The Warlock and the Dragonlord

Arthur found the feeling to be even worse than the portkey, nearly groaning as he made it back and almost losing his grip on Merlin. He and Merlin were immediately pushed onto the couch where Merlin promptly curled up, face into Arthur's side as his skin color turned slightly green from the move. Arthur could feel the magic in Merlin panic at the use of someone else's magic on him, so Arthur only pulled him closer and continued to whisper in his ear soothingly.

"Merlin?" Gaius came closer quickly, gently moving the other wizards out of the way to land beside his nephew and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Merlin flinched, yet at the same time he turned back slightly, withdrawing one hand from Arthur for Gaius but otherwise not moving. "Uncle Gaius?"

"Oh, my boy." Gaius' voice trembled. "I'm so glad to see you."

Merlin didn't answer, but he did tighten his grip on Gaius' hand and bring it closer to his chest.

"He's hurt," Ginny whispered to Gaius. "We really need to look over him. It would be best to get him to St. Mungo's because we should see what damage has been done, magically. We have great healers there."

Gaius nodded and leaned over Merlin. "My boy. Can we move you? We should get you checked over."

Merlin shook his head frantically, but he didn't speak. Arthur almost winced at the tightening of his fingers in his shirt as it got a bit of Arthur's skin in there too.

"Merlin, please, we can see you're hurting." Ginny tried. "We only want to help heal the damage. Can you at least tell us what happened?"

At those words, Merlin started sobbing, curling tight into a ball. Arthur watched, wide-eyed as his chipper — yet always so nervous — friend fell apart. Gaius moved to sit down at Merlin's back, rubbing his arm gently while his other stayed squished in Merlin's grasp.

"Just give us a bit to calm him down," Gaius whispered to the others. "Go into the kitchen. If anyone else gets back, please just send them home. I think the less people here with Merlin, the better."

Ginny hesitated a long moment, staring in concern at Merlin, but when she saw Gaius and Arthur's gaze, she finally relented, pulling Ron, Patricia, and Morgana to the kitchen with her.

Every once in a while, in between Merlin's crying, he could hear some quiet whispers coming from the other room.

It wasn't too long after that, before anyone else even made it back — though Arthur wondered how many of them were even intending to come back here now that the job was over — that Merlin finally managed to drift into a rough sleep. He jerked and whimpered every couple of minutes, but was obviously too exhausted to rouse fully.

Even as Ginny finally peeked her head back through the door and saw Gaius wave her over, he still slept.

Gaius spoke quietly to her. "I've tried to do as much of a visual on him as I can. Outwardly, he's got a deep cut on his arm, that they covered with a bandage. He's bruised and has quite a few scrapes. Without getting him some x-rays, I can't see if anything is wrong on the inside, and I don't know what kind of damage magic can do, if any was used on him."

"I can do one better than x-rays." Patricia smiled warmly at him. "I'll just do a diagnostic with magic to see what kind of damage he has, then I'll do the best I can to help. Do you think we can get him to St. Mungo's, the magical hospital?"

Gaius shook his head. "I fear that trying to move him more might injure something in him more, and even more than that, if he woke up again in a place he didn't recognize, I think him panicking would be worse than his injuries for him."

Patricia nodded. "In that case, I'll do the scan, do the best I can to heal him magically, and bring back potions of whatever he needs that you guys can try to convince him to drink."

Arthur felt his shoulders relax slightly as they finally had a start of a plan for helping his friend. Merlin still didn't let go of his shirt even in his half sleep, and Arthur kept the soothing rhythm going in Merlin's hair.

Arthur watched in interest as Patricia started working, though as he continued sitting there, the lack of sleep for the last few nights started to hit him now that Merlin was semi-safe, and though he didn't fully fall asleep, the talking kind of became a bit muffled in his ears, and he watched everything dispassionately. For it being one of the first times magic was used in front of him, he really should have more interest.

He watched as she scanned his body with the wand, and it wasn't until he heard Gaius ask, "What is it?" that Arthur finally jerked out of the funk he'd slipped into. And then, it wasn't until that moment that he also realized how unusual the sudden tiredness was. He felt as though the magic in him was using Arthur's own energy and sending it to Merlin, as though… as though Merlin was using it to help himself.

"I think the man used the cruciatus curse," she murmured, alarmed.

"What's that?" Gaius asked, as Morgana gasped behind him. Arthur looked back at her, seeing the horror in her gaze, and Ginny's as well, who still stood back with Morgana.

"It's a dark spell that causes intense pain. It's forbidden for a reason, because it can absolutely destroy the nervous system." Patricia swallowed hard, but her eyebrows furrowed. "But it's as though it is healing on its own."

Gaius hesitated a moment, and Arthur saw the concern on his face. Arthur knew what he was going to say, but only because he currently felt it happening.

"Merlin has always been… a very quick healer. His magic… well, I mean, it seems to protect him, to an extent. Maybe not during, but at least after the fact."

Arthur was grateful for that, even as he knew, without a doubt that Merlin and Merlin's magic wouldn't hurt Arthur — he wouldn't take the healing too far too incapacitate him — he was grateful for the connection to help heal him.

"I'll bring by some potions that'll help him heal faster, and some that might calm his mind when he wakes. We'll probably have Harry or McGonagall come back tomorrow evening, after he has time to rest for a bit."

Gaius narrowed his eyes, slightly suspiciously in Arthur's mind, but didn't comment on that. "We might be back at my place by then, so I'll write down my address just in case."

"That would be good." Patricia nodded in thanks. "I'll go and be right back. Maybe you can try to get Merlin somewhere a little more comfortable while I'm gone."

"He can stay in my bed. It's big enough, and he's not really letting me go anyway." Arthur volunteered, blinking heavily. And he'd really like to be able to sleep himself, but he couldn't dare leave his friend right then.

"Where is father?" Morgana asked him suddenly.

Arthur looked up at her, blinking. "Working, probably." He responded instinctively. At Morgana's furrowed eyes, he realized that every time Morgana had come home for holidays, Uther had made it a point to be home as much as possible to see her. Having not come home last night, then being out still today… well, Morgana hadn't seen that before.

"Wasn't he out late last night?" She asked, predictably.

"Yeah." Arthur shrugged, for once not having an wherewithal to try and filter any words on that topic.

"I haven't seen him at all since I've been here," she muttered suddenly.

"Probably busy." Arthur moved to start helping Merlin into the room, as Ron also stepped closer with Gaius and the three of them carefully shifted him into Ron's arms the best they could.

"Busy?" Morgana shook her head. "Arthur, he's been gone at least twenty-four hours."

"Yeah…" Arthur looked at her, feeling Ron's discomfort with the topic.

"Is he always this busy?"

"I'd say usually." Arthur moved right along with Merlin's grip in his shirt, walking into the bedroom and settling down beside him when Ron laid him under the covers.

Gaius patted his shoulder. "How about you lay down too, Arthur. Get some sleep. We'll watch over the both of you."

Arthur wanted to protest, but to be honest, he was absolutely dead on his feet.

His last thought was to think how Morgana was most certainly not going to let the topic alone. He expected a full interrogation later.

Later being the key word, because maybe then he could actually know how to answer her.