AN: Hello, my darling readers! Yes, it's still me, I had a little username change to match my tumblr url change. Instead of TardisBlueImpala, I am now ShiieldMaidenofGondor. Alright, now that that's cleared up, welcome to chapter 35! I can hardly believe this story has come so far. This thing is three years old, now. First of all, I hadn't expected it to take me so long, and second of all, wow. I just, wow. It is completely baffling to me that people are still reading this (mostly that they were stubborn enough to suffer through the horrendous early chapters and stick around to see my writing get better) So, I really want to thank each and every one of you for bearing with me and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

On another note, good god was this chapter difficult. Not the writing part (though inspiration was hard to come by), but mostly the organization of it. But, I finally worked it all out and plus, I'm on summer break now, so hopefully you'll see another chapter soon! I make no promises, though.

I still, after three long years, do not own Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't have to worry about my lack of a summer job.

Enjoy!

(Fair warning, there's a bit of sexual harassment in this chapter, catcalls and the like. Just FYI)

"To the wall!" Gandalf shouted from Shadowfax's back as he and Fred rode down through the levels of Minas Tirith. They had left an unconscious Denethor to the guards up in the courtyard and once Pippin had promised to stay where he would be safe, Fred had apparated himself and his mentor to the stables. The two wizards had mounted their horses and charged out of the stable doors, shouting out orders and yelling at soldiers as they went. With every group of soldiers they passed, Gandalf or Fred would yell at them, telling them to ignore Denethor's orders and fight, damn it. They didn't come to a stop until they reached the third level.

"Defend the wall!" Gandalf ordered the soldiers who were supposed to be stationed there but in reality were in a bit of an unorganized clusterfuck at that moment. "Return to your posts!"

The soldiers were quick to obey, thankfully, going back to the wall and drawing arrows from their quivers while Fred rushed to reconstruct the wards.

His wards shouldn't have been broken so easily by the catapults - it didn't make sense. Fred didn't understand it. Their projectiles should have bounced off of the shield, but clearly that wasn't the case.

"Gandalf, my wards won't hold!" Fred told his mentor urgently.

"Then help the men, dismantle the catapults, do what you can, Frederick!" the Istar commanded before addressing the men at large. "Send these foul beasts into the abyss!"

Above them on the fifth level, the catapults launched broken stone back down onto the orcish army while volleys of arrows rained down from the sixth and seventh levels. Fred managed to destroy one of the enemy catapults before the rest of them fired again. A boulder sailed over his head and crashed into one of the higher walls, sending an avalanche of stone crashing down on them.

Aragorn, Ginny, Legolas, and Gimli stood on the riverbank of the Anduin, watching and waiting as the Corsair ships approached. As they got closer, Aragorn guessed that there were some fifty men, perhaps even seventy, on each vessel, all of them particularly nasty looking. They got closer to the four on the bank and it was easier now for Aragorn to make out the details about them; there was one with angular tattoos all across his forehead, one with large holes in his earlobes, and all were dressed in dark leather armor, though they hardly matched each other.

Out of the silence, one of the approaching sailors made a whooping, appreciative whistle and when Aragorn's eyes found the culprit, he also realized the reason for the whistle. The man's leering eyes were trained on the space just beside Aragorn, on Ginny. The other sailors began to notice her as well and the single whistle was joined by catcalls, hollers, shouts, and plenty more. Aragorn took an instinctive step in front of Ginny, shielding her body with his own. On Aragorn's other side, Ginny noticed Gimli snarling and Legolas taking on a severe calm; a dangerous calm.

Aragorn's posture tensed; his jaw was clenched, his hands were in tight fists, and he stood stock still. He was beyond pissed, he was angry and bordering on territorial. Ginny herself was livid. She was not some object to be gawked at. She was a human being and a powerful one at that, but these waterlogged jackasses didn't seem to get that.

"Permission to hex their balls off?" Ginny inquired lowly in Aragorn's ear. She noticed a muscle twitch in his jaw, but he shook his head. Ginny bit back a curse, but she followed his lead. She did, however, make a severely rude hand gesture at the approaching pirates when one of them shouted out where exactly he'd like to put his supposedly large dick. The pirates only laughed in response.

It was everything Aragorn could do not to lash out at these men. The way they looked at her, leered and shouted at her, his Ginevra - he wanted nothing more than to skin the lot of them. Ginny's gentle hand on the small of his back did little to calm him down. On the contrary, it served to fuel the protective and angry fire that had sparked in his chest.

"Calm down," Ginny said in a low, firm voice when her touch didn't help. As hot as this territorial shit is, we don't have time for it right now. "Just wait awhile and we can kill them together," she said soothingly. Aragorn barely spared a thought for the fact that the prospect of killing disrespectful men was what calmed him enough to address them.

"You may go no further," he declared in that damned King Voice of his. "You will not enter Gondor."

"Who are you to deny us passage?" one of the men - probably a captain or first mate - shouted from the closest ship.

"Legolas," Aragorn addressed the elf, "fire a warning shot past the bosun's ear."

Legolas nodded at the command and was quick to draw his bow and fit an arrow to the string.

"Mind your aim," Gimli said to his friend, bumping the end of the bow with the head of his axe just as Legolas let loose the arrow. It flew off course and instead of going past the bosun's ear, it struck him in the neck, killing him in an instant. Legolas sent the dwarf a seething glare, but he didn't look at all apologetic.

"Well," Gimli said, "that's it. That's right, we warned you! Prepare to be boarded."

The pirates roared with laughter at his words.

"Boarded? By you and whose army?" one of them shouted. Ginny and Aragorn shared satisfied smirks.

"This army," Aragorn said, and on cue, the army of the dead materialized behind the four members of the fellowship, charging through them and storming the ships.

The catapulted boulder sailed through the air and crashed into the fourth level of the white city, sending rock and stone down on the men that fought on the third level. Gandalf whipped his head around to see where the stone would fall and to his horror, Frederick was right in the line of fire, as it were.

"Frederick!" the Istar shouted to the young wizard, who was concentrating on his precious wards, no doubt, instead of his own safety. The young wizard looked up sharply at the sound of his name and then up at the stone that was quickly falling. Fred threw himself back against the wall just as the stone and broken pieces of the fourth level hit the ground. The stone piled up, blocking any view of the soldiers that had been there, and panic settled in Gandalf's gut.

"Frederick!" he shouted again, his eyes darting back and forth between where Fred had been and the attacking army. There was no noise, no movement from the rubble. Gandalf turned from the rubble - but just as he did so, there was a loud crack, followed shortly by another, and all of a sudden, a very dirty, very battered Fred Weasley stood beside him. Gandalf scowled at his student, though he was truly glad that he was alive and well. He would not have looked forward to the conversation he would have to have with George and Ginevra had their brother perished on his watch.

"Watch yourself, you fool," Gandalf scolded Fred with a solid smack upside the head. Fred rubbed the spot, making a face at his mentor.

"Aw, I knew you cared," Fred said with a strained smile. Gandalf scowled at the young man for seeing through his gruffness. Fred was ready to make another jibe at his mentor, but then there was a deafening screech overhead. The men clamped their hands over their ears as they looked up to see fell beasts soaring through the air, ring wraiths riding on their backs. The air blew in gusts of wind from their wings, and as the beasts sailed over head, they would swoop low, snatching up soldiers left and right in their talons, only to drop them to their deaths.

"Hold them back!" Gandalf shouted to the soldiers, going back into general mode. Fred dimly registered the other orders being issued, but his concentration was on the wraiths. He shot slashing spells at the wings of the beasts, stinging hexes and even a sectumsempra. He managed to hit one, and the beast faltered for a bit, but it didn't do much, so Fred turned his attention back to the trolls and the approaching siege towers.

Gandalf was shouting for them to aim for the trolls and Fred was quick to obey - a powerful slicing charm to the neck and the one on the far left was dead. The men made valiant efforts to stop the towers, but one of them reached the wall and the gate dropped open, sending orcs streaming out in droves. Fred sent stunners and slicing charms left and right, but there were too many - he was overcome and had to resort to his blade.

Over the sounds of the battle, Fred heard Gandalf shout - shouting at someone to get back to the citadel. Fred dispatched his current foe and looked around for Gandalf and whoever he was shouting at and damn it it was Pippin. Fred fought furiously over to them, and as he approached, he watched in horror as an orc charged at the little hobbit.

"Stupefy!" Fred shouted as he ran, aiming for the orc. The red light collided with its back and it fell just short of Pippin. Fred broke through the throng and into the little bit of breathing room around Gandalf and Pippin and made quick work of the stunned orc.

"This is no place for a hobbit!" Gandalf scolded Pippin angrily, though he nodded at Fred in thanks. A fresh wave of orcs came through, diverting the attention of the two wizards. Their attention was brought back to the young hobbit when they heard a cry and a gurgle behind them, and both wizards turned to see Pippin with his sword in the gut of an orc that had clearly intended to slay the Istar.

"Guard of the citadel, indeed," Gandalf said, shaking his head at the hobbit, but there was a small smile. "Now back, up the hill, quickly, quickly!" he ordered, and Pippin was quick to obey.

George rose pretty damn early after their first day of riding and decided to get himself some fresh water from the little stream nearby. It wasn't far, he'd be able to hear is any commands were issued, but it was far enough to offer some solitude. George navigated his was through the sleeping men and walked quietly to the stream. When he got there, he was surprised to see another man there. He'd assumed that he was the only one up aside from the two guys on watch.

"Good morning," George greeted the man. He jumped in surprise at the sound of the wizard's voice and when he straightened up, George observed that he was slight of build; just a young boy, probably, sixteen years old at the most if he had to guess. The boy turned to look at George. His face was dirty, his hair was tucked under his armor, and why in the hell was he wearing his armor already?

"Good morning, my lord," the boy replied, bowing his head to George. There was something about this boy's posture, the way he held himself, that George couldn't put his finger on. Something odd. The boy looked back up as George approached him and it clicked. George knew that face. Damn it all, he knew that face.

"Éowyn?"

"I-I'm sorry, my lord?" she stammered out in her falsely lower voice.

"Buggering hell," George muttered, before throwing up a few invisibility and silencing charms around the two of them and rounding back on her. "Éowyn, what are you doing here?"

Her face fell and she dropped the act.

"I'm here to fight," she said levelly, looking up unflinchingly into his eyes. George had been afraid of that.

"You were supposed to be halfway back to Edoras by now!"

"Well, I'm not," she said simply. "What do you plan to do about it?"

With her hands on her hips and her feet planted firmly on the ground, she looked damn scary and George was reminded - again - why he liked her so much. And yet, it was still infuriating. George ran both hands through his hair and was close to ripping some of said hair out of his skull when she spoke again.

"My lord, I plan to fight this battle, right alongside these men. You told me once that I was a shieldmaiden; I plan to prove you right," she said. After a moment, George found his voice.

"George."

"I'm sorry?"

"George, my name. You can call me George, you can drop the 'My Lord' business," he said softly.

"Is that all you got out of what I just said?" Éowyn asked incredulously, throwing her hands up in the air in a moment of frustration.

"No, no," George was quick to correct himself, reaching out to place a hand on Éowyn's shoulder. "No, Éowyn, I heard you loud and clear. I've seen this before, with Ginny, and I know how good you are with a sword, it's just-" he cut himself off, trying to find the right words for what he wanted to say. "Éowyn, I care about you, a lot, and I don't want to see you hurt," he confessed, looking down at her and taking a step closer. When she didn't back away, George hesitantly extended a hand towards her face to cup her cheek. She leaned into the touch, still looking up at him.

"I care about you as well, George, and I would have the same - I would have you safe from harm," she confessed, laying her smaller hand over his where it was still hot against her cheek. George smiled down at her, though it was a sad smile. It seemed that neither was going to get what they wanted. George needed to ride with the Rohirrim to lend them his magical abilities and Éowyn needed to prove herself.

"Éowyn, I do not want to lose you so soon after finding you," George admitted. Éowyn took on a bit of a puzzled expression at that. "At the risk of scaring you away, I think that I am falling in love with you and I do not want to lose that," he said sincerely. Éowyn looked down at her feet for a moment, and George retracted his hand from her, worried that he'd spooked her. Damn it, George, you really fucked it up this time, he inwardly berated himself. He opened his mouth to apologize, but before he could get the words out, he found his arms full of Éowyn, who had taken him into a hug, her arms around his neck. After a moment of shock and astonishment, George returned the embrace, one arm encircling her shoulders and one around her waist.

"And to think I was worried about my feelings being reciprocated," Éowyn said into his neck. George chuckled and held her tighter, burying his nose in her hair. They remained as such, holding one another, for a few more moments until Éowyn loosened her grip, prompting George to do the same. She lowered herself back down onto her heels and looked up at him, har hands having moved to rest on his chest while his were warm on her waist, even through her armor.

"Éowyn, if I wanted to court someone, how would I go about doing that?" George asked with a little smile.

"Well, first you would have to ask her if she would be interested and then ask her father for permission," she answered, giving him a smile of her own, though there was a hint of mischief playing on her features.

"So, hypothetically, if a man wanted to court you, would he have to ask permission from the King or from your intimidating brother?"

"Hypothetically, it would be best for him to ask both," Éowyn replied, giggling a bit when George groaned in feigned annoyance and frustration. "If I'm going to be courting a man, I can't have him being a coward, now can I?" she asked, her teasing smile audible in her tone of voice. At that, George straightened up, and the fiercely determined look he got on his face sent her stomach somersaulting.

"I'm up for that challenge," he said, pulling her the tiniest bit closer.

"Good," Éowyn replied with a little smirk. George would've said more, but then a figure emerged from the tents, approaching them and the stream. Éowyn tensed up and stepped back from him, but George's hand on her arm brought her attention back to him.

"It's alright, I put invisibility and silencing wards up around us," he told her. "No one can see or hear us."

"Still, the sun is rising higher, we should prepare to move out," she said, and George knew she was right.

"Here, under those trees, in the shade," he pointed towards the camouflaged spot and the two of them made for it, still under the protection of George's wards. "I'm going to lower these and then you're going to go back out to the stream as if nothing happened, alright?"

Éowyn nodded.

"Once we're riding, I'll find you. I'll stay by your side as best as I can," he said, cupping her face with one hand and running a thumb across her cheekbone. Éowyn nodded again. "I'll look out for you."

"We'll look out for each other," Éowyn corrected him. Screwing up her courage, Éowyn then stretched up on her toes and planted a soft kiss on his cheek. When she lowered herself back down on her heels and looked up at him, he was dumbstruck. She had rendered him speechless. If that is what a kiss on the cheek does to him, I cannot imagine what would happen if I were to really kiss him, Éowyn mused to herself.

"Go on," she said, bringing him out of his daze, "undo your spells. We have a battle to fight."

Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun with the George/Éowyn scene, if you couldn't tell. If you liked the chapter, let me know what you liked about it in a review! I love hearing from you guys.

Speaking of which, I've been trying to get back to thanking my reviewers, so here we go again!

Guest: Oh my gosh, thank you so much! Your review was the swift kick in the ass that I needed to get this chapter done and posted and I really appreciate your kind words.

StarlightGilgalad: I'm so glad you like it! I know that Ginny and Aragorn are a bit of an unorthodox pair, but I got the idea in my head three years ago and it wouldn't leave me alone. Thanks so much!

ArthursShadow: I don't remember if I PMed you or not? I think maybe I meant to but then didn't get around to it? Idek. Things were hella stressful thanks to the semester closing out and stuff. Anyways, thanks for your kind words as always :) I have so much fun writing out Ginny's thoughts and stuff, you have no idea. Thanks again, dear!

MinnieMouseBabe: I'm glad it was worth the wait! I'm sorry I don't update all that regularly... higher education is a bitch. I hope you liked this one too, especially since you said you liked the Éowyn/George stuff in the last chapter. I'm interested to see how the big battle goes too... :P Thanks for reading!

heavenslilagl420: I'm glad you like it and I hope this chapter answered a few of your questions! And I am not at liberty to say whether or not the weasleys will stay alive long enough to reunite. I like to keep you folks in what little suspense I can create :) Thanks again for your kind words!

Thanks so much to everyone who has read, favorited, followed, and reviewed, you guys are amazing.

Natalie out.