The seven days of the death

'Love. What is it that makes us feel so jealous, possessive and has us obsess about one other soul in our life? For one, it is a gentle emotion, a growing thing that makes them feel whole but for others it can be like the unstoppable avalanche that sweeps them from their feet to drown them.'

Old sayings…

PART TWO, The haunting

Bilbo looked around blearily.

His head hurt, his entire body was one combined place of pain, if he was honest and his view was slightly off. From the hit he had received to his poor head, he was in no doubt but what really scared him was the strange, weird feeling, the ominous surety of it that, Fili was dead.

The last he had seen of the royal brothers had been shortly before he had spotted the eagles. They had run to aid their uncle, eternally the devoted nephews even in this mad war between fife armies. Shaking slightly, Bilbo rubbed his arms at the weird cold feeling that seemingly had settled deeply in his bones.

The necklace around his neck seems to weight a ton suddenly and he felt the need to lie down again. Closing his eyes for a moment, Bilbo swayed back and fort where he stood unsteadily. In his mind, he heard the crooning voice of Fili to let go, to fall asleep and forget everything else, as he had often done so in the past when Bilbo had been too tired to find sleep easily.

Well knowing that, that sleep, could be his last if he was not careful, Bilbo huffed twice and than tried to stand more stable instead. Shortly the feeling of discontent seem to wash over the poor Hobbit but he ignored it bravely as well as the strange murmurings in his head and went on with his unsuccessful tries to walk until a human warrior noticed him there in the gloom of the approaching night.

He was carried hurriedly to the healing tents right after.

What followed was a nightmare to Bilbo that he would remember and have night terrors about for the rest of his life.

Fili was indeed dead as was Kili, killed in their attempt to protect their uncle. Thorin practically did die while Bilbo sat with him and Bofur looked like ghost all the while. Sitting next the still body of his mate. Bilbo finally took a heart and dragged the not resisting Dwarf out of the tent with him in his despair.

Soon after, Bifur came and lead the poor widower away with him… or better said, he tried.

Bofur did not let go on Bilbo and so, he was forced to follow the two to a tent with the sign of the Durin family painted on the walls and staid with the family of Bofur for the rest of the night. He had the oddest nightmares that night. He did dream of Fili standing in the tent, looking pastry white, like a ghost. He never came near nor did he try to touch Bilbo in his sleep but he kept staying there and watching the Hobbit, just like Fili had done it on their journey.

What threw Bilbo off at the picture was the odd smile, more the smirk of a predator that the familiar visage held all the while that he did so. It soo did not seem to fit with what Bilbo had known of Fili and contorted the handsome face to a mask of cruelty that had Bilbo shiver, even in his sleep.

Dain Ironfoot took one look at Bofur in the next morning to than make a face and than bow deeply to the widower of Kili. Than he strode out without a word spoken and left them to their peace again. Bilbo found that behavior rather strange if not crude.

Later came Gandalf and than came Balin.

The latter finally explained the strange way the other Dwarves choose to interact with Bofur out of the sudden, to the poor confused Bilbo.

"You see, laddy, it is like this." The old Dwarf had told the concerned and slightly angry Bilbo to calm him down when he was about to go and kick the leader of the Iron mountain Dwarrow's. "When the mate of a Dwarf dies, they usually do not survive that for long."

"What?!" At Bilbo's clueless and shocked look, Balin had sighed and told Bilbo what he knew.

"We are bound to our mates by Mahal and Yavanna's grace, you see. Especially so, when the mates are the One of each other, they rarely survive the dead of their partners any longer as a year at best. Usually, when there are children, their mates survive, for the life and happiness of the children that need a parent. Otherwise, their spouses usually die. It is one of the curses of our race that hinder our growing into a bigger society and also why there are not so many Dwarves in Arda as there are humans or elves."

At his words, Bilbo felt a sudden chill run over his spine…he knew that phrase from somewhere…

Looking around him covertly, Balin suddenly moved closer to the befuddled Hobbit. He gave Bilbo a contemplative look before he went on, in a much more hushed voice as before. It was barely above a whisper.

"It… is complicated and not… often spoken about to outsiders but since I saw the chain that you hide under your tunic laddy, I think, a fair warning is in order because, I have the fear that Fili did something not very honorable to you, lad!"

Bilbo gave the Dwarf a confused look. He had always had the feeling that there was something fishy going on with this present from Fili, although he could never prove it.

"You mean this one? He made me promise to not take it off with any explanation given in as to why." Bilbo showed it shortly to Balin who blanched slightly when he heard the Hobbit's words.

Balin gave a short nod, his face suddenly grim.

"Exactly as I feared it to be! Stupid boy! What was he thinking he was doing… oh, never mind now. What is done is done."

He shook his head sorrowfully.

"Listen, Bilbo, this is very important so listen closely!" He waited until Bilbo nodded earnestly. "I cannot tell you everything, it is against the rules of my kin but I can tell you this at least: never ever show any reaction to voices or visions or Valar forbid, try to talk to the death! This sounds crazy, I know but head my warnings or you will find out the dark secret of that necklace all too soon. And Never, Ever open your doors on the seven days and nights of the death in the Dwarvish calendar to anyone!"

Bilbo gulped.

What was Balin trying to tell him here? That the death could come back to haunt him? He had read up a little about Dwarves in his youth and knew that they believed that in some cases the deceased could come back in those seven days of the year that where dedicated to the seven fathers of the Dwarves, to try to charm others into following them to the halls of their forefathers.

He couldn't mean…!

Balin nodded calmly when he saw the realization seep into Bilbo's eyes.

"Better even, try to close the doors, the windows and every other way inside as best as you can. Take talismans from the elves with you to banish evil spirits or to keep what they call the houseless out of your Smial, Bilbo. Do not bother with the Dwarvish ones; they will not help you with this. We are forbidden from it to interferer and technically, I am walking a very thin line here with telling you this all, lad. However, you deserve it since Fili has not seen it fit to ask and warn you properly as it is custom. He should have known better, the boy."

With that Balin rose and with a last pat on Bilbo's head and a murmured take care, he left the tent.

He left a bewildered Bilbo in his wake that suddenly felt rather cold and uneasy. He was faster up and out as Bofur could grasp him by his tunic. Outside, Bilbo fast tried to locate Gandalf and found him finally in the tent of the elven King who looked rather spooked at the air behind Bilbo before he did something strange.

A set of elvish word hit the air staccato like meanwhile he made some signs with his pale hands and the strange feeling of being watched all day suddenly vanished from Bilbo's mind. He let a gasp of relieve escape before he addressed Gandalf and asked him and Thranduil for help.

He learned that day that one of the animosities between the Dwarves and the Elves stemmed from the Dwarrow custom to follow their dead mates into the next world or better said, the ghosts of the deceased haunting the living until they did! They literally did not leave them alone until they gave in and left their shells behind.

In the cases of mated pairs, they almost every time did so. Only when there where small children, they found the strength to keep on living. Mahal obviously forbade their mates then to haunt them to have them take care of the little ones.

In Bilbo's case, it was a bit different.

He had never really agreed to Fili courting him and neither had he exchanged the needed vows for his Ghost to have full power over his soul. Nevertheless, he had made the promise, by Yavanna and Aule, the latter in the speech of the Dwarves called Mahal, to never take it off and so, had given the sly brat the right to haunt him in a way at least to make him give in.

Bilbo's poor head was reeling and he suddenly understood why Dain had looked at Bofur with such a grimace of pity and pain, he had known about it the moment he had seen the poor Dwarf that he was properly lost already. Churning with anger, Bilbo took note of everything he was told that he had to avoid and what he had to do in order to have his peace from a certain Ghost and went back to the tent.

Armed with some amulets and other stuff that was effectively warding off unwelcome Ghosts of the Houseless from Thranduil and his advisors and elves that had knowledge about these things.

The first thing that Bilbo did was to sidestep a surprised Bifur and Bombur and put an amulet around Bofur's neck, than he sat down and waited. Not for long. Soon the poor Dwarf looked back at him with sadness in his lovely eyes that nearly broke Bilbo's heart.

"Take that off again, please! I can no longer hear Kili with that around my neck!" He shook his curly head, all the while aware of it that a sudden, angry wind seems to howl around the tent.

"NO! I cannot imagine Kili to be that callous to want to drive you into an early Grave just to have you faster with him in the halls of Mandos! I wonder," He mused aloud, while not directly addressing the angry Ghosts around the tent that had fallen eerily silent when Bilbo had spoken up, "if that is what it means to be loved by him? I mean was he really that selfish? To hurt you now only to get his will? I always thought him to be kind and good soul and would have followed him and his brother everywhere but this…this is below their honor to do and I refuse to believe that they would do such evil only to get their will!"

There was suddenly such a silence around them all, you could have heard a feather fall onto the earth.

An angry, wraithlike howl, a rattling of the rafters of the tent and gone were the presences of whatever had hovered around Bofur and Bilbo since the battle. Nodding to himself, Bilbo stood and went packing. He addressed Bifur over his shoulder, not turning around to see if the Dwarf would do what he said.

"Bifur, take Bofur's bundle and pack it, Now! I will take him back with me to Hobbington. Here, he is not safe. They would get him here as certainly as the sky is blue. There, I can work with the magic of the shire to hold them at bay, here the area is drenched in Dwarrow magic and nothing would work for long. The very land belongs to your people, an ineffective wish at best to try to fight them here or to make them see reason. Too stubborn those two idiots, even when dead. The whole bunch of them, confound the entire line!"

He went calmly on to pack his own travel pack while he heard Bifur begin to rustle around in the tent behind him and Bombur quietly sob while helping his cousin.

"Gandalf and the eagles will help us to gain as much distance between the mountain and us as they can. That should give us some advantage, although, maybe you would rather die that way, Bofur?" He finally turned around to the slowly more conscious looking Bofur in Bombur's shocked hold on his brother. Bilbo fixed his gaze with that of the miserable looking toymaker.

The Dwarf gave him a sad look and than shook his head slowly.

"No, I do not. As much as I love and miss him already, I would like to stay a bit longer in this world. If only to see my family settle and they find happiness of their own, Bilbo. He always knew that I wished for that. But I do not believe that we have a chance, not with them, both determined, as they are, ye do not understand, Bilbo! They are Durin's! And one of the line of Durin has nether failed to take their loved ones with them to the halls of Mahal. Ever!"

Bilbo's smile was positively evil when Bofur looked beseechingly at the Hobbit and reminded him strangely at Fili's from the night at the gate.

"Well, my dear friend, then they will simply have to be the firsts! Because, I am a Hobbit and Fili tricked me, with your knowledge but about that, we will talk later. Rest assured, Bofur I do not plan to die any time soon. No matter what that insolent brat of a Durin thinks. If he wanted something from me before, he should have staid Alive and told Me, damnit!"

He huffed crossly and turned to his packing again.

Behind him, Bifur snorted and Bombur and even Bofur sniggered madly at his outburst.

In the end, the eagles had one unexpected extra guest that refused adamantly to step down from his wish to accompany them back to the shire; Bifur. Who had refused to leave his cousins side in this time of need, and if only to bring Bofur's bones back to the Mountain as well as Bilbo's if both failed in their try to escape the them haunting brothers. To burry them here within the tombs of the Prince's, as it was custom. No one had hindered them, but than again, all had been at the burial of the last of the direct line of the house of Durin when the eagles came to get them.

Only they had been amiss in the gathering and once Dain had noted that and researched for them, he found them already gone to the Valar only knew, where.

He silently wished them luck and went on with his duties.

Bilbo was fuming, no, he was absolutely livid with fury to be honest. Bodily vibrating in his silent rage even. His wrath hung around the small Hobbit like a dark cloud and made even the eagle that bore him, Landroval, gulp. Whatever had set Bilbo off; he did not want to become a part of it. Gandalf only gave the Hobbit a silent look of understanding and kept silent.

Before they had set off, Bilbo had overheard a conversation between Dain and one of the ravens.

Lady Dis had died the moment her sons and brother had breathed their last breath. The Dwarrow that had been near her that day had seen the vague shape of her former husband appear and then she had simply stopped breathing. Her body would be brought to Erebor for the funeral on the side of her ancestors within the next weeks, together with that of her husband that would be dug out of his current grave for that.

Bilbo found that custom ghastly and cursed Thorin in his mind profoundly.

Yep, Bilbo was one fumingly mad bundle of angry energy right now and that already, since four hours with no sign of abating of his anger! He just knew that Thorin had a hand in this, only if he could prove it. Sighing, Bilbo snuggled slowly into the warm feathers and finally let himself go enough to cry.

For Dis that he had never known but couldn't help to feel sympathy for nonetheless.

For Kili, bright and laughing and always-happy young Kili, who had never had a chance to become a real prince.

For Thorin, the king under the mountain, that never really was the king in the end, even deserving it like no other possibly before him in his line.

For Bofur, normally so kind and happy and full of life, Bofur, who now was a wreck and haunted by a Ghost.

For himself, because he wished that he had seen this coming earlier and could have done something, anything about it in time whereupon he now would never have a chance to do so.

Finally, Bilbo cried for Fili too.

Even being mad at him, Bilbo cried for the loss of the chance of Fili to ever be the great king he had shown the promise to become. Wonderful, calm, clever, maddening and prone to practical mischief, Fili, who would now always be beyond Bilbo's and all others reach and never laugh or smirk at them all again.

Even if he had felt a slight attraction to the Dwarf before, now Bilbo felt only cold horror when he thought of Fili, that and anger for being tricked into this situation. He still did somewhat not believe that this all was real! It sounded like a story out of a book with bad fairytales to the Hobbit. However, he knew that fooling himself would not keep him and Bofur safe in the end. If anything, it would only give Fili and Kili the time to work them over.

He could not risk that, in neither case, Bofur's nor his.

He trusted Gandalf and if he said it was true, then it was so. As much as Bilbo hated it. Didn't matter, he thought, he had now to keep not only himself but also one of his dearest friends safe and those two rascals from doing something stupid. Bilbo sighed. From what he had gathered, Gandalf had not wanted for something like this to happen to Bilbo. He had tried his best to keep the Hobbit clueless from these darker facts of Dwarrow lore and way of life and that in turn had somewhat backfired on the Wizard in the end.

Because, Fili that horrible, clever, genius had seen right through it, had taken advantage of the Wizard's absence, and had settled Bilbo with this cursed necklace of his when Gandalf wasn't around!

Bilbo had always been wary of the older of the brothers, not only because Fili had always stared so intently at him but also because he had instinctually felt the attraction between them. A silent voice in his mind had always warned him to come to near to the flame of the blond haired swordsman; hence, he would not burn in his flames otherwise!

A bad metaphor, Bilbo was aware of it, but it fit the situation all the same in the end.

He groaned into the enduring feathers of the eagle that by now had a good laugh out of the Hobbit on his back. That small creature was obviously not fond of heights but in his fuming before, the Hobbit had ignored that until now in favor to be angry. Landroval wondered how long it would take the tiny creature to become aware of it again…

It took Bilbo not too long, as it turned out. He turned a rather alarming shade of green when he finally got aware of it that had Gandalf shortly fear for the worst.

Soon after he had calmed down, he risked a glance over one side and ever since clutched now the feathers of the amused eagle while Bilbo looked awed at the sight of the land under the mighty wings of the eagle.

The eagles took them all the way back to the valley of Imladris. Rivendell, Bilbo found out to his uttermost surprise, had somehow lost its glow in his eyes. Seeing it now, with all the pain and loss behind him, he could suddenly no longer bear it to be here for longer as necessary. And once they reached the invisible borders, the presence in his mind that Bilbo had come to associate with Fili's staring at him in the past vanished abruptly.

Only a lonesome twin howling of two ghostly voices told him that his musings had been right, the two could not follow them here.

Lord Elrond took care to research all he knew about this Dwarvish custom and how one could avoid it to fall victim to Mahal's macabre gift to his children.

Even with his help, it took Bilbo and the others weeks to uncover all that there was while his nights where filled with strange dreams.

It begun a week into their stay that Bilbo began to have them. Dreams of Fili's voice, coming to him like through a thick fog, calling out to Bilbo to leave that place and he pleaded with the Hobbit to come back to him. When he woke the first time, Bilbo was covered in sweat and shivered wildly. The voice had sounded so lonely, so sad…

The next was much the same and it was well into the second week of their stay when they begun to change in tune.

Now, Bilbo often heard Fili rant in the distance never at him but at his hosts. At his inability to come near to Bilbo to watch him. He took to seduction in the end of the third week. Telling Bilbo in detail how much he missed it to see him. That he wanted to hold him again as he had done at the Carrock, that he wanted him safe.

The once so loved voice began to become a constant menace in Bilbo's life because the brat took to it to describe to Bilbo all the things he had wanted to do to Bilbo if he had survived.

When Bilbo finally mentioned this to Elrond, his room was warded up to the ceiling and the dreams, thankfully stopped.

He finally set off with the others and Gandalf after a three months lasting stay and was armed to the necks with new talismans and amulets, and some heavier magic's, written down onto scrolls to keep the unwanted company away from them all. Bofur had recovered nicely while they staid here and Bilbo had the suspicion that the elf lord had something to do with it.

Fife weeks later, the strange menagerie of travelers reached the Shire… only to have to break up Lobelia's selling off all the items of Bilbo's estate in the end.

To get lost of her was easy, Bilbo only looked at Bofur who in turn looked at Bifur and a few minutes later the nasty relative of Bilbo could suddenly close her mouth and run home. White as a sheet and bare of Bilbo's silver spoons. It was almost midnight when all of them finally found some rest. Bilbo was the last to go to bed, after he had secured every single talisman in place as he had been told.

He took no risks anymore. Not after Fili had managed it to somehow reach him in Rivendell and all that happened in between the Shire and the elven realm.

In the last three weeks, since leaving the borders of Rivendell, he had felt again something, someone following them on their travels.

Shivering, Bilbo had told that to Gandalf when Bofur was asleep and Bifur was busy. The Wizard had done something but it had not worked much. If anything, it had made the Ghosts angry and they had to bear with uncommon rabbit weather changes all the way back until they hit the borders of the Shire lands and as Elrond had predicted it, Yavanna's gentle nature magic stopped the malevolent acting up of whatever followed them here somewhat.

They behaved suddenly a lot less like wrights and more like menaces what had Gandalf soon grumble annoyed at their antics.

His pipe vanished out of his robe to reappear further away from Gandalf were it seemingly lit itself and puffed itself away all from alone while they all could only stare at the floating pipe, right out of their reach with unbelieving eyes. Then it fell down to the earth with a loudly clatter and all of them heard the childish laughter of Kili shortly fill the air out shortly after. With a mighty curse upon his lips, Gandalf reclaimed his pipe.

Bilbo's waistcoat got suddenly wings and flew in front of the frantically trying to catch it Hobbit, always a step ahead of the poor Bilbo. That went on until Bilbo cursed Fili to hell and back threatened to go back to Erebor to place a warg into Fili's coffin if he did not give it back… surprisingly, it worked. The coat fell right into his arms after that.

However, from that day on, Bilbo saw strange shapes float around them all from time to time and refused to further address any of the ghosts to not deepen their fell magic on work.

The next that happened was that Bofur's poor hat changed the color from brown to a bright red. The poor Dwarf needed half a day to get the color out of it again, cursing all the time it took and asking Bilbo if he would let him come along to place Ork shit into Kili's grave for the stunt. Right on his Mates cock if he could manage it.

He had Bilbo double over in laugher and the ghosts in a fit.

After that declaration, all of their items in the camp formed a sudden whirlwind around them all that needed hours to calm down again. Bifur nearly lost his conscious because he laughed that hard when he saw the riot, that he nearly hyperventilated and Gandalf simply ignored the entire thing altogether in favor to keep the angry Ghosts away from their persons.

The next that happened included their poor ponies.

They suddenly sported all kinds of insects in their furs and all had a hard time to get the blasted crawlies out of the long hair pony's winter furs again. This time the Ghosts were laughing in the end. That wend on all the time it took for them to reach Bilbo's home.

One time, Gandalf's normally grey travel garb was suddenly black in the morning, another time, Bilbo sported braids in his curls when he woke up. The latter became a habit that scared him so greatly that he had troubles to find sleep in his repulsion to have a ghost braid his hair while he was asleep. Bofur too sported braids each morning after that and Bifur's axe in the head was one morning cleaned and brushed to shine that madly in the sun that he had to cover it with dark ink from Bilbo to make the damn glowing stop. Nevertheless, strangely enough, they encountered no Ork's, Warge or Trolls on their way home.

In addition, neither bandits nor other bad folk that normally cluttered along the roads in this time of the year.

One time they saw the fresh corpses of four bandits barely hidden from sight on their way. All had sported horrified looks on their faces and looked to them like they had tried to ward something creepy off or to escape some kind of horrible monster… no one had commented on it. They had simply ridden on.

Sometimes it was better not to ask.

Once they had stepped inside of Bilbo's a bid chaotic looking Smial, Gandalf and he had set to work while Bifur and Bofur had brought the brought back items and furniture of Bilbo back inside again.

They finally had a respite from the, them haunting duo that lasted exactly as long as it took Gandalf to leave Bilbo and co. A full week. Then, the rattling of his windows and the upturning of his garden plants begun to appear. Followed from the smoke pressed back inside at night, they went without the fires burning after that to not accidentally suffocate from the smoke to end in a strange howling around the Smial by night. Footprints appeared in the soil before the house and vanished again from alone, a dead cat was laid onto Bilbo's doorstep, what made him scowl to be followed by a warg corpse that appeared unexpectedly on his rooftop.

The Hobbits begun to whisper and stay away from cursed, mad Baggins house after that.

That no one visited anymore seems to calm down the ghosts of Fili and Kili because no more animals appeared around his home. Sometimes now there was a sound filling the air around Back shot row that was sounding like a fiddle or two in some nights. Always playing haunting dirges and sad tunes and sometimes a fare away sounding voice seemed to accompany the music.

At one time, it sounded like Fili's voice, at others as Kili's.

Bofur and Bilbo exchanged worried glances with Bifur but no one of all of them dared to call out to the ghosts to stop the brothers.

Winter came with masses of snow and brought more footprints of the boots of the brothers in the snow. The duo seems to have fun to run around the house at night and to stare into certain rooms from the looks of it. At some times the frozen garden behind Bilbo's Smial looked like a war zone. Clearly, the duo had used the grounds as training area at night.

He grumbled much about it but did nothing to try to stop them, it would not have worked anyways and besides, Bilbo did not dare to step outside at night in fear of having to face the ghosts of the two at night and alone. No one knew what could happen if he ever had to. He was not willing to take on that risk. Instead, he huddled up in his bed at night and tried to drown out the howling sounds or the music that floated inside from the outside. He even hung a sheet now over the glass of his room window at night.

Near the end of the year, Lobelia decided to bother Bilbo again, despise his Smial being told of being haunted in the late!

She ranted at the surprised Bilbo for two hours, threw his mothers favorite vase against a wall and behaved like a harpy in his poor home. All of that because he refused to give her one coin of his supposedly many riches that he had to have brought back from his mad adventure in reparations for his now obviously Haunted and so, worthless estate. That was still his estate and not Lobelia's, as Bilbo did finally point it out to her in the end.

She only ceased her raving when Bifur and Bofur came back from the markets and chased her out.

Outside, she was promptly assaulted by snowballs with sharp stones inside that pelted down on the shrieking hobbit lass while she run away from the residence at her top speed.

Bilbo could only grimace at her departure and the destroyed items, vase and furniture in her wake before he stopped to look at the mess and cleaned the chaos up with a defeated sigh. Bofur helped quietly meanwhile Bifur put their groceries away. They had in the late bought a lot food in the knowledge that the seven days of the death were upon them soon.

For the period of seven days and nights, they would be unable to leave the hole or risk running into Fili and Kili…literally.

As a horrified Bilbo had to learn in Rivendell from Lord Erestor; Dwarven ghosts could take on a lend bodily form on those days. Made it was from rock and after the last night, they turned back into stone while the houseless became ghosts only again. For that entire time of seven days and nights, they would have to hole up in here and keep everything closed off so the two rapscallions could not find a way in to bother them for the entire time.

He shuddered at the mere thought of it and had even more nightmares about his fear that the two could find a way inside. Not certain what would happen then other as mayhem.

In the late, the two had become uncommonly silent. Had ceased with almost all of their former shenanigans and had being surprisingly absent at night too. No more traces of boots in the snow and only a minimum of traces of the two of being here at all. It worried Bilbo more as he could say because to him, it looked like the brothers tried to gather power for their turning into bodied beings again!

To accept it to have the two as ghosts around was one thing to deal with, but to see them again in bodily from, even if only lend to them for a time, would be dreadful and Bilbo knew that too.

It was beginning to get dark, as it was wont around this time of the year quite early, when Bilbo finally brought the rubbish out to dumb it in the garden or to store it for later burning in a small hole in the hill next to his Smial made for this purpose only. On his way there, the sun dipped low over the horizon and when he went back, Bilbo felt a fleeting, cold touch in his hair in the darkness that made the hair on the nape of his neck stand up in fright!

Bilbo froze for a moment in place until he felt something like a fleeting kiss press on his neck that traumatized the hell out of the poor Hobbit.

With a yelp, the Hobbit threw the dustpan into the air behind him at his invisible attacker and raced back inside to slam the door behind him into the lock to then lock it and slide down against it shaking badly. It was Bifur who helped him up again without a comment and over to the fireplace to warm up and calm down. Still, the place where he had felt the ghostly lips press into his vulnerable skin took a longer while to warm up again and even rubbing the spot almost raw did not help the matter. It was as if the touch had branded itself into his skin, it even showed the faint outline of lips for a while until the mark finally faded again.

Bilbo wore a shawl from there on when he went outside, that was tugged at all the time what he stoically ignored along the whines that came with the tugging.

The next time Lobelia tried her luck in making a fuzz was in the market when Bilbo went there a week later to stock up on cheese and wasn't paying attention as he normally did it. Strangely enough, the other Hobbits had become nice to him since they had gotten it that Bilbo had a hard time when away that was littered with losses and much pain.

Who had told them that, that staid a miracle to Bilbo, Bofur and Bifur but someone seemingly had?

She ranted away once she got the sight of him and even made Bilbo loose his hold on his cheese blocks in his shock one time… only to have the blocks fall to the side in a way that was not natural, whatever Hamfast said later about it, to end up on Lobelias feet. She howled like a Warg in terror and hopped around long enough for him to escape the mess… with his cheese.

Bifur laughed himself silly once he heard about it and Bofur made a song of Bilbo the cheesy hero, the defeater of monster Hobbit ladies… needless to say he wasn't exactly silent and neither had Bofur any qualms to sing it aloud when he whittled away on something outside the Smial in daylight.

Soon the blasted song was secretly and not so secretly sung all over the Shire with mirth from the many Hobbits that had a chicken to pluck with Lobelia Sackville Baggins. And if the wind sometimes seems to whistle the melody eerily too, it did not seem to startle the Hobbits much anymore they had somehow gotten used to the ghosts that obviously did linger around Bag End in the late.

What ended with her showing up again with her husband in tow to rant at Bilbo. This time, Bofur took to it to chase her away, with a broom in hand he practically chased them down the entire way to the market with a wicked grin of glee on his face what had more than one Hobbit double over in laughter, seeing the spectacle. Later he came back whistling a merry tune and looking better as in the last months all together.

That night he was rather merry for the first time in months so, neither Bifur nor Bilbo had the heart to scold him for his reckless act.

The next week went by without a trouble than someone set fire to the outside store hole of Bilbo at night what nearly ended up in burning the Smial down by accident if some ghostly rattling of the windows had not woken them all up in time to drench the flames with snow and had him call for the Shirrif's.

They found nothing else as Hobbit footprints in the snow that day but since no one knew from whom they had been made, the entire affair ended in nothing and Bilbo did not store anything burnable in it again for a while. He cursed in unison with Bifur and Bofur about this while they boarded up the hole in the wall and while all three were, certain that Lobelia had something to do with this they could not proof it. When she showed up the day after to complain about it that Bilbo had told the Shirrif's about her buggering him all the time, he screamed back in equal volume to leave him alone.

In the end, she said something that made Bilbo blanch and implore her to take it back.

"Maybe your, so called drunken lot of *Ghosts* that you shelter in your Smial did set it to fire! They are just homeless and dangerous Dwarves of all things anyways Bilbo Baggins! Instead of trying to become respectable again you harbor those overly hairy no goods in this Smial, especially that one with the stupid hat is dangerous and I told as much to the bounders. However, what is to expect from a Hobbit with Took blood other as trouble. You will never become respectable with the bloodline of your no good mother in your veins! Bungo should have married another lass."

Without to listen to him and having spew out her poison, Lobelia went home. Quite happy with herself once she saw Bilbo's looks of rage and hurt. She never even listened to his pleas to take her words back. She did, however turn a little pale when the angry snarls and howls suddenly filled the air the like they had not sounded around Bilbo's Smial in a longer while. If that was possible, Bilbo blanched even further before he pressed the hands to his ears with a whimper and run back inside for cover when a whirlwind of snow suddenly took up with the howls and raced after Lobelia that squeaked seeing it coming her way and run home on her top speed.

Hamfast, who had seen the entire thing, threw the snow from the rooftop of his family Smial onto her when she went his way in his anger.

Then he went to the Smial while mumbling apologies out aloud all the time while wringing his hands frantically in his fear and told to whoever was listening to him that he only wanted to comfort poor Master Baggins until his wonderful Dwarves came back. He was, of course talking to the Ghosts he was certain that lived in Back end now. Nothing did happen to the kind gardener, neither that night when he walked back or at any time later.

The next morning, his Smial's rooftop was free of any newly fallen snow and magically staid that way as well as Back End's rooftop staid surprisingly snow-free.

For a few days, all traces of Fili and Kili's ghosts magically seem to have vanished around the Smial.

Then, three days after her visit, two of the bounders, the Majors of Hobbington and Michel Delving and the Thain visited Bilbo, Bifur, and Bofur suddenly. All the bounders did was to look at the hands of the two dwarves before the older one shook his graying head. "They weren't it, that's for certain, Thain. They have none of the cuts that should be there nor any other wounds and the hands of those two here are too big to have left the bruises. Also, their weapons from what I know are a mattock and a boar spear and not arrows and swords."

At those words, all three paled and Bilbo finally inquired what was going on.

The story was short.

Someone had gained entry to the Smial of the Sackville-Baggins and had practically driven the older Hobbits out of it while the son had slept at a friend's home. Whoever it was, had hunted the pair over the entire fields outside of Hobbington and had spiked them with arrows before another must have slowly but steadily cut them into pieces with a short sword right on the graveyard of Hobbington where no one had heard their cries, not even the old Hobbit living there had heard them that night. Nevertheless, that wasn't such a miracle, the old guy was half-deaf on both ears and they were killed far from his house under an old tree that overshadowed the older part of the old graveyard.

The Bounders had searched for them the yesterday when their son found the evidence of an intruder in the house and had called for them. Babbling about his mother having made the Dwarves in Bilbo's home mad all the time in his shock to find the entire home of his smeared with Bloody handprints that were bigger as that of a grown Hobbit's.

The bloody trail the attackers had left behind made it easy to follow it back to where the Bounders finally found the leftovers of Lobelia and Ortho at the tree and in it. The one that found them first had to throw up right after and the other two had not fared much better at the picture they where presented with. They had to use a ladder to get the heads and other various parts of their bodies down from the old tree in the end. The check on Bifur and Bofur's hands made clear that the bloody handprints in the house of the Sackville Bagginses weren't theirs and they had been home as Bilbo told them all. What was soon confirmed from Hamfast and his wife, Bell Gamgee.

Once all had been told and proved by various other Hobbits' they were left alone again. All three exchanged grave looks and sat down heavily in the kitchen after a while.

None of them went out that day or to the hastily burial of the two unfortunate souls that had roused the wrath of the ghosts of the prince's of the line of Durin. Instead, the three kept on stocking up for the seven days and tried mentally to steel themselves for the visit that surely was to come very soon now.

All Bilbo could do later when he was huddled under the covers of his bed, was to cry for the two fools that did not listen to warnings given and mourn for the lost lives of his relatives. As much an annoyance they had been, he had not wished them that end!

If he ever caught Fili and Kili, he swore he would kick them in the ass for it, this had been unnecessary!

That night he dreamed of a mad chase through the nightly winter landscape, of the terror that the person had felt and the horror of it when finally faced with something that seemingly had come right out of one of the horror tales of old to hunt them down! Of two rough and barely reconcilable voices that mocked their victims before the screaming began and he was woken roughly up by a shaking Bofur who promptly hugged the sobbing Bilbo close and crawled into his bed to keep him company that night and nearly every other after.

Just holding the shaking Hobbit and trying not to shake himself from his own nightly terror that he had just moments before.

The two Ghosts of the Durin boys were clearly tired of waiting and made that known quite clearly as well as that they would not suffer any other overstepping towards the two in the bed either in the future. Bofur recognized the warning given for what it was and only kept his mouth shut to no more fright poor Bilbo with it.

While Bifur took up a silent guard at the bedroom floor, never sleeping and simply watching the flames of the hearth as if they could tell him all the secrets of the world.