"Italics" - Elvish, Sindarin
'Normal' -thoughts to one's self
'Italics' - thought speak (thought speak only applies with Galadriel)
A/N: I do not own Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, or The Hobbit.
Victoria stared in shock as the now flaming Lake-town cast the dragon in bright firelight. Smaug was easily twice the size of the Hungarian Horntail she had faced off against in another life. Screams of fear and panic rolled across the lake.
The dragon seemed to revel in fear as well as destruction, flying low over the town, eliciting new waves of screams with each pass. Victoria jumped off Luna, leaving Tauriel in the saddle.
"You must leave the dragon to me. Help the survivors in Lake-town. Get them to the ruins of Dale," said Victoria, looking at the elf. Tauriel appeared conflicted leaving the Wizard's side, but she nodded her acquiescence. As Victoria turned back to gaze at the city, Smaug made a second pass over Lake-town, setting ablaze another swath of the city on the water with dragon's fire. With the Supersensory Charm still active, Victoria was looking for a suitable spot to apparate on the shore next to the town, when a conical beam of light shot forth from the north. The pure white light struck Smaug in his eyes while the dragon was making another pass over Lake-town.
The dragon seemed blinded for a second, flailing in the air to right itself. He almost crashed into the lake before his wings caught the air again, each beat of his wings bringing Smaug higher into the sky. Smaug let loose a roar after rising hundreds of feet off the ground, looking around for the person who would dare attack him.
Half way between the ruins of Dale and Lake-town on the western side of the River Running, rode Gandalf on a pale brown horse, the top of his staff shining bright in the darkness of night. As Smaug growled again and started flying toward Gandalf, Victoria noticed the distance between her and the other wizard. There was about twenty miles of unfamiliar territory and a river separating them. Even her enhanced eyesight didn't give her a clear enough view to risk apparating all the way there in one try.
'Might as well start making my way to certain doom,' thought Victoria as she apparated north about five miles.
'Well, that worked perfectly,' Gandalf thought to himself, glad to have gotten the dragon's attention. 'Now, exactly what was the next part of my plan?'
In the fiery glow given off by the half burning city, Gandalf could see Smaug quickly closing the distance between them. But Gandalf pushed his horse borrowed from Lake-town further on, confident he could devise a plan. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the hope that help would soon arrive also spurred him on.
Faster than Gandalf would have liked, Smaug swooped down to hover twenty feet above the ground in front of him. His wings flapped furiously, creating terrible gust of wind. Gandalf's horse unfortunately choose that moment to panic and reared straight up. The mount was quickly blown backwards, falling over and sending Gandalf tumbling to the ground. Gandalf hit the ground hard on his back, but was thankful to land on nothing but grass. With agility that belied his appearance, the Grey Wizard quickly pulled himself up and started backing away from the dragon that just descended to the ground with a giant tremor rocking the area upon landing.
Taking stock of the situation, Gandalf cursed himself for dropping his staff when he fell from the horse. His staff now laying next to the horse, who was still on the ground in obvious pain. 'It must have broken a leg or two in that fall.' The thought passed through his mind as he watched the dragon, now with all four legs on the ground, glaring at him over the fallen horse.
"Tell me Wizard, how do you now plan to challenge me?" Smaug asked in a sinister voice.
Gandalf could begin to see the belly of the beast start to glow red hot as a distant cracking sound was heard. And then another that deposited a black clad figure not more than a step in front of Gandalf and a little to his right. The image of a feminine hand holding a wand of dark wood and a sapphire ring told him who stood before him.
The Grey Wizard watched the Black sweep her wand horizontally at the fallen horse. Instantly, Gandalf's staff rose off the ground and flew into his waiting left hand.
As the dragon let loose a blast of flames at the pair, Gandalf heard Victoria shout, "Ventus." He saw Vilya flare bright blue as a gale of wind burst out of her wand. Dragon's fire met a torrent of air directly over the downed horse. The Wind Charm collided with the flame, halting it and pushing it off in all directions. The horse instantly caught fire, and its agonizing cries could be heard even over the roar of the battling elements overhead. The poor beast didn't die until a full minute later, after Smaug closed his mouth, ending the barrage of fire. Seeing the attack stop, Gandalf watched his fellow wizard drop the spell, but she kept her wand at the ready.
The fact that the dragon in front of her wore an evil grin as it looked her up and down, as if it was gauging her power and found her wanting, unnerved her to no end. No dragon she ever met was this intelligent. Granted she only ever met three dragons up close before and one was only a baby.
"And who are you little girl? I guess it matters not. I will melt to flesh from your bones and-"
"Expulso."
Blue light shot from the Elder Wand at great speed, impacting on the roof of the dragon's mouth with a brilliant azure explosion. The dragon closed its mouth and thrash his head side-to-side as if to deal with the pain. 'Of course, this wouldn't be as easy at the trolls,' Victoria thought.
"Don't you hate it when they talk to much?" asked Victoria over her shoulder to Gandalf. Gandalf merely moved to stand at her left side, staff at the ready.
"You wouldn't happen to have a plan would you, old man?"
"I was about to ask you that very question, my dear." Gandalf gave her a small smile she saw out of the corner of her eye.
"I've got something of a plan. More of an idea, really. I've heard an interesting rumor. Now, we just have to live long enough to see if it's true." Victoria saw Smaug had finally shook off the pain and moved to take them both out with a swipe of his tail. Gandalf took a step back as Victoria took a step forward, lining themselves up to defend against the attack. 'Protego,' thought Victoria as she slashed her wand in a upward motion just as she saw Gandalf jab to tip of his staff forward. Twin blue shield crackled into existence in front of the two. The dragon's tail impacted on the shields with tremendous gong sound that left Victoria's ears ringing for a second.
Her hearing cleared in time for her to hear Gandalf say, "Easier said than done."
"Poor souls," Thorin heard Balin mutter as the company stood on a rocky outcrop near Dale. The rest of the dwarves and Bilbo looked on as Lake-town burned. Gandalf had gave pursuit of the beast when it broke through the front gates. His heart told him he should be feeling sorrow at the lost of life. He should witness what his quest had brought down on the lake people. But he could not tear his eye's away from the mountain. All that gold inside. And the Arkenstone waiting to be found. His birthright returned at long last. Thorin could still picture the King's Jewel in his mind, adorning the top of Thror's throne.
"The dragon has met Gandalf in the open field." Thorin gave no heed to the hobbits words, all his thoughts consumed by treasure.
"Gandalf's horse has thrown him!" Bilbo all but shouted. This drew Thorin's attention.
'Idiot Wizard, he should have stayed with us,' he thought.
"Your eyes seem better than mine, Master Baggins. Tell us what you can see," Dwalin said.
"Something black just appeared right in front of Gandalf," Bilbo stated. "Oh my goodness, it's Victoria. She's come back!"
Suddenly, Thorin's mind lost it grip on the image of gold and jewel and was filled with the picture of Victoria smiling kindly at him. Like he was her hope. Her hope for a better future.
'No,' he thought furiously. 'The wealth of Erebor is my birthright. It belongs to me. Nobody else!"
Victoria was at a lost as to what to do. She needed time to search for the missing scale, if the dragon was indeed missing a scale. But she was the more mobile of the two wizards with her ability to apparate. Letting Gandalf be the distraction while she searched put the older wizard at risk. She dare not risk telling Gandalf about the scale for fear of Smaug overhearing. If the rumor was true, the dragon would know too much of their only hope. 'Nothing for it,' she thought as the dragon withdrew his tail.
"You go left, I'll go right. Try and get his attention. In my old world, a dragon's weak point was his eyes. Aim your spells at his eyes," Victoria whispered, starting to move off to the right in a wide circle around the dragon, not waiting to see if Gandalf complied or not. By the way the dragon's eyes were now dancing between two targets moving farther apart she guessed he had. She waited for Gandalf to make the first move as she drew out Glamdring. As the ringing of the sword leaving it sheath came to an end, Victoria saw a bright white light impact on the dragon's face. Whatever spell Gandalf used didn't do more than anger Smaug, but the dragon turned to face the Grey Wizard more fully, leaving his right side slightly exposed to Victoria. She found no missing scale as the dragon swept it tail at Gandalf again, the wizard deftly jumping backwards to barely avoid being hit. Victoria shot out another Expulso Curse at the eye visible to her on the dragon's face.
Her blue spell exploded directly on the dragon's eye just as Gandalf discharged another wave of power at Smaug's other eye. A brilliant light show of blue and white erupted around the dragon's head. Smaug reared back and roared into the sky, either from pain or frustration, Victoria didn't know. When all four legs of the dragon returned to the earth, she saw his face unmarred and angry.
Victoria watched the dragon glare at Gandalf with utter loathing as it opened its mouth. A burning glow emanated from the beast's mouth and stomach. As golden light peaked out from beneath the scales on the dragon's underbelly, Victoria saw it, the missing scale.
An inferno burst forth from Smaug's mouth as Victoria saw Gandalf slammed the end of his staff into the ground and Narya pulsed red on his hand. The river of flame seemed to part around Gandalf as Victoria threw her sword out into the air in front of her, point first.
"Depulso," she shouted, sweeping the Elder Wand in front of her. The Banishing Charm caught Glamdring as it began to fall to the ground and propelled it forward at great speed. The sword forged by the High Elves gave off a pale white reflection of moonlight as it arced through the air toward its target. Glamdring buried itself to the hilt into the dragon's hide exposed by the missing scale. The dragon's fire stopped immediately, Victoria saw in her peripheral vision. But the light still burned behind its eyes.
Victoria brought the Elder Wand in front of her, grasping it with both hands, as she unleashed everything she could at once into a bolt of lightning that struck Glamdring's hilt, still embedded in the dragon's side.
Night suddenly became day as the light given off out shown the moon. Vilya flared brighter than ever as Victoria pushed all the magic that she could into the electricity pouring out of her wand. The dragon's huge body twitched and writhed as raw power ran through it. The energy coming out of her was tremendous and she quickly felt her core depleting.
Smaug's head convulsed into view, howls of pain letting her know he wasn't dead yet. Storm clouds began to appear overhead, thunder starting to rumble over the fields.
Victoria was almost spent, but she could feel the power above her and reached out, trying to tap it. A new wave of ambient energy rushed into her core and out her wand.
Just as the dragon's body stiffened and the cruel fire behind its eyes grew dark, Victoria felt it. Her magic core was empty. Both dragon and wizard fell to the ground, landing simultaneously. Victoria landed on her back, looking up at the stars.
She drew in a breath.
'The stars are pretty tonight.'
She exhaled and took a second breath.
'The dragon is dead. That's all the matter.'
She inhaled her last breath as Gandalf's face swam into her view.
'I liked Gandalf. He was a nice man.'
As she exhaled, her eyes closed of their own accord and Smaug the Terrible claimed his last victim.
As the bright light faded away Ori asked, "What happened?"
"The dragon's fallen over. I see it." Bilbo looked out in awe. "It's dead. Smaug is dead."
Thorin felt a great weight lift off his heart. He barely heard Gloin remark about the birds returning to the mountain.
"Aye. Word will spread. Before long every soul in Middle Earth will know the dragon is dead!" Balin shouted.
Thorin's thought turned again to Erebor and its riches. He needed to secure the front gate. He needed to find the Arkenstone to summon the seven armies. Enemies from all around would try to take what was his.
"Wait!" Bilbo yelled. "Victoria's not getting up. Oh no. The way Gandalf's cradling her head. I think she's..." Bilbo was unable to finish as tears began to leak from his eyes.
All thoughts of the mountain flew from Thorin's mind. He rushed down the stone stairs, intending to find out if his loyal wizard friend was indeed dead.
Gandalf was confused. Confused and highly distraught. Everything he know about the race of Men told him Victoria was dead. Her heart did not beat. Her lungs did not draw breath. But he could sense it. Light shining dimly inside her. And the storm clouds overhead had not dispersed. On the contrary, they swirled about and continued to grow, taking up more of the night sky.
So Gandalf continued to sit there on his knees with the fallen wizard's head on his lap. He muttered every healing spell he knew in every language he could remember, to no avail. He was still whispering spells when the sun crept over the horizon. Gandalf might have thought the sight beautiful, the dawn light reflecting off the dark clouds above them if the situation weren't so sobering.
The wizard snapped to attention as he felt two things at once. He felt a dwarf draw close and he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He looked up to see the clouds beginning to form a vortex directly over the Black Wizard's body.
"Stay back!" Gandalf yelled as Thorin approached. The Grey Wizard backed away and ran to stand beside the dwarf.
A moment later, a bolt of lightning shot straight down out of the storm clouds, completely engulfing Victoria's body.
She didn't know how long she had been here. Seconds? Eons? But the view was nice. Way better than King's Cross Station. Planets, stars, and whole galaxies passed by her vision. At times event flashed before her. A spider bigger and definitely more evil the Aragog killing two beautiful trees. An elf on a flying boat killing a mighty dragon as war raged all around. A star-shaped paradise island flooded and sunk beneath the waves.
The only thought she had was she rather look at the stars again when she felt an almost familiar pull, like a portkey. But she really didn't have a navel to pull on at the moment was the last thing that passed through her consciousness before everything went black.
Black, then immediately blinding white. A few seconds passed before the light faded away and she removed her hand from before her eyes. realizing she had hands again.
Victoria instantly felt herself falling, but not very far as she landed on her feet gently on the ground. She surmised to had been floating a few feet off the ground. Looking around, she saw Gandalf and Thorin gazing at her with shock and relief. Gandalf schooled his features first and began walking toward her.
"I do not know whether to praise you and rant at you for your rash actions." The Grey Wizard face was set in a frown but Victoria saw the worry in his eyes.
"No time for planning, old man. Best plan we had. And I'm still alive." Victoria glanced over herself to find her body clean and her robes and armor in pristine condition.
"How do you feel?" Gandalf asked. "Your face has lost some of it's signs of worry and stress. You seem perfectly healthy. Odd considering I thought you dead."
Victoria felt better than ever. Reaching into her core she found herself fully charged with more of Arda's magic than ever. She could now feel that ambient magic running through her veins as well and could swear she heard the wind whisper soothing songs as the gusts passed by. Victoria had died and she came back different. She told Gandalf as much.
"I think," Gandalf said with an appraising eye, "that you have returned to us a little more like a Wizard of Middle-Earth."
"What the hell is that suppose to mean?" asked the raven haired wizard.
Gandalf smiled a wide, grandfatherly smile and said, "Did you know that I have not aged a day since arriving in Middle-Earth?"
"What? You don't mean..." Victoria's usually clear mind stumbled to put the pieces together. "But that would mean..."
"That would mean what, my dear?" asked the Grey Wizard kindly.
"Nothing!" she answered a bit too quickly. Victoria's mind had instantly went to the lovely image of Tauriel. If she no longer aged like Gandalf suggested then perhaps a future with the beautiful, intelligent elf was possible. She had even agreed to travel with Victoria when the quest came to an end. She thought that end would be with the dragon, but another army marched toward them still.
'What if Tauriel agreed to be your traveling companion just to fight against the darkness? What if she will only ever see you as a friend or ally?' The thoughts came unbidden in her mind. She would merely have to wait and see. See if Tauriel developed any romantic feelings. See if she would truly stop aging. Those were questions for another time, now lives still stood in the balance.
"This isn't over, Gandalf." Victoria patted the other wizard on the shoulder as she moved passed him to shout at Thorin.
"Where are the others?"
Thorin moved forward to meet her. "They are on an outcrop of rocks close to the ruins of Dale."
Turning to see that Gandalf had followed her, she spoke to both. "Go get them and meet me in front of the Gates of Erebor."
'Tauriel, the dragon is slain. Meet me in front of the mountain in two hours.' Victoria held this message in her mind along with the image of the beautiful elf as she said, "Expecto Patronum." A white eagle erupted from the Elder Wand and flew off toward the ruined city.
"And what pray tell will you be doing while we gather the others?" asked Gandalf, watching the white spell zoom off.
"Getting my sword out from under that very large, dead dragon," Victoria replied with a grin.
She was glad she sent those two away, saving herself some embarrassment. Dragon scales and hide, it seemed, were resistant to magic like her old world. Victoria found she couldn't just levitate the damn thing. Even with her Wind Charm at full blast, it took fifteen minutes to roll the dragon's corpse over enough to retrieve Glamdring.
"Accio," Victoria said, watching her sword fly gracefully into her hand. Vanishing the dragon's blood from the blade, she studied her sword. No streaks in the metal from the lightning she poured through it. No nicks in the edge from the battles she had been in. Truly a remarkable weapon to be unblemished after thousands of years.
Sheathing Glamdring, Victoria apparated closer to Dale so she could see Erebor's front gate. She didn't expect to see two riders already waiting there. One was clearly Tauriel riding Luna, the other a blonde male elf she guessed from this distance before apparating again.
Victoria appeared on the bridge in front of the gate, directly before the two elves. She was surprised to see the male elf's horse not startle in the slightest. Up close she could now see he was an elf, wearing clothes and armor like Tauriel's. He rode a horse of pure white, contrasting greatly next to the pure black Luna. On his back he wore a bow and quiver and dual long knives, again much like Tauriel before she began wearing Arwen's old sword.
As she turned her gaze to Tauriel, their eyes met and she couldn't help the swell of hope that shot through her and the smile on her face. 'Maybe,' she thought to herself. Victoria never wanted immortality before. But that was before she found someone she could perhaps see herself with forever.
Tauriel dismounted quickly and ran to the wizard, embracing her tightly. "I saw what happened," she whispered in Victoria's ear. "My heart broke at the sight of you fallen." Damn elves and their long distance eye sight.
"I am still here. I promised we would go on adventures together, did I not?" she whispered back. As they broke apart Victoria saw a smile form on Tauriel's face as she turned to the other elf.
"This is Prince Legolas of the Woodland Realm and my dear friend," Tauriel said, gesturing to the elf now stepping down off his horse.
An emotion flared through Victoria that she hadn't felt since she saw Ginny and Dean Thomas together. She quickly squashed her jealousy as the elf prince came out from behind the white horse.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Istari. To think I lived to see a dragon defeated. It was truly impressive," Legolas said, holding out his hand so they could grasp forearms.
Victoria looked into his smiling face and gentle continuance and couldn't bring herself to dislike him. She reached forward and grasped his forearm and said, "The pleasure is mine. And please call me Victoria. Any friend of Tauriel's is a friend of mine."
As Legolas pulled back, he lost the gentleness she first witnessed. "I come bearing ill news. I followed the orc Bolg to Gundabad after he and his orc party gave up pursuit of Mithrandir and the dwarves." Victoria could see him bristle at the mention of dwarves. "Bolg now rides at the head of an army seven thousand strong. They march with a swarm of monstrous bats like a sea of locust overhead."
"When will they get here?" Victoria asked, dreading the answer.
"By noon, two days from now."
The trio sat quietly, each lost in their own minds while they waited on Mithrandir. 'They march in such force against us. Two wizards, thirteen dwarves, a hobbit, and whatever men and women are able to fight from the survivors of Lake-town. If they are even willing to fight. Do they expect us to hole up inside the mountain? They could lay siege to us with far fewer numbers. And who the hell needs bats to lay siege to a mountain. They must be expecting an army. Perhaps a dwarven army. Well, sorry to disappoint. More likely to get an elven army, if Thranduil's desire for those gems is enough to sway him to risk his people. But even that is not guaranteed.'
Victoria's head snapped up at the sound of someone approaching. Her gaze fell on Gandalf and the company. She stood and moved quickly toward them, giving Tauriel a gesture to stay back.
The company showered her with congratulations and well wishes that she was still alive after battling and killing a dragon. She took it all in stride and when that all died down she asked to speak with Thorin alone.
He accepted with a nod and the walked away from the gate. As they made it over the bridge, Victoria guessed they were out of ranged from even elf hearing. She stopped and turned toward her friend.
"Did you make a deal with the Elven King for passage through his land?" she asked, seeing his eye fill with hatred and disgust immediately.
"What of it?" he almost spat, giving her her answer.
"And the people of Lake-town, did you make any deals with them?"
Thorin's gaze lost the disgust but none of the hardness. "The wealth of the mountain in mine to protect. It is mine!"
"You made deals on the way to recovering that wealth."
"What choice did we have but to barter our birthright for weapons and food. To ransom our future in exchange for passage through a land we meant no harm. You call that a fair trade? Tell me, Victoria, the Dragonslayer, why should I honor such terms?" As he spoke with a snarl on his lips, Thorin grabbed the front of Victoria's robes, bringing them face to face.
"Because you gave them your word." Victoria tried to remain calm, but found it hard to see her friend so taken by greed.
"The gold is mine. Mine to protect! Mine to control!" Thorin yelled in her face.
Victoria brought her left hand up to cup Thorin's cheek. "Do you control the gold? Or does the gold control you?"
At Victoria's last words, Thorin felt himself swift for outside the mountain to inside the mountain, on top on piles of gold. He still held Victoria close to him with his hands. Try as him might, he couldn't let her go. And all the while she smiled that kind smile at him. So filled with hope. But he could find none. To his horror, the stack of gold began to melt around them, pooling below their feet. For a second, it appeared as if they were standing on a lake of liquid gold. Until a whirlpool began to form below them. Slowly they were both being pulled down into the molten gold lake.
Thorin struggled against the current, struggled to let go of Victoria, but could do neither. As they sank, Victoria still looked to him with light in her eyes. Until the gold reached their necks. Her face turn to one of utter disappointment as she looked at the dwarf and said, "You could have been so great." Thorin had no time to respond as the gold rose up to consume her beneath it. He let out a strangled yell of,"No!" before the gold devour him as well.
Thorin's grip on her robes hadn't lessen at all, but his eyes had gazed over and lost the hostility she had seen before. Victoria thought him lost inside his own mind. She was about to try to brake his hold on her when his eyes regained their sharpness and portrayed only horror. Thorin quickly let go, taking a step back and falling down on his knees.
"I am sorry," Thorin said through tears. "I have let my greed blind me."
"I know the power of magical treasure. And this gold seems to have the magic of a dragon's lust on it. There is nothing to forgive."
Thorin couldn't believe she was accepting his apology so easily until he looked up and saw that same smile filled with hope from his nightmarish vision.
"Now get up Thorin Oakenshield. We have two orc armies marching at us from the south and from the northwest. And we have an Elven King to appease because he has the only army that might help us near by."
As Victoria spoke, her smile dropped and her face became a mask of stone. "Needless to say, there is much to do."
A/N: Sorry for the longer than usual delay, and thank you for the reviews. The idea of a fem-harry killing Smaug with a solo version of Chrono and Frog's Dual Tech 'Spire' from Chrono Trigger was the idea that started me writing this story. I hope you all enjoyed it. Now I have to figure out how to make this whole large battle work, but I have some ideas. After the end of the Hobbit narrative, I think I'll have two chapter where Victoria and Tauriel go on missions a la Shadows of Mordor to the north of the Shire and explore their relationship. And those chapters will serve as an epilogue and that will be the end. Then I'll have to decided whether to carry this on into Lord of the Rings in another story.