Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings. Oh yeah, and I checked the rules, and I believe I forgot to put that I didn't come up with songs such as, "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" (although the Uruk-hai version is mine, technically, seeing as how I made it up), or "I Love You" (aka the Barney song), or "This is the Song That Never Ends". If I forgot a song that anyone else sings that's not from Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, it's not mine either.

Chapter 35: Healing and Counseling

Pippin and Gandalf stepped out of the city and on to the field. The hobbit looked around, trying to find his friends.

"PIPPIN!"

Pippin turned to see Fred, George, and Merry running towards him, laughing and whooping. "Hey! Did you see us in battle?" yelled Fred, "Merry took on an Easterling and we all killed an oliphaunt and Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Harry and Ron brought dead guys to help us, and…"

"What did you do?" Merry interrupted.

Pippin decided to tell them what was somewhat the truth. He puffed out his chest a little. "Not too much," he said airily, "Although I did save Gandalf's life!"

Gasps came from the other three. "You did not!" cried George.

"Did too!"

"How?" asked Merry, wide-eyed.

Gandalf overheard him telling the story. I should have known, he thought wearily, He hasn't been with them five seconds and already he's having a relapse in behavior!

"What do you think Gandalf will do for you now?" asked Merry.

Knock that silly Took over the head with my staff, that's what I'd like to do!

"I don't know," Pippin replied, "But I can't wait to find out!"


Hermione crept through Mordor, wondering where she'd find Frodo and Sam. Instinct, or perhaps Galadriel's will, seemed to guide her to an old tower. She walked cautiously in, only to realize that the only orcs here were dead orcs. They had obviously gotten into a fight over something. She climbed to the highest room and found another dead orc lying on the ground next to ropes that looked like they'd been cut by a dagger.

"Sam," she murmured, "He did save Frodo after all!" The thought cheered her somewhat.


Aragorn released the dead army, much to their pleasure and Ron and Gimli's displeasure. Now the survivors were walking among the dead and wounded, searching for familiar faces.

The quiet air was shattered as Eomer suddenly yelled out, "NOOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone turned around. Eomer was cradling what he believed to be his dead sister in his arms. Harry and Ron rushed over. Aragorn stared in horror. I can't believe it! She actually came along after all! he thought.

Harry had just gotten to Eomer when he saw another prone figure lying not too far away. "GINNY!" he screamed. Ron, Fred, George, and Pippin ran as fast as they could to the scene. After a few bewildered seconds, Merry and Aragorn followed.

A close inspection discovered that Eowyn and Ginny were not dead; they had been poisoned by the Black Breath of the Nazgul. Ginny, however, due to loss of blood from her chest wound, was much worse than Eowyn. Aragorn gently pried her away from Harry, who was holding her, and carried her into Minas Tirith.

"Is…is she going to be all right?" asked Ron hoarsely. Legolas gripped his shoulder.

"Trust Aragorn," he said softly, "He's an experienced healer, and he hasn't failed yet!"

Ron closed his eyes, trying to block out the pain. "So who won?" he muttered, not really caring for once.

"You did," said Legolas.

"Again!" growled Gimli furiously.

Ron actually smiled. "Does this mean we're going back to the old rules then?"

"Don't press your luck," replied Legolas firmly.

The late afternoon wore on into cool evening. It should have been a peaceful night for the group, if they hadn't been so worried about Eowyn and Ginny. They were also mourning the death of King Théoden, who had been crushed underneath his horse when the Nazgul attacked. Ron was so devastated, and felt so sick by it all, it was a wonder he wasn't lying on a bed in the Houses of Healing himself.

Meanwhile Pippin was telling them all about what happened in Minas Tirith when he got there, how he was employed in Denethor's service, how he'd met Ginny, how she had been banished from the hall ("Aragorn will put that right as soon as he heals her," assured Legolas.) and how Faramir had been sacrificed and almost killed.

"And then Denethor convinced the Healers to let him have Faramir's body, and he had him carried out to the tombs to be burned."

"You mean cremated?" asked Harry in horror.

"I guess," said Pippin, "I tried to explain that he was alive, but Denethor threw me out so I ran to get Gandalf and we rode to the tombs but we were stopped by the Witch King and he broke Gandalf's staff! Then he heard you all coming from Rohan, that was brilliant with the ships by the way, and he rode off and I saw Ginny on his tail and I didn't understand what had happened, but we went up to save Faramir, and Denethor was trying to burn himself too! So we saved Faramir, but Denethor committed suicide before we could really stop him!"

There was a silence. Then Eomer walked in and told them that Eowyn was going to live. "That's excellent news!" exclaimed Merry.

"What about Ginny?" asked Harry. Ron, Fred, and George stood up immediately.

"Aragorn is tending to her, but he's not sure whether she'll make it or not," said Eomer gravely.

Harry didn't wait for more, he got up and walked quickly down the hallway. In a room to his right he found Aragorn sitting by Ginny's bed with all sorts of herbs and plants on a table. Lying in another bed nearby, apparently fast asleep, was Eowyn.

"I've managed to fix up the wound in her chest," said Aragorn without looking up, "That was the easy part I'm afraid. I think she'll live, but it's hard to say at this stage."

Harry went over and sat by her bed. He gently pulled back some of the hair that was in her face. "Come on Ginny," he muttered, "Don't die on me."

"Oh?" Aragorn couldn't help raising his eyebrow.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"You just seemed to be, er, a little…affectionate then, that's all."

"Of course," said Harry, starting to turn red, "She's my best friend's sister."

"If you say so," said Aragorn with a shrug, turning back to his work.

"What are you saying?" demanded Harry.

"Nothing."

"Come on," said Harry frantically, "You're not saying that I'm…that I'm…in love with Ginny or something?"

"I never said that," said Aragorn casually. He got to his feet. "Watch her," he said, "I have to look at some of the other wounded people. Let me know if she has a relapse." He left.

Harry stared at Ginny. Was he in love with her? Was Aragorn right? Of course not, he thought, That would be ridiculous! Besides, what would Ron say? No, he thought firmly, as though to convince himself. He was definitely not in love with Ginny.


Fred, George, and Merry, despite the circumstances, were having a laughing fit.

"It's not funny, guys," said Pippin crossly.

"Yes it is Pippin," said Fred.

"You lost Exploding Snap to a girl?" asked Merry.

"Yes," muttered Pippin sulkily.

"Well, maybe not just any girl," said George, "Ginny is pretty good."

"Still," snorted Fred, "He was finally beaten! So tell us Pippin, how does it feel to be among the losers?"

" Oh shut up," said Pippin. He had only told them the story to cheer them up over their sister. Now he was sorely regretting it.

"Did you hear that George?" asked Fred, "It appears that Pippin has picked up on our slang terms! Now he knows how to say 'shut up'!"

"We taught him all we know," said George, pretending to wipe away a tear.

"This calls for a celebration game!" cried Merry. The others loved the idea.

"How do you play?" asked Legolas curiously.

"You don't play card games?" asked Ron incredulously.

"What are they?" asked Gimli.

The Fearsome Foursome grew evil grins. "Would you like us to teach you?" asked Fred.

"I'll teach them," said Ron hastily.

"That's the prefect for you," snarled George under his breath, "Loves to take away all the fun!"


After a while, Aragorn returned to find that Ginny was still asleep and Harry was still there.

"She hasn't changed for the worse?"

Harry shook his head. "But she hasn't woken up!"

"Then let's leave her in peace," said Aragorn, gently dragging him away. They hadn't gone far down the hall when they heard a small explosion. "What was that!" exclaimed Aragorn.

"That'll be the twins," said Harry, "Therefore I don't want to know!"


The explosion woke Ginny. She sat up, and instantly felt a pain in her chest. "Where am I?" she muttered.

"You're inside Minas Tirith," said Eowyn, who had just woken up.

"How'd I get in here? The last thing I remember was…"

"That foul white orc struck you down, I know, I saw. I'm sorry I didn't help, but I knew I couldn't fight, I just felt so weak…"

"You did? Me too! Why was that?"

"I guess it had something to do with the Nazgul," said Eowyn.

"Oh yeah. You were brilliant against him! The way you took off your helmet and everything!"

"You were too! I would've died if you hadn't stabbed him like that, he had me by the throat; I couldn't get away!"

"Why did you do that?"

"Fight the Nazgul? Because he attacked my uncle." Tears formed in Eowyn's eyes. "He died."

"Wasn't that the King of Rohan? He looked like it, with everyone answering to him, and he had such magnificent armor, and such a beautiful horse!"

"Yes, Théoden was my uncle," said Eowyn, now crying softly. "I tried to save him, I really did, but it was too late!"

"Well, don't go blaming yourself now, what you did was really brave and no one could do better! Do women always fight in Rohan? I'd always thought they didn't!"

"And I always thought women weren't aloud to fight in Gondor!"

Ginny grinned wryly. "Another stowaway, eh?" Eowyn nodded, smiling again. "Well, this must be our punishment for disobeying the men!"

"It was worth it!" said Eowyn fervently, "I mean, it wasn't fun, thinking I would probably die, but at least I got to prove myself!"

"Me too! Now my brothers can't coddle me anymore!"

"Fred and George coddle you?" asked Eowyn incredulously.

"Well, maybe they don't, and Bill, my oldest brother, he's good too, but the others…"

"How many brothers do you have?"

"Six."

"One, and he's bad enough! He knew I was going to sneak in, and he tried to stop me too!"

"When will they learn that doing things like that only encourages us?"

"Really!" Eowyn laughed, "The other women are no help either; they don't understand me at all!"

"You should've seen some of the looks I've gotten! Mum thinks I want to go way over my head! She keeps saying if I carry on with sports and teasing Ron the way I do, it'll be only a matter of time before she gets an owl saying I've been seriously injured and I'm in the hospital wing at my school!"

"The hospital wing…is that like these Houses of Healing?"

"Yeah," said Ginny. "And look at me now!" she said, gesturing to her bed. Both young women lay on their beds, helpless with fits of laughter.

"Arrgh," groaned Ginny, "That hurts my chest! Who fixed me?"

"Aragorn," said Eowyn. For some reason she looked sad again.

"Who? Oh that's right, I remember Hermione telling me about him! What's wrong?"

Eowyn sighed heavily.

"You can tell me, I won't say anything, I promise! Ask anybody! I don't tell other people's secrets!" insisted Ginny.

"All right," she said. She took a deep breath and said, "I love him."

"Ohhhh!" Ginny nodded in understanding. "I take it he doesn't like you back?"

"No."

"Well, I think every girl goes through that!" said Ginny, "I have! I loved, I still love actually, Harry."

"Harry Potter?"

"That's the one!"

"He was in here before," Eowyn told her, "I heard him. He was asking if you were going to be ok. I wish Aragorn would do that for me."

"He did?" asked Ginny hopefully, "Well, Aragorn healed you didn't he? What more do you want?"

"I want him to love me!" cried Eowyn miserably.

"Hmm," said Ginny, "Well…that's understandable. But what can we do?"

"Nothing. He loves someone else."

"Oh. Well, there's always Faramir!"

"Who?"

"Faramir. He's a friend of mine, kind of the opposite of both of us, but you'd like him. I wonder how he's doing. He was almost killed trying to retake Osgiliath."

Eowyn got up and stretched. She looked out of the window into a nearby courtyard. There was a young man standing outside. He saw her and smiled.

"Who's that?" she asked.

"Let me see," said Ginny, looking out, "Hey! That's Faramir!"

"Ginny!" he called and went over to say hello. "In the Houses of Healing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow, "I told you not to go into battle!"

"And we killed the Witch King, so ha!"

"The Witch King?" gasped Faramir, "That's impossible! No man can kill him!"

"Do we look like men?" asked Ginny.

"No," admitted Faramir, "Who is your lovely friend here?"

"This is Eowyn," said Ginny cheerfully, "She went into battle too!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Faramir kindly, "It's nice to know you found a kindred spirit Ginny. I'll leave you to recover now."

"Bye!" she waved. Then she turned to Eowyn. "Isn't he nice?"

"I suppose he is," said Eowyn quietly, "Yes, he's very respectable."

"See? I knew you'd get along!" Ginny suddenly yawned loudly. "I guess I'd better sleep," she said, "Let me know if I have any visitors!"

"I think I'm going to rest too, so don't expect too much from me," replied Eowyn. They both collapsed on their beds wearily and fell asleep in seconds.

The next morning Ginny was awake to see Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Merry, and Pippin. They all swapped stories for the next few hours, and then Aragorn came in with some medicine for the girls, which they both claimed was vile. Then he turned to the others.

"Gandalf is calling a council, we have to go now."

"Can we come?" asked Ginny eagerly.

"No, you're not well enough. Lie down."

"I help kill a Ringwraith, and what do I get? Lie down!" muttered Ginny darkly. Eowyn smothered her laughter in her pillow.

The group walked into the Hall, where Gandalf, Legolas, Gimli, and Eomer were already there. Both Legolas and Gimli burst into wide smiles when they saw the group, which were returned by Aragorn, Harry, and Ron, but the Fearsome Foursome merely grunted a greeting. They were all muttering things like, "…never speaking to them again!" and "…2 wins each! What's wrong with us?" and "The next person who mentions 'Exploding Snap' to them gets a special little (unpleasant) surprise!"

Gandalf cleared his throat and glared in their direction. All four shut up, and the meeting began.

Despite their victory at Minas Tirith, things were not going well. Nobody knew what had happened to Frodo, Sam, and Hermione, and the whole future of Middle Earth depended on them. Harry felt like instead of being congratulated for all the work they had done to protect Gondor, they were simply being rebuked instead.

"What are we going to do?" he asked Gandalf, "How can we help them?"

"If Sauron had the Ring we would know it," Aragorn pointed out.

"It's only a matter of time," said Gandalf sadly. He seemed to have lost all hope.

"But what makes you think they can't do it?" asked Ron, "Hermione's the best witch they could ask for!"

"Magic will not help with everything," said Gandalf.

"Like what?" asked Ron.

"Like 10,000 orcs that stand between them and Mount Doom."

"Ohhhh…"

"I've sent them to their deaths," said Gandalf. He looked defeated.

"That can't be right!" exclaimed Harry, "There has to be a way we can help!"

"There is," said Aragorn quietly. He'd been thinking hard. "They need time and safe passage across the plains of Mordor. We can give them that."

"How?" asked Gimli slowly.

"Well, in order to do that, we'd have to get rid of all the orcs," said Harry thoughtfully, "And the only way Sauron's going to use his orcs is when he thinks he needs to atta…" He suddenly understood. "No…"

"Why not?' asked Aragorn. He was getting a little excited. "We can march upon the Black Gate and keep his Eye fixed on us…"

"…while they make their way to Mount Doom!" finished Harry. He let out a low whistle.

"A diversion," said Legolas, nodding. He knew a good plan when he heard one, and it was the only one they had.

"So you want us to basically knock on Sauron's front door, get him to come after us instead, and then he kills us and we just hope that Frodo, Sam, and Hermione get through?" asked Ron incredulously.

"I would prefer if we didn't die," said Aragorn, "Although it is a possibility, but it's the only chance they have!"

"It's crazy!" exclaimed Fred.

"It's not crazy Fred, it's insane!" cried George.

They looked at each other and grinned. "We love it!" they said.

"Sauron will suspect a trap," said Gandalf, looking unconvinced, "He will not take the bait."

"Oh I think he will," said Aragorn, with something close to a smirk.

Wonder what he's got up his sleeve? Wondered Harry. It didn't matter really. He trusted Aragorn.

"Certainty of death, small chance of success! What are we waiting for?" demanded Gimli.

"Here, here!" chorused the Foursome. They seemed to have forgotten they weren't speaking to him.


That night, Harry couldn't sleep. He finally stopped trying and got up, thinking he would get himself a drink and then try again. But his pitcher was empty, so he ended up wandering around, looking for the kitchens.

He walked past Ginny and Eowyn's room and looked in. They were both sleeping soundly. He smiled. They were recovering wonderfully, though no one dared mention the word "battle" in front of them, knowing what they would do.

He had just walked past a door that lead into the Hall when he heard a yell. Heart beating fast, he crept in, and then dashed to the throne, where he saw Aragorn bent over. Nearby was the palantir.

"Aragorn! What happened! What are you doing? Did he get you with the palantir? What happened!"

Aragorn looked up and put a finger to his lips. Harry quieted. "I was just looking into the palantir," he whispered.

"That's obvious," Harry whispered, "Why?"

"I thought if he knew I was coming tomorrow, he'd definitely come after us instead. It wouldn't hurt for him to think I have the Ring either."

"Did he…hurt you?"

"No, not physically. But Harry," he moaned.

"What? What?"

Aragorn took a deep breath, realized he couldn't go on, and simply pointed to the floor. It was then for the first time that Harry saw the shards of Aragorn's necklace on the ground.

"It broke?" he asked, bewildered.

"Yes. Harry, I think Arwen…is…I think she's dead!" He almost looked ready to cry, something he never did.

"But…you said…she was going to Valinor!"

"I know, I know," groaned Aragorn in utter anguish. "She didn't. Elrond told me, remember when I said he gave me news from Rivendell?"

Harry wanted to kick himself. How could he have been so stupid? Of course Elrond had been telling him about Arwen, but none of this occurred to him in the mountains.

"You had other things on your mind," said Aragorn sympathetically, "But the point is, he told me she forsook her immortality, and because of that, what with the evil spreading everywhere, she was dying!"

"So…how do you know she's dead now?"

"I saw it in the palantir!"

"And you believe Sauron?" asked Harry.

Aragorn paused. It was a good point. "Yes, but…the necklace…"

"I can fix that," said Harry, "Here…Reparo!" The necklace came together again.

"Thank you Harry," said Aragorn. He placed it over his neck again. "Now go get some sleep."

And, surprisingly, after he got back to bed, Harry found going to sleep the easiest thing in the world, as if he'd done what he'd meant to do, and now he could rest.

A/N: Ok, I managed to get this chapter in. The next one I'm hoping will come out on Tuesday night.