Disclaimer: Some are Tolkien's, some are Rowling's, none are mine.

To Wander in Darkness

"Harry, where are we?" whispered Ron.

"I don't know."

Aragog shook himself and tried to regain his bearings, awakened by the voice of the boy coming from around a corner.


"Where d'you think this is? A hidden passage in Hogwarts? One minute we're talking to that creepy Aragog and the next we're in this dark…cave of some sort." Ron stood, and Aragog could hear him brushing the dirt off his pants. "I don't like the looks of this place, Harry."

"I think we'd better investigate and try to find a way out."

"G…good idea."

"Lumos," they whispered, and the old spider heard their footsteps dying away as they treaded forward slowly.

"Mosag?" the spider called out, clicking his pincers. The air smelt different. There was an eerie, ominous feel to the place, and Aragog did not need sight to tell him that. "Children?"

There was no answer. Aragog knew that he wasn't in the Forbidden Forest anymore. He didn't even know where he was. Clicking his pincers in frustration, he considered what to do. He was blind, and he had not the faintest idea where he was, or how to get out. There was no other choice but to follow Hagrid's friends, and hope that they would be able to lead him out. He rounded the corner and followed the sound of their footsteps and whispered, but none to soft, conversation, keeping a distance away, lest they see him and run off.

"Do you have the strange feeling that we're being followed?" asked one of the boys presently, the one called Harry.

Aragog immediately stood still, his body tensed.

"Someone's following us? Where?" replied the other, his voice low and frantic.

"It's probably nothing. Maybe just my imagination." Harry continued. "Hurry, Ron, let's try to get out of here as quickly as possible."

"Aiya Earendil Elenion Ancalima!"

And She that walked in darkness had heard the Elves cry that cry far back in the deeps of time, and she had not heeded it, and it did not daunt her now.

"What the—Argh! Whassat light? Turn it out Harry!" shouted Ron, stumbling forwards and clutching his friend.


"What Ron, I can't see! The light's too bright!"

"Do something Harry! Relashio!"

"I'm trying to, but I can't aim properly if I can't see! Impedimenta! Impedimenta!"
 

Aragog quickly turned and scuttled away into the gloom, feeling along the passage walls, anxious to get out of harm's way. After all, he had been following the boys for ages and they had gotten nowhere, maybe if he relied on his own instinct, it would get him safely home.


A freak "Expelliarmus" did the trick as Ron managed to send the source of the light flying through the air, and the glass phial fell to the ground, its light dimmed considerably.

"Accio phial!" Harry cried and it flew into his hand. He turned and found himself face to face with two very short, very frightened…people. Or House-elves maybe, except that House-elves had rather huge and bat-like ears and great big eyes. And they were skinnier. Much skinnier.

One of them uttered a fierce cry and the sharp sound of steel rang through the air as he drew his sword and charged straight at Harry.

"Impedimenta!" Harry pointed his wand at him, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Expelliarmus!" Ron cried and waved his weapon as the other raised his weapon, which gleamed blue and he prepared to rush forward in defense of his companion. The sword soared out of the creature's hand and clattered to the ground in front of Ron, who picked it up.

"Umm…hi." He stammered awkwardly. "Err…we…err…we don't want to hurt you and…your friend here will be fine in a while and…and as long as you're not Death-eaters or supporters of Him then we're on your side. Do you…do you think you can show us the way out? In the first place, do you…err…sorry if I'm wrong but…err…do you even speak English?"

The small boy…person…house-elf merely blinked and stared wide-eyed at Ron.


"I'm Ron." Ron tapped himself. "Ron.

"Harry." He pointed to Harry. "Harry. We…we're the good guys. Good guys."

The creature shook his head and muttered something that sounded like "Biursdimellongdo" to Harry and Ron.

"Do you speak house-elf, Harry?" Ron muttered. "Maybe you should talk to him…or it. After all, you talked to that house-elf. And you're the Boy who Lived, so maybe you can get him to…to…help us or something."

"Dobby. Yeah, but that was in English. And this err…thing doesn't look anything like a house-elf." Harry replied. "Maybe if I gave him back his phial…"

The creature took the phial eagerly, and said something in what could be considered a grateful tone.

"Yes. See? Good guys." Ron stated, and handed the creature back his sword.

"Ron." He creature pointed to Ron, and then to Harry. "Harry."

"I think he likes us." Ron told Harry triumphantly.

"Frodo." The creature pointed to himself.

The other creature was slowly coming to, and he quickly continued his charge at Harry, but the Frodo yelled frantically to him in gibberish. Reluctantly he lowered his sword and walked over to join Frodo, but continued to glare suspiciously at Harry and Ron.

"Sam." Frodo pointed to his disgruntled companion.

"Hi Sam." Ron managed a weak smile at him.


"I don't like these strange men, Mister Frodo." Sam said to him as they walked along the tunnel, Ron and Harry behind them. "And why did you let them follow us?"

"I do not think they mean to harm us, Sam," Frodo answered. "They seem as lost as we are, and they have light. Maybe they can help us."

"How?" cried his frustrated friend, his anger and weariness taking hold of him. "We don't even understand a word of their strange tongue, and they don't understand us! We're getting into a lot of trouble here, thanks to that Slinker, and these two aren't going to be able to get us out just by lighting the way! What's to be done?"


Frodo sighed and said nothing, but patted Sam's shoulder reassuringly. The sickly stench of death hung in the air as thickly as the darkness that the light from Ron and Harry's wands and the Phial could only penetrate a little. The burden hanging from Frodo's neck was heavy, and his heart despaired. He grasped the Phial tightly, holding it ever aloft, and tried to draw strength and comfort from it.



"I have a feeling that we're not in Hogwarts anymore, Harry." Ron muttered miserably to his friend as they trudged along after Sam and Frodo.



Aragog stopped and stiffened. Someone was coming. He heard the clicking of pincers and the sound of many legs. It was a spider.

"Mosag?" he called hopefully, feeling around blindly. "Mosag, is that you?" he called to her again in the tongues of spiders.

"Who are you?" a voice hissed through the dark, speaking in that same language.

"I am Aragog." He answered. "I came here through means that I do not know of. I am lost. Who are you?"

The spider laughed, her voice sinister and cold.

"You do not know who I am? I am She, Her Ladyship, the last daughter of Ungoliant. I am Shelob the Great."

"Oh." Aragog responded, not knowing what to say, for he had not heard of Shelob the Great, Daughter of the First Acromantula, in his span of years.

"Tell me," she regarded him with slight curiosity, though he could not see it. "Tell me, blind one, where are you from? Mirkwood? And how did you enter my lair?"

"I do not know." Responded he. "I felt a great rush of air, and then I found myself in this place."

"Most unusual." 

They were interrupted by a brief scuffling noise of one appearing, and Gollum emerged from the darkness.

"Her Ladyship!" cried the wretched creature, prostrating himself before the great beast. "They is coming, the nassty hobbitses, halflings, Smeagol has brought them here for Her Ladyship to feast on!"

His gaze shifted to the massive form of Aragog.

"And for Her Ladyship's friend." He crawled on his knees and bowed to Aragog. But Aragog did not understand a word of what Gollum was saying, nor did he understand the words Shelob spoke to Gollum, her voice filled with malice and satisfaction, it had been too long since she had last tasted fresh meat.

"He has brought food for me," Shelob explained, her many eyes glinting with pleasure. "I have been living on orc-meat for far too long, and I long for something tastier."

"There are two boys down here." Aragog said quietly. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, and the thought of fresh meat appealed to his appetite.

"Boys?" Shelob snorted at his ignorance "The halflings, you mean."

"No, two boys. They came here when I did." Aragog replied.

"Ah." Shelob's eyes shone with malice and greed. "Two young ones, and two hobbits."

She paused for a moment, savoring the thought of such a meal.

"Care to join me?" she finally offered to Aragog.

Aragog hesitated, torn between his desire for meat and his friendship with Hagrid. If he ever made it back to the Forest, Hagrid would be most upset to know that Aragog had eaten his friends.

If they ever made it back.

Seeing as how he had no idea how he came to be in this strange place, or how to return home, he decided to soothe his empty stomach. After all, one had to survive.

"Gladly." He answered Shelob.

"Come then, if you can see where I am going with your sightless eyes, and keep up with me."

As soon as she had squeezed her soft squelching body and its folded limbs out of the upper exit of her lair, she moved with a horrible speed, now running on her creaking legs, now making a sudden bound.

Aragog set off after her as she hissed at him to make haste. He felt a faint sense of admiration for her, and strangely enough, a trace of fear too. For never had Aragog come across one such as her, at once dark and cruel, so sinister, so powerful, and so…so….likeable. He shuddered, then smiled, and quickened his pace, following the soft sound of her movements 'til he had caught up with her. And together they slunk off into the darkness, hunting their prey.

Author Note: Some of the italic text are excerpts from the Two Towers.