Summoned to Middle Earth

Ch. 25

That night Hermione had heard commotion from the town's people from somewhere within Lake Town; she did not bother to go and find out, she knew who would cause that much of noise. It would be the Dwarves that she had been traveling with quite a while and she knew that it was time for them to fight their own battles for the time being. Plus; she was still massively tired, the eldest girl had walked towards her and helped her into one of the makeshift beds, where Hermione had fell back to sleep.

The next morning had come and it was hardly dawn; when Thorin had come for her, her eyes were still droopy and could hardly fight to keep her eyes open. He ended up throwing her upon one of his shoulders and walked out the door; where he was told by the children to leave her there, but he would not listen to any one of them, and made his way towards the waterway where his men were waiting for them. She had heard many of the townspeople grumble; as the two had passed, until they had noticed that it was Thorin and he was carrying someone upon his shoulder.

An elder woman asked him; as he had walked passed, "Why won't you let the lady stay here, Master Dwarf; she must be exhausted if she hadn't noticed you carrying here?"

"I won't leave her; madam," growled out Thorin, he was starting to get angry with the people. "It's my job to keep an eye on her; she cannot be away from me, she means more to me than that mountain that we are traveling upon."

Once the greedy mayor had heard, "Then why won't you leave her for us to watch her; if she is worth more than that mountain of gold and the dragon would have no way of reaching her here?"

Bilbo stuttered, "That sounds like a good idea, Thorin. All you needed was me anyway. Just allow Ava to stay and rest."

"NO," yelled Thorin, "She goes wherever I go!"

Hermione started to grumble, "What's going on?"

The lord dwarf hissed, "See what you all have done, she's awake."

He kept her upon his shoulder until they had reached the boat and then lowered her down upon the vessel; where he was able to see her face, once again.

"What's going on, Thorin?"

"We're going to be heading across the lake, here soon. It's time that we should reach the mountain, before nightfall."

She glanced around; while trying to fight off the sleepiness, "Where are the others?"

Thorin then noticed that he was missing one man; then he saw one of his nephews upon shore, fighting to get upon the boat. He also noticed that his other nephew and his medical man; were trying to help him, Thorin hated seeing this.

He glanced back to Hermione, "Don't worry about them; they will be staying at the village for a while, and they will be meet back with us when they can. Now sleep."

As soon as she heard, 'Now sleep,' Hermione had closed her eyes and was well off to sleep land again. Thorin then walked over to the struggling men and told them what was going to happen; Kili was going to stay behind, he had ended up fighting with a few of his men but they all had ended up listening to him anyway. The few that stayed had watched the boat leave Lake Town and their hopes to help getting their homelands back, had drifted away.

The men upon the vessel were doing their best to leave Thorin alone with his dark thoughts; as Hermione slept on, and knew not to make a lot of noise for she was going to need all the energy later upon the night against the dragon that had yet to come.

What the other Dwarves had no clue about was the reason behind the dark thoughts of Thorin; he was starting to have second thoughts about having the woman use her magic against the mighty dragon, the one who took his home away from him. He was worried that it would also take the woman that he was planning on keeping within his life; as the queen of his people, and his wife.

Balin was the only dwarf brave enough to face the young king; for they had gone off together, and battle many things. "What is wrong, young lord?"

Thorin chuckled, "You as well as I know; I'm not that young anymore Balin and you should open your eyes to see that."

The elder dwarf smirked, "Ah yes; the years have passed since the time I was able to say such things to you, but all the same, what's wrong lad?"

The ruler then glanced over, towards Hermione as he spoke; "I'm worried about her."

All the Dwarves looked at each other as they were listening in upon the conversation that Balin and Thorin were having with one another; each one of them knew, it was hard for their lord to talk to anyone about his feelings about anything.

Balin sighed, "You know that she is a witch and we need her help to fight back the monster that holds our home as ransom, don't you?"

"Of corse I do," roared Thorin, "but is it enough to have her get herself killed? I had planned on marrying her, you know."

They then glanced over to where Hermione was laying down and noticed Bilbo sitting down next to her and trying to wake her up. This caused the dwarf to glare at the little man.

Balin had grabbed onto one of Thorin's arms to keep him where he was, "Alow him to wake her up; she will need a moment to wake up before we reached shore. What is truly bothering you?"

"I was going to carry her up the mountain; she will need all the rest she can get, before the dragon. I also don't want her to die, Balin. Without her; I don't think I would ever live after hearing that she had passed."

The elder gave the ruling dwarf a sad look upon his face, "We all have to do our parts Thorin and if it's time to meet our makers, then we have lived a good hard life. She is no different than us and from what I could see; she has lived a good hard life of her own, she was even fighting her own war before coming here. Do you think she would want a quiet life after all that she has lived through?"

"As my queen . . ."

"Then what Thorin? She may end growing board of a calm life or she might embrace it, but have you ever talk to her about what kind of future you've painted for her?" Balin then glanced into the other's eyes and asked, "What have the two of you talk about when no one else is around?"

Thorin glared, "We have talked; she knows that I want to spend my life with her and that I want to marry her and that means to be the queen of my people, but I don't believe I have told her what that truely means."

As the two talked; Hermione had woken up and was enjoying Biblo telling her the beautiful setting, as she was waking up. She had no idea what was causing her to be so tired, then again; they have been on the move for many days and she needed to build up all the energy that she would be needing that night.

"Ava; do you know what's causing Thorin to worry, I mean he keeps glancing towards you and all?"

This caused her to look over to the man and saw his eyes and saw that they were hurting or was it worry, like Biblo was telling her. "I don't know, Bilbo. I might be because he is worried about the dragon that we have to face soon, you never know."

"Are you worried, Ava?"

She then glanced towards the hobbit and gave him a small smile, enough to chase his own worries away. "I have already faced one before, Bilbo. I could not imagine being something different than what I already faced. I'm not afraid of facing another." She sighed and glanced down towards the aging wood; which people call a boat, "I'm more worried about Thorin and the others, lives."

Bilbo smiled, "You really care about people, don't you?"

She just lift her head up and give him a smile, "Always."

What she did not know was that the mirror that had Severus Snape in it; which was hovering nearby, gave her a glare for it was the answer that he gave to Dumbledore; when the headmaster found out who the Positions Master's love was. He grumbled, "Such a Gryffindor."