House: Hufflepuff

Class: Transfiguration

Standard

Prompts: [Action] Teaching a Muggle game to a wizard; [Character] Dean Thomas

Word Count: 1,103

Don't Touch My Fish

Neville walks into the Gryffindor Common Room after an interesting lesson with Professor Sprout. He looks around the room to see the upperclassmen working on their homework. He overhears two seventh years talk about their Transfiguration assignment. Sighing, Neville heads up to the first year's boys dorm. As he approaches the door, he can hear two voices coming from the room.

"Alright, you got a seven?"

"Nope! Go fish, Dean."

"Aww man! I thought you had it."

Neville looks into the room and sees Dean and Seamus sitting in the middle of the room. They are both holding around seven playing cards in their hands, with the rest in a pile between them. Seamus glances up as he spots Neville standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Neville! Glad to see you made it back from class," Seamus calls out.

"Uh...yeah. So, what are you guys playing?"

"Go Fish! You want to join?" Dean asks him.

"Go...Fish? What kind of name is that?"

"Oh, right! You don't know the game," Dean says. "Go Fish is a Muggle card game. Each player gets seven cards to begin with. You then take turns asking one player if they have a certain card. If they have it, they give it to you and you get to ask again. If not, they say 'go fish' and you pick up a card from the pile. If you get what you're looking for, you pick up another card. After you pick up, it's the next person's turn."

"Ok. What's the goal of the game?" Neville asks as he walks over to them.

"The goal is to have the most amount of pairs. Well, you can either go for pairs or all four. We're doing all four," Seamus explains.

"Pairs? All four? What's the difference?"

"With pairs, you're only trying to get two of the same card. And with all four, you're trying to get all of the same cards," Dean tells him.

"Oh. Can I join?" Neville asks as he sits down.

"How about you watch a round? You can ask questions and we'll answer them. It's also easier to learn by watching what the others are doing," Seamus suggests.

"Ok. Sounds good," Neville says.

"Alright! It's my turn. So, Dean, you got any aces?"

"Dang it! Here," Dean says as he tosses his ace of hearts to Seamus.

"Thank you," Seamus says as he places the ace of hearts into his hand. "So, do you have any fours?"

"Go Fish, Seamus. Anyways, do you have any twos?"

"Only one," Seamus tells Dean as he hands the card over.

Neville watches Dean and Seamus as they continue to play Go Fish.

"How long does the game usually last?" Neville asks as Dean once again picks up another card.

"It depends on the amount of players and what the goal is. With more people, the less amount of times you can pick up before the pile is gone. Plus, you'll know what they are looking for and you could get the cards from them," Dean tells Neville as he looks at him.

"So, it's harder with more people," Neville says.

"A bit, but it's more fun with more people. If you have enough people, you could pair off into teams of two," Dean says. "Do you have a three?"

"Plus, it gets boring with only two people. BS is the worst game to only have two people," Seamus says. "Go Fish."

"BS? Is that another card game?"

"Yeah. You pass the cards to everyone until they are all handed out. The person with the Ace of Spades places the card down and they go first. You want to get rid of all of your cards. To do that, you start at twos and place how many of them you have down. The next person does threes and the person after them does fours, and you continue going up until you get to the Kings. Then you go to Aces and then back to twos. You continue this pattern until there is only one person left with their cards," Seamus explains.

"Oh. How do you get rid of the cards? Do you wait until you get the number?"

"No. BS is a game for people with good poker faces. You're trying to lie your way through the game. You also don't want to lie constantly or people will catch on and that's not good."

"Oh. Are we going to play BS as well?"

"No. It's a bit complicated to teach you right now. Maybe another time," Dean tells Neville. "Go Fish is one of the easiest card games to learn. War is another easy one. Maybe we can teach you that one later."

"Alright. Sounds good," Neville says.

"Cool. So, Dean, you got any eights?"

"Darn! I got three of them," Dean says as he hands them over.

"Thank you," Seamus says as he places the four eights down in front of him.

"Why did you place the cards in front of you?" Neville asks Seamus as he picks up a card.

"Once you reach the goal, you place them in front of you so that the others know how many you have completed."

"Oh. That makes sense," Neville says as the game continues.

It takes them a few more minutes until all of the cards are placed in front of either Dean or Seamus. They count up their pairs to see who has one.

"I got 6 pairs," Dean says proudly.

"I'm sorry to say, but you're one short," Seamus tells him.

"Aw man! I thought I had you this time."

"Can I play a round with you guys? I think I understand how to play it. Plus you guys can correct me if I get something wrong," Nevile says as he looks at them.

"Sure! Alright, I'll shuffle the cards," Seamus says as he gathers all of the cards together. "My mom taught me how to shuffle over the summer. I've gotten pretty good at doing it."

Once the cards are shuffled, Seamus passes them out to the three of them. He places the rest of the cards in the middle as they look at what they have.

"Alright, we'll do all four again. Neville, do you want to start?" Dean asks him.

"Oh um...sure. So, Dean, do you have any fives?"

"Nope. Go Fish."

And so the three boys spent the rest of the afternoon lazily playing cards in the Gryffindor dormitories.