I'm terrible at writing battle scenes... honestly. I'm going to give it my best shot with the flight from the Wargs in the next chapter, but with the trolls... yeah, it really wasn't going to happen at this point. Perhaps I'll come back and add it later once I gained better writing abilities.

Disclaimer: Once again, own nothing... I'm not making money, I'm just doing it for fun. And my own sanity at this point.

Chapter 7: Ponies and Trolls

The company woke up early the next morning, knowing that Thorin would be eager to get moving after the orc cries from last night. Breakfast was a hurried affair and the ponies were saddled and mounted not a half an hour after everyone woke up. Arianna found herself once again riding behind Dwalin, next to Balin and, surprisingly, Gandalf and Isabella. Happy to finally be close to her friend during the day again, the two girls started talking, wondering if anyone had noticed them missing yet. None of the men appeared to be paying attention as the girls turned to talking about their friends back at Hogwarts and if the Weasley twins had gotten that hag Umbridge to run screaming from their castle yet. Laughing at the images that thought line had produced, the girls were startled when Thorin called for a halt, deciding it was time for lunch.

He had spent all morning listening to the girls endless babble and laughter. He sat down, rubbing his temples in an attempt to get rid of his headache, after ordering a fire to be made and lunch cooked. Dwalin sat down next to him, grumbling about how if he had to hear one more ridiculous prank, he was going to push a certain red head off the back of his pony. Slapping his old friend on the shoulder, Thorin told him that he would ask Gandalf to ride towards the back of the group for the rest of the day. After he finished deciding that, Balin walked up.

"Those girls sure are full of life, aren't they? Almost reminds me of what it felt like to be 50 again. I am slightly concerned though that if they and your nephews become better friends, we will have an unknown and unstoppable force to reckon with." Realizing that the older dwarf was quite correct, Thorin and Dwalin exchanged long-suffering looks. The lesser of two evils, it seemed, was to keep the girls where they had been all day- together and up front. Neither noticed Balin's secret smile; he greatly enjoyed listening to the girls' happy chatter and he already knew that the young princes and girls would become close no matter where they rode in line. 'It's about time we had more laughter in our lives' he thought.

They continued like this for many days. Arianna would ride with Dwalin and Isabella with Gandalf. Isabella eventually felt safe enough to start publically calling Gandalf "Grey-Grey"- when Gandalf wasn't around of course. Witch or not, she was positive Gandalf could kick her british tush in such a way that it would make Harry Potter's defeat of the Dark Lord when he was a baby look like a multi-hour battle. Every night the girls would hang out with Fili and Kili, laughing and joking and telling stories. They would eventually fall asleep in a small heap, the four of them keeping each other warm.

Eventually, the company stopped for the night at an old, half-destroyed building. Gandalf appeared to be agitated by the choice of camp. He and Thorin had an argument, with Gandalf eventually storming off, claiming to need to be in the presence of the only sane person in the group left: Himself.

Arianna and Isabella stood together on the outside of the group, waiting for Kili and Fili to get back from tending to the ponies so they could all eat together. When Bofur came over to give the girls their soup, he smiled, hoping that they would feel more at ease with him. He enjoyed listening to their stories at night and found them making him chuckle more and more at their antics. He also knew that Ori was quite taken with the pair; he was just too shy to even attempt to talk to them. " 'Ere lassies, get some warm food in ya. And if you don't mind, young Ori hasn't said much today. Perhaps you could go tell him one of your wonderful stories?" Bofur suggested with a smile, knowing that more dwarves than just Ori would enjoy listening and that it might be just what the young one needed to open up a bit more.

Smiling, Isabella led the way over to the bashful dwarf, who upon noticing the two, promptly spilled some of his soup on himself. Sitting down of either side of the now blushing dwarf, Isabella looked over at Arianna and winked. "Hey Ori, did I ever tell you about the time I set a pack of nifflers loose in my school's dorms?" Shaking his head no, Ori's eyes widened as Arianna first launched into a description of what a niffler was exactly and why it was extremely naughty of Isabella to let them loose in the Slytherin's dorm. She then turned the story back over to Isabella, who excitedly described in great detail the chaos that had resulted. "And then, Draco Malfoy let out this ungodly high pitched scream, and made a mad dash out of the common room, about 10 nifflers right on his heels!"

Right at this moment, Fili ran into camp. "Trollshavetakensomeoftheponi esandBilbowenttogetthemback!" he yelled, out of breath.

Cursing, Thorin jumped up, grabbed his sword and pointed at the girls. "Stay. Here." He growled. Arianna once again noticed that Thorin only seemed to have one tone… a growling one. "Like hell we're staying here." Arianna shouted back, with Isabella adding "Bilbo is our friend! We are not leaving him to the mercy of those creatures!" Growling, and looking like he'd just love to run Arianna through with his sword, he took off after Fili, the company and girls racing behind.

'Well,' Arianna thought, 'Harry Potter had more luck with a troll when he was 11 than we did with 13 dwarves, a hobbit, and two witches still pretending not to be witches.'

"We tell no one about this, it'll ruin our 7th year reputation" Isabella muttered. They were all currently stuck in burlap sacks, except for the dwarves tied to the log being rotated over the fire. In a heap off to the side lay the rest, with Isabella next to Kili, Fili at their feet. Arianna was stuck basically on top of Thorin, with Isabella's head on her legs. "This sucks! Where the hell is Quirrell when you need a stuttering, turban-wearing little troll-whisperer?" Isabella said again, looking at Arianna. "Then again, you have to deal with Thorin-the-Chair. My life is quite peachy right now." She added, smirking.

Arianna smirked too, right before kneeing her "friend" in the back of the head. Perhaps she should have been in Slytherin. Looking to her right, she saw Thorin trying his hardest not to make eye contact with her. "You look like a little dwarf potato" she whispered to the Prince. Quickly she turned her head before she caught his glare but mainly so he couldn't see her smile. She knew it wasn't the time nor place to make jokes but, she really couldn't help herself. He did look like a little potato.

"Think we could petrify them? I mean, this seems like quite the desperate situation." Isabella was once again whispering to her. "I would, but I can't reach my wand" Arianna muttered back, trying to be as quiet as possible, knowing that Thorin was glaring holes in the back of her head. She hoped his rage was making it difficult for him to hear.

"No wait! You don't want to be doing that! There is a secret to cooking dwarves." Everyone stared in surprise at Bilbo Baggins as he hopped towards the dwarves.

"Paw, wut would a lil burgla-hobbit know about cookin' dwarves?" One of the trolls asked. "No, let 'im finish! I wanta 'ear the secret!" the middle one exclaimed, smacking the first one. Both girls were watching the hobbit intently, wondering what he would say next.

"Well… the secret… the secret is… is… to skin them first!" Bilbo shouted. 'Oy' Isabella thought. 'Not the best suggestion Bilbo…'

"What?! Skin them? You've a barbarian! A sham! You don't skin a perfectly good dwarf, you lose all the precious juices. You do like juicy dwarf, don't you my fine gentlemen!"

Isabella felt struggling underneath her head as her best friend tried to stand up and hop over to Bilbo, amidst screams of outrage and horror. Isabella noticed that Kili and Fili looked particularly betrayed, while Thorin looked furious. Granted, he always looked furious.

"Seriously, you burgla-hobbit, who taught you to cook? A half-dead orc?" The look on Bilbo's face when Arianna pipped up and managed to hop over to him was priceless. But he seriously needed to keep talking now she thought. Glaring at him and attempting to telepathically get him to continue the banter about the best way to cook their friends, Arianna hoped that the clever little hobbit's plan worked. Realization crossed Bilbo's face as he shouted "I'll have you know, skinned dwarf has been a recipe passed down through the Took family for generations!"

"I agree wit' the little she-burgla-hobbit. They taste so much better 'ole!" the third troll declared, marching over and grabbing Bombur, dangling him over his mouth. "NO! Don't eat that one!" Bilbo shouted. "He has parasites!... uh, in his tubes! In fact, they all do, I wouldn't risk it, I really wouldn't." Arianna nodded vigorously as Bombur was thrown down on the pile, right where she had been laying before. Wincing, she was glad she had gotten up.

"Parasites?! We do not have parasites!" She heard Dori and Kili shout out, affronted once again. Bilbo shot them a pointed look as Arianna stared down the trolls, trying to look as much like a Malfoy as possible. A Malfoy could convince a troll to do anything she reasoned, so attempting to replicate their facial expressions of haughtiness seemed like a wonderful idea. She heard a swift thud behind her and then "Oh aye, we've all got parasites!" from Dori and "I've got the biggest parasites out of anyone!" out of Kili. Cries of "We're riddled with them!" and "Completely Infected!" were heard from the rotating spit over the fire.

The one troll was on to them… she thought his name Bob? "What do you think we should do then? Let 'em go?"

"Well… preferably, yes." Bilbo answered.

"May the Dawn Take You All!" As one, Arianna, Isabella, Bilbo and the dwarves that weren't tied up turned in shock. There stood Gandalf on a boulder, striking his staff down upon it. The boulder broke in two, allowing sunlight to pour onto the trolls.

They tried to run away but, the sun worked too quickly, turning them into giant, leering statues.

"God, I miss our trolls. They don't talk at all. Just grunt stupidly." Isabella said as she hopped up next to Arianna. Smiling, Arianna turned to the hobbit beside her. "Good thinking Bilbo. I'm sorry for my interruption… I was just worried that they would actually skin one of the dwarves before you could stop them. You handled it very well though. Parasites!" Laughing, she grabbed hold of Isabella's bag, allowing her friend to step out of it. Isabella returned the favor for Arianna, though both girls had to search through the sacks a bit to find their wands, which had fallen out of their pockets during the excitement. 'Thank god we didn't jump on them while we were hopping' Arianna thought. Safely and secretly tucking them away once more, the girls turned to catch the tail end of Gandalf and Thorin's conversation.

"There must be a cave nearby."

Well? Was it okay? I know Arianna did interrupt Bilbo's troll moment but, she didn't take command of it. Just gave him confidence to continue through with his plan :).