Trapped
~#~
"Checkmate!" Ron yelled triumphantly as his white bishop poked his tongue out at Harry's king. Harry pretended to pout, but the truth was he didn't really mind Ron beating him at chess - it was the only thing Ron could do better than anyone else. Ok, so the actual truth was that he was so happy that Snape was stunned and therefore incapable of consuming him that he couldn't have cared less if Ron tried to come on to him, let alone beat him at a stupid game of Wizard chess.
Well, actually . . . that probably would have ruined his good mood, but thankfully for Harry he knew perfectly well that Ron had eyes for no one but Hermione. You may be wondering how Harry, one of the blindest people in the world when it came to other people feelings, would have actually noticed the sexual tension between his two best friends. Fact is he didn't, but a group of Gryffindors had been discussing it one day in the common room and Harry had pretended he knew what they were talking about. When he reflected on it later, he realized that it ought to have been obvious - when he saw his parents in the pensieve in his 5th year, they had both hated each other. What did Ron and Hermione do all the time? Argue, of course! So naturally they MUST be headed for marriage. Needless to say, the Dursleys (in the hopes that he would never procreate) had never bothered to give Harry the "birds and bees" talk, nor explained to him how love and marriage and the like worked, so it was no wonder, really, that Harry was so confused.
Not that *that* particular story belongs here and should probably be saved for another day. So let's get back to the dungeons.
So Ron was celebrating his victorious win over Harry and Harry was elated that the stunned potions master was no longer in a right state to eat him.
Draco was still lying on his specially conjured couch reading about the finer points of embroidery charms in the latest 'Witch Weekly', Neville and Professor Snape were still out cold (and in a rather compromising position if anyone in the caved in dungeon had a dirty enough mind to think of that sort of thing) and Hermione was still in a right state at the events that had just taken place.
"HE STUNNED. . . OUT COLD. . . HOW CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE AND PLAY CHESS? ISN'T STUNNING ONE TEACHER IN A DAY ENOUGH FOR YOU? DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO MAKE THOSE LITTLE MEN RUN AROUND THE BOARD KILLING EACH OTHER?"
It seemed that Hermione was in what Ron liked to call "one of those moods" - although never to her face anymore (he still had a dent in the back of his skull from Hermione's Ancient Runes textbook). When she worked herself up like this, nothing was safe, and she was prone to verbally attack anything anyone was doing.
"What are you going to do about it, Hermione? Become the founder of the 'Save the Chess Pieces Society'?" Harry asked.
"SCPS? That's not as catchy as SPEW. How about the 'Rights and Welfare/Happiness for Game pieces' movement?"
"RW/HG? That doesn't even make sense," Harry snorted.
"Maybe not to you, Harry," Ron smiled secretively.
"Frankly, Ron," Draco put his magazine down on his lap for a moment and joined in the conversation. "I think 'Hermione's Group for the Liberation of the Underprivileged and the Very Seriously Disadvantaged Movement' is far more accurate."
It took Ron a moment to work out the anagram, but when he had finally got there he looked aghast.
"She does not!"
It seemed that Ron and Draco were the only ones who understood the secret messages behind their proposed chess piece rights slogans. Harry was still wondering how the heck Draco's proposal made any sense. It doesn't, of course, but Harry decided to smile and nod and pretend he understood.
Hermione looked liked she was about to explode - her face was bright red and her hair seemed to be even more frizzy than usual.
"AND WHY ARE THEY ALL MEN ANYWAY? WHY AREN'T THERE ANY WOMEN CHESS PIECES? OR CHILDREN? OR HOUSE ELVES? WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE ELVES, RON? WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE ELVES?"
Draco was still sitting on his couch, smirking at Ron. Completely ignoring Hermione, they were still discussing the interesting theory Draco's anagram had brought up.
"Oh really?" he sneered from underneath his large sunhat. "Then why has she been staring longingly at me the whole time we've been trapped in here?"
Ron's face turned just as red as Hermione's was.
"She has not! She's been looking after Neville the whole time!"
Harry nodded. He liked to nod.
"NO ONE THINKS OF THE HOUSE ELVES DO THEY? JUST THINK OF ALL THE POOR HOUSE ELVES THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO FREE THAT HAVE BEEN HORRIBLY CRUSHED BY THIS STUPID CASTLE!" Hermione continued to screech. No one was paying her attention, as usual. Draco was too busy convincing Ron of his uncontrollable woman attracting charm - all Malfoys had it. There was no woman in the world that could resist it, not even a drippy Mudblood with awful, awful hair. Ron was valiantly protesting against this statement, of course.
Harry continued to nod (it made him look intelligent, after all), although he had stopped trying to understand the various heated conversations around the room and his eyes had glazed over.
"She despises you, Malfoy! She can't stand you! There's no WAY she is attracted to you!" Ron cried desperately, his orange hair sticking up all over his head like small flames.
"Then how come she slapped me?" Draco replied coolly, every strand on his head slicked back to perfection. "She's never slapped you before, HAS she, Ron?"
This certainly stopped Ron for a moment. Surely she must have slapped him sometime during their time together at Hogwarts. She must have . . . she certainly spent a lot of time yelling at him, and she was clearly unbalanced . . . she simply MUST have slapped him at some point in time . . .
"Of course she has. Loads of times," Ron insisted, but rather unconvincingly. Draco gave Ron a pitiful look, Hermione a wink (just to stir things up a bit more) and turned back to his magazine.
". . . TO BE CRUSHED TO A BLOODY END BY THE VERY CASTLE THAT OPPRESSED THEM DURING THEIR ENTIRE LIVES! THEY'VE BEEN SERVING US WITHOUT COMPLAINT FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS AND NOW THEY'VE BEEN KILLED BY US!" Hermione's speech had moved her so much that she burst into tears. Ron had to admit that he was rather close to tears as well - to think that Hermione could like Malfoy over him! It was devastating.
Ron sniffed and said quietly, "I've got nothing to live for. . ."
Harry smiled sympathetically and nodded.
~*~
A/N hmmmm . . . Rather strange chapter. In the past chapters they've been divided into different characters POV's but now it's sorta all lumped together . . . I hope all the chopping and changing and stuff wasn't too confusing. Next chapter up soon I hope. Thank you all for reviewing! I love my reviews and reviewers so, so much! THANK YOU!!
I don't think there will be many more chapters in this story. 10 is a nice number to end on, I think, and I can see the end in sight . . . so will they got out? Will Snape wake up and eat Ron instead of Harry? Will Hermione confess her undying love to one of the trapped, or is she too focused on her House Elf crusade to notice boys?
You'll just have to wait and see . . .
~#~
"Checkmate!" Ron yelled triumphantly as his white bishop poked his tongue out at Harry's king. Harry pretended to pout, but the truth was he didn't really mind Ron beating him at chess - it was the only thing Ron could do better than anyone else. Ok, so the actual truth was that he was so happy that Snape was stunned and therefore incapable of consuming him that he couldn't have cared less if Ron tried to come on to him, let alone beat him at a stupid game of Wizard chess.
Well, actually . . . that probably would have ruined his good mood, but thankfully for Harry he knew perfectly well that Ron had eyes for no one but Hermione. You may be wondering how Harry, one of the blindest people in the world when it came to other people feelings, would have actually noticed the sexual tension between his two best friends. Fact is he didn't, but a group of Gryffindors had been discussing it one day in the common room and Harry had pretended he knew what they were talking about. When he reflected on it later, he realized that it ought to have been obvious - when he saw his parents in the pensieve in his 5th year, they had both hated each other. What did Ron and Hermione do all the time? Argue, of course! So naturally they MUST be headed for marriage. Needless to say, the Dursleys (in the hopes that he would never procreate) had never bothered to give Harry the "birds and bees" talk, nor explained to him how love and marriage and the like worked, so it was no wonder, really, that Harry was so confused.
Not that *that* particular story belongs here and should probably be saved for another day. So let's get back to the dungeons.
So Ron was celebrating his victorious win over Harry and Harry was elated that the stunned potions master was no longer in a right state to eat him.
Draco was still lying on his specially conjured couch reading about the finer points of embroidery charms in the latest 'Witch Weekly', Neville and Professor Snape were still out cold (and in a rather compromising position if anyone in the caved in dungeon had a dirty enough mind to think of that sort of thing) and Hermione was still in a right state at the events that had just taken place.
"HE STUNNED. . . OUT COLD. . . HOW CAN YOU JUST SIT THERE AND PLAY CHESS? ISN'T STUNNING ONE TEACHER IN A DAY ENOUGH FOR YOU? DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO MAKE THOSE LITTLE MEN RUN AROUND THE BOARD KILLING EACH OTHER?"
It seemed that Hermione was in what Ron liked to call "one of those moods" - although never to her face anymore (he still had a dent in the back of his skull from Hermione's Ancient Runes textbook). When she worked herself up like this, nothing was safe, and she was prone to verbally attack anything anyone was doing.
"What are you going to do about it, Hermione? Become the founder of the 'Save the Chess Pieces Society'?" Harry asked.
"SCPS? That's not as catchy as SPEW. How about the 'Rights and Welfare/Happiness for Game pieces' movement?"
"RW/HG? That doesn't even make sense," Harry snorted.
"Maybe not to you, Harry," Ron smiled secretively.
"Frankly, Ron," Draco put his magazine down on his lap for a moment and joined in the conversation. "I think 'Hermione's Group for the Liberation of the Underprivileged and the Very Seriously Disadvantaged Movement' is far more accurate."
It took Ron a moment to work out the anagram, but when he had finally got there he looked aghast.
"She does not!"
It seemed that Ron and Draco were the only ones who understood the secret messages behind their proposed chess piece rights slogans. Harry was still wondering how the heck Draco's proposal made any sense. It doesn't, of course, but Harry decided to smile and nod and pretend he understood.
Hermione looked liked she was about to explode - her face was bright red and her hair seemed to be even more frizzy than usual.
"AND WHY ARE THEY ALL MEN ANYWAY? WHY AREN'T THERE ANY WOMEN CHESS PIECES? OR CHILDREN? OR HOUSE ELVES? WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE ELVES, RON? WHAT ABOUT THE HOUSE ELVES?"
Draco was still sitting on his couch, smirking at Ron. Completely ignoring Hermione, they were still discussing the interesting theory Draco's anagram had brought up.
"Oh really?" he sneered from underneath his large sunhat. "Then why has she been staring longingly at me the whole time we've been trapped in here?"
Ron's face turned just as red as Hermione's was.
"She has not! She's been looking after Neville the whole time!"
Harry nodded. He liked to nod.
"NO ONE THINKS OF THE HOUSE ELVES DO THEY? JUST THINK OF ALL THE POOR HOUSE ELVES THAT I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO FREE THAT HAVE BEEN HORRIBLY CRUSHED BY THIS STUPID CASTLE!" Hermione continued to screech. No one was paying her attention, as usual. Draco was too busy convincing Ron of his uncontrollable woman attracting charm - all Malfoys had it. There was no woman in the world that could resist it, not even a drippy Mudblood with awful, awful hair. Ron was valiantly protesting against this statement, of course.
Harry continued to nod (it made him look intelligent, after all), although he had stopped trying to understand the various heated conversations around the room and his eyes had glazed over.
"She despises you, Malfoy! She can't stand you! There's no WAY she is attracted to you!" Ron cried desperately, his orange hair sticking up all over his head like small flames.
"Then how come she slapped me?" Draco replied coolly, every strand on his head slicked back to perfection. "She's never slapped you before, HAS she, Ron?"
This certainly stopped Ron for a moment. Surely she must have slapped him sometime during their time together at Hogwarts. She must have . . . she certainly spent a lot of time yelling at him, and she was clearly unbalanced . . . she simply MUST have slapped him at some point in time . . .
"Of course she has. Loads of times," Ron insisted, but rather unconvincingly. Draco gave Ron a pitiful look, Hermione a wink (just to stir things up a bit more) and turned back to his magazine.
". . . TO BE CRUSHED TO A BLOODY END BY THE VERY CASTLE THAT OPPRESSED THEM DURING THEIR ENTIRE LIVES! THEY'VE BEEN SERVING US WITHOUT COMPLAINT FOR YEARS AND YEARS AND YEARS AND NOW THEY'VE BEEN KILLED BY US!" Hermione's speech had moved her so much that she burst into tears. Ron had to admit that he was rather close to tears as well - to think that Hermione could like Malfoy over him! It was devastating.
Ron sniffed and said quietly, "I've got nothing to live for. . ."
Harry smiled sympathetically and nodded.
~*~
A/N hmmmm . . . Rather strange chapter. In the past chapters they've been divided into different characters POV's but now it's sorta all lumped together . . . I hope all the chopping and changing and stuff wasn't too confusing. Next chapter up soon I hope. Thank you all for reviewing! I love my reviews and reviewers so, so much! THANK YOU!!
I don't think there will be many more chapters in this story. 10 is a nice number to end on, I think, and I can see the end in sight . . . so will they got out? Will Snape wake up and eat Ron instead of Harry? Will Hermione confess her undying love to one of the trapped, or is she too focused on her House Elf crusade to notice boys?
You'll just have to wait and see . . .