Harry Potter and the Ring of Doom

Gollum moved quickly with his head and neck thrust forward, often using his hands as well as his feet to move. He moved faster than Ron and Harry, leaving them hard pressed at times to keep up with him. There seemed to be no thoughts of escape in him, though - often when he got too far ahead, he would stop and wait for them before continuing.

Finally he brought them to the brink of a narrow gully they had struck before, but now they were farther from the hills. "Here it is!" Gollum cried. "There is a way down inside, yes. Now we follows it - out, out away over there." He pointed toward the southeast, toward the marshes, the scent of which was already striking them, dark, dank, and foul. Gollum scampered along the edge for a while, before saying, "Here! We can get down here! Smeagol came down this way once, hiding from Orcs, he was." He started to climbed down, then looked back up at them. "Come on!"

The way was not difficult, because at this point the rift was only about twelve feet wide and maybe fifteen feet deep, with water flowing at the bottom. They walked for a short distance, Gollum seeming to enjoy splashing in the water, croaking something approximating a song occasionally.

The cold hard lands

they bites our hands,

they gnaws our feet.

The rocks and stones

are like old bones

all bare of meat.

But stream and pool

is wet and cool:

so nice for feet!

And now we wish -

"Ha ha! What does we wish?" he said, looking sidelong at Ron and Harry. "Baggins guessed it a long time ago." A glint came into his eyes that Ron found far from pleasant.

Alive without breath;

as cold as death;

never thirsting, ever drinking;

clad in mail, never clinking.

Drowns on dry land,

thinks an island

is a mountain;

thinks a fountain is a puff of air.

So sleek, so fair!

What a joy to meet!

We only wish

to catch a fish,

so juicy sweet!

This made Ron think all the more about what could soon be a pressing problem - their food stores. He wasn't all that certain that Gollum was terribly picky about his eating habits, and from things that had been said, he wouldn't have been surprised to discover that long pork was part of the creature's diet. He felt his water skin while he was at it, and found it to be lighter than he liked. "Harry! We're in a stream, and our water skins are too light. Let's fill 'em now."

"Good idea," Harry replied, and then grinned. He pulled out the mithril wand and tapped the skins, murmuring the spell that created what he and Hermione had jokingly taken to calling Wizard Space.

"Right!" Ron laughed. "How many gallons you think these skins will hold now?" he asked as he crouched and began filling his water skin.

"With this wand?" Harry replied, still grinning. "We may have enough water to walk all the way to Mount Doom and back to Gondor, and still not run out of water." He crouched and began filling his own.

An astonishingly long (and surprisingly restful) time later, they stood again and began to follow the impatient Gollum again. They followed him for quite a time, until the walls of the gully were no taller than a tall man, and the sun was threatening to rise within the hour. "Day is near," Gollum whispered, as if the Day were someone or something that could hear him and attack. "Smeagol will stay here. Yellow Face won't see him that way."

Harry looked at the rising light level and said, "We'd be glad to see the sun, but we'll stay here. We're too tired to go any further."

"You are not wise to be glad of Yellow Face. It shows you up. Orcs and other nasty things with eyes are about, and can see long ways. Stay and hide."

They settled against a wall while Gollum paddled and scrabbled in the stream. "I don't know about you Harry, but I need to eat something, even if all it is is more lembas." At that, Gollum came bounding over.

"Food? Will you share with poor Smeagol?" His eyes lit as Harry broke off a small corner and handed it to him on the leaf wrapping. He sniffed it and his face took on a look of disgust. "Elf stink - Smeagol can smell it on the leaves. Took forever to wash it off poor Smeagol's hands after those trees." He dropped the leaf and nibbled the corner of the lembas, and immediately fell to coughing. "Trying to poison Smeagol with ash and dust! Smeagol cannot eat this! Poor Smeagol will starve, but that is all right. He has promised to help nice peoples, he has, and will starve if he must." He loped to the stream and splashed his face in it to wash the taste of the lembas out of his mouth.

"I am sorry," Harry said. "It is all we have. I can't help but think that it would do you good, if only you could stomach it."

#####

After they had finished eating, such as it was, Ron looked to Harry. "I've been thinking, Harry. We're going to have to be very careful with the remaining lembas. If we eat it sparingly, then we've probably got another three weeks worth of it. I don't know what we're going to do after that."

"Honestly, we're not likely to need it. What happens when magic is released suddenly, all at once?"

"Ugly things, if you're not prepared for it. The more magic, the greater the reaction." Ron thought for a moment and then turned an odd shade of green. "That thing's got all the magic in the world tied into it." He looked at Harry. "Why did you agree to do this?"

"Because someone had to. It's that 'saving people' thing Hermione talks about. I get to save a whole planet, this time," he said, sounding anything but pleased. "I didn't really want to be at the centre of an explosion likely to blow right through any magical protection that our Prophecy gave me."

"What do you mean?" Ron asked, worried.

"There's going to be so much magic released that it will probably kill me, you know. I've known that for quite some time, even before we entered Lothlorien. That's why I wanted to do this solo."

"But why won't our Prophecy protect you?" Ron asked, rather worried.

"Because we're going up against the next best thing to a god, Ron. Voldemort is nothing compared to Sauron; I realize that now." He sighed. "I'm glad you and Hermione were left untouched by this thing, and I'm glad Hermione will never touch it. Draco was right; this Ring is evil. It was stupid when he touched it, though. It was so excited at having a mage under its control that it tipped its hand too soon, and it gave up what at the time was the best chance it had to get back to Sauron. I've still got the willpower to try to hide from Sauron, and to tell him to get stuffed. But if we survive this, I'll kiss Professor Snape in the Great Hall." He laughed at the thought while Ron shuddered at the same thought.

"Y'know, chum," Ron said a few seconds later, "the universe is perverse enough to let you live just for that alone." He laughed, and it was Harry's turn to shudder. After a moment he said, "Look, we both need sleep, but you need it more. And I don't think we should be sleeping at the same time; I trust him about as much as I understand the Muggle world."

"I agree. He may have some promise to him, and I intend to give him the chance to either live up to it or not, as the case may be. But you are right. We sleep in shifts." With that, Harry pulled the hood up over his head and was asleep almost instantly. Surprisingly, Gollum bedded down for the day as well, rather quickly falling asleep. Ron moved over near Harry to guard him, sitting next to him against the wall of the gully.

When he awoke, it was darker than before, and he realized that he had slept the day through. Harry was still asleep, but he had laid down on his side. He looked and saw that Gollum was gone. "Where'd he get to?"

"Not far; not far at all!" said Gollum's voice above him.

"What are you doing?" Ron asked..

"Smeagol is hungry," came the reply. "Back soon!" With that, he disappeared into the deepening night.

"Hey, get back here!" he shouted, but all that succeeding in doing was waking Harry.

"What's up, Ron? What happened? What's the time, for that matter?" He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"I think it's after sundown. Gollum's gone off to get himself something to eat, he says." Ron frowned.

"Don't worry about it, chum. He'll be back; his promise will hold at least for a while. Besides, I'm carrying the thing he's been following all this time; I doubt he'll leave it alone when he can be so close to it." He smiled a humourless smile. "Besides, this works out best for both sides. If he's redeemable, then we'll be there for him. If he's not, then where better for him to be than right in front of us?"

"I know; I know. I guess I'm just angry at myself for falling asleep like that. It worked out well, but we could have woken up dead, if you know what I mean," he said with a laugh.

"We all needed the sleep, and it worked out well. I think the promise is so fresh that he didn't dare try to break it." Harry stood and shook his head. "The really hard road is ahead of us now; the worst road of all."

It was not long before Gollum reappeared, his hands and face blackened with slimy mud. Neither student wanted to consider what he'd been eating. Gollum drank and washed in the stream before coming over to them. "Better now? All rested? Good, good! We needs to be moving again; follow Smeagol!" He began loping off again.

They followed him through land that was only different from the previous days by being closer to the ground below, and having shorter walls to either side. They travelled for a long tiring time, with the Moon and stars behind the clouds before coming, at some cold hour just before dawn, to the end of the gully they were in. The smell of the Marshes assaulted them.

"God blind me, that's awful!" Ron cried. "Forget Orcs, the stench alone may kill me!"

"Is there no other way, Smeagol?" Harry asked, choking.

"Not if the nice peoples wants to stay out of Blinky-eye's grasp. Other ways would take you right to Blinky's Orcses! Those ways are watched by the Eye all the time now."

It was already day on a windless and sullen morning, with the marsh fog hanging dankly over the ground. No sun pierced the sky, and Gollum seemed eager to be moving again, so they began moving again after a short rest period, going single file: Gollum, Ron, and Harry, who was by far the weariest of the three of them. Even at the slow pace they were taking on their way through the swamps, he often lagged behind.

As they walked it, they found that it was not one giant sodden swampy area; rather, it was a series of pools and wetlands that required wits and cunning to navigate. It was taking all that Gollum had to move the trio safely.

The trek was wearying and bleak. Winter still held sway in this area where the only green was the scum of livid weed on the greasy surface of the water. Dead grasses and rotting reeds loomed along their path. As the sun rose higher, it did nothing to burn away the miasma, shedding only minimal extra light on their travels, but even this was too much for Gollum, who halted their journey. They took this time to rest, squatting like hunted animals in the borders of a huge reed thicket. Not a sound could be heard in the area other than the occasional sickening splashing of scummy water. Thus ended their third day with Gollum.

Before the shadows of evening were too long, they set out again, heading further along with frequent stops. These stops were less for rest than they were for Gollum to get his bearings, for even he appeared lost occasionally. They were in the very heart of the Dead Marshes, and it was dark. The land grew wetter and harder for them to slog through, and the air became oppressive. The darkness seemed to become a palpable thing.

It was in the heart of this darkness that Ron noticed the lights. At first he thought he was seeing things in his desire for more light, but when he moved his head and the lights did not shift, he looked to Gollum. "What are those lights I see out there?"

"Don't look!" Gollum warned. "Those are candles lit by the dead. Don't follow them! Don't heed them!" He looked about them. "Where is the master?"

Ron looked back and found that Harry had lagged behind again, far enough that he could not be seen. Ron carefully worked his way back to Harry. Smacking his forehead with his hand as he finally located his friend. Moron! Isn't this the perfect place for a Lumos spell? "Harry? We need to keep moving."

Harry was staring at the lights, lost in thought. His hands and lower arms were dripping water and slime as he stood there. "Harry? Come on! We need to move - Gollum says it's dangerous to pay attention to these lights. Let's follow him and get out of this damned swamp!"

Harry shook his head to clear it. "Hmm? Yes, yes, I agree. I'm sorry, Ron. let's keep moving."

As they headed back toward Gollum, Ron's Ollivander wand providing a thin beam of light to guide their way, he caught his foot on a clump and fell heavily into the muck, hands first, bringing his face close to the water as his wand went flying and went out, making a quiet splash somewhere a distance away. As he grumbled about this, he looked at the muck, and let out with a horrified gasp. "There are faces in the water! Dead faces!"

"Yes," Gollum hissed laughingly. "Dead Marshes get their name from them. Do not look when the candles are lit."

"Who are they?" Ron asked before pulling his mithril wand and summoning his now slime covered Ollivander wand. "Scourgify," he murmured, leaving the wand as clean as the day it was made.

"Long ago, a battle before the Gates happened," Gollum said. "Elves and Men and Orcs. They fought for days and months, and were buried here. Long, long ago - Smeagol was told this story when he was young, long before the Precious came. The Marshes came in, though, and covered the graves. The Marshes are always creeping and growing."

"If I remember Hermione's comments, though," Ron pondered out loud, "those battles were a long time ago; when Elrond was young. Those can't actually be the dead that were buried here."

"Smeagol doesn't know," came the reply. "Smeagol learned once that you cannot touch them; you cannot reach them. I tried once, long ago. Only shapes to see, not to touch." Ron shuddered to himself to think why Gollum might have wished to touch the dead figures, but kept the thought unspoken. "Let Smeagol lead you out of here, before nice peoples add their own candles to the swamps. Don't look at lights!"

They crept along, falling occasionally as they would jump to this island or that one, leaving them coated to the neck with foul-smelling slime. It was quite late in the night when they reached firmer ground. Gollum capered a bit as he waited for Ron and Harry to catch up to him, and then he headed off at almost a trot, with them stumbling after him, trying to catch up.

He would occasionally stop and sniff the air, looking to the south-east. He grew more and more uneasy, until finally they heard, far away, a long wailing cry, high and thin and cruel. At the same moment, the air began to move, and it grew cold. The lights wavered, dimmed, and went out. "Hsst! Ron!" Harry whispered. "Your wand!" The light went away.

Gollum could not move, standing shaking and gibbering to himself until the wind came upon them in a great rush, hissing and snarling its way across the marsh. The night became lighter, and the fog and clouds broke enough to see the Moon.

Although Gollum cursed it, Ron and Harry were glad to see it, after the time spent in the hideous mists of the swamp. As they breathed the fresher air brought by the wind they saw, coming from the hills of Mordor, a vast and ominous winged shape. It scudded across the Moon, and with a horrid cry screamed away westward, outrunning the very wind. To their despair, they saw it wheel and return to fly directly over them, lower to the ground, sweeping across the reeking fen. Just as quickly, though, it was gone, back to Mordor; and the wind roared away behind it, leaving the bare bleak Dead Marshes. Gollum cowered and gibbered again, murmuring about winged wraiths and the like, and could not be convinced to move until the Moon had long since disappeared behind Tol Brandir.

#####

They continued to walk all night, every step taking them further from the horrifying Marshes. Harry was weary - bone-weary, and it had nothing to do with the travel. He had begun to feel the Ring as an actual weight around his neck. What weighed him down far worse was the Eye. He could feel as a palpable weight the hostile will that strove with hideous power to pierce the shadows of cloud and earth and flesh and lay bare all before it. Harry could close his eyes and point directly toward the heart of that malevolent will the same way that a sighted man can close his eyes and point directly at the sun. It beat relentlessly upon him as he walked closer to its home. Ron moved to keep Harry before him, in case Harry stumbled.

When day broke, they were shocked to see how much closer the ominous mountains had drawn. The air was crisp and cold, and Mordor was no longer a vague cloudy presence before them, but a stark black wall of hard cruel mountains. The land before them rose in long, shallow, barren, pitiless slopes toward the desert that lay before Sauron's gate.

They walked for two more nights, hiding during the day. The possibility of being spotted by a Winged Rider made them agree with Gollum's assessment of travel during the reign of Yellow Face, as he called the sun. They stopped in the morning; the fifth one since Gollum had joined them. What lay before them was beyond their ability to describe. The stinking, rotted fens they had trudged through seemed lush jungle compared to the desolation before them - piles of rocks, blasted earth, and everywhere that they looked, they saw no signs of life; not even lichen on the rocks. The smell was acrid and horrific, and furthered the lifeless feel of the area; it tasted as if they too would die if they stayed too long.

At first they tried hiding in the shadow of one of the great slag heaps, but the fumes oozing from it were simply beyond the capacity for any of them to handle. Gollum was the first to leave, slinking slowly to a circular pit, which had a sump of foul many-coloured ooze festering at the bottom. Its scent, however, was perfume compared to where they had just come from, so they climbed into the shadows within the pit and tried to doze. Ron was first to fall asleep, so Harry sat blankly on guard for a time, feeling the burden that much stronger as they came ever closer to Mordor.

#####

Ron awakened suddenly, thinking he heard Harry calling. He saw Harry near the bottom of the pit, having fallen asleep and slid gently down the slope toward the foul ooze. Gollum sat by him. For a moment, Ron thought that Gollum was trying to wake Harry, but realized quickly that it was not the case. Gollum was having a debate with himself; rather, with some other thought within him. The 'other' spoke with a squeak and a hiss. It was easy for Ron to think of them as Smeagol and Gollum.

"Smeagol promised," Smeagol whined.

"Yes, precious, we did: to save the Precious, not to let Blinky-eye have it - never. But it goes to him with every step. What's Harry to do with it, we wonders." Gollum replied. As he spoke, his hand crept slowly for Harry's neck.

The hand jerked back as Smeagol replied. "I don't know. I can't help it. I promised Master Harry. Master Harry has it, and we promised to help."

"Yes, we promised to the Master of the Precious. But what if we was Master of the Precious? Then we could help ourselfs and still keep promises." The hand moved toward Harry.

"We promised to be very very good. He speaks nicely to me." The hand was withdrawn again.

Gollum answered. "Very very good, eh, my precious? Let's be good, good as fish, but to us. Not hurt nice master of course, oh no, no."

"But the Precious holds the promise," Smeagol objected.

"Then take it, and let's hold it ourselfs! Then we shall be master, and make the suspicious red-hair crawl. Gollum!"

"Not the nice one, though?"

"Not if it doesn't please us. Still, he knows we wants it, and he keeps it from us. He taunts us with it. We hates that."

"He'll see, He will know. Blinky will take it from us!" Smeagol cowered.

"He heard us make silly promises against His orders, yes. We must take it. The Wraiths are searching. We must!"

"Not for him!"

"No. If we has it, we can escape, even from Him! Perhaps we grows very strong, even more that Wraiths. Lord Smeagol? Gollum the Great? The Gollum! Eat fish every day, three times a day, fresh from the sea. Most Precious Gollum! Must have it! We wants it!"

"But there's two of them. They'll wake too quick and kill us!" Smeagol whined. "Not now. Not yet."

The pause was long. "Not yet, eh? Perhaps not. She might help, She might, yes."

"No, not that way!" wailed Smeagol.

"Yes! We wants it! We wants it!" The reaching and retreating motion continued until this last outburst. Finally, slowly, both hands crept toward Harry's throat.

Ron knew that he did not want Gollum knowing what he'd overheard, so he sat up stiffly, yawned a fake yawn (which rapidly became a real one) and said, "What's the time?"

Gollum stood, tense and menacing for a moment, drawing a hiss through his teeth; then he dropped to all fours and crawled up the bank toward Ron. "Nice people! Nice Ron! Sleepy heads, yes, sleepy heads! Leave good Smeagol to watch! But it's evening. Dusk is creeping. Time to go."

I'll say, thought Ron. And I'd be just as happy if we parted company - permanently. I don't have the heart to just kill the bastard, but I'm not going to hold back if I see him doing something threatening. He skidded carefully down the slope to Harry.

Oddly enough, Harry was feeling quite refreshed. Whatever shadow had held him in its sway was gone, and a dream that he could not remember had come to him, cheering him immensely, making his burden easier to bear. Gollum welcomed him with dog-like delight.

Harry smiled at Gollum. "You've done a good job so far, Smeagol, and we're near the end. Get us to the Gate, and I will not ask you to take us any further. Bring us to the Gate, and you may go anywhere you wish, except to our enemies."

"To the Gate?" Gollum squeaked. "To the Gate, master says! Yes, he says so, but when he gets closer I think he will change his mind! It won't look nice at all!"

"Get on with you, Gollum!" Ron grumbled. "Let's get moving."

They scrambled out of the pit and slowly began to work their way through the dead and blasted land. They had not gone far when they felt the fear that had gripped them in the Marshes. They stopped completely, and Harry fought hard not to drop to the ground, shaking. If I'm going to get scared at something I can't see, then how am I going to be when I get to the volcano? Or when I get back and have to face Voldemort? He stood his ground, looking up, clenching his fists, transmuting his fear into rage. This bastard Sauron created this stupid Ring, and I have to destroy it. I finally find love, and I'm forced to leave her to keep her safe, because of Sauron. I'm forced to take up with a creature that probably wants me dead, because of Sauron's lust for power. He hissed air through his teeth, rather than scream out his rage. Damn you, Sauron, and damn you Voldemort! Why can't I just be allowed to live a life of my own?

The other two stood after the feeling passed, and Ron murmured to his friend, no little amount of awe in his voice, "That's the bravest thing I've seen, chum. I was terrified, and here you are just facing down that ... that thing."

"I had to. If I'm going to let an unseen thing frighten me into immobility, then what good am I? I'm damned if I'm going to let some unseen Eye keep me from doing my job by sending flying cockroaches after us. I couldn't face Hermione if I let that happen."

"So now you think we'll make it back?"

"I have to think that, Ron, or else I'm lost before I even get there. Odds are against us, but I have to believe that I'll get the chance to hold Hermione in my arms again." He shook his head. "Right now, that's the thing keeping me going - how disappointed and heartbroken she'll be if I don't come back to her."

Ron smiled. "I was a bit jealous at first, but when I see how happy the two of you are - hell, how happy you are, after all those years of shite you've dealt with, well, I know Hermione and I aren't meant for each other. I'll be glad to attend your wedding when it happens someday."

Harry laughed. "Got our children named already?"

"Well, it depends on how many you have. I think I've got the first eight named, but it's the remaining seven that are stumping me right now." Harry laughed so hard that he stumbled, and only Ron kept him from hitting the ground.

When he'd finally recovered, Harry said, "You really want to watch Hermione react to that, tell her that Firenze was the one who gave you that number." It was now Ron's turn to laugh uproariously.

#####

Finally Gollum interrupted to get them moving again, and they travelled well until shortly after midnight, when the fear flowed across the sky again. Ron stood next to Harry, who was facing it down again. Harry could almost feel Ron's shaking, even though they weren't touching, but he smiled to himself. He's true Gryffindor whether he knows it or not.

As it passed, they started to move, but noticed quickly that Gollum wasn't with them. They turned to see Gollum cowering. "Coming, Smeagol?" Harry asked.

"They are looking for the Precious! Three times is a threat! He knows - he knows!" He shivered and grovelled in the place that he stood.

Harry looked on him in pity for a while before speaking. "Smeagol, we have to go onward. End of statement. We have no choice in this matter. We will be going forward with or without you." He knelt down by Smeagol. "I know it's hard, but Ron and I are here. We stand up to him, and we'll protect you as best we can. Does that help?"

Smeagol looked up at Harry. "Master Harry will protect Smeagol from Him?"

"Yes, Smeagol. I will do all that I can to protect you." Something came into Smeagol's eyes that neither boy could place a name to.

Finally, Smeagol stood a little straighter and took off in the direction they had been heading. Turning around he said, "Come along Master! We haven't got all night!" and then capered down the road a bit further.