Thanks to everyone who posted comments, reviews, and or suggestions. Also, sorry about the longer than usual wait.

Chapter 7: Gollum

Harry wasn't seriously hurt by his tumble, just a few scrapes. "Bilbo, are you okay?" he asked quietly into the dark. No answer. "Bilbo, can you hear me?" he asked, pulling out his wand. "Lumos." He quietly commanded, and his wand lit up, shining light out in a circle. At the very edge of the circle, he saw a furry foot sticking out from behind a rather large rock.

Going over to the Hobbit, he found he was out cold, and had a cut on his forehead. "Enervate." He said pointing his wand at Bilbo.

With a groan, Bilbo started to stir. "What…what happened?" he asked after getting his bearings.

"We were grabbed from behind and fell down a small hill. You hit your head on a rock, and were knocked out. But the Goblins seem to have missed us in the dark. How's your head Bilbo?"

Bilbo put his hand up to his forehead and it came away bloody. "Except for the cut, I seem to be alright. What about you M-Harry, are you hurt?"

"No, I missed the rock and ended up on a patch of gravel. Let's see if I can clean the cut up and heal it for you."

"You can do that?" Bilbo asked. Harry just nodded. "But how?"

"I became rather good a basic battlefield healing Bilbo….out of necessity." Harry said simply. "Now lets see, he said pulling out the Elder wand and keeping his regular out still lit. "Scourgify." He said, pointing the wand at Bilbo's cut head. All the dirt in the cut vanished and it started to bleed more freely, but before it got too bad he added "Episkey." And the cut started to knit itself together.

"Oh my, that feels very queer. Almost like insects walking over my skin."

"Yeah, it does feel strange the first time." Then after a minute added, "Well, it's not nearly as good as Madam Pomfrey could have done, and you'll have a faint scar. But it shouldn't give you any trouble."

"Thank you." Bilbo said. "Madam Pomfrey?" he asked questioningly

Harry was quiet for a few moments, but then answered "Madam Pomfrey was the healer at my school. We lost her during the final battle. She was…." But Harry broke off his explanation in mid sentence and went quiet. Finally he said "She was killed while trying to help a wounded student during the battle. Hit in the back by a Killing Curse."

Bilbo silently cursed himself for asking Harry about this. He could clearly see the pain on the young mans face as he told him about woman. "Harry…I'm sorry. I never should have asked about…"

Harry held up his hand saying. "No Bilbo. You have nothing to be sorry about. You couldn't have known." And then looking around in the gloom said "How about we try to find a way out of here? I want to get back to the others."

"Of course, but which way do we go? Back along the path we were following, or forward?"

Harry thought about this for a few minutes then replied "If we go back to the path, we'll most likely run into the Goblins and there'll be another battle. I can beat them using magic, but the sound will alert even more of them." He paused, thinking. "Maybe there's another way out this way," He said . "and if not we can always come back here and take our chances with the path we were following in the first place."

Bilbo agreed to this. After all, what else could he do? So they started off, grateful that Harry's wand gave them enough light to see where they were going.

They hadn't been walking for too long, maybe a half an hour when Bilbo stepped on something hard. "Ow!" he exclaimed.

"What's wrong? Are you alright" Harry asked.

"I'm alright, I just stepped on something." Bilbo replied, and then bending down, picked up the object. The 'something' which Bilbo expected to be a rock, turned out to be a gold ring which glimmered in the light of Harry's wand. "Well isn't that queer? Finding something like this way down in the middle of a mountain. I wonder how it got here?"

"Probable dropped by a Goblin or something." Harry replied, looking at the ring closely. He felt a strange pull from the ring. "Bilbo, I think that ring may be magical, I feel a strange power coming from it. Maybe you should put it away safe in your pocket till we get out of here. We can take a better look at it then."

"You think it's magical?"

Harry nodded. "I'm sure of it."

Bilbo shrugged, but shoved the ring deep into his pocket. As soon as it was out of sight, Harry felt better. He shook his head to clear it. "Come on, we better keep going.

They went on for another hour, or so Harry thought. Time was hard to judge in the dark, when they saw the lake. "Okay," Harry said with a sigh, "So much for getting out by another path." And then turning to Bilbo asked him, "Do you want something to eat first before we head back?"

"You have food with you? Where? I didn't see any during our trip."

Harry laughed. "Well, you see, after what happened with the pony that was carrying our food, and then the trolls…well, before we left Rivendell, I got the Elves to give both Luna and I a separate supply which we shrunk and kept in our packs. Each of are carrying as much as the Dwarves are on all the ponies."

"Amazing." Was all the Bilbo could say to that. "What do you have?"

"Well, lets see," Harry replied, taking off his pack and opening it. "I have roast meats, cheese, bread butter, a dozen flagons of wine, ale, apples, plus a few odds and ends. That enough?"

Bilbo opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. He tried again, but without success.

Uh oh. Harry thought to himself. I think I broke him. He snapped his fingers in front of Bilbo, who seemed to come out of his trance. Finally he said "Some cheese and bread will do fine…...and maybe some wine to warm me up a bit." He added as an afterthought.

"Warm you up?" Harry asked with a smile. "It's as hot as blazes down here."

"Well…" Bilbo began, "Hobbits get cold easily."

Harry shook his head but didn't say anything. He just enlarged the cheese and bread and handed them to Bilbo, along with one of the flagons of wine.

-=ooo000ooo=-

Unseen by Harry and Bilbo, and also unheard, Gollum was watching all this from his island, which was far out in the middle of the lake. For a lake it was, very wide and very deep. He was a foul creature, and had lived on this small patch of dry land for over 500 years. Where he came from or how he got there, I don't know.

He only left the island to get food. Mostly fish, which he ate raw, but sometimes he managed to creep up behind a small goblin and ring their necks before they could shout out. This had been the case earlier when he had caught a small goblin imp. But there wasn't much left of the imp now, mostly bones and horns. He wanted something sweeter. That was when he saw the light coming down towards the edge of the lake. He saw that it was a man and a…well he didn't know what it was. It was smaller than a Dwarf, and seeing the small creature seemed to remind him of something from his past. But he couldn't place it, no matter how hard he tried, so he put it out of his mind and started planning how he could catch them. "The mans will be the most dangerous My Precious." He said quietly to himself "We musts be careful Precious. Yes we musts."

Quietly he got into the small boat he had made and started paddling silently towards the shore.

-=ooo000ooo=-

Harry and Bilbo were sitting by the edge of the lake eating when all of a sudden they heard "Bless us and splash us, my precioussss! I guess it's a choice feast Gollum!" And when he said Gollum he made a horrible swallowing noise in his throat.

The hobbit jumped nearly out of his skin when he heard Gollum hiss this statement, but Harry reacted a little differently. He had been holding his wand in his left hand so he could use his right to eat. At Gollum's first word he instantly dropped the cheese he was holding and yelled "STUPIFY!" There was a loud splash as Gollum was hit in the chest by the spell and toppled off his boat and into the water.

Harry stood up and went over to the small figure, now laying face down in the lake. He grabbed hold of the creature's arm and pulled him out and onto shore.

He was a small gangly creature, but with big, no HUGE eyes. Probably from trying to see in the blackness of this place. Harry thought.

"Is it….is…he dead?" Bilbo asked Harry.

"No. I just stunned him. He'll be fine once I wake him up. But I want to find out who he is and what he was doing here before I do." Harry told him, and before Bilbo could ask him how he was going to do that Harry pointed his wand at the creature and said "Legilimens." Harry wasn't a very accomplished Legilimens, but with the creature unconscious, he figured he could get into it's head and find out why it had come up on them the way it did. He was right, and he soon had his answers. He also looked to see it this, Gollum, as the creature called itself, knew the way out of these tunnels to the outside. He did, but Harry very quickly saw that because of the labyrinth that the tunnels were, he would need the creature to actually lead them out. He also found out something else that was interesting. He saw that the ring that Bilbo had stepped on had belonged to the creature, and that it made the wearer invisible Also, that Gollum had used it to creep up behind small unwary goblins, throttle them, and then drag them off to his island which was somewhere out in the middle of the lake, to make a meal of them. He also saw that this was what the creature had planned for them, or at least for Bilbo.

When Harry pulled out of Gollum's mind he muttered. "Okay, that was unpleasant.

"Did you find out what you wanted to know Harry?" Bilbo asked him.

"Oh yeah, I found out all right. He was going to invite us to dinner." Harry said dryly.

"Well what's so wrong with that?" Bilbo asked, not seeing what the problem was.

"Oh nothing, except that we were going to be the main course." Harry answered.

"You mean…he…he was…it was planning to…" Bilbo stammered.

Harry nodded silently as Bilbo paled. "But, there are a few good things I found out. Like that he knows the way out of here, and I found out that that ring you stepped on makes you invisible when you put it on."

"Invisible? Well my word. Any idea where he got it from?"

"None. I probably could have found out but I didn't want to stay it it's mind any longer than I had to." Harry shuddered.

"So what do we do? I mean, I doubt this creature will just lead us out of these tunnels on his own." Bilbo said.

Harry put his wand back inside his sleeve and took the Elder wand out from inside his travel robes. He didn't want to take the chance Gollum would break free and wanted the extra power the wand offered. "Enervate ." he said pointing the wand at Gollum. Almost as soon at the beam hit him Gollum was on his feet and getting set to spring at the two of them, but Harry quickly added. "Imperio!" and Gollum went glassy eyed.

"What did you do to him?" Bilbo gasped seeing Gollum's eyes cloud over.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt him. It just puts him under my control for a while. I'll release him from the spell after he takes us to the exit."

"Gollum, you will show us the way out of here. Do you understand?"

"Yesssss. My precioussss will show nasty creatures the ways out. Yesss." Gollum replied in a dead voice.

"Good." Said Harry. "Let's go then. We have friends to catch up with."

Gollum started up one of the dark tunnels with Bilbo and Harry following behind him. "Bilbo," Harry said softly. "Be sure to keep that ring you found close, and at the first sign of Goblins or any other trouble put it on. But after you do, make sure you stay behind me. I don't want to hit you with a spell be accident."

"But I've got my sword, and if we do run into Goblins I can help you." Bilbo started.

"You will be helping me Bilbo. You'll be watching my back to make sure nobody creeps up behind me and sticks a dagger in it. I need someone I can trust to do that. Alright?"

Bilbo nodded. He didn't like it and thought Harry was just telling him that to make him happy, to make him think he was really doing something, but he agreed.

-=ooo000ooo=-

While Bilbo and Harry were talking about what to do if they ran into Goblins, Gollum had been listening to what they were saying, and when he heard Harry talk about the ring…his ring….HIS PRECIOUS…he almost broke the spell Harry had him under. Had it not been for the extra power of the Elder wand, well I don't really want to think what would have happened to them. But in the end the spell held, and that's all that really matters for now.

So Gollum led them down pathways and tunnels, turning right, then left, then right again, then another left, until finally they started to see a faint light that wasn't coming from Harry's wand tip. "Gollum stop here." Harry said softly. "Are we near the exit?"

"Yesssss precious. We is near. But there is Goiblinses up there precious. Lots and lots of Goblinses. A big guard room to watch the door."

"Alright," said Harry. "Gollum, I want you to back to your island. You will stay there for a day and then you will wake from the spell I put you under. Go now." Harry commanded. And Gollum left, heading back down the tunnel. He was soon out of sight.

"Okay, lets get the hell out of the place." Harry said to Bilbo. "Put the ring on and then give me your hand. I'm going to turn myself invisible as well, and hopefully we can sneak out without anybody noticing. Alright?" he asked.

Bilbo pulled the gold ring out of his pocket, put it on his finger, and disappeared. He took Harry outstretched hand and watched as the young wizard waved his wand and muttered something. Harry also disappeared. "Come on," He whispered. "don't make any noise." Harry whispered, and they started up the last passage way.

-=ooo000ooo=-

It only took them a minute or two to creep down the last tunnel to the room at the end. It was, as Gollum had told them, a guard room of sorts, maybe 30 foot square, and it was full of Goblins, all of them heavily armed with swords and battleaxes. Harry leaned down and whispered into Bilbo's ear: "We're going to walk straight through the center of the room to the exit on the far side. You see the one where the light in peeking through?" He heard Bilbo whisper back a "Yes."

"Okay, let's go. Don't stop unless I stop you." Harry told him, positioning Bilbo right in front of him and putting both his hands on the Hobbits shoulders so that he steer him better without speaking. He stuck his wand in his mouth.

They made their way through the guard room, stopping twice to let a Goblin pass them, and once to weave quickly to their right to avoid another collision. But they finally made it to the stone door that was the exit to the outside world. The Goblins had it pulled nearly shut, and Bilbo was barely able to squeeze through. Harry whispered to him to go through and find a place to hide when he got outside. He would follow in a few minutes because he had to use magic to open the door far enough for him to get out. Bilbo agreed and inched his way through, losing a few buttons in the process, but Harry managed to reach out and catch them before they hit the stone floor and alerted the guards. Finally though, Bilbo was out, and after looking around for a place to hide, whispered to Harry through the crack that he would be in a clump of spruce trees that were directly facing the door and about 20 yards away.

Harry started counting. "One hippogriffs…two hippogriffs…three hippogriffs…" until he got to 60. He then pointed his wand at the door and said "Depulso!" and as the heavy stone door flew open with a crash, all hell broke loose in the guard room.

The Goblins started yelling, about the now open door which was letting the sun stream into the room. Harry didn't know it but he had picked the perfect time of the day to escape for the sun was directly in front of the entrance. This was why the door was closed. Goblins don't like sunlight. It makes their legs weak and wobbly and their heads hurt.

Harry had been out the door and down the path the second the door had been blown open by his spell. He saw the trees Bilbo had told him about and headed straight for them. "Bilbo." He called softly, "you here?"

"Yes I'm here Harry." He heard the hobbit say back. He sounded like he was about 10 or 15 feet away. "Did you have any problems getting the door open?"

"None at all. I put a lot of power into it to make sure I didn't have to do the spell twice." Then he added "Shhhh. Here come the Goblins."

Both Harry and Bilbo, who had crept closer to where he heard Harry's voice, watched as Goblins poured out the guard room exit…and right into the full glare of the mid-day sun. There seemed to be some half hearted attempts to search for the person or persons who had opened their door, but not being able to find any trace of anyone anywhere, they quickly gave their search and returned, (amid much grumbling and some very foul cursing), to guard the door.

They had escaped.

Harry canceled the disillusionment charm on himself and called for Bilbo to come over to him. He was surprised when Bilbo told him he already was, and when he removed the ring Harry saw that Bilbo was indeed crouched right next to him.

"I never heard a sound Bilbo. Do all Hobbit move as quietly as you do?" he asked.

"Most do. Because of our size, we've had to learn to move silently when in need."

"Well lets see if we can track down the others shall we?" he asked and then holding his wand said softly "Point me, Luna Lovegood."

His wand turned and pointed down the path that was snaking it's way along the side of the mountain. "Good," he said with relief. "They got out. Hopefully in one piece. Let's go." And started off down the path, Mr. Baggins following closely behind.

-=ooo000ooo=-