AN: Hey everyone... So. I would write up a huge excuse, but it wouldn't be all that legitimate. Either way, I'll try to placate some of your frustration or anger towards me for taking so damn long to update... I'm mad at myself for taking this long. It's been almost a month! D: Anyways, I've been busier than I expected. I've had band, band, and more band, art, art, and more art, and now, homework, homework, and more homework. Sadly, it looks like this will be my new update schedule... a new chapter every few weeks. I'll try to update more often than that, but as of right now, it looks like AP Art History, AP Studio Art, Photography, British Literature, and Chicago Urban History won't let me do that... I'll try to update every two weeks if I can.
ANYWAYS. Here's the chapter! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed this since the last update!
I don't own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about school or college because I'd have enough money to just do whatever the hell I wanted for the rest of my life without working!
"I have no memory of this place." Gandalf said as he faced a fork in their path. He stood there, puzzled, as he searched his mind. He sat down, thinking it over and over again. Fred tried the "point me" charm, but all that spell did was point you in the cardinal direction, be it north, east, south, or west, not the direction you needed to go in order to get to your destination. Sensing that it would take a long time, the fellowship made themselves comfortable on the rock as they waited. Ginny's eyes kept darting around them all from where she sat by Gimli and Aragorn, who was smoking his pipe pensively. This place still scared her and she was afraid to sit by herself. She didn't want the memories of the Chamber to return. Ever. She heard Pippin and Merry whispering to each other.
"Are we lost?" Pippin asked.
"No, I don't think we are. Now shh! Gandalf's thinking." Merry said. There was a short pause before Pippin spoke again.
"Merry? I'm hungry." he said. Ginny smiled at them. Their appetites really were larger than those of her brothers. She reached into her bag that she had enchanted with an undetectable extension charm and pulled out some dry crackers. She tossed them to Pippin.
"It's not much, but it'll fill your stomach." she said. Pippin thanked her and stuffed the crackers into his mouth. Ginny laughed to herself silently. Worse than Ron. She missed him. Before she left home, she never thought that she'd miss his rude table manners, his bottomless stomach, his tactlessness. But here she was, all sad over the face that Ron wasn't there. She saw Gandalf and Frodo talking, but payed them no mind. It wasn't her business. Suddenly Gandalf stood up and replaced his hat on his head.
"Ah! It's that way!" he said.
"He's remembered!" Merry said excitedly.
"No," Gandalf disagreed, "but the air does not smell so foul down here." he explained. "When in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose." he said. Ginny shook her head at the wizard, smiling as she did so. He was so much like Dumbledore. They all got up to follow him through the chosen arch and Ginny took up her place in the middle of the company once more, a twin on either side. They walked for a while until they came upon a large hall.
"Let us risk a little more light." Gandalf said from the front. He brightened the tip of his staff and the Weasleys did the same with their wands. The sight that met their eyes was impressive to say the least - it was breathtaking. It was a large dwarven hall, with pillars the size of trees beautifully carved out of the stone, making arches a ceiling taller than that of the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Ginny's jaw dropped a little as she looked at it all, trying to take everything in, but finding it impossible.
"Behold, the great realm of the dwarf city of Dwarrodelf." Gandalf said to them as he walked further into the hall, shedding more light unto the intricately carved columns. They got further into the hall, and they were almost at the other end when Gimli ran forward into the next room with a surprised and saddened cry.
"Gimli!" George and Gandalf shouted after him, but he didn't stop. He kept running until he was inside the next room, the floor was strewn with corpses and other residue of battle, and in the center was a marble tomb, light shining down upon it from the outside. The Weasleys were all forcibly reminded of Dumbledore's tomb, white marble encasing their beloved headmaster.
"No!" Gimli cried as he got closer to it. "No!" He knelt down in front of it and succumbed to tears, crying into the hand that wasn't holding his axe. "No..."
They followed him inside, and Gandalf read aloud the inscription on the tomb. Ginny crouched beside Gimli and laid an arm around his shoulders. If there was one thing she understood, it was the need to grieve. Gimli needed that right now, Ginny knew, without even knowing who resided inside the tomb, and so she provided that for him. Sure enough, the dwarf leaned into her side, even though his pride wouldn't allow him to full out cry in front of all of them.
"Here lies Balin, son of Fundin, Lord of Moria." Gandalf read. Gimli's cousin. He was family. Ginny also couldn't help but think she'd heard the name somewhere before... Maybe in a story? She shook herself back to the present, tightening her hold on Gimli as his resolve broke, finally releasing his tears.
"He is dead then." Gandalf continued, "It is as I feared." Ginny watched him reach down and pick up a book from the dead skeletal hands of a dwarf leaning against the tomb. The book seemed to protest being opened, but Gandalf forced it to cooperate.
"They have taken the bridge." Gandalf read, "and the second hall. We have barred the gates, but cannot hold them for long. The ground shakes... Drums, drums in the deep. We cannot get out. The shadow moves in the dark. We cannot get out. They are coming." There was a loud clatter and Ginny looked up sharply to see that Pippin had knocked a skeleton down a well. The sound reverberated for nearly a minute before it stopped. She got up from where she had previously been comforting Gimli, who now had a hold of himself and his emotions, and Gandalf started to berate the curious hobbit.
"Fool of a Took!" he snapped, "Throw yourself in next time, and rid us of your stupidity!"
Ginny raised her eyebrows at that comment. There was no need for such harsh words! She kept her mouth shut, though. They didn't need any more dissent and disagreement among them than what already existed. And besides, that noise will have alerted any enemies to their presence. They needed to be ready to fight. A loud pounding sound rumbled from all sides. It was a drum. It sounded again, and again, and again, getting louder, more rhythmic, more hurried. Ginny noticed Frodo drawing his sword, Sting, and saw it glowing blue. Orcs.
"Oh my Rowling..." she mumbled to herself. They heard a shriek form outside the chamber, and Legolas voiced all of their thoughts.
"Orcs!" he said and Boromir rushed to the door to close it. He made a mistake of pausing for a second and two arrows shot past his nose, embedding themselves in the door.
"Get back!" Aragorn said to the hobbits, "And stay close to Gandalf!" he commanded. He turned to Ginny, and was about to say something similar, but she beat him to it.
"Oh Hell no." she said, "I am no damsel in distress, you should know that better than anyone." she said, smirking. Sure, she had a bit of a breakdown yesterday, but that had no bearing on her fighting skills.
"Best just let her fight, mate," Fred said to Aragorn who looked exasperated with Ginny.
"You should know that by now." George finished. As they were talking, Boromir had shut the door and barred it closed.
"They have a cave troll." he said with an odd tone of voice, almost as if he was asking things to just get worse.
"Bloody fantastic." Fred said sarcastically.
"Well, if Ron can take down a mountain troll with wingardium leviosa, I think we can make short work of some cave troll, don't you my dear siblings?" George asked Fred and Ginny half jokingly. Ginny couldn't hide her grin as she nodded.
"Of course." she said a bit cockily. Fred and George rushed forward to help the others brace the door with spears and axes scattered along the ground, and Ginny watched as Gandalf and the hobbits drew swords, and Gimli leapt atop Balin's tomb.
"Let them come!" he growled, "There is one dwarf yet in Moria who still draws breath!" he said viciously, axe raised and ready to strike. The doors shook with the blows from the other side, and the axes and spears were beginning to splinter under the pressure. Ginny, Aragorn, and Legolas all had their bows strung and drawn, all aiming at the doors, ready to shoot down the first Orc or Goblin to break through. Fred and George were bouncing on the balls of their feet, shifting their weight from one foot to the other, exchanging friendly banter, trying to make light of the situation. Boromir swung his sword around a bit in his hand, warming up his muscles as he braced himself for the coming attack.
The first monster broke through the wood and Legolas shot it in the head, eliciting a squeal from the creature as it perished. Another took its place, only to meet one of Aragorn's arrows, also to the face. Another hole formed, and Ginny focused on that one, getting two out of three arrows shot through the hole and into the mass of Orcs and Goblins behind. They broke down the door, and Legolas brought down the first one through, and it wailed as it fell down, only to be trampled by its kin. They continued to shoot arrows at them until they came too close for that to be effective in any way, shape, or form, and then they drew their swords. Ginny and the twins wanted to save their magic as a last resort, if there were any survivors from the attack, they didn't need the information getting out that four wizards were traveling across Middle Earth together with two men, an elf, a dwarf, and four hobbits. Might get suspicious. Ginny thought sarcastically. God, I've been spending too much time with the twins lately.
She tried to keep her mind anywhere but on the battle, allowing her limbs to move automatically in a rhythmic pattern of slicing, stabbing, and lunging. She fought back to back with both Fred and George in a sort of triangle formation, each of them watching the other two's backs.
"Fred!" Ginny called to him, and he ducked below the blade of an Orc who had been poised to decapitate him. Ginny stabbed the thing in the gut and pulled out her sword just as the cave troll entered the room.
"Operation Ronnikins?" George asked them, using the name he'd come up with for their attack against the troll.
"What the hell kinda name is that?" Ginny replied incredulously. Despite the strange name, they made their way over to the troll, close enough for spell range, but far enough that it couldn't reach them with its club. Ginny was given spell duty first, and then they would rotate, with two guarding the third from enemies at all times. Ginny drew her wand and waited until she had a clear shot at the troll's eyes.
"Confundus!" she shouted, aiming for its face, the most vulnerable point. If this thing was anything like the trolls back home, its skin would be thicker than Hagrid's. Unfortunately, the spell missed, hitting the wall and causing an explosion. However, a shard from the explosion managed to lodge itself in the troll's shoulder, making it pause in its tracks for a second long enough for her to get in another spell.
"Levicorpus!" she tried, but the troll went and moved again, so she ended up hitting an Orc, sending it flying into the air by its ankle. Legolas got a clear shot at it and brought it down, falling back to the floor.
"Doesn't this thing know that it's supposed to stay still long enough for us to hurt it?" Ginny said sarcastically to her brothers.
"Apparently not, Gin." Fred said, humoring her. "Rotate!" he shouted. Ginny quickly returned her wand to the holster on her thigh and drew her sword. Their little red haired triangle turned clockwise, giving George a chance at cursing the troll. Ginny focused her attention on the goblins and orcs trying to bring down her brother as he focused on his spellwork. She quickly got back into her previous rhythm and soon they rotated again, this time it was George and Ginny who were defending Fred. Apparently, cave trolls are very resilient to magic. It was disappointing to them to say the least the "Operation Ronnikins" was a failure, but they at least managed to fell a fair number of orcs and goblins. They heard a clanging sound, and Ginny looked over quickly to see the troll swinging its chain at Legolas, who was standing on a ledge, waiting for an opportunity to shoot at the beast. She turned back to her current battle with a particularly large orc, who seemed to have more brains than the others. She ducked under its sword, and slashed it across both legs. It got a blow on her arm, slashing at her left forearm, narrowly missing her artery. With all the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she didn't even notice that she was wounded. She kicked the orc in the crotch, an underhanded move, she knew that, but she was desperate. When it fell to the ground with a snarl, she cleanly sliced off its head and it was then that she heard Frodo's desperate cries.
"Aragorn!" he shouted. Ginny looked over, and saw that the hobbit was being chased by the troll. "Aragorn!" he shouted again.
Aragorn tried to get to him, but the troll knocked him out somehow, Ginny couldn't quite see what was going on. She saw the troll raise a spear in its fist and throw it. It clattered against stone, but it picked it up again, this time stabbing it straight and true at a cornered Frodo. Merry and Pippin bravely jumped onto its back, stabbing it with their swords. Ginny ran to the fallen Hobbit without a second thought, throwing a spell at the troll, which missed again. The thing swung its club right and left, thrashing out at the dead goblins, the only kind in the room at this point, and Fellowship alike. Legolas managed to shoot it in the mouth and it fell to the ground, dead.
Merry and Pippin were thrown off its back, and they all rushed to Frodo now that all their threats were dispatched. Aragorn got there first and then Ginny.
"No..." she said. Aragorn turned him over so he was facing upwards, and they saw his chest rising and falling. He's... alive? How? Ginny's eyes widened, and she let out a relieved sigh. Frodo gasped for air, and clutched at the place where the spear hit him. There was only a hole in his shirt where the blade had hit and he seemed to be perfectly okay.
"He's alive." Sam said to everyone else, smiling in relief. They all had assumed the worst...
"I'm alright, I'm not hurt." Frodo reassured them. Aragorn and Ginny stared at him in disbelief.
"How?" Ginny asked.
"You should be dead," Aragorn said, "That spear would have skewered a wild boar!"
Apparently Gandalf knew something they didn't because he said "It appears that there is more to this hobbit than meets the eye."
Frodo unbuttoned the top of his shirt to reveal a fine white chain shirt, beautifully decorated along the collar.
"Mithril..." Gimli said, "You are full of surprises, Master Baggins."
"Bilbo's shirt..." Ginny put the pieces together. Bilbo had been given a mithril shirt from Thorin when he had gone on his adventure to Lonely Mountain. And that was where she'd heard the name Balin! How could she have forgotten? That old hobbit must have told her the story twenty times.
They heard screeching and clanging noises from the direction the other goblins had just come from. There were more of them.
"To the bridge of Khazad-Dum!" Gandalf said urgently. They all rushed to follow him out of the hall, not willing to face another contingent of those same monsters.
AN: Thanks for reading!
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