifted around to get a better view of their attackers.

Merlin shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know where the dementors came from, but I've never been able to get rid of them."

As the dementor fog thickened the Death Eaters withdrew.

Snape glanced around. "We should return to the castle. Even the Death Eaters will not risk continuing their attack with so many dementors around."

Word was passed around and their collection of fighters withdrew to the castle. The Great Hall was bustling with activity. There was nothing unusual in this. The Great Hall had become the true centre of their efforts against Voldemort.

"Harry!" The call echoed over the other voices in the room. Harry turned as Ron and Hermione came running across the room. "Four more families showed up." Hermione reported.

Lupin sighed. "It's a good thing Hogwarts is big, but even so we aren't going to be able to keep this up. At the moment Voldemort isn't paying us too much attention. He is concentrating his efforts on the Ministry and the general public but it won't be long until he turns his attention to Hogwarts."

Merlin rubbed his fingers through his hair. "The problem is that we have numbers but not experience and everyone is afraid."

Harry nodded in agreement. Over the last few days more and more people had been turning up at Hogwarts desperate to get into the last remaining safehaven from Voldemort. It hadn't helped though, the people who were arriving weren't fighters they were frightened families, many with little kids.

The remaining students of Hogwarts were their best defence. The members of the DA had been teaching anyone who wanted to learn and they had become nearly fearless. Despite the fear and uncertainty in the air every time Harry saw Neville showing someone how to stun, or Ginny explaining the Patronus Charm he felt a rush of pride.

Snape threw a glance around the Entrance Hall. It was filling with people as the torrential rain drove everyone inside. "We need to talk." The Potion's master demanded quietly.

Harry glared at him, but the glare didn't contain as much venom as usual. He was too tired and hoping the Snape had found something to help in their fight.

Lupin left them to join Tonks so Harry and his friends followed Snape up to Dumbledore's office. The circular room was filled with books. Harry knew that Merlin and Snape had both been spending every second of free time trying to find some way to defeat Voldemort.

They each chose a chair, though not even Snape sat in the tall backed chair behind the desk. Hogwarts allowed them to keep using the room, but they were not the Headmaster.

Snape picked up a book and opened it, handing it over to Merlin who stared down in silence at the open page. Harry leant forward while Hermione and Ron mimicked his movements on Merlin's other side. The book was opened to a double page picture of a tall man in armour wielding a sword. "Arthur Pendragon." Snape said. "The King of Camelot."

"Yes." Merlin said quietly.

Hermione sighed. "We're back to Excalibur."

"Is that it?" Ron asked peering at the picture.

Harry tilted his head to look at the picture better, the man was handsome, but the sword was immense and impressive. Of course it was hard to judge from a drawing.

"That's it. Arthur didn't use it all the time, only when he was being officially King of Camelot." Merlin's voice was quiet and distracted, almost as though he didn't know he was answering their questions.

"We have been searching the library for weeks. The only thing that can kill the Dark Lord now is this sword." Snape told them firmly.

Hermione rubbed her arms, "But Professor, how do we know that Excalibur hasn't degraded like the other sword."

Merlin shook his head. "The other sword was damaged, it broke the magic in the blade, Arthur's sword is still whole. We just can't get to it."

"Why not?" Ron asked. "You said that before, but you never told us why?"

Finally Merlin looked up at them. He was frowning sadly. "I suppose I owe you an explanation." He said reluctantly.

Harry nodded. "You do." He ignored Hermione's glare.

Merlin leant back in his chair and looked back at the book in his lap. "There was a great battle, the last battle between Arthur and Morgana, the battle to decide the fate of Camelot, of everyone. During the fight Arthur was wounded." Here Merlin looked up. "The damage to the other sword, that was done when Arthur was stabbed." Merlin clenched his fists. "I should have been there to help him, but I wasn't…I wasn't fast enough."

Merlin shook his head. "A piece of the sword stayed inside him, heading towards Arthur's heart. It was a mortal wound and because of the power in the sword there was nothing I could do to repair the damage.

My guardian told me to take Arthur to the Isle of the Blessed, the home of magic and that only there could the magic of the dragon blade be undone and Arthur saved."

Harry found himself leaning forward as Merlin's tale unfolded. "Arthur was so weak, he was close to death and we had a three day journey to get to the Isle. I tried everything I could, everything I could possibly do and more, but he…he died before I got him there." Merlin's voice cracked. Hermione squeezed the sorcerer's hand tightly and he managed to give her a weak smile of thanks. "I failed him, my king and my friend and I let him die. After everything we did and gave up for Albion and at that last moment I failed."

A slow tear slid down Merlin's face. Harry swallowed, no wonder Merlin avoided talking about his past. "It wasn't your fault." Harry tried gently. "You did everything you could."

Merlin shook his head silently. Finally Snape spoke up. "But what happened to Excalibur?"

Merlin lifted his head and looked into the dark eyes of the other man. "Arthur had the sword with him when he died. I…when he died I took him the rest of the way to the Isle of the Blessed and set him adrift on the Lake. It was how the noble dead were buried then. The sword was first forged before Arthur was king and he is the only one that the Old Religion will allow to handle such a powerful weapon."

Merlin sighed and looked between their hopeful faces. "So until Arthur became king I hid the sword in the Lake of Avalon under the care of someone I once loved. When Arthur became King he took up the sword, so when he died…it was only right that the sword be laid to rest with him."

Harry felt a tingle of hope bubble into his chest, the bottom of a lake wasn't the worst place to get to.

"I gave the sword back to the Lady of the Lake, and she will only hand it to Arthur, no one else." Merlin shook his head and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "I'm sorry, but there is no way to get around that magic. The sword will only be returned to Arthur."

Ron looked puzzled and angry. "But King Arthur is dead." Harry winced at his friends harsh words, but he understood the sentiment.

Merlin however smiled ruefully. "Arthur is the Once and Future King. Someone very wise once told me that Arthur will never truly die, but that he will rise again when Albion has need of him."

Snape got to his feet, the sudden movement breaking the spell of Merlin's story. "I think you should take us to this Isle of the Blessed."

"It won't help." Merlin told him.

"It may be an old spell, but I think if ever there was need, then it is now." Snape told him.

Merlin sighed and got to his feet as well. "Alright, but I'm telling you there is no point." He held out his hands and they each grabbed on before being sucked into the black void of apparition.

Hogwarts hummed and the rain continued to fall.

I get the feeling people are going to really enjoy the next few chapters.