Epilogue

How she'd made it this far, Lobelia had not the faintest idea. She dug the point of her umbrella into the wasted ground and looked up wearily at the fiery mountain. Lotho gave her hand a quick squeeze.

"This is as far as I go," she said, her voice faint and raspy in her own ears. "I can't go another step, Lotho."

"We'll get to that Crack of Doom even if I have to drag you up there," he said. Her boy looked so different. He'd lost his fat and his pimples. He was positively skinny. But that old bull dog look had settled on his face as he spoke.

"Then you'll have to do it," she said.

*1*1*1*

He hauled her up there somehow, panting, stumbling, cursing the Bagginses.

"No," she said. "It weren't no fault of the Bagginses that we're here. It was my fault, Lotho lad. My fault."

And they were at the Crack. She stood. The Ring must go into the fire.

"Wait for me here, Lotho," she said. "Look out for Gollum."

*1*1*1*

She went into the scorching red darkness. At the edge she halted, looking down into the flames. She pulled the Ring on its chain over her head and looked at it. So beautiful. She had never thrown anything away in her life; why should she start now? And with something so precious and rare?

The Ring went onto her finger as if made for it. She would rule this land by the umbrella; she would restore Otho to health, and life if need be. And Bag End would finally be hers.

"I claim the Ring as my own!" she cried, her voice echoing hollow and much louder than she had imagined it would.

Outside, with her new powers of perception, she saw that Lotho had thrown Gollum down the mountainside to his death.

"The Ring is mine."

Finis

A/N

And so, dear readers, we come to the end of this little tale. But I'm not finished. There are lots of things that had to be left out, obviously, otherwise I would never have come to the end; but if there is some part of Lobelia's quest that you'd especially like to see, drop me a PM and I might just write it! It doesn't have to be anything that actually happened in the book or movie, either; since this is AU, lots of things could have happened differently. Does she ride an Oliphant? Sneak in through the Black Gates? Jab her umbrella in the Balrog's face? The next chapters are up to you :)

Thanks for reading, and for the many kind reviews I've received!