What if we ask Professor Pend?
‘Ok,’ Hermione said, plonking 5 heavy hardbacks down in front of Harry and Ron ‘Let’s talk about our research!’
‘Jesus Christ Hermione!’ Ron yelped as the table shook.
Hermione just blinked at him, confused.
‘What?’
Ron just scoffed at her.
‘Right,’ she said, still slightly confused. ‘Harry, why don’t you start with what you’ve found’
Harry swallowed thickly. ‘Right’ he said, glancing at Ron with wide eyes. ‘So, um, basically, I haven’t found anything.’
Hermione blinked at him.
‘So let me be clear,’ she said, sounding slightly aghast. ‘You had one task. To figure out what ONE word means, and you…failed’
Harry smiled tightly.
‘Yes.’ He said sincerely.
Hermione looked up at the ceiling in exasperation, with a look that simply said, why are my friends complete morons?
‘Well’ she said tersely, ‘I’ll just tell you what I’ve found then, shall I?’
‘No one’s stopping you’ Ron grumbled.
Hermione inhaled dangerously, clearly about to snap at the boys. She calmed herself down however, and opened the first book.
‘The old religion is basically where magic came from. It’s what all the legends used, Morgana, Nimueh, even Merlin himself! Wandless magic, but connected to the Earth. Back in the olden times, the whole world was basically spun out of magic, and they all called it the old religion. There were prophecies and stuff as well, it’s super interesting! But it’s almost impossible to find mentions of, I mean it should be a main topic in History of magic but there’s just no information out there.’
Harry’s interest had definitely been peeked, and he leant forward, lowering his voice.
‘If this is ancient magic, then why was Emrys talking about it? How does he know about it?’
‘That’s just the thing, the old religion died out after the death of King Arthur of Camelot! No one’s seen any trace of it since.’ Hermione hissed excitedly, showing them an article that said just that.
‘So… this new Professor seems to think the old religion is calling out.’ Ron said slowly, ‘But there’s no way of him being able to tell, and then there’s the small issue of the fact it died out over a thousand years ago.’
‘Exactly Ron!’ Hermione said, shooting him a proud grin.
‘So, what then? Emrys is just mad or something?’ Ron asked, rather non-committedly.
‘I don’t know.’ Hermione said softly. ‘He’s a lot of things. Strange, mysterious, definitely hiding something, but he’s not mad. He’s a genius in fact. He simply doesn’t make sense.’
‘Hang on!’ Harry exclaimed suddenly, and his friends snapped round to look at him.
‘What if we ask Professor Pend?’
‘I’m sorry what, mate?’ Ron asked incredulously. ‘You want to ask him if he thinks his husband is mad??’
‘What?’ Harry said impatiently, ‘No! I meant we could ask him about the old religion. Afterall, he is the History of Magic teacher, and Hermione, you could just say you heard about it in a book and wanted to know more!’
‘Yes Harry!’ Hermione exclaimed, ‘That’s genius! I’ll ask him about the old religion. And you can ask him what the name Carwr means, tell him you read it in a book and was wondering.’
Harry looked slightly annoyed at the fact he had to do something, but he nodded nonetheless and they put their plan into action.
Arthur and Merlin had been clearing up the History of Magic classroom, or Arthur was, Merlin was just throwing things at Arthur using his magic trying to catch his husband off guard.
Arthur rubbed his shoulder carefully with a groan as a textbook hit it, hard.
‘When are you gonna stop babe?’ He asked over his shoulder as Merlin laughed at him from a desk.
‘And are you going to actually help or just keep chucking things at me?’
Merlin just grinning and threw a quill at Arthurs back, before coming behind him and hugging his waist, head in the crook of Arthur’s back.
‘Carwr, I’m trying to clear up!’ Arthur groaned, though he couldn’t stop his fond smile as he tried to gently remove Merlin’s hands. Merlin hung on.
‘Do it later’ he moaned.
‘Merls, I have to do it now!’ Arthur sighed, deciding to ignore Merlin who seemed to be permanently attached to his back and reaching forward to grab a textbook to add to the rapidly growing pile.
Merlin waved a hand and his eyes flashed gold.
‘Ah, right’ Arthur said, having completely forgotten that his husband was a warlock.
‘Idiot,’ Merlin said softly.
Arthur spun, resting his forehead against Merlin’s.
‘I missed this’ Arthur whispered.
‘I miss home’ Merlin whispered back, before capturing Arthur’s lips with his.
Arthur deepened the kiss, grabbing Merlin’s waist and pulling him forward.
Merlin made a little surprised noise and pulled back.
‘M-Arthur’ He said in between kissed, ‘We shouldn’t-‘
Arthur kissed Merlin’s neck and Merlin exhaled shakily, shoving a hand up to lock the door. Arthur’s eyes burned with desire at the golden flash of Merlin’s irises.
‘Ok then’ Merlin said, breathlessly, ‘Maybe we should-‘
Arthur kissed him hard, pushing him back against the desk behind him, and Merlin moaned quietly.
A rapping knock rang out.
Merlin squirmed under Arthur,
‘Ignore it’ Arthur all but growled at him, but Merlin kissed him softly, cheeks red and pushed him back.
‘It could be an emergency.’
Arthur pushed him back gently,
‘It’s my classroom,’ He whispered.
Merlin rolled his eyes, but pulled Arthur back to him with a fist in his shirt. The kiss deepened and Merlin trailed his fingers over Arthur’s back, who groaned and inhaled shakily. Merlin’s hand moved to his chest, and Arthur tingled under his touch, pushing Merlin back further and further onto the desk.
A knock sounded again and Arthur stood up, looking slightly dazed. Merlin groaned, trying to grab his husband’s hand as he walked to answer the door.
‘Yes?’ Arthur asked, voice husky and angry. His eyes widened when he saw a second year student.
‘Miss-‘ He cleared his throat when it came out low ‘Miss Granger’
He watched her peer into the room, where Merlin had just straightened up, and was trying to make his clothes look slightly less mussed, clearly having just realised this was a student.
Arthur glanced at Merlin, who looked about as red as he’d ever seen him.
‘Erm’ he continued, head snapping back to Hermione, who looked extremely confused. ‘What can I do for you then, Hermione?’
Hermione nodded, and pushed past him into the classroom.
‘Well, you see,’ she said, ignoring Arthur’s confusion. ‘I was reading this book and I saw a mention of something called the old religion’
She noticed as Professor Emrys stiffened, looking at Arthur with eyes wide and concerned.
‘I did some further research, but I really couldn’t find anything, so I figured I’d come to you.’
Arthur smiled at her politely, shooting Merlin a glare to tell him he was being far too obvious.
‘Well Hermione,’ he started, moving over to stand in front of her and next to Merlin. ‘I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to tell you myself, the old religion is somewhat of a mystery to the wizarding world, but I’ll be happy to relay what I do know. It’s the oldest form of magic, when it was at its peak it was everywhere. You weren’t born with or without it, other than in the cases of Merlin and Morgana, instead you could study it and anyone could use magic.’
Merlin was standing stiffly next to him, praying that his husband wouldn’t give too much away.
‘It had a strong connection to the Earth, with the actual world thrumming with magic in a way that hasn’t existed for centuries.’
Hermione stared up at him in wonder, trying to take in all of the information she could.
‘If you’re very interested, I would recommend researching Druids. They were a group, a community of sorts that lived with magic throughout history, even when it was banned during the reign of King Uther’
Hermione nodded eagerly.
‘Brilliant!’ She said. ‘Thanks Professor Pend.’ She smiled at him. ‘Goodbye’ she turned to Merlin, ‘Bye Professor Emrys,’
Merlin nodded at her as she turned at strode out the classrooms. Then he turned to Arthur, immediately rounding on him.
‘What have you been teaching them?’ He hissed, ‘Has anyone else asked about this kind of thing befo-‘
Arthur grabbed Merlin’s shoulders as if to steady him.
‘Shh, calm down, seriously. No ones asked that before, she’s a smart girl, she just read a book and got curious.’
Merlin batted Arthur’s hands away and glared at him.
‘What are the chances though Arth? She’s a smart girl like you said’
Arthur sighed looking into Merlin’s eyes sincerely.
‘It’ll be fine, I promise. She won’t figure anything else out, ok?’
Merlin looked down.
‘Ok?’ Arthur repeated, placing a hand under Merlin’s head and softly tilting it up to meet his eyes.
‘Fine’ Merlin whispered.
Arthur kissed him gently, and Merlin’s eyes fluttered closed as he sighed into Arthur’s lips.
Then he pulled away, looking up at Arthur.
‘Hang on,’ Merlin said softly, ‘Did we just get cock blocked by a thirteen year old?’
Arthur snorted, before pulling Merlin closer.
‘Arthur’ Merlin whispered, just before their lips met. ‘It’s dinner time’
Arthur drew back and hit a desk with his hand as hard as possible in anger.
‘Ow! Shit!’ He exclaimed as a searing pain shot through his arm and he cradled it to his chest.
Merlin laughed at him and Arthur shot him a glare.
Merlin closed their distance and kissed Arthur gently. The kiss deepened and Arthur pulled Merlin closer yet again. Merlin groaned against him.
‘You know,’ Arthur said breathlessly, as Merlin peppered his neck with kissed and began to loosen his tie, ‘We could just miss dinner.’
Merlin just kissed him hard again, and shoved a hand up, the door locked and soundproofed with a glint of his eyes.
On the other side of the door, Hermione took that as her queue to stop eavesdropping.