Meeting Merlin

Merlin was strolling through the halls of Nurmengard and up to where he could sense Grindelwald's magical signature "Oh, how the mighty have fallen," he snorted, seeing the man huddled in a corner. By his calculations, it had only been a couple of days since the duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald had ended in the former's favour.

Grindelwald's head snapped up "How did you get in here?" he asked, his voice raspy.

Merlin grinned, wiggling his fingers "Magic."

"Don't get smart with me, boy," the Dark wizard snarled.

"Who are you calling boy, huh?" Merlin shot back, leaning against the wall opposite of the cell "I only came here to talk to you about something. Not that it matters much anymore, I suppose..."

Grindelwald raised his eyebrow "And what would that be?"

"Oh, well..." A smirk crossed Merlin's face "You know that your goals are stupid, right? Like... I don't tend to get in the way of a Dark Lord or even care enough to speak to them but wow. Even Morgana comes up with better plans than you did. And hers are horrible. Give her a potion recipe any day but her plans tend to fail. Horribly."

Grindelwald surged forward, wrapping his hands around the bars "Who are you to judge me? And what are you on about 'Morgana'?"

Merlin grinned, not looking bothered by the dangerous – or not so dangerous – wizard across from him "Oh, right. Hi. Merlin. Nice to... Well, actually..."

Grindelwald stared at the boy for a moment, trying to get his brain to work. Merlin? This slip of a boy is supposed to be the greatest wizard of all times? The notion was simply ridiculous. On the other hand... Wait. Did Merlin just imply? "What do you mean my goals are stupid? We are so much better than muggles."

"Oh, I know," Merlin shrugged "To be honest, I gave up on mundanes around the time the witch trials started but do you actually know how many mundanes are out there? Once they find out about us, nothing will be safe. You might think you're all-powerful, but nothing stands in the way of scared mundanes." He paused for a moment, licking his lips "I should be telling you this but right this moment some mundanes are working on a weapon that would make Fiendfyre look like child's play. That weapon can eradicate the lives of thousands and thousands of people without a problem and we could do nothing about this."

"You..."

Merlin raised his hand and waved it around "I'm actually on board with the whole Dark magic thing. Without darkness, there is no light. I learned that a long time ago." He stepped closer to the bars of the cell and reached out to tilt up the other man's head "I would gladly let you out of here if I thought you would be able to change. Mundanes need to stay in the dark about us. The more people know, the more dangerous it gets."

"Why are you telling me this?" Grindelwald frowned, blinking at the young-looking man in front of him.

Merlin shrugged "I just thought it would be good to have some closure. Who knows, Morgana and I might eventually let you out of here if we think you deserve it. We have been watching for a long time."

Grindelwald tilted his head "You haven't interfered before?"

"No," Merlin shrugged "We have been trying to stay away but the way Wizarding Britain is being run into the ground after everything we did for it... We can't just stand by anymore. For now, we will continue to observe but with Dumbledore rising in power somehow, I doubt things will end up better. He is too enamoured with mundanes to keep them in the dark the way they should have been."

"Dumbledore is a bloody fool," Grindelwald hissed, his mismatched eyes darkening.

"Oh, I am well aware of that," Merlin shrugged "And frankly, I'm a bit disgusted that people compare me to that man."

Grindelwald snorted "Well, I can say with certainty that you are a lot different from the stories."

Merlin groaned, running his hand through his hair "If I ever meet the idiot who wrote about my 'adventures in Camelot' I'm going to kill them, resurrect them and kill them again. Or maybe I'll hand them over to Morgana..." He grimaced and got up "Well, it was nice talking to you, but I have to go now."

"Wait," Grindelwald called out "Will you be back?"

"Maybe," Merlin shrugged "Can't leave you with only Dumbledore showing up, can I?"

Grindelwald groaned "He'll show up?" He shook his head "Of course, he will. That bloody idiot can never not gloat about something."

"I might bring Morgana next time." Merlin waved with a cheeky grin "I'm sure the two of you would get along... On second thought, maybe I won't bring her. The world won't survive that meeting."

I have a couple more ideas for a bit of a series of One Shots should you be interested. Leave a Review if you'd be interested.