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Chapter 10: The Fallen Knight

Luna opened her eyes slowly, noticing automatically that she was dreaming because in no way could the real world be so dark, no matter the peril it was in. Cautiously, she rose from the hard ground, squinting in the dark haze to get a sense of her surroundings. It wasn't odd for her to wake up in a dream, but this one caused concern. It wasn't her dream per se, which were bouncier. No, this was something else, someone else's dream, and she didn't like it.

"What the bloody hell?" There was a voice, a very familiar voice muttering beside her.

"Dramien?" She whispered. Odd, she had never shared a dream with anyone before.

"Yeah?" Her brother replied "Luna? Where are you? It's so bloody dark, I can't even see my own hands"

Luna thought for a moment, focusing on her brother's mind, and suddenly her body pulled her in what she hoped was his direction. Outstretching her hand, she poked something squishy.

"Ow!" He yelled with a start. "That was my eye!"

"Well, why are you on the floor? Get up." Luna replied. She assumed he'd listened because while she couldn't see him, she could hear him moving. Reaching out for his hand, she found it and grasped it within her own. Despite his grumbling, he gave her hand a tight squeeze.

"Don't let go," he said quietly, "I don't want to be separated."

Luna knew that wasn't the only reason he didn't want to let go but she kept that to herself.

"So," Dramien said in an oddly serious voice, "What do you reckon is going on?"

"Not sure," Luna replied, "I have dreams sometimes but this is different, I can't control this one."

"Well I never remember my dreams," Dramien snorted, "And good thing too, this one seems pointless. Why is it so dark? Is it symbolism or something, because I don't need a dream to tell me how much the world sucks right now."

The words had no sooner left his mouth when a faint white light appeared some distance away. Automatically Luna started walking towards it, pulling her brother with her.

"Ooh, now we're walking towards a bright white light. Wonder what that means?" He said sarcastically, allowing himself to be pulled along.

They soon realized that no matter how long they walked in the direction of the light, it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Of course, Dramien noticed this right away and was quick to point it out and complain, but Luna remained silent.

"Oh look, now the light is fading," Dramien noted dramatically.

"You know, I do have eyes," Luna said with a slight edge to her voice. Dramien must have felt his sister's frustration because he backed off.

They walked for what Luna guessed was a few minutes more (there was no way to be certain, however, time was a relative concept in dreams), until Luna felt the floor give away under her. Letting out a scream, she fell forward.

Dramien tried to hold onto her and he almost managed to hoist her up before the floor under him became icy and he fell forward with his sister.

He didn't even have time to let out a yelp before they landed on a cushiony ground in a well-lit room.

"Okay, I am officially very grateful I don't have to do this very often. I will never complain about never remembering dreams again," Dramien muttered, lifting himself off the ground.

Ignoring him, Luna pointed ahead of them. "Look!" She exclaimed. He did, and what he saw unsettled him.

Before them was a giant chess set, one, Luna had no doubt, identical to the one described by Ron from their adventure in first year.

"Okay, seriously, what is this?" Dramien asked worriedly as the pieces began to play exactly as they had in the past.

See, long days and nights spent hiding from death eaters led to Ron telling stories about the Golden Trio's adventures at Hogwarts. His favourite, the giant wizard's chess game. And every time he told it, he would reenact every move of the game. This was done so often, that the rest of the group had it soon memorized.

"It's like their game," Luna whispered, "But if that's true… then the knight should sacrifice itself." It was not often Dramien heard fear in his sister's voice, but he understood why she would this time. If this dream was prophetic, which he was pretty sure it was, the knight, meaning Ron, would sacrifice itself sometime during their adventure.

As the game drew on, the siblings found their attention being drawn back to a certain black rook. In fact, when the rook sacrificed itself to protect the king, they both felt a wave of sadness they could not explain.

"Who do you reckon the rook's supposed to be?" Draco asked, not sure he wanted an answer.

"I don't know, and I don't like it," Luna said, her voice wavering slightly, "In the game, Harry played the rook, but this isn't for Harry, I can feel it."

Not particularly reassured, Dramien turned his attention back to the game, knowing what was coming on the next move. Luna inched closer to him as the black knight moved in to sacrifice itself. Dramien, knowing what it meant, could not look. No matter how much he said he didn't him, the weasel was a good man. Instead, he stared at his sister and as he saw a single, silent tear fall down her face, he fought his own.

The telltale sound of metal on stone, followed by the sounds of crumbling told him that it was done, the knight had sacrificed itself.

"Time to go back, I think," he whispered.

Luna nodded and shut her eyes tight, mentally indicating for him to do the same. Willing themselves awake, they both opened their eyes to a dark cave.

Legolas was worried. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Neville had all awoken. They were groggy, but, for the most part, fine. But Luna and Dramien were still fast asleep. It has been awhile now and he was beginning to get worried.

Once they had apparated, Gandalf, saying that they had no time to waste and wait for the two of them to wake up, had begun to look for the entrance to Moria, which he found after a while, thanks to Frodo's help. They had fought the monster from the lake but all the while Luna and Dramien slept. Legolas had to admit, it was difficult to carry them and fight the monster at the same time, but they had managed it. Legolas took charge of Luna while Dramien was carried by Harry and Ron. Then they had run into the mountain only to realize it was now a tomb and they had no other option to delve in further.

He hated caves, they were dark and murky; he had absolutely no idea how dwarves could stand it. Nor could he understand why Gimli was so excited. Legolas didn't think he would be feasting whilst in the hospitality of dwarves here, but he didn't have the heart to tell Gimli that.

Presently, they were sitting on a landing somewhere in the cave to rest and to give Gandalf some time to figure out the way. They had put the still sleeping siblings on the floor side by side. Suddenly, he heard a faint whimper from Luna and he knew they were stirring. Legolas looked around himself. He was the only one awake, seeing as he volunteered to take first watch. Bending down, he placed himself between the two of them and shook them lightly.

"Luna, Dramien wake up" he whispered, careful not to wake any of the others. They both rose quietly, rubbing their eyes and yawning. Looking up they saw a relieved Legolas.

"About time you woke up, my friends," the prince said, chuckling softly as he held out a hand for Luna to get up. She gave him a small smile, stood up and straightened her clothes. The smile didn't meet her eyes, however, and he immediately wondered what was wrong.

"Eugh, where are we Legolas?" Dramien asked in a tired voice as he set himself up against the cold stone wall. Looking at his friend properly, Legolas noticed that Dramien looked paler than usual.

"We're in the caves of Moria. A few miles in actually. You've both been asleep for a day. No one could wake you up."

Dramien gave Luna a glance and Legolas wondered why they didn't seem surprised. Finally, giving in to his curiosity he spoke up.

"Are you both alright? You look paler than usual. Are you ill?"

Instead of answering his question, Luna asked one her own, "Can elves see the future, Legolas?"

"To some extent, yes. Every elf can see a bit of the future. There are elves that can see the future clearer than others. My father, Lady Galadriel and Lord Elrond for example," Legolas narrowed his eyes slightly, "Why? Have you seen something?"

Luna nodded, "We both had the same dream, but it wasn't a dream, it couldn't be. It was too real."

Legolas nodded as if this made perfect sense, his face set in concentration, "We have already established you are both very powerful elves, seeing prophecies together and in detail only supports this. I know personally that Arwen and her brothers See things the same things as well, from time to time."

"Great, so now we're bloody seers too," Dramien muttered, imagining himself and Trelawney sitting around a crystal ball.

Legolas laughed softly, but then his expression turned serious, "May I ask what your dream was?"

Dramien and Luna looked at each other and Legolas could tell from the way their eyes glossed over that they were having a serious mental conversation. He really should tell them how not to make it so obvious.

After a while, Dramien tore his eyes away from his sister and said, "You may." He beckoned Legolas closer, took out his wand and moved it in a circle muttering something that sounded like 'muffled'.

"But you can't tell anyone," Luna said fiercely, her voice slightly louder than it should have been in an area full of sleeping people. This led Legolas to believe Draco must have performed a spell so no one could hear them. Finding himself in awe once again of such focused magic he barely remembered to reply. "I will not," he promised

"We think we've found out what the 'red knight' part of the prophecy means," Dramien said. He and Luna began to explain the Golden Trio's ventures in their first year against McGonagall's chess set and how it related so much to that one in the dream. They explained how Ron took the place of the knight and sacrificed himself the same way the knight in the dream had done so that his side could win. And that a strange rook had sacrificed itself in the same way to protect the king.

"It was terrible" Luna whispered, as she rested her head on Dramien's shoulder. Legolas began to catch on, but he wanted his thoughts confirmed.

"So this all means...?"

"It means that something terrible is going to happen to Ron. Oh, Legolas I think he's going to die while trying to save the rest of us," Luna said, tears springing to her eyes. Dramien looked exhausted, Legolas noticed, and the prince wondered if Dramien actually cared for the others more than he let on.

Legolas was more shocked then he let on. He didn't really think that any of these newcomers could actually die, they were magical after all. But he assumed that even those with magic couldn't escape death. A million new questions popped into his mind, but this was not the time to ask.

"It may mean something else, Luna," He said putting a hand on her shoulder in comfort, but not really believing his own words. Deciding to maybe take the topic away from Ron for a moment he asked, "Do you know who the rook might mean?"

"Well it could be Potter," Dramien said, not sounding too sure of himself, "He was the castle in the real thing," he shook his head, "But it doesn't feel right. The rook is someone else, not him."

Legolas nodded. It was wise to trust instinct in these matters. So now the mystery remained was who the rook was. He looked around at his companions and wondered which one of them they were going to lose as well. Soon after, Gandalf was up and waking everyone else around him up. The Istari had probably found a way out.

"We must not tell the others," Legolas said to Dramien and Luna, "Knowing the future can sometimes make things worse than they would have been."

The siblings nodded, composing themselves and setting their expressions to seem as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"But we will keep an eye on him," Luna told them in no uncertain terms.

"Of course," they replied unison, knowing exactly whom she meant.

Dramien took out his wand again and lifted the spell. Then, the three of them went over to the assembled fellowship, who looked very pleased to see the siblings awake and came just in time to hear Gandalf say "When in doubt always follow your nose, Master Meriadoc," before going through the left-sided tunnel.

"Welcome the city of Dwarrowdelf" Gandalf announced as they exited the tunnel much to the relief of Legolas.

Neville gasped as he saw the towering ceilings, made of polished rock. Even in the darkness, it was beautiful. In his opinion, a few plants would definitely brighten the place up but he doubted that plants would survive long in a mine. Maybe there was a charm for that. As he turned to Hermione to ask, Gimli gave an anguished cry and ran into a hall directly across from them.

When Neville entered the room he quickly realized that it was a tomb and that Gimli was crying on the grave. On further inspection, they discovered that the tomb was that of a dwarf called Balin. Probably the cousin Gimli was talking about, Neville thought sadly. Neville, feeling bad for the dwarf, placed a hand on his shoulder as Boromir did the same from the other side. He stood by him even as Gandalf read the sad note left by one of the dwarves as they were murdered. Gimli cried harder at the sound of these words. He wondered why Gandalf was reading this out loud, wasn't it bad enough for Gimli already?

Suddenly, a crash from behind Gandalf caused them all to jump. Neville peered around the tomb to see that Pippin had dropped an entire skeleton down a well.

"Fool of a Took! Throw yourself in next time!" Gandalf said angrily.

Neville thought Gandalf was being a little mean. Pippin was curious and he just made a mistake. If someone was indeed there, they would've already known about the Fellowship being in the building. It seemed like Hermione and Ginny had the same idea as they both stared at Gandalf incredulously. Everyone else, however, looked around in fear, as if expecting something to jump out at them right then.

"We should not stay here," Legolas told Aragorn who nodded in agreement. As they prepared to leave, a drumming noise filled the air and Neville gulped. This was not good. As if they read each other's minds the fellowship pulled out their respective weapons and turned towards the door.

Suddenly, Frodo's dagger turned blue and Boromir yelled, "Orcs! We have to brace the door." He, Ron, Harry, and Aragorn did just that as Dramien, Luna Hermione and Ginny handed them logs and axes.

"Get behind Gandalf," Aragorn ordered him and the other hobbits. Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin obliged but Neville didn't. Just because he was small now didn't mean that he didn't know how to fight. He stood next to a now sword-wielding Gandalf and held up the dagger of Gryffindor, deciding to forgo his wand since magic had been draining him lately. The old wizard looked down at him and smiled proudly, but there was also a glint of sadness in his eyes.

The orcs on the other side were banging against their barricade harder and harder until holes began to form in the doors. Luna, Dramien, Legolas, and Aragorn began to shoot arrows at them, the siblings who were shooting with slightly less ease than the others. As the others had their wands, daggers, swords, and axes at the ready, the orcs broke through. Suddenly, all hell broke loose as spells, weapons, and blood were flying around everywhere.

Neville noticed disgustedly that the orcs had blood that was black, but taking in their appearance and complete lack of morality, he would later feel that he shouldn't have been so surprised. He stabbed an orc in the neck as it was creeping on Ginny, who was in the process of sending a cutting hex at one orc and stabbing another with her sword at the same time. Feeling the blood spatter on her neck, she whipped around and saw him standing sheepishly behind her.

"Thanks, Nev!" She said grinning before sending a stunner at something behind him,

Neville turned to see that he was also about to be sneak attacked. "Cheers!" he answered, before returning back to the battle.

Neville realized quickly that being a hobbit was actually quite useful in battle. Since he was so small the orcs didn't take notice of him and that gave him the opportunity to help his friends more easily. He was thinking that this whole battle wasn't that bad when he heard a strangled cry of pain, followed by a war cry. Turning around, he saw a giant troll being stabbed in the head by a very angry Merry and Pippin. Legolas shot the troll which promptly fell down with a loud thud.

As if in synchrony, the battle stopped. All the orcs were dead and silence fell, only to be broken by Sam who gave a loud yell, "Mr. Frodo!" He dropped his sword and ran to where, Neville noticed with a sunken feeling, Frodo lay skewered in the stomach.

The entire Fellowship ran to where Frodo was lying and was relieved and slightly amused to see that he was wearing Bilbo`s Mithril that Gandalf had been talking about earlier. Now satisfied that none of them had been harmed they gathered themselves and left the tomb to try to leave the mine as quickly as possible.

Ron was running like he was being chased by a horde of spiders, except it was actually a giant-fire-demon-thingy. All in all, his day had been terrible. As if walking around in a dark murky cave, then being attacked by orcs and goblins wasn't bad enough, now they had a beast chasing them that even Gandalf was scared of.

Finally, they arrived at the bridge that would get them out of there. They all began to jump across a large hole within it as Legolas, Luna, and Dramien were shooting at the orcs above them as cover. Ron was in the back and was running just in front of Gandalf who was urging them further.

"Quickly! Run!" Gandalf yelled, before stopping at the sound of a deafening roar. Ron stopped with him, as the others looked behind at the Balrog, fright in their eyes. "Keep running. This is beyond any of you," Gandalf bellowed, urging them forward and standing his ground in front of the demon. Noticing that Ron had not followed the rest of the Fellowship, he made an irritated sound, "You too Ronald!"

"There is no bloody way I`m leaving you behind," Ron shot back, pulling out his wand and sending a freezing charm at the Balrog. It seemed to be affecting the monster a bit so he kept doing it.

"Go with the others," Gandalf said again, gesturing to where the Fellowship was standing near the exit. He could see that Aragorn, Boromir, and Legolas had to physically restrain Harry, Ginny and Hermione tried to run back to aid Ron once they noticed he wasn't there. Neville, Luna, and Dramien were all watching on in horror.

"Just shut up and fight this thing," Ron said, turning back to the Balrog and yelling "Augumenti maxima," with such finality that Gandalf didn't try to convince him again. Or maybe that was because the Balrog was now occupying all of his attention.

As they fought, Hermione struggled against her captor. "Let me go!" She yelled at Boromir who was holding her back from running to Ron, who was sending spell after spell at the Balrog while Gandalf was chanting his own incantation at it.

"You`ll get yourself killed!" Boromir said angrily, struggling to keep a hold on her.

"So will he! Let me go you..."

But, there was no need to continue because the Balrog had fallen off the bridge.

"Oh thank God," Hermione sighed, slumping her body. But she straightened up as Ginny screamed, "Ron, Gandalf! Behind you!"

Sure enough, to their horror, the Balrog's fire-whip had wrapped itself around Gandalf`s leg and pulled him down. Ron quickly grabbed onto the older wizard's hand but was also pulled down, his left hand the only thing securing the two of them to the bridge. As he held on to the ledge, Hermione thought he would be okay, but her heart shattered as she saw that his hands were slipping. She, along rest of the Fellowship, was so in shock, that not a single spell to save him came to mind.

What probably took seconds felt like hours to her as Ron's hand slipped inch by inch. "Run!" He grunted, and with one last loving glance at Hermione, and a whispered, "Stay safe," Ron fell.

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand and sank to the floor. Tears silently poured down her face, as Boromir tried to pull her out of the mines. Luna and Ginny gave a strangled cry and Harry started yelling "Accio Ron!" frantically, but it was too late. Gimli was holding back Neville from running back over the bridge, as Dramien slumped onto the wall his hands clenching in anger. The tears fell harder as Frodo screamed, "Gandalf," over and over, willing that saying a name could bring him back, as the rest of the hobbits choked out sobs.

It was too much. This life was too much. Hermione couldn't take it anymore. Taking a deep breath, she let it all go and screamed so loud that every orc in Khazad-Dum cowered in fear. This before she was dragged, kicking and screaming, out of the mines of Moria in Boromir's arms.