Disclaimer: Lord of the rings (characters, ideas, plot)- not mine, Harry Potter (characters, ideas, plot)- not mine either. Mine are only my original characters and the madness. I don't earn anything with writing this story, except fun.
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Chapter 29: Duty
Elrond held her body close to him, she slept unruly but he couldn't bring himself to mind, if he had to return to such a place… He caressed her cheeks and felt how she snuggled closer, searching for love and comfort, he placed a kiss on her forehead. To furnish the flat for them as secluded safe place had been a great idea, the moment the both of them had entered, they had felt safe and at home. They had taken a long relaxing bath and Lyra had enjoyed as he caressed her body, he had felt how she lost the tensed posture and truly relaxed into his touch. Even now his mood was lightened because of the homely atmosphere. He understood now better why Lyra held such a love for the elven lamps as they could even shove away the dark linger of the creepy manor. After checking for the last time that his love lay comfortable he joined her into the dream realm.
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The attic
The next day started early with a light breakfast and Lyra's mood was good enough that she started to feed him pieces of bread with strawberry jam and made sure he drank his tea. He let her because he was just happy that she had got over her shock. They didn't hurry with finishing their breakfast because they loved to share such moments together. Just spending time with each other and enjoying life... it was great. Especially if the task ahead didn't hold too much thrill for them. Lyra knew that she had to go up to the attic and finish what she had come for. Otherwise she would always ask herself what would have been if... It didn't mean though, that she had to enjoy it. Twink carefully watched their new masters and was very happy. Even though their little baby had all grown up now she had become a wonderful mistress. All the house elves enjoyed that Lyra had a good heart and hadn't become like their former masters. The small creatures could feel the change of the magic in the air. Even now the atmosphere had already started to change. The gloominess slowly faded their surroundings became more neutral. All of that was caused by the presence of the couple which sat next to them. Their happiness and love had started things to finally change, it would still need a long time for the environment to heal. It was a start though and it healed the family magic and with it their own state. The elves would get fitter and more youthful very soon.
After they had finished in the kitchens, they tried again to reach the attic but this time under the lead of Twink. Twink was a ball of joy at the moment. The small being was so delighted that she was allowed to help with such an honourable and important task. Elrond got sick again but had sworn to himself that he wouldn't meet them with pity in the eyes but would try to make things better. Lyra had explained to him that elves could do nearly everything with their magic if it was the wish of their master; it was just good that most pureblood magicians held their heads in such heights that it was impossible for them to ever notice that there are beings which aren't bound to their borders concerning magic. Elrond smiled she was right, luckily they were too stupid to find out. He chuckled at the thought that she had despite all, made sure to have her potions equipment restocked before starting their mission impossible.
They reached the trap door which lead up to the attic, it had taken them until past noon but hey they did it. Twink was currently untangling the wards at the door and with every hour that passed Elrond realized just how paranoid the Blacks had been. Silently he was glad that they were all gone but his Lyra. his Lyra, he smiled that had a nice ring to it. How again had she turned out so normal? Maybe he would find some time to ask her. Then the door opened and a ladder came down, it took ten more minutes until Twink declared the passage clean and safe. Finally, after what felt like waiting for ages they went all up to look at the devils lair. As she saw her loves look as he glanced to the piles of stuffed body parts of animals and humans she was just glad that they hadn't need to go down to the dungeons. It smelled like it looked, no maybe even worse. Decay, mould and dried blood were the most repulsing mix of stench, he didn't want to think too close about the others. Elrond couldn't believe that they had prepared corpses and stored them in the attic. No one said a word and Lyra concentrated on her family magic to get some hints as to where the hidden compartment was. She got the short vision of an old shelf next to a two meters high old vase but that wasn't that much help with all the junk and trash that lay around. Piles of disgusting artefacts for dark rituals, books, trash and at least twenty skeletons was what they could make out at the first glimpse. Very carefully as to not set up any traps or to get caught in the huge spider webs, they walked across the old wooden paving tiles.
One hour and five attacks later they stood for said shelf, next to the vase which was partly hidden under a blanket and some piles of boxes placed upon it. If it had stood free they wouldn't had overlooked it at first. Probably it would have been too easy, so they had made a tour through the place first just to get back to the entrance and discover the shelf close by. Lyra sighed, the vision could have really been a bit more precise. They had found it at last though, so she was happy. Exhausted but happy. At the first glance everything was fine and they guessed that the secret had been stored in the wall behind and that they had to put away the stuff. As always things weren't what they seemed and a suspicious shaking of the vase was the only warning they got before they were caught in a silver mist and everything turned gravely cold. She knew it was a Boggart the moment the pale looking Elrond appeared in front of them, piercing his steely eyes at her.
"You, how could you have ever believed that I could have feelings for something like you? Worthless human, a monster even, as they said you were born a Black and you will die as one, there is no running away from it. You will fall to the same madness and in the end you will be your own death."
Elrond drew in a sharp breath as he saw a copy of himself in front of them and hearing it say those cruel things to his love. He went to her and hugged her shaking her out of her stupor but the moment the being saw him it changed and in front of them stood an unclear figure, a mist but then it seemed to change again and got the vague similarity to Lyra but it changed again. It seemed that the being couldn't find a form and then the witch had enough grip on reality again.
"Riddiculus"
The being turned with a pop into Nyrx trying to steal some treats out of the stable masters pockets. It brought both of them to laugh and they felt how the coldness retreated a bit but the spell wasn't yet broken. The being faced her again and suddenly there stood a dead Harry in front of her.
"It is your fault, that we are dead. If you hadn't told us to change the time than at least we would have lived. Look what you have done."
It hadn't so much power over her anymore and with Elrond holding her in his arms she was able to recast the spell and suddenly they saw the scene as the invisible Harry had tricked Peeves in their first year.
"I'm the bloody baron and I do as I please."
That let her laugh again and it reminded her that Harry had never given up and that even now turned into a spirit being he fought for his believes. With that in mind she called for Twink and the house elf was able to catch the being into a dark wooden box that was safely sealed. The gravely feeling was gone. The only thing that still reminded them of the nightmare was the angry shaking of the box which Twink held securely in her hands. The house elf promised to store it away safely and to not let it harm anyone ever again. Lyra just nodded gratefully.
"Lyra, what was that?"
She turned to Elrond which looked at her bewildered. The witch knew that it had been an disturbing experience for him. With a sigh she tried to explain as good as she was able to.
"It was what we call a Boggart. Like the dementors they use your emotions to feast off of you. They also basically eat the magic in you but as it is fuelled by your emotions they try to get more out of you. Every strong emotion causes you magic to flare and grow as it will always jump to try and defend you. Boggarts think that the taste of magic that is fuelled by despair tastes the most delicious. So they confront you with your greatest fears not just to scare you but to make you despair, they try to break you and before you succumb to madness they will suck every bit of magic out of you. The only way to get rid of them is laugh…"
She couldn't finish the sentence as he covered her mouth with his lips while increasing their bond so they could feel each other's thoughts. He let her know that he truly loved her and that he didn't care in the slightest that she was a human and if she would ever dare to question his intentions in such a way again he would have to reach for drastic methods. He smiled at how rosy she blushed.
"Lyra you are so different from your family, you care for others and that alone will prevent that you would ever turn out that way and it is not your fault that your friends are dead. That is the fault of those who attacked you, the fault of those evil people like your family and I will never allow you to compare yourself to creatures like them. Understood?"
She nodded and deepened the kiss. Finally they put the boxes and the shelf away and there she felt a soft warm pulsing of a friendly energy. She knew that it was different to any layers of what her family could have created. It was powerful and fundamental; it was also a very pure light. She held her hand out and felt how the barrier faded under her touch. There it was, a strange magic that somehow lived, she felt how it came closer to greet her, touch her and muster her. It felt warm and safe so she just let it happen. Elrond and Twink couldn't see much besides a bright light but all he sensed from his love was calm and so he didn't worry for her. As sudden as it had appeared the light was gone again but in Lyra's hands rested now a small wooden box. All of them were curious, curious about what would be important enough to face all the trouble?
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Guardian
My dear heir,
If you read this, then I'm on one hand glad that there truly is still one of us. That there is one who will carry on the duty and on the other hand I'm so sad. It would mean that the tradition has been broken because normally the duty would have been handed from the elder to the next generation… but now it seems that we all will be gone and all our knowledge will be lost.
We live in troubled times now and I fear that the wisdom of our culture had faded with the loss of Camelot. We have finally lost our battle against oblivion. Our lonely path of guard duty had not been enough to hinder the madness and darkness to consume our lands. At first we were known as the Atlantic door guardians and kept watch over the ancient portals. After their loss in the battle of debts we were seriously weakened. Many centuries later we were called the knights of Arthur's Round Table or like in the latest recordings the guardians. We were always twelve people and it was our duty to guard the life force of nature's magic. There are great currents of magic which revive the magic in all lands and their inhabitants. They are called the ley lines. It doesn't matter if we speak of our own magic, the magic inside powerful stones or places or if we speak of the other magical races, all of us depend on those streams of power, which floods every single being on this planet.
Like the sea and water bring life to all beings, so are the magical currents acting according the same principle. How lively and powerful they are, appoints to how powerful we are. Traditionally every one of those streams chose one guardian, someone who would live in symbiosis with one of the streams; it gives the guardian more power but also the duty to care for his lands and all creatures living there. If there is no guardian then the power will go to sleep. It will return to the depths of earth and all those who depends on the magic will weaken, we will lose a lot of our lifespan and our powers will subside, creations like the island of Avalon will just be legends and it has already shown that there is none magician anymore as powerful as Merlin had been.
There are those who are jealous of our power. Those who just strive for power but not for the responsibility that comes with it, they will destroy everything in their greed for power. But forgive me, I haven't started at the beginning… Guardians are often found in the same families as they always raise their children in the way to be ready to take over the duty if the time comes, but please you have to understand that it is no guarantee. It always was and will be the magic which choses its guardian and not the other way around. No one has a right to be one of them but it seemed that we had overlooked that some of the youths lived in the misconception of being the heirs to the magic and had a right to wield it. As the magic declined to choose them they ran havoc and brought all of us great dishonor. The situation became worse as the magic appointed one of the children born to non-magical parents as its new guardian, as the old houses became too corrupt.
They started to kill the guardians. At this moment, while writing this letter it's only four of us who are left now. Today I got message that they had found the African guardian dead in his secret hideout. There will be no new guardians as the magic has stopped to appoint new ones after the murders had started, that's why I can't be sure if there even would be someone appointed at some time in the future but I hope. I hope that this letter will have a receiver. They will come to kill me too but I will go with hope in my heart and not with despair even if everything around us turns to chaos. This morning I got messages that the dragon families attack and slay people and now the population turns to me to save them but they don't understand. They don't want to see the imbalance and turmoil that had been created with the streams running wild after killing their guardians and in this chaos; no one can reach and calm the dragons anymore. They are scared because they already feel the fading and their coming death. The unicorns are fleeing and the non-magical society starts to notice us as our shields start weakening.
I don't know who will come to kill me, those who are jealous or those who are scared but I don't really care. I'm sad that a group of people would rather destroy us all than refrain from power but maybe there will be someone, in the future who would be able to wake the magic again and to help those beings who were hurt most. Please tell them how sorry I am, that I wasn't able to hinder this fate and to have let them down.
Yours, Cassandra Black
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Lyra just stared at the letter, Elrond was silent too. They both sat cradled to each other in their library. After leaving the attic they had decided to return to their flat. At least they felt safe inside their comfortable rooms. Now Lyra was really glad for it because she had so much to process and was glad that she didn't need to keep an eye out for possible traps. They had inspected the box and found the old parchment. There also was a necklace inside but they had ignored it and focused on the letter first. Cassandra Black had been one of her ancestors but one of those which were mostly kept silent about. Now it seemed that she had found one of the original line of Blacks instead of an side branch like her grandmother had always pretended. Her eyes still were locked at the written words. It also seemed that she had found the origin of the muggle hatred. She was shocked and thought the magic had to be mad to really consider her as guardian but her love found it all just highly amusing and started to nip on her ear. What would all of it mean, for her, for him and for their life? Why would she want a burden like that?
"Love, the magic feels calm and nice, I don't believe that you would have a disadvantage from it."
She was grateful for his words, his support. Lyra leaned back and fully rested on his shoulder before she whispered.
"What about you? Us? I would need to remain here in my lands to help healing the wounds and to prevent the wizengamoth from doing stupid things. Elrond I'm not ready to give you up for something like that, you are the most important part of my life. I would never let you go again."
The grey of his eyes got a warm shade. With love and care he started to kiss her head. He stroked softly down her back and enjoyed the feeling of her body close to him.
"The same counts for me my love. Then we will live here, we can always visit Imladris if we long for some calm and comfort. I also hope that you allow my children to visit us…"
She softly interrupted him with a kiss. Elrond softly picked her up. Lyra was a bit startled but allowed him to carry her to their bedroom. He softly put her down on the silky blanket before he lay next to her. While Lyra got wrapped into his arms and felt him huddling up to her she felt how her thoughts jumped away. She tried with all might to still focus on the conversation.
"I wanted to help rebuilding middle earth, to see if our plans work and everything goes well there. What about Minas Tirith, Ithilien, the grey haven and Mirkwood they all would agree to the soul ward…"
He kissed her again and with that the conversation was delayed to another time.
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The Malfoys
The great eagle owl that once had belonged to Draco, brought the invitation for dinner at eight the same evening. Lyra was concerned about the couple which they had freed from Voldemort and which had lost their son in the last battle. "Harry" had spoken about them having problems and that she should look out for them. He was right they were her responsibility. Narcissa was still a Black and even if she was now married to another family and basically had lost most of her rights within the Black clan she was still a responsibility of the head of house in this case Lyra. The witch sighed, she had the feeling that there was lots of work ahead of her. They had lost Draco after sacrificing everything to prevent his death. Draco was still somehow there inside of the Hogwarts being but it probably did nothing to comfort his parents. She sighed again if it was true what the Black spies had told her about the ongoing in the wizengamoth, Lucius had retired and left the fate of the wizarding world in incompetent hands. She hoped that she could get him back in form, if they wanted to start over than they needed him. He had been evil and manipulating but he was completely capable of handling political things. Especially if the country needed to rebrand itself on international political stages. As he was brilliant in his doings, he would probably the only one able to safe their public face. Three dark lords in one century, no wonder that they suffered under embargos. Elrond and her agreed to visit with Draco's parents later that evening.
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They arrived to Malfoy Manor via portkey and the house elves showed them in. Lyra wore her official black robes, with the trademark eagle clasp on her cloak, just like tradition demanded for official Black-meetings. Elrond had decided to wear his grey cloak. He smiled a bit at the look of his love, which told them that she would have absolutely no problem to wear it again. The look held a touch of longing to it, just enough to make him swallow and fight against very pleasant ideas. Their happiness was short lived though. The house elves offered to take their cloaks and then led them inside one of the living rooms. As they saw their hosts, both of htem were shaken. Lyra had guessed that it had to be serious for Harry to mention it but that was far beyond her expectations. Narcissa and Lucius looked like empty shells with no will to live. Narcissa's blond hair were now grey and her eyes looked cold at them, despite wearing her over years trained and perfected welcome/greeting smile. Both of them held their perfect host posture but even as skilled actors as them couldn't prevent the pain from showing through. Lucius was as worse as his wife, his eyes looked glassy and his movements had lost their sharpness. It was so untypically for the man who normally resembled a tiger which comfortably and playfully circled around it's prey. Lyra squeezed Elrond's hand and one look in her love's eyes and they agreed both that the dinner was canceled. After the formal greeting Lyra went and hugged Narcissa, never caring about their shocked faces.
"Narcissa, Lucius it's good to finally see you again."
Narcissa intensified the hug, just glad to see her niece and one of Draco's best friends again.
"I'm glad that at least you made it, Lyra."
The woman who was known for her acting skills and perfect manners just broke down in Lyra's arms. Elrond put his cloak away and turned into healer mode. All four went to a small living room in the more private part of the manor and their hosts were settled into comfortable armchairs. Normally they would have been suspicious about someone trying to help them but they didn't care anymore. There was nothing left in this world for them to care about, therefore if someone would try to fool them, then it wouldn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered. Elrond kneeled in front of Narcissa while taking her hands and she could feel how warmth returned to her body, her limps relaxed and she fell to sleep. Elrond was worried, only someone truly exhausted would fall to sleep so fast. She was softly put on the couch in the room, while Lyra followed one of the house elves to carefully warm up one of the elvish healing draughts. Athelas had worked wonders for her, especially if she fought against bad memories and other dark lingering so it would help them too. After making sure that Narcissa lay into the most comfortable positon, Elrond also took the hands of Lucius and even the stoic lord felt relief and gratefulness as the elven lord helped him. Lucius mind woke up and the haze around his thoughts got reduced. Some of his sharp wit returned. He had heard that Lyra had returned and that she was engaged to a being that reminded him of the old tales. He tried to remember where he had read about the old legends, of the elves which had faded but couldn't as his mind was still to foggy. Lucius hadn't believed what his spies had told him about the being at Lyra's side until he saw them arriving. He seemed to be one of the fae. She had introduced him as a Lord to his people and an ancient being and he had asked himself how the both of them had come together but he seemed a kind person and a being full of wisdom.
"Lord Elrond, thank you."
Lucius' voice was a mere whisper, he hated himself for seeming so weak but truth was that he hadn't used his voice much in the last one and a half year. Most of the time he had been silent, unable to let his pain shown to the outer world. He shook himself out of his thoughts and noticed that Elrond's eyes looked at him with understanding. The being just nodded and gracefully went to look after Narcissa again. Lucius felt guilty he hadn't noticed how exhausted she was, he had just seen his own grief. How couldn't he have noticed that she was in an even worse condition?
"How is she faring?"
Elrond's voice was calm and deep as he answered.
"She finally has found rest, I can sense that this is the first time in weeks that she finds some sleep, forgive me if I say that but this has to be a sign of the Black insanity to use potions to prevent sleeping for so long."
Lucius couldn't smile at that announcement but he felt a bit of amusement.
"I see, had you experiences with this particular phenomenon before?"
Elrond just nodded but declined to think about it closer, he didn't want to see Lyra lying there without movement completely exhausted, ever again. Said woman entered the room and brought two steaming cups with her. Lucius took his and watched how she carefully but with an experienced hand fed the other cup full with draught to his wife. He himself felt lighter and more relaxed after taking the first sip. He felt the stiffness and hate slowly fade away, then he sat there and cried, cried for his only son who died in that horrid battle. He cried about his own weakness to have ever joined such an evil man, to have spent so many years manipulating others, instead of spending time with his child. He cried because he had helped Voldemort instead of being a strong independent power in the wizengamoth who would have had the strength to stop Voldemort as well as Dumbledore from causing so much pain. He should have been there preparing the society for war and not spending years with lulling them into fake safety and then having them hide like cowards, while their own children fought their war.
He felt a soft hand on his shoulders and looked into old grey eyes which showed him understanding, true understanding of what inner battles he had to fight. He felt a soft presence close to his mind which wrapped him into calm, acceptance and peace. Lucius led his shields down for the first time ever since he had learned the arts from his father in preparation to serve his new master.
"You have made mistakes and those are what hurt us most, what we will ever regret but if you linger on what all you should have done different, then you will lose what you still have left too."
Then he understood, understood that those grey eyes had faced so much pain and war throughout the centuries and that he had lost his wife.
"Yes I had great losses in my life but I decided to live for my family and now I was gifted with love once more. You have someone to live for too and she will need your strength to overcome her grief. What will you do?"
Lucius thought about his words and knew that they were true, that while he had lost his son, he still had his wife but he would lose Narcissa too if he didn't get on his feet and would be the husband she needed, just once in his life he should do something right. He nodded and went to the couch, he settled there with putting Narcissa carefully in his arms, he let her head rest on his shoulder and wrapped her in a blanket. Elrond was satisfied with their development and Lyra smiled too, hopefully the both would be able to overcome their pain.
Elrond and Lyra stayed for some days at Malfoy manor and watched as their hosts slowly showed signs of life again. Under Elrond's skilled hands the depression faded away and they reached a neutral state. Lyra was so grateful for his work. Even if she had become a skilled healer herself she lacked his experience. He just radiated so much calm and strength that people had to trust him. If someone would be able to help the couple back to life it would be him. Time would show which fate they would chose but it was already a huge success to help them out of their stupor. They weren't silent victims anymore but could instead actively work on their pain and had the chance to make a decision according their own wishes. They spent a lot of time together now and actually talked about their pain and loss, that was something they hadn't done before not even in the good years. Meanwhile had Elrond and Lyra also a lot of things to talk about. One was how they would let their family know that they are alright and well? Lyra had some ideas in that field and she told him about the two way mirrors Harry and Sirius had used.
"Something like that would be great but would it work across the borders of reality?"
"Maybe but only to those who have soul bonds to you, as soul magic is the only thing powerful enough to cross any distance or border and maybe it won't be mirrors. Actually I thought about making journals for all of us so we would just need to think about the one that we would want to write to and the words would appear in the book of the intended person."
"That would be possible?"
Lyra wasn't really sure herself but thought that it would be a good point to start her researches. She thought about the situation for some time before answering.
"Maybe but I would need to talk to some gifted crafters, finding out what they already have and then improving it."
Elrond agreed with the idea and directed the conversation then to a topic that he had wanted to settle for some days now.
"Lyra I wish that you take on the post as guardian, I think it would be the best for your world to do so. I don't care where we live, in fact it would be very interesting for me to spent some time here and learn more about you, your world and your customs. I only care to be with you and it's important to me that you live to your full potential, this is a chance for you and us, so please don't decline because of me."
She hugged him and told him that she also hesitated because she was scared. He smiled softly and kissed her head while comforting her. They talked about the risks of allowing a complete unfamiliar strange energy to become part of their life. He told her that it was his belief that they didn't need to fear it but also accepted her concerns. Another topic that he wished to talk about was their wedding. As he brought it up, Lyra started to smile.
"I only care for marrying you, Elrond therefore if you want to marry on the moon I'm happy with that too."
Under laughter he told her to not give him tempting ideas. Both of them wanted their friends and family invited and there was the part of making it official for the wizarding world, so that things got settled the right way.
"Do you think Elladan would mind it terribly if he had to throw a huge party for us?"
Elrond smiled and thought that his son would happily agree even if it would be a huge amount of work. It seemed both of them loved Imladris most so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to marry in the clearing next to the huge waterfalls.
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that was another chapter and I do hope to get lots of feedback^^
;) from you too, yes you, not just the others, I mean you and I see how you try to just skip that part and head on the next page but hey its not that hard to post a smiley or some short words... sooo pls what do you think about the story so far?
