&&&&&&&&&&

Harry's barely controlled laughter had quickly stopped when Malfoy fell to the ground in a heap of skinny limbs. Shouting in alarm he had raced to the fallen child, turning the small form onto his side and searching franticly for a pulse at the birdlike neck. The blonde had already been a sickly pale color yesterday and that morning, but that had most likely been exhaustion from the final battle and shock at finding himself in a strange place with a naked Harry Potter, someone he disliked on the best of days. Now he was stark white. Relieved after he had found a steady heartbeat, Harry had tried to wake Malfoy without success. As far as Harry could tell, Malfoy had passed out somewhere around mid morning. It was now close to midday and the blonde showed no signs of waking. After wrapping Malfoy up in the moss blanket, Harry had sat down and waited. He was nearly asleep again when he heard a strange booming sound.

Standing up, he looked around the clearing but nothing could be seen, or heard for that matter, besides whatever was making the noise. Tensing, Harry realized it was coming closer. Whatever it was, it was big and did not sound friendly. The booming had morphed into an enraged bellow followed by the creaking and ripping sound trees make when something hits them hard. Leaning down to crouch over Malfoy, Harry showed his teeth in a feral smile quite out of place on his childlike face. Whatever was coming, his magic would have to be enough to defend them. It would be enough, he growled to himself.

***

Draco knew nothing but green. He was one yet he was many. The voices of the forests roared through his mind like fiend fire but it was not painful. He was Draco Malfoy as he remembered but he was also others. Names he had never heard or spoken before rang with the identity of self. Fangorn, Mirkwood, Lothlorien. He was the woods of Middle Earth, stretched thin and broken far from the borders of the elven kingdoms and the haunts of Ents. His elven body and that of Potter's were small and fragile compared to the might that was the forest. Once upon a time the three forests on this side of the Misty Mountains stretched all the way to Eriador, blanketing the land in emerald green. But the was an Age or more ago.

The lives that lived within these forests looked like bright fires glowing in the evening. To the north Mirkwood lay beautifully dark, the wood elves shining like shafts of sunlight far beneath the ground. Lothlorien lay in all her golden glory beneath the rule of the White Lady. Rivendell to the west, home to the Half-Elven Lord and his house. And all around him lay Fangorn, the eldest of the old woods, whispering to him of the past and the uncertain future. The weight of history threatened to punch holes through his mind but the one he was connected to, an ancient sleeper, shared the burden. The old soul awakened just enough to whisper a warning and name before Draco was thrust back into his body.

"He comes. Sheppard, Wanderer, Lord. Treebeard comes."

***

What leapt out of the surrounding forest with a terrifying bellow looked like a tree, strangely enough. A giant, pissed off and mobile tree, but a tree none the less. Harry didn't have time to ponder the latest weirdness in his life before an arm twice as thick as his waist hurtled down towards the prone form of Malfoy. Diving towards the blonde, Harry cast furiously, returning to the battle mind set easily. Like slipping on a well worn and treasured cloak the basics of shield, defend, retaliate whispered through his thoughts. Protect the wounded. Reminding him that only yesterday he had fought the darkest evil of his world. A walking tree was nothing he couldn't handle. This continued for a furious few minutes, the thick arms of Harry's opponent bouncing of his shield again and again. When the battle paused for a moment, the tree started speaking in a rumbling boom as it chest…trunk heaved.

"Hoom…strange little orcs cutting and…hoom…slashing where they have no business being…hoom. Hoom…crush you before you burn the forest…hoom…down."

Muscles tensed should the homicidal tree try anything, Harry growled. Figures, Malfoy does something to piss of the talking trees, faints and leaves him to deal with the fallout. At least it was probably Malfoy's fault. Maybe. He hoped. Or maybe the tree was just having a really, really bad day.

"We're not orcs, you rotten overgrown twig! I don't even know what a stupid orc is! And we haven't cut, slashed or burned anything! All he did was talk to the stupid tree!" Oops…he insulted the twenty foot tall tree that was trying to kill them…oh well. The tree jerked back slightly and a pair of orange sized amber eyes Harry hadn't noticed before blinked slowly at him. A giant growth of moss which looked oddly like a beard moved as the tree mumbled to itself.

"Hoom…cheeky little orc…hoom."

***

Treebeard was confused, which was saying something. Being the oldest Sheppard in the forest lent him a great deal of wisdom and experience. So it was rare that something confused him. When he had charged toward the little beings, he had thought they were cutting down one of his charges such were the cries of distress the sleeper had been emitting. But no such crime was in progress and the cries of pain had stopped when he had entered the clearing. Looking down at the pale little being who was vehemently arguing he was not an orc, the old Ent thought that perhaps he had been…hasty. Earth and dirt forbid the others find out he had been hasty. He would never hear the end of it. So if these little beings were not orcs, what were they? From their small stature, the little ones must be children. But children of what race? They were not dwarves for they were too slender and pale. They were not hobbits, though they were the right size, for he had heard hobbits were extremely furry at the roots. Leaning closer he decided they could not be the children of men, for no man child glowed with such inner light. Inner light…hmm. Kneeling down, Treebeard peered at the slight face before him but the black leaves (hair…elves called it hair) atop the little one's head covered the ears.

"Hoom…perhaps…hoom hoom. Show me your…hoom…ears, little orc." The dark one had tensed, battle ready when he had leaned closer to the two. Suspicious eyes the color of spring moss glared at him intensely for a moment before the little one let out an aggravated huff.

"Not a damn orc…whatever the hell that is." The child growled as he hooked his hair around his ears, exposing their pointed tips. It was as he had thought. This one was a child of the immortal elves and more than likely, so was the other one. But what were two elflings doing in Fangorn? The nearest elven settlement was the Golden Wood and that was nearly a hundred miles away. Not so much for an Ent but it may well have been the other side of the world for these two. From the memories he retained of the elves so long ago, elven children were most precious of all things to the immortal folk. For an Elf to be born in this day and age was nothing less than a miracle, the birth of two a divine blessing. So where were their guardians? Treebeard creaked in dismay at the thought that these little ones had been abandoned. An Entling hadn't been born since before the Ent Wives had left, so he understood the elven sentiment that offsping were precious. Looking down he saw the pale one move slightly. Hmm…

"Hoom hum…what are two elflings doing in Fangorn's woods…hoom? He rumbled.

***

Pain was the first thing Draco was aware of. It felt like a bunch of goblins were banging around his skull with pick axes, mining for their precious gems. When he opened his eyes everything was a little blurry. Potter was standing in front of a giant blob. Potter was talking to the giant green blob and for some reason the brunette sounded slightly pissed off. As the pain faded and his sight cleared up the green thing resolved itself into a gnarly looking tree…that was looking straight at him. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he ignored the curious looks both Potter and the overgrown stalk were sending him and held his head for moment. Trying to straighten out the load of information he'd been given by the sycamore was going to be bloody annoying. Thinking back, Draco remembered the tree he had connected with mentioning something about a Sheppard coming…so the tree before him must be the Treebeard it was talking about. Treebeard was the one in charge of Fangorn, was in fact the Fangorn for which the forest was named, which was where Voldemort's spell had landed them. According to the sycamore, Fangorn was a dangerous place, yes, but in the company of Treebeard they could not be safer. The lord of the forest was apparently a wise and kind spirit who would look after them as well as if they were one of his own charges. The world they were in was called Middle Earth or Arda depending on who they asked. The brief images he had seen of the world outside the woods was not encouraging. Men and Dwarves were falling to a corruption that seeped into their courts like poison into a wound and the elves were fading, withdrawing into their havens and refusing to interfere in the affairs of Men. And somehow his and Potter's bodies had been transformed into those of elves. Elves that in the eyes of their new race, were barely out of the drooling and baby talking phase. If they went to Lothlorien or any of the other elven holds the journey would take months if not years without assitence and would bloody well kill their current bodies without. Draco briefly considered going to the Istari, Saruman the White, but something within him recoiled at the thought. The Istari were like the wizards of Earth but while back home they numbered in the hundreds of thousands, here you'd could count the entire population on one hand. The brand of magic here was more closely related to wandless magic than the Latin based spell casting back on Earth, so should they ever need to, Potter and he could pass off their abilities as those of an Istari. With the information at hand, Draco concluded that it was perhaps not urgent that they leave Fangorn at that moment. Indeed they were most likely safer within the wood then they were without. If, of course, Treebeard permitted their stay. If he didn't, they were well and truly fucked.

***

Malfoy would decide to wake up after the homicidal tree no longer wanted to killed them, Harry decided. The Slytherin tactic could be excused though, now that the blonde was awake. Making sure his shield charm was still in place, Harry walked over and kneeled by the frowning child. Malfoy was sitting up and holding his forehead as if he had a killer headache but overall he looked healthier than he had before the talking tree attacked them. Color had returned to his skin and was actually showing a healthy pink, not a fever pink thankfully, in some place instead of sickly pale. Placing his hand on the back of Malfoy's neck, Harry was relieved that the temperature he felt was normal. Surprisingly the other did not shake off his hand nor bristle at his quiet question.

"Are you alright, Draco?"

The blonde ignored the use of his first name but nodded in answer to his question. Clear grey eyes looked at Harry for a moment, glancing at the looming figure behind the brunette before looking back. Harry didn't question why he felt the need to call the other child by his given name but he was sure it had something to do with the tree behind him. Show the enemy a united front and all that rot.

"I'm fine, Potter. You were right, the tree" and here he pointed a thumb at the sycamore he'd touched " did have the answers we were looking for. It told me where we are…not only that…but what species these new bodies of ours are and who that walking, talking, moss encrusted thing is."

Harry looked at the blonde with his mouth hanging open for moment.

"WHAT?!"

***

Okay, couple things. Please, please, PLEASE don't kill me for not updating in so long. I was stressing over a job offer the last couple weeks and my brain felt like too much stretched taffy for a while. Also, I know the story isn't moving along that fast because I get caught up in the little details way too easily, so thank you all for your patience and encouragement. With this update, I also changed my summary for Nascor Denuo because someone mentioned it read pretty flat. I don't know how much better this one is but I hope it still gets the main points of the story across. Anyway, enjoy! Also if you receided an update notice twice, I'm really sorry...I pressed the wrong button while uploading. lol