D/N: I don't own anything except for the little changes in the plot that I have been making and my characters. Sigh well Christmas vacation is over and I got to see the TTT very good movie! Um sorry for the delay of not updating I had writer's block and I had no time to type anything. As to the Shadowfax thing that someone mentioned in one of their reviews( sorry I am too lazy to back and see who wrote it plus I can't connect to fanfiction from school) I really don't know about that. I know in the TTT that Shadowfax comes after that and everything and in the movie of the Fellowship it was a brown horse. I don't know and like I said I am going strictly with the movie while making some changes u know and I thought for sure that he rode Shadowfax in the book. Well you know. And to another reviewer that pointed out the fact that it was thirteen years between Bilbo's party and when Gandalf found out about the Ring. I knew that it took Gandalf longer than just a month. I know but I couldn't really keep Harry and the others in Middle-Earth for 13 yrs. I mean then they would be……26 and that wouldn't do. So you know. Ok I think everything is cleared up.

Ch. 10 The Black Riders

Frodo managed to get out of the cornfields. The day was bright and sunny. He had been thinking about how he expected Bree to look like, he had never gone to a Big Folk town before, his thoughts were interrupted by Sam's cries.

"Mr. Frodo? Frodo! Frodo!"

Frodo turned around and went back down the path. He rounded a corner and came face to face with Sam. Sam looked relieved to see him.

"Oh thought I lost you", said Sam with a sigh.

"What are you talking about", asked Frodo.

"It's just something Gandalf said to me."

"What did he say?"

"Don't you loose him Samwise Gamgee and I don't mean to."

"Sam we're still in the Shire what can possibly happen?" Then all of a sudden Frodo froze and looked around. "Speaking about losing people, Sam where are the wizards?"

Sam stopped dead and looked around as well. "I thought they were with you up ahead."

"And I thought they were with you! Oh crap now what! Sam I told you to look after them!" exclaimed Frodo.

"Hey it is not entirely not my fault, Mr. Frodo you had to watch them too!"

"I know I know. Ugh and they were my responsibility too!" Frodo began to curse under his breath. Sam just stood there looking at him shaking his head.

"Well don't just stand there come on we have to go and find them" exclaimed Frodo. Sam nodded and he and Frodo disappeared into the rows of corn stalks once more.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Meanwhile…..

"Damn it Weasley if you hadn't stopped for a bathroom break then we wouldn't be lost!" screamed Malfoy looking furious.

"Hey I had to go," snapped Ron.

"Ugh, where is Hermione?" asked Harry looking around. "She was suppose to run up ahead and tell Frodo and Sam that we had stopped.

"Didn't you go before we left Bag End?" asked Malfoy still looking angrily at Ron.

"No because I didn't need to go then."

"Couldn't you just have held it in?" asked Hermione's voice from somewhere behind them. They all turned around. Hermione came up along the path and then stopped. " You are finished right Ron?" They all nodded. Hermione continued up the path.

"Hey when you got to go you got to go", said Ron.

"Well, Hermione did you catch up with Frodo and Sam?" asked Harry.

"No, I couldn't find them. The path leads right into a cornfield", she answered sitting down on a tree stump.

"Well why didn't you go in?" asked Ron.

"I can't, it's private property and you know that Frodo would never go in there", said Hermione.

"How do you know that Frodo hadn't gone in there? That is probably where they are. That's why I couldn't see them when I climbed the tree to look around. They are too short and the corn stalks hide them from view." Harry said.

"Well now what?" exclaimed Malfoy kicking a rock.

"I suppose we will have to wait until they return for us", said Hermione calmly and confidently.

"Oh god! We are going to be here, forever!" complained Malfoy.

Harry sat down on an upturned root. He was watching the little ants on the trunk marching up and down. Suddenly he heard something. It was sort of like a high-pitched scream from a bat or something.

"Did you hear that?" he asked them.

"Hear what?" asked Hermione.

"That noise", answered Harry getting up and looking around straining his ears.

"Oh don't tell me Potter you hear another snake?" said Malfoy.

"No, it's not like a snake. It's like a cry or a scream. It doesn't sound human or animal like."

"Maybe it's a bird", suggested Ron.

"A bird is an animal, Ron", said Hermione.

"Oh yeah."

Harry got up and began to climb the tree straining his ears to see if he could hear the sound again. There. There it was again. He looked down. Hermione and Ron were trying to listen. Even Malfoy was trying to hear the noise. Harry continued to climb the tree. What was that sound? He went up as high as he could climb and looked over at the landscape. Nothing. He could see a little road down below them. They were on a hill at the moment. Harry squinted looking around. Suddenly he heard Hermione scream down below.

"Hermione!" yelled Harry. He climbed down the tree as best as he could. On the last branch Harry pulled out his wand from his pocket and jumped down holding his wand out in front of him. He was met by laughter. Ron and Malfoy were laughing hard. Hermione was looking furiously at a laughing Pippin who was patting Merry on the back.

"That wasn't very funny!" Hermione said.

"Sure it was," answered Merry, "you should have seen your face!" He pointed and laughed. Hermione grew red.

"What did you do?" asked Harry.

"Hermione was walking by the field and Pippin literally jumped on her and pinned her to the ground. It was hilarious you would have laughed Harry", said Ron. Hermione looked deadly by now. Everyone stopped.

"Whew, so what are you guys doing here anyways?" asked Pippin.

"Oh we are leaving with Frodo for Br-oof" Ron has just gotten his foot stamped on by Hermione. "I mean we are here with Frodo," he managed.

"Yes and we kind of got separated," continued Hermione.

"Oh don't worry, we passed Sam in the cornfields back there, so I'm sure Frodo can't be too far behind," said Merry. And right on cue Frodo and Sam sprung out of the fields. They were both red in the face as if they had been running. Frodo took one look at them all and exclaimed," Run!" He and Sam ran past them. Everyone stood there for a minute, confused, when all of a sudden they heard yelling and dogs barking. Merry and Pippin looked at each other and they pushed Hermione and Harry forward. Ron and Malfoy followed. They kept on running till they saw in front of them that Frodo and Sam had stopped. Harry stopped and so did Hermione. Somehow Ron and Malfoy had gotten in front of Merry and Pippin, and they stopped as well pushing the group a little further off the hill. Frodo almost lost his balance. Sam caught him just in time.

"Take that and that!" They heard behind them and then all of a sudden Merry came into view. Seeing the big group he stopped. Then Pippin came and he was looking back at the dogs. He turned around and gasped. "Ack, no brakes, no brakes!" he yelled waving his arms around wildly (don't ask I just thought I had to put that line in there it just seemed so appropriate). He bumped into them. They all fell tumbling down and down the hill until they reached the bottom where they landed on top of one another. This was painful. There were plenty of ows and bad words being said from everyone, the majority coming from Frodo since he was at the bottom of the pile.

"Oh that was close."

"Get off me!"

"Ow you are stepping on my hair!"

"Careful you'll break my glass- too late"

"Oops sorry, ack alright ouch"

After a few minutes they were all up rubbing their bruises. Malfoy's hair was all messed up. Hermione got up and immediately smoothed down her skirt for it had bended up from the fall. Harry looked around and picked up his glasses. They had been cracked by the grace of Pippin. Merry pulled out a broken carrot from under his back. Frodo managed to get up and stop muttering something about having a stupid brainless hobbit for a cousin. Ron was laughing. Pippin got up and smiled at the pile of manure that he had just nearly missed when he had fallen.

"Oh that was great!" exclaimed Malfoy smoothing back his hair, or at least trying to. "Good job Baggins you just won the gold as being the stupidest shrimp in all of whatever the hell you call this place!"

"It's not Frodo's fault, it's…" began Hermione, she looked over at Pippin who was looking dejected. "It was an accident!"

Malfoy rolled his eyes. Harry walked up to Hermione holding his glasses in front of him. "Um, Hermione can you…"

"Sure Harry Oculus Raparo," she said.

Harry's glasses were immediately fixed; all of the hobbits' eyes were wide open as they saw him put his repaired glasses back on the bridge of his nose. "Thanks."

"Hey look over there", said Ron. He drew everyone's attention to where he was pointing.

"MUSHROOMS!" exclaimed Merry and Pippin at the same time. They ran over to where the mushrooms lay, followed closely behind by Sam. Harry noticed that Frodo hadn't gone over for the mushrooms instead he looked like he was listening for something. Harry suddenly remembered about that uncanny screaming sound that he had heard. He too stopped and strained his ears once more. He saw that Frodo was looking down the road. Harry followed his gaze.

A sort of whispering was at his ear. He turned around, but everyone else was busy. Hermione and Malfoy were having another argument and Ron and the other hobbits had their attention focused on the mushrooms. The whispering in his ear grew; it was like a mosquito murmuring in his ear. He looked down the road. Suddenly the noise increased until he recognized the same screams this time extremely loud and close. The autumn leaves blew across the dirt road as Harry realized that whoever or whatever it was that was screaming they were coming closer.

"Get off the road, quick!" exclaimed Frodo breaking Harry's attention. Everyone did as he told them to do. They went over to the side of the road and hid underneath the roots of a tree. They sat there all huddled up. It went Frodo, Harry, Pippin, Hermione, Ron, Merry, Sam, and Malfoy. That was how they were all sitting under there. (I know I know the possibility that everyone could fit underneath that little hollow is kind of ridiculous, well the hollow is a lot bigger now so yea let's just use our I-ma-gi-na-tion) Harry felt a shiver go up and down his spine. Suddenly his scar began to hurt and he felt cold, real cold. He had felt this before. He started breathing heavily it was too hot yet he was cold. He clasped his hand on his scar wincing in pain. His head was swimming he didn't feel like he was on the ground anymore. He was falling, falling. Deeper and deeper…

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Pippin sat there underneath the little hollow. His breath came out short and he felt a strange evil presence coming towards them. He glanced over at Hermione she seemed to be scared half to death and was trying to listen hard. He looked over at Harry and saw that he was sort of hugging himself with his arms. His eyes were closed and he looked like he was in great pain. Past Harry he could see Frodo, Frodo was no worse than Harry. They both seemed to have the same expressions on their faces. Frodo was fiddling around with something in his fingers. Then there was the sound of hooves coming from above. Pippin could hear a horse breathing above him. He gulped. What was going on? He heard something else moving, it sounded as though somone or something had just dismouted the horse. Then he heard the noise of hard cold armor clenching the root of the tree. Pippin shivered. Below him on the ground the earthworms were coming out from the soil and were beginning to crawl on his feet. Whoever it was that was looking for them began to make a queer sound. It sounded like he was sniffing for something. Pippin turned to look at Frodo again. Frodo continued to shudder and shake. What on earth was wrong with him? The sniffing continued. Pippin stretched his arm out across Harry and put his hand on Frodo's arm. "Keep it together, Frodo!" Pippin thought. As soon as Pippin's hand touched him Frodo opened his eyes and stopped shaking. The sniffing from above stopped. Pippin withdrew his arm. As it went passed Harry, Pippin was startled and gave a yelp.

"REEEEEK!" screamed the thing from above. "Run!" yelled Merry as he ran forward from their hiding spot. Everyone else got up and ran. Pippin's heart was pounding inside his chest. He couldn't understand what he had just seen. He had no time to think further for when he looked up he saw a rider all dressed in black. His head was hooded so that he couldn't see the face and he was holding out a sword. He felt someone grabbing onto his robes. It was Merry. "Come on! Move it!" urged Merry. The rider gave one last scream and then got onto his horse. "Oh, SHIT!" cursed Merry and Pippin at the same time. Then they both turned and ran. Pippin's head was swimming he kept on stumbling on the leaves and twigs on the forest floor. The Black Rider screamed again from behind and they heard the clapping of hooves as it chased after them.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Frodo felt dizzy. He felt like the world had suddenly turned upside down or like he had just woken up from a nightmare. But now he was fully awake and he was running with Sam and Ron at his side. He looked over his shoulder and saw a hooded rider all dressed in black riding after them on an evil looking black steed.

"Split up!" he heard Merry yell in front of them.

Frodo ran to the right along with Sam. Ron had run over to the left. Before long they had no idea where they were going and the Black Rider was still after them.

"Hurry, Mr. Frodo!" puffed Sam as they ran deeper and deeper into the wood. Looking around Frodo saw a place where there was a lot of foilage and he directed Sam toward it. His plan was that maybe the Black Rider's horse wouldn't be able to get through all the bushes and brambles. Bending his head low he and Sam dove into the bushes and began to crawl. Sharp thorns tore at his cloak and scratched up his face, arms, and legs.

"REEEK!" screamed the Black Rider from behind. The two hobbits stopped and looked back.

"I think we lost him," sighed Sam. The suddenly they heard a slashing sound. The Rider had a sword. "You spoke too soon, Sam", said Frodo as they continued to crawl out of the brush and bramble. The Black Rider was smarter than he looked, for immediately out of nowhere he blocked their way from leaving the bushes. He then raised his sword and began to stab at the bushes hoping that in one of those blows he would get the two hobbits. During all this time Frodo heard a nasty whispering noise in the back of his head telling him to put on the Ring. Frodo merely shook his head and focused on dodging the thorns and the ever-stabbing sword.

"Help!" yelled Frodo as he realized that they were trapped. Right on cue he heard Hermione's voice yell, "Incendio!" Then before his eyes the thorn bushes in front of him went up in flames and then simply disappeared. He and Sam squirmed out through the opening and ran for their lives. The Rider screamed another one of his unnatural-can-wake-up-the-dead screams. He then quickly got back onto his horse and charged at the two retreating hobbits.

Frodo looked back to see that they weren't going to make it the Rider was just too close. Suddenly he tripped (go figure) and fell over an overturned root bringing down Sam with him. They hastily turned around and saw that the Black Rider was nearly on top of them. It checked its horse and held out an armored hand. "The Ring", it whispered holding out his hand to Frodo. Frodo looked up at it, his eyes wide with fright. Then the horse reared up causing the Black Rider to fall off. "REEEK!" it screamed as he fell down.

"Yeah and there is plenty more where that came from!" yelled Merry's voice. Frodo looked up to see that Merry and Pippin were up in a tree with a good supply of stones in their bags. Frodo and Sam got up and ran off past Ron and Hermione who were pointing their wands to the Black Rider. They were in a sort of glen surrounded by large boulders and there was only two ways out. Hermione and Ron were at one of the entrances.

"Accio, sword!" commanded Ron. And to Frodo's surprise the Black Rider's sword, who by now had gotten to his feet, flew from his hands and went to Ron. Ron caught it by the handle, but fell down from its weight. "Oof!"

"You better run for it, Frodo," said Hermione her eyes still fixed on the Rider. "It's after you."

Frodo nodded and he and Sam raced off into the opposite direction. Suddenly they met up wit Draco. His face was red and his wand was out. He looked scared and baffled.

"Where's Potter?" he asked. Frodo and Sam looked at one another. Then they heard Hermione scream from behind them. They all turned around.

"They're in trouble! We got to help them!" said Frodo and he began to run toward them, but Sam held him back.

"No, Mr. Frodo, Hermione's right it's you that devil wants. You better go and hide we will go and help them." said Sam bravely, but Frodo could see that his lip was trembling.

Sam looked at Draco and they both nodded and headed off to where Hermione's scream had been heard. Frodo felt terrible. He wanted to help out his friends, but yet if he got caught... Frodo didn't know what to do,but decided to go around to the other side of that little place that they had been at and see if his companions where all right. All he had to do was stay out of sight.

Frodo made his way quietly hobbit-like making no noise around the little glen like area in which they had been. There around he found a couple of large boulders. He decided that if he saw that they were all fine he would return here to hide. He climbed over the boulders and saw to his horror that Hermione and Ron were lying on the ground. They looked stunned. Then close by he saw the crumpled figures of Merry and Pippin. Not far away Draco and Sam were approaching the Rider. The Rider was on his own two feet and holding out his arms, the horse was nowhere to be seen. Sam was trying to drag Hermione away from the Rider. Draco had his wand held out in front of him. Suddenly he bellowed, "Rictusempra!" and the Black Rider went flying into the air and hit a boulder. Then Draco helped Sam to drag Ron and Hermione away.

Suddenly Frodo was attacked from behind as he felt someone grab his cloak and bring him down to the ground. "Argh!" he screamed as pain shot all along his left leg. His leg had been underneath him during his fall. Suddenly he could feel hands groping at him as if they were searching for something. "No!" screamed Frodo and he and his attacker began to wrestle. They were all on top of one another and Frodo couldn't see anything of his attacker. They punched and kicked on the ground. Then his attacker managed to get Frodo on his back and pin him down. Frodo looked up into a shadowed face for he too was wearing a hood. In his hand the attacker held a dagger. He held it high in the air. Frodo struggled he was too heavy. Then "Flipendo!" The figure on top of him flew off and hit rock. He groaned loudly. Frodo looked up to see Harry standing there his arm outstretched wand in hand. Harry then rolled his eyes backwards and fainted to the ground. Frodo gaped and got up, pain shot up through his leg and he collapsed to the floor.

"Argh!" Frodo felt his leg it didn't seem broken. Maybe it was his ankle. He started to massage his ankle. It was swollen. Frodo then crawled over to Harry grimacing in pain as his sprained ankle touched the ground. He reached Harry and turned him on his back so that he was facing up. He seemed to be knocked out unconscious. His glasses were lying on the floor and they were scratched. Frodo looked over to where his attacker had been. He was gone. Frodo returned to Harry. Then on the other side of the boulders he heard growling. Frodo tried to get up, but there was no way his ankle was swollen and it hurt every time he put weight on it. Then he heard the sound of the Black Rider screaming once again. There was a lot of commotion on the other side. He heard Draco's screams along with Sam yelling. It sounded like they were arguing. The Black Rider let out a long shriek and then all was silent and still. Frodo held in his breath not knowing what might be coming. Then he heard the distinct voice of Malfoy fill the air. "Incendio!" Then there was such a screaming sound that Frodo's ears were ringing.

Then he heard the sound of retreating feet followed by a loud groan that sounded like Sam. Then he heard Draco's voice following the retreating steps of the Rider.

"Oh yeah, who kicked your ass? Huh, who kicked your ass! Yeah!"

Frodo smiled to himself and then called to them. Sam was the first to appear from behind the boulders. He looked wary, but he bent down close to Frodo and looked over at Harry in horror.

"Mr. Frodo are you all right? What happened I heard you scream, but then I was trying to keep young Draco from getting himself killed and so I-I"

"Sam it's all right I am fine! Well actually I am not, but take care of Harry first! I think he is unconscious!" exclaimed Frodo. Sam went over to Harry, he touched his forehead.

"He's going cold", said Sam. Then from around the corner Draco appeared. Behind him the limp bodies of Hermione, Ron, Merry and Pippin followed him. Sam yelled startled. Frodo just stared.

"It's all right it's just a spell", said Draco as he waved his wand and they all crumpled down to the floor.

Later on Frodo, Sam and Draco had managed to get the others inside a sort of cave. They had a fire roaring in front of them.It was night time and the moon shone brightly from the sky. The forest seemed eerily quiet, but yet gave them a sort of comfort for their ears were still ringing from the screams of the Black Rider. Draco was going on in details about how he dramatically had beat the Black Rider.He spoke of the big black dog and how it had come at his summoning so that while the dog distracted the rider, he would hit him square in the chest. According to Sam when they had arrived at the scene all of them were lying on the floor. Frodo then told his story about how he was attacked and everything. After a couple of hours of staying watch it was Frodo's turn again. Draco had told him about giving the victims something called chocolate. He produced it from his backpack in the shape of a frog. At first Sam and Frodo were astonished to see that the frog actually moved, but they got used to it by the third frog. Sitting by the fire now listening to everyone sleep peacefully, Frodo hummed to himself a song that his uncle Bilbo had taught him. He looked over at the still figure of Harry. His scar was beginning to glow a strange orange color. Immediately Frodo got up and looked around, but there was nothing to be seen. He glanced back at Harry's scar, it had returned to normal. This had happened about three times before that night and all during his watch. Frodo took it as a warning that something was approaching. Sitting back down quietly Frodo was swept into happy dreams.

As he nodded off a shadow figure moved from his hiding place by the tree and crept over to the group. It bent low over Frodo, smiling. He then scanned the rest of the group and jogged back into the shelter of the woods. Leaving no tracks on the forest floor.