The King of the Castle and the Ice Queen

Amelia was hesitant as she made her way to the sixth floor, somehow prolonging the short journey from Ravenclaw tower to the relatively high story of Hogwarts castle to take more than the usual five minutes. In her hands, she was carrying a plate which bore the weight of a dozen freshly frosted cupcakes, pumpkin cakes with cream cheese frosting that were befitting of the fall season. Of course, Amelia having no cooking skill of her own had not made the cupcakes, but the house elves in the kitchen earlier this morning had been all too eager to supply them when she made the request.

The thought that perhaps the professor had been kidding about the cupcakes had never even crossed the Ravenclaw’s mind, even though his comment had been offhanded and scattered among many other less-than-serious remarks. Amelia, being as literal a person as she was, did not usually interpret sarcasm and facetiousness for what it was, which was likely the only thing that could have brought her to the point of bearing cupcakes to the headmaster’s office, where she had a date set to play chess against the man himself.

It was an anxiety-producing situation, to be certain, which was why Amelia had been dragging her feet all the way to the headmaster’s door, which now stood impressively in front of her nose. She had been standing here for several minutes now, trying to think of just the right way to approach this situation, but she honestly couldn’t fathom what one would say to the man who had the most power in the whole school. It was intimidating enough that he knew information about her that she did not disclose readily; yes, it was more or less common knowledge that she liked chess, but she didn’t think her professors aware of this fact. Even more daunting was the fact that the headmaster was keen on playing a game of chess with her of all people.

But standing here any longer was only due to make her late, and so Amelia gave the password that the headmaster had provided her with and stepped onto the rotating staircase that brought her to atrium of the headmaster’s office. Gripping the sides of the plate a bit tighter, Amelia stepped off the rotating escalator and onto the smooth marble, knowing her presence would be detected without her having to say anything, probably the only thing she had to be grateful for at the moment.

We was watching television! Yes, he wasn't supposed to have such a device here, but as Headmaster, he smuggled it inside. Technically, he would have smuggled it downstairs even if he wasn't Headmaster, but this way, his office was way more comfy. And then, he heard some footsteps and someone coming to him. Now, who could this be?

He took his cane, transfigured the television set into a plant and waited to see who it was. If it was some nuisance with absolutely no point in coming here, he would send him or her down in the shape of a tennis ball. He wasn't Headmaster so that each idiot could some to see him and ask about anything, His job was difficult, well... his wasn't, but the job of the Headmaster is and if anyone asked, he had a lot of work to do.

But, to his surprise (not to see her, but he was surprised at the fact that he forgot) it was Amelia Lyons. The girl he invited for chess. And, she was carrying cupcakes? He probably said it, but, in her case, he was joking. This was funny and somewhat cute, if Doyle used that word to describe things going on around him. He took up and limped towards.

''Why, Miss Lyons, good evening. I am delighted that you actually came. And... about the cupcakes, it was a joke, but still... we should have something to nibble on during the game'', he said, taking the plate and giving her a signal to take a seat.

He returned to his seat and removed all the unnecessary things from his desk - meaning everything. He put the plate on it and started searching through his drawers. He then found it! He took an old chess board out and put it on the desk, positioning the figures. ''I suppose you have nothing against being white?'', he asked with a smile. ''Now, tell me. why do you like chess so much, Miss Lyons?', he asked.

As Amelia had suspected, it did not take long for the headmaster to detect a new presence in his office, and he appeared a few seconds later in the doorway that separated his inner office from the atrium. He seemed momentarily surprised to see her, which immediately sent Amelia into a panic that she had somehow misinterpreted what the headmaster had said in his invitation to her – was this the wrong time? The wrong day? Had he been facetious in asking her at all? – but after letting her wind herself up for a few seconds, the headmaster’s face reorganized itself into one of pleasantry, and he moved toward her with an equally agreeable greeting, to which she could find no response but to smile politely.

Amelia felt foolish once again as the headmaster informed her that the cupcake comment had been a joke, for she had not even thought to take it as such, and she blushed as he took the plate from her hands. Although she was probably incapable of having made that connection – she was not particularly apt at reading sarcasm, though she was fully capable of dishing it out – Amelia was still mentally chastising herself as she took the seat that the headmaster had gestured toward, crossing her ankles beneath the chair and gripping one set of fingers with the other in her lap, her nerves clearly not assuaged by the first few minutes of her encounter with the headmaster.

As Professor Doyle took the seat opposite her, he cleared the desk quickly and took a few minutes to locate his chess set. The one he produced was old and worn, not what Amelia would have anticipated of someone who likely had the money and space to have a fancy, glass or ivory set, but the state of the pieces and board would not matter once the game was going. Not wasting any time, the headmaster had already begun to set up his own pieces when he made his first inquiry, followed closely by another, more personal one.

“White is fine,” Amelia said politely, maintaining a level tone of respect that her mother had ingrained into her. To be honest, Amelia was probably more comfortable in this type of conversation – one she was conducting formally, rather than informally – than she was talking to her peers, mostly because she had more practice in this arena. She had grown up talking to adults and people that far outranked her – a 13-year-old did not have much rank, afterall – and thus reminded herself that she ought to be fine for the hour or so that the chess game was likely to take.

The second question was not a difficult one for Amelia to answer to herself, but she paused for a moment to think of just the right words in which to express it to the headmaster. He was aware of much of her personality, despite the brevity of their actual encounters, but how aware was he of how her mind worked? After a few seconds, she settled on what she thought was a succinct and honest answer to his question, though not excessively honest.

“Chess has always appealed to me because of the logical nature of the game,” Amelia answered, focusing her visual attention on setting up her own pieces to avoid any further nervousness or pressure from having to look at the headmaster, “For each action, there is a reaction. Each decision one makes in chess can be calculated, with the right amount of knowledge, to produce the best possible move. Although the game will change each time you play, depending on your opponent and the skill difference between players, the rules and strategy of the game still provide both an anchor to ground the game and a map that predicts the next best choice,” Amelia finished as she set up her last pawn.

Knowing it was her obligation to go first, being white, Amelia picked up a middle pawn and moved it two spaces forward, a typical opening move for her. Not overly ambitious, nor part of any predictable strategy. It was a bold move, but not one that gave away any long-term plans she might have had for her attack. In short, a move much like Amelia’s own behaviors in life.

“And for what reason do you play, Headmaster?” Amelia asked as her turn finished, allowing her eyes to rise up to meet his as she returned his question to him.

''Ah, I see that you have grasped the concept of the game'', he said, referring to her question. Of course, she was a bright girl, but did she, fully, comprehend what he was trying to play? One question per turn, and he was going to make sure they played a lot of turns. She reminded him of him during his Hogwarts days... bright, but still a loner, a freak of society despite her overall beauty. That is why he had called her over.

He then looked at the chessboard. This was his father's... an old one he got in Egypt. It was original, not those cheap handmade copied that would break in a matter of days. This chessboard was, supposedly, more than a hundred years old, but could you really trust Egyptian merchants? It was probably around 50 to 60 years of age, but more than a 100 was an obvious exaggeration.

As she pulled her first pawn, he gave her a symbolic look, directly into the eyes and smiled. He took his same pawn and moved it also two spaces in front, making them face each other, like the players themselves. He had a very interesting tactic, but he was not about to reveal it in the beginning. He needed to see what she was up to.

''It is a game of logic and deduction, a game that stimulates rational thought and gives you an insight on how your opponent thinks. If you play against an idiot, the game will be over very soon, but if you play against someone intelligent, it is destined to extremely pleasurable. But also, there is that other side. Playing chess gives you a brilliant insight on the person you are playing against. It reveals much about them and who they are and that is why I like to play it... it stimulates but also does research, which always gives you an opportunity, if you know how to play and think properly, to find out much about your opponent'', he explained. ''I think it is my turn now. It should be an easy one for starters. Why did you accept? I mean, yes, there was a dose of respect towards me as your professor and headmaster, but why did you really accept?'', he asked.

Although Amelia could have taken the headmaster’s reply to simply be a reflection on her analysis of chess, his tone and Amelia’s perception told her otherwise. The fact that she had answered his question when it was her turn to make a move, and then returned the question to him when it was his turn to play had been accidental on her part, but intention on the part of the headmaster. This meeting, as Amelia suspected even before she came here, was not about chess alone, which made Amelia even more nervous.

The headmaster’s reaction to her first move was unexpectedly bold, looking directly at her before mirroring her movement exactly. It was not an innovative move, but Amelia was certain that the professor had more up his sleeve than just a copycat tactic. More than his chess strategies, though, Amelia was wondering what the headmaster had up his sleeve concerning the conversation that was sure to flow between them while the game was going on. When Amelia was in the chess area of the park in Diagon Alley, she was well-known enough to make the rules; anyone that wanted to play her, could, under the condition that he or she did not try to make small talk. This had been the rule for so long that other chess players had taken to giving a newbie a warning look if he tried to comment on the weather or ask Amelia where she was from. Conversation was limited only to necessary chess-talk and nothing else.

Here, however, Amelia did not have the control she did at the chess park. Here, she was in the headmaster’s territory, which meant that she could not make and enforce those same rules, and that she would have to play whatever games he wanted, which would hardly be limited to chess, Amelia had a feeling. His answer to her question was logical enough and well thought out, which was all fine, but Amelia could hardly dwell on her appreciate for his logic when she found herself faced with another question, this time not so easily reasoned out purely by fact.

“I accepted because I find you perplexing,” Amelia finally answered after taking more than a minute to collect her thoughts, looking at the chess board to give the impression that she were debating her next move instead of her next words, but it was so early in the game that both of them would know that she wasn’t thinking about chess. Her answer was turning out to be more honest than she expected, but he had asked for full disclosure, so he could hardly be offended when she answered in that way.

“Your interest in me, while flattering, is somewhat confusing, as I do not feel I have earned it. So I thought in coming here, I might come to better understand your thought processes on the subject.”

While she spoke, Amelia had moved her knight to the right hand side of the board, preparing to castle. It was a standard defensive maneuver, but one she had always found to be effective. Looking up to the headmaster, she did not hesitate to take her own turn in this game. If she had to participate on the answering end, she was certainly not going to pass up the opportunity to pick his brain as well.

“Why did you become headmaster?” Amelia asked bluntly, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear as she posed the question, “And with a similar stipulation, I do not mean what were the logistics. I mean to inquire of your motivations,” she added, knowing this man would see loopholes in question as well as she did.

She was castling. Already? A very interesting move for the beginning of a chess game. He looked around the board and moved his king's Pawn one space, thereby enabling his bishop to move. This move was plane, seemingly without prior thought, but it was part of his tactic. As she was making defensive moves, he had the opportunity to start offense.

''Ah, I see that you have full understood how this should work. And a very interesting answer indeed'', Doyle said. This would, deducing by the current state of affairs, definitely be an interesting meeting. She was intelligent and witty enough to play along, and definitely someone who would be a very amusing companion, both for chess and for conversation.

He wasn't the one to invite people to chess and then chat with them. He was the one being challenged, meaning he had the liberty to either decline or accept under his conditions. The latter was more frequent. Before is subsequent win, in all those chess games, he would demand complete silence, discarding any possibility of conversation, even related to chess. But, now that he had invited her, and it was highly improbable that she would decline, he had the opportunity to exercise his communication skills and to see how discussion during chess works.

''And an interesting addition to the question. Well, that is a long story, but I suppose we have time. Interesting enough, you did not ask why I became Potions Master. Well, a long time ago, you probably weren't even born, or were little, I was also working here, in that same Dungeon I am working now. And then, the situation wasn't brighter, especially with the staff. I was always a man of authority and I demanded work and respect in my classroom, which I still do, but someone disagreed. Two Headmasters exchanged while I taught, and the second one had a daughter attending my classes. Of course, she was daddy's little princess and she had the liberty to do anything. But of course, my class was an exception. One time, she managed to provoke me to that instance that I deduced points, gave her detention and... pured the potion she made on her head with my wand. It made her hair disappear. Of course, I got a week's time to clear my things. Of course, the school did not mourn for me much, but I swore to myself that I would never return here until I got the chance to make things right. And when they offered me the job of Headmaster, I accepted. And that is it, to summarize, I accepted this job only to make things right, to have the authority that I should have had back there. As you may have seen, I do not have much love for teaching and human contact, the main reason is teaching my subject and being able to do what I want, it is as simple as that. Maybe it is both malicious and egocentric, but you should understand that my sense of righteousness is the main reason for those two traits. And that is why I have become Headmaster... well, I was also a little bored, but that is a secondary reason'', he said, adding a smile in the end.

He took a cupcake from the plate and eat it. Now, it was his turn. ''Miss Lyons, what I would like to know about you now is why you are so isolated? You are intelligent and beautiful, someone who should be admired, but still, you chose, willingly, to isolate yourself. It was, probably, a result of personal relationships with people, but the fact is that you have chosen so yourself. Why?'', he asked.

The headmaster was taking a different strategy now that he had seen she was moving defensively. He was making the same moves she would have made had she been sitting on that side of the desk, which could mean one of two things: that it was early enough in the game that all the right moves were obvious, or that the two of them had similar minds when it came to chess. Amelia did not often come across someone who thought the same way she did while looking at a chess board, and it would be interesting to see how this went. Playing someone with the same skill level was one thing, but playing someone with the same strategy sets was completely another. It was like playing against yourself, and trying to outsmart your own mind.

Amelia listened to the headmaster’s lengthy explanation of how he had come to be in his current position. It seemed curious to her that the school should have offered him the position of headmaster, considering the conditions under which he had been dismissed previously. Surely someone with his record when it came to student interaction would have come under extra scrutiny when put before the Hogwarts board. But somehow the blunt and sometimes undignified man had made it through the screening process, and Amelia wasn’t altogether certain that was a good decision on the part of the Hogwarts overlords, but she wasn’t about to voice that opinion aloud. It seemed to Amelia that although Professor Doyle was intelligent and more than qualified to be a teacher, he was doing it for the wrong reasons. If he hated to teach and disliked human contact, he had chosen the wrong profession. It seemed he was driven by some personal affront from years earlier, rather than by a more pure desire to improve the intelligence and critical thinking skills of his students.

Despite her misgivings about his reasoning, Amelia mirrored the headmaster’s smile convincingly, having worked on her force-a-smile skills at her parents’ many gatherings over the years. She meant the smile to convey that she was laughing along with him at his slight joke that boredom had been a determining factor in taking the job, but she made no further attempt to comment on what he had said, lest she give away what she was really thinking.

As the headmaster bit into one of the house elves’ cupcakes, Amelia moved her bishop out from the back row, leaving the way clear now to castle on her next move. While she was making moves on the chess board, the headmaster had made a move of his own, though in the second of two games the pair were playing. His question this time was one of a more personal nature, which made Amelia immediately defensive.

“You don’t know that it is a personal choice,” Amelia said warily, knowing that challenging the professor’s assessment could prove risky, “Intelligence does not always bode well for making friends, and it is not an oft-admired skill among people my age.”

“And if I had chosen solitude, it should not be altogether surprising to you,” Amelia continued, throwing up another obstacle in the way of the headmaster’s question. Perhaps if she talked around the question, she would not be forced to answer it, “By your own admittance you are not a social creature, so it must be possible that you might be able to identify with the feeling of wanting to maintain your distance.”

Tread carefully, Amelia… her subconscious warned, aware that in speaking so boldly to the headmaster she risked incurring his ire. She had not raised her voice while speaking, nor done anything in particular to suggest that she was challenging the headmaster, but she had also not answered his question. She had broken the rules of the game, and she did not yet know how the headmaster would take it.

''I know it is a personal choice, Miss Lyons. And, you did not seem like the one to evade rules, not to say break them, in the beginning, but I suppose I might have posed a too striking question, still, I shall demand a more precise answer in order for us to continue. I myself am asocial because I chose so, because I don't like people that much, and by people I do not men persons, just... people. But I think you do understand the point I am trying to make'', he started.

He then took another bite of the cupcake. Seeing her concentrate on the board, he took one from the plate and put it in front of her. He smiled at her, sincerely this time. Now, why was he sincere and friendly? She brought the cupcakes and it would be extremely impolite of him to eat them without her even taking a bite.

He then returned to the board, thinking about his next move. His next move was a crucial one, as she had just finished her preparations for castling, he had to do something smart, but still, seemingly harmless. He took his knight and moved it in front of his pawn. He had no intention with it, not yet, but he had to free up the space for his rook, which demanded such a move, intelligent, but seemingly harmless and naive.

He then looked at Amelia again. ''It was, of course, a personal choice, Miss Lyons. You had the opportunity to be the best, to have company around you, to not be the target of all sorts of looks, and trust me, from my position I can see a lot more than all of them think, but no... you are strong, you keep to yourself and you don't do anything your rational mind would disagree with, in most cases, that is. But, do not misinterpret my question as doubting you or judging you, Amelia. For being like that I praise you more than the ones trying or wanting to blend in. You are special and you keep on being special, and that is why you get my respect, more than anyone else here. This said, the meaning of my question is pretty simple... I am just wondering why you did it, why would you chose the tougher, yet more... brilliant, way?'', he asked, again.

Amelia felt herself cringing as the professor called her out on the fact that she was breaking the rules of the game. She already knew, of course, that in avoiding the headmaster’s question that she was breaking the rules of the game he had begun, but she had rather hoped to keep him oblivious of that. It was a lost cause to begin with, Amelia knew; the headmaster had already proven himself to be more perceptive than his peers and hers, so the chances of her slipping anything past him were never good from the start.

Feeling utterly defeated in her attempt, Amelia felt herself physically retreating from the headmaster. Although she maintained her posture, she was sitting further back on the chair and her shoulders were not as open as they had been previously. She was guarding herself. Perhaps the headmaster had seen this and that was why he passed a cupcake to her, giving her what seemed like a genuine smile. To be completely honest, Amelia had never seen the headmaster give what she might have perceived as a real smile, instead of a smirk or a condescending one, so she couldn’t be completely sure this was the real deal, but she took the cupcake anyway, returning his smile with a half-smile of her own, however insincerely it was felt.

The Ravenclaw girl tentatively pulled at the wrapping around the cupcake until it came free, pulling it away from the cake itself before taking the smallest of bites. The cupcakes were well prepared, and Amelia felt the pumpkin taste penetrate her taste buds as the headmaster made his move. He was being deceptively simple in his attack, but Amelia was not fooled. She knew that the headmaster would have played the games many times before to be so interested in it, and no move of his would be made without an absolute purpose in mind.

After letting go of his piece, the headmaster continued his attack on her previous skirting of the issue, though less directly this time. Despite his somewhat more tactful continuation, however, Amelia could still feel the sting of being told she had done something wrong. It wasn’t often that she experienced this emotion and she hated the feeling. In her search for something near perfection – perfection itself, of course, was unattainable – Amelia had made it a personal goal never to have to listen to the ire of a professor or her mother (though that goal was nearly unattainable as Antoinette had a laundry list a kilometer long of things she disapproved of). Although he was praising her choice openly, Amelia could still feel the sting of his words as he was made to ask the same question again.

This time, Amelia knew she could not avoid the question with any fancy wordsmithing. The headmaster was already wise to her games and he wasn’t going to let her out of this one. She had two choices: leave now, or answer the question. Both seemed like unsatisfactory choices to Amelia, but in a didactic game, one had only two options, and Amelia made her choice after following through with her plans to castle, not looking at Doyle as she finally gave him the answer he wanted.

“It’s not tougher,” Amelia answered stoicly, careful to keep her voice free of emotion, “It’s easier. It is easier to keep people at a distance because then you do not come to depend on them. When you put your faith, your happiness, a piece of your well-being in another person’s hands, you are taking a risk. And more often than not, you get hurt. It is easier to depend only on myself, because then at least I know when the hurt is coming. It won’t take me by surprise, and when things go wrong, it is no one’s fault but my own.”

As she finished speaking, Amelia couldn’t help but think of how much stronger this mentality had grown in her since her fallout with Elijah. He was now the prime example of all the reasons why Amelia never got close to anyone; relationships made you weak, made you make bad decisions. When she gave a piece of her happiness to Elijah – a far greater piece than he had earned or deserved – he did just what she had always feared an outsider would do with it: he supported it for as long as it fit him, and then he threw it to the side without concern for how it would affect her. And now, even more so than she had before she ever met him, Amelia believed that the only person she could trust was herself.

''Yes, Miss Lyons, it is. Trust me, I have had experience with it all. Of course, it seems easier, because you only look at one side, and that is the negative one. I have looked at it like that for years before I came to the point where I realized that I can still be myself, alienate the majority that irritates the hell out of me, and have some social contacts other than books and magic. Of course, I am not implying that you do not have any social contact, that would be inadequate from me, but I am certain that is restrained mainly on what needs to be said, and nothing more. One should never reveal all he has, all his cards, but hiding all of them also won't solve anything'', he explained.

And this is exactly what he was talking about. This conversation was probably the best example he could think of. Thirty, or more, years ago he would have just kept quiet, playing his game, ushering his opponent so he could get out and socialize with his own solitude. But now, now that he is 30 years older, he is revealing some of his cards, from which someone like her could deduce the rest, to a 17 year-old student of his that has absolutely no connection to him at all. That was what he was trying to say to her, but he would elaborate it soon enough.

''You know, Miss Lyons, keeping your cards to yourself will only result in you, as a person, dying part by part. Your brilliance will lose its touch and you will just become one of those awkward types that never learned how to get along. Of course, I am not saying you should reveal your cards to a student in your office, for that you have to have the experience, knowledge and perceptiveness that comes with 50 years of age. Although you are ready for that, you can't rush it, that is just something that comes naturally. But, surely there must be someone, someone you could, at one point trust, someone who will, certainly, and trust me, there is always at least one person strange as you, accept you for who you are and like, or even love, you for that. Life is a path, the people around you are obstacles, but some of them, a very few, are assistants or fellow travelers and you will achieve your goal, that point B, only if you take their help or allow them to travel with you'', Doyle explained.

He took another bite of the cupcake and smiled to her, sincerely once more. This was the second time in a short time period? That was odd, for him at least. But still, it was sincere. He was one of those types that would rather keep calm than to smile insincerely. ''Miss Lyons, I dare say I think it is your turn now. Of course, if you are willing to pass, which would be bemusing in a way, I have my next question prepared'', he said.