The Boy who died - Ready for Anything

Wizard's Chess

POV of Parvati Patil

After dinner in the Great Hall, we made our way to our common room. Once there, I sat in one of the armchairs near the fireplace and began to write the essay for Potions. To do this, I opened the corresponding chapter of my textbook. Once I was satisfied with it, I asked Hermione to proofread it. She had already finished her homework earlier in the library and was currently occupied with making her school bag and heavy books float across the room. I immediately started on the essay about the history of Hogwarts. I found it much easier to write since I had already read the book. After she had read through my essays, I thanked Hermione for her help and corrected the few minor issues she had pointed out. Then I decided that I could study for Charms tomorrow and sat down with James near a window while Hermione began to look over Ariana's essays as well. James had previously been staring out the window, absentmindedly letting his history book float in front of him, but now he gently landed it on the table and smiled at me kindly. 'Hey,' he greeted me. 'Any idea what else we can do? Going to sleep or dying of boredom are not options for me, at least.' 'Hmm...' I said. 'Can you play chess? I have pieces; I just need to get them from the dormitory upstairs.' 'Sure,' he replied, so I grabbed my bag and went to the dormitory. Once there, I knelt beside my bed and searched my trunk for the chess pieces that my grandfather had given me as a gift last year. Of course, they weren't ordinary ones like Muggles used, but wizard chess pieces that you could command to move on their own. As if my grandfather had already guessed that I would end up in Gryffindor, the tin pieces were painted gold and red. Finally, I found the wooden box where I kept the pieces. It was also painted red, and in gold lettering, my grandfather had written on it: 'The one with a heart of gold begins,

The one with logic—not courage—wins!' As I was about to leave the room with the box and the chessboard, I noticed Veatrix sitting on one of the windowsills, looking outside. I was unsure whether to say something, but I wouldn't have known what to say anyway. After all, we had barely exchanged a word with each other so far, and she didn't seem to place any value on it, at least for the moment. So I went back down to the common room. As I set up the pieces, my thoughts were still on Veatrix. I wondered if she would ever come to terms with being a Gryffindor, and if we might then even be able to get along someday. It wasn't until James asked me if I wanted to play white or black, or rather gold or red, that I was snapped out of my thoughts. 'I'll take the gold pieces; we can switch colors afterward,' I replied and made my first move. He was really good, I have to admit. Somehow it occurred to me that Ravenclaws weren't necessarily better at this, which one might assume since the Sorting Hat deemed them cleverer. But Padma had almost always lost to me, after all. The game lasted a really long time, even though we both moved quickly instead of taking our time to think about the moves. After what felt like an eternity, I finally checkmated him. During our game, the common room had gradually emptied, so only we and a few older students were left. Hermione and Ariana had gone upstairs quite a while ago. It wasn't until much later that I noticed Ron, who was in our year, sitting with the older students. Apparently, the three boys he had been talking to were his brothers. Now he came over to us and asked whose chess pieces they were. 'Mine,' I replied, whereupon he challenged me to a game. That game also lasted quite a while, but in the end, I was the one who got checkmated. I would have loved to sit there much longer with James and Ron, playing chess and just talking, but I was now so tired that I couldn't suppress a yawn. This prompted Ron's older brother, Percy, to send us up to our dormitories, as it was already quite late. He was probably right, because the next day we had classes—and, more importantly—the first flying lesson. We needed to be well-rested for that.