Chapter Four, In Which We Learn Of Quidditch Chess, and Mina And Katie Eat
In The Kitchens
Disclaimer: Don't own it, never did, just taking them out to play, not making any money. But leave Katie alone, she's mine. grins
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Hermione looked around the Common Room as she entered it before lunch. She'd been more distracted than she liked to admit during her morning classes – fortunately, no one would pay any attention during History of Magic as they were all either asleep or talking to each other, and Hagrid would nearly let her, Harry, or Ron get away with murder. Besides, class let out early today when one of the Slytherins managed to set his hand on fire. As they were working with Undines – water elementals – Hermione was actually curious as to how he'd managed it. For once, it wasn't Malfoy who'd been causing trouble – Hermione couldn't actually remember if he'd even been in class that day.
She was itching to go to the library. And she had no idea how she'd manage it – with the castle's expansion, rather a larger one than had previously been heard of, the Headmaster had ended up announcing at breakfast that while faculty and prefects could still access the library, any other student would have to be escorted, even for the regular library. It had been all she could do to keep from throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the Great Hall.
Glancing around, she saw a large crowd at a table near the fireplace, all eagerly cheering on Ron and – Fred? She stepped closer, trying to see what was going on. She didn't notice that Katie was sitting in a chair in a corner, sporadically laughing.
As she neared the table, quietly elbowing students aside, she wondered what was so engrossing. Harry noticed her progress, and shoved a few students out of the way before catching her by the wrist and pulling her forward. "Isn't it brilliant? It was Katharine's, apparently. She doesn't play, but when Fred and Ron started talking about chess, she brought it back from her rooms." And with a flourish, he brought Hermione level with the table and pointed at the game between the two Weasleys.
IOh good lord,/I was Hermione's first thought. In a glowing translucent cube, about three feet to a side, was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. And considering that she'd spent the last six years of her life at a Wizarding boarding school, that really was saying something.
It looked sort of like chess. Wizarding chess. Three-dimensional chess. Star Trek chess. With Quidditch players. Hermione blinked several times, and leaned in closer.
There were about seventeen different boards in the cube, with gossamer threads linking some of them rather randomly. A few more than half the pieces were in red, and looked quite a bit like Ron; the others were gold, and looked like Fred. And they were all in robes, on brooms. Hermione studied further, and saw that there really were miniature Quidditch hoops on some of the playing boards. The quick movements of the pieces was starting to give her a headache, not to mention making her eyes cross; she shook her head to clear it and looked back up at Harry.
"How on earth do you play it?" she asked him.
He chuckled. "D'you know, I'm sure I couldn't – I'm a terrible chess player really, at least compared to those two. But the rules are actually pretty close to regular chess rules, other than the Quidditch additions. The pieces move the same – bishops move diagonally, pawns only move straight forward, and they can also only move on the board they started on, which is why there are so many of them." He nodded at two large piles, one of red and one of gold, to the outside of the cube. "Rooks move in straight lines – back, forward, left, right, up and down. The knights are a pain to keep straight, and the queen can move almost anywhere she wants to. Any square that's linked to another through one of the threads is considered to be next to it, and the pieces can move along it, except for the pawns. As for the Quidditch – to make up for not being able to move from one board to another, those that are on Quidditch boards can score points that way. If there's a straight line from a pawn to a hoop, and no opposing piece is blocking the way, and it hasn't scored a point yet, then you can have it score for its move. All the pawns have a Quaffle to begin the game with." He glanced down at her. "Honestly, I think Fred's a bit chuffed that there aren't any Beaters in the game, Ron's doing better on the Quidditch points too." He pointed at a small scoreboard in the center of the cube.
"How do you know who's won, then?" She found herself entranced by the game, watching a large central board where the pawns were the only pieces left, all of which were moving to allow a final red piece its shot.
"Well, there are two ways. One, like regular or Wizard's chess, if you can corner the other player's king, you win. On a board like this, it's very hard, of course – so that's why the other option is to catch the Golden Snitch. If you see it, then you can instruct any Pawn who's been turned into a Queen to start chasing it, and they'll do so automatically. Only Quidditch Queens, as the pawns are then called, can catch it. Apparently, Katie says games like this can go on for hours. The longest one she's ever seen lasted three days."
"Where is Katie, anyway? I wanted to talk to her..." She was interrupted by a call from across the room.
"I'm over here, you big booterdink! Now get your butt over here and talk to me." She glanced over and saw Katie now, sitting on one of the sofas, two mugs of tea on a table next to her. Hermione shoved her way back out of the group, which parted much more easily now that she was trying to leave, and flopped down on the couch next to Katharine.
"You know, you're going to get in trouble with Professor Dumbledore for losing a Head Boy because of that game. Ron's going to beat him, and he won't be able to stand it, and he'll keep challenging Ron for rematches until he beats him. Only probably he never will, because Ron loves chess /I Quidditch far too much to ever throw a game. What kind of tea is this, anyway?" She took a deep breath of the steam rising from the mug Katie had handed her.
"Voodoo, of course. It's been my favorite for years, you know that." They sipped in relative silence for a few minutes, watching the game.
"Look! The snitch!" Harry pointed urgently to a board that had nothing else on it. Hermione chuckled.
"What?" Kate asked her curiously.
"Well, Harry's our house Seeker, I guess it only makes sense that he'd be the one to spot the Snitch." She smiled at her friend.
Kate grinned back at her. "Well, I suppose I might as well leave the game down here... it's not like I'd play it back in my rooms ever. Never was any good at chess, and you know me, never much of a one for sports anyway."
"Except for Zucchini Ball."
Kate did a double take at that. "How did you... you mean you remember that? How could you? You weren't more than what, eight when we stopped playing?" She lowered her mug to the table beside here, staring at Hermione.
With a true Mona Lisa smile, her friend replied, "Well, after all, it's the only sport I've ever been any good at either."
Kate laughed. "True enough, I suppose. God, I've missed you, Mina. Want to go to the library and chat?"
Hermione sighed. "I can't, the library's off limits except to faculty and prefects, what with the expansion and all."
Katie rolled her eyes and reached over to knock lightly on Mina's forehead. "Hello? Anybody in there? Head Girl counts as faculty, or at least outranks a prefect, you spaz. Come on, you're supposed to be smart, use your brain, girl!"
She chuckled at herself then. "I suppose you're right, then, aren't you? Like always. Come on, let's get out of here – nobody's going to notice, but if they do, I'm sure they'll figure out where we've gone."
Kate jumped up from her seat. "That's the ticket! But – you lead. I have no idea how to get there still." She grinned at the slightly younger girl and waved her hand at the door.
"Okay, just let me drop off these bags – we probably ought to go to lunch before too long, but I have a free period after – and besides, you need to know how to get to the kitchens anyway, don't you?" Mina grinned back, just as mischievously.
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An hour and a half later, Mina jolted back to herself with a growl – from her stomach, at least. She looked at her watch and realized that she barely had time to get to the kitchens, talk food out of the house elves – they never had quite forgiven her for S.P.E.W., and if Dobby wasn't there, it was quite hard to get any help – and get to Potions for her afternoon classes. "Oh crap. Katie? We need to go..."
"Hmm?" Katie almost looked up from the book she was studying. She moved her head so she was facing Mina, but clearly was still reading.
"Katie! Quit reading!"
"What? It was interesting, I'm sorry..."
"Look, don't worry about it, Madam Pince will probably let you check it out if it's that interesting, but if you want to get anything to eat before dinner, now's the time to go, is all." Hermione was sorting through the small pile of books she'd collected when they first entered the library, deciding which she wanted to talk Madam Pince into letting her check out. ITransfiguration's useless for this... Charms might do, or Potions... not a chance in hell I'm going to try Divination before a last resort... and I don't think Arithmancy will be very helpful.../I
In the end, Kate had a stack of five small books about psychology, and Mina had three – two on Charms that might do, and one very old one on Potions. They started searching for Madam Pince.
They found her, nearly trapped behind three very large bookcases she hadn't noticed closing in on her, and persuaded her to allow them the books for the week. If it weren't for the fact that she knew Hermione so well – so she could vouch for Kate – and the fact that Kate was the new Head Girl – so she could sign for Mina – Madam Pince probably wouldn't have let them take the books. However, well able to recognize fellow bibliophiles, she let it pass with a smile and a warning – "No more books until the library's organized again, girls."
"Yes, Madam Pince," they chorused, then catching each other's eyes, burst out laughing, and fled the library.
They didn't stop laughing until Mina was tickling the pear in the painting to the kitchens.
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Hermione had looked surprised when Kate took charge as they stepped into the kitchen. She had a much firmer grasp on the role of house-elves than Hermione had had. Without any pretense at equality, she had greeted the elf – one named Freedo, of all things – and explained that as Head Girl, she had prevented a student from going to lunch, and now wished to make amends with a few sandwiches and some milk. Freedo had looked positively thrilled at the job, and returned moments latter with several platters of sandwiches, glasses, and pitchers of both cold milk and pumpkin juice. Kate thanked him, and immediately dismissed him.
"How can you be so cold to them?" The question caught Kate off-guard.
"Whatever do you mean? I mean, have you seen the way some people treat them? My uncle hit me once, for being 'too nice' to them, he said. My father punched him and threw him out of the house, and we never saw him after that except at family reunions, but for pete's sake I was only five – it made a big difference to me at the time. I've tried very hard to be fairly polite to them; I've never punished them. I treat them the way I would treat any servant - I give them the job I want them to do, and when they do it, I thank them, and let them leave. I don't see how that's all that cold, Mina."
Hermione's angry response died, unspoken, on her lips, leaving her almost speechless as she listened to her friend. "God – Kate – I'm sorry, I didn't know – "
Kate shook herself a little, and smiled at her friend. "Look, don't worry about it, Mina. Eat your damn BLT before I steal it, okay? Just... remember, I've got a different attitude towards a lot of this world than you do. Not your fault or anything, but I grew up in a lot of this, and some impressions of the world are hard to get rid of..."
"Of course..." Mina still looked a little bit flustered.
Kate sighed, exasperated. "Look, seriously, don't worry about it. I've learned to deal with it, and a lot of the elves seem to prefer my way of treating them, actually – my dad has begged me to tell them to obey him as well as they do me, for that matter. Even after the episode with Uncle L-" she swallowed – "Uncle Luke."
They sat in silence for a moment, no noise but the hum of the school, the quiet movements of the elves, and the sounds of chewing and swallowing. Eventually, Hermione asked Katharine a question about the books she'd checked out, and they spent half an hour quite pleasantly discussing Kate's choices. The award for "best title" went to one work called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Idiots" and dealt with helping teenagers deal with broken hearts. Kate sighed.
"That's the one aspect of this job I'm really not looking forward to. I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating. That's the one thing I was really happy about leaving behind after El Dorado, dammit! I never had any interest in the subject even when I could have been taking the opportunities implicit therein, why the hell would I want to be a spectator again?" She continued grumbling for another five minutes or so on the subject, as Hermione sat back and chuckled.
She was about to reach for another sandwich when she caught sight of her watch and bolted upright. "Crap! I'm going to be late for Potions!" She started gathering her books together hurriedly.
"Listen, Mina, why don't you take me with you? That way, if somebody sees us running in the halls, they won't dock you any points, and if nothing else, I'll maybe know where the Potions classroom is. What do you say?"
"Fine, that's fine, here, take my library books with you, would you? I can't have them in class, Snape will yell at me – and let's hurry up and go!"
They hurried up and went.
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Author's Note:
As for Quidditch Chess, I hardly know what to say. The idea came to my head fully formed, as I was starting the scene – I was going to have Kate come in after dinner and find Mina, but realized as I reread the end of the last chapter that she was already headed there after talking to Dumbledore. But I wanted them to meet up so they could go to the library, and then poof the idea was there in my head. I know that my mother has a game of 3D tic- tac-toe, played with these beautiful crystal marbles – used to drive her crazy stealing the blue ones – and I know that I've read of 3D chess somewhere. And I think I've heard of Star Trek chess, for that matter, and doing a very small bit of research gives me - which has some detail on Star Trek Tri-D chess. This game has a similar board, just... more. Like I said, seventeen boards, none of which are the same size (they're different shapes than just square, too), so it's a bit of a confusing game. Now I'm going to find myself some day trying to figure out how to build a board... sighs
A very good friend of mine named Mel (my first adopted little sister, for all that she's older than me by a year and a half) calls people "spaztastic booterdinks." I don't know why. But I think Kate is based on several of my friends from Florida, including Mel, and that would be why she's calling Mina a booterdink.
The Voodoo Tea is from a small shop in Manhattan, Kansas. I went through a pound of the stuff, more or less, and I still don't really know what it tastes like. It's been suggested that there's some peach in it, and it's very possible; all I know is the stuff is ambrosia.
And as for Zucchini Ball, that's my uncle's invention... he found a tennis ball half-buried in one of his zucchini plants, and took an old green plastic paddle-ball paddle, and grabbed my older sister and I and took us into the backyard... the rules were pretty much like baseball, with a beautiful silver birch as Third Base. Since there were only three of us, we all had our own teams, and an unlimited number of "ghost players." I can remember my sister running from second to third, while I hit a double, and my uncle walking to stand between the two of us, trying to figure out where his ghost – who'd been on first base – had gone.
Oh, and my mother's a librarian – believe me, when she gets involved in something involving books, it's next to impossible to catch her attention. I'm quite sure that Madam Pince wouldn't have noticed until much later if the bookcases had managed to close her in entirely. I think the castle has a sense of humor, even if it is on about a par with the third-year boys'.
I have all respect for the "Complete Idiot's Guide To..." books. I actually own two of them, and I find them to be incredibly thorough and resourceful. I just wanted to use the title.
Credit for the line "I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating" goes to my cousin, when she was talking to me this morning about HP fanfiction. Only seems fitting to return the line to the scene of the crime.
Oh, and credit for my style of chapter headings goes to Patricia C. Wrede, if nobody else, in her lovely books uCalling On Dragons/u, /uDealing With Dragons/u, uSearching For Dragons/u, and uTalking To Dragons/u, which I have almost certainly gotten out of order. I'm sure other people have used this style of chapters as well, but she's the one I got it from, so to her the credit goes.
Disclaimer: Don't own it, never did, just taking them out to play, not making any money. But leave Katie alone, she's mine. grins
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Hermione looked around the Common Room as she entered it before lunch. She'd been more distracted than she liked to admit during her morning classes – fortunately, no one would pay any attention during History of Magic as they were all either asleep or talking to each other, and Hagrid would nearly let her, Harry, or Ron get away with murder. Besides, class let out early today when one of the Slytherins managed to set his hand on fire. As they were working with Undines – water elementals – Hermione was actually curious as to how he'd managed it. For once, it wasn't Malfoy who'd been causing trouble – Hermione couldn't actually remember if he'd even been in class that day.
She was itching to go to the library. And she had no idea how she'd manage it – with the castle's expansion, rather a larger one than had previously been heard of, the Headmaster had ended up announcing at breakfast that while faculty and prefects could still access the library, any other student would have to be escorted, even for the regular library. It had been all she could do to keep from throwing a temper tantrum in the middle of the Great Hall.
Glancing around, she saw a large crowd at a table near the fireplace, all eagerly cheering on Ron and – Fred? She stepped closer, trying to see what was going on. She didn't notice that Katie was sitting in a chair in a corner, sporadically laughing.
As she neared the table, quietly elbowing students aside, she wondered what was so engrossing. Harry noticed her progress, and shoved a few students out of the way before catching her by the wrist and pulling her forward. "Isn't it brilliant? It was Katharine's, apparently. She doesn't play, but when Fred and Ron started talking about chess, she brought it back from her rooms." And with a flourish, he brought Hermione level with the table and pointed at the game between the two Weasleys.
IOh good lord,/I was Hermione's first thought. In a glowing translucent cube, about three feet to a side, was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. And considering that she'd spent the last six years of her life at a Wizarding boarding school, that really was saying something.
It looked sort of like chess. Wizarding chess. Three-dimensional chess. Star Trek chess. With Quidditch players. Hermione blinked several times, and leaned in closer.
There were about seventeen different boards in the cube, with gossamer threads linking some of them rather randomly. A few more than half the pieces were in red, and looked quite a bit like Ron; the others were gold, and looked like Fred. And they were all in robes, on brooms. Hermione studied further, and saw that there really were miniature Quidditch hoops on some of the playing boards. The quick movements of the pieces was starting to give her a headache, not to mention making her eyes cross; she shook her head to clear it and looked back up at Harry.
"How on earth do you play it?" she asked him.
He chuckled. "D'you know, I'm sure I couldn't – I'm a terrible chess player really, at least compared to those two. But the rules are actually pretty close to regular chess rules, other than the Quidditch additions. The pieces move the same – bishops move diagonally, pawns only move straight forward, and they can also only move on the board they started on, which is why there are so many of them." He nodded at two large piles, one of red and one of gold, to the outside of the cube. "Rooks move in straight lines – back, forward, left, right, up and down. The knights are a pain to keep straight, and the queen can move almost anywhere she wants to. Any square that's linked to another through one of the threads is considered to be next to it, and the pieces can move along it, except for the pawns. As for the Quidditch – to make up for not being able to move from one board to another, those that are on Quidditch boards can score points that way. If there's a straight line from a pawn to a hoop, and no opposing piece is blocking the way, and it hasn't scored a point yet, then you can have it score for its move. All the pawns have a Quaffle to begin the game with." He glanced down at her. "Honestly, I think Fred's a bit chuffed that there aren't any Beaters in the game, Ron's doing better on the Quidditch points too." He pointed at a small scoreboard in the center of the cube.
"How do you know who's won, then?" She found herself entranced by the game, watching a large central board where the pawns were the only pieces left, all of which were moving to allow a final red piece its shot.
"Well, there are two ways. One, like regular or Wizard's chess, if you can corner the other player's king, you win. On a board like this, it's very hard, of course – so that's why the other option is to catch the Golden Snitch. If you see it, then you can instruct any Pawn who's been turned into a Queen to start chasing it, and they'll do so automatically. Only Quidditch Queens, as the pawns are then called, can catch it. Apparently, Katie says games like this can go on for hours. The longest one she's ever seen lasted three days."
"Where is Katie, anyway? I wanted to talk to her..." She was interrupted by a call from across the room.
"I'm over here, you big booterdink! Now get your butt over here and talk to me." She glanced over and saw Katie now, sitting on one of the sofas, two mugs of tea on a table next to her. Hermione shoved her way back out of the group, which parted much more easily now that she was trying to leave, and flopped down on the couch next to Katharine.
"You know, you're going to get in trouble with Professor Dumbledore for losing a Head Boy because of that game. Ron's going to beat him, and he won't be able to stand it, and he'll keep challenging Ron for rematches until he beats him. Only probably he never will, because Ron loves chess /I Quidditch far too much to ever throw a game. What kind of tea is this, anyway?" She took a deep breath of the steam rising from the mug Katie had handed her.
"Voodoo, of course. It's been my favorite for years, you know that." They sipped in relative silence for a few minutes, watching the game.
"Look! The snitch!" Harry pointed urgently to a board that had nothing else on it. Hermione chuckled.
"What?" Kate asked her curiously.
"Well, Harry's our house Seeker, I guess it only makes sense that he'd be the one to spot the Snitch." She smiled at her friend.
Kate grinned back at her. "Well, I suppose I might as well leave the game down here... it's not like I'd play it back in my rooms ever. Never was any good at chess, and you know me, never much of a one for sports anyway."
"Except for Zucchini Ball."
Kate did a double take at that. "How did you... you mean you remember that? How could you? You weren't more than what, eight when we stopped playing?" She lowered her mug to the table beside here, staring at Hermione.
With a true Mona Lisa smile, her friend replied, "Well, after all, it's the only sport I've ever been any good at either."
Kate laughed. "True enough, I suppose. God, I've missed you, Mina. Want to go to the library and chat?"
Hermione sighed. "I can't, the library's off limits except to faculty and prefects, what with the expansion and all."
Katie rolled her eyes and reached over to knock lightly on Mina's forehead. "Hello? Anybody in there? Head Girl counts as faculty, or at least outranks a prefect, you spaz. Come on, you're supposed to be smart, use your brain, girl!"
She chuckled at herself then. "I suppose you're right, then, aren't you? Like always. Come on, let's get out of here – nobody's going to notice, but if they do, I'm sure they'll figure out where we've gone."
Kate jumped up from her seat. "That's the ticket! But – you lead. I have no idea how to get there still." She grinned at the slightly younger girl and waved her hand at the door.
"Okay, just let me drop off these bags – we probably ought to go to lunch before too long, but I have a free period after – and besides, you need to know how to get to the kitchens anyway, don't you?" Mina grinned back, just as mischievously.
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An hour and a half later, Mina jolted back to herself with a growl – from her stomach, at least. She looked at her watch and realized that she barely had time to get to the kitchens, talk food out of the house elves – they never had quite forgiven her for S.P.E.W., and if Dobby wasn't there, it was quite hard to get any help – and get to Potions for her afternoon classes. "Oh crap. Katie? We need to go..."
"Hmm?" Katie almost looked up from the book she was studying. She moved her head so she was facing Mina, but clearly was still reading.
"Katie! Quit reading!"
"What? It was interesting, I'm sorry..."
"Look, don't worry about it, Madam Pince will probably let you check it out if it's that interesting, but if you want to get anything to eat before dinner, now's the time to go, is all." Hermione was sorting through the small pile of books she'd collected when they first entered the library, deciding which she wanted to talk Madam Pince into letting her check out. ITransfiguration's useless for this... Charms might do, or Potions... not a chance in hell I'm going to try Divination before a last resort... and I don't think Arithmancy will be very helpful.../I
In the end, Kate had a stack of five small books about psychology, and Mina had three – two on Charms that might do, and one very old one on Potions. They started searching for Madam Pince.
They found her, nearly trapped behind three very large bookcases she hadn't noticed closing in on her, and persuaded her to allow them the books for the week. If it weren't for the fact that she knew Hermione so well – so she could vouch for Kate – and the fact that Kate was the new Head Girl – so she could sign for Mina – Madam Pince probably wouldn't have let them take the books. However, well able to recognize fellow bibliophiles, she let it pass with a smile and a warning – "No more books until the library's organized again, girls."
"Yes, Madam Pince," they chorused, then catching each other's eyes, burst out laughing, and fled the library.
They didn't stop laughing until Mina was tickling the pear in the painting to the kitchens.
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Hermione had looked surprised when Kate took charge as they stepped into the kitchen. She had a much firmer grasp on the role of house-elves than Hermione had had. Without any pretense at equality, she had greeted the elf – one named Freedo, of all things – and explained that as Head Girl, she had prevented a student from going to lunch, and now wished to make amends with a few sandwiches and some milk. Freedo had looked positively thrilled at the job, and returned moments latter with several platters of sandwiches, glasses, and pitchers of both cold milk and pumpkin juice. Kate thanked him, and immediately dismissed him.
"How can you be so cold to them?" The question caught Kate off-guard.
"Whatever do you mean? I mean, have you seen the way some people treat them? My uncle hit me once, for being 'too nice' to them, he said. My father punched him and threw him out of the house, and we never saw him after that except at family reunions, but for pete's sake I was only five – it made a big difference to me at the time. I've tried very hard to be fairly polite to them; I've never punished them. I treat them the way I would treat any servant - I give them the job I want them to do, and when they do it, I thank them, and let them leave. I don't see how that's all that cold, Mina."
Hermione's angry response died, unspoken, on her lips, leaving her almost speechless as she listened to her friend. "God – Kate – I'm sorry, I didn't know – "
Kate shook herself a little, and smiled at her friend. "Look, don't worry about it, Mina. Eat your damn BLT before I steal it, okay? Just... remember, I've got a different attitude towards a lot of this world than you do. Not your fault or anything, but I grew up in a lot of this, and some impressions of the world are hard to get rid of..."
"Of course..." Mina still looked a little bit flustered.
Kate sighed, exasperated. "Look, seriously, don't worry about it. I've learned to deal with it, and a lot of the elves seem to prefer my way of treating them, actually – my dad has begged me to tell them to obey him as well as they do me, for that matter. Even after the episode with Uncle L-" she swallowed – "Uncle Luke."
They sat in silence for a moment, no noise but the hum of the school, the quiet movements of the elves, and the sounds of chewing and swallowing. Eventually, Hermione asked Katharine a question about the books she'd checked out, and they spent half an hour quite pleasantly discussing Kate's choices. The award for "best title" went to one work called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Idiots" and dealt with helping teenagers deal with broken hearts. Kate sighed.
"That's the one aspect of this job I'm really not looking forward to. I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating. That's the one thing I was really happy about leaving behind after El Dorado, dammit! I never had any interest in the subject even when I could have been taking the opportunities implicit therein, why the hell would I want to be a spectator again?" She continued grumbling for another five minutes or so on the subject, as Hermione sat back and chuckled.
She was about to reach for another sandwich when she caught sight of her watch and bolted upright. "Crap! I'm going to be late for Potions!" She started gathering her books together hurriedly.
"Listen, Mina, why don't you take me with you? That way, if somebody sees us running in the halls, they won't dock you any points, and if nothing else, I'll maybe know where the Potions classroom is. What do you say?"
"Fine, that's fine, here, take my library books with you, would you? I can't have them in class, Snape will yell at me – and let's hurry up and go!"
They hurried up and went.
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Author's Note:
As for Quidditch Chess, I hardly know what to say. The idea came to my head fully formed, as I was starting the scene – I was going to have Kate come in after dinner and find Mina, but realized as I reread the end of the last chapter that she was already headed there after talking to Dumbledore. But I wanted them to meet up so they could go to the library, and then poof the idea was there in my head. I know that my mother has a game of 3D tic- tac-toe, played with these beautiful crystal marbles – used to drive her crazy stealing the blue ones – and I know that I've read of 3D chess somewhere. And I think I've heard of Star Trek chess, for that matter, and doing a very small bit of research gives me - which has some detail on Star Trek Tri-D chess. This game has a similar board, just... more. Like I said, seventeen boards, none of which are the same size (they're different shapes than just square, too), so it's a bit of a confusing game. Now I'm going to find myself some day trying to figure out how to build a board... sighs
A very good friend of mine named Mel (my first adopted little sister, for all that she's older than me by a year and a half) calls people "spaztastic booterdinks." I don't know why. But I think Kate is based on several of my friends from Florida, including Mel, and that would be why she's calling Mina a booterdink.
The Voodoo Tea is from a small shop in Manhattan, Kansas. I went through a pound of the stuff, more or less, and I still don't really know what it tastes like. It's been suggested that there's some peach in it, and it's very possible; all I know is the stuff is ambrosia.
And as for Zucchini Ball, that's my uncle's invention... he found a tennis ball half-buried in one of his zucchini plants, and took an old green plastic paddle-ball paddle, and grabbed my older sister and I and took us into the backyard... the rules were pretty much like baseball, with a beautiful silver birch as Third Base. Since there were only three of us, we all had our own teams, and an unlimited number of "ghost players." I can remember my sister running from second to third, while I hit a double, and my uncle walking to stand between the two of us, trying to figure out where his ghost – who'd been on first base – had gone.
Oh, and my mother's a librarian – believe me, when she gets involved in something involving books, it's next to impossible to catch her attention. I'm quite sure that Madam Pince wouldn't have noticed until much later if the bookcases had managed to close her in entirely. I think the castle has a sense of humor, even if it is on about a par with the third-year boys'.
I have all respect for the "Complete Idiot's Guide To..." books. I actually own two of them, and I find them to be incredibly thorough and resourceful. I just wanted to use the title.
Credit for the line "I'm so desperately uninterested in the mechanics of high school style dating" goes to my cousin, when she was talking to me this morning about HP fanfiction. Only seems fitting to return the line to the scene of the crime.
Oh, and credit for my style of chapter headings goes to Patricia C. Wrede, if nobody else, in her lovely books uCalling On Dragons/u, /uDealing With Dragons/u, uSearching For Dragons/u, and uTalking To Dragons/u, which I have almost certainly gotten out of order. I'm sure other people have used this style of chapters as well, but she's the one I got it from, so to her the credit goes.