Disclaimer: Lord of The Rings belongs to the Tolkien estate, etc; Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, etc. Not me. I'm only dabbling my unworthy fingers in their magical worlds.

*Not a crossover per se.

Credit: Unknowable Wiki

Imaginary Friends

He was sitting on an old tree stump outside his house one clear starry evening, humming a slow tune, when she appeared out of the trees. She stood gazing at him shyly; the most peculiar-looking being he had ever seen, shifting nervously from foot to foot, to foot to foot.

To foot.

"Greetings, fair lady!" he called in surprise.

Small ears flickered back and forth when he spoke, and the silvery moonlight shone through the purple hairs protruding from them, making them sparkle.

"I have not seen your kind here before. Will you not join me?" he invited, rising.

Frightened, she disappeared.

Disappointment surged through him. He debated whether to follow her, but decided against it - if he chased her, she might never return.

Retaking his seat, he began to hum once more. To his astonishment, she returned a few moments later. Thrilled, he stood again, beckoning the peculiarly pretty lass forth, but again she disappeared.

How very strange!

Several more times that evening the ritual was repeated: he sat and hummed, she ventured forth, he spoke to her, she disappeared …

Eventually, he spotted the pattern.

Retaking his seat one final time, he hummed his melody anew, and again she appeared. But this time he ignored her, opting instead to hum louder, more merrily, until she pirouetted into the glade, bobbing her pretty head and moving her five feet in time to the music.

Stamp, stamp, stamp-stamp-stamp! Stamp, stamp, stamp-stamp-stamp! Stamp, stamp, stamp-stamp-stamp!

She looked so happy and carefree as she danced under the starlight; stamping and jigging and twirling, hopping and spinning around and around, looking for all the world like a very bizarre (and very drunk) fairy unicorn.

Astonished, delighted and utterly charmed, he beamed like a hobbit in a mushroom field, humming and clapping long into the wee small hours so that his pretty lady might stay and entertain him. And so the enchanting ritual continued, night after night, for many long years of Men, until he eventually won her trust and both became the very firmest of friends.

Thus it was that he alone ever met the only Crumple-Horned Snorkack in the world; and when he finally tired of his duties in Middle-earth, Radagast the Brown took her back with him to Valinor to live forever in the gardens of Yavanna, leaving nothing behind but the rumour of her existence ...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Author's Note: Another not-quite-crossover instalment from my crossover series on ff dot net, otherwise I wouldn't have posted it onsite! And with Radagast! Whom I've always loved because he's an animal-lover, and simply because he's very under-rated!

I did research the C-H S, but there's not much info on it (unsurprising given that it only exists in the Lovegoods' imagination), and what there was I had to use sparingly in case it gave the game away too soon. The five legs are a complete invention of mine, but hey! They seemed strangely in character ...

Kara's Aunty ;)