Bilbo did not immediately accept Sylas's offer to serve as a caretaker at Hogwarts. Instead, he planned to use whatever youthful energy he still possessed to travel, first through Rivendell, the Anduin Valley, Mirkwood, Dale, and the Lonely Mountain, and perhaps even south toward Fangorn Forest, Isengard, Rohan, and Gondor.
With the Floo Network, long journeys no longer required weeks or months. Bilbo could cross half of Middle-earth in a day or two.
But these thoughts were still early dreams. For the moment, his 111th birthday was what mattered most.
Following the winding path, Bilbo, Sylas, and Gandalf descended Hobbiton Hill, reaching the Party Field before long.
The Party Tree stood tall at the center, strung with colorful lanterns and ribbons. A massive tent had been raised beneath it, and nearly all of Hobbiton had gathered.
Families brought their own tables and chairs, pushing them together into long feast tables covered with bright cloths and overflowing with Hobbit dishes, breads, pies, pastries, cheese, roasted meats, and even delicacies purchased from outside the Shire.
A great banner fluttered over the tent:
"Celebrating Mr. Bilbo Baggins' 111th Birthday!"
The scale of the feast was unprecedented. The Green Dragon Inn, the bakery, the biscuit shop, and the fruit stalls of Hobbiton had all been hired for the day solely to supply food for this celebration. Many hobbits were secretly astonished, though they admitted it was perfectly in character for the famously wealthy master of Bag End.
By now, Frodo, Sam, Elseth, and Elroth had already arrived.
As soon as the two half-elf siblings stepped into the lights of the feast, countless Hobbit eyes turned toward them. Many had never seen elves before, let alone children who looked like elves from the old songs, tall, graceful, luminous.
For a moment, the lively field fell nearly silent, followed by a wave of murmurs.
"Are those elves?"
"Look how fair they are!"
"Only Bilbo Baggins could bring elves to a birthday party!"
With their sharp hearing, Elseth and Elroth caught every whispered remark. But they were used to attention, Hogwarts, Rivendell, and Lothlórien had never lacked admirers. Through Frodo's introductions, they soon met two especially energetic figures: Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took.
"Are you really elves?" Pippin burst out eagerly. "Just like the ones in the songs, you're amazing!"
Elseth shook his head politely. "I'm Elseth Sylas, son of Lord Sylas of Hogwarts. This is my sister, Elroth Sylas. We're half-elves, not full-blooded."
Merry's eyes brightened. "Your father is the Sylas who subdued the dragon? Is it true Hogwarts has a dragon? What's it like? Does it really breathe fire? How big..."
"Merry!" Frodo cut in quickly. "You're asking ten questions at once, they can't answer you if you don't breathe."
Elseth and Elroth both laughed, assuring him it was fine.
Elroth answered cheerfully, "Yes, Hogwarts has a dragon, Smaug. He's our father's mount. Most of the time he sleeps in the treasury while guarding the hoard, but he can breathe dragonfire hot enough to melt steel."
"As for his size," she added thoughtfully, "we've never measured, but he's certainly over a thousand feet long. He's taller than nearly every tower in Hogwarts."
"Wow!!!" Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin all stared wide-eyed.
Hearing Elroth describe the dragon's size, they couldn't even picture something so enormous, and all of them were filled with awe.
"I heard Hogwarts is also a school," Pippin asked eagerly, "with lots of wizards studying magic there?"
Elseth and Elroth answered every question without holding anything back, satisfying the hobbits' endless curiosity.
They told them about Hogwarts' subjects, its towering castle, the Thunderbird Thorondor, the giant Kraken in the Black Lake, and many other wonders the hobbits had never even imagined.
The more they heard, the brighter the hobbits' eyes became.
Merry and Pippin, the most restless of the bunch, immediately decided they had to visit Hogwarts someday. They longed to see magical creatures with their own eyes and explore such a mysterious, beautiful place.
As descendants of the Brandybuck and Took families, their adventurous blood made the idea irresistible.
Even Frodo felt the pull of fascination.
He carried the calm resilience of the Bagginses, but also the quiet courage and curiosity of the Brandybucks. Compared to Merry and Pippin's impulsiveness, Frodo was more balanced, thoughtful, but still far braver than the average hobbit.
In many ways, Frodo was another Bilbo, and it was easy to see why the two had become so close.
As Elseth and Elroth spoke, the whole group warmed to each other quickly. The twins liked the kindness and sincerity of the hobbits, and Frodo and his friends were captivated by the graceful, gentle half-elf siblings.
Merry and Pippin, already fond of them, eagerly began introducing the twins to the Shire's customs and sights.
This harmonious scene was what Sylas, Bilbo, and Gandalf saw when they finally caught up.
Gandalf chuckled. "Looks like the children are getting along quite nicely."
Bilbo beamed, clearly pleased. "Elseth and Elroth are wonderful children, no one could possibly dislike them!"
Hearing others praise his children, Sylas couldn't help smiling. "Frodo and the others are wonderful as well. Good children naturally get along with one another, that's why Elseth and Elroth like them."
The "parents" continued praising one another's children for a while before walking toward the group, satisfied and smiling.
...
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