Delusional
Jessylane318
Hermione stood before him, her finger outstretched as she scolded. "Won't you hurry Harry? We can't wait forever!"
He tried to reply, but she was falling forward from a suddenly great height. Her body shifting and Hedwig was above him, hooting eagerly. She wanted a treat, but he didn't have any. Maybe Butterbur did, though.
"A moment Hedwig," he tried to say, "just a moment!"
But she wouldn't stay. She was flying away, into the woods. He followed after her and an arrow struck his arm. Legolas glared before releasing another.
"But wait-" the shaft thudded into his arm without pain.
"You failed, Harry Potter," said a voice. Frodo shifted from the shadows, his arms weighed down by chains. Bob stared next to him, eyes wide in horror, face melting away in that silent scream. "Why didn't you save me Harry? I thought you cared-"
"But I do!"
"ENOUGH!" screamed Legolas, only it wasn't Legolas, but Aragorn instead. He looked enraged, his black hair thrown about. "You're nothing but a pitiful orphan. Who could ever love you? How could you think I'd care?"
He whimpered and nine shadows crept around him, each sneering and jeering at him-
"Harry!" He awoke suddenly, gasping as he sat up. His body felt cold and hot, and his head thundering and ears ringing loudly.
"What-" He looked around at a few worried faces, and some quite relieved. He recalled the events from earlier and couldn't contain his fears. "Is Frodo alright?"
He watched Aragorn scowl and bit his lip in worry. Had something happened? Was his friend okay? Did the hobbit-
"I am well enough," replied a voice, and Harry knew it at once as the ring-bearing hobbit. He grinned, feeling a weight drop from his shoulders. "Thanks in part to you and Legolas, as well as Aragorn and Boromir. It was you we worried for, a rock hit your head."
"Indeed," replied Gandalf, "and the rocks have locked us in without kindling and with very little water. Now that you are awake, we should begin again our journey."
Boromir helped him to his feet, smiling grimly down at him, and patting his shoulder. He could see Aragorn scowling ahead. The fellowship moved on, all the while Harry pondered on his dream, walking near the back and towards the darkness. They walked a long while, stopping to rest at times when the hobbits grew weary (because Harry felt incredibly refreshed). With the eternal darkness, Harry's internal clock seemed to dissolve, he had no idea how long they wandered beneath the high, though sometimes low, wrought ceilings.
"What troubles you, young wizard?" He looked up at the voice, to find Legolas beside him, the elf's keen eyes masked in darkness. "You've wandered since we entered like that of the dead, or rather a walking sleep."
Harry frowned and did not reply at once.
"I was thinking of my home," he finally said, his voice a low whisper. "But it hardly matters now. My home is gone."
The elf looked at him curiously.
"And where do you hail from?"
"England."
"Do you miss it?"
Harry frowned lightly in the darkness, staring up at the broken ceiling.
"A little," he replied softly. "I miss Hogwarts more."
"A hog's wart? You live with swine?"
He laughed at the elf's amusing face and heard the hobbits titter amusedly ahead.
"No! That's the name of my school. It's where I learn magic."
"Ahh, what strange names you all have," said the elf with a curious laugh. Harry wanted to disagree, Legolas was pretty strange in itself. Who named their child Frodo or Gloin? Sam was about the only normal name he had really heard. "What do you learn in this school, besides flames and levitations?"
"Well, we have a lot of different stuff. I'm only a Second Year, so I don't know a lot of spells. My friend Hermione could do way more! She's brilliant. And Ron's good at Chess. Neville is really good at Herbology, but I don't really care for it. It reminds me of my Aunt Petunia's garden."
"Do you live with your Aunt?"
The wizard scowled.
"Unfortunately."
"Heh," said a gruff voice at his side. He saw Gimili had slowed to stand on his other side. "Petunia. No wonder with such a weak name, flowers! Pah!"
The elf crossed his arms and glared.
"You would understand little of true beauty, dwarf."
Harry walked quickly ahead, listening to the low moaning echoes and the pair's arguments as they moved through the darkness.
"I have no memory of this place at all!" stated Gandalf in frustration as he stood beneath a large stone archway. Harry sighed and sat down, listening to them all talk and argue, to weary to care. They had walked for what seemed forever guided only by a distant light on Gandalf's staff.
A door at the side of the arch opened to a wide circular chamber where they all entered easily. Merry and Pippin both tried to rush and enter, eager to rest, but Harry waited patiently on the narrow floor outside hardly bothered by the height. After Gandalf, he followed behind Legolas and before Boromir. The tall man seemed quite disheartened by the mine's blackness.
"One of you might have fallen in and still be wondering when you were going to strike the bottom," chastened Aragorn to Merry. "Let the guide go first while you have one."
"This seems to be a guardroom made for the watching of the three tunnels," said Gimli, and Harry noticed then the open well in the center. "That well was plainly a well for the guards' use, covered with a stone lid. But the lid is broken and we must all take care in the dark."
Harry agreed and stayed far away, fearful and at the same time curious. He watched with half an eye as Pippin approached the opening, obviously just as inquisitive. Harry had only just laid one of his elven blankets on the floor when he heard a sound echo about, like a kerplunk of something hitting water, but seemed to magnify in the cavernous area.
Harry pulled out his wand immediately and pushed himself against the wall on instinct. A flame danced brightly in his mind's eye as he waited for the enemy to appear. He mightn't have bothered though, for it turned out Pippin had dropped a rock into the well to measure it's depth.
"Fool of a Took!" growled the wizard. "This is a serious journey, not a hobbit walking-party. Throw yourself in next time and then you will no longer be so much of a nuisance. Now be quiet!"
They were all silent for a few minutes when a sound from out of the deep moved through the air. A soft tapping, like that of faint knocks: tom-tap, tap-tom. They stopped, and when the echoes died away, they repeated again: tap-tom, tom-tap, tap-tap, tom. They sounded disquietingly like signals, almost. But after a moment, the sounds died away and did not begin again.
"That was the sound of a hammer or I have never heard one," said Gimli.
"Yes, and I do not like it," said Gandalf. He went on to talk more, about monsters of the deep and creature's he would prefer kept in sleep. Harry didn't listen too hard, his mind far more preoccupied with the fearful drumming he had heard. It burned a whisper in his soul that refused to quiet. Eventually, he fell in a restless sleep and dreamed of great drums and a monster in the shadows.
Harry froze in the darkness, a feeling of unease washing over him. Something was watching them. He made to sit up, but a hand kept him firmly rooted on the stony, cold ground. His heart sped and his mind whirled with possibilities.
"Don't move," hissed Aragorn. Harry stiffened but made no other movement, holding his breath as he waited. After a moment, the hand on his shoulder removed itself and Harry figured it safe to sit up. He looked around the darkness before turning towards the ranger.
"What was it?" he asked, his stomach tight and uneasy.
"Gollum," said the man in a low voice. "Gandalf believes he has been following us for some time. He wants the ring. Best to not lower your guard." Harry nodded and held tightly to the wand he had made. Not nearly as powerful as his old one, but a wand all the same.
"Are you afraid, Aragorn?" He knew it was probably a stupid question, everyone was afraid sometimes, hadn't Arwen tried to tell him? But he wanted to know all the same. Aragorn was greater than any man or elf or dwarf or hobbit that Harry new, he could fight the Nazgul without even a tremble. He dove forward after the giant squid when it picked up Frodo without even a pause. He was strong and great. Greater than the hope everyone put in Harry back at home.
"Yes," said Aragorn with a slight smile, "are not we all? But sleep now Harry, we have a long walk and many more dangers than the creeping Gollum." But Harry had one last question he refused to let go unanswered. One that had silently haunted him since he'd almost heard him utter it.
"Aragorn," Harry asked very quietly. The man turned towards him, eyes shadowed by the almost withered fire. "Back in Rivendell, you had almost said something. Will you tell me now, what you meant?"
The reaction was immediate as the Ranger blushed crimson and turned away slightly. Harry did not remove his tired gaze.
"I... I had wondered... Well, rather, when this ordeal is over, and should I have survived I will wed lady Arwen." Harry nodded stunned, not surprised by the words, but the forwardness of the man. When had he become so open? And what had this to do with Harry? "I have spoken with Arwen, of course, and we have come to an accord. Should we both survive, I would like for you to live with us."
Stunned, Harry could only stare.
"I need not you answer now," cut in the man, obviously think Harry's silence and shock a decline. "In fact, I would much rather you wait and think on it. Sleep now Harry, you have a long while to answer. Sleep now, Gandalf shall keep us safe."
And Harry did, falling asleep numbly against the cold ground once more with only his soft elven blanket to keep him warm and the slow realization of Aragorn's words.
Harry awoke once more, though this time to the sound of a soft voice hissing near him. Turning slightly, he could hear the slight rasping voice of a stranger. Turning carefully, so as to not venture too near the hole in the middle, Harry managed to make out the one-sided conversation of the person that did not rouse the others.
"Hungssy... Uselesssss sssof-ssins. They ssssellllsss of sstravelsss and sssweass... Hungsssy so hungssy..." Leaning forward, Harry moved his hand as silently as possible against the floor. The voice hissed immediately, warningly.
"Who are you?" asked Harry, his voice as low as he dared, so low, in fact, he could not hear it except the hiss of words he knew he'd spoken.
"Youusss ssspppeasss?" cried the voice unnaturally loud. Harry tried not to wince at the sound. Why had the others yet to waken, or Gandalf to turn? Surely he'd noticed this intruder already? "I issss Sssseeeisssssooo..."
"Sayso?" Harry asked, the "s" sound a bit longer than normal. "I'm Harry. Why are you here?"
"I lisss heerrreee..." trailed Sayso. "I isss hungry, doo youss hasss ratsssss?"
Harry felt sick, why would he have a rat? Surely the stranger didn't intend to eat it? But if not why would she, for Harry was sure it was a she, ask? And why could he not yet see her through the light of the fire? Why had Gandalf not joined him?
"No."
"Ah, then I mussss gossss, I amm hungsssyyy. Goodbye Hasssy"
"Goodbye Sayso," Harry whispered, listening to the voice go and yet still unable to see the body, except the light sliver of dark green. Once more Harry tried for sleep.
It was Gandalf who roused them from sleep. He had sat and watched through the night, though Harry could hardly tell the difference with only night about him, and had found the way. Harry chuckled at his reasoning, despite the strange looks he received from the fellowship; the middle did not feel well, the left smelled rank, and so they took the right, the only other option.
The passage they chose went upwards in great spiraling curves, much like the way to Dumbledore's office. And as it grew higher, it became wider and more lofty. There were no cracks when the road straightened, and no side doors or openings to other galleries. Gandalf lead them faster than before and Harry had to half-run to keep up.
When he felt on the edge of exhaustion, they stopped. Harry would have happily fallen asleep right their if not for the frigid breeze that made his arms and legs burn with chill. They all huddled in a corner of the cavernous cave then, Harry crushed between Sam and Legolas and Gimli.
It was hardly comfortable, what with the dwarf metal pressing into his thigh and the elf hair in his eyes. Sam also had a tendency to roll in his sleep, grabbing Harry's arm to cuddle with it. However, it was warm and sometimes cause for merriment, as when Gimli broke out in song, singing of Durin who walked alone and some other nonsense.
It gave Harry reason to laugh, and he smiled slightly as he fell asleep, listening to talk of some substance called Mithril and it's beauty.