Chapter four! Wooot! I hope no one's mad at me.
It was not much later in the day that Hermione, in another of her explorations, came across something she'd never expect. She could feel that she was at the edge of Rivendell, and just beyond her lay a young man with long, dark hair. He looked weak and starved, but there was something familiar about him.
And then she realized.
"Harry!" she cried, crossing the bounds to turn him over. His face was covered in bruises, but he was alive. She drew her wand and muttered an incantation. Almost in an instant, two silver otters materialized and swam in different directions, through the air, in Rivendell.
In a moment of afterthought, she sent a third, to follow the first.
Ginny was sitting up, reading a book Hermione had provided for her, when the otter came through her window.
"Hitharn is alive," it said, in Hermione's voice. "I am at the eastern edge of the city, just past the border. Hurry; he is in need of healing, and I do not believe he can enter the city on his own."
She almost threw the book, but placed her bookmark between its pages and set it aside gently before throwing her blankets off and running to her window just as a second otter arrived.
"Ginny, this is to you alone. I believe his problem entering the city is due to his scar, and his already ill look from his time in Gondor," this otter said. "I am doing my best."
Arwen sat with Frodo, keeping an eye on him, when she recieved the other otter. At first, her expression told of wonder. Then she understood the seriousness of what the message gave.
Gandalf was entering the room at that moment. Arwen placed a hand on his arm and set off, running to find her father. When she found him, she told him what was happening, and he beckoned her to follow, motioning for two others to join them.
Hermione sat with Harry, trying to wake him, but nothing would succeed. And then her father and sister came to gather him. She stood, dusting herself off, as Elrond and the two other elves carried him across the border.
"Hitharn looks to be a strong man; what would prevent him from entering our city?" Arwen said.
"You ask too many questions, sister. I cannot tell you all of it just now; I can only say that it is a tale for another time, and that he would be completely unaware of the evil in him," Hermione said.
The sisters entered the city, each with a faint smile on her face. But Hermione's gaze was troubled.
Ginny watched as the two elf-men carried Harry in on a stretcher. He looked so different than he had just a few days previously, with his black hair around his chin, his glasses broken, and dirt all over his face. The outfit he wore was the very one he had worn upon departure from Hogwarts.
"Oh, Harry...what happened to you? Where's my brother?" the redhead muttered to herself, moving back to her bed.
Yes. Ron is dead. All will be explained in chapter 5. Please review!