𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐊𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐄
chapter three; A Hogsmeade Bartender?
" Yeah, unless you have a date planned with Potter. "

  JAMES POTTER HADN'T seen Lily Evans since December ninth, but this didn't mean he hadn't thought about her. He actually hadn't stopped thinking about her, but suddenly he had something else to think about.

  And, because James only ever knew extremes and the deepest parts of his heart had been longing for a distraction, the mystery chess-playing girl had consumed him.

  "Alright, mates," James announced, slapping two shreds of paper onto one of the shared desks in the Marauders dorm. "We have a mystery to solve."

  "Now that you need our help you want to share?" Sirius asked indignantly, his arms crossed tightly as he stared out of a singular window.

  "It's a girl," James said, which made Sirius snap his attention up. Remus raised an interested brow, while Peter scooted to the edge of his bed, "We've got to figure out who she is."

  "If we'd just waited to let Filch nick the map, this would be easier," Remus stated almost boredly, staring a hole through James.

  "I didn't think we'd be doing anything for the rest of the year," James defended, making Remus falter in his stale state, "Look, we acted before the map, we can do this after."

  "I'm in, mate," Sirius said, jumping from his seat. He had a lopsided grin as he clapped a hand on James' shoulder, shaking his best friend slightly, "You've inspired me."

  "So?" James asked, "Just Pads and I?"

  "I'll help," Peter quickly agreed, "D'ya think she's pretty?"

  "Focus, Wormtail," Sirius said, pointing, "Probably."

  "Well you'd never get anything done by yourselves," Remus mumbled in response to James' patient stare, "I assume you've already hatched a plan."

  "Why are you saying that like it's a bad thing?"

⥊

  "Okay, seriously, what's wrong?" 

  "Do you ever wonder why Evans broke up with James?"

  Dottie raised a brow at Salem's blunt question. The redhead was sturring their potion slowly, but her eyes were glued to the clump of Marauders in a far corner.

  "No," The raven-haired girl responded, absent-mindedly smoothing the top of her ponytail, "Everyone heard her— gave bloody Moaning Myrtle a run for her money."

  "They shouted at each other for five minutes, but there had to be a reason, right?" Salem proposed, turning to her friend, "I mean, they were practically the golden couple of the whole school. Must be torture being Head Boy and Girl now."

  "Why are you so interested in Evan's and Potter's demolished relationship?" Dottie asked lightly, carefully dropping tincture of thyme into the small black cauldron.

  "Dunno, it's got me curious," Salem shrugged, "He has no clue he's writing to me, it's a lot of freedom."

  "Use it responsibly."

  Salem rolled her eyes heavily, sarcasm seeping into the action. "Anyways, I think I finally tracked. . . him down."

  "What?"

  Dottie's voice rang throughout the stony confines of the potions-classroom, shining a spotlight on the girls. Salem briefly panicked at all the attention, hating that the world was looking at them, but then she simply reminded herself she was a Gryffindor.

  "Take a picture, it lasts longer," Salem stated evenly, slumping so her chin rested on her fist. A few Hufflepuffs let out chuckles before turning back to their potions— and for the most part, this took all attention off of them. "Discretion, Dot, we've talked about it."

  "Oh, sorry, you're right, I should be totally relaxed about you finding your bloody father," Dottie said, dripping with sarcasm. "How? Who? Where? Does Mum know?"

  "No, and I'm not telling her," Salem said quickly, "I don't even know if this bloke is—"

  "The one half your gene pool is comprised of?"

  "Nice, Dot, really eloquent," Salem mumbled, sighing heavily. She allowed Dottie to take over on stirring, raking her long locks into a ponytail due to the sudden wave of heat that consumed her, "If my father's been living in Hogsmeade the last however many years I'll probably speak to him once and never again."

  "He's in Hogsmeade?"

  "If this is the guy," Salem reiterated, slouching after the hair had been removed from her neck, "Been called a Mudblood way too many times to really be half."

  Dottie snorted at that.

  "His name's Roman Mayes," Salem began explaining, rolling her pen across a desk, "He's in his 40's, bartender at The Three Broomsticks."

  "He works at Three Broomsticks?" Dottie asked, jaw hanging open, "Dude, we can go in there now."

  "I know," Salem laughed, "Wanna go meet my maybe-dad this weekend?"

  "Yeah, unless you have a date planned with Potter."

  "I will dump this potion all over you, don't test me."

⥊

  "Alright, it's clearly a girl," Sirius noted, holding one of Mystery Girl's notes so close to his eyes it nearly brushed the tip of his nose, "Too neat to be a bloke."

  "And what guy would start late-night chess sessions with Prongs?"

  "Dunno, mate, we don't judge," Sirius shrugged at Peter, who'd shrunk back once realizing his joke didn't land correctly, "We need to collect handwriting samples from every Gryffindor girl."

  "That would take ages, there's an easier way to go about this."

  "You're right Moony, we hold a chess competition—"

  "Bloody hell, you're milking this scavenger hunt, aren't you?" Remus asked Sirius exasperatedly, "Why doesn't one of us hide out in the common room and just. . . wait for her?"

  "She may not show," James shrugged, "Or she catches one of us, what then?"

  "You want to do the handwriting thing."

  "Look, all I'm saying is this is one of the only interesting girls here," James said, moving his hands as he spoke, "I'd not like to scare her off."

  "You could always just. . . ask her. If you can try and find out who she is," Peter prompted quietly, "Like a game."

  "We've never asked permission to do something before but the first time we are, it's James' mystery bird?"

  "Yes, Sirius, get over it."

  James Potter was bouncing on his toes when he descended the steps into the common room. Her note had left intrigue, opening a mystery he was determined to solve, and tonight was his first step in the investigation.

  He was content with the note, relatively speaking. The boy tucked it beneath the chess-board, starting back towards his dorm. James only reached the fourth step before realizing he'd forgotten the entire point, scrambling back down the push a chess piece across the board.

  And he wouldn't admit it to anyone else, but the intrigue of a good game of chess had already been washed clean from his mind.

( AUTHOR'S NOTE. )
This one's for u five-hargreeves
Okay but seriously I never update
Checkmate but it's
kind of my favorite to write atm?
So be ready for that oof,
also yeah I didn't want the entire
story to revolve around the 
chess games because it's
like 5 minutes in the middle
of the night, and so Salem's
sub-plot(?) is her dad which I
am SO excited to get into. 
If you're interested, I did officially
cast her parents in the intro, but 
obviously, if you wanna imagine
them however you can ignore that!