The True Tournament
By Leafy Rose
Rating: PG-13 for violence, bad attitudes, and tense situations.
Disclaimer: I own nothing Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter.
For all writer's disclaimers and quill scribblings, see the opening bit of the opening chapter.
Thanks for the wonderful reviews, everyone!
Cestari: Thanks for the review! Yeah, that's basically what's going to happen. It will be explained a bit clearer in the next chapter. :o) I hope you like this one!
Star-Stallion: ::looks longingly at the chocolate bar:: Mmm…chocolate…goes great with ice cream. Hehe, thanks for the review! I'm glad you're liking this! Hope you like this new chapter. The game will begin next chapter, as we still have a little "procession" to go on with. :o)
Newmoon: Thanks! Here you go! :o) Hope you like this new one!
Elfchick123: Thanks for the review! Have I mentioned that I love your screenname? :o) I hope that you like this chapter!
Mariana Nimeneth: Thanks for the review! Yeah, the tournament will begin in the next chapter, right at the beginning. As for WGTD, I'll probably start posting that again when I'm finished with this story, but I may start writing it again sooner if I get an inspiration. :o) My classes have started up again, leaving me precious little free time and all that, but I'll not forget about it. :o) Thanks again! Hope you like this new chapter!
On we go!
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Chapter 3
"Starting Up"
Frodo breathed in, relishing the feeling of the soft covers around him. His eyes were shut, the faint light of early morning resting warmly against his lids, and then his eyes as he opened them. The first thing he took in was the soft, glowing sun, a bright patch blocking everything else from view.
For a darling instant, he thought he was back in his bed, in his room at Bag End, but the heavy thought of the Ring, and Sauron, and all of his companions soon crushed this one away.
He sat up slowly, the unfamiliar stone walls coming into focus, and the memory of the strange detour his journey had led him on came back into his mind as well. He slid to the edge of the bed, which seemed about as wide as a dining table, tossing the covers back as his feet came over the side, his toes just brushing the ground. Frodo pushed himself gently off, onto the floor. He walked across the warm wooden floorboards to stand in front of the large window the sun was coming through. It was enclosed with a plate of glass with a lovely slim pattern of a dragon blowing a wisp of blue flame up in curling fashion. Frodo found this rather curious as well, as he had always thought of dragons as nothing but dangerous, and this tiny decoration made them seem benevolent, large but harmless.
As he stared up at the design at the top of the window, Frodo became aware of a dark object moving back and forth lazily in his lower peripheral view. He looked straight out the window to see a large brown bird with a stubby little beak flying towards the window. Could it be an owl? It had been ages since he had seen one.
Frodo watched for a moment, then stumbled back as its speed increased and its path didn't change. It was flying straight for the window!
The bird collided noisily with the window, outside at the spot that Frodo had just been staring at. It shook off the force of this, turning slightly and beating its right wing fiercely against the closest pane. The noise was surprisingly effective.
Before Frodo could do anything but stare in alarm and mystification, there was a quick stirring from the bed in the corner, and Sam leaped up, his stance defensive. He rushed up beside Frodo, who looked up at him as he spotted the owl. By the look on his face, Sam didn't look like he knew any better, what to do.
He settled for snatching a brass candlestick off the table beside Frodo's bed, rapping it sharply against the window, close to the spot where the bird was making his fuss.
This didn't curtail the bird's behavior at all, but rather tripped the lock in the wall that held the window shut, allowing it now to swing outward like a door. Sam dropped the candlestick in his surprise as the bird pulled back to avoid being hit by the window, then came forward again, landing on the sill and sticking its left foot out, towards them. It turned its head, looking at them expectantly.
Frodo looked down at its leg, further shocked to see a small roll of parchment like the sheet they'd been given last night, rolled up and strapped to the bird's leg. He reached forward, gingerly taking the parchment, pulling it loose from the bird. The owl blinked at them as Sam continued to look at it, now in fascination, as he had only once before seen an owl, and never this close. It nodded slightly at him, then took off again out the open window.
Frodo barely registered this, as he unfurled the parchment and took in its words.
"What's going on?" Aragorn stepped into the doorway suddenly, as if he had hurried to it to ask them this. He and Boromir had their own room, as did the four hobbits, and then Legolas and Gimli, so Frodo didn't know how anyone else's night had been, though Aragorn didn't look any different than he had last night. Frodo looked up from his reading.
"We're wanted in the Great Hall," he muttered. "Breakfast."
"What?" Aragorn looked confused. "We don't know--,"
"Here," Frodo turned the writing towards Aragorn as he handed him the paper. "Directions."
*********
Harry groaned, a faint beating noise reaching his ears, stirring him out of his dreams.
He sat up, fumbling for his glasses as he pulled back the curtains around his bed. To his utter shock, there was a light brown owl perched on the outer edge of the bed, holding a letter in its beak. Obviously a new addition to the Owlery, it looked on at him with wide, eager eyes.
Harry pulled the letter gently towards himself. He stuck his finger in the top of the envelope, tearing it open softly. Though he had been purposely woken up, it was obvious that the others were still asleep, and most probably meant to stay that way.
Harry unfolded the parchment that was neatly stashed within, squinting at the large letters printed on it.
"An early start, Harry--come to the Great Hall at once," it read.
Harry's eyes widened in shock. He raised his head and found himself staring at the little brown owl again.
"What can they want, I wonder?" he whispered to it.
*********
"So much armor about this place, you'd think they expect a war," Boromir mumbled as the nine of them rounded another set of stairs, the landing being adorned with a handsome, intricate suit of armor. He continued to look disapprovingly at it as they kept on down the stairs, and received a shock as it turned its helmeted head sharply towards him, shaking it vaguely in censure. Boromir turned abruptly, white in the face. This place seemed haunted.
He cared not to mention it, though. Aragorn, the only one he'd have cared to share his discovery with, was heading them up, the tiny piece of paper with the instructions for getting to breakfast in his hand. Though Aragorn had proved himself able to find his way unscathed through a waist-deep swamp in the dead of night, surrounded by the keenest-eared orcs and goblins, he seemed to be having trouble with the instructions the seemingly-eccentric old wizard had provided for him.
"Left--," he muttered softly, leading them down another set of stairs, into a dark hallway that looked like it had never been used.
**********
"At last, our guests have arrived," Dumbledore smiled a broad smile as the nine made their way through the doors into the long room, where the wizard was seated at one side of the table closest to the door, the familiar witch (Mcgonagall?), sitting rigidly beside him.
"Forgive us our lateness, but the directions proved somewhat confounding," Gandalf replied, smiling genially in return to Dumbledore.
"Oh, yes," Dumbledore sighed, shaking his head. "I'm afraid several of those staircases have probably shifted in the night. They have a habit of doing that, especially just when I need them to stay put, you know."
"Indeed," Gandalf arched his eyebrows, approaching the table and seating himself. Aragorn approached close behind him, seating himself on one side with Boromir next to him. Legolas took his seat next to Gandalf on his other side, and Gimli seated himself on Legolas' other side.
The hobbits, however, hung back to stare in amazement at the room, at its seeming lack of a ceiling, though they felt neither the warm sun that shone down, nor the cool breeze that came through the open windows level with them.
"It's enchanted," Dumbledore spoke up, noticing their hesitation. "An ceiling enchanted to look like the sky outside."
"Really," Frodo swallowed, nodding. These people used magic quite a lot, or so it seemed. They must have been very powerful…still, they only seemed to do harmless magic.
He hurriedly approached the table, sitting down at it beside Aragorn, Sam, Pippin, and Merry following in quick succession.
Dumbledore smiled as they all situated themselves. He reached under the table, pulling two envelopes out, handing one across the table to Frodo.
"Don't open it yet," he said. "We must wait for the other contestant to arrive."
"The other contestant--?" Frodo spoke up as the sound of soft footfalls reached his ears.
The witch and wizard and the nine companions all looked to the door in unison as a slight figure, taller than a hobbit but shorter than a man that came hesitantly into the threshold.
"Good morning, Harry," Dumbledore said before the boy came out of the shadows. "Come, have a seat. I apologize for having to wake you so early on a Saturday."
~~~End of Part 3~~~