Merlin - Most famous wizard of all time. Sometimes known as the Prince of Enchanters. Member of the Court of King Arthur. (from Pottermore)
01.
Lavender Brown stood by the bookshelf in the furthest corner of Flourish and Blotts’ and glared with clenched teeth at the crowded centre of the shop where stood a fussily decorated circular bookshelf full of books with extravagant covers and large, fancy gilded titles: the Rise and Fall of Camelot, the True Prince of Enchanters, Anecdotes of Merlin…and the very latest bestseller, the hardcover edition of Emrys Codex: Handwritten Notes of the Prince of Enchanters (A perfect copy of Merlin’s very own notebook! In the handwriting of the Prince of Enchanters! We even reproduced the ink and tea stains, just for all you Merlin-lovers!) .
Over half of the customers were currently huddling around the circular bookshelf and practically fighting over the Codex. The shop had applied all kinds of sophisticated light effects to that golden zone in the hope that it could appear sumptuous yet understated. Now the bookshelf towered like a giant illuminant that attracted insects.
Lavender then realised in despair that even the stock could have been emptied by the time she managed to push her way there.
She hovered alone along the deserted aisle. It was the last day before the new term, and also the first day the new book was put on sell. She was due to go back to Hogwarts the next day, so if she couldn’t buy the book this day, she would very probably have to wait until Christmas. Lavender groaned into her hands. Maybe Parvati snapped one up, she tried to comfort herself, since she came to queue up before dawn, and certainly she would take it to school if she did get one. I can ask if she could lend it to me, she decided.
She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t notice the man walking up to her.
‘Excuse me,’ he said in a mellow voice, ‘I’d like to take a look at that book.’
Looking up, Lavender saw a lanky man clad head to toe in a dark blue robe. His hood was pulled up so his face was hidden and only the pale skin on the tip of his nose and jaw could be glimpsed. She had seen enough wizards who played mysterious like this one before to not dwell upon it, so she just took a step aside, her eyes never quite leaving the ‘Merlin section’.
The man mumbled a thanks. From the corner of her eye, Lavender saw him pull out a large book on ancient magic that was infamous for its obscure content and therefore read by few, a weighty tome that could serve well as a murder weapon. Then, probably puzzled why a student would be in the section of ancient literature, the stranger looked down at Lavender. His gaze, following hers, moved to the encircled bookshelf.
‘Merlin fan?’ he asked.
Lavender humphed crossly.
‘Seems you can’t get the new book, then.’ the man said, sounding as though he felt quite sorry for her.
She bit her lips in annoyance, barely restraining herself from snapping back that everyone in the wizarding world with an adequately functioning brain was a Merlin fan, but losing her temper in front of a complete stranger wasn’t exactly a dignified thing to do. Her shoulders sagged in defeat - he was right, after all, there was no way she could get the Codex that day.
‘Are you a student of Hogwarts?’ asked the stranger, ‘Well, if you take Astronomy or Divination, I recommend these two…’ he pointed at two relatively thinner books on the shelf, ‘Originally written by the Druids. Their later generations adapted the text to plain modern English so that students can read, too,’ a pause, ‘As a compensation for your new book?’ he added quickly.
Lavender smiled gratefully. She did love Divination. The man handed her the books and nodded as he prepared to leave. Unfortunately, before he could go far, a grumpy half-blind old wizard barged out of nowhere and ran squarely into him, nearly sending him to the floor.
The man held miserably on to a bookshelf and eventually managed to regain his balance. However, his hood had fallen back in the process, and Lavender gaped at his formerly hidden face. Short hair dark as midnight curled up slightly at the ends, framing and contracting his pale skin; high cheekbones gave him an almost skinny look but did not diminish his charm. He also had a pair of eyes like the sea - blue and deep and brilliant. But most importantly, this was the face that belonged to the very wizard who was in every book in the golden zone of the shop and, at the same time, who occupied all the posters that plastered her bedroom wall and bedhead.
‘MEEEEERRLIIIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ Lavender screamed in what was half shock and half overwhelming happiness.
The young man went even paler in the instant.
Lavender’s scream efficiently drew everyone’s attention, and all those in the shop now saw the man in blue and in consequence his face. After a few seconds’ dead silence, waves of scream broke out.
‘MERLIN!! IT’S MERLIN!!!’
‘MERLIN! I SEE HIM! WITH MY OWN EYES! IN THE SHOP I AM!!’
‘ALL FUCK OFF YOU IDIOTS! LET ME PASS, I WANT TO TOUCH HIS ROBE!’
And almost at the same time the protagonist gathered his wit and reacted. He quickly dropped the ridiculously heavy book and bolted to the door at a speed that could out run a centaur. The crowd went wild and divided into two: one dived to the spot where Merlin had stood for the abandoned bulky volume, while the other rushed out of the shop after his person and chased him along Diagon Alley.
‘I TOUCHED HIS ROBE!!! I SWEAR!! JUST WHEN HE PASSED, I TOUCHED THE HEM OF HIS ROBE!’
‘HOLD, GREAT PRINCE OF ENCHANTERS!! PLEASE GRANT ME AN AUTOGRAPH, PLEASE? AN AUTOGRAPH!!’
‘PLEASE LET ME SHAKE YOUR HAND!!!!’
Starstruck fans marched in procession, shouting and attracting more to join them while drowning Diagon Alley in an unprecedented mood of worship. Then, at last, they turned around a corner and found their greatest wizard in history had teleported himself away.
That only evoked a new wave of scream. ‘OH MERLIN! DISAPPARATING WITHOUT A WAND!’
‘HE’S SO AMAZING! AND SO HANDSOME, TOO! I’M GOING TO SWOON!’
‘OH, YES AND YOU KNOW WHAT? WHEN HE TURNED, HE LOOKED INTO MY EYES, AND I AM SURE HE SMILED AT ME!’
‘NONSENSE! HE WAS SMILING AT ME!’
A handful of witches started a shouting match over whom the Prince really smiled at, and if not for the lack of elbow room resulted by the massive crowd, they would very possibly have had their wands out.
Inside the bookstore, Lavender sat on her heels, all the while hugging tight the two books Merlin himself had handed her and muttering dreamily to herself. Now she felt compelled to buy these books. She swore she’d read them from cover to cover at least ten times.
02.
‘Yes,Susan! Just like that! Can you believe it? He was right beside me, the greatest wizard in the world! The great Prince of Enchanters! God! How gentle he was! And he recommended books I might be interested in! Even brought them down to me himself!…’
Ron took a big gulp of pumpkin juice and frowned as if in pain.
‘What the heck is that sound?’ he groaned.
‘That’s Lavender’s screech while telling her happy encounter yesterday for the twentieth time.’ replied Hermione, stone-faced.
Ron rolled his eyes and Harry couldn’t help but grinned.
‘I say, Hermione,’ Ron said, ‘It’s almost your twentieth time to read today’s Daily Prophet, too. I thought you hated the Skeeter woman’s rubbish.’
‘Yes!’ she said indignantly, ‘But today’s isn’t!’
Ever since the incidents of the Triwizard Tournament she had all but stopped subscribing to the Daily Prophet, announcing with passion that its contents were nothing but ‘sensational lies’. However, this day, her eyes had hardly left the paper since the moment she got on the Express and all the time there was something like a strange infatuated look on her face. Harry was deeply puzzled.
‘But really, what’re you reading?’ asked Harry cautiously.
She sighed, and reluctantly turned over the paper to show them the front page which displayed a huge black-and-white photo with moving figures and a rather strong headline:
PRINCE OF ENCHANTERS IN DIAGON ALLEY, DRAWING FRENZIED FANS
‘Prince of Enchanters?’ Harry read out, incredulous.
Hermione eyed him as though he had just said something strange or stupid. It was Ron who first got over the slight shock and quickly answered his question before Hermione could. ‘Right, mate. I forgot you were brought up by Muggles. That and you aren’t really interested in stuff like this. The Prince of Enchanters is another name for Merlin. Yesterday he showed up in Diagon Alley and everyone got crazy.’
‘Merlin?’ Harry was even more shocked, ‘Wasn’t he from thousands of years ago?’
‘You should read more about history of magic, Harry,’ Hermione tutted, thick displeasure showing in her tone, ‘Merlin is the symbol of the Old Magic, and is magic itself. Magic doesn’t disappear, so Merlin doesn’t die. He is literally immortal. A well-known surname of his is Ambrosius, meaning “immortal” in Greek.’
Harry stared at the man in the picture. He appeared surprisingly young. Dark-haired, tall and thin, he was quite good-looking, too. In front of the camera and crowd, he seemed awkward and embarrassed.
‘But he looks so young!’ Harry exclaimed. In Dudley’s cartoon that he secretly watched when the Dursleys were out, Merlin was an old man with white beard.
‘That’s because he’s powerful!’ Hermione argued righteously, ‘Yes, Merlin’s power keeps him from getting old!’
‘Right,’ said Harry dryly, ‘But this is strange. I thought a man like him should be more mysterious and modest, like Dumbledore, rather than being flattered and hyped up by the media.’
The moments those words left his mouth Harry realised that he had taken a wrong step, because Hermione’s eyes widened at them and she looked ready to explode.
‘Watch it, mate,’ Ron patted his shoulder sympathetically, ‘Hermione here is a hardcore Merlin fan.’
‘He doesn’t want to be hyped up!’ Hermione pointed out indignantly, ‘He had been in anonymity while secretly helping Hogwards for a long time, until Phineas Black became headmaster and revealed his identity to the media! It was those journalists and senseless stalkers! They had to find out his whereabouts. He’s never liked this!’
‘Calm down,’ comforted Ron, ‘Think of it, without the paparazzi, you wouldn’t be able to see that many of his pictures.’
Apparently she couldn’t object to that, so she went into a reluctant silence.
‘…So, it was Merlin that Lavender ran into yesterday?’ Harry changed the subject awkwardly, ‘That was really cool. I thought it was just some random good-looking guy.’
And he could swear he spotted envy in Hermione’s eyes.
‘Yeah…’ she murmured, ‘And he chose two books for her…had I had the chance…’
Harry and Ron exchanged a quick look and smirked. They both knew that if Hermione was to ever run into Merlin, she would undoubtedly gasp like she was out of breath and then bombard him with endless questions.
03.
In fact, if only half of his fans could think like Hermione, Merlin would be so very grateful that he would gladly hug and kiss Morgana, Mordred and even Uther.
Over a thousand years ago, when he learned about the truth of Arthur’s death, Merlin felt that all the tears he cried had been wasted as his heart had broken for nothing. Arthur was not exactly dead - well, his body was dead all right, but his soul remained in Avalon - and Merlin soon found that they could exchange words through the fog on the lake, sometimes even memories as well as pictures. The only setback was that Arthur couldn’t come back to the land of the living, unless Albion was in grave perils. And the definition of ‘perils’ could be both objective and subjective. Honestly, neither of them had any idea about that.
Arthur complained to him everyday about how his ‘life’ in Avalon was so mind-numbingly dull that the only thing left to do was to sleep the day away.
I am worse, Merlin said, I talk to a lake. People might mistake me for Narcissus.
And Arthur laughed.
In fact Merlin had done a lot. He witnessed and helped with the development of the magical world, and aided the four founders in starting Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was used to and quite enjoyed working behind the scenes. After all, he had already had more than enough fame in this world. He deserved some peace and privacy.
The peace and privacy ended in the hand of the shrewed Slytherin headmaster, Phineas Nigellus Black. In order to attract more students, he purposefully leaked Merlin’s portraits, stories and letters to past headmasters (the non-confidential ones, of course) to the Ministry and media. The whole magical world was stunned by both the warlock’s unrivaled power and his matchless beauty. Even back then Merlin had attracted a large amount of fans. Fortunately, people at that time were still more or less conservative, so nothing drastic occurred despite the admiration he got. Besides soon came the time of war, and people no longer had the energy for episodes of worship.
However, six years ago, just when Merlin dared to hope that things had settled down, a hatefully lucky journalist caught a picture of him and Dumbledore walking together. At first Daily Prophet was merely guessing who the mysterious young man was that Dumbledore saw in secret, but then someone dug up a photo from a century ago.
And that caused a sensation throughout the Magic World, one even larger than that when Voldemort first rose to power.
In the blink of an eye, thousands of ‘Merlin Clubs’ were created all over the globe, their members mostly women who were often more capable of horrible things than men.
Ever since that one time he ate some biscuits with Amortentia (which very fortunately didn’t work on him), he never dared to accept any food given by others. Everybody was like crazy. Businesses caught every chance to make and sell all kinds of things related to Merlin. Chocolate Frog Cards with Merlin were remade into different sets and various levels of resolution and were extremely hard to get. When he heard that countless frenzy girls would spend an outrageous amount of Galleons to get one of those, Merlin thought the world at large had gone nuts - come on, that was only a card, right?
Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but groaned.
‘Sir, are you all right?’ asked the waitress.
He was sitting in a Muggle cafe. For Merlin, the Muggle society is much safer than the Magic world. Here he was recognised by no one, so it was significantly less possible for someone to spring at him screaming and try to stripe him off.
‘I’m fine,’ he told the kind girl, ‘Just a bit dizzy.’
‘If you need help, please feel free to call us.’ The waitress smiled sympathetically.
He nodded, studying the girl. She was pretty, modest and a little shy, reminding him of a young cook of Camelot from long ago. That girl always giggled pleasantly at his jokes and all those little magic tricks he did - ‘acrobatics’ he called them.
Nobody knows me here, anyway. He thought.
So later when the waitress returned to serve him his drink, Merlin spoke to her.
‘Do you like magic tricks?’ he asked.
The girl looked at him surprised, and broke into a soft laughter.
‘Are you a magician, sir?’ she asked, still chuckling.
‘Top-class.’ Merlin raised his eyebrows and curved his lips into what he considered a perfect smile. The waitress put down her tray and looked expectantly at him, waiting for proofs.
The greatest wizard of all times rubbed his hands and casually picked up a napkin from the table. He first spread it on his hands, showing nothing was hidden there. Then, he folded it up, in such a careful manner like he actually knew how Muggles do this kind of thing. He was sitting right next to the window, through which the sunlight shone brightly, so no one noticed the flash of gold appeared in his eyes. When he unfolded the napkin, there was a single red rose lying on the white background.
‘For you, my beautiful lady.’ He handed the flower civilly to the awed waitress, like a lord to a lady.
He was feeling quite pleased with himself when suddenly he caught an almost indistinguishable click resembling the sound of a shutter being pressed. Merlin’s smile froze on his face. In semi-panic, he turned to the source of the sound, and saw a bizarrely dressed man not far away, apparently a wizard who tried hard to disguise himself as a Muggle but failed miserably. He held a curious shaped camera and was gaping at Merlin in a combination of shock and excitement.
And at that moment only one thought remained in Merlin’s mind: he should become a recluse out in the wilds.
The next day, the Daily Prophet was again sold out soon after coming out.
THE PRINCE’S GUIDE TO ROMANCE: LOVE OF A THOUSAND YEARS
It was said that countless witches ( and a few wizards ) transfigured the photograph in order to use the image of their own face to replace that of the Muggle girl accepting Merlin’s flower.
04.
There was one thing Arthur didn’t exaggerate about his current state. That was that life in Avalon was boring beyond human imagination, and he had nothing else to do except sleeping.
In the earlier days he could still practise his swordsmanship with the elves, but the Ladies of the Lake didn’t approve of this display of violence, so the only exciting activity was banned.
Waking up from his slumber, Arthur became painfully aware that he, again, had to deal with his tedious time awake. In this torturous life of his he only looked forward to two things: one, Merlin the idiot coming to talk to him; two, him returning to the living soon. However, seeing the realisation of the latter meant unprecedented disaster to the land he loved, he wasn’t really sure he actually wanted it.
‘Arthur, Merlin left a message when you slept.’ Freya told him.
Arthur nodded rigidly. Among all the Ladies of the Lake, he found it hardest to make himself face her. Not to mention the fact that he was her killer, she was also Merlin’s bloody ex-girlfriend.
‘Arthur, I can’t take it anymore,’ Merlin’s panicked voice reached his ears, ‘I’ll go insane if this goes on.’
Anxiety instantly took over Arthur’s mind. What’s happened to him? The thought of Merlin in mortal danger came unbidden. There’s that dark wizard who called himself Voldemort isn’t there? But no, he shouldn’t be a threat to Merlin. Even Morgana couldn’t rival him.
The man continued tremblingly and halted Arthur’s rambling thoughts.
‘People nowadays…they’re horrible!
‘The Prince of Enchanters, can you believe it? The Prince of Enchanters!!! What kind of stupid title is that? Who the hell would like to be called by that?’ With a certain amount of shame, Arthur thought to himself that it actually didn’t sound so bad, although it became ridiculous once one associated it with Merlin. ‘They go out of their way to stalk me! And chase after me screaming!!
‘You don’t know how…horrible the girls are these days!’ he had obviously run out of words in his terror, ‘At least thousands of girls have sent me biscuits with Amortentia. That’s a love potion, like the one that made you fall in love with Vivian like a stupid ass.
‘I received countless love poems. And someone told me she plastered every surface in her room with clippings about me and my photos.
‘And there was last month. A witch went crazy and tried to yank off my trousers when she recognised me. And that girl. She insisted that I sign on her collarbone with her lipstick…
‘A few days ago, I ran into a bunch of people from that ‘Merlin Club’ and found them fighting over which of them was my wife,’ Merlin said dryly, ‘For the Triple Goddess’ sake! I swear there were some boys, too! Honestly, don’t they think I’m a bit too old for them?!
‘Right. Thanks for listening, Arthur, though probably you’re still sleeping,’ the Once and Future King heard his former manservant sigh, ‘I think I should leave now. I’ve enchanted the place to keep others away, but the paparazzi are like lunatics. They’re everywhere. I really don’t want to see tomorrow’s Daily Prophet and find a headline like “Overwork？Lovesick? Old Scars Revealed? Midnight Whispers by the Waves of Avalon and the Reasons behind”.
‘…I’ll come again in a few days, Arthur,’ he paused, before adding, ‘I miss you.’
In silence Arthur stood there. An overwhelming sense of mission consumed him.
05.
Harry found out Ron’s little secret by pure accident.
Currently he was sitting on the floor of their dorm in Gryffindor Tower and gaping at the little wooden box that had been hidden under the other’s bed. It was accidentally knocked open and Ron’s beloved collection of Chocolate Frog Cards was spilled all over. The figure on each and every of them was Merlin.
He glance at an equally awkward Ron whose ears appeared as red as his hair.
‘You know,’ after a few minutes of struggle, the latter managed to say, ‘His cards are hard to find.’
‘Yeah. I think so.’ Harry replied with as much calmness as he could muster.
Ron picked up the cards one by one in silence and put them neatly back into the box after carefully brushing off the dust.
‘I thought you were not a Merlin fan,’ Harry asked, confused, ‘That time when Hermione…’
‘Eh,’ Ron looked very embarrassed, ‘Usually boys aren’t so zealous, not like the girls. And many people think it stupid. Like Fred and George, they think idolising a wizard from a thousand years ago is idiotic, ‘cause he’s not like you, you know, he doesn’t help much with the danger we face.’
Harry could not help objecting. ‘I never wanted to be called “the Chosen One” or “the Boy Who Lived”.’
Ron quirked his lips. ‘I think the same goes for “the Prince of Enchanters”.’
Harry laughed, and suddenly felt a special kinship with this legendary wizard.
‘Merlin’s always been helping Dumbledore.’ Ron blurted.
Harry looked up in surprise.
‘Six years ago when he was first discovered by the media, they found him walking with Dumbledore,’ Ron hurried to explain, ‘And I overheard Dad say an anonymous man has been helping the Order, offering information and pointing out targets. I think it must be Merlin.’
Harry nodded in wonder. Then a question came.
‘Why do you like Merlin?’ asked Harry, ‘I mean, if Fred and George think it stupid, wouldn’t you be led to…?’
‘Oh, I thought it stupid, too,’ Ron went slightly pink, ‘It was my ninth birthday. Mom told Fred and George to take me outside to play a while, but you know they’re no good with children and thought it boring. They didn’t pay much attention to me and I got lost. It was dark, and I was lost in a pretty deserted place. I got scared. And, that strange man came up and asked if I was alright. He seemed really nice, playing trick after trick to amuse a boy, and stayed with me until Frey and George found me. I didn’t know who he was, but later I saw the paper and realised it was Merlin.’
Harry smiled. ‘Sounds nice.’ he said.
Ron broke into a stupid grin, but then his eyes caught the clock on the wall and he immediately shook himself out of the memories of his ninth birthday.
‘Let’s hurry up and go to the Great Hall. The Halloween party’s about to begin. We’ve missed it for years. One more time and Hermione will kill us for sure.’
But when they finally got there, out of breath from running, the two boys found the Hall in a highly eerie atmosphere. Hermione was sitting at the Gryffindor table, looking both coy and alarmed.
‘What happened?’ Harry asked.
‘Merlin!’ she hissed.
‘Alright, Hermione, but what actually happened?’ Harry gave her a blank look that showed his completely confused state.
‘Yes, Harry, she’s right. It’s Merlin.’ Ron patted him, and only then did Harry notice the stranger in front of the staff table. He looked about twenty, with dark hair, blue eyes, and high cheekbones, and was glancing around at the students in a worried, even panicky way.
His eyes sweeping over them with a hunted look, the man stuttered, ‘I think something went wrong with the Teleportation Spell…’
The silence was broken. The students ran riot, screaming. Harry, stunned, watched numerous girls jump onto the tables in attempt to find a shortcut and run to the young man who supposedly was Merlin. Professors quickly came to their senses and tried to stop the frenzy. They yelled for Prefects to keep order, but their efforts were in vain, as the Prefects were deafened by their worship towards the Prince of Enchanters.
Just when the chaos reached a peak, the doors to the Hall suddenly burst open under an irresistible force. It parted the crowd like Moses did the Red Sea. Were they under attack from Death Eaters? Harry’s mind raced, but he couldn’t feel anything sinister about the situation.
A man walked in. He didn’t seem a bit like a Death Eater - not even a wizard.
The man appeared about the same age as Merlin. He was of the same height, though more muscular. For some reason he was dripping from head to foot as though he had nearly drowned. He had neatly cut golden hair, blue eyes, and was clad in chain mail from who-knows-what times. His equally soaked cape was in similar colours to those of the Gryffindor House - red and gold, however, the emblem on it was not a lion, but a dragon.
‘STAND BACK! THIS IDIOT IS MINE!’ the man roared.
The crowd eyed him in fear.
In contrast, Merlin widened his eyes in the front. On his face was a look that Harry could not name. It was like he had just reunited with a long-dead family member.
Merlin’s lips trembled, and his blue eyes welled up. He looked on the verge of tears.
‘Arthur.’ he managed to choke out.
There was a collective gasp in the Great Hall.
‘Merlin,’ the blond nodded. He hurried forward and wrapped the Prince of Enchanters in a tight affectionate embrace, ‘I’m back.’
‘…I think I already know what tomorrow’s headline will be.’ Harry said in a strangled voice to a slack-jawed Ron.
06.
'"Public Embrace between the Prince of Enchanters and the Once and Future King. Exclusive: A Story of Grief and Love,”’ Merlin read in a sing-song voice, ‘Really, can’t they come up with something better ?’
Arthur hummed in agreement.
They were sitting by the Black Lake. It had been dark. The lake was silvered by the moonbeams and the breeze smelt of flowers. Merlin noticed some lights were still on in the towers, which was possibly because some curious students were trying to observe their idols.
‘But really, why on earth are you back now?’ Merlin put away the newspaper and wondered aloud.
‘Oh,’ Arthur replied evasively, ‘I think it’s because that Voldemort guy is back…Albion’s greatest crisis and all, you know.’
Merlin eyed him askance, but soon relaxed and grinned.
‘Whatever. It’s so good to be with you again, Arthur,’ he said, still smiling, ‘Although you’re such an arrogant royal prat.’
‘A thousand years,’ Arthur complained without any heat, ‘And I’m still a royal prat?’
‘Always.’ quipped Merlin lazily.
‘Eternally?’ the Once and Future King smirked.
Merlin fell silent. Arthur could swear that he detected a blush in the face of the greatest wizard of all times despite the dark.
‘Seems a thousand years in Avalon has expanded your vocabulary.’ he said at last.
They sat together and watched the giant squid uncurling its tentacles and splashing around in the water. A long time later, Merlin spoke again. ‘I won’t let you die this time, Arthur. Like I said before, I will protect you with my life, or die at your side.’
‘And you’re an idiot. You know what Merlin, you always have been,’ Arthur said softly, ‘Come on, we both know that Tom Riddle is no threat for you.’
They held each other’s gaze. No words were exchanged for a long while. Looking into the blue eyes that resembled two glistening pools and at his own reflection in them, many things Arthur had never thought or dared to think about floated into his mind like the dancing shadows on the water and slowly took form. He knew what he wanted to say and the words came to him in a flood, on the tip of his tongue, about to overflow.
At last, he put all the words into a kiss, only that it was not exactly a kiss - just the simplest, chastest touch of lips, done with utmost reverence and painful gentleness.
Merlin murmured when they parted, ‘I told you the paparazzi are everywhere.’
Arthur snorted, ‘Who cares.’
The Prince of Enchanters sighed. ‘Right. I already know what tomorrow’s headline will be.’
And then they kissed again.
THE END