Yes, I update! And be warned, for I shall update again! I spent a week or so in mourning after I read Order of the Phoenix, and I haven't had the heart to go online until now. To all those who have and are reading Harry Potter 5, I am sure you will join me in one giant- SOB!!!!! Luckily, as my story runs differently from Rowling's, the 'character who died' is still alive as far as I'm concerned. After all, ol' Joanne can't send Harry to Middle Earth, can she? It's so odd that no fantasy story can work without a prophecy, isn't it?

After Hermione's hurried departure from the council, Merry had used the confused moment of silence to ask permission for a break since they hadn't eaten a thing since breakfast. To this Celeborn had consented, and Harry, Ron and the two remaining hobbits headed off to a nearby room to have a 'bit of lunch' as Merry had put it.

"So what do you think of it, Harry?" Merry asked, passing him a plate of stewed potatoes. Harry was grateful for the conversation- both Sam and Ron were silently staring at their food. "Do you think your Dark Lord has the Talismans?"

"I certainly hope not!" Harry replied. "If they're even half as powerful as the One Ring, I don't want to think about what Voldemort will be capable of!"

"Beggin' your pardon, Mr. Merry," said Sam suddenly, "But I've got a question of my own, if I may ask it."

"Go ahead, Sam!" cried Merry.

"Well, I'm in a bit of a sauce here, you see," the older hobbit said. "I've got a half mind to stay here and see what adventure comes out of this, but the other half wants nothing more than to go running back to Hobbiton to make sure Rosie and Elanor are well and safe and all!"

Merry laughed. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to, Samwise Gamgee! But speaking sensibly I don't think it will be too safe to go traveling right now- it's a long way to the Shire, and Strider will need us here!"

Sam smiled, looking relieved. "Thank you, Mr. Merry. Bless me, but that's taken a burden off these shoulders!"

"That's what you get for going off and getting married, Sam!" Merry continued, "All worry and no fun!"

Sam looked ruffled. "Well, Mr. Meriadoc Brandybuck, if I've got my eyes on straight, there's a certain Miss Estella Bolger who has more than a fancy for you, if you take my meaning, so don't you go off preaching like that!"

Merry turned red, but then burst out laughing. "All right, Master Gamgee, I'll guard my tongue from now on. Frodo was right about you! Can't trust him even when he's asleep, that's Sam Gamgee!"

Harry couldn't help but marvel at the cheerfulness of the little people and thought of how horrible it would be if something bad were to happen to them. He didn't even want to consider it. He was still thinking about it when he realized Ron was talking to him.

"-but the nerve of him, even with a sword at his neck!"

Harry tried to remember what the conversation was about, but failed to do so. He was grateful when Hermione charged into the room with Pippin at her heels. There was a look of immense triumph upon the girl's face that indicated her research to have been successful. Of course, the giant book in Pippin's hands and the cluster of rolled up parchment in her own were dead giveaways.

"What've you found, Hermione?" Ron asked through a mouthful of mushrooms.

"You won't believe this," began the girl.

"Since when has that made a difference? I haven't believed anything since we walked into a mirror!"

Hermione tutted him away, and opened up a roll of parchment. "Gandalf wrote this! It's a letter, I think-at least a part of it- addressed to Elrond in Rivendell, but I think it was never sent! Listen to this.

.spoke of four Mirrors that cross planes of reality as we know it, perhaps to worlds other than our own, and from his words I gathered that he knows more about these worlds than he cared to tell me. He forbade me from seeing the writings from Dol Guldur, saying that I would not be interested in lore of things so ancient. Yet I believe that these Mirrors are among the Talismans of Morgoth, and that Saruman, for all his denial of their existence, is seeking them himself."

Hermione stopped there and waited expectantly. She was not disappointed.

"The mirror?" cried Ron, "You mean that was one of the Talismans?"

"And Saruman!" Harry exclaimed, "Tom Riddle was his apprentice or something! He must've told him where to find them!"

"What else have you found, Hermione?" asked Merry, reading Gandalf's parchment again before passing it to Ron.

Hermione took the book from Pippin and laid it on the floor, then began flipping through the pages. "I think they've forgotten completely about this book," she said, turning each page after carefully examining it, "but I remembered reading this somewhere." She stopped suddenly, and read out the lines of the verse Elladan had recited earlier. "You said it was in your dream, right, Harry?"

"Yeah," he replied, taking the letter from Ron as he did.

"Well, the rest of the writing is in Elvish, so I can't read it. I wonder why only this is in the Common Tongue,,,"

"What, you mean English?" asked Harry.

Hermione stared at him. "Westron!" she said simply.

"I beg your pardon?"

Hermione stared at Harry as though he had gone mad. "Harry!" she exclaimed, "You don't really think you're speaking in English, do you?"

"Of course I'm speaking Eng." Harry trailed off, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. They weren't English, not even close, and yet he could understand them as well as he ever could. Next to him, Ron's eyes had widened to the size of dinner plates.

"How- how are we doing this?" he asked Hermione.

"I think it has something to do with the mirror," she answered at once, it seemed that she'd already pondered this question. Hermione rarely missed a beat. "It probably enabled us to understand the standard language of this land! I'd bet that if we took someone back with us, they'd speak English quite fluently. or maybe Chinese, since it's the most commonly spoken-"

"All right Hermione," Ron interrupted wearily, "When it comes to figuring things out, you're the best, we agree, now can we get back to You Know Who and the Talisi- things?"

"Well, I think we need to get this stuff translated first, to figure out more," said Hermione, "Do you think we should disturb the council now?"

"Miss Her- Her-. Miss!" said Sam, going red, "If you would, can I see the book? That is, I'm no Elvish expert like Old Mister Bilbo, but it was him that learned me my letters, and I can read quite a fair bit now, I think."

"Of course, Sam!" said Hermione, beaming as she handed him the large volume. All three Hobbits crowded around the book and began whispering among themselves. "I'm starved!" she exclaimed a moment later, "Ron, pass me some of the stuff you're having!"

A few minutes later, the Hobbits came out of their huddle.

"We're ready," said Merry. He cleared his throat and recited, "Four Mirrors that connect the planes of worlds, each one works in turn. I think. The Sword that slays the Spirit, the Blade that shatters Soul."

Pippin stepped up and continued. If they had been saying anything else, it would have been comical. "The Sphere of Dark shall blot out Sun, let evil spread and reign." He shivered at the last words and let Sam finish.

"The Ring protects he who commands. The Power of Arda is his," he said softly. "Begging your pardon, three of you, but I hope that it's not another Ring of Power this book is talking about. We've had enough with those already."

"I think we ought to tell Strider and Celeborn. Right now, in fact," said Pippin. "All this is not pleasant reading- about shattering souls and blotting out the sun!" He got up and walked to the door, then paused, looking at the others. "I should get Strider, shouldn't I?"

Ron came out of his reverie first. "Uh, yeah, Pippin, you should tell Aragorn! This is serious stuff!"

Harry, for his part, sat staring into his bowl of mushroom soup, thinking hard over the Talismans. A Sword- one of them was definitely a sword- that shattered the soul. he thought that sounded bad enough without the part about slaying the spirit. Then there was the Sphere of Dark, he had no clue about that one. Then the Ring. He had to admit it sounded much like the One Ring they'd talked about, but that was destroyed, and Voldemort probably knew that, so why.

It was a vision. Harry, as far as he was aware, was sitting on a chair with soup in his hands, but he was also somewhere else. In a wooded area near running water- a river. The River Anduin, something told him. He couldn't move or anything- it was like he was watching a movie, but he knew something was going to happen. Something bad.

As he watched, several figures stepped out of the trees. He hadn't even noticed them there, but he knew immediately that they were Elves. They stood still as statues, bows drawn and ready for an assault. There was a soft rustle in the leaves of the trees.

Harry closed his eyes- he didn't want to see any more- but the vision was still there- the Elves, and then a cloaked, hooded figure was there before them. Harry willed his mind to stop watching, as though that would prevent what he knew was going to happen, but with no avail.

Harry's scar seared in pain. Then he heard it. He heard the high, cold voice that haunted his nightmares, heard the words that meant only death.

"Avada Kedavra"

"No!" he cried, but the world became a blur of green and brown and black, until only the black drained through.

Oh no! Whatever will happen now? Whatever HAS happened.duh, it's rather obvious, eh? Well, I'll just inform you that I typed the bit with Harry's vision sometime during me exams, so it's no inspiration from the new book, right? You do believe me, don't you? Anyway, thanks to me reviewers for sticking by me all the while, I couldn't have made a comeback without you!