65Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter/Merlin or any other recognizable characters from other franchises. This fanfiction is not for profit.
Chapter 18
Harry Potter was manually scrubbing the cauldrons that were used in a particularly unpleasant Potions session.
Why was he doing this? Because he'd had the gall to correct Professor Snape over the correct pronunciation of the word coire, which was cauldron in Gaelic.
In his defense, Snape was pronouncing it differently from how Linfred had pronounced it when he was stuck in the past. The language was still in widespread use in Linfred's time. But it turned out the word was one of the few whose actual pronunciation became muddled and distorted with the ages. Thus, Harry was left with no way to prove that was how it was pronounced.
What was worse was that he was sure Snape had a clue about how he knew the correct pronunciation. After all, he had admitted earlier that he was taught by portraits in his ancestral home. The truth being that he was taught by the people in the portraits in his home. But there was no reasoning with Severus Snape once he was set to curb Harry's 'arrogance' in the bud.
"Do make an effort, Potter." Snape sneered behind him. "At this rate, you might be here for a week." He gestured at the many stinking cauldrons he was supposed to clean.
As Snape went back to his table, Harry dearly wished he could perform the Curse of Misfortune on the Professor. But he was sure Dumbledore would find out, and he didn't want to disappoint someone who had helped him so much. So he settled for cheating on the work assigned to him.
Harry wasn't sure which great inscription would be most suitable to undo the damage done to this particular cauldron. Neville Longbottom had brewed in it, and the residue of ingredients left in the cauldron could not be removed by just scrubbing. Snape probably intended to humiliate him by extending his detention for a few days.
'Dang it.' Harry grew irritated. He had to try something.
The repairing charm, he had learned, derived from the Great Inscription of Time. It undid the damage of broken things by a localized time reversal of that object. Atleast, that was what Hermione had figured out from comparing the wand motions and the strokes that make the inscription.
Growing a slow smile, he traced the Great Inscription of Time, ùine, in the cauldron. He visualized the cauldron's previous clean state, and willed his magic to undo the damage done.
Snape's hand landed on his shoulder. "And just what are you doing, Potter?"
Harry gave a startled yelp at the unexpected disturbance. His magic reacted erratically, and given the fact that he was drawing an extremely powerful inscription to control time when he was interrupted and that he was especially prone to time magic as proven by his previous experiences… Well, no points for guessing what happened next.
Harry saw that he was in a forest.
Not in the Hogwarts Potions dungeon, but a forest.
'Aww. Not again.'
"Potter…" He heard a dangerously quiet voice.
"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked serenely.
"Where are we?"
"Hogwarts, I presume." Harry said cheekily. "Or where Hogwarts is supposed to be."
"I will not tolerate cheek, Potter." Snape growled. "Twenty Points from Gryffindor!"
"I'm sure Godric Gryffindor would be aghast, once he is born."
"Potter, what did you do?" Snape said, his tone indicating that Harry should have a very good explanation. Now.
'Well, the cat's out of the bag anyway, so…' Harry sighed. "The Potions residue could not be removed manually because it was formed out of a reaction of Bezoar with Tentacula root."
"So…?" Snape prompted.
"I tried to use a spell similar to Reparo to fix it."
"I forbade you from using magic." Snape growled. "And your wand was with me. Unless you had a spare…"
"You forbade me from using my wand." Harry corrected. "Not magic."
"Are you implying that you can use magic without a wand?" Snape snorted.
Harry extended his palm and a red fire blazed in it.
Snape stared. "Who taught you the magic of the Old Religion?" 'Dumbledore?' He had only seen Dumbledore and the Dark Lord himself using such magic. He shook his head. "More importantly, how did that cause us to be somewhere else?"
"Well, the spell Reparo is actually a localized time reversal magic..."
Snape didn't like where this was going.
"And I thought I might use the Old Religion's root inscription for time magic to fix the cauldron…"
"You're telling me…" Snape began incredulously "That you used the highly dangerous, forbidden and illegal time magic to repair a cauldron?" He took in a long breath "and that caused us to be transported to a time before Hogwarts?"
Harry winced. "Well, this isn't the first time I've time traveled without meaning to…"
"I did notice you were very calm about this, Potter."
"Well, Professor, I have some ability that takes me to different points of time. I can't control when it occurs. So this time it got accidentally triggered when you startled me when I was trying to reverse the damage to the cauldron."
"I see that you're trying to shift the blame to me for your utter incompetence." Snape said acidly. "I shall have a talk with the Headmaster when we get back. I assume you have a way to get back, seeing as this isn't your first time?"
Harry gulped. "Yeah, I do have a way, a kind of portkey through time, but it'll take atleast a day for it to be activated." This was something he had learned while he was with Ignotus.
"Splendid." Snape gritted his teeth. "If by some miracle you are not expelled, you will have detention with me for the rest of the year."
"Gee, you really like me that much, Professor?"
"How dare-"
"What interesting specimens…"
Harry and Snape whipped their head around to see a woman eyeing them with curiosity. She looked to be in her fifties. She wore thick brown robes and its hood covered the top of her head.
"Ah, I see you've noticed me, Wizards."
Harry looked at the woman who had managed to evade his sense of magic. He wasn't sure how she managed it, since the magic radiating out of her was positively terrifying. She was speaking the same older Gaelic dialect Morgana had used.
"Who are you?" Harry asked.
"You speak my tongue well, time traveler." The woman smiled. Harry didn't like her smile. "I am Nimueh, High Priestess of the Old Religion."
Harry swore. He grabbed Snape and vanished in a burst of fire.
"Ah, this shall be amusing, at least." The woman chuckled.
Snape looked around as his surroundings changed. "Potter! Who was that?" Snape freed his hand from Harry's grip. "And why do you look so pale?"
"I transported us to somewhere near the forest of Argonth. The lady we saw was Nimueh." Harry said, looking around to see if Nimueh had followed them. He thanked the heavens that Morgana had taught him the basic transportation spell, a form of space magic.
"Nimueh?" Snape paled. "As in…"
"The one and only." Harry slowly got his breathing under control. Morgana had told him about Nimueh, the terrifying foe of Uther, Arthur, Merlin and herself. Of all the people to attract the attention of, and of all the eras to land in, they came to the worst of times near the most nightmarish of foes.
Snape took in a long breath. "What did she want?"
"She noticed that we were time travellers. I'm not sure what she wants, though it probably won't be anything good."
"When you time travelled before this, was it to this era?" Snape asked. "Do you know anyone here?"
"Umm… No and yes. I didn't travel to this time, but I know someone here." Harry dearly hoped he could find Morgana, and that she was old enough to protect them from Nimueh.
Suddenly, the vines of the surrounding forest encircled and bound them.
"Lasair leaghadh!" Harry screamed. A brilliant fire that materialized in his arm was promptly put out by a vine that grew around his hand. Another vine covered his mouth, preventing him from casting any more spells.
"Disappointing." Nimueh came out from behind a nearby tree. "I was hoping for more of a challenge. But you are a child, after all." She glanced amusedly at Snape's wand, which was held immobile by the vines that entwined his hand. "And the adult is a mere wizard who can't function without his toy." She laughed cruelly.
'Morgana! Morgana! HELP ME!' Harry screamed internally, hoping that by some miracle she would hear him. It was not an uncommon skill among the practitioners of the Old Religion to communicate in a manner similar to telepathy. But Harry did not have the occasion to try it before.
"Ah, it seems I have a visitor." Nimueh turned her head, and Harry felt a surge of relief when he saw who Nimueh was looking at.
"What brings you here this lovely evening, Pendragon?" Nimueh spat.
Morgana kept her face straight as she saw Harry being crushed by Nimueh's vines. Her eyes burned with hatred as she looked at Nimueh.
"Teine ifrinn!" She shouted, pointing at Nimueh. A scorching whip of fire slashed the position Nimueh occupied a moment ago.
"So you want to dance, child of Pendragon?!" Nimueh laughed. She sent a bolt of lightning at Morgana, which hit the space where she no longer was. As Nimueh whipped her head around, she saw Morgana disappearing with her two guests for the evening.
Harry fell, disoriented as he was pulled away by Morgana's magic. His skin had bruised from the unforgiving grasp of Nimueh's vines. He felt Morgana holding his arm and muttering a spell of healing. He got up as the pain subsided and he saw Morgana was already doing the same for Professor Snape.
"This is not how I imagined we would meet, Harry." Morgana turned, smiling.
Harry ran forward and gave her a hug. "If you hadn't arrived just then…" The vines had almost suffocated him.
"It's okay, Harry. I'm here now." Morgana hugged him back. She felt happy seeing Harry outside of her visions for the first time, somehow validating her visions as the truth. At the same time, she felt rage build up against Nimueh, who had taken so much from her and was now targeting Harry.
"Will she follow us here?" Harry glanced around nervously.
"We have set up protections in this place." Morgana assured him. "Merlin and I". Harry felt reassured at that.
"Potter… What in Merlin's name is going on?" Snape demanded, getting up from where he had fallen when they arrived here. The past hour was extremely mind boggling to him.
"Who is this?" Morgana asked, holding back a laughter at the unusual use of Merlin's name.
"Severus Snape, my potions teacher." Harry informed her. "Professor, this is Morgana. She's a friend of mine."
Harry wished he had a picture of Snape's face at that moment.
Snape watched mutely as Potter chatted animatedly with Morgana Pendragon, the Queen of Magic and Ruler of Camelot as history remembered her. He wondered if he had accidentally inhaled fumes of Silene and was trapped in a senseless dream. That would make more sense than the situation he was in now. But he could only act as if this were the reality, on the off chance that it was and he did something stupid that might get himself killed.
'Those two seem close.' Snape resolved himself to be more polite to Harry until they got back to their own time. He did not want to displease one of most powerful entities to walk on earth. Her legendary magic made the Dark Lord seem like a muggle street performer. He had not said a word since Morgana introduced herself, partly because he was asked nothing and partly because for self-preservation.
When their conversation reached a lull, Morgana walked over to Snape.
"Do you understand Runic?" Morgana asked, switching languages to Runic.
"Yes." Snape answered. Runic was a language that changed little over the many centuries of magic use. It was unsurprising he could understand Morgana.
"Forgive me for my manners. This is the first time I saw Harry in person. I was just asking him how he landed himself in this time."
"Oh." Snape felt his stomach drop. What had the brat told her?
"It's a pleasure to meet the teacher of my teacher." Morgana smiled widely. "Morgana Pendragon." She curtsied.
"Severus Snape." Snape bowed low. "A pleasure to meet you, your highness."
"Likewise." Morgana smiled.
"Your Highness, my knowledge of Runic is limited, I might have misheard you. But I believed you referred to me as someone who taught one who taught you."
"You did not mishear me." Morgana grinned. "Harry was the first to teach me of magic."
Snape processed that statement. "Teach you?!"
"Indeed. I was raised by people of non-magical origin. It was only when I met Harry with my Foresight that I was able to speak properly to a magic practitioner. He imparted to me the valuable foundations of magic."
The world stopped making sense to Severus Snape.
"Met him with your Foresight?"
"Yes. You see, Harry has Hindsight, and I have Foresight. This has allowed us to communicate across time."
The pieces fell into place. Not only did Potter have the ability to traverse time physically, he had Hindsight as well. That was what he meant when he said he hadn't been to this time but still knew someone here.
"I was told the two of you arrived at this time when Harry was in the middle of receiving a punishment from you?"
'Oh, you little tattle-tale.' Snape would have glared at Harry if he wasn't petrified of Morgana. "He corrected me in the pronunciation of coire" Snape defended himself.
"Pronunciation of what?"
"Coire." Snape was less confident now. "Cauldron." He repeated the word in Runic.
"Coire." Morgana barely contained her laughter. "Ko-er."
Snape felt blood rushing to his cheeks in embarrassment. Potter had learnt the language in a time it was used. Of course, he didn't know that. And he didn't put much stock into the pronunciation Potter might've picked up from his family portraits.
"I hope Harry won't be punished unfairly when you return?" Morgana asked, appearing merely curious. Snape knew better.
"Of course not." Snape answered, steeling his occlumency wards and putting on his best expression of innocence.
"Good, because I'd hate to see Harry punished for something he has little control over." Morgana smirked. "And I will see it if it happens, since I can control my Foresight to an extent."
Snape vanished any thoughts he had on retribution. He did not expect the most powerful sorceress to ever live and the son of his old enemy to have a teacher student relationship. With the latter being the teacher, no less. He would have to reconsider his approach to Potter.
Morgana gave Snape a piercing look and walked away.
Morgana looked crestfallen when Harry's bracelet was ready to send Harry back to his time. She gave him a hug and presented to him another bracelet, this one for his other arm.
"It will make contacting you easier." She explained while putting it on him.
Harry grabbed hold of Snape's arm as he activated the bracelet to take them home. As soon as they reached Hogwarts, Snape dismissed Harry without another word. Harry grinned all the way back to his dormitory.