Sirius Black demanded his black knight to move forwards two spaces and left one.
Sitting across from him, James Potter groaned, and ran his right hand through his already messed-up black hair. Sirius grinned as he watched his knight draw its blade from its sheath, and smash James's white queen to pieces. The hand James had been running through his hair slowly disappeared, along with his wrist.
"Walked right into that one, mate," Sirius smirked. "You should know by now, think before you move. You are playing a champ, after all."
James was about to sneer back, but a familiar voice calling his name cut him off. "In here," James called out, as a boy with sandy brown hair walked through the doorway and into the room, holding two pieces of paper in one hand, the other tucked deeply into his pocket.
"Moony?" James cocked his head to the side. "What's up? Why you here?"
"Is it against the law for the boy to visit?" Sirius scolded.
"Well, it's my house," James retorted. "I should have a right to know."
Remus disregarded their conversation, and went to sit down in a shabby old recliner. He
was too busy staring at his friends - or rather, what remained of them. From the waist
down, the messy-haired boy had vanished, along with a good portion of his right arm and
his neck. Remus then looked at Sirius, who was faring no better, with his left leg,
stomach, and left hand missing.
"Care to give me an explanation?" Remus asked, almost worriedly.
Sirius sprawled out on the floor, looking up at Remus. "Sure you want to hear one"
Sirius queried in return, tucking his hands beneath his head as a pillow.
"I'm almost certain I don't, but go on: humor me."
"Okay," Sirius said, "there once was this leprechaun, and he walked into a bar, and said to the bar tender, 'Do you have any greeeen beeeer?'"
James and Remus groaned, having heard this joke next to a thousand times. The former hit Sirius in the back of the head, or what he could reach of it. "Actually, Moony," James said, glaring harshly at Sirius, who casually twiddled his thumbs and hummed a childish tune, "Padfoot got bored, so we decided to play chess, but he was still bored, so he decided to bewitch the pieces to vanish their player whenever they're destroyed."
"All right," Remus ventured. "Now, how long does it take for the effect to wear off?"
James and Sirius looked at each other for a moment, considering, before they burst out laughing. "Actually, Moony," Sirius beamed as the laughter subsided, "we hadn't thought of that. Guess we'll have to wait to find out!"
Remus looked thunderstruck. "Do you mean to tell me you could be invisible until the start of the term?"
"That'd be ruddy brilliant!" Sirius cried, clapping his hands together and rubbing them briskly.
"Hope it lasts till end of term, rather," James added. "Think of all the pranks we could pull without being seen! And all the detentions we'd miss out of - until they found it was us, that is."
The two burst into laughter again. "Oi vey," Remus sighed, holding his head in his hands and shaking it slightly. "But what did I expect? I was asking the Kings of Mayhem if they had thought before they had acted. I should have seen it coming."