Mrs Norris gets petrified
‘Blood, I smell blood,’ a voice hissed, sounding slightly distant and far-off, and Harry leapt up, disoriented.
‘Let me rip you.’ The voice continued, and Harry followed, simply needing to find the sound.
‘Let me kill you!’ Harry fumbled blindly along the corrido, the voice getting louder and louder…
‘Kill. Kill. Kill!’ Harry stumbled into someone and looked up, broken out of his trance.
‘Harry!’ Hermione exclaimed, partly in shock and partly in greeting. Ron grinned at his friend, but it turned to a frown as he saw Harry’s expression.
‘Did you hear it?!’ Harry asked, and he sounded crazed, a wild, almost delusional look in his eyes as he stared forward, unseeing.
‘Hear what?’ Ron asked, quietly, glancing at Hermione with a silent question in his eyes.
‘That voice!’ Harry shouted, and his sudden exclamation made Hermione flinch, but she held her ground.
‘Voice? What voice?’ Hermione asked, and her voice was calm, soft.
‘It’s time’ The voice again, and Harry’s head shot up.
‘It’s moving, I think its going to kill’ Harry yelled, suddenly pushing past his friends, sprinting down the corridor as his friends shuffled after him.
‘Kill?’ Ron muttered under his breath in an exasperated tone, as if to ask how on Earth he had been dragged into a situation like this for the second year running.
‘Harry wait, not so fast!‘ Hermione called out breathlessly, but Harry ignored her, careening down the corridors, only able to hear the voice all around him until he sped round a corner and stopped abruptly, his eyes catching on movement on the wall.
It was spiders, all crawling, uniformly towards the floor. Harry frowned, Hermione tried to look closer, and Ron stood in the back, bent double and panting, muttering under his breath about stupid exercise and his stupid friends.
‘Strange… I’ve never seen spiders act like that,’ Harry said quietly, peering down as if to take a closer look. Ron’s head shot up, and he took an involuntary step back
I don’t like spiders’ Ron said, sounding slightly queasy even at the thought of the creepy crawlies. Hermione rolled her eyes, but something caught her eye and she frowned, stepping closer to see it.
‘What’s that?’ She murmured, and the two boys turned to where she was looking.
‘The chamber of secrets has been opened,’ she read slowly, frowning as she did.
‘Enemies of the heir beware,’ Ron finished, and his face was practically green with nauseousness.
‘It’s written in blood,’ Hermione said quietly.
But when she looked over at Harry, as if for an explanation, his eyes were looking elsewhere, full of horror.
‘Oh no,’ he breathed, and Ron turned too, but when he did his mouth dropped open.
Suddenly the two new Professor’s came sprinting around the corner, Merlin yelling out at his husband.
‘No, shut the fuck up Arthur, it’s here I can feel it-‘
‘Slow down goddamn it! What are you even looking-‘ Arthur was cut off before he could finish, freezing at the sight in front of them. Harry, Ron and Hermione didn’t even turn, still frozen in shock as they stared at the petrified cat.
‘It’s Filch‘s cat,’ Harry said, voice full of unspoken fear and horror.
‘No’ Merlin muttered. ‘No, no, no!’
He fell over and into his husbands awaiting arms, a quiet sob racking him.
Just as he did, students began to turn the corner, coming into the corridor the three friends stood frozen in. There were exclamations of fear, horror, even a few screams.
‘It’s Mrs Norris’ Harry said, voice completely calm, shock freezing him in place.
‘Enemies of the heir beware?’ Draco sneered, reading out the bloody writing with a sneer, almost mocking the words. He turned to face the students with a glint of malice in his eyes.
‘You’ll be next mudbloods,’ Draco continued, and it didn’t sound like a promise, it sounded like a threat. Merlin spun, face suddenly livid with anger.
‘You say that one more time, I dare you Mr. Malfoy! If I hear anything like that from you again, I swear to god-’
Arthur placed a warning hand on Merlin’s arm as Draco took a step back, unsure how to respond as the teacher snapped at him.
Merlin shook his head, eyes flaked with hatred and disappointment.
Filch pushed through the crowd of watching students and to the front.
‘What’s going on ‘ere?,’ He said as he pushed past,
‘Go on, make way, make way.’ He froze, not seeing anything but the trio in front of him
‘Potter? What are you…?’ He stopped, eyes catching on the petrified form of his cat.
‘Mrs Norris?’ His voice was shocked breathless. Then he turned, eyes full of anger.
‘You murdered my cat’ Filch spoke, deadly calm as his gaze locked with Harry’s and he walked towards him menacingly.
‘No, no,’ Harry pleaded, shying away from the man
‘I’ll kill you!’ Filch screamed, and he tried to move to grab Harry, but found himself stopped by an invisible force.
‘Argus, stop. She’s not dead’ Merlin said softly, sniffing once, before turning to the students. ‘Everyone get to your dormitories, Now!’ He raised his voice at the last word, and students scattered, whispering and speculating amongst themselves as to what all this meant.
‘She’s not dead argus,’ Dumbledore said, having slipped round the corner and now examining the cat with interest
‘She has been petrified’
He paused, glancing at Merlin briefly, ‘But how she’s been petrified I cannot say’ Albus continued.
‘Ask him.’ Filch said, voice trembling as he pointed accusingly at Harry, who had stayed frozen in place when Merlin yelled at the students to leave
‘It’s him that’s done it. You saw what he wrote on the wall,’ Filch continued.
Harry looked up, eyes showing just how confused and scared he was.
‘It’s not true sir, I swear I never touched Mrs Norris,’ Harry said, voice high and panicky.
‘Calm down, Mr. Potter, no one believes you to be the true culprit here. Now run along to your dormitory,’ Harry nodded quickly, glancing at Filch. Albus smiled kindly at him.
‘I’ll make sure to come get you if I have any questions for you, ok’
Harry nodded again before scampering off, his friends waiting for him around the corner with concerned expressions. Hermione grabbed Harry and they all stood there, peering around the corner at the teachers.
Albus rounded on the two new professors, voice harsh as the crack of a whip as he spoke.
‘Myriddian, Arthur, what in the hell happened?’
Merlin frowned at the professor,
‘What are you implying Albus, that we were somehow involved?’
Albus held his gaze, nothing but coldness in his expression.
‘I don’t know. Were you?’
Merlin scoffed, almost looking disappointed in the Headmaster.
‘Look Albus,’ Arthur said, voice calm and strong, full of practice from negotiations over many years. ‘Myriddian heard a voice, hissing about killing something, so we followed it. When we finally got around here, we saw the three kids and the cat, exactly as you did.’
Merlin shook with anger, and Arthur shot him a glance to tell him not to say anything, but to no avail.
‘Professor Dumbledore,’ Merlin said, full of unspoken rage, ‘If you dare think that me and my husband are so untrustworthy to the point that we would do something this horrendous, petrify a pet, petrify Mrs. Norris, then by god maybe we shouldn’t be here. We have been nothing but kind to you, nothing but loyal, and now this?’
Albus didn’t say a thing, simply holding Merlin’s expression in silence.
‘I can sense your magic Myriddian. Not clearly enough to see anything real, but I can see it’s as powerful as mine, perhaps even more,’
Merlin almost scoffed, knowing full well he had more power than Albus could comprehend. He felt Arthur’s grip on his arm tighten at the comment.
‘You are the only one in this school that has the power to do something like this, and so I believe I have a right to ask you questions’
Merlin shook his head.
‘Albus’ he said softly, ‘I have pets, did you know that? We have two cats, called Aithusa and Kilgarrah and a little dog called Leon. I love them. We love them. I grew up and watched most of the people I love die and I swore I would do nothing but save lives. I have travelled the world and used my magic to heal and help, I’ve taught the next generation of aurors and healers and god I have done nothing but love for years. With power comes responsibility, you know that. I swear to you, I’ll swear on anything, anything at all that me and Arthur had nothing to do with this.’
His voice shook, eyes fighting unshed tears and he felt Arthurs hand move from his arm to hold his hand, as if trying to keep Merlin from falling apart.
Albus simply nodded, short and unapologetic.
‘As I thought,’ he mused quietly, and Merlin looked at him in disgust. This was all a game to the man, all some plot to figure out who ‘Myriddian’ really was.
Arthur walked away from the headmaster, watching Merlin carefully and knowing when they had to go.
They sped along the corridor and Merlin cried silently, remembering all the people he’d lost.
‘Hey’ Arthur said quietly in their language. ‘You ok?’
Merlin began to breathe quicker, breathe catching as he started to panic slightly. Arthur stopped, grabbing Merlin’s shoulders and spinning to face him.
‘Look at me,’ He said slowly, making sure Merlin’s gaze was on his as he continued, clearly having done this before. ‘I know they’re gone, I know they’re all gone, but you’re not alone. You’re not alone Merlin, I’m here, I’m here and I’m never going anywhere. You’re not alone.’
Merlin began to even his breathing and he smiled tightly at Arthur.
‘I’m sorry,’ He whispered. Arthur let himself breathe with Merlin, hugging him close.
‘Never apologise’ Arthur said, ‘Never, ok? I know what you’ve been through, I know’
Arthur noticed something from the corner of his eye, and he deattached himself from Merlin.
‘Hey!’ He yelled at the three kids watching them from round the corner. ‘Harry, Ron, Hermione, get the hell back to your dorms. Right now!’
The kids ran, the girl fumbling out apologies like it was going out of style. Arthur just shook his head at them and turned back to Merlin. He kissed his husband softly, and took his hand.
‘Come on love, let’s go back to our room’
Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry and Ron found themselves watching a very familiar sight. Hermione. Pacing.
‘This changes things’ she told them, deep in thought. Ron rolled his eyes, completely uninterested.
‘Can I go to bed yet?’
‘No, Ronald, you can’t’ Hermione hissed.
Harry sighed. ‘Look Hermione, why don’t we talk about this tomorrow? We’re all tired and we’ll be able to make sense of all this is the morning, ok?’
Hermione grimaced at him but nodded.
‘Fine! But I’m writing everything down so we don’t forget a detail.’
‘Do what you want,’ Ron grumbled, alright halfway up the stairs to his dorm. ‘Night.’
The next morning saw Merlin and Arthur down at breakfast. Merlin stared down at his scrambled eggs, moving them around the plate and refusing to meet any of the other teacher’s eyes. He could feel everyone’s eyes on him, both the students and the teachers ever since the slight monologue the day before. He was refusing to speak to anyone except Arthur, and even then only in their old language. He felt betrayed and manipulated by Albus, as he had said about 100 times the day before to Arthur.
‘You need to eat something,’ Arthur told him in English, trying to tempt his husband into their new language.
‘No I don’t’ Merlin murmured, not falling for the language bait.
‘Myriddian, you need to eat for gods sakes. Please?’
Merlin just scoffed.
‘I hate this,’ he said angrily in their old language. ‘All this stupid pretending. All the lies, I’m just so sick of it. No one knows who I am. No one. I just want to be me, Arth. I cant even use my real name I-‘
His voice had been getting louder as he spoke, and now everyone was watching him silently, most of them trying to hear the words he was saying, unaware he was speaking in a different language.
Merlin stood, telling Arthur to eat his eggs if he was so concerned about food waste, and starting to walk out the hall.
‘Myriddian’ Albus said loudly, and Merlin looked over his shoulder, face completely blank as he looked at the Headmaster.
‘Could I ask what language that was, or is that another one of your…’ he paused suggestively, ‘…secrets’
Merlin scoffed and kept walking.
‘Welsh,’ he yelled over his shoulder. Then he stopped and turned. ‘Well’ he amended, ‘Welsh-ish’
Albus looked thoroughly confused, but didn’t ask anymore, probably just happy with an answer.