A/N: School's over! YAY! But, I'm moving across the country so getting the house ready and the actual move, there may be some trouble updating as often as I would like. Poo. Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!

Thanks to:

Tigerstripes17

La Llorona (also my wonderful beta)

More reviews make me write faster! Lol

Disclaimer: Read former chapters – it's too painful to write

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Chapter 3

"Why me?" Sydney moaned.

Elrond stood. "Come, you are all tired and we must leave now if we are to reach the city before nightfall." Arwen helped Sydney stand as they prepared to begin the journey to Rivendell.

Sydney sniffled. She was trembling. One hand held the blankets securely around her, while the other tucked a stray strand of falling hair behind her ear. What was going on? Who was that man? Had he performed magic on her? And if so, why her? Why did he specifically choose her over other people? Her bare feet shuffled awkwardly over the ground. She glanced at her other companions.

The elder people - they looked like elves. Well, not the one cloaked in gray. What was with the staff? And the pointed ears? Is this some prank? She glanced around, half expecting Ashton Kutcher to jump out from behind one of the trees and say "You got punkd!" Well, this did seem a bit extreme for that.

Sydney felt tears threatening to fall. She wiped them away furiously. She felt someone's gaze. She turned her head to see a boy a couple of years younger than her that was looking at her. He had brilliant green eyes. On his forehead there was an oddly shaped scar. Was that a lightening bolt? The boy looked quickly away. Feeling ashamed that she'd been caught staring she averted her own gaze. There must be some reason he turned away so quickly once she'd seen his scar.

She looked a short distance ahead to see a boy about her age, give or take, walking with a natural athletic grace and confidence that made her feel like a clunky draft horse in comparison. Emblazoned on the back of his swimsuit was the name Diggory. He had his arm draped casually over the shoulders of a pretty Oriental girl. Was she Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Sydney couldn't tell. But she was very attractive. Her thoughts suddenly turned to her life at high school, P.S. 119 in New York City.

How she missed the big city. This was such a drastic change. Sydney thought of her former best friend, Tanya, who had been taken right off the street. The police presumed Tanya was dead. She sighed. Boy, she really needed to talk to Tanya right now! Hell, she'd even settle for her ex-boyfriend Ed, who she'd found having a heavy make-out session with the always-go-to-school-with-your-boobs-half-hanging-out wonder Barbie, Brenda Scott.

Brenda was a stupid tall drop dead gorgeous blonde who always had boys and men staring and drooling. Not that Sydney had anything against tall beautiful blondes; she just held a grudge against that specific one. Her Aunt Belinda, who she had always called Auntie Bell since she was a little girl, was a tall and voluptuous blonde. A former model no less. Aunt Belinda was very comical, always doing the funniest stuff. Sydney sighed, the best of both worlds.

Sydney had turned out to be just the opposite. She was petite and brunette. She wasn't the BEST looking person on the planet, but hey, who always gets what they want? She thought of her mother, Aunt Belinda's sister. She had died when Sydney was eight. Sydney couldn't remember crying at all. Just sitting there and thinking that nothing would ever be the same again.

Another tear slipped down her cheek. She had an old picture of her Mom. She had her mother's face, but her Dad's stunning bluish green eyes and chestnut brown hair. The only thing she truly liked about her appearance was her eyes.

Sydney shook her head. "Think of the matters at hand, dimwit" she chided herself. She tried to concentrate on her surroundings. Who are these people? A thought suddenly struck Sydney. Could they trust these people? The blood in her face drained, leaving her complexion white as paste.

"Oh, my god! What if they are…." She trailed off in deep thought, imagining some very bad scenarios. But she was interrupted.

"Are you alright? You look like your going to be sick."

Sydney jumped and turned to look at a rather non-descript girl about the same age as the green eyed boy. She had bushy brown hair accompanied by brown eyes. Those eyes were turned on her with a glint of intelligence and sympathy. The other girl slowed down and fell into step with Arwen and herself. Sydney was determined to be friendly and find an ally in this situation.

"Oh, I was just thinking about home, and how different it is compared to this place. Wherever we are…." Sydney saw one of the twins turn his head slightly.

"Yeah, it's beautiful, isn't it?" said the younger girl, a note of awe creeping into her voice.

"You can say that again," Sydney replied. She could feel rather than see the elves smile. A moment of silence passed.

"I'm Hermione Granger, by the way." The other girl stopped, holding out her hand.

"Sydney Brittan." Sydney stopped and shook her hand. The two regarded each other awkwardly for a moment and then started walking again. More silence passed.

"So where are you from?"

"New York, New York. You know, Long Island."

"New York City? In the United States?"

"That's the one."

"Wow, I've always wanted to go there." Sydney chuckled to herself. How many times had she heard that before? Many of the people around them were listening in on the conversation.

"So where are you from?"

"London."

"Hey, I went on vacation there once. With my Dad."

"Really? How did you like it?"

"It rocked. Particularly the carbon based life forms with testosterone running through their veins." Hermione stifled a giggle with her hand over her mouth and bit back a smile.

"Yes they can be very good looking."

"That's what my friend Brad said." Sydney glanced at the rather straight laced Hermione.

Hermione wasn't sure rather to laugh or look shocked so she settled for having a terribly bad coughing fit.

"Do you know where we are, or where we are going?" asked Sydney. Hermione shook her head. They exchanged a fearful look.

"Everything will be explained in time," the gray cloaked man behind them stated mysteriously. Sydney rolled her eyes and heaved a barely audible sigh, but the elves heard.

Elladan suddenly stopped, as did the rest of the elves. Something was coming. He signaled for everyone to stop. Elladan dropped to his knees and placed his ear to the ground while his twin silently scaled a nearby tree. Hermione and Sydney glanced at each other. This was not good. Everyone huddled together, barely breathing out fear. After what seemed like forever Elladan sprang up off the ground while Elrohir jumped down from the tree.

"Orcs! Run!" They shouted in unison. The group ran, following the elves and wizard down until they emerged at the edge of a river. Sydney began to hear the sound of thundering footsteps behind them. Whatever monsters were pursuing them, they knew that they were running. And whatever Orcs were, they didn't sound like anything Sydney wanted to meet. Her heart was pounding in her chest and her lungs burned from the exertion of running.

A few minutes after they splashed across the river she slowed slightly. She was having trouble breathing. God it was hard to run holding the stupid blanket! Hearing the pounding footfalls getting closer she threw caution to the winds. Screw it. She dropped the blanket and ran in a full sprint. She didn't break the school record for nothing!

Adrenaline pumped through her veins. "In through the nose and out through the mouth. Pump your arms and run like HELL!" She chanted her old track teacher's mantra. The sound of the Orcs was growing louder. She stole a quick glance behind them.

"Holy shit!" she thought as she turned back around. Never in her life had she seen something so, so, she couldn't find a word for it for they were so terrible. Primitive? Fierce? Relentless? At a glance the creatures had seemed all of this and worse. A stomach lurching smell reached her nostrils. This persuaded her to go even faster.

"Gabrielle!" A desperate scream was heard from somewhere behind them. The youngest girl was falling behind. Barely aware of what she was doing Sydney sprinted back, turning around to pick up the little girl and then running as hard as she could to catch back up with the rest of them. Elladan was instantly at her side taking away the sobbing youngster. She heard him say something along the lines of "Make you slower."

Sydney was starting to get exhausted. Will those things, the Orcs, ever stop? Suddenly a feeling of cold hit her like a wave of ice water. The autumn day, the warmth of the sun, the bronze leaves disappeared and she was instantly engulfed in a black, morbid space. She stopped dead in her tracks, helplessly hearing the others pass by but unable to call out to them. It was as if there was no more happiness in the world. Her good memories had been swallowed up by a yawning abyss. All that was left was sadness and pain. She fell to her knees.

The hissing voice of a serpent seemed to echo from nearby. "Nothing is left for you. You are worth nothing. Your mother died long ago. Your best friend is dead. What do have left in this world? You aren't even in your own world. You have no one. You are alone." Sydney could almost hear the sneering triumph in the voice. Then she heard Hermione shrieking.

"Harry! Dementors!"

"Keep happy thoughts! Don't listen to them!" yelled a voice. The boy with the bright green eyes and the lightening scar seemed to fade, a million years and a million miles away. Happy thoughts? Yeah, right.

The voice continued to drone. "There is nothing good in your life anymore Sydney. You should accept it."

"What about my Mom?" Sydney thought of her mother's beautiful blonde hair. She thought about her mother singing lullabies to her as a child.

"And if that mocking bird don't sing, Momma's gonna to buy you a diamond ring." The distant echoes of her mother's voice traveling across time seemed to fade eerily into nothingness.

"She's DEAD!"

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" The same young boy's voice erupted behind her and a beautiful silver stag came into her vision. The darkness was banished and with it the feelings of hopelessness. The only feeling left was the relief that it – the Dementor? - was gone. But soon it was replaced by the sounds of battle. Sydney struggled awkwardly to her feet. Behind her someone was screaming. A horrible thing, what she assumed to be an Orc, was bearing down on her.

It raised its arm to strike her down with its ridged sword. She blocked the attack, her forearm crunching violently against its forearm, and punched it in the face with all of her might. While it was still taken by surprise, she used a spinning back kick she'd learned in Tae Kwon Do class to knock it to the ground. The sword clattered to the ground as she continued fighting.

She winced and fell back, receiving an unexpected punch in the face. An Orc twice her size looked at her with a malicious grin, a sword held tightly in his other hand. No way out of this one, Sydney… He was raising his sword to deliver the deathblow when an arrow pierced his neck causing him to fall to the ground, gurgling helplessly.

She turned to see a man. No, he was an elf with long blonde hair. He was the most handsome creature she had ever seen. He jumped gracefully down from a tree, firing more arrows at the remaining Orcs. Sydney was now aware of the many bolts of colored light that were flying through the air. The people with the sticks, they must be witches and wizards. Magic does exist. Charms and jinxes were shouted and landed upon the unfortunate Orcs. A few minutes went by. Sydney stood dumbly in place as she watched the others dispatching the Orcs with arrows, swords and spells. They had won this battle.

A sharp pain went through her head as something grasped her hair. Sydney became aware of the sudden silence that echoed through the battlefield. And the heavily muscled arm wrapped crushingly around her neck, another hand holding a knife at her throat. Everyone looked at her. Archers aimed arrows and witches and wizards aimed their wands at the creature holding her hostage.

"Let me pass and the girl goes free!" The gravelly voice said.

Sydney glanced around. The lady elf held a bloody sword and was looking at the Orc with pure hatred. In fact everyone was. Sydney slowly moved her feet to a completely standing position. This Orc was HUGE! He pulled her hair and she was pulled closer to the terrible creature, his putrid breath making her want to vomit. God, he smelled terrible!

She took a deep breath. Do this just like in self defense class. She smashed her foot down on the creature's hard instep. The Orc wailed slightly and Sydney leaned forward as the orc fell forward over her back. The sound of flying arrows penetrated the air. A moment later the Orc lay dead, arrows sticking out of its body like quills on a porcupine.

Sydney looked around. One thought came to her mind. Where the hell am I?

"Milady?" questioned a musical voice. Sydney turned. It came from the elf that had saved her life.

"Are you alright?" He took a tentative step toward her. She took two steps back

"Do I look bloody alright? Where the hell am I?" she said in a deadly whisper. The elf looked at her incredulously. Apparently, so did the other elves. No one had ever spoken to him like that, ever.

"I'm afraid I don't understand." He took another tentative step toward Sydney.

"What do you mean you don't understand?"

Her voice started to quiver as tears started streaming down her bloody face. She took another step back.

"And don't even think about touching me!" she added sternly.

"You are close to the city Rivendell." The wizened old man in the grey cloak offered.

"I am Gandalf the Gray. You can simply call me Gandalf."

Sydney stared at him blankly like he had just sprouted two heads.

"Why am I here?" she whispered.

"A prophecy has been put into action."

"A prophecy?" Sydney repeated. She looked at Hermione's frazzled face.

"And you, you're witches and wizards?" She mumbled in disbelief. She was staring at her companions, particularly the green-eyed boy.

"Yes," said Hermione' s trembling but determined voice.

"The Wizarding community is all over, well, our world."

"I'm guessing they're a part of this prophecy as well?" Sydney said, gesturing towards Gandalf. The elves beside Elrond look terribly confused. What prophecy?

Suddenly Sydney's head started spinning. She swayed dangerously and the ground came crashing up to meet her as she fell vomiting and shaking. The blonde elf was at her side in an instant. The last thing she remembered was a shriek, a pair of the clearest blue eyes and the same beautiful voice calling to her.

"Stay with me. Hold on."

Her world went black.

TBC

Hope you like it. And testosterone is the male hormone. So basically she said she liked the boys. Hehe. REVIEW and another thanks to my beta La Llorona ;)