The Unlikely Visitor

Chapter 3.
In which lightning strikes, Sauron laments on his life, and Ginny displays unexpected maturity.

Ginny was fascinated with her otherworldly roommate. He never said much, and when he did say something he sounded bored, confused, or irritated. The robes Bill had borrowed him looked as alien on him as bridesmaid dresses would on Crabbe and Goyle, and he himself also seemed rather out of place in the Weasley household. They had gotten used to his gloomy presence over the week, a bit like they had gotten used to the hole in the house. It was there, and it was a bit impractical, but it was also interesting, and… well, there was not much to do about it anyway.
Sauron was quite possibly the most mysterious person Ginny had ever met… It was just a hunch, but she had the feeling he was also one of the grumpiest people she had ever met, this including Snape. Something about him just appeared to scream “I Don’t Like You”, no matter what or whom it was that he pointed his eyes at. Ginny deducted that there was simply very little that Sauron liked. It made her wonder about his world… Was theirs so foreign to him that he just wasn’t capable of appreciating anything in it? Ginny shook her head. She knew the guy for a week and she was already drawing conclusions about him, ridiculous. He hadn’t seen anything of their world except for the Burrow; maybe he just wasn’t partial to redheads and messiness.
When she walked home from Lovegood house, she immediately noticed something was very wrong at the Burrow… Dark, stormy clouds hung above the house, like a thick black disk in the middle of a clear blue sky. She started to run, and just as she pulled open the front door, lightning struck into the house, straight through the hole in the ceiling, right into the small crater where Sauron had crashed. Standing in the door opening, she watched the inside of the house with open mouth. It appeared an explosion had taken place there, and guessing from the remnants of a molten cauldron she would say the culprits were the Twins. The real surprise however was Sauron. He was standing in the middle of the destroyed living room with his hands in his hair, repeating over and over a phrase in that harsh, tongue-twisting langue of his.
“Err… What happened here?”
No one answered, even the twins had been struck silent and the Burrow was eerily quiet apart from Sauron’s mutterings. Since no one was reacting, Ginny decided to do something bold. She got in and took Sauron by the arm, sort of dragging him outside and then forcing him to sit down on the grass in the backyard. She just sat next to him until the attack of whatever-the-hell-that-was had passed. It didn’t take long, about five minutes later she heard him sigh and utter dramatically,
“I hate my life.”
Ginny suspected that that was what he had been saying all the time, only now she could understand it. She wondered why the translation spell had malfunctioned at first… She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“Why?”
“Nothing I want ever happens the way I want it, if it happens at all.”
He said it dejectedly, as if he didn’t care, but Ginny knew better. You didn’t cause a lightning strike when you didn’t care.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Right.”
They were silent for a while.

Sauron was… ashamed. Not only had he voluntarily done something as humiliating and servile as cleaning, he had gotten a breakdown over a simple, tiny explosion. He was pretty sure that never in his long life he had fallen so awfully low. And now he sat here, next to the redhaired girl he shared a room with, and he had no idea what to do or say. Usually he had a plan, and a backup plan, and a second backup plan for when the previous one failed, but now he was completely clueless. The Valar had chosen a terrific punishment, he thought, they had successfully combined everything he hated in the universe and thrown him in the middle of it. It was pretty sickening.
“You know, this whole thing proves at least one thing.”
Ginny remarked. He raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
“You’re definitely a wizard. I mean; that was quite a bit of accidental magic.”
Accidental magic. Sauron looked at the now dissolving black cloud above the house and decided that it was a rather accurate description of it. Perhaps it was positive that he wasn’t completely without powers in this world, and he should be more content about that… but if it took him a nervous breakdown to access them, they weren’t very practical. Not to mention that he could hardly try to exert power in a world he knew nothing about. With all the strangeness he had encountered so far, he estimated that it would take him about a decade to get used to everything. It was depressing…
“You’re really a mess, aren’t you?”
It was surprisingly honest, coming from a mere child. By now he had realized that these people had about the same kind of lifespan as Hobbits –again, those horrid creatures- and that Ginny had truly only lived about fourteen years of Men. Her lifespan was barely the blink of an eye compared to his, and yet she dared to be so frank with him…
“I suppose you’re right.”
“Do you miss your home world?”
“No.”
“Really not?”
What was there to miss? The Void? He definitely didn’t miss that. Maybe… maybe he missed Barad-dûr, a bit. He had always liked his citadel... But in general, he mostly missed understanding the workings of the world around him.
“I don’t miss my home world, specifically. I miss being in a world that I know.”
Again, they were silent for a while. Finally Ginny said,
“Perhaps we haven’t been very considerate with you. We haven’t really explained anything to you, have we?”
“You have mostly asked a lot of annoying questions.”
“Yeah, and meanwhile we let you figure out yourself how to flush the toilet.”
Another low in his career, that one. The bizarre, apparently flushable latrine had been puzzling to the point where he had spied on one of the other redheads to find out how to use it. Apparently he had been less inconspicuous than he had thought at the time…
Ginny chuckled.
“I think none of us realized how different your world really is. But it really is completely different, no?”
“We don’t have toilets that flush. Your food is very different too, as are your clothes. Your house is filled with things I don’t know the function of…”
And it successfully combines the disorderliness of an Orc encampment with the crammed cheeriness of a hobbit house, Sauron mentally added.
“What was your house like?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sometimes it helps to talk about things, you know.”
He sighed. He had spent a lot of anger already; he supposed he would be capable of telling the she-wizard about Barad-dûr without causing another lightning strike…
“I lived in the highest citadel of Middle-Earth. From the top of the tallest tower I could look out over the whole world if I wanted to.”
Ginny appeared to be very impressed.
“Wow. That’s… I can see why you don’t feel comfortable in the Burrow...”
“Yes. Your house is very small in comparison.”
“Our house is very small in comparison to almost anything, you don’t have to tell me… It’s home to me, but… well yeah, it’s small. Did you have a family living with you?”
“No. Only lots of servants and slaves.”
And an enormous army, but once again he didn’t say that out loud.
“Oh. Right. What did you do, back in your home world?”
Yeah, what did he do? Trying to conquer everything in sight, mostly. He didn’t suppose he could tell that to Ginny. She probably already suspected he hadn’t been the most innocent individual back on Middle-Earth...
“I… have done multiple things. I have been the adviser of a king. I governed my own region, for a while. I… worked as a smith too, some time.”
Ginny seemed both awed and suspicious.
“You’re very young to have done all that.”
“I am older than I look.”
“How old are you actually?”
Good question. Sauron had to admit he didn’t know; he had lived in the Timeless Halls before the creation of Arda, and it was rather hard to measure time in a place where time didn’t exist.
“I don’t know exactly. I am very old.”
“Hmm… Old as in… middle aged? Or old as in elderly, more than a hundred?
“More than a hundred, definitely.”
Far, far more than that. He was as old as the world he had wanted to rule, at least a couple thousand years. The redhead next to him observed him.
“Well, you don’t look it.”
“I suppose that is a good thing.”
Ginny smiled.
“ Yeah, it is. So… of all the things you’ve done… what was your favorite job?”
Urgh, and they were back to the inane questions.
“I have none.”
“I’m sorry, I’m asking stupid questions again, no?”
“Yes, you are. As I believe I’ve told you before, I don’t like to talk about my home world because it holds many bad memories.”
“I’m not asking to annoy you, you know. I’m just trying to understand what your world is like, so that we could make things a little easier for you here.”
Sauron decided that perhaps the strangest thing in this new world was the way they treated him. Never, not once, had he been spoken to like this little wizard girl spoke to him. It was… he suddenly realized she spoke to him as if they were equals. Not commanding, not submissive, just equals. It was very presumptuous of her…
“Do you have books about your culture? I learn better from the written word.”
“Would you be able to read them?”
“Does your magic work on books as well?”
“I should ask Bill about that…”

Meanwhile in the Burrow, an impromptu family meeting had been called together. Topic of the day: Sauron.
“That guy is a serious heap of crazy.”
“He fell through the roof, I think it was to be expected that he wouldn’t be entirely normal…”
“Does he really have to live here? I mean he always stares at us as if we’ve kicked his kitten! Shouldn’t he try to be a little nicer with all we’ve done for him?”
“Boys, be nice. He comes from another world, it’s not like he can help that. This is probably just awfully confusing for him.”
“You really believe that? Maybe he escaped from St Mungo’s.”
“Yeah, and all St Mungo’s patients can make lightning strike when they’re angry. Not to mention falling through a house and surviving without a scratch. Besides, have you seen his ears?”
“Fine, so he’s from another world, or dimension, whatever. But he destroys our house!”
“It wasn’t on purpose…”
“And what about the lightning?”
“Fred and George scared the bejesus out of him with that exploding cauldron. How would you react if someone threw a bomb at you, you think?”
“He didn’t have a wand or anything… I wonder how he did it.”
“Strange alien magic…”
“Maybe just accidental magic? Perhaps he’s a wizard who never got a wand… I’ve heard that when you get older, accidental magic bursts become less, but when you do have one it’s usually really big and only when your life is threatened.”
“His life wasn’t threatened…”
“…it was just a little explosion!”
“For all we know he had never seen something like that! Didn’t you think it terribly rude to throw an explosive potion at a guest? Did I truly fail to raise you two? I am disappointed, in all of you! Ginny is the only one who has treated that poor man with a little respect!”
“Where is she, by the way?”
“Outside, with him. Probably trying to talk some sense into him.”
“That’s my daughter. At least one of my children knows how to behave herself!”
“So… what are we going to do about him?”
“Technically I have to alert the Ministry about him… But it’s possible that in that case the Unspeakables will come and get him for research.”
“He is definitely not a research subject! You can’t do that Arthur, I will not allow it!”
“Molly, he can’t just stay here, can he? In time Ginny will probably want her room back, and what when they go back to Hogwarts? It’s not as if he can come with them now, is it?”
“Maybe he should go with them. Dumbledore would probably know what to do… He might even help him to get back to his home.”
They all considered the possibility. If anyone would know what to do about their uninvited guest, it would be Dumbledore… And deep down no one –not even Ron- wanted to hand Sauron over to the Unspeakables, who would do Merlin knew what to him. Eventually Arthur said,
“I will write a letter to Dumbledore.”
“Good. And until we know Dumbledore’s answer, no one bothers Sauron, okay? Try to behave yourself and don’t blow up the living room, or anything else for that matter!”
With Molly’s warning, the decision was made… Sauron could stay. For now.

Bill didn’t know a good reading translation spell, but he did know a voice-spell for blind people that literally read the texts out loud. And so Sauron started his studies. He began with Ginny’s History Of Magic textbook, and Ginny found that it was surprisingly educational to listen to when told in another voice than Binns’. She often watched Sauron as he listened to the strange voice reading the books out loud and made notes in a bizarre alphabet. He looked terribly serious and concentrated, and eventually it took Ginny four chapters of Goblin Revolutions and the first part of the Witch Burnings before she had gathered the courage to ask him about it.
“Err… Sauron?”
He closed the book to stop the voice from reading further, and looked up, a little annoyed.
“Yes?”
“I know you hate questions but… what language is that you are writing?”
Unexpectedly, Sauron did not give her the usual “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” answer.
“The language is the Black Speech of Mordor. The script is called Tengwar.”
“Black Speech… is that the language of your home world?”
“Not my whole home world. Only Mordor, my land. There are other languages that are more common, like Quenya, Sindarin or Westron.”
He seemed a bit lost in thought for a moment, then he gave her his “Are You Done Yet” look.
“So, is your curiosity satisfied? I would like to continue studying.”
“Yeah, sure.”
He opened his book again and ignored her further. Ginny stayed in the room, listening to the escapades of the Spanish Inquisition and the various witches and wizards that burned at the stake or ultimately escaped their fate. It was almost cozy. Almost, because she didn’t think any room that was so clean could be considered cozy. She had done the test and misplaced a couple books on her shelf; next time she checked, they were back in their color-coded order. Mentally she had added “order” to the small list of things that Sauron liked, obsessively so even. Which was a bit of a problem in the Weasley household. In any other situation she would have rebelled against his obsessive-compulsive tidiness by making a complete mess… but in a moment of maturity she decided to grant Sauron his refuge from the disorder in the rest of the Burrow. It was difficult enough for him already.

(Author's Apologies)
All cheer for Ginny, and the diplomatic gifts the rest of her family lacks!
Also, a job description for Sauron: harder than you think. xD
Comments and critics and questions are always welcomed!