Disclaimer: All recognizable (and copyrighted) characters and plots belong to their respectful owners. I'm just taking them out for a walk.

A/N: Good grief, finally! I have spent the last few weeks struggling to churn this one out. Between family drama and the usual distractions of everyday life, I had a hell of a time trying to finish this beast for you guys. I am so, so sorry it took so very long. I tried to make the chapter a little longer to make up for the wait. As it is, since I am now on summer break, I'm going to try (note the try) to update at least once a week in an attempt to get a rhythm here.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the chapter despite its rocky ending and lateness. Once again, so sorry. Enjoy the chapter, and feel free to leave a review. They totally keep me going.

Chapter 13: The Making of The Fellowship

"Firstly, before I really start anything, you all need to know that the four of us… we're wizards." Harry drew his wand and showed it to the assembly, "We aren't just a bunch of random kids."

"We're a bunch of magical random kids." Ron quipped.

Harry waved his wand and levitated an ornate stone vase spilling over with ivy and flowers and moved it around the outside of the group in a wide circle, careful to keep it from dropping or hitting any of the council members. They whirled around in shock, following the levitating urn with panicked expressions, though Gandalf appeared to be smiling beneath his scraggly beard. Harry levitated the urn to Draco, who took control of levitating it while Hermione and Ron took turns changing it to different colors or making the designs around the outside move and shift. Draco returned it to its proper place, the carvings went still, and the assembly eventually settled down.

"As for our story, it's long, and I don't know the whole thing. I don't know the details, and I don't know if I ever will." Harry glanced around, "Look, I can only tell you what I know, and that's my part. There's more to it than that, and I don't know most of it. It's a story that's been going on for a while now, since before we were born... and we haven't been told everything." Harry said, rather bitterly, looking around at the assembled council members. There were a few nods of understanding, but no interruptions, so Harry continued. "It sort of started the night my parents were killed –murdered actually. You lot aren't the only ones with a Dark Lord. Back home, where we're from, we have Lord Voldemort." Ron gave a violent flinch and Draco twitched and looked around, as though Voldemort might have been summoned, "He wants to run our world –the Wizarding world- and he wants to enslave or kill all mugg…non-magic folk."

Gimli spoke up, "So why kill your parents, laddie?" Their little magic show seemed to have made an impression, and most of assembled council members were looking at them with new respect, Gimli included.

Harry sighed. "That's where it gets complicated. Last year I found out that there was a prophecy about Voldemort, about how he might be defeated. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies, and the Dark Lord will mark him as equal. But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not, and either must die and the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives. One of Voldemort's servants told him about it, and he worked out that there were two babies that fit that description, me and a friend of mine. Voldemort chose me. He found my parents, and killed them when I was a year old, and then tried to kill me."

There were murmurs of discontent and a few disbelieving grumbles, but Boromir spoke over them, "How were you able to survive?"

Harry pushed his hair back, revealing the scar. "My mum tried to protect me, begged Voldemort to take her instead, and leave me but he killed her anyways, then turned on me. That kind of love leaves behind very powerful magic protection and instead of killing me, the spell rebounded and hit him instead. Everyone thought he was dead, but he wasn't. Not really, he was a… wraith, or ghost or something, not alive and not dead either… but he's back now, and so are his followers."

Harry winced inwardly, as the gazes of the council members slowly began to shift into that look. The one that followed Harry around wherever he went, the semi-awed somewhat disbelieving look he got from people who knew even a few parts of the story. He suddenly wished he hadn't said anything, had never volunteered the story in the first place.

Lord Elrond spoke and broke Harry's train of thought, "This is familiar to us. Sauron once had great power and solid form, however after his defeat in the Second Age his spirit fled. Such evil cannot be destroyed, not permanently. Sauron is now regaining power and strength…" Elrond glanced at The Ring. "We may not be able to defeat him again." Elrond looked back at Harry, "This Voldemort must have great power."

Hermione nodded. "And loyal servants."

"He's been trying to kill me for years now, even before he was back to full strength."

Boromir spoke up again, "How was this Voldemort able to find your family? Did you not say they were in hiding?" Something in Boromir's tone, the way he said hiding, caught Harry's attention and he narrowed his eyes.

"They weren't cowards if that's what you're implying. My parents were in hiding to protect me, they couldn't very well fight a Dark Lord with a baby to look after could they, particularly one that may, or may not be the one with the power to destroy him? They were betrayed by someone they trusted, someone they thought was a friend. That same someone helped bring Voldemort back to full power." Boromir frowned and his fingers brushed over the pommel of his sword, but he was no longer looking at Harry.

Harry continued, "Anyways, Voldemort's been trying to kill me for years, but I won't drag the story on that long. Lord Elrond has those details, if you want them. All you need to know is that Voldemort is back, with full power and all his followers, and our world is preparing for battle."

"Or might already be at war," Hermione whispered. Ron put an arm around her shoulders and Draco closed his eyes.

Legolas, who had been sitting quietly with a look of contemplation on his face the whole time, finally spoke up, "Your world is not our world, is it? Or we would know of your battle against this Voldemort."

Harry shook his head. "No, this isn't our world. We were brought here a few weeks ago… The four of us were separated off, when we heard chanting. We didn't know it then, but it was the Black Speech… then we woke up here, well, in The Shire."

The Council members all looked at each other, muttering to one another and shooting now suspicious glances at Harry and the others. The dwarves were the loudest, and Boromir spoke up with a loud grumble, "How do we know, then, that these four can be trusted? They are clearly powerful and capable wizards. Are we expected to just take them at their word? How do we not know they are not spies for Sauron, or under his spell?"

Lord Elrond answered sternly, "We do not, Boromir, but if Harry and his companions meant any ill will, or had any intentions to take The Ring, they have had multiple opportunities to do so and have instead chosen to defend it and its bearer on their journey to Imladris. It is clear that Sauron brought them here, but we do not yet know for what purpose, nor what plans he may be devising, though I doubt Sauron has any pure intentions for our new friends."

"What makes you think this?"

Gandalf spoke then, "To have brought these four young wizards to this world at this time, when they have not yet completed their training and when our world is descending into madness, demonstrates he has ill-will towards them. Had he wanted their aid, he would have appeared in a different form, convinced them with promises of power and corrupted their minds, not pulled them violently from their home to be plopped in the Shire with The Ring. It is my belief, though I have no proof of this, that perhaps Sauron meant to bring you four here to destroy you."

Draco baulked. "Why would he want to destroy us?"

"Of that, I am not sure, young master Malfoy. Perhaps he has some connection to your Dark Lord? Perhaps there is another reason unbeknownst to us. Of what I am sure is that Sauron's thought is so bent on The Ring he could not direct you elsewhere-"

There was a strange murmur, as if the wind itself were whispering, and all eyes in the council fell onto The Ring, the light gleaming around the golden edge a little too bright, the gold band itself a little too... shiny. Harry's scar tingled, and he shivered despite the relative warmth of the sun streaming down into the pavilion, and took a very small step away from the Ring.

Gandalf continued, "What I do know" he started slowly, eyes fixed on The Ring, "is that the four of you are very far from home, and that your fate is tied to the fate of The One, and perhaps the fate of Middle Earth. Once we have decided what is to be done with The Ring, we may be better able to decide how best to aid you."

"Well," Ron started, "you're gonna destroy it, right? I mean," he gestured to Gandalf, "you said it was evil. And Strid-er... Aragorn says we can't use it. So what else is there to do but destroy it?"

"Well then," Gimli suddenly growled, drawing his axe, "what're we waitin' for?"

The dwarf lunged forward, axe swinging in a wide arc down onto the little gold band. Just as steel met gold there was a flash of light, a blast of impossibly hot air, Harry's scar exploded with pain, and He was blasted off his feet and back into Aragorn, who caught him before he could hit the ground. No one was there to catch Gimli, who'd been thrown to the ground, his axe destroyed, shards of the steel lying scattered about the pavilion, no more than shrapnel. Pieces of the axe laid in crumbled bits on the stone dais around The Ring, which hadn't suffered a bit of damage and lay glinting in the sun, almost seeming to mock the dwarf's attempt. Lord Elrond looked stern though unsurprised as Harry and Gimli were helped back to their feet, Harry clutching his head and Gimli his elbow where it had banged on the stone of the pavilion.

"The Ring cannot be destroyed by any craft we here possess." Elrond said blandly, "It was made deep in the fires of Mordor and only there can it be unmade. The Ring must be taken deep into Mordor and cast back into the fires from whence it came."

The wind whispered again, The Ring twinkled on the pedestal and Harry was careful to keep a fair few feet between him and the little gold band. The sharp pain in his head had dissipated as quickly as it had set in, though there remained an unpleasant, prickly tingle. It was strange, his scar only ever ached or hurt when Voldemort was around or influencing him, but there was no Voldemort here. Harry glanced at The Ring, it must have been a truly powerful little artifact to set his scar to hurting like that. As he sat he noticed Frodo clutching his head, staring at The Ring in a combination of fear and desire, but when Harry tried to catch the Hobbit's eye Hermione yanked him to his seat with a terse command to sit down.

The pavilion, already still, went downright rigid when Lord Elrond concluded his speech with, "One of you must do this."

Harry was suddenly, and violently, yanked to the side and Draco was whispering viciously in his ear, "You volunteer us and I will personally feed you to a pack of wolves."

No one (perhaps excluding the elves, who were all suddenly eying Draco with a little wariness) heard Draco's threat as Boromir had begun to speak: "One does not simply walk into Mordor. Its black gates are guarded by more than just Orcs. There is evil there that does not sleep... The Great Eye is ever watchful. It is a barren wasteland riddled with fire and ash and dust."

"Sounds pleasant." Ron muttered.

"The very air you breathe is a poisonous fume." Boromir continued.

"Ravenous wolves." Draco enunciated through clenched teeth.

"Not with ten thousand men could you do this, it is folly!"

"Have you heard nothing Lord Elrond just said?" Legolas scoffed, leaning forward in his seat, "The Ring must be destroyed."

"And I suppose you think you're the one to do it?!" Gimli snapped, and Legolas fixed an icy glower on the dwarf.

Boromir heaved himself to his feet, "And if we fail, what then? What happens when Sauron takes back what is his!?"

Aragorn rose to answer to Boromir, but Gimli cut him off, also standing, "I will be dead before I see The Ring in the hands of an Elf!"

Legolas threw himself out of his seat as his companions all rose, drawing daggers and swords as the Dwarves drew their axes, and dove between the groups, arms raised to hold them back, though he met the steely glare of each Dwarf with an equally cold stare. Meanwhile, the other half of the pavilion had also descended into chaos, as Boromir and Aragorn argued, Boromir not-so-subtly attempting to maneuver closer to The Ring, Aragorn keeping himself firmly planted between the two while the council members around them argued and bellowed, tripping over each others' robes and gesturing wildly to and fro. Gandalf was quick to leap into the fray in an attempt to silence the anarchy, but the council wasn't having it this time, and he was met with several members attempting to charge the four wizards, though for what they weren't sure. Lord Elrond sank back into his set and massaged his temples, while Arwen shook her head mournfully.

"These lot certainly do like their fighting..." Draco drawled.

"They're frightened Draco. People aren't exactly logical when they stand to lose so much." Hermione retorted.

Draco scoffed, "No one's arguing that Granger, but you'd think a group of grown men... well, adults, would be intelligent enough to realize they're playing right into Sauron's hands."

Ron snorted. "Because you're so rational when you're scared, Malfoy."

"At least I don't wet myself at the sight of a spider, Weasel." Draco bristled.

"At least I don't need my Dad to fight all my battles for me, Ferret-Face."

Draco and Ron both stood and faced each other, and Harry rolled his eyes. Well, of course they'd start fighting, why ever not? "Not that he could, too busy getting lost on his way to work in the morning isn't he?"

"Back off Malfoy," Ron growled, drawing his wand, Draco drawing his immediately after.

Hermione jumped up and elbowed her way in between them, "Will you two stop it?! Honestly, you are acting like children!"

Harry prepared to step in, there was enough infighting they didn't need to add to it, going for his wand and standing, when, through shifting robes and the gaps in between elbows, he caught sight of the Ring, twinkling and shimmering in the light. The tingling in his scar intensified, as the same whispering and murmuring filled the pavilion, unheard by everyone arguing and bellowing. When did The Ring get so big? Wasn't it just a tiny band? Maybe it was the way the light was hitting it, gracing the curved edge almost lovingly so the light glinted just so. Harry blinked and shook his head, having taken a step towards the Ring before consciously realizing he'd even moved. Ron, Hermione and Draco were still screaming at each other, as was everyone else, except for himself and Elrond, who was looking at Harry with an unreadable expression on his face. Harry flushed and took a step back, bumping into Ron, when a little voice cried out over the commotion:

"I will take it!"

A few people turned and looked around, searching for the source of the voice, when Frodo stood up and called out again, "I will take The Ring to Mordor!"

Now everyone had gone silent, even the Dwarves, through a few had drawn their weapons back. Gandalf alone made a sound, heaving a sad mournful sigh.

"Though," Frodo continued, "I do not know the way."

There was a pause as everyone eyed the little hobbit. Some of them scoffed, unimpressed, but many others were looking at the hobbit with a new respect, but no one stepped forward. Harry half expected someone would offer him a map and a cheery 'safe travels!' and was just about to speak up when the crowd parted to allow Gandalf through, looking old and travel worn already.

Gandalf said, "I will help to bear this burden, Frodo Baggins, so long as it is yours to bear." Gandalf stood behind Frodo, hands planted comfortingly on the hobbit's shoulders.

Aragorn pressed through the crowd and knealt in front of Frodo. "If by my life or death I can protect you, I will. You have my sword."

"And my bow," said Legolas moving forward to stand with Frodo.

"And my axe." Gimli growled, ignoring Legolas' annoyed expression.

There was a pause, and Harry glanced over at Draco who frowned, "You're volunteering us aren't you?"

Harry and Ron shuffled a few steps closer to the slowly expanding group, smiling. Aragorn clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, and Gimli nodded in approval, though Legolas frowned slightly. Draco turned to Hermione.

"And do you subscribe to this madness?"

She nodded, shifting over to stand with Ron, "Where The Ring goes we have to go." Hermione said. "It's the reason we were brought here. But you can stay here, if you like? Is that alright Lord Elrond?"

The Elf Lord nodded, "If young Master Malfoy so chooses, he may remain here."

Hermione sidled a glance at Draco, smiling slightly, while Aragorn watched him evenly. Frodo leaned forward to look up at Draco hopefully, and the Slytherin moaned and rolled his eyes, "Oh bloody- fine! Fine!" Aragorn and Hermione exchanged grins as Draco stepped over and joined them, grumbling in annoyance under his breath. Aragorn clapped a hand to his shoulder.

Boromir moved forward, gazing at the assembled group with an appraising gaze. "You carry the fate of us all, little one." he said to Frodo. "If this is truly the will of the council," a few scattered nods affirmed Boromir of the decision, "then Gondor will see it done."

"Here!" Everyone jumped and looked around as Samwise Gamgee came out from behind an urn of flowers and darted through the group to stand next to Frodo, "Mr. Frodo's not goin' anywhere without me!"

Elrond smiled, "No, indeed it is hardly possible to separate you two, even when he is summoned to a secret council and you are not." Sam flushed.

"Wait!"

"Oh, now what?" Draco demanded as Merry and Pippin came out from behind their own hiding places, where they'd tucked themselves behind a pair of pillars.

"We're coming too!" Pippin called as they darted across the pavilion and stood on either side of Frodo and Sam.

"You'd have to send us home tied up in a sack to stop us!" Merry agreed, and Draco shot them a look as if he very much wanted to.

"Anyways," Pippin said, ignorant of the looks they were getting, "you need people of intelligence on this sort of mission... quest... thing."

"Well, that rules you out Pip." Merry quipped, earning an affronted look.

Hermione stifled a giggle in Ron's shoulder and Gimli coughed, through he looked amused beneath his bushy auburn beard. Gandalf was gazing around the pavilion as through trying to figure out just when the Hobbits had come in, and Legolas' frown had grown deeper. He looked practically livid.

Lord Elrond gazed over the group, an expression of half amusement and half annoyance on his face, "Thirteen companions."

"An unlucky number." someone murmured, but Harry couldn't place the voice. Elrond ignored them.

There was a pause, as though they were waiting for someone to step out of the woodwork and volunteer as the fourteenth, but no one moved. Arwen made to stand, but both brothers gently pulled her back and shook their heads.

Elrond sighed. "So be it. You shall be the Fellowship of The Ring."