'Pawn to D5,' Hermione said after a long pause as she picked up a pawn and moved it to her chosen space. Ron and Hermione were sitting cross-legged opposite each other in the lounge of 'The Burrows' playing chess. Much to Ron's dismay, however, they were playing with a Muggle set as Hermione found wizarding chess "inhumane."
They had found themselves in this position since the rest of the family had gone to Diagon Alley. The new school term was once again upon them and Mrs Weasley had ordered that everybody was to get school supplies, so that morning she had left with Ginny, closely followed by the twins who were heading off to make last minute changes before reopening the shop after refurbishment. Ron and Hermione had decided to stay behind and wait for Harry, they could have met him there but Hermione still feared that Harry wasn't quite ready to use floo powder unsupervised quite yet.
Harry was due to arrive at 11:00 so the pair had a good few hours to spare, Ron had automatically suggested chess to which Hermione reacted by pulling out a ready placed chess board from behind the armchair. Happily and oblivious to the conditions of the game, Ron had set up the board. It was only when he made his first order and the pawn didn't move did he realise something was wrong. He had poked it several times with a nearby pencil, in case it was sleeping and decided to bite his finger off, before Hermione pointed out that it was a Muggle chess game.
Grudgingly, Ron had been persuaded to play against her after she threatened that this may be the only time she would ever agree to play chess against him. This was how, fifteen minutes later, they found themselves in the middle of an intense and competitive game. Ron had been surprised at how much better Hermione seemed to be when playing with a Muggle set, but after some deliberation he put it down to the fact that he must just not be as good without magic.
Anyway, he was having fun; it entertained him to watch the concentrating look on Hermione's face every time it was her turn. The way she seemed to bite her lip and knit her eyebrows together, her eyes would glaze over and her right hand would waver over the pieces as if she was trying to feel an impulse or power from the piece that would work best to be moved. Usually he would have thought that paying this much attention was a bad thing, that it betrayed his feelings for her, yet since the dream a few nights before he had dismissed all of these kinds of thoughts and ideas from his mind. Now he was training himself to see everything she did as amusing, a sisterly gesture or action. So far nothing had happened for him to think any differently. He took his next turn.
'Ron?' Hermione muttered as she fell deep into concentration over her next move.
'Yeah,' he replied as he watched her take her turn.
'You remember that night the other week?'
He thought briefly, between running various strategies through his head, of the series of events that had occurred over the last few weeks or so. Nothing was jumping out at him, 'When about?'
'When I told you my worries.'
Sure, that was going to help, wasn't it? 'Uh…' he thought he may as well make some form of answer as he took his next move, taking her bishop.
'In your room,' Hermione hoped this may jog his memory but Ron was far too absorbed in the game to think that deeply.
'Ummm…'
'I couldn't sleep,' she moved her rook impatiently, she wasn't getting anywhere and she desperately wanted to sort something out.
'Still lost.'
'You had sausage and egg for tea.' It all came flooding back, the talk, the book, the interruption, and above all the… Well, it didn't even need to be reminded about, did it? He told himself that he just needed to act naturally, if he pretended he didn't know then she wouldn't press him about it. She would just say "doesn't matter" and it would be done with. That was the plan anyway.
'Oh, that night!' Ron was surprised at how steady he kept his voice, 'what about it?' Please say "nothing."
'We nearly kissed,' she stated bluntly, keeping a firm gaze on him. Ron, however, spluttered and knocked over his king with his right hand as he flung out his arm in amazement.
'Are you admitting defeat?' Hermione asked as she looked down at the chess piece rolling on its side on the floor.
Meanwhile, Ron was having a very angry inner monologue running through his mind. Why do things never go the way you want them to? Why does the plan never work? It was almost three weeks ago; it should have been dead and buried by now! Wait… what did she just say about admitting? I wasn't admitting it!
'Admitting what?' Ron stammered as he tried to regain composure, 'I'm not admitting anything, why can't you let things go?'
'Your king, Ron,' Hermione indicated with her left hand as she stared wide eyed, amazed at his sudden outburst.
'Oh, no,' he picked up the king and replaced it, giving an apologetic smile, 'sorry. Knight to E4,' he was eager to change the subject and therefore chose the first effective strategy to win the game and took his turn.
Hermione clearly wanted to stay on the subject now that they were on the same level and understood the chosen topic of discussion, 'Ron.'
'Your turn,' he muttered.
She tried again, 'Ron.'
'I'd move my rook if I were you,' he mumbled, looking directly at the chessboard.
'Ronald.'
'Nothing happened,' he stated as he finally, and reluctantly, met her eyes.
Seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, Hermione nodded understandingly, 'Ok.' She moved her rook and the game continued in silence.
It was a good twenty minutes or so until something actually began to happen in the game. So far their chess pieces had been dancing around each other seeming to miss one another by only a few squares each time, Hermione was beginning to remember why she detested the mind-numbingly repetitive game so much when she was pulled out of her thoughts by Ron's voice laced with triumph.
'Check,' he too was glad that he had finally got close to winning the game.
'What?' Hermione asked, confused until she looked down at the board, a look of realisation spreading across her face.
'I can take your king,' Ron explained simply, not noticing the look on her face.
Really? Hermione thought, in that case, it's time to have a bit of fun and put an end to this monotonous game. 'Not if you can't catch it,' Hermione grinned, sticking her tongue out and snatching up the chess piece. Jumping up she took several steps back before bolting off around the room once Ron became aware of what she meant and leapt forwards laughing, trying to grab her round the ankle.
As she ran behind the sofa, Ron was on his feet and bounding after her. Grasping her round the waist, he wrestled her to the floor. Now lying flat on top of her, Ron reached out for the king as Hermione held it out of reach above her head. Eventually giving in, she admitted defeat and held it out to him and he plucked it from between her fingers.
'Not fair,' she breathed as the laughter died down, 'you always win.'
'What's my prize then?' he asked innocently, not picking up on the double meaning of his question. It took a few seconds for the two of them to realise it as they lay there staring at each other, their noses only centimetres apart and the warm breath tickling each other's lips. Apprehension began to flow rapidly through both of them, they willed someone to interrupt, as they always did, before they could even consider crossing the friendship border.
As if on cue there was a sharp pop from the other side of the room and as they looked up their eyes met with the sight of Harry. It didn't occur to them to move as far away from each other as possible as they usually would, this was Harry after all, he would just say that they were having fun playing chess. He didn't seem at all surprised at the situation in front of him anyway.
There was what felt like an eternity of deafening silence before Harry decided to speak, 'Ron, Hermione, I think we'd better get going.'
Never before had they been happier to go to Diagon Alley than they did now. Standing up, Ron offered his hand to Hermione; taking it without hesitation they were soon both on their feet. As they grabbed their coats from the hall they headed for the fireplace, Harry merely rolled his eyes as they turned their backs, he had been putting it off for ages but it seemed that now might be the best time to have a little word with Ron about timing.
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