Coming Home
AN: I'm excited about this chapter so I hope you enjoy it.
Elvish is in bold and thoughts are in italics, please review, I was very happy with the reviews from the last chapter.
After her mother left Hermione walked over to her bow and picked it up. She ran her hand over the crack in the bow and sighed, it wasn't very useful anymore, if she tried to use it she would just end up breaking it more. Hermione considered getting rid of it but she decided she didn't want to part with it.
All of a sudden Hermione stiffened, she could hear footsteps in the forest.
Hermione climbed a tree and sat there while waiting for the creatures that made the footsteps to appear.
"The forest is old, very old. Full of memory . . . and anger." Hermione smiled as she recognized the voice. It was Legolas, and she assumed Gimli, Aragorn and Boromir were with him. She debated jumping down and joining them, but she decided to wait a little bit.
"The trees are speaking to each other." Hermione listened close, she could hear it, the trees were waking up. Hermione continued listening to the conversation with a smile on her face.
"Aragorn, something is out there." Legolas said and Hermione turned her head and saw the white wizard. Her breath caught in her throat and she silently berated herself for breaking her bow.
She silently pulled out her knives and prepared herself to jump out of the tree if necessary.
The wizard approached and a bright white enveloped them preventing them from attacking him.
"You are tracking the footsteps of two young hobbits."
"Where are they?" Boromir asked worriedly.
"They passed this way the day before yesterday. They met someone they did not expect. Does that comfort you?"
"Who are you? Show yourself!" Aragorn commanded.
The white light disappeared and revealed Gandalf dressed entirely in white. "It cannot be." Aragorn exclaimed.
Legolas kneeled down. "Forgive me. I mistook you for Saruman."
"I am Saruman. Or rather, Saruman as he should have been."
"You fell."
"Through fire and water. From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak, I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth. Until at last, I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountainside. Darkness took me, and I strayed out of thought and time."
"Yeah, yeah save us the theatrics, Gandalf." Hermione said, angrily jumping out of the tree. She could tell that the other men were surprised by her appearance, they had obviously not noticed she was there but she ignored them.
"Gandalf? Yes. That's what they used to call me."
"How could you leave us?!"
"Hermione - "
"We needed you!" Hermione nearly shouted. "Frodo needed you."
"I am sorry, but I have come back to you now at the turn of the tide as Gandalf the White."
Hermione simply glared at him and walked away. Legolas moved to follow her but Aragorn stopped him "Give her some time Legolas."
Gandalf sadly looked at the place where Hermione disappeared from. "One stage of our journey is over, another begins. We must travel to Edoras with all speed."
"Edoras? That is no short distance!" Gimli protested.
"We hear of trouble in Rohan. It goes ill with the king." Aragorn said.
"Yes and it will not be easily cured." Gandalf said.
"Then we have run all this way for nothing? Are we to leave those poor Hobbits here in this horrid, dark, dank tree-infested -" The forest responded with a small rumble. "I mean charming . . . quite charming forest." Gimli amended with a nervous chuckle.
"It was more than mere chance that brought Merry and Pippin to Fangorn. A great power has been sleeping here for many long years. The coming of Merry and Pippin will be like the falling of small stones that starts an avalanche in the mountains." Gandalf proclaimed.
"In one thing you have not changed, dear friend." Aragorn chuckled "You still speak in riddles."
"A thing is about to happen that has not happened since the Elder Days. The Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong."
"Strong?!" Gimli smiled nervously. "Oh. That's good."
"So stop your fretting, Master Dwarf. Merry and Pippin are quite safe. In fact, they are far safer than you are about to be."
"This new Gandalf's more grumpy than the old one." Gimli huffed.
At that moment Hermione came back. Legolas ran over to her and gave her a hug. "You okay now?"
"Yeah."
"I'm glad you came back, I missed you."
"I missed you too. I have a . . . a lot to tell you."
"I look forward to it"
"Um, Legolas you can let go of me now." Hermione said while awkwardly patting Legolas's back.
"Oh! I'm sorry." Legolas said while jumping away nervously and playing with his hands.
Hermione giggled, "You're so cute when you're embarrassed." Legolas's face flamed and he just nodded, unsure what to say.
Hermione smiled and looked at the rest of the men "Hey."
"Hello," Aragorn said.
"Welcome back, lass, it's nice to have you with us again." Gimli said.
Boromir nodded at her "I'm sorry for -"
"It's okay." Boromir nodded uncertainly.
"My apologies Hermione, I did not mean to hurt you." Hermione looked at Gandalf cooly but didn't say anything.
They trekked through Fangorn forest until they reached the border. Once they got there Gandalf let out a whistle. The whistle echoed before dying out. Eventually a magnificent white horse galloped over a hill. Everyone other than Gandalf looked at the horse in awe.
"That is one of the Mearas unless my eyes are cheated by some spell." Legolas said in awe.
"Shadowfax. He is the lord of all horses, and has been my friend through many dangers." Gandalf said, walking over and stroking Shadowfax's neck before mounting him.
Boromir and Aragorn both got on their own horses with Aragorn helping Gimli up behind him. Legolas turned to Hermione "Do you want to ride with me?"
"Sure." Legolas got up onto his horse and then pulled Hermione up in front of him with his arms around her waist.
"You okay?"
"Yes."
Aragorn glanced over at them and raised one eyebrow.
Hermione glared at him and he turned away with a smug smirk.
CH
As they made camp Hermione walked over to Boromir.
"I'm sorry -" Boromir started.
"Shhh." Hermione said. "I have already forgiven you."
"How?"
Hermione sighed. "Let me tell you a story, on Earth I met a young man. He and his brother both grew up in a household that was . . . they grew up in a family that valued blood purity and power over everything.
"The older brother was a rebel and didn't like what his family believed in and was very vocal about it. The younger brother followed his family's expectations and their family constantly raised up the younger brother while simultaneously putting down the older brother."
Boromir looked at Hermione in shock and she smiled knowingly at him. "As they grew up the older brother was kicked out of the family and he found his own family and forged his own path. The younger brother followed in his family's footsteps and became what they wanted him too."
Boromir looked down sadly, clenching his hands in frustration. Hermione laid her hand over his clenched ones. "The story's not over yet. Soon the younger brother started to realize what was wrong with his family and so he started becoming his own person, and in the end he stood up against his family and made the final sacrifice to protect others who couldn't protect themselves."
"You speak of real people, do you not?"
"Yes, Sirius and Regulus Black. Sirius was the older brother, Regulus the other."
"Thank you." Boromir said.
"Your welcome."
AN: I hope you liked this chapter! I have probably written and rewritten this chapter in my head hundreds of times before I got around to actually typing it.
Reviews:
CallaRose4ever: I can imagine that! That would certainly be funny but I felt the scene I wrote fit her character better, you do get to see her be mad a Gandalf a little bit in this chapter though.
alexagumenti: Thank you, I love your username by the way!
dannyderailed: I'm not perfect and I'm aware of that, if you can't handle it, don't read it.