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26. The last days of Peace.
Three days later the beacons had not yet been lit and Ginny got antsy with waiting. She hated waiting for the ax to drop. It didn't help with her sleeping either. Every day that passed was cause for more intense nightmares. Nightmares about big black flying things, magical things and screeching sounds haunted her nights.
However, Aragorn had said that the ride to Gondor took a long time and if they hit trouble on the way it might be even longer. The future king of Gondor didn't expect the beacons to be lit for another two days at the least.
The antsy feeling often left her in a bad mood. Sometimes it got so bad that even Gimli feared to approach her as her wand was regularly posed for cursing somebody. It was good that she had enough things to distract herself with or many people would end up being cursed into the next week.
Sword fight training helped quite a lot with her pent up frustrations. Aragorn had her working hard and left her often too tired to even lift an arm to curse.
Aragorn, she decided, was a great teacher and would he survive the war he would become a great father. He was patient, calm and knowledgeable. He had the skill to teach her things quite quickly and by the third day she was able to hold a simple defense and attack against one of the younger members of the Rohirrim.
Aragorn was most focused on teaching her how to defend herself, constantly repeating the moves so that her body could do it while sleeping. He considered it the most important of her training as she already had a major offensive weapon in her magic.
It was heavy training and her stamina wasn't all that good. While Quidditch training had been rough it was done sitting on a broom so any physical exercise didn't really come natural to her. During their mock duels Aragorn called for a break every thirty minutes before continuing just to give her a moment to catch her breath. It made her decide that she would need to brew pepper-up potion in large quantity. During these breaks they would sit down, drink and eat something while they talked about small things and big things alike.
Ginny found that her heart trusted Aragorn. Her battered and broken heart allowed her to speak to him about things that with others she thought of as too painful.
"So your brother taught you how to fly a broom?" Aragorn asked in shock.
"Yeah, I was only six but Charlie insisted I tried. It turned out I am quite the natural talent at flying." She told him as she recounted funny from her early childhood. "One of the biggest sports in my world is Quidditch. It is played on a broom and I'm very good at it. I was hoping that after the war I would fly with elite players. Sadly, I don't have a proper broom here or I wouldn't need to ride a horse."
"I find it very hard to imagine using a broom for transport." Aragorn chuckled.
A day later she showed him the book that was given to her by the Valar.
"That's a mighty gift. Though I think you deserved to be gifted anything by them as they dumped you in another war." Aragorn grumbled.
"In my dream, my best friend who died in battle gave it to me. She told me to go save lives." Ginny whispered.
"You did save many, Ginny. Hamá wouldn't have survived without you and without Hamá's skills many of the army wouldn't have made it. You were a catalyst for many lives saved."
"I never looked at it in that way." Ginny sighed.
"You know that not many women in Middle Earth can read. Even more than half of the men can't read either."
"Really?" Ginny said.
"Only those from royal or elven decent are taught. Surprisingly quite a lot of hobbits can read and write." Aragorn said. "They are taught by their grandparents through stories and legends. Did your parents teach you how to read and write?"
"Yes, I was home-schooled until I went to Hogwarts. Where I come from only a small group of people cannot read or write and that's mostly because of illness. Where I come from reading and writing is needed to get a job or earn money so that you can buy food and shelter. Most children go to school from the age of four."
"And at this school they are taught how to read and write?"
"Amongst other things." Ginny nodded. "However, in the magical world children go to school at the age of eleven, until then they are taught by their parents or hired tutors."
"That sounds really useful. Perhaps it is something to look into here as well. It would do well to have people educated."
Aragorn would often ask about general things from her world. Ginny got the feeling that he was trying to get her to talk about things that still hurt her and that he was trying to make her see that she could remember the good things without being in pain constantly. And it worked.
She did feel better after their little talks; even her nightmares about home were less terrible because of it. Not that the waiting for the battle to come was helping in the sleep department, the nightmares about the upcoming battle grew worse and worse. These talks just helped to take the edge of her memories of Hogwarts. The castle was just swapped for a new location.
Brewing seven or eight potions at once also helped to keep her from getting too antsy. She had to keep track of her timing with all cauldrons to ensure that she didn't make any dangerous mistakes. Besides keeping track of each potion, she often found herself walking for miles just to find the right ingredients.
Legolas proved to be a blessing for her in this. He really did know a lot about plants, roots and animals. What surprised her even more was that he turned out to be quite skilled at brewing as well.
"We elves have developed a lot of healing skills over the years. One of them is how to use herbs and mix them until they enhance their healing powers." Legolas explained. "Brewing potions like you do is only taking it a step further. I suggest that you talk to Lord Elrond of Rivendell about this when you get the chance. He is our most skilled healer. He also carries traces of healing magic that he can use."
"Really? It's such a shame that I came here at such a dark time. I would love to see Middle Earth in all its glory."
"Even now it truly is a beautiful place. It's sad that the elves are leaving these lands. Within the next five hundredth years there will be no true elves left in Middle Earth."
"What? Why?" Ginny asked shocked. So, shocked that she forgot to watch where she was going and stumbled over a fallen tree. Ever the gentlemen Legolas caught her before she fell.
Being in Legolas's arms was something she still found difficult and comforting at the same time. Over the last few days she had started to realize that she was developing more than friendly feelings for the elf. She hated that fact, she was Harry's girl, Harry's beloved, her new feelings felt like betraying Harry and yet… yet it felt so right with Legolas. Setting aside the fact that he was so much older than her and that he was immortal sometimes she could actually see herself being happy with Legolas.
And that she hated even more.
She knew how it felt to lose somebody she loved so deeply, she knew the pain of mortality. She would never in her right mind do that to somebody else. So even considering a relationship with somebody immortal was a no-go zone.
Still… she couldn't help her feelings.
Legolas was quite oblivious to her thoughts and answered her question as he helped her steady herself.
"The time of the elves in Middle Earth is over. There is nothing left here for us. Most of us feel the call to our true home and many are already making the journey to the grey havens."
"Where will they go?"
"To Valinor, the undying lands. It's the home of the Valar, the Maiar and the Istar."
"Will you go?" She asked hesitant as she climbed her horse. They had been gathering herbs close to a forest an hour's ride from Edoras.
"I do not feel the call yet. I have still too much left to do. My father is also still staying for now. I imagine that I won't be traveling before him."
Ginny nodded and started to ride back to Edoras. She wondered about the workings of Middle Earth. You had your dark wizards, light wizards, elves, goblins, dwarves, humans and everything in between, yet this world was so different than where she came from. It was mind boggling at times.
It appeared that only humans were the same in each world. They lived a relatively short live, during which they grew up, fell in love, got married, had kids, grew old and died. For all other creatures these rules didn't seem to apply. Elves lived long lives and if they didn't find their soul-mate they would never start a family. Not to mention that they didn't seem to be bound to this land. They had a land for themselves.
She didn't know enough about hobbits and dwarves to judge but the Istari seemed to play by even weirder rules.
"What are the Maiar?" Ginny asked.
"The Maiar are spirits, whose existence began before the world, of the same order as the Valar but of lesser degree. Through the Maiar the Valar try to shape the world."
"So, they are like angels?" Ginny asked but Legolas looked confused. "Not the right word, I guess. In my eyes, the Valar are like the gods, they created Middle Earth and everything, right?"
"Well not completely but to go into detail it would be too confusing and too long of an explanation. So, for the purpose of this conversation you can say that." Legolas answered.
"Okay, so where I come from the main god has beings that aid him in his tasks, beings that bring out his message and do jobs for him. We call those beings, Angels. I figure that the Maiar are the same to the Valar."
Legolas looked thoughtful for a while but then he nodded.
"Yes, if you look at it like that then you are right."
Ginny smiled and thought about another question.
"This Valinor, what is it like?"
"I'm not sure, I only know of the stories about them. Gandalf has been there so to get a detailed account you should ask him. What I know of it is that Valinor is the most beautiful and peaceful place there is. Imagine Middle Earth in its purest."
"That sounds stunning. Middle Earth is already stunning. Without humans and dark wizards it should be even better."
"There is no real darkness in Valinor. The Valar balances everything there. Darkness doesn't get the change to gain hold there."
"Then why are you still here?" Ginny asked. "I mean if you have such an ideal place to go to why stay in Middle Earth when dark creatures are making life difficult here?"
"That's a long story, it is entwined with the complete history of Middle Earth."
"The short version?"
"There is no short version. However, I can tell you that all the light creatures in Middle Earth feel it as an obligation to stand against the darkness of Sauron. We need to right a wrong."
Ginny sighed and shook her head. It sounded all too much like her own world. It left her with a sad feeling that it seemed that no matter which world she would ever travel too there would always be a sense of darkness. She went to a completely other world, for Merlin's sake and still she encountered a dark lord.
"If Sauron is defeated will peace return to Middle Earth or will another dark being rise?"
"We do not know. Darkness is what balances the light, it always needs to be there it seems but we are very hopeful that once Sauron is defeated and Aragorn finally accepts his destiny, Middle Earth will enter a period of peace. For how long, we can only hope it will last a long while."
Later that night Ginny sat in her room thinking about all that she had learned over the last weeks. From the battle for Hogwarts till today a lot had happened. The battle for Hogwarts had been brutal, heart breaking and her worst nightmare. Yet waking up in a completely different world seemed even a worse fate than dying at the hands of a Death Eater or of a broken heart.
At first she had been so lost and so upset. All she wanted was to die and be with Harry again. Seeing Harry die in front of her eyes and then seeing all the broken bodies of her friends and family broke her heart and almost her mind. For days, she had danced on the edge of insanity. There were moments in which giving into that darkness seemed as natural as breathing.
Yet, now, somehow even with the battles, the darkness and the war, her stay in Middle Earth seemed to be healing her wounded heart and soul. It was strange that she could find some peace of mind and the will to heal in a world where they were at the brink of a similar war.
Mulling this over Ginny realized that it was the presence of her new friends that allowed her to slowly heal and gave her the will to continue. Each of her new friends meant something to her. Aragorn had become a confidant and teacher in many ways but also an older brother. His whole look on things, his behavior and character reminded her of Bill. On the other side Aragorn's rough and weathered appearance made her think about Sirius. Somebody who had lived through more pain than a human should be capable off but with such a strength to carry on anyway.
Gimli had become the favorite uncle that she never had. She would imagine that had her mother's brothers lived they would be like Gimli was to her. Gimli told her stories about Middle Earth, about the Dwarves and their travels and about the relationship with the elves. Gimli was always the one to encourage her. He was there when Aragorn drilled her through hours of sword fighting to cheer her on.
Over the last few days Merry, Èowyn and Éomer had become her siblings much like her dysfunctional family had been. They all had their good and bad sides and Ginny started to care for whatever side they had. Whenever she could find the time or during brewing they would come to her and talk to her about all sorts of things. Ginny was happy to have Èowyn around. It was nice having a woman around to talk about female things this time around.
King Théoden wasn't around much; he was often busy helping his people recover from the time when Saruman had claimed his mind. Quite often he could be seen ordering his soldiers to help rebuild houses, sow crops or doing other things to help out his people. Ginny took some time off from her magical training to help.
With her house-hold charms knowledge that her mother had given her she could to a lot for the people without too much effort. She helped the women with cleaning clothes, mending fabrics or just clean out the house. She would do her best to heal sick children when asked or help the men by making heavy things feather light. During that week in Edoras she changed the people's point of view about magical beings. Slowly they started to trust her and King Théoden was very thankful for her help.
And then there was Legolas. No matter how she tried to classify Legolas she could never find the right description or name. He was her friend. That for sure but the word friend seemed a gross understatement. However, he had not the same status as Harry had, yet. She had loved Harry for more than seven years and even though she had a major crush on him it was the kindness in him and the brave heart that made her truly love him.
Qualities Legolas seemed to have as well, something inside of her whispered.
Ginny sighed and turned in her bed. She was already aware that she would never love a man like she had loved Harry. A true and whole heart can only be given once. However, the prospect of growing old alone without a family was so scary and her heart was already leaning towards Legolas as that much-needed companionship.
"Let us first see to that we can grow old." Ginny whispered to herself as she turned around again.
G&L&G&L&G&L&G&L&G&L
Legolas watched as the young Istar was brewing her potions. He had helped her gather and cut the ingredients and now she was adding the last of them into the large cauldron.
"There, now it has to shimmer for at least five hours before it can be bottled." Ginny said and sat down next to him.
"What potions are these?" He asked as they were new to him.
"The large cauldron is for a huge batch of pepper-up potions, it restores energy quickly but it is addictive and really should only to be used in real need. It is very useful in long battles. I have already enough bottled for myself but this is for you, Aragorn, Gimli, Éomer, the king and his guard."
"That would be very useful but how do we carry these around? These glass bottles you make are very fragile."
"Oh… I haven't showed you yet." Ginny jumped up and Legolas couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. Sometimes he marveled at how easily Ginny's mood could change. One moment she was quiet, serious and focused and the other she was like a young child with a new toy.
"Éowyn and I were talking about how to transport things more easily. I had noticed that with the trip to Helm's Deep that many things that could have been useful were left behind because of the need for speed. When Gandalf left I spend the morning pondering on plans for the coming battle and decided that we needed a lot of things but we can't burden ourselves and the horses with large amounts of foods, water and weapons. Not to mention all my potions. We came up with this."
Ginny held out a leather pouch that was about the size of a person's hand. It looked big enough to carry some coins and herbs around. It could be easily attached to his belt. In her other hand was a larger cotton bag that looked like you could attach it to a saddle.
"Here these ones are for you. As you see it has a green leaf on it."
Legolas took it from her and looked a bit confused. These weighed nothing, light as a feather. Even the bigger bag felt lighter than it should be.
"Open it. Have a look in it."
Legolas first opened the saddlebag. To his utter shock and surprise he couldn't see the bottom. What he did see were clothes, boots, quivers full of arrows, knives and his cloak. How was it possible that the whole thing didn't weigh more than a feather yet, held all this stuff in it. He reached in and touched the arrows. They felt real, their tips were very sharp and hard.
"That will be your travel bag. You can attach it to the saddle or your belt. It will hold whatever you put in it without adding to the weight but be careful with making a mess. You'll search for hours to find something. For now it only holds clothes, knives and arrows but you can add whatever you need. Within reason that is, no houses or horses. Now open the other."
He carefully opened the leather pouch and again was met with a shocking sight. Inside he saw about two dozen different glass bottles, two water bags, quite a large amount of food and bandages.
"This will be your personal care bag. It contains everything you'll need for healing and food. The food is under a charm that will keep it from going bad. The potions are all labeled to tell you what they do and the bottles are charmed so that they can't be broken. There are potions there for pain relief, blood replenishing, fix broken bones and against fever. The potion in the red bottle is essence of dittany. It activates with light so that's why the bottle isn't see through. The dittany will clean a wound but also speed up the healing of muscle tissue and skin. The glass bottles with a black lid are pastes for burns, bruises and infected cuts. Once this batch is ready you will also get a few phials of pepper-up potions."
Legolas looked dumbfound at the beautiful woman. He wondered if she had any idea of how many lives she was saving with this. Probably not and that's why he fell even more in love with her. There was no denying it any longer, he was in love. The Valar themselves could forbid it and he still couldn't care.
"This is amazing." Legolas breathed. "You have no idea how much this will help."
"I hope it will be enough to keep you alive. I have also placed a few protection charms on the bags. You see the stone that holds the clasp?"
"Yes. I can feel it humming." Legolas said as he touched it.
"I have carved runes in it. The runes create a protection for you from some basic magical attacks as well as protect the bag from falling into the wrong hands. It will need a drop of blood to link the wards to you."
"I'm sorry, what?" Legolas asked. "Using blood?"
"Yeah, it's a common thing in my world to have wards tied to that person's blood. Some wards need a payment with blood as well. Just a prick in the finger and a drop of blood will be enough." Ginny explained.
"Amazing. I'm sure that when you meet Lord Elrond you will be locked away in his library for ages just so he can learn everything he can from you. I think we should wait with that visit for a while." Legolas chuckled. "I like being able to be with you and I am not going into Elrond's library on my own free will."
Ginny laughed loudly, a sound that lifted his heart.
"I'll just give him my book. It should keep him busy for a while." She said with a chuckle.
A ringing sound was heard and Ginny got up with a groan. Apparently, a potion needed attention. Legolas continued to watch her and occasionally handed her something she needed.
She fascinated him. The way she moved, the way she talked and the way she so easily seemed to wrap all the men around her fingers. All these things seemed to show her true character. Not the depressed, sad and hurt woman he had met at first but the strong, warrior-like, battle ready witch. However, Legolas slowly learned about her protective and feminine side. He had seen her gossip with Éowyn or giggle at things. He had also seen her taking care of a very sick infant with a softness that could only be managed by a good mother.
These were all little things that made him realize that he did truly love her. Once he acknowledged that an initial bond between them had formed. He had felt it form and now he could only hope that one day she would acknowledge it as well. Sometimes he thought that she did feel the bond and wanted it to be there, while at other moment he easily recognized the haunted look of loss and heartache in her eyes.
He found that he didn't care about what his father would say about his choice. His father wouldn't be very pleased that his son had chosen a bonding with a mortal woman. He had often indicated that he saw such a bond as a worse option than traveling to the undying lands. Yet, to Legolas it didn't matter. If they would ever meet, Ginny would turn his father into a frog if he would be rude to her. She did not accept rudeness in any form. He had seen her curse a young soldier when he made a crude comment about her body. It wasn't pretty but there was no lasting damage.
Nor could he find it in him to worry about her mortality. Would she die he would follow her into death. The halls of Mandos sounded pretty good for him to stay as long as Ginny was by his side. Besides there was still the question of her being an Istar… if she truly was an Istar, she would be able to travel with him to Valinor and live forever.