Chess

Chapter 11: Hermione and Snape

Once Malfoy was gone, Hermione let out the breath she didn't know she had been holding. She was so angry at him for all the awful things he had said, and yet, somehow it hurt a bit more than it should have. After all, they had been enemies for many years, and she should have been used to his insults. And she was. Yet they still hurt. 'Truth hurts' was a saying as old as time itself, and again she wondered whether this was the case. Was this the reason behind his words sending a painful jolt through her heart – that they were true?

She knew she shouldn't be doubting Ron like this, it wasn't something good girlfriends did, but it was getting harder and harder for her to be secure about her relationship with him, especially if it was his doing getting her into situations like this one.

With a heavy sigh, Hermione looked around in the empty room, only to find it not at all as empty as she would have preferred. Professor Snape, the man who had just insulted her in hundreds of different ways, was standing by the wall with his arms crossed, giving her a look that spoke volumes and none of the things it was saying could be considered nice.

"The game is greater than its players, Miss Granger - how true!" he declared coldly, and even though he said it in plural, it was more than obvious that he had only one player in mind.

There were few things she wanted more at the moment than to turn her back on him and walk out of the room. But she couldn't give him the satisfaction of having scared her away. Snape had never been too kind (or just kind) to Gryffindors, but now it was not about the Houses anymore. This was personal. Perhaps he would have done it to anyone else in her place – she didn't know it. But what she did know was that he had done it to her, and Professor or no Professor, she was determined to come out of this situation, whatever it was, as the winner.

So instead of fleeing the room in tears, Hermione stood up straight, lifted her chin, and fixed him with an icy glare of her own.

Clearly displeased at such turn of events, Snape scowled at her darkly, but fortunately kept his place, leaving her at least the comfort of some space between them.

"I don't know how you can allow this
Harm to be done to chess, and how this
Baby of yours can be persuaded
Back to the game."

"Easy," she replied, her voice challenging. "You stop playing politics and you start playing chess."

Snape graced her with his I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about-and-even-if-I-do-it's-still-pure-rubbish look.

Even though she would have liked to stick to her current polite tone and not fall to his level, Hermione realized she had to say some sharper words to make him respond.

"I don't know how you have the gall to
Criticise us when it is all too
Obvious this is what you wanted -
We get the blame," she spoke fiercely, then willed her voice calm again.

"Your man, following orders, was up to some sort of bust-up from the word go," she stated simply, watching him carefully for a reaction. And a reaction she got.

"You really are mad! He has no orders!
Now let me put my cards upon your table
If he is aggrieved then who can blame him?
He is up against a man who's less than stable."

"Ronald, less than stable?" Hermione asked, her tone indicating she had never heard of anything sillier ever before, even though internally she had to admit that Ron tended to get a bit crazy sometimes. But she was not going to tell Snape this!

"You're goading him," she said instead.

"Who asked for pumpkin juice first then?
Who jumped up, yelled and cursed then?
Sneered, insulted, and shouted?
Then left the room!

"Your precious boy!"

Saying all this she knew it wasn't 100 percent true as Malfoy hadn't gone as far as cursing (at least not aloud; but as he probably did it silently, and she had not specified how he had cursed, she wasn't lying), but just as she had expected, Snape was too angry to notice that little error of hers.

"Chicken egg!" he shouted instead, and Hermione furrowed a brow in confusion, wondering whether he had actually lost it, until she suddenly realized what he had wanted to say and had to gather all her strength not to burst out laughing.

"Goose egg," she corrected coolly, relishing the dark look in his eyes as he realized he had just made a complete fool of himself.

"Goose egg," Snape repeated, looking like he very much wanted to hex her on the spot, "compared with the neurotic behavior of Weasley."

"Listen, you Slytherinish spawn
We can keep this up till the dawn
But there's the game that needs to be played
So we better talk."

For one glorious moment Snape was too shocked to say a thing, and Hermione committed his incredulous expression as well as his silently moving mouth to her memory for ever, as the moment she had achieved victory (short-term, but still) over the nasty Professor. Oh, Harry was going to be so proud of her!

"100 points from Gryffindor for insulting a Professor!" he then barked, and just like that her little moment was over. It was still worth it though, her rebellious part was saying, as the rational Head Girl admonished her for not keeping her mouth shut.

Right now, Hermione favoured her rebellious side, so she simply smirked at that, risking the loss of even more housepoints for her disrespective behaviour.

But Snape was either still too shocked at her daring demeanor, or he had realized she was right because his next words were something she had not expected in a billion of years.

"I wish, Hermine," he said, and actually managed a smile, even though it was forced and crooked.

"Hermi-o-ne," she corrected him again, this time in an attempt to hide her own surprise.

"You would refrain from cheap personal jibes at a time when cooperation between us is vital," he continued, ignoring her remark. "Besides, I thought you would be reluctant to insult fellow half-blood wizards."

"Fellow half-blood wizards! I am a Muggle-born. Remember Muggles? Those people trying to live with us in peace, only to have monsters like you and your precious Lord crush and murder them in their own homes-

And you call yourself a fellow half-blood wizard!"

Hermione felt she was losing it herself. If not her sanity, than at least her temper. She had to force herself not to draw her wand and hex the Professor into next millennium.

What she didn't know was that Snape was thinking the exact same thoughts at the moment. Perhaps it hadn't been the nicest move to bring up bloodlines, but to have the girl talk about his dark past like she was commenting about the weather! Taking away house points didn't seem a punishment bad enough, but the worse thing about the whole situation was that she was speaking the truth.

Since Snape had no wish to be thrown into Azkaban for the murder of his student, he simply shook those thoughts away – as a skilled Occlument he could do so easily.

"Come now, Miss Granger, we're digressing
Back to the point, let's start addressing
All our attention to the Hogwarts Championship."

Hermione, still fuming in rage, took a moment to calm down, and get her mind back to chess. Once there, she thought about it for a while, going through the various possible courses of action they could take, and at last choosing the most logical, even though she knew Ron would not appreciate it.

"The Hogwarts library - famous for its peace and tranquility - that's where I want you to deliver me one Slytherin Finalist," she announced. "Let's say 5 o'clock."

Snape nodded in understanding and agreement, then swept out of the room, leaving her finally to the blessed silence and privacy.

---

Hermione moved to the window and stared at the patterns of frost on its surface. Things had not gone quite as she had wanted, but at least something had resulted from all this yelling and insulting. For one, she had managed to lose 100 points. For another, she somehow had to convince Ron to meet with Malfoy in the library and discuss the game without killing each other or storming out of the room.

Oh, this whole situation was such a mess. And she had managed to get herself right into the centre of this mess.

---

After some twenty minutes of wondering how to persuade his boyfriend and get them all out of this mess, thinking whether this whole Chess Championship was a huge mistake since now not only Gryffindor and Slytherin were fighting but Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well, and simply staring at the flowers of ice on the windows, Hermione decided that she could really do with a warm fire and hot cup of cocoa in the cozy Gryffindor common room.

The scene that opened up before her as she had entered through the portrait hole, however, was not something her exhausted mind was ready to comprehend at the moment.

The common room was unusually empty, having only two occupants – Ron and McGonagall, the former sitting in an armchair near the fireplace, and the latter standing in front of him, and exasperated look on her face.

"For Merlin's sake - be reasonable!" McGonagall was saying, although instead of the normal strictness, her tone seemed more like pleading.

"Two thousand housepoints," Ron said with cold calmness.

"Why should we prize you to show us your tantrums?
We prefer to see chess being played," she tried to reason and reprimand him at the same time. It didn't seem to be working.

Throwing her hands up in defeat, McGonagall turned to leave, only now noticing Hermione standing there.

"You can deal with him - he's getting heated
Now he's claiming that he's underpaid," the Headmistress told the girl on her way out.

Everyone seemed to think that it was Hermione's job to bring Ron back to reason. Perhaps she really should have let Harry be his second. Although she doubted it would have changed anything. She was still his girlfriend, after all.

"I said, two thousand housepoints - a game!" he shouted after McGonagall, who had already left.

Noticing that, Ron turned his ire against the only other person left in the room, who happened to be his own girlfriend and second.

"And as for you
I shouldn't have to be dealing with Minerva
Where were you when the shit hit the fan?"

Hermione let his vulgar expression pass, mainly because she was too surprised at his calling Headmistress and Professor McGonagall by her first name, not to mention his earlier demand of more housepoints from her. And if this hadn't been shocking enough, which it definitely had, there was also the fact that instead telling him off for his obvious disrespect, McGonagall had behaved... very oddly.

For the moment, she had completely forgotten having called Professor Snape a Slytherinish spawn.

"Saving your housepoints by fixing a meeting
So you better start liking the man!" she answered indignantly, hurt by his snapping at her.

"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded.

"If you want to continue this game, and have the chance to win it, you are going to meet with Malfoy tonight at 5 o'clock in the library," she told him.

"When the interest is bigger than ever
And my walk-out my smartest move yet
All you say is that I ought to meet him
Between stupid book-shelves?"

"You bet!" Hermione affirmed.

"Can't you see that you're losing your grip, dear
Are the Slytherins fooling you too?
Why should I be the only one trying..."