Chapter Text
"Merlin, you're needed. Your office, soon as possible." The note had not been on his desk a moment ago- thick calligraphy set upon parchment, he would have noticed it- and was obviously important. He was reluctant to leave his station, he was in the middle of guiding two agents himself, but the wizards couldn't wait to tell him, so he grabbed an agent who had just finished his last task, and sat him as his station.
Only so many people could make things appear from thin air after all.
"Take over here, Lucan. Gawain just needs to get to his extraction point and he's golden, but he needs to watch for this hall, and on this side is Bedivere; there's hostiles three halls down but as long as he's careful and quiet nothing should happen. Be quiet, be concise, and let them do their jobs." He didn't want to leave something like this in anyone else's hands, but his experience with wizards was not a kind one. He did not want to keep them waiting- and Lucan had been the only unoccupied agent in the room. "If you need assistance, or need a question answered, tap into my glasses feed. I'll answer as best I can until I get back."
The halls were familiar, now, though he held no more affection for his destination than he did 18 years ago. He had not liked Scrimgeour one bit (though his countenance had helped shape his own) and Robards had been not one whit different. There was no use in updating them on current events, they didn't remember even the largest points of not on the 'muggle' end of things, and quite honestly he had taken to making up natural disasters and names as of recent just to keep himself entertained. It wasn't as if Arthur had access to these meetings or the records of them, and if he did he certainly never admonished Merlin for his actions. Small pleasures.
The room smelled of ashes and the tang of recently performed magic, and there was already someone sitting at the desk when he walked in. The portraits were laughing quietly at something the man had said, even as he waved them off and shushed them, apparently wholly aware that the room was not impenetrable without having acknowledged his presence. There was a chair already conjured, something that no other visitor had done (they seemed to have this incessant need to prove they could do these impossible things repeatedly), and it was far more homely than the ghastly fixings the other wizards had made for themselves. The man stood after the paintings had calmed themselves, and casually walked up to him. He was dressed in jeans and a pressed shirt, obviously more at home in the muggle world than either of Merlin's past wizard visitors, and as he smiled and offered his hand Merlin for once wasn't wholly dreading this meeting.
"Afternoon, Merlin. Tea?" Green eyes peered through brown spectacles, and black hair looked far more windswept than styled- but who was Merlin to judge wizard fashion? There was a set of china upon the desk, which he hadn't noticed before, cups steaming.
"Afternoon. What can I do for you- where's Robards?" There was a wariness in his voice. Merlin honestly hadn't wanted to ask about him, but it seemed only polite.
"Retired; you'll not have to see him again. I mean, honestly, he did his job well but with that attitude... I doubt you two got much done in your meetings. He was difficult to work with on my end, I can't imagine on yours." He breathed out an exasperate chuckle that gave way to the clink of china as the bespectacled man picked up his tea and took a sip.
"You could say that, yes. And who are you, exactly?" It was too much to hope that this man would be the new liaison between their offices. He was too put together in this world- there certainly had seemed to be a prerequisite for awful fashion sense for the previous wizard Merlins.
"Harry Potter, the new Merlin on our side. Do you really do things like in those James Bond films?" Well colour him surprised, it seemed that something had changed on their end of things enough for someone at least vaguely likable to hold office. Though he could not possibly have heard Potter correctly-
"I'm sorry?"
"The whole spy thing. Is it really like those James Bond films, with the explosions and cool gadgets? I mean, magic's great and all but being an actual spy must be brilliant." Potter was leaning on the balls of his feet, somehow managing to look shy and eager at once.
"Not always, no. It's a lot of information gathering and hacking, actually, but there are occasionally explosions. We try to avoid them, though- they draw far too much attention. The gadgets, on the other hand... Forgive me, but I wasn't aware that wizards even knew who Bond was." In fact Merlin had been quite thoroughly convinced that wizard kind as a whole disliked 'muggles' and 'muggle' inventions alike.
"Well the last two certainly didn't, but I was raised on this end of things and my best friend's muggleborn. She keeps me up to date with major stuff while I'm busy on our end." Potter ran a hand through his hair, looking for all the world like someone sheepishly admitting to having done wrong.
"Muggleborn?"
"Exactly what it sounds like- she was born here in the muggle world but has magic- her parents are actually a pair of dentists. It's surprisingly common, though many people would rather fall arse over tit than admit it. Luckily that's changing, but it's slow goings, there's too much 'tradition' that we can't step on to work around." He sat down heavily in the conjured homely chair, forearms resting on his knees as he looked at Merlin eagerly.
"Now then, to business. I don't know how you've handled things between our agencies before but I'm a more of a hands on man. I'd like to be able to at least vaguely understand what's going on at your end of things most of the time- no specifics, I understand confidentiality and all that- but I can't help if you have to explain every facet of something when asking for assistance. In return, I'm willing to explain whatever I can about our end of things- and if I can't explain it I'll bring in someone who can."
"Hopefully your assistance won't be necessary very often; we've certainly managed the last few decades with none. Or as close to none as your predecessors could manage to get away with." Merlin's bitter, he knows this. There are so many things that would never have gotten as far as they had if someone with magic had lent a hand, lives that could have been saved, and who knows the potential help magic could be now. "But thank you. How am I supposed to contact you, if I don't have access to this room? I've always just sent a message with a portrait with news- I assume cell phones and such don't work in your neck of the woods."
"Not as such, no. Well, they didn't- they don't- we're working on it. It's difficult to find people to work on these kinds of projects. There's still this stigma about using muggle technology- my father-in-law's still frowned upon for being fascinated by electricity! We're working on it, though- calling it technomancy to make it more appealing," Potter shook his head as if trying to clear it, a hand rubbing the back of his neck, "to the common wizard. But, again, it's taking forever to get off the ground- not enough people versed in technology on our end of things. And those that are, are versed in stuff so outdated I doubt you could find them anywhere outside of a museum-" There was a ping from his glasses, and Merlin held up a hand to stop Potter from continuing before turning from him bodily.
"One moment- one of my team is calling for assistance." Accessing the feed, it turned out that Percival had stopped in and took over the feed from Lucan sometime earlier. He was just letting Merlin know that Gawain and Bedivere's missions had been completed successfully and they were on their way to HQ for delivery. Merlin nodded, acknowledging the update, before shutting the feet back off and turning back to Potter. "Sorry about that, I had to leave some important tasks to my team when I got your message- didn't know how urgent it would be."
"Sorry for the inconvenience- I can only imagine the chaos that this place can be." Potter seemed almost wistful, as if he missed chaos on a similar scale, which was confusing but not his problem.
"Yeah, well, what do you have to modify, for it to work on your end? I'm not exaggerating when I say that having that kind of access to you and your people could be invaluable. If we're actually going to work as a real partnership I'd like to help if I can." He pulled the conversation back to business- it wasn't that he knew all that much about magic, but tech was something he knew better than anyone. Something that had only improved with age.
"It looks like the batteries just short out when exposed to magic- I don't understand a lick of it, but I'll get Hermione to come in. Maybe you two can fix it. I'll set up a two-way parchment to arrange a time- I'll send over a few options and we'll figure out what works best."
"Sounds like a plan. Now then, if I'm going to have you outside of this room," Potter's eyes widened, "then I'm going to be calling you Morgana." Merlin smirked.
"Isn't that toeing the line a bit?"
"Well I can't go about calling you Merlin, now, can I? We haven't had a proper Morgana since before I was initiated, and it's unlikely that anyone's going to over think your codename- most of ours are assigned by luck, chance, and loss after all." There was a somber pause, a moment of silence for those long since lost, before Merlin continued. "I'm not sure how much you wizards train physically, considering what I've seen of your magic you don't have to be exceptionally fast physically to evade attack, but we have training facilities if you'd like to use them. And a shooting range, but just be sure to keep references to magic nonexistent- there are very few people here with the clearance to know about you lot."
"That'd be wonderful, thanks- it's hard to find a decent gym on our side. I've never used a gun before, though- I'll need some help with that."
"That can be arranged. Now then, let's give you a proper rundown of how things are done out here. It's kind of like James Bond- but it takes a lot of people to keep an operation like this one going."
"Hey, do you think you can make my glasses like yours- with the calls and stuff?"
"Maybe someday- for now, let's concentrate on fixing the cell phone issue. One step at a time, Morgana." They walked out, Merlin's voice fading as the door shut behind them, the two of them looking simultaneously serious and at ease with their new work arrangement.