Ways It Didn't (But Could've) Happened

Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR or HP.


To Someone, With Love Part II

Erestor had no idea what to make of it- of him. He had just burst into her life like a way-ward sunbeam and never left. It was fairly annoying, but she couldn't find it in her heart to dislike it either. It had been quite a while since she had really had people who were…friends. And losing them had hurt like nothing she had known before, and though the years had passed it had only faded to a dull ache, ever present and ever watching.

For years, she had thought that it was a condemnatory guard, accusing her of living while they hadn't made it past twenty. It was a heavy thought, and sometimes threatened to suffocate and so she had thrown herself into whatever was available. Eventually it had become the massive library at Imladris, and while a few people had remained on friend-like terms, she would not have called any of them friends.

Then Glorfindel came, and she wasn't given the chance to refuse. Wary and weary, she was taken off-balance by his attack, and so had accidentally allowed him further into her life than she had intended. No one had brought all-out war to making friends ever before in the history of Reality, she decided, and tried not to feel guilty.

It was only after she had enjoyed a day spent being hassled by Glorfindel that she realized- this was what her friends had wanted.

Suddenly, their memory was not so much a burden as a comfort. She felt free to call herself Glorfindel's friend, and enjoyed the feeling of self-satisfaction that came upon seeing his face when she declared it to him. She loved catching him off-guard, and the way his face went rigid with shock was always a thing to be savored.

Then she decided to tell him more about herself.

There was nothing easy about it. But she felt a desire and a need to explain her initial hesitance, and found both an understanding and a sympathetic listener. It mattered not that they were mortal either. He understood-

"Your Ron and Hermione were friends with you. They were family." This was stated emphatically, and that was the end of it.

She supposed that the trouble with this relationship- the main trouble, was that there was something more hovering just underneath the surface, wanting to burst forth. And she was rather terrified. Ron and Hermione would approve if she acted on these feelings, she knew (now, anyway), but if he did not return her affection (and call a spade a spade, she thought grimly) then she did not know if she could keep his friendship. And she could NOT afford to lose it, or she would have to just call it quits.

It irked her to no end that a male could drive her to this, that she would have to give up, surrender anything- but it was true. Erestor either loved completely or not at all, there was no in-between and if that love was not returned- well.

Day after day then went without a word. Some days, she thought it was good enough that they were friends. She could live with this! And the next day she would just fall to pieces (to her disgust and chagrin) over something he said and wonder if she wouldn't die before she worked up the courage to say something.

As it turned out, she didn't have to do anything.

"Erestor-" and he turned his face away from her, twitching where he stood. He was picturesque in the light, and Erestor's full attention was his. So was her heart, whether he realized or not. She waited for him to speak.

"We are friends. But," and Erestor was torn between hope and fear and tried not to look too obvious as she held her breath.

"But I think it is perhaps time we were more. I will not speak of this again if you do not wish it, but I-"

And before he could say anything else unnecessary, she clapped her hand over his mouth, and he looked down at her.

"Do not be so very stupid," she told him, and watched his eyes widen. She smiled. They were very good at knowing what the other was not saying.

"Oh," he mumbled. Or that was likely what he was saying. She still hadn't moved her hand.

"Oh," she agreed. And she smirked, kissed his cheek and then fled, winking at him over her shoulder as she did so.

He looked so beautiful, standing there in the light with a look of stupefied satisfaction on his face.

And so, Erestor laughed. Her friends laughed with her.


So yep. And just so it's clear: These stories take place in what you could call the 'Starting Universe' for my story Letters. Each story is a different way things could have gone. And yeah, Erestor and/or Glorfindel are OOC from 'my' universe in a lot of them. Which is often one of the reasons why they are not official works, either because the setting didn't work as it hinged on characterizations that just didn't synch with my Main Universe. Sorry for the confusion.