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
XXIV
The days turned into weeks and soon the cold of Scotland in winter gave way to spring rains and then the warmth of summer, and all the while Harry continued his daily work as Keldorn's squire. Following his experiences with both Carsomyr and what the old knight told him about paladins and celibacy, Harry approached his training with a bit more trepidation. It wasn't that he had started having second thoughts about his current path, but rather that he began to really see the seriousness of the task he was pursuing – not to mention the extent of his own shortcomings. He could see that he was quickly growing in both skill and understanding of what it meant to be a paladin, but the more he understood, the more he began to question himself. As he began to accept and integrate the teachings of the Light into his own life more and more, his thoughts would always return to his encounter with Keldorn's otherworldly sword.
To be measured by that fierce yet sacred intelligence and judged unworthy was an experience that Harry would never forget. How could he ever hope to take up the mantle of a paladin if the most ancient and most sacred artifact of the Light found him unworthy?
Keldorn, however, never mentioned anything about his unworthiness. Rather, he simply kept on the young man's back about his duties and his formation.
He and Hermione continued to meet with Dumbledore every few weeks to learn more about Tom Riddle's past. It was difficult for Harry to understand the usefulness of those meetings at times, but Hermione seemed to understand their merit, so he decided to follow her lead.
Their romantic relationship found a new equilibrium following the little speedbump they'd encountered in March. They knew they were committed to each other, but they hadn't really gone beyond that in their discussions. After all, Harry's time was rather limited by his duties. Together, Hermione and Harry found themselves to be content with the little bit of time and comfort they had with each other at the end of each day. They were focused on enjoying their time together and not of defining their relationship too precisely.
The spring term ended with little fanfare, and Harry soon found himself bidding farewell to his friends outside the main gates of the castle. He was once again remaining at Hogwarts over the summer in order to continue his training with Keldorn and therefore was not returning to London on the Hogwarts Express.
"Take care, Harry," Neville said with a smile as he shook his hand, "and don't think that your time alone with Sir Firecam this summer is going to give you a one-up on me. My Uncle Algie apparently found and hired a sword master from the continent to teach me over the summer. I expect to come back with a few new tricks."
"I look forward to it, Nev," he replied.
"Good bye, Harry Potter," Luna said as she stared at a spot about a foot to Harry's left. "Don't forget to floss."
"Err… right, Luna. Will do."
"Make sure that old knight lets you come visit us at the Burrow at some point this summer, mate," Ron said as he slapped Harry on the shoulder.
"I'll see what I can do," he replied.
"Just make sure it isn't during the second or third weeks of August," Lavender interjected, "Ronny is coming with me and my family on vacation. Isn't that right, Ronny?"
Harry stifled a laugh when he saw Ron swallow hard and turn a bit green at the mention of meeting and spending such a long time with his girlfriend's family. But the red-headed wizard managed to force a smile as he nodded at his girlfriend.
"You're always welcome at the Burrow, Harry," Ginny said while she gave him a quick hug, "even if my git of a brother is off playing lotion boy for Lav."
His friends wandered over to one of the carriages, leaving him alone with Hermione for a moment.
"I'm going to miss you terribly," she said as she wrapped her boyfriend in a crushing hug.
"I know," he replied and squeezed her in return, "I'm gonna miss you too. But you'll be back soon, right? Just a few days at home with your parents before you come back to research your N.E.W.T. project some more."
Hermione dug her face into Harry's shoulder to hide a sudden blush.
"Remember all those comments about inappropriate behavior that Professor McGonagall kept making last summer? I wonder if she'll be even worse now that we're dating…"
Harry laughed.
"I wouldn't worry too much about it," he said with a smile, "she'll probably assume that Sir Firecam will be keeping me too busy for us to get into any trouble."
"Maybe you're right."
"I always am!"
"Hardly," Hermione replied with a roll of her eyes. "Honestly, I don't know how you ever managed to survive before you met me."
"Well, I can tell you that my life pre-Hermione wasn't nearly as much fun. I didn't get into nearly as much trouble…"
Hermione reached up to give him a long and tender kiss.
"I'll see you in a few days," she said as she slipped away to join the others in the carriage.
"I'll be waiting," he replied as he watched her slowly walk away.
He stood and watched the carriage roll away out of sight before turning and making his way to the stables.
"Alright, Buckbeak," Harry said to himself as he walked, "let's see what's in store for us today."
OoOoO
OoOoO
A few weeks later found Harry dodging through the air on the back of his faithful hippogriff. Three days after the departure of the Hogwarts Express, Hermione returned to the school with plans to stay for the rest of the summer. Her official reason for doing so was to continue researching her N.E.W.T. project, but Harry selfishly hoped that she was really there to spend time with him. Surprisingly, the young witch was not content to spend all of her time in the library and had even somehow convinced Keldorn to allow her to assist with Harry's training, something that really surprised the young wizard as the paladin usually wasn't very keen on permitting any 'distractions.' Harry wasn't sure exactly how she managed to bully the old knight into letting her spend so much time with him, but he was glad she did.
He used his knees and heels to direct his mount as they weaved this way and that through the air while they steadily dove toward the ground. Bright flashes of spellfire hurtled by them, missing by mere inches in some cases, but they might as well have been miles away for all their chance of actually connecting with the wizard or his graceful steed. Harry's skill at flying as well as Buckbeak's preternatural dexterity combined to make them an unbelievably agile fighting unit in the sky.
On the ground below, Hermione, professors McGonagall and Flitwick, and Remus Lupin stood in a ring around a group of five wooden dummies while they kept up a constant barrage of spells, all aimed at Harry and Buckbeak.
The spells themselves weren't very dangerous; merely quickly cast and easily aimed charms that would splatter the target with bright orange paint. But Harry had not been hit since the second day after Keldorn introduced this exercise, when it had been just him dodging in the air and Hermione providing the ground fire.
He gripped his wooden sword and shield a little tighter as he urged Buckbeak into a barrel roll and came out low to the earth, merely a few feet from the center of the defensive circle. Three quick swings of his sword knocked down three of the dummies before he sped off close to the ground, dodging angry spells along the away.
Harry cast a glance over his shoulder and smirked at his opponents' vain attempts to land a spell on him.
But then something slammed into his chest.
"Gaah!" he shouted as he was lifted out of his saddle. The world spun in front of his eyes before he painfully hit the ground which had been rushing by in a green blur only seconds earlier. He bounced twice before tumbling and skidding to a stop. He wheezed and sputtered, trying to regain the wind that was knocked from his lungs.
Once his breathing was under control, he groaned in pain. His right shoulder throbbed in a dull ache, but that was nothing next to the acute agony in his left knee that had borne the brunt of his impact with the ground.
"Harry!" he heard Hermione shout in the distance.
The prostrate wizard lifted his head and cracked open his eyes to see his mentor in full armor, astride a large brown hippogriff, and brandishing a wooden sword a few feet from where he lay crumpled on the ground.
Harry closed his eyes and let his head thump back to the grass beneath him.
"Well?" prompted the knight as Harry continued to lie in the grass.
He could hear hurried footsteps approaching. He groaned in response to his mentor's question.
"No one is invincible, Harry," Keldorn continued after a moment. "You might show some promise in these exercises, but do not allow yourself to become overconfident. Breaking your concentration to gloat for even a moment during battle can quickly lead to your downfall."
"I wasn't gloating," he mumbled.
"Really?" Keldorn asked. "Then why was I so easily able to unhorse you? Did you even see my approach?"
"No," the squire grumbled.
"I thought not. Gloating."
"Harry!" Hermione shouted as she finally ran up and knelt down by his side. "Oh Merlin! Are you alright?"
He shook off her probing hands before replying.
"I think so… Knee rather hurts, though…"
Hermione cast a quick glare at the paladin before reaching for Harry's leg.
Keldorn laughed.
"Do not glare so heatedly at me, Miss Granger. This lesson might just save the life of your paramour one day, and I doubt he will soon forget it."
"Hmpf!" was the young witch's only reply as she started probing Harry's knee.
"Easy… Ow! Easy! Hermione," Harry responded to her somewhat less than gentle care.
By that time McGonagall, Flitwick, and Lupin had made their way over to the fallen wizard.
"Well?" the Deputy Headmistress asked, "are you injured?"
"Just – Ow! Quit it, Hermione! Just my knee," Harry answered.
"Better be off to the hospital wing, then," Flitwick said.
Hermione quickly cast a diagnostic spell before speaking again.
"I think it's just a bad sprain, professor. I've been reading up on healing spells, do you think I could try something?"
McGonagall cast her own spell before replying.
"I agree, Miss Granger. You may proceed – with Mr. Potter's permission, of course."
Hermione turned her steely gaze to the wounded wizard.
"Err… go ahead, Hermione."
She traced her wand above Harry's leg in a precise circle followed by a triangle before finishing with a twist and a flick while shouting, "Episkey Modicus!"
Harry felt a quick snap in his knee before the pain vanished.
"Well done, Miss Granger!" Flitwick cried. "If term were in session, I'd grant ten points to Gryffindor!"
"Thank you, professor," she responded with a blush while her eyes continued to linger on Harry.
"Where did you learn that?" Lupin inquired.
Hermione dragged her eyes to the older wizard before speaking, "Oh, I've been looking over some of the healing texts in the library during my spare time. I figure that this one," here she pointed at Harry, "isn't going to stop damaging himself anytime soon, so I might as well be able to put him back together somewhat."
"An excellent, idea, Miss Granger!" Flitwick exclaimed. "I'd say that St. Mungo's would be glad to have you after Hogwarts!"
Hermione beamed at the praise she was receiving.
"Your exam scores are certainly high enough," McGonagall added. "If you do as well on your N.E.W.T.s as I imagine you will, you would have no trouble at all finding a healer to take you on as an apprentice."
"Oh that sounds wonderful! Don't you think so, Harry?" she asked with bright eyes.
He smiled.
"Sounds good to me. I know I wouldn't mind having a girlfriend that can piece me back together."
"Ha!" Keldorn laughed. "No doubt about that. You would certainly live longer in any case." Hermione's smile vanished at those words, but the knight gave no notice, and instead kept speaking. "But that's enough lounging about. Back on your feet!"
Harry gave out one last groan as he lurched to his feet. He felt a nudge from behind and turned to see Buckbeak with his head bowed.
"Don't worry, boy," he said to the creature as he gave him a pat on the neck, "that fall wasn't your fault, but mine."
The animal chirped in response.
"Back in the saddle, Harry," Keldorn ordered. "We'll count this one as a failure. You were to eliminate all five dummies while under enemy fire without taking a hit, if you will recall. I want to see you succeed ten times in a row before we move on."
"Umm… Sir?" Harry asked as the others moved back to their positions.
"Yes?"
"Will you be opposing me as well?"
Keldorn grinned in response and Harry felt his mouth go dry.
OoOoO
OoOoO
Later that evening found Harry stiffly limping through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor common room.
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed as she shot up from her place on the couch.
"Hey, Hermione," he managed to respond but with a wince of pain.
"Ohhh… what is Sir Firecam doing to you?"
"Well, you know… can't become a paladin without taking a thump or two about the head and members. Or fifty."
"Oh my… Come over here, Harry, and let me help you out of that chainmail…"
Harry spent the next several minutes wincing and hissing as Hermione gently helped him out of his armor and padding.
"Oh Merlin!" she exclaimed when he was finally stripped down to bare skin from the waist up. "You're all black and blue! Look at these bruises!"
"It's not that bad…" he grumbled before looking down at himself. "Okay, it's pretty bad…"
"Stay right here," she instructed, "I've got some Bruise Be Gone upstairs."
Harry gently lowered himself onto the couch while his girlfriend ran up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. She returned a moment later with a large jar of thick, yellow paste, and instructed him to lean forward so that she could apply it to his discolored back, chest and arms.
"I can't believe that old man would do this to you…" she grumbled as she administered the healing remedy.
"It's your fault, you know," he said with a small smile.
"What?!" Hermione nearly shouted, "how is this my fault?! Sir Firecam is the one who kept beating you about the head and members, as you put it, not me."
Harry hissed as she pressed against a particularly tender spot before replying.
"Well yeah, but he only did that after he found out that you've been studying healing. No doubt he thinks that now that I have my own personal healer, he can push me that much harder."
"Oh."
"Yeah," he responded before glancing at the large tub of Bruise Be Gone paste in Hermione's left hand. "I think we're gonna need a bigger batch of that stuff…"
"Oh, this is terrible! I'm sorry, Harry! I didn't know Sir Keldorn would react that way to my learning a few simple spells…"
"Relax, Hermione, I was joking."
"But what if it's true?"
"It's not. Breathe. I was just pulling your chain a bit. Sir Firecam has been meaning to ratchet up my training for a while. I was going to get this eventually whether or not you suddenly took an interest in healing."
"Couldn't he heal you, though? Isn't that one of his abilities as a paladin? Like he healed me last year?"
Harry thought for a moment before responding.
"Err… I guess so. But a paladin's healing isn't really used for minor things like bumps and bruises. It's more restricted, and is usually only used in severe cases. Not for treating bruises from sparring. Besides, I think the bruising is part of the lesson – helps you remember what happened better."
Hermione worked in silence for a while.
"Maybe I should speak with Madame Pomfrey. With the students gone for the summer, perhaps she would be willing to teach me a thing or two. Goodness knows you're going to need it."
"Ha!" Harry laughed and then winced. "Might be a good idea."
"There, all done," she said before finding a towel to wipe her hands. "You need to let that set for an hour before washing it off."
"Can't I just go to sleep like this and shower in the morning?"
"Not if you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night with your skin on fire. This stuff does miracles, but if you let it dry out while it's still on your skin, it will literally burst into flame."
"Where in the world did you get this stuff?"
"I got it from Fred and George, actually."
"What?!" he cried, "Hermione! I'm going to sprout feathers, or turn purple for the next week or something!"
"Relax, Harry. I just got the recipe from them. I examined their instructions and made the paste myself. It's perfectly safe. As long as you don't let it dry and burst into flames…"
"You're sure?"
"Of course."
Harry nervously eyed the thick yellow goop that covered most of his upper body before turning back to Hermione.
"So, are you really thinking about becoming a healer?"
"Well, yes, actually, I think I am."
"That's great, Hermione! You'd do a terrific job at it."
She blushed a little bit at his praise.
"Well, with you around, I'll certainly get lots of practice."
"I think you should talk to Pomfrey," Harry said after a few moments of comfortable silence, "at the very least, she can likely get you started in the right direction. It's too bad that you already started your N.E.W.T. project though; you could've probably used your research time next year to give yourself a head start."
When Hermione didn't immediately respond, Harry turned to see an impish smile on her face.
"What?"
"Well…" she began, "Don't tell Professor McGonagall, but I've kind of already been done with my N.E.W.T. project for the past several months."
"What?!" Harry laughed.
"Shhh!" she admonished as she nervously glanced at the portrait hole.
"Oh, quit worrying. She's got plenty of better things to do than to eavesdrop on us."
"Yes, but I gave that as my reason for staying at the castle this summer. If she finds out that my research as well as the project itself is already finished, she might be rather cross with me…"
"Hermione Granger - lying to the deputy headmistress…" The witch in question blushed and looked down. "If she finds out, you're dead. Or worse, expelled! You're such a bad influence on me!" he continued, laughing the whole time.
"Oh, quiet you!" she responded with a shove to his shoulder, but came away with a grimace and a hand covered in yellow goop.
They both managed to find that funny after a moment.
"So if you're not here for research, why did you stay at the castle this summer?"
Hermione grinned devilishly at Harry before responding, "Why do you think?" She then leaned in to plant a soft kiss on his lips.
A few minutes and several kisses later, Harry brought the topic of conversation back to Hermione's N.E.W.T. project.
"Well," he said, "let's see it, then."
Hermione pierced him with a steely look while she thought for a moment.
"Swear that you'll not breathe one word of this to anyone. I know we were joking earlier, but I really don't want Professor McGonagall to find out that I'm already finished. I don't know how she'd react."
"My lips are sealed."
"Okay," she said as she rose from the couch, "wait here a moment while I go get it ready."
Hermione once again hurried up the stairs to her dormitory.
It was roughly five minutes later that she came back down the steps, barefoot, and clutching a fluffy bathrobe about her.
"Err…" Harry stated in confusion, "your project is a bathrobe?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "No, my project is most certainly not a bathrobe. It's this" she gestured to the string of pearls that encircled her neck.
"Okay… So, what's with the bathrobe, then?" Harry asked.
"Well, I wasn't about to prance down here in nothing but my underwear!"
"What?! Why does your project mean you have to be in just your underwear?"
Hermione smiled. "Because of this! Rambunctious Rowena Ravenclaw!"
And then Hermione's feet were suddenly no longer bare, but were instead clad in a delicate pair of heeled shoes. He only saw this for a split second though, as folds of red fabric fell from beneath the bottom of Hermione's robe to cover her feet. With a triumphant smirk, Hermione whipped off the robe to reveal that she was now wearing the crimson gown and white gloves that she had worn to Slughorn's Christmas party.
"Ta da!" she exclaimed before twirling in a circle to show off her dress.
Harry smiled and clapped his hands.
"Bravo, Hermione!"
"Thank you, Harry. You see, I was able to arithmantically break down the charm on Sir Firecam's gorget and subsequently develop a series of runes and a spoken charm that replicated the effect. As you can see I decided to use the pearls as the anchor for the runes, as that was most practical. It got a little tricky trying to account for the thermal pressure in the folding process, but I fixed that by overlaying the fourth node with a reversed sequence of Drouple's Runes…" Hermione finally focused back on Harry to see his eyebrows arched up almost to his hairline.
"Right, sorry about all the technical babble…" she said. "But anyways, here we are! Just put on a necklace, say the password, and instant dress robes!"
"That's brilliant, Hermione!"
"Thanks!"
"Will it work with anything else?"
"In theory, yes, this can be applied to almost anything. Anything that can be worn, that is. Halloween costumes, hiking gear, protective equipment for the potions laboratory, even your armor. You name it, I can enchant it. Now that the proper rune sequence and charm work has been fleshed out it shouldn't even be that difficult."
"Only you could manage to copy previously unknown magic from an unknown universe in less than a year. And for a school project no less!"
"Oh, stop!"
"You really are brilliant. But what's with 'Rambunctious Rowena Ravenclaw?'"
"Well, I needed an easily remembered password, but also something that I won't say accidentally. You wouldn't want your dress robes to appear or disappear in the wrong situation just because you said the wrong word."
Harry thought about that for a moment and then smiled.
"So what's the password to put everything away again?"
Hermione opened her mouth to reply but then she snapped it shut, flushed bright red, and narrowed her eyes at Harry.
"Harry Potter!" she shouted, "did you just try to trick me into standing here in nothing but my underwear?!"
"Well…"
"I don't believe you!"
"Oh, come on. It's not like we've never teased each other before…"
Hermione snatched up her robe and marched back over to the stairs. She was halfway up before she stopped and turned back with an impish smile.
"If you want to get me out of my robes, you're just going to have to do it the old fashioned way!" The she quickly disappeared up the steps.
AN: Thoughts?
The omake that was originally posted here has been removed and given its own story! So if you're looking for some interaction between Harry Potter and Minsc and Boo from Baldur's Gate, take a gander at Harry Potter and the Ranger and the Miniature Giant Space Hamster!
Thanks for your reviews. And thanks for reading!