The Lives Of The Broken

Chapter 3: Chess

The weeks leading up to Ginny and Hermione's marriages were extremely tense in the Burrow. Despite Molly reluctantly giving Ginny permission to spend a week at the Malfoys, Ginny opted out of it. She felt that she didn't want to willingly step into that place, especially after Lucius's behavior towards her family. Narcissa seemed okay, but she didn't want anything to do with Draco, nor his father.

Things had been even worse for Hermione and Ron. Since he read that Hermione had to marry Krum, Ron had found himself not wanting to interact with anybody. He wished he could march right to the Ministry and turn the place and everyone in it into dust.

Ron knew that Voldemort had to be having the time of his life treating them like his little puppets. Of all the people that he could have picked, he just had to pick Viktor Fucking Krum.

Why him? How? He didn't even think that Voldemort's control reached that far. If it hadn't reached places like Romania and France, then surely he didn't have control of Bulgaria. And how would he even know to seek Krum out? How did he know about the connection that he and Hermione had with the man?

Ron felt as if his world was crashing down. He was losing his sister to his arch enemy. He was losing the love of his life to the man who he had always feared he would lose her to. And it was all happening in a matter of days. Hadn't the death of his best mate and brother been enough? How much more did he have to endure until he would go insane?

Hermione also felt as if her life had been turned upside down. Stripped of her ability to do magic. No way to seek out her parents in Australia without putting them in danger. Being forced to marry someone that was not Ron. Sure, Viktor was a very good friend to her, as well as a nice and respectable gentleman. However, she had long gotten over her miniscule infatuation of the man. She loved Ron. It had always been Ron.

She sat in Ron's room on the extra bed, watching him play Wizard's Chess by himself on his bed. He was doing that a lot lately. As if the board would help him figure it all out. She watched his face as he would purposely put himself in the most compromising positions and work his way out of them. She had started to notice that he wouldn't move his queen, which was usually his key piece. Or if he did move it, it would only be a couple spaces over, and always behind another piece.

"Can I play with you?" she asked him so quietly, she almost wasn't heard. Ron glanced up at her from the board for a second and then back, nodding slightly.

She sat on his bed across from him and looked at the board. "Don't change anything, I want to look at this. " said Hermione as she studied the pieces they were still there. She wasn't the best at chess, especially against Ron, but she had learned some things from him to sometimes know what he was going to do. And from the way things were set up, it didn't look like just a casual game.

"Sweetheart, what are you trying to do?" she asked him as her finger lightly touched the horse head of the knight.

Ron looked at Hermione, his beautiful cerulean eyes that usually sparked despite what was going on seemed dull and drained. Hermione longed to put the color back into them.

"I'm trying to protect the queen." he said.

"I thought in chess, it was your job to protect the king."

"Sometimes the queen needs protection. The king is pretty much useless" said Ron, almost as if he hated it.

"Why would you say that? The king is the most important piece, isn't it?” asked Hermione.

"Actually, that's not true. The queen is. She is the one that can make all the moves except for the way the knight moves. She is the one helps the king the most. Without the queen, the king is nothing. So she needs to be protected."