I've made a video trailer for this story, and I encourage all of my faithful readers to do the same. I am glad that you all think I'm a great writer, but I'm seriously lacking in the publicity department. I would really love more readers, even those that don't have an account here. The more readers, the better, in my opinion.
.com/watch?v=b5QaeuoVcRg
On that note, it's time for the next chapter to begin.
-xHx
Hermione stood upon the wall with her eyes locked on the horizon as the sun began to rise, leaning gently on the stone, her wand in her right hand. Legolas found her like this, with golden sunlight igniting her features. She had been there for an hour, contemplating, and when the first rays of golden sunlight pierced the sky she'd made her choice.
"What thoughts keep you here, silent and staring?" he whispered, placing a hand upon her back.
"I was waiting for you," she replied with a gentle smile, glancing from the horizon to his face. "I made a choice."
"What choice is that, Hísiven?"
She did not say a word in reply. Instead, she looped her hands behind her head and removed the pendant Dumbledore had left for her; the one Legolas himself had brought to Imladris when she was a baby. She held it gently in her right hand, looking at the delicate sparkle of the diamonds, the soft gleam of the silver. With the palest of smiles, she took his right hand in her left, holding it open palm up. She coiled the mithril chain on his palm and laid the pendant across it.
"So long as this remains in your possession, there is no doubt that I will return to you. I do not know how or when, but I will return." She sighed, leaning against the stone. "When I do leave this world, there is no doubt in my mind that I will miss you, and I know you will miss me. I leave this with you so you have something to keep me in your thoughts."
"I have more than enough," he said in a whisper.
"Take it. Aragorn will arrive by noon."
Of course, the Man of their company took longer than she had expected. It seemed that in her dawn musings of the future, she had misinterpreted the location of the sun in the sky. If she had a watch with her, of course, she'd know exactly what time it was. She guessed that her watch would have said that it was three in the afternoon. The girl leaned against a pillar as Aragorn rode into the keep.
"Where is he?" Gimli shouted as he shoved through the crowd. "Where is he? Get out of way! I'm gonna kill him!" As the Dwarf broke through the crowd, Aragorn dismounted the stallion. "You are the luckiest, uncanniest, and the most reckless man I ever knew!" Gimli hugged Aragorn around his middle. "Bless you, laddie!"
Aragorn asked him something, and he nodded toward the door through which Hermione knew the king was. He would have to walk past her.
She started walking, a little smirk on her face as she came to stand by Legolas. A faint glint of the chain she had given him was visible.
"You're late," he said as Aragorn stopped in front of them. "You look terrible."
"Of course he does, Legolas," Hermione said. "He fell off of a cliff, nearly drowned, and had to ride for two days straight to get here."
Aragorn laughed and put a hand on each Elf's shoulder. Legolas then pulled out the Evenstar pendant and handed it to Aragorn.
"Thank you," the Man replied.
Théoden obviously hated to think of women as equal. She'd been kicked out of the room as Aragorn filled the king in on what they needed to know, but she followed them to the causeway.
"We will cover the causeway and the gate from above. No army has ever breached the Deeping Wall, or set foot inside the Hornburg!"
"Aragorn," she said, leaning against the gate beside Gimli, "what exactly did you see?"
Legolas, Aragorn, and Théoden all looked at her with appraising eyes, but she only stared at Aragorn with a knowing gaze. She knew he had left something out of the original description, and he knew that she would tell Legolas what she had seen if he did not tell Théoden.
"The army was not just Uruks. At the lead of their column, four men and one woman walked, bearing a different crest than the White Hand of Saruman. A skull with its mouth open, a serpent emerging between its teeth," Aragorn said, looking at Théoden.
"What symbol is that?" Legolas asked of Hermione.
"That is the symbol of an evil I had hoped would remain in the realm I left. It is known as the Dark Mark. Its creator was once known as Tom Marvolo Riddle, Junior, but he denounced that name in favor of an incomplete acronym. He used almost all of the letters in his name, save three. He became Lord Voldemort. His followers call themselves Death Eaters. They are only easy to spot when they wear something with short sleeves. The Dark Mark is tattooed on the inside of their left arm and enchanted, so that it will move and at their master's touch upon one, all will be summoned to his location. In addition, should one of his followers touch their fingertip to it, he will know and be summoned to their location." She shakes her head. "If I know history, he has sent his best lieutenant, Bellatrix Lestrange. She is an expert at the Torture Curse."
"Curses, enchantments, magical tattoos…are you sure of this?" Théoden, of course, would not believe.
"It is because of them that I must be there to fight."
"You will go into the caves with the other women and the children. This is not up for discussion."
"So you want your people to be slaughtered? Without me on that field, we will all die. They will break into the caves through the stone that forms them and slaughter your people. Would you like to be tortured repeatedly, feeling like an axe is slicing into your body but it won't kill you, because I sure wouldn't." Hermione turned and stalked away.
Hermione knew she had no choice as she ran through the castle, trying to find an empty room.
Finally¸ she thought, bursting through a door that was already cracked open. She drew her wand and muttered a short spell, sweeping from the top left corner to the bottom right corner of the door. A soft click and a quiet whoosh were heard, and she tested the door, leaning against it. Nothing would open it unless she spoke the counter-curse.
She opened the beaded bag and began pulling supplies from its depths. She propped a mirror against the wall, unrolled a bed-piece in the corner, and, removing her weapons, she laid down, closing her eyes to rest. Théoden was unlikely to ever let her fight, no matter what Aragorn, Legolas, or Gimli said about her. Chauvinist pig. In the wizarding world, women were on par with women. Discrimination was not based upon skin, gender, or sexual orientation. It was based solely on blood purity.
"The king needs a crash course in the toughness and strength-of-will of women,"she thought.
Angry Hermione has made her presence known. I don't think Théoden's going to be in her good graces for a very long time…
- xHx