Note: Did someone order romance? Here you go. ;)

Chess

Library Duet

Half way to the library Hermione suddenly changed her mind and sat down at a window instead. She didn't know whether it was a recent trait in her to be so undecided in her actions, or whether she had been like that before, but right now she kind of enjoyed surprising even herself with her sudden actions, the results of which she didn't even bother to think out clearly.

Hermione watched the small blue flame wobble on the window ledge, and listened to the Great Clock chime four times. She still had a whole hour before the meeting in the library. She hoped with all her might that, against all odds, Ron would still show up and prove the fact that he actually had some intelligence, however little.

But right now, with a whole hour to go, she heard her stomach grumble, and she realised she hadn't had a bite for the whole day, having been too nervous at breakfast, and too preoccupied during the lunch. So she closed the flame into a vial she carried with her at all times, and made her way slowly to the kitchens. When she reached her destination she was glad to find that Harry and Neville had already left. She really didn't want to act sociable at that very moment.

She just let the house-elves bring her some sandwiches and pumpkin juice, this time not even bothering to lecture them into wanting to run away from Hogwarts. Munching on her food she sat there, deep in thought.

-----

At the same time, Ron was in the opposite side of the castle. After escaping the Gryffindor Tower he had run upwards and upwards, not paying any attention to his direction, until he ended up in an alcove at the end of a desolate corridor that had no portraits diversifying its bare walls, no suits of armour to fill its emptiness, not even any doors along the walls. There was just one window in the alcove at the far end of the corridor, looking over the yard in front of the castle, but glazed over with icy ferns the frost had painted there.

He sat down there and directed a warm air spell at the window to melt the intricate flowery pattern, and make it possible to see outside. He sat there, looking at a lone figure walking in the snow, bent double to fight the strong wind, covering his face to avoid the flying crystals of ice.

Some time later another one exited the castle, and with a pang of guilt he recognised Hermione. He saw her do a spell on herself, probably a warming spell for she wasn't wearing a cloak. He saw her take a few gentle steps away from the castle and fall over in the snow. He saw her stand up, and then stare quite impolitely at the other person, as if she had recognised him and couldn't believe her eyes. That made Ron turn towards the other, too, but try as he might he couldn't make out who that was.

When Ron finally turned his gaze towards Hermione again, she had vanished.

He heard the clock chime four as he hoisted himself up from the window ledge. He had decided to go to the library as Hermione had asked him to, just so they could forget their row, and not let chess get between them. Deep in thought he walked through the castle, not even paying any attention to the fact that he met no one on his way from high in the towers to the first floor. Even the library was deserted when he reached it, he couldn't even see Pince anywhere.

Quite determined to wait for the others to show up, he grabbed a book from the shelves, not for reading but just to stare at while thinking about the situation which he had ended himself up in.

Introductory History of Pure-Blood Supremacy the cover of the heavy book read, and Ron almost snorted in irony when he noticed that. Still, he plopped it down on a desk and opened it somewhere in the middle, the year 1473 written in the header of that page.

Minutes passed and he didn't even notice when he started to actually read the book instead of just looking at the pictures and blankly leafing through it. He had reached the year 1542 already, when someone interrupted him.

"Mr. Weasley," McGonagall said silently, catching his attention. "I would like to have a word with you."

Ron noticed she looked a bit pale, and there was a kind of resigned tone to her voice.

"Yes, professor," he said, jumping up from his seat and closing the book with a bang. He saw Hermione behind the bookshelves some distance from them, and gave the Headmistress a questioning look.

"In my office, please," McGonagall said briskly, but the strange resigned edge was still noticeable.

-----

At five minutes to five Hermione made her way to her favourite place in Hogwarts, the library. She wondered whether Draco was there already, whether Ron would come, whether she could persuade them to forget their enmity and pride, and play chess.

She felt her heart jump with joy when she saw Ron reading a book, waiting for the others to arrive. She almost ran to him to hug and kiss him for coming, but then she remembered what he had said earlier, and decided she wouldn't do anything before he apologised. So she walked away from him, holding her head high, and positioned herself between the bookshelves in a way that would make it certain that Ron would notice her when raising his glance from the book.

She almost jumped in fright when she heard Ron bang his book shut, and then waited tensely for him to approach her from behind, and start a conversation with her. But nobody came.

When she had waited a minute or two she turned around, only to realise that Ron was nowhere to be seen. She started walking this way and that, searching the aisles for her boyfriend, panic slowly catching up with her. At the same moment that she had made sure that Ron had really left the library, she saw Malfoy enter, casting a searching look around himself.

"This is the one situation
I wanted most to avoid
Nothing I say will convince him this isn't a trick," she muttered to herself.

The clock chimed five. Hermione locked her gaze with Malfoy for an instant, and smiled nervously as a greeting. Malfoy nodded, turning away from her to look for Ron. Hermione quickly retreated between the bookshelves, before he could notice where she went.

Malfoy was surprised not to find Ron. When he looked back, he saw that Hermione had disappeared, too. He let his finger brush over the backs of the heavy tomes on a shelf.

"This sanctuary of minds —
I relax, she smiles
There's something peculiar going on," he wondered silently.

Hermione, at the same time, was some shelves away, breathing nervously, the books around her failing to comfort her this time.

"So, through my own stupid fault,
I'm stuck here to carry the can
Embarrassed, deserted, marooned," she despaired, chancing a glance towards Malfoy from between the shelves.

She saw the Slytherin had sat down at the same chair Ron had occupied earlier, and was now fingering the book Ron had read. She saw him open the book curiously, look at some pages, snort, and close it again.

"Now she can't be working for them — I mean us —
She seems so very straightforward," Malfoy said to himself, then let his eyes wander around the room again. He saw Hermione's head quickly disappearing behind a shelf; so she was still there.

"But where is he?" Malfoy asked himself.

"He has to turn up," Hermione despaired, having pulled her head back as quickly as possible when Malfoy had looked around.

"It's not just the house points!
Perhaps it is—" she said slowly.

Malfoy was thinking along the same lines some bookshelves away.

"Maybe he's scared!
Just as scared as he was in the game…"

"Oh, I just couldn't care less!" Hermione decided finally.

"He can go right ahead,
Go and wreck his good name,
I know I've done my best!" she said, taking a few bold steps towards Malfoy to get it all finally over with.

But she stopped abruptly and hid again behind a shelf when she heard Malfoy say,

"Well, at least she's a good-looking spy."

Hermione felt her heart beat with thrice the speed that was considered normal. Those words were the last thing she had expected at a situation like this.

"What if dear Malfoy now thinks that my plans
Have nothing to do with the chess?
If I don't say something and soon
He'll go —
Nobody's on nobody's side!" she whispered, and again stepped proudly out from behind the shelf.

This time Malfoy noticed her.

"Listen, I hate to break up the mood
Get to the point, begin the beguine
Haven't you noticed we're a protagonist short
In this idyllic, well-produced scene?" he said confidently, probably convinced that Hermione hadn't heard his last words.

"All I can say's that moments ago
He was right here, ready and waiting," Hermione answered just as confidently.

"Never mind him — I haven't missed him so far," Malfoy spitted, and went on to suggest, just at the same time that Hermione said the same words,

"Maybe it won't do any harm
To struggle on without his charm."

"Funny how all at once I feel
That he can go jump off the tower
I won't care," Malfoy quickly added, a bit taken aback that he had said the same thing as Hermione.

He was even more surprised when Hermione didn't start shouting at him for his words, but instead gave him a look full of disappointment, sadness, and fear.

"This is the one situation I wanted most to avoid," Hermione told him, tears now springing into her eyes.

Malfoy was increasingly surprised to see she didn't even try to hide her weakness, and that put him in a somewhat uncomfortable situation — he was a Slytherin, and therefore not accustomed to people so freely expressing their feelings.

"My dear opponent — I really can't imagine why," he said, still staring at the tears now running down Hermione's cheeks, and no longer in control over his mouth.

Hermione let out a faint humourless chuckle, but still made no move to brush away the tears.

"So I am not dangerous then? What a shame!" she said.

"Oh you're not dangerous — who could think that of you?" Malfoy replied, feeling something breaking inside him.

Hermione looked Malfoy straight in his eyes, and saw how some uncustomary warmth spread through them. Earlier that day she had found herself getting lost in the coldness and clarity of those eyes, but now they were completely different in her opinion — they were round with sadness, as if he had never ever had a chance to do anything he wanted; full of warm curiosity as if he would have liked to get to know the whole world, and embrace everything and everyone; and to top it all, they were unnaturally grey.

"You — you are so strange — why can't you be
What you ought to be?
You should be scheming, intriguing, too clever by half—" they said together to each other, Hermione feeling a blush creeping up her cheeks, and Malfoy feeling a wave of confusion washing over him.

"I have to hand it to you
For you've managed to make me forget why I
Ever agreed to this farce," he said suddenly, breaking his eye contact with Hermione.

Hermione, though, quickly put her hand on his cheek and forced him to turn his head back at her.

"I don't know why I can't think of anything
I would rather do
Than be wasting my time in library with you," they again whispered together, Hermione never letting her hand drop from its position on Malfoy's cheek, and Malfoy burying one of his hands into Hermione's wild hair.

They stood there, like that, for some time, not counting the seconds, lost in each other. And that's how Ron found them.

"Who'd ever think it?
Such a very pretty setting!
Tell me what's the betting?
Very pretty plotting too!
No matter - I've done all your work for you," with that he flung his hand around Hermione and tore her away from a very uncomfortable looking Malfoy, throwing the girl onto the table he had sat at before. He was so wildly red in face now that it was impossible to distinguish where the hair ended and skin started.

Hermione, finding herself painfully sprawled over a desk, finally noticed the book both men had leafed through earlier, and something started ringing in her ears. She didn't even hear Ron's next words.

"Who'd ever guess it?
Mud-blood in collaboration
With the very House that
Took her cat from her own room!
Where's kitty? Dead or in the dungeons?" Ron shouted at her.

Hermione got up from the desk, paying no attention to her whole body throbbing with pain. She ran out of the library, swearing never to set a foot in there again.

Ron, seeing Hermione leave in a state that flustered, felt some of his anger evaporate. He turned towards Malfoy now, who had backed off towards a bookshelf, fearing that Ron might attack him, too.

"I've agreed to new terms," Ron said to his opponent in a malicious voice, but with no intention to start a fight with him, "which in short means more house points. For you as well, but that can't be helped. This meeting is therefore unnecessary — the match can continue and we don't have to be friends."

With that he turned around, trying to preserve what little pride he hadn't yet lost, and walked out of the library.

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