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. 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 prince 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 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!'