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Chapter Text

“Damn! What was that spell that Voldemort used?” Harry muttered. He had just defeated the Dark Lord only a hour ago. However, just before Voldemort had died, he had shouted a curse at Harry, a curse that was otherwise unknown to the wizarding world apparently. At the time, he hadn't felt anything when it had hit, but he wanted to know what the curse did. Right now, Harry felt a little tingling all throughout his body, like his organs were trying to jump out. Yeah, not a good feeling. I wish Dumbledore or Hermione were still alive; they might possibly have known about this curse.

And on top of that, he had also experienced a hugesurge in his magic center when he had touched the Elder Wand. Before this battle and in the past few years, he had an above average amount of magic. But now? It felt like he was bursting with magic. He had also discovered that he could now do wandless magic. In one of the battles that he had fought, he had lost his wand and he had tried to summon it with only his will which had worked.

The final battle had ended, but to Harry, it seemed like it was still happening. He had watched the aurors round up the remaining Death Eaters and spirit them away to the Ministry holding cells. Madame Pomfrey was still tending to the wounded, last Harry had checked. Harry was slowly walking around the great hall in a daze, trying to come to terms that he had in fact defeated Voldemort for good this time, but lost so much.

This was the end of a long drawn out battle that had ended in so many deaths and a lot of them were personal. He had lost Hermione and Ron to Bellatrix, the rest of the Weasley family had been killed by Voldemort, Draco to Greyback and Harry was also mourning the deaths of Remus and Tonks and all the other people who gave their lives to bring Voldemort's reign to an end.

Harry was just about to apparate back to Grimmauld Place to see if it had anything in its library about the dark curse, though all he had for starting research was the thing that Voldemort had shouted at him. He had just figured that he would ask Kreacher if he knew anything.

As soon as Harry had disapparated, he felt the tingling in his body grow to a big crescendo. Right in the middle of his travel, he felt a tug or, it was like a pull in one direction. In response to that tug, his body went with it. That is one weird feeling. I've never felt a pull on myself or my magic when I apparate. It's usually just disappear from one spot and appear in another.

Most of the time when Harry apparated, it only took a minute or two to get to his destination. This time he felt the energy of the spell that Voldemort cursed him with move through his body. When he finally landed at his destination, he turned his gazed inward. Harry didn't notice that he was in an entirely new place; not at Grimmauld Place like he had planned on apparating to. He vaguely heard someone trying to get his attention, but his whole focus was inside.

His magic was running amok inside of him and with his new vision (when had he been able to see magic, come to think of it? This was a new development.) he could see two different strands of magic, one felt like his and the other one was the spell energy of the curse. In an effort to get rid of the curse before it killed him or whatever it would do, he used his magic to combine the two magics, which wasn't hard to do. However, he hadn't heard of that kind of thing happening in the wizarding world before.

After grabbing the spell energy, channeled it into shifting into his animagus form, which was a wolf. As he started to shift forms, he felt himself shift into an entirely different form. Whoa, what's happening? Once he was done shifting forms, he turned in circles a few times. He was now a domestic house cat! What the hell? My animagus form is a wolf! Wait, I think I remember reading about something in the history books. I think there was this wizard who had had the same thing happen to him, it was the result of pulling curse energy into herself and being able to shift into any animal. It's a weird side effect. Well, at least I have an explanation for this. I wonder what other forms I'll be able to shift into.

Harry shifted back into his human form, expecting to be in the front hall of Grimmauld Place. Umm, I don't think I ended up in the right place. He was in a wooded area that seemed very old. It was also during the night, as there were stars out. Bewilderingly, Harry looked around himself. It looked like an area where many people had camped; the grass under Harry's feet was very tamped down and well walked on. It seemed he had landed right in the middle of someone's camp. Luckily, he hadn't ended up in the fire! He glanced over the fire and saw an old man sitting on a log staring at him, with a curious look on his face.

Uh-oh, I think this man saw my shift! Hopefully, this will end well. The man had a long grey cloak on and grey hair and was holding a … what looked like a staff that was meant for a wizard! It had a crystal on the top of it, in a little cradle by the wood that the staff was built out of. Harry wasn't aware that wizards used staffs, though and this man sure seemed like a stereotypical wizard.

“And who might you be?” the old man asked, inquisitively.

Do I use my name or not? This man seems like someone I could trust. “I'm Harry. Where am I and who are you?” Harry asked cautiously.

“Ah, you would be the one that Elrond and Galadriel told me about. The Valar have sent you here. I am Gandalf the Grey, young one. You are in Middle Earth, of the third age 2797.” he replied.

So, not in London anymore... I guess that this was what that 'tug' was for. Though, I've never heard of Middle Earth before. This Gandalf person says that I was expected. Judging by where we are right now, I don't think I'm in my world anymore. It kind of seems like Magic gave me another chance at another family. I don't have any inclination to go back, since the Last Battle.I have no one to go back to.

“So you look like a wizard, are you one?” Harry asked. He certainly looked like one, what with the staff and the old grey cloak. At least the first person he saw in this world was another wizard.

“Yes, I am. There are six other wizards around these parts. When you shifted shape a moment ago, that was a new thing, wasn't it?” Gandalf replied.

“Yes, that was.”-- I think I can tell him about that. He might be able to help me, too. “My usual form is a wolf, though,” A wolf with a brown coat and black ears and green eyes; it had been really exciting when he had first shifted into his animagus form. “I took a spell, a curse, really and used it's energy to avoid getting killed. And now I can apparently shift into a domestic house cat.”

“Hmm, I have not heard anything remotely like that here, but I think you know why that happened.” Gandalf mused.

It appears that I am stuck here for the time being. Might as well get know this world. It looks like the only things that came with me are the three hallows, which didn't I drop the Resurrection stone somewhere in the Forbidden Forest? And the bag that Hermione had during that camping trip that the three of them took. The Hallows might be why that happened. I did feel like my magic just kind of grew and grew after I claimed the Elder Wand.

“You said that those people, Elrond and Galadriel? That they had told you to expect me? I didn't know that I was going to end up here.” Harry said incredulously. He was still having trouble admitting that he was in another world, not in Grimmauld Place, like he had expected.

“Ah, right, those two are both Elves and are both very well versed in knowing the future, Galadriel is the Lady of Lorien and Elrond, Lord of Rivendell.” Gandalf explained. As he was talking, he pulled a piece of scroll out of his cloak and walked over and laid it on the ground. “Here, I believe that a map would help with my descriptions.”

Harry stared at the map, drawn in ink, “Where are we right now?”

“We are right here,” at this Gandalf pointed to just a couple of miles north of a town called The Shire.

As the night drew on, the two wizards talked with each other, with most of the talking done by Gandalf. He explained everything about Middle Earth, about the Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and the men that lived here. Harry spent an hour just looking over the map, memorizing it.

He spent a couple of hours asking Gandalf about the culture of the different races, with the answer being to get a good night's sleep and then he would answer in the morning. And with that, Gandalf went and spread out a bedroll and fell asleep right there.

Having reassured Gandalf that he would stay the night at least(he was anxious and wanted to explore this new world), he summoned a bedroll. He had taken a look in the bag that had been brought with him and it had all of the things that he would need to live out in the wilderness with. After putting up wards that would warn him to wake up if needed (Gandalf had cautioned him about the orcs, goblins, trolls and all manner of creatures), he went and curled up in his bedroll.

Harry stayed up even a couple of hours after that, just thinking about the new world that he had found himself in. He decided to ask Gandalf if he could tag along with him on his travels for the time being just so he could 'learn the ropes' and hopefully, they would journey to Rivendell and meet this Elrond. He still hadn't come to terms that he had lost his friends in more ways than one, both permanently. Eventually, he fell into a very deep sleep, since it was only a couple of hours ago that he had been fighting the Death Eaters and Voldemort.

2 years later

Harry was just getting ready to leave Lothlorien to travel to Rivendell, having finished archery training in Mirkwood. He had taken archery lessons for the last couple of months from a certain Elven prince, as Gandalf had suggested. He had apparated to Lothlorien from Mirkwood. Waving goodbye to Lady Galadriel, he shifted into a small hawk and took flight. He had gotten directions from Galadriel to avoid Moria because the elves had heard that the dwarves from the Iron Hills were going to attempt to retake Moria.

A couple of hours passed by and it was nearing mid-day when Harry heard the sounds of battle. He was about fifteen minutes from coming into view of the east gate of Moria. Oops, I may have flown in the wrong direction. Oh well, I'll see if I can be of help here. It's not like Lord Elrond needs me urgently. So Harry flew in the direction of the sounds of battle. When the battle came into view for Harry, he perched on a tree to take in the layout of the troops. He saw the many dwarves fighting away at the orcs and all of the orcs shouting at their enemies in Black Speech. Hoping to spot one of the dwarven commanders, Harry took flight and flew above the battle, having cast a notice-me-not spell on himself. He flew over to the dwarven side of the valley and landed on the ground on the side of the battle, then shifted into his wolf form and lifted the notice-me-not spell. When he was through shifting shape, he had spotted a dwarf that looked like he was one of the royal line of Durin as he looked much like a prince, though he was unsure of who it was. He did have a peculiar piece of oak on his arm that he was using as a shield. The dwarf was in the thick of the fighting, but he did seem to be the one dwarf that the others were following.

Letting loose a loud howl, Harry charged into the fray. His arrival certainly brought the attention of many dwarves and orcs around him. The dwarves all gasped in fear, but some in awe too. They weren't sure of whose side the giant black wolf was on. However, when the wolf started tearing apart orcs with its big jaws and claws, the dwarves cheered and went back fighting.

Harry wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was pretty sure the dwarves were gaining ground. He was fighting near the dwarven prince that he had seen earlier, Thorin, by the shouts around him. In fact, a couple of the dwarves around him had outright told him to guard the prince, so Harry had backed up and ran toward an orc that had gained on Thorin's back. Harry had snuck up and promptly killed it. Thorin turned and looked at the wolf that was fighting with them and caught its gaze and nodded. The wolf bowed its head back at him, then went back to tearing apart orcs.

Throughout the final hours of the battle, Harry stayed by Thorin's side and they stayed on the front lines of the fight. Once the battle was ended and there were no more orcs to kill, Harry just stood around, taking in the bloody valley. Harry himself was covered in black orc blood, from where it had splattered when he tore the orcs apart. He slowly walked up to the dwarven prince who was conversing with another tall dwarf.

As he got climbed the little cliff up to the two, he grew slower. The adrenaline that had filled him during the battle was leaving and in its place was pain. His vision was also blacking out every other minute, too. He turned his head around to glimpse his hindquarters, which revealed three orc arrows sticking out of him, two in his back and one in his left hind leg. Huh, would you look at that! Well, that's a pain in the ass...

Thorin watched as the big black wolf that had fought with them and protected him collapsed and yelped when it fell onto its back. Thorin hadn't heard of a giant black wolf wandering around Moria. This wolf seemed very intelligent, as it had nodded back to him on the battlefield and had distinguished between dwarf and orc. Both Thorin and Dwalin ran toward it, with worried expressions on their faces.

“We need a healer over here!” Thorin shouted, worriedly. He gently turned the wolf over, searching for injuries. I think he took some arrows meant for me. As he spotted the three arrows, a healer ran over and pulled out his kit and went to work, not spooking at all at the sight of the wolf who was the size of a warg.

“Luckily, these arrows didn't hit any vital places.” The healer spoke.

“Would you two hold him down? I have to pull out the arrows.” the healer asked.

“Yes, we will.” Dwalin and Thorin got a good grip on the wolf, “Go ahead.” The healer pulled out one of the arrows, which caused the wolf to twitch and whimper. Right after pulling out the first arrow, the healer cleaned and bandaged the wound.

“Will you look after this creature? I need to go check in with my troops.” Thorin said to the healer, “Dwalin, will you come with me?”

“Always, my friend.” the other replied.

“Of course, sire. I'll take good care of him.” the healer said, never taking his eyes off of his patient, “if one of you could carry him to the healer's tent? There's more room and it's cleaner in the tents.”

Dwalin picked the wolf up carefully and followed the healer to their tent, where he placed the animal on one the unoccupied tables. “We'll check on the wolf later. Take good care of him, as he protected the prince when I could not.”

Harry woke up an hour and a half later to darkness and groaning and moaning. He figured that someone had brought him to a healer's tent. He still felt only a little pain in his hindquarters, but once he turned his head around to look, he saw that all three arrows had been taken out and the wounds cleaned and bandaged. He distinctly remembered taking those arrows that were meant for Thorin and he wouldn't regret doing that either. I suppose I still have that people saving thing. I wonder how long I was out. It wasn't dark when I fainted, so it can't have been long. I should probably get back on the road, as Gandalf is waiting for me in Rivendell, something about a troll problem. Harry slowly tested out his four limbs and got up. His magic had already started to heal the wounds, so Harry figured that in a couple of hours, they would be gone. He jumped off of the table that he was on and slowly slunk out, casting a notice-me-not spell on himself before heading out.

Once Harry got far enough away from the dwarven camp, he languidly started to shift into his hawk form. He took one last glance at the healer's tent and took flight to Rivendell.

Chapter Text

200 Years Later

Phew, that was close! Harry had just finished off the last orc that he had encountered. He had accidentally run into them on his journey back to Hobbiton and the Shire. After he had finished off the orcs, it was nearing dinner time and so he had apparated to the Shire. He had met one of the hobbits, Bilbo Baggins, who would always get him some food and water and would let him sleep and rest in his hobbit hole, Bag End. This time, Gandalf had asked him to meet him there. He probably wants me to join him on an adventure. Though the first time that he had met Bilbo was a couple of years after his arrival here in Middle Earth. He had been curious about the Hobbits and had met him first.

Harry had efficiently dispatched the orc group in less than an hour. During that battle, he had had to get close to the orcs and that was not his preference in battle; he much preferred staying back and either sending blasting curses or picking them off from a distance with his bow(Legolas was a surprisingly good teacher).

However, Harry hadn't remembered orcs being near his location in his travels over the past few years. He had had a couple skirmishes with all kinds, with orcs, wargs, trolls, and goblins over the years, plus fighting in the Battle of Moria. Occasionally, he would become injured in those battles where it was just him, though never he never died.

Another thing that he had noticed through these past hundred years was that he had aged until he looked like his was in his late 20's but then had just stopped. It was like his body just wasn't aging at all. And, one time when he had accidentally encountered a warg pack along with some orcs, he had gotten fatally wounded... Which really fucking hurt, but he hadn't died. The orcs had assumed that he had died or would die and just stood there in a group around him; Harry had assumed that they were going to eat him after he died and were severely disappointed and now were dead. But the bigger picture from that was that he hadn't died! After that little escapade, he had ridden to see if Galadriel knew what had happened to him. She had cryptically told him in a soft voice, “You look like an Elf.”

Another thing that he had learned about himself was that he could take any animal form whatsoever. Also, if he felt like it, he could shift into any animal that he saw, just had to “touch” the animal with his magic and then focus on shifting into that form. He hadn't encountered any form that he couldn't take, yet. He also learned that he could telepathically speak with Gandalf when he was in his animal form.

During his travels with Gandalf those first few years, they had walked all over Middle Earth. Harry had met elves (Elrond and Galadriel were of course intrigued to finally meet him after seeing him in a couple of visions and he was curious to meet them too), some Rangers of the North (one which Gandalf had told him later on was the heir of Gondor) and met some dwarves(though the dwarves that Harry had met were refugees of a sort that didn't have a strict home; there was that nasty business with the fire drake in Erebor that he had heard about).

When he had apparated to the outskirts of the Shire this time, it was quite dark. Slowly, he walked his way to Bag End. It's probably after dinner time for Bilbo. Luckily, most hobbits were either indoors at home, or the tavern in Hobbiton, so they didn't notice a strange man walking through their town with strange looking armor. His dragonhide armor that he was walking needed mending, too. Harry was exhausted and hungry, so the sooner he arrived the better.

As he walked up the pathway to the door to Bag End, his magic picked up a little amount of magic on the door. The magic centered in a small, blue dwarven rune. Hmm, I wonder if Gandalf has been here recently. If so, that would be his magic. At the door, he knocked and waited for someone to open the door.

“Harry, oh, come in, it's good to see you!” Bilbo said joyfully, “Harry, you wouldn't believe this. I have 2 dwarves going through my pantry now! And I don't even know why they're here,” Bilbo said. Chuckling, Harry walked into the entrance room, ducking his head as he walked through the doorway. “I'll be glad to have you here as well. You're always quite calm, as long as I've known you,” Bilbo said.

“It's good to see you too,” Harry replied, amused, “I take it these dwarves are in the pantry, now?”

Harry chuckled and put his pack by the door. He was glad to get out of the cold air and the darkness. He usually enjoyed having friends near him; otherwise, he would get lonely. It was always fun to see the hobbit. He followed Bilbo out and back into his pantry.

“And who might you two be?” Harry asked the two dwarves that were pillaging Bilbo's pantry.

The dwarves turned around and glanced at him. Wait, I think I recognize both of these dwarves; both were fighting with Thorin in the Battle of Moria. The bald one then introduced himself as Dwalin and the white-haired one introduced himself as Balin, and then went back to grabbing food out.

“Bilbo, did they get here, this evening?” the wizard asked the hobbit, who seemed very frustrated.

“Yes, this evening. Gandalf had come around to see me this afternoon... I wonder if that had anything to do with this.” Bilbo mused and then,startled, abruptly went to get the door, as it had rang.

Harry followed him to see who else would arrive. He stayed a couple of inches by the door and watched Bilbo open the door. On the door step were two dwarves, young by the looks of them(as only one of them had a beard), who introduced themselves as Fili and Kili. Fili had light brown hair and his armor was packed with weapons. Kili was the first dwarf that Harry had seen to have a bow and quiver full of arrows and had darker brown hair and no beard.

They must be brothers; as they remind me of Fred and George. Actually, I think I must have met these two before, though they wouldn't remember me as I was in my wolf form.His original animagus form had actually been a really big wolf, five and a half feet tall and all black with green eyes and sturdy(he had been able to discretely carry a certain Slytherin out of harms way). His wolf form was roughly the size of the wargs in this world. It had been really weird at first, having a form that was bigger than him. Plus, he hadn't seen any wolves that were this big in England.

Flashback

Harry had been wandering around a town near the Blue mountains in the winter, in the 65th year that he had been here, when he had heard movement and quiet whimpering. It was in the middle of a blizzard in mid-day, why would anyone be in the middle of this? When he went to investigate, still in his wolf form(he had wanted to keep warm), he discovered two young looking dwarven children sitting on the ground, they looked like they were very young; one had blond hair and the other dark brown hair. The dwarf who had blond hair was sitting with his leg at an angle that looked like it was broken and they were both shivering. The dwarf with the darker brown hair was sitting right next to him, looking at the other, worriedly.The two of them also looked like they were lost and had been lost for a couple of days. However, they did have a small fire going.

Harry had quietly and slowly crawled up to them, announcing his presence by faintly barking, as he didn't want to spook them. Both of the dwarves had looked up at him and tensed, with the younger of the two and uninjured drawing what looked like a mock weapon.

“What do you want? We wouldn't make a good meal. This thing that I'm holding is sharp and pointy, wolf, so run!” The one with the darker brown hair threatened. Harry started to whine low in his throat at that and slowed his crawling. The two young dwarves looked like they were both in need of a healer and a warm and safe ride back home.

Harry slowly inched his way toward them, when he was a few inches away, he presented his stomach as if saying that he meant no harm. Both of the dwarves looked startled at that, but the younger one slowly put down his sword. After that, Harry slowly crawled the rest of the way and lay down right up against them.

“Fee, doesn't that wolf look like the one in uncle's stories?” the darker brown haired asked the blond haired one, curiously. The blond haired one looked the wolf over, remembering Uncle Thorin's stories about being protected by a big black wolf with green eyes.

“I think this is the same one, Kee!” the blond haired one exclaimed, then after that proclamation, the both of them proceeded to hug the wolf to within an inch of his life.

The two dwarves both glanced at each other then started to pet the strange wolf that had come up to them. Kili and his brother Fili had playing hide and seek and when the blizzard had started, they had discovered that they didn't know where they were. They had been walking around(looking for a landmark or something that looked familiar), keeping close together for warmth when Fili had tripped over a tree branch that had fallen. Kili had noticed that Fili had sprained his ankle after he had tripped. They had both sat down right up against a tree, trying to keep dry. When he heard the bark of a wolf, he had quickly drawn his play sword, expecting a wolf to attack. What he saw surprised him, the wolf that had encountered them was a very peculiar wolf, it was the size of a small pony or warg!

Harry spent a few minutes letting the dwarflings pet him, while watching the weather get worse. Fee and Kee? Those must be nicknames. Then, deciding that they couldn't spend more time than needed in this storm, he slowly got up and then crouched down and kneeled.

Fili was watching the wolf in astonishment! It looked like a horse, what with the kneeling. It was as if the wolf wanted them climb onto its back. Once again, the brothers glanced at each other, wonderingly. Should they do what the wolf wanted? It seemed safe enough, the wolf hadn't eaten them already or attacked. Maybe it would take them home to Mama and Uncle Thorin and Fili knew that seeing this wolf again would make their uncle happy.

After a few seconds of this, Harry got impatient and nudged them with his nose. He was sure enough of his ability to carry these two, as he really didn't want to apparate with these two in this condition and well, apparition without warning was bound to go poorly. Harry watched as Kili helped Fili onto his back and then got onto his back himself. Harry then slowly stood up, waiting for them to acclimate themselves and glanced back, as if to say, 'you guys ready?'

Harry slowly started walking, casting a point me spell that would lead him to the nearest town in Ered Luin, which he figured was where these two little dwarflings had come from and he cast a light warming spell on them. Then once the spell created a blue shimmering thread of magic ahead of him, he started to trot, looking back every few minutes to check on the dwarves that were on his back.

After about a half hour, a town came into view. Once he trotted into the town, he turned his head and glanced questioningly at the two little ones. The one with the blond hair looked around and then tugged on Harry's fur, indicating the direction to their home. As Harry walked through the town, the three of them garnered many odd looks and muttered comments.

“Oh, those two again?”

“Look at that wolf! I've never seen the likes of it before!”

Feeling another tug at his fur, Harry turned down what looked like the main street and then stopped at a home at another tug. Assuming that this was their house, he slowly walked up the steps and scratched at door with his paw. Then, he slowly crouched onto the ground, letting the children off of his back. When the door opened, the dark haired one was helping the blond haired one off.

The dwarf woman who opened the door, startled at the sight of a tall wolf, then spotting her children, gave a sigh of relief. “Kili, Fili, where have you two been? Your uncle and I have been worried. If it weren't for the huge storm, he would have already organized a search party!”she shouted, “Thorin, they've come back!”

“Mama...” the blond haired one(Harry assumed this one was Fili) started to say.

“And, what are you doing with a wolf? Especially, a wolf that is more than twice your size!” Harry started to slink away at that, but found that Kili(the dark haired one) and Fili still had a hand each in his fur. Harry perked up his ears when another dwarf walked to the doorway, which caused both Kili and Fili to run up to him when the other dwarf opened up his arms for a hug.

“I was worried about you two! Did you get lost while I was working in the forge?” This one was taller than the woman, though not by much. He had a very unique presence, wait, the woman said Thorin. Well, these days, not so much of Erebor, but still. It was good to see this dwarf again.They had fought well together, back in the Battle of Moria. Anyways, Thorin did indeed have a royal presence. Harry assumed that the woman and this dwarf were brother and sister. That would make the two dwarflings, assuming Harry had heard right, Thorin's nephews.

“We were playing hide and seek, and uh, I guess we got lost in the storm.” Fili replied, “And this wolf found us.” He gestured to Harry, who tried to look as unassuming and nonthreatening as possible. Thorin glanced at the tall wolf who had rescued his nephews and then did a double take. This was the wolf that had fought with them at Moria! He had thought that he would never see him again.

“Thank you. For rescuing my nephews and for fighting with us that day.” he said in a serious tone, “This has made it two times that you have saved us.”

“Alright, you two, come on in. You two look like you need a bath and warm clothes.” the dwarf woman said and led her children inside. Before Kili and Fili went inside with her, they both gave the wolf a hug, whispering in Harry's ear, “Thanks for rescuing us!”

“Would you like to come in? I believe that we still have some venison left over from the last hunt for supper.” Thorin questioned and opened the door wider in welcome.

Harry thought about that invitation. When he had encountered the two little dwarves, he had been on a hunt himself and that had gotten disrupted. So with that decision made, he padded through the door. He figured that he would leave when the family went to sleep.

End Flashback

Chapter Text

After they introduced themselves, (in a rather comical way, when Bilbo said that they had come to the wrong house, Kili had asked if 'it' had been cancelled) they sauntered into the hole, dropping weapons into Bilbo's arms as they went. Harry heard them say hello to Balin and Dwalin when they walked through the home.

Harry glanced at Bilbo with a questioning look.

“Don't look at me; I don't know what's going on,” Bilbo shrugged, “I didn't invite them.” Then the door bell rang another time. “How many dwarves am I to welcome into my house tonight? This must be another one of Gandalf's doing.”

Harry's magic alerted him to Gandalf's arrival, so he sauntered to the door with Bilbo. When the hobbit opened the door, Harry counted eight dwarves on the door step that had collapsed into the hobbit hole when Bilbo opened the door.

“Ah, it's good to see you here, Harry,” Gandalf said. He looked quite amused, watching the dwarves fling the dishes they had used into the air and between themselves. Harry heard singing start up a couple of seconds later, something about what Bilbo Baggins hates.

“Hey, be careful with those, those are my mother's!” Harry heard Bilbo yell, then went going to snatch his plates and furniture out of one of the dwarves hands.

“Gandalf, why are there dwarves here? What is their purpose? You hadn't told Bilbo anything” Harry asked. He had an idea of why they were here, but he wanted to make sure. The two of them moved further into the home, into the room with the fireplace that was right next to the entrance hall.

“They are here to ask Bilbo to take part in their quest. However, we are still waiting for the leader of this company,” the other wizard replied.

“And just what is their quest? Is it what I think it is? The retaking of Erebor?” Harry muttered, “And who is going to lead this quest?”

“Yes, it is. You know, as I told you, Smaug needs to be taken out of the picture. I fear Sauron has yet to be fully defeated. And if that is true, we can't have him taking a dragon into his armies. However, I believe that the company of Thorin Oakenshield is up to the task,” Gandalf replied.

“Thorin Oakenshield... is that the Thorin, heir of Durin, son of Thrain?” Harry asked, remembering Thorin from when he had rescued Kili and Fili and having fought with him at Moria. He had heard of the death of Thrain from Gandalf a couple of years back. Harry had asked Gandalf what had happened after Smaug took Erebor and Thorin had seemed like he could be a good leader, during the battle.

“Yes, the same one,” Gandalf said.

As the two of them were talking, Harry heard lots of commotion from the kitchen and some of it was the song the dwarves were singing, along with instruments. “And you, what? You want me to come along with you?” Harry said dismayed. Though come to think of it, it would be good to see the end of Smaug. I'm sure the dwarves would appreciate another wizard coming along on the quest and I could keep an eye on Kili and Fili. I wonder why Thorin is taking them on this quest; they're young for dwarves.

“Well, it is your decision, but it would be nice to have another wizard along and remember the prophecy that Galadriel had about you,” Gandalf replied, “Plus, you can stay with the company when I need to tend to other business.”

“Ugh, yes, I remember that. Another stinking prophecy. Okay, fine, I'll go,” Harry replied, at last. When he had gone to meet this Lady of Lorien, she had cryptically said that he would have a rather big part in an “unexpected journey” in the future. Harry had ignored that, because, hello, Harry was not fond of prophecies at all. I suppose I'll need to be introduced to everyone else at some point. Though I am feeling very tired, I can wait to go to sleep until Thorin comes.He had been yawning at regular intervals throughout the evening since he had come to Bag End.

“Good. I shall tell the others that you are coming. I hadn't let them know that there would be two wizards going with them.”

At that moment, there were three rough knocks at the door. At the knocks, there was total silence from the other dwarves in the kitchen.

“Ah, that would be Thorin,” Gandalf mused and went to see the leader in. Harry had already sort of met Thorin, though, that was when he had saved his nephews, as he had stayed in his wolf form. Harry was amused to hear that the commotion in the kitchen had been all but silenced by just the knocking. Harry joined the others in walking back into the entrance hall and leaned on the doorway to the living room to watch.

The dwarves from the kitchen all piled into the room right next to the entrance hall to see their friend and leader. Thorin had quite the presence. He was also one or two inches taller than the rest of the dwarves and had on a blue fur cloak and very impressive armor. Harry also recognized the oak branch that Thorin had on the battlefield at Moria. He definitely seemed like a leader or a soon to be king to Harry. However, it had seemed that these dwarves already considered Thorin a king. And it seemed that he had the respect of every dwarf in Bag End at the moment.

“Bilbo, I would like to introduce Thorin Oakenshield, the leader of this company,” Gandalf said.

Harry watched as Thorin and Bilbo sized each other up, as potential burglar and leader. At first glance, Thorin seemed to disapprove or dislike this hobbit and Bilbo seemed to be very neutral toward Thorin as well. Hopefully, they would learn to get along with each other on this quest, if only for the sake of the others. Their first meeting seemed to be charged with something.

They reminded Harry of himself and Draco when they had been rivals and then later lovers and boyfriends. First came the insults and charged encounters with what they had thought was hatred, then came the understanding of each other and the moment that it had all changed in sixth year. He still really missed Draco and his friends to this day(Draco had been killed by Bellatrix in the last battle, too. Yet another thing to hold against her).

After the two of them finished looking at each other, all of the dwarves walked back into the kitchen. Harry glanced at Gandalf, then walked into the kitchen, summoned a chair and sat down to watch and listen. However, once he had done that bit of magic and sat down and turned his head toward the dwarves, he saw that all of the dwarves had turned their heads toward him and stared at him.

“And you are?” Dwalin asked.

“Oh, my apologies Master Dwarf, this is Harry. He is another wizard, but not an Istari, and my friend,” Gandalf stepped in.

“I would like to join your journey, Master Oakenshield,” Harry replied, though he was really speaking to all of the dwarves, not just the dwarven king.

“Another wizard? I haven't heard of you,” Thorin said. All of the dwarves were listening in rapt attention.

“Are you like Gandalf, then?” Harry thought that it was Kili who had asked that.

“Yes, in some ways, though I don't use a staff to do magic,” Harry replied. During the past years, he had gotten really good at wandless magic and excelled at everything from healing to offensive magic.

“I'm rather new, well, relatively speaking, to these parts. But, by now, I'm quite knowledgeable and I think that I might have some skills, such as healing and defensive magic, that would aid you and your company.”

Thorin seemed to think on that for a moment then, “Very well, if Gandalf says you are his friend, then you can come.” 

Chapter Text

Over the course of the rest of the night, the dwarves talked about strategy. Gandalf gave them a map that showed the way to Erebor, also known as the Lonely Mountain. He had also handed over to Thorin a key for a door on the other side of the mountain. However, when Bilbo discovered that he was to be a burglar for this company, he understandably balked at the prospect. One of the dwarves, Bofur (I think) gave a description of the dragon Smaug, and after reading the contract that the dwarves gave him, Bilbo then fainted soon after muttering about incineration and lacerations.

“Really, Bofur? You scared him!” said Balin, giving a worried glance over to Bilbo.

Sighing, Gandalf was about to pick Bilbo when Thorin came over and picked up the hobbit and walked over to the chair in the living room and plopped him into it then went over and started to talk to Balin.

“I'll talk to him,” Gandalf murmured.

“Do you want me to wake him up?” Harry asked. He wasn't sure if they were in a hurry or not.

“No, you can go ahead and get some sleep. I know you're tired. I'll wait.” Gandalf replied, relighting his pipe then sat down in the chair opposite the hobbit to wait.

“Okay, I'm going to bed. Assuming that Bilbo joins us, I'll wait up for him. I know the dwarves will want to head out early.” Harry said. He walked over to the front door where he had left his pack, though when he walked into the entrance hall, the hallway was overflowing with packs and weapons. Well, I suppose this is going to be a long journey and dwarves can carry a lot. Erebor is a long ways off.

By this point Harry was exhausted from his travel today and that minor skirmish with the orcs. Over the past few years, he had enjoyed sleeping in the cat form that he had first discovered. Sleeping in that form kept him warm and if needed he could gallop away pretty easily, plus sleeping in an animal form seemed to keep the nightmares at bay. So, he shifted into the small ball of fluff and fur that was his cat form and curled up near the fire and drifted.

He was startled awake a couple of minutes later by singing, low and solemn. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the dwarves had all come into the living room. He opened his eyes and slowly stretched. The low and deep voice that he had heard was Thorin, who had started the song.

“Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.”

Harry listened until the dwarves ended their song, which was very haunting. At this point, it was still quite dark out. He had seen Bilbo walk back to his bed a while before the dwarves had started singing, so he must have been asleep already.

“Get some sleep, the lot of you. We start our travel at first light.” Thorin called out in a low voice. With that order, all of the dwarves went and pulled out their bedrolls and chose a place to sleep. A couple of them startled at the sight of the cat by the hearth, which they hadn't seen until now. Many of them stayed awake in their bedrolls, simply contemplating the journey that they would start in the morning. Harry had helped Bilbo to pull out extra blankets and pillows for the dwarves and make room for 12 dwarves.

Harry saw that Fili and Kili placed their bedrolls right next to each other just a couple of inches from him and the hearth. Those two seemed inseparable and if Harry remembered correctly, when he had saved them in that storm all those years ago, they were very close then. The rest of the dwarves spread out around the hearth room, placing their bedrolls in a loose oval. Harry knew that Bilbo had given both Gandalf and Thorin their own rooms, though, so he was intrigued when Thorin walked into Bilbo's bedroom first.

Harry got up and followed the dwarven king, wondering what he would do. Padding into the hobbit's bedroom, he saw that Bilbo was already asleep, just curled up on top of the covers. Thorin was just standing there, watching the hobbit sleeping and then when Bilbo started to shiver, Thorin walked over to the chair in the room and pulled the blanket off of it and spread it over the hobbit.

The dwarven king glanced down at the cat that had followed him into the halfling's bedroom. He hadn't seen any evidence of Bilbo housing a cat anywhere. The cat glanced back at him curiously with green eyes. The cat's eyes reminded Thorin of the giant black wolf that had fought with at Moria and then the one who had rescued his nephews in the big storm in Ered Luin. The wolf had had green eyes and so did this cat, but Thorin figured that it was just a coincidence. As Thorin or any other dwarf had not seen the wolf at all after that, he had presumed the wolf to be dead.

 After that, Thorin walked back out and wandered into his room and closed the door. Harry then went back to the hearth, jumping over dwarves to curl up right in between Fili and Kili.

When Harry woke up, it was to an empty hobbit hole, well empty of dwarves and to light. He had heard Bilbo up and about when he was woken up. Harry had assumed that Gandalf had talked Bilbo into coming along with them, so he just got up(still in his cat form), picked up his pack(which held plenty of potions, his invisibility cloak, wands, bedroll and other camping necessities) by his teeth and waited by the door.

Harry waited for an hour, listening to Bilbo hurriedly pack his belongings into a bag.

“Harry, you're coming too?” Bilbo asked, relieved, when he finally appeared ready and at the door.

He gave a little meow, as if in excitement and scratched the door. He was ready for a little adventure.

“Let's go!”

The two of them made quite the scene running through the Shire, a hobbit and a cat keeping pace with him. Harry heard one of the hobbits ask Bilbo where he was going and Bilbo replied with “on an adventure!” Harry took the lead after a couple of minutes, telling Bilbo that he could track the company because of Gandalf's magic.

The company of dwarves and Gandalf had made it 15 minutes beyond the Shire. They were all on ponies, with the exception of Gandalf being on a horse. Bilbo ran up to Balin, yelling that he had signed the contract that they had given them. Most of the dwarves were riding side by side, though a couple were leading pack ponies. Thorin and Gandalf were in the lead, with Kili and Fili near the end.

Bilbo handed the contract to Balin to read and after a couple seconds, Thorin yelled down the line to give him a pony.

“Where's the other wizard?” Fili asked Bilbo and Gandalf. The other dwarves wanted to know the answer too. Gandalf just grinned and pointed at the cat, who had followed Bilbo. Harry jumped up onto Kili's horse and curled up on one of his saddlebags, with his pack.

“Whoa, you're the cat that was at the hearth! You can change shape?” Kili asked, excited to know the answer and a bit awed. Harry yowled, as if to say, 'let's get this adventure started!'

Chapter Text

The first couple of hours on their first day of travel went easily enough. Harry stayed curled up on Kili's saddlebags for the most part. He occasionally hopped onto Fili's saddlebags or the other dwarves saddles or Bilbo's. Though, after the spending a couple hours saddle hopping, he decided to go and scout ahead. “Gandalf, I'm going to go scout ahead. I smell something.”

He slipped off of Ori's horse, whom he was on at the moment(as a cat), and padded into the forested area, before shifting into his wolf form(he hadn't shifted within range of the group because he didn't want to spook the ponies). The scent that he had smelled had seemed like orc, but this close to the Shire? He would have to check it out.

Now, though, this form had come in handy. He had long legs and sharp claws and teeth and he had shifted shape to go fight before to success. He kept alongside the company, though not too close. The first day passed without incident. Harry stayed with the group at night, back to normal human form.

On the second day, though, Harry was just coming back the company to help with making the camp. When Harry walked back into camp, it was quite dark, though it would dawn in 20 minutes or so. He had shifted back into his human form a couple of feet from camp. Harry glanced around the camp, not seeing any of the dwarves. I know that they made camp here, the fire's still going. However, I don't see anyone. Harry then shifted into a hawk, then took off.

He flew circles around the camp, then he started to fly west to look for the company. A couple of minutes later, he heard Bilbo talking and what sounded like trolls? He followed the sounds of the conversation(if you could call it that, it sounded like Bilbo was trying to persuade the trolls to not eat the dwarves) to a big campground which had the big fire in the middle and the trolls around it. Harry flew into a tree to take a closer look and spotted a group of dwarves trussed up in sacks right next to the cliff and another group of dwarves trussed up to a stick and were being turned over the fire, as if to cook them.

With his good hearing, Harry could hear Bilbo saying something about how the dwarves have parasites. Looks like I should I have arrived sooner.Though, I think warding off orcs from the company was more important. However, we'll probably encounter the orcs and I think wargs soon enough. The orcs that he had smelled, but not seen, had smelled of determination and a little of desperation, like they were on a mission that they could not fail.

While listening to the dwarves protest that they had didn't parasites, he remembered something that Gandalf had told him about trolls: they would turn to stone in daylight. Harry glanced toward the east; if he and Bilbo could distract the trolls for 5 more minutes then they would turn to stone. He promptly took off and raced toward the trolls, intent on being a missile that the trolls couldn't catch.

Giving a loud kree, he dive-bombed the trolls, which scared them very much and then raced out of their reach. He did that a few more times, then the last time he did that, he heard Gandalf arrive.

Gandalf quickly knocked a rock in half with his staff so that the trolls could be exposed to the sunlight. The trolls were then promptly turned to stone, screaming in pain all the while. Harry then flew down and alighted on Fili's shoulder, which startled the dwarf a little.

“Harry, that you?” he asked, curiously.

Harry bowed his head in reply and gave a soft kree. Fili reached up and lightly started to run his hand down to pet the hawk-wizard. Harry leaned into the dwarf's touch, as he had an itch just make itself known a couple of minutes ago.

While the rest of the dwarves cleaned up, Gandalf, Thorin, Dwalin, Bofur, Gloin, and two others went looking for the potential troll cave that would be near. Harry then flew off of the tree and landed behind it to shift back to human form and helped herd the ponies back to their camp and get them saddled again.

Harry then wandered over to where the troll cave to investigate. It was a dank, musty mess since three trolls had inhabited it. He saw three of the dwarves filling a chest with some gold that they had found and Gandalf and Thorin(who had predictably turned up his nose at the thought that these weapons were made by the elves) were examining some swords that upon closer examination were of Elven make.

While leaving around at the troll cave, Harry heard a rustling noise, perhaps a mile away. “Something's coming!” he yelled out. Everyone pulled their swords out and grouped together in a loose circle by the small overhang of the cliff nearby. Harry pulled his bow out of its straps on his back, pulled out an arrow from his quiver, and nocked it.

As it turns out, it was Radagast the Brown, another Istari of Middle Earth, on a sled being pulled by rabbits. He and Gandalf talked for a couple of minutes, while the dwarves spread out. Harry saw Radagast give something to Gandalf, which looked like a blade. However, it had a dark aura to it, which Harry was loath to get closer to.

The sound of howling caused both Bilbo and Harry to startle. Though, Harry knew that there was a pack of both orcs and wargs, he didn't know what they were doing. Two wargs tried to get past the dwarves on the perimeter, namely Thorin and Dwalin, but to no avail. One was shot by Kili and brought down by Thorin and Harry brought down another warg.

“An orc pack?” Bilbo said, in a small voice. Ori came down the hill to say that their ponies had run off.

Thus began the next few hours of running. Radagast drew the wargs off for 20 minutes at the most. Harry ran by the dwarves, keeping an eye on the wargs and the orcs. They were running across the grassy plains, past great big rocks and dirt.

As they ran, Harry started to recognize the land. Wasn't this where the Hidden Pass to Rivendell was? But, these are dwarves, they'll hate being taken to Rivendell, especially Thorin and the dwarves that were at Erebor when Thranduil refused them aid.

“Gandalf, are you leading us to Rivendell?”

“Yes, yes I am. There will be stubbornness issues, I know. We need the help of the Elves. I cannot read the map.”

“Oh, very well. I suppose we need to rest and to resupply.” As the wargs started to surround the group, Gandalf went to open the pass. Harry then shifted into a mountain lion, ready to attack anyone who assaulted these dwarves.

As the dwarves got ready to battle the wargs, Gandalf went to check that they were right next to the pass. Kili already had his bow out, taking out a couple of the orcs. Harry quickly ran around their perimeter, making sure that Bilbo was inside the circle. When he had passed Fili and Ori, he noticed a warg sneaking up on them. Letting loose a loud growl, he charged the warg. Once the two of the collided, Harry sank his claws into the warg and clamped down on its neck with his sharp teeth. The warg yelped in pain and then letting a bit of the lion take control, Harry snapped the warg's neck.

Both Fili and Ori stared at Harry awestruck; Harry's attack had drawn the attention of all of the dwarves for a short moment, which caused all their eyes to widen. After that, Gandalf shouted to the dwarves that he had found a safe tunnel, then all of them raced down into the hidden tunnels, with Thorin standing guard until they were all safely in. Once all the dwarves were in except for Kili, who had been continuously firing arrows at the wargs and then Thorin shouted for him to come.

Harry raced to cover Kili's retreat, stalking after him, shielding his back. Harry waited for Kili and then Thorin to go down the tunnel then went down the tunnel. Once they were all through, and still looking at where the wargs were prowling and advancing on them, Harry walked over and nudged Thorin down the tunnel. 

Chapter Text

The company waited there for a few seconds, listening to the sounds of the orcs and wargs trying to find the dwarves. Then the sound of horns blew out into the valley, along with the sound of flying arrows and hoofbeats. Without needing to see them in person, Harry knew that those horns were Elvish. After the noises died down within a couple of minutes, since he figured Gandalf would lead them to Rivendell. He took up the rear guard, making sure they didn't leave anyone behind.

As the company traveled through the tunnels, Harry heard waterfalls and felt a slight breeze. During his travels throughout the years, he had always loved Rivendell, as it was very peaceful and safe. After that first night with Gandalf, the two wizards had traveled to Imladris and Harry had spent a week here, just recuperating and resting. (He had been glad to finally be able to rest in safety, just a couple days ago, he had been fighting for his life.)

Once the company made it past the tunnels, but before they arrived in Rivendell, Harry shifted back to human shape. Harry watched the dwarves look at Rivendell, wonderingly. Bilbo was gazing at it, with a fond expression on his face. Lord Elrond and Gandalf talked together in Elvish for a minute or two and then the elf offered the group food, which made the dwarves very happy. Harry stayed behind and said hi to Elrond, then followed the rest of the company.

After they all had dinner, Gandalf, Thorin, Bilbo, Balin, and Elrond went to go attempt to read the map. Harry and the rest of the dwarves chose a spot in Rivendell to lay out their bedrolls. Some dwarves lit their pipes and others continued to eat. Fili and Kili sat down together; Fili behind Kili with his legs around the younger, straightening each other's braids. Harry laid out his bedroll in the middle of the dwarves.

“So, I've never seen someone able to change shape before. Not even Gandalf can do that,” Bofur said.

“Yeah, and most wizards in these parts are not that ferocious,” Gloin commented.

“Uh, right. I... the thing is, I'm not from around here, originally.” Harry replied. At that many of the dwarves looked at him in confusion.

“What do you mean, not from around here?” Kili asked, with Fili and Ori and the rest of the dwarves listening intently. “And what forms can you take?” Fili asked, questioningly.

“Well, I was born in... another place, not Middle Earth. I was transported here when I was 18, after....” Harry trailed off, remembering the 'extenuating circumstances of the last few days before he was transported here. All in all, he much preferred it here. And not just here in Rivendell, but just 'here' as in Middle Earth. There were no evil wizards(though he had heard about that Sauron guy) and no pressing need to rescue the population by letting himself die. It was nice, made even nicer with this company of dwarves.

“Harry, Saruman the White is here, along with Lady Galadriel. They might try to prevent the company from leaving.” Gandalf said in Harry's mind.

“Noted. I shall tell Thorin that we must leave earlier than we thought. You will catch up with us later, right?”

“Of course. Be careful in the mountains.”

Hearing someone clear their throat brought Harry out of his brooding and he realized that Thorin, Balin and Bilbo had returned from reading the map and had laid out bedrolls in and around the company. Thorin had placed his bedroll near Dwalin's and they were both in a quiet conversation. Bilbo laid his bedroll right next to Harry's and laid down.

“...I was transported here after defeating an evil wizard in my home,” Harry finished softly, “Hmm, as to the shapes I can take, you've seen the cat, the hawk and the big cat.”

“You've defeated a dark wizard already! When was that? What was your home like?” Kili asked.

“Um, well, I was transported here roughly 200 years ago, so it was a long time ago.” Harry responded.

“200 years ago? But you still look young!” Kili exclaimed.

“Are you part elf?” Fili asked at the same time.

Harry chuckled, “No, at least I don't think so. That would probably give Thorin a fit if he found out, though.” However, Harry had realized that he wasn't aging at all and didn't die from that wound a couple of years ago. He had figured that he might be immortal, like the elves of this land. “But my home was fine, when we weren't under attack from the evil wizard. My best friends were really great. My homeland had a lot of great cities, like this one does, but unlike here, there were wizards aplenty.”

“How do you do your magic? Actually, I think we've just seen you change shape. What other kinds of magic can you do?” Bofur asked.

“Yeah, show us something!” Kili exclaimed.

“Alright, then I'm going to bed, I'm tired and we'll likely get up early.” Harry replied. With all of the dwarves watching him intently, and the three youngest with excitement, Harry concentrated on his happiest memory for a patronus, which was still hearing his parents when he was child. He pulled out his wand and whispered the incantation, “Expecto Patronum.”

There were plenty gasps of excitement and surprise when Prongs leapt fourth from his wand. Prongs glanced around their current location, as if looking for a dementor, but once it saw nothing to charge at, looked at Harry, curiously. “No danger today, Prongs.” Harry murmured. He had yet to stop missing his parents whenever he used this spell. With that, the deer cautiously ambled around the circle of dwarves and hobbit. A couple of the dwarves reached out to try to touch Prongs, but found that it wasn't a real deer.

Harry let Prongs fade out after a few minutes, bade everyone goodnight, and laid out his bedroll right where he was sitting. He then got up and approached where Thorin and Dwalin and Balin were conversing about what path to take through the Misty Mountains.

“I heard from Gandalf; we may want to leave earlier than you were thinking, Thorin.” Harry said, once he got their attention.

“How exactly did you hear from Gandalf?” Thorin asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I can communicate with him over long distances, with my magic. It's a handy thing to have, mostly.” Harry replied.

“Alright, we'll leave at dawn, then.”

Harry bade the three of them goodnight, then left to tend to his nighty routine, which included brushing his hair. It had gotten pretty long during these years and now it was a couple of inches past his shoulders. During the day, he usually kept it back in a horsetail, pulled back with a tie. But at night, he liked to pull it loose. When he was done, he came back and shifted into his small cat form to slowly fall asleep on his bedroll, in between Fili and Kili as usual, to the sound of low humming and singing.

Chapter Text

When the company of dwarves, one burglar-hobbit, and one wizard left Rivendell the next morning, it was with the rising sun. Gandalf had alerted Harry to get the dwarves to leave in the early morning, so that Saruman and the White Council could not stop them. So they left at dawn and without Gandalf, who would catch up later. Gandalf had not suggested that Harry come with him to the council.

Harry had come across Saruman the White during his travels over the past hundred years only once and that visit left him with a bad feeling in his stomach. However, he had been disguised at that time. He had suspected that Gandalf knew about Harry's feelings about Saruman, so had not pushed that. Harry had also been warned by Lady Galadriel about the other wizard and to not let Saruman know about Harry.

At this point, Harry stuck with the company during the day, as until Gandalf caught up with them, he was the only wizard. For the next few days, they traveled across mountains to reach the Misty Mountains. Most of the time, Harry walked alongside the dwarves for a couple of hours. Occasionally he would take to the skies in his small hawk form, scouting ahead, coming back to alert the company of different obstacles, be it a big felled tree across the path or wild animals.

On the night before the company walked into the Misty Mountains, they set up camp under a cliff that would hopefully keep the rain off. Harry helped set up camp and started the fire with magic, then Bombur set about making supper. After starting the fire, he warded their campground against wargs and orcs. He made sure that Gandalf would be able to enter their camp if he caught up with tonight, though. Fili and Kili went off to hunt some deer that they had seen a couple of miles off of the path. Harry then went and sat down by the fire, where most of the dwarves already were. Thorin and Balin were sitting across from him, having a hushed conversation, with Dwalin on the other side of Thorin.

An hour later, all of the dwarves and hobbit were sitting around the fire eating dinner. Harry had Fili and Kili sitting on either side of him, and then Bilbo on the other side of Kili, which put Bilbo roughly directly across from Thorin. Harry had caught the dwarven prince occasionally staring at Bilbo, which was a bit peculiar, since during the day he had nothing to do with their hobbit.

After dinner, all of the dwarves helped to clean up and then broke into many little groups. Fili and Kili both sat together, Bofur sat with his brothers, Gloin sat with Oin and the others each sat with their respective siblings, though they were all loosely in a circle. Harry just sat down with Bilbo and started to clean his bow. Harry saw Bilbo pull out a sewing kit and start mending some of his clothes. The wizard had bought this bow in Gondor, when he had traveled that way.

After that was clean, Harry pulled out his holly wand. When he had pulled out the Elder Wand the first time after he claimed it, it had spooked him by disappearing. He had actually felt it kind of melt into his magic center and after that he could do wandless magic very well. He had kept his original wand for spells that he needed a lot of concentration for, like healing. Harry cleaned his holly wand, too, as it had gotten very dusty.

Harry was so deep in concentration that he didn't notice a certain two dwarves sit around him. Fili and Kili had walked over and sat behind him, one on either side. Harry turned his head to glance at the both of them.

“Uh, and what do you two think you're doing?” Harry asked, cautiously.

“We're going to sleep next to you.” the two dwarves said in unison, grinning, and then laid out their bedrolls on either side of him. Huh, did I miss something? Harry glanced around, checking expressions of the dwarves around them. A couple of them were rolling their eyes, though every dwarf, including Bilbo, was quite amused at the actions of Thorin's nephews.

A few hours later, Thorin told the few awake dwarves to get some sleep before the mountains tomorrow. Bilbo was already asleep on the other side of Fili, and then on the other side of Bilbo was Bofur, whom Harry had seen taking a liking to the hobbit. On the other side of Kili was Ori and then Nori and Dori on the other side of Ori. It was a real dwarven cuddle pile, with Thorin and Dwalin on each opposing side.

Harry had been surprised to learn that stone giants were indeed real! He had thought they were only myth, but he was proved wrong when the company of dwarves was right in the middle of a stone giant battle. It had been raining and they had been traversing a narrow, rocky path through the mountains. It was also overcast and raining, which made for a very solemn journey. Harry was in his human form, walking behind Bilbo, making sure he didn't fall behind.

It had been in the late afternoon when the company walked were split up. The group of dwarves, one hobbit and one wizard had actually been right on one of the stone giants and had gotten broken up courtesy of being on its legs. At the moment, Harry hadn't seen any way of getting everyone to safety. Gandalf probably could've figured something out. Half of the dwarves had been on another leg of the stone giant. Harry had been just making sure everyone that had been on the same leg as he had been was safe. They had gotten off the stone giant by jumping back onto the path that they had been on. Thorin, Dwalin, Kili, Bilbo and a couple of other dwarves had been on the same leg that Harry had been on.

The moment after the stone giant had separated the dwarves, Harry had noticed that Fili and Kili had gotten separated. Harry had actually heard Kili shout his brother's name in fear in all the noise. Harry had been right behind Kili at the time and he had a stricken expression on his face. Kili's facial expression reminded Harry of when George had discovered Fred's body at the battle of Hogwarts. Oh, no, that won't happen with these two. I'll make sure of it. They won't loose each other or their uncle. Harry had taken a liking to these two dwarves right when he had happened on them that day near Ered Luin, because they reminded Harry of his lost friends and family. They were mischievous, loyal, funny...

He had noticed that their relationship had a different aspect to it than brothers usually do. They were practically soulmates, the way they were stuck to each other like glue. They always rode or walked together and Harry had seen the two of them braiding the other's hair or just plain sitting together. Harry had also suspected that Fili and Kili had been engaging in intimate activities when they were suppose to be watching the ponies before the infamous troll event.

After the stone giant that they had been on started to collapse, Kili, Thorin and Harry had been racing to go make sure the other group was alive and safe. Harry watched Kili race right toward Fili, intent on making sure his brother was safe. Harry glanced around the dwarves, checking for any injury and counting the dwarves. One, two, three, four, five...

“Where's our hobbit?” Bofur yelled out. Shit, where is Bilbo? He was right behind me when I last checked. Harry did a quick look around and didn't see any sign of their hobbit.

All of the dwarves that were on their feet looked around. Then a couple of them spotted Bilbo, who was hanging precariously off of the cliff. He looked terrified and rightly so, it was very slippery on the path. Harry was on the way to cast a levitation spell when Thorin climbed down and boosted him up onto the path. Bilbo was then pulled into Bofur's arms. Harry saw that Bilbo had lost his terrified look and now just looked relieved and still a little terrified. Harry walked up to him, kneeled down onto his knees and pulled him into a hug, once Bofur had released him. The hobbit was trembling, even still.

“We nearly lost you!” Bofur exclaimed.

“I think the hobbit's been lost ever since he left his home.” Thorin responded.

Once the group had found shelter for the night, a cave, Harry scanned the cave for any sign of life with his magic.

“We're good. There's no one or thing in here.” Harry said to the group.

Thorin had said that there was to be no fire, so they all ate uncooked food or food that didn't need to be cooked. Then with everyone exhausted from the day's events, all of the dwarves laid out their bedrolls and promptly fell asleep.

Harry looked around, searching for Fili and Kili. The two dwarves were both sitting next to each other, gazing at the other. Harry quietly walked up to them, not wanting to intrude on the moment. Harry took a more serious glance at both of them, noticing minute quivering in both of them. As Harry watched them, Fili drew Kili into a hug.

“You two should probably go to sleep; it's been a long day.” Harry commented in a low voice, “You both look exhausted.”

Kili and Fili both started at his voice, as they had been two caught up in making sure the other was alive. “If it helps, I can shift into the form of the big cat from a couple days ago and keep you two warm and safe?” Harry suggested.

The two dwarves looked at each other, then at Harry and nodded. Harry took a couple of steps back and then shifted into the mountain lion and padded toward them. He looked Fili and Kili in the eyes, making sure that this was okay. When Harry didn't receive any objections, he curled around them both. Feeling them both trembling, Harry started to purr, with the hopes that they would relax and be able to sleep. The three of them fell asleep that way, Kili and Fili's legs entwined.

Chapter Text

When the cave floor opened up under them, everyone woke up immediately. Everyone fell down a slide like tunnel and Harry shifted back to human form, while falling. The company fell a long ways, though it felt like it didn't take a long time. Uh-oh, isn't this where the goblin town and goblin king is? When the company of dwarves, one hobbit and one wizard came to a stop, it was to a wooden path. Harry slowly got up and looked around; there were goblins everywhere!

Just as everyone was getting up, the group was swarmed by goblins and herded toward what Harry presumed was the middle of their encampment. Harry was busy looking for the exit and planning an escape. Once they were urged to a stop by the goblins, they were in front of what was suppose to be the goblin king and his throne. The goblin king was giant and a couple of feet taller than Harry was and very ugly.

Harry quietly whispered to the dwarves around him to be ready to flee, fight and to follow him to the exit. As the goblin king asked the group why they were here, Harry crouched onto his knees and cast a big shielding charm around the group, excluding any goblins. The minute after he did that, the goblins tried to get through to grab the dwarves's weapons, but they made surprised sounds when they couldn't even touch the dwarves. Kili and Fili chuckled at them in impish glee. Making sure that the dwarves were ready, Harry shot out a big blasting spell in a circle around the dwarves. The spell knocked the goblins that were around the company a couple of feet back and unconscious. It was one of the biggest blasting spells that Harry had done in his life.

“Now!” he shouted out, “follow me.” Harry promptly released the shield spell, because it would have stayed in place.

All of the dwarves immediately pulled their weapons and started to fight their way toward Harry, who cast a point-me spell toward the exit. As they were running through the goblin invested paths, Harry cast a large light spell to light the way.

Finally, Harry led the dwarves out into the open sky and the sun, hoping that the goblins would not follow because they disliked the sun. The group ran a mile once outside the goblin cavern, putting as much distance between them as possible. After a couple of minutes, Harry slowed down and indicated to all of dwarves to take a breather. As soon as every dwarf slowed down, Harry did a quick head count.

“Where are Fili and Kili?” Thorin shouted, alarmed.

Harry quickly looked around, but he could see no sign of the two dwarves. All of the dwarves were growing anxious and Thorin looked like he would have charged right back into the goblin cavern just to go rescue his nephews. “I'll go find them. I can do it quickly enough. Thorin, stay here!”

“Gandalf will be here soon enough and I'll be back!” Harry added, he had sensed Gandalf's magic on their way out. Harry started to run back the way the way they came and shifted to his wolf form mid run, as he was faster on four legs and apparating into the goblin cave seemed like a bad idea. Also, Fili and Kili would recognize him in this form. Letting loose a loud howl, he picked up speed and galloped into the goblin lair.

If Harry had looked back, he would have seen Thorin and Dwalin look startled. They all knew that wolf! It seemed that there was more to this wizard than they had seen.

Once Harry entered the goblin lair, he quickly cast a notice-me-not spell on himself, as he didn't want any disruptions between him and Kili and Fili. Maybe I should retrieve our packs? Walking over to a corner in one of the smaller caves, he pictured the dwarven packs in his mind and whispered a summoning spell. He shifted back into his human form and pulled out his bag(which was similar to Hermione's when they had gone searching for the horcruxes) and grabbed each pack as they came to him and stuffed them in his bag.Once he was finished with that, he put it on his back, then shifted back to his wolf form.

As he ran further in, he heard yelling and shouting. Figuring that those yells would be the dwarves, he ran toward the noise. It seemed to be coming from the “throne room” that they had escaped from. Slowing down as he drew nearer, Harry took in the layout of the goblins.

He saw Kili and Fili tied up near the throne with a group of goblins chattering to their king about how they had caught the Thorin's nephews. The two dwarves looked worse for wear, bruised and bloody and dazed. They looked like they had been knocked out earlier and were just coming awake, though not at all silently. Crawling in and around the flood of goblins, still not noticed by them, Harry slowly inched his way toward the dwarves that had very quickly wormed their way into his heart.

Lifting the notice-me-not spell once he was in front of Fili and Kili, he started to growl and cast another shield spell in front of him. “That's our wolf!” exclaimed Kili, “We didn't think we would ever see you again!” The two looked very glad to see Harry again(not that they knew it was Harry).

Harry used his magic to untie the two and then kneeled next to the two of them, like he had that day near Ered Luin. His growl turned into a howl as the goblins tried to come close to them.

“You want us to climb onto your back, again?” Fili asked, “But we aren't as small as we were, though?”

Harry chanced turning his head around to nod in reply and then returned his gaze toward the goblins who were still creeping towards them. Still growling at the goblins, he cast a feather-light spell on both of the dwarves without looking. He felt one of the dwarves climb onto his back and then the other climb on and then Harry slowly got up.

“Ready? Hold on!” Harry spoke to Fili and Kili. A couple of seconds passed without either of them getting a grip on his fur, so he glanced back at them. They looked stunned...

“Harry? That's you?” Kili and Fili said in unison. I forgot, my mind voice sounds like my usual voice. I guess the wolf's out of the bag!

“Yep, it's me. You two want to grab ahold of my fur, so that we can get out of here? I don't want your uncle getting more and more nervous out there.” Once Harry felt them both grab some of his fur, he threw a stunning spell at all of the goblins ahead of them. Harry had created a stunning spell that effected many people at the same time a couple of years ago that Harry had to release and hadn't had a chance to use it until now.

It worked spectacularly; every goblin within ten feet was now stunned and Harry wasn't planning on releasing the spell until the three of them got out of the cave safely. Though Harry did put a notice-me-not spell on the two dwarves and himself, just in case. Harry trotted through the pile of stunned goblins and retraced the company's path toward the exit.

“Are either of you injured?” he asked, while trotting out. When he had looked them over first, he hadn't seen any injuries, but he hadn't looked too closely.

“No, at least, I don't think so. Kili, are you injured?” Fili asked.

“Uh, the goblin that knocked me out hit me quite well on the ribs.” Kili replied in a shaky voice.

“I can tend to that once we get back to the company.” Harry said.

“Those goblins should not have been able to get the drop on us.” Fili said, “So you are the wolf that came and rescued us when we were children.”

“Ah, yes and I was the wolf that fought with your uncle at the Battle of Moria. This seemed like a good time to reveal my secret.” Harry replied, as they finally left the goblin cavern.

Once the three of them got back to Harry kneeled again, letting the two dwarves off of his back and then shifted back to his human form. “Fili, Kili!” Thorin shouted and gathered the two in a hug. While the three dwarves were hugging, Harry noticed that Gandalf had arrived and had a worried expression on his face.

Once Thorin was done hugging his nephews, he stood up and glanced at Harry appreciatively. “Thank you, yet again, for saving those dear to me.”

Dwalin and Balin were gazing at Harry with new respect in their eyes.

“So you were the wolf that fought with us that day. You fought well.” Dwalin said, with a pleased look on his face.

“Yes, I am. The wolf is another one of my forms that I can shift into.” Harry replied and then walked over to talk with Gandalf.

“Gandalf, something the matter?” he asked.

“Have you seen Bilbo?” the other wizard asked, “Has anyone seen Bilbo?”

“I thought he had stayed here with the dwarves.” Harry muttered and then looked around, confirming that there was no hobbit.

“He probably turned back. He was saying so last night.” Thorin said unhappily, “I doubt we'll see the hobbit again.”

“No, I didn't,” Bilbo responded.

All of the dwarves and two wizards turned around at that. Bilbo looked a bit harried, but otherwise fine. He had lost the buttons on his waistcoat, though.

“Bilbo, you're back! How did you get past the goblins?” Kili exclaimed.

“I... uh...” Bilbo stuttered and brought one hand to one of his pockets. Harry saw Gandalf zero in on that one movement. “Gandalf, what is it?”

“Nothing, Harry. Though, well, it's nothing.”

“Well, why does that matter? He's back!” Gandalf said.

“Of course it matters. I want to know, why did you come back?” Thorin asked, gazing at the hobbit.

“Look, I know you doubt me, I know you always have. And you're right... I often think of Bag End. I miss my books, and my armchair, and my garden. See, that's where I belong, that's home. That's why I came back... 'cause you don't have one, a home. It was taken from you. But I will help you take it back if I can,” Bilbo replied and with that the dwarves cheered, while Thorin looked on with a content look.

However, right at that moment, there were howls on the nearest cliff.

“Out of the frying pan...” Thorin murmured.

“...And into the fire.” Gandalf finished, “Run!”

The company, one hobbit, and two wizards ran. However, they ran right up to the edge of a cliff, with a big long drop off of it.

“Up the trees, hurry!” Gandalf yelled and with that all of the dwarves ran up into the trees around them. Harry assisted Kili, who was walking unevenly and then Fili helped him the rest of the way up. Harry looked around for Bilbo, as he wouldn't go up into the tree until everyone else did. He made sure that all of the dwarves were in trees and locating the hobbit was going up a tree.

With everyone up in a tree, Harry climbed up into the same tree with Kili and Fili and then watched as the wargs ran up to them and growled up into the trees.

Harry watched as Bilbo stood in front of Thorin protectively, who had fallen to Azog's mace and warg. He shot a shielding spell onto the hobbit and then watched as Kili and Fili joined the fight and with that, Harry shot off the tree and shifted into his wolf form. He charged right at a warg that was about attack Bilbo and grabbed its neck in his mouth and snapped it.

“Gandalf, what's your plan?”

Oh, I hear eagles!Excellent plan! Harry took a minute to shift back to human form and glance at the sky. Ah, here they are! The eagles had arrived and started to pick up the wargs and drop them off the cliff. As soon as the eagles started to do this, the wargs ran off. Harry walked over to where Bilbo was still standing guard over Thorin's unconscious body. He could see the hobbit quivering, though. Probably exhausted, I know everyone else is. The eagles were starting to pick up dwarves, now. Harry waved down an eagle, who flew over.

“Be careful with this one,” Harry pointed at Thorin, “he's injured.” The eagle flew over and gently scooped up Thorin in its talons and then flew off. Harry saw Azog glaring at him from afar. Yeah, yeah, you wanted revenge. Well, you can get it over my dead body! Smirking at the great white orc and warg, Harry then ran over toward Kili and Fili and shifted into another one of his forms, a great giant eagle.

“Fili, Kili, get on!” Harry said to them. He walked a bit closer to the two dwarves, giving a small kree to get them to move. Fili and Kili glanced at Harry, having to raise their heads in order to do so.

“Whoa, you can also shift into a great eagle? How are we suppose to get on?” Kili asked.

“Well, if you're okay with me using magic, I can levitate you onto my back.” Harry replied.

“Okay.” Fili said.

Casting a levitation spell on the both of them, Harry guided the two up and onto his back. “This will not be like being on my back when I'm a wolf, though. I'll cast a sticking on you two, okay? I don't want you to fall off, though feel free to grab ahold of my feathers. I don't mind.” Casting the aforementioned spell, Harry took off. He slowly circled the battle zone, wanting to make sure all the dwarves had been picked up eagles already.

“Harry, look down there! It's uncles' oakenshield. Can you get it?” Fili asked.

“I'll see what I can do,” Harry glanced where Fili pointed. Harry cast a summoning spell and reeled it in, grabbing it with his talons. “I've got it.”

“Let's join the others.”

Chapter Text

Once Harry caught up with the other eagles, he flew near the eagle that was carrying Thorin.

“Thorin!” Fili shouted in distress. Their uncle looked dead; he was bruised and bloody and he was limp in the eagles talons. “Harry, is he...”

“No, he isn't dead. However, he will need healing once we get to our destination.” Harry replied, “How is Kili doing?” Harry had felt Kili go limp once they had flown for an hour or two, and Harry had yet to tend to his possibly broken or bruised rib.

Fili turned and glanced at his brother with a fond expression, who had fallen unconscious against him. “He's sleeping. I think running around with an injury and being captured by goblins has exhausted us all.”

“Well, we're almost to the Carrock. I can tend to Kili, then and we can get a good night's sleep.” Harry replied.

“So that's where we are going?” Fili asked.

“Yes. Ah, there it is. You might want to wake Kili up.” Harry responded and then followed the other eagles down. He saw the eagle carrying Thorin place him down on the rock and then Gandalf jumped down afterward. Harry landed right near Thorin, knowing that the two brothers would want to make sure Thorin was okay. Casting another levitation spell to gently lower the two dwarves down, Harry then shifted back into his human form and picked up Thorin's shield from where he had dropped it and put it in his pack. He walked over to go say good bye to eagles, since the one that Gandalf was on was sticking around. “Farewell! wherever you fare, till your eyries receive you at the journey's end! May the wind under your wings bear you where the sun sails and the moon walks!” The eagle bowed his head and then took off.

Harry could hear Gandalf muttering a spell, one that took effect much like his reenervate spell. Thorin slowly woke up saying, “the halfling?”

“He's here, he's okay.” Gandalf murmured, smiling.

Dwalin and Kili helped Thorin up, who started to stare at Bilbo.

“You! What were you doing? You nearly got yourself killed! Did I not say that you would be a burden, that you would not survive in the wild and that you have no place amongst us?” Thorin said aggravatingly.

“I've never been so wrong in all my life.” Thorin finished, gladly and then proceeded to pull Bilbo into a hug. Harry joined in the cheering with the rest of the dwarves. Once Thorin pulled back, Harry saw the dwarven prince do a quick check on Bilbo for injuries. “Forgive me for doubting you.” Thorin murmured to Bilbo.

“No, it's fine. I would have doubted me too.” Bilbo replied.

As the dwarves started to climb down the stairs that were etched into the side of the Carrock, Harry walked right behind Kili and Fili and he saw that Bilbo was walking right behind Thorin. Thorin had said they would camp at the foot of the Carrock tonight, since he had taken note of how exhausted everyone looked. Gandalf had also mentioned that he knew of someone that would offer them safe lodging for a couple of days.

Harry was busy making sure no one else was injured when he overheard a yelp. His eyes flew to Bilbo, who had tripped on one of the stairs, but was caught by Thorin before he could fall. Harry walked past the dwarves, heading toward the hobbit and the dwarven king. However, as he was walking past Fili and Kili, he noticed that they were both swaying.

He crouched on his knees and steadied the two and turned them to face him. Harry glanced into their eyes, noticing that they were both pale and exhausted. “Hmm, I can fly you two down, then tend to your injuries there,” Harry murmured, “Fili, are you injured?”

“I didn't think so...” Fili trailed off and then went white and promptly passed out right into Harry's arms. Harry wrapped an arm around the taller dwarf, extending his magic to look for an injury and found a laceration that was caused by a goblin sword along Fili's chest. He left some of his magic there to kind of create a quick suction/bandage on the wound to make sure it didn't bleed out until he cleaned and bandaged it. After that, Kili started to visibly panic, “Fee?”

“He's just unconscious, Kili,” Harry said softly, “Here, would you hold your brother for a minute?” Harry waited until Kili had a good hold on Fili and then shifted into his giant eagle form. “Okay, I'm going to guide you two up onto my back. We're going to fly down to the ground, where I can more easily tend your injuries.”

“Thorin, I'm going fly these two down to the ground. They're injured.” Harry gently cast the levitation spell on the two of them, guiding them onto his back. Just before he was about to take off, he saw Thorin come walking up.

“Do I need to be worried?” Thorin asked.

“No, Fili's wound is easily healed. I can tend to it quickly enough.”

“I trust you that you will take care of them?” Thorin asked.

“Of course. I can fly you down too. You are injured.” Harry said, questioningly.

“No, I shall stay with the rest of my company. We shall meet you on the ground.” the dwarven king said.

“Okay, then listen to Oin if he suggests anything to you for your injuries then. I shall take good care of these three.” Harry spelled a sticking charm on the two of them(so that they wouldn't fall off) and then slowly shook his feathers and took off, after hearing Thorin muttering about nagging wizards.

Chapter Text

It didn't take very long at all for Harry to fly down from the Carrock, only about 10 minutes. Once he landed, he slowly and gently guided the two dwarves down to the ground, then shifted back to his human form. After doing that, he set up wards around a huge area for their camp site, making sure that the wards would let the rest of the company in.

Once finished warding the campsite, he laid out his own bedroll and levitated Fili onto it. He pulled out his pack and summoned all of the dwarven packs out and then he pulled out his first aid kit. His kit included everything from potions to bandages and everything in between.

“Oh, you retrieved all our packs! When did you do that?” Kili exclaimed and then went over and pulled his own pack over and sat next to Fili.

“I did it before I rescued you two. Okay, I'm going to heal Fili's wound now and I'm going to need some peace and quiet while I do this. Could you make sure the others don't disrupt me when they get here?” Harry asked.

“Sure, Harry.” Kili replied, glancing at Fili in worry, only reaching out to take his brother's hand in his.

“He'll be fine. It's only one gash.” Harry responded and then got to work. He had taken a few healing courses at St.Mungo's during his last official school year, and had healed a couple of his friends on the go.

It took Harry a full hour to close up and heal Fili's wound, which was made easier by the fact that he had put some of his magic around the wound earlier as a bandage. It had stopped the bleeding and kept it from becoming dirty. When he finally finished with this healing, Harry cast one last cleaning spell over the wound just to ward off infection.

Once he was done, he raised his head and looked around. The company had arrived while he was healing Fili. Kili had been joined by Thorin, both of whom had sat around him. The others were around the campfire and Harry could smell cooking meat and other food, which made his stomach start to growl. The company hadn't eaten since the night of the stone giants and Harry had shifted shape a lot over the past couple of days.

“Okay, I'm done. He's going to need to rest for a couple of hours, but he'll be fine.” Harry said.

“Ah, that is good news.” Thorin responded and then got up and went to go talk to the others.

Harry started to get up and go have some dinner, but then remembered something. “Kili, do you want to give Thorin's shield back?” Harry pulled out the piece of oak from his bag. Kili looked at it with a mischievous glance.

“No, let's have Bilbo give it back to him” he replied, grinning.

Harry looked at him, with a curious glance, then turned his head to look at Bilbo, who was at this moment gazing at Thorin. “Oh, you want... I've seen the same things. I think they would be good for each other, too.” The two of them exchanged playful looks and then Harry walked over to the hobbit with the shield hidden behind his back. Bilbo raised his head to look at Harry, expectantly. Harry enjoyed seeing two people who were at this stage of obviousness and obliviousness come together. During sixth year back in England, Hermione and Ron had gotten quite annoying in their avoiding their interest in each other.

“Bilbo, I had picked this up before I took off from the trees. Would you give it back to Thorin?” Harry asked, extending the shield toward the hobbit.

“Uh, okay.” Bilbo took the piece of oak and walked over toward their leader. Harry walked back over to Kili and Fili were.

“Our plan is in motion, Kili.” Harry said, grinning, to the dwarf.

Kili looked up from his brother to glance at Harry then to where Bilbo was presenting the shield to Thorin. Many of the other dwarves had stopped to watch Bilbo as he carried the oakenshield to Thorin and handed it to him. When Harry turned to look, Thorin had a very grateful look on his face as he took his shield from Bilbo.

The company stayed there for the night, letting everyone rest and recover from the fast paced last few days.

After Fili woke up, Harry joined the Kili and Fili on a hunt for food for dinner. Harry had heard some deer when he had been in his eagle form, so he had informed Kili about that. However, both dwarves had insisted that he come along, so Harry went with them, albeit a bit bewildered. Kili was very good with a bow as Harry had seen, so why did they need him? Just as the three of them walked a couple of minutes out of sight of the campsite, Kili pulled Harry into a kiss and backed him right up next to a tree.

Startled, Harry took a minute to respond, but he did. Harry hadn't been with anyone since he been transported here. But, if he had to choose right now, he would definitely pick these two. The height difference proved to not be an issue, as it turned out, as Kili had yanked his head down to meet his lips. Kili kissed determinedly like he was very eager to be doing so. When the kiss started to turn hot, Harry pulled away and leaned his forehead against Kili's, both of them were breathing hard. Then he felt Fili come up against his back and start to pepper his neck with kisses. Harry was essentially the only ingredient in a dwarven sandwich.

Turning his head, Harry pulled Fili into a kiss. Fili kissed slower and sweeter than his younger brother, but still with the same energy. Kili proceeded to start to rub his arousal against Harry's, to which the wizard started to do the same. Hearing and seeing his brother and both their chose one moaning, caused Fili to start to rub his arousal against their wizard. The three of them gained speed and enjoyed the delightful friction that it gave them. One by one, each of them climaxed and slumped against each other. Harry quickly cast a general cleaning charm on their clothes, which they hadn't even needed to take off. Harry then leaned his back against the tree closest and his two dwarves cuddled against each other tiredly, as Harry started to card his hands through their hair.

Harry stayed awake, just watching the two of them sleep against him(someone had to keep watch). Both Kili and Fili looked so content and sated in their sleep at the moment. Watching them sleep made Harry realize that he loved them, both of them. Kili with his unending excitement and energy and Fili with his confidence and loyalty and both of their cleverness. And with what they just did together, Harry was pretty sure that they shared at least some mutual fondness.

A couple of hours later, Harry conferred with Oin on medical supplies; Harry had thought that adding some of his magic to Oin's supplies might add to the potency of them and Oin had agreed. When Harry, Kili and Fili walked back into camp, the other dwarves snickered at them knowingly. Harry had then tended to Kili's bruised rib, putting on some of the bruise paste that he had left on Kili's chest.

During the campfire that evening, Harry sat in between Fili and Kili and he saw that Thorin had sat next to Bilbo. Harry watched as Bofur and a couple of the other dwarves brought out their instruments and started to sing. Harry had heard from Kili earlier that everyone was pleased that he had managed to retrieve their packs earlier.

As the night wore on, Harry slid off of the log that he was sitting on between the two dwarf princes. He noticed that everyone was growing tired; Bilbo was slumping against Thorin, and Fili had slumped against Harry's side a couple of minutes ago. Kili had, amusingly, gone to sit in between Harry's legs and laid against his chest, which had caused Harry to exchange a glance with Fili, grinning. Most of the other dwarves,including Gandalf, had gone to sleep already, so Thorin and Harry were the only ones awake. Harry had already told the company that he had warded the campsite, so no watch was needed.

Moving Kili to slump against his brother, Harry stood up and laid out his bedroll next to his partners. Once done with that, he walked back over to the brothers, noticing Thorin pick up Bilbo and walk over to his bedroll. Smiling, Harry levitated Fili and Kili over to their bedrolls, which were right next to each other and then shifted into his wolf form and curled around the two.

The next day, the company arrived at Beorn's home, who was apparently the person that Gandalf was talking about. Beorn turned out big bear of a man, literally. Harry had asked Gandalf what the magic emanating from him and the other wizard had said that Beorn was a shape-changer and that he could turn into a bear. Beorn was a couple feet taller than Harry, that was for sure and Harry had no problem imagining him shifting into a great black bear.

Harry was pretty sure that everyone appreciated being able to restock their supplies and rest in a safe place. Just after dinner that night, the company gathered in a loose circle, smoking their pipes. Harry was once again serving as a big teddy bear with the two dwarven princes, except it was Fili sitting in between his legs, against his chest, and Kili slumping against his brother, with Fili was re-braiding some of his braids.

Gandalf had told the group that he would be leaving them the next day on Official Wizard Business. He had pulled Harry aside to tell him in detail about where he was going, to investigate the fortress of Dol Guldur and to see what Radagast had been talking about. Gandalf had said that once he had finished his business that he would catch up to the company, though he did say that whatever it was might take a while.

Harry was watching the group relax as the dinner that they had just finished was very good. Bombur had even given his thanks and appreciation to whomever cooked it. The dwarves had started to pull out some of their instruments that they had brought along and started to play. Thorin had even pulled out his harp and played a quiet low piece, along with the others.

Harry had caught Bilbo gazing at their leader, more than once during their walk over to Beorn's and during dinner. Harry had even suspected that the hobbit and dwarf prince had gone outside to sit on the porch for some peace and quiet, together. Bilbo had come back with a couple of braids in his hair, with what looked like one of Thorin's beads in one of the braids. Harry had been intrigued by the the meaning of dwarves braiding each other's hair that he had asked Gandalf earlier this afternoon.

The other wizard had said that it was done by potential loved ones and siblings; for loved ones, it was meant as a courting gesture. Harry had noticed that the members of the company also braided each other's hair, regardless of relation. He had just figured that it was that they were very close in friendship and brotherhood. To see that Thorin had finally managed to let Bilbo know of his feelings toward the hobbit was a very happy sight to see and not just for Harry.

When Bilbo had walked back in, followed by Thorin, they were greeted with cheers and cat-calls(that was mostly Kili and Fili) by the other dwarves. The hobbit had blushed and then turned around and walked right into Thorin, who glared at everyone and then put an arm around Bilbo. The two had then gone to sit in the loose circle that the other dwarves were sitting in, with Bilbo sitting in between Thorin's legs.

As the time came to turn in for bed, everyone laid out their bedrolls. As Harry was laying out his, Kili and Fili came and laid their bedrolls next to his and then waited patiently(or as patiently as they could) for Harry to finish.

“We've noticed that you like to brush your hair...” Kili started.

“May we braid it?” Fili asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow at that and then nodded his consent and sat down on his bedroll. He thought about what Gandalf had said, about this being a sign that dwarves were courting each other. The two dwarves went and sat behind Harry and started to braid. Each of them had pulled a couple of clumps of his hair and divided to start.

“So, does this mean you two are courting me?” Harry asked, teasingly.

“Uh, yes.” Fili replied.

“We already talked to uncle. He said we could.” Kili said.

“Well, okay then. I shall court both of you also.” Harry said, grinning.

Once they were done, Harry pulled out a bowl from his bag and conjured water into it and looked at himself. Both Kili and Fili had put one bead in each of their braids, so Harry had two beads in two braids near his face. Kili's bead had a bow and arrow on it and Fili's had a short sword on it.

“I love them!” he said.

Chapter Text

Darkness... Running... Screaming of orcs and dwarves and elves alike. Then death eaters... and green light zipping toward him...dragon fire... blood everywhere.

“Harry! Wake up!” Immediately Harry startled awake, panting and sweating, as if he had run a mile. He woke up to being wrapped in Fili's arms and Kili hugging him from behind. “You were dreaming. It was just a nightmare,” Fili whispered, dropping a kiss on his forehead, while Kili was rubbing soothing circles onto his back. It was still dark out, but Harry's internal clock said that it was nearing dawn. Though, judging by the past few days in Mirkwood, the sun never would get past the trees. So, the trek through the forest was pitted in darkness. The company had left Beorn's home a week ago and had reached Mirkwood a couple of days ago.

Harry only rarely got nightmares and they were getting fewer and fewer with each passing year. However, this was the first time in 20 years that he had dreamed of his past life in England. Though, it made sense that he had dreamed about dragon fire, since they were heading to kill a dragon and back in England, the trio's escape from Gringotts had featured a dragon. However, like his dream in fifth year, the one where he had been Nagini, it had kind of seemed like this dream was from the point of view of a dragon. Which, totally weird, for the record.

“Harry, you okay?” Kili questioned, quietly, “You were whimpering in your sleep...”

“What was your dream about?” Fili asked, with a worried glance.

“Yeah, I'm okay. It was just a dream; it's certainly not a prophetic dream, if that's what you're worried about.. I'm not that kind of wizard. I didn't mean to wake you two up.” he said apologetically. I hope I'm not becoming a wizard that can tell the future. That would be awful. Harry glanced around, looking around their campsite. He didn't see anyone else awake, so his noises must not have woken anyone else up. When his gaze passed Thorin's bedroll, he did a double take-- Bilbo was cuddled up to the dwarf king and Thorin had an arm around the hobbit-- the picture that the two made was a very cute one. “Let's wait for everyone else to wake up, if you two can wait. I don't want to repeat myself. My dream included things from my past and I want everyone to hear that.”

“Sure, Harry.” Kili replied.

“I'll go wake everyone else up. We should probably get started soon.” Fili said and then got up to go wake the rest of the company up. Harry watched as Fili walked over to Bombur first to wake him up. Over their journey so far, Harry had noticed that whoever woke up first would then go to wake Bombur up. He figured that the smells that would waft from Bombur making breakfast had been intended to wake up the whole company. It had actually been quite hilarious when Harry had first witnessed it and then had learned to not stand in between hungry dwarves and food.

“My dream... Okay, well, I should probably start at the beginning then.”

“Do you remember that I said that I was not from here?” Harry glanced between Fili and Kili for confirmation and then everyone else. They all nodded their heads and they looked curious to know more about their other wizard. As Harry's gaze passed Bilbo and Thorin, who were once again sitting next to one another, he noticed that the dwarven prince had flowers in his hair. Harry grinned at Bilbo, who grinned back. It seems like the two of them had found their own dwarves. The company had settled around the camp in a loose circle, eating their breakfast while Harry started to speak. “The world where I came from had a secret community of wizards and witches that was apart from non-magical folk. Now, most of these wizards were fine; they went about their business. There was one wizard, however, who was cruel and terrible...”

It took Harry a couple of hours to tell his story, tucked up against Kili's chest with Fili just resting against his brother. Fili had just rested a hand on Harry's leg in silent support and comfort. The dwarves and hobbit all looked entranced with his story, stopping to ask questions along the way. Though, they had all been aghast at his treatment by his aunt's family, especially the older dwarves, Thorin, Dwalin, Gloin and just about everyone else. Harry had learned that dwarves and hobbits appreciated their children very much. When he had talked of his parent's deaths, Fili and Kili had both pulled him into a hug, even Bilbo came to give him a hug. Harry knew that the hobbit sympathized; his own parents had died more than five years ago.

Everyone cheered when Harry spoke about his victories over Voldemort and looked ready to go kill something when he spoke of how his fourth year ended. Though the dwarves had been fascinated with the dragons from the first task. Fili and Kili had tightened their hold on him when they felt him start to tremble during retelling the events of the fourth task.

Harry just skimmed over fifth and sixth years all together, though he did tell the dwarves and hobbit about losing his godfather and Dumbledore. He told of losing everyone in the last battle, from his friends to his boyfriend to his adopted family and then finally triumphing over the evil wizard.

“So, that's it. My past, also known as Harry Potter's Wonderful Life,” Harry said, sarcastically. Harry just rested for a minute in between his two dwarves; telling the whole story had taken a lot out of him and he had been reluctant to drudge up those memories. He was still trembling a bit and tucked up against Kili's chest, with Fili leaning against his back and hugging him from behind.

“So, your dream from last night, what was it?” Kili asked, softly, dropping a couple of kisses onto Harry's neck.

“Uh, well, it featured the killing curse and a battle. I think I was dreaming about the fight at Moria, with your uncle.” Harry replied. At least, I think it was the battle at Moria, though now that I think about it, there were elves in my dream. There were no elves at the battle of Moria, just dwarves and orcs. Huh...

Once Harry had finished his tale, all of the dwarves went to start to pack up their camp. As always, Harry walked between Kili and Fili. During the group's travels in Mirkwood, Harry had taken to pulling out his holly wand and creating a big light bubble that would light the way.

The next couple of hours passed that were uneventful. The company rode until resting and having lunch in a little defensible area. Kili had gone to scout ahead for a couple of minutes and had mentioned spotting giant spiders at a distance, so Thorin had chosen this area so that they easily fight in.

While the dwarves were eating and resting, Harry had taken to walking the perimeter just in case. He was chewing on a piece of meat when he first spotted the spiders. They were very big for spiders and black.

“SPIDERS!” Harry raised the alert and ran back to camp, drawing his blade as he went, already deciding that taking the form of an animal would be too, well, he didn't want to get spider blood on his claws and teeth(After Aragog, he had kind of not wanted to get up close and personal with spiders). All of dwarves pulled their weapons and got into a loose semi circle. Thorin pulled Bilbo behind him, though Harry did see the hobbit draw his blade. Kili nocked an arrow on his bow and took down the first spider. After that, it was a free-for-all, dwarves taking out spiders here and there. Harry took out a couple that were heading toward Ori.

Once the battle passed, Harry discovered that he had gotten separated from the group. Finishing off the spiders had taken an hour and it had been chaos. Harry had chased a spider that was retreated, which hadn't taken awhile to kill. Harry guessed that he was maybe a mile away from the group, so after cleaning his blade on a plant, shifted into his wolf form. Once done shifting shape, he ran back the way he came.

As he got closer to their temporary camping site, he was a bit unnerved by the silence. There were no sounds coming from the site and there should have been dwarven voices yelling and victory cries. He loped into the campsite and immediately came to a stop. There was nothing; no packs, no swords, and no dwarves and a hobbit!

Chapter Text

Harry glanced around the campsite, looking for any clue as to where the company had gone. It was starting to get dark when when he saw hoof prints. Now that he had seen the hoof prints, he took in the site with new eyes, the grass was trod on. Hmm, we are close to where the elves are. I wonder if they took the company? But why?

Continuing to sniff around, Harry walked around the site. However, he picked up the scent of the hobbit, which was still here, though he couldn't see anything. Shifting back to his human form, he cast a spell that would allow him to see anyone or in this case hobbit that was here. How did Bilbo go unnoticed by the dwarves or for that matter the elves? I don't remember anything about hobbits that could become invisible. Harry finally located Bilbo, who was lying on the ground, unconscious, but moaning. Though, he was a bit blurred to Harry's eyes, which was probably caused by whatever thing he was using to become invisible.

“Bilbo?” Harry questioned, while gently shaking him, but the instant that Harry touched the hobbit's hand, he felt the fever that had taken Bilbo. He extended his magic and scanned the hobbit for any injuries and found a big bump on his head and a gash on his arm.

Finally, Harry heard more than saw Bilbo stirring. “Harry?”

“Yeah, it's me. What's keeping me from seeing you? Is this a new development?” Harry asked quietly, “I need to tend to your injury; would you cease your invisibility?”

“Oh, I forgot.” Bilbo croaked and then the next second, Harry could fully see him again and then Bilbo promptly passed out. The wizard pulled out his bedroll and stretched it out and picked up Bilbo and placed him on it. Next, Harry gently lifted Bilbo's head and placed his blanked under him for a pillow. Harry then cast a spell that would tell him his patient's temperature, which was quite high.

Harry quickly conjured a bowl and pointed his holly wand at it and cast the spell to produce water to pour into the bowl. Then, conjuring a cloth, dipped it into the bowl of cold water, and placed it on Bilbo's forehead.

The hobbit looked worse for wear; he was sweating and pale. He was also shaking and whimpering at every movement of his arm.

“Shhh... it's okay. You're safe.” Bilbo slowly quieted after that. Harry pulled out his potions and laid them out on the forest floor and then cast a diagnostic spell on Bilbo, which would be able to tell him what kind of poison he had been infected with and what kind of antidote it would take.

Hopefully, he had an antidote with him that would work. Harry had a feeling that Thorin and the others, but especially Thorin, would kill him if anything happened to the hobbit. Harry would hate himself if anything permanent befell Bilbo, so hopefully that wouldn't happen.

Harry figured that the poison had come from one of the spiders and he was right. The diagnostic spell named the poison and the antidote in his mind and then Harry got to work. The antidote would take not more that five minutes to work, but then Bilbo would still need to get through the fever that had already taken him and that gash would need to heal.

Harry pulled out the specific potion that contained a ground up bezoar among other ingredients and an ingredient that would put Bilbo straight to sleep. He then stretched an arm under Bilbo's neck and raised him up to a sitting position up against Harry's chest. Harry then gently coaxed the hobbit into drinking the antidote. Then after drinking that, Harry laid him back onto his bedroll and got to work on healing that gash on his arm.

It took three days for Bilbo to finally wake up after the peak of his fever. Harry had stayed right by his bedside for all three of them, only going to sleep when he was tired and had warded the small site. It was mid afternoon when Bilbo eventually stirred from his deep sleep.

“Ah, good. You're awake. How are you feeling?” Harry asked the hobbit.

“Like I had just run a great distance,” Bilbo replied in a dry voice.

Harry reached over and grabbed the mug that he had conjured and filled it with water that he had found in a nearby stream(he had cleaned it with a spell he had used, just in case) then handed it over. “Take slow sips.”

Bilbo slowly started to sip at the water, relief at finally drinking some water showing in his body.

“Your fever went down a couple of hours ago; are you feeling up to getting up and stretching your legs?”

“I'm feeling okay. I think I should be able to get up now. What happened to our dwarves? How long was I out?” Bilbo asked, anxiously.

“Well, it's been three days since I found you here and the battle with the spiders. I think from what I've seen a group of Elves dragged the dwarves off. However, I don't know why. I stayed to take care of you.”

“Thanks. I am feeling well enough to go after them, though,” Bilbo said.

“You sure?” Harry asked.

“Yes, I'm quite sure.”

“Okay, then. Here, take this to take care of anything else,” Harry handed over a pain-killing potion. “Is that how you escaped from the goblins?” Harry said, curiously, “How did you become invisible? Is that something hobbits can do?” Bilbo drank the potion all down and relaxed easily enough after that.

“No, hobbits can not become invisible, thankfully. There would be much more mischief in the Shire if hobbits could do that.”

“However, I had just found this,” Bilbo pulled a gold ring out of his pocket and showed it to Harry. “I keep forgetting that I have it, too.” To Harry, it radiated a small darkness, as if it was just biding its time for something. It was like it was sentient, similar to Voldemort's horcruxes. Harry reached out a hand and folded Bilbo's fingers over it. The hobbit put the ring back in his pocket and glanced up at Harry, with a weary look.

“You should probably keep that safe. Also, you should tell Gandalf about it. I don't know anything about any possible 'Rings of Invisibility', so I'm no expert.” Harry murmured. Hopefully, Bilbo wouldn't have to use it too often. “So what happened after the spiders were finished?”

“Elves came and took everyone! Though, I had put on the ring earlier just in case. But, I guess I had gotten knocked over the head since I don't remember anything after that.” Bilbo replied with a worried glance to where the hoof prints led.

“I'm sure they're fine,” Harry said. Hopefully...

“Well, we shouldn't leave our dwarves alone to the elves for much longer, shall we?” As it was the morning of the fourth day since the spider battle, they were both anxious about getting back together with their company. Harry pulled out his wand and flicked it once and their things packed themselves. Within a couple of minutes, there was nothing left but Harry and Bilbo. And with that, Harry shifted back into his wolf form and kneeled. Bilbo got up onto Harry's back and off they went.

It took a couple of hours to finally follow the trail to its' destination, which turned out to be the Elven city of Mirkwood. Once Harry and Bilbo arrived at the outskirts of the city, Harry shifted back to his human form once Bilbo got off. Harry then pulled the invisibility cloak on, covering both him and Bilbo then cast a point me spell that would direct them to Thorin.

The two of them skirted by the elves that were walking around, following the spell. The spell led them to the Elven king's hall, which was a big building that had trees growing around and in it, just like the other buildings they had passed. Harry had been to Mirkwood in the past, but hadn't really explored it. If they ran into trouble getting the dwarves out, then Harry had decided to find Legolas, who would hopefully help. They couldn't afford to spend more than a couple of days in Mirkwood since Durin's Day was just five days away. Harry had struck up a friendship with the elven prince while he had been teaching Harry archery.

Harry and Bilbo both quietly walked past the throne room. Apparently, the dwarves had been thrown in the dungeons, according to the loud talking going on in the room. As the two of them crept into the dungeons, they started to hear loud angry voices coming from the cells. It appeared that the dwarves were yelling insults at the elves that were guarding them, insults such as “tree-hugger!” and other insults not mentioned in polite company. Once Harry picked out Fili and Kili's voices, he gave a quiet sigh in relief and heard Bilbo give the same sound of relief at Thorin's voice. As the wizard and hobbit turned a corner, they saw two cells.

The elves had apparently saw fit to separate Thorin from the rest of the company. Perhaps they thought that it would have lessened the chance that they would try to escape and be successful about it. But when Harry glanced into the cell that held the rest of the company, the dwarves were busy looking around their 'lodgings' to see about an escape. Though they looked distressed and downcast, as if they had given up hope about escaping. Fili, Kili and Thorin seemed more sorrowful, like they had thought Harry and Bilbo had been lost to them. Wanting to remove those looks on their faces, Harry quickly pulled Bilbo aside in a small corner.

Harry cast a privacy ward around their vicinity to make sure no one would see them or hear them and then removed the invisibility cloak. He had been forming an escape plan during their walk to the dungeons, though it would require him to cast a relatively big notice-me-not spell, but he did have a plan. His plan would really amuse the dwarves, too, if he managed to pull it off. He told Bilbo about his plan and it had made the hobbit grin.

Harry gave a quick look around to make sure that there were no other elves around other than the guards. He told Bilbo to stay put, under the invisibility cloak. He quietly slipped out from under the cloak and walked up to the two guards, who looked very startled to see this human just appear out of nowhere.

Once he had come out from under the cloak, the dwarves had gone silent and then started to cheer and yell and clambered up to the cell doors. “Harry!”

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” asked one of the elven guards.

“Well, I've come to get these dwarves out of here. We have somewhere to be,” Harry said in a dry voice, like it was very obvious what his goal was. Then he quickly cast a silent sleeping spell on the two guards, dropping the two immediately to the ground. He signaled to Bilbo that he could remove the cloak and heard the rustling of cloth. “Bilbo!” Thorin said quietly in relief. Summoning the keys to the cells, he unlocked the doors which resulted in him being hugged by two very enthusiastic dwarves. 

Harry immediately melted into both Kili and Fili's embrace; he was actually quite tired since he had stayed up taking care of Bilbo. Being in between his two dwarves felt really good. In fact, to the wizard, it felt like he had come home. He was safe and warm and in the middle of two people that he loved. Harry felt the two of them tighten their hold on him, once he had fallen into their hugs.

Harry wrapped his arms around both Kili and Fili and rested his head on Fili's shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Thorin pull Bilbo into a hug and then place a kiss on the hobbit's forehead. Bilbo then pulled Thorin down for a kiss. “We thought you were dead!” Kili exclaimed and then tucked his head onto Harry's shoulder. Fili pulled Harry down for a quick kiss and then Harry turned around and pulled Kili into a kiss.

Once done with getting reacquainted with everyone else, Harry explained their plan to Thorin and the rest of the dwarves. And like Harry had thought, they all laughed in amusement.

“You will catch up with us, right?” Ori asked.

“Of course I will. I just need to make sure the Elvenking doesn't notice the dwarves that he was holding are gone. At most, you will be without me for an hour. Don't linger behind or you risk getting caught. No more than that though.” Harry replied, “And yes, I will show you what happens. I suspect that you will you want to see it.”

“You okay with leading the dwarves out?” Harry asked Bilbo.

“I think so. I will just take the route that we just took in.” the hobbit replied.

“Okay, if you have trouble, just...”

“Hoot twice like a barn owl and once like a brown owl?” Bilbo teasingly finished. At that Fili and Kili looked embarrassed, both blushing light red. Harry grinned; Bilbo had told him about what the two dwarves had told him to do in case of trouble during the troll episode.

“Okay, so your signal to lead them out of here will be loud noises outside. I shall go start my side of the plan,” Harry said and then cast a big notice-me-not spell net that encompassed the dwarves and the hobbit, though since he had cast the spell, he could still see them and the dwarves could see themselves. However, the spell would not mask the noises made by a company of dwarves, so Harry planned on making as much noise as possible.

Just before leaving the dungeons, Fili and Kili pulled him aside. “Be careful.” Fili murmured, "You look exhausted."

"I can see it, too," Kili added, "Can..."

"No, I don't want you two caught again. Go with Bilbo and Thorin and the rest. I'll meet up with you two." Harry replied, giving them a nudge in the direction of Bilbo and their uncle.

“I will be careful. Don't worry about me.” 

Chapter Text

Now, Harry had over the years pulled off some rather hilarious pranks on elves, men and occasionally had helped some hobbitlings with some, too and on one rather special occasion had actually managed to prank a wizard. He had continued to be as mischievous as possible in tribute to the Marauders. Getting the dwarves out of Mirkwood would be a rather big prank, compared to his others. With this one, it would take on a more meaningful note, at least meaningful to the dwarves.

After pulling this off, he planned on creating some way to show them what had happened. Before Harry left the dwarves, Bilbo handed him back his cloak. Harry walked out of the dungeons after waving goodbye to Fili and Kili and the rest of the dwarves and pulling on his invisibility cloak. Harry had told them to wait fifteen minutes at the least before they started to leave.

Harry crept through the Elven halls, passing a couple of elves on his way out. He even walked past Prince Legolas and his father, King Thranduil, who were walking past him. Though, hopefully, those two weren't heading for the dungeons. Harry had not met the Elvenking yet, but when they walked past the wizard, the King seemed withdrawn and aloof.

Harry arrived at the entrance and exit of the hall, where he quickly went through alongside a couple of elves. Okay, now to see if I can pull this off. As tired as I am, I think that I can do this. He wasn't at the point of passing out tired, but as he was only running on four hours of sleep, he was a bit nervous. Harry had created a couple of illusions in the past before, but this one was going to be the biggest of them all. He looked around, searching for a small corner that overlooked everything before finding one and moving into it.

Knowing that as of right now, Bilbo was leading the dwarves out of the dungeon, Harry sat down, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. His plan had been somewhat inspired by his nightmare a couple of nights ago, when he had dreamt from the point of view of a dragon. He pictured the dragon that he, Ron and Hermione had escaped on at Gringotts, but without all the whip marks and welts.

Adding as much magic as he felt necessary, he cast the spell to create an illusion. When he opened his eyes, there was a great big white dragon standing right in front of him. It looked a little transparent, like his patronus, but he could see smoke coming from its' nostrils. Though it looked real enough since the elves around him started to scream and run away. Harry had made sure that the dragon wouldn't do any real damage, since it was only just an illusion. Though, he would keep up the spell for roughly fifteen minutes to allow the company to escape without anyone noticing otherwise. He was pretty sure he had enough magic to hold it up for that long, though any longer and he would be passing out. He then sent the dragon off to create havoc.

The screaming of the elves had brought the guards from the throne room. When they saw the dragon, Harry was amused to see the guard's jaws dropping. Then they pulled their bows out from their sheaths and quickly shot off a few arrows. However, once the guards realized that the arrows went right through the dragon, they glanced at each other worriedly. Harry glanced around the courtyard, seeing a couple of the guards draw their swords and attempt to attack the dragon. By then the illusion-dragon had run every which way and roared every couple of minutes. Harry was straining to hold up both the illusion spell and the notice-me-not on the dwarves past the fifteen minute mark, even with graying vision.

Recognizing that he was seconds away from passing out, he slowly allowed the dragon to become less visible with each passing second and then stopped the spell altogether. Harry swayed and collapsed unexpectedly onto someone. Since Harry recognized the armor that his head was now pillowed on, he passed out.

Kili caught Harry mid-fall and tucked him against his chest, then Fili wrapped an arm around both of them. Fili looked on worriedly and the rest of the company grouped around the three of them, with their weapons drawn. The minute that they had stepped outside of the Elvenking's territory, Bilbo had stopped the group and argued for going back to get Harry. Both Fili and Kili had agreed with him. Unsurprisingly, Thorin and the rest of the company had nodded their heads in agreement. They had all come to like the other wizard in their group; the one that did not speak in riddles and was not cryptic at all. Kili had noticed that Harry was exhausted enough to tremble lightly and his brother had noticed too.

As the spell that was providing the distraction had ended the minute Harry had passed out, the elves were calming down from seeing a dragon attack them. Though, Harry passing out also meant that the spell that had been hiding them had also ended. The elves around the group of dwarves startled at the sight then called the guards. Elven warriors had surrounded them and pointed their swords in their direction. One of the warriors spoke to one of the others and then left at a quick pace.

Kili saw Bilbo edge a little closer to Thorin's side, as if to protect him. Which then led to Thorin pulling Bilbo behind him. Kili had liked their burglar ever since he had put up with their antics at Bag End and he and everyone else had seen how, ever since the two of them had gotten together, Thorin had been happier. Kili glanced down with a fond look in his eyes at Harry, who was still in his arms asleep. He was mumbling in his sleep, something about silly dwarves not listening to him. Fili was laughing quietly when another group of elves arrived before them.

These elves were grouped around another elf. The elf in the middle looked like he might have been the prince, as he looked familiar to Kili. He thought that he had seen this elf standing right next to King Thranduil when they had been taken captive. However, he seemed more approachable than the Elvenking. If Kili remembered correctly, and well, up until now, all elves looked alike to him, but he thought this elf's name was Legolas Greenleaf, son of King Thranduil.

The elven prince gestured to the warriors that had surrounded them. “Leave us be.”

The guards encircling then nodded at the prince, then backed off a couple of feet. The prince then slowly walked up to the dwarves, as if approaching wild animals. When Legolas had seen the dragon that was attacking their territory, he had instantly known that was Harry's magic.

When he had been training the young wizard in archery, Harry had been prone to pranks of this variety. So knowing that Harry was somewhere in this area, he had sent out his guards to search for the wizard. Legolas had followed the warrior that had reported the sighting of the group of dwarves and the young man with them. He did not want his father to realize that the dwarves had escaped and order them brought back. Initially when Thranduil had commanded that the dwarves in the forest be brought in, Legolas had not been too keen on that, as relations between the elves and dwarves were not at their best.

Now, with the distraction that was the alleged dragon, he could get the company of dwarves out. When he spotted the group of dwarves, they looked very defensive and outright suspicious of every elf that came within range. Harry was tucked in between two dwarves, one with golden hair and the other with brown hair. The one with golden blond hair had one of his arms around both Harry and the other.

As soon as Legolas walked up to within a couple of feet of the dwarves, they closed ranks and pulled the two younger dwarves and Harry behind them. “I only came to help,” Legolas spoke quietly.

“Help? Your people took us captive!” One of the dwarves shouted, which led to many of the other dwarves shouting insults.

“Enough!” their leader yelled and then once everyone had quieted down, “Who are you?”

“I am Prince Legolas Greenleaf and I did not agree with my father on that. I only came to make sure your company got out safely.” Legolas watched intently as their leader, Thorin Oakenshield turned and conferred with the hobbit and the rest of the dwarves.

“Very well,” Thorin replied then to the others, “Let's go.”

Legolas signaled to his guards to walk behind the dwarves, as their height would hide the fact that there were dwarves walking out. As the dwarves started to walk quickly past buildings, a couple of them threw glances behind them at the elves. As the company of dwarves started to move out, Legolas matched strides with the two dwarves who he had take care of Harry.

“Is he okay?” he gestured to Harry.

Kili startled, as he had not heard the Elven prince walk up to him. When the dwarves had resumed their escape, Kili had handed Harry off to Fili so that he could more easily scout ahead when they moved out. However, once Fili had put his arms around their wizard, Harry had suddenly shifted into the small cat and climbed up Fili's shoulders and curled up there and then had gone back to sleep. The whole company had chuckled at that. Kili stared at Legolas questioningly. Kili and his brother had not been born in Erebor so they did harbor the same prejudice against elves that their uncle had.

“I only ask out of concern. I had taught him how to use a bow and arrow when he first arrived here.” Legolas replied.

“Oh, I wasn't aware of that. At least, when he uses his bow, he is very impressive with it. He's only tired; we've had a long journey.” The company and the group of elves following them had made it to the gate as they were talking. Kili watched as one of the elves protecting them went to get the gate open.

“Ah, good. I shall leave your group here. We might meet again.” Prince Legolas said, as the gate was opened.

Chapter Text

Harry slowly opened his eyes and gazed around his surroundings. It seems that he had slept for four or five hours, since it was dark out. Though, his inner clock said that it was near six in the evening and his stomach agreed with that estimate. The dwarves were in the middle of what looked like a town built on a lake. Harry peeked out from the curtain of golden brown hair(he was curled up between hair and a neck) and took a look out. The paths that they were walking on were wooden and he could hear water somewhere below it. Harry couldn't remember anything past passing out on Kili and figured that he was on Fili, if the hair was any indication.

He must have instinctively shifted into his small cat form, since he wasn't being carried, either. Yawning, he slowly moved onto Fili's shoulder and then jumped down and walked out of the way of Bifur and Nori, as they walked ahead of him. They both glanced his way, grinned, then went back to conversing in Khuzdul. Harry walked to the side of the company and stretched.

“Harry? Are you feeling better?” he heard Kili ask. The two brothers had followed him once he had gotten off of Fili.

Harry then shifted back to his human form and stretched in this form. “I'm okay, feeling better for the hours of sleep I got.” Before he stood all the way up, he stopped when he was crouched and then pulled Kili, who was looking at him anxiously, into a kiss. Before Kili could deepen the kiss, Harry reached a hand out and drew Fili into a kiss. When they pulled apart, Harry stood up and pulled out his water bag and took a couple gulps of it. After saying hi to each other, they rejoined the group.

Harry took a better look around the company. All of the buildings around them were wooden, just like the paths. Despite being dinner time, men were still bustling about, bringing home their latest catch or other activities. The company itself got many intrigued looks and Bilbo received more curious glances, as if the men around them weren't sure whether he was a dwarf or something else. Bilbo had once told everyone that hobbits did not really go on adventures or even venture beyond the borders of the Shire.

“So you guys made it to Lake-town while I was sleeping, huh?” Harry asked.

“Yep, and we got to see your dragon! It was awesome!” Kili exclaimed. Harry grinned, enjoying seeing him happy.

“I didn't know that you could do that kind of magic?” Fili asked.

“Ah, well, I've never done something that big before. But I have done that kind of thing in the past.”

“Yes, it was very amusing,” Thorin interrupted with a pleased look on his face, recalling the general confusion and chaos that had been the wood elves' home. He was just walked past the three of them when he had heard talk of the dragon that Harry had created.

“I saw a lot of detail in it, too. The scales were very good! Was it modeled on the dragon from your escape?” Ori commented. He had noticed the likeness to the dragon from Harry's past.

“Yes, it was. I'm amazed that you noticed that.” Harry responded, “Though, I should have expected that. I've noticed you drawing each member of the company. May I look at your art sometime?”

“If you really want to.” Ori replied, with a nervous grin.

After the company settled for the night in the inn that was at the center of town, most of the dwarves stayed in the common area. Harry could see that many of them were growing more guarded and uneasy about what was to come. Many of the dwarves pulled out their pipes and just sat in silence, though each of them were not far away from each other. Thorin, on the other hand, was pacing which had Bilbo's attention. It seemed their leader was very anxious and restless. Meanwhile, Harry had an armful of both Fili and Kili, who watching their uncle with worried eyes. Both Fili and Kili had been quiet, which was a little unnatural with them.

When they had been arrived at the inn, Thorin had announced their presence and the men in the inn had cheered at that. Harry suspected that the men of Lake-town would be glad of a new king in Erebor, which would mean more trade opportunities. The Master of Lake-town had then invited them to dinner and Thorin had spent the meal talking with him.

Gradually, most of the dwarves split up to go to their rooms for the night. Harry saw Bilbo step in front of where Thorin was pacing and reach out a hand for him, a wordless question in his eyes. Thorin reached out a hand in return and grasped Bilbo's hand then Bilbo tugged him to their room. All of them were tired from their quick flight from the Elvenking's halls and spending a few nights in his 'care'.

Harry slowly followed Fili and Kili into their room, smiling when with each step, they bumped into each other, sleepily. Harry wasn't particularly tired, but he figured his presence would help them get to sleep. Though, as soon as he was done getting ready for bed, he fell onto the bed and dozed, only waking up when Fili and Kili got into the bed and slept on each side of him. Harry felt both of them reach an arm around him and then soon afterwards, fell asleep.

The valley that surrounded Erebor was quite a mess, as Harry found out. He had taken to flying(in his smaller hawk form; not that of a giant eagle) around their camp during the past few days taking in the sights. Everything was burned and the city of Dale was destroyed. The company had made it to Erebor a few days ago and made camp right up against the mountain. Durin's Day had just started this morning, but everyone was very stressed and the general moral was also quite low. They hadn't been able to find a door, yet. Some were even discouraged at that, but the dwarves kept searching every inch of the mountain.

Thorin had told Harry to do a couple searches from the air, so he was currently flying around the mountain. Harry had cast a notice-me-not spell on himself before he took off so hopefully Smaug would not notice him, if the dragon was awake. Though, they had not even seen the dragon yet.

As Harry made to return to their camp, he heard shouting and yelling. He flew toward the excited voices, seeing the dwarves very joyful. Last night, Bilbo had volunteered to go scout in the dwarven city and see where the dragon was. It was time for the hobbit to make use of non-existent burglar skills to evade a dragon.

“Umm, we might want to be a bit quieter than that, guys. There is a dragon in there you know!” Harry spoke to the company in general, once he had landed on Kili's shoulder who immediately began stroking the hawk-wizard.

“Oh, right, well...” Dwalin acknowledged and shushed everyone in Khuzdul.

The door was lodged right deep into the mountain and it had dwarven runes around it. It was about as tall as Gandalf was and could probably fit three or four dwarves in at the same time. Harry could see Bilbo glance at it with weary eyes, then turn his gaze toward Thorin, who had walked right up to him. Harry shook his wings out and then took off from Kili and shifted into his human form.

“I'm ready,” Bilbo murmured, with a shaky voice. Thorin tugged Bilbo into his arms and whispered reassurances.

“You will do fine, little one.” Thorin replied, landing a kiss to Bilbo's forehead.

“We'll be waiting right here for you,” Harry said softly.

Thorin stepped up to the door and drew out his key and unlocked the door. Dwalin pushed the door open and then stepped back. Harry watched as Bilbo slowly edged his way through the door and disappeared into the dwarven city of Erebor.

Chapter Text

Bilbo had been gone for a couple of hours and it was getting into late morning. Harry was just sitting on a rock, waiting with his bow out and an arrow ready to be nocked. The dwarves were all showing various forms of anxiousness and nervousness. Thorin was definitely worried, if the expression on his face was anything to go by. Fili and Kili were pacing back and fourth across the doorway, with their hands on their weapons. However, Harry had noticed that all the dwarves had their hands on their weapons, ready to unsheathe them at a moment's notice.

Harry hadn't heard anything that would be worrisome, though. There had been no roaring or loud growling at all. When he had flown past the gaping hole in the front gate, he hadn't seen any glimpse of the dragon. Harry was quite sure that Bilbo could do this, but he was still worried.

If anything went wrong, he did have something up his sleeve that he had kept hidden from the dwarves and hobbit. He had discovered a certain form that he could shift into within the first couple of years that he was in Middle Earth. Harry actually should have known that he could take the form of this particular animal, what with his experiences throughout his life. He had kept it secret because he had wanted to stay under the radar in Middle Earth and not come into the spotlight. With the dragon Smaug, anything could go wrong and Harry wasn't going to let anything happen to the company if he could help it.

When Harry's internal clock said that it was about lunch time, he heard the pitter patter of running hobbit feet. As soon as the dwarves started to hear it too, they stood up and awaited their burglar. Bilbo sounded as if he was running from the dragon, but Harry didn't hear or see any sign of Smaug. The door was also too small for anyone other than dwarves, hobbits, men and elves.

As Bilbo came barreling out of the door, he ran straight into Bofur. The usually cheery dwarf who was now tense then handed the hobbit off to Thorin, who pulled Bilbo into a hug. The other dwarves crowded around the two, waiting to hear what the situation was. Harry could see that Bilbo was trembling though the tremors were growing less frequent while he was in Thorin's arms.

“Bilbo, what happened? Did you see the dragon?” Fili asked. The two brothers were right in front of Harry and around Thorin and Bilbo. Every dwarf was waiting on Bilbo's answer. As soon as Bilbo caught his breath, he pulled back from Thorin though the dwarf king still kept an arm around him.

“It seems that Smaug is quite clever. I talked with the dragon for a few minutes...” Bilbo shakily replied.

“You mean... that he actually knew that you were there?” Balin asked.

“Yep, that's exactly what I mean,” Bilbo said, more steady now, “He was able to smell me.”

“I thought Gandalf said that Smaug would not know the smell of a hobbit,” Gloin mentioned.

“You weren't hurt, right?” Thorin inquired, worriedly.

“No, I managed to...” Bilbo trailed off as a very loud roar was heard. All the dwarves pulled their weapons out instantly as the roar was close and sounded very pissed off. Harry nocked an arrow to his bow, but didn't draw it just yet. Then just after that came of the sound of stone breaking and falling.

“What was that?” Harry asked. He could feel the vibrations of the stone falling against the earth from here. When something leaned into him, he looked down; Kili had unconsciously leaned into him and so had Fili. To people who didn't know the two dwarves well, they would them to be terrified, but just the act of scooting closer to Harry until they were practically sharing the same space meant that they were scared. Harry knew that up until now, the idea of fighting a dragon was heroic and faced with the actual dragon that was a great deal taller and bigger than their usual opponents was scary.

“I think that was the front gate! Smaug must have flew out of the city!” Thorin exclaimed. A great big gust of wind was heard and then, Smaug came into view. He was huge, about as big as the Hungarian Horntail from Harry's fourth year and very red and very enraged. There were also spikes all over his back, which looked quite deadly. Smoke was coming from Smaug's nostrils and as he was flying, his tail was whipping back and fourth.

As Smaug drew closer, Harry drew his bow and was ready to release. He saw Kili do the same with his smaller bow. When Harry looked back at Smaug, he realized that the dragon was not stopping at all. I think Smaug intends to bowl into us! Or burn us to a crisp... Luckily, there were a few places to take cover near where the door was.

Harry dimly heard Thorin shouting orders to do precisely that then told Kili and Harry to shoot. Hopefully, the dwarves and hobbit will have made it to the little overhang of rock above the door. The distance between their group and Smaug was about the distance of British soccer field when Harry released his arrow at the same time that Kili did. Their arrows bounced right off Smaug's hide! I should have expected that.

Taking a minute to make sure everyone had made it to safety, Harry turned around and saw that all of the dwarves had refused to move. They had formed a semi circle behind him and Kili, with their blades drawn. Thorin had drawn Bilbo behind him when it looked like the others were not going to move from their positions.

This isn't going to be enough to defeat Smaug! As Harry was thinking through their options, he heard a large crash. He quickly turned around and faced the dragon. Smaug had landed some 20 feet away and it looked like he was getting ready to breath out a giant flame. Harry realized that the dwarves had no protection against a big ball of flame. Their armor might protect against normal weapons, but dragon fire was able to pierce any armor. Smaug stalked toward them, ready to release the flame.

As the dwarves got ready to charge(they would take on any opponent, even if it was a dragon), Harry dropped his bow and pulled off his other weapons and pack and left them on the ground. As he was getting ready to shift into his last and final form, Fili looked at him wonderingly, as if he had gone mad.

“Why are you dropping your bow, Harry?”

“I'm going to need you guys to move out of the way. This was Plan B for me and it looks like we're going to need it. Our armor won't protect against dragon fire. Thorin, get them out of here, please.” Harry yelled, winked at both Kili and Fili, then shifted.

Harry had found that shifting into this form always took more time than the smaller forms that he could take. He had accidentally found that he could shift into a dragon when he had meant to shift into his smaller hawk form. Luckily he had been in a grove in Fangorn Forest when he had made the attempt. His dragon form was quite similar to the dragon that they had escaped on in seventh year, except his form was a green dragon. His form was just as tall and had big wings. When he had first shifted into it, he had been quite startled to learn that he could actually transform into a dragon.

Once he had finished shifting, he towered over the dwarves. Harry looked toward Smaug, who had stopped and looked confused when Harry had started to change. Harry peered around his huge body to look at the dwarves, who had gone all quiet in the passing moment. Everyone's eyes were wide and their jaws were dropped.

“Harry, is that you?” Fili asked, cautiously.

“Of course, it's me, your wizard.” Harry replied.

Fili watched, wide-eyed, as Harry, their wizard who could apparently turn into a dragon, let out a huge roar with added flames. He shared a glance with his brother, wonderingly, their One could do this? He then glanced at their uncle, who was also wide-eyed and a bit pale. When Harry had ordered them out of the way, Fili hadn't known what he was going to do. He had not expected this, to see another dragon, though not one they were going to kill.

Fili watched as the Harry's wings moved to tuck into his body. He figured that that was to protect them. At the last minute before Harry started to run toward Smaug, Bilbo yelled out something to him.

“Harry, he has a weak spot! On his belly, on the right side!”

“Got it! Thanks!”

Harry's dragon form was very green, Fili thought. At least it was different than Smaug was, so it was easy to tell them apart. In the next second, Fili watched as Harry charged at the other dragon, with keen intent. He was beautiful in this form, all enraged and protective. The two dragons clashed at that very moment, going at each other with tooth and claw. 

Chapter Text

As the fight wore on, Harry grew desperate. Smaug had landed a deep bite on his tail and was preventing him from getting close to his belly. Harry quickly disengaged before Smaug could get a hold of his leg and released a big ball of flame toward the other dragon. Harry had shot another flaming ball at Smaug at first, but it hadn't affected the other dragon at all. Though, Smaug had shot flames at Harry, too and it had not affected him either.

They had both scored many deep scratches on each other. A couple of the deep lacerations on Harry's sides were in some vulnerable spots and he didn't have time or the magic to tend to them at the moment. Though, Harry could see that he had scored some more serious hits on Smaug's flank. The slash marks on Harry's flanks were dripping blood, as he could feel them running down his side. I hope this will be the first and last dragon I will ever have to battle! I prefer smaller opponents! And less lethal...

He had realized that their hides must have been fire proof. As Harry watched his current fire ball hurdle toward his opponent, he took to the air. The wizard hoped that Smaug would follow him and not focus on the dwarves on the ground. As Harry was smaller than Smaug, he could maneuver easier than the other dragon and he was quite faster, too. However, he couldn't keep that up for long, as his wounds kept interfering with his speed.

Harry flew up into the air, waiting for Smaug to catch up; he wanted to see if he could trick this dragon. He gave a loud roar, as if challenging Smaug. The other dragon certainly couldn't resist a challenge, if his racing towards Harry's location was any indication. In the next instant, as Smaug was roughly in the middle between Harry and the company, he shot a fireball towards the dwarves.

Fuck! Harry dove toward the dwarves, who had not yet found cover and were watching the battle with wide eyes. Harry cast a spell to enhance his speed, otherwise he would not get there in time. He raced past the fireball and finally, hovered above the group of dwarves and one hobbit. Harry was sure that his hide would and could take a fireball as big as that one.

In the next instant, the ball of fire hit him. Harry had spread his wings around the company, hoping to protect all of them. Harry felt his skin heat up to an intense degree, but that was it. The heat licked at his wounds, making them hurt even more. There was no burning sensation, though.

“Harry!” He distinctly heard distressed screams from all of the dwarves. As soon as the warm sensation ended, he bent his neck and head down to peer at the group. They all looked worried. He was close enough to touch his snout to first Fili's head and then Kili's in reassurance for all of them.

“I'm okay, everyone. My skin is fire resistant.”

“Be careful, Harry!” Kili yelled. Harry then flew up to engage Smaug, who had just hovered above them, watching in interest.

“Kili, see if you can get a shot at his weak spot! I'll keep him distracted.” Harry mentally yelled toward one of his dwarves. As soon as he reached Smaug's location, Harry grabbed ahold of him instantly, digging his claws into the other dragon's flank and neck. The wizard-dragon maneuvered the real dragon into position, so that Kili could shoot an arrow right into the weak spot where Bilbo said that Smaug had.

Smaug thrashed in Harry's hold and his tail was flailing around in distress. “Hurry!” The two dragons were high enough that all Harry could see of the dwarves were the top of their heads. Harry could vaguely see Kili nocking an arrow and then releasing it.

The second that the arrow it, right on target, Smaug started to thrash even more. The other dragon also started to roar in anger and attempted to get a part of Harry into his mouth. Realizing that Smaug was slowing down even through his anger, Harry dug in his claws even more.

Harry then used his leverage, and what strength he had left, in the dragon to throw him down to the ground far from the company. He watched as Smaug went hurtling down to the ground and then casually flew after him. By this point, it was rather telling that Smaug didn't even try to get up after he hit the ground. Harry shot one last fireball at the other dragon and then pounced with his claws aiming right for Smaug's neck. He tucked his wings into his body to protect them from the blood splatter.

And with a final squelching sound, Harry tore into the red dragon's flank. However, he paused and withdrew just before he dealt the final blow. He was sure that Smaug would not able to get up again. Harry then padded over to the dwarves, leaving bloody foot prints on the dirt. His tail was dragging on the ground, since Smaug had bitten into it. When he stopped a couple of inches from the group, he looked around at them. They were all a little pale, but all of them were wide-eyed, and they were definitely awed. The dwarves all had their weapons still out, as if wanting to help but not wanting to get in the way of Harry.

Harry was glad to see there was no fear, though. He had been worried about that a little before he had shifted forms.

“Thorin, would you like to deal the final blow?” Harry asked. He had thought that Thorin might like to deliver the blow for closure and he was proved right a minute later, as Thorin advanced toward Smaug with a determined expression on his face.

Harry, still in his dragon form(in case Smaug was not a blow away from death), ambled alongside their leader to Smaug. The other dwarves and Bilbo had followed at a more sedate pace in support of their king, but still the rest of the dwarves were a little tense. Fili and Kili had run up to walk beside Harry, eyeing his wounds as they went. Harry could also feel a couple of hands lightly touching his feet(he figured if he wasn't as tall as he was, that they would be touching his body), as if making sure he was okay. Dwalin had come up with Thorin, war hammer drawn. Harry could feel Oin also eyeing his injuries as they walked to where Smaug lay.

Once they got to where the other dragon was breathing his last breaths, Harry placed a clawed limb on his flank, keeping Smaug in place(though there was clearly no need for it). Everyone watched with bated breath as Thorin swung Orcrist right into Smaug's neck. The elvish sword sliced straight into the dragon's neck, ignoring the hide. Harry and the rest of the dwarves watched as the life of the dreaded dragon went out.

There was silence for a minute or two and then all out cheering from the dwarves. Harry gave a pleased roar and than plopped down onto the ground. He was exhausted after that battle and he planned on not moving from that particular spot for a month. He looked around at their small party, from a couple of dwarves headbutting each other in victory to Thorin, who looked wearily content and then to Bilbo who was grinning at their king.

“Thank you, Harry,” Thorin murmured to him.

“Your welcome. I had thought that you might like to do that,” he replied.

“That was awesome!” Kili said eagerly, though underlying his words was concern.

“Oin...” Fili called, looking on in worry at Harry, while summoning the healer in their group.

“Ah, right, if you would..”

“I think it would be best if I became smaller before you tend to my injuries, right?” Harry asked.

“That would help, yes,” Oin agreed.

Harry then very gingerly shifted back into his human form, knowing that it would hurt a lot more when his injuries in dragon form would transfer to his human body. Once back to human shape, he swayed before being steadied by Fili and Kili. He slowly pulled off his shirt with Kili's help. The deep bite that Smaug had landed on his tail had transferred to his hip and lower back. The lacerations had spread all over his body. Oin pulled out his bag of herbs and got to work tending to the wizard's injuries.

“I see only three broken ribs and those lacerations. Do you feel hurt anywhere else?” Oin asked, while working.

“No, that's it, I think,” Harry replied, wincing in pain when the healer cleaned the numerous injuries.

Harry stood still while soaking up the warmth of being between his two dwarves, letting the healer work.

“That was very amazing. I didn't know that you could shift into a dragon,” Fili commented, “How are you feeling?”

“Uh, not many people do. I usually keep this to myself, more than my wolf form. It tends to scare people off,” Harry murmured, “I feel like I could sleep for a week!”

“Or a month...” he added.

“Well, we're not scared, are we, Fili?” Kili replied and tugged Harry down into a kiss which promptly caused Oin to scold them for disturbing his patient and work. Harry melted into the kiss only briefly, letting it take his mind off of the pain. Before straightening back up and letting Oin get back to work, Fili pulled him into a kiss.

“You fought very well,” Dwalin commented, while gazing at the body of Smaug. The other dwarves had gathered around it, probably sizing it up for price. Harry glanced at the group, Bifur was gesturing at the body and growling something in Khuzdul. Bofur was lightly hitting it with his mattock, nodding his head in agreement with whatever Bifur said.

“Thank you,” Harry responded, searching for his pack before locating it in the hands of the hobbit. “Bilbo, would you get out my potion kit, please?”

“Yeah, which one are you looking for?” Bilbo asked.

“It should be... Ow!” Harry exclaimed. Oin had been in the process of putting bandages on his numerous wounds and was tightening a roll of gauze over his ribs. “I need the one for pain, it should be on top.”

“Here,” Bilbo replied and handed over a potion bottle. Harry uncorked it and drank it all. He immediately relaxed after only a minute later.

“Okay, I'm done fixing you up, but you'll need rest after this. Fili, Kili, will you make sure he rests?”

“Of course, we will,” They both replied at the same time and wrapped an arm around Harry to emphasize their willingness to do that. Harry rolled his eyes, but grinned at their healer regardless.

“Shall we?” Harry watched as Thorin gestured toward the door into Erebor. All of the dwarves grinned and followed their leader in. Harry watched as Thorin and Bilbo went in side by side with the rest of the company following. Harry glanced at Fili and Kili, who were both very eager looking to finally know Erebor as something other then a city in their uncle's stories. The three of them took up the rear, side by side walking into the dwarven city of Erebor.

Chapter Text

At first, all of the dwarves, hobbit and wizard had gone to see the big treasure room, where Bilbo had said Smaug had slept on. They had all started to set aside the treasure for their own rewards. Harry had never seen that much gold and treasure before; the gold in Bellatrix's vault in Gringotts didn't even come close to the amount in the treasure room. It was filled from the big door to the edge of the room.

Once the dwarves made it well into the mountain, they split up. Bombur and Dori had gone to investigate the condition of the kitchens and Bofur had joined him. Bifur had split off to go see what condition the mines were in. Oin went to see how well stocked the infirmary was. Dwalin, Nori and Gloin had gone to see to the armory and barracks and finally, Thorin, Balin, Fili, Kili and Harry had gone to see to the throne room. Ori and Bilbo had gone to find the library, as Harry had heard Thorin telling Bilbo about the famous library of Erebor at one point during their journey. Harry had noticed along their walk that the metal work that made up the pillars and other work had held up the city were rusted and quite dirty. The company were all smiles and grins, as they had completed their quest and retaken Erebor.

Luckily, Harry didn't see any wood as most of the city was made from stone and metal. For the most part, it looked like the only parts of the city that had taken the brunt of the dragon were the main hall and the treasure room. Bilbo had said that he thought that Smaug just couldn't fit elsewhere. Thorin had seemed to lighten up at that. It was nearing late afternoon when they finally finished all their investigations and joined the main group, all except Bombur who had gone to fix dinner in the main hall. The throne room had one throne which was very dusty. Thorin was standing near the throne, gazing at it with a longing expression that seemed like he was remembering what Erebor was like before Smaug.

Harry watched as Bilbo walked up to Thorin and slipped a hand into his. In response, Thorin turned toward Bilbo and tugged him into a kiss. Harry and the other dwarves turned around to give the two privacy.

“So, what are the sleeping arrangements for tonight?” Harry asked with some hesitance in his tone, “I don't exactly know where the separate homes are.”

“Don't be ridiculous, Harry.” Fili replied, “ You are going to stay with us.”

“Come on, we'll show you!” Kili exclaimed, “then hopefully dinner will be ready by then. I know that I'm hungry!”

Chuckling, Harry let Kili lead the way. As they left the main group, Harry thought he heard Thorin saying something about a consort to Bilbo. Though, Harry did suspect that Kili and Fili had ulterior motives in leading him to their home. Though, he did glance back every minute or so, just to make sure that his brother and One had followed. Fili had followed, but he stayed right next to Harry, letting the wizard lean on him. Harry was grateful for that, as he was slowly getting sleepier with every passing hour. However, his hunger for food took precedence over sleep and well, if the looks that his two dwarves were giving him were any indication, they were hungry for not just food.

Harry slowly blinked awake. His inner clock said that it was around 5:30 in the morning. According to him, the sun should just be rising in the next hour. Though he had been restless for the entire night for some reason. Something had woken him and it wasn't the sun or the two dwarves that he had been sharing a room with for the past few days. It had been seven days since Harry had battled Smaug and won and since then, the company had become very energetic with happiness. Bombur had fixed up the kitchens and they had a small feast every night since then.

The room that they were in was quite nice, very big with a bathroom and closet. The three of them had already started to unpack and had chosen their own chest of drawers. Of course, the floor was littered with clothes and weapons now since they were otherwise occupied that night.

He rolled around in the bed, but bumped into two warm bodies that were curled around him. Fili was on his left and Kili on his right in a medium sized bed. On their first night, they had led him to what was apparently the royal wing and, well let's just say that Harry was thankful for thick stone walls separating each room that night. Even though, he was injured, Fili and Kili took quite good care of him.

Slowly, he disengaged from the cuddle action that was the two brothers. Fili had stuck a leg in between his and Kili had an arm thrown across both Harry and Fili. Harry crawled out from underneath his partners and summoned some clothes from his pack. The minute that he left the bed, both dwarves mumbled in their sleep and rolled over. Kili crawled over to his brother and threw an arm over him, without even opening his eyes. Fili opened his eyes to sleepily blink at Harry, questioningly.

As Harry finished putting on a light pair of pants, he padded back over to the bed.

“Go back to sleep, dear one,” Harry murmured quietly and leaned down to press a kiss to Fili's forehead. Harry watched as Fili fell back asleep and then ambled out of the room. He had discovered that the two of them liked to sleep in until at least eight in the morning.

Harry had found a nice little balcony that overlooked the big valley of mines in Erebor and it had a little lookout over the valley that sat in front of Erebor. The little niche was just at the end of the royal wing. He had thought it would be a good place to think, so that was where he was headed. As he slowly wandered over to the balcony, he smelled pipe smoke. Once he turned the corner at the end of the wing, he saw that Thorin was sitting on the bench right next to the wall, smoking his pipe.

Harry had seen many of the dwarves smoke their pipes along their journey. It had seemed to have a relaxing effect on them and Bilbo had been trying to get him to try it a couple of years ago. However, he didn't like the effect that it had on his awareness.

“Mind if I intrude?” he asked.

“Not at all,” Thorin replied after taking a breath of fresh air. Their leader gestured to the spot next to him. Harry glanced at Thorin, the dwarf looked like he was deep in thought.

Harry padded over and sat down quietly.

“You look like you are suffering from restlessness. Is there something amiss that I should know about?” Thorin asked.

“No, just a feeling. It's probably nothing. Have you received anything from Dain?” On the fourth day back in Erebor, they had all heard elven horns being blown from the Mirkwood. Harry had also flown in his small hawk form in a patrol and had discovered that hordes of goblins, orcs and wargs were marching their way. Harry had told the company that he had expected the thousands of goblins to be at Erebor in two days time. Thorin had hurriedly sent a letter with one of their messenger ravens to Dain Ironfoot, his cousin in the Iron Hills.

The Men of Dale had also been seen to marshal their troops from Lake-town. They only numbered 13 dwarves and one wizard and an army to support them would be appreciated. The dwarves had already started to rebuild the front gate and fortify it. In fact, Dwalin had set up a watch schedule for each dwarf to stand watch at the front gate. Apparently, Thorin had thought that both the men from Lake-town and the elves were going to fight against them.

“I just received word from a raven a couple of minutes ago. Dain and his dwarves should be here by tomorrow.” Thorin replied, “I know this is not your battle, but will you still fight with us when the time comes?”

“Of course! I have...”

“Thorin?” Harry and Thorin glanced around to the entrance to their little nook. Bilbo had wandered over, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He looked as if he had woken up from a nightmare, he was a bit shaky and pale.

“Come here, little one.” Thorin had opened his arms for Bilbo to climb into and the hobbit did just that. Thorin placed a kiss on Bilbo's forehead then guided him to sit against his side. Harry watched as Bilbo snuggled into Thorin's other side and appeared to go back to sleep.

Harry started to stand up, but it seemed that Thorin wasn't done talking with him as he reached out the hand that wasn't around Bilbo and grasped his upper arm. Harry sat back down.

“As you were saying...” Thorin prompted, but at a much lower voice, due to their company.

“Ah, I have a stake in the what happens. Okay, I'll go outright and say it: I love both Fili and Kili and I consider the company my family. So, yes, I will fight beside them and you.” Harry murmured.

“I presume I don't have to tell you what I will do if you do anything to hurt my nephews, do I?” Thorin raised an eyebrow at him.

“Uh, no... no you don't. My imagination works just fine, thank you very much.” Harry nervously said, as he was replaying the fight with the wargs just before Rivendell in his memory.

“Good,” Thorin replied. Just as Harry was about to leave the two of them alone, he heard more footsteps coming from the hallway. Though, once again, he recognized these footsteps: Fili and Kili. Harry watched them amble into their little nook and take in the sight of their uncle and their hobbit and their intended. They seemed as if they hadn't fully woken up yet.

Sighing and giving them a fond look, Harry waved them over to sit on the bench which he had lengthened the moment that he had them. Kili ended up tucked up against him with Fili tucked against his brother. The five of them(Bilbo had woken up when Fili and Kili entered the balcony) ended up watching the sun rise in Erebor that morning.

Chapter Text

Harry stood next to Kili, with his bow drawn and nocked. Harry had on his dragonhide armor with his elven sword in its sheath. Kili had also drawn his bow and nocked an arrow. Kili had on a suit of armor that looked battle ready and the armor had looked like it was meant for a prince. Harry had watched Fili and Kili put on their armor and helped a bit only a hours ago. If the definition of help was to end up kissing desperately and then end up on the bed, then yes, by all means he had helped them. They were in front of a group of other dwarven archers on top of the hill right before the front gate of Erebor. Below them was the dwarven army that had come with Dain. The other members of the company had stationed themselves at the head of their forces, along with Dain.

Harry looked out toward whom he now considered his king also. Thorin was in a resplendent suit of armor. It had seemed to Harry that it was the official armor of the king, since he had seen Thorin find it in the armory in the royal wing. There was no mistaking Thorin for anything other than a king of Erebor now, even if there hadn't been a coronation yet. Fili was standing right next to his uncle in armor that was very much like Thorin's, since he was a prince-to-be of Erebor.

The members of the company had also polished all of their suits of armor and a couple had found some armor in the armory. Harry hadn't been around while the rest of the dwarves had been suiting up, but they had all put a piece of royal blue fabric somewhere on their armor to signify that they were apart of the group led by the king. Harry had learned that it had been Ori's idea and had done the same.

The Elven army, that was led by King Thranduil himself, was stationed across the valley. The Elvenking had on a set of magnificent armor, if Harry was any judge. It was all green, but from what Harry saw this morning, it had little trees painted onto it. The elves had cut their army in half, one that was led by the Elvenking and the other that was led by his son, Prince Legolas. Their archers had taken another hill on diagonally across from the dwarven archer group. It had taken Harry and Bilbo a couple of back and fourth trips from Erebor and the Elven camp to come up with a truce between Thorin and Thranduil and Bard. The dwarves had kind of unofficially elected him and Bilbo liaisons between the elves and the men from what was once Dale and Lake-Town. None of the company had wanted to deal with the elves.

Bilbo had been excited about meeting the Elvenking for the first time. Harry had met King Thranduil a couple of years ago and he had seemed aloof, so from then on he had dealt only with Thranduil's son. But Thranduil had seemed to be interested in meeting the creature who had persuaded Thorin to not go to war against the elves.

The men from Lake-Town had come to help fight and were led by Bard the Bowman. They had positioned themselves on the other side of the elven archers. So, all of the armies together were shaped like the letter “u”, with the opening being toward where everyone could hear the goblins, wargs and orcs jeering and yelling. Though the elves, and the men from Dale were stretched wide open, allowing for other soldiers arrows. The goblin armies were just coming into view now. Harry could see wargs, trolls and thousands of goblins.

Harry took in the battlefield with a glance. It seemed like a good plan, but he still had a bad feeling about it and he had learned to listen to what his magic was telling him throughout the years. He was just glad that his wounds from Smaug had healed up(Harry had hurried the healing along with magic) and that it wasn't raining. He had heard a couple of dwarves around him talk about battles gone amiss in the rain. He still wasn't sure where Bilbo was but he was pretty sure the hobbit was right next to Thorin, only no one could see the tiny creature but Harry.

The afternoon before when everyone was hurrying around Erebor getting ready for the upcoming battle, Harry had overheard Bilbo had argued with Thorin about fighting in the coming battle.

Flashback

Harry was wandering back to the room that he shared with Fili and Kili when he heard yelling coming from Thorin and Bilbo's room. He had just come from the armory, where he and Kili had talked each other into engaging in a friendly competition to release some stress with Fili watching from the the sidelines. Though with the way that the past few days had been going, the stress relief was going to end up being done horizontally and hopefully on a bed. Harry had seen the archery range and it didn't look like a comfortable place for activities of that sort. Since Harry had spotted the hordes of goblins marching toward Erebor, everyone was on edge.

Harry had just come to fetch his bow when he overheard Bilbo and Thorin arguing. He really didn't mean to eavesdrop, but well, he had wanted to make sure that Bilbo was alright.

“... but I want to be by your side!” he heard Bilbo shout. The hobbit sounded like he was in tears, shaky and small.

“No, I can't allow it, Bilbo. You mean the world to me; I can't lose you.” Harry heard Thorin say. It sounded like they were slowing down in their argument, as both of them were quiet and not making any other noises. Both the dwarf and hobbit's words weren't charged, as if they had had this argument before in the past couple of days, except in different words.

“But I can wear the invisibility ring. No one will be able to see me! I can't lose you either.”

“No, burglar. I won't concede to this. You told me before that it seemed like the ring was whispering to you. I don't like that either. The less you wear it, the better. Some goblin or orc could get in a good shot and hit you. A stray arrow could hit you. Any number of things could happen!”

It was silent for a while after that or they were both talking in a tone that Harry couldn't hear, then Bilbo walked out of the room straight into Harry. The hobbit glanced up at him, with sad eyes then took off.

“Wait, Bilbo, would you like to come with me and watch Kili and I engage in an archery competition? I didn't mean to eavesdrop.” Harry sped up to catch up with Bilbo, having already gotten his bow of the room.

Bilbo turned his eyes toward Harry's and appeared to think that option over.

“Okay, I suppose that would help take my mind off of events. I'll come with you.”

The two of the ambled down to the archery range together in silence. Over the course of their walk, Bilbo grew more determined and it showed in his posture. Before they turned the last corner to the archery range, Bilbo pulled Harry into a corner and faced him.

“Harry, I need to be with Thorin during the battle. Is there any way you could help me do this?” he asked.

Seeing the resolute look in Bilbo's eyes, Harry sighed. “I could lend you my cloak; that would make you invisible. Though, it would make it hard to swing a blade at the same time.”

“I would like to be able to protect Thorin and having the ability to use my blade would useful. Otherwise, I would have to turn to throwing rocks and that's just not an option. My mother used a sword in her adventures and I will do the same,” Bilbo replied.

“Okay, so another option is that I use one of my spells to make people not notice you. You wouldn't feel a thing and I would have it last until the battle is over. It wouldn't be cumbersome at all, ” Harry said.

“That sounds like the better option. Thanks, Harry. Could you cast the spell tomorrow right before the battle?” Bilbo responded.

“Your welcome.”

Flashback end

Harry had understood Thorin's reasoning about that. However, when Harry had seen Bilbo's determined look this morning right before casting the spell on him, he had known that the hobbit would not be staying in the safety of Erebor for the battle and nothing would budge him from that.

Heck, if he had brought that up with Fili and Kili, they probably would have either said no or proceeded to distract him thoroughly with their mouths. By now, Harry understood that dwarves could be quite stubborn. Though, having Kili next to him right now, made him a bit less worried seeing as how he could keep an eye on him. Harry knew that Fili and Kili were more than capable fighters, but he couldn't help but to worry. He also knew that Fili was a walking arsenal of a dwarf; he had seen him pull out weapons from his boots and he even had a small knife weaved into his hair.

Though he had put tracking spells on all of the dwarves in the company, so that ought to help if they got separated during the battle. He had also put a monitoring spell on Bilbo; he had promised Bilbo that he would look out for him since he was the only person that could see him through the notice-me-not spell that he had put on the hobbit.

As soon as everyone could see the approaching goblins, Harry could hear the commanders give orders. The goblins were arranging themselves into different formations as well. As he was following Kili's orders, he glanced toward the dwarf. Kili turned to look at Harry with a fond look and then started yelling orders. 

Chapter Text

Harry had long since run out of arrows at the moment. It had been at least a couple of hours since the five armies collided on the battlefield before Erebor. Harry's armor was quite covered in orc and goblin blood and he did have one or two arrows that had found their mark on his body. Though they were not in important places, Harry had taken a moment to pull them out and stop the bleeding and placed a magic enhanced bandage on skin.

During the first hour of the battle, Gandalf had returned and joined in! He was fighting with dwarves. The goblins had noticeably quaked at seeing Gandalf join the battle, aware of the wizard's many talents.

He had resorted to shifting into his wolf form after he had run out of arrows. He had asked a group of dwarves to cover him while he shifted, so they had stood in front of him when he changed. Harry had seen Kili run out of arrows at some point and run toward his brother and uncle. Once he was in his wolf form, he let loose a loud howl and then tore into the waiting orcs. He had noticed that some of the dwarves that he didn't know had cheered once they spotted him. There were probably some survivors from the Battle of Moria that had recognized his wolf.

He had considered shifting into his dragon form, but he wanted to stay under the radar in this world. Harry had come across some not so good forces and plus, his dragon form would be too big for this battle. There just wouldn't be enough room for a big hulking dragon! He also figured that though the company knew what he could do, the elves, men and the other dwarves not of the company would panic at the sight of a dragon. Though, Harry was pretty certain that Legolas would recognize him.

He had killed hundreds of orcs by now and it just wasn't making a difference. He could see that most of the archers, be they elves or men, had run out of arrows too. Harry had watched as Thranduil took to the battle along side his men and, well the Elvenking was very graceful in combat. Though, most of the elves had a certain grace to them when fighting, the Elvenking had this certain alien beauty to the way he fought.

Harry fought his way toward Thorin and the dwarves around him. From a distance he saw Kili and Fili fighting side by side and Thorin and Dwalin fighting back to back. Fili had both his swords out and was slashing through orcs; Kili was hacking at any warg or goblin that dared to advance on his brother or uncle. Harry could see that Thorin had already been wounded in a couple of different places, but Dwalin and his nephews were making sure that he wouldn't be again.

Harry also kept one eye on where goblins were falling onto the ground with wounds in their sides but with no one around them. Bilbo was making good on his promise to be by Thorin's side; he was fighting behind the main group of dwarves.

The fighting was getting desperate. It was chaos everywhere as men, elves and dwarves fought each other and tried to gain ground. There were thousands of goblins and wargs already dead, but there were still thousands more. Harry had guessed that there had been 15,000 goblins when he had first spotted them marching to Erebor. By this point, the combined allied forces of elf, dwarf and men had maybe killed 6,000 by Harry's estimate and that wasn't even half of the opposing armies.

The dwarves that were fighting around Harry had grown slower by the moment. Many of them had minor injuries but were not giving up. The elves that were in the vicinity, as everyone had fallen out of formation since the beginning of the battle, were very battle worn. They were dirty and bloody, but they too were still fighting. Though everyone was dirty and bloody, it just looked unnatural on an elf.

Harry was fighting alongside Fili and Kili, who were still barring the way to Thorin. Dwalin had long since been separated from them, so it was just the four(including Bilbo, whom the dwarves did not know about, but Harry suspected they knew that someone was there as the sight of goblins mysteriously falling dead on the ground continued to be noticed) of them to protect the king. Harry had seen that Thorin was already injured when he had last gone over to check on the four.

Harry was still in his wolf form at this point in the battle and his fur coat was covered in goblin blood. He had gotten nicks from swords and daggers along the way and had gotten at least one more arrow stuck in his body. In the middle of charging a warg, Harry heard a scream go up from the elven side of the battle. He glanced toward the elves and located the source of the scream.

Abandoning the warg, Harry raced as fast as he could toward where Legolas had gotten cut off and cornered. The elven prince whom he had become fast friends with was trapped in between wargs and goblins and one troll. King Thranduil was being held back from going to his son's rescue by some of the elven captains. Harry sped up when he saw the goblins advance on the elf.

When he reached the circle of goblins, he threw a big high level blasting toward the goblins. He could no longer see Legolas, but had kept the spell above the ground. Don't be dead! Ignoring the half-dead goblins who were promptly killed by the group of dwarves who had followed him, Harry approached his friend.The elven prince was on the ground and he wasn't moving.

Harry cast a diagnostic spell on him and sighed in relief when the results came back. Legolas was alive, though injured and fading in and out of consciousness. Harry shifted back into his human form and then laid a hand on the elf's shoulder. He hadn't needed to worry about being seen shifting forms since the dwarves that had followed him had formed a protective circle around the two of them. Harry had kind of suspected that Kili and Fili had ordered a group to protect him at one point before the battle. Thorin and his two nephews had been given command of the roughly five hundred dwarves that had accompanied Dain, since the three of them ranked above the other dwarf. When he spoke, he had to talk louder than a normal tone because of all the chaos and shouting around them.

“Legolas?”

Harry just heard groaning in response and then slowly scooped the elf into his arms, being careful about his injuries which were not bad. Legolas was not heavy at all, even without Harry having to put a feather-light spell on him. On his way to deliver him to his father, there was a thundering bellow.

Harry turned quickly, being mindful of Legolas, and what he saw made his heart start to pound. Azog was back and charging through the ranks to get to Thorin; had already by the looks of it. He could not see Fili or Kili at all and that made his heart stop for a full second or two. Thorin was on his own and was fighting for his life. Azog had killed the dwarves near the king. It felt to Harry as if the battle around him fell away and those four were the only ones on the field. Harry hoped that Bilbo was nowhere near this battle, as he had no idea where the hobbit was.

One of the dwarves that had followed him gestured hurriedly toward their king. “Go! I'll take the elf to his king! The rest of you aid the princes' intended and protect the king!”

While the other dwarf was talking, they heard another ear-splitting roar. Harry turned toward where the roar had originated and saw Beorn loping toward the battle, tearing through goblins in his bear form. The elves and men around him quickly got out of his way, so as to not be trampled. The members of the company that were still in the battle

“Got it.” Harry then gently deposited Legolas into the dwarf's arms who then slung him over his shoulder and ran toward the elven captains. Harry then started to run toward Thorin and where Fili and Kili were the last time that he had seen them. He sent Prongs on ahead of him to clear the way. Harry watched as the transparent deer charged through the goblins and threw trolls to the side. Most of the goblins and trolls and wargs ended up in the kill zone before elves or dwarves. Harry ended up using a couple of blasting spells on his way to where Azog was. Though before long, the goblins ahead of him ran right out of path on purpose with scared looks on their faces. Meanwhile, he heard goblins, elves, men alike yelling about how there were two wizards on the battlefield and not just Gandalf.

He had a long way to run to his destination because their allies had lost much ground during the battle. He had been right near the front lines and Thorin, Fili, Kili and Bilbo were back roughly in the middle. The elves and men had had to back up toward Erebor, near the dwarves. From what Harry could see, there were clusters of dwarves fighting together with elves and men.

When Harry got closer to the main fight but not too close, he tried to locate Bilbo. His magic told him the hobbit was right behind Azog, which was a bad spot, to put it lightly. Harry turned around to speak to one of the dwarves that had been following him. Prongs stood by, waiting patiently for directions. Many of the dwarves and elves that were fighting around them took one glance at the antlered deer and then went on fighting.

“Could one of you get Bilbo out of the fight?”

“Yes, of course. He shouldn't have been on the field in the first place though. We don't know where exactly he is, however.” the dwarf looked at Harry suspiciously with narrowed eyes.

“Oh, when we get closer, I can remove the spell that I put on him. I don't want Azog to notice him.” Harry knew that he was bad at pretending to be innocent, so he told the dwarf about what he did the day before.

Harry and the dwarf that he talked to crept up to where Azog was and then Harry released the spell on Bilbo, who was about to stick his little sword into Azog's back. Harry could see Thorin who was lying on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from multiple gashes. His armor was rent and ruptured where Thorin's chest was from what looked like blows from the pale orc's mace. Though, Harry could see that Thorin was still breathing and he gave a sigh of relief at the sight. There were two lumps of something that Harry couldn't identify and that his brain was refusing to process, lying around Thorin. He signaled to the dwarf, who ran and was about to grab Bilbo when the hobbit stuck his sword into the orc's lower back.

Azog roared his anger and then turned around. Bilbo took a few steps back at the orc and then was picked up by the dwarf that had aided Harry and was carried out of the battle. When he saw Bilbo, Harry could see recognition in his eyes, remembering the little creature from the Misty Mountains who prevented the orc from killing Thorin.

Just as Harry was getting ready to engage Azog in battle, Beorn got there first. The skin-changer was taller than Azog and tore into the orc. Harry moved around the bear toward where Thorin lay and where, finally his mind made sense of what he was seeing. It felt like a kick to the gut when his brain at last figured out what his eyes were telling him. Fili and Kili lay before their uncle, very still and pale. Fili was on top of Kili, as if he had been standing over his brother protecting him. The two of them had more than a couple of arrows sticking in their bodies and lacerations all over their bodies. Both of them had a hand on their uncle, as if in reassurance.

Harry dimly heard Beorn gently pick up Thorin and take him off the battlefield. Nori would later tell Harry that he had started to glow at that moment. The dwarves that had guarded Harry and the members of the company that weren't currently fighting had come up and watched with sad eyes. However, when their wizard had started to glow with power, they all stood back. Harry distantly heard Bilbo yelling and Oin being called for. He just barely registered that the goblins and orcs and wargs that were left were scattering in the wake of Azog's death. His world had dwindled to only Fili and Kili, the dwarves that he had come to love.

Harry slowly approached the two and kneeled. When Harry tried to recall this part of this memory, it would be blurry. He could feel the power thrumming through himself and it wasn't a familiar power either. It felt warm and bright, like sunshine and life. Harry realized that he knew instinctively what to do and put one hand on Kili's chest and the other on Fili's forehead. The power that he had held rushed into the two dwarves. He could feel it flow through their bodies, healing the fatal injuries and pushing life into their bodies. Nori later told him that this took about five minutes altogether, from when he started glowing to when the glowing ended. After his magic started to slow down and finally stop, Harry pulled away. Harry had felt his body stop glowing once his magic had stopped. Fili and Kili were completely healed. They had no lacerations or gashes and they were breathing!

Harry had barely enough energy after this and when he started to sway, Ori came up and propped him up. Fili and Kili still hadn't woken up, though.

“Fili? Kili?” he whispered, just loud enough so that his dwarves would hear him. Harry didn't have enough energy to stay awake for long, but he pushed his body into staying awake to make sure that they were okay.

Harry watched as both Fili and Kili's eyes started to flicker open.

“Harry?” Fili sleepily asked. He sounded as if he had been asleep and not gone.

“...” Kili muttered something unintelligible and then seemed to wake up fully. It seemed as if his heart started to beat again. Harry smiled and then gave in to his body's demands and passed out. But just before he passed out, he heard the cries of the eagles, which pretty much signaled victory for their side of the fight.

It felt like it had only been a few hours since he had fallen asleep after healing Fili and Kili. When Harry woke up, it was to a rather familiar tent on a cot. Kili was on one side and Fili was on the other side. Bilbo was sitting at the foot of the bed with a harried expression on his face and he was rather pale, like he was getting ready to say goodbye to someone.

“... we need to wake him up. No one else has been able to heal Thorin.”

“I'm awake,” Harry replied with a scratchy voice. Fili handed him a glass of water. Harry took a sip and then guzzled it down, once his stomach didn't decide to rebel. He started to get up and stretch. When he took in his body, he saw that his injuries had been bandaged and tended to.

“Harry, I'm sorry to interrupt your sleep, but Thorin...” Bilbo trailed off, his voice had been very small and shaky at the end.

“Uncle's being stubborn again. He said he would prefer you to King Thranduil,” Kili added.

“Of course he did. I'll tend to Thorin. I had actually meant to help with his healing, but I passed out,” Harry said. At least his magic had had recharged with that four hour nap.

Harry slowly got out of bed with Kili and Fili's help and followed Bilbo out of the tent. It had become late afternoon out during his nap and there were torches, just ready to be lit when darkness came, placed around the area and the battle field. The tents were placed near to the front gate of Erebor, just in the little valley before it. He took a minute to take in everything, from the big burning piles of goblin corpses to the many healing tents. There were dwarves, men and elves running about the place, doing everything from fetching boiling water or bandages or helping the healers. Harry even recognized the dwarves that were standing guard before the door of his tent. What seemed to be the lead dwarf nodded to him and then went back to attention.

“Did the eagles already leave?” he asked his small group.

“Yes, though they went after the stragglers.” Bilbo replied,“Along with a group of men and elves and dwarves.”

“I would have liked to thank them. Oh, is Beorn still here?”

“No and Gandalf thanked the eagles,” Fili replied.

“And finally, are you three okay?” Harry asked.

“Yes, we are fine. At least, I'm fine.” Bilbo replied with a glance at the two dwarves, “Your spell worked wonders, Harry!”

“I'm fine,” Kili responded, followed by Fili adding that he was okay too, though they ended that with a significant glance in his direction like they were going to have words with him later.

“Another thing, did you two order a group of soldiers to guard me?” Harry asked, grinning, “I have nothing against it, if you did. I probably don't need guards, though.”

“Yes, we did and I'm glad we did, too.” Kili responded, sounding exasperated, but with playfulness in his tone.

“Okay, that satisfies my need to know. Let's go see Thorin.” Harry said.

It took another minute or two to reach Thorin's tent as various soldiers kept coming up to them and to him specifically to say that he was a very impressive wizard. Harry blushed at the praise and out of the corner of his eye noticed that Fili and Kili noticed the reddening cheeks with interest.

The three of them walked past the guards that were posted at the opening of Thorin's tent. Harry could hear very quiet groaning and whispering coming from the bed in the far end of the bed. Thorin still looked as bad as he had when Harry had arrived to step in between him Azog, though his armor was off. Balin was standing right next to the king-to-be, whispering to him. Oin was standing off to the side, cleaning his hands in a bowl of water.

Bilbo immediately walked over to the bed and intertwined his right hand with Thorin's, who opened his eyes at the noise. Fili and Kili went over to their uncle, on the other side of the bed from Bilbo. Harry went over to the bucket and cleaned his hands then padded over to the bed and took a serious look at their king. He had a serious gash in his stomach that was very worrying and plenty of lacerations all over his body, including one deep one near his throat. Harry pulled one of the chairs that were around toward the bed and sat down and stretched out his hand toward their leader.

“Thorin, I'm here,” Harry murmured quietly, “May I?”

He watched as the dwarf gave a slow nod, unable to do anything else. Harry looked at his audience, then at Thorin. “This is going to take more time than what I did on the battlefield. Will you guys make sure I don't get disturbed?”

“Sure, Harry,” Balin said, bending to touch his forehead to Thorin's briefly then walking out to talk with the guards. Oin said that he would stand by, in case he was needed.

“Oin, why don't you go tend to the other members of the company? Surely, there must be need for healers? I'm sure these three will help or fetch you if anything happens.” Harry gestured toward Fili, Kili and then Bilbo.

With that Harry placed the palm of his right hand on Thorin's shoulder and his left hand on his chest. A couple of years ago, he had discovered that if he used hand to skin contact to heal, it would help the healing. He went to work on the gash by Thorin's throat first, as the dwarf was having trouble breathing. Harry first pushed some magic into Thorin to send him to sleep, as the healing that he was about to do would be painful and it would be best for his patient to be asleep for this.

He sent his magic into Thorin's body, knitting together organs and veins and reattaching and mending bones. He worked into the evening and night, only stopping to eat some of the food that Fili had brought in. He only slowed down once Thorin was breathing easily and the gashes on his body were mended. After that, he withdrew his magic from the dwarf's body and took a look around and smiled at the scene.

Bilbo had fallen asleep on the bed, tucked up to Thorin's side. Fili had fallen asleep on Harry's shoulder and Kili had fallen asleep on Harry's other shoulder, though both of them had a hand on Thorin, mimicking the positions that they had been found in. However, they were just asleep this time. The other members of the company had gathered in Thorin's tent as well. They were all snoring in different positions around the bed and in chairs. When he glanced outside, it was fully dark out, probably around midnight or one in the morning. As Harry was quite tired by now, he slowly transferred Kili's head to Fili's shoulder and used up the last bit of his magic to transfigure his chair into a bed.

He levitated the two of them onto the bed without waking them and then curled up around Kili himself. The battle was done, the goblins were either dead or fleeing and soon to be dead, Fili and Kili were alive, there no casualties in the company and Thorin would survive and be a good king as he had heard Bilbo tell him he would be. Life was good.