The Mage Knights
E.C.R. Potter
A/N In this story, we find our familiar characters in a not so familiar setting: namely a complete medieval type fantasy world of knights and chivalry, of quests and adventure, and of kings and kingdoms. The primary inspiration for this story is J.R.R. Tolkiens's The Lord of the Rings and Enix's role-playing video game series, Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior). It is basically a novel length H/Hr epic
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series belongs to J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Scholastic, Bloomsbury, Raincoast, and anything else related.
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Chapter 1: A Story in History
It was a dark time in the lands of Magiterran. The Kingdom of Gryffindor had been conquered by the Kingdom of Slytherin 15 years ago. The Alliance of the Kingdoms of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were still holding out in the war against Slytherin, but it was quite clear that it would only be a matter of time before they too would fall. Indeed, the fall of Gryffindor, once the greatest of the four kingdoms, had changed the balance of power, and it was obvious that all of Magiterran would eventually be controlled by the Slytherin kingdom.
The people of the former Kingdom of Gryffindor lived in terror as they were violently oppressed by Slytherin warriors on a daily basis. Everyday there were rumors of villages that had been destroyed or people being tortured to death simply for their oppressors' entertainment. Freedom had simply ceased to exist the day the Gryffindor Royal Family was assassinated. However, there were those who still clung to the hope that things would eventually turn better again. One of those was a 16 year girl who lived in a village near the Northeastern borderlands of the former Gryffindor kingdom. Her name was Hermione Granger.
Hermione was a farmer's daughter. She was not necessarily stunningly beautiful but she had a sense of prettiness that radiated in a form of inner beauty. She had bushy brown hair that fell just below her shoulders and her brown eyes sparkled with a sense of warmth and intelligence. 'Intelligent' would probably be an understatement when describing her, for she had taught herself how to read at an early age. Books were her passion and it was quite common that she would spend a good deal of the day reading books that she found in the village library or church when she should have been helping her family in the fields. It was not considered 'proper' for a farmer's daughter to read, but Hermione could have cared less about what was 'proper'. She often used what she learned in the books to tell the village children stories about the days when they were still residents of the Kingdom of Gryffindor and ruled by good King James and fair Queen Lily.
"Queen Lily was a champion of the common folk," she would say while sitting on the on a bench in the middle of the village square surrounded by children. "She devoted her life to happiness of those who were less fortunate in terms of wealth and worked hard at helping the poor. The people loved the Queen with all their hearts since she identified with the commoners. She considered herself as one of us and always came to meet the common folk in person."
"Did you ever meet her?" asked a girl of about seven.
"I was only thirteen months old when the King and Queen died," answered Hermione. "But there are many grown ups in this very village who have. I've heard them tell stories of how loving and kind she was and how much they loved her in return."
"People also loved King James. He was a wise ruler and a brave soldier who would have sacrificed his own life for the sake of his people. He always personally led his armies into battle and always identified himself as one of the soldiers. I could tell you about the hundreds of stories about them. But without the leadership of the royal family, the armies soon crumbled and the Slytherin armies were able to storm into our lands and..." At this point, Hermione was no longer able to continue. There was a brief silence as the children waited for her to continue with her stories. When it became clear that she wasn't going to continue, the audience slowly got up and returned home. After the last child had left the village square, Hermione got up and started walking back to her own home.
As she walked back she looked up toward the stars. She had only been a year old when King James and Queen Lily had been killed. She had never known a life of freedom and happiness, but she knew that any life would be better than the one of fear and sadness that they lived in. "There is always hope," she whispered to herself. "We must never lose hope."