Thank you to the beta of this chapter- songofstars

Chapter Thirty Five – Tricky Games

Severus inwardly smirked as he allowed Harry to beat him for the fifth time at wizard chess, passing over the three chocolate frogs that he bet the child. During the staff meeting, in which he paid little to no attention to, since he was thinking up ways on how he could get the child to open up more. He thought up the idea of allowing Harry to beat him at wizard chess, a way Lily used to get him to open up back when he was in school. He could still remember the hours they would spend together at the back of the library playing chess, coughing and sneezing due to the mountain of dust that coated the old books that no one checked out in years.

Severus could still remember the words she spoke to him. "When someone is winning, they put down their guard, they don't even realize it's down." How right she was. In the last two hours that they been playing chess, Severus was able to get Harry to open up about events that happened at the Weasley's, such as the angry outburst he had that resulted in him being placed on the calming potion. He was also able to get Harry to talk about the visit he had with Ron and Hermione while Severus was at his staff meeting.

"It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Hermione mostly talked about what's happening in classes until Ron changed the subject to Quidditch. After we talked about...other stuff, " Harry mumbled. Severus suspected that the other stuff had something to do with the little club Harry and his friend started up but that question was for another chess game.

Severus watched as Harry opened up one of the chocolate frogs and did what Severus could only describe as a painless death, if chocolate frogs could feel pain that is. Harry wrapped his thumb and two fingers around the frog neck and snapped it in one quick motion to deactivate the charm on the delicious treat.

Severus could never get behind eating chocolate frogs, not since the nightmare he had as a little boy, the dream was so real. He was sitting in the family room during Christmas day, opening one of the chocolate frogs he got from his mother. It was normal at first but once he took a big bite out of it, it turned into a real frog with blood pooling out of the bite mark. After that, Severus could never bring himself to eat the treat. Every time he saw a chocolate frog, the nightmare replayed itself in his head, watching as blood pooled from the bite mark and into his hands as the frog twitched in his hold.

"Who did you get?" Severus asked, watching Harry pull the card out from the packaging.

"Artemisia Lufkin. I don't have her yet," Harry commented as he flipped the card over and read the back. "In 1798 Artemisia Lufkin was the first witch to become Minister for Magic."

"Quite an accomplishment in her time," Severus commented before setting the chessboard back up for another game.

Harry smiled a little as he set the card aside before digging though the box of every flavour beans that he won during the second chess match until he found a pastel yellow one and handed it over to Hedwig who had perched herself on the edge of the table.

"Harry, I don't want to tell you again. Stop feeding your owl flavour Beans!" Severus grumbled with an eye roll.

"She likes the earwax flavored ones," Harry explained as he rubbed his finger under Hedwig's chin that earned himself a small purr from the bird.

"I don't care if she likes them! Stop giving them to her. Flavour Beans aren't meant for owls!" Severus said through gritted teeth, watching as Harry held up both of his hands, showing that he surrendered to the conversation before closing the Flavour Beans box and pushing it aside with his chocolate frog card.

"She's going to get cranky if she doesn't get her treats," Harry commented.

"Then get her some owl treats," Severus replied as he set the last piece up on the chessboard. "How about we up the streaks? Everything in?" Severus asked as he pushed the rest of the sweets forwards that he got from his office from years of confiscating sweets from his students, mostly from the Weasley twins. He debated whether or not he should offer them up to Harry, Merlin only knew what the Weasley's did to them, always doing some kind of experiment that caused some kind of explosion.

Harry snorted as he pushed everything forwards that he won so far. "Alright, everything in. I even let you play white this time," Harry said as he swapped the chessboard around.

Severus had to contain his smile as he picked up the white Pawn that was on space E2 and moved it up two spaces. "I wanted to talk to you about tomorrow, about the Mind Healer that's coming?" Severus mentioned, earning himself a loud moan from Harry.

"Harry, you agreed to the deal that if you were coming back to Hogwarts then you will see a Mind Healer. That deal hasn't changed."

"I don't want some stranger running around in my memories. It's my head and I don't want anyone else in it!" Harry said as he moved his Knight from B8 to C6.

Severus did the same thing only on the opposite side, moving his Knight from G1 to F3. "There will be no...running around. The Healer is only coming to talk to you. He won't be entering your mind, not without your permission," Severus assured.

Harry frowned as he moved his other Knight out to F6. "What do I even talk about?"

"You can talk about anything you want. You can talk about what happened with Lockhart or your suicide attempt or you can talk about you future plans," Severus said bluntly as he took his Knight again and moved it so it was sitting across from Harry's on space G5 "Do you still want to become a Healer?" Severus questioned.

Harry chewed on his bottom lip a little, taking a moment before moving his Knight from C6 to D4, right beside Severus's Pawn. "Perhaps," Harry mumbled.

"I did talk to Poppy about you taking the apprenticeship program. She said that she would love to have you. Perhaps when you are feeling better, we can talk more about it? Get you into the Hospital Wing?" Severus proposed as he took his Bishop and moved it on space C4, right next to Harry's Knight.

Harry paused for a moment before giving a small nod in agreement. "I would like that," Harry said before moving one of his Pawns out to B5 in hopes his Professor would be stupid enough to take the bait he just offered out to him.

Severus nodded before allowing a smile to show across his face, moving his Bishop all the way up to F7, taking Harry's Pawn and placing the child in checkmate.

"Checkmate," Severus called out, reaching over and taking his sweets back. "I'll be nice and let you keep Artemisia Lufkin since you don't have her yet," Severus said, unable to contain his smile.

"What? No...that's impossible!" Harry gasped, not understanding how he just lost. In the last two hours Severus had proven himself to be an awful chess player and yet he was able to beat Harry in just five moves.

"Perhaps next time you won't let yourself get so cocky," Severus said as he allowed a small chuckle to escape.

"You cheated!" Harry excused.

"I did not. I played the game fairly, all I did was make you believe that I was bad at the game," Severus said with a smirk before standing up from his place on the couch. "Supper is in an hour. You can work on some of your school work your friends brought over until then," Severus said as he made his way to the kitchen.

Harry yelled out in frustration as he watched the chess pieces put themselves back together again. Next time, he won't be played a fool; next time, he would be ready for his Professor tricks; next time, he will win.