FicWad

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, Man in the Iron Mask, or Lord of the Rings.

Warning: The chapter contains some odd, could be considered slightly lewd, humor.

"Language of Westron"

~~ ~~ ~*~

"Well he better wake soon," the voice was gruff as if it had been drawn from the Earth itself though Sirius could not understand the language the words were spoken in, "we've no idea where to go without him."

"Taran said that the effects would wear off once he had been away from the Island for a bit," the quieter voice belonged to his godson, Sirius was sure of it, "it shouldn't be too much longer."

"We run risk of discovery here," the third voice held a similar cadence to Harry's as if they more frequently spoke a similar language that the first one did not, "we do not know this world and cannot afford to tarry long in the open until we understand it more. I would feel more comfortable walking into a den of Uruks or even Mordor itself than to see another of those moving metal things heading right for us."

"I think it was a lorry, a metal carriage that runs without horses," the musing voice was Harry's, "but it has been so long that I cannot be sure. I should have known better than to scout so close to the road, Adar would scold me for sure. Amin hiraetha." (I'm sorry.)

"It is not your fault," Sirius managed to open his eyes enough to see the blonde man, Legolas, put a familiar arm around Harry's shoulders as he spoke, "you were a child when you came to us and embraced our world, we do not expect you to know any more than we do about this forsaken place."

"Though it would be nice," grumbled Gimli, earning himself a sharp but obviously friendly blow to the back of his head from Legolas.

"Fo-" Gimli started to say some crude curse, but Harry silenced him and looked Sirius directly in the eye.

"You're awake," his voice was calm and even, the language finally one Sirius understood, but Sirius knew he still had a ways to go with his godson, "can you take us to this safe place?"

"Harry," Sirius found his voice still painful to use, "I-"

"Eldarion." Harry, cut him off, "my name is Eldarion. Please use it."

Sirius felt pain stab him in the chest, but it wasn't a physical pain. Somehow though he managed to nod his head in agreement, he wouldn't allow something stupid like a different name or the fact that his godson was treating him like a stranger ruin the chance he had been given to make amends.

~~ ~~ ~*~

"I don't see anything," Legolas spoke, "not even my Elven eyes can make something appear where it is not."

Sirius lowered his hand from where he had been pointing at his ancestral home, Number 12 Grimmauld Place, and sent a puzzled look towards his three companions who were skulking in the night shadows while keeping on wary alert. The way the Dwarf was gripping his axe, Sirius didn't want to know what would happen if someone walked by and spotted them.

"What's wrong?" Sirius directed his question to Eldarion, waiting for a translation; it had frustrated the animagus to no end to discover that he could no longer understand the other two now that they were away from the reach of the Dementor's mental magic.

"They do not see whatever it is that you are trying to point at. I see something," Eldarion answered softly after a moment, "but it wavers, it's indistinct."

"Damn," Sirius slapped himself on the head, "the wards! They keep people who don't know the house is there from seeing it. H-Eldarion, you can probably see it a bit because you're my godson or because you have a Seeing Ability that hasn't fully developed...I'm not sure which."

"Hrekin," Gimli spat the curse out like a foul taste after Eldarion translated Sirius' explanation, "what good does a safe house we can't see do us! The human's turning out to be more than useless."

Sirius glared at Gimli, knowing something had been said against him even if he didn't know the exact words. He knew Legolas and Eldarion weren't sure whether to trust him or not, they were with him only out of necessity at that moment and he could sort of understand that, but at least those two were being distantly polite compared to what he saw as the Dwarf's open antagonism towards him.

"If you would give me a moment, I can fix this," Sirius was starting to get peevish; he was still far from healed from his stint in Azkaban, "but you'll have to be touching me for it to work."

Gimli went to grumble again when told this, but Eldarion held up a silencing hand and walked forward to lay a hand lightly on Sirius' shoulder without getting too close otherwise, "do not start Gimli, we are all tired and we need to get into shelter. We have to trust him on this one."

Muttering imprecations under his breath Gimli reluctantly moved to stand beside Legolas and Eldarion, roughly gripping Sirius arm in an attempt to try and start another conflict. For Eldarion's sake, Sirius managed to summon his nearly non-existent willpower and didn't rise to the bait.

"I, Sirius Orion Black, heir to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, demand entry for myself and my companions!"

A reluctant pop sounded softly in the night and before the trio's very eyes Number 12 Grimmauld place came into view. Appearing thin and tall at first, the house quickly began to grow and move until the two houses on either side of it were forced to move as well or be consumed by the foreboding place that was claiming dominance on the space they had been residing on.

"Ed' i'Valar," Legolas breathed as the dark atmosphere washed over them all. (By the Valar.)

Surreptitiously Eldarion wove his arm through the crook of Legolas' own arm, both of them had faced Darkness in their lives but it didn't mean it was their choice to willingly stay in a place reeking of it as this house did. Glancing at one another to alleviate the slight discomfort they were already feeling, Legolas and Eldarion followed Sirius into the house with Gimli bringing up the rear; neither Elf expected this to be an easy place for them to stay at, but it was a vast improvement over the aura of death and insanity that had permeated the Island of Azkaban. At least so they thought until a painting of a sour-looking old lady starting screaming at them the moment they set foot into the house.

"TRAITOR!" She screamed, "BLOOD TRAITOR! FILTH! I'M ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY SON! YOU DARE-"

With a muttered epitaph, Sirius struggled with a pair of curtains that hung to either side of the portrait frame, applying all the strength he could muster with his gaunt and wasted body to no avail. It was as if some force was resisting his efforts.

"-SET FOOT IN THIS HOUSE WITH THOSE FREAKS BEHIND YOU!"

The curtains suddenly snapped shut so that Legolas and Eldarion, even with their superior hearing, could barely make out even the faintest sound of muffled curses still emitting from behind the curtains; to the other two the foyer was filled with blessed silence. Once certain that the curtains weren't about to spring back open again and assault his ears once again with the high, screeching tones, Eldarion stepped back away from where he had stood beside Sirius to help close the curtains.

"Thanks," Sirius panted, "I don't think I could have closed them by myself. Sorry about that, I didn't know it was there. I'm not surprised though; my mother was a domineering old bat and liked to know everything that was going on in her house."

Eldarion merely nodded and waited for Sirius to continue, not bothering to translate for once, none of them seemed to know what to say or do after what had just happened.

"Errr...right," Sirius seemed to realize he had come close to rambling, "I guess we should see how the house is set up after all these years. The kitchen would be best to start with; it was always the safest and most normal place in the house when I used to live here. Just be careful of Kreacher if you run across him, I doubt the little nut-bag's been kind enough to croak yet."

Exchanging glances with the other two as he translated, earning puzzled looks when he mentioned the creature that was a bag of nuts, Eldarion motioned for the other two to follow Sirius down the hall. Eldarion, Legolas, and Gimili were all wondering what that last comment had meant and dreaded that they were about to find out. The three travelers from Middle-Earth were already feeling unbalanced given that they had just seen a moving portrait, and not only that, but it had seemed aware of what was going on around it and had screamed at them. Add that on top of a house that had seemingly appeared from nowhere plus the large metal objects that moved quickly on their own, and they weren't sure how much more they would be able to handle-they certainly didn't want to run across this bag-of-nuts-creature. It was becoming apparent that in this world their skill in battle would mean nothing, their weapons next to useless, and that was something that did not sit well with the warriors.

The sight of the gloomy old kitchen did nothing to alleviate their worries either. Dust hung thick in air that had not seen sunlight in sometime, the dark corners of the room excellent hiding places for anything that might decide to attack. Instinctively Gimli hefted his axe a bit higher, Legolas' fingers were ready to go for bow or knife at a moments notice, and Eldarion's hand settled a bit more firmly upon Andúril's hilt.

"Kreacher," Sirius glared around the dirty kitchen, "I know you're in here you little beast. Come out now!"

"Won't do it," the yell was muffled and barely audible, but it was enough to give Sirius a direction, "won't serve Missus' bad son!"

Stomping over to the huge cast iron stove, Sirius leaned around it and peered futilely into the hole there before growling and shoving his hand inside. After a bit of a scrabble and some inventive mutterings, Sirius emerged grasping a struggling bundle. His victory was short lived though as the bundle reared back and bit him.

"SON OF A-" Sirius lost his grip on the wriggling thing, grabbed it again, and then quickly shoved it towards Gimli.

Surprised, Gimli grasped what appeared to be a withered foot and held it out as far as his own short arms would allow, poking at his new burden with the tip of his axe.

"This creature doesn't look like a bag of nuts," Gimli commented to Eldarion and Legolas in a puzzled voice as he poked it again, this time earning himself a squeal.

Still unsure as to what he held, Gimli shook the thing around a bit before pulling it close and sniffing at it. Immediately after sniffing it he snorted in disgust and dropped the creature to the floor, allowing Eldarion to get a good enough look at it to realize what it was.

"It stinks," Gimli said in explanation to his actions as the creature scurried back into its hole.

Legolas was never one to pass up the opportunity and gave a decidedly Elvish smirk as he proceeded to tease his friend unmercifully, only the tone of his voice taking the sting out of what others would see as hurtful words, "are you sure you just weren't smelling your own stench, after all, you dwarves tend not to bathe often. Perhaps that bag-of-nuts creature is kindred to you, it does seem to like dark and smelly caves as do you."

"Why I-" Gimli growled, relishing the chance to get into another argument with his Elvish friend.

Eldarion on the other hand wasn't going to stand by and listen as the two started another round of seeing who could insult the other the worse, so he interrupted their bickering with the most innocent expression he could manage, "perhaps his nuts rotted."

Immediately Gimli shut up as both he and Legolas turned just in time to see the wicked light dance through Eldarion's eyes, belying his innocent expression. Only Sirius, who didn't understand what they were saying, was confused as to why the two had suddenly shut up to stare at the innocent-looking Eldarion.

"I know you didn't get that from your father," Legolas finally managed to choke out through his surprise at hearing his love make such a lewd comment so innocently; even after all the time they had spent together Eldarion always seemed to find some way to surprise him.

"Don't look at me," Gimli quickly defended his honor before it could even come into question, "I taught him a lot, but not to insult someone's pride bits."

Eldarion smiled, truly enjoying himself for the first time since they came to Earth, "I learned that from Naneth one day when the twins pranked her, but she mentioned rotting theirs herself."

In typical male sympathy, Legolas and Gimli winced and pulled their legs tighter together, sharing glances to remind themselves never to piss Eldarion off given who his various teachers had been. Sirius just stared at them all, at a loss.



Eldarion looked in askance at the large pot Sirius seemed to randomly be throwing things into. The pot, Eldarion thought he had heard Sirius call it a potion's cauldron, had been drug into the kitchen by the unwilling Kreacher. In truth, Kreacher hadn't been willing to do it at all until Legolas had commanded the house-elf as well. In the week that they had spent in the safe house, Eldarion had come to notice that Kreacher seemed enamored of Legolas and was willing to do anything for the blond elf simply because he was an elf.

"And this is supposed to let them learn the language of English?" Sirius could hear the doubt in Eldarion's voice.

"Yes," it was sometimes difficult for Sirius to remember that Eldarion didn't really trust him and so would question what he was doing, "it's a potion that has been passed down through my family for generations. It's a combination of Jabberknoll brains and Myna tongues to help the person actually learn the language, Japonica berries and Coriander to stabilize the mixture and aid in remembrance, and then the actual memory itself which is added by blood. It's a fairly simple potion, but because of the blood addition it's considered a Dark Potion and therefore banned by the Ministry."

Eldarion seemed to go distant for a moment before his eyes focused again, "Taran would like me to remind you that should you end up back in Azkaban that he will take great pleasure in sucking your soul out bit by bit."

Sirius jerked in shock and almost dropped the Jabberknoll brains in before the potion had turned violet. "He can speak to you!? He knows what's going on here?"

Eldarion shrugged, "not really, not unless I open myself up to him since I'm out of the prison compound. I was asking him what he knew about potions such as this. I vaguely remembered reading books on potions in Azkaban and I always discussed such things with Taran."

"Oh," Sirius seemed to be at a loss before he changed the topic, "so you know something of magic?"

Eldarion puzzled over this question, he saw no harm in answering it but wasn't quite sure how to go about it. The magic of the two worlds, Earth and Middle-Earth, had some similarities even while they were vastly different. There was also the Elven Healing Craft that he had learned from his /daer-adar/-he wasn't sure he'd ever be able to explain that to someone who hadn't been introduced to it by a Master or hadn't witnessed it firsthand. Deciding not to complicate things, Eldarion settled for the simplest version he could think of that would answer Sirius' question. /(grandfather)/.

"I am an Istari at home, but our magic is much different from what is used here. I also spent much of my time in Hogwarts and then in Azkaban reading spellbooks so I do know some of this world's theoretical magic. I am not sure of my ability to cast such spells though."

"I can teach you what you need to know," Sirius offered, "we'll have to get you a wand, but I don't think it's wise to go to Diagon Alley for one-it'll have to be Knockturn Alley. Until we can get there I'm sure we can find one you might be able to use in the cache upstairs. That's where I found the one I've been using, my family was always full of paranoid bastards."

Any further conversation and possible get-to-know-you bonding that might have occurred was interrupted by a very dusty dwarf and a ruffled-looking elf entering the room, Gimli attempting to curse even as he coughed dust out of his lungs. Eldarion looked at his two companions in worry.

"What have you been doing?"

"Cleaning." Gimli growled unhappily.

"Why? What about Kreacher?" Eldarion was now puzzled instead of worried, wondering why his friends had been cleaning when Kreacher had actually been doing the job pretty decently under Legolas' direction.

Gimli and Legolas shared a look before Legolas sighed and moved to put his arm around Eldarion's shoulder, switching instinctively to Elvish, "ro avarite poikalle sambe." (He refused to clean your room.)

Eldarion sighed and nodded his understanding as he glimpsed the house-elf in question out of the corner of his eye, eavesdropping upon them. He had noticed Kreacher's animosity towards him, but hadn't taken much stock in it at first. Now he realized it was different than the hatred and loathing Kreacher held for Sirius or even the grudging tolerance Gimli had earned after kicking the house-elf around a few times to show it he was bigger. Kreacher despised him and given the house-elf's current reaction to how Legolas was standing, Eldarion had an idea why-Kreacher didn't think he was good enough for Legolas.

"I'sambe naa n'quel," Legolas continued, "alye'kaima." (The room is no good, we sleep together.)

Nervously Eldarion tucked a long strand of his unbound hair behind his ear, for the first time giving both Kreacher and Sirius a good look at the pointed appendage, "nan'-" (but-)

A loud pop and the shattering of glass interrupted anything else Eldarion would have said, jerking his head up to find Sirius had dropped a glass vial he had been about to fill with the potion. Confused Eldarion looked behind him in an attempt to see what had startled Sirius so, hand going to the knife at his waist-he had found it useful for stabbing at quite a number of the disgusting little creatures scurrying around the house, but he saw nothing. It wasn't until Sirius gained his voice again that he realized he was the source of the consternation, or rather the shape of his ear was.

"Your ear!" Sirius burst out, "it's pointed!"

"So is the other one," Eldarion retorted in the face of Sirius' indecorous reaction to his blood-rite heritage, "all Elves have ears like this."

"B-but, you're not an Elf! You're human!"

Eldarion took a deep breath, knowing that anger on his part wouldn't help matters any, but it was difficult given that the subject was one that he held so dear to his heart. "I am not human, at least not completely. I was raised foremost to be an Elf and it is a gift I cherish highly. The blood of the Valar, of the Elves, runs just as deeply within me as any human blood. In the eyes of my people and the humans of my land I am Elf-kind, and so I shall be in this world as well. I just hope you can accept that Sirius, that you can accept that I am not just the child of Lily and James that you expect and want me to be."

Sirius hung his head, "I know that, I'm trying to understand that, but how can I when you won't really tell me anything about yourself."

"Melamin?" Legolas' soft question kept Eldarion from responding, the Elf looking worriedly between him and Sirius; Legolas might not have understood the words passing between them but he could decipher the tones carried through their voices. (My love.)

"Uuma dela, Legolas, ta naa tereva." Eldarion smiled up at his protective soul-mate, before turning to face Sirius, "if that potion is ready, give it to them. I guess it is time we trust you enough to speak of ourselves and it will be much easier if we can all understand a common tongue." (Don't worry, it is fine.)

Sirius nodded and resumed measuring out the doses of the completed potion, cautioning Eldarion to warn his companions that they would wind up with severe headaches after taking it. Legolas and Gimli both complained at this warning, but were committed to their course of action and downed their potions simultaneously. Immediately their faces screwed up and Eldarion instinctively moved out of the way incase they decided to spit the potions back out, but somehow the two managed to keep the disgusting concoction down.

"That tasted worse then Eowyn's cooking," Legolas gagged once his mouth was empty, "and that is saying something. I did not think anything could be worse than her meals."

Gimli was glaring suspiciously at the vial, "better not have been poison."

"Taran assured me that it should be safe," Eldarion was watching them closely, "how do you feel?"

"A bit unsteady," Legolas' creamy complexion had gone suddenly pale and Eldarion had just enough time to slip his arms around the Elf's waist to catch him as he blacked out; Gimli thudding heavily to the floor a moment later when he tried to move too quickly to help his friends.

~~ ~~ ~*~

Legolas woke to the pleasant feel of nimble fingers carding expertly through his hair and despite being disoriented, he found himself relaxing. Like all Elves Legolas loved having his hair played with by someone who was emotionally close to him.

"How do you feel?" Eldarion's voice was low, fingers not stopping their ministrations even though Legolas was now awake.

"Mmmmh," Legolas sighed contentedly, "I'll be fine as long as you don't stop that. What exactly happened?"

Eldarion smiled and shifted his hand slightly so that one finger brushed across Legolas' ear, causing the elf to shiver slightly.

"Both you and Gimli blacked out after taking the potion. It worked, you've been speaking in English with me since you woke up, but apparently the combination of ingredients reacts badly with non-human physiology. Sirius' explanation-he is currently hiding from my wrath somewhere in this house."

Legolas frowned slightly, "I didn't notice until you mentioned it, but I have been using English. Am I stuck speaking it all the time?"

"No, a'maelamin," Eldarion moved so that he was curled up next to Legolas on the bed, "you need only speak it when you wish to." (My beloved.)

"Quel," Legolas murmured as he pulled Eldarion closer, happy to find himself easily speaking in his birth tongue despite the weird magic gifting him with the ability to speak English, "ta naa il'vanima vee'Sindarin." (Good, it is not as beautiful as Sindarin.)