It was nearing the end of the summer holidays between Harry, Ron and Hermione's fifth and sixth years at Hogwarts. As ever, the Weasleys were expecting Harry at some point, but weren't quite sure when (Dumbledore was sure to fill them in eventually); and, with a week to go before they returned to Hogwarts, Hermione had arrived. It had become tradition that Hermione came to the Burrow before school re-started – it gave her the chance to go and do all her wizarding shopping with the Weasleys, who knew what they were doing, rather than dragging her confused muggle parents down Diagon Alley, repeatedly reminding them to stop staring. And Hermione felt fully at home at the Burrow now, so her visits were as much pleasure as they were convenient.
Hermione had arrived on Monday, the train to Hogwarts was the following Tuesday, and they were planning to visit Diagon Alley on Friday. Today was a very grey Wednesday, the most in-between-y day in Hermione's stay. Arthur and Fred were at work at the ministry, Fred and George were at their shop in Diagon Alley, and Molly had popped out to the shops to get some more supplies and insisted Ginny assist her to carry the bags, despite having an excellent handbag with an internal engorgement charm that would fit everything without a problem. She was popping to a muggle supermarket and didn't want to cause a scene. With all the comings and goings it simply left Hermione, who was reading at the kitchen table, and Ron, who was bored.
Ron rolled his eyes at her across the kitchen table. 'Are you going to sit there and read all day, Hermione?' he asked, exasperatedly.
'Do you know me at all, Ronald?' she replied curtly, but with a smile.
'Ow, come on, I'm so bored. Can you at least do something we can do together? I'm not going to read over your shoulder, it's probably boring anyway.'
She lowered her book slowly, and closed it, keeping her finger in the page as a marker just in case Ron had no interesting suggestions, so she could resume reading where she'd left off. 'What did you have in mind?' she asked, placing the page-marked book in her lap.
'Oh, I dunno? We can't really go outside 'cos it's fairly rubbish out. A game? Wizarding chess?' he suggested, with a shrug.
It was Hermione's turn to roll her eyes at him. 'Ron, you know I don't really know how to play that. And that's yours and Harry's game.'
'Yeah, but I can teach you! Harry didn't know how to play it 'til I taught him in first year either. And it's one of those games you pick up better if you're clever. If I can do it, you'll have no problem at all. In fact, you'll probably end up being better than me, so maybe I shouldn't teach you at all.'
'Are you trying to flatter me into playing a game with you?' She raised her eyebrow ever so slightly.
'Well, a little bit, yeah.' He replied, truthfully, his ears just a shade pinker than normal. 'But all of what I said was true. I meant it. You'll probably be dead good at it.'
Hermione sighed in resignation, and put her book down on the kitchen table. 'Oh, alright then. You can try and teach me wizarding chess. I'll catch up on my arithmancy reading later.'
Ron grinned in response. 'Great. It's all upstairs, and I've got the perfect sized table with cushions to sit at to play.' Hermione smiled at his enthusiasm and followed him up the winding stairs, past Ginny's room where she always stayed, and up to Ron's room nearer the top of the crooked house. It wasn't unusual for her to relax in Ron's room with him and Harry, but she was trying not to be too acutely aware of the fact that they would be there alone.
Once they were in his room, Ron pulled out his chess set, and a small coffee table that did, indeed, fit the chess board perfectly, and was the right height to sit at on the floor, on a cushion.
'Perfect.' Hermione observed, as they sat in front of the board, opposite each other. Ron grinned.
'Yeah, me and Charlie used to sit here when he was teaching me. I think it was the summer after his O.W.L.s and before his N.E.W.T.s, he spent a lot of the summer up here teaching me and playing with me. I think he was procrastinating from studying for his N.E.W.T.s to be honest…but it was good of him, really. With so many little siblings – and I was pretty young then – to actually bother to make time to play with his littlest brother when he must have had better things to do: Quidditch training, and dragony stuff. That was really nice.'
Hermione smiled back at him. She felt so at home at the Burrow, and knew so much about what life was like there now, but she hadn't considered how much of the Burrow's history she didn't know. She'd never imagined what it must have been like when all of the siblings were at home together – how chaotic it must have been for Mr and Mrs Weasley. How important big brothers taking care of little brothers must have been. Hermione also hadn't considered how touched she would be to receive that little family anecdote from Ron. Again, she knew so much about him and spent so much time with him that she almost forgot there was still a lot about him she didn't know. A little heart-swell caught her off-guard and made her smile back at him, their eyes meeting in smile for just a moment. Hermione cleared her throat, and looked away, fiddling with a loose thread on her jeans.
'Well, it's your turn to teach me now.' She said, kindly. 'Where do we start?'
Ron had set out the board and put all the pieces out ready, one of which had hurled abuse at him as he slightly distractedly put him on the wrong square. 'Well, I would say "start by not letting the pieces know you're new" because they'll try and put you off if you don't know what you're doing, but we sort of need them out to make sure you know how it all works. Do you remember the first game I played with Harry?'
She shook her head, all of Ron and Harry's chess matches having blurred into one.
'They caused such a fuss and kept giving him different advice. No wonder I beat him so quickly, he didn't stand a chance with their interfering. Anyway. The pieces already know you're new to the game but hopefully they'll behave.' He gave the pieces a pointed look, which made Hermione laugh. 'Why don't you tell me what you know already first? Then I can fill in the gaps. You probably know more than you think – the basics are the same as muggle chess.'
Hermione observed the board and then cautiously began describing or naming pieces, and what she thought they could do, while Ron made encouraging noises, gently corrected her, or expanded on what she'd said. When Hermione got to the end of her knowledge Ron congratulated her. 'See!' he started, 'You knew loads of that! Essentially all of the basics.' Hermione blushed slightly in response.
'The main thing is that you're always aiming for the king, that's the only way to actually win. And once you know all the basics the next thing is strategy, which sort of comes with experience, I guess. Once you can start thinking a few moves ahead you really start challenging your opponent and the game gets properly interesting.'
Ron looked up to find Hermione with an amused look on her face. 'What?' he asked quickly, 'what did I say?'
Hermione laughed. 'Nothing, honestly! It's just really nice having you teach me something; we don't do this very often.' A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
'You're a good teacher, Ron. Patient. And thorough.'
As soon as the words tumbled from her lips she heard what she'd said. 'Patient and thorough'. He's teaching you chess, he's not your lover. She thought to herself hastily. She hadn't meant at all for there to be any kind of undertone to what she was saying, but it was such an awful choice of words. She desperately willed her face to stay a normal colour, and hoped beyond hope that even if Ron did pick up on the potential double entendre in her words he'd know she'd done it completely by accident. When she dared to look up, Ron's ears had gone pink, but she had no idea if it was simply her compliment, or indeed her choice of words, that had embarrassed him. The air buzzed with anticipation for a moment, before Ron cleared his throat. 'Oh. Well, thanks.' He smiled sheepishly at her. 'Shall we see if we can make it through a game, then?'
Hermione nodded, and their debut game began, each taking it in turns to direct their pieces in play. As the game progressed Hermione found herself more and more involved with it, more able to see what she could do next, and oddly attached to her pieces. As she watched her pieces gradually get dragged from the board by Ron's opposing ones, small squeals and laughs erupted from her, almost without her knowing. Ron hadn't seen Hermione so relaxed and so engrossed in something that wasn't a book for such a long time. Normally girls giggling set him on edge – it reminded him of the dreadful weeks when he and Harry needed to find dates to the Yule Ball in fourth year. Girls usually giggled in groups, and it was usually about boys, and in a way that made him incredibly self-conscious. But Ron also knew that Hermione wasn't really like a lot of the other girls. And somehow, her self-appreciating giggles when she managed to take a piece that Ron really should have guarded better, were surprisingly endearing. Ron knew that Hermione never did anything by half, so shouldn't have been surprised that she would get so involved with the game; and yet he was slightly caught off-guard by her enthusiasm, both strategically and emotionally.
'Noo-ooo! Not my last bishop!' she exclaimed as Ron's rook advanced on her piece, and dragged it to the side of the board, as it struggled and fought with reluctance. 'I should have seen that one! I should have!'
'Sorry!' Ron shrugged, and laughed.
'There's no way you're going to graciously let me win this, as a first-timer, is there?' she asked with resignation.
'Of course not!' Ron replied with a laugh. 'How offensive would that be to you as my opponent?! It might be your first game but I'm regarding you as a proper competitor even now.'
She sighed, but quietly liked that Ron was expecting her to be able to play properly – she hated being patronised and Ron was doing anything but. They continued, until finally Hermione found herself check-mated. Ron tried his hardest not to look smug as Hermione both wailed and laughed at the same time. He knew he didn't need to be proud of beating someone in their first game, but there was a small amount of triumph in beating Hermione at anything. Actually, Hermione was a natural, and only didn't win because she didn't quite have the experience to see Ron's long-game, but it wouldn't be long before she'd definitely be able to take him on.
Once Hermione had calmed down from beating herself up over not being able to get herself out of check, she said, 'I was never going to win my first game, was I?'
Ron chuckled. 'No, probably not, not many people do. You were really good though. Better than Harry, but don't tell him that.'
'He was eleven when you taught him though, I do have the advantage of age.'
'No, I mean, you're better than Harry now. So definitely don't tell him that.' Ron raised his eyebrows conspiratorially.
'Oh!' Hermione was taken aback. And then laughed, again. She seemed to have spent most of the afternoon laughing, one way or another. She wasn't sure she could remember having had such an enjoyable day in for a long time, especially with Ron. She balked slightly at the thought of having something to keep from Harry, though, who really was her best friend. It wasn't like Ron and Hermione hadn't had conversations about Harry that they'd had to keep from him before, but this one was…funny, somehow. Like instead of being worried parents discussing the concerns of their son, they were just what they were – two friends who had a private joke they weren't going to share. As she considered it she realised she wouldn't necessarily have told Harry the ins and outs of her and Ron's afternoon together anyway, in case she accidentally gave away quite how much she'd enjoyed it.
As they packed away Hermione became aware of other noises in the house. 'Oh, I think the others are home!' she exclaimed. Ron looked at his watch in surprise.
'Gosh is that the time already? That was a longer game than I thought.'
'I suppose with you teaching me at the beginning as well…we should go down and say hello.' Ron agreed and the pair made their way down the winding flights of stairs, chatting and laughing as they went, until they arrived in the now full kitchen. They really had been up there a while – it was gone half past five and everyone was home from work. Several pairs of eyebrows were raised comically and suggestively as the pair sat down at the table.
'Well, hello you two.' Fred began, wiggling his eyebrows at Ron. Ron scowled back at him.
'What were you two up to then?' asked Molly, warmly, and, unlike her children, without suggestion. 'We've been back about half an hour and could hear you two laughing the whole time!' Hermione blushed, and remembered that they'd left his bedroom door wide open – not deliberately, but she was immediately embarrassed to think everyone had heard her exclamations as she lost the game.
'Chess.' They replied in unison.
Fred leaned over to George and stage-whispered 'That sounded rehearsed,' eliciting a snigger from his twin brother.
Hermione ignored them. 'Um, Ron was teaching me how to play wizarding chess.' She paused and glanced at him. 'It was fun.'
'It certainly sounded it. Ron never has that much fun when he's playing with me.' George stirred.
'Well, Hermione's clearly a lot more fun than you are!' Ron jibed back, and only after it had left his mouth realised that what was meant to be a cutting retort to George really sounded more like a compliment to Hermione. As George grinned back at him, Ron then realised that was exactly what he had been goading him into.
'She was actually really good.' Ron went on, trying to cover his tracks. 'Unsurprisingly.' He added, a moment later.
'Did you beat him?!' Ginny asked Hermione enthusiastically.
Hermione laughed. 'No, I wasn't that good! Well and truly beaten.'
Ginny sighed. 'OK, next time. He needs taking down a peg or two.'
'Taking down a peg?!' Ron exclaimed quickly. 'Chess is the only thing I'm good at, Ginny! Don't encourage her to beat me in that immediately too!'
Hermione scowled at him and opened her mouth to contradict his self-deprecation, but shut it again quickly.
Ginny, ignoring her brother's claim, turned her attention back to Hermione. 'OK, well if not next game, then the one after.'
Thankfully, before Hermione could respond, Mrs Wesley turned her attention to Fred and George. 'So how was the shop today, boys?' she asked kindly, changing the subject completely. And as the twins began regaling the family with entertaining stories from the shop that day, Hermione turned subtly to Ron.
'Chess isn't the only thing you're good at, don't be stupid.' She muttered quietly. Her voice was harsh, but her face was soft. But before he could reply they were interrupted.
'It's HARRY!' Ginny exclaimed, and any response Ron might have had for Hermione was lost.
