the third hallow
*
September 7, 1575
“Psst”, Merlin whispers in Arthur’s ear, trying to wake the prince up.
“Mrgh.” Is Arthur’s sleepy response, and then upon seeing Merlin in the Gryffindor dorm, Arthur rapidly sits up in his bed. His blond hair is all ruffled and Merlin notices that Arthur holds his wand in his hand- he must sleep with it.
“What in the high heavens are you doing here!”, Arthur shout-whispers.
“Shhhhh.”
Arthur rolls his eyes, before silently gesturing for Merlin to explain.
“Okay, okay. There’s a secret passage between my Slytherin dorm and yours. My mum may have told me about it before we left. No one else seems to know it exists.”
Arthur raises an eyebrow sleepily,
“Mmkayy. Doesn’t it seem odd to have a secret tunnel between the two houses that have been enemies since forever. Probably a murder tunnel.” Merlin shrugs and Arthur continues, “Anyway, you didn’t answer my question- what are you actually doing here Merlin?”
Merlin smiles, a little shyly, and says,
“I came to let you know we can still be friends or .. friend-enemies or whatever we are, even though we’re in different houses and all that. You agree?”
Arthur nods, “Of course”, and shakes Merlin’s outstretched hand with another eye roll, although he’s smiling. Merlin continues,
“The real real reason was that I came to show you this.” Merlin starts to pull some sort of shimmery fabric out of his shoulder bag.
Arthur sits up and exclaims,
“No way.”
This is because Merlin has in his hands a cloak. Not just any cloak- an invisibility cloak. Merlin tries it on to show the prince, his floating head causing a surprised laugh from Arthur, who quickly covers his mouth. Luckily the other Gryffindor first-years are all fast asleep, exhausted from their day of travel. Arthur asks,
“So where’d you get it?”
“Ah.. my mum. She said it was my dad’s- she never talks about him so it was weird that she had kept his cloak. But I’m glad, because I’ve already planned some truly villainous pranks which you’re going to help me with. Sorry I didn’t tell you about the cloak before.. I was so worried about the Sorting I actually forgot about it.”
Arthur gives Merlin a tired smile, noticing how happy the dark-haired boy is now the sorting’s over, and realising how much Merlin must’ve been worrying about it. He says,
“Don’t worry about that- although you’d better tell Gwen tomorrow. If she hasn’t ditched us for all those brainy Ravenclaws.”
Merlin laughs and Arthur adds,
“So. Tell me about these pranks then.”