Those Who Do Not Learn

Those Who Do Not Learn

Chapter 2

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"Okay, so let me get this straight," Hermione began. "You and Professor Snape are elves and Harry is the last heir to some amazing forgotten kingdom."

"Basically." She led them into another smaller building. "And you should know his name is Elrohir. He isn't exactly the pureblood ex-Death-Eater you have always been told he is. Neither of us are what you have been told."

"Then who is he?" Harry took a seat on the ground near where she was rummaging around.

"He is the son of one of the greatest of the elf lords. Ironically, he and his brother were quiet the pranksters when they were together. Actually, I think, they could make those twins you spend time with look like amateurs."

"You're exaggerating." Elrohir stepped in the room. He had approached silently and the children jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Did you say goodbye?" she stepped back from a section of the wall and cast a small spell over it. The wall faded away to expose an alcove. Ireth reached in and pulled her bow and a quiver of arrows. He reached in around her and pulled out another set.

"Yes. Are we ready to go?" he looked toward the children.

"Were you really worse than Fred and George?" Hermione looked at him curiously.

He glared at her but soon realized in his current form he was slightly less intimidating he had been only a few moment before. "Elladan and I represented what those two...cretins would have become given many thousands of years of practice."

"Oh... So, yes then." She let a smile curl her lips

He turned on his heel and strode away.

"If he is the son of a great elf lord, what are you?" Harry looked at his former Defense teacher defiantly as he followed them.

"She," the former Potions master began, "is an elf maiden of exceptional skill and power."

"Now you're exaggerating." Ireth looked out over the land. "I believe we already missed the tide."

"Then you won't object to making one more stop?" Elrohir watched her hopefully.

"We should be ready to sail at sunrise."

"I know. But... Please, Ireth."

She started into his hopeful, pleading eyes a moment before she finally gave in.

"Fine, but we must sail when the sun rises. This land is not safe."

Each elf touched the arm of a student and Apparated.

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When they appeared again, they were in a forest. Great silver trees rose high above them blocking the sky from view. Without a word, Elrohir turned from the group and began climbing a small hill.

"Where's he going?" Harry watched him leave.

"To say goodbye." Ireth looked around the small clearing. "Would you two begin collecting branches?" She transfigured a stick into a bucket and went in the other direction.

The two students began collecting the small braches from the ground and piling them near the centre. Ireth returned a moment later with a bucket of water. "Pile them and start a fire," she instructed before turning to leave again.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked.

"To catch your dinner."

Harry and Hermione started a fire and sat quietly around it.

"Hermione, I," Harry began.

"What is it Harry?" She took a seat on the ground beside him.

"Do you ever get the feeling our lives just get stranger and stranger?"

Hermione smiled and cuddled next to him. "Yes, but you must admit, we've always had fun."

"I wish Ron was here." His voice was distant.

"Somehow, I don't think he would have been allowed to go where we're going."

"What do you mean?"

"I just get the feeling from them that I was only brought because for your sake."

"They just wanted me." He looked into the fire. "I don't understand what's happening. All of this is so strange. I was just getting used to being the boy-who-lived, now this. Wouldn't I have known if I was some sort of prince or...whatever I am?"

"Did you know you were the saviour of the magic world before you came to Hogwarts? Anyway, it doesn't matter what you are. You'll always be just Harry to me."

She pressed a small kiss to his mouth. They were unaware of the eyes watching them from the growing shadows of the forest. Ireth snapped a twig as she walked to alert them and stepped into the clearing. "I hope you like rabbit." She set the animals on the ground and took a seat to clean them.

Hermione watched her a moment before pulling out her wand and transfigured a grill and placed it over the fire. "So... um... where are we?"

"We are in the forest of Lothlorien," she answered, not looking up form her work. "This forest was once the great home of the elves." Ireth placed the meat on the grill and turned back to the students.

"Would you tell us about it?" Hermione settled in closer to the fire.

The elf leaned back and stared into the flames. "I was only here once when my people still lived in middle earth. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. It was almost perfect. The mallon trees blocked the sky with their golden leaves. Their silver trunks soaring into the sky. The great city rose high in the trees. There were elves everywhere. Many invisible in the limbs. The city itself seemed to shimmer and glow."

"You weren't from here?" Harry asked breaking his silent trance.

"No. I lived in Mirkwood."

"Was Professor Snape?"

Shw thought a moment. "Yes and no. He was from Imladris but he lived here from time to time."

"Why?"

"The Lady Galadriel was his grandmother. This was her domain."

"What was Mirkwood like?"

Ireth smiled to herself. "I don't think you would have liked Mirkwood very much."

"Why?"

"The trees grew tall and thick. Their trunks grew close together making the forest like a maze. The leaves were so thick in many places they blocked the sun completely. It had this ethereal quiet that always seemed...unnerving. From almost any direction, the forest surrounding the city was very dangerous. There were terrible monsters, wargs, giant spiders, and orcs. Hideous, dangerous creatures. Even if you survived the perils of the woodland there was no guarantee you would be welcome in the elvish city."

Hermione looked at Ireth a moment before she chose to ask her question. "Didn't you like other people?"

"We didn't really like anyone. I suppose the isolation of living in a forest so full of peril causes that."

"Your home doesn't sound very nice." Harry pushed the end and of a stick into the fire.

"No, I suppose not. But it was our home. And anyway, it wasn't always like that. There was a time, before even I was born, when Mirkwood was green and beautiful. Millennia ago. Before the destroyer came and corrupted it. Even after, there were still places that were very beautiful. In the canopy of the trees, where the sunlight filtered through he leaves. It seemed you could see forever. It was better after the second war, while it lasted."

"You talk like it's gone."

"It is. It has been for a very long time."

"That's terrible." Hermione watched her with sad eyes.

"It's life. We didn't realize men would so quickly forget the perils of the darker places. Many men died felling Mirkwood forest. It was then we realized there were places that need to be protected from the ignorance of modernization."

"Like that city and this forest?" Harry asked.

"Yes, among other places."

"Like where?"

"The Forbidden Forest, for example."

Both students gave a small shudder. "Was it always that creepy?"

"It was once much worse." Ireth moved the cooked meat from the grill to the plate Hermione was holding.

"Aren't you going to eat?" she asked.

"No," the elf answered quietly.

They sat in silence as the humans ate. Gently, at first, then slowly gaining volume a sad song began to drift down to them from the hilltop. A multitude of silent voices seemed to join the melody giving it strength.

"What is that?" Harry slipped an arm protectively around Hermione.

"It is a lament. A song of mourning to the Evenstar." She saw the veiled confusion in the young faces. "Arwen was Elrohir's sister. She was called the Evenstar. She was said to have resembled an ancient heroine of our people. She fell in love with a mortal and gave up her immortality to spend her life with him."

"What happened to her?"

"Arwen became the queen of Gondor"--she looked at Harry--"your ancestor. When the king died she came here and passed on to the next world."

"That's so sad." Hermione looked at Ireth a cross the fire. "What does the song say?"

Ireth cast her eyes up the hill toward the source of the sound. "I haven't the heart to give it words."

The small group settled back around the fire. Though she could not understand the words Hermione began to feel tears fall from her eyes at the despair that seemed to permeate the song.

As slowly and gently as it had started the sound began to fade into oblivion until the trees again stood their silent vigil.