A/N:Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I appreciate it so much! Here's the next chapter of my story! Sorry it's kind of short...Please let me know what you think!

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Every step he took required the strength needed to move mountains. Draco's legs were losing all feeling and his head spun. This was not a normal infection, he thought hazily. There must have been some type of poison on the arrow.

Hermione and Oin held him up, but neither were strong enough to support his full weight. They ran into Bofur who informed them that he had missed the boat. Bofur peered at Draco with concerned eyes, then bid them to follow him.

Bofur led them to Bard's house and knocked on the door. Bard answered, and almost slammed the door in their faces when he realized who it was.

"No, I'm done with dwarves. Go away!" He made to shut the door, but Bofur stuck his foot in the way.

"No! No one will help us!" Hermione pleaded. "Draco's sick. And I don't know how long he can last."

Bard sized up their rather pathetic looking group before reluctantly stepping aside and letting them in.

Draco immediately collapsed on the cot. He began to shiver uncontrollably as his mind slipped between conscious and unconsciousness.

Another cry of agony left his lips. He tried to control the amount of pain he was giving away, but by Merlin did it hurt. Hermione was fluttering all around him, trying to keep his temperature down, but he knew that she was too scared to try any serious spells.

"Can you not do something?" She begged Oin.

"I need herbs," he grunted.

"We have nightshade and feverfew," Bard offered.

"They're no use to me," Oin snapped. "Do you have any Kingsfoil?"

"No, it's a weed. We feed it to the pigs."

"Pigs?" Bofur wondered to himself. "Weed. Right." He glanced at Draco's pain riddled form. "Don't move."

Draco noticed Hermione open her mouth to call out to Bofur, but shut it quickly and continued trying to get him to sip some warm water.

Eternities later, Draco could no longer hold in the screams of anguish. His veins burned, yet he still shivered. He was asleep, yet still awake. Hermione was desperately shushing him, trying to sooth him, but nothing, nothing could rescue him from the pain he was feeling.

He barely registered the house shake, and Bard rushed from the house with the Black Arrow in hand.

There was a movement outside, and everyone but Draco froze up. Bard's brave daughter opened the door and called out, "Da? Is that you Da?"

A scream of horror erupted from her mouth as she backed up and tried closing the door behind her. Orcs.

Hermione leapt up and began shooting curses and jinxes at them, but there simply were too many. But suddenly, the orcs began dying much faster. Someone must have come to help, Draco thought deliriously. An orc approached him and leered at him as it prepared to kill him. Draco lunged from the table with what remaining strength he had at the stand where he could see his wand sitting upon. The orc grabbed him, and he struggled, kicking and punching wildly until it fell over dead. An arrow protruded from its head. A very familiar arrow that had saved him once already. Tauriel. She was here.

That was all that mattered to Draco as he lost conscious thought and slipped into the painful dark.

He was trapped in one of his worst nightmares. Darkness enveloped him, and his vision was hazy. Draco made out nine hazy figures that stood in a semi-circle around him. Something or someone was whispering in his ear and a language the did not understand. Draco felt detached from his body. The figures whispered at him to just leave his body. He had no more use for it. He was dead. His body would be used to find it. He had no idea what 'it' was, but he knew that whatever it was, it could be extremely dangerous in the hands of these nine.

Join us…The voices hissed. It would be so…easy. He felt his soul take a step away from his body towards the creatures. Yesss… Come closer… they encouraged softly in his ear.

Out of his peripheral vision, something caught his eye. It was a beam of bright white light. It shone through the darkness, and Draco staggered back in surprise. The figure of a beautiful woman stood in the middle of the light. She wanted him to follow her. He hesitantly took a step towards her. She had vivid red hair.

"Tauriel," He whispered. He walked faster towards her. She reached out a hand towards him, and pulled him back.

"Tauriel," He repeated when he opened his eyes and saw her leaning above him, still bathed in light.

"Lie still," she soothed him, her voice softly commanding him.

"You cannot be her," He realized. "She is…far…far away from me. She walks in starlight in another world. It was just a dream."

His delirious mind was playing tricks on him when he imagined reaching out and touching her hand. It wasn't until he felt a gentle, but ever so present pressure of her fingers against his that he realized that he had actually reached out towards her.

"Do you think she could have loved me?"

A/N: Please leave a review! Did you enjoy this chapter? Thanks!