"Harry, he's Headley now, not Dudley, not anymore. Dudley was a muggle, your cousin and a bully. Headley is your brother, he's a wizard and a good kid." Hermione clarified.

"So, you think I need to… what…? Forget he was ever Dudley?"

"Yes, he's not Dudley anymore." Hermione nodded.

"Why don't you take him for the afternoon? Visit the hippogriffs, play with the foals for a while." Snape suggested.

"Hmm… Yeah, I can do that." Harry gave them a smile and summoned a broom, mounted up and flew down onto the pitch. "Hey, Headley? Wanna come see the Buckbeak's foals?"

Headley grinned and bounded over to Harry. "Yes, please!"

"Good afternoon, Miss Hermione, Master Harry." Thorin nodded regally while Bilbo smiled gently at the two young magical people.

"Afternoon, Thorin." Harry gave him a tired smile. "Bilbo."

"Good afternoon." Bilbo and Hermione spoke at almost the same time.

"You look exhausted, Harry." Bilbo added.

"Yeah, I feel it, too." Harry sighed.

"Should we meet at a later time, then?" Thorin asked.

"No, it won't make a difference. Frank's putting me through a version of the Gauntlet and-"

"Gauntlet?" Thorin raised a brow in question.

"Ah… the Gauntlet is… it's a type of test that our people use to test those that are in training to join our law enforcement troops." Harry said.

"It's quite involved and tests each participant physically as well as magically." Hermione went on. "I spoke to the Head of the DMLE, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and he provided me a version of it to bring with us. But… unbeknownst to me, the head of the Unspeakables, the Magical Research Department, also sent along the more advanced versions. He was aware that Frank and Alice were coming and knew that we'd want to train ourselves."

"We just didn't expect Frank to be as… zealous as he's turned out to be." Harry sighed.

"He plans of putting us through the Gauntlet as often as we can physically cope with. The idea being that our bodies will adapt to the pressure and no longer be as stressed upon completion." Hermione added.

"Ah… Trialling… I hesitate to mention this, but if I don't, then Dwalin will. He wants to test each of you with the weapons you have." Thorin warned.

"Send him to speak to Frank." Harry offered. "I'm sure the two of them can work out a schedule to test us."

"I shall do so. You wished to speak to Master Baggins and I?" Thorin replied.

"Yes, we have an issue that you two need to be aware of." Hermione started.

"Just us two?" Bilbo asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. But it will be up to you to decide if others need to know and if so, who that should be." Harry answered.

"Very well, continue." Thorin gestured in a 'go on' motion.

"It concerns what Bilbo picked up in the mountain." Harry began.

"What?" Bilbo startled, his hand falling to his pocket.

"Yes, that." Harry nodded. "It's bad, Bilbo, very bad. It will try and twist your mind, twist your emotions, make you doubt your friends, make you judge them, make you doubt yourself."

"How do you know?" Bilbo frowned.

"Hermione and I? We've been there, and between us? We were personally involved in the destruction of four items that worked the same as what you carry." Harry answered bluntly. "One caused an innocent young girl to kill dozens of animals and release a particularly dangerous snake that could have killed the entire population of our world just by looking at them. One twisted the minds of myself, Hermione and our best friend, Ron, to the point that we nearly raised our wands at each other and did go our separate ways. Another caused us to act recklessly and destroy a number of buildings. And the last nearly destroyed our school, with us still in it."

"Oh…" Bilbo was horrified. "What…? What should I do with it? If it's that bad, I can't just give it to someone else, can I?"

"No, but we can block it, neutralise it, make it unusable." Hermione answered.

"You'll help me?"

"Of course, we will." Hermione nodded.

"Or do you wish to have this thing for yourselves?" Thorin asked.

"No!" Hermione squawked. "Definitely not. And better if we never handle the damned thing. Certainly not before it's blocked, anyway."

"My apologies." Thorin nodded a bow. "I was concerned that given your description of the items while they had been in your control, that perhaps the one that Master Baggins holds may have been affecting your judgement."

"No, no apologies necessary, You Majesty." Hermione shook her head. "You were worried, and you spoke out of concern."

"Please, Thorin, don't hesitate to speak if we do something that you don't understand, don't like, don't approve of or think could be done in a better or more efficient way." Harry added. "We want to help, but we aren't omnipotent, particularly when it comes to this world. Our information is limited, if people don't tell us what they need, we're running blind."

"Ah. I had wondered." Thorin mused.

"Look we speak a great game, we've had to, to get people to act." Harry leant forward and poke earnestly. "But here? It's different here. This is your place, not ours, you know the customs, the traditions, the lay of the land, not us. We'll help you to the best of our ability, Thorin, but we're your back up. Sure, there are things that we're far better at than you, but on the other hand, when it comes to physical warfare, you're the expert and we're not even novices, we're infants." The last few words came out as whines.

"Ah…" Thorin breathed out. "I understand. Very well. Master Baggins? What do you intend to do with whatever it is he carries?"

"We need to render it unusable." Hermione replied. "But… it's semi-sentient. Our best theory is to encase it, so that it can't be worn as its maker intended."

"And?"

"I have a pouch, here, for Mr Baggins, it's-"

"Please, call me Bilbo, Miss Hermione." Bilbo interrupted. The other three looked at him. "All of you, please. Master Bilbo, Master Baggins, Mr Bilbo, Mr Baggins… do we really need to be so formal? Aren't we working together towards set goals? Reclaim Erebor? Defeat the dragon? Build new homes? Any of that sound familiar?"

Thorin snorted and Harry laughed, while Hermione huffed.

"Very well… Bilbo." Thorin nodded. "Hermione?" He deliberately left off any titles as he addressed her.

"I've a pair of pouches, here, for… Bilbo." She nodded at the hobbit. "One's got an undetectable extension charm on it, so it can carry a lot of stuff. Sirius reminded me about them and suggested that each of us have one. This is Bilbo's. I'd like to tie it to his magical signature, that way no-one can access its contents without he opens the pouch."

"And the… thing, itself?"

"Encase it. In lead, in quartz, in porcelain, in glass or paper." Hermione replied. "Something that is extremely non-conductive, magically. Only problem is… I don't know what type of magic it uses. At a best guess? Severus, Remus and I figure that we should use multiple layers. The more physically brittle layers closer to it and the more robust layers further out."

"Hmm… Having little to no magical knowledge, other than what you and yours have expressed, I would suggest that… Bilbo and I leave that to your discretion." Thorin said.

"We want to use existing materials, not conjured as we may have to wait for some time before we are in a position to deal with the item in question. We can take a sample of each substance and sort of 'mould' it around the item, moulding will not affect the base material, just its external shape." Hermione lectured. "Porcelain followed by glass, then quartz and lead, then wrap it in paper. We may look at adding other layers, later, it depends on resistance. Ours and its."

"Very well." Thorin sat back in his seat. "Consider me an observer, only. From here, you need to negotiate with… Bilbo." For some reason, Thorin had difficulty addressing Bilbo be his given name.

"Bilbo?" Hermione turned to the hobbit. "Will you work with us? Let us seal it, so it can't be used?"

Thorin absently noted that no-one had actually said what the item was.

Bilbo nodded. "I will." He reached into his pocket and pulled out his hand. Laying it on the table in front of him, he opened his hand and let its contents settle onto the table.

Thunk.

Thorin's eyes focused on the small band of gold and alarm filled him. "Durin help us…" He whispered. "Is that…?"

"Yes, we believe it is." Hermione replied, without actually answering.

"Mahal…" He moaned.

"Now, now, Thorin, give us a chance. We have a plan to render it mute, then we can work towards Erebor and the dragon, and let that," Hermione nodded towards the Ring on the table, "sit where no-one but Bilbo can access it and he won't be able to use it, as we'll have it encased in so many layers that he won't even be able to touch it."

Thorin just sat there, his head in his hands, moaning 'no' over and over.

Bilbo looked from Thorin to Harry to Hermione. "Do I even want to know?" He asked.

"No, you do not." Thorin snapped. "Do not tell him, until it is encased in at least two layers."

"I have to agree with Thorin." Harry said.

"Do it." Bilbo leant away from the table. If it was that bad, he wanted it away from him.

"Give me a few moments. Harry? You're the least likely to be susceptible, you get to guard it. Leave it on the table and don't let anyone touch it." Hermione stood, turned from the table and walked to a window, opening it, she waved and after a few seconds, a dark nearly black barn owl flew in through the open window and as it passed Hermione, it transformed from an owl into a man. "Thank you for coming, Severus."

"Not at all, Miss Granger." Severus Snape intoned in his typical formal manner and followed Hermione back to the table.

"Severus is going to work with Harry and I to do this." Hermione explained to Thorin and Bilbo. And Harry. "Harry is going to shield us, he's the most powerful of us all and the one that's most resistant to dark magics. Severus will hold the various components in a semi-liquid form, while I levitate the item, at which point Severus will force the semi-liquid to envelope the item, then he will allow the semi-liquid to revert back to its natural structure."

"But with the… item… inside it?" Bilbo asked, having caught the fact that Hermione wasn't naming the item.

"Precisely." Hermione nodded.

An hour and a half later, the five sat around the table looking at what appeared to be a small lead cannonball.

"I hope, Miss Granger, that this is something we will not be repeating in the near future?" Snape's silky voice was tired and quiet.

"I certainly hope not, Professor." Hermione agreed.

Harry barely had the energy to nod and grunt his agreement.

"That was… That was astounding…" Thorin declared, his face showing his approval.

"It was…" Bilbo nodded, his eyes still wide from what he'd just seen.

"It was a little more… aggressive… than I expected." Hermione admitted.

"But you still did it." Bilbo whispered.

"We did." Snape agreed. "I never thought I would be grateful that Potter's as stubborn as he is. But… I am." Snape turned to Harry. "Well done. That could have been quite nasty, if not for that second shield. What was it?"

"Protego horribilis in parseltongue." Harry muttered, just loud enough to hear.

"Ah. A shield charm, cast in a non-human language, with a custom wand, by a Gryffindor. That would definitely make a dark lord shudder." The older wizard nodded.

"Yep. Snakeface might have though twice about facing me, if he'd known I had started to play with casting in parseltongue." Harry agreed.

"Yes… he likely would have." Snape dragged himself to his feet. "I shall leave you now, I am in need of rest and replenishment. I would suggest that you two not lengthen your own recovery by delaying."

"We shan't." Hermione nodded. "Just a short explanation for Bilbo and we're done. Once you leave, Miss Sissy, Draco, Minerva and Headley will be along to… monitor our recovery."

"Excellent. Good afternoon, Miss Granger, gentlemen." Snape bowed to them all and walked from the room, slowly it might be said, but calmly and under his own steam.

"An explanation?" Bilbo asked.

"An explanation." Hermione nodded.

Bilbo sighed and nodded. "Explain away."

"This…" she nodded to the cannonball-like orb, "was the most dangerous thing that you might have ever faced."

"More dangerous than a dragon?" Bilbo gulped.

"Oh, far more dangerous. Think, Bilbo, think. It's a ring. What important or dangerous rings do you know of?" Hermione sighed.

Bilbo frowned, tilting his head in thought. It took maybe a minute and a half, but Bilbo's eyes widened alarmingly, and he pushed back from the table in a reflex action, causing Thorin to grab at the hobbit's chair as it skidded away from the table.

"It's THAT ring?!" Bilbo screeched.

"It's that ring." Hermione nodded.

"Ooh… I feel ill…" Bilbo wobbled on his feet.

"Now, Master Baggins…" Thorin said sharply. "No more fainting. You've faced orcs and wargs and both have fallen under your blade. Surely, a ring that can no longer influence you, is no cause for fainting."

Bilbo swung to face Thorin and his eyes narrowed. "You try carrying that blasted thing, naked of any protections, in your pocket, and then tell me, 'it's no cause for fainting', you… you… dwarf!" Bilbo snarled.

Thorin's eye widened and he leant back a little. "Ah, no, thank you but no, Master Baggins, I don't believe that would be wise."

"Then I suggest you keep your opinions on the matter, to yourself, Master Oakenshield." Bilbo turned back to Hermione. "What do you plan to do with it now?"

Hermione pulled out a small pouch and opened it just wide enough to push the metal orb into the pouch. Then she pushed the pouch towards Bilbo. His eyes widened and he pushed it back towards Hermione.

"Oh, no! I want nothing to do with that… thing." He sneered.

"Exactly." Hermione nodded. "This pouch can hold the ring. Nothing else just the ring. And if you accept, we will tie it to both Harry's and my magical signatures, meaning that only together can we open it. Then, we seal that pouch and place it inside the extended pouch that's tied to your magical signature. That stops Harry or I from accessing it."

"Then what?" Bilbo asked.

"Then, nothing. You can't open the inner pouch and neither Harry nor I can get to it, because of the outer pouch being tied to you." Hermione said. "You ignore it, forget it's there. Leave in the bottom of the extended pouch, put all your stuff in on top of it. Forget it's there."

"We could add a notice-me-not." Harry offered.

"Hmm… maybe not a notice-me-not, maybe a disillusionment charm…" Hermione mused.

"Why not both?" Thorin asked.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other, silently asking the same question.

"What about a… repelling charm, but specifically targeted to Bilbo?" Harry asked. "Or put a pocket in the main pouch and put all these on it? Bilbo knows it's there but can't access it."

"Or a modified memory charm. Bilbo would know there's a pocket there, but he'll think it's empty or we could attach-"

"Oh, oh! A pocket, Bilbo knows it's there, but the 'Bilbo' repelling charm is only active if Bilbo opens the pocket. If one of us were to be present we could dismiss the charm and Bilbo could remove the ring(?)… ball(?)… thing." Harry crowed tiredly.

"Oh, oh yes, Harry, that's perfect. But I'd have to… rework the pouch." Hermione smiled at him.

"Nah. Just make a new one, give that one to someone else." Harry disagreed.

Hermione blinked. "That would work."

"Always the tone of surprise." Harry snarked, then fell silent.

"Yeah…" Hermione whispered. "I miss him, too."

"Not enough to give up Draco." It wasn't a question.

"No, not enough to do that." Hermione nodded.

"I shall be thankful of that, then, shall I?" Draco said as he came in the door.

"I think that's a given." Minerva said as she followed him.

"So… when are you two going to make it official and give me some cousins?" Headley asked from the doorway.

Draco and Hermione looked at each other and smirked, matching smirks.

"Oh, crap…" Harry whispered. "I remember that look. Headley, you had to ask, didn't you? You just had to ask." The last two sentences were whined.

"Oh, hush you. And we're getting married on Saturday." Hermione smacked at Harry's shoulder.

"Saturday?" Harry sat up straight. "You can't. He didn't ask permission." He objected.

"Yes, I did. I just didn't ask you, Potter. Bill brought Hermione and Luna into his family and it was to him that I went." Draco corrected.

"Oh… oh, okay…" Harry slumped back in his seat. "That's okay, then…"

"Merlin save us from overprotective Potters." Minerva huffed. "Your father was much the same, cursed poor Frank to be Slytherin green for a week when he failed to notify James that he and Alice had eloped and were pregnant. Now, come on, Potter. Bed. Severus said that you almost overextended yourself." She dragged an objecting Harry to his feet and Headley came forward and slid himself under Harry's other arm. Between the witch and the young wizard, they gently bullied Harry to his feet, out of the room, down the hallway and into a bedroom. "You can sleep here, for now."

"Ta… Talk to Hermione about Bilbo's pouch." Harry muttered as he snuggled down into the fluffy bedding.

"Sleep." Headley tucked the covers over Harry's shoulders. "Let us deal with it."

"…hmm… 'kay… nigh'…" And Harry was gone, dreams of flying with Buckbeak and Charlie filling his mind.

Dori and Ori clung to Nori, their faces almost panicked with fear.

"It's alright, just watch, Fred and George won't let the bludgers near the girls, just watch." Harry patted them on the shoulders, from his seat behind them. "There, see? Told ya." He snorted. "That's what beaters are all about." Dwalin squawked and ducked his head. "Yeah, ya gotta watch out. Quidditch can be a bit interactive." He laughed as Natalie whizzed by, just a foot above their heads. "Keep an eye on Draco and Charlie, too. Neither of them have spotted the snitch, yet."

"And you have?" Gloín retorted.

"Yeah, 'o course." Harry replied. "About two minutes ago. I'm just waiting for one of them to see it. Or… for it to swing around passed here, if I grab it, the game's still over, but neither team wins. No points for that."

Balin leant around a Bofur that winced as Sirius belted the bludger away from Angelina. "How are the points decided? You said the teams are selected randomly. How do you determine points?"

"Oh, we're not, not yet anyway." Harry answered. "This is only a fun match. We're still hammering out the details, but we're eventually going to have three teams. The problem is… working out who's going to be on what team? Most of us were Gryffindors and a good chunk of us either played together or are family. Dividing us up? That's… not easy. Oh, yeah, sure, we know that some people will be chosen together, splitting them up just won't work. Fred and George? Splitting them is useless, they can't work separately. Katie, Alicia and Angelina are pretty much the same. It's just the rest that's… causing a headache."

"I see…" Balin paused as Draco did a sudden dive and looped back in the opposite direction, causing Charlie to swear and lean into a sharp turn to his left.

A heart-stopping few minutes as Draco and Charlie fought for position in the race to be first to catch the snitch, had the dwarves on the edge of their seats. At the same time, Natalie, Minerva and Fleur were running Katie, Alicia and Angelina from one end of the pitch to the other.

"Are all your games like this?" Kíli asked from the other side of Thorin.

"Nah, this is only a fun match." Harry repeated. "Not as competitive as we usually get, but Natalie is only a fourth year up against adults that have worked together for years. Plus, Sirius and Remus haven't played for nearly twenty years. We didn't want to break them before they got started."

"Not as competitive?" Bilbo shuddered.

"Oh, no. No way near it." Harry laughed. "Draco wants me to challenge Charlie to a seeker duel. Draco and I are fairly evenly matched, depends on the day. But Charlie? I've been listening to Fred, George, Ron and Ginny go on about Charlie being a brilliant seeker, for years. It's time we found out just how good he is."

"Seeker duels are the highest level of competitive, that quidditch reaches." Hermione huffed. "We're taking bets. Or… Narcissa is, everyone else is betting. Even Minerva."

"Ooh, I wonder which way she's leaning?" Harry whistled.

"Don't know, not asking." Hermione shook her head.

A slight buzz distracted Harry's attention and his seeker training kicked in, his hand raised and faster than any of the dwarves could blink, his fingers closed around a small golden ball with wings.

Hermione snorted again and raised her wand to her throat. "Sonorus." She said and when she spoke next her voice was amplified. "Game! Harry has the snitch."

A few muttered expletives came from the other side of the pitch where Draco and Charlie were stalking something that appeared to not be a snitch, after all.

"Master Harry?" Balin turned to Harry after looking at the other dwarves. "I think I can safely say that very few of our Company are interested in watching you play quidditch and on a regular basis and I think that even fewer are interested in playing quidditch." Dori frantically nodded, while Ori exchanged eager glances with Fíli and Kíli.

"Everyone to their own, Balin. Hermione's into books, Lavender's into clothes, Fred and George are into pranks, Severus is into potions, I'm not. Quidditch and teaching are more my things." Harry shrugged.