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.
OoOoO
Harry Potter and the Knight of the Radiant Heart
VI
Harry found life to be a bit boring after he finished chopping up the tree. Every day started the same way with another letter from Hermione, which would be duly read, and then placed in his trunk unanswered. Harry would then try to find something to occupy his time. Unfortunately, there just wasn't much to do.
He spent a bit of time flying each day; he had gotten his Firebolt back with the assistance of Dumbledore. But it was difficult for him to just be carefree and soar through the sky like he used to. So much had changed in the last few weeks that flying and Quidditch, while still fun, just didn't have the same attraction as they used to.
Harry had no summer assignments to spend his time on since he had just taken his O.W.L.s and he first needed to know his scores before he could select classes for the next year. That meant he couldn't pass the time doing homework.
I wonder if having no homework is driving Hermione round the bend? Harry thought to himself at one point. He supposed that he could always write to her and find out, but that would mean that he would have to answer her increasingly frantic letters. Besides, Harry just didn't know what to say to her. Replying to her serious and concerned messages with a light-hearted, "so are you surviving without any homework?" just didn't seem right.
He tried to spend some time in the library reading, but being in that room with all the books brought his mind back to Hermione and made him feel guilty about not answering her letters.
At least his anger had mostly abated. It wasn't gone completely, but now that he knew that he was angrier with himself than anything else, Harry was able to process it better. He hoped that Sirius, Hermione and the others would be able to forgive him one day for what he had done to them, but he doubted that they ever would.
Harry also hadn't seen as much of Keldorn since he finished splitting the wood. He still ran across him on the grounds every once in a while, or in the Great Hall during meals since there were so few people currently staying at the castle, but it wasn't the same as spending the day working together. Harry found that he missed the old man. There was something about him that Harry simply liked. Perhaps it was his direct way of speaking, or that he never shied away for explaining the reasons why he did something or why he gave a particular piece of advice.
In any event, Harry was bored. And he was a bit worried that he might soon go stir crazy, or even worse, that his anger might come back with a vengeance now that he didn't really have an outlet to pour his energy into.
So, it was with this in mind that Harry set out to find Keldorn late one night after dinner. He had searched the Marauder's Map and found the old knight standing at the top of the Astronomy Tower.
Harry made his way up the stairs of the tower, and gently pushed open the door at the top.
The old knight was standing at the far end of the rooftop with his hands clasped behind his back. He turned his head to identify the newcomer, but then went back to gazing at the stars.
"Good evening, Harry."
"Good evening. You seem to spend a lot of time up here," Harry said in reply.
"I suppose I do," the knight responded as he continued to look into the vastness of the night sky. "Even though your stars are different, I still find looking upon them to be soothing. Such bright points of Light, boldly standing out amidst the Darkness all around them."
Harry tilted his head back to look at the stars. He'd never given them much thought aside from his astronomy classes.
"I suppose they give me hope," continued the knight. The two figures stood in silence for a few minutes. To Harry, the way that the knight spoke of light and darkness seemed to make the words carry much more meaning than they normally did. That moment, with the way the two of them were silently gazing at the bright stars in the dark, night sky seemed weighty, almost sacred.
But eventually Harry broke the silence and brought up the reason why he came.
"I was wondering, err… if you might, well, have any other ideas for things for me to do."
Sir Firecam turned and focused his attention on Harry.
"It's just that, ever since I finished the tree, I've been a bit, well, bored," continued Harry.
"Am I to be your entertainer now?" the old knight asked with one eyebrow raised.
"No, that's not what I meant," Harry answered. "It's just… I don't have any school work for the summer, and I'm stuck here on the grounds with almost no one else around."
"Take up some reading."
"I can really only do so much of that," Harry replied, failing to mention that he had no desire to spend time in the library because it brought up unpleasant thoughts about Hermione. The knight furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Harry intently; it almost seemed like he could tell that he was leaving something out of his reply.
"And like you said," Harry went on before the knight called him out on his omission, "I need something physical to do, something to focus my energy on."
"Well, I can't really fault that reasoning. Perhaps a bit of exercise would do you some good. Very well, meet me tomorrow morning, after breakfast in the clearing outside the doors of the castle. We'll see what strength swinging Hagrid's maul has given you."
With that, the knight turned his attention back to the stars and Harry left him to it.
OoOoO
OoOoO
The next morning Harry made his way to his meeting with Keldorn feeling slightly off kilter. He as anxious to find out just what the knight had in store for him, but he was more worried about something that he found to be missing that morning.
For the first time since the day after the Hogwarts Express had departed, Harry did not have a letter from Hermione waiting for him when he woke up.
Perhaps she got fed up with his lack of response and simply stopped writing. Maybe she finally realized that it was his fault that she was nearly killed and no longer wanted anything to do with him. Perhaps Harry should have written back while there was still some chance of salvaging their friendship…
Harry tried to put those thoughts out of his mind as he saw Sir Firecam waiting for him. The knight was waiting just outside of the gate and off to the side on a stretch of level, grassy ground. What he was holding made Harry stop in surprise. On his left forearm was strapped a round, wooden shield while his right hand held a wooden sword. His actual sword had been removed, and was propped up against a nearby bench. On the ground next to the bench was another wooden shield and sword.
"Don't stand there gawking, boy, come and pick up your arms."
The knight's words stirred Harry to movement once more and he quickly gathered the sword and shield and awkwardly picked them up. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind when he said he was looking for something to do. He was thinking of some other sort of manual labor, something basic that would occupy his time without much further concern. Sword fighting never even crossed his mind.
"Now then," began Sir Firecam, "You were looking for something to do. Well, I think some sword training might be just what you need. It will help teach you some discipline, which you seem to need, and it will definitely use up your excess energy. At the very least, it should alleviate your boredom."
"Are you sure about that?" questioned Harry. "No one's had much use for sword fighting for the past couple hundred years in this world."
"The sword is more than just a weapon for war. The point here is not to prepare you for entering a melee, but rather to strengthen your mind, your body and your will. Like you said, it is unlikely you will ever wield a sword in battle; I would think that as a wizard, you would be much more likely to wield your wand. Nonetheless, learning the sword might benefit you even there.
"If you would rather find something else to occupy you, please feel free. But remember, you came to me looking for some task. This is what I have chosen for you. Take it or leave it."
"Alright," replied Harry, "I'll give it a go. What do I do?"
"First, take the shield in your left hand, put your arm through the loop and grasp the handle like so. Now, hold the sword with your right hand. Not too tight, it's not a club. You'll use your fingers to control the finer movements of the blade."
"It's a bit heavier than I expected for a wooden sword," Harry remarked.
"Yes, it's weighted to be even heavier than the real thing. Sword work requires strength. Strength demands that you exercise your muscles. The weight of the sword will help with that."
Harry nodded in understanding.
"Now then," continued the knight, "look to your feet. Keep them shoulder-width apart and bend your knees. Put you weight on the balls of your feet with your left foot forward. Present your profile to your opponent and hold your shield firmly in front of you. Hold your sword up to the right in a guard position. Point the tip toward your opponent's face…"
The knight continued on in the same vein, pointing things out, repositioning Harry's arms or legs when they were incorrect, and making observations.
Eventually, once he was pleased with Harry's stance, he proceeded to having Harry move forward and backward, as well as side to side, all with deliberate, precise motions. He kept a sharp eye out for even the slightest imperfections and was quick to point them out and correct them.
"Don't cross your feet."
"Is that where your thumb is supposed to be? I thought not."
"Keep your knees bent!"
The hardest part, Harry quickly discovered, was keeping his knees bent. After only a few seconds, his thighs would begin to burn with the strain. Constantly holding the heavy sword and shield with his arms bent was no picnic either.
When he agreed to the knight's plan, Harry had initially thought that learning how to sword fight would involve more, well, sword fighting. After what must have been two or three hours, all he had done was footwork and trying to keep his arms, back, head, fingers, and the rest of his body in the correct positions. Harry was beginning to see how this could teach him some discipline.
"Alright, take a break."
Harry sighed in relief as he dropped his weapons and flexed his arms and legs, trying to work some of the soreness out.
"Is that how you treat your equipment? Just drop it on the ground like a sack of bricks when you're done? Does this look like a pig farm?"
Apparently even taking a break could be done incorrectly.
"A warrior is only as good as his equipment," the knight continued as Harry scrambled to pick up his sword and shield and carefully place them down by the bench. "Treat it well and it will take care of you. Neglect it, and it will fail when you need it most. You might not be training for combat, but you will act like you are as long as I'm teaching you. I've made squires muck out stables with their bare hands for doing less than what you just did."
It seemed that Sir Firecam as a drill sergeant could be a bit demanding.
After lunch they got right back to it. Keldorn brought out a wooden dummy from the DADA classroom for Harry to use as a target.
Finally, thought Harry, I'll at least get to swing the sword around a bit.
"While the type of longsword you're using can and is used to cut, for now we will focus on thrusting. So no silly sword-waving."
Or not, thought Harry.
The knight then positioned himself in front of the dummy while holding his own wooden sword and shield.
"With your shield held at the ready, take a half step forward with your front foot and at the same time thrust your sword arm out, across your body to full extension." He demonstrated the proper technique. "Strike hard, with force behind it. The dummy is on a spring, so it will yield without you having to worry about breaking your sword or your wrist. Now then, you try."
Keldorn got out of the way and Harry moved into position. Once he was set, he stabbed the dummy with his sword resulting in a quiet tap!
"Strike it like you mean it, boy! Again!"
Tap!
"Fix your thumb. Again!"
Tap!
"Don't lower your shield. Again!"
Tap!
And so it went for quite some time. The knight varied things a little bit by having Harry aim for different areas on the dummy, but after two hours of standing in the guard stance, repeatedly stabbing the wooden dummy, Harry's thighs and arms were aching, and his mind was getting a bit numb as well.
"Well, what have we here?" said the knight rather unexpectedly.
Harry was a bit confused when this question replaced Keldorn's expected "Again!" He was about to turn around to see what could have distracted his teacher when a loud, feminine voice pierced the air.
"HARRY POTTER!" shouted Hermione Granger, "what the bloody hell is wrong with you?!"
Harry dropped his sword in surprise and spun around to see the irate witch storming directly at him with her wand drawn. Harry's eyes widened and his face paled as he swallowed hard. If he was closer, he was sure he would be able to see fire in her eyes.
"You… you… Accio wooden sword!"
Harry's forgotten sword flew into Hermione's waiting hand as she continued to stride toward him. Harry had just enough presence of mind to raise his shield above his head as the livid witch stepped up and began raining blows down upon him. Harry was certain that the shield was all that stood between him and a fractured skull.
"You! Bloody! Inconsiderate! Git!" Hermione punctuated each word with a hard and fast swing of the sword which made a loud thwack! upon his shield. "What. Is. Wrong. With. You?!"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Did you forget how to write?!"
Thwack!
"I've been going out of my mind!"
Thwack!
"How could you ignore me like that?!"
Thwack!
"Me?!"
Thwack!
"After everything we've been through!"
Thwack!
By this point Harry was forced down onto one knee, holding his shield up with both hands, praying that it held together under the sheer weight of Hermione's fury. Luckily for him, Hermione seemed content to simply beat him over the head. If she decided to change the angle of her attack and, say, swipe at him from the side, he was in for some trouble, and probably quite a few broken bones.
Finally the assault stopped, and after a moment Harry peaked out from behind his shield. Hermione grabbed the wooden barrier, threw it to the side, and pulled Harry into a vice-like hug.
Perhaps she's given up on trying to beat me to death and wants to try suffocating me, thought Harry.
When she pulled back from the hug a few moments later, Harry noticed there were tears in her eyes.
"You are such an ass!" Hermione screamed at him before pushing him away, spinning on her heel and storming off to the castle.
Harry, dumbfounded, simply dropped onto the ground and watched Hermione stomp her way into the castle.
"You deserved every bit of that for dropping your sword," said the knight from his position a few feet away.
"Thanks."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Go after her. I'll clean up."
"Go after her? Are you daft? She'll kill me! And you said she'd forgive me."
"Well, I've been wrong before. But you'll never know until you've actually apologized."
When Harry remained seated on the ground, Keldorn tried a different tactic.
"I didn't know you were a coward. She's just a girl."
Harry glared at the knight.
"Just a girl who happens to know more curses and hexes than the rest of the school put together."
"If she wanted to hex you, she probably would have done so already. She had plenty of opportunity. Now go after her before I show you how to really strike with a wooden sword."
Harry reluctantly got to his feet and made his way to the castle. He surreptitiously drew his wand and held it against his leg just in case Keldorn was wrong about Hermione's desire to curse him.
She wasn't in the entrance hall, so he decided to try the Gryffindor Common Room. If she wasn't there, he could stop by his dorm to find her on the Marauder's Map. Either that or lock himself in and barricade the door…
As he crawled through the portrait hole, Harry heard the sound of sniffling, and once he emerged into the common room, he found his best friend sitting on one of the couches. She looked like she'd been crying. Harry cautiously approached and sat down with her on the couch, although leaving plenty of space between them.
He had no idea what to say, so he just remained silent. He figured Hermione would say something eventually.
"I'm sorry Harry," Hermione whispered after a moment.
Whatever it was that Harry had expected her to say, this wasn't it.
"Err… that's okay," he replied. "You didn't really even hit me, so…"
"Not about that," interrupted Hermione, "I'm sorry I failed you. I'm sorry that I wasn't what you needed when you needed me most…"
Now Harry was really confused.
"Err… what? What in the world are you talking about?"
Hermione finally looked up at the young wizard. Her eyes were red and puffy, but she had a look of determination on her face.
"The Department of Mysteries. You needed me; you needed me to keep my head and figure things out and fight by your side. But I got careless and sloppy and wound up getting hurt and I was useless to you and then everything went to pieces and now you've been ignoring me because you've finally realized that you don't need me after all and…"
"Hermione," Harry interjected into her rambling, "you're not making any sense."
This was apparently the wrong thing to say, and the witch in question glared at him. He hurriedly continued before she decided to unleash her fury again.
"I mean, why on earth would I be mad at you because you got hurt? You're the one who's supposed to be mad at me."
Hermione looked at him like he just told her that he'd fallen in love with Draco Malfoy and was having his lovechild.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm not being ridiculous!" shouted Harry as he stood from the couch, his anger starting to rise. "I led you into a death trap and you know it. If it weren't for the miraculous appearance of Firecam, you would be dead right now! You should be dead! Just like Sirius is dead! And it's my fault!"
"Harry…"
Hermione reached out to him only to have her hand swatted away.
"No! I just… Merlin, Hermione, how can you even look at me?" Harry fell back down onto the couch and dropped his face into his hands.
"I just couldn't face you afterwards," Harry continued in a softer voice. "I just couldn't bear to see the look on your face when you realized that I should have gotten you killed. That's why I avoided you and didn't write back. I just couldn't."
"Oh Harry!"
Hermione practically leapt from her side of the couch to engulf Harry in another bone-crushing hug.
"I don't blame you, Harry. That thought never even entered into my mind."
Hearing those words made something break inside of Harry.
"I'm so sorry…" he mumbled into her hair as he started to cry. A few tears quickly became sobs. Harry cried for Hermione, for his friends and for Sirius. He also cried for himself, for the guilt and blame that he had forced himself to bear. It took him a while to realize that Hermione was crying too, sobbing just as hard as he was. The two remained there for a long while, clinging to each other and crying for past mistakes."
When they finally calmed down and separated, Harry wiped his nose and then looked into Hermione's eyes.
"I'm sorry, Hermione."
"Oh Harry. I suppose you're just going to keep apologizing until I forgive you. Well I do. Of course I forgive you, Harry. And I'm sorry too, for everything."
"Err… that's okay," Harry replied before forming a little smirk, "I'm just glad you kept hitting the shield instead of my skull."
Hermione flushed red, embarrassed by her earlier actions, but she then met Harry's eyes with a smirk of her own.
"Yes, well, just you remember that the next time you try to avoid me instead of talking to me."
That comment made both of them break into full-blown smiles.
"Oh don't worry, I won't forget, especially since you actually swore."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Oh yes you do," Harry's eyes danced with mirth, "you swore a whole bunch of times. Just wait 'til I tell Ron!"
"Harry James Potter! Don't you dare!"
"So you admit it?"
Hermione glared at her best friend.
"Fine. But just wait until I tell Ron that you got beat up by a girl."
"Oi!"
"And I didn't even have to use my wand either. It was all muscle. Pure, unadulterated Granger. And I beat you into the ground!" Hermione then flexed her biceps for added emphasis.
Now it was Harry's turn to glare at his best friend.
"Truce?" offered Hermione.
"You don't tell anyone about you beating me up, and I won't tell anyone that you swore."
"Deal."
The two teenagers smiled at each other, glad to be back on familiar footing after the past few weeks.
"Merlin," muttered Hermione as she wiped at her eyes and nose, "I must look absolutely dreadful."
Harry might have been clueless around girls, but he wasn't going to touch that comment with a ten foot pole.
"Not that I'm not glad that you're here, but what exactly are you doing at Hogwarts anyways?" Harry asked instead.
"Well," answered Hermione, "when somebody, who shall remain nameless, refused to answer my letters, I kind of started to go a bit spare, what with being stuck in my house, unable to find anything out. So last night I wrote Professor McGonagall and I asked if you were still here and if so, if I might be allowed to come visit. She wrote back and this morning I took the Knight Bus."
"Ah."
"My turn. What exactly were you and Sir Firecam doing with those wooden swords and shields when I arrived?"
"You already know him?"
"He introduced himself to me while I was still in the hospital wing. Now answer the question."
"Yes, ma'am. He was teaching me how to sword fight." Harry could tell that this response had her a bit puzzled, so he explained further. "During the past few days I've had some, well, issues with anger. Sir Firecam said I needed an outlet. He first had me splitting wood, but since I finished that, we've moved on to sword fighting. He says it will teach me discipline as well as help use up some energy."
"Well good luck to him," Hermione cheekily replied.
"Oi!"
"Why did he start you off with chopping wood?" Hermione asked after a moment of thought.
Harry blushed and looked away.
"I kind of got really angry and then sort of… blew up a tree."
"You did what?"
"I cast a really strong Reductor Curse and knocked over a tree."
"Harry that was really dangerous, someone…"
"I know!" Harry interrupted before she could start a full-blown lecture. "I know how dangerous and stupid it was. I've got the blisters and sore arms to prove that I've learned my lesson. It won't happen again."
Hermione nodded sharply, like she'd just finished disciplining an unruly first-year.
"Good."
Silence fell once again for a moment. Before Harry spoke up again.
"Thanks, Hermione. You're a good friend."
"You're welcome, Harry." She smiled in reply. "You're welcome."
OoOoO
AN: Well, there's Chapter 6. Not much else to say here.
Thanks to everyone who added this to their favorites or put in on alert. Special thanks to my wonderful reviewers. Reading your comments really helps with the writing process.
Please leave a review on your way out; I want to know what you think.
Thanks for reading!