Sign of the times

Chapter One

I was on my way to get myself and Ginny another glass of red wine which somebody had smuggled into school grounds, when I suddenly felt a hand touching my arm. Almost spilling the one glass I had already filled with the red liquid I turned around, meeting Harry's dark green eyes.

"Hermione?"

From the way he had asked the question I already knew he was up to no good.

"How can I help you, Harry?", I answered, watching him closely.

"Well. Somebody suggested we should play magic chess with a bit of a twist."

He looked at me, eyes big as a puppy's that wanted to be cuddled.

"And? What does this have to do with me? There's enough other people in this room you could play with."

I used my glass of red wine to point into the direction where a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs where having an argument about something. Although the party was quite small due to being in the prefect's common room there was still a quite diverse group gathered in the big room.

I turned back to Harry who hadn't moved a single muscle and was still trying to persuade me with his puppy eyes.

"Harry. I am not going to give in. You can stop looking at me like that. Besides, you understand I don't know how to play normal magic chess. How am I supposed to be able to play the same game with a twist?"

I gave him a sceptical look before focusing on Ginny's glass that I had placed on a table next to me and which demanded a refill.

"Fine. Then you won't win the prize. Which is a pity of course."

I sighed before turning back to Harry who was acting like he wanted to leave, a devilish smirk on his lips.

"What's the prize, Harry?"

He knew he had my attention now. If there was an acceptable prize for something, you could count me in. Even if it was something as peculiar as magic chess.

"If you win all the rounds, you'll get 10 galleons."

10 galleons. That was a lot of golden coins.

"You can count me in. But I want to take my glass with me."

"Oh, believe me. You won't need that", Harry murmured while pulling me into the middle of the room where somebody had set up a chessboard.