AN: thanks for the three reviews and the kind messages. I am not going to spill the beans on Ginny's status in this story. It's a part of the plot. Enjoy this next chapter.

AN2:

Italic: Thought

Bold: Elvish

Italic and Bold: Thoughts in Elfish

3. Meeting Hobbits

Suddenly there was a loud noise in the forest. She heard high-pitched voices, a deep voice and the creaking of wood. Some sort of instinct kicked in and she jumped up and raised her wand ready to defend herself.

Gandalf heard it as well but surprisingly he was smiling. He looked expectantly into the forest. Ginny moved closer to him, hiding a bit behind him. He had told her enough of this Middle Earth to expect something dangerous.

Her jaw nearly hit the ground when she saw a tree walking towards them. A real tree, it was walking and talking. When she recovered from her shock and looked closer she saw that it was holding two children in its… claws… branches…She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming. It was real, a large tree and moving towards them. It spoke. Insane.

"Maybe you are, maybe you aren't, the white wizard will know." The tree said and dropped the two children on the floor. They looked scared and let out a scream as they fell. Her eyes immediately flashed back to the tree. A talking tree!

"Bloody hell." She whispered.

Gandalf took a step forward and looked down at the children. To Ginny it seemed like he was glowing. She felt his magic flowing out from him creating a bright white glow but it couldn't keep her attention, the tree was doing just that.

"Stand up, Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took." Gandalf said.

Ginny tore her eyes away from the strange tree and looked down at the two children. They were scrambling to their feet. Once they stood Ginny noticed that they weren't children. They were men, though a head shorter than she was, they were adults. Hobbits, she suddenly realized as she remembered Gandalf's story about the Halflings.

"Gandalf?" One of the two asked confused. The old man nodded and smiled at the two hobbits. "Gandalf!" the other shouted happy and ran toward him. The old wizard was suddenly pulled into a hug by the two hobbits.

Apparently Gandalf was surprised by their move, his face was pulled into a funny expression as the hobbits wrapped their way too short arms around him like little kids would. It was quite a comical sight. Something of a chuckle escaped from Ginny's lips as she watched them.

Her face fell as soon as she heard her own chuckle. Laughter didn't feel right. She couldn't really laugh when it hurt so much just to be alive. In that second she remembered how Harry's eyes had flashed with happiness when she laughed. His green eyes would brighten and shine like stars. It hurt to remember. It was like a knife stabbing through her chest.

Her strangled chuckle alerted the Hobbits and the terribly strange tree of her presence.

"Who's that?" one of the hobbits asked.

"This is lady Ginevra. She is a friend of mine." Gandalf said. She was so shocked to hear the old wizard introducing her as a friend that she forgot to correct him with the name. Friendliness wasn't something she had experienced from strangers over the last two years. It came as a bit of a surprise that the wizard would see her as a friend.

"Are you a wizard too?" the hobbit asked.

"I'm a witch." Ginny answered. The Hobbits smiled up at her and nodded. Somehow the two hobbits reminded her of her brothers, they both had a mischievous glint in their eyes, just like Fred and George. She winched internally.

"A witch?" the other calmer hobbit asked in awe.

"Can you make fireworks like Gandalf?" the excited one asked.

Fireworks…It felt like somebody hit her in her stomach. The air she had in her lungs escaped with a gasp. Her arms wrapped around her stomach in the hope to hold herself together. Bright images of beautiful fireworks flashed in her memory as she heard her brothers laugh like an echo in the distance.

"I'm sure lady Ginevra can create beautiful fireworks but now is not the time young hobbits."

"No, master Gandalf." The tree said. "Tell me if these little Orcs are indeed hobbits from the Shire."

Ginny welcomed the distraction and used the time they watched Gandalf converse with the tree to pull herself back together.

The idea of a talking tree alone was still insane. With another quick look at her surroundings she realized that this world was stranger than she thought. Even though she was a witch and magic was the reality of her life, it was hard to believe this sort of strangeness. Shakily she sat down and waited for the conversation to end. She took the time to get her mind sorted and try to accept the strangeness. All the while she felt the eyes of the hobbits on her. Had they never seen a girl before!

Gandalf and the tree, she found out was named Treebeard, talked for many hours. They discussed the war and life in the forests. They talked about rumors, the movement of the elves and about humans. The hobbits ate and smoked a pipe that smelled terrible and talked little amongst them selves. It was mainly about food and their lost companions.

Ginny tried to listen to Gandalf and Treebeard for distraction but after a while her attention lessened and unwanted memories flooded back into her mind. Even with her eyes wide open, focusing on the talking tree she saw Harry's mangled body flying through the air. She had barely a second to raise her shield to prevent her from meeting the same fate. Now all she wished that she hadn't. Why hadn't she let the blast hit her too? Or even better why hadn't she been in time to save Harry?

She remembered running towards him while he dueled with Voldemort. Many times Death Eaters had blocked her way. She remembered hitting them with curses she had never used before. In her fear and panic she had used deathly curses or very painful ones. It seemed that most of the Death Eaters were too surprised by her using such dark curses to do anything in reaction but she had been desperate and magic was all about intent after all.

It hadn't mattered, she hadn't gotten to Harry in time and even if she would have, she was almost sure she couldn't have done much, except dying.

Suddenly her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten in a long time. It growled and grumbled. It pulled her out of her thoughts. She had been crying again, her cheeks were wet. Quickly she wiped her face clean.

Her stomach growled again, this time loud enough for the Hobbits to hear.

"Here" One of the hobbits said and held out something that looked like bread. "It's lembas, elf bread. We managed to keep some hidden in our pockets when the Uruks took us."

"Thanks." She whispered. She took the small bite of bread from the Hobbit and nibbled on it. It tasted surprisingly good. Like toast but sweeter. Once she had something in her stomach it stopped growling. She looked back at the hobbits. They looked nervous, haggard and a bit frightened. "What is your name?" she asked the hobbit that gave her the bread.

"Oh, how rude of us!" the hobbit yelped. "I'm Meriadoc but Merry will do."

"I'm Pippin." The other said. "Sorry, we didn't introduce ourselves properly milady."

"It's okay, and please no milady's to me. It's Ginny."

Both hobbits smiled and nodded to her. Again Ginny was hit with the images of her twin brothers. Their eyes bright with mayhem and mischief, their laughter ringing in her ear, their smile wicked and a glint of evil. Quickly she looked away from the hobbits. Her hand wiped away the tears that had rolled down her face. It wasn't fair!

"Tell me a bit about yourselves?" She asked the hobbits with a strangled voice, hoping they would provide distraction.

And they did. They told her all about Hobbits, the Shire, about Frodo's quest and about how they ended up with Treebeard. It was a really exciting story. The hobbits were very good storytellers and really excited to get it all out. She realized that they had already seen a lot of horror, even though to her the Hobbits seemed quite innocent. She felt for them as they told her how one of their companions died before their eyes. How helpless they felt when their protector got shot three times with arrows.

She felt she could sympathize. It wasn't hard to remember the helplessness she felt when she watched Harry battle Voldemort. When she watched the final stroke of the wand. She had known what was going to happen but couldn't stop it anyway.

It was already growing dark when Gandalf and Treebeard moved towards them. Ginny got up quickly and skidded backwards, she still didn't really trust walking trees. It reminded her too much of the Whomping Willow.

"We have decided that it's best that the young hobbits stay here. Treebeard promised me that he will keep you safe until I come for the two of you." Gandalf announced.

"What?" Merry yelped. "What about the quest? What about Frodo and Sam? We promised to help them."

Gandalf moved towards the Hobbits and place a hand on the Hobbit's shoulder. He leaned and Ginny had to strain her ears to hear what he said to them.

"I think you two can mean more to the war and to the quest here." The old man said with a wink.

The hobbits seemed confused, they didn't seem to understand what Gandalf meant but Ginny had already decided that the old wizard looked like Dumbledore. Always riddles and secrets.