Disclaimer: Harry Potter and related characters and settings belong to J. K. Rowling. The Lord of the Rings and related mythology belong to the heir of J. R. R. Tolkien.
A/N First of all, an apology to my readers: I made a mistake in the previous chapter. When I wrote that Sauron was the 'Lord of werewolves at Tol Eresa', what that's supposed to say is 'Tol Sirion' or 'Tol-in-Gaurhoth': isle of werewolves. I apologize as I have no idea how to fix it. Anyway, the language of this chapter title is in Westron or 'the Common tongue of the West' as it's called in LotR. Rather difficult to find words in Westron as it was the language that Tolkien almost exclusively presented to his readers as English (the language the Red Book of Westmarch was written in). But he did invent some words for the language: the title of this chapter is simply 'The Hobbit'.
Chapter 13: Kuduk
The events of the devastating battle in France were still not known yet early the following morning at Hogwarts. The day started out normally enough with those trying to sleep in or attempting to cram in unfinished homework that had been neglected the previous night. Students took their showers, met up with friends in their respective common rooms, and headed to breakfast down in the Great Hall. Immediately after breakfast came the first class of the day, which for the Seventh Year Gryffindors was Advanced Care of Magical Creatures.
Technically, the instructor of the class was Rubeus Hagrid. However, for the past few weeks he had generally been gushing more over the subject of the class rather than the actual class: griffins. Or to be specific, one particular griffin by the name of Rauthoron: who had essentially taken over instructing the class.
"Ain' he a beaut?" said Hagrid gushing over the griffin. "'e's got tha' shiny coat 'n feathers. And those claws; those claws are what make 'im so gorgeous."
"Hagrid, if you will please," said Rauthoron. "Now, any questions students?"
Lavender Brown raised her hand and asked, "Is it true that griffin younglings are hatched from golden eggs?"
"The eggs are colored gold but they are not real gold," said Rauthoron as he beat the ground a little with his talons. "Griffins usually lay about two eggs at a time though my mate has recently lain three eggs. That was about 200 years ago: all three are full grown, young griffins now."
Neville raised his hand and asked, "Is it true that you eat almost anything?"
"Griffins are notorious for our carnivorous appetites I admit," said Rauthoron. "But we are capable of restraining ourselves. After all, I doubt there would be anybody too pleased if I ate every single thestral on the Hogwarts grounds: we griffins enjoy horse by nature."
"If its thestrals, then that might be worth considering," muttered Harry. This was not lost on Hermione who decided to steer the conversation away.
"How fast can you fly?" asked Hermione.
Rauthoron spread his wings and said, "I've never actually timed myself. But I believe the estimated speed was around Mach 0.5 as muggles like to explain it, if we really push it."
"Oh," said Hermione. She beamed at the other students only to realize that all of them had confused expressions. "That's about 380 miles per hour," explained Hermione. She received more blank stares. Hermione sighed and said, "Half the speed of sound." There was a general "Oooooh," around her though a few still looked confused.
"How cool are you?" exclaimed Dean Thomas.
"That would be an objective question, Mr. Thomas," said Rauthoron, "But perhaps the answer to that may be 'more cool than you will ever be'." Many of the students laughed, as Dean looked flustered. Rauthoron appeared a little confused as he said, "Did I say something wrong?"
Hermione sighed as the students started gushing at Rauthoron along with Hagrid. She was anxiously waiting for news to come from the battle at Beauxbatons but had heard nothing yet. She could tell that Harry was concerned as well by the expression in his eyes. As for Ron, well she couldn't read him that day which was a first for her. Ron wasn't sitting apart from them but he wasn't necessarily sitting with them either. Just close enough so that no one would necessarily suspect that there was something wrong with the Golden Trio, yet still farther than how they usually sat. Hermione sighed and looked over toward the Forbidden Forest.
And noticed a shadow standing amongst the trees.
Hermione blinked. She nudged Harry and whispered, "Harry look, toward the forest."
"What?" Harry asked, looking toward where Hermione was pointing. By the time he looked however, the shadow was gone.
"Er, never mind," said Hermione. "I just..." that was when she saw the shadow again. "Harry! Look!"
"Huh?" By the time Harry looked up, the shadow had once again disappeared.
Hermione started feeling somewhat flustered. "Well... uh... "It was just then that she noticed the shadow for a third time. This time, without pointing it out to Harry, she sprang up and ran into the forest where she had seen the shadow.
"Hermione?" exclaimed Harry. He too sprung up and followed after her. While the rest of the class was gushing overt the griffin, Ron was the only one who noticed their absence. However, he stayed rooted in his spot though he constantly glanced toward the forest, clearly concerned about them.
Hermione hadn't gone too far into the forest, only into the outer rim of trees. Harry quickly caught up with her. "Hermione, what are you doing?" he asked. "The forest is dangerous."
"It's not dangerous around the outer rim," said Hermione. "The thing is I saw..." Hermione bit her lip before she whispered into Harry's ear, "Harry, can I borrow your Invisibility Cloak?"
Harry's face clouded with confusion but he said, "Huh? Well, OK. But it's locked up in my trunk."
"Accio Harry's Invisibility Cloak!" said Hermione. Merely seconds later, the silvery cloak zoomed from the castle, into the forest, and right into Hermione's hand.
"Well, there's always that method," said Harry as Hermione disappeared under the cloak.
For a moment, Harry heard nothing, merely the trees swaying in the wind. Suddenly however, he heard a cry of "Hey!" He turned around to see an invisible force (clearly Hermione under the cloak) pull out a squirming creature from the bushes. At first Harry thought the creature was a gnome but a quick observation completely told him that his analysis was wrong. Unlike the gray skinned Garden Gnomes, this creature looked like a miniature human. He was just over two feet tall, had slightly pointy ears, a full head of brown, curly hair, and was wearing outdated muggle clothing. What caught Harry's attention however were the highly enlarged feet: barefoot with brown fur growing from them. Harry hadn't ever seen anybody's feet that large in proportion to the rest of the body, not even on his cousin Dudley.
"Geroff me! Geroff me! I was going to eventually show myself before you anyway," said the creature as Hermione whipped off the cloak.
"You're a Hobbit!" she explained.
"Well of course I'm a hobbit!" exclaimed the creature. "Halfling some call us! What haven't ever seen a Halfling before? Well now you have! Tom Brookmiller is the name so there! You happy?"
"I... I didn't even know hobbits were still around," said Hermione.
"Well, of course we're still around," said the hobbit. "We just don't like being seen by the Big Folk that much. But its been rather hard to hide, especially after the Big Folk built all those school things where our ancient homeland, the Shire used to be. What's it called?"
"Oxford," said Hermione.
"Right, well this Oxford is rightfully the Shire," said Tom Brookmiller. "Many of us Hobbits simply moved further underground so it wasn't much of a big deal. If the Big Folk will just mind their business, no trouble will come up, but nooooooooo... This old man dressed all in white carrying a staff and with a beard just had to come knocking on my door..."
"What did you say?" exclaimed Harry.
"An old man dressed in white carrying a staff with a beard came knocking on my door," repeated Tom. "He told me to get up and pull out the old family heirloom. I didn't even know we had a family heirloom until he told me about."
Harry caught Hermione's eye and it was clear they were thinking the same thing, 'That's the old man I saw at the Quidditch Match: who taught me the Armor spell.' "Family Heirloom?" asked Harry.
"It was locked up in a trunk in the cellar," said Tom. "The old man told me to come over here to this castle and give it to a bushy, brown haired young woman, wearing black robes and a gold and red neck tie, who had a habit of raising her hand a lot. I believe that's you," he said pointing at Hermione.
"Nice description," said Hermione dryly as Harry snorted.
"Well, I found you," said Tom, "So I'm giving it to you. Don't even know why my family kept this thing for so long, I would've gotten rid of it ages ago if I known we were keeping something suspicious like this thing. Donated it to a museum or something." The hobbit pulled something about a foot long and bundled up in white linen out of his bag and handed it to Hermione. The first thing Hermione noticed about the bundle was how light the bundle was, only marginally heavier than her wand. However, she received quite a shock when she removed the linen to reveal...
"A dagger?" exclaimed Hermione and Harry at once. It was indeed a rather large dagger, though for a hobbit it would've been more like a short sword. It was made of a silvery metal that glowed in the light and its general shape appeared to be inspired by a leaf. What really caught their attention however were the runes carved on the blade; Hermione realized that the runes were in fact the Elvish language of Sindarin. Realizing that she was holding the blade out in the open, Hermione hurriedly found the scabbard within the linen and sheathed the large dagger. "Why... why give this to me?"
"How should I know, the old man just said to give it to a girl matching your description," said Tom. "He said it was called 'Sting'."
"Sting?" exclaimed Harry and Hermione at once. "The spider slayer?" asked Hermione. "The sword of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins? And of Samwise Gamgee?"
"Those names sound familiar. They're hobbits, aren't they?" said Tom. "But I've never been one for history. I'm sure there're several more hobbits down at the Shire or Oxford as you Big Folk call it, who may know of the history of the halfling folk from old days but not me. No, all I need to be content with my life is to smoke my share of pipe-weed and have breakfast, brunch, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, and supper each day. So, I've done my part now. We hobbits don't like getting involved too much into the affairs of wizards anyway; there's absolutely nothing magical about us at all. So without further ado, good day!"
"Huh? Oh, uh thank you Tom," said Hermione. By the time she had said this however, Tom Brookmiller had already disappeared into the shadows. Hermione turned to Harry and asked, "Harry, what should I do with it?"
"Er, uh keep it I guess," said Harry. "It was given to you for a reason and given the current circumstances, you might need it."
"Yes, I know," said Hermione. "It's just that... well OK." Hermione tucked the dagger into her cloak and secured it in place with a quick spell. "I just hope I'll be able to use it properly."
"Don't worry, just remember what Professor Angnathron's been teaching us about combat," said Harry. "I know you'll be OK."
"OK," said Hermione. She smiled at Harry and said, "Thank you for all the encouragement."
"I'm the one who always needs encouragement from you," said Harry with a grin, though butterflies were starting squirm in his stomach.
"Just seeing your smile is enough encouragement for me," said Hermione, butterflies also fluttering within her. She reached up and cupped Harry's cheek, which was positively burning now.
"Er, we should probably get back before Hagrid starts sending out search parties," said Harry.
"Huh? Oh right," said Hermione, snapping back to attention, her face also burning. Nothing saying much more, the two made their way back to the Hogwarts grounds. When they got back however they found the grounds in utter chaos.
The Hogwarts grounds were covered with hundreds of children, most of whom were wearing robes that Harry and Hermione recognized as the Beauxbatons uniforms. Many of the children were crying as Hogwarts faculty and staff attended to them, helping them out as much as they could.
Harry and Hermione quickly noticed a tearful Ginny making their way toward them. "Ginny, what's going on?" asked Hermione.
"Oh Hermione, Harry its horrible!" sniffed Ginny. "Beauxbatons has been destroyed! Bill and the other Order members barely made it back alive, and oh Hermione, Mad-Eye Moody is dead!"
* * *
Late that night, Ron Weasley snuck out of Gryffindor Tower and was wandering around the halls under the pretext of prefect duties. In truth the Head Boy and Head Girl, Harry and Hermione had ordered prefects to help keep curfew within the dorms hoping to prevent a panic following the news of the outcome of the battle at Beauxbatons and surplus of refugees on the Hogwarts Grounds, and to make sure none of the students snuck out, but Ron needed some time alone to think.
'Harry is the rightful king of the Wizarding World and he and Hermione are on the verge of dating, if not already,' he thought, 'And Ronald Weasley is the immature prat who can't see past his jealousy! Why am I like this? Why? I should be happy for Harry and Hermione. In fact I am, but I still can't get over it! Harry and Hermione have each other good for them! But it inevitably leaves poor Ronald Bilius Weasley alone!' Ron sat down on some steps and sighed, placing his face in his hands. 'Why can't I just let this go? Maybe all I need is just a little more focus in my life. Perhaps what I really need is an identity for myself separate from Harry and Hermione...'
"Hello, Ron, enforcing your prefect duties?" Ron looked up to see the Gryffindor ghost, Nearly Headless Nick float by.
"Hey Nick," said Ron, slightly unenthusiastically.
"Ron, if you don't mind," said Nick, "I saw that Ravenclaw girl, Luna Lovegood heading toward the Great Hall. Would you mind checking up on her?"
"Luna?" asked Ron. 'What crazy scheme is Loony up to know?' "OK, Nick, I'll go check it out."
Ron left the ghost behind and hurried down to the Great Hall. Sure enough, Ron instantly recognized the long, dirty blonde hair flowing down the backside of the girl heading toward the main entrance. Hearing footsteps, Luna looked up and smiled when she saw Ron. "Hello Ronald."
"Luna, what are you doing out of your dorm after curfew?" asked Ron. "What hair brained scheme are you going through now?"
"Its not hair brained," said Luna. "I'm just leaving the school to go look for Metimaloche."
To be continued...
A/N Ugh, another delay. This time it wasn't caused by writer's block though. If you've been following my LJ you should know that several weeks ago, my left middle finger was crushed in a door and it was too painful to type for a while. Then, around the time I started writing again I lost my floppy disk and had to start the chapter again from scratch. Too many troubles like this sure can be problematic. Anyway, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all of you.