Chapter 7
"Have you guys seen Peter lately?" Remus asked. It had just occurred to him that Peter hadn't eaten with them for a few days now.
"Don't ask me, I'm not Peter," Sirius informed, and began choking down a long piece of bacon.
James just shrugged and continued eating his lunch.
Suddenly, a loud screech sounded from over head and owls began zooming into the great hall,
Dropping mail to the students.
"Mails here!" James exclaimed, standing up as if looking for an owl that might drop him off a package at any moment.
Suddenly a large, dark gray owl swooped overhead, dropping a piece of rolled up parchment in front of Sirius.
"Who's it from?" James asked, leaning forwards, but Sirius just ignored him, warily opening up the rolled parchment.
More owls flew in, and one of the owls was flying towards Remus. It dropped something in front of Remus, flying out the window quickly afterwards.
He opened up the envelope dropped off by the owl, and there was a letter from his Mum. It read, Dear Remus, I hope your school year is going amazing! You probably are having so much fun, learning magic and learning how to make potions! I can't wait for you to show us your skill when you come for Thanksgiving break! I bet you have lots of friends and if so, you can invite them over for Thanksgiving break if you want. I hope you're having a great day and write back when you can. Sincerely Hope Lupin.
"Who'd you get that from?" James said. His expression showed that he was desperate to get something from one of the owls.
"Oh, it was a letter from my mum," he replied before looking at Sirius. His expression was filled with sorrow, and anger, as he read the letter grasped between his fingers.
"Who's it from?" Remus asked gently.
"None of your business so just shut it…" Sirius growled and Remus was slightly taken aback by his friend's harsh tone.
"Sirius chill…" James said but Sirius took the letter and set it on fire with a simple spell. All that was left of it were a few grains of ash.
James just stared at him, but his expression changed to joy when a tawny owl swooped in, and dropped a fairly large package in front of James.
He opened it eagerly, revealing two parcels inside, the first one contained a box full of different sweets which he eagerly shared with his friends. He had informed them that they were homemade by his mother, and Remus had to admit, the sweet treats were incredible.
Then the second parcel held a board, and it was a chess board. Since when did James like chess, Remus thought. It seemed so that James only really cared about Quidditch and not really anything else.
"New Wizard's chess pieces!" James explained, spreading out the chessman on the table for his friends to see.
"Lucky!" Sirius exclaimed, jealousy edged his voice. "I have pieces but they are chipped and worn down."
"Those are nice," Remus commented. He picked up one of the chess pieces and noticed how glossy and nice these looked.
"I can't wait to use these!" James began, "I can't wait to show these to everyone!"
Suddenly, the clock bell rang loudly, signaling that lunch was over, Remus packing his belongings, and hurried off to class.
In Transfigurations, Remus took the seat next to Sirius, because James was busy showing off his new wizards chess set.
Suddenly, Remus saw Peter enter the classroom, and he was hanging out with Frank Longbottom, and Even Rosier.
"Why is he hanging out with them? Peters never had much of a reputation here…" Remus asked Sirius and he shrugged.
"Beats me, but boy I want to know why." Sirius said before Professor Mggonagal walked up to the front of the classroom.
"Today class, you'll be transforming matches into needles," she showed the class a few demonstrations and instructed the class to begin.
Remus focused on the match in front of him, and put all his energy into the spell, but he couldn't get it…
Next to him, Sirius was doing it with ease, and he already had three needles, laying evenly on the desk.
"How do you do that!?" Remus exclaimed and Sirius turned to him with an amused expression.
"It's easy," he said, transforming another one as though he were trying to show off to Remus.
Remus kept trying, and after several attempts, he finally managed to transform one match.
"Good job," Sirius praised, before counting all of his needles. It seemed he had about twenty needles on his desk.
At the end of class, Professor Mggonagal walked around the classroom, eyeing the needles that laid on everyone's desk. Sirius and James had a lot of needles, Peter had only a couple, which made Remus feel a bit bad for him, and then Lily, Sasha, Teresa, and Alice had transformed a decent amount of matches.
"Well done today class," Professor Mggonagal praised before eyeing Peter, "Please meet me after class…" Remus saw that Peter looked sad, and disappointed. Remus shot him a sympathetic glance.
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, there wasn't much work to do so the day pretty much flew by for him.
At dinner, Peter walked by their table, and Sirius ended up asking him why they weren't sitting with them.
"Oh! I've joined this wizard's chess club thing that one of the sixth years created," he explained and James' eyes widened. "And I'm sitting with a fifth year student because he's going to help me get better at chess…"
"Ok then, see ya later," Sirius grumbled, busying himself in a crispy piece of bread.
"You know, maybe I'll join someday," James started, "I mean, I'm pretty good at wizard's chess I guess, and who knows, maybe Lily will notice." he shot a glance at Lily who was sitting about half way across the room.
Once dinner was over, Remus, Sirius, and James headed towards their dorm room, where James began admiring his new chess pieces for the hundredth time.
Suddenly, the door opened, and Peter walked in. "Do any of you guys have a few spare sickles I could use?" Peter asked nervously.
"Sure, what for," James responded, fidgeting with the chessman.
"Well… The boy who is teaching me said, "Well, I have to pay him a couple sickles for each lesson he gives me…"
"Nonsense!" said James standing up, "Why learn with him when you can learn with your friend, who won't charge you for lessons."
"Wait, you'd actually teach me a thing or two?" Peter squeaked and James nodded.
"Sure I guess," he said, standing up, and placing a couple of sickles in Peter's hand. "Come on, we can practice with my new board.
The two of them walked down to the common room which left Sirius and Remus by themselves in the dorm room.
"This is awkward," Sirius said after a few minutes of silence. Remus just grunted and pulled out a book that his mother had given him. It was a muggle book she enjoyed when she was younger but Remus still found it interesting.
After about an hour of being there in silence, Sirius finally piped in, "Hey I'm bored…" he said, and Remus noticed he was levitating his red and yellow tie.
"Ok, read a book then, I have plenty you could borrow…"
"Yuck! No! Reading is boring…"
"Ok, suit yourself," Remus said, flipping to the next page, the book was finally getting really interesting, and even if Remus wanted to, he wouldn't be able to put the book down.
"Hey! Why don't the two of us play wizard's chess! You know, because James and Peter are playing it?" Sirius asked.
"Um… Sure I guess," said Remus, reluctantly putting down his book, "Though I've never played wizard's chess… I've only played muggle chess…"
"That's ok, I'll teach you," Sirius said happily, patting the floor, gesturing for Remus to sit in front of him. "Mind you the pieces are in pretty bad shape." he poured out the chess men, and Remus noticed that most of them had paint chipping off, and some of them were even broken.
"Don't ask, Regulus did it and my parents won't buy me a new set," Sirius grumbled as he began placing the pieces on the board.
Remus helped Sirius place the pieces on the board, and then they were ready to play.
"Ok, so to move a piece, you will speak the name of the piece and then say where you want it to move, for example, Knight to E5!" the Knight piece moved on its own to space. That's so cool! Remus thought it was way more fun than normal muggle chess.
After a while of Sirius explaining (he was a pretty good teacher), it was finally time to begin really playing the game.
"Pawn to H3," Remus commanded, watching in amazement as the piece moved on its own. The game lasted for about an hour because Sirius was taking a while to decide his moves. Finally, Sirius made the last move, leading him to win the game.
The two of them played again, this time, Remus almost won, but was surprised when Sirius won, yet again.
The third time Remus knew he wasn't going to win so Sirius told him that he'd pay him a couple knuts if he won, but Sirius won again…
And the fourth time, Remus really thought he was going to win, but Sirius surprised him by capturing his King when he least expected it.
Remus woke up to find Sirius snoring gently right beside him, he looked towards the chess board and noticed that the board was still full of pieces. We must have fallen asleep mid game, he thought, remembering how late the two of them had stayed up.
A few minutes later, Sirius woke up, and he looked around as if realizing that him and Remus had been sleeping on the floor. He shot Remus an amused expression.
James clambered out of his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stretching, letting out a massive yawn at the same time.
"How long did we stay up?" Remus asked and James shrugged.
"Beats me, you two were still playing when I fell asleep." James said, "How many rounds did you guys even play?"
"Don't ask," Remus joked, and Peter stood up from his bed.
"Hey Sirius!" he squeaked, "I learned alot from James yesterday! Wanna play against me?"
"Thanks for the offer, but no," Peter looked down in disappointment, "I wanna play with Remus right now."
"I guess I'll just play with some members from the club," he said walking out the door, but James stopped him before he completely exited.
"Can I come!" he pleaded and Peter nodded, so the two of them left, and Sirius turned to Remus, giving him a smug look.
"Wanna play again," he said in a sing-songy voice, and before Remus could respond, he began dumping his pieces onto the floor.
"Ok, but I'll beat you this time," Remus assured. While Sirius was setting up the game, Remus opened the cabinet next to his bed and pulled out a tea bag, and began making himself some tea. Remus had liked tea quite a lot since he had been attacked, and he didn't really know why. Probably because the warmth of it brought comfort with every sip.
"Want some?" Remus asked and Sirius shook his head.
"No, I hate that stuff," he laughed and gestured to Remus to come over. He quickly poured in some sugar and then joined Sirius on the floor.
"I'll win because this stuff will bring me good luck," Remus said, sipping his tea.
"If you say so," Sirius chuckled and Remus did his first move.
The game was going pretty good, Remus had taken out a fair amount of James' pieces and Sirius was clearly not happy with how the game was going.
After a while, Sirius took out Remus's king. He fell to the floor and growled. "You won. Again."
"Come on! Let's play again!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Tell me it's not because you want to see the look on my face when you win…" Remus growled, though humor edged his voice.
"No I just like playing with you, and -" he was cut off when the door flung open and James ran in, excitement flashing in his eyes, Peter trailed behind them.
"So the club kind of hosted this Wizard's chess tournament thingy, and I won! And look how many sickles I got!" he reached his hands into his pockets and threw out many, many, sickles.
"I wish I won though…" Peter said and James just ignored him.
"And when I won! Even Lily seemed sort of impressed!" James exclaimed, and the four of them ended up talking, and playing Wizard's chess for the rest of the night…
