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Chess
Hymn to Chess
Hermione sat down on the very edge of her chair, right next to the Bloody Baron. She quickly tore off her jumper and threw it on the chair on the other side of her to save a seat for Harry. There was still ample time before the start of the match, but people were already flooding the Ravenclaw common room, entering through the Window Hole in a constant flow of chatter, good humour, and enjoyment.
"You know…" the Baron started when they had been sitting there for quite some time already.
"Shh!" Hermione interrupted, craning her neck to see whether Harry was coming already so she could invite him to sit next to her. She really didn't want to be sitting between a ghost and a Slytherin, for example. But Harry was nowhere to be seen.
Minutes flared past and Hermione was still fidgeting on her chair, trying to divide her attention between the still continuous flow of students now occupying almost all the chairs in the common room, the current staring match between the Chess Champions, and the silent strained argument of words-not-said between Snape and McGonagall just in front of her.
"You know, I think…" the Baron said, but Hermione silenced him again with an impatient wave of her hand.
"No, you can't sit here, it's taken," she said, choosing instead to turn towards the second year Hufflepuff girl whom Ron had beaten in his quarter final match.
The girl stomped away, throwing angry glances at Hermione for her rash words, and tearing off the red-and-gold rosette she had had in her hair.
But Hermione didn't notice that. Her attention was turned towards the Champions now. Draco was sitting back in his chair, seemingly relaxed, but there was a glint of anxiety in his eyes, something which Hermione had often seen during the war, and what even now had almost made her shout out to her boyfriend to be careful. Draco's chessmen, too, looked peaceful, standing on their squares in two straight rows, the King and Queen engaged in something that looked a lot like playing chess without a board.
Ron, on the other hand, looked a complete opposite to his rival. His ears had taken on the same colour as his hair, he was bent low on the table, bowing over the board; every now and then he looked at his watch. His hands never stopped — he needed to change the position of his quill and notebook for about three times a minute. His chair was always either too far away from the table or too close. His glass of water was always positioned just so that it reflected light into his eyes.
And his chessmen, too, were all but peaceful. They were stamping in their squares, sending nervous glances at each other and at their opponents.
But Ron's eyes, contrary to Draco's, held a look of defiance and confidence. Even though to every other person in the room it might have looked as if Draco was winning the first match even before it managed to start, Hermione saw how the Slytherin was cracking under Ron's self-assured eyes.
She wasn't the only one in the room to see that, though. It was clear that both Snape and McGonagall had noticed it, because the first looked as if he had just swallowed Crookshanks, and the other, though she tried to keep the impartial face on, was beaming inside.
Moody, too, was keeping his normal eye fixed on the players, his features betraying nothing of any of his possible favouritism in the match, but still a clear understanding of the conditions of the competitors' nerves was there. His magical eye was swirling around in its socket at a speed which Hermione would have considered impossible if she hadn't seen it herself; yet it was clear to her that the old Auror was doing it just to impress and intimidate those students that hadn't seen his eye from that close before. All in all he looked to be enjoying himself completely; his legs, both the normal one and the wooden one, were hoisted up on a stool, he was leaning back in his black and white armchair, and playing around with a strange pencil-like instrument which, Hermione was certain, was there to help him referee the match.
"You know what I think?" the Bloody Baron said suddenly, stabbing his hand through Hermione to get her attention.
Hermione looked at him angrily and motioned him to be quiet.
"They might be starting any second now!" she said in an urgent whisper.
"But I just wanted to say that…" the ghost continued, but Hermione turned away from him pointedly, ignoring him.
Instead she stood up and looked towards the Window Hole, to see if Harry had come already. But there was still no sign of him. There was just a group of sixth year Gryffindor girls huddled together at the entrance, standing, talking to each other, and letting their eyes glide over the rows of seats. Hermione didn't notice Ginny amongst them, either.
Suddenly one of them stopped her wondering eyes at Hermione, and made her way to her.
"May I?" she asked, and not waiting an answer took Hermione's jumper off the chair and threw it to her.
"No, it's taken already," Hermione replied in a voice which was malicious enough to freeze the blood in the veins of a ghost.
"So they were right! You are keeping a seat for Ginny! I knew it," and she stomped off in an angry pace.
"Hermione, I—" the Baron started to say in a heavy and dark tone, then changed his mind and continued lightly, "You should let someone sit there. It's the only vacant seat left in the hall."
Hermione turned to her neighbour with a surprised face. She had never heard that kind of easy tone being used by the Horror of the Dungeons. It somehow managed to hoist the enormous load that her nerves were keeping on her up from her shoulders.
"What was it you wanted to say earlier?" she asked apologetically, feeling a bit bad for her previous rude attitude.
"Oh, just that—" but again he couldn't finish his sentence.
"HOW COULD YOU!" McGonagall shouted suddenly, shot up from her seat, tore Snape to his feet, too, and slapped him with all her might. Then she turned away pointedly, and started walking towards the now closed Window Hole, but before she could reach it she banged into the hovering wizard cam that wasn't swift enough to float away from her trajectory.
Everyone in the hall had stopped talking, the Champions had both turned their attention to McGonagall, even Moody had turned both his eyes to her.
As McGonagall wavered on her feet and fell into Snape's arms, a large bump on her forehead, Snape quickly sneered despite the gleaming red mark Minerva's hand had left on his cheek.
"Seems our Headmistress is a bit unbalanced," he remarked, helping her back to her seat. Malfoy smirked uncomfortably.
"Maybe we should get her to the Hospital Wing," Hermione suggested in a horrified squeak, having jumped up from her chair, and now bowing over the immobile form of McGonagall.
But those seemed to be the magic words to wake the Headmistress up. Her eyes popped open and she shook her head indignantly, probably to look authoritative and regain her vision at the same time. Then her gaze moved slowly from Snape to Moody to Hermione who was still hovering over her, and she understood in a moment.
"I will not let Professor Snape's impolite comments stop me from enjoying a nice game of chess," she said, sitting up straighter in her chair and shooing Hermione away.
The latter sank on her seat disappointedly, failing to catch the Headmistress' attention again to ask her whether she was feeling well.
"Want to bet?" the Baron asked her suddenly.
"Bet what?" Hermione wondered, turning to her neighbour.
"On what you think he told her. I think it had something to do with her sexuality," Bloody Baron winked, making Hermione gape at him.
"Eee… sure," she nodded, not knowing what else to say. "A galleon?" she asked silently, making sure that neither of the professors would hear.
"I don't think I have any," the Baron said, "but I suppose I could frighten someone to give you one… or then drop it to the ground whence you could pick it up."
Hermione smiled uncertainly, but then shook the thought of a bet with the most feared ghost in the castle away.
"So, what was it you wanted to say, before she banged her head?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.
"Ah, well, just that—" the Baron started.
"Thanks!" Ginny said, as she plopped down on Hermione's sweater, then pulled it out from under her and threw at Hermione. Hermione and the ghost burst out laughing.
"What?" Ginny asked. "And why haven't you taken a seat for Harry, you know he'd love to watch this. It's his best friend playing there. Well, I personally wouldn't call it playing, though, it's more like trying to choke each other with looks, at least right now it's like that. And I don't suppose they would get any less anxious to win as the match starts. Isn't it starting quite soon already?"
Hermione studied Ginny with a crooked eyebrow, then continued to laugh. It seemed that nervousness affected Ginny differently from other people she knew. Bloody Baron stared at Ginny with wide eyes as the girl didn't even notice she hadn't got any answer to her question, and had continued to speak of everything and nothing.
"You were saying?" Hermione asked the Baron once more, making sure there was nobody in vicinity to interfere this time.
"Oh, I was just going to ask that
Don't you find it rather touching to behold
The game that came in from the cold
Seen for what it is — religion plus finesse
Houses, classes, creeds as one, in
Love of chess."
Hermione nodded at the Baron, then let her gaze wonder over everyone around her once more. The crowd, half of them wearing gold and red, the other half clearly dressed in silver and green; the most important professors in the school, one sporting a bump on her head, the other having a handprint on his cheek; the Champions, eyeing each other like they'd rather be having their opponent for dinner.
"Yeah, I can see the love," she said sarcastically, when Moody finally rose from his seat, put his pencil-like instrument behind his ear, and raised his wand.
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