Enchantment (31/50)
Title: Enchantment
Genre: Lotrps AU/Harry Potter future!fic crossover
Pairing: Domlijah
Summary: Dom becomes a teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and finds himself strangely attracted to Elijah, one of the Gryffindor seventh-years.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Like I said, AU and crossover. Also it's HP so, obviously, supernatural stuff.
Disclaimer: The wonderful HP world is created by JK Rowling who is not me, and the LOTR boys do not belong to me, both facts which I obviously regret but are nevertheless true. Sniff.
Feedback: Makes me prostrate myself at your feet and grovel pathetically.
Author's notes: Despite technical difficulties with Yahoo, and with the help of my enchanting (heh) beta pinkegogirl, I can now present to you the next chapter of what is turning out to be an epic. Mind, the end is in sight, at least for me. I finally nailed down (more or less) how many chapters are left. Mind you, it will probably still change anyway. ;)
Chapter 31
When Elijah woke up some time later, the first thing he realised was that Dom was no longer beside him in the bed.
Alarmed, he sat up, but relaxed when he saw the Changeling sitting by the dying embers of the fire, stirring the completely forgotten pot of stew. Feeling his gaze, Dom turned and smiled, holding up the wooden spoon. “Lucky we didn’t burn the bloody place to the ground. C’mere, it’s still good.”
Elijah slipped out from between the furs, shivering with the sudden cold air on his naked skin, pulled his warm winter cloak around himself, and joined Dom on the bench by the cooking pit.
“What time is it?” he asked, accepting a second spoon and digging in hungrily.
“Half four,” said Dom with his mouth full. “Dawn is not far off. You’d best be getting back soon, or you’ll be missed.”
“Yeah, I know,” Elijah sighed, leaning into his lover’s side. “God, I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” And when Dom looked at him questioningly: “I want to stay with you, wake up beside you, have breakfast with you and watch the sunrise together. You know, all the lovey-dovey shit that comes with the package. I don’t want to sneak around lying to everybody; I want to tell the world what you mean to me. You know?”
Dom’s smile was sad as he touched his lover’s face tenderly. “I don’t like it any more than you do, love. For my part, I want to brag about how fantastic you are to everyone who wants to listen, and introduce you to my family, and gross Billy out with stories about what we get up to between the sheets. But it has to wait.”
Elijah nodded, taking another bite of stew and chewing thoughtfully. He still had the gnawing feeling of something unpleasant hanging over their heads.
***
After they had both eaten and dressed, Dom stepped outside into the icy early morning air, and putting both hands to his mouth emitted an odd sort of sound between a neigh and a shout. Almost immediately, there came the sound of hooves, and soon Karl came walking out of the shadows on the edge of the clearing.
Arriving at the door, he inclined his head gracefully. “Good morning, Changeling. Good morning to you, young one.”
“Hi,” said Elijah uneasily. The penetrating look of the centaur still unsettled him somewhat.
“Would you be so kind to escort Elijah to the edge of the Forest?” Dom asked Karl.
“Of course,” said the centaur. “Come along, young master.”
“Aren’t you coming?” asked Elijah, unwilling to part with Dom again so soon, reluctant to go hiking back to the castle without him, and with an armed and intimidating centaur for company.
“I’ll be a bit later,” replied Dom. “It wouldn’t do for the two of us to arrive in the Entrance Hall together at five in the morning.”
Elijah nodded in resignation, and Dom pulled him into an embrace and kissed him. “Get some sleep, love. I’ll see you in a bit, yeah?”
The younger man kissed him back passionately, then allowed himself to be led away by Karl, out of the clearing and through the maze of shadowy trees, walking for what seemed like hours, until at last the centaur came to a sudden halt.
“This is as far as I will go,” he said, pointing ahead of them, where the little pinpricks of light that were the castle windows could be seen. “You can find the rest of your way alone, I trust.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks,” said Elijah, feeling unsure whether he should shake the centaur’s hand or pat his flanks. He settled on neither, and just waved feebly, walking out from between the trees and into the moonlit grounds. When he looked back over his shoulder, Karl had already disappeared.
***
He got into the castle without much trouble, and without meeting anyone except Viggo, who certainly saw him but simply pretended not to. Next thing he was hurrying through twilight corridors towards the Fat Lady, who was quite annoyed at having been woken up, but too sleepy to ask further questions, and he already heard her snoring again as the portrait swung closed behind him.
The common room was dark save for what little light came from the low-burning fire in the hearth, and Elijah lit his wand to make sure that he would not stumble over any hidden objects and by so doing wake all of Gryffindor.
However, as soon as he lit it, a familiar voice suddenly sounded from one of the overstuffed armchairs.
“You look well-shagged.”
Elijah nearly jumped out of his skin, and turning quickly to the sound of the voice he saw Lily sitting by the fire, in her dressing gown and with a deep frown furrowing her forehead, which was making her look more like her father than she knew.
“Oh, well, um,” stammered Elijah. “I mean… I’ve been, um…”
“Don’t even think about trying to deny it, Lij,” she said coolly. “You know I won’t ever fall for it. What’s his name?”
Elijah looked around helplessly for something to help him out. His eye fell on an abandoned Daily Prophet lying on one of the tables. It had been left open at the page with the letters from readers, which was dominated by what seemed to be a long list of all the mistakes the paper had ever printed, written by one Geoffrey Hooper.
“…Geoffrey. His name is Geoffrey.”
“Geoffrey?” repeated Lily. “I don’t think I know him. What class is he in?”
“Oh, erm, he’s not a student,” said Elijah nervously. “He… he lives in the village.”
“Really? I thought my parents knew pretty much everyone who’s from Hogsmeade.”
“Well, er, he’s not from Hogsmeade, really. He just moved to here, I mean. He’s actually from… from Australia,” Elijah invented wildly.
Lily raised her eyebrows, but refrained from commenting on Elijah’s questionable credibility. She simply sighed and said: “well, why are you two sneaking around the place then? I’d like to meet him, and Merlin and Morgan too. We suspected you were up to something for weeks. I just think you could have told me.” She looked sad for some reason.
“I’ve been seeing him for a while now, yeah,” said Elijah apologetically. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you, Lil. But, you know, he’s not a student and… and some of the places we meet at are, you know, forbidden. I didn’t want to get you in trouble with your Dad.”
Lily snorted humourlessly. “Since when has that ever stopped me, or you? Look at what I’ve been…”
She stopped short and shook her head. “Never mind. I just thought, you know, we’re friends. We used to… well, anyway, goodnight Lij.”
And before Elijah could think of anything clever to say, she had already disappeared up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory, leaving him feeling heavy with guilt and shame at having to lie to the girl who had made such a difference to his life at Hogwarts.
***
“You did what?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I really couldn’t help it, I was cornered.”
It was Friday morning, and Elijah was in Dom’s office getting ready for their journey to London and their visit to the Ministry. Dom was checking his supply of Floo Powder when the younger man told him about his early-morning conversation with Lily.
“And you told her what, again?”
Elijah sighed. “That I’ve been seeing a guy named Geoffrey, from Australia, who’s come to live in Hogsmeade.”
“And she bought it?”
“Um… I guess.”
Dom threw his arms up in the air in exasperation, shaking his head and laughing. “Brilliant, Lij. Just great. And what will you do if your friends want to meet Geoffrey, as they undoubtedly will at some point?”
Elijah blinked at him a few times, then frowned. “Well you can’t expect me to think of everything!”
Dom sighed, still smiling. “If I didn’t love you so damn much, Elijah Wood, I’d stove your fool head in. Just what we needed, Geoffrey from fucking Australia!”
“Please just give it a rest, Dom,” begged Elijah. “I’m feeling too fucking guilty about lying to my best friend as it is, okay?”
“Yeah,” said Dom, his smile disappearing. “I know the feeling.”
He sighed deeply, then straightened up and lit the fire with his wand. “Come on, then. Don’t want to be late on your very first day at the office.”
Elijah smiled. “Well, at least one of us is confident that I’ll make it that far. Too bad it’s not the one who actually has to make the exam.”
Dom smacked him upside the head. “Don’t talk rubbish. Of course you’ll make it. Now get your arse into the fireplace, young man.”
“Yes, sir,” said Elijah, smirking. He walked over to Dom’s fireplace and took a handful of Floo Powder from the jar on the mantlepiece. Throwing it into the fire and stepping into the emerald flames, he shouted “Ministry of Magic!” and next thing he knew he was flying through space and nothing, managing at last to land on his feet as he arrived in the Atrium.
***
Standing in the immense hall with its high ceiling filled with symbols, elevator doors opening and closing with a rattle, and the murmur of many people talking, Elijah felt a little lost. This lasted only a moment, and then Dom was standing next to him, brushing ashes off his robes.
“Come on, then,” he said cheerily. He set off with his student in tow, walking past the fountain with a beautiful statue of a phoenix spreading its wings, towards the security desk.
“Hello there,” said the security wizard mechanically. “Please state your name and purpose of visit.”
“Elijah Wood, Hogwarts student, and Dominic Monaghan, Changeling and teacher,” said Dom, indicating who was who. Elijah thought he saw a look of distaste cross the guard’s face when he heard what Dom was. “We’re here for a visit to the Guidance Office.”
The guard then took up what Elijah took for a magical variety to a bodyscanner, and moved it over his body in the detached, uninterested way of an airport security guard. With Dom, however, he only waved the thing in his general direction, and as he enchanted two badges, engraving them with their name and description, he gave them both to Elijah, as if he wanted to avoid coming closer to Dom than was absolutely necessary. Elijah, by this time, was seething with rage, and Dom was looking at him with a mix of exasperation and sympathy.
“I’ve already told you it’s useless to waste your energy on this,” he remarked as they walked (or, in Elijah’s case, stomped) to the elevators. “There will always be people like that, Lij. If I can get over it, so can you.”
Elijah silently thought that was an unfair observation; after all he loved the Changeling much more than Dom himself did.
Genre: Lotrps AU/Harry Potter future!fic crossover
Pairing: Domlijah
Summary: Dom becomes a teacher at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and finds himself strangely attracted to Elijah, one of the Gryffindor seventh-years.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Like I said, AU and crossover. Also it's HP so, obviously, supernatural stuff.
Disclaimer: The wonderful HP world is created by JK Rowling who is not me, and the LOTR boys do not belong to me, both facts which I obviously regret but are nevertheless true. Sniff.
Feedback: Makes me prostrate myself at your feet and grovel pathetically.
Author's notes: Despite technical difficulties with Yahoo, and with the help of my enchanting (heh) beta pinkegogirl, I can now present to you the next chapter of what is turning out to be an epic. Mind, the end is in sight, at least for me. I finally nailed down (more or less) how many chapters are left. Mind you, it will probably still change anyway. ;)
Chapter 31
When Elijah woke up some time later, the first thing he realised was that Dom was no longer beside him in the bed.
Alarmed, he sat up, but relaxed when he saw the Changeling sitting by the dying embers of the fire, stirring the completely forgotten pot of stew. Feeling his gaze, Dom turned and smiled, holding up the wooden spoon. “Lucky we didn’t burn the bloody place to the ground. C’mere, it’s still good.”
Elijah slipped out from between the furs, shivering with the sudden cold air on his naked skin, pulled his warm winter cloak around himself, and joined Dom on the bench by the cooking pit.
“What time is it?” he asked, accepting a second spoon and digging in hungrily.
“Half four,” said Dom with his mouth full. “Dawn is not far off. You’d best be getting back soon, or you’ll be missed.”
“Yeah, I know,” Elijah sighed, leaning into his lover’s side. “God, I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” And when Dom looked at him questioningly: “I want to stay with you, wake up beside you, have breakfast with you and watch the sunrise together. You know, all the lovey-dovey shit that comes with the package. I don’t want to sneak around lying to everybody; I want to tell the world what you mean to me. You know?”
Dom’s smile was sad as he touched his lover’s face tenderly. “I don’t like it any more than you do, love. For my part, I want to brag about how fantastic you are to everyone who wants to listen, and introduce you to my family, and gross Billy out with stories about what we get up to between the sheets. But it has to wait.”
Elijah nodded, taking another bite of stew and chewing thoughtfully. He still had the gnawing feeling of something unpleasant hanging over their heads.
***
After they had both eaten and dressed, Dom stepped outside into the icy early morning air, and putting both hands to his mouth emitted an odd sort of sound between a neigh and a shout. Almost immediately, there came the sound of hooves, and soon Karl came walking out of the shadows on the edge of the clearing.
Arriving at the door, he inclined his head gracefully. “Good morning, Changeling. Good morning to you, young one.”
“Hi,” said Elijah uneasily. The penetrating look of the centaur still unsettled him somewhat.
“Would you be so kind to escort Elijah to the edge of the Forest?” Dom asked Karl.
“Of course,” said the centaur. “Come along, young master.”
“Aren’t you coming?” asked Elijah, unwilling to part with Dom again so soon, reluctant to go hiking back to the castle without him, and with an armed and intimidating centaur for company.
“I’ll be a bit later,” replied Dom. “It wouldn’t do for the two of us to arrive in the Entrance Hall together at five in the morning.”
Elijah nodded in resignation, and Dom pulled him into an embrace and kissed him. “Get some sleep, love. I’ll see you in a bit, yeah?”
The younger man kissed him back passionately, then allowed himself to be led away by Karl, out of the clearing and through the maze of shadowy trees, walking for what seemed like hours, until at last the centaur came to a sudden halt.
“This is as far as I will go,” he said, pointing ahead of them, where the little pinpricks of light that were the castle windows could be seen. “You can find the rest of your way alone, I trust.”
“Yeah, sure. Thanks,” said Elijah, feeling unsure whether he should shake the centaur’s hand or pat his flanks. He settled on neither, and just waved feebly, walking out from between the trees and into the moonlit grounds. When he looked back over his shoulder, Karl had already disappeared.
***
He got into the castle without much trouble, and without meeting anyone except Viggo, who certainly saw him but simply pretended not to. Next thing he was hurrying through twilight corridors towards the Fat Lady, who was quite annoyed at having been woken up, but too sleepy to ask further questions, and he already heard her snoring again as the portrait swung closed behind him.
The common room was dark save for what little light came from the low-burning fire in the hearth, and Elijah lit his wand to make sure that he would not stumble over any hidden objects and by so doing wake all of Gryffindor.
However, as soon as he lit it, a familiar voice suddenly sounded from one of the overstuffed armchairs.
“You look well-shagged.”
Elijah nearly jumped out of his skin, and turning quickly to the sound of the voice he saw Lily sitting by the fire, in her dressing gown and with a deep frown furrowing her forehead, which was making her look more like her father than she knew.
“Oh, well, um,” stammered Elijah. “I mean… I’ve been, um…”
“Don’t even think about trying to deny it, Lij,” she said coolly. “You know I won’t ever fall for it. What’s his name?”
Elijah looked around helplessly for something to help him out. His eye fell on an abandoned Daily Prophet lying on one of the tables. It had been left open at the page with the letters from readers, which was dominated by what seemed to be a long list of all the mistakes the paper had ever printed, written by one Geoffrey Hooper.
“…Geoffrey. His name is Geoffrey.”
“Geoffrey?” repeated Lily. “I don’t think I know him. What class is he in?”
“Oh, erm, he’s not a student,” said Elijah nervously. “He… he lives in the village.”
“Really? I thought my parents knew pretty much everyone who’s from Hogsmeade.”
“Well, er, he’s not from Hogsmeade, really. He just moved to here, I mean. He’s actually from… from Australia,” Elijah invented wildly.
Lily raised her eyebrows, but refrained from commenting on Elijah’s questionable credibility. She simply sighed and said: “well, why are you two sneaking around the place then? I’d like to meet him, and Merlin and Morgan too. We suspected you were up to something for weeks. I just think you could have told me.” She looked sad for some reason.
“I’ve been seeing him for a while now, yeah,” said Elijah apologetically. “I’m sorry I didn’t say anything to you, Lil. But, you know, he’s not a student and… and some of the places we meet at are, you know, forbidden. I didn’t want to get you in trouble with your Dad.”
Lily snorted humourlessly. “Since when has that ever stopped me, or you? Look at what I’ve been…”
She stopped short and shook her head. “Never mind. I just thought, you know, we’re friends. We used to… well, anyway, goodnight Lij.”
And before Elijah could think of anything clever to say, she had already disappeared up the stairs to the girls’ dormitory, leaving him feeling heavy with guilt and shame at having to lie to the girl who had made such a difference to his life at Hogwarts.
***
“You did what?”
“I’m sorry, okay? I really couldn’t help it, I was cornered.”
It was Friday morning, and Elijah was in Dom’s office getting ready for their journey to London and their visit to the Ministry. Dom was checking his supply of Floo Powder when the younger man told him about his early-morning conversation with Lily.
“And you told her what, again?”
Elijah sighed. “That I’ve been seeing a guy named Geoffrey, from Australia, who’s come to live in Hogsmeade.”
“And she bought it?”
“Um… I guess.”
Dom threw his arms up in the air in exasperation, shaking his head and laughing. “Brilliant, Lij. Just great. And what will you do if your friends want to meet Geoffrey, as they undoubtedly will at some point?”
Elijah blinked at him a few times, then frowned. “Well you can’t expect me to think of everything!”
Dom sighed, still smiling. “If I didn’t love you so damn much, Elijah Wood, I’d stove your fool head in. Just what we needed, Geoffrey from fucking Australia!”
“Please just give it a rest, Dom,” begged Elijah. “I’m feeling too fucking guilty about lying to my best friend as it is, okay?”
“Yeah,” said Dom, his smile disappearing. “I know the feeling.”
He sighed deeply, then straightened up and lit the fire with his wand. “Come on, then. Don’t want to be late on your very first day at the office.”
Elijah smiled. “Well, at least one of us is confident that I’ll make it that far. Too bad it’s not the one who actually has to make the exam.”
Dom smacked him upside the head. “Don’t talk rubbish. Of course you’ll make it. Now get your arse into the fireplace, young man.”
“Yes, sir,” said Elijah, smirking. He walked over to Dom’s fireplace and took a handful of Floo Powder from the jar on the mantlepiece. Throwing it into the fire and stepping into the emerald flames, he shouted “Ministry of Magic!” and next thing he knew he was flying through space and nothing, managing at last to land on his feet as he arrived in the Atrium.
***
Standing in the immense hall with its high ceiling filled with symbols, elevator doors opening and closing with a rattle, and the murmur of many people talking, Elijah felt a little lost. This lasted only a moment, and then Dom was standing next to him, brushing ashes off his robes.
“Come on, then,” he said cheerily. He set off with his student in tow, walking past the fountain with a beautiful statue of a phoenix spreading its wings, towards the security desk.
“Hello there,” said the security wizard mechanically. “Please state your name and purpose of visit.”
“Elijah Wood, Hogwarts student, and Dominic Monaghan, Changeling and teacher,” said Dom, indicating who was who. Elijah thought he saw a look of distaste cross the guard’s face when he heard what Dom was. “We’re here for a visit to the Guidance Office.”
The guard then took up what Elijah took for a magical variety to a bodyscanner, and moved it over his body in the detached, uninterested way of an airport security guard. With Dom, however, he only waved the thing in his general direction, and as he enchanted two badges, engraving them with their name and description, he gave them both to Elijah, as if he wanted to avoid coming closer to Dom than was absolutely necessary. Elijah, by this time, was seething with rage, and Dom was looking at him with a mix of exasperation and sympathy.
“I’ve already told you it’s useless to waste your energy on this,” he remarked as they walked (or, in Elijah’s case, stomped) to the elevators. “There will always be people like that, Lij. If I can get over it, so can you.”
Elijah silently thought that was an unfair observation; after all he loved the Changeling much more than Dom himself did.