A/N: I own seven Harry Potter books, but I did not write any of them. I do not own the characters or the game of wizards chess.
"Hermione"
"Yes Ron"
"What're you reading?"
"It's about house elf migration"
"Oh, okay"
Not even a minute later Hermione found herself being interrupted again.
"Hermione"
"Yes Ron" she she replied, slightly frustrated.
"What're you thinking about?"
"House elf migration" she said exasperatedly.
This time she made it a mere twenty seconds without interruption.
"Hermione"
"YES RON" she responded angrily, almost yelling, "What!"
"Sorry" said Ron quietly, "I won't bother you again."
Hermione felt all her anger evaporate, and she felt a new feeling spreading over her, guilt. "No Ron, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap, it's just I have to have this read by tomorrow" she apologized.
"Not that I mind you being here one bit Hermione, but incase you haven't noticed you are reading about house elf migration at my place, in my bed, I thought that might mean you wanted to spend time with me" said Ron.
"No, it just means that you make for a very comfortable place to read", said Hermione mischievously, "but I promise tomorrow night i am all your's, we can do whatever you like, all right?"
"All right, but only 'cause I love you"
"I love you too Ronald."
…
The next day Hermione found herself rushing out of a longwinded meeting on house elf migration where she had only been permitted to sit in the corner taking the minutes. She knew it was only fair, she was after all only a year out of Hogwarts. Yet sometimes she wished she could have more input, she had been up half the night last night studying for this meeting, but all that effort now seemed quite futile. As she stepped into the green flames of one of the ministry fires, she reminded herself that none of that mattered as of this moment, because she had promised Ron a night of her undivided attention, and that was what he was going to get. Thinking of Ron a wide smile spread across her face, she shouted "Grimauld place" and soon felt that familiar sensation of being dragged through the floo network.
As she stepped out of the fireplace at Grimauld place Kreacher rushed forward to greet her and insisted on taking her cloak.
"Where's Ron, Kreacher?" Hermione asked kindly.
"Master Weasley is upstairs in his bedroom, Miss Granger." Came Kreacher's polite response. Kreacher had long since refrained from calling Hermione a mudblood under his breath. Hermione liked to think that since all that had happened in the war this no longer had much to do with the fact that Harry had forbid him from saying that word, and that Kreacher's personality had changed as much as his appearance.
After asking Kreacher about his day, Hermione darted up the stairs to Ron's bedroom door and knocked three times. "Come in Hermione" called Ron.
"How did you know it was me?" she asked, confused.
"You're the only one who ever knocks" he answered simply.
It was then that she noticed where he was sitting. He was on the floor leaning against the end of his bed with his chess set set up in front of him.
"So this is what you have planned for our night?" she asked, amused.
"More or less" was his reply.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked, Ron was rarely cryptic.
"Have you ever heard of muggles playing strip poker?" He asked, she did not like where this was going.
"Yes," said Hermione tentatively, "but that's a chess set"
"Well duh, I know that, I have just decided to tweak the rules a bit" said Ron, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. Hermione opened her mouth to speak, but Ron cut her off. "You said tonight we could do whatever I like, and I would like to play a slightly modified version of wizard's chess".
"Fine" said Hermione defeated, sitting down on the other side of the chess board. "So how exactly does this work?" she asked.
"Well," said Ron, going a bit red and looking slightly embarrassed, "for every piece of yours that i take, you have to remove one item of clothing."
"And does this work both ways?" Hermione asked.
"'Course" replied Ron, now sporting a fully blown Weasley blush.
"Okay" said Hermione, a promise was a promise after all. "who goes first?"
"You're white, so you" replied Ron.
Twenty minutes later Hermione found herself extremely frustrated, down to her underwear, sitting in front of a chess board that contained very few white pieces. Contrastingly Ron was sitting across from her, looking very pleased with himself, and only missing his shoes, his cardigan, and one sock. Ron always beat Hermione at chess, as a matter of fact Ron always beat everyone at chess, but not in Hermione's memory had he ever been beating her by quite so much. It was then that Ron's bedroom door swung open and Harry walked in saying "Ron, what did you do with the – merlin's pants i did not need to see that." And with that he fled the room before Hermione could even try to explain. She could not remember ever feeling quite so embarrassed, Ron however seemed to find the whole situation hilarious and wouldn't stop laughing. Well, she thought angrily, he hadn't been the one sitting there in his underwear.
Seventeen years later.
It was a lazy Sunday and the whole Weasley family was at the burrow for lunch. Hugo Weasley was bored out of his brain. None of his cousins where doing anything he wished to be involved with, the girls where off doing something undoubtedly girly and Fred and James where, as always, up to no good, with Al and Louis tagging along. He decided to go and see if one of his uncles would have a game of chess with him. His Dad was far too good, so he never got too win, and uncle George was sure to pull some sort of prank on him mid-game. So he decided uncle Harry would be his best bet, despite the fact everyone always told him that uncle Harry had saved the world, he was pretty average at chess. Hugo collected up his chess set and went over to his uncle who was sitting on the couch talking to his Mum. "Uncle Harry," asked Hugo, "do you wanna play chess with me?"
"Sure thing mate," replied uncle Harry, "as long as you don't play like your parents."
Hugo then noticed that his Mum was giving uncle Harry a very angry look, the kind of look Hugo only got from her when he was in serious trouble. "what do you mean?" he asked his uncle, he was extremely confused.
"Never mind Hugo, let's play chess" said Uncle Harry, though Hugo still had the feeling he was missing something.