Author's note: I'm going to be dipping into more stories of the children and their lives in the future, as I don't have all that many storylines that would fit Merry or Pippin at the ages and times in their lives they are at during this part of the story. This fic marks the beginning of that, a little more focus on Merry and Pippin's children but still with the parents in main focus.
Disclaimer: I only own the characters I've created. JRR Tolkien owns the rest.
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"Hey Merry, I was thinking…" Pippin said late one March night when they were relaxing by the fireplace at the Great Smials. "Back when the babies were still babies we used to sit like this at Crickhollow…"
"That's what you were thinking?" Merry asked, looking up from his book. "The next time you think, don't disturb me with it unless it's important."
"Oh forget about your stupid herbal books and listen" Pippin said, leaning forward in his chair. "Crickhollow used to be our home. Faramir, Théo, Éowyn and Aramac were all born there. Now we never use the house anymore."
"It's still a bit unhealthy since the Fever" Merry said. "Remember, that's where we kept all the sick Hobbits."
"How could I forget. But it has been eight years. Nobody's going to get sick from setting their foot inside that house. Why don't we use it anymore? It's a shame to let it go to waste. Besides, it will belong to Faramir and Cordy some day. If not for us we should really start using it more for them."
"I guess we could start using the old house again" Merry agreed. "It would need to be cleaned thoroughly though. Eight years of dust, spider webs and perhaps even some mildew out in the stables."
"Great!" Pippin said. "Then we have something to occupy the children with this summer! We should get going right away, don't you think?"
"I should get going right away" Merry said and rose from his chair. "Back to Brandy Hall. I'll borrow this book, perhaps I can get some reading done in my own chambers, where people aren't obsessed with cleaning."
"Come on Merry, I think it's exciting!"
"It's just an old house" Merry said. To him it had lost all its charm during the Fever, whenever they spoke of Crickhollow all he could think of was the painful days he spent there and how close they came to losing Lúthien.
"It's not just an old house" Pippin protested. "It used to be home. And remember you have children born there."
"And nearly children killed there."
"What? Nonsense! Who?"
"Théo, when he had that bad case of the flu. But I'm not just talking my children, think of all who died there eight years ago? Think of little Fern Delvering, who died so I could save Lúthien! It creeps me out."
"You're a wuss" Pippin decided. "Faramir and Cordy can clean the house, and Cordy's siblings can help. I say they start right away."
"Hold your horses" Merry said. "Let's plough the fields and sow everything first. It's too cold out to clean it now anyway, they'll freeze to death!"
"You're right…" Pippin said, a bit annoyed with the realisation. "But directly after the spring feast it's cleaning time!"
"Cordy will be so happy" Merry said with a sarcastic roll of his eye and left for home.
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At the spring feast, two months later, Faramir threw himself right from a wild dance with an unknown Chubb lass right down on a chair opposite Cordy at a table. He had a wide grin on his face and seemed high on some adrenaline rush. Cordy glanced at him with a baffled look on his face and protectively drew his tankard closer before his second cousin could get any ideas into his head.
"What has gotten into you?" he asked while Faramir caught his breath.
"It's springtime, old cous!" Faramir exclaimed. "How can it not get into you? Summer is here, the Shire is as green as ever and there are fine looking lasses everywhere just begging to dance. How can I not be excited?"
"I guess you didn't speak with Uncle Pippin before you came here" Cordy said and raised his tankard to drink.
"I most definitely did! Won't it be great? You, me and your siblings cleaning that old house together! I was born there, it's going to be yours and mine someday! I think it's going to be very exciting!"
"No more ale for you tonight" Cordy said, but couldn't help but smile.
"It's going to be fun, and you know it!" Faramir said. "Now come on, your brother has been dancing with Primrose Gamgee two dances in a row now, time someone else took over! You grab her from your brother and I'll try to find that Chubb lass again!"
Without waiting for an answer Faramir pulled Cordy to his feet and dragged him out to the dancing area. With an elegant but quick bow Cordy stole Primrose away from Aramac, who looked shocked, then annoyed, then amused. Twirling around with Sam's daughter Cordy caught a glance of Faramir in the arms of the unknown Chubb. His cousin was probably right. It was going to be fun to clean Crickhollow together.
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"Would you look at this mess?" Faramir exclaimed and dropped an empty bucket, as if for emphasis. "It's going to take forever to clean this!"
"We've got one summer" Cordy said, staring around in disbelief.
Crickhollow, once so tidy and neat, had not been visited by any Hobbits for the past eight years. The place was filled with dust, webs and what appeared to be rat droppings. The air was thick and unpleasant and anyone could see that it would take days just to clean the dining room they were standing in.
"Ever seen so much dust…" Faramir said, his eyes wide open.
"What's the matter Faramir, I thought you liked cleaning!" Cordy teased. "Was it not you who said it would be fun?"
"Yes but I… didn't expect it to be so dirty!"
Merry roared with laughter.
"Every bit like your father! It never struck you that it would be dirty after all these years? Thinking ahead is not your strong suit, lad."
"I cannot believe you used to live here" Lúthien said and coughed. "I thank my lucky star I was born at the Hall."
"This house used to be lovely" Estella said affectionately. "It didn't look like this when we lived here, mind you."
"I… don't even know where to start…" Faramir said and looked at his parents with pleading eyes. Then he too had to cough.
"For starters I'd open all the windows" Diamond said and strode up to the window on the short end of the room. "As well as the front door and all the doors inside the house. We need to let this old air out and some new, fresh air in."
"If memory serves me right there should still be some brooms, buckets and other things you could use in the storage room down the hall" Estella said. "You know where it is, Éowyn. The things you brought won't get you all the way."
Diamond took a detour around a pile on the floor which appeared to be old dishes covered with mildew and dust.
"Just smell this place… Did someone leave something edible out here, just lying on the floor like this? Who was the last to leave here, really?"
Her eyes, along with Pippin and Estella's, fell on Merry.
"Don't look at me!" he said. "I was not the last to leave. I told the shriffs to see to it that all was in order."
"Pip, love, I hope you've managed to improve them since" Diamond said with a sigh.
"Are there rats here?" Lúthien asked in a disgusted voice, noticing the droppings on the floor. "Gross… I am eating outside! Have fun living here, Cordy and Faramir!"
Diamond slipped her arm around Pippin's waist and Estella did the same with Merry. The two couples smiled at the children and Pippin shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, have fun" he said.
"Excuse me?" Faramir said.
"Your mother and I are going home now" Pippin said. "And so are your aunt and uncle. Make sure to be home by supper!"
"But wait!" Faramir exclaimed. "Aren't you going to help us? This was all your idea!"
"The house will be yours and Cordy's" Pippin said and shrugged his shoulders again. "It's time you started earning it. Besides, Merry has his back to worry about and frankly I'd much rather lay out in the sun. Have a good day now!"
The four older Hobbits walked outside into the bright shining sun, leaving the door open to let fresh air in. The children stared after them in disbelief as their parents made their way back to Brandy Hall, jesting and laughing.
"I… don't even know what to say…" Cordy said.
The seven youngsters looked around and sighed in unison. The house was theirs to clean and it would probably take weeks. Lúthien turned the bucket Faramir had dropped upside down and sat down on it, with Théo kneeling by her side.
"This used to be home…" Éowyn said, a sentimental tone in her voice. "Do you remember living here, boys?"
"No" came the unison answer from Aramac, Cordy and Lucky.
"Not you" Éowyn said. "Théo. Faramir. Do you remember?"
"Yes I remember" Théo said. "And I know I took my first steps right in this very room."
"Judging by the look of things, you'll take your last steps here as well" Aramac said with a sigh. "Perhaps we should get started."
"I am not eating in here!" Lúthien declared. "Just so everyone knows. I'll have my meals outside."
"Think of food later" Théo said. "We need to start cleaning first."
"You know, I won't even be living here" Lucky pointed out. "Why do I have to clean? Can't the masters of the house do that themselves?"
"The masters of the house left it to their poor sons" Faramir said. "Come on, perhaps this can be fun anyway. If we all help each other out."
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Their first plan was to start cleaning the room they were standing in, and work their way down the halls. That plan didn't work too well, having spent three days cleaning the combined dining room and kitchen they moved on to a guest bedroom and found that each thing they brought outside to clean brought with it so much dust and dirt that by the end of the day the kitchen needed to be cleaned again. Théo suggested they start by going as far down one hall as possible and clean their way out. That proved unsuccessful as well, since they brought so much dirt with them going in that the room never seemed to get cleaner.
Merry and Pippin would look in on them every once in a while and lie on the grass outside, enjoying how frustrated their lazy days made the youngsters. It was about time their children worked hard and on their own.
After five days Estella and Diamond came out as well, and the seven children decided to take a break all at the same time and sit down in the sun for a while. Éowyn couldn't help but give her parents an angry look, grumpy that she had to spend her days cleaning Crickhollow instead of breaking in Blizzard as she had attempted to do this summer.
"I don't understand what all this fuss is about" Merry said. "Uncle Fatty and I cleaned this house all by ourselves in three days back when Frodo Baggins had bought it. Of course it wasn't half as dirty, but there were only two of us…"
"Mother… Father…" Cordy said as he came out and slumped down by his parents, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "We could really use some help. It seems that every way we try, it's impossible to get it cleaned. No matter what end we start in the house is so dirty that it keeps… getting itself dirty again."
"If I were you…" Diamond said, "I would start by cleaning the entry room, the kitchen-dining area. Then I would take one hall at a time but not room by room. Take out all furniture in all rooms, have someone clean them while others scrub the floors."
"That sounds like a good idea, if the weather holds" Aramac said, shadowing his eyes with his hand and glancing at the so far sunny sky.
Lucky came out into the sun, coughing. Estella immediately rose to her feet and went over to him, to his dismay.
"Lucky you're coughing!" she said and placed her hand on his forehead with a concerned frown.
"Mother, it's nothing" Lucky complained. "The house is full of dust. I'm not getting ill, I promise!"
"He's fine, Estella" Merry said.
Lucky sank down on the ground next to his father, wishing his mother hadn't heard him cough. Everyone else was coughing, but she only fussed over him. He hated it!
"We don't know if the weather will hold" Aramac said, trying to avert his mother's attention from Lucky's cough. "If it does, aunt Diamond's idea will probably work."
"You can never be sure about the weather" Pippin said. "But it's worth a try. If it should start to rain, just get everything inside and think of a backup plan." He suddenly flew to his feet. "But we shouldn't just lie about and let perfectly good cleaning weather go to waste! On your feet, all Brandybucks and Tooks, and that includes you" he said, poking Merry with his foot. "We'll give you a hand for today. This should be fun!"
"You're too alike" Cordy whined to Faramir and rose to his feet.
The rest of the day Pippin, Merry and their wives helped the young ones clean. Pippin and Merry happily started cleaning windows, singing at the top of their lungs, and Estella and Diamond helped the girls dust all the carpets in the west hall. The boys carried furniture outside and left a sneezing Lucky to start dusting them. By the end of the day they had managed to get well on their way. Faramir tried to convince Pippin that he and Merry had had so much fun that they should come over every day and help out, but all he managed to succeed with was being reminded that when the main house was cleaned there were still the stables. With a groan Faramir wished his parents had never lived at Crickhollow.
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Another week went by and things were starting to shape up. The entire west hall was now nice and clean, and everybody was strictly forbidden to go there, in case they might get it dirty again. But there were five more halls to clean and they got to working with the next one. The sun still shone bright on the sky, and while they wished they could all spend their days out in the warm sun they knew it was good weather for cleaning.
On Thursday it started to cloud up a bit and Éowyn decided they should have their afternoon tea inside. The seven of them sat down by the table, eating on old plates Diamond had sent with them, since the plates and cutlery at Crickhollow still hadn't been cleaned.
"That Chubb lass should see you know" Cordy said to Faramir with a grin.
"Who?" Faramir asked and wiped his cheek to get rid of the mustard he had gotten there.
"The one you danced with at the spring feast."
"Oh she…" Faramir said and shrugged his shoulder. "Well she probably wasn't the love of my life anyway."
"I think it's starting to rain" Aramac said, looking out the open door. "Should we get the furniture inside?"
"No" Théo said. "A little water might only do these old things good."
"That doesn't sound like rain" Éowyn said after a minute, as the drizzle outside started to sound more like a roar.
Suddenly Aramac, Lucky and Cordy, who were all seated facing the door, flew to their feet with shocked expressions on their faces.
"Hailstorm!" Lucky exclaimed.
"Mother's china!" Faramir cried and flew to his feet as well.
"And the old wooden furniture!" Théo added. "Hail might make serious markings on them! Quickly!"
Being seated furthest away from the door he more or less leaped over Faramir and Éowyn and raced outside to bring the furniture indoors before the hail could ruin it.
"Are you mad?" Éowyn cried. "You could get hurt!"
"Never mind that, give us a hand!"
The lads ran outside to save the furniture. Lúthien yanked the table cloth with her, sending their meal flying everywhere, and ran out to put the china in it. Aramac grabbed a pile of rugs lying on the floor and hurried after her to cover up the furniture with. Only Éowyn stayed inside, hurriedly starting to clean up the mess Lúthien had made.
It only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity before Lúthien returned with Diamond's fine china which had been brought outdoors to be washed in a nearby stream. She gave her older sister a look and then ran out to help her brothers with covering the furniture. Éowyn found some more rugs to cover the furniture with and threw them to Théo through an open window.
"Close this window!" he shouted at her over the roar of the hailstorm. "And every other window too! Hurry!"
Éowyn raced down the hall to close every window she could find. Aramac sent Lúthien inside to help her out and by the two of them they had closed every window in a few minutes. They returned to the kitchen just in time to help Cordy and Théo get a part-glass table through the door. The others finished up outside and came in one by one, sinking down on the floor. Lucky, who came in last, closed the door behind him and shuddered.
"The crops…" Faramir said through gritted teeth. "What will this do to the crops?"
"It's early yet" Éowyn tried to comfort. "Maybe it won't do so much damage? It's a lot worse if it hails close to harvest. Look at you all, you're freezing! We should start a fire, come!"
They all moved into the west hall sitting room and Cordy got a fire going. The girls found some blankets and Lúthien and the boys wrapped themselves up in them.
"I hope we saved everything" Théo said and anxiously listened to the hail. "What I would have wanted to do was bring everything inside."
"There's no way, so don't even think about it" Aramac said. "Listen… it's starting to rain now… The hailing has stopped."
They stayed in the sitting room for two hours as it rained and occasionally hailed outside. Neither of them felt at ease, this hailstorm had come without warning and they had had a lot of furniture outside. Lúthien had been able to save the china but how the wooden furniture would hold up was anyone's guess.
"I guess this means we have to find another method of cleaning" Faramir said.
"Well thank goodness we had this sitting room cleaned" Cordy said. "Thank goodness for a warm fireplace, a nice blanket and some hot tea! Now all I need is pipeweed…"
"Read us another story, Lúthie" Aramac urged, curled up in his chair.
Lúthien looked through the index of the book in her lap, chose a story which wasn't too long and began to read in the light of the fireplace. The others listened without saying a word. All they could hear was the rain falling down, the crackling of the fireplace and Lúthien's voice. Suddenly a sharp, deep cough was heard, causing Lúthien to stop reading and look up. The cough came again. Lúthien shared a look with her siblings and Faramir.
"Lucky" they all said in unison, their voices complaining.
With a deep sigh Lucky hid his face in his hands, hoping he wouldn't cough again. That had been no dust cough.
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With a sigh Merry sat down by the desk in the room they always put Lucky in when he was ill. His son was tucked in the bed with a scarf wrapped around his neck and a miserable look on his face. Merry shook his head and opened the book on the desk.
"What are we going to do with you, lad?" he said. "I cannot for the life of me understand how you can get this ill this often. Not as much as a cough from the other six… Well at least you won't have to clean anymore."
"That was my goal all along" Lucky joked and stifled a cough.
"Don't go and develop a pneumonia now, or anything else lung related, or your mother won't ever let me hear the end of it" Merry said.
He sighed again. It had been his idea to let Lucky clean with the others, in fact he had insisted on it. Estella wanted Lucky to stay away from the dusty old house, she was afraid he might get sick again, but Merry had made up his mind. Lucky was twenty years old this summer, they couldn't keep him at home. He had to get the chance to live a little, and if he fell ill then he fell ill. By now Merry figured it didn't matter what they let him do, somehow he always managed to bring down at least one flu each year, even when nobody else got anything.
He marked a chapter in the book Pippin had lent him, it was about an herb which was supposed to be good for curing coughs, then he closed the book and got up. He would go out look for it later, but he wanted to wait until Théo got home so he could come along.
"You get some sleep" he said to Lucky. "I'll have some soup sent up for you in an hour. All you can do now is rest."
"I know" Lucky sighed.
"Here" he said and handed Lucky a book of a shelf. "If you can't sleep, this might help cure your boredom. It's something I borrowed from Aragorn, about old folklore. Perhaps you might find something amusing in there."
Lucky nodded and took the book. Merry felt sorry for him, having to be cooped up in this room once again, but there was nothing much to do about it. His youngest son would always suffer from his low immune system.
He walked outside to find the sun shining again, drying up the water from the ground. Luckily the crops hadn't been damaged much during the hailstorm and from a farmer's perspective the bad weather had been good. The fields had needed some watering.
Merry walked over to the pastures, where Blizzard was standing with his head leaned over the fence, looking displeased. Merry gave the pony a pat on the neck and got a whinny for an answer. He knew Éowyn had been looking forward to breaking in Blizzard this summer, but he had full confidence she would be able to find time for it before winter came. He wondered if the grey pony would cause her much problems. She had never broken in a pony by herself before, and there was no guarantee that Blizzard would accept her. He had learned during the past year that mearas horses only accepted the royal family of Rohan as their riders, but he remembered how he had ridden the black horse with Éowyn last year and the horse had accepted him taking the reins. Perhaps it was only when it came to humans that they were picky. Either that or Merry's closeness with Éowyn and Éomer had done the trick. Either way he hoped Blizzard would be able to accept his daughter, but he had come to the conclusion that Éomer wouldn't have given him the pony unless he thought so too.
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Aramac leaned his weight over from one foot to the other, impatiently waiting for the old lass to wrap up the vegetables and let him be on his way. He had been asked to stop by the marketplace and get some cucumbers and asparagus for some soup his father was making. He couldn't understand why his father hadn't asked one of his sisters, but he did appreciate getting a break from the endless dusting and scrubbing of floors.
"Impatient, are you, Brandybuck?" someone called from behind him.
With a frown on his face Aramac turned around to see who had said it, but couldn't find anyone he recognised all that well. He turned his attention back to the old lass with the vegetables and noticed something.
"I see you have some mushrooms there" he said. "Could I have some of those too, please? That would be lovely."
"Why don't you find your own mushrooms?" the voice said again behind him.
With an even deeper frown Aramac turned his head again.
"You think you should have them just because you're a Brandybuck?" a Hobbit sitting on a cart across the small marketplace said.
"Not that I need to justify to you why I buy mushrooms…" Aramac said, "but they're for my brother. He's ill."
"I'm sure he is" came the scoffing answer.
Aramac decided to ignore it and turned his attention back to the old lass, who was now taking her good time scooping mushrooms over to a small paper bag.
"So, if he's ill," the voice began again, "how come your grand old father doesn't snap his fingers and make him better again?" The Hobbit jumped down on the ground and, followed by three others, began crossing the marketplace. "Or that other one, that brother of yours who does magic. Or is that perhaps you?"
"Aren't you a little old to believe in Hobbits doing magic tricks?" Aramac asked. "Or do you just not know that only wizards do magic."
"And the ever special Brandybucks as well" the Hobbit said with a teasing tone and leaned against the stand where Aramac was.
Aramac couldn't figure out what this Hobbit wanted, but he wished the old lass would hurry up and give him his mushrooms. He fished out money to pay her with and glanced over at the cocky Hobbit next to him.
"Is there something I can help you with?" he asked him.
"Not at the moment, Brandybuck" the Hobbit answered.
Aramac didn't like the way he said the name. The Hobbit looked anything but friendly, in spite of the big grin. Aramac didn't recognise him, but from the look of him it was clear that he was not from a wealthy family. Every once in a while one of the poor Hobbits would get jealous of the more wealthy families and sometimes be a bit rude. Aramac shrugged it off as one of those occasions, grabbed his bags from the old lass and went on his way.
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The next day they decided to take a pause from Crickhollow and spend some time out in the sun. Éowyn wanted to spend some time with her new pony and Théo was reluctantly following Merry out to find some herbs. Cordy, Faramir and Aramac decided to ride out to farmer Maggot, the son of the farmer Frodo Baggins had used to steal crops from, and pay him a visit. They hadn't been there in a while and his wife made a fantastic sponge cake.
They took the path through the main town of Buckland, which was a detour but in the bright shining sun they didn't mind being outdoors for a while longer. As they rode across the marketplace Aramac heard a familiar voice.
"This must be our lucky day. Two Brandybucks!"
"And on regular Hobbit ponies! What happened, did your brother make the pretty ponies disappear?" another voice added.
"What's wrong with my pony?" Cordy asked his brother in confusion.
"Hey Brandybucks!" the second voice called.
Faramir and Cordy halted their ponies and looked around to spot the voices. Aramac reluctantly did the same and found the Hobbit from the day before standing by the same cart as before. He had three other lads in his company and two lasses.
"Imagine that, they stop when spoken to!" a third voice said.
"Excuse me" Faramir said, getting annoyed. "Do you have anything to say? What's all this about?"
"Two Brandybucks and a Took… Figures they'd be in each other's company."
"That's all you wanted? To note that we're in company?" Faramir asked. "We knew this before already. Have a good day now."
He rode on, followed by Cordy and Aramac who shared confused looks. Once they were at a safe distance from the marketplace Cordy turned around in his saddle and glanced behind him.
"Now what was all of that about? I like my pony! Have I missed something?"
"I'm not sure" Aramac said. He told them about his meeting with the same Hobbit the day before. "I think we should ignore it. He seems out to start a fight or something. It's not so much what he says but how he says it."
"Leave it" Faramir suggested. "He'll tire eventually."
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But later that day they ran into the Hobbit group again. Farmer Maggot was showing them his new corn fields, right by a meadow where the Hobbits from before were resting. Neither Farmer Maggot nor his guests paid any attention to them at first, but then Cordy and Aramac heard their name called at them again. Faramir gave Maggot a questioning look but Maggot looked away as the Hobbit group approached them.
"Can't a simple Hobbit go anywhere without running into one of you fellows?" the cocky Hobbit asked.
"Pardon me, but I believe you are the one who keeps bothering us" Aramac said. "We are visiting our old friend Farmer Maggot and we intend to stay as long as we please. Now if you'll excuse us…"
"So you're saying that you are staying and we have to leave?" the Hobbit asked and crossed his arms. "Perhaps we should stay and you should leave."
"I'm saying we have as much right to be here as you have" Aramac said. "Spend as much time on the meadow as you like, just don't bother us. Right now you are standing on Farmer Maggot's ground and it is not up to you to ask us to leave."
"Listen, we just want to look at the crops" Faramir said. "As far as I know we haven't done anything to you. Won't you please leave us?"
"I didn't know a Brandybuck needed a Took to stand up for him" the Hobbit said.
"I can stand up for myself" Aramac said, getting irritated. "But I don't see why I should have to stand here and defend myself to you. If you have anything to say to me, or my brother, or my cousin then say it and be on your way."
"You think you're so much better than me…" the Hobbit said in a spiteful tone.
"Excuse me?" Cordy said.
"Just because you are born into a family with titles you think you are better. Oh it's always Meriadoc the Magnificent this and that! What has he ever done for us I ask?"
"This is about our father?" Cordy asked.
"This is about all you Brandybucks! Parading around Buckland like you're so much better than the rest of us! You have done nothing to deserve the fields you plough, the ponies you ride, the fancy clothes you wear! Yet you act like you have earned it all!"
"I don't even know you!" Aramac said. "When have I ever acted superior to you? If I have then I apologise, but--"
"All you Brandybucks are the same!" the Hobbit spat out. "But I tell you, that Master of Buckland is no better than anyone else and he hasn't done anything to deserve his post! But you are the Special Brandybucks, so what do you care? You have your magic tricks, your alleged kings in the west whom no one has ever seen, your queer ways which are only accepted because you are Brandybucks! You make me sick!"
"Would you repeat that about my father?" Aramac asked in a firm voice and placed his hands on his hips.
"By rights he shouldn't even be Master" the Hobbit said and spat on the ground by Aramac's feet. "He was removed from office."
Before anyone could answer him he walked off with his companions in tow. The three cousins shared a look of complete confusion. What had just happened? Faramir looked at Farmer Maggot who seemed very busy eyeing his corn.
"Farmer Maggot!" he said. "What was all that? You know, I know you do!"
"I don't want nothing to do with all that" Maggot said.
"Farmer Maggot" Cordy said in his most firm voice.
"They're a bunch of youngsters… too young to know about the War… The one you spoke with is a Delvering, so are the lasses and one of the lads. The other two are Sackers. They don't like all the power and glory given to the Master of Buckland and they want him removed from his office. Let them be, they will tire eventually."
"I will not have anyone talk to me that way" Cordy hissed. "Nor talk about my father that way, or my brothers and sisters! We should talk to Father…"
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Cordy, Faramir, Aramac and Théo were slumped in chairs in the large sitting room at Brandy Hall. Merry, Pippin, Sam and Frodo Gamgee were seated together around a table in the corner. They had just finished gathering up what they knew about this group of youngsters.
"I head it when I was visiting my brother Pippin…" Frodo said. "They call themselves Hobbits Against the Master."
"HAM" Merry abbreviated. "How incredibly ridiculous."
"They want you removed from your post, Master Merry" Frodo finished.
"That Delvering said to me that by rights you shouldn't even be Master anymore, you were removed already" Aramac said.
"That was just something he said" Cordy decided. "He didn't have a problem with father alone, he had a problem with all Brandybucks. Remove Father and Théodoc takes office. They weren't very keen on that either."
"If they feel Merry hasn't earned it then they can't feel Théo has" Pippin said. "But why do they say Merry hasn't earned it? It's his birthright!"
"It's not just being Master…" Aramac said. "They were angry over all the stories people tell. People say that you are Merry Magnificent, these Hobbits don't understand why. And they say Lucky can do magic, and that makes them angry too."
"It's quite simple, if you follow me" Sam said. "They are all about the same age as our children, right? Well then they weren't born when we came back to the Shire. To them we're not the heroes who returned and scoured the Shire, we're just old Hobbits whom people look up to for no apparent reason."
"Don't they have parents who were alive back then?" Merry said. "Haven't they heard of the Battle of Bywater? Let them read the Rolls if that's the problem…"
"I think they're just angry and misguided…" Pippin mused. "They're Delverings and Sackers, right? Families with little land, who have to struggle through the years while we have large homes, lots of mathoms and people look up to us. Maybe their parents never told them what we did specifically during the Scouring, just that the events took place. And now they've found you Merry as a symbol for everything that's wrong with their lives."
"But why only Merry?" Sam asked. "There are three of us!"
"Well, Brandybucks are queer…" Faramir said with a smile.
"They live here in Buckland, don't they?" Théo said. "Why be mad at the people in charge at Hobbiton or Tuckburough when it's the Master of Buckland who has the highest authority in the place they live?"
"So what do we do about it?" Cordy asked. "I don't care much for having strangers call sarcastic things after me or insult my family! They taunted Aramac for Lucky being ill! I can't accept that, it's too rude."
"Some things you have to battle head on" Merry said. "Others just need time to go away. Leave them be, don't let them provoke you and they will tire eventually. Show them that you won't sink to their levels. Prove to them why people look up to us."
"Should we go abroad for a year and return taller?" Cordy asked in jest.
"That's not what I mean" Merry said, but couldn't help to smile a little. "If you don't stoop to their level then you will win the battle in the end. Let them talk, let them act up. They have no dignity acting like that, keep your dignity intact and you will win the respect of the people around you."
"Though lord knows it would be tempting to clog them, just to show you can't say just anything to us" Pippin said.
"None of that!" Merry said. "We are Hobbits, and we don't fight each other."
"But won't they think they can say and do anything to us if we don't defend ourselves?" Cordy complained.
"Stay away from them if you can't listen to them" Merry said. "Now, I think our meeting is over… Let's go eat, Estella and Rose promised us steak!"
"Stay away from them?" Cordy mumbled to Faramir as they rose from their seats. "It's them who find us!"
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Summer went by, a warm and beautiful one. After six weeks Crickhollow was finally in a clean state again and the youngsters got a few weeks free to do whatever they wished before harvesting would begin. Lucky had to stay indoors, his cold had turned into an eye inflammation which Merry guessed had been caused by all the dust irritating his eyes. He dragged Théo with him to show him what herbs to use, sometimes accompanied by Aramac who was much more interested than his older brother was.
Éowyn did not get a chance to break in Blizzard, she found herself busy with far too many other things to be able to spend enough time with the pony. She would take him out for a walk each morning, but that was all the time she had to spend with him.
Every now and then Cordy, Théo or Aramac would run into the HAMs, led by Chet Delvering, but they managed to avoid getting into any confrontations with them. Cordy was boiling inside for having to keep his mouth shut and accept the insults being thrown his way.
In mid-August Bag End was invaded by Tooks, Brandybucks and Fairbairns, there to celebrate Frodo getting married. He had gotten engaged to Rosa Greenhand, the daughter of one of Sam's gardener friends, and they planned to settle down at Bag End together. Once the Fairbairns, Tooks and Brandybucks had arrived Frodo declared to everyone that before his wedding he would change his family name from Gamgee to Gardener. Sam had been known as Sam Gardener around Hobbiton for as long as Frodo could remember, and since he shared his father's passion for gardening he wanted to take that name. There were enough Gamgee lads left to carry on that name anyway.
Two days before the wedding Frodo, his brothers, Faramir and the Brandybuck brothers decided to go to the Green Dragon for a bachelor party of sorts. It was walking distance from Bag End and it was a merry party of ten Hobbits who arrived at the inn to drink some ale and have a good time together.
As they came walking up to the Green Dragon Théo spotted a familiar sight.
"Out of all the troubles in the world…" he sighed. "Isn't that Chet Delvering? What is he doing here?"
"There are Delverings in his part of the Shire too" Bilbo informed him. "Most of them are quite pleasant."
"This one isn't" Théo sighed under his breath.
"Brandybucks!" Chet called out to them as they reached the inn.
"Just get inside" Aramac said to his brothers with a sigh and shoved the curious Lucky closer to the door.
"What possesses you to travel to these more humble parts of the Shire?" Chet asked in his usual tone which sounded so friendly but was in fact highly sarcastic and spiteful.
"They are here for my wedding" Frodo said and gave the lad a questioning look. "I am Frodo Gardener and these are my guests. Hope you have a good night, we intend to!"
"Aren't you the one who makes magic?" Chet called out to Lucky, who turned to look at him but was shoved forward by Aramac. "Your brother has to protect you, has he? Or what, you will unleash your tricks on me? You don't look too healthy, are you sure you're really a Brandybuck? Frankly I think none of you are, I don't believe the Master knows how to have a child, he's far too dignified to devote himself to such activities."
That was enough for Cordy, who grabbed a hold of Chet's collar and pushed him up against the wall of the inn.
"You cannot talk to me that way, do you understand me?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"Comradoc!" Aramac said and finally managed to shove Lucky through the door and out of sight for Chet.
"You will not insult my brother, nor my father, and I don't want to hear that filthy tongue of yours say the name Brandybuck again, is that clear?"
Chet swallowed hard and seemed terrified by the sudden reaction from Cordy. Aramac and Faramir came over and pulled Cordy away from him, but there was no mistaken in the threatening glare he gave Chet.
"What on earth did you do that for?" Faramir hissed at him. "You've only made things worse!"
"I don't care!" Cordy hissed back as they pulled him inside. "He cannot say things like that about Lucky! Or any of us! Did you hear him? He implied that Mother has--"
"Yes we heard" Aramac said. "Now let it go! Nobody believes him, he's just trying to provoke us! And now I think you've set him off even further, you sure gave him a reason to dislike you personally."
But apparently the scare Chet Delvering had gotten was enough to make him keep his distance from Cordy. He never said much when he was around anymore, but his spiteful glares spoke their clear language. And whenever Cordy wasn't around he would retell the story of the unprovoked attack on him by one of the Brandybucks, and claim that they were all violent and angry. Word reached Merry eventually, but all he ever said to his son was that now he knew what happened when you reacted the wrong way.
To Faramir Cordy insisted that he didn't regret anything, he was glad he had gotten to give that rat Chet a little scare. Faramir still doubted that it had been very wise, but secretly he couldn't blame his friend. They had all been brought up to believe their fathers were special Hobbits who had done great deeds, and that by being their children they were special too. Now for the first time they felt a doubt in their heart that maybe they weren't as good Hobbits as they thought they were. If Merry, Pippin and Sam had done such wondrous things, why wouldn't they tell anybody about it? All they knew was that they had scoured the Shire.
Two weeks before the harvest feast Cordy and Aramac accompanied their parents to the marketplace to find some watermelons and pumpkins if there were any. It didn't take the brothers long to spot the HAM crowd standing by their usual cart, busy with nothing.
"If they're so poor, why are they always standing around here?" Cordy mumbled. "Shouldn't they be at home, working on the fields?"
"They probably have a stand here at the marketplace" Aramac said. "Selling what little extra they have to make some money."
"Good. Then they can buy some manners."
"Comradoc" Merry said. "Honestly, I don't know what you're complaining about. I've never heard as much as a peep from them."
"They're too cowardly to go after you" Cordy said. "But they will, sooner or later."
"I'll be looking forward to it" Merry laughed.
"Cordy, would you help me with this?" Estella said and grabbed a hold of a huge watermelon. She was sick and tired of hearing of these HAM Hobbits, she thought the whole thing was incredibly childish and wouldn't last long. It annoyed her that her sons allowed themselves to be so bothered by it.
"Stay here, old madam Grubb has another watermelon for us" Merry said to Aramac. "I've just got to run over there and get the last green pumpkin!"
As soon as his father was out of hear sight Aramac could hear the taunting voices behind him. Wouldn't they ever tire? He rolled his eyes and sighed as madam Grubb walked off to get the watermelon.
"Don't you have anything better to do with your time, Brandybuck?" one of the Hobbits asked. "Or are you afraid to do an honest day's work?"
Aramac had spent the past week working hard in the fields, but that apparently didn't count as an honest day's work. He wasn't half as bothered as his younger brother by the negative attention he got, but sometimes he wished he could go to the marketplace just once without being called at right away.
"What do Brandybucks even need to go to the marketplace for?" a lass cried. "I thought you grew all your food on your own, or perhaps had it sent to you from your kings!"
"Or that the frail one snapped his fingers and just made them appear!"
They continued on like that for a while, with Cordy and Estella over by the cart, too far away to hear them, and Merry out of hear sight. Once they saw Merry return they quieted.
"No pumpkin" Aramac noted.
"Can you carry the watermelon on your own?" Merry asked.
"I'll manage."
Merry strode off towards their cart, with Aramac and the melon in tow. Merry walked over to a stand nearby the cart where Chet and his friends were sitting, threw a coin to the lad in the stand and grabbed an apple for himself. As he passed HAM he made a gesture with his hand, snapped his fingers and suddenly held a green pumpkin under his arm. He blinked at them as if in jest.
"Almost like magic, isn't it?" he said with a confident grin.
Once they reached their cart Aramac loaded the melon onto it and turned around to look back at the group of Hobbits, unable to hide their surprise. He turned to his father.
"Sir, how did you do that?"
"Just a little something Gandalf taught Pip and me one night" Merry said. "Don't look at me like that, you know it wasn't done by magic. It's just tricking the eye a bit."
"I loved seeing the look on their faces!" Cordy said and climbed up the cart.
"That's not a very nice thing to say" Estella said with a frown and got up next to Merry. "For goodness sake Merry, really! Are you going to get involved in this too now?"
"It was just a bit of fun" Merry said. "Here, have an apple and be glad."
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"Pippin!" Diamond called out and opened the door. "Pippin, where on earth are you hiding? Pippin! Oh there you are!"
"Hullo Diamond!" Pippin said and jumped down from the book shelf he was climbed up in. "I didn't hear you call."
"What are you doing in here?" she asked.
"Faramir brought over a box full of books from Crickhollow" Pippin told her. "Books which I left there and he doesn't want, so he figured he ought to bring them back to me."
Diamond opened one of them and coughed from all the dust.
"Goodness, these are old and dusty!"
"It occurred to me…" Pippin said. "The Great Smials does not have a library. How can we have a home without a library?"
"This occurs to you after more than sixty years without one?"
"Whenever I'm in Gondor I love going to Aragorn's huge library and search for something interesting to read! I want to have that here too, even if it's in a smaller scale. So I decided to found a library here, though I'm not sure in what room…"
"If that's what you want to do…" Diamond said. "But why are you taking the books down from these shelves if you want to start a library?"
"So that all books are at the same place, silly."
"But you don't have a place for them yet."
"Well… never mind that! I'll find something!"
Diamond shook her head. Even if she lived for another hundred years she would never fully understand the way Pippin's mind worked. But he seemed to be very excited about this new project so there could be no harm in it.
"I know" she said with a grin. "Why don't you use those empty rooms we used to have as guest rooms, down the north hall?" she suggested. "You could ask Faramir to clean them for you. He would be so thrilled."
Pippin laughed.
"Splendid idea! But I have an even better one!"
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"This was a horrible idea" Diamond complained.
"Nonsense" Pippin said and grinned at her.
Diamond just shook her head. She was down in the rooms she had suggested he use, wearing her oldest dress and down on her knees scrubbing the floor. Why Pippin thought it would be fun for the two of them to clean it together she would never know. Pippin seemed to enjoy it, scrubbing the other side of the room and whistling one of his jolly tunes.
"Come on, Dimesy… Look at how nice and clean everything is getting!"
"Pippin…" she sighed and sat up. "I have dirt and dust all over me, my hands and knees are aching and quite frankly it's not a fun job to begin with. How could you think this was a good idea?"
"Because…" he said and rose to his feet. "It will be ours! So many things around here are done by other people these days, but this will be our own accomplishment!"
He walked over and sat down on an armchair behind her, grabbed her arms and pulled her up on it with him. She shook her head once more and felt she didn't care much whether or not it was their own accomplishment. She didn't even care much whether or not they had a library at the Great Smials. She had never been much of a reader anyway.
But Pippin seemed happy with it. He gently ran his right hand up and down her arm and smiled at her even though she couldn't see his face. One thing he had realised this summer was that it had been a long time since he had really done anything. Mostly he told others what to do and organised everything. Only when it came to farming did he do his fair share of physical labour. He knew he preferred getting to do the actual work.
"Hello?" Faramir said and walked into the room. "There you are, sir, I've been looking all over for you! I…" He trailed off and noticed the gleaning gear on the floor. "On second thought… It can wait!"
"Faramir, wait!" Pippin said. "There's enough to go around!"
"Sorry sir, I have to…" Faramir trailed off and disappeared upstairs again.
Diamond and Pippin looked at each other and shared a laugh. Apparently their son had had enough of cleaning for one summer. Pippin gave Diamond a hug, wrapping his arms around her from behind and rocked her back and forth.
"Another bright side is…" he began, kissing her neck, "we get to be alone."
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Winter eventually came, and with it came the snow. Merry and Pippin decided to take their families with them and spend December at Crickhollow, for old time's sake and as a reward to the children who had cleaned it during summer. As the snow continued to fall they installed themselves in the old familiar halls, sleeping in the same rooms they had all had years ago. The youngsters spent their days outside when the weather permitted, building snow fortresses, having snowball fights or riding on their ponies. They all acted as if they were young children again, and Pippin had to ask if he had been that way when he was an irresponsible tween.
"When you were your son's age you spent December in Rivendell" Merry reminded him with a laugh. "You left your tweens far behind you that year."
Éowyn spent her days breaking in Blizzard, falling off him ever so often into the soft snow which cushioned her blow. She spent a few days leaning over his back to make him used to her weight on him, but as soon as he began to move she would fall off, sometimes even head first into the snow, laughing each time she went. It seemed as if Blizzard thought it was all a game and had as much fun as she did. In the end it was Lucky who managed to not only lean his weight over the pony but also sit up bareback and with a proud grin make the pony move forward.
Each night they would crawl up in one of the sitting rooms together, drinking hot cider and reading or telling stories. It would get quite crowded and very warm, sometimes they didn't even start a fire, but when they did Lúthien and Lucky would roast apples over the fireplace.
"I used to think this was how it would always be" Pippin mused one evening, leaned back in his chair with Diamond placed on the floor between his legs, knitting a sweater for herself. "Back when we lived here full time I never saw us moving out. I saw the children growing up here…"
"That's what we can have!" Faramir said to Cordy.
"Faramir you never think a bit further than your father, do you?" Diamond sighed. "You'll have to move back to the Smials, just like Da and I."
"But on the bright side, I get to stay here forever" Cordy grinned.
"I remember Théo's first winter, there were lots of snow that year, just like it is now" Estella said.
"We know, madam" Théo said, sick of the story.
"Yes, Faramir was born during a dry spell and you were born during snow fall." Diamond said. "Strange weather that year… Do you remember how endlessly hot it was?"
"This year has been a good year" Éowyn said, bored with musings of times she didn't remember. "Luckily we've had lots of snow for me to fall in."
"How you haven't bruised yourself a million times over is beyond me" Estella said with a sigh.
"She has" Lucky grinned.
"You certainly have a good hand with the pony, Lucky" Théo remarked. "Maybe it's your magic tricks…"
"That's not even funny" Lucky sighed. "I don't know why everybody thinks I can do magic! I can't even do card tricks!"
"They say that it's your magic that keeps you alive" Merry said. "Quite honestly, Hobbits are fools in larger numbers. They stop thinking for themselves and believe whatever fairytale story someone tells them. Funny thing is though, when it's actually a true story they rarely want to believe it."
"Like Bilbo and his trolls" Pippin said.
"I don't know about you, but I for one feel relieved that this year is finally over" Cordy said out of the blue.
"What do you mean?" Estella had to ask.
"It's just been such an all-around strange year" Cordy said. "Cleaning this house didn't exactly make my summer… And those annoying HAMs…"
"Haven't I told you to let it go?" Merry said, getting annoyed.
"Lighten up, Comradoc" Faramir said. "I for one think it's been a good year. Lots of good things have happened!"
"Yes, especially with some Chubb lass" Cordy said.
Faramir blushed, and received an angry glare from his father. He had had a quite embarassing story at the harvest fiest with the Chubb lass from the spring fiest, whose name he could never seem to remember.
"It has been more than thirty years now since we first moved here" Merry mused.
"Thirty-five" Pippin said.
"You were Éowyn's age" Merry reminded his cousin. "Can you believe it?"
"Éowyn when are you going to get married and have a family?" Lúthien asked.
"Not for many years" her sister laughed. "Uncle Pippin was older than I am now when he got married."
"But you'll be thirty-three in a few years" Lúthien said. "You'll come of age."
"There's no rush" Estella said gently. "I was over forty when Éowyn was born."
"I think Faramir will be the first to get married" Cordy said with a grin.
"Cordy, say the name Chubb and I will not speak to you again for a full week" Faramir complained.
"Serves you right to hear it" Pippin said.
"But sir…" Faramir began, but sighed, knowing it was no use.
"Let's not argue" Diamond said. "I think it's time to head off to bed. All of you are yawning so much I fear your jaws will dislocate! And that includes you, Estella."
"You're right" Estella said and got up from her seat. "All Brandybucks and Tooks who have not yet come of age, off to bed you go!"
Obediently the seven youngsters got up and headed off for bed. Merry and Estella gathered the mugs left behind and brought them out to the kitchen.
"Are you coming?" Merry asked Pippin and Diamond on his way out.
"In a minute" Pippin said.
Merry nodded and left. Pippin leaned as far back in his armchair as he could get and sighed contently. It was good being back at Crickhollow, living with the Brandybucks. But he was getting older, he could feel it. It scared him to death that Faramir was the same age now as Pippin had been on this very day so many years ago, when the Fellowship had set out from Rivendell.
Diamond noticed that he had travelled far away in his mind and turned her head to look at him. She gently shook his leg to get his attention.
"Wanderer of strange places… Where have you drifted off to now?"
"Rivendell" Pippin said. "On this very date, when I was Faramir's age."
"Do you want to sit much longer?" she asked him.
"Let's stay until the fire has gone out… I love watching the fire turn into embers and then slowly fade… Put aside your knitting Diamond, and come be with me."
With a smile she put aside her knitting and did as told. She too loved being back at Crickhollow. Giving her husband a kiss she recalled all those other nights they had sat here by the fireplace, watching the fire die. It felt like they were both young again.
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The next chapter will probably be up within a week! Thanks for reading )