Chapter 20

The sun was slowly descending behind the tall mountain range. The birds had long since stopped singing and were now settling down for the night. The air was growing colder and colder as the stars shone brighter and brighter. The shadows became longer and longer as the sun dropped lower and lower. Animals that were not made for darkness returned to their homes, ready to rest after a long day. But there was no rest for Harry. He could not afford to rest, lest he become a meal for one of the many nocturnal creatures that inhabited Middle Earth. He was hunting, tonight he would be an owl, or a wolf.

But he was not hunting any normal prey.

This prey was much bigger and much stronger than he was. By all rights he should be the prey and it should be the hunter. But Harry fancied himself should the impending confrontation happen. Magic, specifically his magic, was a match for even the toughest of creatures. His foe had learnt this, on the battlefield overlooked by a single, solitary peak. As had his minions, whose number he had slaughtered beyond count.

They were distant memories. Memories diluted as the years went by, as his mind grew older and wiser whilst his body stayed as it had been for decades. He must be pushing 80 odd, he had lost count at around 50.

Time seemed to move in a blur, he never stayed anywhere long. During the first few years after the company had disbanded he visited Dale regularly, then his visits became less frequent, the last one being about 10 years ago. Since then he had been wandering. Memories of a lost life still sprang up from time to time, he still remembered a woman with pink hair and a laughing toddler with hair which changed according to his mood. Those were memories Harry looked back on fondly, if with a tinge of sadness. He thought he had gotten over the impossibility of returning to his home world, but the idea lingered.

If he could go back, would he?

He supposed there was nothing keeping him here other than his enemy, but then again the people of this world could cope just fine on their own couldn't they? Gandalf would be there to watch over them among others.

But these thoughts usually went out of his head as quickly as they had popped into it.

He had not even been given a slight indication that he could return, nor should he go out of his way to find one. No matter how much he tried to convince himself otherwise, the fact remained that Voldemort was still out there, all killing him in his old world had done was transport him here into a body with more power than Harry wanted to think about.

He had to try and stop him.

His head snapped up from the woodlouse he was examining. The large pine tree he had chosen to hide in offered sufficient protection from the creatures of the night, his scent would be masked by the strong smell of the needles. He squinted his eyes and pricked his ears. He heard the crunching of leaves and the creaking of trees. A small smile blossomed on his face, his prey had arrived.

And it was making quite the racket.

He climbed slightly higher in the tree until he was able to make out the tops of all the trees around. This was a particularly strange forest, various different types of trees grew all around him. It was peculiar. But then again almost everything was in Middle Earth.

One of the things Harry had grown to love about the place.

About 200 metres in front of him the trees were shaking wildly. That was where his prey was. That was where he would spill troll guts. Or maybe he would track the troll some more, lull it into a false sense of security before striking. Maybe even let it get to its cave, all the more unprepared it would be for Harry to descend upon it. He had been following this particular troll for a couple of days now, it was one of the biggest of its kind. At least the biggest Harry had ever seen. Thus he had decided caution was perhaps the smartest approach.

But then, when had it ever gone according to plan?

Deftly he descended again just below the tree tops. He began jumping from branch to branch, not making a sound. The use of silencing spells had become less and less necessary as he had honed his hunting skills. Magic could not solve all of his problems. Harry had taken up Gandalf's suggestion of limiting the amount he depended on it. It had been hard at first, but he managed and was maybe even better for it. Eru's vague gift of knowing what to do and when to do it would not help him if he was stripped of his wand. His sword fighting was almost as good if not better than the best fighter in Dale by the time he'd left for the last time. He wished he could visit more often.

But evil never rests.

And nor must he.

After a minute or so he was in a position to see his prey clearly. It was as big as the last time he'd seen it, the night before, and it seemed rather agitated about something. Harry frowned. It couldn't have sensed him, he'd been extra careful. Considering trolls barely had enough brain power to walk in a certain direction, Harry guessed that it wasn't him that had disturbed this troll. Disturbed was the key word. It was easy to anger trolls, use words with more than 5 letters in and they got thoroughly annoyed. No. This troll was anxious.

"What could make a creature of his size nervous?" Harry asked himself softly. He would need to wait. With the troll's heightened awareness of its surroundings Harry would never be able to get the jump on it.

The situation he was in now was a little too familiar for his tastes. A couple of years earlier he had been in a similar position. But the creature he was hunting then was cunning, rather than strong. It had led him one way only to double back and escape. Eventually, after months of tracking he had finally caught up to his prey. If those orcs hadn't interrupted then the creature would have been safely behind bars in some elven stronghold by now. Harry's wrath had been fearful when, mid-interrogation, a band of orcs had jumped him. Months of careful tracking, months of keeping as silent as he dared, months chasing that reckless creature through miles and miles of wilderness, all brought crashing down by a group of weak orcs who had surprised him.

And thus his prey had escaped. It darkened his mood even now.

It would not happen again.

He watched as the troll lumbered off through the trees in the direction of a large rock. Harry assumed that was where the monster dwelled. All he had to do was follow it without being noticed and he could take it down. He mentally went over how he would do this in his head.

Step 1. A silencing charm on the cave's entrance, so as not to draw any unwanted attention. This also had the disadvantage that if Harry were to be in trouble there would be no help coming. But he didn't think that this would be an issue.

Step 2. Creep up behind the troll and slit its Achilles. This would drastically weaken it.

Step 3. Avoid inevitably flailing arms.

Step 4. …

Harry stopped. Maybe he should just wing it. That had worked all the other times he had tried. Anything he planned very rarely came off. In fact, it never came off. Ever. There was that incident with Gollum. The incident with the spiders in Mirkwood. The Steward he had accidentally pissed off in Gondor. Though in his defence that last one was in no way his fault, how was he to know that proclaiming that the pseudo-king's son, Mara-something-or-other, one of the best sword-fighters he had ever seen (which of course he wasn't, as he was about 8 at the time, but Harry had thought a little lie wouldn't go amiss here) would cause the prickly steward to twitch and say very angrily that his other son, Denethor or whatever he was called, was a much better swordsman as well as a man. Ecthelion, the steward (whose name Harry had actually remembered, maybe because he disliked the man) had given him cold looks throughout the meal he had with them on his visit to Minas Tirith. The son Harry had complimented however had more than made up for the lack of talk by asking Harry about his adventures, to which Harry replied with much embellishment and arm-waving. The steward had apparently been a nicer man in his youth but age and circumstance had soured him. Denethor was of a similar ilk from what Harry had seen of him. The less he had to deal with that family the better.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that things never went according to plan when Harry Potter was the one making said plan.

As they came to the foot of the enormous rock Harry saw the large, gaping hole which was obviously the cave's entrance. It was pitch black in the hole. This would not be an issue, he'd had plenty of experience in the dark to confidently follow a troll into its centre. The aforementioned troll had now disappeared into its dwelling, just in time too as Harry saw the first rays of daylight begin to creep over the horizon. He leapt down from the trees and landed with a soundless thud on the hard earth below. Stealth had never been one of his favourite options, he slightly preferred hard, fast and terribly stupid, but this was not a creature to take lightly. Mostly because it would probably just mash him into a pulp if he tried to fight it head on. He was about to enter the cave when a yell came quite unexpectedly from its depths.

A yell that sounded remarkably human.

And a roar that sounded remarkably troll-like.

A knot formed in Harry's stomach and he darted into the cave. Some unfortunate person had obviously used the trolls cave as shelter for the night, unaware that they had basically been walking into a pot which was hovering over an invisible flame. Entering the darkness Harry cast a quick Lumos Maxima. There was no more need for subtlety. He had to move quick if the unknown had any chance of surviving.

The spell lit up the vast majority of the cave and also illuminated a large number of extinguished torches on the walls. Harry cancelled his spell and cast multiple Incendio charms at the torches. Now the cave was fully lit and revealed a sight which almost made Harry pause.

The cave was like a huge oval, easily the size of the Quidditch stadium back at Hogwarts. In the middle of it was the troll, flailing its arms everywhere and roaring in pain and anger. The pain was easily explained as there seemed to be a sword impaled in its side. Its anger could also be deduced from that. Also from the man that was running through its legs holding what looked like a piece of rope. Harry looked at the man.

He was tall, that Harry could tell. Broad shouldered as well and with a shaggy head of dark hair with hints of grey. His face was lined and worn. He was dressed in dark clothes which looked worn and ragged. Harry thought he looked familiar but couldn't place him. Either way he seemed to be succumbing to the troll's strength. Harry rushed at the troll which was about to crush the man with its giant fist. Having powerful flashbacks he leapt at the troll, grabbed one of the ridges in its back and hoisted himself up. Clambering up onto the troll's head he saw the man notice him for the first time. He did not dwell on this as he drew his sword and plunged it into the back of the troll's head. Normal swords would not have pierced the troll's thick skin but Harry's was different. It cut through the grey flesh like a hot knife through butter, sinking deeper and deeper into the troll's brain. The troll didn't seem to react at first, it went quite still. Then it began to fall forward. Harry, decided that this might be the best time to abandon ship, jumped off the falling beast and landed in a roll on the dusty floor.

The troll's body landed with an enormous crash which seemed to shake the entire cave. Harry got up slowly, dusting himself off and watching the troll intensely. Other than a twitch or two it was quite dead. Sighing slightly Harry cleaned his sword of troll blood and sheathed it again. It was only now that he noticed the man staring at him with his sword pointed in his direction. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Are you quite sure that is a good idea?" Harry asked calmly, amused by the situation "I did just take down a troll that was about to kill you did I not?"

The man stared for a minute before lowering his sword.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously. Harry smiled slightly.

"Me? Well, I guess you could say I'm a wanderer. I don't really have a home and I don't particularly need one. I never stay in the same place for long, not my style I guess. My name's Harry Potter. You may know me as the Black Wizard. What would your name be?" he asked politely, if cautiously.

The man's eyes had widened when Harry had mentioned his name, but the face smoothed over soon enough into the grim expression he seemed comfortable in.

"I am Aragorn, Son of Arathorn" he said with a slight bow. Harry stared. Aragorn? He'd heard mention of the name when he and the company had been in Rivendell, he may have even seen the kid once or twice but they never conversed as Harry was usually busy with Dee or talking with Elrond and Gandalf. But that was years ago, and Aragorn barely looked over 30. Harry racked his brains for any being (other than elves) who aged slower than other mortals.

'Ah, a Dunedain' Harry thought, 'interesting'

"A pleasure to meet you Aragorn, might I assume that it was your tracking that agitated the troll in the first place?" Harry enquired, Aragorn shrugged. "Hmm," Harry said slowly "try to be more careful next time, and your welcome by the way" Harry said as he turned to leave the cave. Aragorn frowned.

"I had that under control" he said stiffly. Harry snorted.

"Yeah, I saw that from behind the massive troll which was about to crush you into a mess on the cave floor" he said, walking away.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Aragorn called after him. Harry stopped and turned slightly.

"Well I was planning to travel to Edoras from here, King Thengel is on his deathbed and I wish to pay him a visit before he dies. Why do you ask?"

"Well," Aragorn said awkwardly "I was wondering if I could join you, it would be an honour to travel with the Black Wizard."

Harry considered him a moment. He had never had a hunting partner before. He had never needed one. Not that he did now. But maybe some company would not go amiss. Stop him going insane due to lack of company. He had started talking to himself recently after all. He sighed.

"Very well," Harry replied "but Edoras is many leagues from here, and I might not be the best company"

"You're better than none" Aragorn replied, "and I have travelled a fair bit myself" Harry smiled slightly.

"Lets us go then," he said and resumed his march out of the cave.

"Wait," Aragorn said, causing Harry turn stop again "shouldn't we check for anything worth taking?"

Harry had not thought of that. After the first couple of caves had held nothing but human remains Harry had decided not to waste his time. He really should search every cave he came across, you never knew what you could find. The cave where he had found Sting, Bilbo's sword, was proof enough of this.

"Alright then," Harry replied after a moment "be quick though, I want to travel as far as we can with the daylight available"

They searched for the next 20 minutes, Harry found little but a few old rusty swords and a couple of broken shields. Harry fixed one particularly nice shield with a wave of his wand, it would likely be useful to have one, though he had never needed one before. He was about to call out to Aragorn that they would not find anything here and that it would be prudent to get going when he saw something black glittering in the light of the torches out of the corner of his eye.

His shout died in his mouth as he moved slowly towards the object. It was small. So small that Harry was surprised he had seen it. Half buried by dirt, branded with a very strange but unimaginably familiar, was a small black stone. The symbol was a triangle with a line and a circle in the middle of it. There was a long crack down its centre.

"The Resurrection Stone" Harry breathed. He'd thought he'd seen the last of this when he dropped it in the forest all those years ago. How could it be here? Of all places? In an unremarkable cave which housed a troll. Quickly he picked the stone up and looked carefully at it. He wanted to test it. He wanted to see if it worked still. To see that this wasn't just some trick of his mind and that he was holding the last of the 3 Deathly Hallows, the only one he had not possessed in all his time in Middle Earth. But he could not do it here, not with Aragorn in the same room. It would cause a lot of questions which he would rather not be asked. And so he pocketed it, next to the Invisibility Cloak and the Elder Wand.

"We should go" Harry said loudly to Aragorn, who was on the other side of the cave. Said man looked up from examining another rusty sword and nodded. So together they set out from the torch-lit cave.

Emerging into the first light of day was refreshing. Some stars still shone in the sky, as though reluctant to leave, and the tips of the green hills were shining with light. Birds were beginning to sing in the trees and he heard a rooster crowing in the distance. The smell of the trees, the grass, the very air drifted up Harry's nose and filled his senses. It was quite magnificent. Then again, almost everything in Middle Earth was magnificent.

"Point Me Edoras" Harry muttered, his wand swivelled in his hand until it rested on a point somewhere in front of him.

Taking a deep breath Harry, with Aragorn at his side, began walking. To Edoras, and to his old friend, King Thengel.

AN: Well finally, I can't remember when I started writing this chapter, I did a lot of it one day and finished the rest of it today, when I felt like writing. I may even write the next chapter right now, don't hold me to that however. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, as a note we have skipped to the year 2980 of the Third Age. There may even be some unique storylines between this year and the War of the Ring. Cheers everyone! (PS I may have made Ecthelion a bit nastier than he actually was, according to Tolkien he was very wise but on my reread of the whole chapter I remembered that Faramir and Boromir were unlikely to even have been born by this time, I found that Boromir had been born 2 years before but it didn't fit. So I just made it a similar situation but with the previous generation, Denethor didn't have a brother that we know of so I made him up)