(A/N): Hey Guys! So, I wrote this entire chapter at school today. I would have uploaded it earlier, but I only just finished before the end of a lesson so I didn't have time, and I had to write the next one. I wrote this during Humanities, my first lesson, and Home Ec. my second to last lesson. In drama, between recess and lunch, we dressed up again, and I wore a kimono type thing, except this had shoulder pads. I also wore an asian type mask and a hat with pinecones on the side of it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Leo, Elaine, Nicholai, Shari and Mia.
Elaine
"So, are you going to enter the chess tournament?" Lily asked the group as we sat, late the next night, in the middle of the almost empty Common room.
"Count me out." James told her, and her eyebrows lowered. We all knew she hadn't been asking him.
"Me too." I announced, crossing my arms over my chest, and Sirius raised his eyebrows a me.
"I would have thought you'd relish in the opportunity for competition, Laney." Sirius liked to nickname me things, but so far, his nicknames were better than 'Damsel'.
"Nah, too hot-headed for chess. When I was four, I threw a chess piece at an old man." The others stared at me as I looked to the ceiling as if reminiscing. "Good times." They stared at me some more.
"Uh, okay then." Leo said, breaking them all from their trance, like he had done earlier in the year.
"Are you going to enter?" Peter asked him, and Leo quickly shook his head.
"I hate chess, hate it. Too much sitting still, and planning." He pretended to shudder, and Remus chuckled lightly, shaking his head in amusement.
"You would say that, Blue." Remus commented, and Leo turned to him.
"Are you going to enter then, Mister Logic?" I had a flash back of early last year, when Lily and Leo had their 'fight', and when I had called Remus exactly that after a particularly heated Transfiguration lesson. So, he had hear me?
"Maybe." All eyes turned to Remus. "I mean, I like Wizards chess. It's not as unpredictable as Exploding snap, and it's more fun than gob stones, so I figure, why the hell not?" I grinned at him. Since my episode in the room of Requirement, Remus and I had become closer as friends. We were no longer both the third wheel in our friendship with Leo, we were friends ourselves.
"Gryffindor will have at least one person competing then!" Sirius noted, and the rest of us nodded.
"I wouldn't think chess, even Wizards chess, would be Gryffindor's thing. Does anyone know someone who plays?" We glanced around our little group, waiting for one of us to answer.
"My cousin does, but he's only six." James offered, and we shook our head, all rather dismayed by the lack of volunteers.
"Maybe the older years will compete?" Remus suggested, and I bit my lip.
"Perhaps no one except for the Ravenclaw's will play. No use in having a competition if only one house competes, right?" We all looked doubtful. At this point, I felt like crossing my fingers, wishing that, for once, we wouldn't be beaten by Ravenclaw in a game of wits.
"But who knows, maybe people will get more into the spirit when the actual tournament starts." Leo said, trying to reassure us, to give us hope. It worked, but not as much as he had wanted.
"Hopefully." Lily muttered, and we stared at the ground glumly.
"Line up, in your houses, if you want to compete today." We waved Remus away lightly, and he joined the growing Gryffindor line. It wasn't the grim turnout we had expected, but it was nowhere near as plentiful as the Ravenclaw group's numbers.
However, we weren't dead last, either. In size, it went Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and lastly, Slytherin. Slytherin's competitors weren't much fewer than ours, but they still had less.
"Good luck." I whispered to after him, and Leo's hand slid around mine, squeezing lightly before loosening, but not letting go. I didn't look at him, not wanting to ruin the moment by making him embarrassed, or alerting Lily, who was in the row ahead of us.
We were in the Great Hall, and metal benches, like bleachers, were set up on the sides of the hall, one set for each House. The sets of bleachers had maybe fifteen rows, which were approximately five meters long.
Leo and I were in the third row back, in the rough centre, Lily in front of us with Sirius and Peter. Leo had dragged James up a level to swap with Lily when she had said she couldn't see, as he was taller than Lily by a few inches and wouldn't have a problem seeing over the people in front of him.
Today was the day the tournament started, and all those who wanted to compete, or wanted to cheer them on, were required in the Great Hall, just as we were. When we arrived, we noticed the twelve chess tables set up down the middle of the Great Hall, a Professor by each one of them.
The first three from each house were shuffled off to one side of one of the twelve tables, facing someone from another house. No two members of a house were facing a member of the same, yet other house. One Gryffindor was versing a Slytherin, one a Ravenclaw, and one a Hufflepuff. The other houses were facing just the same.
"When the tournament ends, we will tally the points not only to see which House prevailed, but also which member of each house won the most games." Professor Dumbledore announced, the crowd having gone silent as soon as he stood. "You may begin." He said nodding to the various competitors, who stared at the board before the player on the white side made their first move.
And thus, the Wizards Chess House Tournament began.
(A/N): So, what did you think?
This chapter was really awkward to write, it just didn't flow. Even with the ones I had trouble with previously, it still sounded alright at the end but this one...ugh.
Please review and/or check out my other stories!
P.S: I borrowed a book from the school library today, Strange Angels, and I just finished it. I was supposed to read it for English, because I read the last book already.