Oh boy, lucky to get this posted before 4pm. Not because I was so busy, but because I just lost all track of time!
I don't own Harry Potter or The Hobbit
The next morning came suddenly, too soon for Harry's preference. And as if the sunlight wasn't already trying to coax him to wakefulness, a small brown thrush had decided to fly down, with a snail in it's beak and tap Harry rather eagerly on the head, trying to break the snail's shell open. At first it was on the blanket, but the moment it's little feet touched Harry's scalp, a bright light flashed out and scared the poor feathered menace away. Leaving behind it's snail to bounce off Harry's nose.
"Well, that'll teach you." said Harry with a smirk. He removed the blanket, plucking the snail off and putting him safely on the ground, and stretched his now long frame. He had done quite a bit of growing since he was first sent to Middle Earth and now was just an inch shorter than Ron as opposed to nearly a head and a half.
It was just turning to dawn, and he could hear the others inside getting ready to leave. He rolled up his blanket and took it inside, expecting to see the dwarves helping themselves to breakfast, but what he saw staggered him, he was not expecting the scene that lay before him.
The dwarves were not just gathering up their things and packing them away, they were tidying up the entire house. They swept up the crumbs and food debris that were left on the floor from the night before, put all the candles and dishes back into the cupboard, and put the chairs all back where they came from originally. It was as if there hadn't just been a home invasion the night before.
Bofur was polishing and buffing the wooden chairs that were scuffed slightly from the harsh wear from the night before.
Bifur and Ori were finishing up the dishes and placing them carefully in the cabinets.
Bombur was clearing out the pantry, sweeping up the remaining crumbs and wiping down the shelves.
Dori was sweeping the floor and constantly frisking Nori as he himself wiped down the tables, looking for any lifted items that belonged to their host.
Dwalin and Balin with the assistance of Kili and Fili were moving the large cabinets back into the dining room.
Oin was sewing the tears in the curtains and cushions and Gloin was wiping down the windows.
Thorin was standing before the fireplace, and only directing the dwarves as they tidied up the place, he still took a moment to carefully re-position the pictures on the mantelpiece and straighten the map of the Shire over the fireplace.
"Are we ready?" asked Thorin, he turned and looked at Harry with a regal yet, suspicious look. "Are you?"
"Yes sir." said Harry quickly as he placed his bedroll securely into his pack.
The King nodded and walked towards the front door. "Then that is all that needs to be done. Let's be off then, I'll secure you a horse as we're all riding, it would take far too long..." said Thorin walking towards the front door.
"That won't be necessary sir, I have my own horse." said Harry adjusting his pack to a more comfortable position as the dwarf king walked past him. "I left her outside of town, Gandalf's horse is with her."
Thorin looked at the boy and nodded. "Alright then, let's be off." repeated Thorin as he gripped his large axe securely in his hand.
"What about the hobbit?" asked Bofur looking down the halls of Bag End as they left the hobbit's house. "Shouldn't we at least wake him?"
The dwarves were silent as their leader paused on the path just before the gate. The dwarf king however didn't turn around to answer them, but remained fixedly staring down the path. "He will not be joining us."
As he led them away from the Hobbit's house, the others began to talk about whether they believed he would come or not.
"I'll bet he does." said Gloin with a smile as he closed the door softly.
"I'll take that bet." said Nori quickly, and almost immediately, a betting pool started up. Each of the dwarves seemed to shout out their choice, Mr. Baggins: coming, or staying.
"What about you laddie?" asked Gloin with a smile over to Harry.
"It wouldn't be fair to ask me to get in on that." said Harry with a smile.
"Why not?" asked Ori looking up at the young man.
"I have infallible faith in Mr. Baggins." said Harry as he walked down the road with Dori and Ori walking on either side of him, from up ahead, he could hear Dwalin and Thorin snort in amusement.
"Come on, take a bet." said Kili heartily.
"Oh all right, a flutter than." said Harry digging into his pouch.
"A...what?" asked Nori.
"Where I come from, a flutter is another word for 'small bet'. Let's see, a gold coin on Mr. Baggins showing up." said Harry with a smile taking out a gold coin and turning it around in his fingers.
"Yer on." said Nori with a wicked grin staring at the gold coin with a covetous gaze.
"Eh...a gold coin isn't a small bet lad." said Dori with a disapproving look at the boy and Nori. "A copper penny is a small bet."
"Too late, he said 'gold' coin." said Nori gleefully.
"Where did you get the gold coin laddie?" asked Gloin looking at the coin purse Harry carried. "You don't seem old enough to even have one of those."
"I helped a baker for a little while in Gondor." said Harry with a smile. "A gold coin was the conglomeration of all my hard work."
"You would waste it on a bet?" said Dwalin looking back with a disapproving roll of his eyes.
"Who's wasting money? I believe in Mr. Baggins." said Harry with a bright smile. His cheeks were starting to hurt from all the smiling he was doing. "I'm expecting a return on this investment."
"I'll take good care of your coin for you, Fainas lad, when I win it." said Nori with a smirk.
"And I'll take good care of yours when I win it." said Harry teasing back.
They reached the end of Hobbiton, and waited for Harry to duck into the market and pick up a few supplies from the few merchants that were setting up shop and open for business. He came back to them stuffing a large amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in his pack and a load of apples in his arm. He tossed one to each of the dwarves and began eating his own.
"Not that we're not grateful, but you shouldn't waste your money on feeding us. Let Gloin pay out of the budget." said Balin with a smile.
"Oh, you don't need to worry about that, the price of apples here in the Shire are easily the cheapest I've seen in any market I've been to." said Harry with a smile. "Twelve silver pennies for all those apples and a few other things I grabbed."
"And where did you get the money, I thought you only had the one gold coin?" asked Gloin looking at the small coin purse.
"I didn't just work at the Bakers, I did a bit of work before I came with Gandalf to Hobbiton." said Harry with a smile. "Cooked for a few people when their normal cook was out sick and worked in an Inn for a bit."
"Seems you do a lot of work around food." said Bombur warm smile.
"I like to cook." said Harry, "Convinced Master Gandalf to take me on a little faster, I think."
Gandalf chuckled.
They left the town and came across all the ponies that they had brought with them, tethered to several trees, a little ways into the woods and out of sight of the road.
"And where are your horses?" asked Thorin counting the ponies quickly and looking around.
"They should be around here somewhere, I'll get them." said Harry with a smile. "WILL-O-WISP! WILL-O-WISP!" shouted Harry.
Gandalf looked over to Harry with a inquisitive look. He had left his horse tethered further in, did the lad forget?
They looked around the trees and then back at the lad.
"I don't think your horse is coming, yeh should have tied her..." said Dwalin with a disapproving look.
Then a whinnying sound came to them, and then the thunder of hooves. Out of the darkness of the trees came a brown horse with a saddle, bridle and rope that had been chewed upon on one end and a unbridled white and black horse with a long matching mane and hair on it's legs urging the one before it forward.
"There you are girl." said Harry patting Will-O-Wisp's nose. "Did you enjoy your little rest? Thanks for bringing Gandalf's horse with you."
Ori and Bofur seemed enthralled with the horse right away and came up to her slowly. "Bless me, she's a beauty!" said Bofur looking at her slowly.
"Isn't she? I met her in Rohan." said Harry patting her nose tenderly. "She's taken great care of me ever since, and smart enough to bite right through any rope." Harry held up the gnawed rope that hung off Gandalf's horse, Blaze.
"Where's her saddle?" asked Ori looking at her sides. "Did it fall off?"
"Oh, she doesn't have one, doesn't like them. I just put this blanket over her." said Harry taking out her blanket and tossing it over her midsection. "And ride her bareback."
"But she has no bridle, how do you tell her where to go?" asked Dori.
"Well, I suppose we come to the mutual agreement of where to go." said Harry with an even brighter smile. "We agree for the most part, though sometimes she seems to find a better path. She led Gandalf and I right past a prickle patch and down past a path full of berry bushes...saved us about two hours...isn't that what you said?"
"That I did, she is a brilliant animal." said Gandalf with a smile.
"Good luck getting on her." said Dwalin swinging his legs over with the help of his stirrups.
Will-O-Wisp seemed to snort indignantly and knelt down for Harry to swing his legs over her easily, and to the amazement of the Company she stood up easily.
"After practicing quite a bit I can get on, but I think she wanted to show off there, didn't you girl?" asked Harry patting her neck.
Ori's eyes widened and his smile got even brighter. After riding only ponies, seeing a tall horse like this, looking so magnificent and majestic, he wanted nothing more than to sketch her immediately.
"Ready for another adventure, girl? I can't see this one being any easier than the last." said Harry with a soothing voice.
"With luck, it'll be smooth traveling till we reach the Greenwood." said Bofur.
They traveled slowly through the trees, and it was almost past eleven o'clock when Harry began to be a bit worried, what if him being there...Bilbo decided not to come? He had delayed their departure on horse/pony back for as long as he could, hopping into the bushes to take care of a 'need' and had dragged it on as long as he dared...What if Bilbo figured Harry could do the job that he was supposed to do? But this had already happened in his future...he was becoming so confused and needed to rest his brain for a moment.
"Well, we don't have a burglar, Gandalf. Do you think your apprentice here can sneak into the mountain? I think Thorin would give him more than that silver penny a week." said Balin looking over to Gandalf.
"Won't Smaug smell me though?" asked Fainas pleasantly coming up to the trio, it seemed he was lost in thought for a while and now seemed to join the group mentally. "I'm of the race of Men...won't he know that scent from the people of Dale?"
"You sound calmer than what Bilbo was when he volunteered for the job." said Nori with a chuckle.
"Well, the worst he can do is kill me." said Fainas plainly. "Now if he were to say, continuously burn me for two days and stop just before I died, then I would be quite a bit nervous about him. I don't think he's the kind of dragon to play with his prey, in a painful sense anyway." *
The Company stopped and stared, even Thorin turned his pony around.
"That's not possible...is it, Mr. Gandalf?" asked Ori fearfully. "No dragon can do that...correct?"
"I don't believe a dragon is capable of using that small of a flame, so no...Smaug is not able to do such a thing." said Gandalf gently, with a leery look at his young charge.
"Well, than, I'm not all that worried...still not looking forward to going up against a dragon though..." said Fainas. "But I'm sure that Mr. Baggins will show up."
As they continued on, they heard a voice calling out behind them, telling them to stop. Harry turned and looked in the direction of the voice, he smiled, there was Bilbo, racing after them, with the contract fluttering in the wind.
Harry and Gandalf heaved a sigh of relief, Harry was relieved that the future wasn't going to be drastically changed now, and Gandalf was relieved that he didn't scare the poor hobbit off by his thrusting of the dwarves on him the night before. On another plus side, they both added a bit of gold to their own pocket, not that Harry needed it, maybe he could slip the money into Bilbo's own bag or something, except the bit he got from Nori, he was going to have to have that framed or something.
Harry smiled softly to himself as they all restarted their journey, he wished his first journey could have started out this way, clothed, and not having to match strength and wits with a pissed off boar. Meanwhile, Bilbo was hoping he could start this adventure with his handkerchief.
Bilbo held the soiled and smelly cloth away from his face, unwilling to even have it touch any part of his body that isn't his thumb and forefinger.
"First chance we stop...I'm washing this thing." said Bilbo quietly.
Harry had to stifle a laugh before any of the dwarves had heard.
As they traveled, a few of the dwarves and Bilbo kept close to Harry and pelted him with questions about his family. Though none of them seemed to be asked in joyful curiosity, but in worrisome concern.
"So...you have no one at home that cares about you?" asked Bilbo wincing slightly as the saddle thumped into him repeatedly.
"Now I wouldn't say that. I've got people that care about me, but none of them are related to me...not that I'm aware of anyway." said Harry, he didn't want to include those two uncles, he didn't know anything about them.
"Who are they?" asked Ori.
Now was the hard part, did he tell them the names? Would Bilbo remember them? Would Gandalf connect the dots too early in the future? Well, if they could remember the names of his friends sixty years later, then they had a better memory than anyone else he knew. "Well, there is my friend Ron, and all his brothers and sister...and his parents...there's a few adults that knew my parents and my Godfather." said Harry.
"What's a godfather?" asked Fili. "Is it like a regular father only...more religious?"
"No..." said Harry quickly and snorted slightly. "Sirius is far from religious, a godfather is someone...when your parents are gone or unable to care for you, they step in and take over, they watch over you and make sure you are cared for."
"But you said your aunt and uncle looked after you...is your uncle your godfather?" asked Kili.
"No, no, Sirius was...away for most of my life. He thought I was being taken care of, but when he heard about how I did live, he was tic...very angry...I hope someday we can live together, but right now, that's not an option." said Harry.
The dwarves that were listening in were silent, until Kili spoke up.
"So...Uncle Thorin would be like...our godfather...he took care of us after our Adad passed away." said Kili.
Harry looked between Kili, Fili, Thorin and nodded. "Aye, there's a few ceremonies to go through normally, and your Mother and Father would have to make the choice, but yes, he'd be a godfather to you two."
Kili smiled brightly while Fili looked up at his Uncle fondly. Thorin didn't make any sign that he was listening, but for a brief moment, he had a ghost of a smile on his face.
As they came closer to the end of the Shire, Harry kept glancing at Bilbo and noticed that he was getting a bit nervous and fidgety and was gazing all around him with a look of desperation.
However, once they came to a bridge, Bilbo stopped his pony and looked back.
"Something wrong laddie?"asked Balin who looked back at the hobbit.
Bilbo said nothing but continued to look back at the land behind him.
"This is the border of the Shire." said Gandalf with a sympathetic tone to his voice. "Not many hobbits have left these lands. We should give him a moment."
Oin looked over at Bilbo and then he fished something out of his pack, a small empty bottle.
"Here you go Master Baggins." said Oin handing the bottle to the hobbit.
Bilbo looked at the bottle in confusion.
"Put a bit of soil and a flower or something in there, it'll help." said Oin with a nod. "I have a few stones and pebbles from Erebor, and Ered Luin."
Bilbo grasped the bottle tightly and jumped off his pony. In less than a minute, he put a few ounces of Shire earth into the bottle and a small blue violet. He gave the old dwarf a grateful smile and clambered back into the saddle.
"Hurry up Burglar, before we leave you." came Thorin's commanding voice from across the bridge.
"Nice..." said Harry with a smirk as he followed Kili across the wooden bridge. "He's so pleasant in the morning isn't he?"
"This is nothing, you should hear him in the afternoon, even more of a sunny disposition." said Bofur with a chuckle.
*If you are wondering why I have Harry speaking so nonchalantly about this, remember, he had Crucio performed on him by Voldemort, he had watched someone die and saw how 'peaceful' they were in the afterlife, was almost killed by Basilisk poisoning, and let's not forget, he was tortured by Sauron himself in the last story. Granted, wasn't on the same level as Smeagol's torture, but it was from Sauron's hand.
Thanks for reading, please review!
Oh my goodness, what a week I had, I can't even begin to describe it. It wasn't bad perse, but it just was not one of my most productive weeks.
