Wheelchair War God Speedruns Hogwarts

"You—you broke the rules!" It took him quite a while before he finally thought of a rebuttal. "I clearly agreed to a wizard's duel with Potter. She hasn't even made a move yet! You're her assistant, how can you attack me directly?!"

Harry tightened her grip on her wand and stepped forward, shielding Vela. "If you want me to do it, I'll take you on anytime!"

Malfoy's gaze shifted between the two of them. For some reason, a sly look flashed across his face.

"Fine, then let Potter do it!" he suddenly said, calculation gleaming in his gray eyes. "According to the rules of wizard duels, assistants can only intervene when the duelist is injured or concedes defeat—Black, do you dare follow that rule?"

Vera narrowed her eyes slightly. Malfoy's sudden demand clearly hid some sort of scheme.

But before she could speak, Harry eagerly agreed. "No problem! Vera, let me teach him a lesson!"

Hermione poked her head out from her hiding place and whispered anxiously, "Harry, don't fall for it! He must be up to something!"

Harry turned and gave them a confident smile. "Don't worry, I can handle it."

After thinking for a moment, Vela wheeled herself back a few steps. At the same time, she released Crabbe and Goyle from their petrification, signaling with her eyes that they could continue.

"Very well, then we'll begin now!"

As he spoke, he turned toward Crabbe, who had just been released. "Tradition says a duel requires assistants... Crabbe, you're my assistant!"

With that, he prepared to point his wand at Harry.

"Wait!" Harry suddenly called out loudly. "According to the rules of wizard duels, both sides must first bow to show respect. Then they must assume the standard dueling stance. Only after counting to three may they attack."

She paused, her gaze flickering uncertainly toward Vela. Then, as if she had taken a dose of courage, she puffed out her chest. "A wizard's duel—those were your own words. As the heir of the Malfoy family, you wouldn't deny this traditional rule in front of them, would you?"

Malfoy's face turned green, then white. In the end, he reluctantly bent slightly and gave a perfunctory bow.

Harry, on the other hand, gave a serious bow according to traditional etiquette.

The two raised their wands at the same time and assumed their dueling stances.

"One!" Malfoy began counting.

Vera remained beside them, her wand resting lightly on her knee as she calmly observed their surroundings.

Just as Malfoy said "Two," she finally caught sight of Peeves drifting past a corner of the ceiling, winking at her.

The corner of Vela's mouth lifted almost imperceptibly. While no one present was paying attention, she raised her wand high. "Lumos!"

A dazzling light burst from the tip of her wand, instantly illuminating the entire Trophy Room.

It not only interrupted the "three" Malfoy was about to say, but also gave Harry time to quickly pull on the Invisibility Cloak from her pocket. The moment the light erupted, she and Vela hid beneath it together.

Blinded by the sudden glare, Malfoy angrily shouted, "Despicable! Potter! Black! Where did you hide?!"

Crabbe and Goyle clumsily looked around, but they could see nothing in the blinding light.

Just as the light finally faded, the Trophy Room door was violently pushed open. Filch's gloomy face appeared in the doorway, with Mrs Norris crouching at his feet, her yellow eyes glinting in the darkness.

"Ha! I knew it!" Filch panted excitedly. "I knew some little rats would sneak out tonight! Peeves was right—"

Tomori's lamplight swept across the room, immediately revealing Malfoy and his two trapped lackeys standing frozen in place.

His gaze fell upon the stunned trio, and a sickly delight gleamed in his eyes. "Slytherin students? What are you doing in the trophy room in the middle of the night?"

Malfoy stammered as he tried to explain. "We, we were just..."

"Out after curfew! Breaking school rules!" Filch shrieked, grabbing Malfoy by the arm. "I'm taking you to see Professor Snape!"

"No!" Malfoy frantically turned to look behind him. "Potter! And Vela Black... they're here too!"

Filch suspiciously looked around. "Other than you three, where is anyone else?"

Sweat beaded on Malfoy's forehead as he pointed furiously at the empty trophy room. "Really! They were just here! They must have used some kind of magic to hide!"

Just as Filch listened to him and prepared to search more carefully, Peeves suddenly dangled upside down from the ceiling and burst into piercing laughter.

"Lies! Peeves only saw three naughty little Slytherins!"

Filch gave Malfoy a suspicious glance. "Come with me! Don't try any tricks!"

Malfoy's face instantly went deathly pale. He looked around desperately, but could no longer find any trace of Harry or Vela.

It was as though they had never appeared at all.

"No, impossible!" Malfoy's voice was almost tearful. "Potter was clearly right here! She—"

"Enough!" Filch cut him off sharply. "I've had enough of you students' lies! You're coming to see your Head of House!"

Filch dragged Malfoy outside by the arm, while Crabbe and Goyle followed behind with their heads hanging low.

At that moment, Mrs Norris suddenly pricked up her ears and warily looked toward the display case where Hermione was hiding—because Harry had just quietly wheeled Vela over and drawn Hermione beneath the Invisibility Cloak as well.

Vela quickly reached out and pressed a hand to Hermione's shoulder, signaling her not to make a sound. Harry held her breath nervously, her fingers beneath the cloak tightly gripping Vela's wheelchair handle.

Mrs Norris's yellow eyes gleamed with an eerie light in the darkness as she slowly padded toward the display case.

At that moment, Peeves suddenly swooped down from the ceiling with a shrill cry. "Filch! Your cat is chasing mice again!"

Filch's attention was immediately diverted. "What? Mrs Norris, come back!"

The cat could only stop and follow Filch out.

Chapter Forty: Three-Headed Dog

Only after their footsteps had completely faded did Harry cautiously lift the Invisibility Cloak, excitement glittering in her eyes. "That was brilliant! Malfoy got caught red-handed!"

Hermione let out a long breath, though her face was still somewhat pale. "Oh my God, that was a little too thrilling... We nearly got discovered!"

Harry turned to Vela. "Vela, did you deliberately make that commotion just now to lure Filch over?"

"Mm," Vela softly replied, deliberately overlooking the fact that Peeves had appeared there and helped them.

Fortunately, neither Harry nor Hermione suspected anything.

After all, over the past week, the newly enrolled students had already witnessed how troublesome Peeves was. It was even less likely that they would imagine Peeves would help them for no reason.

Harry crouched down and gently held Vela's hand. "Thank you, Vela... If you hadn't reminded me just now, Malfoy's provocation really would have made me forget why we came here."

"It was what I should have done," Vela said, gently shaking her head. "You were the one who carried out the plan, Harry. You did very well."

Harry's face reddened slightly at the praise. She scratched her hair awkwardly. "I only did what you told me to do."

"Could you two stop being so modest with each other here?" Hermione looked at their mutual politeness with an expression of constipation. Then she suddenly remembered something and furrowed her brow worriedly. "Right, we need to leave quickly. What if Malfoy convinces Filch to turn back and check this place...?"

Vera nodded. "Hermione is right. We should go."

The three girls quickly gathered the Invisibility Cloak and quietly left the Trophy Room.

Harry led the way, while Hermione pushed Vela's wheelchair. The three carefully crossed the moonlit corridor.

"Wait!" Harry suddenly stopped and lowered her voice. "There's someone ahead!"

They quickly hid in the shadow of the building and held their breath.

Sure enough, Filch's muttering could be heard from not far away, along with Malfoy's unwilling protests.

"I told you, they must have used some method to hide!" Malfoy's voice was clearly irritated. "If you go look, you'll definitely find something!"

"Boy, do you know what will happen to you if you've lied to me?"

Seeing Filch's tone grow increasingly wavering, Vela glanced at the small room on the fourth floor in another direction—the one Dumbledore had strictly forbidden anyone from entering—and softly said, "Let's go another way."

Harry nodded. The three silently changed direction, preparing to take another corridor.

At that moment, Mrs Norris suddenly darted out from around the corner. Her yellow eyes shone in the darkness as she stared directly in their direction.

"Oh no! Did she find us?" Hermione sucked in a breath and instinctively tightened her grip on Vela's wheelchair handle.

"Meow—" Mrs Norris let out a sharp cry, immediately drawing Filch's attention.

"What is it, my sweet?" Filch's voice came closer and closer. "Did you find something?"

Harry's heart nearly leaped out of her chest as she instinctively tightened her grip on her wand.

Vera quickly pressed down on her hand and gently shook her head, then pointed at the locked door not far away.

Harry nodded and immediately pushed Vela's wheelchair. The three raced down the corridor and quickly reached its end.

Before them stood an old oak door. It looked completely ordinary, with nothing special about it.

"Let's go in there first!"

Harry was about to rush over without hesitation when Vela urgently stopped her.

"Wait!"

Harry slammed on the brakes, and the wheelchair made a harsh scraping sound against the floor.

Hermione nearly crashed into them from behind and only managed to steady herself by grabbing Harry's shoulder.

"What is it?" Harry asked urgently, her eyes constantly darting toward the approaching footsteps behind them.

Vera stared intently at the door, her voice extremely low. "This is the corridor on the right side of the fourth floor. It's the place Dumbledore explicitly forbade anyone from entering at the start of term."

Hermione sucked in a breath. "Oh my God! Then we almost—"

"There's no time!" Harry interrupted her. Filch's footsteps were already close at hand. "If we don't go in, we might get caught!"

Vera glanced behind them. In truth, Filch probably had not discovered them yet, but Mrs Norris in his arms clearly had much sharper senses than he did.

Under normal circumstances, Vela had plenty of ways to evade the search of one man and one cat.

But... as she looked at the wooden door right in front of her, she recalled that this was the point in the original story where the Golden Trio discovered Fluffy, the Three-Headed Dog guarding this place.

It was also because Hermione discovered the trapdoor beneath Fluffy's paws and guessed that it was guarding something that Harry connected it to the package Hagrid had taken away when she visited Gringotts before enrolling at Hogwarts.

Compared to the various troubles and crises Harry would have to face in the following years, however, this year felt more like a test Dumbledore had deliberately arranged for her.

From Dumbledore's perspective, it was easy enough to understand. Harry had been raised at her aunt and uncle's home for so long—who knew whether she had been raised wrong?

Before truly training her into a savior specially meant to defeat Voldemort, he naturally had to examine her carefully.

And now, faced with such an obvious test, Vela turned to look at Harry, who was still panicking beside her. After a brief hesitation, she gently placed her hand over Harry's. "Let's go in."

"Alohomora." With Vela's incantation, the lock clicked open, and the three girls quickly slipped inside.

The door silently shut behind them, cutting off the sound of Filch's footsteps.

The room was pitch-black, with only a sliver of moonlight filtering in through a small high window.

"Strange..." Filch's voice came from outside the door. "I clearly heard something here..."

Mrs Norris lingered outside the door for a while before Filch finally called her away.

In the dark room, the three girls let out long breaths.

Then, a deep breathing sound came from the darkness, accompanied by heavy panting.

Harry and Hermione froze in place, even their breathing stopping.

Vera held her breath and slowly raised her wand. "Lumos."

A faint light illuminated the room, and the sight before them made their blood run cold—

It was a gigantic Three-Headed Dog, lowering its heads to stare down at them. Its enormous body nearly filled every inch of space from ceiling to floor, radiating an overwhelming sense of oppression.

Can It Still Be a Pet?

With every breath Fluffy took, its three savage heads hung low, and its six vicious eyes glinted dangerously in the wand's faint light.

Its heavy breath blasted across the three girls' faces, while saliva hung from its yellowed fangs like sticky ropes.

"Don't move yet..." Vera's voice was almost squeezed through clenched teeth. She could feel Harry's hand trembling on her shoulder. "Back away slowly..."

Hermione covered her mouth tightly, terrified of making even the slightest sound.

The middle head of the Three-Headed Dog sniffed, seemingly catching their scent.

The Magic Circuit inside Vela's body whirred madly, ready to release the strongest defensive spell she could currently cast at any moment.

At that critical moment, a line of text suddenly appeared on Vela's retina:

[Tameable magical creature: Three-Headed Dog]

[Taming reward: Magic Circuit level increased, maximum magic power +30, obtain control of Fluffy the Three-Headed Dog]

Vera's eyes widened slightly. She had not expected the Magic Circuit to have such a function.

Even more remarkably, the instant the text disappeared, she felt a strange energy surge from the Magic Circuit and flow along her fingertips into her wand.

The light at the tip of her wand gradually changed from white to pale gold, forming rippling circles that spread outward.

All three of Fluffy's heads stopped growling at once, and its six eyes watched the golden light in confusion.

In an instant, Vela felt a wondrous connection forming, as though an invisible thread linked her to the enormous beast.