A/N: I realized as I started writing this that I forgot to mention in the previous disclaimer that I do not own Harry Potter. I know, I know, this is a surprise to all of you. Just wanted to get that out of the way.

"I'm kind of, but not completely surprised. He did mention just before the door closed that he hadn't slept in four days," Raven's dry voice calmly stated.

"And to think I thought that Beast Boy slept in," Cyborg added, clearly impressed with their new guest's ability to sleep. "He does realize that people generally aren't nocturnal, right?"

"I'd hope so, because I have some questions for him," Robin said, somewhat viciously. "And I hope, for his sake, that he answers them well."

"Dude, you're not thinking of holding him hostage 'cause he can read the future or something, are you?" Beast Boy intruded. "Cause if what he said last night is true, then he's been running from people for basically his entire life, and doing that'd be like, a total dick move."

"It does not bode well for a prospective friendship to be starting with the hostage taking," Starfire chimed in.

"For once, Beast Boy said something that's sensible and I agree with," Raven murmured before vanishing into the floor. She reappeared a few seconds later, her cloak singed and smelling slightly of smoke. "Somehow, Hell hasn't frozen over yet," she added sarcastically.

Beast Boy just gaped at her. Did she really just go to Hell for that? The others, Starfire excluded, were thinking similar thoughts. Starfire was more worried about how Robin was going to act around Noctis.

"It'd be wisest to let him sleep for now, permit him to wake up on his own," Raven reasoned, not at all biased by her own desire to be left alone. Not biased at all. "After all, one doesn't avoid capture by criminals for their entire life without acquiring some abilities. We do not want to wake him in a panic and thinking he might be under attack when we don't even know the full extent of his powers."

"That… makes sense," Robin said after mulling it over. "It's already past noon, and we haven't eaten lunch. We should probably go eat."

"Good idea! I'll get the tofu!" Beast Boy shouted, already halfway out the door. Cyborg grabbed him by the collar just before he could slip out.

"Oh, no you don't, green boy," he threatened in a menacing tone. "We are NOT having tofu for lunch. We WILL be having pizza." Beast Boy gulped.

"Y'know, Beast Boy, there's something I've always wondered about you. You don't drink real milk, but you will eat cheese. In fact, you usually get extra cheese on your pizza. What gives?" Robin asked.

"Vegan pizza doesn't use real cheese. It's sciencey stuff," Beast Boy huffed.

"... I don't think I want to know. Forget I asked."

"Quiet, guys. I think he's waking up," Cyborg announced. Noctis mumbled something in his sleep before rolling over. "Wait, nevermind. He's going back into stage four sleep. HOW are his brain waves going into stage four sleep again?! This'll be his sixth cycle!" Cyborg ranted.

"How about we all just go away, let him sleep until he can't sleep anymore, and talk to him then? It's not like he can do anything while he's sleeping," Raven proposed in a very suggestive manner - suggestive here being Raven holding an object of considerable weight (read: Cyborg) above Robin and Beast Boy's heads, while simultaneously holding them in place. There was a silence as the Titan's processed Raven's suggestion.

"I think that's a wonderful plan," Cyborg agreed, quite enthusiastically. He did not want to get dropped, especially because Raven could slam him down into the ground with quite considerable force.

"Yeah, brilliant plan, Raven. Can't leave if you don't let us go, though," Beast Boy said, forcing a little nervous laughter.

"Is… he talking in his sleep?" Robin asked. Everyone immediately turned towards Noctis, who was indeed mumbling something incoherent.

"What's he saying? Cy, you've got sensors in that room, don't you? C'mon, what's he saying?" Beast Boy demanded excitedly.

Cyborg moved over to a screen near the observation window and started typing in some commands. A moment later, they heard a crackle of static as the speakers turned on, which died down after a few seconds as the sensors normalized.

"... rule them all… One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all… and in the darkness… Bind them."

"Whatever it is, it reeks of prophecy," Raven stated. "Let's just go, before you guys hear something that you shouldn't." She grabbed Robin's ear in one hand, and Beast Boy's with the other and left, forcibly dragging them behind her.

"I am… disinclined to annoy Raven on this beautiful day," Starfire said to Cyborg, floating over to the door. "But I am unsure what they have done to frustrate her so."

"Don't worry, Star. I'm sure if we just go away from here now, we can avoid… her… temper." Cyborg trailed off, having noticed Raven returning as he finished the sentence. "Hold on Raven, no need to get physical with us. We were just leaving."

Raven's eyes flared white, but she otherwise said nothing, just stalking out of the room, Starfire and Cyborg in tow.

Noctis stirred, waking up confused and in a bed, but instantly suspicious. He hadn't slept in a real bed in years - in hotels, he slept in the bathroom or closet. As such, waking up in a bed was a feeling he associated with kidnapping.

As the fog of sleep left his mind and he remembered what he did the previous night, the tension left his body. He was in Titan's Tower, after encountering them in the street last night and calming Raven down. If it was last night. Might've been two nights, for all he knew. Looking around the room, he noticed several things he hadn't noticed when he first entered. To start with, there was a large bookcase that contained only one book.

Curiosity piqued, Noctis approached the bookcase and read the title of the book. Guest Rules of Titan's Tower. Frowning, he lifted the book off the shelf, thumbing through it. The book was, for the most part, blank, except for the first few pages and the last page. Smirking to himself, Noctis set the book down.

No rules, except for what Beast Boy says. I highly doubt that, he thought wryly to himself. Seeing a full body mirror outside the bathroom, he stopped to inspect himself. He had straight jet-black hair that reached halfway down his neck, pale skin that looked like it had never seen the light of day, and deep blue eyes that hid a great sadness, but held a glimmer of laughter. He wore a black trench coat, its color matching the abyss. Examining himself, Noctis sighed. Somehow, he was clean-shaven.

"Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, by the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore… Hell, was even Poe a prophet?" he asked, expecting no answer. Grumbling to himself, Noctis buttoned up the front of his coat, concealing most of his lean frame. Probably a little bit too lean, he ruminated. Not much I can do about that though. Satisfied that his appearance would not improve in the absence of divine intervention, Noctis approached the door.

Unfortunately for him, he thought it was an automatic door. It wasn't, which he discovered when he walked into it. Rubbing his head, Noctis grumbled to himself. "Beaten by a door. Yeah, that's a first. 'The Great Noctis Umbra', felled by an inanimate object. Long may he rest in peace."

He fumbled with the keypad next to the door, eventually pressing the button to open it. It was the last button he pressed for two reasons: One, he'd pressed all of the other buttons before pressing the green one labelled 'Open', and two; with the door open, he didn't need to press any others. "Stupid door," he muttered as he exited the room, backtracking the path he had taken to get there when Raven guided him.

Arriving in the living area, he noted with no surprise that it was dark outside. After all, he hadn't slept in four days, and his body did need to rest. Still, he was surprised to find that it was slowly getting brighter outside. Spinning around in search of a clock, he was startled to find himself staring into a pair of blue eyes peering out from under the darkness of a hood.

"You're awake," Raven stated.

"Really? I hadn't noticed," Noctis smiled. "Is there a clock around here?"

Raven pulled out a small device from under her cloak and glanced at it. "No. It's 5:30 in the morning though." She turned towards the kitchen area and filled a kettle with water.

"Is there, by chance, a reason that there are no clocks in this room?" Noctis asked, slightly miffed by her abrupt behavior. "It certainly makes it hard for guests who don't have watches to know what time it is."

"We got tired of replacing them every time Cyborg and Beast Boy had an argument, and we all have our communicators with us," Raven explained as she pulled out a box of teabags. "Now if you don't mind, I need to meditate, unless we want a repeat of two days ago."

"Yeah, wouldn't want that," Noctis agreed. "Wait, two days ago? I slept for two days?!"

"Yes. You can thank me later. Robin could barely restrain himself from waking you up."

Noctis took the hint to shut up and did so, sitting down on a couch while Raven went about her morning routine. Subtly, he extended his shadow to connect with the shadow cast by the lamp, siphoning a miniscule amount of energy as he did so - enough to satisfy him until he could eat, but not too much that the lamps shadow would not recover swiftly, or that the lamps diminished shadow would be visible. Having finished that, he closed his eyes and relaxed for the second time in several months.

Presently, he became aware of a low whistle that steadily increased in volume. He waited for Raven to go deal with it, but to his frustration she didn't. Sighing, he raised his hands to his ears, trying to block out the noise. When that didn't work, he groaned, opening his eyes. He grumbled when, upon opening his eyes, he found Raven staring listlessly from her seat.

"You uhh… Are you going to go deal with that?" he awkwardly asked her. She visibly flinched when he spoke, as if he'd startled her. Without saying anything, she stood up and padded back into the kitchen and turned off the burner. In the ensuing silence, Noctis once more closed his eyes, his thoughts wandering.

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath Metrion Zinthos… Azarath… Metrion… Zinthos…" a soft voice intoned. Noctis opened one eye, and was greeted with an image of Raven floating cross legged, hands wrapped around a small steaming porcelain cup, mouth moving in tandem with the words. He smiled and closed his eyes, his mind unfocusing once more.

Noctis was rudely drawn back into reality when a water balloon exploded on the side of his head. Spluttering, he whirled about in an attempt to pinpoint the source. His gaze settled on a mischievous pair of green eyes resting above a smirking face that was barely containing laughter. "Why am I not surprised…" Noctis muttered.

Turning his entire body to face the green menace, Noctis glanced at Raven, noting that she was still meditating, before turning his full attention to Beast Boy. Noctis's blue eyes darkened to pitch black, and tendrils of a wispy black energy leaked from the corners of his eyes as the lights in the room dimmed. When Noctis spoke, it was in a calm, but low and dangerous tone.

"You do realize that I have no spare clothes, yes?" Beast Boy gulped. "I cannot go about walking around with no clothes on when there are ladies present," Noctis added, gesturing towards Raven. "I also cannot afford to risk walking about wearing wet clothes. If I get sick, then it's infinitely easier for someone to apprehend me. So, if I cannot leave my clothes on, and I cannot take them off, how do you propose we remedy this situation?"

Beast Boy whimpered. He'd been expecting angry yelling, not this… this cold, calm, calculated fury. Noctis's composure frightened him far more than if Noctis had simply screamed at him. "Maybe… Maybe I could, y'know, I could go to the s-st-store and get you some...clothes?" Beast Boy suggested, praying to any deity he could think of that his solution appealed to Noctis.

Slowly, the lighting in the room returned to normal. Noctis's eyes lightened until they were once again that striking blue color, and the tendrils of energy dissipated. "An acceptable solution," he accepted. "Medium shirt size, large is a little loose. Medium for pants, thirty-two inches around the waist. Oh, and Beast Boy?"

"Yeah?"

"Black or dark brown, no design. I'll be most… displeased, if there's a design."

"Right." Beast Boy shuddered. What was that? That was some Raven-type magic, he thought.

Noctis rose to his feet and started pacing, uncomfortable in his wet clothes. Unbeknownst to him, Raven had a slight smirk on her face. The way Noctis had handled Beast Boy was efficient, to say the least. She'd had her eyes closed, though, so she didn't realize that the room had darkened, or that Noctis physically changed to be more intimidating. She did, however, sense the use of magic, though she didn't know exactly what Noctis did. Beast Boy would definitely think twice about pranking Noctis. Maybe even three times.

"You'll wear down the carpet there if you keep pacing, and then we'll have to ask you to replace it," Raven warned, coming out of her meditation.

"It's the only thing keeping me from lashing out at him," Noctis replied evenly. "Easier to replace a carpet than a face."

"True, but I can heal a face for free," Raven suggested.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I walk into a wall. Or Beast Boy does." Noctis shivered as the air conditioner started to work its way through his wet clothes. It's gonna be a long morning…

Interestingly, Beast Boy was thinking along the same lines as he walked through aisle after aisle at the store when suddenly, his communicator went off. Reaching down and clicking it on, he was greeted with the sight of Robin's face. "Beast Boy, where are you? There's something I could use your help with."

"I'm a little busy at the moment. I kinda ticked Noctis off, and in order to calm him down I told him I'd get him some new clothes," Beast Boy sheepishly explained. Robin sighed.

"Well, could you hurry it up? Raven's meditating, Star's entertaining Noctis, and Cy's cooking," Robin asked. Why am I not surprised…?

"I'm working as fast as I can, but I can't find any clothes. All I'm seeing is soup."

Robin groaned. "Then get out of that aisle and go to the next one." There was a silence as Beast Boy walked around the corner. "Are there clothes there yet?" he asked, already knowing the answer.

"No."

"Then go to the next aisle."

Pause. Silence. Beast Boy's voice. "There's still soup."

Robin breathed in deeply. He breathed out deeply. He rubbed his temples. He tried to calm himself down. He really did. Between sharp intakes of breath, he managed to intelligibly hiss. "What… store are you in, Beast Boy?"

"I'm at the soup store."

Silence on the line. A silence so complete that Beast Boy worried that Robin had disconnected his communicator, or muted his end. Holding it up to his ear, he winced when Robin suddenly shouted. "WHY ARE YOU BUYING CLOTHES AT THE SOUP STORE!?" Beast Boy stumbled and dropped his communicator.

Back at the tower, Robin was fuming as he joined the others for breakfast. He was so preoccupied with his frustration with Beast Boy that he didn't even consider interrogating Noctis. Instead, he silently stewed in his mental pot of rage, anger, and frustration while listening to the conversation.

"Is Beast Boy always like this?" Noctis asked, gesturing to his soaked trench coat while shivering. There was a clatter as he lifted a fork to his plate which, combined with his shivering, turned the plate into an impromptu drum.

"Yes, friend Noctis. Friend Beast Boy is always pulling the pranks on us. It is most infuriating when he switches my boots, or steals Cyborgs legs." There was another clanging noise as Noctis dropped his fork, his mouth falling open in shock as he registered Starfire's words.

"He stole Cyborg's legs?" he asked, his gaze flicking between Starfire and Cyborg.

"Yes, but it was most unpleasant for both of them. Cyborg could not go upstairs, and if he went downstairs he could not come back up. Beast Boy found himself coated in a thick, sticky, oily fluid called the 'tar', and his pillows were ripped apart, coating him in feathers that he could not get off," Starfire continued, oblivious of the disbelief that was evident on Noctis's face.

"And uhh… how, exactly, did that happen?" Noctis asked, trying to maintain a straight face.

"I can remotely control my limbs," Cyborg explained. "Figured I'd implement the technology after my arm was stolen by a creep named Gizmo. Coated him with tar from my right foot while my left foot cut open his pillows."

Noctis nodded inattentively. "Wait. Did you say Gizmo?"

"Yeah. D'you know him?"

"He's part of that HIVE group, isn't he?" Noctis asked, somewhat frantically.

"Yeeee-ess…" Cyborg affirmed. "Why do you ask?"

"Could you tell me a little about them? It never hurts to know more about an enemy."

Cyborg smirked. "You're in for quite the tale, Noctis. Sit back, relax, and let ole Uncle Cy tell ya a story."

It was almost noon, and Beast Boy was still out. In fact, he'd completely forgotten the reason he'd gone out in the first place, so distracted was he by the soup he had seen. He'd already purchased two dozen cans, emptying out the soup store's stock before a worker suggested he try over at the shopping mall. Smirking to himself, he could just imagine Cyborg's face when he came home and presented the tin can with tin cans of soup.

He passed by a clothing store and saw a shirt that grabbed his attention. It had a design from Mega Monkeys IIX, and he figured that Noctis might like it. Hadn't he said something about clothes earlier?

Shrugging his shoulders, Beast Boy entered the store, grabbing several shirts with very cool designs. As he passed through the checkout line, he grabbed a bag of chocolate. Maybe later he'd try to get Raven to eat some. Whistling as he left the store, he was jolted out of his thoughts by a familiar ringtone.

Reaching down to pull out his communicator, he clicked it on. "Yello, Beast Boy here."

"BEAST BOY WHERE ARE YOU? YOU'VE BEEN GONE FOR HOURS!" Robin's voice yelled through the communicator, which Beast Boy promptly dropped. "HOW LONG CAN IT POSSIBLY TAKE YOU TO BUY CLOTHES FOR NOCTIS?"

Picking up the communicator, Beast Boy defended himself. "I just finished getting them, I'm on my way back now."

"Good, because Cyborg and Starfire are talking with Noctis, Raven's in her room, and I still need help with something."

"Alright, alright, I'm coming," Beast Boy said, ending the transmission. "Wonder what's got him so riled up…" He continued whistling, bending down and picking up a thirty pound bag of soup cans and an awkwardly large twenty pound bag of clothes. Exiting the mall, he transformed into a pterodactyl, grabbed one bag with each taloned foot, and leapt into the air.

Only to fall flat on his dinosaur face. Sitting up, Beast Boy reverted back into his human form and rubbed his forehead. "Ow," he murmured, looking at the bags. Slowly, he turned to look at Titan's Tower off in the distance, and cursed. Reluctantly, he picked up the heavy bags and started walking.

Back at the Tower, Raven was having a hard time concentrating. Sighing, she stood up just as there was a knock at her door. Grumbling to herself, she pulled her hood up and strode over to the door just as the knocking continued.

"Raven? You in there?" Robin's voice asked.

Raven entered the code to de-automate the door and pulled it open enough that she could look at Robin with one eye. "What do you want, Robin?" she asked dryly.

"I need help with something. Beast Boy's out, and Cyborg and Starfire are with Noctis," Robin said.

"I'm busy." Raven slid the door shut and locked it, turning to try to continue reading. Her book had just gotten very, very interesting. In a shocking turn of events, it turned out that the protagonist was actually serving the villain the entire time, and just didn't know it. She just had to find out what happened next.

"Raven, please, it won't take too long," Robin begged from behind the door.

"Why don't you ask Noctis? It'll give you the chance you've been looking for to grill him."

"That's… actually a good idea. Why didn't I think of that?"

"Because you're not using the thing between your ears," Raven told him.

A minute later, Robin was in the main common room speaking in an authoritative tone. "Noctis, would you come with me for a bit? There's something I need a hand with."

Noctis rose to his feet, smiling loosely. "Yeah, sure, what do you need?"

"First and foremost, I wanna know what's up with you. When we met you, you were talking like you were raised by aristocracy using antiquated words. Now, you're talking… differently. Less archaic and high handed, I guess."

Noctis frowned. He hadn't really noticed a change, frankly. "Probably a result of me being tired. Prophecies like to be fancy and archaic, and they were probably affecting my speech. So what did you need help with?"

"Follow me," Robin gestured. "I was originally going to have Beast Boy help, since he's the reason that this happened, but he's out. Then, I figured that it's because of you that he's out, so you might as well be the one to help me." Robin grinned, not unkindly, but not kindly either.

"Let me guess - he pranked you," Noctis ventured. He had a pretty good idea of Beast Boy's character.

"Yep," Robin affirmed, leading Noctis to his room. "Step inside, take a look, see if you can figure out what's wrong."

Noctis stepped inside, a sense of foreboding building in his stomach. The moment he was through the door, Robin sealed it shut behind him. Feeling around the door for a lightswitch, he found one and turned it on. His jaw dropped at the sight before him. Plastered on every surface of the room was a tinted and smiling picture of Robin, the colors organized into a rough rainbow.

A speaker in the ceiling crackled to life. "I'll let you out once the last picture is removed," Robin's voice announced.

Noctis cursed. "Of course. Yup. This is fine. This is totally fine…" he complained sarcastically. He extended his shadow towards the shadow cast by the bed, slowly sinking into it. He didn't want to cause undue damage, but he sure as hell didn't want to clean up Beast Boy's prank for Robin.

Entering Shadow Form, as he liked to call it, without damaging his gateway was a slow process. He was sure Robin was watching him, but he didn't care. There was nothing Robin could do to stop him, short of entering the room, and that would make leaving much easier.

When at last he'd entered the shadows, he walked towards the door and passed through it, back into the hall. He continued into the main area, the only indication of his existence a dark circle gliding along the floor. Upon entering the main common area, he began to painstakingly reconstruct himself from shadows. As he did so, he noticed Cyborg playing a video game with Robin, the two of them getting really into the competition.

"Boy Wonder? Hah! More like Boy Blunder!" Cyborg taunted as he executed a combo move perfectly, bringing Robin's life bar down by about 50%. Robin growled in response, his finger flicking around the controller to pull off a combo move to counter Cyborg's. The results were that Robin's life bar rose back up to 75%, while Cyborgs dropped by 25%.

"You were saying?" he retorted to Cyborg.

"Oh, no you didn't. You did NOT just do that!" Cyborg shouted, fiddling with the joystick. "By the way, where's Noctis? You dragged him off, and then came back alone," Cyborg asked, clearly trying to distract Robin.

"He's cleaning up a mess for me. I asked him to and he agreed." By this time, Noctis was almost completely solid again. Almost, but not quite. A dinging sound grabbed his attention as the elevator opened, dispensing a very exhausted Beast Boy. Said Beast Boy looked up, saw the incorporeal Noctis, and screeched.

"Beast Boy, keep it down, you're distractin' me!" Cyborg shouted without taking his eyes off the screen.

"Keep talking, Beast Boy," Robin goaded. "It's his fault if you annoy him and he loses." Noctis glanced at Beast Boy and saw that he had collapsed on his back. Shrugging, he determined that he was solid enough for his next act. Walking up to Robin on the couch, he sat down next to him. Robin didn't register Noctis's presence at all.

"Boo," Noctis said conversationally.

"Noctis, move over, you're distracting me," Robin said, the words out of his mouth before he realized what they suggested. "Wait. How'd you get out?" he asked, turning from the game to face Noctis. A moment later, game over music played and Cyborg shouted.

"Booyah!" Cyborg announced as he struck down Robin's character.

"Come now, Robin. Did you honestly think that I'd evaded capture for my entire life? I've been captured many times. I've just always escaped. Good news, though! Beast Boy's back, so you can have him clean up. It is, after all, his mess."

Just then, an alarm blared out, and red flashing lights started blinking. Robin stepped back from Noctis, looking towards the screen, which now showed a city map and highlighted an area with a red circle. He pulled out a communicator from his belt and shouted into it. "Titan's, trouble!"

Noctis gestured towards the screen. "Mind if I tag along? I'm sure you don't want to leave me in the tower unwatched."

Robin glanced at him. "Unless Raven stays behind, yes, you're coming."

A/N: *Dramatic music*

Disclaimer for this chapter: I don't own Teen Titans. If I did, then I'd probably not be writing this here - it'd be in the actual Teen Titans. I also don't own Lord of the Rings. There are also a few more lines from Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Raven' in here, but not nearly as many as last time.

Credit where credit's due: The soup store scene is heavily inspired by a scene from PurpleEyesWTF's Code MENT, which is an abridged series of Code Geass. I would link but I'm lazy.

One of the benefits of being a useless drain of society's resources (i.e, unemployed) is that I've got a lot of time to spend writing, which is why I'm able to get this next chapter out so quickly. Unfortunately, another one of the reasons that I'm able to write so quickly is that I currently have a handful of ideas to go through. This means that I will probably slow down with updates, once I exhaust my ideas.

As always, feedback is appreciated.