"Unbridled Chivalry"
"Well, at least we finished our project for the magic fair," said Harry, somewhat exhausted, as he let himself drop onto the floor. His friends were just as tired: they had to prepare the project while also studying for the upcoming exams. In truth, they could have finished earlier, like the other students, but they had obsessed over making it perfect until the very last moment. A small mistake had forced them to recarve some of the runes.
Daphne was sprawled out on the floor like a starfish, staring at the ceiling with half-closed eyes. Draco simply sat down and let out a long sigh. Hermione, on the other hand, was making the final check: she scrutinized each rune with mental precision, holding a notebook in which she ticked off every point that was correct. She reached the last rune, examined it carefully, and finally marked it with a smile of satisfaction.
"It's ready," she said.
In front of them stood a human-sized golem. It was a work within their reach, given the skills they already possessed, but this one had a very particular difference: on its chest, right where a human's heart would be, there was a small hatch.
"All right. Time to test it," said Harry, standing up. He walked to a briefcase not far away and opened it. From inside he pulled out what seemed to be a painting, though it was not just any painting.
"By Merlin's beard and the steel of Camelot! What outrage is this!?" thundered a voice from the canvas as it unfolded. "To rip me from my dignified portrait and imprison me in a miserable briefcase as if I were a common thief! A knight of honor reduced to luggage!"
"Harry Potter, you and your infamous comrades have sullied my name! I, Sir Cadogan, victor of a hundred duels, guardian of sacred corridors and scourge of onion-scented trolls, treated like a hat forgotten in the closet!"
"Tell me at once what wretched place you have brought me to. I demand satisfaction! A trial by combat! A public apology! Or at least a decent horse to recover my dignity!"
"By the seven moons of Avalon, this will not stand! No, sir! Your insolence shall be remembered in the chronicles of the centuries… or at least until I am returned to the wall from which I never should have been torn!"
"You could have chosen anyone else, and you brought the crazy knight," muttered Daphne, covering her ears in irritation.
"He was the closest one. What could I do?" Harry replied with the same annoyed expression, before removing the frame of the painting and leaving only the canvas. Quickly, he rolled up the portrait until it was the size of a tube, while the knight's voice continued reciting grievances and demands.
Carefully, he approached the golem and slid the paper tube into the small hatch on its chest. Once closed, the figure remained motionless; however, a network of bluish lights, like glowing veins, began to spread through its limbs, radiating from the place where its heart should be.
Harry and the others watched in silence, tension hanging over them. After a few seconds, one of the golem's fingers twitched—just a small movement. Then, the eyes of the creation lit up and, somehow, blinked with blue flashes before the figure began to move its arms and look at its hands with curiosity.
Excitement erupted among them. "We did it!" Daphne exclaimed, and the four of them high-fived in triumph. Their project was to give bodies to paintings, an idea that could be considered controversial: many paintings preserved the consciousness of people who no longer lived. It wasn't exactly bringing back a soul, but rather employing an intelligence preserved in the painting; a gray area between stored memory and life.
They had learned to build golems that were indestructible unless their control core was destroyed, to control them mentally while linked to the spell that animated them, and to program them with basic tasks in automatic mode. What remained, however, was a more ambitious path: creating magical artificial intelligence. That was much harder, so they were thinking of relying on the magical "intelligence" already everywhere in the wizarding world—paintings.
Harry and the others were proud. It wasn't a small achievement; it could revolutionize golem-making technology. At first, they had started out of whim: Hermione and Harry would duel with those toys and laugh when the dolls' heads went flying with a badly aimed strike. And now they had reached this point. Satisfaction filled the air like the lingering scent of incense from the carved runes.
Before they could keep congratulating themselves, the knight—who now inhabited the metallic body—lifted his gaze and fixed it on them with offended dignity. The first thing at hand was a broom used to sweep the rune dust, and he grabbed it as though it were a lance.
"INSOLENT, VILLAINOUS, ILL-BRED SORCERER WHELPS!" boomed Sir Cadogan's voice from the golem, moving clumsily but with the fury of a dragon. He held the broom as if it were a banner and, upon seeing Harry, Hermione, Draco, and Daphne, charged after them. Instantly, the four bolted away, laughing nervously and shouting warnings.
"Is this how you treat a knight of renown!? To use me as a guinea pig for your blasphemous experiments! I, SIR CADOGAN, WHO RODE AMONG GIANTS AND DEFEATED BEASTS WITH STEEL ALONE!" he roared as his steps thundered across the floor.
"Stop, cowards! Face me as men and women of honor! I shall teach you the true meaning of knightly punishment!" he bellowed, brandishing the broom in the air. "By the glory of Camelot, I swear I shall wipe your backsides with the Code of Chivalry once I catch you!"
The four of them dashed out of the club room and into the corridor, running through a chaos both absurd and controlled: laughter, shouts, and the metallic pounding of the golem's steps trailing behind them, while the joyful uproar blended nerves and fun.
"Harry, this wasn't part of the plan!" Hermione shrieked as she barely dodged a flying vase. The porcelain, surely worth a fortune, shattered against the wall into a thousand pieces.
"Hahaha! I think we just created our own enemy!" Daphne shouted, running with nervous laughter, as if this were the best prank in the world.
"Well, it was a terrible choice! We should've picked someone calmer… and saner!" Harry answered without a shred of guilt, grinning shamelessly as he sprinted down the hall.
"Turn it off!" Draco ordered seriously.
"Well… I think we forgot to create an off button," admitted Harry, ducking just in time to avoid the broom that whistled past a few centimeters from his head.
"MAD! MAD, YOU HAVE MADE ME MAD YOURSELVES!" bellowed Sir Cadogan, brandishing the broom as if it were a lance. "Now you shall know the true meaning of medieval education! En garde, knaves!"
"Great… now the disciplinary committee will come after us again," muttered Hermione in resignation, just as the knight lifted another very expensive vase, ready to throw it.
…
Meanwhile, not far away, three girls were struggling down the corridors, their arms full of hundreds of roses. Astoria and Luna led the way, dragging Ginny along reluctantly. Ginny looked resigned to her fate of hauling flowers without understanding the reason.
The noise of shattering vases and shouting reached them soon enough, and when they turned a corner, they saw the scene: Harry, Draco, Daphne, and Hermione casting spells in a rush at a rampaging golem, while Sir Cadogan controlled it like a true master of arms. The broom in his hands seemed like a real lance, deflecting spells and counterattacking with surprising skill.
"They're so weird," commented Luna, watching with the calmness of someone observing a parade.
"Mmm… Daphne's punishment will increase again when Mother finds out," Astoria said casually, seeing her sister running with the group as if it were nothing unusual.
"We should call a professor, this looks dangerous," Ginny interjected, showing for once the voice of reason, serious and worried as she watched spells ricocheting everywhere.
"No, they'll be fine. We have to hurry with our flower pool so we can swim in petals," replied Luna with perfect tranquility, as if the broom-wielding golem was the least interesting thing in the hallway.
"Eh? That's what we're carrying these for?" Ginny asked in disbelief. "I thought we were helping Professor Maximoff."
"Yes, but still—it would be incredible to swim in petals, don't you think?" Astoria said with a mischievous smile.
Ginny sighed. Sometimes she felt like she would never truly understand them.
"You can't swim in petals. They're not like water," she argued, trying to inject a bit of logic into the conversation.
"Then we'll add water," answered Luna naturally, as if it were the simplest solution in the world.
"Then it would just be a rose bath," said Ginny, already too tired to argue.
"Oh, that sounds nice. We'll smell like flowers," Astoria replied, delighted, while Luna nodded solemnly as if they had just made a wise decision. Both of them looked at Ginny with approval.
Ginny didn't understand that approving look, but decided to play along. After all, smelling like flowers wasn't a bad thing.
So the three girls continued on their way, their arms full of roses, completely ignoring the chaos erupting only a few meters away.
…
In the hallway, Harry and the others finally managed to stop the golem by throwing themselves on top of it all at once. The knight, trapped in his new metallic body, kicked and flailed furiously as the four of them held him pinned to the floor. They looked at each other, panting, with nervous smiles that all said, "we survived."
Suddenly, a vase rolled across the floor and came to a stop beside them. Harry lifted his gaze.
There they were, with stone-like expressions: the three members of the disciplinary committee.
"You know what's the worst part?" Draco whispered in resignation.
"What?" Hermione asked, her face red from the effort.
"That Sir Cadogan looks more sane than we do right now."