𝓛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇 (𝒞𝑒𝒹𝓇𝒾𝒸 𝒟𝒾𝑔𝑔𝑜𝓇𝓎)

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝟣𝟩

ᖴᖇᗩGIᒪE ᒪITTᒪE ᖴᒪᗩᗰE

Ariana spent hours mulling over random fictional love stories in the Library. She'd get lost in thought, gazing through the window at the clouds which would cover the sun ever so often, branches and leaves of the Forbidden Forest swaying in the strong wind. The Whomping Willow battled away birds that came too close, shaking off more and more leaves in the process. The autumn colours were so bright, so beautiful. She wished she could take a stroll under the trees with Cedric, admiring the scenery, spotting birds that were migrating in a perfect synchronised manner.

One book caught her eye, The Legend of King Arthur. 

Knights of the Round Table  and Lancelot and Guinevere  were amongst them. Ariana had adored these tales as a child, and she was rather excited when she spotted them in the Library, almost forgetting all about Cedric. What confused her was the fact that in the Hogwarts Library, these books were not placed in the Muggle Fiction section. As a matter of fact, they weren't placed in any fiction section. For a long moment Ariana was confused, but then she saw another book, The Adventures of Merlin, kept in the same section and she gasped.

"Of course," she grinned. "Merlin was real, which means all this is...real! Oh my gosh, all of this actually happened!"

Madam Pince glared at Ariana from her desk, and the Gryffindor smiled sheepishly before ducking her head and getting absorbed into the book.

It was the very first time Ariana had come across a magical non-fiction book which was considered to be fiction in the Muggle World. What surprised Ariana was the fact that there was something very new in this edition, and she loved it. She knew how Merlin, Arthur and Morgana Pendragon were linked, and even Morgause was mentioned a couple of times as an evil enchantress who turned Morgana against her brother, but there was something she had never read before anywhere; something that was unheard of, never been mentioned by anyone.

Ariana had no doubt that this was the actual truth.

Guinevere never married Arthur Pendragon, nor did she ever commit adultery. Lancelot was her first love, and he was her last. There was another girl, named Winterfell, who was secretly a princess, and a magical one on top of that. She had power over ice and snow, and could control the four core elements of the world. Winterfell Valencia, Ice Princess of Oreithyia, an ancient magical kingdom of what was once known as Albion, was the one true love of Arthur Pendragon. As her kingdom was magical, it was dangerous for her to be living there during the Great Purge of Uther Pendragon, and so her mother, Queen Eleanor Valencia, sent her off to hide in a village called Ealdor. Merlin's village.

A picture was painted of Winterfell standing alongside King Arthur, and Ariana's jaw dropped. It was labeled:

King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot and his Queen, Winterfell Valencia Pendragon of Camelot and Oreithyia.

Winterfell was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen — which said a lot because Ariana knew many models — with snow white hair being her most prominent feature. Her eyes hypnotised the way Morgana's did, as if crushed ice and sparkling snowflakes were swirling in pools of moonlit dark aquamarine water. She wore an intricately designed blue gown which appeared to be decorated with ice shards and permafrost snowflakes. When the upper part of the gown reached her waist, it began blending into a silvery colour, shimmering down towards where the skirt began at her hips. The silver began to fade at her thighs, as the iciness melted into molten gold colour, flowing down elegantly till below the knees where it turned into Pendragon Red, the trail of the gown twisting around her feet and looking like a waterfall of rubies. The red part was designed with tiny red crystals sewn into the fabric. It may seem like an odd combination of colours, but they blended together perfectly, fading in all the right places. The gown symbolised Winterfell Pendragon's monarchy over both Camelot and Oreithyia.