The Gathering: The New Order of Merlin Book 1

71. Potions storeroom

Merlin's steps echoed in an empty stone corridor as he took a shortcut from the Medical Ward to the Gryffindor tower. Beyond the closed doors, he could hear lectures taking place. It was Monday morning, and he should join his peers in Potions right now. Yeah, that was unlikely. He had a good excuse to avoid it, and he was going to use it.

It worried him how weak he was becoming. Perhaps his eleven-year-old body wasn't durable enough? There was something he could do about it, but it would require him to visit the Crystal Cave, and he'd been avoiding it for some time for a good reason. He'd try to put it off, but if this weakness got any worse, he would have no choice.

Whether by accident or subconsciously wanting to after his earlier failure with Colin, his legs brought him to the most colorful corridor in the castle. Tapestries from around the world and different time periods adorned the walls along with many portraits. The carpet runner hushed his footsteps and led him to a small door he knew was Potions Master's storeroom.

The Greasy Git was now teaching in the dungeons, most teachers were busy, and there would be no students wandering around either. It appeared that Merlin's gangly legs decided that this was a perfect time for some thieving.

He'd had enough of getting caught so some precautions were required. Glamour would work best, but he still wasn't completely recovered from last night's healing and wasn't even sure if he could do it. What he really needed was just a warning. He sat up an invisible tripwire before both entrances of the corridor, tying the ends to two suits of armor. If anyone were to enter, the suits would fall over and alert him to hide or flee, whichever was safer.

Feeling somewhat secure, he easily unlocked the heavy wooden door and closed it behind him. Wizards and their little spells. Fools thought an Anti-Alohomora charm was enough to fully secure a locked door. Not from him.

He conjured a floating glowing orb to discreetly light the place. The Potion Master's storeroom was smaller than he expected. It was a tall but cramped room with shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling, accessible by a ladder. He wanted to avoid the break-in from being discovered so he couldn't just summon the missing ingredients for the Polyjuice Potion. He had to take only the amount he needed and attempt to make his visit undetectable.

He started from the bottom shelf and inspected each ingredient. There were quite a few rare plants and substances down there, some of them dangerous, explaining why they were kept locked away from the students in a corridor so flashy, a plain door was easily overlooked. It was a nice collection, worthy of a proper potioneer. Snape was an awful person, but he knew his craft.

Merlin found boomslang skin first. He conjured a small bag and transferred only three measures as the recipe required. He put the jar back in the same spot and resumed looking for the other ingredients. The higher up the ladder he ventured, the more interesting objects he found. While the bottom shelves contained raw ingredients, the top ones stored potent extracts and finished potions. He was all the way to the top when his eye caught sight of a small bottle, and he nearly fell off the ladder from excitement.

"Veritaserum," he read the label.

He wanted this truth potion. Too many people were holding secrets in this castle. Just three drops of the truth potion in their drink and the problem would be solved. The thought of using Veritaserum on children felt wrong. It would be a breach of trust and a moral crime. If his friends ever found out, they would never forgive him, but he needed to know what he was dealing with to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. It wasn't the time to let morality impair his ability to protect these children.

He held it in his hand and considered his options. If a potion this rare was gone, it would definitely be noticed, but if only some of it went missing, the theft might never be discovered. He conjured a small flask and poured half of the contents in, enough for at least two doses. He placed the original bottle in the same spot where he found it and corked his flask. He couldn't believe how lucky he was. The clear liquid looked so simple and non-threatening in its glass container, but when used on the unsuspecting and untrained, it was extremely powerful. They would have no idea how to recognize the symptoms. They would tell him everything.

Merlin finished searching all the shelves for the remaining ingredients and did not find any bicorn horn. Snape had to have kept it elsewhere. Happy from his finds nonetheless, Merlin came out and locked the door behind him. Just as he finished the spell, he heard the clatter of a suit of armor.

"What is this?" Filch whined. "Nasty spoiled brats using the honorable school for jokes. If it were up to me, they'd be spending their detentions in shackles."

Merlin ran in the opposite direction from Filch, but like the fool that he was, he forgot about the second tripwire and ran right into it. The suit of armor fell apart as he painfully sprawled on the floor. The helmet spun around right next to his head and stopped while facing him. Merlin could almost hear its mocking laugh echo in the iron dome.

"Who's there?" Filch's voice reached him.

Merlin scrambled his uncooperating limbs out of there and ran as fast as he could. He landed in the Viaduct Entrance Hall, from here the options were to run outside or downstairs. He did not look forward to spending time in the frigid weather, so he took his chances with the dungeons.

Down the spiral staircase and into the gloomy underground corridor he went. He knew these passages well from the time when he attended Hogwarts originally. While many parts of the castle had changed over time, the dungeons were mostly the same. He passed by the Slytherin Dungeon entrance and was getting closer to the staircase that would take him to the ground floor where he could disappear in the safety of numbers. He could see the light of it already when he ran into a mass of black robes which had just come out of a classroom.

Merlin didn't know who it was, but he was not going to get caught again! No more failures! He immediately put glamour on himself, and by the time he landed on his butt, he was invisible.

Who else would he have the misfortune of running into if not Severus Snape himself? The Greasy Git looked around, bewildered but didn't see him.

Merlin held his breath and focused on his glamour. He couldn't imagine what explanation he could provide this time. He had a proper excuse as to why he'd skipped detention last night and didn't show up for the morning class, but running through the dungeons while he was supposedly sick would be extremely hard to wriggle himself out of.

Snape didn't give up looking for what had just bumped into him and outstretched his hand, searching for the invisible. Merlin fought to control his ragged breathing and not give away his position on the floor. His glamour was powerful, but it wasn't infallible. In an open space like this, from such close proximity, his movement could be visible as a ripple in the air. He needed a distraction to get away.

He peered through the open door to the Potions classroom. He concentrated on a group of empty vials standing on a table and dropped one to the floor. Snape slowly turned to check what made the noise. Merlin dropped another vial. Snape looked around the corridor one last time and walked inside. Another vial dropped, and Merlin quietly stood on his feet.

"Who's here?" Snape asked in a growl.

The rest of the vials fell down one by one, the door to the Potions classroom slammed shut, and Merlin ran for it. He was already on top of the stairs when Snape ran out, shouting, "Peeves! I will get you for this!"

》《

A/N: Two readers already complained that Merlin seems too weak. I have mixed emotions about that. I want to satisfy my readers but I don't want to force something that isn't meant to be.

Sure, Merlin might be immortal (I explore his immortality later), more powerful than an average wizard and had a long time to study different kinds of magic, but he is still just human. Everything has its limits, including magic.

I haven't given him a chance to show off what he can do yet because there was no need for it in the story. He's used to using his magic in secret, sneakily, when no one's watching and there is no army to fight here to show how he stacks up against a powerful enemy. The villain of this story works in very subtle ways and only subtle ways can detect it.

So I hope you're not disappointed with Merlin. Come on, he's already got enough on his plate. Don't give him more things to worry about.