The sun had just begun to rise over the beautiful gardens of Imladris. The household staff were up preparing for the day ahead, and Lord Elrond was sat in his study, writing in his diary and contemplating whether to go for a ride after breakfast.
Elsewhere, Elrond's mischievous offspring, Elladan and Elrohir, were hidden behind one of the bushes in the garden, staring into a window on the ground floor.
"Do you think he's awake yet?" whispered Elladan.
"I'm sure he is" whispered his twin in response. "Erestor is always….. quick, duck!". For as he had spoken, the elf in question had opened his window to let in the fresh morning air.
The two young elves crouched down behind the bush, praying that their teacher hadn't spotted them. After a few seconds, they bravely peered over the top, but Erestor seemed to have retreated into his room.
Giggling slightly, Elladan said "I can't wait to hear his scream when he opens the door and gets absolutely soaked!".
But the two young elves never did hear their teacher's reaction to the prank they had pulled. For a loud yell and a giant splash behind them in the fountain caused a distraction.
"What was that?" said Elrohir, looking puzzled. He moved slowly towards the fountain where he could see a pile of bodies moving slowly.
"Ughhh, we're soaked!" said the one voice, sounding horrified. The figures stood up and turned around slowly.
"Where are we?" said the tallest one, who sounded very confused.
The two shorter ones groaned as they recognised their surroundings. "Well James" said Fili. "It seems we have landed straight back into Rivendell, the home of the Elves."
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Sirius felt himself being pulled and torn in all directions at once. 'This must be what it feels like to apparate' he thought to himself grimly, not relishing the thought of learning. After what felt like a long time (but was in fact a few moments) he landed flat on his back on a damp hard floor.
After the dizziness died down and he could see straight, Sirius sat up slowly and took in his surroundings. He was on a path in what looked like a very dark, murky forest. The trees were tall and overbearing, with barely any light getting through to the forest floor. The wind rustled ominously through the branches, and there was an eeriness about the place which gave the young wizard the shivers.
No sooner than he had stood up and brushed himself off, he picked up the sounds of a loud commotion nearby. Cautiously, Sirius headed towards the source of the noise. Staying hidden behind the trees as much as he could, he looked out over a branch and saw many giant spiders like the Acromantulas in the forbidden forest at Hogwarts. They appeared to be attacking what looked like a company of dwarves. Thinking quickly, Sirius decided to stay hidden but to try and help the dwarves as much as possible by fighting the spiders with his wand. He managed to stun one or two of them and cast a leg-binding curse at another which caused it to drop to the floor in a giant ball (where it promptly had an axe put through its head by a stern looking dwarf).
Just when Sirius started to panic that the dwarves might be in real trouble, a company of strange tall men arrived with bows and arrows, quickly killing off the remaining spiders. Although he had tried valiantly to conceal himself, Sirius soon felt the sharp tip of a bow at his neck.
Holding his hands in the air placatingly, Sirius turned to face the strange man. "Hello" he said cheerily, putting on a smile. "Don't think we've met before. My name is Sirius Black. Who might you be?".
The man, who Sirius noted had rather pointy ears and luminescent skin, looked at him strangely. "My name is Elethien" he replied. "You are different than the dwarves, a human no doubt. What are you doing in Mirkwood forest? This is no place for one so young."
"Well" Sirius said sheepishly, "it's sort of a long and uh, rather confusing story. I'm not quite sure where to begin".
"Very well" said Elethien. "You can tell your story to Prince Legolas and King Thranduil when we reach the palace".
And with that, Sirius found himself tied up and being taken to the palace alongside the company of very confused, tired and angry dwarves.