Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Lord of the Rings.
A/N: I'mSO sorry! I know I said Tuesday night, but I didn't have any time to write this weekend! I need to get back on track so I can finish this before school starts. That's the goal anyway. Cross your fingers!
Chapter 36: Mordor
Hermione hid behind a rock, and then cautiously peered out. She could see the backs of two orcs headed down into the valley, which was slowly emptying out. She wondered where they were all going, but it didn't matter. She needed to find Frodo and Sam.
Hermione cautiously slid down the hill, drawing her elvish cloak tight. This place felt so evil she shivered. Then she heard the sound of a company of orcs marching this way. Quickly, Hermione crouched down, pulling her cloak over her head. She knew how they worked. But she was surprised to see that the two orcs in front of her, instead of joining up with the army, were trying to hide as well. Maybe they were deserters. But Hermione had always thought that orcs were thirsty for blood and ever-eager for battle. So what was going on with these two?
The captain of the troops had just noticed the two stragglers, and immediately began beating them and pushing them up to the front of the line as punishment. It was then that Hermione noticed something the other orcs did not. Underneath those helmets was pale skin. Skin the color of her own, in adverse to orcs. She realized in an instant who they were. "Frodo and Sam!" she breathed. With a sinking feeling, Hermione wondered what she could possibly do to get them out of this sticky situation.
Early the next morning, the armies of Rohan and Gondor marched out of Minas Tirith to Mordor. Leading them were Gandalf, Aragorn, Eomer, Harry, Ron, Legolas, Gimli, Fred, George, Merry, and Pippin.
Ginny, Eowyn, and Faramir were forced to stay behind. They weren't fit to go into battle again, something the girls were not happy about. But this gave Ginny the chance to put two of her new friends together by suggesting to each one separately that they take a walk in the courtyard for health reasons. When asked if she was going with them, she refused, saying she needed to lie down again.
What she was really doing of course, was lurking out of sight, watching with growing glee as Faramir met Eowyn, the two talked softly to each other, and eventually Faramir took Eowyn's hand. Ginny twisted her head to see Eowyn's eyes were filled with happy tears as she leaned her head against his shoulder. She went back to her room wearing a smirk that hid her true happiness for both friends. "You did good today Ginny Weasley," she said to herself.
Hermione crawled along, lurking out of sight, trying to follow the progress of the hobbits. Her heart nearly stopped when the orc in charge yelled out "Inspection!"
Thinking quickly, Hermione glanced around from underneath the cloak, where, to everyone else, she looked like a huge rock. She saw there was a tent nearby, and behind it, wilderness. It was the perfect place for an escape route. But how to help the hobbits?
The answer was lying a few feet away. No one noticed Hermione crawl out of sight; their eyes were fixed straight ahead as they were being inspected.
Suddenly one of the orcs on the side yelled in pain as a small rock hit him on the head. He whirled around to face the orc behind him. "Why'd you hit me?"
"I did not!" yelled the other orc.
"Yes you did you liar!" screamed the first orc, pushing him into the others. Thus began a huge brawl with all the orcs fighting and screaming as each one tried to come out on top as the strongest. Frodo and Sam, hidden in line, saw the opportunity to escape, and ran into the nearby tent, where they were immediately grabbed by Hermione.
"Shh!" she whispered as they started to cry out, "It's only me!"
"Hermione?" gasped Sam, "We thought you were dead!"
"Well I'm not, as you can see," she hissed, "I'm just fine! Hurry, let's get out of here!"
"How did you find us?" asked Frodo as they crept out.
"Later," she whispered.
The Black Gate was coming into view. "Whoa," was all Ron could make out.
Aragorn and Eomer assembled the troops farther back, and waited. Nothing happened.
"Where are they?" asked Pippin.
Aragorn nudged Brego forward in response, and he, Harry, Ron, Fred, George, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, and Eomer rode forward.
"Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth!" shouted Aragorn, "Let justice be done upon him!"
Silence.
"Now would be a good time!" shouted Fred. Suddenly the gates began to creak open. Everyone stared at Fred.
"What?" he said innocently, "I didn't know they were going to do that!"
The gates opened wide enough for one rider to come out. It was one of the most evil servants in Mordor, the lieutenant of Barad-dur, known as the Mouth of Sauron. Harry's first impression was that it needed to see a dentist immediately. His helmet covered his entire head, with only the mouth showing, and two very narrow slits for eyes. His teeth were huge, fang-shaped, and bloodstained.
"My Master, Sauron the Great, bids thee welcome," he said with a sneer.
"Sauron the Great? Who gave him that title?" Ron whispered to Harry.
The Mouth turned his head in their direction so fast that they jumped. "Who might you be?" he asked, "Are you those strangers the Nazgul have told us so much about?"
"We have a reputation now, do we?" asked Harry coldly.
"Oh yes," said the Mouth, "They have said you have the abilities of…wizards." It sounded like he highly doubted they were magical. "Most unnatural," he continued, "But the powers they tell us you claim to have are certainly impressive…it's a shame you chose not to side with…" he cast a sneering glance at the rest of them, "the winners."
"We'll see who wins," said Ron angrily.
The Mouth of Sauron laughed, and turned to the others. Gandalf delivered their ultimatum: leave Middle Earth and never come back. Harry thought this was asking a bit too much, especially to a powerful dark lord, but then it occurred to him that Gandalf knew full well he would never accept it, this was just a form of war etiquette that the wizard insisted on using.
Sure enough, the evil lieutenant sneered at these demands and said, "I have a token I was bidden to show thee." He held out a pearly-white shirt made of mithril.
Harry instantly felt sick. He recognized that shirt, from a time months and months ago in Moria. That was Frodo's shirt, and there could only be one way this creature could have it…
Everyone else realized what this must mean too. Only Ron had no idea. "Why's everyone so upset over a shirt?" he hissed to Harry, "It looks nice and everything, but is it magical or something?"
Harry leaned over and whispered to whom it belonged to. "Oh…" said Ron, comprehension dawning on his face, "But…but…that means…" He gasped. "Where's Hermione?" he demanded.
"Who?" asked the Mouth, jerking his head in Ron's direction.
"Hermione," he repeated looking pale and sweaty, "What did you do to Hermione?"
"Is that his name?" he asked, shaking the shirt.
Relief washed over Harry. He quickly nodded and kicked Ron hard before he could say anything else. If the Mouth thought Hermione and Frodo were the same person, then it was possible that they had only caught Frodo. And what about Sam? He listened carefully as the Mouth gloated. The lieutenant only spoke of one. Even more hopeful, he didn't mention the Ring at all. Could it be that Sam and Hermione were still safe, and the Ring as well? Had they saved Frodo after all?
While Harry pondered all this, he failed to notice Fred and George muttering darkly to each other. Then they looked up and nudged their horses over to the Mouth of Sauron.
"We really hate to waste this on something like you," said Fred.
"But we were told to use this wisely, and we think now is the best time," explained George.
"What are you talking about…?" the Mouth never finished his sentence, because Fred and George had simultaneously took out their pouches of fire powder and flung them in his direction, where he promptly exploded in their faces.
They all stared at the settling dust. "A fitting end for someone like him," said George.
Suddenly the gates began to really creak open. "Get back!" Harry found himself yelling. They rode back to where their armies were waiting. When he turned around, Harry could see thousands upon thousands of orcs marching out of Mordor and slowly starting to circle around them. He gulped and gripped his sword tighter. One thing was certain: this would not be a pleasant experience.
Meanwhile, the trio was making their way across the plains to the slopes of Mount Doom. Hermione was exhausted, but she knew she was nowhere near as weary as Frodo. They had eventually abandoned everything but the Ring, a weapon each, and the clothes on their backs as they started the long treacherous climb.
"I still don't see why we have to turn our horses loose," said Ron.
"It gives us an unfair advantage from the rest of the soldiers," explained Legolas.
"We're the captains! Of course we have advantages! They're more like privileges really! And I don't think you were too fussed back at Minas Tirith when Rohan had an unfair advantage over the orcs!"
"That's different, and you know it," replied Legolas, "It's one thing if they are the enemy, quite another if it's your fellow soldiers…"
"Why would they care? Besides, I'm more comfortable on horseback!"
"You did fine at Minas Tirith," said Harry.
"I was lucky," replied Ron stubbornly.
"Ah," said Gimli, with a wink at Legolas, "So the only reason you beat us was luck. I see…"
"Actually, that was skill!" said Ron quickly.
"It's alright Ron," said Harry, "The horses will find their way back, and you'll get to ride it to wherever we go to get back home."
"But will we live to get back home?" asked Ron anxiously, "That's what I want to know!"
Harry looked out at the enemy. They now had the armies of Rohan and Gondor completely surrounded. "Well," he said, as optimistically as possible, "We'll have to wait and see!" Ron snorted at this.
The orcs kept marching. Hermione, Frodo, and Sam continued to draw closer to Mount Doom. The final conflict had come.
The soldiers looked ready to panic, now that they saw what they were up against, and Harry couldn't blame them. But Aragorn now rode up in front of them, shouting, "Hold your ground! Hold your ground!" Everyone stopped. Harry watched his friend with increasing admiration. The long-lost king of Gondor had really returned, and now he was putting new heart into his defeated men. "I see your eyes," he shouted, "The same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come, when the courage of men fail, when we forsake our friends, and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day! An hour of wolves, and shattered shields, when the Age of Men come crashing down, but it is not this day! This day we fight!" Harry felt something inside him stir, something he hadn't felt since the night he fought Voldemort in the graveyard. "By all that you hold dear, on this good earth, I bid you stand Men of the West!"
If the situation had allowed, Harry felt certain that all the men would have cheered. He saw Aragorn glance at him, almost to get the rate of approval. Harry smiled, nodded, and gave him the thumbs up. (Aragorn was still trying to grasp what a thumbs-up really meant.)
Hermione bent over, panting, on a sort of carven step in the slope. She and the hobbits stared straight ahead. A gaping, flaming entrance way into the heart of Mount Doom. The end was finally here.
But there was no time to celebrate. Suddenly Hermione heard a snarling cry and looked up in time to see, with a jolt of shock, Gollum leap onto Sam, who was carrying Frodo on his shoulders, and knock them to the ground. Sam rolled away in one direction, but Frodo was trapped, pinned underneath Gollum, who was choking him.
Rage suddenly filled Hermione. Without thinking, she whipped out her wand and screamed, "Furnunculus!" Gollum howled as boils sprang up everywhere on him. He turned and tackled Hermione and began wrestling with her on the ground.
"Get…off me…you little vermin…"
"Vermin! You is a liar who hates Sméagol!"
"I…never…hated you," she gasped, "I tried…to give you a chance…you wouldn't take it…"
Gollum did not have a chance to answer, because at that moment Sam came up from behind and pulled him off Hermione. Shrieking, he and Sam got in their own brawl.
"Frodo?" called Hermione in panic, looking around. Filled with a sudden new strength, the little hobbit had picked himself up and was now running into Mount Doom.
Sam slashed at Gollum's chest and he fell, howling miserably. "Come on Sam!" cried Hermione, grabbing his hand and pulling him along, "Frodo's gone in!"
Now the gates were completely open and the orcs had stopped marching. Harry could see, quite clearly, the tower of Barad-dur, and a horrible, enormous red eye, surrounded by flames, and fixed on the armies before him. He shivered, and began to wish, for the first time in months, that he had never come to Middle Earth.
Aragorn too, was staring at the Eye of Sauron, his mortal enemy. Both seemed to realize the other's fixation, glanced at each other, and gave each other an encouraging smile. "For Frodo," said Aragorn softly.
"And Hermione," added Ron from nearby.
"Don't forget Sam," said Harry. They all held each other in their gaze for a moment longer, then Aragorn unsheathed Anduril and charged. Harry was right behind him, flashing the sword of Godric Gryffindor, then Gandalf, and Ron, and ("Ah! Legolas! He's getting a head start!" shouted Gimli.) and Fred, George, Merry, and Pippin, and Eomer, and all the soldiers came running into battle.
"FRODO?" called Sam over the roaring of the lava inside Mount Doom.
"FRODO, WHERE ARE YOU?" yelled Hermione. She squinted a bit, and saw, at the very edge of the cliff, a small figure with his hand stretched out, holding the Ring. "QUICK FRODO!" she yelled, "DESTROY IT!"
But Frodo didn't move.
From the very beginning, Harry could see what a hopeless battle this was. None of his friends had died yet, but it was only a matter of time. Now the Nazgul were flying out over the battle, and trolls were coming through, swinging their clubs.
Suddenly, Harry thought he heard a small voice from nearby yell out, "The Eagles are coming!" Eagles? He thought, What eagles? A piercing shriek was the answer. Huge birds, bigger even then the eagles in his world, were soaring through the sky, racing to meet the Nazgul and their winged steeds. The conflict was growing fiercer by the second.
Hermione walked closer and closer to Frodo. "What are you doing?" she called, "Let go!"
Frodo turned around slowly. The moment Hermione saw the look in his eyes, she knew all was lost. "The Ring is mine," he said.
"Are you insane!" she whispered.
In response, Frodo tore the Ring from its chain and put it on, vanishing completely. From his tower in Barad-dur, Sauron sensed the Ring. Realizing he had been tricked, he shrieked a command to the Nazgul, who promptly flew back to Mount Doom, where everything was going wrong.
"NO!" screamed Sam.
"FRODO, DON'T!" wailed Hermione. In vain, she tried groping the air, searching for him. When she turned around, she was surprised to see Gollum hit Sam over the head with a rock, and then search the area with an eager look on his face. "Sméagol!" she found herself crying out, "He's got the Ring! Do something!"
Gollum did something all right. He stared at the ground, where he could see Frodo's footprints. Then he leapt in the air, where the two began fighting. Hermione could only watch in growing horror.
Harry had just killed another orc when he heard a troll's horrible roars and Legolas yelling. Sick with fear, he turned around to see that Legolas was actually yards away to get to the troll. It made no sense to Harry, until he saw what was lying underneath the troll's foot. Aragorn.
Harry plowed straight through the orcs separating him from the troll, and plunged his beautiful sword straight into its leg. It roared, turned around, and grabbed the source of its pain. Harry struggled in the troll's grip, trying to reach his sword which was lying unhelpfully on the ground, watching as the troll lifted its club to bring it smashing down on his body.
Gollum, meanwhile, had managed to bite off Frodo's finger. He screamed and came into view. And now Gollum had the Ring.
But as he danced with delight, it slipped out of his hand, and rolled away, right in the path of Hermione. She didn't hesitate, but picked it up, leapt passed Gollum and Frodo, who were now in hot pursuit, and ran towards the Crack where the evil could be destroyed.
As she reached it and prepared to throw it over, something told her to stop. It really is pretty, she thought, I'll bet I could take it right now, and nobody would know, I wouldn't have to tell Harry or Ron…
Suddenly, in her head, she thought she saw Harry and Ron staring at her in horror. She realized that taking the Ring was the wrong thing to do, and her head cleared. Without another thought, she tossed it in.
Time seemed to stand still. Then a shrieking Gollum, who had been in the process of jumping over Hermione to get the Ring, slipped and plummeted off the cliff and out of sight. Frodo was more lucky. Hermione caught him before he went over.
Suddenly the whole mountain seemed to explode. Lava was bursting everywhere, and the floor was crumbling. "RUN!" yelled Sam, grabbing Hermione's hand and leading them both out.
The troll had been at the point of killing Harry when silence fell over the army. Barad-dur was crumbling. Sauron was shrieking as his Eye expanded and twisted and then just exploded, while the tower itself collapsed. The troll dropped Harry and ran. The rest of the orcs followed, but a giant chasm was being created by the explosion, and they were all sinking in along with the Black Gate. By some miracle, the chasm ended right where the armies of light stood.
Aragorn ran over to Harry, checked him for any injuries, and then helped him up. Together they stared in disbelief as all of Sauron's works were destroyed. Then…
"What happened!" yelled Ron.
"It's over, it's all over, they did it!" yelled Harry.
Fred, George, Merry, and Pippin were going crazy. Gimli and Ron were cheering, Legolas was simply staring at it in amazement. Even Gandalf was laughing. Harry didn't know how to express his happiness. He was alive, they were all alive, and the war was over.
Then Gandalf stopped laughing. Lava was racing down the mountain from all sides. "How are they going to get out?" asked Ron. Nobody wanted to answer.
Then Gandalf said, "They may still be alive." He spoke to one of the eagles, and rode one of them as a few flew over to Mount Doom as quickly as possible.
Harry couldn't bear to think of Hermione dead, not when they had just won. Trying to shut out the possibility, he turned to Aragorn and asked, "What are we going to do when they get back?"
"Go home and rest," replied Aragorn.
"I'm all for that!" said Harry.
Somehow, Hermione had grabbed both Sam and Frodo and jumped onto an outstretched rock, barely escaping the lava in time. They lay there panting. Then Frodo looked at Hermione.
"You destroyed it."
"Yes," she said, uncertain as to how he would react.
"It was my task, but you did it in the end." He hung his head. "I failed!"
"No you didn't," said Hermione, "I could never have carried the Ring all the way from the Shire to Mount Doom! You did! But you were so tired; it's understandable that you couldn't part with it in the end! I almost didn't, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, really."
Frodo looked a bit better, but Hermione and Sam could see he was still upset. "Look, I have an idea," said Sam, "Let's not tell anyone what happened!"
"I couldn't do that!" cried Frodo, "I couldn't bear it!"
"Oh Frodo, let's do that!" said Hermione, "Otherwise I get a whole lot of attention that I don't need, I don't want, and I don't deserve! Believe me, it's better this way!"
"I don't deserve it either!" cried Frodo.
"Yes you do," said Hermione, "I've told you, you carried the Ring all the way to Mount Doom, it doesn't matter what happened in the end! All that matters is it's over, and now I'm going to lie down and have the best sleep since I don't know when!" And with that, she promptly collapsed on the rock.
"Come to think of it," said Sam, looking around, "How are we going to get off?"
"Harry…and Ron…will find us…" she murmured sleepily.
"We don't know where they are, or where your friend Ron is," said Frodo, "We never found out. Besides, they probably think we're dead."
"That's right," said Hermione, sitting up. Her eyes filled with tears. "I'll probably never see Ron again. The last time I saw him was…at Hogwarts! Good old Hogwarts!" she murmured, "How will the others ever find a way back if we die? They'll have to stay here forever, and it's all my fault!" She started crying.
"Middle Earth is a nice place really," said Sam comfortingly, "They could stay in the Shire. Or Rivendell, with the elves. Or with Aragorn, Harry was getting on well with him the last time I saw."
Hermione nodded. "I suppose you're right, but I feel like…this isn't right! It shouldn't have to end this way!"
Frodo leaned over and hugged his two friends. "I'm glad to be with you, Sam and Hermione," he said softly, "Here at the end of all things."
Hermione smiled and nodded. They were a team. Maybe Frodo and Sam would never truly replace Harry and Ron, but they came close enough. Within a few minutes all three of them were sound asleep.
"Look!" cried Ron. Gandalf was coming back.
"Did they…?" Pippin started to ask.
Legolas squinted as he stared up at the sky. "I think…he's got them! They made it!" Everyone cheered. When Gandalf landed, Harry, Ron, Merry, and Pippin were the first ones there to see their beloved friends safe, with Fred and George in hot pursuit.
"Settle down, move away," said Gandalf, but he was smiling, "They're asleep, let them rest!"
They all backed away. Gandalf put Frodo on his horse, Ron quickly took Hermione, and Harry took Sam. They all rode back to Minas Tirith as quickly as possible, where everyone would be waiting to here the outcome, Ginny prominent among them.
