Harry Potter and the One Ring of Power

Harry Potter and the One Ring of Power, Chapter 23

Provisions and Premonitions

Harry's green eyes blazed as he snarled: "Give me the Ring! I know one of you has it! Where is it?" His eyes flickered around from one of his friends to the other. His fingers twisted and clenched, as though they were around the throat of whoever held the Ring.

Ron and Draco both had their wands out; Harry's wand lay, forgotten, in his pack. Hermione wasn't too worried, since she knew that both of her other friends were well able to handle Harry with spells. "I've got it, Harry. When you were out, we weren't sure when or if you'd recover. I took it for safekeeping."

Harry screamed wordlessly and threw himself at Hermione, who ducked back. For a few seconds, she saw Harry with other eyes; instead of the familiar friend she had known for so long, he seemed to be a skinny, grasping creature not unlike Gollum, his eyes blinking and his fingers twitching with greed. She raised her wand and nearly blasted him before Ron and Draco got him under control with a Leg-Locker Curse, sending him sprawling as his legs froze under him.

Even when he was on the ground, Harry snarled: "The Ring! Give me the Ring, you filthy little Mudblood thief! It's mine, do you hear? It's my---my precious!" At this, Ron's eyes widened, and Draco drew in air in a hiss of surprise.

"Harry! Listen to yourself! This isn't you!" begged Ron. "It's the Ring! The Ring's got you!" He knelt by Harry's side and held him, heedless of Harry's struggles and snarling. "For the gods' sake, Harry, get yourself under control!"

Hermione felt her mouth set into a tight line, as she made a decision. She raised her wand and snapped "Finite Incantatem!" As the Leg-Locker Curse was removed, Harry sprang to his feet, only to find himself staring down Hermione's wand. Even in his madness, that startled him; for a second, he paused.

The second of hesitation was all Hermione needed to conjure up ropes. Before Harry could move again, he was bound hand and foot, just as Gollum had been repeatedly when they caught him, back near the Emyn Muil, so long ago. He twisted and writhed and struggled, but he couldn't break free; the ropes their spells produced were extremely tough. Once he was well immobilized, Hermione knelt beside him. She pitied him, knowing how deeply the Ring had sunk its claws into his mind. With a small part of her mind, one she resolutely ignored, she felt a sudden wild temptation to whip out her short sword and make an end of Harry, and claim the Ring for herself. After all, this thought went, I'm a far better witch than he is a wizard. I could do the Ring justice! Firmly banishing that temptation, she fished in her shirt and brought out the Ring, holding it in her hand meditatively. For something so small, it felt oddly heavy, she noticed. Even being made of pure gold didn´t account for the feeling of weight in her hand.

At the sight of the Ring, Harry convulsed, snarling as he tried to break free. "Give it to me! Give it to me!" Hermione's eyes widened as Harry began to literally foam at the mouth. I always thought that was a figure of speech! she thought. She held up the Ring.

"Harry? Harry! Listen to me!" Harry quit snarling and gibbering, his eyes following the Ring. "The Ring's gotten to you. Will you quiet down, if we give it back?"

Harry seemed to be struggling with himself. He curled up, as far as he could go with the ropes on him, his face twisted with the effort. When he looked up again, the madness was gone and he looked like the old Harry Potter. "Hermione? What's happened? Why am I tied up?" He went pale under his tan and the dirt of their many days' travel. "Last thing I can remember, I was walking up some stairs in this place, and then...then the next thing is I'm here, tied up with you covering me with your wands." He shook his head, as if to clear it. "Did the Ring get to me?"

"You fell, Harry. The stairs crumbled out from under you and you fell. We were able to cushion you a little with spells, but you were out. We didn't know if you'd recover, so we drew cards, and Hermione drew the Ten of Swords, which was the highest, so she took the Ring for safekeeping."

"The Ten of Swords?" A ghostly grin flitted across Harry's face. For a second, he looked like he had before their terrible journey had begun. "That was the same card I drew, back at dear old Hogwarts, when we all drew cards to see who'd have to be stuck with the Ring!"

Hermione thought back, and gasped: "You're absolutely right! I had forgotten all about that!" Ron's and Draco's eyes widened. "I wonder if the Ring's somehow influencing things? Could it have decided it wanted to go with me instead of you? Or could it have even chosen you, somehow, back at Hogwarts?"

"I don't know, Hermione. I don't think that I'm anything particularly special in and of myself---no matter what Professor Snape seems to think," Harry mused, as Draco smothered a grin. "Why would the Ring want me, instead of you, and then decide it wanted you?" He gave Hermione a keen look; she felt as though he was looking into her soul. "How long have you had it?"

"A few hours." Hermione blushed at the intensity of Harry's stare. "I couldn't sleep at first, and went up onto the battlements to look around. I finally had to take some of Draco's sleeping infusion to knock myself out."

"Did you dream of the wheel of fire?" asked Harry. Hermione nodded.

"Yeah, I did. I found myself thinking about all the things I could do with the Ring, and I've got to say that it did tempt me. Later on, when I was asleep, the wheel of fire kept goading me about that; it said it could make everything I wanted happen."

"Well, now you know why I didn't want to let anybody else near it," murmured Harry. "The thing's already got its claws into me, and I was hoping against hope that you three wouldn't have to face it down the way I've had to." He gave them all a haunted grin. "I don't mind telling you what it's been dangling in front of my eyes. Rulership, both here and at home, freedom and exoneration for Sirius Black, and a cure for Professor Lupin's disease."

"Sirius Black?" Draco's eyes opened wide. "My gods! You mean the mass murderer?"

"He's innocent, Draco," put in Ron, who had been watching the whole conversation. "We've all seen the wizard he's supposed to have murdered, Peter Pettigrew, alive and well. He was an unregistered Animagus, and you've seen him in his animal form---he was my pet rat, Scabbers."

Draco blenched as this hit home. "You mean to tell me that Goyle got his finger bitten to the bone by Peter Pettigrew?" His voice hardened as he went on: "I hope you don't have too many more such things to tell me---like, say, Professor Dumbledore's really working for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, or Professor Snape's secretly lusting after Hermione here! I don't know how many more shocks I can handle!"

At the thought of Professor Snape lusting after her, Hermione broke down and giggled. "Professor Snape? Gods! The only way to get him interested would be to dress up as a potion recipe!" At that, all four laughed, long and loud. Hermione thought that no such laughter had been heard in the tower of Cirith Ungol since the forces of Mordor had taken it.

Harry went on: "Oh, mustn't forget; the Ring also offers me the chance to get back at the Dursleys." He grinned rather nastily. "I won't say for a second that I'm not tempted, but I know better than to listen to the filthy thing. It's got its own priorities, and my happiness---our happiness---is not on the list." He looked up at Hermione. "That said, can I have it back? I'd far rather keep the burden to myself. I wish it had never been found, or hadn't been sought by Voldemort, but now that it has, it's my responsibility."

Hermione considered that statement carefully. She wanted to believe Harry, but she was still dreadfully reluctant to let the Ring go. She could feel its power, and the temptation to use it was terribly strong. When she decided to give it back, she couldn't quite make herself let go of it at first. It took a great effort of will to slip the Ring's chain back around Harry's neck, and relinquish it. Deep inside her, something cried out for the Ring, and she knew that it always would. Like cutting off a hand, she thought, and then firmly stamped on the thought; it put her too much in mind of Peter Pettigrew's dreadful sacrifice.

Once the Ring was back around his neck, Harry closed his eyes for a second, as a blissful expression appeared on his face. "Oh, if you only knew how good it feels to have this Thing back again!" he murmured. "I don't feel right without It, by now. Waking up without It was like waking up to find my right hand gone." Hermione shuddered at the words he had chosen; they were too close to her own thoughts for her comfort.

Ron smiled rather shakily. "Harry, I'm glad you're back. If we let you out of those ropes, can you control yourself?" At Harry's nod, Ron raised his wand and murmured: "Finite Incantatem!" The ropes vanished, and Harry rolled over on the floor, getting up slowly. Draco went over and took a careful look into his eyes, using his wand's light to get a good view. Meanwhile, Ron unobtrusively covered Harry with his wand, just in case Harry went mad again.

"Good job your eyes are as light-colored as they are," muttered Draco. "This would be the dickens to do with Hermione, or Hagrid. At least your pupils are the same size. I'm just glad you don't have a concussion."

Harry rubbed his head, for all the world like he'd been through nothing worse than a fall off his broom at Quidditch practice. Then he scratched himself vigorously. "Oh, does that ever feel good!" he said. "What I'd give for a nice long soak in the tubs at Hogwarts, right about now!"

"Did you have to mention that?" asked Hermione peevishly. On top of the shock of having given up the Ring, however voluntarily she had done so, she was now aware again of just how dirty and smelly and itchy she was. She fought down the urge to scratch herself in some very indelicate places, and wished rather resentfully that the others on the quest had been female, so that she could do that sort of thing without feeling self-conscious. "We're all filthy, and I don't know how we'll ever get clean again."

"Step One toward a hot bath, I think, is getting rid of the Ring once and for all," said Ron. He peered out the slit-like window. "In any case, it's getting on to dawn, as far as I can tell. We've all had some sleep. Do you think you can travel all right, Harry?"

Harry visibly took stock of himself. "I've got a bit of a headache, and what feels like the beginnings of some spectacular bruises and pulled muscles and the like, but I can move if I have to." He looked at Draco. "Do you have any potions or treatments for that?"

Draco spread his hands, looking rueful. "Sorry, Harry. I would that I did. There's only so much I can carry."

"Then I'll just have to take things slow and carefully until I'm back up to speed," Harry muttered. "I wonder if this castle has wells, or food stores? I'd bet it probably does!" He gave the door a calculating look. "Did anybody think to look around for that sort of thing?"

Ron shook his head. "We were mainly worried about you. By the way---Draco says that Shagrat and Gorbag are both dead. Strangled. Does that suggest anything to you?"

"Gollum!" Harry's green eyes narrowed, and for a second, he reminded Hermione of Professor Snape, on the trail of malefaction. The thought of how Harry or Professor Snape would have reacted to her involuntary thought gave Hermione a terrible urge to giggle, and she only resisted for a second before giving in to it. Her friends looked at her in astonishment.

"Hermione? Have you finally flipped?" Ron's voice was edged with concern. "What's so funny about Gollum?"

"Nothing...nothing..." With an effort, Hermione got herself under control. "It was just that Harry looked so much like Professor Snape when he said Gollum's name that I couldn't help laughing!" She broke down laughing again. "I'm sorry, Harry!"

Harry looked at her for a second as though she'd grown another head, and then he broke down laughing in his turn. "Oh, Hermione, that's rich!" he snickered. "If the Ring turns me into Professor Snape, that's another reason to get rid of it! I wouldn't wish such a fate on Voldemort himself!" He drew himself up and sneered: "Your chances of mastering this subject, Mr. Potter, are about as good as Mr. Longbottom's chances of becoming Headmaster of Hogwarts! Ten points from Gryffindor because---because the sky is blue and the grass is green!" Harry's imitation was so uncannily on-target, all four friends laughed and laughed.

When they'd calmed down, Draco and Hermione volunteered to go looking for the castle's food stores and wells. Ron's offer to go along was firmly squashed by both of them, Hermione explaining: "Ron, we need you to protect Harry if Gollum shows up when we're gone. Staying in pairs makes it likelier that we'll be safe; four eyes are better than two. We'll take your packs as well as ours, so we can carry as much food as possible; same goes for canteens. Keep the door shut and locked while we're gone, and we'll let you know it's us when we get back."

The castle was a filthy mess, which didn´t surprise Hermione any; she knew that orcs were horrid housekeepers one and all. Draco had been in real castles before, both Malfoy Manor itself and the homes of some of his father's friends, and he knew about where the food stores would be. As they penetrated deeper and deeper into the bowels of Cirith Ungol, they moved more and more quietly, and Hermione strained her ears to try to catch the sound of flapping feet, or indrawn breath hissing past snaggle teeth.

Draco was just about as nervous as she was, which spooked Hermione; she expected Draco Malfoy to remain unruffled and insouciant no matter what. They kept their backs to solid stone walls as much as they could while exploring, and signalled to each other with their hands as they rooted through piles of orc-refuse, looking for food or water they could use on their journey.

"Not much here," muttered Draco, turning from one pile of filthy rubbish to the next. "Those orcs can eat the most awful rubbish, but we'd get really sick if we tried eating this."

"No argument here, Draco." Hermione wrinkled her nose at some of the things they'd turned up. Much of the food was rotten, stinking and putrescence, and crawling with insects. The thought of eating it, even to avert absolute starvation, turned her stomach. "I can see why Sauron uses orcs as soldiers, though. They must be a lot cheaper and easier to feed than men are, much less elves or dwarves."

"About their only drawbacks, as soldiers, are their fractious natures and their allergy to bright sunlight. Other than that, they're nearly perfect warriors, if they've got somebody to tell them what to do." As Draco spoke, he was levering up the lid of a box. "Ah! Look at this!" Inside the box was a supply of twice-baked biscuit, hard as rock but edible. "Fill your pack with this, Hermione. It might just keep us alive."

Nothing loath, Hermione began stuffing her backpack with biscuits. They apparently hadn't been there too long, and the orcs, from what she could see, preferred meat. A lot of the trash they had had to wade through had consisted of well-gnawed bones, some of them suspiciously humanoid. "I wonder how these came here?" she asked.

"For the wonders of bureaucracy, let us give thanks, Hermione," Draco commented, filling his own backpack and pockets. "Also, Sauron does have soldiers other than orcs. These might have been originally intended for his human allies from the South and East---the men of Harad, Khand and Rhun." Hermione raised her eyebrows, surprised at Draco's knowledge, and Draco caught her expression. "While you were on the mend in Lorien, and, before that, in Rivendell, I got genned up on this place, just like you did."

"We should keep in mind that Sauron does have human servants," Hermione said, as they left the foul-smelling cellars behind. "Since he does---we saw a lot of them going into Mordor, back at the Black Gates, remember---there will be water and food available. Finding it, and getting it for ourselves, will be a problem, but it does exist out there."

As they climbed back to the ground floor, Hermione listened carefully. She hadn't forgotten that Gollum was probably slinking around the castle somewhere, and she now knew something of his obsession with his "precious." While she still pitied him, she feared him far more, and did not want to take any chances of letting him get his fingers around her throat.

"I've always said that all things are relative, Hermione," Draco muttered. "After those cellars, even Mordor's air smells almost sweet and fresh." Hermione took a deep breath, and had to agree. Despite its sulfurous tang, it was at least dry, unlike the festering stenches of the bowels of the castle. And, speaking of dry---

"Draco? Where do you think the water wells are here? Orcs have to drink, too, don't they?" Draco's eyes widened, and he smacked his forehead with the heel of his hand.

"I'm an idiot! I'd forgotten all about that!" He looked at Hermione, and grinned his snarkiest grin. "I know you'll say you always knew I was an idiot, but how often have you heard me say so?"

"If you'd been able to admit that you were wrong earlier, Draco, we could have been good friends for years. I really regret that we took against each other so hard, back in the day." Hermione looked out into the courtyard, where the sickly daylight of Mordor was trickling in through the low-hanging clouds. "But do you have any ideas about where to look?"

Draco cogitated. "Well, for obvious reasons, the water supply of any castle had to be well-defended. There might be wells, or cisterns, down in the cellars---but from the smells down there, I don't think I'd trust any water I found there. There's usually a well out in the main courtyard, to boot---shall we go and check?"

Cautiously, the two friends opened the main door of the keep and peered out into the courtyard, which was littered with trash. "Is that a well?" whispered Hermione, pointing.

Draco shrugged. "Looks like one to me. Let's go and see." Sure enough, it was, and the water inside looked to be fairly healthy.

Hermione peered suspiciously at the water. It looked all right to her, but she knew perfectly well that that meant nothing. Experimentally, she wet her finger and stuck it in her mouth, checking the taste. "Tastes all right---a bit of sulfur, but this is volcanic country." She turned back to the keep. "Come on. Let's get back to Ron and Harry." When they had finished filling the canteens, they went back inside.

When they got back to where their friends were, they found Ron very worried. "While you were gone, we heard---something---outside," Ron reported. Harry was lying back down, his face slightly gray. "We knew it wasn't you. You'd have let us know you were there. It was moving around, sniffing, and then it went away. That was about half an hour or so ago."

"Gollum!" Hermione shuddered. She could imagine him, so easily, creeping up to the warded door, trying it with his long, prehensile fingers, sniffing around for the scents of her friends. Uneasily, she looked around, up and down and all about her, half-expecting to see the little horror clinging to a wall or even the ceiling, leering down at her before leaping to the attack.

Ron looked deeply worried; Hermione thought that he had never looked more like his serious older brother, Percy Weasley. "When we got here, this castle was almost like a refuge. Now, I'm afraid it's more like a trap. No matter how good we are, Gollum's got centuries of experience at creeping around and ambushing people in just this sort of place, or so Bilbo told me back at Rivendell." As he spoke, he was lacing up his boots and swinging his backpack over his shoulders. "I say we'd best get on the road out of here, and quickly! How do you feel, Harry?" Harry had awakened, and was sitting up, holding his head. "Do you feel up to travelling?"

Cautiously, Harry stood. When he was on his feet, he pulled out his wand, and pointed it at the corner where their staves were. "Accio staff!" The staff that Faramir had given him flew across the room into his hand, and Hermione smiled to herself. "I think so. My one leg's not feeling great, but that can't be helped, much. I think I can walk, and I agree that getting out of here while the getting's good is a splendid idea."

Once they were ready, the four friends crept down to the main door. Although she couldn't hear anything wrong, Hermione sensed something watching them, something evil, malevolent, waiting its time to pounce. She was a little surprised that they made it out into the open, and even then, she still felt very edgy.

Ron pointed off to one side of the keep. "There! I bet that's how the little wretch got in!" Part of the wall had crumbled, and there was a gap where it met the mountainside. Had the castle been fully garrisoned, it would have been a trivial matter to keep that place covered, but as it was, even Harry, with his bad leg, could climb up and through the wall, and down out of the castle with little trouble. To Gollum, it would have been no barrier at all. Once they were all through the gap, they hurried down the hillside to the plains of Gorgoroth, leaving the empty castle behind as they fled.

As they scrambled down the hillside, they found themselves hampered, again and again, by nasty thorn-bushes. While she detested them, Hermione thought they were not all bad---their existence proved that there was water here, somewhere. Also, she didn't think that Gollum would like them any more than she did, and his rags would be less protection, if anything, from them than her stout elven-made clothing. Underfoot, the soil was a mixture of gravel and sand, ranging from gray to dull black.

After an hour or so, by unspoken mutual consent, the friends stopped, hunkering down in a small hollow, for a breather. Hermione peered back at the castle of Cirith Ungol, halfway expecting to see a familiar stooped, gangrel figure on their trail. The castle seemed utterly deserted, though, and she couldn't see any sign of intelligent life other than herself and her friends. It says a lot about Mordor, she thought mordantly, that I'm very glad not to see anybody else around at all!