AN: Phew, I am tired; it's quite late! But I knew I could not stop writing this story. So much has happened, and although I'm not too proud of this chapter, I knew I had to continue the story. Happy reading!
Legolas knew he shouldn't feel overly shocked at the prospect of getting such a letter from Hogwarts, it was quite known throughout the kingdom that the Elvenking went to the famous magic school when he was little more than an elfling, almost two thousand years ago. But, Brandor was never sent one, and neither brothers presented any sign of magic. There were no lights flickering when he got upset and nothing flew off the shelves when he was angry, so the letter, literally, came out of nowhere.
He walked out of the office with Brandor at his heels. "See, hanar, even ada thinks you're too uptight," Legolas said.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Legolas saw Brandor hide a smile at the playful banter. "And he thinks I should take a break, but then where will my oh-so wonderful reputation of always having a stick up my ass go?"
Legolas turned wide-eyed and stifled a giggle with his hand. Where did that princely tongue go? "Careful, you'll start to sound like a human, or worse, a dwarf."
Although he tried, Brandor couldn't hide his chuckles and soon both elves were toppled on the floor laughing golden laughter.
When they both calmed down, Brandor at up on the wooden floor and crossed his legs, glancing at his honeg a bit sadly. Legolas quickly sobered up at his brother's look.
"What?"
The older shook his blonde head; "It's just going to be really silent without you around."
At this point, Legolas was a little confused. "Isn't that a good thing?"
Brandor ruffled his brother's hair. "Not always."
"Brandor, don't get all sappy on me now. We still have a few months left." He tried to sound light hearted, for right now he was still shocked over getting that letter. Thinking about how he would miss the people in the Greenwood was not something he wanted to dwell on at the moment.
Changing the subject and casting a sly smile, Brandor said, "Ada basically said we could have the day off, what mischievousness would you like to get up to?"
Wow. First getting the letter and now Brandor wanting to create trouble. Today was just full of surprises for Legolas.
"Um, Legolas, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Oh, you're not backing out on me now, are you?"
"No… Its just there are many ways this could quickly turn on us."
"Not if we do it right, now when Galion walks out of those doors, quickly pour the bucket on him."
"And if he sees us?"
Legolas rolled his eyes. This wasn't the first time Brandor voiced his worries, "We're Wood Elves, he won't see us if we don't let him. Besides, that's the beauty of using a few drops of water from the Gûlhir. He won't even remember getting wet!"
"That's the theory," Brandor said uncertainly. Both brothers were hiding in an Elm by the entrance to the courtyard, leading to the Hall of Trees. All Wood Elves, especially this time of year, ventured there to share stories, song, and drink. Usually, Galion came around about this time in the evening, and the poor adviser was this night's victim.
It had taken all day for the brothers to march down to the Enchanted River, it's black waters guarding the Greenwood from unwanted intruders. Although who these intruders were, Legolas did not know, and whenever he approached the Elvenking with the question, Thranduil would shake his head and mutter something about 'dark times long past.'
But, the waters had another purpose. When fallen in, the person immediately falls asleep, and if they escape the waters they completely forget the experience. Legolas found when used in very small quantities, it could make someone just forget recent events. There was no way to describe how much trouble Legolas got into last year for lacing the noble's drinks with the water. The fallout was hilarious, though, and he did not regret all those floors he had to scrub for a second.
"Shh, here he comes," Legolas warned Brandor, who had the bucket ready.
Those great wooden doors swung open, and the patter of elven feet followed.
"Now!" Legolas hissed as Brandor sent a quick prayer to Elbereth before dumping the entire contents of the bucket onto the unsuspecting Elf.
The young elves quickly pressed themselves against the tree, trying to seem as tiny as possible. If everything went well, Galion wouldn't even look up to notice them, having forgotten being poured on.
When Legolas dared to sneak a peak over at what was supposed to be a firmly soaked Galion, he was surprised to find a firmly soaked Elvenking.
"Brandor," Legolas said still staring at the ground.
"Did it work?" Came Brandor's voice as head, too, peaked down.
"We need to run."
"D-do you think he'll remember?" Brandor stuttered out.
"I really don't want to find out." And with that, Legolas slowly started to climb down the Elm, Brandor following.
"Ah, Legolas, Brandor, what are you doing up there?" The melodic voice of his father nearly startled Legolas out of the tree, and Brandor spat a choice curse under his breath.
"Nothing, Ada, just relaxing in the tree." Legolas hesitantly replied, glancing down.
"I'm glad to see you two are taking my advice and relaxing," Thranduil smiled, and then frowned as if he just remembered something important. He touched his shoulder with a pale hand, and seemed surprised to find it wet.
"What happened?" Legolas asked, what he hoped was anyway, innocently.
That was the wrong thing to say. Thranduil's frown deepened as he stared at the two Elflings caught in the tree. The Elvenking shook himself, recoiling and the droplets of water that flew from his robe. He took a long, wet strand of his blond hair and carefully securitized the lock; it was just as he thought. Natural water didn't hold the murky opacity of water from the Gûlhir.
The two elves caught in the tree stared at their father; Legolas with expressions of innocence in those silver blue eyes, Brandor with guilt as he hoped their punishment would be less severe if they came out right with their prank.
"I don't know where I should begin to be angry with you two." The Elven King said as he dropped the wet strand and folded his arms over his chest. "Dumping water on me-"
"It wasn't intended for you,"
"-Legolas, I don't know how that is supposed to make me feel better about the situation. When I said you two could have the day off, it meant not sneaking to the edges of this forest. You know how dangerous that is, both of you. What if someone saw you? What if you were unable to find your way back to the city? What if you were to fall into the Enchanted River yourselves?"
"Adar," Brandor began, as he released himself from the tree and hit the ground soundlessly, Legolas following suit. "None of that happened. Greenwood is still protected from prying eyes, we found our way back unscathed, and we promise we'll never do it again."
Thranduil relaxed, but only slightly. Both brothers exchanged glances.
"Now that all is settled," Legolas said nonchalantly, "I think I have to feed the cat. If you'll excuse me, hanar, adar."
"And where do you think you're going? Feed the cat? Really, Legolas, we don't even have a cat. Do not get any ideas into your head that you are to escape punishment."
Legolas looked crestfallen. "We don't have a cat? Since when? No one told me. I think I should excuse myself to go and get a cat to fill the cat-less voids in our hearts." He began to walk away.
Brandor gave up trying to understand his brother, and simply rolled his eyes and shook his shaggy head. "Oh, no. You are not leaving me here with a soaking wet, irate adar all alone."
"I quite agree, Brandor. Why don't you and Legolas do something worth your while? I do think the laundry workers need a break for the evening. I think laundry duty for the night would be befitting. You could even take these soiled robes to dry." Thranduil held up a soaking sleeve for the two Elflings to see.
Both elves sighed in defeat, while Thranduil felt a hint of satisfaction.
"So much for a day off," Legolas muttered.
"You should of thought of that before dumping water on my head."
"It was supposed to be Galion's head."
"Then I am thankful it was me, just to spare that poor ellon from another of your pranks. Off you go."
The laundry room was bereft of any edhelrim; the Elven King must have sent a message ahead informing the workers of their night off. Legolas groaned at the piles of dirty laundry around different wash-buckets. In the centre of the white room was a large pool of steaming water, and towards the back hung various clothes on different lines to dry.
"We have to do it by hand." Brandor sighed.
"The humans have this wonderful thing called a washing machine. It washes clothes without the need of Elves to scrub them. Such a thing exists, Brandor, yet all ada does is curse technology." Legolas made his way to the first pile of clothes, all different assortments of brightly coloured socks, and began to fill a wash bucket with warm water from a nearby sink.
"Ada says it messes with his magic. But you know what I think?" Brandor said, picking an equally daunting pile of pants to begin work on.
"What?"
"Well, technology spreads ideas, especially with inventions like the internet." He poured soap into his own steaming wash bucket. "If ideas spread out us, about Elvendom in a world dominated by Man, our peace hidden among them would be jeopardized."
Legolas was thoughtful. "Magic keeps us hidden, just as technology tries to seek us out. As the Humans grow with their inventions, Elves will grow with our magics. I think it goes hand it hand. To be honest, I still think we could benefit from the use of a washing machine."
"Did you see the way he reacted when he found out we went to the border of the Greenwood? He was worried." Brandor mused.
"Do you think something else is trying to seek us out?"
There were a few seconds of silence, except for the slight splashes as both brothers worked on their loads.
"I'll tell you what I don't think," Brandor began. "I don't think ada's magical border surrounding the Greenwood is failing him, I don't think Humans are poking their heads where they shouldn't be, and I don't think the Greenwood needs to be worried about being discovered by human eyes.
"But you think there's danger."
"I feel it, so do you, and so does ada. There's something in the air, not something emanate, but there is a sense of foreboding."
Legolas shivered. He never really noticed anything wrong, but Brandor always had a keen intuition about the state of the world. The room fell silent, and the solemn air was something the young prince felt uncomfortable in.
To lighten the tension, the younger picked a sock from his washing pile. It was red and sudsy from his washing, and could belong to any number of Courtiers among the castle. He took his aim at the brooding Brandor, before letting it fly from his small fist and smack into the face of his target.
The sock fell to the floor as Brandor registered what just happened. Muffled giggles could be heard form Legolas' direction.
"What in Elbereth's name did I do to deserve that?" Brandor squeaked out over his brother's chiming laughter.
"All this talk, it was a bit depressing. And, you have to admit, that was hilarious."
Brandor let a smile slowly come to his lips. "Ah, you're right. Silly me." He casually picked up his wash bucket, moved toward the sink and made as though he was going to refill it, and dumped it on the unaware, laughing elfling.
"Ew!" Legolas shouted. "Dirty pant water. You're so going to regret that!" He wasn't tall enough to reach over his brother's head, so Legolas splashed his own dirty sock water all over Brandor's side.
Brandor stared at Legolas is mock anger, before picking up the slight young Elf and hefting him towards the centre pool. Legolas saw what his brother was doing, and just as Brandor was about to toss him into the warm water, he shifted his weight so they both went toppling into the centre pool.
They both emerged, laughing as the warm water sloshed around them. Legolas splashed at the sputtering Brandor's face, and he indignantly splashed back. Thus began a war Elves would tell about in the millennia to come; a great splashing war between the two mighty sons of the Elven King.
Each elf dunked himself in the water as the other made for splash to the face. The floor around them was growing wetter and wetter as those sprays of water missed the opposing brother and landed on the tile. Eventually, both elfling's tired of their game, ceasing their splashes with golden Elven laughter.
"At least we don't need to do our clothes tonight." Brandor snorted out.
"Yeah," Legolas agreed still laughing, "but I think we'll need a mop. The floor is soaked."
"Great, more work to do. My favourite."
Legolas laughed as he tried to pry his brother from the pool, and after three or so more times of falling back down himself, he got Brandor to be standing.
"Let's clean this up before ada has a cow."
When both brothers stepped out of the warm pool, they found that their ada would, indeed, not have a cow. The floor was the same, wet in some places from the elflings splashes, the wash buckets still filled to the brim with dirty water. The think that was different, however, were the clothes. The socks and pants they were working on earlier were hung on the line, clean but still dripping water.
Two pairs of Elven eyes stared in shock at the clothes in front of them.
"Did someone come in while we were messing around?" Legolas asked.
"I don't know," Brandor replied, stepping over to where two dry towels hung on the clothesline. "I think this could be your magic at work."
"That's not possible," Legolas said as he grabbed a towel from Brandor's outstretched arm, "I would've noticed, right?"
"Don't look at me," Brandor said when Legolas' wide, ice blue eyes landed on him, "I don't know anything about magic."
Legolas stared at the ground, a bit worried, a bit frightened of the unexpected change. He needed to relax, the talk of magic and that letter must have triggered something, something accidental. He nearly laughed, wow, his magic actually did something useful, for he was sure it would be as mischievous and whimsical as he was.
"Should we tell ada about this?" Brandor asked, scrubbing his face dry with the towel.
Legolas frowned. "If he knows magic did the laundry instead of us doing it ourselves, he'll try to put another punishment on us to make up for it."
"We should still tell him, it might be important."
"Hmmm, I say we do tell him about the accidental magic, but not say what exactly happened. It's a win-win."
"That," Brandor started, "Is a horrible idea."
"Do you want to do more chores?"
"Legolas, you know he will wheedle the truth out some how. There's no fooling the crafty old bugger. Besides, what will we say instead?"
There was a twinkle in the younger Elf's eye. "We tell him it was the magic that made us wet. He won't question it."
A long sigh escaped from Brandor's lips. "Fine, then let's head back to the palace. We've been gone long enough now that it won't appear as though we're shrinking laundry duty." Brandor turned on his heel; little Legolas following rightly in his footsteps as they excited the laundry house and made their way back to the palace.
The guards only glanced at the drenched princes before they had to hide their smiles at seeing the sons of the mighty King Thranduil look like wet cats. They wondered what sort of mischief the young princes stuck their noses in again, but most decided it was best not to know in the end.
Once inside, Legolas and Brandor swiftly headed towards their rooms, light elven footsteps making no sound on the marbled floors. Even though they agreed on a story, both brothers decided getting into warm, dry clothes would be a priority before facing the Elvenking.
Legolas broke off from Brandor, who skidded to a halt beside his own bedroom, before flinging the oak door open. His chambers weren't sparsely decorated, with a large bed and ornate decorations carved into the furniture, but it wasn't overly big or lavish. The servants would always come in and pick up any dirty clothes on the floor, but the desk and table were untouched and littered with all his items. Important items, at least important to him, such as a particularly shiny rock or bits of metal, anything that would catch a boy's interest were laden on any spare surface.
The princeling quickly stripped off his sodden clothes and replaced them with clean, dry clothes from the dresser drawer. Not wanting the servants to find water-soaked clothes in the morning, Legolas carefully draped them over a chair to dry for the night, so suspicions wont rise the following morning.
By the time he was finished, it was nearly dinnertime. Legolas cursed himself for dallying, and he quickly grabbed a wide-toothed comb and ran it through his long blonde hair. He sighed, he knew he didn't look like a prince, but it would have to do. Plus, he could play it off as the work from the laundry disheveled him.
The clock was nearly at six, and Legolas was out his bedroom door, quietly shutting it. He made his way to the other side of the hall where Brandor was, and softly knocked on the oak door. Nothing happened, and he assumed Brandor headed down to the dining room already. Legolas walked down the hallway, passing by servants and greeting them with his usual carefree smile.
When Legolas arrived at the large, ornate dining room, Brandor and his father were already seated at the head of one long, beautiful glass table. Brandor was discussing something with Adar, who was smiling and nodding along, following the rapid hand movements as Brandor told his story. Legolas only caught the end of the conversation as he moved towards the other Elves.
"It was magic, ada," Brandor exclaimed, "Legolas did accidental magic."
Thranduil then took his eyes off his oldest son, focusing them on Legolas, who took a seat quietly across from Brandor. "Ah, Legolas, Brandor was just telling me the regaling events of the afternoon and how you two became drenched with water."
"I don't know what accidental magic is, ada, how was it like when you were my age?" Legolas asked, picking a bit at the fruit laid out on the table.
Thranduil moved to gently swat that hand away from the grapes, "Don't ruin your dinner," but then his voiced softened. "Accidental magic happens when young magicians feel scared or angry."
Legolas moved to open his mouth, but quickly shut it when Thranduil held up a finger. "Let me finish, ion nin. I know you probably felt neither of these emotions, but with Elves it's different. Magic is very natural to us, we are surrounded by it every day, and won't showcase it's self in extreme measure. More likely that your accidental magic came from emotion you usually feel, such as happiness or joy."
"That makes sense," Legolas started, "I was joking around with Brandor when it happened."
The Elven King nodded, "That is something you do quite often," he teased as Brandor playfully rolled his eyes.
"Does this mean something weird will happen on a daily basis? Because Legolas does find tormenting me to be fun quite too often." Brandor said with no malice in his tone and playfulness shining in his green eyes.
"It could mean so, that is up to Legolas. Elves also have a far better sense of controlling it, which is why it might not have manifested until now, until the letter arrived in our home and we all became aware of Legolas' magic." Thranduil said, casting a glance at his youngest son who was staring at them in earnest.
"I can control it? So it doesn't happen all the time?" He asked, a little too excited. Then, another thought struck his young mind, "Can I use it? So it doesn't show up randomly, but I can do stuff with it?"
Thranduil sighed; just the thought of Legolas causing mischief with his power was enough to send a poor old Elf like himself into the arms of Mandos.
"It's much more than that, Legolas." Thranduil said to his son, just as servants walked through the door with dinner plates in hand.
Each plate was put gently down in front of the elves, and it was then did Legolas realize how hungry he was after the day's events. He quickly scanned the table for the salad dressing, snatching it before Brandor could use the rest of it up, and drenched his greens in the zesty dressing.
Only after did he shove the first couple of mouthfuls of salad into his mouth did he look up, not quite finished with the conversation at hand.
Thranduil was looking at him with an eyebrow raised and a smirk on his lips. "I guess you were too hungry to forget your table manners, too, it looks like."
Legolas let out a silent "oh" before straightening up and placing the white, soft napkin gently on his lap.
His father took a few gulps from the offered wine glass before resuming conversation with his son. "Now, Legolas, magic doesn't work that way. You would need training, the teachings of spells before you could put any of them into use. Even for Elves, mastery doesn't come out of thin air. You'll need time, and that's what this school will do. Maybe next summer you can regale us with all you have learnt."
Legolas could not help but feel a little disappointed, it would take time before he could use anything in earnest, he supposed, and in the mean time he would have to deal with strange happenings around the palace as his own magic flared out.
"Don't be discouraged, maybe I can teach you some little things that could help over the summer." Thranduil said, reaching over and playfully mussing up Legolas' hair.
"Ada, what was it like when you first discovered you had magic? Did grandfather have magic too?" Legolas asked.
"Your grandfather did have magic, yes, and when he found out he was very proud of me, just as I am with you." Thranduil casted a pointed glance at Brandor, who was listening intently, "And you, Brandor. I am very proud of both of you."
Legolas and Brandor smiled, but he was still curious about the accidental magic.
"What was accidental magic like with you, ada, could you control it?"
"No, ion nin, I could not control it any more than you can now. It left quite a few surprises around out household." Thranduil said with a chuckle.
"Like what?" Brandor asked.
"One time, I accidentally turned your grandfather's hair purple. It didn't last long, but it sure made me laugh so hard tears sprung to my eyes. Your grandfather, however, upon seeing his beautiful golden head turn a bright purple, had a different sort of tears in his eyes."
"No way!" Legolas said, "Could you teach me that trick?" Brandor caught Legolas eyeing him and mouthed a strict "don't even think about it."
Thranduil laughed, "It was accidental, though you may learn something of the sort at school." Legolas brightened.
The Elven King though sobered slightly, and looked at his youngest a bit more gravely. "Legolas, this school, however, you may find to be very different. There will be mortals; even Wizarding people are unknown to us as we are protected here. You must promise me, and don't look at me like that, you must promise me that you will keep your head down as much as possible. There will be no pranks, you will behave." Thranduil sighed, "Elves have gone in the past, but times have changed. Most going now will keep their identities and themselves a secret. You must understand the importance of this. There is something in the air, something that isn't quite right, tithen pen, and I don't want you getting hurt."
Legolas looked at his father a little wide eyed. He rarely sounded so grave, and Legolas hope his father knew he would take the advice to heart. He nodded, making eye contact with the Elven King, before the rest of their meal was brought in.
Honeg-little brother
adar/ada-father/dad/daddy
hanar-brother
tithen pen-little one
edhelrim-elves
ellon-male elf
Gûlhir-Enchanted River