The Rising of Merlin

The One With the Christmas Party

Chapter 28 The One With the Christmas Party

"How are things going with Snape?" Morgana asked Merlin.

"Surprisingly good actually, the memories have faded now and he seems to have come to terms with it." Merlin answered. They were walking down to the lake, over the snow-covered grounds.

It had been a few weeks since Merlin had showed his memories to the Professor and the whole school was filled with anticipation for the coming Christmas break. The snow had finally come the night before and since Merlin had finished early with his work for Filch, and the trio had classes, he and Morgana decided to walk down to the lake and enjoy the clear blue sky and crisp air.

"That's good." Morgana smiled. "And how are things between you and Hermione? You've been spending a lot of time in the 'Room of Requirement'." She asked as they reached the lake.

"She's a fast learner." Merlin said with a hint of a smile when he thought about their last session. "She now knows five different spells by heart."

"That's impressive." Morgana said with a hint of surprise. "What kind are they?

"Well, it's the stunning spell of course, Hleap on bæc," He looked at her and she nodded in confirmation. "Then there's the fire spell, Forbearnan, the sleeping spell, Swefe nu, a spell to open doors, Tospringe, and lastly a summoning spell, Onbregdan."

"Very good." Morgana said improvingly.

"They're not as powerful as when we use them but it's a start." Merlin smiled. "How about we find a place to sit down?" He said and swept his gaze over the shore until he found a nice place by some trees. He placed the blanket he had brought with, on the ground for them to sit on.

"This is nice, Merlin. We should do this more often." Morgana said when she had sat down and let the sun warm up her cheeks.

"We defiantly should, we haven't had much time to just sit down and talk since you came back." He mused.

"About that," Morgana began. "There's one thing I've wanted to ask you."

"What would that be?" He turned his head to look at her.

"What's with the beard?" She said bluntly, quirking her mouth a little as she looked at his slightly baffled expression.

"My beard? What's wrong with that?" He was really surprised by her question; he had thought she would ask about Arthur or something like that.

"You never had one in Camelot but now you never go one day without it. Are you trying to look more mature?" She asked very seriously but he could detect the smile behind her stoic expression.

"I like it." He answered with fake hurt in his voice, and rubbed his cheeks a little. "It suits me, makes me look sophisticated." He said with pride.

"It does, actually." She gave him a once over. "Makes you look more handsome." She continued but shifted her gaze to the lake instead, which was lucky because Merlin had started to blush a little by her intense staring and words.

"Good that we agree on something then." He said playfully and shifted his gaze as well out over the lake. "I got it in the late sixties, right before Woodstock I think." He tried to remember back. "Of course, it was a lot longer then, my hair as well. You could say I was a bit of a hippie." He smiled.

"You were a hippie?" Morgana asked with a baffled expression.

"So you've heard of them?" He wasn't sure if she had read that part of history yet.