Trial Game (2)

"Why did you take so long?"

Eli dropped his Disillusionment Charm and stood with Draco Malfoy outside the third-floor room where the Philosopher's Stone was kept.

Harry and the other two came running up, panting.

"Neville caught us. We had no choice but to knock him out first."

After speaking, Ron Weasley shot Hermione Granger an odd glance.

"Come on. Let's get inside!"

Eli unlocked the door with a spell and pushed it open carefully.

Deafening snores and the sweet sound of music poured out.

Eli stepped in and glanced back at the door. It had remarkably good soundproofing.

"Looks like someone got here first!"

The group grew tense. Fluffy had already been put to sleep by a harp playing on its own nearby.

They opened the Trapdoor Fluffy should have been lying on. It was pitch-black inside, and they couldn't see what lay below.

They all hesitated.

"Has anyone noticed the music stopped?" Eli said suddenly.

Only then did the others realize the room had gone quiet.

The music was gone, and so were the three-headed dog's snores!

"Jump!"

Eli shoved Harry down. The others no longer dared hesitate and jumped in after him.

Their commotion woke Fluffy. Seeing intruders who had slipped in while he slept, he wanted nothing more than to tear the little pests apart!

Eli stayed behind and threw up a Shield Charm. Defense first.

Fluffy raised a paw to strike.

By then, Harry and the others had all jumped.

"Sorry, puppy. No time to play!"

Eli darted aside and leaped down.

Then he landed on Harry and crushed him to death. The end...

Just kidding. Heh.

A fairly soft net caught Eli as he fell.

Vines.

"Is everyone all right?"

Voices answered from all around him. Everyone was fine.

Only Ron Weasley sounded shaky. "Has anyone noticed this thing keeps tightening...?"

Sure enough, the vines began winding around them, squeezing tighter and tighter!

Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy cried out and struggled desperately, but they couldn't break free.

Were they going to die here?

"Stop struggling! It's Devil's Snare. The more you fight, the tighter it gets!" Hermione Granger shouted. Eli recognized it too and immediately went still.

Gradually, the vines loosened around Eli until they could no longer hold him, and he dropped.

It wasn't far to the ground, and he wasn't hurt.

Hermione Granger fell soon after, and Eli helped her up.

They were down, but three others were still above!

Harry came down before long, but Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy were still howling overhead.

"Stop struggling! Stop struggling! F—"

Hermione Granger shouted the warning again and again, but those two kept squealing like pigs being slaughtered.

Eli raised his Wand. "Lumos!"

Light burst out like a rising sun, flooding the chamber. Hermione Granger and Harry had to cover their faces against its glare.

Under the searing light, the Devil's Snare writhed like a snake confronted with realgar.

Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy tumbled down in a heap.

By the time the others helped them up, the two unfortunate boys were scared out of their wits.

"Let's go. There are more challenges waiting."

They entered the only corridor.

"What's that sound?"

"It sounds like wings flapping."

There seemed to be countless birds at the other end of the passage. The dense flutter of wings echoed toward them.

At the end of the passage stood a spacious room.

Apart from a door opposite them and the passage behind, there were no other exits.

"Alohomora!"

Imitating Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley drew his Wand and called out at the door.

It didn't budge. Ron Weasley scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh... I don't know why it didn't work."

Eli went up to inspect it. "This door has several spells on it. We can't force it open."

He looked up. "We'll have to find the real key in that swarm!"

They looked up. The source of the fluttering was a huge swarm of keys with insect-like wings.

The sight of so many keys darting back and forth made their scalps prickle.

"How are we supposed to know which damn key is the right one?"

Eli examined the door again. "This door is old. The lock is worn and rusty, so the key should be the most battered one."

They strained to pick out the most distinctive key in the swarm. After a while, their eyes ached from looking.

"Look! That one's missing a piece of its wing!" Harry suddenly said, pointing.

A broom floated over from the side.

"Looks like someone has to fly up and catch it!"

"Go on, Harry. If even Snape could catch it on a broom, you definitely can!" Ron Weasley encouraged him.

Snape: "???"

Harry mounted the broom. At that instant, the keys went wild and lunged at him.

Harry shot upward and sped toward the key.

He was the youngest Seeker for a reason. Harry wove nimbly through the air on his broom, nearly catching the key several times.

The other keys streamed after him, but his flying was so good that not one touched him.

"Catch the key!"

Harry snatched it and hurled it down, then kept dodging the swarm on his tail.

Eli caught the key and hurried to unlock the door.

"Come on, hurry!"

They were frantic. Harry was having one narrow escape after another overhead.

The door opened, and they rushed through one after another. "Harry, quick!"

Harry dove straight through the doorway.

The moment Harry was inside, Eli slammed the door. Impacts rattled against it from the other side.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. Those keys were vicious. Some had even punched right through the door.

The next challenge was another room with another door, except a giant chessboard stood between them.

They tried to go around the board, but chess pieces blocked the door completely. Whenever anyone approached the opposing pieces, the pawn-like figures drew twin blades, making their threat unmistakable.

"Looks like we have to play a game of chess!"

Ron Weasley suddenly seemed like a different person. On the chessboard, he was a general in command!

Following Ron Weasley's instructions, each of them took the place of a chess piece.

"I'll be the knight."

Ron Weasley climbed onto the stone horse.

"Are we really going to play Wizard's Chess?" Draco Malfoy looked uneasy.

Ron Weasley pointed to a pawn. "You, to D5!"

At Ron Weasley's command, the piece slowly moved to D5, straight into an opposing piece's attack range.

The opposing pawn drew its twin blades and slashed at their piece.

Clang! Stone fragments flew, and the struck piece shattered.

"So it's real!"

Everyone's expression turned grave.

But the game had begun. They could only go forward, not back!

The chessboard became a real battlefield, with both sides trading blows amid flashes of steel.

Each side gained ground and suffered losses.

Ron Weasley remained unusually calm. He kept the whole board in mind, protected his friends, and still held the opposing side to a draw.

Eli was on the board too, studying the game.

His face was grim, because he realized he didn't understand any of it...

Fewer and fewer pieces remained, while broken stone littered the board. The game had reached its decisive stage.

After the white king destroyed another piece, the board suddenly fell quiet.

"Harry, you've seen it too, haven't you? If I make my next move, the white king will take me. But then you can checkmate him."

"No. You can't!"

"Listen, Harry. You're the boy who lived. Your job is to face that man. You can't be the piece that gets sacrificed here!"

"Knight to H3!"

Ron Weasley could have kept himself safe, but that would have put Draco Malfoy in danger.

Faced with that choice, he did not hesitate. As a knight, he charged.

The white king raised his heavy sword high and drove it into the stone horse beneath Ron Weasley.

The knight was down. Ron Weasley lay unconscious among the rubble.

Harry strode up to the white king and pronounced his sentence. "Checkmate!"

The great sword crashed down. Black won!

They hurried to Ron Weasley and checked his injuries.

Eli had wanted Draco Malfoy to stay behind, but he insisted on coming, so Eli let him.

"Hermione Granger, take Ron Weasley back up and get a professor. The rest of us will go to the next challenge!"

It was another room, but this one had no doors or windows apart from the passage they had entered through.

A huge mirror stood in the middle. Before it stood a man wearing an enormous turban.

"Professor Quirrell?"

The man turned around. It was Quirrell, with Voldemort attached to the back of his head.

"No, it was Snape who..."

Harry could hardly believe that the person waiting for them at the end wasn't Snape, as he had been so sure it would be.

Quirrell gave a mocking laugh. "That's right. Snape's unpleasant manner does make him look more like a villain. With him around, who would suspect p-poor stuttering Quirrell?"

"Yes, it was me all along. I was the one trying to kill you. The Troll was me, and so was Quidditch. Snape even went to the third floor to stop me that day. He hasn't trusted me since. But... I've never been alone..."

Quirrell grew agitated and turned back to the mirror. "What does this mirror do?"

A weak, hoarse voice, almost like a snake's hiss, came from the back of Quirrell's head.

"Let me speak..."

"But you..."

"I have strength enough for this!"

Quirrell slowly unwound his turban. A twisted human face was set into the back of his head!

Harry clutched the scar on his forehead in pain.

"Voldemort!"

Harry cried out and tried to pull Eli and Draco Malfoy away, but Quirrell merely snapped his fingers. A ring of fire sprang up around them.

"Harry, don't resist. Don't you want to see your parents? Get me that thing, and I can bring them back!"

Two figures appeared in the mirror: Harry's and Eli's parents.

It was the Mirror of Erised.

"Eli, I know who you are. Your talent is extraordinary! There is no good or evil in this world. Those without the strength to seize power have no right to claim a place in it. But you—if we work together, the world will bow before us!"

Eli sneered. "You? I think you'd better find your nose first! Sectumsempra!"

Eli struck first. He couldn't risk waiting for a professor to arrive in time.

"Fool!"

Voldemort roared and controlled Quirrell's body to scatter Eli's spell.

A flash of green light hurtled toward them.

The three dodged at once. "Blood Demon Possession!"

With their lives on the line, Eli held nothing back.

Expelliarmus!

Three beams of light struck Voldemort.

He swung his wand fiercely, deflecting all three spells.

"Such formidable talent, yet you associate with trash!"

"Who's trash is still up in the air!"

Ultimate Death!

Avada Kedavra!

Just like that time in the Forbidden Forest, the two beams of light collided once again.

"Don't just stand there!"

Harry and Draco hurriedly waved their wands. "Expelliarmus!"

"Stupefy!"

With an angry roar, Voldemort erupted in power once more, sending the several of them flying with a single blast.

This time, Voldemort gave Eli no chance to react. "Submit to me!"

Dark Magic Blast!

A streak of black light surged like a storm toward Eli and Harry, who were standing closest.

Eli's pupils shrank sharply.

Protego!

A figure suddenly lunged forward, raising a Shield Charm to desperately block Voldemort's attack, only to be blown away by the immense force and land on the ground, life or death unknown.

"Draco!"

Eli's murderous intent surged. Ultimate Death!

"Damned ants, courting death."

The spells collided once more.

"Harry, slap him in the face with your hand!"

Eli suddenly shouted to Harry.

At this life-or-death juncture, Harry didn't think twice. Let's stake it all on a desperate fight!

He rushed straight forward and dealt Voldemort several slaps right across the face.

As a magical heavyweight, how could Voldemort have ever imagined this kind of fighting style?

With Eli still pinning him down on the side, Quirrell's body simply couldn't erupt with power again.

Those slaps from Harry landed with solid force.

The crisp sounds of slapping echoed through the room.

"Ah!!"

Every place Voldemort touched Harry began to carbonize, and it was impossible to tell whether the heart-rending screams came from Voldemort or Quirrell.

Seeing that his slaps actually had such miraculous effect, Harry rained slaps relentlessly all over the face.

Quirrell's body struggled for a moment before turning into ashes and scattering across the ground.

A streak of black light suddenly rushed out, displaying a ferocious human face as it roared and left the place.

They won!