Disclaimer: Harry Potter is owned by J.K. Rowling and her various corporate partners. Keldorn Firecam is owned by BioWare, Atari, or whoever it is that owns the rights to Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn these days, although I have taken several liberties with his character. I own nothing, and I am making no profit by my little ventures into the shadowy realms of fanfiction. I do so purely for enjoyment. I would, however, like to thank JKR for allowing us all to play in her sandbox.
Harry Potter and the Knight of the Radiant Heart
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September first dawned bright and early at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In an astounding feat of logic that probably only made sense to the staunchest traditionalists in the wizarding world, it was determined that Hermione and Harry would need to travel to King's Cross and then take the Hogwarts Express back to the castle along with the other students. Harry saw how that might make sense for Hermione, since she was a prefect and was supposed to patrol the train, but he had no such duties and was at a loss when it came to understanding why he had to spend his entire day traveling to a destination that he had already reached. But apparently tradition was tradition. At least he was able to convince McGonagall that they didn't need to take all of their belongings with them and could instead leave their trunks in their dormitories.
But before taking the Portkey that would drop them on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, the two students found themselves eating a late, final summer breakfast at the staff table in the Great Hall along with Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid, and Keldorn. Harry was a mix of emotions - he was excited to see his friends once again, but he was also a little sad that the best summer of his life was coming to an end. Hermione, on the other hand, was positively brimming with excitement for the start of another academic year.
"Oh, I just can't wait to start our N.E.W.T. classes," she told the table at large, "just think of all the new topics to delve into and explore…"
"Only you, Hermione," Harry said with a smile.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Harry as if he was the silly one.
"And I can't wait to really get started on my special project," the young witch continued. "Speaking of which, Sir Firecam, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to take a closer look at your armor sometime."
"And just why would you need to do that, Miss Granger?"
"Well, even among all the excitement in Diagon Alley, I noticed how your armor simply appeared when you needed it. It almost looked like it grew out to cover you. I was thinking of trying to recreate something similar for my N.E.W.T. project."
"Yeah," Harry interjected as he turned to address the knight, "I noticed that too. How's that work?"
"Ah, well, I suppose that wouldn't hurt," Keldorn answered. "The most important part of my armor is actually rather ancient, and once belonged to Saint Jorg the Dragon Slayer."
Hermione's eyes sparkled with interest.
"And who was he?" she asked.
"Saint Jorg was a soldier in an ancient, heathen army long ago. He saw the Light and converted his life and eventually became a great paladin. It is said that he slew a great black dragon single-handedly. His life was so fraught with constant danger that whenever he tried to remove his armor to rest, he would be attacked by an enemy who saw his lack of armor as their needed opening and advantage. So, the Light blessed St. Jorg and bestowed on him the gorget that still bears his name," Keldorn said as he tapped the wide metal collar that he always wore around his neck. "When the Gorget of St. Jorg is worn with any suit of armor and the command words are spoken, as much or as little of the armor as is desired by the one wearing it will retract into the gorget. Likewise, when a different command is uttered, some or all of the armor will unfold, ready for battle. That way he would never be caught at disadvantage again."
"That's amazing!" Hermione exclaimed. "If it's that easy, would you mind demonstrating it for me? Please?"
"I'd just do it if I were you, sir," Harry said, "I've learned that in situations like this, it's best not to stand between Hermione and the knowledge she's after."
Hermione glared at Harry and gave him a shove on the shoulder. But once she'd silenced her best friend, she turned her expectant look back upon Sir Firecam.
"Well, I don't see what it could hurt," the knight said. He then turned to the Headmaster, "With your permission?"
"Like our dear Miss Granger, I find myself quite intrigued," Dumbledore replied, "please go right ahead."
Keldorn stood from his seat and moved away from the table.
"To arms!" he shouted, and immediately his bright, shining armor expanded out from within his gorget to cover him from head to toe. Even his mirrored shield appeared on his left arm. Harry noticed that while the armor covered the knight's clothing, it somehow managed to make its way underneath his belt so that it and the sword hanging from it would still be accessible. Harry also saw that Sir Firecam was now wearing a metal helmet, something he hadn't worn in either the battle at the Ministry or in Diagon Alley.
"Why weren't you wearing that helmet in the alley?" Harry asked.
The knight lifted the visor that covered his face before answering.
"I find the helm to be too restrictive. One can barely see or hear a thing with it on. Being able to see my enemies is more important than the protection that the helm might provide, so I normally forgo wearing it."
He then slowly turned in a circle so that everyone could see the entire suit of armor before barking another command.
"Return to the gorget!" he said, which made the armor fold up and disappear into the metal collar. Once again, the knight appeared in his simple blue clothing with the gorget around his neck, a few left-over pieces of armor on his shoulders and his sword strapped around his waist.
"So what are those," Harry asked, pointing to the pieces of metal that remained on the knight's shoulders.
It was Hermione who answered.
"Those are spaulders, which is simply the name of the piece of armor that covers the shoulder. My guess from what he's told us would be that Sir Firecam merely likes to keep those out when he recalls the rest of the armor. There must be something about the magic of the gorget that allows the wearer to choose exactly how much of his armor appears or disappears upon activation."
"Right you are, Miss Granger," said the knight.
The young witch turned to see Harry staring at her incredulously.
"What?"
"How do you know so much about armor?" the wizard asked in surprise.
"I do read you know," Hermione responded. "I figured that with a living, breathing knight walking around in our midst, I should at least know a little bit about medieval arms and armor."
"A little bit?" Harry asked somewhat skeptically, "like what?"
"Well, the styling was a bit foreign to traditional European armors, and thus would be hard to date. But Sir Firecam was clearly wearing a gorget, curiass, plackart, faulds, the aforementioned spaulders, rerebraces, cowters, vambraces, gauntlets…"
"Okay, okay, I get it," Harry interrupted her before she went through and named every piece of armor.
"Well you asked."
"Seems a bit bulky ter me," Hagrid said. "Doesn' all that get in yer way when yeh're fightin'?"
"You might think so," Keldorn answered, "but plate armor is not as restrictive as it appears. And this suit in particular is special. While the rest does not compare with the Gorget of St. Jorg, my armor is blessed and enchanted so that my movements never become restricted or otherwise burdened, either by the armor itself or by restraints."
"Blimey."
"So, you mean to say that you simply cannot be tied up while wearing your armor?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes, the blessings upon my armor would not allow it," Keldorn answered.
"Would you be willing to demonstrate that as well?" Dumbledore asked as a follow up question.
"I don't see why not. To arms!" he said and was once again encased in armor.
Dumbledore rose from the table and pointed his wand at the knight.
"Incarcerous!" the old wizard exclaimed. Thick ropes shot out of the Headmaster's wand and quickly wrapped themselves around the knight. But just as quickly, the ropes seemed to lose their hold and slid down his body to pool at his feet.
"Remarkable," said Dumbledore.
"Please, Sir Firecam," Hermione pleaded, "you have to let me inspect it at some point. Just think, if I could replicate the enchantment on your gorget alone!"
"You're in for it now," Harry commented.
"I'm sure we'll find time for that at some point, Miss Granger," the knight replied.
"But not today," McGonagall interrupted. "You three must be leaving for King's Cross soon or you'll miss your Portkey."
"Sir Firecam's coming too?" Harry asked.
"Of course," the Deputy Headmistress answered, "it's tradition for new faculty to ride the train with the students."
"Right you are, Madam," Keldorn said before he once again dismissed his armor. "Come, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, we don't want to be late."
And with that they left the Great Hall to find their Portkey.
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They arrived at the platform rather early. Harry and Hermione left Keldorn and went to find a compartment near the rear of the train. They were soon joined by Neville Longbottom who quietly greeted them and took a seat across from Harry and Hermione who were sitting side by side. They were interrupted a few minutes later by a light tap on their door. Harry stood up and opened the door to find Luna Lovegood standing there wearing a strange pair of eyeglasses that had wide, colorful frames.
"Hello Harry Potter," the odd girl said in greeting.
"Err… Hi Luna," he managed to say despite being a bit taken aback by the witch's choice in eyewear.
"Would it be alright if I joined you for the ride? All of the other compartments are full of Nargles. And while I normally don't mind riding with the Nargles, I'd rather ride with you. I would imagine that you, Hermione, and Neville will probably make for better conversation. Although the debate I had with the Nargles on the train ride at the end of last term about Japanese whaling boats was quite fascinating. Did you know that the Nargles have been in a blood feud with the whales for the past three hundred years?"
"No," Harry replied, somewhat befuddled.
"Oh, well, that's alright. I suppose I can sit somewhere else."
"What? Err… wait!" Harry said as Luna made to turn and leave. "I meant that I didn't know that about the Nargles. Of course you can sit with us, Luna." Harry waved his arm toward the seats for emphasis.
"Oh. Thank you, Harry," she said as she entered the compartment and sat next to Neville. "Hello Neville, hello Hermione."
"Hi Luna," Hermione responded while Neville simply waved.
"How is your 'project' going, Hermione?"
Harry thought there was something odd about the way that Luna gave the word 'project' special emphasis and even used her fingers to make quotation marks in the air.
"It's fine, Luna." Hermione said through clenched teeth while glaring at the other girl. Something was definitely up with those two.
"Oh goody," the blonde replied, "I was worried about having to avoid lots of sexual tension. That always gives me a runny nose."
"Luna!" Hermione exclaimed while giving the younger girl a pointed look.
"What? It really does do awful things to my sinuses."
"Excuse us," Hermione said as she jumped to her feet and dragged Luna out of the compartment.
"What was that about?" Harry asked.
"No idea," Neville responded with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Girls."
The two witches returned a few minutes later along with Ron and Ginny in tow.
"Wow," said Harry, "the Weasleys made it here with time to spare? It's only quarter to eleven!"
"Har har, Mr. Chosen One," Ron responded as he moved to sit on the other side of Hermione. Ginny sat next to Luna and Neville. "I'll have you know that without the twins messing things up, we Weasleys can be quite well organized. If only Ginny would take less then an hour in the bathroom, we could have been here ages ago."
"Shut it, Ron," his younger sister replied, "it's not my fault that you don't care what you look like when you leave the house. Some of us don't want to look like an utter slob all the time."
"Oi! I don't look like a slob. Do I, Hermione?"
Hermione seemed a bit surprised by the question.
"Well…" she began, "you could have put on a shirt that wasn't so wrinkled… and you might have shaved this morning… and you could have combed your hair…"
"Oi!" Ron said again, getting defensive, "Harry's always got messed up hair! Why don't you pick on him?"
"See, Ron? You're a slob," said Ginny.
"Yes, well, Harry's hair is different," Hermione answered.
"Hey, don't bring me into this," Harry tried to interject.
"How is his hair being messy any different from mine?" Ron asked somewhat indignantly.
"Harry's messy hair is supposedly very cute," Luna answered. "It apparently makes you want to just run your fingers through it. Or so I'm told."
"Luna!" Hermione shouted.
"Oh, right. Sorry," the blonde replied sheepishly.
Ginny seemed to find Luna's comment and Hermione's reaction to be highly amusing as she was grinning ear to ear. Neville, on the other hand, seemed to be at a complete loss as to what was going on.
"Well fine then," Ron said with an affronted air, "I'll just have to find a girl who knows a real, red-blooded man when she sees one."
"Good luck with that. And let me know if you see any real, red-blooded men while you're out looking." said Ginny.
Ron just glared at his sister before turning to Harry.
"Can you believe these birds? Us wizards gotta stick together! Right, Harry? Neville?"
"Like I said," Harry replied, "don't drag me into this mess."
"Don't look at me," Neville added.
"Cowards, the lot of you," Ron grumbled. That comment was enough to make the compartment erupt into laughter.
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The train arrived at Hogsmead Station without any incidents except for the argument that broke out between the two Weasleys when Ginny announced that she was going to go look for Dean Thomas. The argument was settled by Ginny threatening her brother with her wand and Ron surprisingly being smart enough to back down. After she left though, Ron kept grumbling about having a "chat" with "that git Thomas."
Ginny had yet to return from finding Dean, so the four Gryffindors and their Ravenclaw add-on took a carriage to the castle without her.
Hermione sat next to Harry at the Gryffindor table while Ron sat across from them. The tall, lanky redhead was really starting to get worked up about his missing sister when Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil pushed Neville out of the way and plopped down next to the youngest male Weasley.
"Hello, Ron, how was your summer?" Lavender began.
After shooting a questioning glance at Harry, Ron responded.
"Fine. How was yours, Lavender?"
"Oh, it was just wonderful!" the blonde witch replied. "My family and I went to the French Riviera and I spent quite a bit of time working on my tan. How do you think I look?" Lavender struck a bit of a pose for Ron.
"Err… you look fine, Lav," he replied.
"Thanks, Ron!" she beamed, "Maybe next time we can take you along with us, I could've used your help to rub lotion on my back."
Harry was distracted from the interaction across the table by Hermione's elbow jabbing him in the side. He glanced over to see her giving him a significant look, almost as if to say, see, I told you so.
Harry's mind, however, soon found itself elsewhere. Thoughts of Lavender on the beach somehow changed into thoughts of Hermione on the beach, asking him to rub lotion on her back.
Whoa, Harry thought, where did that come from? Well, I know where that came from, but really? Hermione?
His thoughts were interrupted, however, by Professor McGonagall who brought out the Sorting Hat and began to call the first years forward.
As the the eleven-year-olds went to their new houses and everyone else applauded politely, Harry found his thoughts back on his best friend. He was of course aware of the fact that she was a girl, but now he was looking at her in a new light. The little comments that McGonagall kept making about inappropriate behavior during the summer now came back to him and made Harry take a moment to consider the young witch that he had spent so much time with.
She's not as pretty as Cho, he thought, but she's not bad either. Besides, Cho was a disaster, and I should probably try to avoid girls like her anyways. Hermione's definitely grown up a bit - no longer the skinny little first year that used to yell at us to stay out of trouble. Her hair's still crazy, but she wouldn't really be the same without it, and she does have some nice 'assets.' Harry surreptitiously glanced at Hermione's backside. Does this mean I fancy Hermione?
Harry's thoughts about Hermione continued on and off throughout the feast and were only interrupted once the food disappeared and the Headmaster stood to speak.
"Good evening one and all," he began, "and welcome to another year at Hogwarts. Before we all go off to retire for the evening, I'd like to introduce some new faces to you. First is Professor Horace Slughorn," Dumbledore gestured to a short, fat, and bald man with a thick, walrus-like mustache. "Professor Slughorn has agreed to return to us to take up teaching Potions once again, as our dear Professor Snape will be your instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts this year." Snape's name was met with several groans from the student body.
"And this is Sir Keldorn Firecam," Dumbledore continued as he gestured to the knight who stood in acknowledgement. "Sir Firecam is here to offer a new elective course this year, Riding and Magical Mounts. Please join me in welcoming our new instructors."
Everyone applauded and then listened to the normal announcements about forbidden items and the start of classes.
As the students began leaving, Harry was stopped by a tap on his shoulder. It was Keldorn.
"Mr. Potter," the knight began, "who is that Slytherin boy with blond hair?"
Harry turned to where Keldorn was facing and saw Draco Malfoy.
"You mean Malfoy? The one with the pointed face and is constantly flanked by the two gorillas?"
"Yes. I suppose that's him. Although I don't think the juvenile insults to the boy's companions are necessary."
Harry shrugged his shoulders at the knight's admonishment.
"Well, anyways, that's Draco Malfoy. Son of Death Eater Lucius Malfoy who, I'm glad to hear, is now rotting in Azkaban for his role in the Department of Mysteries."
"The son of a Death Eater, you say?"
"Yep. Why all the questions about Malfoy?"
Keldorn looked intently at Harry for a moment before replying.
"There is a sense of malice about the boy. He has some intention in mind that is of the utmost evil."
Harry sobered immediately upon hearing that and looked back at Malfoy as he left the Great Hall.
"How could you tell?" the young wizard asked.
"All paladins can sense the evil intentions in those around them. It is one of the blessings bestowed upon us by the Light. The malice in Mr. Malfoy, while not the strongest I have felt by far, is still rather significant."
"So what do we do?"
"You, Mr. Potter, need not do anything. I will handle this. I merely needed a name to match with the face."
Harry quickly stamped down on the surge of anger that tried to surface. After all, Keldorn was supposedly a consecrated warrior of the Light, sworn to fight evil; if Harry could trust anyone to take care of Malfoy it was him.
The two began walking toward the doors of the Great Hall when Keldorn brought up another topic.
"Have you given any thought to continuing your lessons in swordsmanship during the school year?"
Harry thought for a moment before responding.
"Well yes, I guess I'd like to continue," he answered, "but I obviously won't have as much time for it, what with classes and Quidditch and all."
"Ah yes, Quidditch. I'm quite interested to finally see this game of yours that Minerva keeps going on about. I take it you're one of the players then?"
That got Harry thinking. Since when is Sir Firecam on a first name basis with the Deputy Headmistress? But he caught himself after a moment's consideration. Well, perhaps some thoughts are best left unexplored.
"Yeah, I'm actually the captain of the Gryffindor team this year. But back to the sword lessons, I've also thought of asking one of my friends to join. I thought it would be nice to have someone closer to my skill level to spar against."
Keldorn nodded. "We'll work something out for once or twice a week then. Let me know who you are thinking of asking to join before approaching them with the idea. I will observe them and then give you permission to approach them if I am satisfied. I do not teach just anyone how to handle a deadly weapon."
"This entire school is built around children learning to handle deadly weapons," Harry countered while holding up his wand as evidence.
"I suppose you are right in that."
Harry and Keldorn separated in the Entrance Hall and bid each other goodnight. As he made his way up to Gryffindor Tower, Harry's mind was full of questions. Who should he look for to join his swordsmanship lessons with Keldorn? What exactly was Malfoy up to this time? And perhaps most importantly to the teenaged boy, why exactly was he thinking about Hermione Granger in such a less than platonic way?
AN: Oh the joys of teenaged romance! I am ever so glad that I left that drama behind long ago. It's such a confusing maze to navigate, and poor Harry Potter and friends are stuck as eternal teenagers in the realms of fanfiction, doomed to hormonal outbursts and misunderstandings for all time.
Thanks for your reviews. And thanks for reading!