Trial Game (2)

"Why did you take so long?"

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

Harry and the other two came running over, panting heavily.

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

After speaking, Ron Weasley shot Hermione Granger a strange look.

"Enough, let's go in!"

Eli unlocked the door with Alohomora and carefully pushed it open.

At once, deafening snores and pleasant music drifted out.

Eli walked in and glanced at the door. Its soundproofing was really impressive!

"Looks like someone got here before us!"

The group grew solemn. Fluffy had already been knocked out by the harp constantly playing on its own beside him.

They opened the trapdoor that Fluffy should have been lying on. It was pitch-black inside, and they could not see what lay below.

Everyone hesitated.

"Say, haven't you noticed that the music has stopped?"

Eli suddenly said.

Only then did they realize that the room had somehow fallen silent.

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

"Jump!"

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

Fluffy was also awakened by their commotion. Seeing the uninvited intruders who had somehow broken in, the disturbed beast only wanted to tear these little pests to pieces!

Eli stayed behind and immediately cast a Shield Charm. Better defend first.

Fluffy raised a paw and swiped down.

By then, Harry and the others had all jumped down.

"Doggy, I'm not playing with you anymore!"

In a flash, Eli jumped down as well.

Then he crushed Harry to death. The end...

Just kidding, hehe...

A rather soft net caught Eli as he fell.

It was made of vines.

"Are you all okay?"

Their voices came from all around him. Everyone was fine.

Only Ron's voice trembled slightly. "Have you noticed that this thing keeps tightening..."

Sure enough, they immediately felt the vines continuously wrapping around them, growing tighter and tighter!

Ron and Draco kept screaming. They struggled desperately, but could not break free at all.

Were they really going to die here?

"Don't struggle! It's Devil's Snare—the more you struggle, the tighter it gets!"

Hermione suddenly shouted. Eli recognized the Devil's Snare as well and quickly stopped struggling.

Gradually, Eli felt the vines loosen more and more. Only when they could no longer restrain him did he fall down.

It was not very high below, and he was uninjured.

Hermione soon fell as well, and Eli helped her up.

The two of them were down, but there were still three people above!

Before long, Harry came down too, but Ron and Draco were still howling overhead.

"Don't struggle! Don't struggle! F..."

Hermione shouted reminders several times, but those two were still squealing like pigs being slaughtered.

Eli raised his wand. "Lumos!"

It was as if the sun had suddenly risen, thoroughly illuminating the world. The intense light forced Hermione and Harry to cover their faces.

Under the stimulation of that terrifying light, the Devil's Snare writhed madly like a snake encountering realgar.

Ron and Draco fell down in a miserable heap as well.

Once they were helped up, the two unlucky boys had been frightened stiff.

"Let's go. There are still more challenges waiting for us."

They entered the only corridor.

"What's that sound?"

"It sounds like wings flapping."

At the other end of the passage, there seemed to be countless birds. The dense, constant sound of wings beating reached them.

At the end of the corridor was a spacious room.

Other than a door opposite them and the passage they had entered through, there were no other exits.

"Alohomora!"

Imitating Hermione, Ron pulled out his wand and shouted at the door.

But it did not budge. Ron scratched his head awkwardly. "Uh... I don't know why it didn't work."

Eli stepped forward to inspect it. "This door has many spells placed on it. It can't be forced open."

He looked up. "We can only find the real key among that swarm!"

They looked up and discovered that the things making the wing-flapping sounds were actually a huge flock of insect-like keys with wings.

The densely packed keys flying everywhere made their scalps tingle.

"Who the hell knows which key is the real one?"

Eli continued examining the door. "This door is quite old. Its lock is old too, with rust on it. That means the key should be the most worn-out one."

They searched desperately through the enormous swarm for the key that looked the most unusual. After a while, their eyes ached terribly.

"Look, that one! Part of its wing is broken!"

Harry suddenly pointed at one of them.

A broom floated over from nearby.

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

"Go, Harry! If even Snape could ride a broom and catch it, then you definitely can too!"

Ron encouraged Harry.

Snape: "???"

Harry mounted the broom. At that instant, the keys seemed to suddenly go mad and viciously swooped toward him.

Harry immediately shot into the air and darted toward that key.

Worthy of being the youngest Seeker, Harry weaved around nimbly on his broom. Several times, he nearly caught the key.

The other keys pursued Harry in a vast swarm, but thanks to his superb flying skills, they did not touch him once.

"Catch the key!"

Harry grabbed the key, hurled it down with all his strength, then continued dodging the relentless swarm.

Eli caught the key and quickly ran over to unlock the door.

"Hurry, hurry!"

Everyone was extremely anxious because Harry was in constant danger above them.

The door opened, and they immediately filed inside. "Harry, hurry!"

Harry dived straight through the doorway.

The instant Harry came in, Eli quickly shut the door. Continuous impacts sounded from the other side.

They all breathed a huge sigh of relief. Those keys were too fierce—they had even pierced straight through the door.

The next challenge was another room and another door, except that a huge chessboard now stood in the middle.

They tried to go around the chessboard, but found that the door was completely blocked by the pieces. Whenever they approached the opposing pieces, the pawn-like figures would draw twin blades, their threat unmistakable.

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

Ron suddenly seemed like a different person. On the chessboard, he was a commanding general who held the whole battle in his grasp!

Following Ron's arrangements, each of them represented a chess piece.

"I'll be the knight."

Ron mounted the stone horse.

"Are we really going to play a game of Wizard's Chess?"

Draco's expression did not look good.

Ron pointed at one of the pawns. "You, move to D5!"

At Ron's command, the chess piece slowly moved to D5, right into the attack range of an opposing piece.

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

Metal rang out, dust flew everywhere, and the attacked piece was smashed to pieces.

"So it's real!"

Everyone immediately became grim.

But once the game had begun, they could only advance, never retreat!

For a time, the chessboard became a real battlefield, with blades flashing as both sides fought back and forth.

Both sides traded blows and suffered losses.

Ron possessed an unusual calmness. He had the bigger picture firmly under control and, while ensuring his companions' safety, remained evenly matched with the enemy.

Eli was also on the chessboard, observing the entire game.

His expression was extremely grave because he realized that he could not understand it at all...

There were fewer and fewer pieces on the board and more and more broken stone fragments. The game had entered its decisive stage.

After the white king destroyed one piece, the board suddenly fell silent.

"Harry, you see it too, right? If I make the next move, the white king will take me, but then you'll be able to checkmate him."

"No, you can't!"

"Listen, Harry. You're the Boy Who Lived. Your task is to face that person. You can't become the piece that gets sacrificed now!"

"Knight to H3!"

Ron actually had a way to keep himself safe, but doing so would put Draco in danger.

Faced with that choice, he did not hesitate. As a knight, he charged forward without a second thought.

The white king raised its greatsword high and drove it viciously into the stone horse beneath Ron.

The knight had fallen, and Ron lay unconscious amid the rubble.

Harry strode resolutely before the white king and pronounced its death sentence. "Checkmate!"

The greatsword crashed down, and black won!

They quickly ran over to Ron to check his injuries.

Eli had wanted Draco to stay behind, but Draco insisted, so Eli let him come along.

"Hermione, take Ron upstairs and get the professors. The rest of us will go to the next challenge together!"

It was another room, but aside from the passage they had entered through, there were no doors or windows.

A huge mirror stood in the middle, and a man wearing an enormous turban stood before it.

"Professor Quirrell?"

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

"No, Snape was the one..."

Harry could hardly believe that the person waiting for them in the end was not Snape, whom he had always believed to be the culprit.

Quirrell smiled mockingly. "That's right. Snape's unpleasant appearance really did make him seem more like a villain. With him around, who would suspect a st-stuttering Quirrell?"

"Yes, it was me all along. I was always the one trying to kill you. The Troll was mine, Quidditch was mine too. That Snape actually went to the third floor that day to stop me, and he's never trusted me since. But... I was never alone..."

Quirrell gradually became agitated. He turned to face the mirror again. "What is this mirror for?"

Suddenly, a weak, hoarse voice like a snake's hiss came from behind Quirrell's head.

"Let me speak..."

"But you..."

"I still have enough strength for this!"

Quirrell slowly began unwrapping his turban. On the back of his head was a twisted human face!

Harry clutched the scar on his forehead in pain.

"Voldemort!"

Harry cried out and tried to pull Eli and Draco away, but Quirrell merely snapped his fingers, and a ring of blazing fire surrounded them.

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

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

The mirror was the Mirror of Erised.

"Eli, I know of you. Your talent is extraordinary! There is no good or evil in this world. Those too weak to fight for power have no right to lay claim to the world. And you—if we work together, the whole world will bow before us!"

Eli sneered. "You? I think you should save your nose first! Sectumsempra!"

Eli struck first. At a time like this, he did not dare gamble that the professors would arrive in time.

"Foolish!"

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

A green light came hurtling toward them.

The three quickly dodged. "Blood Demon Possession!"

At the brink of life and death, Eli held nothing back.

"Expelliarmus!"

Three beams of light shot toward Voldemort.

With a fierce sweep of his wand, he blocked all three spells.

"What incredible talent, and yet you keep company with trash!"

"Who's the trash remains to be seen!"

"Ultimate Death!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

Just like that time in the Forbidden Forest, the two beams collided once more.

"Don't just stand there!"

Harry and Draco Malfoy hurriedly swung their wands. "Expelliarmus!"

"Stupefy!"

With an angry roar, Voldemort erupted once again and sent them all flying.

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

"Dark Magic Blast!"

A blast of black light surged like a storm toward Eli and Harry, who stood closest.

Eli's pupils contracted sharply.

"Shield Charm!"

A figure suddenly lunged forward, raising a Shield Charm and desperately taking Voldemort's attack head-on. He was blasted away by the tremendous force, crashing to the ground, his fate unknown.

"Draco!"

Eli's killing intent surged. "Ultimate Death!"

"Damn ant, you don't know your place!"

The magic collided once again.

"Harry, slap him in the face!"

Eli suddenly shouted at Harry.

With death staring him in the face, Harry did not hesitate. He had to risk it all!

He charged forward and slapped Voldemort across the face several times.

As a master of magic, how could Voldemort have imagined anyone would fight like this?

With Eli still keeping him occupied, Quirrell's body could not erupt with power again.

Harry's slaps landed solidly.

The sharp sounds of smack smack smack smack echoed through the room.

"Ah!!"

Every place Voldemort touched began to carbonize. The heart-wrenching scream seemed to come from either Voldemort or Quirrell.

Seeing that his slaps had such an incredible effect, Harry unleashed another barrage of slaps right at his face.

Quirrell's body struggled for a while before turning to ash and scattering across the floor.

A cloud of black mist suddenly burst out, forming a savage human face as it roared and fled.

They had won!