Half an Introduction
T.A 3001
When Draco woke up again it was to birds chirping and the sunlight filtering in from the windows. He had no nightmare this time, all he had seen this time was a curious image, of a lady, she was made up of stars, sparkling and shining in the abyss of space, she had called herself Varda, and she had called him 'child of the stars', he had no idea what the dream was about, he assumed it must have been some healing dream, anything was better than red eyes and a pale face.
Draco dared not move, remembering the pain he felt on his arm when he last tried, he was content to lay there until someone came to tell him which limbs he could move without feeling like he was getting struck by lightning.
Just then a woman appeared before his eyes. She was pale, with dark hair and blue-grey eyes, her smile radiated like the sun, she was beautiful.
"Good morning, how are you feeling?" Her warm soothing voice greeted him.
"A pleasant morning, could I trouble you for some help? I'm afraid I don't know the extents of my injuries well." The woman smiled, she would have laughed if she hadn't thought of the near-death experience the boy lying on the bed had gone through.
"Come, I will help you sit up. You have sprained your left ankle and your right arm is fractured, your ribs are bruised, take care when you move." She placed her hands on his back and shoulder, easing him up into a sitting position with minimal pain.
"Thank you." He said gratefully to her.
"You are welcome. I am Arwen." She sat down on a chair beside the bed.
"I'm Draco."
Arwen's eyes widened, "Rarely do men name their sons after dragons, for they bring much destruction where they pass."
Draco laughed weakly at that, she wasn't wrong. "I was named after a constellation of the stars."
Arwen seemed to nod to herself, seeming to understand something, "My father had mentioned you do not know of Imladris or of elves."
Draco looked at her curiously, "Your father?"
Arwen nodded, "Yes, the healer who attended to you when you first woke, he is Lord Elrond, head of Imladris, my father."
Draco's eyes widened, he was in the presence of a princess! "I'm sorry my lady, I didn't know."
Arwen smiled warmly at him, "It is alright, I prefer to converse without the use of pleasantries."
Just then, Lord Elrond walked in with a pleasant smile on his face. "I see that you are awake." He was wearing robes in shades of blue this time and a circlet adorned his head.
"I apologise for not having introduced myself when you first woke, I am Elrond, Lord of Imladris." He stood beside Draco's bed.
"I'm Draco. I'd like to thank you for saving me, Lord Elrond." He gave him the sincerest smile he could muster, which wasn't very bright but it was sincere enough, it would have to do.
"It is no trouble, it is after all my duty as a healer. Pleasantries aside, I would like to ask how are you feeling?"
Draco frowned, "To be honest I haven't much taken stock of my injuries, I was afraid of further irritating them." He certainly didn't want to feel the pain in his arm anytime soon, physical injuries were always quickly fixed up with potions and spells, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, his head snapped up, "Have you seen a sort of stick, it's brown with a black handle, it was strapped to my left arm." He looked desperately at the Lord.
Elrond went to the table beside the bed, pulling out a drawer filled with vials of what Draco assumed was potions and salves, and pulled out his wand. 'Oh thank merlin!' An instant relief washed over him when he held his wand in his hand, he didn't know how to use his wand with his left hand so he couldn't heal himself but just having it was good enough.
"What is it?" Arwen asked as she eyed the wand curiously. Draco paused and contemplated, 'They're elves, they should know about magic, being magical beings themselves and all, right? But what does it even matter anyway if they had no magic, I'm in another world, there's no ministry here to throw me into Azkaban for violating the statute of secrecy.' So he told them.
"Do elves have magic?" he asked cautiously, he couldn't exactly spring up and tell them he was a wizard, if they didn't have magic in the first place then they wouldn't understand.
"Yes, all elves have elven magic, but it is not like the magic of the istari, elven magic is tied to the earth and nature, and sometimes healing." Elrond answered him, albeit wondering why the boy was asking him this.
"So these istari, they can cast spells?" At their nod he sighed, at least they have something akin to a wizard here.
Then a thought crossed his mind, "Is there any other species in this Middle Earth?" If there were elves and these istari, it wouldn't be a surprise to have other species like on Earth.
"Yes, there are dwarves and men, the beings of light, and then there are orcs and goblins, the beings in service of the dark lord." At this Draco froze. 'Dark Lord? Another dark lord? I fall into a whole other universe and there is still a dark lord?'
"Dark lord?" His voice held a faint tremor and Draco could hear the fear in it as he spoke, and so could Lord Elrond and Arwen.
"Yes but be at ease, Imladris is safe from the grasp of Sauron." Elrond hoped that would help ease the boy from his fear, his face had paled considerably upon hearing of a dark lord, Elrond supposed his reaction was justified.
Draco nodded numbly, this was a different dark lord than his, he didn't need to think back now, he needed to focus on what was happening now, he shook his head and looked back at Arwen, the warmth radiating from her smile calmed him. "You are not from Middle-Earth." Arwen concluded, his questions about Middle-Earth said as much, Draco nodded.
"Where are you from?"
Draco wondered how he was going to go about explaining how he came here, would it even be wise to tell them? But they already knew he wasn't from Middle Earth, telling them where he came from wouldn't affect anything much would it? Draco supposed not.
"I'm from a place called Earth, specifically England." Elrond nodded in understanding, that was the place the boy had mentioned before.
"Is Earth very different from Middle-Earth?" Arwen's voice was laced with curiosity, she had never heard of the existence of other worlds in her long life, it was something so new and different.
"I suppose it is quite different, not everyone in Earth knows of the existence of magic, only those who wield it and are of magical origin know of it."
Elrond raised an eyebrow, "And you know of magic?"
Draco stared at the lord dumbly, "Yes, I'm a wizard."
"You are young." Was the lord's only explanation to his raised eyebrow.
"I'm 17, an adult in Earth standard, most wizards and witches graduate at 17."
Arwen perked up at that, "Are there many wizards where you're from? And lady wizards?"
Draco wondered at her surprise, did their Istari not have any females?
"Yes, we have school for magically gifted children, do the Istari not have that here?"
Lord Elrond answered him, "You are mistaken, there are only five Istari, none other can wield magic as the istari do."
Draco stared at Lord Elrond, shocked. He moved his legs trying to get to a more comfortable position and when he remembered that he was injured it was already too late, his left ankle throbbed in protest at the movement and his pain showed clearly on his face.
When Elrond saw the pain flash across the boy's face, a suddenly important aspect of his patient crossed his mind.
"Do you remember? What happened before and how you got here?"
Elrond saw the darkness fall over the boy, his light grey eyes turning a dull shade and his body tensed.
Draco wondered, should he tell them? Maybe a half-truth of the war, from what he had gathered from their conversation, the elves were on the light side, against the dark lord, they would be just like Potter and his friends, they wouldn't understand why he was what he was, he could still feel the pain and heat of when the dark mark was burned onto his skin, he shuddered.
"There was a war." He started slowly, he needed to tread carefully, these elves seemed smart, one wrong word and he would probably be executed before he was even given trial, such was the nature of the proclaimed good side.
"I was dodging a curse, and it seems I stepped on rubble and fell over the bridge, that was the last thing I remember before waking up here." He was telling the truth, he wasn't telling them everything but what he told them was all truth.
Elrond pitied the child, he was but 17 winters old and he had already seen the horrors of war and been dealt the pains, this boy was no child, he was a man hardened with battle and the hardships of war, but yet, he could feel something from the boy, something different from the men warriors.
The lord then thought of something, mayhaps there was a reason the young wizard had appeared before them.
"You had just fallen? Did you have visions of any sort? Appearing someplace where you had never seen before? A dream of something you could not relate to? Or perhaps a curse from your world?" Visions were something Elrond was familiar with and he had been feeling off for a while now, it might give them a clue as to his sudden appearance.
Draco frowned, as far as he could remember, he hadn't felt the stinging of any curse on him when he fell, and his dreams were of his family and the dark lord. Except for that one split second image and voice, could the lord be asking about that?
"Does Varda sound familiar to you? She looked like a lady formed with stars."
Elrond looked interested at this new piece of information. "Yes, she is one of the Valar, Lady Varda is the Queen of Stars."
Draco put that piece of information away in the back of his mind, he could dwell on that later when he was alone.
"She called me 'child of the stars', does that have anything to do with my name?"
Elrond looked at him oddly, "You are named after dragons, the drakes have no relation to the stars."
Draco shook his head, "Where I'm from, I'm named after a constellation of the stars, it was a family tradition from my mother's side."
The lord looked contemplating at this, mayhaps the Queen of Valar had moved the child from death's grip and placed him here, where she could watch over him. As for why she had done so, only the Valar themselves would know the reasons for their own actions, and it was no place of his to ask.
Elrond smiled at Draco, "Mayhaps, you have the Queen of Valar guarding you, young Draco."
Draco looked at the lord oddly, not understanding him, but he never gave comment.
"You must be hungry, you have not had solid food for a week, we will have to ease you back into solid diet."
Draco nodded, he didn't want to complain. As long as he was alive and his parents' sacrifice had not been in vain, he would not complain. He would try to live right, maybe he could even do the right thing this time, join with the side against the dark lord, but that remains to be seen.