Author's Note: It seems kind of stupid to put a note telling you to read the author's note later in the chapter, but it's important, so don't skip it. For future reference, read ALL the author's notes, because they're ALL important. In EVERY story you EVER read. But that's about it.

Disclaimer: The only characters that belongs to us (so far) are Alexandria and Lorelei. And sort of Mr. and Mrs. Gruning. The name belongs to Ms. Rowling, but we kind of made up the characters. And the plot is ours. So don't take it. Everything else belongs to either Mr. Tolkein or Ms. Rowling. Thanks, enjoy!

Chapter One

"Alex!" Dad called up the stairs.

"What, Dad?" I yelled back.

"Are you ready yet? We have to be there in three minutes!"

"Okay, Dad," I replied. I put on my brand-new suit. It was navy blue and, in my humble opinion, boring with a capital B! Mom and Dad bought it for me, so I really had no choice but to wear it. I put my hair in a bun and put my wand and a chopstick in the bun criss-crossing, like the Chinese women would do in old movies. I keep it there because you never know when you might need it. Being a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher does that to you, even if I quit two years ago to switch to flying instructor. I slipped on my black platforms. Not that I need them – I mean, I am 5' 8" without them.

"What's taking so long? Do you need help up there?" Mom called.

"Mom, I'm thirty-one years old, I am perfectly capable of dressing myself. I've been doing it for a few years now. Do you think that they would have hired me to be a teacher if I couldn't get myself dressed?"

I heard her sigh and call back, "Well, hurry up! We're already late!"

Honestly, I don't understand how she thinks that she can have a woman my age in the house and not be late because I'm taking too long to dress myself. It is in my nature, after all, to take my time in making myself beautiful.

Kind of like my sister . . . yes, I do have a sister. No, she didn't die, and no, she isn't related to my parents. Or at least, she isn't related to the Grunnings.

And I know you're thinking to yourself, She is a Grunning. How can she have a sister that isn't related to her own parents? But that's where you're wrong.

See, I'm not really the child of Richard and Devona Grunning. I'm really not even human. No one else knows that. Wait, that was a lie – a few people know that. But one person who knows better than anyone is Severus Snape.

You're probably wondering who he is and why he's cool enough to know the nature of my condition. Let's just say we're . . . rather close.

Well when I was in Hogwarts all those years ago, in my fourth year when I was fifteen (my birthday is in September), I realized that the boy I had met in my first year that I had never really liked before had an odd sort of intrigue about him, something that caught my eye. I didn't know what it was – I still don't – but whatever it was, it drove me to some extremes that cost me a lot.

When Severus and I realized we liked each other it opened a whole new world – literally. We were so immersed in each other, so deeply in love that we didn't bother to think of the consequences of our actions.

One chilly December night he told me he had something to show me and snuck me up to the Slytherin Dormitory with him. He did have something to show me, and we had a lot of fun with it. A little too much fun. A few days later, the strip turned pink. I was pregnant.

I couldn't believe it – fifteen and pregnant! Of all people for it to happen to! And he was only fourteen at the time, too!

I remember the smug look on James' face the day after we had had sex. He didn't know what we'd done, but I think he had a suspicion.

"Where were you three nights ago? You told us you'd meet us at the Dormitory but you never came," he asked, his eyes flashing dangerously behind his horn-rimmed glasses.

"I went for a walk," I had said quickly.

"All the way to the Slytherin Dormitory?" Sirius had said, raising one eyebrow.

My mouth fell open in horror. "How did you – you couldn't have –"

"The Marauder's Map never lies, my dear," Sirius said. "And you and Snape were rather close to each other in the Boy's Dormitory."

"I . . . I was just . . ."

"Alex, what were you doing in there?" Remus asked quietly.

I couldn't stand to look at any of them any longer. They had no idea about how I felt about Severus, but I had quite a good idea of how they felt about him. If you were to hear my description of him, you would think of your Prince Charming, riding up to you on his noble steed. If you were to hear the Marauder's description, you would instantly think of a sewer rat.

"Why do you care about my personal affairs? I was tutoring him, alright?" I screamed.

"In what, sex ed?" James said, pointing an accusing finger at my chest.

"No! Just . . . no! Go away, never talk to me again!" I exclaimed.

I dropped my books and ran straight from the Great Hall to the Gryffindor Common Room. I arrived there with my eyes as pink as the strip I had tested the night before to find Lily descending the steps to the Common Room.

"Honey, what's wrong?" she asked, concern in her voice.

"The strip is pink! The strip's pink, Lily!" I shrieked, throwing my arms around her and sobbing into her robes.

"Whoa, calm down, Alex. What is this about a strip being pink? . . . Wait a second. You don't mean . . ."

"Three nights ago, Lily. Three horrible, sleepless nights ago," I cried.

"Does he know yet?" Lily asked, rubbing my shoulder comfortingly. "Wait a second, who is he anyway?"

I sat up to face her, sniffing and wiping my nose with my robes. "I can't tell you. You'd be too ashamed of me. You'd hate me."

She laughed and said, "Well, as long as you didn't sleep with Snape, I'm okay."

My lower lip quivered and I turned myself away from her. I couldn't look her in the eye. "I told you you'd hate me," I whispered.

Her mouth fell open slightly as she said, "You didn't, Alex. You're joking." Still not facing her, she saw how horribly my shoulders were shaking. "You're . . . not joking."

I tried one more time to look at her. My hands were now shaking as hard as my shoulders. "I wish I was, but I'm not."

"I just don't get it. Why would you go and sleep with Snape" – I gave her a glare – "sorry, Severus. Why would you go and sleep with Severus when you know that he's pretty much our friends' idea of dirt on the bottom of their shoes?"

"Because he's not dirt on the bottom of their shoes! He's really a great guy! Who cares if his hair is greasy? Who cares if he spends hours every day locked in his dormitory experimenting on new potions? I'm changing him! I'm making him normal!"

Lily seemed to stare at me for a moment, as though contemplating the words she was saying. "Well, now that I think about it, I have noticed that he seems to be showering more often."

"See? He's not such a bad guy!" I cried.

"But . . . I don't see the appeal. Ah, well – people didn't understand when I went out with Danny Johnson, but he was still a good boyfriend," she said quietly.

"You won't tell the guys, will you?" I asked, my voice quivering.

"I think they'll be able to tell when your belly starts getting bigger," Lily said. I could tell she was trying hard not to upset me.

"I suppose you're right." I wiped my nose on my sleeve again and sniffed slightly, adding, "Oh, God, what will the rest of the school think?"

Lily bit her lower lip and said, "I dunno, I just dunno."

"I'll have to leave the school once the year is done and never come back. I can't leave now – everyone will figure out why I left. But I can promise you one thing, Lily – I'm never going to come back. Ever."

I was only partly right. I did come back, but not for many, many years.

As the months wore on and as my belly grew steadily larger, my friends grew to accept the fact that I had something going on with Severus, Severus grew to accept the fact that he would become a father at fourteen, Lily grew to accept the fact that her best friend would become a mother before she was even married (although she also grew more supportive every day), and I grew to realize that it was no longer just my chest that was attracting attention from all the guys in the school – it was now my stomach more so than the former.

June 23rd, the last day of term, it happened.

No, it didn't happen. I was only pregnant for seven months at the time. Instead of a beautiful baby coming, they came.

And believe me; I probably would have preferred having a beautiful baby instead of them.

They didn't even bother to come quietly. Instead, they just decided to barge into the Great Hall in the middle of Professor Dumbledore's farewell speech.

"And I say to you –"

"Excuse me!" a voice boomed throughout the hall. Everyone looked to the doors of the Great Hall, where three tall men with long hair and pointed ears stood in the doorway. One was clearly the leader – he had long blonde hair that fell to his shoulders and was pulled off his face in a fishnet braid, letting the rest hang loose. He was quite handsome. The other two followed behind him, dressed in traveling cloaks with leaf-shaped pins to hold it together.

"How may I be off assistance?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"We're looking for Alexandria Grunning, is she here?" the leading man asked.

I suddenly felt every eye in the entire Hall on me. My cheeks turned beet red, but I kept eye contact with the man with the blonde hair. Not that it was a hard thing to do – I could hardly keep my eyes off him at all.

"Alexandria?" Dumbledore said softly, nodding to me. I stood up, almost tripping over the bench where I was sitting. Lily put her arms out to catch me, but I managed to stand on my own. I was still not used to the immense weight I had gained in carrying my baby.

"I'm Alexandria, what do you want?" I asked rather bluntly.

"Your father wishes to speak to you."

Whispers traversed the room. I turned to the Slytherin table and caught Severus' eye. Fear was dancing behind their surface.

"Well, what does he want?" I queried, my voice booming over the torrents of hissing and chatter. "And why does he need a whole entourage to present himself?"

The man turned and whispered to one of his colleagues before walking towards me quickly, his feet light against the cold stone floors. I had said something wrong and I knew it, but what I didn't know was how I was going to pay for it.

The man stopped right in front of me. His voice in a low whisper, he managed, "It would be wise not to question us, but to come with us without a fight."

I looked back over to Severus. I wanted him to stand up and make a loud declaration, something heroic like, "I won't let you take her away from me!" But he didn't. He remained frozen in his seat.

"What does Dad want with me?" I asked severely.

The man looked me up and down, his eyes lingering on my round belly, before saying harshly, "I do not believe that your idea of your father and my idea of your father are the same."

I gave him a sassy look out of the corner of my eye, as if to question his authority, but he simply took my arm and started dragging me out of the Great Hall.

"What are you doing?" I cried. I started hitting his arm to try and break free of his grasp. By now, the Hall was bubbling with whispers, gasps, oohs and ahs.

"Please, Beriadanwen, come quietly. This is going to be a long and difficult day for all of us, and it would make it so much easier if you would just follow without question," the man said.

I ripped away from him and stood rooted to the spot. "No!" I shouted. "No, I'm not moving! This is my school! You can't just burst in here and tell me to leave without giving me an explanation as to what's going on!"

I looked to Professor Dumbledore to see if he would help me, but he simply shook his head slightly and said in a quiet voice, "You should go with him, Miss Grunning." His voice got even quieter as I saw him mouth, "I knew this day would come."

Tears were now welling up behind my eyes. I didn't want to go, but I knew I had to. If Dumbledore said I should go, then I should go.

I gave the Marauders one last look. Lily was crying silently, James was staring at me incredulously, Sirius was gaping with his mouth open (copied by Peter), and Remus gnawing on his lower lip. I let some of the tears fall as I reached over and gave Lily a hug.

"Thank you for everything, Lily," I whispered to her. I held her close to me and felt her shaking beneath me.

When I withdrew from her, I barely heard Remus ask, "When will you be coming back?"

"I don't know if I'll ever come back," I said inaudibly. My chin trembling, I turned back and follow the man who was wrenching me away from my friends.

"Alex!" I heard James call when I was almost at the door. I turned to see him running towards me.

He was silent for a moment, but then said in a voice barely above a whisper, "We forgive you."

I threw my arms around him, kissed his cheek softly, and whispered back, "I'm so glad."

"Come, Beriadanwen," the man said. He took my arm and pulled me away from James.

That was the last I ever saw of James Potter and Lily Evans.

As the man with the blonde hair closed the door the Great Hall behind him (his two cronies stood guard), I heard an outbreak of talk and Dumbledore's voice over it all calling, "As I was saying," in an attempt to draw everyone's attention away from me. It wasn't working, however. I knew that this would be the one event that everyone would still be talking about when they would come back the next summer.

"Who are you?" I demanded the second we left the Great Hall.

"Not here," the man said. "Don't you understand? You probably have all your little friends with their ears pressed against the doors, wanting to know what's going on, and I'm not about to give them that information."

That second, the doors burst open and Severus came galumphing through.

"See? There is one of them now," the man said smugly. He took my arm again and started bringing me to another room.

"Stop!" I heard Severus cry. "What are you doing with her?"

"She has to speak with her father, and then we're taking her where she really belongs."

"Oh, and where might that be?" Severus asked defiantly.

"None of your business," the man snapped, turning me away.

Severus reached out and grabbed my hand. "But you can't take her away!" he exclaimed.

"And why not?"

"Because I love her!"

The man smirked. His eyes darted between my stomach and Severus' hand in mine before he said, "So I suppose you are the cause of all this mess?"

"It's not a mess," Severus said sheepishly, his eyes downcast.

"Only a small catastrophe," the man said. "Now, say your good-byes, I have to take Alexandria. Now."

I kept staring at the man, straight in his eye. He kept staring back. "Well, what are you waiting for? Say good-bye!"

"I'm not going to do it with you watching me, you fag," I hissed. Reluctantly, the man turned away.

"Come on, Alex, let's go," Severus said, tugging at my hand. "We'll run away and go somewhere. I'll deliver your baby and we can raise it together. I know a lot of magic, I can find a job somewhere and we'll make a living for ourselves. Come on. Come with me."

"I can't go, Severus, don't you see? I have to go with this man. I don't know why, but I do."

"Since when have you obeyed authority? Otherwise you wouldn't have that belly," Severus snapped.

"Please don't do this to me. I'm dying just as much as you are. I'll come back someday, I promise!" I said.

"How can you promise me something you don't really think you'll be able to do?" he asked me, his eyes imploring.

"Oh come on, you know I'll be able to get away from these goons eventually. They can't keep me locked up forever. The question isn't simply will I be able to, it's when will I be able to," I whispered.

Leaning into him, I gave him a long, slow kiss. It was nothing like the kisses I had felt three nights before the strip turned pink, but it was almost better, in a way. There was no lust. Only pure, unadulterated, innocent love.

Referring back to his defense earlier, I said, "I love you, too," before turning back to the pointy-eared man.

Silently, he guided me towards one of the few rooms the Guys and I had not yet explored in Hogwarts. It had a painting of a mountain troll in front of it, doing ballet.

"Wait here," he said sharply.

I stopped right where I was. The man walked back and forth three times, staring intently at the ground, then stopped right back in front of the painting. Instantly, when he opened the door, another man was standing there. He was also tall, with long, dark hair and the same distinctly pointy ears.

"Ah, Alexandria, my darling daughter!" the man said. He pulled me into a hug, finding it particularly difficult to hug me with my huge stomach.

"I'm sorry, sir," I said, pulling away from him, "you must be thinking of another Alexandria. You're definitely not Richard Grunning."

"No, I'm afraid I am not Richard Grunning. But I am Elrond, King of the Elves, and you are Beriadanwen Evenstar, my daughter," he said.

"What are you talking about? You're mad," I hissed.

"Am I?" the man who identified himself as Elrond asked. "Look at us, Beriadanwen. Come, stand by me. Legolas, would you kindly move that mirror over here, please?"

The first man with the blonde hair picked up a full-length mirror and moved it over toward the two of us. Subconsciously, I wondered why he didn't just use magic, but I didn't say anything aloud.

The second I looked at the two faces reflected in the mirror – one tear-streaked and frowning, the other half-smirking – I knew that they were almost exactly the same. We had the same long, narrow face and small, dark eyes.

"See the resemblance?" he said solemnly.

"But I can't be related to you. I'm a Grunning, not a . . . a Heavenstar or whatever you said!" I cried.

"Evenstar, my child," Elrond corrected. "If you are going to come take refuge with the Elves, then you should at least learn how to pronounce your own name."

"Take refuge with the elves? What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"I'm your true father, Alexandria. You are the princess of the Elven race, and until you have your child, you will come and live with the Elves," Elrond stated. There was not a flicker of sympathy on his face, especially not as he said the word child. In fact, I thought that, if anything, I saw a flicker of anger.

"I can't come and live with you people!" I shouted. I turned to the door and placed a sound proofing charm on it before continuing. "I have a life here! I have friends! I have an amazing boyfriend –"

"Who got you pregnant after being with him for a few months!" Elrond interjected. "I'm sorry, Beriadanwen – I'm sorry, Alexandria – but I have to take you back with me. Now come, we must pack your things and leave before the trains come – we don't want to draw any attention to ourselves."

Boy, you failed at that one, I had thought that day as I trudged up the spiral staircase, tears freefalling down my face. Severus had gone back in to the Great Hall. I hadn't expected him to stay long – after all, he probably thought that it was Mr. Grunning who come for me and was just here to yell at me for a few minutes and then release me back into the Hall.

But he thought wrong.

The last thing I did before I left was write a long, gushy love note to Severus. After all, he deserved to know that he wouldn't see me again for a while. But I still didn't tell him about why I was leaving. In other words, he had no idea that I was the daughter of the King of the Elves and was being taken to another world where I would give birth to and raise my child.

Before coming back to the room with the painting of the troll (which the Marauder's Map told me was called the Room of Requirement), I used the Map to sneak into the Slytherin Dormitory and place the note on Severus' bed.

"Come, Beriadanwen, we must leave immediately," Legolas said to me, steering me by the shoulders.

"Why do you people keep calling me that?" I asked rudely. I really didn't care that I was rude, however – after all, it was quite rude of him and his guards to just come barging into the Great Hall and announce that my father needed to speak to me at once. "It's so queer; it's not even a normal name. I mean, it's like, Berry-adam-when. It's so queer."

"No, it's bear-ee-ah-dahn-when,and I call you that because it is your given name," he replied curtly.

"But it's not. My given name is Alexandria," I snapped.

"No, that name is the English translation of your Elven name. Your Elven name is your true name," the elf explained.

I ran my tongue over my top teeth in annoyance. "Well, I would prefer if you called me Alexandria."

Legolas sighed and said indignantly, "Alright, I shall call you Alexandria, but don't expect that from your father. He's already angry enough as it is about you having been away from him so long. I doubt he'll want to call you anything in English. I'm sure he'll make Arwen teach you Elvish, as well."

"Who's Arwen?"

"Your sister," he said.

"Oh, so not only do I have a father who is this big blown-up ruler, but I have a sister I have to share all this with?" I said snootily.

"She's your younger sister, don't worry about it," Legolas said. "And she's delicate as a flower. If you're anything like you're pretending to be right now (that is, strong-willed, aggressive, and used to getting your way), you'll be able to knock her out by blowing on her."

I gaped at him for a moment, then turned my face away in a huff.

So that's my sister – Arwen. And Legolas was right. I could knock her out by blowing on her if I really wanted to.

But anyway, back to the ending of a story.

"Come, Beriadanwen," Elrond said to me, gesturing towards the Forbidden Forest. To his surprise, instead of shrinking away from the forest in fear, I walked boldly into it.

Having Remus, who was a werewolf, as one of your best friends made it hard to fear a few acromantulas, especially when the moon wasn't even full.

As the trees began to block the light from the castle, I turned to give it one last look. It was so beautiful and full of life. I knew that most of the kids in there were either buzzing about their summer plans or buzzing about the strange men with the pointy ears who took Alexandria Grunning away, but not really caring what happened. Mostly, they were just excited to be going home the next day.

All except for the Marauders, Lily, and Severus. And me.

Because I wasn't going home.