Hey! Another Friday! Man, I had the worst weekend, I took a misstep on our stairs and wrenched my foot something awful! Thank goodness this week was a week where I didn't have to work much and could rest up my foot before I had to work. Now it's feeling a lot better, but my knee is still giving me some issues...wonderful. Sorry this chapter is on the short side by the way...
Now, the Question of the chapter last week was What movie are you looking forward to seeing?
Severus Vegeta, Robin Rani, Kaitrion Cerulean, HowlingRain are all looking forward to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I had completely forgotten that was coming out at some point. I guess I havne't been in the loop. Last movie I went to see was quite the letdown. Cough-Into The Woods-Cough.
I don't own Harry Potter, or the Hobbit.
It was a little later on in the evening when one could find the Company in the kitchen with Mr. Butterbur. Harry was keeping his idle hands busy by peeling a few apples while the others talked as if he wasn't even there. That in itself was causing an irritated twitch in the young man's eye.
"Seems you don't have a cook anymore. Fainas would be a fine addition." said Balin with a smile as he drank a cup of tea.
Apparently impressed with the Inn and the seemingly peaceful village of Bree, Thorin and Balin had deemed this place good enough to house Fainas while Gandalf was on their adventure. Despite the fact that Fainas was trying very hard to not be left behind.
"Hey! I..." said Harry looking up from the half peeled apple.
"Fainas!" spat Thorin harshly, the tone was enough to subdue Harry who looked down quickly.
Mr. Butterbur looked uncomfortable. "I don't know, I've got my hands full of my own little ones. Not that he wouldn't be a boon, but Tilla hasn't told me herself if she wanted to leave my services. I don't want to replace her if she doesn't want to leave."
"And I'm sure she doesn't!" said Harry cutting in quickly.
Thorin glared at him, "Stay out of this."
"Lad, we want you taken care of." said Gloin gently.
"I'm fine..." muttered Harry.
"Why don't you want to take him with you?' asked Butterbur. "He seems like a nice, resourceful young man...and that sorcery of his would be welcome in a pinch."
" Aye, that it would, but well...we..." said Balin trying to gently put it.
"They think I'm too young to go." said Harry glumly.
"Well, you do look young, but so does this young dwarf here...and you're how old master?" said Butterbur gesturing towards Kili.
"Seventy-seven." said Kili with a proud smile.
"See, you'd never know...now, how old is the young..." said Butterbur with a smile towards Harry.
"Fifteen." said Thorin gruffly.
Mr. Butterbur stared and sputtered. "Who let him out of the house?"
"Oh sweet..." groaned Harry as he covered his eyes.
"And he doesn't want to be left behind, but it's not safe where we're going, why I left my own son Gimli behind because he's too young and he's sixty three! So you can imagine our shock when we learned his age." said Gloin passionately.
"Where are his parents?" asked Mr. Butterbur.."Wouldn't they put a stop to his being out in the wild...or better yet...know where he's at?"
"According to them, they're deceased." whispered Dori.
The Innkeeper looked sympathetic. "Oh...I'm sorry...I didn't know."
"I never really knew them all that much..." said Harry with a faint blush. "So it doesn't matter..."
"OF COURSE IT MATTERS!" said almost everyone in the kitchen, causing Harry to recoil.
"What would your parents say to you being out here in the cruel world?" said Dori coming up to him and shaking his finger at the young man.
Harry blinked. "My dad would think I was having a load of fun, my mum would be having kittens."
"What's a dad and what's a mum?" asked Kili.
"It sounds like the end of the khuzdul word for Father...Adad..." said Fili.
"That's what dad is...it's just another word for Father...'mum' is Mother." said Harry.
"And the having kittens part?" asked Ori curiously.
"Ah...worrying herself sick..." said Harry plainly.
"That's what all mothers do." said Kili with a smirk. "You should have heard our mother before we had left..."
The door that led to the outside street creaked open, and there stood Tilla. Her face sporting tear marks and her eyes bloodshot.
"Tilla! Thanks goodness, where were you girl?" said Mr. Butterbur coming around the table to get to his young cook. "You walked out without saying a word to me...wasn't sure what you playing at."
Tilla looked down shamefully, but before she had spoke a word, Mr. Butterbur threw an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go have a chat, over a nice pot of tea...I want to know what happened."
Tilla looked at Harry with a frown. "He told you, surely." she said pointing.
"We'll talk about that, in private." said Mr. Butterbur his voice turning stern. "I think you and I should have a chat, something we should have done hours ago."
As they left the kitchen Harry smiled over to the dwarves. "She's not gone...he'll see to that."
Thorin groaned loudly and shook his head. "Do not become overconfident, we will find you someplace to stay." Then it was Harry's turn to shake his head.
Gandalf slowly took the pipe out of his mouth. "I believe that this is for the best."
The dwarves looked at the wizard. "Why do you say that?" asked Nori.
"This village is not as safe as it used to be; if you remember the night we had met Thorin." said Gadalf looking pointedly at the dwarven King. "So I am quite relieved that the young woman has come back."
"So what do we do with him in the meantime?" said Dori.
"Am I not here?" said Harry holding out his arms.
"We will take him with us, I have an idea of who may be willing to harbor him..." said Gandalf with a smile.
"Ugh..." said Harry laying his head down on the table in defeat.
It was an hour later when Mr. Butterbur came back to kitchen where the others were still gathered, with Tilla coming in behind him.
"Lad, Tilla's going to stay on, and well...if you want to stay...that's..." said Mr. Butterbur.
"I have another place in mind for him to seek refuge." said Gandalf swiftly. "So for the time being, he will reside with us."
"Ah...well, that's good...but...Tilla agreed to take some lessons from you...in exchange for your I suppose it would be overnight stay." said Mr. Butterbur.
"He'll do it." said Gloin.
"Again with this?" muttered Harry.
"Well stay here and keep an eye on him." said Fili, Nori and Bombur together.
"And help yourself to whatever he happens to be cooking?" said Balin with a quirked brow.
"I'll stay too!" said Kili eagerly.
Thorin rolled his eyes.
"They're still young, food is a great motivator for them." said Oin with a laugh.
"I suppose...you didn't want my job after all..." said Tilla quietly.
"No thanks, I'm setting out to wield magic...not frying pans." said Harry holding his hands up and smiling.
"But...you cook so well..." she responded.
"Years of practice." said Harry with a smile. "Now...shall we get to work?" he clapped his hands together.
Tilla looked up at the young man and smiled.
It was the wee hours of the morning, just after midnight but not quite dawn when Ori found himself unable to continue sleeping. He didn't quite know what had woken him up to start with, but it did not matter as knowing what it was would not help him at this point.
He crept away from his brother and teacher and left the inn. If he couldn't sleep, he might as well check on the ponies. They had paid good pieces of silver so that someone else watched the ponies while they rested, but he just couldn't' stop thinking about that horse of Fainas', or the owl. They were so...he just couldn't stand to wait any longer in drawing them. He didn't have the time or the perfect setting to draw the both of them...but perhaps...in this bright moonlight...
He stole out of the inn and towards the stables, it was a wonderfully moonlit night and the village of Bree was peaceful and quiet, the only sounds came from the stables and a small light shown from the candle in the stable's window.
Hopefully the lad watching the ponies didn't mind him coming to take Will-O-Wisp out for a moment.
As he neared the stables, he saw the white owl, Hedwig come soaring out of the stables and make a beeline for the inn. Perhaps she was starting her evening hunt, well, he could wait to see her again when she had eaten her fill.
As he turned the corner something hard and heavy crashed down on the top part of his skull, black dots appeared in front of him and a similar blow to the same spot sent him senseless to the ground.
The figures that were hiding in the dark, standing over a smaller figure that was collapsed on the ground as well, muttered darkly.
"Come along, we need to get these ponies out of here if we want that reward..." said one of the dark cloaked figures.
"Doesn't look like there is any other dwarf or person coming out of the Inn...now's our...what was that?"
There was a flash of light and the sound of something approaching.
"Go see what that was..."
Suddenly they all heard a low growl, like the same sort of sound a troll made when it was angry, and not smart enough to speak. Then it came into the light, it was a huge animal, almost like a sandy brown, with massive paws, with razor sharp claws and a great mane of hair around it's face.
RAAAARRRR!
And...great...sharp...teeth...
Thanks for reading, please review!
Anyone want to take a guess what creature it was that attacked those robbers?
Hmm...gives me an idea QUESTION OF THE CHAPTER! What kind of creature would you want to turn into after you saw Ori (or any other of the dwarves) get injured? Would you want to just heal him, or deal out some pretty badass revenge?