Strange Alliances

by Erestor

Disclaimer: I own nothing pertaining to The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings, or the Harry Potter series. This story was written for entertainment purposes only, and not for money.

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CHAPTER SIX

'"The Lord of the Ring is not Frodo, but the master of the Dark Tower of Mordor, whose power is again stretching out over the world!"'

- J.R.R. Tolkien, 'The Fellowship of the Ring'

"Nienna, we need to get the book and go," said Mandos urgently. This unfortunate situation was forcing him to speak, and he was not pleased. "Do you know where Sauron and Lórien are?"

"Lórien is sound asleep in the Kiddie Korner," said Nienna, "and Sauron has scared a young gentleman half out of his mind and is now using the computer device. Do you want me to collect them?"

Mandos gave a sharp nod. "Fëanor is loose," he said. "He is somewhere nearby."

Nienna winced. "Ah, now I understand why we are in such a rush to leave," she muttered. Then she smiled brightly, and announced, "I thought that you would terrify the librarians if you started questioning them, so I took it upon myself to ask them. Apparently you will find the book in the Fantasy section."

"Fantasy section?" Mandos might have echoed, had he believed in echoing people when he was surprised. He did not believe in that, so he only raised his eyebrows. The history of Middle-Earth was only considered fantasy in this world? That was strange.

Nienna turned around and hurried to the Kiddie Korner to wake up her brother. Mandos glided over to the Fantasy section to look for The Lord of the Rings. Lo and behold, it was there, with a book called The Silmarillion perched on the shelf beside it. He picked up both of them and went to the librarian's desk.

The librarian was sitting there, stamping books with grim determination.

Mandos held out the books. "Am I allowed to take these out of the library?" he asked, trying not to sound threatening. This was difficult for him, but he managed well.

"Yes," said the librarian slowly, eyeing the strange young man. "If you have a library card."

Mandos did not have a library card. "How might I get a library card?" he asked. The moment he had left Valinor, he had lost his knowledge of the things to come, and now he felt as though he were stumbling blindly through this bizarre new world. He did not know everything. He did not know what was going to happen – to him or to anyone else. He could only guess that it would all end with doom, but he could not be certain.

He hated asking all these questions.

"Yes, you can get a library card," said the librarian. "But it might take a while. You will have to fill out a form."

Mandos was a great believer in paperwork – he made his fëar fill out reams of it – but now was not the time to spend hours trying to get a library card. He began to wonder if he had met his match in this grim, unfriendly woman, who was even now getting out a clipboard with an inch-high pile of paper balanced precariously on top of it. She had an expression of evil satisfaction on her face.

Sauron, Nienna, and Lórien had congregated behind Mandos. Sauron was taking from his tea-cozy the piece of paper with the fifty printed on it. Lórien snatched it from his hand. "If we give you this money," he said, dangling the banknote in front of the librarian, "can we get the books? We need them urgently."

The librarian looked startled for a moment, and then she sniffed. "I shall not be bribed," she said firmly.

"Oh well," said Sauron, "at least we tried." He grabbed the Valar by their robes and tugged them away from the librarian's desk. "Give me those books," he said.

Mandos glared at him.

"Give me those books, please," said Sauron. He had never said the 'p' word before in his life. Mandos should have been proud.

"Give him the books, Námo," said Nienna, using Mandos's real name, an unfair tactic that frequently persuaded her older brother to do things. Why this tactic worked, she was not certain.

It worked now. Mandos forcefully handed Sauron the books and Sauron shoved the books into the tea-cozy. "There. Now let's go," he said.

"We're going to steal the books now?" asked Lórien, in horror.

"We shall return them, I suppose," said Sauron, shrugging. "Anyway, we are above their petty rules and regulations."

The Valar, being very nearly deities, could not help but agree.

But Sauron was not quite done. He smirked at Lórien. "I'm impressed," he said. "I didn't think you'd be so quick to resort to bribery. Congratulations."

"But I wasn't trying to bribe her!" gasped Lórien, once he could speak again. "I was trying to buy the books!"

Sauron raised one skeptical, teasing eyebrow, and hurried casually out of the library. When he didn't set off any alarms, the Valar followed him, Lórien still indignant and offended, which was, of course, the response that Sauron had wanted.

"Don't worry," said Nienna mildly. "I'm sure it takes a lot longer for his bad influence to wear off on you."

Lórien looked even more worried at that comment, if such a thing be possible.

Once they had left, Sauron pulled out the books and examined them. He suddenly grinned in delight. "This one is named after me!" he exclaimed. "Look! See?"

The Valar remembered the connection between Sauron and the Lord of the Rings. Mandos and Nienna looked at each other longsufferingly. "Yes, that's very nice, dear," said Nienna. "We're all happy for you."

"Ha! You don't have books named after you!" said Sauron. He opened the thick volume. "I bet this book is all about me!" he crowed.

Lórien took The Silmarillion and turned to the index. He saw that he was mentioned on a total of ten pages. He decided that this was not something to get excited about. He passed the book to Nienna, who looked at the index and saw that she was mentioned on nine pages. She sighed and passed the book to Mandos. He did the same as his siblings, and saw that he was mentioned on twenty-two pages. He was rather pleased. Obviously being mean and scary has its little rewards. Look what it had done for Sauron.

"Back home," said Sauron, "I was just about to crush Isildur's heir and his pathetic band of rebels with my mighty army. I wonder which chapter contains an account of their inevitable defeat." He flipped to the table of contents. His eyes widened slightly. He flipped frantically to another part of the book. His eyes got bigger as he read. He flipped frantically some more. Then he yelled, "A Halfling? A Halfling ruined all my ingenious plans!"

The Valar stared at the little Dark Lord in surprise.

"No! This cannot be!" cried Sauron, flinging the book at Mandos. Mandos caught it.

Nienna, who's job it was to sympathize with people, even wicked people, said, "I am very sorry, Sauron."

This did not help. Sauron's face got a scrunched-up look for a moment, and then he burst into tears. "He destroyed my Ring!" he wailed. "I didn't think he'd do something as stupid as that! Any normal person would have tried to use the Ring to finish me off!"

"Do you want a hug?" offered Nienna lamely. Sauron scowled at her, rubbed his nose on the sleeve of his robe, and sniffled pathetically for a few minutes, but the threat of a hug from Nienna soon calmed him down. Nienna suspected some of the tears had been for show, anyway. Sauron was a ten year-old now.

"When I get home again," he said, "I shall send my wraiths to Mount Doom. They will soon have the Halfling problem sorted out."

"When you get home," said Lórien vindictively, "they will probably have already defeated you."

Sauron blinked. Then he grinned diabolically. "That's good!" he said, rubbing his hands together with glee. "That means I'll return when they're least expecting me! They'll be celebrating my presumed demise! I'll soon have reestablished my rule, and then I'll make them rue the day they tried to defeat me!"

He cackled cheerfully to himself. The Valar exchanged worried glances.

"In fact," continued Sauron, "it will be even more psychologically damaging for them this way! They'll be partying, and the next thing they know, they'll be cringing before me in Barad-dûr! It's perfect!"

Lórien said, "I think we had better go and find Fëanor now, Mandos."

Mandos nodded. He agreed wholeheartedly.

Luthy dashed out of her apartment and slammed the door behind her. Fëanor! Fëanor was in her apartment! He was eating her apples!

She could barely believe it.

Her first thought was to flee, but the elevator was faking its own death again, and refused to go anywhere. Her second thought was to run screaming down the stairs, but she didn't feel quite up to that. So she just stood there, slumped against the door, her mind slowly sliding down a slope towards sheer panic and hysteria.

She began to wonder if Fëanor could be placated somehow. He had seemed hungry. What if she cooked him something nice?

This Elf was a Kinslayer.

Luthy squeaked at the thought. Fëanor had killed other Elves. What would he do to a human who annoyed him?

They would never find her remains.

Then she realized that Fëanor had never seen humans before. He had been killed before the Edain had come tramping across the mountains. After this realization came the thought that her humanity would not save her, not in this case. The Elves had been told that Manwë was keeping them in Valinor so that Men could take over Middle-Earth. Fëanor would hate her for that.

It was strange that Luthy had realized all these things after she had started writing a romantic story about Fëanor falling in love with her. Why, she wondered, couldn't she have realized it beforehand, and saved herself a lot of anxiety?

She could hear the murmuring of voices, and a moment later, she could make out the words of a conversation.

"Slow down," she could hear someone panting."My legs are shorter than yours."

"Well, none of us are going to carry you, so it would be best if you were stoic," said someone else, in slightly amused tones.

"Sauron? Stoic? Is he ever?" A new voice, this one obviously female.

"I'm more stoic than you are, Miss Cry-All-the-Time."

"Oh, be quiet. You are annoying Mandos."

"I don't see why we have to go galloping up seventeen flights of stairs in this manner," gasped the first voice.

"And I don't see why you have to keep on compl–-"

"He is near."

The three words, spoken with quiet assurance, brought a rapid end to the conversation. Luthy, cringing against her door, heard the soft swish of long robes, and a moment later, four... people turned the corner and came walking down the hallway towards her.

"A S.W.A.T team!" thought Luthy, with a relief that is hard to describe.

The four came to halt in front of her, and all gazed at her with interest. Then the tall, more friendly-looking man said, "Is Fëanor behind that door?"

"Yes," said Luthy, surprised that the man would know. "Who are you?"

"I am Lórien," said the man.

"I am Nienna," said the woman.

"I am Sauron," said the child, glaring at her as if daring her to disprove him. She saw his yellow eyes, and the thought of disproving him never occurred to her.

The fourth person did not introduce himself, but that was not necessary. Luthy knew that he had to be Mandos, since he was extremely tall and sinister.

Luthy stared at her four visitors, slack-jawed. First Fëanor, now the Valar! And the Dark Lord Sauron! She was not even dressed for the occasion! Should she offer them a sacrifice? Were there traditional words of greeting that should spoken on such a momentous occasion? Should she bow?

"We shall take care of your little problem," said Lórien cheerfully. "Never fear."

Mandos opened the door to her apartment and stepped inside.

TBC