Disclaimer: I don't own any of it.
On a chessboard, Ron decided, it was wonderfully easy to distinguish the good from the bad. There were only two colors, and none of that murky gray area that so often made him question himself. When Ron's white knight took one of Harry's black pawns, Ron knew that he'd done something right. He knew it not from the clap on the back that Dean gave him whenever he thought of a particularly good move, but from the fact that Harry's black pieces were the enemy this time, and he had just eliminated one of them. It had always been that way for Ron. When he was a little boy, and his brother Charlie had bought home a chess set, he had only understood that one color was invariably bad, and that his color needed to get rid of it. The compliments of his friends and family had made him feel good as a child, yes, and that's why he'd originally taken such a liking to the game, but it was different now. Now Ron welcomed the simplicity of the sides.
When Ron had grown older, he went to Charlie to ask why some people treated their father so poorly. Charlie had explained that their family and these people were on different sides, like in chess. The Weasleys wanted one king to win, and those other people wanted another.
The next time Ron's family took him into Diagon Alley, Ron looked for the other side. He had walked around expecting to see some sort of an ugly creature insult his family, and know from its appearance that it was the enemy. That was not what happened, though. While he was sipping pumpkin juice, a fight broke out on the other side of the restaurant. Two men took out their wands and began to say words that Ron had never heard before, but as he watched them fight, their faces blurred together. From his brothers' whispered conversation, Ron had determined that one of these men was on the other side. Which one was it, though?
Ron had never fully understood what made the two sides so different, but it became a bit easier for him to guess when he came to Hogwarts. It had been explained to him that the green side was the wrong side, and that the red side needed to fight against them. The first time Ron had hit someone who wasn't in his immediate family, it had been someone from the green side. Ultimately, though, Ron only did this because it was expected of him. He could not see the striking difference between the sides, and that always made him pause for a bit too long before he acted. Ron wanted to be like Harry, who could so easily identify the good from the bad and was actually able to do something about it. But he could never bring himself to participate in anything more than schoolyard fights, because whenever Ron fought for too long, the faces blurred together again. Which side? He couldn't tell the difference, and that would make him choke. He always choked.
"Castle to F4." Ron's white castle destroyed Harry's black pawn, and it made him smile.
AN: I'd originally started this about Neville, but a Ron-shaped plot bunny bit me in the ankle halfway through. I've got a few more one-shots coming about chess and peoples' takes on it, but I guess it's fairly logical to start with Ron first, anyway.
This chapter is just the revised version of the chapter because I reread it and found a few sentences I didn't like anymore. Thank you to everone who already took the time to review. It made me so happy to wake up to your reviews this morning, and I'm very grateful, especially to those of you who offered some advice.
If you have any constructive critism or comments in general, a review is always appreciated. Thank you for reading :).