Chapter 25

"Severus!" Harry shouted excitedly after bursting through the study without knocking. Snape who had been pouring over several documents was startled by the sudden intrusion and glared at Harry.

"Knocking exists for a reason," the dour man grumbled.

"Yes, yes, sorry," Harry said though he clearly wasn't. "You will never guess what I found!"

"Is that rhetorical or are you actually expecting me to guess?" Severus questioned. "If so then the list of possibilities would be too long since you tend to stick your nose in too many odd situations."

"You know what, I'm not even insulted by that comment," Harry responded while walking back towards the now-open double doors and dragging a huge painting inside.

"Unhand me this instance, you rapscallion!" The person in the painting rebuked rather harshly. "How dare you bang me against several surfaces!"

"First of all... it was only two doorways," Harry defended. "And second, I thought you wanted to be able to roam outside your frame,"

Harry turned the painting to face Snape without waiting for the painting's answer. Mordecai meet Severus Snape your descendant. Severus meet Mordecai, the founder of the Prince family,"

"I apologize on behalf of Mr. Potter. He can be a hellion." Snape stated impassively.

"I can believe that," Mordecai replied. "It's a wonder you haven't gone grey yet."

"Indeed," Snape muttered.

"Hey now!" Harry uttered. "Well, at least you two are getting along even if it's at my expense,"

"Po-Harry," Snape corrected. "Please explain."

"Okay, so Mordecai, here, got cursed to be locked in his frame until the Pendragon wand, which he hates the name of by the way," touches his frame. In return for freeing him, he has promised to tell us the unfiltered Prince family history,"

"And I would care why?" Severus asked while crossing his arms. "You and I both know why I took on this Lordship. I fail to see why I would be interested in the history of the family that condemned my mother,"

"Well... uhm..." Harry thought of a good comeback while Mordecai balked at Snape's response. "Knowledge is power, remember," Harry pointed out. "The more you know about this family the more prepared you can be. According to your great-grandfather's painting, none of the previous Lords knew the whole history. Isn't having information no one else has a good thing for a Slytherin," he continued pressing.

"Come on Snape, aren't you at least a bit curious?" Harry pressed.

"Okay, fine. What exactly do I need to do?" The Potion master asked.

"Just touch your wand to the frame he said. It has to be that specific wand," Harry added.

Mordecai watched in bathed breath as his descent produced his father's wand and touched it to the canvas. A blue glow enveloped the painting before disappearing and Mordecai tentatively reached out of the frame. When nothing bad happened, Mordecai ran out of his frame and appeared in one of the frames in the study—a quaint pasture painting. The man had so much glee that he disturbed the cows' grazing and evoked the wrath of a nearby painted steer. The creature charged at Mordecai, horns ready to pierce the man's armor but the man in question ran out the other end of the frame and fell into another painting. This time Mordecai face-planted onto a large sunflower.

"Okay, for the record, I was not expecting any of that," Harry stated.

"It feels great to be free!" Mordecai exclaimed as he sat atop a swaying giant sunflower. The oil painting was of a sunflower field at sunset and hung behind Snape's desk. "Come closer, my friends and benefactors. I shall not renege on my promise to tell you of this family's history. In fact, I shall do so in great detail!"

"Picture it, the 500's AD." Mordecai began, now sitting cross-legged on the sunflower. "I, Mordecai, was the youngest son of Mordred Pendragon. I had an older half-brother named Melian. We did not share mothers. Melian's mother was a Welsh woman named Cwyllog but after giving birth to him she left him and Melian was raised by the wetnurse. My father fell for the nurse's motherly nature and I was conceived.

"We would have been raised accordingly at the time as the Heir and the Spare, had it not been for Mordred's strained relationship with his father Arthur. While Mordred was Arthur's only heir at the time he was still considered a bastard. Arthur was content to make Mordred his heir, especially when it came to light that Queen Guinevere could not conceive due to poisoning. However, the faction that was against a bastard taking the throne of the Brittons framed Mordred for the kidnapping and subsequent poisoning of Guinevere. This created an even bigger rift between father and son. The breaking point came when Arthur caught Mordred practicing magic in the forest. Arthur, who had in his later years, taken on a disdain for magic, whipped his son publicly for its use and then proceeded to name an outsider, and Roman, as heir, Constantine," The name was spat with such vitriol that Harry gulped.

"A Roman! Can you believe it! Those curr should never have stepped foot on Britton soil!" Mordecai hissed.

Of course, the Saxon faction supporting my father as heir would not sit still at this blatant insult. At that time Melain and I were already past ten summers old and joined the uprising. We were there when Mordred slayed Arthur. He drove Clarent straight through the man's heart. Fitting end really," Mordecai stated. "Clarent was initially a ceremonial sword, gifted when Mordred became a knight of the Round Table. Now it pierced the heart of a man who could easily discard his son simply because he had magic.

"Uhm... Can I ask a question," Harry interrupted by raising his hand.

"Please feel free to ask all the questions you want. I will answer what I can," Mordecai stated.

"Didn't Arthur hate the Saxons? Why would there be a Saxon faction in his court and why would they support Mordred?"

"I was quite young then but I have heard the stories. Mordred joined his father's battles with the Saxon invaders to curry favor with the Nobles and Arthur. In one such battle, Mordred spared a battalion of Saxons. The Saxons had been prepared for no mercy in the face of an army that overwhelmed them but Mordred's actions surprised everyone. It turned out that they were Saxon slaves that were used as scouts and cannon fodder as well as soldiers that had displeased their commanding officers. They were sent there to die while the rest of the army retreated. Mordred passionately defended letting the Saxon defectors live and thus they in turn supported him in the court."

"Now where was I,... Oh yes," Mordecai uttered. "The coup to usurp Arthur truly started from that moment. Arthur's armies had no magical support this time as Arthur and Merlin had a falling out. In the end, Mordred pierced his father's heart with Clarent but afterward, he was beheaded by Lancelot in an ambush. Both Melian and I managed to escape the battlefield. Melian took our father's wand while I took Clarent. Neither of us could wield Excalibur so it was left near Arthur's body. Without Mordred the coup lost its momentum. Melian hid in a London friary while I found sanctuary in the Church of Amphibalus.

Constantine rose as the new King of the Britons and was known to history as king of Dumnonia. Under his... rather short rule he sent Lancelot to... deal with us. While from a bastard lineage Melian and I were still Pendragons by blood. Lancelot assassinated Melian at the friary but left father's wand behind. That's how Merlin found it. He delivered it to me at the church and decided to make me his apprentice. When Lancelot came for my head all he killed was a golem. Constantine of course was happy that the thorns in his side were gone if only he knew that divine retribution would be right around the corner. Three years into his rule Constantine was assassinated by his nephew Aurelius Conanus.

Aurelius was a tyrant. He coveted his uncle's kingdom and the hand of Lady Guinevere. The Kingdom he got, the Lady, not so much. Lancelot absconded with Lady Guinevere. However, Aurelius's knights caught up to them. Lancelot was beheaded and the Lady was dragged back to the Court. When she refused Aurelius's proposal that time he ordered her to be burned at the stake as an example for those who had thoughts to defy him.

The death of Lady Guinevere was... unfortunate. What Aurelius hoped to be an example to the masses to solidify his rule turned into his downfall. The former Queen was loved by many and with her brutal death she became a martyr that sparked civil war.

At that time I was learning all that I could from Sir Ambrosius. I cared little for the civil war that raged in Caerleon. Let it rage I thought. Caerleon was nothing but hell for my father, brother, and me. Once the civil war was over, the castle had fallen, and the villages were ravaged. Taxes were raised to exorbitant heights by the victors. What once was the seat of the Round Table was nothing more than fractured states right now. The perfect time to strike.

Once I made it known that I was alive I still received some support from my father's allies. We took down those in power swiftly and unified the region once more. But I would not go by Pendragon, no... that name held so much misery and I would not have it associated with my rule. It was unoriginal but it was accepted. My descendants and I would be known by Prince. We were once Pendragons, Princes of Britton and our seat of power would be where it had been initially ordained.