Chapter 17
Today they planned to push for six hours, break long enough to eat and swap ponies, before continuing on. Thanks to Harry’s skill with the Map Making charms, they knew that there was a decent sized stream that emerged from the mountains of what the Rohirrim called the Eastfold. There were settlements along the stream but further back, closer to the mountains and away from the North-South Road. If they made camp close to the road and activated the wards, they should be safe.
But until they were out of Rohan, they would be at risk, simply for being outsiders.
~~~
May 1st 2920
Stopping for lunch, emptied over a third of their water reserves, just watering the ponies. If they didn’t find reach the Folding’s Stream, that evening, they would be forced to resort to aguamenti created water for the ponies, the next day. And while that would work once, it would do them no good in the long run. Bottles for Teddy were already made up and under stasis.
The day seemed to drag on and on, time slowing, but eventually, they crested a rise and the shiny silver of the stream could be seen. A sigh of relief worked its way out of Harry’s throat and he felt sure that his friends were making a similar sound. As they reached the creek a track ran alongside, both east and west, and when Harry turned his mares east, he saw a set of stones and posts, obviously for tethering horses and ponies to. There was one small horse and a cart tucked up to the first post and Harry let his ladies push beyond that, across to the far side of the marked-out area, before turning them in towards the posts, then again as they stood in front of the stream, so that his wagon and shop-cart ran alongside the stream.
Colin followed him and only pulled his mares to a stop, when they were almost in the stream, so that once unhitched, the wagon he shared with Lavender would be perfectly placed as the base of their U-shaped camp. The space left between their wagon and the feed wagon, would be screened off for a bathing area, once camp was established.
Fred would bring his wagon and shop-cart to a halt, tight up against the rear of the feed wagon, forming the other leg of the U, opposite Harry.
Ponies were watered and washed, one-by-one, then water barrels were filled almost to overflowing. The ponies were fed, given extra grain and hay, they’d earnt it and more.
Once it was clear that they were set for the night, the man from the other camp came over.
Only he wasn’t a man, he was a dwarf.
“Ashamâkh.” The dwarf stopped some feet from the edge of the roped off area that was Harry and Company’s camp.
“Ashamâkh.” Harry nodded to him. “Maidmi karusikmi balg-mâ.” Harry’s Khuzdul was a little stilted but given the dwarf’s smile and shallow bow, he was fairly sure he got the invitation to join their meal right.
“I would be much obliged.” The dwarf said. “I am Balin, son of Fundin, son of Farin.”
Harry knew that name, for more than one reason. “Fundin? Oh, we must catch up.” He blinked, suddenly. “Oops, sorry. Harry, son of James, son of Fleamont.”
“Catch up?” Balin blinked.
“Oh, yes.” Harry said. “Fundin trialled one of my travel-mates.”
“Ah, now, that’s interesting.” Balin blinked a few times. “Not yourself?”
“Nah. I was trialled in Dol Amroth. Predominantly Masters Tavric and Karol.”
Balin nodded, knowingly. “Karol Black Ear is a hard dwarf to trial under. How did you fair?”
“Eleven minutes and twelve seconds.” Harry smirked, he kind of liked to see people’s reactions to this.
Balin blinked. “Eleven… Eleven minutes? Again the Black Ear?”
“Aye.” Harry smirk grew into a grin.
“Well, if you lasted eleven minutes again the Black Ear, I think you deserve that Tarbûnel bead I see, Master Harry.” Balin said. “And your friend?”
“Mixed bag, some good, some bad.”
“Ah, father always liked making trials difficult.” Balin hummed. “Did your friend at least get a Tarbûn bead out of it?”
Harry laughed. “He did. Got all sorts. Fundin’s recommendation? Don’t let him near a bow. Or let him fight with knives, not without extra training. Not unless we want him to hurt himself. He’s improved since then, but not a lot. Utrab for hand-to-hand. Tarbûn for Throwing knives, and axes he can throw or fight with. And while his scribe work in Common is Tarbûnel level, in Khuzdul it’s only Tarbûn. Sword-fighting, however? That got him Tarbûnel bead and Fundin commenting that his style was odd but effective.”
“Yes, that does sound like my father.” Balin nodded. “And the other lad? And the lass?”
“Slightly complicated.” Harry grimaced.
“Oh?”
“I’ve recently been named as Head of our House and both Colin and Lavender came to me for protection.” Harry started.
“Oh, dear…” Balin said quietly.
“They were raised quite a distance from my immediate family, but I’ve known them for a number of years, at least in a vague way.” Harry stuck to a version of the truth. “Both were raised in towns of Men and trained by Men, ironically enough, both have chosen jewellery making as their trade. However, since joining me, they’ve decided to work together, Lavender plans to work more in the area of hair ornamentation, while Colin continues with the more traditional field of jewellery. But because their training came from Men, their work is much more Man styled than dwarven.”
“Yes, that would make a difference.” Balin agreed.
“And as is fairly standard for the type of training they had, they were taught their letters and numbers.” Harry went on. “Mostly in Common, though. Their Khuzdul is… limited, but improving. I’m teaching them the basics for Hand-to-Hand fighting, knife and axe throwing. Lavender has taken a shine to axe-fighting and could easily gain herself a Tarbûn for it, right now, given a few months of practice, I see a Tarbûnel bead waiting for her. Colin likes the staff and I’d like to find a steel-tipped one, for him. And get him trialled for that and knife-fighting, he’s found a pair of daggers that fit him well.”
“If you’re headed north, I can give the details of a few people that might be able to help.” Balin said.
“That would be grand.” Harry grinned. “Come join us for dinner and we can talk more, then.”
“That we can.” Balin smiled back.
Dinner was a lively, but slightly cautious affair. While the magicals were happy to talk and laugh with Balin, questions on their pasts were handled with hesitancy, enough that Balin was left with the impression that Colin and Lavender, in particular, had suffered before joining Harry. While Fred had a happy childhood, he lost his family to the wild storm that had battered the south, back in March. But it was Harry’s tale that garnered the greatest sympathy, losing parents so young was sad, but to lose even more family and friends as well, in the same storm?
Balin was saddened to see how many Mourning beads these five young people wore. Between them they carried beads for nearly thirty people. Thirty of their loved ones, gone.
As Harry tended to Teddy, Balin smiled. “You’re very good with him.”
“I’m his Hand.” Harry said. “His father was one of my father’s best friends. He helped train me, once I escaped from my Aunt’s control. Caring for Teddy is easy, I just imagine what Remus or Tonks would do.”
“Tonks is the babe’s mother?”
“Yes, she hated her birth name and would only answer to Tonks, got quite aggressive if you didn’t listen.”
“Ah.” Balin nodded. “Some dwarrowdams are like that.”
“You’re going south looking for your father, right?” Harry asked.
“I am, indeed.”
“How much water have you got?” Harry asked.
“It’s just that we saw no fresh water for a good twenty-five miles.” Fred added.
“Ah, that could be…” Balin grimaced. “I had hoped to stay in livery-yards or hostelries but...”
“But Rohan is pretty much closed to outsiders.” Harry nodded his understanding. “You can pass through, but the locals are banned from trading with outsiders. Either buying or selling.”
“I see…” Balin mused. “I was not aware of that and wondered why the locals avoided me.”
“No.” Harry agreed. “Few people are. The Gondorian Guard-Station at the border stopped everyone coming north and checked that they had sufficient food and water, to see them to Dunland.”
“That would be why the Way-station on the Dunland side of the Isen Fords kept asking about them, I wasn’t aware and allowed him to think I was travelling with a larger group that were there.”
“But you left them, because a pony like yours travels faster than a heavily laden dray.” Harry nodded his understanding.
“Aye.” Balin nodded too.
“Well, how much room have you got?” Harry asked, after sharing a look with Fred and having the redhead, nod in reply to Harry's unasked question.
“Pardon?”
“How much room have you got?” Harry repeated. “Less than a week and we should be out of Rohan and we’ve enough feed for nearly twice that long. We can spare enough for one pony, enough to reach Merring, anyway. Whether you’ll have room for it, is going to be the issue.”
“Perhaps we should look and see.” Balin said. “I’m not accustomed to travelling where the ability to purchase supplies is so... limited… I'd appreciate the advice."
"Give me Teddy, Harry, and I’ll see to changing him and putting him down for a nap.” Fred offered.
“Ta, mate.” Harry grinned and slid the sleepy baby into the redhead’s arms. Teddy took no notice and just yawned.
“This way, Master Harry.” Balin said and began to lead the way to his camp.
“Oh, just Harry, will do. No need to be formal, is there?”
“I suppose not.” Balin said as they reached his cart.
“Oh, dear.” Harry muttered. “Nope, that’s not going to work.”
“Hmf…” Balin grunted.
“Well…” Harry hummed. “There’s a bit of a cart-bed but it’s not nearly large enough for a full bag of feed. Good news, I think we can take the seat off and lay it in the footwell, if we put it upside down, the seat wouldn’t be damaged, and once you remove the cargo tray, you’d have a reasonable cart-bed. Four days between here and Merring, and most of them long days, means you’re going to need at least one full bag of feed, if you’re not taking hay.”
“And if I were?”
“You could get away with a half bag, but you’d have to have two bales of hay and you just don’t have room, not with your own supplies.” Harry replied. “Go with the grain and let the pony graze in the evenings. Water, you need a barrel and a bucket, the next leg south is hard, twenty-five miles with no fresh water.”
“That’s… not good.”
“No, not really.” Harry agreed. “But there’s a good stopping place, at the end of it, with sweet, fresh water and plenty of room for your pony to graze. Look for a pair of cairns on the west of the road, they’ll have a stick jammed into the top and a canvass rag tied to them. Stop between them and look south-west, there’ll be a crack in the cliff, that’s where you want to stop.”
Balin mulled that over for a few minutes.
“So, removing the seat would give me enough room for grain and water?” Balin asked.
“To reach Merring, yes.” Harry nodded. “Merring’s miller is also a grain merchant, so you can top up with him.”
“Looks like I’m going to be walking for a while.” Balin sighed.
“Nah, give me half an hour and I’ll have this sorted.” Harry offered. “But you might be sitting on a bag of grain instead of that nice cushioned seat.”
“I’ve sat on worse.” Balin shrugged.
“Alright, if you unload, I’ll go get some tools, we can have this sorted before it’s too dark to see.”
It took Balin five minutes to unload everything out of the cart and Harry another ten to remove the drive-seat and the cargo tray, exposing the cart’s floor-bed. The cargo tray was stood upright in the middle of the cart, a bag of grain and a water barrel bracing it. Behind these were Balin’s own supplies and his travel writing desk.
“That does make a difference.” Balin was surprised at how much Harry had managed to cram into his small cart.
“Standing things upright makes a big difference.” Harry grinned. “And as you use up the feed and empty the barrel, you can replace the cargo tray and you’re pretty much back to where you were.”
“Lavender and Colin copied a map for you.” Fred said as he joined them. “We marked in the places where we camped and also the water sources.” He handed Balin a roll of a couple of sheets of parchment. “Not just between Edoras and Minas Tirith, but also back to Dol Amroth. We weren’t sure where Fundin was going to stop, so we felt it best to go all the way.”
“Oh, much obliged.” Balin smiled broadly. “That will definitely help. I’ve no hesitation at camping, as long it’s safe to do so.”
“We also made a few notes, things that Harry told us, places to avoid, which people are dwarf-friendly, that sort of thing.” Fred added.
“Thank you, Master Fred.”
“Come see us, when you’re back north.” Harry said. “We’re looking to find a place around Bree, maybe not in town, but close to it. Ask at a grain merchants, with as many ponies as we have, someone will know where to find us.”
“I’ll do that, Master Harry.” Balin’s comment was interrupted by an unsettled baby’s cry. “Ah, you’d best see to the young one.”
“Yep, I’d probably better.” Harry huffed. “See you in the morning.”
~~~
May 2nd 2920
Harry and Fred saw Balin off, early in the morning, the sun barely showing over the horizon. By the older dwarf’s expression it was too early in the morning. But as Harry had explained, the next stopping point with fresh water, on the road south, was a long day’s drive from the Folding’s Stream. If Balin had any hope of reaching it before dark, he had to leave early and keep moving for most of the day.
Once Balin had left the camping area, Harry told the other magicals that they weren’t getting out of a training session, today’s travel was many miles less than that of the day before. Fred was finally starting to understand how to hold his fighting daggers, but he was still using magically-blunted blades, as he was just as likely to catch himself with a blade as he was an opponent. Lavender was getting inventive with her axes and that scared the bejesus out of Harry. Colin could comfortably stand against Harry in knife-fighting, at least for a few minutes. Unless Harry used his Griffin Fangs, in which case, no-one stood against him for very long.
Teddy was bright and happy, burbling away as Harry gave the ‘move out’ command to Onyx and Ebony, knowing that Lavender was driving her and Colin’s wagon, Colin was driving the feed wagon and Fred was driving his wagon and that they would be right behind him.
As they got closer to Edoras, the terrain started to undulate, creeks and streams in most little valleys. Lush grass that was knee deep in places, lined the wide gravel road and camp areas were clearly visible with posts and stone firepits.
It was mid-afternoon when Harry decided that they weren’t going to pass Edoras before needing to stop for the night. He huffed and grumbled to Teddy.
“Blast it, cub.” He muttered. “I’d hoped to get past the city before we stopped. The faster we get out of Rohan the better.”
Teddy made happy noises and waved his arms at his favourite person.
“Oh, well, no, we don’t really have a deadline, but the sooner we get somewhere to live the happier I’ll be.”
Teddy squealed and shook a fist.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Lavender’s going to be pushing soon. She wants us settled as much as I do, probably more.”
Teddy made more noise and finished his little rant with a laugh.
“Okay, I agree, this next camp area is ours. We can have an early day. Maybe see if Hedwig can get us a rabbit or if Crookshanks can catch us another fish. If not, I’ll see what we’ve got in the way of fresh meat under stasis. I’ve got a craving for bangers and mash, I wonder if we’ve got any sausages left?”
As he spoke, his mares crested a rise and started down the shallow incline, at the bottom of which, Harry saw the posts and firepit of a camping area.
“That’s us, cub.” He eased the mares wide and with a call of ‘come left’ turned onto the narrower track that led to the designated camp area.
As he guided the mares and the wagon where he wanted it to be, he heard Fred call out to him.
“I take it we’re stopping here for the night?” The redhead called.
“Yeah.” Harry replied. “We’re not going to get past Edoras today and I really don’t want to camp too close to the city.” He nodded towards the hill that thrust up out of the plains, a few miles away.
“Fair enough.” Fred nodded and pulled gently on his reins, bringing Feather and Pearl to a stop.
Harry left a happy Teddy with Fred, his next favourite person, picked his bow and gave Hedwig a whistle, not at all surprised to see Crookshanks waiting a few yards away. He had dinner to see about, sausages might be good but the longer they could avoid digging into their stasis stash, the better. He returned a half hour later, with three rabbits, a pair of pheasants and a half dozen fish.
“Ooh, nice.” Lavender nodded. “You do know that Colin’s cooking tonight, that means, you’d better clean them before giving them to him. Remember last time?”
Colin hadn’t been aware that he had to gut the birds and had cooked them with all their organs still inside. A very bad mistake that had nearly caused them food poisoning, if Fred hadn’t claimed the right to ‘carve the roasted beast’, and made the discovery, it could have gone quite badly. As it was Colin had nearly been in hysterics over it, panicking that he could have killed his friends. Lavender and Harry had talked him down, but the boy had stated that the only way he’d cook whole animals in future, was if someone else cleaned them.
After a dinner of fish pie, the four sat around the fire pit and chatted. It was one of their favourite times of day.
“Did Fred and George really rescue from your relatives?” Colin had cooked so he got first question.
Harry and Fred laughed.
“They did.” Harry nodded. “How the heck they didn’t get caught, I don’t know… And I don’t think anyone else does, either.”
“Oi!” Fred tossed a plum pip at Harry, who just batted it aside.
“They stole their father’s car and flew it from Devon to Surrey.” Harry shook his head. “Then just backed the car up to my window… my upstairs window… and tied a rope to the bars and pulled them off. Loaded my trunk and Hedwig‘s cage, then they had to have tug-o-war with my Uncle to get me free. And we just flew back to Devon. No worries to them.”
“Mum nearly had a conniption, though.” Fred laughed, it was funny looking back on it.
“Where have you been?!”Harry impersonated Molly Weasley. “Beds empty… No note… Car gone…”
Fred joined in on the rant. “You could have died!You could have been seen!”
Lavender and Colin’s eyes widened and their jaws fell.
“Didn’t Hermione say something about you and Ron being killed?” Fred asked.
“And then went on to say, ‘or worse, expelled’. Being killed doesn’t seem to be a big thing in the wizarding world.” Harry laughed.
“Well, you did get hit the Killing Curse… um… how many times?” Fred asked.
“That it actually connected?” Harry huffed. “Just twice.”
“Just twice he says.” Lavender shook her head.
“And you don’t look all that dead.” Fred laughed. “Greyback kills Lavender. Colin gets hit with either a Killing Curse or a Heart Stopper. I get blown up. And yet, here we are.”
“So, what you’re saying is… Dying isn’t such a big deal?” Lavender asked, raising her brows in surprise.
“Maybe.” Harry shrugged. “Or maybe, we just understand that there are worse things than dying.”
“Huh…” Lavender nodded. “Given what our school years have been like? Yes, that’s a fair call.” She shrugged.
The three boys laughed and after a moment, she joined in.
“So, Harry?” Colin asked. “Are you going to do a Summons as we go through Edoras?”
“Well, we don’t exactly go through Edoras, we go past it.” Harry replied. “The Map charm says the Road gets within a quarter mile of the city but doesn’t actually enter it.”
“Okay.” Fred nodded. “But would that affect doing a Summons?”
“No.” Harry shook his head. “As long as I’m within about three or four miles, I can do a Summons. Do you want me to?”
“This king is greedy but I wonder how much of what he’s claimed would come under the Lost, Abandoned or Discarded, categories.” Lavender mused.
“We could end up with half his blasted treasury if we’re not careful.” Harry said.
“Does it matter?” Lavender asked.
“It does if we get the blame.” Harry replied.
“If we don’t enter the city, how can we be blamed?” Lavender asked, putting an innocent look on her face.
“I really don’t think the king would care, we’re outsiders.” Harry said.
“But it’s kind of obvious that we aren’t carrying a treasury’s worth of gold.” Colin’s expression was just as innocent.
“Oh, dear…” Harry sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Alright, I’ll do the Summons, but not until we’re almost past the city. There’s a guard-station at the turn-off, I’ll stop and ask them a question or two, make it clear that we’re going straight past.”
“Cool.” Colin grinned.
~~~
May 3rd 2920
“Nay, Master dwarf, the Snowbourne is the last large water before the Isen and the Fords into Dunland, there’s plenty of small creeks and streams, some might even be decent sized, but nothing as large as the Snowbourne or the Isen.” The guard answered Harry. “And yes, there’s camping site on both sides of the Snowbourne.”
“Thankee, sir.” Harry replied. And waved to his friends. “Raven, move out.” The mare flicked an ear and leant forward, pushing into her harness, her team-mate doing the same and the wagon began to move.
“Camp to the north of the Snowbourne, if you can. The ground is less rocky and the camp areas are larger.”
“Much appreciated.” Harry gave the Man a wave and picked up his reins.
Once moving and his hands were out of sight of the guard, he cast the Summons. He huffed a sigh when it took nearly three full minutes for the flow of Summoned items to dwindle to a stop. Sorting that was going to have to be left until they were well into Dunland. He wanted mountains between them and the Istari’s traitor, if they couldn’t have a decent distance.
By the midday, there had been no follow up to the Summoning and Harry figured, that if the Summoning had hit the treasury, it was just too bad. The charm was very carefully phrased to only summon Lost, Abandoned or Discarded items, if an item didn’t fall into one of those categories, it wasn’t summoned. That was how the spell worked.
At a short stop for lunch, they swapped ponies over, not wanting to push any one pair too hard.
“We should stop for a couple of days once we’re out of Rohan.” Fred suggested. “Give the ponies a break and time to recover from this part of the trip.”
Harry glanced at Lavender and Colin, both of whom looked like they approved of that idea.
“Okay,” Harry nodded, “but I want us at least two days into Dunland before we do that. I want a good chunk of mountain between us and Isengard, before we stop. The less attention we draw from there, the better.” The other three grinned and Harry held up a hand in warning. “That’s about seven days’ travel from here. Don’t call the score while the snitch’s still in play.”
Fred grinned. “It’s a goal, Harrikins. We have an end-of-term date.”
“We can wait.” Colin added and Lavender just smiled and nodded.
“Alright.” Harry agreed. “Up on your wagons, the sooner we get moving, the sooner we get that break. If we stretch our days by a half hour, from what we did in Gondor, we might even be able to cut it down to six days.”
He’d barely stopped speaking when Colin and Lavender ran back to their wagons, laughing.
“Looks like we’re adding that half hour, mate.” Fred chuckled and headed for his own wagon.
“Looks like.” Harry nodded. “Hey, Hedwig? You gonna ride with me, or are you going to fly and have a hunt?”
The owl had been perched on a camp area’s post-and-rail fence, but at Harry’s question she launched herself into the air and flew to the perch that Harry had attached to the drive-seat of his wagon, for her.
“Okay, then, ride it is.” He climbed up onto his own wagon, absently petted Crookshanks as he slept on the wagon’s drive-seat and slid Teddy into his hanging cradle. “I don’t think it’s going to be long, before you’re going to able to hold your head up enough, to turn around in the carrier and watch the world, cub. You’re progressing a little faster than an average human baby.” He picked up the reins and spoke to the mares. “Onyx, Ebony, move out.” Then turned back to Teddy. “I wonder if that’s the dwarf thing or your father’s history showing? I know you’re not a werewolf, you haven’t shifted and Hermione said that even infected babies shift. They rarely survive it, but they do shift. And you don’t, cub, so no, you’re not a werewolf. So, what’s got you growing so fast? Huh?” Harry continued to talk to Teddy for the next few minutes, until he realised that the child was asleep.
Crossing the Snowbourne and seeing that all the camps on the north side were occupied by a caravan of Men, Harry decided, after a quick chat with the others, that they would continue on for another hour or two. The days were getting longer and they might as well make use of it.
An hour and a half passed before they found a neat little valley with the remains of a camp area, the posts were broken, but the firepit was still intact. Harry and Colin roped off room for the ponies and gave them a quick scrub down in the little stream, leaving enough time for the stream to run clean, between ponies. Then it was time to feed and water said ponies and see to whatever laundry was needing to be cleaned. With a baby along, nappies were a constant task. Thank goodness for magic, otherwise it would have been a dreaded task.
While the two boys were seeing to ponies and laundry, Lavender and Fred set up camp and saw to getting a meal started. Today would be the first time since the border farmstead, that bacon would be add to their menu. Bread stuffed with bacon, onion, capsicum, cheese, carrot, zucchini and eggs. All bar the eggs were mixed into the bread dough, while some had hollows that were made for the eggs to be cracked into, others were made into troughs and beaten eggs were poured into them and sealed over. Then each roll or loaf, was placed in a tin and baked over the fire. Alongside this was a rich potato salad with boiled eggs, crispy bacon pieces, herbs and a creamy dressing, honey glazed carrots and a tomato, onion, radish and celery salad with a spicy vinaigrette dressing. For dessert there was a large rhubarb crumble with custard.
“Ooh, nice…” Colin grinned, his nose twitching with the mouth-watering smells coming from the firepit.
“We’re being spoilt.” Harry’s grin was as bright as Colin’s.
“Lavender just doesn’t like washing ponies.” Colin said. “She much rather be on kitchen duty, than getting chilled fingers, washing ponies. The water here is cold.”
“That it is, Colin, that it is.” Harry led Latte back to the ponies’ roped off field, while Colin followed him with Almond. “But I’ll let you in on a secret…” He waited for Colin to join him, before he released Latte. “Warming charms are great.” He laughed at the betrayed expression on Colin’s face. “Let Almond go and let’s get the laundry over with, before Lavender calls us in.”
“Warming charms?” Colin whispered. “Ooh, you horrible dwarf, Harry, you couldn’t have told me that earlier?”
“Was kinda wondering, how long it would take you to figure it out for yourself.” Harry told the blonde.
“Oh, bugger…” Colin huffed. “You’re mean…”
“Yep. The meanest.” Harry laughed and ruffled Colin’s curls.
“Oi!”
~~~