Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings books and or movies is not mine. Neither is the idea of 'The Sight' which I got from the series, The Lost Years of Merlin.

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Thanks for everyone who reviewed. I really hadn't expected so many reviews and hits for this story. Thank you all!

A/N: Anyways, uh. Sorry about the lateness of the chapter. I've been skimming through the LoTR books to get a good feel of how the story should go, but between work and my social life, I've had hardly any time. But right now, I have some time and I want to update this. Thanks for all who stay with me on this! Also, this chapter will move a bit fast with the events (things will happen quickly, in my opinion).

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Seeing An Eternity

By: xScenex

Chapter Three

--Chapter Break--

Previously:

The wind picked up and he caught a strong amount of life coming from somewhere in the bushes to his right. He gulped - whatever it was, he could tell it was powerful. And as powerful as it's life burned, Harry knew that it wouldn't go down easily by instinct. Fear flooded his senses.

He just hoped he wouldn't be the one to go down first.

--Chapter Break--

He walked cautiously through the foliage until he was sure he was close to the area where the essence of strong life came from. Iris, who had disappeared moments before into the canopy of leaves above, screeched a few times before falling completely silent.

Harry wasn't sure if it was a good sign or a bad one; but nonetheless, it didn't help how he was feeling. Would Iris be okay? Or did the Thing get her? He gulped, not sure if he wanted to continue into the dark, yet at the same time to him, shining forest.

The boy sheathed his sword slowly and quietly, hoping it made no sound.

He reached out his hands, letting them rest against the trunk of a large tree before he crouched down into the shrubs. He tried to be silent, and was quite successful. Then he listened.

There was a sound on the wind, almost like a humming. A strong, yet deep humming, coming from the northern direction he faced, on the other side of the tree he hid behind.

Maybe it was a person? He'd never encountered any other human being since he had fallen into Middle Earth, and although his doubts were high, it could actually be one. How much did he know about his sight? Almost nothing! For all he knew, human's souls could give off larger amounts of life than other beings.

The humming grew louder as he pondered through his thoughts. The shining outline of the life came into view on the left side of the tree. Harry pulled his cloak's hood up higher and sunk down further onto the soft soil.

"The Road goes ever on and on, down from the door where it began," the humming soon became words that Harry had to strain to hear. "Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow if I can."

Harry shifted. It was a person - and elderly man by the outline he could see. But the power was just too much for an old man - unless, of course, he was like Dumbledore, then he was bound to have some powers.

"Pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say." The humming then followed a bit more loudly.

He didn't seem to be of any harm. Harry squinted slightly and the outlines became slightly more profound. He could see the tall shape of the man, standing proudly in the forest. But there was something else - something he held, that shone with life as well. But not actual life - almost artificial. It reminded him strongly of something he'd seen before, but he couldn't remember what it was. The ball of light was perched on something else, much like a long staff or stick.

A hoot echoed from somewhere near Harry, and he lifted his head up. A faint rustle of leaves, and the swish of wind and he knew that Iris was still there. Her call was a bit reassuring, as if telling him to go for it. She flew towards the person and circled him a few times. He could see the man falter in his steps as he stared up at the bird.

"I hope you know what you're doing, girl," Harry muttered under his breath. He slowly stood up and crept out of the bush as quietly as possible - which proved to slow him down a lot. It took him almost a whole minute to disentangle himself from the branches. By then, the person had moved on and was further up the path with the owl continuously flying around him.

Harry made sure that his hood was low over his face before he began walking. He followed the man's steps as quickly as possible to catch up with him. Eventually, he was two yards away when he stopped purposely and his cloak swished about him, causing a loud rustling noise against the earth beneath his feet.

The figure in front of him faltered for the second time and turned on heel much more quickly than he had anticipated for an old man. He could give Dumbledore a run for his money, Harry thought almost sadly.

"Friend or enemy?" the voice from the man shouted, rough but strong. It startled Harry for a mere second.

"Depends on whether you are the friend, or the enemy," Harry responded as calmly as he could though his heart raced with the uncertainty. Adrenaline began to kick in.

"A wise choice of words," he responded, equally as calm. "You are no spawn of Saruman; I see no evil in you. You sound no older than a mere child, and are no taller than one by appearances. How did you come to be in this forest?"

Child? Harry felt his face flush slightly. "I've lived in Fangorn for a while now," he told the other reluctantly while stumbling over the foreign word momentarily. "About half a year or more. I lost track a while back."

"Are you traveling alone?" he questioned seriously.

"I am now," Harry gripped tightly onto his wand. He couldn't lose concentration. For all he knew, this man could be evil. But he had said something about that Saruman guy, and Harry vaguely recalled Ashtwig saying something about him. "I've been walking for hours, and you're the first I've run into."

"I would think, child, that I am the only other one who would dare enter such a forest. Dangers lurk in the shadows."

Harry gulped, but hastily put the thought of creatures into the back of his mind. He'd run into nothing of the sort since he'd been there.

"I don't believe that," he voiced his thoughts. "I haven't run into a single thing besides you in quite a while."

"Hmm, quite unusual," he responded. "May I ask your heritage?"

"Erm," the boy was unsure what the question was exactly asking of him. "I.. uh, I'm a half-blood."

There was a moments silence before a rather amused answer came. "Half-blood? Do you mean you are kin to the Elves?"

"Of course not," Harry mumbled under his breath. "I'm no elf. I'm a…"

"Pardon? My hearing is not what it used to be."

Harry hesitated. "I'm not an elf," he said again. "I'm a wizard."

He could feel the startled silence around him. "Never before have I heard of a Black Wizard. Your youth shows that you can not be a Istari."

Harry frowned, guessing that an 'Istari' was a wizard, "Bollocks."

"Pardon?"

Harry made a noise of frustration. He shifted his feet noisily, showing his annoyance and peered out from under his hood. "Bullshit! I can too use magic! See!" Harry whipped his wand out and a flurry of golden sparks erupted from the end. Of course, Harry couldn't see the color, but he could see where the fire and heat burned into the air, leaving empty voids in the spaces where they were ignited.

"Astounding. Quite unheard of," the man mumbled.

"Er," Harry didn't respond much to that. He was used to things being said like that, but he was still unsure. "What are you talking about?"

"I have known every Istari to ever subsist in Middle Earth, and all are no less than ninety-odd years. To add to the unlikeliest of the situation, there are only five of us. Did Manwë send you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, and I'm not ninety years old," Harry said indignantly.

The one in front of him pondered, "How many years are you?"

Harry, confused and quite bewildered, looked upwards a bit more and his hood shifted away from his face and fell elegantly against his slender shoulders. "I'm almost seventeen years old."

The man in front of him froze, his body stiff.

"You are, yet are no child. Your eyes…"

"I'm blind, yes," Harry spat angrily, his annoyance getting the better of him. "So what? I'm still capable of things!" He felt more sparks erupt from his wand at his temper.

"You have seen much," the old man continued as if he hadn't heard anything Harry said. "Death… destruction… the pain and sorrow reflects from you. What is your name, child?"

Harry seethed quietly, but the anger was slowly dying down. He felt that the man wasn't intending any offense. "My names Harry."

"Harry.. Odd name, but suitable. I am Gandalf, the White. I was once Gandalf the Grey, as most know me by."

The title baffled Harry. "The White.. Grey?"

"You, being a wizard, should know what our titles mean… although, I cannot say that I know what yours is. I've only know White, Grey, Blue, and Brown."

Sighing regrettably, Harry shook his head. Maybe that's what the guy meant when he mentioned a 'black wizard' earlier. "I couldn't tell you if I knew… er, Gandoof. This is what I was required to wear at school."

There was a small stretch of silence before the other said anything. "You are strange," he mumbled, just loud enough for Harry to hear. "You look like an elf, but claim to be a Maia - a young one, at that, and you seem too wise for a child."

"I heard that," Harry said, his voice laced with disgruntlement.

A small chuckle was all he heard. "Where are you headed to, Harry?"

Uh. "No where, actually." he answered sheepishly. He turned away from the man and scanned the tree-tops. "I just came to you because my friend wanted me to."

"Your friend?"

"Iris?" Harry called out. There was a small hoot and a noticeable rustle of leaves and he felt a familiar weight on his shoulder.

"The owl…" Gandoof, Harry mused at the name, whispered. "You have befriended a creature of Fangorn Forest. You truly must be remarkable, child."

"If only you knew the half of it," Harry grumbled, receiving a hard peck on the ear by Iris.

"I'm sorry, child, but what was that? You'll have to speak up."

"Nothing," Harry sighed. "So what are.. Uh, you doing out here? I thought you said it was dangerous."

"It is," was the response. "But I'm here on a quest."

Quest, Harry thought idly. So this really was a world of medieval government. But the boy was intrigued, "What kind of quest?"

"One to stop Saruman's from ruling Middle Earth."

There's the mention of that guy again. "Who's Saruman? I've heard of him from… from someone, but I've never really heard why he's so bad."

"He is known as Saruman, the White, one of the five Maia."

"What are maia? You've said that word a few times, but I have no idea what it is." Harry looked around, and realized that the sky seemed to be darkening, giving that the life around him seemed to hush to a quite pulse and the light dimmed slightly.

"They are Istari, wizards. We were send to Middle Earth shortly after the defeat of Sauron."

Harry interrupted, "Who's Sauron?"

"He was once known as the Dark Lord of Mordor."

"Sounds like Voldemort to me," Harry muttered, unheard. After a moment, he turned back to Gandoof. "You never told me what was so bad about this Saruman."

The older man, or wizard as he claimed to be, settled himself on the ground under a nearby tree. Harry was a bit surprised to see the man act so casually around a stranger, but then again, the people in Middle Earth would be different than the ones he knew from his world. Things seemed more casual here.

Cautiously, Harry peered around himself, noting that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. He, too, took a seat under the canopy of leaves, a few feet in front of Gandoof.

"He wants the One Ring for himself."

"The One Ring?"

"It was forged, long ago, to dominate the other nine rings of power made by the Elves." Harry didn't even want to ask what that was about, and listened at the man continued. "Saruman believes himself to be above any of the other Istari, and is inclined on taking over Middle Earth. His desire for the ring was clear, and his alliance was formed with Sauron."

"But isn't Sauron dead?" Harry questioned, pulling his cloak tightly around him. Iris fluttered off his shoulder and landed on a branch a few yards above him.

"Maia never truly die," Gandoof told him.

"But wizards where I come from do die. They live longer than muggles, but they die eventually," Harry said sadly.

"Where you come from?"

"Yes… er." He forgot about that. Of course this stranger wouldn't have any idea of what Harry was talking about. "You see, I'm… I'mnotfromthisworld."

The last bit was spoken in a rush and his hand tightened on his wand. He wasn't sure how another wizard, one which, he assumed, had more power than he would take the fact that hew as from another universe.

Obviously, his jumbled up words did get heard. "Not from this world? Child, have you hit your head recently?"

Glaring silently at the elderly wizard, Harry scowled. "I wouldn't lie about that. I wasn't sure where I was until I met Ashtwig, and he came up with the theory of me being from another world. He said that there were may reasons, because one, like you said yourself, there are only five wizards in this Middle Earth place. Two, I have no idea of what this place really is, only of mine, where there's a large community of wizards and witches."

"A community of wizards?" Gandoof asked thoughtfully. "That's definitely unheard of."

Harry huffed quietly. "Do you believe me?"

"Do I have much of a choice?" came the reply.

Harry shrugged.

"Now I know what you were doing in this forest," mused the other. Harry looked at him, and twitched. "You were with an Ent, if I remember Ashtwig being one."

Harry nodded slowly. "He was the first that I met here."

"An amusing start on a journey," the other said thoughtfully.

"He was a great friend, and helped me come to terms with my… loss of sight. But he showed me that there are other ways to See, other than with images."

"I was curious about that," the wizard replied. "I noticed that you did not move around like that of a blind one, but moved as if with ease of your surroundings. How is it that you can see, though?"

Harry gave him a small smile, "I can see the life of things."

"Intriguing. Well then-"

But he didn't finish his sentence. Before he could, there came a loud sound, much like that of someone, or something, crashing through the brush.

The man in front of him stood up quickly and Harry followed suit, holding his wand in hand and crouching down in a dueling stance.

"What was that?" he hissed, scanning the surrounding area. He could sense life again, so it wasn't the Orc's. "It's not those Orc's…"

The man beside him didn't say anything but eventually straightened up and gave a small chuckle.

"This seems to be turning into quite the party," he muttered.

Harry gave the man an incredulous look before whirling around as whatever was making the noise burst from the bushes behind him. He gaped, seeing to midget sized forms stumbling onto the ground before them.

"Uh.." he held out his wand, unsure. They looked short enough to be children.

"It's alright, Harry. I know these two."

At Gandoof's voice, the two new people looked up and shouted in unison, "Gandalf!"

Gandalf? Oops.

--Chapter End--

A/N: It's been a while. Yes, yes, shame on me. But anyways - there's a reason to why this is like it is. Any questions you ask will be answered, as long as they're not to expose the whole plot. I know I left this at a cliffhanger, but I'm tired and I don't want to write any more at the moment.