Chapter 7: Blackburne Shilling Trap

19 November 1991

Harry woke up early in the morning and practiced his transfiguration. He decided not to let the debacle with Quirrell bother him. Besides, in the worst-case scenario, Snape and the other Slytherin students would have his back. Harry would surely expect them to show empathy and sympathy, given the massive respect a vast amount of them had for him.

Harry ate his breakfast with Draco and Pansy, like he usually did. When they were all walking to transfiguration, Harry realized he had taken a wrong turn and was separated from the rest of his classmates.

Where the hell am I? Harry thought. Then he realized he was on the third floor, near the library.

Harry decided to walk down a flight of steps right across from the Charms classroom. Maybe he would somehow…

"Levicorpus!", a voice suddenly shouted.

Harry suddenly found himself hanging in the air. He turned his head to see who had cast the spell. He groaned when he saw who the casters were.

The Weasley twins, Harry thought with disgust.

"Potter, it seems like there is no one to help you", Fred Weasley said mockingly.

"Put me down right now!", Harry shouted in anger.

"Yeah, don't think so", George sneered.

"Screw you both!"

"Watch your tongue, Potter", Fred said in a warning tone of voice. He then pulled a six-inch knife from his pocket. "Or I just might cut it off."

"Put him down right now, you degenerates!", an angry voice shouted.

Fred and George turned to see who had said this. It was Gaius Avery. Avery was pointing his wand at the twins.

"We're just having some fun with Potter, Avery", Fred said, smirking.

Avery approached the three of them. He definitely was not amused.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for harassing another student. Another ten points from Gryffindor for carrying a weapon on school property", Avery said as he confiscated the knife.

"Sod you, Avery!", George yelled in anger.

"Fifteen extra points from Gryffindor for being disrespectful to a prefect. You're lucky I'm not reporting you to McGonagall", Avery said.

The twins glared at Harry and Avery before storming off.

"Liberacorpus", Avery said, pointing his wand at Harry.

Harry was back on the ground on his two feet.

"Thanks, Gaius", Harry said.

"No problem, Potter", Avery said. "What are you doing here anyway? Don't you have class?"

"Yeah", Harry said. "I was heading to Transfiguration, but I seem to have lost my way. Can you help me?"

"Sure, Potter", Avery said. "The transfiguration classroom is down that hallway. That door over there will lead you to the transfiguration courtyard. The rest is self-explanatory."

"Thank you so much."

"No problem, Potter", Avery said. "Us Slytherins must stick together. If those morons bother you again, let me know and I'll handle them."

The fifth-year prefect smirked when he said that last part.

"How did you cast that counter-jinx?", Harry asked.

"Professor Snape showed it to me during my third year", Avery said. "I knew it would come in handy someday."

Harry headed to Transfiguration with only two minutes to spare.

"Hey, Harry!", Pansy said to him, smiling. "Where have you been?"

"Had a little issue with those idiotic Weasley twins", Harry said. "But Gaius Avery helped me and took forty-five points from Gryffindor."

Draco shook his head in disgust. "Those brain-dead sociopaths. Can't they just stop doing this stupid shit to us Slytherins?"

"These are Gryffindors, Draco", Harry said. "I doubt anything we tell them can be processed through their thick skulls."

"Well, that is true", Draco acknowledged.

Professor McGonagall then walked into the classroom.

"Class, I have twenty mice", McGonagall said. "Let's see if any of you can transform them into snuffboxes."

Needless to say, most of the entire class could not accomplish this successfully. Even Theodore and Blaise were having difficulty.

But Harry and Draco were able to do it without any trouble, and there weren't any traces of whiskers on the snuffboxes.

Professor McGonagall looked briefly at the two of them before speaking.

"Excellent work, Potter and Malfoy. Ten points to Slytherin."

Harry then said, "Thank you, professor." But in his mind he was raging. Finally, you old hag! Was it that difficult to give us recognition?, he thought.

After classes were finished, Harry was sitting in the Slytherin common room with Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Theodore, and Millicent.

"If the rest of you were on the Slytherin Quidditch Team, what positions would you play?", Harry asked.

"Crabbe and I would probably make decent beaters", Goyle said.

"I would be a chaser", Millicent said.

"I would be the keeper", Theodore said.

"You know, Theodore, if you want to be the keeper in sixth year you might want to get tips from Miles Bletchley", Draco said. "Speaking of Bletchley, here he comes right now."

Bletchley had walked into the common room, apparently laughing with Graham Montague and Linus Urquhart.

"I'm going to work on my homework", Urquhart said.

"Yeah, me too", Montague said. "That old bat McGonagall's been hard on me lately."

Bletchley approached the six first-years.

"Hey, Bletchley, want to play a game of Wizard's Chess?", Harry asked.

"Sure, Potter", Bletchley said.

Harry had the white pieces and Bletchley had the black pieces.

"Pawn to e4", Harry said. The white pawn on e2 moved to e4.

"Pawn to e5", Bletchley said. The black pawn on e7 moved to e5.

"Knight to f3", Harry said. The white knight on g1 moved to f3.

"Knight to c6", Bletchley said. The black knight on b8 moved to c6.

"Bishop to c4", Harry said. The white bishop on f1 moved to c4.

"Knight to d4", Bletchley said. The black knight on c6 moved to d4. This moved seemed unusual to Harry for two reasons. One reason was that the knight had moved two times in a row. Another reason was that this move left the black pawn on e5 undefended. Harry decided to capture it.

"Knight to e5", Harry said. The white knight on f3 moved to e5, stabbing the pawn on the e5 square with a sword.

"Queen to g5", Bletchley said. The black queen on d8 moved to g5. From this square, the black queen was attacking both the white knight on e5 and the white pawn on g2.

Harry decided the best plan of action would be to capture more material.

"Knight to f7", Harry said. The white knight moved from e5 to f7, smashing the black pawn that occupied the f7 square. The black king, which was on e8, couldn't capture the knight because the white kingside bishop on c4 was protecting the knight. The white knight on f7 was attacking both the black queen on g5 and the black kingside rook on h8. It seemed like Harry would be gaining an advantage.

Bletchley didn't seem worried.

"Queen to g2", the Slytherin Keeper said.

The black queen moved to the g2 square and demolished the pawn on that square with her sword. This move attacked the undefended white rook on h1.

"Rook to f1", Harry said. The white rook moved from h1 to f1.

"Queen to e4", Bletchley said.

The black queen moved from g2 to e4, capturing the white pawn on that square by cutting it into numerous pieces.

"Check", Bletchley said.

Harry decided to block the check.

"Bishop to e2", Harry said. The white bishop on c4 moved to e2.

Bletchley then said, "Knight to f3."

The black knight on d4 moved to f3. The white bishop on e2 couldn't capture it.

"Checkmate", Bletchley said.

Harry shook hands with Miles. "Good game."

Draco explained, "The trap you fell into is known as the Blackburne Shilling Trap. The purpose of the trap is to temporarily sacrifice the black e-pawn in order to cause the white player to lose more material, or as in this case, to checkmate the white player."

Draco then said, "But this trap can easily be avoided. On your fourth move, Harry, instead of capturing the e-pawn, a better move would be to castle kingside. A suitable alternative would be to capture the black knight on d4.

"Thanks, Draco", Harry said.

"Always have to keep an eye out. The more knowledge and facts of chess you attain and comprehend, the better your playing skills will be."