Hogwarts: Chill, I'm Not That Riddle-Chapter 496: Merlin

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To be honest, if Dumbledore hadn’t brought up the Tears of Isis, Tom would’ve completely forgotten the thing even existed. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He’d handed it over to Nicolas Flamel quite a while ago, and after that Nicolas never mentioned it again. That alone said plenty about how much progress he’d made. So Dumbledore springing this on him today came as a genuine surprise.

Oddly enough, Dumbledore didn’t explain where the information came from. Instead, he asked a question. "Tom, how much do you know about Merlin?"

Merlin?

Tom blinked. He didn’t quite see where this was going, but he answered honestly with what he knew.

"Merlin. The most famous wizard of all time and the greatest wizard in British history. Founder of the Order of Merlin. Slytherin’s proudest student. Also the wizard with the highest pull rate on Chocolate Frog cards—"

Dumbledore’s mouth twitched. "You can leave that last part out. I’ve suggested more than once that the manufacturers raise my own card’s distribution rate, but alas, they seem convinced that scarcity helps sales."

"Oh... right. Then there’s the rest." Tom thought for a moment. "The father of modern magic. He simplified countless spells. The Disarming Charm in its practical form was his work. An absurdly talented wizard."

On that point, Tom felt it keenly. His own Magical Sight alone had helped him more times than he could count, and that was just one of Merlin’s many talents. No one really knew how strong Merlin had been at his peak.

"Professor," Tom added, curiosity getting the better of him, "did Merlin really study at Hogwarts?"

Now that his interest was fully piqued, he pressed on.

"I read ’Hogwarts: A History,’ but it barely mentions him at all. No year of admission, no graduation date. Just that he was in Slytherin, and that he unusually supported and sympathized with Muggles."

"Logically speaking, for someone that famous, even if he didn’t get a full biography, there should at least be a dedicated Chapter, right?"

If Merlin had left descendants, with his status he would’ve certainly been recorded among the Twelve Volumes of History of the Wizarding World. Unfortunately, when Tom had looked into it before, the sources had been frustratingly thin, and he’d had to drop the matter.

"Well..." Dumbledore paused, choosing his words carefully. "That’s a complicated question. Many people believe Merlin was purely a legendary figure, or that he never attended Hogwarts at all, and that the school simply attached his name to itself for prestige."

"But the truth is... Merlin really was a Hogwarts student. Just not in the conventional sense." Dumbledore turned toward the portraits lining the wall. "Everard, perhaps you should explain. After all, you were his headmaster for three years."

Everard?

Tom followed Dumbledore’s gaze and quickly picked out the portrait he meant. A thin old man with an enormous hooked nose stared back at him, looking perpetually half-asleep.

Compared to Phineas’s constant chatter, Tom barely remembered this headmaster ever speaking. Still, he knew Everard had an excellent historical reputation, often praised as one of Hogwarts’ most beloved and respected headmasters, alongside Dilys Derwent.

"Merlin..." Everard murmured as his eyes slowly opened, his expression drifting into memory. After a long while, he finally spoke. "I’m only a portrait. Centuries have passed, and much has faded. But of him... I remember quite a bit."

"I became headmaster in 1563—"

"You’re a hundred years off," Phineas interrupted. "Everard, 1563 was Undercliffe’s term."

"Quiet, you flea," Everard snapped back.

Tom casually flicked a Silencing Charm at Phineas and focused on Everard.

"Merlin appeared at Hogwarts without warning," Everard continued. "Term had already begun. An eleven- or twelve-year-old child simply walked in."

"None of the professors managed to stop him. He came straight to me."

"He told me his name was Merlin. Said he’d been cursed by Morgan le Fay and turned into a child, and that he needed a safe place to recover. I didn’t believe him at first. But his talent was undeniable, so I allowed him to enroll."

"Only later did I realize that everything he’d said was true."

"It wasn’t just his magical ability. It was his rate of growth. In barely a month, he went from a scrawny eleven-year-old to a boy of fourteen or fifteen. Three months after that, he’d matured into a young man more than capable of graduating."

"But he claimed his injuries still weren’t fully healed, and said he wouldn’t be leaving Hogwarts. From then on, he stayed in that form and remained at the school for three full years."

Tom listened intently. He even summoned Andros, Ravenclaw, and several other portraits, pulling them in to share the gossip.

"According to Merlin himself," Everard went on, "he didn’t belong to that era at all. He’d made a mistake while fleeing something and ended up in Britain by accident. He chose Hogwarts because its magical aura was the strongest, which would help him recover faster."

"That was when the legends of King Arthur began to spread. First among wizards, then among Muggles."

"He even stirred up events in the Muggle kingdoms to make the legend take root more deeply. Everything Merlin did was for one purpose: to go home. To return to the era that truly belonged to him."

"In our casual conversations, Merlin mentioned many figures from mythology. He never spoke of Isis, but he did mention Horus."

Everard snorted softly.

"He said he once stole the Eye of Horus and was hunted across the world for it. In the end, he had no choice but to return the artifact to settle the matter. When he talked about it, the resentment was practically dripping from his voice."

A faint, nostalgic smile appeared on Everard’s face. Clearly, those years spent with Merlin were precious memories to him.

"I see..." Tom nodded quietly. He understood what Everard was getting at.

If Horus and Merlin were real, then Isis naturally had to be real as well.

If Horus had been powerful enough to force Merlin to cough up the goods and admit defeat, then his mother was hardly going to be any weaker. That alone made the Tears of Isis a priceless artifact.

At the same time, Everard also dropped another piece of information. The goblins had apparently known Merlin for a long time. Their relationship was... strange. As for the details, even Everard didn’t know what sort of entanglements lay beneath the surface.

"Thank you for sharing this," Tom said politely.

The old headmaster gave a small nod and closed his eyes again, drifting back to sleep.

"How’s Nicolas’s research coming along?" Dumbledore asked. He knew Tom had handed the stone over to Nicolas Flamel.

Tom shook his head. "My teacher hasn’t paid me much attention lately. He’s got plenty on his plate, and the people who attacked him before still haven’t been caught."

"I’m planning to go ask him this weekend."

"There’s a placement exam this weekend," Dumbledore reminded him gently.

Tom froze. "What? The professors are taking our precious weekend away?"

"Well," Dumbledore said mildly, "Minerva went to Japan over the holidays and exchanged ideas with her pen pal there. Coincidentally, that pen pal is also a teacher. She felt that a bit of pressure early on would help students get into the right mindset faster."

Carrying that piece of bad news, Tom left the headmaster’s office with a heavy heart. Before long, the entire school knew. For countless students, it felt like the sky had fallen.

Just yesterday, even moments ago, they’d been congratulating themselves on the idea that the professors might have forgotten about the placement exam. That illusion shattered instantly.

"Professor McGonagall would never forget," Hermione said as she ate with Tom. "She cares too much about grades. Especially with other schools visiting soon, there’s no way she’d make that kind of mistake."

Astoria looked completely drained. "Hermione, what’s there to be happy about with exams, especially on a weekend?"

"Don’t you want two days of proper sleep?"

The girls chattered away. Tom, on the other hand, was distracted. In the study space, he was discussing today’s revelations with the others.

"That makes sense," Rowena Ravenclaw mused, pacing back and forth. "The legends of Merlin were set in my active era, yet there’s no trace of him in my records. It’s very possible he triggered something similar to a Time-Turner effect. Either a wizard from the future, or one from the distant past."

"That’s damn amazing," Andros said bluntly. That kind of straightforward admiration could only come from him.

"I was skeptical about the new wizard ranking after your system update, but now I guess there really is a Wizard King stronger than a Legend—and a more powerful God of Magic as the ultimate tier."

"Tom, if my legends in the Muggle world turned into Heracles, does that mean there actually was a Heracles... or are they just legends about me?"

"After all, Horus and Isis are gods. And there’s that one Grindelwald found clues about, what was it called again..."

"Quetzalcoatl," Grindelwald supplied.

"Right." Andros clapped his hands, then sighed. "So many powerful wizards across history. Shame we didn’t live in the same era as them."

"An era..." Tom rolled the word around in his mind. "How long do you think an era actually is?"

"Who knows?" Ravenclaw shrugged. "It’s a vague concept humans came up with. By geological standards, an era is at least a hundred thousand years. More like millions."

"The ancient ruins I explored never lined up with any clear timeline either. Hard to say."

Tom opened his system panel.

[Achievement Points: 5319]

If this was something even the great minds of their age couldn’t answer, then it was time to ask someone on an entirely different level. The higher the vantage point, the fewer people stood there, but what they saw dwarfed ordinary perspectives a hundredfold.

Maybe this time, he’d even manage to summon Merlin, or Morgan le Fay herself.

And when that happened, all these questions would finally have their answers.

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