Chapter 7
Looking around the council chamber, Harry was surprised by the number of people staring at Sirius, Severus and himself. A very tall and serious elf with long white-blonde hair like Celebrian slowly rose from his seat, a look of pure astonishment on his face as he said, "My apologies, Lord Elrond but for a moment I thought that the passage of time had worn you down, but I was wrong."
Crouching down, the elf faced Sirius and Severus then glanced over at Hadrian who was hiding behind Arwen's legs. Turning back to Severus and Sirius, the elf said, "Hello little ones, I am Lord Celeborn of Lothlorien. What are your names?" Pausing, Severus turned to Celeborn, a very serious look on his face as he said, "My name is Severus. Sirius is the one running with the hobby horse and Hadrian is the one behind Arwen." Seemingly satisfied that he had done his job, Severus went back to playing with his hobby horse.
Harry watched as the Celeborn returned to his seat when one of the short stout people in a loud booming voice said: "With elflings as rare as you say they are, why where these ones not taken to one of the elven settlements sooner?" Shaking his head Elrond replied, "We don't know. When we asked the elflings about their parents and where they came from, they replied that their parents were dead and as far as we can tell, they don't remember much before my wife found them."
Leaning forward, Galadriel caught Harry's attention as she said, "With their permission, I could look into their minds and see what they remember without causing any distress." Raising an eyebrow in disbelief, Thranduil said: "You haven't scanned their minds yet." Sighing wearily, Galadriel responded, "I do not enter anybody's mind in-depth unless they come into my realm. However, no matter how hard I try, I will always pick up surface thoughts and intentions." Nodding stiffly, Thranduil leaned back in his chair. Staring at Thranduil, Hadrian noticed that the left side of his face had a slight flicker. Before Hadrian could get a better look at the flicker, Arwen led him over to Galadriel, Sirius, and Severus.
Crouching down to their level, Galadriel asked "Little ones, we would like to find out about where you were before my daughter, Celebrian found you. Would you allow me to look into your minds to find out? It will save you from answering lots of questions and you can go back to playing after." Glancing at Severus and Sirius who looked unsure, Hadrian nodded his head then pressed closer into Arwen's leg. Smiling kindly, Galadriel scanned Harry's mind. Then paling and blinking in surprise, Galadriel turned to the other two elflings who, seeing that Hadrian was okay, hesitantly nodded.
After scanning Sirius and Severus' minds and becoming so pale that even the dwarves were worried about her health, Galadriel stumbled backward into Celeborn's arms. Shaking, Galadriel in a hoarse whisper, said: "The Valar themselves have removed the elflings' memories to protect their minds from the horrors of their past." A stunned silence filled the council chamber until Glorfindel, gazing off into the west with a puzzled look, said, "If the Valar have removed their memories, you can trust that they have dealt with the ones who caused the young ones so much pain."
Sighing, Thranduil turned to Elrond and asked, "Was it one of these elflings the one who foresaw the threat to my wife?" Nodding, Elrond gestured to Hadrian to come forward as he said, "Yes, It was young Hadrian who had the vision." Crouching down, Thranduil performed a half bow as he said, "Young Hadrian, you will forever have my gratitude for saving the light of my life." Frowning up at Thranduil, Hadrian saw the left side of Thranduil's face flicker again, revealing the grotesque dragon burn that had eaten away at a substantial portion of Thranduil's face. Reaching up slowly, Hadrian touched the illusion shielding Thranduil's face and said "Ouchy."
As Hadrian spoke, the illusion that had shielded Thranduil's face, since Elrond had told him that the dragon burns would never truly heal, shattered revealing the raw wound. Gasps of shock and horror sounded around the council chambers. People averted their eyes whispering, "Why has he not sailed?" and "That explains why he is always in a bad mood." As the gathering whispered to themselves, Severus noticing the change in the atmosphere paused in his playing and noticed the gruesome wound on Thranduil's face. Quickly rushing over, Severus reached up and gently touched his chubby hand to Thranduil's mangled flesh.
Slowly the wound began glowing as the flesh and skin started knitting itself back together. All traces of the wound healing and fading from sight, even Thranduil's eye losing its cloudiness. Gasping in shock, Thranduil raised his hand to his face and feeling the smooth skin under his fingertips fainted hitting the ground with a thud.
Whispers of "It's a miracle. Such a healing talent has not been seen since the fall of Gondolin." and "Damn, the ice king fainted" drifted through the council chamber while Elrond tried to revive and checked over Thranduil. Hadrian sat down giggling as he began playing with Thranduil's hair creating knots and tangles in it that made everyone with long hair wince at the thought of combing it out.
In a loud voice, Gandalf said, "Despite how exciting this meeting has been so far, I believe it is time for lunch." Sighing, Elrond replied while Lainel, Celebrian and himself carried the still unconscious Thranduil from the council chambers. "We shall do that. The inheritance test shall be carried out right after lunch." Quickly, Arwen gathered up the three elflings and followed her father from the council chamber.
In the healing halls, Elrond marveled over how well Severus had healed Thranduil's face without any formal training. Plans of training Severus to become as great a healer as one of the Gondolin healers quickly forming in his mind. A deep groan drew Elrond from his musings. Looking down, Elrond watched as Thranduil slowly awoke until his ice blue eyes opened. Confusion and hope flitted across Thranduil's face. Looking up desperately at Elrond, Thranduil whispered. "Did young Hadrian really see through my illusion and young Severus heal me?" With a slow nod, Elrond confirmed what Thranduil had said and handed him a mirror.
Clutching the mirror in shaking hands, Thranduil examined the left side of his face running fingers over the smooth skin. It, only an hour ago, was a large pitted wound that, unless Thranduil sailed to Valinor, was considered impossible to heal. Tears streaming down Thranduil's face as he whispered, "It's a miracle."
Celeborn sat at the high table in shock. The revelations of the three elflings, the Valar interfering in middle earth for the first time since the War of Wrath and the fact that two of the elflings had shown gifts long thought to have been whipped out in middle earth during the fall of Gondolin stunned him. Shaking himself out of his daze, Celeborn began mechanically eating his salad in the banquet hall; watching the other delegates mill around excitedly discussing what had happened and pondering who the elflings descended from.
Sitting down next to his wife, Celeborn focused on Gandalf laying out three shimmering gold potions and silver parchment of the likes he had never seen before. Once all the delegates had settled into their places, Celeborn watched as his son in law and granddaughter led in the three elflings, who were unaware of the awe and protectiveness the room was feeling towards them.
Shifting forward slightly, Celeborn watched as Gandalf walked into the center of the council chamber and cleared his throat before saying, "As requested, you are all here to witness the inheritance test being performed on the three young elflings here. First, each of the elflings will add a hair to the potions then, I will cast the spell and pour the potions onto the inheritance parchment." Turning Gandalf beckoned the three elflings into the center of the council chamber.
Suppressing a laugh, Celeborn watched as Hadrian decided that he didn't like being in the center of attention and plopped down onto his butt. This left Severus and Sirius, who were holding Hadrian's hands, to drag him across the floor while some of the other delegates awed and giggled at his antics.
Before the elflings had dragged Hadrian five steps, Celeborn quickly swept across the room; a swell of protectiveness for the young elfling, so obviously nervous and shy in front of so many people, filling his heart. Swinging Hadrian onto his hip, Celeborn walked over to Gandalf and gently removed a jet-black hair from Hadrian's head and added it to one of the potions while Gandalf did the same for Sirius and Severus.
As soon as all the hairs were added, Gandalf quickly began chanting in what Celeborn thought might be Valarin or Cuvinienen. Slowly the potions bubbled flashing green, red and blue before settling back to their original golden color. In a loud voice, Gandalf said, "The first to find out his heritage is Sirius."
Picking up the first potion, Gandalf poured it onto one of the silver parchments; the potion seeping into the parchment as words slowly formed. Once all the potion had been absorbed, Gandalf quickly scanned the parchment, an eyebrow raising in surprise, before handing the parchment to Elrond.
The same process was repeated with Severus and Hadrian, each getting a look of surprise or confusion from both Gandalf and Elrond. Besides him, Galadriel leaned forward and asked, "What are the results?"
Taking a deep breath, Elrond pulled Sirius' parchment from the pile and began to read saying "Sirius, Lord of the house of Heavenly Arches. Sirius is the son of Elgamal; grandson of Elgamoth, the previous Lord of the house of Heavenly Arches. His age is 35." As Celeborn looked around, he noticed that all the elves had a stunned look on their faces and that the humans and dwarves looked confused.
Continuing with the parchments before anyone said anything, Elrond laid Sirius' inheritance test on the remains of the sundial and began reading Severus' inheritance test saying, "Severus, Lord of the house of the Fountains, son of Ecthelion."
Pulling Hadrian in closer, Celeborn wondered what would be on Hadrian's parchment as Elrond began to read it saying, "Hadrian, High King of the Noldor, High King of the Sindar. On the paternal line, son of Ingal; grandson of Ingwe, High King of all the elves in Valinor. Ingal married Aldeniel, daughter of Gil-galad. On his Maternal side, Hadrian is the son of Elestwe; daughter of Elwe."
Celeborn tried to ignore the fact that the High King of the Noldor and Sindar, grandson of Ingwe, was sitting on his lap tying his hair in knots. He noticed that even the humans and the dwarfs understood the importance of what had just happened. Many were craning forward in their seats to catch a glimpse of the child that would, one day, be in charge of both the Sindar and the Noldor.