The Life and Times of a Girl Named Blaise Zabini

Chapter 3

Notation: [...] means the words are being spoken in Elvish

*************************

Blaise stared blankly up at her bed's canopy, still garbed in the black dress she had mechanically donned for the funeral just an hour ago.

When had her life become so complicated?

When her grandfather, her beloved "Granda," had quietly told her the biggest secret she had heard yet to date.

It only classified as that because, with the other secrets she had been told, she at had known, in part, or at least suspected, the truth.

This one blew her away, stripping away almost everything she had thought she had known about, not only her family, but also herself.

Dallandra Zabini, daughter of Legolas Thranduilion, hadn't been her mother. That had shocked and surprised her, because, with the exception of hair and color, where she was a brown-eyed brunette and Dalla had been a stereotypical gray-eyed blond elven beauty, they looked too much alike to be anything but related.

Her main consolation was that she wasn't related in the slightest to Lorenzo Zabini, and she'd gone into a little impromptu goofy Dance of Victorious Joy.

Then Granda had laid the big one on her.

Dalla had been her *sister*.

Which meant that Granda wasn't her grandfather, but rather her *father*.

While she'd been trying desperately to twist her brain around *that* little revelation, Legolas proceeded to explain how things had gotten to this point.

It had all started over a hundred years ago.

A hundred and *sixteen* years ago, to be a tad more specific...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well, you see, Blaise," Legolas started, his face composed even as his anxiety manifested itself in his hands fidgeting, absent-mindedly playing with the bits of yarn that stood up from the surface of the quilt on the girl's bed. He wasn't quite certain how to proceed with this, even though he had been preparing for it since Blaise had been born. He also didn't know how she would take the news. "Umm..."

"Your grasp of the English language astounds me."

Legolas looked at her sharply, eyes narrowed, then relaxed, taking a calming breath before starting again.

"Your mother was a young lady whom I'd presumed was human. She introduced herself as Teleute, and we were in a small country pub, she for reasons unknown at the time, I observing the anniversary of my wife leaving me for Valinor," Here he winced, and Blaise reached out a comforting hand to him, which he took, giving a light squeeze of thanks before continuing. "In any case, she drew me 'out of my shell,' so to speak, and we got to talking about life, and the things people take for granted. Eventually, we got far too drunk for our own good, which rather surprised me that she lasted as long as she did, being of such slight build, but I had been drinking for several hours long ere she introduced herself."

Legolas looked away, staring blankly out the window. "Needless to say, it's rather obvious what happened after that. The next morning she was gone, with not even so much as a note.

"That was over a century ago."

Blaise looked confused. "But, Granda...I mean, Father, I mean, Atar, I mean... Oh, heck with it; Da, if that happened over a century ago, how could I have been born when I was? At least, and be the product of...THAT..."

Legolas sighed, then turned to her, his blue eyes locking onto her dark brown, almost black, ones. "You aren't human, Blaise. Not one drop of human blood flows in your veins."

Now Blaise was just plain confused. "So my mother was an Elf? Wouldn't you have been able to tell?"

Her father shook his head, then explained, "No, she wasn't an Elf. And, though she had a mortal form that night, and the day you were born as well, for that matter, your mother wasn't mortal. I would go so far as to say she can't even be classified as *immortal*. Her kind, her /family/, really, are known as the Endless.

"Your mother is Death, Blaise.

"Apparently, once each century Death takes on mortal form for a single day, in order to better understand those who pass into her care."

The Prince of Mirkwood and Lord of Ithilien gave his youngest child a few moments to recover before continuing his narrative. "As far as either of us could divine, with your sister's help, you were conceived that night all those years ago, and born as soon as Death again had a mortal form to use to give you life, for Death cannot create, only offer rest before renewal and rebirth.

"Essentially, your gestation period, in chronological terms, was a century, though in mortal terms it was but a day."

Blaise's eyebrow was twitching furiously at this point as her mind tried to reconcile this information. Finally she got it toned down, took a deep breath, and asked, "So, how did I end up being known as Blaise Zabini, instead of something more Elven?"

Legolas nodded and said, "Blaise Zabini did exist. If you were to go to the burial ground in the forest, you would find her grave among your sister's other deceased children.

"Death brought you to me a few hours after your birth and begged me to take care of you. Her time in mortal form was almost spent, and she couldn't well take care of you in her normal form. So I accepted you, and promised to keep you safe.

"Unfortunately, as things happen, my disguise was, at that time, far too old to be considered your father- not without far too many difficult questions -and far too young to fake my death, set up a new identity, and not be recognized by those of my associates not 'in the loop,' so to speak.

"And then, Blaise died being born, strangled by the umbilical chord.

"This provided a perfect opportunity, for all we had to do was keep the death of your sister's daughter, your niece, quiet, as well as handle legal issues with some trustworthy associates, and you smoothly took her place, with Lorenzo," Here he gained a look of disgust at the thought of his ex-son-in-law, "None the wiser, for you /do/ look a great deal like Dallandra. And, of course, what grandfather wouldn't be protective of his only granddaughter?"

Blaise slowly nodded, her logic centers now having the information needed to make sense of the situation. She then raised her hand, as if in school.

"Question? What's my real name, then?"

Legolas smiled, and answered, "Elessario, after a brave Elven healer who fought bravely at the battle of Helm's Deep." He then frowned. "I never spoke with her myself, but Galadriel told me a great deal about her, once the War of the Ring was over and done with."

"What happened to her?"

Her father shrugged elegantly, "I do not know. Galadriel merely said that she returned to her home, and that Middle Earth never saw her again.

"She was an Elf of Mirkwood, I've been told as much, but I never met her in my youth, so she might have been a reclusive wanderer. It is most likely that she went on to Valinor after the battle."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He'd gone on to tell her that her mother was planning on stopping by to meet her within the next week or so, and that she would eventually meet the rest of her mother's family, the Endless.

Draco and his mother had shown up at the funeral. Narcissa Malfoy had given a rather touching speech about Dalla, and Draco had just held her as she cried, mourning the passing of the only mother she had ever known, as well as the sister she'd never have a chance to meet.

Lorenzo Zabini was a dead man once she caught up to him!

Hate him, hate him, hate him...! *mutinous grumbling...*

She was drawn away from her plotting of the death of her erstwhile ex-brother- in-law (much better than if he was her father; this way she could disown him!) when she felt a familiar otherworldly presence. She opened one tear-reddened eye, then waved half-heartedly at the ghostly figure.

"Hallo, Haldir. Sorry if I don't get up, but I've had a really lousy week."

*************************

Author's Notes: Yes, I have developed a taste for the dreaded Cliffhanger of *DOOM*!!!

=^^;=

If you want to know what the heck Haldir of Lothlorien is doing in our beloved half-elf's room (No, they're not going to do anything inappropriate! GET YOUR MINDS OUTTA THE GUTTER!!!), you're going to have to stick with this story for a little while longer.

Acknowledgments: Hi everybody!

All I really have to say is that I'd like to thank the people who've taken the time to review this story so far. Unfortunately, as I write this, the first two chapters haven't gone up on Fiction Alley, so these are just for the people who've reviewed on FF. net and MediaMiner.org. Hopefully I'll have reviews from Fiction Alley, and maybe some other places, too, before I post the next chapter.

Anyway, here it goes:

Dingzhe no Megami- Dingzhe-san, there's one thing you should know about me: I don't fear your wrath. I only fear dying, heights, and my mother, and not necessarily in that order. But thanks for reviewing anyway!

Dhiana- I'm glad you find my story fascinating, and I'm doing my best to get it written as quickly and as well as I can. I don't want to cut corners with this one, since this is my current baby among my projects. Even though I'm also working on my other stories in progress.

TASAKAPEOTKAUU- My one and only Media Miner reviewer! You currently hold the record for the longest review! And, yes, quite frankly, I can't picture Legolas as an old man either. That's what Elven Glamourie magic is for! =~_^= Sorry, as mentioned in chapter one, Blaise is out for kicking Voldemort's "arse" (can I just say I absolutely /adore/ some British pronunciations? Makes it sound silly and not-curse-wordy) in and of itself. She thinks he's a murdering butt- head with an over-inflated ego, and let's not forget that she thinks Harry's got far too much fame as it is. She's out to do what's right, and she'd probably sooner "kiss a Wookie" than be famous. Remember, the thing that's kept her family alive for ten thousand years is keeping themselves as far out of the spotlight as they can, and she really doesn't want to have wizards poking, prodding and dissecting her to find out how the heck an immortal Elf works. Dumbledore has a lot of clout, but, as all of us sci-fi fans know, when a government is convinced that something is threatening it, nothing's going to stop them from keeping it away.

Anyway, thanks again for sticking with this, and please tell me what you think of all this. My e-mail is [email protected]

-- Rosy the Cat 1-17-03

Revision Notes: Revised for future content and terminology.

5-5-04

Chapter 4

Notation: [...] means the words are being spoken in Elvish

*************************

"Hallo, Haldir. Sorry if I don't get up, but I've had a really lousy week."

Haldir of Lothlorien frowned, bending slightly so as to get a better look at the half-elven girl's face.

"What has troubled you so, Blaise? I could feel your distress even unto the far reaches of the Astral Plane that circumstances have forced me to make into my home."

Blaise grunted slightly as she sat up on the bed, wiping tiredly at the tears in her eyes and on her face. "What has been bothering me?" She raised an eyebrow at her spectral friend, letting out a self-depreciating laugh, "More like what *hasn't* been bothering me, Hal."

Haldir moved so as to appear to be standing in front of her, then crouched down so that their eyes would be level. He didn't say anything, just offered his comforting presence, the two of them having learned long since that they couldn't touch one another, no matter how much it pained him to see his young friend so sad, so alone.

She sniffled a bit more, then told him what had happened since his last visit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let's take a time-out and let me, the author, explain to you, the reader, just exactly all of the hows and whys towards Haldir's presence in this story while the two of them re-hash information we already know.

You see, around the same time Blaise had started trying to make her "invisible ink," in other words her first year at Hogwarts, she had also been searching for any information on elves she could find in the school library, with the intention of finding any and all information that would lead her to a method for finding the Undying Lands.

Not for herself necessarily, of course, but more for the purpose of giving Legolas and Dallandra a way to rejoin the rest of the family. Blaise hoped, naturally, that her half-elven blood would be more than enough for her to join them there, although she was planning on staying for a while before heading off into the (for her) unknown. She was born and raised in this age, and she liked it, darnit!

Ahem.

Well, to make a long story short...er, she didn't find anything pertaining to that particular subject, or even much on Elves, which she supposed made sense, considering how hard Legolas and Dallandra had worked to keep themselves secret from the majority of the world. But, even so, she did find something of interest that she felt might lead to finding the Undying Lands.

Ethric and Astral travel.

Essentially, the person in question created an ethric shell of a body to contain their soul/spirit/whatever, and created a link between their body, and the Body of Light, as it were. From there the person could move to the Ethric plane and scry, looking for people or places or things based on auras and the suchlike. Also from the Ethric, one could access the Astral plane, which was deeper into the structure of Reality, and a bit more dangerous.

It was after three months of trying to figure out creating the Body of Light, as well as the transfer over, and approximately a week after that that Blaise stumbled upon an entrance to the Astral plane. And Haldir.

Apparently, when he had died at Helms Deep (meaning that the movie was correct and the book was not, in this case), instead of his soul going straight to the Undying Lands, as it should have, it somehow became trapped on the Astral, unable to go forward, and kept (somehow) from going back. Blaise couldn't figure out how to un-block his path to the Undying Lands, but she did manage to shred the...whatever it was...keeping him from leaving the Astral with bolts of Light and willpower, which she had read about while figuring out how to make a Body of Light.

Since then, Haldir would make semi-regular visits to Blaise in a ghostly form, although he seemed, to Blaise at least, to have more *oomph* to him then any ghosts she had met before and since, answering almost any questions she asked him as they both worked on trying to find a way to reach the Undying Lands, a ssuming that any way found that would work for Hal, would, with some tweaking, work for Legolas, Dallandra, and Blaise, and vice versa.

Hal also went to an effort to expand Blaise's Elven vocabulary, as well as teaching her what had been the Common Tongue in his time. Blaise, in turn, taught him English, and pretty much whatever bits of other modern languages she knew or learned.

Blaise never could get him to tell her just *why* he was so insistent that she learn Westron...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...So, that's essentially what's happened since the last time you visited."

Haldir suspected that, were he alive right then, his jaw would be dangerously close to becoming unhinged.

It was one thing to know that his young friend was descended from his old friend Legolas (Blaise introduced herself to him the first time they met on the Astral as "Blaise, Granddaughter of Legolas Thranduilion" because, well, she thought 'Hmm, Elven spirit-thingie, use Granda's name; maybe he, she, or it knows/knew of him...'), but it was completely different to find out that she was Legolas' daughter!

And that wasn't even taking in account her real name...

After one last sniffle to clear up her nose, Blaise looked up at the older, tactually-challenged Elf, stared for a moment, and erupted into a severe case of the giggles.

Haldir looked at her pointedly, raised an eyebrow, and cocked his head to one side in a purely Haldir sort of way, as if to ask what she found so amusing. This, of course, simply resulted in Blaise taking another good look at him, and the giggles turning into full-blown hysterical cackling.

Finally Haldir could not take it any more and said, "Is there something particularly amusing about me today, or have you snapped under the stress, Your Highness?"

That broke her out of her laughter, though there was a great deal of amusement and good humor still sparkling in her dark eyes as she dignifiedly stated, "That's 'Your Extremely Kooky Highness-Ness' to you, mister!"

At this, both broke down laughing, that particular title being a little in-joke that had developed between them over the past few years.

Finally, Blaise reigned her mirth back in as best as she could, and continued with, "I'm sorry about all the laughing and such, but you didn't see the look on your face! You looked like someone had just told you that Cele... No, wait, that wouldn't work... That Galadriel was a Drag Queen!" She grinned and nodded when he gave her a most incredulous look. (Let's just say Blaise had told him many of the weirder aspects of modern Human culture along with the not-so-weird over the past few years...)

"...Galadriel as a Drag Queen?"

Blaise shrugged and said, "I couldn't think of anything else that could be much more shocking that wouldn't be affected by any cultural gaps."

Haldir simply shook his head and said in a tone of dry amusement, "You are a singular, unique and utterly strange girl, Elessario of Mirkwood."

Blaise perked up and said, "Ooh, idea! I could use that as my pen name if I ever put my Anime fan fiction up on the Internet, and I'd be technically u sing my real name, only people would just assume that it isn't and that I'm a rabid Legolas fangirl, which I am, only I don't go around lusting after him, because, eww, my father, and I get to hug him almost whenever I want, and no other Legolas fangirl can say that, and I'm babbling again, aren't I?"

Haldir merely smiled and said, "Yes, but I find that to be one of your more endearing faults."

"Eh?"

The full-blooded elf opened his mouth to explain himself, but was interrupted by the bedroom door opening, letting in the distant sound of chattering mourners, a.k.a. "funeral guests," from downstairs. What really stopped the two friends in their figurative tracks was the looming form of Legolas, sans Glamour, standing in the doorway.

He did not look amused.

"I assume that there is an explanation for why you are in my daughter's room, Haldir. Not to mention how it is that you are here, when I remember you dying quite a long time ago, and thus should be in Valinor."

*************************

Author's Notes: Ooh, another cliffhanger! I really do seem to have gotten addicted to these suckers...

I finally bullied myself into finishing this darn chapter. The thing is, I know where I want to take this story; it's the stuff in between all of the major action, like the explanations for stuff that happened before the story took place, that stops me in my tracks.

That and not-so-good old-fashioned Writer's Block, for when I'm trying to figure out how best to put my next idea... CURSE YOU, WRITER'S BLOCK!!! It's even worse then Toey, the First Ring, which curses us poor writers with Typo Demons.

Don't worry if you don't get the reference; you'd have to have read about OFUM, or The Official Fanfiction University of Middle-earth, first. I've already sent in my application for the new school year! Woot! Soon-to-be- licensed ficcie-writer here! Here's the address for the story, those of you who are interested: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.hp?storyid=644826

Thanks:

My loyal (and loony) reviewers at FF.net-

muggle: Thank you! I'm glad you like the crossover!

kurleyhawk2: I'm on to you, mister/miss/miz thang! Being all cheating and reviewing anonymously so you can review the chapter more than once! ...I can't believe you're really that impatient for me to write some more! Anyhoo, I'm glad you like it.

And over at Fiction Alley-

andrea116_1976: Yes, I find myself rather amused by Blaise's hatred of the Sorting Hat myself. I'm already planning on her Revenge on the Hat.

Lady Velvet: *jumps up and down excitedly too!* YAY! I'm glad you like Blaise s a girl! I hope this chapter had plenty more funny and neat stuff you will like, too.

FEEL da POWWA of da FIC!!!

=^^;=

Ahem.

Kuroneko Kashikoi: Yup, as far as Slytherins come, Blaise Zabini nee Elessario is about as abnormal as they come. Wait 'till you see her, Lina (ya know, her muggle best friend that was mentioned in, like, chapter two?) and Draco debating nonsensical things in a very fanboy/fangirl fashion.

Yup, I've made Draco a LotR fan.

Tremble in my cannon-rendering I-don't-give-a-hoot-ness! =^-^;=

Revision Notes: Minor changes of content. 5-6-04

-- Rosy the Cat