Chapter 11: My First Game of Chess
Now that I had friends, everything at Hogwarts started to change. Instead of eating alone and reading at breakfast, I sat with Harry and Ron and talk. As it turns out, there are a lot of topics of conversation out there that don't have anything to do with school, and some of them are actually interesting.
In classes, Harry, Ron and I argued about where to sit. I insisted on sitting in the front row, but they were prone to sitting in the back. In the end, we compromised by sitting in the middle of the room. The truth was, I could learn the same sitting anywhere in the room, but I was hoping that I might persuade Harry and Ron to pay more attention in class, and the closer to the teacher they were sitting, the more likely that was to happen. Though I suspected that my efforts would be wasted in history of magic. Professor Binns' class was considered by just about everybody besides me to be for napping.
In the afternoons, the three of us would do our homework together, either in the library or in the common room. As it turned out, Harry and Ron were both major procrastinators when it came to their schoolwork, but I intended to put a stop to that. And after the first few days of dancing around the topic, the boys finally asked me to proofread one of their essays, and now I did it on a regular basis. I was hoping that over time, looking at my edits and rewrites would help the boys to learn what to do and what not to do, and improve their homework skills.
Harry was also on the Quidditch team, which meant that he had practices three times a week. For some reason, Ron enjoyed going down to the Quidditch pitch to watch, which was perfectly fine with me. Going from no friends to constant friends so quickly was weird for me, and it gave me some time to be on my own and just read. Being alone wasn't so lonely when you have friends to hang out with later.
And in the evenings, the boys and I would hang out in the common room, chatting or playing exploding snap or gobstones, or some other game. Neville joined us occasionally, but usually it was just the three of us. I'd sometimes catch Lavender and Parvati, or Lily and Sally-Anne glaring daggers at me from across the room, and I couldn't help but smile. I hadn't become friends with Harry and Ron for the popularity, but it certainly had helped. I knew that the other girls were jealous of me, and from the way they'd been treating me since the start of term, I was happy letting them be.
One day, the three of us were sitting in the common room when Ron pulled out his chess set.
"Have a game with me, Harry?" he asked keenly.
"Nah," Harry shook his head. "I always lose anyway."
"And if you don't practice, you'll never get better," Ron pointed out.
"I'll play," I volunteered. Ever since the first time I'd seen Harry and Ron playing chess, I'd wanted to give it a try. The last time I'd asked, Ron had rejected me, but we were friends now.
"You ever play before?" Ron asked, turning to face me.
I shook my head. "No, but I'm sure I'll pick it up quickly," I assured him. "I'm very logical."
"You need more than logic to win at chess," Ron warned me. "You also need strategy."
"Just get ready to lose," I said confidently.
"I don't lose," Ron returned, equally as confident.
"We'll see about that," I declared.
I asked Harry to borrow his chess set, since I didn't have a set of my own. As it turned out, the set Harry was using was Seamus Finnigan's, as he also didn't have his own set, but I figured Seamus wouldn't mind me borrowing his men for an evening. If it turned out I enjoyed the game, I'd buy my own set over Christmas.
I asked Ron to go over the rules briefly before we started. It sounded simple enough. All I had to do was corner Ron's king before he cornered mine, and I would win.
"What say you we put a little wager on this," Ron suggested as I pondered my first move.
"Alright," I agreed readily. "Like what?"
"If I win… you have to do all my potions homework for a month," Ron said.
"Ron, you're never going to learn if you don't do your own homework," I said strictly. "How about I just revise your potions homework?"
"You already revise my potions homework," Ron pointed out. "You revise all my homework."
"Good point," I frowned. "Fine, if you win, I'll do your potions homework for a month." It didn't matter anyway, because he wasn't going to win. "And if I win?"
"What do you want?" Ron asked.
I thought about it for a moment. What did I want? I certainly didn't want Ron to do any of my homework. He wouldn't do it right, and I'd have to redo it. And now that I had Harry and Ron as friends, my life was pretty great. I glanced around the room and noticed Parvati and Lavender glaring at me again, and I had an idea.
"If I win, you have to kiss me," I challenged him.
"Eww! Gross!" Ron cried, aghast. "Why would you want that?"
"Just on the cheek," I said, rolling my eyes. Boys were so silly. At eleven, Ron thought the idea of kissing a girl was disgusting, but by thirteen or fourteen, it would be all he could think about. "It would make Lavender and Parvati so jealous."
"Fine," Ron agreed. "On the cheek. And it's not like you're going to win anyway."
"We'll see about that," I said, squaring my shoulders. "Pawn to D3."
The game did not last long. Within ten minutes, Ron had checkmate, and I had twice as much potions homework.
"I don't understand," I muttered to myself, staring at the board. I'd had a plan. And Ron's men had been all over the place. But somehow at the last minute, he'd cornered me. "How did I lose?"
"Well it was your first game," Harry pointed out. "And Ron's been playing for years."
"But it was a game of logic," I insisted. "That's my specialty."
"I guess I'm not as dumb as you thought I was," Ron said proudly.
"I never said you were dumb," I frowned.
"No," Ron agreed. "But I'm sure you've thought it. Don't worry, I'll take the next month of potions assignments as an apology."
"Let's go again," I insisted, the chessmen immediately setting up for another game at my words. "I was just warming up. I know what I'm doing now."
"You really want to do this to yourself again?" Ron demanded.
I nodded. "Herbology homework this time?" I asked.
"Make it history of magic," Ron declared.
We played, and again I lost. We played a third time, and I lost again. Ron asked if I wanted to play a fourth time, but I was already doing all his potions, history of magic, and transfiguration homework for the next month and didn't feel like adding charms to the list.
I was determined to beat him though. I didn't like losing, especially to Ron and especially at chess. Ron thought the whole thing was hilarious, but I was not amused. I determined that over the Christmas holidays, I would go to the nearby muggle library and check out a book on chess strategy. When I returned in January, I would be ready to wipe the floor with Ron and his chess set.
Over the next few weeks, things started to get strange. First Harry overheard Snape talking about trying to get past the three-headed dog on the third floor. Then at Harry's first Quidditch game, Snape jinxed Harry's broom and tried to make him fall to his death – or at least serious injury. Then after the game, we found out that the dog belong to Hagrid, was named Fluffy, and was guarding something that had to do with a Nicolas Flamel.
Something was definitely going on, and I was determined to figure out what it was. And the best place to solve a mystery was the library.
I convinced Harry and Ron to join me, though they were significantly less help than I'd hoped. They spent most of their time spit balling ideas back and forth as to what Snape could be up to instead of focusing on who Nicolas Flamel was.
"You're not going to figure anything out like that," I insisted one day. We were all in the library. I was skimming through a book about great witches and wizards of the last century, while Harry and Ron debated whether Snape was in cahoots with any of the other Professors.
"Well he's definitely not working with Professor McGonagall," Ron decided. "She's way too uptight when it comes to following the rules."
"Uptight is not a bad thing," I threw in, but neither boy was listening to me.
"And Quirrell can't be involved, he's way to nervous," Harry added.
"May I remind you that this discussion is getting us nowhere!" I cried. "Go up to a shelf, pick out a book, and start looking for someone named Flamel. He's got something to do with all of this, and once we know what that is, maybe we'll know what Snape's up to."
With a sigh, Harry and Ron did as I told them and went looking for books. Ron grabbed a book about plants that grow in arid environments, and Harry grabbed a book about kneazle breeding, and while neither book was a likely candidate for what we were looking for, I was just glad they'd moved on to a more productive activity.
All too soon, the Christmas holidays arrived. I would be going home for the two-week break, while Harry and Ron would be remaining at Hogwarts. I made them promise to keep searching the library for any mention of Nicolas Flamel, while I promised them, I would use my muggle resources to see if he had any connection to the muggle world. I'd ask my parents if they knew of him, and I'd see if there was any reference to him in the muggle library near my house.
It was my hope that when I returned in January, we would have some answers, because being unable to solve this puzzle was starting to drive me mad.
"Have a good holiday," Harry wished me goodbye that Saturday morning as I prepared to leave for the Hogwarts Express with most of the school.
"You too," I returned. "I'll see you both when term resumes."
"It's too bad you're not staying at Hogwarts with us," Ron said.
"Really?" I asked. Having friends was so new to me, I'd never had someone feel sad that I wasn't going to be around.
"Well yeah," Ron muttered, looking a little embarrassed at himself. "Because now Harry and I have to do all our homework ourselves."
I laughed and smiled, because I knew that Ron was only saying that to cover up the fact that he was actually going to miss me. Although I supposed the homework thing was partially true too.
"You just got a whole month off doing half your homework," I reminded him. "It's time you start doing it again, or you're going to fall way behind."
With that said, it was time to head down to Hogsmeade. I said my final goodbyes to the boys and fell in line with the rest of the students as we checked out of the school with Mr. Filch. Though I looked forward to spending the holiday with my parents, I would miss Harry and Ron while I was away, and for once, I had friends to look forward to upon my return.