Squibs. That's what they were called. His father reminded him of the term to which Draco never paid attention before, thinking he will never need it. Everything without a practical use was quickly erased from his memory, but as it turned out... he did find an example for a squib. How peculiar to find it at Hogwarts, of all places! He had sat in his room, contemplating the name and its meaning, along with what he had heard from Katherina on their first day. An Avery squib... He rarely heard anything worth remembering about the Avery family.

It was a rainy, dreary evening, nearly one month into their first year when Draco found himself rereading his father's brief explanations on the topic. They were nearly telegraphic:

'I am reminding you that muggles born in wizarding families are called squibs. They are the reason muggle-born wizards exist. Being too weak to carry the genes of magic, they pass them onto future generations of weaklings, until someone happens to inherit and manifest those.

As for the Avery squib, there was a rumor some time ago. Richard Stephenson Avery stated that the squib had been stillborn.'

That was Katherina's grandfather if what she was claiming was true. Draco did bring it up to Rich several times, but the prefect always pretended not to have time for this. How dare he? Such pathetic excuses!

As he was a Malfoy, Draco was enjoying the privilege of a room that was his own only. This being the case, he found that he had plenty of time and intimacy to mind his own business, even if it meant reading his father's letter a thousand times, without any interruptions or indecent eyes. In front of people, he had to be the image of perfection, cold and untouchable, an idealistic immortal, the genius in the romantic poems, the ghost from gothic novels! Here, in his solitude, he could lower his guard...

Suddenly, he slammed his hand and his father's letter onto the padding of the wide window sill which has been his rather uncomfortable resting spot for the past few hours. This was it! He was going to talk to her and demand answers backed up by evidence! Draco stood up and stormed out of his room. He went straight into the girls' corridor, except... he didn't know which room was hers! Ah, such a dumb mistake!

A door opened quietly and Draco slipped behind a decorative green curtain. Rich was sneaking out of someone's room? This was scandalous! Could it possibly be what he thought it was? He held his breath as Rich passed him by in a rush, constantly looking all around. His face was slightly red and his breathing heavy, but was that enough to prove anything?

Malfoy stepped out of his hiding spot. He had something with which he could blackmail the prefect if needed! Today was a good day, after all!

As he was looking after the prefect, Draco felt a light tap on his shoulder and jumped. Recovering himself quickly, he turned around to see Katherina chuckling with a look of victory on her face.

"What was that about? Why are you sneaking up on me?!"

"Me? Sneaking up on you? Never," she laughed, using his words on purpose. "Why are you sneaking around the girls' corridor?"

"Please! I am not sneaking around!" Draco straightened his back. He saw the girl in a green silk tank top with thin straps and black leggings, mint-colored leg warmers falling loosely towards her ankles, and black ballet flats. "What are you doing, walking around like that?"

"Practicing, of course. I also happened to have caught someone in the act, if you're interested..."

Faced with the option to find out something compromising, Draco nearly pushed the girl back into her room and then closed the door behind them. It was a shared bedroom between Katherina and three other girls, but he didn't have to guess which one was her bed. She had silk bed sheets and a marvelous selection of pillows, neatly arranged against the headboard, perfectly matching the two throw blankets which made it look straight out of a home decor magazine.

"You better start explaining yourself. Was your mother the squib the Averys tried to cover up as a stillborn?"

Katherina sighed heavily as her previously good mood seemed to evaporate. "I thought you wanted some dirt on Rich."

"That too, right after you answer me," Draco specified as he threw himself on her bed. My, these pillows really were comfortable - more so than the common room sofa!

She smirked as an idea crossed her mind. "You will have to earn that."

"How would I do that?" he asked, reaching the limit of his patience. He was about to break out in sarcasm again.

"Chess. Have you played before?"

Draco felt himself relaxing. "Wizarding chess, I expect?"

The girl took out the set from her suitcase under the bed and laid it neatly as it unfolded and each piece took its rightful place. "Of course! I'm glad to see you excited! For a moment I thought you'd cower."

"Me?" he asked with a small laugh. "You clearly don't know who I am."

"Neither do you," she replied with a grin as she sat on the opposite side of the bed. "Here's what I propose. Whenever I lose a piece, you get to ask me anything and I will answer you truthfully, and vice-versa. Also, we can't tell general facts that can be read in history books or house records."

Draco leaned on his side. "What happens when I win?"

"If you win, of course... Well, the winner names their prize."

"Right." He looked at the board intensely. "Let's begin, then. You have white, and white moves first."

Katherina moved a pawn before she got the chance to look up at him. He was smiling genuinely and it was so different from before! It was the first time she saw Draco excited about something. It was fascinating! His gray, emotionless eyes were now borrowing hints of blue and green from the general chromatic of the room, and-!

No! He moved a pawn, crushing hers, then looked up and noticed her staring at him! No, no, no, a billion times no! She took her eyes away in a split second.

"So, I get to ask you anything, right?" Draco asked, oblivious to her motives. He simply assumed that she was nervous about his first win in that game. "You said you were mourning. Who died?"

Katherina swallowed her saliva, but it felt like a fistful of nails. She took a deep breath, avoiding eye contact. "...Both of my parents. They were killed on their way to see me. I had a concert that night, I was playing the violin in the orchestra."

His eyes widened slowly. He thought of his parents instantly. What would it feel like if they...? No, that was impossible! Both his mother and his father were extremely powerful and well-versed in magic.

"So... you play the violin?"

Instead of an answer, Draco saw another pawn moving. "One question, Malfoy."

"Very well, Caesarius," he mimicked her tone. He was eager to destroy another pawn of hers, but this time, it took him several minutes and a good number of moves. "My turn again!" he exclaimed. "Tell me about your hobbies!"

She sighed. Anything was better than talking about family. "I play the piano and violin. My mother believed in preserving the values of the high-ups, whatever she meant by that. I also enjoy ancient history and languages."

Oh, but Draco knew exactly what her mother meant! "I've been put through piano lessons as well, but I never enjoyed them."

"They gave me ways in which I could pass the time."

"What do you mean by that?" the wizard asked, right as the door opened.

Both of them turned to look at Katherina's three colleagues standing in the doorway, shock written all over their faces. Elisa, Anne, and Selena were baffled to see Draco Malfoy playing chess, casually laying on his side on Katherina's bed. They didn't dare to enter their own room.

"What are you looking at?" Draco pushed himself up using his elbow. That was enough to send the three back into the corridor, mumbling apologies and slamming the door behind them.

Although grateful, Katherina didn't want to say it yet. "Do you always scare people away?"

"You should try it. It's amusing," he said with a grin, but this time Katherina had something for comparison - his smile from earlier. This grin was a mere shadow of his real smile.

That's when she managed to crush one of his pawns. "Since you asked me this first, what are your hobbies, other than scaring people in a rather convenient way?"

Draco rolled his eyes, but couldn't help feeling slightly amused. "I enjoy the precise art of potions, as well as zoology, and astronomy. I guess I could name drawing and painting as hobbies, but I rarely practice those."

"You admire Professor Snape, don't you?" she said with a smile.

Draco made a move that she hadn't anticipated and crushed her knight. "Do you, too?" It was an indirect answer, but both of them knew it will be understood.

"Well... He is a role model for excellence. I'm sure he worked insanely hard to reach this level of knowledge and skill, but I also think that something happened to him that he still hasn't conquered. You know the way people say they have their own demons to battle?"

Malfoy nodded. "I think that makes him even more amazing. His emotional strength is legendary!"

Katherina risked and crushed his defense. "If you could do anything in the world, with no regards to anything - your family, the Minister, anything! - what would you do?"

"Rid Hogwarts of muggle-borns," he grinned without any feeling again.

"Truthfully, Draco," the girl chuckled. "What would you do with your life?"

He took a moment to think about it. "Make a new and better wizarding school for pure-bloods," he laughed. He thought about taking another piece of hers, then realized that tile was well-guarded by several others. It was a trap... At the same time, she was close to threatening his king. Instead of taking another piece, Draco began to circle hers, looking to cut off her defense from her offense. Once he was pleased with the arrangement of the pieces, he began crushing hers.

"You want to be an Avery, right? Why?" he asked as the remains of her piece were moving out of the way.

She had noticed his strategy a bit late but was already thinking of a way to make a comeback. "I just want the title. It's my birthright, after all."

Draco nodded. Boring, but it made sense. He crushed another of her pieces. "If you had that title, what would you do?"

Katherina hummed softly. "I think... I would like to play until my fingers fell off, or find some way to throw myself into the passions of art and burn so bright I leave my mark in history so that people knew my name centuries after I perish. Though... that's unlikely."

Draco watched excitement radiating from her smile, a little shy, trying to hold back a display of immense energy and ambition, a swirl of determination, of pleasure derived from pain, of daydreams and hard work, and time, and effort, and money spent without a second thought.

"I think you're winning this match," she said after a long moment of silence. She felt his gray eyes studying her face while hers tried to focus on the board.

"Seems like it," Draco stated without any ill intent or arrogance. That's when he finally processed the situation and a grin spread on his face. "Do you give up?"

"For tonight, yes. It's pointless to continue when we both know the result. Well played!"

"Of course!" His ego was taking control as he enjoyed the small rush of victory. It was nothing but a friendly match, but it still fueled his pride. Gasoline remains gasoline, be it in a cup or in a barrel, after all.

Katherina gathered her knees to her chest. "Well? What do you want as your prize?"

"Let me think..." Draco looked at her and around the room. "Do you do ballet? You didn't say it was your hobby."

"I took classes ever since I can remember, but I'm not so attracted to it to call it a hobby. I mostly practice it to stay in shape."

His enthusiasm began to fade. "Then... I'll ask you something when I can make up my mind."

"You know, I hear that Hermione and Harry are going to pair up for all of their projects and assignments this year." Katherina watched the disgust taking over his mood when he heard about the two Gryffindors. "Harry is a medium, that's what I think. He's alright, but not a threat to the podium. Hermione is a typical nerd and she acts like a puppy when a professor asks anything, but she would be a serious threat to the podium."

"There are several Ravenclaws who would be a greater threat to the first place if you ask me. Hermione has no life, always with her head in a book."

"Yes, them too, but I've been in elementary school with one of the girls."

Malfoy straightened his back and found a more comfortable position on the bed. "Are you sure you're not asking that we work together so you could spend more time admiring me?"

Her patience had evaporated the second she saw his sly smile and heard him mocking her. "As if! You know what? I'm going to beat both you and Hermione! Just watch!"

"Is this another competition?" he mocked her further. "What do I get when I win?"