Chapter 10: The Changeling

Summary: A King and his daughter, Princess Elena, arrive in Camelot. Sirius moved to the tavern, and Harry tries to help his godfather from being an idiot and help Merlin out at the same time.

Sirius had a habit of trying to train with the knights, make cookies in the kitchens at night and other somewhat objectionable things, and somehow it always fell to Harry to stop him. In fact, even when a visiting Princess, Elena, arrived, Sirius couldn't help but ask if, at least, they had Chocolate in their kingdom, and that he would definitely move there if they did.

Fortunately, they didn't. Harry got there in time to hear her stuttered answer before he dragged Sirius off, apologizing to the Princess. (Although, she didn't seem very concerned about it at all. A short maid, Grunhilda, was holding her attention by reprimanding her, something about proper foot attire.)

Harry didn't linger to find out, instead bringing Sirius back to his rooms again.

"Harry, do you think, with your kind of magic, you could conjure me some chocolate?"

Harry quickly snapped the door closed behind him, rolling his eyes. "If it's that important to you, Sirius..." At his godfather's eager, childlike nod, he sighed. "Alright. You do recall that you're supposed to be the adult in this situation, though?"

Sirius shrugged, and said, "It's not nearly enough fun. And really, I am doing my job. So-"

Harry ignored his rambles, perhaps futilely trying to conjure chocolate. Instead, he got a brown stone, which he set beside him. The next try yielded a miniature tree, looking just like the one he had made for Transfiguration. It seemed like years ago, since he did that. He took a second just smiling, suddenly sad to have left his friends for so long. It won't be as long to them, He told himself, It was months here, but there it'll be less than a week.

Shaking himself back to reality, he pocketed it. He already had his original one, tucked somewhere in his bag, but maybe Morgana would like it. And honestly, where was he going to put a real, living, miniature tree?

Sirius had stopped talking in favour of looking at him expectantly. Sighing, Harry tried again, concentrating on the sight, the smell, the taste of chocolate. He cupped his hands, and…

"Chocolate!" Sirius squealed, clapping his hands together in glee, grabbing the large sphere of solid chocolate from Harry. "That's amazing! It's truly edible! You can't do that with a wand!"

Harry nodded slowly. "Right. You enjoy that; I've got to go to a formal dinner for Princess Elena. I swear; it's like the Triwizard feast all over again. People really can't help showing off."

Harry looked over at Sirius to hear his reply, but wasn't really surprised to see him with the chocolate on a stick, licking it like a lollipop. For a moment, he froze to hold in his laughter, then waved himself out.

_-*-_

An hour into the feast, and Harry was begging to leave. Well, begging silently. And begging silently to himself, but he thought it still counted. Princess Elena's eating habits may very well rival Ron's, Harry thought. Then he had to stifle a giggle, as he pictured figuring out how to make one of those memory things Dumbledore had in his pensive, just to show Hermione. Morgana caught his gaze and gave a small smirk, glancing at Arthur and back. He had stopped pushing the food around on his plate a while ago, instead holding a fist to his mouth to cover his expression. Harry saw Gwen put an hand on his shoulder comfortingly as she passed, and cocked his head at Morgana. She tilted her head to say 'tell you later.'

Harry took a quick bite of some sort of meat, unable to do anything else to hide his muffled laughter as Elena burped. How did anything in Camelot take itself seriously?

_-*-_

"Harry." Sirius walked into his room. "I've run out of chocolate."

Harry opened his eyes blearily. "Go back to bed."

"But Harry, it's gone."

Harry looked up, rolling his eyes. "Actually, it's not." Sirius looked mildly affronted, until Harry gestured to his face. There was chocolate covering half of his godfathers face. It was even on his forehead, but Harry didn't want to know. "Here." Harry conjured a slab of chocolate five times larger than the last. "Keep that hidden, you can do a cooling charm on it or something, but I expect it to last more than ten hours." He grinned slightly as the batty man turned into a dog just so he could wag his tail.

_-*-_

"Hey Morgana!" Harry said cheerfully a good nine hours later.

"Hello Draco." Said the witch, allowing him into her room.

She sat down in a chair, and Harry followed suit. "I have a question for you, actually." She paused. "When... when someone is forced, well, forced socially to follow something - look, if as a noble, you have to do something, even of you think it's wrong, for the Kingdom," she frowned, "Is it really best to do it?"

Harry puzzled over that. "If it's really, really important, to keep yourself or others alive, I think you should. But if not... if it won't even help others, then it's not worth a sacrifice."

"I wish I could convince someone that was true."

Harry grinned, "You can be pretty persuasive when you want to be, Morgana." Just then, he remembered the miniature tree he had in his pocket. "Oh, I've got something for you!" He pulled out the plant. "It's a real willow tree. I made it somewhat by accident, but I thought you'd like it."

Morgana's eyes widened. "A real tree? Does it need watering, then?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. But it may be a good idea to keep it in the sunlight. I expect everyone will choose to believe its a carving instead of a real tree. Well, at least until the wind blows." He grinned.

"Thanks, Draco! It's beautiful. I hope I can convince Gwen to bring water for a carving, though."

Harry tilted his head slightly, checking to see if the door was locked. As it was, Harry held his hands together. "I don't think you need that. Aguamenti."

Morgana gasped as clear, sparkling water appeared in Harry's hands. Harry (who was absolutely not showing off) heated the water and threw it upwards so it evaporated into the air.

"All it really takes," Harry swirled the tree around in the air so it landed in her hands, completely dry, "is some willpower and imagination." He winked. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

_-*-_

Harry was getting a little bit desperate. It was nightfall, and he had been searching for Sirius for hours. Finally, fed up, he snatched a twig from the ground and said, "Point me Sirius Black."

Harry snorted at the location it pointed to. Typical. Of course Sirius had spent his day in a tavern. Harry thought that was just a convenient excuse that Merlin got away with.

"Sirius." Harry muttered, exasperated as he stepped into the room. All around the tavern, people were holding small cards, playing what Harry believed to be Texas hold 'em.

Harry pulled up a chair and sat next to the time hopper. "What in the world are you playing at?"

Sirius grinned. "Four silvers! Looks like that one's mine!" The men around the table groaned - evidently, this wasn't a one time occurrence.

"You know cards probably haven't been invented yet, right?" Harry hissed, unbelieving.

"And if we look in the history books of Cards when we get back, I'm positive we'll find that it was a popular game in medieval taverns." Sirius whispered back confidently.

"Oh yes, just like Wands, and chocolate, and biscuits." Harry said sardonically.

"Shh, we're in the middle of a bid!"

_-*-_

Many hours later, Harry and Sirius stumbled back to their rooms, Sirius stumbling from drink and Harry from the atmosphere of it. And many a tiny bit of ale.

Sirius chortled. "How many coins did you end up with?"

Harry spoke through his huge grin, "Six gold, seven silver." Sirius snorted, and held out his hands, showing at least twenty gold coins. "I cannot believe that they let you teach them a game and beat them at it."

Sirius blinked, and laughed drunkenly. "I didn't teach it to them. I got someone else drunk, taught it to him and he taught the rest of the tavern!" he dissolved into giggles, Harry joining in soon after.

_-*-_

The next morning found Harry groaning in annoyance as someone knocked loudly on his door.

"Hi it's Merlin!" Said a cheery voice.

"Huh? Wazappenin?" Harry slurred.

Merlin tilted his head disapprovingly, "You went to a tavern yesterday. Let me tell you, you should be glad you're not so well known as a Lord, or people would be talking. Its fortunate for you you've holed up in here. And while we're on that topic, Gaius has me picking herbs and I wondered if you'd like to come."

Harry motioned vaguely in the direction of Sirius's room, "I blame him. He's gone completely insane lately (not that he wasn't before.) Yeah, of course I'll come with you."

That was how Harry found himself roaming around the forest, following Merlin as he searched for herbs. He would have helped look, too, but after a while Merlin gave up trying to teach him what to pick and what not to.

Harry was looking around aimlessly, trying and failing to find a conversation topic. His eyes caught sight of a human shape near a stream, and a strange light whipping noise. He tapped Merlin on the shoulder and motioned to the stream.

Merlin looked puzzled, but a thought had obviously dawned on him because his eyes glowed brightly gold. Harry couldn't tell what he was doing, the magic didn't seem to be affecting anything. Then he took a good look at the person at the stream. It was Grunhilda, and after every 'whip!' she would smack her lips. Something was happening, too fast for the eye to see.

And suddenly he realized what Merlin was doing, and tried to slow time himself. But he couldn't slow time itself, not all the magic in the world could do that. Instead, Harry sped up his own reactions.

In a movement that looked much slower, he saw Grunhilda's long, purple tongue extend to a leaf, making it snap back.

A moment later, she detracted it and smacked her lips.

Harry looked at Merlin, and saw his feeling of disgusted horror mirrored in his friend's expression. Harry quickly snatched the herbs from Merlin's slack fingers, which were in danger of falling, and without a word the two sprinted away.

_-*-_

"Grunhilda? She's not human." Merlin said with an air of finality when the two of them reached Gaius's chambers.

"How are you convinced of that?" Gaius asked.

Harry grimaced. "Her tongue." Gaius took a long moment to contemplate that statement.

"Perhaps she has an ailment of some sort. What was wrong with it?"

Merlin cut in, "It was long." He took a long rod that Harry had never seen before and held it out. "This long. And purple." Merlin finished.

Gaius shook his head. "That is no sickness. I suppose..." he grimaced. "I have the best excuse, as court Physician. I will investigate."

And that was that. Harry wandered off, looking for Sirius, while Merlin raced to help the Prince on his return from riding. Harry shook his head, Merlin practically had two jobs, helping Gaius and working for Arthur. Maybe he could help Gaius out when Merlin was too busy to, so things weren't so hectic.

Of course, it was too good to hope that things would ever get less hectic. After they discovered Grunhilda was a pixie in disguise (not a Cornish one, though, right?) and Elena was a changeling, ("A changeline? What is that?" Said Sirius,) it really started going downhill.

Especially because the latest games from the taverns happened to be Yatzee and blackjack. Harry was positive that a certain dog animagus was involved.

"Sirius!" He yelled frantically as he searched the lower town. "Where is he?"

Harry quickly noticed a clash, constant banging and a whistling noise all coming from one direction, and rolled his eyes, running towards the noise.

_-*-_

"Sirius, are you insane? Seriously, we're going to give ourselves away if you keep pretending we're in the future." Harry ranted. "And going and getting into fights because you didn't tell them all the rules..."

Sirius sat with a slight grin on his face. "Don't worry. I'm careful!" His grin fell, "I'm just... it's the first time I've been out in the open, where no one knows my name or my face. It's fun."

Harry's face softened. "Of course, Sirius. And I know I can't stay here forever, but it's fun, and I hope it can last for as long as possible. I was just worried you would give me away, and snapped at you because of it. Now if you've heard at all down there in the taverns, there's a wedding going on soon. Arthur is marrying Princess Elena-"

Sirius cut in, "Poor bloke."

"Yes, yes, and I believe me and my guard are invited."

Sirius grinned. "Wedding! Brilliant. When is it?"

"An hour."

Sirius jumped up. "Then what are we waiting for? There's still some time for mischief."

_-*-_

Fortunately, they didn't get to make much mischief themselves. Unfortunately, they found someone else's, and had to act as guards to keep a crazy pixie from entering her mistresses chambers.

Of course (thanks to some interesting... obscure charms Sirius happened to know,) they heard the whole thing. Harry couldn't help but mutter to Sirius, "I can't believe 'preparations for the wedding' went under killing evil pixie maids and ridding their mistresses of Shea parasites."

Sirius snorted at that, then quickly had to turn away a few guards who had heard the racket, "Don't worry, fellas. She's just preparing her Change Line for the wedding. I don't know if you guys have any lady friends, but it can get pretty loud. Best not disturb 'em." He slung his arm around both guards shoulders, and trotted off, talking about a friend of his who had tried to prank his wife-to-be just before their wedding.

Harry smiled hugely, hoping to whatever deity there was that the friend from the story was not his father.

By the time news of the Shea's defeat reached Harry, his grin hadn't faded. In fact, it didn't disappear until five minutes before the ceremony began, and only because a straight faced Sirius elbowed him in the ribs.

The wedding was... interesting, to say the least. Harry was pretty sure they wouldn't end up marrying, because Hermione had said that Arthur always married Gwen. And that small detail Merlin had wanted to conceal became glaringly obvious (and not just because Morgana told him.) Before Arthur did anything, he glanced at the maidservant, to his father and to his fiancé. So Harry couldn't really find it in him to be surprised, but he hadn't expected Arthur to actually break it in the middle of the ceremony. He must really, really love Gwen.

Harry couldn't help applaud him, if only in his head. He supposed being prince gave him the experience to make it sound completely planned. Or at least more planned than it would have been if he had done it.

Harry spent the next few days watching the castle cool down from the visiting King's departure. Merlin looked a lot less flustered, along with the serving staff and even Uther himself. It was almost a week later, when Harry felt his shared journal heat up slowly and steadily, alerting him that he had a message.

He opened the book. The words appeared on the first page, in a messy, charcoal script. He didn't hesitate. Conjuring a muggle pen, he quickly scribbled two words down. Not waiting for them to fade to the partner book, Harry summoned his sword from across the room and packed his bags in a moment, heedless of the open doors.

"Sirius!" He banged on the door only thirty seconds later.

"Morgana's been kidnapped."

Word Count: 2,629

Authors Note: Next Chapter should be posted by the ninth of June.

Thanks for Reading,

SH