The Power of Magic
Disclaimer: Still not mine. I'd like to claim Cera though just because she's fun. I want one!
Chapter 9: Wrath
The sun had just set completely and Harry sat on the ground with his back to a tree. He had traveled quite a distance from Rivendell and his leg was starting to really ache now. As much as he griped about taking potions from Madame Pomfrey, healing the muggle way was so much slower even if magic sped it up a bit. He rested against the tree and decided he would simply enjoy his time in the woods until Cera found him and he would head back. It was getting cold but the cloak kept him warm.
This forest was different from the Forbidden Forest. It was dark and oppressive in there. The peace of Rivendell seemed enhanced in the wood and plant-life around. He imagined he could almost see the peaceful energy they emanated. Not only that but this place felt more alive. Like the tree behind him could tell him when the first snow would fall and how many flowers would bloom in the spring if only he knew how to ask.
A twig snapped in the distance and Harry jerked his head in the direction it had come from. He could see well even in the dark. 'Must be an elf thing' he thought to himself. But he couldn't see anyone. Harry stood and started walking again away from the snapped twig constantly searching for whatever might be following him.
Leaves closer to him rustled and Harry broke into a jog careful not to make any noise of his own. The adrenaline at least had the benefit of dulling the pain in his leg.
He had just resolved not to use magic and this was certainly a test but instincts from years of fighting a guerrilla war had left him well prepared to evade whatever this was.
Elrond, Glorfindel, Aragorn and the twins mounted horses and Hirvegil led them to the place Pilimor had started his search from. The trail was easy to follow as the guard would have wanted to leave enough evidence for someone else to follow if they choose. The trail led north and east.
"Let's hope we find him soon or he changes direction." Elladan said. They were headed toward land inhabited by trolls.
"Do you think he'd run from Pilimor if he found him?" Elrohir asked.
"I don't know. He's been more trusting of late." Elrond replied. "Perhaps that trust could be applied to other problems. We need to discover what happened to him soon." He added
"I rather hope he finds that griffin. Though the trouble that creature could cause in Rivendell would more than equal anything we ever did." Elladan said with a smile.
"If he does find that griffin we may have no trail to follow. I imagine that creature stayed to the ground only because horses do not have wings." Aragorn said
This quickened everyone's pace.
"Look there." Glorfindel said looking upward to a figure glinting in the moonlight. It was Cera flying above the tree tops. She did not have the elfling on her back.
"Perhaps she will take us to him faster than Pilimor's trail will."
"We will follow her" Elladan said and he, Elrohir and Aragorn broke away from the two lords, urging their horses to follow the flying griffin.
Glorfindel and Elrond continued to track the guard's trail. It was taking them further into Troll territory and the woods here were thicker. The horses' breath could be seen as the temperature dropped. The two lords picked up the previous contention between them.
"Glorfindel, I know you care for that elfling and I do not doubt your ability to protect him but you have never raised an elfling. And this one will be more difficult than most." Elrond prompted his companion.
"Have you seen something of his future?" Glorfindel asked reigning in his horse. Elrond had the gift of foresight and perhaps had seen something for the young elf they were tracking.
"I have not. But future I sense is less dim around him. The evil casting it's shadow onto Middle Earth clears and is driven back by him. There is some great power in Faervel." Elrond responded with a faraway look.
"I am willing to help him even into the heart of that shadow. But he may not let us decide at all." Glorfindel paused looking up to the stars. It was true he had not raised an elfling but he felt drawn to this one. Elrond though had family and experience and all of Imladris to aid him. He conceded "you may bring him into your House but I will stay close to him. You have more family to offer him than I."
The two rode in silence a little longer pondering what the other had said.
"Is that Pilimor?" Glorfindel asked seeing light reflect off of something ahead of them.
The two urged the horses faster until they reached the elf.
"Hail, Pilimor." Elrond called out.
"My Lords." The dark-haired elf replied in greeting. Pilimor had been a guard of Imladris for many hundreds of years. "His trail is not easy to track. He takes care to not disturb the leaves and branches and has moved quickly through the wood." The guard said pointing out the direction he had tracked the elfling in.
"We must follow as we can and hope he turns from the Troll caves just north of here." Elrond replied and the three continued their hunt.
Harry no longer heard whatever had broken the twig and stirred the leaves. He was coming up to some caves however and if they were empty he thought he might stay the night in the shelter. He had found an old path that looked to have become over-grown in recent years. He wondered what could have created such a path out in the wilds and then abandoned it.
Nevertheless he followed the trail. It wound through thick underbrush and between rocks.
There was a clearing ahead the moon lit the area and reflected off of some object. He was nearing the caves however and was cautious. Who knows what creatures would dwell in caves in this land. Surely they would not be as well-meaning as the grim that lived in a cave near Hogsmead for a time.
As he neared the clearing he could make out shapes sitting in a circle. They were large and thick but didn't seem to sense him yet. Harry wondered just the creatures were and crept a little closer.
A stick cracked beneath his foot and his breath caught in his throat.
Cera was at least flying in a straight path now. She had been playing about the treetops grabbing their tops with her talons and claws. She seemed to sense her followers and spiraled down to meet them.
"Cera, can you take us to him? He isn't healed and there are dangerous creatures in these hills." Aragorn pleaded with the griffin.
At the dangerous creature comment, Cera threw her head back and let out a short call as if to say she was one of these dangerous creatures. Still she began her trek toward her friend on the ground now for the horsemen to better follow.
"Why did he come this way? Is he looking for danger?" Elladan asked as the trees grew thicker and the path narrower. They were moving ever closer to the caves and the trolls that inhabited them.
The creatures didn't stir. In fact, they seemed unnaturally still.
Knowing whatever they were had to have heard his approach Harry moved closer, his Gryffindor curiosity urging him to solve this particular mystery.
"Ha!" he laughed to himself. His unnaturally still hulking creatures were made of stone. They might have been creatures or based off of them at one time but now a half-made bird's nest sat in the crook between the ear and head of one. A second one was missing a chunk of stone from its elbow. They were certainly ugly things. He suddenly had a flash of a similar creature storming into a girl's bathroom with a club raised over its head.
"swish and flick" Harry said to himself recalling how that incident had cemented a friendship that alternately kept him sane and drove him mad over the years. A friendship that he missed all the more now that it seemed his adventures had just started again.
For a moment he amused himself thinking about what the other two members of the Golden Trio would say if they were here now.
Ron would still be laughing about their paranoia over a set of stone figures or perhaps finding a branch to serve as the stone troll's club to decorate them further. When he finished laughing he'd use the figures for target practice to punish them for inciting his paranoia in the first place. Harry would dismally fail at trying not to laugh.
Hermione would never have made it out of the library in Elrond's house. Harry smiled picturing her bent over some book feverishly tucking her hair behind her ears so she could better see the pages. When he and Ron returned she would beckon them over to see some passage that particularly interested her and spend the next half hour explaining it to them at which point they would yawn and nod to placate her.
How he missed them. Harry looked up to see the stars. They had always comforted him. But even the stars were different here. There was no Sirius glimmering down as if laughing over some newly planned prank. He wished the odd stars were righted again.
Harry sat down with his back against the stone troll to rest his leg. A few tears trailed down his cheeks. He hadn't had time during the war to mourn; it wasn't conducive to fighting Death Eaters. And when he had been captured he hadn't stayed conscious long enough to recall their deaths.
The weather stirred growing colder and clouds rolled in to obscure the moon and unfamiliar stars from his sight. He was grateful that the weather seemed to heed his wish to hide from the unfamiliar stars. For a moment he could imagine that the stars were the same and raised a finger to trace the patterns of constellations that would be there.
Harry fell asleep in the clearing dreaming that he could see Sirius's grey eyes twinkling from the stars. That Orion's faithful companion had returned to the night sky to watch over him and reassure him.
"Elrond?" Glorfindel asked his companion. The Lord of Imladris had halted his mount and seemed to be listening to a far off voice.
Elrond made no response to Glorfindel.
"I do not know but there is some power to this veil." Elrond spoke quietly just barely audible to Glorfindel.
The blond elf smiled. "So what does the lady of the Golden Wood have to say?" he asked not expecting an answer at the moment. Galadriel had the power to speak into the minds of others though usually not those so far away. She could contact Elrond because they were connected through the rings that they wore.
"Yes, the veiling that the stars wear so willingly was made for some purpose yet I cannot sense it." Galadriel's ethereal voice spoke into Elrond's mind.
Elrond had some idea of who that purpose revolved around but wasn't ready to broach that suggestion nor did he know the purpose.
"Tell me Elrond, what is it that you are seeking?" Galadriel asked
Oh course, that she would sense. Elrond sighed and belatedly took Erestor's advice. "An elfling was found and brought to me. He wondered out of Rivendell into the Trollshaws tonight."
"An Elfling? Surely we would know if an elfling had been born to Middle-Earth." Galadriel paused as if accepting the unexpected information. "How did he become lost? The gaze of every elf in Imladris must have been following him."
"He was brought to me a week ago by my sons to be healed. They found wondering in the wilds and injured. But he was fearful of us. I asked that he be left to the care of a few until he became more trusting." Elrond replied.
"And of his parents, what do you know?" Galadriel asked.
"I don't know who they are. He says they are dead." Elrond replied.
"That he does not trust the Eldar is worrying. Have you discovered how he came to be injured?" Galadriel asked, worried over the fate of this young one as well, but displeased that the late information had prevented her from aiding in his care and search.
"I have not been able to ask but from what he has said in a fever, he was held captive and tortured. I know he will not eat because of it and will not allow many to approach him." Elrond replied.
"And he is lost in the wilds once again?" Galadriel asked, even her mentally projected voice becoming clipped in displeasure.
"Yes." Elrond replied shortly. There was little else he could have done. The elfling's fear of others was crippling the elves ability to protect him as he saw the elves themselves as a threat.
"And was there a reason you did not inform myself or the other realms. We have as much right to protect and avenge him as those of your House." Galadriel said, her tone darkening further.
"I did not know if he would even live, my Lady. He was lost in fever and the shadows of his past until recently." Elrond answered gravely.
"This change in the skies heralds snow or I would descend to Imladris with guards enough to avenge him as soon as Haldir could make them ready to leave." Galadriel replied. "We will arrive as soon as the spring clears the Mountain pass." And with that her presence was withdrawn and the conversation ended.
"I did not know you had held so little hope for Faervel." Glorfindel said sadly.
"You would hardly leave his side and I was not going to say so in his hearing." Elrond replied. "He is truly strong to have survived so much. Most would have perished."
"I know." Glorfindel said. Most elves would indeed have perished or set sail into the west from the Grey Harbors as Elrond's wife had done after being tortured by orcs. His inability to heal her enough to remain in Middle-Earth still haunted Elrond. Perhaps that was the reason Elrond clung to another tortured elf.
"My lords, the trail follows a path just ahead." Pilimor said, returning to them from scouting out the elfling's path.
They followed him along an over grown trail that he indicated.
A piercing cry broke the stillness of the woods.
Harry awoke and the two groups converged on him.
Elrond, Glorfindel and Pilimor left their horses and joined Elrond's sons who had come from the other direction.
"Cera" he called out seeing his griffin friend. "Where have you been girl? I missed you."
The griffin lifted her front talons and released a thin length of wood. It was Holly and about 13 inches long. She ruffled the feathers on her chest and Harry understood. She was trying to provide him with the parts to make a wand.
"No Cera." He said quickly with a measure of fright. Holly and griffin feather would be more temperamental than his old wand but certainly be powerful especially in a battle or undertakings that did not require finesse. After all, griffins were creatures of magical brute strength not the passive but magically powerful phoenix.
"I can't Cera not again. Not here too." He told his helpful friend. She grabbed the length of rough wood from the ground and pushed it back towards him again. She wasn't going to let this go.
"Alright Cera. Later though. Not right now." Harry told her. Making a wand didn't mean he had to use it. She seemed to accept this.
The elves and Aragorn were watching the interaction highly confused at what was going on.
"So that's a griffin?" Glorfindel asked.
"Interesting creature isn't she?" Elladan responded.
"I do not believe I have ever heard a tale of such a creature as that." Elrond added agreeing with his son.
The elfling picked up the wood and placed in a pocket of the cloak he wore. Finally, the young elf looked up at them his eyes locked on the new elf, the only one among them that he hadn't met before.
"Faervel, you are not healed yet and these woods are dangerous. That stone creature you lean against has counterparts in these woods and they did not get caught out in the sun." Elrond admonished. He would bring the elfling into his House soon and it was his responsibility to keep him safe.
Huh? Harry could only blink at that explanation. Ok, so trolls turned to stone in the sunlight here. Interesting. He wondered if a Lumos spell would have the same effect. That would neutralize the creatures quickly in a battle. He shook his head at the turn of his thoughts. He was not here to fight. He did not wish to see death and battle again. Cera let out a pleased roaring 'Craw' as though she knew exactly where his train of thought had taken him.
"Enough Cera. And no, there is no need." He quietly admonished his all too smug companion.
He returned his attention to the waiting elves and human, his eyes locked on the new elf, the only one he hadn't met before. "I'm sorry. I wanted to find Cera. I didn't think that you would let her into Rivendell." He told them glancing over to Elrond as he spoke. Harry returned to watching the new elf intently trying to determine his intentions.
Elrond followed the elfling's gaze until his eyes landed on Pilimor.
"This is Pilimor. He is one of the guards of Imladris. He followed your trail when he saw you leave and alerted us that you were missing." Elrond responded to the unspoken question.
Harry said nothing and continued his observation of the elf, Pilimor. He obviously dwelled in Rivendell and was trusted by Elrond. But then Peter had been trusted by his parents and Snape had been trusted by Dumbledore. Trust was a dangerous thing.
"You should have told someone you wanted to come here. When you were better healed we would have taken you into the woods to find her. We cannot keep you safe if you wander alone." Elrond said shortly. The elfling would need to understand that he had protectors now and did not have to rely only on himself. Others were responsible for his safety now but he needed to let them protect him and concentrate on healing the damage done to him.
Harry did not respond. For a moment the twinkling eyes of Dumbledore shone out of Elrond's dark orbs. The same reason had kept members of the Order of the Phoenix stationed outside his relative's home and prevented him from learning about the prophecy until it was too late.
Harry's walk through the woods and over-hearing of the council on the spread of orcs had cleared his head and brought him back to the reality he was facing. He was no longer looking to die now. He had accepted that he had a responsibility to magic itself if some force of evil had truly created a horcrux. He wasn't willing to fight but he could find a way to share what he knew, to help someone destroy the thing and protect the inhabitants of this world. But to keep him safe he would undoubtedly be lock him up in Rivendell and watched so closely that he could not leave. He wouldn't become captive again. And he couldn't let action be taken too late.
"It's going to snow soon. We need to return to Rivendell." Glorfindel said gently. Elrond's admonishments weren't helping and waiting for him to turn his worry into wrath would only scare the elfling off.
"Come Faervel." Elrond commanded as he motioned towards the horse he had ridden into the clearing. The horse approached him for Elrond and the elfling to mount.
He sighed looking up at Elrond. He had trusted Elrond to heal him but in war trust had to be compartmentalized and he needed distance from Elrond's wish to keep him locked away. He stood and placed a hand on Cera looking at her as if in question. She lowered her head in answer. She would help him walk. They wouldn't be able to move quickly anyway. Pilimor had come on foot.
"Alright. Let's head back to Rivendell." Aragorn said. Of all those watching he was the only one to understand the elfling's gestures toward the griffin. He had seen it before.
Aragorn returned to his horse and mounted. The others looked to him in confusion but Faervel walked beside the griffin leaning his weight on the creature's back until he reached the trailhead.
"Faervel, that leg is not healed and walking on it further will not help it. Please let's ride back. The griffin is welcome to follow us to Rivendell." Elrond said. Strong spirit indeed. It was going to show in more than just the elfling's unwillingness to succumb to injury. He wondered what had caused the lack of trust now.
The griffin blew out air and kneeled as if in response to Elrond. Harry climbed onto the griffin's back and waited. The others finally understood and mounted their horses and followed Aragorn. Harry waited until Pilimor had passed him mounted on the back of Elladan's horse, and joined the line heading back to Rivendell. Only Glorfindel remained behind him.
A/N: Once again, thanks for the motivation to keep working away at this chapter despite my dislike of how it was turning out at first.
Elrond will take Harry into his House or atleast Glorfindel has backed away for him to do so. This was done by popular demand though I was somewhat partial to Glorfindel and breaking the cliche. I guess the cliche exists for a reason and it does provide good Grandma/Grandpa moments with the elves of Lothlorien. Of course now that I gave you Elrond I probably added enough to his persona that you no longer want him to keep Harry. I'm mean like that.
To one reviewer who pointed out the language of elves being more formal and ornate than I was using. I quite agree. It's a challenge to write them as Tolkien does and I let them slip into contractions when they are emotional or away from one of the realms and certainly the younger elves are less formal that the elder elves. You'll note that Galadriel is the most elagant speaker I've written yet. Or at least she is supposed to be. I'm constantly editting this story as I write it and when it's done I'll repost the editted chapters and hopefully time will improve my elves' vocabulary and grammer.
For those waiting for an update on my other story it will be out within a day or say as well.
Ideas, questions, comments, want to send more motivation? Please Review
