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
XII
After viewing the Pensieve memory of Trelawney making the prophecy, Hermione spent the next couple of days holed up in the library whenever she wasn't in class or asleep. If it wasn't for Madam Pince refusing to allow her to remain in the library after hours, Harry was sure that she would have cut into her sleep schedule as well. He took it upon himself to force her to come to meals, even if those appearances were rather brief affairs.
He couldn't be angry with his best friend for ignoring him in favor of spending her time in the library, however, because she was putting all of her energy into researching anything that might have to do with prophecies and divinization. Harry wasn't sure just what the girl thought she would discover in all of the dusty tomes she was consulting, but he let her work nonetheless.
Wednesday evening saw the first of Harry's swordsmanship sessions with Keldorn during the school year. Keldorn dismissed the possibility of continuing to practice outside for the twofold reason that the odd demonstration would likely attract a crowd, which would only be distracting, as well as the fact that the weather would soon be turning colder which would require an indoor facility anyways. After a bit of thought, Harry proposed using the Room of Requirement, which was where they were currently headed.
"You say this room can become whatever you desire it to be?" the old knight asked.
"Well, I suppose that it technically becomes whatever you need it to be," Harry answered.
"And it can provide materials as well?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very good, I look forward to seeing it."
They rounded the final corner close to the entrance to the Room of Requirement only to run into Draco Malfoy.
"Watch where you're going, Scar Head," Draco venomously spat.
"What are you doing so far away from the dungeons, Malfoy?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"None of your business, Potter."
The two students glared at each other while Keldorn watched the interaction with interest.
After a moment, Draco seemed to realize that there was nothing to gain from his staring contest with Harry, so he made to leave.
"I think I've had enough Gryffindor stench for one night," he said as he moved past the other occupants of the hall.
"I am watching you, Mr. Malfoy," Keldorn said, finally breaking his silence.
Draco stopped and turned back to the knight.
"Watching me do what?" the blond wizard asked.
"I know of your intentions," Keldorn answered, "and I advise you to give up now before you have gone too far into the Darkness. You will not like what you find there."
"You know nothing about me or what I'm doing," Draco said contemptuously, "you're just a sword-waving, barbarian Muggle who's risen beyond his station."
"That will be twenty points from Slytherin and detention every night for the next week for disrespecting a member of the staff," the knight answered without being fazed by the insults.
Draco simply sneered in return before turning on his heel and marching off in the direction of the closest stairwell. After Draco left, Harry decided that Keldorn wasn't likely to be very forthcoming about anything he might know about the Slytherin, so he chose to simply continue on to the Room of Requirement in silence.
When they reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and his dancing trolls, Harry instructed the knight to wait while he passed back and forth in front of the opposite wall three times, concentrating on his need for a room to practice swordsmanship. On the third pass, a door appeared and Harry opened it to reveal a square room with a high ceiling and a wooden floor. There was even a wooden training dummy near the far wall.
"Remarkable," Keldorn said as they stepped into the room and closed the door.
The knight quickly removed the needed equipment from his belt pouches before setting Harry to twenty minutes of footwork followed by twenty minutes of accuracy drills against the dummy. All throughout, Keldorn acted completely normal, without any hint of their earlier interaction with Draco. Harry's thoughts about his Slytherin nemesis were quickly driven from his mind by the demanding tone of his instructor's orders.
The last fifty minutes of their time in the Room of Requirement were spent on parrying drills, both with and without the use of a shield. As they were getting ready to leave, Harry stopped the knight with a question.
"Sir, I was thinking about who I could ask to join the lessons," he said as he gestured with his sword. "What would you think of me asking my friend Ron Weasley?"
"Weasley… the tall, red-haired boy?" the knight asked.
"That would be him."
"Honestly, Mr. Potter, I do not think he would accept your invitation."
"What? Why not? He's my best mate!"
"Your best mate he may well be, but that does not change the fact that I have observed him to be a bit, shall we say, lethargic when he is not working for something that he sees to be important."
Harry couldn't really argue with the knight's assessment of his friend, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
"Besides," Keldorn continued, "Mr. Weasley seems to be more concerned with his new female companion than with his studies or other pursuits."
Harry was about to object but the knight waved him off.
"You may ask him if you wish, but do not be surprised when he turns you down in favor of spending more time with his young lady. Such is the choice of most young men your age."
Harry nodded in response. At least he had permission to ask Ron if he was interested.
"When your friend turns your offer down," the knight went on, "might I make a suggestion as to who you should invite next?"
"Okay," Harry said while warily nodding his head.
"Young Neville Longbottom has impressed me in our riding course."
"Neville?" Harry asked with a bit of incredulity.
"You think there is something wrong with Mr. Longbottom?"
"No, I mean… don't get me wrong, Neville's a great guy, but, well… he's a bit… slow."
"Slow?"
"Yeah. He's always the last to catch on to learning a new spell or he's causing some disaster or another in Potions."
"That may be, but the boy has a good heart and I believe that he would benefit from some added discipline."
"What do you mean he has a good heart? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Mr. Potter," Keldorn began in a patient tone, "you know what I am. I am a paladin, a servant of the Light and a sworn enemy of the Darkness. I would not teach a man to wield a a weapon if I was not confident of his overall good intentions. I've told you before that I can sense the malice within people; I can feel their evil intentions as all paladins can. I would not teach young Mr. Malfoy how to wield a butter knife let alone a real blade.
"Mr. Longbottom, on the other hand, has no such malice within him. I think the sword work would do him some good, especially if he were to excel at it as he has with riding. He may not be the best wizard or the best spell-caster in this school, but that does not discount his worth as a man.
"The Light will judge us on our virtue, Mr. Potter, on our attempts to stay true to the Light in the face of Darkness. Whether or not we fail in our endeavors has little to do with our worth as men. As Saint Tarese would likely tell us, we are called to be faithful, Mr. Potter, not merely successful."
Harry nodded along with the knight's words. He didn't really expect this conversation to turn into a philosophical discussion, but it had nonetheless. Surprisingly, Harry found that what the old man had to say struck a cord deep within him in a way that had never really happened before.
"So, Mr. Potter, you ask why I think Mr. Longbottom would be a good candidate for sword work? Because I believe he is free of the poison of malice, but above all because I believe he will be faithful in the endeavor."
The student and his instructor parted ways outside the Room of Requirement as the doorway disappeared and melded back into the wall. While Harry quickly walked back to Gryffindor Tower so as not to be caught out after curfew, he couldn't help but go over his last conversation with Keldorn again. He was still going to ask Ron about the sword lessons first before turning to Neville, but that wasn't what was weighing on him. No, it was the fact that the old knight's words had touched something inside of him, something that bothered him profoundly.
We are called to be faithful, Mr. Potter, not merely successful.
Faithful. What did that mean? And what did it matter if you were faithful but failed in the end? Maybe he was so taken with those words because of the almost complete hopelessness of his prophesied confrontation with Voldemort. The Dark Lord had decades of experience on him; Harry could never really hope to match him in raw magical power or skill. His likelihood of successfully defeating Voldemort was almost nil.
But perhaps if he was faithful to his task, perhaps if he fought against the evil of Voldemort and his Death Eaters with everything he had, perhaps if he gave everything to hold back the Darkness for just a little while longer, maybe, just maybe it wouldn't really matter if he succeeded or not.
Maybe the Light that Keldorn so often spoke about would find a way to keep shining in the Darkness even if Harry ultimately failed. After all, there would be others who would pick up the battle cry after he was gone. Voldemort couldn't last forever, even if he did manage to conquer the world, he would eventually be defeated.
Harry felt a new resolve, a new certainty as he made his way through the portrait hole and into the common room. He found that he could draw courage and purpose from the words that Keldorn imparted to him. The task placed before him no longer seemed quite so daunting, so impossible. He might not succeed, he might not win in his fight against the Dark Lord, but he would try, he would give it everything he had, he would be faithful and fight until the bitter end.
He would keep the Light shining in the Darkness, and the Darkness would not overcome it.
OoOoO
OoOoO
Harry approached Ron the next day after classes were finished to ask about him joining the sword lessons. Once again, Ron was in the common room sitting with Lavender.
"Hey Ron, Lavender," Harry said as he approached his two classmates.
"Hey, mate," Ron replied.
"Hi Harry," Lavender greeted, "you're not going to try and steal my Ronny away from me again are you?" She playfully wrapped her arms around the red-haired wizard as if to keep Harry from dragging him away. Ron seemed to find the situation to his liking, judging by the grin on his face.
"Err… no, I'm not going to steal him," Harry said.
"Good," said Lavender, although she refrained from removing her arms from the boy.
"But I did have a question for you, Ron," Harry continued.
"Oh, okay," Ron said.
"Well, you know how I've been studying swordsmanship with Sir Firecam for the past few months?"
"Yeah," Ron said while narrowing his eyes in thought.
"You've been learning to sword fight?" Lavender asked in surprise. "What are you doing that for?"
Lavender's questions caught Harry somewhat off guard. He didn't really expect to be having this conversation with her, but it seemed that she now considered Ron's business to be hers as well. Harry didn't really feel like explaining to the blonde about his need to control his anger or find some discipline for his life. So he decided to give a safer answer.
"Well, it's kind of fun," Harry said.
"Fun?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's fun."
"I would have thought that you already had enough on your plate, what with N.E.W.T. classes, being Quidditch Captain, and Hermione," she said.
"Well, yeah, I'm busy but… wait, what do you mean about Hermione?" Harry asked, turning the questions back on Lavender.
"Oh nothing…" she said somewhat mysteriously.
"Anyways," Ron said in an attempt to break the glare that Harry had focused on Lavender, "what did you want to ask me about the sword fighting?"
Harry turned his attention back to his best mate.
"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to join in. I could use someone at my own skill level to spar against."
"Oh, err…" Ron began, only to be cutoff by Lavender.
"Well, that's a nice thought, but I think Ron's too busy already." She then turned to address Ron directly, "I mean, you've got classes, your prefect duties, tryouts for the Quidditch team and we just came up with our new study schedule."
"Study schedule?" Harry asked.
"Err, yeah, mate. Lavender's gonna help me study this year. That's what we were doing when you got here."
Harry looked at the table in front of them as well as the area where they were sitting but found a distinct lack of textbooks and notes.
"You're not studying," he responded.
"Of course we are," Lavender said while Ron tried to non-verbally communicate something to Harry with a series of looks and head bobs. Harry thought Ron looked like he was having some sort of seizure.
"Anyways," Harry said, "What do you think, Ron?" He hoped that the added emphasis would keep Lavender from interrupting again.
Ron looked at the blonde witch for a long moment before turning back to Harry.
"Err… sorry mate, but I just don't think I'll have time this year. You know, studying and Quidditch and all."
"Right," Harry responded, "well I'll let you two get back to 'studying.'"
OoOoO
OoOoO
Ron approached Harry later on that evening in their dorm room.
"Look, err, Harry," Ron began, "about earlier…"
"Don't worry about it, Ron," said Harry, "I get it."
"You do?"
"Yeah, I do. You've got something in the works with Lavender and you want to spend your free time with her."
"Well, yeah, I mean it doesn't mean that we're not still mates or anything, but, you know…"
"Like I said, I get it, Ron. I'm not angry. Sir Firecam didn't think you'd take me up on the offer anyways, so I kinda figured you're turn me down. But I thought I'd ask anyways."
"He thought I'd say no?"
"Yeah, he said you'd want to spend your time with, quote, 'your young lady.' He's pretty observant for an old man."
Ron colored a bit at hearing that one of the staff members was keeping his eye on his budding relationship with Lavender.
"So, Lavender, eh?" Harry asked.
Ron's face split into a grin.
"Yeah, mate, she's great!"
"Really? Lavender 'use your inner eye' Brown? Trelawney's biggest fan?"
"Well, yeah, she can be a bit, err, flighty at times, but have you seen how she's filled out? She's one fit witch, she is."
"I'll give you that," Harry said. "So what the hell does she see in you then?"
"Oi! I'll have you know I'm quite the catch, I am," Ron said while he puffed out his chest.
"Sure you are."
"Yeah, well, not all of us can have witches lining up around the block to get a piece of us, oh great Mr. Chosen One," Ron shot back with a laugh. When he saw Harry's smile falter a bit, he tried to backtrack. "Err… sorry about that, mate, I kinda forgot about the, well, you know for a minute there."
"Don't worry about it, Ron. I don't want you walking on eggshells around me anyhow."
After a moment of silence, Ron changed the subject.
"So what's up with you and Hermione?" he asked.
"What do you mean? Lavender mentioned something about Hermione earlier too."
"Well you know," Ron replied.
"No, I don't know. What are you talking about?" Harry asked.
"Well, it's just that, the two of you, err, seem to be hanging out a lot recently."
"Ron, it's Hermione. We've always hung around each other."
"Yeah, but this is different."
"How so?"
"You know," Ron said with a waggle of his eyebrows which finally made Harry catch on to what his best mate was asking.
"Oh don't be ridiculous."
"Oi! See? You're even starting to sound like her!"
Harry was about to respond with a clever retort along the lines of, "I do not!" but then stopped to think.
That did sound like something Hermione would say, maybe Ron has a point. And Hermione did look really good in those riding breeches…
"So, err, would you be okay with it, if… you know… me and Hermione?" Harry asked a bit hesitantly.
That question made Ron grin like the cat that got the canary.
"Harry wuvs Hermione! Harry wuvs Hermione!" he started singing.
"Shut it, you git!" Harry said with his eyes shooting toward the door, making sure no one else was close enough to overhear.
"You wanna snog her! Ha!" Ron laughed. "You wanna do each other's homework! Ha!" Ron fell back onto his bed in laughter.
"Oi!" Harry shouted, his face heating up, "like you and Lav are any better!"
"I never said we were," Ron replied once he recovered, "but at least I have the bollocks to admit it." He looked over at his glaring best mate, "but seriously, Harry. Go for it. If you want to snog our high-strung, bossy, schoolwork-obsessed best friend, I won't stand in your way. Just get ready to write a three foot essay on proper snogging technique if you do."
"You're such a great help," Harry replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Glad to be of service!"
OoOoO
OoOoO
In the end, Harry wound up asking Neville to join his swordsmanship lessons with Keldorn. The quiet Gryffindor was hesitant at first, but once he realized that Harry was serious, he graciously accepted the offer.
On Saturday morning, Harry held tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was surprised by the large crowd of students that showed up for a chance to win a spot on the roster. The fact that most of them were witches was a bit bewildering too. One student in particular left him dumbfounded.
"Hermione? You're trying out for the team?"
"Oh don't be ridiculous," she responded with a small grin. "I've no delusions of playing Quidditch. I'm here to show my support, oh captain my captain. Besides, I thought I could help."
"Oh?"
"Sure. I thought I could take notes for you or help you organize things," Hermione gestured to the pitch with the notebook she was holding.
"That's a great idea! Thanks, Hermione!" he said. "I'll probably really need your help too. I mean, look at all the people here."
"Oh, I doubt they're all here to try out, Harry."
"Then why would they come?"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Harry. I know you don't follow the papers, but really. With the way the Daily Prophet has been going on about you being the 'Chosen One,' I'd be surprised if most of the witches in the castle didn't show up to catch a glimpse of you. You've become quite fanciable, you know."
Harry seemed to pale at that explanation. Hermione just grinned.
"Don't worry, Harry," she said while taking a step closer to him, "I'll keep all those mean old witches away."
Is Hermione flirting with me?
"Err…"
But Harry was saved from having to formulate some sort of reply by a rather loud seventh year.
"Let's get this show on the road, Potter!"
Harry and Hermione started things off by separating out the students that came to actually try out for the team from those just there to watch. The latter camp made up the vast majority, with quite a few students from other houses. Harry was even surprised to see a sprinkling of Slytherin green amidst the group that was sent to the stands.
In the end, picking a team wasn't that hard. Harry kept Ginny and Katie Bell from the previous year's team as Chasers, and added Demelza Robins to the line, a third year who was particularly good at dodging Bludgers. Ritchie Coote and Jimmy Peakes were selected as the Beaters; Harry hoped that they would be a great improvement over the previous year's disastrous duo of Kirke and Sloper. At the very least, they couldn't be any worse.
Choosing a Keeper was the hardest decision of the afternoon. Ron put on a good show, but he was evenly matched by the loud-mouthed and arrogant seventh year Cormac McLaggen. It the end, he chose Ron, not necessarily because he was a better Keeper, but because he wasn't sure he would be able to put up with McLaggen on the team.
"Right, that's a wrap," Harry said as the tryouts finished. "I'll post the results on the bulletin board in the common room once I've finalized them."
As the crowd wandered away, Harry pulled Hermione aside for a private word.
"Thanks for coming out to help. You were great."
"You're welcome, Harry," she replied.
"I know that you'd probably rather be in the library researching like you've been all week, so, yeah. It means a lot to me that you came."
Hermione blushed and looked at the ground.
"Can I tell you something, Harry?"
"Of course."
"Promise not to laugh."
"Okay…" he replied with a bit of suspicion.
"I didn't really get any useful research done this week in the library."
Harry wasn't sure what he was expecting her to say, but that certainly wasn't it.
"Err… what?"
"I mean, I kind of ignored you all week to research in the library but I didn't really get anything done. So I'm sorry about that."
"Oh. Well, that's okay." Harry was puzzled.
"I think it was more of my way of coping with, you know, that thing you told me about."
"Oh."
The prophecy.
"Yeah. I felt like as long as I was doing something, that I could find an answer that would fix everything. Find a solution to the problem. Like it was an Arithmancy assignment or something. But I realized that the answer wasn't just going to pop out of a book. This isn't that simple, is it?"
"No," Harry said in a quiet, serious tone, "it isn't."
"So I decided that I should have been spending my time with you instead of with all those dusty old books."
"Did Hermione Granger just insult the library?"
"Don't you dare tell Ron that I said that!" she responded.
"Don't worry, he'll be too busy with Lavender wrapped around him to notice even if I did tell him."
"I told you those two were going to get together."
"Correct as always, Miss Granger."
"And don't you forget it. You should listen to me more often."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Good," Hermione said as she looped her arm through Harry's and started guiding him back towards the castle. "Now let's go back to the common room and get started on our Charms essays."
"But those aren't due for two weeks!" he protested, dragging his feet.
"Well there's no time like the present!"
As he was dragged off to do his homework, Harry could just hear Ron mocking him in his head.
You wanna snog her! You wanna do each other's homework!
Surprisingly, the thought just brought a smile to Harry's face.
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