A/N: Thank you all for your reviews and favourites. I am delighted that so many people are enjoying the story thus far.
Chapter 3: Just your Average 14 year-old boy
The next morning at breakfast as Merlin, Flora, and Libæna sat together, they compared their schedules.
"It looks like we all have Runes together first thing this morning." Flora had quickly taken a leadership role within their little group. Merlin was perfectly happy to let someone else take charge and Libæna seemed to be used to it. "After that, Drugen and I have Herbology and Healing while Libæna has Counterspells and Potions. Following lunch, Drugen has Counterspells and Potions, Libæna has Astronomy and Woodcraft, and I have History of Magic. Then Libæna and I have Charms and Enchantments while Drugen takes Astronomy and Woodcraft. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have the other two classes, sadly for longer time slots." They all groaned. "And Saturday at midnight is one hour of Astronomy on the lawn. And that's everyone all together."
"Sounds relaxing," Merlin added. They speculated a bit more on what classes would be like before they noticed the older students beginning to leave. They glanced at the enchanted clock on the fireplace mantle and stood up as well.
"Let's go find this class." They wandered up to the tower where it said class would be held. It didn't take too long; a few of the paintings had been enchanted and gave them directions. One of the paintings of a druid gathering had winked at Merlin who indicated for them to keep his identity a secret once his friends had turned their backs. They nodded and let him know that they would spread the word.
When they reached the classroom, they found each place had a book already there. Professor Goodfellow told them that these would be their textbooks for the year. They were expected to be returned at the end of the course in just the same condition as they were now. While waiting for the rest of the small class to find their way in, Merlin open the book and flipped through. A small smile grew on his face. He only knew a few runes and he had never had the time to learn more. Now he had practically unlimited time to devote to learning them and everything else to fill in his gaps of knowledge. This would be even more fun then he had originally thought.
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.
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Saturday after dinner, Merlin was outside walking alone in the forest. It was a good place for him to think, especially since not many other students were brave enough to enter the unexplored wild. Merlin figured he could handle whatever dangers might cross his path.
So far, he loved it at Hogwarts. It was a little strange being called Drugen by everyone, but it was becoming more natural to respond to that. He had to scale back a little bit on his skill and actually channeled his magic through the staff even though he didn't need to. It seemed that nearly everyone else needed a wand or a staff to perform spells so he would try his best to blend in. There were some druids who didn't need to and others that hadn't learned anything more difficult than some useful healing from the village healer, but neither of those options would've made good cover stories for him.
Merlin got deeper into the forest and let his cover slip away. He loosened his muscles a little and lengthened his stride. Although this had been a good escape for a week, Merlin realized he would still want a small place of his own to hide some things that may prove useful for later. So when he reached a suitable spot, he used his magic to create a small one room house underground. The entrance was hidden by a tangle of roots and inside there was just enough room for a chair and a small desk among some shelves of books and herbs that Gaius had taught him to always have on hand. He sat on his newly made chair and tried to plan what things he should bring to fill the shelves. He had all the herbs he needed back in the Valley of the Fallen Kings. He also had plenty of books there, but he wouldn't need all of them. He would be already pressed for time reading all his new textbooks, maybe he would only bring some of the more obscure ones that covered what he considered to be useful magic. He had a few books covering magic that Gaius had told him was more advanced than most druids ever achieved but Merlin would find easier. That would be a good book to study up on in his spare time since it clearly wouldn't be covered here.
Or maybe he would just relax and fully pretend to be a normal fourteen year old boy who happened to know a bit of magic and had a staff that looked a little bit pretentious. In hindsight, he should have seen if he could have changed it's appearance in addition to it's size, but it would be too late now to do anything about it. His friends would notice.
That was another nice thing he liked. It was good to have friends who he didn't have to hide his secret from. Well, he didn't have to hide the fact that he had magic, he was still hiding his true self, but that wasn't as hard. Aside from knowing he had magic, it wasn't until after he had arrived at Camelot that he knew he was wound up in any type of destiny at all and had a magic no one else had. All in all, it was good. With a spring in his step he walked back toward the front lawn for the midnight astronomy class. Although the class only lasted an hour, he had a feeling he would stay laying out under the stars for most of the night.