Research
Later that day, Merlin had collapsed onto the bed in his and Arthur’s chambers, just as his husband walked in. As soon as Arthur saw him, he came over.
‘Alright, out with it!’ Arthur said, coming to plonk down on the bed next to Merlin, ‘What happened?’
Merlin buried his face in Arthur’s shoulder and didn’t say anything. Arthur sighed, gently manoeuvring Merlin’s head away, and wrapping an arm around him.
‘Come on’ He said softly, ‘Tell me what happened’
Merlin looked up at him, eyes exhausted already.
‘I hate teaching’ he moaned, but Arthur only laughed at him.
‘No one likes teaching Merls, that’s why no one aspires to be a teacher’
‘I taught Harry’s class today,’ Merlin continued. Arthur looked back up at this, slightly more interested.
‘Oh?’
‘He’s got a powerful magical core,’ Merlin said carefully.
‘Merlin you did not-‘
‘It wasn’t my fault!’
Arthur snorted, sitting up quickly, ‘You used orb core readers with 13 year olds, I can assure you it was your fault!’
Merlin glared at him, before grumbling, ‘They threw one at me’
‘Of course they did. I would’ve done exactly the same thing when I was their age, wouldn’t you?’
Merlin refused to give in, and rather childishly replied with, ‘Would not!’
When Arthur didn’t reply, he continued.
‘I was a very sensible kid’
‘Now that,’ Arthur said, scooting closer to him, ‘I refuse to believe.’
Merlin gave him a wicked little grin, before going back to looking vaguely serious.
‘I told them we had been using student orbs, and that’s why mine decided to spontaneously combust. Bell rang before they could ask any questions’
Arthur gave him a reassuring smile,
‘See it’s fine’ he assured him, ‘You played it off, none of them will suspect anything’
Merlin smiled, ‘You’re right, I know you’re right. If any of them do figure it out, it’ll be because I don’t wave my stick right or something.’
Arthur rolled his eyes at the man, before quickly correcting him.
‘Wand, Merlin, Wand’
‘Stick, Arthur, stick’
Before Arthur could argue back, Merlin held out a hand.
‘Lunch?’
Arthur’s classes had gone well that morning, teaching History of magic to the 1st and 3rd years. He’d told them of the time of Albion, reading much from the textbooks, but often ignoring them whenever they got a minor detail wrong.
‘The druid girl came and spoke to me,’ he told Merlin, speaking in their old language on the off chance of someone trying to listen in as they walked towards the great hall.
Merlin simply quirked an eyebrow, prompting him to continue.
‘Her name’s Luna Lovegood. Nice kid, smart. She wanted to tell me that ours was the purest love she’d ever seen. Something about an aura’
Merlin smiled, meeting Arthur’s gaze with blushed pink cheeks.
‘Though I wouldn’t trust anything she says’ Arthur continued, rather matter of factly: ‘She started rattling along about tiny glowing beetles that live in her hair.’
Merlin did a mock dramatic gasp, and looked up at Arthur.
‘You mean you didn’t know anything about them?’
Arthur laughed, looking at Merlin’s eyes as he ruffled Arthur’s hair. The pupils glowed a mesmerising gold as he withdrew his hand, presenting Arthur with an extravagantly patterned and glowing bug.
‘Now now Myriddian’ Arthur said, teasingly, ‘What have we said about creating new species just to prove a point?’
Merlin looked up at Arthur innocently.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he replied, letting the bug fly off his hands and out a nearby window. Arthur simply sighed, and kissed his husband gently.
‘You’ he said, in-between kisses, having switched back to the current language, ‘Are a menace to society’
Merlin giggled, grabbing Arthur’s waist and pulling him closer.
‘Honey, please’ he said, voice husky and deep, ‘I am society’
Arthur sighed at his husband, eyes twinkling.
‘I love you far too much for this to be healthy’ he said teasingly, just as they entered the great hall. 500 gaping faces stared at Arthur’s extremely public show of affection, and Merlin laughed at Arthur’s face, which had turned a deep red colour.
‘No need to be so loud about it Arth,’ he said, almost as loud as Arthur had been, ‘Love you too’
Arthur grabbed Merlin, who still thought this was hilarious, and dragged him up towards the top table by his arm.
‘I hate you so much’ he hissed. Merlin just kept laughing and grinning at him.
Once they were all settled, Merlin eating slowly and politely, occasionally scoffing at Arthur’s inhaling of his food, and telling him, rather rudely Arthur thought, to
‘Slow down or you’ll get the hiccups’
Arthur had just laughed, remembering a time back in Camelot when Merlin had eaten too fast, hiccupping whilst Arthur tried to write some kind of important speech. Merlin smiled, and Arthur knew he was thinking of the same thing.
Then suddenly Merlin gasped in pain, trying to hide it by looking down, concealing the agony written on his face. Arthur was paying full attention to him in a millisecond.
‘Carwr, what’re wrong?’ he hissed in their old language.
Merlin grunted as he tried to suppress the pain, meeting Arthur’s eyes, trying to show him what he was feeling.
The warlock gasped, trying to tell Arthur what was wrong. ‘Something’ he managed to get out, ‘Something’s opened, it’s all wrong’ he doubled over again with a groan, ‘It’s like a rip, and it’s dark, dark magic.’
Arthur looked down at his husband, the concern clear on his face, as he tried to figure out what to do.
‘Come on, let’s get you back to our chambers’
He managed to get Merlin up without much difficulty, but getting him out of the room caused pretty much every student to look up, whispering to their friends about what might be going on. Merlin had his eyes screwed shut, but opened them just before they got out the door, scanning the room quickly through his haze of pain.
Arthur heard the other Professor’s calling out his name, but he ignored them, and as soon as they were far enough away, he felt Merlin’s magic wrap around them comfortingly, and teleport them back to the room.
Merlin downed a pain draught, and Arthur watched, eyes wide until Merlin’s breathing finally evened out.
‘What the fuck was that’ Arthur asked, voice dangerously quiet and slow.
Merlin breathed in and out.
‘I have no idea’ he replied.
‘It was like something was ripping apart, or open, or something. The old religion didn’t like it.’ He repressed a shudder, ‘All of magic didn’t like it. That’s what that was, magic needed a way to call out.’
Arthur began to pace, and Merlin looked up at him, feeling slightly nauseous.
‘What does this mean?’ Arthur asked, and Merlin was reminded with a painful jolt of all the times when something went wrong, and King Arthur would pace in the Great Hall, always asking, relying on Merlin for guidance, for help on how to sort the problem. He swallowed the memory away.
‘It means something’s happened. Something’s coming Arthur, something we’ve never seen before.’
On the other side of the door to the Emrys’s chambers, Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, dread written all over their features. They sped off down the hallway at Harry’s beckoning, and ducked into a nearby empty classroom.
‘What do we do?’ Harry asked, looking completed overtaken by confusion and concern.
Hermione had taken to pacing, just like Arthur.
‘It’s doesn’t make sense!’ She muttered, ‘I thought the two of them were here to spy, feed information about Dumbledore to the ministry or something,’
Harry and Ron stared at her incredulously,
‘Oh don’t look at me like that!’ She said, voice high pitched, ‘Fudge has done it before, he’s bound to do it again at some point!’
‘Right’ Ron said slowly. ‘But the new Professor’s aren’t ministry spies’
Hermione huffed quietly,
‘No clearly not, Ron, do try to keep up!’
‘Maybe’ Harry piped up in thought, ‘Maybe they’re here to help.’
Hermione thought about it, even pausing her pacing to think it through.
‘A strong possibility’ she said, lost in her own mind, ‘But we know they’re hiding something. I don’t trust either of them. Although I’m more concerned about whatever they think is coming.’
Harry and Ron nodded in agreement.
‘At least we have something to go on now, right?’ Harry said, voice strong. ‘Professor Pend called Emrys Carwr, maybe that means something? And what was it that Emrys mentioned, something calling out…?’
‘The old religion?’ Ron offered helpfully.
‘Yes!’ Hermione said, pacing even more vigorously than before. ‘I think I’ve heard mentions of it before, but I’ll have to find where. Harry, you do research on the name, Ron and I will research the old religion. We’ll rendezvous with our findings next week. Clear?’ She looked at both of them in turn, expression stern.
‘Clear’ Harry echoed. Ron saluted Hermione.
‘History of magic?’ Harry asked Ron. When he received a nod, they sped down off the corridor together. Hermione headed off the other direction, towards the library, though not before she heard,
‘I just don’t get why I have to be paired with Hermione for this!’
She grinned and rolled her eyes, knowing full well that Ronald Weasley wouldn’t be doing a shred of research in the coming week.