Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry looked over at Lavender, who was staring back at him nervously.

"Yeah, mate," Ron chipped in between sips of his butterbeer. "You didn't make a peep the entire movie."

"Sorry," Harry said. "I'm just a bit out of it." Truth was, he was still a little shaken at the thought of the shadow creatures. Dementors were bad enough, but Harry knew that he'd stand little chance against the fiends the elves faced.

Lavender hooked her arm around Harry and gave him a smile; Harry managed a small smile in return. "Well?" Parvati asked, looking at her watch. "What are we going to do now?"

"Blame Ron," Lavender said. "We could have seen 'Patrick Pechuni', which is a nice three hour long movie, but instead we had to see Martin Miggs the Movie: Mayhem in Muggleville. Whole thing barely lasted an hour – and it's only 9:30 now!"

Harry gave Lavender a squeeze, trying not to laugh. Lately, Lavender had been trying to ruffle Ron's feathers just as much as Parvati usually did. Harry was glad; watching Ron squirm was probably more fun than watching 'Patrick Pechuni' anyway.

"We could play quidditch?" suggested Parvati.

"You hate flying," Ron pointed out. "How about just an evening walk?"

"Too cold," Lavender and Parvati both immediately replied.

"Another movie?" Parvati asked.

"Don't know about that," Harry replied. "We'd get back awful late."

"How 'bout chess?" Ron asked, grinning a little.

"Very funny, Ron," Harry said, shaking his head.

Lavender spoke up, "Harry said you were really really good at the game."

"Oh he did, did he," Ron said, grinning wider.

"I said that he was decent at the game," Harry lied.

"Nuh-uh," Lavender counted, almost in a sing-song voice. "When we were death eaters in that manor scenario, you said that Ron was really great at chess, and that if the Ravenclaw students were smart, they'd let Ron be the captain."

"Oh, Harry," Ron said in an annoying voice. "You're too kind! Why, I never knew you thought that about me!"

"Sod off," Harry sighed.

"So who usually wins then?" Parvati asked, curious.

Ron crossed his arms and looked at Harry; he obviously wasn't going to make this easy for him. "Ron," Harry admitted, scowling at the red-haired teen.

"So how often have you beaten him?" Lavender asked.

Ron smiled wider. "I've never beaten him," Harry admitted.

"Never?" Lavender asked, surprised.

"But you two have been playing in the commons for 5 years now!" Parvati pointed out.

Harry sighed. "I know."

"Anyways," Ron said, "chess probably wouldn't be the wisest idea."

"What about all three of us against you?" asked Parvati.

"I don't know," Ron said. "Three people playing one side?"

"No," Lavender said with a smile, "Three chessboards, with you playing three different games."

Ron's eyes went up at this, and Harry had to admit he was a little intrigued. Harry heard Lavender whisper to Parvati, "Do you even know how to play?"

Parvati didn't appear to answer, and the four made their way to the commons. Not surprisingly the commons was relatively full, which it usually was on the weekend evenings. Hermione and Ginny both caught the quartet's entrance and made their way over.

"What are you four up too?" Ginny asked.

"Ginny," Hermione hushed. "That's… none of our business."

Harry was confused, until he realized what Hermione was worrying about. "Hermione," he laughed, "we're not doing anything sordid. We're going to play some chess."

"The four of you?" Hermione asked, her curiousity piqued.

"Of course," Ron replied.

Hermione looked on with interest as Ron got out two chessboards from his trunk, while Harry got out the one Ron gave him as a Christmas present his first year.

Ron set up his 48 pieces, while Hermione laughed and went back to her reading. Ginny sat down at Ron's side, while Harry sat down between Lavender and Parvati. When everyone settled in, Ron made his first move on all three boards.

While he wasn't concentrating on his moves, Harry snuck looks over at the two girls games. Lavender didn't appear to be doing too well – her queen was stuck and her king couldn't castle. Parvati appeared to be doing ok, almost as well as Harry was doing. His game with Ron was almost dead even, although Weasley was starting to gain some ground.

Several moves later, after losing several pieces, Lavender appeared to give up. Instead of focusing on the game, she simply leaned up against Harry and made the first move that came to mind. Harry's game had gone downhill as well. Now his rook was pinned, and Ron looked to be moving in on the kill.

Well, at least I did the best out of the three of us, Harry consoled himself, looking over at Parvati's game. Ron had mate in 3… but Ron seemed to be taking a long time to find it.

"Bishop to H5," Ron said.

Harry almost yelped. Ron didn't see the win? Ron?

"Knight takes rook – check," Parvati said.

This didn't make any sense – Ron had tons of better moves to make. Why did he move his bishop?

Ron grimaced and looked over to Lavender's board. "Queen to B6 – check."

Ron turned to Harry's game. "Rook to A8, check."

Harry knew the game was over. He only had two moves left before Ron won. Lavender would be gone in one. Harry moved his king, and looked over again at Parvati's board.

Harry and Lavender's games were quickly ended; Harry, Lavender, and Ginny watched with interest the third game before them.

Parvati didn't appear to be the best chess player, but she quickly pushed Ron around with her extra piece.

"Check," Parvati said. This attracted several looks from across the commons.

"Parvati put Ron in check? Again?" Seamus said, amazed.

"Must be a joke," Dean replied.

"Check," Parvati said, attacking Ron's king again.

By now, there were several people crowded around Ron's chessboard.

Harry couldn't believe it. Parvati was about to win.

"Rook to C8. Mate."

"She beat him!" Fred crowed. "Someone finally beat Ronniekins!"

"Can I have your autograph?" George asked jokingly.

"Very funny," Ron said with a smile. "I was just outclassed."

Parvati grinned and gave him a peck on the cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow, Ron," she said before retreating up the girl's stairwell.

Lavender gave Harry a squeeze on the hand and admitted, "It is pretty late. I'll see you at breakfast."

Lavender quickly followed Parvati up to the 5th year girls' dormitory, but before Ron could get up, Harry snagged his hand.

"Something wrong, Harry?" Ron asked, a silly grin still plastered on his face.

"Oh, nothing," Harry whispered. "I just noticed how you missed a three move mate on your girlfriend."

"Did I?" Ron asked, smiling wider. "I have no clue what you're talking about."

Harry shook his head as Ron made his way up the boy's stairwell, whistling the theme song from Martin Miggs' movie on the way up.

"Did I miss something?" Ginny asked, curious.

Harry laughed. "Everyone did. Goodnight, Ginny."

"Goodnight Harry."

---

Erinamation: Thanks!

MicroChick: Yep. You've got it – nice catch!

Loser Kid: I don't remember seeing anything about Hermione quitting either. I don't think there was any reason for her to stop, so I'm continuing the tradition. :)

Myrhfire: Thanks! Sirius is… somewhere. I just decided that he wasn't going to play a major role in the story. I try to write my stories different than the mainstream, and Sirius is in a lot of stories, usually getting freed by the end. Hope you're not disappointed.

Kal: I guess it would make the drinker go deaf temporarily. You know, I hadn't even thought of the Nazgul when I wrote about the shadow creatures… interesting. About the name 'Mendelssohn' – you weren't overanalyzing it, you were just on the wrong track. Mendel was the geneticist, who worked on trait inheritance (recessive traits, dominant traits, etc). Mendelssohn was a romantic era composer. His music sounds 'elvish' (It's not just me. That's the exact word the Music History professor at ISU used)

Rathien: Thanks! Did you get the RPG info?

Katani: LOVE HIM?! That was my reaction, but you should have seen how many people came after me when I killed him off in 'Obsidian Tome'. Probably a combination of Tom Felton and the 'bad-boy-image'

Chaser: Aye-aye, cap'n.

Castus: Thanks! Actually, I'm planning on doing something interesting with the house elves, if I ever get around to writing a sixth year continuation of this story…

RoastPuff: The ships are going to be Harry/McGonagall and Ron/Flitwick. Seriously, didn't you read the disclaimer at the beginning? There isn't going to be a shipping mentality in the writing of this. Harry's going out with Lavender now, but who says that's going to last forever? Same for Ron/Parvati and Hermione/Viktor.

Feel free to review!