I do not own Harry Potter.

...

Harry didn't study for the rest of the night. Instead he let all of his unlocked memories wash through him, getting to know his mother for the first time. She was more than he had ever imagined; cheerful, optimistic, and always ready to laugh. And she had loved Harry so much. He knew, because in more than half of his new memories she told him in varying ways that she loved him. Sometimes in a soft whisper as he was going to sleep, sometimes in a cooing voice as she played with him. The number of times she had repeated that simple sentiment meant so much to Harry. He was overwhelmed with love for her in return, even though she was not there to receive it.

"I love you too, mum." He hissed over and over, not even thinking about it. Then he switched to sign.

"I love you so much, mum. You know that, right?"

He didn't know how long he sat on his bed, repeating that he loved him mum in different languages. He mouthed it, he hissed it, he signed it. He told her that he loved her, over and over and over again, hoping that wherever she was she could hear him, and know that all those times she had expressed her own love for him, Harry had felt the same way in return.

He even felt like she was there, at one point, right in front of him. She was hugging him and whispering in his ear just how much she loved him: her love was immeasurable, she said. Harry relaxed back onto his bed so that he was lying down and just let himself be enveloped in those emotions. Loving, and being loved.

He was still submerged in his memories of his mother when someone knocked on his door. Letting out a heavy breath and making sure that his eyes were now dry; he got up and opened his door.

It was Ginny.

"Harry? I thought you might be bored…I was wondering if you wanted to play chess. Ron suggested it. He wants to have a tournament."

Harry thought a minute. What he really wanted to do was to sink back into remembering his mother, but he couldn't ignore the rest of the house. It would be good for him to spend some times with the others, just having fun. He had been studying a lot lately and he had probably been neglecting to spend time with his friends.

"I'd love to, but how would I play? I can't tell my pieces where to go."" Harry signed. Ginny had progressed to the point where she could understand the more complex signs, so Harry didn't have to finger-spell.

Ginny frowned.

"I don't know. Maybe Parseltongue would work? Or I could tell your pieces what you want them to do. Why don't you come up to Fred and George''s room and we'll figure something out? That is where we were going to play. You're not allowed downstairs until the morning."

"Alright, I'm coming. Just let me grab a sweater. That room is cold." Ginny nodded and Harry dashed over to his cabinet, found his sweater from last Christmas made by Mrs. Weasley, and pulled it on. Then he rejoined Ginny outside the room.

They walked up the stairs until they reached the twins' room. Harry heard everyone talking from inside, and laughing. Ginny led the way in.

"Glad you came, Harry! We thought you'd be buried in one of your books again!" Fred said cheerfully.

"I was, but" he paused. He could tell them about his new memories, but for some strange reason he wanted to keep it a secret. "I started daydreaming."

"Harry was wondering how he could command his pieces. I was thinking that maybe Parseltongue would work?" Ginny said.

"Most chessboards are charmed to understand the most common languages, but I doubt Parseltongue is one of them." Ron informed them.

"Yeah, it's too rare. And I doubt wizards would have thought of BSL either." George agreed. Harry slumped his shoulders, disappointed.

"I'll just watch, then."

"Blimey, you will! We can charm a chess set! We'll need your help, Harry, but in half an hour or less we will have made the first Parselmouth chess set in history!" Fred declared. Harry grinned.

The twins held true to their promise. After the twins cast a few complex spells, the purposes of which Harry had no idea, Harry hissed the Parseltongue alphabet, and the chess set could understand him. It was such a novel experience for Harry – to make sound and to be understood –– that he was grinning uncontrollably right up until they started to play.

He was paired with Ginny, and they were set to play last. George and Fred had decided to team up and challenge Ron, while Hermione declined participating. But for once she wasn't studying or doing homework. She watched the game with interest, sometimes asking questions about a strategy or even making her own suggestion for a move.

That night was the first time Harry had ever seen Ron beaten at chess. Even though it was close game, George and Fred managed to beat him with just three remaining pieces.

Then Harry and Ginny took their places on either side of the chess board, while the pieces rearranged themselves for the start of a new game. Harry was white, while Ginny took black.

"Pawn to D2." Ginny ordered, starting the game.

"Knight to F4." Harry hissed, and his knight moved to the designated position. Harry was delighted. Chess was one of the things he hadn't thought he would be able to play anymore.

"The next suggested move is to move the bishop to G3." Harry's king hissed. Harry was surprised by this. He had known that the pieces would understand him, but he hadn't known that they would also be able to speak Parseltongue.

"What did your king just say, Harry?"

"He made a suggestion for my next move."

"That's not fair! You'll be able to discuss tactics openly without me understanding!" Ginny protested.

"Any advantage Harry can get, he needs. Trust me; he's not the best chess player." Ron said, smirking.

"Says the man who was just beaten by three singular pieces!" Fred taunted.

"He's actually right. I don't think I've ever won a game of chess."

"Change the record, Harry! Beat Ginny!" George encouraged.

"I can try, but I've never played against her."

"Go on then, make your move, Ginny!" Fred urged. Ginny gave Harry a challenging stare, and the game carried on.

Ginny wasn't an extraordinary player, but she was a good match for Harry. The two of them didn't gain an advantage over each other until Harry managed to take Ginny's queen, and he had only done that with the help from his chess pieces. When the queen fell Ginny deflated. Her queen was what she had been using to take all of Harry's men. Not anymore.

After that, Harry began to win, slowly taking Ginny's pieces one by one until she only had a knight, three pawns, and a bishop left in addition to her king. Harry still had a reasonable army composed of both bishops, a rook, a knight, four pawns, his queen, and the king.

He knocked Ginny's knight out, and then began to pick off her pawns that had, until then, been protected by her knight. She managed to take one of his bishops, but she now only had two pieces left.

Harry corned her bishop and took the piece. Then Ginny began to move around her king, knowing that she was already defeated. Harry drew a net around the king; positioning his rook so that the king could only stay on a single half of the board, and then his queen reduced the free area to a single quarter. Then he moved his bishop beside his queen so that their covered squares slotted side by side, reducing the safe area for Ginny's king to a little wedge of about five squares. Ginny just shook her head and continued to move her king around in the little area, knowing that she couldn't escape.

Now Harry moved his rook to block off half of the wedge. Then a pawn to cover a single square of the safe area, and he declared checkmate to his pieces and told them to relay his declaration to Ginny.

"Checkmate!" Harry's king chirped, and Ginny's king dropped his sword and raised his little hands in the air.

Harry grinned.

"Good game, Ginny." Names had to be finger-spelled in BSL, unless a person made up a sign to represent themselves.

"Yeah, good game. Nice move to catch my queen." She said. She was smiling, even though she had lost. "We''ll have to have a rematch sometime, so I can beat you."

"You can try!" He signed, grinning, and then Ginny threw a pillow at his head and he had to duck. "Missed me!""

"Now you've got to kiss me!" Fred and George completed the chant. Ginny raised her eyebrows at them.

"Well, actually you'd have to kiss Harry…" George said, trailing off.

"Yeah, if she kissed one of you two that would just be strange." Ron agreed.

"Go on, Ginny!" Fred urged, and George wolf-whistled. Ginny glared daggers at them.

"You don't have to Ginny. You can ignore them; I wasn't going to say the chant." Harry signed awkwardly.

But Ginny threw her arms around Harry's neck and before he knew what was happening, she was kissing him, and he was kissing her. He wrapped his arms around her and enjoyed having her so close, in his arms, where he could feel her warmth and her soft lips and her arms keeping him close to her.

Harry wasn't aware of much at that point, but the room had quieted. The other people in the room knew that Harry and Ginny weren't just fooling around, and that they genuinely cared for each other. Even the twins didn't tease them in the midst of their moment.

Finally, Ginny drew her head away, keeping her arms around his neck. She looked up into his eyes and smiled warmly.

"I love you, Harry Potter." She whispered, just loud enough for him to hear. Harry gulped. He would do his best.

"I love you too, Ginny." He mouthed, hoping she knew what he was saying. Her smile grew wider.

Harry heard someone clear his throat, and he remembered that he was not alone with Ginny. Ginny apparently realized the same thing. They let go of each other and turned to face the others, both of them blushing furiously.

I just kissed Ginny in front of three of her brothers! I'm going to be dead before I'm even seventeen! Harry thought.

"Nice kiss, you two." Fred joked, trying to cover up his surprise.

"Yeah, I rate it at a nine out of ten!" George agreed. Hermione was shooting furtive glances at Ron, who just looked uncomfortable with the situation and didn't notice.

"Happy seventeenth birthday, Harry." Ginny said, and pointed to the twins' wall clock. It read exactly midnight.

Harry thought that it was the best way to turn seventeen that he could ever have possibly imagined.