The Road to Bree

Sev!

Severus was woken up to the sound of Lily's voice and the clattering of rain against the window, as Goldberry had predicted it would. His body had rested, but his mind was still exhausted from all the troubles and the burdens of the day before.

On a chair in the middle of the room that had previously not been there before, lay a neatly folded pile of fresh clothing, and presumed Goldberry had put it there for him to wear. A pair of high leather boots. Loose fitting, straight-legged dark-grey breeches. A white lace-up linen shirt and a black leather highwayman's coat lined with many pockets. Very eighteenth-century Scotland, he thought to himself as he dressed up. He put his wand in an inner pocket, remembering how his magic had failed him in the Old Forest, and thought no more of it as he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen, where he found Goldberry sitting at the table, waiting for him with breakfast.

Warm bread and butter. Hard boiled eggs and fried mushrooms. A pot of tea, served with cakes and clotted cream. Severus drew in the scent, and the scent took him back to the breakfast tables at Hogwarts.

'Over the years, many travellers came through these woods, and some never make it out alive,' said Goldberry abruptly as Severus sat down at the table. 'The Old Forest reclaims their bodies, and my husband claims their material belongings, knowing that he can pass it down to someone else when the day comes.'

Severus wasn't so sure if he liked wearing the old clothes of dead men, but mumbled a polite thank you nonetheless. It fitted, and the leather coat would surely protect him against the pouring rain once he continued his journey to Bree.

'How did you come by that ring on your finger?' Goldberry asked as she poured them tea.

Severus held up his hand and noticed that the ring had turned invisible around his finger. He slid it off, and the ring became visible again. The silver-white elm leaves shimmered in the grey light of the rainy morning, and the yellow stone radiated as the sun. 'It is a seed from the fruit of Laurelin that you see,' Goldberry explained before Severus was able to answer. 'Laurelin was the Gold Tree, and Telperion the Silver Tree. Yavanna, the Vala, sang the trees into existence, and together they became the Two Trees of Valinor. The Years of the Trees marked the second era of the three great time periods in Arda. Together they stood on the hill of Ezellohar outside of Valimar. They grew in the presence of all the Valar and were watered by the tears of Nienna, the dew from their leaves collected as a source of water and light. But the Vala known as Melkor grew jealous, and he cloaked himself in Unlight, and summoned the help of the giant spider-creature Ungoliath. Together they tore down the Two Trees, and Ungoliath devoured whatever life and light remained in them. After the destruction, Yavanna sang again and Nienna wept again, but they only succeeded to revive Telperion's last flower and Laurelin's last fruit. The flower and the fruit were assigned to two Maiar. Tilion was given the flower and Arien the fruit. Tilion carried the flower that was held in a vessel forged by Aulë into the heavens, and he became the guardian of the moon. For the fruit, Aulë had also forged a vessel, and Arien, too, carried the fruit into the heavens, and she became the guardian of the sun. What you see here, Severus, is a seed from the fruit that hath become the sun.'

Severus looked down at the ring with new-found admiration. There were, once again, many words said by Goldberry that he had very little understanding of, and yet it sounded beautiful as they poured out of her mouth. 'I found it at the bottom of the Great Lake,' he responded with. 'It's a Lake that belongs to my school in Scotland. Or perhaps I should say I found it along with Lily, as it was lying underneath her. I don't know how it came to be there. I only know that, when I grabbed it, it pulled us both away from the Lake, and it brought me here – and I can only hope she ended somewhere else.'

'You won't know unless you step out of the front door, and go off into the wilds,' Goldberry said. 'Keep the ring on your finger – and keep it safe. Only show it to those you deem worthy enough to know of its existence, as the other rings will surely cross your path. Rings of Power hold great history in these lands, both terrible and great. Know what power it can wield when fallen into the wrong hands. Please, finish your breakfast. I'll wrap up the rest of it for your journey to Bree.'

He slipped the ring back on his finger, and at once it turned invisible again. 'How long will it take for me to get to Bree?' he asked as he finished up his breakfast.

'It's a mere two days walk from here,' Goldberry explained. 'Just keep following my Withywindle river until you reach the other end of the forest. From there you will enter the Barrow-downs. Low hills adorned by monoliths made by the Men of the First Age, serving as a final resting place for the Men of the North. The barrows are inhabited by Barrow-wrights, evil spirits, shape-shifting beings of darkness. Cloaked phantoms they are, with skeletal hands that touch like ice and have a deathly grip. But you do not need to fear them, Severus, for my husband will be there soon to save the other band of travellers, and they Barrow-wrights will be distracted.'

The Barrow-wrights Goldberry spoke of reminded Severus of Dementors from his own world. He had seen one, once, at Malfoy's Manor. It had been trapped, through means he didn't know how. A thing to be weaponised, the Dark Lord had said, and its mere presence pulled him down into old memories of horror. It was in that moment he decided that he had to master the Patronus charm.

'It is important,' Goldberry continued, 'that you make it through the Barrow-downs before the other band of travellers do, as your paths are not meant to cross until you have reached Bree. You will find Bree on Bree-hill by the crossing of the Great East Road and the Greenway.' She wrapped a package of bread and butter and handed it over to Severus, and Severus understood that it was time for him to leave.

'Thank you for everything,' said Severus as Goldberry walked him up to the door. 'I think I finally understand what you meant, when you said that I was asking the wrong questions.' Goldberry looked up at him with a radiant smile, awaiting his answer. 'You've told me who you are, but what is it that you are?'

'I am the Maia of the Whithywindle river,' Goldberry answered proudly, 'and I am the ever-changing seasons. The summer has drawn its final breath, and autumn has turned the corner. It is why the rain has come, and I must see to it. Follow the willow trees along the river, and don't be frightened by the rumbling of their roots, for they are Huorns. Ancient, living, slow-moving trees that came from the seeds of Yavanna devised during the Age of the Lamps. Some are black-hearted and rotten, but they will not harm you for as long as you carry the light of Laurelin with you.' From the pockets of her gown, Goldberry pulled out two objects. 'In this leather pouch there are twelve silver pennies. Put them to good use when you arrive in Bree, and this –'

'—is fireweed,' said Severus as he took the leather pouch and the plant from her hands. 'Beautifully magical, and hard to come by.'

Goldberry's eyes lit up over Severus's enthusiasm for the plant. 'It only grows northwest of the river, in the Bonfire Glade.' She looked straight into Severus's eyes, her face turning stern. 'I can tell that you are a grateful young man, but I also sense loneliness, fear, and darkness in your heart. For your heart is vulnerable, and therefore easily corrupted. Someday, that darkness will need to be burnt.'

Severus bowed his head down in shame. 'I know,' he said softly.

Goldberry cupped his face between her hands. 'Where there is life, there is hope. Now, open the door, and make haste. Out there is a story for you to unfold.'

With a nod of understanding, Severus did as he was told. He opened the door, and the rain poured down on him as soon as he stepped over the threshold. He heard the door closing behind him, and without looking back, he started walking the path of the willow trees along the Whithywindle river. He heard the creaking and the cracking of the trees, as though they were speaking to one another, and for the first time he was fully aware of how alive the Old Forest must be.

Along the way, his thoughts rippled back to Lily, remembering that her wand had been made from willow wood. They had gone to Diagon Alley together, in the summer of nineteen seventy-one. Getting their wands had been their highlight of their trip to London, and watching her enter Diagon Alley for the first time had been his highlight of the whole summer.

Several hours it took to reach the end of the Old Forest. From a distance, he could see foggy banks hovering over green hills coming into view. The hills were adorned with tall monoliths. Some standing on their own, crooked from the shifting of the earth by the passage of time. Others in circles and patterns, symbolising things that were unbeknownst to him.

The fog was aery, as though it were a breeding ground for the foul Barrow-wrights Goldberry had spoken of. No tree nor creature did he find as he walked across the grassy hills, and it made him feel uncomfortable, knowing that he was walking over the graves of many men long forgotten, and it did not help ease the feeling of dread lingering over every hill.

From time to time, Severus thought he heard voices echo in the distance, and figured that his ears must be deceiving him, and yet he couldn't entirely convince himself that it was so. He had barely noticed when the rain had stopped and the sun had gone down until all the stars appeared in the sky, the waning moon standing high and proud above him. Tilion's moon, he thought to himself. It was a strange comfort, knowing that a Maia like Goldberry was now high above him. It gave him the courage to lie down in the trench of two particularly steep hills. The fog covering him as a blanket, and he closed his eyes, ready to continue his journey with the rising of Arien's sun.

…o0o…

His back ached as he woke with the rising dawn. The fog from the Barrow-downs seemed to linger for eternity, and he was relieved to find that the end of the final hill was in sight. After a while, stone houses, about a hundred or so appeared above what had to be the Great East Road. Severus kept following the Road until it was crossed by a causeway, where it was barred by great gate. He walked through, as the door in the gate was unlocked, and continued walking up a gentle slope, keeping an eye on the signs of the few detaches houses he passed. He passed some of the strange little people again, and also taller men and women such as himself. There were very fair looking folk, with pointy ears and beautiful robes, and there were short, stout looking men, all wearing great beards and armour, and rolled with their tongues as they spoke.

A little further up the road he found a green sign with a fat white pony that reared up on its hind legs. On the sign it read "The Prancing Pony by Barliman Butterbur." At last, Severus thought to himself. The inn was large. Three stories tall and adorned with many windows. Two wings were running back on land and party cut out of the lower slopes of the hill it stood on, so that at the rear the second-floor windows stood level with the ground. There was a wide arch leading to a courtyard between the two wings, and on the left under the arch there was a large doorway reached by a few broad steps. The door was cracked open, and light streamed out of it. With a gentle push he made his way inside, and found a barman busying himself cleaning glasses, preparing for a busy evening to come.

A/N Valimar, the City of Bells, was the dwelling of the Valar and the Maiar in Valinor on the continent of Aman. (Aman is a continent separated from Middle-Earth by the Belegear sea. Valimar was located on the Girdle (equator) of Arda.
A/N Unlight was said to be a cloak of all-encompassing darkness and swallowed all light that came in its path.
A/N Ungoliath was the first giant spider of Arda, and she is a distant mother of Shelob, the one Sam and Frodo encountered in her Lair.
A/N Because Arien carries the sun and Tilion the moon, the sun is referred to as 'she' and the moon as 'he' by anyone who dwells in Arda.
A/N The Great East Road was a dwarven-made road stretching from the Grey Havens to the Misty Mountains. The Greenway is an ancient road that once connected Arnor (The Northern Kingdom within Eriador) with Gondor.
A/N It is uncertain what Goldberry really is as Tolkien never specified it. From a mythological perspective she is most likely an elemental spirit, in this case a spirit of water and a specific river, which would make her somewhat of a Maia.
A/N Fireweed is only mentioned once in the Lord of the Rings and is a weedy species growing in the Bonfire Glade northwest of the Old Forest. It is called so because its seeds can lay dormant in the soil for years, and sprout after a fire has passed over the forest. In a way is symbolises the cleansing of the earth, making room for rebirth.
A/N If you're interested in cartography and fantasy maps, I highly recommend the book "The Atlas of Middle-Earth" by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It is in intricately detailed reference book.
A/N I hate how we don't know canonically from what wood Snape's wand is made of. Ebony seems to be most likely because of its dark colour, but for all we know Olivander used wood stains and it could've been something else entirely.