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

Chapter 7 Preparation, Evacuation and Shieldmaidens

(I know Harry's dreams aren't exactly in chronological order but hey ho here we go, and I made a mistake Eowyn is now fifteen in this book)
Harry was standing in a small clearing, small shrubs littered the ground along with several groupings of small stones which must have fallen off the rocky ridges on both sides. Harry turned around and saw two figures sleeping close to the rocks and he almost jumped out of his skin in shock, he slowly approached the sleeping figures and with a shock he realised it was Frodo and Sam! Then he heard a voice, an oddly familiar voice, a horrible retching cough of a voice, he turned round and there it was, Gollum. Harry narrowed his eyes and moved towards the horrid creature "We wants it, we needs it," growled Gollum "Must have the precious! They stole it from us," Harry guessed he meant Bilbo or Frodo "Sneaky little hobbitses, wicked, tricksy, false!"
Then something odd happened, Gollum's face visibly changed and his voice became softer, almost kinder. Gollum shook his head dopily "No, no, not Master..." 'Frodo had somehow gotten hold of Gollum's allegiance,' thought Harry 'I wonder how.'
Gollum's face then changed again, back into Gollum's ugly grimace "Yes precious," he growled "False! They will cheat you, hurt you, lie!"
He changed again "But Master is my friend," retorted the other Gollum, softly.
"You don't have any friends, nobody likes you."
The other Gollum clapped his long, spindly hands over his ears "I'm not listening, not listening!" He whispered frantically.
"You're a liar and a thief."
"No."
"Murderer," whispered Gollum dangerously.
The other's face contorted into the most sad pitiful face Harry had ever seen, it was pathetic "Go away," he whispered nervously.
"Go away!" Gollum mimicked, before letting out a horrible, cruel laugh.
"I hate you," said the other Gollum sadly, looking almost on the verge of tears "I hates you."
"Where would you be without me?" Growled Gollum "Gollum! Gollum! I saved us! It was me, we survived because of me!"
"Not anymore," whispered the other Gollum softly, straightening up slightly.
Gollum cocked his head slightly "What did you say?
"Master looks after us now, we don't need you anymore."
"What?" Said Gollum icily.
"Leave now and never come back," said the other Gollum quietly.
"No!"
"Leave now and never come back!" Said the other Gollum, his voice mounting in volume.
Gollum growled angrily.
"LEAVE NOW AND NEVER COME BACK!!" Shouted the other Gollum, but Gollum did not answer back, it was as if he had vanished off the face of the Earth.
Harry gazed at the scene open mouthed before he felt a pull on his navel and his voice being called and he woke up from the dream, sitting bolt upright and panting, then he realised he was lying on the floor of Meduseld under a ragged grey blanket that smelt like moth balls. "Harry!" Whispered Legolas, shaking Harry, "The people have started leaving you need to get ready or we'll leave you behind." Legolas then walked out of the hall briskly as he whistled an elvish melody.
Soon Obsidian's (Obsidian was the Thestral's new name) saddle bags were full of Harry's possessions and belongings (his staff was fastened to the saddle tightly so it wouldn't fall off while riding) and as he was just fastening the saddle girth round Obsidian's belly he heard a petrified whinny come from the stables. Harry raised his eyebrows at the noise and then walked into the stables and saw a peculiar scene in front of him, there was a large bay horse rearing on its hind legs every few seconds its eyes were wide with madness and two ropes hung taut of its bridle which were being pulled by two bearded men in an effort to restrain it. Eowyn stood next to a white horse, stroking its muzzle gently as she watched the event unfold before her and looking concerned, "My lord," said a voice, Harry turned round to here the source and was met with a pot bellied short man with red hair "That horse is half mad, there's nothing you can do, leave him."
"There's always something you can do," murmured Harry slowly approaching the horse, he carefully put his hand out towards the horse "Drop the ropes."
"But..." began one of the men.
"Just do it," said Harry tiredly, he thought of how he had tamed Buckbeak the Hippogrith and decided to try it on the horse "At ease boy," said Harry softly, the horse snorted "I'm not going to hurt you, you're all right." The horse visibly began to relax and was completely content by the time Harry had touched his hand to its muzzle and undi the ropes attached to the bridle.
Harry then heard slow clapping and turned to see Aragorn smiling at him "Well done Hadrid," said Aragorn calmly "I couldn't have done it better myself, you would fit in amongst my people just fine."
"Your people?" Asked Harry trying to not sound rude.
"The rangers," said Aragorn "People often have to train years to calm a mad horse but you seemed to do it completely correctly on your first try, that is some feat."
"Yes," said Harry quietly "Yes it is..."
The river of citizens leaving the city of Edoras slowly grew in size until nearly the whole city was empty of people except those making last minute preparations and those in the hall of Meduseld. Harry walked past people who were emptying the hall's chests and filling bags with weapons and shields and armour and the like under the orders of King Theoden who's sole interest was to protect his people. Harry walked into the throne room with a sack over his shoulder and he saw Eowyn who was instead of packing sacks with weapons was practicing cuts, parries and swipes with a longsword, Harry smiled and dropped his sack on the floor and unsheathed Istar and walked towards Eowyn and intercepted her strike as she mimed a cut that would have taken the head of someone if they were stupid enough to go near her. The clang echoed across the hall and Eowyn's face turned from concentration to surprise and then into worry "You have skill with a sword," noticed Harry as he resheathed Istar into his scabbard that hung off his belt.
"Women of this country learnt long ago that those without swords can still die upon them," said Eowyn as she sheathed the sword she was practicing with and dumped it in her sack with a clutter "I fear neither death or pain," she added.
Harry cocked his head "Then what do you fear my lady, because I fear fear itself if that makes sense," he said not really sure why he was revealing his greatest fear.
"Yes that does make sense and my fear is a cage," said Eowyn quietly, looking Harry straight in the eye "To stay behind bars until use and old age accept them and all chance of valour has gone beyond recall or desire..."
"That is wise but you are a shieldmaiden of Rohan I expect that they'll have to tie you up in a sack to stop you from escaping if you were captured," Harry smiled at Eowyn brightly and he saw the corners of Eowyn's mouth twitch as she returned a slightly smaller smile. Harry inclined his head slightly before turning on his heel and sweeping up the sack and walked out the great carved oak door of Meduseld to find Obsidian the Thestral.
The last of the people of Edoras filed out of the gates loaded with sacks and donkeys with wagons along with fine horses with bulging saddlebags. Harry shivered slightly although Theoden had given him, Aragorn and Legolas new clothes (Gimli had refused entirely) to wear on the journey to Helm's Deep. He looked at the people behind him, there were mothers with small children amongst the throng and old men with walking sticks wobbled over the uneven terrain, they all looked scared or worried and even the infants and toddlers had noticed something was wrong. Obsidian whinnied from underneath Harry which jolted him out of his daze and he turned back to the direction he was meant to be going in and started to catch up with Legolas.
Meanwhile in a place that is far away from Middle Earth the man sat in his chair, absent mindedly playing with some silver beads in the palm of his wrinkled hand, next to him a beautiful bird cooed out a few notes, something that the man seemed to understand. "Really?" he asked the bird, stroking its soft, feathery head "They are leaving for Helm's Deep, good, good but there are several ah, obstacles in his way where he can show some of his new born power although he does not know of it yet."