"Don't be silly, there are six of us you know." replied Hermione icily. Lavender and Krum looked a little confused.
"Oh Harry and I don't mind not playing." said Ginny. "We'll just watch. You could play doubles."
Harry whispered to her. "This isn't tennis."
She frowned. "What's tennis?"
"It's a game where people hit the ball over a net and-"
"Well, obviously it's not tennis Harry, I may look like a complete imbecile, but I'm sure if you look closely you may find a speck of intelligence somewhere...oh look, there it is, on my nose." She brushed an invisible piece of dirt off her nose and grinned. "Why would they be playing tennis?"
Harry realised his sarcasm must not have come into play. He tried to rectify his mistake by feigning ignorance (although we all know he wasn't pretending, Harry was a bit dim-witted at times and really didn't have a clue what was going on). "But you can't play doubles in chess."
"Don't tell me you've never played a doubles chess game." said Ron. "You have four sets of pieces, you know, two black, two white and-"
"Well I've never played it." retorted Hermione.
"We can't play singles." said Ron.
"Oh, I don't mind sitting out." said Lavender, waving her hand in a gesture that would have been perfectly gracious had they not been able to detect a poisonous edge to her voice, no doubt directed at Hermione. "Actually I wanted to talk to Harry about little Teddy Lupin."
This piece of information shoved everything else out of his mind. "What?"
"My team and I have been thinking, you know, what with him having werewolf father, witch mother. He would be the perfect example to show that werewolves can-" she shot a look at Ron. "breed effectively."
Harry was wholly embarrassed as he was now being dragged into the fight. "Oh, well, um..."
"I'll sit out as well." said Hermione. "Viktor, I'm sure you will be a more than adequate match for dear Ronald."
"Vell, okay." said Krum, happy to oblige if it pleased Hermione.
Ron's ears turned red. "Fine. I'll get my set out."
Beside Harry, Ginny squirmed happily. "I should have bought popcorn when we were out." she said. "This is better than the movies." Ginny had been recently introduced to the joys of cinema by Harry, and had been quite obsessed with it since.
Ron set out the pieces. There was one missing. His king's rook.
"My rook isn't here." he said.
"It will be somewhere in the kitchen Ronald, from you tipping the board over yesterday."
"Right." said Ron taking out his wand. "Right. Accio rook!"
The little black piece came flying from underneath the oven, flew straight past Ron and into Krum's face. It was unfortunate, perhaps, that it was this particular piece. The aggressive rook did what it did best and bit him on the nose. Krum let out a bloodcurdling scream as the little piece had managed to break it. Blood went everywhere. Krum whipped out his wand and pointed it at Ron.
"You try to kill me!" he shouted.
"No." said Ron, realising that Krum was a lot bigger than him. "No, I just-"
Harry had seen Krum perform Unforgivable Curses and took out his own wand "Stupefy!" he cried. Krum fell back.
"Pertrificus Totalus. Now what just happened was an accident." said Ginny as if explaining to a young child. "There's no need to get upset about it."
"Oh oh!" said Lavender. "We did anger management classes! I love this!" She jumped up and crouched by Krum. "Now I know you must have a lot of feelings at the moment but-" There was a breakthrough. Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron.
"Shall we leave you to it then Lavender?" she asked.
"Oh yes please! This'll be great training! Now, Viktor let's start at the beginning..."
Ginny indicated for the four of them to move into the kitchen. They did so. Hermione turned on Ron.
"Ron, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have invited Viktor!" she said. He smiled sheepishly.
"That's alright. I shouldn't have lost my temper yesterday during that chess game."
"Why did you actually?" she asked cocking her head to one side. He gave the same smile.
"I'll tell you some other time."
"Aw." whispered Ginny to Harry. "I was expecting a little more action."
Harry punched her arm. "Don't say that. There'll be plenty more to look forward to. And next time, we will have popcorn."