Dreaming of Haldir!

Summary: A once normal human girl gets sent to a school for magical creatures and ends up going through the changes of becoming one of them including finding Middle Earth.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize here. Everything you don't recognize from The Lord of the Rings books or movies – basically anything else you might not recognize from numerous things – belongs entirely to me… and a number of my crazy friends/former colleagues.

Dedication: This entire story goes to Luthien Saralonde for her birthday.

Chapter 1: My Crazy Friends

Have you ever walked with the outcasts or sat with the socially impaired? Have you ever been called weird, crazy, or a freak… and liked it? And are you so used to being called not normal that you take it as a compliment and are convinced that not being normal is normal… for you? Well, hey, I've been there, done that and you know what? I'd do it all again, too. The only thing I might have done differently was how I handled my first encounter with the tallest non-human I'd ever seen. Here's how it happened…

I was your average teenage girl: shy, heartbroken, love sick, angry at the world, and… normal. Pitifully normal. That was… until I met my best friends. You see, I was the most average person you'd ever seen, average, average, average. It got boring after a while. I wanted a change. Who knew I'd meet someone who was entirely not human? I didn't know they even existed outside of all those fairytales.

And, of course, I met a boy. Not just any boy. The boy.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's start from my first day of High School.

I was 15 and the most timid person in the whole history of all the socially impaired. Truth be told, I was terrified of people. I had a distinct feeling I would chicken out and be alone all four years of High School. But then, a miracle happened: I made friends!

"Hey!" a short blonde called to me in gym class.

I froze as her hand rested on my shoulder in a tight grip. Suddenly, there was another hand on my other shoulder. A different person. I turned and saw she had shoulder-length black hair. Her smile was big and friendly. I looked over at the blonde, who grinned at me.

"Hi," I muttered nervously.

"So, you seem a bit lonely," the slightly taller girl said to me.

"Oh," I mumbled and nodded in agreement.

"Don't be shy," the small blonde told me with a laugh, "We came to cheer you up."

"You seemed sad," the taller girl explained and the two forced me to move forward.

I didn't resist. No matter how much shorter they were than me, they could still hurt me, I was sure. After all, I didn't even know them.

"I'm Siltizamile," the blonde introduced herself first.

"And I'm Cae," the taller one explained.

I sighed and gathered my confidence. "I'm Margaret," I breathed as we walked outside.

"You're in our art class, too," Siltizamile realized.

Great. Now they can have more time to scare me into hiding.

"Yeah, she's the really shy one," Cae jumped back into the conversation.

"So, today was… confusing," I stated in attempt to keep up the conversation.

"Yeah, I got lost actually," Siltizamile stated with a dazed expression.

"Too bad there are no boys here to ask for help," Cae said naturally.

Yes, those were the downsides to being at an all-girls private school. I sighed. We continued walking as we talked about what classes we took and what teachers we had. Surprisingly, I started to relax and talk a lot more. I wondered who else I would meet in the confines of our school. As if to answer my thoughts, a small brunette appeared next to us.

"Hi," Cae greeted cheerfully.

The girl looked at us and smiled, but there was a sharp gleam in her eyes – grey, grey eyes. I knew there was a reason she was with us… and it didn't seem like she wanted to be all that friendly. That made me frown because she looked right at me and I gulped.

"Hello," Siltizamile said to the newcomer, interrupting my thoughts, "Who are you?"

The girl stared at us for a second as if thinking about her answer carefully. "Laerwen," she finally responded, carefully pronouncing every syllable so we could understand it.

"Do you have a nickname?" Cae asked in confusion, "Or at least something I can write it down on."

"No," the girl replied simply in a hard tone.

"Then, I'll have to give you one," Siltizamile warned with a thoughtful smile.

I thought our conversation had ended there, but I was wrong because we picked up where we'd left off the next day in art. We all had the same art class. Joy. On the bright side, I'd met two new friends, Roza and Genevieve. Roza sang professionally and Genevieve was well on her way to being a professional dancer. They were the only two who weren't in my classes, but they found me all the same. During lunch, I think.

"What are you drawing?" I asked Laerwen curiously.

"Trees," she told me without looking up.

"They're very pretty," I complimented her sketches.

"I know," she said simply.

Well, that was… unexpected. I stopped. There was a pattern in her speech. "I get it," I stated in amusement.

"What do you mean?" she quizzed me and gazed up in my direction with that icy glare in her eyes.

"When can we speak normally?" I asked, hinting the pattern in the way she was speaking.

"We are speaking normally, you freak," she growled at me, very frustrated with my lack of an explanation.

"I notice you are speaking in patterns," I started to explain.

She put her pencil down, turned swiftly in her seat to face me, and folded her hands in her lap. "Ah, so I'm speaking in patterns, am I?" she asked me and proceeded to stare at me with glassy eyes, waiting for my answer.

"When you speak, another word's added to the sentence," I explained after a moment of thought.

"You know, that really doesn't make much sense," she told me in a slightly amused tone.

That startled me… just a bit. "So, we're bringing it down, are we?" I teased, suddenly feeling more confident in my slight hint of social skills.

"If you're really that curious, yes," she stated with a brief smile that faded again almost instantly.

Good. I was keeping her interested in this little game.

"Girls, don't fling the erasers," the art teacher told a group of students who'd gotten into an argument.

"That makes five words," I said to the girl, who smiled at me again.

"I guess so," she stated and observed me for a moment, almost studying me.

I fidgeted a bit, uncomfortable under her gaze. "Let's add more words," I suggested.

"Bring it down," she said.

"I don't want to," I told her.

"Well, I do," she argued with a stiff laugh.

"And I… do not," I stated drawing out each word for the fun of it.

"Stop," she finally stated in frustration.

"You broke the pattern," I said, almost disappointed.

"What pattern?" she asked with a grin.

"Exactly," I agreed.

"I don't believe I caught your name," she mentioned me quietly, which I took as a request for me to tell her.

"Margaret," I told her.

"Pretty," she complimented me for the first time.

"Thanks," I said; I'd heard that one so many times before, "I like your name, too. It's –"

"Elvin," she cut me off knowingly, then paused, and explained awkwardly, "It's… Elvin. My family believes in these things. You know fairies, werewolves, vampires, elves…"

I shrugged. I didn't care much. A name was a name no matter where it came from.

We all became close friends after that. Well… until I learned something very strange about my life… and everyone else's.

"Be careful tonight," Laerwen warned us after school, though I was sure she had directed it at me, "I have a feeling something weird will happen."

"Do you think we'll get into trouble or something?" I laughed, but she took it seriously. A little too seriously. None of the others seemed to notice. They just nodded and smiled. I sighed in defeat. "Why should I be careful?" I asked having the slightest feeling that they were all in on whatever was going on. I didn't like it.

"I have a sixth sense, you could say," Laerwen told me, "Plus, have you met yourself?"

"Yes, I think I have," I stated dryly, "It would be sort of strange if I hadn't."

"Well, I'm only telling you to keep an eye open for any trouble," Laerwen reminded me as we picked up our backpacks and headed for our dorm rooms. It was, after all, a boarding school.

"What kind of trouble can we get into in a school like this?" I questioned, taking notice of how all of them had stiffened suddenly.

"Trust me," Laerwen stated sharply, looking alert, "There are more dangers coming from inside this school than most others."

"Right." I smiled nervously. All of us being freshmen, I was clueless as to how they knew so much about this school while I didn't. It shouldn't have made sense, but somehow I managed to work it all out.

That night, in my dorm room, I heard noises outside in the hallway. I left my bed and walked towards the door. I put my ear against it and was surprised to be able to hear my friends standing out there, whispering fiercely about me. Instead of asking them what was going on, I listened to what they were saying.

"How do you know it hasn't already happened?" Genevieve was asking.

"All I know is that the full moon tonight is in the right position in the sky, allowing –" Siltizamile was stating.

"Just spit it out, feline!" Laerwen urged.

"Okay. Tonight she's going to become like us," Siltizamile finished her thought, "Since she's the only human here, she's going to be changed tonight.

"Into what?" Cae asked curiously.

"Doesn't say, but my guess is that she'll be changed into whatever one of us that gets to her first," Siltizamile answered.

"She better not get changed into one of those mutts," Roza stated, producing some kind of throaty growling noise, "If she does, don't try and stop me from tearing her limb from limb."

"Come on," Siltizamile growled, "Can't you put aside your prejudices for, oh, I don't know, maybe forever?"

"Make me," Roza challenged.

"Can you two stop arguing for two minutes?" Laerwen whispered angrily, "Now, the way I see it, all we have to do is make sure she is kept safe and ensure that no blood is spilled. Got it?"

"Meow," Genevieve responded by way of agreement, so it seemed.

"Right… but can't we just drink the blood instead?" Cae asked, "Or… not."

There was apparently some kind of plan going on involving me… the one person who was human in this school. But if I was the only human… then who – or what – was everyone else? Suddenly, I turned around to see two huge dogs growling at me. And I didn't see my two roommates anywhere. It hit me then and there… My roommates were werewolves and I was about to become their midnight snack… or one of them.

I don't remember much after that, but they lunged, the door opened, I closed my eyes, and I felt a sharp pain to my right hand. That was the last I remembered before I passed out being the fact I was hit in the head with the door.

I awoke sometime the next day to the strange ticklish feeling of something sucking the blood from my wound. I slowly opened my eyes, looked down, and saw Siltizamile with her lips to my wound. She was sucking so hard the edges of her mouth were turning a greenish color. When she'd gotten a mouthful of the crimson liquid, she removed her lips from my skin and spat the blood into a bucket.

"Siltizamile?" I muttered weakly and she looked up at me, "Why?"

"Well, I'm trying to stop the bleeding or else Roza and Cae will maul you," Siltizamile explained, "It's a long story." She went back to sucking and spitting my blood again.

"So, they're vampires," I stated and Siltizamile nodded in mid-spit, "What does that make you, Laerwen, and Genevieve?"

Siltizamile spat out another mouthful of my blood and looked up at me curiously. "Well, I bet you know about Laerwen," she told me, "She already explained that her name was Elvin. So, what does that make her?"

I thought about that for a bit. Laerwen had told me that her family believed in all that stuff about elves. That was it! "She's an elf," I said and Siltizamile nodded, "You mean the really tall kind? She couldn't be. She's too short."

"She's a bit vertically challenged," Siltizamile explained as she sucked in the last few bits of dripping blood and spit them into the bucket.

"What about you and Genevieve?" I questioned curiously.

"We're cats," Siltizamile responded with a proud smile, "Well, cat-demons, really. We prefer to be called cats because we technically are."

"Right… cats," I stated as the whole feline comment and the meowing started to make sense, "So, what does that leave me?"

"What do you mean?" Siltizamile quizzed as she stared blankly at me.

"Who bit me?" I asked mildly, "What am I going to become?"

Siltizamile sighed and stood up to look over me as I was lying in my bed. "You heard our conversation, then," she stated and I nodded, "Well, the dogs bit you, so we're kind of expecting you to become a puppy, so to speak."

"Oh, a werewolf," I sighed, realizing that was the type of mutt Roza wanted to tear limb from limb, "What kind of school is this?"

"Well, if you couldn't tell by now, it's a school for female monsters, demons, and 'mythical' beings," Siltizamile explained, "We're kind of responsible for the humans that enter the school, so it's our fault this happened. Sorry."

"I'll live… hopefully," I stated, trying hard not to run away if I could even move, "You're not going to let the vampires hurt me… will you?"

"No," Siltizamile reassured me as she shook her head, "Laerwen and Genevieve are holding them back. Try and sleep." With that, she left me to try and relax without dreaming of some strange way to kill vampires in case of an emergency. What was I thinking? I was worried.

To this very day, I still don't know how it happened, but I'd gotten into an all-girls non-human school. Me – a human – had been accepted. Some things in life just didn't make sense and this was definitely one of them. So, yeah, knowing my luck – I turned out to be a werewolf… with identity problems. The bite had turned me into one of "those mutts" Roza wanted to maul, but because Siltizamile, the cat, was sucking my blood, I became part cat. I'm the first human/non-human dog/cat ever to be "created".

I'm one of a kind and even though Roza, the vampire, wanted to tear me limb from limb, the vampires formed a truce with me because I posed no threat… and because I tried to run away from myself during my "special" lessons outside on campus.

"Okay, now try to howl like a dog," Siltizamile told me.

I tried it, but it came out as a cross between a dog and a dying cat.

"That was horrible," Laerwen told me bluntly as usual, "Try turning into a wolf first, deary."

I glared at her and thought 'wolf'. It worked. One minute I was sitting there in deep concentration, the next I had mutated into a large wolf the size of a bear.

"Hmm. Can she chase her tail?" Roza wondered out loud.

"Let's find out," Cae stated as she bounded forward and grabbed my tail, shoving it in my face.

"Wait… don't do that or she'll –" Genevieve warned her, but it was too late.

I'd already spotted the fluffy tail that was being wiggled around in my face. "I have a tail?" I screamed as my cat instincts started to take over and I ran in the opposite direction. Cae had already let my tail go and was on the floor laughing hysterically; of course, Roza was also joining in.

"– or she'll run," Genevieve bluntly completed her last sentence.

By then, I was way out of hearing range, but I kept running. It wasn't until I hit a tree that I stopped and sat down. If I was smaller, I'd climb it, I decided to myself.

"Hello?" I heard Laerwen's voice calling, "Peggy, are you out here?"

Peggy was my nickname, since everyone thought it was cuter than Margaret. I sighed miserably to myself.

"Over here."

In a few seconds flat, she was by my side in a sitting position. "So, you ran away from yourself," she started with a grin, "That would make you a cat/dog, wouldn't it?"

"I prefer… puppycat," I told her, "From now on, I'm a puppycat."

"Right," she said with a small perhaps mocking smile, "I'm guessing you aren't going back there anytime soon."

I lied down under the tree and looked around at the many identical ones. I was no doubt in a forest, though I hadn't been sure that the school campus had this many trees. Or at least there didn't appear to be so many from outside of the forest. Suddenly, I heard faint footsteps and my ears perked up to listen. Laerwen must have heard them too because she stood up immediately and started walking off in the direction of a bush.

I watched her curiously as she readily pounced on something I couldn't see. I stood up to get a better look and saw Laerwen emerge from the shadows with a really tall stranger in tow. The guy had blue eyes and long, silver-colored hair. I recognized him as an elf. He was speaking to Laerwen in a language I couldn't understand. I guessed it was elfish. When he spotted me, he stood still and stared at me with that sharp, cold stare I sometimes – well, almost always – got from Laerwen.

Unable to take much more of it, I lunged in their direction, flung Laerwen onto my back, and ran away from the male elf. When I stopped, Laerwen climbed down and stared at me as if demanding an explanation.

"He was about to hurt us," I stated, still a bit surprised that she could understand me in wolf form. But maybe I was speaking a normal human language rather than the wolfish growls I heard. I wasn't sure and I didn't feel like asking.

"No, stupid," Laerwen almost yelled at me, "That was my friend who was going to help us train you properly."

I sat down and put my head on my forepaws. "The way he was staring was making me feel uncomfortable. That's why I ran."

Laerwen sighed. "That's because elves and werewolves are natural enemies. But I don't mind."

"Great," I muttered sarcastically as I eyeballed a certain patch of the brown fur on my right forepaw that had a slight auburn look to it.

Suddenly, the male elf came out of the trees with a smirk on his face. He had evidently been laughing at me. I growled involuntarily at the elf.

"Oh, hush," Laerwen told me as she walked over to her friend and I stayed quiet, listening to their elven conversation. "Okay, Peggy," Laerwen finally stated as she turned to me, "This is my friend, Haldir. I explained what happened and told him you're a… puppycat."

"Thanks," I mumbled sarcastically for the second time in a row, "So, can he speak English?"

"Well, I am a bit rusty, but I know the language," Haldir spoke up. Yeah, he had definitely been laughing at me.

"So, why is he here?" I asked, "This is an all-girls school."

The elves grinned at me and I decided from thence forth that it was a very bad sign.

"You're about to tell me something I probably don't want to hear," I stated fearfully, "Whatever it is, I don't want to know."

"Welcome to Middle Earth," Haldir stated, regardless of my contentedness in blissful ignorance.

That's when my world turned upside down and everything changed. That's where it all began… and I still regret it.

(A/N) Hey! Hey! Thanks for actually reading this! Means the world to have my talents recognized. Well, then. In case it wasn't obvious, I own every single character so far besides Haldir. There are more pplz to come and that's the reason this isn't a Lord of the Rings fanfic like it was supposed to be. Teehee.

So, here's a special announcement I have to make. This fic is dedicated to my beta for this one… the birthday girl, Luthien Saralonde! Luv ya, MP! You're amazing! Happy Birthday, though you didn't want me to do all this for you. So, plz don't sit on me like you said you would to prevent me from giving you any gifts. And here's a virtual birthday cake for you… without the frosting, since you like it better that way. Teehee. And here's the virtual frosting still in its virtual container just for you! =D Hope you like the CDs (the first part of your birthday gift)! =D And I really hope you luv this fic (the unpreventable 2nd part of your gift). And plz don't hurt me for the collage (the last minute addition 3rd part of your gift). It gets better. Just read.

So, everyone review and I'll update when I get 5 to 10. K? Thx loads! R&R… like I know you will, right, MP? Pouts… puppy dog eyes… begs… gives paw.

EDIT:

Well, I've obviously edited this since the initial post as part of my New Year's "spring cleaning" binge. Yup. It's about time I fixed this story up. Basically the formatting, grammar, and spelling errors were fixed… I also touched up the dialogue and some of the narration, so… yeah.

I left the author's note the way it was, though (aside from formatting). Although MP and I no longer stand a chance at sharing a casual relationship (even under strictly professional work conditions), I'm still going to continue this story as a dedication to her… because I figured why not, you know? Besides… *shrug* I can't stand to see a story go to waste… even one that was based on too many horrible dreams/memories of my early high school years. O_o'

I think this was the… 15th story I ever posted to my account. Yup. That's it. I've definitely come a long way in my writing since then, though. So, hopefully people will check out my newer stuff. If not, then that's alright. I don't blame you. I can be a pretty fussy writer sometimes. =/ But then again, aren't most writers? XD

Original Post: 3/24/09

Revised: 10/27/11

Reposted: 10/30/11