Chapter 4
In the middle of the night, SpongeBob woke from a nightmare. He looked up and saw Frodo on a tree branch, looking at the starry night sky. SpongeBob climbed the tree and sat Frodo's side.
"The sky is beautiful, isn't it?" he said.
"It is," Frodo agreed.
"What was that ring for?" asked SpongeBob.
"Nothing," said Frodo, both nervous and annoyed.
"Come on!" SpongeBob pleaded. "Show me! Show me! Pleeeeaaase?!"
"All right!" said Frodo, finally giving up. He took a deep breath and showed SpongeBob the ring.
"This isn't an ordinary ring, SpongeBob," he said. "Many years ago, the Dark Lord, Sauron created this ring and it gave him great power. But during a battle, he lost the Ring and it was passed to a man named Isildur, but he too lost it. Two and a half thousand years later, it came to the creature Gollum and it possessed and poisoned his mind. You should know, SpongeBob, that the Ring has a mind of its own. One day, five hundred years later, it abandoned Gollum and was passed to my Uncle Bilbo and he had it for sixty-five years until he left the shire and gave it to me, and now I'm supposed to take this to Mordor, and to destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom."
SpongeBob had a thousand questions flowing in his head, but the one he wanted to find out first was, "You live with your uncle?"
"Yes."
"What about your mom and dad?"
Frodo hung his head and took a deep breath.
"They're dead."
"What?"
"They drowned in a boating accident at the Brandywine River. I was twelve."
"I'm sorry," said SpongeBob sympathetically, his eyes welling up with tears.
"Yes, it was rather sad," said Frodo. "Anyway, I spent nine years living at Brandy Hall with my cousins until the day came when Bilbo adopted me."
"I live with my uncle, too," said Harry, who had climbed the tree and sat on the branch while Frodo and SpongeBob were talking.
"My parents are dead too," he said. "But unlike yours, they were murdered by a dark wizard named Voldemort. But he couldn't kill me because my mum's love was protecting me. I only got away with this scar."
Harry paused. He can remember a flash of green light, a rushing sound, his mother screaming, a high, cold laugh...Harry looked at Frodo's face. A single tear escaped his eye.
"Are you okay?"
"It's just very sad," said Frodo quietly. "To lose your family after a dark wizard murdered them and then was gone."
"Actually, last year, he returned," said Harry. Frodo's face went white. SpongeBob, who had curled up, sobbing to Harry's story, sat bolt right up and gasped.
"He's b-back?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "That's why I have to get back to my own time. To stop him from doing any more damage to the wizarding world."
"And I have to get back to my own time so I can complete my task with Sam's help," said Frodo.
"Who's Sam?" asked SpongeBob, remembering that Frodo had mentioned that name when he met him.
"My friend and my gardener," Frodo replied. "He made a promise that he wouldn't let me go on my own on this task. He's very loyal to make that promise."
"SpongeBob," said Harry. "what's the reason why you have to go back to your place?"
"Well," said SpongeBob. "I've got a snail to feed and I gotta get my boating license, and do some jellyfishing...and I gotta get back to making Krabby Patties!"
"What on earth are Krabby Patties?" asked Frodo, not having the foggiest clue what SpongeBob was talking about.
SpongeBob's jaw dropped. "Why, it's the most delicious sandwich under the sea!"
He took out a small box from his pocket and unfolded it into his own grill at the Krusty Krab. He took out his spatula, fixed two Krabby Patties, and handed them to Harry and Frodo.
"Go on, guys," he said. "Send your taste buds on a journey."
The two others took the sandwiches between their fingertips; they were only about an inch tall, and ate them. Those Krabby Patties were the best things they ever tasted.
Harry shared his story from his first time at Hogwarts to Voldemort's return. Frodo told his story from Bilbo's birthday party to arriving at Emyn Muil. And after that, all three of them drifted off to sleep.