Ash Potter was a witch in mourning. She mourned the loss of her childhood. Of her family. Of the fact that the man she had trusted had set her up to die and knew this whole time that she would have to face a man decades her senior all because of a prophecy that he did absolutely nothing to avert.

She was lost and had no way to guide her to a future where she could be happy. Happy and away from this horrible nonsense that the adults allowed to happen.

What she wanted was training. Someone who could teach her not only to fight, but to survive in a battle she would likely not win. She could not trust the adults around her now...they insisted she 'enjoy' her childhood, while at the same time expecting her to somehow beat a man who had decades of experience in magic.

Somehow, her wandering of the castle took her to the seventh floor. She found herself in front of the tapestry that lead into the Room of Requirement.

Ash didn't know what made her do it. Perhaps it was her desire for training, or the desperation of someone who had long since lost hope for themselves.

But her feet began to walk back and forth in front of the tapestry, until an ancient door appeared.

Absently she checked and found her wand still in the holster, hidden from casual sight. She clutched the strap of her expanded messenger bag. It was loaded with odds and ends, including enough food to last at least a week courtesy of the elves in the kitchens.

Her hand reached out, and for a brief moment paused. However she could not stand another summer of the Dursleys. Not after all the heart ache she had this year.

Her hand touched the door and turned the knob. It creaked open, and before she could react properly, she found herself sucked through the opening with no way to stop herself from falling.

She would not return to these lands for some time.

Every magical being sensed it. Even those without magical ability knew something had happened. For good or ill was unknown, but whatever had appeared had created a magical shockwave that only the blind would miss it.

Aragorn was heading to an area that was awash with a powerful magical presence. So much so that the wizards (mainly Gandalf and Saruman) couldn't go near the place to find out what was causing it.

As he wasn't a wizard and he happened to be quite adept at traversing inhospitable lands, Gandalf had asked him to find the source of it. He had left his horse tied up in a secure area and had started walking.

Though he held no magic himself, he could still sense something was off.

It felt like hours, but would later turn out to only be thirty minutes.

Aragorn searched around, but could find nothing...at least not with his eyes. In the end he almost tripped on the source.

It took him a moment to figure out what was going on. Looking down he saw a leg partially covered by a strange cloak not unlike the ones that the elves of Lothlorien used to disappear. Carefully, he pulled the edge of the cloak he could find back.

It was a young woman.

She had mid-length black hair that was almost the same shade as a raven's wing. Her skin was pale, but not to the point that said she spent more time behind walls than outside in the sun. Her clothing was unusual, and seemed more akin to what a man would wear. There was a small bag at her side, and not of any make he recognized. He saw no weapons on her.

The girl was completely out cold and he had no way of knowing when she would wake up.

Following instincts that had kept him alive for so long, he carefully gathered her up.

She was light. Far too light for someone of her age.

He knew he had found the source of the magic when the odd feeling on the back of his neck began to fade once he was outside the unofficial barrier line.

Though it didn't disappear entirely...it seemed to be a protective in nature.

It was a fortunate thing that Rivendell was so close. Perhaps Lord Elrond would know why she was still out cold.

Two days later...

Elrond had examined the young woman, and outside of being in need of several good meals, she was more or less healthy.

It was only when Gandalf examined the young woman Aragorn had discovered that they found out why she was was still asleep.

"There is a powerful sleeping spell on her."

"Can it be broken?" asked Elrond.

"A simple cantrip would suffice. What concerns me is that the young woman has magic...quite a lot of it," said Gandalf. "She also appears to have some training, but of what kind I cannot say."

"Lady Galadriel will be here in a few days," said Elrond. "We shall wait for her to arrive before we waken her."

A few days later...

Lady Galadriel was greatly interested in the mysterious young woman that Aragorn had found.

However the moment she came in the room, she backed up a few steps almost immediately.

Her face was grave, but at the same time there was a great deal of pity in her eyes.

Elrond became wary.

"What do you sense?" asked Gandalf with concern.

"This young woman comes from a far land bearing a great deal of sorrow and pain. There is an evil upon her...but it does not originate from her," said Galadriel. "I do not believe she would be a danger to us if we waken her."

With that, Gandalf drew upon his magic. A whispered cantrip, and the spell upon the young woman was broken.

It did not take long for her to wake.

Deep, verdant green eyes looked rather groggy, but the moment she registered the presence of others in the room, they focused immediately.

"Where...am I?" she asked. It was clear that the effects of being under the sleep spell had not fully left her body. That or it was the side effect of being in a coma for the better part of a month.

"In Imraldris," said Gandalf. Seeing no recognition in her eyes, he continued. "Better known in the common tongue as Rivendell, in the house of Elrond."

"What is your name?" asked Elrond.

"Ash," she replied after a moment. "How did I get here?"

"What do you remember?" asked Gandalf.

"I was wandering the halls of my school, and came across and odd door. When I opened it, I felt myself forcibly drawn in," said Ash. "After that, nothing."

"You have been asleep for the better part of a month," Elrond informed her. "When you were found, it was at the site of a magical disturbance so great that anyone of power felt it."

It had taken that long for Aragorn to track down the source of the magical shockwave.

"Somehow, that does not surprise me," sighed Ash. "Things of that nature always seem to happen to me."

Hearing the sound of her stomach, Galadriel hid a slight smile.

"Perhaps we should wait for the young one to eat first," she said.

Elrond, Gandalf and Galadriel met in a quiet room. Ash was eating slowly and carefully in the room that she had woken up in. considering she hadn't eaten anything for a month, it was understandable that she would be starving.

"What did you sense, my Lady?" asked Gandalf.

"She is lost, seeking hope," said Galadriel. "She does not seek to cause us harm, and I sense she would be a great ally against the Enemy. However there is a burden upon her mind."

"A burden?" asked Elrond.

"One not unlike the one on the mind of young Aragorn. Those that she should have trusted to guide her have placed a heavy task that they claim only she can accomplish...however those same people also deny her the proper training to insure she survives. I am sure that if given the chance, she could be a great ally against the darkness," said Galadriel. She paused. "The defenses around her mind are badly damaged. I believe someone deliberately destroyed them recently."

"What of her power?" asked Gandalf.

Galadriel smiled at him, clearly amused by something.

"She is aware of her power, however her training is still incomplete."

Ash was a polite, if quiet young woman. One who developed a keen interest in watching the elves practice their archery skills.

It didn't take much for one of those practicing to notice her.

Ash had to do a slight double take at the two elves. For some reason she couldn't explain, she felt as though she were with the twins.

"Would you care to try?" asked the one on the left.

She blinked at them.

"Wait...you mean I'm allowed to? I thought Lord Elrond wouldn't let me near the weapons."

The one on the right snorted.

"Father likely won't care and the other buildings are far enough away that someone of your size isn't likely to hit anyone. Besides, there are plenty of them around that no one's going to miss one. Unless you'd rather try sword training," he commented.

"That and you don't look like you've had training, so being able to hit the target at the edge of the range would be hard enough," added the one on the left again.

"I've never touched a bow in my life...but I do have some training in tracking small objects that go really fast."

Ash eagerly followed the twin elves...at least she thought they were twins...to the archery range. It didn't take long to outfit her with a small bow that she could reasonably use and walk her through the basics of how to shoot.

Some of the elves lingered on the sidelines, mostly out of boredom and polite interest.

It took Ash a few tries to get the hang of notching the bow properly, and how to actually release the arrow so that it would leave the bow...but once she did figure it out, she surprised everyone when her arrow landed squarely in the center of the target. Even though it was pretty clear she had never used a bow in her life or had any formal training.

Elrohir, the elf that had spoken up first, stared. So did his twin brother Elladan.

"Do that again," he said intently, interest clear on his face.

Ash did, a little smoother this time. Once again, her arrow hit the center of the target, or close enough to it.

The witch had the elves attention now, as she soon got the hang of using her new weapon.

It wasn't long before her muscles started screaming at her from the fact she was using them so much. Her arms were killing her, since they normally didn't get this much exercise.

However the damage was done. The twins were surprised and delighted upon realizing she was a natural archer, and were quite eager to teach her more.

Considering her success with a bow, the twins immediately introduced her to the other weapons in the armory. She gravitated to the short swords that were of elvish make. Slim, and light enough for her to use easily.

Unlike the bow, it was painfully obvious that she had no idea how to use a sword. At all.

It was going to take more than a week or two to make her anywhere near proficient at using her new sword.

Ash felt distinctly uncomfortable. It wasn't from the staring (she was used to that), but the fact that she had been rather overwhelmed after what happened that afternoon.

She had just finished practicing with the twins with her sword and was about to take a nice hot bath to relax, when a quartet of elves spotted her and talked her into having a massage.

That would have been fine, if it wasn't for what happened after her muscles stopped cramping up.

She was thrown into a whirlwind of bathing, brushing, measuring and at the end of it all found herself in a new dress with her hair braided up and in shoes she had never worn before in her life.

"What happened to you?" asked Elladan bewildered.

"I have no idea!" said Ash, still in shock. "One minute I was agreeing to a massage since my muscles were killing me, then next thing I knew I found myself in a dress with my hair braided like this! I have no idea how to move in a dress, let alone fight!"

"Seriously?" said Elrohir.

"I've only worn a long dress like this once, and that was because I was told it was mandatory. I prefer pants," said Ash bluntly.

"Speaking of which, I've noticed your clothes are looking a bit frayed," said Elladan.

Ash looked a tad embarrassed.

"I didn't exactly have much warning when I landed here, so I only had a few spare clothes in my bag."

The twins shared a look. Then they spotted their sister, who was just as appalled that Ash only had a few changes of clothes that had seen better days. It wasn't like they couldn't spare a few outfits for her...elves had a lot of free time and some of them spent days making new clothing that was just laying around in the store room.

In no time at all, Ash had a full wardrobe...including dresses, which made her feel ridiculous because she had only worn a dress once in her life. Long skirts, she could live with, but the flowing dress she had made it hard to run or do anything.

She was happy being a tomboy, after all.