Harry Potter and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Around them were Christmas trees decorated with s and s. The tables were still littered with s and s left over from a most delicious feast. Harry stretched and yawned, full and happy.

Albus Dumbledore, the Hogwarts Headmaster, stood up and cried, "Time for crackers!" Harry picked one out of the pile that appeared on the table, and he and Ron pulled it. It came apart in a burst of golden sparks, , and pink smoke. A and fell out, as well as a little gold ring. Harry absently stuffed the ring in his pocket while he took another cracker.

Soon the Great Hall was full of strange things from the crackers. Hermione got , Professor McGonagall set on her head, and Ron had to keep from swimming in his pumpkin juice. When the crackers were all gone, Harry and his friends were about to go back to the Gryffindor common room when Hermione noticed something. "Look! There's a whole bunch of things heading for the dungeons."

Sure enough, skittered along behind . carried on its back. Even hopped in line, as if not wanting to be left behind.

"I wonder where they're going," said Harry as scuttled over his shoe. "Shall we follow?"

"This had better not be like 'Follow the spiders,'" growled Ron as he dropped on the floor.

The other students, and the professors, didn't seem to notice as Harry, Ron and Hermione quietly followed and toward the dungeons.

The stairs leading downward were a bit slippery, and Hermione almost stepped on . The dungeons were very dark, and they all said "Lumos" to light their wands.

"What's that noise?" asked Harry. A distant drumming, slowly getting louder, soon drowned out the squeals of fighting with to get away faster.

"I knew it," said Ron. "It's going to be something huge and horrible." They were following between huge carved pillars now, and the ceiling was so far away in the gloom that they couldn't see it. "See, here's where everything's going," he said as he stumbled over .

They went through a doorway into a room where clambered over a stone memorial of some sort. A beam of light shone down from the ceiling onto it. Hermione pushed and off it to read what it said. "It's in runes," she said. "Lucky I'm studying them this year."

She had just started to read, "Here lies Balin--" when a whole bunch of people, followed by and , burst into the room. Four of the people were very short, barefoot, with furry feet. One was a dwarf in armor, carrying a very nasty-looking axe, which he swung at . Hermione jumped back as two men in armor stabbed at with their swords. Then came a tall blond man with pointed ears, carrying a bow and arrow. The last person, an old man with hair and beard almost as long as Dumbledore's, but much bushier eyebrows, stopped him from shooting an arrow at . "Save it for more important things," he said.

The newcomers stopped short when they saw Harry, Ron and Hermione. "Be you orcs?" asked the dwarf.

"N-no," said Ron, brushing off his arm. "Just Hogwarts students."

"What are you doing in the dungeons?" asked Hermione.

"These be the mines of Moria!" said the dwarf. He stomped hard, narrowly missing . "Be these your creatures?"

"No," said Harry. "We just followed them down here."

One of the short people said, "The drumming's getting louder, Gandalf. Is that a bad thing?"

The old man shook s out of his sleeves. "Yes, Pippin, and these things are getting on my nerves, too."

Just then there was a crash from outside the doorway. Lots of s skittered through, squeaking loudly. "That doesn't sound good," said one of the men. He went over to the heavy wooden doors and started to push them shut. An arrow flew past him, almost hitting that was crawling up the door frame.

A ran past him as he slammed the doors. He turned around. "They've got a cave troll!"

"What did I say?" moaned Ron. "Something huge and horrible!"

"You'd best grab a spear from one of those dead warriors," one of the short people told Harry, Ron and Hermione as he pushed aside with his foot. "I think we're going to have company very soon."

"Dead warriors?" said Ron.

"Don't worry," said Hermione, shaking off a spear and handing it to Harry. "They've been dead a long, long time. They're not too disgusting."

Something hit the door, hard. A and ran to hide behind the stone monument.

"Here they come," said the man who'd closed the doors. The blond man and the dark-haired man raised their bows. The doors started to splinter, and crawled through the cracks.

A horrible stench filled the room as the troll pushed through the shattered doors. "Not another troll!" said Ron.

"You've fought trolls before?" asked the old man, raising his sword.

"Yeah. Knocked one out in the girl's lavatory."

"Then we may need your expertise." The old man gently set on the monument behind him.

A horde of hideous armored creatures, probably the 'orcs' the dwarf had asked about, followed the troll in. A followed the orcs in. Harry, Ron and Hermione found themselves far too busy fending orcs off with their borrowed spears to worry about the s swooping over their heads.

"Harry, we've got to do something," said Hermione. "There are too many of them. And it doesn't help that is trying to climb up my leg."

"You're the one who knows all the spells," panted Harry.

"Spells, of course!" said Hermione. Still holding her spear in her right hand, she grabbed her wand out of her pocket with her left hand. She pointed it at the troll. It had just flung and one of the short people off its back, and was ignoring arrows and swords.

"Wingardium leviosa!" shouted Hermione, pointing at the cave troll's club. The huge, spiky club rose into the air, turned over, and came down with a thud on the troll's head. The troll crashed to the floor, almost squashing and another one of the short people.

"Frodo, are you all right?" said the chubbiest short person.

Frodo, the one who'd almost been squashed, sat up and, pushing out of the way, put his hand to his throat. "The Ring--it's gone!"

The dwarf and the other three warriors had just dispatched the last of the orcs. They hurried over, kicking aside.

The old man brushed the climbing his staff off it, and pointed it at Harry. "Do you know anything about the Ring?" he asked.

"Ring?" said Harry. "What ring?" But just then climbed out of his pocket, holding the ring he'd got out of the cracker. "Hey, that's mine!" he yelled, grabbing it.

The old man raised his bushy eyebrows. "Perhaps that ring?"

"I forgot about that one. It's just some cheap thing out of a Christmas cracker." He pulled it away from , which was trying to take it.

"Then you won't mind if we have it?" asked the old man.

"No . . . yes, I would. I'd rather keep it, if you don't mind. It's precious to me." Harry started to put it back in his pocket, but found there, so instead decided to put the ring on his finger.

Everything went dark and foggy. All he could see were and scampering about and making evil faces.

"Whoa!" said Harry, pulling the ring off his finger. "That was creepy; you can have it!" He started to hand the ring to the old man, avoiding the which tried to take it.

"No, give it to him." The old man pointed to Frodo. Harry did, making sure didn't get it instead.

"Now, I think you three are in the wrong place," said the old man to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "You, and all these . . . creatures." He nudged with his staff.

Then he raised the staff, and the crystal on its tip blazed bright. He spoke some strange words, there was a flash, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione found themselves, along with and , outside Professor Snape's classroom.

"That was weird," said Ron.

"It just proves that anything can happen at Hogwarts," said Hermione.

Harry just smiled, and put the he found in the folds of his cloak into his pocket.