Chapter 17: The Weasel and the Ferret

Sunday arrived with Ron attempting to drag Harry out of bed much earlier than he would have liked.

"Ron! Bugger off, I'm trying to sleep!"

"No way, Harry. Tonight's my chess match with the Ferret, I need you to help me prepare!"

"Prepare yourself by going and sticking your head in the lake then, why don't you?" grumbled Harry.

"Really? You think it would help?"

Harry removed his head from underneath his pillow and stared groggily at Ron. "You're serious about this, aren't you?"

"You bet, mate! There's no way I'm going to let the Ferret beat me!"

Harry groaned. "All right, all right! Go get Ginny and Hermione then, too, I'm not suffering alone in this."

"Excellent!" cried Ron. "Now, get dressed so I can beat the trousers off you!"

"Sure mate, whatever you say."

"Hurry up! There's only twelve more hours 'til the match!"

"I'll be right down," Harry assured him as he sat up in bed.

Ron ran down the dormitory stairs and the sleep-tousled Harry leaned forward, checking to make sure he had really gone.

"Excellent," Harry sighed, as he once again drew the curtains closed around his four-poster. "Getting Ginny out of bed should take him hours, which means I can go back to sleep! Impervious!"

Imperturbable charm set, Harry nestled back under his blankets and began snoring again almost immediately.

When he did arrive in the common room, it was only to find that Ginny and Hermione were both snoring on the couch while Ron played himself at chess at a deserted table in the corner.

"Took you long enough!" the redhead scolded. "I've beaten myself three times already!"

Harry yawned, "Good on you, mate," and proceeded to snuggle himself on the couch in between his best friend and his new fiancé.

Six o'clock arrived with Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dean, Seamus, Neville, Parvati, Lavendar and each sixth year's respective first year mentee (minus Luke and Maddelein) trooping their way to the Room of Requirement. Ginny had left ahead to get Luna from the Ravenclaw Common Room and met them just as they arrived.

"Ready, big brother?" she asked.

"Definitely," said Ron, with an air of confidence he normally didn't portray. "I've been waiting six years to thrash the Ferret, and now I can do it without getting detention—Ah! Draco! How nice of you to arrive! Are you sure you're ready to be embarrassed by a little Gryffindor?"

Draco merely smiled at Ron, and acknowledged his entourage behind him. "I don't know about embarrassed, Weasel, but surely my supporters will gladly wipe you off the floor after I've finished with you."

Sure enough, Draco had brought his own friends, eagerly awaiting the match as much as their Gryffindor counterparts. Crabbe, Goyle, Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Millicent Bulstrode and all their respective mentees had come along for what was turning out to be a long-awaited showdown. Luke Vitiosus arrived with the Slytherin group, but Harry noticed that Hermione's mentee, Maddelein Roseworth, was with him and they were standing quite close together. He raised an eyebrow at Luke, who simply smirked in response, a gleam in his eye- Maddelein was the prettiest first year by far, and they had gotten on quite well together in their study sessions. Harry winked at him as he paced in front of the door to the Room of Requirement.

"We need a place for a chess match where all spectators will be comfortable," he thought, and repeated it to himself three times as he walked. A door appeared and Harry opened it, standing aside.

"After you, Weasley," drawled Draco as he gestured Ron gracefully across the threshold.

"Don't mind if I do, Malfoy, you're too kind," he replied airily.

"You're welcome," Draco replied, waving it off as if it were nothing. "Of course, Weasley, my parents raised me with Pureblood manners. Ladies ALWAYS go first."

This earned a hearty chuckle from the Slytherin group, although Harry and Hermione couldn't help but force back a grin. Ron had walked right into that one (no pun intended). As they entered the room, Harry couldn't help but smile for real this time. He had asked, and the room had provided. The center floor was lowered into almost a pit, suitable for the spectators to watch from the opening above, but without having to lean uncomfortably over any railings. There were sandwiches of all kinds, drinks (including Butterbeer) and numerous sweets (danish, scones and wizard candy alike). A vast number of reclining chairs, poufs, beanbags and stools had arranged themselves around the viewing deck all near tables of matching various heights. The best part about it- the color was entirely neutral. People from every house had their colors prominent enough in the room so that none felt overwhelmed.

Harry and Hermione found themselves two reclining chairs next to each other (hunter green and red wine, respectively), with Ginny and Luna sitting not far away on poufs of cream and polka-dotted. Hermione smiled approvingly at Luke when he pulled out a stool at a high table for Maddelein, and Harry grinned with her when they invited Ron and Draco's mentees, Max Curalium and Aurelia Formosus, to join them.

"Oh Harry," gushed Hermione as she leaned over the small end table between their two recliners, "this is wonderful! Look at all the inter-house mingling going on!"

Harry grinned and winked down the row to Ginny who was having her left hand closely inspected by Luna. He was sure the somewhat eccentric (but loveable) Ravenclaw was probably checking to make sure the ring wasn't infested with some rare dry-skin-causing animal.

"Is everyone here? Comfortable?" called Draco. "Wonderful. Fancy a bet on the match, Weasel? "

He eyed Ron's second hand robes with an air of displeased scrutiny as the redhead blushed.

"Maybe not then, let's get the match started."

A silver gong appeared in the corner and Ruby Lauraline (Neville's mentee) reached over to give it a sharp rap with its mallet. Grinning, she sat back down on her beanbag next to Patrick O'Donovan (who had been partnered with Seamus). Brilliant flashes appeared around the room, including next to Ron and Draco at the table, and everyone's favorite beverage now sat next to them at their table.

"Excellent!" Harry head Dean and Seamus chime, as they clinked their butterbeers in the air. Harry turned to his own table to find Hermione daintily sipping a glass of white wine. In response to his arched eyebrow she smiled and said "What? I had it in France. The room must know I'm of age."

There were many laughs and trading of beverages going around the room as many of the wizard-born students were taking sips of the Muggle-borns cola, and the Muggle-born students taking sips of their Gillywater and other wizarding treats. Harry grinned back at Hermione and turned to look at what the room had determined to be his own favorite drink. He smiled to himself when he recognized that the Room of Requirement seemed to know him better than he knew himself. On his side of the table there was a tall glass of cold, half-two-percent half-whole milk and a large plate of still warm snickerdoodle cookies.

"Cookies and milk, Harry?" grinned Hermione devilishly. "How elegant of you!"

"What?" he mumbled, mouth full of cookie, "I never got to eat this when I lived at the Dursleys, but I had to watch Dudley eat it every night before bed. And they always made me drink skim milk. Whole milk was too thick, and two percent was too thin, so I like to mix them."

"I think it's cute!" said Ginny, having stopped at their table. "Bung me a cookie, love?"

"Sure, Gin. Besides, according to Wizarding law, it's all going to be half yours sooner or later anyway."

Ginny grinned. "Excellent. As long as there's cookies, I'm yours."

The match ensued, Ron pulling out all the stops. "Knight to H3!" he cried, and many cheered as Draco's bishop was brutally crushed. The night wore on, and Harry didn't know how Draco was still hanging on as Ron had nearly cleared the board of all the Slytherin's black pieces.

"Castle to E5," said Draco calmly.

Ron looked around the board, as if looking for holes in his battle plan.

"Queen to D6, Check!"

Ron was grinning madly. The match had been on for nearly two hours, but there was no chance he was going to let Draco Malfoy beat him. The spectators were all watching intensely, unless, of course, they were at Ginny and Luna's table, having been distracted by the sparkling light that kept diverting their attention. Many had begun looking at Harry and Ginny strangely, but none were speaking- they didn't want to break the concentration of Ron and Draco. At Ron's cry of 'check', full attention was turned back to the match. Draco was running out of pieces.

"Stopped playing around then, have you, Weasel?"

"What are you talking about Ferret?"

"Think you've gotten me beat, then?"

"I believe that you are the one in check, Ferret, not me," said Ron smugly.

"Well," replied Draco, just as calm as ever, "we'll just have to change that now shan't we? Pawn to D6. Now's who's in check, Weasel-bee?"

"WHAT!" cried Ron.

The space that Draco had cleared from having his pawn take Ron's queen had cleared the path for Draco's bishop to check Ron's king. Ron was frantic. He pondered the board for nearly ten full minutes before he made his move. It was all over from there in three moves.

"Checkmate."

"I don't believe it."

"Believe it."

"I JUST LOST TO A FERRET!"

Ron stood up, his chair falling behind him.

"How in the name of Merlin did you do that? You had barely any pieces left!" Ron cried, clearly distraught at having lost when he had so nearly won.

"A gentleman never tells secrets, Weasel, but… Let's just say I like luring people into a false sense of security."

"I—I—uh…"

"Now what was all that infernal sparkling going on about up there?" Draco demanded.

"Yeah!" cried Ron, looking for any sort of an out. "It was distracting!"

A giggle ensued from a corner of the room, and then Ginny Weasley walked forward.

"Sorry boys," she said. "New present."

She held her hand in front of her and both Ron and Draco's jaws dropped.

"Damn, Potter!" they cried in unison, and proceeded to gape at one another in the astonishment that they actually agreed on something.

"Blimey, Harry!" cried Ron, once his voice finally resumed working. "I knew you were getting her a ring, but I didn't know you were getting her the whole bloody mine!"

Harry reddened deeply, but was saved from making a statement by Draco stepping forward and gingerly taking Ginny's hand and raising it to his lips. Harry reddened even more, but this time it was out of anger- how dare Malfoy lay his grubby ferret hands on his fiancé!

"The Weasel seems to have summed up my initial reaction quite succinctly, minus the knowledge that Harry was looking to take a more… permanent place in the Weasley household. My my, Miss Weasley," he said softly, and he held Ginny's hand into the light so he could examine the stone- she seemed to be neither pleased, nor offended at his close proximity. Looking to Harry, Draco said plaintively, "They go well together."

Harry simply gaped at him.

"A toast, then," said Draco, raising his glass of scotch, "to Pot—ahem, Harry and Ginny. May their impending marriage be…fruitful? Well… to Harry and Ginny!"

"Hear hear!" cried Luna, raising her radish-garnished glass. Around the room glasses were raised in toast, Harry and Ginny grinned and obliged Seamus when he began chanting 'kiss kiss!' The party raged on, and Harry was quite glad—Ron was no longer sulking about losing the match.