Remus/Narcissa, for the Never Before Seen Pairing Challenge, created by yours truly.

A Game of Wizard Chess

They meet when Remus is teaching.

Well, they've met before, but it doesn't count, since he was a seventh year, and she was getting Sorted.

She was in Slytherin, and she kept to herself during the one year that their education overlapped.

Over the years, he heard snippets of information about her. She married a Death Eater, she had a son, etc, etc.

Until one day, she whirls into his office, a veritable storm. What happened to the reserved Narcissa? She is replaced by a quiet woman who is used to getting her way. Quiet, yes, but only because she is busy with her calculations. What move is to her advantage?

He wonders briefly if she views life as a game of Wizard Chess.

But she's probably never played. What are games to Narcissa Malfoy?

She is the black queen, he is the knight.

She is power, he only moves in the same predictable cycles. Every month, a change into the same monster. Every month a change back into a poor wizard.

She moves all over her checkered life. Up, down, side, side, left and right, she dominates in a hushed show of power.

Many parents write in to complain of his teaching style. He teaches just like any fair, just teacher. But the difference is that he is a werewolf. So they complain.

He invites every single complaining parent to a conference with him, all thirty-five parents and guardians who gripe.

Little do they know that they are all invited to the same conference.

Whoever said that he wasn't still a Marauder at heart?

So they all arrive, and Remus dispatches some of his house-elf friends to bring tea and cakes for his esteemed guests.

Standing in front of them, he clears his throat and addresses every single complaint that they have in a monotonous voice.

A better filibuster you never saw.

After an hour, the room is almost empty, his concerned parental guests obviously not concerned enough to stay for the rest. They have all departed, making feeble excuses about appointments they are in danger of missing.

Except one woman, who sits in the front row, taking notes primly. Her blonde hair falls over her eyes. She is definitely attractive, and Remus notes this.

He breaks off in the middle of a sentence, his plan accomplished. He highly doubts that they will complain again.

She looks up, and he recognizes her. Narcissa Malfoy.

He thinks wryly that she is probably writing down his major points so that she can plan a rebuttal, queen that she is.

She catches his wry smile, and returns with one of her own.

He didn't know she could smile. He makes a note of it in his head, to tell Sirius- Slytherins can smile, after all.

But he stops- Sirius is gone. And he doesn't view the world in quarters anymore. Not everything has to do with your schooltime house, he chides himself.

He stretches out his hand to hers, and they shake hands. His scarred pale hand dwarfs her lily-white one.

"I have a few concerns of my own," she says in a ringing musical voice. It is lovely.

And he looks at her. She seems tired. And worried. Just like him.

So he asks Helpy for more tea, and they sit and talk. And talk. And talk, until the sun dips down from view and the world is growing dark.

The queen has captured the knight, and neither of them care about the game anymore.

Reviewers get a prank playing, chess playing Remus.