Disclaimer: Read my pf.

Author's Note: If you did not read the replaced chapter twenty, I made an important change. I had a math calculation error, and it had really been twenty-five years to the day since she had left Hogwarts.

Twenty-One

"Why are you putting those on? You've got a long way to go, and if I were you, I wouldn't want to ruin that dress," Legolas commented.

"I can bring it with me though, right?" Lina asked timidly. She still wasn't completely comfortable around this guy.

"Of course. People might think you're weird, though, wearing such a gorgeous dress on a normal, casual day. Trust me, I've been to Earth before, and I was wearing these clothes. Everyone stared at me," he said, offering his knowledge. "If I were you, I would put on your Earth clothes. You know, those jeams or whatever that you were wearing?"

"They're jeans," Lina corrected. "And they are pretty much the only thing I would wear at Hogwarts, unless I was planning on going for a walk with Remus. Then I'd wear something nicer, like a skirt."

Legolas sat down on her bed and said, "Now, who is this Remus you keep referring to?"

Lina sighed and replied, "Oh, he's only the sweetest, nicest, most romantic guy in the world. And the most good-looking too." Legolas looked a little offended, and she realized that most Elven girls her age probably fell for him the second they lay eyes on him. Well, unfortunately for Legolas, she already had her eyes on someone else.

"The worst of it is that when I left, I offered no explanation as to why I was leaving. I had not told him about how Dumbledore was my adoptive father, and how I was really an elf from Middle Earth. He probably wouldn't have believed me anyways; maybe he would have thought it was an excuse for me to break up with him without having to actually say the words 'I don't love you anymore.' "

"Why would he think that?" Legolas asked, curiosity behind his eyes.

"Well, because I basically told him that I was leaving, and possibly never coming back," she said. But then a horrible wave of cold flooded over her as realization sunk in.

"What if he doesn't want me back?" she whispered, dropping her clothes that she was carrying on the floor. "What if he found another girl that he likes better? What if he hasn't written to me because he's forgotten about me? What if –"

"Ithilwen!" Legolas shouted, bringing her back to reality. He gripped her shoulders and shook them gently to impress upon her the seriousness of what he was saying. "Ithilwen, he could not forget you. He would not forget you. If you remember him as vividly as you say you do, he is remembering you about twenty times more than that. No one could forget – let alone, not love – a face as beautiful as this."

Lina blushed at the compliment and bent over to pick up the clothes she had dropped. "You're right. He wouldn't forget me, what with all the things we did . . ."

Legolas' eyes suddenly snapped to hers. "What exactly did you do?" he asked, alarmed.

Lina's mouth dropped open at the comment and she cried, "Oh, don't think like that!"

"I'm sorry," Legolas said, withdrawing back to the bed. "That was out of line.

"Namárië, Ithilwen. Calor anor na ven," Lord Elrond said the next day, as the stars still shone down on the road before her. Legolas, his quiver of arrows filled and his bow at the ready, stood behind her.

"Goodbye, Lina. May the stars shine on your path," she repeated, in English. In Elvish, this time, she said to him, "Rim hennaid."

"You are very welcome, Ithilwen. I am sorry it took so long for me to realize what was going on," he said in response to her. "Legolas will keep your company. Until we meet again, if we meet again, farewell."

"Farewell," she whispered. She turned to Legolas, but he was already half way down the dark path. She ran after him, her feet tapping lightly on the ground beneath them.

"About how long will it take to get to this . . . portal?" she asked, panting.

"A day or so. We will be going over some mountains – that's why I suggested you wear your jeans," he said, annunciating the last word.

Lina laughed and said, "You said it right!"

He smiled, despite the fact that he was trying to conceal his excitement. "I am a fast learner," he said.

They had climbed over mountains. Of course, although Legolas had warned her of a difficult journey, she had worn her favorite jeans, which now had a few holes – one in each knee, and a couple tears from when they got caught on thorns or the edges of rocks. So much for looking presentable when she reached Remus.

She cried out in pain as one of the rocks scratched her leg.

"Are you alright?" Legolas called down from her from the top of the ledge. He offered his hand to help her up over the top.

"Yes, I'm fine. Even though it still hurts, I think I've been building up immunity to these cuts," Lina said, half-lying. It still hurt like the scars across her chest had when they had first appeared there, a little over thirty years ago, but they were better than they had been before.

"Well, don't worry. In a few seconds, you will be back home, with your Remus to tend to your wounds and heal them all with his kiss," Legolas announced proudly.

Lina was taken aback. "What d'you mean? Are we here already?"

"What do you mean by 'already'? We've been traveling for nearly twelve hours."

"Twelve hours . . ." she murmured. "And here it is?"

"Just beyond this grove of trees."

Lina walked slowly over to the grove and worked her way through. Once she got to the middle, she held her breath, waiting to see this mysterious portal. She expected a swirling hole in the ground through which you could see the grass of England, but instead, she found nothing.

"Where is it?" she asked frantically. "It can't have disappeared!"

"Do not worry, Ithilwen. It did not disappear. It's in that tree," Legolas laughed.

"In the tree?" Lina mused. She remembered going through Platform nine and three-quarters a few times, and she figured it must be something like that. She summoned all of her strength and walked straight towards the tree –

And bumped into it, her head crashing against the wood.

Legolas gasped and cried, "Not that tree, the one next to it!"

Lina rubbed her head and looked at him. "Thanks for the warning," she mumbled. But then her voice softened as she said, "And hannon le, Legolas, for bringing me here. You have no idea how much this means to me."

He smiled at her warmly and responded, "Ná Elbereth veria le, ná elenath dín síla erin rád o chuil lín."

"May Elbereth protect you, and may her stars shine on the path of your life, as well," Lina said. He took her hand and kissed it gently.

She gave him one last look before stepping gingerly towards the tree. She began to take it at a run, more like a sprint. Perhaps she was anxious to see Remus. She figured it was more because she was afraid to bump into another tree and she wanted to get it over with. She braced herself for the pain . . .

But it never came.

She opened her eyes. She was somewhere familiar, but she could not place it in her mind. It was a sort of shack, with almost no light shining through the broken shutters that covered the windows. The curtains and bed linens were moth-eaten and dusty. She looked on the floor, however, and saw that there were paw prints on the dusty floor.

She was in the Shrieking Shack.

Her heart pounding in her chest, she traveled down the path she knew so well to her true home, where she hoped Remus might be awaiting her. But what was she talking about? There was no way Remus would still be in school after thirty years.

But perhaps her father would be.

She crawled through the twisted passages at more of a run than a walking pace. She had even missed this horrible place. It held a memory of Remus, awakening something within her that jolted in her heart and only made her run faster.

Finally, she could breathe. She was out of the Shrieking Shack.

She ran towards the castle, which was beautifully illuminated with candles and torches flickering in the night. She looked to the lake and saw all the first-years, arriving on their boats. Carriages poured into the castle. She had never ridden in one of those carriages, but she was just happy enough right now to be glad she had actually had that excited, nervous feeling in her gut that all those people that were riding in the carriages had.

Her heart completely stopped in her chest as she did a quick math calculation in her mind. She realized that Lily and James' son Harry Potter, the boy who lived, was riding in one of those carriages, awaiting the beginning of his seventh year.