The Hogwarts Chronicles -22-

Chapter Twenty Two: The Second Challenge

Brendon’s nerves had calmed down when Professor Wentz had explained what this challenge was all about. A game of chess. Brendon could handle that. At least now he wouldn’t have to be afraid to get knocked out by a giant troll. He just had to keep his head clear and think careful before he made a move. His nerves quickly came back, though, when Professor Wentz announced that he was going to be the first champion to play, since he was the last one with the first challenge.

“Good luck, Brendon!” Shane said and then he gave Brendon a small shove in the back, pushing him out of the tent and onto the playground.

“Holy shit,” Brendon muttered as he looked at the chess set in front of him. It looked just like any other chess set, but then enlarged. Brendon gulped as he looked up at one of the chess pieces. They were about one foot and a half taller than him. He quickly took a deep breath and cleared his mind of all thoughts, tightening his grip on his club.

“Which piece would you like to mount?” a voice close to him asked. Patrick. “I’m supposed to help you on it,” he quickly added, nodding towards the pieces.

“Oh… erm, I guess I’ll take the knight,” Brendon answered and it was only then that he noticed how quiet it was. He had expected that the arena would be open, just like when he had to fight against the troll, but instead it was surrounded by long, black curtains.

“Okay,” Patrick replied and gave Brendon a soft smile, taking a step closer to Brendon. He bent down a little bit and laid his right hand on top of his left. “Step on my hands and then on the chess piece,” he told Brendon, looking up at the boy. “You can lean on my shoulders when you step up, if you want. And you better put down the club, I’ll give it to you when you’re sitting on the chess piece.”

Brendon did as he was told and put the wooden club down. Then he lifted his left leg and stepped onto Patrick’s hand while leaning on the man’s shoulder. Patrick lifted Brendon a little bit, until he could swing his right leg over the back of the chess piece. Brendon immediately wrapped his arms around the neck of the horse-shaped chess piece, steadying himself. When he was sure that he wouldn’t fall off, he took one of his arms away and bent down to take the club from Patrick. “Thanks, man.”

“You’re welcome.” Patrick smiled and patted Brendon’s hand. “Good luck,” he added and then he stepped into the tent Brendon came from, leaving Brendon completely on his own. Or at least that’s what he thought. He didn’t know that the black curtains which were surrounding him were jinxed by Wentz so everyone who was sitting at the other side could look through them, kind of like a two-way mirror.

“Let the game begin!” Professor Wentz’s voice called and Brendon looked around him, trying to find the man, but he couldn’t see him which confused the boy. Brendon quickly shrugged it off and concentrated on the game he had to play.

Brendon wasn’t a chess genius, but Ryan was and during the past years, Brendon had learnt a lot of special and handy moves from his boyfriend so he thought that he might make a good chance to end first for this challenge. At least he hoped so.

Since Brendon had control over the white chess pieces, it was to him to make the first move. “E2 to E5!” he shouted, looking down at one of the pawns that was standing close to him. Close after Brendon had given the order the pawn moved two steps forward. Not so much to Brendon’s surprise, his opponent, whoever that was, mirrored Brendon’s move. “G1 to F3,” Brendon ordered when it was his turn again. A large grin spread all over Brendon’s face when the piece he was sitting on started moving. “Awesome,” he muttered to himself. Again, Brendon’s opponent mirrored the move by moving his own knight from B8 to C6. Brendon remembered that these opening moves were called Scotch Game because Ryan had thought him ages ago. There were tons of other openings like this, but for some reason Brendon was most likely to always pick this one whenever he played chess with Ryan. Maybe because it was the only one he could remember.

After making a couple more moves, Brendon was highly curious to see what would happen if he moved one of his pieces to a square that was already occupied with a piece of his opponent. After all, Professor Wentz had said that it was Wizard chess, so that probably meant that the piece would smash the other piece that was occupying the square already. The heavy club in Brendon’s hand could only confirm that thought.

When Brendon’s opponent moved one of his pawns to a square where one of Brendon’s pawns was already standing, Brendon’s eyes widened in surprise. The black pawn used the two swords it was holding to smash Brendon’s white pawn into hundreds of little pieces. Those chess pieces seemed to be more violent than the ones of Ryan’s chess set. Ryan’s pieces just shoved other pieces off their squares, without actually breaking the pieces so this came to Brendon as a shock. What if his opponent sent one of his chess pieces to the square he was standing on? Brendon quickly got rid of the thought and went back to the game. If he didn’t keep himself concentrated on the game he would lose and probably get smashed off the board in the process which was something that Brendon rather did not want to happen.

“F3 to D4!” Brendon said and took a deep breath. The piece he was sitting on moved once more, until it was standing right in front of a white pawn. Brendon took his wooden club and smashed the black pawn into pieces with it so that his knight could take the pawn’s place. “Amazing.” He grinned as he looked down at the shattered pieces of the black pawn.

As the game went on Brendon lost some pieces, but also smashed some of his opponent. Sometimes the pieces would attack each other with such violence that the fragments flew around in every direction, making several cuts in Brendon’s face and hands.

After playing for about forty five minutes, there were only five more pieces in the game: three white ones and two black ones. Brendon grinned when he saw that with one more move, he’d win. “D4 to C6,” he ordered, grabbing tightly on his club. When his piece had moved, he looked at his opponent’s king and smiled. “Checkmate.”

The opponent’s king made a small bow for Brendon, then he took off his crown and threw it down on the board. With one swift movement Brendon swung his club at the chess piece, knocking the king’s head off. “Fuck yeah!” he shouted and dropped the wooden club onto the board underneath him. Then he hopped off the knight, picked up the crown and ran back into the tent, smiling widely. He totally kicked this challenge’s ass.

“How did it go?” Shane asked when he saw Brendon entering the tent again.

“It was awesome!” Brendon beamed, unable to force back a squeal. He lifted the crown he was holding and showed it to Shane. “Who’s up next?”

“Greta,” Shane said, nodding his head towards the girl that was sitting in one of the corners of the tent. “She’s quite nervous because she only played chess a few times before,” he told Brendon. “But that’s good for us,” he added in a soft whisper and winked at Brendon.

“Totally.” Brendon grinned and nodded in agreement. “I’m going to find Ryan now. Good luck with your game.”

“Thanks, man. I’ll see you later,” Shane replied and then he walked over to Greta, probably to cheer her up a little bit because she wasn’t looking that happy. Brendon would have stayed too, but he needed to see Ryan now and tell him everything about the game.

“Good luck to you too, Greta!” Brendon said before exiting the tent to go and find his boyfriend.

Finding Ryan wasn’t that hard, because after Brendon had played the game of chess, Ryan left the bleachers to find Brendon as well. The two boys met somewhere halfway, both grinning like fools.

“Brendon!” Ryan squealed, launching himself at his boyfriend, practically squishing him. “You were so, so awesome,” he said as he pulled back. “The way you started off with that Scotch Game opening and then ended with a pawnless game was just brilliant!” he went on and started walking again. “But you could have checkmated your opponent a bit faster though.”

“Thanks.” Brendon smiled, giving Ryan’s hand a squeeze. “But how did you see everything? I was surrounded by black curtains, there’s no way you could have seen me if you were sitting in the arena,” he said, a little bit confused.

“Wentz put a spell on the curtains so we could look through them and see you. He put them there so everything would be quiet and peaceful for you, giving you the chance to think properly,” Ryan explained as they kept on walking. “Look.” He nodded his head towards the large curtains once they arrived inside the arena. From this side the curtains weren’t black, but they looked more like some sort of fog.

“Oh cool,” Brendon replied, looking at the large chess board that was now being cleaned up by Patrick and Hackiyan. “I want to see how the others are going to do. I had to miss that with the first challenge because I had to go last,” he told Ryan, walking up the steps.

“Yeah, me too! They’re not going to be as good as you, though. You did so well,” Ryan said, still smiling widely and making Brendon wonder who was the most excited, him or Ryan?

The couple sat down close to the top of the arena, so they could look over everyone’s head. Once the board had been cleaned up again and set up for the next contestant, Professor Wentz appeared in front of the curtains.

“The next contestant showed us that she stands very strong among the other three, male contestants,” Professor Wentz spoke to the large crowd. “Don’t mess with this girl because she showed that she’s not a weakling and definitely knows how to work her way with a troll. I hope she knows just as much about chess. Let’s wish her luck, people. Here she is, Greta Salpeter!”

Greta stepped into the arena two seconds later, looking somewhat uncertain about things. Patrick said something to her, but it was impossible to hear what for the people in the arena. Brendon guessed that Patrick asked her which chess piece she wanted to sit on to navigate the game. Greta pointed at the queen with a shaky finger, making Patrick nod in reply and then help her on the back of the chess piece.

“Good, Mrs. Salpeter has mounted her chess piece now, so let the game begin!” Professor Wentz shouted, making the crowd roar loudly in response.