The Doctor flicked a few switches and the control panel in the middle of the room began to buzz. Rose shut the doors after everyone was inside.
"Dump your bags anywhere," She smiled. The trio did so and then stood looking at the control panel.
"Where are we going Doctor?" Rose asked.
"Raxacoricafallapatorius?" Suggested the Doctor with a wry smile.
"Maybe we should try Barcelona first?" Rose laughed.
But before they could say anything first the TARDIS shuddered to a halt.
"What's happened?" Asked Rose frowning.
"Dunno, another force of some kind pulled us down." The Doctor frowned as well and Harry noticed how alike the Doctor and Rose were, they seemed to mimic each other's actions, though he was sure they didn't notice.
"Let's check outside," said Rose opening the doors. The appeared to have landed in the middle of large tumbling hills. A path ran down to a stream where a bridge that looked the right size for a child lay.
"Well let's go explore." The Doctor said cheerily. He waited until everyone was out, locked the door and then lead the way, taking Rose by the hand.
The five of them crossed the bridge and followed a winding path towards some rather bumpy hills. Set in the hills were round doors and windows like none the Doctor, Rose, or the trio had ever encountered.
"What is this place?" Asked Harry who was the only one of the trio to have regained the power of speech.
"Dunno," muttered the Doctor frowning. "Doesn't seem to be any inhabitants, or at least any that want to attack us,"
Harry tried to smile, but the Doctors tone made his uneasy. He almost walked into the back of Rose when she and the Doctor stopped suddenly. A small child sized figure stood stock-still staring at them from a little way up the path. He had pointy ears, sandy brown hair and furry feet. He was clutching a pair of shears.
"What do you want?" He called out, his voice betraying how nervous he was.
"I know this is going to sound silly, but could you tell us where we are?" The Doctor asked gently. The small boy in front of them relaxed a little.
"You're in the Shire in Hobbiton. But we haven't seen big fold such as yourselves here for a long time, not since," The boy froze.
"Not since what?" Asked the Doctor.
"Why are you here?" the boy asked changing tact.
"We're just passing through. We're tourists if you like. Maybe you could give us a tour. We're unarmed, you can check us." The Doctor offered breezily.
"No that's all right. What're your names?" The boy like figure took a few steps forward.
"The Doctor"
"Rose"
"Harry"
"Ron"
"Hermione."
"And who might you be?" Asked Rose in the same careful tone as the Doctor.
"Samwise Gamgee. But most folk call me Sam,"
"Wait here a second," Sam said running off down the path and up towards one of the doors in the hillside. Sam knocked on the door and it opened to reveal another small person, this time with browner hair. They seemed to be talking and Sam pointed at the troop. The other figure looked over, said something to Sam and then they both came back.
"This is Merriadoc Brandybuck, Merry for short. We can show you around but we want to know why you're here. We don't get tourists." Sam said as the two approached.
"You want to know the whole story?" Asked the Doctor glancing at Rose, then behind him at Harry, Ron and Hermione.
"Yes." Merry replied defiantly.
"How long have you got?" Asked the Doctor.
Four and a half hours later the Doctor and the others were sat, or rather squashed, into a small house. It belonged to a third person called Peregrin Took (Pippin) and he had explained with the help of Merry and Sam that they were Hobbits. The Doctor had in turn explained everything about himself and his companions and though Sam, Merry and Pippin said other Hobbit's wouldn't believe them, they did.
"We've been through too much to not believe in something." Sam said darkly. The Doctor was quite alarmed to see that a shadow of some kind, like a dark secret, seemed to pass over the Hobbit's.
"Listen, we're going to be travelling through Hobbiton, you know looking around, why don't you show us around?" Asked the Doctor.
"Don't see the harm in it." said Pippin smiling at Merry mischievously. Sam looked slightly downcast for a second before smiling.
"We'll set off after second breakfast tomorrow!"
The next day Sam, Merry and Pippin led the group around Hobbiton showing them everything. The Doctor pulled his sonic screwdriver out from time to time when the Hobbit's weren't looking, but he always put it back again frowning.
"What's the Matter?" Hissed Rose. The Doctor glanced at the three Hobbits who were preoccupied with showing Harry, Ron and Hermione their favourite inn.
"I can't seem to locate the source that pulled us down. I think it was the TARDIS that wanted us to land here." He replied in little more than a whisper.
Rose looked around and frowned.
"Why? What does the TARDIS want us to do?" She asked puzzled.
"Did you see how the Hobbit's went kind of quiet when they said they'd been through 'too much'. Well I think there is more to those Hobbit's than meets the eye. There's something they want back, something they lost a long time ago." The Doctor walked forward to were the Hobbit's were handing out cookies.
"Yesterday you said something about going through 'too much'. What exactly did you mean?" Asked the Doctor carefully.
Sam, Merry and Pippin glanced at each other, looking slightly put out.
"There were four of us once. Four Hobbit's who were best of friends." Sam began.
"Our cousin," Merry piped up.
"Frodo Baggins," Pippin finished Merry's sentence.
They explained everything in hushed tones. All about how the Ring of power came to Frodo, how he set out to Rivendell to the elves, how Elrond had sent him and the rest of the Fellowship off to destroy the ring, how they had been split up for most of the journey but reunited at Minas Tirinth on the day of Aragorn's coronation.
The Doctor, Rose and the others stared.
"So what happened to Frodo?" Asked Hermione realising that something was a miss.
Sam looked miserable and Merry just shrugged so Pippin was left to answer.
"Went off with his uncle Bilbo to the Grey Havens. Four years ago, he left. Haven't seen him since. Miss him though. It's like a long forgotten flower that you long to smell again," Pippin sighed.
"Would you like to see Frodo again?" Asked the Doctor a glint in his eye. The Hobbit's looked up warily.
"Course we would, but Frodo took the last ever ship to the Grey Havens, how on earth would we get there?" Sam said, not daring to get his hopes up that he might see his best friend again.
"Oh, I have my ways." The Doctor smiled at Rose knowingly, Rose rolled her eyes.