When in doubt, jump in head first

15. Wait, so you're Thranduil?

She woke up to see a ceiling above her. That alone told her that the elves had managed to beat the acromantula and get them to... wherever they were. Though how, she couldn't remember; the last thing she could recall was seeing Nori and Bofur talking.

Sitting up, Laelynn took note of her surroundings; she was lying on a shelf, hewn from the rock, and by her feet was a bucket. She turned on her side to see the entrance to her cell (for it had to be a cell as the door was iron bars), and beyond that more cells, though she couldn't see their inhabitants.

Laelynn shook her head gently, and tried to remember what happened. One by one the memories started to return, and Laelynn fell back in shock.

She'd hoped it was a dream (or rather a nightmare), something brought on by the spider venom. But it was real. Laelynn groaned in despair, before sitting up and leaning against the wall. Now her wand was broken, there was no hope of being allowed to continue: the dwarves would soon find out she couldn't access her magic and wouldn't want anything to do with her.

And they'd be right. She was useless. Laelynn could fight well without magic, but the dwarves had plenty of fighters already. She could cook (barely), but they had Bombur. She could sew, but who brought a seamstress to fight a dragon? No, she was useless to them. No one wanted a woman on a quest, after all.

They would probably leave her in Laketown, assuming they ever got out of this place. But what then? The dwarves and the Arkenstone were her best bet at getting back to her world. Without them Laelynn was stranded.

She could try and make a life for herself here. If she was honest, a not insignificant part of her wanted to do that. Stay here, in Middle Earth, and continue to bond with the friends she had already made. No one here saw her as Harry Potter's less-important twin sister, just as Laelynn, and it was... freeing. Maybe set up a small shop, where she could sew clothes and repair dresses. Or she could train people in sword fighting, archery, even knife throwing. Granted, a lot of people would refuse to be trained by a woman, but she would get enough to pay for food at least.

But she couldn't. Not while Voldemort was still alive, and her friends back in her world were in danger. She owed it to them, at least, if nobody else.

A sigh left her lips. Laelynn knew she had to defeat Voldemort (because if she left Harry to do it he'd fail), but now she was going to try and survive the fight, what would she do after? She could be a healer, but she wouldn't be able to deal with treating her classmates, classmates that most likely tormented her back in school.

Laelynn shelved the problem to think on later, and stood up, stretching her arms above her head. She walked to the door of her cell and peered through the bars. From where she was, she could see nine of the others, and (once they noticed she was up) could hear the rest nearby.

"Laelynn!" many of them yelled, relieved, and her smile seemed too wide for her face. They cared about her enough to be relieved she was up. Maybe she was wrong. She tried to play it off and leaned against the door casually.

"'Sup," she called. The dwarves she could see all looked confused at the word, and Laelynn hid a grin behind her hand. Before one of them could ask her what she meant, the jangling of keys echoed down the corridor. They were all silent as Thorin came into view, followed closely by an elven guard. He was placed in a cell near Balin's, and the two immediately started whispering. Laelynn caught "starving in the woods" and "nothing about the worm", and surmised that Thorin hadn't told whoever he was with what they were doing.

The elf stopped in front of her cell, and Laelynn had to tilt her head back to see his face. He unlocked the door and opened it, and she left the cell at his prompting. The guard then prodded her towards the end of the hall.