Checkmate

Part I - The Setup - Chapter 4

Now I'm where I want to be and who I want to be and
doing what I always said I would and yet
I feel I haven't won at all.

Don't get me wrong
I'm not complaining
Times have been good
Fast, entertaining
But what's the point
If I'm concealing
Not only love
All other feeling

Lyrics from "Where I Want To Be" from Chess by Benny Anderson, Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus

* * * * *

Ron, Hermione, and Harry barely got in the door and to their seats before Snape swept into the Potions classroom. He gave them all a severe look, then turned on Harry.

"Mr. Potter," said Snape, in a silky sneering tone. "There seems to be a rumor going around that you've been seen brawling in the hall. I do hope for your sake that isn't true."

There was a snicker from the Slytherin side of the room. "Sprawling was what I heard," said an anonymous loud whisper that elicited a round of muffled giggles.

Harry didn't say anything, he had learned from long experience not to respond to Snape's jibes. He just kept his eyes down until Snape turned away and went up to his desk. Then he glanced up to where Draco was sitting in the first seat in the row of tables on his left. Draco had his face buried very conscientiously in his Advanced Potions text. Harry couldn't tell if he was laughing or not. Out of the corner of his eye though, he could see that Ron was turning purple, and seemed to be puffing up in a very frightening way, as Snape very pointedly ignored Malfoy's involvement in the morning's incident.

Snape opened the potions text on his desk, then turned around and faced the class with narrowed eyes. "Very well, Potter. Since you won't discuss this morning's rumor, perhaps you'd like to explain to the class what the ingredients for today's potion are?"

There was a silence that lasted several heartbeats, broken only by stifled tittering from one of the Slytherins. "Sir?" said Harry in a very unsteady voice. What the hell was today's potion?

"The ingredients were clearly listed in last night's reading assignment, Potter."

Oh God, thought Harry. He'd been too involved with Ron and Hermione's announcement, and then too upset last night to do all his homework. Everyone in the class turned around to look at him, except Draco, who seemed to be ignoring everything, and was busily writing on a piece of parchment on his desk. Harry glanced quickly over at Ron and Hermione, who were sitting together in the row on Harry's right, and who were looking stricken and extremely guilty respectively. Evidently they hadn't read the assignment either, which shocked Harry even more – well, not that Ron hadn't read it.

Very slowly, Snape began walking back toward Harry's desk. "We're waiting, Mr. Potter," said Snape with a delighted sneer.

"Er . . . yes, sir," said Harry, stalling, his voice still shaking. "I – "

A motion at the front of the row on Harry's left caught his eye. Draco had turned around for the first time to look back at him. Harry's gaze shot over to Draco and their eyes met. Draco seemed to be trying very hard to keep a straight face, and when Harry looked at him, he raised one eyebrow and stealthily slid a piece of parchment out from behind the drape of his sleeve. On it, in big block letters were written a list of potion ingredients. No one else could see it because everyone had their backs to Draco in order to watch Harry. Harry didn't stop to question if Draco might be setting him up with the wrong answers. He sat straight up and read as fast as he could.

Harry barely finished reading, as Snape reached his desk. He pulled his eyes away from the list, and looked up at the professor. "I think," he said slowly, "the ingredients were, er, one . . . lizard tongue, uh, a teaspoon of chopped . . . blackcap mushroom gills, um . . . three toenails of a . . ." Of a what? He glanced back toward Draco, but the list had vanished. ". . . three toenails of a . . . a giant shrew, a pinch of powdered salamander, and . . . and . . . five drops of strangling ivy sap – "