Chapter 11
"Ah! What the?" Draco yelped, nearly falling out of the tree at the voice just behind him, he whirled around and slipped, flailing about wildly in panic. Strong arms caught him and steadied him. Draco gasped in shock and looked up, his eyes went wide, astonished at the beautiful creature standing beside him.
The elf smiled, the young ageless features seamed to nearly glow and the dark green eyes glittered. It turned to look down at Harry, giving Draco a clear view of his pointed ears and long dark brown hair. Harry was walking towards the death eaters, Draco could vaguely hear him telling them to surrender or else, but he was to busy taking in the sight of the elf to really pay attention, and then Draco noticed other elves moving through the trees in long effortless bounds and leaps, following Harry. Suddenly the elf moved past him and swung nimbly down through the branches to the ground, landing noiselessly.
"Come down," he called up, Draco looked down, then slowly began his own descent, which was slow and ungraceful compared to the elf. When he was finally on the ground again he looked about. The elves had come out of the trees; some were now tying up the death eaters while others kept watch, bows ready. All of them were dressed in forest colors, for camouflage, their clothes were beautifully made and decorative, elfish runes on their wrist guards, cloaks, and bows. All of them were tall and thin, but well muscled and tough, their features furious and chilling when they looked ta the death eaters. Draco got the impression that, while they were well known for their peacefulness, they could become terrible foes in an instant.
Suddenly the sound of melodious language unlike any he had ever heard seemed to spring up around him, one elf was talking to Harry while three others chattered amongst themselves. The language of the elves was legendary for is beauty and Draco was stunned by it. Then they all seemed to have come up with some plan because a group of elves led the death eaters off into the forest, taking a near-invisible animal trail. The death eaters walked in a line, elves dodged among the trees, and up in the branches, surrounding them. Draco turned and walked over to Harry, who was watching the departing elves and death eaters, listening to an elf who appeared to be the leader. When the elf stopped talking Harry nodded calmly, and replied in the same language, and then he turned to Draco.
"Half of the patrol will take the death eaters back as quickly as possible. The other death eaters have escaped, the prisoners are both dead. The other elves will travel back with us, come, the others will be wondering what happened." He turned with a swish of his cloak and was gone, walking alongside the elf, talking. Draco started after them, three elves caught up to him with long strides.
"Close call there young one," the first one said, it was the same elf who had saved him from falling. "My name's Eldin."
"Draco, I though you never went beyond your borders?"
"We do now, what with those lousy Izyat* around. My name's Selna." Answered a blond haired elf, she had a long scar on the upper left side of her face that ran from forehead to ear. The way she said Izyat was so scornful Draco didn't even want to ask exactly what it meant. Probably death eaters.like his father.like him.
"How did you know we were here?" Draco asked curious at how the elves had happened to be there at the same moment they had.
"They've been following us since noon." Harry commented, he had dropped back to them along with a few other elves. The remainder seemed to be scouting ahead, watching behind, or off to the sides. The elves all gave him startled looks.
"You're quite alert for a human Keeper of the Ways." Said the lead-elf, he was a stern looking elf, if any elf could be termed "stern", with a bad scar on his throat, blond hair, and wide amber eyes, though perhaps the rough stern look came from the fact that the tip of his right ear was missing. "I'm Jalim, Draco." Draco nodded silently, realizing suddenly that, though they were walking on dried leaves none of the elves made any sound, nor did Harry.
"Jalim is this the group we'll be traveling with?" Harry asked, Jalim nodded, "how many of your are there? I have only counted sixteen since noon."
"Sixteen! You must have the eyesight of an elf to find that many. There are eighteen of us in total, but you could not have seen the other two, they were waiting a few miles beyond your campsite." Harry nodded, looking pleased.
"Do you have elfish blood?" Selna asked Harry, "I can't think of any elf that has ever married a human, and none ever will." She added, sounding disgusted at the thought.
"I am not part elf, and you are quite wrong about elves marrying humans. It has happened." This caused instant uproar.
"What? What elf would ever do that? They're humans!" Harry turned his blazing green gaze on the Selna and she stopped instantly.
"Elves and human were once good friends, working together to survive the reign of the dark lord Rahiil. In that time there were two dozen or so elf- human marriages. Though many were between war mages, who really don't count, but I'm not getting into that. One witch married the elf king, though that was all nine thousand years ago, and there are no elves left who are that old." Harry explained as all the elves drew closer to listen.
"I thought elves lived forever, why are there none left from that time?" Draco asked, and was surprised at the annoyed and angry looks the elves threw at him.
"Draco life as an elf is tremendously difficult. Most elves don't have the stamina and strength for immortality. Which is the main reason they keep to themselves. Befriending mortals is difficult because they know we will die. Elves feel far more than we humans do, a large percentage of elves who married mortals died when their spouse did from grief." The elves al looked away as he spoke, refusing to meet Harry's eyes, though he could sense their astonishment at his understanding.
"The elves at that time were also in constant war with goblins, the dark lord Rahiil sought to make the entire elf species into his slaves. He sought to take away their tradition and history by killing the old ones. There are only a few left, the kings chief advisor is six thousand, he is the oldest living elf." Harry continued, Draco nodded, making a mental note to look up this person Rahiil when he got back to Hogwarts in three weeks.
"You know a lot of us and our history," Jalim said in the silence that followed.
"I was there, it is my responsibility to know the secrets of each race so I can keep history the way it is supposed to be, and so that I can be a resource for them to look to." Harry replied as he led the way up the hill to the campsite.
"Draco? Harry? Wha-oh." Carols aid in shock as she saw them, Carol had been on guard duty at the edge of the trees in which they were camped.
"Hello Carol," Harry said calmly, beckoning her to follow them back to the main camp, she did so, staring in shock at the elves.
"So they did have the sense to post a guard." Eldin said softly to another elf, but Harry heard and gave them an offended look.
"You think I have taught them nothing?" Harry asked, Eldin reddened a little and bowed his head.
"Sorry, but I heard that they had never been on any sort of trip in dangerous lands before." He apologized.
"They haven't, I have had to teach them everything, but they are interested in surviving this journey." Harry said, stepping into the small clearing where the other students were.
"Everyone here?" he asked Carol, who nodded. The others were staring in shock as the eighteen elves moved silently into the clearing. "Everyone these eighteen elves are going to be our guides during our stay in their lands. This is their groups leader, Jalim, I'll let you get to know the others on your own. Have you eaten yet?" He asked, addressing this last the both elves and humans.
"No, not yet" Hermione said, glancing at the elves with interest. They shook their heads and quickly went to work at the fire making something Harry recognized as Sistu, elfish traveling food that was mostly dried fruit, a thick pasty sauce, thin sweet bread and vegetables.
"Jalim for guard duty tonight how about we have one human and one elf on duty? Four watches." Harry suggested.
"Yes that sounds good, we should arrive in our land early tomorrow morning." The lead elf replied, he looked around and went over to one of the largest trees, in a few swift moves he was sitting up in the branches ten feet above them, arranging the braches and speaking to the tree in elfish as he did.
"What's he doing? My name's Hermione by the way." Hermione asked the elf sitting next to her, a blond male elf, he glanced up into the tree before responding.
"We elves like to sleep in the trees, but with so few good ones most of us will stay on the ground tonight, my name's Jaqway."
"Alright for those who didn't hear, we'll have five watches tonight, one elf and one human for each." Harry said from where he was sharpening a knife.
"I'll take first," Jaqway offered.
"So will I," Carol said.
"Second," Hermione and Selna said together. Harry noted the book tucked into the small pocket on the side of Selna's quiver, and decided that she and Hermione probably had quite a bit in common.
"Third," Ron said, Harry nodded and glanced at the elves.
"I will," and dark haired female volunteered, "I'm Ricalien." She added, and elf named Elem and Dawn took fourth watch.
** Harry leaned back against the rocks, hidden in their shadows, the moon was full, shining silver onto the tall grasses of the highlands, making them wave and ripple like silvery water in the soft night breeze, a fox darted through the grass, Harry sent out to it and it stopped, and slowly turned to look at him. Then he heard approaching footsteps, though they were muffled by the grass, the fox vanished into the night. Harry went back to his carving; it was a carving of a unicorn, his small pocketknife glinting. The footsteps stopped, and then started, a person walked into a view. It was Draco, as Harry had expected, a light mental touch revealed that the young man was troubled by the days' events. Harry tilted his knife until the moonlight struck it, making it flash, Draco jumped and whirled to face him, wand out.
"Excellent reflexes," Harry commented softly, one hand began to draw runes on the rock beside him, sending out silencing wards around them. "But I assure you it is quite safe tonight, there are no death eaters within fifty miles at least."
"How would you know?" Draco asked, dropping his wand back into the wand holster Harry had made them all bring.
"I can sense the presence of a death eater, Draco." Draco backed away, "I did warn you." Harry commented, Draco took another step back, the backs of his legs hitting the high pile of rocks behind him, he gripped the rocks, staring at Harry in a sort of jittery fear. "What do you think you saw today?"
The question caught Draco completely off balance, he blinked twice and swallowed hard.
"I don't know," recovering from his shock he stepped forward again. "What was it?"
"Do you really want to know? You know one of those who was present." Draco froze, knowing instantly who Harry was talking about, his father.
"What were they doing to those people?" He finally asked.
"They were skinning that man, alive." Harry said, almost carelessly, then he looked up form his carving and met Draco's eyes firmly. "The man they were skinning was a death eater." Draco's eyes widened.
"My father?" He asked fearfully, Harry shook his head.
"No, your father was the one doing the questioning, the man they were skinning was just a regular death eater who wanted to chance to serve his master in something important. He had no idea what he was getting into." Harry said the last with emphasis, to make sure Draco got the message. Draco's silver/gray eyes narrowed.
Draco turned and began to walk off in the direction opposite Harry, but he had not gone two paces when he slammed into an invisible wall. He gasped and stepped back, slowly he reached out and touched the wall, then he turned to face Harry and glared, Harry didn't look up from his carving. Draco turned back towards the campsite, but hit another wall after about two paces, furious he went the other way, only to hit another wall. He whirled and came toward Harry, and slammed into yet another invisible wall.
"What is this?!" He snarled, but Harry could detect panic in his voice. "What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? I'm carving," Harry said simply, Draco struck one of the walls, and yelped in pain as his fist came into contact with a solid, invisible, wall. "The walls are of your own creation. I only made them physical rather than mental."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Draco demanded from his invisible prison. When Harry did not answer he reached up the wall, looking for the top, and found an invisible roof just a foot above his head. He turned and kicked at one of the walls, to no effect.
"You, Draco, are trapped, no not physically, only mentally. There are walls in your mind trapping you; I have only given the power to show themselves physically." Harry said, Draco turned and ran at the wall opposite Harry it didn't budge when he hit it.
"Flee will you? It will do you no good, the war has spread to everywhere now, to all the intelligent races on the planet." Harry said, now he was watching, expressionless. Draco turned to his right and stopped, reaching out to find the wall.
"The muggle world cannot hide you, you are too recognizable. Your magical signature is highly unique, and you do not know how to survive as a muggle." Draco threw him a furious look and turned back towards the camp, to that wall.
"You have no real friends nor allies, they are loyal to you from fear and for money. Those who might help you distrust you and hate you; it will take to long to overcome that. And you don't have much longer." Draco turned towards him and struck at the wall, fear, confusion, panic, and anger visible on his face.
"Those who oppose your master do not trust you either, and you are not useful to them, and they do not understand the nature of your fear." Draco looked up, then he drew out his wand and attempted to blast away the invisible roof, the spell simply vanished, Harry wiled his magics to absorb and dissipate the unfocused and confused power in it.
"Voldemort is always there, he is always with you now, that mark on your arm," Draco froze, his right hand going to the dark mark on his left arm. "He is so much more powerful than you, and he has support and experience. You are not yet strong enough to fight that battle." Draco stopped, staring at him, unmoving. Harry sighed and waited, slowly adding mental pressure, suddenly Draco's eyes began to widen with understanding, he flinched and moved back, to the center of his prison, looking around. One hand still gripped the mark on his left arm; he shivered, realizing the truth of what Harry was saying.
"What do I do then?" He finally asked, turning to Harry, now there was only fear in him.
"Endure. You are safe from them in the Elf Kingdom, you have three weeks. Life and peace are for the strong, often paid for by blood. Endure until you get a chance for something else. I would suggest making friends among the elves, they sense something dark about you and would likely kill you if they knew. But once they know you they are wise enough to give you a chance to explain." Harry stood finally and left, the invisible walls vanished as he did.
He was halfway to the campsite when the agonized mental cry from Arai slammed into his mind.
Cliffy! Please review, I'm sorry this took so long!
Author's Note:
* Izyat: A scornful name used by the elves, it is generally applied to death eaters.
"Ah! What the?" Draco yelped, nearly falling out of the tree at the voice just behind him, he whirled around and slipped, flailing about wildly in panic. Strong arms caught him and steadied him. Draco gasped in shock and looked up, his eyes went wide, astonished at the beautiful creature standing beside him.
The elf smiled, the young ageless features seamed to nearly glow and the dark green eyes glittered. It turned to look down at Harry, giving Draco a clear view of his pointed ears and long dark brown hair. Harry was walking towards the death eaters, Draco could vaguely hear him telling them to surrender or else, but he was to busy taking in the sight of the elf to really pay attention, and then Draco noticed other elves moving through the trees in long effortless bounds and leaps, following Harry. Suddenly the elf moved past him and swung nimbly down through the branches to the ground, landing noiselessly.
"Come down," he called up, Draco looked down, then slowly began his own descent, which was slow and ungraceful compared to the elf. When he was finally on the ground again he looked about. The elves had come out of the trees; some were now tying up the death eaters while others kept watch, bows ready. All of them were dressed in forest colors, for camouflage, their clothes were beautifully made and decorative, elfish runes on their wrist guards, cloaks, and bows. All of them were tall and thin, but well muscled and tough, their features furious and chilling when they looked ta the death eaters. Draco got the impression that, while they were well known for their peacefulness, they could become terrible foes in an instant.
Suddenly the sound of melodious language unlike any he had ever heard seemed to spring up around him, one elf was talking to Harry while three others chattered amongst themselves. The language of the elves was legendary for is beauty and Draco was stunned by it. Then they all seemed to have come up with some plan because a group of elves led the death eaters off into the forest, taking a near-invisible animal trail. The death eaters walked in a line, elves dodged among the trees, and up in the branches, surrounding them. Draco turned and walked over to Harry, who was watching the departing elves and death eaters, listening to an elf who appeared to be the leader. When the elf stopped talking Harry nodded calmly, and replied in the same language, and then he turned to Draco.
"Half of the patrol will take the death eaters back as quickly as possible. The other death eaters have escaped, the prisoners are both dead. The other elves will travel back with us, come, the others will be wondering what happened." He turned with a swish of his cloak and was gone, walking alongside the elf, talking. Draco started after them, three elves caught up to him with long strides.
"Close call there young one," the first one said, it was the same elf who had saved him from falling. "My name's Eldin."
"Draco, I though you never went beyond your borders?"
"We do now, what with those lousy Izyat* around. My name's Selna." Answered a blond haired elf, she had a long scar on the upper left side of her face that ran from forehead to ear. The way she said Izyat was so scornful Draco didn't even want to ask exactly what it meant. Probably death eaters.like his father.like him.
"How did you know we were here?" Draco asked curious at how the elves had happened to be there at the same moment they had.
"They've been following us since noon." Harry commented, he had dropped back to them along with a few other elves. The remainder seemed to be scouting ahead, watching behind, or off to the sides. The elves all gave him startled looks.
"You're quite alert for a human Keeper of the Ways." Said the lead-elf, he was a stern looking elf, if any elf could be termed "stern", with a bad scar on his throat, blond hair, and wide amber eyes, though perhaps the rough stern look came from the fact that the tip of his right ear was missing. "I'm Jalim, Draco." Draco nodded silently, realizing suddenly that, though they were walking on dried leaves none of the elves made any sound, nor did Harry.
"Jalim is this the group we'll be traveling with?" Harry asked, Jalim nodded, "how many of your are there? I have only counted sixteen since noon."
"Sixteen! You must have the eyesight of an elf to find that many. There are eighteen of us in total, but you could not have seen the other two, they were waiting a few miles beyond your campsite." Harry nodded, looking pleased.
"Do you have elfish blood?" Selna asked Harry, "I can't think of any elf that has ever married a human, and none ever will." She added, sounding disgusted at the thought.
"I am not part elf, and you are quite wrong about elves marrying humans. It has happened." This caused instant uproar.
"What? What elf would ever do that? They're humans!" Harry turned his blazing green gaze on the Selna and she stopped instantly.
"Elves and human were once good friends, working together to survive the reign of the dark lord Rahiil. In that time there were two dozen or so elf- human marriages. Though many were between war mages, who really don't count, but I'm not getting into that. One witch married the elf king, though that was all nine thousand years ago, and there are no elves left who are that old." Harry explained as all the elves drew closer to listen.
"I thought elves lived forever, why are there none left from that time?" Draco asked, and was surprised at the annoyed and angry looks the elves threw at him.
"Draco life as an elf is tremendously difficult. Most elves don't have the stamina and strength for immortality. Which is the main reason they keep to themselves. Befriending mortals is difficult because they know we will die. Elves feel far more than we humans do, a large percentage of elves who married mortals died when their spouse did from grief." The elves al looked away as he spoke, refusing to meet Harry's eyes, though he could sense their astonishment at his understanding.
"The elves at that time were also in constant war with goblins, the dark lord Rahiil sought to make the entire elf species into his slaves. He sought to take away their tradition and history by killing the old ones. There are only a few left, the kings chief advisor is six thousand, he is the oldest living elf." Harry continued, Draco nodded, making a mental note to look up this person Rahiil when he got back to Hogwarts in three weeks.
"You know a lot of us and our history," Jalim said in the silence that followed.
"I was there, it is my responsibility to know the secrets of each race so I can keep history the way it is supposed to be, and so that I can be a resource for them to look to." Harry replied as he led the way up the hill to the campsite.
"Draco? Harry? Wha-oh." Carols aid in shock as she saw them, Carol had been on guard duty at the edge of the trees in which they were camped.
"Hello Carol," Harry said calmly, beckoning her to follow them back to the main camp, she did so, staring in shock at the elves.
"So they did have the sense to post a guard." Eldin said softly to another elf, but Harry heard and gave them an offended look.
"You think I have taught them nothing?" Harry asked, Eldin reddened a little and bowed his head.
"Sorry, but I heard that they had never been on any sort of trip in dangerous lands before." He apologized.
"They haven't, I have had to teach them everything, but they are interested in surviving this journey." Harry said, stepping into the small clearing where the other students were.
"Everyone here?" he asked Carol, who nodded. The others were staring in shock as the eighteen elves moved silently into the clearing. "Everyone these eighteen elves are going to be our guides during our stay in their lands. This is their groups leader, Jalim, I'll let you get to know the others on your own. Have you eaten yet?" He asked, addressing this last the both elves and humans.
"No, not yet" Hermione said, glancing at the elves with interest. They shook their heads and quickly went to work at the fire making something Harry recognized as Sistu, elfish traveling food that was mostly dried fruit, a thick pasty sauce, thin sweet bread and vegetables.
"Jalim for guard duty tonight how about we have one human and one elf on duty? Four watches." Harry suggested.
"Yes that sounds good, we should arrive in our land early tomorrow morning." The lead elf replied, he looked around and went over to one of the largest trees, in a few swift moves he was sitting up in the branches ten feet above them, arranging the braches and speaking to the tree in elfish as he did.
"What's he doing? My name's Hermione by the way." Hermione asked the elf sitting next to her, a blond male elf, he glanced up into the tree before responding.
"We elves like to sleep in the trees, but with so few good ones most of us will stay on the ground tonight, my name's Jaqway."
"Alright for those who didn't hear, we'll have five watches tonight, one elf and one human for each." Harry said from where he was sharpening a knife.
"I'll take first," Jaqway offered.
"So will I," Carol said.
"Second," Hermione and Selna said together. Harry noted the book tucked into the small pocket on the side of Selna's quiver, and decided that she and Hermione probably had quite a bit in common.
"Third," Ron said, Harry nodded and glanced at the elves.
"I will," and dark haired female volunteered, "I'm Ricalien." She added, and elf named Elem and Dawn took fourth watch.
** Harry leaned back against the rocks, hidden in their shadows, the moon was full, shining silver onto the tall grasses of the highlands, making them wave and ripple like silvery water in the soft night breeze, a fox darted through the grass, Harry sent out to it and it stopped, and slowly turned to look at him. Then he heard approaching footsteps, though they were muffled by the grass, the fox vanished into the night. Harry went back to his carving; it was a carving of a unicorn, his small pocketknife glinting. The footsteps stopped, and then started, a person walked into a view. It was Draco, as Harry had expected, a light mental touch revealed that the young man was troubled by the days' events. Harry tilted his knife until the moonlight struck it, making it flash, Draco jumped and whirled to face him, wand out.
"Excellent reflexes," Harry commented softly, one hand began to draw runes on the rock beside him, sending out silencing wards around them. "But I assure you it is quite safe tonight, there are no death eaters within fifty miles at least."
"How would you know?" Draco asked, dropping his wand back into the wand holster Harry had made them all bring.
"I can sense the presence of a death eater, Draco." Draco backed away, "I did warn you." Harry commented, Draco took another step back, the backs of his legs hitting the high pile of rocks behind him, he gripped the rocks, staring at Harry in a sort of jittery fear. "What do you think you saw today?"
The question caught Draco completely off balance, he blinked twice and swallowed hard.
"I don't know," recovering from his shock he stepped forward again. "What was it?"
"Do you really want to know? You know one of those who was present." Draco froze, knowing instantly who Harry was talking about, his father.
"What were they doing to those people?" He finally asked.
"They were skinning that man, alive." Harry said, almost carelessly, then he looked up form his carving and met Draco's eyes firmly. "The man they were skinning was a death eater." Draco's eyes widened.
"My father?" He asked fearfully, Harry shook his head.
"No, your father was the one doing the questioning, the man they were skinning was just a regular death eater who wanted to chance to serve his master in something important. He had no idea what he was getting into." Harry said the last with emphasis, to make sure Draco got the message. Draco's silver/gray eyes narrowed.
Draco turned and began to walk off in the direction opposite Harry, but he had not gone two paces when he slammed into an invisible wall. He gasped and stepped back, slowly he reached out and touched the wall, then he turned to face Harry and glared, Harry didn't look up from his carving. Draco turned back towards the campsite, but hit another wall after about two paces, furious he went the other way, only to hit another wall. He whirled and came toward Harry, and slammed into yet another invisible wall.
"What is this?!" He snarled, but Harry could detect panic in his voice. "What are you doing?"
"What am I doing? I'm carving," Harry said simply, Draco struck one of the walls, and yelped in pain as his fist came into contact with a solid, invisible, wall. "The walls are of your own creation. I only made them physical rather than mental."
"What the heck are you talking about?" Draco demanded from his invisible prison. When Harry did not answer he reached up the wall, looking for the top, and found an invisible roof just a foot above his head. He turned and kicked at one of the walls, to no effect.
"You, Draco, are trapped, no not physically, only mentally. There are walls in your mind trapping you; I have only given the power to show themselves physically." Harry said, Draco turned and ran at the wall opposite Harry it didn't budge when he hit it.
"Flee will you? It will do you no good, the war has spread to everywhere now, to all the intelligent races on the planet." Harry said, now he was watching, expressionless. Draco turned to his right and stopped, reaching out to find the wall.
"The muggle world cannot hide you, you are too recognizable. Your magical signature is highly unique, and you do not know how to survive as a muggle." Draco threw him a furious look and turned back towards the camp, to that wall.
"You have no real friends nor allies, they are loyal to you from fear and for money. Those who might help you distrust you and hate you; it will take to long to overcome that. And you don't have much longer." Draco turned towards him and struck at the wall, fear, confusion, panic, and anger visible on his face.
"Those who oppose your master do not trust you either, and you are not useful to them, and they do not understand the nature of your fear." Draco looked up, then he drew out his wand and attempted to blast away the invisible roof, the spell simply vanished, Harry wiled his magics to absorb and dissipate the unfocused and confused power in it.
"Voldemort is always there, he is always with you now, that mark on your arm," Draco froze, his right hand going to the dark mark on his left arm. "He is so much more powerful than you, and he has support and experience. You are not yet strong enough to fight that battle." Draco stopped, staring at him, unmoving. Harry sighed and waited, slowly adding mental pressure, suddenly Draco's eyes began to widen with understanding, he flinched and moved back, to the center of his prison, looking around. One hand still gripped the mark on his left arm; he shivered, realizing the truth of what Harry was saying.
"What do I do then?" He finally asked, turning to Harry, now there was only fear in him.
"Endure. You are safe from them in the Elf Kingdom, you have three weeks. Life and peace are for the strong, often paid for by blood. Endure until you get a chance for something else. I would suggest making friends among the elves, they sense something dark about you and would likely kill you if they knew. But once they know you they are wise enough to give you a chance to explain." Harry stood finally and left, the invisible walls vanished as he did.
He was halfway to the campsite when the agonized mental cry from Arai slammed into his mind.
Cliffy! Please review, I'm sorry this took so long!
Author's Note:
* Izyat: A scornful name used by the elves, it is generally applied to death eaters.