SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Disclaimer: If you think I own Harry Potter, I'm flattered. Hysterical, but flattered nevertheless.
A/N - Sorry about the long spell without an update. I have a feeling my muses have gone on temporary vacation (a well-deserved vacation, of course, but it unfortunately leaves me with no inspiration). I've also been a bit busy with my longer fan fics, and my two personal novels. So here's another little ficlet to tide you over while you wait for Just Curious. Oh, yeah, and I'm sorry if the formatting sucks. I just got a new computer and I haven't downloaded all the software I need (like Microsoft Office).
Short Summary: Three-year-old Ron learns how to play chess.
THE CHESS ROOM
By: Hopeful Writer
The quiet of the little house was shattered by a cry. "Mummy!" a little girl wailed. "Fwed and Geowge wu bein' mean to me!" she explained, in her broken 2-year-old English.
"Fred! George! Get down here!" Their mother, a small but imposing figure, stood with her hands on her hips, trying to console young Ginny while she scolded her twin sons.
The two 5-year-olds scampered down the stairs, putting on a look of remorse and innocence that they had mastered at an early age. Sixteen-year-old Bill, the oldest, was perched atop the kitchen table, eagerly waiting to hear what his crazy little brothers had done this time. Charlie, fourteen and the next in line, scooped up Ginny and gently rocked her, giving his mother time to yell at Fred and George. The third oldest, seven-year-old Percy, was nowhere to be found.
Ron, the youngest boy at 3 years old, clamped his hands firmly over his ears as he mother began to scream at the twins. Desperate to get away from the noise, he slipped into a room that his father used to use as an office, before he made a bigger one out of magic. The room was always deserted when Ron went in it, and it looked like nothing had ever been in there. Sure, there were some books left lying around, and a big table with funny little carvings set on it, but it was dusty and dark like it had been unused for ages.
Today, it was different though. There was a light on right by the table with the funny pieces, and a shadowed figure was hunched over it, murmuring something under its breath. At first, Ron was scared, and he made to run, but the figure whispered, "Who's there?" and Ron recognized the voice.
"Percy!" he exclaimed happily, trotting over to his older brother. "What are you doing here?"
Percy didn't look happy about Ron's being there, however. "I come here to be alone," he replied, emphasizing the word alone.
"Great. I'll be alone with you."
Percy sighed, clearly exasperated. "Alone means without anyone else. Including you," he stated bluntly.
Ron's face fell instantly and his lower lip quivered, but he wouldn't cry. If he did, his brother would think he was a baby, and Ron didn't want anyone to think he was a baby. "Okay, Percy," he said in disappointment. "I'll go away."
As he started out, he heard Percy sigh again. "No, it's okay. You can watch me play chess, if you're really quiet."
Ron's head perked up instantly. "Really? I'll be quiet, I promise. What's chess anyway?"
"It's a thinking game. See this piece here?" He indicated one of the funny carvings that Ron always saw. "This is the king. The point of chess is to take the other person's king, but you can't let yours get taken."
He launched into an explanation of the pieces and their importance and restrictions. Ron listened with rapt attention, watching Percy point and move certain pieces, such as the knight, so that Ron could get a better understanding of how they worked. When the older boy had fallen silent, breathless from his rapid explanation, Ron asked, "Do you have a favorite piece?"
Percy studied the board for a second. "The queen," he finally answered, "because it's the most powerful." He looked down at little Ron, whose eyes did not stray from the chessboard. "What about you? Do you have a favorite?"
Ron bit his lip in thought. "I like the knight. It's funny. It moves different than the rest."
Percy laughed a little. "That's a good reason to like it," he reassured his brother, when Ron looked up in question. The little boy smiled.
"Can I play you, Percy?" Ron asked, looking very hopeful. "I promise I won't knock over the pieces or break anything. Can I play?"
Percy puzzled over that for a moment before nodding. "Okay. It'd be nice to have an opponent once in a while."
"Nobody ever plays with you?" Ron asked, as Percy set the pieces up in their correct positions.
"Daddy does sometimes," Percy admitted. "But he's so busy now, with having to help clean up all the Dark Arts stuff from You-Know-Who on top of his regular work." Percy tried to sound upset about this, but there was no masking the pride in his voice.
"How come Bill and Charlie don't play with you?"
Percy shrugged. "They don't like it. Bill won't play with me because he thinks I'm too little, and Charlie doesn't like to think in the summer. Or ever, actually."
"Charlie thinks!" Ron cried in defense of his favorite brother.
Percy shrugged again. "Sure he does. But he doesn't like it." He started the game by moving a piece, and made a motion for Ron to be quiet so he could concentrate.
Ron tried very hard, only having to ask Percy if two moves were legal. Of course, he was flattened within twenty minutes, but he beamed with pride afterwards, and even Percy had to smile when the game was through.
"Can we play again sometime?" Ron asked tentatively. He wasn't sure how much he could ask for before Percy would yell at him to go away.
To Ron's surprise, however, Percy nodded eagerly. "Sure. I come down here everyday to practice. You can come too, and we'll play. I bet you'll get better real soon. Maybe you'll even beat me someday."
Ron was so excited at the praise that he clapped his hands and jumped up and down for a moment. "Thanks, Percy," he said happily. On impulse, he gave his brother a hug and ran out of the room.
His mother had finished yelling at Fred and George, who were back in their room. Bill had gone off to the room he shared with Charlie, probably to do his summer homework. Charlie had taken Ginny outside so she could watch him fly on his broomstick. Their mum was in the kitchen, cleaning the breakfast dishes, making dinner, and cooling the cookies she had just baked, with the knowledge that Bill's new girlfriend was coming over for dinner that night. Smelling the cookies, Ron tugged on his mother's shirt.
"What is it, sweetheart?" she asked affectionately, lifting him into her arms. Ron always thought he was too big for that, but he didn't have the heart to tell her. And perhaps, secretly, he really enjoyed it.
"Can I have a cookie, Mummy?" he questioned in his best baby voice.
She sighed. "All right, Ronnie, but just one. You'll spoil your appetite." Now, that wasn't true. Even at 3, Ron could eat more than Percy, George, and Ginny combined. But he took his cookie without complaint and munched on it happily, getting crumbs all over both his shirt and his mother's.
"Where were you before, Ronnie?" she asked. "When I had to yell at Fred and George."
Ron beamed with pride. "Percy taught me how to play chess."
Molly smiled. "Did he now? And how did you do?"
"Percy won," Ron admitted, "but we're going to play again tomorrow. He said I might even beat him someday." Ron wiggled in the excitement that memory conjured.
Molly kissed his forehead. "I'm very happy for you, dear. I'm sure you'll be a great chess player."
"Can I have another cookie for being so good?" he begged sweetly.
Molly shook her head in exasperation, but handed him one more. "That's all. You run along and go play, and I'll call you for dinner. Charlie's in the backyard with Ginny. Why don't you go out there?"
Ron nodded. "Okay, Mummy. Thanks for the cookies." He squirmed out of her embrace and ran outside as fast as his little legs would take him.
"Hey, Ronnie, Ginny's being a scaredy-cat and she won't fly with me," Charlie called from the air. "Do you want to come?"
Ron's eyes widened. Chess with Percy and flying with Charlie in one day? That was too good to be true. He nodded eagerly. When Charlie landed, he plopped on the old broom in front of his brother. Charlie never let him sit in the back, in case he let go and fell off. "Ready?" Charlie demanded. Ron nodded again, and they took off.
From the air, Ron saw Percy come outside and sit next to Ginny, watching the two of them fly. Ron waved excitedly, and he felt Charlie wave too. "Percy's a good big brother," Ron told Charlie seriously. "He taught me to play chess today."
"No kidding. He is a good big brother." Charlie laughed as he urged the broom downwards, pulling out just before he would have hit the ground. Ron squealed in terrified pleasure.
"Charlie!" Percy yelled from the ground. "Don't do that with him on there. He could fall off."
Charlie laughed again. "Lighten up, Percykins," he teased, using a nickname that he knew Percy hated. "I'll make sure he doesn't fall."
It didn't matter that Percy and Charlie were now bickering; it was enough that Percy wanted to make sure he was okay. Ron couldn't help his happy smiles. Sometimes his brothers were nice after all. Oh, they'd probably do something to make him cry later, but they would always make up for it in the end. And, with a chess game to look forward to tomorrow, cookies for that night, and flying for right now, little Ron loved his brothers very much.
"Hey, Ginny," Fred called, running into the yard and slamming the door, nearly hitting his twin brother in the nose. "Pull this string."
Ginny reached out a grubby hand to do what Fred had told her too. The little box he had been holding exploded, making a very loud noise and sending gooey, wet stuff flying in all directions.
Ginny burst into tears. "Mummy!" she wailed.
A/N - *sighs* Ickle Weasleys. Gotta love 'em. Reviews are highly appreciated. I need something to help me survive going back to school.
§--HW--§
Quote: "The childhood shows the man
As the morning shows the day." – Milton, Paradise Regained