fic: So Merlin Emrys, Here Is Your Holiday
Title: So Merlin Emrys, Here Is Your Holiday
Rating: I would say PG-13, but just to be really safe, an insanely soft R.
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin established relationship
Length: 3462
Warnings: A bit of a Harry Potter crossover.
Spoilers: Dumbledore isn't dead in this one. Yeah.
Disclaimer: Merlin belongs to BBC and mostly everything else is JK Rowling's.
Author‘s Note: So I thought to myself, Hmmm, if I was Merlin, and somebody pulled me out of Avalon to tell me they did it so I could enjoy myself, I would shoot them. Repeatedly.
ETA: Podfic can be found here, thanks to the gorgeous eosrose!
The first thing Merlin Emrys thought when he was born, was “Oh, hell no.”
And then he opened his mouth and said it.
*
Mr and Mrs Burton were your average Wizarding couple, married for 3 years and hoping for children. Needless to say, they weren’t expecting to be called into Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore to be told that Mrs Burton was carrying Merlin, father of Magic.
“B-but how?” shrieked Jack Burton, as he fanned his comatose wife hoping the baby, Merlin Emrys, for God’s sake, was alright.
Albus Dumbledore, beaming over his spectacles, motioned at the newly fitted portrait of the Four Founders behind his desk.
“They thought he could use a holiday, before he gets pulled out of Avalon again to save the world.”
*
First Year
“A holiday!” spat eleven year old Merlin, blowing up Dumbledore’s pile of lemon sherbets. “You call this a holiday?! Do you know what WAS a holiday? Avalon! Avalon was a holiday! We had cake; we had a never ending supply of alcohol, and limitless lube! THAT was a holiday. Now here I am stuck in this century, about to attend the very school I helped plan, because you thought I needed a holiday?!”
Eliza Burton wrung her hands as she cowered in one corner of the room. “Merlin dear, calm down. Dumbledore, I told you he wasn’t ready to see you yet. Oh dear, oh dear.”
Merlin whirled around, eyes flashing gold, and then visibly softened. “Mother, why don’t you go and have a cup of tea while I talk to the imbecile and his merry band of cohorts?”
Eliza sighed in relief and fled, hearing her son start his tantrum again as the door closed behind her.
She was so glad they hadn’t told him about Arthur yet.
*
“Emrys, Merlin!”
Merlin stomped up to the platform and jammed the hat onto his head, well aware his ears were trying to stick out on either side.
“Oh my God, is that him?”
“I can’t believe it! Merlin! Here! Sitting up there! In front of my very eyes!”
“Father always did say it was a load of tosh, as if the Great Merlin himself could be -”
Merlin peered out from underneath the Hat and scowled. “Will you lot just shut up? I didn’t get pulled out of Avalon just to hear you runts piss yourself in your pants at the sight of me.”
Silence blanketed the Hall as McGonagall cleared her throat and nervously gestured at Merlin to put on the Hat.
“Aaah,” sounded a voice in his head. “Back again?”
Merlin tried very hard not to punch a hole through the Hat. He swore he could feel it grinning at him.
“Merlin Emrys, putting on his hat again!”
“If I had known that in the future you would be used on me, I would have laughed in their faces when they asked me to donate my hat for the school.”
“Yes, indeed. But we will have time to talk after words. Now, where should I put you?”
Merlin clutched the edges of the stool sulkily, hoping it would be over soon.
“Well then - how about Hufflepuff?”
“What?”
“You liked herbs, you’d like Professor Sprout.”
“Then I’d talk to her after class, don’t put me in Hufflepuff.”
“Why not? I remember you telling Helga that you liked its colour scheme.”
“I also liked the Dragon occasionally. Didn’t mean I wanted to live with him.”
“So we are agreed then? HUFFLEPUFF!”
Merlin took off the Hat and gaped at it. It winked at him. He looked over to the Hufflepuff table, which had exploded into deafening cheers at the announcement. He could swear that some of them were crying.
“Don’t want to disappoint them now, do we?” whispered the Hat.
Merlin stared at it and wondered how much trouble he would get into if he set it on fire. “I wish I had had lice when I was wearing you.”
*
Merlin sat down between a Second Year and a Fifth Year who stared at him in awe, and then proceeded to turn around and whisper furiously to their friends.
He despaired of today’s youth.
He poked at his goblet, now regretting laughing with Salazaar at the pumpkin juice the children would have to drink, and proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes planning on scouting the library, when he heard something that made his heart stop.
“Pendragon, Arthur.”
His head whipped around, and there. There, was a fucking blonde prat who fucking sauntered up to the Hat, and had the fucking gall to meet Merlin’s eyes and give him a fucking wink, before his face disappeared under the brim of the Hat.
Judging by the amount of whispers the Hall burst into once again, this was nothing unexpected.
He should have never believed his parents when they said they didn’t want him to read the News because it was all rubbish about his return.
He was going to blow Dumbledore’s office up.
*
Madame Pomphrey tutted as she handed Arthur a potion, and then retreated to her office.
“Honestly Merlin, you would think an all-knowing, legendary wizard such as yourself could refrain from acting like an idiot. Was it necessary to try and destroy the Hat because it was doing its job?”
Merlin scowled and poked Arthur’s head, taking pleasure when the King hissed in pain. “Shut up, you. They pull us back here, and couldn’t even put us in the same House?”
Arthur grinned up at Merlin and tugged one of his raven locks. “Well, there was no reason to go insane and give me a concussion. You said it yourself, didn’t you? If I had ever been Sorted, I would have ended up a Gryffindor.”
Merlin smiled softly, and huffed. “Well, I didn’t know it was going to be without me, now did I?”
Arthur laughed and pulled Merlin down gently by one of his ears. Merlin’s eyes fluttered close as he internally sighed in relief. This was Arthur, his lover, his best friend. This was familiar. Just Arthur. Just an eleven year old Arthur.
Merlin stopped and his eyes shot open just in time to see Arthur jerk to a halt as well, and stare at him with a frown. “Merlin. I feel like a pedophile.”
Merlin closed his eyes and tried not to think how he wasn’t going to get any for the next five years, and about not killing a certain old man.
*
“Hello there, old chap!”
Merlin would never admit that he screamed like a little girl, as he clutched his bath towel around his waist.
“Salazaar! For God’s sake, we’re in the bathroom! How the fuck did you learn to get into mirrors?”
Salazaar grinned unrepentantly at him. Benjamin Summers entered the bathroom, stopped, glanced between Merlin and Salazaar, and nearly broke his foot in an attempt to flee from the bathroom, stammering his apologies as he went. Merlin bet that within the next 5 minutes, the news that The Great Merlin was communing with the Founders in the bathroom, starkers, would spread within the House like wildfire.
“How’s First Year life treating you?”
Merlin brandished his toothbrush at the mirror. “Everyone thinks I’m going to blow them up if they breathe wrongly in my direction, I’ve had eight students ask me whether I’m going to be teaching a class, one asked me whether I am here to rebuild Hogwarts, and the rest of the First Years tried to pay me homage by offering to sacrifice their pets.”
“Excellent!” beamed Salazaar. “And how’s Arthur?”
Merlin snorted as he applied the toothpaste on his toothbrush. “He’s already gained a group of followers, is strutting around the school like he owns it, which he probably does, and he’s petitioning to join the Quidditch team and school hasn’t even officially started yet.”
“Sounds like you’re having fun. Are you ready for classes?”
“Oh fuck off and go bang Godric or whatever it is you do in your spare time. Oh wait, you’re a painting - you can’t.”
“Oh, why don’t you go and shag Arthur against the wall or whatever it is you do in your spare time? Oh wait, I forgot, you’re children - you can’t.”
Salazaar’s laughter was audible even as he ducked out of the mirror as Merlin threw his brush at him.
*
Arthur pulled Merlin into the seat beside him during their first class, glaring out of the way a simpering girl who slinked away back to her friends who huddled around her in comfort.
Merlin dumped his books on the table and then flopped his head onto Arthur’s shoulder, relaxing when the latter ran a hand through his hair. He was just about to doze off, when a minuscule man scuttled into the classroom and Arthur began to chuckle in amusement.
Professor Flitwick, as the man was called, began the roll after clambering on top of a stack of books, and promptly fell off when he reached Merlin’s name, and for a second time when he reached Arthur’s.
Merlin caught him at both times in a flash of gold, and the Professor squeaked to the rest of the class that yes, Mr Emrys had just demonstrated what they were going to be doing today. Levitation.
Halfway into the lesson, Merlin had grown bored of making his feather zoom around and poke random people, and was wondering about how much trouble he would get into for working everyone’s feathers into a mini-tornado, when Arthur tugged at his sleeve and Merlin turned to look.
His breath caught.
Arthur had a brilliant grin adorning his face, clutching his wand and gazing in wonder at his floating feather. Merlin had rarely seen his face so free of any stress, of any hint of their troubled pasts.
Arthur turned around to beam at Merlin, and sounded breathless with excitement. “I’m doing magic, Merlin! Magic! No wonder you’re always doing it, it feels bloody brilliant!”
And Merlin thought of all the times that Arthur had wistfully watched Merlin create the Pendragon emblem out of thin air, of all the times Arthur had watched Merlin brew, cast and even fly, and Merlin had seen that want on his face.
And every complaint Merlin had of this situation flew out of his head. He grasped Arthur’s left hand and ran a finger over his knuckles, and let his head fall back onto the desk.
A holiday, he smiled, he could do this. As long as he could ignore the portrait of Godric behind his head, pulling faces.
*
Fifth Year
Merlin sat under a tree in the courtyard, with Arthur lying in his lap, both of them reading, getting ready for the OWLS which were less than 2 months away.
“Hey dudes.” Arthur lifted the book away from his face, and lethargically looked up at Hugo Weasley and waved a hand in greeting.
“So my dad was like, I could have you over for the holidays, yeah? But dudes, my mum would totally interrogate you the entire time, so just warning you in advance. And isn’t that a bit gay?”
Merlin looked up from his book and frowned. “What?”
Hugo stared pointedly at Merlin’s left hand, which was threading through Arthur’s hair.
“Dude, that’s like totally gay.”
“No,” said Arthur calmly, and shit Merlin knew that tone of voice, and Arthur was going to do something extremely rash, he was going to ruin the rest of their school lives, he was -
“This is gay.”
And Arthur grabbed Merlin by his hair, and pulled him down, and ok, this was a bit awkward and hurting his back, but God he hadn’t touched Arthur like that in fifteen fucking years, and his back could wait while there was Arthur, lying warm and pliant under him and mouthing at his bottom lip, and Hugo sounded like he was having a panic attack, and sure, it was a bit less romantic than he had planned, but. This was Arthur. And him. And nothing else really mattered when Arthur’s tongue was licking its way into his mouth.
*
“And Pendragon scores 10 points for Gryffindor!”
Merlin burst into cheers, not caring if everyone around him glared, as he waved his Gryffindor flag, looking out of place in the stall of yellow and black.
“And Gryffindor leads 120 - 50 Hufflepuff, and dear Merlin, there goes Pendragon again! Oh right, sorry Emrys.”
Merlin couldn’t even bring himself to feel upset, too busy screaming himself hoarse as Arthur grinned down at him and threw back his head and laughed as Merlin flipped the bird towards a Hufflepuff who pelted paper at the back of Merlin’s head, and Merlin looked up at the Once and Future King, resplendent in the sun and thought, yeah, that’s mine. And yeah, sometimes he really didn’t mind being pulled here.
*
Arthur slammed Merlin against the wall, as Merlin scrabbled for his belt. They kissed, hot and open mouthed, tongues warring against one another as fingers pulled at buttons.
“Arthur,” panted Merlin, “We’re going to get caught.” His breath hitched as Arthur began sucking on his neck.
“Don’t care,” mumbled Arthur through mouthfuls of Merlin’s skin. “Fifteen bloody years, and I’ll be damned if -“
He cut off as Merlin slid a hand down the front of his trousers, and yes, this was happening, and fucking hell if he was going to last more than a minute. Merlin’s eyes were half-shut, lips parted and looking the definition of debauched, and damn if Arthur hadn’t noticed the students around them eye Merlin with interest as the years had gone past, and Merlin was his. Beautiful, gorgeous, and terribly aroused, just for him, and Arthur leaned forward to capture Merlin’s lips with his own, and coaxed them open as Merlin moaned, and -
The closet door slammed open, as a tall figure bore down upon them threateningly, and all they could see was bushy hair, before the figure flicked on the light switch, all the while screeching at them, and for a minute, the boys stared at the Head Girl, Rose Weasley, who seemed to be struck dumb at the sight of who she had caught.
“Er.” Merlin scrambled to fix his shirt, which was half hanging off of his body, while Arthur tried to zip up his pants, all the while, Weasley gaping at them.
“Y-your Majesties! Ummm, I… sorry. I thought you were, uh... Miscreants! Yes, uh.. I’ll just, ummm. You can get back to -” Rose stopped, blushing a deep red, before stammering and half-bowing and shuffling out of the door.
Merlin and Arthur stared at each other in confusion, before Merlin called out after her. “Rose! Wait just a minute; aren’t you going to give us detention?”
Rose stopped and turned around with an incredulous expression, Merlin’s question seemingly overriding her embarrassment. “You can’t give detention to Merlin and King Arthur! You’re allowed to go wherever you like, whenever you like! All the prefects and teachers were told this at the beginning of each year.”
Merlin turned to Arthur, who had a grin unfurling on his face.
“No, Arthur. You have to study for your exams; you have to practise your magic! We can’t spend days locked in a bedroom just because we’re allowed -”
Needless to say, Merlin didn’t get to say much else as Arthur dragged him back into the closet.
*
“Let’s see now… Pendragon, Arthur."
Arthur waited patiently for his examiner, a tottering old woman, to find his name on the list, tapping his wand against his leg. Merlin had laughed himself silly when he found out Arthur’s wand core was unicorn hair.
“Ah! There we go! Your parents had a fondness for Arthurian legends, dearie?”
Arthur stared incredulously at the woman who was smiling at him absent-mindedly.
“No,” he said slowly, hoping she wasn’t deaf as well as dumb, “I am King Arthur.”
The examiner laughed fondly at him, clearly thinking he was joking. “Oh, that was clever! I almost believed you for a second, what with those ridiculous articles about the return of Merlin and King Arthur! I always said the Daily Prophet was going to the dogs!”
Arthur tried not turn her into a toad, as he looked over to where Merlin was last standing across the Hall, and saw him talking animatedly with his examiner, and Heaven help him, it looked like Merlin was teaching the examiner, if the delighted expression on the old man’s face as he followed Merlin’s movements with his wand, was an indicator.
“Come now, then dearie, I want you to transfigure for me from this block of wood, anything that is of significance for you.”
Arthur smiled at this, having prepared for exactly this kind of situation, and let the words and magic flow through him, revelling in the feeling of experiencing this. Magic would never get old, and while Merlin would always have magic, for Arthur, this was his “holiday”. He would treasure it while he could, and if you were judging by Dumbledore’s age, that would be a long, long time.
And when he opened his eyes, a model of Camelot was sitting on the table, and Arthur smiled fondly at his home.
“Oh, more than a bit into the Arthurian legend, I see!”
Arthur reminded himself that he had never harmed a woman, (Morgana didn’t count, because she was a man in a wig) and wasn’t planning to start now.
*
Merlin was engrossed in the lovely conversation he was having with his Transfiguration examiner, about how it was possible to conjure food, you just had to access the right plane, and they were going through what words you could use to do this, as Merlin usually just visualised it, when he heard a roar that was distinctly Arthur, and looked up to see him standing on a table, and waving Excalibur around over a poor woman’s head.
Merlin shouted an apology over his shoulder as he ran towards Arthur.
Tofty walked towards the spectacle as he shook his head. He knew Gladys was going to get into trouble by not believing in those articles and look where it had got her. And he was having such an intriguing talk with Merlin. The Great Merlin!
He watched as Merlin side-tackled Arthur onto the floor, and then looked away with a blush as the legendary wizard began murmuring into the King’s ear, and judging by the expression on the latter’s face, it wasn’t very suitable for present company.
He turned to pick up Gladys from where she was huddled on the floor, and she took his hand with wonder.
“I say Tofty, that boy was King Arthur! He had Excalibur! And that was Merlin who saved me! Why didn’t anyone tell me they were back?”
Tofty sighed.
*
Seventh Year
Merlin looked up from the book he was studying, to see Arthur making stabbing motions with his hands, a sly grin on his face, talking in whispers to the group surrounding him. Trust Arthur to bring his admirers into the library to keep him company.
But this group strangely had a lot more boys in it than girls, and everyone was holding a notepad in their hands, and looking at Arthur, and occasionally at Merlin with more than a little awe.
Merlin absently wondered what Arthur was telling them.
He was jotting down notes for the Wolfsbane potion in his book, when he heard Lily Potter’s voice screech, “You were having GAY SEX in Avalon?!”
And Merlin realised exactly what those stabbing motions were, and why the majority of the boys in that group had giggled madly at him the last time he passed them in the corridor, and within five minutes flat, he had packed up, and was dragging a laughing Arthur away, from his protesting group.
*
“Merlin.”
“Hmmm?”
Arthur looked down at his lover, who was resting his head on his chest, and loped an arm around his thin waist and hugged him closer.
“What do you want to do after school?”
Merlin turned his face into Arthur’s neck, and Arthur could feel him sleepily smile into his skin.
“Oh, I don’t know, take over the Ministry? With you by my side as my faithful, bound consort, of course.”
Arthur snorted, “Was that what made you blow up at that Ministry official? Because he called me your lowly consort?”
Merlin gently bit Arthur. “You’re worth a million of him. And if anyone was going to rule anything, it would be you. That Goyle or Boyle, whatever he was called, was lucky I didn’t transport him to Antarctica.”
Arthur let his eyes flutter close, as Merlin let his magic shut the drapes tightly around them.
“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to decide, anyways. We’re on a holiday.”
*
The End
ETA: Check the tags for more from this universe. :)
Rating: I would say PG-13, but just to be really safe, an insanely soft R.
Pairing: Arthur/Merlin established relationship
Length: 3462
Warnings: A bit of a Harry Potter crossover.
Spoilers: Dumbledore isn't dead in this one. Yeah.
Disclaimer: Merlin belongs to BBC and mostly everything else is JK Rowling's.
Author‘s Note: So I thought to myself, Hmmm, if I was Merlin, and somebody pulled me out of Avalon to tell me they did it so I could enjoy myself, I would shoot them. Repeatedly.
ETA: Podfic can be found here, thanks to the gorgeous eosrose!
The first thing Merlin Emrys thought when he was born, was “Oh, hell no.”
And then he opened his mouth and said it.
*
Mr and Mrs Burton were your average Wizarding couple, married for 3 years and hoping for children. Needless to say, they weren’t expecting to be called into Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore to be told that Mrs Burton was carrying Merlin, father of Magic.
“B-but how?” shrieked Jack Burton, as he fanned his comatose wife hoping the baby, Merlin Emrys, for God’s sake, was alright.
Albus Dumbledore, beaming over his spectacles, motioned at the newly fitted portrait of the Four Founders behind his desk.
“They thought he could use a holiday, before he gets pulled out of Avalon again to save the world.”
*
First Year
“A holiday!” spat eleven year old Merlin, blowing up Dumbledore’s pile of lemon sherbets. “You call this a holiday?! Do you know what WAS a holiday? Avalon! Avalon was a holiday! We had cake; we had a never ending supply of alcohol, and limitless lube! THAT was a holiday. Now here I am stuck in this century, about to attend the very school I helped plan, because you thought I needed a holiday?!”
Eliza Burton wrung her hands as she cowered in one corner of the room. “Merlin dear, calm down. Dumbledore, I told you he wasn’t ready to see you yet. Oh dear, oh dear.”
Merlin whirled around, eyes flashing gold, and then visibly softened. “Mother, why don’t you go and have a cup of tea while I talk to the imbecile and his merry band of cohorts?”
Eliza sighed in relief and fled, hearing her son start his tantrum again as the door closed behind her.
She was so glad they hadn’t told him about Arthur yet.
*
“Emrys, Merlin!”
Merlin stomped up to the platform and jammed the hat onto his head, well aware his ears were trying to stick out on either side.
“Oh my God, is that him?”
“I can’t believe it! Merlin! Here! Sitting up there! In front of my very eyes!”
“Father always did say it was a load of tosh, as if the Great Merlin himself could be -”
Merlin peered out from underneath the Hat and scowled. “Will you lot just shut up? I didn’t get pulled out of Avalon just to hear you runts piss yourself in your pants at the sight of me.”
Silence blanketed the Hall as McGonagall cleared her throat and nervously gestured at Merlin to put on the Hat.
“Aaah,” sounded a voice in his head. “Back again?”
Merlin tried very hard not to punch a hole through the Hat. He swore he could feel it grinning at him.
“Merlin Emrys, putting on his hat again!”
“If I had known that in the future you would be used on me, I would have laughed in their faces when they asked me to donate my hat for the school.”
“Yes, indeed. But we will have time to talk after words. Now, where should I put you?”
Merlin clutched the edges of the stool sulkily, hoping it would be over soon.
“Well then - how about Hufflepuff?”
“What?”
“You liked herbs, you’d like Professor Sprout.”
“Then I’d talk to her after class, don’t put me in Hufflepuff.”
“Why not? I remember you telling Helga that you liked its colour scheme.”
“I also liked the Dragon occasionally. Didn’t mean I wanted to live with him.”
“So we are agreed then? HUFFLEPUFF!”
Merlin took off the Hat and gaped at it. It winked at him. He looked over to the Hufflepuff table, which had exploded into deafening cheers at the announcement. He could swear that some of them were crying.
“Don’t want to disappoint them now, do we?” whispered the Hat.
Merlin stared at it and wondered how much trouble he would get into if he set it on fire. “I wish I had had lice when I was wearing you.”
*
Merlin sat down between a Second Year and a Fifth Year who stared at him in awe, and then proceeded to turn around and whisper furiously to their friends.
He despaired of today’s youth.
He poked at his goblet, now regretting laughing with Salazaar at the pumpkin juice the children would have to drink, and proceeded to spend the next 20 minutes planning on scouting the library, when he heard something that made his heart stop.
“Pendragon, Arthur.”
His head whipped around, and there. There, was a fucking blonde prat who fucking sauntered up to the Hat, and had the fucking gall to meet Merlin’s eyes and give him a fucking wink, before his face disappeared under the brim of the Hat.
Judging by the amount of whispers the Hall burst into once again, this was nothing unexpected.
He should have never believed his parents when they said they didn’t want him to read the News because it was all rubbish about his return.
He was going to blow Dumbledore’s office up.
*
Madame Pomphrey tutted as she handed Arthur a potion, and then retreated to her office.
“Honestly Merlin, you would think an all-knowing, legendary wizard such as yourself could refrain from acting like an idiot. Was it necessary to try and destroy the Hat because it was doing its job?”
Merlin scowled and poked Arthur’s head, taking pleasure when the King hissed in pain. “Shut up, you. They pull us back here, and couldn’t even put us in the same House?”
Arthur grinned up at Merlin and tugged one of his raven locks. “Well, there was no reason to go insane and give me a concussion. You said it yourself, didn’t you? If I had ever been Sorted, I would have ended up a Gryffindor.”
Merlin smiled softly, and huffed. “Well, I didn’t know it was going to be without me, now did I?”
Arthur laughed and pulled Merlin down gently by one of his ears. Merlin’s eyes fluttered close as he internally sighed in relief. This was Arthur, his lover, his best friend. This was familiar. Just Arthur. Just an eleven year old Arthur.
Merlin stopped and his eyes shot open just in time to see Arthur jerk to a halt as well, and stare at him with a frown. “Merlin. I feel like a pedophile.”
Merlin closed his eyes and tried not to think how he wasn’t going to get any for the next five years, and about not killing a certain old man.
*
“Hello there, old chap!”
Merlin would never admit that he screamed like a little girl, as he clutched his bath towel around his waist.
“Salazaar! For God’s sake, we’re in the bathroom! How the fuck did you learn to get into mirrors?”
Salazaar grinned unrepentantly at him. Benjamin Summers entered the bathroom, stopped, glanced between Merlin and Salazaar, and nearly broke his foot in an attempt to flee from the bathroom, stammering his apologies as he went. Merlin bet that within the next 5 minutes, the news that The Great Merlin was communing with the Founders in the bathroom, starkers, would spread within the House like wildfire.
“How’s First Year life treating you?”
Merlin brandished his toothbrush at the mirror. “Everyone thinks I’m going to blow them up if they breathe wrongly in my direction, I’ve had eight students ask me whether I’m going to be teaching a class, one asked me whether I am here to rebuild Hogwarts, and the rest of the First Years tried to pay me homage by offering to sacrifice their pets.”
“Excellent!” beamed Salazaar. “And how’s Arthur?”
Merlin snorted as he applied the toothpaste on his toothbrush. “He’s already gained a group of followers, is strutting around the school like he owns it, which he probably does, and he’s petitioning to join the Quidditch team and school hasn’t even officially started yet.”
“Sounds like you’re having fun. Are you ready for classes?”
“Oh fuck off and go bang Godric or whatever it is you do in your spare time. Oh wait, you’re a painting - you can’t.”
“Oh, why don’t you go and shag Arthur against the wall or whatever it is you do in your spare time? Oh wait, I forgot, you’re children - you can’t.”
Salazaar’s laughter was audible even as he ducked out of the mirror as Merlin threw his brush at him.
*
Arthur pulled Merlin into the seat beside him during their first class, glaring out of the way a simpering girl who slinked away back to her friends who huddled around her in comfort.
Merlin dumped his books on the table and then flopped his head onto Arthur’s shoulder, relaxing when the latter ran a hand through his hair. He was just about to doze off, when a minuscule man scuttled into the classroom and Arthur began to chuckle in amusement.
Professor Flitwick, as the man was called, began the roll after clambering on top of a stack of books, and promptly fell off when he reached Merlin’s name, and for a second time when he reached Arthur’s.
Merlin caught him at both times in a flash of gold, and the Professor squeaked to the rest of the class that yes, Mr Emrys had just demonstrated what they were going to be doing today. Levitation.
Halfway into the lesson, Merlin had grown bored of making his feather zoom around and poke random people, and was wondering about how much trouble he would get into for working everyone’s feathers into a mini-tornado, when Arthur tugged at his sleeve and Merlin turned to look.
His breath caught.
Arthur had a brilliant grin adorning his face, clutching his wand and gazing in wonder at his floating feather. Merlin had rarely seen his face so free of any stress, of any hint of their troubled pasts.
Arthur turned around to beam at Merlin, and sounded breathless with excitement. “I’m doing magic, Merlin! Magic! No wonder you’re always doing it, it feels bloody brilliant!”
And Merlin thought of all the times that Arthur had wistfully watched Merlin create the Pendragon emblem out of thin air, of all the times Arthur had watched Merlin brew, cast and even fly, and Merlin had seen that want on his face.
And every complaint Merlin had of this situation flew out of his head. He grasped Arthur’s left hand and ran a finger over his knuckles, and let his head fall back onto the desk.
A holiday, he smiled, he could do this. As long as he could ignore the portrait of Godric behind his head, pulling faces.
*
Fifth Year
Merlin sat under a tree in the courtyard, with Arthur lying in his lap, both of them reading, getting ready for the OWLS which were less than 2 months away.
“Hey dudes.” Arthur lifted the book away from his face, and lethargically looked up at Hugo Weasley and waved a hand in greeting.
“So my dad was like, I could have you over for the holidays, yeah? But dudes, my mum would totally interrogate you the entire time, so just warning you in advance. And isn’t that a bit gay?”
Merlin looked up from his book and frowned. “What?”
Hugo stared pointedly at Merlin’s left hand, which was threading through Arthur’s hair.
“Dude, that’s like totally gay.”
“No,” said Arthur calmly, and shit Merlin knew that tone of voice, and Arthur was going to do something extremely rash, he was going to ruin the rest of their school lives, he was -
“This is gay.”
And Arthur grabbed Merlin by his hair, and pulled him down, and ok, this was a bit awkward and hurting his back, but God he hadn’t touched Arthur like that in fifteen fucking years, and his back could wait while there was Arthur, lying warm and pliant under him and mouthing at his bottom lip, and Hugo sounded like he was having a panic attack, and sure, it was a bit less romantic than he had planned, but. This was Arthur. And him. And nothing else really mattered when Arthur’s tongue was licking its way into his mouth.
*
“And Pendragon scores 10 points for Gryffindor!”
Merlin burst into cheers, not caring if everyone around him glared, as he waved his Gryffindor flag, looking out of place in the stall of yellow and black.
“And Gryffindor leads 120 - 50 Hufflepuff, and dear Merlin, there goes Pendragon again! Oh right, sorry Emrys.”
Merlin couldn’t even bring himself to feel upset, too busy screaming himself hoarse as Arthur grinned down at him and threw back his head and laughed as Merlin flipped the bird towards a Hufflepuff who pelted paper at the back of Merlin’s head, and Merlin looked up at the Once and Future King, resplendent in the sun and thought, yeah, that’s mine. And yeah, sometimes he really didn’t mind being pulled here.
*
Arthur slammed Merlin against the wall, as Merlin scrabbled for his belt. They kissed, hot and open mouthed, tongues warring against one another as fingers pulled at buttons.
“Arthur,” panted Merlin, “We’re going to get caught.” His breath hitched as Arthur began sucking on his neck.
“Don’t care,” mumbled Arthur through mouthfuls of Merlin’s skin. “Fifteen bloody years, and I’ll be damned if -“
He cut off as Merlin slid a hand down the front of his trousers, and yes, this was happening, and fucking hell if he was going to last more than a minute. Merlin’s eyes were half-shut, lips parted and looking the definition of debauched, and damn if Arthur hadn’t noticed the students around them eye Merlin with interest as the years had gone past, and Merlin was his. Beautiful, gorgeous, and terribly aroused, just for him, and Arthur leaned forward to capture Merlin’s lips with his own, and coaxed them open as Merlin moaned, and -
The closet door slammed open, as a tall figure bore down upon them threateningly, and all they could see was bushy hair, before the figure flicked on the light switch, all the while screeching at them, and for a minute, the boys stared at the Head Girl, Rose Weasley, who seemed to be struck dumb at the sight of who she had caught.
“Er.” Merlin scrambled to fix his shirt, which was half hanging off of his body, while Arthur tried to zip up his pants, all the while, Weasley gaping at them.
“Y-your Majesties! Ummm, I… sorry. I thought you were, uh... Miscreants! Yes, uh.. I’ll just, ummm. You can get back to -” Rose stopped, blushing a deep red, before stammering and half-bowing and shuffling out of the door.
Merlin and Arthur stared at each other in confusion, before Merlin called out after her. “Rose! Wait just a minute; aren’t you going to give us detention?”
Rose stopped and turned around with an incredulous expression, Merlin’s question seemingly overriding her embarrassment. “You can’t give detention to Merlin and King Arthur! You’re allowed to go wherever you like, whenever you like! All the prefects and teachers were told this at the beginning of each year.”
Merlin turned to Arthur, who had a grin unfurling on his face.
“No, Arthur. You have to study for your exams; you have to practise your magic! We can’t spend days locked in a bedroom just because we’re allowed -”
Needless to say, Merlin didn’t get to say much else as Arthur dragged him back into the closet.
*
“Let’s see now… Pendragon, Arthur."
Arthur waited patiently for his examiner, a tottering old woman, to find his name on the list, tapping his wand against his leg. Merlin had laughed himself silly when he found out Arthur’s wand core was unicorn hair.
“Ah! There we go! Your parents had a fondness for Arthurian legends, dearie?”
Arthur stared incredulously at the woman who was smiling at him absent-mindedly.
“No,” he said slowly, hoping she wasn’t deaf as well as dumb, “I am King Arthur.”
The examiner laughed fondly at him, clearly thinking he was joking. “Oh, that was clever! I almost believed you for a second, what with those ridiculous articles about the return of Merlin and King Arthur! I always said the Daily Prophet was going to the dogs!”
Arthur tried not turn her into a toad, as he looked over to where Merlin was last standing across the Hall, and saw him talking animatedly with his examiner, and Heaven help him, it looked like Merlin was teaching the examiner, if the delighted expression on the old man’s face as he followed Merlin’s movements with his wand, was an indicator.
“Come now, then dearie, I want you to transfigure for me from this block of wood, anything that is of significance for you.”
Arthur smiled at this, having prepared for exactly this kind of situation, and let the words and magic flow through him, revelling in the feeling of experiencing this. Magic would never get old, and while Merlin would always have magic, for Arthur, this was his “holiday”. He would treasure it while he could, and if you were judging by Dumbledore’s age, that would be a long, long time.
And when he opened his eyes, a model of Camelot was sitting on the table, and Arthur smiled fondly at his home.
“Oh, more than a bit into the Arthurian legend, I see!”
Arthur reminded himself that he had never harmed a woman, (Morgana didn’t count, because she was a man in a wig) and wasn’t planning to start now.
*
Merlin was engrossed in the lovely conversation he was having with his Transfiguration examiner, about how it was possible to conjure food, you just had to access the right plane, and they were going through what words you could use to do this, as Merlin usually just visualised it, when he heard a roar that was distinctly Arthur, and looked up to see him standing on a table, and waving Excalibur around over a poor woman’s head.
Merlin shouted an apology over his shoulder as he ran towards Arthur.
Tofty walked towards the spectacle as he shook his head. He knew Gladys was going to get into trouble by not believing in those articles and look where it had got her. And he was having such an intriguing talk with Merlin. The Great Merlin!
He watched as Merlin side-tackled Arthur onto the floor, and then looked away with a blush as the legendary wizard began murmuring into the King’s ear, and judging by the expression on the latter’s face, it wasn’t very suitable for present company.
He turned to pick up Gladys from where she was huddled on the floor, and she took his hand with wonder.
“I say Tofty, that boy was King Arthur! He had Excalibur! And that was Merlin who saved me! Why didn’t anyone tell me they were back?”
Tofty sighed.
*
Seventh Year
Merlin looked up from the book he was studying, to see Arthur making stabbing motions with his hands, a sly grin on his face, talking in whispers to the group surrounding him. Trust Arthur to bring his admirers into the library to keep him company.
But this group strangely had a lot more boys in it than girls, and everyone was holding a notepad in their hands, and looking at Arthur, and occasionally at Merlin with more than a little awe.
Merlin absently wondered what Arthur was telling them.
He was jotting down notes for the Wolfsbane potion in his book, when he heard Lily Potter’s voice screech, “You were having GAY SEX in Avalon?!”
And Merlin realised exactly what those stabbing motions were, and why the majority of the boys in that group had giggled madly at him the last time he passed them in the corridor, and within five minutes flat, he had packed up, and was dragging a laughing Arthur away, from his protesting group.
*
“Merlin.”
“Hmmm?”
Arthur looked down at his lover, who was resting his head on his chest, and loped an arm around his thin waist and hugged him closer.
“What do you want to do after school?”
Merlin turned his face into Arthur’s neck, and Arthur could feel him sleepily smile into his skin.
“Oh, I don’t know, take over the Ministry? With you by my side as my faithful, bound consort, of course.”
Arthur snorted, “Was that what made you blow up at that Ministry official? Because he called me your lowly consort?”
Merlin gently bit Arthur. “You’re worth a million of him. And if anyone was going to rule anything, it would be you. That Goyle or Boyle, whatever he was called, was lucky I didn’t transport him to Antarctica.”
Arthur let his eyes flutter close, as Merlin let his magic shut the drapes tightly around them.
“Well, we’ve got plenty of time to decide, anyways. We’re on a holiday.”
*
The End
ETA: Check the tags for more from this universe. :)