Disclaimer: If you have read my 'Disclaimer' ramblings from chapter 1 to chapter 10, you would know what I do not own: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, yada yada yada. :D

A/N: I CANNOT BELIEVE I FORGOT TO WRITE 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLIN MORGAN' ON MY PREVIOUS NOTE IN CHAPTER 10! It was first uploaded on January 1st, 2013, which was Colin's 27th birthday. I revised it the next day for line breaks, and I still forgot to add it. I'm such an oaf! So, once again, after punctually saying it through various medias I have access to (namely Twitter, Facebook, and my BBM status), I wish to say, "HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO THE TALENTED COLIN MORGAN. I wish you a great career, a happy life, and may God always bless you."

Anyway, I have googled some more, and finally found more references on Durin's Bane. Turned out my conclusion is true. It is the Balrog. I have to thank Thrae Elddim for the comment. It helped in assuring me of the result of my research. If anyone is interested in reading my research conclusions, I posted them in my profile. :D

So, here's you chapter 11 and the second part of the Battle in the Mines of Moria.

Chapter 11: The Bridge of Khazad-dûm

Hermione ran along with the whole Fellowship. In her mind, Legolas' words rang loudly and repeatedly. It's a black chasm. Her already troubled mind couldn't escape the endless cycle of the devastating words. Black chasm. Black chasm. Black. Chasm. No wonder everyone but Gimli and the Hobbits were discouraged to take the route of Moria.

"Quickly!" Gandalf's rich voice was heard aloud. The tone of urgency and panic was clear in it. He stopped on an archway to usher everyone through it. Hermione was the last to go. As she ran past him, she nodded at him to thank him which wasn't met with any reply. Hermione understood, though. It was a dire situation.

Another roar was heard from the hallway, and Hermione froze. She looked back to see Gandalf also looking back with fear clear in his face. It was getting near, both Gandalf and Hermione realised that. They quickly ran to catch up with the whole Fellowship, although they needed not run for long. The whole Fellowship stopped on the brink of a part of stairs. Apparently, the next part had collapsed down, maybe a long time ago. Hermione dread what would happen if she hadn't look forward and hadn't managed to stop running down the stairs. Just a little nudge would send the Hobbits tumbling down, pushing Gimli, Legolas, and Boromir off the stairs, and to the deep of the fiery chasm.

Suddenly, she noticed that Gandalf was running out of breath, and was leaning on a wall. "Gandalf," she called as she checked on the old wizard. From the corner of her eyes, Aragorn looked back to where Gandalf leant on a wall and ran up the stairs to the old wizard out of concern.

"Lead them on, Aragorn!" Gandalf said with an expression that clearly told him, 'do not mind me'. He then continued as he gazed upon a lone, seemingly frail bridge ahead. "The bridge is near," he said.

Aragorn seemed ready to run and lead the others, but suddenly, a loud roar was heard. "It's near," Hermione said. At the same time, Aragorn launched past Gandalf to face the balrog. Well, he tried to. "Do as I say!" the old man pushed Aragorn back. "Swords are no more use here!" he continued as he looked sternly at the ranger. He, himself already started to walk as he said that.

"And don't you dare to think to face that balrog with your magic," he scolded Hermione when he caught the brunette's movement that indicated her intention to run back to the balrog. "Now, fly!" he shouted to the whole Fellowship as everyone started to move again, an instruction everyone was inclined to follow.

"Why?" she asked Gandalf as she ran down flights of stairs, following where the others ran. "If swords are useless against it, why don't we try my magic?"

"Hermione, the balrog is beyond your skills. I know it. Like me, it is a Maia. A Maia that was corrupted and twisted by the darkness of Morgoth," he left his explanation at that, and then she didn't even care to ask anymore. It was tiring enough to run the seemingly endless flights of stairs. Talking while running would only make them more breathless.

They kept running, running, and running. Every other thoughts except that had been banished form everyone's minds. Legolas was at the front of the line now. It wasn't hard for him to catch up with the others, although he was near the rear of the line when they started running. Being an Elf gave him a lot of advantages concerning these matters.

Legolas suddenly had to stop. There was another large gap in the stairs. It would be easy for him to jump across it, but will the others be able to jump? He looked back to see the others already catching up with him. He looked ahead, and decided to jump first. Someone needed to catch the others when they jumped.

As soon as he reached the other side, he looked back to the others. Gandalf was the one on the frontmost. "Gandalf," he called as he encouraged the old Maia to jump across. Without hesitation, Gandalf jumped and Legolas caught him.

As soon as Gandalf was steady on his feets, an arrow whizzed and hit the staircase. The arrow was not sharp enough to be stuck in it, but at the same time, it would still be deadly and even more painful when it did hit. Then more arrows came. Legolas quickly nocked an arrow, aimed, and shot. His aim was, of course, true. One of the goblins fell down with a screech. Legolas wrinkled his nose as an image of the repulsive creature flashed in his mind.

He kept shooting arrows after arrows, felling more and more goblins. From the corner of his eyes, he could see that most arrows didn't reach the Fellowship. Many of them fell into the deep chasm because of the lack of speed, but most of them were flicked away by an invisible force. Everytime an arrow was flicked there was a spark of blue. Legolas faintly smiled as he felt a spark of pride in his chest. Hermione was more than capable to protect the Fellowship.

Boromir took Merry and Pippin and then jumped. They arrived safely, but the momentum they caused when Boromir jumped was proved to be too strong for the old stairs. A part of the stairs, the part where they used to stand before they jumped, crumbled down, making the gap even larger that it already was.

Seeing as the assaults of arrows had declined significantly, thanks to Legolas' true aims and Hermione's protecting magic, Legolas stopped shooting and focused his mind on transporting the rest of the Fellowship to his side of stairs. Aragorn was fast. He tossed Sam, and Legolas was more than ready to catch the Hobbit. The ranger was ready to toss the Dwarf, too, but he lifted his palm to strongly refuse the ranger's offer of help. "Nobody tosses a Dwarf!" he cried before he jumped with a loud roar. Legolas was afraid that the Dwarf won't be able to reach the other side.

And he was right. Well, no, he was wrong, the Dwarf did get to the other side, but he barely did so. His feet only touched the edge of the stairs, and he was struggling to keep his balance. From the way he swayed, he was losing it and he was going to fall soon. Legolas stretched his arm to grab whatever he could grab from the Dwarf, to save him from falling to the chasm. Unfortunately, the only part of the Dwarf within Legolas' arm reach was his beard.

"Not the beard!" the Dwarf exclaimed. Legolas cursed in his mind. The pride of the Dwarves is going to be the death of them. He was sure of it.

As soon as Gimli was firmly on his two feet, Legolas looked at the other side, and felt dread, because more parts of the stairs had just crumbled and the gap had widened. No human could jump that distance. And on the other side of the stairs, the wrong side, were Aragorn, his best friend, Frodo, the Ring-bearer, the essence of their quest, and Hermione, the woman who had managed to rage turmoil in his heart in the last couple of days.

Aragorn and Frodo climbed up the stairs, avoiding falling on crumbling staircases. Aragorn cursed in his mind. Hadn't Gimli seen what happened when Boromir jumped whilst carrying Merry and Pippin? Gimli might be shorter than Boromir, but it was common knowledge that Dwarves were heavier than they looked. And with all those chainmail, armour, and axes, he might weigh more than Boromir and the four hobbits combined. But then again, if he had tossed Gimli, it might get worse. Gimli might not reach the other side. As he had recounted before, the Dwarf was heavy.

When the stairs stopped crumbling, Aragorn looked at the gap. Now he couldn't jump over it. It was too wide.

"Aragorn, take my hand!" he heard a feminine voice commanded behind him. He looked back and was suddenly reminded to what happened the last time she asked him to take her hand. Yes, that would work, but...

"No. Frodo first."

"I can take you both at the same time," she assured him. Her hand was still outstretched to him and she started to walk towards Frodo. "You are not going to like this, Frodo," she said as she grabbed Frodo's hand and Aragorn took hers. Aragorn braced himself for the unpleasant sensation. Surprisingly, it was not as unpleasant as the first time. It was maybe because he had been expecting it this time.

Right after he stood on the other side, a loud roar was once again heard from the archway, this time followed by a fiery orange light that they could associate instantly to the ray of fire. The ceiling then began to collapse and the earth quaked for a while.

"Go!" he shouted. The others quickly obeyed him and ran other flights of stairs.

"Over the bridge!" Gandalf instructed as soon as they reached a plain. "Fly!"

Aragorn fled on his heels, like the others, but a loud noise, similar to the sound of a troll stomping its feet, only louder, made him look back for a moment. And that was all he needed to spur his feet. What he saw was a large creature, burning with fire. Its horns were like those of a bull's, and it also burned. Its eyes were white, because of the heat of the light. It was shadow and fire in their most terrible form.

Finally, they reached the bridge. The bridge was small, and unlike the stairs, it was narrow. It was only one man wide. The Fellowship ran over the bridge quickly, Aragorn taking the lead. As soon as he reached the other side, he looked back to make sure the others can reach safety. Boromir ran past him, and then the Hobbits. From where he was standing, he could make out that Hermione, Gimli, and Legolas were already running on the bridge, and Gandalf was only just going to reach it.

He led the Hobbits to ran up the last flight of stairs. "Gandalf!" he suddenly heard Frodo shouted behind him. This prompted him to look back at the old man, who stopped running before he even reached the middle of the bridge and was already facing the balrog. Aragorn's eyes widened as he realised what Gandalf had been planning all along. He intended to fight the balrog himself. In his mind, Aragorn scolded himself. Maia against Maia. Of course.

"NO!" Hermione cried as she heard Gandalf shouted at the balrog, with every word, it was clear that he wanted to fight this balrog all by himself. She tried to run back to help the old man, but she felt a pair of hands encircled her figure and started to pull her away from the bridge. In her mind, she remembered the death of Albus Dumbledore. She wasn't there, and to be honest, she sometimes blamed herself for it. If only she was there, maybe she could help. Or even if she couldn't, at least she would be free of the guilt of not being there at the time. Now, she had the chance to help Gandalf. She didn't want to just let him die. She struggled against the owners of the hands, but he was too strong. Soon, they were far enough from the bridge, and she stopped struggling as she realised her efforts were futile. All she could do was to watch.

"I am the servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor!" the old man's voice rang loudly. The stone he once placed on the tip of his staff glowed brightly. In the meanwhile, the balrog stood to its full height and prepared his flaming sword.

"The dark fire will not avail you, Flame of Udûn!"

Hermione's heart clenched in pain as she watched the balrog lifted its sword of fire and then swiped down, intending to strike down the wizard. "No," Hermione found herself muttered over and over again as she watched the sword stroke like in slow motion.

She gasped loudly as the sword came into impact with the bubble of protection that had formed around Gandalf and sparks flew everywhere. When the balrog lifted its arm again and Hermione could see Gandalf still in one piece on the bridge, she released the breath she had been holding. A small hope lit in her heart. Gandalf just might survive this.

"Go back to the Shadow," Gandalf commanded the balrog. The balrog seemed to hesitate for a millionth of second, before it stepped forward and brandished its whip. Like its sword, its whip was made of fire.

Seeing the balrog's refusal to retreat, Gandalf slowly lifted both his staff and his sword up. Hermione had a feeling that this would be his last attempt on stopping the balrog from chasing them. He was going to release all his power now.

"YOU..." he shouted with all his voice.

"SHALL NOT..." his staff and his sword met above his head.

"PASS!" Gandalf thrust his staff and sword on the bridge.

And look, as the balrog advanced, the part of the bridge where it once stood collapsed, making him fall into the depth of the abyss.

Hermione finally allowed herself to smile in relief. Gandalf had won. He had defeated the balrog. Everything would be fine.

Or not. As Gandalf turned his back, the balrog lashed his whip, and it caught Gandalf's ankle. Inevitably, the old wizard was pulled down. Hermione's smile faded. She could hear Frodo shouted Gandalf's name and struggled to reach the old wizard. She could also hear someone else tried to stop Frodo. But she could only watch. She could only numbly watched as the old wizard struggled to get on the bridge again, to no avail. Finally, he stopped struggling, and Hermione could see the look in his eyes. It was the one of resignation.

"Fly you fools!" he finally said and let go of the bridge, and that's when Hermione broke out of her frozen state.

"No!" she struggled to break free of the arms that were still circling around her. She could hear the owner of the arms whispered soothing words to her ears, although she couldn't make out any of those words. She wasn't sure if it was just because she was too busy screaming, or if he spoke in another language. And she didn't care. She kept struggling to reach the end of the bridge. Finally, she stopped struggling and she let herself be dragged through stairs, while arrows rained on them again.

Once all of them were out of the mines, everyone scattered around. Even the one who had been dragging her out of the mines let go of her. Hermione had a breakdown. Gandalf had been a mentor to her during her stay in Rivendell and her journey with the Fellowship. To lose him like this was really painful. For her, it was as painful as when she robbed her parents of their memories of her. As painful as when she heard the news about Harry's death.

She let her knees gave away and kneeled down as tears kept streaming down her face. Again, someone hold her. She didn't see who it was, but Hermione recognised him as the one who dragged her out of the mines. As Hermione relaxed to his hold, she silently cried. He almost survived. He was winning. The balrog had fallen. But in the end, Gandalf still fell. Hermione bitterly snorted. How cruel. Gandalf's almost winning was like a tease. A tease meant to break the heart of the whole Fellowship even more when he finally fell.

"Legolas, get them up," she heard Aragorn said. The one who hold her reluctantly brought her up to her feet. "Stand strong," she heard him say, and she recognised his voice as Legolas'.

She looked around. Legolas was walking towards Sam. Merry was holding his cousin, Pippin, who was crying, while he himself was staring off into nothing. Boromir was keeping Gimli from running back inside the mines. Sam was crying, alone. Frodo was nowhere to be seen. Aragorn stood tall, trying to be the strong foundation that the Fellowship had lost when Gandalf fell, although the grief was still clear in his eyes.

"Give them a moment, for pity's sake!" Boromir snapped at Aragorn's request.

"By nightfall these hills will be swarming with orcs." came the answer without a pause. "We must reach the woods of Lothlórien."

Hermione walked to Merry and Pippin with Aragorn's voice prompting Legolas and Boromir to help him in the background.

"Hey, be strong," she softly said, attracting Merry and Pippin's attention as she got nearer to them. "Come on, Gandalf had sacrificed himself for us, don't let him go in vain," she said while she helped Merry, and then Pippin, to stand up.

"Miss Hermione, why didn't you do something?" Pippin's grievous voice asked her between his sobs, and Hermione was silent. She didn't say anything. She didn't have the answer to his question.

"Pip, there was nothing else she could do," Merry said to his cousin. Pippin nodded to his cousin's words, but something still nagged in her heart. Pippin was right. She should have done something. Restrained or not, numbed or not, at the time, she should have done something.

A/N: Now what it this? First, she was scared because of finally using the Killing Curse, and now she was feeling guilty over Gandalf's death (even though we all know, that it was never her fault). And we still haven't seen the solution to Legolas' problem, right? Well, I promise you, those problem will be solved soon. Really soon.

Somehow I think this short chapter is rather crappy. I tried my best but I just couldn't grasp what was missing. Maybe the Legolas/Hermione parts? Or maybe the details? Or maybe it's just the length? Hm...

Anyway, about translations, there weren't many words in this chapter (not including Nanduhirion in my A/N). In fact, besides the name of creatures and places, there were only two other words: Anor and Udûn. Anor, is the Sindarin word for the sun, so the flame of Anor means the flame of the sun. Udûn is not listed in my dictionaries, unfortunately. So I cannot give you the exact translation, but if I had to guess, based on my instinct, which has more than 60 percent chance of being wrong, I think it means hell, to put it bluntly. I'm off to research some more! My, my, how I love researching Tolkien's works. :D

Well, it's 1.30 a.m. already, and I need some sleep. Bye.

Rwanna.

P.S.:

February 10, 2013.

Okay, you can kill me now. I have literally, unintentionally, temporarily "abandoned" my main story, "A Witch's Quest of Mount Doom", in the last two-three weeks. Not permanent, mind you. My head just blanked in the middle of writing a point of chapter 12, and believe me, I tried to do other parts of the chapter too, the one which conversation was 100% in Sindarin, but my work just stuck after my failed third attempt to translate it. Blame it on my laptop and my own stupidity. I should've just switched to MS Word, and not insisted working with Notepad on the translation. But no, I just have to be an idiot. I've realised it now. The flood in Jakarta a few weeks back also didn't help me at all with this project. Check my profile for my grumbling on this phenomena if you need more explanation.

Not only those are the problem, working on ten stories at once is not cool at all. Not cool. I actually have mentioned in the first chapter I posted after the hiatus that since I am working on many stories at once, the rate of update for this story this term break will be less often than the last term break. Only, at the time I mentioned it, I was only working on maybe 6 stories at most? 7? Now, I have about 8 fanfictions stories in progress in my drive, and another two or three undeveloped story concepts that I have typed down. At this point, I am willing to let anyone interested to adopt these undeveloped concepts. Two of these concepts were Merlin fanfictions, and the last one is a planned crossover between the Walking Dead, Supernatural, Merlin, and Harry Potter (if possible). Just contact me if you want it, and I'll send it to you via PM.

I am really sorry for those who have been waiting for the still-not-coming update, but due to the reasons I mentioned, I am suspending this work for incubation, hopefully for only a few more weeks. I'm still working on it, and once again, I said, I am not abandoning this story. Ever. In the mean time, while I am thinking of a way to write the next part of chapter 12, I am posting another fanfiction under the category: TV Shows Merlin. It is titled "Destiny is but one path of many", and rated M for rape scene. Not graphic (at least I hope it's not graphic enough), but my morality still think I should rate it M. This story is one of the stories responsible for the delayed development of this story. I chose this one to be posted among my other works, because it is the one with the most complete concept and the most developed plots. Not to mention that in my opinion, this one is the one with the least flaws compared to my other unpublished works. Doesn't mean this one is flawless.

In conclusion, I am sorry for the postpone.

Rwanna.