Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings

    Sam began to panic. He knew that he himself could hide from the orcs with the ring, but what about Harry? Could Harry have led him into the trap? He seemed nice enough, but wasn't absolutely sure. Would Harry raise the alarm as the company of orcs was passing by? Then he thought the only way Harry could hide would be for him to be out of sight. And if Harry did betray him, he always had the ring, and could make his escape.

Harry said out loud to himself, "If only I had the invisibility cloak..."

Sam interrupted in a demanding voice, "What do you know about invisibility?" Sam drew his sword.

Harry was very concerned with the situation that he found himself in. His companion was very suspicious of him - reaching the level of Uncle Dursley to be precise. Also, the approaching company, by the noises they were making, were not human, and not very friendly; he didn't need Sam to tell him that. The fact that this question was more important than finding a hiding spot and that his comment provoked hostility toward him was very disconcerting. Harry had to come up with a diplomatic answer fast that would allay Sam's suspicions, at least for the moment.

"Umm..." Harry said, "It's a from a children's story that wizards read to toddlers. Now we really have to find somewhere to hide, and fast!" Sam seemed satisfied with the answer. Harry smiled inwardly. At least there were some benefits with growing up with the Dursley's, referring to his excellent ability to humor the unnecessarily suspicious.

Sam and Harry began looking frantically for a spot. As they were looking, Sam filled in Harry about orcs. Sam explained that they were created by Sauron, and from what he saw in Moria of them, he informed Harry that Sauron had a lot of them, but they weren't that intelligent.

They found a hiding spot shortly, but it was only large enough for one person. If one crouched down, the lower part was enveloped entirely in shadow. Sam gave the situation a second's thought and gave Harry his gray traveling cloak.

"Here's your invisibility cloak. The Elves of Lorien made it. It obviously does not turn you completely invisible," Sam gave Harry a cryptic look, "but it will do if you are absolutely quiet."

Harry put on the cloak and hid in the cleft in the rock. "What about you? What will you do?" His question was answered almost immediately when Sam pressed himself against the side of the path and disappeared right in front of him. Harry was taken aback. He had underestimated Sam. Just when he was getting used to the idea that Sam was also a wizard, two things happened at once, and he was unsure whether they were related. The company of orcs came into his range of vision and his scar seared with pain.

Harry thought that if the orcs were causing his scar to hurt, they would have done so when they first caught sight of them, or before, and the pain would have built gradually. The pain seemed to ebb and flow in somewhat regular waves, almost as if a searchlight was looking for him. Harry could not figure anything more out, and besides, he had to concentrate on not moving or making any sound while he was in considerable pain.

It seemed an eternity waiting for all of the orcs to pass by him. Under the cloak, Harry's face was a picture of pain. When he thought the last of the company passed him and turned the corner, he got up and leaned against the rock wall out in the passage, still suffering from the pain of his scar. But Harry acted too soon. There was a straggler about ten yards up the path, and they stared at each other. For a second nobody moved. If the orc was human, Harry thought it would have borne a striking resemblance to Gregory Goyle. Then the orc cried out in some foreign language. As the orc was charging toward Harry with its sword drawn, and Harry got out his wand. Meanwhile, behind the orc, an iridescent blue shimmer about a foot and a half long appeared, and it took Harry a couple of seconds to realize what it was.

"No, Sam no!" Harry shouted. Harry quickly aimed his wand at the fast-approaching orc and shouted, "Confundus!" A look of stupidity appeared on the orc's face, as it lurched to a halt. Rather, he imagined that its expression changed, as it was hard for it to look even stupider than it did before the curse. Harry was still feeling weak from the pain of his scar, and he was surprised that the effect was so great, but then it didn't take much to confuse something of low intelligence. He decided it was best to keep the orc alive, because the dead body would confirm to any guards of exactly where they had been. Now, there was the small problem of getting the orc around the corner and out of sight before the rest of the company came back, as there were noises coming from them that indicated that they had heard their comrade's cry and were returning.

Harry looked in the direction of Sam, and just by looking at the blue shimmer, Sam seemed to be frozen in place, uncertain of what to do. Harry had a passing thought that it was strange that Sam was more frightened when he was invisible than when he was not. He returned his efforts to getting the orc moving down towards his comrades in such a way that he would forget about their presence.

It didn't take long for Harry to come up with a strategy. He spoke like he was talking to a small child, "Mmmm, food! Num-num! Big turkey dinner with lots of stuffing - mmm!" As Harry was saying this, he was rubbing his stomach, licking his lips and pointing down the passage. After Harry said this, he realized that the orc didn't speak English, but that didn't seem to matter, as the orc understood the gestures and traipsed down the path like a three year old with the promise of lollipops and ice cream. After the orc was merrily on its way, Harry re-hid in the cleft. Sam re-sheathed his glowing sword and disappeared from view again.

Sam waited, pressed against the side of the path and watched the outcome of the boy's hex. The company rounded the corner, charging. When they saw their comrade glibly striding toward them, rubbing his tummy and saying, "Mmm, turkey dinner! Num-num!" they themselves were confused for a few seconds.

"Ah Morgrat!" one of the orcs said, "Always lagging behind, dreaming of food! You better keep up otherwise you will be a tasty morsel for Her Ladyship!" The rest of the company laughed raucously. At this time, the other company met up with the first one, and there was much noise of greetings and quarreling. Sam realized he could understand what they were saying. "It is probably the effect of the Ring", Sam said to himself, after a moment's reflection.

Both Harry and Sam remained where they were while the orcs passed from Sam's view and headed towards where the two had come. Presently there was an outcry from the orcs. From what Sam heard of what they were saying, they had just found Sam's sword and the cut webbing of Shelob. Sam cursed himself that he was so thoughtless as to leave the sword behind. A few seconds later, there was another cry, for they had discovered signs of Sam's handiwork against Shelob.

Sam reappeared and said to Harry, "Let's go before all the orcs of Mordor chase us! They missed us on the way down, so they probably think that we are further in the tunnel, so we are safe for the moment."

As Sam was saying this, Harry noticed he looked noticeably more worn out than before he had gone invisible. He looked as Lupin did the next day after a full moon. Also, when Sam reappeared, the pain in Harry's scar dissipated after few seconds.

Sam stared at Harry as he was hesitating, and commanded loudly, "Come on, let's go!" It brought Harry out of his reverie, and he ran after Sam. He had no time to question Sam about his disappearance, but he hoped a moment for that would come sooner rather than later. Soon after they started running, they crested the summit of the path and headed down into Mordor for real.

*                    *                    *

Dumbledore appeared half an hour later back in the hospital wing. It was now late evening. If he was weary from his discussion with Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Sirius Black and Cornelius Fudge, he did not show it. Apparently, when Fudge had heard about Barty Crouch Jr's presence at Hogwarts, who had been impersonating Alastor ÔMad Eye' Moody all year as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and had had a hand in Cedric Diggory's death, Cornelius quickly brought a Dementor into Hogwarts, where Barty was temporarily incarcerated and had him killed. A little to quickly, thought Dumbledore. Albus thought that the minister was good at his job, but his abilities outside the everyday bureaucratic functions of the office were very limited indeed. Was he trying to hide something sinister within the ministry, or was he merely trying to cover his tracks because revelations about a second person that had escaped Azkaban, the high security wizard prison, in as many years were about to be made public? Added to all of this was the sudden disappearance of Karakoff, the Durmstrang headmaster, who was once a Death Eater, but who betrayed some of them to get a lighter sentence for himself.

He sighed as he looked at the Hobbit lying in the bed peacefully. What twist of fate brought him here and took Harry away? Harry's family, the Dursley's wouldn't be that concerned about his disappearance, much to their shame, but the solicitousness of his extended family of Gryffindors more than made up for the Dursley's expected indifference. Who was on the Ôother side' that was missing this hobbit? All that Dumbledore had managed to get out of him was that he was with someone called Sam, and they were in, or approaching Mordor.

Dumbledore thought of Harry in Mordor, "Out of the frying pan into the fire." Voldemort was a two-bit magician compared to Sauron, who had countless armies at his beck and call, not just a few hundred Dementors, a few dozen giants and a couple dozen Death Eaters (although that was more than enough for the Aurors to handle). There was no Knight Bus to pick Harry up, nor was there even Muggle supermarkets or stores of any kind for him to get nourishment.

There was a portal of sorts that was open between Middle Earth and this world, but it was west of the Grey Havens, a far cry from Mordor. The other end was California. It would take months to find Harry if they used that method, and he doubted that Harry would still be alive then, even if he had Gandalf for company.

He recalled a wizard friend of his in California talking about how a lot of the Elves from Middle Earth arrived in California, and Ôadjusted' to this world. Firstly, their ears and other parts would be altered with cosmetic surgery, and some would have to use colored contact lenses. And then there was the psychological adjustment - which is what his friend specialized in. He had quite a few Elves break down and cry because they couldn't stand singing all of those epic songs, the forced cheerfulness and laughing gaily etc. back in Middle Earth. All his friend could do was to pat them on the back and say soothingly, "There, there." Those Elves that didn't want to assimilate into Muggle society joined the ranks of the Veelas - Veelas were High Elves who had left Middle Earth. Very few Dwarves went through the portal, and those that did usually were older and traveled North America on state-of-the-art touring motorcycles that weighed as much as small cars.

As soon as this Hobbit woke up, thought Dumbledore, he would take it up to his office and use the Palantir that he kept locked in a trunk that was similar to Moody's (as he had found out today - Alastor was a little drawn but otherwise doing well for someone who had spent almost an entire school year inside a trunk). A High Elf had shown up one day when Albus was still the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts and presented the Palantir to him on behalf of Elrond. Apparently one of the Dunedin had found it while they were poking around the ex-realm of Angmar the Witch-King. Elrond had wanted him to stay in touch with Middle Earth, and had chose him over the then current headmaster Professor Dippet and other wizards because Albus was strong and very aware of things that were going on in both worlds.

Presently Poppy Pomfrey came over to the bedside and spoke to Dumbledore. "I have given him a strong sleeping potion that will also neutralize what is left of the poison in his bloodstream. He should wake up next morning."

Dumbledore beamed, "You are a gem, Poppy. What would we do without you? I will be in my quarters if you need me. It has been a very trying day, what with Cedric dead, Victor and Fleur injured, Harry disappearing and our unexpected guest arriving. I will be in my quarters if you need me. Feel free to use the internal Floo network if you need to contact me." With that, Dumbledore left the room.

Mme. Pomfrey set about preparing various potions for those students who were ill or injured in the course of the week, as was normal, especially in a school of magic like Hogwarts. As she was doing these tasks, she wondered about Muggle hospitals and how in some ways they were far behind the magical arts of healing. Studying Muggle medical practices was part of her training, as was taking an oath similar to the Hippocratic Oath, so, she rationalized, how does a member of the magical medical profession stand idly by when there are a lot of Muggles who are languishing with injuries that could be cured with magic? The mutual suspicion of the two communities was enough to keep them apart, and she and a lot of others figured that more people would be hurt in any attempt to help than were initially injured at any one time, so it wasn't worth it. But there was a small voice of doubt in her head that said one must try to overcome this.

In fact, witches and wizards were helping Muggles in this way, and she was privy to information that wizards were part of medical research laboratories, and they would slip in ideas that were based on magic, but would disguise this fact. She sat on few different committees in the Ministry of Magic regarding things medical. Most students probably thought that she was just an old mother hen, but she didn't mind. She locked up and left for bed. Her day was long and tiring, and it was another early morning tomorrow, what with her new guest.

*                    *                    *

Frodo's eyes snapped open and he grabbed for the chain around his neck that wasn't there. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was still in this strange place. He had just had a nightmare about the wizard Saruman standing over him, gloating and stealing the ring from around his neck while a Black Rider stabbed him in the shoulder. The ring was still missing, but his clothing, (which had been washed), including his cloak from Lorien and his coat of Mithril were on a chair beside the bed.

He had to get up. Even if the wizard who had talked to him wasn't evil, Frodo had no idea who he was, and the wizard had given no information or advice about the Quest. As he was putting on his clothes, he decided he must find out where he is and what is going on. He owed it to the Shire and all of Middle Earth for that matter. He walked to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. He removed the clasp from his cloak and proceeded to pick the lock. His Uncle Bilbo had decided to give him a few lessons in thieving, as it had helped Bilbo on his Quest to the Lonely Mountain and back. After a few tries, the lock opened with a small click and the door swung open.

Frodo stepped out into the hallway. It was a long passageway with doors on one side and windows on the other. It stretched for about twenty-five yards in either direction. He went to the windows and peered out. Frodo tentatively touched the glass and looked down. He was several floors up, he deduced from looking at the wings that continued perpendicular to his where he could see more windows, where there were lights shining in some of them.

Frodo had never been in a building this large before. He was used to Hobbit holes, which were mostly underground. The Elven buildings in Lorien and Rivendell were more complex than Hobbit holes, but they had nature interwoven into their structure. He had heard that the castle of Minas Tirith was like this. He felt dizzy and out of his element. He looked across the grass toward a dark forest. On the edge of the forest he could make out a small one-story hut. There was a light from a fire flickering through the small windows and smoke coming out of the chimney. That was more like it, he thought to himself.

Frodo had been gazing at the hut for a couple of minutes, when he felt the presence of someone nearby. He wheeled around. He saw the wizard whom had been by his bedside.

"Ah, I see that you are awake and can take care of yourself well enough," said Dumbledore. "I would like to take you to my office so we can try to communicate with Middle Earth. We must do this as soon as possible, as both of our worlds are in danger from the forces of Darkness. Then, you can meet Hagrid," the wizard gestured towards the cottage that Frodo had been looking at. "I'm sure he can let you stay there until we figure out how you can return to Middle Earth and get one of our students back."