The Rising of Merlin

The One With the OWLs

I want to thank my Beta, Crazy-about-books, for editing this chapter. Thank you =)

Now, on with the story =)

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Chapter 12 The One With the OWLs

"What is your name?" Dumbledore asked him. It took everything Merlin had to fight the urge to lie to him. He had told him parts of his story and it was only right that he knew his name as well.

"My name is Merlin." He finally said. He could see Dumbledore's eyes widening in surprise. 'He probably didn't expect that.' Merlin thought, a bit smug.

"I guess I shouldn't be so surprised." Dumbledore finally said after a few minutes of gaping like a fish. It was a very comical expression since it wasn't something you would expect Dumbledore to make. "After all," he continued. "You said you were born in the 7th century and that is when Merlin lived." He finished with a twinkle.

"You're not angry at me for lying?" Merlin had to ask, because that's what he was most worried about.

"I understand why you would hesitate to tell us. After all, everyone thinks you're dead."

"And that is what I want them to continue to believe. I know how you see me in the Wizarding world and I'm not sure I can live up to that." Merlin said with a sigh. Like he had told Aithusa, he didn't want to be viewed as a God-like creature. That was Emrys, not Merlin. Merlin was just a regular person who happened to have magic. At least, that's what he told himself.

"Legends have a tendency to distort the truth, but I'm positive that when people get to know the real people behind the legends, they will see how utterly wrong they were." Dumbledore told him. Merlin looked up at him with a hopeful look in his eyes. "I'm not saying that they would stop worshipping you, but they might accept you for who you truly are." Dumbledore may be a crazy old man sometimes but deep inside he was a wise man who knew exactly what to say to make things better.

"You really think so?" Merlin almost whispered.

"I truly do." Dumbledore stared down at him from his half moon spectacles. "Now, what do you say we get out from this storage room? Between you and me, there are a lot of spiders in here."

Merlin couldn't help but chuckle at that, as they made their way outside. Merlin walked with Dumbledore to the outside of the wards. When they got there, Dumbledore turned towards Merlin.

"I hope you have a wonderful summer, Merlin, and we will talk more about this when you arrive at Hogwarts." And with that he turned on the spot and disappeared, leaving Merlin alone with his thoughts.

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Harry had spent the last two weeks stuck at Private Drive 4. That had left him a lot of time to think about everything that had happened before he left Hogwarts. The thing, or person really, that he thought most about was Marcus Embrose. He was a big mystery that needed to be solved. He knew that he sounded a bit like Hermione when he thought about it that way, but deep inside; Harry was just as eager to solve mysteries, like Hermione was. He just did it without reading through every book in the library.

He wanted to know who Marcus really was. He could tell that the stories he had told them weren't the entire truth. And he still hadn't figured out why he had flinched,when Hermione mentioned Merlin in the Great Hall. He hoped that Ron had some luck in finding out things about him while Harry himself was stuck. 'But not for much longer.' He thought. Dumbledore had sent him a letter the day before, stating that he would pick him up today. Of course, Harry couldn't be sure that it was really true. He had only stayed at Privet Drive for two weeks so far. So he hadn't packed yet. He didn't want to be disappointed and then be forced to unpack everything.