THE MIRROR OF ERISED
Five minutes later, Ron and Hermione joined him, shaking their
heads. They went off to lunch.
“You will keep looking while I’m away, won’t you?” said
Hermione. “And send me an owl if you find anything.”
“And you could ask your parents if they know who Flamel is,”
said Ron. “It’d be safe to ask them.”
“Very safe, as they’re both dentists,” said Hermione.
Once the holidays had started, Ron and Harry were having too
good a time to think much about Flamel. They had the dormitory
to themselves and the common room was far emptier than usual,
so they were able to get the good armchairs by the fire. They sat by
the hour eating anything they could spear on a toasting fork —
bread, English muffins, marshmallows — and plotting ways of get-
ting Malfoy expelled, which were fun to talk about even if they
wouldn’t work.
Ron also started teaching Harry wizard chess. This was exactly
like Muggle chess except that the figures were alive, which made
it a lot like directing troops in battle. Ron’s set was very old and
battered. Like everything else he owned, it had once belonged
to someone else in his family — in this case, his grandfather.
However, old chessmen weren’t a drawback at all. Ron knew
them so well he never had trouble getting them to do what he
wanted.
Harry played with chessmen Seamus Finnigan had lent him,
and they didn’t trust him at all. He wasn’t a very good player yet
and they ke pt shouting different bits of advice at him, which was
confusing. “Don’t send me there, can’t you see his knight? Send
him, we can afford to lose him.”
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