Harry Potter and the Dwarves of Erebor

Chapter 9 Encounter With Azog the Defiler

**WORDS WRITTEN IN BOLD IS BLACK SPEECH**

Thorin ran as fast as he could carrying Haraldur in his arms, they reached they trees at the edge of the cliff.

"Up into the trees! All of you, come on climb, Bilbo climb" Gandalf commands.

"They're coming!" Yells Thorin.

Thorin gets to the trees and tosses Haraldur up to Dwalin, Dwalin pushes the boy ahead of him to continue to climb while he helps Thorin up into the tree. They all sit in the trees watching as a pack of Wargs coming running into view, with Orc riders not far behind.

They are surrounded, but the Wargs don't attack right away they look back at their master who appears on a ledge.

"Azog." Thorin whispers.

Haraldur looks in the direction that Thorin is staring in and see the pale Orc, he shivers with fear.

The pale Orc takes a deep breath, **Do you smell it? The smell of fear? I remember your father reeked of it… Thorin son of Thrain**

Thorin looks on in disbelief, "It can not be."

**That one is mine… Kill the others**

With Azog's command the Wargs begin to attack the trees with a vengence. Biting tearing trying desperately to get to the Company, Haraldur holds on for dear life.

**Drink Their blood!**

Suddenly with the weight of the Wargs the tree that the Bilbo and some of the Dwarves are in gives Way and begins to topple over. It is a domino effect the trees begin to fall over with Bilbo, Haraldur and the others leaping from tree to tree. More than once Dwalin had to catch Haraldur before he slipped off the tree. Finally they come to land on the last tree, where Gandalf is.

But the Wargs do not let up, then Gandalf gets the idea of using lit pine cones as projectiles against the Wargs, Haraldur sees this and does the same thing lights pine cones for the others. The thought occurs to him to use Fiendfyre but he doesn't think he can control it at his current size. Instead he uses the Incendio charm sending balls of fire out towards the Wargs.

They are able to drive back the Wargs but their victory is short lived, the tree topples over with everyone hanging over the edge. Fili is able to grab a hold of Haraldur and hoist him back onto the tree from there he watches as Thorin gets up to confront Azog.

Thorin, with his oaken shield, makes a run at Azog. Azog snarls at Thorin, urging his Warg forward it leaps from the ledge tackling Thorin, knocking him onto his back. Thorin gets up, but Azog knocks him back down, hitting him in the chest with his club. At that point The white Warg chomps down on Thorin and begins to shake him like a rag doll.

"Thorin!" Screams Dwalin.

Haraldur sits there paralyzed with fear watching as the Dwarf he looks up to is being mauled by the giant Warg. The Warg throws Thorin, Azog tells one of the Orcs to bring him Thorin's head, but Bilbo tackles him. Bilbo begins to fight the Orc, he ends up killing it. Encouraged by Bilbo's actions, the rest of the Company attacks. What they don't see is Azog getting off of his Warg, walking up to Thorin to take his head himself.

Haraldur is filled with so much rage that he says the first curse that comes to mind.

"Crucio!"

Azog falls to his knees in excruciating pain, screaming at the top of his lungs. It is a pain he has never felt before in his entire life, the pain is so bad that he wishes for death. Azog manages to look around to see who or what is causing him this pain, all he sees is a Dwarfling pointing a stick at him saying some bizarre word. Everytime the word is uttered a new wave of agony hits Azog.

His torture continues until suddenly it stops, Azog looks up and sees that the boy is being carried away by an eagle. Azog watched as the eagles carry his prey away, his eyes fixed on the eagle with the little boy on it. He was livid, how could a Dwarfling with a stick make him experience so much pain. Suddenly, he smiles darkly.

**The boy will suffer a fate worse than death and I will have Oakenshield watch!** Azog vowed.

The eagles flew until all night and all day finally landing on an outcropping. The first one they deposit on the ground is Thorin then Gandalf, who rushes over to Thorin.

"Thorin! Thorin?"

Gandalf places a hand over Thorin's face and utters a spell, by this time the rest of the Company has landed and are crowd around Thorin watching. Thorin suddenly opens his eyes, he asks for Bilbo. He tells Bilbo how he could have gotten himself killed, that he had no place amongst them, making Bilbo feel bad. But then Thorin tells him that he has never been so wrong in all his life.

Afterwards the Company decides to make camp a little further down in the trees so they have some shelter from the wind. Haraldur and Ori gather fire would and Haraldur lights it. The little boy goes to sit next to Thorin when Gandalf calls him over.

Haraldur goes to stand in front of Gandalf, he motions for the Dwarfling to sit next to him while he smokes his pipe. Haraldur sits there for a while watching Gandalf make smoke figures, then finally Gandalf speaks in a hushed tone.

"That was a very interesting spell you used on Azog, Haladur, what kind of spell was it?"

"It was a torture curse, it was the first curse that came to mind, please don't be mad at me, Gandalf." Haraldur pleaded.

"My boy I could never be mad at you, you kept Thorin safe, that's all that matters. I do have one have several questions for you, though they can wait until later. I do have one you need to answer truthfully, you're not really 20 years old are you?"

Haraldur looks at the ground then at Gandalf, he takes a deep breath. "I'm 17 years old."

Gandalf nods as he continues to smoke his pipe, "Well, we'll just keep that to ourselves, from now on your 20. The Dwarves will have an easier time accepting that your 20, they will continue to baby you, but not nearly as much if they knew you were 17."

Haraldur nods in agreement,  last thing he wanted was to be babied.