Title: Failsafe (HP/LotR crossover)

Summary: Tackling the last traces of magic Voldemort left scattered around Britain, a magical disaster causes Harry and Ginny to wake up in the dungeons of a ruined fortress. It doesn't take them long to realise that something is very, very wrong…

Pairings: mild, cannon pairings only

Rating: T, for some language and fight scenes

Chapter Eighteen

When the wall exploded all Ginny saw was fire.

Flying back across the courtyard, she smacked into a wall and pain immediately shot through her. Slumped against it, it took her brain a moment to catch up to what had happened and where she was. Struggling to move upwards, the world in front of her blurred and fogged, sound oddly muted.

One thing that wasn't muted was the intense agony running through her entire body, but especially focussed on the back of her head. She blinked, eyes watering with the pain and making everything even more out of focus than it already was. Struggling to move she stopped as she experienced a sudden surge of nausea, black spots dancing in front of her eyes.

'Merlin… not good, not good,' she thought to herself, biting her lip and trying to brace herself against the pain. Dimly she registered that there were other things she should be worrying about but she couldn't persuade her brain to focus on them. Instead all she could do was take in ragged breaths, trying not to be sick from the spasms of pain every time her head moved and to not pass out.

Eventually Ginny became aware of her surroundings as the pain faded somewhat. The first thing to penetrate the cloud of hurt were the screams and yells, all oddly distorted. It sounded as though they were coming to her through a badly tuned radio. She vaguely wondered what the yells were for before her memory caught up to her in a painful rush.

Blinking her eyes back open she squinted, only seeing faintly moving shapes and a dark mist – smoke, she belatedly realised, from the explosion at the wall. Bracing herself, Ginny struggled to pull herself upright, blinking rapidly to pull the world into focus. Finally the shapes in front of her began to resolve into outlines she could recognise…

… just in time to realise an orc was right in front of her, running forward and sword raised and ready to make a kill.

Terror shot through Ginny's body like ice, freezing the red-hot pain currently immobilising her. Thank Merlin her wand was still in her hand… but her movements were still slow, sluggish… she wouldn't be able to raise her wand in time… a scream was making its way to her lips…

The orc lurched to a stop, bellowing before quickly falling backwards. Ginny blinked, mouth still open to scream. 'What had – Legolas! Thank Merlin,' Ginny thought with utter relief. The blonde elf in front of her swiftly pulled his sword from the stomach of the fallen beast and turned to face her. She blinked and Legolas' familiar face melted into the face of another elf, one she had met – Haldir.

"Here, Istar," he told her, reaching out a hand and pulling her to her feet.

As Ginny surged upwards all her senses screamed acutely and she had to take several gulping breaths lest she vomited all over her saviour. She gingerly shook out her limbs, trying to dispel the disorientation as best she could. Being upright was better but things were still out of synch.

There was no time to take a breath, however; even with her hindered vision she could still make out the massive hole the explosion had created in the walls of Helm's Deep and the horde of orcs that were flooding through it. A smaller group of orcs were heading their way and Ginny gripped her wand with shaking hands.

"Sectumsempra," she cried hoarsely but her spell missed the orcs, splashing uselessly on the wall behind them. Ginny cleared her throat and tried again, "Confringo!"

The ground in the midst of the orcs exploded, blasting two thirds of them backwards. There were still four heading their way, however, and they were on them before Ginny could draw breath for another spell.

Stepping back, Ginny fell back on one of her favourite spells as an orc loomed right in front of her. It was by no means lethal but having great bat shaped bogeys force themselves out your nose was enough to stop even the most hardened orc in their tracks. Whilst the orc shrieked Ginny took another breath and summoned a sword towards her, impaling the orc as he tried to bat away the attacking bogeys.

Strength spent for the time being, Ginny slumped against the wall, shaking. Haldir had killed one orc and was engaging another, efficiently cutting through its defences. The last orc, Ginny saw, had been felled by an arrow from the wall.

"You need to get to safety." Ginny blinked up, Haldir's face swimming in front of her as he stared at her in concern. "You are injured, Istar. Use your powers to disappear and seek help."

Ginny shook her head and then gritted her teeth as the action sent fresh waves of pain throughout her body. "I can't," she admitted, breathlessly. "I think I've – my head isn't letting me focus… If I go wrong then I splinch."

Haldir looked at her quizzically for a moment, clearly not having the foggiest idea what splinching was. "What of the other Istar?"

Ginny closed her eyes. "Yes, Harry could take me," she agreed, but didn't place much hope on it. She had no idea where he was – he, equally, would have no clue where she was or that she was in need of assistance. There was also no way to contact him; even if Ginny knew how to embed messages in a patronus there was no way she had enough to concentration to form one. "I'll be ok," Ginny said instead of pointing all this out.

Haldir shot her an unreadable look. "We shall make our way back to the others," he said calmly. "It may be that the other Istar can be found with them. Can you move?"

Ginny made a non-committal noise. "Not yet," she said honestly. "Give me a moment." Pushing herself away from the wall, Ginny tried to aim as best she could at the back of her head. If she had been thinking clearly she would have realised what an immensely stupid thing this was to do; if she accidentally pronounced this spell wrong she could blast a hole in her own head. Desperate times, however, called for desperate measures; if she could not escape and no one could rescue her then she was going to have to make do with what she had.

"Episkey!" Ginny incanted firmly, almost passing out again as the wound in the back of her head knitted back together. Once the immediate pain had passed, however, she did feel better. Her head no longer ached with every movement and she didn't feel as sick anymore. Handy as the spell was, however, it could do nothing for the slightly murky thoughts that were the result, she suspected, of a concussion but it was better than nothing.

"Istar?" Haldir asked.

Ginny opened her eyes and nodded grimly at him. "I'm ok, Haldir," she said firmly. "Let's get on with it."

Despite her reassurances to the elf, Ginny was not ok. Following in his shooting and slicing footsteps, Ginny felt very unsteady. She certainly couldn't use the accurate spell work she had earlier, Ginny had to resort to an arsenal of imprecise spells to fight her way through the enemy. Glisseo and incendio were her new best friends and approaching orcs quickly fell back behind the curtain of fire she conjured.

As she stumbled in Haldir's wake, however, Ginny had time to be impressed by the elf. His movements were as liquid, flowing from one move to the next. It was almost as though the fierce, chaotic battles he engaged in were simply just a dance that had already been choreographed. The few times Ginny had really seen Legolas fight she had caught a glimpse of that. Shooting a banishing charm at another approaching orc she wondered briefly if that was how all elves fought or if it was something that only Haldir and Legolas could do. In either case, it made her own faltering progress feel even more awkward and ungainly.

The two of them had made good progress fighting their way across the battle but then there was a sudden surge of orcs. Tripping backwards, Ginny could feel herself beginning to panic again. They were so close! What she really needed to do was use her more lethal spells – sectumsempra, diffindo, deprimo – but the orcs were so close she ran the danger of hitting Haldir or the spell backfiring and hitting herself.

"Stupefy! Stupefy!" Ginny yelled desperately, trying to aim the red jet as far away from Haldir as possible. "Petrificus Totallus! Lockomorter! Incendio!"

A whoosh of red fire flared and several orcs swerved away, shrieking, but it wasn't enough… Another orc got close enough to grab at her head. She yelled and struggled before remembering the short dagger the King had insisted she and Harry both wore. As she stabbed erratically at the beast she felt it shudder and then he collapsed, pulling her down on top of him. Pushing away Ginny shook more badly than usual and this time it had nothing to do with her injury. She looked down to see the hot black blood of the orc she'd just killed running of her hands, the impervious charm still in place, and stifled a sob. Instead, she quickly pulled her knife out, resolutely ignoring the wet sound it made, and turned back to the battle.

Her fight with the orc had lasted but seconds and the horde surrounding her and Haldir was no smaller. Desperately she put the dead orc beneath her to the back of her mind and focussed on snapping out as many spells as she could, even risking some more lethal ones. "Depulso! Stupefy! Deprimo!" However many orcs Ginny seemed to push away, however, more just kept coming. Her spells were too slow, her head was starting to spin; they were going to be overwhelmed.

Suddenly there were more lights joining their battle; red, blue, grey, gold, they thundered into the orcs mercilessly and they fell backwards around them. Haldir renewed his own attacks and Ginny, biting her lip, managed to deal with the outliers. The orcs were dealt with in no time.

"Thank you, Istar," Haldir said in the quiet pause that followed.

"You're welcome," Harry said, sounding out of breath.

Ginny looked over at him, blinking away a resurgence of dizziness. Harry's face was bloody, causing Ginny's heart to freeze – was he hurt? But the way he moved, staring carefully around them for more enemies, belied that. 'Maybe it was orc blood,' Ginny thought before remembering that the blood that had coated her hands was black. Bile rose again, but Ginny pushed it away, stumbling as she tried to regain her focus.

"Ginny?" Suddenly Harry's cool hands were on the sides of her head, carefully tilting her head upwards. Blinking, Ginny stared into his worried green eyes before he looked away angrily. "You're hurt!"

"She got caught in the explosion, Istar," Haldir responded calmly. "We were making our way to you when we were ambushed."

"Why didn't she – I mean, Ginny, why didn't you apparate?"

"Concussion," Ginny managed to grunt out. Now that they had stopped moving all her aches and pains seemed to be catching up to her once more. The surge of adrenaline from the battle coupled with her already injured head meant that the world was going alarmingly out of focus again and her hands were shaking badly.

"Shit," Harry swore, grabbing her hands. Looking up, Ginny saw him shoot a look towards Haldir. "Thanks, Haldir, for saving her – I'll be back in a bit."

Haldir simply inclined his head. "You are welcome, Istar."

"No, Harry, don't, I'm fine – I'm – "

But Harry was already twisting and the familiar squeeze was working its way up Ginny's body. In the split second before they disappeared, however, they caught sight of a fresh horde of orcs surging to their position – to attack Haldir…

And then he was gone.

~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~

As soon as Harry reappeared in the inner sanctum of Helm's Deep he knew that Haldir was doomed.

"Get back there right now!" Ginny shouted at him, rage for a split second clearing her unfocussed eyes. "He'll die!" And she pushed him away, stumbling to lean against a wall. "GO!"

Harry wasted no more time, simply staring at her before disapparating on the spot.

He was too late.

As the world came back into focus Harry watched, horrified, as a massive knife plunged into Haldir's back. Even as Harry roared out a spell, shooting the gleeful orc away, the damage was already done.

"Merlins balls!" Harry swore, even as he sent out another deluge of spells to beat back the rest of the orcs. He had to admit that when he first met the elf he had been hit by the sudden impression that this was a 'Malfoy' – long blonde hair, cool attitude. The few times where they had interacted, however – Haldir really wasn't much of a talker – had shown that he was wrong. The elf was reticent, sure, but not out of a superiority complex; it was just his nature. And besides, wasn't Haldir there besides them, fighting against the very same evil?

Plus he had definitely saved Ginny's life. That totally put him in Harry's good books.

"Reducto!" Harry bellowed, blasting several orcs backwards at once. "Defodia! Expulso!"

Rage was lending Harry's spells more power, freeing him of some inhibitions. He no longer qualmed at sending his most explosive curses straight at the monsters. Yet as quickly as Harry cleared the space around them, more orcs appeared, flailing their weapons and yelling bloody murder. They were too close to the breach in the wall and there weren't enough defenders nearby.

Harry ducked under the sword of one of the orcs, stumbling over the uneven stone work. In his peripheral vision he could say the stricken elf stirring slightly and felt a faint surge of hope – Haldir wasn't dead. Yet.

Shooting out a spell to blind the orc that had nearly scalped him Harry took a risk and shot two of his most powerful blasting hexes at the ground of the orcs in front of him and just beyond the breach. As the stone work exploded Harry hastily summoned some fallen shields to form a wall, protecting himself and Haldir from the flying pieces of rock. He flinched as he felt several splinters impact his 'wall'. A couple got through and hit him in the wand arm, causing a sharp pain and a fresh wave of blood trickling down his arms. He already had numerous smaller cuts all over his body but hadn't had the time to stop and heal them.

Dropping the shields when the noise stopped, Harry breathed a short sigh of relief. For now the breach was clear.

"Reparo! Reparo!" Harry chanted, gritting his teeth. "Come on, you stupid wall, REPARO!"

Slowly, agonisingly so, the stones lifted and began reassembling themselves. It was too slow, though – he could feel the stone resisting it, just as they had every time he'd tried to bespell rock. More than that, he could already see the first glimmers of movement beyond the gap – the first signs that the orcs were once again massing at that point. It would only take one getting through to cut him down. That is unless he stopped repairing the wall to blast the orc.

Then Harry started to glow.

Almost jerking his wand away from the wall in surprise, Harry stared down at himself, shocked. 'What the bloody hell…'

After one bewildered moment, Harry suddenly realised that he wasn't glowing. Rather, the soft golden light was gathering around him, suffusing his body with warmth and strength. Looking up, baffled, he saw thin tendrils of light reaching out to either side of him, awash with strange magical symbols.

'Not strange symbols,' Harry thought, beginning to understand what was going on, 'runes – our ancient runes, the ones we drew on the walls. But – ' But it didn't make sense. The section of the wall that had been destroyed hadn't been warded, they hadn't had the time. Yet the rest of the wall was offering him the strength to repair it, almost as though it recognised that the broken bit was part of the whole.

It didn't make sense.

But then, Harry reflected, what in this stupid world did make sense? And he wasn't exactly going to look a gift horse in the mouth, either. It wouldn't be the first time – and not, he hoped, the last – that magic took steps to protect him in a way that he didn't think possible. So, grinning, he gathered in all that magic that was being offered to him and pushed it out towards the broken wall.

Suddenly the rocks began moving faster and faster. It was like watching the wall being built in fast motion, as though someone had pressed the fast forward button on one of Dudley's videos. Peering beyond the rapidly disappearing breach Harry could see the frantic motions of the orcs, getting closer and closer – they weren't going to get through in time.

With a last crunch the wall sealed itself against intruders.

Harry collapsed to the ground, but he was not exhausted; channelling that strange magic had been oddly energising. Instead, Harry was overwhelmed with what he'd just done and the strange improbability – impossibility – of it all. He really needed to learn more about magic.

"Harry!"

Harry looked up, startled, just in time to see an orc fall to the ground, two arrows in it's back. Legolas and Aragorn ran to his side, looking wide eyed.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Aragorn asked.

Harry shook his head to clear it of the magical daze he'd been in. "Yes, fine, I just… I wasn't expecting that," he admitted, glancing over at the wall, still surprised to see it whole.

Aragorn and Legolas, too, glanced at the wall. "Every time I saw more of your magicks, Istar, the more astonished I am," Legolas said, looking back at Harry. "The orcs will not find it easy to breach the wall a second time – not now we are aware of their tricks."

"And if they succeed then we know that Harry or Ginny can repair them," Aragorn agreed but Harry wasn't listening. The way Legolas had called him 'Istar' reminded him of why he had been so eager to clear the breach as quickly as possible. Searching through the massive pile of orc bodies around him – it scared him how many there were – he finally caught sight of a shock of white-blond hair. Carefully banishing the orc bodies away, Harry grabbed hold of Haldir's arm and turned to face the others.

"You've got to get men to cover this wall," he said quickly. "It's the weakest point and I don't know if I can fix another breach. The magic on the walls stretched a little, I think, but it might break a second time."

And, without waiting to hear their responses, Harry apparated away with a loud crack.

Reappearing back where he had left Ginny it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the different setting. The first thing he saw was Ginny, leaning against the wall and looking startled. Before he could say anything, however, her eyes refocussed unsteadily on the prone Haldir. "What happened?"

"He's still alive," Harry said quickly, although lying unmoving on the cold floor with a bloody great big knife in his back, it didn't look as though he was.harry "Orcs," he added unnecessarily, "I managed to clear them but…" He trailed off.

Ginny wasn't listening, simply grasping onto Haldir's hand, reaching for a pulse. He swallowed and looked around at them. They weren't the only ones who had retreated here. Around Harry and Ginny's position were a score of men, each nursing a different wound. Some were looking around them, with alert but pained eyes. More of them weren't moving at all.

Harry swallowed again, this time trying not to think about how many more like these were outside – dying – or, worse, already dead. He couldn't stay there and watch… already grief was beginning to bubble up inside him and he knew from experience that he couldn't let it. Not now. Not yet.

The rage, on the other hand…

"Stay here, Ginny," he said quiet but firmly. "Get better and I'll… I'll see you later."

She looked up at him sharply but he disapparated before she had a chance to respond. Reappearing back at the newly repaired breach, Harry gaped slightly. Aragorn and Legolas certainly hadn't wasted any time. The top of the wall was already teeming with soldiers once more, most of them Haldir's brethren. Aragorn was calling in elvish and the fighters were responding, standing ready.

They weren't fighting though. Harry blinked and realised something that he hadn't noticed earlier.

The night was silent.

Running to join Aragorn, Harry could hear some sounds - the dimmer sounds of clashing swords from the orcs that had not been cleared inside the walls – but they were nothing compared to the roar that had been occurring beforehand. Even the rain had disappeared.

"Aragorn! What's going – "

Harry clapped his hands over his ears, wincing at the sudden surge of noise. Squinting at the enemy to determine their new strategy, it took a moment for him to realise that it wasn't the orc army; it was the defenders of the Deep, cheering.

Cheering him.

"Let's see them break us now, eh laddie!" Gimli roared, whacking Harry on the back.

Harry blinked at the dwarf, belatedly realising how relieved he was to see him alive and seemingly uninjured. He certainly looked fierce and ready for action, axe freshly gleaming. "Erm, right?" Harry agreed tentatively, before staring out at the enemy more closely. His embarrassed expression quickly turned to a grin as he saw them milling around bewildered. "Well, they certainly look rather flummoxed."

Gimli laughed. "I doubt they know what to do with a wall that magically fixes itself after being blown to pieces," he said, leaning over the wall. "We may yet live out the night."

Harry frowned at the dwarf as he headed back to his position, but still couldn't help but feel hope stirring. However stumped the orcs had looked after that first explosion, it was nothing compared to now. They had retreated back out of arrow range for the time being and none of them seemed quite sure what to do. At the very least none of them were attacking and it meant that the defenders had a chance to rest. Harry had the feeling that the explosion had been the army's one big chance to get into the Deep… a chance he had now completely scuppered.

Or maybe not completely.

Looking down at the wall, Harry realised that his hasty repair work was most definitely not perfect. Whilst the majority of the wall was still there, it felt higgledy piggledy and slightly crumbly to the touch. He remembered the blasting curses he had used with a wince, realising that it was likely that even an overpowered reparo like he had employed couldn't resurrect bits of the wall that had been blown to smithereens.

It was holding, however, and Harry carried on somewhat unsteadily towards Aragorn.

As he made his way across some of the enemy were becoming more organised, yelling at each other to form into rows. They seemed to be trying to lock some shields in place. To protect them from the arrows maybe as they approached the wall? Harry paused before quickly yelling "Accio shields!" The orcs howled as their make-shift shields flew forward and struck the wall. They'd have to risk the elvish arrows to retrieve them now. Harry grinned and carried on.

"Harry!" Aragorn called, pushing his way along the fighters to join the wizard. "How fares Haldir?"

Harry made a face. "He's still alive but it… it doesn't look good," he admitted, feeling shame once more. He should have seen the orcs coming, should have cut them down before disapparating. "He's with Ginny."

"Ginny?" Aragorn repeated, startled. "What happened?"

"She got caught in the explosion," he said, pushing back the sick feeling that swelled as he thought of it. "She's ok, though, but can't fight. Not at the moment."

Aragorn didn't respond, simply gripped Harry's arm in understanding. "For now we must look forward," he said firmly. "The wall stands yet but it is not stable. Is there anything you can do to improve it?"

"No," Harry said, "the only thing I – we – could do is apply a stronger warding. I think. I'd need Ginny for that and more energy – and time – than we've got right now."

Or would he? Harry paused, thinking about how he had repaired the wall just before. That had required no input from Ginny to stretch the warding. Could he do the same to the rest of the wall? Maybe… but only if he were desperate. If he pulled down all the warding then he definitely wouldn't be able to put it back up on his own. That would have to wait until Ginny was better.

"Then we shall have to make do with defending it as best we can," Aragorn said, clapping him on the shoulder and unaware of his inner thoughts. "The orcs are wary now but it will be difficult nonetheless."

"And here I thought battles were supposed to be easy," Harry drawled with a grin at the startled Aragorn. "What I can do is bespell the stones and ground in front of the wall, make it harder for them to get there," Harry offered instead. "You are needed on other parts of the wall, not just here. Go, we'll be fine."

Aragorn shot him a searching look before acquiescing and disappeared along the length of the wall. Harry didn't watch him go, already focussed on sending out a stream of spells in front of him. Glisseo and incendio were used extensively to make the ground difficult for the orcs to stand on. Feeling inspired by one of the few tv shows he had managed to watch at the Dursleys, Harry then used a controlled blasting hex to create several large ditches in front of the walls. He filled each one with a variety of different traps; freezing water; some of Hermione's favourite blue bell flames; transfiguring some stones into sharpened spikes (he felt guilty about that one but only vaguely. Battle had certainly hardened his attitude towards the orcs); even filling one with conjured snakes using serpensortia. The final touch was to cast a concealment charm; that way the orcs wouldn't see them until they walked into them.

Satisfied with his spell work, Harry looked up to find himself looking at a score of elves staring at him, waiting for his orders. Harry gulped and tried not to look too nervous. It was one thing to command the DA; it was quite another to have twenty, unearthly, beautiful elves looking to him for leadership, especially considering that the least of them was several millennia older than he.

"Erm, right," he said nervously. They just carried on staring and Harry had a sudden panic. "Er, you do speak English, right?" he asked, before realising that whatever language he was speaking, it definitely wasn't called English. "I mean, you understand what I'm saying?"

One of the elves nodded sharply and Harry felt a sudden surge of relief. Thank Merlin. Quickly he explained what he had done and instructed the elves to try to drive the orcs into his traps. The elves, after much exclamation and several raised eyebrows, agreed and quickly went back to shooting their arrows.

In between shooting spells at the orcs and renewing the enchantments around his traps Harry grabbed a couple of the rapidly depleting arrows and began to duplicate them. "Gemino, gemino," Harry chanted, waving his wand as more and more arrows popped into existence. Drawing on the little he had learnt about runes that day, Harry tried to see if he could ward the arrows with extra strength. The arrows seemed to take the ward – at least, they didn't burst into flames – but it wasn't until he saw one of them shoot right through an orc in full armour and then into another that he could tell the wards had worked. 'Istar arrows' became much in demand after that

All in all, despite the number of casualties, the earlier near miss and his worry about Ginny, the battle seemed to be going surprisingly well. The orcs were still stumbling into his traps, slipping into the fire or else were downed by arrows. After taking a short rest, Harry even apparated along the lines, adding enchantments to the rest of the wall. Some orcs were still making it over but they were few and far between. As he popped along the walls, Harry felt something rising around him, everywhere he went.

Hope.

~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~ Failsafe ~

So Ginny is still alive (rather surprised that many of you wanted her to die. Poor Ginny. Such hate!) and Haldir isn't dead (yet) for those of you who asked me to let him live. I do like Haldir (although it might be something to do with loving Craig Parker 3) so he might survive his war wounds.

Just a note that as school starts back up this week my updates might be more like a week – week ½ in between. Generally I've been updating recently just slightly less than a week between but I can't keep that up once term time is in full flow. There WILL still be regular updates though, so don't worry! You'll just have to wait a bit longer for each section

As always, thanks for reading and for those of you who review. They are always appreciated (even those who want Ginny to die. Sort of!)

Love, Hannanora xxx