招坏运
Gandalf had stopped staring at Draco like he was going to pull out a bomb and blast them all to bloody hell any second soon, Draco still enjoyed sending stinging hexes his way nonetheless.
The twins had gone out for two months and came back with scratches and blood on their clothes and satisfied grins on their faces. Elrond told him they hunt Orcs as a way of revenge, Draco didn’t question it, everyone had their own coping mechanisms.
Arwen was spending more time with Aragorn than Draco but he didn’t mind, time was after all very obviously precious to Arwen and Aragorn seeing as Aragorn was a mortal, a long lived one but still a mortal, it was sad.
And so Draco spent more time in the library studying and reading up, switching his Sindarin teacher to Erestor so Arwen could have more free time. Lord Elrond had also taken time out to bring him around the woods to gather herbs and the like, teaching him some survival skills on the way. The wilderness survival training brought to mind that Draco didn’t think he wanted to leave the safe haven that was Imladris but he supposed it was inevitable.
And then Gandalf had left followed by Aragorn, something about a hobbit’s birthday. Then all was quiet, until one day 17 years after he had arrived, Glorfindel came back with a deathly injured hobbit astride his horse.
Draco offhandedly thought that was what he must’ve looked like all those years ago when they found him, pale white and bleeding to death. Draco had been in the healing chambers explaining the new potions he had managed to brew, after spending years categorising the herbs and plants, any and every animal body parts he could get his hands on, he could say he made fairly good progress.
He heard a flurry of feet rushing and voices yelling for everyone to clear the room for Lord Elrond to work. Draco could only catch a glimpse of the deathly pale patient before he was ushered out with the rest.
He didn't know what else to do so he went in search of Arwen. His search came up empty when one of the elves told him that Arwen had ridden out to meet Aragorn. He found it weird, when he was walking around looking for Arwen, he felt as if the air around Imladris had thickened and everyone was tense. With no idea what to do and not wanting to spend time with tense elves he went to the library to continue his studies on his own.
Only the next morning did he come across Arwen and Aragorn with 3 new hobbits and Bilbo.
"Hullo, welcome back Estel." He greeted them.
The three hobbits looked up from their plates piled high with food to look at the new stranger.
"He's no elf." The one with sandy hair and was wider than the rest said.
"Yes very good observation." Draco drawled. The hobbit flushed while the rest laughed at the expense of their friend.
"Lads, this is Draco. He's not an elf but he's beautiful enough to be one, don't you think so too?" Bilbo laughed as Draco blushed at his words.
The old hobbit had told him that when they first met, Draco had blushed then too and thanked him.
"This is Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took." Bilbo introduced them.
"Nice to meet you. Did you travel all the way here to meet Bilbo?" Lord Elrond had told him hobbits preferred to stay home, it was strange for such unadventurous creatures to come so far, Bilbo had been a special case.
Before any of the hobbits could reply, Aragorn spoke, "No they did not. I will tell you about this later." And so the matter was dropped for something much more pleasant for breakfast talk.
Estel had later taken him to see Frodo. Draco was shocked to see Gandalf there with healing wounds all over him, he was sitting in a chair beside the unconscious hobbit. There Estel told him about their journey, the Ring and the ringwraiths. And then Gandalf told them about Saruman's betrayal and the army he was breeding at Isengard.
Draco looked at Frodo with admiration. He thought the hobbit was bloody barmy for even trying, but he had managed it and Draco respected his determination, a feeling he only had under pressure.
“At least his uncle had some self-preservation, this little hobbit just jumped into it.”
Draco sat down on another chair on the opposite side of Gandalf beside Sam who was watching Frodo like a hawk.
“And how did Bilbo even stay sane when the ring’s been with him for so long?” Draco asked.
“Hobbits are resilient little creatures, you’d be surprised by what they can do.” Gandalf said as he blew out a smoke ring from his pipe.
And as the days went on, Draco noticed that Sam hardly left Frodo’s bedside, the other hobbits would visit a few times a day but they would be off to do other things too, but not Sam. He waited for the day Frodo woke up tirelessly, he had to be bodily dragged off by the other hobbits so he could get some food in him and the healers could clean Frodo in privacy.
But the day Frodo woke up, Sam was not by his side. He was having lunch while complaining about having to get back to Frodo.
Frodo woke up with Gandalf by his side. He was blurred in the head as he asked Gandalf what day it was. It was only after did Sam burst into the room, not able to keep his excitement that Frodo had awoken.
Draco spent time with the hobbits whenever he could, marvelling at their childlike innocence, and listening to Bilbo’s adventures again was interesting. Merry and Pippin were pranksters, it seemed to Draco that wherever he went there was no shortage of troublesome duos. He was just glad Elladan and Elrohir were on one of their Orc huntings, if they had met the two troublesome hobbits Draco was sure Imladris would not survive the carnage.
A few days after Frodo woke up, when Draco and Lord Elrond were merely having a leisurely stroll chattering about inconsequential things, he invited Draco to a secret council of sorts. It took Draco out of the blue, they were just chatting about the cats that liked to frequent Draco’s rooms because he kept feeding them, there was no point in the conversation where it could have led to a topic so serious.
“Why would you want me at a secret council? What’s it even about?”
Lord Elrond looked at Draco with a heavy weight in his gaze, “It is about the fate of the ring. I believe you will have a part to play in the oncoming war.”
Draco wrinkled his nose and looked away, “I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” Draco said none too gently.
Lord Elrond sighed, “Yes, I know. I only wish for you to attend the council and we will see how it goes from there. Of course, it is your choice whether you wish to attend or not.”
Draco sighed and nodded, “I’ll think about it.” It was after all the most he could do after all that Lord Elrond and his family had done for him. And it seems that his days of peace in Imladris was almost up, war has come again.