WHEN GOOD CHESS PIECES GO BAD

WHEN GOOD CHESS PIECES GO BAD

The tragic story of how one charm and one game can go too far

One Saturday evening, Harry and Ron were in the Gryffindor common room gossiping about some Slytherin kids who got in trouble when Professor McGonagall came in and attached a sign to the wall that said, "First annual Hogwarts chess tournament next Sunday! Chess Players Prepare!"

"You're good at chess! You should join," said Harry. Ron thought it was a great idea. Harry helped him train over the next week. The pieces in his game were a great help too, as they always were. The night before, Harry and Ron were playing one final game together. Ron checkmated him. Before he put the set away, his king said, "Good luck tomorrow, and always try to castle with me."

The day of the tournament began. Ron's first opponent was Draco Malfoy. All he had to do was move two pawns, a bishop, and his queen to have him in checkmate.

"From now on, you do the insulting, I'll do the checkmating when we're together Malfoy, OK?" Ron joked and chuckled to himself, as he moved on to face his next opponent, Dean Thomas. Draco got so envious; he stole the pieces from Ron when he had his back away. At that moment, he made a huge mistake by cursing the pieces to do the wrong things.

The first notice of surprise that Ron made was that the king and castle didn't tell him to castle. He did so anyway, but the king sneered at him menacingly.

"You gonna take that move back, or should I spear you?" His king said, who did have a spear in this particular set. Ron said nothing, but noticed Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle snickering in the audience seats. The king jumped back to his starting position and launched his spear. It went straight into his arm. Ron winced in pain and fell to the ground. He never thought a spear two inches long could harm him in any way, but he noticed that the spear as well as the king was growing larger by the minute. Then he said to dean the two words he thought he would never say during a game of chess, especially with his own loyal pieces.

"I forfeit." Dean couldn't believe his ears. He had never won against Ron, and by the looks of where his pieces were now, he didn't intend to do so in this game either. The judge of the game, Professor McGonagall, called Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing. The pain was getting worse, and within two minutes, he lost his conciousness. When he came to he was lying in his hospital cot, when he saw his king, who was a tiny bit smaller than Hagrid at this time.

"Now you know never to mess with me and my rook again!" he said as he took the bloody spear out of Ron's arm.

That evening he got out of the hospital wing and knowing that he was out of the chess match, he decided to go outside and watch the Hufflepuff vs. Slytherin quidditch match, but all he saw was Madame Hooch, pacing.

"What happened to the game?" he asked, "I wanted to watch!"

"Postponed on account of stabbed seeker. That Malfoy boy was hit in the shoulder by a hideous chess piece. I'd say he did this to himself, on account of he jinxed that piece to do wrong stuff. I heard the curse he did." Ron wanted to complain, but at that moment he heard a sound. The sound of tears from Hagrid's eyes. He ran over to the cabin and walked in to find Fang lying on the floor gushing blood from the chest. Hagrid saw Ron and said,

"A mad chess piece stabbed me poor pup. If y'all 'scuse me, I wanna be 'lone fer 'while. Skedaddle!" Hagrid sounded the saddest he had ever sounded before, if that wasn't the time Buckbeak was going to be killed. He now had a person to get back at, a piece to charm, and a dog that he really wanted to save. He knew which one to take care of first.

Ron looked through all his spell books for a reverse charm or a moralize spell (He had to hurry because the king was terrorizing a few Hufflepuff kids and chasing them around the common room!). He finally found it. He raced to the Hufflepuff common room and found the king.

"I thought I taught you a lesson! Or would you care to join these children right here?" the king yelled, as Ron looked at the Hufflepuff first years, huddled together in horror.

"Ethico Tinus Chess King!" yelled Ron after pulling out his wand and summoning all his bravery. The king stopped chasing the Hufflepuff kids. He gradually began to decrease in size.

"I'll go back to the chess board now," said the king, as he trotted off. The first years thanked Ron and even hugged him!

As he was thinking of what he should do, he saw Hagrid digging a hole. Tears were running down his face. A big gray lump with a few red spots, which seemed to be getting bigger by the moment, was right next to him. As he got closer, he saw that it was Fang. He was twitching slightly. He wasn't dead yet. There was still a chance to save him! Quickly, he ran to the hospital wing and Fang was taken there, after the predicament was explained to Hagrid. While he was waiting, he saw Draco Malfoy, still in pain. He decided just to throw the jelly leg hex at him.

"Now you know how it feels to do the wrong thing. Let that be a lesson. What goes around comes around. See you!"

And so he was left with a chess piece moralized, a well taught Slytherin student, and a dog recovering.

Disclaimer: All of the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: Please review. A special thanks goes to my Beta-Reader, Cheshire Cat a.k.a. Artemis.