Harry Potter and the Two Towers (Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings Crossover)

Chapter 2 The Rohirrm, Riding and Horses

Aragorn had forced Harry, Legolas and Gimli to follow him through the night in pursuit of Uruk-Hai, so ignoring his protesting legs Harry ran through the night with his companions, Gimli aways lagged behind them as the ran and when they stopped he caught up but soon fell behind when they started running again. At dawn the paused for a breather in the middle of a large plain near to a patch of boulders, the sky glowed a sickly red above their heads "A red sun rises," said Legolas worriedly "Blood has been spilt this night."
The four ran forward slightly to see the area better, the hills glistened with morning dew and snow capped mountains were visible on the horizon, Harry smiled sadly, it reminded him of Hogwarts on the first day of spring, he could see Hermione picking fresh flowers and the Weasley twins gallivanting around the castle, he could see Ron eating breakfast ridiculously fast. But a sharp bray of a horse and thundering horse hooves shook him to his senses, "Get behind those rocks," whispered Aragorn and they scuttled behind a large boulder, Harry winced every time Gimli's armour clinked. The hoof beats steadily grew louder and louder and louder still and then over the crest of the hill galloped easily over five hundred men upon horseback. Each man carried a long spear and was coated in a steel and leather armour, their helmeted heads glinted in the sunlight as they rode, their forest green cloaks whipping behind them, it was an impressive sight. As soon as all the horsemen had galloped past their hiding spot, Aragon walked out of it and Harry nervously followed along with Legolas and Gimli "Riders of Rohan!" Called Aragorn "What news of the mark?" The lead rider hefted his spear in an order to turn and that the riders did they changed course and headed straight for the four of them. Legolas glared at Aragorn quizzically as the horses grew nearer and nearer until they were right in front of the before diverting course and galloped round them. The horses circled them once, twice, thrice before finally coming to halt, forming a ring around the four of them, their spears pointed at their faces.
Aragorn held his hands up in a placating gesture but the riders payed no heed to it, then the leader emerged from behind other riders and cantered towards them "What business does an elf, two men and a dwarf have in the Riddermark?" He asked angrily, halting his horse as he spoke, they remained silent "Speak quickly!" He ordered.
"Give me your name, horse-master and I shall give you mine," said Gimli with an almost cocky glance at the seething leader.
Harry put an hand on Gimli's shoulder "Try not to upset him, he's got the spear we haven't," he whispered, Aragorn rolled his eyes.
The leader handed the rider next to him and dismounted his horse before walking towards Gimli "I would cut off your head," he paused for a second "Dwarf, if it stood but a little higher from the ground..."
Quick as a whip Legolas drew and notched an arrow "You'd die before you're stroke fell!" And pointed at the leader's face and with the clanking of wood all the spears where aimed at him, Aragorn put his hand on the bow and pushed it down slightly, the spears returned to their normal state.
"I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn," said Aragorn turning to face the leader "This is Gimli, son of Glóin," he pointed at Gimli "Legolas of the Woodland Realm and Hadrid..." Aragorn trailed off at Hadrid's name suddenly realising that he didn't know the much about Harry.
"Hadrid Dagorlad," said Harry "Of Rivendell and Bree and the lands across the sea."
The leader's eyes widened in surprise "How can this be?" He murmured, he walked towards Harry, who glared at him stoically. He took in Harry's staff warily before he put a hand on Harry's forehead and lifted up his fringe to reveal the scar Harry had forgotten about since arriving in Middle-Earth. "It is the Marked One!" He whispered in amazement, "Lower your spears," Ordered the leader.
"We are friends of Rohan and of your King," said Harry staring at the leader, the leader suddenly looked downcast.
He turned to face the others "Théoden no longer recognizes friend from foe, not even his own kin," the leader removed his helmet from his head to reveal a severe face and a mane of dirty blonde hair. "Saruman has poisoned the mind of our King and has claimed lordship over these lands," Aragorn looked shocked "My company are those loyal to Rohan and for that we are banished," if it were possible Aragorn looked even more shocked.
"How can this be?" Asked Harry, he was intrigued by the current situation.
"Gríma Wormtongue, that's why," spat the leader "He is Saruman's puppet to control King Théoden."
"Gríma Wormtongue?" Echoed Harry in wonder thinking of Peter Pettigrew whose nickname was Wormtail.
"The White Wizard is cunning," hissed the leader "He walks here and there they say, dressed as an old man, hooded and cloaked, and everywhere his spies slip past our nets," he glanced at the four of them suspiciously.
"We are not spies," said Harry confidently.
"Hadrid is correct," agreed Aragorn "We track a party of Uruk-Hai westward across the plain, they hold two of our friends captive."
A grave look passed over the leader's face "The Uruks are destroyed, we slaughtered them all during the night."
A sense of familiar dread clenched Harry's heart and he must have showed it because Legolas put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "But there were two hobbits," said Gimli quickly, shaking his finger violently at the leader "Did you see two hobbits with them?"
"They would have been small only children to your eyes," added Aragorn helpfully albeit a little desperately.
"We left none alive," said the leader remorsefully, confirming Harry's worse feelings.
"No, no," murmured Harry falling to the ground in a heap.
"We piled the carcasses and burnt them," said the leader sadly he pointed westwards towards a large billowing cloud of smoke.
"Dead?" Gimli asked as if he did not quite believe it, the four of them shared sad glances.
The leader was quiet for a moment before nodding sadly "I'm sorry," he whispered, he then blew a sharp whistle "Hasufel! Arod!" He called and two saddled horses emerged from the ring of horsemen. They each had no rider. "May these horses lead you to better fortune than their former masters," said the leader "Farewell," the leader put on his helm once again and mounted his horse and had his spear returned to his hand "Look for your friends, but do not trust to hope, it has forsaken thee lands... We ride north!" And with that the Riders of Rohan galloped off as if they had never met them.
"Aragorn?" Asked Harry timidly, Aragorn turned to face him, he gulped "Erm, I don't ave a horse, do you know where I can find one?"
"Call for your Thestral," answered Aragorn gruffly "It shall return to you."
Harry cleared his throat and feeling more than a little foolish called "Thestral! Thestral!" and gave a long whistle, and a black speck appeared on the horizon it grew nearer and near until you could have mistaken it for a small dragon. Legolas notched and arrow "Don't fire!" hissed Harry and he smiled when he realised it was his Thestral flying towards them, it landed gently on the ground and trotted up to Harry and nuzzled his shoulder, making Harry laugh.
As the two men, elf and dwarf were galloping in the direction of the smoke, Harry realised how much he loved horse riding especially since they never had the opportunity to do it at Hogwarts, with a shock Harry also realised that he didn't really miss his school that much, even Ron and Hermione.
By the time they had arrived the corpses had already started to smell. An Uruk-Hai's head was mounted, its face contorted in a grotesque grimace just in front of the pile of smoking corpses, Harry swung off his Thestral and worriedly inspected the pile. He poked at the pile with the butt of his staff, turning over the charred corpses but there was no sign of Merry and Pippin, then Gimli grew quiet and bent over the pile and picked something up, "What is it?" Asked Harry "What have you found?"
Gimli however remained quiet and slowly turned round, in his right hand he held a small belt with a small ornate sheath hanging off it, "It's one of their wee belts," he said solemnly, holding it up for them to see. Harry bit his hand to stop a sob escaping his mouth, Legolas bowed his head in sadness and began to chant a blessing in elvish, Aragorn kept surveying the pile before kicking an Uruk helmet as far as he possibly, he shouted a cry of despair before falling to his knees dejectedly, bowing his head. Harry might have thought the man had broken on of his toes but he hadn't, "We failed them," said Gimli dejectedly, Harry felt a small tear roll down his cheek and fell on oddly shaped patch of squashed grass, a hobbit shaped patch of grass next to a large battle ax.
"A hobbit must have laid here," Harry murmured, leaning on his staff and then a bit louder "Aragorn, have a look at this," Aragorn grudgingly got to his feet and walked over to where Harry was.
"A hobbit lay here," said Aragorn echoing Harry but loud enough for Legolas and Gimli to hear who rushed over.
"And another there," Harry pointed with the butt of his staff to another hobbit shaped patch of grass practically next to the other one. Suddenly Harry's head erupted in pain he saw Pippin in the light of the moon scream as a horse reared over him and came crashed down a second after he had rolled out the way.
"What is it Hadrid?" Asked Legolas concernedly and Harry realised he had clutched his head in his hands, right over his scar.
"Nothing," muttered Harry "I'm fine," but Legolas didn't notice Harry rub his scar.