Chapter 1.

In which an unexpected guest enters through the roof

The Void was big, boring, and very empty. That was about all there could be said about it. Sauron had forgotten how long he was there already, for time didn't really matter anyway when you were both sentenced for life and technically immortal. He knew it had to be a long time. At first he had been angry, and his guess was that he had been for quite a few years. He still was, but it was a less all-encompassing anger now and he was capable again of producing a thought that wasn't some foul expletive. It was a pity, actually. You didn't notice the slow passing of time so much when you were focused on wishing Eä and all its inhabitants to hell.

The Void was a confusing and disorienting place, but as soon as he had gotten used to floating in nothingness, he had had all the time in the world to think over his situation. He was used to being disembodied; he had lost his body… six times now, over the course of the ages. It could be seven too. Even for an immortal Maia that was quite a track record. Not all his physical manifestations had been equally attractive; actually they hadn't been attractive at all after Númenor, and his last one certainly hadn't been the most practical one. And now, being cast into the Void, his chances of getting a new body were about zero. Not a pleasant thought.

Sauron knew that eventually he would be obliged to start thinking over his actions rather than his not very variable situation, but for now he pushed that in front of him. It wasn't as if he didn't have the time to do it later, he had eternity in front of him. However, it turned out that he had less time than he thought he had. The changes came unexpectedly and quickly, and later on he wouldn't be able to recall what exactly had happened and how. The only thing he suddenly knew for certain was that he wasn't floating anymore. He was falling. As in, rapidly plummeting towards the ground under the influence of gravity. The realization came so suddenly that he barely had the time to brace himself for impact.

The first thing he encountered was obviously not the ground, because he managed to break through it. He didn't have the chance to realize what it was though, before he hit the second obstacle and broke through that as well with a sickening bang. In total he crashed through 9 layers of hard material before he finally landed on what he presumed was the ground. Lying there, he made two important realizations; realization A, he had a body. Realization B, he might very well just have broken every bone in it. Rather dazed he opened his eyes and looked up. Above him he could see a patch of blue sky, through a series of holes in a structure. Great. Of all places the Void could have spit him out, he had to fall right through a building. Bless the Valar, he sarcastically thought.

(Pagebreak)

The Weasley family was sitting around the table for dinner when it happened. A loud, crashing sound resounded on the attic. Molly looked up in worry.

"What was that?"

Ron dismissively shrugged.

"Probably just the Ghoul being loud."

Then the second bang resounded, quickly followed by a louder third one, and it dawned on the Weasley family that it wasn't the ghoul. For a moment they listened to the increasingly loud crash-bang-boom sounds their house was suddenly producing, until Bill all of a sudden understood what was going on…

"EVERYBODY BACK AWAY! SOMETHING'S FALLING THROUGH THE HOUSE!"

They were just in time, as the moment they all dived away from the dinner table the ceiling broke through and a human shaped object crashed straight through the dinner table and floorboards, sending smashed glassware, wood splinters and other unidentified material in all directions. For a moment after the crash, everything was quiet. Then Arthur Weasley crawled up and exclaimed,

"Merlin's dirty buttocks! What was that?!"

No one really knew the answer. They all curiously peaked into the crater in the floorboard to see what had fallen into their house. To their surprise it turned out to be a man, who was both surprisingly unscathed and completely naked.

"Is he dead?"

"I don't think he's dead, he's breathing."

"How the hell did he ever manage to break through 7 floors and a roof?"

"Don't forget the dinner table."

"Maybe a broom accident?"

"You obviously know nothing about brooms. Even with a Firebolt at maximum speed you wouldn't have gotten further than the second floor. Besides, does he look like he was sitting on a broom?"

"He's naked."

"Exactly."

"How is that guy still alive?"

The men got caught up in a discussion about brooms, dangerous quidditch moves, muggle pararashushes, and the thickness of floorboard, all the while ignoring their uninvited guest. It was probably part shock and part male nature. Molly, who had been more than a little shocked over the loss of her dinner table, was the first to recover and point her attention to the stranger, whose eyes were now open.

"Sir? Are you all right?"

It was a stupid question, because obviously someone who had just fallen straight through a house wasn't okay, but it was the only thing she could come up with to say. The stranger blinked a couple times, before uttering something that sounded completely unintelligible.

"Err… Excuse me? Do you speak English?"

Again, an unintelligible phrase, but this time with a distinct tone of irritation in it, as if it was her fault that he didn't speak English. Molly turned to her oldest son, Bill. As a curse breaker he had to be familiar with a whole lot of languages, so maybe he recognized whatever this specimen was speaking.

"Bill dear, do you happen to understand what he's saying?"

"He's conscious?"

"If you had been less focused on Wronsky Feints Gone Wrong you would have noticed that. Yes he's conscious and I don't understand a word of what he's saying."

"Well, let's see…"

(Pagebreak)

Sauron was annoyed. His whole body hurt, and although it wasn't the worst pain ever it still was pretty unpleasant, seeing that he hadn't felt pain in couple hundred years. That he was completely naked and surrounded by curiously staring redheaded Men didn't really add to his mood. To add insult to injury they were all conversing in a language that didn't sound the least bit like any language he knew. He was softly cursing to himself when one of the Men suddenly took out a short wooden stick and waved it around in a complex manner, while chanting something in another language than the one they had been speaking so far. For a fraction of a second there was a bright orange light, and then suddenly Sauron realized he understood what they were saying as if they spoke normal Quenya.

"…you think it worked?"

"Well, if he understands us and we him, it worked."

"What did you do?"

"Just a two-sided translation spell I picked up on an Egyptian excavation. Useful for talking to the locals."

They were discussing the spell one of them had used. Since they could use magic, obviously they weren't normal Men. Sauron was just contemplating what they might be when suddenly the woman in the company pointed her attention at him.

"Sir, do you understand us?"

"Yes. I do."

"What happened to you?"

"Err…"

Now that was a long story, and not one he felt like telling these creatures. The woman interpreted his hesitation as something other than unwillingness though.

"Oh Merlin I am so impolite! Are you injured? Can you get up? Give me a moment, I'll find you something to wear. My, my, I'm very sorry Sir, it's just that people don't usually fall through our roof." She turned and yelled at the other men with the stature of an army commander. "Don't you stand there like a bunch of dunderheads! Arthur, go get me one of your robes, and the healer's kit! And the rest of you, out! Go see how bad the damage to the house is!" She then turned back to Sauron and smiled politely. "Useless without explicit directions, that bunch!"

She said it without malice, he noted. He guessed based on general looks that the other inhabitants of the house were her family, so perhaps that was no surprise.

"My name is Molly Weasley. Just call me Molly."

"Molly Weasley…" He tasted the name on his tongue. It sounded a bit like a Hobbit name, but the woman was far too tall to be a Hobbit. It seemed she was waiting for him to return the introduction, so he gruffly said.

"I am Sauron."

He tried to move and found that although everything was very sore, his new body was apparently made of rather sturdy material. Or maybe some remnant of the Void had protected him from the worst of the impact, he didn't know. Suppressing a moan, he tried to sit up. Immediately the woman reached out to help him. He shook his head.

"I'm fine, leave me."

The woman raised an eyebrow, as if she dared him to repeat that, and soon Sauron found out that one did not simply say no to Molly Weasley. A few waves of her magic stick later he was sitting on a couch, dressed in very unfamiliar clothing, and she was checking the various scratches on his arms, legs and face.

"I can't believe you're not hurt worse than this. What did you do? Did you have a broom accident?"

"A… broom… accident? What do you mean?"

Sauron didn't think he had understood that very well. Perhaps the translation spell was malfunctioning. How could a cleaning device have something to do with him falling out of the sky? Molly eyed him suspiciously.

"You don't know what a broom is?"

"Of course I do! I simply don't see how it could possibly be related to my incident."

Molly's eyebrows shot up again.

"You are a wizard, aren't you? I mean, I didn't think there was much doubt, as I don't see a Muggle survive such a fall, but…"

"I am not one of the Istari, if that's what you're asking."

Sauron believed he had never been so confused in his entire life, and knowing he was older than time that was quite a feat.

"Istari?" Molly turned her head and yelled through the hole in the ceiling. "Bill, your translation spell is malfunctioning!"

Someone, most likely "Bill", yelled back.

"It doesn't translate slang words, mom! If you don't understand a word, ask him to explain it in different words! By the way, Ron's bed is broken too!"

"Damn! Do you think the insurance will cover it all?"

Another voice answered in Bill's place.

"Cause of damage: mystery dude falling from the sky? That will go over well!"

"Ron, the 'mystery dude' can understand you now!"

"So?"

The household of Molly Weasley was very, very loud, Sauron thought. He wondered how they communicated when there wasn't a hole in the ceiling. Perhaps they simply yelled louder? The conversation upstairs was apparently no longer interesting to Madam Weasley, because she turned back to him.

"So, Istari? Bill says the spell doesn't work on some words so you have to explain those differently."

It was slowly yet steadily starting to hit him. This was not Middle-Earth. A rather late realization, Sauron thought. Usually he was faster in picking those things up. He swallowed a very ugly word in Black Speech and thought fast. How had this happened? Why was he here? Could he get back? How had he gotten a body? What did it look like? Was he still able to reach his powers? A plethora of questions suddenly overwhelmed him. Molly Weasley was still staring at him, waiting for an explanation of the unfamiliar word. How was he supposed to explain this to her when she wasn't familiar with the concept at all?

"Men call them Wizards. They use magic."

They usually also had long beards, pointy hats and fancy staffs, and in general they weren't too friendly with him. That he didn't tell Molly. He had no idea what kind of world this was and how power was divided here. It would do him no good to reveal that he had enemies in wizards back on Middle-Earth, as it would cause a whole lot of questions he really didn't want to answer now.

"Well, we are wizards, the whole family." She frowned. "You just said you are not a wizard, but you are obviously well acquainted with magic…"

It was unavoidable. He knew far too little to masquerade as one of them, so he had no choice but to be honest… to a certain extent.

"I… I am not of this world."

"How do you mean?"

"I come from a place called Middle-Earth. A part of Arda. It's… not here."

Molly looked at him with big and slightly disbelieving eyes.

"You're not from Earth?"

"Well… Arda is sometimes referred to as Earth, but it's… different."

"So, if you aren't from earth, how did you get here?"

Sauron pondered a moment on what to say.

"I don't know, actually. One moment I was minding my business, the next moment I was falling rather quickly out of the sky here."

"Usually I would say such a thing is completely impossible, Mr Sauron… I'm not a nonsensical witch, you know, not like some people here in Ottery-St-Catchpole… But given what has happened I think I have no choice but to believe you. I see no better explanation anyway."

"Thank you."

He was tired and confused, and he really didn't want to spend energy on convincing a hobbit-like overbearing she-wizard that he really was a being from another world. That she believed him just like that was worth being grateful for.

"You sound awfully tired, Mr Sauron. Do you want to eat something? I'm afraid your arrival smashed our dinner, but there's loads left in the kitchen still!"

Molly was really very Hobbit-like... Just thinking about Hobbits and their manners and their ridiculous obsession with everything edible made his anger come up again. He really, really hated Hobbits and whoever had come up with the idea of them deserved to be thrown into the Void, chained to a Balrog. Frodo Baggins. The name alone made him want to scream in frustration. He muttered some very foul things in Black Speech under his breath, forgetting his conversation with Molly and staring at his missing ring finger. Of course they hadn't given him 10 fingers. They wouldn't let him forget his defeat a single time. His Ring… He clenched his fists as the anger came up. Then Molly's voice broke through his thoughts, and the rage faded again.

"Are you all right, Mr Sauron? Your eyes just did something strange."

He blinked a couple times and looked slightly confused at the woman.

"Oh? Did they? I… Well, actually I wouldn't know. It's been a while since I've seen myself."

A while since there was anything to be seen as well, but again, that he didn't tell Molly.

"Do you want a mirror? Don't worry, I'm sure I have a mirror here somewhere…"

In no time she was ruffling through drawers and boxes, until she found a somewhat feminine looking handheld mirror. "Here you go!"

And so he got to see his face for the first time in a while. It was quite a shock. It looked a lot like his appearance in the First Age, with long black hair –however awfully tangled- and golden-brown eyes… but he looked far younger than ever before. Maiar didn't know childhood; he had been created in an adult form right away. This body didn't look like it was a lot older than 20 years of Men, and Sauron couldn't figure out whether he liked that or not. He stared at his reflection with unhidden fascination, completely forgetting Molly…

(Pagebreak)

Molly Weasley was a no-nonsense woman. She had to be, as being in charge of a family like the Weasley's required a lot of pragmatism. All the pragmatism in the world however didn't tell her what to do with the mysterious guest from another dimension who was currently observing his own face as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever laid eyes on. She had thousands of things she wanted to ask him, but the man looked as if he hadn't seen a bed in days and her motherly side reprimanded her for keeping him up like that.

"You should really rest a bit, you look like you're absolutely exhausted. I'll make you a bed in no time. Do you mind sharing a room with Ginny? Normally I'd make you share with Bill, but I think Ron will sleep there because you damaged his room too much."

"Err…"

Molly was already climbing the stairs, expecting him to follow her apparently. Wincing at the painful protest of his body, he got up. Meanwhile, the woman hadn't stopped talking.

"Ginny is coming home in an hour or two, I think. She went to visit her friend Luna. I'm sure she won't mind sharing her room; she had to do so often enough. We have visitors a lot you see, although most of them use the front door, or the floo, perhaps."

Sauron tuned her out. He didn't know what a floo was, or who Ginny was, and he certainly didn't care about her friend Luna, or the fact she had to share her room with visitors often. His surroundings alone were confusing enough just like that… The room belonging to Ginny was filled with strange moving pictures of women in bizarre garbs who apparently flew around on… brooms. One mystery solved, in this world flying cleaning appliances were apparently a normal mode of transport. He was so tired and overwhelmed he didn't even wonder about how the pictures were able to move before his eyes. Molly apparently noticed his state, because she said,

"Just use Ginny's bed for now, Mr Sauron. I'll see that you get a bed of your own tonight."

She didn't have to say that twice. Molly had only just left the room or he dropped himself on the –surprisingly comfortable- bed. Perhaps if he slept a bit the whole situation would clear itself up and turn out okay. He doubted it –situations he was involved in rarely ever turned out okay for him- but it didn't hurt to hope, did it?

(Author's Apologies And Answers To Questions)

Usually I would call this part "Author's Notes", but I feel I have to apologize for this story. So... my sincere apologies to all Tolkien purists, don't hate me for this please? In this part I will answer questions you may have. If some questions remain unanswered, let me know something!

A) About the story setting - This story plays in the Harry Potter universe, during the Goblet of Fire. The story follows the main events of the book, but there are notable differences. The most important one is that the Quidditch World Cup is not a part of this story. This is simply because I want to give dear Sauron a little time to acclimatize before throwing death eaters and quidditch players at him ;)

B) About The Translation Spell - The language barrier will be important later on, so that's why they don't understand each other right away. Forgive me for that. Bill Weasley is, as mentioned, a cursebreaker who travels a lot and visits excavations and stuff... I imagine that translation spells are necessary at times. This particular spell works as a screen between the person it was casted on and his surroundings.

By example: surroundings speak English, person speaks a whole lot of languages that aren't English. The spell makes the person understand his surroundings in the language he was speaking when the spell was cast, and the surroundings hear everything he says as English. There are some artistic liberties in this spell though...(it's magic, an fanfiction, what do you want?) The spell only works for one language, so if the surroundings start speaking French the person won't understand them, however, the person it was cast on can speak any language and be understood. Also, the person can choose not to have his words be influenced by the spell (I imagine this comes in handy when cursebreakers need to discuss something they don't want the locals to understand).

C) About the characters - Yeah, I really picked some tough characters to work with, I know. Sauron won't be the all-evil overlord who only wants to destroy everything (in case that wasn't obvious yet), so I think you could call him a bit OOC. He's still highly intelligent, very powerful, strategic, manipulative, and lacking in empathy and conscience though ;) The Void has left its traces however, and you'll find that he might be a little irrational/unhinged/childish/weird/having a temper tantrum/... from time to time. For Humor! xD

PLEASE REVIEW. PLEASE!

This is my first crossover fic, my first Lord of The Rings fic, and I think it's also the most difficult thing I've ever written. Any advice, comment or question would come in useful and be greatly appreciated. Also, critics are loved, just don't be (too) mean, I'm only trying. Any questions you have WILL be answered!

PS: Some chapters (including this one) have an Easter egg. Catch it and you get cookies! ;)