one
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Arthur daydreaming, unknown time:
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Arthur still remembers in detail the first time he saw another person do magic.
It had been Merlin- of course it had been Merlin.
Arthur can recall the day exactly- he was 9, almost 10, and had decided to ditch archery practice because the instructor was ancient. Dobbs- the instructor- usually spent the lessons telling the same story about the one time he met famous Boggle the Brewer 40 years ago. This was Arthur’s life- instructor followed by instructor, but no one who cared for him that wasn’t paid to by his father.
Arthur had only been at the royal family’s country house for a few months, and he was restless. He missed London’s bustle, its dirt and its excitements. More than that, he missed his mum; even though everyone said she was dead, even though he’d seen her open coffin, he couldn’t accept it. Something that didn’t help this conviction was the visions he kept having of his mother talking to him, telling him things about his future. Arthur told his father about the dreams. In response, King Uther ordered the guards to remove his youngest son to the summer residence for the forseeable future. That was that.
So, Arthur was the royal misfit. And so, Arthur was hiding from his teacher and also looking for something, anything, to do in this beautiful but empty countryside.
He’d begun to wander down the countryside path to the Marlowe manor, forming a plan to go annoy his friend Gwen, the ward of the wealthy Marlowes whom he’d met the month before.
Lazily walking down the path, he stopped suddenly as a wild-looking dog with a stick in its mouth ran across the path and disappeared through a hedge. A few seconds later a dark-haired, skinny boy appeared, chasing this dog through the gap in the hedge, laughing as he did so. Arthur thought he heard the boy call the dog ‘Steven’. But surely no one would name a dog such a terrible name...?
Neither boy nor dog had seen Arthur, who was intrigued enough and bored enough to follow them.
Through the gap in the hedgerow was a wide meadow scattered with mayflowers, a huge oak tree in the centre of this. Arthur could see the distant figures of boy and dog sat under the oak tree.
Arthur started walking across the meadow, approaching the tree and preparing a greeting of ‘I am prince Arthur. By royal decree you should save me from my boredom, please’, when he stopped in his tracks a few metres from the boy.
The dark-haired boy still hadn’t noticed him because he was intent on something he was holding. What he saw shocked Arthur enough to stop still: in the boy’s hands was a rosebud, not yet open. As Arthur watched, the boy murmured something to the rosebud, causing it to rapidly open and bloom into a glorious rose right before the prince’s eyes.
Arthur couldn’t stop himself from saying,
“Wow.”
The dark-haired boy jumped up just as his dog (Steven?) started barking, watching Arthur with fear in his eyes. Arthur remembers that he’d noticed the boy’s scared eyes were a pretty shade of grey and shimmered in the sun- almost like a stream. This boy had then said,
“Who are you?”
To which Arthur had responded arrogantly,
“Don’t you know? I’m a prince, 4th son of Uther. Prince Arthur. I moved here- the middle of bloody nowhere, by the way- two months ago.”
Merlin raises an eyebrow and Arthur continues.
“Now more importantly- what was that! How did you do it? Also, who are you anyway?”
The other boy had stared at him for a moment, glanced at the dog as if he was considering running for it, before sighing in a resigned way.
“It’s magic. If that’s not obvious. And if you tell a soul then I’ll turn you into a rose, permanently. I promise I know how.” Seemingly spurred on by Arthur’s affronted expression, the boy had continued, “Oh, and the name’s Merlin. Merlin Peverell.”
On that note, Merlin had shoved the blooming pink rose into Arthur’s hands and started marching back towards the path, dog trotting obediently behind. Arthur had stared at the rose for rather longer than necessary, before breaking into a run after the other boy.
“Oi, wait a sec!”
When Merlin didn’t turn round, Arthur added,
“I can do what you can too. I have visions and I.. I can make things happen- I didn’t know other people could.”
At this the dark-haired boy had stopped, before turning round to give Arthur an analysing look.
“Prove it.” Merlin said, gesturing at Arthur.
Arthur, ever the show-off, nodded,
“Fine”
After placing the pink rose carefully in his tunic, the prince held out his hand and, in the blink of an eye, a ball of glowing fire suddenly floated there.
As Merlin watched, the fire formed shapes; dragon, sword, crown, and finally, a rose. Merlin grinned and Arthur couldn’t help but grin back, feeling proud of his magic- what he’d always thought of as a curse- for perhaps the first time ever.
Then disaster had struck- the fire roared and the flames started growing massively, Arthur’s attempts to squash it with his other hand failing.
Arthur looked at Merlin,
“Oh dear”
Was all he managed to say before the fire did one last strong flicker, disappearing in a powerful implosion that left them both sooty and smelling of smoke.
Arthur had given the other boy a sheepish smile, saying shyly,
“That er, happens sometimes. Most of the time really. When I first did .. magic.. I thought I was cursed by the devil or else it was all just my imagination. I kept it secret from everyone- in fact, you’re the first other magical person I’ve met.”
Merlin had seemed surprised by this, muttering to himself,
“Ah, muggleborn”
“Sorry, what was that?”
Merlin had looked up at him, seeming to remember himself,
“Oh, nothing. It’s just surprising, that’s all.”
“Er, what’s surprising?”
“You are. Not many royal wizards, historically. I wonder if you’ll come to Hogwarts when we go next year. Ooh, you need to meet Gwen- she’ll be glad to have someone else to practice magic with. She says my explanations make the spells even more ‘confuddling’, whatever that means.”
Merlin’s freckled face had taken on a thoughtful expression as he seemed to be musing about something to do with Arthur’s predicament.
Arthur was far more concerned with this new information- his eyes widened as he responded,
“You know Gwen too? Wait.. Gwen is magic? And what in the bloody hell is a Hogwart?”