Don't Ever Ask Me to Do Anything This Thrilling Again

Harry's lips twitched slightly when he saw this.

Even though this wasn't an official competition, casting a spell on myself before boarding the Flying Broomstick felt a little awkward.

"Hermione, have we learned this spell before?"

"It seems... not."

I listened attentively to every lesson, but none of the professors taught this spell.

"This is a defensive spell of medium difficulty."

If all goes well, you should have the opportunity to learn this spell in a few years.

"But you, how could you do that?" Ron asked.

"Self-taught!" Aaron said matter-of-factly. "I can browse through the Restricted Section all I want, so isn't it normal for me to learn one or two spells on my own?"

"Can you teach us?" Hermione looked at Aaron, hoping for a positive answer.

"Nonsense, of course... it won't work."

I don't have the time for that, and besides, with your current Magical Energy reserves, it would be very difficult for you to learn this spell.

If you really want to learn, you should see Professor Flitwick next semester!

After saying that, Aaron grabbed the Flying Broomstick and flipped himself onto it.

As soon as he mounted the broom, thousands of keys began to stir violently, flying wildly and erratically around the room at a much faster speed.

A large portion of them hovered around Aaron on his Flying Broomstick, the flapping of his wings making an incredibly loud and annoying sound.

The people guarding the door felt a pang of anxiety. Finding a key among this massive pile of keys was already difficult enough, but now it was several times harder.

Aaron ignored the harassment from the keys and continued searching in mid-air for a key that was different from the others.

"There," Harry shouted, pointing to a key in the upper left corner. "It must be that one, with its wings missing and much older than the others."

Aaron's eyes lit up, and he immediately grabbed the broom and chased after it.

Instantly, all the brooms followed, forming a thick torrent of brooms in the room, closely chasing after Aaron.

After flying around the pillar in the room for half a minute, Aaron was getting closer and closer to the old key.

With a creaking sound, he grasped the right key, and before he could even relax, his heart skipped a beat.

The sound of flapping wings became even sharper and more piercing. The remaining keys suddenly sped up, their aggressive tips all aimed at Aaron, stabbing him like arrows.

Holy crap!

Aaron didn't know if his defensive spells, cast by High-level Mage like himself, could stop so many arrows.

He dares not gamble! If he can't stop it, he'll probably have to lie in a hospital bed for the entire Summer Holiday.

Without thinking, he dodged while maneuvering his broom, and tore off the two transparent wings from the old key in his hand, throwing them at the three people below.

You can't blame him for being cruel. If it had wings, the key could fly again. He didn't want to search for it again in a group of keys where the danger level had increased several notches.

"Catch it, and you'd better be quick."

Harry caught the key, turned around quickly, inserted it into the lock, and then gave it a sharp twist.

Click!

The door opened, and the three of them immediately crawled inside.

Seeing this, Aaron controlled the broom to hover in the air for a while, and then descended rapidly.

As soon as he passed through the exit, the three of them immediately closed the door.

Bang! Bang! Bang...

Numerous thuds echoed through the wooden door—the sound of a key nailing into it, particularly loud.

Aaron couldn't help but swallow hard; he didn't think his flesh and blood could be harder than wood.

Although he was protected by a magical curse, the consequences of taking so many hits were still hard to predict.

"That was so exciting!"

"But don't ask me to do anything so exciting again."

The three nodded in unison and then walked toward the next room.

After opening the door, the room was pitch black, with only a narrow passageway and a multitude of stone statues.

"I don't like it here, not at all," Hermione said nervously.

"It's like a graveyard," Harry said.

"Now you know fear, why didn't you do it sooner?"

However, one thing is certain: this is definitely not a cemetery, unless Hogwarts decides to close down. In the Warlock world, Ghost and graves are completely different things. Aaron rolled his eyes, then took out his Wand and chanted, "Lumos."

The tip of the Wand emitted a bright light, illuminating the darkness in the room.

Giant black and white chess pieces appeared before the four of them, and they were suddenly led to a chessboard.

The pieces opposite are khaki, and the pieces on this side are black.

"This is a chessboard, Wizard Chess." Ron took a step forward, and four rows of flames appeared on the four sides of the chessboard, illuminating the room.

"It's obvious."

"We need to win this game to advance, but we're at a significant disadvantage here, missing two pieces." Aaron pointed to two empty spaces in the corner of the board, "One is a church, the other a castle."

"Can't we just go through?" Harry asked. "There's no key to that door."

"You're really smart." Aaron gave him a smile and slowly walked up to the white chess piece.

Just as he was about to pass through the middle of the chess pieces, a row of white pawns drew their long swords and blocked his way completely.

Aaron immediately retreated, leaving the white piece's position on the chessboard, and the pawn put its knife back into place.

"I see. Do you think the professors are just bored and want to make the levels a bit more fancy?"

"Never mind," Harry chuckled. "But how do we play this game?"

"It's simple, White has one more knight than Black."

"The game can begin as soon as one person mounts up to act as the knight," Aaron said. "I have no interest in this game, so don't count on me."

Upon hearing this, Harry and Hermione both looked at Ron, as Ron was the only one among them who was actually quite good at chess.

"Give it to me!" Ron swallowed hard as he looked at the empty space on the back of the black piece.

"What about the Church and the Castle?" Harry asked. "Will we also need to be pawns in those situations?"

"This shouldn't be necessary. As long as your chess skills are good enough, you can win even without these two pieces."

After all, our opponents don't think strategically; they simply treat capturing pieces as an objective, so their skill level can't be very high.

The two looked at Ron again, their eyes filled with hope.

"Hey, hey, hey! Don't look at me like that."

White's skill level isn't that high, and my skill level isn't necessarily that strong either.

I can still fight even if I'm missing one or two pawns, but if I'm missing two generals...

"Let me go! I don't have that ability."

"That means we still need to fill those two black square positions." Harry's expression was grave. "Aaron, what do you think..."

"Keep it up, I'm with you all," Aaron said directly, then left the chessboard on his own.

"You...is this..." Harry's lips twitched, speechless.

Hermione and Ron were also dumbfounded. They hadn't even made any arrangements yet, and they were already leaving. They were sure this wasn't a joke.

"Don't worry about it anymore, it's too much."

"Not this..."

"Stop, Harry."

I know what you're trying to say, but I don't want to be a pawn, much less a pawn on this chessboard.

What do you mean by this?

Although I can't compare to you in academics, I'm quite skilled at Wizard's Chess. If I can complete my pieces, my chances of winning are still high.

"Yeah?

"Then I beg you, expert, to protect them." Aaron said meaningfully, "This is a proper Wizard Chess. You don't think those white pawns are made of foam, do you?"

If we win, that's fine, but if we lose, there might be danger to our lives.

Let me state upfront that I'm not scared, otherwise I wouldn't be coming to the Trapdoor alone late at night, nor would I help you in the previous stage.

If it really comes down to a point where I have no choice but to fight tooth and nail, my resolve will be no less than yours, but I simply cannot hand over my fate to someone else.

Not to mention, my relationship with this person is far from being one of life-or-death commitment.

Upon hearing this, Ron turned to look at Bai Qi and fell silent.

"Go for it, Ron! This is all up to you."

"But what if..."

"Unless something unexpected happens, I have no other choice."

"We've come this far, we can't just give up now!" Harry said, patting him on the shoulder before taking his seat.

"I believe you too," Hermione said solemnly, "But you must be serious and not make any mistakes."

After she finished speaking, she went to the other corner of the chessboard and filled in the position of the castle.

"You guys..." Ron's nose felt a little sore.

As for Aaron, he's Slytherin, and he wasn't originally part of the plan. Helping them this much is already more than enough.

But Harry and Hermione chose to believe him despite knowing the danger, which truly moved him.

Ron took a deep breath and climbed onto the back of the black horse to act as a knight.

This time, I'm going all out. Even if I lose, I can't risk using Harry and Hermione, these two special black pieces.

"Etc!"

Just as he was about to begin the game, Aaron suddenly called out to him from outside the chessboard.

"What's wrong?"

"Protego, Protego, Protego." Aaron cast three spells on the three of them in a row, then shrugged. "That's all I can do."

With this spell, even if those swords were to strike, they could withstand some damage and wouldn't be in mortal danger.