The Rising of Merlin

The One With the Grave

"Fine," Arthur pursed his mouth into a thin line and took a few steps back. "Be stubborn then, but I will discover the truth." He said before exiting the room, leaving Merlin alone to put the things back.

"Prat," Merlin muttered, then he saw how much stuff they had actually used and with a sigh, he raised his hands and flashed his eyes and soon everything was in their correct places except for the dummy. He sighed again and consented to move the stupid thing manually.

He walked up from the basement and after taking a quick shower, he walked up to the top floor where he met Ron running out from his room in a rush of anger.

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Arthur couldn't get the feeling out of his head that something was hurting Merlin, so after leaving Merlin alone in the basement, he decided to find the trio. They had lived with him for a few months now; maybe they would know what was troubling him.

He eventually found them in their room, sitting huddled together by the desk with Hermione in the middle, writing something on a paper. Without asking, he stepped into the room, closing the door behind him with a loud thud.

"Ever heard of knocking?" Ron snapped, turning around in his seat to glare at him.

"Do you know why Merlin is sad?" He ignored Ron and directed the question at Hermione and Harry.

"Ehm," Harry began, fidgeting with his hands, while Hermione bit her lower lip in worry and avoided any eye contact with him.

"We don't know anything." Ron said in a harsh voice, nudging Hermione while giving her a look that Arthur couldn't decipher.

"We should..." Hermione began but Arthur couldn't hear anything else because Ron had turned her away from him and they and Harry was not huddled together, whispering undecipherable words.

"He deserves to know." He heard Hermione say after a few minutes in a much higher tone.

"We promised." Ron warned her, looking over his shoulder to give Arthur yet another glare.

"But maybe he can help." Harry argued. "We haven't exactly been successful."

"No," Ron sounded angry. "A promise is a promise. What friends would we be if we broke his trust like that?"

"We are two against one, Ronald." Hermione pointed out in a voice that reminded Arthur vaguely of the ladies at court and they way they always held their nose in the air like they were better than everyone else.

"I will have nothing to do with this." Ron stood up, his ears red from anger. He stormed out of the room, banging the door after him.

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"Ron!" Merlin exclaimed and Ron looked up and saw the warlock standing before him with wet hair and a towel slung over his shoulder. "What happened?" He looked towards the room Ron had just left.

"Nothing," Ron said quickly. He didn't want to be there when Hermione and Harry broke Merlin's trust, but he also didn't want to be the one to tell Merlin about it. "Hermione was being stupid, that's all."

"Okay," Merlin said, but by the look on his face, he wasn't entirely convinced but he didn't push. "I'm just going to drop this of," He gestured to the towel. "Then I'm ready to watch some Star Wars." He grinned. "You're going to love it." He laughed and walked away to his study slash temporary bedroom.

Ron didn't say anything; instead he started the telly and loaded the VCR with the first movie, Star Wars, episode IV. Merlin had promised that if he liked the movie, he would take him to see the new prequel that would come out on the theatres in little over a year.