"Hermione, are the Slytherins all picking on Ron on purpose?"
Hermione looked up at Harry, who was sitting across the table from her in the library.
"What do you mean?" she asked, carefully side-stepping the question.
Harry sighed, running a hand through his hair, making it even messier than before.
"Ron's lost over a hundred points from Gryffindor for fighting in the halls, and it always seems like it's Slytherins who are baiting him," Harry told her. "Everyone in Gryffindor is furious with him and keeps telling him to just ignore any taunts, but with Ron's temper… it's like he can't."
Hermione bit the inside of her lip hard to keep from grinning.
"Ron's always had this thing against Slytherins from the start, Harry," Hermione pointed out. "Is it any real surprise that there's tension between him and them now?"
Harry sighed. "I guess not."
Hermione turned back to her essay, but she found her mind was drifting.
She'd been trying to think of how to provoke Ron into an explosive confrontation in front of lots of people while still seeming like his friend during it. Maybe this was a good pressure point. If Ron went off about Slytherin, and she defended her house, he might turn around and yell at her for it. She could start crying, then – Ron yelling at her in her face would be a probable cause to make a first year cry, right?
She made a mental note to talk to the others. They might have some ideas.
Setting the issue aside, she returned to her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay, determinedly using the correct resources to write it. Honestly, it seemed like Quirrell was purposefully trying to teach them the wrong information sometimes.
"Check."
Hermione glared at Blaise, who looked amused. Her eyes darting around the board, she carefully moved her rook.
Blaise moved his knight in response and grinned.
"Checkmate."
"Augh!" Hermione said, hiding her face in her hands. "I'm awful at this!"
"You're not that bad," Blaise told her, still grinning. "You're not good, but you're not bad."
"I am never going to get better at this stupid game," she despaired. "This is awful. Terrible. Horrible. Auugghhhh…"
Blaise snickered at her dramatics, before setting the chessboard up again.
"If you're so bad at it, why even play it?" he asked her. "You could always take up checkers or gobstones instead."
Hermione consciously bit her lip, trying to look like she was admitting a secret.
"…Weasley is really good at chess," she told Blaise. "For just once, I'd like to crush him…"
Blaise started laughing.
"You've got a way to go, then," he told her. "You're already creaming him in classes. Why is chess so important?"
"I just- I want to take the one thing he's so good at, " Hermione said, "and I want to beat him at his own stupid game-"
Blaise was still snickering at her fury.
"We'll have to think of another way for you to beat him, then, won't we?" Blaise said mildly.
Hermione gave him a look of despair. "Like what?"
Blaise shrugged, waving a hand. "I'll look into it. Don't worry."
Hermione gave him a suspicious look, and Blaise grinned, his eyes dancing.
"We're Slytherins, Hermione," he reminded her. "If we're losing, we just change the game."