Wizard Chess

The weeks passed by swiftly and before they knew it, the 1st year students had been at Hogwarts for almost two months. The coursework of the first years increased as Rowan's own personal research seemed to move at a snail's pace. She had no choice but to read and check every single log. Even the slightest of discrepancies could be the start of a possible connection. There was also an unexpected delay she had not expected. She had been saddled with the Marauders in their research for the cure for Lycanthropy.

With no measure of small relief, everyone finishes the last class of the day before the Halloween Feast (in other words all Hallows Eve). The older students recount epic tales of past Halloween Feasts in the Great Hall. Many of the younger student's eyes are filled with awe, while Rowan privately thought it would be more fun to dress up.

"Alas, I guess one doesn't dress up if one is magical," Rowan sadly thought to herself during dinner.

Severus sitting at her side turns away from their friends to peevishly ask, "So, are you done with your project yet?"

"Not even close," Rowan drily answered. "It will have to be postponed as the first tests of the school year approaches. And even I need to study."

Severus snorts in blatant disbelief. "I will believe that when I see it with my own two eyes."

Sitting nearby Prefect Wilkes slightly bored approaches the Prince twins. He comes up from behind them and interrupts their conversation. "Are the two of you excited for the Halloween Feast tomorrow?"

"I hear it will be quite exciting," Severus replied unable to hide a bit of childish excitement on his face.

Rowan ignores the questioning spearing a bite of food with the end of her fork. Prefect Wilkes is like a cat who came and went as he pleased. That and he especially didn't know when to take a hint.

Prefect Wilkes already used to being openly ignored smugly grinned at gaining a rise from Rowan Prince. "Well, either way, I hear Professor Dumbledore is hiring a band!"

"Really?" Rowan looked up with a bit of genuine interest in her gaze.

Having Rowan and Severus's combined interest, Wilkes begins to regale them with epic tales and scandals of past glorious anecdotes. By the end of dinner even is Rowan is looking more forward to the Halloween feast. It seemed it could even be a bit of fun.

After dinner, they all head back to the Slytherin common room area. The October chill had long begun to set causing the students to wear thick, warm clothes along with fur-lined cloaks. The fireplaces in the Slytherin common room area blazed struggling to heat the full length of the common room.

Sitting near the warm flickering fire, Rowan and Severus play a match of wizard's chess against each other. Not long after, Terry Greengrass joined them, Severus's only male friend in Slytherin. Terry Greengrass has silky flaxen hair and hazel eyes. And though of average height, he seems smaller than he is due to his slender, delicate figure that looked like he could be blown away by a gust of wind at any second.

Seeing Rowan trouncing Severus so thoroughly, Terry tactfully points out a countermove for Severus to make. Seeing Terry changing the flow of the game, Rowan finally says, "Severus just switch places with him already, Terry's clearly better at this than you are."

Severus gestured rudely at Rowan, before rising out of his seat and offering the empty seat for Terry to switch places with him. Terry eagerly does as Severus sternly says, "You better beat Rowan, she usually wins nine out of ten matches."

"You're just jealous," Rowan wickedly snickered.

Terry's sleepy eyes flicker for a moment and despite his fragile demeanor, his game style is anything but delicate. Rowan furrows her brows and rolls up her sleeves as she focuses solely on the match before them. The match soon turns into a violent aggressive match until Rowan finally tricks Terry by sacrificing her queen to entrap Terry's king.

Rowan lets out a breath and says, "Geez, Terry, you look all fragile like a porcelain doll, but your chess style is anything but-. You're an absolute monster on the field!"

Terry grins slyly back. "My family has expert wizard chess players."

Severus snickers at the comment. "Another match, Rowan?"

"I sincerely doubt I will win," Rowan truthfully grunted. "Terry had about a ten-move handicap and he still nearly beat me."

"Don't be so modest, you're quite good yourself, Rowan," Terry genuinely said.

"Well, alright then," Rowan relented at seeing Terry's eager expression.

The two of them begin to play as Severus watches over them. During a long pause, Rowan says, "So, Terry, Sev has been saying you're his friend is that true?"

Severus glares at Rowan and hissed. "I can make friends all by myself, Rowan!"

Terry grins back and says, "Severus is a bit serious and may even come across as harsh, but he's a good one, I can tell."

Rowan sighs with great depression as Severus loftily says, "What's wrong?"

"I had a bet running with Prefect Wilkes whether you actually could make a friend on your own in Slytherin," Rowan grumbled. "Looks like I lost the bet."

Terry chuckles in reply as Severus glares darkly at Rowan. But before Severus can retort, a first-year boy boldly says, "Well, if it isn't glass bones Terry."

Rowan glances up to see a boy with sharp-nosed features and a widow's peak. "Bugger off, Evan Avery!" Terry firmly hissed back as Rowan's eyes widen in recognition of the surname, a future Death-Eater.

The first-year boy standing behind Evan Avery is quite tall and rather broad-shouldered. With a stout nose and thick lips, the boy furrows his brows in anger and takes a threatening step. Avery notices the other boy's reaction and says, "Rosier, don't react to this riffraff's comments."

Rowan recognizes the Rosier surname as well and narrows her eyes. "That's quite funny considering Terry's Greengrass family belongs to one of the 28 sacred families." Rowan snapped.

Avery unhappily eyes Rowan and purses his lips together, before superciliously saying, "Let's go, Rosier." Turning on his heels, Avery marches away as Rosier gives them one last threatening look before leaving the common room area.

"Who are those awful pricks?" Rowan asked.

Terry rolls his eyes and says, "Purebloods, who think they're better than everyone else. And sadly, enough our other two roommates."

Rowan nods her head sagely as she is lost in thought for a moment. "So, those are the guys, Severus was supposed to be friends with? No wonder, Severus turned out to be somewhat of a bad apple, anyone would with such rotting friends," Rowan privately thought to herself as she casually eyed a nearby 1st year.

Golden-haired and handsome the 1st year boy easily chats up a giggling 2nd year girl, Damien Mulciber. Another Death Eater with a cruel streak, and other dubious tendencies.

"Ignore them, they're just trying to get a rise," Terry pointedly said, after seeing Rowan lost in thought.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about how to go about getting revenge without being caught," Rowan innocently said with a smile as she turned away from staring at Mulciber.

Terry narrows his eyes and just as innocently smiles back. "Rowan, I think we will become great friends," Terry knowingly said as his eyes twinkled wickedly.

Severus suddenly feels an ominous friendship form right before him as cold sweat appears on his back. With a great cheer, the two-resume playing wizard's chess, but all the while, Severus can't help but feel that the board before him was a malevolent plan being concocted. Of course, it could all be his entire imagination. But somehow, he had a distinct feeling that was not the case at all.

And it wasn't three days later, Evans Avery and T. Rosier woke up to chicken feathers covering all their body. The two boys were furious and demanded their head of the house, Professor Slughorn finds the culprits. Alas, the culprits were never caught.