Author: Thu
As I finished my Herbology class on Tuesday morning, I went down the stairs and headed towards the library. It was a rainy day, and the rain was dashing down every window of the entrance hall.
‘Thu!’
A familiar voice made me turn. Harry was right behind me. ‘Look what I found last night!’ He muttered while pulling something from inside his cloak. ‘Hedwig dropped it on my bed as I came back from the common room. Don’t know where she got it from, though.’
It was a palm-sized, off-white, carved bishop figure with a mitre on top, crozier held in the right hand and book in his left hand. The model had two large, widely-opened eyes which were unblinkingly staring ahead; his lips had an expression of contemplative thinking, perhaps thinking of something significant, but has yet to find the answer.
‘What is that? How did you get it?’ I seized the nine-centimetre-height object, took a closer look, and felt the material while turning it around. ‘Walrus ivory. Look how meticulously it was carved!’ I pointed at the backside of the sculpture, there I could see sharp lines used for the intricacy of his hair. The throne, which the bishop was sitting on, was decorated with two panels of leaf scrolls. ‘Let’s see where it originated. Aparecium!’ I raised my wand, exclaimed.
Some sort of light came out of his large eyes. The sculpture moved, looked down into his book. Letters started to fly out from the book, up into the air and rearranged themselves:
‘This bishop chess-piece is one out of the series Lewis Chessmen which was created around 1150-1200. The chessmen, found in 1831 at Uig Bay on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, were made from elaborately worked walrus ivory and whales‘ teeth in the form of human figures. When found, the hoard contained seventy-eight chess pieces, fourteen tablemen and one belt buckle. The details of how they were found remains a mystery, but the style from the carve is certainly from Scandinavia. They likely belonged to a merchant travelling from Norway…’ A male voice suddenly came out of the model, reading the paragraph monotonously aloud.
‘So, it is a chess piece. But this is just its historical information. Hedwig must have got it from a museum. Do you know how to work it? I hope it isn’t jinxed, though.’ I asked nervously.
‘Well, I tried to talk to it. It didn’t move. I shook it vigorously, but nothing happened. I even took a bite from its head, but the material was so solid that my teeth hurt. So, I stared at the bishop, eye-to-eye, racked my brains trying to think of what else I could do. About two minutes later, his eyes shone brightly, and a strong light beamed from the figure. I tilted forward and felt that my whole body was lifted in the air and sucked into the light. A few seconds later, my feet were on the ground in the middle of a room covered with a dim light. But it was not a Hogwarts’ room, it was a square room filled with different chess figures, four feet in height. The ground was divided into eight parts, resulting in a total of sixty-four squares. The squares were arranged in two alternating colours, red and white. This must have indicated the chessboard in which they were used is in these two colours, rather than black and white. Each was standing or sitting above one square and seemed to have its own personality. Their roles are obvious by their clothing and equipment. In total, there are six of them in the room.’ explained Harry.
‘And?’ I asked curiously.
‘One of them bowed slightly and started talking to me. Regulus was his name. He was the king with a big beard. He was wearing a floriated crown, tunic, mantel, and brooch, where he sat on a high-backed chair, holding a sheathed sword across his knees. He told me, since March 2016 until now, they are all being presented at the British Museum in London. Before that, they lived in Rome, Italy for a few months, but they would love to return to where they had been found. They are tired of being seen by Muggle tourists all over the world and would love to have a temporary vacation in Scotland. They said that I am the only person who can help them, so they sent their bishop to me. There are, well, seventy-eight at the museum. All are in the form of human figures, except for the pawns.” said Harry. ‘He promised to reveal the greatest chess tactic and show me the ten best chess moves in the world, which I could use to win every chess competition if the museum agreed to set them free for some time. It would be a perfect birthday gift for Ron, wouldn’t it? He is planning to participate in the Wizarding Chess Tournament next year in July.’
‘That sounds great! But how do we help them? Shall we go to the Ministry of Magic?’ I asked impatiently.
‘I have sent a letter to the Ministry of Magic, and Mr Fudge agreed to help us, but we still need to figure out some information before we get there. We are planning to visit the British Museum next Tuesday if you would like to go with us. But remember, we will have to disguise ourselves in Muggles’ clothing and arrive without being seen by anyone. The Ministry will be sending a car to Hogwarts.’ Harry further explained the plan.
‘I bet some Oblivitors will be there to modify the people’s memories.’ I made a guess.
‘They have collected all the information about the museum, and the Oblivitors will be modifying the museum staff’s memory after we take the chessmen away. We only need to devise a plan to retrieve the chessmen without being noticed. There are a total of seventy-eight chess pieces which need to be taken away, and after that, we need to figure out which objects we could use to fill up the empty space at the museum when they are gone.’ Harry continued his plan.
‘I think we will have to use a Portkey once we get them out of the museum.’ I calculated. ‘They will all become bigger to their actual size and if we want to take them back to Scotland, we…’
There was a knock at the door. ‘Thu? Are you in your room?’ said a familiar voice quietly. I realised at once that it was my roommate’s voice. I opened my eyes.
‘Where is Harry?’ I asked her. ‘We were in the middle of our plan to rescue the chessmen.’
‘Which Harry? Harry Potter?’ She gave me a blank look, then started to giggle. ‘You have been sleeping for three hours, and we planned to go to the supermarket today.’
So, all of this was just a dream? I looked at the clock. I was lying on my table for almost three hours, dreaming in my sleep of a discussion with Harry Potter. On my desktop, there is a picture of a small, off-white, carved chess-piece in a bishop form with a crozier in his left hand and book in his right hand, the image from the British Museum I was researching on…