Chapter fifteen: Riiight and pigs can fly!

Later on that day when Legolas just returned from his class with Dumbledore, he was walking towards the Great Hall to have dinner, when…

"Legolas!" a merry voice sounded from behind.

"Hello Merry, Pippin." He greeted them. "What are you two up to?"

"Nothing in particular." Merry grinned mischievously.

"Of course." Legolas replied laughing. "Now come on you two, you can talk me."

"Oh, alright, but if you tell a single soul than beware of our wrath."

"I promise I will not talk anyone."

"Thank you, now do you want to do the honours Pip and tell him our brilliant plan?"

"But of course my dear cousin. You know about the ball, which is being held next week?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well since Gimli isn't here all the time. He doesn't really know what kind of ball it is. So we told him it is a masquerade."

"Y-You didn't!" Legolas replied laughing, holding his belly as he did so. "By Elbereth I cannot wait to see which he is go to wear. I am not hoping his Dwarven clothes though."

"No, no we took care of that, saying it had to be something out of the human history of this world."

"Good, I do not want to think at the consequences otherwise. Especially when he will take his famous axe from him."

"Speaking of the ball, did anyone ask you yet?" Merry asked curiously.

"Yes several girls actually." Legolas replied sighing.

"And?"

"And what?"

"Are you going with anyone of them? Or more of course." Merry said grinning broadly.

"No, I politely declined."

"WHAT! Why?" Pippin exclaimed.

"I'd rather go by myself." Legolas shrugged.

"Again I must go back to: WHAT! Why?" Pippin replied incredulously.

"I do not know. I – I …" Legolas thought hard about what he was going to say next.

"I know what's wrong. You have a pretty Elf waiting back home for you, do you not?" Merry suddenly popped in, sounding very proud of himself for finding out Legolas' supposed secret.

"You could say that." Legolas replied relieved, as he didn't have to make something up any longer.

"I knew it! So what is her name?" Merry asked eagerly.

"I rather keep that by myself, I you do not mind. I will talk you when we are ready."

"What if I DO mind?" Merry asked, cocking his eyebrows as he did so."

Legolas let out an exasperate sigh, shaking his head. "Then I still would not tell you Meriadoc."

"Hmmmm, it is Arwen is it not?" Merry thought out loud.

"No of course not! She is more like a sister to me than anything else."

"Just wondering, there is no need to get upset Legolas." Merry grinned.

"I am NOT upset!" The Elf replied a little agitated. "But I just cannot be believing that you thought I would ever go at Arwen."

"Well, Aragorn and Arwen are no longer involved, are they not? Plus isn't she like the most beautiful she- elf in whole Middle Earth?" Pippin explained. "I heard that Strider left her when he found out she was with child."

Legolas stared open mouthed at Merry and Pippin.

"You do not seriously be believing this!" he exclaimed very angry now.

"Uhm, I guess it is not true then?"

"Of course it is not! How can you even think that Aragorn would be capable of doing something like that? He just never ever would!" Legolas said, trying to control his anger as some students passed by, who looked at them curiously. He just couldn't believe they would say such a thing about his lover.

"Okay, okay. We already thought it was strange, but well their engagement was called off so abruptly that it made us think that he…"

"Then do not think!" The Prince spoke angry, walking through the doors of the Great Hall.

"Who told you these foul things anyway?"

"Uhm… I do not recall the precise person exactly, but I do know it was one of the Elves in Rivendell."

"I see. You better not tell anyone about this, especially not Aragorn. I hope that will not be too difficult for you two." He said, glaring at each one of them.

"Of course not, Prince Legolas." Merry replied a little scared.

"Do not address me as such!" he whispered harshly.

Merry's eyes went wide in shock and tried to laugh making it appear to be a joke. Unfortunately he failed woefully.

So Legolas quickly said: "Thank you my humble King." While winking towards the people who were listening and trying to laugh a little, which turned out to be quite difficult as he was still very angry at the Hobbits.

Thankfully the other students thought it had indeed only been a joke and turned their attention elsewhere.

When Legolas sat down next to Hermione, she looked at him curiously.

"Are you really a Prince?" she whispered.

"Yes, I am. Did Dumbledore not talk you about our backgrounds?"

"No, he didn't tell us. He told us about you and your friends' mission here, but he didn't let us in to all of the details."

"I see well maybe that's only for the best. You are only children after all."

"Well it's not like you're that old!" she replied annoyed.

Legolas just laughed in response. Many people looked up to see where the beautiful sound came from, so he quickly shut his mouth again and leaned over to whisper in Hermione's ear:

"I've seen more full moons then you will ever see in your entire life." He explained, seeing the confused look on the girl's face. "I thought you knew everything about my kin."

"Well actually I only read about Elves a long time ago in a Muggle library, when I was looking for reverences to House Elves. I namely had found a link to the Muggle world; because House Elves really look like creatures they call trolls, only a smaller version then of course. But they also write about small ones. Anyway the point is that the book where your kind was mentioned hadn't THAT much info about you guys. Besides I do know you're immortal, but how could I have determined your age and I don't think you are very old in Elven standards anyway."

"I see, it is very clever of you to make a link to me with such little information to go by. What made me look suspicious anyway?"

"We… uh.. that is to say I noticed some strange things about you." Hermione said softly staring at her hands.

"Go on." Legolas said, encouraging her to continue.

"First there was of course the episode with the Unicorn, which you handled quite well. Than there was the strange language you and professor Strider spoke, which I know for a fact isn't Dutch, since I went to the Netherlands last Summer and I can tell you their language is quite different. You also seem awfully close with Professor Strider, while you told us that he had only been your teacher. You looked more like friends, which isn't that strange of course, but still there was just something about you two."

Legolas blushed at this. He hit it well by putting his face into his hands.

"Was there anything else? Surely this wasn't enough to arouse your suspicion and wipe out my memory."

"Well of course there is also your appearance."

Legolas frowned at this. "How so? They have cut of my hair and made my pointy ears invisible."

"You know, your beauty and your eyes betrayed you." Hermione explained, to the disbelieving Elf. "Of course there was also the time when some strange little fellow called you an Elf, that really was a dead give away and last but not least the fact that we suddenly didn't had Potions class in the dungeons any longer. I assume that was because Elves glow in the dark?"

"Yes, it was. I see I have been very careless as you discovered my true identity in mere days, but it is quite difficult not to react on your impulses and act differently around the people you love… I uh mean that in a friend like way of course."

"Of course." Hermione said, frowning for a moment, before looking neutral again.

"Hey, your English is almost perfect again, by the way. Good job!" she said after a while, before Legolas could respond Dumbledore rose to attract everyone's attention. "Good evening all. I have some more details to give you about next week. First of all: there won't be any classes for the entire week."

A wave of cheers, whistles and applaud went through the Great Hall.

The old wizard looked at them with a bemused grin, his eyes twinkling, before he calmed them all down again.

"Now, now your classes aren't THAT bad, are they?" He said smiling.

"The festivities will be commence on Monday evening with a Ball. We've invited some famous Wizards and Witches, but most of the performances will be done by our own students and teachers, who have been practicing for a couple of weeks in secret now." Dumbledore paused a moment to scan through the sea of students, before resuming his speech. "Looking at your faces I see that they have succeeded. I won't tell you yet who will perform, but I've heard some of them practice and they are extremely talented young people, I can tell you that much." He spoke proudly. "The ball will start after the evening feast and will end at precisely one o'clock. Everyone is invited so that includes the first years and all of the teachers."

Some groans could be heard when he mentioned the professors.

"Well we do need to keep an eye on you, don't we?" Dumbledore explained. "Besides you have nothing to worry about, we are only there to have fun, just like you do."

A lot of people shot unbelieving glances at Snape. They just couldn't imagine anything that had to do with their hated potions master and fun and was in one sentence. This went for some other teachers as well of course, but they showed some humanity once in while, which really couldn't be said about Snape.

Dumbledore seemed to notices the looks the potions master was getting and remarked mysteriously: "Some of us are wearing masks, so do not judge us too fast."

Everyone frowned at this, especially Severus, who shot Dumbledore a strange look.

I wonder what he's getting at. He thought.

"Anyway, " Albus continued. "I hope you have a great time. Oh and before I forget to tell you: There is no dress code. So you can just go in the clothes you feel most comfortable in, but since you have all bought dress ropes it almost seems a shame not to wear those. But that's only my opinion of course." with that Dumbledore sat down again and summoned the food.

"Can you imagine Snape at a ball?" Ron asked all of them.

"Not really no." Hermione replied laughing.

"What about Snape dancing?!" Harry laughed.

"He couldn't do that even if he wanted to." Ron grinned

"And why is that?" Harry frowned.

"Because no one would want to dance with him." Ron replied, laughing so hard at his own joke that he attracted the attention of half of the Great Hall. Most of the teachers and students looked at him bemused, wondering what could possible be so funny.

After a while Ron calmed down a little: "Sorry, I-I just had this vision: Snape dancing with McGonagall. Hihi."

"I would not be so sure of that." Legolas said suddenly.

The Trio looked at him confused. "Of what?" they asked simultaneously.

"Of no one wanting to dance with Severus." Legolas spoke mysteriously.

"Riiiiight and pigs can fly." Harry said, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

"Still I do believe that someone is interested in him." The Elf persisted

"And who might this someone be?"

"Remus Lupin."

The Three stared at him in shock.

"Y-You have got to be kidding me!" Harry exclaimed. "Professor Lupin liking that git of a Snape? They are more like arch-enemies."

"If you say so. Just keep an eye on him for a while, maybe you will change your mind." Said Legolas smiling.

Harry gave him an exasperated look.

Like his 'second godfather' would ever want to have anything to do with someone like Snape. As far as he was concerned they hated each other. Besides Remus had every right to hate Snape.

The potions master never treated him civilly, merely because he is a werewolf. Plus he told everybody about his lycanthrope a few years back.

Even if he DID like …no, no that just couldn't be. Snape and Professor Lupin, they are like the sun and the moon, it is just too ridiculous to even think about. Harry thought shaking his head.

Hermione and Ron in the meanwhile were staring at the Head table with interest. Not that they believed one word of what Legolas had just said, but still they found the thought quite amusing and were sure to prove Legolas wrong.

"Why don't we set something up? You know to prove that Professor Lupin would never ever date someone like Snape." Ron suddenly suggested.

"Like what?"

"Well … uh… I dunno." Ron said thinking hard.

"We can't possible set something up, sweetie. What do you want us to do? Give them both a truth potion and make them confess their feelings for each other?" Hermione spoke in a voice dripping with sarcasm. "Remember the last time when we thought we had a brilliant plan? It resulted in Legolas losing his memory."

"I know, I know, but still maybe we could do something small?" Ron suggested.

"If you think of something, let me know, alright, and only when you've thought out every possible outcome of it, okay?" Hermione said, standing up. "I gotta go. I have to get some books of the library. Are you coming with me Ron? It won't take that long so maybe we can …, you know."

"Yup, I'm coming with you." Ron replied standing up abruptly and following Hermione out of the Great hall.