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Round Seven: Harry Potter and the Magic Hating Tyrant (Merlin + Harry Potter

When Uther Pendragon woke up on the grass banks of a body of water called which signage suggested was called the 'Black Lake' he knew something was automatically very wrong. Sitting out of his supine position, as Uther looked across the lake and saw a looming tiered structure on the other side of the water, his heart began to race. A grand looking castle stood still, submerging itself in the dim light, Uther counted it to have seven storeys. He did not recognize this place and thoughts began to run through the king's head at a pace he could not keep up with as he wondered whose kingdom he had found himself in. Uther knew that this castle did not belong to any of the rulers of the Five Kingdoms and so, taking caution, he had to assume that at the very worst it belonged to one of the more hostile sovereigns in Albion.

He was standing now, sword drawn. He held the weapon in front of himself as he scoured the area for a boat to sail across the lake. Metres away from the strip of shore was dark foliage which could only have been the edge of a forest, maybe even the eerie Darkling Woods. Uther had no intention to enter the enchanted forest but if he was to be ambush, it would have been his only line of retreat. With no imminent threat to his life, Uther continued to walk along the water's edge until up ahead he saw the silhouettes of three people and stopped dead in his tracks.

Slowly the king of Camelot lowered his sword as the figures began to come into a better view. They were children, no doubt peasant children, who were entertaining themselves by skipping rocks across the lake. They looked entirely unextraordinary and in those few seconds, Uther sheathed his sword, deciding that if there were children around the area there probably was not the threat of an ambush. He approached the children in hope that they would be able to inform him of where exactly he was.

"You there!" Uther shouted as he approached the peasants, who by now had stopped skipping stones and gave the king their full attention. "In whose kingdom do we stand?"

"Kingdom?" A tall lanky boy with a face full of freckles and a head full of red hair spoke, sounding baffled over the question Uther had asked.

"Yes, kingdom." Uther insisted, deciding that this boy was a simpleton and obviously needed a little bit of prompting, "Is it Lots? Carleons...The Fisher King's?" He added the latter's name with a little hesitance, knowing that the Fisher King was a myth but hoping that the if this did prove to be his land, it would explain why Uther was unfamiliar with it.

"Hogwarts?" the red-headed boy said, looking even more perplexed.

"King Hogwarts?" Uther frowned, mirroring the redheaded boy's expression. "Who was his predecessor? Who ruled the kingdom before him?"

"You're bonkers, mate. There are no kings here." The boy said indignantly, "This isn't a-"

"Ronald!" the girl of the group, who had bushy brown hair, interrupted the taller boy, "Maybe he is a muggle who has gotten lost? Maybe somebody placed a memory charm on him? Be a little kinder, we have to help him."

"Hermione," the second boy, who was short, was wearing glasses, had a distinctive scar on his forehead and was topped with messy crow's nest of black hair, spoke up to address the girl now, "maybe this is something for Dumbledore to deal with?"

"I think you are right, Harry." Hermione nodded to the black-haired by, Harry. "Let's take him back to the castle."

With the general consensus amongst the children being that they needed to take this strange man to see Dumbledore (aside from Ron who disagreed, in favour of them all going to Hogsmeade and leaving Uther there) they pulled up a boat from the side of the water and rowed their way across the other side of the lake. Once they were on the other side of the lake, Harry and Ron took the lead in the walk back to Hogwarts whilst Hermione walked beside Uther and engaged in polite conversation with the king.