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.
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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's refusal to allow her to remain in the library after hours, Harry was sure that Hermione would have cut into her sleep schedule as well. Harry took it upon himself to force Hermione to come to meals, even if those appearances were rather brief affairs.
He could not 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 sword lessons 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 the Room of Requirement, which was where they were currently headed.
"You say this room can become whatever you desire it to be?" asked the old knight.
"Well, I suppose that it technically becomes whatever you need it to be," answered Harry.
"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 spat with venom.
"What are you doing all the way up here 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 of 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 address the knight.
"Watching me do what?" asked the blond-haired wizard.
"I know of your intentions," answered the knight, "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," answered the knight without being fazed by the arrogant student's insults.
Draco simply sneered in return before turning on his heel and marching off in the direction of the dungeons. After Draco left, Harry determined that Keldorn would not be forthcoming about anything he might know about the Slytherin, so he instead chose to continue on to the Room of Requirement.
When he 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 which Harry opened 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," commented Keldorn as they stepped into the room and closed the door.
The old 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, the knight acted normally without a hint of acknowledgement 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 was 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," Harry said as he gestured with his sword. "What would you think of me asking my friend Ron Weasley?"
"Weasley… the tall, red-haired boy?" queried the knight.
"That would be him."
"Honestly, Mr. Potter, I do not think he would accept your suggestion."
"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'd have to like it.
"Besides, Mr. Weasley seems to be more concerned with his new female companion than with his studies or other pursuits," continued Keldorn.
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," said the knight, "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 is 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 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 with an air of patience about him, "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 anyone to wield any sort of weapon if I was not confident of their 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 words that the old knight spoke. 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 he could not readily identify.
"So, Mr. Potter, you ask why I think Mr. Longbottom would be a good candidate for sword work? It is 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 instructor parted ways outside the Room of Requirement as the doorway disappeared and melded back into the wall. As Harry 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 in his head. He was probably 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 that bothered him as he walked back to his dormitory.
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? Perhaps he was so taken with those words because of the almost complete hopelessness of his prophesized 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.
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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," replied Ron.
"Hi Harry," greeted Lavender, "you're not going to try and steal my Ronny away from me again are you?" She then 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," said Harry.
"Good," said Lavender, although she refrained from removing her arms from the boy.
"But I did have a question for you, Ron," continued Harry.
"Oh, okay," said Ron.
"Well, you know how I've been studying swordsmanship with Sir Firecam for the past few months?"
"Yeah," said Ron 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," said Harry.
"Fun?" asked the blonde witch.
"Yeah, it's fun," responded Harry.
"I would have thought that you already had enough on your plate, what with N.E.W.T. classes, being Quidditch Captain, and Hermione," said Lavender.
"Well, yeah, I'm busy but… wait, what do you mean about Hermione?" Harry said, turning the questions back on Lavender.
"Oh nothing…" she said somewhat mysteriously.
"Anyways," said Ron 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…" began Ron, 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 questioned.
"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 around the area where they were sitting but found a distinct lack of textbooks and notes.
"You're not studying," responded Harry.
"Of course we are," said Lavender 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," said Harry, "What do you think, Ron?" Harry hoped that the added emphasis would keep Lavender from interrupting again.
Ron looked over at the blonde witch for a long moment before turning back to Harry and responding.
"Err… sorry mate, but I just don't think I'll have time this year. You know, studying and Quidditch and all."
"Right," responded Harry, "well I'll let you two get back to 'studying.'"
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Ron approached Harry later on that night 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?" questioned Ron.
"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?" queried Harry.
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," responded Ron, "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," said Harry. "So what the hell does she see in you then?"
"Oi! I'll have you know I'm quite the catch, I am," said Ron 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?" asked the red-haired wizard.
"What do you mean? Lavender mentioned something about Hermione earlier too."
"Well you know," replied Ron.
"No, I don't know. What are you talking about?" asked Harry.
"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," said Ron 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. After all, 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!" laughed Ron. "You wanna do each other's homework! Ha!" That one made Ron fall back onto his bed in laughter.
"Oi!" shouted Harry, his face heating up, "like you and Lav are any better!"
"I never said we were," replied Ron once he recovered, "but at least I have the bollocks to admit it." Ron 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," replied Harry, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Glad to be of service!"
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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," responded the witch in question 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!" said Harry. "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."
"They why would they come?"
Hermione rolled her eyes at that.
"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 taking a step closer to him, "I'll keep all those mean old witches away."
Is Hermione flirting with me?
"Err…"
Harry was saved from having to 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 even 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, Harry 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," replied Hermione.
"I know that you'd probably rather be in the library researching like you have been all week, so, yeah. It means a lot to me that you came."
Hermione blushed and looked down.
"Can I tell you something, Harry?"
"Of course."
"Promise not to laugh."
"Okay…" replied Harry 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 problem 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," said Harry 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?" Harry asked playfully.
"Don't you dare tell Ron that I said that!" responded Hermione.
"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 pulling 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!" Harry 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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