Professor Merlin Emrys

A Veil

He ignored everyone in the room but for the source of the spell who had sent his student beyond the veil. Cackling as if they did not know the gravity of their mistake. Merlin fumed, a pulse of magic so strong it snapped necks and shattered the bones of all the death eaters, Lucius included. Maybe Merlin would regret it, more for Draco's sake than anything else but right now grief fueled him, and without thinking or checking on anyone else he followed after Draco.

It was silent, such opposition to his rebirth that his ears could not even ring with how quiet it was. The sound did not seem to exist here. It was as if it mourned for the souls trapped in the in-between. Desperate to make noise yet unable as mist floated around Merlin. It twined in his soul and his magic in the most uncomfortable of ways as if it knew somehow that Merlin was not supposed to be here. Was not long for this place and never would be, yet...it did not push him out, force him to leave without the person he had come in this dreaded place that haunted his nightmares for.

"Emrys..." the voice was fuzzy and distorted, croaking and old. Merlin would recognize the voice of the gatekeeper who had taken his Lancelot anywhere.

"Cailleach, where is Draco Malfoy?" Merlin asked, he oh so wanted to demand but she was still a Goddess and as such would not respond well to demands.

"Here, lost, found, taken, what is he to you, Emrys? He who would make you face such a fear to save," she sounded so genuinely curious to his answer it made his pause.

"He.. he is my student," Merlin replied, unsure of her meaning.

"He is more. Do not lie here, Emrys. In this place...to me," she stared eyes and words heavy with meaning.

"Everything, he is everything. He is Draco, a friend, a student, a reminder of Arthur. A...a son," Merlin swallowed, the truth settling deep in his stomach. He was not ashamed that he thought of Draco as a son after only knowing him for not even a full year but he did not know how Draco felt. Especially after he had just killed his biological father. Draco would blame him, hate him, he knew. He dreaded it.

"So much so you would come into my dominion when you did not so for your Sir Lancelot," she held no blame in her voice but the words struck Merlin.

"I was not given the choice!" Merlin argued back heatedly, forgetting not to anger the Goddess. "The veil closed behind him! By the time I had found the arch I had just walked through everyone I had loved had been dead for more than three hundred years!"

"And yet if you had the choice, can you say for certain you would have taken it?" She asked patiently.

"Y...No," Merlin realized, no he was not certain he would have gone after Lancelot. Arthur had still needed him. It was always about Arthur in the end. No matter how much he wished it was not.

"So do not blame me, Emrys. You will have but one chance to find him. Choose well," Merlin did not get to ask for her meaning before he was somewhere that was not grey and desolate but alive and uproarious.

~

Jazz was the first thing that reached Merlin's ears. Colorful music that belonged in a club. Women in tubular dresses that did not flatter the figure and men in evening suits for a night out on the town. The early nineteen-twenties if Merlin had to guess, after the war.

"Merlin!" a voice called and Merlin instinctively turned to the sound of his name. He was met with a roguish man, hair slightly disheveled and face flush from dancing.

"Harry," Merlin whispered in disbelief, the man's complexion reminding him so much of Gwaine, Merlin had been unable to not feel drawn to the man.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," he winked, arm coming to rest around Merlin. "Where you've been, you're late, everyone's been waiting on you," Merlin was stunned, he remembered coming here seventy years ago, meeting Louise only days ago in France to sign the treaty that ended the first war. She had been with her mother, one of the intelligence-gathering women who had been invited and had used her plus one for her daughter. Merlin had invited them both to England as her husband had died and could not afford to stay in France.

"They didn't need to wait," Merlin spoke the words coming out of his mouth on autopilot as he remembered more and more.

"You're the life of the party, Merlin," Harry laughed, shoving Merlin towards a booth in the back of the room, closest to the bar.

"I think you are talking about yourself, Harry. I've never been the life of any party!" Merlin laughed back, Harry grinning and shrugging as he took his seat.

"Are you planning on staying longer this time?" Harry asked. Merlin shook his head. "That pretty French girl got you occupied?"

"What would you know, Harry. You are a right cake-eater," Merlin grinned.

"That one of them fancy American words there, Merlin?" Harry asked. "What's it mean?"

"That you are a ladies' man, Harry. They never last long with you," making the words playful so Harry knew not to take them to heart.

"Ah, I just haven't found the right lady yet, Merls!" he laughed over the saxophone's solo. Merlin laughed with him and found himself lost in the memory for longer than he should.

"Never leave, Merls," Harry said, and it threw Merlin for such a loop that he stumbled and had to balance himself on the bar.

"Wh...what?" Merlin stuttered.

"You will never be able to leave if you stay here, Merlin. Run!" Merlin felt numb as he watched the jazz club disappear and a quieter atmosphere replaced it. Merlin ran.