the unusual (but very well loved) teapot by bleucrow  

the unusual (but very well loved) teapot

There was something strange about the teapot. 

It never let the contents inside go cold, no matter how long it had been left off of the stove and was almost entirely undecorated except for the almost small starlike marks, that would glitter in certain lights, always in sets of three set across the baser of the tea pot. It was said to have come from a single set, and while other families had similar pieces within their own crockery collections none were exactly the same.

It happened to be an old Took, then eventual Baggins through Belladonna Took and her marriage to Bungo, heirloom, and could be traced as far back as the fall of the Northern Kingdom, but there were rumours amongst the hobbits that had held and used the teapot that it was more than likely even older, though the documentation didn’t exist on paper. The story surrounding its origins was that it had been purchased during their ancestors initial flight from the confines of the cities of Men, and that the man (an odd, odd fellow that was said to be jolly but strange and who had a beautiful wife whose love of the river was well known) who had sold it to them had claimed it was an old, old piece dating back to even the initial singing itself.

That was a fanciful and ridiculous thought, but it was certainly a nice story to tell around an afternoon tea table with little cakes and sandwiches, and at supper with before bed treats and little nibbles of cheese. At times it seemed that the teapot had a mind of its own, and whilst it never allowed the tea inside to get cold, it would refuse to pour if it had heard comments that it didn’t particularly like, those about elves and compliments about Gandalf’s fireworks, but if it happened to hear someone disparaging the strange wizard himself it would gleefully give the speaker an incredibly well-brewed and delicious cup of tea that none were able to actually replicate, no matter how hard they tried. 

Things took a turn for the even more unusual after Bilbo had arrived back form his quest to Erebor, the teapot seemed to be in the most mood for the next eighty or so years, pouring the best tea it had ever brewed even with the lowest quality and cheapest leaves that Bilbo and his Took cousins provided for it in the name of experimentation, of course. Even when a random assortment of dwarves, elves and even once, Gandalf appeared for afternoon tea after Frodo had come to live with Bilbo, it still continued to give them a high quality, if slightly burnt at times, brew that managed to be far too hot and strangely spicy.

After Bilbo had left, and then Frodo it stayed silent, empty and waiting impatiently for it to be once more picked up and used. And perhaps for something else to return, victorious the teapot certainly hoped.

(It would remain silent, and unused until after the Scouring of the Shire and would never again brew tea in the manner it had in the previous century, part of itself in mourning for the loss of its companion.)

Despite its misgivings, it did enjoy being used by the family of Samwise Gamgee, who would look at it with suspicion even as he took it with him across an unfamiliar, but also very familiar ocean. 

It hadn’t heard Samwise’s own thoughts about it, and that was a good thing. Samwise hoped that it wasn’t another One Ring, even if it had been very well loved and used for making and brewing tea for fussy hobbits in the Shire for hundreds of years. It was best to check, and he didn’t want it to remain within his family if it turned out to be the case. 

Even if he was absolutely terrified at the thought, surely one of the Valar (maybe Manwë?) would be willing to come for tea to just have a quick look?