Extreme Makeovers: Bag End Edition

By: Elemmírë

Summary: Bilbo prepares for Frodo's arrival; based on a Shirebunny. Bilbo is 99 & Frodo is 21 (ages 63½ & 13½ in Man years.)

Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings does not belong to me, nor am I making any profit off either its story or characters. Also, the chapter titles do not belong to me either; they belong to their respective HGTV shows from which they were inspired.

Author's Note: This story was inspired by a Shirebunny: As Bilbo prepares the room at Bag End that will be Frodo’s, he reflects on how his life will change once the tween comes to live there ....This is my very first Shire bunny to be adopted! This story was also inspired by my own struggles with renovating my apartment in a very old two family house that has been in my family for over 100 years.

Bilbo Baggins was the most happiest of hobbits in the Shire. He had a worthwhile heir at last! In exactly six weeks' time, the paperwork for adoption would be complete and finalized and his young nephew, Frodo Baggins, would be coming to Bag End to live permanently. The only other hobbit that could possibly be as happy and excited as he, was the orphaned tweenager himself.

When Bilbo’s father, Bungo Baggins, had excavated The Hill and built Bag End for his beloved wife over one hundred years ago, he had had a large room created down the hall from the Master bedroom. This room had been intended to be a nursery, but Bilbo was the only child ever to occupy it on a long-term basis … until now. Having since moved into the Master bedroom about a year or so after his mother passed on, Bilbo’s old room had been closed essentially. It had only ever been used when a wee Frodo had visited with his parents and the family stayed overnight. Frodo had loved the fact that his guestroom used to be his uncle’s bedroom as a lad and he reveled that only he had ever been granted the privilege of staying in it. Frodo most especially had liked the roomy old bed with its carved headboard and storage drawers underneath the frame.

Due to lack of use, Bilbo had found it easier to simply close the room up shortly after Frodo’s parents had both died tragically, rather than to keep up the work maintaining it along with Bag End's other numerous rooms. For nine long years now, Frodo had been living in Brandy Hall, all the way in Buckland. And while Bilbo could easily just up and go visit his nephew across the Brandywine River anytime he liked, it was much harder for Frodo to have someone agree to take him all the way to Hobbiton. In fact, many of the times he’d visited in recent years, Bilbo either went and escorted the lad himself, or Frodo was dropped off while his guardians were on their way to Tuckborough to visit relatives or to conduct business in Michel Delving.

When Frodo came to visit, it was simply easier to air out one of the more frequently used guestrooms and quarter him there for the duration of his stay. Frodo had never once questioned his uncle’s decision or asked him why the change in rooms. Bilbo had the impression that Frodo would sleep outside in the Gaffer’s tool shed if it meant being away from the noisy bustle, and crowds of Brandy Hall for any length of time.

Bilbo stood in the round doorway of what had once been his own room as a lad and surveyed it with a critical eye. The furniture was covered in old sheets, the window was shut tightly, and the brick and stone fireplace was cold and empty. There were cobwebs and dust bunnies in the corners and underneath the furniture. The walls were faded and Bilbo thought his old room seemed very lonely and empty rather than the sunny, cheerful place he remembered it being long ago as a child.

Bilbo wanted to create the same sort of refuge he once had as a young hobbit for Frodo--Frodo, who wanted for nearly everything and yet asked for nothing. Oh, the lad was certainly treated well enough at Brandy Hall and his basic needs were always taken care of … but the orphaned lad had very little that he could call his very own. His clothes were often hand-me-downs from when his older cousins, like Milo or Seredic, had been young. The clothing was often too large for Frodo’s slight frame, and had to be taken in or hemmed, which his numerous aunts apparently found easier than taking a trip to the tailor. It seemed the only time Frodo ever received any new clothes was as mathom on Yule, or on his aunt's or uncles' birthdays, or from Bilbo himself.

Frodo also had very few of his own toys, just whatever had come with him to Brandy Hall and what was gifted to him during birthday parties or Yule. Frodo never once complained, however, but it was easy to see the longing in the lad’s big blue eyes … longing for the simple family life that he’d once had just like any other hobbit child before the river changed his life forever one tragic night.

What Frodo needed the most right now as he entered his tweens was a quiet, peaceful environment, where he would not lack for attention and begin to thrive once more. This, Bilbo could easily give the lad along with so much more. After nearly sixty years of living alone, coupled with his increasing quarrels with the greedy Sackville-Bagginses (who would have inherited Bag End and all his possessions), Bilbo felt he was more than ready to tackle raising a growing lad. He had faced down a deadly dragon and journeyed far beyond the borders of the Shire. How hard or difficult could it be to care for one child?

“Tween,” Bilbo corrected himself. “He’s a tweenager now. It’s not like I’ll have to potty train him or anything dreadful like that, for goodness sake.”

He understood that having Frodo for a few weeks’ visit and having him as a permanent fixture at Bag End were two very different things. Bilbo was prepared to give up certain aspects of his bachelor lifestyle to accommodate the youngster or better yet, to incorporate Frodo into them as much as possible. Bilbo knew that there were things he was going to probably need help with in guiding Frodo to his coming of age in twelve more years, and he knew there were things that he didn’t have any clue about at all. None of that mattered to Bilbo--he and Frodo would have to learn together what worked and what didn’t as they went along, just as any other first-time parent.

What the Master of Bag End did have (besides enormous riches and a kind, generous heart) was ninety-nine years of life-long experience to draw from and the fact that he was still going strong despite his old age. He had the memories of how his own parents had raised him; he had the full support of Frodo’s current guardians and many others of the Brandybuck, Took, and Baggins families. And most importantly, he had the practical Gamgee family living right down the lane, in Number 3 Bagshot Row.

Bilbo stepped into the darkened room, placing his hands on his hips. He nodded his head. He was going to make this into a haven for his beloved nephew, who showed so much spirit despite so much hardship … and he was going to do this all by himself. No expense would be spared for his lad.

“I can do this,” he resolved, his Baggins determination and stubbornness coming to the foreground.

* * * * *