The Queen of Middle-Earth | Aragorn & Hermione

Chapter 8

Sometimes what you're most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free.― Robert Tew

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Maybe it was wrong and selfish; maybe they should have chosen the route through Lothlórien instead of climbing the freezing Misty Mountains, where they could not move as quick as they wanted, since they had to wade through thirty centimeters of snow. But Aragorn had thought about that option; first of all, if he would lead them through the forest of the elves he had to explain with whom he was travelling to everyone, including lady Galadriel – although he was pretty sure she knew the significant happenings already, she probably knew some of the future as well – but since most of the fellowship didn't have a clue about the witch's real origin, he chose to keep them in the dark a bit longer, as he didn't want them to obtain false hope, given that Hermione had made it very clear that she didn't want to fight by their side. She didn't seem like she wanted to linger on in Middle-Earth any longer as needed and so it would help nobody if they had faith in the wrong person, who chose her own well-being over the life of others. He had noticed her trying to avoid helping her travel companions, which was why he thought of her as a spoiled and egoistic person – at least that was what the Dúnedain tried to tell himself, even if unfortunately he couldn't hide his sympathies for this witch whose beauty didn't leave him totally unaffected. She did only fight her own fights, but still, when he had been in danger the young sorceress had saved him from getting wounded or even killed. Why had she done that? And why did her close proximity have the effect of making him feel like a young and naive, weak, clumsy adult; every time he thought about her or he saw her look at him his heart quickened and he felt a tingling in his stomach. It made him go insane! He didn't have an answer to why this happened to him now. He couldn't be in love with this girl! No it was totally inappropriate and besides, he didn't like her self-centered behavior. No, no, no he was probably just excited about the thought that he had found the woman who had been lost over the past years and he needed to protect her from any harm, since the future of Middle-Earth was at stake. Yes that had to be the answer. Thus the second reason why he hadn't told the fellowship about her real self, was because he wanted to have Hermione for himself a little bit longer, of course merely because he wanted to get to know her a little bit better so he could find out what her problems and fears were. He hoped that, if she knew this world better and if she'd grow fond of them, he could talk her into staying in Middle-Earth. But if the world would find out about her and her friends, they would not have a quiet moment anymore.

Aragorn got ripped out of his thoughts by a yell. Frodo had stumbled and was now falling downhill, through the deep snow towards the ranger who caught him smoothly and helped him get up again.

"Are you alright?" Boromir had seen the happening and had walked back to see if the Hobbit was fine. Frodo only nodded as a reply.

Aragorn scanned the group of travelers. The Middle-Earthlings, except for Frodo all still seemed quite fit, only the wizards were falling behind. Hermione was exhausted, she wasn't used to this kind of physical exercises. She hadn't been sleeping more than a few hours a day and she had been walking more than she had done in years since they had decided to join Aragorn's clan. The Dúnedain was clearly the leader of the group, when someone made a decision he was the one who would determine if it was going to happen or not. Hermione couldn't really explain why everyone was following this ranger, but she figured he'd be a trueborn leader.

"We need to take a rest." Aragorn stated and Boromir nodded as an accord.

They set up their tents near a floating river, which wasn't frozen yet. Hermione went to get some water to boil it for tea and coffee. She needed something warm desperately; she had been freezing all day, partly from the cold and partly from being over fatigue.