::AUTHOR'S NOTE::

I don't own Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter. I'm just writing this fanfiction for entertainment.

KariBookworm!: I'm sorry to hear that. I don't want Emma's mom to come off as a total bitch, but she can be when she feels that she's right and that her kid can do better... I hope you are enjoying the story so far!

This chapter can be a bit TMI. Period talk. It's life.

Please review, and I hope you are hating Emma as much as I am right now! Big oof.

::AUTHOR'S NOTE::

Birdsong drifted in and out as Emma twisted around on the floor, trying to block out the intruding sound. When back pain spiked throughout her body, the young woman internally groaned from her stupidity of sleeping on the floor, and then verbally groaned from the pounding from her head. Despite her attempts to get into a more comfortable position, she knew that there was no chance in hell that she would fall back to sleep when she noticed an annoying wetness between her legs.

Ah, bloody hell… she thought, sitting up and looking down to see a damp red stain bleeding through her blue briefs. Had she felt even a little better, she might have chuckled at the irony of her curse choice, but she didn't. It took a moment for her to do anything until she noticed a spot on the light colored carpet.

With a sigh of frustration, Emma got to her feet, regretting the previous night of drinking and tears. She had obviously made herself dehydrated, and she cursed herself for not at least grabbing a glass of water. Admittingly, it would have been the last thing on her mind, and considering that it had been long enough ago that she had had any kind of alcoholic beverage… No, she was still dumb to forget. This was her fault. She would suffer through the pain and never drink again. Yeah, right.

It was a surprise when Emma's wand fell to the floor. She looked at it with a puzzled expression, her face scrunched together at her dark brows. A dull idea seemed to flicker in her mind but was quickly extinguished by her pounding headache. Without thinking much more about it, Emma shook her head, straightened her face, and moved to get cleaning supplies from the upstairs bathroom.

Despite her late night endeavours, it appeared that she had woken up early enough to evade her mother. This much was obvious as she didn't hear any laptop chatter from downstairs or smell the aroma of coffee brewing. It astonished Emma that she didn't feel tired realizing this, but at the same time, her body seemed more focused on her cramping more than anything else.

There was no need for Emma to take note of her mom's small house as she moved through it, considering she had grown up there, and already knew its characteristics like the back of her hand. Yet she did find herself noticing the new quirks that had been added since her last visit. New paintings had been attached to the walls, one of them showcasing a cute and eccentric sheep character playing with a ball of yarn. She admired it passively before moving her gaze up. There was maybe a developing crack or two in the ceiling. A small question bubbled up in her mind on how they had gotten there. Then again, it was an old building, and she had gotten used to it's rustic features long ago.

Having quietly walked the ten feet down the hall, Emma had reached the bathroom. It's door was swung in, hiding the towel rack from view. The clawed tub was right where she had remembered it, built into the side of the cramped room with the toilet and sink on the opposite side. Emma felt the usual distaste she always had towards this particular bathroom as no matter how much it was cleaned, it never felt like it was.

In the few seconds that she had entered the room, Emma realized that she had forgotten to grab a pair of new underwear. And with that passing impression, she figured that she had forgotten to bring anything back with her at all… She sighed and instead of wasting her time to retrace her steps, she opened up the small cabinet that was built into the wall above the sink. Thankfully, her mother kept a stash of what Emma liked to refer to as granny panties, and in this moment, she was happy to see them. It wouldn't be the first time that she had used the brand, and it wouldn't be the last since she found them to be quite useful on a heavier period day.

Emma quickly cleaned herself up, and changed her panties out for the clean and unstylish diaper like material. After a minute or two of vigorously rubbing the stains out from the soiled boxers in the sink, she set the fabric down to dry and turned away from the basin. The young witch closed the door to stare at herself in the tall and blemished mirror that was attached to the back of the wooden exit.

By no means did Emma find herself attractive, especially now as she observed her reflection after a day of verbal and emotional strain. Her hair was brown, shaved on the sides, and long on the top. It had been braided back the day before, but had since then been undone and was currently framing her face in an unflattering manner as her curls stuck out in various directions. Almond shaped hazel eyes framed by long black lashes stared back at her. She noted how red and puffy they were, adding a red blush to her high cheekbones. Her nose was long and a little too large for her face, but she liked the effect it had when she turned to glance at her profile as it had a prominent and curvy bridge. Thin lips were pursed at the bottom of her mug as she observed the rest of her body.

Her weight was on the chunkier side. She had thick thighs, currently bare and grossly showcasing her stretch marks and dimples. The lower half of her body looked sadder with the granny panties hitched high onto her waist. The baggy black t-shirt that she had slept in hid what she knew to be a belly with a generous pouch, more so now after the beers she had drank the night prior. Thankfully, despite her weight, Emma was relieved that she had an hourglass shape, so the curves didn't appear too horrible when she had clothing on. Her breasts helped to balance out her wide hips and broad shoulders, so her body appeared proportionate at the very least.

Looking at herself now, Emma wasn't quite sure what Blain had loved or liked enough about her to stay in a relationship for as long as they did. She couldn't blame him for cheating on her really. There was only her personality and looks to keep him around, and obviously, that hadn't been sufficient. Sex wasn't a big thing for her either, so that was whole can of worms in itself. So, in fact, it was her blame that the engagement failed. If she had tried to lose weight, or had tried to be more outgoing, maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe it would have given Blain a reason to care enough about her. Maybe she would still have a life to look forward to.

The negative thoughts circulated in her mind as she continued to harshly judge her self worth when a knock at the door urged her from the gloom she seemed determined to nestle herself in. With one last glance at the body reflected in front of her, Emma grabbed the handle of the door and swung it toward her just enough that she could see her mother's face. She was glad to see and also confused on why there was an amused expression playing across the older woman's tan wrinkled face, brownish gray hair pulled back into a low hanging tail.

"Morning, Emma," she greeted her with a twinkle in her eyes and then added with a touch of concern, "I saw you weren't in the spare room, and noticed the stain left on the carpet. Are you feeling alright?"

Embarrassment rushed through Emma as she felt her entire face flare up in a furious blush. Her mom started laughing. She imagined that she was quite the sight right now, but despite feeling a tad awkward, Emma felt a little relieved. Obviously her mom had woken up in a good mood which meant that things would at least be better today. Maybe she could actually vent her frustrations and feelings without getting into an argument with her.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's been a bit off lately, and I didn't know that it would start," Emma responded with a one shoulder shrug. "I came to the bathroom to clean up and then take care of it."

"Why didn't you just use magic?" her mom asked, her face gradually turning serious as she seemed to go deep in thought. The question caught Emma off guard, and she frowned back at the older woman. She had to be careful on how she answered.

"I've gotten used to doing things… like normal people after all these years," she said, inwardly cringing when she almost said muggles. It felt like a discriminatory word when she used it in front of her family, so she avoided the title as much as possible. It wasn't like she had had the chance to use much of it anyway.

"Ah, gotcha, well, take care of it before it sets. I need to use the bathroom please…" the older woman said, pacing from foot to foot.

Emma opened the door quickly, her mom noticed her bare legs and new attire. A good natured chuckle escaped her lips and she teased in passing, "And you girls used to think I was so old for using them!" Emma sent her a lopsided smile and went back to her old room empty handed. It felt good to joke around with her mother. Emma looked around and noticed her wand again, taking in that it looked like it had been moved. Considering her mom had just checked in on her, Emma assumed that it was her who had moved it.

Picking it up, Emma turned to the drying stain on the floor and stared at it thoughtfully. In spite of her still pounding head and aching body, she pried through her memories for a cleaning spell. It had been years, but it would be quick and since she was home, what would be the harm? She could have it taken care of before her mom was done in the bathroom, and she'd be none the wiser. After a couple of more heartbeats deep in thought, Emma came to the spell that she wanted to use.

"S-scorchgify!" she stammered not too gracefully and pointed her wand directly at the soiled area. Sparks erupted from the end of her wand, and fire sprung from the carpet. Emma stared at the flames with a horrified expression. "Well, fuck." She knew that it had been years since she had used magic, but her accio spell worked just fine last night. Then again, accio was kind of an easy one to remember.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" she said repeatedly as she once again skimmed her memories for another spell. How the fuck did scorchgify not work? That's the spell, isn't it? HOW DID FLAMES COME OUT OF SCORCH...? Oh. She had mispronounced the spell and forgotten that it was scourgify, not scorchgify… Which made sense. Did it though? How did scourgify make sense for a cleaning spell? Couldn't it have been cleanify or some nonsense like that? The truth was she hadn't been the greatest in school especially since she hadn't been allowed to use magic at home, and now that she really thought about it, she didn't even think scorchgify was an actual spell.

Emma shook her head to clear her thoughts as the fire started to spread, racking through a list of spells that she believed to be legit. See, this is why I shouldn't have even bothered using magic. I'm rusty, and I'm not even good at it. Something else to add to my list of things I'm worthless for. She thought angrily.

Okay, latin words. Spells are deprived from latin words. Water spell would be something to do with water… Well, fucking duh… Water… Aqua… But it wasn't quite a Q was it? She remembered being confused by the lack of a Q. It was backwards or something like that… Wait, that was it! Her mind jumped to sixth year when she had first successfully used the incarnation.

"Aguamenti!" she yelled, doing a quick dash of her wand arm from right to left as a burst of water fired from it's tip and doused the entire room, thankfully quenching the fire along with it. Emma stared at her work for a good solid minute before realizing the entire room was soaked through; furniture, carpet, and all. Fuck me. Emma cursed in her head. She was doing a lot of that today. It felt good.

Emma stood silently in front of her mother after explaining to her why the spare room was completely drenched. Since then, she had gotten her bra and jeans on despite them being soaked as well (it was very uncomfortable) and waited for the older woman to say something. She was processing, her face growing blotchy and red with anger, but as soon as she looked like she was going to say something, she stopped and shook her head. It wasn't until Emma had started childishly twirling her wand around in her hands that her mom finally spoke.

"You're twenty seven years old, and you still act like a child," Emma flinched at the sore spot her mother had decided to prob. "I seriously thought after being with Blain and starting a career that you'd be putting all of this…" She gestured at Emma's wand. "All of that behind you and that you would grow up. That you would not even think about it. That's why I didn't want you using it here after your great uncle took you away. I didn't want you to rely on just magic," the older woman paused, walking over to the closed window to open it up to a sunny autumn day. A cool breeze of fresh air passed through the room, sounding the trees outside as their colorful leaves shivered with anticipation. Emma could smell the sweet scent of rain on its way.

"It doesn't pay to have an easy way out. You should know that of all people," her face darkened at those words and Emma felt tears prick at her eyes. It wasn't something that they talked about. "We come from a family where an easy way out shouldn't be available because it just gets us into a mess. And maybe your misfortunate with Blain is because you never tried to be different than what you were or what you believed to be," Emma perked up at those words, her eyes flashing with anger. That wasn't true. "No one is happy in a sexless relationship and it's hard to even call it that…" Emma shook her head, and put her hand up to stop the onslaught of her mom's opinion.

"No, stop. You're right. I AM childish. I'm broken. I'm sorry that I have made things difficult for you, and everybody, and in doing so, have made things difficult for myself. I get it," Emma growled in a low voice, tears threatening to fall and interrupted her mom when she was about to say something, "Let me finish! I'm sorry that I'm twenty seven years old, and that I failed in my first and only relationship, and that I'm back in the last fucking place I want to be because when I'm upset and need a shoulder to lean on, when I need advice, you won't give it to me. Instead, you just put me down and you don't even try to understand. Your opinion is right, and that's it. You were excited when you learned that magic was real, and that you had a daughter that could use it. Both you, Alex, and John were! I understand why that changed, but for years, I have surpassed so many things about myself that after Blain broke up with me… Well, actually, I've realized that I'm not that upset that HE broke up with me. If anything, I'm upset that it has landed me in a place where I don't know what the fuck to do now!" Her voice got louder and shriller as she went on. She felt dramatic and stupid. She wanted to apologize and just to let it go. It wasn't worth it.

"I stopped using magic for YEARS because that's what was expected of me after what happened to dad, and I became a vet tech because I want to work with animals, but it put me so behind in everything! If I had continued onto a magical career, I would have been so much better off, and maybe not feel so incompetent half the time because what I learned at Hogwarts isn't the same as what I would have learned in a MUGGLE school," her mom flinched at that.

"After meeting Blain, I didn't think that mattered because I had somebody that cared about and loved me, but obviously, not enough, because I'm me. I'm awkward and broken and weird," Emma was just spewing up word vomit at this point and saying things that her siblings and fellow students had teased her about in the past. "I… I'm done. I'm sorry. I'm upset right now, and I feel horrible about messing up the spare room. I DO feel childish. I feel like so much of my life has been stripped away from me, and I don't know what to do. I probably don't have a job anymore either..."

Emma was sobbing now as she sat down in her soggy pants and stupid granny panties. She needed to get real underwear as soon as their argument was over. Her head was pounding from every breath she heaved and sputtered back up as she moaned and cried. Why couldn't her mom just hug her? Why was this so hard? Why were they fighting over this again?

"I can't even remember spells properly, so you're right! I shouldn't have even bothered. I know I need to do better! I feel like I'm in a downward spiral and that when I finally stand up, I've been pushed back down again. I don't know what it feels like to succeed and I finally thought that I was getting there! I don't know what you want me to do or say." The last sentence came out in a shrill scream. "But your only solution is going to be to tell me that I'm right, and that I need help, but maybe if I just even had a little bit of support from you, or Alex, or John, then maybe I would be doing so much better."

Emma stood up at those words, and gripped her wand a little harder before stroking it through the air, "Accio book bag." She wasn't sure if it would work since she had left it here so many years ago, but as soon as the old and tattered school bag came zooming through the air, Emma knew what she was hoping for was right. It hovered in front of her for a moment until she grabbed it with her right hand and strung it over her back. It suddenly dropped and her body lurched a little at the weight, but she rebalanced herself despite the discomfort it added to her cramping.

"I'm going to go find somewhere else to stay," she muttered and glanced at her mother to see if she had anything to add after Emma's outburst. Unfortunately, and her heart faltered when she saw it, but tears were streaming down her mom's face as she too was heaving and looking absolutely defeated. Emma wanted to give her a hug and apologize as she did feel very immature after her verbal eruption, but she shoved the sympathy aside. She walked out of the room after making sure she had her phone and wallet with her.

Emma hurried down the stairs to see her white Shiba Inu, Gin, standing in the laundry room door way, staring at her with beady brown eyes. She paused and glowered as she realized that he had been waiting for her downstairs this entire time. A tinge of guilt played in the back of her mind that she hadn't brought him upstairs with her last night, but she shook it away and motioned for him to follow her. Thankfully, and she was thankful because it was hard to tell when he would or wouldn't listen, he followed her out the front door.

Logical and aloof was a word that many people typically used when describing Emma. She was a hard worker, and tried to make sure that everything was done efficiently. It wasn't easy for her to accept that she was being so illogical right now. The past couple of days had not been a good example of that part of her, and she felt so ashamed for acting out of the character she had built for herself. Emotions were raging inside her, and she kept ping ponging back and forth between so many of them. She was so tired.

It was already two shifts that she had missed at work. She knew that she had texted a coworker yesterday to let him know what had happened. Despite that, she had never seen his responses. Her phone had since then died, but she was sure she had a lot of text messages and calls from the clinic. It had been a wonderful experience there, but Emma wasn't sure if she could face them again after being so shameful. She really was immature and childish.

Fresh tears slid down her cheeks as she continued to walk. Gin walked beside her, panting happily as he looked around the surrounding area. They had walked more than a couple of miles down her mother's road, and she had subconsciously started to follow a forest trail. It was soon that she remembered that it was her favorite path from her childhood before she had learned that she was a witch. It had been where her father had had his accident as well. In fact, the incident had happened further ahead. Emma wasn't sure why, but she wanted to see the spot where he had died. Maybe she just wanted more to be upset about. Maybe she just missed her father. Maybe she was just frustrated because she couldn't remember what happened or why her mother had come to hate her or magic so much. Was that just her projecting? She wasn't really sure. A lot of her actions and feelings felt out of control and irrational today.

The forest was rustling as if the trees were whispering amongst each other, their autumn leaves swirling around Emma, urging her forward to follow the cliff side. Breaths came out in long draws as she ignored her cramping and still pounding head. The gravity of her body made her lower half feel damp and uncomfortable. She was faintly aware of Gin pulling on the lead, and making the weird noises that she had grown used to over the time that she had had him. If she had been paying more attention, Emma might have thought that he was acting out of character as his bizarre sounds were only ever used in the house. Be that as it may, but she only stopped when she had reached the spot that her memory was conjuring up for her.

Emma stared at the large rock face that confronted her, and the dark den that cowered in the middle of it. Colorful foliage drifted lazily towards the darkness of the cave until it dropped almost suddenly to the ground, adding to a pile of dead leaves in front of the entrance. It was there that she suddenly remembered her dad turning to walk in, and it was there that she saw something gold gleam from within its depths.

Without realizing what she was doing despite feeling the vague resistance that Gin was contributing as she walked forward. Emma approached the mouth of the cavern and stopped when she was engulfed by darkness. There she saw what had been shimmering in the shadows. Without hesitation, she reached for the gold ring. The moment she touched it, she was instantly swept up in what felt like a hurricane and she indistinctly thought portkey and oh no, Gin! before losing consciousness.

::AUTHOR'S NOTE::

I'm going to admit that I just want to get past all of this bulllshit and get into the LOTR universe. Things are a bit dramatic for that reason.