The chess game in SS/PS, quidditch, and Snape's potion puzzle...

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 109556

K wrote:
First off, I'm a huge Snape fan but I must admit I've been putting
together a list of reasons why I believe my favorite character is
nothing more than a pawn. :-(

Pawn: A person used by another to gain an end.

Wouldn't you know one of my reasons involves a chess game between
Harry and Ron in OoP.

Ron and Harry are playing chess when Mrs. Weasley walks in the room
and tells Harry that Professor Snape is there to see him. Harry at
first doesn't pay attention to what Molly has said. Harry and Ron
continue with their chess game. So let's look at that scene once
again:

"Harry dear, said Mrs. Weasley, poking her head into his and Ron's
bedroom..."

"Professor Snape would like a word with you."

Harry did not immediately register what she had said. One of his
castles was engaged in a violent tussle with a pawn of Ron's, and
he was egging it on enthusiastically.

"Squash him --- **squash him**, he's only a pawn, you idiot. Sorry,
Mrs. Weasley, what did you say?"

"Professor Snape, dear."
oop/ch 24/pg 517/us

vmonte replies:
K your post is awesome! I have another chess game scene.
Page 217 SS

"...Harry headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room, where
he found Ron and Hermione playing chess. Chess was the only thing
Hermione ever lost at, something Harry and Ron thought was very good
for her." (Again we are told that Hermione is not a good strategist.)

"Don't talk to me for a moment," said Ron when Harry sat down next to
him, "I need to concern--" He caught sight of Harry's face. "What's
the matter with you? You look terrible."

"Speaking quietly so that no one else could hear, Harry told the
other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch
referee.  

"Don't play," said Hermione at once.
"Say you're ill," said Ron.
"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.
"Really break your leg," said Ron.

(Dumbledore also ends up going to this match by the way.) 

"I can't," said Harry. "There isn't a reserve Seeker. If I back out,
Gryffindor can't play at all."

"At that moment Neville toppled into the common room."

(Harry states that he can't back out because they will lose the game 
and Neville walks in. Hmmmmm, Prophecy about two boys anyone?)

"How he had managed to climb through the portrait hole was anyone's
guess, because his legs had been stuck together with what they
recognized at once as the Leg-Locker Curse. He must have had to
bunny hop all the way up to Gryffindor tower." (Reminds me of DoM
fight at the end of OOTP.)

vivian