The Rising of Merlin

The One With the Rat

Chapter 24 The One With the Rat

Merlin woke early the next day. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and he was supposed to help Hagrid the whole day. He had already arranged for Morgana to meet up with the trio and join them in the library, while they studied. She wanted to learn about the New Magic and the best place to do that was in the one place that could out-concur Merlin's own library, when it came to all things magical.

So he walked alone down to Hagrid's hut. He was met by Fang, who barked enthusiastically and wagged his tail when he saw who it was.

"Hello, Fang. How are you doing boy?" Merlin crouched down so he could pet Fang all over. His favourite place was behind the ears, which Merlin gladly complied with.

"Who's there?" Merlin heard Hagrid call and soon the half-giant himself appeared from behind the hut. "Oh, it's yeh, Marcus." He sounded happy but Merlin noticed that he was holding a crossbow.

"What's with the crossbow, Hagrid?" Merlin asked and stood up.

"I need teh go into the forest, Aragog is getting sicker." Hagrid said sadly and began walking towards the closest garden patch, with Merlin following closely after.

"Do you need company? I would gladly come with you." Merlin told him and he really meant it. He had never seen an Acromantula before.

"Tha's alright, Marcus, but I better go myself. The other ones are getting a bit agitated, yeh see. Wouldn't want yeh hurting yourself." Hagrid said with a half-smile.

Merlin didn't say anything more about the subject, he only nodded. When they arrived at the garden patch, Hagrid showed him his work for the day. He was to weed the first ten rows of vegetables and potatoes.

The rows were long so it took almost the entire day before he had finished. When he walked back to the hut to put away the tools, he saw Hagrid coming out of the forest.

"How was he?" Merlin asked when Hagrid had come up to the hut.

"He's sicker. I don' think he have many weeks left now." Hagrid sounded on the verge of tears, so Merlin decided to take him inside the hut and make some tea for him.

He stayed with Hagrid well past dinner time so when he eventually made his way to the castle, the Great hall was already empty.

Since he was still hungry, he decided to make a detour to the kitchen.

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"Mr Emrys, sir." The house-elves greeted him when he walked into the kitchen.

"Please, you can call me Merlin." Merlin always felt embarrassed when he was shown such respect from others, be they magical or humans.

"What can we do for you, Mr Merlin?" The closest house-elf, Funny, asked him.

"Well, I kind of missed dinner so I was wondering if you had any leftovers?" Merlin scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Anything for you, Mr Merlin." Funny bowed and scurried away to fetch some food. She returned a few minutes later with three other elves, all carrying plates and bowls of food.

"Thank you." Merlin bowed back, which elicited excited squeaks from the elves.

Merlin only laughed at their behaviour and made to walk away with the food. He stopped by the door and waved them goodbye before he closed the door.

He made his way to his chambers and when he walked in, he was greeted by Morgana, Harry, Ron and Hermione, sitting in the living room.

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