The Rising of Merlin

The One With Lancelot's Death Day

Chapter 25 The One With Lancelot's Death Day

Hermione had no idea what had happened the day before. She had met Ron and Harry in the common room before breakfast, and Ron had treated her like she wasn't there. The few times he did acknowledge her, he was being grumpy and cross, like she had done something to him. He acted the same towards Dean and Ginny, and when she asked Harry, he only shook his head and mumbled something about how Ginny was Ron's sister and that it wasn't appropriate.

Sullen and a bit down, she decided to see if she could find Merlin after her classes ended. She found him and Morgana in the owl tower, where Merlin was busy cleaning away months of old owl droppings with a long stick.

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"Hi Merlin! Morgana!" Hermione greeted them after she had closed the door behind her.

"What's wrong?" Merlin stopped what he was doing and hopped down from the stool he was standing on and walked over to her. "You look sad, what's happened?" He was genuinely concerned and she didn't protest when he made her sit down on the stool he had just stood on, which was saying something because it was quite dirty.

"It's Ron." She sighed. "Something happened yesterday but Harry won't tell me what. It's like Ron is mad at me for something and I have no idea why. He's acting like I'm not there and when I try and talk to him, he's all angry and won't give me a proper response." Merlin looked over at Morgana for some help. She only gave him a slight nod of encouragement so he took a deep breath and turned back to face Hermione.

"Does he act like this to others too, or just you?" He asked her. He knew that Ron had a slight crush on Hermione so he found it weird that he would treat her like this.

"He treats Ginny and Dean the same, but Ginny only says that I should ask Ron when I ask her why." Hermione looked down on her feet with a sullen expression on her face.

"You know what; I'll talk to him at dinner and see what's going on. It's probably nothing serious." He squeezed her shoulders reassuringly and she stood up.

"Thank you." She smiled at him and walked over to the door. "I shouldn't keep you from your job any longer. See you at dinner." She walked out the door before Merlin had a chance to respond properly to her. He didn't mind her being there when he worked; it was a nice break from Morgana. Not that he would tell either of them that.

"You care about her." Morgana stated when he stood up on the stool again and began cleaning away owl dirt.

"She's my friend; of course I care if she's hurt." Merlin scrunched up his face when a piece of extra dirty owl droppings fell down on his face.

"Maybe she's more than a friend." Morgana said nonchalantly and gave Merlin a handkerchief to clean himself with.

"We're just friends, Morgana, nothing else." He said sternly and handed the handkerchief back to her after he had cleaned himself.

"I'm just saying." She raised her eyebrows. "She probably wouldn't mind if you became more than friends."

"Well, that's something we'll never find out now, is it." He poked the owl droppings hard with his stick but it wouldn't come off. Morgana just shrugged.

"How about Ron?" She said after a few minutes of silence.

"What about him?" Merlin knew she was up to something but he didn't have the energy to play games so he just asked.

"Do you like him more than a friend?" She said it in a sweet innocent voice but Merlin knew that she felt very smug on the inside. She loved playing mind games.