And to that I hold. I would rather share one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone. – the Fellowship of the Ring (movie ed.)

Harry woke to sunlight streaming in through a window. For a moment, he was disoriented; he hadn't slept indoors since arriving in Middle Earth. He blinked sleep-laden eyes and peered about the room in foggy confusion until he spotted a familiar elf sleeping in the bed.

He was in Legolas's room. Harry remembered talking late into the night, even as the glow of candles faded as the wicks burned out. Harry shook out his feathers, and started to straighten them back into place. He felt remarkably well-rested; this was the first dreamless sleep since his Occlumency barriers started to fail.

He hoped this pattern would continue but knew it would likely not last. Within a few days, Gondor would ride against Mordor, and both Harry and Legolas would be among the vanguard. Perhaps Harry could find peace after the battles, if all went well. But what would happen after the orcs were defeated? Last night, Legolas had mentioned that he would likely return to Mirkwood.

Harry blinked, mood plummeting. He could no longer imagine returning to the Forest of Fangorn to live as a phoenix permanently. Not when he realized how much he missed having friends. But he also wasn't sure about following after Legolas like a… like a pet, trailing after him. The thought was intolerable. He liked it when Legolas saw him as a man and not as a bird.

Harry spotted a familiar bouquet of flowers and felt his guilt deepen. Legolas had kept his ill-conceived apology flowers.

He needed to tell Legolas that he was both bird and man. Gimli seemed to take the news fairly well; perhaps such transformations were common here. His stomach clenched as he imagined Legolas's angry face - or worse, his hurt and disappointed look as the elf realized Harry had lied to him for weeks.

Maybe he could practice his speech by telling Gandalf first.

An hour later, Harry paced back and forth in an unused room.

"Gandalf – err, Master Gandalf. You're a wizard and I am too. No, that's too much Harry. Okay, okay. Master Gandalf. I have a confession to make. I may look like a stranger but we've known each other for some time. Er…"

Here Harry paused, unsure how his opening conversation might go. How in Merlin's beard could he approach Gandalf without alarming him?. From what he had picked up, Wizards were not common in Middle Earth. Would Gandalf react well to an unknown wizard? Harry didn't know.

But he wasn't sure that pacing would help him come up with a better idea.

"Okay, here goes."

He took a deep breath, and turned smartly on one foot. Harry disappeared for a sharp crack, and left only dust motes to continue their lethargic float around the room.

Harry reappeared near Gandalf's rooms. He stared at the heavy oaken door for a bit, then took a deep breath and knocked.

There was a brief silence, then –

"Coming," Gandalf said, opening the door. He paused in the middle of the process to stare at Harry intently.

"What an unexpected surprise. Hello, Eclipse."

Gandalf walked back into his sitting room and settled onto a chaise chair. He looked at Harry expectantly.

"Er, hi." Harry said lamely and followed. He sat opposite the White Wizard. In his hands, he held his broken wand. Harry tried not to fidget with it.

"You know me?" He blurted.

"Of course, my dear friend." Gandalf replied. "Why, it was not that difficult – even Gimli has figured it out. Legolas should, but he is blinded by other things to see the truth. So, do you prefer Eclipse or Harry? I have heard you go by both."

"Er" said Harry, whose mind had not quite caught up with this conversation. His thoughts were still stuck in the doorway, when he was trying to figure out what to say without telling Gandalf who he was.

"You're right. A hundred names may bloom. The truth is what is found at the roots. Who - or may I ask what - are you?"

"I'm a wizard," Harry said instinctively. "And... I need your help."

He looked down at his hands, which gripped a broken stick of holly. The crack was slim and easy to miss. At Gandalf's raised eyebrows, Harry handed over his wand.

Gandalf frowned and mumbled something under his breath. He ran a long, gnarled finger across the crack and glared at the wood some more. Finally, after what had seemed like ages, he handed back the wand to Harry.

"The core seems intact. A feather of your own?"

Harry frowned and shook his head.

"Another's."

"Why not ask your people for help? Your magic is surely different than mine; I do not believe I can be of help."

"I can't," Harry said, thinking of the friends he had left behind. "I just can't. But I need it to work. It could help turn the tide of battle."

Gandalf chuckled and shook his head.

"It is folly to believe magic can guarantee the outcome, my friend. Your magic will rise to your aid when needed - make no mistake about that. Yet you must also trust in your friends' wit and bravery to see them through the battle. You cannot shoulder their fate as well as yours; that is a sorrowful lesson every wizard must learn."

Harry opened his mouth to retort, but didn't know what to say. His friends had tried to tell him that before, yet it had never impacted him the way Gandalf's words did. Perhaps it was because Gandalf reminded him powerfully of Dumbledore; yet, the old headmaster had never offered such a sharp rebuttal to Harry's desire to save everyone.

"Yeah. Okay. I - I have learned that before but it is a good reminder."

Harry didn't linger long after that; he had a lot to think about. Gandalf bade him farewell with a sad, knowing smile.

In the end, Harry didn't have time to prepare for his meeting with Legolas.

After leaving the wizard's rooms, Harry had wandered throughout the castle as he reflected on Gandalf's words. It was in this befuddled state of mind that he opened an unassuming door that led into a fragrant courtyard awash with flowers blooming. Two heads swiveled at his arrival, and he abruptly came face-to-face with both Legolas and the Queen.

For a brief second, he thought of retreating, in the hopes that they hadn't noticed him.

Legolas' sharp eyes locked onto his and Harry couldn't move.

" Harry. What are you doing here?" His mouth was set in a familiar slant of disapproval that always seemed to appear whenever Harry the human was around.

Harry took a tiny step back and Legolas narrowed his eyes, tracking the movement intently. Before Harry could come up with an excuse, the Queen spoke.

"It is a pleasure, as always Legolas. Yet I must be going now." She tipped her head courtesy towards Harry and fixed him with piercing eyes. "Legolas, I hope to become better acquainted in the future with your... friend."

She glided past him and slipped out of the small wooden door. Only after the door clicked shut with finality did Legolas exhale with a deep sigh.

"What is it this time?" Legolas asked, his voice punctuated with barely-suppressed exasperation. "You have already used the castle's baths and now you wish to smell the flowers? You cannot keep this charade up. You must speak with the King and Queen for permission to be here."

"I was invited," Harry said, cutting Legolas short from his tirade. "Just, er, not in the most direct way."

Legolas raised his eyebrows, and his frown deepened imperceptibly. Harry's eyes darted across the elf's face, trying to gauge his reaction.

"I meant to tell you the day we met… but the longer I waited, the more worried I became about telling you. You've become a friend to me and... your opinion means a lot to me."

Legolas's face remained impassive, though, and Harry decided that he needed to be direct. There was nothing for it; he took a deep breath and blurted out the secret he had carried for so long.

"The truth is…the truth is that I'm Eclipse."

Legolas always knew that Harry was hiding something, but could never figure out what . There was always something Legolas couldn't quite place – his mannerisms, or his style of speech – that nagged at him at the corners of his mind. It was a familiar itch that had kept him thinking long into the nights after he spoke with Harry.

Yet he had never expected this.

As the confession tumbled from Harry's lips, the missing puzzle pieces slotted and fitted into pictures that played across his memory. Harry's brilliant green eyes stared at him with a resolve and a touch of fear, whose eyes were so similar to that of… of Eclipse. Harry, who seemed to mysteriously appear at just the right place and time, who had found the company in the fields of Celebrant, as they made their way from Lothlorien to Gondor. Few people lived in such a desolate land.

Could it be?

The elf took a step forward, causing Harry to back up. Legolas continued his advance until Harry's retreat took him to the edge of the courtyard. The wizard stopped and stared at him, face guarded.

Legolas reached a hand out and rested it gently on Harry's cheek. It was smooth and unblemished, just as flawless as when he had first spied Harry alongside the riverbank.

"What – what are you doing?" Harry asked.

Legolas felt like he was on the edge of a precipice as he stared into Harry's - Eclipse's - eyes.

"Eclipse," Legolas whispered. He tried out the word, still new and unfamiliar in this context. His amazement started to wear off as reality reasserted itself. If Harry was Eclipse, and Legolas had been talking to both this whole time…

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

He tried to keep the hurt from his voice. He had known Eclipse for months now, and had thought the phoenix trusted him. He had hardly slept the nights that Eclipse was relearning how to fly, and had helped the bird stay grounded when his memories had become too much. Yet after all of that - after all they had been through together - Eclipse had still kept a fundamental part of himself guarded.

Even worse - he had introduced himself as a stranger to Legolas, instead of telling the truth back in Lothlorien. Legolas had grown to like the wizard and had even lied for him when his fellow elves had reported the tracking stick stolen. Even when he had shown Harry that he would keep his secrets, Eclipse had still chosen to continue the farce. Had he ever truly known the bird...and did he even want to know the man?

Legolas had never looked at him like this before, Harry thought distractedly as the elf cupped his cheek. Legolas's gaze was transparent, as all of the hurt and astonishment and joy shimmered behind his eyes. The elf had looked at him like this before, when Harry had his Burning Day and when he began sharing some experiences from his past, but Harry had never felt like this as Eclipse. He felt a stirring in his stomach, a weird mixture of queasiness and elation.

"I'm sorry. I meant to tell you before, but…" Harry shrugged helplessly. "I never knew what to say."

His words seemed to break the stillness in the air, the feeling of anticipation and waiting.

Then Legolas withdrew his hands from Harry's face, and his eyes shuttered and his face grew guarded. Harry felt oddly bereft.

"You -" The elf let out a long exhale and started again.

"I trusted you. Both versions of you. To know that you've kept this from me this whole time… I need some time to think."

"Of course," Harry said. "Take all the time you need."

He tried to ignore the way his heart felt heavier with each word. Harry had hoped Legolas would take it in the easy stride that Gandalf and Gimli did, but he had always had a closer relationship with the elf. It was no surprise that Legolas would take this personally. He could give him space.

Two days later, Harry was wondering how much more space Legolas needed. The elf had avoided eye contact the few times Harry had seen him, and had generally kept to his rooms.

Harry let him have his distance, yet grew more anxious as every day grew closer to the day of the battle. Three days later, he woke, and Legolas had still not spoken to him. Harry's heart sank as he looked at the sun rising from the east and casting long shadows across the land. The King and his army would ride there today, with Legolas at the forefront with his friends.

It was time to ride to Mordor.