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in_the_grass ([info]in_the_grass) wrote in [info]wished,
@ 2010-09-01 12:40:00

Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
Entry tags:!2003: 08, !complete, essery oakby, severus snape

Who: Severus Snape and Essery Oakby
What: Chess.
Where: Headmaster's office, Hogwarts.
When: Backdated to August 31st, evening.
Warnings/Rating: Probably none/low

He wasn't certain who had left this set behind, but doubted it had been Dumbledore. It hardly seemed whimsical enough. By the look of it, it might not have been enchanted at all; it was all perfectly plain black and white stone, and none of the pieces showed any sign of jumping to life and murdering one another. But then, there were probably plenty of things hiding away in this office that weren't what they seemed, and five years hadn't been enough time to make a thorough survey. It didn't seem to be cursed, in any case, so it would serve. He set it out without incident, lining the pieces up with a flick of his wand.

"You can go first, if you like," he said, with a faint smirk. "I believe that's the courtesy usually afforded the party occupying the disadvantaged position?" Not that he saw any cause to doubt her chess-related abilities - but she had set herself up for an unwinnable argument.


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[info]oakbye
2010-09-13 12:15 am UTC (link)
"Well, they do alright." The knight taken out of the equation, now, she turned to protecting her castle, moving it back to the Queen's side. "I suspect the Slytherins went to each other? Likely still do. Horace can be friendly at times, but I don't see him being the love life advice type."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-13 12:24 am UTC (link)
"If he is, I'm sure none of us care to know." He'd never found Horace very useful as a student, but he had never tried to make much use of him. It was possible other people might; he had no idea. He moved his other bishop out, finally, crossing half the board; a little more fire power. "But the thought of those poor things giving one another advice almost drives one to sympathy."

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-13 12:31 am UTC (link)
"Perhaps they had no emotional problems to speak of?" She offered, almost hopefully, and moved her remaining knight to a defensive position.

"But I'm sure they found their ways. I never used Professor Sprout to air my woes, and I managed my way through school."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-13 12:40 am UTC (link)
"They're adolescents. They are emotional problems. It's not meant to be a part of the job, but so long as people take it up, I suppose it shall be." He didn't like how she kept drawing back; it made his attempts at a bold offense fall a little flat, too much risk. He should moderate a little. "I rather hated it. It actually is a good deal better dealing with the Governors."

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-13 12:44 am UTC (link)
"See, I would be impossible at that." She shook her head. "Not political enough to deal with the sort of wizards who tend to become governors, from those I've known in the past at least." Which reminded her of something she'd meant to ask. "When exactly am I to take up answering all your mail, by the way?"

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-13 12:51 am UTC (link)
"Oh, that starts tomorrow," he said, smiling broadly for quite the first time today. "I wouldn't deprive you of the marvelous crop of Howlers that's sure to turn up after the feast - that turns up every year, really, after the first day. I hope you don't mind if I listen in on a few. There are some that are reliably amusing." He threatened her bishop with a pawn, trying to force her to engage. "But you won't need to send anything off to the board." As satisfying as it might be to shove that off onto someone else. He'd learned to cope with that sort, by now. Traditional, old, ornery ... it was a set he was familiar with.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-13 12:57 am UTC (link)
"I can probably manage to write, even to them, as long as I'm having to meet with them in person." She laughed, but then turned serious again as she considered the board and moved a pawn up to threaten the pawn he'd advanced. She could take it next turn unless he had something up his sleeve.

"Dealing with publishers, I learned at least to write like I can be political."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-13 01:57 pm UTC (link)
He began moving out his castle on the other side of the board. He almost always had something up his sleeve, although at the moment he wasn't precisely giving it his all. "That makes decent practice, I suppose. I don't know what it takes to be published; is it more pandering, or sensationalism, or stubborn persistence in one's point of view? Aside from raw talent, of course." He would have to admit he'd only read about her books. Accounts of Muggle society held relatively little interest for him - he was sure he'd had his fill of it already.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 01:40 am UTC (link)
She was sure somehow he could have destroyed her by now, and she wondered if he wasn't dragging this out for some reason - enjoying the conversation, she hoped, and not because he wanted to enjoy the slow torture of beating her slowly.

She moved an unthreatened pawn forward as she shrugged. "It depends on the publishing house, I suppose? With Wizzhard, they never actually gave me too much trouble. There's always someone looking for muggle curiosity books."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 01:50 am UTC (link)
He was, in fact, playing more poorly than usual because he rarely bothered to engage his opponents in conversation at all. And hers was more enjoyable than most. He found her quite reasonable, which wasn't a word he used to describe very many people. But that was no reason to embarrass himself; his queen made a break for her weaker side.

"Do they not get a touch - repetitive, after a while? I suppose everyone's experience is different. Still - there's only so much marveling over cars that one can really do." There must have been some way of distinguishing them. He thought of them more as novels than anything else.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 01:56 am UTC (link)
Essery shrugged. She hadn't really thought that they would have this type of conversation, and she was enjoying it. She smiled across at him, not paying as much attention either to what was happening on the board, though she did move her castle defensively again.

"I suppose. Each of my books has focused on interactions, more, which at least keep more interesting. Characterization and all. I don't spend that much time talking about cars."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 02:06 am UTC (link)
"An odd choice of focus. I should think that would be one of the most similar points - no great source of novelty value." People were just as bad in the Muggle world, after all, as they were here. He began grouping his remaining pawns together. No sense in bringing out such an important piece and leaving it to be smashed on a chance move. "But perhaps you've managed to produce more than novelty," he conceded, after a moment, not having meant to denigrate her work, really. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know. It's been an age since I've read anything that wasn't academic." Or that you didn't discuss with a Muggle Studies professor.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 02:15 am UTC (link)
"I'm surprised you don't read up on all of us when you hire us so that you can mock our work..." Essery laughed easily as she said it, only barely resisting the urge to wink as she teased him. There were lines.

She moved her knight back to a defensive position too, preparing for an inevitable standoff and feeling backed into a wall a bit. "I can get you autographed copies if you like. There's my first book where I hung about with foreign students and recorded their reactions to small bits of magic.."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 02:23 am UTC (link)
"My library always has room for an expansion, although you might not know it to look at it." He smiled as he pushed his bishop further toward that weakened corner - and hadn't quite lost it by the time he looked up at her again. "If you can make them first editions, I think I'll be able to find a decent spot." He sat back, surveying the board, lazily working forward through a few moves. "I do my research, I like to think. But most people provide reason enough for mockery once they arrive, and I am a busy man." Not so busy, though. Apparently.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 02:34 am UTC (link)
That made Essery smile way too brightly, obviously pleased and not at all shy about showing that. That he'd take the time to even think about reading her books was... well, ridiculous, really, because it wasn't like her books were academic in any sense of the word. But it also made her feel... special, somehow, and she hadn't been prepared for that.

"I'll see what I can do," she said, looking away from him to the board just to have something else to focus on. It took her a few moments to have enough presence of mind to make a move.

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 02:52 am UTC (link)
It wasn't the reaction he had expected. "Wonderful." She was a professor, he ought to have her books ... but, he had to admit, he found them less appealing for the content than for the source. - Well, he hadn't read them, had he, so he couldn't rightly say. But he did want them for his collection. He gave her a half-smile in return before quickly countering her move. "You've probably got one of the higher page-counts of our faculty, actually," he said. Aside from Professor Binns, who never seemed to stop writing, and ... would never have to stop, apparently. "There is a benefit to taking a bit of time to do something else before leaping into academia."

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 03:01 am UTC (link)
"Aside from Binns," she said without really censoring herself. Fine, maybe she did compare her page counts against the rest of the professors here. "Well, and Sinistra, maybe." Though she wsn't quite sure about that one. Still, their books were academic. Her's were... not so much.

And he had just smiled at her, she was pretty sure, without nothing smirking behind it. That was enough of a win that she didn't really mind it that any of her next moves would make her sacrifice pieces she'd rather not.

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 03:10 am UTC (link)
"Exceptions," he drawled. "To be expected, considering there's nothing else to do, in History or Astronomy, but publish." He'd never published more than a few articles, himself. His primary interests lay in areas that few people cared to try to put to print. He hardly noticed the fact that she had the names so close at hand; he'd always been almost ridiculously competitive. He probably knew the pagecounts down to the last turn.

He knocked off her castle, with evident satisfaction. "And no one's ever cared to rad about Potions, really. Some subjects are inherently disadvantaged." Which he hadn't helped by souring an entire generation of British witches and wizards on that discipline, but ... it couldn't be helped now.

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-14 03:18 am UTC (link)
Essery nodded. "Well, I'm rubbish at Potions, I think we covered that..." She remembered something though, which she brought up as her remaining bishop took his knight in what didn't seem like a good trade for that castle.

"You did an article on Wolfsbane though, didn't you? Maybe the year after I graduated or somewhere in that area? I remember I was doing some research for the Society - " Which was the way she always referred to The Society for the Support of Squibs that her family ran - "And we had a squib man who'd been bitten. I remember it actually made sense to me, I was so surprised at the time."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-14 04:35 am UTC (link)
"Wofls - ah. Yes." He wondered, suddenly, just what she would think of his motivations for that particular article. It hadn't quite worked - he'd had to beat those Ministry idiots over the head to get anything done - but all the same, perhaps it was better not to discuss it in its true context. "I spent rather a lot of time making it, that year; I thought a few observations were in order. I'm glad you found them useful. It's an admirable cause." He knew about her family's charitable work, of course. "I don't imagine you find very much time for it, now?"

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-20 01:19 am UTC (link)
"The Society?" She shook her head, making a play and then realizing she was backed into a corner. She'd thought it would take him a little longer to get her so vulnerable in the game. "It's really my Mother running everything now, of course. I help out during the summers, but they don't need me all that much."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-20 01:25 am UTC (link)
He looked rather pleased with himself, really, as he usually did when he thought he was in sight of a victory. "I should think she would be rather more busy, these days - tapering off, perhaps, after the war. But still. It left quite a few people in that position in need of support, did it not?" He could think of a few specific examples, having been quite close with the perpetrators. He took one of her pawns. "Check, Professor."

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-20 01:28 am UTC (link)
"It didn't affect Squibs as much as muggleborns," Essery pointed out, "Though she has had the society working pretty closely with the Muggleborn Aide Office. Most of those that we helped to relocate during the war have come back, now, and gone to that office for anything else they may need..." She didn't know the ins and outs of what the Society did, really, these days. She'd been busy with her own work.

At the Check, her lips pursed. She moved defensively, but she thought they could both see where this was headed. "Essery," she said, "Headmaster."

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[info]in_the_grass
2010-09-20 01:35 am UTC (link)
"They wouldn't have been such easy targets, no. I'm glad to hear it, I suppose." He would have to admit that the only Squib he knew he knew was Filch. "It's enough of a burden during peacetime. Without someone marking you for murder." Or worse. He smiled, moving his queen another space, endangering a bishop and beginning to build another path to checkmate. "Essery. Of course. I am sorry. You needn't call me Headmaster," he said lightly, surveying the mess of stone dust on the floor. "You've taken a few respectable pieces, after all."

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[info]oakbye
2010-09-20 01:46 am UTC (link)
She took one of his pawns for the trade, since she was sure she couldn't save the bishop, and laughed. "Is that how someone gets to be on a first name basis with you, then? They have to make a good show in a chess game?"

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(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 01:58 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-09-20 02:00 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 02:08 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-09-20 02:11 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 02:18 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-09-20 02:21 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 02:27 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-09-20 02:29 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 02:38 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]oakbye, 2010-09-20 02:40 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]in_the_grass, 2010-09-20 03:26 am UTC

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