Chapter 14
Harry snorted. “I left Black Rock Fair with ten and just myself to tend them, now I have three other people. But I also need another four Standard Cobs, too.”
“As well?” Kellan blinked.
“Yeah…” Harry sighed. “I’ve had to add wagons, to my main wagon, one for my wards, another for my vassal and that means I need a heavier feed wagon instead of a light cart.”
“Ah.” Kellan grunted. “The bane of the traveller. More wagons, mean more ponies, means a feed wagon, means more ponies.”
“So, I’m learning.” Harry sighed.
~~~
April 21st 2920
“Alright, Harry.” Fred looked at the herd of ponies, in the enclosure. “Talk us through them.”
“The four blacks are mine. Onyx, Ebony, Raven and Athena. Plus the two dark greys, Dancer and Delilah. The four buckskins will pull Lavender and Colin’s wagon. They are Hazel, Willow, Fern and Marigold. The four pale greys are Fred’s. Feather, Pearl, Flora and Iris. The four draught ponies are for the feed wagon. The bright chestnut is Ginger, the liver-chestnut is Spice, the dappled buckskin is Almond and the dappled roan is Latte.” He pointed at each pony, as he said their name.
“Okay…” Fred’s eyes widened as Harry spoke. “That’s going to… Okay… “
“I’ll take Almond and Latte to fetch the feed wagon and Fred can bring one of his ladies, to fetch his shop-cart. We’ll bring them back here and then it should be about time to fetch the two live-in wagons. It will be up to Fred who he takes, but I suggest that Willow and Hazel pull Lavender and Colin's wagon.”
“Um…? How are we going hitch them for travelling?” Fred asked. “What wagon, pulled by what poines, in what order?”
Harry hummed before answering. “When we leave, I’ll have Onyx and Ebony harnessed to the wagon, Dancer and Delilah on each side of my shop-cart's shafts, with Raven and Athena tied to the rear of it. Lavender, Colin? I suggest Willow and Hazel in harness with Fern and Marigold tied to the rear of your wagon. Give the new ponies a chance to settle down, before hitching them to a wagon. Fred? It’s up to you who pulls and who is tied and where you tie them. I suggest to the rear of your shop-cart as your girls are broader than Dancer and Delilah. I’ll probably use Almond and Latte for the feed wagon, as they seem the calmest, with Ginger and Spice tied to the back of it.”
“And which wagon, goes first, or second?” Lavender asked.
“My main wagon, first, with the feed wagon behind me, I’ll string a rope from my shop-cart to the pulling ponies. Then Lavender and Colin. With Fred in the back.”
“Why am I in the back?” Fred whined.
“Because out of you, Lavender and Colin, you’ve more experience driving a wagon.” Harry snorted. “It might only be a few extra days, but until they’ve got some time in, you’re the rear-guard.”
Fred huffed and nodded. “Fine…”
“You’re got your wagons” Harry told the other three wizarding dwarves. “Dinner’s in an hour and I’ve put privacy charms up. Put your stuff in your wagon and sort it out. Fred leave the shop stuff for later, if we can get out of Minas Tirith by lunchtime, tomorrow, that will get us out of the Pelennor Fields and into the fringes of the Druadan Forest, by sunset. Map charms show multiple tracks through the forest, one of which opens into a clearing. It’s about an acre and a half, wedge shaped, a corner at the base, is the access point. There’s a small stream running along one long side. We can rope the clearing off and place the wagons at the peak of the wedge. Throw in some high-level privacy charms and we can camp there for a couple of nights, while you all sort out your spaces.”
“That would be lovely, Harry.” Lavender smiled at Harry.
“I’ve done a Summons, here in the city and I can use that time to sort through everything and divide up the loot.” Harry frowned. “All bar what we got from the… the wedding guests. That’s Lavender’s. I’ve pulled out most stuff that I would have exchanged, like the smaller coins, gold, silver, man-sized stuff. I’m thinking that, as Lavender is the only one of you that’s likely to use gold or silver for work, that it should go to her, but I I’d like to get prices on it, before I take action, don’t want to cheat anyone out of anything.”
“We had a chat while you were pony shopping, Harry.” Fred said.
“Oh?” Harry blinked. “Should I be worried?”
“Don’t think so.” Fred replied. “We are a little concerned that we might not be the only ones, to suddenly wake-up in middle-earth and we feel that dividing the loot up is good, but we think that three ways might be shorting someone that we haven’t found. So, we… we want to split it six ways. One for each for the three of us, two for anyone else that turns up. And one that we can use to buy a place to live, something that can be our home-base.”
Harry blinked and thought about that. “Okay… I can match the home-base share. Just… think about it for a while. We’ve got twenty years, before the quest. Buying means that we can do what we like with a place, but renting or leasing means that leaving can happen with just a little notice, especially if we decide to move to the mountain.” He’d explained what was coming with the quest and the war of the ring.
“Let’s see what’s there, first.” Lavender cautioned him. “It might not be just the four of us, so we may need lots of room.”
“Fair.” Harry nodded. “But sure, six ways is doable. Maybe trading out the gold and silver, nuggets, ingots and dust, is a good idea, then.”
“Trade my share.” Fred said.
“And mine.” Colin added.
“Only half mine, please.” Lavender requested. “If we can find a jeweller for me to get a training memory from, I’ll want some to work with.”
“Gem’s too?”
All three nodded.
“Got it.” Harry nodded. “And yes, I spotted a couple of jewellers. I can get their memories or Fred can. Either way, works. That should only take a few minutes. Then we need to stock up. I dropped past the grain merchants’ and bought a wagon load of grain, chaff and hay. And shrunk it. Then got a second load, so we’re good for pony feed. All we need it people food.”
“I have a list.” Colin held up a sheet of rough paper. “And we rented a hand-wagon from the yards, for the morning.”
~~~
April 22nd 2920
Making their way out of Minas Tirith, Harry had Lavender seated beside him, while Colin was riding with Fred. It meant that Fred was driving Lavender and Colin’s wagon, instead of his own.
In addition to hunting up jewellers and working out the approximate cost of what had been Summoned since Pelargir, Harry spent a couple of hours dividing up the gold, silver, mithril, gems and jewellery in the requested six portions, he also sold off all of the human-sized clothes and some of the weapons to dealers and traders. A bow meant for a six-foot man was of little use to a four-foot-six dwarf. Swords, if they weren’t too long, were a possibility, depending on the size of the hilts, too large and a dwarf-ish hand couldn’t close around it.
While he was doing this, Lavender, Colin and Fred saw to the first round of food purchases. And Lavender, for some reason, decided that they needed to celebrate Fred’s birthday, even if they were three weeks late. That involved a fancy pastry treat from one of the upper-class bakeries, and a present. How Lavender had transferred conjured images to ink drawings and coloured sketches, Harry didn’t know and the girl wasn’t sharing, but Fred now had an album, similar to Harry’s with images of his family and friends. She told Colin that she would see that he got one for his birthday in August.
Crossing the plains of Pelennor gave Harry and Fred time to show Lavender and Colin the basics of driving their ponies, in the open, at least. Colin took to it, quite well, while Lavender seemed far more tentative.
They slipped through the northern gate at Greywood and within minutes, were surrounded by the trees of a small woodland. By mid-afternoon they’d left the woods and were crossing a wide plain, that ran along the River Anduin, the trees of Druadan Forest getting closer with every minute. Eventually, they entered the forest, the road splitting the forest, like a giant scar.
The track east was barely dips in the ground, heavily overgrown by grass, between the trunks of the trees that loomed over them. It was a little over a mile before the track suddenly opened out in a wide clearing that narrowed to a peak. Like Harry had told them, the night before, the wedge-shaped clearing was roughly an acre and a half in size, with a small stream running along one side. Harry led the caravan of wagons across the clearing and stopped in a wide curved arc.
“Colin, you’re on ropes, tonight.” Harry called. “Give me five minutes to set up some protections and you’re right to use your wand. I’d like ropes to enclose the entire clearing and the stream.”
“Got it, Harry.” Colin called back and dropped from his seat beside Fred to fetch the reel of rope from Harry’s wagon.
“Cave inimicum. Repello Inimicum, Protego Maxima, Fianto Duri.Protego totalum.” Harry attached the charms to rocks at the three corner/points of the clearing.
“Nice…” Fred whistled. “Very nice. Hermione teach you those?”
“Nah, your dad, actually. Said he wanted us prepared for anything.” Harry answered.
“What? D-dad? My dad?” Fred stammered.
“Yes, Fred, your dad.” Harry rolled his eyes. “Good to go, Colin.”
“On it.” The blonde boy hooked the looped end of the rope over a tree branch and as he walked the boundaries of the clearing, the reel floated at his side, pausing to loop over this branch or around that trunk, until he was back at the wagons. The reel was looped around a branch a few times and left hanging from a handgrip. “Done!”
“Thanks, Colin.” Harry called, he was unharnessing the ponies that Lavender was holding.
Colin bounced over to Fred and with a gentle pat of soft noses, he took hold of Feather and Pearl, while Fred unharnessed them. By that time Harry had moved to Almond and Latte, so Fred moved to Willow and Hazel. Then it was the turn of the non-harnessed ponies, to be detached from their tethers. Once the entire herd was freed, they stood around for a few second before Dancer led them on a wild stampede of bucks and leaps, around the clearing. Finally, they settled down and made their way to the stream, one-by-one they drank their fill and re-joined the other ponies, to graze on the lush grass.
The four now-dwarves, watched the ponies and once they were sure that they were settled, they turned their attentions back to the wagons.
Wands were drawn and pointed at wagons, until they were again in that broad U-shape. Harry’s wagon and cart, as one leg of the U, and Fred’s on the other, leaving the feed wagon and Lavender and Colin’s as the base.
Then Colin went to the reel of rope and wound it on stakes that surrounded the wagons, forming an enclosure around the wagons, that the ponies couldn’t access. The enclosure was large, at least the same size as Hogwarts’ classrooms, but possibly larger.
“Why so big?” Fred asked.
“Lav had an idea and we want to run it past you two.” Harry answered.
“Yeah?” Fred looked from Harry to Lavender. “This ought to be good. Cast away.”
“We do a complete re-sort,” Lavender said, “including Harry’s stuff. Wait!” She held up a hand. “Not his money, jewellery, gems, precious metals or locksmithing things, but the actual stuff. Clothes, books, weapons, fabric, pots, all of that stuff.”
“Okay, that’s better…” Fred sighed. “For a second there, I was thinking you were going to try and get him to give us more money.”
“No, Fred, that’s mine. What you, Colin and Lavender are sharing, is yours. Okay, I did the Summons in Pelargir but since then, I’ve been teaching you how to do it. From that point on, I saw no reason for me to claim what you were working towards, just like I don’t see a reason to share anything from before that.”
“But what I’m thinking isn’t like that.” Lavender explained. “Harry puts in his stuff, we put in ours and then we pick out the things that particularly appeal to us and the rest is held until our next pick-up turns up. The money, gems, jewellery and precious metals that have been collected since Pelargir, are divided in six. One share for Fred, one for Colin, one for me and three kept in reserve, either for buying a home or our next pick-up. That was what we agreed, right?”
Fred nodded. “Right.”
“I think we make a minor alteration to that.” Lavender suggested. “We find out how much money, gold and silver is there and take out a certain amount, up front. That is kept for buying a home and Harry will match it. Either that or once we split it, we each put up so much towards the common money, Harry included. That’s used for buying pony feed, food for us and when we get wherever we’re going, to buy a home.”
“The second option.” Colin said, quickly. “The first one, well, that makes Harry pay six times more than what we do. That’s not fair.”
“Told you so.” Lavender huffed at Harry. “Pay up.” She held out a hand and Harry huffed but dropped a coin into it.
“What? You bet on that?” Fred snorted.
“The first option was Harry’s idea, I told him neither of you would accept that, he disagreed and we made a bet. If you disagreed, I get a ten-pence, if you didn’t, Harry gets a florin.”
Fred rocked his head. “Fair enough.” He looked at Harry. “You should know us better than that, mate.”
“Why the two different amounts?” Colin asked.
“There was twice the chance of one of you objecting, so the odds were lower.” Lavender shrugged.
“Huh… okay.” Colin nodded.
“So…?” Fred looked from Lavender to Harry. “How do we do this?”
“Harry?” Lavender asked. “You’ve done this before.”
“Okay.” Harry nodded. “First off. Do we want to do this, now, or wait until morning? It’s going to take days.”
“We’ve got an hour or two before dark,” Fred said, “let’s start and go from there.”
Harry nodded and flicked his wand, conjuring a canvass tarp.
“Hold up.” Fred said, lifting a hand.
“Conjured tarps aren’t going to last. Got any small pieces of canvass? We can transfigure them into large tarps, they won’t last forever, but a couple of days are fine.”
Harry grunted in understanding and dismissed the conjuration. “Hang on a sec.” He climbed into the pony section of his wagon and returned in less than a minute. “These work?” He asked. “I got them to cover the ponies in bad weather, but we haven’t had any, yet.”
“They’re perfect.” Fred nodded and with a swish and a flick, sent them spinning out across the enclosure.
“Would enlarging charms work?” Lavender asked.
“They’d work, but they’d also break down faster.” Fred replied. “Transfig lasts twice as long as conjuration or enlargement charms, but if it’s kept as the same materials, that increases to something like nine or eleven times the duration, depending on the size difference. George and I used to do this with our beds and blankets, so we could sleep together, when one of us was sick. We never really got a proper chance to test longevity, mum always dismissed the transfig before it reverted.” As he spoke Fred was transfiguring each sheet of canvass into a larger sheet, nearly twice the size of the original. “There we go. What do you reckon, Harry? Is that enough?”
“Don’t know, Fred, lets find out.” Harry grinned and gestured for the redhead to lay the pouch holding all the items Summoned since Pelargir, in the centre of the tarps. Then he levitated the pouch and turned it upside down.
The four watched as a veritable mountain of stuff fell from the pouch. It took nearly ten minutes for the pouch to empty.
“Holy crap…” Colin whispered. “That’s a lot of stuff…”
“Yeah…” Fred just nodded.
“More than I expected.” Harry agreed.
“So, what’s first?”
“Let’s start with gold dust.” Harry said. “Then gold nuggets, then ingots, then-”
“If we set up camp and see to dinner and the ponies, will you do the sorting?” Lavender asked, opening her eyes wide, beseechingly. “We can help, but you’ve done this before, we haven’t.”
Harry snorted. “You only had to ask, Lav.” He shook his head. “Not everything has to be bargained for.”
“Alright, Harry. Will you please do the sorting for us? Or at least get us started?” Lavender asked flatly, mock glaring at the raven-haired dwarf.
“Of course.” Harry gave the girl a grin and turned to the pile of stuff. “Accio gold dust.” He point his wand at the pile then walked over the tarps to one corner, tapped his wand against the canvass and released his magic into the charm. A small stream of what looked like gold powder floated through the air and collected where his wand touched the tarp. “Accio gold nuggets...”
For ten minutes, Harry transferred precious metals, gems, jewellery and coins from the pile to a small section of the tarps. Then he started on clothes. Then weapons. Then books. Then… Then… Then…
Colin called Harry for dinner, at one point, and Fred conjured lights at another. Lavender brought him a chair and placed Teddy in his arms, telling him to ‘feed your baby, Potter.’
It was well past dark, the moon a slash in the sky, when the pile in front of Harry was down to dirt and debris.
“Done for the day?” Fred asked him quietly.
“What time is it?” Harry muttered, as he stood up.
“Time for all good little Harry’s to be in bed.” Fred told him and snickered when Harry poked his tongue out at Fred. “Very grown up, Potter. Bed.” He guided Harry to a four-poster Gryffindor bed and slid Teddy from Harry’s arms, into his own cradle, before pushing Harry into the bed and tucking Harry in. “Sleep, little brother. I have first watch.”
“Don’ need watches, the wards will wake us if people try to enter and they keep out predators and insects.” Harry muttered.
“In that case, I’m going to bed, too.” Fred laughed. “See you in the morning.”
~~~
April 23rd 2920
Harry opened his eyes to warmth on his face. He felt calm, warm and relaxed.
“I think, little brother, that being in middle-earth is good for you.” Fred’s voice sounded from a few feet away. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you so relaxed.”
“Hmm…” Harry made an agreeing noise.
Then the smell of bacon tickled his nose and his stomach woke up.
“And I thought Charlie's stomach made a row.” Fred laughed and Harry forced his eyes open, so that he could glare at Fred. “Ooh, you look as scary as Ginny’s Pygmy Puff, Arnold.”
“Considering what Puffskeins eat, I think they’re scarier than Harry,” Lavender laughed.
“Got that right…” Colin shuddered. “I woke up with a dormmate’s puff on my chest and it’s tongue up my nose. Ewww…” He shuddered again.
Fred and Lavender laughed at the expression on the boy’s face.
Harry huffed a laugh and pulled himself to an upright position. “Where’s Teddy?”
“Fed, changed and napping.” Fred pointed to the cradle beside Harry’s bed. “He seemed fine, as long as he was close to you.”
“O-kay…” Harry yawned. “Tea?” He made a whining sound and pushed his bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout.
“Aw, wook at the poor wittle Hawwy…” Fred used a voice more often used around babies than teens.
Harry glared at him and laughed as the redhead’s hair went bright green. “Thanks, Lav.”
“Lavender!” Fred cried out. “How could you?”
“Stop teasing Harry, he’s more powerful than we are and we need him.” Lavender reminded the older dwarf.
“Hmf, nobody understands me.” Fred huffed.
“Oh, no.” Lavender corrected. “We understand you, we just don’t care.”
Fred opened his mouth and after a moment, closed it. “Fair enough.” He nodded.
“Here, Harry, breakfast.” Lavender laid a tray on a stool beside his bed. “Teddy’s fed. Ponies are fed. We’re fed. We’re just waiting on you.”
“Right…” Harry pulled himself out of the covers and blinked. “Where did the bed come from?”
“Same idea as the tarps.” Colin said. “I transfigured it from a few branches and your bedroll.”
“Nice…” Harry nodded in approval. “We’ll be doing that a little more often, I think.”
“Later, mate.” Fred laughed. “Lavender transfigured a pot into a copper bathtub, want a bath?”
“Oh, God…” Harry groaned. “I miss baths.”
“We screened it off for a little privacy.” Lavender smirked. “Just remember that we can still hear you. Fred was a little enthusiastic about his bath and we heard all about it.”
Fred flushed and ducked his head, even as Colin laughed at him.
“It was good, okay?” The green-haired dwarf muttered.
“Certainly sounded like it.” Lavender smile was bright and just a bit naughty.
“Oh, God…” Harry shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
“Just a reminder, Harry.” Lavender waggled her eyebrows.
Fresh from his bath, Harry dressed in clean clothes and nodded to himself.
“So, clothes are going to be the first thing we look at.” He said as he rounded the front of his wagon.
“Why?” Fred asked. “Not disagreeing, just asking.”
“I want each of us to have two changes that we can wear for market days, trying to convince people that you’re a reputable trader, when you wear rough travelling clothes, isn’t easy.” Harry explained. “Plus, I want us to have two changes of formal clothes, eventually we’re going to have to meet with either Thorin Oakenshield or the Thain of the Shire. One’s a king and the other the hobbits’ version of a king. Formal could be handy. Then travel and work clothes. At least six changes of them.”
Fred and Lavender nodded, while Colin just shrugged.
“I’ll add in everything I have, in the way of clothes.” Harry said. “Once we have those ten changes, if you want more, you have to bargain for more. Or pay.”
“That sounds fine, Harry.” She knew he had added that last bit, just for her.
“Give me a minute to get my box of Summoned stuff.” He climbed up into the wagon and emerged with a one-foot square box in his hands. From the box he drew a small shrunken trunk that was quickly enlarged. Inside it were a number of sea duffels, each was opened and the contents added to the pile of clothes. “I’m happy with my travel clothes, so you guys have a hunt through and find your own. While you’re doing that, I’ll divvy up the gold and stuff, into six lots, based on value. I was thinking that the gold dust and nuggets could be smelted into ingots, same with any other metals.”
The other three exchanged nods.
“That’s fine.” Fred said. “Can I put my clean clothes back into the pile and choose again?” He asked Lavender and Colin.
“Sure.” Lavender answered.
“As long as I can, too.” Colin added.
After Lavender, Colin and Fred finished choosing their clothes, Harry re-joined them. He quickly hunted through the piles of clothes, pulling out two sets of neat but not fancy clothes and one pair of very fancy trousers and a heavily embroidered tunic-vest, plus a couple of fine silk shirts.
“Nothing else I like.” He muttered.
“Thought about permanently transfiguring something?” Lavender said. “The runes that make transfigs permanent can be embroidered on the cuffs or inside the hems. Activating them only takes a second.”
“Can you help me with that?” Harry asked.
“Sure, find a pair of trousers that fit and tell me what you want to change.” Lavender replied.
Laying the freshly altered and folded clothes in a trunk, Harry nodded as Fred and Colin sat down beside Lavender.
“So, I want to buy all the locks and locksmithing type stuff.” He said. “And I used the word ‘buy’, deliberately. I’m going to make a profit when I sell them, so…”
“Take them all out and value them.” Fred said. “We’ll accept a quarter of what you’re going to sell them for.” He turned to Lavender. “Same for any of the hair products, if you want them. And I’ll do the same with the timber stuff. Colin? Any idea what you’re going to do?”
“Yep.” The blonde nodded. “I’m going to work with Lavender, she’s going to make hair jewellery and I’m going make other types of jewellery. So, I want a copy of the jewellers’ training memories, too, please.”
Fred nodded but looked to Harry for his approval.
“That works.” Harry agreed. “If you’re both happy with it.”
“We are.” The two blondes replied.
“Okay, in that case, let’s get valuing. You can look at the gems and precious metals, later. And do the training memories right before bed, they can give you a headache.” Harry gave each of them a grin and pulled out his wand. “Ready?” The other four stood alongside him, each with a wand in their hands.
“Ready.” They replied.
“Hey, Harry?” Fred popped his head over the back of Raven, whose feet Harry was cleaning. “How do we value the gems and jewellery? I’m thinking about selling some of the pieces that I don’t like to Lavender and Colin, for materials. And we haven’t done any of the stones or metals, either.”
“Break it down into materials,” Harry answered, “gold is Ç15 an ounce, silver is a tenth of that. Mithril is Ç20 an ounce. Decide what you what to charge and go from there.”
“And the gems?”
“I think your best option is to do a materials description request and add in a cost comparison against one ounce of gold.” Harry said after thinking about it for a few moments.
“Worth a shot.” Fred grinned and dropped from sight, but Harry could still hear him as he scrunched through the grass.
“Okay, so what do we do with everything else?” Colin asked.
“Shrink it and put it in a box, put that box in a stasis box.” Harry said.
“Then what?”
“Put it away and forget about it until we need it.”
“And the money? The gold?” Fred asked.
“I’d like to change the pennies, ten-pences and sceptres for sovereigns and crowns.” Harry said.
“How? Where?” Lavender asked.
“There was a little alcove near Bittan’s that I can use.” Harry said. “I’m thinking... I banish a stick with notice-me-not and silencing charms on it and apparate to it. A HIPS to get me through the markets and to the assayer’s office. I could be in and out, inside half an hour, depending on how busy the assayers are.”
“It’s mid-afternoon, now.” Fred hummed. “If you do that now, we can be on the road, tomorrow.”
“We can.” Harry nodded. “Oh, can you check the creek for stones suitable for ward-stones, I want to place them on each wagon, stop thieves and the like. And an extra one that can be activated and deactivated. We can use that to continue doing Summonses as we travel.”
Fred hummed some more and nodded, slowly. “We could do that, add it to the stash.”
“All bar the silver, gold, mithril, gems and jewellery.” Harry objected. “That has to be taken out and divided up.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” Fred nodded.
“I agree.” Lavender added and Colin just waved a hand in agreement, he was laying in the grass, the sun on his face, just enjoying the peaceful afternoon.
“I’m back!” Harry called as he apparated into the screened off area, that had held the tub earlier. He rounded the front of his wagon and saw the other three sitting around a stool with a teapot on it. “Oh, good, a cuppa.” He grinned. “I made a stop at the apothecary, on my way out.” He set down the box of plants in front of them.
“What did you get?” Colin leant forward.
“Some more dittany seedlings, a pair of potted Alihotsy plants, some agrimony, two mandrake seedlings, a heap of seeds and… A pair of Whomping Willow seedlings.”
“Whomping Willow…?” Fred asked. “Are you sure?”
“I wasn’t, I thought they were just normal willows, but as I brushed past one, one of its leaves wiggled. I was still a little uncertain so… I… I pulsed a bit of magic into it and it trembled and wiggled. I did the same to the second one and when it tried to smack me, I bought them both. I couldn’t leave them there.”
“Only you, Harry.” Lavender shook her head. “What are you going to do with them?”
“No idea.” Harry shrugged. “Either plant them when we have a home, or put them in stasis. Can you put plants in stasis?” The others all shrugged and looked blank. “Okay, then.” Harry nodded. “Maybe I better check the books and see what they say.”
“Probably a good idea.” Fred nodded. “Seeing as we don’t have a Sprout, a Longbottom or a Hermione to ask.”
“Are we right to leave tomorrow?” Lavender asked. “Going by the maps that you got in… wherever you got them, it’s roughly four-hundred-fifty miles from Minas Tirith to Bree and up to another eighty to Hobbiton, depending on which way we go.”
“Yes, we can leave in the morning.” Harry replied and got a round of happy cheers, for his effort. “Maybe put the new mares in and give the others a break.”
“We gotta put them up front some time, it may as well be now.” Fred agreed.
~~~