Chapter 27, The Return Of A King
"So sorry, I haven't asked your name! I'm Hydra Black, by the by." What with the current madness, Hydra had completely forgotten her manners.
The Muggle smiled. "Well hello there, Hydra. I am Arthur. Um..." He glanced in the direction of Rodolphus and co, who still surrounded Bellatrix and the goblin. "Rod seems to believe something strange." Hydra nodded. "Nothing new. It's just how the Lestranges are. A bit mad but good and loyal people if they like you."
"Well I feel a bit insane myself even saying it, but they seem to believe me to be King Arthur reborn or... the closest thing this world has, I believe were Rod's exact words." The man's face was apologetic and Hydra found herself giving him a reassuring smile.
"I'm sure if they believe this... there might be a good reason." Sometimes they have good reasons. Our friend Severus has been talking to Merlin and Nimue through some sort of crystal for years because of some future trouble that is supposed to be coming," she said. Even as she spoke, she realized that the future trouble was most likely Delphini! How had she not put that together before? Likely because Severus hadn't mentioned Merlin and Nimue for years. The communication was done mentally and often rather spotty, after all, so not entirely reliable. If they'd said something to indicate that this man was Arthur, though, perhaps he was.
"Why must he speak to them through a crystal, though," Arthur asked doubtfully. "Merlin and Nimue are real?"
"Reborn," Hydra said. "Not even Merlin can live that long! They're hiding in another world, but they can't remember why, apparently, so we don't know why either before you ask. It's all rather spotty if you ask me, and I've never spoken to them."
"So because of this, I am Arthur," the nice Muggle asked doubtfully.
Knowing how mad it all sounded, Hydra gave him a sympathetic smile as she shrugged. "Hm,"Hydra said. "Sounds like a good reason in potential."" Before she could dedicate the amount of thought to that that she'd like to, Arthur was asking her a lot of questions.
"What is going to happen now? Are we going to get in trouble for killing that woman, or rather standing by while that guy did it? Was she even a woman? The way the sword was smoking made me wonder if she was a robot instead, but then there's the magic and the elves and goblins, so... Do wizards all smoke and char sword blades when they die? Is everything in the world going to change now that goblins and elves are... out or whatever you want to call it?"
Hydra paused for a moment to collect her thoughts and then to mentally organize his questions into something she could answer without taking ten years to do so. "Well... Um... Delphini was special in the worst of ways. Not fully human if human at all. Created by a very dark wizard, and definitely part snake."
She couldn't help but shudder as she spoke those final words. "So no, magical folk don't smoke and char sword blades when stabbed as a rule. We just bleed a lot like everyone else does. I don't think anyone is getting into trouble for killing her, because she was evil and doing a lot of harm. The Ministry will surely clean it all up and make it look like something happened that the Muggles can handle. The Ministry shall also cover up the appearance of goblins and elves if anyone else happened to have noticed, because no, they aren't trying to come out to the Muggles. It never ends well. They've tried a few times over the centuries, and it's always been very bad."
"Ministry," Arthur asked. "What? Like something religious? Is this some sort of weird religious thing, because it doesn't really sound like it. And what do you mean bad, like the Salem witch trials? Only I've never heard of goblins and elves being mentioned, just witches."
Hydra smiled, then proceeded to explain as succinct a manner as possible all about the Ministry and Hogsmeade and the various things for which magic was used. Arthur listened with rapt attention, not interrupting even once. As she spoke, Rod wandered over once, gave a nod of approval, then headed back to Bellatrix. When Hydra glanced their way again, Kereston along with Gellert and Blaise had joined the little group. "Are you alright," Hydra asked Arthur. She was a little concerned, considering he hadn't spoken once since she'd concluded her explanation of magical society.
"I... Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just processing it all," Arthur said.
Hydra gave him a relieved smile. "Good! Good that you're okay, because I think they may be annoyed if I accidentally broke you."
Arthur chuckled. "No. I'm afraid it would take more than that."
"Good to know," Hydra said. "I'd like to say that nothing else will happen, but something tells me that things shall still be a bit unsettled for a while." Before she could get into explaining about the magical revolution that Delphini's attacks had sort of flowed down a bit, Loughness walked over with Kereston. "Meet our Minister For Magic," he told Arthur proudly.
He had a hand on Kereston's shoulder, and it was then that Hydra suddenly noticed how grown up her nearly seventeen-year-old twin was looking these days. Muscular and taller and a new hardness to his face, with all the child like softer lines having faded away quite without Hydra's noticing. Being half elf, they would never be super tall, but Loughness was nearly as tall as Kereston, who was rather short for a human at about 1.4986 meters.
"Ah, so that means you run things," Arthur observed, smiling politely at Kereston who smiled back as she nodded.
"It isn't at all fun of late, but I do my best." She looked suddenly tired, which made Hydra wonder if she'd even gotten any sleep at all. Considering this had happened in the middle of the night U.K. time, likely not.
"You look tired. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You've already been helping by explaining things to Arthur, and thank you," Kereston told her warmly. "Speaking of help, though, Rodolphus believes that you might be of help when it comes to dealing with the Muggle aspects of all this," Kereston said, directing the statement to a surprised looking Arthur.
"Well, of course if I can," he said. "Though Rodolphus seems to believe,"
"That you are the closest thing to King Arthur, yes," Kereston nodded.
"Is there any way that I could speak to Merlin and Nimue, then," Arthur asked."If so, perhaps they could give me some direction in all of this."
Hydra frowned."Well as magic has to be used to speak to them between the worlds, it may be difficult, considering you have none," she said apologetically
It was then that Bella and her group approached. The bloke with the baby face and soft curly brown hair still carried Bella and Rod's daughter Lyra. Idly Hydra wondered how long Rodolphus planned to keep her asleep. It was getting weird.
"There's the woman I allowed to destroy my car for some entirely unknown reason!" Arthur exclaimed.
The friendly smile on his face as he spoke was unsettling. Not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it made Bellatrix smile back. Bellatrix smiling sincerely at a Muggle was most definitely unsettling! Normally she got that mad gleam in her eye and her wand hand twitched at the mere mention of Muggles. "Hello there," she greeted Arthur. "Thank you for the use of your car. It was surprisingly enjoyable to drive."
"It's not a drive worth driving if it's not a Porsche," Arthur said fervently. "Sweetest most powerful car made, at least in modern times." He chuckled. "Though until you, I never thought of it as a weapon before. I can never unthink that now, but I won't use it in such a way."
"So are you a car salesman or something," Bellatrix asked and Arthur laughed. The sound was low, warm and oddly comforting.
"No. Not at all. I don't think I'd be good at selling much of anything. I joined the army to pay my way through school but ended up teaching martial arts. I have a studio in the next town over."
"Does he know he's the closest thing there is to the original King Arthur," Bellatrix asked Hydra.
"I explained that a bit, yes. He wants to talk to Merlin and Nimue, but I said I'm not sure that can be done without magic."
Rodolphus laughed. "A Muggle with requests we can't meet. He must be a king! Kings always make impossible demands, after all."