A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed! Your support really helps keep the ideas coming!
Everything you recognize does not belong to me! Please read and review! Thanks!
"Hermione," Kili waved her over. "I wanted to give you this."
He held out a long silver sword to her. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. "Kili, I don't know how to use a sword."
"That's okay," Kili shrugged. "I could teach you."
"I have a wand." Hermione reminded him.
"I know, but-" Kili looked panicked. "What if someone disarms you? Then what?"
"So you are going to let me fight?" Hermione diverted the question.
"Would it be any use trying to fight you?" Kili rolled his eyes. "Besides, some of the fiercest warriors among dwarves are women."
Hermione beamed brightly at him.
"Still, will you take it?" Kili pressed the sword towards her, insistently.
"Alright," Hermione agreed took it from his hands. It was heavy, and she knew instantly that she preferred her wand, but whatever made Kili happy. And who knows? She might have to use it after all.
The two continued sorting through the pile of gold, when Hermione remembered one other thing.
"Kili," She began. "If you gave me that sword, I have something for you too."
She reached into her beaded bag and pulled out the mithril shirt. "Here."
Kili appraised it with wonder in his eyes. "Where did you find this?"
Hermione gestured vaguely towards where her and Draco had been working earlier.
"It will protect you." Hermione begged him to take it.
"You should wear this," Kili made to hand it back to her but she pushed it back towards him.
"I already have one," She lied easily.
His eyes searched her face and she stared coolly back. Her face was beginning to crack with desperation when he sighed and began taking off his shirt. Hermione blushed and turned back towards the pile of gold, examining a goblet with intense interest. She heard Kili chuckle behind her and she reached out to smack him upside the head. He stopped laughing immediately. Hermione plastered a smug smile on her face.
"Alright," Kili announced and spun Hermione around. "How do I look?"
The shirt was a little tight on him, but it fit nonetheless. The little chains of mithril glittered like diamonds in the light. Hermione resisted the urge to snort. From far away it would look like Kili was wearing a sequined shirt. "Like a girl." She teased.
"Hey!" Kili gave an indignant shout. "I do not!"
"Yes you do!" Hermione insisted. "I owned a shirt like that when I was around six and was still into all the girly things!"
Kili laughed, "You never struck me as one who liked sparkly things."
"Diamonds are a girl's best friend." Hermione sang.
"Here then," Kili scooped up a diamond necklace from the pile and tossed it towards her.
Hermione caught it with wide eyes then set it down. She would never get used to how easily and nonchalantly one could scoop up something easily worth a couple thousand galleons back home. "I can't, Kili, this is Thorin's treasure."
"You deserve some sort of payment for what you've done to help us."
"Maybe seeing the library?" Hermione suggested hopefully.
"Aye, I could show you that." Kili nodded and held out his hand.
Hermione squealed rather girlishly and eagerly grasped his outstretched hand.
Kili laughed again and pulled her out of the treasure room. Their footsteps echoed loudly in the halls as they ran, a few dwarves turned their heads at the ruckus, but turned back to their work shaking their heads.
Huffing and puffing, Hermione climbed another set of stairs. "Bloody hell," she swore. "How far up is it?"
"On the seventeenth floor." Kili replied.
Hermione groaned but continued to climb the stairs. Finally, they reached their destination and stopped in front of a pair of heavy stone doors. There was a gold latch on the handles, which Hermione gently lifted up. The sound of locks unlocking reached their ears before the old doors creaked open slowly. Hermione's breath was taken away.
Shelf after shelf of scrolls, books, and maps filled the enormous room. Hermione wandered in in amazement as she gingerly touched the ancient books that belonged to the dwarves. Scattered on a table to her right was maps of Middle Earth that Hermione could spend just hours pouring over them. She flipped open a book and her heart sank. She could not read it.
"It's written in Khuzdul." She whispered sadly.
"When this is over, I will teach you." Kili assured her.
This only made Hermione's eyes fill with sorrow. Here was another thing that he promised her, with all intentions of keeping, but she would never return. She would never learn to read the ancient language of the dwarves, she would never see Kili again after the battle.
Without any warning Hermione flung herself into his arms and clung to him. Slightly bemused, but happy nonetheless, Kili wrapped his arms around her and breathed into her bushy, unmanageable hair. There was something that she wasn't telling him, Kili realized somberly.
"Come on," He sighed. "The rest will be wondering where we are."
They were back to pawing through another pile of treasure when Kili suddenly asked, "Hermione, tell me about your childhood."
"Well, my parents were dentists, which are people who clean teeth, so they were fairly busy. But when they came home in the evenings, I would help my mother cook dinner." Hermione closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, she could almost smell the stew that was cooking on the stove while her mother's tinkling laugh filled the room.
"And after dinner, my father would teach me to dance, with me stepping on his feet and him swaying around to some music."
"Dance?" Kili wondered. "What kind of dance?" He stood up and did a happy little jig. "Like that?"
Hermione laughed, "Nah, it was slow dancing. Thank Merlin for that too, otherwise I would have embarrassed myself even more at the Yule Ball."
"Slow dancing?" Kili looked as if he had never heard of it. Which, Hermione thought dryly, he probably hasn't. Spending all his time in bars and pubs.
"Here, let me teach you." Hermione didn't know what possessed her to do so, but all she knew was that she wanted to spend as much time doing the things she loved with the one she loved before…well before she died. There's no use hiding from that, Hermione scolded herself, it is what it is.
Kili took her hand. Still grasping onto his hand, Hermione drew her wand and charmed it to play one of her mother's favorite tunes from when she was young.
How can I forget your love?
How can I never see you again?
Hermione ignored Kili's raised brows at her choice of song. She placed his hand around her waist and grasped the other in her own hand. Slowly, she began to sway to the music.
There's a time and place,
For one more sweet embrace.
And is time, ooh,
When it all, ooh,
Went wrong.
I guess you know by now,
That we will meet again, somehow.
After occasionally stepping on her toes, Kili began getting into the rhythm of the song. He began to lead her and the two spun around slowly on the spot.
Oh baby, how can I begin again?
How can I try to love someone new?
Someone who isn't you,
How can our love be true?
When I'm not, ooh,
I'm not over you.
Please get over me, Hermione silently prayed. But in some deep corner within her mind she knew that that was impossible. Dwarves fall in love only once. But I have to, Hermione pleaded with herself, he'll die if I don't.
I guess you know by now,
That we will meet again,
Somehow.
Time can come and take away the pain.
But I just want my memories to remain.
To hear your voice.
To see your face.
There's not one moment I'd erase.
You are a guest here, now.
She rested her head on his shoulder as the words to the song filled her mind. Hermione's eyes fluttered shut as she willed herself not to start blubbering like a fool. Kili could not know that she planned to do for him.
So baby, how can I forget your love?
How can I never see you again?
How can I ever know why some stay and others go?
When I don't, ooh,
I don't want you to go.
I guess I know by now.
That we will meet again, somehow.
Kili twirled her around as she gently murmured the words to the song.
"What are you two doing?" Thorin's voice cut through their moment of serenity.
"She was teaching me to dance, uncle," Kili's low voice explained nervously.
"Kili, you are not to fall for this distraction! You are of the line of Durin! I will not permit you to fool around with this…witch!"
"Do not speak of her that way!" Kili protested.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at the insult.
"You will help me find my grandfather's jewel." Thorin commanded his eyes filled with lust for the treasure.
"Yes, uncle," Kili finally submitted.
That night, dreams flashed quickly before Hermione's eyes. She was standing before a full-length mirror in a long trailing white satin dress. The neckline shimmered with jewels that decorated the bodice of the dress. The sleeves were tight to her elbow then fanned out and trailed behind her in a long train. But there, on Hermione's head was a silver mithril circlet fit for a princess. It draped elegantly on her head on top of her surprisingly tamed hair.
Hermione's wide eyes stared back at her. She raised a hand and delicately touched her face. Her vision swam and when she opened her eyes again she was standing before Kili.
Tears sprung into her eyes when she realized what she was seeing. Her wedding.
"I love you." Kili murmured in her ear, his voice thick with emotion, before kissing her soundly on the lips.
The scene changed again and she was standing before the same full-length mirror, but her appearance was not the same as before. She looked older, but happier than she had ever seen herself. Her cheeks were colored with mirth, and her eyes sparkled. Kili stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her and rested on her stomach. Hermione's throat choked up and her heart clenched painfully. While she had never been supermodel skinny, her stomach had always been relatively flat. But now, her stomach had swelled greatly. Upon closer inspection, Hermione noticed that her features had grown softer and fuller. Pregnant. The word filled her brain and rendered her speechless. The scene changed.
Hermione was rocking gently on a rocking chair. She glanced down and her already aching heart swelled as she saw the little bundle tucked gently in her arms. It was a girl, her daughter. She had dark curly hair that already hung past her shoulders. Soft, full pink lips pouted adorably at her. And when she opened her eyes…Merlin. Those wide eyes were the spitting image of Kili's. The door flew open and in burst a little boy waving a wooden sword. But when he noticed Hermione, he dropped the sword and scurried to her side. While his sister had Kili's dark hair, this boy had Hermione's honey colored hair that was already braided tightly behind his head. He grinned up at her and Hermione couldn't help but grin back.
"Mummy!" The boy sighed and wrapped his thin arms around her knees.
The scene began to grow hazy. "NO!" Hermione pleaded. She needed to spend just another minute with her son and cuddle with her daughter. Her children she would never get to meet. With a jolt in her navel, suddenly everything Hermione had already seen was playing backwards as if someone had pressed the rewind button. But instead of seeing herself in her beautiful wedding dress again, Hermione found herself outside in the cold.
It was snowing and all she could see was a lone figure hunched on the ground. She walked closer and her eyes widened when she saw that it was Kili kneeled on the ground. She squinted her eyes to see past the snow. He seemed to be in front of a headstone. Someone died, Hermione realized with horror. Who was it? Thorin? Fili? She immediately reached out to comfort him, but before her hand could touch his shoulder he gave a heart-wrenching sob.
"Why?" he choked out as he brushed angrily at his tears. "Why did you do that, you stupid, brave, beautiful witch?"
Hermione frowned. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, to reassure him that she was still there. But you won't be, a snide voice said in the back of her mind.
"Hermione," Kili's head drooped and his shoulders sagged. "I love you."
I love you, too! Hermione screamed in her head. Kili stood and began slowly walking back towards the snow-covered mountains, leaving Hermione by herself out in the cold.
A/N: Hola, so the song was "How" by Regina Spektor, I realize that it hadn't come out yet when Hermione was still on Earth, but I heard it the other day and it was just perfect. So sorry if that bothered you.