a/n: Disclaimer: parts of this chap are almost directly copied from the book HP and the Philosopher's Stone aka not mine.
CHAPTER THREE: WARNING BELLS
After an hour they all returned to Dumbledore's office.
"Ah, I see that your robes all fit you well. Before we leave I have to tell you that we are going to split you up. Otherwise we would draw too much attention to ourselves. So the hobbits and Legolas will go with Minerva, Gimli and Aragorn with Severus, and Gandalf is to come with me." He looked at each one of them before he continued. "Now, I want you to listen carefully to what I'm going to say and watch my movements closely. We're going to travel by Floo Powder. You have to grab a handful of the powder and throw it into the fireplace, like this. Then you walk into the fire, which has, as you can see, now turned green. And call the place to which you want to go to. In our case: The Leaky Cauldron!" Dumbledore yelled the last three words and vanished into thin air.
"Alright, who wants to go next?" McGonagall asked.
Legolas slowly approached the fireplace and took a handful of the powder. When the fire had turned green, he took a deep breath after yelling: "The Leaky Cauldron!"
The whole world seemed to spin around him and he saw glimpses of other rooms and fireplaces. Fortunately the ride didn't take long as he was thrown out of another fireplace in mere seconds. He quickly regained his balance, so he would not fall onto the cold stone floor.
He saw that Dumbledore was there too, smiling at him.
Before he could say something he saw the fire behind him turn green and start to crackle as a body was being spit out. Legolas tried to turn around in time to catch the person, before he would hit the ground, but due to his dizziness he reacted too late and was pushed to the floor as a heavy weight hit him in the chest. When he opened his eyes, he saw some beautiful grey ones looking down on him. He stared into their depths for a moment, before realising that they belonged to Aragorn, who was looking kind of flushed. "Sorry, Legolas. I could not keep my balance there," he said, slowly standing up. Legolas still lay on the floor completely dazed. "Are you hurt?" the ranger asked worried.
"No, no, not at all," he said quickly, while he averted his eyes to hide the emotions playing them.
Aragorn extended him his hand as to pull him up. Legolas grabbed it and stood up.
Oh, why did he have to fall on top me? It felt much too good for my liking.
Okay Legolas, you have to put these feelings away in some far away place, because they are not going to help you on this mission. Besides Aragorn is in love with Arwen, with Arwen!! Remember that, also THEY are having a BABY and you would not want that child to be raised by only one parent, now would you?
When he turned his thoughts back to the present, he saw that everyone had already arrived.
He walked over to McGonagall and the Hobbits and followed them out of the room through some kind of bar and into an empty backyard. # McGonagall took some kind of stick out of her robes and started to touch some of the stones at the wall in front of her with it. After a few seconds the bricks which she tapped on quivered – and wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider - a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for a cave troll. It led onto a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.
"Welcome," said McGonagall, "to Diagon Alley."
They stepped through the archway. Legolas looked quickly over his shoulder and saw it shrink instantly back into the solid wall.
The sun shone brightly at a sack of cauldrons, outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons – all sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible. Said a sign hanging over them.
"You will all need one." Minerva said. "But first we have get some money."
Legolas wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an apothecary's was shaking her head as they passed, saying: "Dragon liver, seventeen sickles an ounce, they're mad…"
"Gringotts," McGonagall said all of the sudden.
They had reached a snowy-white building which towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was –
"That's a goblin," said the teacher quietly as they walked up the white stone steps towards him. The goblin was about a head shorter than the Hobbits. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Legolas noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:
Enter stranger, but take heedOf what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay almost dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath out floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than a treasure there.
Legolas smiled at the lines, amused, before entering the vast marble hall with his friends.
About a hundred more Goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins on brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses.
McGonagall walked towards the counter.
"Good morning," she said to a free goblin. "We would like to take some money out of Hogwarts' safe."
"Do you have the key, ma'am?"
"Yes," she said, while putting a tiny golden key on the counter.
The goblin looked at it closely.
"That seems to be in order. I will have someone take you to the vaults. Largefeet!"
Largefeet was yet another goblin, whom they followed towards one of the doors leading off the wall. The goblin held the door open for them. Legolas, who had expected to see more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there little railway tracks on the floor. Largefeet whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks towards them.
At first they hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Legolas tried to remember the way they were going, but it was just impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Largefeet wasn't steering. # (a/n: the part between the #'s comes almost directly out of HP1 – I know I'm just lazy)
After a few minutes they finally reached the vault. Legolas was feeling uncomfortable. His surroundings remembered him at the Mines of Moria. And of course elves never like being underground, when they are cut off from the sun and stars.
McGonagall quickly piled some golden and silver coins into a bag. When she turned to face them again, she looked at the Elf in shock.
"What's happening to your skin?"
Legolas looked at himself and realized that he was glowing, which is common for Elves when it is dark and they are not feeling at ease or experiencing a very strong emotion. He quickly threw the hood of his cape over his head to cover his face. Then he approached McGonagall.
"Sorry, I forgot to mention that. The elven skin glows when it is dark and they are on their guard."
She looked a little angry with him and then sighed. "I'm glad we at least discovered it now."
They all went back into the cart and one wild ride later they stood blinking into the sunlight outside Gringotts.
In the next couple of hours they went to all kinds of shops buying all the supplies they needed.
When they finally returned to the Leaky Cauldron again, Legolas was carrying over a dozen packages. Now he had bought all the things he would be needing this year, he just couldn't wait until the school year begun. He really liked to test his wand. He would be getting private lessons from Dumbledore himself to get him quickly up to date, for as a student in his last year he was supposed to know a lot of spells.
The others were already waiting for them. Gimli and Aragorn had already changed into their new robes. Gimli was wearing some nice black ones, which made him look a little larger. It was funny to see the dwarf without his armour and his beard obviously.
Aragorn wore a beautiful grey cloak, which matched his eyes perfectly. The material from which the robe was made, was unknown to Legolas, but he thought it looked magnificent. It had some magical touch to it, as it seemed as soft as liquid.
He looked up when he heard his name being mentioned. McGonagall was telling Dumbledore about him glowing in the dark. The old wizard looked at him and motioned him to approach them.
"Well, well, Prince of Mirkwood. I'm glad we discovered this little hick-up so soon. If one of the students had seen you glow, you would have been in a hell of a lot of trouble."
Legolas looked sheepishly at his feet.
"I will discuss with Galadriel of what to do about it. If we haven't found a solution by tomorrow I want you to stay inside your room at night until we do. Is that understood?"
Legolas folded his arms in front of his chest and nodded. They all seemed to act as if he was the one to blame for this little episode. How was he to know that wizards did not glow in the dark? They should have done some better research!
"Now that that has been taking care of, we should all be off and discuss the more detailed parts of your mission during dinner."
They were let into a private room by the barman Tom, where their meals would be served.
Legolas took a seat at the table next to Gimli. Aragorn quickly seated himself on the Elf's other side.
"So, why did you glow?" He asked after a while. Legolas sighed and looked at him, deciding that he no reason what so ever to be angry with the man. As he was only jealous.
"Because I felt some sort of dark presence in the caves. I do not know what it was, I only know that it made me feel vulnerable without anything to defend myself with."
"I see, I already thought it was strange that you glowed in the dark, because on our last quest it did not happen that often, now did it?"
"No, I guess not. Perhaps that is because I had my weapons, plus I knew who my enemies were, since I can recognise their presence everywhere."
"And Gimli and I were not there to protect you of course," Aragorn joked.
Legolas cocked one of his eyebrows amused.
"Right, that must be the main reason." He commented sarcastically. "I think it is the other way around King Elessar! Am I not the one who has warned you of upcoming dangers many times? Not that you listened to me, of course. No, you should be glad to know such a good archer and faithful friend as I. I am sure other Elves would not have put up with you for this long," he said in his most serious tone, trying to suppress the grin that was trying to spread on his face.
"I think you'd better show some respect, PRINCE of Mirkwood, for I am still the KING of Gondor and Isildur's heir. And, as everyone knows, I have enough Elven friends as they raised me, remember." He said, faking his anger.
The other people on the table looked at them surprised. The members of the Fellowship and Dumbledore realized that they were only joking, but that couldn't be said for McGonagall and Snape, who were looking at them with worry showing in their eyes.
"Are you implying that I am replaceable? That I mean nothing to you?" Legolas asked preten ding to choke back a sob.
"Yeah. I think, if you look at it in that way, I guess you are right. You are no more than another silly Elf to me, who I would not miss for a second, if you were to leave right now."
Legolas smacked him playfully on the head. Aragorn grinned at him mischievously, before tousling the Elf's hair.
"Estel!! That was not funny!" he exclaimed before punching him on the shoulder. They romped for a while, laughing loudly. The rest of the fellowship looked at them smiling. They were used to them making fun of each other all the time. Most of the time the others would participate too, always ending it with a great romp.
When they had finally stopped they saw Snape and McGonagall looking at them confused. They only grinned at them and returned their attention to their food.
Legolas just poked around at it again, deciding to only eat the salad.
After a few minutes, Dumbledore cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.
"Now, I will finally tell you exactly what your tasks will be.
Merry, Pippin, Frodo and Sam are to monitor the first year students closely. Making sure nothing happens to them and looking for clues if some are interested in the Dark Arts or if they have Death Eaters as parents." When he saw the confused on their faces, he explained: "Death Eaters are the followers of Voldemort, which are mostly parents of the Slytherins, but not always of course. Oh and before I forget to tell you this, you will be all sorted into houses. There are Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin and Gryffindor. The same goes for you, Legolas. You also have to try and gain as much information as possible. But I have two extra tasks for you. The first one is to watch a boy named Harry Potter and his friends closely. Voldemort was once almost defeated by him, so now he's out for revenge. He has almost succeeded to kill him six times now, but somehow Harry always manages to escape. The second thing I'm asking you to do, is to patrol the forbidden forest which surrounds most of the school. As I understand you can talk to animals and understand the language of the trees, so maybe they can inform you about any possible danger. It's not very safe there so I recommend that you take some weapons with you. You do have to be very discreet, so that none of students will notice that you're gone."
Legolas nodded. He couldn't wait to walk into the forest, he was really curious to find out if he met some new species.
"You Aragorn will also, besides being a teacher, patrol the forest. How you are going to do that you have to make out for yourselves. Maybe you can patrol together, or split up, or just patrol in turns. Just make sure that someone patrols each night for a couple of hours. Professor McGonagall will inform you about the things you have to teach the children in Herbology. Like I told you before Gimli will be monitoring Hogsmeade. And Finally, Gandalf will be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. He will also assist me with my research to find a way to defeat Voldemort or Sauron as you know him, for good!"
He looked at all of them, smiling. "I'm thankful for your help. I hope everything turns out okay! …Now that has been said I think we'd better be all head off to bed. You will go to London tomorrow, from where you will take the Hogwarts Express on platform 9 ¾, so that you won't arouse too much suspicion by already being here. Well, just follow me and I'll take you back to your rooms. I hope you don't mind that you have to share a room with few of your friends?"
They all shook their heads. They were used to sleeping together.
The hobbits would share one room and the rest the other.
They quickly took off most of their clothes and lay down onto their beds.
Legolas stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking about all the things that had happened today. A smile crept onto his face when he thought about the romp at dinner and the two times that he had felt Aragorn's body pressed against him. First at the entrance of the portal and later when he had fallen upon him when he was thrown out of the fireplace. He still could feel the way his body felt in his mind. He sighed softly.
What am I going to do?
Nothing!! How many times do I have to tell myself this! I am just going to keep my silly feelings to myself.
But maybe Aragorn is feeling the same, he did look at me strangely a few times.
Yeah, right dream on, boy! HE IS IN LOVE WITH ARWEN!!! By Elbereth, whenever did I get this dense?
After arguing a little more inside his head, he finally entered the Dream Realm.