Chapter Six: The Chess Club

Provided that James could find a player who was not in a vomit-inducing relationship with footballs, a rematch would take place on the following Friday. Kenneth had decided this was only fair, given that Frank was obviously in no position to play further and the bell had not yet rung to indicate the end of lunch. Jones and Stebbins had expressed their disapproval rather physically but were eventually silenced.

"So I just need to find a new player by Friday?" asked James, standing very firmly on Stebbins' right hand. "Then when I beat you I get a nice shiny trophy?"

"No. When we beat you, you get banned from the pitch for life," said Stebbins venomously. "Now get off of me."

"So I've made room on my shelf for the trophy," James told Sirius and Benjy after school. "I would let you share but I'm an only child."

"You lucky bastard," said Sirius dryly. "Now where do you expect to find another player by Friday?"

The three of them were lying on the village green, hoping that the grey sky would hold off from raining on them.

James grinned before saying gleefully, "Oh, I don't have to find him. I know exactly where he is."

"Then why don't you go get him?" asked Benjy, who had covered the bored expression on his face with both of his arms.

He didn't much like doing things without Frank, and Frank was at home recovering from his vomiting incident both physically and emotionally.

"Because I can't," said James. "It's beyond my finite teenage boy powers to convince this certain someone he should play team."

"Just get him drunk first," suggested Sirius.

"I'm glad you have a plan Sirius, because you're the one who has to convince him," said James.

"Why me?"

"Because you're the reason he won't play football with me. I know you are."

"Why is it my fault?" asked Sirius indignantly. "I'm not Lord of the Football Playing Recluses."

James rolled over on his front and said firmly, "You have to go apologise to Remus Lupin and get him to play on Friday."

At this, Benjy burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" demanded James.

But Benjy was too busy laughing to respond.

Sirius did not find the situation nearly as amusing, however, and could form his angry sentence with little difficulty, "You're asking me to apologise to Remus Lupin?" he spat, standing up. "Why do you just assume I need to apologise to him?"

"Because you're a twat," Benjy choked through laughter. "But seriously, James, you'd be better off with Reverend Macdonald than Remus Lupin."

James was angry now as well, scrambling to his feet so he could look Sirius in the eye.

"Why does everyone think they're better than Remus Lupin?" asked James.

"Just at football," said Benjy quickly, just as Sirius said, "Because everyone is better than Remus Lupin. Except maybe Pettigrew."

"Where is Pettigrew?" wondered James.

Sirius told them, "I haven't a clue. I sent him to get me a packet of crisps ten minutes ago. He should be back by now. What?"

Sirius had noticed that James was glaring at him.

"You've got a problem, mate," said James.

"Do I?"

"You think you're too good for everyone. What you've got is a serious sense of self-importance."

Sirius shook his head in disbelief and muttered, "Hypocrite."

"Sorry?" said James.

Stepping towards James and keeping direct eye contact, Sirius said, in a loud and clear voice, "You're a hypocrite. You've lived here for a month and you already strut around like you own the place! We both know we're above other people so why pretend otherwise?"

James glared back at Sirius.

"Just go apologise to Lupin," he said.

"I don't let people tell me what to do."

"Do it as a mate."

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"Mate?" he repeated. "Nah, that can't be right. I'm too good for you, remember?"

The two boys stared at each other in silence, neither daring to be the first to move.

"Right, if you two are gonna play Coronation Street then I'm leaving," said Benjy, lifting himself up off the floor.

Sirius turned to him and snapped, "We're not playing some stupid soap opera, Fenwick."

James realised that this would be the perfect moment to kick Sirius in the shin. He then realised that Sirius would not take this lying down and he was not totally certain he could take Sirius in a physical fight.

"Look, Potter," said Sirius, looking back at James. James quickly diverted his gaze from Sirius' shin to his face. "I'd like to think we're mates, but this is only going to work if you understand something."

"What's that?"

"I don't do anything for anybody but me."

Remus Lupin was rather hard to track down the next day. He didn't spend his lunch times with anyone else so Sirius couldn't ask around even he'd wanted to (which he didn't because he had a strong aversion to most people).

Eventually, after a good half an hour of searching, Sirius caught a glimpse of a mousey-haired boy through the window of a maths classroom.

"Typical," muttered Sirius, making his way towards the classroom in which Remus Lupin sat alone. Upon arrival, he asked, in an audible voice, "Mind if I come in?"

Remus' head jerked up. It seemed he had been playing chess by himself. Is this what he did every lunch? Sirius felt a small surge of guilt that he quickly repressed.

"I'd rather you didn't," said Remus coolly, regaining his composure and resuming his game.

"Oh, c'mon!" cried Sirius. "I brought you flowers."

"Really?"

"Of course not. Why on earth would I bring you flowers? What a stupid question."

"Well, you did say-" began Remus.

Sirius ignored him, continuing to prattle on as he moved further into the room, "Do I look like the kind of bloke who'd carry flowers around with him? Where would I even be hiding them? You can see me, can you see flowers?"

"In your bag perhaps," suggested Remus.

Sirius scoffed, "I don't have a bag."

"Then where do you keep your school things?"

Jumping up onto Remus' desk, Sirius shot him a pitying look. He managed to knock over a few chess pieces in his assent.

"Sorry," said Sirius quickly.

"Why are you here?"

"I'm here to make amends." Sirius forced a grin and extended a stiff hand. Remus simply stared back at him, "Or to humiliate myself," he added, lowering his hand. "You don't want to make amends?"

"Why would I want to make amends with you?"

"Okay, fine, be difficult, but I want it in writing," demanded Sirius. "James seems to think this whole thing where we hate each other is my fault."

"It is your fault," said Remus.

"Only when you look at the facts," said Sirius.

Had Remus not utterly loathed Sirius Black, he might have cracked a smile.

"James wants you to come and make amends with me?" asked Remus cautiously. "Why?"

"Because he's throwing a dinner party and he's worried he doesn't have enough guests."

Remus did let out a breathy laugh at that.

Sirius continued, "Look, for some reason James likes you. So, for James, will you pretend to not hate me until Friday?"

"What's on Friday?"

Sirius smiled slyly.

"James wants you to play football with us," he said. "Then, letting out a low and deliberate cough, Sirius jumped off the desk. "See you after school on the green. James wants to practice."

As soon as Sirius was out of the door, Remus groaned and buried his head in his arms.

Lily's feet were tucked up under her as she leaned against her headboard and glued magazine cuttings in a scrapbook. Severus lounged at the bottom of her bed.

"Sev, what do you think about starting this summer?" she said.

"Sorry?" asked Severus.

He had been engrossed in a magazine article titled '30 things to do in the south of France'

"This summer. Why don't we get started on this," explained Lily, nodding towards the scrapbook in her lap.

Severus stared purposely at the magazine he was holding and pursed his lips.

"Why would we go this summer?" he asked. "I thought we were waiting until after our A-levels."

"My dad's getting better though and if he comes out someone's gonna have to look after him while mum's at work so maybe we should get started as soon as possible. Just in case, you know… I can't go later on," she trailed off.

With a start, Severus dropped the magazine.

"What do you mean 'if' you can't go? We have to go! We've been planning this since we were eleven," he cried.

"Sev," said Lily dangerously.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "Obviously it's fantastic news about your dad." Severus flicked through the magazine he'd dropped absent-mindedly, taking a deep breath before saying, "But I can't go this summer. I got an internship."

"Seriously? That's amazing!" exclaimed Lily, sitting forwards on her knees to share in the excitement of her friend's success. "How did you manage that?"

"Mulciber's got connections," he said quietly, a little embarrassed. Lily's grin faded a little. "His uncle works for a law firm and he got me work there for the summer."

"Well, I think that's bloody amazing," said Lily.

"Really?" said Severus, looking at her hopefully.

"Of course!" but she was not nearly as enthusiastic as she had been a few moments before he had mentioned Mulciber and Severus could tell, could hear it in her voice and read it in her face.

"You're upset with me," he said.

It was not a question.

"What? I never said that!"

"You didn't have to," said Severus, sourly.

"Can you stop trying to make this a fight? You're always making everything into a fight."

"It's not my fault!" he cried. "You just judge me for everything I do these days."

"I don't judge you for everything you do, thank you very much. I just don't happen to support you making friends with awful people. It's changing you, Sev," she said calmly. "But I am happy for you."

He jumped off her bed and snatched his coat.

"Oh, where are you going?" she asked, in a tired voice.

He didn't respond and slammed the door as he left.

Everyone else was five minutes late for practice and James was getting little agitated.

As captain, James had grown accustomed to having people follow his orders. This wasn't exclusive to football either. The boys at his old school had idolised him to a certain extent, and although he found it difficult to really value them as his equals, they were his friends. He thought so anyway. Well, they did what he said. Now, he couldn't even get four other boys to show up to practice.

James dropped the football he was holding and kicked it violently against a nearby tree.

"Calm down, specs."

James turned to see Sirius walking across the green, Peter in tow.

"Where have you been?" asked James.

"What are you talking about," said Sirius. "We're ten minutes early."

"You're five minutes late."

"Which is ten minutes earlier than I usually turn up."

Peter laughed nervously, which James and Sirius both ignored.

"Do you know where Benjy is?" asked James.

"He probably won't show up," said Sirius. "Not now Longbottom's off the team."

Peter elaborated, "Longbottom and Fenwick do everything together."

"Did you speak to Remus?" said James.

"I make a point not to," said Sirius.

"You know what I mean," retorted James.

"No, mother, I did not speak to Remus."

Just then, Remus Lupin came into sight, walking from Church Street to the village green. James looked from the approaching Remus to Sirius, eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Oh, that Remus!" cried Sirius. "Yeah, I spoke to that Remus. I never thought he'd actually show up though."

"Okay, James," called Remus, who was still making his way towards them. "I'll play football with you, but only to make up the numbers. I'm not going to run or anything."

Upon reaching the three boys, Remus stood between Sirius and James, making a circle of four. James looked around at his new team.

Through gritted teeth he said, "Okay. If this is all we've got then let's get started."

Because, really, the team could be a lot worse. Probably.

Severus all but stormed out of the Evans' house. He was absolutely seething. Why couldn't she just support him? Why couldn't she just accept him? Why did she always have to have an opinion on everything? He kicked a nearby dustbin. It shook a little. Then he heard yelling from around the corner.

There were four boys playing football on the village green.

This was not an unusual occurrence. However, the four boys seen playing football were not only not the sort of boys Severus expected to see playing football, they are also the last four boys he would except to see playing football all together.

James Potter aimed the football towards Peter Pettigrew, who appeared to be in goal. Peter attempted to catch the ball but ended up blocking it with his face. This sent the ball ricocheting and rolling past Sirius Black who seemed more interested in making a fallen leaf into a perfect fishbone, as Remus Lupin lightly jogged after it in a vague attempt to stop it ending up in the road.

It was a peculiar sight to say the least.

As the ball rolled closer to where Severus was standing on the other side of the road, and as Remus grew more out of breath, James called out, "Oi, Lupin, don't lose my ball!"

A sudden wave of vengeance, fuelled both by his anger at Lily and his resentment towards James Potter, came over him. He knew that none of the boys had spotted him yet, that he could easily just walk away from this, go home, and fume alone in his room without any bother. But he was not going to do that.

Before Remus could reach the ball, Severus ran forwards and grabbed it from the middle of the road.

"Excuse me!" cried Remus, as Severus sprinted past him.

"Oi!" said James. "Where does that slimy git think he's going with my ball?"

Quickly, James and Peter took off after Severus (Peter significantly slower than James). Remus sprinted for ten seconds before stopping to catch his breath. Sirius leaned against a tree and watched the scene unfold.

James, being the fastest of the boys by far, managed to catch up with Severus and knock him to the ground. Severus clutched the football to his chest like a newborn, trying desperately to keep it away from James. But, James easily overpowered the other boy and won the football.

"Peter!" cried James, throwing the ball in his direction. It bounced past him, but after a short run, Peter managed to reach it and pick it up.

Severus used this time to scramble to his feet and run after Peter, who promptly threw the ball the Remus. Severus changed direction, ever following the ball.

Remus, Peter, and James managed to pass the ball between themselves for a few minutes, laughing at Severus who kept running from one of them to the other, or trying to stop the ball in midair.

Finally snapping at the humiliation, Severus sprinted towards James and, in spite of the fact that Peter was currently holding the ball, tackled him to the ground.

Seeing this, Sirius leapt from his leaning position against the tree and ran to pull Severus off of James.

"You little fucker," spat Sirius, holding Severus in a headlock.

"Let me go!" said Severus, his voice muffled against Sirius' arm.

Remus and Peter had come over to see what was going on, Peter still holding the ball.

"Apologise first," said Sirius.

"Or what," said Severus.

"Or we'll wash your hair," said James, climbing up off the grass and brushing the dirt off of his trousers.

Sirius laughed, distracted from Severus for a moment, who used this time to raise his leg to the back of Sirius' knee. Buckling, Sirius accidentally allowed Severus to free himself.

Grabbing the ball from Peter, Severus ran again.

This time all four of the boys took off after him (although Remus did stop after a few seconds). James managed to get ahold of Severus from behind as Peter retrieved the ball. It was then passed back to Remus, who fumbled with it a little before throwing it in Sirius' direction.

Sirius, seeing Severus elbow James, get free once more, and begin to run towards him, did the first thing he could think of. He took a penknife out of his pocket and stabbed the football.

Everyone stopped moving.

"Tell me you did not just murder my football," said James, wincing at the sight of the knife in the ball.

"I'm not entirely sure yet," replied Sirius. "One second." Removing the knife, he gave the ball a small squeeze. It dented. "Well, I think it's more injured than anything."

"Why would you murder a football?" asked Remus.

"I might have panicked," said Sirius.

"Hey," said Peter. James, Sirius, and Remus turned to look at him. "Snape ran away."

An hour before the match of Friday, James knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would be losing. Not only had his team been forced to practice with a tennis ball in light of the death of James' football, but the team itself proved to be even worse than his predictions. Remus Lupin, excepting that incident with Severus Snape, had held true to his promise not to run. Peter put in effort put lacked coordination and always forget the tricks James had tried to teach him. Sirius remained constant in his apathy.

It was going to be an embarrassment of a match.

He needed a distraction from his worrying and, luckily for him, he spotted Lily Evans on his journey from the boy's toilets to the library, where he was going to go over last minute tactics with Peter and Remus (Sirius had declined his invitation) in their free period before lunch.

"Evans," said James, grinning. "How are you this fine day?"

Lily started at the sound of her name.

"Oh, James," she said. "Hi."

"How are you?"

"I'm good," said Lily.

She appeared to be rather distracted, eyes darting about as though looking for something.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"What?" she said, eyes snapping back to James. "Oh, yeah I'm fine."

"What've you lost?" asked James, following her gaze as it wandered once more.

"Nothing,"

"Are you coming to watch me play football this lunch time?"

"That sounds lovely," she replied faintly, now looking directly past James, craning her head to get a good view of the space behind him.

James thought it was highly likely that she had not heard exactly what it was he had asked her, "Do you like my hair?"

"Good," she said.

He chuckled and said, "How about my face?"

"Yep."

"How would you like to run away together?"

"Yeah."

"Evans," said James.

"What?" asked Lily, her eyes focusing on him again.

"You're not paying attention to anything I'm saying."

"Oh, sorry," she sighed. "It's just I expected someone to turn up"

"Boyfriend stood you up?"

"No that's not who I was waiting for." Lily bit her lip. "Anyway, shouldn't you be practicing football or something?"

Suddenly, James remembered that he was supposed to be at the library.

"That's right," he said. "You distracted me for a moment. Hey, your boyfriend didn't hire you to divert my attention did he? Try and make me lose the match? That would be sabotage."

Lily scowled and replied, "You started talking to me."

"So I did."

"Listen, I'm really sorry but I just don't have time for this right now. I have to go and find someone."

"Who?" James called after her as she turned and wandered off down the corridor, but he received no reply.

James tried not to show any hint of embarrassment as he walked onto the pitch, his team behind him.

"Why do you only have four players?" asked Stebbins immediately.

"Because, my dear Spottins, that is all we need to beat you."

The football game lasted a record breaking five minutes. Two whole minutes longer than the previous game.

James started off well. He managed to gain possession of the ball within the first five seconds. It was only when he passed it to Sirius that things went downhill.

"Why didn't you kick it?" yelled James.

"I tried to!" Sirius called back.

"You stood still!"

"I was moving really slowly!"

Remus managed to pass the ball back to James who was suddenly surrounded by the opposing team. James tried to get the ball to Remus once more, but Tim managed to tackle him and had scored a goal in a matter of moments. The ball soared straight past Peter.

"Peter, you're supposed to not let them go past you!" yelled James.

Peter shot James an apologetic look which immediately made James feel guilty.

The game carried on in this way for the next three minutes, until, by some miracle, the ball found its way at Remus' feet. Remus looked up, saw James give him a nod of encouragement, took a deep breath, and began to run full pelt towards the goal.

Mckinnon got ready to defend any shot he might try to make.

"Shoot!" shouted James.

But Remus could not shoot. Remus had fallen to his knees and was wheezing heavily.

"Lupin?" James cried, running over to Remus. "Are you okay?"

Remus was unable to talk, his breathing growing heavier, but he gave James a weary thumbs up. A crowd was gathering around him and James thought he heard Stebbins mutter, "Shit."

"Oi, Peter," said James, spotting his teammate. "Help me take him to the nurse."

Stebbins and Jones parted to make a gap in the crowd so James and Peter could come through. Unnoticed, Kenneth picked up Lupin's bag and coat from the edge of the pitch and followed James and Peter to the nurse's office.

"There you are!" exclaimed James.

He had been looking for Sirius, who had been absent since Remus' incident on the football pitch, all over the school and found him sitting on the floor in the Maths corridor.

"It was an asthma attack," said James. "Why didn't the idiot tell me he had asthma? I never would've made him play if I'd known. Are you okay?" he asked, just noticing the expression on Sirius' face.

Sirius' face had turned to white. It looked as though he might vomit.

"Sorry," said Sirius, shaking his head to try and break his trance. "I just… I remember that being a lot funnier. I suppose I was seven."

"What are you on about?"

Sirius looked up and met James' eye, guilt evident, and admitted, "I might have done something very bad to Remus Lupin."

He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled.

"Oh, stop being dramatic and spit it out, Black," said James.

"Fine," said Sirius, dropping his hands from his hair. "I came up with Wheezer."

"You did what?"

"I came up with the nickname Wheezer."

"Oh, you absolute fucker!"

"I feel really bad about it now! I didn't realise how horrible an asthma attack was. I haven't seen him have one since he got bullied into playing football when he was seven."

"Why did nobody tell me that if he played football he might die?"

"I thought it would be funny."

Mary painfully regretted sitting in between Lily and Dorcas at church that Sunday. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, neither girl had shut up.

"Can we please stop talking about boys?" she snapped, finally having had enough.

Dorcas and Lily shared a look.

"Mare, I'm not talking about boys," said Lily. "I'm talking about Severus."

"I was talking about boys," Dorcas admitted.

Mary sighed, "Listen, Lily, I understand that Snape is being an irritating little twat, but honestly this is nothing new."

"He's doesn't usually stand me up, Mare. I was waiting there for ages," said Lily. "Plus, James Potter found me waiting and I looked completely pathetic."

"Oh, What did James Potter say?" asked Dorcas enthusiastically.

But at that moment, Reverend Macdonald had taken his place at the front of the church and called for silence.

Mary felt a sudden rush of affection for her father.

Later that day, Hope Lupin showed Sirius to her son's bedroom.

"He's not in the best of health at the moment," she explained.

"I won't be too long, Mrs. Lupin" promised Sirius.

Hope nodded and knocked rapidly on Remus' door.

"Remus," she said through the door. "A friend's come to visit you."

"Coming," he called back.

Whoever Remus had expected, it had most certainly not been Sirius.

"Two visits in one week?" said Remus. "I'm beginning to feel honoured."

"You should. Can I come in?"

Hope left the two boys as Sirius entered Remus' bedroom.

"Sorry about the mess," said Remus, trying to clear some clothes to make room so they could sit down. When they were both seated awkwardly, he asked, "Why are you here? I'm not going to be persuaded into another football match."

"No," he stated, laughing nervously. "It's not about football. Well, it is. A bit. But nobody wants you to play it."

Reaching into the pocket of his jacket, Sirius pulled out a packet of sweets.

"Here you go," he said, offering them to Remus.

"What are these?" asked Remus, eyebrow raised.

"An apology," replied Sirius sincerely.

"For what?"

"For, y'know, calling you Wheezer and making fun of you and just generally being a git."

Remus studied Sirius' face for a moment.

"Okay," he said finally, holding out his hand to receive the peace offering. "What happened to the football pitch after my dramatic exit?"

"Well, I got out of there and then James found me, I told him what a prat I was, and then made me go with him to the pitch so he could announce that in light of recent events he had no interest in playing football and was going to spend his lunch times indoors."

"Why would he do that?"

"James and I might have had a little talk and I might have mentioned how our school has a chess club and he got very excited about it," said Sirius.

Remus almost choked on the sweet he was sucking.

"James is joining the chess club?"

"Yes, do I have to spell it out for you? We're joining the chess club."

"Who's we?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, counting off lazinly, "Me and James. Oh, and Peter probably. He comes in handy when I'm too lazy to do things for myself."

"Which is always," supplied Remus. "But, hang on a minute, you can't all just join the chess club because I can't play football."

"Why not?"

"Well," began Remus. "I mean… I can't make people give stuff up for my sake."

"True," said Sirius. "But we want to. Well, James wants to anyway and I'm not completely opposed."

The St. Albus' Chess Club met every weekday at lunch. They never entered competitions and they rarely ever actually played chess.

Their first meeting took place the following Monday.

Sirius was lying with his back flat against the surface of a table in the far corner, dictating Peter, who was rummaging through the drawers of Miss Vector's desk.

At first glance it might have seemed as though Remus and James actually were playing chess, but a closer look would tell you that Remus was attempting to reset the board while James was still moving his pieces.

"James, you can't keep playing when I beat you," said Remus.

"If you beat me then why are my pieces still moving?"

Remus let out a breathy laugh.

"Pettigrew, have you found it yet?" asked Sirius, sitting up. "It must be there somewhere."

"I've found it," said Peter. "I'm just not sure I should give it to you."

"What does he want?" asked James, who was now trying to construct a tower out of the chess pieces.

"A stapler," explained Peter.

"What do you want with a stapler, Sirius?"

"That is classified information," replied Sirius.

"Let's staple him to the desk," said Remus. James shot him a look. "I was joking," he added quickly.

"Let's do it," said James.

After sharing a nod, both boys abandoned the chess table to run and hold Sirius down, while Peter stapled his shirt to the desk.