I HATE THE MIDDLE AGES!
Chapter 4: The mission
(The Fellowship of the Ring)
The next morning, Frodo woke up and went to meet his friends, he was very saddened to learn that his friend was trapped in Middle Earth, never being able to return to his world again. Hermione was very depressed, but she felt that nothing could be achieved by despairing and decided to occupy her mind with whatever it was that took her away from the overwhelming reality, so she devoted herself to learning the language of the elves and reading all the books she could find in Rivendel's library.
“I've never seen anything like that, Father,"Arwen informed Elrond, "her mind is like a sponge, I'm sure she'll have learned our language and writing in a week, enough to ask you to read your personal library.”
“I know, and I will gladly allow it, in more than three thousand years I did not find anyone with that level of enthusiasm to learn, I myself am teaching her the runic language of dwarves since they do not teach their language to anyone.”
“I hope Hermione smiles again," said Arwen with sorrow.
“The prospect of going to my library seemed to cheer her up a bit, don't worry Arwen, Hermione is strong and will soon recover.”
Hermione, apart from learning elf and dwarf language, devoted herself fully to learning everything from Gandalf, and Aragorn taught her basic defense techniques with knife and shield.
Hermione was able to talk to Bilbo who was in Rivendel and he told her about his adventures when he went with the dwarves sixty years earlier.
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After a couple of weeks Elrond told Hermione about the council to be held.
“So, do you want me to attend Lord Elrond?”
“Yes, members of all races will be present and I would like you to be present to see the deliberations.”
“Of course Lord Elrond, it is an honor that you have invited me to the council, but will it be all right if I tell the humans that I am a witch?”
“Humans have a very primitive attitude towards magic, even Gandalf has problems relating to them, so I will present you before the council not as a witch, but as an istari.”
“I understand Lord Elrond, the term witch, can be very shocking to them, as well as my origin.”
“In fact, to calm things down even more, I will present you as Gandalf's niece granddaughter.”
“What?”
“Gandalf himself suggested the latter," said Elrond smiling, leaving later to fine-tune the details of the arrival of the council members.
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The day of the council came, and Hermione wore her best attire, and it was astonished that neither Bilbo nor Arwen were present.
“Bilbo excused himself from coming, because of his age," Gandalf informed her, "as for Arwen, well she is a woman after all, women have nothing to do in the council.”
“But Gandalf, I am a woman and...”
“Remember that Lord Elrond will introduce you as another istari and relative of mine, that should be enough to placate the other assistants.”
"Great," Hermione thought sarcastically. "I'm trapped in a macho, patriarchal and misogynistic world, I hate the Middle Ages!"
Hermione occupied a post on the left (and behind) of Gandalf, so that her presence would not be much noticeable, but she could still observe how many elves, dwarfs and humans whispered to each other when they saw the presence of a woman at the council.
“Young elf, don't sit there, you must do it further back and where is your jug of wine?” a human said to her.
“You're the wine pouring girl, right? I'd rather have some beer, please," said a dwarf.
Hermione just smiled.
"Calm down, Hermione," she thought. "Remember, it's not their fault but the rotten system they live in, I hate the Middle Ages!"
Lord Elrond saw fit to make the introductions and left Hermione at the end, and when her turn came, he emphasized her istari status before being a woman (“what the hell!” Hermione thought) and told them about her exploits in confronting the nazgul.
The council touched on several points, including a long review of the history of Sauron's ring, and at the end the ring was shown to council members.
“Then it's true, this is a gift, a gift for Gondor," said Boromir, and from there the problems began.
Boromir wanted to use the ring against Sauron, but Elrond disagrees, and to make matters worse, dwarves and elves started arguing with each other.
“I'd rather die than see the ring in the hands of an elf," shouted Gimli, answering in a bad way to Legolas.
Hermione was surprised to see how dwarves insulting the elves in their own home, Gandalf and humans including Aragorn joined the discussion, as did Elrond. The girl also wanted to participate in the discussion, but she knew that they would not pay any attention to her, in fact it would make things worse and she did not want that after the inconvenience that Elrond had to go through to invite her to the council. In that case Frodo got up and tried to say something.
“I will wear the ring," said Frodo but no one would listen to him.
“I WILL BRING THE RING," said Frodo and this time everyone paid attention to it (in fact, the ears were covered because Hermione used the Sonorus).
Hermione excused herself and pointed the wand at Frodo and used the Quietus spell.
A great sorrow was seen on Gandalf's face, but Elrond accepted Frodo's decision. Aragorn offered to help Frodo and Legolas followed, so Gimli joined in as he could not be left behind. Lord Elrond was about to give a speech when Sam invited himself to the council meeting and begged to be part of the expedition. Lord Elrond accepted amusingly, when Merry and Pipin joined the entourage, this time Lord Elrond looked angry but also accepted the help of the other two hobbits. Boromir and Gandalf offered their help, and Gandalf insisted that Hermione accompany them.
“But she is only a woman," Legolas said.
“She'll get in our way, she won't be able to keep up," Boromir claimed. Aragorn thought this last one but preferred to remain silent, since the help of the witch would be invaluable, he would take her on horseback if necessary.
“It's bad luck to bring a woman," Gimli insisted.
“That's nonsense, Gimli," Gandalf criticized him.
“But that could bring a woman to the expedition to the Mount Doom,” insisted Boromir.
Gandalf gave Hermione the speech
“Noble gentlemen, I assure you that my presence would be of great benefit to you, I can make sure we never lose our orientation, and I can conjure water, which is vital for the enterprise we wish to perform, I can conjure protection spells to hide our presence of the enemy and make any luggage we carry as light as a feather," she said in a firm tone. All present exchanged glances.
“But in combat," said Boromir.
“I have already pointed out how the istari fought and defeated the Nazgulis alone," said Elrond, who had not mentioned Aragorn's participation in that struggle to justify the witch's presence in the council.
“If so, the istari are more than welcome to come with us," Legolas said, and the other members did not object to anything else.
“Thank you," said Hermione to Legolas' words and she tried to show a hard image for others to take her seriously. Elrond then gave his blessing to the group he baptized as The Fellowship of the Ring.
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On the day of the departure, the members of the community finally appreciated Hermione's help, since it was not necessary for them to carry many skins with water and they also carried luggage that in other circumstances would prevent them from taking even one step, but thanks to the spell of featherweight, they felt as if they were not carrying any weight, what's more, Hermione applied this same spell to the shields and weapons of the members of the group, which they were very grateful for.
“We could carry a lot more, but I don't remember the Undetectable Extension spell," Hermione said, "we could carry all the luggage in a simple bag that would fit in my hand.”
“Incredible," Gimli said, "but you don't have to worry, you've already helped us a lot with the weight we carry.”
“It's true Hermione," added Legolas, "with your help we could go to the end of the world.”
“This is not far from the truth," said Boromir. “Mordor lies at one end of the Middle Earth, from Rivendel.”
“Thank you," said Hermione, smiling especially at Boromir.
“Is something wrong?” Boromir asked her, "You keep looking at me all the time.”
“Oh! No, it's nothing, just that you remind me of someone from my world (Hermione told the truth of her origin to all members of the fellowship).”
“And who do I remember?”
“Boromir, you look like the young version of the protagonist of the first season of Game of Trones.”
“Game of thrones?”
“Yes, the protagonist is king of a faraway land in the north.”
“A king... I hope someday to give up the condition of son of the seneschal and one day be king of Gondor," said Boromir looking sideways at Aragorn.
Hermione decided to change the subject, while cursing herself for bringing the issue of true inheritance to the throne of Gondor.
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After a couple of days, the group was interrupted by the presence of a large flock of birds, which were at Saruman's service. Seeing that they could not advance through the valley because of the enemy spies (Hermione could not conjure up occult spells every two steps, it would be ridiculous), they decided to pass through a huge mountain.
Hermione thought it would be crazy to challenge the mountain, that in the girl's eyes it looked as high as Everest.
“Let's listen to Gimli," Hermione said quietly.
“We can't pass through Moria," replied Aragorn quietly, "we haven't received reports from that place in a long time, don't tell Gimli, but I personally believe that the orcs invaded Moria and killed the dwarves.”
Hermione looked terrified, knowing that the lord of Moria was none other than Balin, the old dwarf who accompanied Bilbo on his adventure. Bilbo described the dwarf very well to Hermione, she imagined him not as a sullen dwarf, but as a wise old man with a bulbous nose and a long, fluffy white beard.
TO BE CONTINUE...
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