Chapter Text
Merlin swayed gently on the swing, enjoying the feel of the breeze today. It was still warm enough that it was enjoyable outside and that a breeze actually felt refreshing instead of chilling. Arthur was laying on grass outside of the woodchip playground as they waited for their friends to arrive. Merlin had been bored yesterday, as Gaius was off at the clinic until later today. Arthur had come over last night after his dinner and had ended up crashing at Merlin’s place, which he did fairly consistently since he didn’t feel comfortable over at Uther’s house anymore when he knew how the man felt about him.
He had told Merlin about the conversation he’d had with the man, and the worries that he had about whether his dad was being genuine. Merlin was worried about that as well, knowing how his father had treated him, but Merlin also didn’t know the whole story. He knew there’d been a bit of neglect, and extreme expectations, but never outright hostility and never hitting, but it had still hurt Arthur deeply in a way that his friend was only beginning to recognize.
And yet, it was clear that Arthur wanted a relationship with his father, so Merlin tried to be encouraging, even while they were both obviously wary.
They had talked for a little while, then resorted to playing games. That was when Gwaine had messaged them all in a group chat to see if they would want to go to a fair together the next day — today.
They were meeting at the park in town since Gwen’s and Elyan’s father knew the man who owned the fair and if they went with them, they’ll all get a discount to get in. Merlin and Arthur had purposely arrived before the others, enjoying the warmth of the sun. Merlin was pretty sure Arthur was playing a game on his phone.
Merlin swung himself a little higher, relaxing his shoulders as he did so. He let his face fall toward the sky, closing his eyes in the brightness and enjoying the heat on his face.
It had been a long time since he’d really been able to relax like this. For so long after his kidnapping, he’d been tense and terrified. But between his new friends and some good help with therapy at the school, he’d really been able to settle down.
He startled as the loud pop — a sound he’d begun to recognize as someone apparating — was heard from the bench near Arthur. Arthur sat up and Merlin saw Morgana appear, looking rather frazzled and still in pajamas. Morgana looked around, catching sight of the two of them immediately.
“Morgana?” Arthur stood up quickly at seeing the panic in his sister. Morgana ran to him, grabbed his arm, and quickly dragged him along to Merlin as well, stepping down into the woodship pit with one large step that almost had Arthur tripping after her. At seeing her, Merlin too had slowed his swing to a stop and stood.
“We have to leave. Now!” She snapped as she moved with intent focus toward Merlin. Merlin strode to reach her.
“What’s going on?” Arthur asked, though he was clearly ready to do as Morgana said.
“I had a dream. I mean, a nightmare. But it felt… Arthur, it felt so real! It was here, at this park. You two were attacked. We need to get out of here.” They reached each other right at the playset and Morgana grabbed Merlin’s arm with a hand that still held a wand, ready to apparate them out of there.
Before she could, Merlin heard a ‘Stupefy’ yelled out across the yard, and suddenly Arthur stiffened and collapsed like a board, arm coming free from Morgana’s hand. Merlin and Morgana instinctively squatted, Merlin’s heartbeat picking up wildly as he looked around until he saw four people dressed in robes heading toward the woodchip pit, wands out. A few spells had gone over their heads, and Merlin ducked down further, slipping behind the slide and helping Morgana pull Arthur underneath to help block any further spells.
As soon as they did so, Morgana quickly said a spell to help remove the curse from Arthur. With how fast she worked, Merlin knew that she truly would be good in her new curse-breaking job. He’d seen her do it before, but never in the heat of a stressful situation like this.
Arthur grabbed for his wand once he was able to move again, even though Merlin knew that he’d be pretty useless with it. He still wasn’t really able to do anything that didn’t have anything to do with dragons or finding Merlin. Merlin himself could do better with magic now, but in the midst of his panic, it was like any instinct to protect suddenly fled his brain. He literally couldn’t think of anything to do as his airways started to restrict.
Morgana popped up from behind the slide a few times, shouting spells, and Arthur followed her move. Even though his magic didn’t work, having a second person probably made it look more threatening.
It seemed to work. No one approached them, rather just shot spell after spell, mainly ones like stupefy. They weren’t wanting to kill them. At least not yet.
But while Merlin was panicking and the others were fighting the four shooting at them, no one noticed the one that slipped behind them. Merlin only noticed when he felt a forceful tug pulling him firmly back against someones chest. He could see Arthur treated just as roughly, someone wrenching his wand out of his hand roughly enough that Merlin figured he’d have splinters if the wands were any less well-made.
“Merlin! Arthur! Morgana!” Merlin heard a couple shouts from behind, seeing Leon, Percival, and Gwaine running up to meet them, casting a few spells, some that immediately stupefied those holding them before they could turn to face the new threats. Merlin and Arthur were dropped back down to the ground, and Merlin scrambled far from their now paralyzed reach.
They were underage using magic outside Hogwarts. Someone should show up soon, right?
But then that thought brought Merlin into another tailspin, remembering the Ministry worker standing over him. The Ministry was supposed to be good. Harry was good, but not all of them were. His ribs were protesting, hands clenching on the woodchips below him.
“Woah, Merlin.” He heard Lance’s voice suddenly. When did he get there? “Come on, Merlin, you’re okay Breathe.”
Pathetic, he thought, feeling tears burning his eyes. The others were fighting, protecting him and Arthur, and here Merlin was, having a panic attack. Even Arthur, who could use the magic, was doing more than him.
You can panic later, he told himself, taking a deep breath and forcing himself to stop spiraling. The feel of Arthur’s hand suddenly gripping his wrist, and the soothing magic his friend was purposely sending, helped to further calm him, allowing him to unclench his hands from the pieces of wood that probably gave him splinters.
Merlin looked up, finding Elyan and Gwen there helping with the fight too. How long had he been panic while the others fought? Most of them were under the playset with them, but Elyan and Gwen we fighting from behind trees behind the wizards trying to get them. Lance helping Arthur try to get Merlin up and moving.
“Come on, let’s get you up,” Arthur murmured. “We need to get out of here.”
Merlin nodded. Forcing shaky knees up and under him, he looked around, realizing there was more than just four wizards he’d seen before and the two that had grabbed them. Quite a few wizards were on the ground, but so were some of Merlin’s friends. Stupified only, he told himself forcefully, hoping he was right. He watched Mordred jump after his wand that lay a few feet on the ground after it was expelled from his hand.
Morgana was crouched over Leon, who had obviously been stupified, reversing the curse. He heard someone yell out, not sure who, and the spells and the magic in the air around him was intense. The noise, the shouting, and spells popping, and cries of occasional pain. The wizards and his friends alike were rushing around and everything was moving too quick for him to follow.
Suddenly everything snapped.
He felt the magic leave him, half purposeful, half on it’s own, reaching out to pull his friends into a protective bubble, literally jerking them off their feet and causing them to fly closer to them until they were practically in around Merlin. Most of them didn’t manage to stick to their feet at the landing. The magic acted as a shock wave to anyone else, every attacking wizard went flying back quite a few feet, landing on their backs.
At the same time, he felt his magic quickly assess and heal any injury that his friends had. The magic swirled. He felt it draining from him into the air and the people around him. It absorbed excess magic as its own and then rushed back toward Merlin.
The last thing Merlin saw was the astonished looks on his friends faces, right before he passed out.
Arthur barely managed to catch Merlin, and was grateful that Lance quickly stepped in as well, keeping a tight grip as a few others rushed toward them, and others helped each other off the ground. Gwen peered into Merlin’s face. While Mordred and Elyan hovered nearby.
“Is he okay?” She asked worriedly.
“I think so.” Arthur nodded, taking a moment to tap into Merlin’s magic. He knew that any magic use took it out of Merlin, and he’d sleep like the dead that night, being fatigued for the rest of the day, but he’d never done so much of it at once as to leave him completely passed out like this. “His magic drains him when he uses it, but he should be fine after some rest.”
They all clustered close, Morgana helping Leon stand, and Percival being fussy over Gwaine as they walked over as well, casting wary glances at the other wizards that were now sprawled all over.
“We should immobilize them.” The quiet, yet firm voice
Morgana was right.
“Morgana, Percival, Gwaine, Mordred; you four make sure to get as many tied up as you can. The Ministry should be here soon, but Gwen, I need you to try to contact Harry if you can, because at this point he’s one of the only Ministry workers I trust. He gave me a pen in my pocket in case of emergency, it’s a portkey that will get me to him when I need to. Leon, go with her. Lance and Elyan, stay here with me, in case anyone else tries to come. We need to get Merlin home, but I don’t want to leave the others here without more backup.”
They didn’t even question Arthur’s instruction, all moving without hesitation to do as he asked. Lance helped Arthur lower Merlin to the ground, one hand instinctively moving to Merlin’s neck to check his pulse, and relaxing as he obviously found it.
“Merlin?” Arthur leaned over his friend, tapping his always too-pale-looking cheeks.
Merlin didn’t respond, but Arthur wasn’t overly worried. He could feel the magic, and it was still strong, even if the energy was taken out of his friend momentarily. He looked up, watching the others.
“What’s going on?” It wasn’t even a few minutes before Harry showed up, three others appearing as well — one of those being Ron. Gwen and Leon made their way back over with the four others following quickly, taking the scene in with a glance that spoke of experience. Harry’s eyes pinned on Arthur and Merlin as he rushed to them.
“These wizards came out of the forest and started attacking us. Two of them grabbed Merlin and I from behind while we were trying to fight some off. I mean, really Morgana was the only one with us at first, and she was defending all three of us practically by herself. Right when they grabbed us the others showed up and were stupified quickly. After a couple minutes Merlin used his magic — a lot of it this time — it tossed everyone back and healed everyone too. I’m pretty sure he just used up too much magic at one time so he passed out.” Arthur said it all quickly, looking between Harry, Merlin, and the others, still trying to keep an eye out as the others helped to bind the people that had attacked them.
It had been truly amazing. Arthur still wasn’t quite sure if Merlin’s magic was quite visible, or if it was just so strong that Arthur imagined he could see it move in the air. The power he gave out made it so he knew exactly how it moved through the air, giving it a near tangible feel to it.
Harry crouched down beside them as the other two helped the others with binding the wizards, then started transporting them back to, Arthur assumed, some sort of prison or something in the Ministry.
He tightened his grip on Merlin, glaring at the now bound and carted off wizards. He hoped they all got a harsh sentence for attacking kids.