Harry Potter and the Knights of the Roundtable
Chapter 1: Reflection & Musings
Seventeen-year-old Harry Potter had come to the conclusion that life sucked. While he was certainly not the only sixteen year old to ever think this, his situation was decidedly quite unlike most others. Harry was a wizard. An evil wizard killed his parents when he was just a baby. That wizard has also tried to kill Harry, but something caused his curse to rebound off of Harry and back into himself. The wizard, known as Lord Voldemort, spent the next 11 years in hiding, a mere shell of himself. Harry, in the meantime, was sent to live with his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and their son Dudley. They hated Harry, for they knew what he was. For eleven years they treated him horribly, making him sleep in a cupboard under their stairs, and making him a virtual slave. They also lied to Harry about his parents and hid the fact that he was a wizard.
All that changed on Harry's eleventh birthday, when Harry received his acceptance letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was perhaps one of the happiest events of his life. Harry loved Hogwarts and loved almost everything about the wizarding world. It was here that he met his two best friends.
Ron Weasley was the second youngest in a family of seven children, all of whom attended Hogwarts. In the six years he had known them, Harry had come to view them as an adopted family of sorts. Ron and Harry shared much in common, such as their love of Quidditch and a good-natured disposition.
Then there was Hermione Granger. She was Harry's other best friend, and the third member of the Dream Team as Professor Snape often referred to them. Their friendship had initially gotten off to a slow start, primarily because of Hermione's studious nater, which had rubbed Ron and Harry the wrong way. By the end of their first year, however, the trio had grown quite close and had been inseparable ever since. In the six years they had been at Hogwarts, the trio had had numerous adventures.
Harry sighed. His initial happiness over being a wizard had come to an end shortly before the end of his fourth year, when his fellow Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory and he were transported to an old graveyard. Cedric had been killed by Wormtail, the former friend and secret keeper of Harry's parents and now a servant of Lord Voldemort. Wormtail had used Harry's blood, along with a bone from Voldemort's father and one of his hands to resurrect the Dark Lord. Harry managed to escape, taking Cedric's body back with him.
At first, few were willing to believe Harry concerning Voldemort's return. Besides Headmaster Dumbledore, the Weasley family, Harry's godfather Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Mad-Eye Moody, the only other person who believed him was Hermione.
Hermione. Harry sighed as he thought of her. Over the past six years his feelings for his best friend had slowly changed. Harry wasn't sure when, but somewhere along the way he had begun to develop feelings for her. He still remembered the sight of how beautiful she looked at the Yule Ball their fourth year, and how jealous he had been of Victor Krum. But Harry, not wanting to ruin their friendship, had kept his feelings buried. Another wrinkle was the fact that Harry had known that Ron had a crush on Hermione. They had even dated briefly during their fifth year, but soon it became apparent that neither was right for each other and they broke off the relationship, still friends. Harry had toyed with confessing his feelings towards Hermione towards the end of their fifth year, but then all hell broke loose.
The wizarding world exploded into war near the end of their fifth year, with Lord Voldemort and his followers striking with more power and ferocity then they had twenty years earlier. One of the first casualties had been Harry's godfather, Sirius Black. Harry had been devastated at this loss. Then to make matters worse, Harry learned that several years before he had been born, a prophecy had been made concerning himself and Voldemort. This prophecy stated that he and Voldemort were destined to battle and that one would have to kill the other.
Harry spent the summer after his fifth year in a withdrawn state. It took him many months to get over Sirius's death and the shock of the prophecy. Finally he had pledged to himself that he would do whatever he had to do to stop Voldemort. When Harry returned to Hogwarts for his sixth year, everyone noticed the change. Gone was the carefree Harry they knew. He declined an offer to rejoin the Gryffindor Quidditch team after his suspension from the previous year was lifted and instead became obsessed with academics. Soon he surprised everyone and became the second highest ranked student in the school, the first being Hermione. He also continued his leadership of the DA, the club he, Hermione, and Ron had formed in their fifth year to hone their DADA skills.
Meanwhile, events in the rest of the wizarding well were spiraling out of control. Fierce battles between Ministry forces and Voldemort's followers raged across Britain. With the help of the Order of the Phoenix, an association of wizards and witches dedicated to fighting the Dark Arts, the Ministry seemed to finally have the situation in hand. Then came the great betrayal.
Harry had never really trusted Severus Snape, the Hogwarts Potions master. During Voldemort's first reign of terror Snape had been a Deatheater, but had switched sides near the end and worked as a spy for Dumbledore. At the time only Dumbledore completely trusted Snape, but over the years many began to feel that perhaps Snape had really turned over a new leaf.
From the moment that Harry stepped foot in Hogwarts, he and Snape had clashed. Snape had been in school with Harry's father and had hated James Potter. He carried this hatred over to Harry. By this time Snape had become an accepted member of the Order. Despite his suspicions, by the beginning of his sixth year Harry had come to an uneasy acceptance of Snape and his role in the fight against Voldemort.
Harry still shoke with anger when he thought of the events of Halloween of his sixth year. Ubeknown to all, even Dumbledore, Snape had once again become a loyal servant of Lord Voldemort. Snape secretly recruited a large portion of Slytherin house into the ranks of the Deatheaters and helped smuggle several more Deatheaters into Hogwarts. They struck during the Halloween feast. Due to the surprise, many students and teachers were killed before they were driven off. Among the dead were Remus Lupin, a friend of Harry's father and Sirius's and the only real family Harry had left, and Rubeus Hagrid, the school groundskeeper and Care of Magical Creatures teacher. The attack ushered in a new wave of assaults by Voldemort's Deatheaters and his dark allies.
Currently Harry was still at his aunt and uncle's house in Surrey. Professor Dumbledore was now more adamant than ever that besides Hogwarts this was the only place Harry was safe. And so Harry stayed. It was as bad as usual this summer, perhaps because of how much Harry had grown over the last year. Gone was the short, lanky boy that Dudley could easily push around. But the real reason for the Dursleys' attitude towards him stemmed from the fact that in three months Harry would be seventeen and allowed to do magic. The Dursleys' were fearful that if they crossed Harry the wrong way, he would hex them into eternity.
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Hermione Granger was depressed. For over a year now, she had realized that she was in love with her best friend, Harry Potter. Truthfully, she had probably had feelings for him even longer than that, but had just not admitted it to herself. She had thought at one time that she liked Ron, but after a few months of dating, both she and Ron had realized they were not right for each other. She suspected that Ron knew of her feelings for Harry, but he never said anything.
Hermione had contemplated confessing her feelings for Harry at the end of the last school year, but decided against it. First, with everything that Harry had gone through, she felt he didn't need an added problem. Second, she was deathly afraid that Harry would reject her and that it would destroy their friendship, something she valued more than anything. Finally, she didn't think that Harry felt the same about her. Still, she couldn't seem to get him out of her mind. He had grown up a lot over the last three years. He was no longer the short, lanky boy that she had met on the Hogwarts express six years ago.
Yeah. He's a real hunk now. Hermione thought, and then blushed. Of course it wasn't only Harry's change in physical appearance that caused Hermione's interest. Truth be told she had always had a slight crush on Harry. He was one of the most selfless and kindest people she had ever met. He would go out of his way for people, especially his friends. He had always been smart, but never really applied himself in school until this last year. Hermione and Ron both knew the reason for his sudden interest in academics, and it broke her heart. She so badly wanted to reach out and hold him, soothe him and tell him everything would be ok. Oh what's the use? Harry would only think I was doing it as a friend. He doesn't feel the same way about me that I do about him.
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Ron Weasley was frustrated. He knew that his best friend, Harry Potter, had deep feelings for their other best friend, Hermione Granger. He also knew that Hermione had feelings for Harry. But neither of them would admit it to one another. He had known for a long time, even when he was dating Hermione. Not that he was upset. Though he had had a crush on Hermione at one time, the few short months they had dated showed him that he really didn't have deep feelings for her. They hand ended the relationship amicably and still remained good friends.
He was trying to think of some way to get the two of them to admit their feelings. He was currently in his room, discussing the situation wit his sister, Ginny Weasley. Ginny at one time had had a crush on Harry, but somewhere in their fourth year had gotten over it and hand since become his best friend besides Ron and Hermione.
"Agh! There has got to be some way to make this happen." Ron said, exasperated.
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Draco Malfoy was miserable. He and his mother had been forced to flee Malfoy Manner after Draco had refused his father's wishes to join the ranks of Voldemort's Deatheaters. Despite his previous attitude, Draco had come to realize that his father was wrong. And so he had refused the Dark Mark and had tried to warn Dumbledore of Snape's treachery, but arrived too late to stop the attack. He had been badly injured during the attack, throwing himself in front of a Cruciatus curse meant for Harry Potter. Afterwards, he offered his services to Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore quickly accepted his repentance and so did, much to Draco's surprise, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Over the rest of their sixth year, the quartet had become good friends. Draco and his mom were currently living in Hogwarts, as his father was till after them.
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Harry sighed, as he lay awake in his bed. He had not been sleeping well for several weeks, which was not very unusual. What was unusual was the reason for his insomnia. Normally nightmares kept him awake. Now however it was thoughts about Hermione that kept him up.
Hermione was the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts, in Harry's opinion. Her face was like that of an angel and it put Harry at ease every time he pictured her. She had long since grown from the plain looking, bookish girl that Harry had met all those years ago. She had grown several inches taller and her body had filled out perfectly in all the right places. Harry felt his heart pound as he thought of her. How he longed to hold her in his arms and kiss her.
So engrossed in his thoughts of Hermione was Harry that he didn't here the front door to the house open or his Uncle talking to someone. He also didn't notice the gold orb, which floated next to him. Suddenly there was a flash of light, and Harry Potter was no longer to be found at Privet Drive.