This Dream's On Me

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Part 3
Chapter 1

The hair was right, falling in a hastily done up ponytail, the skin was the right shade too, the same pale, hairless face he was used to looking at. And the voice, the voice was exactly right.

But it was the eyes that let Fili know this was no trick, that Harry was actually stood before him. No one else would ever have the same brilliance, the same vivid bright green that made up Harry's eyes.

Harry, who was running towards him right now.

He didn't think much, past stepping out of the guard's reach as they made a move to grab him. Fili danced around their extended limbs, just in time to catch the bundle of witch that had thrown himself into his arms.

Her hair smelt of the thick honey that Beorn had been gathering from his bees, her body was leaner, slightly thinner from whatever travel she'd been on.

But she was just as warm in his arms as she'd always been, her face fell just into the crook of his neck as it always had, arms wrapped tight around his shoulders like she would never let go. Fili just knew his own held as tight as a dragon to gold. Nothing would separate him from Harry for the next few moments, he wanted to make sure this was real, that he wasn't imagining things.

The answer to what had happened came to him almost instantly as he pressed his nose deeper into the nest that was currently Harry's hair. The dreams had stopped because Harry was no longer sleeping in her own world. She'd been sleeping in this one, steadily making her way towards him.

In all honesty, he'd thought he was bluffing when he told the ponce that Harry would be coming for him, but never in all his life had he been so pleased to be proven right.

Someone coughed, but the only thing that confirmed for Fili was that there were other people about, something which there never was in the dream world. Harry had somehow managed to leave her old world, to come to his.

And what for? There was nothing else here for her here other than him. And to a lesser extent, Kili's letters. But she could have kept the letters up in the dream world.

No, his One had come to him. He knew, his mother had told him how lucky she'd been that her One had seen her, that they'd seen each other past their crafts. Every dwarf knew that they could still find their One, only to be turned down by them. It had to be a lonely existence, the idea of finding someone you loved beyond all others, but being turned down for a craft would be heart-breaking.

It was always something that'd nagged at the back of his mind, a what if, but he no longer had to worry about it. Hadn't really past the odd thought before he met Harry. He'd had princely duties to attend to, and then when it came to Harry he'd not been worried about her not noticing more than her not being real. And then, not being in his world.

But he'd never have to worry about that again. She was right in front of him, surviving his attempt to crush her ribcage with the power of his hug.

Realizing that perhaps Harry wasn't so resilient to a relieved, dwarven hug, Fili lightened his grip, pulling back his head and looking down into Harry's bright green eyes. He could almost feel the heat coming from her cheeks, though he wasn't sure of the source of her blush it was enough for him to relent to only one hand on her hip, the other brushing against her cheek, tilting her head back and pressing his lips to hers.

He couldn't care less about the audience the two of them had, only that Harry was once again his to kiss. She responded just as happily, tilting her head to a side until Fili felt a hesitant tongue run across his lower lip and he happily responded. It was no doubt a clumsy kiss, but Fili couldn't care less. Let the elves see. Let the mutter and he hoped they were feeling uncomfortable right now. It was all he could do to get back at them right now.

.

After a moment, Fili finally pulled back ever so slightly, satisfied with the low, wet smack that was the parting of their lips, Harry even daring to drag her teeth across his lip as he retreated slightly.

"I don't think I've ever been happier to see someone," Fili murmured, pressing his forehead against Harry's and just revelling in the fact he could.

"That I can believe." The dry tone of Ponce Senior drew Fili from his little world, drew his attention away from Harry had he had to turn to look at the elven king. The taller male was taking Fili's appearance in with bored, qualmish eyes.

Harry turned around, and while there was still a light blush across her cheeks, her posture and eyes showed no shame, and Fili couldn't help the little grin that spread across his face. Harry truly was the most brilliant little creature he'd ever seen, and he hoped these elves saw it. Saw it and realized that even as bright as she shined, she still wanted Fili, and that meant there was something special, something within him that made him worthy of her.

"You highness," Harry gave a small bow, not a full one but polite enough to show her respect for Thranduil's position as king of the woodland realm.

"I'm afraid you never introduced yourself," the king drawled and Fili could see the tick in Harry's cheek. But he could also see the elf king's eyes lingering on the sword that was strapped to Harry's hip, and once Fili got a quick glance, he couldn't pull his eyes away.

She'd brought the sword of Gryffindor with her. Marvellous.

"Hariel Lily Potter-Black, Lady of the most ancient and noble houses of Potter and Black. Girl-Who-Lived, Woman-Who-Conquered, recipient of the highest medal of honour for my country and, of course, witch." Harry tilted her head upwards upon finishing her titles and Fili could see the red-head elf that had saved Kili raise an impressed eyebrow. Even the smaller ponce sent her a calculating glance.

"That is many titles for one so small."

"I've personally found that the best things come in small packages to be honest," Harry gave a delicate shrug, her eyes dancing with mischief as they glanced over at him for a second before returning to the king.

Thranduil was frowning, looking at the sword on Harry's hip again.

"Forgive me Lady Potter-Black, but I find myself unaware of the origins of your blade."

One of Harry's hands came down to rest on the hilt of the blade, a frown crossing her face as she did so.

"It is a family heirloom your highness, I'd be surprised if you did. I wish to negotiate the release of the dwarves." Harry folded her arms across her chest and Fili took a moment to take in her outfit. It didn't look so out of place compared to some of the other items he'd seen her in. They were all of quality make, that much was obvious, and her boots were made of a strange leather he'd never seen before but looked exceedingly sturdy.

"I have already spoken with their king, he refuses to hand over that which I wish for. The gems that gleam of starlight."

Harry shot him a look for the corner of his eyes, a questioning glance on if he wished to get involved here or not. Swallowing, Fili took a step forwards, snatching up Harry's hand as he did so. They would show a united front, Harry might not have been a dwarf but she was fighting for his people, and he would stand by her.

"You offered no aid when our kingdom burned, Uncle proclaims you broke your oath!" Fili grit his teeth as the last part proceeded to come out a bit louder than what he'd been aiming for, but his point was made.

"Is it true?"

Thranduil's eyes slide from him to Harry as he calmly shifted upon his throne, standing up so that he towered over the two of them. But Fili knew the girl beside him well enough, she would not back down.

"I was not about to risk my own kingdom for the likes of greedy dwarves. I warned King Thrór what he greed would bring."

"Aid can come in many forms, be it soldiers in battle, or housing for those usurped from their own. I am not asking if you were willing to fight a dragon, I am asking if you offered aid."

Watching the girl beside him calmly handle the elf king, Fili couldn't help but wish Uncle was here to see this. He'd have appreciated her poking holes in the ponce's arguments so easily, for Thranduil gritting his teeth was answer enough.

"Then you hold no right to the gems of starlight. Are you sure you wished to keep the dwarves imprisoned? For some day, be it this day or hundreds of days from now, the dwarves will reclaim their mountain once again. And I doubt they will forget a slight such as this."

"Without the starlight gems, the dwarves may rot for all I care. Such time is but a blink of an eye for an elf."

And yet, Harry still went to try once more to gain their release without making promises she could not uphold, even though Fili could see the acceptance of the situation in her eyes. He tightened his grip on her hand, eyeing the elves wearily. They would not dare to separate them, would they?

But Harry was beaten to the punch as the king spoke again.

"Tauriel, take the dwarf back to the dungeon. Legolas, escort the Lady to our borders."

Fili made to reach for Harry's sword, but before he could even touch the handle the three elves let out startled gasps of shock. Harry had slammed her spare hand over his mouth, her lips suddenly very close to his ear.

"We're invisible, keep quiet."

Frowning, Fili remained still, half wrapped around Harry as he'd lunged for her blade as the ponce roared for them to be found, to increase the guard and keep an eye on the rest of the dwarves at all times.

Harry slowly let go of his mouth before pointing to a door off to a side, indicating for him to follow after her.

Looking at their joined hands, Harry's grip much tighter than it was before, Fili had a good idea of how the power of Harry's invisibility had passed over to him. Only, he was sure she had mentioned a cloak before. Had something changed when she crossed over from her own world? Not that he was particularly upset, it was a very handy trick.

And to see the absolute fury on Thranduil's face as they disappeared had been the greatest of treats.

So Fili just brushed his fingertips against Harry's wrist, feeling her cool skin against his own as she led them down the corridor.

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It took five minutes of being as silent as possible, ducking back against the wall as an elf went racing by, before Harry finally decided it was safe enough to stop for a while, slipping into one of the doors beside him. Fili could have almost cried when Harry closed the door and he got a look at the room.

A pantry. They'd found one of the elven pantries.

And even better, it was a pantry that stored dried meat.

Harry seemed to think the place was safe enough, because she let go of his hand and turned to the door, scratching at the back of her head slightly.

"I'm not brilliant at runes, but Hermione's taught me a few these past two years. I think I can managed a locking one." She paused, as if weighing up her options before taking the sheathed sword off her belt and presenting it to him. "You're better than me, if we run into anyone just don't aim to kill."

Feeling much better with a weapon now in hand, Fili drew the blade from the sheath, giving the sword he'd used every so often in the dream-world a swing. It was just as beautiful in real life, a true master piece of craftsmanship. He'd have to show Uncle, no doubt the man would want to attempt recreating the blade, or even making a better one. But how he'd do that with silver Fili wasn't too sure.

Then again, making weapons wasn't his craft. Give him a necklace to make any day. Or perhaps a song to play, he wasn't' half bad with a fiddle after all. His singing was alright, not quite as good as Uncle's, but luckily he'd gotten his father's singing voice and not his mother's, who couldn't carry a tune to save her life. Not that he'd ever admit such a thing.

Twisting on his heels, Fili made a satisfied noise deep within his throat. It was brilliant after two weeks of feeling defenceless, to once again hold a weapon between his fingers felt good.

Smoothly turning back to face the door, Fili paused slightly, watching as Harry worked on carving the rune into the door. Her tongue was out between her lips, the same expression of concentration that Kili had worn as a child. Only, with Harry, it looked significantly more adorable.

When she finished moving her fingers, she flicked the knife -the one he'd gotten her when she'd lost the first one- back into a small sheath by her hip, but not before cutting her thumb and pressing it to the door. The rune glowed for a moment, but when nothing else happened, Fili felt it safe to approach, one hand holding a silver sword and the other stuffing the first meat it could reach into his mouth.

Harry had turned back around to look at him, a tired smile lighting up her face. It was only now that Fili noticed the dark bags that sat beneath her eyes, the tried look in her eyes. Mirkwood had clearly been tough on her, much like it had on them.

Only Fili had fallen easily into depression at the lack of dreams, while on the other hand Harry had been powering through that forest with a purpose. Had she stopped to rest as much as she needed? Somehow, he felt the answer was no.

"It's great see you." He was pretty sure he was repeating himself, but to be honest, right now he didn't care.

Harry gave a low chuckle sitting herself down next to one of the pantry shelves and snatching up a grape as she did so, popping it into her mouth while the other hand went seeking another form of food.

"I doubt it's how happy I was to see you were still here. I mean, I met up with the Prince and the Captain of the Guard in the forest, and I knew you were here. But I was sure you'd have all escaped before I arrived somehow."

Smiling, Fili dropped to sit beside Harry, pressing his cheek against the crown of her hair when she laid her head on his shoulder in response.

"I'm glad we didn't. Not that I am not happy about it, but how are you here?"

In his peripheral vision, he saw Harry grin, popping a bit of meat into her mouth as she did so.

"Well- oh, try this one- you know Hermione knows, right? Well she's a genius. I'm not even lying. She's been teaching me runes while we've been researching, and we put together a ritual to send me over here. It's a bit more in depth than that, but I doubt you'll understand it without an education."

Elbowing the girl in the ribs for her cheek, Fili couldn't help chuckling beneath his breath when she corrected herself to 'I meant magical education'.

"You'll have to tell me what happened while I was gone," Harry mused, nuzzling closer into his side as Fili wrapped his arm around her back. The scent of dried meat was all over them, and there was a fruitiness to Harry's breath from all the grapes she was sneaking between the meat. Neither of them smell like a bed of roses, what with Harry travelling constantly and he being held in elf prison, but Fili couldn't care less about being self-conscious right now.

That could come later when he got over the fact that his wondrous, impish little One had come to him.

"You're more beautiful in person," Fili whispered, pressing a light kiss to her hairline.

Harry looked up at him, an eyebrow raised at the Khuzdul but said nothing, instead, letting her eyes slip closed as exhaustion overtook her. Fili was more than happy to stand guard over her for now, they could work on getting the company free as soon as Harry was rested.

The elves looked heckled. It'd been half an hour since their captors had stolen Fili from his cell, and despite how loud Uncle got, or how many swears passed through all their lips, Fili had not been returned to them.

Clutching tighter at the iron bars, Kili gave them another shake, snarling beneath his breath as another elf ignored his enquiry. They were talking rapidly in their stupid, flowery language and he had no idea what they were saying. The only thing that was probably stopping Uncle from ripping the bars apart with his bare hands was that the elves looked to be on alert. as if something had happened.

Kicking at his own iron door, Kili grimaced, dropping into a defeated slump. He was trapped in a cell and the evil elf king could be doing anything to Fili. He could only hope the elves were so panicked because he brother had escaped or something.

Grimacing as yet another elf went running by, checking on all of them as he went, Kili flipped him the rudest hand gesture he knew, watching in satisfaction as the elf almost missed a step to gape at him. And then he went right back to worrying about Fili.

His older brother was tough, Kili knew that for sure. but they'd been stumbling around in that forest for weeks, spent two weeks in eleven dungeons and now Fili was facing elves on his own.

Kili grimaced. He didn't like these elves, they weren't anything like the ones in Rivendell. Only...

He trailed off, thinking of the beautiful red-head that had saved him. The one that occasionally came to speak with him, regardless of the fact he was a dwarf. Sure, she was an elf. But she was different than the others. He could tell.

But it wasn't time to be thinking on pretty elves. No, he needed to focus on finding his brother.

Before he could let out a roar to scare the next elf coming along, he heard the new one slip into common.

"No sign of the escapee sir."

The other elf snapped at him, probably demanding he switch to their stupid flower language but Kili had heard enough.

Escapee?! Fili had given the elves the slip! Of course he had. Fili was brilliant like that, Kili never doubted him.

The two dwarves closest to his cell -which was irritatingly enough on the outskirts of the prison and thus, far from Thorin- let out a victory roar before shouting the news up to their king.

To say Thorin was pleased with Fili for giving the elves the slip was an understatement. He shouted in Khuzdul several phrases that had even Kili blushing at the language in there.

Okay, so Uncle was pleased. But Kili could tell he'd be just as worried.

What would happen to Fili if he was caught? Because he wouldn't leave the lot of them to rot here and save himself. His brother would be working on an escape plan. And all Kili could do was offer his prays for his brother to succeed.

Now he knew how a blunt pickaxe felt.

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It was some time later -for it was difficult to track the time without the aid of the sun- when his favourite visitor showed up.

Tauriel took a quick look around for the guards that had since disappeared, probably to search for Fili, before she seated herself on the step outside of his cell.

"So," Kili began, rocking back on his heels and trying to keep the grin form his face at the sight of her. He loved talking to Tauriel, the only elf that seemed even remotely interested in the dwarves. Even the Rivendell elves had clearly wanted them gone as soon as possible.

"It seems you're a bit busy."

The red-head gave a small nod, not quite slumping in her posture but there was a distinct lack of the usual grace.

"We had a very odd visitor today, who tried to get the king to allow you to walk free."

"Was it the wizard?" Kili hoped so. Even though he'd set off for other places, he wished it was Gandalf. He'd be able to get them free, to sort the elf king out.

But Tauriel just looked confused. So not the wizard then. That was a disappointment.

"No, our guest was female." Female?

Kili didn't know any females that would try and talk them free of the elf king's dungeons. They hadn't really met any on this quest. Outside of Tauriel, Kili didn't think he'd spoken to a female in months.

At Kili's confused look, his visitor seemed to take pity on him, for she continued to speak.

"We found her in the forest, she was quite insistent with my prince that he not only had Fili, Son of Dis in his custody, but that she also be brought to him." But Fili hadn't spoken to a female either? "They knew each other on sight, it was erm," Tauriel paused, blushing as she looked away from him and Kili wondered what the hell Fili had done, "quite the display."

Display?

Tauriel was blushing, so display... But the only kind of display Fili would put on was if Harry-

"Harry! It's Harry?!"

The red-head's eyes widened and that was all the confirmation that Kili needed.

Letting out a whoop and not caring if half of the company jumped at the sound, Kili leapt to his feet and couldn't help but pump his fist into the air with a grin threatening to slip his lips. Harry had said she was working on a way to get to Middle Earth, but Kili hadn't been sure she'd manage it.

He took it all back.

She was without doubt with Fili right now, and they'd be working to get them out. It'd be so much easier with Harry on side, and in all honesty, he was looking forwards to meeting her face to face.

"You know her?" Tauriel was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, having shifted in her seat until she was sat closer to his cell. Kili swallowed slightly, running a hand through his hair and weighing up the pros and cons of telling the elf. It wouldn't really hurt anything, so-

"I've only spoken to Harry by letter before. She's Fili's One."

"His one?"

Kili blinked. Did elves not have Ones? How could they not? Everyone had the potential to find their One, someone they were not only compatible with, but fit against perfectly. Someone who only brought out the best in you.

"Fili's One. It means she's the love of his life, Fili won't love anyone else but Harry now. We don't marry at all if we cannot have our Ones. Being on our own is better than marrying someone who's not your One. My mother said that dwarves love as hard as the stone we live in, and we're as stubborn as a mountain once we've decided on our One. We won't change it for anything. Fili's always the happiest when he talks of Harry. She's great for him, I can already tell they really work and I haven't even met her face to face yet."

Tauriel's eyes had softened, a small smile playing at the corner of her lips as she looked back at Kili, who felt a small blush rise on his cheeks. He'd not meant to go on like that.

"It sounds very romantic, this business of dwarf Ones. I'm afraid I have to go join the search again for now, but I'll try to put them in a cell near yours when I catch them."

And then she winked at him.

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Slouching against the wall of his cell once Tauriel had left his sight, Kili couldn't stop the smile spreading across his face at the thought of the pretty red-head elf, the one that talked of starlight.

So maybe he was a bit smitten, but who could blame him. She fought brilliantly, and she had a brilliant mind as well.

Mmmm, best not to mention to Uncle that he found an elf somewhat attractive, he'd probably get disowned.

Snorting at the thought, Kili turned to look out the bars and tried not to smile. It'd probably go nowhere if he chased Tauriel, maybe it was just a passing attraction. He wouldn't worry.

Instead, he'd focus on welcoming Harry to their world, and then amuse himself with Uncle Thorin's reaction. He didn't know what he was expecting it to be, he just knew one thing.

It was gonna be good.

So, I got my quota for my essay finished today and had enough time to write this up. I'm not usually left alone for an entire day, so here you go. Part 3 begins.

Do you have any songs that fit's this story? Because I'm running out.

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Preview of the next chapter

The woman that Fili claimed as his One hadn't even looked in his direction yet, instead rushing past him to the fallen form of Kili. When had Kili ended up on the floor?

The girl was kneeling beside him, pulling a small bottle from the pouch on her hip and pressing it to his nephew's lips to get him to drink, which Kili did so upon Fili's reassurance everything was fine. His youngest nephew blinked a bit, eyes hazy and unfocused before he finally seemed to catch sight of the girl.

Despite how worried he was about this strange magical -magic wasn't to be trusted, he'd learnt from spending time with the wizard- girl being so close to his nephew, Fili seemed so happy with her presence. As did the girl. They just orbited together, even in their body language.

Kili seemed to finally get a hold of himself after a moment, looking a bit more lucid. Whatever the girl had given him was working, Thorin noticed as he crouched beside Dis' youngest son.

Who then proceeded to put his foot in his mouth.

"Wait, where's your beard?"

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So, thoughts on this?

Tsume
xxx