Checkmated

Checkmated
Potter47

Ron finally looses at chess, and against a most unusual opponent.

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I could not believe it. It did not seem possible. Sixteen years of being the best, to be vanquished by her.

Nobody could ever beat me. I had beaten everyone in my family at least a hundred times each. Not to mention the thousands of times I beat Harry and Hermione.

And now, I lost.

Lost...it feels weird to have lost.

How did this happen?

It all started last week, when I was playing Gin in chess. I won, naturally, and for some odd reason, she didn't want to play again. Can't imagine why. When she got up from her seat in the common room, and went off to the Owlery or somewhere, Harry got up as well.

"Wanna play?" I asked him, setting up the board again.

"Er..." He looked over his shoulder at the portrait hole. "I can't right now. I... I need to send a letter," he said, and he made his way out of the common room.

I looked over to Hermione. She seemed to be trying not to laugh. "Those two are so obvious." She mumbled something like that under her breath. I had no clue who she meant.

"How 'bout you 'Mione?" I asked.

"Don't call me 'Mione!'" She threw a pillow at my head. I wish had seen it coming and ducked, but, well, I don't possess the Inner Eye.

"No, Ron, I don't want to play. Why don't you play someone you haven't before? Have you ever played someone out of Gryffindor?"

I thought for a moment. "Dunno."

"Why don't you play a Ravenclaw sometime? Maybe one of them could beat you."

"Yeah, like a Ravenclaw could beat me."

I shouldn't have said that.

I did take her advice. The next day, at breakfast, I scanned the Ravenclaw table for a suitable opponent. I settled on that Corner git. I never have liked him, and he deserved to lose.

I walked up to him after dinner that day. It almost seemed as though he tensed when he saw me coming, and then remembered something and relaxed. "Corner! You ever play chess?"

It apparently wasn't what he was expecting. "Yeah," he said.

"Wanna play?" I gestured with the set in my hand.

"Sure."

I wouldn't say I went easy on him or anything, but it definitely was not my best game. Still, he lost. Very quickly. I bet even Harry could beat him.

The next day, I set out to chose another victim. I mean, opponent, another opponent.

Over the next week, I had beaten not only Corner, but Terry Boot, Cho Chang, Anthony Goldstein, Marietta Edgecombe (the sneak), and Padma Patil. None represented much of a challenge.

I was finishing dinner, today, when she came up behind me. Her. I had been planning on going up to Gryffindor tower to rub it in Hermione's face that I was still undefeated after six Ravenclaws, when...

"Ronald, would you like to play chess?"

I jumped about a foot in the air when she said that. I swear, she must float, because I didn't hear a single footstep.

I turned around to face her.

She looked...different...today. Not her usual aura of differentness, just...unlike she usually did.

"Er, hi, Luna. Sure, I'll play."

She smiled. Again, something seemed different, only this time I felt different. I don't know how. I just...well, it was almost as though I was nervous about playing her. I couldn't imagine why, as I had never been nervous about playing chess with anyone before.

So we played. She did not seem to have any strategy. She just...moved.

The fact that she did not take her eyes off of mine throughout the entire game did nothing to help my concentration.

But the odd thing...the odd thing is that I couldn't take my eyes off of hers. For some strange reason, I could not bring myself to break the connection that seemed to have established itself in our gaze. I just...stared.

It felt like hours had gone by. They may have, actually, I don't know. But then, she just smiled. A smile that would look unbelievably wrong on anyone else's face. And she said, "Checkmate."

It was then that the connection was broken. She looked down at the board, and seemed to be struggling not to laugh.

"You know, Ronald," she said, "it's not polite to stare."

I shook myself. Had I really been staring at her through the entire game? I could feel the blood rushing to my ears.

Now, I sit here, staring at the table, contemplating the events that have led me to this situation. I ask the one question that comes to mind. "Wanna play again?"

She smiles. "Of course, Ron."

* * *

"Can you believe that?" said Ginny, standing with Harry in the doors to the Great Hall. Both of their gazes were upon the Ravenclaw table, where Ron and Luna had just started to start another game of chess.

"I never thought that I'd see the day that Ron lost at chess," said Harry, amazed.

"No, not that. She called him Ron!"

"Well," said Hermione, walking up beside them. "You know what they say, it's better to have loved and lost," she smiled, "than to never have lost at all."

~The End~