1 Chapter 1: In Western Lands beneath the Sun…

A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! You like me; you really like me (Sorry, Author Happy)! The second part of this chapter is older, and is a whim of mine (yes, I am R/H.). It really has no effect on the rest of the story (yet anyway, though it probably will later). Ron will get hit, and I have a sneaking suspicion Draco will get hit as well. As to what happened to George, he ended up with a… (Hand clamps over mouth, for I wont tell you just yet) *Evil grin* Enjoy!

"How's the book?" Ron asked peevishly, nearly 2 months later, then ducked as Hermione made a one handed swing, the other holding her bulging bag of books. Ron had learned early that it was best to duck when she did this, even if she wasn't actually trying to hit them- her aim wasn't all that good (he still had the bump).

"You know very well!" she snapped, as she shifted the weight of her backpack, " I haven't had time to read lately! I'm not even past the first book yet!"

"And it's a day before Halloween," Harry sighed, catching up with them after having to stay late in Snape's class (a rather embarrassing event involving Neville's toad, dragon dung, and Snape's hair). "You're slipping Hermione..."

He made a duck as Hermione redirected her lethal book. "Come on," he said, sliding over to put Ron between him and The Lord of The Rings, " We'll be late to Transfiguration. "

Ron winced, "I don't even want to think what she'd do to us if we were late 'O. W. L.'s are in eight months, and if you think you can pass without studying then you can miss class...' I hope never to hear that lecture again..." he shuddered.

"Even I think the teachers are going a bit over board." Hermione said as she entered the Transfiguration classroom.

Harry and Ron stared as she sat down and plopped her books on the table.

"I don't have any time to read!" she continued with a huff and threw open The Lord of the Rings.

~

"Check," Ron said sleepily with a grin later that day as he and Harry played a slow game of chess.

Harry (just as sleepily) moved his king one space to the left, "Halloween, t'morrow"

"Yup," Ron moved hi pawn and reclaimed his rook.

"You realize," Harry said with a slight smile as he moved his knight to a less dangerous position, " that something bad has happened on every Halloween thus far?"

Ron looked up sharply at Harry, but no, Harry was smiling and not going into one of his depressing moods again, "Er...yes. Like last year. The whole Goblet of Fire thing."

It was Harry's turn to look up sharply, but, no, Ron didn't show that he'd harbored any bad feelings from last year. "Then the year before; the whole thing with Sirius."

"And the death day party in second year!" Ron chimed in, remembering that horrible music, and then seeing Mrs. Norris petrified.

Harry laughed, "And then first year with the Troll! It hardly seems like it was four years ago!"

"You right. But, good things did happen on that day" Ron moved his rook, and Harry was in check again, "Check."

"What? Oh those 10 points we won" Harry moved his King again.

"And..." Ron's voice dropped as he looked over at the couch where Hermione sat doing homework (as usual) "we got to be friends with Hermione that day."

Harry laughed, knowing very well that Ron had a crush on their bushy-haired friend. Ron gave a look of pure venom to Harry. Harry quit laughing, and grew serious, wondering if he could finally get a confession out of Ron, "You like her, don't you?" He asked, amazed at his own daring.

Ron's eyes grew round, and he jumped, surprised. Then, suddenly understanding grew into his eyes, and he looked sharply at Hermione, then back at Harry, then Hermione again. Finally, something seemed to dawn on him and he sat back in his chair looking like he was in shock. "I do, don't I?" he asked in a wondering tone.

Harry, who was fighting the urge to laugh again, got up and put a comforting arm on his friends shoulder. He grew an air of great depression and stated, "'m afraid you do old chap. Bin trying to tell you for year, but you just wouldn't here of it, so I decided to tell you strait out"

Ron looked up at Harry, still with a shocked look in his eyes. But when he saw the corners of Harry's mouth twitching he sighed, and smiled rather sheepishly, "Have a really been that dull?"

"Yes, 'fraid so." Harry said with the same mock seriousness.

Ron laughed, "Oh well, " he said, " I admit it. I've been dull."

Harry joined in the laughter and went back to sit in his chair, "Well, since that has been cleared up, Let us finish our game of chess before bed."

"Too late," Ron said as he moved his queen two spaces to the left "You're in Checkmate."

Harry groaned loudly as Ron smiled and began to put the chess pieces back. " I catch you off guard and I STILL can't win!"

"Of course you can't," Ron said easily as he got up and began to walk to the boy's dormitory. "Hermione, we're going to bed!" he shouted to Hermione over the clamor of Griffindors that were still awake. He turned his very red face back to Harry as they began to walk up the stairs, "I may be dull when it comes to Hermione, Harry, but I am NEVER dull when it comes to chess."

~

Hermione smiled with good memories as the boys went up to bed. They're idiots, she thought, but I couldn't live without them.

She bundled her books and bits of parchment together, and grabbed her bag and slung it over her shoulder. She headed up her own staircase to her dormitory, yawning all the way.

Paravati and Lavender weren't in bed yet, they were too busy studying their Divinitation tonight (A blue moon, as well as the fact that it was the night before Halloween made perfect gazing conditions, they said) Hermione scoffed at the thought as she put on her night gown, slipped into bed, and settled down for a long reading of Lord of the Rings (tomorrow was Saturday).

She loved the book so far, but as her father had once warned her, it was not a book that could be read a page a day. As such, she was having a hard time getting into it. The Fellowship was currently on its way to the mountains out from Elrond's house (It had taken her a month to read 'The Council of Elrond', an extremely long chapter).

She reached on her bed stand for The Big Book (as Ron and Harry had come to call it), but her hand instead, mysteriously, touched the other, large an old book that she had received for her Birthday. She had not thought of it since that day, though she had planned to show it to Professor McGonagall, but never got around to it. She picked it up, set it on, to look at later (it was tugging on her mind now, in a strange way), and began to read see what the dear ole' Fellowship of the Ring was up to.

~

Hermione put Lord of the Rings down with a slight smile. She had read at least a chapter tonight (Well, it HAD been one o'clock when she had started to read), and was so tired her eyelids were drooping. But, still she wished to have a look at that book. She picked it up, and opened it to the first aged page. The title read "The Book of (word in a language that Hermione didn't read)." She made a mental note to look it up. She flipped through the book, until she stopped at what appeared to be a much-used page (you know, one that has been flipped to so many times that it appears to have a natural bookmark). It looked like some sort of spell, in Latin, or a language like it. If Hermione had been in her normal state of mind, she never would have dared read in her head, much less aloud; but strange thing happen to the mind when the clock is past 12, even to the mind of one so apt as Hermione. Besides, this book was a smart book, and had ways of making a read best suit it's purpose (or destiny, in some cases, like this one). She fumbled little as she read the Latin (or whatever it was) aloud. If Hermione had been fluent in that language, then this is what she would have read:

"Plane to Plane

World to World

There are barriers

Of mind and substance

Now

Through my spell

They are made thin

And by my will

They are Broken"

As she read, her eyes glazed over, as if she were asleep, yet her mouth still uttered the words that her eyes couldn't read. If Paravati or Lavender would have entered the room, they would have seen strings of green and gold light stream from both of the books on Hermione's bed, swirl around her, and ruffle her hair. They burst through the velvet hangings, and out the open window. Hermione's eye rolled back in her head, and she slumped down, and fell asleep.

And when Paravati and Lavender did come in, nothing was strange to them.

~

Frodo put his face to the wind, willing the wind to keep him awake for the rest of his watch. These last few days had been indiscriminate, just on dry footstep after another, nothing to keep him from thinking about IT. And IT was what he least wanted to think about. But, over all, as he thought about IT, and what he was now bound to do, this would probably be the least dangerous, or at least the least memorable.

He sighed. It was probably time for him to wake up Gandalf for his watch. He sat up, and brought his cloak about his shoulders.

The light tinged sky suddenly turned black.

~

A/N: Hehee…Cliff hanger. Hope you like!